Clusterfuck Nation
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Somewhere between the fevered Zzzz’s of American Dreaming and the blinding shock of being “woke,” there is a recognition that an awful lot about contemporary life is not working and can’t go on. At the bottom of this discontent is the mistaken notion that the unwind of modernity can be arrested or mitigated by “smart” and “green” this-and-that.
The disappointment over it will be epic when we discover that the laws of physics override the bright ideas of politicians. America has been blowing green smoke up its own ass for years, promoting oxymorons such as “green skyscrapers” and “clean energy,” but the truth is we’re not going to run WalMart, Suburbia, DisneyWorld, and the interstate highway system on any combination of wind, solar, geothermal, recycled Fry-Max, and dark matter. We’re just running too much stuff at too great a scale for too many people. We’ve blown through the capital already and replaced it with IOUs that will never be honored, and we’re caught in an entropy trap of diminishing returns from all the work-arounds we’re desperately trying.
For all that, there are actually some sound proposals in the mostly delusional matrix of the Green New Deal promoted by foxy front-person AOC.
- Revoke corporate personhood by amending our Constitution to make clear that corporations are not persons and money is not speech. Right on, I say, though they have not quite articulated the argument which is that corporations, unlike persons, have no vested allegiance to the public interest, but rather a legal obligation solely to shareholders and their boards-of-directors.
- Replace partisan oversight of elections with non-partisan election commissions. A no-brainer.
- Replace big money control of election campaigns with full public financing and free and equal access to the airwaves. Quite cheap and worth every penny.
- Break up the oversized banks that are “too big to fail.” And while you’re at it, resume enforcement of the anti-trust laws.
- Restore the Glass-Steagall separation of depository commercial banks from speculative investment banks. Duh….
Of course, a lot of the proposals above may be obviated when the money system we’ve been using, and its subsidiaries in markets, blows up, taking much of the world’s notional wealth with it, along with our hopes and dreams for replacing the fossil fuel economy with “Green technology.”
The Green New Deal may be an exercise in throwing spaghetti against the wall to see what sticks, so let’s just assume that a lot of the “social justice” pander-jive in it will slide down the wall onto the floor and make its way to the dumpster. Stuff like: “the right to full employment” (there is no such right), Free college and medicine (doesn’t pencil out with our capital gone, though the current odious rackets must go), “ending the war on immigrants” (how about ending the Democratic Party’s war on enforcing immigration laws?)
There are two kinds of deadly narcissism at work in American culture these days: techno-narcissism — the belief that magical rescue remedies can save the status quo of comforts and conveniences — and organizational narcissism — the belief that any number of committees can lead a march of humanity into a future of rainbows and unicorns. Both of these ideas are artifacts of a fossil fuel turbo-charged economy that is coming to an end. Societies and economies are fundamentally emergent, non-linear, and self-organizing as they respond to the mandates of reality — which are not necessarily consistent with human wishes. Circumstances in the world change and sometimes, when the changes are profound enough, they provoke episodes of flux and disorder.
A better index for our journey into the unknown frontier beyond modernity will not be what is “green” and “smart” but perhaps what is “sane” and “insane.”
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As usual, excellent post this morning Jim.
As always, thanks.
RA
“For all that, there are actually some sound proposals in the mostly delusional matrix of the Green New Deal promoted by foxy front-person AOC.” Those “sound proposals”( i.e. restoring Glass-Steagall sanity) have even less chance of being enacted as the “delusional” Green Soup they are floating in.
And as far as “foxy front-person Alexandria Ocasio Chavez Castro Cortez” (AOCCC), I am quite sure Jim is referring to her foxy sly cleverness and not to any alluring feminine physical attributes, God Forbid! I got your back, Jim!!!
A smart move by you, bravo! I am not so certain that it is a smart move by her, although, like our host, I agree with those proposals, at least in theory. In reality she may just be saying the right things to grow her stature and may have no intent of following through to make any of them happen. I hope this is the case because if she pursues any of them she might find herself floating face down in her hot tub, even if she does not have one. The power sources that would need to be battled to achieve any progress are not the kind of people that give up without a stack of victims in their wake you know.
Look at what the despicable war mongering news media is doing to a true American Hero, a DEMOCRAT, Tulsi Gabbard: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlXhRBsOwpA
I was going to reply to your reply vengeur, questioning when the democratic party became the party of war, but then I remembered Lyndon Johnson and Fort Sumter. I guess a leopard never changes it’s spots does it?
“The reason I’m no longer a doomer is simply that I got tired of being wrong. And I started to feel contempt for other doomers who shamelessly made the same wrong predictions year after year. And you have to make precise predictions because otherwise what does “collapse” even mean? Do you think we’re still going to have internet? Container ships? Large scale grain farming? Banks? Taxes? Electrical grids? Hospitals? Stock markets? Elections? These are all different subjects that require different specialized knowledge. Even something like “manufacturing” could have vastly different answers for different products. And for each thing that’s going to go away, how long will it take, and by what chain of events?
Everyone wants to be right, but people who persist in being doomers want to be right in a different way than I do. I want to say what’s going to happen, and then it actually happens. Some people want to feel like they understand the mechanism for how things happen. But the real world is much too complex for any one person to understand, so we make simplifications. In the context of collapse, the simplest idea is business as usual plus sci-fi extrapolation. The next simplest idea is total collapse: every one of the above things goes away, because they’re all part of the same One Big Thing, and some of the conditions that made the One Big Thing possible are disappearing.
Everyone is stupid, but smart people know how they’re stupid. I know that modern civilization is only One Big Thing inside my head, and out in the world it’s billions of people I don’t know, their knowledge and habits and intentions, plus trillions of physical objects and all the connections between everything. I know that you can’t have perpetual economic growth on a finite planet, that renewable energy is not coming online fast enough for a smooth transition out of fossil fuels, and that presently fertile regions will become deserts; but it would be arrogant to think that large complex high-tech society cannot adapt to these conditions, just because I can’t personally imagine how it can adapt.”
Source unknown, but good.
It’s Ran Prieur, thaks.
I know that you can’t have perpetual economic growth on a finite planet, that renewable energy is not coming online fast enough for a smooth transition out of fossil fuels, and that presently fertile regions will become deserts; but it would be arrogant to think that large complex high-tech society cannot adapt to these conditions, just because I can’t personally imagine how it can adapt.”
I’ve read this guy before. But to his last comment, I would counter with, it would be stupid to think that after watching this amazing “large, complex, high-tech society” to not only fail to adapt to these things over the past 100 years or so, but further, to knowingly stomp on the accelerator pedal as it approached the abyss, that it either can or will do so in the future.
Dominant cultures such as ours have failed many times in the past, just as ours is in the process of doing now. Ours WILL BE (and is so far) much more spectacular, however, so maybe we can take some small comfort in that.
I’m not sure dominant cultures have failed so much as they just became less dominant. There is no question ours (the US, or “the West”) will be less dominant. But fail, not likely. Or more accurately, not likely in any of our lifetimes. Someday, of course.
I think you’re right, Marty. “Collapse” only means that we move on to something else in terms of organizing. Now, maybe the something else is tyranny, but humans have shown the capacity to arrange matters to survive and maybe, eventually thrive. So what if it has to be on a lower level of comfort and convenience. It seems that our quest for those things have led us to the current state of expecting ‘security’ to last forever. That is not the truth of human history.
“Some people want to feel like they understand the mechanism for how things happen. But the real world is much too complex for any one person to understand”
Marty,
Sadly, this is not the case. The world may, indeed, be much too complex, but human nature is not. You can count on human nature…it is the “train that is never late”.
There is a significant percentage of our population that is being subsidized…food, shelter, heat and amenities. There is a subset of this population that will not accept loss of any of these basic requirements. They will, as was said in the 70’s, “take it to the streets”. The government will make all attempts to maintain order…as you may be aware, preparations have already been made, considering the up-militarization of the civil police forces and the suspension of the Posse Comitatus provisions.
There in lies the seed of our dysfunction and collapse. Civil disorder.
When? When the transfer payments are insufficient to the needs of the recipients. When infrastructure becomes intermittent, when the toilets stop flushing.
“There is a significant percentage of our population that is being subsidized…food, shelter, heat and amenities.”
The percentage is very large.
Among those amenities one should include miles of paved road, electricity and water in many rural areas. I’m not arguing the politics, just the raw dollars and cents. Most people do not understand how much of the development of the USA has been because of government fiat, not profit motive, and how much of the “fiat” has been funded by expanding credit and abundant energy.
The USA is the prime piece of real estate on the planet. If we (collectively) won’t defend it, then someone with the cojones will take it. I would not bet against a large portion of our most competent people being the survivors.
I don’t consider myself a “doomster”, but the population of the planet is going to be reduced. It will happen in a slow and grinding way or a catastrophic way (more likely), but it is going to happen and the reduction could very likely be in excess of 50% worldwide (with less of a reduction here in the USA).
Life will go on afterwards, but it’s going to be tough sledding for a while.
We ain’t playing beanbag.
Epicur,
I think your scenario is most likely to be the correct one. We’ll certainly have to find a new “way of inhabiting the landscape” (tm JHK) should that be the case.
…And speaking of prime real estate, Venezuela [at the moment] is possessed of a huge reserve of the cursed black gold, which brings up your image:
“[Venezuela] is [a] prime piece of real estate on [this] planet. If [they] (collectively) won’t defend it, then someone with the cojones will take it.
Guess who? Surely we’re not fooled by the NPR (and other MSM) propaganda that this pissant Guano… I mean, Guaido, sprang fully-formed from the forehead of Zeus. (I would hope.)
However it happens Marty, the complexity is what is going away soonest. Personally, I am hoping for a gradual decline of the civilization along the lines of what happened to the Roman Empire. A sudden collapse is possible from any number of triggers. We were very close to Global Population collapse when Ebola nearly got loose, globally. There was another, much lesser-known crisis when a new strain of influenza arose in a village in Vietnam. Fortunately for us all, the Vietnamese Government detected it early and quarantined patient zero and his 13 family members–who all died while taking care of the succession of its victims. A flu with nearly 100% fatality would definitely set civilization back in a hurry.
We are overdue for another plate slippage on the Juan de Fuca fault, just off the West Coast of Washington State–That alone could economically destablilize the US enough to push the American Empire back to just-another-world-power status.
So many phobias its confusing.
Yes, of course a sudden collapse is possible for any number of reasons. This has always been the case, and has been predicted by some pretty much from the beginning of history. Someday it may happen. But probably not anytime soon. I think we’ve still got at least a few millenia.
Predicting it this year is silly. Predicting it every year is worse than silly.
” We were very close to Global Population collapse when Ebola nearly got loose, globally.”
Ebola is not very communicable, not suited for a plague. It can be readily contained in a modern society (not without getting our hair mussed). THE plague, when it (probably) comes, will have to be something like a pox or influenza that is transmitted through the air with a two week or so period of communicable latency.
Either that or something that is transmissible, latent, and undetectable for a long time until it erupts, but Nature does not seem to design many like that (HIV comes close, though).
Here’s my take: Today on RT is an article in which Khamenei clarifies his country’s “death to America” meme. it is not the American citizen they are wishing death on, but their rulers,namely, Trump, Pompeyo and Bolton.
Did you know that if you wish injury on a person, this has been scientifically proven, it does cause harm? There are so many countries and people wishing us harm that, of course it’s affecting the US. This surely is one of the reasons why the country is sliding into chaos, beyond its rulers gross incompetence and cupidity.
I expect I’m going to be slammed on this one because I don’t recall the name of the experiments conducted that proved this. But it’s a fact. Just step into a home where there has been much turmoil and without knowing anything about it you can sense the charged atmosphere.
[. Technology. This dog has a technical background and I’ve a lot of hairs to split. You seem to be the only futurist among us who seems to have any real understanding of the entropy of the situation. Complexity grows and the power needed to keep the whole shebang going gets ever greater.]
China is well on the way to finding a different route. Huawei reports making phones, start to finish, using 5G tech and human contact is limited to 29 seconds per phone. They claim energy costs reduced by 40%. 5G is spreading rapidly throughout China while we go broke with a century old gunboat policy and rapidly obsolete tech.
And consider the point China is at in their life cycle which facilitates the likes of this: https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/28-incredible-made-in-china-innovations-that-are-changing-the-world/ss-BBRWnlD?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=mailsignout#image=29
… and compare it to the efficiency of the “pissing contest” taking place in DC with our money.
Perhaps it matters how Huawei makes phones, but more likely it doesn’t — because a smartphone, while amazing, may be irrelevant compared to the technological needs of a sustainable civilzation.
We need technology for growing food, creating shelter & medicine, clean water & sewage systems. Basic stuff.
But technology for publishing photos of your cappuccino online? Not so much.
yeah Scratch, hopefully when our cities are burning & militiamen are conducting mass rapes that we’ll have good rock music like the Yugoslavs did when they were conducting their civil war, there. I doubt it, though.
Does anybody really wanna have a civil war when the theme song would be something from Katy Perry??
But the real world is much too complex for any one person to understand, so we make simplifications.
That shows the author never really did get it. Simplifications are great when they aid in understanding but when they are used to avoid understanding, no beuno.
Everyone is stupid, but smart people know how they’re stupid.
Splitting Dunning Kruger hairs but fact is games are being played as this follows.
arrogant to think that large complex high-tech society cannot adapt to these conditions, just because I can’t personally imagine how it can adapt”.
Tricky, Doom did not give this individual what he wanted and understanding was not what the author was looking for. This is the mind of someone justifying their actions. Their intent was not true.
Knowing 2 +2 is 4 is not arrogant. A journey begins with a first step but too many care not to walk.
Likewise, knowing that “not enough people care about the future” equals “Democracy is contra-indicated” isn’t arrogance either.
True, but if there is no restraint you open Pandora’s box.
I had a drinking buddy of mine who was a smart MBA kind of guy. His thesis was how amazon was a flawed business model and would soon go broke. I was like him in that respect. I had shorted amazon at least a half dozen times on its way up to $300 a share where I was sure it had topped out. I forgot about it for a couple of years and when I looked at it again it was over $1000 a share. I was sure it had topped out, AGAIN. When I met John I realized there are some people who would rather be right than rich. John was such a person. But he had a talent. He could spot the 100 baggers in reverse. The company he thought would soon go broke became the most valuable company in the world and its founder Jeff Bezos the richest man in the world. So now John was a big time Tesla naysayer. He bet me last summer Tesla would be broke by Christmas. See a pattern here. So I asked myself what company in addition to Tesla would lead the electric car and AI world, which is attached at the hip to autonomous driving cars, in a similar way that amazon revolutionized internet retail. So I opened positions in the companies that John was sure to go belly up and now it’s a wait and see. We’ll see if John’s is capable of picking the next most valuable company in the world, and in his own stupidity, remain a pauper and unrequited in his love of being right.
Very good Seawolf. There is a lot of that going on. It’s easy to see how something will fail; one can always find a possible fault. Much harder to understand how that problem will be solved, or how it isn’t a big enough problem to cause a total failure.
But be generous – let us all know what your friend’s next big loss is so we can bet against it too.
It always seemed to me that the mistake made by people trying to predict future events is in trying to be too precise about things. If you do your homework properly, and keep things more generalized, the better your chances of guessing correctly are. The world is simply too complex to have a chance of developing along predicted lines. It’s like saying that Italy, being pissed off at France, will invade July 17th of next year. It is certainly possible to predict some things, but you have to keep it simple. I recall Reagan announcing that he was going to deregulate the Saving & Loans industry to allow them to compete with other financial institutions. Having read about the great depression, and it’s various causes, and watching the same conditions being created again by Reagan, I predicted to my brother in law that the S&Ls would go broke again. I said I didn’t know how long it would take, and I didn’t know how bad it
would be. Because my prediction was simple, it turned out to be right. Most of the predictions that have turned out to be correct, are simple, and based on similar occurrences in the past, or by knowledge of human nature, and what people tend to do in certain situations. Keeping it simple makes it surprisingly easy at times to predict things. The fact that people act predictably in various situations never seems to change. It’s the reason that history repeats itself.
I have my doubts about the viability of Tesla, Seawolf.
It reminds me a bit of John De Lorean’s car in the 80s. Somebody around here has one and when its parked in front of the general store it attracts a lot of attention. It has cool written all over it but as a business it just didnt work out.
Brh
I didn’t say I bet it all or even bet any on Tesla. I’m just saying John has a nose for the big. Remember amazon was a bookstore when it started. You had to have real vision to see that one coming. What I think is that as climate change manifests itself more and more, ICE cars will become anathema. People will want out of them like they want cancer out of their bodies after being diagnosed, even though 9 times out of 10 it’s the wrong move. The one thing I’ve seen over the years is that paradigm shifts occur much faster than people think. Think smart phones and digital cameras.
“No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public.”
Truer words were never spoken. In a system where the American public is concerned, logic and reasoning are usually not the proper tools to use to determine the feasibility of any endeavor. You are absolutely correct Sea Wolf, your friend was obviously smart, very smart, but perhaps too smart to understand how people that lack the same degree of intelligence think. Or fail to think at all.
Funny how he thought that. I have an MBA too, and it seemed obvious to me from the start that Amazon would be a big winner as long as their one critical resource – fossil fuels – remained reasonably cheap to come by. Take away the cheap fuel, however, and not only Amazon fails, but all the local businesses it destroyed are now gone too. And in the mean time it seriously harmed the overall economy by destroying businesses and jobs at the local levels, taking away the very livelihoods that enabled the local purchasing that fueled it’s growth in the first place. So in the long run Amazon will be self-neutralizing, like most of the new paradigm e-business models.
Either way, there’s nothing really new under the sun. All this e-business stuff is, while admittedly much more clever and efficient, still the same old same old with regard to exploiting cheap energy, and there’s simply no getting around that. Transporting cheap crap half way around the world based on cheap but non-renewable resources, only for it to end up in a landfill in a few months time is in the end, as Jim has said, “the greatest misallocation of resources in the history of the world.”
You think like a CFNer. Ever checked out Jim Kunstler’s blog? (wink, wink)
Amazon would be a big winner as long as their one critical resource – Middle class and upper class buyers remain.
Fixed that.
All of which relies on cheap, concentrated energy. It’s all cyclical.
Yes cheap, concentrated energy, but you are not suppose to mention it. Memo says.
I feel your friend’s dismay. All that’s really been proven is that the market can remain irrational longer than an investor can remain solvent. Tesla is heavily indebted, subject to vast competitive forces, and not even coming close to producing sufficient revenue to climb out of its hole. I guarantee you that once the debt markets lock up [and they will] it will immediately be bankrupt. Amazon is more complicated. It has enormous scale [and oooh! institutions love scale] but it is and has always been enormously unprofitable. Once the market again values earnings, it will easily be cut by 90%. I’ve made some money shorting Tesla over the last couple of years, but when it finally does go down it will be no more memorable than the Delorean was – a failed experiment in attempting to disrupt an industry that refuses to submit.
Or, Musk can go after the Ferrari crowd at 200k a pop, if his ego allows him to be happy with .000001% of the market.
There are lots of reasons not to like Amazon, but lack of profitability is no longer one of them. They’ve been profitable for at least a few years, and recently have become very profitable. That doesn’t mean the stock price is justified, but it might be.
Like them or not, the company sure is good at what it does. Nothing lasts forever, but I suspect Amazon will be around a lot longer than any of us.
Years 2000-2002 Id guess were the time to short and then go long.
Apple as well.
Apple was 2007 the year the iphone came out. Amazon lost 90% of its value during the dot com crash. You had to have balls of steel to hold on for that ride.
Tell that to a Venezuelan.
Venezuela is about as bad as it gets, having gone from such a wealthy place to being so impoverished. But it’s just a country, not a whole society. It is not the end of the world; just few very bad decades for one country.
Things will get better there. And they have a LOT of oil. For their sake, they should hope we don’t make the transition to renewable energy too fast.
The one month shut-down was a dry run. Just imagine what a four month shut-down will do.
I can imagine. What will it do to USA?
The way the MSM portrayed the shut-down was that federal workers could not afford to miss 1 paycheck.
I suspect that there was a bit of exaggeration, but surely by the 4th round, there will be numbers that loose everything and join the homeless camp. After that, think in terms of 1 domino tipping over the next.
The game is rigged. You either play or loose by default.
When you click the button that you acknowledge and agree to the terms, do you ever bother to read the terms and have your legal department decipher the contract?
The fatal debating mistake of doomers is to set a timetable. For example we know fossil fuels will run out and national debt will blow up in our faces, but in our zeal to be proven right we tend to ignore how long such imbalances can persist.
“We’re just running too much stuff at too great a scale for too many people.”
Yep. And it’s only getting worse now with former developing nations hyper-industrializing and modernizing themselves at a frenetic pace. Everyone wants the good life, but the good life just isn’t sustainable at scale.
Have you ever noticed that there are absolutely no trees on this planet that grow to be a mile in height? That is because trees, like everything else in this plane of existence, grow until they exceed the ability of their roots to sustain their life. Once this occurs, they, all things, fall over and die. It works with every living thing and every system that man creates as well. Timberrrrrr!
A simply great summation of where we are and where we are heading in the very near future.
Well done Jim.
ps. One error – “onto THE floor” .
Best post in a long while, Jim!
Re: AOC’s proposals. All good sentiments to be sure, but we’ve visited or revisited all of these points since 2008, so it doesn’t seem likely that they’ll suddenly gain traction now with a paltry Dem majority in the House, which doesn’t even seem to be singing from the same sheet of music either. If anything, corporations are bigger, stronger, and more virulent than ever before, mostly with the full support of the lumpen proles they exploit. I don’t see turning any of that around anytime soon, absent another full blown crash to wipe away the mass delusions that currently shape our society.
As you say, we need to get back to an emergent society based on new and sustainable 21st century paradigms (although those still haven’t been fully sketched out yet), but to do that we need to ditch the fully emerged insane society we have now first. And THAT will be no easy task whatsoever, especially for the 10-20% who are still doing well and are deathly afraid of letting go of what they have. It’s no coincidence that those are the same people making decisions for us too. Thus, our current conundrum.
Well, Scratch, suppose Dems can, thru political machinizations, bring a number of these large corporations down? Then what? In the first place a large loss of jobs will ensue, also whatever product or service these corporations provide will be gone.
Not trying to be provocative or defend ‘corporations’ but i think these questions must be asked.
Brh
Why would they do that? Large corporations are their primary constituents. As we’re seeing with Medicare for All currently, AOC and her little band are already being put on a very short leash by the Pelosi old guard.
To take the “free markets” promoters’ stand, if corporations go away they will soon be replaced by other provider(s). But I wouldn’t worry about large corporations in any case. Absent an epic meltdown, they’re here to stay.
