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     Team Obama pulled a cute one last week nominating Blythe Masters, JP Morgan’s commodity chief, to an advisory committee of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) which supposedly regulates activities on the paper trades in corn, pork bellies, cocoa, coffee, wheat, corn — oh, and gold, too, by the way, in which JP Morgan has been suspected of massive gold (and silver) market manipulations and other misconduct lately. That would include the 2011 MF Global Fiasco in which nearly a billion dollars from “segregated” customer accounts somehow ended up parked over at JP Morgan as a result of bad derivative bets on tanking Eurozone bonds. MF Global, primarily a commodities trading brokerage, was liquidated in 2011. The CFTC never issued referrals for prosecution to the Department of Justice in the matter and, of course, MF Global’s notorious CEO, Jon Corzine remains at large, enjoying caramel flan lattes in the Hamptons to this day. Such are the Teflon transactions of the Obama years: nothing sticks.

    There was such a Twitter storm over Blythe Masters that she withdrew from consideration for the committee before the day was out.

    JP Morgan is one of the specially privileged “primary dealer” banks said to be systemically indispensible to world finance. Supposedly, if one of them is allowed to flop, the whole global matrix of global debt obligations — and, hence, global money — would dissolve in a misty cloud of broken promises. They are primary dealers to their shadow partner, the Federal Reserve, and their main job in that relationship is buying treasury bonds, bills, and notes from the US government and then “selling” them to the Fed (earning commissions on the sales, of course). The Fed, in turn, “lends” billions of dollars at zero interest back to the primary dealers who then park the “borrowed” money in accounts at the Fed at a higher interest rate. This is, of course, money for nothing, and even small interest rate differentials add up to tidy profits when the volumes on deposit are so massive.

     This “carry trade” was started because the primary dealer banks were functionally insolvent after 2008 and needed to build “reserves” up to some level that would putatively render them sound. But that was a sketchy concept anyway since accounting standards had been officially abandoned in 2009 when the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) declared that banks could report the stuff on their books at any value they felt like. In short, the soundness of the biggest banks in the USA could no longer be determined, period. They were beyond accounting as they were beyond the law. At the same time, the banks began the operations of shifting all the janky debt paper, mostly mortgages and derivative instruments (i.e. made-up shit like “CDOs squared”), value unknown, from their vaults to the a vaults of the Federal Reserve, where it resides to this day, rotting away like so much forgotten ground round in the sub-basement of an abandoned warehouse of a bankrupt burger chain.

     All of these nearly incomprehensible shenanigans have been going on because debt all over the world can’t be repaid. The world’s economy, as constructed emergently over the decades, can’t function without repayable debt, which is the essence of “credit” — the fundamental trust implicit in banking. You have “credit” because other persons or parties believe in your ability to repay. After a while, this becomes a mere convention in millions of transactions. What’s happened is that the conventions remain in place but the trust is gone. It’s gone in particular among the parties deemed too big to fail.

     Everybody knows this now and everybody is trying desperately to work around it, led by the Federal Reserve. Trust is gone and credit is going and debt is sitting between a rock and a hard place with its grubby hands pressed together, praying that it will be forgiven, forgotten, or overlooked a little while longer. By the way, the reason trust and credit are gone is because oil is no longer cheap and world economies can’t grow anymore. They can’t afford to run the day-to-day operations of a techno-industrial society. They can only pretend to afford it. The stock markets are mere scorecards for players who can only lie and cheat now to keep the game going. Somewhere beyond all the legerdemain and fraud, however, there remains a real world that is not going away. We just don’t know what it will look like when the smog of fraud clears.

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

254 Responses to “The Smog of Fraud”

  1. Htruth February 10, 2014 at 9:21 am #

    The rule of law has left America. Libor, gold rigging, bankster bailouts will continue. Employment is optional: http://youtu.be/5DOBI7nLJPw

    • CancelMyCard February 10, 2014 at 10:33 am #

      Yes, the rule of the entire game were changed by those of wealth and power, and the rest of us cannot play on a level playing field anymore because that field has been taken over by eminent domain.

      Although most of the readers of Jim’s blog KNOW that this system is collapsing, we somehow need to grasp a better sense of the timing as to WHEN the train wreck will go over the cliff.

      We need to gain some knowledge about what the recognizable mileposts along the way are, in order for us to make informed decisions as we see these mileposts tick off, one by one, as we careen toward the cliff.

      Anybody out there know of a source that has outlined the sequence of these indicators?

      • Greg Knepp February 10, 2014 at 1:08 pm #

        Yes, check out this week’s comments by Dimitri Orlov (cluborlov.com , I believe). You may find his article very instructive as to timing.

        • mdhaller February 10, 2014 at 2:32 pm #

          If you want to know how all this fraud and corruption started read: “the creature from Jekyll island” by G. Edward Griffen. If you want to know how it ends read: “When Money Dies” by Adam Fergusson.

          The sign posts are prices for basic food stuffs. When the price of bread begins to double every few months, you will know the end of the status quo is probably less than two years. When bread is doubling every day, you will know the end of the status quo is probably less than a few months.

          Towards the end of the Weimar hyperinflation the average family was spending over 90 percent of their income on food.

          • Janos Skorenzy February 10, 2014 at 5:03 pm #

            Imagine having to pieces off your home to heat your home? It would be home, ome, me, e on the range. And then just the range with you as ground décor.

        • aka_ces February 10, 2014 at 2:50 pm #

          Rob Kirby thinks the trigger will be when China can no longer get gold from the west.

  2. devon44 February 10, 2014 at 9:23 am #

    We need names for these entities. Goldman Sachs is the ‘vampire squid’ – famously coined by Matt Taibbi (sp?) from Rolling Stone. but what do we call JP Morgan? The Zombie Aardvark?

    ‘The Crumble’, ‘the Machine,’ ‘the Vampire squid…’ these names help people think about these issues in terms they can understand.

  3. iL355C4r February 10, 2014 at 9:25 am #

    Dear James;

    Thanks kindly again for taking the time to write up how you see things and sharing it with us.

    That said, there is more to the world than the machinations of this tiresome group of degenerates.

    I for one, would welcome finding a new dead horse to beat. This is boring. Just say’n.

    There is exactly jack-fuck-all any of us can do about any of this.

    • iL355C4r February 10, 2014 at 9:28 am #

      And oh yeah, keep on with yelling about this stuff every month, and it might give some of us concern that you’ll be turning into some new iteration of the demon that currently manifests as creatures like Alex Jones.

      Of course it’s an issue, but you’ve got a lot more scope and vision than to just roll up in a ball and whine about the fucking fed for cry’n out loud.

      • Greg Knepp February 10, 2014 at 10:50 am #

        I get your drift, iL, but the collapse of a society (whether such a process be drawn-out or rapid) is of critical importance to those living in the early stages – a time when appropriate adjustments may still be possible. The devil, as always, is in the details.

        If I’m not instructed as to the details, the whole picture begins to get a little fuzzy. I begin to wonder if collapse is real or just a shared paranoid delusion, soon to evaporate…like the Soviet nuclear threat that haunted the fringes of my childhood but never materialized.

        We need Kunstler, Foss, Hedges, Heinberg, et al to fill in the bold outlines – to diagram, as best they can, the nuts and bolts of collapse. A little repetition is a good thing when the stakes are high. There’s more than just entertainment going on here.

  4. Smoky Joe February 10, 2014 at 9:31 am #

    I have been in the market in invest in a small rental property, a middle-class house in a postwar inner suburb. They are getting “hot” and unless the “sucker goes down” they seem a better place to invest than in the vagaries of the bond and stock markets. Surprisingly, many of these older ‘burbs are walkable and in walking distance from shopping. They are viable in a way that cul-de-sac land is not.

    That’s a prelude to replying to JHK’s post about the smoke-and-mirrors financial market. What I *found* in the inner ‘burbs is interesting: desperation in equal measure to hope. I met young families getting a start, but I also met folks downsizing even out of modest housing to…a cardboard box? For every nice elderly couple ready to go into assisted living, I met other folks renting and tearing up properties with monster trucks, pit-bulls, and thuggish behavior (I refer to this as “Redneck Jamboree” properties).

    There’s some deep malaise at work here, something I never saw as a kid (albeit from a kid’s perspective) in a lower-middle-class city ‘hood. In the late 60s, the neighbors, save for the drunk across the street, held jobs that paid the bills and permitted a lower-middle-class life without debt, but also without a cornucopia of consumer goods piled up on credit (nary a Bass boat or second car in the entire neighborhood).

    So what happened between then and now? A loss of hope and a focus on the financial classes who keep “mere scorecards for players who can only lie and cheat now to keep the game going.”

    It’s sickening, and the lumpen will soon figure out just how badly they’ve been had by the ruling classes. Look out when that occurs.

  5. devon44 February 10, 2014 at 9:33 am #

    There is power in naming. Smog + Fraud = Smaug?

    Oops, I think that one is already taken!

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  6. kleymo February 10, 2014 at 9:37 am #

    I for one would like to here JHK’s take on the latest article from Gail Tverberg, at Our Finite World where she finally lays it all out for us. It does not make for cheerful reading.

  7. Neon Vincent February 10, 2014 at 9:39 am #

    “Somewhere beyond all the legerdemain and fraud, however, there remains a real world that is not going away. We just don’t know what it will look like when the smog of fraud clears.”

    Or the real smog, for that matter. Last month, The Daily Mail posted a picture of a video screen in Beijing that showed a sunrise under a sky so smoggy the real sun couldn’t be seen. The Daily Mail proved it deserved the nickname The Daily Fail by saying that people were flocking to see the virtual sunrise. It turns out it was just a tourism commercial and people were ignoring it as they went about their business. And that, as “Yes Prime Minister” points out, is what the wives of the people who run the UK read. Just the same, the air pollution is terrible, causing hundreds of thousands of deaths in China every year, and it’s affecting the weather over North America, too. There is no away, everything is connected to everything else, and there is no free lunch.

    http://crazyeddiethemotie.blogspot.com/2014/01/asian-air-pollution-and-other-global.html

    Speaking of what the world will look like when the metaphorical smog clears, The Archdruid gave me a cameo in this latest essay about “The Steampunk Future,” one vision of what things might look like later this century and next. I was flattered. He then went on to write about how Steampunk wasn’t just a literary and fashion movement, but a critique on at least two levels of modern industrial civilization. After all, science fiction isn’t just about the future; it’s about the present, too.

    http://crazyeddiethemotie.blogspot.com/2014/02/i-inspired-archdruid-to-write-about.html

    • Helix February 12, 2014 at 12:40 am #

      Regarding “Somewhere beyond all the legerdemain and fraud, however, there remains a real world that is not going away. We just don’t know what it will look like when the smog of fraud clears.”

      I don’t think it’s that hard to see some likely outlines. While the legerdemain and fraud don’t generate real wealth, they do tip the scales in who can claim ownership over the real wealth that does exist. The likely outcome is therefore a class society of haves and have-nots, the haves being those running the frauds and legerdemain, and the have-nots being those unable to capitalize on these rackets.

      We will indeed become a third world country, where a few will hold vast wealth and will use it to lay claim to the fruits of the labors of the have-nots. The have-nots are controlled and stripped of the fruits of their labors mainly by controlling access to the necessities of life: housing, productive land, natural resources, society’s security apparatus, and perhaps even water in some places. Once control over these necessities has been secured, it is easy to exploit the have-nots, who have no choice but to turn over their entire incomes in order to secure the necessities of life. The haves have essentially enslaved the have-nots.

      The history of third world countries suggests that, once established, this is a very stable social configuration.

  8. SteveO February 10, 2014 at 9:59 am #

    “They are primary dealers to their shadow partner, the Federal Reserve, and their main job in that relationship is buying treasury bonds, bills, and notes from the US government and then “selling” them to the Fed”

    If the Fed wasn’t playing this shell game, the US would have to pay market prices for its debt. I wounder how high the interest rate on the T-bill would be without Fed meddling? 6%? 10%? 20%?

    The PIIGS countries economies collapsed when their bond rates went over about 7%. What would happen if the US T-bill suddenly hit 10%?

  9. shotho February 10, 2014 at 10:24 am #

    To the respondent who thinks that Mr. K is only a whining record, I would say that one cannot emphasize enough the peril we face as a civilization from our profligate lives. Kuntsler is correct that the consequences will be require an entire new ordering of human interaction. But, there is hope in that kind of future and it is that we might find anew the promises of God and man in harmony with nature. Why not?

    • What if there isn’t a God? I’ll tell you. We’re responsible for our actions. Therein lies the problem with God-belief. Its been about 2000 years and the reign of this degenerate cult needs to end. The last thing the world needs is another irrational transcendental death cult that promulgates the idea that you can trash the planet and be generally idiotic and then get a free pass into some fantasy afterlife. All of humanity’s advancements have been in spite of, and not because of, these cults.

      • Looongerbeard February 10, 2014 at 6:58 pm #

        Well said!

      • Greg Knepp February 11, 2014 at 10:49 am #

        It’s easy to blame religion. However, the root of the human dilemma would seem to be nationalism – not religion. Archaeology shows that religious practice preceded civilization by millennia…and apparently with scant ill effect. The large-scale carnage as well as the significant environmental degradation that our species has generated began with the establishment of the city-states of the ancient Middle East, and only got worse as some city-states expanded to nation-states and finally to empires.

        Furthermore, history evidences the tendency of religious beliefs and practices to conform to the cultural traditions and existing institutions of their host societies, rather than vise-versa: hence, the Easter (Ishtar) Bunny, the Christmas Tree, Santa, “God Bless America”, etc…

        Indeed, Nationalism – sanctified by religion – seems to be the real faith of post-tribal humankind. John Michael Greer has done some interesting work on what he dubs “Civic Religion”. It’s worth checking out.

        • “It’s easy to blame religion. However, the root of the human dilemma would seem to be nationalism – not religion.”

          When I mentioned the transcendental death cults, I meant the Abrahamic religions, specifically Judiasm, Islam, Christianity.

          Lets suppose you are correct (and you are not) that nationalism is the salient maleficient belief. Does nationalism promote a doctrine that this world is unreal and nothing in it should be respected? How many male genital mutilations does any national doctrine mandate? Last I checked the creeping creeps of Christianity had only gotten as far as “In God We Trust” on the money; the IRS has not yet threatened me with damnation for not preparing my taxes correctly.

          What would a religious nation be like without a nationalist identity? We don’t know because there isn’t such a thing. Wherever secularism gained a toehold in the last millenium, it was immediately attacked inside and out by these cult belief followers. They are everywhere in society and governments, and actively work to subvert rationality and enlightened political evolution.

          Its an insult to every culture that these Abrahamic religious cults wiped out to include them in some kind of rebuttal.

          • Greg Knepp February 11, 2014 at 3:38 pm #

            Lil Deb, I’m not sure where to begin. Let me start by defining the central premise of Abrahamic thought, which, I believe, begins in the Epic of Gilgamesh and continues through much of the Old Testament.

            Abram (his birth name) was chosen by God for one reason and one reason only – because he disliked and mistrusted the institution of civilization as represented, at least in his experience, by the cities of Ur and Haran. Abram made a conscious mid-life choice to reject his agricultural occupation and adopt the pastoral life of the hebrews (Sumerian for ‘nomads’). This was a bold decision, but, outside of this, Abram was rather ordinary – clever and obstinate, but not particularly saintly.

            But long before Abraham, God had already displayed his preference for a more natural approach to living. Enkidu and Adam and Eve were representative of the primal ideals that God favored, and so rewarded. But when they fell from grace, God – realizing that the era of the fully natural man was over – compromised by sanctioning the pastoral lifestyle in its stead.

            Abel was a herdsman (pastoral) whom God loved. But his brother, Cain, was the first farmer…and, as it turned out, a murderer. Knowing that civilization falls on the heels of agriculture, God banished Cain to a life of wandering. But Cain eventually managed to settle down and establish – you guessed it – the first city!

            There are numerous examples of God’s disapproval of the nation-state model throughout the OT. I can’t go into them all. But the inherent disfunction of the civilized format is a paramount theme throughout the OT (and numerous other ancient writings as well).

            The pivotal point comes in the first book of Samuel, when the prophet asks God for a king so that Israel may become a nation rather than simply a loose confederation of semi-nomadic tribes. God answers in the affirmative but adds, “you’ll be sorry”. [I paraphrase; the actual reply is quite a rant – again too long to quote here]

            And they were sorry; within three generations (Saul, David and Solomon) the mini-empire of Judea was indistinguishable from the tawdry bordering nations with which it was in constant warfare. In short order, the Temple priests were brought into line with the government in order to serve national objectives. Disintegration, both national and religious, soon followed…exactly as God had predicted back in Samuel!

            Interestingly, the flowering of Judaism came centuries later during the Babylonian exile, when the Jews no longer had to bare the burden of maintaining a state apparatus.

