JHK’s Three-Act Play
T he memory hole is working overtime in the USA zeitgeist these days. Shit happens and a week or so later, it unhappens — at least it seems that way as manifested by the front page of The New York Times or the flapping of Anderson Cooper’s gums on CNN.
Anyone remember that Malaysian airlines plane that went down in July in Ukraine killing 283 persons? US government officials were jumping up and down trying strenuously to blame Russian Donbass separatists. The trouble was, they had no evidence whatsoever and their exertions were looking ridiculous (making the USA look ridiculous, of course). Last thing we heard, there were questions about two Ukrainian air force jets chasing it, and photos of entry and exit cannon holes in the pilot’s cabin. Recorded communications between the crew and traffic controllers were shoved into storage bin in the Netherlands, never to be made public. The whole story vanished from the news media like the legendary D.B. Cooper — anyone remember him? — and hasn’t resurfaced since.
Anyone remember the outbreak of World War Three in Ukraine two weeks ago? The USA was trying — again, strenuously — to promote the idea of a Russian invasion — minus any evidence of the actual Russian troops, you understand. That didn’t go over so well. All this was occurring, remember, because the USA was determined to make Ukraine a NATO member, contrary to explicit agreements reached with Russia following the collapse of the Soviet Union to not expand NATO eastward. Anyway, there was no Russian invasion and the US State Department and the White House were left holding a pig in a poke that nobody wanted to buy. End of story, as Tony Soprano liked to say.
Recall the action in Ferguson, Missouri, last month. A very large teenager got shot and killed by a policeman named Darren Wilson. The scraggly suburb of St. Louis exploded in protest and then looting and violence. Don Lemon of CNN was egging it all on. Then the videos and photo came out: Michael Brown stealing cigars… Michael Brown posing with an semi-automatic pistol, a bottle of vodka, and a wad of dollars in his mouth. Hmmmmmm, maybe not such an innocent little lamb. Plus reports of broken bones in the policeman’s face. End of protests, end of story.
Something happened in the Gaza recently, didn’t it. Hamas fired rocket barrages into Israel and Israel answered with very aggressive action to stop the rockets. Eventually, the rockets did stop and so did the actions taken to stop them. Nothing in the news media ever suggested that there was a cause-and-effect relationship there. In fact, if anything, the news media went out of its way to excuse and rationalize the firing of rockets. The results speak for themselves, of course. But I’m sure few will remember that the whole thing started with the rockets.
Remember the Argentine bond default? That story dribbled away in a train of inconclusive confabulations, still ongoing. Argentina did default, by the way. The International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) declared a “credit event,” tripping credit default swaps on those bonds. Some of the bonds couldn’t actually be found… but no matter. The machinations around this are admittedly abstruse, but I would suggest the bottom line is that nobody wants to see those credit default swaps actually triggered because doing so would induce such a majestic chain of counterparty failures extending far beyond Argentina that the very Gods on Olympus would have to start checking their bank accounts for bail-ins.
So it goes, as the late, great Vonnegut always said. All of these stories have something in common: tons of unanswered questions, which the news media shows no interest whatsoever in following up on. And no consequences. People die, nations rise and fall, money disappears, and everybody forgets. This can’t just be about the diminishing returns of the grotesquely over-hyped “information age” — though the blowback from computers and all they have wrought may be tremendous. No, the memory hole is the truest signifier of the times we live in: the Age of Anything Goes and Nothing Matters.
That may be changing, even as I write. The Age of Consequence comes in on little cat’s feet. (See Steve Ludlum at Economic-Undertow.com for an excellent disquisition on that.)
I will be at Battenkill Books, Cambridge, NY, this Friday, Sept 12, at 7:00pm, talking about A History of the Future and other timely matters.
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Well, JHK, the nation is having a giant fugue, methinks. That’s a psychiatric event. We’re living in some kind of psychedelic novel.
Follow on point: This will result in mass catatonia.
The salient point herein is that somehow we are supposed to rely on “The Media” to produce the investigative work that will result in the indictment, arrest, prosecution, and conviction of all the Actual Criminals that are manipulating our society.
Sorry, That Is Not The Job Of The Media.
The job of bringing the Criminal Thugs that are destroying our system is up to the Attorneys General of our Towns, Counties, States and Federal Governments.
And it is They, our elected chief law enforcement officers who are beholden to bring forth rightful prosecution (against the rogue Wealthy, criminal elements of our society), who have utterly, utterly failed in the execution of their sworn duties.
Those Are The Ones To Blame.
Poor Israel. But I guess the 1000 acres they just stole at the time of your writing should offer some consolation:
Sep 6th 2014: Netanyahu orders the biggest land-grab in a generation
http://www.economist.com/news/middle-east-and-africa/21615644-binyamin-netanyahu-orders-biggest-land-grab-generation-another-thousand
That was even on The Daily Show, presented by fellow Jewish person Jon Stewart.
I agree that Arabs are prone to violence and fanatism… but Kunstler, I am sick of your short-sighted, uninsightful Israel bullshit. Your ossified logic and willful ignorance contribute nothing to our understanding.
Well Jim, now you know how Winston Smith must have felt.
We have always been at war with Eastasia.
I think it is about time for Winston to hook up with Julia in the woods…
But what about the Kardashians? Kim has a new 3D fashion game out. We can just play that and ignore all that icky stuff.
Vonnegut, indeed. That point is spot-on correct, Jim, but let’s not forget his contemporary Philip K. Dick. In one novel, miserable colonists on Mars wile away their time taking a drug that lets them pretend to inhabit the lives of a celebrity doll, “Perky Pat” and her boyfriend.
The colonists sit around after work, comatose, staring at something like a Barbie funhouse in their living rooms. For a little while, however, they think they *are* Perky Pat.
That’s too many Americans, except they are fatter than anyone in Dick’s novels, and dumber.
Smoky, thanks for jolting us back into reality by bringing up the Kardashians. We had allowed ourselves to be taken off course by JHK, who insists on raising minor issues. E.g. the rule of law (or lack thereof) and possible WWIII. JHK is such a spoiler.
“disquisition”?
Along with the theme of “nothing really matters” or effects what the Man on the street does day to day…this is the jello jiggling, right? we see things suspended in our collective conscious, we are aware of weird stuff happening and its hard to make out the destinctive details of the kinds of fruit floating around…is it a pear or peach? does it really matter? a rocket is fired some people die a career is ended…so?
the jelly holds stuff away from each other.
people are afraid of the answers to all the corruption because they know what it will mean – consequences. everyone wants to put that off as far as they can when it comes to the serious, painful consequences to the dilemmas facing those people.
All of these stories have something in common: tons of unanswered questions, which the news media shows no interest whatsoever in following up on.
Same as it ever was, same as it ever was — with one exception. Now us hacks can follow-up on the unanswered questions with blogs and their attendant comment sections, and wow, what a picture it presents — an impressionist painting of some kitties and mice mixed in a blender on high speed with some high gravity beer, chili con queso and fish sauce added for good measure.
I agree the MSM was hasty and grossly negligent in ascribing blame for MA Flight 17 to the Eastern Ukrainian terrorists, but that doesn’t mean the converse explanation proffered by the Kremlin propagandists necessarily is true or has merit. I’ve shown at my blog that the theory about the cannon fire from the Ukrainian jets is absurd prima facie with only a modicum of scrutiny, so I think it prudent to not wade into those conspiratorial waters without your Benadryl — since you’re allergic — remember?
Anyway, I’ve been steadfastly reporting on the Ukrainian-Russian conflict and Putin’s Russia at my blog trying to answer all those unanswered questions. My latest is the striking resemblance between Jim Jones and Putin.
Putintown
ZH ran this over the weekend — Steven Cohen of Princeton — old Russia/USSR hand:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-09-07/top-russia-expert-ukraine-joining-nato-would-provoke-nuclear-war
Given the hubbub over this week’s JHK blog I second the ton of salt comment regarding anything on the net. There but for the grace of God go all of us.
I presume by “Kremlin propagandists” you refer not to official pronouncements by the Russian government but assertions by others on the net regarding the shoot-down of MH17. ( I am not aware that the Russian government has officially claimed the Ukrainians shot down the passenger jet.) Indeed, one false story does not make another false story true. But the still rather large overhanging question is why have the air traffic control tapes not been released?
The last I heard, they are in the possession of the British? That gives me great confidence that when and if they are ever released, that they be authentic and not fake or altered….NOT. Ron Paul noted “they (the neocons) are hiding something”. If the tapes indeed could prove their MYTH that a BUK missile brought down the airliner, don’t you think Obama and Kerry and Hitlery would be running around in their Russian bashing tours flaunting their abundance of evidence? This whole thing is getting more fishy every day. Why the delay?? Imagine the world reaction and the credibility of the US (what little it may have) if the truth comes out? THAT is why there is a delay. They have a great deal to lose. All eyes should be kept on wherever the wreckage is being investigated, who is doing the investigation, are they impartial, are they being coached or coerced, etc.
Updated information on the downing of Malaysia 17:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article39590.htm
Thanks for the update. When that shit happened and Obama and Kerry went on the offensive, my bullshit detectors went off. The next day, I believe it was, reluctant European countries jumped on the sanctions bandwagon. I had been following this pivotal event from the beginning, I saw this woman in red with her lower legs blown off, her face covered with her own blood, die before help could arrive. It is on youtube ” the victims of Lugansk” and seeing those dead and dying innocent people that were slaughtered by the Ukrainian neo Nazis sizzled my blood. They have consistently shown a callous disregard for innocent civilians, so when that plane was shot down, it fit a pattern of barbarism that these animals from the Poroshenko regime have shown. All I can say is I hope that fat bastard gets the Mussolini treatment he so deserves
Well well. When I post the link to the CBC interview, it doesn’t work anymore. When I access the kink in the initial article, my computer freezes up. Anyone else having problems like this? That interview was a BOMBSHELL. It sounded like they were trying to get this man to say it was a missile from the get go. He doesn’t seem like to type that would lie. His life is likely in danger
Well. When today when I try to share the link to that BOMBSHELL CBC interview with that Canadian Ukrainian, you can’t access the link and when I click on it from the original article, my computer freezes up.
This man does not seem like he is going to be pressured into lying. Did you see all those bullet holes when the link was accessible? People should be watching out for this man, his life is likely in danger. It also sounds like they were trying to get him to say he saw evidence of a missile, and he emphatically denies seeing any evidence. Stunning.
So you facebook people. I had joined a political group “my political world” or some such retarded name like that. Come to find out, it’s a liberal group that is somehow staunchly pro Obama. I provided the link from information clearing house and was asking these people why they have faith in the system, why do they think Obama is some “liberal”, etc Stuff to make them think. I guess the air force now changed its policy and makes its graduates take on oath the God. (?) I commented so killing people overseas is now more moral because it is done under the name of God. The libs liked that one, but then I guess the repugs blocked Obama’s expensive Ebola bill (?). I mentioned that emperor Obama is now bombing Iraq (again) without Congressional approval, and noted that we had no problems with giving 5 billion over to neo Nazis in Kiev so they can shell innocent people on the ground and shoot passenger jets out of the sky and provided the link and bam….the next post where this snatch faced asshole continues to whine about “Russian acts of aggression” and the Russians flying bombing drills near Canada (they are supposedly testing our reaction time) and when I went to bitch slap this retard the content became unavailable and when I refreshed, the tiny group was off my list. Too bad, too sad. Don’t ever let them tell you that blind Obama supporters or self professed liberals are any more tolerant than anyone else. They are in for one hell of a rude awakening as well
News is about selling ads. So grab the latest ADHD drugs pull up a chair and understand the world in 6 seconds. You will not have much more time than that. Sadly. Live the Dream is a half backed ad floating around my skull as I read JHK’s Monday post. We are Living the Dream and the recall notice will push many over the edge. This Fugue is not written by a master, more like a collective monster of baseless hope in the spirits of The Market..
“Michael Brown posing with an semi-automatic pistol, a bottle of vodka, and a wad of dollars in his mouth.”
Not quite.
“A Kansas City, Mo., police officer landed in hot water after he allegedly tried to tarnish the reputation of Michael Brown — who was killed by a cop in suburban St. Louis — on his Facebook account. . . . The picture actually shows murder suspect Joda Cain, who was accused of killing his great-grandmother in Oregon last year.”
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/kansas-city-review-posting-fake-michael-brown-pic-facebook-report-article-1.1909021
Nice link. Thanks. Major problem: blogs = no editor. The scary part is “They all look alike” is a real killer when guns and badges are in play. Anyone working the net will someday make this mistake. I know I have. I buy my salt by the ton not the grain any more.
That’s one of the huge problems created by the Internet: lies and disinformation spread with the speed of light.
Great comment, router. But, at this point, I doubt that there’s enough salt in all the seven seas.
Not to mention the disproof of the broken bones in the cop’s face. An allegation from Faux News. Reported, disproved, disappeared.
Ah, yes, the media. Wholly owned subsidiary of Big Business (Wosobb) — as are Obama, Clinton, all the Republicans.
‘Reports of broken bones in the policeman’s face?’ You mean the FALSE reports that have been repeatedly debunked? The injuries so severe that the shooting officer was on the scene for several hours after the incident? The damage that was so severe that neighbors saw him mowing the lawn outside his house several days later?
I don’t see how you advance your thesis by repeating things that have no basis in fact. Brown’s body ended up 35 feet from the police car. How did he get so far away if the incident started at the vehicle? Sounds to me like someone was trying to get away from the shooting officer rather than being on an insane rampage. Nobody currently knows what went on there (except the participants, one of whom was shot six times) and I don’t claim to. But the apparent facts make me suspicious of excessive force. Brown wasn’t a choirboy. So what? I hardly see how that can be used in an exculpatory fashion for the police officer (who had no prior knowledge of the alleged cigar theft).
Heartily agree with you on the rest of the article though, especially the Ukraine, where our machinations and meddling seem designed to have us slouching towards WWIII. Good news for Neocons and arms manufacturers, but the rest of us who end up paying the butchers bill would do well to prepare before the missiles get launched.
Good news for Neocons and arms manufacturers, but the rest of us who end up paying the butchers bill would do well to prepare before the missiles get launched.
What are they going to be selling after the missiles get launched? Einstein’s sticks and stones? I wouldn’t doubt it. I don’t think there’s any effective way to eradicate exploitation. It’s more durable than cockroaches against a nuclear catastrophe.
I guess Kunstler also couldn’t be arsed to check what poor innocent Israel has been up to now that the media spotlight stopped shining on them.
AUG. 31, 2014: Israel Claims Nearly 1,000 Acres of West Bank Land Near Bethlehem. Netanyahu orders the biggest land-grab in a generation:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/01/world/middleeast/israel-claims-nearly-1000-acres-of-west-bank-land-near-bethlehem.html?_r=0
But I mean, how could we ask of Kunstler to READ and inform himself before writing his drivel when instead we can bask in such illuminating thoughts as “rockets BAD israel GOOD rockets BAD israel GOOD”
News media indeed. Mainstream journalism is akin to surrealism. Anything is allowed to go. and nothing really seems to matter. Although D.B. vanished into thin air, Alice will have to emerge from the rabbit hole. Reality will jar our memory soon enough and we will be forced to come out from the comfort of the memory hole and reject all the Kurzweillian fantasies.
“he whole story vanished from the news media like the legendary D.B. Cooper — anyone remember him?”
There used to be a bar named after him just a mile away from me. I saw that and smiled that some criminal from the 1970s who got away with a backpack full of money was still remembered. This year, they changed the name of the place. It’s now “The Pour House.” I think they have an idea of what’s coming. We’re all headed to the pour (poor) house.
By the way, a mile in the other direction is Father Coughlin’s old church. If you remember Father Coughlin, he was the spiritual ancestor of Rush Limbaugh. To this day, the friends of mine who claim to be psychic get the chills when they drive by the building.
Speaking of what’s coming that gives people the chills (and fever), you didn’t mention Ebola. It’s spread to a fifth country in west Africa, the WHO has declared it an international health emergency, President Obama has said it could pose a danger to the U.S., Vice published a story about how the disease could become a global pandemic, and the third U.S. doctor is being treated for the disease. This may not be a story that follows from peak oil and financial mismanagement, but it does fit into one about population overshoot and political chaos.
NV,
Not to worry; the US military is shortly to be boots-and-respirators on the ground to get the camel’s nose further under the African tent. (I think they’re going there on a humanitarian mission to kill and destroy that pesky Ebola virus thingy. That should work out just peachy.)
Great! If they do as good a job with Ebola as they have done everywhere else this century, we’ll all be infected before the next presidential election.
“$100,000.00 in 1971 had the same buying power as $585,550.25 in 2014.
Annual inflation over this period was 4.20%.”-dollartimes.com
the cost of investigations have definitely exceded that amount.
how much is the truth worth in comparison to a lie?
Down The Money Hole is more apropos because of what all the lies (by omission or otherwise) have cost everyone and keeps on costing.
db cooper is now a franchise in parades and pulp fiction.
is the u.s. superpower a lie? no. u.s. is a country of laws. more people breaking laws does not mean laws are unnecessary. the job of law is to expose not to vanquish. example being marijuana. legalizing it is exposing dopers and flushing them out of the dark.
there is not much worth remembering in our time. what is worth remembering is when someone offers longterm solutions. something like what jhk and his publishing circle try to offer. that stuff will not work either, imo.
Limbaugh is a neocon pro-Israel guy. Coughlin was an isolationist
and critic of those who became neocons.
Coughlin was a great patriot who took the Internationalists, Bankers, and Federal Reserve to task. Limbaugh never questions the basics of American Capitalism at all. You have failed in discrimination. To you all Non-Leftists look alike – just targets.
Rev. Coughlin was nothing more or less than a forthright propagandist imitation of his patron saint — Dr. Joseph Goebbels.
He know how to push the patsy buttons of his patently gullible idiocracy audience.
Pshaw . . . Janos . . . you can do better than this, you know.
Impaler, with friends like you, the legacy of Father Coughlin hardly needs enemies.
As for my not being able to tell conservatives apart, I was a Republican for 22 years. I have lots of practice distinguishing the varieties of people on the American Right.
It is called media memory, something akin to corporate memory. Media memory is what Napoleon would call history, a mutually agreed upon lie. In Napoleon’s day it was the oral tradition primarily, with the written word supplanting this as people died. Today we have film, audio, youtube, twitter, and all manner of recording history. We have forgotten cui bono as the primary means of crime discovery and investigation. If we see it, it must have happened that way. Think 9/11. we saw planes crash into buildings, they told us Muslims did it, and that sort of made it so. Why? I have no idea. If they had told us the fairy Godmother did it, I suspect we be warring with the fairies right about now.
In this ‘media memory’ I noticed that Trayvon Martin seems to have become a victim of police after Michael Brown was shot.
The paragraph slamming Michael Brown — who was unarmed and shot dead in broad daylight — is beneath you, James. Every single “fact” you roll out has been disputed. You come across as an intellectually lazy, armchair racist in this paragraph. Maybe that’s what you intended?
Chicago, your last sentence redeems you. I think you are taking JHK’s comments on the Michael Brown issue way too literally. We live in a surreal world now where allegations and facts are blurred beyond recognition. JHK is well aware that the rule of law is a figment of imagination in the US. For people like Michael Brown this means summary execution. For Jon Corzine it means a free pass.
Well, James caps off his entry with: “All of these stories have something in common: tons of unanswered questions, which the news media shows no interest whatsoever in following up on.”
What’s the news media supposed to follow up on, in this case? That the patrolman had broken bones in his face? (he didn’t). That Brown was photographed with a wad of cash and a bottle of vodka (apparently that’s not actually him in the photo, but if it was — so fking what?). Michael Brown stealing cigars (was he? That’s in dispute, plus if he was, the patrolman didn’t know that, and if he *did* know that, the police shoot somebody in cold blood for stealing cigars in an unarmed robbery at the c-store now?).
So I dunno.
The policeman didn’t know but Brown did. And thus his behavior was completely out of control when asked to get out of the street. A sensible criminal would have just gotten out of the street. But Brown, high and feeling invincible from the robbery and perhaps the pot, felt “lucky”.
It’s funny to think that, in a former age, Brown’s sudden death would have been interpreted as God punishing him for his theft.
ChicagoRob,
I took JHK’s point to be responding to the leftist media’s attempt to paint Michael Brown as an innocent lamb sacrificed by institutional racism. The media did the same thing with Trayvon Martin … remember the skittles and ice tea, symbols of a child’s innocence? That is, he was faulting the media for totally getting Brown’s character wrong. He wasn’t adjudicating Brown’s culpability in the events that led to his death.
It would be nice to live in a world where children were innocent in the ways that journalists and commentators pretend them to be.
But they’re often not.
Having lived in some of the dicier neighborhoods on the north side of Chicago for the last five years (and as a young woman) I now *really* appreciate the capacity of “children” to be violent, impulsive, and downright dangerous. And, sorry, there’s no question about the color of violent and impulsive children. You can dispute the cause* of black boys’ disproportionate contribution to urban crime, but you can’t dispute that it is the case.
*I think the cause is black women’s willingness to bear the children of the most violent and impulsive men. Violence and criminality are largely a matter of nature, not nurture. Genomic researchers are already finding SNPs identified with aggression and time preference. So the solution is to go back to an old-fashioned sexual morality, unfortunately, that requires people to get married and do well before they start having babies.
Ah, the “leftist media”! You mean the one 95% owned by 4 Right-wing families and the world’s largest weapons manufacturer? Who ran a 4 to 1 ratio of Neo-con liars to those telling the truth in the run-up to the savaging of Iraq? Who never mentioned the 8 year Wall Street (Housing) Ponzi scheme until it killed the economy…and then labeled it a “bubble”? (Hard to get angry at a “bubble”, it’s pretty..and floats!) That “leftist media?