Agree some good sentiments for sure but in terms of reality she might as well stand on the floor of the house and try to use chanting, “there’s no place like home” over and over again as a means of locomotion to and from the Bronx.
Good comment Scratch and very good article.
However, one thing was missing in the article about change. What about the hand wringing when Miami or Jesrsy Shore starts to seriously flood? More fires this summer, more arctic outbreaks this winter?
I live on the BC coast and last week I was outside in tee shirt and shorts. Today it is snowing and supposed to drop to -12C overnight with storm force outflow winds about 25 miles away from my house. Meanwhile, the arctic is warming up big time with large periods of ice free navigation summers. From NASA: “Eighteen of the 19 warmest years all have occurred since 2001, with the exception of 1998. The year 2016 ranks as the warmest on record. (Source: NASA/GISS). This research is broadly consistent with similar constructions prepared by the Climatic Research Unit and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.”
Imagine how great the border wall is going to work with 2-3 crop cycle failures pushing hordes north…..I’m talking about the one on the Canada US border. 🙂 Think Arab Spring. Maybe we can call it Redneck Spring.
Nah, when the Chinese reach critical mass in Canada, and begin their purges of all things Canadian, including you, we’ll let a select few in.
Brh
“Re: AOC’s proposals”
Nick O Demus,
Well, she failed to present one solution that would change the course of our Democracy to the positive, and cost…NOTHING.
It has only been since 1971 that Congress has voted in open session, with votes being public and reported upon. 1971. This “transparency”, which is how it was sold to the public, insures that a politician once bought, stays bought…he/she is then monitored by the respective party, to maintain the party line, as well as those on K street who demand value for their money.
Make the voting secret, as it was prior to 1971, and a patriot, or even a humanist, can vote his conscience…or as any good Italian might suggest;
“Do the right thing…”
You’re behind the times, elysianfield — this video has gone viral since Wednesday.
AOC’s latest Congressional “lightning round game” is the best video CSPAN has ever aired
https://boingboing.net/2019/02/08/snuff-boxes-r-us.html
“The Democrats have started hearings on HR1, a comprehensive anti-corruption and voting rights bill, and House Oversight and Government Reform Committee member Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez gets to participate, which is great news for all of us.
“With only five minutes on the clock, AOC asked her witnesses about the (virtually nonexistent) limits on corruption in Congress: establishing that a Congressmember can fund their campaign entirely with anonymous corporate money, use the corporate money to pay off people who have evidence of official wrongdoing, then propose legislation that benefits the companies that funded them, while holding stock in those companies and being vastly, personally enriched from their ‘public service.’
“Then, for dessert, AOC establishes that presidents have even more power to use their office for personal gain. If you thought her debut speech was amazing, well, she was just getting started.
“It’s not like any hearing you’ve ever heard, and AOC’s plain-language, charming socratic dialogue leaves little room for weaseling, dissembling or disagreement. This is a broken system, and it’s not hard to see how it got broken, nor what it will take to fix it. The lack of ‘political will’ to address corruption and self-dealing in Congress isn’t about ‘political will’ at all: it’s greed, pure and simple.”
Elrond,
Sorry, but I cannot access video’s with my limited bandwidth…I pay the satellite company for downloads of up to 5Mps, get 250K…when lucky.
Did she say anything of interest other than “…corruption BAD!”? Any concrete suggestions? I would give her credit if she gets anything of substance done.
Anti-corruption campaigns are a seemingly yearly event…much chest pounding, but nothing accomplished.
You have heard the reference;
“Everybody want Heaven…No one want DIE!”
Well, everyone wants the corruption to end, but no one seems to want to live within their Congressional paychecks.
“within their Congressional paychecks.”
within the limits of their….”
elysian,
Hulk SMASH! First, here u-tubey link where can lower quality of play to make work! (THEN SMASH!)
https://youtu.be/TJlpS4vhKP0
She’s framed her polling questions well and pointedly.
In order to see one’s way out of a jam (or sidestep it), it’s a good plan to find out what the fuck is going on. (IMHO only.)
You’re not wrong, elysianfield. More members of Congress will end up living within their Congressional paycheques if and when they don’t have cushy lobbying or corporate jobs to land in once they’re out of office. Then there’s how they pay for their campaigns: Make them dependent on small donors, instead of corporate PACs; on the American people, not dark money.
The only way to get there is for Americans to step up and force it on their representatives, and AOC looks to me like a fine first step in that direction. Also as I speak, Elizabeth Warren is making some encouraging remarks in that direction as well as she announces her candidacy for president. So, room for optimism, yes?
Anyway, enough speechifying. I looked for a transcript of AOC’s remarks, and found this link (clearly search-engine-optimized by a content farm, but looks legit):
https://lybio.net/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-lets-play-a-lightning-round-game/people/
Or if you want a shorter summary, try this:
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/2/8/18216884/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-video-campaign-finance
Cheers!
Also – this is a documentary many readers here will enjoy watching:
“Surviving Progress”
https://docur.co/documentary/surviving-progress
I enjoyed your yak with JMG. You two are two very smart guys but I notice his supreme Druidness tends to be a bit stubborn. He was wrong about the space radiation going to Mars. An adept persuader, he has the mind nimbleness of ten men and that is a great thing. Taking on the air of a dozen men does mute the music. but he was not so bad this time. A supreme specialist in his area of historical study expertise and opinion. He sees the big picture as do you but best he stay away from equations.
So why my bitch. Technology. This dog has a technical background and I’ve a lot of hairs to split. You seem to be the only futurist among us who seems to have any real understanding of the entropy of the situation. Complexity grows and the power needed to keep the whole shebang going gets ever greater. Everybody else seems lost in woo -woo magic and does not get the big accounting book in the shy is about to slam shut with a scream of bankruptcy as Co. America tanks. It is about math and too many people. Get as spiritual as you want to charm the masses and bring home the beans but it is about the math. That stuff that most people stopped learning in school about 25 years ago.
Now it is harvest time.
“At the bottom of this discontent is the mistaken notion that the unwind of modernity can be arrested or mitigated by “smart” and “green” this-and-that.”
Correction:
totallymistaken notion
Correction:
‘accounting book in the sky is about to slam shut.
totally mistaken notion.
HTML tags are hard to use, I forget about the spaces sorry.
Now you’re talking – the Harvest! I want to be the guy on the wagon who yells, “Bring out your dead”. But that’s only until I get sick. Then I go to the Masque with my Red Mask.
I recall a really eerie tale of the USSR.
The guy with the wagon put a child on it.
A woman said ‘The child is not dead.’
The man ‘it will be by time I reach the dump.’
Kinda like the trash men of Calcutta.
You should have a hand bell when you make your wagon rounds. Like an old town crier. Bring out your dead. bell Bring out your dead. bell Bring out your dead. bell
“…his supreme Druidness tends to be a bit stubborn.”
You said that right.
* gives a subtle wave *
“These aren’t the Druids you’re looking for.”
Yes, we’ve embarked upon a ‘Journey to the End of the Night’ as Dr Destouches pointed out 8 decades ago, leading to many dark places.
Brh
I agree best post in a long, long time. Well done Jim. Stick to prognosticating about the future. It’s your strong suit. Mixing it with politics is the recipe, like in this post- not politics alone.
An insightful analysis as usual. thanks. Just one glaring problem:
“Replace partisan oversight of elections with non-partisan election commissions. A no-brainer.”
Who do you staff it with and how to you keep the partisans from infiltrating? Like so much of the green agenda; nice on paper, not easy or even possible in the real world.
Who do you staff it (i.e. non-partisan election commissions) with – Quat
=============
Exactly what went through my mind when I read that sentence in Jim’s essay. Find me even one politically unbiased person and I’ll, I don’t know, eat my hat?
There’s a difference between having opinions and biases, and having a vested interest in political party. — JHK
The problem that we find today is that every thing is politicized. Everything and everyone.
It’s a veritable gangland of reds and blues these days. We non-partisans are akin to the old women in south central peering from inside some bungalow, through lace curtains.
I do not think it would be very difficult to find non-biased or even just honest people. The problem would be in keeping them that way. They say that every man (or woman) has a price and even if they cannot be purchased outright, they can be beaten into submission or removed in one of many unpleasant ways. After all, a diseased sausage grinder can only produce diseased sausage. We need a new sausage grinder and I don’t think they make them anymore.
Walter,
You make a very good point. HOWEVER, from what I’ve seen, the best tactic to counter these threats is to *immediately* make them public. Time and time again (when it’s deployed) it’s proved an effective inoculant to further skullduggery. Exposure is anathema to secretive king-makers and destroyers.
Just gotta have the brass to “go there”.
That used to work, but the modern public may believe the whistleblower when they come out with their disclosure, but they also believe the government thugs once they have made their counterclaims. Julian Assange is a prefect example of this phenomenon.
Repeat a lie loud and often enough it becomes true. Then you grow orange hair.
Sometime you gotta give the dog the boot .
This tired phrase of every man has his price is all wrong. Yes money corrupts, is the root of all evil and all that. Typically because most people are too dim to understand the subtleties but I’m not here to be pompous and insulting. It is not money that corrupt but social pressure. It is the approval that goes along with the money that pulls the trigger, not the amount that tempts. The amount just substitutes for a hunger for love and approval.
Control social expectations and you will be like Archimedes with a long enough lever, a fulcrum, and a place to stand.
We must first agree on “social expectations”. I’ll let someone else point out HOW.
There is something in the Green proposal that I think you might like. There is an item that would reform the transportation system to use less fossil fuel in moving people around, i.e., rail.
Long lead times to ramp up rail, though. Takes persistence and patience, not to mention a lot of money, to implement. All in short supply these days.
Like all works of science fiction, there are fun, entertaining parts. I agree with Jim’s assessment of the positive parts of the plan. We will be unabl e, however, to maintain the current level of civilization without fossil fuel. Perhaps the greatest role the aoc serves is to make that glaringly obvious to all sane policy writers out there.
PeteA,
…And that’s why Jim’s missive should be sent to A.O.C. forthwith for her reading pleasure and understanding of what’s rumbling toward the Beltway!
(Boy do I dislike all these acronyms, but I guess they make some things faster when understood within a confederation. Sorta like “JHK”s, Clusterfuck Nation. 😉 )
What a huge breath of fresh air AOC and her cohort are after trying to listen to that intergalactic bore give that horrible speech Tuesday night. Suddenly you realize it doesn’t have to be this way – there are actually people with real ideas out there.
Fast forward 12 years and AOC is making the run for the White House. How many sphincters would permanently slam shut at the country-club if she made it? Oh, that will be priceless.
Speaking of fresh air and sphincters:
“We set a goal to get to net-zero, rather than zero emissions, in 10 years because we aren’t sure that we’ll be able to fully get rid of farting cows and airplanes that fast…” –AOC
https://apps.npr.org/documents/document.html?id=5729035-Green-New-Deal-FAQ
Defcon1 talking about something he really knows about: sphincters.
A psychiatrist acquaintance once made the , for me, unforgettable comment that the definition of sanity was simply the ability to admit that one is wrong. That concept, by extension, applies to cultures and nations. Insanity has been the national problem for quite some time, and I sincerely hope that AOC is the proverbial Grand Mal that leads us toward treatment; the alternative will not be pleasant.
The idea that Corporations are not people gained a lot of credibility when BHO decried the acceptance of Citizens United v. FEC.
Has anyone actually read the case?
The case actually decided AGAINST HRC and her band of DNC disruptionistas. 53+/- pages of some fairly dry reading, but it does get exciting towards the end as the full scope of the decision is revealed. The gist of it is that free speech, and by extension the 1st Amendment was upheld in spite of another attempt by the so-called liberal establishment to censor or even destroy it.
SCOTUS saved us , once again, from ourselves.
AOC is a dangerous person, and is mocked at our mutual peril.
Notice how she is everywhere, all of the time ?
Like a page from the 2015/2016 GGG playbook ?
Yeah, there’s a reason for that.
Your first sentence resonates with me. I have quoted several times here “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, and expecting a different result each time”. I have used the quote to express my frustration with Republicans in particular. Eight years of Republication control in Washington DC under GW Bush, and the country wound up in the tank. Referencing my post up above regarding predictions, I told my wife when Bush ran against Gore, that if Bush won, I would like to see Republicans running the whole show, deregulating everything in sight, and giving tax breaks to the wealthy. Then after everything went to hell, people would finally figure out that that approach doesn’t work. Of course it happened, and the Republicans never faltered, preaching the same message even as the country almost collapsed, and they’re doing it still today! The people I know who are Republicans, refuse to admit that it was their policies that encouraged the behavior that led to the Great Recession. Therefore, I can only say when the next collapse comes: “I told you so.” And there WILL be another one, I can’t tell you when, but I expect it to be worse than the last one, and I will derive no pleasure in being right. I’ve been using the phrase “Cognitive Dissonance” a lot here lately, but this is a textbook example. For those who disagree after reading the history, going all the way back to the thirties, I can only say: “line up for the kool aid.” It’s one of the most frustrating things I’ve experienced in my life, and based on my knowledge of human nature, it’s gonna happen again, and then you know what? It’ll happen again after that too, and they still won’t change their tune. That’s why I’m gloomy.
I would like to see Republicans running the whole show, deregulating everything in sight, and giving tax breaks to the wealthy. Then after everything went to hell, people would finally figure out that that approach doesn’t work. Of course it happened, and the Republicans never faltered, preaching the same message even as the country almost collapsed, and they’re doing it still today!
I had that same revelation as well Cap’n. That was the plan all along, as we found the hard way all too late. Flip the coin and the Dems will do the same thing in the opposite direction. That’s what happens when stubborn and corrupt ideologues rule the world. It’s equal parts by design and corrupt opportunism. Most rational people eventually give up in disgust (by design) and just quit giving a shit altogether.
I’ll have a beer with you on that, and I agree about the Dems as well, which only serves to point out that we are well and truly fucked. Skoal.
@ Ol’ Scratch:
Your last three sentences reminded me of the following item that I pulled from 8ch yesterday, especially the idea that rational folks will eventually give up all together. Sorry if it’s a bit long:
Anonymous 02/07/19 (Thu) 16:21:12 1c939f No.5069805
We live in a world controlled by an outside force. This force has hijacked mankind and our natural disposition for good. We have been pre-programmed BY CONSTRUCTS OF SOCIETY into rigid beliefs. 1. in a supernatural power (religion) or 2. Nothing at all. Society pushes us toward nothing at all because it benefits the outside force that has hijacked mankind. This is SPIRITUAL WARFARE that us using the brain-mind to access the soul-mind via your consciousness. Think of this force as Lucifer. Hence Satan having control over our world. In the Bible Jesus said he is the prince of the air.
Part of the control is a program that ALREADY EXISTS. It is this program that controls our physical reality. We are held captive in this reality by manipulation of our collective social conscious. This is done in many waves but for length lets say it boils down to frequency modulation. We are specifically held in a state that reduces the likelihood of mass awareness. A sleep state if you will. Boards like this are proof that we are asleep, as people here are aware that things are not as they seem but not fully able to see the bigger picture. This sort of board is a stepping stone for you to step into a higher frequency of consciousness. This is needed to move BEYOND the Collective Social Consciousness. The “conspiracies” all meet up but you must continue to dig deeper until you see it. Shills and disinfo are here to confuse but their stories are easy enough to deduce. Connect the dots. Each story that you uncover is a signal to YOU that we are in a FALSE REALITY. Your consciousness is essentially a projection of a HOLOGRAM. Your subconscious mind is more symbol based….THIS is why there is so much “illuminati” symbolism. ‘They’ don’t have to address with words it because your subconscious recognizes it. The symbols allow them to access and control you subconsciously.
Now: concerning AI, the control of society is ALREADY driven from Artificial Intelligence in that it is a result of a force from OUTSIDE. Think duality of good vs evil. Gatekeepers in our world are in a sense fallen spirits who are working to keep us in a rudimentary state because they benefit from the toxic system in place by having access to your soul. There is a better place and our spirit knows this. It is your moral compass. When you lose hope you allow your access to this better place to be used by the gatekeepers. Its like waiting in line to get up front at a concert only to be tricked along the way and your front row tickets were taken by others since you aren’t occupying them. You are being fooled into NOT WANTING to occupy them by the construct of the duality of good vs. evil and the feeling that YOU were given that it does not matter because in your mind “god does not exist”. Lucifer’s trick is to fool people. What’s the saying…,the greatest trick the devil pulled is convincing you that he doesn’t exist…
This AI will not create “god inside of a computer” but rather remove God from the hearts of man. You will lose your free will. You will become the mindless cog in the machine because you will lose your moral compass. You will willingly give it up. Many of you already have. Many will scoff at this description.
“Automation” and “AI” are referring to YOU, not robot cyborgs like the terminator walking around. THIS is what you must fear, not a Terminator robot fantasy spell that Hollywood has cast upon you.
In ancient times this was a much easier story to tell. Its spelled out in the bible but like your post it is written from a certain perspective. People of today have difficulty relating to that perspective due to the pre-programmed CONSTRUCTS OF SOCIETY and the fact that history is INTENTIONALLY hidden from us and in many cases changed into something else entirely.
We ALL have the power of much deeper thought. You CAN connect the dots but you MUST LIMIT your interference with the Collective Social Conscious.
Monitor your diet, monitor your entertainment, monitor your finances.
Limit their control inputs and you will start to clear from the fog.
This is just SCRATCHING THE SURFACE. Those of you who are also of an expanded consciousness and are aware of this and have more insight to offer please feel free to add further clarification to this.
Unless more and more people wake up to this humanity doesn’t have a chance. We WILL be reset as a great Rapture has ALREADY begun. We are living IN THE END TIMES AT THIS MOMENT !
Or, consider Lao Tsu, ca. 2500 b.c.
Not exalting the gifted prevents quarreling,
Not collecting treasures prevents stealing,
Not seeing desirable things prevents confusion of the heart.
The wise rule by emptying hearts and stuffing bellies,
by weakening ambition and strengthening bones.
If people lack knowledge and desire,
then intellectuals will not try to interfere,
If nothing is done, then all will be well.
I hope that we are collectively able to choose the correct path, at least for our descendants.
Btw, I recall getting a bit pissy with you a year or so back, kindly accept my apology.
Wow, Eoin you nailed it with that post, bravo! I am going to copy that one for future reference. Mankind is certainly not the hunter in this realm but shall always remain the hunted. The Great Deceiver has us in the Grand Illusion and as you say, game time approaches rapidly doesn’t it?
Capt. “…well, where do you usually go?”
I agree with you wholeheartedly and wished for the same AHA! moment for Boobus Americanus that never arrived.
That’s why I’ve lost a lot of give-a-shit my own self.
In any case, get as ready as you can, if only for the sake of You and Yours. A reckoning is on the horizon and it won’t be pretty, but be apprised, there are a [vanishingly] few of us like-minded out there… somewhere.
Yes, the adults are leaving the room: all the 2020 Democratic Candidates have endorsed the Green Deal – no doubt based solely on political calculation.
“A psychiatrist acquaintance once made the , for me, unforgettable comment that the definition of sanity was simply the ability to admit that one is wrong.”
Eoin…well if that be the case, then people who are usually correct in their perceptions are often thought insane.
I once queried the assembled readership what the baseline definition of sanity was…there is not one that is in general use, and the ability to admit one is wrong is not going to be on the short list of those offered.
I thought the same thing about AOC. In the run up to our last Presidential election I went to the gym every day at 5 PM. The gym had CNN on and every day, rain or shine, the only “news” was either on something awful GGG was doing and/or Transgenders. This went on for a year. I surmised that Trump would win the election.
Now, we see AOC all the time. In contrast to Trump, who was a known to the public and was wealthy enough to finance his own campaign, this gal had to scrape together pocket change to finance her apartment in DC prior to getting on the federal pay roll.
It all strikes me as nefarious mischief. I could have believed that she would have made City Council…..but Congress? From knocking on doors? She represents a poor district in the Bronx, it is likely that her constituents are living on a wing and prayer, so they probably did not contribute to her campaign.
It makes me wonder WHO actually financed her campaign. George Soros comes to mind. I think she is a puppet for the Deep State.
Thanks Jim. You mirror my own thinking after reading the aoc plan. It is probably the most delusional federal resolution I’ve ever read.
By the way, how does the aoc plan address how humans will heat their homes when it is -40 or -50 F in places like here in Duluth, Minn or Saratoga Springs, NY ?
how humans will heat their homes when it is -40 or -50 F in places like here in Duluth, Minn – PeteA
==============
You bring back memories, Pete. It was either the winter of 1963, ’64 or ’65 that I experienced minus 38 degrees Fahrenheit at Duluth AFB. Not “wind chill” which measurement I don’t think even existed in those days.
I recall walking from the Accounting and Finance bldg back to the BOQ (bachelor officers quarters) dressed in arctic wear and listening to the exquisite crunch of packed snow under my boots. And the F106s on the runway a half mile away that sounded like they were 50 feet away because sound travels faster in cold air.
ya well Q, you oughta have been here about a week ago. Coulda relived those memories yet again lol
Jack London said that one’s spit will freeze before hitting the ground at -50 F. And that no man should travel alone on the Klondike at such temperatures. Because if his hands or feet get wet, he may not be able to start a fire before his hands or feet freeze. And thus he is sure to lose members, if not his very life.
said that one’s spit will freeze before hitting the ground at -50 F. – JS
=============
I tried that spitting thing too but the spittle stayed viscous for maybe a half second after hitting the ground……….but that was ONLY at -38. Maybe at -50 it would be different.
well Janos, I had to work outside on my vehicles there when it was
-50 F here. I had to bring in my car batteries in and use a hair dryer to defrost them. I also had to make sure the gas and oil was becoming jellied.
I was watching the steam come off my exhaust pipes on the top of my house and I was getting a little worried that the air temp was going to freeze the outside pipes and cause my furnace to stop. We would have had to leave then.
I’m gonna have to get that big cast iron pot bellied stove my great grandparents had back here again lol
In her world, Deplorables On A Stick is fair game
“By the way, how does the aoc plan address how humans will heat their homes when it is -40 or -50 F in places like here in Duluth, Minn or Saratoga Springs, NY ?”
I predict that underground houses will be popular.
i.e. gulags
…It also depends on how many humans you have to heat…
She’s God’s gift to the Republican party, the best thing that’s happened for them since Ted Kennedy crashed his car at Chappaquidic. Add that to the abortion lunacy in Va and NY, and you have Trump winning another term In 2020.
Brh
AOC is going to be the Republican gift that keeps on giving! Maybe Trump should rename ICE, “Planned Citizenship.”
