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Signs and Wonders

Holy smokes,” Janet Yellen must have barked last week when Japan stepped up to plug the liquidity hole left by the US Federal Reserve’s final taper trot to the zero finish line of Quantitative Easing 3. The gallant samurai Haruhiko Kuroda of Japan’s central bank announced that his grateful nation had accepted the gift of inflation from the generous American people, which will allow the island nation to fall on its wakizashi and exit the dream-world of industrial modernity it has struggled through for a scant 200 years.

Money-printing turns out to be the grift that keeps on giving. The US stock markets retraced all their October jitter lines, and bonds plumped up nicely in anticipation of hot so-called “money” wending its digital way from other lands to American banks. Euroland, too, accepted some gift inflation as its currency weakened. The world seems to have forgotten for a long moment that all this was rather the opposite of what America’s central bank has been purported to seek lo these several years of QE heroics — namely, a little domestic inflation of its own to simulate if not stimulate the holy grail of economic growth. Of course all that has gotten is the Potemkin stock market, a fragile, one-dimensional edifice concealing the post-industrial slum that the on-the-ground economy has become behind it.

Then, as if cued by some Satanic invocation, who marched onstage but the old Maestro himself, Alan Greenspan, Fed chief from 1987 to 2007, who had seen many a sign and wonder himself during that hectic tenure, and he just flat-out called QE a flop. He stuck a cherry on top by adding that the current Fed couldn’t possibly end its ZIRP policy, either. All of which rather left America’s central bank in a black box wrapped in an enigma, shrouded by a conundrum, off-gassing hydrogen sulfide like a roadkill ‘possum. Incidentally, Greenspan told everybody to go out and buy gold — which naturally sent the price of gold spiraling down through its previous bottom into the uncharted territory of worthlessness. Gold is now the most unloved substance in the history of trade, made even uglier by the overtures of Mr. Greenspan. Personally, I think the more violently gold devalues for the moment, the more extreme the reaction will be when the first glimpses of reality pierce the twilight’s last gleaming of official US market intervention shenanigans.

All this goes on, by the way, because an essential problem remains: the world cannot pay back its accumulated debt and the money maestros of world finance don’t dare even try to unwind it in an orderly manner, fearing they will open up an international monetary sucking chest wound of deflationary doom. And this does nothing to brighten the prospect that evermore new debt can ever be repaid. All that remains are various three card monte maneuvers, hot potato games, and musical chair tournaments using the last kinetic rocket thrusts of global credulity to pretend that contraction is not already here, walking amongst us, like the ancient Harvestman of yore, swinging his scythe.

Of course, few doubt the reality of Ebola. And ISIS (or whatever it’s called) also works its ghastly hoodoo in the gummiest region of the world, and they both share an interesting feature these days: reporters are discouraged from going into either hot zone where the threat is that they will bleed out through all the orifices from Ebola or have their heads hacked off on video by ISIS. So we are not getting the best information out of Ebola West Africa and those parts of the Middle East where ISIS is at large. The situation is apt to be rather worse than we are being told. The financial markets shrugged off both these threats by the time Halloween rolled around, but I wouldn’t be so confident that story is over for either of these two ugly influences. If the world had a face, it would have fragility written all over it.

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390 Responses to “Signs and Wonders”

  1. K-Dog November 3, 2014 at 10:15 am #

    The truth is that these “too big to fail” banks could collapse at any time.

    And when they fail, our economy will fail too.

    So let us hope and pray that this brief period of false stability lasts for as long as possible.

    Because when it ends, all hell is going to break loose.

    The Economic Collapse

    • lsjogren November 3, 2014 at 11:11 am #

      I don’t think the banks will fail. All this new money they’ve printed has wound up in bank vaults. The banks have a lot more capital than they used to.

      It seems like something really bad is going to come out of all this, but I’m not exactly sure what. I don’t think it will be bank failures because they are swimming in cash.

      • GutenbergGuy November 3, 2014 at 3:14 pm #

        Fairy dust!

    • ZrCrypDiK November 3, 2014 at 5:21 pm #

      Well, it’s *GREAT* to know you still believe in “suicide banksters”…

      I expected *SOOO* much more from U.

  2. goat1001 November 3, 2014 at 10:15 am #

    So how long can the federal government continue paying its “credit card” debt using same “credit card” while continuing to pile on new debt? Any guess what the federal government’s credit score is???

    • lsjogren November 3, 2014 at 11:12 am #

      US govt has a perfect credit score, because it can print as many dollars as it wants out of thin air.

      • the blame/e November 3, 2014 at 1:15 pm #

        The U.S. credit rating was downgraded from AAA to AA+ in 2011. You really need to keep up on the news.

  3. venuspluto67 November 3, 2014 at 10:18 am #

    WRT BOJ: Would it be terribly inappropriate of me to say, “BANZAI”?

  4. Steven W. Maginnis November 3, 2014 at 10:20 am #

    In New Jersey, we have a Senate candidate named Jeff Bell who wants to return the American dollar to the gold standard. He’ll likely lose, but only because he’s trying to unseat Cory Booker. As for what we would do if we were already on the gold standard at a time of its loss of value, I’m sure Bell has no explanation.

    • cowboy November 3, 2014 at 10:35 am #

      If we were on the gold standard, it wouldn’t loose its value.

      • FincaInTheMountains November 3, 2014 at 10:49 am #

        Yeah, yeah, and economy would be in the shitters of worst deflation the world have ever seen. Gold Standard is a VERY BAD idea.

        • CancelMyCard November 3, 2014 at 11:12 am #

          ” economy would be in the shitters of worst deflation the world have ever seen. Gold Standard is a VERY BAD idea.”

          And your proof of this supposition would be . . . .?

          Please give us your logic and supporting evidence.

        • the blame/e November 3, 2014 at 11:55 am #

          At this point, this country needs all the shit it can eat. Right now, this country loves shit. Can’t get enough of shit, like the endless wars, the FED, more debt than it could ever pay payback, the FBI, the NSA, the government, the IRS — ad nauseaum. Every day is the shits and nothing changes but the intermittent sound of diarrhea (emanating from our “hope and change” president..

          • Beryl of Oyl November 3, 2014 at 12:32 pm #

            Anyone else feel like this president just doesn’t like us?

          • GutenbergGuy November 3, 2014 at 3:10 pm #

            We got hit with rhetoric again. Empty, meaningless words. Obama sucked the meaning out of “Hope” and “Change,” and that is unforgivable IMHO. And the “glass is half full” is just more rhetoric to me.

            Maybe some day we’ll learn to ask hard questions. Obama and his whole party never got asked, “What about Bill Clinton, who shoved NAFTA & the repeal of Glass-Steagal down our throats?” Why did we get Reagan II from a Democrat? And “What about all the Republican legislation we’ve gotten from DEMOCRATS the last forty years?” Hillary won’t be asked these questions, and it will be the same old thing. Someone in that party has got to be asking, “How many votes did that apology to Goldman-Sachs lose us in 2014?”

            Their sacred Senate majority couldn’t even pass a lousy increase in the minimum wage!

            And it isn’t a question of whether Obama likes us. He’s just committed to the old ways. I am 66 and this is getting damn tiresome.

            Oh, and wasn’t it “Tricky Dick” Nixon who took us off the gold standard? Anyway, the issue is not gold, money or wampum! It’s the system itself that is unsustainable. It

            We were also distracted, perhaps, by Sarah Palin’s constant litany of “Obama hangs around with terrorist Jeremy (?) Wright.” Well, more importantly Obama hangs out with Wall Street types like Rahm Emmanuel! Poor Chicago.

          • Frankiti November 3, 2014 at 7:50 pm #

            Why do liberals constantly fall for the cult of personality? Why do they let charisma and celebrity sway their decision making process? How do people believe in promises of “hope” and “change”? If you did not already know that the change was going to be skin-deep, you deserved to be swindled and cheated. Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public. Politicians prove it time and time again. Believing that one person from a janus-faced party will change things is beyond foolish, it’s outright pitiful.

    • seawolf77 November 6, 2014 at 9:23 am #

      In the end, the only real money is silver and gold. When a country is threatened, what is the first thing it does? Figure out where to hide its gold.

    • qisqisqis November 7, 2014 at 11:44 am #

      It’s unsettling to think that, if we return to the gold standard, our monetary system would rely on mining companies to create money.

      • seawolf77 November 7, 2014 at 1:09 pm #

        Why is that unsettling?

  5. Neon Vincent November 3, 2014 at 10:21 am #

    “All that remains are various three card monte maneuvers, hot potato games, and musical chair tournaments using the last kinetic rocket thrusts of global credulity to pretend that contraction is not already here, walking amongst us, like the ancient Harvestman of yore, swinging his scythe.”

    It’s an act of faith. The believers in the religion of progress are praying to maintain the consensus trance that everything is fine and we’ll get out of this OK. As I told the Archdruid in comments last week, lots of people are clapping to keep the Tinkerbell of progress alive.

    Speaking of progress and “kinetic rocket thrusts,” last week was a bad one for one particular subset of techno-narcissists, the supporters of private spaceflight. First, an Antares supply rocket exploded during launch, then SpaceShipTwo crashed during a test. Fortunately, a Russian cargo ship arrived and the ISS is supplied through the end of the year. As for Justin Bieber’s quarter-million dollar thrill ride to the edge of space, that will have to wait.

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    • lsjogren November 3, 2014 at 11:18 am #

      If they can’t go into space, the left wing one percenters will find other ways to stomp a sasquatch sized carbon footprint.

      • Beryl of Oyl November 3, 2014 at 12:27 pm #

        People have started to catch on that the ones telling us how we have to conserve aren’t doing such a great job themselves.

        • Neon Vincent November 3, 2014 at 4:45 pm #

          That’s a point that The Archdruid makes from time to time. I guess he and you would like it if more green movers and shakers would follow the example of No Impact Man instead of The Prince of Wales. The former walked his talk. The latter does not.

    • Beryl of Oyl November 3, 2014 at 12:25 pm #

      So much for the theory that private industry always does a better job.

    • the blame/e November 3, 2014 at 1:17 pm #

      “My name is Jose Jimenez.”

  6. Smoky Joe November 3, 2014 at 10:25 am #

    Academic colleagues in the B-School look at me like a man from Mars (well, the Humanities is a rather Martian planet) when I tell them that “money” is just a notion spun from promises and faith.

    Say, that’s rather like religion! Then Jim comes in with this metaphor that I plan to steal, the “Potemkin stock market, a fragile, one-dimensional edifice concealing the post-industrial slum that the on-the-ground economy has become behind it.”

    That diagnoses why, despite all official signs of economic improvement such as lower gas prices, lower unemployment, blah blah, the 95% globally feel miserable. If one looks past the in-store Gucci pavilion at Macy’s, that *is* the world around us.

    My bet: pop goes the weasel in 2015, blowing up like Sir Richard’s spaceplane.

    • Beryl of Oyl November 3, 2014 at 12:34 pm #

      There’s a Gucci pavilion in Macy’s? Never mind, this should be a good year to buy gold jewelry, on Black Friday.

    • GutenbergGuy November 3, 2014 at 3:22 pm #

      One irony: It promises to be a BIG “holiday season”!

      • the blame/e November 3, 2014 at 4:18 pm #

        It won’t be an Ebola holiday season. You can take Ebola off your holiday wish list. The latest algorithms for the U.S. indicate only 130 more infected by Christmas, and that is on the high end. That makes Ebola’s reproductive rate between a one and two. Hardly an infectious rate high enough to rate as a pandemic. Also, the authorities are familiar with Ebola. Most pandemics come from an entirely new disease, something the world had not been exposed to until it started killing people by the hundreds. Ebola won’t be getting us. There are already cures out there, and there will be more.

        Still, you have to ask. Would the authorities in Dallas, New York, New Jersey, Maine, Oklahoma, Georgia, at the CDC (spelled FEMA), and the White House lie to us? [heavy, and deep, sarcasm]

        • abbybwood November 3, 2014 at 6:01 pm #

          I found it interesting that the U.S. reporter who acquired Ebola said he did not know how he got it. “Maybe while I was cleaning a car”:

          http://abcnews.go.com/Health/us-journalist-ebola-nebraska-treatment/story?id=25987193

          And now there is word that a roommate of Kaci Hickox, the R.N. who returned from Sierra Leone after having had direct contact with Ebola patients while using protective gear, acquired Ebola and she “does not know how she got it.”:

          “A Maine official said Friday that Kaci Hickox’s roommate while she helped Ebola patients in Africa has been diagnosed with Ebola, WAGM-TV reports.

          “The respondent’s roommate in Africa became infected without knowing how she became infected with Ebola,” said Sheila Pinette with the Maine Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, adding that “any potential risk to respondent from that incident has passed.”

          Of course Dr. Spencer and nurses Pham and Vinson seemed to have acquired the Ebola virus after having carefully donned and removed their protective gear.

          The CDC, for a day, posted a page detailing how the Ebola virus can be contracted via “airborne droplets” then the page was removed.

          In the meantime, has anyone heard word one from Ebola Czar Klain??!

          • the blame/e November 3, 2014 at 6:33 pm #

            What I love is how the initial claims about how Ebola was not and airborne disease turned to how Ebola could be spread “aerogenically” with an even heavier insistence about how Eblola was not airborne.

            Then, just this past week, authorities up-dated aerogenic contagion to aero-stable contagion, with and even heavier insistence upon Ebola really, really not being an airborne disease.

            There has also been talk about aero genic splish and aerosol splash.

            If Ebola doesn’t wipe us off the globe, the euphemisms sure will.

  7. cowboy November 3, 2014 at 10:32 am #

    Excellent point, Jim, about there being no reporters in W Africa and Middle East to give us accurate reports.

  8. George November 3, 2014 at 10:34 am #

    “All of which rather left America’s central bank in a black box wrapped in an enigma, shrouded by a conundrum, off-gassing hydrogen sulfide like a road kill ‘possum. Incidentally, Greenspan told everybody to go out and buy gold — which naturally sent the price of gold spiraling down through its previous bottom into the uncharted territory of worthlessness. Gold is now the most unloved substance in the history of trade, made even uglier by the overtures of Mr. Greenspan.”

    One reason why the Fed had to taper off QE could have been that it cut into their capacity to keep the gold price lower through all the naked short-selling they’ve been engaged in. And then there’s the off-the-books dollar trading that’s done by surrogate foreign national banks: done to keep the dollar index high (above 70). The form of QE whereby the Fed buys bonds may be a thing of the past but I doubt they’ll stop these other activities any time soon.

    • GutenbergGuy November 3, 2014 at 3:34 pm #

      21st Century extraction industry (replacing gold and other commodities): Copper and other metals ripped out of abandoned buildings in those slums described above, in places like Detroit! Or metal irrigation pipes stolen off of CA’s Central Valley farms. Where they are draining the aquifers. Etc.

      Seems appropriate for the times. Don’t even need metaphors for our situation (though JHK concocts these with amazing variety), and like Tom Wolfe says, you can’t make this stuff up.

      And it’s all as though Kafka had translated Dante’s “Inferno.”

    • MisterDarling November 6, 2014 at 12:26 am #

      George;

      re | “One reason why the Fed had to taper off QE could have been that it cut into their capacity to keep the gold price lower through all the naked short-selling they’ve been engaged in. And then there’s the off-the-books dollar trading that’s done by surrogate foreign national banks: done to keep the dollar index high (above 70). “-George.

      Thank you, George. It is appreciated.

      Cheers!

  9. Greg Knepp November 3, 2014 at 10:40 am #

    I think ‘fragility’ is the key word here. My own small business just suffered its second month (in its long tenure) of zero orders. The first such month was last February. Sure, I’m a small operator in what is mostly a warm-weather market…but zero orders? WTF! In forty-three years I’ve not experience this.

    Personally, I’m OK; I’m on the cusp of being put out to pasture anyway. But I have grown kids trying to make their way in this lousy world.

    ‘Recovery’ my ass!

    • St. Roy November 3, 2014 at 7:46 pm #

      Yep. I went to a Target on Saturday an again on Sunday in Saratoga, CA, a rather affluent suburb of San Jose. There was hardly anyone in the store. I asked the clerk about business. She said it was really slow and wondering if she would be laid off.

      • Greg Knepp November 3, 2014 at 10:24 pm #

        Part of this is due to market saturation. Everyone already has a flat screen TV, and how many more smart phones can the consuming public absorb? Market saturation played a strong role in the Great Depression as well.

        • MisterDarling November 6, 2014 at 12:34 am #

          re | “Market saturation played a strong role in the Great Depression as well.”-greg.

          Hi Greg!

          There is no such thing as “saturation” when there is sufficient discretionary income to support development, marketing and all other activity associated with foisting the ‘latest/greatest whatever’ onto the public.

          This statement is similar to saying that the price of oil is dropping because there’s a ‘glut’ in supply, not a decrease in demand…

          This is a helpful:

          http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/images/user3303/imageroot/2014/11/20141104_corr.jpg

          BTW, I generally like your posts Greg, I just thought I’d tackle this since the demand crash is an actual way-mark…

  10. BackRowHeckler November 3, 2014 at 10:42 am #

    The business press — WSJ, FT of London, IBD — presented the Japanese ‘opening the floodgates’ as a positive move, for Japan and for the US, and partly responsible for the Dow reaching record levels.

    In other Asian news North Korea has launched a submarine capable of delivering ballistic missiles, which may prove more consequential to the US that anything the Bank of Japan might do.
    –brh

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    • GutenbergGuy November 3, 2014 at 3:37 pm #

      And Toyota beat GM by a few hundred thousand units! The real story?

      The international auto industry is producing more than 30 million units a year! Way more.

  11. contrahend November 3, 2014 at 10:43 am #

    So last week it was the world’s stock markets puking and choking on their losses, this week it’s the world’s stock markets regaining all their losses – and that’s bad too, somehow. You know it’s just gotta be.

    Then the techno-narcissists were given a lesson in endtimery because a rocket blew up. Yeah the US cancelled its manned moon mission because three astronauts were killed in a capsule fire on the ground, too. Right? And then there was Apollo 13, which almost killed another crew, but was successful.

    That’ll teach those people that trust in scientific advance that it’s all over now, contraction is here. We’re out of energy.

    You people are forever wrong.

    My bet: pop goes the weasel in 2015, blowing up like Sir Richard’s spaceplane.

    Care to place a grand on that bet? What exactly is going to pop, by the way? Ever the vague ‘predictions’.

    I saw a paralyzed Polish man walk yesterday on TV, using cells taken from his nose to regenerate his spinal cord. It’s working. You call that Tinkerbell progress?

    You naysayers are laughable.

    Nevertheless, we salute you as we soar high above into a world of cornucopia & boundless discovery.

    kontrahend

    • FincaInTheMountains November 3, 2014 at 10:55 am #

      Yes, we are on the brink of great breakthroughs in technology, medical science would be revolutionized completely.

      • lsjogren November 3, 2014 at 11:09 am #

        Advances in medicine will allow us to squander any prosperity of the younger generation in order to keep older people (like me) alive as zombies far beyond our expiration date.

    • dolph9 November 3, 2014 at 11:02 am #

      contrahend:
      Do prices of stocks and housing rise forever? If they don’t, at which point do they slow down or, gasp, fall?

      Can any of these so called medical advances keep people alive forever and feeling like 22 year old adonises?

      The point is that so called progress can, in fact, be dismissed if its claims are false.

      Also, we are not “forever wrong”. Recent history is full of breakdowns…WW1, WW2, fall of Soviet Union, 9/11, 2 great financial crashes since the turn of the century. Not to mention that every single empire in history fails.

      • lsjogren November 3, 2014 at 11:16 am #

        Every empire in history falls. And I would bet you that when it is at its peak there is almost no one who recognizes that there is no where to go but down. And anyone who says so is no doubt branded a lunatic.

    • Greg Knepp November 3, 2014 at 11:13 am #

      “…as we soar high above into a world of cornucopia & boundless discovery.”

      You’re shitting me, right?

      My customers are tapped out and my suppliers are aglut in inventory, begging me to make them an offer.

      “…paralyzed Polish man walk yesterday on TV.”

      Please.

      • MisterDarling November 6, 2014 at 12:43 am #

        Hmmm, Who was trumpeting about all their ‘miracles of modern science’ at the end of WW2? Oh yeah… the people that were losing that war.

        And, much more recently, USA/ISAF was supposedly “inevitable” due to the power of superior technology – I had to hear this before/during/and after being down-range… Not so much now, though.

        ‘Technology’ is not a Cornucopia and Cure-All.

        It’s very hard for a certain group of people to accept that this time around, THEY are the late-adopting and willfully ignorant.

        What’s the old saying about Irony being the coin that History primarily pays us?

        😉

        Chip-Cheerio!

    • Apneaman November 3, 2014 at 12:10 pm #

      Well if ya saw it on the TV then it’s written in stone. Maybe they will come up with a stem cell fix that can keep the boomers collecting pensions and sucking up medical resources indefinitely while their minimum wage, adderall fueled grand-kids/great grand-kid, etc, attempt to pay for it.

      • Beryl of Oyl November 3, 2014 at 12:23 pm #

        Think about what happened to the WWII generation who did everything the ‘right’ way and carefully saved and invested for their retirement years, courtesy of those boomers.

    • GutenbergGuy November 3, 2014 at 3:52 pm #

      More like high tech in the midst of squalor.

      Just stay tuned.

  12. lsjogren November 3, 2014 at 11:07 am #

    With all the money the US pumped into the system, it hasn’t bloated up all financial assets. I had 3 lots in Port Angeles which the county taxes me as being worth 56,000. I sold one recently for 25k and felt lucky to get anything for it.

    Go figure. For some reason, people would still rather live in a crackerbox dump in California than a home in paradise. Of course, there are no jobs in a place like Port Angeles, but I would think at least retirees would love to escape hellish places like Los Angeles if they no longer have occupational ties there. I certainly did.

    I shudder to ponder what these things are worth when there is NOT an asset bubble!

    • qisqisqis November 7, 2014 at 12:11 pm #

      No asset bubble in Greater Boston, I know that for sure. Land and home values are so fucked up the only thing that ever gets built is “luxury condos” and corporate chain stores.

      • qisqisqis November 7, 2014 at 12:12 pm #

        It forces younger generation and poor people out of the housing market.

  13. CancelMyCard November 3, 2014 at 11:07 am #

    The ONLY thing that would “revolutionize” medicine,
    is if medicine reverted back to what it was in the past —

    AFFORDABLE — for most everybody (not just the 1% with Platinum Health insurance Plans),

    THOROUGH — with adequate time and attention paid by the doctor to the patient,

    SIMPLE — dispensing with the multitude of tests, prescriptions, and specialists, which have no proven worth in an overwhelming majority of cases,

    STREAMLINED — disposing of an enormous, bloated bureaucracy of overpaid, paper-pushing administrators which add significantly to the overall medical costs of everybody.

