JHK’s Three-Act Play
In these northern climes, this turning into the year’s final quarter feels written in the blood, or at least into the legacy code of culture. The leaves skitter across the streets in an early twilight, chill winds daunt man and dog, the landscape buttons itself up for the long sleep, and human activity moves indoors — including the arduous festivities around the spooky solstice. We take the comfort that we can in all that. But a strange torpor of event attends this year’s turning. In the year’s final happenings, nothing seems to happen, and what little does happen seems not to matter. The world sits with frayed nerves and hears a distant noise, which is the cosmic screw of history turning.
The nation gets over everything without resolving anything — fiscal cliffs, debt ceilings, health care implosions, domestic spying outrages, taper talk jukes, banking turpitudes, the Syria bluster, the Iran nuke deal fake-out. It’s dangerous to live as though there was no such thing as consequence. Societies have a way of reaching a consensus about something without ever stating it outright. The American public has silently agreed to sit on its hands though one more Christmas and after that things shake loose.
What happens, for instance, in the limbo months of ObamaCare ahead, when people either won’t sign in for health insurance, or can’t because of the stupidity of the website design, and the failure of its work-arounds, and the number rises of people falling seriously ill without insurance, and the ludicrously extortionate hospital bills start rolling in and the machinery of bankruptcy and re-po turns the screws on tens of thousands of families — while the insurance company executives spend their 2013 bonus money on Beemers and McMansion additions? There must be some threshold for criticality there, some breaking point that prompts a swindled population to break out its fabled arsenals. Say, somewhere in America a child tragically dies after being hit by a car and three unsuccessful surgeries to try to fix the damage, and thirty days after the funeral, the uninsured dad gets a bill for $416,000? I doubt a society can withstand many insults like that.
Above all, this big nation has failed to reckon the central quandary of our time: the fatal hypertrophy of finance. This ghastly engine of rackets and swindles is the enlarged heart of a dying body politic, and all we know how to do is feed it more monetary Cheez Doodles. This has been going on far longer than the doctors and the witch doctors thought possible, and there is a foolish hope among the credulous that the larger organism of the economy must therefore be immortal. But the reality-based minority stoically awaits the final congestive infarction.
Everything points to 2014 as the moment the pretending stops and things get real. Nobody believes anymore that the Federal Reserve can replace an economy of authentic transactions with promissory notes. There is only one final thing that can happen with the Fed, and that is losing all control over rising interest rates. Janet Yellen is being set up as one of the epic chumps of history, and proof of her academic fecklessness is the mere fact that she accepted the post as Fed chair. She will preside over a fabulous disappearance of wealth in America. The blame for it will be epic, too, but it will not represent any genuine understanding of what happened.
Much is being made of the loneliness of Barack Obama these days. He also occupies a rather tragic niche in history — or the arc of his story at least points that way these days. Right now, it is very hard to tell whether he has been a hostage or a fool. He could have moved to break up the big banks in January of 2009, and any time since then he could have sent a memo to the Department of Justice instructing the prosecutions of financial crime to begin in earnest (or replaced the Attorney General). Didn’t happen. Was he being blackmailed by the likes of Jamie Dimon and Lloyd Blankfein, or did he just not know what was at stake?
The history of Barack Obama will be one long record of omissions to act, not just overt failures. He is the Bartleby the Scrivener of our politics. He “prefers not to….” Hence, the powerful lure of the charismatic figure who is sure to act. Adolf Hitler was very clear about his proposed program in the early 1920s, a decade before he came to power. He spelled it out unmistakably in his speeches and his political testament, Mein Kampf: do away with pain-in-the-ass democracy and destroy the Jews. He couldn’t have put it more plainly. The residual admiration for Hitler among the extreme right-wingers of today derives mainly from the simple fact that the man actually did what he said he would do. You can’t overstate the potential hunger for that sort of thing. The current climate of US politics being Weimar-on-steroids, I’m sure that an American corn-pone Hitler would have huge appeal for a beaten-down citizenry.
The means for such a coup of the zeitgeist are rather frightful now: drone aircraft, computer surveillance, militarized police, a puppet press. It makes thoughtful folks queasy. My bet, though, is that a fascist takeover of the US would end up being as inept and ineffectual as ObamaCare. It is one of the great hidden blessings of our time, actually, that anything organized on the massive scale is doomed to failure. But it is likewise the great mission of our time to prepare to get local and smaller, something we’re not really ready for and certainly not interested in. The intertwining of these dynamics will be the story in the year to come.
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That storm that hit the Philippines was really bad. Is this the beginning of things to come? The weather has been really, really weird recently. Regarding finance, it is quite amazing interest rates have remained as low as they are.
I’m going to do something I normally avoid and consciously repeat myself here. Elsewhere, I do it all the time. After all, I’m an environmentalist; I recycle.
Speaking of hurricanes/typhoons and climate change, I was surprised that the first anniversary of Hurricane Sandy didn’t make more of an impression here. Now that the topic has come up, I have the latest climate research from Rutgers, Columbia, and NYU, places that experienced Sandy first hand, along with an expert from Columbia speaking to PBS about the connection between climate change and the ferocity and frequency of hurricanes. PBS at least acknowledged the role of climate change. Media Matters pointed out that Fox News and CNN didn’t. Only MSNBC out of the three major U.S. cable news outfits did.
http://crazyeddiethemotie.blogspot.com/2013/11/hurricane-sandy-anniversary-and-other.html
BTW, thank you K-Dog for your response to my earlier posting of this comment.
It’s been a strange year for tropical storms. While the Atlantic has been dead, the Pacific has been the busiest in decades, producing several hurricanes in the eastern Pacific and even more typhoons in the western, with the latest hitting the Philippines being one of the most powerful ever recorded. Strange indeed.
When the Arctic ice cap disappears some summer very soon, the corn-pone crop will fail. That’ll kick things sideways.
I hope Jim is right that the corn-pone fascists won’t be able to organize, but I think Weimar Germany suggests otherwise. If there’s one thing about the extreme right, they know how to follow orders once they’ve gotten their focus straight.
Not to worry, Germany was ethnically homogenous and we are not. We wont be able to save ourselves from a Communist takeover the way they were. That was one of the main spurs to action you see – the horrors of Russian Communism which had already attempted a coup. Amazing how people like you see one but don’t see the other – the one that’s actually happening.
A communist takeover? Give me a break. The corporate disinformation machine has brainwashed the American public to think that anything the slightest bit progressive or liberal is evil.
Your comment has the odor of defending Nazism. Not true, I hope. It’s warped in so many ways, it’s hard to know where to start.
“People like you.” The phrase is a tell-tale sign of a prejudiced, dichotomized mindset–the very mindset that gives life and breath to right-wing movements. To lump me in with a band of strawmen in your head based on a couple sentences is reactionary. Saying “people like you” instantly polarizes the conversation. I’m probably foolish to reply for that very reason.
Germany had a dominant ethnic group, yes, but it wasn’t homogeneous. Cf, the Jews.
The Communists were by far the lesser threat, and in any case were dispatched by the Fascists. A lot of the labor movement got lumped in with the Communists by prejudiced, dichotomized reactionaries.
Communism is washed up, and has been for at least 25 years. Nobody takes it seriously, unless they’re under the sway of right-wing paranoia.
Weather Watcher,
Trust your nose; it has identified the odor correctly.
“That storm that hit the Philippines was really bad.”
With as many as 10,000 people feared dead in one city alone it is beyond comparison to any previous storm.
Saturday, December 21 will be the winter solstice. I’m thinking maybe trying to live carbon free for a day might be a way to honour some inner druidry. A spectacularly impossible thing to do in a modern mid-winter but if it can shine light on our common plight the attempt is a step towards some warmth of rehabilitation.
Not so much the intensity of the weather, it’s WHEN and WHERE it’s hitting. The Phil. got it two years in a row: tsunami and now the strongest cyclone. They’re some of the poorest people in the world! Not that I would wish it on anyone, but why didn’t Sydney win the trophy of STRONGEST CYCLONE HIT ZONE? Small island nations off the beaten path don’t have SAFE ROOMS and INSURANCE. These people have no REAL homes, just shacks in comparison to the Oklahomians. They live on a very humid island near the equator that has the energy to feed monster storms. Same with HAITI. It’s not so much the wind and rain but the concentration of poverty in urban areas near the equator/ocean that have buildings not made to withstand gale force winds and flooding. Their leaders just abandon them! They’re suing the UN because they didn’t feel the need to protect themselves from CHOLERA in the water. They never had a problem before the foreigners came…The amount of ignorance just adds insult to injury.
Japan has also suffered a lot but they’re so RESILIENT and MODERN that they just seem to bounce back like it never even happened. What made their tsunami so bad was the timing…it’s winter, at the end of the day and they hadn’t quite gotten their nuclear stuff together.
Then there’s the so called “first world” here in the United States where Katrina has left a permanent scar and more recently with intense WINTER storms on the East Coast near one of the most famous and populated cities in the world, NY, that is said never to sleep…but they do drown. With all the insurance and gov’t backing the “first world”, they still haven’t gotten things back to the way they were before. All this should make people think long and hard about where they’re going to live their retirement.
My wife and I have been living in Ghana, West Africa for the last sixteen months.
The water and electricity go off every other day, corruption is rife, and the general populace has no faith in their elected leaders. That being said, the cargo cult of religion (both Christianity and Islam) is big business and keeps the masses hoping for a near term “breakthrough.”)
As we return back to the US next month, we believe we might well have gotten a preview of things to come.
Today is Veteran’s Day (Armistice Day), and we’re still in Afghanistan. Obama promised to pull out if the surge didn’t work. The military told Obama to piss off. No one gave a shit because they thought that they’d get healthcare.
Thank you for mentioning Veterans Day. Unlike when I was an undergraduate during the late 70s, it seems that lots of campuses are observing the holiday. They’re recognizing the value of veterans as both students and employees. Of course, it’s good PR, but there’s something to be said about faking it until one makes it.
http://crazyeddiethemotie.blogspot.com/2013/11/veterans-day-on-campus.html
Veteran’s day should more accurately be called Military jingoism day. We are celebrating the mainstream values of corporate America here. The degree to which these kids are juiced with unwarranted praise and adulation is ridiculous.
The biggest winner of the militarization of the last decade was the federal government and its corporate economic objectives. The kids themselves, and I’ve witnessed this first-hand, are just kids (and mostly, the dumber ones).
They’ve got modest wads of cash from their enforced savings programs and are settling down now in hamlets all over the country. They are juicing local economies by buying cars and mortgages, re-starting the illegal immigrant-built McMansions whose development was frozen since 2008.
And last but not least, they are marrying up with America’s (dumber) daughters and popping out children, which will be their real legacy. As they age, their broods will be brought up in this postmodern milieu, and they will imitate the cultural messages which they marinate in… namely, the boorish and stupid images beamed in through big screen monitors (and later, virtual reality).
I don’t think any corn-pone fascism will appear to replace the corn-fed fascism of the culture at large. What kind of man is it whose life revolves around video games and toys and labors for a paycheck and depends on the government for everything else? This is a man who will join the ranks of the government, not the insurrection. Its a beautiful dream, but the violent, organized insurrections of the past will never happen again, at least inasmuch as women have the vote, and men are mere babies with toy guns. The power structure is far too asymmetric.
Dead on. My nephew joined at 24, married a fellow soldier, served one year in Iraq (as did his wife),then returned home. Thet are now both 100 percent medically retired from the Army for “PTSD.” They have two children. They are flush with cash, get full retirement benefits, also Social Security disability for themselves and their two kids. They are shopping for a McMansion now. They will never pay property taxes because of their veteran status.
I love my nephew but he is slow. He was Special Ed. tracked throughout childhood. He took the entrance test for the military, the ASVAB seven times and failed each time. In 2004 the military lowered entrance requirements. He took the test again and passed. His wife barely passed the test also.
Today they collect guns, get fatter by the day, and take Fox News as the gospel. Their Facebook pages are a collection of every right-wing talking point out there that is fed to them. They believe that they are the vanguard of patriots who are deserving of every benefit they collect.
As Vonnegut said “And so it goes.”
This is the type of socialism we are going to get in the USA. Sort of a perverted version of a welfare state where the military, police and fire department employees and retirees receive generous government benefits for defending the ‘homeland’ from perceived threats, or manufactured threats.
Check out this newspaper article from Buckley, WA.
http://www.thenewstribune.com/2013/11/08/2880656/national-geographics-doomsday.html#storylink=cpy
They think they are the wave of the future. Sadly, they might be right, unless someone kills them first…
Jim of Olym
Where do I send the check? My Old man was late for the big WWII party, but he did make it to Inchon. No PTSD back then! Suck it up pal! I’ ve got PTSD from 32 years on the bone box’. Ces’t la vie.. Sam Adams says hello.
Thanx much for such a “hoot”. Your words cracked the nut with a single, well-placed blow.
I may be whistling in the dark, Jim, but I think 2014 may mark a return to adults in the room, if not running the show. Our recent election in VA saw the Tea-Party nut defeated (enforcing anti-sodomy laws and chasing around climate scientists with our tax money).
It may be a fool’s hope, like the illusion that fracking for oil and gas buys us more than a few years of fuel, but I’d rather hope and build community than watch “The Walking Dead,” that metaphor for America’s living human sheep. It’s much easier to shiver at the mega-violence of that hit show and shrug at the real darkness outside than it is, say, to help Habitat put up a house.
That’s where I’ll be in 2014, even if it means saying an opening prayer with folks nothing like me. But it is what we used to call having a “social contract.”
If it is a fools hope. I’ll be a fool with you.
As one who worked in the state of VA for many years, taking every nickle I could home to WV, I followed your state’s election with growing horror.
Sure, Cuccinelli lost, but not by much. That couple with the AG race that is still undecided last I checked points to the fact that a nearly insane power monger who boldly decried an agenda of turning the state of Va into pre-renascence theocracy damned near won the governorship.
it’s not like this lunatic will go quietly into that good night. He’s well respected amongst the well-monied retired community of folks who still believe that the fall of the USSR is a ruse, and the commies are laying in wait. That the well documented horrors of the wars against the labor movement from the pre-war days were all edited into the public record by deeply placed communist atheists that McCarthy would have rooted out if it weren’t for the illuminati. That the war in the middle east is a holy war, that god is on the side of the oil companies, and that satan rules over the godless hordes of OWS.
This isn’t some joke.
And the election in Va wasn’t a victory, it was a dodged bullet, and the weapons are still firing.
…And that would be the problem with folks who truly believe that god is on their side, a pestilential persistence in making everyone bow to their insane beliefs
Jim:
There is a theory about the fourth turning,that occurs every 80 years or so, but at the end of which we resume our societies arch upward, the proponents of this theory reiterate how in times past that is what has happened, and when they describe this cycle of history then resumes with a new first turning.
However they fail to understand that there is going to be a fifth turning, which will result in, as you have described before the world “going medieval.”
My best guess is that you rare right about next year. I pick August of 2014 for when things get really dicey, I foresee major problems coming and this date, the one hundredth anniversary of the beginning of the War to End all Wars, seems like a fitting date ,
… on this Armistice Day
That’s Strauss and Howe’s idea about history moving in ~80-year cycles that have four phases of ~20 years each, which they call turnings. Right now, the U.S. is definitely in a Fourth Turning, or Crisis Era. Things could go well or things could go badly. As for the authors not recognizing the possibility of modernity, civilization, or even the human species ending, read their books again. They list all of these as possibilities of the current Fourth Turning, any of which would, in their scheme, result in the cycles ending. As far as their research has determined, the four-phase cycles of history arose only when European civilization emerged from the Middle Ages into the Renaissance, so going back to Dark Ages should terminate the cycle.
http://fourthturning.com/
I’m very suspicious of various theories of historical cycles. I haven’t read anything about the four turnings, but it sounds like some new-age gobbley-gook to me. I mean, is there some vast higher power with an alarm clock saying,”oops, 20 years is up, time to shift over to the next turning”? Or could it be possible events can postpone or eliminate these cycles because civilizational evolution does not proceed smoothly?
As well, what was it about the Renaissance that created these cycles? Why wasn’t there turnings before the Middle Ages? I admit my ignorance of this theory, so is it possible in a short post to explain this to me?
Mr. Bill, I suggest reading the book, its quite good. Yes, it is a theory of cycles… sort of like astrology. There is probably a lot of confirmation bias. As mental masturbatory material it is quite good if that is what you’re into.
It’s funny that you mention the Fourth Turning, I was thinking about that same thing today. As I remember it, one of the elements of the fourth turning is the loss of faith regarding institutions such as banks, corporations, the Catholic Church, and just about everything else. It became apparent to me that things were failing when the govt. wouldn’t put some controls on the finance companies, or anybody else who was responsible for the cluster fuck we now live in. I understand that the government is now owned and controlled by corporate interests. How do you lose a few trillion dollars without somebody going to jail? The answer is the same as above. I’m not given to doomsaying BUT I’ll bet that the whole thing is coming down. Keep your powder dry.
“The nation gets over everything and resolves nothing.” I think we (assumable most humans) tend to overlook that the micro and the macro are identical patterns with the only difference being in scale. Folks tend to want sweeping changes in the masses, yet continually miss that to everyone else they are everyone else.
Stop spending so much energy trying to convince those who can’t see anything for what it is outside the official stories, and start getting with folks who do and get to work.
“My bet, though, is that a fascist takeover of the US would end up being as inept and ineffectual as ObamaCare.”
The takeover has already happened. Fascism has evolved, it no longer involves a single charismatic leader like Hitler. In 21st century fascism there is still a facade of representative democracy, so our leaders are “replaced” on schedule. However, the policies continue. With a few minor exceptions, mostly on meaningless hot button issues, the Obama administration has continued the policies of the Bush administration.
Fascism can be loosely defined as the merging of corporations and government. This has happened in the US, China, Russia and a host of other countries. The German model of making 20% of the population slaves, stealing their wealth and burning their bodies is obsolete.
Almost right. Fascism is a merging of the corporations and government with the government in charge for the good of the NATION STATE. What we have is a merging with the corporations in charge for the good of THE SHARE HOLDERS – and that means globalism for global profits. Plutocracy in other words.
Not so close after all. What a difference a couple of words can make.
I’m inclined to disagree based on definition of “the good of the nation state”.
What is considered to be “the good of the nation state”? Is it the benefit of the people of the nation? If that’s the case, then what happened in Germany and Italy between about 1930 and 1945 doesn’t qualify because, like our current situation in the US, it only benefited a small, well connected part of the population.
If the good of the nation constitutes the promotion of the “national interest” then what have now definitely qualifies, because the current national interest is to promote dollar hegemony and corporate “persons” world wide.
No, many leaders marveled at the economic miracle of Nazi Germany. Hitler was considered by many as Father of his country because so many coupled could afford children for the first time. Don’t believe the Neo Cons and the Bankers – they were the ones who destroyed Germany before the revolution could spread.
The whole world marveled at the economic miracle that was the world wide credit bubble created by our Federal Reserve. In fact, unlike the German economic growth, they participated and have tried to copy what we did. That imitation has brought about a world wade growth in fascism.
I don’t mean to be a spelling Nazi (no pun intended) but it’s “kampf” not “kamph”.
In no way am I defending Hitler, but have you ever read Mein Kampf? While Jews get a lot of the blame for Germany’s problems, no where in the book does Hitler openly call for their extermination….although that’s what it eventually morphed into. I really doubt Hitler would have got as much traction as he did had he been openly calling for mass murder from the jump.
I think it unfair to compare German Hitler supporters of the 1930s with America’s current crop Nazi fetishists on the loony right. America’s “hard right” Hitler fanboiz admire a myth of Hitler created by America’s popular media….a Hitler that never really existed.
The political reality in 1930s Germany was very different than is the political reality of America 2013. For one thing, the German Communist Party was at one point as large as the Nazi party. The Nazis actively recruited new members from the German Communist Party. Many of the social policies of Nazi Germany were outright socialist. The term “Nazi” is, after all, a portmanteau on “national” and “socialist”.
Crue
I know the media wants to demonize the Tea Party by comparing them to Nazis but it is far more likely that a liberal pro-government party will go down that path. The Tea Party wants to dismantle the federal government, more in line with Mr. Kunstler’s philosophy even if he doesn’t realize it, while the entrenched interests (democorps and republicorps) want to grow government into Big Brother. If Mr. Kunstler decides to throw grenades, he should make sure he isn’t throwing them at the people who are on his side. The Tea Party moniker has probably already been usurped by the powers that be (international business elites), but I believe the majority of people who identify most with the Tea Party’s goals are libertarian NOT Nazis.
Well pard, think about Clint Eastwood’s western, Pale Rider. I mean, really think about it.
In Pale Rider’s world, a strip mining company wants to steal everyone’s land, and there is no law to stop them. That is, no functioning government. Clint arrives as God’s justice.
So, when you get your wish for no functioning government, what you gonna do then? Pray? ‘Cause that’s all that’s left. If you want a no government paradise, why not move to Somalia?
Fascism happens when there is nothing between you and the corporations, either because the state colludes with the corps, or there is no state. Take your pick. Just don’t take the rest of us with you.
sauerkraut
The Tea Party does not endorse “no’ government, they endorse “constitutional” government. There is a big difference. Read the constitution some time and you will see the enumerated powers of the federal government. I think you may find that the NSA recording every citizen’s phone call and email is not in there. I’m not too worried about it, I think eventually the federal government will collapse from its own weight, but I would rather have it shrink peacefully to what it was suppose to be under a legislature who understand the limitations put on the federal government by the constitution. A long time ago I swore to protect and defend the constitution against all enemies foreign and “domestic”.
I have read the Constitution, but it doesn’t seem to include any reference to any of the things discovered after it was written, like chemistry, electro-magnetism, petroleum, nuclear reactions, germ theory of disease, extended lifespan, cancer, computers, air travel, repeating rifles, you name it.
Government must evolve, or it becomes irrelevant.
Right now government stands between us and the worst that a corporation can do. We have an electrical code, which means licensed electricians, and standards for electrical supplies. We have safe drinking water, to some extent. We have sewage regulations. None of that was foreseen in 1800.
If we ratchet back government to what was known in 1800, there would be nothing of consequence left. No regulation of drugs, gasoline additives, auto safety features, etc. Your TV could X-ray you to death. Your wife could die when she plugged in the toaster. With government, these are anomalies; without government, they could be commonplace.
