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If the Obama Justice Department was really honest about its “guidance” on transgender bathrooms, it would have stated clearly a requirement to provide a new, separate, third category of bathroom or changing room for people identifying themselves as transgender. This would have given such persons a safe, private place to perform their necessary bio-functions without making the other two categories of people, male and female, uncomfortable.
Actually, such a third option already exists in many public places: the handicapped bathroom. These could easily be relabeled “Handicapped and Transgender” — the main feature of them being that they allow for one-person-at-a-time occupancy, obviating any effect on others. And it wouldn’t require expensive renovation of public buildings.
But no, Mr. Obama’s DOJ decided to antagonize large numbers of males and females by coercing them to consort with transgender people, threatening to take away federal school funding if they didn’t allow persons of ambiguous sexuality to use whichever bathroom they felt like.
This reveals the fantastic smug certainty of the political Left in assuming that such matters as the nature of transgender behavior are adequately understood and settled — for instance, that transgender is actually a real sexual category rather than a psychological disturbance, a developmental problem, an extreme fashion statement, or a fantasy. I’m not at all persuaded that this is settled, despite the pervasive wishful thinking of the social justice corps that it were so.
It should be clear after some years of social justice hysteria in this country that coercion is now the method of choice on the Left side of the culture war battlefield: you must believe what we believe, or face punishment. As a Vietnam-era registered Democrat I hugely resent this oppressive political approach. I resent even more the supposed public intellectuals and thought leaders in government, academia, and the media who go along with this despotic conduct — which includes ruining the livelihoods and careers of respectable colleagues among them.
Though I am not generally sympathetic to the extreme political Right, especially its evangelical arm which adopted coercive and punitive tactics well before the Left did, I think the governors of North Carolina and Texas have a case in this new transgender bathroom dispute, though I hope their lawyers argue it on some basis besides scripture and sheer boobish obstinacy.
You may have noticed that more and more we live in a society where anything goes and nothing matters. We got there through the incremental eradication of boundaries, especially in social categories and behaviors. Some people find this exhilarating and others find this disturbing. I happen to believe that the elimination of boundaries is not altogether a good thing. We would probably benefit, I think, from more and firmer boundaries than squishier and fewer of them.
Despite the fact that a lot of people I associate with are arty types of what used to be called liberal inclination, I was not in favor of gay marriage, and said so — and was scalded with censorious opprobrium for it . Considering what I know, for instance, about the unintended consequences and diminishing returns of technology, I did not consider it a small thing to meddle with social institutions that are truly older than history. We don’t know what the eventual effects of gay marriage on the social order will be anymore than we knew that the consequences of “Atoms for Peace” would be Chernobyl and Fukushima. Things happen in history because they seem like a good idea at the time. Then time passes and we find out differently.
I was in favor of civil unions for gay couples, since the disposition of chattels and property is not a small matter in a broken partnership, as are medical issues and the care of children entailed in these partnerships, and some method of adjudication was obviously needed. But it was not necessary to call it marriage. Why make the distinction? For the basic reason that not all things and conditions of things are exactly the same. That is exactly the problem with the sort of extreme relativism that reigns on the Left these days. Anything goes.
In fact, I suspected then and still do that the crusade for gay marriage was more a seeking of official state approbation for homosexual behavior as much as a legal issue. In other words, it was about feelings — which has become the basis of argument for practically everything in our politics these days. Anyone disagreeing with those feelings was labeled a “homophobe,” and their ideas on the matter could be simply dismissed as a phobia, a terrible fear, a bad feeling rather than a reasoned position about the workings of society. I was not phobic or fearful about people who identified as gay. But I didn’t then and still don’t believe that we completely understand that behavior, and that it is a settled matter — contrary to the shibboleths of the moment.
The case is similar with transgender. We only pretend to know what it’s about because doing so affords comfortable feelings of superiority — that we are better people for going along with it because the transit of human progress is ever upward, and we are on the cutting edge of that journey to utopia. I don’t happen to buy that story, anymore than I believe that an “installation” of plastic vomit on the floor of the Whitney Museum is as much a work of art as Edouard Manet’s Luncheon on the Grass.
America has a boundary problem and boundary problems are disturbing both to individuals and societies. A common feature of societies in decline is a preoccupation with sexual freakishness, which is on display incessantly in this Republic of Twerking and in the much-valorized “sexual subversion” celebrated in the arts. The Obama government does a huge disservice to this dangerously declining nation by provoking even more dissolution of social boundaries at a time when we have so many other converging problems of polity to contend with.
This is the great contradiction, by the way, of Donald Trump. He has captured the attention of so many voters by invoking the case of our “broken border” with Mexico — a political boundary that is simple enough for most citizens to understand. But Trump himself actually operates by smashing the boundaries erected by his own party for acceptable political conduct. Thus, Trump perfectly personifies the nation’s essential predicament: America has a borderline personality. It is a danger to itself and others.
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Coming in June
World Made By Hand 4 (and final)
Praise for A History of the Future:
“Kunstler skewers everything from kitsch to greed, prejudice, bloodshed, and brainwashing in this wily, funny, rip-roaring, and profoundly provocative page- turner, leaving no doubt that the prescriptive yet devilishly satiric A World Made by Hand series will continue.” — Booklist
My local indie booksellers… Battenkill Books (Autographed by the Author) … or Northshire Books…
or Amazon…
Also: Published as an E-book for the first time!
The 20th Anniversary edition
With an entertaining new introduction by the author
Bargain Price $3.99
Amazon Kindle …or … Barnes & Noble Nook …or… Kobo
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New Paintings from the 2022 Season
Barrel Racers, Cambridge, NY
Just Out! The whole shootin’ match going back to 1987!
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“E tu James?” So James Kunstler gets sucked again into the Culture Wars vortex so favored by Karl Rove and the denizens of the right to distract us from the real issues of Peak Oil, Climate Change, Limits to Growth in a world cannibalized by the 1%. It is the right wing who have brought up this issue as another distraction as 25 Hedge Fund plutocrats unbelievably made $13 Billion in just 2015!
See http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/05/11/hedge-fund-managers-are-winning-2015-another-year-outrageous-compensation
The identity swearing Left actually had nothing to do with “transgendered bathrooms” – it is really not such a big issue. There are unisex bathrooms all over already in place which women and men share. And as Kunstler does point out there are already private handicapped stalls. This issue was created by right wing Governors and legislatures to distract from the real ripoff of all of us by their 1% contributors.
Meanwhile March was the hottest month, again, in recorded history and the Happy Motoring US set a new record for Auto addiction and gasoline consumption. We have new record oil spills and Wall Street teeters on the edge once again.
I agree with Kunstler that the academic and upper middle class Left has made a huge mistake in adopting identity politics as its major raison d’etre. Thomas Frank made an excellent point about this in his book and articles “Listen Liberal” : http://billmoyers.com/story/author-thomas-frank-talks-hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-and-his-new-book-listen-liberal/
Personally I am not in the top 1% but enjoy being in the top 5% as an IT professional with a post-graduate education. My own family circumstances despite having to leave before the ax hit, then have my IT group offshored, and then being the sole survivor of one of those Corporate axes cutting a whole group of professionals is better than ever. My family is making and have more money than ever.
But so what if the planet goes to hell? Life is about more than money and endless mindless consumption. Many in the top 5% are in the same boat – we have gotten some of the ill-gotten gains of the top 1% with low inflation rates and cheap offshore goods. But on the other hand, even professionals have no real job security.
Another Corporate sweep or privatization mania could wipe out our jobs tomorrow. And we know that unless the US, the belly of the beast destroying the planet, wakes up that we will be screwed with wild storms, wildfires, droughts and the lack of mobility to get anywhere when the price of oil inevitably goes up without Green Transit.
Lets talk about the real issues please James…
What should not be ignored is the current regime using Title IX to enforce transgender/gender identity “rights” from bathrooms to college sports to Greek life. This is a real issue, regrettably. A president with a litany of policy failures be it foreign or healthcare is reduced to fighting for a legacy that will allow gay married people to take a cruise ship with new tranny bathrooms to Cuba. Brilliant.
The latest Issue of Inspire Magazine, a publication produced by Al-Qaeda, is calling for Muslims in the US to begin stabbing Americans as they are Jews in Palestine, and to start blowing the hell out of everything with car bombs–they even provide detailed instructions for producing them. Something tells me that perhaps the transgenders and leftist social justice warriors will perhaps soon have more to worry about than where to shit their pants.
Says you it isn’t a big issue. I’m a woman, to me it is a huge issue. Most people are women, btw.
If it isn’t a major issue, then why is this happening?
I guess JHK didn’t get the memo requiring him to restrict HIS site to discussions about peak oil, Wall Street thievery, and climate change. I prfer the suburban sprawl and popular culture griping with Duncan over the peak oil dead horse thumping, but it’s his ball and his court.
Certain aspects of sex change cosmetics and related internal biological manipulations are becoming big ticket medical items. This would be a consequence of sex change operations becoming more popular. A huge profit center for this is already emerging within the medical-insurance industrial complex.
What better position for the health lobby to support with their back door influence? Making this a human rights issue would be a huge boon, something already mentioned last week by the attorney general.
Now, exactly how the ‘T’ get pasted on the end of the ‘LGBT’ liberal fashion statement passcode? The first three letters, L- lesbian, G-gay, B-bisexual are personal choices; the last T ‘transsexual’, a potentially expensive and ongoing medical intervention.
Does this mean that middle class taxpayers will eventually subsidizing all the Bruce Jenner wannabe’s OBGYN appointments?
And what better way to divide, further dumb down and conquer the electorate than with this utterly nonsensical, irreconcilable and geopolitically irrelevant story of transgender bathroom choice?
I am generally center-right and I am totally confused by the transgender issues… however, I want to disagree with one sentence in your comment: “L- lesbian, G-gay, B-bisexual are personal choices” is factually incorrect. Take it from me… I am a big ole “G” that spent years and years praying to Jeebus and going to therapy. Despite my desperate wishes, I could not change. All the prayers to God “Please, don’t let me be a c*cks*cker!” were for naught. I’m a “G” whether I want to be or not. It really is an immutable trait (probably like your heterosexual orientation). Now about trannies… I just don’t know.
Actually I noticed this same ‘mistake’ yesterday when re-reading the final print online, and meditated upon this while watering the kale bed.
Your choice, my choice, weighed within the walls of psyche, physiology, ethics, practicality, ideally a free choice. But in the end, we humans have an ability to choose freely in balancing these factors; just as surely as we can be subjected to tyranny for making this choice.
We all get to privately chose how to balance Eros, pathos; and collectively we will live the result; and pass forward the collective fruits of our choice. In this debt fueled era of Eros, those issues dominate. During the 30’s Great Depression, perhaps not so much.
A culture that imprisons children in ‘schools’ where the dominating issue becomes how to best ‘get their freak on’ might work, or it might end up as a follow up chapter to ‘Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds’. The choice is ours.
The left’s campaign to dissolve the United States by dissolving its culture of civility, democracy, and social order is not an exercise in frivolity.
Those other issues do matter greatly. So do those issues that determine whether we have a society sufficiently sane for there to be any prospect that it might try to address them to some degree.
All I have to say is: God Damn Civilization!!!
I think Jim did a good job of clarifying the issue for me. I am about the same as him politically as I have always been a little left center on some things and a little center right on other things. I think we are in the final stages of the US global empire in its final mad stage before collapse. I am working on becoming self sufficient enough to try to survive the collapse. We live in the country so we will have a chance for survival. I suppose our family better stock up on weapons and join the local militia to defend our food supplies from the starving masses who will exodus the cities when the lights go out for good. The scandals involving government agencies are a sign of the system already starting to unravel. The smart phone generation will sit in their dark apartments waiting for help that will never come. The parallels between the US and Rome are striking.
“But it was not necessary to call it marriage.”
Exactly! Calling a rabbit a donkey because of their ears.
It is refreshing to read so much common sense in one setting. Thank you JHK.
And yes, it is diversion and division, with (sarcasm on) more strength through diversity (off).
I believe the reason the politicians dragged their feet on the issue of some sort of legal and social institution for gays, was to weaken (actually dismantle) the institution of marriage.
Gays always had the exact same right to marriage as anyone else. Now no one has marriage, all there is is the new thing put in its place, and labeled marriage. Kind of like what happened to Hellman’s mayonnaise since globalism.
“Gays always had the same right to marriage as anyone else.” Really? In what world was that?
I think she means they’ve always had the same right as anyone else to marry someone of the opposite sex.
And, of course, many gay people of earlier eras did so, with understandably dismal results.
Dismal? As in sexually? Is that all there is to marriage? Anyway, obviously there can’t be any secrets in this regard. And obviously the gay partner can’t actually despise the body of their straight partner or it’s not going to work.
Duke’s is better anyway… and “still 32 oz”!
Something has happened to Hellman’s Mayonnaise? My God! What have they done?
Yes, I have to agree that this is the “kulcha war” nonsense that keeps our attention on all the wrong issues.
Of course it’s antagonizing and certainly makes for the phony Red/Blue war which makes the sheeple anxious to go out and vote for the oligarch of their choice. It’s hard to fathom how big this issue really is. What’s the percentage of the population that this applies to?
But the real issues are way out of focus. Our never ending wars enriching private interests, which smash and destroy countries with no good outcome but chaos.
The set up of training extreme Muslims back in the ’80’s and ’90s through Saudi Arabia as a dark army to they serve our proxy wars.. and oh, you’re not allowed to talk about the 28 pages in the 911 reports, why who knows where that will lead…..but I digress.
We have Hillary who called Putin a Hitler and then on an interview when she is asked by her aggressive interventionism she says, If we could have killed Hitler before he took control…….Can you spell LOGIC. Cuz you have to understand what her program is. Oh yes, those humanitarian Baltic wars her husband conducted were so successful, don’t you know.
And she gives speeches to Goldman Sachs for huuuge money — the very folks who want to end the public sector and get into American infrastructure, when you know worthless money is not enough….
Yes, there’s a lot for the Dems to hide esp. when the annointed one has competition, so Obama is the water boy talking about transgenders. Something he wasn’t interested in all this time.
If Obama really wants to change something consequential instead of who uses what toilet stall he might stop the drone assassinations, the endless Wars with another 500 troops being sent to Syria, and the trillion dollar boondoggle of a new generation of nuclear weapons as if we won’t all be incinerated quite well with the thousands we already have…
Oh yes and stop the records sales of over $60 billion in arms to the Saudi dictatorships continuing to use some of those weapons to bomb the people of Yemen…
But somehow Obama is given a pass on these issues…
Because he is doing what the big donors to his election campaigns want him to do. Obama is not being given a pass, he is doing exactly what he was passed into office to do.
You assume that Obama really wants to change something consequential because you imagine yourself in his place. You may be in error about that. Think about those drone strikes. All you concentrate on is the death and destruction but those drones keep a lot of people paid and that is what matters in American politics and to Obama, getting paid. Right now he needs to pay it back and he has a lot of rich people to pay back.
“Something (transgender) he (Obama) wasn’t interested all this time.”
http://www.handbill.us/?p=47885
Oh add April to the list of months with new temperature records:
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/may/16/april-third-month-in-row-to-break-global-temperature-records?utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=GU+Today+USA+-+morning+briefing+2016&utm_term=172474&subid=11824782&CMP=ema_a-morning-briefing_b-morning-briefing_c-US_d-1
Those bathroom stalls of whatever ilk are soon to get very hot and stuffy!
lol
But global warming that leads to an early spring is OK. Nobody is talking about carbon footprints right now. It is not in vogue to do so and won’t be for a month at least. The perennial myopia of the American public demands that attention be diverted to other things right now and trannies is where it’s at!
Once it gets decided that we need a national holiday to celebrate the sexually confused then we can get back to other issues, but right now global warming is pleasant and trannies are amusing, so carbon footprints are to be ignored. Global warming will have to wait. It can do that right? America has more important trivia to worry itself with right now.
Yeah, we seem to be obsessed with borders/boundary’s on social, civil, and political levels across the board.
It costs us our humanity in the end…
Those who stand for nothing will put up with anything! Thats the lesson I see.
Boundaries exist in nature. Boundaries are perfectly human. You don’t defecate from the same hole you take in nourishment for a reason – cross contamination. We have different sexes for a reason, to reproduce and divide the work loads. No one has dehumanized any side in this discussion…especially Mr. Kunstler. No one is less human because of their physical, emotional or psychological problems.
Humans do have problems, this doesn’t make them less human nor does it make the people who call out and treat disorders dehumanizing bigots.
America…
Knight at the Crossroads
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ee/19-v_2h_Vasnetsov.jpg/800px-19-v_2h_Vasnetsov.jpg
On the stone it is written:
“Straight you go – shall not live”
“Right you go – shall be married”
“Left you go – shall be rich”
The stone is lying, of course…
My concern about this transgender issue is that it allows *any* male free access into a woman’s bathroom or locker room, beyond just the very, very small transgender group (1 in 300?).
This is basically a free pass for the sexual predators in our society to stalk and attack women and little girls. By saying he “feels” like a women today, he can go into a girl’s bathroom and prey. This is the central issue. And just the large numbers of sexual predators makes it a very scary issue. If caught being a “voyeur” (or much worse), he has an immediate “Get Out of Jail” free card: I “felt” like a woman today. This is a literal definition of a culture gone insane.
You’re telling me that all the Harvard trained, highly paid lawyers in the DOJ couldn’t follow this very simple train of logic? Of course they could, but they are beholden to top management for their cushy, easy jobs; they have just a few more years until retirement and don’t want to rock the boat; or they are like so many other DC “workers” who surf porn all day and don’t see what the big deal is.
This seriously shows a nation in deep decline. With all the other disasters occurring, we get distracted by nonsense any rational human knows is nonsense and insanity. The first little girl who gets raped because of this will spark an explosion.
Yes, and those of us who point this out are accused of using our children as an excuse to hate. The real misogynist is the one in the White House, who has a penchant for attacking girls and women. Look at TSA.
The lunatic fringe at its best……
“This is basically a free pass for the sexual predators in our society to stalk and attack women and little girls.”
Heres your argument. Lets not let transgender people, who identify with one gender or the other, into that gendered bathroom because OTHERS (sex predators) might then use that as a ruse to attack someone.
Let me be frank, this is a stupid argument. Number one, trans people are no more likely to be a sex predator. Number two, sex predators can simply follow a person into whatever room they want and assault them. This is a straw man in Logic parlance.
Your imagination is taking a ride and leaving logic behind to reach conclusions having nothing to do with actual safety or security. What you are left with is indecency and rudeness. What we need here is tolerance and intelligence, not prejudice and ignorance. Your narrative of decline needs a scapegoat, etc.
Lets get down to brass tacks. This is about penises being in women’s bathrooms (lets admit it is not about vaginas being in men’s bathrooms, because lets be honest NO ONE CARES).
This is “white knighting” about (unspecified peril) toward “virginal females”. It is cooking up outrage where it simply doesn’t exist (mens rooms) and placating outrage where it does exist (women’s bathrooms).
Its my observation Women are fearful, craven, illogical and vain creatures sheperded by equally craven, fearful and illogical men who avail themselves to supposed “benefits” of unearned credit for being “protectors” from fictional lurid stories, made-up precisely to keep the women scared and clutching to their white knights.
Real world example, in the store the other day kid wanders more than 10 feet from Mom at cash register, her very loud angry complaint “Someone could snatch you!”. Stranger danger fear mongering is the real damaging issue in modern America. We’re locking our children indoors and to our wrists as we have become ever more paranoid twits. Tyranny and Fascism are the modis operandi of modern American “parenting”. We are (have) damaged generations with this stupidity.
The issue is coked-up BS crapping on a very small number of people who are completely harmless. It is hysteria and Obama is frankly correct about legislating access because Civil rights can’t wait for a whole nation of morons to self-enlighten.
Changing bathroom policy (and thus the entire culture based on thousands of years of precedent) is a small thing? Or somehow a Civil Right? What delusion. You’re right about women of course. But wrong about the danger to children: countless children are snatched every year.
Faery Tales are all about Monsters, Boogie Men, and Witches. Monsters are predatory wild animals. Boogie Men are Boogie Men. And Witches are evil women. It’s the wisdom of the race, preppy. Much bigger than you.
The portapotties are already transgender and have been for years. The problem with them is overuse. The portapotties at no jazz festival last weekend were beyond comprehension…the green liquid can only do so much…offensive to all genders.
The portapotties are single occupancy.
I remember a friend of mine, a young man at the time, recounting his embarrassment at an outdoor concert. He had consumed much beer, and as he described it, “peed all over”, and he knew there was a really cute young woman next in line. Off topic.
Transgender purpoises with purpose. Why not build communal portapotties? Or market the green liquid for home use? A Feminist company could employ lesbian to empty the communal portapotties.
– George, what’s that noise outside?
– It is a Coprophilia Pride Parade, sir.
– Really? And what do they want?
– They are just fighting for their right to equality, sir.
– I do not understand. Does someone prevent them from eating shit at home?
– No, sir. They do not want to eat shit only at home. They are in favor of crap to be sold in all dining establishments, so they could easily buy a shit on a stick, or order shit on a shovel in the restaurant.
– But it’s nauseating and quite unnatural
– Well, why not, sir? It is innate, so they were born with it, and nothing can be done about it. Also the nature is full of examples of Coprophilia. Dogs, guinea pigs, whole bunch of animals take it quite normal. Therefore, no wonder that a man as part of the animal world also wants a taste of it.
– George, if I understand that correctly, if they get their way, then in my favorite coffee shop on the corner with a strawberry souffle they will serve crap-cakes???
– That’s right, sir. Coprophilia is absolutely normal and people have the right to have their favorite dish at lunch, without hiding their preference.
– My God, I’d just have to throw up on the spot!
– Sir, how could you??? This is a completely intolerant. For this you could be at a minimum fined and at maximum go to jail.
– ???
http://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/greek-pudding/#comment-242649
When people go places where they feel comfortable with the right intention, they will generally be comfortable and the people in the surroundings will be comfortable with them too
When people are up to mischief, the people in the surroundings will notice. In these cases what matters is whether there is support to stop the mischief!
No sign on a door prevents anything
ps
I think on gay marriage and partnerships, I agree with Jim. Why not have the default a civil basis that everyone has, and let religions have the ‘extra’ of services based on their tradition and leave it to them. Flexible
I think the “why not” is that everyone knew this was the right thing to do, but it would not serve the agenda.
I do know gays who have absolutely no interest in living in a silly imitation of a heterosexual union. It’s that, or nothing, now for them.
Let me tell you a story. My oldest son, Bill, had a best friend named Kurt Kauffman. Kurt’s mother was from Germany and still had relatives there. In 1977, Kurt’s cousin from Munich, Petra, spent the summer in the United States with Kurt’s family. The following year, Kurt was invited to spend six weeks of summer in Munich with Petra’s family. Kurt didn’t want to go by himself and invited Bill to go with him. All I and Bill’s mother had to do was pay for Bill’s plane fare to and from Munich.
While in Munich, Bill and Kurt went to one of Munich’s large indoor swimming pools with another of Kurt’s cousins. When they got there, Kurt and Bill asked about the change rooms so they could don their swimming suits. The cousin said, “I don’t understand what you mean.” They explained that they wanted to know where to go to change from their regular clothes to their swimming suits. The cousin repeated that he still didn’t understand what they wanted.
Meanwhile, a girl of about 14 or 15 came near and began taking off her clothes and put on her swimming suit and dove in the water. My son, Bill, thought “if she can do it, so can I!” The regular clothes are put against the wall and no one disturbs them. No one worried about anything getting stolen. It’s just the way it was.
For some reason, Americans are very bent out of shape when it comes to sex. As far as bathrooms are concerned, what if all bathrooms were unisex? What would you see? Actual toilets, in public restrooms, are in a “stall” with a door that locks. All you would see is a person’s ankles and feet if you bothered to look! Urinals for men usually have a small divider so you really don’t have an opportunity to look at another guy’s penis while urinating, again, if that’s your turnon!
I’ve never been to a nudist camp, but I’ve been told that once you get used to seeing men and women in the nude, the “turn-on” factor is greatly subdued. Let’s face it, about 90% of the women I’ve seen in clothes wouldn’t turn me on by taking their clothes off!
I live in North Carolina (a DP from western NY) and for the life of me, I don’t understand why the legislature created a problem that didn’t exist.
People who like Germany’s ways better should probably go live in Germany. I don’t think you will see too many young women taking their clothes off in public anymore, they get enough blame just allowing themselves, at a crowded festival, to come within arm’s length of men.
Good point. My theory is all this nonsense has a great deal to do with the Puritan mentality, or rather today’s perverse version of it. Neither Lutherans nor Catholics in other countries have a problem with nudity. There is nothing more beautiful than the human body. Wait. That’s a quote from Leonardo. Oh, he was a Catholic. Oops.
I used to be a competitive swimmer here and have seen my fair share of swimming pools. Never seen one without change rooms.
I’m sick of hearing all the fuss about bathrooms in light of the predicaments our world is in. Last time I checked, harassing people in restrooms and locker rooms was illegal.
This is Mr. K at his very best. Of course, the left has gone round the bend; this time crossing the proverbial line in the sand. And, the right can make hay with this during the upcoming general election, if they are smart enough. Obama’s overreach here is startling and is now hard, for even the most ignorant, to ignore. But, I’m sure he’s going to use the next eight months to maximum advantage and the constitution be damned. And the more he does that, the more he is opening the door to Mr. Trump. Just more evidence of the evident decline and fall of a society in free fall.
Words have always been important to me.
And to me to call a union between2 men or 2 women a ‘marriage’ is a bastardization of the word. I have no objection to a civil union between any 2 adults or for that matter their choice of lifestyle. But, to extend the concept of marriage to something it’s never been is not correct to me.
It’s such a non-issue. I predict that in 20 years, every school and restaurant will have unisex, single-serving bathrooms. Most schools already have them. Just make them wheelchair accessible and everyone is happy.
The only folks I meet concerned about using unisex bathrooms, if there is one stall, are over 60. It will solve itself in an actuarial way.
Target decided men could enter their multi-stall women’s bathrooms. It is NOT a non-issue, nor is it an elderly person’s issue. If it is SO unimportant, why is our president brining the full force of the Justice Department to bear on it?
BofO,
Why? Because Oblamo is trying to kill 2 birds with one stone in ALL of his “civil rights” concerns.
Bird #1: Putting a feeble polish on his turd of a reputation/legacy.
Bird #2: His handlers have found these “issues” to be an excellent means of distracting screen-addicted, happy-motoring, fuckwit denizens of the US from tumbling to the toxic nature of their economy and ecology… and how the one is destroying the other, both at home and worldwide. (Because friends and neighbors, that would spell removal of their hands – and everything else – from the levers of power.)