Jen in San Jose
What tide?
The red tide?
Brh
Justin Fairfax accuser molested by father?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SD2iXOSKxg
Welcome back Thwack. Where the hell ya been? Are you here to celebrate Black History Month with Janos?
Jim, very enjoyable post. Thanks for plucking out some of the diamonds from the muck. Like many of your readers–and, I believe, you yourself–I just want to get a more accurate bead on the future. Being a “doomer” should be a reluctant stance based on strong evidence, rather than some pre-existing mindset. On the face of it, it seems that society should have collapsed severaltimes over by now. The fact that it hasn’t suggests that there could be a missing factor in our reasoning. May I suggest googling Catherine Austin Smith + the slow burn? It could be that we’ve been underestimating human ingenuity, as much of it has been channeled into the black budget world.
On another topic, what do you think about the black swan of declining male fertility, attributed by some researchers to the wide array of chemical exposures within a highly industrialized society? By mid-century those swans could be filling the skies.
I believe declining male fertility is tied to environmental pollution, including pharmaceuticals. — JHK
Plastics.
According to this, all tested had plastic in them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPzeu96QJ6w&t=245s
Jim, could the 2056 nuclear detonations since 1945, plus tons of nuclear waste dumped into the Oceans by the USSR and the USA, have had an effect on male fertility rates?
Brh
BRH,
Or being bathed in microwave radiation, low level radiation, since birth?
And I believe that somewhere unicorns exist. Document your beliefs with hard empirical data, i.e. facts. Oddly enough Islamic birthrates haven’t declined.
RIB, and they have not had the benefits of TEEVEE and other first world advantages, have they? 70 years ago they were living in mud huts.
My theory about declining male fertility is that there is a direct correlation between declining male fertility and the explosion of on-line pornography.
It takes 48 hours for sperm to mature. Just sayin…
So all them little swimmers are going straight to the tissues, eh?
Immature sperm are less mobile. Compare with salmon going half way to the sea, then turning around to go back and spawn. Won’t succeed.
I could have sworn it was from testicular atrophy.
Correction: Catherine Austin FITTS. Sorry!
It would help if this insane and corrupt attack on the POTUS would stop. The corruption behind this is of a major magnitude.
Mueller has been fully exposed. All he is, is “The Cover-up Guy” for the DOJ, FBI and CIA. It was HE back in 2002, when FBI Director, that was brought before the FISA court for violations and misuse (up to 75 counts of it!!). He was also the one, as a solution to his being called upon the carpet, who created the “Woods Process” as a result, to prevent the FISA courts from being misused any further! (Which is like putting the arson who just burned down your house in charge of fire prevention in the neighborhood.) Talk about the incompetence and corruption of government.
Rosenstein appointed Mueller as the special prosecutor because he is so deep in the game and in the players and has a very strong vested interest to keep all of this from the public. The strategy is to put the heat on Trump and keep the attention off DOJ/FBI/FISA corruption. The FBI do not want FISA to be looked at because they do not want to lose this FISA court system (Star Chamber) that would allow them to continue to spy on American citizens.
The DOJ and FBI used the FISA system for political reasons: to spy on a US president! Many people should be in prison for this and the FISA court abolished. (Patriot Act should be abolished too.)
This data was in The Hill yesterday (John Solomon) and you can get more info on it through Dan Bongino’s podcast of Feb 7. (Bongino is ex-Secret Service, runs a popular podcast, and author of Spygate.)
It hasn’t dawned on the dull-witted Trump that he has quickly become Nancy’s bitch and will remain so as long as he continues to foul the White House. He could not help stepping on his own wanker and bumped the hornet’s nest a bit too hard.
Now we will see the tax returns of an arch con-man and what it truly means to hire a billionaire to run USA Inc.
We seem to have an archtype with which we measure every man seeking public office, even low offices. Children we are especially concerned about. What is the archtype?
Jesus Christ (Evangelical version)
How close does he hew to the archtype? He supported ” Life”, he expressed contrition, demonstrated piety, and manifested compassion for the forgotten as a cornerstone of his campaign.
Most evangelicals I know have serious character flaws. Major defects in intellect, actually. Some on this blog demonstrate extremes of ignorance and illogical and disordered thinking. Yet they are redeemed in faith, sanctified by humility, when forgiveness and contrition are sought and displayed.
Trump will go sailing through this shitstorm and come or the other side glowing with preternatural resolve. This is the path of the sinner. What you don’t realize is that these smears sanctify, these wounds prove divine favor, and all this will resonate with the pathos of the misery in which his forsaken constituency resides.
He will dwell for 40 days and nights in the desert, be nailed to a cross, but he will not break, and become more powerful than you can imagine.
The democrats and Republicans really fucked up in 2016… They’re dead and don’t know it.
Are you serious?
Comparing Donald Trump to Jesus Christ?
Comparing an amoral and immoral reprobate to the Son of God?
Did you forget to take your meds this morning, or do you need a different prescription?
Sorry if I was obtuse.
No, I was comparing the average evangelical christian to Trump. They are very compatible. You have to understand redemption in terms of the gospel to see how they are compatible.
Trump is compared to Jesus Christ- yes. But my point is, EVERYONE is compared to Jesus Christ.
There is a general tendency in evaluating our leaders that places a huge premium on these virtue tests… which leads to a regular parade of sin where their improprieties are trotted out.
You see it here all the time. Someone emerges and instantly is set up against this standard. People make a big deal out of little lies and peccadilloes. I think its irrational, of course. Just because Clinton smoked a joint, or Gary Hart had a little hanky panky on the side have no bearing on their actual policies. But in America, you have to run the gauntlet, carry the cross, get spit on, take all kinds of abuse. You’re tested with all sorts of vile accusations and assumptions of guilt.
Trump’s choice of Pence as his running mate was no mistake.
Point is, I don’t think a smear campaign will work. For his followers it sounds like double jeopardy. Many want Trump’s head on a stake, but they’ll never get the prize. He’s going to go into 2020 with 40% of the population in his corner. You can fume about it, complain he’s not a spotless character, even throw all his friends in jail. He’s King now. Shit doesn’t roll uphill.
That’s actually pretty damn astute for a change, Lil’ Snacker. Been laying off the Times lately, or what? You’re IQ is rebounding nicely.
Standards are set all the time, and have been throughout human history.
Question is . . . who sets the standards?
Well, you had tribal leaders who did that work for several tens of thousands of years. Came with the territory.
Then, with the coming of agriculture . . . things got more complicated. When food becomes a commodity that can be stored (grains), and someone(s) need to be in charge of the dispersal of said grains, well . . . then the WHOLE BASIS for hierarchical command and control systems are established.
And then it all goes downhill from there.
”He’s King now.”
A president is one who presides in the office of another. We don’t need another president, we need the King.
Lacking in intelligence? I suggest you read “Evidence That Demands A Verdict” by Josh McDowell and get back to me.
Trump’s lawsuit claimed that O’Brien’s 2005 book, TrumpNation, The Art of Being The Donald, falsely reported that Trump was “only” worth between $150 million to $250 million, nowhere near the net worth claimed by Trump, which ranged from $4 billion to $5 billion to $6 billion to $9.5 billion.[20] Trump sued for libel, claiming he was really, really worth billions of dollars.
Once again, Mr. Trump saw his libel lawsuit tossed out of court, this time by New Jersey Superior Court Judge Michele M. Fox, who granted the defendants’ motion for summary judgment based on no actual malice, which was affirmed by a New Jersey appellate court.[21]
“Nothing suggests that O’Brien was subjectively aware of the falsity of his source’s figures or that he had actual doubts as to the information’s accuracy,” the New Jersey appellate court ruled.[22]
The appellate court concluded that “there is no doubt that Trump is a public figure” and that he failed to meet his burden of proving the book’s statements about his net worth millions was false was published with actual malice.[23] “Nothing suggests that O’Brien was subjectively aware of the falsity of his source’s figures or that he had actual doubts as to the information’s accuracy,” the New Jersey appellate court ruled.[24]
The court held that O’Brien, an experienced financial reporter and then the Sunday Business section editor at the New York Times, relied on three confidential sources who gave “remarkably similar” estimates of Trump’s actual net worth of between $150 million to $250 million.[25]
Off into the distant future it will be generally recognized and conceded that through his entire life Trump was “as poor as a church mouse.”
A church mouse who owns multiple high end hotels, golf courses, etc.
If one takes the time to read, one notices that the suit was tossed out because Trump could not prove “actual malice,” meaning that it had to be proven that the reporter knew the figures he published were false.
This sentence from the reporter is particularly amusing “I had good reason to believe [the sources] felt the numbers were accurate, and I had very, very good reason to believe that they were.” He felt they were true, folks.
Reminds me of The Fire and the Fury. Despite the author more or less stating most of the content was based on his feelings, the MSM ensured it spread like wildfire.
A church mouse who owns multiple high end hotels, golf courses, etc. – Nightowl
============
Owns them? Or rents his name to them?
You are right. Orange Man Bad.
Feel better?
Defcon , my goodness your are a HATER. You must still be heartbroken about Hillary’s abysmal campaign after her DNC torpedoed Bernie.
He fantasizes about Nancy “donning” a strap-on and…..
…screwing his brains out.
Perhaps it is not fantasy. Perhaps it actually happens and happens frequently. This would explain a lot.
There are two kinds of deadly narcissism at work in American culture these days: techno-narcissism
Jim,
A curious narcissism in any case, considering that advances in mechanical engineering have dramatically slowed since the first glowing LEDs of Texas Instruments calculators and the game Pong heralded the coming of the age of techno-distraction.
If the techno-elite really believe that tech magic can keep everything going, they’re going to have to advance the state of older technologies more robust and hands-on than bits and electrons. Endless replays of Donkey Kong won’t get us (or other “stuff”) from point A to point B.
Cheers
Really. He’s been audited every year since 1985.i
The whole problem could be solved by releasing his tax returns.
True enough. But we’re still waiting for Obamas academic transcripts.
Brh
I’d make that swap.
“I’ll give you a Ronald Reagan cowboy shirt for 2 years of Donald Trump’s tax returns.” W proposes.
“Did he wear it? Does it have that Reagan BO?” Obama asks.
“Nope. Freshly washed.” W replies.
“Then one for one.” Obama says.
“Alright hand it over.” W says, obviously pissed.
They exchange items.
“But this is all redacted.” Obama exclaims, raising the black line stained shirt.
“Welcome to my world.” W deadpans, looking over the treasure trove of tax fraud crimes.
Yes, no doubt Trump has broken countless financial laws and no doubt Obama was not an American Citizen and was never the real President of the United States.
If you fail to use the tactics that all the other corporations use, you will fail.
Exactly so. One guy start hiring cheap, illegal labor and everyone has to do it as well to compete. Multiply this and other scumbaggery times a billion. Life becomes a race to the bottom to meet the bottom line. Who can deliver more for less in less time? Use cheap materials in a slapdash way. Something falls off and kills someone (as in Boston’s big dig), that’s someone else’s problem. Those sworn to oversee are probably paid to look the other way.
Thus Capitalists must be ruled with an Iron Hand by Higher Men. And yes, that means godly and God fearing.
Q.
Or can you posit correctly that if Yogi Berra had tits, he would be his Aunt?
Alexandria Ocasio “Ojos Locos” Cortez wants to take away our airline tickets! Out of our cold dead hands!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
From the article: Revoke corporate personhood by amending our Constitution to make clear that corporations are not persons and money is not speech. Right on, I say, though they have not quite articulated the argument which is that corporations, unlike persons, have no vested allegiance to the public interest, but rather a legal obligation solely to shareholders and their boards-of-directors.
Libertarianism and other such Right Wing fantasies are thus refuted. Attn John Az.
“Revoke corporate personhood by amending our Constitution”
Janos.
…Amend the Constitution…yeah, we can do that in this political climate. Hers is a worthless suggestion in that it is a feel-good solution that never will happen.
End “transparent voting” and it would have the same effect…and can be done with a majority vote…in a matter of days.
For clueless liberal gringos like DEFCON, “ojos locos” means crazy eyes.
Alexandria Ocasio “Ojos Locos” Cortez wants to take away our airline tickets! Out of our cold dead hands!
From the looks of the young “witchita” she won’t blink her ojos locos before doing just that.
If tits were mitts we’d all be warm in the pits.
Today’s New York Times is recommended. Not only do morons get more remedial education in climate science, but the Green New Deal is described.
And on other news Measles is killing kid and hospitalizing people around the world. The anti-vaxxers strike again. These outbreaks are couched in populations of intelligence-deficient Christian sects like the Mennonites, or Catholicism. The wages of sin? More like, the bill for stupidity.
Just when I thought you were getting better. By the way, the problem with climate science is not one of education, it’s one of collective willpower. Even the people who believe in it (like the dolts who reads the Times) don’t have the willpower to actually do anything about it, just pontificate. It has to start with them. You Times’ers really have an arrogant stick up your butts.
Complaining without offering a solution is just whining
Or, if we insist on having corporate personhood, institute the corporate death penalty for misbehavior. That means revocation of the articles of incorporation, disbandment of the organization, sale of the assets, repayment of debt with the proceeds, any left-over going into government coffers as opposed to shareholder pockets.
On the environmental front, what we have is the substitution of talk for action. There is no way in hell that the bi-coastal glitterati have got any intention of inconveniencing themselves or those of their class with ANY measures that would reduce their carbon foot-print. Ain’t gonna happen. As in never ever.
We’ll get a lot of posturing, a lot of talk of green this and green that, maybe some taxes on gasoline, but the multi-thousand pound, mammoth SUVs that could give a WW2 armored vehicle a run for its money will stay on the roads, the gasoline tax offset by cuts in income taxes on the wealthy, because as we all know, the rich need to pay less tax. And heaven forfend that private jets be mothballed. Those are a dire necessity, Hollywood types otherwise expiring, dying of jetlessness.
I read where someone said recently: “I’ll believe corporations are people when Texas executes one.”
Why don’t we send AOC over to France. I hear there are some Yellow jackets therbthat can probably deal with her.
Think about the uselessness of all of this. Improve the environment, find more oil, get rid of oil, change buildings, do electricity in new ways.
To what end
To breed more people and cause more problems.
Let us fix the population overshoot. The rest is moot.
Is there a way that does not involve billions dead?
Reduce the birth rate and attrition will take charge.
Problem, modern economics and debt control require significant growth. Oops!
Let nature take its course. Example the Black Death. Natures way is disease and starvation control when overpopulation occurs.
War! Real time population control.
JHK comment In TLE was, when oil fails, the population will return to pre oil levels, world will reduce from 7 billion now, to less than one billion. With most of human activity aimed at agriculture.
6 billion will die!
“6 billion will die!”
Perhaps in a billion years we will become oil for a wiser species that thinks about using it sparingly the moment it’s found 🙂 .
My guess is that AOC is just a provocative test balloon who is let out to test public reaction to the wilder ideas of the Democratic party. She must arguably be totally controlled by Nancy and Kamala who want AOC as a front figure since she (AOC) can be excused by her relative youth and inexperience.
I will be more worried when Kamala signs executive order 6789 in the year 2021 with whatever content it will have.
Regulation alone has proven to be a fool’s errand. Lawmakers are easily corrupted and enforcement agencies are easily infiltrated and defunded.
Indeed. At this point I think that most of the agencies tasked with regulation and enforcement are headed by people who formerly opposed them. Like mixing matter and anti-matter.
“doesn’t pencil out with our capital gone”
Is the capital gone? Per MMT principles: In the 2008 crash, when the government did the $700 billion TARP bailout, did the government look into their checking account, and see $700 billion there, and write a check? No. Did they take out a loan from someone for $700 billion? No. They just entered a combined $700 billion into multiple bank computers. It sounds like a fantasy, but money has always been part fantasy, part symbol, part promise. The real stuff are the hard materials like oil and steel, and the human labor and time to modify those hard materials. The “money” is just abstract symbols to help in the organizing of those materials.
Real money also “hard” and is “made” the same way.
“Real money,” if you’re referring to things like gold and silver, have physical value in themselves since they can be used for industrial and cosmetic purposes, but their “real money value” is still just a social construction. The society can say an ounce of goal is worth an orange, or an aircraft carrier. There are no mathematical laws to determine its value. If you say “supply and demand,” then what would happen if all the gold disappeared? Would there then be no way to access all the goods and services in the world?
Brushonfour,
I like your observation.
The only realistic value of any “currency” or “money” is it’s agreed-upon representation of energy or labor (which is energy at it’s most basic).
Money that is produced with wealth and manpower can only be replaced with wealth and manpower. If the cost to produce them go up, the value of that already produced increases.
The fact that man’s form of money requires very little to produce, insures that when the new wears off, it’s value will return to what it took to make.
President’s Address to the People has Already Borne Fruit
And the main fruit of Trump’s address to the Congress and the people on the situation in the country is of course the nomination yesterday by the Senate Judicial Committee William Barr for the position of US Attorney General, combined with the refusal of the Acting Attorney General Whitaker to answer questions from Democratic Congressmen about his interaction with his subordinate, Special Prosecutor Mueller.
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/02/07/politics/bill-barr-advances-senate-judiciary-committee/index.html
https://www.yahoo.com/huffpost/matthew-whitaker-refuses-talk-conversations-150744865.html
And this gives me a reason to return to a series of posts that was interrupted by events of urgent importance and their very strange coverage in the Russian media and which hung on the post “Maduro, Bushes, Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty and the Threat of a new Cold War through the prism of the theory of Colored World Projects”, which is most relevant to the aforementioned news.
http://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/state-of-the-union/#comment-395382
How about Doomsday?
Look at history. Doomsday for previous dying empires did not mean the end of times. Rome did not die, it is still there. Things contract, layers of folks become poorer, people starve, cultures decline.
Another thing happens. When a culture void occurs, some other culture arises or conquers it. The Germanic tribes along with a lot of other cultures wanting to do in the Romans tore that culture down.
Part of the downfall of classical Rome came from a very strong counter culture, the Roman Catholic Church. The Middle Ages were caused by the dominance of the church and its leadership’s quest for power. Life was shaped in all aspects by the church. Progress stopped in Western Europe until Martin Luther said enough is enough.
In the world today, signs of the decline coming are already showing up. Trump’s changes have drawn folks back to the US as less taxes means mor profits. However, remember our gain is someone else’s loss. Resources are finite. An area south of us has had capital drawn out of it. The reaction is predictable. They are moving toward us, wanting a piece of the pie. All of the dispossessed areas are moving towards us. Just like the Germans, Franks, Picts, that were sick of paying tribute to Rome.
So what will it look like? Gradual decline, slower if the US attempts to fight back by controlling or stopping immigration. Large numbers of the elite will be driven into poverty as their financial house of cards declines. People will localize for protection, and this is a major situation. Localize? By culture? By wealth content? By race? By power? Or all the above?
As they localize, government will have less effect. At first though, there will be an attempt to hold the mess together with strong arm techniques using government. Eventually though, it will break down because of fuedal forces of people looking for protection.
Forecast credible? Just extrapolate what is happening right now.
Gangs, MS13, illegal and legal immigration, counter movement against immigration, drugs to anesthetize the folks, devaluation of world currencies, faith in crypto currencies, the separation of the common American culture into various mini cultures, Exodus of the wealthy into isolated zones, emigration of the wealthy from America, world segregation of races and ethnicities geographically
No doomsday, just contraction into feudal societies who knows where.
Speaking of who knows where.
AGW and peak oil are waiting in the wings.
For those who did not check latest ‘Eyesore’, it is a must see…..
Jim,
It’s pure folly to cherry pick points regarding social upheaval. A dartboard with the unlucky strapped to it makes more sense . A tarot reader will have the same success rate as a learned individual these days .
Great title to a country song BTW. Damn there already is one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1bWuhYBlTQ
JohnAZ, the future of the USA is being written as I sit here, in California.
A super rich white minority, living behind high walls and surrounded by armed security.
Environmental degredation due to over population.
Tens of thousands of homeless in the streets and parks, cities being vectors of infectious diseases like typhus, cholera, aids, hepatitis, polio and meningitis.
Battle for hegemony between English speakers and the emerging Spanish majority.
An embittered white former middle class, heavily armed.
General lawlessness (see recent columns by Victor Davis Hanson)
Coming to a town near you, very soon.
Brh
I am not sure about California, but nationally Asians, not Hispanics, are the biggest influx of foreigners. Asians and Blacks do not get along in most cases, in fact they hate each other. And, while libs are celebrating the fact that whites are becoming another minority, blacks are only about 12% of the population, same as they have been for years. America will eventually become a nation of minorities with no majority, forcing minorities to form alliances to govern the nation. If they do not, the country will split apart. Asians and whites are the most likely candidates for an effective alliance.However, this is a ways off – in reality demographically the coming majority for a long time is the elderly. The emerging socialist youth movement doesn’t have too much of a chance – there simply aren’t enough of them, unlike the 60’s boomers, and the continuing baby bust will insure this situation continues.
The political party that does the best will be the one that seeks out elderly voters, not youth. That’s why the present attacks on Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid by the Republicans is suicidal and will likely lead to a Democratic victory in 2020.
You assume the millennials in charge will “let” the seniors vote. More likely a millennial “Strong Man” or “Strong Woman,” will announce,
“Democracy has been modified. You cannot vote if you are over 65. “Retirement Social Security” is being reduced along with government job pensions. The seniors may want to revolt, but counter-revolution is a young person’s game, and there will still be more people younger than 65, than older than 65. “War of the Generations.”
“America will eventually become a nation of minorities with no majority, forcing minorities to form alliances to govern the nation.”
We Europeans have seen that happening, the place was called Yugoslavia…..
Now, I think the Asians (Chinese) who have the wherewithall to arrive on U.S. soil are a bit less ideological and more moeny driven but, yes, eventually it could come to a showdown between Chinese and WASP’s.
Californicate can’t hear. More examples of judgement being imposed because of law-less-ness ( 1 John 3:4 ).
“Most Christians see abortion and infanticide as a reason for divine judgment, when in fact, it is the judgment. People are destroying their children as a result of refusing to hear God, to obey Him, and to recognize His divine right to rule. How many Christians decry abortion and yet support secular government? We have failed to recognize that God has rights too. He has the right to rule that which He has created.”
God created doctors/MDs that perform abortions at God’s will whenever a prospective client presents the need or request because the Constitution of the United States of America guarantees the rights of women to be protected from your misogynist God that also controls the priests in the Roman Catholic Church that bugger the flock because they are homosexuals hiding out in God’s so-called church of the Rapists & Homosexuals that prey on the victims of their flocks in their respective parishes.
