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2017 was the kind of year when no amount of showers could wash off the feeling of existential yeccchhhhh that crept over you day after day like jungle rot. You needed to go through the carwash without your car… or maybe an acid bath would get the stink off. Cinematically, if 2016 was like The Eggplant That Ate Chicago, then 2017 was more like Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, a gruesome glimpse into the twisted soul of America. And by that I do not mean simply our dear leader, the Golden Golem of Greatness. We’re all in this horror show together.

2017 kicked off with the report by “seventeen intelligence agencies” — did you know there were so many professional snoops and busybodies on the US payroll? — declaring that Russia, and Vladimir Putin personally, tried to influence the 2016 presidential election. “Meddling” and “collusion” became the watch-words of the year: but what exactly did they mean? Buying $100,000 worth of Google ads in a campaign that the two parties spent billions on? No doubt the “seventeen intelligence agencies” the US pays for were not alert to these shenanigans until the damage was done. Since then it’s been Russia-Russia-Russia 24/7 on the news wires. A few pleas bargains have been made to lever-up the action. When and if the Special Prosecutor, Mr. Mueller, pounces, I expect the GGG to fire him, pardon some of the plea-bargained culprits (if that’s what they were and not just patsies), and incite a constitutional crisis. Won’t that be fun?

Anyway, that set the tone for the inauguration of the Golden Golem, a ghastly adversarial spectacle. Never in my memory, going back to JFK in 1960, was there such a bad vibe at this solemn transfer of power as with the sight of all those Deep State dignitaries gathering gloomily on the Capitol portico to witness the unthinkable. From the sour scowl on her face, I thought Hillary might leap up and attempt to garrote the GGG with a high-C piano wire right there on rostrum. The “greatest crowd ever” at an inauguration, as the new president saw it, looked pathetically sparse to other observers. The deed got done.

Five days later, the Dow Jones stock index hit the 20,000 mark and began a year-long run like no other in history: 50 all-time-highs, and a surge of 5000 points by year’s end, with 12 solid “winning” months of uptick. You’d think that would make a few thoughtful economists nervous, but there are no thoughtful economists left anywhere around the mainstream media, so this epochal bull market just received polite golf-claps at every new record. Apparently, the concept of financial risk had been bundled in a lead-lined box, flown 12,000 miles away from Wall Street in a Lockheed AC-130 military transport plane to some lonely valley of Turkmenistan, and buried under the shifting sands by local tribesmen sympathetic to America’s noble aims in the region.

Oh, and in the first months of the year, Mr. Trump announced it was “game on” once again in Afghanistan. Now there’s a place that ought to be the poster-child for America “winning” (not). Operations in that “Graveyard of Empires” are going on — what? — fourteen years now? Can one out of ten thousand Americans name a single battle that took place in this now-longest-running war in US history? Me neither. But, by the way, that’s what we’re doing in nearby Turkmenistan, in case you wondering.

The dog days of mid-summer were made grimmer by the riots in Charlottesville between a ragtag white supremacist corps and a battalion of Antifa warriors. One dead, which is a pretty low casualty number by US national standards for public mayhem. Statues of Confederate heroes came down all over Dixieland, and a few were ignominiously ushered out of Statuary Hall in the US Capitol under cover-of-night. It looked for a while there like some of the Founding Fathers — Washington, Jefferson, Madison, et al — were going to get the bum’s rush, too, for once owning slaves. But that hysteria died down and is now pretty much forgotten — to be replaced by new hysterias!

Fall kicked off a round of hurricanes in the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico like nothing we’d ever seen before — a long train-wreck of storms that nearly drowned Houston, put several Caribbean island out-of-business for years to come, and climaxed with the near-total destruction of Puerto Rico, where, months later about 40 percent of the island’s electricity is still off and the news media has lost interest in the story. Feliz Navidad, everybody! 2017 was the year that Cable News went All Opinion 24/7. The News channels no longer employ reporters out in the field. Every night now, they just “go to our panel.” Is it any wonder the public is so clueless?

Another story that dropped into the memory hole was the Mandalay Hotel massacre in Las Vegas. Fifty-eight killed by a mysterious gunman and 546 injured, a US record for civilian mass murder. All kinds of lingering loose ends dangle from that one, including the motives of the solitary, rather wealthy identified shooter, Stephen Paddock. The number of lawyers for the victims in that case may exceed the number of active players in the NFL.

Speaking of which, “the knee” is still an ongoing ritual, after a great deal of national kerfuffling inspired by tweets emanating from Golden Golem Central. For the record, I don’t give a fuck about it, nor generally for the NFL, since I think the days of professional mega-sports are numbered in this land. I will be happy when my little town in upstate New York has its own softball league.

Oh, there was a bit of good news this year: Russia Russia Russia (with the wicked Vlad Putin at its helm) managed to put an end to the Syrian civil war, without a whole lot of help from the US-Truly, which has been sending arms to various ISIS clans for years, even though they were our reviled enemy. What you have to admire in this case was how clear-cut the situation actually was without us muddying and bloodying it up — namely, who needs another failed state in the Middle East? (Apparently we do.)

2017 slid down the autumnal chute with a lively witch hunt for sexual predators and abusers in public life. Much as some of them might have deserved censure and perhaps prosecution, it was kind of sad to see their talents stuffed down the memory hole, most of all poor old Garrison Keillor, a truly great American who didn’t have to be vilified for petting some lady on her back, did he? I don’t think the story is over. I suspect an army of lawyers is at work in these cases behind the scenes and there will be a second act in 2018.

Surely I left out quite a bit of the action from the year now passing. Forgive me. I will be busy preparing the perhaps more interesting forecast for the year to come, while you citizens of Clusterfuck Nation gather around your hearths (or flat screen TVs) in the dark nights ahead, waiting for the Sainted Nicholas to bring your tax cuts, and sugar plums for the little ones. I’ll be back here on the morning of the Day-of-Days, preceding my annual journey to dim sum in the quaint old Dutch town that is New York State’s capital. Merry Christmas to all!


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

394 Responses to “2017 Year in Review”

  1. FallenHero December 22, 2017 at 10:28 am #

    When is this going down? Ive been waiting for a crash since the 2008 bank bailout

    • Robert White December 22, 2017 at 1:49 pm #

      The whole ‘thing’ should have gone down by now technically, but with a $1.8 quadrillion USD denominated Dark Pool Derivatives universe hanging over the global markets the prospect of a crash, or mean reversion correction, is pretty low. Too much mainland China ‘Hot’ money laundering speculative investment went into high-end RE over the last five years to witness a crash anytime soon. We have to wait for the QE Infinity unwind in order to evidence mean reversion across the board. And with all central banking sectors on guard for contagion set to be released in a controlled manner we will only witness micro-crashes here, there, and everywhere except in the banking casino establishments on Wall Street.

      The QE Infinity unwind is our only hope aside from Thermonuclear ‘Hot’ World War Three. The unwind will force the Zero Sum end game to the forefront, and the New World Disorder Zombie Apocalypse will manifest from there.

      RW

      • ozone December 22, 2017 at 4:51 pm #

        Robert,
        I’m appreciating your input, but could you do all of us gradual string-cutters a large favor? If you’re not writing up your posts from a phone or other non-keyboarded device, could you possibly do away with some of the acronyms (going forward)? I just see a lot of these abbreviations as another way to cloud understanding and complicate real communication. That might only be me, but I’m seeing more and more of it and catching less and less of the thrust of what people are trying to say because there’s a new acronym put into use every day.
        A picayune complaint, but thanks in advance!

        • Robert White December 22, 2017 at 5:09 pm #

          I was indoctrinated at ZeroHedge, but then the Tyler(s) booted me out because I called Orange Jesus Cheeto-head-in-chief TrumpO the AssClown too many times. Abbreviation via acronyms is the ZH way so I will have to unlearn what I was indoctrinated on, eh. Point taken, and I will attempt to conform somewhat given my nonconforming ways.

          RW

          • ozone December 23, 2017 at 9:00 am #

            Thanks Robert.
            And consider being cast out for mocking Cheeto von Tweeto a badge of honor! Sometimes you just gotta call ’em like you see ’em. — Neo-nazis and fascism-lovers aside; they can’t/won’t ‘see’ a damn thing. 😉

          • TiredOfTheTreadmill December 24, 2017 at 10:51 am #

            I can relate. I used to spar at Zero Hedge too, but all it did was make more stupid, like the regular posters there. The regular cast of Zeroes at that place are some of the most miserable and loathsome assholes on the planet.

  2. akmofo December 22, 2017 at 10:30 am #

    Where is the life? Where are the people? Jim, I’ve browsed your drawings, and what I see is soul ripping loneliness and decay.
    Contrast with:
    https://www.icanvas.com/canvas-art-prints/artist/pierre-auguste-renoir

    • James Howard Kunstler December 22, 2017 at 10:41 am #

      The landscape of our time is populated only by cars. The landscape of Renoir, Van Gogh, Monet, was full of peasants, workers, people going about their business. — JHK

      • lateStarter December 22, 2017 at 11:39 am #

        I actually think the paintings are getting better and better. The post-collapse ones will be the best.

      • Cavepainter December 22, 2017 at 12:15 pm #

        Thanks Jim. Needing to be re-registered by less narrowed reading of history (as we get by the pixilized tidbits stripped of broader contextual meaning by the PC inquisition crowd) for nearly two centuries now the East Coast publicist (indentured media) have bombarded working and rural people general with negative propaganda. The ever mythologizing/aggrandizing of the North’s purposes for conducting the Civil War has been part-and-parcel to this, obscuring (down the memory hole) of northern held sentiments that against today’s ‘inquisitors’ would be judged as not PC.

      • Walter B December 22, 2017 at 12:46 pm #

        I have found over the course of my lifetime that “humor” is not only distracting but it leaves a hollow sensation within when it wears off as the blunt truth or reality sinks in. I have not only found a suitable replacement but one that is far more uplifting and which leaves those who partake in the effort with a satisfaction and joy that lasts forever. That is the thrill of accomplishment, especially of rooting out a problem, designing a solution, and then implementing it. Those who strive together in such endeavors can compile them all and as the accomplishments mount up, so does the joy.

        I loved watching George Carlin, though I quickly understood that it was not really “humor” as much as it was pure, raw truth. It was not only sad to see the entertainment addicted laughing at their own retardation, but sad as well once I realized that George himself was noticeably non-plussed as he witnessed the effect, (or lack thereof) on the crowd.

      • PeteAtomic December 22, 2017 at 8:23 pm #

        You paint some pretty good cars there though, boy. It looks like there is a few old ford pickups that inhabit your little town there. 🙂

        • K-Dog December 24, 2017 at 5:36 pm #

          He paints them as they rust away. Like people, cars zipping by at 60 are hard to paint. Holding up a brush at arm’s length and squinting to get the size right. No time for that.

      • SpeedyBB December 22, 2017 at 8:33 pm #

        Has it occurred to anyone that the gorgeous hi-def ‘screensavers’ featured on the web have one curious feature in common: the near-total absence of humanity, amidst the snow-capped mountains and majestic bodies of water and soaring skies.

        My conclusion is that we are one and all so fucking sick and tired of looking at one another, as the numbers head toward eight billion, that the only visual / intellectual ‘rest’ is to imagine dehumanized nature.

        I first got this notion when watching a Jacques Tati film – cities, beaches, street scenes all displayed such a relative rarity of humans. And that was already in the 1950s, when the population was popping after all the WW II excitement.

        ‘Virtual reality’. ‘Hikikomori’. Artificial escape from the press of humanity?

        • Walter B December 22, 2017 at 8:44 pm #

          Excellent point and yes I have. I attribute this to the fact that the beauty of creation is magnificent to behold, especially in hi-def, while people pretty much all look bad in the same detail. That plus the fact that when nature is disturbed by our species the view turns to shit.

        • Janos Skorenzy December 22, 2017 at 9:29 pm #

          As the races are mixed, unique beauty is lost until we will all look like generic grey East Indian Steet Dogs. Messing up our diet and various toxins will suffice until that hellish apotheosis.

          • Walter B December 23, 2017 at 3:16 pm #

            Those of us that truly embraced diversity were always able to appreciate the differences and the value in those who were different. Those who are manipulating the masses into total interbreeding through social pressure are in fact murdering diversity as your comment alludes. It is really sad and rather frightening how left has become right, good has become bad, right has become wrong. It is surely written that such portents do not bode for the future.

          • Walter B December 23, 2017 at 4:29 pm #

            Bode well for the future that is. Merry Christmas guys!

          • K-Dog December 24, 2017 at 5:40 pm #

            I bet you look pretty grey, A ‘Nightstalker’ does not get out in the sun much so you have to be pale. You are saying that when we are allmixed everyone will be grey like you. That is what you wrote.

            So then I ponder what your problem is and I realize you hate yourself. Wanting toxins in the meantime is icing on your cake.

    • elysianfield December 22, 2017 at 1:30 pm #

      “what I see is soul ripping loneliness and decay.”

      Mofo,
      Were I that…sensitive. All I see are pictures….

      • akmofo December 22, 2017 at 1:55 pm #

        Did you see the comparison contrast I provided?
        It’s not only the subject matter, but the choice of color palette. Though I do agree, I am very sensitive 🙂

    • TiredOfTheTreadmill December 24, 2017 at 10:58 am #

      Because nature has no life in it? Or is human life the only life that counts? Sounds like a difference of perspective between an extrovert and an introvert. Or a city dweller who views an empty lot as wilderness and those who have actually been in the wilderness.

  3. hmuller December 22, 2017 at 10:47 am #

    An Australian named Brendon O’Connell has been imprisoned for Anti-semitic remarks. “To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticise” – a quote falsely attributed to Voltaire, but containing much truth nonetheless..

    • beantownbill. December 22, 2017 at 11:17 am #

      Stupid comment. What exactly did this man say? Under what circumstances? Was it just a comment, or did he start shouting in front of a Synogogue, or in a school? And so forth.

      Before you make a comment, especially

      • beantownbill. December 22, 2017 at 11:21 am #

        Stupid comment. What exactly did this man say? Under what circumstances? Was it just a comment, or did he start shouting in front of a Synogogue, or in a school? And so forth.

        Before you make a comment, especially an anti-Semitic one, think what you’re about to say, and provide adequate facts lest you come across unintentionally as an asshole.

        • malthuss December 22, 2017 at 11:24 am #

          When you feel threatened, you call someone stupid.

          • beantownbill. December 22, 2017 at 11:41 am #

            No, when I read something stupid I call it the way I see it. One of my pet peeves is people making dumb comments. I like reasoned discourse, even if I don’t necessarily agree.

          • elysianfield December 22, 2017 at 12:44 pm #

            Bill,
            Can you give a measured, honest reason why the Holocaust cannot be questioned in Germany? Or in the US, for that matter? Cannot be critically studied? I, myself, am at a loss as to why.

            Ditto Race in America.
            _____________

            JHK editing here instead of simply replying: I consider Holocaust denial stupid and evil and it is definitely one subject that we are not going to debate on this website, so don’t even think about dragging it into the discussion.

          • akmofo December 22, 2017 at 1:05 pm #

            @elysianfield

            Why should the Holocaust be questioned?

          • Walter B December 22, 2017 at 1:48 pm #

            No, stupid is real, there is an awful lot of it going about, and it has NO cure. In fact the US public school system rakes in billions of dollars by producing large quantities of stupid on a yearly basis.

      • akmofo December 22, 2017 at 12:57 pm #

        Bill, don’t bother. He’s a jihadistani paliwood propaganda troll. Why feed the trolls?

      • Wallumi December 22, 2017 at 10:48 pm #

        Instead of asking those questions in reply, you could very easily have investigated the answers before posting such reply. Unfortunately that deficit makes your reply far more stupid than the post it seeks to attack.

        Perhaps one of the keystone conundrums ventilated on this blog site is that of the unfortunate patterns of stupidity arising from human response and actions predicated by emotional disturbance from conditions unfamiliar or disruptive to our learned beliefs. Such uncomfortable stimuli gives us an all too often invisible choice. We can simply succumb to the emotion and react in accordance with our established prejudice. Alternatively, as a first response, we can act to find out a bit more and thereby test the real state of our awareness on the matter and the validity of our attendant emotional reaction.

        Essentially your advice in reply is correct. You simply failed to follow it yourself.

        • Wallumi December 22, 2017 at 10:50 pm #

          The reply above is to beantownbill. The post sequence doesn’t make that clear.l

        • beantownbill. December 23, 2017 at 11:44 am #

          I’m not sure you got my point. The point was for him (hmuller) to write a logical, informative comment using critical thinking. I wasn’t really interested in answers. I was trying to get him to realize how unthinking racial and ethnic prejudice is.

    • hmuller December 22, 2017 at 11:42 am #

      Yes, I don’t know why that comment was censored. It was hardly outrageously hate filled.

      • OHealihy December 23, 2017 at 11:40 am #

        OHealihyDecember 22, 2017 at 11:32 am #

        @hmuller
        I think I am replying to the same comment as you, but that comment has been disappeared. The original asked a question as to the nature of a “Golden Golem of Greatness” type appellation for the Prime Minister of a place formerly known, to those of us of a certain age, as Palestine. It did beg the question: what should we use, and how to have some fun with it ?
        I am not anti-semetic, but I am preternaturally irreverent; especially regarding all of the sacred cows of the various cultures and religions, including my own.
        I offer the following for your consideration:
        THE……..:
        Controller of Combination Citizens,
        Grand Golem of Golan
        Lying Liar of the Levant
        Preposterous Potentate of the Protocols
        Zionist Zealot of Zaanannim
        NOTE: No holocausts were denied in the creation of this comment.
        Cut it again; show us what you are!

  4. Dumbedup December 22, 2017 at 10:48 am #

    White Supremacists were ragtag and the Antifa were an organized battalion. First I’ve hear of that. Those White Supremacists looked pretty well equipped to me.

    GGG – the most unpopular President in history elected by a fluke.

    Russian meddling – so what?

    Collusion between Russians and the Trump campaign is a big deal.

    Syria – we were trying to find a solution that did not include Assad remaining as the leader. Had we supported keeping him in power this would have been over with 4 years ago. But how could we?

    Stock Market/economy – we are due for a correction, but there is no sign of recession … yet. The correction will be vicious, but also an opportunity to make some money. Recession is still a couple of years off and the GOP tax bill may have postponed it further. The real problems this country faces are lack of wage growth, cost of healthcare and student loan debt.

    Weather – HAARP backfired, but is still being refined. That’s a joke, but paying for storm cleanup is not. It did not use to be political. Everything has a political purpose now.

    Other than the economy what will eventually tear this country apart, if it has not already done so, are extremists on both sides. We’ve always disagreed about how to do things, but we managed by compromise. Nowadays, if you compromise you are a RINO or a DINO. Feelings have hardened, emotions are raw and we are pitted against each other by a government that is simply trying to hang on by whatever means possible. It is political sleight of hand.

    2018 will simply be more of the same. We will keep deficit funding the government and Mueller will end his investigation without going after Trump. A few more Manaforts will fall, but nothing more.The stock market will rally on to 30,000 by year’s end. TSHTF in 2019 or 2020 when Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security cuts are enacted. It could happen this year but I don’t think Republicans will risk it after passing a highly unpopular tax bill.

    2020 is the year I am eligible for full SS retirement. I don’t expect it to be there or if is the benefit will be a lot less than would currently be payable at age 66.

    All of this is a generational shift. The effects will linger for 50 or more years even though reversing these policies may start much sooner. Much depends upon how much is left of the government and the economy.

    • windward December 22, 2017 at 10:59 am #

      Please explain how Social Security can be cut. I understand the effect of the Chained Consumer Price Index. Other than that, how can Social Security be cut?

      • My Point of View December 22, 2017 at 11:14 am #

        I’m sure Lyin Ryan has all sorts of ways and plans to cut Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, TANF, etc. Cutting safety nets are what he lives for and what he is paid for by the Koch Bros and their John Birch Society agenda.

        • outsider December 22, 2017 at 12:49 pm #

          Speaker Ryan is an acolyte of Ayn Rand and her Virtue of Selfishness. Reviewing her magnum opus, “Atlas Shrugged,” Whitaker Chambers said that her view toward the common riffraff was “to the gas chambers – GO.” Sometimes I think Ryan and his GOP ilk feel the same. Too many useless eaters out there.

          • Janos Skorenzy December 22, 2017 at 9:26 pm #

            Yes, he likes Trump now!

          • SpeedyBB December 23, 2017 at 12:47 am #

            ‘…useless eaters…’ It’s a popular meme on the web today – the first time I ever saw it was in a quote by Josef Goebbels in a David Irving biography of the Nazi propaganda minister, commenting on why euthanasia was the proper way to deal with the handicapped.

            Don’t know how it leaked into such general usage.

            As for Whittaker Chambers his name always conjures up the image of a blowjob. Funny world.

      • DeltaKilo December 22, 2017 at 11:43 am #

        By pushing the retirement age forward for those who are not drawing yet, just like they did in 1983 (the changes stated in 2000, I believe).

        • windward December 22, 2017 at 1:33 pm #

          This might happen, but my question is, how would they do it? It would require a change in the law. “They” – the right wing savages, but I repeat myself – can’t change the law by themselves

          I ask again, how are they going to cut Social Security? Do you think they have enough votes, or enough power, to change the law?

          The most important point is that almost everyone seems to believe that Social Security is a government welfare program that is busting the budget, so cutting it would reduce the deficit. This is one of the most vicious lies ever told.

          Social Security has no effect on the deficit. Those who say that it does are lying, or they don’t know any better.

          Shouting this lie to their supporters is a good scare tactic for those who want to protect Social Security. What ought to scare us is that so many are willing to spread an obvious lie and so many more of us think it is the truth.