I think the .gov needs to sort out special bathrooms for T.V.’s (transvestites) too. But don’t forget the Gynandromorphs now.
The Pit-Stop portable toilets seen at events and construction sites don’t make gender distinctions, do they? So. . .the solution would be to rip out all bath-rest rooms in buildings and install banks of portable units to make everyone FEEL good. Although taking a Whizz down in the alley behind the dumpster works too! Going out in the woods or a field with a shovel and some corn cobs works too!
I’m just sighting examples of alternatives of something that is extremely blown out of proportion into Stupid-land.
Oooooo. . . think corn cobs, and save the trees! It’s Organic too.
They have some “bathrooms” in San Fran now that are the equivalent of your suggestions.
It would not suit everybody, though, to have the row of portable toilets, because what about the men who want to flash the women, or who get off on peeing next to a female, or the plain, old-fashioned voyeurs? You aren’t taking their needs into account.
It serves as a distraction, have the little people fighting for their scraps while the 1% fly off to Epstein Island to commit statutory rape on young girls and probably boys as well, and loot America to the bone.
The interesting thing about these distractions is their use of feminine tactic of social dominance, ingrouping and outgrouping on issues that are as arbitrary as being called a witch in Salem. The issue is secondary, the social dominance by these mentally unbalanced petty tyrants is primary.
We literally are living in a Jim Jones cult writ large. FTR Jones’ most fervent enforcers were his mostly white women harem, and the beta goofs with guns who enforced the hierarchy of submission to the craziness, including forcing the messiah to drink the kook aid when he balked.
I’m far right for lack of better terms and I wish there were, but I support Obama, I love the man or whatever gender he is today.
I wish he would cancel the election and destroy the false hope that maybe 40% of the electorate has for “Making America Great Again.”
Hell no, American Empire delenda est, and not even the stooges of the GOP can salvage its legitimacy.
“A common feature of societies in decline is a preoccupation with sexual freakishness.”
This has been repeated so many times the original source of this claim (or article of faith) is probably lost to time. It is the only part of this article I disagree with. Sexual freakishness is always around.
As Obama plods along the path of lame duckishness he being of little conscience and much posture splits his time between shovelling down the mountain of Wall Street favors he owes and pretending to be a Democrat. That is still part of his act.
Pretending to be a democrat means embracing every minority group that can possibly be identified as being downtrodden and oppressed. That mental issues could be the common thread from which some groups are woven is not to be at all considered. Relative to the pie in the sky principles of the Democratic party that would be blasphemy.
To be consistent Mr Obama should now embrace the North American Man/Boy Love Association (NAMBLA) and give them what they want too. That being to feel the love.
That five bucks you donated to his election eight years ago. It was not enough to earn any favors and certainly not enough to keep a trannie from reaching over and giving you a squeeze.
No one can explain to me, if a man somewhat disguised as a woman can use the women’s bathroom, what is his problem using the men’s room. A MAN is too uncomfortable or something to use the men’s bathroom, because of how he has chosen to dress that day, so it logically follows that ALL women should be at the very least made uncomfortable to suit this one individual’s preference? That is crazy. So is Obama.
“As political and economic freedom diminishes, sexual freedom tends compensatingly to increase. And the dictator (unless he needs cannon fodder and families with which to colonize empty or conquered territories) will do well to encourage that freedom. In conjunction with the freedom to daydream under the influence of dope and movies and the radio, it will help to reconcile his subjects to the servitude which is their fate.” Aldous Huxley
This quote has run through my head time and time again over the past several years. Seems to explain much of the “freedoms” granted during the Obama administration.
Superb article! I must tell you though that some time ago when I confronted a gay friend with an argument much the same as the one you present in today’s post, his reply was concise, “Greg, I work hard for my money and I’ve been fairly successful. I pay a lot in taxes, and I don’t mind. I have no intention of marrying anyone, but if the government doesn’t afford me the same rights and dignities as everyone else then I’d like my taxes to be refunded in full.”…needless to say, I shut the hell up.
All in all, we might be taking the institution of marriage a little too seriously. The life-long pair bond is recent in humans – no doubt a dubious function of civilization.The so-called ‘nuclear family’ is a delicate and often dysfunctional phenomenon – especially in the absence of a strong clan (extended family) structure. The millennials seem to sense this, as do the Blacks. Perhaps the future configuration of communities is better understood by these groups than by we older whites who still cling to the Ozzie and Harriet days of yore.
The “same rights as everybody else” is to marry someone of the other sex! No one has a right to procreate with someone of the same sex and we should ban creating a person except by joining a sperm of a man and an egg of a woman. And we should protect the reproductive rights of marriage, and void all same sex marriages. Those are boundaries.
The Natural Marriage and Reproduction Act.
Hey, Johnny,
In short, you have a misconceived conception of conceiving.
Men do not have the internal equipment to produce eggs. Women do not have the internal equipment to produce sperm. Attend a Biology class or check it out in the library and stop pestering the rest of us with this goddamn foolishness. Your life will become less complicated and worrisome.
Have you ever heard of cloning? Stem cells? Organ transplants? Obviously a man would require significant intervention to produce eggs or gestate a baby, but the point is a man doesn’t even have a right to try, there is a limit, a boundary. Only women have a right to be pregnant, only men have a right to impregnate.
Give it a rest! Quit shitting in a pie tin and exclaiming that you’ve “made a pie”. Your “concerns” are anything but. Just another excuse for not preparing for what’s *really* coming down the pike.
Yes, Black Africans have always had weak families (but strong clans) and they are really people we want to emulate. Since their takeover of Detroit, the city has soared to new height of culture and civility – or would if it wasn’t for those White Racism.
The Millennials have weak everything and no clans at all. They aren’t really emulating the Blacks, they’re just in free fall.
Their entire problem is EMULATION. They are weak approximates. Their beards are ironic costumes, a manliness indicator for the unmanly. Their quixotic search for authenticity through posing. They wear overalls and redwings and have backyard chickens and pretend to be farmers, they mix a few strange ingredients in a highball glass and wax their mustaches and pretend to be gin era mixologists, they gets tattoos of beats and a carving knife on their forearm and work as a short order cook and pretend to be farm-to-table chefs. They buy vinyl and drink past because “that’s real”. They wear a uniform of nonconformist conformity. Mommy let them wear costumes at play. Daddy thinks it’s all good. They’ll back them to the hilt and so will Bernie, he wants to pretend too.
Beets
Exactly. They’re not really becoming Black Tribalists or any kind of tribalists. Honest emulation could be admirable after all.
“It should be clear after some years of social justice hysteria in this country that coercion is now the method of choice on the Left side of the culture war battlefield: you must believe what we believe, or face punishment. As a Vietnam-era registered Democrat I hugely resent this oppressive political approach. I resent even more the supposed public intellectuals and thought leaders in government, academia, and the media who go along with this despotic conduct — which includes ruining the livelihoods and careers of respectable colleagues among them.”
This is a very cogent description of what is occurring through the politics and media nexus. It’s manufactured consent. If you question it you are a bigot and a boor or reduced to being regarded as a naive person fixating on “unimportant” issues. If you ignore it… good boy, that’ll be all.
Prior to the legalization of gay marriage, I was bombarded on social media with the push to legalize it. Since then, I have yet to receive a single invitation to a gay marriage.
Sorry, but there is no such thing as transgender. You can have an “add-a-dick-to-me” but it doesn’t change the fact that you are genetically a female. Nor does mutilating your penis and taking estrogen to grow breasts make you a man.
Woman, not man.
And, you can’t change your reproductive rights. A child is born with a right to procreate, but only as their body’s greatest natural potential. Males don’t have a right to be pregnant. We need to ban male pregnancy.
I think I’m done with reading Kunstler, and the comments. There are so many more relevant things we could be discussing on Monday mornings.
How can you see the comments from such a high horse?
Apparently Ms Bilgewater has not had her Monday morning confirmation bias affirmed so she is going to take her ball, as it were, and go home.
Buh bye Helen.
I sympathize Helen, but Jim has always been about the culture war- maybe not THE culture war, but A culture war, so now these wars have intersected; become the same war.
“We”? You mean the multitude of diverse sub-personalities that you call Helen?
This is a great piece on our political situation as written by Chris Hedges on Ralph Nader’s observations. I couldn’t recommend it more.
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Welcome-to-1984-by-Chris-Hedges-Corporations_Corruption_Democratic_Election-160514-541.html
Borderline is the word. My late sister’s final psychiatric diagnosis was borderline personality disorder. She also suffered from a handful of other psychiatric problems, including alcoholism. She finally succumbed to alcohol related disease at the age of 50.
From the raging flip-outs over nothing and anything — perhaps a remark that you like spaghetti or an effort to help — to the wild spewing curses, the slovenly clothing, the attitude that she was always loving and eternally filled with pure wisdom but you, BTW, are a grade A [expletive deleted], I keep meeting people who remind me of my sister. It is very frightening. On the one hand, I work with SJW, so it’s tempting to say that this insanity is restricted to lefty types. But I used to work in an office filled with neocons, and I must say that except for the slovenly clothing, the underlying base of utter delusion and free-floating rage was the same.
It’s really scary to be the sane sister (and to be routinely blamed for it using the language of “privilege”). This weekend I’ve been sadly reflecting whether being the sane citizen is more or less scary than it was to be the sane sister. God knows the survival guilt is much the same.
No one mentions endocrine disruptors in the environment in transgender discussions.
Fish with both male and female genitals appear regularly in the upper Potomac River watershed. Are humans immune to such things? Is all this just another gift from corporate America and better living thru chemistry?
http://www.ewg.org/research/dirty-dozen-list-endocrine-disruptors
Of course, some would consider this politically incorrect to even mention something like this.
My own hypothesis is that Austism IS increasing, unlike ADD, which was an increase in diagnoses because it was inconvenient to have energetic boys sitting in classroom chairs. I think autism although there are genetic predispositions for it, comes from exposure in the fetus to all these endocrine and hormone similar chemicals awash in our Environment. We have been surprised recently to find lead in drinking fountains, not only in Flint but now Newark NJ and other places. And lead is easily discovered. But who ever tests for all the
hormonal like chemicals, estrogen simulators and others being dumped into our waters?
But that is just a theory.
Yes, the vast majority of teachers are women, and even when they don’t actively hate boys, they still want, expect, and/or demand that they act like girls. Letting boys be taught by women is a complete disaster. Any conflict is punished by a stern “It takes two”, with no interest in the justice of the matter. But in fact, it only takes one to start a conflict and honor demands a response.
jtjt,
The reason this horror is beyond the pale of mention is the $MONEY$ factor. The chemical killers (Big Farm and Big Pharma) of this world are making mountains of profit. It is forbidden to question Mammon and those that worship at that altar. (As you and I understand, ideology has absolutely *nothing* to do with it.)
It is not a coincidence that we have estrogen-like chemicals in our drinking water and an epidemic of sexual confusion, gay everything and transgender militarism.
The fact is that war is a very profitable business (especially when war profiteering arms manufacturers can sell to both sides of a conflict).
Money, however, is only a means to an end–the real end is the exercise of unaccountable power by those behind the scenes who control the strings of the nominal “leaders” who get shuffled in and out of office like bit players from some Hollywood studio’s central casting department.
Another fact is that the congress is wholly bought by the MIC through campaign contributions, junkets to such places as Bali, Copenhagen, the French Riviera, and such like for nonsense conferences where much bloviation is interrupted by rounds of golf, whoring around, and sight seeing.
Now that the mid-east wars of the past 25 years (going back to Desert Shield/Storm) are owned by both political parties they have assumed the late Margaret Thatcher’s favorite slogan of inevitability, TINA, (there is no alternative).
Hence, an entire generation of young adults has been born and grown up knowing nothing but constant warfare sometimes with greater intensity than at others. War has become “the way things are”, that’s all.
Now even rats in a maze need occasional “rewards” for the miserable routine they are asked to endure. In the spirit of Orwell’s 1984, 2 minutes of hate is prescribed by society’s handlers for the purpose of blowing off steam and distracting the masses from their otherwise dreary existence. Hence, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, and attorney general Loretta Lynch.
Take a look at the US in the mirror of art.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KeX5OZr0A4
It should be clear after some years of social justice hysteria in this country that coercion is now the method of choice on the Left side of the culture war battlefield: you must believe what we believe, or face punishment. As a Vietnam-era registered Democrat I hugely resent this oppressive political approach.
When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. Since the Vietnam War ended, Jim, your party has run 7 candidates for President, six of them lawyers (Carter being an engineer.). All of them steeped in logical positivism and loving the system of administrative law. When they killed mens rea did your generation of Democrats protest? That was the beginning of law not as reasonable compromise, but dictate: obey or else.
We live on a dying planet while being oppressed by plutocracy and perpetual war, and yet we get worked up about who should or should not use certain public bathrooms….
Let’s flush this insanity and focus on problems much bigger than sexual identity; i.e. justice, peace, and survival.
Get your own blog and start.. many of the world’s problems are solved by blogs and the posting pensioners that generate hit traffic.
Planets die.
Live in the moment.
No one makes peace unless able to back it up with war. If you don’t like that, you are on the wrong planet. That’s the Law here, – the Law of the Ecosystem. Gaia is a Bitch on wheels.
James, your views are so ironic in that many trans people would agree- to a point.
Like most reactionary people, what you dont apparently understand (“it isnt settled, ya know”) is that transgender-ism isn’t about sex (er…”sexual freakishness”), it isnt about stretching boundaries, and it isn’t about “being on display” which is a right wing trope about trans people being cross dressers and having deviant behaviors that are a “threat” to the women and children of America.
What trans people are about is identity, and -here’s the ironic part, Jim- BEING LEFT ALONE; not being the center of attention; not being outted and pointed at by people like you.
Sorry, separate but equal isnt it, because they want to be left alone when they go pee.
But I digress- trans people might agree that all this attention by Obamas admin may be counter-productive to being “left alone”, but seriously being discriminated and attacked is more so.
You dont care or know that more trans people are physically attacked and often killed due to how they identify than any other minority. This whole bathroom thing makes that kind of confrontation more likely. But that IS the point- to make it okay to discriminate based on “the norm”…. er … religion… er… because boundaries are being crossed that shouldn’t be.
Jim, it seems like you have always expressed your own Puritanism and sense of superiority in your writing, and your turn of phrase has always been amusing… But now it has just become mean- not unlike the rest of our reactionary culture that cannot see anything that is not black and white.
Who’s next? those who haven’t quite taken their sense of self to an “identity conclusion”, e.g, dykes who are not willing to self identify as men, though that is how they think and behave?
Maybe dykes should be kept out of womens bathrooms as well? Easy to mistake them for trans people because all we want to really know is that they are freaks- right?
sheesh.
Maybe you have always felt this way about people who are different, but you are so wrong about this, and knowing this gives me no pleasure, nor a sense of superiority.
GetAbike–
I don’t believe for a moment that this issue is about transgender people wanting to be “left alone.” I’d propose, actually, that quite a bit of this behavior — especially among young people — amounts to just another way of staging a tantrum. — JHK
Who’s tantrum?
The Right wing tantrum? about losing gay marriage in their own High court?
agreed.
Jim, Have ytou seen ‘Triggly Puff’ in action?
You dont like movie clips posted here, so I wont link.
TRIGGLY PUFF – Angry White Dude
Could Triggly Puff have made herself look more like a sumo wrestler than she did? … Queen Kong Lives Queen Kong throws tantrum (1) Reply. … Contact Angry White Dude.
[Search domain angrywhitedude.com] angrywhitedude.com/2016/04/triggly-puff-the-new-bloated-face…
More results
Meet Triggly Puff: The Fattest, Most Entitled SJW Alive …
Meet “Triggly Puff,” aka Cora Segal, an immensely obese social justice warrior recently catapulted to fame. The rare creature was first spotted in a viral video …
[Search domain culturalmarxism.net] culturalmarxism.net/meet-triggly-puff-the-fattest-most-entitl…
Triggly Puff’s OK Cupid Account – patrick.net
real free speech … Complete with fat pictures. And guys, she’s still available. She took down her OK Cupid account after getting a lot a responses post her tantrum …
“What trans people are about is identity, and -here’s the ironic part, Jim- BEING LEFT ALONE; not being the center of attention; not being outted and pointed at by people like you.”
Save the histrionics for your real crying game moment.
Because, clearly, men feel the urge to dress like women, take hormones, and change their sex don’t care about APPEARANCE. How they APPEAR to others is what in fact drives them. How others identify them is what preoccupies them. You don’t get it both ways, no pun intended.
Skepticism is absolutely fundamental in human developments. In the philosophical context, it is not denying, but questioning, being undogmatic and so forth. Some people here seem to favor blind acceptance with the caveat that we concentrate on the sanctimoniously acceptable “big” issues.
A wonderful article. It is all about the imposition of a new morality on people who are happy enough with the one they grew up with. I am amused by those here who complain that this is an insignificant subject compared with “the 1%” or the mass delusion that is global warming. It is such a small thing, why don’t we just do what they say and accept it, so we can get back to more important things? Some even think it is such a dull and trivial matter that they are storming off in protest! (These are the posters who complain about the CF comments section.)
From a report from the Irish Independent, a couple of days ago the teachers union here called for unisex toilets in primary (elementary) schools (that would be from four years of age and upwards) because some children have “gender dysphoria”. They also want a more “inclusive”, unisex, uniform for children of both (all?) sexes.
Dysphoria looks like a good scientific word and would sound even more impressive if spoken by a person in a white coat. How long can they go on making these amazing discoveries?
“Being able to access gender-neutral toilets, [a report] says, may be particularly important.”
Savour the poetry.
Then there’s this bit:
“He [the union head] also called for teachers to use the appropriate pronoun ‘he’ and ‘she’ for transgender pupils when asked to.
‘I was speaking with a principal teacher who is waiting for the child to tell them which pronoun to use when addressing them’ he added.”
We are very advanced in Ireland!
Don’t tell me: you’ve already done the pronoun bit. Been there, done it. Bought the teeshirt.
I mentioned last year the employee of the state broadcaster who took a fortnight’s leave to undergo a “process”. At the end of it, photographed wearing high heels and a headscarf, announced that his gender identity was fluid and liable to change during the day depending on his mood at any particular moment.
Isn’t it a marvellous coincidence the way you and we are discussing the very same insignificant and trivial urgent issues? We also had a landslide referendum victory for same-sex marriage, which got a benevolent and tolerant (and wholly unanimous) support from an informed, pluralist media. There were smiles all around, in the sunshine, and everyone agrees it was the finest day in living memory.
Remember Mutiny on the Bounty? Well, they even got Pitcairn.
http://annaraccoon.com/2015/10/28/this-septic-isle-full-of-elderly-paedophiles/
I never thought of Marriage as a right . It always seemed like an obligation to me. I think JHK explained this very well a few months ago. The Democrats sold out in 1992 with Bill Clinton and NAFTA .
So they went back into the victim business, so they could have some issues. Black Rights, Gay Rights, Marriage Equality, and now transgender. issues they can champion without having to actually do anything.
LGBT make up about 4.2% of our population so why should they get special rights? on a more personal note. I am 60 years old and have severe arthritis from decades of manual labor. I would like a bathroom with a warm seat and plenty of old Mad Magazines to read.
Welcome to the dawning of the Age Of Chaos my friends, it shall only grow worse and never better. While outside of the confines of the Bohemian Grove we simple folk may not be allowed to discuss the Lord of Chaos and the onslaught of these advanced spiritual adversaries, but those inside are quite unencumbered to plot, plan and usher in the New Disorder. Chaos is the key for when all those who oppose such evil can no longer believe in anything anymore they cannot put up any resistance to the invading hordes of those that will dominate this plane of existence.
Where I work, there is a new phenomenon in our “Men’s and Women’s Locker Rooms and it under the guise of “identifying as a man”, which allows for middle aged women to dress, undress and wander about in the buff inside of the men’s locker rooms at will because they “Identify as “men””. Why such individuals would care to stroll about in the altogether amongst 70 year old men with their dangly bits bouncing off of their knee caps for all to admire is well beyond my simple ability to understand, so I simply stay out, use the “Special Needs” individual bathrooms, and hope I do not get called in there to fix something when the show is on. Strange how we are not allowed into the Women’s Locker Rooms even to fix equipment that needs repair, but then Chaos has NO rules and I understand that. Chaos is a fine thing if you are looking to debilitate an enemy or a future victim so it is easy to understand why it is being utilized and is an the increase.
All I can say in the end is that I am damned glad that I will never have to attempt dating again during what is left of my lifetime because I would NOT want to be unpleasantly surprised with what might be lurking underneath the undergarments of a potential horizontal dance partner, if you know what I mean. Good luck to you all that are not so fortunate.
Now that gays have the right to marry and transgenders have the right to use which bathroom they “feel” is right, could someo0ne tell me what the next beleaguered sexual groups needs the social injustice they suffer eradicated ? I have the “cutting edge social conscience ” fetish.
Transgenderism is just another form of female subjugation. We’ll just take femininity from you. We’ll just make it meaningless. This is just paving the way for the ambiguity of natural conception and birth and custom offspring. Who needs women anyway?
Enjoy this summer’s Olympic Games women, it may well be your last.
Yes, the Right Wing should enter young men into any and all female sports as a way to end Title Nine and inflict absolute horror on Feminism which has been a partner with the Feds in their war on men.
The Transgender folks that I have met personally, live as men. Your statement forgets that Transgender goes both ways. The “men” that I’ve met, would frighten the hell out of your wife in the ladies room.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-05-16/americas-borderline-personality-dangerous-itself-others
Wait a minute, a link on ZeroCred that does not sum up a problem in “one chart”?
Outstanding blog JHK. Funny thing about the transgender bathroom issue, think about it, trans genders have probably been using their “chosen” type of bathroom for years now!! Do you think maybe it’s an issue used to distract the masses for what “Big Daddy” is doing? Like when the evangelical far right brings up the issue of abortion. Ya think? I guess that’s what Orbit7er was trying to say in one of the first comments. Well said orbit7er. WELL said.
For the first time I watched part of the Kardashian show. Now I know why it was never before viewed by me. I’m not into total asininity. What a first rate bunch of garbage. All the Kardashian women combined wouldn’t make a zit on the back end of Julia “Butterfly” Hill. My age, I’m repeating myself. But I forgot I did. Rock on Julia “Butterfly”!
This was a nonissue. Just as Clinton having sex with an intern was not about sex, but breaking laws and lying, this is about the regime using the DOJ to force change through the misapplication of law and not about peeing in a restroom.
They want to humiliate dissent and skepticism by reframing dissent as prudishness in the former and scatalogical in the latter, or by calling it a non-issue. So what if ole Bill banged an intern!
This latest federal overreach has invited problems where none really existed save a few instances of children in schools failing to learn an important life lesson: you can’t have your cake and eat it too. Now a man, and there will be many, who want to test the spirit of the law will do so and it will disproportionately affect women, and adversely so.
You must admit the Feminists have this coming. They deserve everything they’re going to get. They’ve never represented women per se (except their clique) but as Marxists, only the needs of the Elite and the dispossession of Whites and Western Culture.
Well officer, ya see uh, the thing is, I identify as a girl. That’s
the ticket, heh heh, heh heh.
(Damn non-existent edit button.)
Thanks for this one James.
Most US Presidents on the way out the door, concentrate on Israeli Palestinian peace settlements, and libraries, as their ‘legacy’…
This Black Caesar’s is going to be the most appropriate for his ‘Reign’…
A whole new generation of Toilet Humor.
I can assure you, any (the word you were looking for James…) PERVERT, who comes into the girls room when my little grand daughter is in there, will get more than a fistful of rights…
(and yes, I’m from N.C.)
Well said, Sir!
did you search, ‘Triggly Puff?”
The current focus on bathroom facilities for trans kids & adults is nothing more than a controversy for the sake of political appearances and gain.
Does anyone seriously believe that Obama cares about trans people’s rights? He’s merely trying to latch onto a controversial issue, to appear to prove his liberality. It’s far too late for that, at least for those who are paying attention. He has spent almost two terms now, doing as little as possible, except to further increase the fortunes of his real sponsors.
On the other side, it’s also a cleverly manufactured issue, to allow a few even more conservative politicians the opportunity to moralize, grandstand, and otherwise try to reinforce their base of support with the fundamentalists.
The whole issue is just a desperate effort to recruit some additional support for our two main corrupt, malicious, and dying political parties, in the runup to the presidential election. It would not be surprising to see turnout drop to single digits, due to the increasingly widespread realization of the futility of voting for either corporatist party.
Trans people, and they are people, whatever else you may think about them, are no more than pawns in this controversy, which could have been solved quickly, easily, and non-controversially, as Mr. Kunstler observed.
Too late. You gambled and you lost. The winds of public opinion are turning against you. You all should have been more humble, much more humble. By definition, society must be heteronormative. Heterosexuals serve Society – the aberrant do not.
‘Does anyone seriously believe that Obama cares about trans people’s rights?’
I know very little about him but I am nevertheless pretty sure that he does. That’s the thing. They really believe in this stuff. It could change 180 degrees tomorrow and they would *still* believe.
What Washington has dreamed of for years, has been implemented by Moscow!
Heavy intercontinental missile RS-28, “Sarmat” that the Kremlin plans to adopt in the next two years, mixed all cards of American military planners.
Indeed, in the non-nuclear version, it is the very weapon of “instant global strike”, with which the United States has been long scaring the entire world. However, in reality “effective managers” from Washington were unable to create a missile with a range of desired characteristics, speed, accuracy and reliability.
But the “primeval Russians” have done it! Now it’s no longer a secret, the whole world knows: these weapons are already in the hands of Moscow.
And by the way, in the version with nuclear warhead, just a single “Sarmat” missile is enough for inflicting unacceptable damage to the United States!
Speed, precision, invulnerability
Why hyper-sound is so important for the military? The answer is simple. It is only three words: speed, accuracy, invulnerability. Hypersonic missiles flying at a high speed, can hit any target on Earth within an hour. And thanks to its ability to maneuver, to adjust the course throughout the flight – to hit with precision, within a meter. Moving in the atmosphere, in the plasma cloud, and therefore remains invisible to any missile defense system. It thus surpasses in its combat effectiveness all of existing models of weapons, including thermonuclear ammunition.
Hypersonic flight is invisible not only for modern radars. There is not even in sight in the foreseeable future creation of means to intercept such missiles.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, commenting on the prospects for the creation of hypersonic weapons, said that the value and impact of this breakthrough can be compared, perhaps, only with creation of the atomic bomb.
Yes, the “Son of Satan” ICBM; the replacement for the SS-18 “Satan” MIRVED ICBM.
Quite a bit of devilish inventiveness there, sort of like Barry O’s social engineering in the toilets of America.