            You may not despise religion as much as you do its manifestations as a tool of the nation-state. And as far as your ‘secular state’ is concerned; how does an American Flag pin worn on the lapel of a international corporate gangster differ from a cross worn around the neck of a KKK bigot?

    • hineshammer February 10, 2014 at 7:02 pm #

      Not to be too fussy, shotho, but why wouldn’t God already be in harmony with nature? After all, (s)he is omnipotent and omnipresent and created all. Doesn’t make sense to me, that’s all. Carry on.

      • Its a fools errand pursuing this implicitly religious reasoning. Greg Knapp’s scholarship of Judaism is impressive. But so is someone’s knowledge of JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. It is not an actual history but a fantasy story.

        I’ll take the central premise, though, that nationalism is doomed (As God points out, a defect of human nature makes the enterprise impossible.) Isn’t it more true that nationalism is impossible because the religious always screw it up for everyone else?

        Sure, if reality were really predicated on the existence of God, an immutable moral nature of man, and everything so worked by a comforting clockwork logic, nationalism would be unnatural, like gay sex. You shouldn’t even try! It will only end up badly… right?

        Therein lies the immoral rotten center of religion. A fatalist view of human intellect, human ability, and reason. To inculcate children and adults into this barbaric and moronic philosophy of life is degenerate in every sense of the term. If the future has an enemy, it is religious thought and irrationality of any species.

        • Greg Knepp February 12, 2014 at 3:27 pm #

          I’m reminded of Poe’s lines, “…the play is the tragedy ‘Man’, its hero – the Conqueror Worm”.

          We can’t fully expel death from our consciousness – neither individually nor collectively. It invades our art, literature, law, and especially our religion. How our larger social structures might be purged of religious influence is a mystery to me.

          The Soviet Union made a bold and laudable attempt to do just this. [Some would argue that figures such as Marx, Lenin and, for a time, Stalin assumed mythic – and therefore quasi-religious – proportions, but I believe the Soviets can be forgiven this.]

          But the Soviet Union failed dismally…brought down not by religion, but by the human animal’s inability to maintain a long-term level of functional socialization beyond the tribal scale. Evolution has not had time to prepare us for the pressures of mega-societies. And if it had, the ecosystem wouldn’t be able to accommodate such societies.

          I think we may find some agreement on this overriding point – this sad truth.

  10. BackRowHeckler February 10, 2014 at 10:31 am #

    Natural Gas is getting scarce and expensive. All it took was one prolonged cold snap in the northern part of the US to reveal the precarious truth about our energy predicament. Now, suddenly, no more talk of exporting NatGas to Europe on ocean going tankers, or turning our national trucking fleet into natgas burners.

    In the past few years the conventional power plants in Connecticut switched fuels from petroleum to natural gas, because, of course, we are ‘the Saudi Arabia of natural gas’. This is probably why the DEP commissioner abruptly quit last month and returned to Yale. Yes, yes, he wanted to spend more time with his family (Congresswoman Elizabeth Esty) I understand that. But he was behind it.

    –BRH

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    • ozone February 10, 2014 at 11:09 am #

      BRH,
      Harry Shearer has offered a $5k reward to anyone who can come up with a better euphemism for hurriedly abandoning their posts (before a hanging party can be arranged) than “spending more time with family”.

      You’re absolutely correct that the NatGas boom has been exposed as another Ponzi scheme/floating turd as EU “investment capital” is leaving the pool party in a hurry.

      Next, look for more taxation schemes (hidden and overt) to gauge how far this culture of consumerism and commodification, run by thieves and grifters has descended into the Valley of the Shadow.

    • earltwitty February 10, 2014 at 6:10 pm #

      My natural gas price has gone down and is locked in for a year and a half. Electricity price has gone up.

  11. ozone February 10, 2014 at 10:56 am #

    ” All of these nearly incomprehensible shenanigans have been going on because debt all over the world can’t be repaid. The world’s economy, as constructed emergently over the decades, can’t function without repayable debt, which is the essence of “credit” — the fundamental trust implicit in banking. You have “credit” because other persons or parties believe in your ability to repay. After a while, this becomes a mere convention in millions of transactions. What’s happened is that the conventions remain in place but the trust is gone. It’s gone in particular among the parties deemed too big to fail.” -JHK

    To me, that’s the “money paragraph” (no pun intended).
    If you understand and internalize that, then you understand how WIDESPREAD trade can be accomplished or destroyed. As a knock-on effect, a smaller and more local basis for trade looks to be a foregone conclusion when folks can’t trust “those swindlers… over there”. When that happens, skimmers (money-for-nothing operators) will have to be verrrry careful in the amount they can tolerably cream off. This is because labor will once again have real value and sustenance will be hard-won by it. Tolerance for swindlers will be rare or non-existent. When everybody knows everybody, one doesn’t need an organized religion to tell you how you should treat your neighbors (if you should happen to value your health and happiness).

    “At the same time, the banks began the operations of shifting all the janky debt paper, mostly mortgages and derivative instruments (i.e. made-up shit like “CDOs squared”), value unknown, from their vaults to the a vaults of the Federal Reserve, where it resides to this day, rotting away like so much forgotten ground round in the sub-basement of an abandoned warehouse of a bankrupt burger chain.” -JHK

    — A truly nasty, but quite apt, image to describe that particular “taking”, that TPTB hope they’ve thrown enough curtains of time over and sprinkled enough deodorant, perfume and quicklime upon so that no one will notice anything hinky has occurred. Joe and Jane Bubbledweller notice a pervasive stink, but grow used to it in time…
    Meanwhile, their lifestyle takes another small tick in the direction of downward, but in this aspect too, they’ll grow used to it in time…

    • ozone February 10, 2014 at 11:37 am #

      A short note for purposes of clarity.
      …When I wrote: “Widespread trade”, it probably would be described more clearly as, “geographically far-flung trade”.
      Thank you for your patience. Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep.

  12. ajmuste February 10, 2014 at 11:13 am #

    Meanwhile, their lifestyle takes another small tick in the direction of downward, but in this aspect too, they’ll grow used to it in time…

    This is exactly what needs to happen. American overconsumption has been criminal and the markets are making a correction. I have lived next to people who had seven vehicles around their house, an RV, all terrain toys, motorcycles, jeeps, boats, etc. That has to stop. And thankfully it is. No more excess discretionary consumption.

    • For quite some time the price of goods has been less expensive than their repair or maintenance. It was planned obsolescence and cheap energy which made it more economical to simply use something until it died and then buy a whole new one, whether a TV, a toaster, or a car. The practice of care for things faded out and was replaced by a kind of faith in the markets to guarantee replacement, leading to enormous wastage.

  13. sevenmmm February 10, 2014 at 11:13 am #

    I’m really tired of reading books documenting the fraud – but hey, that’s just me. But I am looking forward to the next World Made by Hand novel!

    I read someplace that Snowden has a list of names, addresses, and phone numbers of those involved in the swindling of America. A made by hand novel ought to deal with some of those types!

    • hineshammer February 10, 2014 at 7:19 pm #

      I can think of dozens of names that would be on that list; I don’t need Ed Snowden. Some of those would be:

      Just about any Senator or Representative
      Obama and his cabinet
      Jamie Dimon
      Lloyd Blankfein
      Warren Buffet
      Bill & Hillary
      Anyone with the last name Bush
      The Koch Brothers
      Anyone that works on K Street as a lobbyist
      On and on and on

  14. George February 10, 2014 at 11:19 am #

    “There remains a real world that is not going away: we just don’t know what it will look like when the smog of fraud clears.”

    Perhaps we ought to look at what happened in Cuba when Fidel nationalized a major chunk of the businesses and put them under the command of Comandante Che Guevara? Basically within a few months there was no functioning economy. The so-called “equivalent value” of money became meaningless and it became very difficult to assign appropriate values to anything that ordinarily would have had value.

    In some sense, what with all the quantitative easing, we’re already getting pretty close to that point already. It may take just a few simple almost imperceptible perturbations within the forces to set off a cascading series of events that bring about an almost instantaneous new equilibrium that would not be all that different from the present-day Cuban economy. Like Cuba, there might be several currencies in use but only one that’s considered “hard”.

    http://www.thesisa.org

    • Karah February 12, 2014 at 9:45 pm #

      “Real world” meaning “real transactions that hold a real value” in this weeks context of our so-called economy.

      Does anyone really discern the smog when they’re in it? Smog isn’t real until one steps outside the valley onto a higher altitude to SEE how opaque the atmosphere has become as compared to the past’s clarity. If one has no frame of reference (the majority of people in this smog) one can’t discern a difference in visibility. Are we supposed to see any farther than a mile or two? It’s always been this corrupt. Otherwise why would anyone anywhere agree to do any kind of transaction?
      That’s what happened in 2008. Everything just stopped. Businesses are anxiously peering out their plate glass windows onto a market that’s no longer there. If you want to call that a figurative collapse…so be it. Now that all the money is with the people who think they know what it’s really worth (bankers, business moguls, royal families), it’s worth nothing! They just throw it around wherever it might drop. This attitude is evident in the shale oil extravaganza. The mentality is this, “We don’t have to watch our spending because we’ll just make it all back plus more. We’ll never go without bread and lattes. The system exists because of US determining the direction of the flow of money.” Look at Qatar. Look at NYC. Look at any of the “strong towns” in our global marketplace and see how they are filled with “smog”. No one is complaining as long as they can get their fill of whatever it is THEY deem valuable. It could be medical care one day and a home the next. Whatever the WANT is, there will be someone there to fulfill it according to their terms (FASCISM).

  15. Nicholas February 10, 2014 at 12:32 pm #

    Holigent Reconstruct America is a proposed solution to possibly avoid the coming socioeconomic train wreck. Let me know how you could help.
    http://www.holigent.org

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  16. volodya February 10, 2014 at 12:55 pm #

    The people of Switzerland just delivered a swift kick in the balls to Euro government of the bankers, by the bankers, for the bankers. And that is to say, dick-heads that wrecked banks and entire countries, that ruined the lives of tens of millions and that diminished the prospects tens of millions more.

    How? By voting in a referendum to limit immigration. How d’ ya like that? Push-back!

    An anti “growth” vote says the business brigade. A deplorable result, a step backwards, a vote for isolation say pro-immigration voters.

    “Blow me” say the people. Those that voted to curb immigration say that they’re the ones disadvantaged in a system of open borders.

    The pro-voters will try to portray the anti-voters as dunces and bigots. That the pro-voters are all about progress and facts and evidence, that the anti-voters are knee-jerk extremists.

    The anti-voters are nothing of the sort. The anti-voters, like everyone, have legitimate interests, interests that are no less legitimate than the interests of those trying to portray themselves as living on a more elevated intellectual and moral plane.

    This vote was a stick in the eye to the Euro-cracy and the Euro-crat intelligentsia that idiotically ruined half of 21st century Europe to deal with a problem (Germany) that was a problem in the 20th century but, more to the point, to enhance their own power and their own wealth.

    The pro-voters will deploy arguments, “studies”, “facts” and “statistics” all designed to cow the anti-voters, to make them doubt themselves, to make them deny the validity of what they see and hear, to make them shut-up, to make them vote against their own interests.

    They’ll show numbers and charts and graphs and they’ll say the conclusions are “counter-intuitive” but that they are nonetheless “scientific” and therefore inescapable and indisputable and that your own eyes and ears deceive. They’ll demand a re-do of the vote and then another until the ignoramuses get it right.

    But what people see and hear are stubborn things. And what they see and hear tells them that their purported “betters” are lying to them.

    Here’s how it is: when you “intuitively” understand something it means that you immediately connect the dots, that the web of facts and circumstance fit the context, that it’s in accord with common sense and experience. And 99% of the time you’ll be right, your intuition doesn’t mis-lead.

    When does your intuition mis-lead? Quantum mechanics? And the theory of relativity? Sure, no doubt. Do you use GPS? Yes? Well then Einsteinian relativity matters. You live deeper down a gravity well than the satellites that circle the earth so time marches on for you at a different rate than those satellites high above. And so these effects have to be taken into account to come up with accurate calculations.

    Believe guys like Einstein. Tell everyone else touting studies and facts and statistics to go fuck themselves. It’s all about the money and they’re in it for themselves.

    So when somebody tells you don’t believe your eyes and ears, that there’s much better evidence, that it’s rigorously gathered and analyzed but that results are counter-intuitive, then 99% of the time the people that tell you this are liars, the studies are a farce, the “facts” and “statistics” are crap. And what you’re being told is “good” may be “good” for some but not for all and not for the majority and probably not for you.

    • Janos Skorenzy February 10, 2014 at 2:34 pm #

      Well said, but the measure is still kids stuff. The West has to end immigration and begin deportation. All the weeping about the break up of families should be met with a belly laugh. The families can be reunited – back in Pakistan, Algeria, Mexico, etc. And the Capitalist Traitors can go with them. What kind of person sells out their own people to aliens? The kind we don’t need. Dante saw Traitors on one of the lowest circles of Hell.

  17. ajmuste February 10, 2014 at 1:14 pm #

    There is exactly jack-fuck-all any of us can do about any of this.

    Not true.

    In 2008 when most countries bailed out the bankers and made the public pay the price, Iceland let the banks go bust … and actually expanded its social safety net. Iceland is proof for the case that we can let creditors of private-banks-gone-wild eat the losses.

    What Iceland did was right. It would have been wrong to burden future generations with the mistakes of the financial system. Iceland let the creditors of its banks hang. Ireland did not. Good for Iceland!

    Then Iceland elected a guy who made populist promises of mortgage relief for every homeowner. If you have a vote, you can do something. Register to vote. Support voter registration organizations like ACORN.

    Then … make sure you vote. If you stay at home and complain, you are giving them permission to do as they please.

    • Janos Skorenzy February 10, 2014 at 2:36 pm #

      Acorn is an Obama kind of Organization. In other words, OWNED lock, stock, and barrel by the powers of darkness.

  18. volodya February 10, 2014 at 2:31 pm #

    Note to progress4what

    Re my post last week on the education debacle

    You took issue with what you saw as my primarily blaming teacher unions for the abyss that is public education. I wasn’t pointing the finger just at teacher unions. As I recall I crapped especially on an uninvolved, clueless citizenry ie moms and dads (that are gobsmacked to find that their teenaged kids can’t affix their signature to documents because they never got beyond printing), an academic and an edu-crat establishment that foists cockamamie theories about how kids learn, what’s fit to learn etc. and who produced these last two generations kids that don’t know much of anything.

    And yeah I crapped on teachers and their unions. But mostly it’s parents. When parents start to give a damn then education may improve. Note to moms and dads everywhere: first things first – follow these simple instructions – grasp ears firmly and pull cranium from anal orifice. Your own that is.

    • Janos Skorenzy February 10, 2014 at 2:39 pm #

      They know about Racism! That’s all that matters. Physics, Math, and all the sciences are taught from that point of view. I love it when it backfires on them. Like Blacks freaked out when the Math problems are about “how many slaves”. Trying to be relevant and engage the interests of their charges, they end up offending their Black Gods.

  19. budizwiser February 10, 2014 at 2:51 pm #

    But what about the Beatles? And woo-hoo – the Olympics?

    Yeah man – it’s all good.

    James says “everyone” know what’s going on – “everyone” knows it’s all charades…..

    I would submit that almost no one knows what’s “going on.”

    I’ve got a few hunches – but I’ve yet to have anyone explain why some judge somewhere doesn’t simply author an affidavit, a warrant and send some US marshals to a few board meetings……

    I mean – c’mon – these people “believe themselves” – they have no grasp of JK’s musings – nor reality.

    It must all be legal – or else they would be in jail..

  20. volodya February 10, 2014 at 2:52 pm #

    Note to SteveO

    What would happen if the interest rate on US government debt went to 10%?

    The fact that you asked the question tells us you know the answer. Interest charges on the accumulated 16 trillion of federal debt would go screaming into orbit. And so would the federal deficit.

    If and when the Fed stops hoovering up US govt debt we may get an inkling of where interest rates go. But sooner or later we’ll know anyway.

    These trillions the Fed created and is creating every month are sloshing around the world, searching for yield in the most amazing places. And then realising that these amazing places are sinkholes of criminality and corruption. And then the money goes sloshing back out creating mayhem with balance of payments, foreign exchange rates and interest rates.

    This predictably is inflicting misery on people and especially the poorest. Their govt puts limits on them exchanging worthless pesos for something better (American dollars, what a joke that is). Meanwhile inflation rips along robbing them of their wages.

    We’ve seen these movies before. You know, what happens when a populace is immiserated. The plot-line is straightforward. It doesn’t end well.

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    • Helix February 12, 2014 at 9:32 am #

      Re “Interest charges on the accumulated 16 trillion of federal debt would go screaming into orbit. And so would the federal deficit.”

      Actually, things might go a bit differently. First of all, interest on the current debt is fixed at whatever rate was agreed upon when the debt was issued. It’s when the debt is due to be rolled over or when new debt is issued that things will get interesting. I’m still hoping that Congress has its come-to-Jesus moment and bites the bullet when that day arrives.