    That would be TRULY revolutionary.

  14. goat1001 November 3, 2014 at 11:09 am #

    We’ve got Ebola and ISIS. I wonder who the third Horseman is?

    • Ken Hall November 3, 2014 at 11:34 am #

      My choices for the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse in order of importance:

      Too many fucking humans
      Too much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere
      Too many psychopaths in charge
      Too many nuclear weapons

      • the blame/e November 3, 2014 at 11:46 am #

        “Too many nuclear weapons” is not the problem. Too few nuclear buttons is the problem. Push and push often, and keep pushing.

      • Frankiti November 3, 2014 at 7:57 pm #

        You all suffer from the 84th problem. Thousands upon thousands of years ago a chump was sitting in his cave complaining about an approaching ice age and dwindling mammoth populations. There is no forever, there is only now.

    • the blame/e November 3, 2014 at 11:48 am #

      We have plenty of horsemen. The problem is nothing is going to happen until all these horsemen (and horsewomen) stop fighting over who will be “the four” and start riding. I don’t know why this is the case; just some stupid rule somebody made up.

      • goat1001 November 3, 2014 at 12:05 pm #

        Ebola and ISIS are already riding, Peak Oil and Climate Change are just now saddling up…

    • BackRowHeckler November 3, 2014 at 1:21 pm #

      Forget about Revelations.

      What’s needed now is a careful reading of Albert Camus’ ‘The Plague”.

      brh

      • BackRowHeckler November 3, 2014 at 1:41 pm #

        Also Kafka’s “Metomorphosis’.

        Those two books should be enough to get you in the right frame of mind for the twin disasters of Ebola and especially EV68, brought into the US by tens of thousands of illegals dropped into our public schools (not the private schools of the elite), with characteristics similar to polio and meningitis. which has killed or crippled dozens of kids across the country, kids like little Eli Wallek, a triplet from NJ gone at 5 years old.

        Obama and La Raza need to answer for the death little boy.

        –brh

        • BackRowHeckler November 3, 2014 at 1:42 pm #

          (of that)

          • the blame/e November 3, 2014 at 4:29 pm #

            It is not the stories, but the writing that makes the reader so depressed you want to kill yourself. Besides, Camus and Kafka have become so political that any mention of them or their work summons an immediate dis-confirmation by the authorities. In the current politically correct environment, you can’t even talk about smart people with smart people.

      • the blame/e November 3, 2014 at 3:02 pm #

        I just got through watching “Contagion” over an “Outbreak” weekend. Does that count?

    • abbybwood November 3, 2014 at 6:06 pm #

      Rebirth of the Third Reich in America??:

      http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article40109.htm

    • qisqisqis November 7, 2014 at 12:13 pm #

      wal mart?

  15. 99 cent nation November 3, 2014 at 11:17 am #

    “All this goes on, by the way, because an essential problem remains: the world cannot pay back its accumulated debt and the money maestros of world finance don’t dare even try to unwind it in an orderly manner, fearing they will open up an international monetary sucking chest wound of deflationary doom.” Just 0’s and 1’s on the pinball machine we call civilization ever since we bought into the linear time frame.

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    • GutenbergGuy November 3, 2014 at 4:05 pm #

      I don’t think there’s all that much wrong with a linear timeframe.

      I think violating the laws of physics is much more pressing. For children and other living things.

  16. volodya November 3, 2014 at 11:23 am #

    So it appears that a German bank is now charging depositors to stash their money. Negative interest rates IOW. For the longest time now ALL the talking heads on TV were saying that interest rates have nowhere to go but up.

    Wrong again.

    So what gives? A few possibilities 1) Europe can no longer take a piss standing up (Tm Edge of Tomorrow) 2) the European banking system is run by fucking lunatics 3) both of the foregoing

    Neat way to make money though ain’t it? Don’t have to bother to find borrowers, qualify them and all that other boring shit. No, you just scrape it off deposit balances.

    And we still have Chance the Gardener Greenspan to entertain us.

    Here’s a suggestion, if we want the collapse of the financial system, which what these guys are shooting for by the looks of it though I couldn’t imagine why, start charging people to deposit. They’ll eventually say screw this and start burying their dough in jars. Yeah, that’s the ticket, start a run on the banks.

    • the blame/e November 3, 2014 at 11:43 am #

      Good thoughts, but a run on the bank has already been carried out by the FED, under the Zero Interest Rate Policy ZIRP. Negative Interest Rate Policy NIRP is just the criminal shyster Central Banksters looking at ZIRP and wondering if the people are really that sheeple?

    • Smoky Joe November 3, 2014 at 1:25 pm #

      “Chance the Gardener Greenspan”

      I spit coffee at that. Yes, there will be growth in the Spring.

      • the blame/e November 3, 2014 at 3:05 pm #

        Except, for most Americans, things have gone from “Being There” to being no where.

    • GutenbergGuy November 3, 2014 at 4:12 pm #

      Well, I see banks advertising .65%. Given the rate of inflation that IS charging your depositors to just to deposit their money.

      The mattress has an abundance of uses. More uses – even fun ones – than a bank! And, it doesn’t beep or need recharging (I know, some probably do), and Sleep Train will even take the old one away.

      Are the banks giving away toasters again?

  17. the blame/e November 3, 2014 at 11:31 am #

    You keep writing about how bad things are and how things are only getting non-demonstratingly worse and worse, day by day, blog by blog. While your audience may agree with you (and others), they really don’t want consequences at all, for the simple reason that they are probably unhappy enough just the way they are.

    Some of your audience, our dis-affected youth, are running off to join the only revolution available to them to save their country and overthrow this government — an Islamic revolution.

    Al-Qaida, ISIS, ISIL, IS, the Taliban, Iran (radicalized extremist Muslim Central as far as the US government is concerned), Communist China (where our whole economy went), Russia (our immortal enemy no matter what anybody says, and where Edward Snowden went to seek refuge). These, and more, are all the enemies pitted against the “Greatest Nation on Earth.”

    Unfortunately, the greatest enemy this country faces, the truth of the matter, the greatest enemy of the US is her own government. “We have seen the enemy and it is us.” Somebody out there said how the US should be spending all these borrowed trillions of dollars fighting the FBI, the CIA, the Department of Homeland Security, the IRS, the FED, the drones, the NSA, the Patriot Act, the secret courts, the criminal shyster politicians and banksters, the moneyed elites, and the corporate oligarchs — just to name a few. But that will never happen. Deep down your audience knows this, just as they know and want a change that will never come (bring in the chorus, singing “Thank God!” That is my bet anyway.

    A decade or so from now things will still be the same, still getting worse and worse, day by day. If we are lucky the government will have just moved from fear-mongering Radical Islam, Ebola and Climate Change and moved right on to declaring war upon the American People (as though this government hasn’t been doing just this for the past 100-years).

    Most Americans will wish for the good old days, when the only bogeyman the country had to worry about were Communists and Communist Sympathizers; some vague concept. With all the enemies this country has it won’t be one Joseph McCarthy getting even with the American People, but several and many, representing a government that seeks to blame the people for their regime, a government who now seeks revenge against their clueless and confused debt slaves.

    “Are you, or were you, ever a member of the James Howard Kunstler blogosphere?” Are you, or were you ever the running dog for the likes of Dmitry Orlov, Chris Martenson, Richard Heinberg? Did you ever read Zero Hedge? Did you ever own a copy of “The Long Emergency” or “The End of Growth”, or know anyone who did?

    This has already started. The “Black Balling” or the 1950s has been replaced with the “Banning” of the 21ST Century. And Americans are eating it up.

    • volodya November 3, 2014 at 12:56 pm #

      The scenario you’re laying out – a prolonged period of year by year degradation, decline, immiseration, oppression – could be in the cards. This is, after all, what we’ve been seeing for the past forty years.

      I don’t know how old you are but I’ve been around a while. We have young folks in our extended family that are just out of university, very smart and well travelled (having studied overseas) but who haven’t got the perspective that a long succession of years on this planet gives you.

      To them this is “normal”. This is how it is.

      So how does your scenario play out? Older guys like me die off, we retire willingly or not and like the old in all periods in history, we’re written off as fogies, mired in times gone by. And nobody listens to us.

      I remember how I thought of my own parents, grandparents and older relatives when they told me of the upheavals of the early 20th century, things that they saw and experienced. I listened and I thought, that’s nice, but that was then and this is now. Things are “different”. These are “modern” times.

      And, to a large extent, I was right. I had a standard of living they couldn’t have dreamt of. They were Depression Era starvelings, I was of the Space Age, I watched as Gagarin, Glenn, Sheppard and the rest of the guys with the “right stuff” got blasted into orbit.

      Yeah, I know, it wasn’t all fun and wonderment – no need to recount the death-fests in Vietnam, Cambodia, China and other places.

      Now, having said all that, time marches on. And things change. I saw the peak of the Pax Americana (for lack of a better term), the best years prosperity- wise in the 1950s and 1960s. And it’s been downhill since then. Gradually, year-by year, down, down, down…

      But the young folks didn’t see the best of times. They don’t have that perspective. They don’t know where we came from. And they soon will be taking power. IMO it’s THAT fact that buttresses your argument. I don’t see or sense the same disquiet and unhappiness in younger folk (that guys like me feel) that could propel events and it’s that absence that provides a certain societal inertia.

      However, you see, I personally subscribe to the “spasm” theory of history. I had a discussion a couple weeks ago with other posters about people not being able to see events before we’re engulfed in them. Mr Darling said that wasn’t necessarily the case, that there were people that saw economic disasters coming. And I would agree with him on that.

      But, by and large, I think the events and especially the calamities of the 20th Century astonished most people when they arrived, for example, as to their immensity, the sheer scale.

      And their seeming improbability. Like Germany fighting ANOTHER two-front war? And, for example, the fall of the USSR. The world without the USSR was and still is, to guys like me, hard to imagine. Yet here we are. The Kremlin still stands but now it’s authoritarians and immensely rich oligarchs in it’s passageways. Who could have imagined that? Who would have imagined polls taken in Russia gauging Putin’s popularity? Not so long ago such a thing would have been un-imaginable.

      This isn’t to say we’ll have repeats of 20th Century or 19th Century convulsions. But I suspect that, while there could be periods as you describe them, they will be punctuated by “sudden” changes of course in events, that nobody or few people saw coming, that cause rapid dislocation. That is, no more BAU. Time will tell.

      Maybe you’re right, that the thought of catastrophe is fine to talk about, week in and week out, but nobody wants to live through it. I think that we won’t have a choice.

      Which do you prefer? Long periods as you describe them? Or “spasms” in human affairs? Matter of taste I suppose.

      • Smoky Joe November 3, 2014 at 1:24 pm #

        History does rhyme. Regular sonnet in the Middle East, in fact, for centuries.

      • the blame/e November 3, 2014 at 2:49 pm #

        “So how does your scenario play out? Older guys like me die off, we retire willingly or not and like the old in all periods in history, we’re written off as fogies, mired in times gone by. And nobody listens to us.”

        The social contract stipulates that we live in a society where you either work or you starve. This worked as long as you lived in a real world where there were jobs.

        When all the facts surrounding actual participation rates, in such programs as unemployment insurance, disability, Food Stamps, actual enrollment in school lunch programs, the actual length of lines at local food banks, actual number of Americans on some kind of public assistance . . . when all this data is controlled, rigged and manipulated . . . these facts are nothing but lies. Even when most Americans are living nothing but very open deaths under full employment, you will never hear a thing about it. That is how good this country has gotten at lying to itself.

        If you are young and unemployed you are crashing on a friend’s couch; but if you are old and unemployed and you are homeless.

        We are told by somebody, over and over, about how 60 is the new 40, regardless of the facts that people still get too old, too tired, too worn out, too used up, to work anymore – even if there were jobs out there, or any meaning attached to them, or employers who would hire them, which there are not.

        The future is a country where the hope about how work will set you free becomes a parody, where the ultimate irony is “Abeit Macht Frei.” What else do you call a government that reserves the right on to itself to lie, to cheat, to steal, to commit any crime, to tell any lie, and with greater powers (The Patriot Act), than those found in the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, or some Rule of Law?

        You will never hear the truth when lies have become so priced in, like the actual lengths of unemployment for the millions of people past a certain age, or what happens to them. This time it is the whole world that knows how the United States of America is a death camp; where you either work or you starve, in a country where there are no jobs, just endless labor in many jobs, working endless hours under a secret law called the “Fluctuating Work Week” that says how you are required to be available for work from one minute before midnight to the last minute before midnight on the same day. I kid you not. The Nazis would be so proud.

        Forget about everything you thought you knew about Russian winters. The coming American winters have already begun. The Polar Vortex was just the warm-up (sorry) for things already here; just don’t expect pictures of Americans frozen in their dying moments out of doors, in the blowing snow. These pictures that will never be allowed to be taken; and if taken, then never be allowed to be shown.

        You will never hear about the fates of any American whose old age nest eggs were stolen from them in broad daylight, by professional money speculators and money managers who exposed one-hundred percent of their old age pensions to risk, and the Crash of ’08 – 09″ and the loss of 50-percent of a retirement they were never going to be allowed anyway.

        You will never hear about the fates of older Americans, and what really happened when it came time for them to start receiving promised benefits, from all that money they paid into all those under-funded (read: stolen from) public and private pensions. The same goes for their bankrupt Social Security, and soon to be bankrupt Medicaid and Medicare. But this will happen. And when the world comes asking what we knew and when did we knew it, and what happened to those tens of millions of dead Americans forced out doors, what will we will say? What is always said: we had no idea such things were going on. Where exactly was the government supposed to send those checks too anyway; what tree, what highway underpass, what abandoned house in Detroit, or any city in America?

        The United States of America has become a death camp. Just listen to how our politicians and presidents refer to Americans – the undesirables, the dissidents, the disabled, the mentally deficient, the unemployed, the Jews, the radical Muslim extremists, the infirm, and the old. Good luck with that interview at WalMart. Sorry things didn’t pan out, working the graveyard shift at McDonalds. Working two, three and even four jobs and still cannot get out of the shelter? Consider yourself lucky.

    • Janos Skorenzy November 3, 2014 at 2:13 pm #

      McCarthy was right on just about everything. His mistake was underestimating how much America was already infiltrated by Communism – and by imagining that it was only coming from Russian Commissars and not Manhattan Bankers.

      • dannyboy November 4, 2014 at 2:20 pm #

        Janos,

        I just now registered on this site to enable me to object to your weak-minded comments.

        I was a Manhattan banker for 30 years.

        You got a problem with that?

        And, oh yea, I’m a Jew.

        Now were talkin’!

    • GutenbergGuy November 3, 2014 at 4:56 pm #

      One very important difference: “Worse” now is a lot worse than “worse” was in 1950.

      I am one JHK reader who believes we are at a tipping point. The industrial world has done so much damage it may be irreversible, unstoppable – and that is the real import of the insidious denial that is “banning” the 21st century.

      If History still a discipline in 100 years there may be those who observe, “You had all that science and knowledge, all that technology, and you refused to use it.”

      And we are at the mercy of two groups that see total annihilation as some sort of salvation. Just TRY to change that.

  18. Beryl of Oyl November 3, 2014 at 12:19 pm #

    Remember how, as children, when we first learned about monetary policy, we always came up with the idea that the government could just print more and more money, if their wasn’t ‘enough’? It’s kind of the universal solution of five-year-olds.
    No one need worry, all those people who’ve been streaming over our Southern border are going to need houses, aren’t they? Walmart and McDonald’s are going to be shamed into paying them fifteen dollars an hour, and with subsidized health care and free daycare (preschool), everything will be fine.

    • SteveO November 3, 2014 at 3:21 pm #

      OMG, the worlds central banks are being run by people with the mentality of five-year-olds.

      What happens when they “take their ball and go home”?

      • ZrCrypDiK November 3, 2014 at 3:44 pm #

        “the grift that keeps on giving”

        I knew there whuz a reason I kept coming back – haha! K-dog the “first” poaster, amazing (popcorn in hand)…

      • dannyboy November 4, 2014 at 2:22 pm #

        They’re takin’ your ball.

        They’re not 5 year old innocents, they’re bad. Keep your focus on just how bad they are.

        Your friend,
        dannyboy

    • GutenbergGuy November 3, 2014 at 5:06 pm #

      My parents, children of the Depression and WWII, most certainly did NOT teach me that.

      They did, however, tell me that thanks to Franklin Roosevelt what happened in 1929 would never happen again. That was the promise, and that was why all that New Deal legislation was passed.

      Forty years ago the Democratic Party turned its back on that promise and Bill Clinton destroyed the very legislation that held this country’s low-rent economy together for decades.

      Now we have a minimum wage with less purchasing power than the minimum wage had in 1979, 80% of us want it increased, and our National Congress refuses to do it.

      If you live in an urban or suburban area you may have noticed that ridership on public transportation is increasing. How long do you think it will take this country’s politician’s even to notice?

      Our money-grubbing political system is our worst enemy.

  19. barbisbest November 3, 2014 at 12:22 pm #

    Great post Sir James. Fragility indeed, like walking on eggshells.But Millenials, and any interested persons. Do you believe in hope and love. ..well I got something to say about it. There are different ways to look at things. Google Findhorn in Scotland. Founded in 1962. The largest intentional eco-community in the UK. Think outside the box.
    Findhorn’s motto, Follow the Rainbow, to Findhorn.

    • dannyboy November 4, 2014 at 2:24 pm #

      barbisbest,

      Yes.

      But you can be honest and call these monsters by their name and you can create an alternative at the same time.

      In fact, it’s always best to be honest with yourself about who you are up against.

  20. FincaInTheMountains November 3, 2014 at 1:15 pm #

    “Gold Standard is a VERY BAD idea.” – FincaIn
    “Please give us your logic and supporting evidence” CancelMyCard

    Long European Depression of 1873–79, kicked off by the Panic of 1873, and followed by the Panic of 1893, book-ending the entire period of the wider Long Depression.

    After Bismark introduced the Gold Deutsche mark in 1873 (Part of his deal with Rothschilds to finance the 1870 Franco-Prussian War), the process of introducing the Gold Standard in Europe greatly accelerated. The European Long Depression coincided with that event, so the correlation is evident.

    The primary cause of the price depression in the United States at the same time was the tight monetary policy that the US followed to get back to the gold standard after the US Civil War.

    The US government was taking money out of circulation to achieve this goal, therefore there was less available money to facilitate trade.

    Because of this monetary policy the price of silver started to fall causing considerable losses of asset values; by most accounts, after 1879 production was growing, thus further putting downward pressure on prices due to increased industrial productivity, trade and competition.
    ===================================================

    There should be ALWAYS enough money in circulation to support current level of trade and industrial activity, not more, not less. I know it is a very delicate balance, but qualified professionals at the Nation Central bank under the right policy could achieve it.

    Problem with Gold Standard is that it puts an unnecessary choke-hold on business activity, artificially linking up absolutely unrelated things.

    Obviously, the ONLY people who would greatly benefit from the Gold Standard are the one with shit load of Gold, like Rothschild Group.

    Gold could be used in INTERNATIONAL trade and ONLY to settle up current account deficits (as any other commodity on agreement by both parties), for that you need a hell of a lot less gold than for Currency Gold Standard.

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    • jgm68 November 3, 2014 at 1:38 pm #

      Look up the Great Gold Robbery in 1933 under FDR. Serious stuff there…..

      • FincaInTheMountains November 3, 2014 at 2:20 pm #

        Roosevelt with his Emergency Banking Act of 1933 did what he had to do – he preferred saving millions of Americans from starvation rather than saving somebody’s gold stash.

        I personally applaud him for that.

        • seawolf77 November 6, 2014 at 10:12 am #

          No one ever made a deal with the devil becasue they were evil. That in essence is the folly of humans. There is always a good reason to do the wrong thing, just like there is always a good reason to lie.

  21. swmnguy November 3, 2014 at 1:15 pm #

    I’m getting to the point where I can barely stand to listen to any “Economic” or “Financial” news or analysis any more.

    These are human abstract constructions. They are not “real.” They cannot be cited as if they were laws of physics. The notion that too much debt will inevitably cause something is a fallacy, because it’s all abstract. In about 2005 I became convinced that all the debt and the housing bubble would have to, by its own logic, cause a horrific collapse, and then we’d have to go onto the gold standard or something similar due to lack of an alternative.

    So what happened? Between 2007 and 2009, the finance system did indeed collapse. So, it being an abstract human mental construct, they just changed the rules. Trillions of dollars suddenly came into notional being, patched the holes below the waterline of the system, and we continue using the same abstract system.

    What’s driving the malaise of the global 95% who hate what’s happening is not that anything is different, or that an inevitable disaster is growing ever more near. It’s that nothing at all is different, except now more and more people have realized that it won’t change, and they had been hoping for and counting on that.

    When the dominant global economic system is based on a shared delusion that can be changed and fundamentally altered at any time, it’s pointless to analyze the rules of that system and extrapolate outcomes.

    Whatever comes along to force that system to change fundamentally, or collapse, will have to come from outside that system. It will have to be physical, concrete, and tangible, so the rules cannot merely be changed to avoid the destruction of the economic system. The submergence of the US Eastern Seaboard could do that. The “Big Quake” on the Western Seaboard could do that. A massive solar flare deleting our power grid could do that. But the consequences of the next round of the game of abstract paper-pushing will not do that, except as elites see an advantage to be garnered. So it’s pointless to spend too much time delving into that mental system.

    • the blame/e November 3, 2014 at 3:53 pm #

      I feel for you. I really do. But the past is more than an abstraction. Things really are much, much worse than your writing indicates. The past is a construct. It all depends upon who is writing the history.

    • GutenbergGuy November 3, 2014 at 5:24 pm #

      I think part of this stems from the fact that the ones who claim to believe in all that mumbo jumbo maintain that there ARE rules – maybe that only they can understand, and thus can change to suit their whims, and blah, blah, blah. But rules there are and WE must obey them. Of course, the rules are what THEY say they are today.* It’s their made-up system, and their rules. Nothing you can do about it either. Sort of like being in the clutches of a psychopath. One who even claims that his system is scientific!

      *Be sure to read the small print though.

      They talk as though there is a “Free Market” whose rules MUST be relied upon, no matter what, no matter if they have to be changed midstream. Anyone who has followed the history of organized religion should recognize this blarney right off.

    • dannyboy November 4, 2014 at 2:27 pm #

      I think it best to ‘know your enemy’.

      Can’t hurt.

  22. FincaInTheMountains November 3, 2014 at 1:29 pm #

    For United States to go today on the gold standard would be equivalent to be selling gold all that time under $1500/ounce just to start buying it back probably at $2500 and higher. (may be much higher)

    Not a bright idea.