Finc,
Just saw the video of the new Russian military vehicle being shown to Putin where the handle came off the door when a General tried to open it during a show and tell. Your hyper-sonic warheads sound impressive, but I have a concern. I live midway between Seattle and San Francisco…and fear that we, in our intensely rural area might “catch one” in error…I know, it would be embarrassing for all….
Don’t you worry. I bet quality control on ICBM production facilities by a least 3 orders of magnitude is higher than on the auto plants.
But, of course, shit sill happens…
Putin is really liberal in the sense that he believes in the liberal methods of economic management, and hopes that by startling the West with Russian military might he could still force West to cooperate and to integrate into the global economic system.
And not the missile defense system in Romania and Nazi revolt in Ukraine could make him abandon the idea.
But the Cold War would mean a complete disaster in Russia’s relations with the West since the collapse of the Soviet Union showed that although cold, but war is a war, and it is an activity that aims at destroying the enemy and the colder the victorious war for the winner, the hotter the peace for the looser.
With regard to the current situation, in which Russia has found itself that means dealing a death blow to the global financial system based on the dollar. Putin hate to do it, because together with the global financial system will go all Russian foreign exchange reserves denominated in dollars, and in general it is not clear whether the Russian financial system which is build so painstakingly and at the cost of so many sacrifices, will be able to withstand. But à la guerre comme à la guerre or in war as in war.
Thus, in this situation it is the cold war that is a real war, and all these scares of nuclear war is just such a geopolitical game, at least for the West, who does not believe that Russia will use nuclear weapons, no matter what they do.
And the task of the Cold War unleashed by the West – to bankrupt Russia with new arms race, and the Russian strategy in this case, is bankrupting the United States.
And as shown by refitting submarine “Moscow” into the carrier of small submersibles Russia intends to do so, if global, or rather globalist West will win the election in the United States. And all the other submarines must now discourage Western global pursuit to establish the Nazi-Islamist dictatorship in the most primitive way, by abandoning the idea of elections at all.
And after winning the election by Sanders or Trump those submarines must ensure the victory of Russia in the Cold War, when these very nice political leaders foolishly or unable to bear the pressure of the Party of War will decide after the victory in election before moving on to the policy of detente to try first cold war.
And what we are witnessing in full swing now, is rather a preparation for a hot war, not cold.
The fact is that submarine “Moscow” shows that Russia is not intent to adhere to the strategy of late USSR based on retaliatory strike and went broke on it. Russia is planning to pose a threat of a disarming strike, which is much cheaper, and if we consider that Boehner and Obama agreed on the budget deal only after reducing defense expenditure, the resources of the FED printing press have been exhausted and it can no longer finance the arms race.
And the construction of continental missile shield designed to intercept a disarming strike by Russian nuclear submarines, it obviously can not fund, and that is why the Party of War beats in hysterics trying hopelessly to spoil relations between Russia and the United States as in “now or never”.
Goddamit Finca, we’re talking about transvestites here!
Get with the program!
If Putin wants to win anymore wars, he’d better get onboard with this, follow our lead, and begin enlisting transvestites into the former Red Army! How’d you beat the Germans without ’em? Also we’ll be drafting 18 year old girls pretty soon, and many of our top Generals now are ladies.
I’m sure Spetznatz is shaking in their boots as we speak.
brh
He’s an egotist. A lunatic, screaming at the sidewalk. Instead of getting his own ****ing blog he cuts and pastes random news stories not germane to the subject of discussion.
A disarming strike would involve hundreds of nuclear missiles hitting in redundant fashion communication and control, missile silos, bomber bases and aircraft carriers (at least) most likely combined with EMP assault thereby turning the disarmed target into a radioactive hell.
Before you can do that you have to take out all ICBM capable submarines. If you only miss one sub you can write off the 30 major cities in your own country.
Seems like an infeasible option to me.
I’m a guy who really wanted to be a girl when I was little. I deeply, earnestly felt that some mistake had been made, and I wished and prayed that I would just wake up one day transformed. My friends were mostly girls. I like girly stuff. Sometimes my behavior was gently corrected, other times it was tolerated. But I was never encouraged or affirmed in those feelings. If there was any gender reassignment surgery going on in the 80s, I was never made aware of it and so never imagined that changing my sex was a real option, so it was always just a fantasy.
And then lo and behold, without any serious intervention, I just outgrew the whole thing. Now I never did get into sports and I am attracted to other guys, so you might say I didn’t completely change, but the point is I’m fine being a man and feel no need to wear makeup and dresses, or to rearrange my anatomy.
What frightens me is that if I were growing up today, I might well have been told that my feelings were entirely appropriate and that I could or should change my body accordingly. And before I had a chance to grow out of it, I would have ended up pumped full of estrogen and with my Johnson chopped off. I wonder how many kids now are going to be mutilated unnecessarily?
The problem is that we are getting very reckless. I think Kunstler is absolutely right and we are losing even the notion of respect for borders, boundaries, limits of any kind. Every fancy must be indulged, immediately, and caution is regarded as backwardness.
As for bathrooms, I prefer private, individual ones myself and I think if we just had those instead of group ones we could avoid this whole problem. I told this to one friend, who retorted that it would be inefficient and impractical. But since when has inefficiency stopped us? Suburbs and happy motoring are not efficient. And all these bathrooms are already as inefficient as can be. We take tons of good water, mix it with tons of good fertilizer, and wash them both to oblivion. If we cared about efficiency we’d replace all out toilets with compost toilets, but that’s a border that’s not so cool to cross, yet. And if with all our technological progress and wealth we can’t afford to install a few extra walls and doors in our bathrooms to allow ourselves the dignity of privacy while we pull down our pants for two minutes, what’s the point of it all?
Very well said. My young male cat was clingy and frightened. Real failure to launch. But then he seemed to get a boost of testosterone. Now he’s out all the time and barely has time for me. Where did it come from? Did he have a victory that released it? Or did he successfully avoid the cats who terrified him, allowing his testosterone to finally release?
He threated a larger male the other night. I’m proud of him.
Yes, the whole naked in front of others is very culturally specific. Other cultures wouldn’t dream of such a thing. The Arab Muslims consider it the very essence of abuse and humiliation – and dream of doing it to us.
I’m just a gawker in the American Freak Show, like some Rube at the Nebraska State Fair in 1910. Yes this is the midway, very interesting, but where’s the sideshow? and let’s see some Side Show Freaks!
Back to petroleum, Daniel Yergin in the WSJ yesterday states world is burning up 96 million bpd right now, 101 million by 2020. He didn’t seem worried that production would be unable to meet demand. He sounded optimistic.
brh
I recall reading Rex Tillerson (CEO Exxon/Mobil) commenting that there was petroleum aplenty until 2050 or thereabouts. He is in a position to know. Bix Weir believes an elephant (large oil find) on the order of the famous Saudi field was discovered some years ago near the Aleutians and was capped in order not to collapse the price. Bix also believes and has anecdotal evidence that there is an enormous gold deposit (a’la McKenna’s gold) in the Grand Canyon National Park, guarded by US military. Hence the weird attitude of the US Treasury/Fed toward a Ft. Knox audit, the Germans wanting their gold back, and etc. McKenna’s gold is so huge beyond comprehension that it likewise would collapse the price. Shades of the diamond trade. (Interview with V on Rogue Money Radio, 3/18. An entertainment, at minimum. Who knows? It might even be true.)
Petroleum is back up to almost $50 per barrel, FP. (from a low of $26 a few months back.)
Another article in WSJ yesterday claims, among a lot of other stuff, there is no longer any glut and right at this moment demand exceeds supply. JHK was right when he said all the frackers were operating on high interest bonds which would never be repaid; many, many have gone bankrupt and investors were left holding their hands on their ass. Good luck coming up with the cash to get those wells working again!
brh
Hey BRH — check out the Bix Weir inerview. Freakin amazing. Things you never knew about Alan Greenspan.
The price of oil is not subject to a pristine discovery process. One school of thought believes the Neo-Cons thought they could pull another Reagan-Era squeeze and bankrupt the Russians, axing Putin. So what — screw the frackers? Make Fortune Magazine (Saudi America cover) look like idiots? There’s something going on and we don’t know what it is, do we.. Mr. Jones…
My theory is the corporations have notified the inside-the-beltway pols they want to get out of the bathroom business.
Just think of how much money they’ll save by people not wanting to go into confused bathrooms? Pity the poor woman that has to go into a unisex confused bathroom at a Flying J along the interstate — the piss will be all over the seats.
So they’ll just go pee on the side of the road. Cleaner, quicker, better. And the corporation has gotten out of the bathroom business and won’t be cleaning toilets anymore.
http://bbs.dailystormer.com/t/target-collapsing-under-the-weight-of-tranny-boycott/28100
We’re winning. They pushed too far, too fast. They reckon ill who leave us out.
As Jesse Pinkman would say, Yeah, Bitch!
Surely the entire transgender/gay marriage hoopla is just the distraction of the Left while the Right is blindly frothing about abortions and Jesus; meanwhile the .01% is busy screwing every last dime out of the dying carcass of the country formerly known as the United States of America.
I was hoping to see your take on the DNC’s jackbooted response to the Sanders delegates in Nevada… I’m thinking your prediction of convention riots was spot on. What, for instance, would be some possibilities of Bernie Sanders running as the Green Party candidate? (Presuming that the rent-a-cops don’t turn on their masters in Philadelphia and that Clinton is the nominee for the Democratic (ain’t that an ironic name) Party…)
Really? Why do you think so? You do realize that tens of thousands of people are majoring in “gender studies” or have already graduated? This is a huge initiative by the Elite, a whole new battle front in their war against humanity. I mean was race just a fad or a phase? They intend to do the same thing with gender – and that will finish us off.
As utterly absurd as it is, this is the Line in the Sand. We stop them here. Or else god knows what they’ll do next.
‘Gender Studies’?
What kind of academic discipline it that, and what does it qualify you to do?
and what is actually studied?
brh
‘Black Studies’ does not study ‘Bell Crime’ and facts about Crime, thru the lens of race.
oops—‘Bell Curve’
Contrast this [found online] with –oh, the works of Franz Fannon,
” The Fate of Africa” – 700 page history of decolonization. It’s a hard book to read for several reasons. Many Africans have strange names that don’t stick in the mind easily. But the biggest reason is because the stories of their history are all so depressing. There are no ‘good’ African regimes. Every nation seems to have gone through a period of horror.
When the European nations pulled out they generally left the African nations in pretty good shape. Most of the newly emerging African nations took a decent economy a decent economy into the decolonized future. But within a few years all of them had wrecked their economic heritage. The typical experience is that some ‘Big Man’ will seize the government and steal everything available. Some of them write theories as to why multi part democracy is not appropriate for Africa. What seems to be appropriate according to the dictators is suppression of all opposition and expropriation of all available resources for the Dictator’s family and tribe.
Within a few years of independence the economy is busted and everyone is poorer. There were also a lot of atrocities. Amin, Bokassa and Taylor all ate their political opponents.
Some Western authorities have refused to believe this but the proof seems solid. Political opponents also ended up in the bellies of the dictator’s pet crocodiles.
Opponents were often locked up in primitive jails and starved to death. None of these African states seems to have ever developed any kind of humane treatment for prisoners.
Many offer the advice – “Send them back to Africa”. But the West African Gold Coast states that were established by America for ex-slaves are just as bad as any in Africa. They have had warlords who routinely commit genocide and they also have had a history of cannibalism.
We still like to point to the Nazis as a model of political monsters. But there is much to be said for the Tutsi-Hutu conflict as the worst in human history. The Nazis killed the Jews and Gypsies in industrial scale establishments but the Hutu actually killed the Tutsi faster – and they only had machetes. After the war many Germans couldn’t believe that the Nazis had killed so many. The Nazis concealed their crimes. But the average Hutus killed their neighboring Tutsis personally. Probably most Germans would have hesitated to murder their Jewish neighbors but the Hutu had no such qualms.
If you read the history of Africa it’s hard to view black Africans as a pert of the human family. They seem like sub-human monsters.
Obviously it’s training them to be a new caste of Mandarins anent issues such as this. Beyond that, a Priest/ess hood.
Search, ‘Triggly Puff’, if yo have not already.
Her rant is online.
There is a “William F. Buckley-esque” rejoinder when confronted with such passion and logic…”…yes, yes…show us your tits…”
Bathroom’s will soon be so yesterday when it comes to this issue. One of these days it will be pronounced illegal to look at a transgender person with even a hint of a laughing glint in the eye.
I’ll never forget that time when I was at the grocery store and “she” was checking out in front of me. I didn’t realize at the time that “she” was actually a “he” and so when I said “Excuse me sir” “She” about blew a gasket and started loud mouthing “don’t fuck with me!”.
Talk about giving an innocent bystander–me– too much power. Of course I probably abused that power a bit by recalling how I used to enrage a gorilla at the zoo by making the most subtle and stupid expressions in order to entice the gorilla to start hitting the cage window.
So when I looked at “She” with a dimple in the spirit “He” angrily remerged even to the point of threatening an altercation out in the parking lot. But like the gorilla at the zoo whom I knew couldn’t harm me, I also knew “He” was all bluff in a bra.
One day it will be illegal to refuse to date one. Kids will be shamed when they refuse to go to prom with one. Don’t worry we can make a designer baby… you do love me don’t you? The dying words of hetero marriage.
You know about ‘Micro Aggression’. yes?
You thought it (a neutral pronoun) was a woman so you called it, sir? What a trouble maker! Was it Michelle?
Still voting for Hillary?
The future of humanity in all its androgyny and equality will be so joyless, benign, and familiar that we will beg to be cyborgs, uploaded, dehumanized summa total. Willful evolution is the real singularity.
Keeping with petroleum (the major theme of this site, ha!) new book out, a full biography of M. King Hubbert, father of peak oil, “The Oracle of Oil”, by journalist Mason Inman.
I haven’t read it yet, but according to several reviews, Hubbert was even more strange and controversial and hard to get along with than Jim suggested in TLE. The review in WSJ said the book was good, Hubbert was nuts!
brh
Chris Mortanson interviewed him (the author) a few weeks ago.
The controversy over “gay marriage” hopefully will have one good effect. To force the government out of the marriage business. Way back when, a couple did not have to get a marriage license to get married. Marriage is a religious ceremony for most people and we are supposed to have separation of church and state in the United States.
Alabama is set to strike marriage licenses from the books, replacing it with a requirement recording private contractual arrangements. Marriage licenses were originally put into place to enforce racial segregation. While Alabama may be doing away with a marriage license for the wrong motivation, what they are doing is actually a strong step forward for personal freedom.
Malthus,
Yes, Triggly Puff.
Paul J Watson is a pretty funny guy, like Mark Steyn, same accent, same ironic sense of humor
Those SJW pissants don’t worry me too much, no substance to ’em, looks like they’d be easily dispatched when the chips are down.
Not like say, a company of NKorean special forces, or a squadron of ISIS militia. Now those dudes I’d worry about.
brh
Puff the Magic Dragon. This is what it looks like without the acid.
http://angrywhitedude.com/2016/04/triggly-puff-the-new-bloated-face-of-feminism-and-social-justice-warriors/
Just think Janos and malthuss, your great grandchildren will more than likely be ebonicspanglish speaking brown androgynous hermaphrodites grown in a beaker. Like I said, the human race is young and merely a blip on evolutionary road. We can’t escape our destiny on Mars.
“grown in a beaker”
Frankiti,
Was the beaker marked ” Abe Normal”?
“Ray Sist” and “Ann T S’mite” are the parentage
After all the outcries and arguments here, I doubt anyone will get around to reading my own $.02 worth, but here goes.
With greatest admiration and respect for you, Mr. K… I am so sorry, but you have been played, just like everyone who has gotten embroiled in the hot-button issue of bathrooms, gender, etc. has been played.
I live in North Carolina, and I have been subjected to the stupid, ALEC-driven agenda of these clowns ever since the progressives in my state fell asleep in 2010.
HB2 is not and never was about gender identity or bathrooms. Sadly, the militants on all sides of the issue have focused on that, as they were meant to.
I really would have thought you of all people would know better.
As our own Democrat minority has seen from day one, this vile bill is actually an attack on municipal rights, and slashes away at local and regional attempts to stave off land grabs for fracking, protect workers’ rights, increase the minimum wage of city workers if the voters wish, and destroy the various protections in place against unfair state-level overreach.
As usual, it has been framed as exactly the opposite of what it is — with Gov. McCrony claiming it is an overreach of city and municipal powers.
I am so sorry to see you get pulled into this little vortex of spinning stupidity. Just for grins, here is one of many thoughtful articles that look past the drama to see what is *really* happening here in NC.
Warning: It ain’t pretty, and it has almost NOTHING to do with LGBT issues.
http://www.salon.com/2016/04/13/a_trojan_horse_of_hate_partner/
“He’s an egotist. A lunatic, screaming at the sidewalk” == Frankiti
OK, Franki, I’ll try one more time, just for you:
The Aegis Ashore missile launching pads that your government deployed in Romania and plans to deploy in Poland could be loaded with standard SM-3 anti-missile rocket or they could be loaded with Pershing attack cruise missile with nuclear tip – and nobody, NOBODY except the US military command knows what is in there.
Even friggin Romanians and Pollacks are clueless.
And the flight time from Romania or Poland to Moscow is less than 10 minutes.
Putin will just have to shoot first, you leaving him with no choice.
Cruise missiles are not easily detected (very little heat signature, terrain hugging). You can launch one from a plane anywhere within striking range and chances are nobody will see it coming.
But you will see what’s coming in response.
And this has nothing to do with the topic presented. So glad you can copy and paste news stories.
How rude of me. I am supposed to play along and pretend to believe that this fool is really a Russian expat living in the hills of Patagonia and not a medically retired axel greaser from Ohio like everyone else does. What am I thinking?
FitM,
I’m with you on this one. Activating a quick-strike missile site ten-minutes from Moscow is a major provocation, deeply counterproductive, enormously risky & rearranges the stakes significantly.
If I have to choose which topic to respond to first: ‘tranny toilet training’ or something that makes nuclear war likely, I’m more interested in the nukes… But that’s just me – someone with a lifetime of real-world risk-management experience. I look at things Cost/Benefit first, and my ‘feelings’ about it second, or distant third… depending. By the way, you have noticed that not all ‘Social Justice Warriors’ are leftists. We have bleeding-heart activists at both ends of the spectrum.
Cheers!
It’s about the DOJ sending threats to schools. It’s about leviathan exerting control. It’s about centralized government withholding the aid it got everyone hooked on as a threat. Conform or die. They’d rather have one student pee in comfort at the price of thousands upon thousands going without an education, at least that’s their bluff. They frame the control as a petty restroom issue. Who is really being fooled? Heads they win tails you lose, but someone must call it, and call it as a fool’s gambit… but self important people have businesses and know of risk. Funny how they are distracted by the bogeyman outside while daddy poisons them with his medicine
Frankiti,
I hear what you’re saying and I’m saying this: this nonsense is a consequence not a cause, and it’s knock-on effects are insignificant from a risk-impact perspective. Who gets killed if the US and Russia screw-up their intricate little kabuki-dance of provocation? Well, everybody, that’s who. Who gets killed in ‘tranny/bathroom wars’? A small circle of people with nothing better to do…
So much for a cold, sober ‘appreciation of the situation’. What are my ‘feelings’ about the matter? Well, I thought that I was mentally flexible and goal-oriented enough to work with anyone, anywhere – until I got to Afghanistan and got confronted by a culture convinced that having sex with kids is some kind of divinely ordained ‘right’ (lookin’ at you, Pashtuns). We all have our limits, apparently. I’m certainly not interested in telling people who to hate, tolerate, like or love. Experience teaches us that there’s next to no chance of that working anyway.
Why is this happening now? Well, part of the reason why is that the DoJ and a lot of legislators have nothing better to do – er… they could be more productive but they lack the courage and moral fiber to tackle deal-breakers more significant than where drag-queens and -kings go potty. And I get that too (in a way) – after all they’re on a runaway train and they know it at some level. They’re just trying to keep busy, “living in the moment” right?
Cheers!
😉
MD,
My opinion on this particular “issue” mirrors yours. Nothing to add, other than the John Howard character doesn’t know his biology
(Now that was easy! :-D)
As far as I can tell this *is* the most important thing for them, not a side-issue or a front or an excuse for not doing something serious. Why is it so important to them? Their utopia (Desmond Fennell describes it as civilization-in-making) defines itself by what it is *not: it isn’t Christian or reliant on tradition or authority (or traditional authority for that matter). It is in its own way authoritarian and totalitarian and know-all. Their ideology is riven with contradictions and has yet to be tested under difficult conditions. There is no clear hierarchy of values. It seems as if racism trumps gender fluidity which in turn outranks feminism, but it isn’t clear that this is so and it could all change next week. Guilt is determined not so much by the crime that is committed as by who committed it. It is, of course, hilariously stupid and relies for its success on everyone else’s ignorance. The idea that ‘science’ understand these things perfectly is risible. (Science, confined in a materialist straitjacket, lacks imagination and is going nowhere.) It bothers me what America does because our lot here (in Ireland) are just a few weeks behind. But just to repeat, for them this *is* extremely important.
Here are two examples of the prevailing intellectual disability(there are others but these make it very clear), mass delusions which are easily disproved (unless you are a believer). The first is AGW and the second is the wave of ‘abuse’ witch hunts which shows no sign of abating.
In England there has been mass hysteria about the eccentric dj and charity fund-raiser, Sir Jimmy Savile, since his death at the end of 2012 (I think). Without any claims being investigated by the police he was proclaimed one of the most prolific sexual abusers in history. He ‘groomed a nation’ and had his evil way with women, boys, young girls, the disabled and even the dead. In an editorial the left-wing (pro AGW of course) newspaper, the Guardian, proposed digging up his corpse, like Oliver Cromwell, and wondered if it was the sheer improbability of his outrageous behaviour that allowed him to get away with it without anyone noticing. (The reason it was so improbable, and nobody noticed, was of course that it never happened.)
I only started looking at this in February following a remark by my sister on Facebook. I told her that, based on what I’d read, most of the claims would be fantasy and that there was even a chance they would all be false. Well, that’s what it has turned out to be. I knew this is what it would be but it still takes my breath away see it proved.
As I said before, the psychological angle is huge.
Here is the link to the Guardian editorial:
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/feb/26/guardian-view-jimmy-savile-oblivion-too-good-for-him?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
It compares Savile to Pol Pot. The thing is, Savile didn’t do anything except behave as an eccentric and raise millions for charity.
And Rotterham didn’t happen either, Sean? Or Cologne?
Believe it or not, many things in life are more important than ‘who gets killed?’. Think of Odysseus’s crew and the happy pigs.
I never asked, nor do I care about your ‘feelings’ on the matter. The point I suppose is to not let feelings get involved and see it for what it is. Everyone is distracted, as intended, by how the power grab was rendered.
The reason it is happening now is not one reason. There are many reasons for why it is happening. To think that this president cares about it is absurd, he was opposed to gay marriage 8 years ago. This is an administration legacy ploy wrapped in with executive overreach tied up with a proactive and aggressive justice department thrown into an election. It has nothing to do with trannies, but they want you to take the bait, be the zen, see the drawing of an apple and not an apple… it’s not an apple, but everyone is biting into it.
Janos. I think your comments and mine were all said before. Deja vu. Rotherham did happen though, from my sketchy knowledge, not quite as reported. The girls were exploited by a group of Pakistanis but they seem to have been teenagers out of control rather than children. Cologne also happened although I am sceptical of claims that it was organized across a number of cities.
The Savile case is different. If you question his guilt you will meet with incomprehension. Do it in the YouTube comments and the resident fruitcakes (manic depressives to a man – something I don’t think anyone else has noticed – with names like ‘Truthseeker’) will react in their own way. The Boston clerical abuse witch hunt is perhaps the closest in your part of the world, or what is happening to Bill Cosby, but the Savile case goes well past these in the scale of the fantasy. There was a local witch hunt in a small town in America some years ago. The name escapes me but it started with wild allegations about a nursery school or kindergarten, by a deranged parent as I recall. It ended in a huge court case and excavating machinery to find the bodies. They called in the diggers in the small town of Tuam here too recently. Of course, they won’t find anything either.
If anyone is interested in these things the late Richard Webster’s Sceptical Essays site is the place to begin. This article is a fascinating introduction.
http://www.richardwebster.net/casa-pia-carlos-cruz-reporterX.html
The wider significance is it shows how the sophisticated, know-all scientific and objective self-image of the age is an illusion. Just look at the Guardian leading article I linked to above, it is hilarious. And this is the paper that takes pride in its liberal values, tolerance and scepticism of religious belief.
Sean: Now I have more doubts about you than ever. I’m from Boston – and no one except a few nutty Catholic loyalists doubts massive clerical abuse of children. No one can forget the haggard young man who used to hang around outside the chancery yelling, “I’m trying to get my dignity back, Bernard”. Or the other young men who we got to know, and how some of them ended up killing themselves anyway, even in their hour of vindication.
Ireland has had similar scandals. I assume you doubt these as well? Bill Cosby? Why not? Blacks get away with murder here – and he was the ultimate Good Black. Do you doubt Bill Clinton is a serial rapist? You’re the only one. Face it, some of the buzzing is coming from the bee in your bonnet.
That being said, of course the clergy scandal is a complex phenomena. Once it was out of the bag, the whole narrative shifted to one of “transparency” and “repentance”. So then you got the Church admitting to wrongs while the Priest in question was left without a chance to clear his name. And Cardinal Bernard Law, who used to shift abusers to different parishes, was demoted to being the monsignor of a Cathedral in Rome – and not doing penance in a monastery for the rest of his life.
Janos: ‘Now I have more doubts about you than ever.’
I am who I am, born in London of Irish parents, living in Ireland since 1987. I have my own views, which others neither agree with nor understand.
We have been over this before. Firstly, I assume you still haven’t looked at my Richard Webster link. Ruairi Connor’s Irish Salem weblog is good on the Irish Catholic Church scandal and has some interesting links to the Boston case. Here is one of them:
http://irishsalem.com/international-controversies/usa/paulshanley-jwyp-25jan10.php
I posted links about this before, after spending time searching, so this will have to do.
I don’t know much about Boston beyond one or two key cases but I do know that there is a massive question mark over it, to say the least. I have tried finding out more about the other cases but it is hard to get information apart from distorted and sensationalist coverage. There’s also Wikipedia, but you see my problem.
I have spent the last four months reading about the Savile case. In one way it is a waste of time as lying fantasists can (and do) tie up huge resources with glib stories that never hang together. Yet I continue to study it as it is a (literally) fantastic example of the difference between conventional opinion and reality. As I said many times before, my main interest is in the psychology. Why, for example, do people believe this nonsense? Why do they react so strongly to scepticism? And indeed, why are so many people so anxious to post on the present topic just to say that it is irrelevant?