          • outsider December 22, 2017 at 4:32 pm #

            @windward,

            It is not a lie! SS would have no effect on the deficit IF it had remained a separate fund, which was its original intent. But Congress could not keep their grubby hands off of the huge windfall, so it just transferred all the FICA surplus into the general fund, where it has been helping to pay for bombs and other expenses, and also reduce the deficit. With the baby boomers now retiring in droves, the fund will go into deficit at some point – if it hasn’t already. If SS had remained a separate fund, it could have taken care of itself. Now, if you open the SS vault, nothing is there except a bunch of worthless IOUs.

          • windward December 22, 2017 at 5:58 pm #

            outsider, if you want to prove that Social Security affects the deficit, you must explain how it does. But you don’t. You can’t. It doesn’t.

            One problem is that you are confusing a deficit in the Social Security Trust Fund with a US government deficit. Can’t you see that they are entirely different?

            Surplus Social Security money has always been lent to the government. That borrowed money is a government debt like any other. The government has always spent that money as it does any other borrowed money.

            When it is lent to the government it decreases the deficit. When the government must pay it back it increases the deficit. The net result on the deficit is zero. This is true for any government borrowing.

            There is a deficit only when the money that the government collects but DOES NOT have to pay back, known as taxes, is not enough to cover what the government spends.

            Borrowing money to cover the deficit does not cause the deficit. It has no net effect on deficit. The only cause of the deficit is the Republican Party, which exists to give tax cuts to the rich regardless of the consequences.

            If those IOU’s are worthless, so are all other Treasury Bonds. But so far the T-Bill has been the most secure investment in the world. Therefore your claim that they are worthless is worthless.

            But if they ever do become worthless, it means that JHK’s
            predictions have finally come to pass, which would not surprise me. If they do, we won’t have a government anymore. No more worries about the deficit then. Instead we will have a life that is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short. If there is any life left on a ruined, irradiated planet.

            J.H.C. this makes me tired. Can’t anybody here play this game? Outsider, you need to take a look at the rule book.

          • outsider December 22, 2017 at 7:00 pm #

            Windward,

            If it makes you tired, why did you write such a long comment? There are many who believe as you do, but I choose to stand by my comment. When there are only two workers for every SS recipient something’s gotta give. And Medicare is already bankrupt.

            The simplest way to make SS solvent for the future would be to completely eliminate the earnings cap. But neither party is willing to go there.

          • PeteAtomic December 22, 2017 at 8:38 pm #

            thanks for your knowledge on social security there, Windward.
            Personally I’m rather ignorant about it, so it’s good to have some education on the subject.

            It seems rather convoluted, probably causing too much confusion.

            So, essentially, if the wealthy were to pay more taxes, it would help keep social security solvent.

            I’m not opposite of that view, essentially now that we are in the “Forever War” against X terror.

          • windward December 23, 2017 at 12:37 am #

            Thanks Pete Atomic. Outsider, I get tired trying to explain what should be obvious. Social Security has no effect on the federal deficit. It is a vicious lie that cutting Social Security would reduce the deficit.

            Apart from that, as I have been asking here without any credible response, how can these savages cut Social Security? It is clear that that most people believe that it must be cut to reduce the deficit. And it has become impossible to achieve a responsible tax program that would bring the deficit down to a manageable level. So most people just assume that Social Security will be cut. But how? Tell me that.

            Not that I don’t know the answer. I am just trying to show those who think it will be cut don’t know the answer. It can’t be cut, not without changing the law. And the savages do not have the power to change it. Let them try.

            The federal deficit was never a serious problem until Old Mr. Morning in America blew the deficit sky high with his smarmy lies and false promises, all in service to the rich parasites who run this place. What we got was voodoo economics, the old trickle down trick. Tax cuts for the parasites, because they are the job creators. Right. Con job creators. But most of us ate it up, so there is plenty of blame to go around.

            You continue to confuse a deficit in the Social Security program with a deficit in the finances of the federal government. At least you have not yet grasped what I am getting at here. I know that Social Security will need some tweaks soon, but that is an entirely different problem from the federal budget deficit, on which Social Security has NO EFFECT WHATSOEVER. But like most people, Dumbedup thinks it does. I am trying to show why this is wrong.

            Many “believe” as I do? There are many who believe in gravity. If someone “chose” to say that it doesn’t exist, I suppose you would say that we can’t reach a consensus on the subject. Do you begin to see why this makes me tired? A responsible citizen takes on the job anyway.

          • ozone December 23, 2017 at 9:32 am #

            “Social Security has no effect on the federal deficit. It is a vicious lie that cutting Social Security would reduce the deficit.

            Apart from that, as I have been asking here without any credible response, how can these savages cut Social Security? ”

            windward,
            I have no idea how they would go about even politico-‘splainin’ changes in the law, much less actually doing it. (In the dead of a weekend night with no press coverage rings a faint bell though.) Because then the proverbial third-rail would be firmly grasped. Third-rail issues are politically deadly because they are REVEALING of the sausage-making process; that’s why they are avoided. If nothing else, Trump’s blundering and bloviating is initiating *many* big revelations, no matter the reluctance to pry open these sacrosanct lock-boxes. That is his one service to the ordinary citizen: a proper elevation of cynicism and outrage at the self-serving M.O. of the whole system (as it has been ‘gamed’ since the complete corporate takeover).

          • windward December 23, 2017 at 11:13 am #

            Right on, ozone.

          • messianicdruid December 23, 2017 at 8:55 pm #

            Here is how you cut social security. You giving 2% raises every year while the actual inflation rate is higher. If you use a number like ten percent, for example, you get ab 8% cut every year. Stealth.

      • Robert White December 22, 2017 at 1:20 pm #

        The International Monetary Fund sends out a lanky Ms. Legarde to direct sovereign nations to increase the Age of Eligibility to 67 instead of 65. Ms. Legarde actually did that to CANADA when the EU needed bail-in money back when the HarperCONs were in power fellating the George W. Bush Torture Regime, and CFR PNAC preposterousness.

        RW

        • malthuss December 22, 2017 at 5:37 pm #

          She did talk of 7s..7s..7s….check that talk on You tube.
          Magic Numbers.

          • Robert White December 22, 2017 at 6:37 pm #

            cool, lol, I’ll check it when I can access High Speed. I’m still on dialup 56k modem where high speed internet videos can’t run due to too low a download speed over the telephone wire. 56k modems can’t pull enough information bits.

            I do love the illuminati numerology stuff though, and Ms. Legarde is their princess of darkness so to speak.

            🙂

            lol

            RW

      • Dumbedup December 22, 2017 at 3:33 pm #

        Perhaps you should ask Paul Ryan.

        Chained CPI is just another way to cap increases – an indirect cut like raising the retirement age. The GOP could implement a direct cut to benefits by means testing recipients. That’s been an idea that has been kicked around since Reagan.

        • outsider December 22, 2017 at 4:44 pm #

          @Dumbedup,

          Means testing is already with us. Starting next year, those on Medicare above $85,000 single and $170,000 married filing joint will see progressive increases in both their Medicare B and D. For example, my Part B will go up from the standard amount of $134/mo to $428.60. And my Part D has gone up $74.80, leaving my net SS no higher than an SSI recipient who’s never worked.

    • Janos Skorenzy December 22, 2017 at 6:26 pm #

      White Supremacists? What does that mean? You mean Whites who think they have equal rights – such as the right to organize and protest?

      Siding with the Left on this is a vote for the Totalitarianism you are supposedly against.

  5. volodya December 22, 2017 at 11:02 am #

    There’s an old saying that everything you say before the word “but” doesn’t count.

    So Ian McKellen sez that people must be called out for sexual harassment yada yada…

    And then the “but”.

    “But” he sez that early in his career women would offer sex in exchange for acting roles. They would forward pictures of themselves to directors with the letters DRR written on the bottom, meaning Director’s Rights Respected. Meaning you can screw me black and blue if I get the role.

    IOW women helped with both hands in creating the sexual culture of Hollywood.

    Circumstances alter cases as the Romans used to say. They take on a different hue once you paint in the context.

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    • My Point of View December 22, 2017 at 11:37 am #

      Plenty of truth to what you say, a lot of women have always been willing to use the casting couch to get ahead in Hollywood and elsewhere.

      Some say they are victims but I would say it’s a victimless crime if there’s no coercion and one voluntarily participates in pay-play games. Weinstein, et al, just went far overboard and now get what they earned.

      Some of my female co-workers used to joke about how “if a man wants to play the man has to pay” …. for dinner, drinks, show, baby sitter, taxi, hotel room, etc. The ‘pay to play’ game has gone on for centuries and is a corollary to the male mantra of “chase, challenge, conquer” for getting laid.

      Ask yourself this….in an era of relative equality, if a man pays $200-500 for a night on the town with a woman, she pays for nothing, they both wanted to get laid, and the man looks at himself in the mirror the next day thinking he’s a bomb-diggity stud boy, but he’s out $$$$ while she still has her $$$$, so who REALLY got conquered here? My work was in DC with the Federal Government, and believe me, women were paid the same as men in our offices, there was no pay gap, and women were often the boss as well as the co-workers.

      When women were denied college educations, good jobs, etc, there was an unfair bias against them; they were almost forced onto casting couches, but that’s mostly changed. Half of my doctors, lawyers, realtors, bankers, etc, are female and I like them. Hell, my UROLOGIST is a female and she deals with my prostate issues just fine.

      It’s a sticky area with plenty of gray between the black and white cases, and as you say, context is key, context being circumstances, motive, intent, ability, ways and means, etc.

      • outsider December 22, 2017 at 12:56 pm #

        Mr. K again makes the case that Garrison Keillor has been wronged by this nonsensical career-ending accusation. I hope he’s one of the ones planning to sue the shit out of his former employer.

      • malthuss December 22, 2017 at 5:38 pm #

        Plenty of truth to what you say, a lot of women and men have always been willing to use the casting couch to get ahead in Hollywood and elsewhere./ fixed that.

      • Janos Skorenzy December 22, 2017 at 6:30 pm #

        Yes, the world’s oldest profession. Got food? Women will sell themselves to eat once the crisis hits.

        One of the noblest figures of antiquity was a beautiful courtesan who considered sex an Art and didn’t charge for it. She was famous in the Roman World, supporting herself thru knitting until she renounced the world to become an anchorite.

        • outsider December 22, 2017 at 6:41 pm #

          Welcome Janos. I wrote a remark below asking where you were. As some comments have been stricken by our host today, I was hoping that you weren’t banned.

          • Janos Skorenzy December 22, 2017 at 9:20 pm #

            Saw it. Thanks. One does well to lie low on Monday mornings when the Tiger prowls! I’m on Pacific Time in any case.

        • hmuller December 22, 2017 at 10:45 pm #

          Did she knit during sex? I once knew a woman who talked non-stop during sex. Would not shut up. Finally, I made her hang up the phone.

          • Janos Skorenzy December 23, 2017 at 12:59 am #

            I don’t imagine so. She was an artist of love. The seamstress stuff was just to support herself – and of course, keeping them separate is what made her an amazing person.

          • SpeedyBB December 23, 2017 at 1:10 am #

            By the way, I suggest you provide a translation for ‘hang up the phone’ in case any puzzled Millennials happen to be reading this.

      • aibohphobia December 23, 2017 at 8:02 pm #

        Works both ways these days–
        I had a female supervisor hitting on me. She knew I was married and I told her I was not interested, but she would do things like snapping my suspenders repeatedly. Telling her to stop would only prompt her to say, “What are you gonna do about it?”
        Finally, I stopped wearing suspenders and went with belts.
        She would ask me to bring paperwork by her house, “but not until after 9 PM.” I always claimed I couldn’t find the place.
        For her it was a power thing. She once said to me, “I can do anything I want to you.”

        From her mood swings and the fact that she had a stroke at age 37, I am pretty sure she was doing cocaine, so maybe that had something to do with it… Anyway, it wasn’t fun.

  6. malthuss December 22, 2017 at 11:21 am #

    Is Blockchain here to stay?

    • My Point of View December 22, 2017 at 11:40 am #

      Not in my opinion. Bitcoin sold off overnight, but 25% and I think it’s on its way to the scrap pile of scams and schemes.

    • Robert White December 22, 2017 at 1:10 pm #

      Long Island Iced Tea(tm) thinks so.

      RW

      • malthuss December 22, 2017 at 5:22 pm #

        who?

        • Robert White December 22, 2017 at 5:43 pm #

          Long Island Iced Tea(tm) Inc. added blockchain tech to their stock so that people would buy Long Island Iced Tea(tm) stock and increase sales of LIIT-Stock exponentially like other cryptocurrencies. Their creativity, and professionalism, with respect to strategically increasing market share is mind blowingly apt. Watch Long Island Iced Tea(tm) stock hit the stratosphere just as Bitcoin did.

          RW

          • Ol' Scratch December 22, 2017 at 7:35 pm #

            Guess you’ve drunk the Kool-Aid now too, eh, Robert? No fool like an educated fool!

          • malthuss December 22, 2017 at 8:53 pm #

            thanks

    • messianicdruid December 23, 2017 at 9:38 pm #

      “You can’t stop it.” Bill Gates

  7. pequiste December 22, 2017 at 11:28 am #

    And how about the Great Bitcoin Mania of 2017?

    A year ago at $894 then creeping up to over $1,000 2 Feb 17.

    Then gaining some legs, the senior crypto-currency finally burst through the 5K mark 12 OCt 17.

    A short time later, 1 Dec 17, the money from around-the-world was pouring into the speculative energy-hogging digital currency chimera, and Bitcoin hits $10,000.

    Just the needed extra hysteria, along with Russia, Russia, Russia, Sex Scandal, Sex Scandal, Sex, Scandal, ISIS, ISIS, ISIS, and Best Korea, Best Korea, Best Korea……. to make the last month of the year a bender to remember.

    So we see the ICBM ( information-age currency bullshit manifestation) blast off to a staggering value of $19,343 on 16 Dec.

    Wow, a handful of computer nerds, criminals and speculators are looking to make a freaking killing with this thing. It will beat the Dow to 25,000 to be sure the techno-narcissists say. And 100,000 is easily in the near term sights as wallet stealing, exchange hacking, a history of shady deals and other probable manipulations from Silicon Valley’s best connected to Pyongyang’s party poopin’ cyber warriors have no effect on the money of the future.

    IT IS DIFFERENT THIS TIME!

    Uh, sorry, not so fast. From 16 Dec 17 to Today, 22 Dec, the Bitcoin we have come to know – invincible crypto-currency was down to a shocking low of $10,834 a couple of hours ago. It has come back a couple of thousand dollars since but…..A fall of 44% since to top one week ago.

    NOw that is stability we all can believe in. I am exhausted just thinking about it. I do, however, want to know how many people jumped out of tall buildings about all this.

    What will Santa bring us all this Xmass? Like you, I cannot wait to see the next contestant for Celebrity Perv Christmas Edition!

    It promises to be so disgusting and slimy you will need a session in an autoclave.

  8. Ludwig Beck December 22, 2017 at 11:35 am #

    The clusterfuck confict in Syria is perhaps the most complex and potentially dangerous situation since the end of World War II. I don’t think anybody, including those in this so-called Deep State, fully grasps what is going on in Syria and where it will lead. Syria doesn’t have any oil worth talking about.

    The civil war in Syria is definitely not over. And they still don’t have any oil.

    Syria also rates more space than talk of the NFL in a thousand-word column. Jus sayin

    Cable news went all-opinion at least a decade ago. It didn’t happen this year.

    I’d recommend Neil Postman’s 1985 classic Amusing Ourselves to Death. It never gets old.

    There was nothing remarkable on TV, on “film,” or in music. Since the advent of smart-phones in 2007 there has been nothing new in technology. Xbox One X was released this year for $499 and there is a new game “Pub-G” which looks decent but not ground-breaking. I only know this because I visited the Microsoft store in Prudential Mall last week. The store is above and behind the Tesla showroom on Boylston Street. The renovation of the entire complex was completed last year, maybe early this year. I can’t remember. It looks good. Boston is booming but I’m pretty sure only tourists go in the Tesla shop. They’ve removed a lot of the public/street charging stations that they installed about 5 years ago. You see Teslas, but rarely, around here. My brother in California just bought a Nissan Leaf.

    The Tesla showroom is a hundred yards away and across the street from where the second Chechen pressure-cooker went off at the Marathon in 2013. That event was I think the last one that got Americans’ attention before Trump was elected. The record-setting mass shooting in Las Vegas this year was literally forgotten by the rest of the country in 3 days. None of these incidents increases the average daily violent-death-toll in the US by anything noticeable. The US is pretty safe. Maybe a little less so if you are black.

    The nation (or empire) has in my opinion been in very slow, shallow decline since about 1969 (moon-landing, Vietnam, peak-oil).

    There is a 50% chance 2018 will look more like 2016 than 2017. There is a 50% chance 2018 will look more like 2017 than 2016. That’s my forecast. I’m frequently  right. I have a crystal ball. And it’s very clear.

    The big news of 2017 is that Trump is still in office and everybody who breathlessly predicted and warned about all kinds of stuff was wrong. That’s twice in a row.

    They were wrong before November 2016 and then after  November 2016 they forgot they were idiots.

    The not-big news of 2017 is that they are still at it. They never learn.

    The other big news of 2017 (again, in my opinion) is the unpredicted wave of sexual harassment/assault witch-hunts/allegations. How long will it go on? is my only question. I’m only surprised anybody is still even mildly interested. Until women start coming forward at the time of the alleged incidents instead of decades later, nothing will change. There are no excuses anymore. There haven’t been any excuses for that type of behavior in this country since the early nineties. Men get away with it because women let them get away with it for very selfish reasons.

    In other news –

    The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports life expectancy in 2016 in America declined for the second year in a row because of the opioid crisis.

    Afghanistan is not important. It hasn’t been since 2011.

    2017 was the year that suddenly a large number of people embraced the term “Deep State.” Sure it exists. But nobody is able to define it in any less vague terms than when defining “God.” Maybe God is a conspiracy, too.

    I’m sure I’m forgetting something.

    • pequiste December 22, 2017 at 11:49 am #

      Au contraire about Shitholistan. It is significant in several ways:

      – We, the U.S.S.A and its allies have been there officially since 07 Oct 2001.

      That is an insane amount of time. Consider how long it took to conclude WWII? Against the Nazis and the Japanese Empire!

      – No matter what is done, victory is never achieved.

      Great job by Republican and Democrat administrations alike and the brass at The Puzzle Palace.

      – Helping to make friends all over the Yzlamik world by continued military presence and activities. Collateral damage at weddings and Bacha Bazi festivals really piss the Afghanis a whole bunch.

      • Ludwig Beck December 22, 2017 at 12:07 pm #

        We’ve been officially involved in Afghanistan for a lot longer than 16 years.

        Read this:

        The Great Gamble: The Soviet War in Afghanistan

        And this:

        Eisenhower in Kabul

      • hmuller December 22, 2017 at 12:13 pm #

        And we’ll keep bombing their weddings until they acknowledge us as friends!

        But seriously, I suspect controlling a certain medicinal export Afghanistan produces has been a big motivation to the alphabet agencies Black Ops divisions.

        Trump is at war with the deep state globalists and recently started bombing some of their processing facilities in Afghanistan. This thing isn’t over. I hope to see the day Hillary and her Wall Street friends are dragged off to GITMO in orange jump suits and chains.

        • elysianfield December 22, 2017 at 1:09 pm #

          “And we’ll keep bombing their weddings until they acknowledge us as friends! ”

          Muller,
          Correct! The beatings will continue until morale improves….

          • Walter B December 22, 2017 at 2:04 pm #

            When the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.

        • ffkling December 22, 2017 at 1:22 pm #

          “Trump is at war with the deep state globalists.” Yes, President Dump to the rescue. Just one problem…..his administration is comprised of the deepest of deep state globalists from Goldman Sachs, Exxon, and the military-industrial complex. Nevertheless, it makes for a nice talking point.

          • ozone December 23, 2017 at 10:07 am #

            “Nevertheless, it makes for a nice talking point.”

            ffkling,
            LOL Good one.

            As far as Afghanistan, the reasons given for continued boot-presence has the stink of the same bullshit of our grand crusade in Viet-raq. It’s now come down to a simple face-saving exercise.* LBJ knew Vietnam was lost in late ’64-early ’65, yet he persisted because the dumb fuck didn’t want to ‘lose’. …So he figured he’d simply bomb them into submission. How’d that work out?

            *This leaves out the immensely lucrative drug trade, but the machinery of that is known only to the most secretive and dangerous people on the face of the earth. I refuse to speculate and leave their devices and misery-making to them.

            “Through years of clouded evenings, I plied a killer’s trade,
            But sharing deadly secrets makes even hardened men afraid…”

    • beantownbill. December 22, 2017 at 12:34 pm #

      Tuesday, I had to drive along Washington Street near Downtown Crossing. I live on the South Shore. And most of my business is there, so I rarely drive into Boston. 20 years ago most of my business was in town. I knew my way around Boston like the back of my hand.

      I have to confess that on Tuesday I had a lot of trouble figuring out how to get from one place to another, there’s been so many changes in road construction, as well as building construction. Ever since they took down the Central Artery, my Boston sense of direction has gone downhill. Such is progress.

    • Janos Skorenzy December 22, 2017 at 6:35 pm #

      All of the Arts are Lies until they begin to talk about the big Issue: the Death of Western Culture and the White Race. Suicide? One can make just as good a case that it’s murder.

  9. beantownbill. December 22, 2017 at 11:37 am #

    2017 was a hell of a year. Looking back and putting it in perspective, it feels like we are sinking further into the muck. So much for draining the swamp.

    On a positive note, we didn’t have an armed, organized insurrection, states didn’t secede, food delivery systems didn’t fail, the economy didn’t crash, we didn’t get nuked or nuke another country, no big space rock smashed into us, and TEOTWAWKI didn’t happen. At least for now. Who knows about 2018?