God created hospitals & medicine so that the doctors he created would have a place to perform the abortions he has ordered.
God has no rights according to the Constitution given that God is not a person. Corporations are legal entities that have similar rights to that of persons but they are not persons either. The church is separated from the state via the Constitution.
If God does not adhere to the Constitution why did he create it along with all the abortion doctors you admire so much?
Heck, how do you know that God is male when in fact nobody has ever taken a selfie with God?
I’m pretty sure that God must be Ethel Murman anyhow.
RW
I hope these observations are a great comfort to you as you lay dying, Robert
As an Anglican our cosmology is ‘world without end’ via our King James Bible. As a Grumpy Marxist I, for one, make my observations critically and will throw down with God any day of the week and twice on Sundays.
Whenever I lay dying God is sure to be there also, RIB.
RW
World without End? Guess you haven’t read the last book of the King James Bible – or any other one for that matter.
Anglicans worship minorities, not God.
“Heck, how do you know that God is male when in fact nobody has ever taken a selfie with God?”
Robert,
His picture is painted on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel…I have seen other pic’s also. He is a dude…and seems to have an affinity with seraphim’s and cherubs…..
That dude that painted the Sistine Chapel was ordered to paint it by the Pope, and we all know that the Popes cover church butts on the child molester priest conundrums so we can assume that the Pope wanted to frighten the masses that were aware of the buggery going on in the ranks of the order of child molesters, eh.
RW
The universe is divided in all thing bi polar. Plus and minus, male and female, ting and yang.
My answer to you is God I’d neither and both. He is unipolar.
Jesus incarnation was male as it was the dominant protective element of the Hebrew society at the time. The protective, “father” was used by Jesus for God, because people understood that.
If he had been introduced to the Amazons, I would imagine God would be a she.
God is both poles of the universe. When the Big Bang took off there were no poles, just energy.
‘”Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the hearts of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.”
I used to think this only applied to lovers of evil. Now I know it applies to all.
2 Peter 3:5-7
“Replace partisan oversight of elections with non-partisan election commissions. A no-brainer.”
I don’t see this one working. The country is so divided I doubt there is a single “non-partisan” person left, though they may not be formally members of an established party.
How enjoyable! As essay that doesn’t contain ranting about the deep state……
As the visionary Kunstler has previously surmised – we are indeed experiencing a very, very “long emergency.” And from our vantage point we are continually perplexed by our inability to discern the spoiling of planet earth and recognize the milestones along the way to real cultural hardship and social calamity.
Does it matter that significant parts of the earth, and their respective populations, coexist at enormously disparate amounts of discretionary energy consumption? Will any future generation of China, India or any third-world country have as much discretionary energy consumption as Americans have now?
When, where, how, – and how much will energy consumption
be mediated by wealth, by force, or as yet unforeseen developments? When will global competition for essential energy supplies begin to affect discretionary energy consumption?
As long as the Superbowl and Nascar are running – we ain’t even close….
Very astute article this week, JHK. Icannot disagree with any part of it and I fully agree with your perspective this week.
RW
I put the outside date on all of this at about 2075, meaning that by then feudal development will be underway in some form. ‘Proven’ oil reserves give us about 50 years at current rates of consumption. The numbers are always questionable, and even more so with possible and probable reserves.
Gas prices will skyrocket, and nations will be competing or fighting with one another to get what the Earth has left. Are electric vehicles with a new electrical infrastructure powered by nuclear plants the answer? Trucks complicate the situation, and charging times would require huge numbers of stations. Highly questionable. Then of course there’s jet fuel, heating oil, etc.
Local will be local, with the usual racial tensions in play. Some of course will flee to homelands, particularly where they’re more amenable to self sustaining ways of life.
Respect for authority will be an issue. Who will control the local enclaves? Some families have more guns than the local police precinct.
Somewhere down the slide people will start to prepare. Become preppers or die.
Could invading Mexico and Venezuela be an answer for us, extending our way of life maybe another 50 years? Mexicans are invading us, let’s see how they like it.
Anything can happen when it comes to survival. Anything.
Oh now I like that tucsonspur! Bring out the big guns and turn the invasion on the invaders.
Has anyone mentioned that this stupid bitch’s proposals include ” Economic security for all those unable or UNWILLING to work? “Instead of Acid, Abortion, and Amnesty in 1972 in 2020 we’ll have Handouts Infanticide and AOC . Keep it up your Democratic dopes. You don’t understand that embracing fringe issues will enable 4 more years of Trump.
Orange Jesus Cheeto-head-in-Cheese won the last election with a majority win and is entering the second round term election with incumbency status & a first term majority. Without impeachment proceedings he will most assuredly attain a second term rendering Democrat aspirations mute.
RW
That’s exactly what they said about the mid-term elections:
“The Blue Wave is dead,
the republicans are about to get the biggest majority in the House since 19XX.”
That didn’t work out so well, did it?
A second term for Trump . . .?
Not a snowball’s chance in Hell.
I hope you are right because I am a Liberal but I’m not really a lucky Liberal so I am still worried that he will win the next election.
And whenever I bet against a politician they somehow always end up winning so I don’t count my chickens before they hatch anymore. Frankly, I have the worst track record in the world for predicting winners in elections. In brief, my bets are always worse than chance bets which makes me wonder how I could possibly be so inept to predict outcomes that never transpire?
RW
This time you’re right. The Dems must stop Trump before 2020 to have any chance. “Put y’all back in chains” Biden currently leads the pack. Then there’s Gillibrand. Harris. Pocahontas. Gory Booger. Biden seems to be the best bet so far.
Kamala Harris has called racism, sexism and transphobia matters of national security. They will all be trying to out “Woke” one another.
Those new firebrands now in the House, along with old Maxine and Nadler, know that they must find something on Trump, especially if Mueller doesn’t with his ongoing coup.
There’s so much to it all. But if Trump has solid Republican support, Vegas will have him at 3 to 1.
Then again, Obama snuck out of the woodpile and gave us all that big smile.
LOL – Never ever underestimate stupid bitches. In fact, sleep with one eye open because bitches are scheming day and night. Take it to the bank and deposit it :-).
“The disappointment over it will be epic when we discover that the laws of physics override the bright ideas of politicians.”
I doubt that the mass of the population will “discover” that bit of truth, it will just be imposed on them while they whine and kvetch that the politicians should’a, could’a done something else.
The “epic” will be a result of a modern day version of the man on the white horse imposing his will (more likely a group). Once the population numbers are reduced a new “order” will be established.
Who is this man or group? I would like to get to know them now.
The Defense Production Act (et seq.) puts the Executive Branch of the US in charge in the case of an Emergency (Secretaries of various Departments have distinct responsibilities). They will rely on the military and major industrial and commercial corporations to supply and distribute the necessities of life as long as the nation continues to hold a substantial percentage of population of persons dependent on the functioning of the system for their daily bread (even though reduced, which I think is inevitable).
If the population is reduced catastrophically below that level so that people must produce locally to live, then authority will become more horizontally organized (localized seats of authority). I don’t think Mad Max is going to be our future unless there is an all-out nuclear exchange, which is unlikely, but not impossible.
We are approaching a period of instability that can give rise to several different paths. Either of the two most likely (IMV) paths is possible depending on population levels and technology developed.
I would bet on the first, Defense Production Act regime, being the most likely, in which case the most important people will arise from the deep state just as Napoleon rose from the ranks of the French army. If, on the other hand the population is reduced catastrophically then local powers will fight it out.
About all we know is that, per Herb Stein, “If something cannot go on forever, it will stop.” Growth (as currently defined) is going to stop.
So basically my worst nightmare, on that front at least, will come true. I was hoping collapse would bring about new leadership and a new order of things but it sounds like the same old villians will do everything to grasp on to power. I shouldn’t be surprised I guess since that is human nature. But again just hoping for something new.
Like the song says, “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.”
Both benevolent despots and democracies are rare in history.
Both are brought about more as a result of conditions than personalities, and both usually decay into oligarchies.
President’s Address to the People has Already Borne Fruit
12 Republicans voted for Barr, and 10 Democrats opposed, and this was the Democrats’ response to Trump’s call for unity, which was voiced in his address to the people and Congress.
And Whitaker’s behavior in conjunction with voting in the Senate’s Judiciary Committee clearly showed that Trump, having already eaten a lot of meals cooked up by Hillary Clinton, threw away the last doubts and, after calling for unity addressed to Congress, did not wait until tomorrow and immediately moved to active offensive actions.
“There are two kinds of deadly narcissism at work in American culture these days: techno-narcissism — the belief that magical rescue remedies can save the status quo of comforts and conveniences — and organizational narcissism — the belief that any number of committees can lead a march of humanity into a future of rainbows and unicorns. ”
Indeed. And what happened to the nobility of questioning government? To questioning power, or “speaking truth” to it?
Today, McCabe of FBI infamy, releases a mea culpa. Being Irish, he of course sets himself up as a martyr. They can never forget their catechism after all, and he tries to G-mansplain how he and the FBI is trying to protect us from evil.. and Trump.
We have a unicorn. It’s an egomaniac with an orange mop that drops twitter bombs daily before 7. but f*** it, he’s a unicorn, they can
Speaking of Bad Dreams….
Two things that I find discomforting about the ancient Greeks: the bisexuality, and the patricide.
Who was the Greek bloke in that Greek myth who unknowingly killed his Father and then fucked his Mother? Was that Oedipus? Jesus….
I could play the fool and answer your question but I’ll sweeten the pot. The patricide, Oedipus, These inter-generational sagas do not speak to the drives that make up a man but something far more sinister. The domination of one class over another, mythology to give knowledge so one can navigate injustice another day and survive. Aristocracy was and is hereditary. Then is was open and everyone was labeled. Now the reality is disguised. Regardless the myth is the transfer of power from a generation to a generation that did not earn it. This is an injustice but it is the way of the world and if an icky myth or two help you make sense of it all, that isn’t so bad. It is not about really fucking your mother but about the butt-fuck we on the bottom all get every day.
Not that there are not exceptions. There are puppies that do want to do their father in and also do their mother, and in the current culture plenty of messages could push a predisposed sick puppy in a very bad way.
So you’re saying that Millennials can’t really move forward unless they kill Trump and fuck Hillary?
Another thing will happen that people don’t think about. The already vanishing middle class will cease to exist for the most part. local growing of food unless done by energy eating machinery, will require intensive hand labor by individuals. Sometimes known as serfs. Of course when people contemplate the long emergency, nobody thinks of himself as being a serf. Unfortunately, there’s no such thing as a middle class serf. I don’t wanna do it, and I’ve asked around and there doesn’t appear to be much interest.
The middle class are already serfs. Most are peons in the corporate world.
It’s creeping up rapidly on the upper middle class, too.
It devolves, as always, to the 1% (or .001%, depending on your point of view) and the 99% (etc.), typical throughout human history.
You can call it the divide between the aristocracy and the serfs.
Or you can call it the divide between the corporate/inherited wealth of the oligarchs, and the rest of humanity.
But it’s been a constant of human history since the dawn of the age of Agriculture. Before then, hunter-gatherer tribes lived in perfect harmony with nature.
After that . . . not so much.
@CancelMyCard February 8, 2019 at 9:02 pm
“Before then, hunter-gatherer tribes lived in perfect harmony with nature.”
True, but one should understand that “harmony with nature” includes a fair amount of starvation, murder, rape, and theft.
“intensive hand labor by individuals. Sometimes known as serfs”
Captain,
…then I am a surfer….
I did not know that about myself….
That second part would be taking sick and perverted to a whole new level.
Now, first things. This comment does not commit a felony under United States Code Title 18, Section 871. Any more than Puckers comment does. No it does not!
Gots to try harder than that.
Actually the mythology exists to discourage such excess. In some a backfire effect can kick in. It also depends on how you define ‘moving forward’. History repeating itself isn’t exactly forging ahead.
Late to the show today, but I dang near jumped up on the table to yell “hell ya” to today’s column. We are on the exact same wavelength with regards to today’s suggestions.
You should have jumped on the table and broke out in tap dance. It is the weekend after all :-).
And most importantly, and don’t tell neocon hawks and/or AIPAC:
8. Rein in the military-industrial complex by
reducing military spending by 50% and closing U.S. military bases around the world;
restoring the National Guard as the centerpiece of our system of national defense; and,
creating a new round of nuclear disarmament initiatives.
What happens if we reduce military spending by 50%, and China/Russia increase theirs by 100%?
Brh
Guess!
This lie down and die attitude has been around with the Leftists since the fifties.
A Tolga Party?
RW
Sue them.
I dunno, what happened to them with US at 100x theirs? Nada. Paranoid.
You assume different cultures will behave in the same way in the same circumstances. Wow, that is a big mistake. Even I can see it ;-).
Perhaps the US should take China’s approach of investment instead of base building. But then again, we can’t do infrastructure. A cheap throwaway culture of consumption and destruction.
I agree with you that our overall culture has become dedicated to consumption and destruction. We do have the capacity to do awesome infrastructure but apparently lack the collective will. Our system unfortunately idolizes the success of the individual, not the group. And success is measured in wealth accumulation. Until that mindset changes I think we are stuck.
Amen and amen. You hit the nail on the head again.
“I Have a Dream!”
Don’t you think that it is a bit strange that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was receiving daily death threats and yet he didn’t wear a bullet proof vest, nor did he have security guards? I wonder if the people surrounding Dr. King sold him out to grab Power? I wonder if Dr. King basically let himself be assassinated to become a martyr? I wonder if Dr. King had a Gandhi Complex and whether he was basically a “Nutter”?
Damn Pucker, in the good old days, people with unhealthy obsessions would just stay home and play with their balls all day.
Opie kills Sheriff Taylor and fucks Aunt Bee…. Mayberry goes All-to-Hell…
Oh yeah, with our massive army of less than 500,000 active duty soldiers (about the same number Bulgaria entered WW1 with) and 300 ship navy, fewer than Admiral Farragut had in the Civil War.
Brh
Well . . . . . but then there’s the (ahem) 11,000 nukes.
Gotta be worth something, no?
Seriously, do you think for one moment that the number of active-duty troops means anything at all?
Godammit Aunt Bee was supposed to be making my blueberry pancakes!
I think Bobby Kennedy ran because he couldn’t take the pain anymore. He knew he was a dead man. After he was shot he asked, “Did anyone else get hurt?” Now there’s a man who was expecting it.
There is no doubt that your statement is correct seadog.
From the Book “Brothers” by David Talbot, page 2:
It’s not known precisely what Bobby learned that afternoon from the Secret Service man (Kenny O’Donnell). But there was a darkness that immediately began growing in Hill and O’Donnell about what they had seen and heard in Dallas. Neither man would ever be the same after November 22. O’Donnell was riding immediately behind Kennedy’s limousine in the Dallas motorcade, just ten feet away, along with fellow Boston Irishman Dave Powers, the White House aide and court jester. They were front row witnesses to the assassination. Powers would later say it felt as if they were “riding into an ambush”. O’Donnell and more than one Secret Service man would tell Bobby the same thing that day. They were caught in a crossfire. It was a conspiracy.
Bobby Kennedy came to the same conclusion that afternoon. It was not a “he” who had killed his brother—it was a “they”. This is how he put it to his friend, Justice Department press spokesman Edwin Guthman.
“Now there was a man who was expecting it.”
Do you think JFK was not?
Absolutely! Jack was expecting and spoke about it often. It has been recorded and documented frequently. He knew what he was up against but had the character and the nerve to go after them anyway.
From “Brothers” again, by David Talbot, page 146:
“JFK made a habit of shocking his friends with the morbid specter of his own bloody demise. One day, JFK was sailing off Palm Beach with Grant Stockdale, and old friend and fund-raiser whom he appointed ambassador to Iceland. JFK began shooting off rounds from a .22 rifle over the empty ocean expanse and he urged his friend to join him. Stockdale said, “Not on your life, not with all the Secret Service around and me with a gun in my hands.” JFK then turned thoughtful and said, “Stock, do you think I’ll be assassinated?” His friend rushed to reassure him, “Chief, don’t even think about such a thing. Of course you won’t.”
Kennedy brought up the subject on several occasions with Charlie Bartlett, even discussing at length with him what kind of a president Lyndon Johnson would make after his own violent departure.”
“didn’t wear a bullet proof vest”
Puck.
What we now describe as bullet proof vests did not exist until 5 years after his death. We had no vests when patrolling the mean streets in Oakland. The “flack vests” of military origin weighed about 30 pounds, and no one wore them.
Additionally, bullet-proof vests do not protect the wearer from fatal head shots and most do not even protect the throat very well either.
Walter,
Correct! and most vests are easily defeated with a rifle…they are adequate against pistols and revolvers, as a rule.
Concerning discussions about when a collapse will occur, it reminds me of an giant oak on my property. When I bought my old farmhouse in ’85 I had some immediate triage to attend to as the 150 year old two story needed lots of work. Out near the driveway leading in was a giant water oak which forked into two trunks right at ground level. Although it looked quite healthy from a distance, closer inspection revealed a totally hollowed out trunk, open to the ground on one side by about a foot wide,perhaps 6 feet tall before the two branches diverged. The actual wood supporting the tree was maybe two inches thick. A person could easily fit inside,in fact I have pictures of it with my son standing inside it.Anyway, as it wasn’t near any structures and I had bigger fish to fry we simply made sure no cars were ever parked near it and put off the inevitable felling for another day. Friends and neighbors would discuss it throughout the years, taking bets on when it would fall . Also how would it fall. Sometimes, often as not, a tree like this slowly loses it’s luster and peripheral branches die, rot, and fall piece by piece till nothing remains but the center portion which eventually melts into oblivion. Another bet (mine) said one of our frequent thunderstorms would topple it. Well, back ,I think it was ’04, we had two remnants of hurricanes which took down a couple dozen healthy trees, but touched nary a leaf on the old oak. At this point it became a science experiment. I had the time but just wanted to see how long it could go. It finally came down maybe 5 years ago, after a typical florida summer shower. One side gave up the ghost splitting down the aforementioned gap , yet half still lived. I decided the other half could not last much longer.At least before the other half kept it somewhat balanced, so I brought it down. The tree’s health, other than the main structure , was quite healthy to the end. If you’d have asked me or anyone who saw it ’85 how long it had, we would have said 5 years tops, and we thought that to be generous. Much like the collapse discussion above, assuming we’re not deluded fools (not possible in my case as me, myself and I concur) then the inevitable collapse theory is sound, but impossible to gauge exactly as to when. As a much younger dude in ’85 I would never have thought we’d make it this far without some serious upheaval, but looking back I could never have predicted all the tricks the fat kats in the federal reserve have pulled. I thought some grownups in the military and elsewhere might have pulled some shit off or something long before we reached this point. Now with the total bizarro world we’re experiencing it has me questioning my own sanity at times. Luckily I have a sick sense of dark humor that gets me by. For instance a holy roller neighbor was just telling me just the other day that it’s a sign of the end times. I didn’t blick on eye before I agreed saying ” your right, but the rapture has already happened , and we didn’t make the cut, I’m sorry . God has blinded all but a few of us to the memory of the saved ,who are cursed knowing the truth of it. ” You coulda heard a flea fart for about 30 seconds before he accused me of pulling his leg:)
The likely worldwide collapse date is quite close in so far as Latin America is faltering yet again, and China & Russian Federation are planning World War Three to prevent American exceptionalism from entering their borders. Bottom line is that with the USA at odds with every country in the entire world we don’t have long to wait before the weakest link in the chain of sovereign debt-to-gdp within the Western empire of Fractional Reserve Banking will be the conflagration nexus point of complete collapse worldwide.
As soon as one act of international aggression occurs it will be GAME OVER for the US Ponzi & EU Ponzi crime syndicates.
Once growth is sure to collapse in the West there will be corresponding collapses in growth within Emerging Markets which will destroy American parasitism writ large when nobody will buy US Securities anymore. When American can no longer fund the debt largesse that feathers the nests of the Oligarchy, the Oligarchy will institute war as a means to an end of the threat that the masses pose towards the rich & wealthy holders on.
Elites will always insulate themselves from slaughter by the masses but a few will be eaten by the throngs of Zombies looking for some food, methinks.
RW
Good points Robert. The clearest indicator for me has been the emergence of the many deep state conspiracies out from the shadows and into the bright light of day. Five years ago discussing anything remotely controversial on this blog and many others would get you labeled a “tin foiler” and summarily dismissed or banned. Now the rampant skullduggery, while still somewhat camouflaged and controversial (by design), is accepted as common knowledge by most people. Don’t know exactly how and for how long it will play out, but the collapse, already well underway (a salient point is that, historically, collapse start and end dates are only accurately assessed long after the fact) is indeed going to be epic and ugly.
Bottom line is it’s short sighted to be focused on dates. Dates don’t really matter at all. When the ship’s going down and your locked in an interior compartment drowning, stopping to assess what and when exactly something happened is not only unproductive, it just might kill you too. Case in point:
https://features.propublica.org/navy-accidents/uss-fitzgerald-destroyer-crash-crystal/
“The successive incidents raised an unavoidable question: How could two $1.8 billion Navy destroyers, protected by one of the most advanced defense systems on the planet, fail to detect oncoming cargo ships broadcasting their locations to a worldwide navigational network?”
Why by pure coincidence of course – shit just happens. Yeah, right.
That story rang so true to my experiences in the USAF. Never quite as dramatic as that, but many quite similar.
G5
Chemtrails
Vaccines
Pizzagate-look at podestas cannibal art.
With killing babies legal, in NYS, the Moloch worshipers have a steady supply of live infants for their ritual.
Didn’t even think of that, but you are right. Big, big motivation for this legislation.
This reminds me of the Edmund Fitzgerald sinking in 1975 of which I actually Remote Viewed when it sank at the ripe old age of 15. Back then I did not understand what Remote Viewing was but I knew that I was capable of it previous to the sinking in 75.
Suffice to say that the BIG Fitz sinking was singlehandedly caused by a ship painter that painted the lines of demarcation for where the ship sat level to the water when full with cargo incorrectly. When the crew & captain visualized the lines of demarcation that indicated where the ship was supposed to sit in relation to the weight of the cargo & ship height in the water-it indicated that nothing was amiss when in fact the lines were painted far too high up the ship’s sides to visually indicate that the ship was actually overweight with iron ore.
Before the BIG Fitz went down I also Remote Viewed the painter painting the lines of demarcation on that ship. I was 15 and unaware of what I was Remote Viewing or what any of it meant until the sinking hit the news a few hours later in the morning. I’ll never forget the BIG Fitz as long as I live.
Risk Behaviour is always underestimated in every industry & field under the sun. Few really understand Behavioural Risk in Finance either. And Complexity Theory explains how it is only a matter of time before things go awry within complex systems.