  23. jgm68 November 3, 2014 at 1:29 pm #

    A bit late to comment but…….we need to wrap our heads around the fact that money isn’t real. Thus, debt isn’t real either. Yes, by zeroing out everyone’s debt investors will get pummeled but this could be the reset that is needed. Additionally, it would reorder costs and salaries to be more aligned and kill off the vampire credit industry. China will implode as a result, but that’s not our problem. Economies and societies have survived meltdowns before. Yes, there is usually some Hollywoodesque violence, but, today, Rome still stands. As does Greece and even the formerly impressive Moscow.

    Let’s just call this bullshit game what it is. Let the bankers fry and let’s move onto a more realistic reordering of things away from this Friedmanian globalist fantasy. The fabricated societies of the Middle East, Asia and the Indian sub-continent, will get a visit from Malthus. Tragic, but they decided to dance with the Devil….I mean US….

    • Buck Stud November 3, 2014 at 2:23 pm #

      Interesting post and by zeroing out everybody’s debt I presume you mean those of the foreign ilk: the debt slaves citizens of the U.S. will not be afforded that luxury. So, the vampire credit industry would remain in place until every last drop of citizen blood had been sucked dry, never mind that the U.S. Govt has cancelled its foreign debt obligations.

      And neither will the nations that owe the U.S. money or U.S corporations money afforded a canceling of debt. So it all adds up to war and and the inevitable global mantra of ” what reserve currency did you say?”

      The day’s of the U.S. winning world wars’ would be done, gone over.(And it’s amusing to me that people somehow think the Chinese have accepted a role of ‘sitting duck’ with no backup plan. But those oceans of packed cargo suggest a different scenario along with nasty military capabilities.)

    • dannyboy November 4, 2014 at 2:29 pm #

      Soooos,

      If money isn’t real, and the debt isn’t real either…

      …then the death and destruction they cause aren’t real either?

      hmmmm?

  24. FincaInTheMountains November 3, 2014 at 2:09 pm #

    “we need to wrap our heads around the fact that money isn’t real” jgm68

    Is information real? Money is most abstract informational representation of Human Economic Activity – and it is real enough.

    To support high level of comfort and civilization we need high level of labor separation – that should be obvious. To support high level of labor separation we need a numerical exchange system regulated in common interests by the National Governments on the local level and by International Treaties (and watchdog organizations) for foreign exchange.

    Money should be regulated by National Governments in the interests of promoting the highest level of economic activity and fulfillment by its citizens of their creative abilities – and such definition would be in total accordance with current Constitution of the United States. New credit (money) creation should be a Bill of Congress signed by the President (total transparency).

    The most desired way of issuing new money into a circulation would be on a project-base level, the bigger the project and more high-tech, the better. Project should be of National or Local (State) importance – building human and business infrastructure in the broadest sense of that word.

    I even have a suggestion that money that used to build a highway, or a damn or a hospital or a university should have an art work commemorating objects they have helped to build.

    • Janos Skorenzy November 3, 2014 at 2:26 pm #

      Remember, ancient Israel cancelled all debts every fifty years – it was called the Jubilee. You said the Jews were the smartest people so why don’t we follow their lead on this?

      Sure we pay the Bankers back – in the same coin as they lent to us: out of nothing. So we just write them a multi-trillion dollar check and let them find someone to cash it. They’re the “Bankers” after all.

      Look, you’re a smart guy but smart people are often the last to see the truth of simple things because they always look for answers in greater complexity. The Bankers issued meaningless money and from that are able to get real labor, property, and capital in return. It’s as if you could buy a Monopoly game fro 25 dollars and then use all the Monopoly money inside as real money. So we repay them in Monopoly Money and send them packing. That’s letting them off easy. Justice would demand far harsher penalties but such measures might lead to civil or even world war – which might happen anyway.

      • FincaInTheMountains November 3, 2014 at 2:50 pm #

        Probably under current circumstances the equivalent of ancient Jubilee would be restoration of Roosevelt’s Glass Steagall act of 1933 separating the legitimate commercial banking from speculative gambling banking.

        Most of Too Big To Fail banks would be put through bankruptcy and split apart, majority of their gambling debts (especially in fancy derivatives) would be cancelled, written away.

        However, we can’t put ENTIRE banking system into chaos and write off legitimate commercial and private loans. If you got a legitimate loan for reasonably-priced house with check of your ability to pay back, those loans should be kept, unless you are unemployed due to Depression – exceptions could be made, payments could be put on hold for the duration of the Depression.

      • capt spaulding November 4, 2014 at 11:31 am #

        That’s a wonderful solution to Banker payback. I support it completely.

      • dannyboy November 4, 2014 at 2:31 pm #

        Am i sensing a fixation?

        your dannyboy

    • seawolf77 November 6, 2014 at 10:00 am #

      Money is a fungible proxy for productive capacity or output.

  25. Q. Shtik November 3, 2014 at 3:46 pm #

    In the process of getting myself un-banned I communicated a few times with Jim’s “tech-guy” Neil. Once my issue was resolved I asked Neil what’s up with the time stamp on all the comments being off by 20-25 minutes or so —— this is something that seems not to have bothered anyone on this blog for the past several years except Progress4what and myself —— and Neil responded “Interesting.” Until I informed him of this situation he was unaware. Soooo, all those comments by Prog and me just disappeared into the ether. It simply wasn’t on Jim’s bucket list of concerns to be resolved.

    OK, here’s my point…Neil said he was going to fix the time stamp. I am going to submit this post at 3:46pm. Lets see what happens.

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    • Q. Shtik November 3, 2014 at 3:47 pm #

      Well I’ll be go-to-hell…he fixed it!!

      • Q. Shtik November 3, 2014 at 4:08 pm #

        “Well I’ll be go-to-hell” – Q
        ==========

        This is an expression I picked up from my father who used it frequently. Is this expression still in use? I don’t recall hearing it anymore.

        • ZrCrypDiK November 3, 2014 at 5:28 pm #

          Q responds to himself *5* times in a row…

          *HAPPY* yet?

          • Farmer McGregor November 3, 2014 at 6:12 pm #

            Funny Q!

            If nobody else will respond to you, well then… !

            My dad also used that phrase in the same sort of context of surprise. It hasn’t occurred to me to use it until now. Gee thanks!
            –Greg

          • Q. Shtik November 3, 2014 at 7:12 pm #

            Q responds to himself *5* times in a row…
            ============

            ZCD’s math is off a bit. Perhaps he fell off the wagon this afternoon. I wrote one comment plus 2, not 5, replies.

          • ZrCrypDiK November 5, 2014 at 11:50 pm #

            “Soooo, all those comments by Prog and me just disappeared into the ether.”

            Try again, *sockie*! And try *NOT* to reply to yourself *ad nauseum*… (heh)

  26. pkrugman November 3, 2014 at 5:38 pm #

    Japan will become the first advanced industrial nation to bid sayonara to modernity and return to a neo-medieval socio-economic model of daily life. — JHK, April 22, 2012

    Did not happen. Doesn’t look like it’s going to happen anytime this century.

    If the world had a face, it would have fragility written all over it. —JHK, Nov. 3, 2014

    When has it ever not been so, yet humankind is still here.

    I will be curious to see whether JHK repeats his annual prediction for another year (2015) that the DOW finish the year at 4,000. But it also means we only have less than two months left of 2014 for the DOW to fall to a year-end 4,000… as JHK has predicted for the last few years.

    As the conventional wisdom of the mouth breathing CFN says: “Things work, until they don’t”

    Duh… What brilliance! Not.

    Here is the truth: Things work and then continue to work even better.

    For example, the average cost of solar panels has gone from $76.67/watt in 1977 to just $0.613/watt today. PV will soon be at parity with natural gas and coal (using LCOE to compare costs of different energy technologies.)

    Market doom is not cooperating: Today (and all last week) the DOW has done nothing but go up.

    [sarcasm on]
    The rising DOW scares me. I am getting out of the market completely before the inevitable crash… the crash hinted at on CFN week after week, year after year, decade after decade. The global crash that will make 2007 look like child’s play. I am now a believer. Things are too good to be true. We will soon join Japan and be living “a neo-medieval (tm JHK) socio-economic model of daily life” Yes, got to get my money out of the market before the big crash. I will buy useful things like gold, guns, ammo, and a big-ass supply of food stocks.
    [sarcasm off]

    LOL!

    • seawolf77 November 6, 2014 at 10:04 am #

      Tell that to the Babylonians, the Assyrians, the Greeks, the Romans, the Ottoman, the British and all the other empires that have collapsed. Once the wheel is set in motion, there is no other outcome possible. Empires expand until they can no longer afford too, currency debasement ensues, and then its just sand in an hourglass.

  27. contrahend November 3, 2014 at 7:09 pm #

    As the conventional wisdom of the mouth breathing CFN…

    haha, thanks for perking me up with a good laugh, pkrugman, sorry i yelled at you man, we’re buds after all’s said and done. here’s to being an ‘optimist’, read: seeing things as they really is – good and getting better.

    the world belongs to us (all colors & stripes) banding together against cthonian naysayers that are consistently wrong.

    history and the times laugh at these endtymers.

    your solar example points that up bigtime – as do countless solar examples i’ve provided over lo these many moons, to a chorus of doom.

    jhk’s dow 4000 trade is really getting short squeezed, lol.

    i think both jimmy kunstler & the majority of the respondents out here are blinded by what they think they know.

    meanwhile, oil falls, technology improves drastically, efficiency continues to improve massively, nanotechnology is ushering in untold possibilities for improvements undreamt of, we’ve entered an epoch of energy ascent.

    kontrahend

    • qisqisqis November 7, 2014 at 12:51 pm #

      Wow. An optimist on CFN?

      I agree things are probably worse than we really know. But I don’t buy into inevitable collapse because the “masters of mankind” would be shooting themselves in the head at the same time as the mob is starving in the streets and warring over water and food.

      Not an endgame the masters want to see, in my view. Keeping the class system going in the US alongside nominal gains for labor and the 95% is preferable, no?

  28. Frankiti November 3, 2014 at 7:43 pm #

    Do not deny climate change. Of course climate changes, and it will continue to do so until the earth is enveloped by the sun or the universe freezes from heat death and so on. Of course humans contribute to and exacerbate the change. We are more guilty of spoiling the earth than changing the climate, the argument was poorly framed, but what is the reason behind the climate change mantra? Human climate change? Of course, a human solution. Namely, a new tradable international commodity; carbon offset credits. A new commodity that promised riches for the early adapters like…Tony Blair and the other politicians that invested heavily in the trading framework. The Earth cannot be “saved” and a changing climate cannot be stopped, but trading credits can make more than a few people more wealthy and make people think humanity is headed down the right path.

    It’s an invented commodity, and people here fret about an invented currency. Money does not exist. The constraints of money on humanity are evaporating. If the people that matter do not care, so long as they can get more of it and its value remains relatively fixed, what of a bunch of doom courting fringe wackadoos complain on an “ender” blog? You don’t matter, as the money does not matter. New false commodities will come forward and we will all no it is not real except that it makes the right people wealthy and the marginalized angry.

  29. pkrugman November 3, 2014 at 8:51 pm #

    Not long ago we were going to war with Russia… anybody remember?

    Two weeks ago the ISIL caliphate was going to chop off our heads…

    Just last week were all going to die from Ebola…

    What happened with that?

    Now QE is over? Debt out of control? Oh, no!

    What next? Hyperinflation? (been waiting for 30 years)

    Deflationary doom? A Republican Senate?

    Are you ready to be really scared? Boo!

    • Buck Stud November 3, 2014 at 9:30 pm #

      Well, Mr. P. Kelly Rugman at least one of those scenarios will actually prove true and happen: The GOP will rent the Senate for the next two years.

      Which begs the question, how can you be so upbeat? Because the nation I live in is filled with assholes; scumbag Kock sucking Republicans and apathetic Democrats too lazy to vote.

      Have a nice day.

      • Janos Skorenzy November 4, 2014 at 12:56 am #

        You mean Koch sucking? Buck, you’re making an effort to balance out your mental digitalis. So Bravo. Now continue. It’s good those Democrats don’t vote. Now if we can just keep the illegals from voting….

        • dannyboy November 4, 2014 at 2:35 pm #

          Janos,

          Latino problem too?

          get along with anyone?

          • Janos Skorenzy November 4, 2014 at 3:27 pm #

            O Danny Boy, the pipe, the pipe is calling you….

            Admit it: you think Illegals have the right to vote. And you don’t have a problem with Blacks voting multiple times as long as it for a Democrat.

            Remember, a weed is any plant that you don’t want growing where it’s growing. I have nothing against Latinos – back where they belong.

            Lay off the pipe for a couple of days until your head clears, and then THINK AGAIN WHITE MAN.

          • dannyboy November 4, 2014 at 6:00 pm #

            Janos,

            Is you reference an attack on the Irish now? You hater!

            And where do Latinos belong dear Janos? You have fears of everyone who is not you. That is the definition of a Paranoid.

            Yes I am a white male. And I live with people with differing origins. Would you have every single person stay in the house they were born?

            You are not welcome to spread your hate. I never smoked a pipe, but, if I did, it would never change my opinion of your hate-spreading.

            Grow up or off yourself, you have NOTHING to contribute.

    • BackRowHeckler November 4, 2014 at 7:51 am #

      Don’t be too sure, PK.

      Trouble is brewing again in east Ukraine, in fact fighting has continued thru the entire so called ‘ceasefire’. According to guests last nite on PBS News Hour a much larger war, one that might include the US and Russia, could break out any day. According to them, (one from the Carnegie Institute, another a Princeton professor) its a serious situation going on right now out in the Bloodlands.

      brh

  30. Pucker November 3, 2014 at 9:34 pm #

    In the U.S., people use the term “Fired Up”. The Australians use the term “Stoked”. In Australia, the last sentence of the paragraph below would read: “Voters from the Republic Party are much more stoked.”

    (Reuters) – A daunting reality looms for President Barack Obama’s Democrats ahead of U.S. congressional elections on Tuesday: Voters from the Republican Party are much more fired up.

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  31. Pucker November 3, 2014 at 9:48 pm #

    As compared to white people, do negroes have any special mental problems apart from an inferiority complex?

    • Janos Skorenzy November 4, 2014 at 1:03 am #

      I though you’d never ask – yes damn it! They have good reason for their inferiority complex. Their inferiority complex is worse because they naturally have high esteem. Early explorers in Africa noticed that. It seem to be built in believe it or not. So if they are put to shame in competition with others, they become very angry along with feeling inferior. This is a big part of the cruelty of Liberalism that makes unequal peoples compete. Is it fair to make us compete in marathons against the mountain peoples of East Africa? It certainly is boring since we never win anymore. But we can handle it because it’s a fairly trivial thing. But intellect? Even Blacks know which is more important.

      • dannyboy November 4, 2014 at 2:38 pm #

        Janos,

        Who are you?

        why do you hate so much?

        does hating do something for you that you couldn’t otherwise do on your own?

        need to have other haters with you? afraid to be alone?

        crazy shit.

        your dannyboy

        • Janos Skorenzy November 4, 2014 at 3:31 pm #

          Who am I? Just a small part of something very big: the movement of the White Race to save itself and its culture. You are against both of these – yet you think I have to justify myself? Al contraire friend, you have to explain why you want to see our Race, Nation, and Culture destroyed.

          You think we can have Western Culture without Whites? Substitute that for Chinese Culture without Chinese. Now go talk to some Chinese people about that and get back to us. Or how about Judaism is multicultural culture Now and doesn’t need Jews anymore. And to say otherwise is racist. See how the Jews respond to that.

          • dannyboy November 4, 2014 at 6:31 pm #

            Janos,

            You calling black people inferior is contrary to out Nation. Don’t distort words to sound like I “want to see our Race, Nation, and Culture destroyed.” You have twisted EVERYTHING TO YOUR TWISTED SENSE OF SELF. Don’t blame be for you angst. I just got here. And observed.

            And when did I mention “Western Culture without Whites”? Your delusions are taking over ANY REASON REMAINING.

            By the way, had did you shoehorn in that entire last paragraph about Jews?

            Nutty, nutty, nutty.

            Need I go on?

        • Janos Skorenzy November 4, 2014 at 6:10 pm #

          You just told me to off myself and I’m the hater? “Liberals” are amazing people. You are a boor and a bore btw – and obviously unwilling/able to engage in any real dialogue.

          • dannyboy November 4, 2014 at 6:40 pm #

            Janos,

            I have taken your VERY INTELLIGENT CHALLENGE. So, yes I will recognize you, just enough to expose you.

            I have polled the collective audience in regard to your fkn “real dialogue”.

            The question that I asked is: “Does anyone agree with Janos Skorenzy?”. Responses should be telling.

            AND, WHILE WE ARE ON THE TOPIC OF RESPONSES, It does seem that I have responded to every single comment that you posted to me, you know…DIALOGUE.

            You, not so much.

  32. tennessee trailer trash November 3, 2014 at 9:53 pm #

    This is the worst possible news told in some of the best prose out there!! A lot of people say the same thing, but few, if any, in the same way. I’m normally not the comment kind of guy, but I couldn’t let this one go without saying something. Has some of the same spark and shimmer of some of the better Henry Miller passages. I’m going to buy one of your novels, oh King of Clusterfuck! Damn Dawg!

    • voight-kampff November 4, 2014 at 2:39 pm #

      Hear, hear!

      • MisterDarling November 6, 2014 at 1:06 am #

        VK:

        Like your handle. I was a “Blade Runner”/”Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” fan back in the day.

        Cheers!

    • dannyboy November 4, 2014 at 2:39 pm #

      I LOVE JIM’S LANGUAGE

      even as we disagree on some of the content.

      Buy his books, THEY ARE VERY WELL WRITTEN AND IMAGINATIVE, (even the non-fiction).

  33. Karah November 3, 2014 at 10:00 pm #

    The big omen today is the private sector failing to solve our energy problems: what replaces jet fuel? nothing.

  34. Q. Shtik November 3, 2014 at 10:18 pm #

    I went to a Target on Saturday [an] again on Sunday in Saratoga, CA, …… There was hardly anyone in the store. – St. Roy
    ================

    [and]

    It must depend on where you are. I went to the Midstate Mall in E. Bruns., NJ those same days looking for a printer. There’s a Staples and a Best Buy side by side. I had to ride up and down the parking lot aisles to find a spot.

    Similar story down in Miramar, FL 3 weeks ago, busy as hell. The population, heavily black and Hispanic, has increased 67% in the 10 years from 2000 to 2010. They’re all stocking supermarket shelves, cleaning hotel rooms or making pizzas. Everyone seems to have a nice late model car, very few beaters were visible. I don’t know how the hell they do it. One way, I suppose, is low property taxes. My taxes in Jersey are 12.15 times greater per year than what my brother (recently deceased) was paying. Granted, his place is much smaller, but still……

  35. pkrugman November 3, 2014 at 10:30 pm #

    “The GOP will rent the Senate for the next two years.” — Buck Stud

    I don’t share your pessimism. The Senate is a margin of error race that could go either way. We might not know until January.

    Let’s talk again on Thursday or Friday, OK?

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  36. Q. Shtik November 4, 2014 at 12:02 am #

    Oh Jesus, I might be in a shitload of trouble again. I tried to post a comment containing two links. The system didn’t like it.

    • Janos Skorenzy November 4, 2014 at 3:35 pm #

      do you dare to eat a peach, o Q? i apologize for capitalizing your name. it was too much to distrube the universe so

  37. Darkvisions November 4, 2014 at 12:33 am #

    Signs and Wonders, how interesting. In 1970 I went to college in Indianapolis. A portion of the students were into drugs, some were not. From my early childhood I had very interesting eperiences with dreams and in 1971 I started a dream journal. Finally away from my family I could accomplish what I wanted to do. I found this more fufilling than waking up stoned like some students in the morning classes. Right away I started to observe that many of my dreams had interesting messages so I continued with the journal for 43 years. I added a daily journal in 1981 just before John Lennon was shot. Many of my dreams do not give very specific information, mostly hints or visual examples. Some of these have occured in reality. On October 20, 2014 I had the most specific dream of my over 13,000 dreams written.

    THE DREAM BEGINS (in color): I am in a town I’ve never been in before, it is in a nice rural area. It is early afternoon with a slightly cloudy sky. I am visiting a farm or something like that and I am walking around the grounds when I come to an old barn or garage. I find a young man and child working on a peculiar machine that sort of works like a typewriter, but has very intricate workings and different purpose. Instead of electricity, it works using springs and gears. I go just inside the opening of the barn to look at it closer, it’s amazing to watch. The man is just outside the barn and I tell him about James Howard Kunstler and a book he wrote titled “WORLD MADE BY HAND”. I then take a large step out of the barn and turn left toward a, post fence, road & a dark brown brick building about 8 floors tall. It appears to be a late 19th century or early 1900’s structure. I then tell the man that if he can make a machine like that, he can make a building like that as well.

    This is the first time, in those 43 years, I specifically named a person and book they wrote, in a dream. The only thing I can think of, this dream was telling me is that the world changing event is closer than we think.

    • Janos Skorenzy November 4, 2014 at 1:05 am #

      If you had never read the book or heard of it, that would be significant. But since you have, it probably just means that the book had a bigger effect on you than you consciously realized.

      • dannyboy November 4, 2014 at 2:43 pm #

        Janos,

        You are an authority on Psychology in addition to being so expert on EVERYTHING?

        I hang on your every word.

        Oh, and what is the meaning of life?

        • Janos Skorenzy November 4, 2014 at 3:33 pm #

          You don’t fool me. You are in awe of me. Tomorrow you are probably going to leave an apple on my desk as you walk out. Denny Krane.

          • dannyboy November 4, 2014 at 5:52 pm #

            Janos,

            Your delusions serve only to keep you entrapped in your own warped mind.

            Is Denny Crane one of your personalities?

            How many are there?

            Do you fight each other?

            Sometimes think of killing each other?

            Do yourself a favor and take that advice.

            Just helping.

  38. FincaInTheMountains November 4, 2014 at 5:12 am #

    ISIS document sets prices of Christian and Yazidi slaves

    http://www.iraqinews.com/features/exclusive-isis-document-sets-prices-christian-yazidi-slaves/

    A document issued by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) mentioned the prices set by the terrorist group to sell Yazidi and Christian women and children abducted by its members.

    According to the document “The market to sell women and spoils of war has been experiencing a significant decrease, which has adversely affected ISIS revenue and financing of the Mujahideen.”

    ISIS decided to impose price controls over the sale of women and spoils, vowing to execute whoever violates those controls, which are as follows:

    A (Yazidi or Christian) woman, aged 40 to 50 years, is for 50,000 dinars.
    The rate of a (Yazidi or Christian) woman, aged 30 to 40 years, is 75,000 dinars.
    The rate for a (Yazidi or Christian) woman, aged 20 to 30 years, is 100,000 dinars.
    A (Yazidi or Christian) girl, aged 10 to 20 years, is for 150,000 dinars.
    A (Yazidi or Christian) child’s price, aged 1 to 9 years, is 200,000 dinars.