    • volodya December 22, 2017 at 11:56 am #

      The reason that Trump won is because, in wide areas of the country, the economy did crash, the end of the world as they knew it DID happen. You’re old enough to have known the Rust Belt before it was the Rust Belt. So am I.

      On the coasts there’s this absurd notion that “education”, ie college degrees is what fly-over America lacks. No, sadly, college degrees are not the answer. Everyone can have two graduate degrees but with factories packing up and heading to Mexico and China those degrees will avail you nothing.

      I’ve seen it, at this point the bi-coastal clerisy gets huffy and yells, IT’S OVER, those factories aren’t coming back. Maybe that’s true. But the global trading arrangement as it is, is in no way workable either. Trump’s presence in the White House ought to have been the wake up call. So should be the tens of thousands dying of opiate overdoses, so should be the flip side of that coin, the proliferation of militia groups.

      TEOTWAWKI is indeed afoot, the indicators are thick on the ground. Orwell used to say that people can go their entire lives not seeing what’s under their nose. Other people say that people will not understand something if they’re paid to not understand it. Both I would say are severely self destructive behaviors.

      The western Roman empire came asunder over about two centuries. It crumbled bit by bit and then crashed down. The crumbling we can see now. We’ve been watching it for 40 years.

      • capt spaulding December 22, 2017 at 12:16 pm #

        Every empire in history has come apart at some time. Some keep it together longer than others. With all of the advancements in technology, things happen at a faster rate than they used to. There’s no reason to think that the US will be any different than those other empires.

        • malthuss December 22, 2017 at 5:24 pm #

          Actually, BIG Tech may be slowing collapse.

        • Janos Skorenzy December 22, 2017 at 6:40 pm #

          Ah, but discriminate: Many Chinese Empires have risen and fallen, but China remains. Once America fall, it fall for good. The difference? Ethnic Homogeneity. You can’t have an America without Americans, Whites that is – dominating with their own Culture and Laws made for them

          • malthuss December 22, 2017 at 8:54 pm #

            Different languages, religions and sub castes in China, yes?

            That wall was good for them, Id guess.

          • Janos Skorenzy December 22, 2017 at 9:13 pm #

            They have many conquered minority groups – but the Han are a healthy 95% of the population or so. There is trouble in minority majority areas of course, with the Turkish Muslim East being the worst. The Han know how to handle them though: hit back twice as hard. Families! Even Muslims in love with death think twice.

            Japan is even a better example, rising and falling but never ceasing. And always almost all one People. There are ancient ethnic differences, but time has smoothed most of that away. The Jomon People are bigger and Whiter. Many of the Samurai Class came from them. Now they are part of the Economic Elite.

          • Janos Skorenzy December 22, 2017 at 9:18 pm #

            There are obvious ethnic differences between the North and South. I’m rusty, but I believe the Han were more northerly, but the South have earned the title “Han” (their equivalent of Aryan) by fitting in well after various wars and conquests. The Chinese ideal of beauty is like Japan’s: pale and slender. The Southerners are dark. Probably don’t get in the movies as much.

          • SpeedyBB December 23, 2017 at 1:57 am #

            Mr. Skorenzy wrote ‘The Han know how to handle them though: hit back twice as hard. Families! Even Muslims in love with death think twice.’

            It is true – look at the reports of roundups of suspects and ‘no beards’ rules and re-education camps and even Chinese commissars living in suspect Uighur family households.

            After the terror slaughters in Sinkiang the Chinese authorities have taken a full-bore totalitarian approach to smashing a totalitarian mentality (and l long ago concluded that Islam fits that definition – living at the moment in an 85% Islamic society, and dreading creeping shariah).

            It may well be that such a ruthless ‘Gitmo’ response as the Chinese have implemented will be the only way to forestall Islamic conquest. Which the Euros will never do, so it’s pretty clearly GAME OVER in that part of the woods.

            As for the Japanese, having lived in Japan many years since 1962 I found it amusing to read of an official response to Islamic subversion: ‘Islam is not suitable for Japan’. Case closed.

  10. Walter B December 22, 2017 at 12:11 pm #

    An excellent and encompassing recap of one heck of a year. Thank you for mentioning Puerto Rico, the embarrassment that America has already forgotten. From the defaulted failure economically to the mega-disaster that still exists today, it is no wonder that the party addicted population have hustled up a total lack of interest. My son-in-law, a hot shot urban SWAT Team leader filled me in this past Tuesday on the status of this sorry mess from his men on the scene. From the financial fraud that has occurred by the winning low-bid “contractor” that has defaulted along with a large sum of cash to the rampant murder every night the situation is far beyond horrific. If anybody cares to send supplies to the poor residents, they have plenty of food (though in warehouses at the docks) but they are in constant need of body bags.

    We also discussed the Las Vegas shooting and both he and the County SWAT Team guys I deal with assure me that it does NOT add up at all and the truth will never be told because it simply cannot be digested. So let us all try our best to keep our wits about us anyway, get through the Silly Season of 2017, and go back to doing our best as we can in 2018. Happy Birthday Jesus to those who believe, Praise God to those who do not, and Whatever Whatever to everybody and anybody else. Whether we like, dislike, hate or love one another, this whole steaming Shit Pile in which we exist would smell a heck of a lot better if we all learned to work together better. Hope springs eternal but I shall not be holding my breath.

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    • CirclesnCircles December 22, 2017 at 1:30 pm #

      There sure are a lot of depressives and glass-half-empty types on this blog. I guess it started with JHK’s mostly downer post above.

      To add a bit of real optimism and cheer — there are millions of Americans who are now feeling hopeful and positive. They believed, rightly I think, that had HRC been elected to continue the supremely nasty, divisive, corrupt and morally-broken attitudes from the Left and championed by Obama — we would have lost our country.

      Yes, it had gotten that bad. I am not a Repub but, it is clear that the Dem Party has become a collection of hysterical, indoctrinated nutters, from top to bottom, and they were taking our country into hell. (Now, the DNC is broke and deserves to be. Scariest part? The fools still don’t really understand “What Happened”. LOL)

      The pendulum swung dramatically, as it very much needed to. I feel quite positive about 2018 and you all should to. Happy New Year!

      • Walter B December 22, 2017 at 1:45 pm #

        With four lovely daughters and a wonderful wife I have had more than my fair share of having to hear about “feelings”, buzz-kill, and glass-half-empties. I cannot speak for our host, but I have always considered his narratives to be a very POSITIVE call to action to make change where change needs to be made and I am a champion of such a mentality myself. Problem is that American consumers have been so programmed to want distraction rather than results that change for the better no longer seems possible. If you care to argue that since change is no longer possible we should just sit back and smile, well I will not argue your choice, but I for one would choose to fight for change for the better rather than swallow a hot load from some thieving scumbag.

        • malthuss December 22, 2017 at 5:40 pm #

          We also discussed the Las Vegas shooting and both he and the County SWAT Team guys I deal with assure me that it does NOT add up at all and the truth will never be told because it simply cannot be digested.

          what do you know?

          • Walter B December 22, 2017 at 5:53 pm #

            I can supply no proof and would STFU if I had any. I only know what the experts in this work are saying from what they are being told (and NOT being told), so what is the point? It is easy to research how many witnesses that saw gunmen in the crowd shooting people are now dying from natural causes at 28, car accidents and all of the “coincidences ” that just happened to happen to witnesses since 1963. The numbers are staggering.

          • Janos Skorenzy December 22, 2017 at 6:45 pm #

            Yeah, roger that. The Security Guard fled to Mexico, coming back for a carefully orchestrated cameo on Ellen, with his Handler on hand. Apparently he did Ok and has been allowed to live.

          • hmuller December 22, 2017 at 9:46 pm #

            I don’t “know” anything either. But most of these mass killings in America and Europe are full of suspicious and anomalous details. They reek of false flag operations carried out by the Black Ops entities under globalist control.

          • Walter B December 23, 2017 at 3:27 pm #

            Indeed hmuller, so many of those that lead us and have led us have openly spoken about the positive effect of a big, central, scary enemy to unite the planet. When you consider the long history of lies, deception, and outright fraud that these same “leaders” have perpetrated on us over time, it does not take much brain power to theorize that lacking the appearance of this Central Bad Guy on its own, creating one themselves is an obvious possibility. For me, it is a fact.

      • SpeedyBB December 23, 2017 at 2:03 am #

        Do not neglect to mention the likelihood of a Madame MyTurn dragging us into a nuclear confrontation (which could oh so easily degenerate into an exchange). Her Party is devoted to those elves in the Pentagon who are [unbelievably] crooning ‘…winnable nuclear war…’.

        Prez ManBaby is a real estate crook. He understands how radioactive devastation affects property values, and will have none of it.

        • venuspluto67 December 23, 2017 at 8:36 am #

          I think we can thank the Internet to some extent for HRC’s losing the election. Her supporters used the Internet to become insufferably overbearing, and it backfired. There response to this reality, of course, has been to double-, triple, and quadruple-down. “You’re triggering my vegan Tumblrina genderqueer peengina! REEEEEEE!”

    • Janos Skorenzy December 22, 2017 at 6:43 pm #

      He probably converted to Islam as ISIS claimed – and that is simply too much to let out. A wealthy White Leftist? The EDITORS of our consensus reality have vetoed this. Ditto the murder of Justice Scalia. It never happened.

  11. Robert White December 22, 2017 at 12:47 pm #

    Existentially, it’s healthy to view that which is inherently corrupt with a measure of indifference if one is imbued with a conscience. I, for one, appreciate the indifference voiced to oppose the status quo groupthink. In this instance our status quo comprises a Whore House replete with whores, pimps, and the Giant Vampire Squid.
    Where would ‘Merica be without Goldman Sachs-of-shit at the table directing the affairs of state?

    Going into the New Year with the entire world walking on eggshells not to antagonize a full blown textbook Psychopath bent on fomenting World War Three Thermonuclear ‘Hot’ conflagrations all over the world is not my idea of a future. Looking forward we can conclude with certainty that ‘World Peace’ is not on the agenda for the ‘Merican crusaders in the Middle East working at the behest of Israel. Year end brings increased global divisions with the latest UN vote in opposition to the US Embassy set up in Jerusalem. With the Middle East set to explode in anger at the West before January 1st, we can conclude that Orange Jesus Cheeto-head-in-chief will be twittering into the twittersphere histrionically over the next two months minimum. And it’s Christmastime so we can be assured that the Cocaine & Urinating Russian Federation Hookers will not be enough to occupy the attention span of an individual that has lesioned his frontal cortex to the point of atrophy & Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder going forward.

    At this juncture, I’m just glad that I can dissociate from the harsh reality of a world gone mad with literal crazy people at the helm
    like the entire world is one BIG Exon Valdez, and Orange Jesus Cheeto-head-in-chief is the chosen ‘hero’ to ‘save’ us by crashing the West into the Middle East for yet more environmental disaster that we will spend the remainder of our lives cleaning up.

    FUN never stops around here, man!

    RW

    • drdream December 22, 2017 at 1:06 pm #

      JHK, I simply cannot resist posting this obsevation no matter how distasteful it may seem. So, the phrase “the eggplant that ate chicago” must surely be a reference to the previous president that occupied the White House for in the Italian the eggplant (melanzane) when spoken colloquially is moo-lin-yan-ay. I do not know its correct spelling but I do know its correct pronunciation when one wants to racially slander a black person. Given too that he is from Chicage which is eating itself, or destroying itself, with liberal policies at all costs, I find your phrasing sublime, poetic, even tittilating and so what if it ruffles feathers. Oooooooohhhhh!

      • ffkling December 22, 2017 at 1:49 pm #

        “Chicage (sic) which is eating itself, or destroying itself, with liberal policies.”

        Is that so? One of Chicago’s ex-urban counties is McHenry. The Republican’s have for years controlled every McHenry County elected position. According to your wisdom, McHenry should be a utopia with conservative Republicans making policies w/o opposition. News flash…..corruption and reckless spending are responsible for McHenry having the most oppressive taxes in the State of Illinois, far in excess of “liberal” Chicago. According to Forbes, of the near 1.000 US counties, McHenry ranks 18th highest property taxes in the nation.

        Such BS over and over.

      • James Howard Kunstler December 22, 2017 at 2:09 pm #

        You’re totally off on what I intended there. That was not my fantasy. Just refererring to the world’s most implausible horror movie… that’s all.

    • ffkling December 22, 2017 at 1:38 pm #

      @ Robert White A voice of reason.

      President Dump is all about President Dump and to hell with the rest of us poor slobs. Dump and his confederates in Congress are the nutrients feeding the ever-metastasizing human cancer. What could possibly motivate such destructive policies? Greed, selfishness, short-term thinking, lack of empathy, power, a paucity of wisdom. However, we get the government that we deserve.

      • Robert White December 22, 2017 at 2:37 pm #

        I appreciate your kind words, ffkling, and I agree with you on our collective deservedness, but at our age we are the government even if we ain’t in the public trough doing the backstroke in governance drawing monthly cheques. They say that one letter to Congress actually represents 1000 shared opinions of governance. Politicians & members of Congress take feedback seriously on many issues. I’m not stating that they receive all letters from constituents with open arms, but I am stating that they are obligated to at least respond to letters of opposition, or input. We, at our age, are the government in so far as (((we))) do the thinking for thousands upon thousands of citizens in North America. Intelligence agencies read our stuff daily so that they are kept up-to-date on current affairs. Government is NOT a matter of an us & them proposition when (((we))) do the lion’s share of the thinking that brings resolve to the ensuing thoughtlessness of a dysfunctional governmental dictatorship run by autocrats.

        Never assume that you are not an integral part of BIG government at any time. If you have a brain, and are educated, you are part of government. Sometimes being outside of government is better than being inside government if milieus of freedom of speech are less dysfunctional outside of governance than inside governance. We are not obligated by Non-Disclosure Agreements so we are actually in a better position to assess government top-down.

        JHK is a wrench in the works of the machine as we are too. We have power to change government collectively.

        RW

    • Janos Skorenzy December 22, 2017 at 6:47 pm #

      Trump Derangement Syndrome – a serious case.

      • Robert White December 24, 2017 at 3:12 pm #

        Vitamin C deficiency at best.

        RW

  12. beantownbill. December 22, 2017 at 1:11 pm #

    @circlesncircles:

    Saying “stupid comment” and “Provide adequate facts lest you come across unintentionally, as an asshole” in a short post is hardly a tirade.
    At least IMO.

    I posted my retort because no evidence was supplied to back up an implied position. I don’t have any tolerance for uncritical thinking – that’s just me. We all make uncritical thinking statements time by time, me included. But I’m hard on myself when I do. People can have opinions I don’t like. Just use logic, though.

    Your “dumb goyim” comment is true. But in my experience it wasn’t used by my generation, rather my parents’. I know many 20-something Jews, and I never heard one of them use that term.

    Successful and powerful Jews use their influence because they are successful and powerful, not because they are Jews.

    • Janos Skorenzy December 22, 2017 at 6:53 pm #

      The Kosher Nostra have gained control of a large part of America – key industries like Media and Education. Certainly they have Harvard Admissions for example as well as other Universities. Their ethnic nepotism is so strong that Whites often ally with them against their own people. That’s not your fault, but ours. You guys tempted us and we succumbed. If we had been strong, wise, and good – America would still be 90% White with a population stable at 200 million or so – and we’d be exploring the Solar System a la Heinlein, Niven, and Pournelle.

      • elysianfield December 23, 2017 at 11:42 am #

        Janos,
        You do understand that SOMEONE has to rule the world…and it ain’t you or me. There IS a common denominator to identify those in power…money…yes, money by the butt-load.

        Nepotism? Who in power would not exercise their prerogative’s? That’s what “Power” means and enables.

        • Janos Skorenzy December 23, 2017 at 3:01 pm #

          Well, no. I believe in Nations and minding one’s own business a la the Founders. But yes, what you say is the lower human desire and tendency. Thus the Anglo-Saxon Elite joined with the Jewish Elite, turning the money system over to them, in order to facilitate this long term process of World Conquest. They are more to blame than the Jews since theirs is a betrayal, not a conquest. A betrayal of Us, the people they were sworn to protect legally and with the moral duty to nurture and guide.

  13. outsider December 22, 2017 at 1:16 pm #

    Unless I missed it in prior comments,Trump’s decision to move the US embassy to Jerusalem wasn’t mentioned. Yesterday the UN condemned his decision by a vote of 128-9 – despite ridiculous threats by the always entertaining idiot Nikki Haley. She said she was taking names. What was she going to do – put coal in their stockings for Christmas? In any case, is it just another meaningless vote against US/Israel, or did the Hegemon FINALLY go too far this time?

    • Walter B December 22, 2017 at 1:33 pm #

      When was the last time you ever saw anything useful accomplished by a rich asshole in a suit and tie? Unless you count lining their own pockets at other people’s expense that is.

    • bibliomaniac December 22, 2017 at 11:25 pm #

      Trump claims he will cut funding to any country that disagrees with him. He started with the United States.

      • elysianfield December 23, 2017 at 11:43 am #

        “He started with the United States.”

        Clever comment….

    • messianicdruid December 23, 2017 at 10:05 pm #

      The Palestinians have declared Dallas Texas to be the capital of Mexico.

  14. beantownbill. December 22, 2017 at 1:31 pm #

    @ hmuller:

    Re your statement, “try being a Palestinian for a week”:

    See, that’s what I mean by not thinking things through. You don’t know me and my history, yet you made an assumption that I don’t know about being persecuted.

    Well, I’ve been physically assaulted and subjected to relentless harassment for no other reason but being Jewish. I’m not telling you this to whine, to make you feel sorry for me or to make you feel guilty, but to try to educate you in making accurate and thoughtful statements.

    Look, I don’t think you’re a bad guy, just don’t state logical fallacies.

    • hmuller December 22, 2017 at 3:22 pm #

      Who assaulted you? Whites, Blacks, Puerto Ricans? Was it for being Jewish or for being white and wealthy in a neighborhood which was neither? I’m just curious because genuine anti-Jewish violence is very rare in America today.

      When I was 20 in the summer of 1975 I attended the Hebrew University in Jerusalem on Mt Scopus and studied Biblical Hebrew under Haim Rabin. I loved Israel, even though I did get stoned twice. (No, not weed) The Hassidic Jews stoned me for violating their Sabbath; Arab youths stoned me for being an American. I was a dumb, naive kid wandering around, not aware of all the local dangers and taboos.

      Fortunately, 1975 was a kinder and gentler time; they only threw very small stones.

      • beantownbill. December 22, 2017 at 4:20 pm #

        White Catholics, for no reason other than me being Jewish. I came from a blue collar family, living in a blue collar area. If you don’t count the toppled gravestones in Jewish cemeteries and the swastikas drawn on synagogues, and the neo-Nazi vile postings on social media, and the death threats to Jews, no, I suppose there isn’t much violence.

        • hmuller December 22, 2017 at 5:22 pm #

          OK I see. So we’re talking Boston Irish 50 yrs ago. Damn Cossacks!

          • hmuller December 23, 2017 at 9:39 am #

            Bill, suffering can make us more compassionate or more bitter. Speaking purely hypothetically, if you learned that Israeli interrogators were systematically breaking the bones of Palestinian children in custody – would you be horrified or would you shout, “Way to go! Break the bones of our enemies!”

        • Janos Skorenzy December 22, 2017 at 6:55 pm #

          I noticed you didn’t express any sympathy to hmuller, but immediately pressed your claim for sympathy.

          You are Seen.

          • PeteAtomic December 22, 2017 at 8:52 pm #

            Oh, Janos.

            Doesn’t that panzer tank you’re in have a wood stove? You better get warm before the T 34s arrive 🙂

          • Janos Skorenzy December 22, 2017 at 9:06 pm #

            Yet we continue to split atoms to boil water! Do you have any idea how much energy was generated when Dresden was burnt to a crisp? With people caught in liquefied cement like flies in amber? Bomber Harris smiles in Hell with joy his work to see.

        • Robert White December 23, 2017 at 11:28 pm #

          Catholics harassed the Dickens out of me too, but I’m Anglican, and should probably become a Jew for all the harassment I have endured. I’m a full fledged Marxist too, and I have yet to find much agreement between the orthodoxy of the King James Bible and Professor Emeritus Karl Marx. I wrote my B.A. Honours thesis on Freud, Breuer, & Pappenheim too.

          Freud’s nanny used to take young Sigmund to Catholic Church every Sunday when he was under her care.

          All roads to Rome, eh.

          RW

  15. mow December 22, 2017 at 1:47 pm #

    Albany , NY area is nice.

    Used to love watching the carp jumping at the Mohawk River near Vischer Ferry in early April.

    River Road is a great place to walk in every season.

    Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year folks . ):

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    Support this blog via Patreon or Substack
    • Janos Skorenzy December 22, 2017 at 6:59 pm #

      The Ancient Mormons had their Civilization in that Five Finger Lake area until destroyed by the Lammanites – whom you call “American Indians” or “Native Americans”.

      • Bob December 24, 2017 at 12:04 pm #

        Only in con-man Joseph Smith’s imagination.

  16. hmuller December 22, 2017 at 2:12 pm #

    JHK is really wielding the old butcher knife today. Above he deleted several of my comments even the ones expressing my admiration for the Jewish intellectual tradition.

    He’s also cut other people’s comments, making the conversational thread read like a moth eaten Nag Hammadi scroll. Jim always says he’s for free and open debate, but today he’s gone full scale ANTIFA on us.

    • James Howard Kunstler December 22, 2017 at 2:16 pm #

      hmuller–
      That’s right. I consider Holocaust denial stupid, dishonest, and evil, and this comment arena is not going to be used for vilifying Jews.
      –JHK

      • hmuller December 22, 2017 at 2:20 pm #

        None of my comments ever mentioned the holocaust, on the contrary I praised the Jewish intellectual achievement and you deleted my comment.

      • Walter B December 22, 2017 at 2:34 pm #

        Bravo James! Never relent in this resolve. I have personally know and have met many individuals that lived through that Hell on both sides. Denial of such evil is not only an insult to Humanity it is the calling card of an idiot.

