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She’s Back!

A nd so, from the dormant volcano that is American politics, out comes Hillary, like Rodan the Flying Reptile pretending to be Granny Goose. Now that she is officially flapping around the electorate, the excitable mainstream press reports the initial caw-caw-cawing of her campaign: it will be “based on diversity, discipline and humbleness.” These are endearing qualities in any giant flying reptile, and reassuring to voters who might otherwise fear something a bit darker on the wing.

The Elmer Fudd in the piece at the moment, former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley, did get off a clever first shot at the flying behemoth when he cracked that “the presidency of the United States is not some crown to be passed between two families,” but it seems to have only provoked a deeper show of humility from the target. She’ll be starting a “listening campaign” to detect rustles of discontent as she banks over the cornfields of Iowa cawing platitudes across the sky, e.g. “Americans have fought their way back from tough economic times.”

Point of fact: no they haven’t. They are still strewn over the landscape with the economic equivalent of sucking chest wounds, but perhaps a few of them have noticed with vicarious satisfaction the astounding rise of the S & P stock index as they lie in a roadside ditch scanning the skies. It must give them some comfort as their lights go out. Just maybe, their children will also have the chance to become Goldman Sachs employees as history marches on. The flying reptile wants to be their champion! She wants to earn their votes — the old fashioned way, by purchasing as much TV air-time as possible to put across the illusion of sincerity. On such campaigns is the decline of empire propelled.

More to the point, what does the flight of Hillary say about party politics in this land? That a more corrupt and sclerotic dominion has hardly been glimpsed since the last Bourbons cavorted in the halls of Versailles? Hence, my view that America will witness a very peculiar spectacle leading up to and perhaps beyond the 2016 election: the disintegration of seeming normality against a background of mounting disorder and insurrection. Hillary will go on caw-cawing platitudes about togetherness, diversity, and recovery while the economy sinks to new extremes of unravelment, and the anger of a swindled people finally boils over.

Neither party shows even minimal competence for understanding the actual crises facing this land, and indeed the project of techno-industrial civilization itself. If the people don’t overthrow them, and grind their pretenses underfoot, then events surely will. In the trying months leading up to the presidential election of 2016, Americans will witness the death of their “energy independence” fantasy — actually a meme concocted by professional propagandists. The shale oil “miracle” will go up in a vapor of defaulting junk bonds. Violence will escalate through North Africa and the Middle East, threatening the world oil supply more generally. I would give a low-percentage chance of survival to King Salman of Saudi Arabia, and to the Saud part of Arabia more particularly as civil war among the rival clans breaks out there, with an overlay of Islamic State mischief seeding even greater chaos, and the very likely prospect of sabotage to the gigantic oil terminal at Ras Tanura on the Persian Gulf. In comparison, the fiasco of Benghazi will look like a mere Three Stooges episode.

     If a third party were to arise in all this turmoil, it might not be savior brigade, either. In 1856 the Republicans welled up as the Whigs expired in sheer purposelessness and the Democrats romanced slavery. The nation had to endure the greatest convulsion in its lifetime to get to the other side of that. This time, I’m not at all sure we’ll get to the other side in one piece.

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444 Responses to “She’s Back!”

  1. AKlein April 13, 2015 at 9:29 am #

    Hillary announces. Is anybody listening?

    • Neon Vincent April 13, 2015 at 9:51 am #

      If Hillary is Rodan, does that make Jeb Bush Godzilla? Maybe I shouldn’t belabor that metaphor. If I take it to its logical conclusion, Godzilla usually wins that match up. I’d prefer Madame Secretary being the next president to Bush the Third. How about Jeb as Ghidorah the three-headed monster? That contest might come out more to my liking.

      As for the ostensible good times returning, the unemployment statistics and other official measure say so, but the people don’t seem to believe it, except when it comes to increased driving. The spell of relatively cheap gas has induced Americans to drive more during the past 12 months than at any time since before the Great Recession. On other hand, the people here in Michigan have terrible roads to drive over. They have the opportunity to raise the sales tax to pay for road maintenance, but the highways aren’t so bad yet that Michigan voters are likely to approve the increase. Instead, what they seem more enthused about is legalizing marijuana. I guess they accept what Freewheeling Ferdinand of the Fabulous Furry Freak Brother said more than 40 years ago, “dope makes it easier to get through times of no money than money makes it easier to get through times of no dope.”

      • K-Dog April 13, 2015 at 10:13 am #

        You could pass both Jeb and Hillary by and vote for me.

        K-Dog for president.

        Raw meat in every doggie dish and after my election I will get to do surveillance on myself. Seems foolish but no more foolish than all the money being spent on that activity now.

        Go fusion center!

      • Capaneus April 13, 2015 at 11:39 am #

        Maybe a saucy high-school girl in a tight jumpsuit could climb into a giant robot and free us from all these monsters.

        • vengeur April 13, 2015 at 12:51 pm #

          I read Hillary’s bio eight times and I can’t seem to find the words “humble ” or “humility”.

        • DA April 13, 2015 at 7:42 pm #

          I’ve always thought that national elections were just student council elections with more money involved. Count me in for the first party that runs a saucy young chica in anything tight.

      • rudyspeaks April 13, 2015 at 3:15 pm #

        It was “Freewheeling Franklin”, not Ferdinand…

        • Neon Vincent April 13, 2015 at 10:05 pm #

          Thank you. It’s been too long since I’ve read the comics and my memory played me false. Next time, I’ll look up the Wikipedia entry before I post instead of after so I don’t have to wonder how long it will take for someone to point out my error.

    • Greg Knepp April 13, 2015 at 9:55 am #

      I love the Rodan reference. It was a remarkable movie for its time. I was about ten years old back then, and saw the film at the Saturday matinee at the Silver Theater in Silver Spring Maryland – a suburban hell hole if there ever was one.

      It was in color and seemed rather grand in scale – In my view, far more advanced than the more popular Godzilla film of the same era. Rodan gave me nightmares. The movie serves as an excellent analogy to all that is befalling us today.

      It seems you’ve written today’s piece just for me. Many Thanks!

      • vengeur April 13, 2015 at 12:58 pm #

        Rodan the Flying Reptile pretending to be Mother Goose! Kunstler RULES the printed page.

      • Florida Power April 13, 2015 at 1:05 pm #

        I was maybe a bit younger than 10 and went alone to see Rodan in the local movie theater somewhere along Edmondson Avenue in West Baltimore — an area made famous in The Wire. Back then it was not only safe but permissible for parents to let their kids have the run of the extended neighborhood. Rodan scared me so much I left shortly after the egg cracked and the reptile went shrieking across the sky — an image burned into my mind to this day.

        All data transmission now being digital maybe some really smart hacker can substitute Rodan’s screech for Hilary’s voice in the televised live debates. Perhaps mass laughter rather than invective will drive these living nightmares into the mass-cultural equivalent of a black hole.

        • Greg Knepp April 13, 2015 at 1:53 pm #

          I’m an ex-Baltimoron myself; lived in Seton Hill, Fells Point and Charles Street near Biddle. I was a denizen of No Fish Today on Eutaw Street (pre-stadium) and several drinking spots in Fells Point and Federal Hill.

          Baltimore – a damned interesting town…wore me to a frazzle though.

          • Florida Power April 13, 2015 at 3:26 pm #

            Polytechnic 1968 (early departure — A course).

            Played No Fish Today in 1979 or thereabouts — I’m pretty sure it was No Fish Today — with a blues band that used to tour from Atlanta to NYC and back again. We were ahead of our time. A guy named Stevie Ray Vaughn opened for us somewhere… He did much better, up to a point.

            One of my last images of Baltimore when I left (from the burbs) was the military checkpoint at the City line on Liberty Rd: jeep with mounted machine gun and helmeted national guardsmen, following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

          • Sir Lord Baltimore April 13, 2015 at 8:47 pm #

            Florida Power, Mr Knepp!!! I too am a Baltimore ex-pat. Grew up on Belair Road. LIved all over the city. As you say an interesting town…Wore me to a nub though. It was increasingly more and more violent. People in general were just getting mean. On the subject of the Baltimore riots I found a bunch of old TV footage (sans sound from that period) on youtube. If you gentlemen are interested I will link it here.

            I am a bit younger than you gentleman. Born in 79′,but it is interesting to see how Baltimore stays with people. My father was friends with a man who lived on Edmonson Ave in the late 80s. He would visit, and I would play with his sons. Nice kids that later on got locked up on drug charges.

            I used to go to the Pratt library and look at books on Baltimore history (age 12-13). I would marvel at pictures of neighborhoods that were tidy, clean, and stable. I would contrast it with the current era. It would really bum me out. Hell it still does.

            Anyway just thought I’d say Hi!

          • Florida Power April 14, 2015 at 9:00 pm #

            Back atcha, SLB.

            I still have family scattered about the area, memories of the row house, Leakin Park, Edmondson Village at Christmas, riding the BTC to Poly on North Avenue.

            Things fall apart. But it was falling apart back then too. Now there’s just more falling apart.

          • Sir Lord Baltimore April 14, 2015 at 10:50 pm #

            Florida!,

            I cant leave a reply directly to your comment. This comment system device type thing leaves something to be desired.

            The only memories I have of the BTC is of the brief time that I spent volunteering at the Street Car Museum. Here are a few links to take you down memory lane:

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBKL5wFzdM8

            Baltimore Christmas 1963

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0F_j0vphkPU

            Baltimore Street Cars pre 1950

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_MIJGkO1zY

            The first part of about 60 minutes of footage from the Baltimore Riots of 1968

            http://mdhsphotographs.tumblr.com/

            The MD Historical Society’s Tumblr page

            There are some great old one of a kind photos on here

            http://www.kilduffs.com/Directory.html

            Kildufs Old Baltimore Page-A plethora of info about old Baltimore

            Enjoy the links!!!

            Sir Lord Baltimore

  2. newworld April 13, 2015 at 9:41 am #

    My money is on whatever candidate the Daily Kos crew gets behind will win the D party nomination, and I don’t thinks it is Hillary. I think more or less her run is basically a money raising opportunity like for example Chris Dodd’s and Guliani’s campaigns were.

    You progs will rue the day you chose to highlight “Diversity” that is basically nothing more than racism from the Left.

    I see a three thousand mile wide Yugoslavia in the making, but go ahead and champion your little Diversity goose steppers and their little humanities degrees.

    • vengeur April 13, 2015 at 12:54 pm #

      Yes indeed, as if what defines “diversity” of a people is skin color, region of origin or sexual orientation.

    • DA April 13, 2015 at 7:59 pm #

      The only diversity that matters is among the .01%. Not surprisingly, they’re all surprisingly similar at that level, especially in regard to the only thing that counts. They’re all rich.

      Other than that, they’re merely opportunistic. Can’t get enough poor white fucks to harvest the crops, trim the hedges, and nanny the young’ns? Bring in Hispanics from the south.

      Can’t get enough middle class whites with enough education to perform your technical work? Bring in the Indians, Chinese, and Koreans from the east.

      Can’t get enough poor whites and coloreds to die for their country? No problem, we’ve got drones for that now anyway.

      Can’t get enough good ol’ boy poor whites to imagine that they’re really sumpin’ by signing on to the Nazi Gestapo 2.0 in support of the 21st century version of Hitler’s Aryan master race? Oops, check that. We’ve got PLENTY of those!

  3. Cold N. Holefield April 13, 2015 at 9:47 am #

    It’s all for show. Hillary will take the fall in the 5th.

    Go Jeb!

    But make sure to refer to her by her full name; Hillary Rodham Clinton — former Goldwater Girl.

    • davidreese2 April 13, 2015 at 11:07 am #

      Gosh, really?!

    • sauerkraut April 13, 2015 at 11:56 am #

      Yes, “It’s all for show,” in the sense that both contenders have more loyalty to the two-party system than to their own nominal parties.

      But you seem to favour Bush III over Clinton II. May I ask why?

      I would prefer Hilary because she is smart enough to know that nuclear war would affect her life-style, and experienced enough to avoid it. With others I’m not so sure.

      Of course, anyone with pretensions to patriotism will vote for a third party, in a vain attempt to reclaim the nation before implosion. But that is another topic. In purely academic interest, why do you favour Bush III ?

      • VegasBob April 13, 2015 at 1:10 pm #

        I view Hillary quite differently than you.

        In my view, Hillary Clinton is a woman who has been scorned by her husband pretty much for the last 35 years. For all we know, the last time she got fucked was in 1979 when she got pregnant with daughter Chelsea.

        Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. In this scenario, a President Hillary would be extremely dangerous since she would feel the compulsion to prove her clitoris is bigger than her husband’s penis. That means that World War III would end life as we know it shortly after her inauguration in 2017.

        I would not vote for Hillary Clinton or Jeb Bush under any circumstances. When I finish taking a shower, I don’t put on yesterday’s dirty underwear. I opt for a clean pair.

        • outsider April 13, 2015 at 4:00 pm #

          The only announced candidate so far who doesn’t scare the shit out of me is Rand Paul. Although, after he signed that ridiculous, juvenile Tom Cotton letter to Iran, I’ve lost considerable respect for him. Rand has lost a lot of support from the anti-war crowd, but, unlike the others, I can’t see him starting WWIII. Interesting that Rand, Rubio, and Cruz are all first-term Senators. Obama was too. I guess experience has become a liability.

          And could it be true that no other democrat is willing to take on the Lizard Queen? Are you still around James Webb?

      • abbybwood April 13, 2015 at 4:05 pm #

        After Hillary Clinton referred to Putin as “Hitler” I would not say that she is concerned about jump-starting the cold war into a hotter war:

        http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2014/03/05/hillary-clinton-says-putins-action-are-like-what-hitler-did-back-in-the-30s/

        I noticed that the nuclear war Doomsday Clock was recently moved to three minutes to midnight. Not a particularly smart time to be poking the bear.

        I do not believe one word that comes out of her mouth. She is so ambitious and desperate to become her husbands “equal” that she will do or say “what ever it takes” to win the nomination of her party.

        Once that nomination is secured, unless her husband decides he HAS to take “one more jet trip” with Jeffery Epstein, the convicted pedophile, on his “Lolita Gulf Stream” to his “Lolita Island” getaway and certain members of the press want to “Gary Hart” Slick Willie…(recall Gary Hart saying, “Go ahead!!! Follow me!!!), she will win the general election if enough Republican menopausal women decide she is just the neo-con hawk they have been “praying” for their entire lives.

        I keep praying myself for a miracle to show the country that she jumped the shark the day she sat at the hearing on Benghazi and said, “What difference does it make??!!!”

        Perhaps Martin O’Malley, the good-looking, guitar playing, buff-armed Maryland success story will continue getting Iowa Democrats to fall for him.

        And obviously she is trying to keep Bill in the background just as he appeared in the recent SNL opening skit.

        According to Bill in an interview done by Queen Latifah, if Hillary wins the White House he will stay in Chappaqua to run the Clinton Foundation! How very un-First Gentlemanly of him!

        No end of the day sit down intimate dinners with Madam President? No loving husband and supporting partner to the probably over-worked Prez? Off in Chappaqua while poor Hill stays all alone in that big White House day after day? No global traveling as a good-will ambassador while creating new programs to benefit the public? No little luncheons and teas and greeting the public? How sad!

        Too busy raising millions more for their PRIVATE foundation! Too busy making $200,000 speeches and jetting hither and yon to be bothered as the President’s “better half”?

        I do not see the American voters buying into this scheme of theirs.

        • beantownbill. April 13, 2015 at 6:08 pm #

          From your mouth to God’s ears.

        • Majella April 14, 2015 at 9:25 pm #

          It would probably be abortive, but I do hope Elizabeth Warren throws her hat in the ring for the Democratic run-off. Someone talking sense would be such a novel thing in US politics!

    • DA April 13, 2015 at 8:02 pm #

      I’d probably go with Rubio, if only for kicks, but there’s too many old white people like me waiting to die (but who vote religiously in the meantime) that would never support him. At this point, I honestly think it would be a lot more interesting if they turned the whole thing into some kind of reality TV contest. Probably a lot more revealing of character too.

  4. goat1001 April 13, 2015 at 9:48 am #

    “The nation had to endure the greatest convulsion in its lifetime to get to the other side of that. This time, I’m not at all sure we’ll get to the other side in one piece.”

    The country in 1860’s did not get to the other side in one piece but managed to come back together after it all ended (more or less ended). This time, however, I seriously doubt it ever comes back together once it breaks apart. The rift will be too great and the conditions too severe.

    The “new” world will go on however as they always do for better or for worse. The present digital world will probably be a lot more analog with more human inputs, i.e. labor required to keep stuff going. I’m thinking old AM/Shortwave radios and analog tape recorders will become much more valuable while smartphones become useless junk (no working internet or cell towers)…. So will carpentry hand tools, manual farm implements and newspapers.

    • DA April 13, 2015 at 8:13 pm #

      The “new” world will go on however as they always do for better or for worse.

      As they always do? Remains to be seen. Too many variables involved to even hazard a guess at how it turns out over any given period of time or how long the periods of punctuated equilibrium in between will be. My guess, based on how smooth and relatively seamless the ride up the energy curve was, is worse and much shorter on the way back down.

  5. chipshot April 13, 2015 at 9:51 am #

    But Jim, we have iphones, netflix and 2 day amazon delivery.
    Can things really be that bad?

    Wonder if “wallowing hippo” is a more appropriate reference for our savior Hillary than “flying reptile” …

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    • russ April 13, 2015 at 3:29 pm #

      Nah. Now, if we were talking about Chris Christie…

      • abbybwood April 13, 2015 at 4:27 pm #

        Why can’t we have Dick Cheney too?

        During one of the Sunday morning gabfests Bill Kristol said, “Why can’t we have Dick Cheney in the race?!”

        Well, you can Bill! After all he has the heart of some poor 18 year old car crash victim (or something close).

        Of course with all the out-standing warrants for his arrest as a war criminal in some countries I would not advise President Cheney to do much “traveling”.

        But I like the idea of a debate with Rand and Dick and Jeb and Ted.

        Let’s give the world a real showing of “who we are” as a country!

        Classy!

        • Majella April 14, 2015 at 9:30 pm #

          Erk! That prospect appals!

      • DA April 13, 2015 at 8:23 pm #

        See now, I always envisioned as Christie as a great and magnificent bull walrus, sunning himself on the rocks, and fending off all challenges to his GOP Walrus bitch herd.

        Hillary? Yeah, I have to admit I see her more as a great land pig. Corpulent and jowly, with her snout firmly buried in the shit, if not up someone’s ass altogether. Yep! That’s our Hillary!

  6. Petro April 13, 2015 at 9:56 am #

    If the country “got to the other side” of everything leading up to the Civil War of 1861 – 1865, they did not do so limping away from Appomattox Courthouse very damaged. And 150 years later, many in the South retain some irrational smoldering resentment and sense of victimhood, and the North derides the poverty and backwardness they see there (while ignoring that in the their own backyards).

    Hillary? Uuggh.

    • Petro April 13, 2015 at 9:58 am #

      should have written: “…they DID SO limping away…”

  7. maxnigh@gmail.com April 13, 2015 at 9:57 am #

    Why the vulgar rant? The choices from the establishment people is
    terrible, but Hilary is no worse, and somewhat better.
    Does Liz Warren offer you any solace that our country could be better with some changes?

    • Q. Shtik April 13, 2015 at 10:04 am #

      The choices ………………… [is] terrible, – Max

    • kansas ham on wry April 13, 2015 at 10:24 am #

      You do understand that ‘She stinks slightly less than the others’ isn’t exactly a ringing endorsement, don’t you?

      • vengeur April 13, 2015 at 1:06 pm #

        ..she is not any more sociopathic than the other sociopaths. Or the one she is married to, for that matter.

  8. kansas ham on wry April 13, 2015 at 10:01 am #

    It’s time for a woman in the White House. Unfortunately her name should be Elizabeth Warren. The only novelty about Hillary is her gender. The style may be slightly different, but the substance will be the same – banks and the military-industrial complex can breathe a sigh of relief if she takes the helm for what will prove to be 4 catastrophic years (and they will be catastrophic irrespective if the Dums or Repugs win the 1600 Pennsylvania booby prize). It’s the same ‘Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss’ mantra that the Who sang about 44 years ago.

    • Smoky Joe April 13, 2015 at 10:03 am #

      Warren is too smart to step into that particular snakepit. She is doing what she can in a broken Congress.

      • kansas ham on wry April 13, 2015 at 10:16 am #

        Agreed. Which is why I said ‘should.’ But a guy can dream, can’t he?

      • davidreese2 April 13, 2015 at 11:13 am #

        Agree completely. Elizabeth Warren is simply too intelligent to run for President. In a functioning polity, she might. But not now.

        • Semi-Employed White Guy April 13, 2015 at 8:25 pm #

          If she’s so smart, then why does she think she’s an injun? Barry was supposedly smart even though he thought the US had 57 states. Barry was am alleged constitutional expert, but alas he was just another affirmative action hire. And what has Hillary ever accomplished? It seems that leftists think anyone spouting the agreed upon collectivist and anti-white male tripe is intelligent. Extra points are awarded to women and minorities, of course.

        • maxnigh@gmail.com April 14, 2015 at 12:49 pm #

          I wish to agree, but is Warren really smart enough to stay away?

      • Majella April 14, 2015 at 9:34 pm #

        Yes, she surely knows she wouldn’t get the nomination, but still, would it not be a grand novelty to have an intelligent articulate person speaking truth, for a change?

  9. Smoky Joe April 13, 2015 at 10:02 am #

    Today’s GOP offers me nothing but a headache. At least the Dems offer a positive, if impossible, vision of equality.

    I’ll vote for whomever they nominate, to stop the nutjobs on the Right. I’d like a third party, too, strong on personal liberties but also on environmental protection and a transition from fossil fuels and suburban growth. An anti-consumerist, anti-corporate party.

    As for the Clintons? Bill signed the repeal of Glass-Steagall Act and oversaw the run-up to the deregulated banks that nearly took “the sucker” down in 2008. The Clintons were not forceful enough on climate change when they had the chance, instead dithering on a massive health-care overhaul. Our grandkids will all pay for that mistake as the weather lashes at them year after year.

    There is a lot I dislike about the Clintons, but I will take them over the GOP’s gang of chicken hawks, religious fanatics, and anti-science corporate stooges.

    • outsider April 13, 2015 at 4:16 pm #

      What? Bill ignored the handshake agreement that GHWB had with Gorbachev not to move NATO one inch closer toward Russia when the USSR imploded. Now, with the US-backed neo-nazis running Kiev, we are reaping the results of that disastrous aggression. And Obama continues to allow Victoria Nuland to run wild in Ukraine when he should have fired her right after her “F*** the EU” comment.

  10. johnthebookman April 13, 2015 at 10:02 am #

    I always find your blog very insightful and thought-provoking, Mr. Kunstler. However, I’ve noticed a pattern over the years of regular pronouncements of imminent social upheaval, riots, mayhem, chaos, pillaging in the Hamptons, etc., etc., by the ‘Cheese-Doodle-devouring ‘masses. These masses will have finally had their stupor penetrated by some final straw, and will apply themselves to the task of wreaking havoc on their political and Wall-Street masters. The thing is, as often as you have predicted such social cataclysm (and today’s piece contains yet another example: “…America will witness a very peculiar spectacle leading up to and perhaps beyond the 2016 election…”) , none such has yet occurred. How do you account for this? Furthermore, I must ask if, each time you make such a forecast, are you in fact advocating taking to the streets? And, if so, will you yourself be among these angry, seething masses?

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    • Petro April 13, 2015 at 10:33 am #

      I understand your point. But with the invocation of the U.S. Civil War this morning, it got me thinking of all the doomsayers in the years leading up to it. (Andrew Jackson himself worried about the preservation of the Union in the 1830s). At the time, they may have looked like Chicken Littles, losing credibility for every year that passed without a major conflagration. But a century and a half later, that 15 – 20 year period looks mighty short, and the Chicken Littles quite prescient.

  11. George April 13, 2015 at 10:03 am #

    “That a more corrupt and sclerotic dominion has hardly been glimpsed since the last Bourbons cavorted in the halls of Versailles?”

    Well no, not exactly. There was no such thing as a French nation when the Bourbons cavorted around Versailles. Nation crafting was basis for building Versailles in the first place. Yes, there was a realm where people spoke French but it wasn’t a nation. The politics of nation building obliged a herculean effort and a lot of time, so much so that a whole vast complex had to be built to accommodate it.

    As for predictions regarding the US of A, they’re pretty much right on the money (or lack thereof)!

    http://www.thesisa.org

  12. shotho April 13, 2015 at 10:07 am #

    Yes, and Rodham, the flying reptile, will be joined by Jeb, the bushy buzzard, in a spiralling dance of death. There is always an end to every passage and this too will end. I agree that, on the other side, resides some awesome changes to the political and social landscape that will not be nearly so benign as those following the Civil War. But, there really is nothing new under the sun!

    • davidreese2 April 13, 2015 at 11:16 am #

      I’m a Northerner. But I hardly think the changes following the Civil War were benign, if one happened to live in the South.

      • russ April 13, 2015 at 3:35 pm #

        I think one could make the argument that had Lincoln not been assassinated, the changes would have been far more humane. But we’ll never know.

        But heck, as far as this nation surviving, I’ll bet it will split into 12-15-20-50 chunks within 50 years from now.

  13. Q. Shtik April 13, 2015 at 10:19 am #

    “Americans have fought their way back from tough economic times.” – JHK

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

    Yeah, that one brought up a blurp of very sour vomit into my mouth and 52ish next door neighbor, Joe, entering his sixth year of unemployment, begs to differ. (I saw him in his back yard yesterday… a rare sighting. With his inactivity he has achieved the look of a large exercise ball with protruding appendages.)

  14. bossier56 April 13, 2015 at 10:26 am #

    i gues we are due for a convulsion. It has been a long time since the last one. The 1850’s must had this same feel, as if you were rushing headlong into something and everyone new it. But no one could stop it.

  15. DA April 13, 2015 at 10:28 am #

    Sums up the current zeitgeist pretty well today, Jimbo. But perhaps the larger point is that pretty much no one’s paying attention to Hillary’s bullshit anyway, as they know the fix is in no matter who gets anointed King or Queen in 2016. Personally, I’d like to see her get crushed just because she wants it too much, but perhaps getting her wish would be an even more appropriate fate. The old girl’s looking pretty rough already going in, and I can only imagine what 4 or 8 years of the head job with the Rs and the Tea Baggers carping at her every decision would do for her. I seriously doubt she’d live to write the memoir. I think that maybe it’s time to pass the baton to the younger generations. We boomers have shit the bed most thoroughly; they could hardly do any worse.