RW
I thought of the Edmund Fitzgerald immediately as well, Robert!
I’m quite interested in your remote viewing assertions. Have Jim send me your email link or vice versa. I’d like to pursue it.
I’m quite interested in your remote viewing assertions. – Scratch
==============
Yeah, remote view the closing DJIA a day before it happens and report back to me. I’ll be as rich as Bezos in no time.
Oh wait, I guess he can only remote view in real time.
I gave JHK permission to send you my email if he knows your professional ethics with regard to writing & historiography. I just noticed that you are ex-USAF so I am sure you are ethical given that my father was RCAF for WW2 and that almost all in that field are fine upstanding people. Brig Gen Yeager was my favorite test pilot for USA.
RW
Thanks for the link. Interesting chain of events and completely believable. I work for the Navy and I am surprised I had not heard of this.
There are two kinds of deadly narcissism at work in American culture these days: techno-narcissism — the belief that magical rescue remedies can save the status quo of comforts and conveniences — and organizational narcissism — the belief that any number of committees can lead a march of humanity into a future of rainbows and unicorns.
Techno-narcissism is a belief that technology can transcend itself. or that shit can miraculously start smelling sweet. Normally trying the same thing over and over again and getting the same result is called insanity. In the human brain, having as it does actual brain circuits designed to do nothing but interact with technology; such an obvious correct assessment of our techno-narcissistic situation is impossible. The reason is such awareness introduces a prohibited feedback. A feedback that slows the brain down to much to be an effective agent in meat package preservation issue. Thus eliminated by natural-selection. Human’s only have sentient being 1.0 for an operating system and can’t tolerate the speed penalty.
Organizational narcissism is a way to not get an issue dealt with. There is no soul in an organization and to whom does a committee report? Another committee? And to whom do they report? Corporate cultural contamination is what organizational narcissism is. The art of passing the buck and dis-empowering the individual to maintain a status quo. The hive mind. No soul and no magic but to kiss the queen’s phat ass. Vehicles which travel endlessly and never arrive.
K-Dog,
Damn! After reading, what you’ve outlined is so patently obvious as to be almost “un-see-able”! Ye godz!
Seriously, great illumination.
I guess you have to work within a corporation to see this as both “unseeably” obvious and just old school “hiding in plain sight.” I see, rail about, and am a [self-described] victim of this kind of shit everyday (as I have no doubt that MILLIONS of others are as well!); but to what end? Simply describing it is pointless, liberating though that revelation might be. This is essentially BUS 101 in any curriculum that actually mattered. Perhaps youngsters will even study and memorize it to be regurgitated meaninglessly for a grade in a year or two?
K-Dog,
Damn!
After reading, what you’ve outlined is so patently OBTUSE as to be almost “un-see-able”!
Seriously, great obfuscation.
Cancellation,
Please try this part one more time and see if it might be less smokey-mirrorey to you:
“Organizational narcissism is a way to not get an issue dealt with. There is no soul in an organization and to whom does a committee report? Another committee? And to whom do they report? Corporate cultural contamination is what organizational narcissism is. The art of passing the buck and dis-empowering the individual to maintain a status quo. The hive mind. No soul and no magic but to kiss the queen’s phat ass. Vehicles which travel endlessly and never arrive.”
No? Not a glimmer or gleam?
I’m proud of the phat ass part.
I hate corporations.
SSL
Do you have a pension, 401k, annuity, IRA, savings account, bond account?
You own corporations and they own your future.
Sidebar
Liquidation of the debt will come with our illustrious government stealing assets from our accumulated saving for the future. Liz Warren’s taxing wealth proposal is just the start.
I would rather my future was tied into the corporate world than the raiders in DC.
The government of DC is a corporation.
John, I wish our future wasn’t determined by faceless entities whose only concern is growth and profit. Like messianicdruid says, our government in its current form is a for-profit corporation. I realize some of this is simply human nature but real intervention is needed so that these organizations factor in the public welfare and humanitarian behavior. And I am totally fine with diffuse and decentralized power i.e. the elimination of DC and Wall Street.
Blatant signs of ongoing Collapse:
1. $21 trillion missing;
2. Abortion of kids at birth;
3. Banks can now value assets on their books at the value that they think that they will be worth someday in the future:
4. Surveillance Capitalism
5. Perpetual war
You didn’t mention Bill Cosby or Martin Luther King Jr…. thats real progress.
Go ahead and treat yourself to a Marlboro. Ya done good kid.
6. The Flint Michigan Water Supply
7. ~50% Divorce Rate
8. ~40% Illegitimacy Rate
I wonder if people in Haiti ask when will Collapse occur?
Collapse already happened … in 1803.
You are cooking with Crisco tonight. If we collapse we become Haiti but if Haiti can collapse then we can’t collapse even if we actually collapse. Reason being is if Haiti can collapse collapse is relative, but if collapse is relative then collapse really cant exist.
Seashells by the seashore.
The temperature of the room is fever warm with the ‘since collapse hasn’t happen yet it won’t happen at all’ infection. Memos are out. Trolls are relying on a lot of Anecdotal evidence which is propaganda that manipulates and can’t be verified. Note to trollmaster:
Normalcy Bias
The ‘since collapse hasn’t happened yet it won’t happen at all’ meme is very similar to the ‘we should never underestimate human ingenuity’ meme.
Oedipus….
If the Millennials want to move forward, then they may have to grease Trump and fuck Hillary? That’s just the way that it is. That’s the way that it’s always been…. What can you do?
Ahhaha dream on baby!!!!
reading the details of this green new deal, im trying to figure out, in New England, once the nuclear power plants and the other power plants run on oil, gas and coal are shut, where are we supposed to get our electricity? Windmills apparently. And how do we heat our houses when the temp goes to -8dF like it did the other nite? Does anybody know? Solar panels? Magic dust?
Brh
Exactly where in New England are all the power plants being shut dpwn?
Do you have a comprehensive list of all the New England power plants and their shutdown dates?
Please post a link to the exact timeline off all New England power plants being shut down?
Thank you.
Dont know, ask Ocassio Cortez. All of them apparently by 2030. Seems like most of the big Dems are on board, even ones fron Ct and Mass. They must have a plan and some secret knowledge for electricity generation we dont know about yet. Thats all I can figger. Are you in on the secret CMC?
Brh
Here is some info, but your question was intended to be a distraction anyway.
https://www.iso-ne.com/about/regional-electricity-outlook/grid-in-transition-opportunities-and-challenges/power-plant-retirements
The greenies have set themselves up for some bragging about things that are happening anyway. The nation is slowly switching off coal because of the availability of gas – the economics demand it, at least until gas supplies get tight which is several years out.
The greenies will crow to their pig-ignorant “constituents” that the closing of coal fired generating plants is evidence of their power and success.
Yeah, we’ll be back to burning coal soon. This natgas isn’t going to last forever, and nuclear plants are being phased out everywhere.
Brownouts in the middle of winter and old people freezing to death in their houses will demand it.
Brh
@brh February 9, 2019 at 9:11 am
“…Yeah, we’ll be back to burning coal soon. This natgas isn’t going to last forever,…”
At a seminar I attended last fall some pretty highly connected people in the industry said 8 years until that particular turd hits the fan and prices go parabolic.
Does anyone have access to insiders in the propane industy?
Louisiana has one LNG terminal up and running, one under construction, and a few more are in the works. I don’t know for sure but I wonder if alot of what is produced goes to the Northeast?
M,
As JohnAZ keeps trying to point out, it absolutely depends on how many humans need heating… and feeding. It’s pretty much that ‘simple’ (Life, Death, and Black-Swan-wise.)
Up above, someone cast a glance to underground shelters. I’ve noticed my unheated basement remains about 63 comfortable degrees and my insulated garage is about a consistent 40 degrees in the dead of winter, regardless of outside temperatures. (If there were no cooling car engines dispersing their heat in there, I suppose I’d have to touch a small fire off in a small stove every once in a while to keep it from freezing. Freezing breaks down the cell structure of the veggies stored therein, making them inedible.)
Thats you, out in the country, Oz
What about the neighbors in Springfield?
Brh
Remember the good old days of the winter of 2009 when Comrade Chavez sent the po’ American folks in New England free oil for their boilers?
That was largess. Say what you will about him, that was classy
I remember, that was great.
It was facilitated by Robert Kennedy, a backer of the revolutuon.
The question is, where’s RFK, jr now?
He hasn’t been seen around Caracas lately.
Brh
That was political propaganda.
Quebec City mosque shooter Alexandre Bissonnette sentenced to life with no parole for 40 years
https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2019/02/08/quebec-city-mosque-shooter-alexandre-bissonnette-to-learn-sentence-today.html
“QUEBEC—Alexandre Bissonnette was driven by ‘racism and hatred’ when he stormed into a Quebec City mosque and gunned down six worshippers in 2017, a judge said Friday as he sentenced him to 40 years in prison without possibility of parole.
“Quebec Superior Court Justice François Huot began by saying the day of the murders ‘will forever be written in blood in the history of this city, this province, this country.’
“But he rejected the Crown’s request for six consecutive life sentences, which would have prevented Bissonnette from seeking parole for 150 years and guaranteed that he end his life behind bars.
“Huot concluded a sentence of 50 years or more would constitute cruel and unusual punishment for the 29-year-old killer, and he declared that the section of the Criminal Code allowing consecutive life sentences violates the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.”
—
Bissonnette will be eligible for parole when he is 67 years old, at which time his victims are expected to still be dead.
Wellm it looks like the violence works 2 ways, Elrond. Not just one way.
Don’t it now?
Brh
This helps Elrond sleep better at night. He hates being White and likely curses the universe (since he doesn’t believe in God) day in and day out for it. He wants to be special. This is impossible since specialness requires enhanced melanin and non-Western behaviors and beliefs. So he lives to point out hate perpetrated by Whites. And it is all a one-way street. You will never ever and I mean ever see him post anything about racist crimes committed against Whites. I am sure he believes such acts do not even exist. A boomer hippie state of mind.
Here she is again, dooming the Dems.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/ocasio-cortez-attacks-ice-illegal-133853690.html
And further down, cycling must be part of the GND.
Like Jen from San Jose stated earler, OC “the gift that keeps on giving.”
What a God send for the President.
Also, gentlemen, if a trip to LA is in your future, don’t worry about the tens of thousands of people living in squalid encampments on the streets (in this lefty paradise), rat infestation, feces strewn streets, and typhus outbreak.
The city has ordered a rat inventory,
Problem solved.
Brh
The rats will reform congress
https://ratsreformcongress.org/
If you think about it AOC is really establisment. She is the descendant of Conquistadors and comes from a wealthy family. I doubt she is genuine at all. Obama had benefactors that raised him up and prepared him in the background for his political career. She is likely no different than him in that regard.
” At the bottom of this discontent is the mistaken notion that the unwind of modernity can be arrested or mitigated by “smart” and “green” this-and-that. ”
You mean like Green ——- oh , never mind. 🙂
” There are two kinds of DEADLY NARCISSISM at work in American culture these days: techno-narcissism — the belief that magical rescue remedies can save the status quo of comforts and conveniences — and organizational narcissism — the belief that any number of committees can lead a march of humanity into a future of rainbows and unicorns. ”
( emphasis added )
Gems like the above are part of the reason I still come here.
” At the bottom of this discontent is the mistaken notion that the unwind of modernity can be arrested or mitigated by “smart” and “green” this-and-that. ”
You mean like Green ——- oh , never mind. ?
***********
Lying again. Can’t help yourself, can you, dear? I don’t recall saying anything about ‘smart’ – and ‘green’ has another function than arresting or mitigating the unwind of modernity. But you know that.
Have a good day, Kesa.
I just came back from walking the dog (plus quick bus journey) and carried back from the supermarket 2 x 3 kg bags of kibble in my back pack, and another 3kg bag plus 16 cans of Pedigree something or other in my non-leash-holding hand.
That may not sound like much to you but I’m not young like you (54 was it?). Time was I could carry more, but we ancients can’t manage quite what we could when we had to juggle a toddler, a baby, a folding buggy and three or four bags of shopping getting on and off buses, while trying to keep the toddler from falling asleep because otherwise you couldn’t carry them off the bus.
Both instances were light greenish. But I don’t think either counts as very ‘smart’ these days.
I’m low-tech. Not smart. Not in any way.
*buggy* That’s a stroller to you.
In the olden days they didn’t let you get on the bus with the baby still in the buggy. You had to hold the baby in one arm, and the three bags of shopping in the other, along with the half-asleep toddler, while closing the buggy with the toddler/shopping bag hand and your foot.
I got quite ‘smart’ at that. But pinkish, rather than green.
Do not even sell yourself short. In the future, common sense smarts and street smarts are going to count a lot more than techno smarts. Be proud of what you are.
” Thing is, Kesa, that despite all the previous rants I’ve had from brh ”
Ok , so now I’m not the only ranting one.
Now even the obvious marshmallow that is BRH is ranting .
Anyone see a clear pattern developing ?
” Thing is, Kesa, that despite all the previous rants I’ve had from brh about ‘Hey Green Alba… Muzzie Mayor of Londonistan…Muzzies this and Muzzies that’, I think I could have a conversation in real life with brh in a London pub and go deeper into the weird weather cult and his liquidation of humanity idea, and maybe even come to some kind of mutual acceptance of some ideas.
And I once said I wouldn’t like to meet him up a dark alley.
Make that you I wouldn’t want to meet up a dark alley. ”
For lack of a better term , I will call this , ” The save the helpless princess routine. ”
I have seen it many times.
Like , for example , some witch keeps treating her boyfriend like total dirt , and so understandably he eventually snaps and comes after her.
She goes running to other men crying , ” Help me ! He’s a beast ! I’m sweet and innocent and this is an unprovoked attack ! ”
And these men , either because they are that stupid , or because they are that dishonest , go along with that cooked – up narrative.
It’s a formula that is fundamentally atheist in origin.
If there is no higher power , then who or what defines right and wrong , good or bad ?
Amoeba’s ?
The evidences of science ?
That’s rich.
The evidences of science fill warehouses wall to wall , and the stacks are 30 feet tall.
And you need to know not one , or two , or twenty different disciplines , but all of them.
Because the critical piece of evidence could be way over there.
And even if you did know them all , it wouldn’t necessarily tell you what you need to know .
Like knowing how a mechanical clock is put together doesn’t really tell you what time itself is.
So then right and wrong , good and bad , must be in mans judgement.
That is the pretty way of putting it.
The not so pretty way of putting it is that right and wrong , good and bad , is the result of the next opinion poll.
A popularity contest.
And how do you figure out what the outcome of the next opinion poll will be ?
Welcome to the casino !
A great many very smart people , and Communist party members too , went to their deaths in the 1930’s in Russia on account of that crap shoot , even though one of the functions of Pravda was to inform you of what this weeks party line was.
And true enough , many Christians seem to miss the point that Jesus wasn’t crucified because he was popular , or because he won his case in court.
You’re up late.
Can’t sleep?
Brh
I haven’t looked at the clock.
Rather , I have made up my mind not to lay down for this witch.
I’m God damned tired of the pedophile clergy crap.
time for her kind to go on the hot seat.
“I’m God damned tired of the pedophile clergy crap”
If that were your real beef, I would be way, way, way down the list of your targets. That tells me all I need to know. I see who you attack and who you dare not attack, for comments on paedophile clergy. Your cowardly selectivity is just that. And I didn’t mention paedophile clergy, I mentioned the practice of frightening children with hellfire stories. And I didn’t restrict my beef to your lot – the other teams can be far worse.
I have entirely lost interest in your psychopathologies, but I did get a laugh out of you calling someone out above on ad hominems after calling me a child molester and referring to the poison I speak in children’s ears. You didn’t mention which children exactly, but I won’t push you.
Rant away, Kesa. For some you are entertaining. One of the fellas even told you he found it sexy. So the dating site thingy might work after all.
And ‘psychopathologies’ doesn’t refer to your religious beliefs.
Leaving the imaginary molested, poisoned-eared children aside, even my friends don’t know what my religious beliefs are or aren’t. We Brits are a bit like that. And my mother died without knowing I hadn’t gone to church anymore for years – why would you upset an old lady?
I stayed with her in hospital for 10 days while she died. She believed she was going to heaven, which was all that mattered. And I organised her funeral service, with the hymns that I liked. You are so clueless, it’s almost funny.
As if it isn’t real? O Kesa…. But you’re right in a way. The Church isn’t infested with Pedophiles, but rather Homosexuals. They just naturally like young men, not kids (for the most part).
The thing is, Janos – and this isn’t an attack on the Catholic church, but it brought some of it on its own head…
I know that you’re never going to reconcile yourself to homosexuals so let’s leave that aside. I know some and, as you know, there’s one (male) in my family and one (female) in my husband’s family. They’re just ordinary, lovely young people who are not turned on by people of the opposite sex. They didn’t ask to be like that – who in their right mind would choose to be something still despised, but thankfully not so widely despised now?
Anyway, if the churches – Catholic and Protestant – had not encouraged their flocks to despise homosexuals in the first place, but just given them their place in society, young men who already had to hide their entirely unasked for sexuality from their families would not have found the Catholic church to be a place where they could find peace and ‘cover’, where they would not have to find excuses for not getting married like their brothers.
I imagine a whole lot of closet gay Catholic priests just lived out their priesthood without physically expressing their sexuality at all. Which they should never have been asked to do in the first place, as they should have been left alone in lay society to live their lives like everyone else.
The celibacy thing obviously added to the problem. But nobody forced the Catholic church to have unmarried priests. As far as I’m aware it didn’t insist on it till about the 11th century and it’s not a theological deal-breaker. But I’m no expert, obviously – you know far more than I do about the history of it. It just seems to me that prejudices have had consequences and a lot of this could have been avoided.
So the problem probably feels ‘concentrated’ in the church, while it’s more widely distributed in lay society, where groups (and just individual families) hiding similar exploitation are more disparate.
Same with the grooming gangs. They were utterly evil, but they stood out like a sore thumb because lots of Asian men happen to drive taxis. No-one knows the identity, colour, religion or socio-economic background of all the evil shits who do equally bad things but secretively through the internet.
“It’s a formula that is fundamentally atheist in origin.”
So you’re ignorant that there is a secular philosophy of moral reasoning which does not require any knowledge of any of the analytical branches of science?
That should be good news, otherwise you’re up shit creek shopping among the ancient, shopworn articles of the Abrahamic religions or their derivatives.
Damn, if you weren’t the dimmest of dhimmis you might be inclined to seize this opportunity to disabuse yourself of your worst inclinations.
” So you’re ignorant that there is a secular philosophy of moral reasoning which does not require any knowledge of any of the analytical branches of science? ”
You could drop the ad hominem and share it with us ?
Just do a book search on Amazon for Moral Philosophy
In other words you don’t know what the fuck you are talking about , it was a bluff.
Or , even you don’t care enough about it to invest in it.
So why should I ?
if I’m ignorant , you’re sorry and lazy.
Wow what a pivot! The man who says that a baby is not even human is imploring someone to disabuse themself of their worst inclinations. Truly amazing. You really have no shame. Like really really.
” shopworn ” my arse!
Every part of churchianity I have encountered relies on about fifty verses of Scripture that they repeat and repeat. If you ask questions, or point to other revelation they either ignore you or make sure you know where the door is.
No, he wasn’t trying to be popular.
Just submissive to the Father with faith that His message would continue into the future.
And then the ultimate miracle happened.
” Make that you I wouldn’t want to meet up a dark alley. ”
That reminds me of presumed gun rights activists who assert a right of self defense —
— Except for convicted felons.
( Never mind that the list of felonies in many jurisdictions has exploded in the past fifty years
And lets just plain ignore the high profile fact that ALMOST EVERY U.S. President since Nixon came under felony criminal investigation ,
and I think it would be fair to venture that all would have become convicted felons , except that they could afford battalions of lawyers , and they were Presidents of the United States. )
— Except for crazy people.
( Never mind that you can easily find five different psychologists who will frankly admit that you can convict anyone of insanity out of The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders , except maybe for someone in a coma. )
And so on , and so on.
So basically their formula for a right of self defense is —
— Aristocrats have a right to defend themselves.
Big fucking deal.
With advocates like that , who even needs the power – lusting , control -freak , gun control crowd ?
No , as I have said before ; If you cannot trust a waitress with an AK – 47 , then you cannot trust ANYONE with an AK -47.
And for that reason gun control is never going to work anyway.
As for this scumbags supposed fear of me , I’m not going to bother to go into an exploration of why it is a highly dubious claim for a person who kicked Catholicism in the teeth , when she should have had a reasonable expectation that I might respond , to claim subsequently that she fears me.
I’ll just point out that while a great many women play the bullshit fear card habitually ,
99.9% of the time I find it to be a bullshit claim ,
And so my default position is to hold it in contempt.
And that was true no less when I was an 8 year old girl , than now.
That is , certainly , in this case , another fucking lie of hers.
” Make that you I wouldn’t want to meet up a dark alley. ”
on the other hand , maybe that is a genuine claim.
It is folks like you who need police states.
Not I.
Don’t be disingenuous, my dear. Not wanting to meet someone up a dark alley is a figure of speech. People say it about Snarlene Foster and she’s a lawyer and er…representative of the people.
Thirty percent of them anyway.
I’m sure it has an equivalent in German.
But you knew that.
Have a good day, Kesa.
” I wonder what your position is on deliberately lying to children. Should you tell a 4-year-old that his gran is frying in Hell for eternity? ”
Presumably you should know already , given you went to some pains to point out that you are or were married to an ex-Catholic.
Catholic dogma on that subject is that it is for God to judge man , not for man to judge man.
i.e . —- who the fuck knows who is in Hell ?
It could be that Adolf Hitler and Jack The Ripper had some genuine change of heart at the end , or there were extenuating circumstances no one around here could possibly be aware of.
So , who knows , you might find Jack the Ripper in Heaven.
( I suspect you would resent that more than I if it turned out to be so . )
Now folks —
Why does she address me as if I were a Missionary Baptist or something , when she already knows otherwise ?
And as I said , presumably she already knows what Catholic dogma on that point is , so why characterize it that way at all ?
“Now folks…”
I love it when you stand on the rostrum and address the crowds, waiting for the applause.
Have a good day, Kesa.
And if you asked the current ex-Catholic about Catholic dogma, he’d politely makes his excuses and back out of the room.
His much younger brother in Dublin is much exercised about having discovered he can’t explicitly leave the Catholic church, as in taking his name of a list somewhere. He finds this outrageous. I explained to him that it’s not like a normal human club, so it’s kinda not up to you if you’re still considered in it or not.