        • hmuller December 22, 2017 at 2:56 pm #

          First let me say I believe the holocaust happened. I also believe the earth is not flat.

          I don’t believe in destroying free speech to shut up those who are wrong and make absurd claims.

          Truth, facts, evidence, and reasoned argument should suffice.

          Right now YouTube is demonetizing videos which don’t fit their political agenda. Google is directing people away from “fake news”, i.e. anything not fitting their globalist political agenda.

          Walter, do you applaud the Orwellian censors who protect you from disturbing ideas or do you say “Bring it on, let me decide, I have judgment and discernment.”

          • Walter B December 22, 2017 at 3:17 pm #

            I am sorry but I was not referring to you as a denier and I did not read anywhere anything that you wrote that would suggest that you are, but we all know they are out there. Questioning it or questioning anything for that matter is the way I was schooled though any questions that I ever had on that particular subject were all answered long ago.

            As far as censors go, nope I have no use for any. I do not consider our host a censor however because I believe in his right to limit discussion here. After all he is not keeping any truth from us by doing so. Anyone that is in need of such discussion can easily find tons of other places to get a fix.

          • Janos Skorenzy December 22, 2017 at 7:01 pm #

            Walt, what do you think should happened to Global Warming Deniers?

            Read “Break His Bones” by Bradley Smith sometime.

          • Walter B December 22, 2017 at 7:59 pm #

            Thank you Janos, I shall. I am not a Global Warming/Climate Change denier per se. I just happen to know that the military has made “great” strides in manipulating the weather for decades now and when they can do things, oh boy do they do them. Additionally, I refuse to bite into the shit sandwich called “It’s my fault” so they can rob me at the same time they screw me.

      • CirclesnCircles December 22, 2017 at 3:01 pm #

        Wait, really? My comment above justifiably calling out beantownbill for his hysteria and random accusations gets purged for being part of some “vilification of Jews” meme?

        You couldn’t be further from the truth in assigning that idea to me!

        Realities are, what they are; I do not control them and only the naive pretend they are not real.

        Mazel tov on the selective editing and inaccurate assumptions made.

      • Robert White December 22, 2017 at 3:11 pm #

        When I was a kid my best friend’s stepfather made sure that I was well aware of the eight million Jews that were genocided when he asked me if I was made aware of the historiography by my parents. In brief, I was educated by my parents beforehand so I did not disappoint my best friend’s step father who happened to be one that landed on the Beaches of Normandy on D-Day.

        Professor Emeritus Joseph Levitt was a professor of Canadian History at the UofO in CANADA. He was injured whilst advancing behind a tank on foot as Infantry. Joe stood well over six feet, and he walked with a limp since the Normandy D-Day Invasion. When I grew older and studied Hermeneutics I ran into J. Campbell’s ‘Hero Mythology’ and noticed the prototypical characteristic of the hero that walks with a limp. I’ll never forget Joe, JHK. I always remember his lectures, and his self actualization, that informed my life, and ethos.

        RW

        • CirclesnCircles December 22, 2017 at 4:41 pm #

          Sigh….you see….much as our host preferred this not become a comment thread about Jews and the Holocaust, it continues.

          That’s humanity for you; it wants to flow its own way.

          As point of clarification, Robert, the purported number (who truly knows?) of Jews killed in the Holocaust era is 6 million, not 8. What is massively unfortunate is how many Americans do not seem to realize, or find worth mentioning, the many other peoples that were targeted too. Millions of them.

          An equal number, more or less, of other groups that perished included LGBTQ individuals, the physically and mentally disabled, Roma (gypsies), Poles and other Slavic peoples, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and members of political opposition groups.

          It is a very misunderstood part of history and that is never a good thing.

          • Robert White December 22, 2017 at 4:56 pm #

            I recall the six million figure as being what was quoted back when I was a kid. I don’t know how I added another two million, but I think the six million figure has morphed through the lack of an exact figure over time because I have seen the eight million figure quoted too. I now realize you are correct, my apologies.

            RW

          • outsider December 22, 2017 at 5:05 pm #

            Speaking of censorship by our host, (Mr. K’s site, he can do what he wants), I see no comments yet from Janos today. I hope he’s hasn’t been purged.

          • Ol' Scratch December 22, 2017 at 6:45 pm #

            Janos usually works the night shift. He’ll be showing up shortly.

        • Janos Skorenzy December 22, 2017 at 7:04 pm #

          Yeah good, Bob. Why not make it 16 million? The Ancient Jews claimed the Romans killed tens of millions of Jews – far more than existed at the time.

          • Robert White December 22, 2017 at 7:40 pm #

            The historical records should be adhered to, I agree. Citing correctly is important for accuracy of that record as it is disseminated as part of our shared historical records with respect to two world wars, and counting.

            Ol’ Scratch said you had the night shift.

            RW

          • Ol' Scratch December 23, 2017 at 8:39 am #

            Figure of speech, Bob.

      • noel bodie December 22, 2017 at 5:54 pm #

        A quiet conversation around a burn barrel on Brighton Beach in 1970 i listened to middle age men who had numbers tatooed on their forearms. Fuck anyone who denies.

        • Janos Skorenzy December 22, 2017 at 7:06 pm #

          What should be done to them? Don’t hold back. Tell us your Truth!

          Patton decried the vicious treatment of the German People at the hands of the Allies. He said it was beneath us and that it wasn’t Aryan. He never made it home to tell His Truth.

        • Janos Skorenzy December 22, 2017 at 7:11 pm #

          Bubba Free John aka Franklin Jones, was born in Brighton Beach. He went on to become one of the Great Sex Gurus of our Times. Jewish, not practicing. Maybe just on his mother’s side. Studied at the Seminary but found it wanting. Met Rudi, great N.Y Jewish Guru who could invoke the Kundalini. Strongly Homosexual, practicing at times. Don’t know if he mixed it in with his work with his students that way the obnoxious Jones went on to do.

          • Robert White December 22, 2017 at 8:21 pm #

            I experienced the invocation of Kundalini once. Better than good weed IMHO. Just like that dude on the Woodstock 1969 documentary characterized it. And it was a consciousness eye opener too. I highly recommend it due to the breathing exercises that teach one to relax psychologically so that one can attain higher levels of thought processing.

            Mysticism is great stuff.

            RW

          • Janos Skorenzy December 22, 2017 at 9:02 pm #

            Yeah, God is just a special kind of molecule or two.

      • PeteAtomic December 22, 2017 at 8:48 pm #

        Good. Thank you for stating this on record, Jim.

      • monkey_flower December 24, 2017 at 4:46 pm #

        James you can kiss my ass. Jews deserve to die. Get out of my country.

      • K-Dog December 24, 2017 at 6:13 pm #

        You might do a search for “Kosher Nostra” and strike that comment from the page too. Then nix this one which points at it for good measure, job done.

        Thinking that with certain groups gone, jews being one, we would have and a stable population of 200 million or so and that we’d be exploring the Solar System à la Heinlein, Niven, and Pournelle does reveal some of the nature of this authors mental illness.

        That it might be he who lacks enough mental horsepower to put the à in à la is an insight diverted to wherever digested eggplant poop goes by his mental acrobatics and the purpose for his blaming others for just about everything becomes apparent.

        • K-Dog December 24, 2017 at 6:16 pm #

          And the one above telling you to kiss your own ass on your own blog of course.

  17. volodya December 22, 2017 at 2:13 pm #

    If Israel wasn’t there, local Muslim despots would have to invent it. What a made to order distraction it is for the large population of excitable, frustrated, impoverished young Muslim men.

    And a ready excuse too for the Muslim rulers. Remember, those guys are made of money:

    Q: Why can’t more be done to alleviate the lack of health care?

    A: Because the preponderance of our national effort has to be in countering Israel and helping our Palestinian brothers and sisters.

    Q: Why is bread so expensive?

    A: It’s because of the perfidious Jew. They insinuate themselves into everything.

    Q: Why is corruption such a problem?

    A: It’s a legacy of colonialism. See above answer about the perfidious Jew. Simple and honest Muslims are made to do things they don’t want to do by treacherous, deceitful Jews.

    Conquer Israel, expel the Jew and happiness will reign. And, in the meantime, that blue and white Israeli flag flies in infuriating mockery from the hilltops, making fun of Palestinian manhood, demanding an answer.

    And so Muslim rulers say yes, yes, go do Jihad, destroy Israel’s backers, go to the US, go to Europe, kill the infidels, but do jihad over there and not here.

    Meanwhile the rulers run their rackets and get fat and happy.

    It makes not a whit of difference whether the American embassy is in Jerusalem or on the bottom of the Sea of Galilee.

    • beantownbill. December 22, 2017 at 3:21 pm #

      Sigh. At last a thinking man’s posting (unless you’re being sarcastic, which I doubt, but can you blame me for questioning everything)! There’s always another side, and it’s refreshing to hear it.

  18. hmuller December 22, 2017 at 2:18 pm #

    You don’t know me and make several assumptions. Since JHK deleted some of my comments including everything nice I said about Jewish people, some misunderstanding has resulted . I’ve never been a bully, rather the victim. And right now you sound like the bully to me.

    • malthuss December 22, 2017 at 5:34 pm #

      You that is the start of your comment is?

      I’ve never been a bully, rather the victim. Stick round here and post, and that victim role may continue

      • Janos Skorenzy December 22, 2017 at 7:16 pm #

        I’m a bully but only because my People are victimized. And I’m not really a bully either. It’s not my fault people can’t fight. That makes me seem (add italics) to be a bully, but they started it! It’s a classic case of the Weak tyrannizing the Strong as Nietzsche portrayed.

        • PeteAtomic December 23, 2017 at 1:32 am #

          No. You’re an asshole.

          Merry Christmas

          • Janos Skorenzy December 23, 2017 at 3:06 pm #

            That was uncalled for, Pete. You’re not better than the other Pete if you’re gonna go talkin’ like that and such.

          • PeteAtomic December 23, 2017 at 5:40 pm #

            ya, you’re right Janos. I should allow your absurd statements get under my skin, but the bullshit meter just boils over, sometimes.

            “Your people” who ever or whatever collection of failures they may be– have been trying to subjugate “my people” since at least 1812, and spectacularly failing at it for centuries.

            So, this is why I don’t always feel very brotherly or warm to a fella, who consistently holds this sociopathic view that “his failed people” are somehow the “victims”.

            It’s like a serial killer who gets caught in his crimes and gets his ass stomped. I have about as much empathy.

          • Janos Skorenzy December 23, 2017 at 8:55 pm #

            You just called Whites “serial killers”. One is remind of Sontag’s “Cancer of Humanity” and the Tamud’s “Cattle”. Last time you got power over us, you killed tens of millions of White Christians. Never again.

      • hmuller December 22, 2017 at 10:05 pm #

        Malthus, my comment was a response to a comment by Fincainmountain (not exact but some such person) which JHK deleted. So my comment stands senseless and out of context.

        But anyway, this “Fin” character saw me as some kind of neo-Nazi bully covered in prison tattoos who needed a good ass whooping. I’m an old.scholarly type who wouldn’t hurt anyone – even back when I could.

        But I have learned that people often see in their adversaries the worst within themselves. There’s probably a term for that.

        • malthuss December 23, 2017 at 11:30 am #

          There are many hate crime laws that should be struck down.

          I mostly ignore Fincaln.

  19. ricksinger December 22, 2017 at 2:30 pm #

    You forgot to mention that this year that “Stock Market Valuations Have Reached A Permanently High Plateau”.

    https://seekingalpha.com/article/4082240-stock-market-valuations-reached-permanently-high-plateau

    Can anyone deny this fact? If so, please provide evidence to the contrary.

    There is never TOO MUCH MAGIC, and with such magic, there will never be a LONG EMERGENCY. Maybe a few brief emergencies, but they will be over before you can say: “Next news cycle”.

    Merry Pagan Ritual and a happy new alternative reality!

  20. hineshammer December 22, 2017 at 2:34 pm #

    Please don’t refer to Trump as GGG, Jim. It’s an insult top Gennady Golovkin.

    Support this blog on PatreonSupport this blog on Substack
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    • capt spaulding December 22, 2017 at 3:07 pm #

      Just saw online’ “Hey, here’s a great idea. Let’s turn America’s nukes over to a bad tempered asshole with no concept of foreign policy. What could go wrong?”

  21. PeteAtomic December 22, 2017 at 3:11 pm #

    The furnace came on this AM, and its forecast to be a balmy -16 F at my house this holiday Monday. Mother in law dropped off a couple dozen mason jars full of canned rutabaga, beets & other root vegetables. I just gotta run and get some more beer. So, still alive another year. Enjoy it while the carnival ride is still in motion.

    Merry Christmas, everybody 🙂

  22. PeteAtomic December 22, 2017 at 3:12 pm #

    thanks for another year of erudite, witty & topical blogging there, Mr. Jim!

    I really enjoy it.

  23. wet dog December 22, 2017 at 4:07 pm #

    Merry Christmas, everyone. After reading both Orlov’s and Greer’s books this year, the cries that this civilization is running on fumes are getting louder.

    Here in the rural hinterland, people have it very tough, and you city people aren’t much better off – plus you don’t know how to butcher a chicken or grow food. My back-to-eden, woodchip garden did very well this year, without a lot of work. Mama and Papa duck took care of the slugs.

    How long can printing money keep this false reality going? That’s the big question, as the pressures of ecological and energy collapse will eventually overwhelm us completely.

    Look carefully at your family at Christmas dinner, at your relatives. Who’s addicted to their tv? Who hasn’t hit a hammer in 5 years? Who gets her hair dyed every month? And who of them will be knocking on your unprepared door as the downturn worsens, when they’re evicted, and would you want them in your house?

    Consider these last 10 years of fake reality a gift to get prepared. Reality is coming hard to your door and doesn’t give a damn about phony money.

    • capt spaulding December 22, 2017 at 4:16 pm #

      Merry Christmas, wet dog. I think you have called it pretty close to the truth. Sadly, I’m afraid the majority of people are blissfully unaware of the times to come. My approach as far as who to take in, consists of how many more I can handle before I have to shut the door. As far as the rest of them, all I can say is “Sorry folks, you should have been paying attention. There’s nothing more to say.” Reality will have it’s way.

      • outsider December 22, 2017 at 5:25 pm #

        Dmitry Orlov had a very interesting column this week about the failure of capitalism. What makes it more topical is that it was published in the same week as the GOP tax scam (er, plan). The differences in philosophy could not be more stark. It will take a year or two to shake out, but the GOP certainly went “all in” this time. This tax cut for the rich (that’s what it is!) is high stakes poker with the fate of the country in the balance. I sure hope they know what they’re doing, but I’m not at all hopeful.

        • Ol' Scratch December 22, 2017 at 7:25 pm #

          Thanks. Dmitry’s one of my blogger “North Stars” as well. Actually, the GOP just did what they’re always elected/expected to do – enrich the already rich – so what they did (with Dem complicity) was nothing more than what they were expected to do. Nevertheless, a congratulatory “good work” is in order.

          I’m of two minds about this now, as it was all entirely foreseeable in the first place. Yes, it’s a disaster for all but the richest among us, of course; but no, it was nothing we couldn’t or shouldn’t haven’t expected in the first place. Was there possibly a better scenario out there given the realities of the 2016 election? Probably not. More ominously still, is there a better option out there in 2018 or 2020? Probably not either.

          So what’s to do? Same choice there, albeit exceedingly painful for some/most. Vote GOP and pray for quick collapse. Painful and abhorrent? Yes. Necessary anyway? Yes, again.

          • outsider December 22, 2017 at 8:18 pm #

            Scratch,

            Still and all, candidate Trump promised to go after the ‘Carried Interest Loophole’ that hedge fund managers and arbitrage experts like Romney make such great use of. President Trump said nary a word about it, and the loophole remains.

          • Ol' Scratch December 23, 2017 at 8:37 am #

            The carried interest thingy is now being attributed to the evil GOP minions who put it back in, but who the hell knows what the real story was. Trump had his back against the wall with this either way, as he needed a signature political win to breathe some fresh life in a presidency that is threatening to go completely off the tracks.

            But once again, had we had a HRC administration, some version/flavor of the same thing would have been passed by now anyway, so nothing of substance has actually changed. Other than under normal circumstances, the GOP is easier to hate than the Dems, since they’ll make you swallow the bitter straight up, rather than lying about it all and pretending that they “fought the good fight” to prevent it, but just came up short.

      • ozone December 23, 2017 at 11:03 am #

        Mon Capitaine,
        I concur, and I’m in the same bedraggled boat with tattered sails on a lonesome sea. This may sound harsh, but there’s only one segment of “the folks” that are decidedly unwelcome on these worm-holed decks: Uber-statists. Why? Well, look around and ask just who it was (and always is) that brought us to this pass, and there’s your answer.

    • Janos Skorenzy December 22, 2017 at 7:17 pm #

      Greer enthused about wishing he was young enough to live to see the Asian/Hispanic Civilization that would rise on the West Coast. Now I hear that the “hero” has fled the nascent “civilization”. Typical Liberal White poseur dude!

    • daveed December 23, 2017 at 12:34 am #

      “Look carefully at your family at Christmas dinner, at your relatives. Who’s addicted to their tv? Who hasn’t hit a hammer in 5 years? Who gets her hair dyed every month? And who of them will be knocking on your unprepared door as the downturn worsens, when they’re evicted, and would you want them in your house?”

      Are you kidding me, Wet Dog? You would even allow a ‘hair-dyer’ at your dinner table? Inconceivable! Off with Granny’s head!

      • wet dog December 23, 2017 at 10:39 am #

        Who’s addicted to fads and superficial things? Take granny, or a 40 year old woman: spending a $100 a month, $1,200 a year on a stylist. And their kids eat poisoned food because organic is too expensive. Just the hair bill alone would provide healthy, organic food for the year for these kids. And that’s one small example.

        Or men with their stupid sports addictions, and worse, porn addictions. How strong are their minds, all of these people? Can they break entrenched habits, or are they too weak-willed to even contemplate breaking the chains? Because the ecological and energy collapses WILL break these habits, so wouldn’t it be wiser to handle it yourself first, on your own terms?

        Do you want strong-minded people in your clan, or screaming hysterics when the toilet paper and tampons runs out? Orlov discusses this in “Technosphere”.

        • K-Dog December 24, 2017 at 5:46 pm #

          Someday you might figure out that a guy recommending you attempt to survive collapse in an open boat was making fun of you all along. All the way to the bank.

          Swing that hammer, he doesn’t

  24. tucsonspur December 22, 2017 at 5:02 pm #

    First off, Happy Holidays to everyone! And thanks to all for some great posting.

    I’ll avoid the usual topics for now as they’ve already been deeply mined and refined.

    The times seem dangerous and depressing. It is good to remember the words of Ghost Dog:

    Ghost Dog: It is a good viewpoint to see the world as a dream. When you have something like a nightmare, you will wake up and tell yourself that it was only a dream. It is said that the world we live in is not a bit different from this.

    Ghost Dog: It is said that what is called the Spirit of an Age is something to which one cannot return. That this spirit gradually dissipates is due to the world’s coming to an end. In the same way, a single year does not have just spring or summer. A single day, too, is the same. For this reason, although one would like to change today’s world back to the spirit of one hundred years or more ago, it cannot be done. Thus it is important to make the best out of every generation.

    Ghost Dog: Our bodies are given life from the midst of nothingness. Existing where there is nothing is the meaning of the phrase “Form is Emptiness”. That all things are provided for by nothingness is the meaning of the phrase “Emptiness is form”. One should not think that these are two separate things.

    • Ol' Scratch December 22, 2017 at 7:09 pm #

      Very nice! Great to see someone getting “all existential wid’ it.” I think about this very thing daily now. How much of our physical bodies are “spiritually inflated?” I see some who do so much with so little, and yet so many who do so little with so much. As I close in the end of my own life, I think about these things constantly.

      • tucsonspur December 22, 2017 at 10:18 pm #

        Some say the examined life is much more fulfilling. Others argue that since there are no ultimate answers, it’s just that much more frustrating and confounding.

        Still, I like to examine, ponder, and study the mystery.

        • Ol' Scratch December 23, 2017 at 8:59 am #

          The enlightened, or so I’ve heard, say that our entire physical existence is just a means to examine, ponder, and study the mystery. If the answers were easy to come by, it wouldn’t be much of a mystery.

    • Janos Skorenzy December 22, 2017 at 7:24 pm #

      Is this a book? I saw a movie called Ghost Dog about a Black assassin in N.Y who liked Japanese Samurai stuff.

      I prefer Smohalla: My followers will not know work, for men who work cannot dream.

      Combine it with Lao Tzu: The Way abides in Non-Action, yet nothing is left undone. Just sit around and you’ll “find” yourself moving and doing things. Soon you’ll be out on the street, and moving around even more. Then you’ll be somewhere else, floating toward the Light – a Dance Hall Sheik perhaps? People are shooting at your ethereal body, but the bullets pass right thru you as they did the Ghost Dancers. Just wear your ghost shirt….

      • beantownbill. December 22, 2017 at 9:06 pm #

        Yeah, I saw the same movie – I think it was starring Forrest Whitaker.

        • tucsonspur December 22, 2017 at 10:23 pm #

          That’s right, Bean. Kind of an odd movie but I loved the quotes.

    • K-Dog December 24, 2017 at 5:51 pm #

      although one would like to change today’s world back to the spirit of one hundred years or more ago, it cannot be done

      Checked weather on my phone and it said that in a few days it was going to snow when it was going to be forty degrees.

      Seems you are wrong.

      Or the dream is in a dream is in a dream………….