      Which of course will make things even more interesting…

  21. Janos Skorenzy February 10, 2014 at 3:01 pm #

    Obamacare will cost two million jobs by 2017 according to a CBO report. This immediately becomes two million people will become “Free” according to Democrat hacks like Chuck Schumer. Such Freedom is Slavery, Chuck.

    Funny how they never cared about Freedom before…..

    http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/editorials/2014/02/10/obamacares-spin-doctors-deflect-attention-from-jobs.html

  22. ajmuste February 10, 2014 at 4:17 pm #

    Janos, Obamacare frees us from “job lock”

    What the CBO report really says:

    “the estimated reduction in labor stems almost entirely from a net decline in the amount of labor that workers choose to supply, rather than from a net drop in businesses’ demand for labor.”

    In other words, Janos, Americans won’t be losing their jobs, but people who are only working to maintain access to their employer sponsored health insurance plans will be able to leave the workforce or work fewer hours because they can obtain coverage elsewhere.

    That’s a goal that prominent Republicans, conservative think tanks and policy analysts have supported for years.

    Obamacare = freedom from job lock

    • Janos Skorenzy February 10, 2014 at 4:59 pm #

      Is that like lock jaw? You really love meaningless phrases. What does your name mean btw?

  23. ajmuste February 10, 2014 at 4:31 pm #

    “Acorn is an Obama kind of Organization. In other words, OWNED lock, stock, and barrel by the powers of darkness.” — Janos

    LOL!

    Acorn just registers voters. It does not force you to pull the lever one way or another to please TPTB.

    “A report released by the non-partisan Congressional Research Service on the community group ACORN finds no misuse of its federal funds over the past five years and no attempts at improper voting following its 2008 voter registration drive.”

  24. toktomi February 10, 2014 at 5:11 pm #

    Well, that’s a tidy little summary – thorough, articulate, colorful, polished, delicately nuanced, and to the fucking point.

    ~toktomi~

  25. BackRowHeckler February 10, 2014 at 6:30 pm #

    What do you know? The Swiss voted to remain Swiss.

    The EU isn’t too happy.

    To quote the US State Department, “F-ck the EU”.

    Jim told me not to start any fights or else I’ll be kicked out. The above statement is just for general edification.

    –BRH

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  26. BackRowHeckler February 10, 2014 at 6:56 pm #

    Meanwhile, in NYC, they’re taking a different tack. Mayor DeBlasio announced today he will issue residency cards to the hundreds of thousands, maybe millions, of illegals living in the city. Among other things, these cards will allow access to New York’s generous social services system. Maybe they’ll even allow you to vote.

    For the 3 or 4 billion human beings on earth living in third world conditions, poverty stricken, without hope, in Asia, Africa, Latin America … if you can reach here, come on in, doors wide open, and we’re handing out goodies!

    –BRH

    • stelmosfire February 10, 2014 at 10:50 pm #

      Howdy Marlin, not to piggy-back on your comments but I can’t seem to start my own! This weather is a Debby-downer, Feb. should be warming up! The sap should be flowing in a coupla’ weeks if cond. are good. It has been close to 0000 degrees most every night. WTF. Rippedthunder

  27. rube-i-con February 10, 2014 at 8:21 pm #

    It may take just a few simple almost imperceptible perturbations within the forces to set off a cascading series of events that bring about an almost instantaneous new equilibrium that would not be all that different from the present-day Cuban economy.

    this has to be the most inept analysis/conclusion i have ever seen.

    anyone who compares the prospects for the economy of the united states to cuba is daft.

    and the remark about bread doubling in price, and china not getting gold anymore from the west….geez guys, don’t you think the malefactors in power will manage these and other situations? come on, get real, the world of finance is childs play for the uberlords.

    peace peaceniks

    • Florida Power February 10, 2014 at 9:07 pm #

      “The reason trust and credit are gone is because oil is no longer cheap and world economies can’t grow anymore.”

      Hmmmm. Trust and credit are gone in large part owing to age-old human depravity. World economies are deflationary among other factors because human beings are made redundant by applied microprocessors, just as human beings were made redundant in the 1920’s-30’s because of applied internal combustion engines. (Probably 99% of IRS employees, to say nothing of the rest of Government, could be cut loose by microprocessors.) Oil markets continue to function despite the contraction of trust occurring elsewhere. Units of account are created in exchange and are accepted by the producers. Parallel timelines may become interconnected at some point (petrodollar erosion?) but for now, so long as gasoline remains somewhere between $3 and $4 the public is calm and fuel is plentiful and well-distributed, more or less. As is food. The Tunisian Moment lies off in the future when the ability or will of the USA to project power and exact obedience to US dollar hegemony fail for whatever reason. Metaphors are free – boiling frogs or tipping point/phase change. The mechanism remains obscured by smog — all that combusting carbon.

  28. ajmuste February 10, 2014 at 9:31 pm #

    The Swiss are violating agreements to allow freedom of movement.

    The Swiss are playing with fire and will get burnt.

    “Since 2002, Swiss and EU citizens have been able to cross the border freely and work on either side as long as they have a contract or are self-employed.

    EU officials said the free movement treaty is part of a package of seven agreements that stand or fall together. The accords also cover economic and technological cooperation, public procurement, mutual acceptance of diplomas and licenses, agricultural trade, aviation, and road and rail traffic.

    “We simply can’t accept these kinds of restrictions, the ones that were approved yesterday,” said European Commission spokeswoman Pia Ahrenkilde. “This will clearly have implications for the rest of the agreements we have with Switzerland.”

  29. aka_ces February 10, 2014 at 10:22 pm #

    Yes, such an apt title JHK has chosen for today’s brilliant turns of words, the title of course also being an allusion to “The Fog of War,” and, again, more specifically, to Errol Morris’s same-named, artful 2003 documentary about Robert McNamara and the Vietnam War.

  30. jim e February 10, 2014 at 11:03 pm #

    Valley of…
    Twenty-third Psalm Majordomo
    reserve me a table for three
    in the Valley of the Shadow
    just you, Alabama and me…

    and…

    valentines of flesh and blood
    as soft as velveteen
    hoping love would not forsake
    the days that lie between lie between

    Hunter and Garcia,
    A beautiful read this week Mr.JHK

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  31. MikeMoskos February 10, 2014 at 11:53 pm #

    Catherine Austin Fitts says it is mathematically impossible for the banks/mortgage lenders to have amassed the losses they did unless they wrote multiple mortgages on the same pieces of property.

    So, if you know anyone involved in a foreclosure, coerce them to hiring a lawyer who will ensure the bank has the required original signed documents (too often they can’t find them). Gave a few thousand people to win and the house of cards will come down or at least we’ll have another thing for Eric Holder–the man who made his mark protecting the powerful since Iran/Contra to ignore while diligently pursuing every irrelevant slice of “racism”.

  32. jim e February 11, 2014 at 12:23 am #

    My riches are in bicycles… I am a fucking fool!

  33. Janos Skorenzy February 11, 2014 at 1:12 am #

    Thank you for clarifying.

  34. ajmuste February 11, 2014 at 2:29 am #

    Taxes on $50,000 income:

    $22.88 = unemployment insurance.
    $36.82 = for federal food stamps benefits
    $7.00 = for additional welfare and government assistance programs.

    So what should American taxpayers really be outraged about?

    $248 = taxes for America’s military and defense programs

    Overall in 2012, the United States spent a whopping $689 billion on defense and military-related programs.

    • Florida Power February 11, 2014 at 9:57 am #

      Well AJ we must defend against all those Monsters from the Id.
      We note that China is falling into the same hubristic trap of Empire, albeit with a decidedly oriental take on flat-top carrier design. In an age of hypersonic cruise missiles we wonder, why bother?

  35. James Kuehl February 11, 2014 at 6:44 am #

    When the smoke clears, reality will be piles of bones and rusting machines. When the fast-food/mood-drug/canned-entertainment I.V. is pulled America has about three gasps remaining, like one of these poor bastards we torture on our execution gurneys.

    Capitalism is like a boxing match. You need a Teddy Roosevelt type in one corner saying to the industrialists, “Go ahead and make a fortune while I beat your greedy ass out of most of it.” But government got paid to take a dive and the crowd is booing because the winner took all the prize money and left without spending a dime of it in town. Fight’s over, lights out, go home, you got screwed.

    I confess to being a boxing fan, as opposed to the Winter Olympics, which is an all-blonde stunt show. Boxing is honest. Let’s strip to our shorts, cover our knuckles, and politely see which one of us can punch the other senseless without the pretense of moving a little ball around a grid.

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    • Greg Knepp February 12, 2014 at 11:00 am #

      Damn excellent comment, James – really top shelf!

      I too like boxing (we’re in a golden age now, particularly in the light to middle weight divisions) and I can’t quite bring myself to watch the Olympics. The whole event seems so contrived.

      “…all blonde-stunt show.” I love it!

      You’re right on the money about Teddy Roosevelt too. Sadly, leaders like him are gone. The times have changed, and not for the better.

  36. 99 cent nation February 11, 2014 at 11:33 am #

    Meanwhile oil is hovering around 100 dollars a barrel so bend over suckers and party like there is no tomorrow and things will remain the same forever.

  37. BackRowHeckler February 11, 2014 at 11:45 am #

    Hey Rip … if your looking in …

    Noreaster comin’ in Thursday am.

    I was driving home from work a few days ago, 5am, temp. was -2dF. Pipes are bursting all over town, causing much damage.

    Don’t know about you but I’m feeling buried alive.

    F-this. That’s all I got to say.

    I don’t know why my ancestors came here to begin with, from England. I was reading the ship had the choice to go to Barbados instead.

    –BRH

    • Janos Skorenzy February 11, 2014 at 2:49 pm #

      And remember, you have the same foreign policy beliefs as Hillary Clinton: both of you in favor of the Syria invasion. And lots of people are like you and identify with their oppressors. The middle class and even the poor go in for the Horatio Alger thing and believe they’re going to become millionaires. And if someone doesn’t, it’s their own damn fault. So with people in this state, is there any wonder that we have a decaying country? People have become atomized individuals – without the means to actualize any of that in the Randian sense. Thus their individuality mitigates against their personhood. The Founders were tradesmen and farmers – not “hirelings”. And they felt the call of duty – to Society and not just to themselves as Rand would have us feel.

      Barbados is a White Man’s grave. Lots of our people went there – as slaves or indentured servants of the Empire. Very few saw the end of their term. The Capitalists worked them to death or disease got them. Read Conrad: the Tropics cause torpor and even moral degeneration in Whites. Even the South is to hot. Luckily Prog lives in the Mountains and is spared the worst of it. Yet can we be in doubt that some of his more outré opinions may not be a result of the debilitating climate?

      • BackRowHeckler February 12, 2014 at 5:26 am #

        Vlad, I would respond, but I’ve been warned, personally, ‘do not quarrel’.

        –BRH

        • Janos Skorenzy February 13, 2014 at 4:35 am #

          So that becomes the same as “do not respond” in your mind. I never cease to be amazed at the number of outs you give yourself.

    • stelmosfire February 12, 2014 at 8:07 am #

      -5 F this morning. The house is so dry the floors are creaking like crazy. Maybe a foot of flakes tomorrow. I blew the engine in the truck during the last storm, 2/5/14. We got about 16″. I’ll have to use the snow blower. I saw something on the web about Georgia. The store shelves are empty. I’ve got gas and food. Most people don’t.

  38. sprezzatura February 11, 2014 at 3:46 pm #

    “…forgotten ground round in the sub-basement of an abandoned warehouse of a bankrupt burger chain…”

    Wow… what an image…

  39. progress4what February 11, 2014 at 9:53 pm #

    “By the way, the reason trust and credit are gone is because oil is no longer cheap and world economies can’t grow anymore.” – jhk –

    All true, JHK. The way you write about financial events makes for some interesting prose, but the underlying story of energy depletion is the driver of it all. It pays to remember that, and thanks for the reminder.

    It is interesting how quickly the conversation this week turned to Swiss immigration policy, and the right of the Swiss to control their own population numbers without EU interference. And it is very interesting that the only argument – offered by only ONE CFN poster – against the Swiss, boils down to the idea that “Economic Growth IS Always Good!” Thus, the Swiss must allow unrestricted immigration or the EU Powers will punish them and “stop” their growth.

    Switzerland is grown. With a population of 9 million, they can’t grow any more by any logical means. Chances are – they couldn’t even begin to feed their existing population without abundant petroleum, driving abundant food imports.

    Speaking of overgrown – let’s talk the population of metro Atlanta.
    Hold on, let me make sure this is gonna’ post.

  40. progress4what February 11, 2014 at 10:11 pm #

    So, speaking of Atlanta –

    About 2 weeks ago, we had Clusterflake 2014, when 2 inches of ice brought life for 6 million people to a virtual standstill, for 48 hours. People stayed in their cars for up to 36 hours. Schoolchildren stayed on buses or in their schools overnight. It was a mess.

    And somehow or another, from some regional planning board or another came a great pronouncement, “If 2 inches of snow could do this to Atlanta – perhaps, we regional planners should be concerned with how some other regional disaster, or even a terrorist attack, might impact the region.”

    JEBUS H. CHRISST ON A CRUTCH – – Do you think?

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

    OK, all you Yankees – we had 5 inches of snow this morning, up here in the far northern (mountain) exurbs of Atlanta. Six to eight more inches are forecast overnight. Most everybody is staying home, snowplows are out in abundance. All is good.

    Up to an inch of pure ice is forecast overnight, with winds up to 25 mph for the next day. Not that good, right. Our news media has been calling it a “catastrophic” forecast for most of today. I’m pretty sure I heard one broadcast that called it a “Biblical Catastrophe.

    Pres. Obama has already, proactively, declared northern Georgia to be under a State of Emergency. And I don’t think it’s because a Democrat hasn’t been elected here since about 1980.

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    • stelmosfire February 12, 2014 at 8:21 am #

      Hey Prog, that ain’t Sheet. In New England we eat that stuff for breakfast (o; . Granted you don’t have the equipment to deal with that stuff. We get overwhelmed now and then. We had 2 feet on Halloween back in 2012? also we had a coupla ft. on April fools day in ’97. I lost a bunch of trees. Last Feb 6 was the worst I’ve seen . Probably 30 inches, you couldn’t even see the cars in the driveway! good thing I drive old clunkers with antennas/ locators.

  41. bob February 11, 2014 at 10:35 pm #

    When you try to figure out why things are as they are your understanding will arrive at some basic truths, some easily understood and others which have been deliberately been kept from you. It a fascinating discussion if you like to connect the dots with psychology religion spirituality ,politics economics etc.etc. You can get a pretty good perspective on the whole in an analysis of a part , but it would seem that we haven’t evolved a clear enough picture to make a meaningful change towards sustainability balance,the only way of existence. That’s why it is known as the way.

    • Helix February 12, 2014 at 9:54 am #

      That way doesn’t involve enough shopping sprees at WalMart, so it isn’t the _American_ way

  42. progress4what February 11, 2014 at 10:36 pm #

    “You took issue with what you saw as my primarily blaming teacher unions for the abyss that is public education. I wasn’t pointing the finger just at teacher unions. As I recall I crapped especially on an uninvolved, clueless citizenry ie moms and dads…”
    – volodya, to p4w –

    Nice counter points, volodya. And yeah, public education is a mess, slowly getting worse, I fear. I don’t have much experience with your traditional public employee unions – we don’t have them in the South, outside of the big cities, anyway. Therefore, I conclude that public education can be just as big a mess, with or without unions. That was the main thrust of my post – as intended, at any rate.

    I realize that the “lazy, union supported, tenured teacher,” is really intended as a archetype – much the same as Reagan’s “Cadillac driving welfare queen.”

    Thing is, though – no large class of “welfare queens” was directly harmed by the Reagan archetype. Whereas, respect for teachers has been diminished by the “lazy teacher” myth. And they were already being pushed from above by wackadoodle decisions at the national, state, and local board levels.

    Most teachers are incredibly well-intentioned. They are already mandated to be college graduates, with the expense that entails – yet they’ve deliberately chosen to go into a traditionally underpaid profession. The fact that something like 50% of new teachers wash out of the profession – speaks volumes to this.

    And the noise about “sorry ass tenured teachers,” only adds to the negative noise. That’s all I was trying to say.

    • Janos Skorenzy February 13, 2014 at 4:34 am #

      Some teachers only last a day or so when put in Black classrooms. Talk about cruel and unusual! They should be exposed early on not only to strengthen them, but also to give them a chance to SEE and perhaps bow out. Perhaps this is why they are not.

  43. beantownbill. February 11, 2014 at 11:34 pm #

    Hey, Procon,

    Take care with the wild Georgian whether. Ice kills landscaping up here. The weight of the ice breaks off branches and topples the weaker trees. I hope you don’t lose too many of them. Maybe that’s just nature’s way of strengthening the plant gene pools.