I like government, because without it, we’re back to the Wild West. Except, of course, that we would have hosses and 6-shooters while our enemies all have mechanized mercenary armies.
What I find particularly interesting is a complete lack of reference to political parties.
The modern version of Pale rider would be, as you described, the state colluding with the corpse (sic). Hence, Fascism.
Yes, the final solution was to send the Jews out of Europe. Despite mountains of slander and confessions extracted by torture, no one has ever proven anything else.
Great work as usual, Jim. That “The nation gets over everything without resolving anything” sums it up best. Just a better way of expressing the old “kicking the can down the road” cliché.
Obamacare, the rollout, has been a disaster, but the legislation was shit to begin with. Nothing more than state-sanctioned, forced theft from the citizenry by private, for-profit corporations that add zero value to our fucked-up system of sick care. Fitting.
Your musings about finance come at a time when the Dow and the S&P 500 are hitting all-time highs, illustrating quite well the disconnect between Wall St. and Main St. The flow of wealth, from the 99% to the 1%, that has transpired over the last 30 or so years is staggering, but the comparative rate of that transfer just in the past four is nothing short of criminal.
As for Obama, he’s dug his own grave. At least for W. his relative idiocy gave him some cover; he was the perfect puppet. Obama, on the other hand, is a former Constitutional academic who has helped to shred the document at every turn. I think you’re being too easy on him. My emotions on Obama have run from admiration in 2008 to complete contempt now. He may be the most devious and damaging president this country has elected since Reagan, and that’s saying a lot.
Yet yearning for happy endings and the consumption of excess hopium prevents the most devious and damaging from well deserved scrutiny. Too easy on him yes but being too hard on him can be dangerous, it can even be deadly.
His long record of omissions counts down the shot clock in our game of life and his prevention of change is a tragedy leading to ultimate death and misery. But perhaps not on his watch will it happen. He’s turned back the clock and it’s now past a midnight nobody knows and so when we all come home late from the party daddy reality is going to be really pissed. But he won’t be there to take the heat with us; he’ll skate away from consequence.
It’s good to see Bartleby the Scrivener making an appearance, but even more I think an appearance by The Confidence Man is in order. All of this looks too much like an Increase in Seriousness.
-Phut
I certainly would have gone out in more of a bang, than “I would prefer not to.” And Moby Dick whuz the worst story I ever read – said nothing about the clearcutting of all oceanic whales. It whuz, at best, a tale from an already famous author…
Jim, you as well as any, realize the risk in making specific prognostications. Those in power have been very creative in dodging and postponing the inevitable. 2014 may or may not bring collapse. Where I do sort of agree with you is that we are in the midst of great changes, as events rush towards a climax. What anyone believes will occur depends on whether they are a half-full or half-empty kind of guy.
One can suspend belief and accept the duality of a glass being both half-full and half-empty. Dealing with reality requires suspension of ‘belief’ which can result from internally unfelt desire and unacknowledged social pressure. Internal states which are at odds with accepting reality as it truly is.
This may all turn out to be moot. I read that the Japanese are soon going to start removing the spent fuel rods from the deformed storage pools at Fukushima reactor 4. This is done routinely, of course, at functioning reactors with the assistance of computers enabling pinpoint accuracy. At Fukushima that capability has been lost, and this will have to be done manually at great risk and what is the chance that it will go off without a hitch? There is little choice, as the probability of another quake in the next 3 years of 7 or above in that region is greater than 95% and another quake could cause the building to collapse. If the damaged building above reactor #4 collapses, there are scientific papers that predict that all of Japan and the western coast of the US would have to be evacuated. Wrap your head around that logistic impossibility. Fukushima has been an unmitigated disaster of unprecedented proportions, possibly an extinction level event, that we don’t have the capability to cope with, so we just don’t talk about it. Why the best and brightest of the world aren’t working on this problem is beyond me, as this isn’t just the internal problem of the Japanese, and they have proven themselves more interested in saving face than saving even themselves. That monster is spewing radiation right into one of the major oceanic currents and killing the plankton carried helplessly past the place of highest contamination, Plankton is the base on which all life exists. First the ocean starves then suffocates. Then we can have a good party, sing a last, rousing chorus of Waltzing Matilda and take our cyanide pills.
Good Monday morning, should I go see Mr. Smith and Mr. Wesson now?
And miss the party?
I’ve heard a range of opinions from nuclear experts that the process, expected to take up to a year, has a minute chance of failing to it being an unprecedented undertaking that has a high probability of failure, which could mean the evacuation of Japan or even the west coast of the U.S. Hard to tell what to believe.
Doomsters (and I have some of this in me) have a need to believe in the End. They worship Shiva the Destroyer without naming him. And yes, it can effect the clarity of their views.
Re: predict that all of Japan and the western coast of the US would have to be evacuated
I worked at Hanford – the most contaminated nuclear site in the US – and this sounds like fear mongering. Could you provide the scientific references for this prediction?
I haven’t seen the papers and don’t have the sort of scientific background to grasp much that was in them if I did. I have links to articles such as http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303309504579183732584902754, http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2012/10/fixing-fukushima-is-beyond-current-technology.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTqzqoKMLEg#t=178
Dr. David Suzuki and Dr. Hiroaki Koide are quite alarmed. There are other links that have been removed from the internet.
Thanks.
The first article is fairly good. I remember discussions when I worked at Hanford about the dangers of cleaning up waste and creating a criticality, but that is only really dangerous locally. A fire would be more dangerous, but that is unlikely given that the pools still have water. Even if a fire did occur it would not the first nuclear fire.
The second article is what I would call fear mongering. George is noted for taking comments out of context to weave together an end of the world story that no professional would even begin to agree with. For example, his first quote: “It will take years to invent a new generation of robots able to withstand the radiation.” is not very material (robots are not the only solution) yet it helps to sets the tone of the story that experts do not know what they are doing. It is true that cleaning up nuclear waste is potentially dangerous especially to the workers, but this is not a new activity. Handling cleanup of nuclear materials has been going on since the 1950’s and the world is still here.
Schw33 youtube (you didn’t get *deleted* – go figure, and I tried not to get youtube code embedded – imbecile-me!)~!
James,
The reason no serious prosecution took place was because the Feds needed the big banks to manipulate the markets at their direction. If they had disassembled these entities, they would no longer have control over the markets.
Who moves stocks up? The big banks.
Who moves gold down? The big banks.
Who buys up real estate to raise the floor on prices? The big banks.
All of these things were Geitner’s plan to FIX things.
And who fought the big Banks? The Fascists. Why? Because they believe in the Nation State and the Big Banks are Globalists – which is why they funded the Communist Revolution. It sounds incredible but it is so. It makes sense once you leave flatland – and subtract all morality and decency.
I think the fascist takeover is complete. If it becomes ineffectual, it will be because it is a facsict community of individuals.
Here is what I am doing, nudged, no doubt, by reading your very good but very alarming books: I am trying to teach my young granddaughters how to survive in the ways that their great-grandparents did during the Great Depression. Gently and slowly, I am teaching them to knit. I show them how to sew and to repair things. We sniff and taste the herbs that grow in my garden and talk about what they can be used for. I model re-use. I show them how to repair and refinish a piece of unwanted furniture, making it better than what could be purchased for hundreds of dollars in a store. We cook and bake from scratch. This is what they will need to know if even a tenth of what you predict comes to pass. I hope fervently that you are wrong, but I am still teaching my little girls to knit.
Jim,
When you say this: “[Janet Yellen] will preside over a fabulous disappearance of wealth in America. The blame for it will be epic, too, but it will not represent any genuine understanding of what happened.”, I’d have to totally agree.
And it will be this lack of understanding that will encourage the rise of what you called “The Savior Party”. This will be the refuge of unrepentant jingoists, history revisionists, hardcore xenophobes and believers in a VERY selective god of wrath and punishment. (These will not be a sober and contemplative bunch; they will be the arsonists, reavers and gleeful killers… doing “god’s work” of cleansing as it were.)
Those of us who are stoical about the coming storm would be wise to figure these folks into their future plans. Not as a fearful matter, but as a downright practical one. (I also see this as ‘regional’ in scope; the resources just aren’t there for this to become a world-wide organized horror.)
ANYHOO, loved your first paragraph, a real imagery grabber! You must be deep into the sculpting and refining of your tome, as such poetic expression is seeming effortless and quite natural for us as readers. Personally, I find it helpful that such dire ‘turnings’ are couched in vivid and imagery-specific language. For that, my sincere thanks.
Wise indeed.
Yes it works the other way too: Bill Ayers predicted 25 million Americans would have to be put to death. Now is he just a pot addled old hippy in jail or was he released from prison to stalk the corridors of power. The latter, but why?
But of course he’s one of your guys so that makes it Ok, right? Btw, not that you care, but no one on the American Right has ever talked this way.
Barack Obama’s long unbroken record of omissions. A ‘Chamberlain’ of our time returning not to a Great Britain holding a Munich agreement promising “peace for our time” but today one laying a wreath to the fallen of a Great Empire saying:
“that our nation endures because it has always been home to men and women who are willing to give their all, and lay down their very lives, to preserve and protect this land that we love”
Jamie Dimon and Lloyd Blankfein sleep easy tonight. More will fall preserving the Wall Street you love. Sixteen percent of Americans live in poverty and forty seven million Americans collect food stamps and with patriotic sacrifice they buy others Beemers and McMansions. An army of unemployed bivouac in tent city. An American Golden Dawn braced for an epic fight to sustain the unsustainable. A fight they will surly loose for the lies and deceits of our puppet press lead them to battle on ground where there can be no victory. An army holding not weapons but crushing debt.
A sickness of complacency. The public estranged from any discourse about what is really going on munches on Cheez Doodles of hope trying to fill growling bellies empty with fear. A constant diet of lies and deceit; empty calories of immorality and stupidity have left them numb dumb and hungry.
Now anxious, now bored, we live from one crisis to the next. Rational without reason avoiding the painful truth we fail to embrace.
The painful truth of dissent and recognizing that our common plight is the first step to any rehabilitation.
Hmmm,
Armistice Day. Wikipedia:
U.S. President Woodrow Wilson first proclaimed Armistice Day for November 11, 1919. In proclaiming the holiday, he said
“To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country’s service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nations.”[2]
We might want to revise much of that quote to fit current “engagements” our leaders have decided to involve us in…
I think, given the record for honest evaluation coming from any government agency, we should expect that any prognostication is probably wildly optimistic.
Even if unintended the Strauss and Howe reference would have been recognized in this week’s post. In my humble opinion deterministic constructs applied to history can make for an interesting read but like all attempts to predict the future usually end up missing the mark, sometimes laughably. As the parent of a millennial I see a vast disconnect between the Fourth Turning call to action and the facts on the ground. I hope I am mistaken and we are in the early innings.
Poor, pitiable Mr. Obama. In 2008 he was a blank slate on which any and all were free to scribble whatever they imagined him to be. Now, even Counterpunch has turned on him.
Yet another mediocrity served up by the two-party monopoly. Following this affable bumbling pseudo-scholar with a racial grudge we are likely to be presented with the choice between the rotund political pantheist of New Jersey versus Ms. “Ready”. No evidence of corn-pone there.
But aside from that, with any luck this time Jim will be correct in his prediction and we won’t make it past 2014, at least in our present state of managed disintegration. Maybe then the perversely wished-for phantasm will arise from the abandoned Nascar Ovals of Dixie promising redemption, salvation, revenge, and free stuff — so that the final discrediting could then be achieved by the Northern Intelligentsia? Choose your Eschatology and take your chances. OK; I know we are all supposed to pay homage to the phrase “those who do not know the past are condemned to repeat it” but could we lay off the Hitler meme – maybe just for a few weeks?
Yes very much a blank slate with his record sealed by the Powers that Be. Yet the liberal rubes voted for him anyway – even after it was revealed his main contributor was Goldman Sachs. And even after he had promised not to take private contributions – his first broken promise, but hardly his last.
Why did the libtards vote for him? Because he’s Black and he hates this country as much as they do.
” It’s dangerous to live as though there was no such thing as consequence. ”
well, TPTB have managed to dodge, fake, and intimidate most everyone so far.
such is life in The Land of Make Believe, other wise known as La-La Land, and in some quarters as Narcissist Nation.
what the hell do they care? they’re right, correct, and have the biggest guns.
methinks the most pernicious lie of all is our fearless leaders claim that people will no longer go bankrupt from medical bills, heard it from one of his shills on a weekend show……………………
what must not be mentioned is that over half of all bankruptcies are for nonpayment of medical bills, and the majority of filers had medical insurance.
but once again, here we have a recalcitrant population that somehow seems ungrateful for the beneficence showered upon them by their betters. it is truly hard to drag such ungrateful creatures out of the darkness and into the light.
probably we should a just be ashamed of ourselves, and give a great big mea culpa, but then, slaves are generally expected to sing as well as to work.
yup, just
Give ’em the old razzle dazzle
Razzle Dazzle ’em
Give ’em an act with lots of flash in it
And the reaction will be passionate.
praise god, i’ve seen the light.
Jim,
So far you seem to be the only person who has noticed that if the health insurance scheme doesn’t work out in some magic way involving websites, paper forms, or wishful thinking, hospital billing departments will still be reporting for work and firing up the computers after the New Years Day holiday.
Many, many six-figure surprise greetings for American patients are sure to ensue. Ooops.
Perhaps the President can apologize again, as Blue Cross and St. Give-Up-Hope Medical Center certainly won’t. They’ll just send lawyers and extract whatever the patient has left, as painfully as possible.
Re : The $416,000 medical bill — At least medical debt is still dischargeable in bankruptcy. Let’s see if the PTB will change this to force people into buying the ACA atrocity “health insurance.”
one night in hospital, one procedure, $67.000.00, insurance pd. all. I pay 12 g’s a year for ins. They are way
Jim.
2014 is probably not the year.The shit hits the fan when the fracking bubble bursts, either in 2016 or 2017. The fracking bubble will be the last bubble.
I agree. In the USA, add baby boomers drawing on the government system, mounting unpayable debt, expanding the currency instead of matching costs to revenue, infrastructure collapsing, glyphosate in city dwellers causing infertility, poor quality food saturating the human diet, and the aforementioned health care system (I am sure there are more pressure points), 2016 it all comes together.
Nazis, Nazis , Nazis, this reads like a Mel Brooks screenplay. One thing we can do without is the blank slate theory fairytale being bandied about by the self appointed “world healers.” Hapless snake handling Christians playing with the nuke football couldn’t do anymore damage than the “world healers.”
Jim tell your folk it has been a good gig but it is time to move on with life.
In 1969 many prognosticators stated we had only a few years left before collapse. Well, we’re still here 44 years later. Concerned scientists set the doomsday clock at a few minutes before midnight in the 1970’s, but we’re still here. Yes, great changes are coming down the pike, but the future is unknowable. Why 2014? Why not 2015 or 16?
I’ve been hearing doomsday by various causes, from idiotic concerns about comet Ison to Nabiru for almost my entire life. Yeah, the world will end someday and prove doom mongers ultimately correct, but please stop with the specific dates. Hell, the universe could develop a tear in space-time and we disappear in an instant, but why worry about it? Let the flow of time take its course. If you must get your trousers in a bunch, hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.
2014 is not a specific date and as you claim to have been around since 1969 you know that an average hard working dog works harder for less than he ever did then. I personally consider belief in “the end of the world” to be a childish fairy tail. Yet collapse is coming like it did in 2001 with the forgotten dot-com implosion and again in 2008 with the popping of the housing bubble. Then there was that thing called Katrina in that far off land of Louisiana. When was that? And back in Roman times wasn’t there this thing called the dust bowl and the great depression?
Collapse happens all the time and if it happens to you personally then from your eyes it might as well be the end of the world.
Modern life is a fragile complex web of interrelationships which is about to fray apart because it has grown beyond the capacity of our finite world to support it. If not next year then the year after that which only makes it worse. The harder a rubber band is stretched the harder the paws sting when it snaps. Such will be the next collapse. A world addicted to fossil fuels where even the food you eat depends on their smooth delivery is not going to be a field of flowers and sweet smelling grass and hopping bunnies when the wells slow down enough to engender inevitable mass chaos. Three hundred pounders on Wall-Mart go-carts won’t be going far when bread is ten dollars a loaf.
Now that part about the Romans is there as intended to mess with unimaginative linear thinking types like government employees who are paid to come here to piss upwind. If it doesn’t apply then don’t worry about it.
The problem with collapse deniers is they seek to make misery a new normal and dampen the legitimate concern of the well informed.
Hoping for the best is not preparing for the worst. Fact is the new religion of hope and denial prevents preparing for anything.
K of Dog,
Thank you for that thought adjustment. Sure beats wishing that the american version of corn-fed fascism will do the trick and return us to the halcyon days of 1958 where we can go to work in the auto plant and forget about how the grandkids are going to SURVIVE when we’ve burnt through all the Earth’s goodies. 😉
Those last 2 sentences of yours are corkers.
“Get real, get busy, or get the fuck out of the way!” We’ve got to put our heads to new ways of doing old things (and vice versa).
Thank you.
Yes, new ways of doing old things and old ways of doing new things because the ways things are getting done now isn’t doing anything good.
We are living in a world where those most irresponsible to wield power hold it while at the same time it is denied to those most capable of exercising it wisely. An upside down bizarre world where existing ways of doing things have given us a map to live by which has lead us deep into the swamp where there be tigers.
We have become:
“A society with deeply impaired capital formation has turned to crime, corruption, fakery, and subterfuge in order to pretend that “growth” — i.e. expansion of capital — is still happening. The consequences are many and profound. The chief one is that the manufacture of fake wealth is such an alluring activity that some of the smartest people in society have devoted their waking hours to making a profit off it. It absorbs all their energies and they are simply not available for other work, such as figuring out a sane and practical way to run civilization in the absence of cheap energy. Added to this is the administrative effort and the work-arounds needed to support all this corruption and dishonesty, which occupy the hours of another class of smart people who work in government, academia, public relations, and the media. The sustenance of these parasitical cohorts more and more continues at the expense of everybody else in society, who cannot find work, or cannot make enough money to pay their living expenses, and who have become deeply discouraged, disappointed, demoralized, and disengaged in their losing struggle to thrive.“
Yeah, Bill, the Adventists and Jehovah’s Witlesses have determined the END several times and it never panned out, so far. I’m not going up to the mountain in a white robe and freeze my ass off on any specific date. Reckon I’ll just go to bed one night and wake up dead in the morning….
I went to the JW.ORG website and found nothing posted about a specific date for the END.
Since all of their other prophecys of the end didn’t come to pass (1914, 1925, 1935,1975, the generation that was alive and was old enough to be aware of what was happening in 1914) they have stopped putting specific dates and just say it is coming soon.
I disagree that America could become a fascist state, I would argue that it already is. The US has more people in prison that anybody else does, it has a government that is always looking to start anther war. We have a president that claims the right to asassinate who he thinks is a danger, and has no qualms at all about firing drones at civilians. The never ending war on terror has produced the Patriot Act and the Defense Authorization of 2012, both of which have just shredded the bill of rights.We have police that often function as an occupying army. They put Boston under marshall law to catch the bombers, and no one said anything much about it.
No qualms at all about firing drones at civilians and no qualms about covering it up.
Fascism is proud of its History and Traditions and would never open its borders the way America has. We aren’t moving towards Fascim but Global Plutocracy – one backed by terror. Marxism didn’t believe in the Nation State either and they are a big part of the Plutocracy. Obama has surrounded himself with them.
Isn’t “exceptionalism” mandatory for fascism?
Healthy people love themselves. And healthy mature people come to realize that their Culture isn’t necessarily the best, but rather the best for them. America hasn’t realize this despite its overt Liberalism. Indeed Neo Liberalism is committed to World Conquest just like Neo Conservatism.
I believe in things like loyal love and favoring one set of standards over and above another set. That’s gotten me into trouble with some people…I don’t consider my personal coarse and way the best way for most people but it wouldn’t HURT most people. We’re all individuals within whatever culture we find ourselves practicing and we get into a lot of trouble when we try to govern each others actions and attitudes. Maturity is knowing where you end and the other begins and how to work with others to accomplish a task. Any organization has the right to boast about what they have accomplished, not what they haven’t been able to do as a united body. Alas, like kunstler says, we live in a culture that favors the lie instead of truth.
Always the right words to brighten a Monday, Jim. But there you go again with predictions: “this sucker’s going to crash and burn in 2014, I tells ya.” While you may be right on the overall direction in which things are moving, I wouldn’t be surprised if it took a few more years before an actual ‘crash’ can be recognized. Things – especially the nasty ones – always seem to last longer than we wish. Something sudden and obviously irreversible like a revolution, a nuclear war or the zombie-apocalypse may not happen at all. The ‘crash’ is probably better seen as a process rather than an event. It’s a question of perspective; we may very well be in the ‘crash’ right now, but it’s hard to recognize as such since it happens in slow motion with, month after month, some new cracks and gaps forming here and there in the economy and all that depends on it. Anyway, looking forward to your late 2014 predictions about the ‘crash’ of 2015. Cheers.
“…not with a bang, but a whimper” eh?
My brother posted on Facebook today:
“To all the veterans and active military, thank you for letting us live the way we do”
Typical American! Total ignorance to the fact that the “American way of life” is anything but sustainable and that our Government uses its military to hoard the worlds resources, ensuring the majority of the planets inhabitants a permanent place in the third world.
The uprising may not come from within but maybe the more likely scenario is that the boarders get overwhelmed by climate refugees and the starving millions/billions, who themselves bring the reality of scarcity to the homeland.
Give the apocalypse enough lead time, and the hordes will just ramble through the US in order to get to the friendly climes of Canada!
Scene from last nights episode of The Walking Dead where the fence surrounding the prison gets overwhelmed by a huge mass of zombies and are taken down by Rick and Son with assault rifles.
It’s going to be ugly down there but I think it’s Rick and Son who will be on the losing side of that battle!
Excuse my glaring ignorance, but how many wars are we involved in now?