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    • outsider April 13, 2015 at 4:31 pm #

      If elected, she’ll be the same age as Ronald Reagan when she takes the oath. And Reagan, died black hair and sprayed on tan, still looked pretty good even though he was batty with Alzheimer’s by his second term. Women, too bad for them, don’t age as gracefully.

      • DA April 13, 2015 at 8:31 pm #

        Although they live longer. Go figure. She’ll actually be slightly older. But comparing her to RR is certainly not comforting either way. And she’s got the additional baggage of having an aging ex-Prez husband who’s in not good health himself. I simply can’t imagine a case where she actually gets elected. Even the American electorate, stupid as they are, will never fall for her.

        • outsider April 13, 2015 at 8:51 pm #

          Nationwide, the democrats are a much larger party than the GOP. I think it would be difficult for any republican to win the national vote over her. Recall that in 2000, Gore received 500,000 more votes than W. The only way I see a republican beating her is in the Electoral College, an institution which has far outlived its reason to exist. Its winner-take-all format never did make any sense to me.

          • DA April 13, 2015 at 10:05 pm #

            Well there ya go. By hook or by crook, just as it always is.

  16. ozone April 13, 2015 at 10:39 am #

    JHK,
    Killer verbiage today with some excellent visuals; nice!

    As to this:
    “Neither party shows even minimal competence for understanding the actual crises facing this land, and indeed the project of techno-industrial civilization itself. If the people don’t overthrow them, and grind their pretenses underfoot, then events surely will.” — JHK

    Only too right; thus the desperate megaphoning of abstractions and veiling bromides. Are the lumpenprole “hoping” for some “change”? (They may just get it, but I don’t think they’re going to like it.)

    Some should keep this in mind:

    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-04-13/its-bush-clinton-world-and-its-your-job-vote-them

    Not me; I refuse to engage in this lesser-evilism crapola and I withdraw my consent. (Take a look at how many of “the folks” *didn’t* go to the polls last time ’round. We can see where this is going.)

    Upheaval may not be exactly *caused* by the election of Rodham or Jeb-ra, but the timing of converging events will place one or the other firmly in the center of a distinctly uncivil global shitstorm (if the diplomatic “skills” of Ms. Clinton are any indication). Don’t forget that Rodham never met a war she wouldn’t support… just to prove she’s got the brass ovaries for “the job”.

    Article one of a series in a portrait of a consummate shape-shifter:

    http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/04/13/80658/

  17. peakfuture April 13, 2015 at 11:04 am #

    newworld – “a three thousand mile wide Yugoslavia” – an excellent reference, and scary as hell. As an old cartoon seen during the 1990s national brawl in Tito’s neck of the woods once had it penciled in the margin (by Toles?) “I Go Slavia, You Go Slavia, We All Go Slavia…”

    Will Rodan or Godzilla evolve to be our ‘corn-pone Hitler’, or will we get someone else?

    Warren has been proposed as a candidate; who else might the rest of CFN nominate, if it was in our power?

    • PeteAtomic April 13, 2015 at 11:28 am #

      Can I nominate Teddy Roosevelt? 🙂 Barring that I’d vote for Jesse Ventura, because he’s such an acerbic and anti-social character. We need revolutionaries, not technocrats.

      I”d argue that the list of deep power stooges for prez are all uninspired, stale, and largely irrelevant, because the system they represent is uninspired, stale, and largely irrelevant.

      • beantownbill. April 13, 2015 at 12:36 pm #

        Ah, one person who understands.

        • peakfuture April 13, 2015 at 12:46 pm #

          Looks like some folks are already asking him: http://jesseventura.com/

          • outsider April 13, 2015 at 4:38 pm #

            Maybe Vince McMahon will be his campaign manager!

    • elysianfield April 13, 2015 at 3:17 pm #

      Ron Paul, Bernie Sanders. Anyone with a shred of empathy. Don’t rail me with how either’s success would fu@k up the country…it’s a given for both, but either would provide, at least, a modicum of entertainment in our inexorable slide towards entropy.

      • russ April 13, 2015 at 3:40 pm #

        Well said. As they say about stars, ‘in the end, gravity wins’. And for all other things, entropy wins.

      • outsider April 13, 2015 at 4:43 pm #

        Is that Dennis Kucinich I see warming up in the bullpen?

  18. cbeard April 13, 2015 at 11:04 am #

    Due to the apathy and gullibility of the American voter, a viable 3rd party isn’t going to happen. Witness the Tea Party, which is just another right wing bunch of blowhards. As far as diversity goes, its just another nail in the coffin of this society. A country must have a common culture and language in order to thrive or even survive.

    • Neon Vincent April 13, 2015 at 6:10 pm #

      It’s not just the fault of the average voter. The system is rigged for two parties and against viable third parties. It’s called Duverger’s Law. It even works, although not as well, in parliamentary systems like those of Canada and the UK. Even when there are more than two viable parties, party discipline and interest groups enforce some combinations of views and punish others. That’s why it’s hard to find politicians who are pro-environment and anti-immigrant in the US. The current political environment finds those positions incompatible.

  19. davidreese2 April 13, 2015 at 11:05 am #

    Well said!

    There are third parties out there. I’m under no illusion that they have a chance of actually gaining the Presidency. But if I vote, I’m voting for one of them.

    • cbeard April 13, 2015 at 11:21 am #

      Ditto on voting for the third party. I probably should vote for whatever alternative there is, regardless of viability. If everyone went that way, maybe something would change. But the political scene is so polarized and voters so uninformed that its just a dream.

  20. PeteAtomic April 13, 2015 at 11:18 am #

    Good article.

    I wish I were as hopeful as JHK to believe that somewhere in the empty strip mall quarter, a.k.a. America, there are public forces out there that are fired up enough to overcome the two party political machinery– but, I don’t see it happening. The EBT cards keep swiping, and the walmarts continue walmarting. This is the decline of our own Joyful Apocalypse, and no amount of empty slogans like the ridiculous appeal for ‘diversity’ will resuscitate a middle class or an economy which is largely alchemy and little chemistry.

    Wanna effect a shift? Get people ravenously hungry. Then you see precipitous & calamitous social changes ala’ 1917 Russia. The US feds know this and will do (and are doing) everything to avoid that happening.

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    • davidreese2 April 13, 2015 at 11:20 am #

      With California in extreme drought, not sure the feds will be able to keep the lid on.

      • PeteAtomic April 13, 2015 at 11:30 am #

        yes, that’s actually a great point there. thanks

        • peakfuture April 13, 2015 at 11:42 am #

          PeteAtomic- You just answered the question I posted on my own blog – https://peakfuture.wordpress.com (smacks own head – of course!). Thanks.

          • PeteAtomic April 13, 2015 at 6:56 pm #

            nice blog!
            One thing 2008 taught me is that if a group of people can destroy the economy, and nobody is held responsible or goes to prison over it, then the US is in BIG trouble.

      • newworld April 13, 2015 at 12:06 pm #

        The California drought will bring about some interesting politics on the second level beyond the simple minded stupid public rhetoric. We’ll see the upscale left versus the downscale left and throw in the Big Ag republicans into the mix as well as its downscale leftist allies get shown the door.

        A bit hyperbolic but this is Malthusian, no it might not look like a Somalian civil war but some fat is going to have to be cut and no money printing or fancy financial shenanigans can print water.

        As a certified right winger I will say I tend to side with the upscale left on this issue, they need to dry up (pun intended) the attraction for the migration of low attainment democratic voters in favor of higher potential people.

        • DA April 13, 2015 at 8:48 pm #

          Your view of the world is a bit stunted. There IS no left and right, other than in political operatives’ and rich people such as yourself’s imaginations. There is only rich and poor, and fair to say, we know which side of that divide you stand. Your “upscale left” are just your own kind with different social views.

          Furthermore, your use of the phrase “they need to dry up (pun intended) the attraction for the migration of low attainment democratic voters in favor of higher potential people” is just plain offensive.

          In actuality, we need to exterminate “certified right wingers” such as yourself who postulate such bullshit. Higher potential my ass! You’re living proof that that statement is false.

          • ozone April 14, 2015 at 10:15 am #

            DA,
            Ouch. That response did sting a bit, but sometimes restrained discourse should be disregarded in favor of the obvious.

            You’re correct; there’s only ever been one real war, the class war. It’s just a matter of the ‘framing’ of the frenzy into nationalistic issues to get the clueless citizens to do the actual killing and dying. (Nulandistan is a prime example. It’s fortunate she got caught so we could get a peek into these set-ups and machinations. “Fuck [our allies], we only need them for rhetorical cover for our campaign of destabilization and conquest” — to put it plainly. )

    • russ April 13, 2015 at 11:58 am #

      Good comments; I agree with all the statements made except possibly this – ‘the feds know this and will do …everything to avoid that happening’.

      You’d like to think that is indeed government policy, but I just don’t see it. The feds are corporate bought and paid for, and will fall back on ‘genius of the marketplace’ slogans. But federal farm bills for the past heaven knows how many years keep emphasizing Earl Butz’s policy of ‘get big or get out’. Federal farm policy provides next to nothing for enhancing true small farm families’ ability to grow local crops for local needs and move away from the crops as commodities concept. A crop like corn is a prime example – where most of what gets produced is not for people but rather for machines.

      The last thing the feds will ever see is that ‘small is beautiful’, and that’s what it will take to feed people as globalization falls apart, changing climate patterns get more severe, a farming system based on enormous consumption of fossil fuels fails, a nutrient dosage pattern based on massive rates of inorganic forms of nitrogen applied to more and more sterile soils runs into a brick wall, etc.

      • elysianfield April 13, 2015 at 3:24 pm #

        ” I agree with all the statements made except possibly this – ‘the feds know this and will do …everything to avoid that happening’.”

        Why do you think that the police have been “militarized” and up-armored? Why do you think that the 2010 Defense Appropriation Bill provided for the suspension of the “Posse Comitatus” provisions of the constitution?

        The government is doing plenty.

        • russ April 13, 2015 at 3:42 pm #

          Yes. In that sense, the government is doing plenty. Not in the sense of providing for the growing of food, of course.

      • Neon Vincent April 13, 2015 at 6:20 pm #

        “A crop like corn is a prime example – where most of what gets produced is not for people but rather for machines.”

        Not quite. The graphs I include in Corn for fuel, a story I tell my students show that the most recent figures for corn show at best a bare plurality for corn grown for fuel over corn grown for animal feed. Add in the rest of the crop, which is mostly for direct human consumption, and corn grown for fuel is not a majority of the U.S. production.

        That written, growing corn has all kinds of nasty and unintended effects beyond the inefficiencies of growing it for fuel.

      • PeteAtomic April 13, 2015 at 7:04 pm #

        I agree with you Russ, and my comment about federal action is really more of an emphasis on the reaction of a security state, and not as a reflection of Dept. of Agriculture policy. So, I think the feds use a carrot & stick approach in many ways with the public– a mix of food subsidization programs on one hand, and the use of a surveillance/security state on the other.

    • MisterDarling April 13, 2015 at 1:34 pm #

      “Wanna effect a shift? Get people ravenously hungry. Then you see precipitous & calamitous social changes ala’ 1917 Russia. The US feds know this and will do (and are doing) everything to avoid that happening.”-p.

      Starvation does seem to be what it takes to rile the sheep. Otherwise, it’s only outliers sporadically rising up.

      • Neon Vincent April 13, 2015 at 5:57 pm #

        That’s what’s been happening since 2007-2008 in much of the rest of the world. I tell my students a story about food prices and unrest that makes that point. Name a flash point in the world, and high food prices, just enough to really take a chunk out of their wallets and make it difficult to feed people, have hit the place. In fact, food riots have been the start of revolutions in the modern world going at least as far back as the French Revolution, which began with The Woman’s March on Versailles, essentially a very organized food riot.

    • GutenbergGuy April 13, 2015 at 2:15 pm #

      I myself expect this scenario to end with social change ala’ 1930’s Germany.

      Which is why either way – Hillary or Jeb – I expect the same outcome. War by the end of 2018. And I mean a real war – not like that skirmish in Iraq that is STILL in progress.

      • DA April 13, 2015 at 8:37 pm #

        Thing is, 1930’s Germany was basically a cry for help from a nation that couldn’t possibly win over the long term. What happens when that same “cry for help” comes from the world’s de facto cultural, economic, and military hegemon? There really is no precedent for this kind of thing.

  21. malthuss April 13, 2015 at 11:21 am #

    The EBT cards keep swiping, and the walmarts continue walmarting.

    No empire is forever, not even the ones advertised on big screens.

    • DA April 13, 2015 at 8:51 pm #

      The US zeitgeist remains relentlessly fixed on the eternal NOW. And now is forever good, until it isn’t anyway.

  22. EvelynV April 13, 2015 at 11:21 am #

    It’s one long childish metaphor that shunts mature thinking on the matter. She’s a strong and mostly competent woman who right now I suspect would be the best of all emerging candidates.

    I might be willing to settle for Rand Paul as her running mate if Bernie Sanders wouldn’t accept the post.

    Who gives a good goddamn what was in her emails, most certainly nothing as titillating as the collection of never to be seen communications that took place in the Cheney whitehouse.

    • vengeur April 13, 2015 at 1:14 pm #

      Is that you Hillary? The tone is PERFECT.

      • ozone April 14, 2015 at 10:19 am #

        v.,
        LOL That *was* a cute little bait-and-switch, wasn’t it? 😉

  23. russ April 13, 2015 at 11:27 am #

    I don’t believe I’ll be jumping on the Rodham bandwagon anytime soon. Anyone who summarizes a situation by saying “we came, we saw, he died” – referring to Qaddafi – as though that is some light-hearted comedy punchline – is not really the person I’m looking for.

    Actually, I can’t imagine voting for either a “D” or an “R” for a long, long time. What we need are candidates who break away from the ‘infinite and accelerating growth forever and ever’ meme. That puts me out there in third, fourth or fifth party land, but I don’t care. Pursuing infinite growth, which actually benefits only a tiny but very powerful subset of persons, while destroying the conditions needed for life and any semblance of a Republic, is not my idea of a sound choice.

    The argument against that of course is ‘but then your candidates will never win’. So? I never win when the ‘Corporations uber Alles’ candidates get elected either.

    As ‘Joshua’ remarked to Prof. Falken ‘the only winning move is not to play’.

    Time to drop out, my friends. Tend to the plants in your garden; incorporate more perennials, make compost. Forget the “D”s and the “R”s. That way lies only death.

    • Petro April 13, 2015 at 11:42 am #

      Agreed. After 30 years of voting, election involvement, and issue activism, I’ve dropped out. Totally disillusioned.

    • GutenbergGuy April 13, 2015 at 2:26 pm #

      Or madness. Hillary is clueless and therefore irrelevant.

      Like her predecessors Hillary has a very disturbing disconnect with reality. And she and Jeb are both set to give us a softer, gentler version of war-mongering.

      But after Slick Wilie gave us Reagan II I knew I could never vote for Hillary. She – like her party – have become far too conservative for me, and not in a good way. Gone is the promise of the New Deal, and in its place is Republican government forever, no matter who “wins” an “election.”

      The extremely low turnout last year may be the most important indicator of all about this race, and we can see Hillary feverishly trying to find a way to appeal to voters about whom she hasn’t got a clue.

      And like Obama she can’t even come up with a decent slogan. The knee-jerk problems with “diversity” aside, who came up with the word “humbleness”? It is awkward and it’s just silly when the word “humility” is readily available and certainly more familiar. It also scans better. “Humbleness” is just a clunky word. For a clunky candidate?!

      • Janos Skorenzy April 13, 2015 at 2:59 pm #

        Yeah, but just imagine Liz Warren wearing a Black Beret and her fist up in the air. It’s enough to give you thrills up you leg and beyond.

        • elysianfield April 13, 2015 at 3:26 pm #

          Do not toy with my emotions….

        • DA April 13, 2015 at 8:52 pm #

          For once, you’re right Janos.

      • russ April 13, 2015 at 3:58 pm #

        Very well said.

        I think “humble” is a less humble word than “humility”, as might possibly be shown by this response from Gov. G.W. Bush in the 2000 Presidential debate:

        “…GOV. GEORGE W. BUSH: If we’re an arrogant nation, they’ll resent us; if we’re a humble nation, but strong, they’ll welcome us. And our nation stands alone right now in the world in terms of power, and that’s why we’ve got to be humble, and yet project strength in a way that promotes freedom…”

        I have a hunch that some writer within the Rodham campaign was given the assignment of “humble or humility?”, and decided on some form of “humble” as being “stronger”.

        No, that doesn’t make any sense to me either, but I think it does to the Rodham campaign, and that’s why we’re in big doodoo.

    • abbybwood April 13, 2015 at 4:53 pm #

      My personal favorite is when Hillary! was being interviewed with former Secretary of State James Baker and the subject of bombing Iran comes up. Her laughter and comment are haunting:

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

  24. beantownbill. April 13, 2015 at 11:44 am #

    It never ceases to amaze me how blind CFNers are, who are supposed to know better. We’re heading down a path, whatever it is, that no current politician has the capability to change, whether Democrat or Republican, and our corrupt political arena will not allow a viable 3rd party.

    To those who would rather have Hillary than a “crazy” Republican, have you already forgotten the past 6 years under Democratic Party rule? Our Nobel Peace Prize president could have gotten us out of the Mideast at any time, but has chosen to increase our involvement there. Not only that, but now we are breaking our promise (NATO’s, technically) not to advance westward toward the Russian border, thus mightily pissing off Russia and edging us closer to a confrontation with them. And some of you guys still would vote for a person who let Americans die at Benghazi, lied about her disregard for national security through almost-public public use of her emails, lied at being shot at when Secretary of State, and…well, I could go on?

    Go ahead, vote Democrat OR Republican, because you are supposed to, after all this is America where it’s your responsibility as a citizen to vote for a presidential nominee from one of our 2 corrupt parties – just because you don’t want to see the other incompetent, greedy guy get in. Just don’t start complaining about the president in these pages around 2017 or 2018.

    • Janos Skorenzy April 13, 2015 at 3:13 pm #

      Well said. You have to understand these people, unlike you and me, are de-racinated. They have no ancient Culture, no Folk Soul to fall back on or to guide them. They are the May Flies of the morning. As the Bard said of them, “Like flies to wanton boys, the Gods kill us for their sport.”

      The cunning of the Elite is hopelessly beyond them. The Plutocrats control both parties of course, but favor the Democrats to throw people off the true nature of our society. And the Communism of the Democrats also helps to ruin the Middle Class – the only people who might be motivated to overthrow them and have the means to do so. And the same strokes of the pen fund the poor, who will remain loyal to the Dems. Thus the Middle Class is bracketed from above and below – even as the Patsy Repubs take endless lickings.

      • abbybwood April 13, 2015 at 5:07 pm #

        But let’s also be honest here.

        Once any Republican (including Rand Paul who has recently boasted the fact that he meets with Israeli leadership EVERY DAY!) becomes president, if a Republican majority manages to stay in Congress, a pre-emptive strike on Iran will be an absolute probability.

        Which will involve Russia and China as they have multi-billions of investments in Iran and are Iran’s allies.

        Israel and its sycophants in the Republican Party are hell bent on the Greater Israel project (Google it) and with all their Evangelical Republican cheerleaders in the fly-over states starting WW III to give the military industrial complex another $$ incarnation, this will truly be the beginning of the end.

        There will be no need for any messy debates and Syria will be on the kill list as well.

        And there are many Democrats in Congress who will be “going along to get along”.

        Hillary Clinton is also a good “friend of Bibi” along with McCain, Graham and the others.

        As we are seeing now with the brouhaha over the Netanyahu political advertisement in the form of a speech before our Congress to scores! of standing ovations on both sides of the aisle and then the letter to Iran by Bibi’s latest follower Sen. Tom Cotton, Israel appears to be driving our Middle East foreign policy as much as it can by even spying on the negotiations then reporting back to it’s Congressional representatives.

        As the old joke goes about making Israel the 51st state the main objection was: “But then we’d only get to have TWO senators!”

        • Janos Skorenzy April 13, 2015 at 10:52 pm #

          How dare you talk about the poor Jews that way. You must have no teeth and live in the Ozarks in double wide. How’s your invisible twin a la the Dunwich Horror? Of course Israel should stretch from the Nile to the Euphrates. Everyone knows that. That’s what the two blue lines on the flag mean.

      • DA April 13, 2015 at 8:55 pm #

        That’s a bit much and a whole lot self-serving Janos. Now crawl back in your hole and come back out when we call you.

        • Janos Skorenzy April 13, 2015 at 10:49 pm #

          Too much Truth for you. Your inferior circuits are blown. You can only deal with black and white absolutes of good and evil – with Black being absolutely good and White the opposite. You are a dark Manichee, a State Satanist.

  25. capt spaulding April 13, 2015 at 11:48 am #

    For once I’ll have to disagree with JHK. Both parties understand exactly what the problems are, they’re just pretending to listen to the voters. It’s that time in the cycle where both sides have to line up to suck the public’s dick and pretend they care about the country. Do I sound cynical? No matter how cynical I get, it’s never enough.

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    • MisterDarling April 13, 2015 at 1:31 pm #

      Cpt,

      Re |” No matter how cynical I get, it’s never enough.”-Cpt S.

      I certainly wasn’t cynical enough in 2008. I actually still believed that “no matter what” the political class had a healthy respect for it’s own survival… Alas. What a revolting display of reflexive obeisance that Fall.

      • DA April 13, 2015 at 8:56 pm #

        Not enough cynical in the world my friends!

  26. Anotherplayaguy April 13, 2015 at 12:20 pm #

    Hillary Rodan Clinton — cute.

    “This time, I’m not at all sure we’ll get to the other side in one piece.” Such an optimist to think that there is an other side. We have screwed that poor pooch so badly that there is nothing on the other side. And all the bridges to that non-existent other side have eroded past the point of safety.

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

      Playa Guy;

      “Such an optimist to think that there is an other side.”-pl.

      I laugh when I read people moaning about how ‘pessimistic’ J H K is. He’s really soft-balling it to them. They’re such a bunch of overgrown toddlers that even that seems like hardball.

      A week on The Playa does give one a certain objectivity, does it not?

      😉

      Cheers!

  27. volodya April 13, 2015 at 12:31 pm #

    Who gives a good goddam what was in Hillary’s emails?

    There’s a long list. The Chinese, the Russians, the Iranians, the North Koreans. That’s just for starters.

    OK, maybe you don’t accept that this is any big deal. I would disagree, I think this shows a spectacular failure of judgment. Is this email fandango a disqualifier for the presidency? I would say yes, this is a disqualifier. This was inexcusable.

    There’s a real problem with Hillary. Multiple problems. She can’t even string together plausible sounding lies to minimize this. A John Cleese-ian Ministry of Silly Stories could do better.

    The bigger problem is Hillary’s apparent inability to understand that the US is not all powerful, that there are nasty adversaries in the world and that certain things, like the emails of the Secretary of State, need the highest levels of security utilizing the most advanced technology. Other things too, like the compound at Benghazi. Another big-time fail.

    You might ask the question, who was more brain-dead, Hillary or the apparatus around her at the State Department. Didn’t anyone notice what was going on? Couldn’t anyone have said something to her about the emails, or if she got awkward about it, passed word to Obama to have a word with her? Not only the emails, but about the anxiety in Benghazi over security.

    Not to minimize American influence in the world because, what the US does, does matter. But most of what happens is not driven or controlled by the US. The United States has rivals, regimes that look at the US and ask themselves, why can’t we take them down? Aggression, both military and non-military, isn’t the sole province of Americans. All the more reason to carefully protect the communications of the Secretary of State.

    Now, you may think that the US is the worst thing going. Well, you’re entitled to your opinion. There’s varying degrees of rotten-ness and brutality. Who’s the worst? You get to make your own judgment on this.

    You may also be astonished to learn that there are many and varied national and sub-national actors on the world stage with their own agendas, not all of them being of a humanitarian bent and most of which are not remotely on the same page with the US or in concert with the US or controlled by the US.

    In other words, it’s not only the US that propels world events. An example would be the middle eastern abattoirs. You may think this is all about the US. I would say not. There’s age-old sectarian and ethnic rivalries pushing this, things that Americans only dimly comprehend. Do you wonder why the United States has such a consistent record of failure on the world stage? It’s the failure to understand the word and the actors in it.

    The emails matter. How Hillary handled them reflects a defective and inadequate understanding of the world. Hillary is not qualified by reason of character and judgment and knowledge to be President.

    • russ April 13, 2015 at 12:48 pm #

      But whatever happened to the Silly Walks? Mission Creep, apparently.

      Regrettable.

      However, I must continue this later. Right now, I need to attend to my parrot, which seems very sickly.

    • MisterDarling April 13, 2015 at 1:22 pm #

      Hello & ‘Marvelous Monday to you, Volodya (and co.)!

      Re |”The emails matter. How Hillary handled them reflects a defective and inadequate understanding of the world. Hillary is not qualified by reason of character and judgment and knowledge to be President.”-v.

      And all of that *SO Does Not Matter* at this point. We’ve had nothing but corporate place-holders (refer to them politely as ‘lieutenants’ if you like 😉 selling whatever grab-*ss 1-percenter diktats came their way for the past 20 years. The White House is nothing more than a clearing-house for political corruption at this juncture. . . A doll-house of jaunty little pirouetting marionettes.

      When we regard the Hillary, we must remember that anyone under the age of 53 has never participated in a presidential election without a BUSH or a CLINTON running for office, or already part of the administration. These are the Puppet Clans at the end of empire. They’ve done a great job of driving it into the ground. With just a little more work the rest of the world will be shot of their ilk for good. I’m fine with letting them give us the ‘happy ending’ we so richly deserve.

    • EvelynV April 13, 2015 at 1:36 pm #

      You remind me of the hysterical people who warned of the dire consequences of losing in Vietnam with your shrill concern about the world getting their hands on her emailed grocery lists.

      I’m guessing the sum total of everything that could have been gleaned from her emails might add up to about one one hundredth of the kinds of info that was loosed upon the world by Snowden. Oh gawd, the sky is gonna fall.

      So what happened on the other end of all these vital emails? Regardless by which server they were born into the ether, their alleged (by you) lethal toxicity to our supposedly free nation must still be a mortal threat to us, eh?

