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Is there any saving the Democratic Party? This wretched concatenation of ill-will, bad faith, false witness, and sore-loserdom lurches from one defeat to the next like some mindless monster from an ancient fable of ruin, seeking a final spectacular spasm of self-annihilation. Let’s face it: only an exorcism will do, some spiritual emetic to induce the projectile vomiting of all that borscht the monster has swallowed.
The “progressive” (not) Resistance took two body-blows last week, one foreign and one domestic. Its cousin in Britain, the Labor Party, led by the red-headed stepchild of a Marxist-Jihadi chimera, Jeremy Corbyn, got such an unexpected and mighty thrashing at the hands of BoJo that it virtually dissolved into a little puddle of bile on the floor of parliament. Corbyn was a piece of work, a cheerleader for Hezbollah and other enemies of western civ, with a zealous antipathy to economic reality, spreading the virus of identitarian Wokesterism that has infected Britain like a plague of yore. Surely the American Dems noticed how that went down.
The Horowitz report also staggered the monster lurching across America, though it took a few days to absorb the blow of countless incriminating details in the fine print. UkraineGate maestro Adam Schiff went on TV Sunday to declare that he had been “unaware” of abuses in the FISA warrant process. Gee, ya think? We are left to wonder who exactly pulled the wool over his goggle-eyes. In fact, his self-unawareness extends to virtually every utterance flying out of his pie-hole since 2016. The IG report left the FBI and DOJ in such a shambles of criminal odor that it dispelled all the narrative curses conjured by sorcerers in the news media for three years running. And as everyone in the country knows now, the IG report is hardly the end of the story. Mr. Horowitz labored under — as they say — an extremely narrow purview that will not constrain the legal audit to come.
Meanwhile, the impeachment dumbshow put on by hobgoblin Jerrold Nadler enters a most interesting zone of suspense this week as fate propels it towards a floor debate and then a vote by the whole house on Wednesday or Thursday. That’s a lot of time for members to reflect on the message sent to the voters by last week’s IG report — namely, that the investigative arms of government are so deeply corrupt and malicious that only fools and cads will go along with their findings, and that the distrust extends to the committees in congress who swallowed all that seditious malfeasance in pursuit of impeachment. That might give the vapors to enough congresspersons in swing districts to bring the actual floor vote for impeachment up short. If the case against General Michael Flynn is dismissed as it should be by the IG’s report of broad prosecutorial misconduct — and possibly at any moment now — that could seal the deal against an impeachment vote.
How much ignominy can they endure? Have they not grasped the reality that the Mueller investigation failed? That it appears to have been only one part of a larger criminal enterprise to defraud the public? That the Resistance was just an effort to cover up swales of wickedness in a greater swamp of government-gone-rogue? And now, to come to this: two articles of impeachment so transparently empty that they look like windows into the vacated soul of the Democratic Party.
And now consider all this vectoring into the catastrophe that the Democratic primary has become heading into election 2020. Joe Biden? Really? Are they serious? He left a slime trail as wide as the DC Beltway around his doings as Veep, with enough video evidence to make the College of Cardinals weep for his post-mortal prospects. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders might be moved to study up on what just happened in the UK election, and weigh how US voters might be disposed to another four-year beat-down with the cudgels of inclusion and diversity plus the shady blandishments of free everything. And what else can you show me? Mayor Pete and Cory Booker, two pieces of defective merchandise cluttering up the showroom?
This solemn holiday may be the Democrat Party’s last chance to avoid suicide. They need to have a conversation with someone on the cosmic hotline, come to the realization that they’ve truly hit bottom now and must, as Rep Devin Nunes suggested Sunday to his colleague Adam Schiff, sign into rehab.
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There is no reason to even consider saving the demagogues Jim. They need to be eliminated or simply go away. They have and are proving that they have no respect for our system of government and no control over the own ridiculous actions. They are done, finished, shot. On their way to the outhouse they should bring their republican buddies along with them for they too, the “trickle down” party have been trickling down their bloated bladders on our collective heads for far too long.
What will replace them you may ask? Probably a dictator or maybe even an anti-Christ. Is not the present state of decay of empire always ended with tyrants? I do believe it always does.
This coming Thursday, the 19th, will be the next debate under the Big Top. All egos on full display and jockeying for as much exposure as possible. As far as I can tell the only thing that has a prayer of getting one of them into the White House is if they distance themselves from the impeachment and concentrate on a practical plan to provide health care for the people who are drowning in premiums, drug prices and the rest of the money-making racket. But they won’t — they’ve painted themselves into a corner on just about everything else and now they’re stuck there. What comes next, Walter? Four more years of Trump, hopefully no wars, a stock market crash, home prices deflating, America losing status and the benefit of reserve currency and joining the UK in the pantheon of has-beens.
Glenn Greenwald also has an excellent article on this topic:
https://theintercept.com/2019/12/12/the-inspector-generals-report-on-2016-fb-i-spying-reveals-a-scandal-of-historic-magnitude-not-only-for-the-fbi-but-also-the-u-s-media/
All empires end up as ‘has-beens’. There is no other outcome.
And since your potted plant is going to die anyway, why bother to water it?
Some Empires achieve great things during their lifespan though. Others just take up space and produce death cults and cult figures like Greta Thunberg. Your Empire Without Borders is of the latter kind.
“And since your potted plant is going to die anyway, why bother to water it?”
You said that, not me. And it’s ridiculous analogy. But if you insist on it, your potted plant can be given the best food – you just can’t keep pretending it’s an oak tree.
“Some Empires achieve great things during their lifespan though. ”
Of course, but even that depends on which end of the gun barrel you’re standing. And whose boot is on your neck.
Re Greta, I clearly can’t tell you anything about your imaginary Swedish empire. And you know my position on borders, so watch your nose, Pinocchio.
Reminds me of this Monty Python sketch about the Romans:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uvPbj9NX0zc
There goes Gloria Monday.
Even money that’s what was on the menu from the start.
@greenalba
Here is where Comey and Co. got tripped up with their crimes and he admits this in his book:
“We all thought Hillary Clinton was going to win.”
Just imagine. Had she won the American people would have never found out about any of this.
“What comes next, Walter? Four more years of Trump, hopefully no wars, a stock market crash, home prices deflating, America losing status and the benefit of reserve currency and joining the UK in the pantheon of has-beens”
I’d say yes indeed that sounds about right SW. I would think that after Mr. Trump is through it will be time for another pendulum swing in the opposite direction and we get a Hitler, perhaps Hillary even, since true evil never dies. By then with AI, 5G, facial recognition, and micro-chip implants the fun could really start.
Yeah, Hitler/Hillary – same thing. Both start with H after all. Ah, Americanism! Let’s elect the H bomb!
“Both start with H after all”
Janos,
h…H? The BBC reports, this AM, that the grave of Reinhardt Heydrich, the Protector of Bohemia and Monrovia, even while being unmarked, was found and desecrated.
Myself? I have an alibi….
Paul Siegel? Who knows? No alibi forthcoming….
Crickets….
And…the link;
“https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-50806873”
As of this posting, still no comment from Mr. Siegel….
Strange.
Troll.
Ignored.
I think what we’ll see in another 4 years is an America that looks a lot like the west coast. The cities looking like Los Angles or Seattle with social services collapsed and an impotent and incompetent local government presiding over it all. A friend’s brother recently moved from LA (actually, fled) to Austin b/c living conditions were becoming worse on a daily basis — and he had a good job. Barr was on TV a couple of weeks ago warning that at some point police might not come to your neighborhood if they felt threatened. Of course, he was immediately accused of racism instead of realism.
If a tyrant must follow the unbalanced, geriatric Jacobins we have now, I prefer a Napoleon to some hideous lumbering hybrid of Gropey Joe, San Fran Nan, Goggle-Eyed Adam, and Felonia Clinton.
Just so long as he doesn’t launch an invasion of Russia, as any of the aforementioned fuckwits would do.
Well said Maxie. Democracy is simply a stopgap on the way down. It must produce chaos and then a Strong Man to end it. Let’s skip over the competing strong men stage if we can. Surely Kunstler’s God Haunted Lieutenant from Fallujah is almost here…..
Kunstler’s God Haunted Lieutenant from Fallujah is almost here…..
=========================================
Is that Brother Jobe? Was he a military veteran? It’s been a while since I read the books; I’ve forgotten.
maxie?
Remember G Washington warning the folks about political parties.
The real problem is allegiance to a party instead of common sense. I still do not understand how people can have total allegiance to a political party instead of allegiance to issues. How can anyone have allegiance to all the planks of a party, it makes no sense. Personally, I have deep feelings about some issues that today belong to the Dems, AGW being one. Why do people feel they have to agree with absolutely everything their party dictates.
There you go, we are already a dual dictator ship, depending on who is in power at the moment.
BTW, where did the Dems get the belief that they own the Deep State and can do whatever they want with no control over their power. Talk about anti Constitution.
You hear the latest? Schiff and Nadler want to do away with the 2020 presidential election because Trump controls it and is a cheater.
These people are mad! They need to be put in prison to keep them away from our electoral process.
Sidebar
Think about what Democratic success means. Control by three areas, The West Coast, New York and Illinois. The heck with the rest of the country.
Elimination of parties creates real public service, people serving out of the goodness of their hearts. No need for term limits, no billions of dollars warned on party reprobates, no party organizations to be corrupted.
Great posts Walter and John. I think what Jim’s detractors are reading into his posts are support for Republican right, which, quite frankly, I can’t say for sure is implied or not. Granted, the Dems are hideous monsters from the toxic lagoon these days, but the alternatives – including Trump – are hardly any better. I’ve always viewed the correct process to be the same one our elites apply to us: divide and conquer. And the only truly effective way to do that is to eliminate one party altogether so that the remaining band of criminals can be put under the microscope and exterminated as well. In that sense, Trump serves a useful purpose – for now. He’s a useful tool for playing the divide and conquer game, which with any luck can be played out in a reasonably short time, but not one second longer than that. His and his party’s true nature is every bit as criminal and repugnant as the pathetic losers he’s currently so useful in exposing, so they definitely have to be next on the hit list.
“I think what Jim’s detractors are reading into his posts are support for Republican right, which, quite frankly, I can’t say for sure is implied or not.”
Some people are so bound up in binary, left/right thinking that they are incapable of seeing the larger forces at work that actually drive the dynamic. The need for people to believe that their side is the morally proper side fixes them like exhibit butterflies on a pin.
“Some people are so bound up in binary, left/right thinking that they are incapable of seeing the larger forces at work that actually drive the dynamic.”
Excellent point Epicur, I couldn’t agree more. The capacity to see the “larger forces at work” involves, among other things, a tireless effort to transcend our personal biases and prejudices (and yes we all have them) while ceaselessly striving to extend our comprehension of reality. Not an easy task indeed, and if this approach is not inculcated at a relatively young age it becomes increasingly difficult to implement as we grow older…
They are bound up in the binary because they do not posess the cognititve capacity to break out of it. They are slaves. That is ok though, as high IQs are not common.
“He’s a useful tool for playing the divide and conquer game”
This is pretty much the same thing I was saying. LOL…
“How can anyone have allegiance to all the planks of a party, it makes no sense. ”
Amen to that.
JohnAZ: “You hear the latest? Schiff and Nadler want to do away with the 2020 presidential election because Trump controls it and is a cheater.”
Sorry, where did you hear this?
Nadler Schiff on
Bloomberg, Fox, abc, etc.
Impeachment must happen or the election will be so tainted by Trump that he is a national security threat and a threat to the Constitution.
Not hard to derive the idea that they do not want the public to elect in Trump again.
To me, this is a definite reach by the Dem fanatics to take all power away from the electorate and place it with themselves in the Deep State.
They are all freaking out because they know the Barr/Durham criminal investigation into the entire 2016 election FBI spy scandal is coming down the pike and gaining speed.
Comey thinks because he went on Fox with Chris Wallace and said, “I was wrong” regarding the “sloppy” (actually fraudulent Jim) FISA warrants against Carter Page that he is home free.
“I was wrong” ain’t gonna cut it.
If the dirty trickster Roger Stone can’t just say, “I was wrong” and walk free, then neither can Jim Comey or Obama or Rice or Power or McCabe or Page or Brennan or Clapper or Stzrok etc.
Cuff ‘em Dano.
As I said previously, they want impeachment optics. He won’t be impeached in the Senate, and there are no crimes or associated evidence.
It is all about 2020.
Don’t forget to add in Massachusetts. Other than the far western part of the state, the most populous areas are rabidly anti-Trump, particularly the Boston area. I remember having a running argument with a good friend who wanted Hillary to win in ‘16.
Take a look at the map BTB, most of western MA was blue. My town 57% Trump 36 % Hillary, Up the road in Hampshire county more like more like 80% Hillary 20% trump. I am surrounded by Blue.
https://www.wbur.org/politicker/2016/11/08/massachusetts-election-map
See my post about drivers licenses.
John, I don’t subscribe to AGW. As climate scientists do not have sufficient data regarding the role of the sun, they simply leave it out of their models, and the sun too has cycles. Really, those things can be tweaked to show anything. I do see where taxing the CO2 one emits would be advantageous to some cash-strapped entities. Are you aware that the early medieval period was much warmer than it is today? Are you aware of the Little Ice Age that occurred between about 1600 to 1850 (though it may have gone back as far as the 14th Century)? Are you aware that ice core samples have demonstrated there were periods when the earth was much cooler, with higher CO2 levels than today? Climate is always changing. Areas that are deserts today were forests or even jungles at one time. We do have a problem with population overshoot, but nature has ways of correcting that.
draupnir
“Are you aware that the early medieval period was much warmer than it is today? Are you aware of the Little Ice Age that occurred between about 1600 to 1850”
Neither of these phenomena was global.
“As climate scientists do not have sufficient data regarding the role of the sun, they simply leave it out of their models, and the sun too has cycles. “
No they don’t.
https://skepticalscience.com/solar-activity-sunspots-global-warming.htm
“As supplier of almost all the energy in Earth’s climate, the sun has a strong influence on climate. A comparison of sun and climate over the past 1150 years found temperatures closely match solar activity (Usoskin 2005). However, after 1975, temperatures rose while solar activity showed little to no long-term trend. This led the study to conclude, “…during these last 30 years the solar total irradiance, solar UV irradiance and cosmic ray flux has not shown any significant secular trend, so that at least this most recent warming episode must have another source.”
They don’t seem to be ignoring the sun at all.
That the Early Medieval Warm Period and the Little Ice Age were not a global phenomenon is a theory at the present time, with no more weight than the theory it was indeed a global phenomenon.
A little over a millennium seems like a long stretch of time. We’re back into the Viking Era after all, but it isn’t even the blink of an eye in geologic terms. Correlation is not causation and they don’t have enough actual data to make such claims. Extrapolation from such a small sample isn’t good enough; sort of like the fertility studies you showed me a while back, where some were from the 19th Century, all of them were small, and none of the subjects was under 20 years of age. I believe it was Twain who said there were lies, damn lies, and statistics.That climate scientists do make prophesies using such data is hubristic conjecture at best. There have been rumors of suppression of alternative results from this field of inquiry for twenty years. If you observe closely, you will note that belief in AGW now shares many of the qualities associated with religion, and any questioning of it has become heresy.
Oh, and poor little Greta Thunberg correlates nicely with that illiterate, schizophrenic, peasant girl, Joan of Arc. Like the dauphin of France, they’ve put her into armor and set her on a horse. I wonder what sort of martyrdom she is riding off to meet. Who says history doesn’t repeat?
I have no great interest in Greta Thunberg, draupnir – she’s not the point.
“There have been rumors of suppression of alternative results from this field of inquiry for twenty years. ”
As Nightowl would say, rumours don’t cut it – we need concrete evidence. Climategate and the alleged unreliability of Michael Mann’s hockey-stick graph have long been debunked. Later studies demonstrated a very similar hockey-stick pattern.
As for the prophecies, you are right that they could have been more accurate. Scientists have been too conservative, because scientists are naturally sceptics and only provide ranges of likely outcomes without beating a drum for the top-of-the-range predictions. Actual observations in the present day are showing that AGW and associated climate change are indeed advancing more quickly than predicted. Scientists, as you would expect them to, are taking this evolving situation into account.
C’mon you all.
How many people are going to die from exposure to out toxic atmosphere, or toxic water. How many times do we have to watch Erin Brockovich or watch California’s homes burn down? How high do the cancer rates or mesothelioma rates have to get? How many women have to die from ovarian cancer from talcum powder? People are moving to the cities faster and faster where all the toxins are at their highest values to kill them.
As I have said before, the Liberals are going to do absolutely nothing about any of this. Not enough power impact for them. Greta is a poster child period, her day is already over. Proof?
Madrid. Surprise, the meeting of the Liberal minds is a total failure. Why? The big polluters are unwilling to change their energy plans, and the poorer want money which the rich do not want to give them. Bottom line, and here it is.
There is no money, no capital, no resources to do anything. The same items that is driving nations back into nationalistic thinking is what is halting global thought about AGW. The immediate problems facing everyone in the world are bigger in the eyes of the world than threats from something years down the road.
THE number one problem today is the continuation of natural resources for the next fifty years, period. AGW planning failures are disasters in the making. Why again? Because part of AGW is what solutions are going to give us continuation of energy availability. So far, no solutions are available, and no creativity to make solutions is evident. So political BS is all we hear. China, for example, is building more and more coal fired energy sources. Why? Because they do not have any choice, it is their energy source.
GA, Scotland does much wind development because that is an available energy source. The wind currents from the jet stream bless Scotland with energy. People near the ocean have tidal movement, people here in Arizona have solar. Most areas do not have renewable energy sources, night stops electricity fro solar, windless days the same. Renewables are good part time energy sources, that is all. Thus coal will continue to power China, oil and gas the US and Europe,
Here again is the real problem. The fossil fuel situation is becoming worse and worse. As oil becomes more and more expensive, its usage will drop. That is happening today. If we do not figure out how to create energy from alternative sources, the world is going to become a cruel cold place to live. Nuclear, no.1, solar, wind, geothermal, tidal, clean coal, orbital solar generation create electricity and must be increased. Then we have to convert our heating and transportation means to electricity and away from fossil fuels.
Madrid is proof that the Liberal polity doesn’t not have a clue what to do. So where to go?
Convince the more conservative builders of the world that things are changing and the issues have to be addressed in a rational manner. What ever that takes. Until the Elite feel threatened by the coming changes, nothing is going to happen. Attacking the capital sources over and over is so counterproductive, The Liberal polity have failed, it is up to the builders to fix things.
“What will replace them you may ask? Probably a dictator or maybe even an anti-Christ.”
The demography of the nation demands a dictator. Too many of the people are assembled into the cities where they are warehoused and fed.
When the nation had a core of farming and small industry, even though much of the farming was near subsistence level, people could be independent. Now, we (collectively) are dependent on the wheels of this vast machine continuing to turn, or else we (collectively) starve.
The people will demand the government “do something”. It will.
“Lately I was looking from a night mountain-top
On a wide city, the colored splendor, galaxies of light: how could
I help but recall the seine-net
Gathering the luminous fish? I cannot tell you how beautiful
the city appeared, and a little terrible.
I thought, We have geared the machines and locked all together
into interdependence; we have built the great cities; now
There is no escape. We have gathered vast populations incapable
of free survival, insulated”
https://dynamics.org/Altenberg/LIBRARY/POEMS/JEFFERS/PurseSeine.html
Yes, Diversity is weakness, and Homogeneity is strength. Those in favor of Third World Immigration are at best fools and often spiritual criminals who know exactly what they are doing.
Not to play semantics Janos, but diversity can also bring strength. Bring and engineer, an electrician, a plumber, a mason, and a carpenter together in a team and you can build a functioning structure. Put an infantry unit, an airborne unit, an artillery unit and an armored unit together and you have an army. Diversity in it’s most useful form is how things get done and how humans move forward. It is when you pick your team based on ethnic or sexual preference criteria alone that it all falls to shit because those criteria bring nothing to the table by themselves.
Well of course. Any organization, company, country, or clan needs that. But that’s not what they mean – and they decide the popular meanings of words, so I have to play along most of the time. But yeah, challenging their definitions is definitely worth it sometimes – at least for the over IQ 100 Club.
They never mention your kind of diversity – and they positively loathe diversity of ideas.
If we talk about diversity devoid of any context, then I’d say it’s a neutral to positive term.
But clearly making a field of wheat more diverse by adding locusts isn’t a win for anyone but the locusts.
Conversely, homogeneity in crops caused the Great Famine of 1845-1849. One million killed.
So context truly matters.
In terms of national populations, I have to agree with Janos. I haven’t seen the benefits of diversity in the USA. I haven’t seen a post-race society emerge where every single minority isn’t clamoring for privileges for their own. kind at the expense of others.
The only reason diversity barely works in the USA is because whites have tolerated legal and societal handicaps. That will obviously change once whites become a minority, and start self identifying as a race, and demanding the same minority privileges that they’ve been forced to provide for others. The other races will never tolerate a change to the status quo, and if another race emerges as the new majority, I doubt they’ll be willing to take on the mantle of self-sacrifice that has proven so disastrous for whites.
And that will be the end of the diversity experiment.
@ Exscotticus December 17, 2019 at 1:06 am
“The only reason diversity barely works in the USA is because…”
I think in your list of causes that near the top should be the “growing” economy that has allowed all sorts of government programs to “lift people out of poverty”.
It won’t take long after our fictitious “growth” ends for the pot to start boiling.
Diversity in moderation is strength. Most things are best in moderation.
Right. Just like 95% water and five percent urine for flavoring is strength.
Is an all Black college diverse? Why? Show your work.
No need to prophesize doom and gloom Walter, there is still enough goodness and ‘salt of the earth’ left in this country for the Forces of Light to work with. What we are witnessing is the separation of good from evil, righteousness from unrighteousness, truth from falsehood, a necessary, though decidedly chaotic and messy task on the surface of things. JHK as well as many others are part of this process of national purging, and even Trump himself, as difficult as it is to believe, may well be an unwitting tool of those Higher Powers who seek our redemption and strive tirelessly to lead us to Higher Ground. That is my faith and belief anyway. If I thought otherwise I’d just throw in the towel…
You should probably keep that towel at the ready and your throwing arm warmed up. Trump as a ‘Force of Light’ is beyond a stretch.
Never said he was a ‘Force of Light’, only an unwitting tool…
Don’t forget the ‘miracle of Philadelphia’ was a geniune miracle in that the Founders were able to overcome their varied differences and concerns and hammer out a document for the ages — the American Constitution — which has the flexibility to weather out even the extreme partisan polarization of our times…
They didn’t offer citizenship to Blacks or Indians now, did they?
But you want a “living constitution” thought, right? So as to undo their work, such as it was (I don’t worship them like you do)? In the words of the martyr, Scalia, “I prefer mine safely dead”.
‘they’ just wanted or tolerated the cheap labor of the Black slaves and ignored the White slaves, average life of an Irish ‘servant’ here, 6 years.
Well…. You could be a citizen, regardless of race. You had to have a vocation and own property in order to vote, which was reserved for citizens. In particular, it was more common for blacks to be citizens in the Northeast than it was in the Deep South; but even there, some blacks owned land and (ironically) slaves. For southern blacks, the trick was to belong to an owner who could manumit them. Most slaves states restricted or prohibited debtors from freeing their slaves (who were, after all, worth a great deal), so no matter how much a slaveowner wanted to free his slaves, he could not if he owed debts — which is why the spendthrift Thomas Jefferson was unable to free his slaves so they could become citizens.
No doubt sunburst that the fight is waged from both sides or we would all have been burning in the pit by now. There is never any good reason to give up the good fight and by now I think that you all understand that is what I do in real life, fight the evil in it’s lair. What I see as happening down the line somewhere is that armed with ever more controlling technologies, the powers of evil will push the envelope to the point where the Higher Power steps in and says “Enough”! Until then fight we shall!
What’s the breakdown of your County in terms of Party? Any chance to make it a 2nd Amendment Sanctuary?
The War is going to start in Ol’ Virginny if the Governor looses the National Guard on Patriots.
Our county is one of the very few that is still relatively rural and very big on the 2nd and some old school republican here still have value. We are under assault however from Governor Pothead and his plan to import indigents under the guise of being a sanctuary state.
Walter, DLs for illegal aliens in NJ.
Apparently it’s a done deal.
What’s your opinion?
Brh
Our state government is going out of it’s way to eliminate private home ownership for the middle class through skyrocketing taxation and creating a slave class of those that are comfortable living in poverty so that they can keep the cash at the top of the pyramid. Issuing the illegals DL’s is simply a way to get their votes and if you are here at the ground level as I am, you would know that these poor bastards cannot afford automobiles in the first place because of their low income and the high price tags. In the Hunterdon county capitol of Flemington, there are a number of car services, one actually called Tijuana Taxi, that ferry the low income, part time illegals to work. You may not find this service advertised, but the van pulls up to our facility every day with low income temps.
To survive as a political entity the Dems need the resurrection of Henry A. Wallace, at the very least.
The best is yet to come.
“The White House wants to know everything we are doing.”
Let us take a moment to ponder that most interesting nugget from the Strzok-Page text messages.
And let’s not forget that James Clapper was recently interviewed on MSNBC (or whichever cable outlet pays his salary now) and he said something to the effect of “It would be a puzzling thing if we were to be prosecuted for doing the things we were instructed to do by the President,” meaning of course the sainted Magic Negro.
Well, it is official. We have hit the “thrown ’em under the bus stage.” Suddenly, no one knows anything (Comey, Schiff) or they were “just following orders.”
Grab the popcorn.
Yeah, but who is the ultimate boss. Not Obama.
Hillary?, who might her taskmaster be?
Someone once said, Judge not lest ye be judged. One is expected to come to Court with Clean Hands, at least in general and specifically in regards to the issue on which you are bringing suit. Google Eyes forgot that. Too bad, punk, you can’t back out now.
It now seems possible that our financial system might hold together for another year, at least. I have been amazed that it has lasted this long, the ‘global government financial bubble’. If it continues for awhile, then Mr. Trump will probably be re-elected for whatever that portends. When it finally happens, the collapse of the global financial system, then it will be a wonder to behold and make all of these shenanigans in Washington today, a mere footnote in history.
We have plenty of food and plenty of coal. Declare Martial Law and we’ll get thru it just fine. As Mr Kunstler’s said, Black Misbehavior will not be tolerated during the Long Emergency…..
“We have plenty of food and plenty of coal. Declare Martial Law and we’ll get thru it just fine. As Mr Kunstler’s said, Black Misbehavior will not be tolerated during the Long Emergency…..”
#PaulSiegel
Hope remains that the old JHK will be released from the basement by this new incarnation and begin once again writing meaningful posts.
Alas, not to be this week,the blog remains untarnished by any mention of the crimes of our Hero – the very worst nitwit ever to run anything bigger than a Subway Shop. Only now weekly recitations that this woeful echo chamber likes to hear, followed by the predictable honking of the approving geese.
Too bad…maybe the New Year?
“this woeful echo chamber likes to hear, followed by the predictable honking of the approving geese.”
Plennnie,
…are you talking to me? ARE YOU TALKING TO ME?
You must not be talking to me…I attended a public University…I’ve been to New York…I’ve appeared on Judge Judy! You must be referring to someone else….
Plennie_Wetiko
-There, fixed.
Mister Sea Gull took his marbles and went home. Funny how they jettison reason and logic before they speak.
At the end of the day, we are seeing the manifestation of the deep partisan divide that goes back nearly two decades to the election of 2000 when the GOP stole the election in plain sight. Does not matter what side of the “fight” you are on. Any honest count of the votes that year would have made Gore president.
We watched democrats enduring 4 years of Bush, only to be horrified when he won again in 2004.
The democrats sprung back in 2006 winning the congress, with a credible mandate to impeach, which Nancy quickly shelved.
After the meltdown of 2008, the country wanted anybody but a Republican and John McCain and Sarah Palin made it easy to vote for Obama, but the hard liners on the right would never accept a democrat and especially a black democrat. These hardliners on the right were determined to program that “black motherfucker” for failure, the common welfare be damned. In doing so, they taught the country to hate.And we learned our lessons well.
Admin JHK Note: I voted for Obama twice and initially had expectations that he would do a good job. I was certainly not rooting for him to fail. Just for the record.
the people that propelled Obama into office abandoned him in 2010 simply by not showing up. For many of them, voting was a one-off thing. The GOP did their part also. Every voter suppression trick in the book and they had the wisdom to understand that 2010 was a census year. Control the outcome in 2010 and gerry mander the House districts in such a way so as to thwart the will of the people in favor of the greed of corporations and destroying the democracy intended by the founders.
Obama would be elected again, but peoples government was hopelessly lost.
There were states where upward of 60 % of the votes for Representative were cast for democrats and republicans were winning 60 % of the district elections. The resentment was seething.
A.L.E.C. had its field days in these times with their Mc Legislation and dollar a dozen legislators serving as the mouthpiece of big money and not of the people. We saw the Grover Nordquist pledges. A legislator would win office and take an oath to serve the people that elected him, then go be a lap dog for whatever party letter next to their name. Legislators would take an oath of office then sign a Grover Nordquist pledge to defy that oath. Grover would openly bribe and threaten these same congress people.
The country was slowly melting down as corporotocray turned the temperature up.
Just like 1930s Germany after the stock market crash of 1929, a hitler type figure emerged in this country and organized a big Fuck You to America. It did not sell as well as he might say, because he actually lost by 3 million votes, but with the help of the electoral college, he was shoe horned in. We were going to get a wall whether we wanted it or not, whether Mexico was going to pay for it or not.
His inaugural address would be attended by a world record crowd, whether it was true or not, whether the facts showed something completely different or not.
It was normal for the Hitler figure to lie. that was nothing new. It was his primary stock in trade and he had great confidence in his ability to not only create his own reality but to suck many into it. Not only did lying become normalized, but the docility of of those willing to accept those lies became normalized.
While they saw him as their savior, the majority of the country had not voted for him, many not showing up to vote at all. But these people had learned to hate during the Obama years . They resented the Fuck You election and focused their resentment on the Hitler figure.
The disciples of the Hitler figure could not figure where all of the resentment and hate was coming from. They had no memory of the Obama years. They were totally convinced that Obama had screwed up the country and had nothing to do with the economic recovery well underway. They knew it as dogma that the Iran Deal and the Paris climate deal were the worst deals ever made, even without ever reading them or understanding them to this day. It was a fact. The Hitler figure declared it. End of story.
The Hitler figure sent his VP over to Korea who coldly stared across the border to N Korea and told them their Nuclear days were over.
But then at the Olympics the two Koreas started kissing and making up.
The defense contractors took notice
The Hitler figure said this would never do and shoehorned his peacemaking abilities in. He flew into the Korea’s and did a photo shoot with Kim and all but declared the Korean peninsula nuclear free.
If only were it true, but by that time the truth had taken a back seat to the perpetual lies.
This time next year N Korea expects to be more nuclear than ever, but dont believe any of this if you want to stay in the Hitler figure club.
In the meantime China and Russia continue to play chess while he learns checkers, baking their cake, playing him like the fiddle he is, baiting him with trade deals and such that are never going to happen.
In the meantime, we are all fascinated with this impeachment thing pointing out partisanship on one side or the other.
The never impeachers cannot see any logic or a trace of order or truth in the House hearings but they were in the rooting section during the Kavanagh hearings and love it when Mitch is openly declaring that he will end this impeachment thing quickly ignoring all of the suppressed witnesses and such.
You need to only think back to when Scalia died to know what Mitch thinks of his constitutional responsibilities.
Then the kangaroo court kabuki show when Kavanagh was forced on the court., Lindsay Graham, dripping venom, openly and angrily threatening the “minority” when he takes over with Grassley letting him have his rant.
The hate continues, the divide deepens. The cliff nears.
And just like that they pivot back to “Trump is Hitler”
It’s over, jellyfish.
Ha ha!
People who say Trump is like Hitler ought to be horsewhipped – by the SS.
What else would you expect from a fascist?
who is “they”?
The McResistance.
You.
Your problem is that you cannot handle the fact that peop
People believe the opposite of you just as strongly as you do. And there is no absolute that says that your way of thinking is correct, or the opposites. The fascinating thing is that one group of people can grow such diverse opinions.
You are not convincing anyone new.