If Kunstler’s paragraph about Ferguson, the cop, etc. was meant as a satirical observation of rumors rather than a statement of reasonably reliable reports… I think that wasn’t clear.
Nonsense. Kunstler doesn’t write figuratively–in his characterizations of the execution of Michael Brown (with Fox-like attempts to smear the victim) and the collective slaughter of Palestinians, we know exactly where he stands. More and more it reads as an authoritarian blame the victims impulse.
The accusation of blaming-the-victim is really silly.
The media has taken to beatifying or assassinating the characters of persons involved in national events. It is a stupidly effective way of making people get emotionally involved in an otherwise mundane police blotter story (what happened to Brown happens regularly in Chicago, for instance).
When Brown’s mom, the leftist media and government spokespeople ganged up to beatify Brown, there was obviously push back from a variety of commentators unwilling for whatever reason to go along with the farcical beatification of the dead Brown.
*None* of the critical commentators, as far as I know, have suggested that Brown deserved what he got, or could be BLAMED for being a victim.
The whole “don’t-blame-the-victim!” argument I find a weird impulse in itself. I’m not sure if it belongs to the Victim Worship that social justice movement has devolved into in the 21st century, or if it’s just a variation on the don’t-speak-ill-of-the-dead impulse.
Unless someone has a death wish (I always thought Michael Ruppert did), you don’t turn and charge at the police. I hate the fucking cops, but there is no doubt in my mind at least that the cop acted in self defense.
Oh yeah, Brown wasn’t a ghetto thug who resisted arrest, fought with a cop, and tried to get hold of his service weapon.
He was a gentle giant.
I’m just taking a really wilda$$ guess here and assuming that BackRowHeckler is white. Could be wrong.
Yeah White people should shut up. And that means you too, right? Not a wild guess – only Liberal Whites hate themselves like this.
Projection much? Liberal whites will not suffer redneck whites’ hate.
Who has time to remember all these trivial nuances of unsettling world events? It’s football season! Football!!!!!
Or perhaps It’s as an alcoholic associate of mine said to me, that he has to drink his shots of tequila everyday, or else his body will be in pain. Same with our media I guess; everyday we wait for the next shot to ease the pain and fog the memory of yesterdays traumas.
I could also see a case to be made on sensory overload. Perhaps our memories, or our cognitive abilities are similar to the rest of our bodies? You take in 2000mg of vitamin C. You piss out 1500mg of vitamin C.
But take heart kids! As always there is also a lot of remarkable people doing a lot of remarkable stuff on this little planet. The Milky way Galaxy is still twirling away in “the” ocean of infinity. So take as many moments in you day as possible to connect with your immediate experience of reality, and remember to breathe…so it goes…
James; You’re really off base on your comments on Ukraine. The country is being invaded, albeit stealthily. Do you really think it’s a spontaneous uprising? Where do “rebels” get tanks, artillery, and anti-aircraft missiles, especially Russian made stuff? Those white painted trucks Putin sent across the border with “humanitarian aid” are simply Russian Army trucks full of weapons and ammunition that have been repainted. What’s happening there is no different than what’s happened in Georgia. I know a couple of Georgians who were back in that country a month ago. According to them, Russian agents stir up trouble with Russian speaking peasants and unemployed malcontents. They give them money and weapons and send them out to make trouble. After that the Russian agents and special forces come in.
A point you and most commentators never mention is that Ukraine following the break up of the Soviet Union was a nuclear armed country. They were persuaded by Russia and the U.S. to give them up in exchange for a guarantee of sovereignty. This was spelled out under The Budapest Accord signed by Bill Clinton and Putin, and reaffirmed by Obama a couple of years ago. It’s one thing for a snake like Putin to go back on the agreement, but when Obama does it he’s wrecking what’s left of American credibility. Ukraine now also serves as proof that a country should never give up their nukes, and strive to get them if they don’t have them now
So, dad, are you informing us the Russkies have enthusiastically embraced the tactics outlined [and implemented] in the CIA handbook? Yep, they’ve been proven quite “effective” since the end of WW2 (the big one). If you’re all outraged and in the mood to huff and puff, I’m sure transportation to Europe and thereby to the Ukrainian border can easily be arranged. Go Kiev Coup Freedom Fighters! (Bring your own food and ammo, please.)
…And, yes, I’d suggest Iran get its’ shit together posthaste and get all nukie. Good advice.
Sept./Oct. “Foreign Affairs”: “Why the Ukraine Crisis is the West’s Fault” by John Mersheimer:
http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/141769/john-j-mearsheimer/why-the-ukraine-crisis-is-the-wests-fault
And this clip of Putin discussing media propaganda in the U.S:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6u_GrfkHxMA#t=37
good link, seems eminently reasonable, if only our leaders were as pragmatic.
Zekesdad,
“Those white painted trucks Putin sent across the border with “humanitarian aid” are simply Russian Army trucks full of weapons and ammunition that have been repainted”
Come on…..where did you read this?..Sources please!
That is total nonsense. The Ukrainians made all these demands and the convoy had to have Ukrainian people on it after they inspected and looted it
I see you’ve totally bought into the anti-Russian propaganda being fed to us by the mainstream media. Down the memory hole seems to be the fact that the US funded and supported the overthrow of Ukraine’s democratically-elected government earlier this year and helped install an illegitimate government more favorable to “the West”. One of the first things the new government tried to do was ban the use of the Russian language. If you were one of the millions of Ukrainians whose language is Russian, which is many of the people in Crimea and Eastern Ukraine, you probably would have gotten a bit upset too.
Seawolf mentions cui bono, who benefits? So who does benefit from the short-term memory hole? Why the advertisers on the MSM, IMO.
Another Latin phrase that applies, ” lex parsimoniae”. The law of parsimony (economy), otherwise known as Occam’s Razor. “The simplest answer is usually the correct one.”
So why would the MSM keep blowing past stories without following up and moving on? Why because the new, fancy, sexy product, sells. In order to keep up ratings, and satisfy advertisers, the MSM must constantly move on the the next “big story”. We get bored quickly. Simple as that. Nothing conspiratorial or nefarious here. They wanna keep our eyes glued to the screen to sell us shit.
Regards,
dweebus
The law is about damages. Who was harmed, and what is the punishment and recompense. In the case of Michael Brown, he died. That is the ultimate loss. At the time of his death, his only crime was jay walking. He got shot at 10 times. This is a no brainer. The officer should be punished for manslaughter and Brown’s family should get a lifetime of earnings of a typical high educated black man.
“For young adults ages 25–34 who worked full time, year round, higher educational attainment was associated with higher median earnings; this pattern was consistent for 1995, 2000, 2002, and 2005 through 2012. For example, in 2012 the median of earnings for young adults with a bachelor’s degree was $46,900, while the median was $22,900 for those without a high school credential and $30,000 for those with a high school credential. In other words, young adults with a bachelor’s degree earned more than twice as much as those without a high school credential (105 percent more) and 57 percent more than young adult high school completers. Additionally, in 2012 the median of earnings for young adults with a master’s degree or higher was $59,600, some 27 percent more than the median for young adults with a bachelor’s degree. For the above years between 1995 and 2012, this pattern of higher earnings associated with higher levels of educational attainment also held across sex and racial/ ethnic subgroups (White, Black, Hispanic, and Asian).”-http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=77
So are you saying cops have no right to use their firearm? That it should be taken away so that we the people can be free to defend ourselves? At this point, I’d agree with you. Whites would have these people scared to death faster than you can say Tralfamadore. They’d be a begging for a return to the status quo in a New York second.
Actually I believe that after the officer asked/told the guys to get out of the middle of the road and to walk on the sidewalk Mr. Brown accosted the police officer and the officer appears to have received multiple facial wounds in the altercation and at some point his gun was discharged in the car.
So now we’ve gone from “jaywalking” to accosting a police officer and the discharge of the officers gun which could have killed the officer.
Time will tell. Most of the pertinent details will eventually be pieced together.
In the meantime we as a society obviously have a serious problem with the way citizens conduct themselves in public (stealing $50 worth of cigars to go make blunts and shoving the store owner when he objects is hardly “petty theft”). We also have a serious problem with the manner in which police relate to the citizens they are being paid to “protect and serve”.
All our marvelous public servants at the various state and federal levels have not been serving us very well nor have we as a society been minding our manners as civilized, decent human beings.
I’d rather be living in “The Witch of Hebron” days.
Please go fetch some water from the river and wood for the fire…lots of laundry today.
As a police officer, he should be trained not to let that happen. If he couldn’t handle the situation, he should have called for backup. He didn’t. Another poor decision. In the final analysis, his poor police work, poor decisions, and over zealous trigger finger cost a man his life. And if he had received multiple facial wounds, why have we not seen them…only the film of the great cigar caper. We have not gone from jaywalking to acosting a police officer. The poilce man drove us there at breakneck speed and then crashed into a brick wall.
And please let’s not also forget the recent and illegal theft of another 1000 acres of Palestinian land on which new and illegal settlements will be built.
Oh those Palestinians, what are they complaining about.
It’s not your land, it’s our land – Gimme !!
Theft, pure and simple.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/01/israeli-settlement-west-bank-gvaot-condemned
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-29008045
http://www.commondreams.org/news/2014/08/31/israel-announces-unprecedented-land-seizure
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article39581.htm
Oh yes, they also steal their natural gas too!
http://www.globalresearch.ca/israel-steals-gazas-offshore-natural-gas-15-billion-deal-with-jordan/5399736
But you would know it, it’s never ever mentioned in the MSM and doesn’t even need to go down the memory hole.
What’s not known about doesn’t need to be forgotten about.
But Don’t forget that Kate’s knocked up again, Now that is real news! Who gives a flying F about the F@@@@@@ royal family! I certainly don’t. Excuse me while I go dig some spuds.
“So it goes, as the late, great Vonnegut always said. All of these stories have something in common: tons of unanswered questions, which the news media shows no interest whatsoever in following up on. And no consequences. People die, nations rise and fall, money disappears, and everybody forgets.” — JHK
Well, if an event is “disappeared”, then it’s no longer exposed to critical thought/analysis. There’s a very good (but unsavory) reason for deliberately operating in this manner. Recall the practice of “extraordinary rendition” carried out under official US govt. sanction. (Notice the proper use of the word ‘sanction’ there.)
Heckuva job, news media!
Anybody know the unwritten self-censorship rules that are required to be followed in order to retain a job as a ‘journalist’ in the mainstream press? Please advise; I’m genuinely curious.
I wonder about that, too. One of the guys on that Moreland Commission is claiming he did not know that he wasn’t really supposed to investigate corruption in government. Is it that way with reporters, and do they get their stories killed, without explanation, if they stray into forbidden territory? Or do they just somehow ‘know’ what is an acceptable level of curiosity? Does anyone else wonder how Lara Logan got a fake story aired on 60 Minutes without any help? I mean, was it decided to just let her run with it, to teach her a lesson or something? She’s certainly discredited now. We used to hear all the time about a ‘chilling effect’ on reporting. We never hear that any more.
Ask Glenn Greenwald. Or Jeremy Scahill or Laura Poitras. I’m sure they could give you an earful.
The Cleveland Browns got trounced opening day, and the big question is when will Johnny Football get his start at QB? Also, the Rams cut the first ‘openly gay’ player in the NFL, was this discriminatory, and wher do we go from here?
These are the stories with legs, and we will be hearing about them well into autumn.
–brh
“The Cleveland Browns got trounced opening day” . . . These are the stories with legs, and we will be hearing about them well into autumn.
Somehow, just somehow, a small tiny voice tells me . . . . Nope.
I’m really hoping you are from Colorado so . . . could you please tell me exactly from what shop you got that great dope you are smoking?
It obviously works for you.
Thanks.
“…Some of the bonds couldn’t actually be found… but no matter…”
Ah ha! Now we’re getting someplace. Remember that $ 2 billion that just kind of “disappeared” from JPMorgan Chase back in the spring of 2012? And Jamie Dimon said ‘well, I don’t know…’
Clearly, the $$$ was used to buy Argentinian bonds. And then they disappeared!
Wow. King Midas touched anything – it turned to gold.
Our modern financial wizards touch anything – it just disappears.
Maybe some of our biggest bankers have come upon the financial equivalent of a black hole.
With goal in mind of ‘I can so take it with me’.
another story emerging, an epidemic repertory infection affecting school kids, sometimes deadly. What do you bet if it was caused by the tens of thousands of illegals dropped in our schools, not vaccinated, we won’t be hearing much about it?
–brh
Hey!!!
Is it possible to chuck SEVENTEEN TRILLION DOLLARS worth of DEBT down the memory hole????
Now what was I saying?
Well, you know . . .
17 Trillion here,
17 Trillion there,
17 Trillion over several times again . . .
. . . and then you’re talking about some real money.
Or digits, I guess.
Anyway, it’s all just loose electronic chatter from one hard drive to another, and then you
just reboot and start all over again.
Hate to burst your bubble, but you can’t get vaccinated against a cold.
Helen, sweetheart, how big is your house?
Maybe some of these illegals can move in with you.
You should be able to pack in a dozen or so. They aren’t particular; anything is better than the sh-thole they came from. While your at it why not move out into the garage and bring in even more. That way you can assuage your personal guilt and show the world what a big heart you have.
–brh
while the endless Oil Wars continue wasting precious resources we need for a Green Transition (the Pentagon consumes 5% of US oil consumption and is the biggest greenhouse emitter on the planet!) other predictions from Mr Kunster, Richard Heinberg and others are coming true in the Shale Oil patch. A recent story from Bloomberg reports another Shale Oil company piling up more debt than profits from drilling for Shale Oil:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-09-08/halcon-s-wilson-drills-more-debt-than-oil-in-shale-bet.html
Drillers Piling Up More Debt Than Oil Hunting Fortunes in Shale
One of your best, most incisive blogs. It’s why you are an essential read for me.
Check out the video last night from a Kroeger Store in Memphis, gang of ‘youths’, as many as two hundred, setting upon a white teenager, beating him bloody and kicking he sh-t out of him while he lies bleeding on the ground. Look it up because i doubt you’ll be seeing it on CNN. ‘Twelve Years a Slave’ was being screened all weekend in the ‘hood’, and these ‘youths’ were apparently ‘polar bear hunting’.
Think Eric Holder, Jesse Jackson or Rev. Sharpton will be headed out to Memphis? Or no? Nothing of interest there.
–brh
That’s how these things are supposed to work, I think. Something happens to someone like Michael Brown, but police have to be involved, because people like Michael Brown are very likely to suffer a violent end, compared to other Americans. Then the story gets blown up as “look what happens to a black man in America, they (white people) are gunning us down, because racism”. People jump in prematurely, who should know better, and they do know better, but they have reasons that have nothing to do with Michael Brown or race. Then there is the inevitable backlash by people who are sick of getting blamed because they have their own problems, etc. Michael Brown is forgotten, because it wasn’t really about him, it’s about a canned news story, an old play that gets revived from time to time with new actors in some of the roles.
New actors Beryl, but Jesse Jackson and Rev Al have recurring parts in every episode.
Let me preface my comment by saying I’m typically skeptical of conspiracy theories. That said….
I have seen both of the ISIS videos purporting to show the beheading of American journalists. Unlike virtually all other similar videos, which show every gory detail, these two videos are highly produced and indeed could have been shot in a studio in front of a green screen. The actual act of beheading is not shown, only the supposed aftermath. To my eye, it’s easily possible that they’re fakes.
Yet in both cases, our own FBI quickly declared them as undoubtedly real, and onward we all moved. I find this strange.
The FBI showed us the cartoon of TWA Flight 800, to explain how what all the eyewitnesses thought they saw wasn’t what they thought they saw. No one ever explained why it was the FBI and not the NTSB making the video, though. Not that I’m a conspiracy theorist, or anything.
Sorry, but the term”conspiracy theory” makes me suspect…a conspiracy. Ever wonder what happened to the rising political career of Julius Caesar about 44 BC? Can you answer that w/o reference to “conspiracy theory”? How about Abe Lincoln? The post-war destruction of 100 mass transit systems in 40 US cities? All proven conspiracies. The word is in the dictionary and the definition doesn’t begin w/ “an imaginary…” the way it does with, say “Unicorns” or “Leprecauns”. Most of us have engaged in conspiracies. (I skipped school w/3 friends in H.S. We all got our stories straight, told our parents some crap excuse… y’know, the standard conspiracy!) Since conspiracies OBVIOUSLY are real, when did it become a mark of automatic discreditation? And why? Who is served by people’s reflexively dismissing a credible counter-narrative not backed by Authority?
Because . . .
if you don’t have a handy-dandy readily-available politically-correct loaded-word to immediately discredit your opposition . . .
The what have you got?
Nada.
Remember ABC News’ Nightline? It started out covering the hostages in Iraq, it switched to topics that had been on the evening news that night, with more coverage, now it seems to be infomercials for plastic surgery or something. They don’t even pretend to cover news any more.
Actually Beryl Nightline started out covering the so called hostage crises (seizure of US Embassy and staff) in Iran way back in 1979, which was a big event at the time and still reverberates to this day. I remember it went on forever with all kinds of twists and turns and ended up ruining Jimmy Carter’s presidency. Nightline was a pretty good program and the first of its kind. Is it still on the air?
–brh
Oops. Iran, not Iraq. Something called Nightline is on the air after Jimmy Kimmel Live, but it bears no resemblance to that news program or any news program.
Jim, I’m admirer of your books,appearances and this blog. I do agree with “Kansas Ham On Wry”. This post seems poorly researched. The pictures of Mike Brown have been disputed by several creditable journalist sources.
I have never understood your preoccupation with the clothing choices that Americans and in particular African-Americans make. As someone of similar i age, I remember Blacks dressed with more style them me and my hippy type peers. Jeans were not cool, Sneakers were for gym class. My black friends were not conflicted about using a bar of soap. Sure times/styles change, at least you ignored the Presidents tan suit.
I can and do disagree with you on the issues of Gay marriage, Mid-East aggression and fashion trends. I enjoy your obvious ability to write clearly. Why bother with George Will when Kunstler is so much better.
And Whites don’t use soap? Your extreme ethno-masochism is showing. You don’t speak for normal Whites. Since you have no pride, don’t call yourself White please.
“But I’m sure few will remember that the whole thing started with the rockets.”
Given the title especially, along with the validity of much that’s written, the paragraph about the Gaza prison siege, absolving the inbred Eastern European, land grabbing, criminal cult of all responsibility is just pure comedy gold.
Well done, I laughed out loud.
Kunstler absolves the Sephardics as well.
But perhaps he condemned the protracted embargo/blockade
and, since he’s a small government localism type, the American government’s effective subsidization thereof.
J68r,
Somehow JHK can’t stop beating the dead horse…”the whole thing started with rockets”
Over the last few weeks quite a few of the posts on this blog have tried to convince him that this is very simplistic, child-like, and not up to his usual incite-full standard of analysis.
JHK seems to have a block in his brain on the Gaza/Israel issue.
You put it nicely… “the Gaza prison siege, absolving the inbred Eastern European, land grabbing, criminal cult of all (Israel) responsibility.
Israel could end this tomorrow by lifting the blockades, granting the people of Gaza basic human rights, stop stealing their land, and recognizing the Palestinians right to exist. In fact they have a moral imperative to do this.
“Mowing the Lawn” every couple of years….as the Israelis refer to their atrocities….is not going to stop the rockets.
I wonder if Kunstler’s brain is able to mix “The Long Emergency” with “Israel’s long-term future” or he keeps them separate using doublethink (which seems likely, considering the “brain block” you just mentioned).
The whole thing started actually pretty recently, with the decision to found Israel in a region known for, I don’t know, how about ENDLESS ARMED CONFLICT…. and what do you know, endless armed conflict is what we have ever since.
In the long run I posit that “the whole thing started with…” will prove to be “shoving a Jewish nation in the middle of the worst neighborhood for a Jewish nation on Earth”.
Now, Israelis have always had the military, political, organizational, etc. prowess to hold off the Arabs with ease but how will that hold during The Long Emergency?
Let’s break it down a bit:
Political: American assistance will cease, and I posit, long before it even becomes a physical impossibility.
Military: a modern military requires tons of oil. And that ceramic armor on your Merkavas is going to become really, really hard to produce. Nuke maintenance is also costly.
Demographics: Every Arab nation vastly outbreeds Israelis, even the sieged Palestinians. The only Israelis breeding are ironically the insane fundie families. Not looking good.
Also down the memory hole (unfortunately):
When JHK was a deeply insightful observer and refreshingly original chronicler of our culture.
…
We live in a propaganda infused media circus in which nobody follows up on anything? Wow! Got any other poignant breaking analysis?
Oh yeah, Gaza.
Two months of Hamas firing those ludicrous fizzlers. And two months of the IDF pounding the crap out of Gaza.
So where do things stand? Is the game over? What’s the score?
Aside from their few dozen dead and a few roofs that got blown off, Israel is just fine thankyou.
And Gaza? A smoking ruin, reduced to a shambles, two thousand one hundred corpses, many thousands of wounded and homeless. Again.
No doubt, Hamas is trumpeting a great victory. Hamas and Gaza are still standing they’ll say. Yeah, sure. More to the point though, so is Israel. Some “victory”.
No, this is no victory, this is one more calamity for the Palestinians and their cause, another in a long line of disastrous military failures. Just what is the military doctrine at work there anyway? Is there one? Victory through defeat? Do they seriously think they’ll dis-lodge Israel like this? Do they seriously think that – cough – world opinion will cause Israelis to run up the white flag?