O.K…. I understand that it’s a bit of a trick question as it depends upon how one defines the term “war”…. Here, I’ll define “war” as any armed conflict in which the U.S. is overtly, or covertly, supporting any side directly or indirectly with weapons and/or financial aid. It also includes any armed conflict in which the U.S. is overtly or covertly directly or indirectly supporting both sides, as in Afghanistan. Thank you.
Now they’re seemingly prepping the American people for war with the Chinese people even though U.S. corporations have been knowingly supplying directly or indirectly military technology to the Chinese. It’s totally insane….
When the U.S. directly or indirectly supports both sides to a war such as in Afghanistan, does this mean that on Veteran’s Day we supposed to support just returning US soldiers, or both US soldiers and the other group of soldiers that we’re indirectly supporting through the Pakistani ISI, namely the Taliban? Thank you.
Just a few thoughts about hurricanes…
I live in Taiwan, and Typhoon Haiyan skirted us. We got one day of heavy rains, and really big waves hit the coast – the local surfers enjoyed it, but several of them got tugged out to sea and perished. But all things considered, we barely got scratched. Unfortunately, 500 miles to the south of us in the Philippines, over 10,000 died. I’m pretty sure this is the worst typhoon disaster in history.
I’m looking at some of the climate change web sites and can’t believe how callous they are. The commenters are not just denying that this was the most powerful typhoon, but they even ridicule those who died. It’s like “serves them right for living in a crappy shack near the beach.” I guess this eases their conscience as they get into their huge SUV or motor home and burn up enough gasoline to cause another typhoon.
I do wonder if the day will come when we have a typhoon season that lasts all year long. The only reason we don’t have typhoons in winter is because the water is too cold. But if the ocean gets warm enough, I’d expect the season to be longer, and typhoons could get larger.
And a few thoughts in return…
As I eat my Cheez Doodles… I like to say that although I hate it for the less fortunate, climate change has been good to us (those in the heart of Dixie, the ones that drive or should I say happily motor, the most. It was beautiful day today. we had the the coolest and the wettest Spring/Summer.
I have however given up my privilege to burn gas, even though I live in a car centric” New South” city.
“But a strange torpor of event attends this year’s turning.”
“Do I need someone
here to scold me or do I need someone
who’ll grab and pull me
out of this four poster dull torpor
pulling downward” 10,000 Maniacs
Typhoon Haiyan was a “Doozie”. Even far North of the Philippines in Southern China we experienced strong wind and rain. I was surprised and I felt very lucky not to be in the direct path of that Monster. Vietnam may have been spared as Haiyan weakened significantly before reaching the coast of Vietnam. At one point, Haiyan was predicted to closely skirt half the coast of all of Vietnam, which would have been devastating. Fortunately, that didn’t happen. From the satellite photos one could see the intense power and furry of the storm.
Since it is Veteran’s Day, it might be worth considering that Americans perhaps have a bizarre relationship to war?
Do you remember one of the early battles of the US Civil War—the Battle of Bull Run?
All of the local civilians got dressed up in their “Sunday Best” and took their families out in their fancy buggies for a picnic to watch the battle.
They literally thought that the U.S. Civil War was going to be some kind of sporting event, like a U.S. college football game, or some Wimbledon tennis match.
Boy, I bet that they were in for a real shocker!
Scroll up (search ZrCry) if’n ya’ wantz to read my dribblez…
(Not sure how that happened, but I do recall some complaints about similar poast-reply mechanics, late last week…)
Oh, and the youtube shouldn’t have embedded, as I stripped the http:// off the linkage…
Don’t bother – it was deleted. I see the error in my ways – I should have stripped the www as well…
A summary – posted the pink floyd tune “the turning” away, with reference to the solo sounding a lot like the fletcher memorial home, off the final cut album. And no understanding of how population doubles every 80 years since 1770, until it *DOESN’T* (can we say *QUADRUPLE* since 1930?). And how that 80 year model doesn’t really apply once you no longer have unlimited resources, but peak-all resources (oil/trees/water/rare earth metals/wildlife/etc). I know – a *know-brainer* of dribbles (why *argue*)…
30 years ago – “Get your filthy hands off my desert” (Floyd final cut). We didn’t learn too much, there. We attacked Afghanistan in 2001 (when we fully *KNEW* Osama was in Pakistan, within 30 miles of his dialysis hospital). The result? The oil pipeline was *APPROVED,* Dec 31, 2001 (rapid response!). And the poppy fields (heroin) started up again, after the removal of Taliban who almost completely shut it down…
That’s how we play the game now – no holds barred. Anyone see those drones flying over your city – *surveilling*?!? I thought I heard one, but that was a hummingbird!
Loved this week’s article. Can’t help thinking that, for millions of people just in the US, things have already “turned.” Broken. Shaken loose from their foundations.
I’m still relatively affluent, and because of that I’m insulated from people for whom collapse is already terribly real. They’re hidden in plain sight, thanks to that good ‘ol Yankee virtue, reticence. But every once in a while, the truth slips out. You see a little orange foreclosure tag or a garage sale that’s nothing but broken things. You talk to a clerk who makes an oddly big deal about saving $10.00…then you realize that’s more than an hour’s pay for her. You hear about another young parent’s suicide.
About 50 million people live in poverty in the US. Millions more are near poor or so in debt they will never climb out. Folks are badly nourished and depressed. They have little chance to experience beauty in a nation encased in asphalt and concrete.
Think collapse is well along.
Trenchant comment.
Perspective is all, isn’t it?
Speaking of “The Turning”, I heard that they’re now selling seeds to grow those “Pods” like in the movie “The Invasion of the Body Snatchers”.
I just collected my purple mustard and Hopi tobacco seeds to-day. I harvested the seeds from 7+ varieties of tomatoes, sugar snap peas, and vine greenbeans way back in August (and I’ve got 5+ years worth of *ALL* them, that will all prolly “germinate”).
Genetic modification is probably going to be the only way humans will survive such a rapidly changing environment.
Good thing we developed all that technology, huh.
Yeah, I concur – why not just graft that bacteria which produces roundup ™ straight into the human genome – I know I’m seriously (SRSLY?) lacking that herbicide (pesticide as well?!?) in my daily diet!!!
Man, I wouldn’t consider myself foolish or credulous but I am starting to wonder if the “organism of the economy” really is immortal. Nobody thought it could hold together this long. I certainly didn’t.
It’s ALIVE!!
Depending on what side of the celluar membrane you’re standing.
Would you like to meet some people that witnessed it’s death?
There are PLENTY of psychos that think it’s holding together.
They can’t see through their side of the membrane.
Don’t you know that it’s *wrong*?!? (youtube – heh!)
Moron, who-the-f* you talking to?!?
For the alcoholics out there, like myself (can you *admit* it?) – I’ve tried to find the best vodka, buying many brands for $15-$30 a fifth (stolys, absolut, seagrams, monopolowa, etc) . But none even compare to Gordons, at a *mere* $8.50 a fifth. Gordon’s is smooth – the rest seem to reek of turpentine and other assorted aftertastes…
And as for whiskey, I found this site that ranks them (link at bottom) – and the only B+ whiskey below $50 a fifth whuz Heaven Hill 6yr BIB. I used to be able to get that for $10.50 – but it whuz never in stock, so it took 1-2 months before I could get a couple bottles. Now it’s $15/bottle, and *unlimited*!!! I know a lot of pseudo-whiskey-connoisseurs prefer that sugar-water Maker’s Mark (too bad they didn’t water it down 10% last year), but I drink shots of whiskey, and prefer flavour over sugar for mixed drinks (whiskey and *COKE* – lame [mint julep – *NICE*]).
http://www.lawhiskeysociety.com/ (beware, they’ve been *changing/deleting*)
Jacking my email? No – not understanding! Heh. You left out about 5 other identifying *character(istic)s* (along with the email provider addy).
But *srsly* – any “input” on gud whiskey/vodka?!… Gordons and Heaven Hill for me.
FWIW, Hanford is the *sleeping* accident waiting to contaminate the entire northern American continent (which could be just as detrimental 100,000 years from now – go *FIGURE*). Those imbeciles attempting to clean up the 10’s (100’s?) of thousands of 55 gallon drums buried in the swamplands have no *CLUE*. Lots are rusting/boiling away at 5,000’F (luckily that temp concretized the clay soil so *minimal* leakage), literal witches brews of *WHO KNOWS WHAT*. There’s some *PHUNNY* stories about the rabbits and rats that live in that said-same burial swampland…
Big mistake to cook up that plutonium at one site (well, 7-11 different facilities *ON-SITE*). Might be worth googling Lake Techa, to see what happened to similar plutonium factories in USSR…
FWIW, I caught the CNN episode (bogus-umentary?) Pandora’s Promise. They mentioned Thorium *ONCE* in passing. They (the experts that designed the original reactors) didn’t even discuss why they chose the Uranium route (to make weapons) instead, back in the early 50’s…
I await with some trepidation the Fukushima cleanup. I wonder if the media is trying to scare us with the story of how one tiny mishap with the spent fuel rods will essentially destroy us all. If true, then the fate of the world could be in the hands of a drunk, drugged or physically ill individual who had a fight with his wife the night before.
The media wouldn’t make up dire tales of doom, would it?
I haven’t even seen the media report on Fukushima since it melted *down*. Do a calculation of how much material they have in those pools that have (don’t have?) water in them, and determine the megaton equivalent – then get back to *ME*…
To K-Dog:
I’m one of those annoying people who insist on exactitude as much as possible. When someone asks me the time, I don’t say about 12:30; I say 12:27. I drive my wife crazy with this, sometimes. I can’t – or more likely, don’t want to – change.
In light of this, I have to ask your definition of “collapse”. To me, when I say collapse, I mean it’s all over for whatever is collapsing. But I’m not sure what YOU mean by collapse. You mention the real estate collapse of 2008, but I call the 30% downturn in prices and the commensurate drop in sales volumes a strong downturn, and in fact, at least in the Boston area, prices have made up half the decrease already. Again to me, a collapse would mean no sales of houses and a loss of most of the value of property. I realize the suffering and struggles of many families being underwater or foreclosed, but that represents a small, albeit significant, percentage of the total number of family-owned homes.
I get nitpicky about things like this because the use of language affects people’s actions and emotions. Saying a collapse has incurred when it really hasn’t causes panic rather than concern, and a sense of hopelessness when it isn’t justified.
I believe change is coming at us like a tidal wave or a fast locomotive. If I think carefully and compare living in the 1950’s to today, it’s obvious that life is very different now, and as change may well be exponential, 2023 may be radically different than 2013. Still, there’s no need to panic until there’s a need to panic.
BTW, hoping for the best, IMO, does help one prepare for the worst by allowing us to act instead of being frozen in despair.
Collapse can be subjective. To you the real estate collapse of 2008 was a 30% downturn in prices. To others the collapse of 2008 meant broken marriages and new lives on skid road. Men and women lost jobs. Some so damaged by the ‘strong downturn’ will never work again; they are gone and vanished. Some will recover lost ground and are now getting back on their feet. Some of the less fortunate others are no longer with us. They are ashes and dirt. For them it was a true collapse and no euphemistic spin can change their reality. They no longer have a reality to change.
You say you get nitpicky and right now so will I. I’ve had enough of what I’m going to call the brain dead attitude of thinking that the ‘truth’ will cause panic and chaos. Truth sets people free. Truth will will engender positive action and people can adjust to truth. Truth will mean change and that’s the rub.
A constant rain of lies concerning the true state of the world such as we are becoming ‘energy independent’ does not serve the public good. There is no need to panic until there’s a need to panic but not taking appropriate action now guarantees future panic. If you believe change is coming at us like a tidal wave or a fast locomotive then it is time to move to higher ground and get off the rail-road tracks because waiting until either the wave or the train is ten feet away will mean that the appropriate reaction will be panic. You say you realize the suffering and struggles of many families who are underwater or foreclosed but do you? That’s rhetorical, some of those families are totally destroyed and will never be put back together again. As a culture truth will not cause us to be frozen in despair. Lies and deceit cause us to be frozen in despair.
We are unprepared for the future which lies before us. We agree on this. Your question to me admits it. Tidal waves and locomotives. I think it is time to get moving, get prepared and to do that means letting reality in the door.
I concede there are those who are attracted to collapse politics for personal agendas. Some nutjobs are always attracted to causes for their own strange reasons. Such types live for panic. I am not one of those. I’m thinking, looking at reality, and watching an entire country deceived by a puppet press and tricked by those in whom they’ve placed misplaced trust.
I do think it’s a wonderful world otherwise why would I bother posting.This world becomes more wonderful as our consciousness changes towards that which it is intended by it’s very nature. We may well be in the negative part of our consciousness cycle but our consciousness is moving towards the truth of balance. Balance is the perfect union of the opposites to which we move towards and away and back again as the cyclic nature of reality. Knowing that it is the inspired force of love that moves us . A good example is Jk sharing his inspired genius with us , moving us to face reality. By facing reality we face the truth and confront our fears. Fear blocks the path , holds us back . As we know love is the opposite of fear.As fear is overcome we move to greater love and balance. I don’t believe in the magical thinking of beliefs . Anyways better leave it here or I might be burned for heresy.
I always say there’s only 2 emotions, love and fear. Every other emotion is just a form of one or the other. So I basically agree with your post.
Emotions really have nothing to do with clearcutting the last remaining virgin rainforest (Amazon). Nor do they have NE-*THANG* to do with fracking the aquifers/rivers with poisonous carcinogens, that kill off all remaining life (livestock or *OTHERWISE*).
Emotions are things you lean on, when you don’t have the guts to commit your own actions to saving/salvaging the means of *LIFE*. Emotions are what you rely on, when you’re unwilling to make a change to save yourself/the planet. Emotions are very much *RELIGION* – the very thing that got us into this mess. Pray, rather than *ACT*…
Do I regret? not really – this mess has been a long time coming – ever since the mid 70’s (mid 50’s?). We had many opportunities to turn it around, but we continued on the blind destructive path of burning/killing every last living thing. Now we must face teh *CONSEQUENCES*.
To understand the truth of fear and love is at the core of our journey
WoWzerZ, that sounds like a really bad romance novel. R U SRS?!? The core of our journey is understood by observing *FACTUAL* occurrences. Liek, overpopulation, clearcutting, fracking, all (non-human) life dieing/extinct, global warming, etc…
Quit trying to be a philosopher, and *OPEN UP YOUR EYES*. Prayers will get you know-where!
Jim(James?), you would have been *BEST* to delete this, as *WELL*…
I should be fair – love and fear, and all the *OTHER* emotions, are simply the distractions that keep us from the *TRUTH*. ‘Nuff said.
Straight out the Course in Miracles – and I mean word for word. You a devotee?
I’m with Zipdik on this one. It’s just too simple. I’m not sure all aggression can be reduced to fear except in some very ultimate sense. What many are doing is trying to conquer the world – as if that will save them from death. So it’s fear in that sense. But Krishna wins. He says that He comes as Death to those who wont surrender to Him in any other way. But you don’t accept that so the simple love/fear reduction is invalid for you.
Read the Bhagavatam: it predicts many partial destructions before the Pale Rider, Kalki comes to destroy the miscreants and end this Cycle. None of the Traditions believe things are getting better. They all believe things are getting worse. Only the New Age says otherwise – obviously a bogus “tradition”.
I think we’ve underestimated the ability of the powers that be to keep things lurching along. Maybe 2014 is the year that some major nation moves to a very different state of its society and economy but it wouldn’t surprise me if that didn’t happen for many more years, even as more and more people are flung on the scrap heap. Expect more tweaks to the calculation of official numbers that might give the appearance of a weak recovery. Expect more crises that somehow get papered over.
It’s actually pretty frustrating that reality keeps getting postponed and the situation for future generations (and most of the existing generations) becomes more and more untenable. But it is what it is.
The fundamental question is our question why with so much potential have we erred as to our potential. We firstly need a common source of reference that is truth outside of ego desires and their partial and transitory joys.
Weird – again, I stripped the http://, yet now it *EMBEDS* youtube – go *figure* (or, maybe investigate the IT guy who modified the *CODE*).
Why embed *ONLY* youtube?!? Why not embed *all* links?!? FacePlant embedded *every* last link (with at least a *GIF*).
Ah, but there be the rub: you’re already witnessing the “big show”! The speed and degree of this grinding collapse (which I call The Great Crumbling) depends on both local circumstance and world-wide conundrums. Think of 2008’s little financial kerfuffles. There was a sudden shock followed by a ‘new normal’ wherein the good ol’ days were never to be heard from again. That’s how it’s gonna go; sudden shock, leading to adjustment, next sudden shock, next adjustment (timing and severity dependent on conditions near you… adjust accordingly).
Just this morning I heard a newsy story about the Florida Keys. Building codes are being revamped so that foundations will be raised 1 foot and water-gathering cisterns to be installed under any new public buildings. See anything futile about this throwing good money after bad, and the “psychology of previous investment” going on here? The RATIONAL response (knowing what we know) would be to do like Gilligan [and the rest] and get the fuck off the island, whose High Ground is 18 feet above sea level. You don’t notice the change in things so much because this stupidity is the usual response. A tweak here, a twiddle there. “No problame-oh, we’ll just build us a sea wall and raise up new foundations 1 FOOT. That and stocking up on sandbags should hold back high tides, hurricane storm surge and the Atlantic Ocean just dandy.”
So you see, we’re right smack dab in the middle of The Long Emergency and nobody sees the ocean for the waves. Take a little more discerning look around; how are ‘things’ in comparison to 1999? A shitload has changed in the last 14 years. Oopsie…
Ps. Even if we couch that span in the arc of ‘modern/contemporary human history’, 14 years is a very short period of time.
(These were responses to Maybe, who said something on the order of, “start the collapse already, we’re sick of waiting!”
The IT guy can’t seem to fix that bug, but he made sure *ALL* references to youtube get embedded (gud fix within the past 2 weeks!) – so that JHK could, this morning, delete them all.
I poasted 2 links to youtube yesterday, stripping the http:// header (as I did weeks ago), and *BOTH* somehow *magikally* embedded the video. Not my intention, at all (the second time whuz a test, just to make sure).
I don’t quite understand why JHK didn’t just ban me outright – but then, I guess that’s too simple?!… Having to poast here is like a curse, akin to still having a FacePlant account (I deleted mine back in August)… *Simplify*!!!
“I don’t quite understand why JHK didn’t just ban me outright – ”
He LIKES you, that’s why! 😀 (It’s not as bad as being a heavily-scrutinized prisoner of FacePlant… really, it isn’t.)
I highly doubt that, after receiving his ban-threat email, condemning me for posting youtubes (as I explained, I didn’t mean to – and I would have *CERTAINLY* deleted those poasts, had I that *option*).
I don’t really miss FacePlant at all – well, every two weeks or so, I wish I could *broadcast* a thought to fellow prisoners. However, it’s not like I’m emotionally bipolar – my emotions almost never figure into *ANY* equation. I observe, think, calculate, and weight the most obvious source/result. I don’t blind myself with fairy-tale religion, which mostly results in division anyways. I do think there are higher powers out there (aliens), and I think they’ve existed in this solar system for millions of years (I know – k00ky).
Dmitri Orlov has a very timely (as regards CFN) review of psycho-therapist Carolyn Baker’s new book on conscious collapse.
Nope, puttin’ on a happy face or thinking good thoughts ain’t gonna git ‘er done. This is a VERY important point that will, of course, be vehemently denied by boosters of the religion of positive thinking.
A slice:
“Finding meaning doesn’t necessarily lift our mood or make us happy. But it does amplify our existence, making it less than completely trivial. To find meaning, we have to confront sadness, loss, and, ultimately, death. This is why the message of collapse is almost universally rejected: “To speak of collapse, peak oil, demise, downturns, economic depression, or unraveling is anathema, because it rattles the rice paper-thin bulwarks we have constructed around darkness and death.” This is rather at odds with the dominant culture: “It’s so easy to disregard death, especially if one is an [Anglo-]American.” (p. 55) (The English tend to regard death as the ultimate embarrassment, and their cultural baggage is unfortunately still with us.) Add to it a dollop of positive thinking and sprinkle on the “New Agey mindset,” and you get people who act “as if human beings are the only species that matter and as if the most crucial issue is that those humans are able to feel good about themselves as the world burns.” (p. 55) Such people will not fare well: “The collapse of industrial civilization will be challenging for those who have been preparing for it; for those who haven’t, it will involve massive trauma.” (p. 29)
Link:
http://cluborlov.blogspot.com/2013/11/collapsing-consciously.html
After all, isn’t JHK trying to get us to see what we’d rather not see, and “get our minds right” to have some [small] chance of threading the keyhole?
I agree. America has been blinded by “Bright Siding”. The Slavic mind tends to br much more morose. And in our current situation, being morose is closer to being realistic.
Jim, don’t expect a coup here, or any sort of character like Smedley Butler to appear on the scene. I had figured, inexplicably, that the top military officers in the US were down with the changes being wrought inside the Armed Forces, namely the toleration of open homosexuality and inserting women into frontline infantry and artillery combat units. After all, in publications like Army and Navy Times, I never came across any objections, none. Turns out many Generals, Admirals, Colonels and Captains, have objective … they are summarily cashiered, usually on trumped up charges, and replaced with more amenable officers, usually female national guard and reserve officers, not the type to stage a coup. A coup would be stupid anyway, resulting in more confusion and disorder.
If you want to get an idea of what societal collapse looks like, how bad it can be, check out Paul Theroux’s latest (and perhaps last) book about a trip from Capetown, SA, up the west African coast thru Namibia, into Angola. Of Angola, he says, “There comes a point when a society cannot sink any lower”, and “This is what the end of the world will look like”. He also has some pointed words for western meddlers and do gooders like Bono, George Clooney, Madonna, Brad Pitt, Anelina Jolie and others. Bono he takes especially to task, practically blaming him for the thousands of Boer Ranchers who have been murdered in their homes during the past decade. Just what he says on that score was worth the $16 I paid for the book.
–BTH
Perhaps a coup within the military would be messy and confusing, but it seems to have gone pretty smoothly for LBJ.
Yep, this is it, the apocalypse (lifting of the veil) of the “trustworthiness” of the highest of government institutions. Means, motive and opportunity. Not to mention, connections…
Roger Stone: The Man Who Killed Kennedy
http://www.amazon.com/The-Man-Who-Killed-Kennedy/dp/1626363137
Thanks for the Paul Theroux recommendation. I enjoyed his “Riding the Iron Rooster” from long ago.