    According to the document, it is not authorized for any individual to purchase more than 3 spoils; except for foreigners like Turks, Syrians and Gulf Arabs.

    =============================================
    For the reference, 150,000 dinars = $129USD

    Congratulations, America, real good job on democracy in Iraq.

    • BackRowHeckler November 4, 2014 at 7:00 am #

      Think that will be in the Gender Studies Ciriculum at Dartmouth?

      • BackRowHeckler November 4, 2014 at 7:40 am #

        Also, FC, it should be mentioned, green eyed and blue eyed girls go at a premium. If there are any strands of blond hair apparent, well then, how much are you willing to pay?

        Girls are also traded for firearms. Colt M4s and Glock 9MMs will get you the youngest and most attractive girls.

        What happens to these girls once they are bought and paid for on the open slave market by ISIS fighters is unclear.

        I got this off British newspaper websites. Strangely, American media has been relatively mute on these developments.

        –brh

        • Janos Skorenzy November 4, 2014 at 2:22 pm #

          Even the Rug doesn’t talk about Islam being a religion of peace much anymore. Not like he did when he was Soak. Oh how the low have fallen! All things are decreasing: sugar is less sweet, fire less hot, water less wet, Soak less soak.

          • dannyboy November 4, 2014 at 2:45 pm #

            wtf?

            Now all of Islam is condemned? I must have missed the lead-up.

            Sugar changed…what!!!!!!!!!!!!!

            Fire???????????????????

            Water??????????????????????

            you sure know a lot

          • Janos Skorenzy November 4, 2014 at 3:40 pm #

            Yes, you can’t just show up in a conversation that’s been going on for years and get the whole gist immediately. That’s the first intelligent thing you’ve said.

            Junior, I mix poetry with fact with fantasy with humor with logic with gall. You’ll get used to it and learn to love it. Or not.

          • dannyboy November 4, 2014 at 5:49 pm #

            Janos

            Don’t refer to me as “Junior”. It will be more appropriate for you to address me as “Sir”.

            By “mix[ing] poetry with fact with fantasy with humor with logic with gall.” you create cover for your hate-filled, racist-filled creepy shit. You may find that amusing, but I can assure you that no one else does.

            You have isolated yourself into the world of your own making. So f’d up that no one will join you.

            Having fun yet?

  39. FincaInTheMountains November 4, 2014 at 5:24 am #

    Petrodollars leave world markets for first time in 18 years – BNP

    http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/11/03/emerging-oil-petrodollars-idUSL6N0ST2YZ20141103?feedType=RSS&feedName=rbssFinancialServicesAndRealEstateNews

    Nov 3 (Reuters) – Energy-exporting countries are set to pull their “petrodollars” out of world markets this year for the first time in almost two decades, according to a study by BNP Paribas.

    Driven by this year’s drop in oil prices, the shift is likely to cause global market liquidity to fall, the study showed.

    Brent crude futures have fallen 23 percent this year, with 2014 promising to be only the second year since 2002 that crude prices will end the year lower than they began it.
    ==================================================

    How in the world anybody could think that the FED is really going to end QE, beats me.

  40. contrahend November 4, 2014 at 8:23 am #

    Not long ago we were going to war with Russia… anybody remember?
    Two weeks ago the ISIL caliphate was going to chop off our heads…
    Just last week were all going to die from Ebola…
    What happened with that?
    Now QE is over? Debt out of control? Oh, no!
    What next? Hyperinflation? (been waiting for 30 years)
    Deflationary doom? A Republican Senate?
    Are you ready to be really scared? Boo!

    well let’s just keep going with more JHK/sycophant ‘certainties’…

    DOW 4,000
    Mayan calendar end of world
    Avian flu
    Riots in Greece signal end of Europe & the EU
    Riots in Sweden signal end of…something
    Say goodbye to the “consumer society.” [2009 blog]
    End of airline industry due to rising oil prices [but oil prices falling…]
    “Cars will be around for a while, of course,but as an increasingly elite activity.” – RIGHT
    The US electorate will vote in a ‘maniac’ to exact vengeance
    The US electroate is just about to…riot in the streets

    …and my favorite, JHK telling everyone it’ll be more valuable to learn to drive a mule than anything else.

    HAHA, keep ’em coming jimmy! we luvs ya!

    kontrahend

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  41. FincaInTheMountains November 4, 2014 at 9:28 am #

    “Trouble is brewing again in east Ukraine, in fact fighting has continued thru the entire so called ‘ceasefire’. According to guests last nite on PBS News Hour a much larger war, one that might include the US and Russia, could break out any day.” brh

    Don’t think so – the artillery duels never stopped, but I think that the combat action is frozen up to spring. However, there is definite increase in covert arms shipments to rebels – so called “Voentorg”.

    As for involving US direct boots-on-the-ground (aside for mercenaries and consultants) I don’t believe there is any chance of that any time soon.

    In East Ukraine a lot of infrastructure work – repairs of water and electricity lines, schools are opened for the new school year, the 5th or 6th humanitarian convoy arrived from Russia. There are even some talks that Kiev is going to buy some coal from the rebels to keep their electric grid going – they are already on periodic electric blackouts and the temperature in Kiev’s apartments is freezing cold – Kiev is mostly on the central heating.

    Ukrainians published a new textbook on history in which they maintain the the Ukrainian civilization is like 20,000 year old, that they dig up the Black Sea and the dirt went into building Caucasus Mountains. Idiots.

    • BackRowHeckler November 4, 2014 at 12:23 pm #

      FM I’ve also seen in a few other places things are heating up once again in E Ukraine. You know better than I do. One thing I didnt realize is that the Ukranian National Army suffered a pretty bad beating in August. Are you saying these people, both sides, won’t fight in Winter. The Soviets launched their 1939 war against Finland during winter, and crushed the German 6th Arm at Stalingrad Dec, 1942-Jan. 1943. The Red Army excelled at cold weather warfare.

      brh

      • FincaInTheMountains November 4, 2014 at 3:46 pm #

        Remember, Russia doesn’t want to fight that war, Putin is doing everything possible, short of letting Ukie Nazi murder half of population of Donbass with artillery shelling, to avoid the war and force Kiev to sign a cease-fire deal.

        US planners did pretty good by putting Russia in almost impossible situation, if they fight is bad, since they’d alienate Europe and kill their own brothers (Ukrainians are Russians, now matter what they think), if they don’t they’ll let their brothers die in the Donbass cities and Putin would face turmoil in Russia itself for not protecting fellow Russians.

        He can’t repeat a brilliant Crimea operation when without firing a single shot or killing a single person (I think one was killed by sniper fire during entire operation) he took the peninsula.

        So far, Russia is doing pretty good using covert military operations and “Voentorg” (buying arms from Ukrainian military warehouses using bribes and supplying rebel fighters).

        In August there was a lightening strike by two limited Russian brigades (nobody can prove anything, it was in and out with supersonic speed, so don’t quote me on that) that lead to crushing defeat of Kiev punitive forces.

        I think the only reason they did that because it was beginning to resemble a meat grinder in the middle of densely populated areas and Russia simply didn’t have a choice – she had to interfere.

        Again, it is brother-killing-brother situation, shrewdly setup by American planners.

        • BackRowHeckler November 4, 2014 at 4:15 pm #

          Well, I for one have always thought of Russians and Ukrainians as the same people. Are the two languages similar?

          brh

          • FincaInTheMountains November 5, 2014 at 7:49 am #

            Personally, I always thought of Ukrainian as a redneck version of Russian language with some Polish in the mix.

  42. contrahend November 4, 2014 at 10:25 am #

    …this dream was telling me is that the world changing event is closer than we think

    you simply had what is termed a lucid dream, i.e. one where you can recall specific dialogue etc.

    *the* world changing event would be an asteroid smashing into the Earth and wiping out most animals.

    The explosion, likely caused by an object about 6 miles (10 km) across, released as much energy as 100 trillion tons of TNT, more than a billion times more than the atom bombs that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

    How’s that for a world changing event?

    Even that couldn’t get rid of life. The asteroid took out 90% of mammals, yet life forms came roaring back.

    Jesus ain’t coming back, the world isn’t going to end, all religions are just guesses and hubris.

    One thing is certain, though – when JHK says things are going down, they’re not.

    Rumors of the endtymes are greatly exaggerated.

    kontrahend

    • dannyboy November 4, 2014 at 2:51 pm #

      contrahend,

      Help me understand. You sayin’ that you better understand Darkvision’s dreams (that he’s been cataloging for 41 years) better than he does? You are fkn more brilliant than Freud! You know your sht!!

      You the Man!!!

      Or are you just being dismissive of every idea that you can’t reconcile with your worldview?

      Including Kunstler’s.

      Kunstler’s a gentleman and scholar.

      Betta talk to me.

      • Janos Skorenzy November 4, 2014 at 6:15 pm #

        In other words, you’re neither a gentleman nor a scholar.

        • dannyboy November 4, 2014 at 6:33 pm #

          Janos,

          You better grow up…

          or…

          learn to live with your disgusting self.

          I can explain my words, if that’d help.

  43. pkrugman November 4, 2014 at 4:07 pm #

    I voted for Obama again today, because in the last six years he has done a good job. For example:

    63 straight months of economic expansion.

    A depression averted.

    A deficit reduced by two thirds.

    A healthcare law that’s working and lowering healthcare cost.

    Two women on the Supreme Court.

    Bin Laden is dead.

    Stock Market at record heights

    Unemployment down from 10.2 to 5.9% (for any FoxNews viewers, that means less unemployment than under Bush).

    Gas prices are down.

    Federal government made smaller.

    No USA troops dying daily in Iraq and Afghanistan.

  44. Q. Shtik November 4, 2014 at 4:21 pm #

    CNBC headlines:

    Oil touches $75

    Airlines soar on lower oil

    An oil expert states that oil price will continue to fall because the cost of oil extraction is declining faster than the price of oil.

    Jim places that comment in his file labeled “Fuckin Delusional.”

  45. dannyboy November 4, 2014 at 6:02 pm #

    Does anyone agree with Janos Skorenzy?

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    • Q. Shtik November 4, 2014 at 10:13 pm #

      About what? Be more specific. Complete this sentence…

      Does anyone agree with Janos Skorenzy that……………….

      For example, do I agree with Janos that the white man arrived in North America and took by force the land from the various indigenous peoples — fair and square, as Janos likes to say — and that we should not give it back and go back to Europe where we came from and that virtually every piece of land on earth occupied by humans was taken from other humans and that if you feel guilty and ashamed of what your ancestors did you should give up your home/land to the American Indians and go back to wherever you originated from.

      Yes, I do agree with Janos on this issue.

      • dannyboy November 5, 2014 at 8:17 am #

        Q. Shtik,

        When you say that you agree with Janos Skorenzy that “that we should not give it back and go back to Europe where we came from”…THE VAST MAJORITY OF PEOPLE IN THE U.S. AGREE ON THIS. So, clearly that is not the problem with Janos’ undemocratic positions. It is when he extends that position, with a great leap of non-thinking, to his conclusion that Blacks, Jews, Latinos and on and on, do not belong. THAT is what is so wrong.

        Q – when a Paranoid extends his delusion of Whites being thrown out to a delusion that we must throw out ‘the others’ that Paranoia and Delusion fuel toxic hate.

    • Janos Skorenzy November 4, 2014 at 10:45 pm #

      Do you think illegals have the right to vote? Or Blacks the right to vote more than once? Don’t be shy, just shout out your “truth”. Or does it seem ridiculous even to you when put this way?

      • Q. Shtik November 4, 2014 at 11:15 pm #

        If you are speaking to me the answer is of course not.

        • Q. Shtik November 4, 2014 at 11:42 pm #

          BTW, I no longer vote nor do I tune in to see who won the position of dog catcher in my town/county/state/country. I have become disaffected with the so-called democratic (i.e. vote-buying) process.

          • Janos Skorenzy November 5, 2014 at 12:21 am #

            I wasn’t talking to you, but I am gratified and surprised at your reply. Very few can bring themselves to the point of despair and realize the voting process in completely rigged on a number of different levels – including the mysterious Diebold machine owned by the you know whos. Keep digging and you’ll see I’m right about that one too.

            America is so far gone that letting illegals vote is now a respectable Democrat position. I take little pleasure in the Repuglican victory since they will push for the Amnesty with Obama.

          • dannyboy November 5, 2014 at 9:07 am #

            Janos,

            You propagate “despair” as a solution. Reflect on that for a minute.

            It is indicative of your entire modus operandi.

            In our current situation, where a minority of greedy and power-seeking a-holes have hijacked money and power, it is MISGUIDED to diagnose the problem as “completely rigged”.

            Your assessment leads to misdirected anger and not to specific action.

            Who listens to your s-it?

      • dannyboy November 5, 2014 at 9:58 am #

        Janos,

        The current law is “One Man, One Vote”.

        Are you suggesting that change?

        Do you want to change the definition of “Man”?

        let us know

        • Janos Skorenzy November 5, 2014 at 1:47 pm #

          Great, we’ve found common ground. And of course One Man, One Vote means showing a picture ID. If you don’t agree with that (and Democrats don’t), you are being disingenuous.

          • dannyboy November 5, 2014 at 2:11 pm #

            Janos,

            Help me to understand.

            If I don’t agree with you I’m being disingenuous?????????????

            What!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  46. Q. Shtik November 4, 2014 at 11:25 pm #

    Does anyone agree with Janos Skorenzy? – Dannyboy
    =========

    I also agree with Janos that there are very real genetic differences between groups of people that partially account for what we call race…and that these differences account for various perceived superiorities and inferiorities. That blacks are superior athletes is so obvious as to not require discussion.

    • dannyboy November 5, 2014 at 10:00 am #

      Q. Shtik,

      You comment implies that there is a major problem resulting from the differences among people.

      That’s a pretty slippery slope you’re on.

      • Janos Skorenzy November 5, 2014 at 1:50 pm #

        So you admit Blacks are faster and can jump higher? And if that is true, than why shouldn’t Whites and Asians be better at other things? Things like thinking and creating Civilizations?

        Those differences are differences that make a difference. As does denying them like we do now. People have been fired for saying Blacks run faster because logic leads inevitably to the idea that Whites can do some things better than Blacks.

        • dannyboy November 5, 2014 at 2:14 pm #

          Janos,

          You’re at it AGAIN!

          I write that there are differences between people (most adults know this).

          You respond by saying Whites are better thinkers and blah, blah, blah.

          How does your mind work?

          • Janos Skorenzy November 5, 2014 at 6:11 pm #

            Ok, let’s start again: what are some of the differences between people. Be specific. Can Blacks run faster than Whites? What is something Whites can do better than Blacks?

          • dannyboy November 5, 2014 at 8:02 pm #

            Janos,

            Whites can get better sunburns than Black-skinned people.

            k?

  47. Q. Shtik November 4, 2014 at 11:35 pm #

    Does anyone agree with Janos Skorenzy? – Dannyboy
    ===============

    I do not agree with Janos that an all-powerful, all-knowing being called God created the universe and man in his image.

    I do not agree with Janos that there is a thousands of years old master conspiracy among Jews to rule the world.

    • seawolf77 November 6, 2014 at 9:12 am #

      There is no white haired old man in the sky. Nor is there a horned devil under the ground. Anyone who believes such drivel is mentally deficient.

  48. Karah November 5, 2014 at 12:32 am #

    I think there is some rule that whatever is revealed on the internet represents the thoughts of about 25,000 actual people on this planet.

    • dannyboy November 5, 2014 at 9:11 am #

      Karah,

      Thank you for the insight.

      Now I REALLY need to understand how many here agree with Janos. Sort of a poll.

      Let’s see: 1X25,000 = 25,000

      That is a population that can be ignored and held-to-account.

  49. Karah November 5, 2014 at 12:43 am #

    I would like to comment on diversity and languages…

    A lot of people subconsciously lump people together by ethnic traits and region. Reality is that people who live next door to each other in most countries could not be any more different. You have the native american and foreign settlers, the basque, catalan, welsh, scottish, austrian, serbian, kurd, mongolian, etc. who are not representative of the majority of people in their region. We have to realize the phenomenon that is empire and how it dominates in various ways starting with a common language and then currency. Then you have the phenomenon of why these minor cultures persist and perpetuate, jewish being a particular kind of resistance that also includes a very strong religious conscience. Now we have Islam. This is really something most people do not understand: God made languages and it happened in one second of time long ago. The purpose was to confuse people in order to prevent the worship of man as god. So the whole ideology of one world order advocated by any person or society of people is folly.

  50. pkrugman November 5, 2014 at 1:28 am #

    Signs and Wonders of Things to Come

    Ron Paul of Texas tweets on Republican control of both houses of congress:

    With Republican control of the Senate, looking forward to a vote on audit the Fed! What do you think, Majority Leader McConnell?

    Republican control of the Senate = expanded neocon wars in Syria and Iraq. Boots on the ground are coming!

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    • FincaInTheMountains November 5, 2014 at 8:11 am #

      Yeas, you’re probably right, PK. Endless wars abroad, endless austerity at home. Ron Paul while he was running for President last time, had a proposal to reduce Food Stamp allowance from current $1.47 a meal to like 99 cents.

      Good doctor, Ron Paul, wants to bring back rickets, scurvy and pellagra for American working people

  51. pkrugman November 5, 2014 at 1:36 am #

    “So the whole ideology of one world order advocated by any person or society of people is folly.” — Karah

    Karah, then John Lennon and I are people of folly.

    Imagine there’s no heaven
    It’s easy if you try
    No hell below us
    Above us only sky

    Imagine all the people
    Living for today

    Imagine there’s no countries
    It isn’t hard to do
    Nothing to kill or die for
    And no religion, too

    Imagine all the people
    Living life in peace

    You may say I’m a dreamer
    But I’m not the only one
    I hope someday you will join us
    And the world will be as one

    • Karah November 5, 2014 at 4:30 am #

      …and people worship rock stars (another term for elite oligarchs).

      John seemed like a sincerely nice guy and was looking for answers to the worlds problems (he had seen an aweful lot of the world). Pacificism is something he got sucked into by yoko. The beloved nyc would never exist if those town fathers practiced pacifism. Rock n roll would not exist if people did not foght for justice.

      if you do not stand (defend) something you will fall for anything – i do not know who

      • Janos Skorenzy November 5, 2014 at 4:47 am #

        What did John say? The love you get is the love you make. So guess he deserved to meet the Son of Sam? John and Yoko were the consummate liberal hypocrites. She’s heavily invested in lumber apparently.

        Glad you accept the need for War. We wouldn’t be here but for the White conquest of North America. It would just be Indians fighting each other, enslaving each other, and even (in some places) eating each other. This last category was not nearly as bad as in Central America. But it was widespread here in certain places at earlier periods such as some of the Southwestern Cultures and the old Mississippi Culture.

        • dannyboy November 5, 2014 at 9:26 am #

          So Janos…

          …any work for Peace is wrong,

          but…war is good.

          I think I understand you better now.

          Thanks for sharing.

          • Janos Skorenzy November 5, 2014 at 1:53 pm #

            Well since you don’t want Whites to leave, that means you accept the status quo. And accepting the status quo means you accept the results of the Conquest. And accepting the results of the Conquest means you accept the War of Conquest against the Indians. So you do accept some wars or at least this one.

            See how easy (and fun) thinking is?

          • dannyboy November 5, 2014 at 2:16 pm #

            Janos

            I accept that there have been wars, yes!

            I’m not such a big proponent it fighting wars for your way of thinking.

            Just sayin’

        • stelmosfire November 5, 2014 at 10:13 am #

          don’t forget to bring the fava beans and chianti, I make a fine chianti if you want a straw wrapped bottle send e-mail to hannible? the wine maker. . com ;o)

          • Janos Skorenzy November 5, 2014 at 1:55 pm #

            Dr Lecter loved Starling so much that he cut his arm off for her. Greater love hath no man. So what if he ate other people! They were rude!

        • seawolf77 November 6, 2014 at 10:21 am #

          There was a disparaging term “Turned Injun,” which referred to the fact that many white men, after having been exposed to the Indian culture, embraced it as far superior to our own. This was immortalized in the movie “Dances with Wolves.” It is a common technique of bullies to demonize the oppressed to allay their guilt. It is used even today with Muslims. It was ugly when we used it with Indians and it is ugly now. Ugly is timeless.

      • BackRowHeckler November 5, 2014 at 7:04 am #

        Basically what Lennon was doing here in the US was avoiding British Income taxes. All the politics and anti American bullsh#t was just a sideline.

        brh

        • dannyboy November 5, 2014 at 9:27 am #

          And I thought he was making Art.

          Silly me, it was all an income tax dodge.

          • Janos Skorenzy November 5, 2014 at 1:55 pm #

            You’re wrong a lot.

          • dannyboy November 5, 2014 at 2:18 pm #

            Janos,

            It is my pleasure to on the wrong side of you.

            Almost insures my position.

          • Karah November 6, 2014 at 3:44 pm #

            please, janos and danny…

            get a private room.

          • dannyboy November 6, 2014 at 4:17 pm #

            Karah,

            I understand your frustration. If I take a moment to explain my motives to you, can you consider them?

            I LOVE KUNSTLER’S Writing. Having met personally and corresponded, I resonate with his ideas.

            Recently, however, I questioned his portrayal of this Disfunctional Person living in our society. I guess I did not have exposure to this, as I am a life-long NYer, and haven’t observed this specimen in public. People are civil, from what I can see.

            So I dropped in here to discuss these (Kunstler and I left off with ‘what the hell’ as our commonest ground.

            BUT THEN, I come across Janos. AND I KNOW EXACTLY WHAT KUNSTLER’S BEEN TALKING ABOUT.

            I think I have made it clear in several posts that I just need to see the inner working of this specimen. What ticks.

            I apologize for using so much space on this discussion, but, it seems that my fascination has gotten the better of me.

            Can you see your way to indulge an explorer in to new realms?

  52. pkrugman November 5, 2014 at 2:20 am #

    The Republican majority is about to get a dose of its own filibuster medicine. Since the Republicans do not have 60 votes, they cannot pass legislation by themselves (even if they wanted to).

    Democrats can filibuster every Republican piece of legislation, all that Koch-sponsored legislation which benefits the richest 1% instead of us who are the 99%. Democrats are in control.

    Republicans may not be able to pass bills even without the 60-vote threshold. You’ll have senators like Susan Collins looking to bolster her moderate credentials in preparation for a tough reelection fight in 2016 while Ted Cruz tries to show how conservative he is. In those situations. Democrats should force McConnell to prove he can hold his party together—and govern—even without a filibuster.