      • abbybwood April 13, 2015 at 6:33 pm #

        Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the Wikileaks quagmire:

        http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/press_box/2010/11/wikileaks_hillary_clinton_and_the_smoking_gun.html

      • devnickle April 14, 2015 at 3:22 am #

        Evelyn. I can’t begin to fathom your defense of Ms. Clinton? My impression of “Her Highness” brings up words such as “phony”, “vacuous”, “lap-dog”, “soulless”, “liar”……… I could continue for quite some time, but her relevance isn’t worth the energy expended. And lest you think I’m singling her out, the rest of the candidates ellicit a similar flow of “impressions”. Frankly, her apparent “lust” for the position of ” Most powerful human being on the planet”, scares the living crap out of me! Are you defending her just because she’s. (apparently) female?

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

          Typical narcissistic crap from critics like you. Long on adjectives and how things make YOU feel but no substance to justify the emoting, the bleating, the tedious mumbling about what makes you defecate.

    • EvelynV April 13, 2015 at 1:40 pm #

      “Hillary is not qualified by reason of character and judgment and knowledge to be President.”

      You know so little about what you are yammering about.

      Judging from the sloppy thinking you posted, you are not qualified to make a judgement like that for anyone but yourself.

      • Janos Skorenzy April 13, 2015 at 2:21 pm #

        Remember, Chelsea referred to her security as pigs. When the guard confronted her on that, she said well that’s what Mom and Dad call you. This story was passed on by the White House florist.

        If anyone wants to derail the Hillary campaign, just get White House staff and Security together – especially the Security. Her hatred of traditional White Men is beyond belief. She needs to be Swift Boated.

        • DA April 13, 2015 at 9:01 pm #

          Hatred of traditional white men? I thought you were against her?

        • EvelynV April 15, 2015 at 11:34 am #

          Another example of emotional self projection in evaluating what you think you know.

          Judging from recent disclosures not to mention past revelations from ex-SS agents, the disdain expressed about their security probably was motivated by contempt for their competency.

          I’m finding it hard to think of reasons why anyone wouldn’t have pretty low regard for “traditional white men” in many matters.

          • EvelynV April 15, 2015 at 7:01 pm #

            To Wit:

            From NPR website

            The Secret Service has come under scrutiny for an episode of alleged sexual assault, of harassment of a female worker by a senior manager and the questionable behavior of two supervisors who drove near an active investigation of a suspicious package after a retirement party. John Roth, the inspector general at the Department of Homeland Security, is investigating those incidents and is scheduled to testify to Congress on Wednesday.

      • PeteAtomic April 17, 2015 at 11:08 pm #

        In a republic of some 300 million people, or at least on paper a republic– 2 families sharing power for decades on the executive– this is a plutocracy or aristocracy, not a republic. This is the main reason I oppose another Clinton or a Bush for the executive.

        The Clinton family is deceptive. If a person doesn’t know what this means, then please tell me what the definition of “is”, is.

    • EvelynV April 13, 2015 at 1:55 pm #

      The biggest threat to the United States comes from within. Historically all of the those threats come largely from the impetus of the republican party and the greedy constituency for whom they serve as running dogs.

      “A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself within. The essential causes of Rome’s decline lay in her people, her morals, her class struggle, her failing trade, her bureaucratic despotism, her stifling taxes, her consuming wars.”

      — Durant

      • Janos Skorenzy April 13, 2015 at 2:22 pm #

        As a Communist operative, Durant was particularly qualified to talk about subversion from within.

        • EvelynV April 13, 2015 at 3:11 pm #

          Just because you speak as a communist operative it doesn’t mean you know shit about Durant.

          • newworld April 13, 2015 at 4:25 pm #

            Not every progressive has to ignore genocide.

      • devnickle April 14, 2015 at 3:35 am #

        Give “em” what they want to buy their vote. $15 an hour for burger flipping imbeciles, and $20 Big Macs for the rest of us. That’ll work out well. The math doesn’t compute….

        • EvelynV April 15, 2015 at 11:37 am #

          It might work out well for you. I’m guessing at those prices you might not be able to afford to maintain your present day plumpness. Especially if you are some oaf who thinks $15 is a lot of money.

  28. And So It Goes April 13, 2015 at 12:54 pm #

    She’s back, and I am with her…

    Go Hillary..

    Your time has come!

    If you had been a man, you would have been president years ago.

    You go girl!

    The misogynists are going to howl, as the racists did with Obama.

    But, you can handle it, because you know how to overlook ignorance..

    Madam President… Can’t Wait!

    • vengeur April 13, 2015 at 1:18 pm #

      How reassuring to know that if she had been a sociopathic man rather than a sociopathic woman, she would have already been crowned President.

    • VegasBob April 13, 2015 at 1:19 pm #

      When I take a shower, I don’t put yesterday’s dirty underwear back on…

      • vengeur April 13, 2015 at 1:28 pm #

        Her campaign is “based on diversity, discipline and humbleness.” Anybody else spit their coffee while reading that? Next thing she is going to be seen leaving church on Sunday with a bible so big it can be seen from space like the incorrigible letch she married used to do.

        • Janos Skorenzy April 13, 2015 at 2:43 pm #

          Guess “humbleness” is something different than humility. Perhaps its complete opposite?

          • outsider April 13, 2015 at 5:10 pm #

            Hillary has said that Putin is another Hitler. Well, I guess negotiation with Russia will be out when the Queen Bee becomes Commander-in-Chief. After all, you can’t negotiate with Hitler. As the first woman president, Hillary is getting ready to show the world how tough she is. I am Woman, hear me Roar!

        • abbybwood April 13, 2015 at 6:40 pm #

          She claims to carry a little Bible in her purse, next to her cellphone….or is it cellphone (s)?

          Hasn’t driven a car in 20 years and either does not know how to get two email accounts on one phone or does not surround herself with enough qualified techies to help her figure it out.

          But she is qualified to carry the nuclear football around?!

          What a show we are all about to witness.

          I got the Beatles, the Beach Boys, Motown and Leslie Gore for high school.

          Now I get the Hillary!, Rand, Ted, Jeb show for my retirement and probably WW III.

        • devnickle April 14, 2015 at 3:26 am #

          Oh pleeze….. What a load of crap…..

      • EvelynV April 13, 2015 at 1:46 pm #

        What reason do we have for believing you ever take showers?

        You should apply your sorry ass metaphor to mayors, governors, congressmen, boards of directors etc.

        Just throw out all the babies along with all the water, eh?

        • vengeur April 13, 2015 at 4:50 pm #

          If the underwear fits… P.S.: some of us have noticed that Her Highness Hillary has no clothes.

          • EvelynV April 15, 2015 at 11:39 am #

            As many of your kind do, you are mixing up your fantasies with reality. And what a reality you must live in to sit around on your butt imagining Hillary nude.

    • Janos Skorenzy April 13, 2015 at 2:25 pm #

      And that’s what it’s all about: making Conservatives howl. Who needs ethics, policy, budgets, planning? Torturing the American People and making money doing it is what matters.

      People like you make Democracy unworkable.

    • Q. Shtik April 13, 2015 at 4:23 pm #

      And So It Goes, are you female or is that piece of information private and, in any case, irrelevant?

    • newworld April 13, 2015 at 4:32 pm #

      By “racists” why didn’t you just say whites? All you race theorizing progressives and your racism are just begging for a fascist dictator to put a muzzle on your rhetoric. Now a gentler solution would be to adopt the racial hate speech laws of say a country like Canada or Germany, but since our Left sees no benefit in that law your racism will have to be tackled from the right.

      We will all lose but America cannot be governed by the lousy people who burnt Ferguson to the ground (at least property values wise).

    • shabbaranks April 13, 2015 at 5:56 pm #

      Small time cheerleading does not pass for knowledge among CFN’rs. Your comment is pure drivel, nonsense, balderdash.

  29. messianicdruid April 13, 2015 at 1:03 pm #

    Some type of local currency, either metals (preferable) script or paper, will be needed for local trade.

    Produce some thing others need.

    • russ April 13, 2015 at 3:15 pm #

      True. I wish to goodness some other States would follow the lead (gosh, from 100 years ago) of North Dakota and break the chains of Wall Street and be willing to finance projects that make sense locally, but don’t necessarily meet the rates of return to keep the sharks happy. (Or is that the vampire squids; tough to keep them straight?).

      Growing at least some of your own food is not only ecologically sound, it is a political statement, and as time passes a battle cry against the PTB.

  30. bob April 13, 2015 at 1:09 pm #

    Being born into such a deficient species is a bitch. What say you?

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    • Janos Skorenzy April 13, 2015 at 2:42 pm #

      Agreed on an existential level. But the Church teaches (as opposed to Calvin’s complete corruption) that though our Nature was deeply compromised by the Fall, it wasn’t utterly destroyed. In other words, we can be better or worse. If we had always been this corrupt, we would have never gotten this far.

    • russ April 13, 2015 at 3:22 pm #

      What a waste; what a waste. If we were only content with role of “herald”, we would be the greatest creatures to ever assume that role. We could tell the story of life as no other creature can, and we would be truly wonderful.

      Alas, we decided the role of Emperor was more to our liking, buttressed by our own edition of the story of Creation wherein we wrote that God said that we have Dominion over all other creatures. That is why we got kicked out of the Garden of Eden – knowing a tiny bit we thought we knew everything.

      No.

      And since we show every indication of continuing down that path, Nature will soon be making a much needed correction.

  31. whoknows April 13, 2015 at 2:09 pm #

    Here’s a view of the future as plausible as Kunstler’s doom and gloom:

    http://cleantechnica.com/2013/08/26/solar-and-electric-vehicles-will-kill-industry-dinosaurs/

  32. Cold N. Holefield April 13, 2015 at 2:34 pm #

    Test

  33. Janos Skorenzy April 13, 2015 at 2:39 pm #

    Elizabeth Warren? Doesn’t it bother people that she pretended to be an American Indian? Isn’t that gaming the Affirmative Action system? So much for her character. And isn’t it insulting to American Indians when Whites do that? And isn’t it insulting to White Americans too? And what does it say about racial equality that Whites feel they have to do this to get ahead?

    • vengeur April 13, 2015 at 4:07 pm #

      Oh give the lady a break! Don’t you know her grandma had “high cheekbones” like a Native American? She is as much a Native American as Joe Biden is an astronaut.

      • devnickle April 14, 2015 at 3:48 am #

        She also collects $400k. a year, from a public university for teaching one class, as in “once” a year. This while raging on about the ridiculous cost of a college education.

        They’re ALL cut from the same cloth folks…. Pick your poison. Or NOT.

  34. Janos Skorenzy April 13, 2015 at 2:48 pm #

    You have to understand how women think: Hillary is the most cheated on woman in the world. After putting up with Bill, she is owed the Presidency.

    From a sane, masculine perspective, she hitched her wagon to a shooting star, a political genius. She married up to the ultimate degree. Her life is a classic feminine success story – and a repudiation of Feminism. If you want Feminism and classic Communism, go with the Blonde Indian Liz Warren.

    • abbybwood April 13, 2015 at 7:06 pm #

      I might have considered supporting her had she DIVORCED him after moving out of the White House.

      Putting up with a sham marriage (the Chappaqua Secret Service actually have a name for Bill’s latest regular “visitor”: “Energizer”):

      http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2700882/Bill-Clinton-busty-mistress-nicknamed-Energizer-Secret-Service-works-hide-Hillary.html

      I take it back. Even if she had divorced him I still would never support her.

      Unfortunately, being a Californian, I will likely not have the opportunity to even vote for say Martin O’ Malley (unless he catches fire and leaves Hillary! in the dust). It will likely be a choice of only Hillary. Better to let the rest of the country decide for us….

      Then when the general election rolls along in November it will be a choice between Hillary! and Jeb.

      I will vote absentee and after marking the box to legalize pot I will mark my presidential choices with “NO CONFIDENCE”.

      I will need to lay my head down to sleep that night, after all.

      • DA April 13, 2015 at 10:39 pm #

        Or better yet, just don’t show up and participate at all. It’s not like your marking anything at all is going to have any effect anyway. It’s time to get beyond all that shit.

        • devnickle April 14, 2015 at 3:50 am #

          + 1,000,000.

  35. volodya April 13, 2015 at 2:54 pm #

    Mr. Darling, you’re correct, this sucker’s goin’ down for all the reasons you enunciated. The puppet clans, as you put it, ran things to the liking of the oligarchs and without regard to general welfare.

    There’s a theory that if you throw enough shit at the wall some of it will stick. And throughout the 20th and 21st Centuries a great deal of shit was thrown at the wall, a lot of it through the initiative of successive American administrations. And despite the knowledge that should have been acquired through this long history of involvement in foreign affairs and foreign conflicts, not much seems to have stuck. As a consequence, the United States just can’t seem to stop making the same mistakes. Over and over and over. And most of the time, the mistakes involve under-estimating the capabilities of people the United States goes to war with and not understanding the nature of their society.

    I can’t help it, it’s disturbing that Hillary would be so careless with something that should have been so easy for her to deal with. Maybe as you say it doesn’t matter. But after all that’s happened, after all the things we old timers have seen and lived through (and that includes Hillary), it boggles my mind that such incomprehension still exists at the highest levels of the US polity

    Did I say that Hillary was “so careless”? In my estimation, Hillary was ASTOUNDINGLY careless. Does she think the Russians and Chinese and Iranians and all manner of cut-throat non-state actors are our friends?

    What gives these foreign powers the advantage over the US is that they don’t take their continued existence for granted. The US has gotten used to thinking of itself as the sole super power and therefore invincible. Very dangerous, very foolish to under-estimate others.

    You’re probably right. One more fool in the Oval office at this point won’t make a difference. But still this whole thing just bugs me.

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    • abbybwood April 13, 2015 at 7:23 pm #

      I am not sure why you refer to our foreign policy decisions as “mistakes”?

      Sure, the invasion and occupation was immoral and illegal under international law especially because as Tony Blair agreed in The Downing Street memos, “The intelligence needs to be FiXED…”:

      http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2005/06/14/DI2005061401261.html

      And of course there is the infamous Gen. Wesley Clark comment to Amy Goodman regarding the memo he read while visiting The Pentagon in 2001 right after 9/11 detailing the United States attacking and occupying “seven countries in the MIddle East over five years.”:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RC1Mepk_Sw

      The only “mistakes” were not in the evil planning for U.S. global hegemony and “full spectrum military/economic dominance”, but hundreds of thousands of lives were taken and billions of dollars of infrastructure was destroyed creating massive blowback.
      ,
      Such a sickening display of arrogance, secrecy and hubris.

      And with any of the current candidates running for president it will only be more of the same. To my knowledge Martin O’Malley is the only unknown as to what his foreign policy platforms might be.

  36. abbybwood April 13, 2015 at 4:16 pm #

    Not every reader of this Monday morning treat will relate to this conversation about world events with Jim Willie, but when I stumbled upon it the other night something told me many of you will:

    http://investmentwatchblog.com/jim-willie-fall-of-the-house-of-saud/

  37. m111ark April 13, 2015 at 4:36 pm #

    So, some still believe that the president has the power to make a difference! Seriously???

    Have not the last two presidents made you realize if does not… same stuff gonna happen no matter who sits in the Oval Office. It’s all just a big game, a farce meant to keep one side fightin’ against the other. The only tactic the oligarchs have left, and the most effective, is to keep the people at odds with each other while they steal what little remains to steal. EVERYTHING, from climate change to police brutality, the middle east, the gun debate, etc, it’s all just a ruse to keep us engaged with each other.

    NO ONE, and I mean no one in power gives a damn about anything other than protected their own backsides against what’s commin’… and they know some serious stuff is on the way – the end of a debt-money monetary system always brings the trouble… and only the very rich and the very connected manage to escape the deluge.

    So vote, at the federal level it matters not… nor at the state level, only the fortunate few established power centers in out of the way places MAY manage to remain intact thru the turmoil; small places with resolute people – the few who still remain.

  38. saharasergei April 13, 2015 at 4:45 pm #

    The foolishness of anyone trying to challenge Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination, with her money and power, isn’t the only reason she’s a shoo-in for the nomination. There’s also the simple fact that there’s no one else! The rising stars of the Democratic Party got their backsides handed to them in the 2014 midterms, and the last remaining leaders are grizzled old veterans who are past their prime. There’s no one else – again, there’s NO ONE ELSE! If Hillary loses in November 2016, that’s it – there’s no more Democratic Party.

    • DA April 13, 2015 at 5:28 pm #

      Can’t wait to see her lose then!

  39. malthuss April 13, 2015 at 5:02 pm #

    What if the repubs and the dems BOTH run one clinton and one bush? Say Hitler-y on Dems and Chelsea on repub ticket, with a bush thrown in for each of them? Then the two dy nasties will be in the White House, together.

  40. newworld April 13, 2015 at 5:12 pm #

    Maybe the next president should follow the Obama model for being president and go golfing or play tennis, fish maybe. Honestly as a certified right wing extremist I’m not that dissatisfied with his performance.

    He is taming the Israeli nuts, he is finishing off the medical insurance racket, and by allowing the goofball billionaire oligarchs to take so much press is putting a target on their fat faces all because the man basically does nothing except a little cheer leading. No major wars, even with the nuts running full speed they gain no traction in the administration.

    Of course the bad, and its spelled BANKSTERS, and the FED racketeers who are taking us to a command economy of fail like Venezuela or Cuba, maybe Belarus and North Korea.

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  41. fodase April 13, 2015 at 6:23 pm #

    Sure feels great to be further vindicated about solar + wind and alt energy putting us squarely in the age of energy ascent –

    http://cleantechnica.com/2013/08/26/solar-and-electric-vehicles-will-kill-industry-dinosaurs/

    Shows how CFN is firmly rooted in the typewriter age, and JHK’s shtik is as tired and saggy as Hillary.

    Time to throw in the towel, endtymers, you have lost, and lost badly.

    wpa_ccc, party in my country this Friday at 7:30, I’m hosting. I’ll pick you up in my ethanol-running car, soon to be self-driving and running on solar-generated electricity.

    Spain currently generating 38% of all its electricity using WIND as we speak….

    hahaha, so easy to beat the pants off you cfn girlies and your shortsighted fraidy-cat predictions.

    wooohoooo!

    Nevertheless, we salute you as we blast past you high, high above your typewriter-age prognostications and rocket into an age of limitless energy and societal progress.

    fodase

    • russ April 13, 2015 at 7:57 pm #

      Read the article linked to – this part was particularly intriguing

      “…So, what could possibly go wrong? Well, policy will be critical, and right now the conservative right is lined up against renewable and disruptive technologies, and firmly on the side of the incumbents.

      Seba, doesn’t understand why. “In ideological terms, there is no more libertarian energy source than solar. Why do libertarians, at least in the US, align themselves with conservative parties?

      “Why are they supporting coal and big refineries and power generation? Ideologically it makes no sense. Part of what is going on is an information war. $8 trillion can buy you a lot of information, and can help you spread a lot of misinformation…“

      Right. So basically big, big fossil fuel $$$$ is dead set against anything to do with solar. So, before the ‘victory roll’ as the bold techies rocket past us poor schmucks “into an age of limitless energy and societal progress”, kindly explain how you are going to make the Koch Brothers love solar?

      For that matter, how does an unlimited amount of energy fix society’s problems? Take raising food, for example. About 1% of all the energy used in the world annually goes into pulling nitrogen out of the atmosphere, subjecting it to great heat and pressure by burning methane, and transforming nitrogen into ammonia. So, we apply solutions of ammonia to fields, and in the process we kill off much of the microbes in the soil, and wonder why there are dead zones at the mouths of the great rivers.

      How exactly is unlimited energy going to fix that?

      You probably have also heard the forecast that if the industrial revolution carries on at a growth rate of several per cent a year for the next 1200-1300 years or so, there will be so much heat from friction alone that the Earth’s surface would approach temperatures of the surface of the Sun.

      When are we ever going to imagine that some of Nature’s limitations actually apply to us?

      I like the part in the article about decentralized decisions that could be made in the future if we choose energy sources wisely. That much of what we get these days is so centralized explains why we have so many Nazis running the show in business, government, banks, and utilities.

      But just saying ‘high tech for high tech’s sake’ isn’t going to do it.

    • DA April 13, 2015 at 9:50 pm #

      Blah blah blah. Yes, magic unicorns are going to spout infinite quantities of magic unicorn shit to power us into the infinite future. And USA-based humans will be kings and queens of the universe, which they will rule uncontested forever and ever amen!

  42. Pucker April 13, 2015 at 7:15 pm #

    Does Hillary worship New Age crystals? I know a bloke whose second wife worshipped crystals.

    • Janos Skorenzy April 13, 2015 at 10:42 pm #

      Using a Crystal to scry or to focus energy is not worshiping it. Read the Lord of the Rings.

  43. DennyO April 13, 2015 at 7:22 pm #

    Hillary is to America as Cristina Fernandes de Kirchner is to Argentina. Presidency based on vanity.

  44. DA April 13, 2015 at 10:34 pm #

    Speaking of new age crystals, Rubio announces:

    http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/13/politics/election-2016-marco-rubio-presidential-campaign/

    Prediction: He’ll either win, or split the GOP down the middle and give it to HillBillary. Probably the latter in my opinion. Not that that’s a good thing.

    Yeah, he’s nothing but bullshit, but ever has it been so.

    Rich/conservative white boys (and this means YOU Janos!), you’re day is coming.

    • Janos Skorenzy April 13, 2015 at 10:41 pm #

      Rich? Where do you get that? Or do you think all Conservative Whites are rich – as if such a mantra will save the Rich Liberals when their dark skin clients have finished with us?

      True Conservatives loathe Rubio, Cruz, and Rand as the Zionist and Corporate shills that they are. They are all for the Amnesty in one form or another.

      • DA April 13, 2015 at 10:59 pm #

        Sorry. Just lumping you in with your philosophical brethren. I guess that would make you a… bootlicker, by default then, wouldn’t it? Imagine that?

        • Janos Skorenzy April 13, 2015 at 11:52 pm #

          I’m a National Socialist, remember? That’s very different than International Capitalism/Communism. They united to crush us, remember?

      • DA April 13, 2015 at 11:07 pm #

        No such thing as “rich liberals.” Only rich and poor, and that’s all. Which is increasingly being defined as first world or otherwise, and American or otherwise. The Abrahamic religions, having finally won out, will at long last have their way. The world will be divided among the “righteous” and the “wicked,” with money and power (surprise, surprise) being the final arbiter.

        • Janos Skorenzy April 13, 2015 at 11:50 pm #

          No rich Liberals? Ok, I can work with that premise. Just pure Communism then? The poor armed with hammers and mattocks taking down ancient Regimes like Russia and China, slaughtering the Rich and raping their daughters?Such a beautiful idea – with no connection to how it really happened. Communism was and is funded by the Ultra-Rich as a way to break the Nations and Classes that stand in their way.

          Any exceptions or anomalies are just temporary, much like rare elements that can only exist for a fraction of a second under extreme conditions or reactions. Read up on some of them – the levelers of the late Middle Ages. Pure Communism: the Leaders were absolute Monsters, same as the ones in the French Revolution and of course the Communist Revolutions. The Lutherans and the Catholics put their struggle aside to put down the Beasts who were raping and murdering across the Land.

          We know that the French Revolution was meticulously planned and funded by Aristocrats favorable to the new English mercantile system. Some aid might have come directly from England.

          • BackRowHeckler April 14, 2015 at 4:20 pm #

            insightful analysis, Vlad. Pretty much spot on,

            brg

  45. BackRowHeckler April 13, 2015 at 11:33 pm #

    Somebody mentioned Senator Chris Dodd’s presidential run back in ’08; it was truly one for the books. At the time Dodd was head of the Senate finance committee (and a firm backer of Fanny Mae and Freddy Mac), in essence the Finance Minister of the United States. It was a scam all along and here’s how it worked: he had no chance to win, in fact never polled above 1%. However, as Finance Committee Chairman, Wall Street investment banks, Greenwich CT Hedge Funds, large national banks like Washington Mutual and Wells Fargo, and mortgage companiies like countrywide donated large sums of money to his campaign. Even tho he was Senator from CT he actually moved his residence to Iowa. Here’s the beauty of it. He couldn’t keep that money himself, but his entire campaign staff consisted of his wife, sons and other relatives to whom he paid large salaries and handed out generous bonuses. He really cleaned up and then after awhile just shut the whole scheme down and announced he was retiring from the Senate and withdrawing from the race. It turns out all along he was getting sweetheart mortgage deals from Countrywide as a ‘Friend of Angelo’. He was a big opponent of lobbyists and ‘money in politics’ but then hooked up a sweet gig as Washington Lobbyist for hollywood movie makers. Salary: $3 million per year. About that time our local lefty media asskissers said he was the best Senator since Noah Webster.

    This is why us Proles are a little suspicious of Pols and their Presidential aspirations.

    Then again, the whole world is burning down and we’re worried about an election 18 months from now. Let’s see if we get thru this summer, with trouble brewing in our cities, on Russia’s western borders, the Levant, and all of Africa.

    brh

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  46. BackRowHeckler April 13, 2015 at 11:47 pm #

    Speaking of Hillary Clinton specifically …

    Gentlemen, that voice, how to you like that voice?

    Shrill, strident … imagine having to hear it for 4, maybe 8 years? And getting worse as she ages, sounding like your ex mother in law when she used to bitch at you about nothing at all, and everything.

  47. BackRowHeckler April 13, 2015 at 11:50 pm #

    Oh yeah,

    Hillary for President Campaign song,

    ‘I like Big Butts’ by Sir Mix-a-lot, truly a classic American Composition

    • Pucker April 14, 2015 at 12:07 am #

      I have a question for candidate Hillary: Women with 2 big tits are sexy. What about women with more than 2 big tits?
      For example, Tits squared? Or, Tits to the 10th power?

      • Pucker April 14, 2015 at 12:11 am #

        In California, when a project fails, they sometimes say that it “…goes tits.”

        I bet that Hillary’s campaign will “go tits.”

  48. abbybwood April 13, 2015 at 11:59 pm #

    Here is something good for all of you to chew on:

    http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article41540.htm

  49. Pucker April 14, 2015 at 12:25 am #

    A bloke once took me to a stripper bar on K Street in Washington, DC. I recall a blond stripper with big tits on stage pole dancing to the song “That’s the Way…Uh..Huh…I like it…Uh…Huh…Uh…Huh.” I hope that Hillary adopts this song as her campaign fight song.