I passed on the conversation to my own ex-Cath and he looked mystified. Why, he asked, would you give a fuck? That’s like admitting they’re still getting to you.
So I don’t think conversations about hellish dogma would improve his mood at all. And he’s a really, really quiet person. And he’s really fond of little children, so no, best not to go there.
He still calls me a Black Prod, though, for a laugh, and offers to put in a word for me with St Peter.
*make*
” Liar. Liar. Liar. Shameful liar. Shameless liar. And vicious slanderer to boot. ”
Ok , you ask for it again , so I’ll point it out again.
On three separate occasions you have accused others of the same thing , or of being complicit in it.
look it up folks.
You started this business of hitting below the belt.
What is good for the goose , is good for the gander.
” Like I said, you are not only venomous, but utterly presumptuous. ”
Like I said , if it is good enough for you , it is good enough for me .
” A disgrace to your faith.”
Certainly .
But then I doubt you give a fuck about my faith , so why would you even use that tact ?
” It’s just that people expect higher standards in those who moralise. ”
No , I don’t think that is really true.
If it were , Howard Hughes might be famous for a certain incident involving manslaughter or reckless endangerment , and not for a giant flying boat.
And nobody would have ever heard of Kim Kardashian , except perhaps aficionados of second – rate porn.
But , more to the point —
For example , I don’t think WASP Americans generally really care whether those who preach Hinduism have high moral standards , or are doctrinally consistent , or not.
I don’t think WASP Americans generally really care whether those who preach Islam have high moral standards , or are doctrinally consistent , or not.
Oh , they might be angered or dismayed when Moslem women , when given a vote , vote for long skirts and head coverings instead of miniskirts and trousers .
( I’m not Moslem , but I think trousers are ikky and basically suck. Men gotta be outta their minds to wear them , and women even worse when they don’t have to. )
But not , I think , because those WASP Americans hearts burn for a more attractive Islam or some such.
And so on.
No , this is another one of your sneaky little dodges.
To try and worm your way back in to playing the role of prosecutor.
Well , fuck that shit.
Make no mistake ; I will never stand for that.
The only trial here is going to be a genuinely equal one.
I just thought of another one ;
Kicking Christianity , and then upbraiding me for not being a good Christian ,
Is like trashing porn , and then upbraiding Kasey Kox for not being slutty enough ( to suit standards you presumably don’t share anyway. ) .
Don’t even try to tell me , you supposedly non religious types , that you don’t get the gist of that example.
I can only feel grateful for not having a clue who Kasey Kox is.
Don’t let it get under your skin Kesa. Some people just can’t help being jelly. Of course they know better than you and live a perfect life in comparison. That’s what they have to tell themselves day in and day out. But they always have something to say to the person they think is low. So you must have something they want. I say laugh in their face, blow kisses, wink and say keep dreamin.
Hello from the jelly tribe, SoftStarLight.
Haven’t you got some local domestic abusers you could be lecturing?
I haven’t hit anyone, or indeed molested any children or even whispered sweet poison in their ears.
Kiss kiss, wink wink, dream away 🙂
BTW I don’t think you’re ‘low’ in any way, but I do think those macho guys you told me about who hit their wives are somewhere below the floorboards when it comes to human value. I would like to think they are routinely denounced from the pulpit, which would get my heartfelt approval. Incarceration and public humiliation even more so.
The thing is that you think your culture is superior to mine, yet observation suggests that macho cultures involve a whole lot more women taking it on the chin, as it were. So I’d disagree.
And my life is so far from perfect you’d laugh – or cry.
You didn’t have to be so bitchy about it Alba but since I spoke up I agree it was fair game. Just so you do know. I make no excuses for anyone, but sometimes men can go through their own depressions after a layoff, doing all they can to provide for their kids and trying to pay bills. Working long hours at multiple jobs trying to make up for the loss of one good one. Sometimes having to go to other states to get decent work. Throw in the desperation and alcohol and a woman who is frustrated too and probably runs her mouth too much and they snap. Again, no excuse, but life isn’t easy and people make bad choices. And such men find redemption like anyone else. Can you imagine, such a man can turn things around to the point where he teaches you self defense? And as far as incarceration goes. So many men, and women for that matter get caught up in the system. The system as it is is total bullshit and often times creates felons and criminals. I have friends and family who got caught up in the system and it destroys people. But most people could care less, especially about people they consider low class, or the term that gets thrown out around here so often “trailer trash”. And after all that, you can rest assured that I do everything for my kids to make sure they have the best and that they have good things in their lives. Some days they are the only reason I get out of bed so I truly do say fuck you to anyone who wants to suggest that I mistreat my children or expose them to bad things. What I discuss here is just that. Discussion with other adults about whatever topics come up. I do not think my culture is better than yours and I have no doubts that you have struggles in your life. All people do.
I was out of work for a year recently. You eat too much, you drink too much, you watch too much TV, you look at too much porn. You’ve got one foot in the grave and the other one on a banana peel. Finally, you get a job, and it’s like putting the brakes on a train coming down the mountain. But you know what, you learn things you would never learn any other way. You learn about your friends, you learn about your enemies, you learn how people help you, and how they don’t. In the end, you never say goodbye, because frankly, people aren’t worth it.
I am sorry you went through that and am glad you are back at work. Sometimes life seems like a walk on hot coals. Every challenge strengthens you and has lessons to be learned. What do you mean though when you said that you never say goodbye, because frankly, people aren’t worth it?
SoftStarLight
I do not consider anything I’ve said ‘bitchy’. You celebrate macho culture. I don’t like it. Men here lose their jobs too. My husband started up a business that was supposed to pay for his pension, remortgaged his flat, threw in his pension savings, and ended up with only the shirt on his back and holes in his shoes. And bankruptcy, with all that entails. In his case not being able to borrow anything for 7 years, which, once it’s up, means you’re too old to get a mortgage ever again. The bank took everything, even the furniture.
He had to swallow his pride and move into my little flat, a professional man in his 50s. During the first years, when he’d had a few too many beers, he occasionally said outrageous and entirely undeserved things to me that would have merited me throwing him out, because of what the experience did to his self-respect. I told him twice to leave, before we were married. But he wouldn’t hurt a fly physically and would never raise his hand to a person. That’s more personal information than I’d really like to share and way more than even my neighbours know, but no-one on here knows who I am and I just want to make the point that shit happens to everybody and they don’t all raise their fists.
I don’t look down on you AT ALL. I don’t agree with your political views, but other than that I’m sure I’d find you delightful. Really. And I don’t use terms like ‘trailer trash’ or ‘deplorable’ because I think they’re disgusting. And I am perfectly sure you’re financially much better off than I am – you certainly have a bigger house! – but it’s irrelevant to anything that matters.
So, yes, I admire the person who turns it around and teaches you self defence, but that’s not most men in that situation. Most men who hit women keep on hitting women. Lots of them think women need keeping in their place. One on here said that something a woman said or did (as shown on some weblink) would have been easily fixed by a backhander. That’s a cultural attitude, and one that shouldn’t be accepted.
And you’re a seamstress, which I envy. I’ve always had a sewing machine and made my own curtains, fixed hems etc., even on my husband’s jeans, which have broken more than a few denim needles. But any clothes I ever made, apart from a few mini-skirts when I was in my teens, were shit 🙂 .
“I was out of work for a year recently. ”
What I remember from one longish period was realising how easy it would be to fall into a depression and how your self-confidence hits the skids and you feel you’re stupid and not capable of anything. And the shame – looking out the window at your neighbours going to work and imagining they’re thinking their taxes are keeping you in your house. It’s one reason I never complain about paying tax!
Ah hah lol I do remember that backhander comment. That particular gentleman often mentions beating his woman. But you know what? To some degree I think it is bs. The same men who talk like that are the nicest men here so figure that out. But I still don’t know how I celebrate macho culture?
Once the kids are a little older I am going to rev my seamstress business back up full time.
It’s good to have something that’s both practical and creative.
Back in the 70s one of my student flatmates bought a £10 Singer sewing machine in a charity shop which had a treadle. I don’t know what happened to it but that would be a handy thing to fall back on if the lights become intermittent – or go off! You could look out for one on the internet before they disappear. I expect they are mostly used in developing countries just now. Handy to have a machine for an unwinding country… And you can hoard thousands of needles with very little space 🙂 .
Millennials put their faith in Baby Boomers like Trump and Hillary.
Yeah but those days are done. One can never trust a hippie. Especially those who wear suits and sit in boardrooms.
It’s time for new phenoms. We are going to deconstruct your world. AH HAH!
Dr. King was just waiting to take an assassin’s bullet so that he could see The Promised Land? His coterie of followers didn’t make much of an effort to sweep the area for snipers. Dr. King didn’t wear a bullet proof vest.
I think that The Pope has a special bullet proof glass car?
Yes , and then they criticized Pope Francis for not using it.
Wasn’t Pope Francis a big player in Pinochet’s “Dirty War” in Argentina?
How did they give that Venezeulan bloke, Chavez, cancer?
I wouldn’t know .
But since you mentioned Chile —
When do you suppose American officials will be indicted for the murder of Rene Schneider and Charles Horman ?
And what do you suppose are the odds that any of them will ever get the gas , the rope , the really bad trip , or get to sit in Old Sparky , for it ?
Thank you Mr. K for your words of wisdom. Technology will not save us from ourselves or from our thermodynamic predicament. Nor will politics or those who pose as politicians. Technology and politics however seem to be two dominating aspects of our national life at the moment. So presumably what comes next will have to transcend both. Advanced technology has created the appearance that we have become god-like. The veneer of democracy has also given ordinary people the idea that they have some influence over the political system. But we are just flashes of light. Blips on a radar screen. Very much tied to place and time. We have a rhyme and reason but we all flow in the current. Ultimately forced to follow paths that lead to the same end. Hopefully the world to come will recognize this. No more pretending to be the gods you are not. And acceptance that each one has a role and place in the web.
” There is a significant percentage of our population that is being subsidized…food, shelter, heat and amenities. ”
Once upon a time the average graduate of 6th grade simply went out and got a job.
Even a very good job.
I wish you could watch the movie ( 1932 ) ” I am a fugitive from a chain gang. ”
No , not the chain gang business , but the details surrounding the main characters work record and experience.
It was a movie , but art does reflect reality.
The main character becomes a bridge and dam building engineer ,
His qualifications ? He could write his own name , he was good at math , and he worked hard .
That is it.
Like I said , sure it was a movie.
But then take a stroll down to the nursing home and quiz the residents on their educational backgrounds and job titles.
Turns out that circumstance was one that folks in 1932 could relate to in reality , not just in fantasy.
Anyway , to get to my point ;
A great deal of subsidization is going on these days just so people can get a job.
Paying for Harvard , USC , or that local college nobody else ever heard of , out of your paper route money ( and when was the last time you saw a kid delivering newspapers anyway ? ) is increasingly the exception , not the rule.
Another example I can think of is the G. I . Bill , which of course I never hear anyone describe as a mercenary contract.
Except I suspect any Hessian would have seen it as a good one.
Lots and lots of subsidized living these days.
Excellent points. Universities are now profit centers and diploma mills resulting in a credential society, where lack of a degree – worthless as it almost always is – is used solely as means to whittle down employment pools. I am continually pissed off as my current employer hires new people in my career field and starts them at levels commensurate with the meaningless outside credentials they carry on their resume, rather than actual relevant work experience, which is the only thing that matters in my line of work. Then the staff (including me), gets the pleasure of carrying these losers for a year or three while they come up to speed, all while the new hire makes more money than the experienced staff who’s carrying them.
A recent hire included on her resume that she’s currently pursuing a PhD in Business Administration of all things (a classic “basket weaving” degree, the only use for which is to become a University Professor). Fortunately I won’t be working with her, as I doubt seriously I would be able to contain my contempt. Business these days is a dog eat dog charnel house and the only way to break even and maintain your self-respect is to be the most ruthless and duplicitous motherfucker on the block. Don’t remember them covering THAT in any of my MBA seminars, although we students certainly shared horror stories amongst ourselves.
Arthur Minzberg, one of the 80s business gurus, I believe, said MBAs were Maybe Best Avoided.
My mother didn’t go to secondary school. She left elementary school at 14 and went straight into doing the wages at Templeton’s Carpet Factory on Glasgow Green, in 1932. Possibly, just having nice handwriting and being half decent at arithmetic kept you away from the actual looms.
She did go through a very grumpy phase though, in later life – her sister said she was very bitter about not having had the opportunity to have a proper education. Wouldn’t have been a PhD in Business Administration though!
I did the whole “college thang” at the ripe old age of 47. Most worthless experience I’ve ever had in my life. I was much more competent and employable before I wasted 2 1/2 years on that crap. Can’t judge the sciences, but business degrees in particular are a complete scam. If I were an employer I’d use them as a candidate filtering device too; as in if you have one, we don’t want you. In the corporate world these days, sociopathy and criminality are the only prerequisites.
FAKE SCIENCE
ANTHROPOLOGY
ECONOMICS
LINGUISTICS
PSYCHIATRY
PSYCHOLOGY
SOCIOLOGY
ZOOLOGY
A TO Z
Scratch, you were just taking advantage of the GI bill whilst collecting your Air Force retirement pay. Lotta guys like that at my State U which is near sub base. Added bonus was all those young coeds running around. Am I right?
Brh
Getting Old & Risking Unemployment Thanks to Socialism
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/world-news/pension-crisis/getting-old-risk-of-job-loss-thanks-to-socialism/
@ BRH,
Scratch, you were just taking advantage of the GI bill whilst collecting your Air Force retirement pay. Lotta guys like that at my State U which is near sub base. Added bonus was all those young coeds running around. Am I right
LOL! Exactly right, for the most part. Good catch! Unfortunately I found out that the coeds were for the most part not only unobtainable, but largely undesirable as well. I suspected the generation gap was real while I was still in the USAF, but I felt it up close and personal once I separated. The younger sets’ values were simply not my values anymore at all, and there was no denying that.
I like that first line.
Arthur Minzberg, one of the 80s business gurus, I believe, said MBAs were Maybe Best Avoided.
Masters of Bullshit and Appearances/Affectations applies as well.
Scratch
“Universities are now profit centers and diploma mills resulting in a credential society, where lack of a degree – worthless as it almost always is – is used solely as means to whittle down employment pools.”
Re lack of a degree, there’s a psychological effect as well. When I went to university in the early 70s (and it wasn’t a great one!) less than 10% of school leavers went to university. So it was seriously no big deal not to go – most people didn’t. Now that 50% of school-leavers go, it’s become some sort of stigma if you don’t get in. I don’t know what it’s like over your way but the final year school kids are in a state of terror when their results are coming out, in case they haven’t got the grades they need.
And the irony is, now that the degree isn’t sufficient to do the filtering the employers also judge the kids by how imaginative a gap year they’ve been able to contrive – if they have – before they start uni – teaching English in China or washing baby elephants in Thailand! You couldn’t make it up. And that’s a great class divider as well, naturally… And – of course – there’s now a whole industry based round gap years. What will they think up next?
It’s doubly funny/ironic in my case (to me at least) GA, because I was a virtual high school drop out in the year of our Lord 1976, who only managed to attain my meaningless scrap of paper via night school in the spring semester with other “n’er do wells.” Best time of my life! Four actual “classes” and two tests later I was sent on my way to pursue other options with state sanction, whereupon I joined the military before it turned into a three-ring cluster fuck and breezed up the ranks effortlessly until I realized a little too late that it too had become thoroughly politicized by the end of the 80’s, and turned into a macabre version of high school all over again by the early 90’s.
As I pondered my options a little older but still not much wiser in the 90’s, I momentarily bought into the premise being sold at the time that, yes, life was indeed a meritocracy, and that I – special ME! – could obtain my own special version of specialness by going to COLLEGE(!) and asserting my specialness for all in the universe to see! And so I did.
Cut to the chase, no need to go in to the gory details about how my particular story turned out. It’s just one more illustrative and cautionary tale about subscribing to the “American Dream(TM)”
As I look back on it now, I realize that my high school self who listened to Pink Floyd and Queen at ear-splitting levels, smoked pot and drank beer every day, and had UTTER contempt for authority in ALL of its forms had it mostly right, and I only wish I’d have had the wisdom to listen to him more.
“I wish you could watch the movie ( 1932 ) ” I am a fugitive from a chain gang. ” ”
Kesa,
Paul Muni? Never heard of him. Saw the movie eons ago, and recalled it was painfully short of explosions and car chases….
Stop immigration and we’ll all turn into a bunch of deer and wind up in a barren place called Yellowstone. Diversity works. Nature says so, both affirmatively and in its absence.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAGEXDlUHDE
Then go be diverse somewhere else and tell us how that works out for you. Traditional societies the world over certainly know better. It’s particularly ironic that although the rich preach diversity, they very rarely practice it themselves. Not unlike their “principled stands” on climate change. Imagine that!
No, I’ll stay right here. But you can buy yourself a goldfish bowl and climb in. You’ll be safe there. The view doesn’t change much, but food rains down from heaven and you can shit anywhere you like.
Seawolf
When the US created NAFTA, with Canada and Mexico starting with Reagan and being signed with Clinton.
NAFTA as conceived, was a good thing. Corporate greed and gubment lobbying destroyed its goodness.
Nafta was concieved to make North America a trading zone to compete with Oncoming Asia and the EU. The original concept was that the US would fulfill the administrative role, Canada the natural resources and Mexico, the cheap labor. Well, the failure of that is history. The corps ran all the cheap labor to Asia, slowing Latin America’s growth, America sent everyone to college for finance, management and marketing and Canada developed the oil sands for oil.
It has created chaos in North America and really created the immigration crisis. Stopping the free flow of people a goods across the border has stopped folks fro going to Mexico to get those labor jobs that were going to grow there. Yeah, from here TO Mexico. Then the greed merchants of Hi tech moved manufacturing to Asia. A big dislocation occurred where Mexico did not get the labor pool benefits it needed. A huge human group developed that needed economic opportunity. Opportunity showed to the north and here they came, and have been since.
I think the illegal attitude thinks we owe them opportunity. The real problem is the brain and skills drain that is occurring. It is a positive feedback loop that will destroy both sides of the border, Mexico due to a loss of talent and us because the jobs do not exist here to absorb the types of folks coming here.
I hope the USMCA treaty addresses these items and corrects the bad flow of immigrants. If not, a really good idea is going to destroy both areas.
Yeah, diversity has been a real boon for Europe.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XyVfTKYE8W0&t=186
“It’s a little more hostile than I anticipated.”
Beautiful to see the moment a Marxist gets redpilled.
Feminists run Sweden
Look at the results
Brh
diversity is anti White.
The image of Seawolf perusing Little Mogadishu for knickknacks and some cultural immersion will keep me laughing for the day.
Why do we fight? That this Beauty shall not pass from the Earth.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G194_YiAwv4
Absolutely. Hamburg on the rebound, 1948:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Qpu-zqDbnN0
It’s amazing what an ex-Stasi traitor like Merkel can accomplish.
A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear. –Cicero
But remember Oli,
“The enemy is within the gates; it is with our own luxury, our own folly, our own criminality that we have to contend” -MTC
And that’s why it is not a nation. Merely a country. A passport and taxes.
An amazing people. But alas, the propaganda got to them in the end despite their amazing outer comeback. Inwardly, they remained in ruins for the most part, at the level of the Folk Spirit or National Soul.
“hormesis” – that’s a good word to learn.
For those who don’t want to bother looking it up:
“Hormesis is a term used by toxicologists to refer to a biphasic dose response to an environmental agent characterized by a low dose stimulation or beneficial effect and a high dose inhibitory or toxic effect.”
IOW, a little diversity can have many good effects, but too much begins to tear a society apart. Nature says that, too.
Between 1925 — 1965 very little immigration into the US.
The Golden Age.
Brh
even a little was too much.
It was mostly war refugees from central Europe. These people were heavily vetted for political affiliation with the Nazi or Communist party membership, which would bar entry into the US.
Brh
In other words, the people who blamed us for not letting them all in, who after we defeated their enemies, accused US of being Nazis, and went on to throw our gates open to the Third World. And you continue to all but worship them.
Jews? Kikes. you know about signing with X?
Vlad, the refugees who came to my town were ethnic Germans, Ukrainians, Poles and Russians.
Brh
If you look closely at Mark Potok’s lovely little list, he has the 1965 figure for white non-Hispanic population in the margins to the right.
https://mobile.twitter.com/hoobmitchell/status/1091115581124812801
All creatures have their territory, which they defend as individuals (if solitary beasts) or as a collective, say a pride of lions. Whites have gotten so far from Nature that they have forgotten this most basic of facts. Listen to Black Candace Owens:
Mediaite
Candace Owens , the comms director for conservative youth organization Turning Points USA, is getting attention for curious statements she made about Adolf Hitler during a Q&A in London.
The pundit and political activist was asked by an audience member about the rise of nationalism in Western politics, and according to BuzzFeed News reporters Mark Di Stefano and Alex Spence, Owens herself brought up Hitler in response.
“I actually don’t have any problems at all with the word ‘nationalism’,” Owens said. “I think that the definition gets poisoned by elitists that actually want globalism. Globalism is what I don’t want… Whenever we say nationalism, the first thing people think about, at least in America, is Hitler.”
Owens went on to explain that Hitler was a ”national socialist,” before adding “but if Hitler just wanted to make Germany great and have things run well, okay, fine. The problem is that he wanted, he had dreams outside of Germany. He wanted to globalize. He wanted everybody to be German, everybody to be speaking German. Everybody to look a different way. To me, that’s not nationalism. In thinking about how we could go bad down the line, I don’t really have an issue with nationalism. I really don’t.”
In 2019, the MSM has decided for us that any non-compliant human can be Hitler. One doesn’t even need to be white.
“Owens went on to explain that Hitler was a ”national socialist,” before adding “but if Hitler just wanted to make Germany great and have things run well, okay, fine. The problem is that he wanted, he had dreams outside of Germany. He wanted to globalize.”
She said all that and she didn’t mention that he had six million Jews killed? Or maybe she did and it’s been edited? They weren’t all part of his dreams outside of Germany, many were his own fellow citizens. He just wanted to make Germany great and have things run well? Really?
That doesn’t remotely make her a Hitler herself or even a national socialist, but it does say something about her thought processes.
By all means, fill us in.
I’m not talking about historical knowledge everyone has, Nightowl, I’m talking about a way of thinking. I did say ‘perhaps it was edited’ which would be an explanation, but no-one confirmed that was the case. But by all means, say something I didn’t mean.
I put the last sentence in especially for you, so that you wouldn’t say I was accusing her of being a neo-Nazi, which I obviously wasn’t.