    Mass immigration is a major issue. In your mind’s eye, if you project yourself about 1000 miles over the Earth and look at the big picture of immigration as a human migration, you’ll clearly see a flow of people from low tech countries to higher tech countries. The higher tech regions may not have all the natural resources, but they do have the ability to convert those resources into a form that supports a reasonably comfortable lifestyle; the existence of low tech countries tends to be more tenuous.

    Immigration to areas of comparable wealth tends to lower the standard of living in those places, if only because the per capita availability of resources is reduced as population increases. I believe immigrants can and do contribute value to our country, but that isn’t the issue. The issue is cutting the pie into too many pieces.

    • beantownbill. February 11, 2014 at 11:35 pm #

      Should be weather, not whether. Damn auto fill.

  44. ajmuste February 12, 2014 at 12:33 am #

    Last time Atlanta shut down I said the answer was government planning and equipment/personnel/salt/sand/gravel, paid for by taxpayers.

    GDOT listened to me and yesterday they sent contractors to South Carolina to obtain 1,400 tons of salt. Their supplies are now fully stocked, and they have thirty-six snow plows and 153 employees brought up from South Georgia to assist in spreading it.

    By midday Monday, Atlanta had at least 3,000 tons of salt on hand and had — through agreements with private contractors — doubled its fleet of equipment to 65 spreaders and 60 snow plows. Road crews will work 12-hour shifts, around the clock throughout the storm.

    This was exactly what was needed: government planning. That is what our taxes pay for. Individuals cannot do this. It takes government. I repeat, that is why we pay taxes.

    Some of us even pay our taxes happily, knowing that government is looking out for our best interests. This pre-planning and effective action on the part of Atlanta government also confirms what I said earlier: Southerners are intelligent. Some day they might even learn to love government and appreciate how it saves their asses in times of need.

  45. ajmuste February 12, 2014 at 1:07 am #

    If a catastrophic ice storm does hit, power lines are going down and people will need generators. All the country governments are collaborating with city government to meet needs. It is not just city and county governments in Georgia. The federal government is also helping.

    Even before the storm is scheduled to arrive President Barack Obama declared a state of emergency in Georgia, ordering federal agencies to help the state and local response during the storm. And that includes helping to provide generators.

    This is why I enjoy paying taxes. Even if the taxes I pay never help me, I am happy my federal tax payments are going to help out others in their time of need.

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  46. progress4what February 12, 2014 at 1:09 am #

    “GDOT listened to me”
    – aj muste know everything –

    Why bother to comment, JHK?

  47. ajmuste February 12, 2014 at 1:42 am #

    “- aj muste know everything – Why bother to comment, JHK?” — Prog

    Prog, why don’t you write JHK a few more emails. Complain bitterly. Insist that the “aj muste know everything” be BANNED.

    You singled me out earlier as the “one poster” who made a “growth argument” about the Swiss vote. I did not mention “growth.” I did not make a growth argument. I made a legal argument about the vote and its potential consequences for Switzerland.

    You need to write JHK again and again. Press him on whether or not he really does have a special relationship with one poster on CFN.

    Be sure to remind JHK that you are a “loyal reader” and that JHK’s commercial interests are being damaged by one poster. Make your case as strongly as you can. Please complain about my tone, if you must.

    JHK has already told you several times to stop singling out posters to quarrel with. And he’s probably sick of you whining to him every time somebody posts something you don’t agree with.

    There is another option available to you, Prog.

    Instead of quarreling with posters (or the one single poster) who you cannot stand, you could respond to the substance of comments.

    I, for one, am sick of your bellyaching and snide provocations like “- aj muste know everything -” in response to my substantive comments, comments which lack any kind of name calling or sarcasm or ad hominem attacks.

    Be sure to copy this post and send it to JHK as proof of how obnoxious this “one poster” is after you have provoked a quarrel with the “one poster.”

    Good luck.

    • James Kuehl February 12, 2014 at 7:33 am #

      The Internet is like a big elevator and somebody is going to fart. When I’m not in the mood for the stink, I take the stairs.

      Voices like Kunstler’s tend to get drowned out. Please remember to buy his books so he can pay the bills. I don’t work for him, but feel compelled to encourage support for writers who aren’t blowing sunshine up our asses.

      • BackRowHeckler February 12, 2014 at 7:50 am #

        good advise, James.

        I’m a little surprised Hollywood hasn’t picked up on ‘World Made by Hand’ yet. There have been a number of movies made in the past 10 years or so of similar genre — The Road’ and ‘Book of Eli’ come to mind — Jimmy’s book is as good as any of them, maybe better.

        –BRH

        • stelmosfire February 12, 2014 at 10:15 am #

          Hey BRH, I came up with a new gimmick. With this sub-zero weather I freeze gallon milk jugs filled with water and put them in the ‘frig, The thing barely runs. Thanks Mother Nature! Of course the boiler never shuts off! Bummer!

          • BackRowHeckler February 12, 2014 at 11:17 am #

            Rip do you ever remember it being so cold for so long round here? I don’t.

            Just got a generator going … it was abandoned at a construction site, sat there for about a year. My stepson was gonna scrap it, I said let me try to get it running. Cleaned it up, soaked carb parts in gasoline, put in new plug, changed oil … thing roared to life on second pull.

            Ice is following up the snow, probably will lose power.

            The clusterf-ck will come when pipes start bursting in unheated houses.

            Passed thru your territory last week, headed up to North Hampton Inn for dinner and a few beers.

            –BRH

        • James Kuehl February 12, 2014 at 10:16 am #

          Not enough blood and gore for mainstream film. Give me characters I care about in a situation with tension and you got me.

          Eight classic Corvettes just fell into a sinkhole at their Kentucky museum. You can’t make this shit up.

          • stelmosfire February 12, 2014 at 12:24 pm #

            Marlin, the news tells me to snow-rake my roof. I say BS. My house was built the year Abe Lincoln got-shot, 1865, I don’t figure 2 feet of snow is gonna collapse it. I remember it this cold for much longer, but it was in mid January. Christmas 1980 was 25 below.

  48. nsa February 12, 2014 at 10:27 am #

    Faster than a speeding Predator Drone! More powerful than a White Trash Congress! Able to leap tall Debt Limits in a single bound!
    LOOK UP IN THE SKY! IT’S A BIRD! IT’S A PLANE! It’s SuperNigger. Yes, it’s SuperNigger, strange visitor from the Dark Continent who came to the USA with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal hillbilly crackers. SuperNigger, who can change the the course of mighty fiat money flows, bend Tea Party bigots with his bare hands…..and who disguised as Barry Sartoro, mild mannered house boy for the masses of asses, fights a never ending battle for food stamps, disability, and the American free ride. And now, another episode in the exciting adventures of SuperNigger…….

  49. rube-i-con February 12, 2014 at 10:45 am #

    JHK has already told you several times to stop singling out posters to quarrel with. And he’s probably sick of you whining to him every time somebody posts something you don’t agree with.

    ajmuste, that’s the level of these folks out here, they typically can’t respond to the substance of your arguments and revert to name calling and talking about inanities such as who is really who and whether they are being paid, and whether they are a troll.

    the level is about 7-8th grade, with notable exceptions, even from the paranoid brigade at times.

    kunstler is definitely sick of it, who wouldn’t be. he must just shake his head in dismay lol

    in real solar developments:
    MAJOR NEW DEVELOPMENTS IN SOLAR TECHNOLOGY
    The development of solar energy systems has been proceeding significantly in recent years, throughout the U.S. and the world at large. New technologies are one of the causes of this considerable forward progress, and may help solar electricity to be an even more viable and cost-effective renewable energy source, according to International Business Times.
    Many of these new projects are being developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Some of them are designed to make solar cells more powerful and efficient, while others focus on making the technology applicable to more environments, increasing its usefulness among people in different situations.
    Among the technologies broadening the scope of solar application is one project allowing for solar cells to be printed on any material, in a technique both cost-effective and reliably effective. Another such initiative is attempting to incorporate solar cells into window glazing.
    Projects designed with the intention of increasing solar efficiency include a bio-engineered virus that attacks carbon nanotubes to increase the energy production in solar panels, as well as a nano-templated molecule called azobenzene that can store solar energy like a lithium ion battery stores conventional electricity.
    For its Rooftop Solar Challenge, the U.S. Department of Energy is splitting a grant of $12.5 million between 25 different companies that come up with advances in the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of projects supplying solar energy solutions.

    peace peaceniks

    • Florida Power February 12, 2014 at 1:54 pm #

      A major issue with PV is storage, and some Harvard chemical engineers are working on a so-called “flow” battery to address this. You might want to search it. Meanwhile in the liquid fuel space the Northwest National Lab folks have come up with a way to compress millions of years of temperature and pressure into a few minutes, converting algae to “petroleum” more or less. Some time ago the US Navy had developed a method to convert sea water to Jet-A. Of course, it’s always helpful to have a source of power (nuclear reactor) on board, as likewise the NNL reactor involves very high temperature and pressure, which implies an energy source, and a net energy trade-off. I am skeptical of alt energy promises, having been burned by several mal-investments in the recent past, and also as the owner of 2.8kW of PV grid-tied with battery back-up. The transient response of the recent panels is wonderful but this cuts both ways: a passing cloud will decrease the kW by half in an instant. Which is why Nicole Foss is spot on when discussing the limitations in grid-applied PV. As distributed generation it is fine as far as it goes but the present central-station paradigm of electricity-on-demand may have to be abandoned at least until the energy storage technology catches up. There are a lot of smart folks working on it to be sure. Let’s hope the timing is favorable and they pull the rabbit out of their hats before the theater burns down.

  50. rube-i-con February 12, 2014 at 3:25 pm #

    yep i’ve posted just that bit before about turning algae into diesel in the space of a few minutes. smart folks are cracking this nut from all angles, and solar / alt energy has become an unstoppable juggernaut that will inevitably produce stellar results.

    the sun is obviously the biggest energy source we should be tapping into, and we’re doing it – look to grey-skied germany to see some stunning results.

    florida power, tx for the very rational, cogent rundown on solar

    now, let the hysterical banshees chime in…..

    peace peaceniks

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    • BackRowHeckler February 12, 2014 at 7:02 pm #

      Sounds like you boys know what you’re talking about.

      Just a few questions.

      At this late date, why does solar and wind account for only 1 or 2% of electricity production in the USA?

      Why do even heavily subsidized alt energy companies like Solyndra go bankrupt?

      I don’t want to come across as a hysterical banshee. One of my stepsons is a project manager for a solar panel installation company. I’d be delighted if we could power everything up with sunlight. For a layman like myself it seems like we have a long way to go.

      –BRH

    • ozone February 12, 2014 at 7:05 pm #

      For the sake of peaceful coexistence (if that’s what you’d really desire) let me make one uncomfortable observation:

      Without fail, your posts are consistently and blatantly provocative. (I could name a couple others whose M.O. is exactly the same, but it’s really not necessary, now is it?)
      If you don’t think calling fellow posters to this blog “hysterical banshees” [amongst many other casually-slung opprobriums] insulting, instigating or provocative, I’m not sure what you’d call it.

      I apologize for even bringing this up, I’ve held my tongue, but this kind of backbiting [for whatever reason] shouldn’t be excused as the rest of us are censoring ourselves for the sake of a modicum of civility, while attempting to define and refine our own personal and local realities with due deliberation.

      (And, yes, I’m complaining directly to you, no one else. Please be advised, this is not a ‘fight’; simply a one time gripe that I won’t pursue further. Promise.)

      • ozone February 12, 2014 at 7:09 pm #

        (Above comment to rube-i-con.
        Again, apologies!)

      • Janos Skorenzy February 13, 2014 at 4:37 am #

        You can only handle small or “technical” disagreements. Anything else outrages you to your PC Puritan Core.

        • ozone February 13, 2014 at 11:05 am #

          Now THAT right there (we’ll call it: Exhibit A), is precisely what I was addressing.
          Was there really any need at all to mischaracterize, label and provoke? What, exactly, is the point of that? (Redefining terms is not helpful either, and leads to nothing but confusion; which may be the express point.)

  51. bob February 12, 2014 at 8:22 pm #

    As anyone who has read my past posts ,might realize my main focus to understanding is from depth psychology ,spirituality and their relation to our present predicament. Insights into consciousness goes to the core of answering the question ,” why if we have the ability to create heaven on earth ,are things heading into the opposite.
    Just imagine if you were free what amazing things you would be part of in nurturing the life of our inflicted planet. The most important things that you could ever know have been kept from you.
    Now that near term human extinction might well be our fate, we won’t even be able to answer the question “what went wrong”.

  52. rube-i-con February 12, 2014 at 8:46 pm #

    At this late date, why does solar and wind account for only 1 or 2% of electricity production in the USA?

    a lack of will to install capacity. why does germany get 60% of its electricity from solar power on some days during the year, while that country gets 39 times less sun than the US?

    if you told US americans they could plug their rooftop solar panels into the grid and get paid for it, do you think they’d do it? you bet they would – yesterday.

    that’s the situation in germany. now, multiply germany’s sun-weak landscape by the ability to leverage 39 times more sun. that 1-2% figure will rise dramatically in the US.

    If you don’t think calling fellow posters to this blog “hysterical banshees” [amongst many other casually-slung opprobriums] insulting, instigating or provocative, I’m not sure what you’d call it.

    you aren’t part of that particularly motley brigade i was directing my opprobium to. i’ve taken all the nonsensical juvenile ‘youre a paid sockpuppet’ and ‘government paid troll’ idiocy i care to take out here, it really is beneath anyone’s dignity to have to suffer thru that, and my remark about shrieking banshees was directed to those ignoramuses, who deserve nothing but contempt for their refusal to engage in repartee based on scientific facts.

    as i’ve said before, 50 years of advances in solar efficiency and global efforts to harness the sun’s energy are not based on a technology that will never be able to replace fossil fuels.

    the combined alternative energy sources – solar, hydro, geothermal, biomass, methane from rotting trash (and even dog crap in germany, don’t laugh), wind, human energy (check out sweden) – have displaced gargantuan amounts of fossil fuel usage, and indicate that humanity is moving well in the right direction away from the childish imaginings offered by the shortsighted prognosticators of doom. their nonsense will never materialize, for this we have all of history that bears us out.

    all of which ineluctibly leads me to say

    we salute you as we soar high above your limited ideas of humanity’s ability to progress and overcome alleged limitations, and we enter a future of unlimited physical and mental abundance and cornucopia

    peace peaceniks

    • BackRowHeckler February 12, 2014 at 9:18 pm #

      Some of the solar projects my stepson works on are huge … large commercial buildings covered by acres of solar panels. Panels are expensive and these businesses spend many millions to have them installed. I have to assume they know what they are doing.

      –BRH

      • Panic February 13, 2014 at 2:36 pm #

        You have to assume nothing! Need I post ‘Solyndra’?

        And I get that we are in a dystopian present, where the bad guys [the majority of voters] have elected other bad guys.

        Here:

        After much fanfare, Newark supermarket goes under in a year.

        When the store opened, with speeches from then-Mayor Cory Booker and other officials, it was viewed as a much-needed necessity in a low-income neighborhood…[FOOD DESERTS, YA KNOW]

        Of course “low-income” is synonymous with heavily black in NJ.

        Owner cited several problems that contributed to the supermarkets closing, including a long delay by the state in issuing a license to accept WIC food stamps, …

        the government was a little reluctant to give some guy named “Ahmed” approval to accept food stamps.

        See the archive on food stamp fraud at Refugee Resettlement Watch.

        and…The Daily Dot – Cory Booker laughs off Twitter stripper scandal.

  53. bob February 12, 2014 at 8:56 pm #

    In 2004 ,when I learned of peak oil ,it was quite a revelation though not unexpected. Now we have near term human extinction”again a revelation but not unexpected. How did we get into this predicament?
    For those who have read my comments know my understanding encompasses depth psychology and it’s spiritual component .
    We can focus on energy ,money,or climate ,but the problem is at hand, within our consciousness. Suppose the shit hits the fan and economic instability coincides with peak oil and catastrophic climate events.

  54. progress4what February 12, 2014 at 10:34 pm #

    “If you don’t think calling fellow posters to this blog “hysterical banshees” [amongst many other casually-slung opprobriums] insulting, instigating or provocative, I’m not sure what you’d call it.:
    – ozone, to rube-i-con –

    Well said, ozone.

    Two poster identities are here to distract, disrupt, and call you WRONG, James Howard Kunstler. You give them free reign as they deliberately pick quarrels and engage in stupid shenanigans.
    http://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/the-smog-of-fraud/comment-page-1/#comment-166099 , as an example.

    The rest of us – your genuine fans and supporters – you verbally castigate, and threaten with banning.

    I do not understand.