    • BackRowHeckler April 14, 2015 at 12:42 am #

      Too late!

      All the TV ads have been produced already.

      Its ‘I Like Big Butts’ or nothin.

      I wonder how much Sir Mix A Lot got paid for the use of his song?

      brh

  50. BackRowHeckler April 14, 2015 at 12:52 am #

    “Baby Got Back”

    Sir Mix-A-Lot

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  51. Pucker April 14, 2015 at 12:58 am #

    Why is it that American feminists like Hillary don’t strive for moral edification rather than moral debasement? One never sees Buddhist monks drink’n grain alcohol, smoking cigarettes, screw’n KTV girls, and talk’n shit try’n to act like Big Men. All of the efforts of Buddhist monks are focused inward in an attempt to overcome themselves rather than the external world.

  52. Pucker April 14, 2015 at 1:49 am #

    [Scene from the movie “Fargo”].

    “We need more money, Jerry. We need more money!”

  53. MisterDarling April 14, 2015 at 2:48 am #

    Hello again V & co.,

    “What gives these foreign powers the advantage over the US is that they don’t take their continued existence for granted. The US has gotten used to thinking of itself as the sole super power and therefore invincible. Very dangerous, very foolish to under-estimate others.”-volodya.

    And that is really just fine, V. We talked about a “peace dividend” at the end of the Cold War, and there was one – for some people for a little while. The rest of the world can look forward to a “creeps are gone” dividend when this empire finally packs it in. A hiatus between imperialisms is something to look forward to. And let’s face it: the BRICS-bloc members and their affiliates have been prepping for this for ten years…

    http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/04/13/us-iran-nuclear-russia-idUSKBN0N40YX20150413

    The next step is the issuance of gold-backed SDR’s. After that it will be a gold-backed Renminbi, with the support the support of every developed nation.

    This is how global trade will reset: it will never again reach the volume it did the in pre-2008 era, but it will be solid and robust – and based on tangible, actionable goods and services, or their bankable equivalent… But that is a world literally hundreds of trillions of dollars of fictional ‘assets’ from where we are now. There are a lot of people out there living in a fool’s paradise, completely estranged from the fact that they are…

    [Hello CFN’s Trust-afarian Contingent? (eyebrows arching pointedly)Ahem ?!?]

    The BRICS/SCO-aligned nations are perfectly okay at this point to let the rest of the dollar’s reserve-status disintegrate. They’ve been closing long-term resourcing deals and amassing precious metals since 2005. This is the same year that Condoleeza Rice tried to get India to shut down a pipeline deal with Pakistan and got told to GFHS (in diplo-speak) and then she turned around and tried to dictate who the OAS should elect it’s president (and that it should *by no means* be that socialist guy from Chile) and they promptly did exactly that… and told her to GFHS again. She trotted around the globe for the rest of her tenure getting doors slammed in her face and being told to do things to herself…

    The rest of the world has been showing the USA the hand for a decade now – with good reason – and the only literate people left that don’t know that are contained within the borders of the USA.

    Looking forward to that dividend!

    Cheers!

  54. FincaInTheMountains April 14, 2015 at 6:20 am #

    The “Giant Sucking Sound”: Clinton Gave US NAFTA and Other Free Trade Sellouts

    “There is no success story for workers to be found in North America 20 years after NAFTA,” states AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka. Unlike other failures of his Presidency, Bill Clinton can not run from NAFTA. It was Vice President Al Gore, not a veto-proof Republican congress, who lobbied to remove trade barriers with low-wage Mexico.

    The record of free trade is clear. Multinational corporations and Wall Street speculators realize incredible profits, wages remain stagnant in the US, poverty persists in the developing world, and the remaining industrial corporations in America and Canada are increasingly owned by Chinese, Indian and other foreign interests.

    NAFTA-related job loss is not a question of productivity, currency manipulation, “fair trade,” environmental standards, etc. While these issues are not trivial, free trade – as Lincoln’s advisor Henry C. Carey proved – is a matter of simple accounting. Can an American family survive on $4,160/year ($2/hr)? If not, cars and their components will be built in Mexico. If we want cars built in the United States, the only solution is a general tariff (import tax) reflecting the difference between those wage standards, like the very tariffs repealed by Bill Clinton.

    In the United States the “runaway shop” under NAFTA and CAFTA has sent trade deficits and unemployment soaring while wages drop relative to the cost of living. Yet Mexico and other “partners” receive no benefit either. Many manufacturing sectors in Mexico pay wages lower than the equivalent sector in China. Mexico is now the world leader in illegal narcotics exportation and weapons importation. The poverty level between 1994 and 2009 remained virtually identical. (52.4% – 52.3%). The shipping of raw materials to Mexico comprise the majority of so called American “exports”. The finished products from these exports are assembled and sold back to the United States at slave labor prices.

    Don’t expect Hillary to behave differently with the coming “Trans-Pacific Partnership,” which seeks to replace an ascendant China with less-developed Vietnam and Malaysia. Vietnam would overtake India-allied Bangladesh in the global apparel trade, and Malaysia has a high-tech manufacturing sector poised to rival China’s. With America’s manufacturing economy in shambles, the Clinton machine can now be redirected to geopolitical maneuvers.

    http://tarpley.net/not-the-lesser-of-two-evils-why-hillary-clinton-is-unfit-for-the-presidency/

  55. FincaInTheMountains April 14, 2015 at 6:26 am #

    The Clintons Abolished Welfare c.1995. Their Record the Same

    Thanks to Bill Clinton who abolished welfare in 1995, 50 million Americans were cast into the human outer darkness. In order to get himself re-elected Clinton “ended welfare as we know it”. Clinton destroyed Aid to Families With Dependent Children (AFDC), which was one of the titles of the Social Security Act (SSA) of 1935 and replaced it with the shell of former self Temporary Assistance for Needy Families or TANF. The 2016 GOP House Budget submission aims to finish off the project by ending TANF.

    In September of 1995, Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and Chairman of the Senate Budget committee Pete Dominici of the Senate Budget Committee, and more than 154 Republican House member began to agitate for a Treasury default on the public debt of the United States. Such a default had never occurred in recorded history. Nevertheless, Gingrich and his fellow enthusiasts of the Conservative Revolution were threatening to use the need to raise the $4.9 billion on the public debt to force Clinton to accept a reconciliation bill that would include a capital gains tax plus savage cuts in Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security and (in Title 4a, Aid to Families with Dependent Children, commonly known as welfare), farm support payments, student loans, and other entitlements.

    As a result of this synthetic debt crisis described above, a draconian welfare reform bill was proposed by Representative Clay Shaw (R-Fla.), passed by Congress, and signed into law by President Clinton in 1996. This reform came to be known as the Personal Responsibility and Opportunity Act and represented a direct frontal assault on the most vulnerable groups of the American population. But the secondary impact and medium-term potentials of this misbegotten law, also made it a sneak attack against the American middle class. In blunt terms, international finance capital appear to be preparing a reserve army of homeless, unemployed, destitute, with the intention of hurling them against the living standards of suburbia. Middle class voters who supported such a welfare reform because they had been blinded by their propaganda-stoked resentment against the inner-city and rural poor, might soon come to regret their own gullibility.

    http://tarpley.net/not-the-lesser-of-two-evils-why-hillary-clinton-is-unfit-for-the-presidency/

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  56. FincaInTheMountains April 14, 2015 at 6:29 am #

    Clinton Signed Abolition of Glass Steagall and Allowed Interstate Banking

    Bill Clinton’s repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act—which dissolved the firewall between commercial and investment banks—clearly indicates that Hillary would only serve the interests of Wall Street if elected president. Glass-Steagall prohibited low-risk commercial banks that dealt in managing deposits and providing loans from engaging in predatory high-risk speculation. The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, signed by Clinton in 1999, effectively nullified Glass-Steagall and opened up the savings and pensions of the working class for looting from parasitic bankers. Although this repeal was among a larger wave of Greenspan era deregulation that sowed the seeds for the 2008 crisis, it fundamentally altered the nature of banking by normalizing overly risky practices and therefore expanding the scope of the shadow banking cabal.
    http://tarpley.net/not-the-lesser-of-two-evils-why-hillary-clinton-is-unfit-for-the-presidency/

  57. FincaInTheMountains April 14, 2015 at 6:34 am #

    Clinton Legalized Derivatives

    While the roots of our present crisis stretch back over many decades of free trade, privatization and shifts of power to the financial sector, no one act bears more blame for the 2008 financial panic and ongoing global turbulence than the Commodity Futures Modernization Act (CFMA) of 2000.

    Following the repeal of Glass-Steagall and under continued pressure from Wall Street and reactionary senators like Phil Gramm, Clinton established the 1999 “President’s Working Group on Financial Markets,” chaired by Lawrence Summers, Alan Greenspan, Arthur Levitt and William Rainer. Summers’ and Greenspan’s reputations as Wall Street hatchet men precede them; Levitt went on to advise the Carlyle Group and Goldman Sachs; and Rainer – who replaced the courageous, ousted Commodity Futures Trading Corp. chair Brooksley Born – went on to found a derivatives exchange and several investment funds.

    The CFMA proposed a series of “modernizations” (deregulations) of derivatives coinciding with the emergence of computerized “flash trading” capabilities that allowed Wall Street to steal untold billions from the productive sectors of the economy. Notoriously, it allowed for the creation and black-market trading of many synthetic derivatives, under the so-called “Enron Loophole.” Soon insurance companies, pension funds and other investors previously confined to stocks and bonds were involved in oil and food futures, credit default swaps, mortgage backed securities, and other forms of volatile speculation that wrecked many of these funds and led to the events of 2008.

    http://tarpley.net/not-the-lesser-of-two-evils-why-hillary-clinton-is-unfit-for-the-presidency/

    • cbeard April 15, 2015 at 11:29 am #

      Ronald Reagan and his deregulation of banking is a major factor in current economic problems. Why no mention of that?

  58. FincaInTheMountains April 14, 2015 at 6:41 am #

    Hillary Clinton — The International Neocon Warmonger

    As the National Journal reported in 2014, even the pathetically weak anti-war left is not ready to reconcile with Hillary given her warmongering as Secretary of State. And with good reason. Scratching just lightly beneath the surface of Hillary Clinton’s career reveals the empirical evidence of her historic support for aggressive interventions around the globe.

    Beginning with Africa, Hillary defended the 1998 cruise missile strike on the El Shifa pharmaceutical plant in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum, destroying the largest producer of cheap medications for treating malaria and tuberculosis and provided over 60% of available medicine in Sudan.

    Libyan leader Moammar Qaddafi was murdered in the aftermath of the 2011 NATO bombing of Libya; an attack promoted and facilitated with the eager support of Mrs. Clinton. In an infamous CBS news interview, said regarding this international crime: “We came, we saw, he died.” As Time magazine pointed out in 2011, the administration understood removing Qaddafi from power would allow the terrorist cells active in Libya to run rampant in the vacuum left behind. Just last month the New York Times reported that Libya has indeed become a terrorist safe haven and failed state— conducive for exporting radicals through “ratlines” to the conflict against Assad in Syria.

    Hillary made prompt use of the ratlines for conflicts in the Middle East. In the summer of 2012, Clinton privately worked with then CIA director and subversive bonapartist David Petraeus on a proposal for providing arms and training to death squads to be used to topple Syria just as in Libya. This proposal was ultimately struck down by Obama, reported the New York Times in 2013, but constituted one of the earliest attempts at open military support for the Syrian death squads.

    Her voting record on intervening in Afghanistan and Iraq is well known and she also has consistently called for attacking Iran. She even told Fareed Zakaria the State Department was involved “behind the scenes” in Iran’s failed 2009 Green Revolution. More recently in Foreign Policy magazine David Rothkopf wrote on the subject of the Lausanne nuclear accord, predicting a “snap-back” in policy by the winner of the 2016 election to the foreign policy in place since the 1980s. The title of this article? “Hillary Clinton is the Real Iran Snap-Back.” This makes Hillary the prime suspect for a return to the madcap Iranian policies that routinely threaten the world with a World War 3 scenario.

    Hillary Clinton is not only actively aggressing against Africa and the Middle East. She was one of the loudest proponents against her husband’s hesitancy over the bombing of Kosovo, telling Lucina Frank: “I urged him to bomb,” even if it was a unilateral action.

    Not content with engaging in debacles in Eastern Europe, she has vocally argued for a more aggressive response to what she called the “rollback of democratic development and economic openness in parts of Latin America.” This indicates her willingness to allow the continuation of CIA sponsored efforts at South American destabilization in the countries of Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Argentina and Brazil.
    http://tarpley.net/not-the-lesser-of-two-evils-why-hillary-clinton-is-unfit-for-the-presidency/

    • BackRowHeckler April 14, 2015 at 4:26 pm #

      Hey Fincain, how do you think up all this sh-t up, and how do you have time to do any farming?

      At last it aint that eastern religious mystic BS Asoka was laying on us a few years ago. I can’t stand that crap.

      brh

  59. Pucker April 14, 2015 at 7:20 am #

    Hillary said: “Americans have fought their way back from tough economic times.”

    Hillary’s just whistle’n Dixie!

  60. fodase April 14, 2015 at 8:22 am #

    Yep, let’s talk about hillary endlessly, as if that’s important and going to change anything for you. what rubes.
    —————– —————— —————–

    Blah blah blah. Yes, magic unicorns are going to spout infinite quantities of magic unicorn shit to power us into the infinite future. And USA-based humans will be kings and queens of the universe, which they will rule uncontested forever and ever amen!

    The magic unicorns are already powering us in the present, how can you argue in the face of Spain getting up to HALF of all its electricity from solar + wind.

    And there are constant increases in efficiency+cost that will push this to much higher levels….just as these efficiencies and cost decreases have pushed Spain to the 47% it achieved in 2014.

    Australians are using magic unicorn power (the sun, DA) on millions of rooftops, so much so that electricity demand has FALLEN 13% in the past 4 years.

    Put that into your “we can’t go on with infinite growth” model.

    Your modus operandi is busted, your models are all wrong, entire countries are comfortably reaching tipping points in favour of solar+wind+alt energy and displacing reliance on fossil fuels, viz. Australia’s stellar success.

    I know you can’t see it, DA, because you’re busy trying to be cute with your remarks.

    Weak one-liners do nothing to void the reality that the world is increasingly powering itself with unlimited energy supplies, viz. Spain, Germany, Denmark, Australia, Iceland, New Zealand (80%) and a host of others.

    You will be denying this reality while being whisked around in a self-driving car, powering your laptop with the sun, and using self-recreating non-polluting energy to power your lifestyle.

    Even Kunstler has abandoned his central tenet of energy collapse….he never even mentions it anymore.

    But hold the banner of doomsday high, seeing dinosaurs such as CFNers gives you a refreshing reminder of how we’ve come and how bright our present/future is.

    Spain getting 35% of its electricity from WIND as we speak:

    https://demanda.ree.es/eolicaEng.html

    Haha, too easy to show you girlies up as wrong on all counts…

    Nevertheless….

    We salute you as we soar, high, high above your 19th century visions of cataclysm & enter a golden epoch of untold free energy & opportunity for those who embrace mankind’s ineluctible progress on all fronts.

    fodase

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    • Janos Skorenzy April 14, 2015 at 1:56 pm #

      Can you destroy matter at a distance? You’re going to need such a demat gun to fight the Terminators. At some point your machines are going to start seeing us as some kind of biological infection, much like mold perhaps.

  61. fodase April 14, 2015 at 10:03 am #

    The BRICS/SCO-aligned nations are perfectly okay at this point to let the rest of the dollar’s reserve-status disintegrate.

    why is the disintegrating dollar at 12-year highs?

    • MisterDarling April 14, 2015 at 8:41 pm #

      “why is the disintegrating dollar at 12-year highs?”-fodase/sock…

      The dollar-index jumping from the 0.80-ish (where it was for years) 0.99 is not a good thing… And this is in addition to all the other downsides pointed out by even Jamie Dimon at this point (he’s trying to preserve some credibility).

      For instance, if you plan to “export your way out” of a recession, do you want your currency trading high or low? This is why central bank chieftains try to ‘jawbone’ their currency values down…

      But I don’t actually have time to educate you about this sockster, and I don’t respect your propaganda project. SO, why don’t you see yourself back to the kids table and STFU?

  62. Janos Skorenzy April 14, 2015 at 1:58 pm #

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3038621/More-2-MILLION-Hillary-Clinton-s-Twitter-followers-fake-never-tweet.html

    The only thing real about her is her bitchiness.

    • malthuss April 14, 2015 at 3:07 pm #

      A book about her, ‘Hell To Pay’, by the late Barbara Olson.

      • BackRowHeckler April 14, 2015 at 4:34 pm #

        That old bag aint going to be president. Think about it. Imagine Martha Washington running for president in 1815, or Julia Grant running for president in 1892. An elderly Eleanor Roosevelt on the ballot in 1956 against Ike. (“My uncle and Husband were president”) Its worse than ridiculous. Its pathetic. In fact this whole f-ckin place is pathetic.

        brh

  63. volodya April 14, 2015 at 3:22 pm #

    Mr. Darling, It is possible for there to be a “creeps” dividend where the old order passes and people can breathe a sigh of relief.

    But new orders inevitably take shape. Power hates a vacuum as they say.

    One scenario that was talked about on the Archdruid’s site a while back is where authority gets taken from an existing power structure (like the Imperial Roman government in Rome) and redistributed, maybe by means of force, to new and more local institutions or people. And you can never discount that never to be under-estimated factor in human affairs, necessity. Yeah, I know, there’s that other never to be under-estimated factor in human affairs, stupidity.

    Anyway, the old bosses get the boots, the new bosses set up shop and,as the Archdruid said, it’s ok. Why? Because the new bosses (barons, dukes, call them what you want) deliver much the same governing services at a much lower cost. Or, as you put it, a dividend of sorts. So, good-bye Roman Governor, hello Teuton or Slav or Hun Chieftain.

    That, I think, is an optimistic but not implausible scenario. After all, in wide areas of the former Roman territory this is what happened.

    We’ve seen existing orders collapse in history and others take their place. Britannia no longer rules the waves, the British Pound is no longer the world currency. Instead, for generations now, the reserve currency has been the US dollar. American fleets sail where the mighty Royal Navy once sailed.

    But this wasn’t uncontested. The United States didn’t have the run of the place. Much of the world was under the heel of the USSR. And let’s not forget China. And the world had a choice and a lot of time to compare.

    But, in the fullness of time, the USSR collapsed and new centers of power took its place. Not entirely without mayhem as we’ve seen in the last 25 years.

    So, as is inevitable, the pages of history turn and American power dwindles and expires. But what will take its place? For better? Or for worse?

    For certain parts of the world the passing of the US won’t be lamented. For all their apparent magnanimity, I can’t believe the Vietnamese won’t say good bloody riddance. Same with the Afghans and Iraqis.

    But what about the Poles and Czechs and others once behind the Iron Curtain. I wonder what they’ll say. When the USSR went bye-bye, they were the ones sighing with relief. If not for a ruinous arms race with the US, how much longer would the Soviets have ruled?

    While I don’t discount the possibility or likelihood of things working better without the American military schmucking around or Wall Street interests blowing things up, there’s many scenarios that can play out. For example, in the few decades just prior to the Great War, nobody knew how the system of European alliances would solidify or even IF they would solidify. While war looked likely and some looked forward to the prospect to clarify matters and sort things out, there weren’t a whole lot of people that foresaw the sheer magnitude of the calamity.

    The point is we don’t know what’s ahead. It may all work out. But judging by past history I wouldn’t bet all my money on it.

  64. daofirry April 14, 2015 at 3:24 pm #

    I just wanted to say, I happened to see the scary movie It Follows this week. I was reminded of a post you did here on July 22, 2013, called Requiem for Detroit. Apparently the director grew up in the suburbs of Detroit, so, I guess he probably filmed it there largely for that reason. But, the miserable wreckage of that once-proud city and its environs is truly an apt setting for a horror movie. It really made me sad to see it. There were burnt out, boarded up houses all over the place, and abandoned buildings, and parking lots with weeds and flowers growing up through cracks in the asphalt… welcome to the future, America.

    • malthuss April 15, 2015 at 4:27 pm #

      welcome to the future, America.
      Detroit is kept going by taxpayers.
      Are you saying the tax base will completely erode?

  65. wpa_ccc April 14, 2015 at 4:21 pm #

    I am disappointed by the name calling (“reptile”) and lack of discussion of positions on real issues like: immigration, minimum wage, carbon tax, TPP, climate change, militarism, feminism, income inequality, etc.

    None of the current candidates share my posiiton on all those issues. So compromise is necessary… because I will not stay away from the ballot box. Too many have fought and died for the right to vote.

    If it comes down to Bush v. Clinton, I will vote for Clinton.

    In the 90s there was a Clinton in the White House and I remember we had peace, prosperity, and balanced budgets. Clinton was good for the country.

    I would not mind having Bill back in the White House. Two for the price of one vote.

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    • BackRowHeckler April 14, 2015 at 4:36 pm #

      “I like Big Butts,
      I cannot Lie …”

    • BackRowHeckler April 14, 2015 at 4:45 pm #

      Dude I Cant get a handle on you. You dont piss me off like you do P2C, but I’m curious, are you here just to bust balls or what? What’s your deal? A contrarian? A true lefty? You sound a little too sincere to be a true lefty. My take is you don’t have a lot to do and putting us on is a hobby of yours, a way to pass the time.

      brh

      • Janos Skorenzy April 15, 2015 at 4:25 am #

        If you understood my post above, then you should be ready to consider an alternative to Capitalism, namely an authentic American National Socialism a la Lindbergh, Coughlin, Taft, Huey Long, etc. There is no alternative to the Third Way. Both the others have failed as have their combinations. The Third Way is the higher third that resolves their contradictions. An apex not merely a midpoint.

        In other words, Capitalism is only conducive to freedom and liberty in its early and mid-stages. In its fully blown Corporate form, it is anything but – as America has begun to show. People thought it would bring freedom to China, but zilch.

  66. wpa_ccc April 14, 2015 at 4:53 pm #

    brh, what part of peace, prosperity, and balanced budgets did you not like? When was the last time a Republican in the White House balanced a budget?

  67. FincaInTheMountains April 14, 2015 at 6:25 pm #

    “brh, what part of peace, prosperity, and balanced budgets did you not like? When was the last time a Republican in the White House balanced a budget?”

    Very few of us realized during the “booming 90s” that all it was thanks to Soviet Block Cold War reparations bestowed on the West after 1991 Soviet defeat. There is an opinion that EU currency union was formed to better manage the flow of reparations.

    The largest share went to Wall Street bankers, but the US middle class enjoyed a brief time of “prosperity” as well. US ruling class could have made a much better use of all that wealth, such opportunities happen once in a blue moon.

  68. wpa_ccc April 14, 2015 at 6:55 pm #

    Finca: “…it was thanks to Soviet Block Cold War reparations…”

    Point of Fact: Clinton served as president during the longest boom in U.S. history. Clinton saw a gain of nearly 21 million jobs during his tenure (January 1993 – January 2001).

    Clinton’s major contribution was pushing through the 1993 budget bill, which began to reduce what had become a chronic string of federal deficits.

    Republicans denounced it as the “largest tax increase in history,” though in fact it was not a record and also contained some cuts in projected spending.

    Republican Rep. Newt Gingrich predicted: “The tax increase will kill jobs and lead to a recession, and the recession will force people off of work and onto unemployment and will actually increase the deficit.”

    But just the opposite happened. Fears of inflation waned and interest rates fell, making money cheaper to borrow for homes, cars and investment. What had been a slow economic recovery turned into a roaring boom, bringing in so much unanticipated tax revenue from rising incomes and stock-market gains that the government actually was running record surpluses by the time Clinton left office.

    Clinton can also be given credit for reappointing Alan Greenspan as head of the Federal Reserve, where the economist was widely credited with a masterly performance in handling interest rates. This was an unusual move for a Democratic president, as Greenspan is a libertarian Republican who had been a close economic adviser to Republican Presidents Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan.

    The Soviet Union deserves no credit for Clinton’s “booming 90s.”

  69. ozone April 14, 2015 at 6:59 pm #

    Finca,
    Not only does Tarpley make an extensive case for leaving Rodham out of the political picture, David Stockman takes the time and space to make his as well:

    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-04-14/hillary-has-betrayed-all-was-right-about-baby-boomers-david-stockman-blasts

    Holy Hell, Hill… lotsa folks already have your number before you even begin the Crusade of Big Lies!

    For the rest of us, I suggest popcorn and beer; it’s gonna be a real [expensive] spectacle alrighty…

  70. fodase April 14, 2015 at 7:16 pm #

    At some point your machines are going to start seeing us as some kind of biological infection, much like mold perhaps

    This is way, way off, but wholly plausible.

    I think implantable control will get here first.

    Just my worthless two cents.

    Re hillary, i’ll save everyone their spittle and sum up:

    shes old, shes great, shes a democrat, shell win, she wont win, she deserves it, shes a woman and deserves it (fuck you if you think that, you are a moron), i want bill back in the white house too, shes a hanger on non pareil, she ascended on the back of bill.

    WHO GIVES A DAMN

    worthless inkspilling

    you make your life better or worse by your own actions. can you name a president that sorely affected your life for the worse? your actual living conditions and welfare?

    very telling how this energy blog has devolved into useless headrattling over something as insignificant as that tired old hag hillary

    guess kunstler’s backto thepast ruse has been shown for the errant nonsense it is.

    yeah, this is a rant.

    it sure is nice, though, to see all the technofantasy progress nicely solving the world’s so-called energy decline.

    science has made short work of the doomsdayers, who’ve been on the losing end of the bet since at least john of patmos.

    Nevertheless, we salute you as we vault high above your plebian ruminations and roar into the gilded age of cornucopia.

    fodase

    fodase

    fodase

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  71. wpa_ccc April 14, 2015 at 7:38 pm #

    “worthless inkspilling” — fodase

    Correct. Goddamn waste of electrons and bandwidth.

    fodase fodase fodase

  72. FincaInTheMountains April 14, 2015 at 7:55 pm #

    Nearly three weeks have passed since the outbreak of hostilities in Yemen, but the US government made no attempt to evacuate its citizens from the conflict zone. According to representatives of the US State Department the attitude of US Government can be told in one sentence: “every man for himself”.

    In this situation the help for people in need came from the Russian Embassy. In addition to compatriots, Russian diplomats helped to evacuate 18 US citizens free of charge.