  25. tucsonspur December 22, 2017 at 5:09 pm #

    But Ghost Dog also says:

    “Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai is found in death. Meditation on inevitable death should be performed daily. Every day, when one’s body and mind are at peace, one should meditate upon being ripped apart by arrows, rifles, spears, and swords, being carried away by surging waves, being thrown into the midst of a great fire, being struck by lightning, being shaken to death by a great earthquake, falling from thousand-foot cliffs, dying of disease or committing seppuku at the death of one’s master. And every day, without fail, one should consider himself as dead. This is the substance of the Way of the Samurai.”

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    • Ol' Scratch December 22, 2017 at 7:03 pm #

      Nice!

      • hmuller December 22, 2017 at 10:13 pm #

        Yeah really, where do I sign up?!

        • tucsonspur December 22, 2017 at 10:30 pm #

          In your heart and mind. But beware, the “Way” grapples with immortality and the infinite.

    • K-Dog December 24, 2017 at 5:52 pm #

      This dog has better things to do.

  26. Pucker December 22, 2017 at 5:30 pm #

    “Unable to discern a rational design in worldwide mayhem, many intellectuals seem as lost as politicians today, their concepts and categories sounding more and more like ineffectual jargon. ‘Whatever our politics,’ Michael Ignatieff, a self-described ‘liberal internationalist’, confesses in a recent article on the Marxist thinker Perry Anderson, ‘we all stand in need of a historical vision that believes there is a deep logic to the unfolding of time’. For the bearers of ‘Enlightenment humanism and rationalism’, liberal or Marxist, can’t ‘explain the world we’re living in’. As Ignatieff coyly admits, the liberal internationalist cult of progress plainly mimicked the Marxist dream of universal revolution. The origins of both Comintern and its ‘Liberal-Intern’ lay in the original eighteenth-century fantasy of a rationally organized and logically ordered world: the expectation that reason would replace tradition and drift as the determining element in history.”

    “Age of Anger”, Pankaj Mishra

    • Pucker December 22, 2017 at 5:32 pm #

      “Make America Great Again.”

      “Black Lives Matter.”

      “Do the Hokey Pokey.”

      • Pucker December 22, 2017 at 6:08 pm #

        “I’m With Her.”

        • messianicdruid December 23, 2017 at 11:10 pm #

          FBI’m With Her”

  27. BuckP December 22, 2017 at 5:31 pm #

    ” In a sense, Americans resemble a primitive people who, feeling the chill of a deepening autumn grow nostalgic for spring while wondering how or even if, the moist warmth will ever return. Many Americans wish that somehow they could bring back a saecular spring now. But, seasons don’t work that way. As in nature, a saecular autumn can be warm or cool, long or short, but the leaves will surely fall. The saecular winter can hurry or wait, but history warns that it will surely be upon us.”

    Excerpted from
    “The Fourth Turning” by William Strauss and Neil Howe

    With the fraud, deceit and, racketeering inherent in our American government, institutions, businesses and markets coupled with a world grown weary of being shackledby the chains of a fiat dollar hegemony, who is starting to fight back, the cold northern wind has definitely blown in.

  28. Sean Coleman December 22, 2017 at 6:04 pm #

    It is interesting they blamed Putin personally for interfering in the election. Primitive fantasies always require a cartoon bad guy, like the cowboy with the black hat.

    Trump’s inauguration seems to have become the founding lie in the mythology of the Resistance, the original sin of its theology. I bet he didn’t have Toni Morrison reading from her collected works.

    The cable news people may have to rely on their panels from now on because reporters on the scene cannot keep the charade up for ever by failing to see what is under their nose. Ask Colin Flaherty.

    • Janos Skorenzy December 22, 2017 at 7:38 pm #

      Quite so. They’ve begun the purge of White Nationalists from social media like twitter and facebook. But any chance America has of remaining anything can only comes from such Woke Whites, Whites who are proud of their heritage and would reclaim it.

  29. Pucker December 22, 2017 at 6:08 pm #

    One must have the temperament to run the race for wealth and to live with a moral insecurity and an unhappy freedom.

    The antebellum South…Mandingo….

    “In Santayana’s view, most human beings, temperamentally unfit to run the race for wealth, suffered from impotent resentment, and even the few successful rich did not enjoy ‘moral security’ and ‘a happy freedom’. He left the United States for Europe in 1912, having concluded that ‘there is no country in which people live under more overpowering compulsions’. For the next four decades he continued to amplify his warnings that the worldwide dissemination of an individualist culture of competition and mimicry would eventually incite a ‘lava-wave of primitive blindness and violence’.”

    “Age of Anger”, Pankaj Mishra

    • hmuller December 22, 2017 at 10:17 pm #

      Pucker,
      I never liked Santayana after he killed all those people at the Alamo!

  30. San Jose December 22, 2017 at 6:19 pm #

    Christmas greetings from Salt Lake City. The state with a balanced budget! Also, the city where people have respect and don’t throw their garbage everywhere (this place is amazingly clean compared to San Jose). Also, where women make an effort to look feminine, AND everyone is very kind. (I drove my mom to the beauty parlor for her weekly hairdo appointment this morning.)

    I’m going to hit the slopes tomorrow. My ski game isn’t what it used to be, when I was an undergrad at Brigham Young University and took skiing as my PE class. Just say NO to black diamond slopes!

    Jen in Utah

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    • Ol' Scratch December 22, 2017 at 7:37 pm #

      How nice for you!

    • outsider December 22, 2017 at 8:00 pm #

      Well, Jen, then maybe we should all become Mormons. St. Lake does sound idyllic. I wonder – if we had elected Romney, would we also have a balanced budget by now? And would that mean there would be no President Trump?

      • Ol' Scratch December 23, 2017 at 8:27 am #

        From a professional hedge fund shark? Surely you jest!

        • elysianfield December 23, 2017 at 12:12 pm #

          “From a professional hedge fund shark”

          Nick O Demus,
          Much worse than a shark…a destroyer of lives…one who brought paucity to thousands without consideration…and this for his own enrichment. A poster child for “That which is wrong with this country”…

          I loathe him.

          • Ol' Scratch December 23, 2017 at 2:47 pm #

            Yep, he’s cool as a cucumber and as slick and polished as a premium hooker’s blow job. I was and am instinctively repulsed by him as well, but you do have to admire his highly polished corporate conman skills. Not as nuanced and thus great as Obama’s to be sure, but definitely coexisting in the same firmament. And a devout Mormon no less! Go figure.

    • Janos Skorenzy December 22, 2017 at 8:49 pm #

      The benefits of Christian Culture (even though the Mormons aren’t really Christian) are many. Does she get a bouffant a la John Waters? Hope she doesn’t try to hide a bomb in it!

      • Janos Skorenzy December 22, 2017 at 9:00 pm #

        People thought the Mormons would go rogue once Mitt Romney was “denied” the Presidency. Joseph Smith liked Mohammad after all.

      • hmuller December 22, 2017 at 11:16 pm #

        I think Mormons are to Christianity what the Druse are to Islam – sort of out there on the edge. I just find it creepy that they have levels of initiation (classified knowledge). Cults ensnare you in their web and only gradually by advancement reveal what they are really up to. Truth be told, maybe the Mormons are actually our Yazidi’s.

        • daveed December 23, 2017 at 12:52 am #

          Amazing. Jen in Utah checks in with an upbeat post and gets a bunch of snarky, unsolicited comments about Mormonism. Stay classy, ClusterPosters.

          • Janos Skorenzy December 23, 2017 at 1:09 am #

            They’re an interesting and bizarre Cult. Jen renounced Mormonism long ago. Have they ever apologized for the Mountains Meadow Massacre? Jack London wrote a superb story about it. They refused to sell supplies to a party of pioneers; kept saying, “Did you not oppress the Lord’s People in Missouri?”. Their reply that they were from Arkansas didn’t move them.

          • hmuller December 23, 2017 at 9:35 am #

            I’ve had many Mormon friends. They’re good, moral, clean, law abiding people. And if the word came down from HQ to slit my throat while I slept, they’d do it. Because they’re obedient foot soldiers in a theocracy. They truly don’t think for themselves on the big issues. Just my observations from 62 years of living.

  31. Ol' Scratch December 22, 2017 at 6:34 pm #

    Another great post Jim, and a fitting summation of the events of 2017. You and I of are mostly of the same mind in our assessment of world events these days it seems, although I, purely an amateur commenter on others’ blogs, of course have the freedom to “indulge” in whatever theory – “conspiratorial” or not – that suits my fancy. A requirement, in my judgement, these days, as “official” explanations are pretty much not cutting it anymore across the board, which is hardly surprising, given the political, sociological, and technological realities of the day. I also noticed the preponderance of rationalizers who came out this morning this morning to rally ’round the flag of “truth” and “proof’ of assorted varieties, which is just so heartwarming, especially at this exceptionally delusional time of year. They’re [fill in the blank] masters are no doubt exceedingly grateful for their continued allegiance.

    But enough with all that! The ‘GGG’ (I, for one, like that moniker, and I think I’ll adopt it too from now on!) tax cuts are now a done deal, so it’s time to rally ’round the flag and accept the new realities (which we’ve long been creating, apparently) and get on with business. Massive tax cuts are at least a relatively new take on an Auld Lang Syne in these times of tribulation. Not terribly creative and thoroughly derivative, but in truth, what other arrow is left in the quiver at this point? Yes, the rich will get richer and the poor will get poorer at just a barely minimal politically tolerable rate so that the rubes won’t suddenly revolt; but then again, that was the plan all along no matter what, so what in the world has changed exactly?

    In the end, the American sheeple are to be both admired and despised for this state of affairs. Admired for their utter resoluteness in pressing forward with a “stiff upper lip” posture in the face of what is truly a historic and monstrous evil (no doubt inherited from their British political and philosophical forebears), and despised for allowing their political masters to impose that same mindset on the rest of the world. Will any of this matter in the long view of world history, a subject which most Americans could give one shit about in the least, assuming they could even understand it? Of course not, and that’s the point. As you’ve opined about many times in your blog posts, essays, and books: we’ve created a throwaway materialistic society in which no credibly sentient being could possibly invest themselves; materially, intellectually, or spiritually.

    And so it is that we find ourselves here on the cusp of another “New Year” in human affairs. And yet, what in the world, exactly, has changed? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?

    • Robert White December 22, 2017 at 7:00 pm #

      10.QE Infinity changed into QE Withdrawal.
      09.Mr. Yellen is retiring.
      08.Jamie Dimon’s daughter thinks he is stupid.
      07.Harvey Weinstein is not on this year’s Christmas Card List.
      06.The Winklevoss Twins jinxed Bitcoin by investing in it.
      05.Rosie O’Donnell is now ultra-cool & everyone loves her.
      04.House of Cards was thrown into the crapper where it belongs.
      03.Speaking of Crapper, he assures us that the MI6 dossier is legit.
      02.Hill n’ Bill actually, really, aren’t on CNN much anymore.
      01.Hugh Hefner died so we know that stupid grin finally disappeared.

      RW

      • Ol' Scratch December 22, 2017 at 7:29 pm #

        Thanks RW for illustrating my point; and yet, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

      • beantownbill. December 22, 2017 at 9:02 pm #

        01. I don’t think it was a stupid grin, I think it was more of a cat ate the canary grin.

        • Robert White December 22, 2017 at 9:49 pm #

          pfffft…yo, Beantown-B, more like dead cat bounce given he died broke without a pot-to-piss-in.

          Dead cat bounce cats don’t grin, baby.

          Ol’ Scratch has em’ now, eh.

          RW

          • beantownbill. December 23, 2017 at 11:20 am #

            Regardless, I wish I had the pot he pissed in for most of his life. It seems you were not an admirer. That’s ok. I really never gave much thought whether or not I was. I only read Playboy for the centerfolds (well, the cartoons, too). I never took to the intellectual discussions on sex. I mean, sex is well … sex. IMO it’s the ultimate natural activity, and it should be done without too much thought – or at least with not too much afterthought.

  32. akmofo December 22, 2017 at 6:39 pm #

    Fascinating history lecture by David Rohl
    https://youtu.be/QEm-ovpMM5c

    Scratch, you might find this edifying.

    • Ol' Scratch December 22, 2017 at 6:53 pm #

      Thanks. Why? Because I need to suddenly “discover” how the Jewish people and their Christian spawn are so fucking “special?” Really now, could you be any more patronizing if you tried? I was never anti-semitic before, but I might be willing to take up the cause. You people…!

      • akmofo December 22, 2017 at 8:09 pm #

        One, you are talking to me, not to “you people”. Two, you can take up whatever cause you like. Three, you being ignorant of certain history does not make that history a fairy tale. Four, whatever issues you have with Christians, save it for them. Five, we are all unique and special. If you don’t think so, you have no business calling yourself American, or anything at all.

        • Ol' Scratch December 23, 2017 at 8:24 am #

          If you don’t think so, you have no business calling yourself American, or anything at all.

          Well, fortunately, I’m not asking for your permission then. Certain histories are fairy tales, especially as they’re interpreted long after the fact. Wanna hear the term “you people” used as it was originally intended? Walk into one of the many bastions of ostentatious upper crust wealth these days and see what meets you there. Of course that’s merely a hypothetical, since everyone knows anyone of modest means would be screened and turned away (with extreme prejudice!) long before such a meeting could happen in the first place.

          • akmofo December 23, 2017 at 1:00 pm #

            So how many “you people” did you throw at some Irish or Italian or whatever during an argument, and what do you think their reaction might be? You think it’s cute?

          • Ol' Scratch December 23, 2017 at 4:03 pm #

            How many would they throw in return? It’s a fairly common tactic, so I’m not sure I understand the umbrage. The powerful always take advantage of those with less, whether situational or systemic, so appealing to this group or that’s “righteous indignation” at this or that perceived slight, deserved or not, is hardly a compelling argument, unless you subscribe to the timeless argument that “might makes right,” in which case, the Nazi’s are entirely vindicated, since they clearly had the might to enforce their will at the time.

          • akmofo December 23, 2017 at 6:47 pm #

            No, you would not take such liberties with others in the first place, because you very well know that under different circumstances others would not bother teaching you good behavior with alphabet characters on a computer screen, but with black and blue bruises on your face.

          • Ol' Scratch December 24, 2017 at 8:56 am #

            Well then, I would assume I would be granted the same privilege? Then it’s just a matter of who shows up “ready to rumble.” Get over the butthurt already. It was a retort meant to rankle, which it obviously did. Therefore it was effective, to the degree that you’ve made it so. Where’s that all powerful faith when you actually need it?

          • akmofo December 24, 2017 at 1:29 pm #

            Faith implies a belief or a conviction in the absence of facts. The thing is, I know the facts. I know the facts are on my side. Always were and always will be. Institutional conspiracies or others willful ignorance and doesn’t change that.

        • elysianfield December 23, 2017 at 12:21 pm #

          “. Five, we are all unique and special”

          We all get trophies then?

          “Unique” and “Special”?

          If I am ever thus described…please shoot me….

          • akmofo December 23, 2017 at 1:08 pm #

            Yup, only the trophy is called a passport.

      • pequiste December 22, 2017 at 8:11 pm #

        I love a well placed “You people!”

  33. malthuss December 22, 2017 at 6:51 pm #

    “Birth Tourism Industry Exploiting U.S. Pacific Territory”

    “The Birth Tourism industry from both China and Russia is exploiting the nation’s birthright citizenship laws on the Pacific Island of Saipan in the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. territory. Tourists from both countries can visit the island for up to 45 days without a visa, and any children born on the island automatically receive U.S. citizenship.

    Since 2009, the number of births to Chinese mothers who have received automatic U.S. citizenship on Saipan has increased by 5800%.”

    https://www.numbersusa.com/news/birth-tourism-industry-exploiting-us-pacific-terrority

    Anonymous said… Flanders at 2:40:
    Here in Europe is far worse than that: Chinese, Turks, Ukranians go to corrupt EU countries of the East like Romania,
    Bulgaria, Poland and they buy EU passports -it’s a billion dollar scam!
    The satanic EU mmst go!
    Hail Catalonia!

    • GreenAlba December 23, 2017 at 7:30 pm #

      “The satanic EU mmst go!
      Hail Catalonia!”

      Catalonia is looking for independence from Spain, not the EU. There is nothing stopping Catalonia from applying for membership of the EU if it leaves Spain. Similarly, Scotland voted to remain in the EU, regardless of a large minority wishing to secede from the UK. One of the main ways the UK government persuaded a majority of Scottish voters to remain in the UK was supposedly that this was its best bet of remaining within the EU (at the time), since outside of the UK, its chances of becoming an independent member of the EU were not great (it is running a bigger deficit than the UK as a whole and the size of the deficit is one of the criteria for entry to the EU).

      Either country might find its aspirations frustrated, since new members have to be approved unanimously, and Spain will not agree in either case. But the fact remains that Catalonia’s wish to leave Spain is nothing to do with leaving the EU.

      The EU is not a country. It is not even a federation of countries at this point, although that may be an aspiration of some within it.

    • Elrond Hubbard December 24, 2017 at 9:55 am #

      Ah, the Northern Mariana Islands — a little corner of the United States, far across the Pacific, tucked away from things like the equal protection of the laws.

      Being a commonwealth (but not a state) of the United States, goods manufactured in the Northern Mariana Islands can legally bear the “Made in the U.S.A.” label. Combine this with the U.S. federal minimum wage not applying there and you’ve got the makings of an excellent grift. The manufacturers doing business there imported most of their workers from poor countries, kept them in living in shit-shacks behind barbed wire, worked them like dogs, and sold their “American-made” products at a huge markup to patriotic consumers in the United States.

      Workers from foreign countries were lured into the scam by being told that they would be working in the United States. When they arrived, they would have their passports taken from them and be put to work in subhuman conditions. Women, as well as children, were subject to forced prostitution in the local sex-tourism industry. When the women got pregnant, they were subject to forced abortions. (I threw in that last tidbit just to reassure you, malthuss. Sure, the women were sex slaves, but at least they weren’t rewarded at the end with ‘anchor babies’ to give them a claim on the United States’ good nature. Once they were used up and of no further value, they could be packed up back where they came from, as God intended. As if God could intend any of what was going on there.)

      Back in the day, a bill was introduced in Congress to extend the minimum wage to the CNMI. That wouldn’t do at all, so the CNMI had their lobbyist Jack Abramoff (remember him?) arrange an all-expenses paid trip to their capital, Saipan, for corrupt-as-shit Congressman Tom Delay (remember him?) These two gentlemen took on the task of making sure the grift could carry on, with Delay blocking the minimum-wage bill from proceeding in the House after it passed the Senate, no doubt for a handsome price paid by the government of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. In the end, everyone went to prison, but at least the important people made their bank while they could.

      No doubt the people of Puerto Rico take their own lessons from all this. By the way, it’s Xmas Eve and parts of the island still won’t have power for another eight months. But they’re still Americans, so at least they know they’re free. God bless!

  34. Pucker December 22, 2017 at 6:54 pm #

    “Other than that Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?”

    “In 2014 The Economist said that, on the basis of IMF data, emerging economies –or, most of the human population –might have to wait for three centuries in order to catch up with the West. In this assessment, the last decade of high growth was an ‘aberration’ and ‘billions of people will be poorer for a lot longer than they might have expected just a few years ago’. The implications are sobering: the non-West not only finds itself replicating the West’s trauma on an infinitely larger scale. While helping inflict the profoundest damage yet on the environment –manifest today in rising sea levels, erratic rainfall, drought, declining harvests and devastating floods –the non-West also has no real prospect of catching up with the West.”

    “Age of Anger”, Pankaj Mishra

    • malthuss December 22, 2017 at 6:57 pm #

      Not really, most will be dead by 2100. They dont have 300 years.

      WRT, , most of the human population –might have to wait for three centuries in order to catch up with the West.

  35. Pucker December 22, 2017 at 7:04 pm #

    “Massa….”

    “Nor do the Islam-mongers pay any attention to the paradox, illuminated consistently from post-revolutionary France to ISIS: that the actual experience of individual freedom in itself can provoke a desperate longing for a ‘master’, as Tocqueville put it; ….”

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  36. BackRowHeckler December 22, 2017 at 7:22 pm #

    Jim, if you’re looking in … have a Merry Christmas!

    You are a National Treasure, my friend.

    brh

  37. Pucker December 22, 2017 at 7:50 pm #

    Santa’s flying a converted red-painted Soviet MIG 21.

  38. Pucker December 22, 2017 at 8:01 pm #

    If we lived in ancient Egypt, we’d be preoccupied building Pharoah’s Big Pyramid so that he can enjoy his gold, slaves, and concubines in the After-Life.

  39. pequiste December 22, 2017 at 8:55 pm #

    Went to see “The Darkest Hour.” A matinee on my day off.

    I rarely go to the cinema these days (actually the last two decades,) however, the draw of historic high drama, coupled to a particular actor, Gary Oldman, who I actually think has significant talent, was irresistible.

    Made the journey to the nearest movieplex. It happens to be co-located with a non-descript (which means plain and UGLY) mall in the next town. Traffic was, of course, miserable, this being the final Friday of the consumer shopping riot before Christmas.

    The theatre was packed with mostly an older crowd.

    What a relief; good behaviour was exhibited by the whole audience: no cell phones ringing, conversations, or babies crying. Quite necessary for a film that focusses on atmosphere, conversations, political intrigues, as well as legendary speeches.

    All I can tell you that for me it was an excellent cinematic experience; providing me with everything I go to the theater for. Oldman absolutely must win an Oscar for his achievement; he was Churchill (right out of a black and white Yousef Karsh portrait.)

    Go see it for yourselves should you be looking to go to the movies during the holidays, for it is good to escape the clusterfuck for at least a couple of hours and to also remember what true leadership means.

    • PeteAtomic December 22, 2017 at 9:10 pm #

      thanks for the review. I think I’d like it from what you say there.

  40. Janos Skorenzy December 22, 2017 at 8:58 pm #

    New Apple Iphone updates make older models go slower in an attempt to get people to buy newer models. Big class action lawsuit pending. Apple says it’s only trying to help its customers: go slower preserves their batteries life!