    • beantownbill. February 13, 2014 at 12:14 am #

      Procon,

      In an email to me a couple of months ago, Jim told me he abhors political correctness almost above everything else. The relevance to you is, I think, that e

      • K-Dog February 13, 2014 at 12:24 am #

        Political correctness is mind control. Tyranny with a smile.

        If this comment makes it through the government filter I’ll be shocked. I pissed them off last week and got locked in the barn. I’m seeing if the door still has a bolt on it.

        • K-Dog February 13, 2014 at 12:26 am #

          Well, wham bam and thank you mam !!

          I’m BACK !!!!!!!

          • K-Dog February 13, 2014 at 12:28 am #

            The non-paranoid will attribute it to unexplained technical issues.

        • Janos Skorenzy February 13, 2014 at 12:54 am #

          And on what issues are you NOT PC? You’re against Whites, for Coloreds, against America, for the 3rd World, etc.

      • beantownbill. February 13, 2014 at 12:30 am #

        Sorry… The relevance to you is that he doesn’t really mind if someone disagrees with him – because everyone has a right to their opinion, as long as they are civil and don’t resort to name calling or personal attacks. Even though he may find Janos’ philosophy repugnant, for example, it is presented reasonably civilly, and that’s why he allows him to remain on the site.

        I’m certainly not speaking for JHK, and this is not expressing my own feelings about them, but I’m guessing what he doesn’t like about some of your posts is the undertone of anger, the name-calling and fighting connotations. As I say, I’m not criticizing you, actually the opposite, because I want you to continue to be able to comment here. Just a word to the wise…

    • Panic February 13, 2014 at 2:37 pm #

      If you do somehow gain insight, please share with us.

  55. ZrCrypDiK February 12, 2014 at 10:39 pm #

    Last week *they* (you?) tuned it up to 150 responses per page – this week, it’s back at the default *100* (Your admins are *WORKIN’* it, JHK!).

    I can hear Vlad/Janos slamming global warming, as it’s been *cold, coold, cOOOLD*!!! I can see his short-sighteness in this, as he quotes obscure literary references (heh).

    There is really no reason the Treasury couldn’t be the sole source of money – why launder it through teh banksters, then fed-resurrect it (because banksters get the interest plus the *LEVERAGE*)?!…

    Asoka (AJ Muste, aka @$$ SOKER) *STILL* pretends he is not Welles, nor NSA/./ Yet, he appears to get *TOTALLY* inside JHK’s “brain,” when he spews the following drivel, “JHK has already told you several times to stop singling out posters to quarrel with.” Mind reader, indeed – *WHY* argue…

    I, like Ozone (censoring ourselves for the sake of a modicum of civility), have come to the conclusion that, when the SHTF, there will still be *p33pz*, and they will still REQUIRE one thing – entertainment (Thx to T-Vere for this – he also taught me about the skull&bones, back in ’91).

    So, I will improve my juggling skills, my magician slight-of-hand, my musical guitar/harmonica skills, and my *ACTING SKILLS* (I can *PRETEND* too!)!!! Oh, and did I say I whuz pretty? Very Pretty? Oh so *pretty*?!? (apparently I just did)

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    • Janos Skorenzy February 13, 2014 at 12:56 am #

      So the record breaking cold is proof of global warming? It was warmer, much warmer long before Man existed. Did the dinosaurs emit too much carbon somehow?

      They may have had feathers not scales.

  56. ajmuste February 13, 2014 at 12:25 am #

    “Asoka (AJ Muste, aka @$$ SOKER) *STILL* pretends he is not Welles, nor NSA/” — ZrCrypDiK

    To ZrCrypDiK and everyone else: continuing to provoke me by saying I am any other poster could result in sanction from JHK.

    It especially irks me to be compared to Asoka, who posted 80 times a day, hundreds of times in a week, as it is disrespectful of my request to be respectfully addressed as ajmuste (who doesn’t even post eight times a day)

    I am making one final civil request to stop your baiting by saying I am anyone other than who I am: ajmuste.

    If your (plural) disrespect continues, I am going to go all Prog on JHK. Whoever disrespects me by associating my name with other posters (past or present) risks being banned for quarrel incitement.

    • beantownbill. February 13, 2014 at 12:44 am #

      AJ, I believe the reason why you are associated with Asoka, I think, is because your comments share certain characteristics to his postings. Personally, I always got along with Asoka, so I don’t really care nor is it relevant to me who you are, AJ or Asoka. I estimate I agree with about 60% of your comments. I think I don’t share your views on the benevolence of government, but so what? After all, on the Internet, we posters are all avatars of our real selves, anyway. Really, the most important thing is to do good, live long and prosper.

      Try not to let others’ to get to you.

    • K-Dog February 13, 2014 at 12:52 am #

      one final civil request

      Or else what? That does not sound very friendly to me. That sounds like an ultimatum. What could happen to someone who does not take your advice. Do they get locked in the barn with a bolted door?

      Sorry if it irks you but your manner of speaking and relating to others is exactly like Asoka used to speak and relate to others. If you are not him and he is not you than I guess it just sucks to be you.

      But hey let’s not start something you and I. I just got back and it would really irk me if I had to go poof again.

    • ZrCrypDiK February 14, 2014 at 2:09 pm #

      You fsk’n *SOCK*. Gimme a break, *LIAR* You simply don’t poast 150 times a day, NE-MOARZ. That’s no *EXCUSE*, sockie!!!

      • ZrCrypDiK February 14, 2014 at 2:11 pm #

        PS – AJ Muste died when I whuz born – 1967… Wake the *F* up, joneser…

  57. ajmuste February 13, 2014 at 1:46 am #

    Beantown said: “the most important thing is to do good, live long and prosper”

    =========

    Along that line I listened to an interview with a rabbi which you might enjoy.

    If you don’t have 22 minutes, I recommend you start listening at approximately the 8 minute mark.

    http://eatyourradio.org/2013/12/22/aging-a-heros-journey/

    An interesting perspective on aging and death.

  58. ajmuste February 13, 2014 at 1:48 am #

    K-dog said: “Or else what? “

    =========

    Re-read the last two sentences of my February 13, 2014 at 12:25 am post.

    The “or else what” is given there.

    • K-Dog February 13, 2014 at 2:29 am #

      Ok I’ll re-read them. hmmmmmmmmm

      “I am going to go all Prog on JHK.”

      So you don’t just disrespect Prog, you threaten the blog owner as well.

      That’s a might arrogant of you. Whacha goona do. Lock JHK in a barn for five days and keep him from publishing a Monday Morning article if he doesn’t listen to you?

      Are you FBI or what are you exactly ajmuste that gives you such power to threaten.

      Let me repeat my closing sentence from the comment you quote.

      Let’s not start something you and I. I just got back and it would really irk me if I had to go poof again.

      And you yip at me anyway.

      Take your own advice which you threw out when you knew I could not bark back:

      OK, I am going to let it drop and let the sleeping dog lie.

      How did you know I was taking a nap anyway ?!

      • ZrCrypDiK February 13, 2014 at 3:15 am #

        “Lock JHK in a barn for five days and keep him from publishing a Monday Morning article”

        OMG, I’d be *JONES’IN*!!! Just *sayin’*! (BTW, *xxx* means *UNDERLINE* in moast poasts)

        Yo, Soker!@! You all comfy, as JHK doesn’t ban U?!? Yer @$$ certainly seems troll/disinformant to *ME* – just *SAYIN’*!!!

  59. K-Dog February 13, 2014 at 2:09 am #

    Washington (CNN) — A divided U.S. House voted Tuesday to let the government borrow enough money to pay its bills for the next year, sending the measure to the Senate in an effort by Republican leaders to avoid another politically damaging legislative impasse over spending.

    How high can the debt ceiling go? Perhaps Blythe Masters can develop a financial instrument to insure the government gets bailed out if it goes under.

    Somewhere beyond all the legerdemain and fraud, however, there remains a real world that is not going away. We just don’t know what it will look like when the smog of fraud clears.

    • Janos Skorenzy February 13, 2014 at 4:44 am #

      We should open up the Banks and give all the money away right? Just like we should open the prisons and let out all the minorities too I suppose.

      • ZrCrypDiK February 13, 2014 at 10:17 am #

        Vlad! Sux 2 B U? U seem to have an *OBSESSION* goin’ on there, sockie (devoid of your quintessential musings) . One must *WONDER*, why are banks the middle-men between the %Treasury and the Fed%… (SOCKIE!)

        Here’s to *(h)OPING* you don’t get too much heartburn (*middleman*)…

      • K-Dog February 13, 2014 at 12:02 pm #

        The point is not to have deficits.

        Because running deficits is:

        An easy money Federal Reserve policy which drives inflation
        and taxes without representation generations yet unborn. Deficits fund spending on unconstitutional wars, bloated weapons programs, and more military bases across the globe than Wall Marts or Mickey Ds. And right here right now if funds a war on our liberty and privacy by the NSA, FBI, ATF, DEA, IRS, Secret Service and too many other agencies to count.

        You have “credit” because other persons or parties believe in your ability to repay. After a while, this becomes a mere convention in millions of transactions. What’s happened is that the conventions remain in place but the trust is gone. It’s gone in particular among the parties deemed too big to fail.

        And what is more too big to fail than our dinosaur with feathers of red white and blue. The federal government.

        Budgets, we don’t need no stinkin budgets.

  60. BackRowHeckler February 13, 2014 at 7:01 am #

    In Pennsylvania, how about that negro gang banger who shot the horse pulling a wagon carrying an Amish family, mother, father, and 3 children? It was a drive by, what else? The horse managed to get the family home, then bled to death thru the mouth and the hole in its chest. The Amish way of life is presented by Jim and others as possibly a model of how we might successfully live in the future as the current system unwinds. But how is that going to be possible if gangs from the cities come out and shoot horses trotting down the road, which these families depend on?

    So far no word from Eric Holder.

    Could it possibly be true? Was the distinguished Reverend Al Sharpton an esteemed guest of honor at the State Dinner for the French Prime Minister?

    –BRH

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    • K-Dog February 13, 2014 at 12:19 pm #

      Timothy Antonio Diggs is not part of a gang and is from Ronks PA. A tiny town. Apparently he did not come up from a city but is a local hick.

      • Panic February 13, 2014 at 3:00 pm #

        ‘negro gang banger’..not as judged by his picture.

        ‘not part of a gang’..prove that.

        • K-Dog February 14, 2014 at 11:30 am #

          Prove it yourself and click on my Ronks PA link (above). If he is in a gang he is the only one in it.

          The raid on his residence that put him in jail shows he was a lone fool and psycho. I read up on things before I comment about them.

    • Panic February 13, 2014 at 2:53 pm #

      ‘good advise [advice?] I’m a little surprised Hollywood hasn’t picked up on ‘World Made by Hand’ yet. There have been a number of movies made in the past 10 years or so of similar genre — The Road’ and ‘Book of Eli’ come to mind — Jimmy’s book is as good as any of them, maybe better.’ [Did those films make much money?]

      I wuz channel surfing at You Tube [Doomsday preppers] etc and
      autoprompt brought me to a TV show with both Drama and Overview from tainter etc. So it has been done on TV.

      Money is the name of the game.

      • BackRowHeckler February 13, 2014 at 5:41 pm #

        You know Panic, I didn’t think of that. ‘The Road’ for one, despite quite a lot of publicity, didn’t last too long in the theaters.

        –BRH

        • BackRowHeckler February 13, 2014 at 5:42 pm #

          Tells you how much I know about show biz.

  61. rube-i-con February 13, 2014 at 7:31 am #

    Two poster identities are here to distract, disrupt, and call you WRONG, James Howard Kunstler. You give them free reign as they deliberately pick quarrels and engage in stupid shenanigans.

    if ever there was a telling comment belying the no-disagreement-allowed thugs out here….

    and you call yourself *progress*4what?

    sorry, i (we) didnt know only a single viewpoint is permitted. should i swallow the blue pill now?

    damn that JHK for allowing dissent, your pack needs to set him straight. viciously, if need be. all pigs are equal.

    peace peaceniks

  62. ZrCrypDiK February 13, 2014 at 9:56 am #

    I’m *out of control*!!! (Traveling at the speed of *LIGHT*)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDMjgckNlz0

    • beantownbill. February 13, 2014 at 12:07 pm #

      A good friend of mine’s ex-husband was Freddie Mercury’s friend. They grew up together. She told me a lot about him. Actually, I admit to being a Queen fan – brilliant musicians IMO.

      • ZrCrypDiK February 14, 2014 at 3:14 am #

        Freddie whuz an absolute talent – I don’t really give two sh!ts if he sucked a cock, or took 2 in his @$$. The guy rocked, *PERIOD*. My fsck’n *HERO*. Why R we so challenged?!…

    • Janos Skorenzy February 13, 2014 at 2:06 pm #

      Check ignition and may God’s Love be with you. I know this will “burn” you. The Light of Heaven is experienced as Fire by the dark ones.

      • Panic February 13, 2014 at 2:45 pm #

        Thats a Bowie quote.

  63. ZrCrypDiK February 13, 2014 at 4:23 pm #

    You’re out there, guzzlin, no attempt to *EVEN* make amends. You go 20MPG (10? 15?!?) in your lazy @$$ caricaTURE/./ No concept of destruction, nor of *YOUR OWN ACTIONS*…

    “I’m stuck in my *CAR*” I can’t even belieb (TM) this sh!t… I bathe myself in gas-o-hol – cleaner than *SKEETERZ PEETER*. You will *STILL* not get it (do U)/././././././././…

    • Janos Skorenzy February 13, 2014 at 10:48 pm #

      You and your car drink the same stuff! Party on.

  64. ajmuste February 13, 2014 at 6:40 pm #

    THE RISE AND FALL OF CHRIS CHRISTIE

    http://www.newrepublic.com/article/116601/chris-christies-rise-and-fall

    Chris Christie’s Entire Career Reeks. It’s not just the bridge.

    • ZrCrypDiK February 13, 2014 at 7:20 pm #

      Can U *IM-a-GINE* being next to that lard-@$$, and having to *BREATHE*?!? Talk about stench – that fucking lard-@$$. There’s not enough showers/baths to clean off that stench (regardless of his corruption, which is *HUGE*)…

      Soker! You fskin’ sock puppet! Having a good time arguing your *ANTI*-point? I know who U R – sad sorry state of affairs (I won’t air you childhood *HERE*).

  65. rube-i-con February 13, 2014 at 8:32 pm #

    zcrypdick and others who keep harping on sock puppets, you contribute nothing and are worthless to this board, which might otherwise have a debate about alt energy vs. energy descent.

    jhk would do wise to separate the worthless chaff from the wheat out here

    good grief, words fail one

    nevertheless, we salute you as we soar high, high above you into a future of abundance and cornucopia

    peace peaceniks

    welles/rube-i-con

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    • ZrCrypDiK February 14, 2014 at 3:26 am #

      Welles, you *BABBLE ON, MORON* liek there’s no tomorrow – with nothing but *LIES*. Why so many *LIES*? What’s the point, *LIAR*?

      Your talk about solar/wind power has been shot down time *OVER* time – yet you still claim *NOT* to be the *LIAR*. Why is that, *LIAR*?!?

      You lied about being “down there” (south america) doing pig roasts and picking fresh fruit from the trees in your (*SUPPOSED*) front yard. *LIAR*. Fess up, *liar*. You know *U* just spent a *PRETTY PENNY* to make your home into an impregnable (SP*) fortress!!!

  66. Arn Varnold February 14, 2014 at 7:03 am #

    Since most posts here are non-sequiturs, I couldn’t resist;

    1921 – BESSIE COLEMAN – AVIATION – First African-American woman to become an airplane pilot and first AMERICAN to hold an international pilot’s license. — CIRCA 1920

    Those ignorant souls who don’t know history (all of it) are doomed to their individual deaths, of the worst kind, as they descend into the hell of Dante’s 9 levels.
    Kind of makes me feel warm and fuzzy all over….

  67. ozone February 14, 2014 at 8:43 am #

    Since veering wildly off-topic is now de riguer, I post this for BRH (who is likely well-aware of this item in the Courant):

    ” “I honestly thought from my own standpoint that the vast majority would register,” said State Sen. Tony Guglielmo (R-Stafford) of the legislature’s public safety committee said to Harr. “If you pass laws that people have no respect for and they don’t follow them, then you have a real problem.”

    I guess Sen. Tony doesn’t get out much these days to hear the talk on the street, and yes, Tony, you’ve got a “real problem”. At the stroke of a governor’s pen (stroked about a year ago), approximately 85-90% of Nutmegger gun owners have now been deemed class D felons. It’s kind of unknown, since they didn’t register what beforehand required no registration. “No one has anything close to definitive figures, but the most conservative estimates place the number of unregistered assault weapons well above 50,000, and perhaps as high as 350,000,” Harr [of the Courant] wrote.