  73. nsa April 14, 2015 at 8:28 pm #

    WPAss and Doppleganger Fodass,
    Your beloved wind blades murder 100,000s of raptors annually….but you don’t give a shit as long as you have cheap clean power to run your gay porn movies and wall powered industrial grade vibrators. The wind turbine is now the #1 killer of Calif Condors. No one can get an accurate count of the carnage because predators do a thorough job of cleaning up below. And you cunts wont even have to worry when you are reincarnated….as you both will come back as starlings….or maybe just stinkbugs.

  74. MikeMoskos April 14, 2015 at 9:08 pm #

    I can’t believe I’m the first to mention it, but James Webb is considering running against Billary.

    Check him out on the web, but he’s a military author (and apparently beloved by the military), 2 purple hearts, was Reagan’s navy secretary, and appears to be genuinely interested in giving he poor/middle class a shot at success. In the highly unlikely event he gets the nomination, the debates with the Repub nominee will be priceless.

    Of course, always vote 3rd Party.

    • Janos Skorenzy April 15, 2015 at 4:20 am #

      Yes he wrote a good book about the Scots-Irish too. But of course he signed the National Defense Authorization Act like a good little boy. In the last analysis, he’ll do what he’s told.

  75. Pucker April 14, 2015 at 11:48 pm #

    Happy Tax Day!

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  76. Pucker April 15, 2015 at 12:47 am #

    US citizens who reside in the US Virgin Islands enjoy a 3% tax rate.

  77. Pucker April 15, 2015 at 12:58 am #

    By 2020, the interest on the US national debt will exceed the US defense budget.

  78. Pucker April 15, 2015 at 1:08 am #

    Many young people in the US want to get government jobs because of the high pay and benefits, and no Obamacare.

  79. wpa_ccc April 15, 2015 at 1:16 am #

    Everybody seems so concerned about the “middle class” (without defining it)

    Will any candidate make a public commitment to make extreme poverty a thing of the past through changes in public policy, and to facilitate a balanced relationship between labor and capital to achieve just distribution of wealth?

    http://fightfor15.org/april15/

    • Pucker April 15, 2015 at 2:38 am #

      “…to achieve a just distribution of wealth?”

      What is your definition of “Justice”?

  80. Pucker April 15, 2015 at 2:55 am #

    Archibald’s on K Street, Washington, DC.

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  81. BackRowHeckler April 15, 2015 at 6:54 am #

    Is Hillary still on the agenda, or what? Or is everybody sick of the subject already?

    She’s leading the fight on wage inequality, here’s how.

    Last year she showed up at UCONN, sharing the podium with the lady campus police chief (salary $250,000 per year) and lady university President (salary $900,000 per year, plus 2 mansions, a full time staff including a driver on call and a security detail). Duration of speech: 20 minutes. Text of speech: “You go, girl”. Renumeration: $300,000.

    That’s how she’s bridging the wage gap, apparently.

    Of course the sh-tsuckers and lefty asskissers in the local corporate media thought the whole singular event was wonderful, falling all over themselves to praise it.

    brh

    • ozone April 15, 2015 at 9:16 am #

      BRH,
      Oh, we’re good and sick of Hillary already, but we’re not sick of discussing how the sausage gets made. 😉

      Here’s a little slice. To whom does Rodham owe both her soul and the lifestyle to which she’s become accustomed?

      http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-04-08/hillary-clintons-interactive-web-money

      http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-02-21/hillary-clinton-exposed-how-she-aggressively-lobbied-mega-corporations-secretary-sta

      Hardly a populist hero, I’d say.
      If only ‘the folks’ had done their due diligence with Obama, some might have gotten a clue as to whose agenda was going to be served once ensconced in the Ovoid Office. (I sure don’t think the health insurance ‘industry’ execs [ET. AL] are weeping in their martinis, do you?)

    • AKlein April 15, 2015 at 10:27 am #

      In a way, BRH, you’ve got the situation nailed. Characters like Hillary are really bit players. They are nobodies, but they are well-positioned to grift. The loot they are able to legally extract from the system, though a whole lot larger than what you or I have access to, does not make them any more “in charge” than we are. Do they own or control the engines of production? No. Their riches merely allow them to be Hedonists. They do not build, they are parasites. My advice; ignore Hillary and the rest of her political ilk. They are distractions aided and abetted by our real handlers.
      I’ll look to Janos to explain this dynamic more fully. I know he understands the gambit better than I, and can articulate it in a suitably disruptive manner. G-d knows the explanation needs to be disruptive. Discussing Hillary is a gigantic waste of time.

      Now, about that farce, the election. Does anybody expect Hillary to win in the era of Miley Cyrus, Britney Spears, Lady Gaga et al? These are the females who represent a large sector of the electorate. Forget what we think of Hillary. What do they think?

    • beantownbill. April 15, 2015 at 11:54 am #

      Social justice disappeared a long, long time ago. Actually, there was never American social justice. The Internet just has brought it into the limelight by allowing the alternative media to thrive.

      Dumb Sports figures making $20 million per year, A-listers getting $15-$20 million per lousy picture and banksters given multi-million dollar bonuses as their holding companies fail while the average worker must struggle to get a dollar per hour raise, shows how twisted our country has become.

      Case in point: A low-life, multi-tatted, paranoid, drug-addled gangbanger is given a $40 million contract by a supposedly shrewd billionaire team owner, and then said person goes out and kills either one or three people and shoots another one in the face causing him to lose an eye.

      Case in point #2: A TV network allows a prime-time program (the Following) to be shown which not only glorifies violence, but rather the most extreme, sick violence, in which maniacs kill hundreds of innocent victims (in this week’s episode, there’s a very gruesome scene in which a dead victim lies on a table missing his arm, while the killer – the latest ultra-violent perpetrator –

      • beantownbill. April 15, 2015 at 12:02 pm #

        To continue: … Perpetrator – shoves the amputated arm into a grinder stating that this is the part he loves best, all of which is shown on the screen. A respected actor, Kevin Bacon, is the lead in the show. The only possible reason he’d take this job is for the money. Meanwhile, 15 year old boys watch this show on their iPads
        up in their bedrooms or on the tv when their parents are away. And people wonder why there’s so much violence in America.

        • Janos Skorenzy April 15, 2015 at 2:11 pm #

          Is this a criticism of the Jews who run Hollywood? Or are you still officially denying that they do?

          A possible justification (don’t know for sure): Bacon lost everything to Bernie Madoff. I never heard if he got any restitution. I’d say he would be eager to take anything that got him back into the big time. He hasn’t had any big roles in a long time, that I know of anyway. But I don’t follow it that closely.

  82. BackRowHeckler April 15, 2015 at 7:06 am #

    Also, I’d be remiss not to wish you CFNers Happy Tax Day!

    I’m one of these suckers who keeps on working when I don’t even have to anymore, just because I like having a job to go to.

    Tens of millions on welfare, at the top and at the bottom, are counting on my labor, not to mention billions in the 3rd world eager to somehow arrive on these utopian shores and score for themselves the coveted EBT card, which will put them on the road to nirvana.

    brh

    • stelmosfire April 15, 2015 at 12:26 pm #

      Not for me Marlin, I got a 6 month extention ;0). On another note, these criminal masterminds from New Britain are either dead or in custody, Keep your CT. crime home and out of my neck of the woods!
      http://wwlp.com/2015/04/15/third-suspect-in-w-spfld-home-break-in-still-missing/

    • AKlein April 15, 2015 at 12:49 pm #

      BRH, the reason you go to work even though you do not need to is because you need to be relevant – somewhere, somehow. And that is exactly what the endgame of our handlers is; to deny all of us relevance, especially any of our own choosing. Ultimately, that is the real definition of freedom. The ability to choose our own basis of relevance.

      • Janos Skorenzy April 15, 2015 at 2:46 pm #

        True. Could people handle not having to work? The Elite have said no, only they can not work. Maybe they are right by and large – unfortunately. BRH either wants to fit in or he doesn’t know what to do with himself without “work”. And yes, self image is big part of both problems.

        The people specialized in order to meet the needs of industrialism, losing their communities and connection to the Earth ultimately. Then the Elite sent the jobs overseas or brought in aliens to do the work cheaper. So much for the sacrifice of the people. And the Elite will give the jobs to robots once that is cheaper – leaving the aliens impoverished and with nothing to do. It is all wrong, and it was from the very beginning. An utterly false principle to base society upon. And we wont stop it until it reaches its hideous endpoint. Because the Elite don’t want all these useless eaters around using their resources. Their next step is depopulation – and that means war if humanity wants to live.

        Once I saw a “bum” interviewed. He was on the side of the road with a Looking for Work sign. He was asked if he would paint a house. He said sure. Then he was asked if he could do that, why was he out there like that. The bum said, “Do the same thing every day? Are you crazy?” Some people do find their fulfillment thru their profession, but many do not. Most just want to get riches or power – or just the means of survival. And thus we specialize, becoming more and more like insects instead of being men.

        • BackRowHeckler April 15, 2015 at 6:03 pm #

          You say some pretty interesting things, Janos, I have to admit.

          Al Klein, Janos,

          I’m only working a 4 day day week now, actually 4 mornings because its graveyard shift. Mostly its to get the hell out of the house during these brutal winters. You climb the goddam walls hanging around here every day. Right now I can’t go south due to family obligations.

          One morning in late Feb. I as driving home from the plant in Torrington and it was -21d. We’ve had relatives visiting here from southern Spain who lasted only 3 days in this and couldn’t take anymore, the grey leaden sky, the piles of dirty snow, no sunlight, sleet. and bitter cold.

          Why my ancestors settled here from England to begin with I’ll never understand. I Know some went to Barbados instead.

          Headed west later in the year, hopefully a better climate, more amenable to human habitation.

          brh

          • Janos Skorenzy April 16, 2015 at 12:53 am #

            Oh so you did buy the ranch in New Mexico. Hope you aren’t putting yourself behind enemy lines. The mountains may still be alright.

  83. Q. Shtik April 15, 2015 at 1:44 pm #

    Some financial theater today out of Europe…a young woman leaped up onto the table where the ECB’s version of Bernanke/Yellen – i.e. Mario Draghi – was speaking and “glitter bombed” him. Not sure what her beef was (I keep the sound muted) but I think she was accusing him of creating a “bond bubble.”

    Security jumped her and I saw one hand get a partial grope of the girls T-shirted left breast. There is always a sex angle…even in high finance.

  84. wpa_ccc April 15, 2015 at 2:54 pm #

    brh: “At last it aint that eastern religious mystic BS Asoka was laying on us a few years ago. I can’t stand that crap.”

    I agree, brh. Things are much calmer on CFN these days.

    Those pissing contests between Asoka and others were insufferable. And the sheer volume!

    I remember Asoka used to post like 50 or more posts every day, trying to break 1,000 posts or some such nonsense.

    Thank God Asoka is gone, along with his mystical crap. I also don’t miss Spider and his hyperbole of exaggeration: trillions bizzillions of skyscrapers on Mars or some such nonsense!

    • sprawlcapital April 15, 2015 at 11:15 pm #

      Hyperbole of exaggeration is redundant. Like saying “over-exaggeration”.

  85. Janos Skorenzy April 15, 2015 at 3:30 pm #

    http://www.infowars.com/gay-man-starts-id-bottom-for-hillary-campaign/

    How much longer, Oh Lord? Wilt thou not deliver thy people? Hold not back thy immortal hand but lift it over dark sea and withered land. Pour down thy wrath over the cities of plain. Spare none but thy beloved servants.

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  86. wpa_ccc April 15, 2015 at 3:49 pm #

    Janos: “…Oh Lord? Wilt thou not deliver thy people? Hold not back thy immortal hand…”

    Religion is not going to save us, Janos. Your Christian bullshit is no better than that mystical crap Asoka used to post 40 times a day and 40 times at night. That dude never slept. Asoka contained multitudes alright, multitudes of bullshit.

    Janos, wilt thou please go back to your usual National Socialism / fascism / racism? At least those are known quanitities subject to rational argument.

    • Janos Skorenzy April 15, 2015 at 4:02 pm #

      http://eaglerising.com/17284/pastor-calls-gay-bakers-now-theyd-like-the-fbi-to-get-involved/

      Can hypocrisy get any greater – either from you or the Gays?

    • EvelynV April 15, 2015 at 6:12 pm #

      @wpa_ccc

      There used to be another poster on this forum who attracted me to come here more often because I liked how and what he expressed on various matters. Your reference to Asoka says you’ve been here quite a while.

      By any chance did you used to post using the name “Bustin”?

      Yes or no, I have a collection of his(?) posts I’ve saved.

      • malthuss April 17, 2015 at 12:50 am #

        What was her or his ‘handle’?

        • Q. Shtik April 17, 2015 at 1:13 am #

          Bustin J

  87. Janos Skorenzy April 15, 2015 at 4:14 pm #

    http://www.ijreview.com/2015/04/296880-hillary-visits-college-see-everyday-iowans-students-locked-classrooms/

    Students locked inside classrooms in favor of a chosen few who get to meet Ms Big. Guess they weren’t everyday enough….

    Isn’t that illegal btw? Couldn’t this be the basis of a class action suit? To match Hill’s pants suit?

  88. MisterDarling April 15, 2015 at 6:06 pm #

    Meanwhile back in the trenches of Supply & Demand, consumer demand is looking soft…(and therefore the consumer sector, ie. >70% of non-fictional US economic activity).

    Refer to:

    http://www.abcactionnews.com/news/local-news/i-team-investigates/i-team-wal-mart-stores-that-were-suddenly-closed-for-plumbing-issues-havent-sought-permits

    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-04-15/why-walmart-mysteriously-shuttering-stores-nationwide-plumbing-issues

    Well, no surprise there. Walmart, McDonalds, Target, etc. had a horrible last year in same-store sales and revenues (poor old Radioshack finally met the ‘Windago’ out in the financial woods, & never returned). Mainly because their customers aren’t getting paid enough to consume the rubbish they sell… Considering their size and how much they push their supply-chains, that is saying something. [*]

    So, I’m seeing that we’re on track for 2nd-Stage Collapse: The Commercial Sector will not be saved or even made to look ‘viable’ by stock buybacks. They are too close to the financial ‘waterline’ for that. They need actual transactions in the tangible universe to survive.

    It’ll be interesting to see how those big-box buildings get repurposed.

    😉

    [*] It took a lot of chicanery to produce an year-end report that didn’t result in immediate dismissals at the top.

  89. MisterDarling April 15, 2015 at 6:26 pm #

    Hello Volodya,

    re | “But new orders inevitably take shape. Power hates a vacuum as they say.”-v.

    We agree. However, I strongly doubt that we’ll ever see the nearly ‘full-spectrum’ dominance of one or two players on a global scale in the foreseeable future. American Hegemony was built solidly on the back of Great Britain’s two-century imperial project, and was in many ways an extension of it.

    What comes next in this era of population and resource misallocation is something more chaotically pluralistic. Don’t expect it to be peace-love-‘n’-tranquility, but you might be in for a world where more is rationally negotiable. A place where wheeling/dealing is based on something buttressed by something else that looks like reality, instead of whatever our financial mandarins can get away with in the short-term.

    In other words, it could well be a (though ramshackle & suspect) real step in the right direction.

    In related news the ‘Bloomie’ offered up this tender little ditty for our consideration:

    http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-04-15/cheap-oil-s-winners-and-losers-in-one-giant-map

    And it makes one wonder what kind of a cool boom-time we’d be in right now IF Wall Street had been corrected and disciplined back in 2008, and IF and investment had been made in productive areas, instead of helping them extend & pretend right down to the end of the line.

    Wow! It really must be great to live in that parallel universe. They might not be geniuses and saints, but at least they have a grip on when enough is enough.

  90. wpa_ccc April 15, 2015 at 6:28 pm #

    “… to produce an year-end report …”

    to produce [a] year-end report

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  91. wpa_ccc April 15, 2015 at 6:47 pm #

    “By any chance did you used to post using the name “Bustin”?” –EvelynV

    No, it wasn’t me. But I do remember his posts.

  92. Pucker April 15, 2015 at 7:06 pm #

    “She’s Back” at Archibald’s on K Street, Washington, DC.

    http://archibalds.com/

    • Pucker April 15, 2015 at 7:10 pm #

      Do you hear that Hillary?! If you can find the White House, then you can find Archibald’s.

      “Welcome to Archibald’s

      Archibald’s Gentlemen’s Club is conveniently located on “K” Street in Washington, D.C. If you can find the White House then you can find Archibald’s. We offer our customers a full service bar and menu, while enjoying the erotic atmosphere of the best dancers in the nation’s capitol. Our goal is to offer an enjoyable experience in a D.C. Niteclub environment.”

  93. fodase April 15, 2015 at 10:26 pm #

    What comes next in this era of population and resource misallocation is something more chaotically pluralistic. Don’t expect it to be peace-love-‘n’-tranquility, but you might be in for a world where more is rationally negotiable. A place where wheeling/dealing is based on something buttressed by something else that looks like reality, instead of whatever our financial mandarins can get away with in the short-term. In other words, it could well be a (though ramshackle & suspect) real step in the right direction.

    I had to read that twice to figure out what the eff it means. It kinda makes sense, but is peppered by so much nebulousness that it deserves to be filed on pretentious fog.

    the trillion skyscraper guy was also spider9629, quote:
    “Also, the US debt is 10 trillion dollars, that would be equivalent to 1 billion future jobs paying 10,000 dollars a year. Is there that work available ? Is there that amount of labor necessary in any possible productive endeavor ? NO, NOT A CHANCE IN HELL, ESPECIALLY SINCE THE ECONOMIC SYSTEM IS TOTALLY HELL BENT ON AUTOMATING, OPTIMIZING AWAY AS MUCH WORK AS POSSIBLE, INCREASING “PRODUCTIVITY” (WHICH MEANS KILLING AS MANY JOBS AS POSSIBLE BY LETTING ONE GUY DO THE WORK OF AS MANY AS POSSIBLE), COMPETITION, INNOVATION (WHICH MEANS FINDING WAYS TO GET MORE PRODUCT AND MORE RESULTS WITH LESS EFFORT, THERE GOES OTHER THOUSANDS JOBS OUT OF THE WINDOW!).
    We need huge public-private projects such as millions of skyscrapers, rockets to mars, high speed trains, you name it and Free Salaries and Cheap Rents and Hobby Factories having Free Work. Or, alternatively, get rid of all computers and get millions of people back to doing everything by hand, writing all the contents of computers and databases by hand, by pen and paper, A huge paper based internet, kill automation and get people working.”

    lol, he was a riot, tainted by sanctimonious self-importance as if he were some sort of ‘philosopher’.

    i wish he’d come back.

    Those were/the/good old days….

    heres a link to him or her

    http://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/gaming_our_own_asses/

    He had a ’69’ moniker prior to his spyder incarnation, and later became bustin, methinks.

    guys & gals, we’ve all been out here together for a few years now, and the energy situation is getting markedly better, getting solved by advances in technology.

    can we all have a gettogether shindig and celebrate this success?

    … ……

    …..

    …….
    …….

    ………

    …………..

    ……..

    ……..

    didnt think so.

    maybe me and wpa_ccc, and if i can geolocate Asoka i’ll drag his carcass in as well, he’s prolly covered with mud from his hut.

    i miss trippticket.

    And that completes my final report until we reach touchdown. We’re now on full automatic, in the hands of the computers. I have tucked my crew in for the long sleep and I’ll be joining them soon. In less than an hour, we’ll finish our sixth month out of Cape Kennedy. Six months in deep space – by our time, that is. According to Dr. Haslein’s theory of time, in a vehicle travelling nearly the speed of light, the Earth has aged nearly 700 years since we left it, while we’ve aged hardly at all. Maybe so. This much is probably true – the men who sent us on this journey are long since dead and gone. You who are reading me now are a different breed – I hope a better one. I leave the 20th century with no regrets. But one more thing – if anybody’s listening, that is. Nothing scientific. It’s purely personal. But seen from out here everything seems different. Time bends. Space is boundless. It squashes a man’s ego. I feel lonely. That’s about it. Tell me, though. Does man, that marvel of the universe, that glorious paradox who sent me to the stars, still make war against his brother? Keep his neighbor’s children starving?

    fodase

  94. Pucker April 15, 2015 at 11:31 pm #

    “…a family’s identity is closely linked to its shares values.”

    I wonder what the “shared values” of the Clinton family are, apart from “shared” bodily fluids?

    • sprawlcapital April 15, 2015 at 11:55 pm #

      Hillary, as you all know, was here in Iowa today. But as usual no real issues were discussed.

      No mention was made of the fact that Des Moines, the state’s capital, has no passenger rail service. No discussion of how industrial agriculture has destroyed family farming, while making our water unfit to drink. Or of how the powers that be enthusiastically celebrate growth that paves over the farmland that’s left.

      Then there are the caucuses themselves, which are basically a dysfunctional primary election. Participate in a caucus and you will get done in several hours what should take five minutes, but you won’t be sure your vote even counted.

      The only nice thing about the caucuses is that we get to introduce party platform resolutions. Good luck ever finding out if your resolution makes it through the various conventions into the final platform.

      Confusion and lack of transparency make a caucus another of the dysfunctional systems that Americans seem to crave. The Electoral College is another, of course.

  95. Pucker April 15, 2015 at 11:46 pm #

    Didn’t that Scientology guru, Ron Hubbard, once surreptitiously visit the Clinton White House?

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    • saharasergei April 16, 2015 at 11:47 am #

      L. Ron Hubbard couldn’t have visited the White House in the Clinton years. He died in 1986.

  96. sprawlcapital April 16, 2015 at 12:13 am #

    Out in the garden last night planting carrots, lettuce, and radishes, I overhead a small child in the neighbors’ yard talking. I was disappointed to hear her speaking the LIke-Like dialect. (Thank you, JHK, for introducing this term to us.) But I suppose it’s to be expected: her parents, very nice 20 or 30-somethings, speak Like-Like too.

    At the institution of higher learning where I work, LIke-Like has become a plague. There are only a few of us older people who can speak an English sentence without improper use of the word “like”.

    Since much of human thought takes place in words, as the ability to speak is diminished, so too will be the ability to think. Clearly, this is already happening,

    • sprawlcapital April 16, 2015 at 7:45 am #

      Everyone needs a proofreader. That should be overheard.

  97. Pucker April 16, 2015 at 12:18 am #

    The Clinton Family Values Statement: “Full Spectrum Dominance”.

  98. Pucker April 16, 2015 at 1:34 am #

    I read a book once entitled “Off the Rails in Cambodia” written by a young American college grad who was teaching English in Cambodia at the time of the military coup in 1996. In the book, he describes an English bloke whose self-described purpose in life was “to screw every thing that moves.” That bloke should run for a seat in the US Congress.

  99. Pucker April 16, 2015 at 3:10 am #

    Hillary’s Vision for America: To divide every American by getting each American to adamantly pursue his/her individual freedom (however bizarre and irresponsible their behavior may be), then Americans as a whole will thereby become less free.

    • DA April 16, 2015 at 8:48 am #

      Americans are already about as captured as they can possibly be by delusions of their own omnipotence. It’s a powerful myth, but utterly false.

  100. Pucker April 16, 2015 at 3:26 am #

    Hillary’s campaign will be “based on diversity, discipline and humbleness.”

    What-the-Hell does that mean?!

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    • BackRowHeckler April 16, 2015 at 6:58 am #

      It doesn’t mean anything, and that’s the whole point.

      Its just something cooked up by her agit/prop dept. If it doesn’t seem to be working they’ll come up with something else, just as deceitful and just as detached from reality.

      brh

    • elysianfield April 16, 2015 at 5:46 pm #

      It means that her bevy of tasseled-loafer-wearing, Penthouse-living, Ivy- league-going, white-bread-being policy wonks thought that this bit of drivel would endear the bitch to the troubled masses. And with a cynicism of Biblical proportion…she approved of this message.

  101. sprawlcapital April 16, 2015 at 7:48 am #

    I hope everyone by now has watched the trailer for Rodan, the movie.

  102. DA April 16, 2015 at 8:57 am #

    Once again, it appears that Greer was addressing wpa personally this week [Just another thing the capitalist west is famous for. Externalizing its huge costs (burying its bodies) elsewhere, so that it can proclaim its huge benefits were “free” and somehow “natural,” which, when aligned with an evangelical Christian religious philosophy, strongly implies Divine and/or Special Providence. ]:

    This is the basis for what I’ve called the externality trap. As technologies get more complex, that complexity allows more of their costs to be externalized—that is to say, pushed onto someone other than the makers or users of the technology. The pressures of a market economy guarantee that those economic actors who externalize more of their costs will prosper at the expense of those who externalize less. The costs thus externalized, though, don’t go away; they get passed from hand to hand like hot potatoes and finally pile up in the whole systems—the economy, the society, the biosphere itself—that have no voice in economic decisions, but are essential to the prosperity and survival of every economic actor, and sooner or later those whole systems will break down under the burden. Unlimited technological progress in a market economy thus guarantees the economic, social, and/or environmental destruction of the society that fosters it.

    The externality trap isn’t just a theoretical possibility. It’s an everyday reality, especially but not only in the United States and other industrial societies. There are plenty of forces driving the rising spiral of economic, social, and environmental disruption that’s shaking the industrial world right down to its foundations, but among the most important is precisely the unacknowledged impact of externalized costs on the whole systems that support the industrial economy. It’s fashionable these days to insist that increasing technological complexity and integration will somehow tame that rising spiral of crisis, but the externality trap suggests that exactly the opposite is the case—that the more complex and integrated technologies become, the more externalities they will generate. It’s precisely because technological complexity makes it easy to ignore externalized costs that progress becomes its own nemesis.

  103. fodase April 16, 2015 at 9:40 am #

    Unlimited technological progress in a market economy thus guarantees the economic, social, and/or environmental destruction of the society that fosters it.

    wrong. the US has been technologically progressing since 1976 and hasn’t destroyed its environment or its society. the US’ environment has improved since the 1960s along with technological advances & before all manufacturing was outsourced (which is a myth btw, tons left in the US).

    greer is one of those ubergooks who love to ruminate all day but have little experience in the real world.

    like most CFNers out here, who know more about foreign policy, politics, energy, you name it, than folks who live and breathe those things for a living and know the ‘real’ realities.

    science is handily solving our most pressing problems, the enormous examples are there just go look for them.

    fodase

  104. wpa_ccc April 16, 2015 at 11:33 am #

    Exactly, fodase. What these guys like greer forget, with their “guarantees… of environmental destruction,” is that human beings are rational. Human beings are capable of planning.