Or does Hamas think that someone out there gives a shit enough to sacrifice their own treasure and lives and military assets in a fight against the hated Zionist? Who do they think will come to their rescue?
Do they think the Beheader-in-Chief running ISIS will come to help? Who knows, he might try, that is, if he can get his boys to snatch territory that juts up against Israel and he can amass enough forces there. And no doubt his excitable young recruits are itching for a fight against the Jew.
But the B-I-C might also think twice about getting into a fight with the IDF. Highly unlikely to end well for ISIS. Highly likely to end with many, many ISIS fighters dotting the sand as fly-blown tumbles of guts and bones.
On top of everything Abbas is more than a little miffed with Hamas. You see, he’s turning his back on them. Because those busy little Hamas bees are busy trying to sting Abbas. At least according to Abbas.
The stupidest thing Hamas did was to start firing those rockets. The smartest thing Hamas did was to stop. At least that way the Israelis stopped dropping bombs. Will Hamas learn from this latest escapade?
volodya,
Gaza’s resistance to Israel’s atrocities is not a military operation.
The people of Gaza have no army, no navy, and no air force.
They don’t have a military, let alone a military doctrine
They are merely trying to prevent their own slaughter with a few AK-47’s, and their “ludicrous fizzlers”.
Maybe if the USA gave Hamas $3.1billion per year military aid, like they do to the Zionists, Hamas could defend itself from genocide.
What Hamas learnt once again from this last escapade, is that Israel wants to exterminate them, and take over what little land they have left.
Your post is absurd, and as Howard Cossel used to say “shows a distinct lack of knowledgeability”.
You really know shit! Gaza – you know, the land Israel got after being attacked in 1967 by almost all their neighbors and then gave up voluntarily in 2005 or 2006 – has since been a hotbed of terrorist activity. Sorry, but the Palestinians are not innocent. Maybe a counter-movement by them against Hamas, who by the way calls for the destruction of Israel, would have gone a long way towards saving their lives and their infrastructure. As I’ve stated several times before, if someone repeatedly says they’re out to off me, I would try to kill them first.
Wasn’t Gaza about three missing teenagers, and the subsequent rounding up of ‘the usual suspects’, but no proof, while amassing troops at the border with the Gaza-strip, and threatening ‘sanctions’? Meaning BOOM!, without the economic foreplay in this case, because there hasn’t been any economy in Gaza since the blockade started? Which was when? Someone help me please?
I don’t like to talk about the never ending insanity between Israelis and Palestinians because there in no point. These people are going to hate and kill each other until the end of time.
My read of it was 3 Israeli hitch hikers were hijacked and murdered. That is terrible. The prime minister, I am not even going to try and spell his name, blamed Hamas and then something about a Palestinian kid getting burned and buried alive and then rockets vs artillery and bombings started and this tit for tat insanity has ended….until the next senseless act of hatred triggers the next cycle. Nothing will stop it.
The US funnelling of taxpayers welfare dollars and military industrial complex hardware, provided by the billions and all gratis, can stop it completely.
However, AIPAC control US administration and policy in the ME.
The 3 settler thieves murdered in Palestine were an excuse, the IDF terrorists had murdered in cold blood, several Palestinian youths in the weeks before that as part of the ongoing terror campaign and land theft.
After the settler thieves had been murdered Israel then went on a rampage, which eventually had the desired effect and the “rockets” started to fizz.
The irony perhaps is that the people of Gaza paid the price for a crime that happened in the West Bank. Clearly a full scale military campaign in the West Bank would shine a light on and possibly jeopardise the accelerated land theft and settlement taking place there.
In all of this the real flash point, the one that infuriated and animated the latest round of Zionist slaughter in the Gaza death camp was the announcement made by the Palestinian Authority that they and Hamas would form a Unity government and offer serious, united representation towards seeking a lasting peace.
That set the sirens blazing in psycho HQ, Nutty couldn’t let that happen under any circumstances, it would derail the Greater Israel Project and theft of all of Palestine, along with the displacement of the indigenous population and eventual eradication of a people who have lived in a land called Palestine for centuries.
J68r,
Brilliant post…right on the money!
Why do think it is that people can’t see the truth?
If the American “sheople” would wake up, and realize that the Zionist’s that control the US congress are defrauding them to the tune of $3.1billion per year so that Israel can murder innocent women and children with the latest US whizz-bang weaponary.
Bad, ignorant summation.
Good summation, cutting through all the bullshit.
Believe me, that raw act of terrorism that those neo Nazi fuckers in Kiev committed when they deliberately shot down that Malaysian passenger jet just in time to get reluctant European and NATO dupes to jump on the demonize Russia/impose sanctions bandwagon has not been forgotten by me.
I was wondering when JHK would mention this, the implications of it are staggering. I mention it in every face book post and it every web community I post in on a daily basis. Ron Paul has stated emphatically “Washington is hiding something” regarding the jet, and Dr Paul Craig Roberts, the founder of Reaganomics, is unusually honest for his kind and in an interview with Greg Hunter (no youtube videos allowed here, why I sill don’t know), 13 minutes into the interview, fingers not only Kiev but Washington as well. He states they never were have attempted this without Washington’s approval, or something to that effect. Like the people who had inside knowledge of the JFK coup de tat, he is apparently old enough not to fear for his life and makes some stunning admissions.
What amazes me is the response I get from typical americans when I bring the murder of those innocent people by the animals in Kiev up. They insist it was the “rebels” using a BUK missile, but when pressed for evidence, they have none and react on a strictly emotional level. When I provide a link that is supposedly the official Malaysian press fingering Kiev and showing what appear to be bullet holes in the fuselage and that a statement by a Canadian on CBC that the cockpit was riddled with bullet holes on both sides of the cockpit from apparent “heavy” machine gun fire. They accuse me of being Russian, that I watch too much RT television, that I am spewing Russian propaganda
I remind them of the Gulf of Tonkin, the phantom “weapons of mass destruction”, the false charge that president Assad used poison gas (the western press and FOX news mentality people) call it “the Assad regime” because apparently they don’t suck cock for the west. Now this. After the Obama regime went on the full offensive, Europe jumped on the sanctions bandwagon, and Russia punched back, and stunned them. Now the EU and the US are supposedly at each other’s throats. US sanctions by themselves would have no effect on Russia, so European sanctions were necessary. (You knew Britain was going to follow Uncle Sam whatever he does, being the good little bitch boys the limeys prove time and time again to be. If Uncle Sam says “jump”, the Brits say “how high”? If Uncle Sam says “shit”, they jump on the shovel. If Uncle Sam wants to sodomize them, they bend over and hand him the jar of vasoline. After Uncle Sam anally mutilates them, they say “thank you, may I have another”. Fucking assholes with no balls or minds of their own.
So if the truth is ever allowed to come out, I think an already pissed off Europe will rethink its idiotic strategy, especially if Putin shuts off their gas. I hope this winter is brutally cold as they predict and I hope Putin does shut off their gas. This happens while the truth about the plane comes out, I suspect you will see Europe riot, and countries finally tell NATO to go fuck itself. That pig faced fat bastard Poroshenko should be tried as a war criminal, but he will get asylum in Britain or the US or Canada, who are also asshole stupid enough to go along with these sanctions (wait till the US get desperate and marches in and steals their tar sands…bunch of hockey players who didn’t wear their helmets and took a few too many pucks and punches to damage their brains)
And what the fuck is up with Germany?? Didn’t our beloved NSA tap that bitch Merkel’s phone and spied on her and all these other German politicians and companies, and when Germany asked for their gold back, the federal reserve tells them “no”. In other words, we spy on them, steal their gold, and the people that were responsible for some 10 million Russian deaths are not hesitant to jump on the sanctions bandwagon as well, even knowing that the bulk of the terrorists in Kiev are in fact neo Nazis. The rest are average Ukrainians that are being forced by threat of death to join the military, and most don’t want to fight, and the last I heard, the “insurgents” (I like to call them freedom fighters) were opening a major can of whoop ass on these bums. That’s around the time that the US media tried to march forward with more lies about Russia “invading”, because the Ukrainian military is falling apart as well as the Poroshenko regime. I thought those people were somehow smarter than this, apparently they have no shame.
The Missouri riots. It is apparent that this kid was running from the cops and then turned around and charged at them. That is from some first hand accounts and the fact that he was shot from the front. I am no fan of the police, but this looked like an act of self defense. I heard the reactions of black people at work to the news broadcasts of that homeless woman getting pummeled by some Neanderthal from the LA police as well as that big guy that they suffocated for supposedly selling cigarettes, and I predicted the next time this happens, there will be riots. Imagine this on a nationwide, daily basis when the austerity programs are cut and the jobs are gone. Some 10 million pissed off people armed to the teeth with nothing to lose. I think that may be part of the reason the DHS reportedly purchased 3 billion rounds of hollow point bullets, along with mine resistant armored vehicles. The government knows the shit is going to hit the fan and have laid out the ground work for the imposition of martial law.
Won’t that be fun? Food riots, daily shoot outs, mass muggings, mass shootings, curbside justice, anarchy, chaos, panic, desperation, everyone trying to steal from everyone else
I also was dismayed to learn of the NSA tapping the phone of the German chancellor.
However, after some thought, I realized that they have every right to do this.
We must not forget that, in a few blunt words, the Germans are a nation of psychopaths. They can not by themselves tell the difference between right and wrong. They need a strong moral leader to guide them. When they have moral leadership, they excel as productive, well-behaved Lutherans and Catholics.
Without moral leadership, they tend to engage in creative baking experiments: like putting 10,000,000 people into ovens.
Given their proven inherent nature, it is imperative for the civilized people of the world to monitor their worldview and future plans of action.
This is simply how the world works. What a people have done in the past, they will do in the future. And what they will do to their own people, they will do to our people.
There was/is a reason for the NSA to spy on other countries, but every single American as well. Simply put, the government knows collapse is imminent. They know the dollar is about to collapse. So they monitor everybody and like the “terror alerts” under the Bush regime, you are placed into categories.
According to the director of one of these “fusion centers”, being a “conspiracy theorist”, having “extreme anti government views”, being a “prepper”, being a Ron Paul supporter, or criticizing Israel will likely get you extra attention from the NSA, in what is proving to be the most massive, invasive, not to mention illegal spy operation in human history. I didn’t need Edward Snowden to reveal this, I just knew it all along.
There are reasons for spying on other countries and their leaders as well. If, say, Merkel started getting suspicious that the US stole a vast quantity of their gold, or if this or that leader started getting chummy with BRICS nations or talked about diversifying away from the US dollar, then the person may die in a plane crash, develop some weird cancer, shoot themselves in the back of the head, or get struck by a bolt of lightning.
Kaddafy (Gaddafy..I never seen his name spelled the same way twice) was allegedly “meeting in secret” with other oil rich African and Muslim nations, persuading them to drop the dollar and sell their oil in gold backed, Arab dinars. Then Obama launches the “humanitarian mission” (would be amusing if it wasn’t so sick), complete with a lot of bombs, arm and fund these terrorists that now we are bombing that go by the name ISIS. We reduced Libya to rubble, and Kaddafy of course was tortured and killed in the process, so Libyan oil, for the time being, is sold in dollars. American foreign policy on steroids. Showing our love of democracy abroad.
It’s all symptomatic of the desperation of a dying empire in its death throes, grasping at straws in a vain, futile, and undignified effort to save itself. The insanity of trying to provoke Russia into a war. The US learned nothing from Hitler’s mistakes. It can only prolong the inevitable. Most are amazed they have been able to keep the ship afloat as long as they have. All these wars, the actions of the US government at home and abroad, have to deal directly with the resources and trying to force feed a dying fiat currency on other countries, the US petrodollar. All the while knowing collapse is inevitable, and with the NDAA and the actions of the NSA and DHS, they are militarizing the police and laying the ground work for the imposition of martial law.
I say fuck the NSA, the IMF, the federal reserve, and the US government in general. The way people treat each other back here leaves a lot to be desired as well. This old man near me with dementia froze to death in his house a few years back, they shut off his heat. When they entered his house, they found dollars clipped to all these heating bills. They shut off people’s drinking water in Detroit. I am reading on the internet where despite the drought in California, Nestle is tapping into one of the rivers or reserves or whatever and bottling up the water for profit. And don’t get me going about healthcare. Point being, we still succumb to this “you can’t pay, so you go without” mentality, and people DIE as a result. That ideology won’t work so well in a collapse. Given our sordid history of bullying and military interventionism and sanctions and sabotage and the untold misery we have perpetrated on ourselves and under people around the world, I say collapse can’t happen soon enough for me. I know I won’t likely survive it, but it would be the best goddamned thing that happened to the arrogance flag waving fuckheads here and the people around the world as well. People here will have to treat each other better or die, and the world will breathe a sigh of relief when the web of US imperialism is wiped away and they are free. The US dinosaur, like the USSR dinosaur, is gone, they will think. Once big and scary, but not so anymore (an analogy Dmitry Orlov used)
Very articulate. You saved me the trouble of answering a post that tried to justify illegal spying (“sure it’s wrong and illegal, but I had a REASON!”… see how well that works in Traffic Court). You know you’re dealing w/a first rate intellect when he/she resorts to collective demonization of an entire nation (are Germans REALLY so different? Is it genetic?), and doubles the # of Holocaust victims.for emphasis… “It’s all symptomatic of the desperation of a dying empire in its death throes, grasping at straws in a vain, futile, and undignified effort to save itself.” Yeah, the Money Quote!
Recent events are connected. There is a thread that runs through them and given the initial reactions and actions to the impending collapse, suffice it to say we are in some deep, deep shit. Things will get far more ugly than most can even imagine. Let’s start by shutting off people’s drinking water and putting the world at risk for WWIII. Let us hope a direct hit from a massive solar flare will accelerate the process and save us from prolonged misery and indignity
You got a lot of anger there, MN. Can’t say as I blame you, but all that anger doesn’t do good things to your mind and body. Life sucks and then we die. That’s just the way it is, so try to enjoy life as much as possible while you’re alive. You haven’t existed for the 1st 13.8 billion years of the universe, you live 70-100 years, then you don’t exist for the next untold number of billions of years. For your own sake, keep a large perspective.
BTW, I don’t know the details of this whole Ukraine flap, but to me, the bottom line is that there’s been an agreement in place that the West would not move eastward into the Russian sphere of influence. It seems the USA’s word isn’t something to rely upon, which is too bad.
Michigan_native,
Fucking brilliant post…..there is some great stuff on ClusterfuckNation today…I laughed my ass off!
What I want to know is when we are going to see sanctions on the US for invading Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Yemen, Pakistan, and next week Syria?
Obama, that NATO sycophant Rasmussen, and that dick-licking Cameron keep bleating on about Russian aggression!
What Russian aggression?….I didn’t realize that old Putin was taking a page out of the US book and trying to fuck-up sovereign nations as well.
Seems to me that old Putin is at a distinct disadvantage…he does not have The State Department’s Victoria “fuck the EU” Nuland on his payroll. He probably would also be hard pushed to come up with the $5.0billion taxpayer money she spent on the coupe to overthrow the democratically elected government of Ukraine.
As for ISIS, I will be afraid when I see them in their rowboats of the cost of New Jersey.
Thank you. I do try to put some humor in every now and then. Glad some pick up on it.
native,
I heard something hilarious today.
New job description for John McCain and his side-kick Lindsay Graham: Give them each a pair of binoculars. Sit on the beach at Atlantic City and watch out for ISIS.
LOL
Good fun yes, can’t wait. Love what we’ve done with the place, iN just over 200 years. Such a wonder of a heritage!
Hey, I meant that in response to Michigan Native about the riots, chaos, desperation. Can’t wait. Love what we’ve done with the place.
Good post as aways. I would suggest one minor correction regarding the dust up in Gaza. This current saga started when someone kidnapped and killed the Israeli teenagers and Neyanyahu blamed Hamas without proof. Hamas leadership in the West Bank was rounded up brutally. Then the rockets started. Of course there’s no need to mention over 2,000 Palestinians killed and over 10,000 injured mostly women and children. Down the memory hole indeed!
That’s pretty much how I remember it. Those kids were hijacked and killed, net and yahoo what the fuck’s face blamed Hamas, and some event happened that the Palestinians started lobbing rockets at Israel. In the midst of all that insanity, some Palestinian kid was supposedly burned and buried alive, and Israel retaliated to the rockets attacks, there are no shortage of pics on the internet showing dead and mangled infants, children, women trying to cover their children, this once happy, smiling young brother and sister before, and their bodies after. I don’t know if its real or photo shopped, but it’s rather depressing to look at. Nothing will change, those people will hate and kill each other until the end of time. Sad
Just finished reading the latest World Made By Hand novel. Quite the page turner.
But I was thinking that its basic premise was unrealistic. There couldn’t be such massive isolation between communities even with the precluding events described in the novel. Communication technology was to ubiquitous and basic electronic knowledge to widespread for there not to be primitive networks between the ‘new-times’ communities.
Then I learned of the massive solar flare that missed the earth by a “bee’s dick” (as the Australians say) two years ago. [chronicled here:
http://www.cnn.com/2014/07/25/tech/2012-solar-storm/%5D
This event, had it occurred when the earth was in its path, would have knocked the world back to the 19th century.
It’s astonishing that this story didn’t get nearly any coverage at all in the main stream media. Or that there is no information at all anywhere on how to protect our sensitive electronic equipment if or when it happens again.
As for all the other discussion topics, I’ve personally given up on general media for news and rely only on a few selected websites, including this one.
Was just looking at this re comments on Russian involvement in the plane that was shot down
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-29109398
The BBC?! Well, I’M convinced now! 3 unidentified “eyewitnesses”, PLUS Samantha Power’s “Facebook” reference (I’m not kidding!), especially given her track record for “honesty”. How about something like, oh, the Ukrainian ATC tapes, as they sent the plane hundreds of miles off course to the shoot-down site? Oh? They refuse to release them? Or produce “Carlos” , the Spanish AT controller at Borispol airport at the time, who tweeted furiously that the Ukrainian military knew of the plane BEFORE it was destroyed? He’s missing. As is the Black Box (ever wait this long after an accident for THAT to be made public?). The BUK launcher photos have been proved to be taken in a central Ukraine city, not at the Russian border, and, anyway, w/o at least 3 radar vehicles, it couldn’t hit a barn from the inside. Still, I’ll eat my words the moment the US produces the satellite photos we KNOW they have, showing the (hard to miss) 6-MILE high plume from the missile’s exhaust.PS: According to a Lufthansa pilot, the holes, centered on the cockpit, are from machine gun fire, consistent with the Ukie fighter plane we know was closing in on it.
The IMF vs BRICS (some say the Rothchilds vs the free world??) . There is a lot at stake here. I don’t know if its me, but Obama has that scared deer in the head lights look a lot these days. The US needed European sanctions to put the squeeze on Russia. Just a coincidence that this plane was shot down while they were still hesitant? I think not. Putin has Europe’s balls in a vice. I hope he squeezes down on it this winter, which is supposed to be more brutal than the next. Let us hope so.
I know I’m preaching to the choir over here regarding: ‘The History of the Future’.
Buy this book! If you like Mark Twain (and who doesn’t) you will really enjoy this collection of Huck Finn-ish adventure tales and social commentary. This is one you can read aloud to your entire family (at least most of it.)
By the way, the food in the future is excellent!
Speaking of WW III, I decided to take a look into Estonian history after Obama spoke there last week, assuring Estonians that, as part of NATO, they had nothing to fear from Putin since we’ll be there to keep them safe, as per NATO’s “an attack on one is an attack on all” operating principle.
Take a look at Wikipedia on Estonia – it’s an eye opener, and makes one fear that the real hostilities with Russia could start there.
After centuries of domination by everyone from Sweden to Germany, Czarist Russia and the Soviet Union, they finally achieved independence in the early 1990s during the failed military coup in Russia when Boris was in “command”. During the Soviet period, when Estonia was a Soviet republic, Stalin arbitrarily annexed small areas from Estonia into Russia along their shared about 300 km border, which is still disputed by Estonia to this day… I actually got chills when I read that. Also during this period, the Soviets pulled the same stunt they did with other bordering republics, relocating ethnic Russians and people from other republics into Estonia, to water down the ethnic Estonian population (sounds like Ukraine). And by the way, Estonia lost about 1/3 (!) of their ethnic Estonian population during WW II, either to death in the war at the hands of Germans and Russians or by exile to the Gulags, where the educated and elite of Estonian society, so-called troublemakers, were sent in the thousands, never to be heard from again. Many Estonians made it to North America in the late 1940s as DPs (displaced peoples) from post-WW II refugee camps, where they have maintained a strong cultural identity entirely on their own (meaning, without any government funding, as is the ongoing case of Quebecers in Canada). After independence, a number of N.A. Estonians moved back home, reclaiming family property, setting up businesses and taking an active role in Estonian governance. (A history on the impact of WW II on the people of Europe that I read recently noted that Estonians were the most remarkable of all displaced Europeans in organizing and administering their refugee camps themselves, including everything from sanitation to symphony orchestras, maintaining a sense of humanity and dignity that was in stark contrast to that of ethnic groups in other camps.) Since independence, Estonia, along with Poland, has been the most successful of previous Soviet Republics integrating into Europe. It has a democratically-elected parliamentary government and a strong and diversifying economy. That brings us up to date, and should leave no doubt of what Russia has been and is now all about. It basically has morphed from a ruthless, centrally-governed communist dictatorship into the current nuclear-armed mafia state with one man wielding all the power. Estonians, on the other hand are westerners that have a proud history of perseverance and resistance. They really do deserve western support to avoid slipping back into the clutches of Russia and Putin, even if they only number 1.3 million in total.