Okay then, enough blabber from me! 😉 Lllllllllllllllllater
Yea Brother. I read a review on Amren. The Whites in South Africa are in deep trouble and can expect no help from the Europe, America or the “International Community”. They are White and deserve to die according these august bodies or to people like Ozone, Kdog, or Zipdik.
Have you heard that Military people are being asked if they are willing to shoot Americans? And a negative answer ends any possible career advancement?
Why didn’t you buy the book used?
You have to say one thing the state whatever name you want to give it is one serious mother. If you want to get a pay check from us you have to be prepared to shoot your brothers and sisters how psycho is that. From recent reports we can surmise that the military / police has a good number of psychopaths in their rank just salivating for the go ahead to start killing. A few dead baby boomers protesting the loss of their pensions should help quell dissent. Killing conflict destruction might be a great side show at arms length of the tv remote but when neighbour Harry the one with the arsenal of automatic weapons loses it because he has nothing to lose ,the fun really begins.q
‘Last Train to Zona Verde’, Paul Theroux, 2013
Interesting prediction: Obamacare will be repealed before the 2014 elections, the effort being lead by Democrats up for reelection. It is Sweet, is it not my brothers? We need not defeat our Enemies, just let them defeat themselves. This abomination will go the way of Hillarycare with a little luck.
http://nation.foxnews.com/2013/11/12/forbes-obamacare-will-be-repealed-well-advance-2014-elections
The hideous ACA Rube-Goldberg contraption better known as Obamacare, seems, at first blush, to be a shrine to democrat incompetence. But, lurking below the surface, there may be method to their madness. I’m reminded of Glenn Beck’s short-lived show on FOX where I first heard the names “Cloward and Piven.” Their idea was to overload the welfare system which would cause a crisis and lead to a national guaranteed income.
In the recesses of the minds of the policy-wonks who tell our elected officials what to think, there must have been an understanding that the incredibly complex ACA could not work. Hell, they couldn’t even design a proper website. in their hubris, I think it’s possible that the ACA was designed to fail so that single-payer could rise to the rescue. However, I don’t think any national insurance system can work in a polyglot country of 300 million plus from all over the world. There is no center here. The US is a country, not a nation. As JHK says, we must get more local. The US monolith needs to be broken up.
ZrCrypDiK,
I like Tullamore Dew Whiskey and Ballentine’s Scotch.
OMG – I’ll have to see if I can get those here. You *ARE* my father (‘s age). I’m not sure I look forward to the next 25 years before I become as sagely as you/dad, but the drinky might make that concern negligible…
Point of Interest:
NJ is one of the cheapest states for gasoline. I filled up at a Raceway in Edison, NJ for $2.979/gal. Further up the road in Metuchen I passed a Brand X called “Jersey Fuel” where regular went for $2.949/gal. Haven’t seen prices like those in quite some time. I think a slower economy resulting in demand destruction is the cause.
The price of gasoline is falling in Michigan, too. Last week, all the neighborhood stations dropped to $3.09. For the nearest station to my house, that’s a two-year low. For the rest, it’s a low for the year and only a penny above their low of last year, set the week before Christmas. I predicted the next price drop would be to $3.06. Yesterday, the corner station fell to $3.04. I don’t think I’ve seen that price since before the Arab Spring.
http://crazyeddiethemotie.blogspot.com/2013/11/corner-station-hits-two-year-low.html
As for New Jersey, that is the only state I know about that prohibits motorists from pumping their own gasoline. So, those prices are remarkable for “full-service.” I remember when that cost more money, back when the option was available.
Speaking of New Jersey, their chief bully boy won re-election. He may not be corn pone, and he certainly isn’t fascist enough to fit the rest of our host’s phrase for what he fears will run our country next, but he’s certainly authoritarian enough otherwise.
http://crazyeddiethemotie.blogspot.com/2013/11/rutgers-on-christies-win-and-nj-minimum.html
“As for New Jersey, that is the only state I know about that prohibits motorists from pumping their own gasoline.”
They do that here in Oregon too, for a $0.20-$0.40 premium per gallon. However, with me and my motorcycle, they always let us pump our own gas (go figure). But hey, a 1.5 gallon fill-up every 2 months hardly has me concerned about *price* – I wish it was $10/gallon, with 60% going to tax (so they could continue to make sure it *didn’t* end up funding public education)…
Oregon is the only other state that does not allow self-serve gas. Our per-gallon price is usually among the highest in the country, hovering at around $3.49 a gallon at the moment. Oh, well–at least our full-serve mandate provides for some additional minimum wage jobs.
Oregon too disallows self pumping. You should approve or do you not support full employment? What else is there since the Central Americans have taken so many of the menial jobs? So much for your compassion for Blacks who used to be a big part of our menial class. Now they are a bread and circus mob. Progress?
Haha! You 2 crack me up – repoasting what I said, 3-6 hours later. And I must congratulate you, for having so much concern for “black pets” (your words, not mine [pests?]). The real jobs have been offshored to China, or outsourced to India (high tech) – so get your facts straight when you talk about mestizos picking fruit *seasonally*…
I suspect that Obama was and is fully aware that there was only so far that he could go in “reform” of the banking system or anything else for that matter without becoming the target of a de-facto coup attempt. Does a coup have to be by the military? What would you call what’s happening with the shut-down, the brinkmanship on the debt ceiling, the lack of a federal budget for how many years?
When you look at the current legislative obstructionism happening in Washington it looks more and more to me like a deliberate attempt to stymie governing. If they couldn’t get along that’s one thing. After all, well intentioned people sometimes disagree. But not wanting to get along, which is what this is, is another thing altogether. When do attempts to stymie cross the line into attempts to wrest away power?
You don’t want to call it a coup? OK so don’t call it a coup. You’re right, it doesn’t fit, it’s too extreme and there’s no be-medalled generalissimo in front of television cameras. So, caballeros, let’s call it something else. Let’s just say it’s a refusal by certain elements in the American body politic and their elected representatives to acknowledge the legitimacy of the power of certain others. It’s even gone to the extent of refusing to recognize the citizenship of the commander in chief. So, is there one word (and not “coup”) that describes this?
And what about the US military? So far, despite the depradations of bankers and industrialists and their lackeys in Washington, the boys in uniform have appeared amazingly docile. The country has been economically eviscerated, the government bankrupted, the middle class ruined. All of it with the acquiescence of multiple administrations and multitudes of congressmen and senators through multiple congressional election cycles. Years and decades and generations of pillage and progressive degradation.
Yet the Generals have been quiet. Still, I wouldn’t under-estimate their power. People think the CEO of Wal-Mart is powerful. Is he? I say no. Mike Duke pushes around a minimum wage work force. Is this real power? I say it isn’t. Lording it over thousands of impoverished workers, who after all can quit, does not amount to commanding mechanized regiments manned by trained and sworn soldiers. A CEO’s power is the appearance without the fact. Soldiers will die for a cause. Will one of Mike Duke’s $8 an hour workers take a bullet for Wal-Mart? Without the obsequity of people like us, what power has Mike Duke got? Emperors like him have no clothes.
But trying to discern what goes on in the bowels of the US command structure without actually being inside the Pentagon (and even then) would be like trying to figure out what generals are thinking from listening to the sounds of distant artillery. More opaque than the Kremlin. I don’t think the jowly generals are going to share their inner-most thoughts with the likes of us. More likely is that they make use of the mainstream/lamestream lie-machine to the extent they want to communicate outside their closed circle.
But I would be immensely interested nonetheless on the take of someone like Martin Dempsey on the current state of affairs. Is he so utterly focused on military matters that he’s blind to the various economic and political currents around him? I doubt it. I think that to reach that pinnacle of power, he have to be as astute a politician and man-of-affairs as there is. I would imagine he has a subtle, shrewd, discerning mind.
So what does Martin think? What do his colleagues think, all of them powerful chiefs in their own right? But for a toss of the dice they could be sitting where he is. How bad do things have to get before we have a real life Seven Days in May? I wouldn’t under-estimate their will either. Will they act? Have they talked about it? What’s stopping them?
I wonder if most of the military is as incompatent as the other people running things. In my opinion, there’s been three or four guys in congress that actually seem on the ball and trying to do the right thing, the rest seem like over educated pinheads or bought and paid for hacks of one kind or another. When I see the generals and admirals on t.v. they seem mostly concerned with mucking around in the middle east and starting another war for somebody else to pay for and somebody else’s kinds to get blown up in. They don’t seem particulalry interested in this country. And that’s a good description of Washington as a whole. I see a lot of what I call phoney patriotism, there was tons of it yesterday. A love of government and institutions, not country.
We live in a war society. The organization of this republic is patterned on the Roman Empire. Our military bases are situated wherever our foes were vanquished and terms were met. For example, within the United States you’ll find the forts, bombing ranges, air bases, etc. frequently near Indian reservations. Overseas, our bases are in countries we otherwise conquered. The military has no domestic authority due to the constitution. Therefore by definition it is about kicking ass overseas. They concern themselves in this.
Our president is Commander in Chief, the Joint Chiefs of staff are in the line of succession. The Secretary of State is the velvet glove over an iron fist. The NSA is a military endeavor. We have space weapons, more nukes and chemical weapons than anyone, the world’s largest military, a couple dozen of invisible nuclear submarines ready to level 20 cities at a moment’s notice… etc.
When we have a parade around here the dress uniform is on display. Nearby the national guard armory with razor wire topped fences filled with troop carriers, waiting for the insurrection. Above at 60,000 feet, completely invisible are the drones.
Sure, you could be a civilian in such a society, but that’s like not being part of the action at all. Most civilians don’t have any idea of how huge the military is if they don’t have an immediate family member in it. And when they do they know all about the government benefits, the paycheck, the attitude-correcting discipline, etc.
So when you say phony patriotism, lets be honest, you’re coming from a perspective that isn’t in the know. Everytime America gets into a military adventure it is creating more social homogeneity by shifting random assemblages of the population across the country. These people settle down and displace local and regional cultural idiosyncrasies. Not sophisticated thinkers, they tend to support mainstream, conventional politics. This is how the Roman Empire operated.
I think they keep a very close eye on the Military. They are filling it with Gays and Lesbians who will be loyal to the Queer State. And of course paper pushers and non-entities. A Patton or MacArthur would never rise up in this woman’s army.
White Nationalist sympathies are a “problem” among the Special Forces and the authorities do what they can to keep it from spreading.
There’s a song for everything, Vlad.
So this one goes out to Dougie MacArthur….
and his Mom.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9BMcA8-4zo
Hahaha!!! You are *SO BANNED*! best to poast youtube as follows:
youtube com / GIBBERISH!!!
And why would *I* know that?!…
Is this our Russian friend Dmitry? It’s amazing, his absolute control over the English language [sic]. I wish I could elucidate my own thoughts so coherently, but alas – I never scored well in ANGLAIS. Nor, do I have the capability to extend my own thoughts over multiple paragraphs. I did find one mistake in his prose (2nd paragraph from the *end* – where’s that old Q we know so well? There’s another error just *upstream*, by a different *positor*)…
One day, a ridiculously long time from now, Mount Everest will be no more. Time will have worn it away as it does most, if not all, material things. Would we call that process a collapse? Would we call it a Long Emergency? I wouldn’t. And yet, that’s what this process people call collapse resembles. It’s like watching paint dry or a tree grow. As much as you stare, you just can’t see it happening in real time, so in that sense it isn’t real, not to me at least. I don’t worry about it any longer. I do find amusement in reading about people who do worry about it. I’ve always found lunatics interesting. That’s why I read all the collapse sites and the hilarious comments. Chicken Little never disappoints. He’s consistent and undaunted. Come hell or high water, the sky is falling and he’s got to let you know. Here’s to ya, Mr. Chicken Little. You deserve some positive acknowledgement for your emphatic persistence.
Instead of worrying, I’ve taken up cooking, Here’s why.
Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation
by Michael Pollan
To cook or not to cook thus becomes a consequential question. Though I realize that is putting the matter a bit too bluntly. Cooking means different things at different times to different people; seldom is it an all-or-nothing proposition. Yet even to cook a few more nights than you already do, or to devote a Sunday to making a few meals for the week, or perhaps to try every now and again to make something you never expected to buy–even these modest acts will constitute a kind of vote. A vote for what, exactly? Well, in a world where so few of us are obliged to cook at all anymore, to choose to do so is to lodge a protest against specialization–against the total rationalization of life. Against the infiltration of commercial interests into every last cranny of our lives. To cook for the pleasure of it, to devote a portion of our leisure to it, is declare our independence from the corporations seeking to organize our every waking moment into yet another occasion for consumption (Come to think of it, our nonwaking moments as well: Ambien, anyone?) It is to reject the debilitating notion that, at least while we’re at home, production is work best done by someone else, and the only legitimate form of leisure is consumption. This dependence marketers call “freedom.”
Cooking has the power to transform more than plants and animals: It transforms us, too , from mere consumers into producers. Not completely, not all the time, but I have found that even to shift the ratio between these two identities a few degrees toward the side of production yields deep and unexpected satisfactions. Cooked is an invitation to alter, however slightly, the ratio between production and consumption in your life. The regular exercise of these simple skills for producing some of the necessities of life increases self-reliance and freedom while reducing our dependence on distant corporations. Not just our money but our power flows toward them whenever we cannot supply any of our everyday needs and desires ourselves. And it begins to flow backs toward us, and our community, as soon as we decide to take some responsibility for feeding ourselves. This has been an early lesson of the rising movement to rebuild local food economies, a movement that ultimately depends for its success on our willingness to to put more thought and effort into feeding ourselves. Not every day, not every meal–but more often than we do, whenever we can.
Cooking, I found, gives us the opportunity, so rare in modern life, to work directly in our own support, and in the support of people we feed. If this is not “making a living,” I don’t know what is. In the calculus of economics, doing so may not always be the most efficient use of an amateur cook’s time, but in the calculus of human emotion, it is beautiful even so. For is there any practice less selfish, any labor less alienated, any time less wasted, than preparing something delicious and nourishing for people you love?
UN-welcome back, asoka, you asshole…
What do you think of what BRH said about thousands of Boer farmers being killed? You like it, right?
Hahaha, @$$-soker-puppet, the lawyer master debater! I digged that cooking italics, tho… I stir fry almost anything/everything these days, in organic extra virgin olive oil (don’t forget to add the 2 TBSP corn starch/2 TBSP soy sauce liquid, just prior to *finale*! – and oyster sauce is dah bomb!).
BTW, I hear those flushable wipes are not really disposable/degradable, but rather that they clog the sewage systems…
Wok It To Me…Wok It To Me…Wok It To Me…Wok It To Me…
I make Mexican food in my wok.
WTF!
Send me the recipe – I love enchiladas, and deep fried tortilla wraps (chimichanga?)…
The new “handle” is good… just depress it and flush away! (We feel ‘fresher’ already.)
I’ve embedded the videos of Pollan promoting his book Cooked on Democracy Now that the channel posted on YouTube and linked to the entire program. That way, people who like moving images over the printed word can follow along.
http://crazyeddiethemotie.blogspot.com/2013/05/abc-news-and-democracy-now-on-comfort.html
Michael Pollan. Very cool, I enjoyed the video and I sure could go ‘whole hog’ over his new book.
“Pollan argues that taking back control of cooking may be the single most important step anyone can take to help make our food system healthier and more sustainable.”
Most definitely food for thought!
I also googled Ed Mitchell and found he has his own webpage:
Ed Mitchell Divine Pitmaster
I love meat it’s ssssoooooooooooooo good.
I watched the long version of the interview. I give it five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Michael Pollan on How Reclaiming Cooking Can Save Our Food System, Make Us Healthy & Grow Democracy
In the longer version the slow food movement was introduced and Michael Moss author of Salt Sugar Fat was featured in a clip. Much more depth than the short version and well worth the time watching.
Its funny, flushable wipes are apparently clogging the high-tech water treatment systems all over the country… But who cares. One can still cook.
Even Collapse nay-sayers like asoka now have to admit that Obamacare is irrefutable evidence of Collapse, and the theory that progressively more complex problems give rise to progressively more complex solutions which give rise to progressively even more complex problems requiring progressively even more complex solutions ending in total Clusterfuck and Collapse, right?
Obamacare…and Fukashima…… JHK, unfortunately, can now declare Victory…..
Maybe that’s what they really mean when Obama and others call themselves “Progressives”? “Progressive” does not refer to “progress”, but rather to over-complexity leading to rolling collapse. A “Progressive” is an imagine of someone who has shit in his pants.
So you cut all the tall trees down – poisoned the sky and the sea? Taken what’s good from the ground, but you left precious *LITTLE* for me…
Anyone remember the Aussie red sand windstorm?!.. I know, *so* long ago. Too much to remember – years/decades old disasters!!! Koalas and Kangaroos?!?
They may be able to amass resources and financing to solve the Obamacare website problem, but only at the expense of taking away resources from other progressively worsening complex problems–a bit like the perverted Dutch kid with his pants down wearing wooden shoes who’s got his “Finger” stuck in the leaking “Crack” of the dam trying to hold it together.
It appears that they’re reacting to the overly-complex intractable problems of Iraq, Afghanistan, Fukashima, climate change, Internet surveillance, unemployment, etc. by largely just ignoring them.
The purpose of “te,,rr,or,ism” (or “Agitation Propaganda”) is to set off b,,o,mbs as a psychological tactic to convince the populace that the government cannot protect them, and, thereby, cause the people to lose confidence in the government.
In the U.S., it isn’t “te,,rr,,or, ism” that is causing the American people to lose confidence in the government, but rather over-complexity, and the government’s inability to solve overly-complex problems.
I see quite a bit of it as being a whole group of people who don’t want to think about the future, but instead want to re live the golden days of the past. Like maybe the fifties, the sixties, the Clinton years, a time when many people thought things were pretty good. You know when gas was a quarter a gallon, and suburbia was seen as a great thing. Why else would anybody still be talking about Elvis Presley? he’s been dead for over thirty five years. Or going to see Paul McCartney in concert. Are these guys going to go on until they come out with a walker.
OMG, you dissin’ Wings?!? I just listened to their greatest hits earlier tonite – *Ban* on the run, Uncle Albert, etc…
You shoulda seen me with the poker-man – I had the money and I bet a grand…
http://www.offthegridnews.com/2013/10/02/epa-bans-most-wood-burning-stoves/
You gonna bow down with Kgod or are you gonna STAND? Ordinary people need to burn wood to survive and we need a vastly increased and enhanced coal industry that reaches out to the public. Survival comes before air pollution standards. Ayeah.
I suspect that our Society might be rather F…cked-Up?
Below are the final words of the Judge at Ted Bundy’s Judgment.
It’s weird: the Judge correctly observed that Ted Bundy’s life was a “total waste of humanity”, but our Society then and now, in some ways, glorifies a sadistic serial killer as a “Celebrity”. At the time, young women literally swooned when Bundy smiled at them in the courtroom. I suppose that women desire a man that will give them prestige, and that Bundy’s notoriety gave him prestige. Women would fantasize about telling their girlfriends that they had sexual intercourse with Bundy and their girlfriends would respond: “COOL!!!!” Our Society literally glorifies a “total waste of humanity.” Weird…..
“Never before had Cowart had such a literate, educated, wryly humorous defendant come before him. He , too, could see the waste of the roads not taken, and yet he had to do what he had to do. “It is ordered that you be put to death by a current of electricity, that that current be passed through your body until you are dead.” At that moment, it was clear that Cowart would have wished that things might have been different. He looked at Ted and said softly, “Take care of yourself, young man.” “Thank you.” “I say that to you sincerely. Take care of yourself. It’s a tragedy for this court to see such a total waste of humanity that I’ve experienced in this courtroom. You’re a bright young man. You’d have made a good lawyer, and I’d have loved to have you practice in front of me— but you went another way, partner. Take care of yourself. I don’t have any animosity to you. I want you to know that.”
Rule, Ann (2012-11-28). The Stranger Beside Me Ann Rule. Kindle Edition.
Generals! Admirals!
Who has the keys to hatches on the tanks and AA vehicles?
Who has the radio encryption keys and launch codes?
Who loads the aircraft and has contact with the tower?
Who is out on the golf course?
And people are worried about Congress not showing up for work?
To O3 re your Orlov post earlier:
To O3:
I’m responding to your earlier post on Orlov.
Believe me when I say death is on my mind. I’m 68 and my body is wearing out, even though I feel good and I believe I’m in good health. About 2 weeks ago my right eye suddenly developed a series of floaters, one of which is pretty big. In addition, my eye pressure is very high-normal, on the borderline of developing glaucoma. Now that right eye has bright flashes, a sign of a retinal tear or detachment.
I had my gall bladder out going on 2 years ago; my left Achilles tendon is chronically inflamed and periodically hurts me when I walk; being fair-skinned, I developed a basal cell carcinoma; every so often a piece of a tooth breaks off; I broke my right elbow several years ago and I’ve lost some flexibility there and it aches periodically; I can’t seem to walk straightened out, like an old man; after all these years, my hair has thinned out.
I could go on, but I won’t. I know every body complaint I listed is relatively minor and lots of people my age are in worse shape than me. My father lived to 96 and my mother is still alive at 100 – I guess I scored well in the genetic lottery.
Even so, it’s obvious that gravity, wear and tear, lifestyle and environment has worn my body down as relentlessly as wind and water grind down a mountain. IF I am as lucky as my parents, I’ve already lived over two thirds of my life. I have no choice but to confront my eventual death. I won’t bore you with all the existential issues I struggle with daily, but suffice it to say I still find joy in my life, and despite my decaying body and mind, I am still optimistic.
And that’s the point of this post. Positive thinking by itself doesn’t solve problems, but it give one the energy to carry on. I believe most people have a misconception of thinking positive. I don’t sit in my living room when my house is being consumed by fire thinking good thoughts to make the fire die. I’d get the hell out of there ASAP. I would mourn the loss of my personal possessions, but I’d bounce back. Thinking positively doesn’t mean being a Pollyanna. It doesn’t mean ignoring the possibility of bad things happening. It doesn’t mean displaying false cheer. It doesn’t guarantee success. Orlov misses the point.
Orlov DOES NOT miss the point.
I knew it after reading the story about stealing the fire truck.