    Take deforestation… please (apologies to Henny Youngman). When we became aware of deforestation in the United State we took rational action to preserve forest resources. Here are the results:

    “Historical trends indicate that the standing inventory (the volume of growing stock) of hardwood and softwood tree species in US forests has grown by 49 percent between 1953 and 2006.”

    http://www.safnet.org/publications/americanforests/stateofamericasforests.pdf

    Gee! Our forest resources have grown! Not been destroyed, as greer says was “guaranteed”… All it takes is critical thinking to solve problems.

  105. fodase April 16, 2015 at 12:32 pm #

    Gee! Our forest resources have grown! Not been destroyed, as greer says was “guaranteed”… All it takes is critical thinking to solve problems.

    yeah it’s very tyring hearing this shrill nonsense about “it’s mathematically guaranteed/impossible” to issue dollars for XX years because each dollar is lent out at more than 100% of its face value blah blah blah

    “we are like bacteria, which replicate and then drown in their own excrement. there is no way to avoid this, it is the fate of humanity, a huge die-off blah blah blah….”

    just the opposite is happening, if you look at the hard evidence. population velocity has fallen dramatically in most of the world, etc.
    there’s been no hyperinflation, or was that massive deflation?

    you can all thank technology for the wonderful progress that’s taking place, those thingys that kunstler derides as technofantasy, even while he soars high, high above you all (but doesn’t salute you) in his fancypants jets and heralds the End of Petroleum Endtymes.

    I think he flew over the 100 billion barrel discovery in the UK the other day while writing about $40/bbl oil crushing the oil industry…or was that $200/bbl oil crushing ‘what’s left’ of the US economy…

    HAHAAAHAHAAH, i love this ‘energy’ blog WOOHOOOOHAHAHAAHAHAA it’s a riot

    Spain using the WIND to produce 24% of all its electrical power as we speak…..

    https://demanda.ree.es/eolicaEng.html

    Denmark using WIND + the setting SUN to produce 84%!!!!! of all electrical power being produced there, as we speak.

    http://energinet.dk/Flash/Forside/UK/index.html

    argue with that, CFNers, we’re all waiting to hear WHY an ENTIRE COUNTRY of 6 million SMART PEOPLE is WRONG on SOLAR and WIND power.

    Please keep your disses to 20 words or less, as you usually do.

    JHK is noticeably, and apparently forever silent on these damning successes.

    fodase

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    • DA April 17, 2015 at 10:30 pm #

      You guys have quite the little sewing circle, don’t you? Idiots!

  106. volodya April 16, 2015 at 12:55 pm #

    Mr. Darling, neat map with the winners and losers from cheap oil.

    We’ve had really cheap oil in fits and starts. Like in the 1980s and the 1990s. In the late 90s oil was around 10 bucks a barrel. It didn’t last. These things never do.

    Seems that what we’ve had recently is central bank policy deliberately trying to prevent a restructuring of economies to a sustainable state.

    So, in the Euro area, they’ve had banks actually paying people to borrow. That is, negative interest rates. Imagine that. There’s not enough indebtedness. No, we need to pile it higher.

    You have some guys out there shouting that cash ought to be abolished. This is so that people don’t try to circumvent negative interest rate policies.

    This is all lunacy of course. This is what comes from a world with an unsustainable global, but regionally based, mismatch between production and consumption.

    Two ways to alleviate this mismatch. One is to move production to where consumption happens. That is move factories to America to employ and pay workers to produce the goods they buy.

    The second is to move consumption to where production happens. That is pay workers in China more so they can buy the goods they produce.

    This mismatch is one of the big factors at the root of our troubles.

    Since both of the alternatives involves paying rank and file workers more, either in China or in America, and therefore hitting oligarch bottom lines, neither will ever happen.

    So, in the end, the oligarchs will sink the economy. How it all shakes out is the question. Well, with the diminishment of US power in the world, we have a partial answer.

    Obama makes speeches, Obama threatens, the cut-throats um… keep cutting cut throats. Do they look afraid to you? The Iranians can barely keep a straight face during these farcical nuclear “negotiations”. Do THEY look worried?

    With the collapse of the USSR coming out of the past collapse of oil prices we have a rough sketch for what happens when hegemons go bust. How long will it take before modern day Russia throws in the towel?

    And so, as I suppose we ought to have expected, central banks are huffing and puffing mightily, trying all manner of distraction and sleight of hand and smoke and mirror tricks to delay the inevitable, to buy time, to hope for a miracle.

    Having been educated in the school of the real world, you’ve no doubt noticed that miracles are in short supply.

  107. FincaInTheMountains April 16, 2015 at 2:52 pm #

    Rosatom began the construction of Turkey’s first nuclear power plant, which will produce one-third of the required country’s electricity. This will allow Ankara to save $ 14 billion a year on fuel imports. The Russian company will not only build the station, but also serve it, which will allow to earn income after construction.

    Construction of the station is worth $20 billion, Russia will own it when it is finished. This will allow in 15 years to recapture the investment. And for 65 – generate revenue in the budget.
    http://www.vesti.ru/doc.html?id=2507599&cid=6

  108. Buck Stud April 16, 2015 at 3:11 pm #

    Hold your samurai sword,Toshiro Mifune; maybe Japan is not quite ready to ‘go medieval’:

    “By 2018, Japan will be the biggest market for fuel-cell vehicles, with 4,200 cars on the road, almost double the figure for the U.S., according to BNEF researcher Claire Curry.”

    http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-04-16/big-oil-is-about-to-lose-control-of-the-auto-industry

    • Q. Shtik April 16, 2015 at 3:43 pm #

      Isn’t 4200 cars a proverbial drop in the ocean?

  109. FincaInTheMountains April 16, 2015 at 3:15 pm #

    British bookmakers will not longer accept bets on whether Greece will remain in the euro zone or not, as the optimists with the money ran out.

    Germany is preparing a “plan of action” in the event of a default by Greece.

    http://www.zeit.de/wirtschaft/2015-04/griechenland-euro-staatsbankrott-bundesregierung-plan

    • Q. Shtik April 16, 2015 at 3:55 pm #

      I wish Greece would leave the Euro Zone but I don’t think it will.

      Interestingly CNBC’s lead correspondent on matters international, Michele Caruso Cabrera, reported that 85% of Greeks polled said they wanted to remain in the Euro but, BUT, approximately 100% of Greeks do NOT want to repay Germany what they owe them. How does one reconcile this??

      I have no idea but I’m betting $5.00 that Greek will still be part of the Euro this time next year.

      • Q. Shtik April 16, 2015 at 4:00 pm #

        Greece will still be…

      • BackRowHeckler April 17, 2015 at 7:25 am #

        I think you’re right Q. The Euro is here to stay. Eventually Germany will absorb the losses incurred by Greece and chalk it up to war reparations from WW2.

  110. wpa_ccc April 16, 2015 at 4:24 pm #

    Q: “Isn’t 4200 cars a proverbial drop in the ocean?”

    You are missing the point, Q. (probably intentionally)

    The first hybrid Toyota Prius was released in Japan in 1997. Now more than 30% of Japan’s new cars sold are hybrids. Japan has the world’s highest hybrid market penetration.

    When hybrids were first sold in Japan they were also a small percentage of the market (a “drop in the bucket”), just like these first hydrogen cars. That will change as Japan continues to advance.

    How many hydrogen-powered cars were there in all the countries of the world in medieval times? Zero. In medieval times there were not even wooden carts powered by hydrogen. Japan, with hybrid and hydrogen-powered cars (however few or however many), is a country whose technology is advancing beyond dependence on fossil fuels.

    Japan is definitely not going medieval, as JHK insists. This is just one more false prediction for the gullible sycophants on CFN. If you believe JHK, you should take all your money out of the stock market, because the DOW is headed for 4,000… according to JHK.

    Unless you don’t mind losing your worthless paper money (Federal Reserve Notes. legal tender, what some here call fiat money). Though the “fiat” paper dollar is pretty strong right now.

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  111. wpa_ccc April 16, 2015 at 5:31 pm #

    wpa-ccc: ” to facilitate a balanced relationship between labor and capital to achieve just distribution of wealth?”

    Pucker: “What is your definition of justice?”

    Pucker, I should have use the word “more” before “balanced” and “just”.

    More balanced and more just means instead of a 300 to 1 ratio between CEO compensation and worker compensation, a more just rate would be less than a 300 to 1 ration.

    Did you read what CEO Dan Price in Seattle just did? He mandated a minimus annual wage of $70,000 for every employee in his company. Some employees saw a doubling of their salary overnight. Then, the CEO voluntarily lowered his own salary from $1,000,000 to $70,000. That is an example of making the relationship between labor and capital owner more just.

    http://www.king5.com/story/money/2015/04/14/seattle-company-70000-minimum-wage/25761421/

    • Pucker April 17, 2015 at 12:41 am #

      So your definition of “Justice” is “Equal”?

      That’s a Communist definition of Justice.

      Under our system, “Justice” means “Equality before the Law.”

      Under our system, “Justice” does not mean that every person is equal in his/her material circumstances.

      My fear is that many people in the US now want Communism.

  112. fodase April 16, 2015 at 8:30 pm #

    How many hydrogen-powered cars were there in all the countries of the world in medieval times? Zero. In medieval times there were not even wooden carts powered by hydrogen. Japan, with hybrid and hydrogen-powered cars (however few or however many), is a country whose technology is advancing beyond dependence on fossil fuels.
    Japan is definitely not going medieval, as JHK insists. This is just one more false prediction for the gullible sycophants on CFN. If you believe JHK, you should take all your money out of the stock market, because the DOW is headed for 4,000… according to JHK.
    Unless you don’t mind losing your worthless paper money (Federal Reserve Notes. legal tender, what some here call fiat money). Though the “fiat” paper dollar is pretty strong right now.

    Three superb paragraphs bro, tag i’m it, go rest in the corner and distract the ref.

    Notice no one out here has a rebuttal to my question re Denmark, which was getting a drop in the buck 84% of all its power generation from wind and solar (even though it was later afternoon there and the sun was setting!) a few hours ago.

    Not even the high priest himself JHK can explain how this can be.

    Denmark laffs at JHK, medieval Japan scoffs at JHK’s harebrained future diagnoses, Germany and Australia comfortably ignore him while generating massive GwH of solar, wind, biomass, hydro and other alt energy power.

    even JHK’s lilliputian acolytes are pallid in the face of incontrovertible repudiation of their energy descent nonsense.

    many of them will throw in the towel once they begin running a large portion of their existences on clean renewable energy and in the face of ever larger petroleum gluts, massive increases in energy efficiency from smart-metering technology…

    fodase

    • DA April 17, 2015 at 9:51 pm #

      Denmark is a drop in the bucket size of the US, both geographically and population wise. It’s also an entirely different culture with entirely different energy requirements/constraints. No reply was needed.

  113. Janos Skorenzy April 17, 2015 at 12:09 am #

    The Civil War isn’t over. I’m not sure that’s something you Southerners can understand.

    http://www.dailystormer.com/long-live-the-west-people-in-maine-lashing-out-against-the-somalian-invasion/

    • BackRowHeckler April 17, 2015 at 7:03 am #

      Expect about 100,000 Syrian refugees to arrive here within the next 2 years.

      How many people can fit within the borders of the United States? Not to admit the entire 3rd world — all 5 billion of them — is racist and nativist. The trick is to move $$$ from the Dept. of Defense into HUD, so as to take care of everybody.

      The Navy and Air force can be put to work bring them in from all points, Asia, Latin America, and above all, Africa. At least 50,000 could be loaded onto one aircraft carrier, maybe 5000 on a single C-47. Sure they’d be packed tight; but at the end of the rainbow would be citizenship papers, SNAP cards and section 8 housing vouchers, making it all worthwhile. Think how good we will feel about ourselves afterward.

      brh

      brh

      • DA April 17, 2015 at 9:48 pm #

        Would it make you feel better if they lived somewhere else and we paid for them anyway? What’s with the preoccupation with geographical borders?

  114. wpa_ccc April 17, 2015 at 1:53 am #

    “My fear is that many people in the US now want Communism.” — Pucker

    A more equal distribution of wealth is better for our survival than a giant wealth gap where some starve while others hoard more riches than they can use.

    Did you not read what the employees are going to do now that they have a guaranteed minimum income of $70,000? They are going to buy a house, start a family, pay for an education… these are the things that make the economy work, and make lives better for all… as opposed a few hoarding the money in the Cayman Islands.

    Lose your fear, Pucker.

    • Pucker April 17, 2015 at 4:16 am #

      Capital is free now to go wherever it wants while labor can’t.

      Besides, no employer is going to hire someone with a bad attitude, or who always says “Gimme, Gimme, Gimme!”

      You’re just whistle’n Dixie!

  115. wpa_ccc April 17, 2015 at 2:13 am #

    The TPP contains an “Investor-State Dispute Settlement,” or ISDS, that would tilt the playing field in the United States further in favor of big multinational corporations. Worse, it would undermine U.S. sovereignty.

    Obama and the Republicans are united in favor of TPP.

    Elizabeth Warren and the Democrats are opposed to TPP.

    Some are contacting their representatives to let them know a vote for TPP will mean a campaign against their re-election.

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  116. wpa_ccc April 17, 2015 at 2:37 am #

    More about Hillary Rodham Clinton:

    She was a high-school Young Republican and “Goldwater Girl” in 1964.
    She grew up in Park Ridge, Ill., a Republican suburb of Chicago, and describes her father, Hugh Rodham Jr., as a “rock-ribbed, up-by-your-bootstraps, conservative Republican and proud of it”. Her 9th-grade history teacher was also a very conservative Republican who encouraged her to read Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater’s 1960 book, “Conscience of a Conservative,” which inspired Clinton to write a term paper on the American conservative movement.

    Hillary is really a conservative, a sleeper agent, who now has been activted, as a supposed Democratic candidate, as part of the great right-wing conspiracy she has criticized… as a way of disguising that she is at the heart of the conspiracy.

    Hillary is set to take over the Democratic Party, the White House, and the federal government… for the conservatives. Her candidacy is an expression of going back to her true conservative nature, developed from her roots as a Young Republican and “Goldwater Girl”.

    • Janos Skorenzy April 17, 2015 at 5:11 am #

      That just indicates she never had any real morals or beliefs except ones of convenience. She believes in Hillary and by extension, more power for her Elite class. Thus she’s a perfect Alinskyite Satanist.

      • DA April 17, 2015 at 10:06 pm #

        That just indicates she never had any real morals or beliefs except ones of convenience. She believes in Hillary and by extension, more power for her Elite class.

        See there? You actually ARE smart!

        Thus she’s a perfect Alinskyite Satanist.

        WTF? There you go off the rails again.

  117. FincaInTheMountains April 17, 2015 at 6:49 am #

    Ukraine at the mercy of death squads

    In the past two days in Ukraine four iconic murders were committed. Wednesday was killed a former deputy of Regions, leader of the “All-Ukrainian Union of Officers” Oleg Kalashnikov. On Thursday killed journalist Sergei Sukhobok, one of the founders of Internet projects ProUA and “regional committee”. On the same day in the courtyard of his house was shot a former chief editor of the leading Ukrainian newspaper “Today”, a well-known Ukrainian journalist Oles Buzina, also in the apartment was found with signs of violent death, the chief editor of “Netishinsky Bulletin” Olga Moroz.

    And in the end of what is happening in Kiev in parallel to these processes, but that is much more horrible, because this one threatens to go unpunished.

    Two days ago the US military in Kiev committed gang rape of two Ukrainian girls. One child had turned thirteen, the second girl – not yet. Two of the criminals, pedophiles are employees of private military companies, and two others – from the US Army. The latter belong to the personal staff Lieutenant General Hodges in Wiesbaden.

    Police managed to identify dangerous pedophiles and attempted to conduct their detention in the restaurant on the Vladimir Street. However arrived SBU ordered police to disband – they referred to the full diplomatic immunity, American Private Military in Ukraine is also protected from prosecution. The names of two military: Major Jonathan Shtrelzik and Colonel Walter Brodie.

    http://www.regnum.ru/news/polit/1916232.html

  118. BackRowHeckler April 17, 2015 at 7:17 am #

    Financial Times of London published a lengthy interview with Ray Kurzweil a few weeks ago. Jim wrote about Ray in one of his books. He is supposed to be some sort of genius; we’ve seen many trendy geniuses before. Ray Kurzweil expects to live 1000 years by hooking himself up to a computer. Only problem is Ray is getting up there in age and looks like he could kick the bucket any day, a stroke, a heart attack, cancer, or getting run over by a car like Jerry Rubin. Also he doesn’t seem to take into account our rickety power generating system which can — and most likely will — go down at any time. The telephone poles on my street holding up the power lines were erected in 1956! How much longer can they last. What’s going to happen when Ray’s computer isn’t getting any more juice? Or 50 years from now when somebody in charge of paying his electric bill decides its time to cut costs. No, I think Ray Kurzweil will turn up in the NYT obits one of these days, another visionary like Timothy Leary or Ken Kesey eating dirt and pushing up daisies.

    brh

    • beantownbill. April 17, 2015 at 11:57 am #

      Ray is indeed a little over-the-top, but he is quite bright. The last I heard, his plan was to eat a zillion vitamin and other supplements every day, live right and stay healthy long enough for science to advance enough to be able to download his consciousness into a computer and live forever. I would guess he knows about the impending great improvements in battery storage so he’s not too concerned about the electricity going off.

      Marlin, if we don’t kill ourselves off first – which won’t happen, I believe – and assuming you stay healthy for awhile longer, you’re not going to believe the miracles and changes advancing technologies will bring to our civilization, despite what the naysayers state. I lived through the 1950’s, and when I bother to compare how things are now with back then, I’ve seen great changes already. The near future will bring even greater change, as progress seems to be exponential, not linear.

      That’s not to say we won’t have great troubles and billions won’t suffer, but we will get through the bad times if we have them. To me it is just as rational to think we’ll have a happy ending as it is to think our civilization will go down in flames, because the future is unknown, so why be negative and bring a lot of fear and unhappiness to yourself? Just learn how to deal with change.

  119. BackRowHeckler April 17, 2015 at 8:02 am #

    Kurzweil had a lot to say about our bright techno-future, (Sky’s the limit!) but I think I get a clearer picture of our future from my non-cable, over the air TV news program this morning, 3 apartment houses burned out overnight in what looks to be another arson fire, 70 people left homeless (where will they go?) Hispanic and Black people pouring out into the dismal streets, mostly women and kids, firemen pouring water into 4 story apartment houses built in the 20s for workers when Hartford was an industrial powerhouse, flames shooting out, black smoke rising, the whole miserable scene reported over and over every day, not only here but all across the US.

    How do you like it now, Gentlemen?

    brh

    • beantownbill. April 17, 2015 at 12:02 pm #

      It’s that damn change thing again!

      • BackRowHeckler April 17, 2015 at 1:47 pm #

        Good points Bill. Thanks for responding.

        I see today in Boston the parents of Martin Richard, the 9 year old killed 2 years ago, came out against the death penalty for the man convicted of murdering him. These are gracious people — compare that to the parents of the murderer, who blamed the US for everything that went down.

        brh

        • malthuss April 17, 2015 at 4:35 pm #

          USA vs ME?
          Christianity vs Islam?

          I only read ‘Yahoo news’ headlines – something about ‘spare us another trial’.

          When the Big One starts, I dont see kindness as a virtue.

  120. wpa_ccc April 17, 2015 at 9:59 am #

    /sarcasm off

    Hillary is in Iowa talking about corn, commodities, access to capital, overregulation, and how the system is stacked in favor of the rich….

    Hillary is talking to ordinary folks, with sincerity, truthfulness, and directnesss… instead of courting billionaires. What other candidate is sitting down around small tables listening to normal working people who are facing poverty and experiencing the consequences of wealth inequality?

    Hillary knows there are more of us than there are of billionaires. We have the votes. I will not vote for the interests of billionaires… but I will register multicultis like cray cray.

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    • BackRowHeckler April 17, 2015 at 11:45 am #

      Billionaires?

      The Clintons have $500 million in the bank.

      WTF are you talking about?

      brh

  121. BackRowHeckler April 17, 2015 at 11:42 am #

    Evidently as far as her public appearances go when she talks to the ‘little people’, the whole goddam thing is staged.

    • beantownbill. April 17, 2015 at 12:12 pm #

      Hillary is a venal character, as well as her slimy, sex-addled husband, Slick Willie. That is not to say I dislike him (he seems to be charming, but she Is kind of shrill). By definition, anyone desirous of the presidency is not to be trusted. I want a candidate who is dragged screaming into the race, metaphorically speaking. And owes no group anything. Yeah, I know I’m dreaming.

  122. progress4what April 17, 2015 at 12:07 pm #

    Thanks for the week’s work, JHK. It is very good, as usual. I’ve gotta’ share this, and it actually even fits the week’s topic.

    “Dear Reader,

    There were 27 students in my third-grade class. I remember that number for one reason. One day, the teacher set up a kind of arch and told us all to form a line around the outside of the room. She told us to say aloud, in sequence, the sevens, eights, and nines of the times tables as we passed through the arch. Then, after reciting our multiplicative product, we would circle the room to go through the arch again.

    It was widely accepted at the time (and probably still is) that all students should memorize the multiplication tables through 9 x 9. The teacher assured us that each time we walked through the arch, our sequential product would be different, thus helping us learn the entire table.

    So the first student walked under the arch and said, “Seven times one is seven.” The second would say “Seven times two is fourteen.” You get the picture. After my first pass through the mathematical portal, it dawned on me that this exercise wouldn’t accomplish the teacher’s stated purpose. Each of the 27 students reciting the three times tables would always repeat the same product. The boy or girl who said “eight times five is forty” would always make the circuit and say “eight times five is forty” again.

    So when it came time for me to walk through the arch the second time, I asked her instead if she realized that each of the 27 students engaged in consecutively reciting the multiplication product would repeat him– or herself infinitely or until class was over.

    Honestly, I was just trying to help. The teacher’s expression, however, quickly morphed from a cheerful self-satisfied smile into the visage of absolute despair. She leaned into my face and demanded of me, “Why do you always have to ruin everything?”

    Prior to that moment, it had never occurred to me that I always ruined everything. In retrospect, I did realize I asked a lot of questions about our math lessons that she didn’t seem to have answers for, but I really wasn’t trying to ruin anything. It was then, for the first time, that I began to suspect that I related to mathematical concepts somewhat differently than others.

    I don’t think the incident made complete sense to me until just a few years ago, when John Mauldin and I had our genomes sequenced. More important, our genomes were analyzed by some of the best genomicists in the world.

    Turns out I have a number of genes common to people with highly developed math skills. This includes the “AA” allele of the ATOH7 gene, which is apparently ancestral to the Neanderthal. This allele is also common in people who suffer certain retinal disorders, which I’ve experienced, as well as a lack of social skills.

    Some people describing this lack of social skills use the word “autism,” and I do have markers for autism as well. I haven’t got anything against the word, but I’m not convinced that the tendency to see things analytically rather than emotionally should be considered a handicap. In fact, I personally feel that the people who dominate political policy discussions by virtue of their ability to appeal to emotion are handicapped by an apparent lack of basic mathematical and analytical skills. We see this in finance as well. Emotion-driven people don’t seem as capable of focusing on long-term trends. Usually, they’re traders at the whim of prevailing sentiment.”

    – source: http://www.mauldineconomics.com/tech/tech-digest/how-genetics-ruined-the-math-portal

    So – those of us with a logical approach to life, are constantly overwhelmed by the more emotionally, verbally, and socially “talented” types. Reference Hillary and Bill in US politics, reference WPA/CIA on this discussion thread, for examples.

    BeanTown and others – this partly explains why we always seem to be led by sociopaths whose strings are being pulled by other sociopaths. Fascinating.

    OK – I’m out ’till Sunday at the earliest. I do not have the genetic ability (patience?) to deal with this discussion format – with random posts splattered throughout the chronological order at random intervals and random times every week.

    I wish JHK would change it. It would only take a “Howdy” tweak.

    • beantownbill. April 17, 2015 at 12:17 pm #

      How about a logical person balanced by just enough emotion?

    • BackRowHeckler April 17, 2015 at 2:48 pm #

      Hey P2C why can’t you accept this comment section the way it stands? I don’t think Jim has a lot of time to worry about what goes on here. Trying to make a living as a writer crushes the best of them:

      Jack London, dead age 40

      Nathaniel West ” ” 37

      F Scott Fitzgerald ” ” 44

      George Orwell ” ” 47

      Frank Norris ” ” 30

      DH Lawrence ” ” 47

      TE Lawrence ” ” 45

      Jack Kerouac ” ” 47

      Malcolm Lowry ” ” 47

      Christopher Marlowe ” ” 25

      Delmor Schwartz ” ” 49

      Hart Crane ” ” 39

      Harry Crosby ” ” 31

      And that’s just off the top of my head. Its a rough way to make a living, that seems clear.

      brh

      • Q. Shtik April 17, 2015 at 4:16 pm #

        David Foster Wallace, 46, suicide

      • Janos Skorenzy April 17, 2015 at 6:39 pm #

        Maya Angelou: prostitute, madam, and plagiarist – at least by proxy. SHE lived to a ripe old age.

        Those who die young are beloved of the gods.

  123. Q. Shtik April 17, 2015 at 1:02 pm #

    This article strongly supports fodase’s solar argument:

    http://seekingalpha.com/article/3074596-increasing-positive-catalysts-for-the-solar-pv-industry?ifp=0

    There are obstacles (see para with that title) but they are not deemed insurmountable.

    The article also suggests an ETF with the symbol TAN as a way to play the solar trend in the market.

  124. MisterDarling April 17, 2015 at 2:30 pm #

    It Had To Happen:

    http://greece.greekreporter.com/2015/04/17/greece-and-russia-working-on-gas-pipeline-construction-agreement/

    Personally, I think it’s a little heartwarming to see Greece and Turkey on the same side of the line.

    New-New ‘World Order’, shapin’ up!