Now, does any one else get the willies, realizing that we now have NATO countries directly on the border with Russia (along with Latvia and Lithuania), while Estonian borders are still in dispute, and a good proportion of the Estonian population are ethnic Russians who may want “protection” by Putin? And NATO has explicitly stated to Estonia that we’re there for you, unlike Ukraine, which is not a NATO member.
Estonians, understandably, have no love lost for the “good old days” of the Soviet era. Let’s hope cool heads prevail and some Estonians don’t use the current crisis and explicitly-stated NATO support to poke the bear in the face for “payback”, and that some ethnic Russians don’t try to pull a Ukraine and start up a “resistance” campaign that Putin feels compelled to “support”. However, if we do see ethnic Russians stirring up trouble there, we should have no doubt Putin’s behind it and what his intentions are.
Then, what do we do? Putin is clearly a sociopath armed with lots of battlefield and strategic nuclear weapons, and Russia has not foresworn first use. Seems like we would be in a real pickle.
All to say, all eyes (at least ones not squeezed shut) should really be on the Baltics.
Putin is a sociopath. Seriously? Last time I checked, Putin did not fund ISIS terrorists, did not order drone strikes, massive aerial bombardments, illegal invasions of other countries, killing foreign leaders, or killing scores of innocent civilians. Given the atrocities being committed deliberately against innocent Russian civilians in the “separatist” regions, I think he has shown incredible restraint.
Whereas Obama, Kerry, and Hitlery Clinton go around the world issuing endless threats, Putin appears to use something that has been long lost in the US: diplomacy.
According to Dmitry Orlov, who should know best, the some 800,000 refugees that fled into Russia and told their fellow Russians about the neo Nazis shelling their schools, apartments, and civilian areas, the Russian people believed them, and started giving them money and support. Some with actual military training have volunteered to go over and protect them. They are supposedly on the offensive, the Ukrainian military demoralized, poorly trained, and not wanting to fight, are deserting in masse or are getting cleaned up by the “insurgents”, who are supposedly now on the offensive. Putin and the Russian government have not given any official support, but they can’t stop their people from stepping in to help
So as the “rebels” (should in reality be called freedom fighters) gain the upper hand, watch the western media and the Obama regime crank out more and more BS and blame Russia for helping the “insurgents”. The stories are getting old, and when and if the truth is allowed to be revealed about that plane the neo Nazis shot down…..Also, they have no desire to expand their empires or any of the neocon bullshit you read in the western media. I understand that the US and Israelis trained “rebels” in Georgia and there was a skirmish between Russia and the republic of Georgia. The Russians went in and wiped them out in short order and guess what? They left. Georgia is still an independent republic, Russia did not in any way try to annex them. Nor do they wish to annex those bums and hookers in the Ukraine. Opting out of using the US petrodollar and fronting BRICS nations thereby thwarting Washington and US imperialism/bullying does not make one a sociopath. It makes one a person of courage, sanity, and moral integrity.
I would suggest the people in Washington are the true sociopaths. They want to trigger WWIII over problems that they themselves created. I would fear the US government more than any ready made boogey man, with Putin being the latest one. This time, they fucked with the wrong person. That Russian bear has teeth and is strong and will only take so much shit from people.
And Putin would never condone shit like this. http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/malaysia-airlines-mh17-michael-bociurkiw-talks-about-being-first-at-the-crash-site-1.2721007
There are over quarter of a million Chechens who would disagree with you on Saint Putin, if they weren’t dead of course. As for supporting terrorism ask yourself why every dictator, terrorist, islamic extremist is carrying Russian built weapons. Russian anti personnel mines in places like somalia are cheaper than a can of coke.
Incidentally the various factions fighting Assad are not armed with western weapons. They are using AKs many of which are brand new.
I’m sure in your mind the devious CIA(so clever, but you can still know their every move right) has a secret facility in Russia building them.
Putin in Syria has, from the beginning, been content to supply both sides. Islamic State on the other hand have saved themselves a fortune by attacking the Iraqi, we run like rabbits, army and making off with all their weapons.
But ho hum keep praying to Saint Putin.
islander,
What really gives me the willies is seeing newspeak from the Estonian Tourist Bureau, Estonian Chamber of Commerce, NSA, CIA, Fatherland Se’cur’dy and US State Dept, all rolled into one and posted to JHK’s Clusterfuck Nation blog. That’s a true indicator of a bad moon rising.
What used to hide itself in shame for its’ crimes and murderous lies now parades as savior and bringer-of-truth. Strange and “interesting” days ahead. Move to higher ground.
I accept your point of view. My personal observations are from a West Coast Canadian viewpoint, and are distilled from me, in my 7th decade, after informing myself from a diverse number of written and other sources, including individual Estonians.
I do not absolve the current lack of responsible, honorable leadership from American, Canadian or other NATO governments. I always wonder where the real adults are. Guess I’m a dreamer.
But I certainly don’t have illusions as to what Putin would push to attain, taking advantage of many Western weaknesses, including the myth of “always striving for right”. That one’s a hard sell anywhere today.
I appreciate JHK referencing the “memory hole” (G. Vidal called us the “United States of Amnesia”) and I got a kick out of asking people, “Remember D.B. Cooper” up until his resurrection in the mid 1980s, (no one ever did). To this day no one recalls Rosie Ruiz, who never ran the Boston marathon in 1980, and Meagan Marchack [sp. i’m sure], who was doing late night “research” with Nelson Rockefeller. But what would you call the massive amnesia illustrated by this sentence about Gaza,”I’m sure few will remember that the whole thing started with the rockets.” Um, no. No matter whom you favor, it began in 1948 with the illegal seizure of 17% of the Palestinians’ land (on top of the 55% given legally to Israel), the continuing absorp0tion of nearly the entire West Bank, all of its water, gratuitous murder and imprisonment… not to mention the “collective punishment” that is a designated war crime under Nuremberg. Again, take either or neither side, but don’t amputate nearly 65 years of provocation…or throw it down the memory hole.
I am in the surreal U.S. now.
I recently stayed in a budget motel near the JFK airport in New York City.
It seems that the previous hotel guest kindly left a very small empty plastic zip lock bag which appeared to have contained some drug, probably crystal meth. (How would you like to have the hotel cleaning lady drop that in your suitcase?)
I don’t know….Everything’s so weird now….
I understand that they call the assholes who make crystal meth “Cooks”.
Do they mean like a “Chef” in a restaurant?
“Excuse me, waiter. Yeah..uh…this dish tastes funny. And it causes psychosis and brain damage. Can I get the Cobb Salad instead?”
Some have postulated that there are no memories. No real ones.
There are phony memories, starting with family memories, where each member tells the same story about something that happened in an entirely different way from what the rest of the family remembers. Agreeing to someone else’s version of events is agreeing to live with the dis-ease of contrived memories.
Most families have repressed memories, which is the same as having no memories at all.
There are the memories of our youth. Mark Twain once said: “We were all children once. Some us still are. Some us will always be children. And some us would like to forget they were ever children. I only say this because childhood memories are said to be among the strongest.
There are nightmares of the failed dreamer, but these are soon forgotten, except by our neighbors who ask us to please try sleeping with our windows closed at night so they do not have to hear the dreamer screaming.
Then there are night terrors which is the human being trying to get a good night’s sleep in a bedroom where the windows to the soul (out of respect for our restless neighbors), have been closed, thus cutting off the fresh air of memory from freely circulating and entering the dreamer.
Some would say that there can be no memory in a society as fully rigged, controlled, manipulated, closed and closing as ours. (And we haven’t even become a full on totalitarian state yet.)
Without dreaming there can be no knowledge; without the experience indexer dreams provide.
I get it, the point of today’s essay is this: media news lie and they might have an agenda to follow. Jim must be busy writing a new book.
Maybe the memory thing is a matter of priority and selection. It seems Americans have no problem remembering old,flattering images to post on Facebook in the name of ‘Throw Back Thursday’. And, moreover, the memory becomes positively stellar when making mental notes about which friends ‘liked’ old flattering pic’s and especially for the one’s who didn’t: Those motherfuckers need to be paid back big time with no future likes and perhaps even a “block friend” punishment.
And speaking of Vonnegut, Philip K. Dick and “Perky Pat” fantasy, I’m sure those three lonely housewives whose TBT image I commented positively on now are posting sexually provocative musically videos just for my own personal benefit. One of them posted Dave Matthew’s “Say GoodBye” and another Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On”. I have also noticed if I don’t post for a day or two they begin to suffer from a certain ‘separation anxiety’ and so I alleviate their concern by reciprocating with a posted musical video of my own. And being the incurable asshole that I am I posted the Grateful Dead’s “Bertha” but to no avail. As I stated, our memory is selective and forms a very biased narrative.
And just when Americans get wise, a white woman from a Southern state will disappear and CNN will be all over that.
One interesting item under reported is the Palestinian Authority’s move to request the UN to order Israel to vacate the West Bank in three years. Now if just Obama would show some backbone and vote to approve, we might see this grotesque occupation by Israel ending.
I recall from Jacques Ellul’s excellent book, “Propaganda: The Formation of Men’s Attitudes” that one salient characteristic of propaganda is that the target audience of propaganda is so conditioned to have no memory such that the theme of the propaganda can instantaneously switch to an inconsistent, even contradictory story or theme and the target audience won’t even notice—very Orwellian…today we’re at war with Oceania and allies of Eurasia; tomorrow we’re at war with Eurasia and allies of Oceania, and no one notices.
Part of the problem is that our nervous system isn’t very good – still too close to the beast. Thus happiness can translate to excitement and from there you can go to anger and/or “action”. Your team wins the Pennant? What could be more natural than to riot? A happy riot! Fans who have lost are less likely to riot since they are in a deflated or sad state. Thus virtue and sadness seem to go together, but not really. Real virtue means having the power but resisting the bad impulse.
A Marxist in Burma (or was it Thailand?) hit a temple statue of Buddha with a hammer. The devotees beat him to death. Buddha would not have been pleased. Their anger was natural and good, but they lost control of themselves and thus cometh shame. Buddha said, “Fear and Shame are the Guardians of the World”. Would that it need not be so, but alas, tis.
the Buddhists in Burma have been hammering the minority Muslims pretty bad, up to and including burning down houses and murder. The goal is a Muslim Free Burma.
–brh
Jamie Oliver is a Cook.
Have to agree to disagree with you on the probable causes of some of these events ….but lets not forget the Flying Dutchman , Malaysia MH370 , still MIA , u.s navy still has ships off the coast of west australia. ” searching ” for it, with appropriate sound bites from time to time in the local media …. I bet Mahathir Mohammad is wondering wether his very loud and public denunciations of Israel , together with the mock war crimes trials the Malaysians held for Bush, Blair , Rumsfeld , Cheney had anything to do with their being targeted by the terrorists …still, you have to search pretty hard even to find mention of the event in most media , and the average Aussie certainly couldnt give a toss, like some sort of collective psychosis or dissonance we have enetered , emotionally we are all in the doetak position with our hands over our ears crying for it to stop and for mummy ..
Noticed a massive ( black painted ) window less Halliburton warehouse facility in an industrial area of w.a. recently , realised such is the nature of modern occupations ..
“Doetak?” Ha ha foetal
What is it with the bottom of this page being entirely black????
Putin’s Ukrainian peace plan fails; West goes for the jugular
EU Council approves restrictive measures against Russia
http://en.itar-tass.com/world/748671
US are escalating the crisis and not leaving Putin any room for maneuver. The decision will have to be made before September 15. Novorossia offensive will resume before the end of this month. Mariupol, Kiev, then Moldova.
I hope I am wrong.
Two soldiers
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-DIYciUa7F14/VAs7spOtTHI/AAAAAAAAGL8/_Ud0MPMZS0A/s1600/%D0%A1%D0%BE%D0%BB%D0%B4%D0%B0%D1%82%2B%D0%A3%D0%BA%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%B8%D0%BD%D1%8B%2B%D0%B8%2B%D1%81%D0%BE%D0%BB%D0%B4%D0%B0%D1%82%2B%D0%A0%D0%BE%D1%81%D1%81%D0%B8%D0%B8.jpg
Left – Ukrainian captured paratrooper. Right – Russian captured and badly wounded private.
I can’t believe they are actually printing that horse crap
Obama’s Former Chief Economist Calls For An End To US Dollar Reserve Status
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-09-08/obamas-former-chief-economist-calls-end-us-dollar-reserve-status
“US are escalating the crisis and not leaving Putin any room for maneuver. The decision will have to be made before September 15. Novorossia offensive will resume before the end of this month. Mariupol, Kiev, then Moldova.” — Finca
Dude, Putin has Obama’s jackboot on his neck. Russia cannot survive the economic blows. Militarily Obama stopped Putin cold. NATO has given him notice. There will be no Russian move on “Mariupol, Kiev, then Moldova”
But thanks for making a firm prediction. At the end of this month I will remind you of your prediction.
Putin is toast.
PK — Thank you once again for providing some levity into a dark corner of the universe. The image of Obama’s jackboot on Putin’s neck is hilarious.
pkrugman,
Militarily Obama stopped Putin cold…. huh?
The good old underachieving, and grossly over financed, US military would be crazy to attack Russia in a land war!
The US military has not won a war since WWII.
I believe they got their butts handed to them recently by two pathetic “militaries”….Iraq and Afghanistan.
NATO is even a bigger a joke…a vassal European division of the useless US Military….funded 75% by US taxpayers by the way.
Obama, NATO, and that dick-licking David Cameron are toast.
I haven’t forgotten any of it, and I really question your statement presented as a fact that Americans have forgotten this terrible summer of news events.
I also realized today that I have outgrown you, or at least the new you. I thought your warnings way back when I bought your book, The Long Emergency, was written because you cared about everyone, about humanity, and I have followed your work closely since then. But this summer, you haven’t struck me as doing much research about the social and political issues you’ve written. Too little research, and too much over-simpliflication and a failure to think deeply about the various points of view and the history which led to violent situations here and abroad.
It’s as though you’re playing to your most vocal but small audience of commenters here, whom I think are playing you for a fool, Jim. You tolerate racist and xenophobic remarks by people who use your blog as a platform to spread hate and misinformation, who are probably laughing behind your back on Stormfront types of sites. It’s a common strategy these vampires use to discredit authors and blogs. Don’t you know that those who hate blacks and other groups usually don’t care much for Jews either? They’re using the hell out of you, and I could name them but as you read this, I’m sure you’ll instantly figure out who they are.
And maybe some of the haters here work in concert with the oil lobby and war machine to discredit your earlier messages of sustainable living by discrediting you to readers who don’t want read the vitriol in the comments section, or for that matter, your being subtly influenced by them. I don’t know, but I do know that hate is a turn off to most people regardless of race, religion or nationality.
It has actually hurt me to see you show so little empathy for so many, and to dismiss the pain and historical background of others who have been done so terribly wrong for so long.
I hope you go back to doing what you did best. If not, thank you teaching me what you have.
Well, Civ… there you go; somebody was going to say it sooner or later.
Allow me one small rationalization, if you will:
JM Greer (the archdruid report) reads, sifts, winnows and THEN posts every comment to his blog postings. That’s a LOT of time spent; good thing for him that he’s got the Asperger’s hyper-focus.
I seriously doubt that JHK reads 10% of the comments here. (If that, and probably only the ones closest to publication date of the essay, just to gauge a snippet of the reaction.)
My neighbor is an author who is not nearly as successful as JHK, and they have a difficult grind just keeping up with the huge volume of e-mails! It’s pretty amazing.
Like I said, a small rationalization, and I applaud JHK for just taking the effort to get out a missive on Mondays. It certainly doesn’t blunt your points about the trollery and blinkered, narrowly-focused “ideas” expressed here that drive people with concern for our commonweal away. (This from a commenter who’s been publicly castigated for being a troublemaker here.)
OR, maybe JHK takes a perverse and simple pleasure in rousing the rabble! 😉 (…for him to know and us to guess.)
Shame on you for supporting this kind of liberal smear. It’s just mindless xenophillia. Xenophobia is normal from an evolutionary point of view. A certain degree of it serves modern life and nationalism. But Xenophillia? Defend it if you can. To love the alien before your own is just sickness.
And you admire this kind of censorship? What about free speech? Or is that only for the politically correct? Zone, you are hopeless. You don’t get what freedom means.
So only Whites can be racists and xenophobes? And isn’t it natural to love your own people and nation first and foremost? All normal peoples do that. Is that still racist? Or only when Whites do it? Admit it, you haven’t thought any of this through.
Whoo! Methinks someone protest-eth much too much.
Now those comments from a professional smearer go waaaay past ironic and into the territory of provocations by the insane.
The richest part? Spittle-flecked hollerings and ravings of “Free Speech!” from someone who’d just love to have an iron grip over everything that anyone writes, thinks, says or does. It’s kinda cute when the inner nazi jungen springs forth to do the crazy dance…
I noticed you didn’t answer my questions. You have no answers. You are a hypocrite who approves of the Greer’s censorship. A mindless Xenophile who applauds the destruction of Western Culture.
Wall Street Journal reports that Finland has torpedoed implementation of new EU anti-Russian sanctions
http://online.wsj.com/articles/finland-feels-eu-should-go-slow-on-russia-sanctions-1410202205
Finland Feels EU Should Go Slow on Russia Sanctions
New Russia Sanctions Were Adopted by EU, But Timing for Implementation Still Undecided
HELSINKI—Finland thinks the European Union should wait in implementing its new economic sanctions against Russia, Finland’s prime minister said Monday.
The EU launched on Monday the process to adopt formally a set of new measures that will slightly stiffen the EU’s response to Russia for its role in the Ukraine crisis.
Peace in Europe still has a chance.
Finland and Russia have always had a very strange relationship, going back centuries, but ‘specially in the 20th century.
–brh
Nothing strange about it. Finland before 1917 was part of Russian Empire, Lenin granted it its independence. Finland always used it position between West and Russia to its benefits, except for brief 1940 war when Russia felt that Germany might use Finland as a platform to attack on Leningrad(St. Petersburg) direction – not unlike current situation in Ukraine where if US is to place its missiles, the flight time to crucial objects of Russian military infrastructure would go to less than 2 minutes.
What I meant FC is during cold war times Finland was able to remain independent of the Soviet Union (unlike say Poland or Hungary) but walked a very fine line, had to tiptoe around so to speak, nervous as a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs, this despite the 1939 war and the continuation war in 1941 when Finland sided with Germany and actually had Divisions inside Russia fighting alongside the German Army. I believe at the end of the war Finland switched sides and drove Germans from their country.
Am I right about any of this?
brh
Also I think Finns have their own separate language from Russia, which resembles Hungarian.
I was wondering if Ukrainian and Russian is the same language with some regional differences, or is it totally different?
Yes who can forget the Winter War where the Finns held off the gigantic Russian Army. Real Patriots will never forget. Brave Men fighting for their own nation deserve respect even from men of other nations. Needless to say, this is a very alien idea to Fincaln who only dreams of Russia and Empire.
Considering that Finland gets all of its’ gas from Russia, that’s not TOO surprising. I think I heard somewhere that it gets slightly chilly in wintertime Helsinki. 😉
True. And Helsinki is the banana belt of Finland.
Whatever the motivation is, considering that all-out European war is at steak here, Finland did the right thing.
Putin wants negotiate a peaceful solution with Europe regarding very bad Ukrainian situation short of sacrificing lives of Russians in SE Ukraine.
Putin does not want or need new territories(Crimea’s different matter, but he wouldn’t even go there if not for the threat of Sevastopol becoming US Navy base). That is why he ordered the Novorossia troops to stop short of entering Mariupol and signed very strange peace deal.
Putin’s goal is creating a Common Eurasian Trade zone from Lisbon to Far East and China, far cry from conquering the Universe.
Amnesia-due-to-apathy is the keynote of the day because “news” is viewed the same way a kid views a video game i.e., once he’s “killed” at level 32 by a Klingon Dragon the “game” is over and forgotten ’til the next game starts and then the involvement-brow furrowing-disinterest-forgetting cycle starts all over again. Unlike the video game where no REAL people are killed, in the video game we call “the news” the lives are very real but far away enough that the dead bodies might as well be viewed as “entertainment”.
It’s a scandal-as-entertainment world where the atrocities have to be successively more outrageous for us to work up a state of lowest dudgeon. That Malaysian airliner accident now seems as if it happened in 2012. Such is the engineering of public attention by the mass media. CNN, Fox, and MSNBC make sure to keep is “edutained” and if no real horror is occurring at the moment they’re sure to magnify and beat to death a tertiary story. They certainly beat real horrors to death by showing the same footage of dead bodies over and over to the point where all empathy in people is drained out by their excessive yammering and mock concern.
The true horror in all this is that we all know that one of the REAL horrors lying in wait for the USA and Europe is when all of the financial legerdemain I call “the economic recovery that never happened” starts to not work any more. When that happens, our long-blunted affects won’t know what to do except suicide or murder.
there’s been much attention here to ‘rape on campus’. The White House even got involved. gloria Allred was here at State U and filed a successful lawsuit against the University on behalf of a group of coeds. I thought this was curious since on some campuses males are down to about 30%, why is this all happening now? I thought it might be just some bullshit coming out of the Gender Studies Dept. So I asked my neighbor, a state prosecutor, what’s up? He stated there were indeed a few assaults but they were committed by elite athletes thus were covered up. I always thought rape was a capital crime punishable by many years in prison. how could it be covered up?