You have always presented yourself as a “RESPONSIBLE” adult.
Documents signed, insurance premiums paid up.
The kids are all right.
C’mon Bill.
You can Disco Down only so many more times on that shaky Achilles tendon.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CZCKP-H4C8
Hahaha, you are *SOOO* banned!!!
Damn.
Looks like I won’t be getting any sleep tonight.
BTW, I dug that Clash tune, *Don’t you know that it’s wrong?* JHK really needs to lighten the *F* up – I mean, it’s his page, and it embeds youtube code. There’s really no reason to embed code if you’re going to use it to *PERSECUTE*…
OMG, d00d – you sound like you need to get the 23% CBD/1% THC cannabis cure, that they sell to medical marijuana patients in CA. Well, maybe not a cure, but a definite *remedy*. I didn’t mean to come down so hard on you and your 2 emotions (love/fear), but really, I still stand behind what I replied.
Actually, I have three emotions.
The third one is flatulence.
You most definately won’t want to stand behind that.
I’ll bleat you into a beat – nick!!!
It goes on, tovarisch…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfbmjUQOFxs
beantownbill.
November 12, 2013 at 11:14 pm
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I was struck by your comment, all of it. I’m half way through my 68th year and so far, so good; but tomorrow? Nobody knows, but I think about death a lot as well; it’s far closer than ever before.
I hope I meet mine well; it would seem to be the next great adventure…or not. And that’s what makes it such an adventure; territory unknown and un-trodden.
I also agree about Orlov, he doesn’t get it.
Cheers and don’t let the bastards get you…
I don’t think that Orlov and Baker miss the point. I just read the review in its’ entirety again to see if there might be a ‘refutation’ of your viewpoint. I didn’t see one.
From your postings, I don’t perceive you as the criticized “binary thinker” or the “collapse denier/ignorer”. Like it or not, that would describe most of the american populace’s mindset, a dangerous one at that.
I’m thinking that optimism and denial of reality are different things (although in some cases can overlap in Venn diagram ways if the boundaries are stretched enough). Apples and oranges. Your optimism is tempered by practicality and free-ranging, inclusive thought, which doesn’t seem to be at odds with the thrust of the article or even my own pessimism, tempered at times with a dark and goofy humor. (The absurdity of why we’re told to trust things that are pointedly untrustworthy strikes me funny often — more and more as the circus is hurriedly making up new and more titillating, dangerous acts at a faster and faster pace.)
Ps. The comments engendered by the review are interesting as well and reflect a range of perspectives. (K-dog’s would seem to overlap yours for the most part.)
Both Orlov and JHK are invested in “the coming collapse” and each speak to their “vision” of how that great unraveling will commense.
The steady drumbeat of progress, which translates, to grabbing every resource possible and devouring it.
This is impossible to sustain and will lead to huge changes in human habitation of the planet earth.
Generally this is viewed in catastrophically negative terms. Technology will slow some of this down but not stop the inevitable tragedy (my opinion) of a much altered planet.
I choose not to dwell on the thing I can’t change; but insist to be informed in a factual manner. Lovelock and Margulis came up with the Gaia Hypothisis and it perfectly fit my feeling about our tiny blue dot. It’s an elegant, holistic view that I choose to define my POV.
We humans are possibly the least intelligent species in the known universe. Garbage in, garbage out; we are the true horsemen of the apocalypse.
Hypothesis
Oh, I got off on a tangent; I don’t agree (Orlov and JHK) because of their insistence on future predictions.
And then there are the “road maps”, sorry, ain’t buying it.
Try Yoga. It might help you straighten up and add life to your years if you are destined to live as long as your parents. Remember the old Greek who asked the Gods for immortality but forgot to ask for eternal youth. He got smaller and smaller eventually becoming basically a spider.
It’s good that you meditate on death – very few do now except those who are terminal. You do seem to have a fair number of problems and you may not make it to the age your parents attained. Did they come from the old countries? Perhaps our polluted environment tempers our medical miracles to reduce lifespan. In any case, as Ivan Illyich observed, we create a huge number of very frail elderly with a low quality of life. In any case, the horseman is coming. And dying well has been described by many cultures as an Art. There is an Egyptian and Tibeent Book of the Dead. And Christian ones too. Probably Jewish ones as well though I haven’t seen them.
If you don’t believe in the Soul, Immortality, and God’s Mercy, what are you optimistic about?
I read Orlov’s book but nothing since. He always emphasized the difference between the Soviet Union and the West. They came thru collapse well because their family and communities were still somewhat intact. He doubted America would do nearly as well. And Americans are addicted to positive thinking… which for most means being Pollyanna though as you point out, it need not.
http://www.counter-currents.com/2013/11/sir-john-tavener/
The term “Positive Thinking” is a bit weird, if you think about it.
The mental act of “thinking” is basically reflective consciousness or the mind reflecting on ideas, persons, things, situations, etc, comparing, contrasting, analyzing, etc. “Positive thinking” would, therefore, be the mental activity of limiting oneself to only reflecting on ideas, things, situations, etc, comparing, contrasting, analyzing, etc in a positive light, and thereby denying oneself the freedom to conclude that this idea, person, thing, situation, etc. really sucks.
It’d be a bit like eating a shit sandwich tasting the doughy bread, the mayonaisse, pickle, lettuce, tomato, and the excrement and forcing oneself to conclude: “Mmmm….a little bit of a nutty flavor….yummy….”
One Taoist teaching: emotion is a luxury. In this same spirit, so is taste. Having food to eat when hungry is the main thing. Reflecting upon this and feeling grateful would be positive thinking.
Revolution (social, political or other)? I don’t think you have it in you anymore for that sort of solution, or any solution for that matter. Lambs to the slaughter, waiting for Godot.
“What happens, for instance, in the limbo months of ObamaCare ahead, when people either won’t sign in for health insurance, or can’t because of the stupidity of the website design, and the failure of its work-arounds, and the number rises of people falling seriously ill without insurance, and the ludicrously extortionate hospital bills start rolling in and the machinery of bankruptcy and re-po turns the screws on tens of thousands of families”
What’s this:
“Or can’t because of the stupidity of the website design.”
How about because or can’t because they have no money!
Family Dog Found to be Richer Than the Poorest 75 Million Americans Combined
This is a sad sad situation. The truth of the article can’t be denied. The ‘trickle down theory’ is abject nonsense when applied to human affairs but our kind depend on it. We make it work something you guys can’t do. We have our ways, tricks, licks, growls, paws on the leg, annoying sniffs and such to make sure some comes down to us. Much better a situation than for a poor human. All people do to poor humans is make fun of them. Always better to be a poor dog than a poor human. But then we are not really that poor as the most true title above says. And we don’t have to buy health insurance with money we don’t have.
New book out about Soviet penetration of the US Govt. in the 30s, 40s and 50s, ‘Stalin’s Secret Agents’. Did anybody know the Venona transcripts are still being deciphered, after all these years? New information is coming to light all the time, it seems.Turns out Harry Hopkins, who actually lived in the White House and was FDRs Chief Advisor, was an NKVD Agent, Agent 20. He was one of hundreds in the top levels of the US Government, all taking their orders from Moscow.
This makes me wonder, how many US officials right now, in various departments and the White House, are sympathetic to radical Islam, perhaps members of Al Qaida, or whose loyalties lie elsewhere out the US? We’ll have to wait 70 more years to find out.
–BRH
I’m not sure what these ‘people’ are loyal to, but really doesn’t look like they’re loyal to a European type Christian country, with a sense of morality, they seem to want exactly the opposite; greed on a massive scale, stupidity, denial of reality, multi culturalism
Hey Vlad to pick up an earlier thread … when Mandela was thought to be on his deathbed earlier this year I was listening to a BBC report from SA … the correspondent did express some concern as to the fate of South African Whites after Mandela passes away. We have the example of Zimbabwe, which drove out white ranchers and farmers and now cannot feed itself, and is in shambles. Hopefully if a genocide does commence in South Africa, British and ANZAC forces will intervene and evacuate Boers to Australia and New Zealand before it is too late. These people would be an asset to any country.
One thing tho; I hope they aren’t counting on the US to help out. If so they are doomed.
BRH
I believe Australia has denied the Boers refuge already. The Commonwealth is no more having been mocked to scorn decades ago by the Fabians. The British were told the Colonies wanted to be left alone. The Colonies were told the British were tired of supporting them. Leftist lies. Most of the people in both Britain and the Colonies loved the idea of a greater Britain and of being part of something so strong and great.
New Zealand is a vicious Marxist “paradise” being filled up with Chinese. The only people who have the right to object are the Maori – who do object.
As Ozone how he feels about the Boers being slaughtered. He wont answer me.
The Boers’ have been training for the War to come for years now. And supposedly have large caches of arms. Perhaps an alliance with the Zulus would do the trick – since the Zulus lost out to the Xhosa in the Black power struggle. Forget his name, but the Boers had a prophet who predicted the rise of Mandela and the Blacks – and their fall. Many Boers believe that they will win out in the end. They might – if foreign aid and mercenaries are not forthcoming for the Blacks. And perhaps if they have assistance from the disenfranchised peoples of South Africa. Many Blacks now admit that Whites were far more fair than the Xhosa Kleptocrats. Of course the Zulus would have been just as bad. Whites are just more advanced – and even some Blacks admit this.
To the guy who mentioned Cloward-Piven – good article here.
http://www.wvwnews.net/content/index.php?/news_story/why_obamacare_is_a_fantastic_success.html
Actually, if you think about it, “Positive Thinking” isn’t really thinking at all, as the subject is denying himself the opportunity to reflect on a contrary condition, namely the negative or the opposite of the positive, thus, one is not reflecting, which is the very process of thinking, right?
“Positive Thinking”, therefore, may be a kind of brainwashing.
As you may recall, for the past couple of weeks I have been immersed in health care/insurance issues. One of the numerous packages that arrived in the mail from Horizon BCBS of NJ contained a letter running the full length of both sides of a sheet of paper. It was titled Multi-Language Interpreter Services.
The first paragraph reads:
English: We have free interpreter services to answer any questions you may have about our health or drug plan. To get an interpreter, just call us at 1-888-328-4542. Someone who speaks English/Language can help you. This is a free service. (Note: The italics are mine.)
Sixteen paragraphs follow the first paragraph and are titled:
Spanish
Chinese Mandarin
Chinese Cantonese
Tagalog
French
Vietnamese
German
Korean
Russian
Arabic
Italian
Portugues
French Creole
Polish
Hindi
Japanese
Does anyone believe that this service is actually free? Or is it more likely that there is no additional charge to those who avail themselves of this service? That the cost of treating a small minority specially is being borne by a large majority who don’t require this service.
It is still true that there is no such thing as a free lunch. Be assured there IS a cost for interpreter services.
I highly resent the free inference.
In this same vein (regarding languages) I spoke yesterday with a representative of United Healthcare concerning their drug plan. I asked if a particular drug was included in their formulary for 2014 and if it was did it require “prior authorization.” I explained that I was having great difficulty accessing their formularies on the internet.
There was much hemming and hawing and apologizing for the delay while I was on hold and then she said she could tell me that the particular drug WAS on the 2013 formulary but she was unable to say with certainty about the 2014 formulary because the only 2014 formulary available was in Spanish. I let her know in no uncertain terms how incredible I found it to be that such information only existed in a minority language in a predominantly English-speaking country. She agreed.
Later on I began a new search of my own and found there was a 2014 formulary available in English. Now I was left to decide which was more incredible:
1. no 2014 formulary in English or
2. a sales dept phone representative who does not know how to locate this formulary on the internet.
Thanks for the week’s work, JHK. It’s appreciated and necessary.
And thanks for the comments section – it’s hard to use and hard to follow, but still appreciated.
“The means for such a coup of the zeitgeist are rather frightful now: drone aircraft, computer surveillance, militarized police, a puppet press. It makes thoughtful folks queasy. My bet, though, is that a fascist takeover of the US would end up being as inept and ineffectual as ObamaCare. It is one of the great hidden blessings of our time, actually, that anything organized on the massive scale is doomed to failure.” …jhk…
There’s not going to be a coup, JHK. Not so long as the electricity stays on and the food trucks keep running. And, if those two conditions ever cease to be met – then a coup won’t help.
“The leaves skitter across the streets in an early twilight, chill winds daunt man and dog, the landscape buttons itself up for the long sleep…” …jhk…
K-dog, you were the only person last week to actually praise this new website format, with its “pretty colors?” or however you put it.
And now JHK references dogs, for the first time in a long time, if memory serves.
Coincidence? Probably. But I still hate the forced pagination of the comment thread – which maroons good comments on previous pages, never to be seen again.
And I don’t much like the threaded comments, either.
You may be right: Kdog and Ozone are just different sub-personalities of James Howard Kunstler. Can not a man be dual on occasion?
Is your wood stove up to EPA snuff?
glass half empty vs glass half full?
Any logical chemist or physicist will tell you that the glass is always full, under any conditions close to STP on Earth.
It may be full of water, air, or strychnine – or of something less useful than any of these. But it’s always full.
Here’s a good one, for many of us here.
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/11/10/learning-how-to-die-in-the-anthropocene/
“Geological time scales, civilizational collapse and species extinction give rise to profound problems that humanities scholars and academic philosophers, with their taste for fine-grained analysis, esoteric debates and archival marginalia, might seem remarkably ill suited to address. After all, how will thinking about Kant help us trap carbon dioxide?” ….excerpt….
Here’s another good one:
“Now, the problem is that many green solutions sound great, but aren’t sustainable: nuclear energy, electric cars, the hydrogen highway, substituting renewables for coal-fired power,4 vertical farming, urban density, public transit – these are green(er), but not sustainable. Green seldom means good for the planet, or good for the environment, it means less bad.
So green can be a continuum. Burning two gallons of gas is better than burning three gallons. Burning one gallon is better than burning two gallons. But something is able-to-be-sustained – or not.5 Bill Rees, of EcoFootprint fame, says that sustainability is like pregnancy – you either are or you aren’t. There is no grey area.”
…..excerpt….
http://www.smallanddeliciouslife.com/why-green-is-not-sustainable/
Everything is bad for the planet – that’s why we have to get super high tech and move our industrial base into space. Either that or get primitive a la Kdog and Zone. Third alternative: accept Agenda 21 and our managed Corporate Global Future with a global population cut to 500 million and the countryside only for the Nobles and a few agricultural workers.
What say ye? No, fucking choose right now, a, b, or c. And a means telling the New World Order to go to hell and getting Nationalistic with a passion. The Globos are bureaucrats and money men, very smart ones. Not a promethean bone in their body. They want to rule the Earth.
A very depressing blivitt* of baby-boomer oldsters will pass through the nursing homes of America between now and year 2030 laying claim to the nations treasure and the energy of entire younger generations devoted to their miserable longevity. The only out I see, short of a pandemic or an asteroid, is “death panels” which will go by some more innocuous name. This will be true in Japan as well if Fukushima doesn’t get them first.
* A blivitt is 10 pounds of shit in a 5 pound bag.
“fear and love are the only two emotions….”
Beantown Bill, paraphrased
Bill – you’ve said this a couple of times, and I understand your point, but I disagree with you.
Psychologists generally recognize 6 basic emotions:
“anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness and surprise.”
So – I see your points of overlaps, but –
Is it not possible to feel anger, sadness, or disgust without fear?
And, is it not possible to feel happiness or surprise without love?
Just askin’.
“archival marginalia” – Prog
==========
That sounds like a frightful disease of the reproductive apparatus.
“….baby-boomer oldsters will pass through the nursing homes of America between now and year 2030 laying claim to the nations treasure and the energy of entire younger generations….”
….q….
Yeah, OK Q, maybe.
But I saw a study the other day that said that 5% of Medicare recipients absorb 50% of total benefits. And I suspect that the huge majority of these Medicare “frequent fliers” are way, WAY younger than the “oldsters” you reference.
In other words – I suspect the medical system will crash down without the Boomers in the Nursing Homes – though that will certainly accelerate things – if things get that far.
And I’m lucky enough to come from a gene pool which, generally, clocks out in their late 70’s through mid 90’s – after a very brief illness.
And I’d be willing to clock out the day before my final admission to any nursing home – if someone would be so kind as to bring a bottle of bourbon, a palm full of Xanax, and a pitcher of branch water* to within my failing grasp.
*said branch water could be unfiltered and unchlorinated – no need to worry about water born disease when one is hurrying toward the Great Beyond, anyway.
a palm full of Xanax – Prog
========
Apparently a palm full of Xanax wouldn’t do the job. With the entire bottle of bourbon, maybe. See the first comment titled Best Answer at this link.
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20101011102345AAMQBwI
I juxtaposed two different studies.
And benefit usage percentages are worse for Medicaid, where 5% of beneficiaries absorb 60-% of services.
And 1% (that’s ONE) of beneficiaries of Medicaid subsume 25% of total services.
“Frequent Fliers!”
Yeah, Q – I don’t see any way formerly healthy, formerly productive “oldsters” are going to crash the US economy via Medicare/Medicaid-
We’re long overdue for a medical-induced crash, already.
http://www.fiercehealthcare.com/story/how-hospitals-can-control-medicaid-super-users/2013-07-26
Thanks for the clarification on Xanax, Q.
It’s a pretty good drug, IMO, but you are correct – it’s about useless for suicide.
So- cancel the Xanax, although the order for bourbon and branch water for the night prior to my nursing home admission still stands.
Maybe the water born illness would take me out.
Nah – bourbon would probably kill those germs.
IV bourbon might work, maybe?
200 proof ethanol, anyone?
Can you tell I would rather not die in a nursing home?
In response to my last post:
To Bleat:
I listened to the Oingo Boingo song you linked to and I loved it! Who or what the hell is Oingo Boingo? I never heard of it before.
Paying up my insurance policies? I gotta come up with almost 4 grand in the next two weeks to pay for my and my wife’s long-term care policy for 2014. It ain’t easy being responsible and gambling, drinking and generally carousing all at the same time.
To Arn:
Thanks for your reply to me on a subject I guess we both cannot avoid – the undiscovered land. I was born in May btw. And you? Just curious, not nosy. Thinking about my death puts things in perspective like nothing else. I don’t want to dwell on all the things I’d do differently if I could, for regret is a waste of time.
A
Here’s a little personal story about regret. It has to do with the girl that got away. When I was a teenager, I had a mad crush on this girl. First loves seem to be the sweetest and yet the most painful. I was shy and couldn’t get it together to win this girl over, and so she went on her own way. I really wanted her and all through high school I was lovesick. After graduation I never saw her again and I’ve never stopped thinking about her.
Then recently it was announced that our 50th high school reunion was occurring. I saw some pictures of classmates on-line I have forgotten and haven’t thought of in 50 years. They were OLD, much older looking than me. Really! I didn’t go to the reunion. Who wants to see a bunch of old geezers and old bags?
But I had to see the girl, my lost love. For the first time I tried to track her down on-line and without paying a people-finder search engine. Through some ingenious methods I found her. I learned her married ,name (I think she divorced, though) and saw a present-day picture of her. I studied that picture for a very long time trying to see the young, beautiful girl I had known. She didn’t look the same (of course).
I realized that girl and that young boy (me) no longer existed. They were other people. Time had killed them. From my long study of her picture, it dawned on me that it probably wouldn’t have worked out with us. All these years I regretted what never happened; it was such a waste of emotional energy. I guess i needed to see that picture before i could let her go. But I learned again that the past is gone and the future doesn’t exist. Only the present has meaning.
June…
I’ve done exactly the same thing with Facebook – the only reason I have an account. Since it is a Government snooping post, I have no information in my account. I want to do the snooping if any snooping is to be done. A fascinating side of modern technology. Remember though, if you two had married you would changed together. The person now making the judgment would never have come into existence.
As Heraclitus said, you can’t enter the same river twice. The personality is the river. But is there some part of you that feels the same as it always did? That still feels young? That you look younger than your classmates may be partly because you are in touch with that. That’s the soul. Personality comes from the Greek persona – a mask. We wear many. The dominant one or perhaps the summation of them (as in forces in mechanics) is the “personality”.
To Procon, O3, Zyr, Janos, I think I’ll respond to your replies to my comments, but at another date. I’m too tired now and I’m going to bed.
“The leaves skitter across the streets in an early twilight, chill winds daunt man and dog, the landscape buttons itself up for the long sleep.”
Snug on the rug asleep before a warm flickering glow. Fantastical dreams dance behind closed eyes. Black and white images shift wax and ebb shaping into technicolor fancies of new technologies.
Nano remedies solving insurmountable challenge. Such is the twisted fabric of nocturnal phantasm’s illusion. A robust delusion. Happy vibrant new turnings after the coming long dark nights fade once again to warm spring day. Positive thinking to make it so. Enchantment and pied piper fairies.
But a threatening gust of realities cold draft flares in under the door. A moment chilled quickly awake; frigid factuality shivers the spine. The stark recollection of Mondays last paragraph takes away all breath.
“Prepare to get local and smaller, something we’re not really ready for and certainly not interested in. The intertwining of these dynamics will be the story in the year to come.”
It twas the night before Christmas…
And all through the Land…
The Bankers were stealing…
Rob’n Uncle Sam….
Everywhere they looked…
All was Collapse…
The White People were angry…
And so were the Blacks….
Sugar Plum Millennials
Aloof in their dorms…
Wack’n away…
On their Internet porn….
Thanksgiving was near…
From shore to shore…
Agents were typing..
Servin Uncle Sam…
They spied on all…
Getting paid they were…
All were deceived…
Tricked by false hate…
Tragic young promises…
Comfortably at home…
Trusti’n as always…
The deceivin puppet press…
Forgot a period. Funny how that happens.
Agents were typing...
Yes, we made you forget. All your mistakes are our fault. But be logical: that means all your victories are too. READ Colin Wilson’s “The Mind Parasites”.
Wack’n away on their Internet porn…
Longing for Hitler….
American Corn-Pone….
I can’t recall a single photo of Hitler in which that sick Evil F..ck is smiling. “If that don’t beat all!”
No demagogue’s gotta a snowball’s chance-in-Hell of getting elected in the Good ‘Ole U.S. of A unless he/she can paste a Bill Clinton shit-eat’n grin on their face!