    😉

  125. MisterDarling April 17, 2015 at 2:37 pm #

    So, as every not-newbie CFN’er knows, there are members of the community that like to harsh on J H K because his predictions aren’t as bankable as they’d like them to be (or for some other reason)… I think that’s amusing, given the accuracy of the sanctioned Wall-Street forecasts;

    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-04-17/bofa-explains-why-optimistic-economist-forecasts-have-been-so-wrong-past-5-years

    Bank of America is a particularly interesting case – given the emptiness of their loan book, the depth of their legal settlement account and the phantom-ness of their creditors…

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  126. MisterDarling April 17, 2015 at 3:18 pm #

    Hello Volodya and Co.,

    “Having been educated in the school of the real world, you’ve no doubt noticed that miracles are in short supply.”-v.

    LOL… Well, I might put it this way: ‘that by definition *miracles* are more than 4-standard deviations beyond the mean’… So-ooo…. 😉

    [chuckle]

    Any-Who, in an abrupt change of subject I’d like to mention that I finished ‘Witch of Hebron’ recently (I prioritized ‘Too Much Magic’ over it). Here’s the thing: I find myself tweaking the ‘Union Grove’ scenario in various small ways – mainly having to do with logistics – and coming up with much different results.

    Here’s an example: Instead of a ‘Wayne Karp’ character stand-in for all that was wrong with the old civilization and unwilling to let go of it, WHAT IF an actual *pragmatic* trailer-park businessman had commandeered the town-dump/building-material resource center?

    With a couple of ‘hi-tech rednecks’ on staff the picture changes radically: a feral pack of kids on bicycles – doing courier jobs and patching potholes with sacks of primitive cement, a 2-1/2 ton army truck [*] doing weekly supply/trading runs to the neighboring towns, and three or more pubs in the village handling the increase in trade and migrating labor (plough-men and actual ‘pickers’ at harvest-time)… In other words, a non-lame village. Bottom-line is that these are no-brainer solutions I’ve seen working in the real-world (Eastern Europe and Central America), with the personal bonus to the author of allowing draft-animals to also be part of the picture.

    By The Way; I’d hate for anyone to get the idea that I am *at all* against renewable energy technologies. But I am skeptical of saving the financialized global economy with their implementation at this late date. That being said, they help attenuate the shock of losing the energy grid (this has already happened out in the global hinterlands).

    [*] I know for a fact that these trucks can be kept running for fifty years, so can 50cc Honda scooters for that matter – “the most produced motor vehicle on the planet”.

  127. wpa_ccc April 17, 2015 at 6:03 pm #

    “But I am skeptical of saving the financialized global economy with their implementation at this late date. That being said, they help attenuate the shock of losing the energy grid” –Mister Darling

    MD, internationally, governments provide at least $775 billion to perhaps $1 trillion annually in subsidies to the oil industry. That is annually!

    If that $1 Trillion was devoted to alternatives, there would be much more than simple “attenuation of the shock” … we could make a soft landing on the other side of fossil fuel dependence.

    • DA April 17, 2015 at 9:07 pm #

      That of course presumes that there is a “soft landing” on the other side of fossil fuel dependence for 7B+ people for any amount of money, doesn’t it? And I hate to break to you – yet again – there sugar breeches, but there isn’t.

  128. Janos Skorenzy April 17, 2015 at 6:29 pm #

    Violence against Black immigrants by other Blacks. The Zulus, who lost to the Xhosa in the Civil Rights Movement, (the ANC is Xhosa dominated in South Africa) rage against the immigrants, desperately trying to keep their slice of the dwindling pie.

    Thus Da Free Everything’s view of the world is shown to be specious. Evidently all the “good” guys of the world aren’t going to unite to destroy Whitey and create paradise on Earth.

    http://www.amren.com/news/2015/04/south-africa-descends-towards-a-new-apartheid-immigrants-create-armed-gangs-and-patrol-the-streets/

    • DA April 17, 2015 at 9:09 pm #

      Good to see we’re still stuck on race, specifically whites vs. blacks. Good to know that some things never change.

      • Janos Skorenzy April 17, 2015 at 9:15 pm #

        As if you don’t talk about race all the time too! And now I have destroyed the basic premise of your existence.

        • DA April 17, 2015 at 9:23 pm #

          Of my very existence? Do expound! I’d love to hear this tale!

      • Janos Skorenzy April 17, 2015 at 9:17 pm #

        Plus this story is Black on Black. That’s the whole point. Your whole Whites as Evil trope is just an Italian Western.

        • DA April 17, 2015 at 9:41 pm #

          So now I should post a whole screed about white on white violence to counter you? Come on now Janos, even I never thought you’d post such juvenile shit as this.

          Let’s reduce this to simple terms, ok? Given enough survival pressure, aka “economic” pressure, humans will hate other humans and kill them if they can and it’s beneficial to do so.

          All of that rides on top of the fact that humans are descended not all that long ago from Apes, and just like them, are still quite tribal in their nature, the most primary distinguishing characteristic of which is visual, namely color.

          Add to that an only recently evolutionary developed brain capacity and ability to think, and we have people like you, and might I add, you’re black (people of color) counterparts.

          Yes, the white Northern European descendants such as you and I seem to have “won the intellectual war” so far, but at what price? Destroying the world on the basis of “white supremacy?”

          • Janos Skorenzy April 18, 2015 at 3:11 pm #

            No that’s my whole point: the World was evil to begin with – we didn’t make it so. Blacks have the power there now and they are killing not just us (which as a moral illiterate you approve of) but each other as well. Your vision of a happy united world sans Whites is the purest and more puerile fantasy imaginable.

  129. Pucker April 17, 2015 at 9:06 pm #

    From “Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis” it seems that many young lower class American white girls get knocked up as a way to get attention and to find meaning in their lives. Their boyfriends find meaning in taking care of them. It all becomes a tragic farce when the US economy goes tits such that they can’t find decent jobs to provide for their kids. But is it really the ruling class’s responsibility to re-create the American redneck paradise of the 1950’s?

    • DA April 17, 2015 at 9:21 pm #

      Not sure what your point was specifically, but generally, I think it’s in the ruling class’s interests (if it has any interests at all in the American “lesser classes”) to allow only exactly as much wealth and prosperity in the rest of American society as it takes to keep a lid on things. This philosophy is perfectly aligned with and no doubt spawned by whatever economic profit maximization scheme is ascendant at the moment in the various Ivy League Towers of Academic Babel. It also mirrors our rulers’ view of the rest of the world, which we, the lesser classes, are now becoming.

    • Janos Skorenzy April 18, 2015 at 3:13 pm #

      What else are they going to do? That’s how under-class girls (of all colors) become women and start “earning” money. Yet the official media portrays these little schemers are noble and betrayed single mothers.

  130. wpa_ccc April 17, 2015 at 9:46 pm #

    “Hillary’s campaign will be “based on diversity, discipline and humbleness.” What-the-Hell does that mean?!” — Pucker

    Pucker, have you ever tried to start a business that serves the public? You will soon confront diversity. You will need discipline to run the business. You get the idea. Hillary is starting something that requires those three characteristics. Conservatives should know about this.

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    • DA April 17, 2015 at 9:56 pm #

      Fucking please! Hillary’s campaign is based on whatever self-serving bullshit her marketing team throws against the wall actually sticks. Better to watch AMC’s Mad Men final season if you want actual “truth in advertising.”

      • DA April 17, 2015 at 10:03 pm #

        Christ! I’ve stumbled into it. Peggy on Mad Men grows up and becomes fucking Hillary! Even looks like the bitch! Off to post that on some Mad Men boards!

  131. Pucker April 17, 2015 at 10:04 pm #

    One impression that I get from reading the case histories of lower class white kids in “Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis” is that often the behavior of young white kids is disconnected from Reality. For example, they’re uniformly economically poor, but rather than delaying marriage or first improving their economic circumstances young white girls will often seek out economically deficient white males for casual serial relationships to get knocked up. There is something wrong with lower class white culture.

    • DA April 17, 2015 at 10:20 pm #

      Umm, there’s “something wrong” with all lower class culture in the US, don’t ya think? One, they’re poor in a land of plenty, where wealth and success is expected. And two, if “delaying marriage and improving their economic circumstances” is no longer a realistic/believable option but falling back on the welfare state, whether it’s US.gov or Mr. Right and/or his parents, is, then who can blame them for opting for door #2? Not like there’s a whole lot of higher order “thinking” going on at that age anyway.

      Personally, I don’t see lower class white culture being all that much different from when I came out of it 30 years ago. Other than the contrast to the rich of course.

  132. wpa_ccc April 17, 2015 at 10:27 pm #

    “Hillary is starting something that requires those three characteristics. Conservatives should know about this.” –wpa-ccc

    She’s back!

    The Young Republican Goldwater Girl… with her conservative values… is back! She is on board with the Congressional Republicans in support of TPP.

    In November 2012, the then-secretary of state declared that “we need to keep upping our game both bilaterally and with partners across the region through agreements like the Trans-Pacific Partnership or TPP.

    • DA April 17, 2015 at 10:48 pm #

      Well then! Another Young Republican by any other name; thank God for that! Another aging, conservative white bitch – albeit a “legacy pledge” – in a field filled chock full of conservative white dicks. Thank God for diversity then, I guess!

      The bitch will go down in flames riding on Obama’s back. Bank on it.

  133. wpa_ccc April 17, 2015 at 10:49 pm #

    March 2015 was Earth’s warmest March since global record keeping began in 1880, said NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) on Friday.

    At least Hillary does not deny global warming is real, and she is going to be our president for eight years. The GOP has nothing to offer. Chris Christie is polling behind Donald Trump. They are jokes.

    • DA April 17, 2015 at 11:28 pm #

      Well that’s certainly a warm endorsement!

  134. Pucker April 17, 2015 at 10:52 pm #

    Maybe the “Answer” is to feed all of the deranged lower class people with GMO foods in order to destroy their ability to think and to reproduce?

  135. wpa_ccc April 17, 2015 at 10:55 pm #

    “The bitch will go down in flames riding on Obama’s back.” — DA

    So you think Hillary will choose Michelle as her running mate. Interesting idea! A two-woman ticket. Or maybe Hillary will reach across party lines and choose someone like Susanna Martinez as VP? This may be a very unconventional race.

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    • DA April 17, 2015 at 11:11 pm #

      Not like two women of whatever party affiliation is going to change things much, although the marketing people would of course latch onto it as somehow “ground breaking.” But I doubt party ties would allow that to happen, regardless.

  136. wpa_ccc April 17, 2015 at 10:59 pm #

    Of course, according to DA, it will depend on whatever Hillary’s “marketing team throws against the wall actually sticks.”
    Could be an all woman ticket, or a Red-Blue ticket, or a Blue-Red ticket. Could be anything that markets well. Right, DA?

    • DA April 17, 2015 at 11:08 pm #

      Exactly right, WPA.

      • wpa_ccc April 17, 2015 at 11:15 pm #

        YES: “Exactly right, WPA.”

        NO: “But I doubt party ties would allow that to happen, regardless.”

        Flip. Flop.

        • DA April 17, 2015 at 11:26 pm #

          What? The fact that political party exigencies would override facts on the ground if need be? What alternative world are you living in nimrod? Could enough money possibly counter that under extreme circumstances? Possibly, but not likely. And said circumstances would also likely signal a major political realignment as well. Just sayin’.

  137. Pucker April 17, 2015 at 11:07 pm #

    In reading the case histories of lower class white kids in “Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis” one doesn’t get a sense that these are the kinds of people that one would want to have around, much less nurture. In fact, one might want to get rid of them akin to some kind of environmental toxic waste?

    • DA April 17, 2015 at 11:12 pm #

      So, what are you getting at? Spill it.

    • Janos Skorenzy April 18, 2015 at 3:17 pm #

      Now you’ve got his attention. He loves the idea of White Genocide. Spill the beans Puck. How do we get rid of lower class Whites? In truth, the welfare ones have no pride and just mix with the Blacks and Hispanics. It’s the Country ones who are the problem. We got to get Blacks out thar to breed em out. And then the big problem will be the ones who work and wont breed Black. Whatcha goin do bout them, eh?

  138. Pucker April 17, 2015 at 11:11 pm #

    In Hillary’s campaign video, there’s a single parent mother who declares that she wants to go back to school to get a better job. The video feeds the pathological disconnect from Reality in the society.

    • DA April 17, 2015 at 11:19 pm #

      Once again, what’s the point? You’re surprised that Hillary’s marketing campaign is pure bullshit based on infantile notions long since exposed as such? I’m surprised that anyone could still be surprised. Although, I will admit that Hillary certainly doesn’t have a lock on such bullshit. It seems to be endemic these days.

  139. Pucker April 17, 2015 at 11:15 pm #

    It’s not sane to expect that an uneducated, poor, single woman with no savings raising a baby alone to raise a kid, go to school, and make money to pay the bills at the same time. Totally insane.

    • DA April 17, 2015 at 11:20 pm #

      There you have it. A sage among fools.

  140. Pucker April 18, 2015 at 12:39 am #

    Hillary’s campaign video appears to represent a kind of American cultural implosion?

    Someone once defined “Culture” as the desire of people to associate together as a group.

    None of the “diverse” groups depicted in Hillary’s campaign video manifest a common core culture.

    And at the end of the campaign video appears Hillary who is very pale, white-as-a-sheet. She looks like a ghost.

    Creepy…..

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    • wpa_ccc April 18, 2015 at 1:35 am #

      “None of the “diverse” groups depicted in Hillary’s campaign video manifest a common core culture.”

      Pucker, if you do not understand their common core culture, then you do not understand America. Diversity is strength.

      • BackRowHeckler April 18, 2015 at 2:03 am #

        Last year you were shilling for Elizabeth Warren (aka Pocahantus), basically saying the same b-llshit you’re saying about Hillary now.

        • wpa_ccc April 18, 2015 at 2:50 am #

          Last year you were shilling for Elizabeth Warren (aka Pocahantus), basically saying the same b-llshit you’re saying about Hillary now.

          brh, I don’t remember saying that. I also take exception to your “bs” characterization.

          Elizabeth Warren is not running for president. Or has she announced while I was not looking?

          “Difference is of the essence of humanity. Difference is an accident of birth and it should therefore never be the source of hatred or conflict. The answer to difference is to respect it. Therein lies a most fundamental principle of peace: respect for diversity.” — John Hume

          “Diversity is the magic. It is the first manifestation, the first beginning of the differentiation of a thing and of simple identity. The greater the diversity, the greater the perfection.” ~ Thomas Berry

          “We are of course a nation of differences. Those differences don’t make us weak. They’re the source of our strength.” — Jimmy Carter

          • nsa April 18, 2015 at 7:11 am #

            “We honor diversity” is sick code language for “White male need not apply”……

          • Janos Skorenzy April 18, 2015 at 4:00 pm #

            Well said Wapo. The beauty of the universe lies in its infinite diversity. Thus Nationalism is seen its true light and glory. Just so keeping the different races alive and distinct. If only other Liberals could attain unto your height and depth! Such fools mourn the loss of a variety of apple or peach – even as they are indifferent to the loss of their own race, blood, and kind. Like unto Like must be our motto, mantra, and battle cry.

  141. Pucker April 18, 2015 at 8:33 am #

    For 150 years, each generation of young Americans’ standard of living surpassed their parents. This worked out for white trash girls who got knocked up since their white boyfriends would marry them in shotgun marriages and could find high paying jobs to support their families. But when the economic bubble popped and white girls didn’t change their behavior it made for a very tragic mess.

  142. ozone April 18, 2015 at 9:17 am #

    The perspective of Matt Carr, UK author and journalist:

    “…Nowhere in either of these two is there the slightest evidence of critical thinking, or any awareness that the policies they advocate might actually have produced even worse outcomes than the problems they were supposedly intended to solve. One of the reasons why Obama won the presidency and wrecked Clinton’s aspirations was because he was able to give the illusion of a radical departure from the rabid militarism of his predecessors.

    Neither Clinton nor Bush are offering any such illusions. And their endorsement of militarism isn’t just a personal quirk, the results of too much political inbreeding through all these years of dynastic continuity. Its worse than that. The hawk v. hawk competition that now beckons is a testament to an imperial consensus in Washington that is impervious to any evidence that contradicts its own assumptions, and which continues to believe like Madeleine Albright, that America is the ‘indispensable nation’, when it really isn’t.”

    Sorry Ladies and Gents, I think he’s got it just about right.
    I’ll be so bold as to propose that there will be no deviation from the course of Empire as laid out by those who either bribe or blackmail the world’s “leaders”… and no amount of blather about Technotopia or pitiful attenuation/amplification of cultural quackery will blunt the edge of this terrible blade that is coming for the clueless and collaborator alike.

    For the historical shake-up (already in explosive progress):

    “Fasten your seatbelts… it’s going to be a bumpy night.” — Bette Davis in, All About Eve

    • beantownbill. April 18, 2015 at 10:54 am #

      Please describe your vision of the future in more detail to me (us). I really want to know.

  143. beantownbill. April 18, 2015 at 11:12 am #

    One’s world-view and vision of the future really defines a person’s behavior and emotional demeanor. For me, the ability to adjust to whatever comes about is a survival trait. Not saying I have that ability.
    Personally, I need a good reason to get out of bed in the morning, so I kind of naturally have a positive outlook. Grubbing around in the dirt for insects to eat, or facing an endless existence of 18 hour days of intense labor just for subsistence is not a future I want to live in. Especially not when I’ve seen man walk on the moon (yeah, it really did happen). And, yes, I know the universe doesn’t care what I think or want, but I’ll continue on with my positive attitude anyway. As Victor Frankl said (and I paraphrase), you can take away everything from a man, except how he chooses to

    • beantownbill. April 18, 2015 at 11:13 am #

      Chooses to feel about his situation.

    • stelmosfire April 18, 2015 at 12:31 pm #

      Carry on, my friend. Make lemonade, I take this blog with a grain of salt. I am set to be small town. There are 93 ,000,000 peeps in the USA out of work. What are we to do?

      • beantownbill. April 18, 2015 at 2:33 pm #

        RT, you live in a great area. I think you’ll be fine – as long as you have enough ammo and can grow your own food. Me, on the other hand, well I’m not too far from the big city, so I’ll have to be careful and have good luck

  144. wpa_ccc April 18, 2015 at 11:27 am #

    “The hawk v. hawk competition that now beckons is a testament to an imperial consensus in Washington that is impervious to any evidence that contradicts its own assumptions, and which continues to believe like Madeleine Albright, that America is the ‘indispensable nation’, when it really isn’t.” — Ozone

    Ozone, isn’t this worship of militarism taking care of itself? And won’t it continue to do so, as events overtake the United States? Have you not noticed the trend already? We can’t even care for our veterans.

    Militarism is expensive. With the coming economic crash and the devaluation of the dollar, the United States will become a beggar nation (CFN says to think “Weimar Republic”) which cannot afford to pay its soldiers and build expensive armaments.

    We have spent ourselves into the poor house through profligate militarism, and now we are broken and bankrupt, morally and economically. It is time to pay the piper for our sins of militarism. We will be forced to do so and will not be able to pay for a military.

    No more military means no more empire, which means no more U.S. invasions, bombings, and occupations of countries around the world. The problem of our militarism is thereby solved by our own karma.

  145. FincaInTheMountains April 18, 2015 at 11:35 am #

    Learning From the Best: US Airborne Brigade Sent to Ukraine Has History of War Atrocities

    A veteran of the 173rd Airborne Brigade writes about what Ukraine can learn from his former unit

    A severed ear on a necklace and a bloody machete are depicted in the upper left hand corner of the billboard. They are not drawn to scale. Next to the ear is “Sorry ‘Bout That” which was G.I. slang used to mock the misfortunes of others. And below that is “All the Way Sir” which clearly signals that the depicted activity was sanctioned by the officers as was the erection of this billboard.

    I was a rifleman in the 173rd Airborne Brigade and in the second battalion and in “Charger” Company. I was there from about the Spring of 1965 to the Spring of 1966. I don’t remember seeing this billboard and even if I had I wouldn’t have thought it noteworthy at the time. We took ears and even a few heads. It was common and it was common knowledge that we did so at all levels of our brigade. And just for the record I bet ranking officers at brigade level also took ears.

    Do you recall the scene in the movie Apocalypse Now when the G.I.s rushed the stage with the playboy bunnies on it? Well, such an event actually did occur and it happened to the visiting playboy bunnies while I was with the 173rd. And the troubled officer Capt. Willard of the same movie is clearly identified as a 173rd veteran by the 173rd unit patch on his right shoulder.

    In addition to mutilating corpses we also burnt down houses — I Zippoed up a few myself. And we commonly shot livestock from chicken size up to waterbuffalo. Anecdotal evidence also credits a Vietnam-era 173rd paratrooper with the unofficial record number of ears on a necklace: 17. Also worthy of noting is the fact that many West Point graduates sought postings to the 173rd Airborne because its fierce reputation enhanced their promotion prospects. We were a showcase unit heavily infused with West Point officers. And what did we do? We started committing atrocities almost from the day we arrived in Vietnam on then bragged about it publicly via this billboard.

    Nowadays the 173rd has been sent to the Ukraine for the stated purpose of “training” Ukrainian troops. Gosh, I didn’t know that those Punisher battalions needed any instructions in mutilating bodies, torching homes, smashing property, popping stimulant pills and looting. Judging from the videos I’ve seen on Youtube those frisky Right Sector fellas are up to speed on all those activities.

    And last but still worthy of note to any Rooskies this is a “Jody Chant” that we aspiring paratroopers ran and marched to during paratrooper training at Ft. Benning, Georgia back in 1964:

    If I die on the Russian Front

    Bury me with a Russian cunt

    Pin my wings upon my chest

    And tell my mom I did my best

    http://russia-insider.com/en/us-airborne-brigade-sent-ukraine-openly-bragged-about-vietnam-atrocities/5812

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    • Q. Shtik April 19, 2015 at 12:07 am #

      If I die on the Russian Front

      Bury me with a Russian cunt

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

      Oh, how crass.

  146. MisterDarling April 18, 2015 at 1:55 pm #

    AND SO Russia gracefully, gently, respectfully and above all *l o v i n g l y* introduces it’s Blue Stream pipeline into Europe’s sweet southern flank, thus ending (in under a year) a gaggle of inept neocon attempts to get ‘on-top’ of the European situation.

    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-04-18/greek-white-knight-emerges-putin-give-athens-%E2%82%AC5-billion-advance-gas-pipeline-fees

    On the weekend that the 82nd Airborne troops arrive in Kiev on a “training” mission… Oh, what fun 🙂

    Concluding Remarks:

    “Russia (Gazprom) gives Greece money, which Greece uses to repay the IMF, which uses the Greek money to fund a loan to Kiev, which uses the IMF loan to pay Russia (Gazprom).”-ZH.

    “And so it goes” *indeed*.

    Cheers!

  147. fodase April 18, 2015 at 2:05 pm #

    That of course presumes that there is a “soft landing” on the other side of fossil fuel dependence for 7B+ people for any amount of money, doesn’t it? And I hate to break to you – yet again – there sugar breeches, but there isn’t.

    Yeah ok we’ll take your word for it then, since you have no proof to offer (as always).

    Make sure to call the millions of Australians fast approaching electrical independence from fossil-fuel based electricity generated by traditional utilities, and let them know they’re wrong.

    Then telephone Germany, Iceland, New Zealand, Denmark, California, Apple, Google, Spain, the DR et al and let them know they’re all wrong too to use clean renewable and increasingly low-cost solar, wind and other alternative energy.

    Make sure to tell them that DA says there’s no soft landing.

    The entire utilities sector worldwide is significantly threatened by alternative energy’s advances in affordability and efficiency.

    It’s so easy out-arguing you girlies, when facts are used.

    the WIND is generating approx. 30% of all electricity being produced in Spain as wel speak.

    https://demanda.ree.es/eolicaEng.html

    We don’t need your stinkin’ non-soft landing, we have the reality of technology on our side.

    Think I’ll plug in my electric car, power my laptop, turn on the LED lights in my house that use 75% less electricity, run my AC, brew some coffee, run the vac, watch TV, listen to the radio, all using clean, renewable, fossil-fuel saving wind and solar electricity.

    You can keep your petroleum, we’re needing less and less of it.

    fodase

  148. Janos Skorenzy April 18, 2015 at 3:23 pm #

    A Tree grows in Brooklyn. A Giraffe named Marius dies in Denmark – needlessly. Sad. His Nazi handlers said that his genes were not needed for the program. Jews feel threatened! – especially since Denmark has forbidden them their beloved Kosher/Halal slaughter. Obviously a Holocaust is brewing….

    http://www.counter-currents.com/2015/04/a-giraffe-dies-in-denmark/

    • malthuss April 19, 2015 at 10:26 am #

      ‘Jews feel threatened!’ ???

      • Janos Skorenzy April 19, 2015 at 4:13 pm #

        The use of the exclamation mark mid sentence is perfectly fine. Indeed we must use the mark far more than we do. Indignation must not be restrained, nor excitement. The Life Force is dead in most people. If you can’t even get excited, why bother talking about the Kundalini?

        • Q. Shtik April 19, 2015 at 5:01 pm #

          Kundalini

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

          For those too lazy to Google it, the Kundalini is the female sexual organ. In slang it was shortened to Kund and then, for reasons lost in antiquity the K became a C and the d became a t. Language is constantly evolving. ;o)

  149. FincaInTheMountains April 18, 2015 at 3:51 pm #

    “You can keep your petroleum, we’re needing less and less of it.”

    Every sixth light bulb / sixth house in America gets its energy from Russian Uranium

  150. FincaInTheMountains April 18, 2015 at 4:34 pm #

    Russia in 1995 – 2013 years processed 500 tons of weapons-grade uranium-235 into nuclear fuel and sold it the US for just $17 billion as part of “Megatons to Megawatts” program. One ton of weapons-grade uranium-235 releases as much energy as 100 million tons of oil.
    Consequently, 500 tons of weapons-grade uranium-235 produces the same amount of energy as 50 billion tons of oil. With the price of one barrel of oil cost $ 53 it amounts to $19 trillion.

    Not a bad deal – 1000 times below the market price!! One of many ways Russia was robbed blindly in the 90s.

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  151. wpa_ccc April 18, 2015 at 4:51 pm #

    More evidence that… she’s back!

    Hillary Clinton, Young Republican Goldwater Girl, appointed an ex-Monsanto corporate attorney, Jerry Crawford, as advisor to her campaign.

    Like conservative Hillary, the conservative Crawford has long been a political functionary for the most conservative of Democrats and Republicans in the “crucial” state of Iowa.

    She’s Back! And the Young Republican Goldwater Girl is returning to her conservative roots, as evidenced by the choices she is making in 2015 for her campaign.