Here’s the problem the colleges have. Schools in session and just this week two sexual assaults have been reported, one in Fairfield and one in Bridgeport. Two arrests: and Ethiopian cab driver, and a Mexican illegal (whos on the run, presumably back to Mexico.)
Now the colleges are being accused of racism and nativism. What’s a girl to do?
brh
BRH — you risk being accused of racism yourself by the civility police just by mentioning the heritage of the alleged perpetrators, you hater!
I think the Nutmeg State is going off the deep end:
http://libertyblitzkrieg.com/2014/07/17/connecticut-man-arrested-for-passive-aggressive-behavior-to-a-watermelon/
What’s a girl to do?
A smart girl carries a deadly weapon and knows how to use it. It’s what a girl does in a collapsing and uncivil society.
Hey O3, a big dog does’t hurt either. Well they do hurt the bad guys plus they keep miscreants off your property. Problem is they are not allowed everywhere unless you carry a white cane. I’ve seen it before, dark glasses , a cane ,and a German Shepard and nobody says boo. I know grown men who are deathly afraid of dogs. I happen to like them more than most people. But I’m anti-social!!
And what a does boy do when accused of a rape he didn’t commit? If he can prove he didn’t do it, (and he is guilty until he does), the lying female goes scot free. Is that your idea of justice?
seemed to work for Desiree Washington, but then again Mikee is no model citizen.
Free is one one of those words that does not exist in reality.
“Simulacra and Simulation” breaks the sign-order into 4 stages:
The first stage is a faithful image/copy, where we believe, and it may even be correct, that a sign is a “reflection of a profound reality” (pg 6), this is a good appearance, in what Baudrillard called “the sacramental order”.
The second stage is perversion of reality, this is where we come to believe the sign to be an unfaithful copy, which “masks and denatures” reality as an “evil appearance—it is of the order of maleficence”. Here, signs and images do not faithfully reveal reality to us, but can hint at the existence of an obscure reality which the sign itself is incapable of encapsulating.
The third stage masks the absence of a profound reality, where the simulacrum pretends to be a faithful copy, but it is a copy with no original. Signs and images claim to represent something real, but no representation is taking place and arbitrary images are merely suggested as things which they have no relationship to. Baudrillard calls this the “order of sorcery”, a regime of semantic algebra where all human meaning is conjured artificially to appear as a reference to the (increasingly) hermetic truth.
The fourth stage is pure simulation, in which the simulacrum has no relationship to any reality whatsoever. Here, signs merely reflect other signs and any claim to reality on the part of images or signs is only of the order of other such claims. This is a regime of total equivalency, where cultural products need no longer even pretend to be real in a naïve sense, because the experiences of consumers’ lives are so predominantly artificial that even claims to reality are expected to be phrased in artificial, “hyperreal” terms. Any naïve pretension to reality as such is perceived as bereft of critical self-awareness, and thus as oversentimental.
Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.
So what stage are we in?
I’d say about 3.9, look at the derivatives mess, some say there are like $75 trillion in derivatives obligations. We have fiat money created by issuing T-bills, which are then used to speculate through increasing levels of complexity until we get to derivatives, which for all the world looks like creating “value” simply through trading pieces of paper.
I would guess 3.1.
MH17 Preliminary Crash Report: The airliner WAS NOT BROUGHT down by microwave oven explosion
No, seriously, Dutch experts have released a preliminary report into the fate of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, which crashed in the Donetsk region of Ukraine on July 17, saying that the plane was hit by “high-energy objects.”
“The initial results of the investigation point towards an external cause of the MH17 crash”.
http://time.com/3308085/mh17-preliminary-crash-report-blames-high-energy-objects/
Words “missile”, “machine gun fire” are not mentioned anywhere as well as fate of the tape with recorded pilots and flight tower conversation.
Good Job!
I stopped watching Anderson Cooper years ago when he was on site covering a mine disaster. After some of the miners were either found dead or rescued, he split, never to be seen there again. In passing he mentioned that the mine owner, Massey Energy, had amassed 98% of all the fines given out that year for breaking the rules of mine safety. There was no follow-up and I never heard him say the name Massey again.
I despise what passes for news on TV and I no longer listen to radio. There is no news on the news. I’m sick of the talking heads, the speculation, and the endless ads. Unfortunately America (aka Planet Stupid) remains clueless.
No1kiwi,
My post is absurd? Um, No1, just a suggestion, but maybe you should read what I actually wrote as opposed to what you wish I wrote.
You don’t want to call “Gaza’s resistance” a military operation? Then don’t. Call it what you want. It makes no difference to me.
You say they don’t have a military? Well, by any reasonable definition a military is supposed to inflict violence in AID of a cause or interest and not to its DETRIMENT. So you’re probably right, I mean, hard to characterize any of the Hamas organization as a “military” given the absurdly self-destructive actions they repeatedly embark on.
So let’s agree that Gaza doesn’t have a military. Because all we’re doing otherwise is fiddling with definitions. So tell me No1, as someone so supposedly knowledgeable (unlike myself), how are Hamas, um, non-military actions aiding the Gazan cause? Maybe I’m thick because I’m just not seeing it. And in case that you missed it, and you evidently did, that was the point of my earlier post.
Oh, and how would you characterize those al-Qassam Brigades? An organization for resistance and martyrdom? Ok, sure. I was afraid you’d claim they’re a charitable agency. But no, definitely not a military. Yes, yes, that much we can agree on.
Maybe if the USA gave Hamas 3 billion per year in military aid? So let’s say the USA gave Hamas 3 billion a year. What do you think Hamas would do with it? Because now we’re in in the realm of speculation. So I’m going to speculate that Hamas honchos would steal it. And I’m going to speculate that all that money would spark a spate of rub-outs and counter-rub-outs between Hamas rivals for control of the purse strings.
And after a whole lotta billions from Uncle Sam would Gaza be any further ahead? Let me further speculate, that as likely as not, or maybe more likely than not, Gaza would be NO further ahead. Yeah, horrifying, such rank racism to suggest that there might be corruption. Whatever. Like I said, it’s just speculation. And besides, I have a distinct lack of knowledgeability. So do feel free to enlighten me.
In any case, if Gazans are lacking for money, boy, are they ever in the right neighborhood. I mean, there’s bazillionaire Arab families just a grenade toss away. And 3 billion to those guys is literally bus fare. Or am I wrong about that too? But let’s say I’m right. Can’t they see the way to funnel a wee bit of all that oil loot to their suffering co-religionists? It’s a worthy cause isn’t it? Surely they can see the threat of extermination? Maybe they don’t. Maybe you should send them an email.
volodya,
I read exactly what you wrote… unfortunately.
Holy cow!….why am I guessing that you hate the people of Gaza?
“So I’m going to speculate that Hamas honchos would steal it. And I’m going to speculate that all that money would spark a spate of rub-outs and counter-rub-outs between Hamas rivals for control of the purse strings.”
How charitable of you to accuse every Gazan of being a criminal!
“..horrifying, such rank racism to suggest that there might be corruption.”
Yep it’s a racist position to take..are you proud of that?
If Israel was not a rogue. apartheid state, that is rapidly becoming a pariah on the world stage, maybe its neighbors would not be “just a grenade toss away”.
Noam Chomsky has a great post on the web this morning,
http://www.tomdispatch.com/ “The Fate of the Gaza Ceasefire”.
In summary……”This is, however, just the most recent of a series of ceasefire agreements reached after each of Israel’s periodic escalations of its unremitting assault on Gaza. Throughout this period, the terms of these agreements remain essentially the same. The regular pattern is for Israel, then, to disregard whatever agreement is in place, while Hamas observes it — as Israel has officially recognized — until a sharp increase in Israeli violence elicits a Hamas response, followed by even fiercer brutality. These escalations, which amount to shooting fish in a pond, are called “mowing the lawn” in Israeli parlance. The most recent was more accurately described as “removing the topsoil” by a senior U.S. military officer, appalled by the practices of the self-described “most moral army in the world.”
So, I am not the only person in the world who thinks that Israel’s atrocities are war crimes, and that Netanyahu and his Lukud Party henchmen should be tried before the International Criminal Court.
I’m waiting for you to call me an anti-semite. That’s the usual bullshit tactic used by Zionists, when anybody dares to be critical of Israel.
Hate the people of Gaza? Don’t be a goof. In any case, you either can’t read or you’re so ideologically blinkered you read into posts what you want to.
Also, Mr or Ms Kiwi, maybe you see “racism” where there is none. Explain to me, oh enlightened one, how is corruption a “racial” issue. On the other hand, don’t bother, “Racist” after all is the accusation designed to shut people up. Isn’t it No1?
I’m done taking the bait from you No1Kiwi. Screw off and go bother someone else.
volodya
Good morning Sir, How come the truth gets you so mad?
Speaking of being blinded by ideology, I think its a case of the pot calling the kettle black as they say in my homeland.
this blog used to be fairly interesting when jhk stuck to energy issues.
On Sunday [May 11, 2014], Germany’s impressive streak of renewable energy milestones continued, with renewable energy generation surging to a record portion — nearly 75 percent — of the country’s overall electricity demand by midday. With wind and solar in particular filling such a huge portion of the country’s power demand, electricity prices actually dipped into the negative for much of the afternoon, according to Renewables International.
peace peaceniks
The German’s make a heck of a tank, and put up a good show. I have several of their cars and motorcycles. Great machines, every one. I have some that are 45 years old and still humming.. What happens when the silicon cells and polycarbonate protective covers on their (vaunted solar cells) turn yellow and ” Fifty Shades of Grey” in 15 years? Will we back to 1939 all over again? I doubt it! Maybe so. resource wars are all the rage throughout history. Besides that, who else can afford this pie in the sky of solar power. Capture the sun. Do it with plants. Most of the world can not do it. lack of water etc, etc.I have solar cells, plastic water tanks, etc. but this crap will not hold up forever. Be a realist please. I may be a pessimist but I see the world as a closed system with finite resources. The human race is a leech on Mother Earth.
Rip, listen to this.
I’ve got this neighbor, 94 years old, a German who served with the German Army at Leningrad 1941-44. He’s got some good stories to tell. The guy still gets around you see him working in his garden still.
Anyway, he has a garden tractor he bought in 1955 at Sears, one of the first of its kind, and it still works! He kept it going all these years. He uses it to pull small loads of logs around his property and all kinds of other stuff, for example, plowing snow out of his driveway. He’s got a few Mausers I’m trying to buy from him.
Nothing I like more than old machinery that still works and does the job. This old Royal Enfield British Army motorcycle I have here I wouldn’t trade for even the slickest Harley.
–BRH
Polish atrocities against Germans started the shooting part of WW2. The economic war had begun years earlier.
http://thegreateststorynevertold.tv/portfolio/part-5-war-declared/
Get those Mausers now while CT still allows private ownership of guns. Assholes like the hooplehead in Newtown give us all a bad name and cause the kneejerk pols to pass all sorts of asinine laws. Just be sure to get ammo, Cabelas in East Hartford won’t even sell to MA residents anymore.
Speaking of Leningrad ,did you ever read “The 900 Days” about the siege. Those cagey Russians outsmarted the Germans, although many did die. The ones with the chubby cheeks you had to watch out for.
94 years young, good for him, I hope he was a good German. German Beer and Bratwurst! The Germans didn’t do all that much in Leningrad, as I have read, but I probably only have half the story. Some shelling and bombing and a blockade, not like the hellhole Stalingrad became. I believe it was supplied over frozen Lake Lagoda
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Ladoga
for winter supplies. Of course doors and pianos always burned well. I’m surprised they let your neighbor into the USA, but than again anybody can get in the USA today. I’m curious as to what O’Droner will have to say this evening.
Another good read
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Road_of_Life
My neighbor Edwin wasn’t in the SS, just an ordinary German soldier.
Soil can be improved in a closed system. Plants can be grown forever in a manner that benefits the environment.
We don’t need to capture but a sliver of the sun’s energy to provide all the energy we need.
Yeah I know that’ll attract all sorts of invective. But it’s slowly being done. Too many successful examples could be cited.
Don’t tell anyone heating their home with solar power that it’s pie in the sky.
It ain’t braggin’ if you can do it.
kontrahend
Are you a good “Cook”?
“All of these stories have something in common: tons of unanswered questions, which the news media shows no interest whatsoever in following up on. And no consequences.’ – jhk –
Yeah, you’re correct, JHK. It would be interesting if we could obtain a time machine and transport some of the great investigative journalists of yesteryear forward in time – and let them have a go at any of the quickly vanishing events that you describe in this week’s essay.
Of course, that’s impossible. And we see from comments here that “public opinion?” is equally divided on every issue. Brown was a thug vs the cop was justified. It was the rockets into Israel vs the kidnapped and burned Palestinian. etc. etc. etc. It’s a mess. But it’s an equally divided mess, so Those Powers That Be can do exactly what they want to do. Same as it ever was, right?
Here’s another one. Suddenly, the ever-divided and war-weary US public is 65% in favor of action against ISIS*. And why the sudden urge to war?? Ask the average person who has anything like a clue, and they will say, “That beheading video!”
Which video almost no one has actually seen. I finally forced myself to find a copy, since Pres. Obama is making a major address tomorrow night, seemingly because of it. And parts of that video are almost certainly faked. There’s no way that single man (in black, of course) with that small knife cut off that man’s head as implied.
http://gawker.com/experts-james-foley-execution-video-may-have-been-stag-1626436055
So – who or what benefits from all of this?
Remember Cindy Sheehan? She was a media darling who combined two acceptable societal memes not usually seen in the same person. She was an anti-war activist and she was a grieving mother who had lost her son in the war. Usually people are one or the other with liberals not knowing anyone in the war and conservatives who lose someone doubling down and supporting the war even more.
Anyway, she found out the inner secret and started talking about the PNAC – Project for a New American Century that planned to destabilize every Muslim Nation in the Middle East. This closely coevals with “Securing the Realm” – the Israeli paper that talks about this from an Israeli pov. But many of the same folks are involved with both since “our” foreign policy is controlled by people whose first allegiance is to Israel and the Jewish people. Of course they use Whites or light skinned Blacks as “front men” to disguise this.
Cindy Sheehan quickly became a media non-entity. No coverage is given to people who know and speak the truth. Solzhenitsyn was ignored after his famous Harvard address that criticized the West.
P2C those beheadings were meant to be a provocation.
Seems like it worked.
Janos, thanks for rescuing Cindy Sheehan from the memory hole.
Many people have forgotten, or never even knew, that she protested the war during W’s regime, and then Cindy went right on protesting the war under Obama’s regime. And she went to Martha’s Vineyard to make the protest during Obama’s vacation, just as Cindy went to Crawford during W.’s vacation. Her protests of Obama started soon after Obama took office in 2009. She is still protesting Obama in 2014.
August 16, 2009 For immediate release: Next week, Cindy Sheehan will join other like-minded peace activists to have a presence near the expensive resort on Martha’s Vineyard where President Obama will be vacationing the week of August 23-30. From her home in California, Ms. Sheehan released this statement:
“There are several things that we wish to accomplish with this protest on Martha’s Vineyard. First of all, no good social or economic change will come about with the continuation or escalation of the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. We simply can’t afford to continue this tragically expensive foreign policy.
Will Cindy be sleeping in a tent at the Vinyard, or staying at one of the exclusive resorts? Must be nice in the islands this time of year, If you can afford it. The water is about as warm as it gets. Just be mindful of the great whites. I hear they prefer white meat to dark. Kerry,( the haircut in search of a brain) should be careful where he windsurfs. The world goes to shit and the bigwigs go on vacation. Sounds like a pretty good plan to me.
stelmosfire,
More nonsense from you.
Oh, that’s right, your’e the guy that wants to go to Carbelas and buy assault rifles( for hunting only…right!) and a shit pot of ammo to fend off a tyrannical government.
You and that criminal Clive Bundy.
“You cannot invade the United States. You would find a rifle behind every blade of grass.”
http://www.skylighters.org/quotations/quots6.html
Starting to get it now Nimrod?The 2nd Amendment was never only about hunting, but about fighting tyranny from within or without. Throw away the Howie Zinn and read some real history and political science.
Janos Skorenzy,
Oh yeah, the 2nd Amendment…. the good old American Constitution…written by a bunch of slave holding, white bigots.
No1KIWI — you are ignorant of history, and possibly a fool. The US Constitution would not have been ratified (and therefore no USA — kind of interesting) absent the Bill of Rights. These were as significant to non-slaveholding libertarians as your alleged “white bigots.” You are guilty of the historian’s fallacy in that you have judged past actors based on present prejudices. Had you been alive in that time your belief system would have been 18th century, not 21st century. That may be a difficult concept to comprehend. Assuming you to have been English and white your attitudes toward Africans would not be the PC orthodoxy prevalent today. As for the second amendment and firearms, there is nothing to be gained debating this. Only bitter experience reveals the wisdom of the founders, and those enduring bitter experience usually end up casualties of the State.
Another dolt heard from, I suppose we should ban aluminum baseball bats and carving knifes also? Get with the program, Psychos kill people, not guns.
Stel,
Somehow I think the gun helps…..It takes guts to murder someone with a baseball bat, or a carving knife. Any coward, or Psycho, can pull the trigger of a gun!
The 2nd amendment is a noose around America’s neck.
The 2nd Amendment is certainly worth debating….unfortunately its not politically correct to suggest that America has a huge gun problem. America is the laughing stock of the world in this respect.
Any “gun nut” who thinks he is going to take on America’s militarized police, and survive(!), is exactly that…a nut!
Stel,
“Missouri lawmakers expanded the potential for teachers to bring guns to schools and for residents to openly carry firearms, in a vote Thursday that capped a two-year effort by the Republican-led Legislature to expand gun rights over the objection of the Democratic governor” Huffington Post this morning.
WTF…what was I saying about America having a gun problem!!!!
get with the program dolt, Psychos kill people , not guns.
sorry same comment. As prog says this program is a little tough to edit.
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/the-era-of-widespread-biometric-indentification-and-microchip-implants-is-here
run run here they come. don’t worry, it’ll be voluntary – just like credit cards. you wont be able to function without your chip in a few years. no one will even want to deal with you. luvers will press their chips together to download each other. perhaps people will cover the back of their hands to prevent the casual, accidental, or malicious brushes…
how did st john know?
My dog has a chip, my cat has a chip, I’ve got a chip on my shoulder, same as it ever was, same as it ever was. I’ve had too much coffee!! ;o)
Remove these things. You don’t own your cat, dog or any other being. You don’t even own yourself so how can you own anyone else?
Might have run across a reasonable explanation why oil remains in the $95-$105 range, despite demand being down and the alleged fracking cornucopia in ND & Texas.
Saw this in FT of London.
China is building a strategic oil reserve of 1 billion barrels, and any time the price gets below $100 and close to $90 they consider it a bargain and buy all excess petroleum on the world market. So far this reserve stands at about 500 million barrels.
Sounds logical. Don’t know if its true.
–brh
It’s supremely logical given that they have a considerable wad of US dollars that still trade for oil.
ZH posted this article which I am surprised did not draw comment — at least not yet. Are we being prepared for something here? The blogosphere has been full of dire warnings of the end of the petrodollar and now academic economists think maybe this is a good thing:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-09-08/obamas-former-chief-economist-calls-end-us-dollar-reserve-status
(Jared Bernstein in NY Times Op Ed)
Shit Marlin , we in the Good old USA ( Home of happy motoring) and where the rubber meets the road and all that happy horse -hooey, could piss through Chinas 500,000,000 barrels in less than 6 days at our rate of 87,000,000 barrels a day.
We here in Ft. Meade are laughing our asses off…..a few diseased filthy moronic ragtag joohadis supposedly threaten all of western civilization……..
nsa,
The people who practice the Islamic religion are probably very concerned about a bunch of arrogant, resource grabbing, baby killing, pornography addicted, obese, warmongering American assholes from Ft. Meade threatening their civilization. Which by the way, is thousands of years old and isn’t destroyed the planet with crazy materialism
I hear Mohammed wants a caliphate in New Zealand. What do you say? Grab a prayer rug. Give it a go.
BackRowHeckler
LOL, I think the airfare from Iraq to New Zealand is over $5,000 now….and they would have to pay excess baggage charges to ship their AK47’s and rocket propelled grenades. Second hand Toyota pickups are readily avaliable.
But I suppose they could afford it…..haven’t they robbed a bunch of banks. Or they could get their sponsors Saudi Arabia to buy their tickets..first class eh?
New Zealand abolished their air-force about 10 years ago…..we couldn’t even bomb the sons of bitches!!!
I wonder how the New Zealand Maoris would react to beheading? They were a bunch of vicious pagan savages before we civilized them…by introducing them to whiskey LOL
Yes I’ve heard the Maoris are the only Kiwis normal enough to speak out against the massive Chinese invasion. Normal people are for their own people. You Kiwis have one of the worst cases of Political Correctness on the planet. Dude, it’s a disease. Get help.
I bet the Maoris practiced Cannibalism just like the rest of the Polynesians and just like the Australian Aborigines. We are a far more advanced culture or at least we were until Liberalism corrupted us.
No Air Force?
What are you going to do when China comes a callin’?
–brh
Meanwhile across ‘the pond’ The vote for Scottish Secession firms up.
Quite a few people are not aware of what the stakes might be, or what (if anything) would change. Well, there’s a very good reason financial people in The City get upset about the idea:
“… I was having a conversation about this whole scenario and how it was effecting the British pound sterling, and I had a V-8 head slap moment. Leave it the Big Boss, Frank Trotter, to set me straight, as he has done so many times over the years… In his Jedi knight mind tricks way of saying things, he simply pointed out that I always call the pound sterling a “petrol currency”, and where’s that petrol come from?