He might convince someone if he posted verifiable facts and supporting evidence.
But it would seem emotional outbursts are all he/she/it has available.
I’ll give him one thing.
He types fast (if that was actually composed after JHK’s post).
Good point.
Or operation sock puppet is going strong with pre-canned responses and posts. Is this AI or a paid buffoon spewing the anti-trump Detritus?
Does anyone still doubt that they are trying to over throw a duly elected President using any means?
one hundred years ago the court system would send many of these useful idiots to the firing squad for treason.
Might be time to fire up the court systems and revert to saner times.
bojo? Do you mean the possibly illegitimate spawn of a young Donald. A striking resemblance and Boris is from NY City.
I would trade an IQ test for a DNA test.
Oh, the facts. They are so few and far between. We must grasp at those we see and guess at the rest.
If only the witnesses would testify, honestly and truthfully and not make a two to three year federal case whenever a subpoena is issued.
Here is a fact you may have some trouble with. The House democrats are not impeaching Trump. T.he House, elected by We the People is impeacing Trump.
The House, which is the only body of government directly elected by the People of this country since it began is impeaching this president.
Despite the gerrymandering and voter suppression tactics, voter purges et al, We the people have powered through and democracy has survived all of the big money attempts to dilute it,
its not House Democrats, but “We the People”, through our representaives in Congress that are impeaching Trump
To paraphrase Mick Mulvaney: “Thats how we roll. thats what government is all about. Get used to it”1
it is true what Lindsay Graham says. Elections have consequences”
john AZ, because you believe something, something strongly, that alone does not make it true.
is politics a belief system? like a religion?
Cannot we agree on certain things that we know as facts?
Like the sky is blue and stuff.
I can make myself believe it is red more strongly than you can believe it blue. But that wont make it red. I will believe something that is wrong.
I might believe very strongly that it is not Trump on those Billy Bush tapes, but it still is Trump, even though he denies it. Another example of a lie being normalized by those to believe whatever they want, true or not. It only matters if they choose to believe it or not.
Lets hear from all of the witnesses, even the whistleblower at this point. Lets see the tax returns, the Mar A Lago sign in logs,
the Jeffrey Epstein connections, Hunter Biden and company.
lets assemble the facts. Perhaps then you can convince somebody new
Cute.
So now. Facts. Post the crime and your concrete evidence.
Nut.
nightowl,
Post the crime? I think the House did that, already. Mulvamey already admitted to it. Get used to it, NightOwl. Thats how they roll. And anybody else who can tell the story has been impounded by the President.
i wont do your research for you, but back in the 90’s, Lindsay Graham, and Bret Kavanagh described a very low bar for impeachment. If the Paul Ryan congress did the job the American people elected them to do, they might still be there
This past weekend Lindsay said his vote is already cast. He has not heard ALL of the evidence. Does that sound like a fair and impartial juror to you?
If so, you should explore reason logic and common sense
fineline
Forget Herr Staatsanwaltschaft. He’s constantly tossing little ad hominems around like confetti and demanding a courtroom standard for opinions – well, opinions that differ from his cohorts’.
I like your call to investigate ALL of the benighted players in this sad melodrama.
The RWNJs want Schiff’s head on a pike (among others) and to get the opportunity to examine and cross-examine the Bidens (both).
All good as far as I’m concerned, but to be fair, we also need to hear from Mulvaney, Pompeo, Perry (that’d be a laugh!), Ghouliani (as would that!), and – why not? – Himself himself.
But no. TPTB, as embodied by Moscow Mitch & Lindsay Graham, have already decided that anything resembling an actual trial is beyond the ability of the system to contain, and the steaming piles of crap that would probably result would rival Mr Creosote.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aczPDGC3f8U
Name the crime(s) and post concrete evidence
0/3
The real Hitler was nothing like Trump. He loved his Nation and the Race that comprised it. Trump loves neither.
Countless world leaders lauded Hitler – including John F Kennedy. What would he have said of Trump? As little as possible I assume.
No one refutes the contents of what fineline has said (which of course isn’t possible).
They content themselves with juvenile remarks.
BTW – what was wrong with the Siegel letter? Did he misspell a word or something? If so, where is Qshtik when we need him?
I’ll repeat it for you. Name the crime or crimes. Provide concrete evidence.
You can’t and you have none.
Fantasist.
It’s a shame you honestly believe what you have posted.
Your entire o
Obama narrative is a joke Obama fixed nothing he threw money at the problem hand over fist.
You keep harping on popular vote as if that has ever been the metric to get someone elected resident in the Whitehouse.
Get a grip and a clue and learn how our representative republic works.
Both parties are fighting to be captain of a sinking ship. At this point I don’t really care who wins, though I expect at some point it will come to violence. My plan is to stay out of the way and align with the winner after the dust settles. In the mean time I focus most of my attention on becoming more financially resilient and being able to withstand a sharp economic contraction.
So are you more like Tom Bombadil or Treebeard?
Thats good advice. The 1 per centers learned that a long time ago
Baby murdered needs to be removed from office,
ANDREW CUOMO passes “green light law” giving illegal immigrants drivers license in NYS.
Jim,
I don’t know how you take such abuse as from Paul Siegel. I have no idea what he is talking about.
I have followed you for many, many years, and you’ve NEVER let me down. You provide the most incisive, intelligent commentary and analysis of the our present dystopia that is available anywhere.
With gratitude,
David
I agree, the email does not make much sense. Instead of sending private emails they should post here and argue their case.
Sean, the reason the missive from Siegel makes no sense is because all Siegel really wants to do is hurl hate toward our host. He. Siegel, knows that cursing and using foul language are out of bounds, so he cobbles together some words that make no sense when taken as a whole. It’s just pure meaningless invective. What purpose does it serve other than to convey to our host that Siegel doesn’t like him?
I would love to see that.
It would take one post to turn him into a frothing mess.
Turn into looks like it is already a frothing mess.
Much like most of the afflicted tds mental cases.
Rather than pour opprobrium on one of the most decent polititians to have run for UK high office we, on this side of the pond, are interested on your views on the joker who actually won the recent UK election.
Boris Johnson – “the very epitome of an Eton toff, a man who not only has shown utter contempt for most of those who voted for him but has spent a lifetime barely bothering to conceal that contempt.”
https://www.jonathan-cook.net/blog/2019-12-13/corbyns-defeat-slayed-the-lefts-last-illusion/
Something you may not know about Boris is that, while a member of the infamous Bullingdon Club at Oxford University, he would go around town burning £50 notes in front of the homeless.
What leadership.
As the late, great George Carlin used to say, “It’s a big club – and you’re not in it”.
Enjoy this line up of Bullingdon monsters ruining Britain:
https://iconicphotos.wordpress.com/2010/03/14/the-bullingdon-club/
Maybe it is not BoJo that has won the election, but it is the Left extremist socialist options offered by the Corbyn side that has turned the independents off. Unfortunately, most of recent elections everywhere seem to be won by the least insane group. The quality of the supposed problem solvers in our governments has nose dived.
JohnAZ
I think the depth of public dislike of Corbyn has been underestimated. As GA pointed out last thread (if memory serves correctly), it was this dislike combined with the distinct LACK of any actual policy on the Brexit issue that cooked the Labour goose.
I heard on a BBC interview that while BoJo only garnered 330,000 more votes than May in 2016, Labour LOST 1.2 million votes from that one. Hence the ‘landslide’.
The ‘free stuff’ had little influence:
https://www.alexcartoon.com/index.cfm?cartoon_num=7578
Jeremy
The story about burning 50 pound notes does not sound genuine to me, to put it mildly. I keep seeing that photo. They looked like they have stepped straight out of A Clockwork Orange. Apart from Europe is there any area where Johnson is out of step with Tony Blair and New Labour? It is hard to see any difference between Conservative and Labour so you should be pleased he won the election.
Hitchens insists on calling him Al since Boris is only his middle name. He is known to friends and family as Al (Alexander) while Boris is his stage name. To my knowledge he became well known as an amiable buffoon on the comedy television news programme Have I Got News For You.
Jeremy’s brother Piers is a scientist (a specialist in meteorology I think) and a prominent climate sceptic.
“The current Prime Minister of the United Kingdom is known to have taken part in initiation ceremonies for the club. These included such tasks as burning a £50 note in front of a homeless person in Oxford.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullingdon_Club
Jeremy, my point is that there is obviously no evidence at all saying that Al Johnson set fire to £50 notes in front of the homeless.
If there were we would have heard about it, like, ALL THE TIME? DOH!
Apply this reasoning to all sensationalist stories in the media, incuding (especially) the moral panics like the Epstein scandal. Look at the evidence that is there (always tiny or non-existent) and then consider the evidence that is missing (vast swathes).
And as for citing Wikipedia, words fail me!
“Jeremy’s brother Piers is a scientist (a specialist in meteorology I think) and a prominent climate sceptic.”
His degrees are in physics and astrophysics, nothing to do with meteorology or climate science.
His pursuit of meteorology is a longstanding but amateur one. And his weather prediction business seems to have pretty much failed because of poor predictions.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piers_Corbyn
“He featured in a Channel 4 documentary The Great Global Warming Swindle in 2007; a scientifically reviewed complaint to Ofcom noted that he was introduced as ‘Dr Piers Corbyn, Climate Forecaster’ despite not having a doctorate nor any qualification specifically in climate science or environmental science.”
So, not much better than Nigel Lawson and his Global Warming Foundation really.
I think a debate between him and oh…any proper climate scientist would make fascinating TV viewing of the kind Nightowl keeps asking for. I’ve seen Piers Corbyn talking hogwash on Andrew Neil’s show (and being allowed to get away with it, since Andrew Neil’s expertise sure ain’t the climate). It was embarrassing. So I’d pay good money for that. I’d sit beside Nightowl and buy him drinks.
Whatever, the guy’s not a climate scientist, so calling him a prominent climate sceptic is about the same as calling Donald Trump one, except that Corbyn’s less prominent.
I regard excessive insistence upon only the exact academic qualifications to be a form of ad hominem. Actually, most science discipilines overlap, and that is true of climate in spades. Of course, a person must take an adequate interest and spend time looking into the data. But having done so, their interpretations of the data are perfectly acceptable.
The things is, Alba, you speak of him debating a ‘proper’ climate scientist. By proper, of course you mean one who is in agreement with the only allowable opinion – CO2 causes global warming.
There really are plenty of qualified scientists, often top notch, who disagree with the consensus. You can find them but you have to look. They often have open invitations to debate and sometimes debates do happen. I have watched many.
People believe the narrative because they want to. Why, I don’t know. One clue is the way that only negative information, only worst case scenarios, are broadcast. But of all the many friends I have who buy into the narrative, not one, no not one, has ever expressed the slightest curiosity as to why I don’t. They don’t watch the debates or know what the counterarguments are. Strange that.
“The things is, Alba, you speak of him debating a ‘proper’ climate scientist. By proper, of course you mean one who is in agreement with the only allowable opinion – CO2 causes global warming.”
No, I don’t. By proper I mean a trained and experienced climate scientist. If you can get a trained climate scientist who is against the consensus, then I’ll happily see him/her replace Piers Corbyn in my TV debate with a climate science whose work corroborates the consensus.
Please don’t be like Janos and tell me what I mean ‘of course’.. I know what I mean.
“People believe the narrative because they want to. “
Again, such arrogance, without a grain of evidence.
I would far, far rather not believe it. But you carry on imagining you know why people accept the consensus, if it pleases you.
BTW, it was demonstrated in the 1890s by Svante Arrhenius that CO2 causes an increase in atmospheric temperature. What scientists have been working on over the last decades has been to establish whether or not it is, in the present incidence of global warming the main driver The consensus is that it is.
“I regard excessive insistence upon only the exact academic qualifications to be a form of ad hominem.”
I should have tried that one with my surgeon, but bizarrely…I didn’t.
‘scientist’ not ‘science’ in line 5 above, obviously.
Sophia
GA is not clever enough to realize that she does not know much. Corbyn is a proper scientist who takes a keen interest in the climate and appears to me to be well qualified to voice his scepticism. I was involved in a protracted exchange once on YT with an anonymous poster who told me that no ‘climate scientist’ is sceptical of AGW. I would agree only to the extent that their number is probably quite small by now and growing smaller all the time simply because you could not work as a climate scientist unless you toed the line, In time it will be as rare to find a sceptic in their ranks as ti would have been to find a Communist in the Politburo.
As I am sure you know ‘climate science’ (I think it warrants the inverted commas) is heavily based on computer modelling. Ther models have not been convincing or successful, to say the very least. One of the most famous such models was Mann’s hockey stick graph. he was most reluctant to release his data to NcIntyre and McKittrick for statistical analysis. Why so coy? Because no matter what data you fed into it it came up with the same hockey stick curve. Climate science seems to be well on its way to fitting Keynes’s quip about economics and astrology. No amount of mutual ‘peer reviewing’ will be able to save it. I don’t know what the situation is now but a couple of decades ago AGW was being aggressively pushed by a very small knot of ‘climate scientists’ in East Anglia (where ‘Climateegate’ happened) and (I think0 Stanford in America.
GA’s remarks about getting a proper sceptical climatologist to debate with a nainstream climate scientist makes one pause to think. Has this ever been done before? I don’t mean conferences to be seen on YT and the like but on the telly in front of millions. I can only imagine this happening if the sceptic is set up as a token figure not to be taken seriously and to face a grilling from both adversary and presenterr. I genuinely cannot imagine it being done in any other way.
The AGW scare seems to rest on two elements. One of them is this dodgy, freewheeling computer modelling, where you don’t need to be a physicist to see the dangers. The other one is wider and consists in the unreliability of the raw data and even more in its presentation. In relation to the latter the IPCC finally came under scrutiny some years ago when people (ordinary people following Donna Laframboise’s blog) did a ‘people’s audit’ of an IPCC report and found that the impeccable, peer reviewed science was nothing of the sort. Much of it was lifted straight out of material issued by environmentalist organizations like Greenpeace and a great deal had never been peer reviewed (not that the latter is a guarantee of rigour). Many of the contributing authors to the Report were young people who were not yet qualified. It is interesting to look at Michael Mann in this context. he shot to fame as a young climate modeller who had just got his PhD. His work was controversial (to put it very kindly) and yet his hockey stick graph was all over that IPCC Report and dominating the public ‘conversation’ (as it is laughably know as). Then you have Cook’s absurd g7% ‘study’. Read Richard Tol’s hilarious reviews in the Guardian. (I know, Tol is an economist (but who is statistically literate) and not a ‘climate scientist’!)
Sean, Sean, you leave me no option.
The only person fit to lead the debate against a leading, published climate scientist, is yourself.
You can bring notes. You can bring Sophia and Draupnir as your supporting panel. And Piers. The scientist can bring three chosen colleagues.
We’ll do it on Fox, to avoid accusations of BBC bias. The audience will be 50/50 when entering the studio.
Again, I’ll be happy to buy drinks for Nightowl. And I really do look forward to being persuaded. One or two existential threats is enough for me.
That you have discussions on YouTube is fascinating. But rather less impressive than if you had them with actual scientists on RealClimate, for instance. There’s lots of debate on there between scientists – you absolutely owe them your insight. And I, for one, would love to follow while just sitting…learning.
“GA’s remarks about getting a proper sceptical climatologist to debate with a nainstream climate scientist makes one pause to think. Has this ever been done before? I don’t mean conferences to be seen on YT and the like but on the telly in front of millions.”
That is actually the remark I often make whenever the “science is settled” type statements start appearing. I am far from a hardcore skeptic, but I have yet to see any public forum where qualified skeptics are able to have an open debate with members of the “serious” science crowd.
I like, all of us here, have no way to verify the claims tossed around. It is quite curious that open debate among professionals is not publically encouraged or supported. It is also a red flag.
Green Alba,
I answered down below. I don’t seem to have enough reply buttons to keep it up here.
You don’t think any strange, grotesque, or horrible things happen – yet the World is full of such things. You live a very sheltered life, Sean.
I was listening to Doug Casey. If he is right, in a century Africans will be 50% or more of total population.
A world at war? Certainly tribal warfare is whats going on in Africa.
Janos, when they say a story is incredible then why should anyone believe it?
In one of the zundel trials in Canada, as reported by Robert Faurisson (who died exactly one year ago), Holocaust expert Raul Hilberg (author of the portentously titled standard work on the subject, The Destruction Of Europe’s Jews) found himself being subject to robust cross-examination, something he had not expected and was unused to. He admitted (or rather confirmed an admission he had made some months earlier) that there was no evidence to support his reference in his book to two orders issued by Hitler to kill the Jews.
This was not how it worked, he agreed. Instead (I have memorized the words) there was “an incredible meeting of minds, a consensus mind-reading by a far-flung bureaucracy.”
Well, if it was incredible, asked Faurisson, why should anyone believe it?
Yes, I am sure terrible things happen in the world, Janos, but deceit and bare-faced lies are far more common. You must have led a sheltered life not to have noticed this.
At the same trial Rudolf Vrba (one of his aliases), who was one of the most central witnesses, also came under cross-examination and was forced to admit that he had used ‘poetic licence’.
I hope those who hatched the plot against Trump face tough cross-examination.
So Anti-Holocaust Theorists and their followers aren’t persecuted either, right? Ernst Zundel didn’t survive assassination attempts and suffer extradition and a long prison sentence after a show trial?
See how your theory leads to self contradiction?
Or how during one such trial, the Judge said that such and such may be true, but that has nothing to do with the Law per se. And the lawyer for the defense also got charged for saying taboo things.
Incredible? Yet it happened. And such things don’t just happen in reaction to horrors, they are often “first cause horrors”.
Janos
You mentioned Zundel. I think the judge’s remarks may also have been during one of his trials. Apart from heavy fines Faurisson was physically assaulted on more than half a dozen occasion. Once, in France, a young man came to his assistance but later, when he found out who he was, he regretted it publicly.
I think I know about the lawyer you refer to, a blonde woman, This can happen. For example, Dershowitz has been accused in the Epstein witch hunt. I already linked here about the English journalist Sharon Churcher, who broke the Prince Andrew non-story, who emailed Roberts, the accuser in chief, as follows:
“Don’t forget Alan Dershowitz… J.E.’s buddy and lawyer…good name for your pitch as he repped Claus von Bulow and a movie was made about that case… title was Reversal of Fortune. We all suspect Alan is a pedo and tho no proof of that, you probably met him when he was hanging out with JE.”
(By the way, that email is what is known as ‘evidence’ as opposed to malicious rumour and speculation.)
I see what you are driving at regarding contradictions and it is something I have already considered, obviously. I say that incredible horror stories did not and could not happen because they are incredible. You say that outrageous miscarriages of justice are equally incredible. However the latter are common, if not standard, in witch hunts and collective fantasies. the first example I think of off the top of my head is that of Mark Pearson who was accused of assaulting and ‘penetrating’ an elderly woman (whose anonymity is protected) in a crowded Waterloo Railway Station. She was wearing several layers of clothing. He was carrying a briefcase in one hand and a newspaper in the other. CCTV showed that, as he walked past her, he was not in her vicinity for more than half a second. Yet he was still taken to court.
Such occurrences are ‘incredible’ in the sense that they are outrageous. The horror stories are incredible in the sense that they cannot have happened, even though nearly everyone actually believes them. It can be easily shown that outrageous miscarriages of justice happen every day but as for the horror stories there is never any evidence.
I have got to the stage of wondering if any of these terrible things that are supposed to have taken place in history ever happened. So I tell myself that some at least must have happened. But then, when you look into it, it seems that either, in all likelihood, did not happen at all, or that they may actually have happened but were not nearly as bad as believed to be. What I have no doubt about, however, is that there are far too many liars and people are far too ready to believe them.
it is that simple. if you were not in the grip of delusion and so reluctant to abandon these garish fantasies that mean so much to you then you would see it.
A more obvious comparison is from the 17thC witch hunts themselves. The reports that thousands of people (mainly elderly widows and spinsters) were burnt at the stake are credible even though they may appear ‘incredible’. The stories about these women flying through the air on broomsticks are not credible, even if millions may have believed them.
Sean
On a purely practical point, when these tiffs were at Eton, the largest sterling note was the twenty – the fifty was first issued in 2011.
Oh boy, a frat boy act of burning a 50 pound note.
Yet, Bill Clinton rails children and 30% (?) have declared war on the rest of America because his wife didn’t get the high chair in the big big room.
Dolly Parton statue may replace KKK leader memorial at Tennessee Capitol
“If we want to preserve history, then let’s tell it the right way”
https://consequenceofsound.net/2019/12/dolly-parton-statue-may-replace-kkk-leader-memorial-at-tennessee-capitol/
“Former Ku Klux Klan leader and Confederate soldier Nathan Bedford Forrest has been memorialized with a statue in the Tennessee Capitol building since 1978. A few decades later, local legislators are finally realizing a Grand Wizard should probably not be honored. Now, they’re looking to replace it with a new statue, and Dolly Parton is a possible option.
“It’s a big decision to make — one that should be thought over carefully, unlike the first time they chose a statue — as the local figure will be cemented into history in the Capitol building. GOP state Rep. Jeremy Faison has made some good points about the challenge this presents, reports The Tennessean. As one of the legislators looking to have the Forrest bust replaced, he said he could ‘think of 100 other people deserving of that post’ before suggesting Parton as she’s a country music legend and beloved national treasure.”
—
I mean, who doesn’t love Dolly Parton?
Why not Martin Luther King dressed as Dolly Parton – then all sides will be satisfied as John Az might say.
Jeffrey Epstein Had A Painting Of Bill Clinton Wearing A Blue Dress With Red Heels Hanging In His Office…….
“Why not Martin Luther King dressed as Dolly Parton?”
Janos,
Or why not J Edgar Hoover?
Wow, are you sure that the Mad Emailer wasn’t Bugsy Siegel? It is demented lunatics like him that make the argument for America breaking up into to separate nations. One where those who dwell together can hold their own views and ideas and tolerate others doing the same, and the other where it is my way or the highway and the citizens rip each other’s lungs out when they don’t get their way.
I say we divide it up at the Mighty Mississippi and then burn all the bridges.
And build a wall.
I think we would have the same effect by dividing at the California, Oregon, Washington border as the Mississippi.
By my count there’s at least five.
“By my count there’s at least five.”
If you’re talking bridges, there are five in New Orleans (counting 310 in Destrehan).
Nope, talking new republics, or what have you. Maybe six if you count SoCal as a separate entity altogether, which it probably should be.
Not that I imagine that scenario will come to pass, but can you imagine the war if the “Peoples’ Republic of Southern California” tried to encompass Arizona and New Mexico?
I don’t think it would part on state boundaries. Texas (or North Texas?) would grab Los Alamos for one thing.
Much more likely we will see Leviathan under the auspices of the Defense Production Act (et seq.) controlling the entire country.
Hezbollah is not an anti-western organization, Hezbollah is an anti-Israel organization. Similar to how the IRA was not an anti-western organization, it was an anti-British in Ireland organization. Granted, in America the mainstream of both political parties inevitably accuse each other of not supporting Israel as much as the other does: So that is the way the wind blows on that issue. At best, a candidate can ignore the issue entirely and focus on more important issues, if such issues can be found to exist!
Great point.
Yeah, Right.
That’s why the IRA trained in NKorea, Cuba, with FARC in Columbia, the Shining Path in Peru, with Hezbollah, in China … the IRA loved Western Civilization.
Brh
True, but Hezbollah is not Marxist but rather, Islamic – and such, Anti-Western. Both sides are wrong. There isn’t just one Enemy, but many, including the Hidden Power, the Enemy within.
Consumers forced Hallmark to take its Lesbian commercial off the air. But then the Hidden Power stepped in and now the commercial is back on the air, and Hallmark is begging for forgiveness from the Hidden Power. Thus it is with our entire system.
I have to admit, you make some great points, Janos.
Straight men watch lotsa lesbian porn.
#PaulSiegel
A lot of it’s ‘lesbian’ porn, rather than lesbian porn, I gather.
But you’re right. Consumers must be allowed their little hypocrisies.
I came across a theory for that. Back in those village/tribe/harem days, it was considered a better alternative to have your lady diddling with a lady friend when she felt like getting a little sugar outside the jar. It was seen such that this scenario led to less probability for getting cucked.
BTKP
I read a different ‘theory’ in a comments section from a modern man with a taste for the speciality.
He said ‘four tits instead of two – what’s not to like?’
I’ll leave you to choose which theory you go for. Men in comments sections keep saying they’re simple creatures in these matters and that women should stop over-analysing – ‘see thing, want thing’, they say. Or words to that effect.
Bbecause straight men objectify the female form…
Lipstick lesbian not butch grotesque lesbian.
Not even that in most cases, benr. Just actresses doing what men want to see. They don’t need to be ‘practising’.
Right on, Janos.
Where or who is that hidden power?
Your heroes, the Capitalists. And who are they? The Judeo-Masons who sold America down the river with the Federal Reserve Act, turning American Finance over to International Bankers. And who are they? Rothschilds and their Associates. And who are they? The J part of the above equation. The leading party, I’d say, at least in the Anglo-Sphere.
a team of consultants first guessed Hallmark might make less money if they kept the commercial on the air. then those consultants guessed they might make less money if they did not put the commercial back on the air. There is no great conspiracy.
No, the Wedding Company threatened them is what happened. And not everything comes down to dog biscuits: Where did we get the idea that money is more important than morals? Portraying lesbian marriages is a huge betrayal of their base. One is reminded of what the Republican Party has done.
And sure, maybe the Wedding Company (which is involved in other things) can ruin them if it withdraws all their contracts. But so can a huge conservative blockade. Hallmark is or was geared just for them, at least the TV division.
The IRA is Fractious, but they probably train wherever they can move funding or guns.
Exactly right, doggersize. In the past anyway.
They also had links with ETA, in Spain. Anywhere there was gun-running going on.
They were also heavily financed by NORAID, in the US, a bunch of helpful Irish expats, which brh forgot to mention, bizarrely.
The Semtex for the bombs came from Czechoslovakia, of course.
@ga
One of the largest supplies that have gone missing in the Iraq WMD collection effort is semtex. Hundreds of tons of the stuff.
They won’t name it specifically but High explosives are named.
“BAGHDAD, Iraq, Oct. 24 – The Iraqi interim government has warned the United States and international nuclear inspectors that nearly 380 tons of powerful conventional explosives — used to demolish buildings, make missile warheads and detonate nuclear weapons — are missing from one of Iraq’s most sensitive former military installations.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/25/world/middleeast/huge-cache-of-explosives-vanished-from-site-in-iraq.html
To lazy to look for the article that names it specifically.
1OK Stinger missiles have gone missing from Benghazi.
https://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/nightmare-libya-20000-surface-air-missiles-missing/story?id=14610199
The above is why a sea eye aye team was there they were looking for the missing missiles.
Why is this famous?
Think about what happened during this time.
Let me break it to you, Hezbollah ain’t got no $3.9 Bn in assistance from the US gov., free materiel, loan guarantees and secret budget assistance either. Hence, they don’t have an Air Force, Infantry or Navy, heck for that matter they are banned from fishing with their rickety boats beyond 2 miles offshore or so. Of course they’ll train with whoever they can give them a hand.
So, what if they hate Western civ.? What does it have to offer them?
Porn? Abortion? faggotry and transgenderism? consumerism? Booz? Bingo? Casinos? prosperity Gospel? Opioids? Bombs? make that cluster and fire bombs?
Of course behind James’ and your disgust for Hezbollah or the IRA lurks the assumption or self-righteousness that either one of them should just endure, bow and take their oppression and dispossession without so much as a whimper, the former for 70 years and the latter for 800 years, just because the benign Western civ. is upgrading their condition?
“Go home British soldier go home/Don’t you have a fucking home of your own” pretty much answers that.
Here James is flinging excrement without so much as a reason other than “Corbyn is a piece of work”, it doesn’t cut it for me.
Much less after the odious campaign to tarnish him as “antisemitic”, a term totally devoid of meaning these days but still a nice club to hit anybody that the jews don’t like.
Hezbollah, mind you, was created by Israel to work against the PLO, problem was, the rag heads at the Gaza Strip voted “wrong”.
Now, none other than the chief Israeli Historian, Benny Morris, way back when, put it like this in one of his books “The fear of displacement and dispossession of the Palestinian population was to be the chief motor of resistance and hostility to Israel”. I’m quoting from memory but that’s is the jest and there you have it.
Not anti anything.
I’d like to see how James, or yourself for that matter, would react to a militia representing the Flying Spaghetti god that came to his laboriously acquired and built bug out location in Upstate N.Y. to grab it for themselves by fiat.
The existence of the IRA is/was entirely understandable. Its practice of murdering innocent civilians was and is not.
And currently, it (or its new/residual incarnations) categorically doesn’t have the support of the population – on either side of the border. Even of the nationalist population. Although it clearly does have support from a small minority of them.
The continuing problem in Northern Ireland is that there are two populations there who are both right and justified. Neither bears responsibility for the decisions or actions of their long-dead ancestors. Some are more willing than others to make the best of an unfortunate historical circumstance. We can’t go back and slap King James.
You’re right that ‘chosen people’ memes are a disaster.
Jim,
A brief note prompted by your fan mail: I have been reading your blog for most of the past 10 years. I consider your writings to be informed, logical and fair minded. I’m way over on the right side of the political spectrum yet I find nothing you’ve written to be of the nature that you’re accused of after the essay that was published at lrc.com. Given the viewpoint of the post a couple above this by _wingo, it appears the you can’t satisfy the left either. Although I think that your confidence in the ultimate justice to be dealt by the Barr-Durham procedure is misplaced, I hope that you will keep up your insightful perspective.
Zero chance the House vote to Impeach will come up short. The Dems have too much invested and the media controls the party’s agenda.
The entire charade is media driven. They have the camera, the microphone, and the plan. Meanwhile the GOP only has radio, Fox News and Twitter to refute the lefty Dem and media shenanigans. Left unchecked, the nation will become the Socialist States of America. The SSA will be nothing but food lines, shopping lines, and medical waiting lines. All day, every day for the rest of your life. The Dems, media, and academia want this outcome desperately. A clear and present danger that must be resisted.
Ahh! The old socialist canard comes out once again. ‘Muricans just can’t resist it.
Not a canard when it is the reality of our times.
Fools are clamoring for Socialism.
The canard is the denial of the movement.
Why not be real and stop calling yourselves progressives or liberals and embrace the correct term of either Socialist or straight up communist.
Why indeed because the middle of the road majority Americans recoil from such for good reason.
FOX News is the most popular cable television “news” program. The radio talk or pundit programs are dominated by conservative groups. I’m not sure which political demographics the NASCAR and country music television stations are aiming for.
but what you do not seem to understand is that most conventional conservative leaders also find Trump repugnant.
Or the better term lessor of two evils.
Far less in fact.
Beware what you push for Virginia has real malitias starting up the worst nightmare of the progressive communist movement and armed militia ready and willing to defend the Constitution and bill of rights.
Second amendment friendly sanctuary zones based on city and counties are also popping up.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/in-virginia-and-elsewhere-gun-supporters-prepare-to-defy-new-laws/2019/11/23/4a95fcc2-0c86-11ea-bd9d-c628fd48b3a0_story.html
The harder they push for control the more people will begin to simply say NO.
Oh don’t forget Jim, the Wicked Witch of Chappaqua is cackling at the image of the White House while she gazes wide eyed in her Magic Mirror on the Wall– rubbing her green, long nailed claws & plotting where to send the flying monkeys…
..and about that craven fella who sent you that email there: just remember that much of the time that type of stuff is coming from somebody who feels powerless & desperate– so thus the name calling and projection. The real authentic ‘fascists’ are those who wanna cancel free speech & condemn others as thought criminals.
Those are the real “fascist scumbags” lol
There’s a lot of ways of characterizing the current incarnation of the Democratic Party, few of them good. You wouldn’t be remiss in seeing their recent proclamations as a collection of silly-assed ninny-isms posing as lofty principle, for example, this idiocy of condemning “cultural appropriation” being just one of a large sub-catalog of follies falling under the rubric of “woke-dom”. But this is just one of the ideas orbiting so far out in the far-reaches of nonsense, threatening to jump into the hyperspace of the too-absurd-for-comment.
Russian Collusion is one of those notions achieving escape velocity, so bereft of sense and evidence, a preposterous shambles that would make even the more creative writers of Pravda blush. And to think that it was based on a comedic work of fiction – the Steele Dossier – probably put together by the masters of slapstick in the GRU.