    • Buck Stud April 18, 2015 at 11:10 pm #

      I’ll take Hillary anyday over the “Buffoon Brigade” seeking the GOP nomination. As the far more moderate ‘Bush The Elder’ used to utter, “it’s the prudent thing to do’.

      • Janos Skorenzy April 19, 2015 at 4:19 am #

        That’s the downward spiral and you’re going in, right down the drain. Who says there’s only two alternatives? Why play their game? Lemme guess: you don’t want to “waste” your vote. You want to be a winna so you’re going to vote for a loser like Hill.

        • Buck Stud April 19, 2015 at 9:06 am #

          I am going to do the prudent thing and vote for the flawed candidate of my preference. And you, the hypocrite who continually denounces ‘idealism’ suddenly is espousing that very idealism in national elections?

          Sorry Sportlife but ain’t buying that jive. And neither will the Dems this time around which truly terrifies you doesn’t it? Despite your fake calls for ideological purity you realize that “a loser like Hill” will not be nominating the likes of a Scalia, a Thomas, a Kennedy, an Alioto or a Roberts to the SCOTUS.

          So yes, I will seek to push a flawed candidate up to the mountaintop this time around with the realization that, if successful, the progressive cause will eventually start to ‘roll downhill’ with ever increasing momentum. People will realize through experience that “Obamacare” really did improve their lives. People like the self-employed trades person who once considered himself a republican but who now can afford reasonable priced medical insurance despite a pre-existing condition that rendered him shit out of luck under GOP rule. Check in the Hillary column.

          And people will begin to realize that all that ‘right to work’ bullshit espoused in former confederate and regressive GOP southern states and which is now ruining the economy of Wisconsin under Scott Walker’s tenure is actually bad for their own economic self interests. Check in the Hilllary column.

          And on and on the permutations of momentum will go and I’m not really going to mention the reality of Demographics other than to remind you this ain’t the America electorate of Bush/Gore aymore.

          And by the way, that electoral sleeping giant–the female vote–will surely open their eyes and ears and hear not that ‘Hillary is a loser’ but will look far deeper and see that your resentment is truly gender based and they will come out and vote, and vote, and vote. Even GOP females will casts Hillary votes to spite their misogynistic GOP ‘teammates’.

          You see, terms like ‘old hag’ that you have used to characterize Hillary are going to be the shovel with which you did the grave of your own cause. Congratulations genius.

          • Q. Shtik April 19, 2015 at 12:58 pm #

            [dig] the grave

            My wife is thrilled that Hillary is running. I said, “you’re going to vote for her because she’s a woman, right?” There was a significant pause, as though I had asked a trick question … and then she said “yes.”

            You slam Janos for his gender-based disapproval but will give women a pass when they cast their near 100% gender-based vote for Hillary, which they will.

            I don’t think the average female gives a hell of a lot of thought to “issues.”

          • Janos Skorenzy April 19, 2015 at 3:48 pm #

            Flawed candidate? You haven’t been paying attention: she’s completely corrupt and evil. But you can’t/wont see because you are too busy playing the us/them game again. Looking at Republican baddies so you can feel like a total goody by comparison. Despite some promising posts over the last year, you are totally back on the plantation and loving it, wondering why you ever strayed. Mr Kunstler did the same thing when he voted for Obama again. He was focusing on how bad Romney was and ignored what Obama IS.

            I’m incredibly idealistic – but mine is based on man’s higher potential or what he could be, not what the average individual is right now. I refuse to pretend about that – or about the actual character of the average Black. Read Carpenter’s “Towards Democracy”. Such a system will only be workable when the average man is at a much higher level than he is now. Our Republican (not Party!) form of Government was a wise check on Democracy, with its Constitution (safely dead as per Scalia) and limitation on who could vote. The Arabs, being at a lower stage of civic evolution, do best under a Sultan or Strong Man.

          • Janos Skorenzy April 19, 2015 at 3:54 pm #

            I used to ask my sister who she was going to vote for. She would always reply with a defiant, “I haven’t decided yet”, (even a week before a presidential election) her little pig eyes flashing. She knew at some level she had no reason for voting the way she did and no capacity to defend her choice. Yet I have no doubt that she did vote, probably for the most popular person, the person she thought was going to win. She was far too proud to abstain from voting just because she was uninformed.

          • Buck Stud April 19, 2015 at 4:40 pm #

            Q,

            Actually I find Janos’ honesty refreshing. But this election really is a defining, watershed moment, or at least in terms of the judiciary. And the GOP realizes that if they lose this next election they will lose the judiciary and their only anti-dote to the Tsunami wave of immigration coming down the pike. So his honesty, however refreshing, is counter-productive in terms of his own stated preferences. On the other hand, he is supplying the kindling for those fires of ‘tragic enrage’ that he loves to light.

          • Buck Stud April 19, 2015 at 4:59 pm #

            You talk about ‘idealism’ but could you even go to the Doc and get a much needed surgery under GOP rule if not a public sector employee or one with employer based health insurance?

            The GOP likes to hold up sole entrepreneur “Joe The Plumber” types as their electoral bread and butter. But the real truth is they don’t give a shit if Joe The Plumber couldn’t afford health insurance because of a pre-existing condition; their solution is for Joe The Plumber to go curl up in the corner and die.

            The GOP is the most diabolical and morally corrupt political party in America and deserves to be flushed down the toilet once and for all. After their threat is severely marginalized the Dems can start looking inward and cleaning house via the primary process.

            And by the way, speaking of idealism, when is the last time you mentioned a treasure of European culture? I can’t recall you ever doing so; everything you type is reactionary and mingled with your racial narrative. In other words, your idealism is false and polluted. Which really is a tragedy because European culture needs no racial narrative crutch… it already stands elevated and more importantly attracts other cultures with its magnificence, witness the Chinese love for classical European music.

  152. wpa_ccc April 18, 2015 at 5:25 pm #

    The Republican campaign to repeal the Affordable Care Act is over.

    GOP congressional leaders have surrendered to Obama. Republicans waged war against Obamacare during five years, with more than 50 votes in Congress. Obama has won the war.

    Five years ago the Republicans used all kinds of terrorist language to predict Obamacare would ruin the country. As the statistics of economic benefits continue to roll in, each one another victory for Obama, Republicans have abandoned their faux-principles and have admitted defeat. There will be no more votes in Congress trying in vain to defeat Obamacare.

    The Republicans have finally accepted that only 18% want to go back to the problems we had before Obamacare. Republicans were finally forced to stop lying and face the facts:

    http://obamacarefacts.com/benefitsofobamacare/

    • Buck Stud April 18, 2015 at 11:05 pm #

      Yes, all the dire warnings concerning “Obamacare” are just not panning out. The real problem with the ACA is it just doesn’t go far enough and now that the GOP controls both houses there is no chance of furthering improving and ironing out the wrinkles in the ACA for main street Americans.

      And I’m sure you’re not surprised that the ACA has been an economic success as that is exactly what I predicted two years ago. Not that it was any great prediction as anyone other than a right-wing imbecile could figure out that medical bankruptcies and exclusionary pre-existing clauses in a death spiral medical insurance dynamic were not exactly ‘engines of economic growth’.

      • Janos Skorenzy April 19, 2015 at 5:25 pm #

        Exactly. Whites built the Cathedrals and painted the Renaissance masterpieces. No one else could have done it or would have done it. There can be no distinction between Race and Culture. You need the former to have the latter. But the former isn’t sufficient by itself – we don’t need any White Muslims after all.

        Same thing with China. Their literature is wonderful and alien at the same times. Many of the same themes, but in a different “key” to use a musical analogy. We could have never written what they wrote, or come up with acupuncture, etc.

  153. wpa_ccc April 18, 2015 at 5:50 pm #

    nsa: ““We honor diversity” is sick code language for “White male need not apply”……”

    nsa, you are about to become a minority. I know that might be difficult for you. It is just a fact of demographics.

    White people used to be everywhere… in our homes, in our jobs, on our juries. White people used to be a majority. You whites had a long run… persecuting people of color. But those days have come to an end.

    Now white people are just another minority. Going from majority to minority can be painful. Just ask the Native Americans (First Peoples).

    As a minority you might have problems being pulled over by police for “driving while white.” You may think you are innocent but be sure to do exactly as the officer says. It is not unusual for minorities in America to be shot during arrest. In any event, you can expect to be blamed for all the crime happening in America.

    As a minority your career options might be limited to working in fields, bussing tables, and lawn maintenance. If you look for better work, remember it is not “job hunting” anymore; you are “taking our jobs.”

    You might miss your white privilege and will have to adapt. Just remember that you are a minority, and you will have to downgrade your expectations.

  154. fodase April 18, 2015 at 8:09 pm #

    As a minority your career options might be limited to working in fields, bussing tables, and lawn maintenance. If you look for better work, remember it is not “job hunting” anymore; you are “taking our jobs.”

    not true by a longshot. if you have the talent to produce what theres a demand for – sports, computers, entertainment, chemical engineer, physician, truck driver – people will hire you regardless of your color.

    obama wouldnt have been elected if tons of white devils hadnt voted for him. the numbers just dont work without white devils voting based on what they see as the better talent.

    white devils saw romney as the stale and bloodless person he is, and white devils voted for barack because he was more appealing.

    there is way too much overexaggeration of actual racism in the US American country. there is just as much black on white (probably seriously more on a relative basis) than there is white on black oppression.

    white devils arent that bad, the majority dont give a damn what ur color is.

    fodase

  155. wpa_ccc April 18, 2015 at 9:24 pm #

    there is just as much black on white (probably seriously more on a relative basis) than there is white on black oppression

    If this is true, it should be reported to the NAAWD, which promotes the interests of white devils

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  156. BackRowHeckler April 18, 2015 at 11:20 pm #

    Wow. NATO (American) tanks are rolling east thru Poland, headed toward Russia. An Iranian fleet is steaming south to Yemen, and there is fighting going on inside Saudi Arabian borders. ISIS is taking towns close to Baghdad; Baghdad could fall. (as JHK predicted)

    It looks like the Nobel Peace Prize winner could be bumbling and stumbling into a major conflict. Does anybody know what our foreign policy is?

    It wasn’t widely reported but there were civil disturbances in the major cities last weekend. It looks like Owser types have teamed up with Black Lives Matter, formed a coalition to stop traffic, disturb diners in restaurants, halt busses and trains you get the picture. Maybe it could start right here, right here in Hartford, we have plenty of dissatisfied people, thugs with a grudge, tens of thousands of them, mobs just walk out onto the freeways stopping traffic, cars screeching to a halt, smashing into each other, burning up, exploding, black smoke rising up above the city, panicked suburbanites trying to get home not understanding whats happening, being dragged out of their cars like Reginald Denny and beaten to death, some of the rioters armed and shooting anyone with a late model auto but some commuters fighting back, trying to shoot their way out with pistols, 50 mile traffic jams in every direction. Then you’ll know its on.

    Its gonna be a hot summer, not only here but everywhere.

    brh

    • elysianfield April 19, 2015 at 12:18 am #

      …Can’t we all just…get along?

      • Janos Skorenzy April 19, 2015 at 4:16 am #

        No, we can’t. So stop thinking that way. Start planning on defending what you have and those you love. Competition will be for resources in short supply. That will take the place of career competition or watching other people compete on TV. You’re going to get to be a star after all….

        • elysianfield April 19, 2015 at 10:51 am #

          Janos,
          Believe me, I do not think that way…I was quoting Rodney king…remember the cultural icon of the late 80’s? As a police officer in the late 60’s, in a large-urban Ghetto-city who all would recognize were it’s name to be mentioned, I learned that races will NEVER get along. The black culture, matriarchal in nature, is driven by the knowledge, learned on every mother’s knee, that the white man is a devil, and the cause of all misfortune. Racism is so ingrained in their culture that it will never be overcome. I may get my 15 minutes…but it won’t be on a news video of a beat-down.

          • Janos Skorenzy April 19, 2015 at 3:56 pm #

            Bravo then. I hope you also care about Western Civilization and the White Race who created it and without whom it will cease to exist.

    • Buck Stud April 19, 2015 at 9:26 am #

      LOL BRH that’s some mighty fine writing with your own idiosyncratic and caustic flourishes as usual .

      The shy is falling and catastrophe raining down and yet the sky still looks blue. Oh well, I’m still going outside as the beauty is irresistible. Life goes on.

      • malthuss April 19, 2015 at 10:49 am #

        The shy is falling

      • BackRowHeckler April 19, 2015 at 11:22 am #

        Me too Buck.

        Started to till the garden. One of the good things about doing shift work is that you have the days to yourself, and can be out in the sunshine, when indeed the sun does shine. I’ve got these old hand tools from that company in town I mentioned — The Collins Company c.1826-1966 — which I like to use around the property clearing brush, cutting trees, and loosening up the soil in the garden. It amazing, some of these implements are 100-125 years old and they’re still serviceable, altho the handles have to be replaced.

        brh

        • Q. Shtik April 19, 2015 at 1:17 pm #

          which I like to use around the property [clearing brush],

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

          Who do you think you are anyway……..Dubya?

        • Buck Stud April 19, 2015 at 2:52 pm #

          BRH,

          I know you’re a literature aficionado and you mentioned writers dying young this week so I thought of this Podcast from Garrison Keillor.

          For years I had been hearing this person on the radio and thought who is this guy…sort of a pleasant respite from typical American bombast/culture:

          http://podcasts.jccsf.org/2014/01/garrison-keillor/

  157. Janos Skorenzy April 19, 2015 at 4:20 am #

    http://www.sunnation.co.uk/hopkins-rescue-boats-id-use-gunships-to-stop-illegal-migrants/

    Europe needs gunboat diplomacy. It’s the only thing that can stop The Camp of the Saints from becoming a reality.

  158. FincaInTheMountains April 19, 2015 at 9:26 am #

    “NATO (American) tanks are rolling east thru Poland, headed toward Russia.”

    US demonstrational activities in Eastern Europe are more likely imitation of anti-Russian deployment, but not the actual deployment. First, the troops involved are too small. They indicate the presence, but not sufficient even for any lengthy defense of the countries in which they reside. Roughly speaking, the presence of US troops in the same Baltic nothing changes not only in the outcome of a hypothetical military action, but even in terms of the possible elimination of the Baltic NATO bridgehead through Russian occupation.

    Secondly, and this is much more important, the United States simply cannot deploy in Europe today full military group that would be able to adequately resist the Russian armed forces. And it’s not for a lack of US troops. Just army fighting far away from their native shores, must have strong rear and reliable communication. In 2015, neither Britain nor the whole of Europe can guarantee the reliability of American communications.

    Firstly, the European elites are seriously concerned about adventurist Washington’s policy, and the risk of becoming the next victim of this policy seems to them quite real. If in 2014, Ukraine has started a civil war on its own territory and has arranged a series of provocations against Russia hoping to get close to the German standards, the Germans certainly has no plans in 2015 to run into a military conflict for the sake of approaching the Ukrainian standards, which for the year of the war fell to the level of the Somali. That is, the US does not have the unequivocal support of NATO partners, even at the highest political level.

    Second, Europe’s growing anti-American sentiment among the population. Slogans out of NATO and the EU in Eastern Europe are if not realizable, but popular. And if in the course of the exercises Czech Republic and Austria were forced to protect US troops from its citizens (like public ban against throwing vegetables at Americans), in the case of a military crisis, the authorities simply cannot cope.

    Third, any major war requires the mobilization measures (this is not fighting against small Libyan forces). We have already seen how disrupted was mobilization in Ukraine. There is no reason to believe that Europeans are more militaristic. At the same time, if against the Ukrainians was still possible to apply punitive terrorist regime measures, and even drive some people into the army, then the Europeans will be much more difficult.

    To provoke a war in such conditions is to set up American Expeditionary Force for the destruction (whatever their number, they will be in a strategic trap) and lose Europe.

    http://actualcomment.ru/gremya-ognem-sverkaya-bleskom-stali.html

    • elysianfield April 19, 2015 at 11:01 am #

      The 173rd was deployed as a “speed-bump”. They are not there to provide significant combat power, but rather as a “poker chip” thrown into the pot to raise the ante should combat commence. American soldiers killed, even inadvertently, would change the dynamic of the conflict. During the Vietnam War, the US was very hesitant to bomb even the outskirts of Haiphong, in fear of an errant bomb killing Russian soldiers then known to be on the docks. This gambit would usually work on “neutral ground”…The Ukraine may be a different matter.

  159. FincaInTheMountains April 19, 2015 at 12:12 pm #

    As of now, the “pragmatists” represented by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov retain the upper hand.

    They believe Russia can still do business with the United States and Europe.

    “The ‘hotheads’ take the opposite view,” the authors write, “they argue that NATO is determined to overthrow Putin, force Russia to its knees, and perhaps even dismember the country.”

    In Ukraine, Putin has drawn two red lines. He will not permit Ukraine to join NATO. He will not allow the rebels to be crushed.

    Russia hard-liners are confident that should it come to war in Ukraine, Russia would have what Cold War strategists called “escalation dominance.” This is what JFK had in the Cuban missile crisis — conventional and nuclear superiority on sea and land, and in the air around Cuba.

    With Ukraine easily accessible to Russian forces by road and rail, sea and air, and Russia’s military just over the border while U.S. military might is a continent away, the hard-liners believe Russia would prevail in a war and America would face a choice — accept defeat in Ukraine or escalate to tactical atomic weapons.

    The Russians are talking of resorting to such weapons first.

    The decisive date for Putin to determine which way Russia will go would appear to be this summer. The authors write:

    “Putin will attempt to exploit the expiration of EU sanctions, which are scheduled to expire in July. If that fails, however, and the European Union joins the United States in imposing additional economic sanctions such as excluding Moscow from the SWIFT financial clearing system, Putin would be tempted to respond, not by retreating, but by ending all cooperation with the West, and mobilizing his people against a new and ‘apocalyptic’ threat to ‘Mother Russia.’

    http://russia-insider.com/en/us-russia-war-over-ukraine/5769

  160. FincaInTheMountains April 19, 2015 at 12:41 pm #

    Four US troops raped two children in Ukraine

    At the same time, the SBU (Ukraine Security Bureau) released pedophiles, saying that the soldiers have complete immunity from prosecution.

    One of the girls was 13 years old, the other – 12. It is learned that the soldiers belonged to a private military company of the US Army.

    Outraged by what had happened residents of the Ukrainian capital required to hold pedophiles. Their identity has been established, the police attempted to arrest them in one of the Kyev’s restaurants. However, arrived at the Security Service of Ukraine ordered their release, saying that the soldiers have complete immunity against prosecution.

    http://ren.tv/novosti/2015-04-17/chetvero-amerikanskih-voennyh-iznasilovali-dvoih-detey-na-ukraine

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  161. wpa_ccc April 19, 2015 at 1:12 pm #

    Finca, the US military rapes girls all over the world. I believe only heterosexual straight soldiers rape, not the homosexual or transgender or women soldiers. The armed forces should not allow heterosexual soldiers. They always rape local girls

    • Janos Skorenzy April 19, 2015 at 4:09 pm #

      http://www.theguardian.com/society/2011/jul/17/the-rape-of-men

      Ah, wrong as usual. In the savage parts of the world, homosexual rape of prisoners is the norm. No doubt it will be spreading to the West as well. Countless men in Africa can have been raped so much that they bleed when they walk and can only eat soft foods for the rest of their lives. A film maker made a movie about them – and international agencies tried to stop it from being seen. Rape is a women’s issue you see. That’s where the money is. Think women want to share funding with men or will support men who think so?

  162. FincaInTheMountains April 19, 2015 at 3:37 pm #

    Iranian Army Chief: ‘US planes visiting Islamic State controlled airports’

    In the latest accusation leveled at the United States by high ranking Iranian officials, the Iranian Chief of Staff on Saturday claimed that his country holds evidence showing that the Islamic State group has been the beneficiary of American material support.

    According to Iranian state media, while attending Iran’s annual Army Day parade, where Tehran unveiled its Bavar 373 air defense missile system, the Iranian equivalent of the Russian S-300 surface-to-air missile, Major General Hassan Firouzabadi insisted that Iranian Intelligence has “received reports the the US planes visit ISIL [Islamic State controlled] airports.”

    http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Iranian-Army-Chief-US-planes-visiting-Islamic-State-controlled-airports-398534

  163. wpa_ccc April 19, 2015 at 4:52 pm #

    Janos, pay attention. What Finca posted is: “Four US troops raped two children in Ukraine”

    My comment was about US miltary rape of little girls and how the rape of little girls by US military is only by straight (heterosexual) soldiers.

    Little girls are not by being raped by homosexual, transgender, or women in the US miltary, only by heterosexual military men.

    Please try to stay on topic.

    • Janos Skorenzy April 19, 2015 at 5:27 pm #

      So rape of females is wrong but rape of males if fine? Dude, get a conscience.

      You said, “Only heterosexual soldiers rape….”

      • wpa_ccc April 19, 2015 at 5:54 pm #

        Don’t play dumb, Janos. You are perfectly capable of understanding the context as a response to Finca’s post: Four US troops raped two children in Ukraine

        You want to convert everything an issue of race “in savage parts of the world” off topic with prisoners. These little girls did not live in the part of the world you refer to, nor were they prisoners. I calling you on changing the topic away from US military heterosexual soldiers raping little girls.

  164. FincaInTheMountains April 19, 2015 at 6:16 pm #

    I am positive that when those four rapists will finally meet with GRU snipers, nobody will ask them about their sexual orientation.

  165. progress4what April 19, 2015 at 6:27 pm #

    Janos wins that one.
    Apparently wpa wants an all homosexual US military, committing only homosexual rapes – or something….. ???

    Anything to troll an argument right, wpa.

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    • wpa_ccc April 19, 2015 at 6:49 pm #

      An all homosexual army would stop the problem of rapes of local girls.

      • progress4what April 19, 2015 at 6:52 pm #

        Lesbians never rape, eh?

        • progress4what April 19, 2015 at 6:56 pm #

          Transgendered males never rape, eh?

          Transgendered females never rape either?

          Stand by for bullshit wpa statistical analysis, supported by “peer reviewed” research.

  166. progress4what April 19, 2015 at 6:32 pm #

    “Hey P2C why can’t you accept this comment section the way it stands? I don’t think Jim has a lot of time to worry about what goes on here. Trying to make a living as a writer crushes the best of them:”
    – backrow –

    I admire JHK’s writing a great deal, backrow. That should be clear. I hate the way linked comments work on this comment software.

    Are you actually gonna’ tell me that you would have seen this comment of mine if I had linked it (just now) to your comment to me on the 17? I find that incredible.

    • progress4what April 19, 2015 at 6:33 pm #

      17th, should have been. Linked comments are good for error correction.

  167. progress4what April 19, 2015 at 6:35 pm #

    “How about a logical person balanced by just enough emotion?”
    – beantown bill –

    Yeah – that would be your basic sociopath, bill. That’s what we’ve got.

  168. progress4what April 19, 2015 at 6:39 pm #

    “For those too lazy to Google it, the Kundalini is the female sexual organ. In slang it was shortened to Kund and then, for reasons lost in antiquity the K became a C and the d became a t. Language is constantly evolving.” – q –

    What in the HELL was that, Q?

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kundalini

    • Q. Shtik April 19, 2015 at 11:01 pm #

      It’s a joke for Christ sake.

  169. progress4what April 19, 2015 at 9:32 pm #

    OK, one more. Concerning voting and bullcrap.

    Anyone who would come on an anonymous internet forum like this and explain why some Dem presidential candidate is better than some Repub presidential candidate or vice versa , is a blithering 5-star moron – especially at this early stage of the game, with the election 19 loong months away.

    OTOH, anyone who believes that screaming “I just won’t vote, then” is some viable sort of solution to this National problem is a deluded and hubristic fool. The Pres. election is currently a sham of corporate and media whoredom, no doubt. But there are important elections down the ticket. Congresscritters, local reps, local SHERIFF, even local dogcatcher – all of these could be important to your future. Go vote already – millions have died to give you that right.

    I do suggest writing in “none of the above” or even “Mickey Mouse” when it comes to the presidential vote, though. Between Hill and Jeb – almost anything has to be a better choice.

    • Buck Stud April 19, 2015 at 10:32 pm #

      “Anyone who would come on an anonymous internet forum like this and explain why some Dem presidential candidate is better than some Repub presidential candidate or vice versa , is a blithering 5-star moron – especially at this early stage of the game, with the election 19 loong months away.”

      Actually, Prog, anyone who doesn’t already know where a D or R candidate stands is the “blithering 5-star moron”.

      And speaking of moronic, why do you still wear that ridiculous “progressive’ mask when it’s apparent to anyone with room temp IQ that you have always leaned right and not by a small amount? This false facade pretty much sums up you however: passive aggressive as in too much of a punk to name the person you’re addressing along with your continual haranguing of JHK on the website format and pretending to ‘just drop in once a week’ and mainly on Sunday.

      From here on out your Eddie to me as in Haskell. See you next Sunday…

      • progress4what April 19, 2015 at 11:13 pm #

        The dem (hill) and repub (jeb and the annointed gang) who are recognized by the US media are all for the same thing – big money, big war, and smaller individual freedom. You don’t see that? That’s amazing!

        “progress”4what stands for exactly that: exactly where is all of this supposed “progress” taking us?

        And I’m not too much of a passive/aggressive punk to name the names. There’s just to goddam’ many of you dem/repub political experts masquerading under anonymous handles for me to remember.

        I kinda’ hate to offend btb as a proudly arrogant non-voter, he’s the only one of those who comes readily to mind – but I truly DO NOT GET this NON-VOTING SHIT; and I wish I could provoke someone enough to explain why NOT voting matters.

        And yeah – I do hate the linked comments. The system I’m working on is to read JHK on Monday and then bitch about it at about 12 midnight on a couple of days. That way I can run a search for the next day”s date to collect any responses.

        See ya’ next week Beaver. http://cheezburger.com/1712244992

        • Q. Shtik April 20, 2015 at 12:26 am #

          I wish I could provoke someone enough to explain why NOT voting matters.

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

          NOT voting DOESN”T matter in the same way that VOTING doesn’t matter. Does that clear it up for you?

          Several years ago I even stopped voting those proxies that come in the mail……another complete waste of time. Like I’m going to sit there and read 60 pages of proxy material and vote to approve who the company is going to use as their CPA.

          Somewhere along the line I decided to stop giving away my precious time. Another thing I never do is take one of those polls “that will only take a few minutes” after the end of a phone call.

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