    Huh, how ’bout that? But… things are improving vastly (especially trust in government institutions), are they not? Oh well, next week will bring a new and improved week, never fear; I’m sure there’s nothing to be concerned about… is there a new episode of Honey Boo-Boo on the teevee? And, Corvettes down a sinkhole.

    • K-Dog February 14, 2014 at 11:15 am #

      Since veering wildly off-topic is now de riguer nearly incomprehensible shenanigans have been going on.

    • K-Dog February 14, 2014 at 11:39 am #

      Or you could say:

      You have “credit” because other persons or parties believe in your ability to repay.

      All the off-topic comments are comments made with credit to be repaid with on-topic relevant comments at a later date to fulfil relevant topic obligations.

      But since this is Clusterfuck Nation and debt all over the world can’t be repaid payment with on-topic comments shall be forever postponed.

    • K-Dog February 14, 2014 at 11:46 am #

      Comments as they are are Masters of Blithe.

    • K-Dog February 14, 2014 at 11:51 am #

      But you for one comprehend some of the nearly incomprehensible shenanigans having had a nibble from the crust of the loaf of di$information.

    • ZrCrypDiK February 14, 2014 at 1:42 pm #

      It’s *GUD* to C U back, my man (woman?)! Check out the dog – he’s wetting his’self trying to *talk* (5 replies – slow down, *DOG*?!?)!!! Tell me I’m wrong, with my juggling/magician/musician act!

      Oh, and *YES*, U ALL can blame *ME* “wildly off-topic” du riguer…

  68. stelmosfire February 14, 2014 at 9:29 am #

    I saw “The Road” in a small independent theater with my daughter, after I read the book. It depressed the shit out of her. She wonders why I am so warped and can watch that stuff. So what was it? An asteroid strike, nuclear winter, Yellowstone mega -blast, it was never answered. Needless to say after something like that there would be no ” World Made by Hand” No plants= No life!

    • K-Dog February 14, 2014 at 11:26 am #

      The road was one dimensional. A ‘World Made by Hand’ would be nothing like it. It might have an equal amount of death in it as population continues to waltz down to a carrying capacity but the difference is that the human drama would continue for the survivors. There would be a colorful summer party at Bullock’s estate for instance with real hamburgers and sojourns in the bushes.

      I think it would have a medieval color, the Wayne Karp entertainment could have a lute player introduce the couch scene.

      In common with the road would be many dead maple trees.

    • beantownbill. February 14, 2014 at 11:51 am #

      I wonder what the CFNers of the Middle Ages were thinking:

      Shit, we are so fucked! The Plague is gonna kill all of us.

      We’re doomed! Our country’s peaked and it’s all downhill from here while the East is on the rise. In a few more years the Mongols will be running things.

      Our institutions are corrupt. Take the Church – look at the shit that Martin Luther guy is nailing to the doors. We should rise up against the Church and take it down. It’s gonna fail anyway in a few years. Why don’t people realize it?

      Why do we sit around all night and listen to that science crap? What a waste of time. Imagine. That creep Gallileo says the Earth revolves around the sun. What an idiot – and the dumb sheeple will believe him, just like when that Copernicus jerk-off said the Earth wasn’t flat. I’m tellin’ ya, this whole society is crumblin’ down.

      • K-Dog February 14, 2014 at 12:03 pm #

        You could have people coming into the public square to scribble a comment on the clusterfuck village scroll.

        Here comes serf-i-con now.

        “Alchemists all over the kingdom are working on solutions to the plague. Millions of herbs can cure it. It is a non-issue.

        As we gallop away in chariots pulled by singing rats into a future of health and prosperity we leave your pox addled brains behind.”

        And he really would be living in a mud hut.

        • beantownbill. February 14, 2014 at 3:51 pm #

          Very funny. Lol

          • K-Dog February 14, 2014 at 5:26 pm #

            Tranquility Troubadournicks

  69. volodya February 14, 2014 at 1:54 pm #

    I’ve been watching the back and forth about trolls on this site. This is a modest suggestion. If you think someone is a troll do yourself a favor and don’t engage in any way.

    Whether someone is a troll is subjective. But you’re a grown-up so you get to judge for yourself.

    From what I’ve seen, none of us can hold a candle to JHK in writing ability. And all of us have a limited or bounded perspective. Nonetheless any of us can make a worthwhile contribution.

    A single anecdote from a commenter or some isolated observations don’t necessarily constitute anything usable. But then again neither do a plethora of dishonest “studies”. The landscape is lousy with bought and paid for flacks, festooned with prestigious postings and honors. You could do worse than trust your own eyes and ears.

    So when you look at other commenters’ bona fide contributions sometimes you start to see patterns. You start to have the makings of information.

    Trolls aren’t here to contribute but rather the opposite. I’m not wasting my time. I’ve made my own assessment as to who is worth reading and responding to. End of sermon.

    • ZrCrypDiK February 14, 2014 at 2:33 pm #

      I know, it’s prolly *ME* – so sad, and too bad?!… I liek U – you’re a pillar in this *community* (so to “speak”)…

    • K-Dog February 14, 2014 at 5:03 pm #

      From what I’ve seen, none of us can hold a candle to JHK in writing ability.

      So true, all we are doing isrotting away like so much forgotten ground round in the sub-basement of an abandoned warehouse of a bankrupt burger chain.

      • ZrCrypDiK February 14, 2014 at 10:16 pm #

        Ahaha! U make it sound so *SUBLIME*…

      • Karah February 15, 2014 at 8:54 am #

        The ability to write one’s critical observations isn’t a problem for anyone around here.

        The ability to make a living (get attention) writing about one’s mental exercise is an obstacle. That is part of the reason why I think users of this site go a bit insane with their links and pokes at JHK.

        Troll, like many other words, has been warped to include anyone who disagrees with the host or disagrees with any other user of the website. My “adult” definition of trolling is:

        a web user who spends inordinate amounts of time baiting other web users into frivolous often negative conversations that divert, kill or mislead; debating words; graffiti

  70. BackRowHeckler February 14, 2014 at 2:00 pm #

    Rip did you watch ‘The Road’ in that little theatre in North Hampton? I saw the film about Shackleford there, little place that holds about 50 people. Some nice bars within walking distance, too.

    Even Cormac McCarthry didn’t know what wrecked the world, and he is the author. Speaking of Viggo Mortenson, how about the movie where he is a one eyed Viking on a ship looking for the Holy Land, but end up in North America, fighting indians.

    This last storm did me in. I’m toast.

    –BRH

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    • ZrCrypDiK February 14, 2014 at 2:30 pm #

      “This last storm did me in. I’m toast.”

      10 inches + of snow, here in ORY-gone, in the past week (no news story either). *DITTO* (toast)

      Viggo gets no cred- he’s one of the best actors I’ve ever *SCENE* (heh). BRH – you the guy with the hunting rifles? :)~

      • BackRowHeckler February 14, 2014 at 5:25 pm #

        Just some vintage Winchesters and Marlins.

        Things were made just down the road here, mass produced, but real pieces of industrial art. The quality on these older guns is unbelievable. 70, 80 years old and they still work as good as the day they came out of the factory.

        Did somebody post here the NFL is a tax exempt organization. Learned today that NFL commissioner Roger Goodell made $44 million last year. God bless ’em, but why tax exempt?

        –BRH

  71. ZrCrypDiK February 14, 2014 at 3:38 pm #

    Smuggled some smokes and *folks*, from *MEHICO*… (baked by the sun, *EVERY-*TIME*)

    Weed, whites and *WINE*!!!

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrCMlSWlDX8&feature=kp

  72. Being There February 14, 2014 at 7:54 pm #

    Vy a Trade Deficit?

    I just learned something from Charles Hugh Smith.

    I’ve always wondered why we allowed ourselves to be the losers in trade and now I’ve found out why. It’s because we need to flood other markets with our fiat currency….

    [A reserve currency must be available in size in global markets, which means the issuing nation must export its currency in size so others have enough of it to fill their reserves and grease their trade exchanges. The issuing nation can simply helicopter drop the equivalent of several trillion dollars of currency into other nations (something that hasn’t been tried), or it has to run trade deficits, i.e. it buys more goods and services from other nations than it exports to them, and so it exports its currency to other nations to use as a reserve currency.

    This means nations that run enormous trade surpluses can’t issue a reserve currency, because they’re not exporting currency, they’re importing other nations’ currency and having to “sterilize” it into their own domestic economy or buy something denominated in the imported currency.]

    Now I get it.

    • BackRowHeckler February 15, 2014 at 8:50 am #

      Hey Being There how do you like your new mayor, so far?

      WSJ covers him pretty good in their NYC section every day.

      It’s been more than entertaining.

      How do you think it will all turn out, I mean when he’s thru. What kind of place will NYC be then?

      ——————————————————————————–

      Why is the MSM promoting homosexuality? Even Sports media. What’s in it for them? What’s the upshot of all of it? What’s the goal? What’s the endgame?

      –BRH

      –BRH

      • Being There February 15, 2014 at 9:27 am #

        Hey Marlin

        Why don’t you respond to my post about trade deficits and why they are done?

        You are merely using me to make you statement against De Blasio—I care a whole lot less about the culture wars than you and the snow thing.

        By just attacking the left, you are creating a giant blind spot for yourself, but revel in it you must. Suit yourself.

        Your way of life isn’t being attacked by libruls. Look at the entire global picture.—We are all the biggest losers.

        • BackRowHeckler February 15, 2014 at 9:45 am #

          OK Ibendet, you got me there.

          So what CHSmith is saying is the de industialization of the US was intentional so that we would become a net importing nation, not a net exporting nation, and the only thing we would export is our fiat currency (the dollar)? Do I got that right?

          Sounds logical to me. I don’t doubt it. But Ibendet, you could take my knowledge of macro economics and international finance and fit it in a thimble. I work in a web press printing newspapers for chrissake.

          I didn’t know if you were still around this site, so when I saw your post wanted to get your opinion about Diblasio. You’re the CFN operative in NYC.

          –BRH

          • Being There February 15, 2014 at 10:08 am #

            My sister and I have always thought it was crazy to give everyone else advantage over us in the trade deficit game. It seemed illogical that one would keep talking about no barrier to entry for us and import taxes for our goods by our trading partners. It was a revelation to me and I thought I’d share the insight with you.

            About DeBlasio. He was the only choice as usual. The tax wall street guy Randy Credico was never in the media even though he got enough signatures to run. Sensored by msm, so you get the mayor money will buy, that’s all.

            As I mentioned in the past, the people in NYC wanted a little balance between big finance and someone who might, I emphasis might do something to address the local needs.

            We have a housing market that only the global rich can afford to buy, so is it so wrong to get someone who MIGHT address housing costs for the locals? That was the choice we were given.

            Not too swift about the snow, but even Bloomberg F-d it up, so it’s a no-win sitch for anyone.

            We shall see what he does……stay tuned for the misadventures of NYC mayoralty. You know I don’t see much light between left and right. I don’t sweat the kultcha wars.

        • BackRowHeckler February 15, 2014 at 10:19 am #

          You’re a sweetheart.

          thanks for talking to me anyway.

          –BRH

          • stelmosfire February 16, 2014 at 10:19 am #

            Mornin’ Marlin, as a matter of fact I did see “The Road” In Hamp. That is a nice little theater and Northampton is a great town. When I was a kid Northampton was the butt of many jokes in these parts due to the large state mental hospital there and the people associated with it. That town has really turned around. Very nice walkable downtown ,nice restaurants, and specialty shops. I don’t think there is a vacancy in town. This snow is killin’ me also. We have had 30″ in the last 10 days and maybe some more on Tuesday. Not only that but the plow truck threw a rod.

  73. ajmuste February 14, 2014 at 10:27 pm #

    Hi, Being There. Are you saying, in effect, that the USA is running a huge fiat money laundering operation using the economies of other nations? As a defensive measure to keep the dollar as the premier reserve currency? How long has this been going on? For about 70 years now, right? Have you noticed any negative consequences? Or does it seem to have worked, since our economy is functioning and the dollar is still strong?

    • Being There February 15, 2014 at 9:29 am #

      Oh, there are no negative consequences, alright. There is absolutely no reason for JHK to run this blog. It’s all good!

  74. ajmuste February 14, 2014 at 11:08 pm #

    February 10, 2014 10:47 pm
    Dollar strength reflects fundamentals

    “Dollar assets are a safe haven in times of trouble, but this would not be the case if the US economy were truly in long-term decline.

    It may seem paradoxical that the dollar’s position has strengthened since the US financial system was the epicentre of the global financial crisis. The crisis itself was destabilising and a black mark for the dollar, but the US policy response has been more robust than other countries’, helping to underpin confidence in the US economy and the dollar’s reserve currency role.

    Most important, the Fed was very aggressive not just in supporting the US economy but also in ensuring global dollar liquidity through central bank swap lines, while the banking system was quickly recapitalized.

    Moreover, the private sector in the US remains strong and competitive, with prospects boosted by the recent energy boom and the continuing leadership in high-tech.

    Certainly, the political process has been very noisy and serious economic issues need to be addressed to ensure long-term prosperity. Overall, US policy and economic fundamentals look robust and are underpinned by open, transparent and effective institutions.

    This is why the dollar remains strong. The normal rules of economics still hold.”

    — Charles Collyns, Chief Economist, Institute of International Finance, Washington, DC, US, Former Assistant Secretary for International Affairs, US Treasury Dept

  75. ajmuste February 14, 2014 at 11:26 pm #

    Did Obama just become a member of the Clusterfuck Nation?

    “”The truth of the matter is that this is going to be a very challenging situation this year, and frankly, the trend lines are such where it’s going to be a challenging situation for some time to come,” Obama said while meeting with community leaders in Firebaugh, a rural area not far from Fresno.

    California is in the midst of its worst drought in more than 100 years. After arriving here Friday afternoon, Obama was to meet with area farmers and announce more than $160 million in federal financial aid, including $100 million in the farm bill he signed into law last week for programs that cover the loss of livestock.”

    Notice that government is there to help those in need. And it doesn’t matter one iota that those in need are rural conservative Republican farmers who would never vote for Obama.

    Obama is President of all the United States. His concern is human and is not about buying votes or trying to influence voters. It is about government being responsive in times of crisis, party affiliation be damned.

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    • nsa February 15, 2014 at 12:21 am #

      Why don’t you just blow your lawn jockey hero and get it over with……

  76. ZrCrypDiK February 14, 2014 at 11:42 pm #

    4 times a *charm (soker?)*?!? Heh, It’s been *LONGTEMP* (srsly). We cry, we dodge, we dis-assemble… all to *KNOW* accourd. Is there a point – some point? *THIS* point?!? Prolly *KNOT*. We slave away – the 99.99%’ers, knowing fully well we will never have a piece of the *PIE*. Carrot on a stick? Ayup, we do that, do it *diligently*…Sad, sorry, ?!.!!!

    Why, oh *WHY*?!? Is the misery worth the *retribution*?!? R WE so sad – is this all we can *MUSTER?!? Pathetic corpses, waning away?

    • ZrCrypDiK February 15, 2014 at 12:44 am #

      Avail, *AVAIL*!!! Heh. MY BAD.

      • ZrCrypDiK February 15, 2014 at 1:32 am #

        We *wane* – why sure, we *do*!!! COSMIC CONFERENCE STELLATING?!>… 🙂 (YOU’RE MY BEST FRIEND)

  77. rube-i-con February 15, 2014 at 7:44 am #

    “Alchemists all over the kingdom are working on solutions to the plague. Millions of herbs can cure it. It is a non-issue

    haha, and thats exactly what happened over time, thanks to science and technology.

    even your attempts at irony prove your own case wrong.

    As we gallop away in chariots pulled by singing rats into a future of health and prosperity we leave your pox addled brains behind.”

    haha, and thats exactly what happened over time, thanks to science and technology.

    or are you going to claim we dont have abundance and health compared to 1348?

    you people are sooooo weak its beyond words.

    doom is for the little people

    Your talk about solar/wind power has been shot down time *OVER* time – yet you still claim *NOT* to be the *LIAR*. Why is that, *LIAR*?!?

    thanks for the kind words. look up germany getting 60% of its electricity on some days from solar. and brazil getting 84% of its electricity from hydropower on an everyday basis. i take it those are the ones that have been shot down?

    lies are for those who hate progress

    nevertheless, we still salute you as we soar high, high above your fear and doom-filled existences and rocket into a world of superabundance and cornucopia

    peace peaceniks

    • K-Dog February 15, 2014 at 10:47 am #

      But I don’t live in Brazil or Germany. I bark in the good-ol U S of A where all jobs and wealth have been exported to foreign lands. Where hydro is tapped out at 100% and solar is kept from being used by big coal. In America the only light to get excited about is the one shining in your cell at midnight. Certainly not the one in the sky.