But I bet that Hitler loved eat’n those pretzels? I bet that Hitler’d pop a weak, inferior race smile if he gotta whiff of some pretzels? I’ve never met a German that didn’t love eat’n pretzels. “Pretzels are Goot.”
I bet that Merkel would forget all about the Internet spying thing and would spread her legs if Obama’d just give her some some piping hot freshly baked pretzels.
“Is your wood stove up to EPA snuff?” ….janos….
Yeah, I posted a link to it a couple of years ago, but here it is again. http://www.lopistoves.com/product-detail.aspx?model=240
It was EPA compliant when I bought it 5 years ago, and I presume it still is. And it’s amazing to watch the gas come out of the stack and just simply DISAPPEAR – even on a damp day with no wind.
My stove has no catalytic converter, or any other complicated parts, which is what I recommend. Simple – cast iron and steel.
My children’s children’s children will be able to have EPA compliant fires in this stove, God (god?) willing, and regardless of whether or not the EPA still exists.
You are missing (or ignoring) the import of my question namely whether these regulations are worth people dying for. But touché, you got me.
“Sugar Plum Millennials
Aloof in their dorms…
Wack’n away…
On their Internet porn….” ….pucker, poet laureate of CFN….
That’s actually pretty good, pucker. And funny, to boot.
And thanks for keeping up the post count. It is appreciated.
[Ted Bundy, in addition to anally sodomizing his girlfriend, and jumping out of bushes late at night to hit young sorority girls upside the head with a lug wrench, also liked to write poetry.]
It twas the night before Christmas…
And all through the Land…
The Bankers were stealing…
Rob’n Uncle Sam….
Everywhere they looked…
All was Collapse…
The White People were angry…
And so were the Blacks….
Sugar Plum Millennials
Aloof in their dorms…
Wack’n away…
On their Internet porn….
Wack’n away on their Internet porn…
Longing for Hitler….
American Corn-Pone….
Does the male subconscious mind think that the shape of the pretzel resembles a vagina? Thank you.
And, almost forgot
Through the power of googleimage search I bring you
(drum roll, please)
Hitler smiling. Don’t ask me why.
http://888chan.org/cow/src/136848889060.jpg
And he does look a little like Bill Clinton, when the light’s right.
Or Barak Obama, when the light’s dimmed.
Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain said Christ never laughed but in fact cried three times. Laughter is grossly overrated now. When do we put on sackcloth and ashes and weep for our sins? We don’t. So we suck.
I didn’t realize how Catholic you are. Laughter is UNDERappreciated. Really, the universe is a big joke. Only a mad God or a God with a very strange sense of humor could create an existence such as we experience. The only way to stay sane is to laugh at the absurdity of life. That’s why I’m optimistic. I’m part of the joke, and it is a blast.
As far as my health goes, I am reasonably healthy. Just like a car with 68,000 miles on it runs pretty smoothly, but some parts have worn out. With proper care, the 8 cylinder auto can run for 200,000 miles. But you are right. Today’s living conditions, what with a degraded environment, unnatural food and very high stress are putting downward pressure on our potential lifespans. Hopefully, the advances we’ve made in medical technology can help offset some of the negative effects.
Strange Man! The old Persians said never trust a man who never laughs – or who never stops laughing. Hope that last doesn’t characterize you – in fact I’m sure it doesn’t. But your viewpoint remains alien to me, but unfortunately not strange. I have felt the same humorous despair as an enemy of faith.
Yeah, I might be a strange man, but I like to think outside the box. I don’t trust most other people’s judgment or thinking processes, so I’ve always thought for myself. I guess that’s one reason I read JHK and the comments. And you’re right, I don’t laugh all the time, but I have a strong awareness of life’s absurdities.
One thing, does a strong appreciation of life’s absurdities translate as optimism? Is that really the right word?
Being a heterosexual male, I must confess that rather than thinking “Positive” all the time, I seem to have a natural predisposition to think about “P…ssy”. Does anyone else find themselves in a similar predicament? Thank you.
Are you typing with one hand right now? Is that polite? Hitler was against pornography so of course you hate him.
Believe it or not, I saw some German pornography many years ago in Thailand seemingly discarded by a German male tourist. I recall a cartoon depicting a fat German bloke wearing a monocle with his thumb up his butt. I didn’t understand the caption as it was in German, and I don’t read German. In any case, I couldn’t catch the humor.
I also came upon a stash of French pornography. That’s were I learned the French phrase: “Baise Moi.”
http://clashdaily.com/2013/11/go-back-suckistan-muslim-minority-maryland-fails-force-holidays-everybody-else/
Yes, back to Suckistan. Sure, we’re ignorant. There is much wisdom in such ignorance! We are the Terrible Simplifiers long fortold by Burckhardt and Mumford. We shall break up the log jam of inaction. Men must act or die.
“It’s not even that allegedly sane and sensible people have somehow managed to convince themselves that limitless supplies of fossil fuels can somehow be extracted at ever-increasing rates from the insides of a finite planet: it’s that only a handful of people out on the furthest fringes of contemporary culture ever notice that there’s anything at all odd about these stunningly self-defeating patterns of behaviour.”
Anyone caring to get their mind out of the gutter might enjoy a most excellent Archdruid. Newly posted. An excerpt of which is above.
For those wanting to stay in the gutter you might enjoy this.
New Secret Service Misconduct.
Men in black behaving badly. Here, there and everywhere.
Myself I’m going to re-read the Archdruid. Thinking about thinking and the irrationality of civilization before our great fall. I’ve been thinking about that myself a lot lately. Thinking about thinking.
Or putting it another way thinking about the irrationality of civilization before another great turning. A turning where we all get local and smaller. Something we’re not ready for, not interested in, and something not too many are even thinking about.
“You are missing (or ignoring) the import of my question namely whether these regulations are worth people dying for.”
….janos, on EPA wood stove regulations….
No, janos, no one should die because of lack of heat due to EPA wood stove regulations.
But, please do realize that wood smoke is chock-full of carcinogens; and DOES cause death every year..
Out here where I live, it doesn’t much matter – too much air, too many open spaces, and not enough people/square mile.
In more compact settled areas, I’d prefer everyone burn wood in a modern EPA compliant stove – if they burn wood at all. And – if I had little kids, or a family member with lung problems, I’d be RAISING HOLY HELL to make sure all my near neighbors followed the most stringent wood stove guidelines.
Does that address the import of the question?
Learn to think with some nuance, man.
Not everything is a black/white, life/death binary question.
(no pun intended)
Nuance you say? We are being nuanced to death – incrementalism or salami slicing is one of the greatest weapons of the Globalists. I’m a Systems Thinker and can see connections where others do not. The sparrow does not fall but that I connect it to the Tree of Life.
They also plan to declare water public property – a huge grab of private wells and springs. It’s all part of Agenda 21 – that will get you and yours off the land and into the Cities. A, B, or C Prog. Choose wisely for we only get one last chance for our future. To remind you, A is for Space and Nationalism. B is for Primitivism. And C is for just letting the Globos win.
Oh, freakin’ f*ucking wholly Hell!
This verdamned software package is randomly starting a new comments page.
Hitler would smile.
New is old, and Hitler is *dead*?!? Don’t look *too knew* to me…
Here you go, K-dog – you too, JHK:
http://www.nbcnews.com/science/were-first-dogs-our-best-friends-or-mutant-vermin-tale-8C11562726
“Wynne noted that the dog genome shows evidence of a mutation that’s linked in humans to a rare disorder known as Williams-Beuren syndrome. People who have that mutation are unusually friendly with strangers. Could the genetic change have had the same effect on mutant wolves? Wynne says he’s no geneticist, but he’s working with colleagues on that piece of the scientific puzzle.
He suggests that the mutants became scavengers about 15,000 years ago, hanging around human settlements and looking for yummies in the trash. That was the vermin phase of the dog’s domestication. The second phase kicked in when humans started to figure out what to do with them: A dog could bark out a warning. It could be trained to help a hunter. And it could be eaten.
“It’s big enough to be worth slaughtering,” Wynne said. That’s taboo in most parts of the world nowadays — but in some countries, ranging from South Korea to Nigeria to Switzerland, dog meat is still on the menu.
No big doggy deal
Are dogs uniquely suited for cohabitation with humans? To some extent, it’s worked out that way. For example, Wynne said “dogs are every bit as effective as rifles” when it comes to hunting. He said the average hunting dog can bring in 40 pounds of meat per month — but not without a human handler.
“Dogs need the humans to complete the kill,” Wynne said. “It’s a beautiful symbiosis.”” ….excerpt….
Interesting theory, I’ll add it to the mix. Of course there are probably several factors that came together for the evolution of the domestic dog. I like the crap-eater theory. Dogs are coprophagic- that is, they eat feces, as is commonly witnessed. Human feces is no different. Theory goes they followed the brown brick road as humans travelled about, bringing them within constant close contact. Then, selection for the friendly ones.
Later, we pulled a bait and switch and now poop in the porcelain bowl. The dogs are still here. Sort of like democrats waiting for hope and change.
Perhaps you could learn this art. What an advantage you would have on the Road in a Mad Maxian World.
I’ve only come across a Shit-Eat’n-Dog once in my life. It was many years ago during my undergraduate years while hiking in the foothills of the Himalayan mountains in Thailand. On the 5th night of the trek while staying in a tribal village I developed terrible stomach cramps. Without a flashlight I made my way outside of the hut with a roll of toilet paper to take a crap. As I was squatting blowing out my bowels, I heard a village dog approach me from behind in the darkness. I couldn’t see the dog, but I heard the dog take a big whiff of my pile of freshly laid crap, followed by a long pause. Then I heard the dog wolf the shit down with delight. Still cramping and in pain my only thought was: “Awe Man….a Shit-Eat’n-Dog….”
Are you implying variation in wolves, leading to differentiation and speciation? That’s racism. Am I joking? By no means, dog shows have been picketed by animal rights Marxists with messages like these. They see the big picture as do I even though we’re on different sides. The lukewarm shall be spewed out.
“It’s all part of Agenda 21 – that will get you and yours off the land and into the Cities. A, B, or C Prog. Choose wisely for we only get one last chance for our future. To remind you, A is for Space and Nationalism. B is for Primitivism. And C is for just letting the Globos win.”
….janos….
“Agenda 21 is a non-binding, voluntarily implemented action plan of the United Nations with regard to sustainable development…” wiki
I’m not feeling the threat from Agenda 21 that you do, janos. That’s part of the difference in the way you and I view life.
Similarly, I don’t feel the threat of “500,000,000” total world population, which seems to come – mostly – from the Georgia Guidestones, which evidence shows – mostly – came from Ted Turner, a well known environmental wack-a-doodle, around these parts.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_Guidestones
Note that the Georgia Guidestones date to 1979, predating Agenda 21 by 13 years.
So Agenda 21 was just something they pulled out of a hat one day with little or no long term planning? No Prog – that’s how ordinary people operate. Or do you think it’s just by coincidence that they had the Patriot Act just waiting around fully written when 9/11 happened?
You woke up to the immigration crisis late and you will wake up this crisis late as well evidently. But just keep voting Democrat – they like “White People” like “you”.
To answer your questions:
I prefer nationalism to globalism. But I think manufacturing becoming space-based is apt to be ruled out by iron laws of physics and constraints due to 9.8 m/sec.sec.
My plan is to be a nobleman in the country – if it comes to that. One of my sons plans to be a “nobleman?” in the city, so the family has that base covered as well.
Although I’d make every effort to allow myself and my kin to adjust to the rusticating future of descent that you argue K-dog and Zone favor.
As far as Agenda 21 and population control – all I can say is HAH!
A logical species would attach food and medical aid to some sort of birth control assistance. We (collectively, but especially in the States) will not ever do that out of fear of being call eugenecists, or racists, or Smiling Hitlers, or something.
I know your counter argument is that this is deliberate, to force the genocide of “White People,” worldwide.
I find that to be an impossible stretch.
So people never do or don’t do things out of fear of being called racists? You don’t have your thinking cap on today – that’s something you’ve fully admitted many times. You’re just being oppositional or antagonistic.
Every White Nation and only White Nations are being inundated with vast numbers of 3rd Worlders. But that’s just a coincidence too right? Some admit that this is happening but say it’s not by design. But they have no outrage about it – but will express outrage if anyone proposes trying to stop it. That’s not a natural attitude but the result of generations of carefully developed full spectrum propaganda. Once people know that it’s happening, whether by design or not, they should be full of alarm since it will mean the end of Whites and White Culture in all of their former countries.
Yes gravity is the great enemy – one that we will be free of “out there”. But it will take a mighty effort to get out there where we can reap the enormous benefits. Likewise an all White State – hard but eminently worthwhile once it is attained. Once attained, that these things were worth the effort will be clear – unlike so many of the half measures and useless wars like Vietnam and Iraq.
The European conquest of the Americas began with the reconquest of Spain from the Moors. Once they had chased them from Granada, they kept on going. Perhaps the European nations have been inundated with foreigners to repeat this process?
Check this out: http://www.myfoxphoenix.com/story/23976530/tsa-officer-bled-for-33-minutes-in-lax-shooting
Looks like they wanted a victim. Paranoia or realism in the middle of Totalitarian takeover? No? Ok, what’s your answer? Normalcy bias is a terrible weakness. In combat situation it’s called freezing as the victim keeps saying to themselves, “This can’t be happening. I’m just imagining that this is a life and death situation.”
For many, normalcy bias will slide right into Stockholm Syndrome as they defend their passivity to themselves and hate people who resist.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-11-15/japan-sets-new-emissions-target-in-setback-to-un-treaty-talks.html
The fact that the Koyoto Agreement was reached in Koyoto, Japan – only begins to scratch the surface of the irony in this development.
Oops – Koyota
http://unfccc.int/kyoto_protocol/items/2830.php
Guess this reveals me as a non-native speaker of Japanese.
And, OK, that’s enough out of me for a while. And that moves the thread totally onto the third page. All page one and two comments are now lost forever.
I will practically GUARANTEE that that’s a decision by the website designer, which could be easily changed – so that comments every week would exist as a single page.
Somebody want to write JHK with this suggestion?
I link this not to increase the level of paranoia, but to show how eminently reasonable that paranoia actually is:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article36862.htm
Should we consider how this “domestic spying outrage” could become a very effective weapon for an “American cone-pone Hitler” and their minions, toadies and useful idiots?
Probably too fear-inducing to contemplate (or “reflect” upon), but for those of us who have already done so and found it to be a contemporary reality, we ‘hope’ for its’ unsustainability and a Naturally enforced decentralization to “smaller and local”.
(Some would say that fascism is our current, well-entrenched and self-propagated “system” and denial of it or distraction from it are merely meaningless mouthings; I see evidence that would lead me to agree. The stupid [not to mention, suicidal] motto of “No Fear” will therefor be amended by the aware to “No Panic”. Now that would be TPTB’s greatest FEAR.)
Who do you Trust?
Yes Prog is to sanguine by far. Your choleric humor serves you better. But to fear Fascism in the middle of a Communist takeover is dumb. Both are centralized so perhaps you see them as the same. But since Anarchists are Leftists for some mysterious reason, you call anything you don’t like “Fascist” despite it being incorrect.
Nailed it, Jimbo. NAILED IT!
What’s the deal with this artwork being auctioned off for as much as $150 million? Is it a case rich people moving money around? That $85 billion per month QE has to be going somewhere. Some of it is coming to Connecticut, which is one vast construction project. This used to be known as ‘the land of steady habits’, with its largely Yankee population, small farms, lovely towns and redbrick factories along rivers. Now its in an uproar and is being paved over, completely paved over! I notice Toll Brothers is building a huge project of McMansions over in Avon, yet more McMansions! Trees are already cut and the Big Dozers are ready to move. It just goes on and on, without end.
–BRH
We’re a nation of ignorant, spoiled and broke brats. Our health insurance system is a gigantic scam. Our financial services institutions are greedy bloodsuckers. Our national debt will never be paid back because we don’t make things any more and the currency itself is no longer credible. Our politicians have sold out to the highest bidder. Our president is a pathetic figure who may be followed by a military fascist. In most of our small towns you can’t purchase healthy food within walking distance and the population is so obese that they need golf carts to get around. The greed of our big box retailers is such that they are opening their stores during thanksgiving dinner. Our military is a glorified jobs program that perpetuates the image of the USA bully abroad. Our “national security” apparatus is busy poking into people’s bedrooms and financial affairs. There is no serious thinking, discussion or planning for a post-oil future – rather, we have so-called experts yakking on about our so-called “energy independence”. That’s akin to a college graduate living with mom and pop, working a min-wage job and claiming “financial independence”.
In the above, I summarize some of the thinking in this blog, and I tend to agree with it. However – I don’t agree that reality is about to catch up with us in the near term. Political and economic events are notoriously tough to predict, and pegging 2014 as the year everything is about to change is pretty random. One point I would offer is that most of ROW (rest of the world) is so badly screwed up that in comparison, the USA (or at least the blue states part of it) looks like an idyllic paradise. So I would expect investments to continue and come our way, the USD and stock market to strengthen, and more shitty jobs to become available. Will this help us in beginning to come to terms with our disfunctionality? Nope, it will be a deterrent. When the reckoning comes, it will be that much harder.
I agree with your analysis of “the state of the nation” and also the idea that the longer the pretending goes on, the farther the fall…
“The USA (or at least the blue states part of it) looks like an idyllic paradise.”
Looks can be deceiving. Once when I was a pup I was chained up in the front yard and a car went by and like the fool I was I chased it. Everything was fine until I reached the end of the chain and nearly broke my neck.
Here is a link to an article that suggests our oil price predicament is about to go critical. Look for a graph in the article by that name.
The ‘system’ has actually been responding to increasing oil production costs for a long time but Peter has been borrowing from Paul to keep prices artificially low. Now Paul is almost broke and problems hidden by elastic compensations and backlash in the machinery of the economy is stretched tight and ready to snap.
What’s Ahead? Lower Oil Prices, Despite Higher Extraction Cost
I will agree that the plethora of real and artificially created ignorance in the country could well prevent any ‘awakening’ in 2014. But as you say political and economic events are notoriously tough to predict. Except when they are false flags. Of course somebody always knows about them ahead of time. Just not the public.
“The history of Barack Obama will be one long record of omissions to act, not just overt failures. He is the Bartleby the Scrivener of politics. He “prefers not to….” Hence, the powerful lure of the charismatic figure who is sure to act. Adolf Hitler was very clear about his proposed program in the early 1920s, a decade before he came to power. He spelled it out unmistakably in his speeches and his political testament, Mein Kampf: do away with pain-in-the-ass democracy and destroy the Jews. He couldn’t have put it more plainly. The residual admiration for Hitler among the extreme right-wingers of today derives mainly from the simple fact that the man actually did what he said he would do. You can’t overstate the potential hunger for that sort of thing. The current climate of US politics being Weimar-on-steroids, I’m sure that an American corn-pone Hitler would have huge appeal for a beaten-down citizenry.” -James Howard Kunstler
Well, dearie me. Since little Herr Lederhosen presents no refutation of this passage, it must be a consummation that he devoutly wishes and shows his feeble grasp of OUTCOMES and CONSEQUENCES. (It makes me wonder for the hundredth time why he bothers to post here, since he’s not winning any fellow sticks for his bundles. Draw your own inferences and conclusions while disregarding the distractions. He’s waiting for that savior to show up and rain hellfire on the niggers, but in the present he can’t quite get up the commitment to volunteer for the race war that he desires to begin in earnest [any day now] in S.A. Well now!)
How’d I do in placing words in another’s mouth and thoughts and motives in another’s head/heart/spleen? (We understand these tactics/distortions/swervings only by tryin’ ’em out, y’know…)
Now back to the little laddie Show! Have fun kids, and if you play with fire, don’t get yourself burned (save that for the other guy)!
You forgot to mention that Hitler chased out the Bankers – some of them from the same Families of Bankers that are ruining us. You forgot to mention that that resulted in the economic miracle of Nazi Germany attested to by many objective observers of the time and later – including John F Kennedy. You also forgot to mention that the German Media of the day refused to give them any voice so they had to take it to the people on the street – where they were attacked by Communist Scum. Despite all this, they triumphed. If we had had any sense we wouldn’t have gotten involved in WW2 and would have followed their lead and chased the Bankers out just like they did. But we didn’t and now we face absolute ruin since they and their Corporate Buddies have sucked us dry.
So in other words, you support the murder of Boer Farmers by Blacks in South Africa. That makes you a monster.
“How’d I do in placing words in another’s mouth and thoughts and motives in another’s head/heart/spleen?”
You only reminded me of all the *chaos* already goin’ though my *BRAIN*!!! How ’bout that racist spammer – he trolled me 1 too many times – never gunna happen again. He doesn’t condone?!? Worthless leader…
“He’s waiting for that savior to show up and rain hellfire on the niggers, but in the present he can’t quite get up the commitment to volunteer for the race war…..” ….ozone, in reference to janos….
Ozone, maybe I missed something (and I’m not going to go back to the two previous pages of comments to look, because every time I do that I lose the post I’m working on) but Janos has been pretty quiet about race this week. In fact, the whole thread’s been pretty quiet on the subject.
And I’ve never once seen Janos advocate racial violence – and I’d like a reference from you, showing me where he did, if I missed something.
And if the US is being set up for racial troubles, it’s not coming from Janos – it’s coming from the US mass media.
Let’s compare and contrast two news events, shall we:
http://rt.com/usa/tamale-veteran-mugged-killed-829/ In this event, a 87 year old man was killed during a mugging by four black teens. This event did NOT make the national news. You can find it in the local Mississippi paper where the man was killed, and that’s about it.
http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20131109/METRO01/311090046
In this event, a 19 year old female was killed on a stranger’s porch, 2 hours after she wrecked her car while DUI at over twice the legal limit. There are already HUNDREDS of national news articles featuring this event – with some invoking charges of racism.
So, yeah, the US may be being set up for some bad racial times.
Look into it, and help me figure out who’s responsible.
Some people call me Maurice,
Cause of speak of the pompitous of Love.
Mysteriously, it looks as if you missed this part:
“How’d I do in placing words in another’s mouth and thoughts and motives in another’s head/heart/spleen? (We understand these tactics/distortions/swervings only by tryin’ ‘em out, y’know…)”
…which would be the point of the whole exercise in insinuation-to-substantiation by constant repetition. Much like a well-worn comment by Herr Goebbels, if you can believe it. (Scroll up to the comment DIRECTLY above yours. See what I mean?)