Control threats and coercion are not the worst experience.
At least you know the lay of the land and enemy identification still working.
Our society uses these means as a last resort. Deception, manipulation and conditioning are more insidious and effective.
The victims don’t even understand whats happening to them.
‘deception, manipulation and conditioning’
‘They’ aren’t doing it to ‘us’. We are all doing it to ourselves. I don’t think anyone is in charge of all this.
Look at how the ‘social agenda’ has advanced in recent years. Peter Hitchens points out that many views that are now mainstream (and anyone who objects is an oddball) would have been beyond the pale for him and his fellow Trotskyist revolutionaries in his younger days, only thirty-odd years ago or so.
CONSUMER DEMAND | It’s what’s not for breakfast:
Retail-apocalypse: UK
http://money.cnn.com/video/news/economy/2016/04/25/bhs-austin-reed-administration.cnnmoney/index.html?iid=ob_marketpg_video
et tu, Nordstrom?
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-05-12/nordstrom-plummets-after-reporting-terrible-earnings-slashing-guidance
The numbers from Q1-2016 are in, and they’re horrible. Every enterprise in the retail vertical is downgrading already dismal projections. This didn’t happen overnight. The writing was on the wall for years.
SO, fuel prices are climbing back to almost half of where they were two years ago. Some say this is because fuel demand is up…
Really? Who is using that fuel when inventories are overstock beyond any time in history, manufacturing is down globally, shipping is skipping at the bottom of it’s historical range (for perspective, Baltic Dry Index peaked at 10000+ 2006-2008, it’s been groveling at <2000 ever since). Hell, even interstate freight is gettin' it packed:
http://wolfstreet.com/2016/05/14/recession-watch-freight-volume-drops-worst-level-since-2010/
What's the CASS? It does what BDIY, CCFI, SCFI do for container shipping: it tells you if you're going to get f**ked or not on truck/rail movement. Unfortunately for the bliss-bunnies in the audience it's pulling out, standing up, and handing them a steamed hand-towel… Now that is considerate. That's how much it cares about 'feelings'.
Cheers!
There’s so much more to this topic that a book could be written…
Sexual orientation plays such a large part in our society that not having a fixed sexual orientation is a threat to the system. To ask that we overlook sexual orientation for a small group of people, act like it doesn’t even exist for them, is absurd. Without clear sexual boundaries we set a dangerous precedent for the future. Transgender – ism is a psychological issue that should be treated by doctors; a mental handicap that only doctors can help society understand and cope with. Doctors provide prosthesis for people who have lost an appendage so they don’t draw attention to themselves and can function in society. Now they can graft penises for those that want to be men and turn penises inside out for those that want to be women.
Another problem we have playing out with borders is the States vs. the Fed on just about everything and the biggest boil on the nose of gov’t: healthcare. We should be able to see whatever specialist we need to see for whatever ails us. Currently we are restricted by HMOs. The Veterans administration is also restricted by the mismanagement of medical resources. Most people have to turn to charitable organizations governed by cults like the Masons or research hospitals built to fight one kind of disease like cancer or parkinsons. You should not have to become a guinea pig in order to get the latest advancements in healthcare, the gov’t should be spearheading advancements in healthcare instead of leaving it to wealthy families who decide that one disease is more important than others because it runs in their family. They should also be overseeing drug production so that rare forms of cancer still have the medicines they need and are not restricted due to “low sales”.
The fact that we can only go to two or three states to legally obtain marijuana is just weird. Why would I drive or fly to a state or another country to buy one toke of marijuana and not be able to carry any more back home? I’m essentially being forced out of the closet since my drug use and interest is a matter for public consumption. Just like very service station has cameras, marijuana shops will have cameras and receipts printed out with my name and personal information. So the government can now monitor everyone’s drug use. What happened to privacy? Does privacy exist anymore?
I see the end of times, doomer, paranoid nerdy crowd also like to discriminate indiscrimininately. Kunstler has already proven himself a racial bigot so this attitude falls right into place with his other hang ups and prejudices. You do realize in Europe and a significant chunk of the rest of the world there are unisex bathrooms and people aren’t quite so uptight about it all?? It seems like with all the dire problems facing the world Kunstler could focus on more important issues. He really is a crack pot nutjob and is losing a certain street cred when it comes to his doomsday publishing/speaker scam
I doubt if the Muzzies taking over Europe will be down for ‘Unisex Bathrooms’. No, I don’t think so. Already in Germany, municipal swimming pools are setting aside different hours for male and female swimmers. I hate to think what would happen to a little blond German girl if she wandered into a public restroom full of Sudanese warriors, Afghan tribesmen, Syrian Holy Jihadists, Somali spear chuckers, and ISIS head chopper offers at the local park in the Middle of Stuttgart. This little one has used this restroom dozens of times before, but things have changed. The whole world has suddenly changed.
So don’t give us ‘this is how they do it in Europe’ bullsh-t. Europe no longer exists.
brh
mdm1mdmi–
I am not a bigot anymore than I am a homophobe. That is just a convenient low tactic for discrediting an argument. If you make a scurrilous accusation like this again, I will kick you off the blog.
–JHK
Mdm…
Your ignorant rant is a waste of time here. Please use your real name next time you want to slander someone like Mr. Kunstler who doesn’t hide behind pseudonyms to make a cogent point about how people are NOT behaving in public. What people do in private is with their bodies is not in dispute here. No body is stopping anyone from using private facilities and being who they want to behind closed doors. Even so called straight people have had to keep their sexual activities and proclivities within social and political boundaries.
I’ve been a very ardent supporter. Typically, I don’t comment, as you’ve tended to cover the bases well. However, there is this type of social issue, that I just don’t understand your issues with. Most of the people that are against same-sex marriage, base their belief on an ancient dictate, to “Go forth and multiply”, so they could out-breed their opponents. Well, six thousand years of this, and now there are plenty of humans around. Can’t find a nice quiet place anywhere now. You, of all people know about the coming energy issues. So, why would you side with people that are turning VeeJay’s into clown cars? We have too many people. Stop trying to shame same sex couples because they aren’t contributing to “God’s Army”.
As for Transgender folks. They’re in your restrooms, in your locker rooms, and have been for decades. The last thing they’d want, is to draw attention to themselves. They’d just like to do their business, and get on down the road. Of the transgender that I’ve known personally? Your wife would be quite surprised to see them in the ladies room. They look like lumberjacks. (female to male transexuals consider a full beard a rite of passage)
I hope that you realise, that this issue, is the last tiny peg, that those that have already ran this place into the ground are hanging onto. These are the same folks that try to prop up the same dying system of corporate graft.
Jim is still smarting from his run in with those politically correct, hysterical academic nazis. If he’s anything like me, he would first try to forget and rise above it. However, at least once a day he would have visions of whacking their collective brains out with a baseball bat, watching them shudder and gasp while they bleed out, and being pissed that his shoes got sticky from walking in their pool of blood.
I guess, I’m just a little disappointed. This issue, is a non-issue. We have REAL problems. This is not one of them.
This issue IS a real issue although not of the same concern or level as nuclear fun and games with NATO and Russia; Persia; Israel; N. Korea; Pakistan and INdia; and the Eurabian nuclear powers.
Have you considered the impact of “transgendered” “rights” versus the privacy concerns of regular females and males? How about minor children? Should they be protected?
Have you thought about just what sort of power the God-damned government has; when by decree they can enforce an intimate behavior of all residents – against their collective will for a psycho/physiological condition that may be transient, or contrived.
When the discussion moves from “Transgendered” “rights” to enforcement by the Government of legitimization of, say, bestiality, would you consider it a real issue?
Mr. Dennmann–
My argument has nothing to do with reproduction. If you don’t understand my arguments on this question, read the blog again.
–JHK
“America has a borderline personality.”
That says it all, Jim.
Fabulous essay today and really stimulating ( and some hysterical) responses by the CFN.
Hard to believe that the important civil discourse in the U.S.S.A. has devolved into toilet time for trannies. And what’s worse the full weight of Barry Hussain’s government is prepared to shove it down our throats and up our asses irrespective of our beliefs, privacy concerns or personal morals.
JIm should seriously consider establishing and hosting a Clusterfuck Nation Radio Show.
A rich vein of material each and every week emanates from this blog.
Today’s intro would undoubtedly be by Madonna:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSaC-YbSDpo
The best bumpers would be –
Kinks:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LemG0cvc4oU
BeeGees:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQPBk0RD8d0
Cyndi Lauper:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfQpI6ZCMIs
The Clusterfuck Nation Radio Hour theme might be 10 Years After:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sg6xaFZStEI
What do you think Jim? Denizens, citizens and shitizens of this forum what say you? I think it would be a smash success and live radio (with a seven second delay of course) is tons of fun!
I have many friends who are gay, most of whom are in long-term committed relationships, including marriage. One close friend has been in a committed relationship for 25 years, including a domestic partnership, a marriage that was later struck down by the state courts, and finally, a remarriage in California a few years ago, not long before the Supreme Court decision. My friend and his husband want to be married so they can know the feeling of ultimate commitment that traditional marriage confers, and have their union equally recognized by society. These two people are among the most loving and devoted couples I have ever known. Meanwhile, I know plenty of heterosexual marriages that are hugely dysfunctional, ending in messy divorces. Just because marriage has traditionally been between a man and a woman, doesn’t make it better. Not by a long shot. Most gay couples I know have stronger relationships because they more fully appreciate their partners due to the obstacles that society throws at them.
The whole issue of sexuality has gotten out of control. I don’t want to know, nor do I care if someone is gay, transgender, transvestite, fetished, sexually ambiguous, or whatever else you want to call these things. I want to know that someone is a kind and decent human being. What you do behind closed doors is your business–unless, of course, it involves children, rape or other dysfunctional behavior. The transgender bathroom issue is just one of many wedge issues to distract us from our real, and very monumental societal problems. Personally, I do not want to share a bathroom with a male who is confused about his own sexual identity. I should not have to be subjected to someone else’s problems in that fashion, nor should I have to worry about my own personal safety by those male sexual predators who will inevitabally take advantage of this ruling. That said, we have way bigger fish to fry if we are going to survive as a society.
Donald Trump has flip-flopped on bathrooms, like he has on abortion, taxes, banning Muslims, minimum wage, etc.
“Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump did an apparent about-face on the issue of transgender bathroom use, stating that it should be an issue best left to the states.
When ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos brought up the Obama administration’s directive requiring all public schools to give transgender students access to the restroom that matches their gender identity, Trump said it’s a 10th Amendment states’ rights issue.
“I believe it should be states’ rights, and I think the states should make the decision. They’re more capable of making the decision,” he said. “I just think it should be states’ rights. I think many things actually should be states’ rights, but this is a perfect example of it.”
Last month when Trump was questioned on North Carolina’s law requiring people to use the public restroom that corresponds to their sex at birth, he had a different take.
“North Carolina, what they are going through with all of the business that’s leaving and the strife– and that’s on both sides,” he said. “Leave it the way it is. There have been very few complaints the way it is. People go, they use the bathroom that they feel is appropriate, there has been so little trouble.”
Homosexuals are a perpetual problem since so many of them are addicted to casual sex – and if allowed, would turn bathrooms into places of debauchery. Now women are to be threatened by this new ruling. Spread the misery as much as possible.
Obviously Obama deeply hates America, the White Race, and normal people in general.
Leave it alone is a valid principle. People are imperfect and thus institutions. Trannies who can pass, do – as many posters have pointed out. They enjoy the thrill of victory and other patrons are left undisturbed. Why open it up to losers who can’t pass and the pervs who just want access? Have you no aesthetic decorum? No moral shame?
“Leave it alone is a valid principal.” –Janos
I agree with you on this point. Personally, my brain stem response to badly-costumed trannies in the restroom is to escape and find a different place to go.
I recall I man named Dick (ha, ha) who attended our church for years. When his two boys were in high school, he decided it would be a good time to become “Kathleen.” (Can you say narcissistic jerk with a personality disorder?) OMG, he was 6′ 4″ tall with an Adam’s apple the size of a golf ball and linebacker shoulders.
I saw Dick/Kathleen in the ladies changing room at Macy’s! Yikes…I cleared out of there quickly and went home.
Jen in San Jose
Is the Nation good enough for you? Can you “hear” from them?
http://www.thenation.com/article/how-body-reacts-sexual-assault/
By one estimate, 20% of women will be aroused to some degree by rape. Man lost his supernatural integrity of mind and body at the Fall. Now each is doing its own thing. Obviously they don’t want this, but there it is. Terrible guilt. And not just women: Lawrence of Arabia, by all accounts an amazing man, was crippled by the guilt for feeling pleasure during his rape, apparently for the rest of his life.
You are a spiritual seeker. There is nothing you must be afraid to look at or know. If there is, then that is a darkness for you to uncover – and more fuel for your fire.
If a woman has never had an orgasm with a boyfriend or husband, but has one during rape, well that’s a big problem. Aint she got luck? Either she accepts it and gets into S&M, with or without her sig other, or she get heigh unto a nunnery.
You, Janos, are no expert on women. (Duh.) I have chosen to conduct my life dressed modestly and am careful to avoid places where I might be vulnerable alone or at night. I do my best to avoid monsters from the id.
Read carefully–women want to feel SAFE.
Jen in San Jose
I wasn’t talking about YOU, either today or when you tried to get me thrown off the site. Duh yourself.
“So much for a cold, sober ‘appreciation of the situation’ == MisterDarling
Deadly vulnerability for the future of US in the 21st century is the geographic location and characteristics of the location of the main industrial and administrative centers of the country.
USA surrounded by ocean on three sides, all major centers are located on the shores of the ocean or near the coast. Guaranteed winning strategy in such conditions is a so-called mirroring Star Wars strategy, but not in space (which previously was a fake, and now not much more real), but under the water, and it is such a threat, to stop which (at relatively low cost Russia could deploy automated means of underwater delivery of nuclear weapons costing in the range of billions of dollars) will cost the United States, many trillions of dollars.
And US do not have that kind of money now, no likely to have it in the future.
Paradoxically, US with the tenacity of a maniac keep provoking Russia to such a confrontation, which in principle can not result in a victory for them, but is guaranteed to end in defeat.
All of these new means of missile defense in Europe, all attempts to urgently negotiate with Cuba and prevent the construction of SLF/ILF island antenna to control automatic Russian torpedoes will not change anything fundamentally.
Amazing retardation and snobbery on that part of the political and military wing of the United States that have seized up the governance levers in the past 25 years, leading to the fact that US themselves speed up its own defeat in a new Cold war that they themselves unleashing instead of peacefully and equitably engage with Russia.
” . . . consequences and diminishing returns of technology . . . ”
The Second Law of Thermodynamics still applicable?
Possibly one of those “Blessings from the Beginning” being revealed: the remnant People “gathering”/interfacing DIRECTLY without gov agent intervention, observing the absolute “boundaries” revealed in the Word.
If so, are y’all ready[ing] for said “consequence”: Ground, Group, Guns, Garden, Gold, Grains etc?
wholy 1: The Second Law of Thermodynamics still applicable?
“The truth of the second law is … a statistical, not a mathematical, truth, for it depends on the fact that the bodies we deal with consist of millions of molecules… Hence the second law of thermodynamics is continually being violated, and that to a considerable extent, in any sufficiently small group of molecules belonging to a real body.” –James Clerk Maxwel (in the journal Nature, 1878).
“Researchers have shown for the first time that, on the level of thousands of atoms and molecules, fleeting energy increases violate the second law of thermodynamics. This is the tenet that some energy will always be lost when converting from one type to another …. Over periods of time less than two seconds, variations in the random thermal motion of water molecules occasionally gave individual beads a kick. This increased the beads’ kinetic energy by a small but significant amount, in apparent violation of the second law.” –Denis J. Evans, Nature, 2002.
So if I decide to be female do I get out of the draft? Do they even make stilettos in camo? Too much government for our own good. Our planet is sick. Our government a tad bit disfunctional. I have a sense of impending doom. We can’t even come close to fixing our medical system. The good news for the day, we can now transplant the mighty penis!
It’s probably just me, but it seems that the most important realities that we are looking at have to do with what we are looking at in the current election. Things have evolved in this country to the point that people like Trump & Sanders are being considered for President. Does that tell you how bad things have gotten? I have seen a sea change in the attitudes of people regarding who should be our elected leaders. In a “normal” election, both of these guys would be considered fringe cantidates, being held apart from the people who are put forth by both parties, and people would have voted according to their political leanings. At this point, that’s not the case. There’s revolution in the air, and there’s no denying it. It seems to me that if the problems we are trying to address don’t get dealt with, then the next step will be to ratchet up the dissatisfaction people are experiencing, to the next level. What that will be, I don’t know. Somewhere along the line, we have to take back what the founding fathers meant for us to have, and it’s not what we have at present. Seems to me that arguments over who gets to pee where, are not that important. It’s just the powers that be trying to cloud the issue & get us burning witches again, while the ruling class carries on as usual. Something has to give, whether its them or us only time will tell.
I don’t know what to make of that. I sure don’t… it’s hard to even take its measure. It’s not that I’m afraid of it. I always knew you had to be willing to die… But, I don’t want to push my chips forward and go out and meet something I don’t understand. A man would have to put his soul at hazard. He’d have to say, “O.K., I’ll be part of this world.”
@ Frankiti:
RE | “But, I don’t want to push my chips forward and go out and meet something I don’t understand. A man would have to put his soul at hazard. He’d have to say, “O.K., I’ll be part of this world.”
Are you a Cormac McCarthy fan?
😉
The core of their disenchantment is the same. The approach to correct it is different. However, there is enough commonality which should encourage both sides to come together to defeat the great evil which has descended upon us. We can decide later, after the dust has settled, who can piss where.
“So if I decide to be female do I get out of the draft? Do they even make stilettos in camo? Too much government for our own good. Our planet is sick. Our government a tad bit disfunctional. I have a sense of impending doom.” –Boiled Frog
Yes, you can get out of the draft, because: “Buckling under conservative pressure, the Republican-led House Rules Committee pulled a legislative sleight of hand and stripped a provision from the annual defense policy bill that would have required women between the ages of 18 and 25 to sign up for a military draft.”
No armed forces in the world issues stilletos to women soldiers.
We have too little government and that is why we had the 2007-2008 economic meltdown, millions unemployed (which more government intervention has brought down).
Our planet is sick because multinationals are allowed to purchase advertising to tell lies about their exploitation of the planet. Another case of too little government.
Our government is dysfunctional because billionaires who do not believe in government are allowed to purchase candidates who will engage in pro-corporate filibusters and block all legislation not directly benefiting the billionaires.
Your sense of impending doom has been felt over the millenia. It is nothing new, just a reflection of your own mortality. You will die. You are doomed. Get over it.
“No armed forces in the world issues stilletos to women soldiers.”
No doubt, but high heeled boots were often worn by Muammar Gadhafi’s uniformed personal guard…hardly sensible shoes.
“We have too little government …”
This is a curious observation. If we look just at the Federal codes (a proxy for government) the number of Federal crimes may be beyond calculation. “When staff for a task force of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee asked the Congressional Research Service (CRS) to update its 2008 calculation of criminal offenses in the U.S.C. in 2013, the CRS responded that they lack the manpower and resources to accomplish the task.” (Wikipedia). Those are just the criminal offenses. Soon there will be an entire bathroom law chapter.
Then there are the State and local codes.
Not sure what anarchist colony in which you have been sequestered but there’s plenty of government to go around. Check your telecom bill for taxes which helps pay for all this.
Now if by “too little government” you mean that you want the guys with the guns and badges and courts to do what you think ought to be done, that’s an entirely different proposition.
And by the way, I can assure you the Second Law of Thermodynamics is alive and well. In fact, in the current dissolution (you would say progressive redefinition) of standards we are experiencing what Henry Adams suggested in The Degradation of the Democratic Dogma. Your progress is entropy.
You can’t stop what’s coming — it ain’t all waiting on you. That’s vanity.
Watch, or don’t, in 20 years or so full nudity (All Nude) will be legally permissible in public in an effort to be sustainable. Fashion Designers will be out of a job and plastic furniture coverings will be back in style because who wants to sit on someone else’s shit stain? Not me. I’ll take the plastic covering for $1,000 Alex.
Progress — what’s not to love?
Great quote Ellis.
How did you know it was me?
I deduced it.
Ed Tom’s dream… it’s here and the flame is dimming.
I don’t know. I feel overmatched. I always figured when I got older, God would sort of come into my life in some way. He didn’t. I don’t blame him. If I was him I’d have the same opinion about me that he does.
Well all the time ya spend trying to get back what’s been took from ya, more is going out the door. After a while you just have to try to get a tourniquet on it.
Frankiti,
“Believe it or not, many things in life are more important than ‘who gets killed?’. Think of Odysseus’s crew and the happy pigs.”
Believe or not I am very aware of the fact that there are times when getting killed is the least of worries. But – under those conditions – who is using which bathroom is something no one notices, or would care about if they did.
“I never asked, nor do I care about your ‘feelings’ on the matter. The point I suppose is to not let feelings get involved and see it for what it is. Everyone is distracted, as intended, by how the power grab was rendered.”
I never said that you asked me about my “feelings”. That was rhetorical because there seem to be a lot of strong feelings about the issue in general.
RE: ‘power-grabs’… We have a government/corporate nexus that tacitly asserts the ‘right’ to kidnap, indefinitely detain, beat/sodomize/torture/kill anyone on the basis of suspicion alone, and that wiretaps not only select US citizens but subjects the daily traffic of the internet to stateful inspection (that’s what that mega-petabyte storage facility in UT was for). Getting pissed-off at the USA’s PTB about cramming trannies up the citizen’s cracks seems… I dunno… a lot like handing out speeding tickets at the Indy-500 right about now.
“The reason it is happening now is not one reason.”-frankiti.
To be clear, I never said there was just one reason… Well, by now I’ve done due-diligence and discussed the issue-‘o’-th’-week in the process of responding.
In Other News: You made some interesting & pithy observations about Millennials back up the tracks:
“Their entire problem is EMULATION. They are weak approximates. Their beards are ironic costumes, a manliness indicator for the unmanly. Their quixotic search for authenticity through posing. They wear overalls and redwings and have backyard chickens and pretend to be farmers, they mix a few strange ingredients in a highball glass and wax their mustaches and pretend to be gin era mixologists, they gets tattoos of beats and a carving knife on their forearm and work as a short order cook and pretend to be farm-to-table chefs. They buy vinyl and drink past because “that’s real”. They wear a uniform of nonconformist conformity. Mommy let them wear costumes at play. Daddy thinks it’s all good. They’ll back them to the hilt and so will Bernie, he wants to pretend too”-frankiti.
I’m interested in delving into this sub-topic for a ‘tic’, when you have the time?
Although it’s laudible that millenials are bringing back sustainable farming, olde time cocktails, and gose beers, they do it as play acting. They embrace the lifestyle and its identifiers as opposed to the vocation. I suppose it’s out of neccessity, not being able to use those diploma mill MBAs and so forth. They never went through the rite of manhood, left the nest, went into the wild… they simply grew into it, and it was time for a new costume.
Frankiti,
I am tempted to dismiss the Millennials as people perfectly formed and adapted to the Empire of Fake: natural fakes & frauds, all… But then I recall Hemingway reminiscing about how his generation of expats acted as if they were the first Americans to ‘discover’ Paris and the possibilities of Europe, and about how self-absorbed & pretentious his ‘crowd’ was in retrospect (A Moveable Feast).
I do know that it pays to scrutinize aspiration if you want to get a sense of a personal trajectory. Millennials seem to recognize – as much as they can given their lack of direct experience – that they’ve been handed a hoax of a road-map and fed a load of crap, and they want to end that. I respect that aspiration.
Did the Americans discovering Paris wear slouchy hats, prescription ray bans, beards, thigh tattoos, peg earrings, buffalo check flannels and culottes and experience the world through their iLeash? Or were Dos Passos and Pound & company up to something meaningful, you know, besides posting photos of their meals and following and thumb upping Shakespeare & Co on the left bank?
They have only recognized that they cannot continue as Obama’s pajama boy, all snug at home with an oversized mug. Even the mommy and daddy train comes to an end. That’s why they flock to grandpa, he’ll pay off their loans, raise their barista wages, and understand all exceptional each and every one is, despite them all being the same in their uniform of nonconformity. They will indeed feel the burn and it will be the macroagression of the Hillary machine. Old school, no crying allowed.
Indeed, remember the “toy soldiers” of the young Czar. In time they became an elite fighting force in the real world.
“Although it’s laudible that millenials are bringing back sustainable farming, olde time cocktails, and gose beers, they do it as play acting.” –Frankiti
Why so serious and righteous? They are not of the “greatest generation” … they are not “boomers” … they are millenials and they have the right to do it their way.
What is wrong with “play acting”? Sounds like fun! Are you jealous that they are having fun? Or do you think they are in for a rude awakening?
You are welcome to your opinions, but I trust millenials are perfectly capable of figuring it out … without our advice, without our “experience,” without our criticism, and without our “help.”
It is their world, not ours. We are on the way out. (I am anyway… I am in my eighth decade.)
Kentucky Primary Results
Clinton 46%
Sanders 46%
So, the main stream media declares Clinton the winner.
Bernie started out his campaign with 3% support.
I declare Bernie the winner in Kentucky.
Bernie is hanging in, you have to give him credit.
He’s one tough New Yorker, not one to be pushed around.
brh
3 people shot dead in Hartford last nite, including a 20 year old Hispanic girl, and nobody bats an eye. It hardly made the news. But one detail caught my attention: 2 bodies were found lying in the middle of the street, and had been there for awhile.
JHK insinuates in one of his books that the cities here were never really any good, just utilitarian places to make money, then move on. But I’ve seen photographs of Hartford in the 19th century, an orderly, prosperous city with plenty of shade trees, beautiful parks, handsome homes and dignified public buildings, the repository of the collective culture of 250 years and centuries of English-Yankee civilization. Fredrick Law Olmstead grew up in Hartford, and he took inspiration for his great projects on the city he knew as a boy. What went wrong? I wonder if Jim’s New Urbanist movement has any answers? How did this city and other American cities get so bad, so dysfunctional, so dangerous, so ugly? Once a city becomes a welfare colony where nobody works and violence and bloodshed becomes the norm, can it ever be good again? Or is it finished?
brh
Obviously it’s a question of genetics. I live in a White ghetto now, much like Dorchester where I was born. People think it’s bad. They haven’t a clue. Knowledge in this world is mostly a matter of comparison. Until they’ve know the dark, how can they judge? There is simply no comparison between a poor White neighborhood and a poor Black one.
The Darkness is very Dark indeed….
Correlation does not equate to causation, i.e. just because neighborhoods have a high percentage of black residents doesn’t mean that they will have high crime rates.
The indicator of high crime isn’t race, instead it is poverty. Sadly, though many blacks in America are poor due to structural racism.