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  41. BackRowHeckler December 22, 2017 at 9:47 pm #

    To pick up a thread from Walter Bs earlier post concerning Puerto Rico …

    there are about a half million Puerto Ricans in this state now so they constitute a powerful political voting bloc.

    We are being dinned every day in the media to make contributions to this or that Puerto Rican relief fund. Our newspaper refers to the island as the ‘Motherland’ or sometimes the ‘Homeland’, and we’d better pony up and make a sizable contribution, or else. The chaos in Puerto Rico is being blamed on an insufficient response by the president; no mention is ever made suggesting Puerto Rico was a basket case before the hurricane, $75 billion in debt, in default, violent, corrupt, infrastructure already falling apart, in short a 3rd world sh-thole. Our lefty governor sent down a company of State Troopers to help out; they came back yesterday and returned to a heroes welcome! Hammering President Bush over his response to Katrina in NO seemed to have worked for the Dems in 06 and they’re trying it again here in ’17. It doesn’t seem to be as successful this time around.

    ————————————————————————–

    John McCain, what a turnaround. In 08 he was a Nazi, a warmonger, a maniac who’d unleash a nuclear holocaust. Ten years later he’s back to being a Maverick, an august Senator, an icon.
    And Senator elect Doug Jones in Alabama is already hobnobbing with the Hollywood elite, appearing with Seth Meyers in LA, and on stage with Jimmy Buffet and Charles Barkley in Key West. That didn’t take long.

    brh

    • Ol' Scratch December 23, 2017 at 8:51 am #

      John McCain, what a turnaround. In 08 he was a Nazi, a warmonger, a maniac who’d unleash a nuclear holocaust. Ten years later he’s back to being a Maverick, an august Senator, an icon.

      Not sure where you came up with that. McCain’s always been a craven and corrupt little weasel and opportunist, who’s cashed in on his POW status shamelessly at every turn. By all accounts, he was s shitty military officer who failed to live up to his father’s and father’s father’s expectations, who then became an even shittier politicians from a state of like-minded doddering old fools whose brains have baked in the Arizona sun for far too long. By far the funniest thing about his whole political career was when the GOP saddled him against his wishes with the twit Sarah Palin and he was powerless to stop them. Funnier still was the fact that as hopelessly stupid and misinformed as she was, she was still several orders of magnitude smarter than McCain himself, who by that time was little more than a shell of a man.

    • PeteAtomic December 23, 2017 at 5:44 pm #

      Isn’t ole McCain simply an employee for the defense industry? He’s gotta be one of the biggest war mongerers out there.

      • messianicdruid December 23, 2017 at 11:26 pm #

        They switched his boot to the other foot. lol

  42. trypillian December 22, 2017 at 11:03 pm #

    Speaking of the rostrum, it ought to be duly noted the verbal chastisement rendered to Melania courtesy of DT, just prior to the crowning. No wonder she really doesn’t want to hold his little paws anymore. The MF’r has royally shafted the deep state to his credit; a tragicomedy with no end in sight.

    DT was illadvised to launder Russian mafia money via Duetsche Bank. I think teflon man will crash and burn.

  43. dolph9 December 23, 2017 at 1:09 am #

    I like you James, because you are speaking some truth even though it’s depressing.

  44. Georges1202 December 23, 2017 at 2:15 am #

    Jim,

    Ah, how can you sum up 2017 without a wink to the crypto phenomenon? It is here and however it shakes out, something new is afoot. Given the human tendency to foul just about everything up, Satoshi’s initial vision may never be realized, but stay tuned.

    • Ol' Scratch December 23, 2017 at 8:14 am #

      The crypto phenomenon is a mirror image of the currency phenomenon: too much money circulating among the few searching for outsized returns.

  45. janet December 23, 2017 at 4:20 am #

    Yes, the rich will get richer and the poor will get poorer at just a barely minimal politically tolerable rate so that the rubes won’t suddenly revolt; but then again, that was the plan all along no matter what, so what in the world has changed exactly? –Ol’ Scratch

    Yes, in the USA under GGG things are getting worse. However, looking at extreme poverty on a global level, things are getting better. What in the world has changed exactly? Global poverty is decreasing (though most Americans do not know it).

    https://borgenproject.org/20-poverty-facts/

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    • Ol' Scratch December 23, 2017 at 8:06 am #

      Ahh, the wonderful leveling effect of globalism on wages and living conditions for the working classes. How long do you think most Americans will put up with third world conditions once they come to Anytown USA in earnest? That, in a nutshell, was a the driving force behind the Trump revolution and the reason for the implosion of the Hillacrat political machine. Yes, Trump was lying through his teeth when he proclaimed himself to be working for average Americans (unless you consider millionaires to be “average,” which he no doubt does), but then again, unless you were a total rube (and my extended family is full of them), that was a given.

      • malthuss December 23, 2017 at 11:38 am #

        How long do you think most Americans will put up with third world conditions once they come to Anytown —

        I do not see the future.
        ‘Put Up With’ as opposed to–

        riots?
        starvation?
        what?

        I do see the present. USA being turned 3rd world, by bringing in that element.

        I found this,

        And the sad thing is that working people had more control and affluence in the late nineteenth century running up to the middle of the twentieth century. Even with Carnegie, Frick and Morgan etc. trying to smash them at every turn.

        ********

        But this is because they had not yet learned to be Multicultural yet. Nor Politically Correct.

        • Ol' Scratch December 23, 2017 at 1:03 pm #

          Agreed. The forces of financial totalitarianism were a lot less subtle in the 20th century, back when they still needed a working class in America. Now the velvet gloves have come off, with only the false allure of the plebes joining in the party to stem open revolt. It will take a while yet to be sure, but one can finally envision the day when the slumbering masses awake and reject the bullshit they’ve been fed since the dawn of the industrial revolution. Won’t be pretty, won’t be fun, but it will be inevitable.

  46. FincaInTheMountains December 23, 2017 at 6:42 am #

    The Witch is in the Details

    Trump gives green light to selling lethal arms to Ukraine
    http://thehill.com/policy/international/365906-trump-administration-approves-lethal-arms-sales-to-ukraine

    Donald Trump approves deal for US to sell sniper rifles to Ukraine, angering Russia
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/12/21/donald-trump-approves-deal-us-sell-sniper-rifles-ukraine-angering/

    Trump expected to sign off on plan to sell anti-tank missiles to Ukraine
    http://thehill.com/policy/international/366242-trump-expected-to-sign-off-on-plan-to-sell-anti-tank-missiles-to-ukraine

    In the current situation, I can not exclude absolutely anything, including the sale to Ukraine of any “deadly” weapons by Trump personally. In the end, whatever clicks in his head and how he decides to strengthen his negotiating positions on the issue of Kurdistan or North Korea.

    No, of course, if not General McMaster, but I was the Tramp’s National Security adviser, I would quickly explain to him the consequences of the appearance of willow branches and such musical instruments as cornet in the hands of the Taliban.

    http://www.army-technology.com/projects/kornet/

    Moreover, I would not have been able to exclude North Korea’s tests of a highly advanced missile with multiple independently targetable reentry warheads, after which theoretically must follow the worldwide collapse of the dollar-based financial system.

    Moreover, I am almost sure that if Trump’s adviser was General Flynn, his recommendations would not be too different from mine, but how General McMaster quotes Thucydides says that he is not a “degenerate” if one uses terminology of “Inhabited Island” and sincerely believes that the Delphic oracle aka the Western Black Project has nothing to do with the Peloponnesian war and Pericles was an idiot building the Athenian Acropolis.

    If he was a degenerate, then the last person he would quote in this situation would be Thucydides, since Thucydides had approximately the same attitude to Sparta as McMaster himself has to Hillary Clinton.

    Why the White House Is Reading Greek History
    https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/06/21/why-the-white-house-is-reading-greek-history-215287

    In addition, this analogy not only represents Trump as Pericles and, accordingly, a convinced supporter of a true democracy (as he really is), but Ukraine also represents the Northern Black Sea Coast, which in fact is Novorossia.

    Of course, the troops of the Republic of Ukraine-Novorossia will have to raid Kiev to convince these bastards that their Uk-Ruin is actually called the Polish Outskirts or Galicia and they could discuss the “ancient Ukrs” with Poland or Austria-Hungary all they want.

    Certainly the phenomenon of McMaster in English is called “to be caught in one’s own propaganda” is one of the most vivid manifestations of another phenomenon, which I call “English 101” and which Putin should ALWAYS take into account.

    And if you read the above-quoted articles carefully, it turns out that the green light for all these Ukrainian provocations is given not by Trump but by “his” administration, part of which is the State Department, which has been trying to overthrow Trump for a year.

    • Ol' Scratch December 23, 2017 at 8:13 am #

      Safe to say that GGG has been completely captured now by “the Network,” (assuming he wasn’t captured from the very start, and his entire presidency wasn’t just another Manchurian Candidate redux, a la Obama before him) likely for calling off the impeachment prosecution dogs. The timing does seem to be curious.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_and_Hope

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carroll_Quigley

      • The Articulate Infant December 23, 2017 at 8:55 am #

        I want to take this moment to wish all a Merry fuckin’ Christmas and a safe and prosperous new Year. First of all, most to our host & narrator of National Decline Mr JHK, and then to you all, the commentors here…well, most of you. I’ve mentioned you before, but look forward to seeing you all here again in 2018…even the good Captain. But also, to other leading lights that have made this such a pleasure to read every Monday and Friday, onehunglo & Thwack, where are you? Come on back! Some others on here suck, and I hope never again to read your tiresome screeds, but the rest of you, have by turns, given me joy, humour and moments of insight, and for that I thank you – one and all!
        -The AI.

        • Ol' Scratch December 23, 2017 at 9:02 am #

          “Merry Fucking Christmas!” Now there’s a Christmas card/greeting for you! Bad Santa indeed!

  47. volodya December 23, 2017 at 10:21 am #

    Beantown, I don’t know if YOU were being sarcastic in calling my comment about Israel a thinking man’s posting. For my part I was being dead serious.

    All that being said, I don’t think the ruler’s deceit will last forever. Even the thickest skull among the Islamists must have noticed that there are tacit alliances and arrangements between Muslim leaders and the Israelis for various purposes because, having nurtured violent sects of Islamists via their madrassas and money, the Saudi aristocracy would know that their own heads won’t be spared the extremist blade. They would know that their own position isn’t unshakeable and that the US is an inconstant ally. So they must be sharing intel with the Israelis and other wise co-operating. And ISIS, al qaeda and other Islamists have got to know this.

    In my view, what assailed Assad in Syria is in the future for the Saudi elite. For now Assad is ok, that is, until someone gets to him, someone like a disgruntled security man, or someone in alliance with one of the various Syrian opposition groups. Or maybe someone who thinks he’d look better sitting in Assad’s chair than Assad.

    In the words of Michael Corleone, if history has taught us anything, is that you can kill anyone. The Saudis and other local despots know this. This is why the locals live in police states.

    When Saudi oilfields dry up, the money to keep a lid on local discontent dries up, and there’s no way to make people living on the dry-as-bones Arabian peninsula eat sand.

    • beantownbill. December 23, 2017 at 11:06 am #

      No, I was serious. My remark was intended as a compliment. I just wasn’t sure if YOU were being sarcastic, so I added my little aside. After all, how many non-Jews on CFN would say that a lot of Palestinians’ problems could stem from them and other arab states. I was rather pleased to see someone with smarts even realize that there IS another side to the argument.

      I also agree with your last post.

      • malthuss December 23, 2017 at 11:45 am #

        I like reasoned discourse, even if I don’t necessarily agree.

        So when you posted, ‘If you had a dick Id make you eat it.’
        THATS REASONED DEBATE?

        Or are you so senile that you forget posting that?

        • beantownbill. December 23, 2017 at 11:32 pm #

          Sorry, Malthuss but I never posted that comment. You must be mistaking me for someone else. In case I am getting senile, please let me know specifically which posting to which you are referring. It’s just that I wouldn’t use that wording.

          • malthuss December 24, 2017 at 5:09 pm #

            It was wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy back. 2007? 10 years ago.

            Where is the collapse? soon, I hope. The sooner the better.

      • volodya December 23, 2017 at 11:57 am #

        Yeah, one obvious “other side” to the argument is the expulsion of Jews from a multitude of Muslim states after 1948. Just where the fuck were these Jews supposed to go? And how the fuck are they culpable for the creation of Israel. If there was one way of populating the nascent Israel it’s to expel your Jewish citizens.

        Now I hear the Moroccans are seeing the light and offering Moroccan passports to Israelis of Moroccan extraction.

        One other obvious “other side” is who the fuck invited Muslims to Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria in the first place? They spend a lot of time bemoaning the Crusader west. Fine, they want to re-set the clocks? They want Israel back? Then give Turkey and North Africa back. Who the fuck invited Muslims to conquer Spain and the Balkans. WTF are Muslims doing occupying and ruling age-old Christian countries. Like Turkey.

        There’s a lot of “other sides” that Muslims don’t want to see.

        • Janos Skorenzy December 23, 2017 at 3:16 pm #

          Exactly. They are so lacking in introversion that they think they were “defending themselves” by invading half the known world within decades of Mohammad’s death.

          One kid I was talking to knew it was bullshit and said with great tension, “It was just something they wanted to do”. I could tell he was lying. In other words, a way to make money by sacking other civilizations. That’s why they wanted to do it. But I think, for this kid, that was just a dodge. He believed like Qutub’s “Milestones” that Islam conquers because Mohammad ordered them to. And to say that Islam conquered in order to gain wealth is to rob Islam of all nobility.

  48. malthuss December 23, 2017 at 11:33 am #

    Janos,

    I knew some new yorkers who said Rudi was not celibate.

    wrt–Don’t know if he mixed it in with his work with his students that way the obnoxious Jones went on to do.

    Franklin Jones was Episcopalian.

  49. beantownbill. December 23, 2017 at 12:31 pm #

    @ EF: re yesterday’s post to me

    Questioning the holocaust at this point in time is like questioning the theory of evolution. To this day, many people won’t accept the obviousness of evolution and there’s nothing anyone can do to change their minds, but we are very tired of wasting our time arguing the point with every wacko Tom, Dick and Harry. So we ignore them until their statements cause real harm to our society.

    The holocaust was an extraordinary event. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. There exists an incredible amount of evidence supporting the existence of the holocaust: survivors’ testimony, non-Jewish, German citizens eyewitness accounts, a shitload of pictures showing starving people and piles of bodies, eyewitness accounts of allies liberating the camps, and volumes of Nazi records of arrivals, deaths and confiscated personal property, and more..The evidence is beyond overwhelming.

    Sure, some people could say the evidence was manufactured. But this unlikely argument is in the same class as all wackconspiracy theories.

    So, like arguing the theory of evolution over and over and over again, questioning the holocaust is the same. We’ve done that numerous times; we’d like to spend our time doing something else.

    At this point, there’s no logical reason to question the holocaust anymore, here, in Germany or anywhere else.

    • hmuller December 23, 2017 at 1:04 pm #

      I’m not arguing with anything you’re saying, Bill. I’m just pointing out that the Holocaust deniers are more like Holocaust revisionists Some say 1.5 million not 6 million Jews died. Personally, I don’t know what to believe because we aren’t allowed to discuss it – JHK orders.

      I’ve always thought the answer to a bad argument is a good argument, not censorship and a gag order. Because only people with something to hide impose censorship, right?

      Of course, it’s a crime against humanity at any number.

      • beantownbill. December 23, 2017 at 1:40 pm #

        First of all, I’ve read many people calling the holocaust the holohoax, so I think while there are revisionists, there are also outright deniers. Look, many people believe the dinosaurs roamed the lands along with man. As someone here said, you can’t fix stupid.

        For most all CFNers’ sakes, I’m shutting down my own anti – anti-Semite posts for now. i’ve said enough and I’m not going to beat a dead horse. I see a lot of anti-Semitic comments here and I keep my mouth shut. Then, some critical number of those kind of posts is reached – I don’t know the number – and I feel the need to not let anyone get away with it. That’s what happened yesterday.

        The CFN blog’s purpose is not to go back and forth about Jews – so let’s talk about more relevant posts.

        • hmuller December 23, 2017 at 2:35 pm #

          So true, Bill. And I want to congratulate you for the way you refuted the arguments of those holocaust deniers without the need to ever read one word they’ve written. Probably the same way you refute those pig ignorant evolution deniers.

          I’ve never been that intellectually blessed. In fact, when I went through law school decades ago they taught us to learn our adversary’s arguments before refuting them. Glad we’ve gotten past that.

          Cheers.

          • Janos Skorenzy December 23, 2017 at 3:21 pm #

            Bravo. An eloquent repudiation. He is trounced in the battle he allegedly never engaged in. The Jews of an older generation called this kind of tactic, “Dynamic Silence”. But once full control over the media was gained, they couldn’t contain themselves anymore. And that spells opportunity for our People to win back their freedom.

    • Ol' Scratch December 23, 2017 at 2:32 pm #

      Allowing for the fact that there are, of course, holocaust total deniers, I think that what puts a bug up most people’s ass is the specialness of the Jews plight, when in fact so many other peoples around the world melt similar fates in similar or larger numbers during the many wars of imperialist opportunity waged during the 20’th century. There’s certainly more than enough blame to go around for all this, so to a certain extent laying blame is counterproductive and beside the point, unless of course the parties waging war are still in power, in which case laying blame is a necessary first step in stopping the evil bastards from continuing their evil deeds, especially where advanced propaganda and disinformation techniques are being used to cover their tracks and power is grossly asymmetrical among the oppressors and the oppressed, as they both certainly are today.

      And as a reminder to those I’ve no doubt pissed off with my comments the past few days: Not all Jews are Zionists and not all Zionists are Jews. Zionism, like much of organized Christianity (primarily the Catholic Church), is first and foremost a political, economic, and sociological phenomenon, having almost nothing to do with personal faith, which exists in another realm altogether.

      Unfortunately for us all, the two have have evidently found shamelessly opportunistic common cause in attacking the third leg of this unholy Abrahamic triad by attacking Islam, which obviously has no lack of warts to be exploited as well. Perhaps it’s time that the few people remaining of old-fashioned common sense and reasonable intelligence rejected this whole mess and found common cause in rejecting the enforced infantile 20’th century paradigms altogether and forging a totally new path forward, if not for themselves, then at least for their progeny.

      • hmuller December 23, 2017 at 2:58 pm #

        On the issue of settling old scores. A mere 800 years ago violent Mongolians raped, pillaged, and murdered their way across half of Eurasia. Have they ever paid a cent in reparations? Hell No!

        I say we impose war reparations with interest on Mongolia. That should be several years worth of world GDP. The rest of us can stop working. SWEET!

        If they don’t pay; we’ll bomb that yurt into the dirt.

        • Ol' Scratch December 23, 2017 at 3:19 pm #

          “Bomb the Yurt into Dirt!”

          I see a marketing opportunity there to be exploited, h!

        • Janos Skorenzy December 23, 2017 at 3:27 pm #

          The most brutal of Stalin’s troops were the Central Asians. The White Russians in front warned the German People of the monsters who were bringing up the rear. Not only were they not ordered not to rape, they were ordered to rape so as to break the spirit of the German people. Luckily, conditions were so horrendous in the weeks and months thereafter, that most of the Mongol Mongrel pregnancies were miscarried.

          The Bill of the Allies can never be paid. Nor can that of the Blacks. We have an infinity of payback coming to us. If we can’t extract in resources or labor, we’ll take in terms of the Moral High Ground – the ultimate Gold standard.

          • S M Tenneshaw December 25, 2017 at 6:43 am #

            “Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age, made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science.” — Winston Churchill.

            Your comment is just a smelly buncha BM. If there’s a God in Heaven (I’m agnostic about that), he’ll see you fry just for that post alone.

      • Janos Skorenzy December 23, 2017 at 3:37 pm #

        Look at what Dersh did to Finkelstein: got him denied tenure because he didn’t like his book about the Holocaust Industry. Not all Jews agree about every detail of what happened. Obviously there’s been a lot of story telling and exaggeration: like kids escaping from the camps and being raised by wolves!

        And of course even the hardcore admit that the Zundel trial was a disaster. They got Old Jews talking about what they “remembered” – and proved much of it was nonsense. The Hardcore vowed never again. Not more talking. Dynamic Silence and Vilification of any who dared to speak.

        • S M Tenneshaw December 24, 2017 at 7:00 am #

          The Dersh Man, doin’ the best he can…to make the world a better place. Boo yah!

      • GreenAlba December 23, 2017 at 7:57 pm #

        “Allowing for the fact that there are, of course, holocaust total deniers, I think that what puts a bug up most people’s ass is the specialness of the Jews plight, when in fact so many other peoples around the world melt similar fates in similar or larger numbers…”

        Scratch, I think perhaps that many people find it especially horrific because the annihilation of a people was industrialised for the first time. I don’t know if you’ve ever watched ‘Conspiracy’ (re the Wannsee Conference). It’s pretty much the ‘banality of evil’ made flesh (or at least in the portrayal) – it’s the bureaucratic approach to genocide that makes it so much more horrific in many ways than previous wars, even genocidal ones, in the imagination of people living now. That doesn’t necessarily make it more horrific in terms of cruelty, but it was certainly different.

        Being relatively recent, it lives within the folk memory of the whole of Europe too. And it happened within the context of a country that was considered, and considered itself, extremely civilised. Possibly the recognition that the veneer of civilisation is so fragile is another reason why this particular history has such a hold on people.

        • Elrond Hubbard December 24, 2017 at 10:24 am #

          Ideology, combined with technocratic distance, can make the most horrendous atrocities seem palatable and hygienic to those at the top giving the orders. Nazi Germany is the go-to case, and for obvious reasons, but it applies elsewhere as well — notably to the horrendous destruction that the United States visited upon Vietnam.