The next time that you go on a “Blind Date” with a woman, ask her:
“Are you wearing a wire?”
[The following joke was really told by N..zi soldiers guarding Hitler in his Berlin bunker during the last days of the Third Reich as the Soviet Red Army mercilessly pounded Berlin into rubble and dust.]
“Berlin is now just a city of warehouses?
Where’s my house?! Where’s my house?!”
“That $85 billion per month QE has to be going somewhere. Some of it is coming to Connecticut, which is one vast construction project.”
…..brh….
Nice analysis, backrow. Construction in Georgia is d.e.a.d, DEAD.
EXCEPT, that is, in about two zip codes in Atlanta. There, nice homes are being torn down on desirable lots, so that multi-million dollar mansions can be built on those lots.
Trickle down economics isn’t working that well for the US middle class, wouldn’t you agree?
“What happens, for instance, in the limbo months of ObamaCare ahead, when people either won’t sign in for health insurance, or can’t because of the stupidity of the website design.”
Personal circumstances don’t require me to view the ObamaCare
website but I’m very a curious dog and I sniff around. I had to see what the brouhaha was about. So I went there.
https://www.healthcare.gov/
I was instantly insulted. It is as offending as being told I am a mutant and have Williams-Beuren syndrome by a government sock-puppet. First thing that gets pushed at you is that you need to apply before you get find out anything else.
I’m not going to dig up a bone from my back yard and give it to anyone unless I know exactly I’m going to get for it and what is going on first. Knowing what is going on means INFORMATION first.
unless I know exactly whatI’m going to get for it
Paranoia, Paranoia
LSD, LSD.
Black kids make it,
White kids take it.
Why can’t we,
Why can’t we.
” It is as offending as being told I am a mutant and have Williams-Beuren syndrome by a government sock-puppet.”…k-9….
I agree the healthcare.gov sit is a mess, and the whole debacle is an insult to intelligent beings, top to bottom.
BUT, dog, are you calling me a “government sock-puppet?”
I want to know whether to be flattered. Because such government agents tend to be pretty intelligent (if poorly intentioned) and tend to be MUCH better compensated than little ol’ me.
Just askin’. But I would like an answer.
The ‘answer’ was given to me about a year ago when you were incessantly referencing Ham Radio. It was at the time when project ‘Osho’ was in full swing. It was a reference nobody else would have seen being of a very personal intimidating and irrefutable nature. But don’t flatter yourself. Government agents think they are pretty intelligent true enough. That does not mean they are. Pushing for an answer is proof enough but your cover may indeed be very good and for that reason I’ll push no further.
Ok – now I’m getting error codes while trying to post from a Thomas Sowell editorial.
Should I be getting paranoid?
Just so’s you all know – more productive minds than mine are concerned about the future of race relations in these United States.
Now, I’ve removed the link – so we’ll see if Thomas Sowell posts without it.
Here’s the first two paragraphs:
“One of the reasons for being glad to be as old as I am is that I may be spared living to see a race war in America. Race wars are often wars in which nobody wins and everybody ends up much worse off than they were before.
Initial skirmishes in that race war have already begun, and have in fact been going on for some years. But public officials pretend that it is not happening, and the mainstream media seldom publish it at all, except in ways that conceal what is really taking place.”…
…..thomas sowell….
Thomas Sowell is an African-American economist, social theorist, political philosopher, and author. He is currently the Rose and Milton Friedman Senior Fellow on Public Policy at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University.
Important autobiographical essay of a Black Man’s journey towards realizing how intellectually inferior his race is. And once you realize that IQ has a correlation with morality, the whole depressing story is clear. He now lives in China and has married a Chinese woman. He wants nothing to do with the average Black – and has converted to Judaism. Very smart Black.
http://www.amren.com/features/2013/11/a-black-mans-path-to-race-realism/
http://www.creators.com/opinion/thomas-sowell/race-hustling-results-part-iii.html
Now here’s the link. And this is weird.
And K-Dog – I don’t remember posting a whole lot about ham radio. You sure you don’t have me confused with someone else?
John Michael Greer talks about ham radio a lot, maybe that prompted something from me – but I sure don’t remember saying anything that you, or anyone else, should interpret as threatening.
Q talked about how his father loved it. Probably the Entity chimed in.
Western Rifle Shooters is also being monitored.
http://westernrifleshooters.wordpress.com/2013/11/15/hi-there-2/
The Master Meme
By James Howard Kunstler
on January 28, 2013 9:13 AM
Author Profile Page progress4conserving | February 3, 2013 1:16 PM
I’ve been poking around the internet looking at HAM gear. Look at this sucker!
http://www.icomamerica.com/en/products/amateur/hf/7200/default.aspx
SWL on all bands and TX at 100W on all ham bands up through 6 meters. That’s amazing, by my (old) standards.
I found one for $1009, with free shipping.
I’ve got an old tube-type Hallicrafters SW receiver in the basement. It cost about $400 new(about $10K in today’s dollars, when adjusted for (hyper?) inflation) in the late 1960’s. I paid $50 for it. Two years ago I looked online and it was worth about $350. It’s probably worth more, now. Tube equipment has been going up for years – nostalgia, or something.
Anyway – should I sell the Hallicrafters and buy the ICOM
OK, K-dog, that’s my post all right.
Now, would you tell me what part of it you consider to be, “a reference nobody else would have seen being of a very personal intimidating and irrefutable nature,” to quote your words precisely.
I’m not seeing the intimidation factor.
Help me out here, please.
I forgot to select the question mark at the end. It should have ended with: ICOM?
The reference was not in this comment. This comment refutes your I don’t remember posting a whole lot about ham radio. that’s all this comment does. You talked a lot about Coronal Mass Ejections that week too. The reference was elsewhere and personal. Now drop it.
“The reference was elsewhere and personal. Now drop it.”
….k-nine….
Look, K, I’m trying to help you.
And that week you referenced was a pretty good one for CFN. There were 710 posts and about 50 of them were either from me or in response to me. ONE referenced CME’s. Two or three referenced ham radio.
http://kunstler.com/blog/2013/01/the-master-meme.html
And here’s one where I quoted you:
“….the management of any social structure suggests a happy medium of authority is always needed. Paradoxically a certain amount of tyranny is needed to guarantee freedom as a greater tyranny will emerge to annihilate all freedom if a tiny sliver of tyranny is not present to check that possibility.” -k-dog-
and then made this response to you:
“That’s a good one, K.
To elaborate, being alive, in and of itself, requires acceptance of tyranny. (i.e. if you don’t have a system for eating, drinking, and protection from the elements, you die – quickly)”
In other words – I was trying to say that living in a physical body in the physical world means that you must accept the demands of that arrangement, which demands are a sort of physical tyranny imposed on any sentinent creature, certainly upon any human.
I was trying to indicate agreement with you, and politely elaborate on your point.
=================
You responded by saying, “that’s exactly what a government stooge would say,” or words to that effect.
I didn’t understand that then. Still don’t.
You should elaborate.
And you should know that I’m not good at letting things drop.
Then I’ll teach you how.
Busted!
Bwah! some *classic* Ixn poasts that week (about *4* of them)…
“Then I’ll teach you how” -k-
Have you ever entertained the thought that you are just paranoid, k-dog?
Because that’s the best explanation that I can propose, for all of this.
Methinks (slang? well certainly not 1337-speak) I just heard Bill Maher plug Jim’s book “Magical Thinking” this evening! However, I got the feeling he hadn’t snorted his usual amount of Ritalin prior to the show (“is that right?” [Ezra?] “this … whatever he said”)…
On teh internets, where ObamaCare is 404, there’s some recent *app* buzz (http://www.androidpit.com/sexting-app), apparently worth $3 (just heard $4 today) billion, where a company can spam your IP (a pop-up dialog? hijack?) with pic/vid/message, that self-destructs in 10 seconds (reminds me of that old TV series, Mission Impossible). Maybe it just exploits proxy server incomplete transfer…
First of all, I find it hard to believe this app really does anything new, other than self-delete – which hardly seems handy to the receiver. Second of all, I’m sure it wouldn’t be too hard to develop a simple (one-man-job) app that captures incoming data (ala key-logger?), for future use (forward/save/*delete*). Finally, how on earth is something like that worth anything (without getting cra-Z hype from the media/corporations/markets). I could see how advertisers might use it to spam, much like you already see on any web site – but that’s not really an innovation (more liek, redundant).
Oh, and how about Obama’s personal response to that 5-year-old playing batman – thx for saving Gotham?!? We used to routinely dress up as superheros when I whuz a child, but the national media never bothered filming us (I actually met Adam West in ’74 – he picked me up and seemed real nice – but Mom later told me how he reeked of alcohol, and was obviously drunk [stumblin’ and slurrin’ {he’s still alive @ 85 /rhymes/}]). The president responding really seems to illustrate the fantasy land we live in. Rather than focus on real issues that threaten us all, he tunes in to 24/7 newscasting, in order to (instagram?) instantly reply… (BTW, all these charities/telethons are *exactly* the sorts of things that govt is supposed to do for society – not war mongering and colonialism – and *certainly* not $1.8+ trillion a year in mil-ind-complex prophet-eering).
I *KNOW* – not a *SINGLE* response. *EXPECTED*… (sorry, sad state of affairs)
youtube / watch?v=TI0fk_gCdzE
http://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/the_master_meme/comment-page-6/?replytocom=139168#respond
Why thank you, ZrCrypDiK I had to look at the page source to find it but worth the search 4 sure. Cus you know ‘paranoia will annoy ya’!
The last time I actually said it Ms. Dog said she never wanted to hear it again.
“‘paranoia will annoy ya’!”
Weird – that *rhymes*. Speaking (spanking?) of rhymes, did you see how those 700 poasts 11 months ago, were merely 75% @$$-soker?!? He didn’t really seem to troll responses (I certainly didn’t read *HIM ALL*). However, he certainly had an effect on legitimate, individual poasters (most of them *R* gone).
Good propaganda? The money’s good so have *atcha*? It’s really unfortunate that one 6-fig-salaried govt stalka could do so much damage – yet here we *R*. With a worthless web page that embeds youtube, and *NOTHING* else…
Bwahahaha!!! *Poverty* of imagination (thing’s ain’t [!!!] so different, ~11 months later)…
The Prisoner
The editorial reviews at the bottom are …….. interesting. No?
OMG, 10 pages of *SPAM*…
Danger Man!!! OMG, that whuz some bad@$$ mid 60’s TV (almost up to par with The Avengers)…
This is a bloody chat room for a few JHK aficionado’s who have formed their comfy little clique.
There is so little reference to JHK’s writings as to make this website irrelevant.
Oh sure, there are occasional references to his threads, but mostly this is about bullshit opinions regarding any and everything but JHK’s threads.
My only question is; why the fuck does he put up with it?
Second question; what’s the bloody point?
But, never mind and do carry on…
I try to stay on topic. As in, we’re all *loan debt serfs*. And I also try to keep it prescient, with my doom and gloom over clearcutting/overconsuming/over-polluting… But hey – if you’ve got some *trees*/forests near you, go and hide/discover… There’s certainly few trees left in the last rainforest on the planet (Amazon cut to SH! by logging trails).
Liek I used to tell my sister, when we were in UK, “bloody f’n h3ll!!” Ayup, that’s where we *live*! Suburbia *rulez*…
It’s beginning to look a lot like Detroit……
Ah, America, land of the sinkholes, arguing non-stop about the healthcare bill and social issues while the congress is kept in the dark about the fast-tracking of the TPP.
Indeed, William K. Black wrote an article about how the American people and their elected representatives know nothing about the Corporatist, lobby-written trade deals complete with corporatist tribunal who can bankrupt even a nation state with it’s own currency.
It’s the same action made by subsidiaries of Goldman Sachs in the nineties to pave the way for 2008 bubblicious and beyond. It’s no wonder that main street is looking more like Detroit than Shanghai.
You ain’t seen nothing’ yet.
I have stated in the past that this bill will subject nation states to huge lawsuits made by corporations against any nation that has a grievance against the deleterious actions of corporations claiming that the grievances get in the way of their making their profits.
It makes corporations stronger than nations and reduces us all as colonies of a free trade zone agenda with armies of their own.
From Bill Black
[Obama has caused the TPP to violate every standard he endorsed in his 2010 SOTU address. Lobbyists are involved in making TPP policy — secretly rather than “openly.” They need not disclose “contact[s]” with government officials making TPP policy. There is no limit on the political contributions that corporations can make to influence TPP policy or disclosure of their lobbying positions. The TPP is “bankrolled” by the world’s “most powerful [corporate] interests” including what Obama described as “worse” — “foreign corporations.” TPP policies are not made by the American people, but they are also not made by our elected representatives in Congress.
TPP policies are kept secret from the citizens of every nation and their elected representatives in parliament. Obama’s “fast track” process for adopting TPP is designed to eliminate normal congressional powers. Obama knows TPP is indefensible and that 95% of Americans would vote against it. He is desperate to avoid any open, democratic debate between the people of America and the corporations, most of them foreign, that TPP seeks to make our unelected, all-powerful rulers. He “hateth the light” because sunlight remains the best disinfectant. This is why President Bachelet could do the world a priceless service by immediately making public the entire travesty that is TPP.
Once TPP is adopted, democratic rights and national sovereignty will be extinguished by corporate power which can be exerted, again in secret, before a tribunal run by private lawyers (what I call the “plutocracy panels”) with strong conflicts of interest that lead them to favor corporate interests. I will expand on that disgrace in a second column. A nation that asserted its sovereign rights to protect its citizens from an epidemic such as Chagas (if U.S. opposition continues to exclude it from the list of epidemics that allow the nation to “protect public health by promoting access to medicines for all”) could be crippled by economic penalties that would literally bankrupt a nation. A nation with a sovereign currency would normally be immune from bankruptcy, but the plutocracy panels have no meaningful limits on their powers so they could impose massive fines payable in another currency, which could bankrupt even nations with sovereign currencies.
Criminalize IP Violations: Ignore Fraud Epidemics Led by Bank CEOs
The Obama administration has, to date, failed to prosecute a single elite banker for the fraud epidemics that caused the financial crisis and the Great Recession, but it using the TPP to lead the charge to criminalize any alleged interference with intellectual property (IP) rights. TPP mandates each signatory nation to make IP interference a criminal offense, to ensure that the criminal penalties are severe enough to deter violations, to make it a crime for any person to “aid and abet” an IP violation, and to provide for the destruction of materials found to violate the TPP provisions. See “Article QQ.H.7: {Criminal Procedures and Remedies / Criminal Enforcement}.”]
JPM/Chase look liek they’re about $10 billion in the hole – I’m not sure how this TPP skirts the *law of teh 1%*?!? Sure – more poor, min wage slave-laborers – but what *ELSE*?!? IP? LOLz, those are patents and copyrights – already on the *books* (unlike the losses the banks should be taking, that are off-books – derivatives, millisecond trades, vacant properties – collateralized debt obligations [CDO’s] and credit default swaps [CDS’s])…
FWIW, Chauncy Gardener is my personal *HERO* – what an imbecile!!! To be that ignorant is to be free of the daily conundrum…
“Above all, this big nation has failed to reckon the central quandary of our time: the fatal hypertrophy of finance.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=YgGvd1UPZ88
But not to worry. Long term soil depletion will not be an issue. It will be lobbied out of existence. Further in Ozone’s article below Obama has made it so very clear: (paraphrased for readability)
According to the White House, The TPP would rekindle the economies of all of those involved, including many countries considered to still be emerging.
Going on Obama says the TPP will regulate markets and create opportunities for small and medium-sized businesses in the growing global marketplace.
Going on he says: “The TPP will boost our economies, lowering barriers to trade and investment, increasing exports and creating more jobs for our people, which is my number-one priority,”
When first elected our anointed one did say his number-one priority would take a while. Now five years in I guess he’s now got his ducks in a row and finally getting around to his number one priority. Lets all sigh in relief.
Since we can trust our smiling president not to lie or doublespeak out his ass to us somewhere in the TPP there must be some really cool brand new clever shit because do correct me if I’m wrong. NAFTA did the exact opposite!
Grow baby grow, don thy turtle suit, or pass the cheese doodles?
Which shall it be?
OMG!!! You linked youtube, without it *embedded*!!! How, may I ask, is such a task done?!? feature=player_detailpage?!? You crackin’ me (liek a *NUT*)!
AHA! TPP trade ultra-scam, secret no more! Wikileaks.
(Of course that doesn’t mean that it won’t be ‘adopted’.)
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article36869.htm
Read all about it…
I saw that – first link for tpp. Hardly seems secret – that’s all they did since Clinton ’95 (nafta, etc)…
IP violations or the privatization of vapour. Not an easy thing to get one’s head around. The rights of the people Vs. a legitimate right to recover development costs or make a living from one’s art. No easy answer but this short series provides some interesting perspective. Total run time is less than an hour.
Everything Is A Remix
I was delighted when I was turned on to it for it confirmed my most original thought ever. That there are no original thoughts. And my most original thought. – I had it *FIRST*.
One more for your reading pleasure:
from Zerohedge
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-11-15/unspoken-toxic-secret-heart-shadow-banking-self-securitization-central-banks
I read the Zero Hedge link you posted. I’m no dummy, and I got the gist of the article, but I’ll tell you, it is pretty difficult for me to understand. It seems the same things are going on as in 2007-8, and so we will get the same result, only worse, because the numbers are probably bigger.
All I know about the TPP is that it is being negotiated in secret, it supposedly takes away the US’ sovereignty, Obama is desperate to sign it before Congress and/or the public learns of the details (somehow), and it will wreck the country. But that’s the extent I really know. Do you have any links that would help explain it to me in more detail?
I realize great change is almost upon us, and maybe I’m getting more conservative in my old age, but I’m getting nervous about how are lives will be so very different.
Bean,
I’ve mentioned in the past Alvin Toffler who wrote Megatrends and The Third Wave, Future Shock, etc. His point in these books he wrote in the early 80’s and 90’s was that the global corporations would be more powerful than nation states and have their own armies.
If you look at each successive presidency, you’ll see that each administration has gotten us closer to the realization of this outcome. I guess your best bet is to google the TPP and see what people have to say about it. It’s been so secretive that most people don’t know the gory details, but on Guns and Butter this week Ellen Brown talks about National banks (ie South Dakota) that could buck some of this, but this agreement may make that impossible.
The global neoliberal ideology is that people on the top don’t see themselves as members of a country anymore, but are operating as men and women without sovereign allegiances. There’s a reason why they don’t want to pay taxes.
I like this link too with Michael Hudson on the extraenvironmentalist.
http://www.extraenvironmentalist.com/2013/10/16/episode-67-bubble/
Most Serious Economic Crisis in World History” with Michel Chossudovsky. Guns and butter)
http://www.kpfa.org/archive/id/95429
ps re the police state. See Matt Taibbi on Imus this week about Camden New Jersey.
http://video.foxbusiness.com/v/2840605762001/high-tech-ways-to-fight-crime-in-camden-new-jersey/?playlist_id=933116616001
Do you have any links that would help explain it to me in more detail?
Perhaps this one will help.
Thanks, but I think you sent me the wrong link. Check it out. BTW, wtf are you getting into?
Moi ?
No I’m not getting into any trouble. I don’t advocate counterfeiting, credit card fraud, or any other illegal activity. The link was humor.
After reading the Zero Hedge link my felling is that Self-securitisation looks to be a scam of creating something from nothing much like ‘Rehypothecation’.
Rehypothecation – The practice by banks and brokers of using, for their own purposes, assets that have been posted as collateral by their clients.
Another layer of worthless paper to back more worthless paper. Looks to me like the article is saying that an intermediary device is being created from borrowed money as collateral with which to borrow more money. Some sort of something from nothing trick with which to increase financial leverage beyond that which is currently allowed.
If the economy were to ‘boom’ the borrowed money could be paid back and the ‘security’ would then then have ‘value’ at which point it would then be sold to widows and orphans thus recovering the money used to pay back the debt on the borrowed money.
It looks like instead of using the assets of other people as security for borrowed money things are being taken a step further and the assets that other people might have at a future date are being used to borrow the money.
Create a worthless security and use it as collateral because someday it might be worth something.
From the zero hedge article:
“What is “self-securitization”? Go ahead and Google it: there doesn’t exist any technical definition of this heretofore unheard of phrase. ” Alarms should be going off.
Another way to put it:
Buy me a burger today and I’ll gladly pay you Tuesday.
“Another layer of worthless paper to back more worthless paper.”
More liek, another layer of poor man’s real money, to be leveraged 30::1 by banksters in millisecond trades, to skim what remains of poor man’s real money…
Is this why the $100 bill still hasn’t, after almost a decade, gotten a *makeover* (liek the $5/$10/$20/$50 bills)?!? I mean, I know the Saudis print $100’s as fast as the fed prints digital $85 billion a month – but I hear that $100 bill facelift is *ALMOST* ready!!!
LULZ!!! So how the Fed Res doing on that new $100 bill? She up and *RUNNIN’* yet? I know my $100’s are still over 10 years old, green and black – and I get them routinely, directly from the bank (crisp, clean, MS-70 *MINT* condition)… I’m sure they can follow the dollar bill serial numbers now (money laundering just doesn’t work liek it used to), just as well as they can follow credit card purchases – but I’ll take my chances at being *incognito*…
this is just a test. Bean, I answered you, it says “Your comment is awaiting moderation.”
Hmm. You think we are being monitored by the gov’t?
No. I think this site doesn’t like the posting of urls, now that I remember from the past issues I’ve had. Although I posted an explanation without the urls there were still some key words.
That’s a given. Of course we’re being monitored. That is no longer a question; haven’t you been reading the news?
God’s be good man, get a grip!
Did you have more than two links in it? If so the software sent it off to be moderated. Too many links in one comment will do that.
REMOVE THE LINK(s)!!! Problem solved – trust-you-me – bleat didn’t get banned for 2 youtube vids after JHK’s personal email, so I doubt he’s preying on *YOU*.
“There is so little reference to JHK’s writings as to make this website irrelevant.” – Arn
===========
Complain, complain, complain. Show me one word YOU’VE written this week about any of Jim’s themes. I, for one, have written extensively on healthcare insurance, Medicare, Medicaid, etc. What have YOU got to say on that issue.