    With the Tea Party element in a fighting mood, McConnell will find being Majority Leader is like herding cats. Due to Republican weakness (not having 60 votes) and disunity, they will be shown to only have an agenda to benefit the 1%. Republicans are now irrelevant and 2016 structurally favors the Democrats.

    Obama may not even have to use his power of veto. But he will, if they try something stupid like dismantling the Affordable Care Act 50 more times. Bring it on!

    I am happy tonight. Things are looking good for 2016 and eight more years with a Democrat in the White House.

    CFN may be beyond the red/blue game, but I am enjoying having blue in the White House for the next 16 years, maybe 24.

    Demographics will eliminate the Republican chances to regain the executive branch as old white men die off, more states turn blue, and women, gays, and young people of color gain more political power.

    The power that was developed by Obama, a Black community organizer to provide 10 million previously uninsured with free preventative health care.

    Obama’s coalition, the same coalition that defeated McCain/Palin in 2008 and Romney/Ryan in 2012, will only grow stronger with time. Hope and change are alive.

  53. Pucker November 5, 2014 at 2:25 am #

    What do you blokes make of recent discoveries of huge oil fields in the Arctic by the Norwegians and the Russians and Americans (Exxon Mobil)?

    Many years ago while on a working holiday in London during my college Summer break, I shared a dorm room with some Norwegian heavy metal rockers. They were rather wild.

    In any event, it looks like the Russians may be saving our asses again. No doubt the Americans will find in this another reason to bomb the Russians in some way or another?

    • Janos Skorenzy November 5, 2014 at 4:51 am #

      Black metal? Varg Vikernes is a great personality. Burned down a number of churches in protest of the Christian conquest of Norway. Vikernes and Breivik: both Beasts of Norway. That’s not to say I agree with everything they did. The burned churches were old and beautiful, masterpieces of the old Wooden craft.

    • FincaInTheMountains November 5, 2014 at 7:54 am #

      Bomb the Russians? With their best in the world Air Defenses like C-400 “Triumph”?

      I thought that American military doctrine calls for use of air-power ONLY against the defenseless Nations.

    • FincaInTheMountains November 5, 2014 at 8:00 am #

      Russia has filed with UN request to add to its territory 1.2 million sq.kilometers (approx two Frances) of Arctic shelf – would make for interesting show in UN next year.

      In case UN and “international community” (e.g. US and its vassal-states) refuse, Russia already has started building Arctic military bases and RLSs.

  54. Pucker November 5, 2014 at 3:54 am #

    I voted, and now my finger stinks.

  55. BackRowHeckler November 5, 2014 at 8:16 am #

    A good essay last weekend in WSJ about a movement to end free speech, this time coming from the Progressive Movement (which is described as Liberalism without Freedom), and is basically an attempt to suppress any criticism of Homosexuality and Islam, speech which would become illegal, punishable by law. Countries such as Sweden, Holland and Great Britain have already enacted laws that do this. The US might not be far behind. In fact some elite universities now have speech codes which tell you what you can say and not say. I venture to add anything any of you have written in the comments section of CFN might some day come under scrutiny of the Ministry of Speech and Thought, ending up in a power point demonstration in some secret federal court, while little you squirms in your seat, wondering how you will explain yourself to the multicultural, multisexual inquisitors who sit in judgement.

    Clean sweep for the democrats in CT. It was a foregone conclusion. The two biggest, richest and most powerful constituencies here are Welfare Recipients and Public Sector Unions. Benefits are generous (why bother to work) and some retired state employees receive pensions capped at $212,000 per year. These folks are not likely to vote Republican. Productive, private sector people are outnumbered. The life of the State is being sucked out by parasites, but the parasites rule.

    –brh

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    • nsa November 5, 2014 at 9:00 am #

      Our northern colony, Canada, has no first amendment or free speech right…..”holycaust deniers” are routinely jailed until they disavow their views.

    • stelmosfire November 5, 2014 at 10:37 am #

      BRH, MA voted for a Repucklican gubner’ again. Maybe he can keep the costs down ( I doubt it!) but I know he won’t give away the farm at the expense of the middle class as the Dems have, (to support the do nothings and layabouts). At least I hope so. I wish we could clone Sam Adams (5th Gov of MA) and get back to what this state began as.

      • beantownbill. November 5, 2014 at 11:32 am #

        RT, my voting philosophy is pretty much like Q’s. The only winners in any American election are mostly greed, lust (for power) and corruption.

        That being said, I did vote yesterday, primarily because of the referendum questions. I also voted for Charlie Baker because I didn’t want to see Coakley’s face on TV for the next 4 years. I know that might be sexist, but something in her thin-lipped look tells me she is probably not a nice person. In any event, it doesn’t matter who won in the long run.

        • dannyboy November 5, 2014 at 2:38 pm #

          nothing matters

          productive philosophy

  56. FincaInTheMountains November 5, 2014 at 9:22 am #

    8 Technologies that are used by the Matrix to turn us into generates

    http://www.cluber.com.ua/lifestyle/psihologiya-lifestyle/2014/10/8-tehnologiy-s-pomoshhyu-kotoryikh-nas-prevrashhayut-v-vyrodkov/

    1. Upbringing of children is based on stimulation of infantile behavior, artificially prolonging achieving social maturity. This is done in order to utilize the energy of young people in the period of its greatest activity (15 to 25 years). The fact is that in all historical times the bulk of the revolutionaries were precisely this category of the population. The young man is the peak of physical and intellectual activity to 20 years, he is healthy, smart, hot, principled and uncompromising.

    2. Upbringing of boys and girls using the same standards – not as much to instill masculinity in girls, but rather rob boys from it.

    3. Instill egocentric view of the world. Egoist is a loner, so it is easier to apply old rule “Divide and conquer”

    4. The formation of the image of “successful” person. On inspection, the “successful” person is nothing more than the image of the perfect slave of the system. In Hollywood movies you could find successful hit men, successful bankers, successful gangsters. It would be harder to find a successful family, scientist or soldier, defending his country.

    5. Sex and violence, instead of valor and love

    6. Consumerism in its negative sense – the weapon from their arsenal, which achieves multiple targets. Makes people weak, dependent and easily controlled

    7. Taboo on honor. Honor is dangerous to their system because it shapes people unpredictable and uncontrollable behavior. They are afraid of obscure motives, they feel more comfortable when people are driven by greed, lust, dependence, vice.

    8. The destruction of family values. This item is part echoes the sex and violence, but is distinctive. The destruction of family values promotes the destruction of national cultures and the atomization of society, encourage selfishness and bestial behavior.

    • Janos Skorenzy November 5, 2014 at 3:42 pm #

      Yes, this is what Communism, an earlier form of the matrix, advocated for. Yet you defend such Communism. A contradiction – a hole in the spirit. And even a very small hole can sink a very large vessel.

  57. MikeMoskos November 5, 2014 at 10:34 am #

    Two AIDS dissidents take down Ebola (podcast episode that’s worth a listen):

    https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/episode-89-horror!-university/id457859350?i=320434770&mt=2

    October 23, 2004 episode

  58. Q. Shtik November 5, 2014 at 10:59 am #

    You comment implies that there is a major problem resulting from the differences among people. – Dannyboy
    ============

    Yes, you bet! And it’s not all in the genes. The other elements: language, religion, culture, etc play their role in seeing that (as the bible says) their will always be wars and rumors of wars. When you look around the world do you not notice that “differences among people” are the source of much death and destruction? Here in the US the inability or unwillingness of certain groups to assimilate into the majority language and culture is a source of endless strife.

    • BackRowHeckler November 5, 2014 at 1:07 pm #

      Check out:

      “A Troublesome Inheritance: Genes, Race, and Human History”, by NYT science writer Nicholas Wade. It came out last summer, a real eye opener. Actually I’m surprised TBTB allowed its publication.

      –brh

    • dannyboy November 5, 2014 at 2:19 pm #

      Are we going to hear a lot of Bible quotes?

      • BackRowHeckler November 5, 2014 at 2:33 pm #

        Bible quotes?

        • dannyboy November 5, 2014 at 2:40 pm #

          Q-tip likes to reference the Bible to secure his position.

          Do I need Bible Study to follow his narrative?

  59. volodya November 5, 2014 at 12:20 pm #

    Blame/e,

    you have a dark view of things. If the past is a dress rehearsal for the future then IMO you’re completely entitled to it.

    The number of people alive in the 1930s and 1940s is rapidly dwindling. The time to get their take on things is ticking away.

    If you can, talk to them. Seek them out. Put yourself in their shoes, in those times, let’ say 1938-1939. I think you’ll find, that like other people, they have (and had) a tendency to hope for the best. Surely another war could be averted, deals could be made with Hitler and Hirohito.

    Others differed with the optimistic view but, no matter how pessimistic, the reality turned out orders of magnitude worse. Sixty million dead? And that was the SECOND installment. And that’s not accounting for the inter-war butcher’s bill for the Bolshevik Revolution, Stalin’s murder of millions of Ukrainians and other assorted mega-deaths.

    The boys returning in 1945-46 had every expectation that they would be coming back to the Depression and joblessness. History hadn’t yet been written so how would they have known otherwise? Happily that turned out better than expected and for once the ordinary Joe caught a break.

    Having said that, for a long time even that looked pretty iffy. Do you remember being told in school to put your face in the crook of your elbow when you hear the sirens, to not look at the sky, to get under your desk or lie flat on the ground? I do.

    Given how we failed to avert WW2 after the disaster of WW1 a military show-down looked in the cards. Well, it DID happen but on a smaller scale. As sad as Korea and Vietnam were for millions of folk, they weren’t as bad as what came before.

    But talk to other people from other parts of the world. We tend to ignore the horrors of Mao’s China and Pol Pot and the tens of millions that died from their murder and mis-rule. Human history is an exceedingly unhappy thing.

    You said in your previous post that you think we could muck along for many more years trying to avoid calamity, closing our eyes and just putting up with shit. Maybe we can. It’s possible. But then, if past events are any guide, I wouldn’t put money on it.

    • FincaInTheMountains November 5, 2014 at 1:26 pm #

      “Stalin’s murder of millions of Ukrainians” volodya

      References, please… Don’t repeat the common anti-Russian propaganda bullshit.

      Example: Russian czar Ivan The Terrible, who is in popular Western fairy tales butchered millions.

      It turned out that during the ENTIRE term of Ivan in Kremlin, he executed LESS people that were killed in “enlightened” Paris in ONE NIGHT – of course it was the Night Of St. Bartholomew’s.

      • volodya November 5, 2014 at 1:59 pm #

        I knew eyewitnesses, now deceased, who made it out of the Ukraine in the immediate post-war chaos as refugees, who survived the Ukrainian genocide as young adults but who lost most of their families in it.

        Is an eyewitness account good enough for you as compared say to an account written by an anti-Russian propagandist?

        But even if I tell you I knew these people and heard their accounts, what difference would it make, if in your own view, it’s all bullshit?

        • FincaInTheMountains November 5, 2014 at 2:24 pm #

          My farther lived through “Holodomor” in Ukraine, it is true that many people died of starvation in Ukraine, as well as in Russia, especially in the Volga region.

          There were several reasons for Great Famine in the Soviet Union in the early thirties. Yes, the forced “collectivization” was one of them, but important role played Western (including USA and Canada) sanctions against young Soviet State, refusing to sell grain even in exchange for gold.

          But what is complete LIE is targeted famine against Ukrainians – never happened.

        • FincaInTheMountains November 5, 2014 at 2:47 pm #

          Overall, during the Soviet years the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic lived a hell of a lot better than the Russian Federal Soviet Socialist Republic – I know it for a fact since my grandparents lived in Ukraine, while my parents lived in Urals (Russia) and I was spending all my summer school vacations in Kharkov, Ukraine with my grandparents.

          Can’t say the same about Native Americans living in reservations.

          • seawolf77 November 6, 2014 at 9:07 am #

            Someone living in Beverly Hills has a slightly different experience of living in Los Angeles than someone living in “The Jungle,” south central LA.

      • Janos Skorenzy November 5, 2014 at 2:01 pm #

        Even Court Historians accept that it was genocide against the Kulaks by Stalin and his gang.

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

        There’s far more evidence for this than there is for the Holocaust….

        • FincaInTheMountains November 5, 2014 at 2:33 pm #

          Janos, before saying something, figure out who those “Kulaks” are – it is NOT nationality, it was term applied to a group of peasants (russians, ukrainians, jews, whatever) with certain level of wealth refusing to sell their produce to the State at the fixed prices.

          I do not state that there were no repressions in Soviet Union – of course there were, but NEVER based on nationality or religion.

          • dannyboy November 5, 2014 at 2:48 pm #

            Gently please,

            You’re going to blow Janos’ circuitry.

            He “Knows” that all problems originate from one thing only…

            …”russians, ukrainians, jews, whatever”

            don’t take that away from him.

            There’s No Thing left.

          • Janos Skorenzy November 5, 2014 at 2:50 pm #

            Hah, you reveal yourself ever more! Thousands of churches burned and tens (hundreds?) of thousands of religious imprisoned and murdered. That is your legacy. And like the French before you, you have made the butchers part of your national pride and history. What a mistake. That’s what happens when you don’t have a Franco around to stop them. Fascism and Fascists really do have their place – like the “War Kings” of olde…..

            And not just Whites either. I remember how the Socialist Bertrand Russell asked Stalin why the Kazakhs had to die. Stalin just smirked and shrugged as was his way and perhaps muttered something about them not fitting in with the Industrial State.

          • dannyboy November 5, 2014 at 3:17 pm #

            Janos,

            A second request, if you please.

            Along with “Janos’ Complete List of Hated Peoples”, how’s about “Janos’ List of his Heroes”, starting with Franco, Stalin…

            should be quite a read!

          • seawolf77 November 6, 2014 at 9:09 am #

            That is ridiculous. Stalin nearly obliterated the Russian Christian Orthodox Church. How can make such a ludicrous statement and expect to be taken seriously ever again.

  60. volodya November 5, 2014 at 12:30 pm #

    Blame/e

    You have this view that the economics numbers the government puts out are garbage. I concur. Over at Greer’s blog there was a recent discussion about how similar this looks to the fictions put out by Pravda and Izvestia, you know, about the triumphs of the latest Five Year Plan. Greer wondered, where did all those propagandists go? Well, maybe they found employment on this side of the pond. No lack of openings for professional liars.

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  61. dweebus November 5, 2014 at 1:43 pm #

    JHK,

    “All of which rather left America’s central bank in a black box wrapped in an enigma, shrouded by a conundrum, off-gassing hydrogen sulfide like a roadkill ‘possum.”

    “All that remains are various three card monte maneuvers, hot potato games, and musical chair tournaments using the last kinetic rocket thrusts of global credulity to pretend that contraction is not already here, walking amongst us, like the ancient Harvestman of yore, swinging his scythe.”

    Simile as a art-form. Very nice!

    • dweebus November 5, 2014 at 1:43 pm #

      *an art-form

    • Q. Shtik November 5, 2014 at 9:06 pm #

      Simile as [a] art-form. – dweebus
      =======

      [an] art form

  62. dannyboy November 5, 2014 at 2:10 pm #

    Janos,

    Help me to understand.

    If I don’t agree with you I’m being disingenuous?????????????

    What!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    • Janos Skorenzy November 5, 2014 at 2:44 pm #

      So you accept that necessity of picture id’s at the polling stations? I know that you don’t want illegals voting or Blacks voting twice. Or do I?

      • dannyboy November 5, 2014 at 2:51 pm #

        Janos,

        If the illegals and people of color weren’t fuc-ing you over…

        …who would it be?

        We need a list from you of every race and religion that is so demented in your mind. Only with the complete list can we decide whether to agree with you.

        • Janos Skorenzy November 5, 2014 at 3:35 pm #

          So in other words, illegals should have the right to vote or at least covertly so by the cheating made possible by having no mandatory identification. You are the very essence of Disingenuousity.

          Evil comes so easily to you – but you don’t see it because “everyone’s doing it”.

          • dannyboy November 5, 2014 at 4:29 pm #

            Janos,

            You start your Comment with: “So in other words…” and then proceed to make shit up.

            You then conclude: “You are the very essence of Disingenuousity.”

            Is it possible that you don’t see this?

            Then….the Paranoia kicks in with your beautiful ending words: “Evil comes so easily to you – but you don’t see it because ‘everyone’s doing it’.”

            I can’t find a rational thought in your entire Comment that I’d be able to reply.

            Wow!

  63. dweebus November 5, 2014 at 2:16 pm #

    @dannyboy

    I notice you have gotten in to a tussle with Janos. To my mind, this is mostly an exercise in futility. You will not convince him that his views on race are outdated, hateful, or just plain dumb. He leaves them at everyones porch, like a burning brown bag of dog-shit, just to irritate whoever opens the door.

    Quite simply, I think Janos is a troll. Nothing more, nothing less.

    Having said that, he occasionally intimates that there may be racial/religious/ethnic strife in the years ahead. In this he may be quite correct. Working against this prospect (in the West) is that the culture has changed radically, especially amongst Millennials. They tend to see a pluralistic society (race, gender, etc.) as normative. Working for it is that humans are small-group tribal animals at heart. As contraction sets in, the economic pie continues to shrink, and grievances continue to mount it is very possible that “we” will seek to blame “them” perhaps in a violent way. Meanwhile TPTB will laugh all the way to the bank. The only thing the Banksters understand is a window and a long drop.

    • dannyboy November 5, 2014 at 2:26 pm #

      Dear dweebus,

      I thank you and agree with everything you have written. I “tussle” with Janos to better understand his attitude. To me, that attitude is extremely dangerous.

      I do not “tussle” to change his mind. That is not possible. I would like to know the danger that lurks. I too am preparing.

      • dweebus November 5, 2014 at 3:37 pm #

        Honestly, I think the attitude can mostly be summed up by: “Who’s that trip, Trip, TRIPPING across my bridge.”

    • Janos Skorenzy November 5, 2014 at 2:42 pm #

      Exactly Dweeb. And they will curse their benighted boomer ancestors who let in such “diversity”, also known as Enemies. Americans had it all but trusted the wrong people who took it away from them like candy from a baby.

      Of course we wouldn’t have had anything, not even our existence must less this discussion, if it wasn’t for our Great Ancestors who took this continent away from the Indians (not Native Americans since a nation is not mere geography. They were just living here. We are the Native Americans). And just as the Indians couldn’t unite against us, we can’t unite against the Hispanics – who will take us much of America as they can. Ditto the East Asians, Muslims etc. Blacks will be foot soldiers for the Muslims. Yet you blame all such coming troubles on us a priori and ahead of time. Liberalism is a disease of the spirit that leads to actual mental illness in extreme cases.

      • dannyboy November 5, 2014 at 2:57 pm #

        Janos,

        Please help me understand the sanity you profess.

        Boomers and ‘Indians’, the Hispanics, East Asians, Muslims etc.,
        Blacks and Liberals all are attacking?

        As I previously requested, can you please provide one complete list of your enemies? Will make your comments easier to understand.

        • Janos Skorenzy November 5, 2014 at 3:38 pm #

          Yes, common humanity sucks,
          You are very common humanity,
          Therefore you suck.

          That’s called a syllogism. It’s a form of logical argument. Have you ever heard of logic?

          • dannyboy November 5, 2014 at 4:24 pm #

            Janos please accept that you have no logic.

            It will make your mind less chaotic.

      • dweebus November 5, 2014 at 4:00 pm #

        “And they will curse their benighted boomer ancestors who let in such “diversity”, also known as Enemies.”

        They may, but it would not be historically correct. First they blamed the Abolitionists, then the Suffragettes, then the Unions, then the Civil Rights movement, then those who work for immigration reform or marriage equality. It is a long process in the history of the Republic, that moral arc of the universe that you hear about, if you will. But this is part of the problem, people cannot even agree on what the facts on the ground are. One group says the sky is blue and the other says, but for a conspiracy by the damned (insert pejorative here) everyone would know the sky is green.

        I suspect however that intergenerational conflict will have far less to do with “letting in” diversity and more to do with the Boomer generation squandering resources and treasure to support their narcissistic lifestyle and leaving future generations pauperized and a degraded and dying planet in their wake.

        “Of course we wouldn’t have had anything, not even our existence must less this discussion, if it wasn’t for our Great Ancestors who took this continent away from the Indians (not Native Americans since a nation is not mere geography. They were just living here. We are the Native Americans).”

        Lights bag, ding-dong, runs behind bush, tee-hee, tee-hee.

        • Janos Skorenzy November 5, 2014 at 6:05 pm #

          Letting in 34 million illegals and God knows how many unnecessary legals isn’t squandering too? Those people use resources too – and they will use more here than they would have used back home. And have more children in general.

          You are incapable of thought evidently. I start my responses to you with “In other words” because I’m trying to show you what follows from your premises. Based on the work you’ve shown me so far, I have to give you an F.

          • Janos Skorenzy November 5, 2014 at 6:29 pm #

            Sorry Dweeb: I conflated you and Danny Boy into a kind of generic Dweeb Boy poster.

          • dannyboy November 5, 2014 at 6:59 pm #

            Janos,

            People all blending? Does the environment all blend too?

            Maybe a trip to ER is in order.

  64. pkrugman November 5, 2014 at 2:23 pm #

    Here is what the Koch-supported Republicans will push for: Entitlement Reform and a Balanced Budget

    Here is translation of what that really means:

    Entitlement Reform : we are going to cut your Social Security and Medicare

    Balanced Budget : we want more money for military and tax cuts for the wealthy.

    Here is what Obama should say in response: “You want that? Then here is what I want”:

    Raise the minimum wage

    Rebuild crumbling infrastructure to create a whole lot of jobs

    • BackRowHeckler November 5, 2014 at 2:29 pm #

      How about the Soros-supported Democrats, what will they push for?

  65. pkrugman November 5, 2014 at 2:57 pm #

    George Soros did not support Obama.
    Soros endorsed Mitt Romney… and lost.

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    • dannyboy November 5, 2014 at 2:58 pm #

      can’t bet with the big money

    • BackRowHeckler November 5, 2014 at 4:29 pm #

      Touche’! PK

  66. contrahend November 5, 2014 at 7:41 pm #

    God made languages and it happened in one second of time long ago. The purpose was to confuse people in order to prevent the worship of man as god.

    That’s just nonsense, which is easily borne out by the documented evolution of languages down thru the past several thousand years. Plus, god wouldn’t allow english to become the global language, which is has.

    Why would having one language lead to the worship of man as god? That’s preposterous.

    What the fuck, can people ever get over this religious nonsense?

    You don’t believe you can hold poisonous snakes and that they won’t harm you? That’s in the bible too, you know, and a number of delusional ‘believers’ dancing with rattlers have paid with their lives.

    WTFU.