In Troy, NY – a small steel city in upstate NY has a high population of whites. It also has a high crime rate. It is because most of the residents are poor.
Are they criminals because they are poor, or are they poor because they are criminals?
Is poverty an excuse for taking a life?
poverty is an excuse for more government workers.
“Are they criminals because they are poor, or are they poor because they are criminals?”
FP,
Are all the poor criminals? Are all the criminals poor?
You’re upside-down, wpa.
Let me correct your last sentence to a more relevant and accurate example:
In Wall Street, NY – a large financial city near Long Island, has a high population of Whites. It also has a HIGH crime rate. It is because most of the residents are filthy rich. Extreme ill-gotten gain causes more crime than poverty.
A petty street thug might be able to steal a hundred dollars, some cool shoes, and maybe some petty jewelry.
A bankster, or hedge fund hyena, steals BILLIONS in real time and causes MILLIONS to die in order to feed the forces that enabled him to skim off those billions in the first place.
The Top 1% commit a disproportionate percentage of crime and death in the world.
We’ve squandered TRILLIONS over the past 50 years in supporting these deadbeat billionaires and their globalist machines!
Those elite bums have no idea what it is to make an honest living! I’M ALL FOR ELIMINATING WELFARE FOR THE RICH.
“…and…and how do you like it now, gentlemen…?”
All criminals are not poor, if by poor one means poverty. Just look at Hilary Clinton.
All who are impoverished are not criminals.
I was referring to WPA’s comment in his post above that poverty, not race, is an indicator of high crime areas.
As I think Jim would tell you, zoning and taxes and post WWII incentives led most people to the suburbs. Air conditioning drove manufacturing to right-to-work (and get paid shit…) states in the South. Failed urban “renewal” decimated much of that grand early infrastructure. Oh, and the biggy; a car-centric worldview that meant that urban dwellers couldn’t get from here-to-there without an expensive auto, while meanwhile the trains and subways and trolleys were left to rot. There are many other problems, but, on the hopeful side, yes, I do think cities can claw their way back. I’m sitting just outside of Pittsburgh, which the world pretty much left for dead when I moved here 30 years ago. Today? It’s back.
Bernie Sanders wins Oregon!
Bernie & Tulsi 2016
WPA — I am truly happy for you and your hero. I chanced upon an interview yesterday in which the interviewee suggested a scenario I imagined months ago: the major parties find a way to dump Trump and Sanders and they form a third-party ticket. Think of the Tea Party and Occupy Wall St joining together. Not so far fetched in my view, although in the end uncomfortable bedfellows: ultimately there is disagreement about free stuff/redistribution. But at least they won’t be taking us to war against Russia and China. Who knows? Maybe instead of the F-35 we get Hyperloop.
Bernie and Marcy (Kaptur) 2016.
We don’t need any more young aggressive bimbos. I don’t trust any woman under 50 and prefer they be at least 60 before they are allowed anywhere near the levers of government power.
Marcy Kaptur has paid her dues and proven her worth as a champion of the toiling masses.
There’s the ‘Precariat’ and then there’s the…
Unneccessariat | https://morecrows.wordpress.com/
MD,
Pretty grim, but boy, it sure hits the mark, doesn’t it? [whew]
“Here’s the thing: from where I live, the world has drifted away. We aren’t precarious, we’re unnecessary. The money has gone to the top. The wages have gone to the top. The recovery has gone to the top. And what’s worst of all, everybody who matters seems basically pretty okay with that. The new bright sparks, cheerfully referred to as “Young Gods” believe themselves to be the honest winners in a new invent-or-die economy, and are busily planning to escape into space or acquire superpowers, and instead of worrying about this, the talking heads on TV tell you its all a good thing- don’t worry, the recession’s over and everything’s better now, and technology is TOTES AMAZEBALLS!”
…Let the dirtybutts die.
And yet another millennial flaw: there’s an app for that. Every problem we have can be solved by an app. And the apps do not make anything better. Facebook is 1% keeping in touch with friends and 99% pure marketing bull sh*t. It’s all tied into consumption, inadequacy, and privacy breaching. Twitter is the posted minutes of arguments. It’s useless. Instagram is living the moment from behind a camera, it’s a public online scrapbook and ultimately vain and useless. I saw how Millennials came up with a grocery delivery app, because that wasn’t done 16 years ago. “People don’t want to go to stores, be a part of a community have genuine human interaction “. These creatures have lived their lives in the face of a screen. They don’t know authenticity, they ape it, they can only appreciate it through irony as they do not know genuine.
This is what happens when you have too many people. Ant colonies die rather than dig deeper holes.
Hillary the pacifist, all white and fluffy
She now could only become a President only by use of force, as her opponents initially did not believe in her ability to honestly participate in the elections and to trust the voters’ choice, not backstage intrigue in the election commissions.
And to make them recognize her victory in the elections is only possible by force through violence, and bloody violence for that, then we will have very different United States with a dictator, or if you prefer, the Fuhrer, not the President.
In particular yesterday in Nevada supporters of Bernie Sanders staged an uprising against the establishment of Democratic Party, who stole their votes, to give it to Hillary. It came to threats of physical violence to the leadership of Democrats and the use of weapons.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/17/us/politics/bernie-sanders-supporters-nevada.html?_r=1
Well people do not want to submit to Hillary and do not believe in her ability to honestly win the elections, not even knowing that she will start a nuclear war and the destruction of their country, based solely on her personal opinion and her moral character.
Two days ago the media all day was screaming about the propensity for violence of Sanders supporters, and most recently about the propensity for violence of Trump supporters and only Hillary is pacifist, white and fluffy.
Meanwhile, supporters of Donald Trump, along with supporters of Bernie Sanders constitute not less than 75 per cent of politically active Americans, and Hillary is striving to become the nominee, knowing this, these people will never vote for her, and in her own words ready to confront her with guns in their hands.
Those who unconditionally supported her a month ago, allowing her to falsify the election results, avoiding questioning in Congress and throwing in the basket court subpoenas, today can no longer dismiss the prospect of a civil war if this support will bring her to the White House.
Most interesting is that Sanders does not support the protesters and does not want to raise the issue of falsification of the election results, clearly hoping to become the nominee of the Democratic Party as a result of the arrest of Hillary Clinton for Benghazi and the e-mail server. And when she would be behind bars, he does not want to be the first among Democrats, who accused the “unfortunate victim of Republican police brutality”.
But for now, he could not say it to his supporters who hate Hillary with a fierce hatred, so they staged a mutiny on the Democratic convention in Nevada. And, apparently, Obama supported them.
Anyway, now the majority of the media has already acknowledged that the election results were forged, so the forging mechanism will soon become widely known. And it paves the way for the revision of the election results in other states. And after the criminal prosecution of the mayor of New York and victory in Kentucky and Oregon, the momentum is on the Sanders side again and the gap between him and Hillary is not that big.
JHK-
After I read your latest post, I briefly considered posting a rant, but the grass needing cutting to placate the local lawn patrol, and the po!e beans needed planting…
Basically, us little hairless apes like categorizing things. We love neat boundries. It makes the world predictable.
The problem comes in when those boundaries get squishy, or when circumstances dictate they be ignored, or broken.
This culture loves nation states. So after WWI, we impose boundries on a tribal culture (Sykes Pekoe) and have harvested the fruits (dictatorship, war, terrorism) ever since.
So it is with transpotty problems. This culture, which is derived from nomadic herders and agriculturalists (following a harsh but loving Desert God) has pretty firm social boundaries on gender. Science is beginning to discover that sex (XX/XY) and gender are two different things. While other cultures have positive categories that encompass the LGBT outliers, (some Native Communities have the idea of Two Spirits -people who have both a feminine or a masculine spirit) this culture doesn’t. That invites unnecessary conflict.
It seems to me you just let people take a dump or a piss as they see fit, and don’t worry about it. The NC law, the DOJ push back, it is all a solution looking for a problem.
And keep in mind, the Right loves the issue. Faced with their base abandoning orthodox conservatism, and with an ugly EC map due to demographics, they trot out the “protecting our women” trope and fire up the culture wars yet again. There is not one documented case of a transperson raping or assaulting someone in a public restroom. There are plenty of cases of trans people being assaulted or killed by “normal folk.”
What the Right desperately hopes is shit like this gives them control of all 3 branches of govt, and that Ryan can get Trump back on the neo liberal economic reservation. That way Empire can continue to churn and deliver them the lifestyle they have become accustomed to.
This whole thing is nothing but a giant red herring, distracting us from real issues.
So it’s the fault of the Right?
There is a determined campaign to overthrow social mores and it’s the fault of those who object?
I say ‘determined’ not ‘intelligent’ or ‘well thought-out’.
Sean-
“So it’s the fault of the Right?
There is a determined campaign to overthrow social mores and it’s the fault of those who object?”
I think describing it as a determined campaign is a bit hyperbolic. Social mores often change. Not that long ago, premarital sex and “shacking up” was a huge taboo (it still happened, mind you, it just wasn’t talked about). Now people are freaking out because a transperson dumps a load in the stall next to them. Really? They’ve been using a public restroom for years. It wasn’t an issue until the NC statehouse made it one.
I would not put this in terms either of fault or objection. It is merely a tactic of the Right to have a wedge issue, so they can get back to the business of enriching themselves at everyone’s expense.
Dweebus
‘I think describing it as a determined campaign is a bit hyperbolic.’
Perhaps a better word would be ‘incessant’ as there probably aren’t that many people who are consciously doing it.
‘Social mores often change’
Do they? Did they? More than in a cautious, gradual way (JHK makes the nuclear power comparison)? Is there a historical parallel to the very big changes we have experienced over the last ten to twenty years where what was once seen as radical and extreme, the preserve of the hard Left, is now mainstream?
‘It still happened… it just wasn’t talked about’
Again, did it happen much? I don’t believe so. Those who did do it, be it openly or in private, were likely members of ‘The Elite’. It was of course a taboo because people strongly disapproved of it, as they always had, for lots of sensible reasons.
‘Now people are freaking out…’
Here I admit my ignorance of the actual ‘casus belli’. It is just an example of what has been happening. Michael Hudson (the economist) is very critical of the ‘Elite’ but he was just as critical of the Left’s obsession with ‘soft’ targets and ignoring the important issues (which you and others here are so concerned about).
Certainly in Britain and Europe (Ireland just follows the crowd) there is a determined number of politicians (backed up by the media and the rest) who take the progressive social agenda very seriously. It would not be hyperbolic to describe these as members of ‘The Elite’ or ‘The One Percent’ either. Again, most people follow the lead they are given, for psychological reasons I won’t go into (perhaps even if you ask me, which you won’t).
The largest Irish teaching union are pushing for unisex toilets. even for very young children, who they are concerned may be uncertain of their ‘gender orientation’ (many of which probably haven’t even been invented yet). Is this because the Right is ‘freaked out’? Is it because parents are demanding it? Is it ()to borrow a phrase) because ‘the science is settled’?
And what exactly is ‘the Right’ anyway? I see myself as a social conservative and have always resisted change for change’s sake, particularly when it is pushed by political radicals who I disapprove of, the banally imititative and unimaginative and the frankly stupid? Surely those on the right broadly accept the new morality just as those on the Left though they would use different words to justify it. There is no difference about this in England between Left and Right, between Labour and Conservative, although the Conservative Party of 20 or 30 years ago would not on the whole have liked it. You could argue that the ‘soft revolution’ is just to pave the way for the bigger, economic one, but I don’t agree. They do it because they want it, believe in it and they think it is hugely important.
‘I would not put this in terms either of fault or objection’
In England they would say that this is because it would be ‘judgemental’. This word was one of hundreds that suddenly emerged in 1969 or 1970, when I was a young secondary pupil, as if a small yet perfectly formed alternative ideology had been waiting in the background all those years just for this moment. On the other hand they might just have borrowed it from California. But I’m not bound by the stricture.
It’s the fault of the Left.
Sean, it’s always the fault of the right. Every time they react to the regime be it Hillary, IRS, INS, and chicks w/d*cks in bathrooms. That’s what happens when the right has no agenda, no rudder, no leadership, and a skin-deep change community organizer is in the wheel house.
So the Tribes of North America didn’t fight? In fact, the Algonquin lived in terror of the Iroquois, the Sioux were driven out of the woods by the Cree, and once out of the Plains, terrorized other tribes in turn. And so on.
Hunter Gatherers then? Did they live in the Garden of Eden? In fact, Aboriginess hunted each other as meat.
Everything you have is the result of the Conquest of North America. You are the beneficiary. You owe the Conquerors everything, yet you damn their name. Shameless indeed.
Janos,
As my father once said years ago…”Yes, we stole the land from the Indians…who did they steal it from?”
“…ultimately there is disagreement about free stuff/redistribution.” –Florida Power
There is a disagreement about who gets the free stuff. Republicans give away more free stuff than Democrats, but they give to the rich.
George W. Bush’s tax cuts were violently skewed towards the wealthy — over 73 percent of the benefits went to the top income quintile, and fully 30 percent to 1 percenters alone.
Trump, who is becoming more Republican before our very eyes, aims to pull the same trick, proposing another corpulent set of tax breaks — only this time, over half of the benefits would accrue to the top 1 percent alone.
You can’t win an election solely with the support of billionaires, of course, but Trump has done another flip-flop and is now fund-raising. Turns out Trump was lying about “self-funding” and Trump is now getting support from other billionaires, like Adelson who said he will give Trump $100 million. So much for the “self-funding” lie that got Trump a lot of votes early on.
Overall, welfare for the rich, welfare for the top income quintile — largely a result of conservative policymaking — cost roughly $355 billion yearly. Meanwhile, what passes for new policy in Republican circles — a child tax credit — is a government benefit for middle- and upper-class parents that carefully and deliberately excludes the poor.
So the problem with Trump — and Republican policy in general — is mainly that it directs almost all the benefits, the “free stuff,” to people who don’t need it.
wpa-
Redistribution from the bottom to the top is called “capitalism” or “free enterprise”. The wealth gap is not a flaw in Empire, it is a design feature, IMO. But instead of addressing the wealth gap that both Sanders and Trump have spoken to (I believe Trump is cynically bamboozling the mostly white proles) we get Potty Problems. Just effing great…
Where does most Federal Tax Money go? Mandatory Spending.
Social Security. medicare, SNAP, you know the rest.
I agree that the tax code and the various complexes (military, medical, education, banking, on and on) are forms of welfare for the rich.
But based on the IRS pie chart Mandatory spending is still the largest slice.
Please, there’s plenty of redistribution out there, just as there is plenty of government out there.
I read 53% goes to military.
5% about to interest on debt to banks – Fed Reserve.
The military budget is Discretionary spending.
There seems to be a war of the pie charts out in cyberspace. But if you take “pensions” aka Social Security, Health Care spending, and Welfare you arrive at the biggest piece of pie. Military spending is huge, no doubt, but HHS dominates and has for along time now. And as our distinguished Leftist in Residence has pointed out, Military Spending can be interpreted as a form of welfare spending.
Regardless, I get paid commissions on sales of things that keep the electrons flowing. No sales, no commissions. There is stress, but we get paid in this culture proportionate to the amount of stress we accept. At least someone I respect said that and I prefer to believe it is true. So when 33 cents of every dollar I earn is taken from me for purposes of government I am allowed an opinion.
Mr Darling. I read the article on the Unnecessariat. Very interesting. It confirms what I’ve seen myself.
I think that to the supporters of the “Right” – guys like Paul Ryan and Mitt Romney – Trump voters are people that are terribly misguided either through some terrible character defect that just came to the fore or because they somehow fell under Trump’s magical and demagogic spell.
That is, as good “principled conservatives”, they’re required to take what the “free market” dishes out even if it’s destitution and misery.
The market is always right and if destitution and misery is where you’re at then that’s what you deserve. That these voters suddenly aren’t having it speaks to a terrible moral failure. Fakers and takers and eaters of free-lunches, all of them.
To the “Progressive” set, those being Obama and Shillary supporters, Trump voters are idiots – no education and deliberately ignorant – and lousy racists, beginning and end of story.
But to both the Right and Progressives, Trump and his followers don’t have a case. There’s no real gripe and there’s no real issue. It’s all smoke and spectacle and celebrity and low-down racism. If there’s an issue – and that’s a big IF – it’s that the world is changing and some people can’t keep up. So let the dirtybutts die.
One ought to beware. You’d think these highly edumacated people ought to know, life being what it is, the universe having a special sense of cruel irony. But people are willfully blind, the more schoolin’ you’ve got it seems the blinder you get.
Because, you see, the processes at work here haven’t run their course. Supporters of the Right and of Progressives, those being people that have done ok this past generation or so, don’t see what’s ahead for them.
What’s ahead, whether they know it or not, is the same diminishing via the facile term “globalization”, that same globalization that they say is the way forward, the way to greater good and prosperity, at least for them.
They are terribly mistaken because that same highly touted globalization will involve the offshoring to India and China of the mainstay of this complacent urban clerisy that’s so smug about their own prospects.
These guys that supposedly think for a living have apparently stopped thinking. After all, why should an Oligarch pay a hundred grand a year to someone on either coast of the U.S. for work that could be done on-line just as well in an Indian or Chinese urban center for eighty percent less? Big, big cost savings to be had here. These people may as well be walking around the office with their shorts hanging out.
As they say, to understand someone you need to walk a mile in his shoes. Well, I expect a lot of mileage ahead of the two-footed variety for a lot of these people. I saw it with my own eyes happen to people I worked with. Highly skilled, highly compensated work going bye-bye to Chennai.
The people with the superior smirks should smirk while they can. The Unnecessariat is a big-tent under which they’ll be spending a lot of time.
“I saw it with my own eyes happen to people I worked with. Highly skilled, highly compensated work going bye-bye to Chennai.” –Volodya
Highly skilled (lots of fancy schoolin’ I imagine)
Highly compensated (lots of wasteful spending I imagine)
Going bye-bye to Chennai…
Hooray for the good fortune of those in Chennai who formerly lived in absolute poverty and can now eat. What are you bitching about, Volodya? Have you ever lived and worked (not visited for a few weeks) in the third world? I am not seeing a downside to your story.
On the one hand we have educated highly compensated first worlders, who probably have savings, assets, stocks, bonds, pensions funds, unemployment insurance, food stamps, welfare, etc. … i.e., who live in societies with safety nets and will not starve.
On the other hand we have newly employed Chennai workers who can now feed their families and lift themselves out of absolute poverty.
Globalization is a win-win scenario. Cheer up, mate!
WPA is Bill Kristol! Go on, admit it!
Trump has done another flip-flop and is now fund-raising…. So much for the “self-funding” lie…. wpa
===============
How quickly you forget, wpa.
A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds….. RWE
Do I contradict myself? Very well then, I contradict myself; (I am large, I contain multitudes) WW
Is he any different than any other politician? Remember campaign promises? Like the one where Obama promised to re-negotiate NAFTA? As soon as he was elected, promises like those went by the wayside. He did pass Obamacare, but aside from that, he is on the side of the Oligarchs, which means we will conduct business as usual. When it comes right down to it, all of the politicians are careful not to upset the applecart, so with a few exceptions (for the pacification of the hoi polloi), it’s business as usual.
“A foolish consistency…
Late to the party, but I read with interest recently about how bedtimes for children, if set earlier, lead to a whole host of improved behaviors. It’s a subtle matter, but another “boundary” that for the most part no longer exists. And one which no one thought would matter; until it did. Perhaps all those “ADD” kids wouldn’t be as fucked up as they are if their weak kneed parents would just tell them to GO TO BED!
I raised a daughter with ADD. Believe it or not, bedtime was never a problem. About 8pm, she was like “Well, I’m going to bed”, and off she went of her own accord.
We all need limits. When Trump gets it, I hope he sets a “curfew” for programming, say 12 am. There can be a ceremony like in Woody Allen’s movie “Sleeper”. Trump will watch the sunset and we will watch him watch it. Finally he’ll wave or perhaps even say a few words to us and then it’s light out.
“Is he any different than any other politician?” –CS
Yes, Trump is worse than a politician. He is a carnival barker and a con man. Even worse Trump is insecure, short-fingered, thin-skinned… and may soon have the nuclear launch codes
Good thing he has short fingers then.
Oh snark, where is thy sting?
Mr Darling,
Now it’s interesting isn’t it, that that same “Progressive” gang don’t see Bernie’s followers in the same light? Bernie’s followers have the same interests as Trump’s followers, the same concerns, are in the same alligator infested economic swamp as Trump supporters. Their prospects are similarly diminished, the cause of their diminishment the same, that being the export of millions of jobs, simultaneous with the importation of millions of immigrants both legal and illegal all through the same phenomenon as “globalization” aka offshoring.
Yet they’re not seen as stupid and racist and idiotic. Naive maybe, I mean, who’s going to believe that there’s a snowball’s chance of free tuition. Or idealistic. But not idiots and not racists. No, they’re people of good will, well meaning, enlightened, schooled, but maybe they need more real world experience.
On the Right-wad side, Bernie’s supporters are seen in much the same light as Trump’s, people with severe moral impairment, people that cannot accept the natural law of the universe, that being you eat what you kill. They should accept their impoverishment with good grace and go to church and pray. After all, doesn’t God’s will count for something? So, if the rich are rich it must be God’s will. These malcontents should maybe take into account to divine order of things and stop messing with the Big Guy.
Now, Trump is no way, shape or form cut out to be the big kahuna. Neither is Bernie. Both, in some of their pronouncements sound a many bricks short of a pile. But both represent something long expected and finally arrived, that being a realization among a large, but as yet inadequately large, proportion of the populace that they’ve been screwed. The Oligarchs and their hangers-on should take note. Their best days are behind them.
From here it goes down-hill for the Oligarchs. It will sooner or later occur to a political entrepreneur that there’s a commonality of interests here among the Trumpists and the Sanderistas and, as such, a source of political power. IMO it will come sooner. Much has changed in the political landscape, much more change to come.
I agree with you completely, Volodya. To me, the most significant aspect about this election has to be about the similarities between the Trump supporters VS the Bernie supporters, rather than the differences between them. Both are manifestations of the dissatisfaction on both sides of the political spectrum with what is going on in this country. It doesn’t matter whether you are right or left wing, both sides are getting pounded up the ass by the powers that be, (Goldman Sachs, & their ilk). If you are one of the right wing, or the left wing, who are still worried about the differences between both sides,it’s time to step back & look at the things that unite us rather than the things that divide us. As I’ve said before, most of the differences between the parties are a smoke screen, which have been created to keep people in an uproar so that the powers that be can continue with the rape of the middle class. Keep ’em dumb. That’s what their purpose is. It’s time for the sheep to look up.
Too long – 30 years or more – since I’ve heard or played this one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUWZ06JqK0I
fodase
Bernie goes public!!
Sanders officially announced major irregularities with primaries results in Nevada, which took place on 20 of February.
In particular credentials of 64 delegates were canceled without explanation, without even giving them ability to speak on the mater to 58 of them, providing Hillary with an advantage of 30 delegates. The voting results were announced without the traditional “head count” of electoral votes (by the raised hands) and the leadership of the convention in Nevada do not want to explain how they counted votes.
https://berniesanders.com/press-release/statement-nevada/
If you check by the traffic on their respective campaign web sites, Bernie beats Hillary by over 100%:
Stats for Bernie Web Site:
https://www.semrush.com/info/berniesanders.com
Traffic: 2,167,000 hits
Stats for Hillary Web Site:
https://www.semrush.com/info/hillaryclinton.com
Traffic: 973,000 hits
For comparison, Kunstler got just about 13,000 hits.
From here it goes down-hill for the Oligarchs == Volodya
If you recall the year 2012 when the Rockefeller clan frantically rushed to buy up millions of acres of Brazilian land, meaning the creation of alternate airfield.
Another alternate airfield after the collapse of the US Rockies ain’t gonna have. Australia, New Zealand and even Canada are all estates of their opponents, which is closely associated with the British Crown.
Land Purchase in Brazil, the recent exit of the Rockies out of all oil projects and the fact that all this is happening against the backdrop of fierce election campaign in the US, where the Rockie’s candidate Clinton has gradually turned into a figure that could win the presidency only as result of a coup or serious manipulation of voting results.
There is reason to believe that the election results in the United States will influence the process of creating an alternative to US dollar world currency.
If Hillary wins, the process will be breaking hard.
And most likely creator of an alternative world currency will be BRICS and financial institutions created by it. In this regard, they tried hard to knock out Brazil to slow down the process that could bury the dollar.
However, it is not a panacea.
After all, the BRICS could easily turn into a RICS. Or into something else. Just between China and Russia there is enough firepower and financial reserves sufficient to implement the project.
Liberals have declared war on the native middle and working classes of every single Western nation because we represent the biggest threat to their undeserved power and privilege.
And they are right.
Wakanda is the most technologically advanced nation on Earth. It’s amazing what Blacks can do when not held back by Whites and their racism.
http://www.amren.com/news/2016/05/black-panther-marvels-african-hero-in-the-spotlight/
Racism is a partly physical, partly metaphysical, force that emanates from Whites disrupting Black consciousness, causing them to commit crimes, have unprotected sex, drink too much, do drugs, eat too much, eat too much fried chicken, etc.
Hey J.- you inadvertently left out that great African contribution to fine cuisine: Bushmeat.
Did you know it was in crisis?
http://www.bushmeat.org/bushmeat_and_wildlife_trade/what_is_the_bushmeat_crisis
“Ben Saunders, the director of comics and cartoons studies at the University of Oregon.”
Ahhhh…Ahhhh…
“Sadly, many people’s fear about what might truly happen if trans people get to use public restrooms is — if you can even believe it — even more ludicrous. They’re worried that a trans person might molest, rape, kidnap, murder or choose-your-own-violent-action-verb any innocent, helpless woman or child in the vicinity. Even more ridiculous, they’re worried that an attacker might transition just so that they can more easily gain access to the restroom that’s used by the victims they find most enticing.
Of course sane, rational, decent human beings know none of this is true. Not only has there never been a reported case of a transgender person attacking anyone in a restroom, the very idea that someone would go through all of the emotionally and often physically exhausting steps to identify as transgender just so they could gain access to a restroom to carry out their nefarious plans is just plain bonkers.
Trans people and their allies have spent countless hours thoroughly outlining why these fears are unfounded but there’s one simple response to all of this madness that I haven’t heard anyone publicly articulating:
Aside from the fact that being trans has nothing to do with being a predator, we don’t need laws outlawing trans people from using public restrooms to protect us from molestation, rape, kidnapping, murder and chose-your-own-violent-action-nouns because — are you ready for this? — all of those things are already illegal!