OMG really???? You are still pushing population replacement and you want people to just sit back and say ok. Then lets replace all of the Latino populations as well. Are you good with that? Or does your assertion only apply to White populations?
Why don’t bears mate with squirrels?
The banal statements that pass for insight these days are truly something.
Sea Wolf would pay money to see that.
NAFTA as conceived, was a good thing == JohnAZ
The NAFTA agreement between the United States, Canada, and Mexico, prepared by George Bush Senior, but signed by Bill Clinton in 1993, after several amendments to the treaty, that allowed President Clinton to cancel financial regulation.
This, in fact, provoked the frenzy of the printing press of the 90s, which became the other side of the coin of the so-called Clinton “super boom” – the growth of the US stock market by about 100% per year, while the “real economy” grew by 5% per annum tops.
Still inexperienced at the beginning of his presidential career, Bill Clinton, in his speech on the signing of NAFTA, let it slip of tongue that he was persuaded to sign the agreement by the US military, explaining that it is crucial for ensuring US national security. To some extent, this explains the secrecy surrounding the NAFTA signing process, but the main reason was the so-called accelerated procedure for the passage of this agreement through Congress, which is that congressmen can either reject or approve the entire agreement but cannot amend it.
Bush really wanted to sign this treaty before the elections, but he did not have time, as it turned out, forever.
The NAFTA agreement actually caused the collapse of the political philosophies of both the Democratic and Republican parties in 1992 and all subsequent turbulences in the World Financial System based on the US dollar.
Suffice it to say that Bill Clinton came to power with the help of a 1992 presidential election spoiler named Ross Perot, whose program was practically identical to George Bush’s elder election program, except for the rampant criticism of the NAFTA treaty, which President Bush had so lobbied.
As a result, Ross Perot took away almost 20% of the votes from him, that is, the votes of those who were ready to vote for the Republican President, but were dissatisfied with the atmosphere of secrecy surrounding the preparation of NAFTA. Thus, it was Ross Perot who brought Bill, or rather Hillary, Clinton to the White House, and with her the entire current establishment of the Democratic Party.
It was a violation of every conceivable gentlemen’s agreement on the principles of the two-party system of the United States, without which written laws in any society turn into a drawbar, which you can turn around, and the society itself becomes a “collective” of separatists moaning under the yoke of dictators from the opposite party.
Women were not created to do everything a man can do. They were created to do everything a man cannot do.
I noticed. For example, they can’t piss against the WALL.
About 40 years ago there was a gal who came through my home town and won a lot of bar bets betting that she could piss over a car.
She would talk and wait until there was enough money on the bar, head to the parking lot, and demonstrate. She won hundred$.
Nobody knew who she was, I think she just traveled around making a living that way.
Sounds like a classy broad. I wonder where she is now?
Brh
Probably shitting Tiffany cuff links to a marching band playing “Gangnam Style.”
Ok, ok. You got me.
Let me amend my statement.
Generally, women can’t piss against the wall.
Yeah, she had a technique. This was a small southern town. I think a lot of the money was paid just to see her drop her drawers in the parking lot.
Governments stay in power because they have the threat and the will to use violence. As an example, try to never pay your local real estate taxes. Sure, you can away with it for awhile, but eventually you have to pay, either through available cash, borrowing, or liquidation of your property asset. Refuse to pay, then, and you will be forcefully and physically removed from your home. If you resist, your home will be invaded to get you out, and if you still resist by employing weapons, you will be killed – all because you won’t pay the government what they demand from you. That’s how it rules.
On a global sale, the same principle applies. If a country has the will and the ability to use overwhelming violence,it will always have major influence in the world. The main geopolitical threats to the US are obviously Russia and China.
How many nuclear weapons do we have? I’ve heard figures that range from 4,000 to 11,000. Who really knows? For the sake of argument, take a figure from around the middle of the range, say 6,000. Also say Russia and China have an excellent nuclear defense. But in the world of nuclear bombs, excellent isn’t good enough, you need perfect. Say our enemies’ defenses can stop 97% of incoming missiles. That means 3% or 200 of our nuclear bombs get through in an all-out nuclear war. Assume the same for Russia and China. What would a total of near-simultaneous 400 nuclear bomb explosions do to the world ( in reality I doubt missile defense systems can be that effective, so probably even more would get through).
The US, Russia and China know this, and that’s why it’s highly unlikely there will be nuclear war. Even though humans seem to be not so bright at times, they’re not entirely stupid or suicidal. Procedures are probably in place to minimize the damage from an accidental launch or to prevent a suicidal madman from taking unilateral action. So all the talk of nuclear war is a distraction to keep the masses fearful and in line.
Still, the threat is finite, and that’s enough for the 3 superpowers to keep wielding power and influence in the world. This is the whole point of my post – that the US will still be extremely influential through the near future ( at least through 2024) no matter if we change the form of our government, break up into several regions, or have civil unrest. That means when we propose something, the world will listen and the proposal will have a chance to be enacted (A perfect example is the existence of Israel. Let’s face it, without the US making it clear it will defend Israel, it would have already been overrun).
I don’t think Israel would be overrun, Bill. Israel has its own nuclear arsenal which pretty much guarantees it will stay independent and free. Thats one reason ISIS never f-kked with them.
One thing you didnt mention is our Virginia and Ohio class submarines. There is no place on earth their nuclear payloads cannot reach. A new Virginia class sub was launched just last week in Groton, Ct, and those things are expensive.
Brh
Can they defend themselves against hunter seeker drone/torpedoes? I’ve never heard of them, but they must exist….
Or miniature subs armed with “hellfire” torpedoes, directed by video gamers in uniforms thousands of miles away.
The fleet boats are stealthy. They sit on station and await firing orders. They are close to their targets so defensive response is impossible. They are so quiet that they are undetectable.
The Russians have the same.
They are the real reason all the land based missiles were treatied away.
MAD.
Little unmanned boats? Or subs? Or manned?
Furthermore I say that both Capitalism and Communism (and the Socialist midpoint between them) must be destroyed by the High Men on the Day of Their Wrath.
Private Enterprise? Fine. Big Private Enterprise? Also fine – as long as said private individual knows that he is no longer simply a “private” and has responsibilities to his Nation and People. And they increase the higher he goes and the bigger he gets. If he fails to remember, he will be reminded. If he eagerly remembers, he will be honored and rewarded. And if he refuses to remember, he will not rise high. If he rises high and forgets? He will be punished. If he forgets again? He will be invited to leave. If the rises to the top, to both riches, honor, and even political power and then “forgets” (betrays)? He will be destroyed.
Yes indeed Janos, and ours is not the only navy that has launched drone vessels:
https://www.foxnews.com/category/tech/technologies/drones
https://www.businessinsider.com/china-to-test-unmanned-ships-in-south-china-sea-2018-2/
My friend at the DOD and I had an interesting, non-classified discussion about these and I was reminded that as cool as they may sound, being computer and remote controlled, they are subject to being hacked into and perhaps utilized by someone other than the home country to launch a “friendly fire’ attack. Technology-the gift that give us much and always seems to take away much more……
@ Walter,
Not to mention just plain old garden variety malfunctions of the ordinary kind. As if overreliance on similar techno-wiz-bang bullshit to enable buying and financing shit we don’t need isn’t bad enough already, now we’re going all in on the same to potentially destroy each other too.
One has to wonder how a species ingenious enough to invent this kind of shit in the first place could have possibly missed the wisdom step that might have prevented it in the first place. That’s a strong argument either for or against evolution, depending on how you look at it.
“they are subject to being hacked into and perhaps utilized by someone other than the home country to launch a “friendly fire’ attack…”
Walter,
Except, of course, for the Russian variants…we both know how good Russian technology is in this field….
If Israel uses nukes, then Russia and maybe China might respond, so the same scenario plays out. The only difference is where the conflict starts (potential loss of all that oil would be intolerable). As far as subs are concerned, you are right about their effectiveness. Where the missiles came from doesn’t matter, though. Their high effectiveness only bolsters the argument that the superpowers would want to avoid a conflict, so it’s unlikely Russia/China would allow Israel’s enemies to inflict devastating damage, only the usual strife.
The thing about Nukes is that “rational” calculations all play out well before hand, and so are a given, or a “known known” in the parlance of wall mongers everywhere. They’re essentially pre-programmed into all calculations, and thus largely irrelevant.
The real danger with nuclear calculations is therefore calculating the “unknown unknowns,” otherwise known as “the shit your enemy does to deceive you,” or possibly simply as, “the shit that actually happens by whatever means while you were looking the other way.”
Rampant computerization has dressed all of this shit up in a new suit of clothes and made it seem more complex than it actually is, but it’s actually the same as it always was. Simple-minded apes shouldn’t be pointing large weapons at each other when they have no conception whatsoever of the consequences.
Anyone out there do their taxes yet? I hear people are shocked at the Trump tax increases. Oh well, Trumptards fooled again. Maybe this will put a chink in your statue like belief in this man. After all, he promised huge tax cuts, health care so much cheaper and better people are not going to believe it, a powerful, impenetrable, big, beautiful wall that would be started on day 1 of his administration, winning and winning so much you would get sick of it, him working so hard he would never leave the White House, absolutely no golf, him being more presidential than anyone with the possible exception of Honest Abe, a Space
Force, out of all the wars… do I really need to go on? Trumptards fooled again.
Yes I did mine on the 1st. The forms have been changed and they have put together what they call schedules to itemize additional taxes and tax credits and it took a lot of extra work reading and time to go over the changes and get a full understanding. I saw absolutely NO increase at all, in fact it was pretty identical to last year, at least for me. We are a low income household though, I do not know what the changes would be for the higher brackets. Low income is the way to go IMHO, at least if you have been able to put away enough in assets and have no debt. That is, at least until they find a way to tax your assets.
Just did mine not 30 minutes ago. Same, same within $50 or so. They adjusted the withholding tables as well, so most income earners using the standard deduction won’t notice any difference at all.
But seriously now, if you come on here just to troll us with the word “Trumptard” all the time, what’s the point? Have you nothing better to do with your time? Who’s the real “Trumptard” here, SeaDolt?
I’ll tell you why. I used to live in Houston and the local tavern I hung out at was full of them. I would ask what do you think of President Trump? A year into his term. After everything we saw. “I think he’s the greatest president of my lifetime,” they would say. These are not young men either. In their 60’s and 70’s, retired, living the good life. No matter what happened, like Sean Hannity and Ann Coulter, they would find a way to defend him. Now even Ann Coulter knows she’s been duped. What did LBJ say about the Vietnam War, “If I’ve lost Cronkite, I’ve lost middle America.” Well, I hope when people realize he paid for the tax cut for the rich with a tax increase on the middle class, they’ll open their eyes and smell the bullshit and admit they’ve been had.
We got the $24000 standard deduction now, what tax increase? One thing thats happening is returns are less because amount of with holding paid in each week has been reduced. Our quarterly payments were less than last year.
Brh
Last year our standard deduction was $28K, so yes, this year is was reduced by $4K, but the trick is in keeping your earned income low enough where the change did not matter. Even if you could not do this, the tax on $4K is only $403 anyway.
“Last year our standard deduction was $28K,”
Walter,
What? How did this happen…the standard deduction(Federal) for a family of two is around 12 grand….
…Or was, in 2017, as I recall.
Bushes, the Great Schism and the World War of the Roses 3
This post is a continuation of the following posts:
Bushes, the Great Schism and the World War of the Roses
http://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/swamp-thang/#comment-390910
Funeral of George Bush as Woland’s Spring Ball of the Full Moon 2.0
http://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/and-the-circus-came-to-town/#comment-389646
This needs to be done right now since the successful passage through the Senate’s Judiciary Committee of the candidacy of William Barr for the post of US Attorney General is the end of an important stage of the battle for the Department of Justice, which is the result of the Big Bargain.
Without Big Bargain Trump and what could be considered his team, would have been eaten long time ago and we all would have been watching the Third (actually Fourth) World War a few months later, and most of us would have been watching this war through the window of our living room, and not on TV.
In the future, I plan to write another post in the series “Venezuela, Libya, Bushes, INF Treaty and the threat of the Cold War through the prism of the theory of world projects”, and then write a post that would conclude both these series.
This happened because when I started writing “Bushes, the Great Schism and the World War of the Roses” I did not understand with whom Trump actually concluded the Big Bargain, but the events in Venezuela described in the second series highlighted the connection of Vice President Pence with the old Clintonoid Marco Rubio – the main organizer of the Maidan in Caracas – and made it possible to understand that in July-August the Bush clan had split.
And the part that remained loyal to George Bush Sr. made a Big Bargain with Donald Trump and used their influence on such leaders of the Republican Party as Mitch McConnell to confirm nominee for US Supreme Court judge Brett Kavanaugh through the Senate Judiciary committee.
This immediately allowed Trump to forget about a possible subpoena for questioning by Special Prosecutor Mueller, since throwing this subpoena into the waste basket would inevitably end up in the US Supreme Court and prevent the Clintonoids from seizing control in the US Senate. As a result, dual power was formed in the United States, since until the mid-term elections the real power in the United States belonged entirely to the head of the Deep State Hillary Clinton.
And one of the ways to achieve this goal was placing her people on key posts in the Pentagon, the Department of Justice, as well as in such agencies as the FBI and the CIA.
Well, the Army has always been for Trump and this largely neutralized the Clintonoids at the Pentagon, but the sweep of law enforcement agencies and the Department of Justice began with the nomination of Judge Kavanaugh as a judge of the US Supreme Court, which became possible after the resignation of Judge Kennedy, which did not happen without the participation of the notorious Israeli lobby.
Clinton responded to this alliance of Trump America, Putin’s Russia and Netanyahu’s Israel by organizing of the IL-20 catastrophe in Syria, which was supposed to destroy this alliance, and in my opinion the resignation of Defense Minister Lieberman is clearly linked to the IL-20 crash in Syria.
Moreover, in connection with this case, there were quite a few such resignations in the world, which once again proves the international and even global nature of the war that is just beginning, and the fact that the religious motivation of hostilities is deliberately hidden by a cloak of economic and geopolitical reasons makes this war just like the War of the Roses in England in the 15th century.
In one of the post from this series, I dwelled on the fact that the marriage of George H. W. Bush with Barbara Pierce (Americanized Percy) was a deliberate attempt to unite the two branches of the House of Plantagenets, and the international nature of the Big Bargain and the global nature of the War of Roses 2.0 are connected with this.
But this was also the character of the first War of the Roses, which took place in England in the second half of the 15th century, which in fact caused the appearance of the World Projects, and not just Colored Projects. That is why the reign of Ivan the Terrible, which gave birth not only to the Grand Duchy of Moscow, but to Russia, was to a large extent one of the geopolitical consequences of the Rose War in England, which actually caused Ivan the Terrible’s matchmaking to the Virgin Queen, and his disappointment when she answered it with a letter in accordance with the CRYPTO (sic!) religious character of the War of the Roses.
In this regard, I want to note that the American media during the election campaign traditionally search for the royal genes of literally all candidates for the presidency of the United States, but the situation with the 41st and 43rd president of the United States, described in the third post above, clearly goes beyond the usual.
First of all, the Prime Minister of Great Britain in front of the whole world and the amazed Englishmen gave royal honors to US President George W. Bush when he arrived in London with the first visit, and a letter of condolence that Queen Elizabeth wrote to the relatives of the deceased George H. W. Bush is so much beyond the ordinary, that almost plainly confirms this version
But this version was finally confirmed when, immediately after the funeral of George Bush Sr., Tony Blair, who had previously tried not to draw attention to his participation in Brexit, literally the next day, suddenly rushed to the attack on Theresa May, and it played a crucial role in that that the conservative party attempted to pass a vote of no confidence in her Cabinet.
War of the Roses, England
1450 — 1485
Brh
If the following is the case, the bloated bashibazouk in the White House will answer for it. I’ve been somewhat neutral on his tax returns. Now I damn well want to see them.
https://www.yahoo.com/huffpost/average-tax-refunds-down-8-054836423.html
“We’re just running too much stuff at too great a scale for too many people.“
An economist, forgot his name, has the “great filter” theory.
Why we haven’t encountered intelligent life.
Something over the timeline of inteligent life must hinder it from this crucial step.
Not even artificial/synthetic representatives or offshoots visiting.
Why?
The most popular filter sub-theory: societies and life collapse and die before this comes about.
Critics cite anthropomorphism. Adherents cite we are proving the sub-theory correct.
Economist, or cosmologist, or astro-bio guy?
And what if the civilization starts really close in time to its host star going red giant?
“Societies and life collapse and die…” could happen quite often.
SETI and feeble electromagnetic attempts are all we have, and may be all others have.
Synthetic reps are the only apparent answer to the vast stellar distances. Yes, they could arrive 50,000 years from now and land on a burnt out cinder, having detected life, but in a most primitive form.
“Heading in opposite directions, southward and northward out of the Solar System, it will be 40,000 years before Voyager 2 passes within a handful of light years of the closest star system along its flight path, and 296,000 years before Voyager 1 passes by the bright star Sirius.
Beyond that, we may imagine them surviving for billions of years as the only traces of a civilization of human explorers in the far reaches of our galaxy.”
Read it and weep. Trump made it look like you were taking home more pay. Ha! You just owed more taxes at the end. Another con, from the con man in chief.
I do taxes. People dont like the taking away the employee expense deductions, the dependent exemptions, and the limiting itemized deductions. The rich dont mind the taking away of deductions as they get a better tax rate on the tax table. The self employed people are happy and are making out like bandits. I advise people who are sending checks to the IRS to go to their HR department to increase withholding. The govt tried to make it look like working people would be getting a tax cut. They just decreased withholding and screwed people when they filed taxes.
Again, if this is true across the poorer and middle classes, con man is right. I’m not ready to do it just yet, but I may soon have to fustigate this fraud if all this holds up.
IOW, cut him into fucking ribbons, particularly if he also caves on the wall.
that’s verbally.
Ah, so then you’re the accountant.
No, but you can’t let this go. What’s right is right. Just watched videos of him promising Massive tax cuts for the middle class. Again, IF all of this tax stuff is true, it’s a major breach of promise and he should be held accountable.
My take on the returns? Let the Dems make them public. I won’t be two faced about it. Transparency is transparency, whether looked at from the Left or the Right.
I know what you mean. Let’s seem them returns. I wanna check the spreadsheets to make sure he is a real mogul and not just a poser.
If you are a white person and you paint your face black and pretend to be a black person; thats offensive, harmful, racist, and you are guilty of crimes against the Universe.
But if you are a man, and you dress up as a woman, and pretend to be one…
You are a great person, and no one can laugh at you?
Why aren’t trannys considered a sexual minstrel show?
A fine question. Btw, do you find blackface offensive? I heard the origin of it in modern America was the Jewish musician, Al Jolson.
They’ve been coming after Halloween costumes too – at least for Whites. But pc is showing a tendency to spread its attack to other groups as well. And of course if and when traditional Whites start asking why everyone is appropriating their culture, the whole nasty game, culture, and country will be over.
Are you wearing a loin cloth or daskhini right now? Why the fuck not? How dare you wear Western Clothes!
I would like to hear from some African American folks what it is about blackface that sets them off. Comedians have been getting their chuckles forever by laughing at themselves, Bill Cosby immediately comes to mind. Blackface probably originated because when vaudeville and before was our entertainment, not many Blacks were acting. So when a sketch required a blackface, one was invented.
A maturation phase in people involves humility, being able to laugh at one’s own foibles. America somehow has lost that ability. It is a very unfunny place to be as a consequence.
I think you don’t really understand African-American feelings about Whites. Blackface is considered demeaning, at least to the Blacks I know. Kind of like how they feel about Stepin Fetchit and Willie Best. They were FUNNY, but also had a slave mentality with regard to Whites.
Yeah, I hear you.
I would imagine that anything that raises the group feeling of slavery would fire anyone off.
However, just like anything else in life, closure must be achieved at some point.
The slavery issue with Whites has been used as an excuse for a gimme attitude for too long. Every ethnic group, including Whites, has to Step an Fetch it to get ahead in this country.
We are not owed anything. Pursuit of happiness means what it says, equal opportunity for happiness. Not guaranteed anything.
160 years since slavery ended. Blacks, get on with your lives.
Earn your way, do not let the Black apologists or the Liberal SOBs lead you down the gimme path. A tiny, tiny group of stupid Whites are insisting on White Supremacy, but the vast majority are too busy or apathetic about other ethnic groups to care much.
America is any groups best opportunity for a good life. That is why people are dying to get here. Blacks better get competitive, as a group, because the Latinos are a steam roller ready to run over them.
AJ was jew, color me surprised.
how do you know all this?
I take back my comment of yesterday where I thought you weren’t a bad guy. Your Kike remark is beyond insulting. You are a real asshole, Malthuss.
Please explain, tomorrow, the X people would or wouldnt sign at Ellis island and what or where ‘Kike’ is from.
thats all.
I want to know.
As usual, you stretch the truth. Blackface was used in minstrel shows in the 1800’s, long before Jolson..
Ok, I’m no expert on this one. So Whites deserve extinction because of this?
I’m saying what does blackface have to do with White extinction? I never mentioned White extinction. All I was doing was trying to prevent you from blaming Jews for the blackface issue.
This is to Beans. ALL behavior, language and history of Whites is subject to attack.
got it?
What about Eddie Murphy’s whiteface? Nobody cares about that. Blacks do whiteface all the time and its crickets.
Now I know why that gourd head shut down the government. He needed an excuse why growth will fall off the cliff this quarter and the next. No big refund checks for people who have counted on them for years. Billions of dollars that won’t be spent because they’ve already been spent.
You may be right that the PTB May be thinking the deficit will shrink if the dollars are being spent. Baloney. The shutdown only affects a small part of the government, and will have little effect on the bottom line.
The growth rate looks like it is chugging along at 3%, so no big change. The employment picture last month was rosy.
The people with Trump, like me, think that the border is the number one problem in the US and MUST be addressed. Nancy and you may disagree with that, but history is not on your side.
He is willing to take the political heat for this decision, period.
If the public feels that they do not want shutdowns then they need to vote accordingly. Typical voter logic, a split government will control both sides by stopping anything from happening, vote Dem fo the House and Senate and GOP for president.
Fine, then DO NOT complain when nothing happens and the opposing forces cause shutdowns.
Trump alone is not causing this shutdown. The two opposing forces in DC are causing the shutdown. When compromise is not available, shut it down. The affected folks better go find work in the private sector.
I don’t think you understand. People are not just getting refund checks, they are writing checks. Big checks. Read the twitter feeds.
Twitter feed? That’s your source?