    Back in the real world of solar energy, great advances are signalling the end of dependency on fossil fuels, which will increasingly just be left in the ground:

    About 90 per cent of the solar panels currently in use are made of photovoltaic cells composed of silicon semiconductors, which convert sunlight directly into electricity. However, silicon is not good at absorbing sunlight which is why the next generation of PV cells will be based on a thin coating of cadmium telluride, which absorbs sunlight so well that it only needs to be about one hundredth of the thickness of silicon.

    just one of dozens of advancements that demonstrate we are in the age of energy ascent.

    kontrahend

  67. Pucker November 5, 2014 at 8:18 pm #

    It will be interesting to see how the American blacks react to Obama’s devastating defeat in the mid-term election and the perception that the Obama presidency has been a dismal failure? Will it feed the blacks’ sense of inferiority such the blacks will lash out in greater anger and frustration? Will they blame it not on the failure of Obama’s leadership (incompetence and corruption), but rather on a white conspiracy?

    • Buck Stud November 5, 2014 at 9:09 pm #

      Pucker I think “American blacks” will do just fine. In fact, they have more urgent issues to attend to other than lamenting the last years of the Obama presidency. Things like fighting off the organized and racially motivated attempt to disenfranchise their vote. (Did you read about that brave “American black” from North Carolina fighting the good fight?)

      So I doubt that there will be the utter humiliation that so many right-wing “American whites” must have felt after W crashed the economy. You know, because the ‘party of personal responsibility’ would never lay the blame on somebody else.

      But never mind race. Many from the left would probably be happy if there were a Teddy Roosevelt republican left in the land; somebody with a sliver of social concern and environmental consciousness. Instead we have the likes of a Ted Cruz to epitomize the modern day face of the GOP.

      And, of course, their stupid supporters making stupid comments and queries.

      • Pucker November 5, 2014 at 9:44 pm #

        What do you think of Sheldon Wolin’s description of the U.S. political system as “Inverted Totalitarianism” in his book “Democracy Incorporated”?

        It would seem that Obama, race, “left” and “right” are somewhat beside-the-point, right?

      • Janos Skorenzy November 5, 2014 at 10:19 pm #

        So asking them to show a picture ID is an attempt at disenfranchisement? Really? You can’t even get a library card without that. You really do hold them to a low standard. But maybe you’re right to do so.

        Btw, and for the umpteenth time, I’m not celebrating today. We can expect more war in the Middle East and more illegal immigrants with the Republicans in power. Some of the big ones have already vowed to help Obama with his Amnesty. Ted Cruz is a monster whether he helps Obama with this or not. He and Rand want to triple the rate of H1b visas and increase legal immigration. He’s married to a Goldman Sachs executive so we know where he really stands.

  68. Pucker November 5, 2014 at 9:49 pm #

    Or maybe the opposite is true? Maybe in a system of oligarchy and “Inverted Totalitarianism”, the only thing left to monger is the distraction of “race”?

    As Collapse progresses, it’s foreseeable that blacks will start to freak out as it becomes increasingly apparent that they’re not going to make it. They’re psychologically locked into a mindset of racial persecution since for them to recognize that the US is not a racist country (Obama as President and Affirmative Action) would require them to adjust their entire world view, which for most people is impossible.

    • Janos Skorenzy November 5, 2014 at 10:23 pm #

      Yes, being the victim is synonymous with being the good guy in America. It’s utterly seductive. The Jews seem to have succeeded with it first and paved the way for everyone else in America. But it’s as old as time and Blacks are really good at it. Better at it than they are at anything else except sports and music.

      So the more victimized the better you are as a person – and now the more American. Thus the most American of people has become the dark skinned illegal immigrant. And the least American is a White Man who pays taxes and fought for his country.

      • dannyboy November 6, 2014 at 7:28 am #

        But Janos, you ARE the “least American”.

        Your words say it clearly.

        Shameful (as if you had conscience).

        • dannyboy November 6, 2014 at 7:37 am #

          Now that your Leastness Among Americans has been established (well, you never did want to be among “those people”, did you?)…

          Let’s now get to your constant whining and ACTING VICTIM to every ‘common person [you refer it as the ‘common civilization’] that you abhor. Stop playing the victim and Man-Up.

          k?

  69. Pucker November 5, 2014 at 10:25 pm #

    Here’s some cognitive dissonance with your morning cup of coffee:

    http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/04/opinion/election-2014-should-black-voters-keep-their-faith-in-obama.html

  70. pkrugman November 5, 2014 at 11:05 pm #

    RAISE IN MINIMUM WAGE PASSED BY POPULAR VOTE

    In most surveys, around two-thirds of respondents or more say they back a proposal to raise the minimum wage. That support typically includes a healthy amount of Republican voters, along with an overwhelming majority of Democrats.

    They all like Obama’s $10.10 minimum wage proposal. Even Republican red states like it.

    On Tuesday, the minimum-wage hike in Alaska passed 69-31; in Arkansas, 66-34; in Nebraska, 59-41; and in South Dakota, 55-45.

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    • Janos Skorenzy November 5, 2014 at 11:39 pm #

      Yes in San Fran it’s now $15 an hour. It makes sense on one level since anything lower isn’t a living wage. I wonder if the fast food joints will begin to close there now because of it. No matter. Right is right. A city boy can survive.

  71. Q. Shtik November 6, 2014 at 12:07 am #

    I knew eyewitnesses, now deceased, who made it out of [the Ukraine] in the immediate post-war chaos – Volodya
    ================

    Now that I have regained permission to post comments here I’m going to resume my cause of stamping out the word “the” before Ukraine and likewise “the” before Crimea. There was once a rationale for saying the Ukraine and the Crimea

  72. Q. Shtik November 6, 2014 at 12:23 am #

    previous post continued…….

    …….but the NY Times and other authoritative sources on usage recognized it was incorrect and in the early 1990s began to refer to those countries/regions simply as Ukraine and Crimea. Take note that even Fincaln does not say “the” Ukraine. Perhaps it is a small matter in the grand scheme of things but it somehow makes my skin crawl when I read “the” Ukraine. I know that breaking this habit is akin to quitting smoking but I request that the addicted give it a try.

    • Janos Skorenzy November 6, 2014 at 3:50 am #

      I like the way the the sounds for some reason. To delete the the makes Ukraine sound incorrect unless it is changed to Ukrainia.

      Thanks for the support. This kid is really the pits. He has yet to offer one rational argument. He thinks snark is all sufficient. Bertrand Russell said funny men like George Bernard Shaw often confused humor with wisdom. But the Boy isn’t even funny. He’s just a dry desert punctuated by sharp stones and broken glass.

      • AKlein November 7, 2014 at 7:27 am #

        Janos, in German the name for Switzerland is “Die Schweiz”. Which translates, roughly, to “The Swiss”. The Swiss do not, apparently, take umbrage at the their country having the article “The” in its name. Back when Czechoslovakia was still united (to wit, Czech and Slovakia), in German the name was “Die Tchechoslowakei”. Translated, again roughly, as “The Czechoslovakia”. Why some countries have a “the” in their name and some don’t is a mystery. It may have something to do with rhythm. That said, I hardly think one should ascribe negativism to the use of the “the” in “The Ukraine”. Of course, the Left makes a big fetish over such things. For example, it is now politically incorrect to call a Chinese person an “Oriental.” The proper term according to the self-appointed thought police is now “Asian.” Was “Oriental” ever a slur? I think not. But no matter. The Annointed have now deemed it Verboten.

  73. Q. Shtik November 6, 2014 at 12:41 am #

    To Dannyboy,

    I have been amused over the years when someone new, like yourself, arrives on the scene and is aghast with horror at the things Janos says. Believe me, better men than yourself have tried and failed to defeat him in argumentation. You’re going to have to try much harder because your reposts are neither profound nor clever. You’ll have to do more than call Janos a Jew-hating racist fascist. He wears those titles like a badge of honor.

    • dannyboy November 6, 2014 at 7:50 am #

      Q,

      If you read my earlier Comment:

      “I thank you and agree with everything you have written. I “tussle” with Janos to better understand his attitude. To me, that attitude is extremely dangerous.

      I do not “tussle” to change his mind. That is not possible. I would like to know the danger that lurks. I too am preparing.”

      …you would understand that I have NOT “tried and failed to defeat him in argumentation.” I can only interpret your misunderstanding as intentional, reflection of a personal defect, or the result of just plain poor reading skills. Or a combination of the three.

      But I do agree that my posts “are neither profound nor clever.” They are posted to the likes of you and Janos; your hero and “a Jew-hating racist fascist” [your words].

      You two deserve each other and the derangement you share.

  74. FincaInTheMountains November 6, 2014 at 3:03 am #

    View from the East: Russian economist Michael Khasin

    The mid-term elections have ended in the United States. The result, in general, was quite natural, although some did not believe it was possible.

    The Republican victory makes it even more probable victory of their candidate for the US presidential election in 2016. And now the Republican Party of the United States must solve two fundamentally important tasks: first, to define its policy for the future, and secondly – to decide on those who will represent the policy. Actually the task even more difficult, because there should be two policies: one for electorate, the other – for real.

    Naturally, I do not know what they’re going to come up with. But some considerations I could tell. The first is strategic. The fact that the US, after the destruction of the world socialist system, seriously decided that they are “shiny city on a hill”, and they could get away with anything. Today it is clear that this position has gotten them into a dead end (remember that the situation has become irreversibly catastrophic during the Clinton presidency, in the 90s of the last century), but the understanding of that has not hit the US yet. During the last few days I am in the US I could see it with the naked eye: the American elite have not yet realized what is happening and what it will bring.

    If we consider the situation from the point of view of understanding the processes that determine the economic development of the last few centuries, the collapse of the USSR was the result of objective economic processes, and these processes continue to operate today. In this sense, the current crisis in the US – is the reincarnation of the crisis of the USSR (and their own crisis of the 70s), the crisis of the impossibility of expanding markets. It is reinforced by two negative circumstances. The first is that the US economy wild structural imbalances associated with the policy of “Reaganomics” which started back in 1981 (just to overcome the crisis of the 70s), the second is that today there is no valid alternative economic model. In the USSR, it was clear whom to follow and look up to – and who United States is going to look up to today?

    Under this approach, it becomes clear that the continuation of the “messianic” approach to politics external as well as internal, will inevitably lead to a crisis, far more terrible than the crisis of the USSR of the late 80s. And not only in the scale of economic recession (recall that our analysis of the US inter-industry balances we made back in 1998 showed structural imbalances on the scale of the “Great” depression), but on a psychological level. And if we add to that rapid elimination of the middle class, the problem of fantastic proportion becomes evident.

    And if the Republican candidate wins in the presidential election in 2016, this party will be solely responsible for all these outrages (and the consequences will be the same as the consequences of G. Hoover presidency: five consecutive terms of the Democratic Party). Theoretically, there are only two choices. The first is to do something (but what?), the second – to stimulate the crisis ahead so that you can begin to deal with it with “clean hands.” I note that the stock market experts say that the collapse of these markets (which, most likely, will be a “trigger” of a new crisis) and should happen before Obama leaves his post, but in that respect it is better to be safe than sorry.

    But there is one circumstance more, not internal, but external. The fact that now the US is not in a position to enforce those “rules of the game” that they impose on the entire world. The sanctions against Russia showed that. Things will only get worse, and – a lot worse. The model that the United States have imposed worldwide after 1991 (roughly speaking, the Washington Consensus system) is built on the fact that the United States put in charge in all countries under their control elites who are ruling thanks to the portion of dollar emission allocated to them.

    The trouble is that the resource of dollar emission ends – and thus pro-American elites in most countries fall in extremely difficult position. They can no longer provide the highest standard of living in their countries; they are starting to get pushed over by alternative elite groups who, for obvious reasons, become profoundly anti-American. And the further the crisis will go, the more aggressive US will attempt to re-enforce its “messianic” ideas – the more rigid response will become.

    US is not only unprepared for such a scenario – they can’t even perceive it. But the likelihood of it is large enough; in any case, it follows naturally from the fairly transparent economic reasons. And today, American elites have a unique opportunity – two years before the presidential election, to try to work out a policy that will somehow compensate all negative consequences, at least the political-psychological part of it. I do not think that the US lacks people with understanding what is happening. Judging by the attempts to restore the isolationist wing of the Republican Party (though still not very clear what they will end up with), someone understands something – but could these people do something real?

    In general, concluding, we can say only one thing: the US was given a chance. Are they going to make use of it or will they go the way of the USSR is entirely up to them.

    ===============================================
    Those friggin economists – American or Russian – I am starting to hate them all. What in bloody hell the guy is saying anyway?

    • Buck Stud November 6, 2014 at 9:43 am #

      “The Republican victory makes it even more probable victory of their candidate for the US presidential election in 2016.”

      Not much of a ‘political analysis’ by your Russian economist.

      The real narrative was not that it was a repudiation of Obama/Dems, but that D’s were fighting on predominantly GOP turf and that their voters tend to suffer from a mid-term apathy, especially of the six year variety.

      The D’s will suffer no disadvantage/dynamic in 2016 and in all probability, will retake the Senate. In the interim, blue state GOP senators up for reelection in 2016 will be treading very carefully in terms of legislation lest they be ousted with certainty by their Blue State constituents. All of this will enrage the Tea Party lunatics to no end. In fact, Cruz is already waving a rebellious finger in McConnell’s face. By this time next year I predict a near civil war within the GOP- it’s going to be fun to watch!

      Moreover, the Dems–Hillary–start off the election with 240 electoral college votes–have an overwhelming–dare I say insurmountable electoral college advantage. People that actually know what they’re talking about when it comes to American politics understand this. In fact, some on the right are making noises about splitting up and dividing the Electoral College in order to diminish the impact of New York, California, etc.

      Two years from now Father Time will have further eroded the GOP over 65 base which is a dominant part of their voting block. And President Obama will have issued an executive order on immigration adding 30, 40, 50–70?!–potential new American citizen voters. I think we all know who that favors. (Didn’t the GOP ‘geniuses’ championing cheap labor know this would be the inevitable result? “Check please”–LMAO!)

      And, of course, the D’s, shaking off their typical mid-term malaise, will actually show up to vote– in droves. Because let’s face it, ‘the first female elected President’ will start taking on a very powerful and seductive narrative. So add a a dominant check in the women vote column for Hillary.

      Your Russian economist should probably stick to economics.

      • FincaInTheMountains November 6, 2014 at 10:01 am #

        Well, yeah, he’s more interested not who wins the White House in 2016, but how you guys are gonna cover budget and trade deficit with the printing press turned off? Any ideas?

        • progress4what November 6, 2014 at 10:08 am #

          Exactly, FM. It’s like Buck read a totally different article than the one you posted. Pretty good example of how blinkered our thinking is here in the States.

      • progress4what November 6, 2014 at 10:05 am #

        Buck, when it comes to dem/repub politics you have a laser sharp focus on exactly the wrong things. There’s nothing in FM’s piece that says Repub wins are inevitable. There’s a lot in it that says the Repubs will have to struggle to define themselves, exactly as you admit in your McConnell/Cruz/TP sentence. And FM’s piece ends with this:

        “In general, concluding, we can say only one thing: the US was given a chance. Are they going to make use of it or will they go the way of the USSR is entirely up to them.”

        That’s gonna’ be true regardless of which party of oligarchs gets nominal control. And your 70,000,000 new voting citizens are not going to help matters much, regardless of how it’s spun.

      • Q. Shtik November 6, 2014 at 1:01 pm #

        Funny that a sculptor of wood would be a political junkie on the order, say, of Chris Mathews. My advice is, do your art and don’t let politics rob you of your energy.

  75. Pucker November 6, 2014 at 3:05 am #

    If you want to fit in, then just act like you don’t know what’s going on. If you want them to vote for you, then just figure out whatever their particular group psychosis is and then pander to that.

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  76. Pucker November 6, 2014 at 3:24 am #

    The white peoples’ definition of The Illuminati: A super secret society of Satan worshippers.

    The black peoples’ definition of The Illuminati: A super secret society of white people.

    • seawolf77 November 6, 2014 at 10:26 am #

      What’s the difference?

  77. FincaInTheMountains November 6, 2014 at 3:31 am #

    I mean it is pretty clear what needs to be done. If we had somebody of FDR statue in the White House, he’d shut the f*ck down the FED shop of printing money and spreading it all over the world to their fellow blood-sucking degenerative bankers, and instead open a discount window to start buying US States Infrastructure Bonds and paying down the student loans.

    Just use one of the emergency presidential war powers for crying out load, they probably have something appropriate in Patriot Act. And to hell with dysfunctional Tea-Party austerity lunatics in the House and Senate.

    But obviously, Obama is aint no FDR and things will go the way they go.

  78. progress4what November 6, 2014 at 9:11 am #

    “Japan stepped up to plug the liquidity hole left by the US Federal Reserve’s final taper trot to the zero finish line of Quantitative Easing 3…..” – jhk –

    Interesting idea!. For the second week in a row, JHK posits something that could be read as acknowledging a conspiracy. Is that a reflection of a change of thinking on the part of JHK, or of myself, or is the world at large changing.

    At any rate, the elites of the world are gonna’ do what they’re gonna’ do. And it is impossible to doubt that Japanese leadership is colluding with US leadership, which is colluding with European leadership, which is colluding (to a smaller extent?) with Russian leadership, which is colluding with Syrian leadership.

    Which is to say that economic collapse inside the US is under the control of elites around the Globe, some of whom hate us and some of whom tolerate us, but none of whom love us or fear us, anymore. (FM’s repost of Khasin’s article goes to this idea quite well.) Interesting times, indeed.

    Thanks for the week’s work, JHK!

  79. progress4what November 6, 2014 at 9:22 am #

    I’m enjoying the jousting between the new blood here, dannyboy, and janos. So far, I’d have to say that dannyboy is ahead on politically correct snark and janos is ahead on logic and politeness.

    Dannyboy asked, “Does anyone agree with Janos…..,” and q pointed out that the question was illogical and impossible to answer.

    Anyway – whether one agrees with janos or not is beside the point. Janos has ideas that must be considered on a blog dedicated to consideration of peak everything and possible collapse.

    Danny, a question. Are you going to be like our very long term poster, pk rugman, and call everyone who disagrees with you on these topics “racist?” That is unhelpful.

    • dannyboy November 6, 2014 at 10:55 am #

      No

      but are you racist?

      …just askin’

      • Q. Shtik November 6, 2014 at 12:47 pm #

        You have asked the question incorrectly. It should read “Are you [a] racist?”

        • dannyboy November 6, 2014 at 2:05 pm #

          OK Q,

          Are YOU a racist?

        • Janos Skorenzy November 6, 2014 at 2:23 pm #

          No the form is correctly stupid, he just needs to change the spelling to “raciss”.

      • Janos Skorenzy November 6, 2014 at 2:32 pm #

        Not that you care about philosophical truth but some of us do. So would you care to define your term, your most important word, your veritable God? Can you?

        You say it’s obvious? Not really – there are a number of different meanings which are applied unequally to different groups. Is it racist for a White to have a feeling of pride in his culture? Or to want to have children that look like himself? No one would ever dream of claiming racism if a Non-White felt such pride. But such meanings are applied to Whites.

        In other words, the common or negative meaning of racism as hatred of other races is conflated with the positive aspects of racism or love of one’s own people – so as to make these seem to be hateful as well when Whites feel them.

  80. progress4what November 6, 2014 at 10:30 am #

    Concerning voting, would somebody explain a couple of things to me?

    To Q, BTB, etc, on the legitimacy of repudiating the system through the magic of non-voting. I don’t get it. I know the system is flawed. But, barely 1/3 of voters decided this election. We, collectively, get the candidates we deserve. Your defiant non-voting just seems like the ultimate expression of spoiled ego; the idea that you can make the system respond if you give it the “silent treatment” for long enough.

    Then, to buck, apparently dannyboy, etc, on the “immorality?” of requiring photo ideas to vote. Without a photo ID requirement, what is to prevent one man or woman from voting 2-15 times in every election? I don’t get it. Is there some mechanism I’m missing. And don’t tell me that, “voter fraud is very rare.” That’s not an answer, it’s an obfuscation.

    Also – several states already have iron-clad and approved-by-SCOTUS voter ID laws. Why don’t North Carolina and the states being litigated over voter ID now, pass laws that mimic those already approved, and put this voter ID thing out of our misery? What’s going on in NC right on voter ID now looks like a cross between moving the deck chairs on the Titanic and a gin-up-the-base operation. What else explains this?

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

    My own voting, you ask? I vote in every election, with the only exceptions being when I’m going to be out of jurisdiction for a long period and forget to order an absentee ballot.

    I have trouble understanding the issues and candidate promises (like it matters a whole lot!*%$*&!!) so – especially on down ticket races – I’ll often vote for the libertarian, just to shake things up. I also try to NEVER vote for an incumbent.

    But, I’ll be honest, I was so sick of the endless, nasty, and repetitive TV adds; that this time I voted for the leading Repub candidates for US Senate and state governor, just in an effort to MAKE THEM STOP, stop the adds.

    It worked, I’m not proud of it but it worked. Both candidates won by a large margin, and the ads have, wonderously, disappeared from the TEEVEE. (and I don’t even watch a whole lot of TV, imagine how regular viewers were affected by all those ads) Would Edward Bernays be proud, or what?

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    • dannyboy November 6, 2014 at 11:03 am #

      Dear progress4what,

      You do seem to share a strong tendency with Janos. Just sayin’

      You, too, like to put words into others’ mouths and then criticize them for what they (???) said.

      In this case you have written:

      “Then, to buck, apparently dannyboy, etc, on the “immorality?” of requiring photo ideas to vote.

      Where did I say such a thing? I haven’t made many Comments on this site, so you couldn’t have seen these as my words.

      You and Janos both need to clear your heads. Or not speak.

      See, I’m offering you some helpful suggestions.

      And you are judging MY logic? Wow!

      • Janos Skorenzy November 6, 2014 at 2:38 pm #

        You refused again and again to answer my question about voter ID, so what do you expect? He naturally assumes you are against them. So do I. That’s how you folks operate: never explain or discuss but only attack. I get it. How could you defend such a position? It’s nonsense. You want illegals to vote and/or Democrats to vote more than once. You just refuse to admit it. You have opted for victory at any price. Thus the rule of Law is broken, Chaos rises and will be met by Totalitarianism.

        • dannyboy November 6, 2014 at 3:40 pm #

          Janos – answer the six or seven questions that I posed to you previously and then I will answer this latest question of yours.

          I have been answering your questions since I arrived. You have not been responsive.

          You call this Debate?

          It’s Janos debating Janos. With Q cheering on.

          What a sight!

          THIS IS THE REASON I LOVE KUNSTLER’S OBSERVATIONS ON THE DISFUNCTIONALITY OF SOME MEMBERS OF OUR SOCIETY, they’re right here.

          Still suffering that chaos of mind, are you?

          • Janos Skorenzy November 6, 2014 at 4:11 pm #

            Voter ID’s? Yes or No.