      “doom is for the little people

      I salute you as you soar high, high over the orange jumpsuited masses toiling away to produce ample biofuel to keep your flying car slithering along. I salute you from a doom-filled existence for fear of the beatdown I’ll be getting if I don’t. Little people shut out from your playground of superabundance and cornucopian distractions.

      love lawmen

  78. K-Dog February 15, 2014 at 11:53 am #

    The Smog of Fraud

    At the same time, the banks began the operations of shifting all the janky debt paper, mostly mortgages and derivative instruments (i.e. made-up shit like “CDOs squared”), value unknown, from their vaults to the a vaults of the Federal Reserve, where it resides to this day, rotting away like so much forgotten ground round in the sub-basement of an abandoned warehouse of a bankrupt burger chain.

    And here is some prose that rhymes. Zero-rate heroin and mega-leverage crack-cocaine. That sounds like something right out a Kunstler Monday morning screed, but it comes from Mike Whitney at counterpunch.


    the toxic combo of financial engineering, central bank liquidity and fraud have transformed the world’s biggest economy into a hobbled, crisis-prone invalid that’s unable to grow without giant doses of zero-rate heroin and mega-leverage crack-cocaine. This is exactly what the British economist warned about more than half a century ago in his magnum opus, “The General Theory…”, that you can’t build a vital, prosperous economy on the ripoff, Ponzi scams of Wall Street charlatans, mountebanks and swindlers.

    Follow the link in the paragraph above and you will find more.


    Let me get this straight: The number of “seriously delinquent borrowers” has actually gone up in the last year? Not only that, but many of these people “haven’t made a payment in more than four years”?

    That’s a mighty fine recovery you got there, Mr. Bernanke.

    For those of us unable to soar high above a fear and doom-filled existence on wings of wax to rocket away into a world of superabundance and cornucopian delights I present something closer to our truth.

    • ozone February 15, 2014 at 12:36 pm #

      Thanks for the Whitney link.

      While we’re at it (in the spirit of Kunstlerian awakenings), what the believers in the fabled Jetsonian future fail to understand (whether by accident or design) is who it is, by dint of financial muscle, that’s placing themselves in the position of owning all real assets that this dazzling future will be based upon. Oh yeah, that’s going to work out REAL well for “the little people” (also known as “the crumb-snatchers”).

      “Today, banks like Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs own oil tankers, run airports and control huge quantities of coal, natural gas, heating oil, electric power and precious metals. They likewise can now be found exerting direct control over the supply of a whole galaxy of raw materials crucial to world industry and to society in general, including everything from food products to metals like zinc, copper, tin, nickel and, most infamously thanks to a recent high-profile scandal, aluminum. And they’re doing it not just here but abroad as well: In Denmark, thousands took to the streets in protest in recent weeks, vampire-squid banners in hand, when news came out that Goldman Sachs was about to buy a 19 percent stake in Dong Energy, a national electric provider. The furor inspired mass resignations of ministers from the government’s ruling coalition, as the Danish public wondered how an American investment bank could possibly hold so much influence over the state energy grid.” — Matt Taibbi

      No worries! Multiple sparkly benefits are sure to trickle down to the Great Unwashed from these wondrous shenanigans of those who are busy doing “god’s work”!

      Good luck and salutations as you trundle your oxcart filled with chicken manure past the decrepit hovels of those even worse off than your lowly and destitute self…

  79. rube-i-con February 15, 2014 at 12:18 pm #

    Where hydro is tapped out at 100% and solar is kept from being used by big coal.

    haha, what nonsense:

    The U.S. hydropower industry could install 60,000 MW of new capacity by 2025 depending on policy changes. That only 15% of the total untapped hydropower resource potential in the U.S., meaning hydropower can remain a growing energy source for decades to come.

    Factoid #17: U.S. Hydropower Can Be Increased By At Least 50 Percent

    just google the quotes for the sites they come from

    I bark in the good-ol U S of A where all jobs and wealth have been exported to foreign lands.

    i know a guy, as i stated recently, that just got a job making $140,000 a year as a programmer. there a lots of good paying jobs in the american united states, if you have what people need and are willing to pay for.

    of course, you need to have a skill, maybe that’s the problem with the doomday folks, i dont know, i’m not too keen on learning whether thats so in any case

    I salute you from a doom-filled existence

    i’ll salute you back from a great height, you ought to join us, the air’s so inspiring up here where the light shines on our untold abundance and cornucopia.

    peace peaceniks

  80. K-Dog February 15, 2014 at 12:30 pm #

    My last comment referenced a counterpunch article that itself has a link in it.

    The Coming Mortgage Delinquency Disaster
    By Keith Jurow

    And in it:

    So the purple section at the top of each bar signifies property owners who have been delinquent for more than three years. I am quite certain that a majority of them are still living in their home. Quite a good deal, isn’t it? However, for those Long Islanders still paying the mortgage on their underwater home, it probably makes their blood boil.

    Jim Kunstler closed his weeks article with:

    Somewhere beyond all the legerdemain and fraud, however, there remains a real world that is not going away. We just don’t know what it will look like when the smog of fraud clears.

    And Keith Jurow closes his with:

    You can believe the opinions offered by the pundits if you wish. I am confident that the hard data which I continue to publish reveals that major housing markets are still headed for a crash. Stay tuned.

    All the yammering about the economy being unable to function without repayable debt has a solid basis in fact. The question is how much further can the can be kicked down the road before it rattles along the curb into a storm drain from which no recovery is possible.

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  81. rube-i-con February 15, 2014 at 12:37 pm #

    The question is how much further can the can be kicked down the road before it rattles along the curb into a storm drain from which no recovery is possible.

    as long as they want it to.

    how many times has the ‘terminal point’ debt ceiling been raised?

    you don’t understand the powers that exist. they write the rules, and can rewrite them on a whim

    people have been saying the can can’t be kicked down the road anymore for ages

    the can can be kicked without limit

    what, are the boys living a great life as the heads of nations going to spoil things for themselves? lol, dont be so naive. they coordinate amongst themselves on a daily basis, china with the US, russia with china, the US with russia, back and forth.

    its a club, and you aint in it

    but it’s not going away, ever

    peace peaceniks

    • K-Dog February 15, 2014 at 1:34 pm #

      What, are the boys living a great life as the heads of nations going to spoil things for themselves?

      They always do.

      love lawman

  82. volodya February 15, 2014 at 12:47 pm #

    Most of the time when politicians talk it’s just noise, as meaningful as the incessant static you get from outer space.

    But sometimes a politician makes you perk up because what he says is so impressively full of shit. Like what Marco Rubio said to Gwen Ifill in a recent PBS interview.

    I mean, he is so well spoken, so calm and deliberate, so logical and reasonable sounding. Clean cut, clear eyed, a pepsodent smile. You listen and watch and the sweet sounds lull you into thinking yes, that’s right. You watch and listen and you think he is the man with the plan and the helping hand.

    These politicos, some are so skilled. They pour honey in your ear (to quote Commodus in “Gladiator”), their magic is to get you to suspend your critical faculties.

    Mr Rubio’s talk was about the way out of poverty for people like a certain single mom that he knows, who works as a receptionist, who makes more than minimum wage but not a lot of money, who has two kids that she supports but that she has to send to day care. Between her job and the kids this lady works sun-up to sun-down. At the end of the day I would guess she has no time and less money.

    It’s pointless to re-iterate and rebut Marco’s remedies not least because, like I said, they are so full of crap and the full-of-crap-ness is so self-evident. His way is no way out of the fix this woman is in.

    Realistically, that woman (and millions of people like her) is in a mess she’ll never get out of. Maybe she’ll scrape by. But that’s likely all she’ll ever do. Because the business agenda is to pound down wages, to reduce people to a state of constant anxiety and insecurity. And, hopefully, docility.

    If the business class could legalize slavery they would. As things get worse they just might try. Mind you, they’ll call it something else. But I digress.

    People like Marco say the Industrial Revolution is over, the factories are gone. And we have to deal with it. Don’t dwell on the past, don’t cry over spilt milk.

    But, you see, there are questions. Like, because the factories are gone things are massively fucked up. And so how did things get so massively fucked in the first place? Who is accountable? To me, these are big, important issues. I want answers.

    Yes, I would agree those jobs are gone and aren’t coming back. And so are many more jobs and lines of work that aren’t of the wrench-turning variety.

    You see, I disagree that all this backward-looking is pointless.

    The line of reasoning that goes “those jobs are gone and nothing will bring them back” to my mind is akin to saying, well, the murder victim is dead and nothing will bring him back.

    Yes, the dead are dead and nothing will change that fact. But that isn’t good enough. Are we supposed to just leave it at that?

    So it is with jobs. And whole industries. The eye-ball rollers will scoff and say all the offshoring that was done was done on the up-and up. It was all legal, it was the market at work, capitalism in action, animal spirits doing their thing. Profit maximization, shareholder value, the American Way.

    And I say screw all that, these glib rationalisations cut no ice with me. People got exhorbitantly rich by messing up the lives of millions of others including people like that receptionist. They made a shambles of the country and much of the world. All this could have been avoided and it should have been averted. But it wasn’t.

    If it was all permissible, we need a re-think for what is permissible, if it was legal, that needs a do-over too.

    You see, without looking at the past you fail to learn from it. If we don’t learn we repeat the old mistakes. History may not repeat exactly but it will repeat close enough.

    • K-Dog February 15, 2014 at 1:52 pm #

      The eye-ball rollers will scoff and say all the offshoring that was done was done on the up-and up. It was all legal, it was the market at work, capitalism in action, animal spirits doing their thing. Profit maximization, shareholder value, the American Way.

      Proof we need another way then for it cannot be argued that a better way was not possible. That a possibility of a better way existst shows capitalism, the market, and the law to be flawed. Just sayin.

      As people got exhorbitantly rich by messing up the lives of millions of others could it be said that a social contract was violated and that which should have been rendered to Caesar, was not?

      • Being There February 15, 2014 at 2:46 pm #

        It’s all about the neoliberal talking points. They’ll get you to spend money on education and take out loans so the banks can get in on it. At the same time they put the blame on the people for not getting educated.

        Then they tell you all about innovation and entrepreneurship. They want you to take chances starting up your own business and if you fail, you go into bankruptsy. This week on Morning Joe they had a couple who authored a book about not being afraid of failure when you start a business and the millionaire pundits all agreed. Oh yeah, how wonderful—

        The fact that they sent all the jobs to low wage places never enters into it. There are millions not working here and if you are unlucky enough not to find a job–you’ll just have to starve. It’s your problem.

        • Janos Skorenzy February 15, 2014 at 3:03 pm #

          Yes so we’ll bring in all these hard working immigrants even though there’s less and less for people to do as robot industry continues to explode. And it will be our fault if we can’t find a job for them – or for ourselves.

        • K-Dog February 15, 2014 at 3:04 pm #

          And the few remaining jobs:

          For an entry level job five years experience shall be required.

          For higher level jobs a degree, plus experience, plus ten years using a software package you never heard of and which has only actually been in existence for three years.

          Millions not working but those working seem not to care. What gives?

          • Janos Skorenzy February 15, 2014 at 3:12 pm #

            Just like the Debt: We owe more money than the money in existence since all money is loaned into existence and then interest is added on. Fascism and the Founding Fathers would say why not just print the money “for free”? That’s what the Constitution says….

            Why? Because everyone who isn’t a multi-millionaire has something wrong with them. People who are working feel terrible about themselves for not being millionaires and compensate by feeling superior to the unemployed. It is, as Michael Harington said, the war of all against all.

          • K-Dog February 15, 2014 at 3:41 pm #

            You are probably right. Employed compensate by feeling superior to the unemployed. The irony is that fear of loosing their own positions makes the employed snide.

            The trouble with feeling superior is that one is then vulnerable to feeling inferior. It is best to let go of both feelings and simply embrace a feeling of it being good to be alive. Not judging others or allowing yourself to be judged by them. Feeling superior can only be a temporary feeling. The pendulum must swing.

            A war of all against all can have no victors, only victims.

        • Karah February 15, 2014 at 3:32 pm #

          I like the point Kunstler makes about the term “job”. That is a political term for servitude. Everyone needs a “job” because it is a human right and necessary to becoming a citizen of the U.S.A. because it will provide everything you need as mandated by the FED: Social Security, health insurance, unemployment insurance, shelter and food. If you do not have a “job” you are in effect disenfranchised. You will never have access to anything a citizen enjoys. You will go to jail soon. That is why the U.S.A has the highest incarceration rate in the world. Jailing people is not the result of racial profiling, drug dealing or serious crimes and is about not having a “job”. If you do not have a “job” it must mean you are not “qualified” to work. The only way to become “qualified” is to enroll as a professional student – someone whose “job” is to learn how to serve. If your guardians do not have 20 to 40 thousand dollars in credit or disposable income for you, you will most definitely be serving the public in various restaurants for below minimum wage for 5 to 7 years – equivalent to indentured servitude. Upon “graduation” you will become certified that you served your time in an institution other than jail; therefore, you are incorruptible and eligible for management positions in all the major sectors of public and private life (i.e. city, banks, retail, education) that involve the flow of millions of dollars. You will guarantee that the money gets accounted for, that it’s spent appropriately, that profits continue unabated and you will recruit more people like yourself. HOGWASH!!!

          People don’t need “jobs” that serve the interests of a minority of people – the 1%. People need to find a way to obtain title and deeds to land and get out of debt and stay that way. They need to find ways to do things that produce real results and not entertain theories – leave that for the 1% to waste their time and money. People need to invest in themselves and their families. This doesn’t always have to translate into farming and animal raising; however, targeting groups of people that will never go away is a good place to start. We will always need family, food production and animals. If you personally do not have family, a farm or animals, think of ways you can serve these groups in your county and receive fair and adequate compensation. Your community will appreciate you for doing something just for THEM and not for some bank in Arkansas.

          • Karah February 15, 2014 at 3:53 pm #

            From page 36 in the book “What’s The Matter With Kansas” the author Thomas Frank reasons:

            “…people in places like Kansas are part of one big authentic family, basking in the easy solidarity of patriotism, hard work, and the universal ability to identify soybeans in a field. But of course this isn’t the case. All over America, in the red states as well as the blue, different communities support different industries and experience dramatically different fates. And in Kansas,…you can find each of the basic elements of the American economic mix. ”

            manufacturing, livestock and farming

        • Janos Skorenzy February 15, 2014 at 7:36 pm #

          Remember Bloomberg is half crazy but he cleaned up crime with stop and frisk. This guy will have the Blacks and Hispanics running rampant in no time.

  83. Janos Skorenzy February 15, 2014 at 3:06 pm #

    Are you gender queer or merely cis gender? It’s not all equal. The more weird the better obviously. We have to learn all these new terms and start inventing a plausible identity which is as weird as possible. All Norms must die as the mutant said on Dr Who.

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/style-blog/wp/2014/02/14/confused-by-facebooks-new-gender-options-heres-what-they-mean/

    • BackRowHeckler February 15, 2014 at 3:19 pm #

      Its all part of the Freak Show, Vlad.

      At one time the freaks were side show events.

      Now the freaks are smack in Midway, the main event!

      ——————————————————————

      speaking of PBS interviews (Rubio)

      anybody see Philly mayor Michael Nutter interviewed on PBS by Judy Woodruff last nite? He was angling for billions in Federal money for his city. there’s a new plan, another one, this one sure fire! (sponsored by the president himself)

      In earlier centuries Philadelphia represented all that was refined and successful about America. What does Philadelphia represent now?

      –BRH

    • K-Dog February 15, 2014 at 3:48 pm #

      Another reason not to have anything to do with Facebook.

  84. progress4what February 15, 2014 at 4:09 pm #

    Well, the snow is melting and our families recent incursion into tribal living has come to a close. With the departure of various children, grand-children, daughters-in-law, dogs-in-law, and the cleaning away of storm debris – I find myself with some free time to work on some mental debris.

    Let’s see if this will post, first.

  85. progress4what February 15, 2014 at 4:44 pm #

    “I’m certainly not speaking for JHK, and this is not expressing my own feelings about them, but I’m guessing what he doesn’t like about some of your posts is the undertone of anger, the name-calling and fighting connotations. As I say, I’m not criticizing you, actually the opposite, because I want you to continue to be able to comment here. Just a word to the wise…” – btb –

    That’s interesting, bill. I’m not at all sure that JHK has read very many of my posts. He obviously caught three where I was engaging ajmuste, since he sent me three different unsolicited emails asking me – in three different ways – to disengage.
    (Speaking of which; and while we’re clearing the air (hi, AJ) I’ve never complained to JHK about anyone on this blog – not by email – and I don’t ever plan to.)

    You mentioned, bill, how each of us is an “avatar” of our true selves. That’s probably something we should all remember, on CFN and in the world at large. And I don’t mind admitting that I expanded my CFN avatar over the past three years to be something of a “gunslinger,” if you will – enjoying the fight for truth, justice, and the CFN Way; or something like that.