          Robert Scheer, former editor of Ramparts magazine, made some related observations* at a recent retrospective.

          https://www.blubrry.com/jacobin/29786308/jacobin-radio-w-suzi-weissman-media-and-democracy/

          From his reporting in southeast Asia in the sixties, Scheer observed that most of what the U.S. government was saying about its activities there was nonsense. There was no international Communist conspiracy with Vietnam as the next ‘domino’ to fall. Every Communist movement he reported on was always driven by local nationalist movements, trying to improve local conditions. The idea of Communism as a monolithic worldwide threat was an invention of scared politicians who saw threats to their power everywhere. Likewise, there was no Ho Chi Minh Trail; that was a phantom conjured up by U.S. planners who assumed the reality of the non-existent internationalist threat to begin with.

          What Scheer saw was an American foreign policy driven by phantoms. This is even more true today, with a terrorized and paranoid America driven by overwrought fears about Islamic terror, supernaturally gifted Russian manipulators, and squirming seas of brown people threatening to worm into every crevice.** Scheer concludes that tribalism is simply stronger than facts or reason; that’s why even Germany, the height of culture and civilization, could fall prey to ecstatic unreason. I fear that the United States is inching ever closer to tipping over the brink as well.

          * There were three speakers at the event; I’m trusting my memory that this was Scheer’s observation.

          ** NB: This last is my description of the attitudes of other people, not my own.

        • Janos Skorenzy December 24, 2017 at 8:53 pm #

          Exactly. Just as you’re comfortable with the murder of thousands of White South Africans. The Evil has changed, it merely change forms. And you are fine with this form. Your own People no less – so it’s even worse since they have a moral claim on you.

    • elysianfield December 23, 2017 at 2:42 pm #

      Bill,
      …”I know NUTTING!”…Sgt. Schultz of Hogan’s Hero fame.

      Funny you should mention evolution…I read a great article with arguments posted, both intelligent and humbling, I would highly recommend it to anyone with a sliver of curiosity;

      http://raconteurreport.blogspot.com/2017/11/in-theory-standing-on-shoulders-of.html

      • beantownbill. December 23, 2017 at 4:19 pm #

        I never realized the extent of scientific ignorance until I started reading blogs 10 or 12 years ago. It still amazes me how poor Americans’ critical thinking is. The article to which you refer is filled with erroneous thinking. I’ve read all the objections this person has stated, before, and it is so wrong I had to stop about 2/3rds of the way through, because my feeling is that I have no obligation to argue the point and waste my time. My recommendation to you is to read publications in which people do feel that obligation to refute scientific ignoramuses, and learn how real science is done.

        I think you want me to argue point by point against the writer’s statements, but at the risk you may think I can’t refute anything, I rocessjust don’t want to get drawn into such a conversation.

        But ok, I’ll give one example, but that’s it. The old argument that evolution couldn’t produce a whole eye is incorrect. It is true that you can’t go from no eye to a fully functional eye. But that’s disingenuous. See, there are creatures that have evolved incomplete eyes. They have photosensitive cells on the surface of their skin. It’s very easy to get to a modern eye from there in a step-by-step evolutionary process.

        • K-Dog December 23, 2017 at 4:36 pm #

          Good example. The human brain will go to extreme lengths to maintain its delusions. We all have a vested interest in maintaining our personal delusions but some of us don’t ‘error correct’ when our imbalance between what is becomes too extreme as others will due. The looney-tune, the somewhat neurotic, and the balanced. It is a continuum we all move along. A world view where genuine answers are humbly sought without one’s ego getting involved helps. Bullies don’t make good scientists.

          • K-Dog December 23, 2017 at 4:37 pm #

            Before a comment from Q becomes ‘due’. Let ‘due’ be ‘do’.

          • K-Dog December 23, 2017 at 4:38 pm #

            Do-be-do-dah.

          • K-Dog December 24, 2017 at 6:17 pm #

            Due-be-do-dah.

        • elysianfield December 23, 2017 at 6:41 pm #

          Bill,
          You know, I did comment on that blog, and my argument did support scientific findings. Of course the blog argument is filled with erroneous thinking…that’s why it is called an “argument”…what I find intensely interesting is the intellectualizing, by men of obvious education, a false premise, and the examples used. As HMuller has stated, you have to understand the other side of the argument to begin a refutation.

          I was not expecting you to accept or refute the premise of the article…I just enjoyed the read and though you might also…and I do believe I understand the empirical method.

          Polemics

          • beantownbill. December 23, 2017 at 11:19 pm #

            Good for you. I’m glad you’re not a believer in that posting. From the way you wrote your comment to me, though, I thought you might have agreed with the blogger. I didn’t want to finish reading this guy’s post because I’ve been there and done that so many times already.

            I don’t remember if it was here or at Zero Hedge that some people were espousing their belief in a flat Earth. If I didn’t know better, I would have been astounded. It really is a struggle sometimes to think positively about our future.

  50. Q. Shtik December 23, 2017 at 1:29 pm #

    the federal budget deficit, on which Social Security has NO EFFECT WHATSOEVER…………… Do you begin to see why this makes me tired? – Windward

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

    Wind, you remind me of the guy who shows up here every few weeks with the same message and concern that never varies. He wants to put a stop to any and all efforts that might enable men to become pregnant. Whew! Talk about a non-issue!

    In your case it’s the concept that SS has no effect on the US Federal budget deficit. LET IT GO, WIND. Next time write about something different and more important like the tendency of so many commenters to say jive when they mean jibe. 😉

    BTW, if you think writing about this issue makes YOU tired you have no idea how tired it makes the rest of us.

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    • windward December 23, 2017 at 6:14 pm #

      Mr. Q [stands for querulous]:

      Your feet stink, you scratch between your toes and you don’t love Jesus.

      Or your grandmother, if you think Social Security is a trivial issue.

      I wouldn’t have seen your post if I hadn’t searched for social security. I wasn’t missing anything. Anyone who thinks that he speaks for “the rest of us” has a big problem.

      You remind me of a guy named Trump. It is very unpleasant. Your lame attempts at humor, your trivial concerns, your offensive manner, your disregard for facts and the aforementioned overblown ego. Your obnoxious handle.

      I suppose you are all tuckered out by now, so I will cut you a break and Let It Go.

      • Q. Shtik December 23, 2017 at 8:37 pm #

        Your feet stink, – Wind

        ===========

        Wow, I think I touched a nerve.

        • Q. Shtik December 23, 2017 at 9:20 pm #

          And BTW, Wind, your statement that “the federal budget deficit, on which Social Security has NO EFFECT WHATSOEVER” is not exactly accurate. Read this link:

          http://www.aei.org/publication/does-social-security-increase-the-budget-deficit/

          For a quick summary of what the link says read the last paragraph.

          The point of my earlier comment (at 1:29 PM) was not that Social Security is a trivial issue but rather that you are a one-string banjo.

          Forget about SS for awhile and give us your thoughts on male pregnancy.

          • Ol' Scratch December 24, 2017 at 10:41 am #

            Is male pregnancy “a thing” now? I can’t keep up anymore.

          • windward December 24, 2017 at 11:06 am #

            Again with the lame attempt at humor. And now you are citing the AEI. In other words, garbage, the sole product of right-wing “intellectuals.” And you wing nuts eat it up. GIGO.

            Did you read your 1:29 post? “Whew! Talk about a non-issue!” Like your hero Trump, you think you can wipe out your shame with a lie.

            I would rather not stimulate any more of your nerves. One of your worthless posts is too many. You don’t have a string to play on. But it is amusing to see you try.

  51. volodya December 23, 2017 at 2:43 pm #

    At the risk of tiring Q out, I just read another article in an august New York City publication that talked about “stagnant” wages in a former manufacturing region.

    I don’t understand if it’s a lack of IQ among the so-called bi-coastal elite, if it’s deliberate stupidity, if it’s propaganda they’re spewing, or what.

    There’s a common notion that the winners write the histories. They may write the histories but falsifying what happened doesn’t change the FACTS of what happened and the FACTS of the subsequent events that were set in motion.

    Trying to make like these rust belt regions suffer from stagnant wages is preposterous. Household incomes plummeted. Writing nonsense in defiance of facts doesn’t change those facts.

    And pundits constantly talking about neo-fascism among these same rust belt people that dare to protest what was done to them makes the pundit out to be a fucking idiot.

    • Ol' Scratch December 23, 2017 at 3:16 pm #

      You’re too smart for your own good, vol. In a land of 24/7 wall to wall propaganda, “facts” are infinitely malleable. The rich know better, but are willingly obtuse in order to protect their self-esteem, while the poor are so beaten down that they’re simply afraid to believe their lying eyes.

      And yes, histories are written by the winners, and the losers are first vilified as an extra punitive measure to warn any future such miscreants in the same vein, and then all too soon forgotten altogether.

      • volodya December 23, 2017 at 3:34 pm #

        I dunno Scratch. There’s a lot afoot, Brexit for one, Trump’s election for another, a profusion of political movements gathering all over Europe. The inability of elites to consider anything but their own interests has had calamitous consequences ie the rise of fascism, WW2, Russian and Chinese Revolutions. Indisputable fact is that Trump won no matter all the ninnying about this terrible thing that was sprung on the American people ie the electoral college.

        See that’s the thing facts aren’t malleable. They’re exceedingly stubborn things.

      • Janos Skorenzy December 23, 2017 at 4:03 pm #

        Yes, believe it or not. Whites in Detroit used to go out with shovels and bats and beat back the rioting Blacks. How far we have fallen! Once the City Government turned against them and refused to prosecute Black murderers, Whites knew the struggle was lost and fled.

        • elysianfield December 23, 2017 at 7:11 pm #

          Jaego Scorzne?

          • Janos Skorenzy December 23, 2017 at 8:58 pm #

            I know him. A great guy.

  52. messianicdruid December 23, 2017 at 2:55 pm #

    “Can one out of ten thousand Americans name a single battle that took place in this now-longest-running war in US history? Me neither.”

    The Kandahar Giant Incident?

    • FincaInTheMountains December 23, 2017 at 4:25 pm #

      If American Deep State keep insisting on supplying “lethal weapons” to Ukrainian Nazies, all Taliban brass bands will start getting Russian-made cornets and the battle of Kandahar will play its Saigon finale.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9M133_Kornet

      • PeteAtomic December 23, 2017 at 5:31 pm #

        US has zero legitimate business east of the Neman River, imho

  53. RB December 23, 2017 at 4:44 pm #

    Hand wringers all. Amazing. So many act as though shit just started happening with the last inauguration. Bullshit!!!! The fuckers in Washington have lied and lied until no one knows what truth looks like. I suggest that Trump comes closer to it than the roster of assholes starting with JFK. It does not matter that we were lied to regarding Vietnam and over 50000 Americans, young ones, died for that lie. My friends and neighbors thought I should serve in it and joined me up. Yeah right. Trump is the root of all evil. My ass!!!

    At least he is entertaining and has sucked some of the so-called dignity from the office of president. Americans want to treat people in the White House as if they are royalty instead of the “grifters” they are. JFK and his brothers were womanizers and perhaps worse. LBJ was the ultimate prick. Carter was seeing UFOs and getting advice from his daughter. Reagan and his astrologers had the future all nailed down except for Hinckly. The Bushes were useless and got us into 2 sizable, budget busting wars. Clinton was getting if off in the ovarian office with a hapless intern. Obama was a pot smoking, egocentric, conniving, anti-american dipshit.

    At least with Trump, you get what you see seems to me. Arrogant, egocentric, colorful, calls them like he sees them and has exposed Washington DC, the media, the intelligence agencies (17?), the UN, broken justice system etc. I hope he has a second term regardless of who controls congress. If it is democrats, then I look forward to him naming names and hounding them in their own states and districts.

    Trump did not dig this hole we are in. Look at his predecessors. And make no mistake hand wringers, we are in a deep, deep hole.

  54. janet December 23, 2017 at 5:05 pm #

    “The Kandahar Giant Incident?” –messianicdruid

    They found Sasquatch in Afghanistan?

    • PeteAtomic December 23, 2017 at 5:49 pm #

      that’s one of the conspiracy theories. Actually more like a human giant that had a spear.

      It makes for a good fantasy yarn, anyway.

    • Janos Skorenzy December 23, 2017 at 11:48 pm #

      One of the Nephilim. A Muslim Bigfoot.

  55. ..Captain America.. December 23, 2017 at 10:27 pm #

    Technological singularity is the hypothesis that the invention of artificial superintelligence will abruptly trigger runaway technological growth, resulting in unfathomable changes to human civilization.

    “What’s actually happening is [machines] are powering all of us,” “They’re making us smarter. They may not yet be inside our bodies, but, by the 2030s, we will connect our neocortex, the part of our brain where we do our thinking, to the cloud.”
    – Ray Kurzweil, Google Director of Engineering, October 3, 2017.

    In the old republic, COLLECTIVIST NETWORK globalists enjoy accelerating the future shock of a brave new world in a soylent green tinged model, for the benefit of COLLECTIVIST NETWORK globalists, until they don’t.

    …..and members who don’t measure up to the model are properly managed with AI enabled drones, until there are no members left to manage.
    http://www.businessinsider.com/security-robots-are-monitoring-the-homeless-in-san-francisco-2017-12

    Y = career politicians x career lobbyists x globalist mainstream media x career unelected Deep State bureaucrats x Hollywood elites x unprosecuted corruption x globalist banking cartels x globalist technocrats x pharmacological reprogramming x gross incompetence x lust for power x love of money

    “God integrates empirically.” – Albert Einstein.

    Y = old republic COLLECTIVIST NETWORK globalism = THE SWAMP.

    In the New Republic, the bold and the brave enjoy the civilized and scientific CONSTRUCTION of the New Republic.

    X = New Republic = REGENERATIVE Globalism = BREAKTHROUGH ENERGY = Go. Out. Do.

    ………HOWEVER, ENGINEERS ARE NOT ALWAYS CIVIL.

    In the New Republic, all good people in the arena enjoy resuming the restoration of the Constitutional republic from JFK’s point of interruption, can see for miles and miles, and enjoy Liberty in building out properties and the local means of production, with the capability to sow, nurture, grow, harvest, store, cook, engineer, design, program, automate, construct, process, raise, teach, counsel, hunt, defend, provide, debate, organize, compose, perform, worship, dance, laugh, love, celebrate, and sustain. Members enjoy a career in methods of spontaneous cooperation in the discovery and development of processes that achieve a well-defined whole.

    We are the sheepdogs.
    And we are old fashioned and sentimental.
    And we belong to the longest serving Civil Rights organization in the Republic.
    And we don’t require others for border protection or building bridges.
    And members are made by undying love, devotion, and loyalty to the Constitution.
    And we are happy to participate in the proper pursuit and offering of due process under the Constitution to the COLLECTIVIST NETWORK globalist class charlatans who sold out the old republic in their lust for power and the love of money.
    And we are ready for what’s next.

    Sent from the New Republic.

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  56. Janos Skorenzy December 23, 2017 at 11:47 pm #

    Hollywood has destroyed the Star Wars franchise. This cuts deep for many since these movies dealt with archetypal themes seldom shown anymore, but essential for our Culture. And it wasn’t enough for them to make the new Hero a young woman, to make all the good guys minorities and women, all the bad guys White Men. But they actually brought back Mark Hamill himself. And instead of having him be a glorious Jedi Patriarch, they make him a self hating, embittered old hermit who is trying to undo his earlier work and actually destroy the Jedi. They even showing him burning a Sacred Jedi text. They couldn’t just kill him off, let him go out in a blaze of glory. They had to make him into shit. This is also an archetype, an archetype of an Evil Culture opposed to ours. They should let the fires burn Hollywood down.

    https://www.yahoo.com/news/mark-hamill-rips-role-apos-145123576.html

    • Elrond Hubbard December 24, 2017 at 1:41 am #

      As it happens, I just came from seeing Episode 8 for the second time. I liked it better this time, because the projection was bright enough to see. (Nothing like spending fifteen bucks so I can squint at a screen for 150 minutes because they’re trying to stretch out the life of the projector lamp).

      Say Janos, do you think Frank Oz had creative differences with George Lucas over Yoda’s utter, abysmal failure to defeat Darth Sidious’ plans in Episode 3? I honestly don’t know, but then again, Frank Oz always knew where Yoda’s storyline was headed. He didn’t have more than 30 years looking forward to his chance to play the Big Hero again, like Mark Hamill did. Poor Mark will have to settle for his salary, and the mixed blessing of being welded to one iconic role for all eternity.

      As for the end of ‘Jake’ Skywalker’s story arc: bad things happen to good people, and there’s no reason why good people should like when that happens. I don’t hate the prequels like some do, but Star Wars is always at its best when it’s about heroic underdogs fighting against overwhelming odds, and the prequels certainly weren’t that (until the very end). Now the new trilogy is, and the series has stakes again. My prediction for Episode 9? Kylo Ren will go on doubling down on his worst instincts until he ruins everything he ever hoped to achieve. At the end he will beg Rey to teach him how to be a good person. The new Jedi will work like the old Sith: always two, a mistress and an apprentice.

      • Janos Skorenzy December 24, 2017 at 2:16 pm #

        Needless to say, you’re fine with all the heroes being Non-White and the bad guys all White males. And the hero a girl not a boy.

        For White boys who need Myth – nothing. And of course you love Luke actually destroying the Mythic Jedi Knights.

        As ever, you are benighted and a curse to your people.

        • Elrond Hubbard December 25, 2017 at 12:05 am #

          If there’s one problem no one has these days, it’s a shortage of myths they can drown themselves in. The culture is absolutely rotten with myths, or do you not actually read JHK’s rants?

          If Star Wars no longer suits you because it happens to look more like humanity than it used to, go back and read Camp of the Saints again until you feel better. Be like your spiritual brothers in the madrassas, and look for the meaning of life in your unholy text until you disappear up your own ass.

    • akmofo December 24, 2017 at 1:06 pm #

      The Star Wars tale is the same as the Bible tale is the same as the tale of history. It is a story of a family feud. Brother against brother, cousin against cousin. It is a sad and ironic tale. The Nazis boasted of their Aryan heritage. A little look at google maps will show that Haran (from where Abraham’s wife Sarah originated) is at the footsteps of the Zagros mountains. The family migrated down from the Iranian mountains where the Garden Eden is located at the foot of the 4 great rivers.

      • akmofo December 24, 2017 at 1:37 pm #

        In Search Of Eden
        https://youtu.be/jjuYYFn1cXk

      • Janos Skorenzy December 24, 2017 at 2:10 pm #

        Well said. Ancient Israel was White. But when the Remnant returned from Babylon, the land was inhabited by Edomites and all kinds of people from everywhere. Ezra tried to keep the line pure, but it was a doomed attempt long term, especially when you are conquering people and adding them on like Hycranis did.

        Thus the Pharisees confronted Christ and denied they had ever been slaves – in other words, they weren’t Israel since Israel had been held captive twice by that point. And Christ replied, I can see by your faces that you are not of Abraham.

        • akmofo December 24, 2017 at 3:09 pm #

          Edom is derived from the Hebrew word Adom, or Red. Adam (man) and Adama (soil) are also derived from the same root word. I’ll remind you that Joseph the grand vizier of Egypt was a red head, and so was his uncle Esau, brother his father Jacob (Israel).

          • Janos Skorenzy December 24, 2017 at 5:11 pm #

            The Jews call Whites, “Esau” – yet they are Esau! In their worldview, Esau was an animal. One young Jewish boy asked his Rabbi whether Jacob’s trick to get the inheritance was fair to Esau. The Rabbi replied angrily, What kind of question is that? Esau was an animal.

            Some White Nationalists say that only Whites can be embarrassed or show “blood in the face” as other races simply don’t have enough conscience to feel this. Maybe this is why Whites are losing their lands to others who exploit this capacity, which is a weakness when dealing with races who don’t feel deeply.

          • akmofo December 24, 2017 at 5:48 pm #

            Esau was a hunter. So was Nimrod. Killing wild animals for pleasure and pride is something that the TaNaKh looks very poorly on. In Israel today, if someone calls you a nimrod, they are basically calling you a savage imbecile.

            Such wanton disregard for life is an affront to god. Unfortunately for you, your “ubermensch” took great pride in such an affront.

      • messianicdruid December 25, 2017 at 8:41 pm #

        “It is a story of a family feud.”

        https://gods-kingdom-ministries.net/teachings/books/the-struggle-for-the-birthright/

  57. FincaInTheMountains December 24, 2017 at 2:26 am #

    For Trump the most important thing now is tax stimulation and direct investments in the construction of a new generation of industrial production in the territory of the continental US.

    Even his medical reform is aimed at redirecting it from the treatment of cancer patients to maintaining a skilled workforce in a healthy form for a reasonable price. In the next 3 years he will create the situation that if the dollar ceases to be accepted as a means of payment outside of the United States, then its economy will not collapse. They will introduce Amero and the rest of the world can do with their dollars whatever they want.

    Paradoxically, this perspective acts on investors around the world in such a way that the “inevitable” collapse of the dollar pyramid is pushed back into an uncertain future.

    Moreover, a big question mark appears next to it, since time and inflation are Siamese twins in a capitalist economy and there are serious reasons to believe that along with a bunch of unsecured dollars a malignant tumor of the world economy will burn away.

    • Ol' Scratch December 24, 2017 at 10:39 am #

      You’re a pie-eyed optimist Finca! Good for you!

  58. janet December 24, 2017 at 3:06 am #

    Inside the US Military Base Ready to Invade North Korea

    http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2017-12-20/inside-military-base-camp-humphreys-ready-to-invade-north-korea/9247198?pfmredir=sm

    • Ol' Scratch December 24, 2017 at 8:40 am #

      LOL! That 1st Sgt Mary Meyers looks like a “trained killer” alright. I’ll bet the Lil Fat Man is quaking in his boots as we speak.