You can imagine the boys in the Kremlin daily laughing into their vodka as the Three Stooges Schiff-Shumer-Nadler episodes unfold. You cringe. You sigh. You slap your forehead. It doesn’t help. Because it ain’t over, the farce not yet done, more installments in the works.
And all this while the urgent affairs of the republic fester in the bottom-most drawers in the bottom-most basement offices of the bottom-most congressional aides. Nope, the heavy-weights of the ruling class have other business, shoveling bullshit into the ravenous maw of the DC-Manhattan media, which works mightily to re-shape it into easily digestible portions for the credulous creative-class clerisy.
The interests and viability of the country be damned. It doesn’t matter that none of it makes a stitch of sense, as long as it accords with the interests and predispositions of highly self-regarding Democrat followers. You would implore them to pull their heads out of their asses but you know you’d be wasting your time.
“We have another term for “cultural appropriation”, we call it “learning from other people”” – Dr. Jordan Peterson
Yeah, ballet, opera and classical music had their earliest stirrings in Italy. I’m no artsy-fartsy scholar but that’s what I read somewhere. So imagine that it was not done or that it was unseemly to borrow art forms from neighboring peoples. No Bolshoi, no Beethoven, no Wagner. No adoption by Europeans of the Hindu-Arabic number system. No adoption of the alphabet from Middle-Easterners, no paper, no gun-powder from China. No a great many things.
I think I made a similar point on the previous thread to SSL, who referred to ‘learning from other people’ as ‘theft’.
You’re better as a one trick climate change pony.
You didn’t mention what you disapproved of in my very short post above yours.
I just agreed with ishabaka, volodya and Jordan Peterson.
Perhaps volodya’s worried that he must have said something foolish after all.
Why leave it to your imagination? Listen to Schiff getting pranked by two Russians who tell him they have pictures of Trump naked:
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2018/02/06/russian_comedians_prank_call_rep_adam_schiff_promise_him_naked_photos_of_trump_from_fsb.html#!
“[…] Schiff sent his staff to try and collect ‘classified materials for the FBI” after the prank callers told him Putin has naked blackmail pictures of President Trump.
Schiff can be heard discussing the Russia investigation with a man who claimed to be Andriy Parubiy, the chairman of the Ukrainian Parliament.'”
Yet another moment of comedy gold from the McResistance.
Meanwhile, On reality street. Voters are using the old credit cards to accumulate even more debt. Despite the news about student loan debt, supposedly intelligent people borrow more to get a useless education. Do you really need a degree to serve overpriced coffee? Then there is the addicted bunch. More pills please. Dammit I need my pills!!!! The coup continues but truthfully Americans are more interested in Game Of Thrones or some Hollywood actress latest wardrobe malfunction or tattoo. This is also the season for the dozens of college bowl games so please don’t bother us with other nonsense such as destruction of the country. I think Mr. K might have more confidence in our people than I think is warranted. The whole idea that we could experience five more years of the DC clown show is numbing. It might be more fun to watch Biden gaffe his way through a term.
Yeah, I wouldn’t mind Biden as Prez just to see what he sez.
There was an interesting proposition put forth by a writer whose name eludes me, but who may be onto something. And the idea is that notwithstanding the blusterings of Trump and that noted-man-of-the-people Tucker Carlson, what will move the policy needle in Washington is the economic distresses not of the bottom half of society, but the sufferings of the top ten percent.
You heard it right, gigantic housing costs in allegedly prosperous coastal bastions of the Enlightened are one factor, then add in the desperate scramble up the greasy pole of elite college admissions and then the catastrophically high costs of a four-year degree, plus ruinous health insurance and hospital costs and you have a recipe for – if not mass revolt (ten percent of the population doesn’t qualify) – but rather discontent by a politically influential sector.
Imagine an average Silicon Valley professional earning an annual salary of 81g in a place with king’s ransom apartment rentals and purchase prices. That kind of dough sounds like a good buck anywhere else and you’d say cry me a river but then add in student loan repayments etc etc and it don’t go far. 80 hours a week and at the end of the month you’re barely scraping by.
Anyway, it’s an interesting notion, in synch with the idea that revolution only works when the educated classes are behind it. Personally I wouldn’t be so eager to write off the precariously employed and the now non-working working classes though. If self-belief is a force multiplier, so is hunger. Remember where the core of the military comes from.
Good point, Volodya.
“Income Inequality” is a relative measure (just as is “Poverty”).
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/05/my-secret-shame/476415/
Will the ‘shame’ of the upper-middle class be sufficient to drive change for all? That’s a hard one to call because much of that top 10% are the ‘handmaidens’ to the 1% and as such beholden to that higher clique for its vaulted position, even if that position is being eroded by asset & housing inflation.
Majella, thanks for the link. That was illuminating.
There’s something to what you say, that people in the top 10% don’t want to rock the boat because they are beholden and it would make their situation worse. So what’s in the future for them? A year-by-year impoverishment, a grinding down of their material well-being.
Seems to me that the only way forward is to live well below your means and if that means giving up the cell phone, the internet connection, cable TV, then so be it. If you have to give up the car, then that too because, if the money ain’t there, it ain’t there. Maybe it’s back to one land-line telephone for the whole household, one bathroom, one over-the-air antenna for the TV and walk to work or take the bus or ride a bike. Where does money go? Rent or mortgage, food, clothes, medical.
Weddings? Maybe have to forgo the banquet hall, the expensive honeymoon and do a house party instead, or a back-yard barbeque. Funerals? I buried my dad a few years ago. It was a giant expense and it wasn’t a frilly funeral. There needs to be a scaling down of costs.
As far as college goes, given the massive fees, maybe that’s out of the question too for the vast majority. What that portends for the edu-crats that utterly fail in the mission of K-12 remains to be seen. Thirteen years in a school-house is a long time and pumping out illiterates and innumerates with heads empty of the most basic knowledge can’t go on, and all the excuses and justifications are worth exactly nothing.
Seems that there needs to be a revving up, with teachers imparting bodies of knowledge via classroom instruction, homework and tests and NO excuses and if a student fails, well, that’s on the student and his/her parents. There are windows of opportunity with publicly funded schools but that window closes with the passage of time, and when it’s shut, it’s shut.
This is a complex picture with different economic factors affecting different segments of society. I imagine what ails ordinary folk in these post-offshoring environs probably ails your compadres in NZ. This too is worth exactly nothing, but for what it’s worth, you guys have my sympathy.
Volodya
“Seems to me that the only way forward is to live well below your means and if that means giving up the cell phone, the internet connection, cable TV, then so be it. If you have to give up the car, then that too because, if the money ain’t there, it ain’t there. Maybe it’s back to one land-line telephone for the whole household, one bathroom, one over-the-air antenna for the TV and walk to work or take the bus or ride a bike.”
Yep – sounds exactly like the good old days of my youth. We thought life was pretty fecking good and – in retrospect – wanted for nothing, even though ours was a one-income Catholic household bursting at the seams, with 8 children under age 13 by 1970.
So, reverting to that life would probably be quite simple for me & my siblings, but I doubt my nephews & nieces, Millenials all, would feel that way…it’d be a reversion to the stone-age for them – much gnashing of perfect teeth and rending of designer sweatshirts,
I’m currently reading the book “Divided: The Perils of Our Growing Inequality” (2014) edited by David Cay Johnson. It’s a collection of essays that look at different aspects & elements of what ‘inequality’ actually IS – it’s somewhat relative to time and locality.
The most interesting essay is by Elizabeth Warren (dodges arrows & spitballs!) “The Vanishing Middle Class”, written in 2004 to make the case for creating a ‘Financial Product Safety Commission’.
She draws parallels between 2004 & 1970 – a solid generation of time (two generations, by some measures) – and makes similar points about what has changed.
What is now expensive (rent, housing, transportation, medical insurance) was once low-cost while what is now low cost (food, clothing, appliances) was once expensive – to the point where now two incomes are NECESSARY to just keep a family treading water…living in fear of a freak wave in the form of an unexpected bill that may well swamp them.
Add to all that the E-Z-Credit phenomenon driving rampant consumerism and relative working poverty now abounds, relative to only 30 years ago.
However, I think your trashing of the public education system is both overstated and inaccurate, though I admit to having little interaction with the US system.
I can say that the public system in New Zealand, while far from perfect, does manage to produce a literate, numerate graduate by age 17 (7th Form = Grade 12?) sufficient to be able to enter the workforce, take up a trade or move on to further study with confidence.
Your last point is the off-shoring effect – yes, NZ is not immune. In the pre-1984 days, the government ran what was virtually a command economy, where Import Licenses on necessity imports (such as cars for example, where there was no local industry) were required and were issued exclusively – mainly no doubt to the ‘elite’ of those days.
Meanwhile, local industries – clothing, shoes, televisions and so on – were protected from import competition by TARIFFS, which kept the price of all goods higher than necessary but employment full. (A minister of Finance in 1964 boasted that he knew the names of all unemployed NZers – all 18 of them.)
So, our country has been through the same vicissitudes as the rest of the West but has responded by opening the economy (there are virtually no tariffs on any imported goods now) while simultaneously growing & diversifying the exported goods base.
Whereas up to 1970, the bulk of ‘overseas earnings’ (as they were quaintly termed) came from exporting sheep agricultural products – meat & wool.
Now, 50 years later, the export of wine, dairy products, wood, energy, seafood, and a range of specialist manufacturing ventures (such as RocketLab), film industry product (Peter Jackson, Taika Waititi) and of course, the old reliable, tourism (where you spend your money here – it’s technically an export industry on that basis).
What ails Aotearoa would require another post entirely, but I can say this – there’s a greater sense of financial security and a deeper ‘middle class’ (which is always a self-defining term) than I can perceive in the US, due in the main to the presence of State-funded healthcare for all, and a fair and accessible welfare system if one falls on hard times.
Democrat US Rep from NJ decides to vote ‘No’ on impeachment. Upon learning that he’d probably lose his Dem primary over this he is going to switch parties.
https://www.rawstory.com/2019/12/jeff-van-drew-trashed-for-switching-parties-to-defend-trump-from-impeachment-choosing-the-wrong-side-of-history/
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2019/12/14/new-jersey-democrat-congressman-jeff-van-drew-will-switch-parties-over-impeachment-fraud/
I am so ‘fair and balanced’. I shared a liberal and a conservative site for this story. Lol…
Cc rider
Clever as a Fox.
Quick – what new exciting proposals did the Democratic presidential candidates announce last week?
You have no idea, because the shampeachment has sucked all the political oxygen out of the room. If I was Biden, Warren, Sanders, or any of the others, I’d be demanding Pelosi, Schiff, and Nadler’s heads on a platter.
It is difficult to have opinions today but your writing is always thoughtful honest and amusing. I eagerly look forward to your biweekly musings.
I think you mean semi-weekly…bi-weekly is ‘fortnightly’
If the Brits want to leave the EU, that’s their free-will choice. You go, boy! I’ll munch popcorn and drink some Mexican beers as I watch these fine fellows learn lessons on going it alone with their economic Rambo escapade.
The British people are good decent chaps and I wish them well.
But I reserve some animosity to the British Empire, the Dutch, and the Vatican. The underlying gripes go back hundreds of years…to our colonial days … and way beyond when it comes to Vatican crimes against humanity (Crusades, anyone?).
British and Dutch sea captains brought slaves to we colonies and left here with tobacco and cotton. We colonies were where the hard dirty work of farming with slaves was used to produce commodities that were taken back to Europe and turned into high-value products to make THEM wealthy. They got the wealth, we got the shit work of slavery and the enduring pestilence of racism. They got Windsor Palace, we got K-Mart. We grew the crops with little choice but sell them as cheap commodities to our owners back in England, with the Dutch getting a share of the crops and loot.
We’re still being colonized and don’t know it. Large acreage in TX and AZ, owned by interests in India, grow thirsty cotton by pumping our aquifers dry and ship the cotton to India where British-owned firms make all sorts of linens. We’re burning up our topsoil to sell cheap soybeans to China. We’re still colonies, still used by others, wrecking ourselves for their benefit — and most of us can’t see it for what it is.
I don’t think you’ll get Brexit. I think you’ll get what the monied-elite want, which is not Brexit. That is, they’ll go through the motions, they’ll observe the niceties of respecting democratic votes, those being the referendum and now this latest election, and so there will be a “Brexit” deal, and a reformulation of trading relationships between the UK and the EU, but in the end, the oligarchs will get their way. Which just puts off the day of reckoning. In any case, this is history yet to be written.
Exploitation and its resultant discontents, is how things got to where they’re at. Interesting observation as to who owns that land in TX and AZ.
The sugar biz is also where we take it in the shorts with foreign owners wrecking the Everglades with Haitian labor while we eat the social costs, just as we do with Mexican labor on our farms.
Cotton and sugar are the tip of the iceberg of being fleeced, but it’s all hidden. All we see in the public airwaves is the idiocy of legislators screeching about which restroom the trans-people may use to pee, baking cakes for same-sex couples, and other social trivia that is used to keep people riled up so they won’t notice the U.S. Treasury and our resources being plundered and pillaged day and night.
I agree on that. Say the word “trans” and it’s to the barricades.
Which makes you think that the parties in Washington are just different factions of the same ruling clique, with billionaires funding their respective operations, though, according to the last count I did, Democrats got two-thirds of the money donated by the largest contributors.
The Republican Party looks to me like a zombie carcass that doesn’t yet know it’s dead, knifed and shot-gunned by Trump. As for the Democratic Party, it looks to me like a pagan statue god that its faithful truly believe will confer benefits if the rituals and incantations are adhered to, but which is in reality just what it looks like, a life-less form, all painted up and garlanded and gussied, but stone-cold dead.
Good metaphor at the end, there.
POV,
They are just doing to us what we did to them for decades.
“you’ll get what the monied-elite want, which is not Brexit.”
You’ll get what the English public voted for, which is Boris’ Brexit and not Farage’s Brexit. You seem to want Farage’s Brexit – (and the Brexit pursued by the monied elitists, Rees-Mogg, Redwood et al.of the ERG (I wonder why the Tories hid Rees-Mogg away for the entirety of the election campaign). The monied elitist investors who want the low-regulation fantasy Singapore-on-Thames so as to best screw the working class and remove their rights.
The British public begs to disagree with you, volodya. If they’d agreed with you they’d have voted for the Brexit party.
But. They. Didn’t.
Are you going to patronise them now and tell them they didn’t know what they were voting for, as you’ve accused Remainers of doing?
But they may still get a no-deal Brexit if Boris can’t get a deal by the 11th hour. Then our workers, farmers, NHS patients etc. will be sold down the river to you. Yay, I suppose, if you’re an American corporation, especially one of those scummy industrial livestock ones or Big Pharma.
Still, don’t take it from me. Here’s a more eloquent rendering of the reasons why the monied elites want a hard Brexit, just like you:
https://www.monbiot.com/2019/02/11/the-mask-of-anarchy/
Your problem, volodya, is that you focus on one set of bad boys and you can’t see the other set that want to step on their patch and take their stuff.
Hasn’t the officialdom of the EU come out and said that the UK either takes the deal that was most recently negotiated or else “crash out” with no deal whatsoever? That would appear to preclude any further negotiating.
Nope.
This misunderstanding arises from the frequent and unfortunate use of the word ‘deal’ to describe the Withdrawal Agreement’, which is nothing more than a divorce statement, settling financial obligations, agreeing how the leaving will happen, and agreeing incredibly broad conditions for the future relationship (negotiations, as you know, have included a lot of discussion about the very particular situation of Northern Ireland and the acceptability or not of the re-introduction of a hard border with Ireland, which would be a clear breach of the Good Friday Agreement).
The next stage is the negotiation of a trade deal between the already-exited UK (post-Jan 2020) and the EU. So, two entirely different things, but for those who haven’t had to listen to and read about this stuff for almost five years now, a quite understandable confusion. Vast numbers of British voters wouldn’t be able to tell you the difference. Many think it’s all over on 31st Jan. How to tell them gently…
But the possibility of an actual no-deal Brexit remains. From the end of January until the end of December relations are operating under a no-tariff transitional arrangement between the UK and the EU. If no trade deal transpires by the end of the year, the UK can either crash out of the arrangement and fall into WTO terms (which don’t cover services, so the financial sector loses its ‘financial ‘passporting’ rights and can no longer operate in the EU), or it negotiates an extension, with the clear intention of completing a trade deal.
“In the past 650,000 years there have been 7 major glacial periods over Scotland. The last one ended 12,500 years ago, at one point all of what’s now Great Britain was underneath a 2 mile sheet of ice.”
You don’t say.
GA, look how nicely the land has recovered after the ice melted, responding to the warmth of the sun. Celtic people made their across the channel from the Continent, and moved north. The rest is history.
GA, you have to look at the big picture. You have to consider all possibilities.
Brh
Yes, brh, if I’m still around in 12,500 years, I promise to look at the bigger picture. In the meantime, I’ll stick with bit of the picture that’s affecting the human race now.
BTW, neat segue from Brexit.
I don’t really care much about Brexit. I’ll bet if I asked 100 neighbors and co workers about Brexit they wouldn’t know what I was talking about. Nobody round these parts is concerned about Brexit. Tolls on Ct highways, yes. That’s a big topic. Brexit, not so much. It occurs to me the UK won WW1 in less time it’s taken to pull off this Brexit deal.
Brh
I wasn’t suggesting you should care about Brexit, brh.
All I meant was it was an odd place to put a comment about AGW. 🙂
Dammit GA, everything is about AGW!
You know that.
Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders might be moved to study up on what just happened in the UK election, and weigh how US voters might be disposed to another four-year beat-down with the cudgels of inclusion and diversity plus the shady blandishments of free everything.
I think this part is pretty disingenuous. There is no faction in the Democratic Party as far to the left as Jeremy Corbyn’s faction of the Labour Party, and it would appear that Corbyn et al. are being made to pack up their red flags and go home. The one mistake the neo-libs of the Democratic Party and the far-lefties of the Labour Party have in common is the embrace of PC identity-politics, which are just a mess. Working-class folk in the Anglosphere don’t groove on that sort of thing. They just don’t. And neither do most “Bernie Bros” (a term I don’t especially like because it implies that most Sanders supporters are twenty- and thirty-something white guys, and that isn’t the case), hence the endless accusations of being racist and sexist from Hillary Clinton’s Wokesterdom on social media.
Agree. No one is arguing for ‘free’ stuff for anyone.
That’s an accusation the GOP uses to demonize DEMs. It’s part of their post-Atwater racist agenda where they know millions of white people will translate the words ‘free stuff’ into meaning welfare for inner city blacks, which is what I recall from welfare programs that largely ended in the mid 1990s when Clinton and Gingrich revised that aspect of our laws. Welfare days are long over, have been for a generation, but that’s how long these memes stick around.
My GOP loves to accuse Warren and Sanders of wanting to turn the USA into some European socialist backwater with free everything and an overbearing nanny-state. Such places really don’t exist. The NY Times put that GOP lie to rest with a good article on Finland, which is in fact a capitalist paradise compared to us.
People owe it to themselves to read this:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/07/opinion/sunday/finland-socialism-capitalism.html?searchResultPosition=1
If one reads the article they’ll see the Finns pay taxes for what they get, and they get a lot for their money; medical care, family leave, college educations — all of which made Finland a vibrant capitalist economy. The Finns pay higher taxes but they get their money’s worth.
It drives me nuts that GM, GE, Ford, Boeing and thousands of other corporations have to use their time and money running health care programs that rightly belong in the government lane. Industry should do what industry is supposed to do — MAKE STUFF.
If one reads the article they’ll see the Finns pay taxes for what they get, and they get a lot for their money; medical care, family leave, college educations — all of which made Finland a vibrant capitalist economy. The Finns pay higher taxes but they get their money’s worth…if they allow their land to be ‘swedened’ or sewer denned, its all over.
They got some pretty good looking babes running the show up there too. No men to be found in the top rungs of govt.
There might be ANOTHER message in that observation, BRH.
They have one of the least corrupt governments and bureaucracies in the world. The USA not so much.
Corruption index – lowest:
1. Denmark
2. New Zealand
3. Finland.
Coincidentally, all three social democratic governments are headed by females, the oldest of which (Mette Fredricksen, Denmark) is just 44.
MPOV
Yes – thanks for that link. My argument is that the ‘democratic socialist’ states, such as Finland ARE capitalist in their economic functioning but socialist is ensuring a fair distribution of the common wealth.
It’s entirely possible to get filthy rich in these countries (6 Finns immmediately easy to find on the interwebz), but the SOCIETY as a whole operates on the notion of equality & plain, simple fairness. It works.
One thing Majella, Finland has a relatively small homogeneous population.
True, BRH, but that isn’t the ONLY reason it succeeds using the social democratic model. Given ‘American Exceptionalism’, I’m surprised that you don’t believe the USA could pull it off…?
I suspect the greater barriers are the riven partisanality (?) of the political body, and the ponderous process required to get anything done politically.
“F#kkd and demented”
“Racist scumbag”
Whoo!
E mail sounds like it came from some distinguished prof of intersectional gender, race and environmental studies at Harvard, Berkeley, or Evergreen College. Clearly, Paul Siegel means business and is the kind of man who speaks his mind. Watch out for him I’ll tell you what.
Jim, that’ll learn ya not to be down with ‘The Resistance’. Apparently there are consequences, professional and personal.
Brh
Jim, the question that comes to my mine is, “Is there saving either party?” I don’t see much happening on either side of the isle that is working well. I get it that you are discouraged with you former party’s direction, but this blog continues to mostly ignore the fact that the whole damn thing is a clusterfuck. By ignoring that, you end up with mostly the same little group of ranting posters here spewing more hate rather than posting anything constructive and a smaller readership. Sorry, (you know I’m a fan) and I don’t mean to offend, but that seems counterproductive to me.
I seriously doubt if our host has EVER voted for a republican and has no love for any of them either. The only problem with bashing the republican party is that it is almost impossible to do being that they do absolutely nothing except get re-elected. Hard to bash them for sitting on their hands, but I will be happy to add that they are useless. They do not appear however to be as violent and offensive as the democrats though, and NO I am not a lesser of two evils kind of guy. . Correct me if I am wrong.
Sounds about right to me Walter. Thanks for the response.
I don’t mind if a politician sits on his/her hands. Better that than grabbing other people’s money…
So in other words, it’s ok if they no not do anything because if they are doing nothing they cannot screw us? I see the logic, but I know that they are screwing us even as they sleep. Bastards!
She was supposed to win.
Two cult leaders who are a doppelgänger for each other. Examine the actual photographs:
1. Marshall Applewhite, Heaven’s Gate cult leader, dead via suicide
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/df/Marshall_Applewhite.jpg
2. Adam Schiff, TDS cult leader, currently engaged in political suicide.
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/andrewnchin_adam-schiff-really-does-think-that-many-activity-6604726300374630401-bnmK
Sanpaku eyes. Many of our favorite political nuts have them. See AOC or Clinton when they get a spike of adrenalin.
Cheap shots, from such a huge intellect. What a waste.
Volltreffer.
You’re your own fan club…of one.
I so look forward to the coming end of the fracking, which is starting to look in sight (oil prices bumped along a top from 2010-2014, reflecting the worldwide peak in 2005 and start of the fracking in 2014, and gasoline prices that arent falling this winter to their usual annual lows coming on January 1 so far), so that we can cut out this political commentary and go back to what I found Jim for in the first place — peak oil — resumed after 7 years of zero interest rates funding the whole thing.
Couple of notes Jivefive99:
1. You don’t regard it as important that the security state went way out of its lane last election and attempted overthrow the president? I do, and I’m not even a Trump fan (and didn’t vote for him).
2. Do you suppose i should confine my writing to topics that you find interesting?
–JHK Admin
You might find this interesting, then: Charles Hugh Smith on why the Federal Reserve’s “Not-QE” is a sign that endgame is on the horizon.
Thanks for the link.
AND WHAT WILL THAT END MEAN????
Please let me know.
“I so look forward to the coming end of the fracking…”
While a pause is definitely in the cards, I think that the “end” is a long shot. The only way fracking will end is if (when?) we find a viable alternative to fossil fuels. That is the real long shot.
“The “progressive” (not) Resistance took two body-blows last week, one foreign and one domestic. Its cousin in Britain, the Labor Party, led by the red-headed stepchild of a Marxist-Jihadi chimera, Jeremy Corbyn, got such an unexpected and mighty thrashing at the hands of BoJo that it virtually dissolved into a little puddle of bile on the floor of parliament. Corbyn was a piece of work, a cheerleader for Hezbollah and other enemies of western civ, with a zealous antipathy to economic reality, spreading the virus of identitarian Wokesterism that has infected Britain like a plague of yore. Surely the American Dems noticed how that went down.”
Mr, Kunstler,
…C’mon, stop equivocating…tell us what you RELLY think of Corbyn….
One of your best posts, in my estimation. Written with righteous opprobrium, and conceived within the outrage and distaste we all should feel.
Regarding Mr. Paul Siegel…someone needs a hug….
James: Another great piece on the ongoing breakup of America, especially coming from a registered democrat. The country, at this point in time, is as close to civil war, and balkanization, as it has been in 160 years. Valid polls are showing that 70% of the US population expects civil war to break out in 2020. Militias are forming across the US and Virginia is at the verge of violence and chaos from a rapid nazi governor. This point in time stems from many factors including:
1-the democrats’ showing absolute indifference to the rule of law and rule of procedure, as well as their rapid focus on their trump phobia (TDS) rather than real problems such as medical and drug costs.
2-the super wealthy raping and pillaging to the point where the income gap probably approaches that of the end of Czarist Russia, with, e.g. the average DAILY income of the top six insurance company CEO is
$122,666.00. That’s PER DAY. (ref. Physicians for a National Health Program).
Between the above two processes, and many more less obvious one, we are now at the tipping point. Chaos after Xmas. Lock and Load, no kidding.
A civil war and breakup of the USA in 2010 was predicted in 1998 by a Russian professor (KGB-insider) as reported in this article.
https://www.the-american-catholic.com/2008/12/29/russian-professor-predicts-breakup-of-us-in-2010/
I’ve no doubt this is the goal of Putin (and Kim, Xi, and the mullahs) as reflected in Russia’s massive long-term internet war of lying bullshit that is pitting us at each other.
In the 1930s we sold scrap metal to Japan. We got it back at Pearl Harbor.
In the 1990s we perfected the internet. Russia will choke us with it.
Still looking elsewhere for enemies, I see. Try focusing on DC and NYC for a change. That’s where the true enemies reside.
A Pogoism is appropriate I think. “We has seen the enemy and they is us.”
Meanwhile, the door on humanity that recently has been in the process of being closed via the Fed’s monetary tightening finally and, if you were to believe the ruling elite of this planet, for good, has been held for yet another delay as the Fed is again monetizing the utter crapshow of a financial and economic system that was designed and run by and for those infinitely wise and inbred overlords.
I have a grand down at my local bookie on sometime this next Spring. I had a REAL bad feeling in the winter of ’05-’06 but I didn’t call it then and never have until now. But now, I’m almost callin’ it; Spring, my babies.
https://www.newyorkfed.org/markets/opolicy/operating_policy_191212
Geez, Jim, “the kind of mail that [you] get lately” need not go on display for any other reason than to testify to your credentials of pushing this latest narrative that you have adopted. Power on. I hope that the revenue stream is going towards some overdue modifications to your escape pod and not simply towards the pleasures of the flesh.
I wish I had your happiness and you had a do-wacka-do.
~toktomi~
Monetizing the debt is the only play left in the playbook. The only other option is the unthinkable – debt deflation – which will NEVER, EVER be allowed to happen.
“Monetizing the debt is the only play left in the playbook.”
True. We stay on this path unless or until other nations abandon the dollar. I have no idea when that happens, but there will be a major change of course then. Depending on China’s path, the USA may still be the best house in the neighborhood, but the houses will be getting a bit seedy.
When (or if) we have to start funding ourselves internally then things are going to get tough for non-productive people or people who do not directly serve the state.
The criticism of Corbyn lacks nuance. He came close to winning an election previously but after years of slander and libel by establishment media his popularity has been deliberately sunk. A second major problem for him and his party was the failure to put forth a consistent position on brexit. Since this elections primary focus was on brexit that was a critical failing. Also note the the conservative party put forth a major media blitz on how the are going to increase NHS funding, despite having done nothing for the past 12 years. The failure of the UK labour party doesn’t really have any parallels regarding Sanders, except that Obama and Clinton might resurface to undermine their own party again.
I would also like see elaboration on how Hezbollah is the enemy of Western Civilization. If you are defending Western colonization/imperialism then I understand your point.
“A second major problem for him and his party was the failure to put forth a consistent position on brexit. ”
It was a difficult one for them to call. Labour voters were split on Brexit, just like everyone else. Including the Johnson family, incidentally, who are not all pro-Brexit. Rachel still waxes lyrical on the self-harm and Jo left his own brother’s cabinet when he seemed to be pursuing a hard Brexit.
Some people on here like things to be black and white, and they just aren’t.
In the referendum, the majority of Labour constituencies voted for Brexit, but the majority of individual Labour voters voted Remain. First past the post skews things.
That left the party in a quandary. Corbyn is allegedly surreptitiously pro-Brexit, but he ran what seemed to be a lukewarm campaign supporting Remain (my brother, who canvasses for the Labour party in England, say this isn’t true, it’s just that the press didn’t give him as much coverage as the other leaders).
I think in the end (leaving aside non-Brexit issues, which in reality you can’t leave aside), people saw Corbyn as bringing more dithering to the issue and nobody wanted that. Certainly not me, although I voted Labour, but Scottish Labour, and my MP – the only Scottish Labour member left in the country, knows what he supports and said so. And my alternative was the flippin’ SNP.
PS I didn’t mean to suggest there was an official constituency result in the referendum campaign, but it was clearly possible to establish an unofficial one.
The relevance of the constituency side of things is that there were many cases where a Labour MP was representing a Remain-voting local electorate, while the overall result was (narrowly) for Leave.
The MP is elected by the voters in the constituency and is supposed to act on their behalf, including in efforts to safeguard their jobs, where those jobs might be at risk in a no-deal Brexit scenario (or even any kind of Brexit scenario).
I’ve seen MPs implicitly – and sometimes quite explicitly – vilified on this board (mentioning no names) for doing nothing more than trouble their conscience about the interests of the constituents who elected them and to whom they are accountable.
Not to mention that a number of competent and experienced female MPs withdrew before the election and decided not to stand again, as a result of the kind of rape and death threats (to them and their families) which have unfortunately become par for the course for women in politics.
In Jo Cox’s case, of course, the death threats weren’t hypothetical, as she was murdered by a far-right pro-Brexit extremist in her own constituency.
Speaking of rehab, there should be an anger management program somewhere for Paul Siegel.
meGa culpa???
I want to Go Off Grid.
“We see a 37% chance that any American of average life expectancy will experience at least one nationwide violent revolution.”
https://medium.com/s/story/the-surprisingly-solid-mathematical-case-of-the-tin-foil-hat-gun-prepper-15fce7d10437
how far off?
What I read–stay 200 miles from a city [200 miles =- tank of gas].
stay 15 miles from a major highway.
any other pointers, folks?
“any other pointers, folks?”
Malthuss,
Plant an orchard…and learn to code!
You’d better do a hell of a lot more than that.
like what? Im in the shitty.
fruit is not so nutritious.
“fruit is not so nutritious.”
Malthuss,
Fruit is not so nutritious,
Burglars will take your gun from you and use it on you.
The police will protect you, you don’t need a gun.
The check is in the mail.
The Mercedes is paid for.
Diversity is strength.
This guy’s handwriting is atrocious. He can do math ok, so I guess he’s not completely hopeless.
I think that it’s interesting that the Left has now declared Progressive Guru and host of “The Young Turks”, Cenk Uygur, a misogynist and a Homophobe. Go figure…. I could never figure out why they named themselves “The Young Turks” “, which was a Turkish movement infamous for the mass murder of Christians in Turkey. Go figure….
It looks like the “Progressive Movement” may be entering its Jacobin phase wherein yesterday’s revolutionaries are today’s counterrevolutionaries? I saw that Cory Booker declared the Democrats “Racists” because the remaining Democratic candidates are all White People, notwithstanding that Elizabeth Warren landed a faculty teaching position with Harvard because of her declared status as a Cherokee Native American.