          • dannyboy November 6, 2014 at 4:32 pm #

            Are you preparing your responses to our Dialogue?

  81. pkrugman November 6, 2014 at 11:07 am #

    P4W, I agree with you about “the magic of non-voting”

    So, by your logic, I guess that means you are not a racist.

    🙂

    • dannyboy November 6, 2014 at 2:06 pm #

      pkrugman,

      snark, right?

  82. volodya November 6, 2014 at 11:13 am #

    Fincaln,

    OK, suppose then that you’re correct in your take on this, that there was no specific targetting of Ukrainians by the Stalin regime, that the starvation resulted from forced collectivization and was generalized and widespread throughout the USSR.

    Let’s also assume that the body count generally cited for Ukrainians wasn’t just Ukrainians but many different folk in the Soviet Union.

    So what about the body count? What’s the REAL number if your sources indicate that this business is mostly propaganda? You see, what I’ve heared and read is that you’re talking millions.

    Millions? OK, what I’ve also heard is that the USSR and especially the Ukraine, oops “Ukraine” has some of the best, the most fertile, farmable soil on the planet.

    The questions are these: what accounts for millions of dead people from starvation? Does mere bureaucratic incompetence on the part of Soviet planners get you to that body count? Do sanctions from the likes of the US and Canada get you anywhere close? What’s the excuse?

    Or is the mass-death (assuming that part isn’t also propaganda) the result of the actions of an evil, squalid regime run by evil, squalid men?

    Because, even if the starvation wasn’t targetted, I’m not sure that the resulting portrait of the USSR is any better.

    Maybe you could enlighten me/us on this. No seriously, history has a lot of moving parts. It’s no good to anybody if big sections of the common accepted version are wrong.

    • FincaInTheMountains November 7, 2014 at 5:32 am #

      Famine of 1932-1933 in USSR killed from 7 to 9 million people.

      In Ukraine it killed from 4 to 7 million people, about half were ethnic Russians.
      In Russian Federation it killed from 2 to 3 million people
      In Kazakhstan it killed from 1.5 to 2 million people.

      In my opinion, the famine was mostly caused by rigid policies of the Soviet government in the area of forced collectivization, however some natural weather-related causes coincided in that particular year.

      Famine was fully overcome next year – in 1934.

      There are no reasons to use that great tragedy as a propaganda tool to incite inter-ethnic tensions.

      There are even less reasons to use that great tragedy as a cover story for Kiev’s regime to carpet-shell the (mostly ethnic Russian) cities of SE Ukraine with multiple rocket launchers.

      Just yesterday, a shell launched by Kiev’s punitive forces landed in Donetsk school yard, killing three students.

  83. progress4what November 6, 2014 at 12:40 pm #

    “…clear your heads. Or not speak.”
    – dannyboy –

    First of all, Junior, don’t lump me together with Janos.

    Second, you’ve avoiding giving an opinion on photo voter ID, despite a couple of requests for this opinion. If you’re not willing to state an opinion and defend it, there’s no point in proceeding.

    It’s been nice obfuscating with you thus far. sarc on/off

    • dannyboy November 6, 2014 at 2:12 pm #

      I will hold you to your commitment of “not proceeding”.

      Kinda makes my day.

      AND…Janos has refused to answer my questions to him consistently. Now you jump in AND NOT RESPOND! And you claim that I’m unresponsive!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11

      What’s with you?????????????

      The similarity between Janos and you just grows. Now you are using the “Junior” salutation.

      But I know you can’t see that.

      Tragic.

      • Janos Skorenzy November 6, 2014 at 2:44 pm #

        So your goal is to create a condition of “not proceeding”. Classic Communist technique. You have outed yourself J.R (junior rat).

        • dannyboy November 6, 2014 at 3:51 pm #

          Janos,

          If you could only stop making the words for the other person and then responding, you might improve (I can’t diagnose this as Schizophrenia…more like Paranoia).

          If you can grasp this: I was attempting to clarify with progress4what that I did not, in fact, say “Then, to buck, apparently dannyboy, etc, on the “immorality of requiring photo ideas to vote.”, which is what he had attributed to me.

          His response to my clarification was: “If you’re not willing to state an opinion and defend it, there’s no point in proceeding.”

          I concurred, since I could not possibly defend words which I did not say.

          Now you, continuing progress4what’s mistaken attribution, call me Communist for it.

          It just doesn’t get any nuttier.

          • Janos Skorenzy November 6, 2014 at 4:14 pm #

            Yes, but why didn’t you say what you believed? That’s the question j.r. What are you trying to hide? Or why are you trying to impede the free flow of ideas?

        • dannyboy November 6, 2014 at 4:38 pm #

          Ok

          The diagnosis is Paranoid Schizophrenia. There we have it.

          Now calm yourself Janos. As I explained repeatedly, I cannot reply to your latest question without hearing from you on ALL THOSE UNANSWERED QUESTIONS THAT YOU HAVE AVOIDED.

          My purpose is easy to understand. I am finding it more difficult to have a dialogue where only I respond. See my point?

          To quote: “Yes, but why didn’t you say what you believed? That’s the question j.r. What are you trying to hide? Or why are you trying to impede the free flow of ideas?”

          nuttier still

    • Janos Skorenzy November 6, 2014 at 2:49 pm #

      Now meditate on this: See how the Left understand each other and effortlessly unites. But you throw me under the bus. They win because their philosophy is “No Enemies to the Left”. The Boy is to the left of Buck but Buck isn’t going to criticize him anytime soon.

      We’ll begin to hold our own when we adopt “No Enemies to the Right”. And yes, that means accepting racial awareness and pride. After all racism was invented as a cognitive weapon by Trotsky. It’s adoption by so called Conservatives was an incredible victory for the forces of Evil and an utter defeat for Western Culture and Nations.

  84. pkrugman November 6, 2014 at 12:50 pm #

    “And don’t tell me that, “voter fraud is very rare.” That’s not an answer, it’s an obfuscation.” — P4W

    P4W, we suspected unicorns were engaging in voter fraud here. And don’t tell me unicorns don’t exist. That’s not an answer, it’s an obfuscation.

    • progress4what November 6, 2014 at 12:55 pm #

      If there is a possibility of fraud in the system that can be eliminated, and if that possibility is not eliminated – then the system is tainted.

      A tainted system should be undesirable – to all sides.

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

      And again, what’s to prevent a single voter from voting multiple times, if voter ID is not required? Simple question, right?

  85. BackRowHeckler November 6, 2014 at 1:19 pm #

    3 brutal murders in Hartford in the past 5 days. Two were stabbings, one was the familiar “shot to the head”. It looks like the Governor’s strict gun control measures are finally having an effect. In another Hartford incident, this one not fatal (as of yet), a city fireman shot a man in the face in an alley at 1:30 am in what is described as an ‘accident’, but was most likely a drug deal gone bad. All the victims and the perpetrators are Hispanic.

    In other Hartford news, the polls were all f#cked up on election day, rendering some worthy citizens unable to cast their vote. There was of course requisite outrage (suppression of minority votes!!! Abrogation of Civil Rights!!!) until the Registrar of Voters responsible for the situation was tracked down. She turned out to be a Hispanic woman with crazy eyes and a shrill voice, wearing one of those porkpie hats peasant woman wear in Ecuador. This in Hartford CT, where jet engines were invented. After that the criticism died down. That the way it is now in New England, the 3rd world living here amongst us, with their own curious customs and folkways.

    –brh

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    • stelmosfire November 6, 2014 at 1:46 pm #

      Hey Marlin, I don’t know you but I think I have a feel for your beliefs. You should lightin’ up some. It is what it is. The cities are lost. Take refuge in the hinterlands. Enjoy what is left and leave the scraps for the rats.

      • dannyboy November 6, 2014 at 2:14 pm #

        I Love NY!

        • Janos Skorenzy November 6, 2014 at 2:58 pm #

          Walk around Harlem late at night then.

          • dannyboy November 6, 2014 at 3:53 pm #

            I LOVE Harlem at night!

            I must therefore assume that your home and it’s costs surpass Harlem real estate?

            Another question for Janos.

      • BackRowHeckler November 6, 2014 at 4:38 pm #

        Rip lets get together sometime thro a few back in your girl’s pub. Its about half way for each of us.

        brh

    • Janos Skorenzy November 6, 2014 at 2:57 pm #

      Did you really believe that you can have Western Culture without Whites? That’s what Liberals and minorities want. Feminists want Western Culture without men or at least White Men. They’re going to be disappointed too.

      You know the answer in your heart even though you aren’t willing to admit it yet. Conservatism will always lose because it defensive. Remember the Battle of Hastings: two time the Normans charged the Saxon shield wall and were repulsed. The third time they broke through and took the day and England. If the Saxons had attacked after either of the first two attack they might have won. But they were Conservatives. That’s the difference between Conservatism and Fascism – one of Method. There are huge differences in philosophy now – but between Fascism and the Conservatism of Edmund Burke? Very little. Fascism is geared towards War and Burke towards times of peace. That’s all.

      • BackRowHeckler November 7, 2014 at 8:06 am #

        Vlad I know about the Battle of Hastings, but I also know about Stalingrad and Kursk.

        brh

        • Janos Skorenzy November 7, 2014 at 1:39 pm #

          In other words, if we fight for our Nation and Civilization we are just naziswhowanttokillsixmillionjews. So instead we just have to wait and get picked off as has been happening since WW2. Your entire life. What you are used to. Can you see what a knot you are tied in? And what you are used to may be familiar, but it is not normal.

  86. BackRowHeckler November 6, 2014 at 1:28 pm #

    Looks like the XL Pipeline is going to be the first thing on the agenda for the Republicans. The President can veto it or sign it into law. It will be interesting to see how he responds.

    brh

    • Florida Power November 6, 2014 at 3:14 pm #

      Speaking of signs and wonders here’s some fun viewing:

      http://www.usdebtclock.org

      As pundits have joyously proclaimed the deficit is going down! See it here in real time.

      Watch the national debt go up in real time! The debt increases in thousands at approximately at same rate as the deficit decreases in hundreds as of this afternoon. May we subtract the deficit from the debt to get the real deficit? Or is that false accounting?

      Note the unfunded liabilities number. It goes up in 10 thousands at approximately the rate the deficit goes up in thousands. May we add that to the debt to get the real debt? Or is that off in the future somewhere, just beyond that bend in the road where 70 million Latin American replacements for the aborted and never-conceived natives start to move that number in the opposite direction?

      Maybe this is what Finca’s Russian economist referred to?

  87. Buck Stud November 6, 2014 at 4:34 pm #

    Typically, the right wingers on this site distort the true intent of photos ID voting laws. The true intent is not to prevent voter fraud, but to make voting more difficult for mostly poor citizens.

    But it gets even more diabolical. Certain photo ID’s long recognized and honored in society our no longer ‘good enough’ to vote with. But it gets even more diabolical. In Red States motor vehicle outlets are eliminated via budget cut, hours slashed and the available outlets moved to difficult to reach locales.

    Truth be told this latest election was a horrendous turnout for the Dems never mind illegal voting. As I have read and understand, 10 percent lower that 2010 and percentage wise, the lowest turnout in decades.

    The photo ID laws should be termed exactly what they are: A moving goal post tool that arbitrarily and selectively disenfranchises certain American citizens access to the voting booth.

    • dannyboy November 6, 2014 at 4:47 pm #

      Buck,

      Agree. I am relieved to hear your words. It is so obvious.

      I am stuck in a ‘debate’ with a dog-with-a-bone on this. Seems his entire raison d’etre hinges on this.

      This and his Failure. I have never seen anyone blame so many for their personal failure.

      It’s as if failure is a medal. Something to be rallied around.

      Sound familiar?

      nazi germany, fascist italy…

    • Janos Skorenzy November 6, 2014 at 6:55 pm #

      Thank you Buck for speaking your truth from your heart – wrong as it is. At least you have that much respect for yourself and for us.

      Any Nation has to protect itself from fraud. Retail and Private Industry do it. I once was selling clothing off a cart before Christmas. A young Black came by and was telling me why I had to give him a sweater for a present for his sister. She was leaving that day or something. He had no money but he would come back and pay me tomorrow. I said no but he persisted. Finally he gave up. Do you think I made a mistake and he would have come back and paid me?

      Somehow these people manage to get themselves out to various social service and medical offices. Yet they can’t get a picture ID at these offices? Sometimes in the same building? Don’t get me wrong, we could make it easier for people with real issues. Say create an ID division in neighborhood offices. It doesn’t have to be a big deal – yet I know that it will continue to be for obvious reasons.

      • Buck Stud November 6, 2014 at 9:33 pm #

        The GOP hysteria about voter fraud–always among people of color curiously enough–borders on delusional paranoia. Recall only a few weeks ago that FOX News was concocting scenarios in which Colorado voters could tamper with mail-in ballots which was a totally bogus and absurd claim. In fact, the Colorado mail-in ballots ironically benefited the GOP as many of the elderly who otherwise found traditional voting difficult–and who are typically more conservative– simply mailed in their ballots.

        Actually, the Dems shouldn’t protest too loudly about the GOP voter ID obsession . It only enrages voters who most likely would have never voted in the first place–yes they will now make that far away trip to the Division of Motor Vehicles and wait in line at under staffed offices (we all know how the GOP/Tea Party hates ‘gubmint’) because oppressive tactics only result in the rebellious counter.

        Out here in the west young Latino’s are starting to form voting organizations and registration drives as a reaction against these voter ID tactics. Any potential gain for right-wing conservatives on this count will be far outnumbered by the anger fueled counter-response.

        Of course those higher ups in the GOP also realize this which is why they typically attempt throw up barriers to voting–with the help of compliant courts– shortly before an election.

        • Janos Skorenzy November 7, 2014 at 12:01 am #

          No, nobody is being singled out. Everyone has to show ID. Blacks and Hispanics want and are getting all kinds of special privileges – they want the right not to show ID’s so they can cheat I assume. If anyone really has a problem getting one, than they probably don’t deserve one. But again, I’m not against a van that goes around and takes pictures and does the paperwork. That’s probably the best solution to the legitimate part of your position.

          • Buck Stud November 7, 2014 at 1:04 am #

            For the record I don’t see voter ID being all that big of a deal. In fact, as mentioned by others, one can’t really get by in society without at least some form of identification. But that’s where the monkey business starts, only certain types of acceptable ID etc.

            I did get a chuckle out of your van comment; that will NOT go over in GOP circles lol.

            ” Your from Hawaii huh? I don’t know, you look mighty Kenyan to me. Application denied!”

            Never forget, I heard the original anti-illegal immigrant warrior long before being an anti- illegal immigrant warrior was cool. Yeah, Tom Tancredo, that’s who.

            And BTW, crazy ol’ Tom, despised by Bush and Cheney and all proper GOP types, is back at it again, vowing to oppose at every turn Chris Christie and Jeb Bush presidential runs.

  88. MisterDarling November 6, 2014 at 5:11 pm #

    I’m surprised that THIS hasn’t been kicked around CFN this week – since it provokes yet satisfies so many different itches that need scratching:

    “…sometimes things just go wrong. Really wrong.”

    http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/11/04/libyan-troops-go-wild-in-england.html

    • Janos Skorenzy November 6, 2014 at 6:57 pm #

      Ahoy matey! I’ll raise you one shake! Fat Black women attack a Black man at a McDonald’s. They were angry because they missed the breakfast meal apparently.

      http://www.amren.com/news/2014/11/fight-breaks-out-at-philly-mcdonalds-over-breakfast-menu/

      • dannyboy November 6, 2014 at 7:45 pm #

        Janos,

        Here’s another question for you:

        Did you write all 41 Comments that were posted as of now? Sounds like you.

        Are you writing more?

        Still waiting for some of your brilliant responses.

        • Q. Shtik November 6, 2014 at 9:29 pm #

          You probably don’t realize it but YOU have written 61 (yes, sixty one) comments thus far this week and in my humble opinion not one is memorable.

          Instead of trying to gain control of the conversation by asking Janos to respond to your many questions, as though you have a right based on your moral superiority, how about YOU respond to this question:

          Is the athletic superiority of blacks genetically based or is their athletic superiority a figment of my imagination?

          • ZrCrypDiK November 7, 2014 at 11:44 pm #

            “Is the athletic superiority of blacks genetically based or is their athletic superiority a figment of my imagination?”

            Those Ethiopian/Kenyan marathon runners are simply a *FLUKE*…

            Just ask Hitler whut he thought about Jesse Owens – simple *explanation* (hah! lulz).

        • Janos Skorenzy November 7, 2014 at 4:39 am #

          You are a bore and a boor.

  89. pkrugman November 6, 2014 at 5:15 pm #

    Wow! Only one day of Republican control of congress and look at the results:

    Economy growing at a robust 3.5%

    Gas prices this morning under 3 dollars a gallon

    Stock market is at record levels

    Deficits cut in half

    10 million more Americans have health insurance

    Unemployment under 6% since the first time we elected Obama

    Ebola, which was going to destroy the country under Obama, is now only infecting one guy, and he is getting better under Republicans.

    It is a new morning in America. Suddenly the country is filled with a sense of… hope. Things are not going to be the same, they are going to… change.

    Yes, hope and change, that is the Republican message.

  90. Dumbedup November 6, 2014 at 9:26 pm #

    I don’t think ISIS or Ebola are worse than they appear. I suspect that neither is as dangerous as some of the reactionary nincompoops would have us believe. The Republicans road that train all the way down the main line by using one of their favorite ploys – playing on people’s fears. James Madison is the one who said that if tyranny ever comes to this country it will be in the guise of a foreign enemy. He would have said “foreign organism” if he had a microscope. There’s so much to be scared of these days … let’s all load up and board up. Something is definitely coming this way …

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    • Q. Shtik November 6, 2014 at 9:43 pm #

      the reactionary nincompoops ……..The Republicans [road] that train all the way ….
      ==============

      nincompoops indeed

      hahaha “road”

      Well, you could have done worse…you could have written “rowed.”

  91. pkrugman November 6, 2014 at 9:53 pm #

    P4W, you said you voted for David Perdue in Georgia this week.

    Did you know when Perdue was senior vice president of Sara Lee operations in Asia, Sara Lee eliminated between 8,000 and 9,000 jobs worldwide – mostly in the United States and Europe. During the same time Perdue was senior vice president there Sara Lee was closing four plants in Georgia, eliminating at least 540 jobs. When Perdue was VP at Haggar 1,950 American jobs were lost.

    So you just elected a millionaire CEO who didn’t care about American jobs being lost, including jobs eliminated in Georgia. Perdue spent most of his business career outsourcing American jobs.

    • Buck Stud November 7, 2014 at 1:12 am #

      To my eyes this is where the incoherence resides. A candidate can profess opposition to illegal immigration on one hand, while betraying American labor on the other. And the betrayal of American labor is the root cause–not the symptom–of illegal immigration.

      And yet people overlook look this and vote for the side of the mouth speaking to what they want to hear.

      Yes, Mr. P Kelly Rugman, we really are so fucked!

      • Janos Skorenzy November 7, 2014 at 4:13 am #

        Agree 100%. Socialism is the answer – National of course. Marxism is the imitation, an anti-life philosophy funded and spread by the Bankers to destroy or weaken traditional societies.

        But don’t then go in a complete circle and bite you nose to spite your face – supporting the Amnesty to punish America for being so stupid. That’s very convenient too because it would allow you to stay in bosom of the Democrat Party which supports Amnesty and of course hates traditional America with a passion. Both Parties betrayed us. Both of them need to be shunned.

  92. Janos Skorenzy November 7, 2014 at 4:38 am #

    Buddhist Wisdom: Drive the Muslims out. But, but, but – isn’t Buddhism supposed to be non-violent? Only for Monks. Buddha was a trained warrior who understood life. He never prescribed absolute non-violence in politics, though he did help broker a few peace deals.

    The New York Times comments are hopeless. More romantic drivel from pseudo-educated leftists who think all people of the world can, should, nay Must live together. They are angry at the Nobel Peace Price winner who has remained silent. Very wise of her. She is a patriot first, not a universalist. Or at least she knows which side her bread is buttered on.

    Let the Rohinga go back to where they came from: Bengaladesh. That’s the answer that insures peace – not letting them stay so they can burn monks alive and rape Burmese women.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/07/world/asia/rohingya-myanmar-rakhine-state-thailand-malaysia.html?_r=1

  93. FincaInTheMountains November 7, 2014 at 6:19 am #

    Forbes: “For the second year running, our votes went with the Russian president Vladimir Putin as the world’s most powerful person, followed by U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese leader Xi Jinping.”

    Forbes, Western edition, which does not hesitate to write about Russia extremely controversial articles has not found a single politician in the West who could be at least a stretch to pull in the first place. And even Barack Obama – the formal head of the United States – had to remain just a second.

    Now that the world is rapidly descending into chaos, “plush” politicians can do a disservice to the Western oligarchs. Hollande and Cameron were good enough in the quiet period of time: they did not interfere with the important people’s ability to make money using various shady schemes. Now it turns out that the strong figures capable of uniting the Western world are just not in the picture – and, therefore, very likely we will soon see the in the West a full-scale squabble between the former allies.

    http://fritzmorgen.livejournal.com/733964.html

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

    Where are Franklin Delano Roosevelts a Jack Kennedys of the West?

    • BackRowHeckler November 7, 2014 at 7:44 am #

      They’re waiting in the wings, as yet unknown. New leaders will emerge as needed, and they are needed now.

      brh

      • FincaInTheMountains November 7, 2014 at 8:04 am #

        Jack Kennedy was very popular in the Soviet Union. When the news of his death arrived, my father dared to send a telegram to the White House expressing his personal condolences, even though he was facing possible career problems.

  94. FincaInTheMountains November 7, 2014 at 6:54 am #

    Putin: Oil price is being manipulated

    http://russian.rt.com/article/58210#ixzz3IK11ZrpW

    Vladimir Putin: Of course, the obvious reason of the decline in global oil prices is the slowdown in theater of economic growth which means energy consumption being reduced in a whole range of countries. Moreover both strategic and commercial oil reserves in developed countries are at their highest levels in history. There is also the impact of innovations in the technology of oil production which led to new volumes of hydrocarbon entering the regional markets.

    In addition, a political component is always present in oil prices. Furthermore, at some moments of crisis it starts to feel like it is the politics that prevails in the pricing of energy resources.

    Another negative factor is the lack of a distinct direct link between the physical oil markets and the financial platforms where the trade is conducted. At the same time, the derivatives greatly increasing the volatility of oil prices are being actively used. Unfortunately, such a situation creates the conditions for speculative activity and, as a consequence, for manipulating the prices in someone’s interests.

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

    In some estimates about 30% of money we are paying at the pump is going to energy derivative speculators.