Ahhh, there it was, my V-8 head slap moment. Of course, it’s the North Sea, and what country is next to the North Sea? Scotland. Ahhh, no wonder the pound is getting whacked on the updated polls showing the “yes” vote closing the gap.”-Chuck Butler, Daily Pfennig.
That’s right. Without oil revenue, what does the rest of the UK have to work with exactly? The Bank of England’s financial chicanery?
It’ll be interesting to see if that stems the tide of immigration. Might change some minds over in Calais:
http://www.chron.com/news/world/article/Migrants-new-tactics-sound-alarm-bells-in-France-5741069.php
re | Immigration
Meanwhile, we can’t afford another human-wave of immigrants over *here*.
For Example:
http://linhdinhphotos.blogspot.com/2014/08/postcard-from-end-of-america-portland.html
…Portland. One of the trendiest towns in the USA right now.
This is the America that Linh Dinh’s knows and chronicles so well. He goes all over the US. Find the unacknowledged part(s) of the towns nearest you.
Cheers!
MisterDarling,
I assume that you are an immigrant.
So now you are here. You’ve got yours, so fuck these newcomers.
Very compassionate on you part.
Cheers
re | “This can’t just be about the diminishing returns of the grotesquely over-hyped “information age” — though the blowback from computers and all they have wrought may be tremendous. No, the memory hole is the truest signifier of the times we live in: the Age of Anything Goes and Nothing Matters.”
Great minds think alike. Tom Tomorrow weighs in:
http://www.dailykos.com/blog/Tom%20Tomorrow/#
Click on “Captain Kirk vs. The Internet” if you’re curious…
😉
In JHK’s podcast interview with Piero Sangiorio, Piero says that in the future in Europe and the US it will be rather common for women to become prostitutes as a way to survive.
The women will be prostitutes, and the men will be “Cooks”.
Piero says that the US notion of the rugged “Survivalist” is too romantic and quixotic.
“Piero says that the US notion of the rugged “Survivalist” is too romantic and quixotic.”-Pucker.
If you take a look at how people ‘get by’ in the 3rd World, then subtract the table-scraps filtering down from countries that were rich, that’ll get you in shouting distance of what it’ll actually be like… With less real-estate (thanks to a *much* more rapid that ‘anticipated’ rise in sea-level).
Having *l e s s* is not glamorous.
The only way that it __could__ be more comfortable is if ‘less’ includes less supervision and hostility.
look around today and one sees a lot of prostitution. that future is now. it is not on show on the street (unless its womens night at the bars downtown) and marginalized, it is how households are managed in a non traditional way.
http://www.amren.com/news/2014/09/report-more-africans-entered-us-in-last-decade-than-during-300-years-of-slave-trade/
And everyone of them is granted privileges you don’t have.
http://heretical.com/cannibal/nzealand.html
Good article on cannibalism. It took me under 10 seconds to find. Plenty more where this one came from. Just google Maori Cannibalism. No1Kiwi is an A1 Ass Clown.
Nice Janos..
A1 Ass Clown….lovely, very classy!
At elementary school we used to say…..” sticks and stones will break my bones, but names will never hurt me.”
Since we are discussing our respective indigenous people, its maybe worth noting that the English settlers of New Zealand never exterminated the Maori’s like their compatriots in the good old USA exterminated the native Indians…and put the stragglers who were left over in “reservations”…..what a lovely politically correct name.
So since you don’t dispute my words, you admit they were savages and cannibals who needed to be conquered?
If you feel guilty about the conquest, you should go back to Europe, Whitey. I’m sure your indigenes say this too. As long as you stay you are accepting the stolen fruit of the conquest. To relieve your guilt you throw OTHER Whites under the bus. But that’s not being authentic, is it now? You are every bit as guilty.
Needless to say, I take a different tack. This kind of idealism is destructive of life. We wouldn’t even be having this discussion (or any other) if our forbears had not conquered the natives and taken their land. How can we pretend to feel sorry for something that is the very root of our existence?
Janos,
Janos = A2 Ass Clown….
“We wouldn’t even be having this discussion (or any other) if our forbears had not conquered the natives and taken their land”
What? What rubbish! Of course we could be still having this conversation…our friends and neighbors would just be the indigenous inhabitants of the land….just like the New Zealander’s live side-by side with the Maori people to this day.
Unfortunately, our boat load of illegal immigrant puritan forefathers were a bunch of racist assholes. They didn’t believe in co-existence. Their God didn’t agree with sharing! This was the thinking that was destructive of life my friend.
By the way, they also mandated that you had to be male, and own land, to vote, in their new land of the free!
Also, are you assuming that I am white? Just asking.
How did the Maoris first greet the Whites? The Abos threw spears and told us to get lost. This is the norm. Why would the Maori share if they already had the whole thing? You aren’t thinking clearly. You’re good at that.
Any connection between the TB outbreak in Lynn, Mass. and the hundreds of Central American illegals dropped into their school system?
And this respiratory epidemic rampant in schools thru out the west and mid west. Nobody seems to know where this particular strain came from. Could it have come from central america? Were these kids innoculated and screened before they were placed in public schools across the United States?
PBS. You gotta love ’em. They did a whole segment last nite on this and the host, Judy Woodruff, looked into the camera, poker faced, stating the origin of this disease is a mystery, and we may never know the answer.
–brh
Or how about the Entero Virus? I haven’t seen any studies that correlate it with places where the illegals have been housed, but it certainly seems the simplest explanation for the huge break out. It was quite rare here up to now.
http://www.dcclothesline.com/2014/09/10/americas-kids-getting-sick-know-exactly/
Brh,
I’m beginning to wonder about you……
Postulating that there is a “connection between the TB outbreak in Lynn, Mass. and the hundreds of Central American illegals dropped into their school system” is preposterous and beyond the pale.
For a start, I’d like to know from a reliable source how many illegals are actually in Massachusetts schools. I’m betting its very few.
Secondly, I wonder if your immigrant ancestors were screened for inoculations before they got off the boat in New York.
Thirdly, PBS was telling the truth. Unlike you, the Center for Disease Control does not know the origin of this disease.
bhr,
My wife just had a thought……..maybe the respiratory epidemic outbreak in schools thru out the west and mid west is caused by those poor kids whose goofy American parents refuse to get them inoculated because vaccines cause autism.
Another line of crap fed to the sheeple by FAUX news.
“…Judy Woodruff, looked into the camera, poker faced, stating the origin of this disease is a mystery, and we may never know the answer.”–brh
One of the funnier things you’ve written.
Cheers!
Read Taibbi’s new book “The Divide”. If the economy continues to deteriorate, they’ll probably start putting people in camps as a way to pay contractors to run the camps. It’s already started with the illegal Central Americans and poor blacks as the inmates.
On the contrary Pucker. Every day in the MSM I hear the economy is in the process of ‘healing’.
As far as putting illegals in camps, what do you do with them? If you want to see some real camps check out the millions of refugees in the Levant, displaced by ISIS and the Syrian Civil War. Now there’s some camps.
Recently I saw an article saying right now there are about 50 million refugees in the world, most since 1945. This is the kind of chaos JHK predicted 10 years ago in TLE.
–brh
brh,
don’t worry old heckler..
Our CIC Obama said last night that we are going to fix all this.
We’re going to use bombs to “destroy their villages so that we can save them”
As soon as we are done, all the 50 million refugees can move home and live happily ever after…we will even give them Burger Kings and McDonalds.
It’s going to take at least three years of bombing though..be patient my friend!
In some places in the US, particularly small US towns near the US-Mexican border, running concentration camps and chasing down Central American illegals is now an important part of the local economy. Apparently, the local cops issue huge fines of up to US$1,000 to the illegal Central Americans. And the US Federal Government pays huge fees on a per-head basis to local governments and contractors to house the illegal Central Americans. The US employers, such as the US chicken processing plants, complain about repatriating the cheap labor, so the US government delays the repatriation process so as not to affect profits too much. It’s a racket.
…Another story that has a shitload of unanswered questions (or “answers” that are patently lies or misinformation) would be wha’happen? on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001.
I don’t pretend to know exactly how or who-by the dastardly deed was accomplished, but the WHY sticks itself right in your face once you get past the yelling. The American Psyche has been nicely hammered into the shape of a inchoate and wounded beast. Who does that serve?
It was a massive con. It worked. Evidence of that can be gleaned from the perpetual war footing we [as a society] are cursed with today.
Look at the ‘players’ and who benefited at the time, and who continues to benefit today.
….And on the eve of 9/11, Obama proposes (again) war on Syria — by reacharound. He also insinuated that we were “sucked into” invading Iraq. Disgusting. (I believe his comment went something like: “We’re not going to be sucked into putting boots on the ground in Iraq again.” That’s right, the Bush administration was “sucked into” invading Iraq, according to revisionist history, mouthed by none other than the POTUS. Alrighty then, I smell another in a long and related series of cons.)
So, believe what you will, and as rigidly as you’d like to believe it, because it makes no difference to the forward momentum of the projected-military empire. It will have to die of its’ own missteps and hubristic, wrong-headed assumptions and assertions.
Sorry, I had the gist of that POTUS insinuation, but the wording was completely different! (“Telephone”.)
” In June, I deployed several hundred American servicemembers to Iraq to assess how we can best support Iraqi security forces. Now that those teams have completed their work –- and Iraq has formed a government –- we will send an additional 475 servicemembers to Iraq. As I have said before, these American forces will not have a combat mission –- we will not get dragged into another ground war in Iraq.” — President Obama
In case you didn’t know: The Bush administration was “dragged into” (kicking and screaming, I’m assuming) invading Iraq. Glad that’s finally settled fact.:
All the commentators are using the phrase “reluctant warrior” this morning. Just coincidence of course. To say that all these networks and agencies are owned by a few billionaires of one ethnicity is tin foil hat stuff.
In the future, people will make greater use of tin foil since it insulates against intrusive radio waves. The idiots are so wrong they think this will justify their idiocy.
Where do you stand on the inheritance tax – one of the planks in the Communist Manifesto? Darling wouldn’t answer me when I asked him.
13 years in and what happened to our vaunted intelligence agencies. Not to insult JHK ,( I know he is adverse to conspiracy theories.) Sorry JHK. You know quite a bit about architecture,but why did World Trade Center 7 collapse as if imploded by explosives. It could have not been done better by experts.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-0Ms7mId34
By the way I bought your new book and am enjoying it very much.
I had to reply, RT. I read a detailed report from a group of engineers with no agendas who showed how building 7 fell down the way it did with no outside help. I’m not an engineer, and I read this several years ago, so I can’t remember the details, but suffice it to say, I do know a few things about physics and the report made sense. It convinced me that there was no conspiracy wrt building 7.
I heard lucky Larry was trying to get more money out of what happened. Luckily, neither he nor his two children went to work that day at the World Trade Center. How lucky is that?
What did make the Bldg fall? Do you think it was the vibes? A kind of Wall of Jericho type situation?
http://irishsavant.blogspot.com/2011/11/lucky-larry-luckiest-man-alive.html
Off topic. I am sure enough of us vomited when we heard Obama actually say “the US has never been closer to energy independence”. On the anniversary of 9/11. How about a direct hit from a massive solar flare that would fry the world’s electric grid system, taking at least 20 years to repair? Scientists have issued a warning. Something to think about. No clean, running water, no lights, heat, refrigeration, no gas pumps, no communications, people on life preserving medical equipment perish. Add your own. The brown out of 2003 lasting for a year or more. Toss in a frigid winter and a mass Ebola outbreak where people cluster in areas that have electricity and you have a recipe for massive casualties
Shit, here was the link. http://www.aol.com/article/2014/09/10/scientists-extreme-solar-storm-heading-to-earth/20960634/?icid=maing-grid7%7Cmaing9%7Cdl13%7Csec1_lnk2%26pLid%3D527695
native,
I get so tired of hearing this bullshit from FAUX news..”the US has never been closer to energy independence”
JHK has written some excellent stuff pointing out that “US energy independence” is complete and utter bunk!
I vomit when I here we have so much natural gas we are going to start exporting it…wonder how that’s going to work out?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=MhvwfhZcrQI
Putin lights up some candles in Orthodox Church in the memory of people who died defending Novorossiya. This is the first time EVER when the word “Novorossiya” is mentioned by Russian President,
I guess decision has been made.
Wisdom from decades ago. Apparently he was part Ukrainian. He would be saddened by the break up but what else can be done? The West is Catholic and brings back memories of the hated Poles – who never had power but to misuse it. And they employed their Jewish bullyboys to sit on the backs of the Ukrainian people.
http://www.theimaginativeconservative.org/2014/09/sholzenitzyn-return-false-dimitris-ukraine.html
False Dimitri in Nazi uniform – even Poles were not creative enough to invent such contraption – took smart asses from State Department. But the end is going to be same – in 1600s was peoples militia under Minin and Pojarskii, now it is peoples militia under Strelkov (with a bit of help from Mama Bear)
If any of you CFNers have grown Big Tits from taking the anti-psychotic drug Risperdal, you may be entitled to compensation. Call 1 888 996 1792 for a free consultation. Call Now!
Pucker,
I’m a bit of a depressed motherfucker myself….after-all I do enjoy the ClusterfuckNation blog. LOL
My Doctor prescribed Risperdal.. it didn’t do shit…I stopped taking it.
My tits seem the same as before!!!
In my short life, I’ve had my share of religious experiences. For example, once while walking alone in St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice I heard a voice speaking to me. Unfortunately, the voice was speaking in Latin, and I don’t understand Latin.
Another religious experience occurred when I was a kid in the early 1970’s walking around the Six Flags amusement park in Atlanta, Georgia. I looked up to see a lone bloke in a sky bucket overhead dressed like a Hippie who was urinating on the crowd of people below. Fortunately, I was not under his sky bucket.
Kiwi,
“MisterDarling,
I assume that you are an immigrant.
So now you are here. You’ve got yours, so fuck these newcomers.
Very compassionate on you part.
Cheers”-N01.
I am not an immigrant. I am however, the son of someone who immigrated to the US from Europe after WW2.
When my father came to this country, things looked very different.
Timing is everything. This is not a good time for adding new ‘members’.
Yes, we live in the physical world – a world subject to limits in regards to resources, money, and space. Kiwi, in good liberal fashion, would load the lifeboat until it tipped. Everyone dying together is his idea of fair. Meanwhile, he would be getting on another lifeboat not so crowded. Saying one thing and doing another is also a lovely Liberal custom.
America sinks into a mode of semi-autism
http://www.theimaginativeconservative.org/2014/09/washington-puzzled-putin-doesnt-back.html
What is most striking about the Ukraine crisis is how much the Washington debate lacks any sense of how the issue might look to other interested parties, particularly Russia. Putin is analysed of course—is he, as Hillary Clinton suggested, following Hitler’s playbook? Or is he merely an aggressive autocrat? Or perhaps he is “in his own world” and not quite sane? But in open Washington conversation at least, and perhaps even at the more reflective levels of government, all talk begins with the premise that Russia’s leader is somewhere on the continuum between aggressive and the irrational. That he might be acting reactively and defensively, as any leader of a large power would be in response to threatening events on its doorstep, is not even part of the American conversation. Thus in the waning days of American unipolarism America diplomacy sinks into a mode of semi-autism, able to perceive and express its own interests, perceptions, and desires, while oblivious to the concerns of others.
We here in Ft. Meade have the ability to falsify all of reality and demonize anyone. With a little effort and the help of our media assets, within two weeks you would be comparing Santa Claus to Hitler (forced elf slave labor) and demanding a “no fly” zone over the north pole……
nsa,
Have you ever been out of Ft. Meade?
This 70 year old Kiwi has traveled extensively all over the world, and seen some pretty amazing countries. Most of them are Progressive Societies, or Liberal, or “Socialist” to the average boob tube American.
I hate to break this to you nsa, but America is not exceptional…even if that fake socialist Obama says so at West Point.
Also, America is a right leaning country, lately bordering on fascist.
NSA, militarized police, no universal health coverage, bloated military, endless war, paid off politicians, corrupt judges, more people in prison than China or Russia, more kids living in poverty, no social safety net, crumbling info-structure….etc etc.
We would do well to include in our reality a little analysis of how other countries manage their resources and societies.
Heck, you might even get more than 2 weeks vacation in Ft. Meade. ( No other OECD country gets less than 3)
I am no fan of the NFL, their non-profit status, or their greedy concussion denying commissioner, but here’s another recent memory:
A black player knocks out his wife and then spits on her as she lays unconscious. He gets cut from team.
The white commissioner is targeted by retired black players.
Welcome to Michael Brown ‘Merica. Somewhere a white guy has to be at fault.
How utterly depressing.
Frankiti,
Come on now…..the white commissioner is being “targeted” because he is a lying sack of shit.
He’s more interested in protecting his retirement fund than he is interested in any player…
Utterly depressing I agree.
I’m more depressed by the fact some kid gets paid $5million for running up and down a cricket pitch holding an inflated pigs bladder, 16 times a year.
Any comparison to the Micheal Brown shooting on your part is ridiculous.
What about the Maori Cannibals? Do you like them more than the African Cannibals? At least the football is made out of pigskin and not human skin…
Janos,
I wish the cannibals had eaten your ancestors asshole.
Then we wouldn’t have to put up with your lunatic raving on poor old JHK’s site.
“Kiwis have one of the worst cases of Political Correctness on the planet. Dude, it’s a disease. Get help.”
Fuck you jerk off.
You still haven’t denied the cannibalism of the Maori’s. Yes, only against enemies during war. On the other hand, they were often at war so it was not a rarity. Apparently they put a quite a fight against our ancestors. Normal men can admire them in this in spite of other things. No doubt they ate some Whites during the struggle. Cannibals in New Guinea said that Whites are too salty and that the Japanese were better. Perhaps our saltiness will be our salvation? Eh, you salty olde lib fool?
To deny Black moral agency is to deny them their humanity. Blaming Whites for all Black problem is doing exactly this.
“This 70 year old Kiwi has traveled extensively all over the world,…”
– no1 kiwi –
OK. What gives you the right to give advice to US citizens concerning US immigration policy?
What do you know of the negative impact immigration has on the US lower middle class and below?
What do you know of the negative impact that emigration has on the home countries of US immigrants – due to “brain drain” and loss of human capital to the US.
Based on your posts thus far, I suspect that the answers are nothing, nothing, and not much.
progress,
I am an American citizen. I have a right granted to me by the Constitution to comment on US immigration policy. I have expressed my views to my representatives in Congress…have you?
So what are the negative impacts that immigration has on the middle class and below? Tell me. I don’t know if I want to hear your answer.
I’m such a no nothing I don’t understand your third point. Maybe you could spell out this incoherent idea in clear English…oops, I mean American.
Your last sentence is a classic. It points out to others on the site how tolerant you are of the points of view of others…NOT.
You already said our Constitution is crap – and now you are quoting it for your rights? You are the very definition of an undesirable alien.
Janos,
I never said the Constitution is crap…I just suggested that the 2nd Amendment hasn’t seemed to work out too well.
By the way we have had many Amendments revisited and revised….Its high time we revisited the 2nd amendment, that was written in much different times and under different circumstances.
This Amendment is way past its sell-by date.
By the way, I passed the citizen test administered by the US government…..wonder if you could?
Speaking of pro sports, snap judgements, and racism. IMO, there is entirely too much of pro sports management making decisions based on political correctness and fear of that most-powerful word “racist” – and then spinning the facts to fit their judgements.
I don’t know if this has hit the national media, but Bruce Levenson (owner of the Hawks – non-black ethnicity) wrote this email two years ago. It’s a pretty good email. It should be considered “racist” only in the sense that facts are “racist.” http://www.nba.com/hawks/copy-bruce-levensons-email
Levenson was forced to sell the team. Shades of Donald Sterling, with great similarities, but even less justification.
And since some of the jackasses who post to CFN seem to believe that a white man (that would be me) is not qualified to address racism, I’ll bring up a bigger, blacker gun – Kareem Abdul Jabbar.
http://time.com/3296175/bruce-levenson-atlanta-hawks-racist-email-kareem-abdul-jabbar/
Here’s the headline:
‘Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: Bruce Levenson Isn’t a Racist; He’s a Businessman” – Time Magazine Headline –
Progress,
You are a piece of work..
I’m sure that others who post on this site are very appreciative of being called jackasses.
Well my goodness, why is the No1Kiwi a US citizen? I retract that portion of my response to you – which was based on your being, you know, a Kiwi. From New Zealand, get it?
To review, no1kiwi, there are 3 categories of argument for being in favor of high immigration rates into the US:
1. Some sort of argument that immigration causes economic growth, and economic growth is always good. (This argument makes no sense given the premises of a “peak-oil/peak-everything” website such as this one.
2. Some sort of argument that increased diversity is always good.
3. Some sort of argument using moral platitude, for example “we are a nation of immigrants.” When you say to Backrow, :”Secondly, I wonder if your immigrant ancestors were screened for inoculations before they got off the boat in New York,” you are raising a question based on this platitude.
———————–
As to the negative impacts of immigration on the US lower middle class and lower class, start with this quote: “New foreign workers compete with the laid-off and underemployed highly skilled Americans in most professions and occupations, but most foreign workers compete directly in the construction, service and manufacturing industries where unemployment is the highest and where Americans have the least margin of financial security.”
source: https://www.numbersusa.com/problems/unemployment
My third point, concerning “brain drain?” Seriously, you don’t understand this common problem that emigration causes the home countries of incoming US immigrants? Seriously?
As to my last sentence, no1k, it is obvious that you understand that sentence quite well. Thus far, you are demonstrating that my assessment of you is correct.