Wasn’t Cher a Native American? Cher did that video in which she was half naked on a white horse singing about being a “Half Breed” Cherokee Indian. The Cherokee didn’t ride horses, which were endemic only to the “Plains Indians”.
Cher was HOT….
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6E98ZRaU1s
Cher is Armenian
Cher got a nose job. Poor Sonny who had to put up with this bitch all the way to the bank. A no talent schmuck, but a hell of a nice guy, unlike Granny Cher. Don’t know if offspring Chaz is a nice guy, he seems to be…..
Might have helped if he hadn’t repeatedly cheated on her, not that I care about her one way or the other. Re ‘Granny Cher’, she was 16 when they met (your favourite age) and he 28, apparently.
So, even men who get to have 16-year-olds cheat on them. What can I say? Nice guy. Hmmm…
You, “who don’t care about this kind of thing at all” know most intimate details of the gossip from decades ago. Fascinating!
How old are you, Skorenzy? And do you have to fact-check your memories?
I just looked her up in Wiki, dipstick. There was a link to him. Took about 1 minute. No gossip. I remember them singing when I was a kid.
They ‘upgrade’ to new 16 y/o, of course…
“Don’t know if offspring Chaz is a nice guy”
Seems Chaz (originally Chastity) is a trans man, so I guess that would rule him out for you. I’m neutral since I don’t know him.
GA -huh?
I can’t find any reference (impeachable or otherwise) that assert that Chasten is transgender…and I looked long & hard for a tongue in your cheek, too.
However, here’s some of his Twitter advice for the Blog Roll Commentariat:
‘Remember, the lessons you learned in school still apply today. Do unto others… Use “I” statements, put kindness behind your actions and words, and just because you have a thought, doesn’t mean you need to share it. “
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaz_Bono
Is this the same person? I’m not well up on these things and had never heard of him before anyway. Says his mum is Cher.
Born a women still a women no amount of surgery or hormones is changing that fact its in the genes don’t you know.
Science seems in vogue for one subject but not another eh?
Now if born with both sets of genitals I have some sympathy for their plight.
Benr – are you asserting that Charente is trans? Enlighten me- I thing he’s just a standard homosexual, as far as I can find. If not, please link me to the information.
Oh! My error. I thought the ‘Chaz’ in question was Mayor Pete’s husband. Got my wires crossed…?
Pucker – don’t participate in a fecking smear campaign so thoughtlessly.
From Breibart:
A Seattle public official has been placed on paid leave after it was reported she hired a transgender stripper to dance topless at her agency’s annual homelessness conference.
Black transgender stripper Beyoncé Black St. James reportedly “danced on tables, gave lap dances, and stripped down to a pair of silver pasties as people threw dollar bills,” at the homelessness conference held on December 9, noted Erica C. Barnett at her website, The C Is For Crank.
Kira Zylstra, acting director of King County’s coordinating agency for homelessness, organized the “All Home” conference at South Seattle College and was placed on administrative leave as an investigation was launched into St. James’s performance.
The theme of the conference was “decolonizing our collective work.”
City and county employees, donors, and representatives of Catholic Community Services, Mary’s Place, and Neighborhood House, were all in attendance at the homelessness event.
Sounds like something from Parks and Recreation…
Did the transgender stripper have a Crank as well?
…I GOTS TO KNOW!
‘She’ was grossly overweight…
Do you remember the TV show “Seattle”? The Seattle Seahawks used to Suck really bad. When I lived there, it was easy to get tickets to Seahawks games…. The Green River Killer was still dumping bodies everywhere. Simpler Times….
Welcome to the Freak Show my friend.
And we’re only in the early acts. There’s a long way to go yet.
Brh
The Urantia Book warned us about this Conference, but did we listen?
Sonny was down and out after Cher left him, but did he despair? No, instead of looking for another big nosed girl, he got into conservative politics. Sunny, you could do the same.
https://www.instagram.com/beyonce_stjames/
That’s one big mama.
Why would anyone sit around and watch that?
Can you imagine an alien listening to this conversation and what they might think.
The US has so degenerated in its ethics and morals it is sickening
I rarely disagree with our host here, but I call bullshit on Corbyn as “an enemy of civilization” for his lack of support for Jim’s old blind spot, Israel. Corbyn was simply yet another victim of the weaponized accusation of “anti antisemitism” which Israel deploys so effectively. There isn’t a damned thing anti Semitic about opposing Israeli fascism, Israeli apartheid, and the holocaust that Israel is prosecuting against the people from whom their country was stolen. Posterity will see clearly that in these waning days of the American Empire Israel was our most deadly enemy, as the puppeteer behind our horribly misguided foreign policy.
Bravo. The simple truth. And they are cracking down even more, increasing the scope of their smear under their greatest puppet, Trump. A Golem through and through.
In the beginning was the plan
And then came the assumptions
And the assumptions were without form
And the plan was completely without substance
And darkness was on the face of the workers
And they spoke amongst themselves, saying
“It’s a crock of shit and it stinketh”
And the workers went to the planners and sayeth
“It is a pile of dung and none may abide the odor thereof”
And the planners went to the supervisors and sayeth unto them
“It is a container of excrement and it is very strong such that none could abide it”
And the supervisors went to the managers and sayeth unto them
“It is a vessel of fertilizer and none may abide its strength”
And the managers went to the director and sayeth
“It contains that which aids growth and it is very strong”
And the directors went to the vice president and sayeth
“It promoteth growth and it is very powerful”
And the vice president went to the president and sayeth unto him
“This powerful new plan will actively promote the
growth and efficiency of the country”
And President Trump looked upon the plan and said
“It will Make America Great Again”
And the plan became policy…
🙂
Say it, sister!
Yeah! Give us more of that ivory tower approved cultural appropriation! Wow you are so dangerous going after that one race and that one religion that woke officialdom says you can bash and denigrate. You have to feel so edgy and rebellious right now huh lol.
Oh, please SSL. I thought you had a light-hearted element in there somewhere…can’t you see the humour?
You’re right here and I was wrong here. Evelyn, if you are peeking in this was creative. Still gross in some places but whatever
Did you come up with this? It’s pretty damn good! Trump is indeed delusional. Truly sad and ominous that he’s the best thing the system could spit out.
Mr. Trump has accomplished everything, in spades, that I hoped he would accomplish when I voted for him. Anyone who doubts the entire system is corrupt should say a prayer of thanksgiving for autonomic breathing.
he never voted for a Republican, – just once and hoping the vice does not turn into a habit
Though… things are FUBAR when a New York City real estate developer is the most truthful man on stage.
Get the popcorn ready, the Grand Old Party sweeping the trash under the rug is going to be mesmerizing.
Mr. Kunstler, thank you for this space and your commentary. One thing is for sure, you hang in there like a hair in a biscuit.
wm5135
“Mr. Trump has accomplished everything, in spades, that I hoped he would accomplish when I voted for him.”
You must have had extremely low expectations, then…
After Obama there ain’t much to be said about LOW expectations.
“Will the last vertebrae to leave Lindsay Graham’s spine, please remember to turn off the lights?”
The irony of Graham quoting the Strzok – Page texts & email exchanges is exquisitely highlighted here, with a collation of soundbites from a variety of TV sources.
These have the same level of revulsion as the cited ‘evidence’ against the FBI employees and were made around the same time – between the nominating convention and the November election: Min =ute 3:10 to 3:27 “He’s a kook”, “the world’s greatest jack-ass” and so on…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7LHeV215vI
That first line of yours is really funny, Majella. You know, the one thing I can never figure out is how in the hell did the Republicans manage to hoodwink our average citizens into thinking that they represented the citizen’s interests? The Republicans, including Trump’s crew, consists of billionaires, CEOs, and the upper management of most of the corporations, many of whom make up his cabinet. In many instances they are directly opposed to the stated goals of the agencies they now run.
Somehow, the Republicans manage to give hundreds of billions to the already wealthy, while handing out what amounts to pocket change to the masses, while apparently convincing them that they really understand them and are on their side. People are willfully blind to what is really going on, on BOTH sides, and are gonna wind up paying the price for their blindness down the road. Try and tell them that, however, and you get nowhere. All I know is that I worked my union job, lived beneath my means, invested wisely, and I’m doing just fine, and I did it all without buying into that Republican crap. They were always the party of the wealthy, and nothing has ever changed, but somehow you can feed people a line they’ll believe whenever you want.
The republican crap captain, is almost the same line of crap that the democrats feed their slaves. The democrats promise the idiots that they own, income, housing and benefits for free as long as the slaves are willing to live in poverty, which they are. The republicans offer “trickle down” handouts with low paying no benefits jobs that their slaves can have but they give them all the caveat of endless debt as a rubber band. Sure there are the artisans that the wealthy of both flavors pay well to provide the goodies that they all crave and must have, and to those they will shell out a more decent income in return. But in the end, both of these entities, these “parties”, well they party at our expense, don’t they?
I agree with you, Mr. B, that they are alike when it comes to dishing out goodies to the wealthy. My question is: why do we support either one of them? Like you say, in the end they both party at our expense.
What I want most from the federal government is for it to get smaller. For this reason I will vote for the party that leans more in this direction than in its opposite, and at present this is the Republican Party. If at some point in the future the Democratic Party leans more towards a smaller federal government than the Republicans then I will vote Democrat…
The Republicans love massive government, bureaucracy, and out of control spending too. They have contributed to the national debt bigly and yugely and we still have no Wall.
Of the two parties which one leans more towards a smaller federal government (less taxes and government intrusion in people’s lives) Democrats or Republicans? Remember voting for the representative of one of these two parties is the only realistic choice we have at present (here in the States). If we vote Libertarian or Green there is zero chance of getting our guy or gal in office…
Democrats tend to use the federal government to achieve their goals and ideals (which is why the Democratic Party is currently edging towards Socialism) whereas Republicans tend towards self-reliance and local governance. I realize there are a lot of deep state, globalist Republicans SSL, but Republicans also have the Tea Party…
Your nuance is correct SBS, there are definitely more Republicans on balance who want smaller and more efficient government than Democrats. And yes, the Republican Party has in many ways been forever changed by the Tea Party wing which basically took over in the Obama years. But unfortunately the movers and shakers within the Republican Party still seem to be RINO-esque and they tend to support government largesse. And since they comprise the inner circles of the inner circles their policy preferences tend to prevail. What happens most of the time is that the Republicans surrender to everything, and I mean everything that the Democrats want.
SBS
I would observe that what you’re measuring is lip service only, not actual reality.
What I want most from the federal government is for it to get smaller.
Most people say that, but what they really mean is I want the federal government to get smaller for everyone else, but I want it left the fuck alone or even expanded for me.
Which is why this country is going down the tubes. There needs to be a grassroots anti-government movement that goes beyond the Tea Party, which has apparently been compromised as we don’t hear from them anymore. The so-called Tea Party candidates, once they got into office, appear to have become fat cat politicians like everyone else. You can’t be anti-government and part of the government at one and the same time. A true anti-government movement would have to lead by example by gradually weaning itself away from government dependency. Easy to say hard to do. In our world emancipating ourselves from government is a genuinely heroic act…
To be honest I depend on Medicare and Social Security, so I’m ‘talkin the talk’ but not ‘walkin the walk’…
If government was more efficient, trustworthy, and practical I am sure most people would not care how big or small it is. Does the government serve the people and the nation? We know in our case our government does not serve us at all. They serve the Eye at the top of the Pyramid don’t they?
The Tea Party by the way was put out of existence by the Obama IRS basically. Remember that Tea Party political groups were the only groups basically that were put through Byzantine procedures of getting tax exempt status to the point where most organizations that were going to form did not.
This is a story that was not covered fairly then and now the story pretty much goes untold.
Apparently the only way it’s gonna resolve itself is to fly apart and become rebuilt in some other form. I count on Social Security & Medicare, the same as you, but I don’t feel badly for doing it. I’m also invested in a pension, and by living modestly, I have a pretty good retirement. I don’t go overboard either left or right as far as politics. There are some things I agree with republicans about, like immigration, which pisses off my more liberal friends. Really, the biggest complaint I have, is the way both parties have been taken over by the wealthy, and why anybody supports billionaires like Trump, or crooks like Joe Biden, is beyond me.
It seems to me a contradiction in terms to speak of big government as being “efficient, trustworthy, and practical” but yes IF ONLY the federal government were all these things than size would not be of such concern…
SBS – your reliance on Medicare & Social Security is your right as both a citizen and as a human person. T
he dignity that such programmes afford people who are beyond working age is a hallmark of a civilised society.
You should be thankful that a few ‘bloody commies’ got through to power – in particular, the two Roosevelts.
Platitudes….
Chasten Buttigieg
@Chas10Buttigieg
·
5h
“Happiness can be found in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.”
Chaz can say that to X..i Ji..npin,,,g in Beijing….
Or in other words Pucker, “happiness can be found in the darkest of times by those who understand what happiness exactly is. I do not believe that life should be about seeking or finding happiness, but should be about dealing with what comes your way and how you bear your burden. As Viktor Frankl once said:
“The way in which a man accepts his fate and all the suffering it entails, the way in which he takes up his cross, gives him ample opportunity—even under the most difficult circumstances—to add a deeper meaning to his life. It may remain brave, dignified and unselfish. Or in the bitter fight for self-preservation he may forget his human dignity and become no more than an animal. Here lies the chance for a man either to make use of or to forgo the opportunities of attaining the moral values that a difficult situation may afford him. And this decides whether he is worthy of his sufferings or not.”
What is most important in life is the goal or end we set for ourselves. In this regards it is better to strive earnestly for a lofty goal and fall short then set a mediocre goal and attain it…
But smaller and reasonably attainable goals are more achievable and realistic for many people it would seem. After all, isn’t striving for a lofty goal and falling short missing the goal ultimately? It just seems like a lot is dependent on the individual in this regard and many people are likely not even thinking of the lofty goals.
Well maybe they should be. The fact most people do not set lofty goals for themselves but settle for mediocrity could be a good deal of what’s wrong with this world. Falling short of a lofty goal is not “missing the goal ultimately” for the very fact that we have set a lofty goal, and most importantly, have earnestly striven to attain it, takes us beyond mediocrity into the realm where ‘only angels dare tread’ (to speak poetically)…
Well that means that we have to come into agreement on what is lofty and what is mediocre no? I am certain that most people can reach consensus on some objective lofty and mediocre goals. But don’t you think this is getting into subjectivity territory in many instances?
Why do we have to come to an agreement on these issues SSL? Mediocrity is irrelevant and a lofty goal necessarily reflects one’s personal journey towards the Light, and thus will differ from person to person. One thing however is for certain, lofty goals are always inclusive, always work towards what’s best for the whole and reflect a win/win situation for all…
This discussion reminds me of a story I hard when I was very young.
A slovenly tramp is trudging through an icy suburb one Christmas Eve. He’s attracted to a brightly lit window and wanders over to see what’s what.
He finds a happy family decorating their tree, laughing & eating, singing…the general picture of happiness.
He thinks to himself “All I ever wanted was a dry warm place to sleep and a decent meal occasionally. Perhaps I set my sights too high?”
Chaz may be referring to lighting up a marijuana Joint?
There are now allegations that Cenk Uygur liked to brag to the “The Young Turks” about the number of women that he’s slept with.
Cory Booker:
“ As the current December debate lineup stands, not a single one of the candidates who will appear on stage in a person of color.
This is a shame … The 2020 Democratic field promised one of — if not the — most diverse sets of candidates in modern history, though you wouldn’t see that from looking at the frontrunners.
Our party is better than this. It’s time we show it.”
Perhaps in the future they’ll resort to nominating a coalition instead of a single person? Lots of IDs out there to be represented. And of course they’ll need an approval commission to certify that the choices check all the boxes before going forward…
He’s on record making all kinds of sexist comments about women. In recent years, he has publically apologized for it on his show, and claims to be a different man now.
This is how the gamma male operates.
Aaargh I can’t take it anymore! The insanity of the supposedly woke is killing me. Folks I know think this whole thing is a charade and doesn’t mean squat. They will vote for Trump in huge numbers because there is no sane alternative. The progressive left is courting an epic disaster in Virginia even if they manage to pull off a false flag which is highly likely. I sure miss the grown ups, and I’m one of them! “World made by hand” will be our best outcome but that is very much in question. Good article as usual. God Bless.
Your writing has been simply exquisite these last 2 years Jim. I haven’t been this entertained by you since reading “The Geography of Nowhere” in my ARCH 171 course freshman year circa 2004.
Keep up the good work. I sure would love to hear your thoughts on the state of American cities post-2008 Financial Crisis. There is much to digest, some good some bad, but mostly just bad.
His recent writing resonates because, like TGoN, it is unvarnished truth — which is what matters in life.
Wow what an ego maniac omg! Anytime someone starts off a message or conversation with “If I gave a shit..” its a good idea to get ready to be manipulated (and make sure they see you roll your eyes if at all possible). If you don’t or didn’t give a shit then you wouldn’t have opened your mouth or typed or whatever so why use that expression in the first place? Because. Because you have to be so much above and better that you can’t be bothered to give a shit even though somehow someway your two cents got in and you made your point. Horrendous and triggering one hundred percent! So much for peace. More like presumptuous. Free speech was used very freely in that regard, clearly. And then the Regards. It’s like it doesn’t stop with this one!
As the secessionist trend continues to unfold and the world granulates into a proliferation of ever smaller nation-states based on language, ethnicity, custom, and tradtion, is this to be seen as a good thing or a bad thing?
More like an inevitable thing.
One benefit I see is the smaller the nation state and the more its peoples share things in common — language, tradition, culture — the more likely the government of this nation will serve the needs and interests of those governed. Perhaps one day they might even evove into true ‘intentional communities’, the New Urbanist ideal for a viable society…
As we draw closer to Christmas, the words PEACE, LOVE, and JOY should be seen as worthy of our contemplation. In our mundane world such words seem to mark distant and all-but-unattainable ideals. However on the Higher Spheres these ideals characterize everyday reality, even as one day they shall on this troubled planet as well…
Nice sentiments sunburst, but until Americans denounce war and violence around the globe as a way of fueling our mass consumption, the well wishes shall remain hollow and meaningless. Perhaps some day if those who profess to follow Jesus can become better examples of this anti-war, anti-violence agenda the healing and forgiveness can start. Personally I cannot conceive of this happening because greed, lust, and envy are the cornerstone of of US culture.
Yep. I’ve always thought the whole “Peace on earth, good will toward men” platitude is so blatantly hypocritical this time of year. Peace on earth for whom and good will toward which men?
“Peace on earth for whom and good will toward which men?”
I’ve seen it said that the phrase actually translates as “Peace on earth to men of good will.”
I’m not capable of reading the original Koine to confirm, but you can google it.
Sounds like a much better greeting.
Quite so. And to the rest, may the Saints make war against them.
I used to feel that way as well but practicing meditation and studying a wide range of books on higher consciousness over the years (along with a couple of life-changing ‘spiritual ‘ experiences) has convinced me pessimism and cynicism are not worthy of us, and only serve to hold in place the status quo we all rail against. Personally I find there are too many pessimists and cynics on this site, too many people caught up in appearances who lack the vision of what is possible, and fail to grasp the miraculous nature of the world in which we find ourselves. On the other hand the people who dialogue here seem to have a higher level of intelligence than what passes for the average in our time. So I remain and will continue to salt the conversations here with a bit of “sweetness and light”. I beg your indulgence…
Yeah, quite a few hardcore cynics on this site.
But cynicism is what’s needed now, don’t you think SBS?
I should also say the majority of folks at this site are more reality-based than say for instance a lot of those who post on New Age sites. I suppose it is better to be reality-based, even if we take reality at face value and fail to see its transformational possibilities, then live up in the clouds somewhere…
Brh,
Speaking for myself there is never a time when cynicism is needed. I am too deeply convinced we live on the cusp of a New Age and what we are currently witnessing are the death pangs of the Old Order…
Evil must be defeated but the “cosmic energy” seems to favor Evil. Thus the Good must endure this purification, like gold in the furnace. And then emerge to crush the Evil ones. They will be known as The Last Brigade. It is they and their allies who will usher in the New Age, co-incident with a change in the Cosmos that will make the change possible and worth attempting – and stable once attained.
Until the Stars are Right, good people must try and keep culture alive – including military culture. What is tottering may be pushed after all. Once the Evil triumph, they will turn on each other, all the more so because of the weapon they used against us, their precious racial diversity.
Your New Age idea of absolute pacifism is just more decadence btw. As if Christ didn’t make himself a whip of cords, not discord but eucord, and drive the vermin from the Temple. Positive violence just as eugenics is positive breeding.
All the major world religions have some version of this coming struggle.
It will never happen, because it isn’t so much a cultural issue as an issue of human nature. I tend to take a very Hobbsian perspective (not in the sense that I agree with pursuing his means of structuring a society, but more on how people generally act and think) on humanity. All empires focused on nationbuilding and their populaces had little regard for those they subjugated or exploited.
Power cares about power. Once the US empire ceases to exist, another will come along and be run by the same sorts of sociopaths.
And if the globalists in our current Uniparty have their way, it will all end in centralized government that recognizes no nations, monitors your every move, and has taken great care to ensure thatthere will be nowhere for you to escape to.
So, give me the occasional empire.
I don’t know about you but my every move already is monitored. And actually I do know about you and you are monitored too. Everyone here is. Some more than others. And your choice now, a cardboard box down by the river, is no escape.
Ok. Post my age, hobbies, and childhood home address.
What a literalist butt-head…
Why not the “kindom of heaven on earth”? That’s one empire worth striving for…
Because these ideals seem out of reach at present does not make them “hollow and meaningless” Walter. Even the most storm-tossed sea is tranquil and calm in its lower depths. Similarly, although on the surface human affairs currently appear at odds with such ideals, perhaps beneath this thin veneer of turbulence, deeper within the depths of human consciousness, they are already in play and simply await our recognition and acknowledgement on the level of everyday awareness. It’s a matter of faith to my mind. We can either surrender to the swirling pandemonium of the times or we can choose to look towards the Light Within. As Jesus said ‘the kingdom of heaven is within you…
True sunburst and do not get me wrong for I am not so much a pessimist as a prophet of what is to comes who cries out in the wilderness, “Repent for there is time yet to change your ways!” If you believe the phrase that many shall be called but few will be chosen, well that is exactly what I am after, to reach out to the few. If I can get through to even one then I have done my part, don’t you think? The masses, just as they did in the year 0033 will always take the safer path following the crowd and the easy way out. You cannot serve them, however, if you grow to hate them. Aye, there’s the rub…..
It seems like the reason that peace, love, and joy seem so distant to many/most people is because the world is fallen and imperfect so that there is little peace, love and joy. And when there is peace, love, and joy it is typically just an ephemeral glimpse and not a lasting thing. I know you believe in The Fall so that is why I bring it up. Because of that we are always attempting to reach for those ideals but we are always reaching because they are not natural to this world. The world is naturally chaotic and ever changing, all things die and most living things eat other living things to live so that death must happen for life to happen. So how can there be real love and joy in this existence? Because naturally our world is geared toward strife and struggle. But I agree that we should always attempt to reach for those ideals. Otherwise life would really be just brutal, short, and cringeworthy and we would never overcome any of it.
The answer is very simple. What matters is the journey, not the destination. But you said:
“we should always attempt to reach for those ideals.”
There you go! And doing that should be keeping you so busy you don’t have time for anything else.
Amen to that K-Dog!!
Yes, except real people don’t do that all the time in real life. Sometimes life can be reaction rather than proactiveness. So if the journey is what matters and not the destination then isn’t that a formula for getting off of the path, and potentially the right path? Oh and yes, there is always multi-tasking. A beautiful adaptation that allows us to do more than one thing at a time :-).
Whenever we are reduced to reacting to events we demonstrate a lack of faith that God holds this world in the palm of his hand now and forevermore. For those who love God nothing which transpires on earth should cause undo concern. As Jesus was recorded to have said, ‘though the heavens and earth may pass away my word (as it concerns our eternal salvation) will not’. What more can we ask?
A Journey without a destiny is a pretty sad Journey – or none at all. It was said in a more poetic way: It is better to travel hopefully than to arrive. C.S Lewis corrected that, “If one does not travel hopefully, one will not arrive.” The partial insight is maintained but put into the correct context of Arriving, the Kingdom of Heave (which is not of this Earth), and the Beatific Vision.
Yes, and that makes a lot of sense. In order to get to your destination you have to know how to get there. Of course, some routes are better than others. So CS Lewis’ admonition to travel with hope seems very appropriate because the path is likely to have obstacles and challenges along the way. And that hope is eternal salvation in SBS’ words. Through the travel and the trials that hope remains and guides us through.
IDK, if you end up living on a Nepalese river bank lined with trash and feral pigs, then the destination matters, too.
The ‘fallen’ world may be “naturally chaotic” SSL but need we surrender to the dictates of the fallen world? Would it not be far better for us to look beyond appearances and work towards Higher Ground wherein PEACE, LOVE, and JOY serve not as some distant ideal, but are experienced as the very ground of our being and the foundation of all of our interpersonal relationships? Surely the Angels who are always with us, though currently beyond eyesight and out of earshot, would gladly and wholeheartedly support such a venture on our part…
Sure, I mean I absolutely agree that those things are things we should work toward and strive for in life. But I am just saying that life in a fallen world does a great deal to steal peace, to destroy love, to steal joy. So in striving for the ideal we are also striving to maintain the ground we already have if that makes any sense. That is all I was suggesting. I agree with you otherwise. But in another instance, haven’t you ever felt in your life like those things were very distant? Obviously people are different and walk different paths. At times I have felt that peace, love, and joy were unattainable in the here and now other than simply as an ideal out there and even silly to consider as something that could be really real. I just get very suspicious because in this day and age of social media everybody tries to put out there that their lives are so perfect and filled with all of those good things and its all a farce and a sad one in many cases. So maybe replace peace with compromise/negotiation, love with dedication/loyalty, and joy with contentedness?
“But in another instance, haven’t you ever felt in your life like those things were very distant? ”
At one time I did, and I admit a shadow of anxiety and worry will still occasionally darken my path. However at moments like these, which are increasingly few and far between, I simply reflect on the true nature of Reality and the darkness invariably lifts. I wrote a poem a couple of years ago when I was going through a spiritual crisis of sorts which I would like to share with you:
My journey’s all inside now
No more outward quests.
No more mountains need I climb,
Or windmills need I best.
My journey’s all inside now
I’m on my way back home.
In a world that’s empty and confused
No longer will I roam.
My journey’s all inside now
I hear his voice afar.
His patient love is drawing me
Beyond the silver stars.
That pretty much sums up my philosophy…
Very nice, Sunny. You have a right to your Vision and Quest which take you beyond the Earth. Reread what you yourself just wrote. It’s not what you said above. The Earth is place of struggle and war. Don’t look too close, you lovers of nature. In the seemingly calm lawn, insect hunts insect, etc.
If Good Men would establish a place of relative Peace, Plenty, and Joy, they have to be ready to defend it with force of arms. That was the Old America – and yes, we took it from other peoples. Some evil is inescapable at this level of Existence. We live on others as SSL reminded us.
The pacifist Quakers mocked all law’n order, walking into Puritan meetings naked, etc. Then they depended on commerce (and its brutality), whaling (and its brutality) to become quite prosperous. They were glad when the Crackers arrived (Scots-Irish) to defend and expand the frontier. They loathed them at the same time and couldn’t wait for them to get out of Phillie and into the out back.
The pacifist Amish were and are more honest: they pray for civil authorities, knowing that they would have a very hard living they way they wished without someone protecting them.
In the 60’s it was PLASTICS.
But MIND CONTROL is where it’s at today.
But Putting a Chip in Your Brain Will Not Make You a Superhero
And Elon already is rich. He does not have to be the Mr. Rogers of tech. Meaningful lives are possible without Elon.
Ice storm this morning, deep freeze on the way.
“The world is on fire”
I know, I know, don’t look out the window, idiot, what’s happening in Meta Incognita is what’s important.
Local news story about ‘sea level rise’ at Long Island Sound’. But I spent many days last summer on the Sound and it looks like it always has. The ‘Sea level rise’ purportedly due to sea ice melting at the poles so I decided to check, temp at ‘Polus Antarcticus’: -49°F (and we’re coming up on the summer solstice, temp at ‘Polus Arcticus’: -14°F.
It’s cold at Ice Station Zebra. Nothing is melting there.
Climate change is many things, above all an attempt to get into western pension funds, but also a shakedown of the global north by the global South and their Marxist allies. And locally, a real estate scam, convincing owners of valuable oceanfront property to sell out cheap, ‘before they’re flooded’. Maybe that’s how Obama got his place in Martha’s Vineyard, $15 million, back door 200 ft from the beach.
Brh
did Gore buy seaside, in Florida?
No. Gore has a beachfront manse out by you, Malth, at a place called Monticedo. Ocean on one side, exclusive golf course on the other, bought from the profits of ‘An Inconvenient Truth’.
Gore was in on the ground floor of this global warming scam. Think of it as a sort of ponzi scheme, with Gore at the top. He’s raking in some big swag, even now.
And who knows, maybe he got his Bel Aire summer house at a discount, convincing the former owner he’d better clear out quick before he got flooded out, and he, Al Gore, will take the property off his hands, at a reduced price of course, out of the goodness of his heart.
Brh
Things are really out of control. Look at these people. They panicked about sea level rise. Other people told them to chill out. This is what happened.
Hey K-Dog, I see in Seattle a group of psychiatrists are setting up a practice to treat patients suffering from ‘Climate Change Anxiety’. Its a whole new field if medicine. Kids especially are scared sh#tless because “people are dying”, and “you’ve stolen my future”. Apparently some have actually attempted suicide. It would be funny if it wasn’t so tragic.
Brh
It has to be bullshit. I am the only one here that gives two shits about climate change.
Here it is green and nice so all you need is money. Our economy has been booming for years while the rest of you fools Uber each other around. We have our own unreality. Much of it centered around Go Hawks. None of our unreality has to do with the end of good times. We have a new tunnel. Our waterfront traffic is gone. Our microbreweries are uncountable. People are so content here they stopped having sex. A dozen people still read. We have a $15 an hour minimum wage so our economy works. All we need is cheaper housing and some fucking excitement.
So you are making that shit up. It is don’t worry be happy around here. Have some coffee, ours is the best and I’m not talking about the green butthole.
I didn’t make that up K-Dog. I did read an article about climate anxiety counselors in Seattle.
Never having been to Seattle, I think of it indeed similar to the fictional ‘Portlandia’ from the TV show. I guess I was off the mark.
Brh
” All we need is cheaper housing and some fucking excitement…”
Dog,
An interesting rant. I would suggest that if you want excitement, and cheaper housing, move into a neighborhood with section 8 housing…move next door to one….
Oprah is in Montecito—where the really rich go to avoid Santa Barbara. And Ellen is there, if I recall.
David Crosby may be nearby, but not in Montecito.
Well, Gore will fit right in with that crowd.
A friend was hired to photograph his cabinets, for the woodworkers website, if I recall.
Dave lives out in the country up there.
brh
This is how it happens:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hC3VTgIPoGU&list=RDQMJgq5hQmOwEg&index=2
Put a bit more effort into your monitoring, like the reformed climate sceptic in this short clip – it’s only 7 minutes or so; sea level won’t rise that much while you watch it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_76ljY_NbS0&list=RDQMJgq5hQmOwEg&start_radio=1
Note it says the US is the last advanced nation on earth still impervious to the science (must be the frontiersman spirit – or maybe it’s just that Exxon disinformation money being focused where it had the best chance of success).
I guess this guy must be risking his life to get at your pension. That’s determination, I grant you.
I’m trying to figure out what caused that 2 mile thick ice sheet that covered the British Isles during the last Ice Age, and why did it melt off.
And could it come back?
If I were you that’s what I’d be worried about, Green Alba. That was 12,500 years ago, not long by historical standards. You are due, and ice could be creeping down from Polus Arcticus as I type this.
Brh
Elizabethan explorer Martin Frobisher began looking for a northwest passage thru the arctic into Asia in the 1550s. Henry Hudson followed in the early 1600s; both failed, Hudson marooned by his own crew in the bay that now bears his name. But I believe it was the Spanish who found a way thru the ice in the mid 19th century.