      • outsider December 24, 2017 at 1:13 pm #

        After reading that stupid article, I can’t imagine Rocket Man being too scared. I’ll bet Sgt. Meyers is your typical military single mother. We should relax. If a US strike on the North was imminent, she and her children would be evacuated out of harms way. And the article said that Camp Humphreys is out of range of DPRK artillery. I wouldn’t bet the farm on it.

  59. hmuller December 24, 2017 at 3:15 am #

    Maybe I’m just a sucker for fake news, but there are rumblings from the alt right media of a big move by Trump against the Deep State.

    Trump signed an executive order effective DEC 21 allowing the non-judicial seizure (civil forfeiture) of the property of parties engaged in human rights violations and corruption. One named party is Israeli billionaire Dan Gertler, (whose foundation is tied in with the Clinton Foundation, the Bill & Melissa Gates Foundation, et al.) We are probably talking international trafficking in child prostitution.

    Add to this an unprecedented build up of sealed indictments in all 94 US Federal District Courts (last count over 9000) for people to be arrested.

    Add all the recent exposure of sex offenders in powerful places which was just a practice run

    There’s just a lot of strange things happening I won’t go into now (you can do your own research) suggesting a massive purge and arrest of prominent people is days or at most weeks away. It will be like the palace coup in Saudi Arabia a few weeks ago, but probably with less torture and killing. Agencies will be purged and heads will roll like bowling balls inside the beltway and in NY.

    You can start at the YouTube site “Destroying the Illusion” and fan out from there. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMVTRzCXvIbdK0Y1ZxD-BlA

    Exciting times.

    • FincaInTheMountains December 24, 2017 at 5:31 am #

      1937, article 58 of the penal code – the Enemy of the People.

      This time, the Enemy of the American People.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Article_58_(RSFSR_Penal_Code)

      • elysianfield December 24, 2017 at 12:41 pm #

        “1937, article 58 of the penal code ”

        …NOTHING? LIAR! For nothing you get 25….

    • Ol' Scratch December 24, 2017 at 8:40 am #

      Great news if it’s true, but I’d have to see it to believe it.

      • hmuller December 24, 2017 at 10:03 am #

        I’ve always been philosophically opposed to civil forfeiture laws; I think they are Orwellian, unconstitutional, and a terrible abuse of power.

        But if we use the tools of the globalist cabal against them to strip them of every ill-gotten penny before tossing them into GITMO, I’ll call it poetic justice.

        Then having served their purpose, let’s repeal those horrible laws.

        • Ol' Scratch December 24, 2017 at 10:38 am #

          Likewise, Draconian laws always cut both ways. But like I said, I’ll believe it when I see it. Any part of the Deep State so targeted would fight like a snarling badger. GGG seems like the one most at risk at the moment.

  60. janet December 24, 2017 at 3:17 am #

    North Korea says new U.N. sanctions an act of war

    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-missiles/north-korea-says-new-u-n-sanctions-an-act-of-war-idUSKBN1EI03D

    Looks like a US preemptive attack is a possibility.

    Before N. Korea takes out our grid: Happy New Year everyone.

    And may God bless the Ungited Schtates (Trump’s pronunciation).

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    • Ol' Scratch December 24, 2017 at 10:38 am #

      Hyperbole.

    • elysianfield December 24, 2017 at 12:39 pm #

      Semper Fi….

  61. GreenAlba December 24, 2017 at 6:51 am #

    A seasonal quiz: ‘Who said it? Donald Trump or Buddy from Elf?’

    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/dec/23/who-said-it-donald-trump-or-buddy-from-elf

    I got 11/15, which I thought wasn’t bad, given that I’ve never heard of either Elf or Buddy.

    Happy Christmas…

    • FincaInTheMountains December 24, 2017 at 8:42 am #

      Merry Christmas!

      And good luck with that “unwritten Constitution” of yours – just don’t let American constitutional lawyers to get a whiff of that – they’ll go nuts over the concept!

    • Ol' Scratch December 24, 2017 at 8:46 am #

      Rumour has it (I just created it) that Will Farrell’s planning a run in 2020. Danny McBride (Kenny Powers) will reportedly be his running mate and Chief Mudslinger.

      • Ol' Scratch December 24, 2017 at 10:43 am #

        P.S.: I think I’d vote for them if they did.

    • Janos Skorenzy December 24, 2017 at 2:12 pm #

      Synagogue of Satan – who said it first?

      a) David Duke
      b) Martin Luther
      c) Jesus Christ

  62. capt spaulding December 24, 2017 at 11:05 am #

    Last night in a Saturday night BS session, with a couple of friends, somehow the subject of the words used to describe various groups of animals came up. Many of them were new to me such as a leap of leopards, a murder of crows, etc. Anyway, we were trying to make our own terms up, and the best one was “a detestation of Republicans.” Any suggestions for the Democrats? Or politicians in general?

    • hmuller December 24, 2017 at 12:13 pm #

      A Demonocracy of Democrats

      • capt spaulding December 24, 2017 at 1:07 pm #

        I like it Mr. muller.

    • Janos Skorenzy December 24, 2017 at 2:13 pm #

      A Pack of Punks.

    • pequiste December 24, 2017 at 7:12 pm #

      Watcha think of this for a collection noun:

      an abhorrent of Democrats.

      For politicians in general; let’s run this up this flagpole:

      A loathsome of politicians.

      “A detestation of Republicans” is about perfect.

  63. ..Captain America.. December 24, 2017 at 11:55 am #

    mele kalikimaka is a fine way, to say Merry Christmas to you!!

    Bless your hearts!

    http://funwithdad.net/funwithdad1mele.htm

    Sent from the New Republic.

    • elysianfield December 24, 2017 at 12:37 pm #

      Captain,
      Good luck with your New Republic. There was a nice offering on the Raconteur Report that addresses pending Deep-State issues, and their results. An enjoyable reading, I recommend it….

      http://raconteurreport.blogspot.com/2017/12/picking-at-scab.html

      Have a good X-Mas and a safe New Year….

      • capt spaulding December 24, 2017 at 1:11 pm #

        Thanks for the referral, and Merry Christmas to you and yours as well.

      • Ol' Scratch December 24, 2017 at 2:22 pm #

        Great read!

      • ..Captain America.. December 24, 2017 at 2:35 pm #

        Outstanding read!

        As Huxley observed, the final revolution is the pharmacological revolution, whereby people enjoy their servitude and totalitarian circumstances, when they ought not to, and this is the essence of the old republic, and it is quite bloodless.

        SOMA to you!

        Sent from the New Republic.

      • pequiste December 24, 2017 at 7:14 pm #

        That essay was quite tonic.

        I like unvarnished.

  64. FincaInTheMountains December 24, 2017 at 2:27 pm #

    An Idiot’s Guide to the World Economic Crisis: How Americans Discovered a Perfect Philosopher’s Stone and why Putin correlates his Geopolitics with ForEx pair EURJPY

    First of all I’d like to start with a statement that the party line of “Subprime Mortgage was the trigger of the economic crisis in 2007/2008” is a pure propaganda.

    The reason for the crisis was simply the overproduction of dollars. If they did not give out subprime mortgages to anyone with above room temperature, the crisis would have happened 5 years earlier and would have coincided with the Asian crisis. They simply had no other choice – those overprinted dollars simply had nowhere to go.

    The fact is that, unlike currency pairs, the shoulder of trade in shares and, accordingly, industrial indices are limited by legislation, besides all these industrial indices are not really integral parameters due to their specialization. Therefore, often investors use national currencies as their integral parameters, or rather their pairs, because this opposition is the personification of one or another financial and industrial world projects.

    And in the period from 2008-2012, which turned out to be the first stage of the international financial crisis, the fall of EURJPY, that is, the flow of capital from the euro to the yen was the most adequate integral parameter of the “fall” of the global economy and the implementation of the plans of the Western Black Project.

    However, let’s forget about the Western Colored Projects for a while, as I can not now explain the interaction of financial-industrial world projects with the Black, White and Red world projects of the West. This is really not a simple question, especially since the colored world projects are not exposing themselves, and this is my personal terminology, understood by other people only on an intuitive level and in the course of proving the existence of the Platonic cave.

    But before I part with this topic here, I can not help but recall that the catastrophic strengthening of the Western Black Project began as a result of the use of atomic weapons against Japan and the radical reformatting of the cultural code of Japan under the leadership of such a prominent figure of the Western Black Project as General Macarthur.

    It was as a result of these events that Japan really became part of the West, and the Japanese yen of one of the four western currencies, EUR, USD, JPY, GBP, characterizing the situation in the unified global economy, which of course is part of the Black Project. Suffice to say that in the book “A Billion Years Before the End of the World”, such prominent Japan researcher as Arkady Strugatsky described the cultural interaction between Japan and the US as one of the causes of the uprising of the Universe and the Third Law of Thermodynamics against the Humanity. Well, enough about this.

    So, in the project of the Global Economy of the West, USD symbolizes unlimited economic liberalism and frank use of the philosopher’s stone (the FED printing press) to achieve the geopolitical goals of transnational corporations.

    The euro symbolizes a spare airfield for the philosopher’s stone on the basis of the taken to perfection (on the boundary with absurdity) old Roman principle of “bread and circuses” and its more responsible use for the maximum development of industrial capitalism.

    The British pound symbolizes financial capitalism, and the Japanese yen symbolizes the expansion into Asia of all three types of Western capitalism on the basis of a balance of their interests and traditional Japanese collectivism and corporate thinking reformed by the US Black Project.

    The fact that the system of the dollar economy is collapsing within the framework of the so-called “general crisis of capitalism” was clear to many, including yours truly. A concrete realization of the “general crisis of capitalism” in 2007 was the overproduction of dollars, which led to a mortgage crisis.

    Mortgage crisis began with Iceland, and this is a separate story. But in this story to the topic of this post only relevant the fact that its main victim became the English Northern Rock Bank. And that immediately revealed a lot of interesting details. First it became clear that the main beneficiary of the dollar pyramid were not the United States, but the UK, whose debt / accumulation ratio was an order of magnitude better than in the US and Europe. Which is easy to understand, given that Uncle Sam rubbed the philosopher stone, but the Englishwoman was the one to distribute the results of this friction among large borrowers (such as financial systems of Iceland and Russia).

    And when the troubles began, the Englishwoman immediately nationalized this bank and redeemed its books from the toxic debts (capable of provoking a chain reaction), having crushed the crisis in its infancy.

    But in the US, the country’s financial system, rather than crushing the crisis in its embryo, began to settle political scores, which was manifested with particular sharpness in the refusal to render financial assistance for the liquidation of toxic debts of conservative Lehman Brothers and giving almost unlimited assistance to undisciplined Bear Sterns.

    This frightened the bankers that the crisis would continue to be used to settle political scores, and this fright created a new stage in the crisis – a crisis of confidence in the financial system as a whole. Banks sat down on money and began to sit on them, refusing to lend to industry and trade, even for well-justified projects.

    This caused the failure of several important projects and, as a consequence, the collapse of stocks and industrial indices. Money ran from the commercial industrial markets, and in Europe after the outbreak of the Georgian war, they ran to the most dangerous place – the US banks. By principle, let Europe be captured by the Russian tanks, shaken by the revolutions, and I’ll live OK with a billion in the United States. This caused the collapse of EURUSD, despite the fact that the initial reason for inflation of the mortgage bubble and, accordingly, the mortgage crisis was an overabundance of dollars.

    That is, it turned out that the United States has an important unspent resource – direct trade in its geographical location, its political system and propaganda. Rather, the propaganda of its political system.

    • Ol' Scratch December 24, 2017 at 6:16 pm #

      Seriously Finca, even if what you’re bloviating here makes any sense – and who the hell knows, since no one can understand it – you could seriously use an editor, especially one fluent in English as a first language.

      That said, although I fully realize that the high-minded intellectual “masters of the universe” among us and – let’s take off the gloves now and stop dancing around the subject – card carrying members of “the tribe” like to spew this pseudo-economic sewage as a virtual incantation against the “evil spirits” – aka, common men – who might deem themselves worthy to understand it, none of it is really all that hard in the broad strokes.

      In short: what you’ve wasted several paragraphs here to say unintelligibly what I can say better in a handful, with room left over to speculate.

      A certain “demographic” shall we say, long ago realized that in fully monetized industrial economies, such as were becoming predominant at the time, control of national money supplies would be akin to control of virtually everything – political, economic, and sociological – within the national borders where their influence held sway. And so they established their banks and curried favor with leaders of every national stripe, gradually expanding their control and increasing their influence while extending their wealth to those who could be bought off by such a thing, until at long last they found themselves in control of all of the mostly European imperialist – actual or potential – national governments who mattered. And they found it was good.

      It was then that they realized that nationalist governments were soon to be a thing of the past and that wars between nations were where the REAL money was at, and so they began to foment wars and revolutions and trials and tribulations the world over – populations be damned! – and cashed in all along the way. And they found it was exceedingly good!

      And so it was that they found a truly GLOBAL suitor in the 20th century after first fomenting and financing a great war played out in two parts, eventually boiling down to two maniacal actors, one of whom was mercifully starved of funds and forced to capitulate first, while the second – not so mercifully – was encouraged to carry on under the delusion that it had actually “won.” And they found it was motherfucking good!

      And THAT, my dear Finca, is where we stand today, minus all the mindless pseudo economic and philosophical gobbledygook you propound here. A world held captive by a not so secret anymore cabal of Zionist bankers, whose efforts first ensured that the world’s population expanded several orders of magnitude beyond its carrying capacity as a means of personal enrichment, and now demand its subsequent and inevitable contraction as a means of total control.

      • FincaInTheMountains December 24, 2017 at 6:51 pm #

        Am I overloading your comprehension mechanisms, Scratch? Sorry about dat!

        Should I make more use of broadly accepted phrases such as masters of the universe, card carrying members of the tribe, control of national money supplies, cabal of Zionist bankers by putting them in millions of various combination in correctly coined English sentences, that even someone fluent in English as a first language would approve of?

        Obviously, not my style!

        • pequiste December 24, 2017 at 7:29 pm #

          One just need say: Goldman Sachs, House of Morgan, Rockefeller, The Fed, European Central Bank, and, of course, everyone’s favourite international banking trillionaire legends – Rothschild. Get it over with at the beginning of an essay and then make up a cutesy moniker or acronym for ease of understanding for us intellectually challenged.

          Oh, as an aside FInc., I believe you will have to be reported to the State Civil Rights Commission, Bureau of Equal Opportunity and Treatment, Language Division, because usage of the term “….Colored Projects” has been found to be pejorative, offensive and rayciss. E.g. I’m sure there are some really bad colored projects in Hartford, Ct., just ask Back Row Heckler.

          Expect a notification sometime after The Holidays. Their offices are closed until after the new year ( just like f*cking government employees.)

    • akmofo December 24, 2017 at 8:24 pm #

      Overproduction of the dollars would not cause an inflow of dollars to the US but the opposite. If anything there was an underproduction of dollars. Anyhow, this is academic because production of trillions of dollars can be produced in millisecond. It’s not the production of dollars that’s the issue, is the use.

      • FincaInTheMountains December 24, 2017 at 8:45 pm #

        Production of dollars is not the same as typing a $1,000,000,000,0000,000,000,000 on your computer.
        It means assigning of the concrete amount of buying power to a concrete owner.

        • FincaInTheMountains December 24, 2017 at 9:17 pm #

          One more very important consideration: once the money have been printed, the capitalist system does no have any mechanism of taking them out except for inflation.

          • akmofo December 24, 2017 at 9:56 pm #

            Inflation and deflation are really indicators of credit creation and destruction. Physical money is too minuscule to be of any consequence in these scenarios.

          • akmofo December 24, 2017 at 10:02 pm #

            There is no limit for credit creation and no connection to bank reserves. Fractional accounting is a myth and a fable.

      • FincaInTheMountains December 24, 2017 at 8:52 pm #

        Not the overproduction of the dollars caused an inflow of dollars to the US, but uncertain and dangerous situation in the world, in particular connected with the Georgian war of 08.08.08, which at some point lead to the fact that Russia for the first time in 30 years raised to the air its full fleet of strategic nuclear bombers, fully loaded.

  65. Janos Skorenzy December 24, 2017 at 2:38 pm #

    https://www.amren.com/news/2017/12/christine-douglass-williams-fired-canadian-race-relations-foundation-writing-jihad-watch/

    So how is Islam a Race? And do you have to be in Favor of the Jihad in order to avoid being a racist? What an extraordinary thing. How did people end up so tied in knots? Not by accident in any case.

    Racism obviously has all kind of meaning beyond the dictionary definition. The common factor that ties them all together? Hurting Whites and Western Civilization. If something or someone does that, they’re good and virtuous. And anyone who objects is the Essence and Epitome of all Evil. Elrond is a High Priest in this ersatz religion. And Alba his pious acolyte.

    Meanwhile Trudeau’s Canada welcomes back Isis fighters, eager to set them up in style ahead of everybody else. England as well. The fight is coming home after all, and these boys need their rest before the festivities start.

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  66. FincaInTheMountains December 24, 2017 at 3:03 pm #

    But money from the US banking sector ran to Japan. This was due to two reasons:

    First, the financial system of Japan was initially built as a balance of industrial and financial capitalism, and it met the financial crisis fully armed, as Japan became the victim of the Asian economic crisis in 1997 and reorganized its financial system. Thus, Japan was the only country in the global “West”, whose financial system had already carried out the necessary reforms and introduced the necessary regulation of the banking system.

    But the most important thing is that for a long time suffering from stagflation (practically all the 1990s), Japan has reduced its discount rate to the limit, and the global economy, which was built by the Clintonoids after the collapse of the USSR, led to so-called carry trades.

    American mortgage banks took money from Japanese banks (that is, in fact, the Central Bank of Japan) at 2% interest, immediately sent them to a mortgage at 7% and insured the deal by short selling the pair USDJPY (with a shoulder of 1:35 as a conservative Lehman Brothers or even 1:80 as a hooligan Bear Sterns), since losses from such a transaction could arise only in the case of rising of the exchange rate of the Yen. And then they incorporated this package as financial service (millions of such services) and sold it as a separate financial product, immediately pocketing the difference between the above 2% in Japan and 7% in the US for the 30 years that mortgages were issued for. Here and now!

    I will not go into the details of how it all fell down, but when the margin calls of the corresponding ForEx trades, which insured the carry-trades, started, money flowed back to Japan in an automatic mode. And every euro received from the sale of shares of industrial enterprises, was immediately converted into dollars, causing a decline in EURUSD, and immediately after that flowed into Japan, taking with it a pair of their American counterparts.

    Therefore, at the first stage of the financial crisis, how much the dollar became more expensive with respect to the euro, it became cheaper in relation to the Japanese Yen. EURJPY became the main and most integrated indicator of the course of the economic crisis, and one of my friends wanted to make money in the second stage of the crisis provoked by the war in Novorossia, just as the first stage was provoked by the war in South Ossetia.

    After 2008, United States put Japan in the right position, in particular by engaging in military intervention in the financial system of other countries (for example, Switzerland) and almost provoking the war between Japan and Russia. So I’m not sure that this pair retains its significance now.

    I quit watching the markets in 2011, after my client died, who listened to my advice and regularly rewarded me for winning. And I can not play on my own. Too little money becomes an easy victim of purely stochastic fluctuations in markets. And fraud too. My nervous system does not cope with the loss of money as a result of absolutely correctly and competently made bets, when spreads (the difference between the purchase and sale price of currency pairs) when markets are opened after very important decisions of financial authorities on Sunday evening are more than monthly fluctuations in the markets.

    Banks in the financial world that they have created, just like God in the world we live in, will not be put to shame.

    • akmofo December 24, 2017 at 10:15 pm #

      If you can draw a line you can play all markets.

  67. janet December 24, 2017 at 11:57 pm #

    One just need say: Goldman Sachs… –pequiste

    Since Jews founded Goldman Sachs, some people assume that qualifies it as a Jewish bank, which pequiste probably believes makes it evil.

    I think it should be pointed out that Hank Paulson, former CEO of Goldman Sachs who became Secretary of the Treasury under Bush, I believe deliberately allowed Lehman and Bear Stearns (two of the five main investment banks) to collapse to increase Goldman Sachs’ market share. Paulson was raised as a Christian Scientist.

    Sorry, pequiste, Jews did not found UBS, Deutsche Bank, Barclays, HSBC, or J.P. Morgan (who attended Episcopal school). There has been no difference Christian and Jewish banks as they have all engaged in proprietary trading. So sorry, pequiste, Jewish bankers are not the problem. Religion has nothing to do with this one.

    • pequiste December 25, 2017 at 8:53 am #

      Mammon worship is the religion here.

      “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”

      Mathew 6:24 KJV

      The names mentioned happen to be the high sorcerers.

      Yet you must admit it is fascinating how one particular confession and Wall Street organism is over-represented in the minion of money and in the government, n’est-ce pas?

    • messianicdruid December 25, 2017 at 8:30 pm #

      Nothing is confirmed until officially denied.

  68. Q. Shtik December 25, 2017 at 12:07 am #

    Mary Christmas to all and to all a good night.

  69. Q. Shtik December 25, 2017 at 12:17 am #

    For the final week of 2017 the challenge for Windward is to NOT mention Social Security. I know it won’t be easy but I’m rooting for him.

  70. ZrCrypDiK December 25, 2017 at 1:12 am #

    Prediction time?!? Bitcoin bubble to *NAKED* shorts? Put yer pants on, already!!!

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  71. K-Dog December 25, 2017 at 3:09 am #

    “I have a foreboding of an America in my children’s or grandchildren’s time — when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what’s true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness…

    The dumbing down of American is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30 second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance”

    – Carl Sagan 1995

  72. ..Captain America.. December 25, 2017 at 4:12 am #

    This day.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3mavpGlmHY&list=PLl55Zh3U2VW7YD-JKHT0vYIk1ZCrK7c4-&index=24

    Sent from the New Republic.

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