I completely agree with your stance on immigration. One of the bad points of taking this position because of overpopulation among other things, is that other people can call you a racist, and they get to be the good guys while you are the bad guy. Oh well, so it goes.
“I’m sure that others who post on this site are very appreciative of being called jackasses.” – no1kiwi –
Look, number1, there are posters on this site who do not believe that a white man has any right to express any opinion concerning “racism,” unless, perhaps, such opinion is extremely Politically Correct. Those are the jackasses to which my comment was addressed.
And actually, some of those may be worse than jackasses.
I was feeling charitable, for some reason.
Just in case you were serious:
“How extensive is the “brain drain,” and which countries and regions are most strongly affected by it? This article estimates the extent of migration, by level of education, from developing countries to the United States and other OECD countries.”
https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/1999/06/carringt.htm
Apparently the Abos were worse than the Maoris – often eating their own children. The Maoris only genocided other tribes and ate some of them. I want to think Kiwi for making me find out all this. The Enemy brings many gifts. Thank you for the gift of your attack. Not that you’re much of a foe: most of the energy is self generated by my loathing of you and your kind.
http://irishsavant.blogspot.com/2010/04/rudds-abo-apology.html
For the 7 days ending 9/714.
# barrels per day used, US: 18, 596,000
inc. 8,611, 000 gasoline
Imported: 9, 259, 000 barrels
Domestic: 9, 337, 000 barrels
Held in SPR and other facilities: 1,133, 888,000 barrels
Then there’s this:
“The global oil market is well supplied. US oil production hit a 28 year high in August the EIA said tuesday, and Libyan production climbed to 800,000 bpd from 200,000 several months ago.
” ‘There’s too much light sweet crude out there’, said Michael Wittner, head of global research at Societe Generale, “Also demand has been weak.”
-WSJ, 9/11/14
brh
I stand corrected Marlin, I got my figures from a bogus source I guess. I should not believe everything I read on the internet ;o)
“Also demand has been weak.”
Here’s what “weak” looks like:
http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/images/user3303/imageroot/2014/09/20140912_oil.jpg
Final Demand is crashing world-wide.
The NFL Commissioner makes about $50 million per year, which would be a tough gig to give up.
Hey Kiwi a few years back we had a poster here called himself ‘Auntie River’, claimed to be somewhere in New England.
Was that you?
You sound alike. One similarity is to tell people you disagree with to ‘F-ck off’ like you did Janos yesterday. Auntie River did the same thing to me in no uncertain terms. Its to the point alright, but it doesn’t much promote free discourse or exchange of ideas.
–brh
brh,
No I’m not “Auntie River”. I live right next to the nuclear submarine base, Bangor, here in Washington State.
We’re the people who are going to get vaporized in the first milli-seconds of a nuclear war, when Russia gets tired of the US and NATO poking it with a stick in the Ukraine.
I suspect that poor old ‘Auntie’ was probably a lefty like me, or a “socialist” as we are branded by those on the right.
She also probably learn’t to her chagrin that dipping her toe into the rancid cesspool of right wing psychobabble posted by a few right wing nut-jobs on this site is not productive.
Also, like me, she probably realized that using logic with these maniacs just does not cut it……and has learnt the hard way that arguing with them is not a good way to spend your time.
Hopefully JHK will blog on peak oil, or suburbia, or The World made by Hand on Monday, and we can back to some constructive discussion.
We should have learned from Ronald Regan and George W. Bush.
When 241 marines were killed in Lebanon, Reagan simply cut and run, ordering immediate and complete withdrawal. That is what Obama should do. Reagan didn’t even use the word “terrorist,” he just ordered all U.S. personnel to come home.
When Americans Nick Berg and Paul Johnson were beheaded by militants in Iraq in 2004 Bush’s job title was president, but he didn’t make a big deal out of the beheadings. He just went back to clearing brush and playing golf. Bush spent 879 days on vacation at his ranch in Crawford, Texas. That’s almost three years of paid vacation during his term of office!
It has gone down the memory hole that Bush’s military intervention made things worse, not better. Bombing middle eastern countries, killing thousands of civilians and creating millions of refugees, is not a good idea. There are consequences.
Just for the record, I do not support any new U.S. military action in Iraq. I do not support on-the-ground troop deployment. I do not support any airstrikes or drones. I do not support Obama’s militarism.
I protest against President Obama’s bombing and drone policies. I protest against the demands by belligerent American politicians and pundits for a U.S. assault in Iraq against ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria).
There is one political party with me on this: the Green Party.
pkrugman,
Great post. I agree with you 100%.
Unfortunately, I read in the newspaper this morning that 65% of Americans want more bombing, boots on the ground, and more young American serviceman coming home in body bags.
One local columnist argues that Bush had nothing to do with the creating of ISIS. Another, thinks we should have stayed in Iraq and finished the job..whatever that was!
You’re think that after $4.0trillion down a rat hole, 5,000+ killed and thousands wounded, we would ready to say…..what for?
I voted for Obama twice…
It’s depressing to contemplate that if the Democrats get the presidency in 2016, we will be getting warhawk Generalismo Hilary Clinton, as Ralph Nader calls her.
pkrugman,
The things that pisses me off the most, is our good allies(!) in Israel are not lifting a finger to put boots on the ground to fight ISIS.
I see that Kerry is in the ME putting together a “coalition of the willing”…sound familiar.
I guess a bunch of Arab countries have signed on, but not those asshole Israel’s. This is the thanks we get for giving them $3.1billion military aid per year.
You’rd think they would be afraid of terrorists in their homeland! Apparently not…or they are waiting for the good old sucker US taxpayers to fight their wars.
This is what you get when our spineless, corrupt congress is bought and paid for by AIPAC, the Jewish lobby.
When did the American left turn on Israel?
brh,
Unfortunately the American left, as it exists thanks to the pathetic Democratic party, has never turned on Israel.
Like the all the Republican Congressman, all the Democratic Congressmen have all been paid off by the Israel Lobby. AIPAC.
Even our left -leaning politicians, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, dare not disagree with Israeli policies for fear of their campaign contributions being withdrawn.
This American taxpayer does not want to finance, and provide weapons for, the slaughter of the Palestinians by the IDF, the self-proclaimed ” most moral army in the world”.
“When 241 marines were killed in Lebanon, Reagan simply cut and run, ordering immediate and complete withdrawal. That is what Obama should do. Reagan didn’t even use the word “terrorist,” he just ordered all U.S. personnel to come home.”-P K Rugman.
It’s also gone down the ‘memory hole’ that the organization that would become Hezbollah warned the US – repeatedly and explicitly – that they needed to stop shelling certain military positions in the highlands held by their allies… Or else.
After ‘else’ happened and the Reagan Administration ordered sounded the retreat it’s seems to be forgotten that they blamed the Democrats for the withdrawal (which made everybody scratch their heads 😉 )
Reagan and his people were always good for a laugh.
But at least they knew how to keep the neocons and the rest of the loons looked in the basement and just ‘alluded’ to – for leverage.
Cheers!
Speaking of Collapse, whatever happened to the Neanderthals?
Several years ago, I saw on TV an interview with an Anthropologist who insisted that the Neanderthals never went extinct because his neighbor had a prominent forehead and looked a bit like a Neanderthal. He had numerous photographs of his neighbor and others who had prominent foreheads and other Neanderthal features. Neanderthal men probably had really big dicks that tended to get caught up in rocks and vines when being chased by saber-toothed tigers, which lead to the extinction of the Neanderthals?
“Hopefully JHK will blog on peak oil, or suburbia, or The World made by Hand on Monday, and we can back to some constructive discussion.”
– no1kiwi –
Yeah, hopefully. In the meantime, you can explain why reduction of incoming US immigration is not a proper response to peak oil.
You can also explain your screenname, if you would.
My screenname should be pretty obvious, as to its meanings. At one time it was “progressorconserve.” Then it became “progress2conserve.” The evolution of my screenname over the past several years on CFN symbolizes the ways my political philosophies have changed – largely in response to the concept of “peak everything.”
Like you, I was once a very left-of-center person. Then I discovered this website, and a couple of others like it. Doctrinaire liberalism doesn’t hold up very well or very logically – if economic progress is not sustainable.
I reserve the right to be convinced otherwise.
Take your best shots.
Hi progress,
I’m a New Zealander who married a California girl, and came here in 1974. We have one daughter who is a medical doctor.
I tried “Kiwi” for a screenname, but somebody had already taken it. Hence, No1Kiwi.., as in Number one Kiwi,….just to get a few more characters.
I am a Civil Engineer who received my tertiary education in New Zealand for free. The socialist Government paid for it……zero student loan. I’m for providing free tertiary education in America for those who can meet the entrance exams, – with the funds we “give” to Israel for military aid. $3.1billion per year. An atrocity.
I worked for 35 years for a large off-shore construction company building military facilities on the West Coast. Bangor Submarine Base in WA., Homeport Navy base in Everett Wa., Navy docks in San Diego, Missile defense stuff in Alaska.etc. 35 years of feeding at the trough of the military-industrial complex. LOL.
I was salary, but our hourly workers were Unionized. They made very handsome wages. I’m a big believer in Unions. We can thank Ronald Reagan for his firing of the air traffic controllers, and the destructive forces aligned against unions ever since.
I was fortunate to work on a “performance bonus” basis on several $billion jobs, and was able to retire at 58. I fool around in my home machine shop restoring vintage Italian motorcycles. I go to Europe once every year for extended periods.
Since I retired I have gone from a main stream right wing point of view, towards increasingly a liberal left wing ideology.
I have dumped the MSM. I get all my information from sites I have found on the web.
It depresses me to see the America I knew in the 70’s and 80’s moving toward a far right, almost fascist, country.
NSA, militarized police, no universal health coverage, bloated and wasteful military (Star Wars.), endless war, paid off politicians, domination of foreign policy by the Jewish Lobby in Washington DC, corrupt judges, student loan robbery, more people in prison than China or Russia, gun-crime, more kids living in poverty, pathetically under performing public education, no social safety net, crumbling info-structure….etc etc.
I voted for Obama twice…to my dismay he has continued the neoliberal economy, the far-right agenda, and the neocon militarism.
He has made zero progress in the things I hoped for. Immigration reform, a living minimum wage, increase taxes on the 1%, restore the Bush Tax cuts, increase the ludicrous 15% capital gains tax. A trade policy that works for American workers not General Electric. Import tax on Chinese junk. Repeal NAFTA . Restoration of our manufacturing base. Stop companies avoiding taxes by creative application of the tax law. Apple paid zero taxes last year.
Obamacare is an abomination written by Insurance Company Lobbyists. I wanted single payer….Medicare for all. We in the US pay twice what the Canadians do for their healthcare, with poorer health outcomes. Dump the vulture health “insurance” companies.
I could go on, but enough for now….I’ll get reamed a new asshole by the right wing nut-cases on this site!!!!!
Oh, I forgot one thing….No energy policy. No recognition of Peak Oil, and global warming. We use 25% of the worlds fossil fuel…our military is the biggest fossil fuel glutton in the world. I am in favor of a carbon Tax, and an Energy Policy plan for the upcoming depletion of fossil fuel…no more coal burning. Fracking is a.terrible interim fiasco. The concept of “US Energy Independence” we see on FAUX news is bullshit JHK is right on on this, as is he in all of his writings on peak everything.
Well at least you have a good on-line moniker , “No One Kiwi” Maybe you should change it to “Some One Kiwi” .Perhaps then people would listen to your nonsense! And the company name is spelled Cabela’s not Carbela’s. Read much? Or did you skip that before graduating the 3rd grade?
Stel,
You had better watch out…you are pissing me off.
I went down to Cabela’s and purchased my AR-15 yesterday, and a trunk load of ammo!
I’m on the rampage to shoot any tyrannical motherfucker who happens to disagree with my point of view, or hurts my feelings.
What cracks me up about these 2nd amendment gun nuts is when this tyrannical government arises, who are they going to shoot?
The local Sheriff? How about a young National Guardsman? How about Mr. friendly Highway patrolman? or a BLM agent like those nutcases at Clive Bundies Ranch?
Gun rights nutjobs? 2nd amendment? Are you actually threatening me or my family? If your feelings are so easily hurt I truly feel sorry for you. Your skin must be like an onion peel. Who said anything about fightin’ the powers that be? The guardsman ,as you call them, will not take up arms against law abiding citizens. Either will the local law enforcement. They are the people! Shit they could kill us all in a minute, BUT THEY WON”T. Come down off your left handed cloud please.
Hello ‘Kiwi,
We seem to disagree on immigration policy. Oh well.
However, the rest of your individual platform is in roughly the same ballpark as mine:
“I am a Civil Engineer who received my tertiary education in New Zealand for free. The socialist Government paid for it……zero student loan.”-kiwi.
This is what nations do when they are investing to GROW economically. Where we are now is the result of 45 years of ‘capital strike’.
“It depresses me to see the America I knew in the 70’s and 80’s moving toward a far right, almost fascist, country.”-kiwi.
Not “almost” anymore. We’re there. If Fascism is “Corporatism” as Mussolini asserted, then we’re setting the curve. We’re not a ‘banana republic’ though. We have our own special style. Less agrarian/organic… More genetically-modified, processed, rendered, dyed and textured. We’re a ‘chicken-pot-pie republic’ at this point.
Cheers!
Is rape the same as consensual sex? No? Why not since the bodies may end up together in more or less the same way?
Likewise, Fascism teaches the cooperation of the Corporations and the State – with the State dominating. Plutocracy also advocates said cooperation – but with the Corporations dominating. See why we’re not Fascist? If we were Fascist, our soldiers would get the best of medical care. Btu since we’re a Plutocracy that only values money, the are just thrown away like garbage. If we were Fascist, our history and traditions would be honored. Instead, our history is now bowdlerized multiculturalism with traitor Zinn taught in every college. Think “Fascists” would let him anywhere near a school? I mean really fellas, get a clue. If you are really interested, the Arch-Druid wrote a couple of very good articles awhile back. Amazing since he is a die hard Liberal. But he just got tired of the silly lies about the word I guess.
Thanks for the input, Janos. This was actually useful.
Hi MisterDarling Sir,
I’ve been thinking about immigration. I have a dog in this fight, because I am a recent immigrant…albeit 40 years ago.
As a 25 year old recently graduated Civil Engineer in New Zealand, already married to an American citizen, it took me 13 months(!) to get my legal immigration papers.
Numerous painful visits to the American Embassy, ( in which I was treated like shit). My final interview was conducted in a small room under a huge portrait of Tricky Dicky on the wall…LOL
Oh….also I had to promise not to bring pornography into the USA.
To rub salt into the wound, when I got to LA at the immigration counter I handed the scowling officer all the paper workout I had worked so hard to get. He said “whats all this?”, threw it in a trash can, and told me to go sit in the Green Card line! LOL
I guess the thing that gets me a little worked up is the right-wing notion that all immigrants are filthy, uneducated, disease ridden people.
Not true…for example, if it wasn’t for German immigration after WW2, our space program would have never got of the ground, and Boeing would not have become the world leader it is.
I guess I’m for limited sensible immigration…does that make sense to you peak oilers?
What!? You think that happens to the illegals? They are sent to Welcome Centers. That happened to you because you’re White. The System loves non-White immigrants, be they legal or illegal. Conservatives foolishly love legal immigrants whether they have anything to offer or not or whether we need them or not.
So you are wrong on everything, both your main points and your knowledge of Conservative belief. You are good at being wrong. I hope the structures you built weren’t as flimsy as your arguments.
Kiwi,
We have some overlap on the immigration issue, apparently.
My best friend went through hell keeping his German wife legally here – and they treated her like she trash in the process.
She is educated, energetic and ridiculous driven… So of course they treated her that way. People like her get jobs that are actually worth having (in more than the short-term).
Illegal immigrants however, are useful to several tribes of plutocrats. They provide a way to exert downward pressure on wages at the lower end of the spectrum, and they are useful to the left-seeming factions for political differentiation (while still getting that cheap and docile labor).
It’s a win-win situation for them.
A nation on it’s way up treats immigration the same way it treats education: as an investment.
Post-WW2 was a great time to get into America. Now, not so much.
My concern is as much for the immigrants as it is for the way they will be used here.
I hope that makes things more clear.
PS., don’t let Janos get you riled up. I’ve noticed that he has days when he’s more… “Reactive” shall we say? Than others.
😉
Cheers!
“Doctrinaire liberalism doesn’t hold up very well or very logically – if economic progress is not sustainable.”-Progress4.
Agreed. Contrary to the assertions from part of the CFN Fascist Contingent, I’ve never been sold on the more dogmatic tenets of the American ‘Left’.
I actually had to deal with Reality, you see.
How’s this for a War Cabinet?
Valerie Jarrett, Susan Rice, Nancy Pelosi, Maxine Waters, Sheila Jackson Lee, and Maria Harf, chirpy little coed undergrad with amazing eyeglasses, State Dept. Spokeswoman.
Phew!! ISIS has to be shaking in their sandels right now!
This has to go down as the 1st Declaration of War in the history of the United States where the enemy is told, right up front, we won’t be sending any combat Marines or Soldiers to fight them.
I generally pay attention to what’s going on around me, and have for years, but this has to be the strangest goddam thing I’ve ever seen. I wonder how its going to end up?
–brh
Hi Heckler,
It won’t end…its called permanent war!
Or maybe we will go broke first..oops I forgot, we can print “money”.
I love your war cabinet. LOL,
Maria Harf…what can we say?…Isn’t there somebody in the State Department that isn’t straight out school?
What about Victoria “fuck the EU” Nuland?
John McCain and his sidekick Lindsay Graham are out on shores of New Jersey today with their binoculars looking out for ISIS aircraft carriers.
And why are we told, once again during an announcement that war is imminent, that Islam is, the purported enemy, ‘the religion of peace”?
Yes, yes, we’re all stupid, we don’t watch news.
Brh,
I think Islam is crock of shit, as is Christianity, as is The Sun God etc.
However, I believe there are millions of Islamists who are just normal, mind their own shit, brainwashed people.
Just like there are millions of brainwashed Christians who would shit their pants if they realized how many people have been murdered by the Christians over the centuries.
Isolated, and left alone, ISIS will self destruct. A functioning Society will not work too well if your only acquired skill is murder. You also need to grow food, build roads, have courts of law, etc etc. Even those stolen Toyota pickups will finally crap out, and you are kinda toast if you run out of ammo.
Islamist is a bogus word made up for people like you for violent Muslims as opposed to peaceful ones. Now you misuse your own word and make it for all Muslims. C’mon work with me. You’ve got to try harder.
Janos,
oops…me bad!
The Covert Origins of Isis.
Yeah, BRH,
I would say at this point in our history listening to the news is the problem.
Check this out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMjXbuj7BPI
Interesting video, BT. Thanks for that.
I suppose there’s no time on network evening news broadcasts for this sort of information.
The only problem is every evil regime in the past century, from Stalin to Hitler to Mao, is said by some to have been funded and created by the United States for its own nefarious purposes, usually to ‘steal their resources’, ‘enslave native people’, or ‘install hegemony’.
This seems like something else that’s our fault. I’m trying to find something that’s not our fault.
–brh
I actually don’t agree with the idea that we were behind Communism in the last century, though some bankers might have wanted to hedge their bets.
I do think it’s our ballgame, now and we are playing the great game of global hegemony. This is the first time we are a unipolar power and it won’t be for long, but those in power want to keep the gravy train going as long as they can, so there you have it.
With the destruction of the modern nation state (See Alvin Toffler who Newt Gingrich liked back in the 70’s, who said banks and corporations would be the power and not the nation state. See the Shock Doctrine.
It’s all there to read. We are going after Putin for regime change because he wants to be a nation and not a globalist neoliberal trade zone which is what we the people are reduced to now. So he’s gotta go. We’ll be challenging China in the So. China Sea in the same way.
The Wolfowitz doctrine is a good thing to look up, too. PNAC and other doctines are worth checking out.
I say and it’s of course my opinion, that the things we do are similar to the banking system MO. Hedge your bets and fund what you think will help you get what you want in the ME.
Being There,
You are 100% on the money..
PNAC..crazy stuff written by a bunch of Zionists….( Wolfowitz, Pearle, Kristol, Frum, Bolton, Kagan, and our old friend the known unknown Rumsfield!)
I have a question…I read somewhere that the Israeli Zionists have there own version of PNAC.
Something to the effect of Israel hegemony over the whole ME…do any of the CFN posters know anything about this?
I’m here for you buddy. We have a lot of work to do together.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Clean_Break:_A_New_Strategy_for_Securing_the_Realm
Good idea (for once) on ISIS. Leave them alone. Quarantine Islam in the Middle East or wherever else it already is. Stop importing disaster, violence, and poverty via Muslim immigration.
Who do you mean by “we”? Obviously real Americans were against Communism, but the new Financial Elite was for them all the way. Jacob Schiff, of Kuhn Loeb and Co (later Chase Manhattan) was one of the main backers of the Bolsheviks. He was a Rothschild man all the way. There were other such Rothschild backers in Europe. They saw it as a war against the Czar and for the Jews. Even the Wikipedia entry slyly admits all this towards the end.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_Schiff
And Trotsky and Rothschild used to play chess and dine together at a café.
I saw a white female midget this morning at my hotel. She was carrying a pot of coffee about half her size. She had to reach way up over her head to reach the door knob to the door of her room. She greeted me with big smile.
Did you feel like the two of you were ‘having a moment’ there?
🙂
That was an invitation. You should have followed her right in. You’re too hard on yourself. Stop shutting yourself down. Live! Follow your lower desires.