That’s right! Believe it or not, over the last two hundred and forty years, lawmakers have taken it upon themselves to write and pass laws that outlaw all of the things that so many claim they are worried trans people will do if they manage to make it into the restroom that doesn’t correspond with the gender they were assigned at birth. And these laws apply to all of us — trans or not — and they apply no matter where we are — public restroom or private bathroom. It’s not as if there’s some magical rule that states “Trans people are not allowed to attack other people unless they manage to make it into a public restroom. In that case, all laws and bets are off and trans people can do whatever they want, so we’d better keep them out or else :: boogeyman emoji ::”
If someone is a rapist or a kidnapper or identifies as any other illegal or immoral character, they aren’t waiting at home twiddling their thumbs hoping that a law will be passed so they can finally get into a restroom and do their evil bidding. And the argument that someone who isn’t trans might don clothing of another gender, claim that they’re trans and then gain access to the restroom of their choice in order to indulge in any of these illegal activities is just as insane. That’s not how it works. That’s not how any of this works.
Finally, while we’re at it, let’s note that it’s not non-trans people who are being harassed in restrooms, it’s — you guessed it! — trans people or anyone who doesn’t fit into society’s understanding of what a man or a woman is. Based on a poll of 93 trans people conducted in 2008 and 2009, 70 percent “reported experiencing being denied access to restrooms, being harassed while using restrooms and even experiencing some forms of physical assault.”
So if you’re one of the people who is calling for laws to prohibit trans people from gaining access to the public restroom that corresponds with their gender identity in order to stop the (totally non-existent) raping and murdering and pillaging that you deludedly think is or will take place, take a breath and relax. You’re already protected. Now how about we take all of that time and energy and money and figure out how to protect trans people, yeah?” –Noah Michelson
Yeah, wpa, I have to agree that this whole tranny bathroom thing is a non-issue.
If I’m standing at the urinal in the men’s room at, say, the movie theater and a confused tatted woman (you know the type…short hair, baggy blue jeans, nondescript flannel shirt, a hint of suppressed breasts) leans over the divider to get a peek, what is “he” going to see but my enormous schwantz so it’s a feather in my pants anyway.
Yeah but what if you put on a dress and terrorize women in their bathroom? That’s the point.
Much ado about nothing – Wm Shakespeare
Sure, great in theory, but you had better not look back over the divider Q. because “(s)he” has either a John Holmes ” Big Johnnie Wadd” memorial detachable rubber appendage or perhaps an authentic Debreziner (possibly from Zabar’s) working the porcelain with the “mint” in the bottom drain. Question is: two hands, one or “look Ma, no hands!”?
I had the acquaintance a member of the “Basketball Nation” who actually played NCAA ball and he stood 6’9.” He called his “johnson” “The Terrabyte” – no confusion about what toilet he was gonna use. Would not have mattered as he wanted to let everyone see it as it WAS more than the feather in his pants…much much more. Like the late-great Madeleine Kahn said in Blazing Saddles – “It’s twue, it’s twue….”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9JqbCH4aVw
Do you think the designator for the male toilet of “Gents” or “Gentlemen” will be proscribed by Loretta Lynch at the Justice Department as even a confused, tatted, “butch” creature as you describe may be a tranny but can NEVER be a gentleman?
And that has got to hurt some “Tranz” feelings. And you know how Barry, his cronies, and the Left in general, feel about hurt feelings.
http://www.wvwnews.net/content/index.php?/news_story/shocker_soros_admits_involvement_in_migrant_crisis_‘national_borders_are_the_obstacle’.html
Conspiracy Theorists were right – again. Establishment true believers who parroted the party line about “Syrian refugees” were wrong – as usual.
And then we have the sad case of Ernest Hemingway’s youngest son, Gregory, a cross dressing transvestite who ended up, late in life, getting breast implants, hormone shots, and his dick removed, the whole 9 yards. Believe me, if you think being tranny is somehow a glamorous lifestyle, read about Gregory Hemingway, who died in a Miami jail cell in 2001. Its also pretty clear it was an overwhelming compulsion which was impossible for him to resist. He wasn’t stupid — he had it together enough to become an MD. Oddly enough, his family realized there might be a problem when Gregory was arrested in a woman’s restroom in an LA movie theatre, an incident which appalled his mother caused her death a few days later.
————————————————————–
All’s I can say, the patriots and hard men who command the Russian, Chinese, NKorean, Iranian and ISIS armed forces must look at the new openly homosexual Army secretary, Obama’s Mom Jeans, Lady Generals, and female, homosexual and transgender troops of America’s new model army and rub their hands together, lick their lips, and shake their heads at their blessed good luck. Most likely they can’t believe it and are pinching themselves and slapping each other on the back.
brh
BRH,
RE | “All’s I can say, the patriots and hard men who command the Russian, Chinese, NKorean, Iranian and ISIS armed forces must look at the new openly homosexual Army secretary, Obama’s Mom Jeans, Lady Generals, and female, homosexual and transgender troops of America’s new model army and rub their hands together, lick their lips, and shake their heads at their blessed good luck. Most likely they can’t believe it and are pinching themselves and slapping each other on the back.”
Well, I’m doubtful about how much lip-licking is being done, but I do see that there’s a mismatch in terms of Priorities… Ie., ‘our’ collective lack of any that are relevant and their keener, leaner, hungrier and (in the case of ISIS) fanatical focus on doing things that actually work. But that’s to be expected. When war becomes a for-profit exercise things tend to ‘drift’…
By the way BRH, you’re wrong about Europe. Europe has put millions in the ground, forgotten all about it until it felt threatened and mowed down millions more… Rinse/Repeat ad infinitum. If you were closer to your roots you’d know that.
Cheers!
So you support White Europeans driving the invaders out? Or are you still calling them refugees? It’s the difference between having a future and extinction. If you were closer to your Race and Heritage you’d get it.
Europe is a crucible of death and has been since the dawn of civilization. A result of geography, human migration, and climate. Humanity, regrettably, has not seen death and destruction on its own kind like that unleashed by a Europe warring in their own lands or the lands they conquered. And people wonder why there are duplicitous plots from treaties to refugees to subdue it, constrain it. Nobody wants to see that beast awakened.
Frankiti: You get it. Outsiders look at Europe and see the results of the last 40 years – not the blood running in the gutters from the last 2400.
Janos: You are off on the wrong track – as usual. I’ve never been interested in discussing the issue in your terms because that would be counterproductive.
In other words, it would be the Truth and not some kind of official or politically correct narrative. And of course, therefore of no interest to you.
Volodya,
You’ve made some interesting observations and ruminations. I’ll see if I can reply in kind.
RE | “The people with the superior smirks should smirk while they can. The Unnecessariat is a big-tent under which they’ll be spending a lot of time.”-v.
The past eight years has been one long rearguard action from the POTUS downwards – and now the end of the line is in sight: out of ammo, water, cover & outflanked. It’s interesting to look around at the end of something. Years ago I asked the owner of a tattoo parlor why he called his place ‘The Ebb Tide’. He told me he’d never say, but I wasn’t letting go that easy:
“Is it because when the tide goes out you can see the way things really are?” I asked.
He paused and smirked, picked up a cigarette, took a drag and said: “10% discount”…
We’ve been riding high on a Spring tide of thoughtlessness. There are consequences.
RE | “From here it goes down-hill for the Oligarchs.”-v.
How close are we now to the next big downsizing? No IPO’s in the Tech-Sector this year and the buyer of last resort – the corporations themselves – are shutting their buybacks down hard. The ‘smart-money’ has been flooding out of the market since the January 1st and even Soros is loading up on precious metals. If you were duty-bound to sail on the tide and you’re not already aboard and stowed, then you’re screwed – good-n-proper.
Putting things in perspective, what gives way in the stock-market – the least tangible aspect of Collapse – is just a stage-setter for what comes after. Farther out on the time-horizon there are things like ‘global warming/climate destabilization’, closer in there’s the threat of major-league snafu’s like a nuclear-missile ‘exchange’ between the US and whoever the enemy-‘o’-th’-day is, and then lashing right up next to you there are things that are already happening but haven’t pinged on the radar yet;
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/may/19/englands-chief-medical-officer-warns-of-antibiotic-apocalypse
Systemic Collapse is like a bunch of street-kids sizing up a sailor who missed his boat, each ‘kid’ looks manageable enough, and under normal circumstances (ie., when there were people around the sailor could count on) they would be. . . But he realizes (belatedly) that this is no longer ‘normal’ – and that’s how he gets rat-packed until his system goes ‘tits-up’…
Frank Sinatra played Gary, Indiana during the racial integration crisis. He mocked the Whites of Gary for wanting to keep the city and culture intact. Happy now, Frank?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/newsnight/paulmason/2010/10/gary_indiana_unbroken_spirit_a.html
“unbroken spirit” – what a crock. Only subhuman morons can get jobs in media.
I met someone who has a claim to fame. He says his family rented to the Sinatras, long ago, in NJ.
The reason I mention this is that ‘Franks mom was a mid wife and back room abortionist.’
Who knows?
The smell of war
Fascinating spectacle, of course. Two military superpowers – one dominant, the other on the rise – playing each other fear games.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJFnDfvUVGc
NATO risks nuclear war with Russia ‘within a year’, senior general warns
NATO risks a nuclear war with Russia within a year if it does not increase its defense capabilities in the Baltic States, one of the alliance’s most senior retired generals has said.
General Sir Richard Shirreff, who served as NATO’s Deputy Supreme Allied Commander in Europe between 2011 and 2014, said that an attack on Estonia, Lithuania or Latvia – all NATO members – was a serious possibility and that the West should act now to avert “potential catastrophe”.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/nato-risks-nuclear-war-with-russia-within-a-year-senior-general-warns-a7035141.html
What would motivate Russia to attack Estonia? I’m sorry, I just don’t get it. Russia — a mere regional power according to our commander in chief and parroted by our resident Leftist. Destined to a future of decline and irrelevance. What’s the big worry? Do they want to extort protection money from the tourist trade?
“What would motivate Russia to attack Estonia? ”
Safety perimeter.
Estonia is a borderline nation, during the Soviet times it was supplied even better than Moscow.
They can’t survive on their own, so its either NATO or Russia.
I have to say hat the whole “bathroom” issue seems like a smoke-screen designed to hide the main event of the week: news about election fraud in Unites States are going mainstream and way beyond a mere “conspiracy theory”.
I checked with my 19 year old daughter and 15 year old son. Both said these are non-issues. We live in New Jersey and have rarely seen a transgender (outside of NYC). So the likeliness of running into one in a public bathroom is tiny. And if gays want to get married, let ’em. My son said the transgender boys were in much more danger than the girls since the transgender boys would use the men’s room where they’d be more at risk for rape that transgender girls in the women’s room which makes sense. From out of the mouth of babes . . .
Good article on the current macro-economic machinations of the central banks…worth reading.
http://dailyreckoning.com/elites-master-plan-global-inflation-part-ii/
Personal behaviors are constrained by custom and law. What about boundaries on sexual behaviors?
The great thinkers say that what you do in private with someone over a minimum age is nobody else’s business. But what if what you do that’s supposedly nobody else’s business results in the transmission of disease?
These behaviors that are supposedly nobody else’s business can create a public health problem ie the AIDs disaster.
Personal liberty to do what you want sounds good as a general concept. But there’s some realities, like disease and pregnancy, that need to be taken into account.
And, also, there’s people’s sensibilities. To people on the Left, particularly campus Progressives, feelings are everything, particularly their own feelings, particularly feelings of offense or psychological distress.
But what if the sensibility in question is that of a fifteen year old high school girl who calls her mom on her cell phone saying, “Mom, there’s a boy in the change-room.”
In this evolving Orwellian world of Thought Crime, there’s sensibilities and there’s sensibilities. Some, according to Progressive arbiters, are socially acceptable.
And some aren’t. The girl signalling personal distress at seeing the unclad-semi-clad body parts of an individual of confused sexual identity in a formerly sexually segregated facility AT BEST is in for – ahem – “education”.
Or, worse, the distressed girl could be in for some serious condemnation, and her mom too, particularly if mom goes to school authorities and asks just what in hell a boy is doing in a girl’s change-room.
As Kunstler sez, Progressives are convinced that they alone have the correct take on issues. They equate signs saying “No Negroes” with washroom signs saying “Men” and “Women”. Nonsense, you say? Shhh, not too loud, Progressive Thought Police might be listening.
In any case, I figure there’s two ways to look at this. One is that Progressives use issues like this as an avenue to power and career and applause and personal notoriety.
The other is that this makes one cracker-jack of a distraction from problems of serious and immediate importance to a large number of people. Like affordable health care and adequately paying work.
So I give Obama full credit for diverting attention from the calamitous failures under his watch, full marks, 100 percent, A plus, plus, plus. He “solved” a non-problem.
Like I said:
http://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/border-lines/#comment-267928
Fred Reed poking fun at the Tranny/Bathroom dust-up:
http://fredoneverything.org/
Fred, on Everything:
“the whole business is crazier than three monkeys in a bag.” …
“President Obama ordered that all federal buildings be equipped with litter boxes”
Bless you Q. If people can imagine such things about themselves, why shouldn’t we imagine such things about them as well? In other words, if a man imagines himself to be a woman, we should just say we see him as a squid, impatiently admitting that OF COURSE he’s really a female squid and can have appropriate accommodations.
We must become bold and take the battle to the enemy. No more simply responding by denying. Immediate counter-attack, with the blocks setting up blows.
This is another great one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHZZaC4sfjU
along with Oxygene
great stuff to listen to in the darkness
Mr. Jim,
I think the focus on these “victimization” issues like LGBT & the .03% of the population who are transgender is a denial by the media & political establishments to face up to the entropic decline of our civilization. The establishment powers can build bathrooms– this type of problem they feel like they have power over, however— it is all a psychological trick to continue ignoring the 800 pound gorillas in the room (not just one gorilla, but now many gorillas) of the multi-level & cross-disciplinary decline of American civilization.
And they do this by exerting control domestically. When the central government consolidates control and power from the states it will be more effective in dictating national responses. Particularly in energy, infrastructure, and environmental sectors.
http://www.gopusa.com/treat-christians-like-nazis-says-harvard-prof/
One Professor “Tushnet”. What kind of name is that? It couldn’t be Jewish, could it?
The Communists want to do us like they did in the Soviet Union. Thank God for the 2nd Amendment.
How much longer will we have a 2nd amendment?
It all hangs on this next election.
And that begs the question, what kind of system is this when our fundamental rights as Americans, guaranteed by God and codified in the 1st and 2nd amendments to the Constitution, can be nullified by the decision one single politically tainted judge?
brh
http://www.radixjournal.com/journal/2016/5/2/the-paleocon-turner-diaries
Review of William Lind’s novel of a coming American Revolution. Feminist Professor is burned as a witch. Set in the Northeast. Some say good things about it. It’s weak on race, unlike Covington’s Northwest novels. Blacks learn their lesson, get humble, and fight alongside Whites, ultimately retiring to their own communities. Since you are weak on race too, you might prefer it.
Re: Janos, May 18, 2016 at 2:15 pm
At the risk of banishment:
phenomenon – singular
phenomena – plural
When did I ever say otherwise? Probably my error was not really an error: Is “rain” singular or plural? It’s always raining someplace after all.
Another airliner falling out of the sky, a tragic accident, or more handiwork from ‘the religion of peace’?
Somebody mentioned Fred Reed, in his latest column he talks about how much fun flying used to be. i remember those days too; there were always other soldiers or sailors to drink with in the airport bar, and running to catch your plane at the last minute, all lit up, laughing like hell.
brh
Can you produce any evidence that ANY religious leader of the religion of peace condones terrorism?
Uhhh, Google “Terrorist Imam”
Brh, I am sorry, but when planes fall off the sky, first suspect is always Anglo-Saxon intelligence agencies – that’s their gig.
They could’ve done it just to change the topic of conversation on CNN – right after sensational statement of Bernie about election fraud in US.
” i remember those days too; there were always other soldiers or sailors to drink with in the airport bar, and running to catch your plane at the last minute, all lit up, laughing like hell.”-brh.
I remember those days, Back Row. Flying used to be fun.
” This reveals the fantastic smug certainty of the political left in assuming that such matters are adequately understood and settled.” Right on, Jim.
BRH mentioned the terribly sad, confused and conflicted, tormented state of just one transgender, Hemingway’s son, Gregory.
At this point in time, the human body and mind is still too complex to be fully understood. Billions of neurons and trillions of synapses in the human brain. There are at least dozens of neurotransmitters with both inhibitory and excitory receptors.
Then we have the hormones and the endocrine glands. Yes, testosterone in women, estrogen in men, interacting and contributing to sexual identity.
In this exceedingly complex scenario, it’s almost hard to believe that most of us turn out “normal”. Strength of the evolutionary directive?
Years ago, HBO(?) featured a gorgeous “female” porn star who had a “male” (predominately male orientation) fan base in the thousands. They worshipped her and her male genitalia.
The life force. How many forms can it take?
The BIGGER Picture—
http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-true-story-of-the-bilderberg-group-and-what-they-may-be-planning-now/13808
What I truly hate about sites like that is that they present all those bilderbergs as all powerful beings any struggle against whom is pointless.
They are full of shit like the rest of us.
How Trump Fixed the NYC Skating Rink in 1986
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsP89haGyoI
Fixing US is going to be a hell of a more tantalizing task, but Trump has a chance to pull it off.
Could you guess in a million years who’s in that video? (without looking at the title).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9191TKWJ08
@ Volodya:
RE | “So I give Obama full credit for diverting attention from the calamitous failures under his watch, full marks, 100 percent, A plus, plus, plus. He “solved” a non-problem.”-v.
Yes, let’s take a closer look at Obama’s legacy, shall we?
Obama:
1-Has prosecuted more whistle-blowers than all other presidents combined
2-Sentenced whistle-blowers to 31 times the jail time of all prior u.s. presidents combined
3-Prosecuted fewer financial crimes than President Reagan, Clinton or either of the Bush presidents. (As bad as the Bush administration was, they at least prosecuted the heads of Enron, Worldcomm and some other white collar crooks. In contrast, Obama hasn’t prosecuted even one high-level Wall Street executive.)
4-Is the most secretive president ever
5-Is more hostile to the press than any president in history
6-Claims the power to strip Americans’ liberty in a way that no other president has ever tried to claim … and that even King George of England didn’t claim. Indeed, Obama has rolled back some of our liberties to the time of the enactment of the Magna Carta in 1215
7-Has turned America into the most spied upon nation in world history (and see this and this)
8-Has arguably centralized power more than any other president
9-Has granted fewer pardons than any president since Garfield, who served only 200 days as president before being assassinated in 1881
10-May be the only U.S. president in history who failed to deliver a single year of at least 3% economic growth (when adjusted for inflation.”
Obama has been at war longer than any other US president:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/15/us/politics/obama-as-wartime-president-has-wrestled-with-protecting-nation-and-troops.html?smprod=nytcore-iphone&smid=nytcore-iphone-share&_r=1
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-05-17/obama-has-been-war-longer-any-other-president-history
Quite a tally, no?
😉
ADDENDUM:
How that war ended up:
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2016/05/how-will-the-west-cover-up-its-retreat-from-afghanistan.html#comments
@ Frankiti:
RE | “Did the Americans discovering Paris wear slouchy hats, prescription ray bans, beards, thigh tattoos, peg earrings, buffalo check flannels and culottes and experience the world through their iLeash? Or were Dos Passos and Pound & company up to something meaningful, you know, besides posting photos of their meals and following and thumb upping Shakespeare & Co on the left bank?”-f.
Based on the attention to detail and the tone, I’m sensing a lot of ‘tension’… a lot of ‘animus’ here [t-i-c]. Do you work with a lot of Millennials? You sound pretty fed-up with these youngsters.
As for the Post-WW1 Expat Scene-sters; they could be irritating dorks and had their issues when they weren’t being brilliant… And we only hear about the brilliant ones. For every successfully-published/shown creative there were fifty other folks that never got farther than having a good time – and some stories to tell. That was clearly the case during the Post-WW2 Beat Era. If you intersect with the creative universe you know exactly how it is.
However, your comments about Millennial attachments (literal) to dearly beloved intermediative devices strikes true. In the decades to come they’ll have a steep learning curve to climb, trying to bridge the gap between Representational and Actual.
Robert MacAlmon, Chard Powers Smith, Glenway Wescott … prominent novelists of the Lost Generation, now forgotten.
brh
In the decades to come they’ll have a steep learning curve to climb, – MD
=============
MD, you are making here an extremely common mistake. In fact it is so common that I don’t recall ever seeing someone get it right…and that is because it is so counter-intuitive. People always envision a learning curve as a hill in front of them which must be climbed and so the steeper that hill is the more difficult it is to climb…i.e. the harder and more time consuming it is to learn.
But, having for many years used learning curves to estimate or evaluate the labor hours a project will take to perform (and similarly, to evaluate the costs of materials at various purchase quantities) I can report authoritatively that the steep hill image of a learning curve is completely wrong.
One does not climb a learning curve, one comes down a learning curve and the steeper the downward slope of that curve the more quickly and easy is the process of learning.
On a piece of standard chart paper a learning curve begins on the upper left (where hours are on the vertical y axis) and descends toward the lower right (where units are on the horizontal x axis). If the angle of descent is steep (for example a 60% slope) that means each additional unit of production is being accomplished using 40% fewer hours than the previous unit. If the angle of descent is gentle (say, a 90% slope) it means each additional unit is taking only 10% fewer hours to accomplish. The greater the slope % the gentler is the angle of descent and the slower and more difficult is the learning.
Note: A learning “curve” plotted on log paper makes the curve a straight line.
Having said all this I am absolutely positive that people will continue to imagine a steep learning curve as a hill in front of them needing to be climbed……….. just as those same people will continue to say “jive” when they mean “jibe.” These are frustrations I will have to live with till my dying day.
We can never exhaust God. C.S Lewis described Heaven as always “higher up” and “deeper in”. You don’t like hierarchy so you are more of a deeper in type. But the highs aren’t wrong anymore than you are right.
Huh?
Q,
“But, having for many years used learning curves to estimate or evaluate the labor hours a project will take to perform (and similarly, to evaluate the costs of materials at various purchase quantities) I can report authoritatively that the steep hill image of a learning curve is completely wrong.”
Quite right Q. I knew better but somehow did it anyway. Thanks!
Mr. Kunstler, about gay marriage, just do a thought experiment.
Close your eyes and imagine you were born gay. Then proceed from there.
Use this whenever you find yourself falling into hate and despise for your fellow humans.
You try it. Now are you the bride or the groom? And if the latter, why would any man want another man for a bride? Gay men who are into dancing like women as dance partners. Marriage is by definition something between the sexes. It is in accordance with nature and benefits society and is thus honored by society. Gay sex is not, does not and therefore should not be so honored. To do so would be to pretend that it’s the same as normal marriage. It would be to lie.
Frank offers up his theory of absolute White evil. Darling agrees with it. No doubt both adore sister Susan Sontag who said “Whites are the cancer of humanity.” Can you imagine any other race of people that would talk this way about their own? Of couse Sontag didn’t identify as White. Don’t know about these two clowns, they seem to be pretending to be at least. Tim Wise plays this trick: he’ll talk about how horrible Whites are, leading his audience to be amazed at his humility. But in reality he’s a Jew and doesn’t identify with Whites in the least.
Frankiti
May 19, 2016 at 7:02 am #
Europe is a crucible of death and has been since the dawn of civilization. A result of geography, human migration, and climate. Humanity, regrettably, has not seen death and destruction on its own kind like that unleashed by a Europe warring in their own lands or the lands they conquered. And people wonder why there are duplicitous plots from treaties to refugees to subdue it, constrain it. Nobody wants to see that beast awakened.
Janos… wow.
LOL!
I don’t see what Frankiti said as a “theory of White Evil” in any way, shape or form. The paradox about war is that to kill is very wrong, and yet sometimes very necessary. Europe understands this – that is why there’s such a wide array of diverse languages and ancient cultures living in such close proximity. They didn’t survive unassimilated by accident. That should be abundantly clear.
But you are a special case, aren’t you ‘Janos’? This is why it’s useless to try and have a normal discussion with you.
That’s why I reposted his link. He obviously referred to a unique European evil. So is it the air, the water, or the genes? “They didn’t survive unassimilated by accident” – what does that even mean? That they solved their “problem”? So why do you want to allow Islam to destroy them now?
Your rejoinder here is bureaucrat speak at its worst. You aren’t special, but very, very common. The banality of ****.
I never said evil, I said death.
I never said white, I said Europe.
You assume I’m white, or at least white complected, and further presume that I’m a Jew because all white people that talk this way about their own, or fellow white skinned people as your point posits, must be.
In recent modern recorded history, and the history that primarily concerns us, the western civilization variety, Europe has been the fulcrum for an exceptional amount of violence and warfare. Now of course their were the huns and the mongols and the arabs and the aztecs and feudal Japanese, and the persians, but, in recent modern history, a vast amount of conquest, both internecine and nationalist warfare was perpetrated by the Europeans and its colonial progeny.
I have lived in Europe and have family that still live there. There’s this misconception that Europeans are weak, naive, and credulous. I assure you they are not. People that know Europe know that they are not. The thing is, they are more tempered than us weak Americans. We are always looking over our shoulders, always itching to prove ourselves, and let the other inmates know we are nobody to be trifled with. The Europeans have been forged in a crucible of continental warfare, again, for most of modern history. What we fear is the point past tempered strength; spontaneous failure and breakage. If it comes to that we all know what gets unleashed, the dragon of St. George, and his myth lives all over Europe as does his dragon.
And therefore you approve of the “beast” being put down. Don’t try to weasel out of it – that’s what you said. And of course you mean White. That’s what European means, overwhelmingly or until you people got into power.
Western Europeans are very, very degenerate now. You have done a masterful job of messing with their heads. But yes, there are still some healthy ones. Hopefully enough.
Who, exactly, are “you people”?
Does it bother you? I’m sorry! But you people have to realize that as long as you let those people make decisions for you people, you will be lumped in with them.
“Uhhh, Google “Terrorist Imam” –Elysian Fields
Such innocence is touching! Instead I Googled “Terrorist Unicorns”:
About 930,000 results (0.78 seconds)
Should I take that as evidence that terrorist unicorns exist?
I was looking for primary documents where a religious leader of the religion of peace endorses terrorism. I don’t think that exists…
I am not looking for the opinions of religious bigots who can put anything onto the internet and who call Muslims who defend themselves “terrorists.” …
Islam is a religion of peace, just like Christianity. A minority engages in violence in both religions.
When Christians defend themselves they are called “freedom fighters.” Christian religious leaders have a history of blessing the soldiers, and the weapons of war, to fight whoever is declared the enemy of the day: Germans, Japanese, Vietnamese, communists, atheists, “terrorists”.
I experienced this Christian blessing of violence first hand in the 20th century.