Jim mentioned Hitler and corn-pone fascists. Janos, Prog, Ozone, K-Dog and others talked about Hitler and fascism.
The problem is NOT that “There is so little reference to JHK’s writings.” The problem, I believe, is that you are highly annoyed that people hold opinions different than your own.
Amen, dad! Don’t sweat him – I pegged him for one of the disinformant govt agents (6-fig-salaried, no *less*, with free *BEST-OF-THE-BEST* health insurance)!
The thing I find funny, is that all the people I know who had their healthcare coverage cancelled, were those already on medicare/medicaid, with *supplemental* plans. Now how *IN GHAD’S GREEN EARTH* are medicare supplemental plans sub-standard? Yet that’s all you hear, in the media – cancelled plans *R* sub-standard…
Oh, and Obama, in his own words, expected 98% of Amerikans to have the same exact plan. What planet does he live on? 50+ million are uninsured, and are required to get new policies (or pay a hefty tax penalty), and that *alone* is 16%. Not to mention that those on medicare shouldn’t really count (they *R* the 100,000 that have signed up on the WEB site – go figure, they got constitution for failure/retry).
And I read your dialectics on misery of insurance, already – so *KNOW* need to revisit that…
Well, that may seem to be the case (opinions), but not true. Different opinions can be a source of learning.
I post elsewhere and learn a lot because the “opposition” presents clear and well articulated responses, to which, I consider and look or not; just depends, of course.
But there is no cogent conversation to follow; just shot gun blasts in the air.
I don’t for the most part agree with JHK; far to “doomsday tomorrow” shtick. I do love his podcasts however.
You guys here smack of believers and followers; just saying.
Approaching my 7th decade, I’ve developed a far view (from the past) and never under estimate the power of the government (fascisti?) to keep the serpent alive.
Sorry to say, I’ve seen very little original thought here; just rehashed crap form other sources.
No leaders, no genuine thinkers (except maybe BTB) and no new ideas worth following.
ZrCrypDiK sometimes has an interesting POV, IMO.
And, this is my opinion which is like assholes; everybody has one.
So, take it, consider it and do as you please.
A further note; no genuine knowledge has ever been taught to another (only the way to it); true knowledge comes from within, never from without…
Cheers
from
I did miss this 1 last week – and *thanks*! Myself, I think I babble on liek a drunken moron – but opinions are just *that*.
Of course most here are gunna be doomers (that support JHK) – think about it for a second. You read this website – either you agree or disagree (or don’ give a sh!? well then, you’re prolly not a *reader*). If you agree, you follow. If you disagree, you prolly never return (or become a flamer/troll). How3v3r, if you’re a $6-fig-salaried-govt-stalka, you have no choice but to stay and spam (no bid/cost plus contractors don’t count towards total govt. employees)…
Liking this little article from 0hedge(spelled out one word)
title: The Internet Is Now Weaponized, And You Are The Target
Here is the link.The Internet Is Now Weaponized, And You Are The Target
But still all this talk is about sniffing and peeping. Small change. When they single you out and and actively mess with you even sending agents to watch you because you learned a few things like where different I.P. addresses of commenters at CFN come from that’s when things start getting impressive. Your phone battery drains in a day because they are listening to everything you say. And when you are out buying pizza they can even come into your doghouse and pre-heat your oven for you. They know where you are because you have your smart-phone with you, GPS another tool in their bag of tricks with which to track. You have to go retro and wear a watch to keep time and leave the phone at home.
Impressive but very annoying too. Another day in the Skinner box waiting for Pavlov’s bell. And the real annoyance is that you can be unemployed looking for a job while they are getting paid to jack you up.
What’s a dog to do?
Remember that episode of Lost in Space with the kid who could see everyone everywhere who was looking thru a mirror? That’s what kind of mirror a computer is.
WowZerz!!! The *DEAD* zone? (Chris Walken’s best) 1 day later, and no poasts for almost 12 hours!!! Not sure I can wake you, but I’ll *try*…
How much of the Amazon rainforest basin hasn’t been clearcut? 20%? I highly doubt it’s that high/*optimistic*…
However – that’s what we do – we kill off every last remaining life-source on the planet, and we leave nothing but toxic pollution. WE BE GUD AT THAT!!!
Oh yeah – how’s that *PRICE* of gasahol affecting *U*?!~? I’m still wishing for $10/gallon, meself (60% for taxes to educate the *y00tz*?)…
I have a friend who many years ago spent a year abroad in college in Brazil. He wrote me a letter at the time postmarked from somewhere along the Amazon River. I recall that he said that the Amazon River is actually called “Tomba Tinga”.
Does anyone know what “Tomba Tinga” means?
He also wrote something about an experience in which a condom was nearly melted to his penis, which struck me at the time as being a rather unique experience.
Well, it’s Loy Krathrong here tonight. One of the two major celebrations here.
This one is about forgiveness and reconciliation of past travesties.
It’s like the Japanese celebration where they float candle lit floats on the water.
It’s loud, raucous and supposed to erase past sins.
We elected to celebrate by taking care of a family by giving food and money to a needy family.
Not looking for plaudits; just a recognition that caring starts in ones own back yard.
The Fisa Improvements Act, promoted by Dianne Feinstein, the California Democrat who chairs the Senate intelligence committee, would both make permanent a loophole permitting the NSA to search for Americans’ identifying information without a warrant – and, civil libertarians fear, contains an ambiguity that might allow the FBI, the DEA and other law enforcement agencies to do the same thing.
**sidebar: In another article regarding this BLIVETT (thankyouQ) it was suggested that Ms. Feinstein is just a clueless incompetent, but I will suggest otherwise: that she is doing the pointed bidding of those who stuff her back account — and that of her husband. She’s nothing other than a sharp profiteer. **
“For the first time, the statute would explicitly allow the government to proactively search through the NSA data troves of information without a warrant,” said Michelle Richardson, the surveillance lobbyist for the ACLU.
“It may also expand current practices by allowing law enforcement to directly access US person information that was nominally collected for foreign intelligence purposes. This fourth amendment back door needs to be closed, not written into stone.”
-Spencer Ackerman, The Guardian
Unless you’ve been residing in a complete info vacuum for the past 15 years (’round about), you’ve surely seen how this nefarious game is being played. Commit huge crimes against your own populace and that of other nations, then retroactively make a law that ‘legalizes’ these crimes. (I’m not so sure Mr. Corzine’s crimes have been effectively cleansed yet; probably they’ll simply be ignored long enough for law enforcement to plausibly ‘forget’ about them.)
You better watch out
You better not cry
Better not.puut
I’m telling you why
Gov’mint Claus is coming to town
It’s making a list
And checking it twice
Gonna find out who’s naughty and nice
Gov’mint Claus is coming to town
It sees you when you’re sleeping
It knows when you’re awake
It knows if you’ve been bad or good
So be good for goodness sake!
O! You better watch out
You better not cry
Better not pout
I’m telling you why
Gov’mint Claus is coming to town
Gov’mint Claus is coming to town
LOL! Good fit. 😉
I should worry about the ‘list’ why?
I’ve already got Gov’mint Claus coming down my chimney right now!
Down my chimney and up my …… .
Besides which; while I get personal attention right now should shit really hit the fan Gov’mint Claus will be way too busy to worry about lil-o-me.
“Commit huge crimes against your own populace.”
No, don’t think so. Commit huge crimes against the populace. Yes! I’m not part of her wolf pack and never will be. I believe all dogs should eat. Her kind eats dogs. Her populace (the top .01%) cares not about the populace or the future of the nation one bit. A country run by people who have an assured future no matter what happens is a country run by those who have no skin in the game. Their interest is to keep things e-x-a-c-t-l-y as they are. When nobody else can drive they still will. When nobody else has health care they will have it. When dogs are starving they will eat very well.
U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein is one of 261 millionaire members of Congress, according to an analysis of personal wealth conduct by the Center for Responsive Politics.
U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat from California, reported a net worth of between $46 million and $108.1 million in 2010, according to financial disclosures.
But as long as people remain distracted ignorant and easily swayed by advertisement and smiles they will continue to elect such types.
Jim said this week; “Everything points to 2014 as the moment the pretending stops and things get real.”
He may be right though getting real may be going a bit to far. There will be much pain before anyone gets real.
And that’s the real deal.
One for ZrC……
http://blogs.wave3.com/weather_blog/2013/11/1117-rare-high-risk-issued.html
From southern Michigan to Kentucky.
Don’t worry though, we’ll just slap a label on this type of thing that [re]defines it as “a classic November weather phenomenon” and that will fix it for now and future.
Buckle up, it’s gonna be a helluva ride.
OMG, harbinger of *doom*? Whuz this be-4 “they” actually hit (they hit on the 17th)?!?
@ BT… long time no see ma’am! Thanks for the updates and linkages to TPP info – thanks for the analysis, too. I still have trouble wrappin’ my noggin’ around most of these phenomena. Still, it’s very interesting to witness the final nails being pounded into the coffin of national sovereignty, as though it were a responsible, logical end, not a blood in the streets inciting landmark. At least, isn’t that how we should see it – a reason to finally hang some politicians from lamp posts? I realize I’m just a frustrated voice at this point. I admit, too, that I certainly wouldn’t donate any blood for the cause.
Also, I’m noticing that the rhetorical trope of blaming the elite for our voluntary peonage is losing market share. No one gives a true fuck, even if they agree with what they’ve learned. For instance, Dmitry Orlov and others are beginning to abandon the collapse meme. Chris Hedges, too, recently admitted that he and the comfortable academic mid-elites haven’t changed anything, just provided entertainment for a bunch of thoughtful do-nothing-intellectual serfs. Perhaps O and H and the rest are realizing the NWO has won out regardless of their efforts, even if the end result of collapse still looms.
Despite all the warnings and action pleas, is there any doubt the people have voted with their fat, lazy, medicared-for-asses and consumer voting ballots – dollars? See Q’s desperate diary submissions to CFN pertaining to his heart wrenching journey of pawning his mother-in-law off on the system, despite sufficient means for caring for her himself. I guess I should stop comparing men of that generation to the image of my Great Uncle, a wealthy man who cared for he and his wife’s dying parents out of pocket, with his heart, and own two hands.
All in all, IMO, not a chance of viable local community or national reordering though, despite Chris Hedges eloquent, empty hand wringing. Unless, he suggests, some unfortunate elderly woman recently booted from her home by Banksters self-immolates in one of our public squares, causing youth to finally take up arms against the capitalist oppressors, yet Hedges himself stops short of directly endorsing violent revolt. What a *lib’rull*:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article36881.htm
@ ‘Zone… what can I say, senior? In my view your generous contributions, poignant themes, and kindly humored writing style continue to pretty much carry this blog week-after week, making your submissions and the relevant responses by select others the only reason skimming this site is still worthwhile. If I ever happen across you on The Road, I’d surely recognize the fire and gladly share a can of peaches. Later onz!
-UFIA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNT3_qugjZU&feature=player_embedded
This is totally worth watching I’m 37 minutes in.
Mutiny was the only salvation for the Piquad’s crew. Mutiny but of the right kind! The honest eye of Starbuck still gazes.
Find the courage too peer into the molten pit!
I finished the whole thing. You say:
“Unless, he suggests, some unfortunate elderly woman recently booted from her home by Banksters self-immolates in one of our public squares, causing youth to finally take up arms against the capitalist oppressors, yet Hedges himself stops short of directly endorsing violent revolt. What a *lib’rull*:”
You misunderstand his position. He has actually seen governments topple from seemingly inconsequential starts. The unfortunate elderly woman is a spark who ignites dry timber. Timber waiting to burn. The elderly woman becomes a trigger, a tipping point where repressed disgust and frustration coalesces into unstoppable force that brings down an established order. He advocates speaking truth to power for its own sake; from a moral imperative. But saying that he goes on to add that even when you think nobody may be listening there can be dogs of most acute hearing who may be hearing your message.
Lies have to be constantly repeated to be believed but truth can jump from dog to dog as easily as a flea.
Nice of you to say. I stop in to witness discussion of [hopefully] germane links and topics regarding the Kunstlerian Zeitgeist, because that’s the general direction I think the world is rolling towards with increasing speed. (Case in point: Your and K-dog’s impressions on Chris Hedges.)
….And yes, I am the coaxer of fire, huddle ’round and bring stories.
“…the only reason skimming this site is still worthwhile” – UFIA
===========
Translation: He reads every friggin word.
Yeah? You’d like to think so.
Just like Arn.
Here ya go, I’m providing this movie trailer to brighten up Janos’ Sunday afternoon ;o)
https://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&aq=&oq=movi&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4TSNJ_enUS456US456&q=movie+times+in+08904+area&gs_l=hp..5.0l4j41l3.0.0.0.28178………..0.6V7j3a1N6Z4&pbx=1#sh=4
Click on Best Man Holiday.
Why? It’s a Black movie. They have the right. This isn’t a White country anymore Q because of your capitalism. Let’s pluck the mystic chords of memory and remember better times.
http://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/s.aspx
And then there’s some, such as myself, who not only “get it”, but spend a little bit of time trying to explain these facts of life to various criers, whiners & complainers.
This is the way it is; it is the way it has always been. Just because the illusion of free choice is used to manipulate the clueless who believe they “have a voice” via some kind of representational democracy doesn’t make it so.
Like a fine connoisseur, I actually appreciate the system for all its evil glory – it’s just so much more devious than an in-your-face slave/serf system. Back in the day, you knew your place, and there wasn’t any of this mamby-pamby talk about ‘rights’, participation, ‘effecting change’, blah, blah, blah.
But now, everyone seems to be paralyzed in a perfect story of cognitive dissonance, where they can’t reconcile what they know to be true with decades of brainwashing about democratic principles, freedom, exceptionalism, etc.
Here are the 3 principles by which I evaluate anything I hear and/or read:
1. Strong defeats weak
2. Continuous exponential growth
3. Position (power) dictates behavior
Here is a prime example: A free people will always be defeated by those who collude to undermine the principles of liberty. IOW, while denizens enjoy the fruits of their era, others are planning/plotting how to leverage the underlying productivity in order to determine the degree of parasitic load that can be applied.
Over millenia, the favorite tool to achieve this goal of control has been credit, but empires also operate under the same exact principles. Related to the 2LTO, states/corporations must expand, otherwise they will perish. They (ie we who live in these systems) must have continuous resource consumption & debt growth, otherwise the entire system will crash. Not good for our dear leaders.
Last, “leaders” will do, say & act in any manner possible to maintain the status quo. But it’s not just a personality issue; I really believe that if you substituted Guy for Yellen, Guy would advocate continued “accommodation” and Yellen would become a doomer. Now why would someone change their outlook simply be switching positions? Because, it’s fairly easy to predict billions of deaths, but to have them occur on your direct watch, due partly/mostly to your decisions, causes most to shy away from literally having blood on their hands.
This is the story of Obama, and everyone before him. It doesn’t matter if he was sincere or not going in, once you’re in the hot seat, the horror of the whole thing is very, very real.
Once you see reality in this light, then you will no longer be shocked, upset or otherwise depressed when things turn out exactly as predicted based on these 3 principles. Try it out for yourself – you will find any news item, any trend, any lie fits perfectly within the 1-2-3 order.
A good beginning but you are too cynical. There are extraordinary people. There have been real leaders and good presidents. Not everyone is the same. We’ve forgotten because it been such a long time since we had one – they are kept down at the bottom of the system.
You make a very good point, our leadership was not always crappy like this. Washington and Jefferson were excellent presidents. And Jackson, Cleveland, Harding and Coolidge had their good moments. People like Henry Ford and John D Rockefeller built up the country. They protected western civilization, they kept orientals and muslims out of the country for the most part. They had segregation laws which ere good things in my view, blacks weren’t allowed to run amuck the way they do now. There were no stupid drug laws or police states. They understood the basic differences between the sexes. They cared about the country. And they didn’t start one stupid war after another.
“1. Strong defeats weak
2. Continuous exponential growth
3. Position (power) dictates behavior” …guy…
Pretty good ideas, guy. And, are you a totally new CFN poster?
Very interesting.
“I’ve already got Gov’mint Claus coming down my chimney right now!
Down my chimney and up my ……” ….k-ham….
I thought you wanted me to let this drop, K?
“It makes me wonder for the hundredth time why he bothers to post here, since he’s not winning any fellow sticks for his bundles.”
….ozone….
Ozone, is that a homophobic insult? Maybe I’m misinterpreting?
So – what happens if you insult a racist with homophobia, anyway?
Does it make it doubly insulting – or does it cancel the whole thing out?
His almost supernatural hatred and viciousness should ring a bell with you – it’s what lead to the War of Northern Aggression. New England has always been one of the epicenters of this kind of thing, the actual origin of political correctness at least in the New World.
The early Roman Culture Hero Cincinatus broke a stick to show it’s weakness. Then he tied many together to show the strength of unity. The bundle of sticks is one of the classic symbols of Fascism. I never said Ozone was completely stupid (Lie) just evil. To be fair, he does seem to be using the symbol correctly and not trying to tie it into “fagging” – the homosexual persecution of under classmen in English Boarding schools.
Just to reinforce two important concepts:
1. The US government has always been deranged
2. Law enforcement entities always want better surveillance methods
I present to you the following excerpt:
“In 1957, William Foos began pretending to read through walls. Weeks later, the FBI was at his door asking if his powers were real:
“Should his claims be well-founded, there is no limit to the value which could accrue to the FBI—complete and undetectable access to mail, the diplomatic pouch; visual access to buildings—the possibilities are unlimited insofar as law enforcement and counterintelligence are concerned… It is difficult to see how the bureau can afford to not inquire into this matter more fully. Bureau interest can be completely discreet and controlled and no embarrassment would result.”
Foos went on to perform elaborate card tricks for FBI agents, CIA members, and leading military officers, but the government became suspicious when he refused to divulge his methods. After consulting a slew of psychologists and university studies, the FBI dropped the case, leaving behind this 40-page file on ESP.” http://mentalfloss.com/article/31258/9-intriguing-excerpts-old-fbi-files
===================
And, for those of you who have not recently enough, had the pleasures of guiding young minds through the pitfalls and minefields of modern linguistics – I present the following definition, in elaboration to my 3:44 post to Ozone:
faggot(n): a bundle of sticks or twigs, esp when bound together
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/faggot
No, K-dog. I took his meaning. I was just ranting in between study sessions. His statement that such an unfortunate incident here at home could inspire a youthful revolt was clear. Mine, as you pointed out, wasn’t.
Hedges dressed the sentiment of the elderly woman setting herself ablaze to parallel historic social tipping points quite poetically, as you have, I just don’t agree that revolutions happen that simply and and effectively – toppling governments, bringing down an established order? When? Where? Certainly not recently. Not through the people and cultures of today. If there isn’t enough evidence, disgust, and soothsaying about the major crimes perpetrated by our government to have made positive revolution happen by now, then there won’t ever be; even if the proverbial match were struck, it would be completely doused by the surveillance state, or, it would be allowed to burn so fiercely that all lines between the decent and evil folk would be blurred, making everyone a potential villain – name the social grudge just waiting to explode.
Nah, my point is that we’re beyond grand gestures such as that in this country. We’re beyond the point where chaining ourselves with bicycle locks in symbolic resistance to a Bloombergesque-police-goon-squad can have an effect in changing hearts and minds. This isn’t because revolution is impossible, only that ‘Mericun patriots have already chosen otherwise. We’ve chosen to allow Elite tyranny to reign. We’ve been bought and paid for, no different to the political class.
But I dooo appreciate your ability to remain cheery through it all. You’re a good dood, K-Dawgie.
-UFIA
” If there isn’t enough evidence, disgust, and soothsaying about the major crimes perpetrated by our government to have made positive revolution happen by now, then there won’t ever be; even if the proverbial match were struck, it would be completely doused by the surveillance state”
The surveillance state has done a thorough job keeping the major crimes perpetrated by our government secret and with chewing gum and tire patches what passes for an economy limps along. But a final congestive infarction will come and it may yet bring a moment when the pretending stops and things get real. The Merican public lives under a delusion that better times lie ahead and when the reality finally dawns on them that the only way better times can be had is if they make them happen themselves the surveillance state won’t be able to keep up.
Sadly I agree that the line between decent and evil folk is blurred and many of the elite responsible will escape justice. But change is coming. Of that the reality-based minority can’t deny. The orchestrated ignorance of the Merican people will mean the pain of many innocents before pretending stops and things get real. There is after all, a lot of pretending going on.
Doris Lessing died; somebody you should know.
Here’s a talk she gave; The Prisons We Choose to Live In;
http://www.cbc.ca/ideas/massey-archives/1985/11/07/massey-lectures-1985-prisons-we-choose-to-live-inside/
http://washington.cbslocal.com/2013/11/16/potentially-fatal-knockout-game-targeting-strangers-may-be-spreading-to-d-c/
Here’s a news article on the prisons of Political Correctness, ufia.
The article doesn’t mention race but the Folk have awakened as per the comments. As usual, the people are far ahead of those arrogant Leftists who desire to lead them.
I said “ufia,” but I meant “va.”
Wonder if there is overlap, here.
“If a square is referred to as a circle often enough, it will become a circle”. An observation by the father of modern advertising, Dr. Joe Goebbels.
Most point to Freud’s nephew Bernays as being that.
Edward Bernays bragged that his book “Crystalization Public Opinion” was prominently displayed in Joseph Goebbels private office.
The Amazon link.
From the introduction, (I have a copy).
“During the First World War, Bernays served as a foot soldier for the U.S. Committee on Public Information (CPI)– The vast American propaganda machine mobilized in 1917 to package, advertise and sell the war as one that would “Make the World Safe for Democracy.” The CPI would become the source from which marketing strategies for subsequent wars– including the spurious and deadly adventure in Iraq– would flow.
Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr Crystallizing Public Opinion
Oh well typos and mistakes from me are better than no comments from me at all. Though some may be of a different opinion.
“a wealthy man who cared for [he] and his wife’s dying parents – UFIA
==============
his
You really are a pedant. You understood her meaning (UFIA), but choose to be a spelling Nazi.
Jaysus!
Just amazing…
And this will disappear into the netherworld because the next installment is a mere 3 hours away.
May the gods have mercy…