“This seems like something else that’s our fault. I’m trying to find something that’s not our fault.” — BRH
Good news! BRH, did you notice in BT’s video all those trucks with machine guns mounted on top? Those are always Toyota trucks. You never see machine guns mounted on a Ford F150. Those ISIS attack vehicles are Japan’s fault, not ours.
Cute—and who do you think is allied with us in the East?
Japan against China…..hmmmmmm
Everyone does their part.
Beingthere.
I watched the video you posted. I’ve heard multiple accounts and opinions on what’s happening in the middle east wrt to ISIS, some of which are in accord (especially from the usual suspects in the lamestream media) and some of which contradict one another.
What do we on really know on this side of the pond? Maybe the broad strokes, that there is a violent group of Muslim orientation or that uses the camouflage of “Islam”, grabbing territory, spreading fear. We’re all adults and we have to make up our own minds but I would start with an attitude of skepticism on this ISIS business.
I wouldn’t be confident that American intelligence agencies have a whole lot of “facts” but I would be equally wary of others touting knowledge given the many contending agendas out there, all of which suppress and/or exaggerate one thing or another. I would also be highly wary of people attributing a too large American role in overseas events.
Did the US screw things up royally in Iraq and Afghanistan? No doubt, the military is a blunt tool, IMO to be deployed exceedlingly sparingly given the many unintended and unforeseen consequences.
But American administrations did the opposite, lavishly using American force. And they were repeatedly surprised at results. Why so? For many reasons but especially because they did not understand the places and people they were bombing and killing.
The US supposedly “trained” the Iraqi “military”. Fat lot of good it did. Because this “military” apparently has a bad case of bug out fever. Why don’t they fight? Because, according to one source, the Iraqi command structure is as corrupt as can be. Soldiers are paid, but they don’t show up for duty, their officers scoff half the recruits’ salary. Is this an accurate assessment? Is it plausible?
Americans tend to be very Ameri-centric in their interpretation of events, you know, the CIA this, the state department that. My own bias is, if you want to understand events, to start with the locals and their own culture, history, societies and motivations. And their own muscle and money and guns. No lack of any of these things regardless of what the US supplies. Remember the ubiquity of the AK rifle all over the world and other Soviet designed and made weaponry. Remember how much oil-loot there is sloshing around the middle east. I think that the whisperings and machinations of Americans play some role, but in the end, a limited role.
I would bet on there being other whisperers, other machinators, other parties with an interest in the outcome, on the ground, with money and guns, whose interests oppose those of the US and its oligarchs, whose knowledge far exceeds that of John Kerry and his band of knuckle-heads.
I think there’s forces and movements afoot much bigger than anything that Americans can contain or comprehend. The US is not even remotely in control of these. Americans pretend a lot and to that extent the producer of this video falls into the trap. ISIS a product of the US? Um, take that one with a huge, huge grain of salt. Again, it smells of an Ameri-centric view of events, ludicrously so. IMO that is. Obama the covert warrrior? OK, he whacked OBL, I’ll give him that much.
And Wesley Clark’s account of going to fight Iraq for lack of anything better to do squares with my own view. They had to kick some Ay-rab ass and Saddam’s was handy.
Well, I’ll take what you say with great consideration and thank you for watching.
My view of things is that we are in a system. Many say the US has no plans, but in fact I disagree.
I think the US has a global agenda of the privatization of all public holdings world wide. They may be thinking that we are beyond creating wealth through the manufacturing of wanted goods and into a new and glorious information age of which computers and robots will have a great part. They go with an economic system that monetizes all things, from unlimited energy and resources to unlimited financial gain for those who are situated in the right manner. The govt. serves those interests and the banking system creates the system to do it.
Now, whether we control all agendas around the world and have no powers to counter that is of course another question, but we sure created the vacuum that makes groups like this arise and we want to use these groups to get rid of strong leaders of nation states that we want to smash.
What I ask is do we create the raison d’etre to go into more war for the war profiteers? At some point isn’t it obvious that we use the same tactics that we’ve done for decades—-Remember the Vietnamization of Viet Nam? YAWN!
How many Americans remember that line when they hear we’re gonna train the Iraqi, Afghani or Ukraninan fighters. How many times are we gonna buy into the idea that we’re going to act as consultants?
I mean really….So you don’t buy into the idea that we may be creating the market for war….I don’t know, obviously, but it smells like it.
Hi Janos,
How do you know I am white?
I could be a Maori, and a cannibal to boot! LOL
volodya,
re |
“I wouldn’t be confident that American intelligence agencies have a whole lot of “facts” but I would be equally wary of others touting knowledge given the many contending agendas out there, all of which suppress and/or exaggerate one thing or another. I would also be highly wary of people attributing a too large American role in overseas events.”-v.
And I would be less confident that any facts gathered by the US intelligence community (which includes the UK’s at this point) wouldn’t be vigorously suppressed – if it didn’t reinforce some foregone conclusion.
This is precisely what happened in the run-up to the Iraq Invasion (circa 2003).
“I think there’s forces and movements afoot much bigger than anything that Americans can contain or comprehend. The US is not even remotely in control of these. Americans pretend a lot and to that extent the producer of this video falls into the trap. ISIS a product of the US? Um, take that one with a huge, huge grain of salt. Again, it smells of an Ameri-centric view of events, ludicrously so. IMO that is. Obama the covert warrrior? OK, he whacked OBL, I’ll give him that much.”-v.
Once again, I commend you on taking a much wider-angle view of these events. As I’ve stressed before; I’m more wary of making blanket statements regarding the M-E now, than I was before I went there.
As I’ve written before, nobody on this side of the water really knows who is who, what their agenda really is, or if they even have one.
We have the what history will record for us, and we have our own eyewitness observations. Everything in between is caught up in the blur of the moment – subject to tweaking and misrepresentation by propagandists of one stripe or another.
To conclude: Caution!
I’m a little surprised that there wasn’t more discussion regarding the article that J H K recommended this week? Ie., “The Fifth Horseman”?
http://www.economic-undertow.com/
Especially this idea of an “Age of Consequences”.
I liked this bit here:
“The web is truly Hobbes’ war of all against all … with kitten videos. The major media outlets offer platefuls of propaganda-advertising disguised as ‘news stories’ while (most of) the rest churn out nonsense. The Internet enables those with modest mental horsepower but with co-optable ideology to disrupt/distract everyone else. Common purpose — reality — is confined to the obscure corners where the bulk of users/idiots can’t be bothered to look.”-The Fifth Horseman.
This sums up the gestalt of Collapse-Era enterprise neatly:
“enterprise will shut down due to insufficient funds!
Witness the change of age: The Age of Expedients => wars raise oil prices and increase profits; becomes the Age of Consequences => wars bankrupt countries so that they cannot bid for petroleum => the drillers become destitute => leaving everyone without petroleum.”-The Fifth Horseman.
And this is a loud warning to people who consider themselves part of the ‘smart money’ set:
“There are less funds because existing claims are exposed as worthless faster than new claims can be created.”-The Fifth Horseman.
Thanks for that url. Have copied it and am about to read.
“Obama the covert warrrior? OK, he whacked OBL, I’ll give him that much.” — Volodya
Volodya, I think Obama is one of the most militarily aggressive American leaders in decades. Let’s review a little of what Obama has done:
With his drone program Obama has decimated Al Qaeda’s leadership.
** Obama overthrew the Libyan dictator.
** Obama ramped up drone attacks in Pakistan.
** Obama waged effective covert wars in Yemen and Somalia.
** Obama authorized a threefold increase in the number of American troops in Afghanistan.
** Obama became the first president to authorize the assassination of a United States citizen, Anwar al-Awlaki, who was born in New Mexico.
** Obama ordered and oversaw the Navy SEAL raid that killed Osama bin Laden.
** Obama ordered the SEAL sharpshooters to blow the heads off Somali pirates who had kidnapped Richard Phillips, the American captain of the Maersk Alabama.
** Obama has conducted over 150 airstrikes against ISIS in the last month alone.
** Obama has taken the anti-terrorist fight to six Muslim countries: Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, Yemen and Libya.
I could go on and make the list longer, but you get the idea. Obama is no peacenik. He should not have gotten the Noble Prize for Peace.
Obama has been more aggressive than Bush/Cheney militarily. Bush closed down the Bin Laden desk and stated publicly he didn’t think much about Bin Laden. Obama has been a pit bull against terrorists. For example, during the Bush administration, there was an American drone attack in Pakistan every 43 days; during the first two years of the Obama administration, there was a drone strike there every four days.
BRH can make fun of the women, homosexuals, and transsexuals in the armed forces but they are taking names and kicking ass.
ISIS should be trembling because now Obama has a coalition of Arab nations allied with the United States going up against ISIS. It won’t be American boots on the ground. No American kids will be dying in pitched battles. Obama got the locals to do the work for him.
CFN’s
I’ve read some websites postulating that Bush was enticed to go into Iraq at the behest of the Zionist in the deep state (Wolfowitz, and his buddies), with the objective of whacking Israel’s enemy’s.
We all know that WMD was just a reason they thought they could sell to a gullible public.
The theory is that we were suckered into fighting Israel’s war for their goals of hegemony in the ME.l
See Jano’s link
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Clean_Break:_A_New_Strategy_for_Securing_the_Realm
Are we being suckered into another war against Israel’s enemy Syria? If so, I’m tired of this bullshit.
We are witnessing the Birth of a God. Soon he will be quoting from the Protocols and purchasing all four volumes of Henry Ford’s “The International Jew”.
There’s some evidence now that oil and natgas flows out of Russia and into Europe are being restricted, that Russia might be turning back the spigot. If that’s the case central and even western Europe might be in for a cold winter. It seems like Russia is holding all the cards, yet even today we slapped on more sanctions. i don’t know what we hope to achieve.
One of the main themes of this site is that petroleum is the one essential commodity which makes modern civilization possible. In the west we are so dazzled by our technology i think we have forgotten this. I don’t think Putin has forgot. Pretty soon nations in Europe might begin to wonder ‘who is sanctioning who?’
Agreed, BRH
We want to foment a war with Russia to break her apart like the mideast. And who says we don’t have a plan.
The Neocons think they can get to Russia through Chechnen rebels through the Caucuses and Assad through ISIS.
Yup they’ve got a game plan, but when we can’t get enough nat gas through fracking up this country to replace Russia this winter, well I guess the EU NATO puppets might wake up.
In the meantime we will start experiencing the austerity deal as we start to lose the great game. Got to pay for the war economy and those who profit no just where to get the money.
Read Redrawing the Map of the Russian Federation.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/redrawing-the-map-of-the-russia-federation-partitioning-russia-after-world-war-iii/5400748
Thanks for the addition, BT.
When you look at what neocon planning looks like (any of the variants) you really get a feeling for how utterly f3cking wh4cked they are.
The names on the map of a ‘balkanized’ Russia: “Moskovia” and “Kitai” just put a cherry on top of their crazy-pants.
re | “Pretty soon nations in Europe might begin to wonder ‘who is sanctioning who?”-brh.
Interesting that you should put it that way, B R H.
Check these out:
“isolated” Russia?
http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/images/user3303/imageroot/2014/09/20140901_isolated.jpg
+
P C R on the next six months:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/09/10/why-the-ukrainian-crisis-remains-unresolved/
PCR gets a little ‘strident’ at times, but he’s been more right than wrong over the past ten years.
re | Snowden
Anyway, this was happenin’ last week:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/switzerland-could-grant-edward-snowden-asylum-if-he-testifies-against-nsa-9718462.html
Rock and Roll! jackpot baby!
All of the United States and all of mankind will be wiped out by ISIS, says Graham. Are you afraid?
Until CFN is wiped out by ISIS I guess we can continue to share here. But ISIS is threatening to come to New England to wage war. Are we supposed to be afraid now? I don’t feel afraid.
“There’s no way in hell you can form an army on the ground to go into Syria to destroy ISIL without a substantial American component,” said Graham, a prominent chicken hawk on Capitol Hill. “This president needs to rise to the occasion before we all get killed back here at home.”
Mayor DeBlasio is taking the ISIS threat seriously in New York City. But how in hell is a ragtag army wearing ski masks and driving Toyota trucks going to kill us all in the United States? Graham is crazy.
Being There
Civilizations do a whole bunch of things right in their ascendancy. Then they start doing a whole bunch of things wrong and this is where the US is now IMO.
The US military gets sent overseas and repeatedly comes home with its ass in a sack. You don’t need me to recite the list of calamities. The same lesson over and over. And still there’s these delusions of American grandeur like with the absurdity of Obama in front of the cameras telling the world what’s what. America will do air strikes, America will lead a broad coalition? Really?
How about this: given the long track record of fucking things up, the US does nothing of the sort? How about, if the locals don’t like ISIS, the locals fight ISIS? That is, without US interference, without US involvement. Oh, the locals need money? Well, the Saudis have nothing but money. Let them pay. Guns? The Chinese will sell them all the arms they need. So will the Russians.
It’s no better on the economics side. The oligarchs decided it would be in their own interest to move American industrial might to China. Can you imagine? Oligarchs in the arms trade pulling strings? Yeah, no doubt.
I agree, there’s plans to do this or that for private profit. But, I have to tell you, from my vantage point they look like the dumbest pieces of shit. I don’t know if it’s regression to the mean or the busted education system or if it’s something in the sugar-salt-carb diet or what it is.
My advice to Obama? It’s this: don’t be ridiculous. Just start with that. Stay home and shut up.
I wonder if there’s a panel to decide history’s biggest laughing-stock. If there was such a thing the United States of America would be, IMO, the current front runner.
re | “How about, if the locals don’t like ISIS, the locals fight ISIS? That is, without US interference, without US involvement. Oh, the locals need money? Well, the Saudis have nothing but money. Let them pay. Guns? The Chinese will sell them all the arms they need. So will the Russians.”-volodya.
How about a map showing the market share?
http://www.businessinsider.com/arms-sales-by-the-us-and-russia-2014-8
“How about, if the locals don’t like ISIS, the locals fight ISIS?” — Volodya
Volodya, once ISIS begins its dirty bomb attacks in places like New England, Quebec province, Ontario, etc., suddenly you are the “locals” of which you speak… You don’t like radiation from ISIS dirty bombs? How do you fight radiation?
Worry not…….your hero, neonigger, will make sure you are safe behind the walls of your gated community and no rays will be allowed to harm you……
Of course I always have my aluminum foil hat to fall back on for protection, But where could I obtain clean water? How long does it take radiation to penetrate a 600 ft. deep well ? I assume a little while, by which time the natural filtration would remove most of the potential carcinogens. Swing by , I’ll sell you a joint compound bucket full for $100. 00 silver. Veggies comes clean rather easily. Try not to spill the water on the way back to your hovel. That is if I still have any after supplying the neighbors.
“I completely agree with your stance on immigration. One of the bad points of taking this position because of overpopulation among other things, is that other people can call you a racist, and they get to be the good guys while you are the bad guy.” – captain spaulding –
Certainly, Captain. Of course, any sort of charge saying that, “Everyone in favor of immigration reduction is racist,” is in the category of moral platitude. And it’s a moral platitude that makes even less sense, if such a thing is possible, than the “We are a nation of immigrants,” moral platitude.
I would really like to know how the word “racist” has come to have such soul-destroying and logic-killing power throughout large parts of Western Civilization. It is quite amazing to this observer.
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Something else amazing is watching how the US MSM is using those beheading videos to gin up anger and support for military action. Out of all the thousands of senseless violent death that have recorded over the past years of the video age – this is being used to hammer public perception into a desirable shape.
Amazing.
no 1 kiwi –
I actually like a lot of the item in your two-part manifesto, myself. And your position on immigration is more nuanced that most of your posts imply. Still, I disagree, in that I believe that the only solution on immigration will eventually prove to be a full-stop. Maybe there’s still a little time to engineer a “soft landing” on US population growth, but I don’t see any discussion of this. So – – where we’re going is toward our continued 3 million/year population increase. This will likely continue until the situation degrades to the point that no one wants to immigrate, OR no one can immigrate – because of social and/or environmental degradation.
I also disagree with you about the 2nd amendment. Yeah, maybe I wouldn’t mind if the “well regulated” language had received a little more emphasis, BUT I no longer trust the Fed. govt not to use any and all possible mechanisms to eventually seize firearms from the law abiding. And we’re so far gone that criminals will ALWAYS have firearms. Always!
Speaking of being too far gone – you propose a lot of cool ideas. Many of them could have happened in the ’70’ or ’80’s, back when the US had the financial, energy, and social capital to accomplish great things. The Reagan years put an end to these possibilities, and it is far too late to go back, IMO.
Any further “great” social and legislative initiative attempted by the Federal govt. are likely to be cobbled-together by lawyers and lobbyists for our various elites. They will pay-off the poor with borrowed money, while slowly worsening the underlying situation.
Take the Affordable Care Act – please.
BTW, the “s” key on my poor old laptop is sticking.
“Take the Affordable Care Act – please.” — S4B
Please be specific. Exactly which of these do you not like:
1. ACA allows young Americans to stay on their parents’ insurance plans. Because of ObamaCare, which allows kids to stay on their parents insurance plans until age 26, 3.4 million young Americans now have coverage. The percentage of uninsured young people (ages 19 to 25) fell accordingly, from 48% in 2010 to 21% in 2012. According to polling, three-in-four Americans support this part of the Affordable Care Act including, yes, over two-thirds of Republicans.
2. ACA bans insurance companies from denying coverage for pre-existing conditions. Another aspect of ObamaCare that has already taken effect is the ban on insurance companies denying coverage to patients based on pre-existing conditions. The ban on pre-existing condition limits, which will apply to every single American by 2014, is supported by 83% of Americans.
3. ACA offers tax credits to small businesses to buy insurance. The Affordable Care Act expands tax credits to help small businesses provide health insurance to their workers. Companies with fewer than 50 employees do not have to provide insurance, but even for these businesses, ObamaCare will make it easier and cheaper if they choose to do so. According to polling, 88% of Americans think these small business tax credits are great, including — wait for it … yes, 83% of Republicans. That’s right, over eight-in-ten Republicans support the provision of ObamaCare that helps small businesses afford and expand their health insurance offerings to employees.
4. ACA requires companies with more than 50 employees to provide health insurance. Over 96% of companies with more than 50 employees already provide health insurance to their employees. And contrary to Republicans claiming otherwise, studies show the vast majority of those employers do not plan to drop or reduce that coverage because of ObamaCare.
Also, there is no evidence that ObamaCare has led to companies slashing full-time workers. In fact, since ObamaCare passed in March 2010, over 90% of the gain in employment has been full-time positions.
Still, we know that companies that can afford to provide health insurance to their workers and yet fail to do so off-set the costs of care onto the rest of us — whether the cost of emergency room treatment that gets passed on to other consumers, or Medicaid coverage that we pay for as taxpayers.
In Florida alone, more than 50,000 workers at companies like McDonald’s and Burger King are on the state’s Medicaid rolls. Especially with tax credits available to small businesses, there is no excuse for companies to pass the buck. And 75% of Americans support this element of ObamaCare.
5. ACA provides subsidies to help individuals afford coverage. Many of the 45 million Americans who lack health insurance simply don’t have enough money to afford coverage. ObamaCare will lower the cost of premiums but also provide subsidies to help low- and middle-income Americans purchase insurance.
The few Americans who think subsidizing care is a bad idea should, again, note that we already subsidize health care to a far greater degree in the form of Medicaid and also when the uninsured rely on free emergency room care and pass those astronomical costs on to the rest of us. But most Americans — 76% to be exact — support the individual subsidy. That includes 61% of Republicans.
6. State-based health insurance exchanges. Americans of all political stripes like choice and competition, which is precisely what the ObamaCare health insurance exchanges create. So it’s no wonder that 80% of Americans — including 72% of Republicans — support the health insurance exchange program in ObamaCare.
After all, the law is already popular when it’s not fully in effect and most people haven’t felt its benefits. We all know what will happen when ObamaCare takes effect — and works!
Republicans who are throwing temper tantrums over sour grapes need to grow up.
Congress passed the Affordable Care Act, President Obama signed it into law and the Supreme Court upheld its constitutionality.
The cost of doing nothing on health care reform was too great and the cost of repeatedly refighting the political battles of the past is obscene. But then again, it makes perfect sense why Republicans refuse to just give up and shut up — because the minute they do, there will be no more distractions from all the good things about ObamaCare.
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2013/09/30/five-reasons-americans-already-love-obamacare-plus-one-reason-why-theyre-gonna/
My point was that “obamacare” as you call it, is an example of the “great” government programs that we are going to get going forward.
It’s a complicated mishmash, written by lawyers and lobbyists.
Everything you name as a “positive?” in your little missive, is going to be a net negative – because it shifts costs around, and benefits unseen players.
In this particular case, the ACA benefits healthcare insurers at the expense of most individual doctors. Eventually patients will suffer as well. Many already are.
I was using ACA as a symbol of what’s wrong with lawmaking in the US. You missed the point, probably deliberately, and as usual.
Hetch Hetchy video test link
http://youtu.be/-B2ZLKO6z_o
Mr. Kunstler is dangerously misinformed on Ukraine. Igor Girkin, Russia’s leader amongst the “rebels” in Donetsk at the time, celebrated through social media that his crew shot down what turned out to be MH-17 minutes after it happened. Putin’s state controlled media even broadcasted it, before they realized it was a passenger jet. Since then Putin has trotted all kinds of nonsense up the flagpole, while the Russians tampered with the evidence.
Mr. Kunstler would be better off writing about topics that he has more first hand knowledge. His adoration of Putin’s boot on the throat of his own people is revealing.