I experienced this Christian blessing of violence first hand in the 20th century. – wpa
===========
Yeah, there was an amusing scene in the movie Patton where George C. Scott’s character tells his Chaplain he wants him to write a good prayer for the coming battle. “Listen Padre, I want you to draft up a good prayer……etc.” or something along those lines.
The Islam equivalent, as I understand it, would be to yell Allahu Akbar as you pull the pin on your bomb vest in the midst of a few hundred innocents.
And then there was the “divine wind” of the Kamikaze pilots.
Sorry wpa, for violence in the name of God in the present era it is hard to beat the Muslims.
Wpac,
I would invite you to suck on THIS…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anwar_al-Awlaki
why respond to it? it merely posts nonsense to provoke a response
It applies the lotion onto your hairy back.
Imagine meeting someone at a fine coffee shop and then using your mutual love of coffee as a pretext or means to form a friendship. So you meet at different coffee shop and try the different coffees and talk about anything and everything. Your new friend begins to talk strangely, saying how the coffee shop should serve Sanka while calling it all kinds of fancy names and charging an arm and leg to boot. And the baristas should all be organized into a union to facilitate this. You find out that your new “friend” hates coffee, not just the taste but the whole idea. Thinks it’s bad for people and should be banned.
The West is full of people like Darling and Frank. They’ll talk for hours, days, weeks, and years about what’s good for America and the West. But sooner or later you’ll come to realize they hate all these, indeed the very idea of nations. They don’t want what’s best for America and the West but what’s worst for them. Hopefully they’ll spill the beans before you’ve wasted too much time with them. I mean if they think Europe deserves to be destroyed because it’s White, what else can they possible believe or desire for America?
“The West is full of people like Darling and Frank. They’ll talk for hours, days, weeks, and years about what’s good for America and the West. But sooner or later you’ll come to realize they hate all these, indeed the very idea of nations.”-janos.
You understand nothing Janos. Whenever you think that you might have a clue about what’s being written you should probably ask for a clarification, it works better than just making stuff up and spouting off. In lieu of that perhaps you should slap yourself in the face several times, it might refresh you.
I’m rather surprised that someone, Harvard educated and all like Janos, has such a hard time with this.
Later screwy. See you in St Louie!
http://www.amren.com/news/2016/05/hungary-us-wants-to-fill-europe-with-muslim-migrants/
At least some people have their heads screwed on straight. Unlike Screwy, Moe, and Larry.
Why, I’m using Goebbels Skorzeny logic. If you are from Boston area as you say you are that means that you are Harvard educated and really an elite liberal playing cat-and-mouse games here. Someone of your station should be accomplishing more than trolling an obscure doomer website with their valuable time.
Janos, white people of Christian heritage in the twentieth century polished off tens of millions of people in the two world wars and colonial repression.
This massive carnage did not occur because European Christians are worse than or different from other human beings, but because they were the first to industrialize war and pursue a national model.
Sometimes it is argued that whites did not act in the name of religion but of nationalism. But, really, how naive. Religion and nationalism are closely intertwined. The British monarch is the head of the Church of England, and that still meant something in the first half of the twentieth century, at least. The Swedish church is a national church. Spain? Was it really unconnected to Catholicism? Did the Church and Francisco Franco’s feelings toward it play no role in the Civil War? And what’s sauce for the goose: much Muslim violence is driven by forms of modern nationalism, too.
I don’t figure that Muslims killed more than a 2 million people or so in political violence in the entire twentieth century, and that mainly in the Iran-Iraq War 1980-1988 and the Soviet and post-Soviet wars in Afghanistan, for which white Europeans bear some blame.
Compare that to the white Christian European tally of, oh, lets say 100 million (16 million in WW I, 60 million in WW II
Local Yzlamik “nationalism” mass murders:
Iran Revolution; Algeria civil War; Nigeria; Libya, Lebanon; Somali civil war….
OK, what constitutes “mass’ murder? Anything over 1000? 1000,00? What is a good criteria? A million fatalities?
Yzlamik “terrorism” murders just for 2015: +27,000
http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/attacks/attacks.aspx?Yr=2015
Yzlamik genocides of the 20th century.
Sudan Genocide (Darfur) (2003): 500,000 murdered.
Armenian Genocide (1915): One million/ 1.5 million murdered
India-Pakistan Partition (1947): +2 million murdered and missing.
Bangladesh Genocide (1971): 2-3 million murdered.
Mao Zedong has everyone beat , even those Caucasian Christians, by a mile with an unknown but suspected body count of perhaps some 40,000,000 during his reign. But that is due to a Communist/Atheist aesthetic.
Your Yzlamik apologist position and historical revisionist slant ( willful ignorance?) is appalling and dangerous.
White Christians did not demand either war. Both WW1 and WW2 were *demanded* by JEWS and the Jewish money power. WHY??? BECAUSE Hitler liberated Germany from the balance sheets of the London banksters. Hitler recovered Germany’s sovereignty and removed Germany from the Rothschild’s balance sheets. The Jewish money houses, i.e. Rockefeller, Rothschild, and Morgan, financed both sides and in both wars.
Christians were prominent in anti-war propaganda. Joe Sixpack and his comrades on both sides were drafted and forced to fight in order to bring Germany back under the Jewish banksters. The lies told against Hitler will never die and that is proof positive that Hitler was not the bad guy in WW2.
I know your ***THOUGHTCRIME!!!*** alarm is going wild and all the propaganda that formed your world view are scrambling to protect your orientation. I DARE YOU to step outside your narrow-minded New Left castle walls and investigate what the Other Side has discovered. Diversity, Ecumenism (both secular and religious), Androgyny, Open-Mindedness, and other demigods of the New Left are terrible prisons because Chaos guards them.
Stewardess of the missing in the Mediterranean Egyptian airliner posted her photo in social networks of herself on the backdrop of the sinking liner.
On the picture the girl goes ashore unharmed. Behind her, in the meantime, the aircraft sinks into the ocean.
She posted the photograph on Facebook as early as 2014 – a few months before she got a job in Egyptair. Numerous friends of Samar are sure that with this image she predicted her fate.
http://s10.stc.all.kpcdn.net/share/i/4/1115028/wx1080.jpg
Psyop?
It looks like the French resistance in the known issues of signing up to TTIP (Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership) will turn around with new and new attempts to intimidate them.
For many Trump connection with US top generals sounds alarming. According to some estimates, Trump enjoys support of up to two-thirds of the senior officers.
The fact is that the Pentagon has been for long time not happy with the really “unpredictable” wars, in which it continually is forced to engage.
The military always want to see clear goals and objectives, rather than sink into “flimsy swamps” of Vietnam or Iraq type.
In this environment, the main problem of national security at the global level, the US military see, above all, in the outright stagnation in the development of new military technologies.
In this sense, Trump as a business person seems to them more capable of understanding their needs and not dispersing precious resources on multiple frivolous tasks.
For Russia, such a reorientation of American strategy, in general, does not bode particularly good, making it to pay even more attention to its own the defense industry, but still it is far better than balancing on the edge of a nuclear conflict.
I see the police chief in San Francisco — lefty San Francisco — had to resign after two blacks were shot to death by SFPD, one in a stolen car trying to run down an officer, another attacking an officer with a hunting knife …
The mayor is trying to head off trouble, but trouble is coming anyway. Hyenas are loose running thru the streets, chasing people into alleys, snapping at their heels … whoop, whoop, whoop.
There was an article recently in the NYT about endemic street crime and car break in SF, and the massive ‘homeless’ (bums) population, and the city council’s reluctance to do anything about it because it would be ‘discriminatory’.
So now you have what you have. The handwriting is on the wall, can you read it? Time to get out, brother, get out before its too late. It may already be too late.
brh
Brh, stop peeing the boiled tea
As we say in Russia, they can’t send you farther than the front,
They can’t give you more than a bullet
Finca,
One can parachute behind enemy lines; that’s beyond the front.
But on the other hand I do like your line about peeing boiled tea. Does it also work with vodka?
Going “beyond the front” is still being on the front
No, one can’t pee hot vodka – what kind of a moron would drink vodka hot?
But you could pee hot compote, if you like that better.
For Russians, “front” is not a line, it’s a destiny.
What does that mean?
In SF a tiny apartment is 2-4K?
Oh, meanwhile in NYC, a painting by Basquiat sold for 57.3 million dollars.
Set a record.
It wont help the artist, he was a junkie. Close to Warhol, who championed him.
CHECK IT OUT, BUBBA.
I was in NYC in the 90s. Had the choice to see one of two art exhibitions – Rene Magritte, Belgian master of the surreal and light, or this “phenomenon” Basquiat at the Whitney.
Selected the Basquiat as I was intrigued as to what all the hoopla was all about —- it was pure shit really. The vandal tags/graffiti on subway cars was much better in terms of content, technical merit and style.
I recently had a similar experience at the Thyssen Bornemisza Museum in Madrid. The much vaunted, and highly valued, Marc Rothco was represented by one of his “classic” blue box with red circle numbers. In the same gallery was the small but pure genius Salvador Dali’s “Dream caused by the Flight of a Bee around a Pomegranate a Second before Wakening up.” One is pure crap the other contact with the cosmic consciousness of the world.
This art stuff today is all about selling shit to the highest paying rube. An offshoot of hypercapitalist Wall Street; those without a lick of aesthetics but shiploads of easy money.
.
RothKo.[with a ‘k’] I like most of his work.
Notable quote,
The vandal tags/graffiti on subway cars was much better in terms of content, technical merit and style.
Rumor is Warhol made him famous because they were ‘an item.’
Waterloo!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoeAqeKW5Wk
“Waterloo”
My, my, at Waterloo Napoleon did surrender
Oh yeah, and I have met my destiny in quite a similar way
The history book on the shelf
Is always repeating itself
Waterloo – I was defeated, you won the war
Waterloo – Promise to love you for ever more
Waterloo – Couldn’t escape if I wanted to
Waterloo – Knowing my fate is to be with you
Waterloo – Finally facing my Waterloo
My, my, I tried to hold you back but you were stronger
Oh yeah, and now it seems my only chance is giving up the fight
And how could I ever refuse
I feel like I win when I lose
Waterloo – I was defeated, you won the war
Waterloo – Promise to love you for ever more
Waterloo – Couldn’t escape if I wanted to
Waterloo – Knowing my fate is to be with you
Waterloo – Finally facing my Waterloo
So how could I ever refuse
I feel like I win when I lose –
Waterloo – Couldn’t escape if I wanted to
Waterloo – Knowing my fate is to be with you
Waterloo – Finally facing my Waterloo
Is there a Russian equivalent of ABBA?
How come TATU never made it big in the West?
I was under the impression they had a soft-core lesbian sex show incorporated into their concerts.
Don’t know nothing about lesbians – they look like nice country-girls to me.
They’re huuuuugely talented, without any special effects and monkey-dancing.
You must be a big Pussy Riot fan too.
“Little General, Napoleon of France,
Tried to fight,
The world but lost his pants,
Met defeat, known as Bonaparte’s Retreat,
And that’s when Napoleon met his Waterloo….”
Little Jimmie Dickens…
“Waterloo” was a number-one hit for country singer Stonewall Jackson in 1959.
-Sticks
Unless used at a LBGT-QBIN bar in the former Confederacy, he could not use that moniker today – it would be proscribed as “hate speech” by Loretta Lynch and the other faceless bureaucrats at the People’s Commissariat for Justice, uh, I mean the Department of Justice.
Sticks,
Yes, Stonewall Jackson. I stand corrected.
History rhymes with new terminology…..The financial class wins again and loses for the rest of us….
(And just think, the Clintons are poised to do even more, btw…..)
Meet Wall streets latest iteration of the same thing that brought the world 2008, remember that exposed the $1.4 quadrillion on paper value of the CDOs 23x the actual output of real money.: Say hello to the new boondoggle, just like the old boongoggle (CDO).
BTOs bespoke tranche opportunities.
[Since 2008(thanks Obama and the Clintons)
those same old characters seem to have found a way to get back into the business. In addition to Goldman, which narrowly avoided criminal charges after a Senate investigation revealed its shady pre-crisis mortgage dealings, sellers of “bespoke tranche obligations” now include Citigroup and the french banking giant BNP Paribas. BNP’s recent notoriety doesn’t relate to the financial crisis, but rather to the bank’s violation of various U.S. sanctions against Iran, Cuba, and Sudan. And while Citigroup’s past leadership now says financial deregulation was a mistake and that megabanks like Citi should be broken up to protect the economy, its current leadership is chipping away at key Dodd-Frank reforms. Citi was also heavily involved in the “robosigning” scandal that lead to hundreds of thousands or even millions of unjust foreclosures.]…..
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2015/02/05/3619325/bespoke-tranche-opportunities-are-your-god-now-america/
These companies you mention … Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, BNP, it seems like they’re the only thing keeping NYC solvent. What else is there in NY, BT? Is any manufacturing left? Who else is going to pay for 40,000 police officers, 10,000 firemen, tens of thousands of city employees, and quite literally, millions on welfare? When I hear pols like Bernie Sanders and Bill DiBlasio attacking Wall Street, I think, ‘these people are playing with fire’. Wall Street is NYCs last remaining pillar, and if it goes down, the entire city goes down.
brh
Outstanding insight brh!
Cut off the nose to spite the face. Or bite the hand that feeds you.
-Sticks
Hi Sticks,
Yes, it’s not a good idea to bite the hand that feeds you – unless it’s it’s feeding you poison, or in this case not even feeding just prodding and beating.
Yeah…but Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein told us he was doing “God’s work!” How can we knock that?
-Sticks
P.S. Unless…his ‘god’ is mammon!
The official spokeswoman of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova kept her promise to reporters and on the 6-inch heels danced “Kalinka” during a concert dedicated to Russia-ASEAN Summit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pn2q8Gi53iQ
NIce. What does it mean?
Janos, it’s like Hava Nagila, only in Russian.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vx9DTDDG8lc
Now that’s a public servant!
Is the bathing suit competition up next?
-Sticks
P.S. This is how Trump will audition to fill staff positions.
Trump to financiers: You Fired!!
When Trump (or Sanders) will occupy the Oval Office in January, it would be time for America to roll up its sleeves. Hire a lot of mechanical, construction, electrical engineers, time to fire all that “effective managers”, inventive “financial instruments designers” and other scumbags.
One huge problem that would be facing America – they do not have proper language to describe the necessary processes that will have to take place – not that politically correct crap-talk that the likes of Hillary – a great semantic scientist who wrote a doctoral dissertation on what the meaning of the word “is” is – call proper English.
Ask Russians – they have a unique experience in that regard!
Islam is a religion of peace
keep telling yourself that, wpa, maybe one day it will come true
everybody is wrong i guess, seeing them for what they really are
like they say in portuguese, “tem que se foder mesmo”
which is said to folks who need to be burned badly by reality in order
to wake up
http://bbs.dailystormer.com/t/red-state-blog-totally-surrenders-giving-the-gop-to-the-alt-right/29974/18
We broke the chain of the Southern Danes,
Now we break the World.
Note: Harbors used to be guarded with a heavy chain. This couplet is from Robert E Howard.
What did the boys say about flying drunk?
All lit up like a bat out of hell,
Someone gets in our way
Someone don’t feel so well.
The pilot is drunk too. The Trump train has no breaks. It’s all inspiration, strength thru joy. This world is built on calculation and fear. Force and the threat of force. What can it do against men who have nothing left to lose? They didn’t study their Sun Tzu, evidently. Or consider the Saxon takeover of England. Did the Saxons have incredible strategy, generals, professional soldiers, etc. No. They simply wanted England and would not take no for an answer. It was a manifestation of the life force. Ditto the conquest of America. Ditto the reconquest of America.
If Trump doesn’t keep faith with us, we’ll chuck him off our shoulders and into the ditch. That is what you should fear. Imagine who will arise after him. But, but, but – you’re going to crash you cry. Easy Gertrude: we were already ready headed for the cliff at breakneck speed. The only way to stop that now is some wild driving.
The Saxons showed up in Britain after the Romans withdrew to Italy. Romanized Celts under King Arthur and the like tried to fight off these Saxon and Anglo invaders from the German Low Country, but were eventually overwhelmed. In fact studying the British Isles after the Romans departed in the 4th century might give you an insight as to where the America is headed, as lawful authority wanes (see my above post about San Francisco) and chaos and violence assert itself across the plain.
brh
BRH,
The tangible difference between now and the Dark Ages is 1) population sizes and 2) modern weaponry.
The whole idea that you can displace millions of people when they have a comparable population, without also having total weapon and logistic superiority, has been an anachronism since the European Middle Ages. Why do you think that all these disparate ethnic groups still exist? This was one of the (several) structural problems with Hitler’s plans. He was living in the past and so were his followers – with predictable results. He never had a chance – it was just a matter of how many people had to die to get that through his head unfortunately.
The UK is not going to be suddenly rushed & subdued by a thousands of basically unarmed Muslims [*], when then are millions of pissed-off Brits on the other side of the Channel, with a functioning and very hostile military already accustomed to killing Middle-Easterners, that is also more than capable of drafting the entire able-bodied adult population of the UK.
The refugees – and I call them that because 98% are just people fleeing – are pawns in a big, stupid geopolitical game that has doesn’t end well… for them.
Cheers!
+++
[*] and a few firearms do not count as ‘armed’ in a military sense… By the way, this why the US PTB isn’t too worried about gun-ownership in the US.
Well thought out, and clearly stated, MD.
But I’ve also read, in the long run ‘demographics is destiny’.
brh
BRH,
RE | “demographics is destiny”.
I’d agree if I believed that the population in the Middle-East was still growing, and was in good enough shape to keep pumping excess people into a ‘declining’ Europe, and that the transportation network would remain passable them, and that these people could get past all the guns of Eastern Europe – which will rearm past anything we’ve yet seen with a little more destablization… For decades.
Even in the Dark Ages it took several centuries and multiple waves of Angles, Jutes and Saxons to push Romano-Celts out of southern England. The Levantines don’t have centuries, they don’t have decades and with a little more pressure not even years…
Oh c’mon. They will breed like rabbits in Western Europe on the dime of the White Europeans. My God, where is your commonsense? They are already doing it. They are masters of manipulating the welfare system.
Do you know how to google? The most common name male baby name in many European countries is Mohammad.
Hillary hysterical yesterday stated that the votes of California residents can not affect the outcome of the primaries, enraging the Californians and bringing Bernie at least 100 delegates on a silver platter and that more than a third of the gap between her and Sanders.
Meanwhile, if the super-delegates, seeing that she faces charges of serious crimes, will run to Sanders, then his nomination will be guaranteed even now. And the fact that they now promise to vote for Clinton, does not oblige them, and even if Clinton will receive a mathematical majority by super-delegates, Bernie Sanders will not be out of the race.
Besides, the article Putin Warns His Military Commanders: “If It’s Hillary Clinton, It’s War”
http://www.whatdoesitmean.com/index2039.htm
has not passed his attention, and he now fully understands what responsibility will fall on him if he gets out of the race. Especially since he has already saved her once from the Gowdy Commission, saying in the first televised debate that he was not interested in Republican accusations against Hillary Clinton, and refusing to use the murder of the American ambassador in Benghazi in the political struggle.
And she’s right there on the spot thanked him by planting a bug on his computer and arranged a mini Watergate for his election campaign. And he is not going to believe her promises no matter what she says, and withdraw his candidacy.
” bringing Bernie at least 100 delegates”
Bernie is the stronger candidate. Hillary is losing to Trump. Bernie beats Trump by 14 percentag points. After California the super delegates will wake up to this fact and switch over to Bernie. Then it will be Bernie against Trump in the general election.
“Wpac, I would invite you to suck on THIS…” –Elysian Fields
Elysian, do you know what an imam is? Simply a local mosque prayer leader, not a spokesperson for Islam, not a significant religious leader, not a spokesperson for the religion of peace.
My brother is a prayer leader at his church. He is not a spokesperson for Christianity. He is not a religious leader.
The dead guy you reference, Elysian, is no more a religious leader in Islam, no more representative of Islam, than the dead minister Fred Phelps was a Christian religious leader, or anyway representative of Christianity.
Get a grip, Elysian. Muslims killed 2 million in the 20th century. White European Christians killed 100 million. Why don’t I hear you condeming those who are 50 times more violent?
Religious leaders have issued thousands of statements condoning terrorism.
Edumacate yourself about the true nature of Islam: peace. 70,000 Muslim clerics have condemned terrorism:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/muslim-clerics-condemn-terrorism_us_566adfa1e4b009377b249dea
^Christian and Muslim religious leaders have issued thousands of statements condemning terrorism.^
“wpa_ccc
May 19, 2016 at 4:01 pm #
Can you produce any evidence that ANY religious leader of the religion of peace condones terrorism
Define Any
Define Evidence
Define Religious leader
Define Religion of Peace
Define Condone
Define Terrorism
Ad nauseum….
Your statement and question was, perhaps, in need of qualification?
During an annual gathering of South Asian Sunni Muslims in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh this week, almost 1.5 million attendees signed a document protesting global terrorist activity, according to The Times of India.
This bolstered “clerics from across the world, who were part of the event, [to pass] the fatwa,” said one of the clerics, Mufti Mohammed Saleem Noori. They want to spread the message that they don’t consider groups like the Islamic State to be true Islamic organizations — nor do they view members of these organizations as Muslims.
===============
Have there been any gatherings of 1.5 million Christians signing a document condemning terrorism?
Muslims, 1.6 Billion of them, are members of a religion of peace.
http://www.breitbart.com/london/2016/01/17/czech-president-its-impossible-to-integrate-muslims-into-western-europe/
It’s an organized invasion, he says. Not refugees like Lt Stooge, Screwy, and Shemp (wpa) think.
How Much Should You Make to Afford Rent in San Francisco?
For the squeamish, it might be best to look away. For the those with stronger reserve, another data compilation was released today by SmartAsset with arguably bad news. You will need to make $216,219 annually to rent a two-bedroom in San Francisco.
This comes on the heels of news that college grads can expect to pay upward of 79 percent of their income to rent in Baghdad by the Bay.
“While rental rates have increased in recent years, wages haven’t kept up,” says SmartAsset. “The median household income in the city is only $78,378.”
This is a 7.4 percent bump up from 2015, which showed that one needed $201,171 annually for a fair market two-bedroom in San Francisco.
(Source)
“While rental rates have increased in recent years, wages haven’t kept up,” says SmartAsset.” – Malthuss
===============
If the outfit making these calculations dropped the last two letters from their name they would be called SmartAss.
“Islam is a religion of peace, keep telling yourself that, wpa, maybe one day it will come true” –fodase
100 million is bigger than 2 million. I keep telling myself that.
In the 20th century western European whites killed 100 million.
Muslims only 2, and that mostly because of western meddling in the middle east, Iraq/Afghanistan.
Who are the barbarians?
When Gandhi was asked what he thought of western civilization he replied it would be a good idea. Still waiting. The U.S.A. has 662 overseas military bases in 38 foreign countries and outspends the next 10 countries on “defense” … it is an imperial colonizing power provoking violence and invading, bombing, ocuupying countries. Who is violent? Who are the barbarians?
Republican Party as one man stands united behind Donald Trump, and more cohesive the Republican Party looks, the better chance Bernie Sanders has to stand against Hillary on the democratic front, where fight is becoming more and more important for Americans.
Even a rabid Clintonite Romney said that he will not be nominating other candidate at the convention, which is equivalent to the recommendation to vote for Trump.
Soon slogan will be put up: “We talking Trump – we mean the Republican Party, We talking Republican Party – we mean Trump!”
But only recently the majority of Republican leaders said: “Never Trump!”, citing the fact that Trump will inevitably lose to Clinton and even threatening to vote for Hillary, if he to be nominated against their opinion. As a result, they all exposed themselves as secret supporters of Hillary and made additional promotion for Trump as the single consistent anti-Clintonite.
Only now becoming clear the original plan of Hillary, or rather of the clan personified by her: recruiting people in the Republican Party, and securing victory in the Democratic Party, by controlling the super delegates.
And Clintonian Republicans put forward two marginal candidates – Rubio and Kasich – from two large states Ohio and Florida, where winner takes all delegates, thought that they would block any other candidate, essentially clearing the way for Hillary to the White House.
But then came Trump and ruined to hell this entire wonderful plan.
Russian economist: If Trump wins the White House he’ll force Putin to fire most of the Russian government
In Russia’s case, Khazin notes, it is almost a certainty that Trump would abandon the US economic dictate which has its roots in the 1990s during the Clinton era, and consists of liberal Russian economists, officials, and financiers with ties to US officials such as former Clinton Treasury Secretary Larry Summers being instructed on how to run the country’s economy.
“If the election is won by the ‘isolationists’, they would put pressure on Putin to get rid of the representatives of the opposing wing,” including liberal officials, economists and oligarchs, from policy-making circles, the economist explains.
Trump’s interest in Russia is twofold. “It has a passive component: Russia should not support his enemies among the financiers, and take responsibility for a number of regional issues which Trump does not want to spend American resources on – this includes regional security in Eastern Europe and part of the Middle East, where ‘security’ consists partly of working to limit the activity of terrorist groups, such as Daesh, which were created by the financiers in the first place.”
Speaking of “Kalinka”: 1968
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9LWvFari5k
“These [bathrooms] could easily be relabeled ‘Handicapped and Transgender.’”
Good luck with the fallout from that: “Are you calling ‘transgender’ a ‘handicap’?”
“As for Toynbee, his argument was that it is not external invasions—whether by the Visigoths in the 5th century or the Islamic jihadists in the 21st—that bring an empire down. Rather, he said, by the time of the invasion, the civilization in question has already committed suicide—so weakened itself by self-destructive acts that an invasion was merely icing on the cake, so to speak. That this is true of the US, which brought 9/11 on by nearly a century of meddling in the Middle East, such that blowback became inevitable, is too obvious to warrant comment. In fact, “blowback” is a term coined by the CIA; they have not been ignorant of the consequences of US foreign policy. As Mr. Obama’s former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, pointedly stated, “If you are going to terrorize people, eventually they are going to terrorize you back.” Duh!” –Morris Berman (Dark Ages America blog)
Ozone,
Indeed, you DID say. But I think that this particular idea of “distraction” bears repeating until people get it.
Beryl of Oil sez it’s not a non-issue essentially because the “Justice Department” – I know, contradiction in terms – threw its weight behind it. But they also made it an issue of money, a lot of it, because if any jurisdiction getting federal money ain’t jiggy with this new, legally non-binding ahem “guidance”, they could see a sudden shortfall in said money.
Money, court challenges, cultural and religious sensibilities and this thing goes on and on and on. The most perfect distraction. The thing is to not get distracted.
“Money, court challenges, cultural and religious sensibilities and this thing goes on and on and on. The most perfect distraction. The thing is to not get distracted.” – v.
And, perfectly stated, if I may say!