Point is that ice in the Arctic comes and goes. Who ever said it was stable? The 7 known ice ages in the past 650,000 years kind of proves that.
Brh
BRH:
“… ice could be creeping down from Polus Arcticus as I type this.”
“could be” saves you from embarrassment there, BRH, because it isn’t and is unlikely to unless the Gulf Stream is finally compromised by al the freshwater pouring into the North Atlantic from beneath the Greenland Ice Sheet
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzCvY0ENrhk
So, you may indeed get your Ice Age, Marlin, but it’ll be due to Global Warming anyway. Go figure.
‘The Icemsn Cometh’, my dear Majella.
Well. Alba, perhaps you should contact the Magic Negro and his “wife” and tell them that buying beach front property on Cape Cod is a dumb idea
Hahahahaha.
Do as I say not as I do …
It really is nothing more then a chance at another another Ponzi scheme.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/larrybell/2013/11/03/blood-and-gore-making-a-killing-on-anti-carbon-investment-hype/#3ff5f9d032dc
Gore has a plan to capitalize on ‘Carbon Emmissions’? Why am I not surprised this acolyte of Armen Hammer would be involved in such a scheme?
What we need is a fund set up to invest in Bullsh#t Emmissions. We could all get rich.
Brh
“What we need is a fund set up to invest in Bullsh#t Emmissions. We could all get rich.”
JHK would have a healthy ‘book’ to start the fund with!
Watching the rules committee this Am and I had a thought.
We are in a Catch-22 with the whole Dem GOP contest in the Congress.
If you buy into the Democratic argument that Trump is a patsy for Ukraine/Russia. What is the source for this argument? The US intelligence community! The FBI especially. Hmmm. What was the intelligence agencies number one calling in 2016. They were fired off by Obama, bu Comeys and Clappers admission to get the Trump Campaign and this is currently being investigated by the current DOJ. If the Barr/Durham investigation comes up with the Clinton/Obama connection that has been indicated, the entire Democratic argument, like their advocates turns to a big pile of BS.
What is happening now makes sense. The Dems need to get rid of Trump fast now as these investigations are looming to destroy their whole offensive against Trump and preserve the Deep State. They are trying to put pressure on the GOP in the Senate to dump Trump. When that fails, they are already talking about impeachment in 2021. They are also already challenging the goodness of the 2020 election because Trump will cheat. Insanity on both counts.
Things will definitely change when the exposure of the intelligence community comes to light. When the DOJ cleans out that Liberal rats nest this ability to roast a political opponent using the political power of the DOJ will be abated.
The other thing is the removal of the moderate Dems because they are not representing their constituents who see through this debacle. A Trump victory and the House inverted will stop the destruction of the USA, for the time being.
Some people say God is dead. I say the USA is dead. And nothing can bring it back to life now. The real signs of this will be undeniable very very soon.
USA’s been dead for awhile now. We’re all just now beginning to pick up the pungent aroma. It takes a little bit for all the little microbes to do their work. Might want to stand back a bit. The corpse can actually blow if the pressure builds up too much. Not a pretty sight at all.
That sounds like something Tony Todd’s character William Bludworth, the Coroner, from the Final Destination movies would say. It’s all so sad! So will there be a burial or cremation? If burial, then surely it will be environmentally friendly right?
JohnAZ
Yes, this distrust of the ‘intelligence community’ is more than a little perplexing. I assume this is the same ‘intelligence community’ that advised Himself et al that Huawei is a huge threat?
So, it seems they lie about SOME things but not others? How to tell the difference? In my experience, if you are lied to ONCE by another party then ALL that other party has to tell you lacks credibility (without independent corroboration).
And what’s more – after 2016, the GOP held both houses & the WH. They managed to get nothing of useful substance done in that time, apart from two RW Justices and an obscene tax break for the rich, the extremely rich, the ultra-rich & the uber-rich.
You are right. The fact that the RINOs joined their other Deep State brothers to stop almost everything he tried to do shows the loss of control by voters. The Deep State is locked into a death match with the Populists over who controls the country, the voters or the Deep State. You and I have obviously different opinions on who should be in control.
“The fact that the RINOs joined their other Deep State brothers to stop almost everything he tried to do shows the loss of control by voters.”
Sorry, JohnAZ – did I miss something? Was there a bunch of House Resolutions, being defeated by GOPers crossing the floor? What did House Speaker Ryan do about that? & The Whips? Nothing?
No, rather I think the GOP just didn’t have a strong agenda to implement because it had barely any actual policies.
Huawei is a threat! Let the 5g processing be the core of the national security network in the US and any back doors to be used by hackers are built in, really smart. Assuming they allow in Chinese to our nets, who is going to control access to our secrets.
Everyone in the DC arena lies, everyone. They do it to survive. I am not sure that the intelligence community has much use any more except to be hirelings for whoever wields power in the WH or brings the big bucks. Almost every major crime or killing or explosion had warning signs that were ignored by the intelligence group. What is the point.
Right – but my point is the selective belief of intelligence community statements – ‘this one gels with my fears, so its TRUE…this one contradicts my narrative, so it’s FALSE!”
How many ways can you keep your cake in a tin while eating it too?
That is where evidence comes in handy.
And this is why you and your fellow jellyfish are being squelched.
That’s really contradictory.
Do you mean that sometimes the ‘intelligence community’ DOESN’T lie, Oberstaatsanwalt?
Surely, given your stated ‘One World Government Plot’ pet conspiracy theory, it would be more likely that the ‘intelligence community’ would be in the pay of the Chinese and be working to FACILITATE its birth?
You really are an empty vessel, aren’t you? Lots of squeaks & bangs and throwaway insults…but not much else, aside from the steaming pile of arrogance on top of which you’ve managed to perch yourself.
“Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.”
JohnAZ,
“A Trump victory and the House inverted will stop the destruction of the USA, for the time being.”
No, it wouldn’t. You fail to see the corrosive social division and the wanton destruction already being wrought by Himself & his administration of appointed secretaries, all hell-bent on the dismantling the administrative state, aka the public service.
Aka, the Deep State, the most corrupt form of government the US has had to put up with. The Federal government is supposed to serve the public, not itself. And definitely, it is not the role of the people to serve the government.
Corrosive social division. Ha!
You are talking the no. 1 Democratic lie. Trump’s improving the economy has allowed all factions of our population to get ahead in the last two years.
Instead of listening to Obama say that there will be no growth in manufacturing any more, we have a guy who is pushing growth every way he can.
You call him a bigot, another Dem lie. His job is to represent everyone one, not just Blacks, or Browns or Muslims, everybody even Whites as they are the majority. The Dems think they can buy the votes needed to win by sucking up to all the minority groups, it is probably not going to work in 2020.
Here is a good question. If the Dem lies bear political fruit and Trump is convicted, her comes Pence. What are the Dems going to do with him? Impeach him too with the same made up bunch of BS.The Dems will fondly remember Trump if Pence becomes President. Nancy Pelosi will never be President through political manipulation. If she does, forget the people’s vote, it does not count any more. 1984 is approaching if that happens.
JohnAZ, sorry but that rant is starting to head into ‘unhinged’ territory, much like Himself’s letter to Pelosi.
I’ll give Himself this much – he’s running a very effective campaign – lifted straight from Bannon’s playbook, which is from Himmler’s own playbook- of constantly banging on and fecking on, as relentless as gravity, with the same old ‘greatest hits’.
If he’d take some ADVICE about how to frame his story coherently, he’d possibly start to get some traction outside his base of deluded individuals (present company {you} excepted).
Pence might be a total c**t, in fact, but at least we’ll be spared the constant daily withering and mood-swings of an unhinged fecking idiot.
India has problems too. PM Modi seems to be trying to create a Hindu ethno-state, excluding especially Muslims. The problem is in India there are 200 million Muslims, no small minority. It’s odd, Muslims are dishing it out in NAmerica, WEurope, Central Asia and the Middle East, but are getting hammered pretty hard by Hindus in India, Buddhists in Burma, and Communists in China. Much disorder in the world right now, domestic turmoil contained within national borders for the most part, (including in the US) but it could expand, for example, Pakistan taking umbrage at their co religionists being oppressed in India.
Brh
Mussies have destroyed countless hindu temples in India, Pakistan etc.
Muslims have destroyed countless treasures and antiquities in every region of the world where they predominate. Remember when the Taliban blew up the ancient Buddhist statues in Afghanistan or how ISIS destoyed so many Assyrian artifacts in Ninevah? They believe all depictions of the human face in art to be sinful so they will intentionally destroy paintings, etc., sometimes literally just removing faces so that all people depicted are faceless.
That must make Islam the religion of piece(s)
Yes exactly. Or if I may, the religion of piece(s) with no peace.
at JBs channel I found this and thought of you,
Here is Austin Texas they built a light rail system.
They charge about $2.00 to ride.
It cost the city $17 dollars per rider to break even.
And the City wants to build even more.
The financial logic does not ever occur to the politicians. Hundreds of millions dollars down the drain.
Jim should stick with his incisive critiques of our built environment and peak oil economy. This post is lame, uninspired drivel. Very disappointing to see Jim go full conspiracy theory Trump/GOP angry white guy.
From Townhall:
During an interview on CNN on Monday night, House Financial Services Committee Chairwoman Maxine Waters (D-CA) pushed a conspiracy theory that President Donald Trump colluded with Russia to win the 2016 election. She admitted that she doesn’t have evidence to support the claim.
Her entire conspiracy theory centers around the idea that Vladimir Putin helped get President Trump elected because he would remove the sanctions placed on Russia.
“Because I believe, even though I don’t have the facts to prove it, I believe that Putin wanted to lift the sanctions. He’s always wanted to lift the sanctions that were placed on him because of his interfering and encouraging into Crimea. So I believe that they wanted to elect President Trump and Trump, I believe agreed. I will always believe this, that he agreed if he got elected that he would lift those sanctions,” Water explained. “He would like to do it. He’s not been able to do it, but when they talk about we’re just making things up, and he talks about this as a witch hunt, there are too many facts.”
I guess she never read the Mueller Report…
Better question: exactly where would this imaginary mesmerizing hypnotic influence of Vladimir Putin – US public villain #1 by most media accounts – come from to so influence said election. Forget all the so-called “facts” of this totally laughable affair, which are totally ridiculous and oh so easily disproved as well; the entire accusation itself is so laughably ridiculous on the face of it that it’s entirely likely to my mind at least that this was all just another CIA psyop to demonstrate and take relish in how fucking utterly gullible at least 50% of the American public is on any particular subject. This really isn’t a D or R thing, it’s a stupid ‘Murican imbeciles thing. And a lawyers getting rich thing too, of course, but that goes without saying.
But it feelz right …
Hi Alba,
“If you can get a trained climate scientist who is against the consensus,”
I have seen several. Usually retired. You have to have protection to come out as a skeptic. Even tenure is rarely enough. And this is something you should ponder. It is mostly human nature, I suppose. People don’t like dissensus. But when there is large amounts of money involved, it gets ugly.
“People believe the narrative because they want to. “
Again, such arrogance, without a grain of evidence.”
Not a grain? I have pondered this problem intensively. Most people do not examine their belief systems. Period. And when you try, ever so gently, to encourage them, the response is anger. I may be wrong in your case, but it is hardly arrogance.
” By proper, of course you mean one who is in agreement with the only allowable opinion – CO2 causes global warming.
Please don’t be like Janos and tell me what I mean ‘of course’.. I know what I mean.”
Fair enough, but you are nonetheless mostly relying on particular credentials to take anyone seriously. To Sean, you said, “His degrees are in physics and astrophysics, nothing to do with meteorology or climate science.”
If degrees in physics and astrophysics are not enough for a person to be able to independently get a grasp on climate data, how then can the average person even come close? Sometimes, indeed, being in a slightly different field gives the needed perspective. For example, some of Michael Mann’s problems stem from lack of enough understanding of statistics. And that problem with statistics bedevils other disciplines, such as medicine. And who was the guy who came up with plate tectonics? They said he had the wrong degree.
“But you carry on imagining you know why people accept the consensus, if it pleases you.”
It is a general observation that applies to all belief systems. What is your explanation for it?
“BTW, it was demonstrated in the 1890s by Svante Arrhenius that CO2 causes an increase in atmospheric temperature.”
What an incredible time that was. So much new knowledge. And yet, it was preliminary. The details were far greater than anyone could have possibly imagined. (Cell biology.) I don’t know what his demo consisted of, but it wasn’t in the actual atmosphere.
“I should have tried that one with my surgeon, but bizarrely…I didn’t.”
Good one! A point for you. Now, there is no way outside serious illegal conduct for anyone to have access to a surgical suite without the requisite qualifications. But suppose an intelligent and sincere person was apprenticed under a good surgeon and never went to school? Suppose he was excellent? Is that not possible? Do you know not that long ago that is exactly how most doctors were trained? Does it really matter if you sat in a classroom while certain knowledge is attained, or were apprenticed, or even took it upon yourself to study independently? But the more interesting corollary question is: If you did sit in that classroom, is that a guarantee that you learned it? Is it a guarantee that you are not a prostitute? Is it a guarantee of integrity? Is it a guarantee that with said degree you automatically know more than the person with 20 higher IQ points and who has a personal passion for the subject cannot possibly make headway unless he heard it from a professor?
“‘scientist’ not ‘science’ in line 5 above, obviously.”
My brain is wired such that when I read a typo like that my brain puts it the right way round. I read it as intended, not as written.
HUH?
Sean,
” In time it will be as rare to find a sceptic in their ranks as it would have been to find a Communist in the Politburo.”
That was funny!
Yes, another clue that global warming is a scam is that such bullying tactics are required. And the rubes are given their little talking points, such as the 97% consensus. Scientifically, it’s nonsense and irrelevant, but it also isn’t even close to being true. But people stay in their information bubbles.
Michael Mann, from what I understand, is a real piece of work.
No, the debates I have seen have been in private conferences on YT. They would no more have a real debate on TV than they would on 9-11 or a number of other taboo subjects.
Telly? Are you British?
The IPCC stuff is not impeccable at all. Several of the scientists involved have complained and some are on the S list as deniers. After the scientists put in their data, the nonscientists go through it and make changes as they see fit.
An imaginary yet truthful dialogue between two spirits, Janos and Alba.
Alba: I have three apples, three pears, and three oranges.
Janos: In other words, you have nine pieces of fruit.
Alba: That’s not what I said.
Janos: I know. That what I’m saying, that they equal nine objects, in this case, fruit.
Alba: Why are you putting words in my mouth?
Janos: I’m trying to talk to you. What did I say that’s so wrong?
Alba: How does conceptualizing the objects help move the dialogue forward? Each of them is unique.
Janos: Do you admit there are nine objects? And that they are all fruit?
Alba: There you go again.
Janos: By generalizing or conceptualizing, the objects can be known better, as part of a class with certain characteristics. I don’t deny their individual differences of size, weight, color, and taste both between the different kinds of fruit or even between the different ones of the same kind.
Alba: This is just more of your “whataboutism”, your masculine need to control the universe with concepts.
Janos: What’s wrong with that? You like hot water, right?
Alba: What’s that got to do with fruit?
Janos: So now you admit it’s fruit at least?
Alba: I don’t admit anything of the kind.
I think you two would make a fine old married couple.
old indeed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4IQjUpTNVU
Alba, das Ei ist hart!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcwAuS3MVmM
Janos,
An artful capsulation….
That was funny.
What a deafening silence from Alba.
What a typical dumb response from the monkey, running in as usual to defend the organ grinder (have you no dignity?), and imagines that in the run-up to Christmas Alba would have nothing better to do than read dumb comments from Janos.
Janos: So, in other words, you support ‘x’
Alba: No. You made that up. I’ve told you multiple times that I don’t support ‘x’. Why did you make that up?
Janos: Because the Truth is more important than that truth. I Am Janos. The truth must bend to My Truth and serve its ends.
Alba: Not starting with the truth makes a travesty of communication.
Janos: Bah, humbug. Why do you insist on your need to control the universe with concepts when I only want to use them if they fit My Narrative?
Alba: I’m a simple soul, but I think clarity and accuracy are necessary for productive communication. Unless you’re Goebbels.
Janos: Bah, humbug. I Am Janos. If SSL worships the ground I walk on, why can’t you, missy? Without insisting on pesky concepts like the truth.
Alba: Bufonid
Janos: Pfft… Woman.
And now I have Christmas cards to write, after which I have some other comments to respond to. Some activities are more important than others. I’m sorry you have nothing better to do.
*imagining*
Janos and you do a lot of that.
LOL OMG!!! Merry Christmas to you as well Alba! I didn’t realize you were so busy with your Christmas preparations and am so sorry to disturb you. I would offer to come help you if I was closer. I planned so awesomely and so proactively this year that I find that I do have extra moments here and there just to do the little things I enjoy doing. Sorry you have been so stressed and hope all gets better for you. You know, I simply thought it was a cute little share. I simply noticed you hadn’t posted any response, that was all, though I saw you commenting elsewhere. Oh well lol, Merry Christmas to you and yours. 🙂
Why thank you, SSL. I’m mostly having a major pre-Christmas clearout, which is a regular thing in small flats. Why did they promise us a paperless society? I’ve never seen so much crap come through the letterbox, just to be added to a pile for recycling without even being looked at. Anything you order online involves you being added, without so much as a by your leave, to someone’s physical mailing list, and to the mailing list of whoever else they share it with. I want to scream.
Anyway, rant over. Thanks again for the good wishes. Obviously I hope you have a lovely Christmas with your family. Banter is banter. Even intense banter is still banter, to some extent.
And now I’m over mellow because bidding farewell to my last colleagues involved three rather large glasses of wine. All I want to do is go to bed. 🙂
I know there are conversations I should be looking at. Do I have the energy? Don’t know… I didn’t even get the Christmas cards finished.
Yeah I totally agree. And this year I am really weary of getting so many emails too. Just glance at something not even with the intention of buying and the next thing you know there are already four or five emails in your inbox filled with sales and special offers. And unsubscribing multiple times apparently isn’t working. Thank you for the good wishes and enjoy being mellow! Receiving a late card or gift isn’t a bad thing. I always hate that Christmas comes and goes so fast so why not spread out the celebration a little :-).
What do you think of Oligarchs who champion Democracy? America has a lot of Oligarchs now who run for political office. They’re all insane… There other day there was an interview of Hillary by the weirdo Howard Stern who is a Jeffrey Epstein-type character. Those 2 together are worth over a Billion Dollars. It’s insane….
“In an affidavit, submitted in September in an unconnected extradition case involving oligarch Dmytro Firtash, the former prosecutor said he had been dismissed because he refused to heed the advice of then-President Petro Poroshenko to drop an investigation. “
I think that oligarchs are wily/clever/smart enough to recognize democracy’s well known propensity for exploitation, which should be hardly surprising, as those same skills were how they became oligarchs in the first place. Granted, we’re not an true democracy in the strictest sense of the word in the first place, but the concept still applies. Modern mass media and total government capture makes their job so much easier that they’d hardly be worthy of the title oligarch if they didn’t exploit it to the fullest.
Agreed….
As Jules would say: “Check out the Big Brain on Brad! That’s right. You’re one Smart Muthafucka!”
Listen to Trump telling Pelosi that the Dems are destroying Democracy. Then listen to the Dems telling everyone that the Trumpsters are destroying Democracy.
Huh!?
What is this thing called Democracy that everyone is destroying? If it is the control of the government by the voters then Trump is right. The Dems want nothing more than to remove the vote as the people’s control. They want control of everything, after all they are the foundation of the Deep State who is much smarter than the rest of us.
If Democracy is control of the majority by the minority, then the Dems are right but to get to this dictatorship of a socialistic government is required. Thus Democratic Socialism. Exactly the opposite of what the US has been for 200 plus years.
What do the people want? We shall see. Just remember if you prize your liberty to make your own choices, Socialism is not your friend. If you do not care and just want someone else to take care of you, there are 2020 candidates that will fill your bill.
JohnAZ:
“What do the people want? We shall see. Just remember if you prize your liberty to make your own choices, Socialism is not your friend. If you do not care and just want someone else to take care of you, there are 2020 candidates that will fill your bill.”
The idea that ‘socialism’ is only wanted by people who ‘just want someone else to take care of’ them is a gross generalisation and really should be beneath you. The current corporate welfare that ‘takes care of’ the already wealthy doesn’t seem to appear on you radar, though.
I asked in an earlier thread, can you please articulate just what you mean by the word ‘socialism’ because I suspect YOUR definition differs greatly from mine (or Bernie’s, for example), but there cannot be a useful discussion without a clarity of context. I believe I’ve articulated mine – would you please do the same, possibly most effectively by pointing out what you DON’T believe about the SD model I’ve illustrated (time & again).
JohnAZ
Is THIS the sort of ‘socialism’ you’d want to see the US Government get rid of?
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/trump-moves-to-strip-hundreds-of-thousands-of-social-security-benefits/
This does not get rid of anything, nice try.
When someone qualifies for temporary disability, your article states that the Trump idea is that their case be reviewed periodically to stay qualified. So? You obviously believe that once someone is qualified that that is it, they have it for a lifetime. Typical.
No. You’re deliberately misinterpreting.
I’ve worked in private personal insurance, and know fully how temporary disability is assessed, and the process of ensuring the contract terms are met – by the insurer AND the claimant.
This new classification is designed ENTIRELY to create a way to kick people off disability for purely financial reasons. I’m aware of how vulnerable SS & state disability programmers are to fraud, but that’s due to the management being grossly underr-resourced.
But at least you’d HOPE that someone suffering from multiple sclerosis (for example). Which is both progressive and incurable, shouldn’t have to submit to needless ‘qualifying’ tests.
I keep hearing about due process and how it is not being respected by the Democrats.
Due process took a back seat long ago. How many Executive actions has Trump dumped on this country when due process would not produce what he wanted. How many times did courts back slap him on these high handed EO’s.
And he starts tweeting how unfairly the world is treating him and how nasty everybody is.
He claims he is doing the job the American people elected him to do, but does he understand that the American people did not elect him. He actu lly lost by 3 million votes. He is not now, nor has ever been the peoples choice.
there is no mandate to build a wall or leave NATO or rip up the Paris Climate Deal or the NAFTA Treaty or the Iran Deal or to cut taxes for the super rich or to cut food stamps or welfare, to gut Social Security and Medicare or to end Obama Care. He has no respect for due process or the will of the people. The will of the people was for him not to be President in the first place.
What put him in office is an electoral college perverted by two major parties that control every vote drowning out everybody else and both against any sensible reform that would make the peoples voice heard, like Ranked Choice Voting and Automatic Voter Registration
What do you think of the following as a potential campaign slogan for a serious Democratic candidate running for Congress in California?:
“It’s not cheating on your wife if you just get a hand job.”
A Republican lady should run an opposing campaign with the slogan “It’s time to put him out on the couch for being a worm.” 🙂
““It’s not cheating on your wife if you just get a hand job.””
Puck,
Nor is it gay if the hand is attached to a guy.
“Yes, Virginia….there is a Deep State.”
Noam Chomsky looks like Santa Claus.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EpXJvWSa4FQ
What is a “Jeffrey Epstein Christmas”?
Jeffrey Epstein hangs himself as a prison Christmas ornament.
hanukkah
Apparently, Cher was not really a Native American.
What a Rip Off!
I feel a bit cheated. I hate it when manipulative people, like Beto, try to exploit my empathy.
What was the point of all of Cher’s lamentations about being discriminated against as a “Half Breed” like Billy Jack?
Puck,
Word on the street is that Cher is soon to marry an active Hell’s Angel member 25 years her junior.
Merry Christmas and Happy Harmonica!
” Harmonica”
Puck,
I’ve heard the harmonica described as an African American lip whistle….(paraphrased)
So much for the “Peace Dividend”:
” In 2019, Pentagon spending is actually higher than it was at the peak of either the Korean or Vietnam conflicts and may soon be — adjusted for inflation — twice the Cold War average.”
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-moment-the-military-industrial-complex-became-uncontrollable/
“Peace Dividend”…. So if you invest in listed arms manufacturers over a very long period and then suddenly there’s no more war then the value of your investments goes to zero, and they pay you off in worthless “Peace” script?
No one is going to invest in Peace….
Brilliant!
Here is the conundrum of the Deep State. The MIC dominates the scene, no argument, the facts are there. Now we are going to militarize space.
However, in a search for the guilty parties, who is it that continues to push the adversarial relationships internationally. Certainly not Trump, as he is a Russian agent, according to the crazy Left. The Dems and RINO conglomerate are the pushers of the MIC viewpoint. The Deep State.
And why not? They are the ones that want bigger government, more jobs and influence in Washington DC. Trump does agree with the arming of the Republic but note that the biggest outcry happens when he mentions leaving Syria or Afghanistan.
It is a real good definition of exactly where hearts lie on the Potomac. If impeachment were to be successful, we will see a huge increase in the power of the MIC and the Deep State. Take your pick!
You people thought you could take Burma once you got a Muslim foot in the door. I mean the problems caused by a tiny Muslim majority can only be solved by bringing in more Muslims, right? I mean that’s what America did after 9/11, right? Proof of America’s insanity, an insanity that Asia does not share. Problems are best solved when small, just like tumors. Excision is best if practical. It was and is and is being accomplished. Burma or Myanmar chose life. All glory to Daw Suu!
That post is proof of YOUR insanity…and your willful disregard for the courtesy of self-correcting your typos – unless ‘tiny majority’ is a new plank in your rotten platform?
Be sure to send Ted Kaczynski in his Colorado “Super Max” prison a Christmas card wishing him a Merry Societal Collapse and a Happy End of Industrial Civilization. Thank you.
Jeffrey Epstein’s prison cell had really bad Feng Shui.
funny..or good vastu [hindu feng].
There’s no Christmas issue of “Playboy” magazine this year, right?
Didn’t they send a Christmas issue of “Playboy” magazine in the Yoyager spacecraft?
A thousand years from now, aliens from outer space dressed in Santa Claus outfits will come to Earth looking for white women with massive Tits.
And they’ll probably be out of luck, with Whites gone extinct.
Does Playboy still even exist? It’s pointless now, perhaps just focusing on fashion. What could be more obscene than that?
Centerfolds who are sex dolls.
Here is one you might like. Click Here
Neat trick with the link, K-Dog.
chicks w dicks.
Yes, good thing playboy is gone then!
Is it true that if you put Grandma in an “Assisted Living Facility” with good Feng Shui that it’s less likely that she’ll be sexually assaulted by the male Nigerian nurse with the lazy eye named “Mr. Kabinga”?
Cenk Uygur looks like Joey Buttafuco.
People are so dishonest now that it’s probably just a matter of time before they do a #MeToo “He Raped Me” hit on Cenk?
Cenk looks like a date rapist. No one will believe him….
Does Vice Premier Wang Qishan look like a date rapist, like Cenk Uygur?
I’m Cenk Uygur, an obese moslem from Turkey who demands that white people surrender their countries to my kebab race.
Put me in congress and I will guarantee that white genocide will happen in my lifetime and the black flag of ISIS flies gloriously over the White House. Allahu Akbar!
For Boris Johnson:
The only Man I ever knew,
Who did make me almost spew,
Was Fuseli, both Turk and Jew.
So my dear Christian friends,
Who do you do?
William Blake
He of the Wild Hair and strange lineage is England’s Trump. The last dim hope of the real English people. He will betray them of course, but he served them despite himself.
I’m starting to think that Trump has done just enough damage to the status quo that he is actually beginning to make up for some of the damage of his betrayal of us. Did you see video from Adam Schiff’s townhall meeting on youtube yet? I think it was on Monday night. But wow! He had several constituents calling him a liar and traitor to his face and they said they wanted him to go to jail. I think he (Trump) has pushed the Elite into overplaying their hand. With each passing day his opposition seems far more dangerous than him despite his betrayals. Hopefully his dispossession of these Elites will help us lay the foundations of a reborn America if anything. My hopes are ditto for England.
Could Trump ever be like Liam in this movie?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVEGs6_m2C0
The demons Trump is fighting are vicious, but not quite this vicious. Still, he has survived a tough fight and continues to attack.
Could he build a wall with Mexican dead?
“For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack.” Kipling
The Dems are a Pack and there’s not a real Wolf among them, yet they have strength. The strength of the sly and the specious, the strength of seditious Svengalis.
They have no strength other than the fact that the globalist wing owns the media.
The only reason baseless accusations and wild conspiracies continue to get pushed is becasue the media works hand-in-glove with the criminals in the government, and there are virtually no laws in place by which the public could hold them accountable for spreading false information.
It is amazing to me the lack of respect in DC. Slander laws do not exist in the Swamp, it would be wonderful if the aholes had to pay for what they say. Same rules as we live by, you bad mouth someone, you better be able to prove what you say or you are going to be litigated.
What a sweet change it would be if The Deep State was required to tell the truth. The Media would die. Think about that, if the Media was required to produce three reliable sources to run a story, like it was with Nixon, what a huge change that would be.
One interesting side of Trump. Everyone has clobbered him for being divisive in DC. Agreed, but what he has actually done is expose the hypocrisy and tyranny that has developed in that place over the Liberalization uniparty movement of the past thirty years.
Watch out Dems, the backlash from the malleable independents is coming. Trump now leads all Dem candidates and more people do not want him impeached than do. USA Today poll.
The lack of respect…
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=AOfoejs__BE
Sorry – wrong one, but that’s a beauty, too.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FXVio69TrI4
Wow I need to see this movie. What an amazing scene. It is amazing he has made it as far as he has given all of the circumstances. I know I have a habit of hoping against hope but until the last minute I will hope and pray that he becomes like Liam. If he does the Dem pack will probably not make it since they don’t have a real Wolf.
Alas, he is the biggest cuck imaginable, completely in favor of mass, replacement levels of 3rd World immigration. He even publicly apologized for hating Blacks after a close female friend of his got attacked by one.
The Canadian Je…w, Captain Kirk was a Date Rapist, but Spock covered for him in reports to Star Fleet. Other Je…ws also had Kirk’s back because of that commandment in the Talmud that prevents J…ews from ratting on other Je…ws, even J…ews that have screwed over other J…ews, like Soros during the Holocaust.
Will the Epidemic of Successionism Never End?
Pat Buchanan, amren.com
Fresh from his triumphal “Get Brexit Done!” campaign, Prime Minister Boris Johnson anticipates a swift secession from the European Union.
But if Britain secedes from the EU, warns Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland will secede from the United Kingdom.
Northern Ireland, which voted in 2016 to remain in the EU, could follow Scotland out of Britain, leaving her with “Little England” and Wales.
Not going to happen, says Boris. His government will not allow a second referendum on Scottish independence.
Yet the Scottish National Party won 48 of Scotland’s 59 seats in Parliament, and Sturgeon calls this a mandate for a new vote to secede:
“If (Boris) thinks … saying no is the end of the matter then he is going to find himself completely and utterly wrong. … You cannot hold Scotland in the union against its will.”
She has a point. If a majority of Scots wish to secede, how does a democratic Great Britain indefinitely deny them the right of self-determination?
Is Scotland fated to become for Britain what Catalonia is to Spain?
Where does this phenomenon, this continuing unraveling of old and proliferation of new nations, this epidemic of secessionism, end?
The most recent population explosion of new nations began three decades ago, when 15 republics of the USSR became independent nations. Soon, several of the 15 began to unravel further.
Transnistria seceded from Moldova. South Ossetia and Abkhazia seceded from Georgia. Chechnya sought to break free of Russia, only to be crushed. Since 2015, the Donbass has sought to secede from Ukraine.
When Josip Tito’s Yugoslavia collapsed, six “nations” seceded from Belgrade.
When did secessionism begin? The Americans started it all.
The first great secessionist cause was the Revolution, when the 13 American colonies declared and won independence from the British crown.
It is solemnly declared today that our Revolution was about ideas, such as the equality of all men. But the author of the Declaration did not believe in equality.
Jefferson was a Virginia plantation owner, some of whose slaves were with him in Philadelphia. He described Native Americans in the Declaration as “merciless Indian Savages.” The British are fraternally called “brethren” with whom we share “ties of a common kindred,” but who have been “deaf to the voice of consanguinity.”
I.e, our cousins have been deaf to the call of our common blood.