    • BackRowHeckler November 7, 2014 at 7:55 am #

      Its pretty tough to make the case for Peak Oil right now, petroleum being relatively cheap and plentiful as it is.

      I did see one sentence at the end of an article last week in FT of London that stated overall production of petroleum, worldwide, is declining at a rate of 1% per year. This could be explained many ways, however.

      Besides, there are so many other pressing problems, IMO the main one being ISIS. When the cold light of day exposes the unprecedented brutality of events in Syria and Iraq explanations are going to have to be made by leaders in the west why nothing was done to end it. The issue hardly was even mentioned in the election cycle earlier in the week.

      brh

      • FincaInTheMountains November 7, 2014 at 8:15 am #

        Can’t see how ISIS with its few thousand fighters be considered a main threat.

        In my opinion, the main threat remains in the inability of the world leading powers – US, China, Russia – to seat at the negotiating table and work out some commonly acceptable rules of the game.

        And unfortunately, the current world’d leading power – US – is still betting on using political, military and financial levers to tilt the table to its own advantage.

  95. FincaInTheMountains November 7, 2014 at 9:36 am #

    ………

    But why, then, Russia again and again insists on a ceasefire and not recognizing elected authorities of SE Ukraine, forces Kiev to negotiations with these authorities?

    Why Moscow continues the policy of freezing the conflict, and does not recognize, finally, the full sovereignty of self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk Republics, will not raise the flag of liberation throughout the Novorussia and will not use full available power to protect the local inhabitants from Kiev regime?

    Moscow is forced to delay a direct clash with the West to the maximum extent possible, hoping to weaken the West union in aggression against Russia planned by Washington.

    Germany, though forced to reckon with the dependence on the US, nevertheless is not eager to foment a war against one of its main trade and economic partners. At the same time, Washington needs to create as many pockets of instability in Eurasia and as quickly as possible to bring down Russia and China into chaos.

    Any delay in this process is extremely dangerous for mired in debt and ready to collapse dollar system and Washington. Therefore, any freezing of regional conflict whether in Syria, Egypt and the Ukraine is a success of Russia.

    The White House in addition to instability in Eurasia has aimed to build a cohesive unified front against Russia. Make her an outcast and unbalance, lounging blows outside and provoking conflicts within. The task of Moscow – to neutralize these attempts, not allow itself to get isolated and disrupt the plans of aggression against itself.

    In general, the situation is painfully reminiscent of the 1939-41 years when the Stalin’s order “not to succumb to provocations”, remained until the attack of German Nazi troops.

    There are differences between the current situation, of course, and they are significant. In 1941, the Soviet Union did not have a nuclear shield, able to hold a large-scale attack against the aggressor, and in 2014 the first time Russia in XXI century caught up with the US in the number of carriers of nuclear weapons as part of the strategic nuclear forces and the number of warheads deployed.

    Despite the significance of nuclear weapons, they are unable to resist the network-centric military operations, which unfolded in Syria and the SE Ukraine. Actually, this is one of the ways of the West specially developed aggression (along with terrorism and the methods of “soft power”) against countries with nuclear shield.

    And Russia should as quickly as possible and successfully prepare for the moment when the aggression against her will start on all fronts and with maximum brutality, including all means of destruction as domestically in the border areas, as in the financial systems and in the sphere of information and by local military incursions.

    http://russkiy-malchik.livejournal.com/544983.html

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  96. pkrugman November 7, 2014 at 11:33 am #

    When the cold light of day exposes the unprecedented brutality of events in Syria and Iraq explanations are going to have to be made by leaders in the west why nothing was done to end it. –BRH

    Nothing like that is happening in the USA, right BRH? I mean there are the killings you report on regularly, and the police shooting down unarmed Black men regularly, and slavery in agriculture, farmworkers repeatedly raped and forced to work for one penny a pound (pick 2,000 pounds of tomatoes and you earn $20 for a day’s work).

    When I speak of modern-day slavery in the USA I do not mean “slave-like” or “resembling slavery”—rather, I am referring to conditions that meet the high standard of proof and definition of slavery under U.S. federal laws… that continue in 21st century America.

    Now I ask you if the following sentence makes sense, BRH:

    When the brutality in the USA is exposed, leaders in Syria and Iraq are going to have to explain why nothing was done to end it.

    Do you want them sending drones and boots on the ground to help us in the USA end our murders, rapes, child slavery and other brutalities? Is it their place? Get my point?

    • BackRowHeckler November 7, 2014 at 12:10 pm #

      I’d like to learn more about this ‘agricultural slavery’ you mention.

      In the South? Out West?

      Are you saying people are being held in bondage and forced to work for no pay? In the US?

      Please explain.

      –brh

  97. pkrugman November 7, 2014 at 11:57 am #

    Loretta Lynch will be a great attorney general. Congress should ratify her immediately. She served on the trial team that prosecuted and won convictions against New York City police officers for violating the civil rights of Abner Louima, a Haitian immigrant who police sodomized.

    Now, when European, Middle Eastern, and Asian leaders find out the extent of brutality in our police forces and in our prisons, the largest prison system in the world, full of covered up brutalities, those leaders are going to have to explain why they let it happen. Why on earth didn’t they intervene to stop the brutalities in the USA? Eh, BRH?

  98. pkrugman November 7, 2014 at 12:29 pm #

    We have a free press, and access to the internet, yet people do not know about the brutalities in their own country.

    Yes, being forced to work, not being paid, in the USA. Such a wonderful country. Immigrants have everything handed to them on a platter as soon as they cross the border, right P4W?

    ANTI-SLAVERY CAMPAIGN
    http://ciw-online.org/slavery/

  99. pkrugman November 7, 2014 at 1:17 pm #

    BOOK RECOMMENDATION:
    “Pete Seeger vs. The Un-Americans: A Tale of the Blacklist” by Ed Renehan

    This book sets the record straight. Pete Seeger was subpoenaed in 1955 to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee and when he refused to comply, Seeger was convicted of contempt of Congress and sentenced to jail, which was later overturned.

    This book tells about another form of state persecution: how the American government has victimized artists, shutting down dialogue on important social issues.

    • BackRowHeckler November 7, 2014 at 2:37 pm #

      Seeger was a communist and an apologist for Joe Stalin. As soon as the Soviet Union went down he pivoted, on a dime, to environmentalism.

      In the 30’s, after the Stalin-Hitler pact, Seeger hammered President Roosevelt for the US antagonistic stance toward Germany, calling Roosevelt a war monger etc. As soon as Germany attacked the Soviet Union he began agitating for war against Germany. Seeger was loyal to the Soviet Union, not the US. Whatever inconveniences he suffered were well deserved.

      –brh

  100. pkrugman November 7, 2014 at 1:42 pm #

    Only days after Republicans took control of congress and the unemployment rate down to 5.8% today.

    Why? Because people are getting jobs in all sectors: construction, manufacturing, retail, business and professional services, etc. Good paying jobs. Manufacturing wants to in-source, to bring jobs back to the USA. 2,500 American Job Centers (dol.gov) prove Reagan was wrong: the government is helping people find jobs. American Job Centers are from the government and they are there to help.

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  101. progress4what November 7, 2014 at 1:45 pm #

    “Yes, being forced to work, not being paid, in the USA. Such a wonderful country. Immigrants have everything handed to them on a platter as soon as they cross the border, right P4W?”
    – pk rugsoaker –

    You didn’t read your slavery website very carefully before posting did you, pk?

    Every SINGLE felon, mentioned as convicted of slavery in that web article – has a Hispanic surname, except one.*

    Which is to say that all of the traits of the third world, including growing incidents of slavery – are being brought into the United States along with all your immigrants. Those really harmed by this, in addition to the immigrants, are going to be the native born members of lower US classes.

    * the one exception, you ask? “U.S. vs. Lee — In 2001, Michael Lee was sentenced to 4 years in federal prison and 3 years supervised release on a slavery conspiracy charge. He pled guilty to using crack cocaine, threats, and violence to enslave his workers…..” – rugsoaker’s link –

    Wonder what Mr. Lee’s heritage is? I’ll be willing to bet he’s not descended from one of those frugal, hard working New Englanders that backrow’s always telling us about.

  102. progress4what November 7, 2014 at 1:51 pm #

    “… are you racist….” – dannyboy –

    You know, dannyboy, being a racist used to mean something that was associated with hate, burning crosses in front yards, and genuine misuse of government authority.

    Nowadays, though, the same term “racist” is mostly used as a “dog-whistle,” by far-lefties, with the meaning being “someone who disagrees with the left on a topic like immigration or (on CFN this week, for example) voter ID.

  103. progress4what November 7, 2014 at 1:55 pm #

    Did you know that voter ID laws were already in place in 34 states?

    Did you know that nobody has an answer to either of my questions:

    1. Why don’t the other 16 states pass similar laws and stop litigating?

    2. How do states prevent a single person voting multiple times in a single election – if voter ID is not required?

  104. progress4what November 7, 2014 at 2:03 pm #

    “So you just elected a millionaire CEO who didn’t care about American jobs being lost, including jobs eliminated in Georgia. Perdue spent most of his business career outsourcing American jobs.”
    – pk rugsoaker –

    Did you know that no one has yet answered my question as to why “deliberately never voting” is nothing more than a spoiled, ego-centric, and meaningless attack on a system that will never care, ironically, unless you are a voter?

    Although – this post by rugsoaker attacking my voting choices may be part of the explanation. Candidates come as a package, pk. Sometimes one has to vote for the “least bad” candidate. That’s what I did by picking Deal over Carter or the Libertarian.

    Plus, since enough Georgia voters picked Deal, those verdamned campaign ads have stopped. And those useless campaign road signs will now be coming down, too!

    • progress4what November 7, 2014 at 2:26 pm #

      Yeah. I also picked Perdue over Nunn or the Libertarian.

      Same arguments apply.

      And at least I voted.

  105. BackRowHeckler November 7, 2014 at 2:44 pm #

    P2C, not too many ‘frugal, hard working New Englanders’ left.

    They are extinct.

    The few that remain live under a cloud of suspicion, and are largely despised.

    Basically what they are good for is to extract money from thru taxes to pass out in benefits to a grasping population, and keep Democrats in office forever. How else are they going to get re elected?

    –brh

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  106. progress4what November 7, 2014 at 4:36 pm #

    So, yeah, if Pres. Obama, Holder, Jackson, and Sharpton, and all those really wanted to do something about police abuse of power and inappropriate lethal force protocols; then they would be all over this case:

    http://countercurrentnews.com/2014/11/teacher-tries-to-leave-party-cop-jumps-on-hood-of-her-car-opens-fire-and-kills-her/

    If they want to pander to their base and gin up racial strife, so as to energize minority activists for the 2016 elections; then they will ignore this case until the next “cop kills black teen” case comes along.

    My money’s on that pandering to the base thing.
    Let’s wait, watch, and see what happens next.

    • progress4what November 7, 2014 at 4:40 pm #

      Oops –

      “… Sharpton, and all those really wanted….”

      should be

      “…. Sharpton, and all those other liberal activists really wanted….”

      • nsa November 7, 2014 at 5:21 pm #

        Prog,
        Can’t find a reason not to vote? Try rereading Plato’ Republic. He considered “democracy” to be a very disgusting low form of governance….little more than base mob rule….and refused to take part.

        • progress4what November 7, 2014 at 8:41 pm #

          OK, nsa, you do know that we don’t generally have democracy here in the US, right?

          Furthermore, we took a vote and it seems that the only easy way to get rid of democracy is to vote it away.

          Also, I think you’re misspelling the name of Mickey Mouse’s dog.
          I didn’t know that dog could write, either. Thanks for telling us.
          I’ll check out that book he wrote. Cool title.

  107. Q. Shtik November 7, 2014 at 5:41 pm #

    Is the athletic superiority of blacks genetically based or is their athletic superiority a figment of my imagination? Q to Dannyboy
    ============

    Dannyboy’s response …………………………………….

    Danny doesn’t answer questions, he only asks them.

  108. nsa November 7, 2014 at 9:55 pm #

    Prog,
    Did you vote for Tweedle D or Tweedle R?

  109. BackRowHeckler November 7, 2014 at 10:06 pm #

    Whoa what’s this?

    The Novorodssiya Flag in Donetsk, Ukraine the flag of the Rebels, looks a lot like the Confederate Battle Flag, the stars and bars, except without the stars. The beautiful St Andrews Cross,

    Also, another Intifada brewing up in Israel. The last one ended about 11 years ago. How much more can Israel take?

    –brh

  110. pkrugman November 8, 2014 at 12:49 am #

    Betty Thorn, an 84-year-old grandmother who lives in an assisted-living facility in Austin, Texas, has voted in every major election in her life since she became eligible. But Thorn didn’t vote this year, her granddaughter says. Thanks to Texas’s new voter ID law, considered one of the strictest in the country, she couldn’t get the right identification.

    Amy Gautreaux, Thorn’s granddaughter, told The Huffington Post that Thorn’s driver’s license had lapsed because she doesn’t drive anymore. Gautreaux found time a few days before the election to take Thorn to the driver’s license office to get a regular ID, but her proof-of-address documents weren’t sufficient. The two asked for an election identification certificate, but Thorn didn’t have her birth certificate, so she couldn’t get that either. (The Austin North Lamar driver’s license office could not be reached for comment.)

    “When the voter ID law was announced, I didn’t understand the big deal. I figured most people have ID,” Gautreaux said. “Now that it’s happened to me, I’m devastated. This is what happened to an elderly person who has family to help her. I can only imagine how many don’t have any help.”

    Thorn is one of the hundreds of thousands of Texans whom Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg predicted might have trouble voting after the Supreme Court ruled that Texas could implement a restrictive voter ID law in this year’s midterm elections. The law has strict identification requirements, allowing concealed carry permits and election identification certificates to serve as voting documents, but not out-of-state or student IDs.

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  111. pkrugman November 8, 2014 at 1:29 am #

    Every SINGLE felon, mentioned as convicted of slavery in that web article – has a Hispanic surname, except one.* — P4W

    You completely missed the point, P4W, perhaps intentionally just to be a resident impediment.

    BRH, is saying western leaders should be held to account for not intervening in Iraq and Syria. I was condemning violence and brutality in the USA and asking BRH if other world leaders should be held to account for not intervening in the USA.

    Only a racist would focus on the surname of those convicted of slavery. Is it more or less offensive to you depending on the race of the offenders? To me the surnames don’t matter.

    What matters is that slavery in agriculture exists in the USA. I am asking if other countries should intervene to stop the practice. That is what BRH is advocating we do to ISIL to stop their barbaric behavior. BRH will not answer my question about slavery here.

  112. pkrugman November 8, 2014 at 1:45 am #

    If you try to express your appreciation of President Obama by sending him a gift, you get a message like this:

    “The President and the First Lady strongly encourage all Americans to consider sending contributions to their favorite charities in lieu of gifts to the First Family.

    While President Obama, the First Lady, Vice President Biden, and Dr. Biden appreciate your thoughtfulness and generosity, they request that instead you look to your local community for opportunities to assist your neighbors in need.”

    What a great President!

    Obama is right in line with JHK on the need to focus on local community.

    • ZrCrypDiK November 8, 2014 at 2:35 am #

      P Kelly rugSCHNOZ flooding (5 poasts in a row):

      “If you ‘try’ to express your appreciation of President Obama by sending him a gift” (‘WANT’?!?)

      I remember seeing something about museums filled with Presidential gifts, from the last 80 years or so. Pretty elaborate sh!t, to say the LEAST…

      Such a sad state of affairs – NO MOAR ROOM! (lulz)

      PS – I believe you R who U say you ‘R’ – and I still got my SS card and birth certificate (WTF…). Actually, I have 2 fully certified birth certificates with the official stamp – hahaha (both in my name! Can we match middle names, B-Days and SS# with such tech – NOPE))!!! C wut I did there?!?

  113. progress4what November 8, 2014 at 10:16 am #

    “Only a racist would focus on the surname of those convicted of slavery. Is it more or less offensive to you depending on the race of the offenders? To me the surnames don’t matter.”
    – pk rugsoaker –

    You always want to have it both ways, pk. And you always call racist when you are wrong. And you harp on the, ephemeral and self-limiting, benefits of immigration – while ignoring the huge negatives of that same immigration.

    And yeah, it’s horrible that “slavery” exists in the US. Although what your link references looks more like “indentured servitude,” from looking at the court cases.

    Nevertheless, these horrible things are a consequence of too many people trying to live on too few resources. And, despite your protests, it is very important to note that most/all of your cases inside the US involve Mexicans and/or South Americans.

    The best way to help these people is to encourage them to STAY HOME, near their families and their walkable communities.

    gotta’ go

  114. Q. Shtik November 9, 2014 at 10:19 pm #

    I see no comments have been posted today, 11/9/14. Every time I tried to access CFN for the past day or so I got a message that said 502 Bad Gateway. Now, in the last 15 minutes I tried again and the site is back working. Did anyone else have this problem?

    • Buck Stud November 9, 2014 at 11:12 pm #

      Hey Q,

      Yep, I think the site was down for the last day or so; I received the same message.

    • ZrCrypDiK November 10, 2014 at 3:21 am #

      “I see no comments have been posted today, 11/9/14”

      It’s completely unfortunate that the Kunstler.com site got lagged out all weekend. He whuz clearly gunnin’ for 450-500++ poasts, well beyond NE-thang in recent history (I had nothing to do with this – I got lagged out earlier this week MULTIPLE times, and I’m shocked *he* didn’t delete/ban me this week for my malfeasance).

      I hate x-poasting, but this is the best thing I think I’ve read in a few years (made my head hurt, REAL BAD):

      http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2014/11/03/presidential-crimes-now-paul-craig-roberts/

  115. Buck Stud November 9, 2014 at 11:13 pm #

    Since immigration has been a topic of conversation again I thought this article was interesting. A lot of cause and effect in regard to immigration:

    http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/central-americans-flee-us-policies-blame-el-salvadors-gang-violence/

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  116. FincaInTheMountains November 10, 2014 at 3:14 am #

    Winston Churchill’s ‘bid to nuke Russia’ to win Cold War – uncovered in secret FBI files

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2826980/Winston-Churchill-s-bid-nuke-Russia-win-Cold-War-uncovered-secret-FBI-files.html

    Britain’s war-time leader urged the US to launch a nuclear attack on the Soviet Union to win the Cold War

    He urged Senator Styles Bridges to persuade President Harry Truman to launch a nuclear attack

    He believed a pre-emptive strike on Stalin’s Russia might be the only way to stop Communism conquering the West

    The previously unseen memorandum from the FBI archives details how Britain’s wartime leader made his views known to a visiting American politician in 1947.

    The note, written by an FBI agent, reports that Churchill urged Right-wing Republican Senator Styles Bridges to persuade President Harry Truman to launch a nuclear attack which would ‘wipe out’ the Kremlin and make the Soviet Union a ‘very easy problem’ to deal with.
    The Russians would have been defenceless against a nuclear attack at that time – they did not successfully test their own atomic bomb until 1949.

    The FBI document shows Churchill’s belligerence towards Britain’s former wartime ally ran so deep that he was prepared to tolerate the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Soviet civilians in a nuclear strike.

    Churchill – the grandfather of our days American neocons.

    Proud to say that my father headed construction of one of the first uranium enrichment plant in Chelyabinsk-40.

  117. FincaInTheMountains November 10, 2014 at 4:16 am #

    Michael Khasin: Obama’s White House took over the FED after a criminal case in New York against Dominique Strauss-Kahn(DSK)

    There was only one financial elite in the world up to some time. And then the crisis hit. Because of what? The reasons are described by Adam Smith, who said that to support the deepening division of labor constant market expansion is necessary. The first market expansion happened as a result of the First World War, then in the Second. During the collapse of the Soviet Union was another expansion. And now it is over. How to save the situation? Need to stimulate demand – take more from already existing markets. How to do it? By giving money to the population using ever-cheaper credit. But today, the credit markets are oversaturated with debt. So, we need to change the financial system, to introduce a new currency and lend in it. And in 2011 International Monetary Fund had decided that the central bank of central banks would be created that will lend money in a special currency (SDR – Special Drawing Rights) and optimize the global monetary system. Since all politicians are on the take by financial system, they cannot refuse the offer.

    What to do for those who oppose that decision by IMF? (US nationally-oriented bureaucracy) They need to make sure that the IMF could not function. And then the head of the IMF, Dominique Strauss-Kahn is arrested in New York City, accused of raping a maid from Guinea. He leaves his post. My friends, who work in the presidential administration(of V.Putin), once called me and asked: “What is the case Strauss-Kahn?” I say, but what? You know, they say, up until the case of Strauss-Kahn the theme of creation of the Central Bank of Central Banks goes through all the international meetings of Heads of State: G8, G20 and so on. After his arrest, it suddenly disappeared.

    After Strauss-Kahn case emission (namely it, as I said, is the only salvation in times of crisis, when the structure of multinational companies economically unprofitable, and expand the markets is no longer possible) winds up in the hands of Obama’s White House in Washington. And nobody dares to rock the boat. Because everyone knows that if someone does, there would be immediately another maid from Guinea.

    And there split of elites had happened. The first group (Obama and company) are in favor of reformatting the entire financial system: make a few independent centers of currency based on the dollar, euro, yuan, and ruble. (Ruble would be based on strong expansion of the Customs Union).

    Another group (IMF), believes that they need to keep things the way they are and grab back the Federal Reserve System (the emission center of America). They began to move Larry Summers to the post of Fed Chairman. In the 90s years this figure gave recommendations on how to conduct reforms in Russia. Colorful personality. Even in the US he is considered a kleptomaniac. Obama and his team did not want this, and they said if you will interfere, we’ll arrange the 2014 crisis. And then the issue with Summers was resolved. He withdrew his candidacy. And the very next day after Putin delivers his speech to the “Valdai” which says that Russia needs a new identity, homosexuality – it’s not our profile and on and on. You know, where the wind blows?

    Two scenarios are possible. The first – a continuation of the current monetary system and writing off financial obligations through the war. The proponents of this scenario would strike on Syria in the hope that if Iran will strike Israel, will begin a new dust-up, and while all that is happening, you can write off a lot.

    Another team, played for Obama believes that in any case it is impossible to strike, and you need to create new currency zones. But now Obama’s is in complicated situation. He would not want the US to lose the lead. But if you read the last Obama’s speech to the UN, there he just says: “Guys, we no longer have the strength to keep the situation under control. If you do not help us, then we will leave the world in the same position and you will be worse off. “

  118. FincaInTheMountains November 10, 2014 at 7:00 am #

    May be after all, we’ll see expansion of States Infrastructure projects financed by cheap long Fed Credit in the last 2 years of Obama’s Presidency.

    Remember, the Fed is “independent” – so Obama hardly needs any consent from the dysfunctional Congress occupied by Koch brother’s republican “balance the budget and kill the people” morons.

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