Mister Darling,
I read the article about the outcome of the Afghanistan war. Here’s what gets me: the American intelligentsia refuses to learn from other people’s mistakes. They didn’t learn from the French debacle in Indochina, neither from the Soviets in Afghanistan.
Neither will they learn from their own mistakes. No, the Afghan moonscape will be touted as “strategic” and “vital” to “American interests”, not to mention “national security”.
Now, mouthing the words “national security” and “American interests”, particularly with the term “vital” attached, is a guaranteed thought-stopper, moreover, one absolutely guaranteed to get drummers drumming, buglers bugling, pipers piping and Hillary standing tall and pledging allegiance to the Flag. No analysis required, see, “mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord…”. You’re a patriot aren’t you? Well, aren’t you? So start singing, Glory, Glory Hallelujiah dammit.
I saw a discussion on PBS not too long ago on ISIS with the usual assortment of suits like Leon Panetta and Michele Flournoy, who said the usual shit you’d expect about American capabilities with all the usual delusions on full display.
But this discussion also had retired Col Andrew Bacevitch and Gen. Zinni both of whom pissed all over the idea that there was snowball’s chance of training and arming Iraqis troops. You know, been at it a decade with zero results etc. Moreover, according to Bacevitch, the US was a creator of regional instability rather than the opposite. “We know how to do this”, said Panetta. Well no, Bacevitch said “No we DON’T know how to do this”.
Zinni and Bacevitch had a clear view of the limits to the efficacy of US military and diplomatic power. There’s places where it doesn’t go and Afghanistan is example number one. But, as long as Panneta/Flournoy type delusions of American grandeur prevail, Afghanistan will be a bottomless pit for American resources.
If I had to guess I would say the long-run fate of Afghanistan is to crack up and, more dangerously, Pakistan too, along ethnic fault-lines, Pushtun, Baloch etc. But the lessons of history won’t be learned and the US will do what it usually does. Vital American Interests they’ll say and, more ominously, National Security.
No matter what the big thinkers in Washington think, no matter how many Special Forces, B-52s and drones get deployed, it won’t change the outcome.
“History is not a teacher…it is a punisher…” (Finc?)
…it teaches nothing, but only punishes for lessons not learned
V.,
I’ll have to look up that particular program. Any time there’s a possibility that one of the delusional, neocon shitheads is going to get a spanking is delightful (if not hopeful… which it’s not).
As far as Pakistan goes, there’s a very good reason that Waziristan is “semi-autonomous”. How much of a bribe can the US cobble together to convince the Paki PTB to meddle with *that* hornet’s nest? Another lesson to be ignored for the nation-dismantlers to take pride in, as chaos is very good for business.
It’s time for the sheep to look up – Captain Spaulding
Indeed, and they have, but so far their vision extends only as far as the fence on their particular enclosure, that is, “Democrat” and “Republican”, respectively.
But, as we’ve seen, power hates a vacuum and both Bernie and Trump walked straight into one. So far, these guys are the only ones talking straight to the heart of what ails all those tens of millions of voters.
As Abe said such a long time ago, you can’t fool all of the people all of the time. For such a long time though, since the 1960s I’d say – and that’s a LONG time – people HAVE been fooled, they’ve been skilfully distracted by the Culture Wars, gay this, abortion that, evolution, and all the while the Oligarchs represented in Washington by Reagan and Clinton and Bush 1 and 2 and Obama, conducted history’s most audacious and massive heist.
But the sheep ARE looking up. Who predicted at the start of this presidential cycle this outcome? Bernie and Trump were laughable fringe candidates.
This has a long way yet to play out and it’s not impossible that a huge realignment of politics is in the works. IMO it’s not baked in the cake as to where Hispanic and Black votes will fall. Sooner or later, these constituencies will understand the utter mendacity of the Clinton clique and whose interests they represent. Not Black and Hispanic interests that for sure. These two groups have a commonality with working class whites. Who will be the one to bring these groups together?
Ozone, here it is:
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/can-obamas-plan-defeat-destroy-islamic-state/
EVEN ON THE LEFT people are preparing for a Trump presidency – these are the odds according to Ted Rall, and the key item in his platform is mass deportation:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/05/20/trump-isnt-bluffing-hell-deport-11-million-people/
Money Quotes:
“Sad but true: subtracting 11 million people from the population, and thus two to four million from the workforce, will put money into the pockets of everybody else. Fewer workers means labor has more clout. Wages will go up. . . Meanwhile, deportations will empty housing stock. Rents will decline. . . In the short term, anyway, Trumpism could stimulate the economy. That would be popular.”
People doubt that he’d actually go through with it. Ted’s not so convinced:
“For Trump, deportations are a political necessity he can easily execute. For his critics, they won’t occur because they would run against our societal values. “Unless you suspend the Constitution and instruct the police to behave as if we live in North Korea,” Chertoff says, “it ain’t happening.
More than most people, Chertoff ought to know better. After all, he served under a radical right-wing president who convinced us to go along with perpetual war, concentration camps, legalized torture, invading foreign countries for fun, killer drone planes and a new cabinet-level bureaucracy whose mission — and very name, Homeland Security — evokes Nazi Germany.”-TR.
Just to be clear, this doesn’t mean that I’m ‘in the tank’ for Trump… but one of the things I’ve made clear since the beginning of our acquaintance is that I’m Pro- Strong Borders, and anti- Importation of Cheap Labor. This is a policy with real-world impact, so I’m interested. What else do I find agreeable about Trump? Well, I like that he’s not preaching war against Russia, unlike another candidate.
Cheers!
😉
@ Volodya & Co.,
“Here’s what gets me: the American intelligentsia refuses to learn from other people’s mistakes. They didn’t learn from the French debacle in Indochina, neither from the Soviets in Afghanistan.”-v.
After their experiences in Indochina and Algeria the French military tore up their ‘counter-insurgency doctrine’ altogether, correctly surmising that fighting against a popular insurgency requires fighting an entire population and that idea – from a cost/benefit standpoint – was for (literally) losers.
The reason that this isn’t understood at the decision-making level in the US military is that there’s no money in fighting smarter-not-harder. As usual in America, the bottom-line is the bottom-line.
So, let me add something non-abstract to this discussion: I was sure the war was lost when the Taliban basically showed CENTCOM it was. In 2006 the Taliban started using ‘human-wave’ attacks against FOB’s. The general public didn’t hear about this because the news-lag between Afghanistan and the American mainstream public is the same as it was during the Vietnam War: 22 months on average.
This is where it gets weird: every night for a few weeks in late-September of 2006 in the southern opium-heavy province of Kandahar. the Taliban sent hundreds of fighters walking toward different FOB’s in these widely spaced, ragged ‘waves’… And every night an AC-130 Gunship would go out and mow them all down as they zombie-walked across these flat open areas.
This went on for a week before a team was flown down from BAF to conduct blood-tests on the corpses of these dead Talibanis, and the results were telling: they were all completely high on opium and they only carried personal weapons with minimal ammo.
How do you think that CENTCOM chose to interpret that report? In a way most convenient to their puppet-masters naturally. They said that the Taliban were using ‘human-wave’ tactics (they weren’t) out of “desperation” (they weren’t).
Savvier observers (ahem) said: No they aren’t desperate. The opponent is telling you they’ve won: they’ve got more people and money than they need, so they’re cutting headcount before snow blocks the passes. They don’t have to ‘win’ at the tactical level, all they’ve got to do now is keep fighting – and they can. So, you’re finished.
This was obvious to every qualified observer. The resource-level function of ordering suicide attacks is R-i-F. Of course, this opinion wasn’t listened to because that’s not how modern US/NATO generals keep their jobs. They keep their jobs by keeping the show going at all costs. That’s where the money and the perks are.
And the results are in, aren’t they? This is what happens when warfare gets privatized.
RE | “No, the Afghan moonscape will be touted as “strategic” and “vital” to “American interests”, not to mention “national security”.
“Moonscape” is right. Most of Afghanistan is high-desert. Here’s a place that I became familiar with. Someone documented a pretty weak/early-in-the-war rocket attack:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJeK2hzNtnU
Now, doesn’t that look inviting and oh-so worth dying for? I’m just asking…
😉
Americans starting to realize that it might end badly for them
The stats for that site are going hyperbolic.
http://nuclearsecrecy.com/nukemap/classic/
http://gatesofvienna.net/2016/05/ten-arabic-words-brackens-challenge-to-national-security-professionals/
Venezuela: The next big thing in refugee ‘resourcing’;
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/20/venezuela-breaking-point-food-shortages-protests-maduro
MD, I’m shocked! shocked I tell you, that in this socialist paradise of Venezuela (San Penn’s description, not mine) human beings would end up clawing one another to death fighting for scraps of food in an emptied out, looted supermarket (likr what happened in Caracas last week), brutal murder by security forces in the streets by beating are the order of the day, and the entire country is bereft of toilet paper, baby diapers and milk.
Is Robert Kennedy, jr still getting free oil from there, and passing it out to fellow democrats in New England? And making a big goddam show of it in order to shame President Bush. Where are noted Chauvinistas Danny Glover, Michael Moore, and Bill Ayers, once frequent visitors, and sycophant cheerleaders? You’d think they’d be manning the ramparts, instead they’re in their gated mansions in Chicago, LA and Michigan living large, eating well and enjoying the best of everything.
brh
So many people are making money off betraying the West to Islam, in ways big and small, subtle and obvious. Petraeus is an obvert and gigantic traitor. Gabbing too much to his mistress is small compared to this. Yet most wont even see it even if it’s put before their eyes.
http://gatesofvienna.net/2016/05/why-david-petraeus-wants-you-to-shut-up-about-islamism/
Meanwhile, Christians are slaughtered wholesale in Syria, Iraq, Malaysia, Pakistan and Afghanistan by soldiers of this ‘Religion of Peace’
I’ve yet to hear Petraeus comment on that.
April 19, 1942, “General Mac Arthur wants you to shut up about the Japs”.
brh
And not all of the 10,000 killed by Israel in the last few years are Muslims.
Some are Christians.
“THE DIRTY SECRET in our business” is that they can’t produce more oil without going into debt – and now they can’t store all the unsold oil without going deeper into debt [1];
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/money/topstories/the-dirty-little-secret-about-dollar50-oil-tom-ward/ar-BBtiqQD?li=AAggFp5&ocid=mailsignout
Not having access to loans is a big problem for the oil industry. Without cheap loans, government subsidies and special treatment Big Oil wouldn’t have gotten big… Which also probably means that things never would have gotten so overbuilt, polluted and resource-depleted in every other area… Which means that we wouldn’t be in the fix we’re in.
But that would mean the The Bottom Line wouldn’t have been the ‘bottom-line’ in the US, and we all know that’s just crazy… /s
Cheers!
+++
[1] VLCC oil-tankers are the only ships in shortage right now. Why? Not so they can move oil, no, that would be to normal. They’re need for loading and storing it @ 2M-barrels per ship, parked offshore or slow-boating it all the way around Africa b/c the shipper doesn’t want to pay to use the Suez Canal… it’s brilliant.
/s
I read Jim’s blog regularly, but being busy in real life this week, I haven’t taken the time to engage with this comments section. So I don’t know what the tenor of responses to Jim’s pensées about gay and transgender people, the acceptance of gay marriage, et cetera has been. But I just did a quick text search and the word “vomit” only matched once, in the text of his post, but no responses. So no one appears to have taken up what to me was the singular point that I took away from reading him this week.
In brief, Jim Kunstler holds gay and trans people to be the human equivalent of plastic vomit. Regarding transgender people in particular, he offers the following options: “a psychological disturbance, a developmental problem, an extreme fashion statement, or a fantasy.” Why any of these should render trans people fit targets for discrimination or disqualify them from the full protection of the laws isn’t spelled out. It seems that, since they’re a parody of humanity (“plastic vomit”), not actual humans (Edouard Manet’s Luncheon on the Grass), the notion of them enjoying equal status with the rest of us just rubs him the wrong way.
Regarding homosexuality as distinct from transgender, Jim’s attitude toward “that behavior” is likewise dismissive, implicitly attempting to define or demean it out of existence. When I first read “A History of the Future” (I have my copy here), I was struck early on that the character Andrew Pendergast is introduced as a ‘reformed’ homosexual who has basically wised up and gotten real. In Kunstler’s depiction, if not in reality, the discipline required to survive in the new times just doesn’t leave space for such fripperies and affectations. Likewise in this week’s posting, Jim denounces “state approbation of homosexual behavior” (the Windsor decision) as motivated by “feelings” and thus illegitimate. One might note in response that in the past, and to a great extent in the present, homosexuals have faced relentless social pressure and the most extreme legal sanctions. In Europe they were burned at the stake; in Britain within living memory, Alan Turing, one of the great geniuses of the twentieth century, was forced to take hormones in an attempt to ‘cure’ him; today in Saudi Arabia, gay people face fines, years in prison, and hundreds of lashes with a bullwhip. Yet despite all this, gay people have continued to be gay and to act like it.
Whether the phenomenon of people who don’t fit the gender binary corresponds to any of Jim’s characterizations or not, one thing they clearly are is part of the spectrum of humanity, whether or not we deign to recognize “actually a real sexual category”. That gay people continue to be who they are in the face of everything straight people, backed by the power of the state, can throw at them ‘feels’ to me like an authentic expression of their humanity as they live it — their “pursuit of happiness” — not an affectation. Might this not constitute a rejoinder to Kunstler’s dismissiveness?
Jim’s final point is about the elimination of boundaries. In his view, the DOJ apparently has overstepped itself and “antagoniz[ed] large numbers of males and females by coercing them to consort with transgender people”. Consort! As if transgender people haven’t been here all along, urinating and defecating like all us humans do. (Land sakes, they’ll be using the drinking fountains next.) Which bathrooms trans people happened to use hadn’t been an issue until bigots in state legislatures decided to make it one. Then the federal government stepped up and reminded everyone that it has laws of its own, and won’t neglect to enforce them. The effrontery.
It’s true that when you push people’s boundaries, they push back. That makes for trouble and ruckus, and sometimes controversies that people feel passionate about really can destabilize societies. That’s not a trivial issue. But some boundaries deserve to be pushed, and pushed hard — especially the kind of boundaries that accord people on one side full humanity, and others not. Mr. Kunstler may imagine that he’s being generous in extending the olive branch of civil unions, but the question of “separate but equal” was settled in the courts decades ago: it’s not fit for a free society.
It’s not “extreme relativism” to insist that America live out the meaning of its creed and accord equal treatment to all under the law. It’s the exact opposite. I hope Mr. Kunstler will consider the truth of that statement.
So no boundaries at all? That’s what Gay pioneer Harry Hay indicated. And his support for NAMBLA was unwavering. Now most of the Gay movement opposed him in this, but how much of this opposition was just smart politics as opposed to philosophy? Gays and their perv allies want to radically the lower the age of consent. And thru the transgender issue, they have children making their own decisions about what sex they are – even little children. As you may know but choose not to acknowledge, the vast majority of children with gender dysphoria naturally get over it. To support them in frivolous feelings or allow them to make life long decisions is simply criminal.
http://www.bostonphoenix.com/boston/news_features/other_stories/documents/02511115.htm
Why yes, Allwrong, trannies who can pass, do. So why not be satisfied with the status quo of don’t ask, don’t tell? Why upset the apple cart? Because you can, right? Anything to hurt the majority. Anything to overthrow society and to implement Hay’s Marxist/Pantheist vision of homogeneity – diversity in your topsy turvy speak.
Face it, your self righteousness and hatred lead you to accepting completely idiotic viewpoints and policies. People like you put old men out to work in the fields in Maoist China. Leaders in their fields no less. Took away ancestral ploughshares in order to meet the iron quota for the five year plan. Starved millions with Lysenkoist theories in Russia. You are the Commissar type – a blight on humanity, a rust virus in the Human crop.
Good God Janos get a grip–your last paragraph is pure hyperbolic projection.
Elrond had a very articulate response to the topic of the week and you have painted him as a “Communist In A Caboose” :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hCczioWiZk
By no means, Buck. Ideas like his have consequences. If his kind have their way, we’ll be sending troops to East Africa to overthrow their Government because it’s “homophobic”.
Mister Darling, Trump’s plan to deport 11 million people is short-sighted. The gains you cite are more than offset by the costs of deportation.
The conservative American Action Forum estimates $400 to 600 Billion dollars.
“How much would it cost to “immediately and fully enforce current law”—that is, to deport all undocumented immigrants while preventing another wave of people from entering illegally?
“The answer, the conservative American Action Forum found, is quite a lot, both to taxpayers and the economy more broadly. Removing all 11.2 million undocumented immigrants, both forcibly and through Mitt Romney’s infamous “self-deportation” policy, would take about 20 years and cost the government between $400 billion and $600 billion. The impact on the economy would be even larger, according to the study: Real GDP would drop by nearly $1.6 trillion and the policy would shave 5.7 percent off economic growth. Researchers Laura Collins and Ben Gitis also write that their estimates are conservative, since they do not include, for example, the cost of constructing new courts, prisons, and other buildings that might be needed to process and detain millions of immigrants.”
Like the military that civilian taxpayers fund, the military that creates more terrorists than it kills, Trump’s deportation plan will be another boondogle the American taxpayers will have to fund to the detriment of our society.
Instead of wasting money on deportation, we need to welcome the illegal immigrants living among us, legalize them immediately, and have them pay more taxes into our federal budget to lower both the deficit and the debt.
“The American Action Forum is not some fringe group; it is well-entrenched in the establishment camp. Holtz-Eakin is a leading Republican economist who advised John McCain’s presidential campaign in 2008. In 2013, he released a paper arguing that comprehensive reform would boost economic growth and reduce long-term deficits by $2.5 trillion.” –The Atlantic, “The Conservative Case Against Enforcing Immigration Law”
Anybody who is conned by Trump’s “plan” has not looked at the facts, is not concerned about budget deficits or the national debt. That includes you, Mr. Darling, as well as Janos, P4W, and the rest of the CFN xenophobes and racists.
Mr. Trump is lying. What he said he wanted to do cannot be done… and will not be done. He’ll probably say it was just a “suggestion.”
Obama: Russia has not shown interest in doing more in nuclear disarmament
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20160522_08/
The most important reason for the Russian defeat in the Cold War was the wrong military doctrine that was focusing on preparation for retaliatory strike.
And the United States adhered to the concept of pre-emptive strike and won, as pre-emptive strike is not distinguishable from the first disarming strike and to counter it with retaliatory strike is a lot more expensive than to deal your own.
And the emergence of European missile defense system makes retaliatory strike impossible.
Therefore, Russia announced its new military doctrine, declaring loud and clear that it is also preparing for a preemptive strike, which can not be distinguished from the preparation to the first disarming strike.
And this time it is not just words, but a strategy for victory in a new Cold War, as it is now the United States needs to build a missile defense of the continental United States, and to think how to deflect the first disarming strike with new super-quiet Russian submarines, which in the case of a crisis situation with a high degree of probability could sneak into Atlantic and Pacific oceans undetected and suddenly shot at main US missile sites.
And any countermeasures to these threats are in order of magnitude more expensive than the threats themselves and associated costs could undermine the US economy, which is already in the pre-crisis state.
Still thinking of building The Wall and having Mexico paying for it? Here it comes – another wall you really need to build, and I doubt that Mexico is going to foot the bill for that one.
Texas businessman gets year in prison for failed Gambia coup
A Texas businessman convicted of plotting to violate the U.S. Neutrality Act in a failed 2014 bid to overthrow the government of Gambia and install himself as president of the tiny African nation was sentenced on Thursday to a year in prison.
The below-guideline sentences, more lenient than those recommended by federal prosecutors, were handed down by U.S. District Judge Richard Kyle in Minnesota, where the case originated.
But prosecutors’ sentencing memoranda stated the defendants “were motivated by a fervent desire to overthrow a regime (they) believed to be inhumane and oppressive,” noting the U.S. government “has long been critical” of Gambia’s human rights record.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-gambia-plot-idUSKCN0Y403Y
The evil tongues say that he was given jail time for the failure of the coup.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q44lWX8S5L4
A decision for this particular dance was made at the Federation’s Security Council on the proposal of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and special shoes with titanium soles and heels for it were made using secret vacuum welding nanotechnology, which United States has not been able to develop.
Cheers!
Titanium heels are in right now worldwide. In the USA we get not dancing but this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dY77j6uBHI
“Titanium heels are in right now worldwide”
They may very well be, but not made using secret vacuum welding nanotechnology
Just screwing with ya!
The problem with US today it’s like late USSR in its last years was so hell-bend on ideological dogmas – USSR had Marxist-Leninist dogmas and US political-correctness dogmas, that they became a real threat to common sense and healthy political discourse and eventually, to very existence of the Nation.
I’d rather see Hillary confronted on the real issues, like her being such a pathological warmonger, rather than on gay marriage.
Matt Taibbi is one of the best writers around, in my opinion. He writes for Rolling Stone magazine, and can run with the best of them. For anyone who cares, He has written an article which appears in the May 18 edition of Rolling Stone titled “R.I.P., GOP: How Trump is killing the Republican Party.” It’s an outstanding dissection of what’s going on, and is full of quotable comments. For those of you who appreciate good writing (I assume all of you, since you are here), it is a very worthwhile and entertaining read.
Thank you, Capt.
Muslims, 1.6 Billion of them, are members of a religion of peace. – wpa
===============
“Saudi money and influence have transformed this once-tolerant Muslim society at the hem of Europe into a font of Islamic extremism and a pipeline for jihadists.”
http://www.nytimes.com/images/2016/05/22/nytfrontpage/scannat.pd
Not sure what happened to my link……..try Googling:
Making Kosovo fertile ground for ISIS
Your link may have been victim to the Sykes-Picot agreement which set in motion the current Middle East crises. An after effect of the 1915-1916 agreement made between British and French diplomats.
“Making Kosovo fertile ground for ISIS” — Mr.Q
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/22/world/europe/how-the-saudis-turned-kosovo-into-fertile-ground-for-isis.html?_r=0
Kosovo, the salafi-jihadi enclave created by Clinton couple in the middle of Europe in the 1990s.
Salafi imams still love Bill Clinton in Kosovo, his large portraits are everywhere!
https://static01.nyt.com/images/2016/05/20/world/22KOSOVO-WEB3/22KOSOVO-WEB3-superJumbo.jpg
Russian Orthodox Church Declares Holy War against Jihadists
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqUVaT_Uw9w
Will blacks and others be satisfied at just a demographic reflection in positions of power as in national security positions?
Susan Rice, of “it was the video” fame:
http://www.truthrevolt.org/news/susan-rice-too-many-whites-national-security-team-putting-america-risk
“South of the border, heads rolling away…”
“Fun in Acapulco”?
La Empresa employing Russians? Not enough dissident oligarchs left to hit?
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2016/05/22/police-soldiers-swarm-mexico-acapulco-killings-continue.html
Did you know that there is now a transgender flag? It’s pink, blue and white. How do I know this?
Because it will be flying along with the gay pride flag at San Jose’s City Hall. (A billion dollar starchitect–Richard Meier–building. Known by locals as the Gonzodome.)
I heard it in church this morning because our pastor is going to give the prayer when they raise the flags. (A little ‘ugh’ escaped my lips when he announced this gem of information.) I go to church for inspiration, not for politically correct crap. I have no problem with the gay pride flag, but this is crazy.
Jen in San Jose
“I have no problem with the gay flag”! The Tranny Flag will seem completely normal to you in a few years (months? weeks?). Just give it a chance!
They’ve got your number. They know you better than you know you. You go to a pro-Gay Church for inspiration. That says it all, does it not?
In church didn’t they ever tell you about Matthew 25:40, where Jesus addresses treatment of transexuals? The words of Jesus are truly inspiring.
Matt 25:40
Verily the King sayeth unto you, if the man chooses the garb of woman or the woman the garb of man let that be no impediment as to where they choose to pee pee or poop, whether in the presence of their own sex or the other sex. For it is written, when ya gotta go ya gotta go.
and because I am a guy—
The World Is My Urinal!
Are you saying that trannies are the least of your brothers? That’s pretty condescending. And beyond that, who are you to say they are your brother and not your sister? Or some other gender?
Bigot.
You do know that the BDSM crowd has their own flag don’t you? It is known as the “Leather Pride” flag:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leather_Pride_flag
Every single paraphilia and deviant behavior will get its own flag – to pronounce before the world the allegiance the bearers hold.
For the CFN’s edification and because it is the topic of Jim’s essay this week:
http://www.reviewjournal.com/life/6-flags-you-might-see-during-pride-and-what-they-mean
A possible solution to the Tranny-Toilet at Target controversy – what about hanging the appropriate flag(s) above the doorway of the bathroom or locker as to who is being “served” similar to fancy hotels having an array of flags above the portal to the property to indicate their “preffered’ and/or “favored” international guests.
And as a final weekend – too many vodka and tonics – request to the CFN founder: The Clusterfuck Nation needs its own flag too!
Jen, I find the discrimination and lack of inclusion here simply revolting!
What about the transvestite flag, pink, red, and pink, with the blue stars spelling out “Surprise!”? Why are they left out? Shameful, absolutely shameful!
Jim Kunstler holds gay and trans people to be the human equivalent of plastic vomit
you continue to live in the insane leftist world of everything and everyone somehow offending you….
I don’t agree with 20% of what JHK writes, but the man does NOT think transgendered folks are plastic vomit.
“we’re” just sick of everything non-mainstream trying to force us to glorify what is for us very aberrant.
why can’t you faggety ass reprobates keep your shit to yourselves, like we do?
fuck off indefinitely,
fodase
Elrond may be a Furry. That would explain much of his silly, gay, and furrious approach to every issue.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Furry_fandom
But which animal?!
wait a minute!
These Side Show Freaks already got their own flag?
and its flying above the San Jose, CA city hall?
brh
Leather? Hell yea! I wear it all the time, it’s called a holster and contains a S&W .
Where do the babies come from?
As it well known, there was no sex in the USSR. But every family had 2 – 4 children. There is sex in Russia. But practically every family has just one child.
Conclusion: sex has nothing to do with making babies. Gota be storks.
http://i.istockimg.com/file_thumbview_approve/8411963/6/stock-illustration-8411963-stork-brings-baby.jpg
Relatives Of MH17 Victims Seek Compensation From Russia, Putin
An Australian law firm has filed a compensation claim against Russia and President Vladimir Putin in the European Court of Human Rights on behalf of families of victims of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17, shot down in 2014, media reported.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/putin-mh17-compensation-claim_us_5740b0c2e4b0613b512a7e02
Screw you!! First, come in like men and win the war, then start pillaging and raping the country!
On the BBC site this PM,
15 year old Malaysian boy carrying a fetus attached to his stomach…apparently from birth;
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-36376079
What say you NOW, John Howard?