John Jay, in Federalist 2, before the Constitution was even ratified, spoke of the elements that formed the nation — “one connected country to one united people … descended from the same ancestors, speaking the same language, professing the same religion … similar in their manners and customs.”
A second secessionist movement, six decades later, created a second American nation. Texans under Sam Houston rose up and ripped that vast province away from its young mother country, Mexico.
The third secessionist movement united 11 states that sought to create a new confederated nation outside the Union, as the revolutionary generation had created a new nation outside of Britain.
In the 19th century, a dozen new nations were created by Latin American secessionists of the Spanish and Portuguese empires who emulated the example of the Americans of 1776.
After 1945, colonies of the British, French, Portuguese and Belgian empires seceded to produce a baby boom of new nations whose most common characteristic seems to be that all receive foreign aid and all have seats in the U.N. General Assembly.
If the secessionism epidemic is to someday expire, then its causes will have to be addressed. And what are they?
Secessionism appears rooted principally in issues of national identity — ethnicity, religion, race, language, culture and “the mystic chords of memory” — most of which Jay identified as both uniting Americans and separating us from our British “brethren.”
Yet these issues of identity appear not to be receding but rising in the Caucasus, Middle East, Africa and South Asia.
The Kurds, the Palestinians, the Baluch and many more seek their own nations. Taiwan’s secession is not recognized by China. The secession of Russian-speaking Donbass is not recognized by a U.S.-armed Ukraine, or by us.
As more and more people identify themselves by who they are, and are not, secessions of people from each other will continue.
These are not inconsequential matters. In 1939, the question of whether 300,000 Germans in a Polish-controlled city, Danzig, should be restored to German rule led to the worst war in the history of the world.
The peace of mankind in the 21st century may well depend upon our ability to accommodate this inexorable secessionist drive to some degree.
In June 1945, the U.N. had 50 members. It begins 2020 with 193.
Last week, Bougainville, a South Pacific island cluster of Papua New Guinea, voted 98%, in a nonbinding referendum for independence, to become the world’s newest nation. Papua New Guinea won its own independence from Australia when Gerald Ford was president.
And the beat goes on.
JS: “Deaf to the voice of consanguinity” – does not that explain our Elite to the T? Esta la Vida. The Blood is the Life! They are walking dead men, deaf to “mystic chords of memory” and the the call of the Blood and the love of our shared Soil.
Sunny, pay attention. The World is becoming more diverse as per the Will of the Creator. Each group of people, be they based on race, culture, religion, or just regionalism, seek to actualize their group identity. No individual fulfillment is possible without such a group identity. Libertarianism thus fails completely when it comes to the quest for happiness – and of course economically as well.
JS:
Pat Buchanan? Seriously?
What? I thought it was a good article. What is your argument for or against secession movements and their relationship with Identity, Race, and Culture? It does seem rather obvious that these factors are essential to a successful Nation and thus drive these various movements of people to organize into Nations that recognize and establish their identity. Do you have a different point of view or anything in which to counter Mr. Buchanan’s arguments? Or is it that you just don’t care for him? He seems to be supportive of Scotland’s move to independence. And of course we all know Scotland wants to separate from England because they want to be even more liberal than England if that is even possible, but apparently it is. It seems you would agree with him in this case but I guess not?
She’s got nuthin. Her only answer is surly, mocking exclamations like “Buchanan!” or “Ice Ages!” or White People!” or “Ice Cap Free Poles before man and industry even existed!”.
Her main purpose is to make Alba look smart by comparison and perhaps to be her wing man.
She is very jealous of our relationship too – once giving me a big sloppy cyber kiss late one Sunday evening when no one else was around.
The usual drivel from Der Fahrer…
…and your porn-star ‘stache gave me a rash but the halitosis was not as bad as I expected..,
Is that really all you have to say in response Majella? I’m surprised you don’t have more to say given those forward assertions. More interesting to me is your spelling mistake (?) which gives it all away. I’m sure you meant to say Der Fuhrer right? I mean that seemed to roll off your fingertips so easily in the past. But no, instead I see Der Fahrer. The Driver. LOL wow need I say more.
And yeah, you came back to it again. You are so ridiculous lol!!!!
No, Der Farher – look it up.
What sort of response would you expect to his bizarre fantasy?
‘Treiber’ is German for driver. ‘Fahrer’ is ‘driveller’
“And of course we all know Scotland wants to separate from England”
Define ‘Scotland’ in the context. I find you loose with words.
Don’t forget to bear in mind the effects of FPTP in Westminster elections and the results of PR in Scotland itself. Try comparing them.
Thanks.
Hint: the referendum result was 52% to 48% (a result Farage said in advance would be ‘unfinished business’ if it had been the other way round).
But if it had been constituency based, the result would have been 406:242, suggesting a massive Leave majority that didn’t in fact exist.
https://fullfact.org/online/referendum-results-by-constituency/
Umm thank you for the report :-). Yes, it was ultimately a close but yet not so close vote. Sort of the like the election results for Der Fahrer Trump ;-). Why would you think that I have a loose interpretation of what Scotland is? Scotland is that area of land within the borders demarcated for the historical place that we know as Scotland. I mean you know it way better than me anyhoo. Scotland has had a secessionist movement has it not? Scotland has already voted to leave the UK right? The leave side in that case did not win though if I remember right? And also, Scotland does tend to be more liberal than England does in a general sense no? Those were the only points I was making. I didn’t mention anything about Brexit.
Scotland has already voted to leave the UK right? ”
Sorry, what? Did I miss it? In 2014 the result of Indyref1 was 55% to stay in the UK and 45% to leave.
Perhaps there was an Indyref1.5 which passed me by. 🙂
My point was that ‘Scotland’ is not one homogeneous lump. I am part of it. I didn’t vote to leave the UK last time and I (probably, depending on how bad things get) won’t vote to leave the next time either).
That’s all I meant. There are lots of Scotlands. Just as I imagine there are a few Louisianas.
My point about PR is that in the Scottish parliament, elected by PR, Sturgeon leads a minority government (of MSPs).
MPs, which is what are in Westminster, are elected by FPTP, which hugely distorts – hugely – the amount of actual support for the SNP.
And lots of people ‘lent’ their vote to the SNP. And lots more vote SNP but don’t want independence.
Maj owning herself again. Even when using a Ger/Eng dictionary.
Und es wird noch peinlicher. Garantiert.
Interesting!
I would offer that the Nationalist trends, that smaller is better in handling issues, may be extending now even deeper into social structures. States feel that they can deal with their issues better than the Feds.
Another interesting conundrum as most of the rebellious states in the US are Leftist and should be tending towards centrism. Hmmm!
Why doesn’t JHK just put in an application to the GOP to write more insane Trumpian letters to Nancy Pelosi, or perhaps all of Devon Nunes’ and Lindsey Graham’s talking points? Might as well … he’s in the same slipstream.
Do you remember Solomon Northrup’s description of Christmas on his Louisiana Plantation in his memoir “Twelve Years as a Slave”? That was insane.
The White Masters used the Christmas holiday festivities as a backhanded way to get the slaves to fornicate and to breed more slaves in order to increase the Master’s wealth. Of course, the slaves couldn’t think that far ahead and loved it.
Climate Change protesters tried to stop a coal train in New Hampshire by standing on the tracks. The train didn’t even slow down and the protesters — college kids — dove out of the way at the last possible moment. Now they’re complaining the RR put their lives in danger. Somebody pointed out it’s a federal felony to interfere with the operation of a train, and the complaint was dropped.
Only one coal fired power plant in New England, used as standby when others are overloaded.
Brh
Haha that is funny Brh! Truly I am glad no one was hurt. But if someone was actually hurt or worse one has to wonder who is to blame? Sorry, but I don’t think it is the RR in this case. What is truly amazing is how psychotic the collective thinking has become among these groups. To believe that putting oneself in harms way is a form of protest, and if one is harmed then others only are to be accountable is maybe kindergarten level thinking. I assume the universities at this point do not encourage thought and introspection past this level or thereabouts. Certainly, these bright bulbs who are supposed to be the next generation of movers and shakers will most likely be unable to operate a railroad or a coal fired power plant or anything really. Hopefully they will thoroughly enjoy lights out!
Stopping traffic and trains is a favorite tactic of these protesters — don’t they know that it just pisses people off? It’ll end when a few of these f#kkers get run down and squished. A few weeks ago there was video from the west coast of an antifa agitator stopping a car on a public street, refusing to yield, and the driver, exasperated, climbing out and beating the shit out of the protester.
Really? I will have to search that one on youtube. I think that there will be more incidences of these protestors getting beaten down by ordinary people just trying to get to work, or getting their kids to the babysitter, or trying to go to the store, etc. Life is already stressful enough, let alone having some yuppy, latte sucking, trust fund babies blocking roads and bridges and railroad tracks getting in the way of the adults trying to maintain society and all.
Here’s one for ya SSL. start at about 0:25. The protesters aren’t so tough when the trucker throws them off his truck. He shoulda took a choke chain to ’em . I’m thinkin’ he could of kicked the shit out of the whole bunch of them. Where do they think wood comes from?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NK5FSngxgk8
And these protesters could be doing a million other constructive things to help their cause but this is the path they choose! They do all seem like weakling richies who have lots – too much – time on their hands it seems like. They’re lucky the trucker was as measured as he was.
Some years ago a movie showed young men laying down on roads on center line of two way streets. People “naturally” copied what they saw on screen and got killed.
there was a male fitness model, here in El Ay, who tried to out run a train.
At a photo shoot.
dead.
https://pagesix.com/2015/01/21/police-fitness-model-killed-by-train-was-running-on-tracks/
How insane and sad! He should have staged it like anyone else would but he wanted to be authentic I guess and really out run the train. I think it is really sad.
At some point somebody has to tally up the people killed performing stupid you tube stunts. It’s getting to be a long list.
It is the new version of the Darwin Awards.
It take a mile for a train to stop once the brakes are applied. The engineers would not have even seen the idiots by then.
Is it a contradiction of nature that the most educated stage of life, college, produces the dumbest people. One of the tenets of late adolescence. I swear it takes at least ten years after graduation from college before an employee is worth anything.
A few words to holiday shoppers (yes, again):
WOMB
CONSUME
TOMB
Happy holidays!
Dinocars and Triceratrucks
Still guzzle the Black Lagoons
Sucking them down
‘Till the last teaspoon.
Drinking ancient dead Life
Regular or Supreme
It’s combustion now
And no longer steam.
Motor to shop
Motor to buy
Guzzle and guzzle
Black Lagoons dry.
And it will take millions of years to replenish the black lagoons. If they can ever be replenished in the same way. A friend of mine is literally getting a loan to pay off her debt from this year. The interest rate on the loan is cheaper than the interest on the credit card balances. I understand. Credit cards are a lot like oil. When its there its like sometimes you use it just because it is there and you can. And like driving real fast can be fun, buying things with abandon can feel so fun in the moment. But then you realize there is a limit to everything and nothing is free. So maybe in 2020 we will cut up the credit cards and the cars?!
‘The Creature from the Black Lagoon’
A B movie Scifi classic. One of my all time favorites.
Brh
Edward Muhl production.
Who cares about replenishment? Humans will be fossils by the time any replenishment occurs.
FISA court tears apart FBI coupsters:
https://www.fisc.uscourts.gov/sites/default/files/MIsc%2019%2002%20191217.pdf
Devin Nunes says the FISA court needs to be disbanded.
He is right. Another hero.
Yes, he seems to be very reasonable and balanced and he is putting his energy into uncovering these rogue actors at his own peril so I respect him a lot.
Great twitter thread on excerpts from statements by General Flynn exposing corruption and failure in US intelligence and the military. This guy is a hero.
https://twitter.com/RichardHanania/status/1204173586874789889
Also a reminder: Ex-DIA head Flynn was also the same guy who pointed out that the Obama Admin. armed the groups that were later called ISIS.
This lines up with the strategy outlined in the declassified DIA report around the same time.
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2015/08/10/former_dia_chief_michael_flynn_says_rise_of_isis_was_willful_decision_of_us_government.html#!
https://archives.frontpagemag.com/fpm/obamas-betrayals-willfully-supporting-al-qaeda-and-robert-spencer/
So far, Obama’s “scandal-free admin.” was directly involved in overthrowing the Ukraine govt., armed ISIS, spied on a presidential candidate and president, and appears to, at the least, have direct knowledge of what the coup plotters were up to.
Incredible!
And please don’t forget domestic suppression of political opponents via the IRS, at least.
It would appear Obama was not only a continuation of the Shrub era, he may have actually outdone him.
Giuliani has also been on fire recently. It would appear the prosecutor Biden had fired also had attempts on his life, and was clinically dead on two occasions before being revived.
USD 16 million laundered through latvia, cypress, etc.
https://twitter.com/RudyGiuliani/status/1206290920242647047
Prepare Gitmo. To think I once wanted it shut down ….
Wow! It is crazy to think that Hussein built upon the legacy of the Shrubs when all he did for his entire presidency it seems like is blame all misfortune and all of his mistakes on Shrub Jr. I think Giuliani, another swift thinking New Yorker, may just be able to bust their schemes wide open. And it is so past time to do so and I totally agree with you. Please ship the traitors to Gitmo lol!
USA is deep in debt.
individuals, businesses, government.
scary..where and how does it end?
Majella, thanks for the enlightenment. It would greatly behoove us in this neck of the woods to have a good look at what other folks do in their own countries.
This “neck of the woods” I would define as not only the USA but also the two disasters-in-the-making north and south of the border given the number and size of cross-border relationships, both business and personal. If we don’t know what to do about the morasses created over here the best way is to look elsewhere.
You know about the US. You don’t know what to say about Mexico. Or at least I don’t. I don’t know how much interest-exposure there is Down-Under (or Up-Over, depending on your point of view) but it looks like a failed state, run by narcos. And it looks like the only fetters being applied are by narco gangs on one another by means of mass murder with law enforcement a contradiction in terms. Which is tragic when you consider their civilizational pedigree – Spanish and Amerindian – and which goes to show that even the most accomplished peoples can go massively off the rails.
And then there’s the calamity brewing to the north which I’ve ranted about previously, one of the constituent parts being the world’s largest non-sovereign borrower. One province of Canada has got 13.5 million people and, depending on what source you read, has a provincial government that owes somewhere between 330 and 350 billion dollars. According to current exchange rates, the Canadian dollar is about 75 cents US, and according to what I’ve read, ten Canadian bucks in Canada buys about 80 percent of what ten US bucks buy in the US. The point is that it’s a mountain of debt with no slowdown in sight for its accumulation, a great many people up there either sleep-walking into disaster or defiantly denying that there’s a problem. The only ray of hope is their election of what they hoped would be a thumb in the eye to a corrupt, idiotic and self-serving elite. I’m not hopeful that the Ford regime up there has any solutions, but its election at least it shows some piss and vinegar in the electorate ie like the Brexit vote in the UK and (I know what you think of this) the Trump win in the US.
The larger point is that there’s a lot of Black Swans flapping their wings, most of which we’re studiously ignoring or denying most strenuously that they exist. One of these days, one of these Black Swans will go aloft and by the time it achieves any kind of altitude will start to look and sound more like a fire-breathing Smaug.
Post script to reply to Majella,
I grew up the way you did, but with fewer kids. Going back to that mode would be no hardship whatsoever to me or my wife. Do you remember “party line” telephones? Did you have them in NZ? An inconvenience sometimes, but nothing insurmountable. A lot of available workarounds, if we look back.
I don’t think that “inequality” is the problem. I would term that as a smoke-screen to obscure the real problem which is no discernible way forward economically or personally for large multitudes of people that have got at best crap wages and unstable, short-term employment. That means in practical terms with no economic mainstay, no marriage, no kids, etc, that age-old stuff aspired to by most peoples.
V
We breed, and we reduce the need for labor, all at the same time. This is the worst legacy of the Elite of the world,.
How can we continue to reduce labor and expect to give more people of all talents something to make a living with.
People complain that there are not enough high paying jobs available for everyone. That will get worse. If in the name of greater efficiency and profits, we continue to steal work from Joe Everyman, everyone will lose, including the Elite.
The political response, elevating the minimum wage, is going to blow up in our faces. It puts people out of work and elevates prices for all products and services provided by minimum wage. And by the way, our increasing usage of AI and all high tech robotics is creating more and more minimum wage jobs as a percentage.
This trend will destroy the economy just as fast or faster that Peak Oil, or lousy politics.
Exactly, INCLUDING the elite.
Dmitri Orlov lays out the Fed’s ongoing shenanigans in his latest, “The Final Act”:
*********
I first wrote about this in September when it became clear that real trouble was brewing in the market for US debt. Now, three months later, the situation has gone from bad to worse, and it would appear that the market for USTs definitevely broke. I will try to sketch out what that means for the US economy and society later on (spoiler alert: nothing good) but for now I just want to lay out some of what has happened. In the meantime please take your normalcy bias and put it some place safe (in case you need it later, although I have no idea what for).
Previously, when it was clear that an overburden of bad debt could trigger financial collapse at any moment, the Federal Reserve (which is in charge of printing money) engaged in something it euphemistically called “quantitative easing” (“QE”). It printed lots of US dollars in exchange for various bits of USTs, along with other financial garbage, with the goal of later selling the USTs while hiding the garbage, thereby preserving the appearance that USTs are sovereign debt supported by the full faith and credit of the US government rather than just some waste paper clogging up its vaults. But when it declared “quantitative easing” to be over and tried selling the USTs, all hell immediately broke loose and it was forced to go right back to buying them up, in a scheme that has been sarcastically referred to as “not QE.” Euphemisms aside, what is happening is properly called “debt monetization”: it’s when a government “borrows” money not by selling its debt in exchange for money that already exists but simply printing the money using paper and ink, or magic digits inside a very secure computer.
Let’s go over some of the relevant details. “Not QE” actually started well before it was announced and proceeded in stealth mode. Over six weeks starting in September 2019, the Fed monetized an average of $20.5 billion per week. This rate is compatible with the extent of its previous efforts at “quantitative easing” at their height. It was forced to do so because the REPO rate on USTs spiked to 10 times the rate set by the Fed. (REPO stands for “repurchase agreement”; it is where one party borrows short-term from another party, using USTs (and other supposedly very safe debt instruments) as collateral, much as a pawn shop will give you money for a watch and then allow you to buy it back.) The huge spike in interest rates signaled that USTs were no longer seen as particularly safe collateral and the Fed had to step in and start throwing freshly minted dollars at the problem. And it never stopped. In fact, the problem grew larger; so large, that now, at the year’s end, the Fed has committed $500 billion of printing press output to making sure that nobody runs out of cash.
It is commonly thought that the Fed’s action has to do with short-term debt, and is therefore a short-term problem, but that’s simply not the case. Since early August (the start of stealth-mode “not QE”) the Fed has vacuumed up $179 billion with of USTs, of which USTs with terms longer than a year made up $108 billion, or 60%. Compare these numbers to the total borrowing by the US government over the same period, which amounted to $659 billion, of which $368 billion was short-term debt and $291 billion long-term. Thus, over this period the Fed has monetized 37.1% of new long-term debt and just 19.2% of short-term debt. This should help put your mind at ease if you suspected that this isn’t a short-term problem but weren’t sure. It’s a long-term, structural problem.
Next, let’s consider whether the problem is being solved or is getting worse. Rest assured, it is getting worse. Looking at the numbers for October and November, the Fed monetized over half (50.7%) of new US government debt. A straight-line projection is that if it took the Fed to go from 0% to 50% in four months, then it will go from 50% to 100% in another four—by April Fool’s 2020. But who’s to say that the increase will be linear rather than exponential? Whichever it is, the trend is unmistakable: the market in US government debt—once the deepest and most liquid market in the world—is dead. The only thing propping up the value of USTs is the Fed’s printing press. And the only thing propping up the value of the output of the Fed’s printing press is… what is it, exactly? Exactly!
Let’s add one more salient detail. Over the course of 2020, $4.665 trillion of USTs will mature and will need to be rolled over into new USTs. This is an all-time record, and this is on top of new debt that will have to be issued in order for the US government to be able to stay open. Over the past year the US budget deficit has amounted to $1.022 trillion, which is a 15.8% increase over the previous year. If this trend continues, the new deficit will be around $1.183 trillion. In order to keep the wheels of finance from grinding to a halt, over 2020 the Fed will have to monetize, or print, close to $6 trillion.
*********
https://www.patreon.com/posts/final-act-32448025?utm_medium=post_notification_email&utm_source=post_link&utm_campaign=patron_engagement&token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJyZWRpc19rZXkiOiJpbnN0YW50LWFjY2VzczoxMTRmNTc4Zi03MmUwLTRmMWQtYThiZS1jM2MwZTUxYzQ1ZGQifQ.Gq9FIcBCWtE5dxAO7JKD8FNxYby1yPm0EzGhACrNx-o
There’s a large contingent of smirky, device-toting reality-deniers whose answer to everything is to raise their latest Apple acquisition as evidence that all is well and whose version of existence comes from that screen. These and a similarly large contingent of Boomer precursors are unshakably convinced that there really is such a thing as a free lunch, regardless of what their day-to-day experience tells them, which is what all this money-printing is all about.
The job of the Fed is to convince people that somehow there’s money someplace. And this is the belief. Delusional economics but there it is.
Yup!
It will continue, like the slow boiled frog, until the bond creditors insist on being paid. Retirement needs! We are in this together, if one side goes down, we all go down. That provides resistance against the loss of faith. When needs overcome the faith, the slide commences.
A lot of the issues we are facing in this country have to do with the loss of human scale (or the problem of ‘dehumanization’) due to the fact our institutions have become too large, too centralized, and too monolithic. Government, business corporations, schools, hospitals, retail stores all need to be recalibrated to a neighborhood level. Further, the people who serve or work in these institutions should come from the neighborhoods they serve. In this way the problem of dehumanization can be reduced to a minimum as our institutions become more deeply rooted within the neighborhood community. Restoration of human (neighborhood) scale would also inherently be more sustainable and energy efficient since almost everything people need to experience a high quality life would lay within walking (or biking) distance.
Restoration of human scale is the best way to proactively address the Long Emergency. This is because it is the solution to the Long Emergency even as loss of human scale is the cause. Whether we like it or not, a return to human scale is our future. The choice that is ours to make is whether we wait for it to be forced upon us or move in that direction under our own steam.
Good post. This is “re-localization” by the sounds of it, which, if for no other reason, will be forced on us by escalating energy costs as oil gets shorter and shorter in supply, and those container ship carrying vast quantities of manufactured goods from China will grind to a halt because it’s no longer a paying proposition.
Reversal of the dehumanization (or alternatively, re-humanization) of commercial and work relations from the Amazons of the internet world to your friendly neighborhood merchant is a good way to look at it. You’d be dealing with people you grew up with instead of some human droid of Jeff Bezos, whose only thoughts are pre-programmed corporate-speak.
Exactly.
I meant to include universities and colleges in my list of institutions which need to be recalibrated. A lot of the bs we see happening in universities today could be avoided if campuses were smaller and integrated within the neighborhood community.
Also by neighborhood I am thinking of something the size of a small, compact village…
Universities are a disaster on the way. When the Feds finally figure out they cannot afford student loans any more, the hyperinflation in tuition will cease with the loss of most of our campuses. The government just shifts its hyperinflation effect from market to market, destroying them as it goes.
I think that there’s a lot of universities that are what JHK would call arrangements without a future. I don’t see how these can go on given the unworkable economics of the model, with impossible tuition fees and post-graduation wage rates that in no way justify massive family outlays and student debts.
I think that with relocalization (or rehumanization) a lot of the currently fashionable curriculum, having no connection to reality, will by necessity go the way of the dodo, as will snowflake campus politics, both being laughed out of town, or alternatively, being hustled out by townsmen advising the proponents to stop with their derangements and degeneracies and advocacy of debauched ways. That or hit the road.
You know what I mean. The devolution that you’re talking about will take power from a relatively small power-mad coterie that want to dominate discourse and dictate personal belief and behavior to the extent of using legal sanction, and re-distribute it. That means that their say over a lot of stuff will be taken away. That means that a lot of things go by the way-side. Gender-fluidity? Take a bow, exit stage left. A perplexity of gender pronouns? That too gets the hook.
But arrangements that are reality-based, both economically and academically, may have some legs.
Sure. Good insight. Devolve institutions and a lot of our social, economic, and environmental problems will be addressed in the process. Of course it’s like the old fable of putting a bell on the cat. Heck of a good idea in theory but who is the mouse that will volunteer for the task? The good news is it will happen one way or the other over the long run. The current institutional structures represent an ‘enormity’ and thus are not sustainable…
A lot of urban developers are following localization in their developments. Millennials are following along by buying into the neighborhoods. The effects of this are forthcoming.
A warning shot is a report that says there will be 21 million Boomer houses going on the market in the next number of years with no buyers available. Housing prices down? Probably.
Nancy just said that they take an oath to protect the Constitution from all enemies foreign and domestic in front of the entire house. She actually said it with a straight face, not holding a mirror. What a hypocrite. With the Dems we have both, foreign collusion with Russia with Clinton, and domestic, working to destroy the Constitution in every way they can think of.
My hope is this idiotic impeachment and the victory of the Deplorables next year will finally end the Deep State coup that has been going on for the last thirty years.
Trump’s letter to Pelosi.
The Honorable Nancy Pelosi
Speaker of the House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20515
Dear Madam Speaker:
I write to express my strongest and most powerful protest against the partisan impeachment crusade being pursued by the Democrats in the House of Representatives. This impeachment represents an unprecedented and unconstitutional abuse of power by Democrat Lawmakers, unequaled in nearly two and a half centuries of American legislative history.
The Articles of Impeachment introduced by the House Judiciary Committee are not recognizable under any standard of Constitutional theory, interpretation, or jurisprudence. They include no crimes, no misdemeanors, and no offenses whatsoever. You have cheapened the importance of the very ugly word, impeachment!
By proceeding with your invalid impeachment, you are violating your oaths of office, you are breaking your allegiance to the Constitution, and you are declaring open war on American Democracy. You dare to invoke the Founding Fathers in pursuit of this election-nullification scheme — yet your spiteful actions display unfettered contempt for America’s founding and your egregious conduct threatens to destroy that which our Founders pledged their very lives to build. Even worse than offending the Founding Fathers, you are offending Americans of faith by continually saying “I pray for the President,” when you know this statement is not true, unless it is meant in a negative sense. It is a terrible thing you are doing, but you will have to live with it, not I!
Your first claim, “Abuse of Power,” is a completely disingenuous, meritless, and baseless invention of your imagination. You know that I had a totally innocent conversation with the President of Ukraine. I then had a second conversation that has been misquoted, mischaracterized, and fraudulently misrepresented. Fortunately, there was a transcript of the conversation taken, and you know from the transcript (which was immediately made available) that the paragraph in question was perfect. I said to President Zelensky: “I would like you to do us a favor, though, because our country has been through a lot and Ukraine knows a lot about it.” I said do us a favor, not me, and our country, not a campaign. I then mentioned the Attorney General of the United States. Every time I talk with a foreign leader, I put America’s interests first, just as I did with President Zelensky.
You are turning a policy disagreement between two branches of government into an impeachable offense — it is no more legitimate than the Executive Branch charging members of Congress with crimes for the lawful exercise of legislative power.
You know full well that Vice President Biden used his office and $1 billion dollars of U.S. aid money to coerce Ukraine into firing the prosecutor who was digging into the company paying his son millions of dollars. You know this because Biden bragged about it on video. Biden openly stated: “I said, “I’m telling you, you’re not getting the billion dollars’…I looked at them and said: “I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money.’ Well, son of a bitch. He got fired.” Even Joe Biden admitted just days ago in an interview with NPR that it “looked bad.” Now you are trying to impeach me by falsely accusing me of doing what Joe Biden has admitted he actually did.
President Zelensky has repeatedly declared that I did nothing wrong, and that there was No Pressure. He further emphasized that it was a “good phone call,” that “I don’t feel pressure,” and explicitly stressed that “nobody pushed me.” The Ukrainian Foreign Minister stated very clearly: “I have never seen a direct link between investigations and security assistance.” He also said there was “No Pressure.” Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, a supporter of Ukraine who met privately with President Zelensky, has said: “At no time during this meeting…was there any mention by Zelensky or any Ukrainian that they were feeling pressure to do anything in return for the military aid.” Many meetings have been held between representatives of Ukraine and our country. Never once did Ukraine complain about pressure being applied — not once! Ambassador Sondland testified that I told him: “No quid pro quo. I want nothing. I want nothing. I want President Zelensky to do the right thing, do what he ran on.”
The second claim, so-called “Obstruction of Congress,” is preposterous and dangerous. House Democrats are trying to impeach the duly elected President of the United States for asserting Constitutionally based privileges that have been asserted on a bipartisan basis by administrations of both political parties throughout our Nation’s history. Under that standard, every American president would have been impeached many times over. As liberal law professor Jonathan Turley warned when addressing Congressional Democrats: “I can’t emphasize this enough…if you impeach a president, if you make a high crime and misdemeanor out of going to the courts, it is an abuse of power. It’s your abuse of power. You’re doing precisely what you’re criticizing the President for doing.”
Everyone, you included, knows what is really happening. Your chosen candidate lost the election in 2016, in an Electoral College landslide (306-227), and you and your party have never recovered from this defeat. You have developed a full-fledged case of what many in the media call Trump Derangement Syndrome and sadly, you will never get over it! You are unwilling and unable to accept the verdict issued at the ballot box during the great Election of 2016. So you have spent three straight years attempting to overturn the will of the American people and nullify their votes. You view democracy as your enemy!
Speaker Pelosi, you admitted just last week at a public forum that your party’s impeachment effort has been going on for two and a half years,” long before you ever heard about a phone call with Ukraine. Nineteen minutes after I took the oath of office, the Washington Post published a story headlined, “The Campaign to Impeach President Trump Has Begun.” Less than three months after my inauguration, Representative Maxine Waters stated, “I’m going to fight every day until he’s impeached.” House Democrats introduced the first impeachment resolution against me within months of my inauguration, for what will be regarded as one of our country’s best decisions, the firing of James Comey (see Inspector General Reports) — who the world now knows is one of the dirtiest cops our Nation has ever seen. A ranting and raving Congresswoman, Rashida Tlaib, declared just hours after she was sworn into office, “We’re gonna go in there and we’re gonna impeach the motherf****r.” Representative Al Green said in May, “I’m concerned that if we don’t impeach this president, he will get re-elected.” Again, you and your allies said, and did, all of these things long before you ever heard of President Zelensky or anything related to Ukraine. As you know very well, this impeachment drive has nothing to do with Ukraine, or the totally appropriate conversation I had with its new president. It only has to do with your attempt to undo the election of 2016 and steal the election of 2020!
Congressman Adam Schiff cheated and lied all the way up to the present day, even going so far as to fraudulently make up, out of thin air, my conversation with President Zelensky of Ukraine and read this fantasy language to Congress as though it were said by me.10 His shameless lies and deceptions, dating all the way back to the Russia Hoax, is one of the main reasons we are here today.
You and your party are desperate to distract from America’s extraordinary economy, incredible jobs boom, record stock market, soaring confidence, and flourishing citizens. Your party simply cannot compete with our record: 7 million new jobs11; the lowest-ever unemployment for African Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Asian Americans; a rebuilt military; a completely reformed VA with Choice and Accountability for our great veterans; more than 170 new federal judges and two Supreme Court Justices; historic tax and regulation cuts; the elimination of the individual mandate; the first decline in prescription drug prices in half a century; the first new branch of the United States Military since 1947, the Space Force; strong protection of the Second Amendment; criminal justice reform; a defeated ISIS caliphate and the killing of the world’s number one terrorist leader, al-Baghdadi; the replacement of the disastrous NAFTA trade deal with the wonderful USMCA (Mexico and Canada); a breakthrough Phase One trade deal with China; massive new trade deals with Japan and South Korea; withdrawal from the terrible Iran Nuclear Deal; cancellation of the unfair and costly Paris Climate Accord; becoming the world’s top energy producer; recognition of Israel’s capital, opening the American Embassy in Jerusalem, and recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights; a colossal reduction in illegal border crossings, the ending of Catch-and-Release, and the building of the Southern Border Wall — and that is just the beginning, there is so much more. You cannot defend your extreme policies — open borders, mass migration, high crime, crippling taxes, socialized healthcare, destruction of American energy, late-term taxpayer-funded abortion, elimination of the Second Amendment, radical far-left theories of law and justice, and constant partisan obstruction of both common sense and common good.