    And now the Sheriff has come to town, in the person of JHK, and he’s trying to take charge. Good for him, I’m more than willing to meet him half-way. It’s his town, after all. As long as he treats all of us outlaws and in-laws the same; I’ll try to give him what he wants.

    “name-calling,” though? Seriously? You sure you’ve got the right avatar. I dropped a “moron,” last week. Other than that – I’m pretty sure I don’t do name-calling. I have learned to point out the racism of others – because such racism tend to get a pass when it is directed in “politically correct” manner against us WASP’s. That, I will never stop doing.

    As far as “anger and fighting connotations?”
    You said something about courage a few weeks ago, as I recall.

    Hold on – this is gonna’ take another post, either today or tomorrow, hopefully.

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    • beantownbill. February 15, 2014 at 10:29 pm #

      I’ll be waiting.

  86. rube-i-con February 15, 2014 at 10:52 pm #

    yep i see now there’s no way to bridge the chasm between the positive thinking progress-minded on this board and the retrograde individuals who only see the black of space where we see the shining stars there guiding us forward.

    show them a diamond and they’ll deny its existence.

    the great Western tradition of the last thousand years is one of progress and advancement. these retrograde individuals are undeserving of this inheritance of enlightenment, and would seek to halt it if they could, with their somber and ever-empty predictions of apocalypse.

    their kind have failed for centuries, and cross off each failure on their Mayan calendar while awaiting the next end-of-times that is so surely around the corner of history.

    the evidence that damns them is so grand and all pervasive they can’t see it, like a giant hydropower dam producing endless renewable energy in front of their noses that they shrug off with their typical vapid doomsday scenarios.

    we of progress and enlightenment, science and technology, we laugh at you, not out of scorn, but as if we were slightly amused by your backwardness. we mean you no harm, and would welcome you into the light of reason.

    we understand you have nothing to offer but fear. progress crushes your doubts and laughable predictions. thanks for the laugh, in any case.

    we salute you as we rocket at warp speed past doubt and disbelief in the ability of mankind to progress, and into a future of superabundance and cornucopia made possible by veritable technological progress.

    peace peaceniks

    • beantownbill. February 15, 2014 at 11:26 pm #

      ” the great western tradition of the last thousand years…”

      If you are going that far back in time, you have to give credit where credit is due: Arab advances in mathematics and astronomy in the eleventh and twelfth centuries made possible many technological developments in later centuries.

      Otherwise, you are quite accurate about those who suffer from fear. Never underestimate the power of fear in running people’s lives. After all, it is one of the base emotions, and enabled us to survive in times when it was useful to have that feeling.

      • Janos Skorenzy February 16, 2014 at 12:09 am #

        Mostly Hindu in fact – the Arabs were mostly translators and movers of knowledge. They came up with zero. The algebra I’m not sure of – the name is Arabic of course.

        Check out this story from San Francisco – the City of Joy. A high functioning young but not too young Man calls the police at an accident is taken into custody and treated with some brutality. This type of guy is the bread and butter of the system: Liberal, high IQ, loyal etc. An unawaken Kdog. If it can happen to him, it could happen to anyone. His reflections are interesting: class tensions. The Cops resented him as a programmer. They couldn’t afford to live in their own city anymore.

        The System is turning on its own.

        • Janos Skorenzy February 16, 2014 at 12:13 am #

          The Link: https://medium.com/human-parts/9f53ef6a1c10

        • beantownbill. February 16, 2014 at 12:49 am #

          I read that earlier today. It doesn’t surprise me. I know many policemen who are nice, but they have one thing in common: they do like to project authority – even the fat, out-of-shape ones. From that point, it doesn’t take too much to send them over the edge.

          I never heard about the Hindu thing. That surprises me.

          • Janos Skorenzy February 16, 2014 at 1:49 am #

            Why? Their culture is much more cerebral than the Arabic. The Arabs value Beauty, Wealth, Piety, etc. But the intellect only as it supports these.

            Why can’t cops just subdue and arrest people like they used to? Why the feeding frenzy where they keep barking orders, tasing, and striking? Once someone has been tased they CAN”T follow orders or move their bodies even if they want to. So they hit them some more. The guy thrashes around in agony – so disrespectful! So sit on him with your knees even though the nervous and respiratory system have just been severely compromised by the high voltage. Death is not unlikely after this and blows to the head.

  87. beantownbill. February 15, 2014 at 11:14 pm #

    OK, folks, I think it’s all about the money. I’ve dealt with plenty of rich people in my life, and that’s what I see. The ones I’ve known had no interest in the typical middle class individual; in fact, the wealthy don’t put out any energy to even think about them. The rich only use the middle class when it suits them. They don’t want to rule them, they’re only interested in making money, money, money.

    JHK is right about jobs being a form of slavery. In the old days, most people didn’t have jobs, they had professions, or else they were serfs. But no one considered being a serf a job. No one, if asked, had a “job” as a serf. A serf was what you were. Somewhere along the line, the wealthy, the so-called job creators, divorced the essence of what a person was from what a person did. It always wasn’t like that. You were what you did. By making that separation, the wealthy were able to use the middle class to be effective in making more money for them.

    What we have now isn’t capitalism as we were taught in school. We now have runaway capitalism – that’s capitalism taken to an extreme without regard to any consequences, political, social or environmental.
    This is what happens when the people don’t pay attention to what’s really going on.

    Since the wealthy’s highest goal is to accumulate more and more wealth, as soon as a more efficient way to maximize profits is developed – and it’s always being worked on – then the wealthy will immediately utilize that new development and drop the old way of doing things as fast as possible.

    This is why we have a job problem. First, businesses realized the world was shrinking and that a vast reservoir of cheap labor became available to them, hence the off-shoring of many jobs. Just when that began, advances in computer chips and programming made it possible to create machines that produce goods and services. That’s where we are now. Humans are being replaced and jobs – sources of income – are being lost forever, because it’s cheaper to use machines – desirable when the ultimate goal is to make as much money as possible.

    I believe everything that’s happened in the past several years is a result of capitalistic evolution, not an ancient conspiracy. Sure there’s international collusion, but only as a result of the never-ending quest for cheaper production costs.

    This leaves us trying to cope with a new paradigm that has been set up by the wealthy – the abandonment of the worker. We can allow ourselves to suffer, or we can use this as an opportunity to free ourselves from job slavery. Maybe we can even return to the age of professions.

    • Janos Skorenzy February 16, 2014 at 12:49 am #

      “Sure there’s international collusion, but only as a result of the never-ending quest for cheaper productions costs”. Then why no 3rd world invasion of East Asian? Seems like their money hungry Elite also care about their People – or at least insofar as they represent their Nations (not as individuals that is).

      Your Elite care about your people in the same way. Even your gangsters like Meyer Lansky used to contribute money to Israel. The White Elite only care about money. Other Elites care about other things as well. What utter ruin Whites fallen into!

  88. ajmuste February 16, 2014 at 4:50 am #

    Then why no 3rd world invasion of East Asian? — Janos

    Janos, Asian countries do have problems with illegal immigrants. In Malaysia, for example, foreigners comprise more than 16% of the total workforce.

    In the USA In 2012, there were 25.0 million foreign-born persons in the U.S. labor force, comprising 16.1 percent of the total.

    16% and 16% … I don’t see any difference between Malaysian and U.S. immigrants in the workforce. Both countries have allowed foreigners in. Both countries have given foreigners amnesties. Both countries have tried to deport foreigners. Why do you think Asia is so different when it comes to foreigners?

    It is a global world now and workers flow across borders whether countries want them to or not. That is just reality.

  89. nsa February 16, 2014 at 2:58 pm #

    More chick think. Most of us do not want to reside in a turd world hellhole like your favorite Malaysia………deport all the undocumented democrats.

  90. progress4what February 16, 2014 at 4:20 pm #

    62 degrees, and the snow is totally gone. Except, that is, on the north side of my solar designed home where it will linger for days – which is one of the drawbacks that they don’t tend to mention very often in solar design classes.

    And, wow, there’s some good posting to be found on the previous page of comments. I guess I’ll have to check back there once a week or so. Speaking of the previous page – good to hear from you too, ripped thunder/st. elmo. That’s pretty cool that you can identify older model cars by their antenna profiles in deep snow. I never would have known that – never having had much of a need to develop that skill.

    And what is it about these later model cars with traction control that seems to render them almost worthless in snow. We’ve got two like that in the extended family – all the engine power goes into fighting against the brake on the “loose traction?” side of the car, and you can’t build up any speed or momentum to get anywhere. Meanwhile, I’ve got a ’94 Taurus that belonged to my mom – and it turned out to be a great snow buggy.

    Again, from the previous page, Greg Knep(sp?) and Lil’ Debbie had a great series of posts on religion. Greg points out that the Old Testament is strongly against farming, city life, and kingdoms – and strongly in favor of a pastoral herding life. I thought I knew a lot of Old Testament, but that particular interpretation of facts never came up in my Sunday school.

    Their exchange ended like this: “But the Soviet Union failed dismally…brought down not by religion, but by the human animal’s inability to maintain a long-term level of functional socialization beyond the tribal scale. Evolution has not had time to prepare us for the pressures of mega-societies. And if it had, the ecosystem wouldn’t be able to accommodate such societies.
    I think we may find some agreement on this overriding point – this sad truth.” – greg k –

    Excellent stuff, although K-Dog’s quartet of singing, chariot-pulling rats will likely disagree. Thanks Greg!

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  91. progress4what February 16, 2014 at 4:26 pm #

    Concerning anger, a combativespirit, and courage –

    BTB, look up the etymology of courage, and you’ll find the French root “cou,” meaning “heart, “ coupled with “rage,” from Old French “raige” meaning “spirit, passion, rage, fury.” So – to say that one understands the roots of courage, is to say that one understands the roots of the spirit or passion that comes from his heart.

    You and I have talked before about how fear and anger tend to be conflated in the modern mind. And I believe it is very important to keep those two emotions separated. Certainly, one can be afraid without also being angry. If you still disagree – then think about the range of emotions that you are likely to experience in a fast-moving natural disaster, like a tornado. It makes me wonder if the Old Testament concept of “fear of God,” originated because of the association of Divinity with the weather. (Just a side speculation – I have no idea. How about it, Greg??)

    So, if one can experience fear without anger – does that also mean he can experience anger without fear. Certainly he can come pretty close if he was born and raised in the Scotch-Irish culture of the American South, as I was. Maybe that’s why JHK has such a fright-filled fascination with all things Southern? Maybe you feel the same way, maybe? I’m just posing the questions – you can supply your own answers.

    As far as the combative tone and anger of my own posts – I don’t really know about that. I don’t like purposeless insult, and I tend to avoid obscenity in print – but I sure don’t see any point in mincing words, either. This isn’t a Girl Scout meeting. It isn’t a legislative session either, although those are known occasionally to break out in shouting and fisticuffs – at least around here. HAH!

    If one is aware of what’s going on in the world, and not angry about some things – then I suggest that he’s not paying attention.
    In summary, I think we’d all be better off with more honestly expressed anger – and less dissembling, dishonestly, and obfuscation – on CFN, and in the world at large.

  92. progress4what February 16, 2014 at 4:44 pm #

    ” I don’t see any difference between Malaysian and U.S. immigrants in the workforce. Both countries have allowed foreigners in. Both countries have given foreigners amnesties. Both countries have tried to deport foreigners. Why do you think Asia is so different when it comes to foreigners?” – ajmuste –

    It was so wonderfully kind of you to mention immigration policy in Malaysia. Since you asked, I would be delighted to point out a few differences.

    Malaysia’s policy on amnesty ran for only three years – and is now coming to a definite and finite end. Malaysia seems to issue “work permits,” only – with no expectation of permanent residency for the immigrant or his extended family.

    Most importantly – there is no “pathway to citizenship,” for illegal immigrants in Malaysia. It is gratifying to see that both the Malays and the Swiss are able to take steps to reduce their economic growth and their population growth.

    I am certain that we in the United States will soon see the need to do the same.

    http://blogs.wsj.com/searealtime/2014/01/21/malaysia-gets-tough-on-illegal-immigrants-as-amnesty-program-expires/

    “About 1.3 million of an estimated two million undocumented foreign workers had registered with the amnesty program, which started in October 2011 and ended in September of last year, according to government data. However, only about 500,000 received legal documentation, while around 330,000 were repatriated. The program that ended on Monday was an extension of the one that ended last September.

    Mr. Zahid said there would be no more extensions.

    “We have given employers enough time to register and apply for relevant working permits,” he said.

    Employers found guilty of employing illegal foreign workers could be charged under various laws that include serving up to one year in jail, paying a maximum fine of 50,000 ringgit ($15,079) for each illegal immigrant in their employ, or both.” – article –

    BTW – excellent posts, Voloyda and BeingThere.

  93. BackRowHeckler February 16, 2014 at 7:17 pm #

    I hear Mexico has some pretty tough immigration laws. Why don’t we adopt those.

    Reading the British press every day makes it clear Great Britain is in trouble too. For one thing, Scotland might vote to break away from England after 300 years of union. For another, a large part of the British elite seem to believe in open borders, wide ope! For what reason? Not real clear, but there seems to exist a sense of lingering guilt for the Empire. It kind of reminds me of the guys in the Middle Ages who walked around whipping themselves, the flagellants. The centennial of WW1, when GB lost 1 million dead, is causing problems because the British are not sure how to remember it. Seems they feel guilty about ultimately winning.

    –BRH

    • Janos Skorenzy February 16, 2014 at 7:38 pm #

      Nobody won WW1 – except the Bankers and Industrialists who then prepared another orgy of blood and profit by raping Germany.

  94. progress4what February 16, 2014 at 9:00 pm #

    “What we have now isn’t capitalism as we were taught in school. We now have runaway capitalism – that’s capitalism taken to an extreme without regard to any consequences, political, social or environmental. This is what happens when the people don’t pay attention to what’s really going on.

    Since the wealthy’s highest goal is to accumulate more and more wealth, as soon as a more efficient way to maximize profits is developed – and it’s always being worked on – then the wealthy will immediately utilize that new development and drop the old way of doing things as fast as possible.” – btb –

    Another good post, bill.

    WHY are the wealthy this way, though? I could understand the hungry desperate fear of a poor man who lives a driven life and achieves great wealth – only to fear that he might lose it, and can NEVER be rich enough. (Like Scarlett O’ Hara, said – “As God is my witness, I’ll never be hungry again.)

    But – that’s not an excuse that today’s wealthy have. Because we’re talking third, fourth, fifth generation wealth. Money piled to the sky, essentially. I – personally – know of extremely wealthy people who have established permanent trusts for valuable real estate – securing it so it need never be lost or sold, in combination with sufficient liquidity that taxes and costs will be paid forever.

    But it’s not enough, and they want more, more! Even though money is acknowledged to be, even by the rich, simply a way of keeping score – after some threshold of millions is breached.

    Why? I wish I could understand. Is it the same desire that led the Lord of the Manor to starve his serfs? Is it what led the Mayan kings to bind the hands and feet of their subjects and captives into a spherical shape – and roll them down the steps of their temples?

    Is it finding expression, even now among the British upper crust enriching themselves still further – even as BRHeckler says they might be destroying their native-born lower classes with more and more immigration

    In other words, is there a gene of social pathology that is expressed in the leaders of any society that holds them and their progeny on top. Or is there the potential for that social pathology in ALL of us – finding expression IF we rise to the very top?
    Beats me, but I’d like to know what others think.

    One more thing, back to anger for a second. I think most “normal?” people get angry and get over it. But I see that many of those people who rise into upper, upper leadership (CEO’s and politicians, for example) – these people seem to hold their anger forever, waiting to punish rivals – sometimes years later.

    Chris Christie is the latest (somewhat buffoonish, IMO) national example of this – but it seems pretty common, among this type of “leader.” Or – is this just another example of social pathology?

    • Being There February 17, 2014 at 8:39 am #

      P4W,

      Lately the billionaires have come out in the open in a self-destructive way. They were much better off staying under the radar. The most recent has told us that only those who own their own homes should be allowed to vote. Another said if a billionaire pays millions in taxes, he should get a million votes—-Really?

      Just come out and say, I believe in Plutocracy–democracy be damned? Conflating money with free speech or saying money should buy government–well let’s just say they aren’t the sharpest tacks in the box and they have indeed shown us their hand.–What foolishness. They will have to carry the economy on their backs since the rest of the citizenry consumers won’t be able to anymore.—They’ll have to Spend, spend, spend or the economy stops. Hmmmm is that what they wanted?

      One good guy among these idiots spent his billions on getting inner city kids through public school and into college and it was a success!
      He now has $2 million left for himself.

      About Christie–just another thug in the pantheon of proto-fascism. He’s like Mussolini, but he makes the traffic jams instead of getting the trains in on time.

  95. WHMartin July 28, 2014 at 10:06 pm #

    See Overshoot Index 2010 v 0 7 – Population Matters
    http://www.populationmatters.org/documents/overshoot_country.pdf

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