There is nothing I would rather do than stop referring to your party as the Do-Nothing Democrats. Unfortunately, I don’t know that you will ever give me a chance to do so.
After three years of unfair and unwarranted investigations, 45 million dollars spent, 18 angry Democrat prosecutors, the entire force of the FBI, headed by leadership now proven to be totally incompetent and corrupt, you have found NOTHING! Few people in high position could have endured or passed this test. You do not know, nor do you care, the great damage and hurt you have inflicted upon wonderful and loving members of my family. You conducted a fake investigation upon the democratically elected President of the United States, and you are doing it yet again.
There are not many people who could have taken the punishment inflicted during this period of time, and yet done so much for the success of America and its citizens. But instead of putting our country first, you have decided to disgrace our country still further. You completely failed with the Mueller report because there was nothing to find, so you decided to take the next hoax that came along, the phone call with Ukraine — even though it was a perfect call. And by the way, when I speak to foreign countries, there are many people, with permission, listening to the call on both sides of the conversation.
You are the ones interfering in America’s elections. You are the ones subverting America’s Democracy. You are the ones Obstructing Justice. You are the ones bringing pain and suffering to our Republic for your own selfish personal, political, and partisan gain.
Before the Impeachment Hoax, it was the Russian Witch Hunt. Against all evidence, and regardless of the truth, you and your deputies claimed that my campaign colluded with the Russians — a grave, malicious, and slanderous lie, a falsehood like no other. You forced our Nation through turmoil and torment over a wholly fabricated story, illegally purchased from a foreign spy by Hillary Clinton and the DNC in order to assault our democracy. Yet, when the monstrous lie was debunked and this Democrat conspiracy dissolved into dust, you did not apologize. You did not recant. You did not ask to be forgiven. You showed no remorse, no capacity for self-reflection. Instead, you pursued your next libelous and vicious crusade-you engineered an attempt to frame and defame an innocent person. All of this was motivated by personal political calculation. Your Speakership and your party are held hostage by your most deranged and radical representatives of the far left. Each one of your members lives in fear of a socialist primary challenger — this is what is driving impeachment. Look at Congressman Nadler’s challenger. Look at yourself and others. Do not take our country down with your party.
If you truly cared about freedom and liberty for our Nation, then you would be devoting your vast investigative resources to exposing the full truth concerning the FBI’s horrifying abuses of power before, during, and after the 2016 election — including the use of spies against my campaign, the submission of false evidence to a FISA court, and the concealment of exculpatory evidence in order to frame the innocent. The FBI has great and honorable people, but the leadership was inept and corrupt. I would think that you would personally be appalled by these revelations, because in your press conference the day you announced impeachment, you tied the impeachment effort directly to the completely discredited Russia Hoax, declaring twice that “all roads lead to Putin,” when you know that is an abject lie. I have been far tougher on Russia than President Obama ever even thought to be.
Any member of Congress who votes in support of impeachment — against every shred of truth, fact, evidence, and legal principle — is showing how deeply they revile the voters and how truly they detest America’s Constitutional order. Our Founders feared the tribalization of partisan politics, and you are bringing their worst fears to life.
Worse still, I have been deprived of basic Constitutional Due Process from the beginning of this impeachment scam right up until the present. I have been denied the most fundamental rights afforded by the Constitution, including the right to present evidence, to have my own counsel present, to confront accusers, and to call and cross-examine witnesses, like the so-called whistleblower who started this entire hoax with a false report of the phone call that bears no relationship to the actual phone call that was made.Once I presented the transcribed call, which surprised and shocked the fraudsters (they never thought that such evidence would be presented), the so-called whistleblower, and the second whistleblower, disappeared because they got caught, their report was a fraud, and they were no longer going to be made available to us.
In other words, once the phone call was made public, your whole plot blew up, but that didn’t stop you from continuing.
More due process was afforded to those accused in the Salem Witch Trials.
You and others on your committees have long said impeachment must be bipartisan — it is not. You said it was very divisive — it certainly is, even far more than you ever thought possible — and it will only get worse!
This is nothing more than an illegal, partisan attempted coup that will, based on recent sentiment, badly fail at the voting booth. You are not just after me, as President, you are after the entire Republican Party. But because of this colossal injustice, our party is more united than it has ever been before. History will judge you harshly as you proceed with this impeachment charade. Your legacy will be that of turning the House of Representatives from a revered legislative body into a Star Chamber of partisan persecution.
Perhaps most insulting of all is your false display of solemnity. You apparently have so little respect for the American People that you expect them to believe that you are approaching this impeachment somberly, reservedly, and reluctantly. No intelligent person believes what you are saying. Since the moment I won the election, the Democrat Party has been possessed by Impeachment Fever. There is no reticence. This is not a somber affair. You are making a mockery of impeachment and you are scarcely concealing your hatred of me, of the Republican Party, and tens of millions of patriotic Americans. The voters are wise, and they are seeing straight through this empty, hollow, and dangerous game you are playing.
I have no doubt the American people will hold you and the Democrats fully responsible in the upcoming 2020 election. They will not soon forgive your perversion of justice and abuse of power.
There is far too much that needs to be done to improve the lives of our citizens. It is time for you and the highly partisan Democrats in Congress to immediately cease this impeachment fantasy and get back to work for the American People. While I have no expectation that you will do so, I write this letter to you for the purpose of history and to put my thoughts on a permanent and indelible record.
One hundred years from now, when people look back at this affair, I want them to understand it, and learn from it, so that it can never happen to another President
JS: This is the moment of Triumph for the Republicans and Trump, and the destruction of the Conspirators. She said she wouldn’t pull the trigger unless the evidence was massive and the support bipartisan. Massive political miscalculation. The Rabid Poodle is finished as well as the rest of the rest of Open Conspirators. Unfortunately, Hillary and Obama will get away with it in all likelihood.
Thank you Mr. President
“This impeachment represents an unprecedented and unconstitutional abuse of power by Democrat Lawmakers, unequaled in nearly two and a half centuries of American legislative history.”
Bullshit right from the start. Nigerians do this in their scams. They misspell or come up with some cretin logic like Trump did so smart readers move on and don’t waste their time. Trump is doing the same thing but this is desperate and won’t work. The problem is Trump is not trying to find the one in a million Nancy that he can trick. There is only one Nancy and if in truth they were not working together he would not be able to fool her.
“One hundred years from now, when people look back at this affair, I want them to understand it, and learn from it, so that it can never happen to another President”
I’d rephrase that everso slightly – “I want them to understand it and learn from it, so that another president (like me) can never happen again”.
Or Obama, or Bush, or Clinton etc.
Your opinion totally. I challenge you to pick someone out of the current crop ofdingdongs on the Dem side that could have MAGA as much as Trump and his group have done.
JohnAZ
You start from a false premise – that ‘Himself has Made America Great Again’. This based entirely on his constant assertions, and 38-40% of the electorate has chosen to believe him.
The fact you cite several (perhaps all since Eisenhower?) presidents as just as shitty as the current oaf is probably accurate and certainly depressing.
However, and I know most hereabouts will shit their pants at this thought, but a Sanders/Warren or Warren/Sanders ticket could in fact restore some justice, and they’re both genuinely seeking to get big money out of politics, which is utterly essential if you wish to emasculate the MIC /’deep state’ disease.
One hundred years from now you are going to be dust in the wind My Trumpness! You won’t even have a mind to be a legend in.
Uh yeah, that’s going to happen to everyone. It doesn’t mean there won’t be any collective memory. The real Truth is that no one can be absolutely certain of who will be writing the stories and exactly what their interpretation will be. But it’s good to know that you so despise a President who was simply elected by the people in the Democratic process you so love and adore.
I’m not sure I agree with the ‘unhinged’ label being slapped all over this letter, but it is a really “dumb” move on his part, and utterly typical. To be so obviously projecting his own errors onto the Opposition is a noticeable indication of his guilt.
Once again, he spends his time mostly denying the known facts and impugning all his opponents. He keeps hammering on the same bullshit talking points and his ‘base’ sucks it up like coca-cola (and then spits it up again in blog-rolls like this).
What must be really getting on Himself’s goat is that, as it looks right now, he’s unlikely to get the high-drama exoneration show he really craves because Moscow Mitch is going to do his best to deprive him of a full trial with witnesses and a proper defense – he knows it’d become a total circus and may well backfire.
His lawyers really need to get a leash (followed by a gag) on him. This reads like a tawdry lover scorned letter, regardless of the truth of any of it. His compulsion to make every little thing public has been his greatest blessing, but also his greatest curse. It’s going to bite him in the end. He’s become our national ADD addled impulsive teenager in chief.
Does ‘Wind Chill’ mean anything? Or do the hot weather babes on your local news channel use it as a marker to make it seem colder than it actually is? Tonite wind chill -4°F, but the actual temp. about 12°F. By any standards it will be a cold night.
“THE WORLD IS ON FIRE”
We’re moving into the darkest, shortest days of the year. The severe cold won’t arrive for another month or so. It’s going to be pretty funny seeing Climate change protesters in the streets holding signs that read ‘The Earth is on Fire’ in below 0 temps, bundled up in ski parks and wool hats, freezing their asses off and looking stupid.
Brh
Ha! A funny picture.
In my lifetime, I have discovered that some people just need to protest, that no matter who is right or wrong, they are going to protest.
There has never been a riot I did not like.
It is the ringleaders that make up BS to rally the folks around that is ALWAYS the source of the riots we see. The protestors will follow their leaders no matter the latest issue.
AGW is just one of the most recent. One of the most telling things about this one is the target of the leaders are children, the most ignorant part of any society.
Who said, You can please some of the people all the time, all the people some of the time, but never all the people all of the time.
A great truth of life.
It was Abe Lincoln who said you can “fool” various cohorts of a population for varying lengths of time.
Hence, Himself has only 38-40% of the population fooled at present, but it certainly is ‘ALL THE TIME’.
Not one Republican vote to impeach in Congress, not a single one.
In the Senate the Dems were looking for at least 1 Republican to vote for removing the President — Romney — but it looks like Romney will vote with the majority. Also 2 Dem Senators will most likely vote with the Republicans — one being Joe Manchin.
What a waste of time all this has been.
Brh
BRH
It may be pointless in that Himself will survive due to the partisanship of the two houses, but surely it’s been worth it as an exercise in the constitutionality of the country?
As well, the likes of JHK, JohnAZ, Der Oberstaatsanwalt, and many others are gleefully awaiting the embarrassment and collapse of the Democratic Party. If this (pipe) dream comes true, will you still be calling it a ‘waste of time’?
“It’s going to be pretty funny seeing Climate change protesters in the streets holding signs that read ‘The Earth is on Fire’”
It isn’t funny in New South Wales.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/dec/05/nsw-endures-longest-spell-air-pollution-record-bushfires-threaten-queensland
Why don’t you take a trip over there if your finger tips are cold, brh? Australia burns a lot of coal. And sells a lot of coal. And now it seems like creating a helpful environment for biomass burning like there’s no tomorrow is a good idea too. But they’re not even getting any electricity out of it. Just insurance claims and respiratory diseases. And entries in the Castlemain 4x Book of Records.
Why do climate deniers talk this kind of nonsense?
I wish someone would tell me the difference between Obama selling guns to Mexican cartels through the AG.Or Obama getting dirt on D. Trump’s campaign by going to Russian oligarchs and possibly Putin himself to make a phony dossier to start the Russiagate adventure. Compared to that, the current impeachment “crime” is a drop in a barrel full.
Presidents threaten foreign folks to get the US’s way and always have. And the Dems are really going to fight opening the corruption door in Ukraine as they are behind it all. Biden is just the start! The entire fiasco with Russia/NATO/Ukraine/US happened during the Obama era. This country had its corrupted fingers into just about everybody’s business. Not Obama’s fault either, it was just the way things were done then. Ex post facto itself should take anyone off the hook for what is going on today. If the Congress was really serious about all this impeachment crap, it would pass laws defining what is legal or not. Ha! That is a laugh, everybody in the Deep State would go to prison.
Are we trying to tie the hands of the president behind his back in dealings with foreign powers in order to “get Trump”. Dems are traitors to the US in support of the globalists, it has never been more obvious.
JohnAZ, that’s ‘whataboutery’.
As our resident Der Oberstaatsanswalt is keen to ask at even the vaguest opportunity…
Regarding these accusations against Obama et al, “what’s the crime and where’s the evidence?”
Maybe it’s all coming out with the much anticipated Durham Report. Great. If it brings compelling evidence, by all means, prosecute and jail all the corrupt bastards you can lay your hands on! I’m 100% behind justice for all.
However, none of that excuses Himself of his many transgressions (too many to list). In this case, Pelosi et al have narrowed the case down to two specific indictments. Now they will prosecute those indictments. I would expect the Senate to actually run a trial, not just a bunfight with a pre-determined outcome. Himself can call witnesses and be represented, just as due process requires.
Himself’s bleating about how unfair this has all been is just baloney. He may not know it, but his boosters in the GOP sure do. The inquiry was similar to a prosecutorial investigation and/or grand jury process. There’s no right to defense before charges are laid, though he could have submitted to questioning (which would have been hilarious, even in writing).
The fact is he has no defense – otherwise, the GOP committee members would have been presenting it in the hearings, but all they could muster was whiny bitching…but yes – he’ll walk because the GOP is aa spineless a corrupt gang as the Dems are.
“Too many to count”
List the crimes and provide concrete evidence.
You are an utter clown and I am surprised our host even tolerates your presence.
This is SeaWolf level trolling.
Your supreme arrogance is amusing.
Hey Nightowl. You will never hear the concrete evidence, because like the impeachment, there is no crime to have any evidence about.
Giuliani is still plying through the Ukraine deal and when that is combined with the Barr/Durham investigation, then we will have crimes to talk about.
Far more amusing is your inability to provide an answer of any sort.
I said ‘too many to list’ – but they can most certainly be counted.
Your stalwart defense of Trump is beyond reasonable sense. It’s like you have an ‘infection’ that allows you to completely ignore his deeds and to interpret his words as meaning something else.
And again you stoop to lazy ad hominems and now invoking the power of JHK to remove me? Great defense of the 1st Amendment, Nightowl. Who’s the clown?
People’s blind defense of every thing Trump does would be condemned by the same people if it was a Democrat who had done it. The Democrats are no different. Nowadays it comes down to politics, nothing about what’s right or wrong. There are some people who believe in the Constitution, but there aren’t enough of them to keep our head above water anymore. If Nixon were impeached today, he would be acquitted. The country will not survive what’s being done to it, and history will have it’s way like it always does when empires fail.
Right, Captain, re the two-faced crap from the Trump boosters
However, I’d add that, personally, if Himself were a Democrat, I’d be just as disgusted with him. For me. it’s not that he’s a GOP-figurehead – it’s that he’s a proven liar & a cheat. (Trump University, Trump Foundation as evidence, Oberstaatsanwalt)
This implacable political partiality may well be the final straw, as you point out. Que sera, sera.
You are! I would assume you were looking in the mirror when you posted that question. Not a funny clown either, more like The movie It.
You are a xerox copy of the Media in this country. You can yell at Trumpsters all you like but I am actually looking forward to January when you Dems are going to get this impeachment shoved up your derrieres. Then November, I am going to love watching YOU and your brother and sister Liberals in the Media and the House cry up a storm just like in 2016. Then please do us a favor, and move to Canada and take the rest of them with you.
You are going to see Trump as a lame duck where Mr. nice guy is going to disappear. If he gets a Trump Congress, time for you to leave.
JohnAZ
I get that you’re highly defensive of the GOP line & Himself’s self-acclaimed sainthood innocence. That’s your reference point.
Okay.
And you identify mine as being ‘msm’ talking points, but it’s a pot-kettle-black argument.
We are simply opposite in our perception of what we’re observing.
You want the Impeachment Trial to expose the Democrats for the hypocrites they are. As I’ve said earlier, GREAT! If that’s the outcome, then I’m all for that too, but only a genuine, full, legitimate trial can possibly give a definitive outcome.
I don’t pretend to ‘know’ with such certainty as expressed by you & the other Trumpsters assert. I’m open to being proved wrong. Or as Himself has said, ‘Brung it on!’
But know this – as stated often over the months, I’m no capital D Democrat. I’m leftist in leaning and know from direct experience how a socialist-based democracy works and I know how the US works, and I have a view on which is smarter and more likely to deliver justice to you and your offspring. You disagree, and that’s okay, too. Go ahead! But ease off on the snarky jibes, which I thought we’d left behind some threads ago.
As to getting out of the US, I’ve always said that’s the plan, when it’s appropriate for personal circumstances. However, if your electorate puts Himself back in the WH, then that plan would be brought forward, for sure. If you REALLY want another 4 years of this clown (very ‘It’ clown) then you’re welcome to him. We get the government we deserve, as the saying goes.
Name the crime and provide concrete evidence.
You utter clown.
‘Name the crime and provide concrete evidence.
You utter clown.‘
Change the fecking record.
I watched Hannity’s post-impeachment vote 11 minute rant just now. I can see where you get ALL your talking points from. You parrot the Fox line exactly. Don’t you have any original ideas?
Narrowed the case down to 2 transgressions.. You are full of it. They are not transgressions, they are political BS statements because they could not come up with anything that would not incriminate their side more than Trump’s.
He has no defense? That is because the Dems have nothing to attack him with. The reason why the GOP did not present anything is because by the cowardly Dems House rules, they couldn’t. Your excuses are useless.
The only thing left to the Senate to decide is whether to cut it off quickly or run it out to try to really fry the Dems. I hope they allow the Trumpers to really fry the Dems, as Trump actually wants to do.
Note that the GOP was unanimous but Dems not, a portend of things to come. The polls are all moving up for Trump.
BTW, Tulsi voted present.
As to all that, I can only quote Himself at his intellectually most acute – “we’ll see what happens”.
It’s been kept to the two most recent, egregious and screamingly obvious transgressions. It could have been 50, or 300. But they got Al Capone on tax evasion in the end. Egregious & obvious.
Again, I really hope McConnell decides to run an actual trial rather than going straight to a motion to dismiss. I hope YOU do too, so if it IS all bullshit, it’ll be exposed as such. I have no fear of the outcome, whichever way it goes. Justice should be the goal, not partisan point scoring.
But the fact is, in my opinion, that McConnell does NOT want any evidence or witnesses or argument. He’s a toxic fog on American democracy.
The fog is already in place. Even four Dems voted that this impeachment is a farce. I might feel as you do about the Senate vote, except that the “crimes” do not exist. It is like grabbing you off the street and accusing you of murdering someone so they can say the crime is solved. It is being framed by the powers that be. Trump was going to be impeached for something when the Dems got a majority in 2018. It did not make any difference if there was a crime. Pure politics, just what Alexander Hamilton was afraid of.
BTW, the case is going to fall apart when it is disclosed that there is no whistleblower, that is was the excuse invented to get Trump.
Another observation, if you think getting Trump is going to stop the Trumpsters, you are wrong.
When McConnell can get away with stuff like holding off on a Supreme Court appointment for a year and a half, hoping for a Republican President, It makes a joke of the whole political setup. The hypocrisy of what took place there is staggering. McConnell himself laughs about how he played it. Once again, I submit that if that BS had been pulled by a Democrat, you guys would be on fire, raging against the Democrats. Being as it went your way though, that’s just fine right? There’s no way on earth that you can say that what happened with that appointment was the right thing to do. That’s the way it is, however, anything that favors your agenda is alright no matter how crookedly or unethically it was arrived at. Maybe you can bullshit other people, but it won’t work with me. This country really is going down, not just from the politicians, but also from people like you, who knowingly support those crooked bastards. Behavior and ethics like that will destroy this country. Hope you like what you wind up with.
Trump is ruining USA…but not as fast as Clinton would have.
Trump is not for the Earth. Gaia may swat this Gadfly.
And us with him.
Not good.
Jawohl!
Gaia ,huh? As Aerosmith once sang, “Dream on”.
One man a nation does Not make. It takes lots and lots of people to ruin a country. Like just about every creepola in Washington DC. But the USA is still the results of voters every two and four years.
Want to blame someone for the ruin? How about millions of someones?
Trump or Clinton are not enough by themselves. It is the US populace’s increasing subservience to the Deep State that is the cause.
Good Ol’ ‘faint praise’.
You can see it here. The double standard. The duplicity. The current despicability.
https://www.wsj.com/video/opinion-flashback-to-1998-reveals-democratic-impeachment-double-standard/AB7023C9-50E6-4FD8-A04F-8B4A29651F5F.html
Yes, the ‘false display of solemnity.’ With the Dems in control, all the House is now a stage, with Pelosi, Nadler and Schiff merely fakers. In this case, the play will capture the conscience of the cognizant, and the final act will see the Dems booed and hissed off stage in November, hopefully bringing down their final curtain.
Hail the Granitic, Gargantuan, Gutsy, Gadfly of Gotham!
Funny…I found the same video earlier and thought to (but got distracted) to post it as evidence of the Republican hypocrisy. All about perspective one the end, huh.
A wag recently posted on another blog:
“The Republicans impeached Clinton for a blow-job, and now they’re giving Trump a blow-job for impeachment”
I’ve never been a fan of Cenk Uygur, but the Establishment sure seems to hate him? And the dishonest smears of Cenk are so disgusting that I’m starting to empathize with him. He’ll, I may even support his sorry ass?
Apparently, Cenk Uygur used to be a big Turkish Nationalist who chased after tail, used the “N Word” liberally, and was a big Homophobe until he converted to Progressivism and subscribed to miscegenation.
Why are Vulcans, like Mr. Spock, and Spock’s dad, Sarek, given to miscegenation with humans? I think that Spock was screwing both Nurse Chapel and Uhuru at the same time? Chocolate and Vanilla mixed is “Rocky Road”.
It seems that even in the Twenty Third Century that there is still no viable male Contraceptive, except for the condom (which Vulcans refuse to use) and the withdrawal method. Another common form of male contraception is Beer and Weed, but you’ve got to drink and smoke so much that you pass out and can’t get it up. This method doesn’t always work on Vulcans who can easily drink a couple of 6 packs and smoke several spliffs of powerful Amsterdam Skunk. Usually, the human female passes out long before the Vulcan, so it becomes a rape situation. Spock was always getting accused of rape, so he had to confine his dates with Ho’s like Nurse Chapel and Uhuru.
You forgot that Vulcans only get a hot madena every seven years. At which point it is Uhru and Chapel at the same time.
Spock liked to boff outside of Pon Farr. He also liked to blast off in low or zero g, especially with human females. He’s said to have described the experience as ‘quite gripping’.
Chill, and check it out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pp-YPWnGmLg
Was it “Pon Farr”, or “Poon Tang”?
You get Poontang in Korea.
Ah…! Those were the days…when Himself was articulate and told teh truth:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANJi0v29XaQ
Majella
Just read your suggestion that Warren/Sanders tickets would fix up everything because they are going to equalize out everything by getting the rich.
This is foolish.
There is not enough $ with the rich to do much of what these phonies want, if you add up everything they want to spend money on, they are coming after you, the middle class. Or just put more into debt. They do not care, they are promising free stuff for votes, when the money to do so does not exist.
Even their fellow candidates are dissing them, as they see their promises are idiotic.
Do you realize that if all the Presidential promises were legitimately fact checked and presented to the public unbiased through the Media, not a single candidate could survive.
JohnAZ
Nothing is impossible in the exceptional USA. Churchill said:
‘ Americans can always be trusted to do the right thing, once all other possibilities have been exhausted.”
…and how come the rest of Western Civ can provide access to medical care and education through their tax system?
You possibly already use Medicare, right? And collect SS? If so, you clearly enjoy aspects of socialist medicine (though with a co-pay liability), and the COL applies to SS, right?
So, Is it possible that there might be some element of cognitive dissonance in your thinking? If I’m off the mark, please inform me.
I paid for both services throughout my working life. I continue to pay for Medicare significantly. I happen to disagree with liberal COLAs as it is inflationary. If I had invested myself in an investment plan instead during my 48 years of working, I would be receiving more than SS now. Which I did by the way.
Social Security and Medicare were both put in place because of one thing, the inability of the American people to save for their future. It does not make any difference why, the deficiency is there. FDR and LBJ were wise enough to know they would have a gigantic welfare state on their hands if the elderly could not inform their retirements.
Have you seen the Boomer retirement statistics? It is scary, when the folks start needing their savings plans and pensions, that in itself could bring down the Fed and its QE. The following generations are in worse shape.
The government has purpose, to find problems and in a community sense, solve them. Not to own corporations, private businesses, run everything about our lives. Cradle to grave is not what the American heritage is.
And this:
‘ They do not care, they are promising free stuff for votes, when the money to do so does not exist.’
is cynical thinking beyond belief. What’s in for Warren & Sanders in winning – a salary of $400k and a hugely exhausting workload? No. They are principled, whatever you might think.
Oh, and Himself ‘donating’ his Presidential stipend is he biggest joke of his administration – not that he donates it but in the virtue-signaling Pharisee-like way he does it.
Giving it to a government agency with one hand while stripping its funding of hundreds of millions with the other (read The Fifth Risk by Michael Lewis for the evidence).
In a Senate trial, will Hunter Biden be on the docket? Maybe as the first witness? After all, he is central to to the narrative being presented.
Or are the Bidens off limits?
Brh
That is what the war is all about. The Liberals almost took over this country in 2016. Their corruption under Obama was kept under wraps successfully until they started the battle, before the 2016 election, by initiating Russiagate. They opened their own demise by accusing Trump’s group of the crimes they had already committed. Biden was just one of many discoveries that have been found, and will continue to be found with Barr/Durham.
The first motion in any Senate trial would be playing Joe Bidens recording when he revealed he threatened to hold back aid to the Ukraine if they did not fire the prosecutor who was investigating the company paying his son $83,000 per month.
Then we can go from there.
Let the whole truth come out.
Brh
BRH
Absolutely there should be a genuine trial, with witnesses. It should take as long as it takes to convince 67/100 senators that he’s innocent to give him the exoneration he wants (and will claim anyway, regardless).
Your beef is with McConnell, who is probably scared shitless of the whole process getting out of control – HIS control, that is.
If you want the much vaunted destruction of the Democratic Party by exposure of its purported crimes in this process, you need a trial. But I don’t think you’ll get one.
I am currently watching Mc Connell right now.
No, he is not scared shitless of anything, especially the House Dems. Their is no GOP weakness here.
When the outcome of a trial is already known, then the word “trial” is a misnomer. People’s minds are already made up, and no amount of evidence on either side is gonna change that, which makes the whole proceeding a farce on both sides. Did you Republicans notice that I said ” both sides? ” As this and other issues play out, we continue our swirl around the toilet bowl, and it’s just as much the voter’s fault as it is the politician’s fault. You spelled ” there ” wrong.
JohnAZ
A cool demeanour and carefully chosen words delivered in a monotone don’t mean anything. Does the gliding swan look like it’s paddling furiously?
Impeachment not withstanding, strange inversion going on in the weather. Temp at arctic circle -27°F, in Antarctica -15° F. For the first time since I have been checking, its colder in the north than the south, which makes sense because summer begins in the southern hemisphere in a few days. But -14°F, some summer. I thought there were supposed to be palm trees at the poles by now? What happened?
Brh
Dude, do check this,
https://boingboing.net/2019/12/18/tekashi-6ix9ine-sentenced-to-2.html?utm_source=moreatbb&utm_medium=nextpost&utm_campaign=nextpostthumbnails
I would say his career as a hip hop artist is over.and his life may be in danger from here on in.
He may need to get a job when he gets released, but who would hire him looking like that?
My theory is this: the weirdos in the public eye would 150 years ago be employed in the circus as Side Show Freaks. But the circus is gone and now the Freaks are reading to little kids in suburban libraries and performing their acts in crumbling civic centers in squalid urban centers for people who live in public housing and use welfare money to buy the tickets.
Brh
Do you remember the wedding scene in the movie “About Schmidt”?
https://www.google.ch/amp/s/www.theknot.com/content/amphtml/traditional-wedding-vows-from-various-religions
LinkedIn….
Mr. Kabinga of the Shady Rest Assisted Living Facility in Cedar Grove Nebraska wants to connect with you.
Do you ever get that haunting feeling that you’re staring into the abyss?
every day..especially when I see my town.
Whenever I get that sneaking suspicion that the abyss is staring at me I stick my tongue out at it and go online to shop for shoes and makeup and look up new recipes.
Will Trump be denied a trial?
I think he wants one and Pelosi and Senate Republicans do not
I want a trial with lots of sworn-in witnesses, lots of subpoenas and lots of indictments.
#metoo!
First, I would like a legitimate charge. Not just we do not like him.
The Ukraine thing is not a crime. It is opinion and our judicial system is not based on opinion.
Then do whatever you want in the Senate.
Did you ever consider that these shenanigans in the Senate May be because the Dems know they need to do damage control to avoid being torn apart in a real trial in the Senate. Bidens, Barr/Durham, Horowitz, Steele, Maybe even Clinton and Obama May be pulled into the fray.
Maybe a result of this whole thing should be passage of what a President can do in negotiations with foreign countries including oversight. Never happen, as it would affect Dem Presidents also.
The charges are legitimate, so test them in a trial.
Earlier, you said the legal system doesn’t operate on opinions. Wrong. It’s ALL opinions, and then someone – a judge or jury- weighs the opinions and delivers a verdict.
SCOTUS is ALL opinions, and Gary rarely unanimous, right?
Gary = very
An Expulsion of Demons.
There is a Dostoevsky book titled ‘Demons’. I read it.
Pyotr Verkhovensky got away and Shatov was a good man. Pyotr should have paid.
Regarding Nikolai Stavrogin at this point I understand. My deeds have not been so dastardly that my heart has a desire to make my heels swing. Reading about his end I felt sympathy. But then I remember the little girl in St. Petersberg and I think of our Greta T. Stavrogin had a heavy heart. For pain only a tenth as strong men will needle their arms and ruin their lives. It is all about avoiding the pain, and Stavrogin had set himself up for greatest pain. He had to hang.
Sort of like the fate of Western Industrial Civilization. Distracted by the antics of Trump the financialization of fracking continued. Even as wells shut down. When the bubble bursts the long emergency becomes our immediate crisis. Karma of living rudely will demand an accounting. The distraction of Trump will bring much pain.
A trial would bring vindication [ remember – discovery ] not distraction.
https://law.justia.com/constitution/us/article-2/17-constitutional-limitations-on-the-treaty-power.html
It isn’t necessary anyways, Trump tweeted a long time ago that they would simply go to the Supreme Court, as there are no actual criminal charges.
Something very big is going to happen in the near future methinks. Trump was pretty pumped up and has been in a noticibly good mood lately. 🙂
Checkmate in 4… lol
K-Dog
Apparently coal fired power plants being closed in the Pacific Northwest. But the fear now is the century long period of reliable and cheap electricity is coming to an end; what’s in store now is brownouts, rolling blackouts and electric bills that are unaffordable to ordinary people. As an electrical engineer, does that concern you? They’re counting on windmills to power up Washington, Oregon and Idaho. Can windmills fill the bill?
When the brownouts and blackouts begin, utility company executives will get blamed, IMHO, not political decisions to close traditional power plants.
Brh
I reiterate that these decisions are being made by temporary idiots who do not have a clue what they are talking about. When they destroy their infrastructures, they do not care, they will just move away. Damned carpetbaggers.
As an electrical engineer it does not concern me. As a human it does. But there is not a lot of coal fired electricity here. You are making much to do about nothing and that is why you are in the back row!
Maybe the comment about you being in the back row is not quite right. It sounds personal but I am only trying to make a point.
Coal is being shut down for economic reasons. You can bet if the immediate consequences were anything like what you describe we would keep coal.
Keep coal or keep cool and we prefer to play the fool.
I wasn’t trying to be provocative, K-Dog. I ran across a video produced by a TV station out of Seattle, a subject and a location I knew is in your ballpark.
The report was slanted in favor of shutting down coal — and natgas as well. But they did express honest concern about the ability of providing sufficient energy once this wa done.
There also was something about an aluminum mfg plant that was permanently shut down in Washington State about 20 years ago because of lack of sufficient power to run it.
Brh
Congratulation Dems!
You have created a martyr! I will love watching the polls over the next few months. The one thing that Americans hate is criminal double dealing and that is what they are going to react to.
I listened to the final debate yesterday for a while. The statements made by the Dems where so laced with lies, over statements, generalizations that I actually started laughing at the stupidity of most of the statements.
And another amazing thing that was humorous was that it was so obvious that one after the other were talking off the same page, same buzz words, same claims.
This is going to be the Christmas present that keeps on giving and keeps on giving and keeps on giving :-)! Hallelujah!
I agree John. The pushback from this is going to be fearsome. The universe is so constituted that whenever ‘evil’ or unrighteousness strikes it creates a vacuum for ‘goodness’ or righteousness to come roaring back stronger than ever…
The devil (unwittingly of course) is God’s secret weapon…
Yes! The Alpha and the Omega, so that all in between is of Him, for Him, and by Him. And there is nothing outside of that because there is no end, no day, no night, just eternity. You are always so Sunny SBS.
What is the Devil but the dark side of God? Shiva the Destroyer? How can there be life without death? Creation without Destruction?
Thus I have always loved the big storms and miss them now that I have moved out West. I really understand the guys who chase tornadoes out on the plains. It’s an act of worship. That doesn’t preclude them for feeling sorry for the victims or helping them. I’m sure they are many cases where they have saved lives or helped to do so.
Yep. It sure sounds like a huge victory, JohnAZ. And if there IS an actual trial, then your crew will have the chance to really rub the Dems’ noses in it, won’t you?
Yet…I still get the feeling that you’re really ANGRY about all this (probably having taken your cue from Hannity et al?).
So, the question is “Why? Why so frothing-at-the-mouth angry?” If Himself is actually innocent and has been shoddily dealt with, then surely this truth will out?
Of course, if he is NOT exonerated (through a thorough trial process), you’ll still be on a winner and have grievance rights to boot.
Himself will go on to greater and more obvious & public transgressions, which you’ll accept (though you wouldn’t accept such from anyone who’s not a GOP drone).
But those pesky Dems might escape their so-richly-deserved-demise. Dagnabit!
Pelosi: “We’ve got to get these articles of Impeachment to be voted on in the House quickly because Orange Man Bad is a clear and present danger to our democracy and established system. Okay, that’s done. Now it is important that we slooooooooow things down so I’m holding on to the articles of Impeachment so that the Senate can’t hold the trial too soon.”
Democrats: “No the minority and the president cannot call witnesses before the Impeachment hearings in the House. No especially to calling the Most Holy Whistleblower, Peace be unto His Name.”
“We DEMAND that we get to call our witnesses in the Senate trial. No? Well that’s just not fair!!!”
Oh yeah, whatever happens this trial has to serve the Dems 2020 goals. This whole thing is really just a political campaign to try to energize a fragmented and fractious base and its not even remotely close to working.
Always with the generalizations…
No its just a reality. It was a rigged process from the beginning because it really is all a rigged system. So it is a political show. And meanwhile as you know there are so many issues that need immediate attention and are ignored. And actually there is a vaccum of leadership in many ways as you have said before.
That was the lamest Impeachment Show ever. The House should have to suffer through a pummeling of tomatoes and eggs for that boring act. Did you know that they quietly passed an amnesty for millions of illegals while this whole charade was going on? I heard a preacher this morning talking about how most of Congress is basically inhabited by the spirit of the Antichrist. The Antichrist is so perfect at feigning to be Holy that most people believe he is. Sort of like how Nancy said she is a Catholic and thus could never hate anybody (haw haw to both!). Or how she said that the moment of Impeachment was so somber and she was so contrite that this had to happen. Though she has been premeditating it for years…. But everyone’s days are numbered. Yes, that includes even the Swamp Malignancies. May the Force be with you Golden Golem!
SSL
Read this: google
Trump: An Existential threat to the New World Order
By James Veldmeyer MD La Jolla CA
A wonderful summary of what is really happening!
Sorry!
James Veltmeyer MD
It is probably not a coincidence that the day after Trump’s address to the UN Pelosi announced that the House would start an Impeachment inquiry. I’m just now listening to that address in full for the first time. It is probably the first speech by a US President before the UN that is NOT globalist friendly. In fact, it is quite the opposite.
Your assumption about that not being a coincidence because of that very reason was the same conclusion most of the Conservative talking heads reached too so I think you are on to something.
JohnAZ
He’s just parroting what you parrot. You should consider putting up similiar pod-cast site…(I’m guessing you don’t have the immigrant accent?)
Ok, thank you for the recommend!
Yeah, SSL, the republicans pretty well fucked it up but Steny Hoyer’s speech should be cast in bronze.
He shouldn’t be impeached because you don’t like him and think he is a mushroom head. Do you understand how many millions upon millions of people desperately wanted to see Obama impeached? And the Republicans never listened to their base about that. But the Democrats indulged theirs on this one. And Obama did a lot of things that did deserve impeachment. Hopefully this whole sham will bring that to light. But I wouldn’t bet on it!
Yeah, a grave disappointment to republicans that being black wasn’t grounds for impeachment.
Try to name one thing that was grounds.
Don’t try to say fucking a whore and lying about it because they used up the sex card on Clinton and it failed miserably. Don’t try using the telling lies card because after Bush it was clearly useless, which Trump has made abundantly clear. So fuck you and your hollow claims. You should work harder at becoming a parrot, dig up some facts to back your idiot squawking.
” So fuck you and your hollow claims. You should work harder at becoming a parrot, dig up some facts to back your idiot squawking.”
Oh, Eve, you’re incorrigible….
Or maybe you should look further into the inconvenient details of Benghazi, DACA, Fast & Furious, the IRS/Tea Party scandal, the support of regime change in Libya, Syria, etc., and on and on. And it was Obama’s Homeland Security that started the practice of caging children.
Oh? So you back to Trump-booster status? I thought your disappointment with him led to repudiation some several weeks back.
No, my support could never be what it once was. Broken promises and all. But there are no real alternatives now. Not the way things are. But to the extent that he can dislodge the Elites and the Globalists from power I am and will be supportive.
Just read a Fox Business report saying that 9 of the 20 richest counties in the US surround Tada, Washington DC.
Not manufacturing centers, not NYC, not Silicon Valley.
Washington DC
Your Deep State at work. And still complaining they are underpaid.
In the woods around Seattle high end homes poke through the trees for miles. Multi-acre estates of our extended burbs. From an airplane it impresses. On a flight leaving Seattle sitting next to a woman, I mentioned these high end homes sprawling as far as the eye could see. She said that it was nothing compared to DC.
Prince George county.
Arlington County, Fairfax County, Loudon County, Montgomery County….Home of the Occupiers and Usurpers?
Yep.
McResisters in McMansions.
PGC is home of the rich blacks.
The road is known as the congo bypass…..BMWs and MBs flying by at 80 mph.
Ah, so it’s an enchanted land of Magic no doubt :-). Maybe that is where the um Nobel Prize Winner (chuckles) should move.
RIch? Maybe I am missing the joke, but PG County was always known for high crime and massive corruption.
It was more or less considered the ghetto of NOVA.
RE: PGC,
Damn, I just looked up stats and it is considered a rich area. Really odd to me. I lived in NOVA for a long time(as a kid) and much of Maryland was considered “ghetto,” but PG County was considered particularly bad. Interesting.
Is that the same Fox Business News Network reporter busted with a crack pipe in a Federal courthouse in New York yesterday?
Of course JohnAZ, Do you ever think about the squawking you do? Where to you think all the lobbyists who bribe the republican congress live?
On Rush: Pelosi is going to “hold on to” the Articles of Impeachment until she sees “what kind of forum the Republicans set up”. What the hell does that mean? As Rush said, the forum is the Senate. In other words, she knows she doesn’t have the votes and isn’t going to go forward unless and until she does. Perhaps she was hoping for a mas Republican defection which simply didn’t happen. So the agony for America will go on and on until the People decide – and they will decide against her and the rest of the gang of Democrat criminals.
Like I said before. Clown world.
You could not make this stuff up.
Oh it’s getting better, or weirder. Pelosi is now calling McConnell “rogue” because he says he may just cancel the Senate trial if she keeps refusing to send over the articles. She is going insane before the whole world’s eyes. I’m sure she feels boxed in because she knows she never should’ve gone down this impeachment road. The radicals such as The Squad pressured her into it. Now she’s effed.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7809853/House-Democrats-begin-agitating-Nancy-Pelosi-HOLD-articles-impeachment-leverage.html
LOL the floor is caving in under them!
Yes, pray that McConnell does just that. He would go down in history for just that.
You’re right, he will, but not in a celebrated heroic way. He’ll be excoriated for his perversion of the democratic process.
Are there not some sort of rules that would prevent her from just holding this whole thing up? It should have to happen now since they took a vote in the affirmative.
John Dean, yes THAT John Dean, says that she can hold it up for as long as she likes, and he says that she should.
Of course we should listen to the sainted John Dean. The Rev. John Dean, Peace be unto His Name. He might even be more righteous than the Whistleblower. But not much.
Not agony for America as such. Agony for the republicans who have to stand on their tip toes trying not to swallow the vile soup that their ridiculous “leader” has immersed them into. Imagine yourself before an audience of intelligent people trying to sell the snake oil that the fat bastard is a competent leader worth selling you own soul for, turning yourself into the laughing stock of history for.
JHK’s blog title this time probably over optimistic. Even though impeached, apparently highly unlikely the expulsion will occur.
Republicans will disgrace themselves forever – making excuses for the clown they happily ridiculed before he turned 20 of their other contenders into cannon fodder back when the office still had some dignity.
Yeah, but your party is dying and far more disgraced. Hon.
Say what you like, but at least we aren’t morons like Republicans are. At least we have the diginity of having some functioning brain cells up there.
Dignity? Lol…. And functioning brain cells? I feel sorry for you. I truly do. You can’t see the reality right in front of you. The Dems botched this impeachment badly. Very badly. Hardly a sign of intelligence.
Oh yeah, and you are a poop pants. Dream on fool.
Ahhhhhhhhh go make your man a sandwich. And get him a beer too while you’re at it. Make yourself useful there doll face.
Trust me…there’s not a single Republican/conservative/trumptard that gives any thought whatsoever to the unsustainability of suburbia or the car based lifestyle. Not one.
It’s not that everybody on the left gives this any thought. But those of us that do, we are all on the left.
I repeat…everybody who gives any thought to what Kunstler has written about, we are all on the left/democrat side. 100% of us.
The defining characteristic of Republicans in America, without exception, is they believe infinite resources are available to them, to make infinite money, to drive infinite cars, to buy infinite suburban houses. There are no exceptions to this.
yawn..the left, purveyor of open borders and having doubled USAs
population, will redouble it.
trumptard yr sorry azz.
The left wants to bring hundreds of millions of new migrants into the USA. It will take a whole lot more ecological destruction and resource consumption to support such a massive increase in population. Most Democrats that want this, beg for this, could care less what gets destroyed. There are no exceptions? Please that is such a lie Seawolf.
dolph = seapup?
Apparently there’s noise about bringing the population of Liberia, Africa over here.
Liberia is one of the places they still practice cannibalism.
Brh
I’m one.
Wow! I am blown away dolph with your very sophisticated post. Emphasize the ‘sophist’ in sophisticated.
I’m giving you a golf clap.
A woman once married a male dolphin named Cindy. A Kalifornian. Maybe Dolph is that Dolphin, and the woman is helping him type his “thoughts” since he has no hands.
“The defining characteristic of Republicans in America, without exception, is they believe infinite resources are available to them…”
Dolph,
As a matter of fact, it is not necessarily republicans that this applies to, but rather the rich. The rich DO have access to infinite resources. Always have, always will.
You and I? Not so much….
https://www.amren.com/news/2019/12/senate-approves-path-to-citizenship-for-liberians-facing-deportation/
See the irony? Liberia was the place established for Blacks back in the bosom of paradise, Mother Africa. They were going to show the world they could be the equal of the White Man if given the chance. Instead it rapidly devolved into just another shit hole and now they want to come back and be our slaves again. Ah, if only…..
Why can’t they at least worship us like the Papuans did in New Guinea with their “Cargo Cults”. Want more stuff? More Cargo? More gibs? Then pray harder!
We’ve been gone for generations, yet some of the Papuans are still worshiping us and our flag. Dems good boys! Why don’t we bring them here and use them as a buffer against the Blacks? Of course familiarity tends to breed contempt, and they might not keep worshiping us if they got a good look – not as we are now in any case.
Are you familiar with this gentleman Janos?
https://thezman.com/wordpress/
If not, then enjoy.
Oh yes, Zimmerman. A great mind and a great writer. But he’s not Clan. Not blud. Not of the body. He doesn’t wish us well because there’s simply nothing in White Nationalism that benefits his people.
Real Jewish allies, as opposed to those who want to control our Movements, are very rare. Many Jews want to keep us America and Europe strong in order to keep using us against Islam. Almost invariably they are for mass immigration. Diversify us so much that we can never rise again. More customers and cheap labor too. It’s a Win, Win, Win, Lose – with us as the losers.
I just discovered him about a week ago. I didn’t know any real details about him personally. Interesting.
In the end, it really does not matter what is behind impeachment. It is just another indictment of democracy as a political system. It is a system in which no one appears to be in charge, because the people foolishly think their votes matter. Instead, the people really in charge are the parasites and pirates that feed off the organic social capital of the people. The embrace of democracy is the embrace of a cancer that will eventually weaken and kill the body of the people.
I find this position questionable. It is the people’s responsibility to hold their representatives feet to the fire. If they fail to do so then of course Democracy will not work. Unlike Socialism, Democracy demands an informed and engaged public…
The Democratic Party is a bit of a ‘Cargo Cult’ is it not…
From Newsmax:
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has a “moral and constitutional obligation” to send the two articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump to the Senate, as the president has the right to exonerate himself and it is up to the Senate to determine how to proceed, Judge Andrew Napolitano said Thursday.
“You know I have been arguing there is a legal basis for impeachment because it’s really a political judgment on the part of the members of the Congress,” Napolitano, the senior judicial analyst for Fox News, said on “Fox and Friends.” “Under the Constitution, the Senate writes its own rules. (It is) not subject to the approval of the Speaker of the House or the majority of the House.”
Napolitano said he doesn’t know if the Senate can take up the articles of impeachment and proceed without Pelosi sending them over, as that has never happened, but Trump is “entitled to a trial” and to seek his exoneration, and it is up to the Senate to determine how to proceed.
“It could be a Lindsey Graham suggestion, where he says ‘Mr. Chief Justice, we move to dismiss the charges and the chief justice will decide whether or not to dismiss, or could be a full-blown trial. But he is entitled to that forum in which to defend himself. If these articles just sit on the speaker’s desk and go nowhere, that would be a profound and grave injustice to the president.”
Meanwhile, it would be “dangerous” to remove Trump from office “without a substantial and broad national consensus to do so,” said Napolitano. “We all know that that consensus does not exist. At best its 50/50. Probably slightly favoring him now. I haven’t seen any polls this morning.”
It would take a supermajority vote in the Senate to remove Trump, and Napolitano said there has never been such a vote in the Senate to remove a president.
“The (Bill) Clinton trial wasn’t a real trial,” he said. “Sen. Graham, then-Congressman Graham, was one of the House prosecutors, and they basically read for the Senators transcripts of the testimony from the House Judiciary Committee. So it could be that. It could be a trial with people testifying. The president of the United States could testify. Or could be this, Mr. Chief justice, would you please dismiss the charges.”
But at any rate, Trump is “entitled to that forum in which to defend himself, irrespective of what the House thinks,” said Napolitano “The House is finished with this now.”
Paying attention to anything a preposterous sycophantic hypocrite like Lindsey Graham says is like devoting an afternoon to watching what comes out from beneath a fat cow’s tail.
Interesting. The Dems do not impress much these days, granted, but that alone is reason for so many people to turn into Trump supporters? People actually LIKE that man? Weird. And embarrassing. Right now, it is totally embarrassing to be an American.
I don’t like Trump, but I don’t hate the man either.
I find the apparent visceral hatred of Trump a bit strange. What gives? Trump is just a property developer, casino operator, and a former reality TV show host. He’s not a Russian spy. What gives?!
And what’s with all of the pervasive, bald face lying in order to knowingly and willfully fabricate a narrative that the former Reality TV show host of that horrible TV show “The Apprentice” is really a diabolical Russian spy? And why don’t these assholes ever use the word “Spy” and instead of using the word “Asset”, like he’s something in some rich Oligarch’s portfolio of investments?
It’s like weird comedy….
It’s like being in a mental hospital….
And why are they calling Cenk Uygur a “Racist, Misogynist, Homophobe”? Again, I don’t like the man, but I don’t hate him either.
The Dems shifted their direction during Obama. They changed from supporting the union led working class because their globalist masters insisted that jobs would leave the US. Their new strategy is to unify a coalition of all colors and types of haters with the object of the hate being “White America”. The real irony is that the leaders of the movement are all White.
BTW, define White.
Obama?, Warren?, Castro?,
You are!
They “like” his program because the opposition is increasingly being seen for what they are
America haters!
That’s catastrophizing, JohnAZ, and a huge, inaccurate generalization.
With so many clamoring for more of my uplifting xmas Haiku here’s one that might serve a dual purpose if you can think of a word to replace tinsel.
Mocked with tinsel
Dying trees are suffering.
Who will slake their thirst?
How about
Flocked with “snow”
Flocked, choked with garland.
The tree WANTS your happiness
It dies for your sins.
Here’s a Brett Kavanaugh Haiku I came across:
God I miss college
Beer bongs, beer pong every night,
I would piss my slacks.
“Mocked with tinsel”
Bereft… tinsel tears.
Cigarette smoke and pine scent,
Too soon the dumpster.
Bwahahahahaha…..
BOMBSHELL: Ukraine Indicts Burisma Owner, Hunter Biden Implicated For Soaking Up $16.5 Million in Illicit Scheme
https://bigleaguepolitics.com/bombshell-ukraine-indicts-burisma-owner-hunter-biden-implicated-for-soaking-up-16-5-million-in-illicit-scheme/
https://en.interfax.com.ua/news/press-conference/625831.html
Oddly enough …
I have the evening news on right now and that story didn’t get a mention.
Instead its wall to wall impeachment, breathlessly reported, clearly the story of the 21st century.
It has a gleeful, gloating ‘we got him now’ hue about it.
Brh
Poor MSM. They don’t realize that they are making themselves even more irrelevant.
“Bombshell!”…? Published 20 November. Didn’t make much of an explosion, not even among the desperate GOP defenders of Himself.
Why might that be? My two guesses – it’s either irrelevant or not true.
Nope. Just ignored. The MSM is good about that.
Doh!! I didn’t pay attention to the date.
Whenever the topic of “The Kids” is broached, I always immediately try to squelch the conversation. For me, it’s almost a morbid topic. It’s like staring into The Abyss…. Sometimes I think of myself like one of those impoverished feral orphan African kids unleashed upon the World by some promiscuous irresponsible African bloke randomly having sex in those Africa travel log photos in which the hungry, malnourished kids are always smiling? Those are the kids who get recruited as child soldiers. It’s all very Left Brain…. We may have reached a stage where Procreation equals Morbidity? Fuck Me….
Of Two Minds Blog….
December 17, 2019
Eventually the younger generations will connect all the economic injustices implicit in ‘OK Boomer’ with the Fed.
Much of the cluelessness and economic inequality behind the OK Boomer meme is the result of Federal Reserve policies that have favored those who already own the assets (Boomers) that the Fed has relentlessly pumped higher, to the extreme disadvantage of younger generations who were not given the opportunity to buy assets cheap and ride the Fed wave higher.
OK Fed : you’ve destroyed price discovery, driven housing out of reach of all but the wealthy and hollowed out the economy , all the while patting yourselves on the back for being so smart and fabulous.
OK Fed : you’ve waged generational war without even acknowledging how disastrous your policies have been for younger generations . You’ve bloated the paper wealth of everyone old enough to have bought a home 20, 30 or 40 years ago and who’s had a Corporate America or government job who’s seen their 401K or pension soar because “the Fed has our back” and Fed policies have inflated one bubble in stocks and bonds after another for 25 years.
OK Fed : as a direct consequence of your free-money-for-financiers policies, inflation has gutted the purchasing power of younger generations . As the bogus consumer price (CPI) claims inflation is near-zero year after year, two generations of Americans have been crushed by student loan debt that tops $1.5 trillion– a debt serfdom that would have been impossible had interest rates been settled by market forces.
The clueless higher education cartel would have been forced to innovate decades ago rather than pass on their administrative bloat to those least able to pay, the students. Without the Fed and other federal agencies, student debt would not have exploded.
OK Fed : as a direct consequence of your pump-up-speculative-excess policies, speculation has ruined the U.S. economy as banks, financiers and corporations all skim hundreds of billions of dollars via leveraging Fed cheap money while younger generations get credit cards with nosebleed interest rates and rapacious banks that charge $25 and up for every overdraft that they engineer by manipulating when deposits are credited.
OK Fed : while you’ve been hectoring young people to buy assets so they can join your speculative asset-bubble party, they’ve been dealing with the broken mess of an economy you’ve created while patting yourself on the back, an economy where only the already-wealthy can buy a house in hot job market regions, where young workers have to work crazy-hard to keep their precarious jobs or get by on the gig economy , a happy-story code phrase for an economy in which corporations have transferred the risk to their workers while they get rich buying back their own shares with cheap Fed money.
OK Fed : eventually the younger generations will connect all the economic injustices implicit in OK Boomer with the Fed that created the ever-widening wealth and income inequality between the generations: those who effortlessly rode the Fed’s asset-bubbles to wealth and those who have been priced out of the assets and left the shards of a once-functioning economy, an economy destroyed by the Fed’s toxic worship of speculative exploitation and serial asset-bubbles.
As I have repeatedly observed here: if we don’t change the way money is created and distributed by the Fed, we change nothing.
we don’t change the way money is created and distributed by the Fed, we change nothing
You are over-ruled. The owners say you have no business telling them how to spend or manage their money. The central bank makes everyone a slave who is not an owner and you are not an owner.
You dance for their peanuts. The maxim of maximum profit will soon cause another reorganization from which the rich will yet again renew themselves. As they will do until they can’t do it again.
You have no say. A few hundred years ago you would be in chains. Now the form your enslavement requires no physical chains. You are convinced to enslave yourself and you have been a good student.
White lace and feathers they made up his bed A gold covered mattress on which he would bed. That’s not you, unlucky man.
Pucker, You know how they often refer to those who are not the sharpest tools in the drawer?
Why is it the tools who are the sharpest never get their fair share of attention?
What you write is often longer than I care to bother to read. That might be why you haven’t gotten a fair share of my attention.
You are definitely one of the tools you don’t want to accidentally slide one’s fingers along.
Do you think messing with the Fed would be dangerous for someone with a family to lose?
I second that.
Great post Puck! Unfortunately, the Fed ship has long since sailed. It will eventually be undone, but only by collapse and some sort of reorganization in the aftermath. Rest assured that whatever replaces it will be all-digital, globalist in nature, and by invitation only. Those without appreciable assets and/or corporate sponsorship will not be invited to the party, thus beginning the culling of the herd and the “great bottleneck.” It’ll be interesting to see how it all plays out, although most won’t be sticking around for the final credits.
The world has already been officially divided into globalist and localist camps, unfortunately most of the localists either haven’t received the memo or were incapable of understanding it. All will be made clear soon enough.
Turns out Pelosi might not even turn these grave articles of impeachment over to the Senate for a proper trial. Ahahahahaaha! What was it all about, then? Showbiz? Political theatre? A soviet style show trial? The charges are weak, weak, and they know it. Trump was right, what a goddam hoax, and it makes the Dems look like a bunch of troublesome a@#holes who haven’t gotten over losing the election 3 years ago. I’m enjoying this more and more.
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Not to change the subject, but tonite we’ve reached the stage where its ‘goddam’ cold out, as opposed to ‘wicked’ cold, ‘colder than a witches t#t’, and f#kkn cold. ‘Goddam’ cold is about 8°D F. When you walk out if the house it hits you like a 2×4 on the side of the head.
Ladies and gentlemen, the World isn’t on Fire. On the contrary, its turning into an ice cube.
Brh
Back Row. Check this out 1:01 in. Nancy makes it clear. We don’t have two parties. We have a dulocracy which only serves owners. Click Here The beginning of wisdom is to tell the truth.
I agree with what she said about the problems of ‘shareholder capitalism’ that is overly focused on the quarterly report.
No, you have it wrong. She doesn’t want to turn them over for an improper trial.
You know, the kind that that weak chinned ghoul who runs the senate bragged about doing.
Precisely.
Speaking of the increasingly irrelevant and dying MSM…..
The Washington Post’s “Merry Impeachmas” tweet last night has officially died in darkness.
https://warroom.org/the-tweet-that-died-in-darkness/
I cannot wait until the morning of November 4th, 2020 to see these same people and all of their ilk wailing and gnashing their teeth. They most assuredly will be.
Inebriated and hyper-emotional, she hurriedly puts her emotions into digital print.Then retracts once reality hits.
A tweet as an object lesson on WaPo’s irrelevance.
just breaking news I see..
the surveillance footage from outside Jeff Epstein’s cell that was recording after his first ‘suicide’ attempt… has gone missing!
no shit..
What would you expect? Just like the Pentagon’s 9-11 footage.
Mitch McConnell is bitching already that Pelosi is not sending the articles of impeachment forward to the Senate. Does anybody see the irony in that? After he withheld Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court for a year and a half? The hypocrisy is strong in this one, Lord Vader. Stay tuned for Donald and the Giant Impeachment coming to a circus near you.
Yeah, whaddya expect from this toad?
Pelosi has said she will hold onto the paperwork for a little time, while McConnell makes it clearer how his joke ‘trial’ will be conducted. Sounds smart to me. Squeeze the little goober for a bit.
Actually he’s more of turtle. Well, in looks anyway.
Everyone has basically just let-themselves-go in regards to any kind of boundaries on keeping themselves fit, honest, sexuality, etc.? Moral breakdown?
“Almost half of U.S. adults will be considered obese by 2030 — with women, African Americans and people in low-income households most vulnerable, according to new projections published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Researchers said those groups in particular are on a rapid course for “severe obesity,” which is typically a body mass index of over 35, or about 100 pounds of excess weight.
“That used to be pretty rare,” said Zachary Ward, lead author of the new research, as well as a doctoral candidate at Harvard University. “But we’re finding that it’s quickly becoming the most common BMI category in those subgroups.”
We may devolve into a dystopia of fat, pathologically dishonest, perverted people?
“May devolve?” Nope. Already have. Our ugly future is already here.
Pucker
One can put it all down to moral turpitude if one likes, but there’s a big element of blame on the industrial food industry, with high carb/sugar/sodium fast foods supported by an intense advertising industry.
Combine these externalities with the internalities of
> stressed
> overworked
> underpaid
> time-poor people (especially parents) since the 1970s, and you have to ask what would you expect?
I’d be interested to know more about the demographics, particularly the income distribution. I’m guessing the bell-curve is weighted waaaaaay to the left on obesity and waaaaay to the right on income.
“Supersize Me!”
I once had a hillbilly friend from Kentucky who said that he once got a job to support his teenage wife and his baby working in an Arby’s. He said that he applied to work in an Arby’s because he loved to eat Arby’s sandwiches. After landing his job at Arby’s, he ran out and bought a “Muscle Car”. He soon realized that he couldn’t eat those delicious Arby sandwiches and finance his family and Muscle Car on an Arby’s wage.
Fat women love it when you reach into the closet and pull out “The Whip”.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miracle_Whip
I read that the Pentagon has spent US$1 million per soldier delivering Burger King hamburgers to US soldiers in Afghanistan.
Sponsored by Himself, perhaps? Though I’m sure the DoD paid, not The Hamberdler…
My Christmas List in Hong Kong: masks, gas masks, helmets, goggles, body armor, and weapons.
I support the Second Amendment.
This year is the 40th anniversary of the Iranian hostage crisis. Time really flies…. Speaking hostages, whatever happened to that Huawei chick, Meng Wanzhou who the Canadians grabbed? Is her preppy kid still in the elite American boarding school, Eaglebrook? Little Fucker….
The Iran hostage crisis was a diplomatic standoff between the United States and Iran. Fifty-two American diplomats and citizens were held hostage for 444 days from November 4, 1979, to January 20, 1981, after a group of Iranian college students belonging to the Muslim Student Followers of the Imam’s Line, who supported the Iranian Revolution, took over the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.[3]
Yes. Released on Raygun’s Inauguration Day. Typically GOP subterfuge…
“In “Demons,” narrative tensions escalate in a deliberately gradual way. What begins as minor impoliteness becomes scandal, arson, murder and suicide. Dostoevsky is essentially saying that criminal acts are rooted in social transgression; uncivil behavior facilitates scapegoating, dehumanization and, eventually, violence.
…
There’s another aspect of Trump’s popularity that ties him to Dostoevsky’s “Demons.” Trump, in the way he carries himself, embodies the complete disavowal of impulse control we see in the novel. Unlike most political candidates, he speaks off the cuff, simultaneously reflecting and stoking the anger and pessimism of his supporters.
For instance, he said he wanted to “hit” some of the speakers who criticized him at the Democratic National Convention; in his words, there’s anger, a need to provoke and deep-seated irreverence. His supporters feel empowered by this. Without weighing his policies, they’re viscerally drawn to the spectacle of his candidacy, like the townspeople following Pyotr Verkhovensky in “Demons” who delight in the gossip and scandals he creates.
I evoked Dostoevsky on this site recently too — comparing Kesa Anna’s posts to his ‘ Notes from the Underground’. Its Dostoevsky for all occassions., apparently.
Hey this woman Hunter Biden knocked up is quite the gal. Sure she was a stripper in DC — Hunter met her in the club where she worked — but a girl has to make a living. I don’t hold that against her. Her dad owns a gun shop in Arkansas, and Lunden Robert’s herself was an all state softball and basketball player and went on to play NCAA basketball at Arkansas State. An athlete, pretty impressive. And she did get her degree too. How impressed she must have been when none other than the son of the VP of the United States showed an interest in her? Oh she is an attractive girl don’t get me wrong, an American beauty. Who knows what promises he made to her to get her between the sheets. Now there’s a baby and this sonofabitch — what else can you call him — isn’t paying up, and that’s after denying paternity altogether. Apparently there’s no Ukranian mob money left to take care of the kid, but where’d the $83,000 per month he got from that sweet deal at Bursima go? What, you think those endless lines of coke and 150 ft power yachts out on the Vineyard last summer came cheap? $83,000 per month barely covered it. It takes $10,000 just to fuel up that yacht for the short jaunt to John Kerry’s pier at his seaside manse for an afternoon of champaign, lobsters and Kobe steaks. That doesn’t leave much $$$ for diapers and formula. Let’s have a speedy Senate impeachment trial, partly to get to the bottom of this Biden paternity issue, and where did the swag from the Ukraine go? Certainly it wasn’t to take care of the baby.
I’m hoping during the trial — if there is a trial — Republicans invite Lunden in as a special guest, holding her baby, as a special guest and exhibit A.
Brh
And with that kind of ammo to use the bonehead fat bastard still was stupid enough to commit impeachable presidential misconduct. He’s a stable genius alrighty.
If only you had a crime, and some sort of evidence with which to remove him from office.
Emote more. That will surely do it.
Biden’s have plenty of money and I’m confident this little one will be provided for. But it’s not guaranteed. TR ‘s brother Eliot — Eleanor Roosevelt’s father — at one point in the 1890s knocked up the German maid. It was a potential scandal but the Roosevelts went into damage control mode and managed to keep it covered up. They paid the woman, who’s name was Katy Mann, a small settlement which was then stolen by lawyers.
Katy Mann’s son looked just like Kermit Roosevelt, a spitting image. He was disavowed and disenfranchised by the Roosevely family, nevertheless, grew up to be a distinguished banker in NYC, working his way up from the mailroom. He made a few attempts over the years to contact his half sister Eleanor, to no avail, and they were even neighbors for a time in Brooklyn. She was having none of it. In later years Mann’s family, who knew they were Roosevelt’s, were accepted into the family and nowadays attend the yearly family reunion at Oyster Bay, Long Island.
Brh
interesting story!