Trump likes to say that’s how he communicates with his base. Unfiltered twitter feeds. Well, I’m channeling him, it’s how I get the pulse of an issue, unfiltered. So yes that’s my source. Can you name a better one, or do you just question things without having an answer of your own?
You’ve got to remember seawolf that the poor and the rich will never, ever have to pay taxes. The poor because they simply do not make enough, and the rich because they have the power to assure that they do not have to pay taxes. It is and will always be those in the ever shrinking middle that will be the victims of the government when it comes to taxation (as well as everything else).
Free Bill Cosby!
What happens in the Playboy Mansion should stay in the Playboy Mansion.
https://theintercept.com/2019/02/08/jeff-bezos-protests-the-invasion-of-his-privacy-as-amazon-builds-a-sprawling-surveillance-state-for-everyone-else/
Seawolf feels that everyone is getting screwed by the new tax laws and getting less back in refunds.
Who agrees and who disagrees? I think that a standard deduction of $12000 is adequate and provides relief from the deduction changes, but I could be wrong.
One of the reasons for the tax changes was to simplify the tax code
“So you can do your taxes on a post card”.
No matter what this president does, people will mock it, discredit it, ascribe amoral or underhanded motives to it, find something wrong and so on. Its like a mental illness. I don’t even pay attention anymore. It bores me.
brh
It bores you like the truth bores you. You love the lies, the puffery, the name-calling, the boastfulness, the hyperbole. Mendacity is a mental illness. All cocksuckers are liars. Why? Because they’re cocksuckers. They have to lie, how else can they justify their existence? By swallowing?
Is BRH a cocksucker or are you projecting again?
Quite a video you posted upthread, Vlad.
A book came out last year, photos of Hartford 1870-1920. It was painful to look at some of the pictures because the place was so well kept, orderly and beautiful, and the people in the parks and on the street so well dressed and dignified, you could see why Mark Twain moved here and called it the prince of all American cities … painful because I know what the place, and the people, look like now. I got the same feeling watching that video shot in Europe. When was that from? I doubt if any of it still exists. That’s the tragedy of it.
brh
Seawolf is a tormented joto. butts and c*cks.
Never really been, just passed thru on the highway. But yeah, Many of the old cities of New England are exquisite. I was in awe of Providence, and Springfield and Lowell – the latter two being places no one ever talks about being places to visit. They were built by a Race of literal Gods. The Browns and Blacks who swarm them now know nothing of them (I wouldn’t want to walk around downtown Springfield at night) – nor do the White pygmies who are descended from them, not really.
No doubt Hartford was one such. No doubt there are more.
Numero Culo always has a little turd he wants to drop in at the end.
Plink.
“All cocksuckers are liars.”
Wolfie,
With all respect…are you married?
or SW a woman?
Being a Trans-Doomer and a Trans-Mulatto, I’m worried about Blackface.
But this version was finally confirmed when, immediately after the funeral of George Bush Sr., Tony Blair, who had previously tried not to draw attention to his participation in Brexit, literally the next day, suddenly rushed to the attack on Theresa May, and it played a crucial role in that that the conservative party attempted to pass a vote of no confidence in her Cabinet and failure of her Brexit plan.
The fact that Trump’s victory in the elections in 2016 is related to Brexit has long been known, but the fact that the Big Bargain is connected with Theresa May’s failure suggests that not only the Clintons view Trump as Putin’s ally in the struggle that Putin has with Clinton America but they also consider Putin to be an ally of Trump in the struggle he is waging with Medvedev’s Russia, who actually intervened in the US elections in 2016 but not on Trump’s side, but on Hillary Clinton’s side, and now interfering in the American civil war 2.0, providing the owner of the Amazon and the richest man on the planet Bezos with dirt on Trump.
So Trump has no choice, he must answer, and this explains the reasons why the Wiesenthal Center suddenly noticed Finland’s participation in the Holocaust in Ukraine, and now the whole legacy of Andropov and Kuusinen, including the so-called “party gold” and Spotted Judas Gorbachev whose treachery has reached such monumental proportions that in my opinion it has found its place in the “Book of Daniel”
Read this NYT obituary:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/08/obituaries/nehanda-abiodun-dead.html
And do you remember another black revolutionary named Joanne Chesimard who took the name Assata Shakur? Back then she was known for robbing banks and killing a NJ State trooper, not for being a revolutionary. Time has softened the label by which she is known. Both of these women escaped to Cuba.
Read some quotes from Abiodun and you will get the distinct impression that American blacks are never going to assimilate into the more dominant white American culture.
And when Obama did his legacy visit to Cuba in 2016 and wanted to ‘normalize’ relations, he wasn’t going to try and get her back.
The WH back then offered the usual palaver:
… the fugitive issue is one “of long-standing concern to the United States that will be addressed in the broader context of normalizing relations between the United States and Cuba.” Yeah right.
Obama can go to Cuba, but Trump can’t go to NOKO.
When Obama left office, flies left fresh shit to follow him.
LOL – Barack Hussein Obama – America’s first Kenyan President.
Donald John Trump- America’s first fake president.
Joining the first fake congress and the first fake press. Representing the first fake, and downright stupid voters.
Voting Democrat is fatal for America, keep it up fakers.
FREE ASSATA SHAKUR.
I pledge allegiance to the fag and his divided sense of sexuality, and to his pubic’s, for which it stands, one erection, indivisible, and flaming for all. And to the projection, for which it stands, one truth, in a mystery, enigmatic, for his call. Amen.
Out at last. Out at last. Thank God almighty. He’s Out at last. But you see that’s not the end but only the beginning. He wants you with him, eating chicken down there in the darkness.
Dream on Anus.
I don’t like this prayer seawolf. It’s dirty and licentious. You need to take a scalding shower, burn sage, and repeatedly chant “forgive me God for I know not what I do”.
I pledge allegiance to just about every special interest group. Etc, etc.
http://www.wvwnews.net/content/index.php?/news_story/white_male_nashville_musician_murdered_by_five_black_juveniles_(youngest_is_12).html
Of course this can’t compare to wearing Blackface or Liam Neeson’s revenge fantasy. But the Liberal Establishment is going to pay for this one as many of them have done it.
What was Neeson thinking? Surely he must know how fucking crazy Hollywood is? Why did he even mention it? Probable answer: He really believes this shit. Really does feel guilty for something he didn’t do. Has no conscious idea of the rate at which Blacks kill. But he knows subconsciously. Of course he feels guilty about knowing. A fine figure of a man distorted by lies and guilt. You can see the cuck look on his face sometimes. Sad. A fine fellow in many ways.
Right, you can’t have the primal urge, the primitive response that is all too human. To these people it must be crushed. But he admitted that he did. He’ll pay for it now, grappling with the duality and duplicity of it all. More power to him.
What a tragic story. A family is suffering and mourning right now and yet this story will not receive much attention. Could you imagine the endless 24/7 stream of news nationwide if a Black man was killed by five White kids? It’s very much time we start shaming other Whites for their needless and self-inflicted guilt. It is self-centered, dangerous and unnatural. There is a natural, healthy, and primitive response of caution and defense when in the presence of wild animals and wild humans. It’s nothing to be ashamed of. Other racial groups have no such guilt and never will.
See comments at SBPDL.
He lived in a Black area. He was a long haired metal musician.
He has a youtube channel.
We just lost Albert Finney. For the enjoyment of all, and to his memory, this wonderful scene….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgz-CKRzs-4
Some say he should have relit the cigar on the Thompson.
That was grotesque, gratuitous, and amazing all at the same time. What a remarkable escape!!!
And to the tune of “Danny Boy”. I hope Avatar watches it.
Condolences of course.
“Seein’ you mope around here ruins my, whaddya call it, “joie de vivre?”
But of any scene, of any Coen Brps. film, this is one that most people reading, whining, and posting here need to see.
What is coming doesn’t hinge on them, their uninhibited predictions, their irrational solutions:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1U3MyX0pmE
You’re right. Nobody can stop what’s coming. The reactions will be what counts.
Great stuff. Great mood, great sense of foreboding. Loved it.
More from “No Country…”
The pit bull is coming for us, and this is how we’ll have to handle it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nttgqB_aHUs
Anyone who says they are an environmentalist but supports open borders and immigration is a bold-faced liar. This massive immigration wave we are suffering through is encouraging more sprawl, increased energy usage, and increased demand for goods and services. We allow over one million legal immigrants into the country each year. Think of all the extra pollution and trash generated by these newcomers. Real environmentalist understand this and know we have to get to zero immigration. Immigration does not make our society better. It makes society become an even more destructive force to the natural world.
Right on, SSL, right on.
She’s a Soul Sister. One of the Now people.
Thank you my Brothers :-)!
Trees are sentient beings. Cutting them down is murder. It’s appropriate to mourn for them when they are murdered or die. Planting new ones is the least we can do to remain decent and humane.
I’d rather be a tree hugger than an environmental mugger.
SortStarLight
It’s not us you should be telling, it’s Sr Bolsonaro. What he does to the very special trees in his country is going to affect sentient beings everywhere, but starting with the sentient beings who live in the Amazon rainforest. He doesn’t care. He thinks caring would make him a ‘cuck’. And that a world full of caring ‘cucks’ would be worse than one were forests were preserved, greedy people were told ‘enough’ and priority were given to people with nothing.
But you seem to like him. Yet another of life’s dilemmas.
But what would I know? I’m one of the jelly people, green witch, condescending bitch etc. etc.
I don’t buy tropical hardwood and haven’t done for most of my adult life. That’s the first step. (I guess that makes me a condescending bitch too, but whatever, happy to go with that). Eating less red meat is good, and trying to avoid foodstuffs with palm oil in them is good too, but we need some more adventurous advertising with that one. I don’t know if you have the kind of scary cigarette packets we have over here:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/image/4446274-3×2-940×627.jpg
(my other half already knows the price well, being a medic AND a diabetic, but he still has about 5 a day, and takes the view that you’ve got to die of something, but whatever…).
Anyway, perhaps we could oblige (yes, I know, authoritarian…) producers of goods containing palm oil, which is a lot of producers of a lot of products, to have similar illustrations on their products that shout ‘this product is destroying the lungs of the planet’. I think the producers might find substitutes quite quickly.
one *where*…
What’s a jelly person anyway?
Jealous.
Ah… 🙂
I’ve just realised that my fourth sentence is logically incorrect but I’m sure you get my meaning 🙂
Tropical hardwood is not sold, it is burned on site.
The tearing down of the rainforest is not to make furniture, it is to clear new land for the farmers trying to feed the population spike. It is triply destructive
Removal of chlorophyll fron the biome means less ability to process carbon into plant stuff. AGW threat
Burning the forests adds CO2 directly to the air. AGW threat.
Because most of the energy of the rainforest Is near the tree tops, the soil being exposed is very low in nutrients. Farmers are only able to grow produce on it for a few years and must move on, going to the next burnoff. A double whammy. Positive feedback.
Bottom line, we are nearing capacity of the resources of the Earth. Yet we continue up the exponential population curve.
Like everything, it would be great to stop the impingement of Man on the environment but every attempted regulation ultimately causes someone to starve, or horrors, have to give up their gas hog.
Every route points toward disaster not too far down the road. The not yet developed world will suffer first, already happening.
The most infuriating part of this is most of the American public, and the rest of the developed world are in denial over these issues. It WILL come and get them and soon.
Thanks, JohnAZ. You are right that the hardwood sold for furniture isn’t the main issue (but I still prefer to avoid buying hardwood furniture, even when it’s kitemarked, because it encourages someone further along the chain to buy the illegally sourced hardwood).There are other hardwood forests that are endangered, e.g. in Indonesia.
There was talk years back about the international community paying Brazil to keep the rainforest intact, or as near so as possible, and some charities have actually bought tracts of rainforest to protect them. But there are all sorts of legal and moral issues involved in owning land in another country.
I’m not offering any solutions. I get whacked with a sledge hammer if I try 🙂 .
Alba,
Your self-induced privations are a “whacking” enough, I expect.
Are you kind to small animals and little children because of a humanistic instinct, or because you will burn for eternity otherwise?
Do you commit to conservation because waste is improper, or because you want to save the planet?
I am not lampooning you, but it seems a form of self-flagellation. Atonement? A personal achievement, perhaps, but of no consequence in the maelstrom that is reality.
My privations are utterly minimal, EF. Do you call travelling by bus when there’s a bus every 10 minutes, 2 minutes from your front door a privation? And turning the heating down a bit? Overheating your home is a habit, to a large extent. Mine’s perfectly comfortable today and the heating’s on, but low.
Re children and small animals, yes, I imagine it’s a humanistic instinct. That’s why they’ve evolved to look cute. So that we’ll take care of them (well, not the domestic ones, we ‘made’ them look the way we like them!). Or rather, to avoid ‘purpose’, they’re cute because there’s been an evolutionary advantage to being cute – same for women with big baby eyes!
Improper is a laden term. I conserve because I would be a hypocrite if I didn’t, and because I think not to do so, in our present circumstances, is wrong. And because it’s a habit so not doing it feels bad. And because I was a post-war baby and my mother never stopped saying ‘waste not, want not’ of course!
I cannot and will not save the planet. But I asked you before: if everyone around you was shoplifting when the lights went out in a department store, would you do it just because they were? You wouldn’t make much difference either way but you’d have to live with yourself.
But I have an iPod, EF, and a PC. And a washing machine (German with A+++ energy rating, natch!). But I kept my Classic iPod till it actually died, which was about 10 years, I think. I didn’t rush out and buy a fancy new one each time a fancy new one came out.
I have used the term ‘light green’ about myself many a time. There is no halo. I just think from time to time, if I can manage on this much, why do so many people feel they can’t have a happy life without 10 times this?
I’m sort-of voluntarily flying to Spain in October – but combining two trips into one in a way I won’t bore you with, to minimise the CO2 – because I still meet up with my three flatmates from my student days and one has a house in Spain where she er…overwinters. We’re the Golden Girls! Of the others one lives in Paris and one near Brussels, both doable by train even from Edinburgh.
What do you think my penance should be? I’ll be offsetting the carbon anyway, probably to a multiple of about 5, but that’s a ruse like many others and doesn’t stop the oil from running out either. I can’t offer a refugee succour in my home as I only have one bedroom. You might say that’s no excuse but I have a husband too and he likes his space. 🙂
Alba,
Penance?
Treat yourself to the best you can afford…and without guilt. On your deathbed, hopefully in the far future, your memories of this trip may prompt a smile…
Sorting paper and plastics in the bins in front of the flat…not so much.
I was kidding, EF. I’m not feeling guilty. But I did arrange two trips – with different friends – back to back to avoid unnecessary duplication of the CO2. I don’t find that remotely weird. It’s in my DNA. And trains use fuel too, just less – and they don’t have that multiplier thingy for CO2 emitted at altitude. I haven’t flown since 2014 and I couldn’t get out of that one, nor did I try, but still.
I think you imagine me living a more frugal life than I actually live. My home has all the normal things in it for human comfort and adequate entertainment – I just don’t go in for excess and things don’t get chucked until they’ve died. That doesn’t begin to approach frugality. To me it’s common sense and normal behaviour.
But when I open the lid of the landfill bin in the street and see some lazy arse has put a massive cardboard box in it because they couldn’t be bothered to get a Stanley knife out and cut the thing up to put it in the packaging bin 20 inches away, it makes me feel cross. And not hopeful for a future of real privations and lots of selfish arses.
GA, millions of voters in Brazil disagree with you. Have they been duped? The rule seems to be that if a country elects a nationalist candidate who will represent the interests of his own people and nation, well, its a problem. Is that about the size of it?
Brh
I know they do, brh. They’re fed up with corruption, mismanagement etc. Isn’t everyone? But they may be sorry once they’ve sold the family silver. As will we.
I don’t agree that decimating the Amazon rainforest is in the long-term interest of his people and nation. They’ll get something out of it at first, obviously. Then they’ll pay, like everyone else.
And he doesn’t like ‘everyone’ in his nation anyway.
A point I was trying to make is that the population increase that is accelerating is forcing people to destroy the planet’s recycling capabilities and resources. IMHO, when the Long Emergency hits in full, ie when oil is too expensive to get, the effects are going to be horrible as the Earth’s and our capability to recover will be severely compromised.
AOC is taking a lot of heat for the Green New Deal right now.
The reason is her invasion of the public’s zone of comfort.
What do you mean,
I can’t drive my PU truck,SUV, or RV or boat.
I can’t fly in a jet plane.
I can’t heat my house to 80 degrees.
I can’t Burn my fireplace.
I can’t run my air conditioner all I want. This one hurts, huh, Tusconspur.
I have to spend money on updating my house or business for efficiency.
I have to relocate to other areas when mine becomes uninhabitable.
I get sicker more often because of new diseases our immune systems do not recognize., and more cancers because of a more carcinogenic environment.
And you want me do do this in 12 years?
I agree, JohnAZ. In 1939 people moved into emergency mode and the economy was turned around on a sixpence.
But these are not the 39-ers. And people have been infantilised – I’m not giving it up if they’re not giving it up! Or perhaps they’ve always been like that (after all, there was a lot of black market skullduggery going on even during the war) and it’s only war that fires people up to make sacrifices. How utterly sad is that?
As you say, TLE is going to come anyway. But I still believe planning for it over decades would have helped. I liked Richard Heinberg’s ‘Power Down’ ideas, but they were never going to happen. I’m not losing hope yet, though, but I’m not sure what I’m hoping for!
I would fully support that sort of product labeling Alba. Since first world countries harvest wood from tree farms and plantations I see no reason at all why we would source any wood from distant tropical forests. It should not be allowed. Jail time for law breakers.
Anyhoo, I have a meeting with Senhor Bolsonaro on Wednesday. I’ll talk to him about. I will be wearing a mahogany leaf dress to make a point and because he likes it ;-).
Make him buy you dinner – preferably not beef 🙂 And the best Brazilian wine…
But JohnAZ is right – it’s clearing for palm oil plantations, cattle ranches and farms that’s the problem. That and mining and oil extraction. And much local ‘negotiating’ is done looking down the barrel of a gun. Tell him you don’t like that!
Oh you didn’t know? He is a major baller so we will have bling and cash money raining down on us while we are doing the tango. I’ll whisper in his ear, “Oh Jair, virgin Amazon forest is hot so make me happy tonight.” LOL ;-).
But seriously I agree that the clear cutting of the forest is unacceptable. And the native Indians should be treated humanely and their lands protected from exploitation. If I were a person of importance I would really try to talk to him. I don’t believe he is an unreasonable man.
Here is at least one reason that the nation has thus far avoided “collapse”:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/you-feel-so-overwhelmed-fed-reports-dollar1-trillion-increase-in-debt/ar-BBTnRPT?ocid=spartandhp
As long as the masters continue to issue unending debt to the debt slaves, collapse will only happen one family at a time. A little here a little there. If I recall the woman in this video correctly, they paid off their credit card debts so they could buy a house. In layman’s terms that means that they paid off their small debts so that they could go into far greater debt. Kick, kick, down the road goes the can. It is possible that it can go on forever, or at least as long as other nations do not make a ply for the Top Dog spot.
It’s a difficult one, though, Walter, the house question, because it’s the biggest in people’s lives.
I’ve always been allergic to debt, like you, although moderate amounts were unavoidable sometimes when I was a single parent without a permanent teaching contract – ‘stuff’ that needed replacing got replaced when I had a job and we lived even more frugally when I didn’t. However, the mortgage was the thing that got paid first and always because it was the roof over our heads. And rent, back then, cost more than a mortgage. It’s all about timing. We didn’t feel privileged back then (interest rates went up to 15% in the 80s the year after I bought out my ex-husband’s equity and my mortgage payment jumped by 50%) but in terms of the cost of the actual houses, we were incredibly lucky compared to people now.
But renting would scare me witless. I have a good friend who was buying a flat, then a house, then sold up, came back to the city and rents – she decided she didn’t want a mortgage round her neck. She’s always worked but some jobs didn’t have a pension attached, so she’ll have a state pension, but otherwise no more of a pension than I do and will still have that rental cost permanently – and it will rise.. Currently she’d get housing benefit if her income made her eligible, but I don’t count on that lasting through her retirement.
I don’t know what the answer is – people have to live somewhere. Her mum’s got dementia, as her dad did, and is living out a long life in a care home that’s eating away her equity, so there may be nothing left to help my friend out.
No doubt that debt is necessary under many circumstances, but paying off debt ASAP is how to play the game. Funny but my mortgage was 14% as well back in 1982 when I bought our home. I made it a priority to pay it off and accomplished that 20 years later. Now it costs me $475 a month in “rent” (taxes), the home I “own” from the government (the real owner), but this is the cheapest way possible, no doubt and probably the most secure.
My message to all is that while debt my be a necessity at times, paying off debt and staying out of debt is a goal that will pay great dividends for those who can accomplish it. You are right about conventional rent, it is too easily raised or the property sold out from under you to give real stability.
Good on both of you folks, I agree completely. Early on in my marriage, however, we were quite poor, and were sometimes forced to borrow a few bucks from our in-laws. We had a kind of revolving loan agency with several of them. We all managed to survive, however, and have done pretty well since. I imagine many new families go through the same thing now, but I don’t think the same opportunities present themselves as far as getting ahead. There are many reasons why, but the biggest single reason is the loss of good paying blue collar jobs. That fact is also the reason that the Dems no longer represent the working class, in practicality, there are not enough blue collar guys to be represented. At least not the way they used to be. Of course both parties understand this, especially the Republicans, and they are constantly trying to prop up the average citizen, especially with generous tax cuts.
There’ still decent jobs to be had, Captain, if you avoid college and get some kind of vocational training, which I’ve advised the youngsters in this family to do. They’ve for the most part heeded my advice and all of them are getting on pretty well.
Brh
I have never met a poor electrician or a poor plumber.
Many farmers were sheriffed off their owned lands for non-payment of taxes during the onset of the Great Depression. A year later, they were standing in bread lines in the cities.
The second, third mortgages route to consolidate debt is a common tool of the vampire financial sector.
Old adage
When you start borrowing to pay interest payments from prior debt, you are finished.
Think about that Federal Reserve.
Uh,….guys (and, of course, all other pronoun classes), you seem to leave out of the dooms day predictions the real game changer now strewn about all areas of the globe that hasn’t been there in past times of mega disasters — all the nuclear facilities and weapons that require constant tending by highly qualified technicians. If those “tenders” cease to show up (or can’t) that fissionable material is going to start dispersing in both gradual and eruptive ways. Eventually, there’s prospect that the whole earth will be uninhabitable. Whoops!
All absolutely true, Cavepainter. In fact there’s a book that you probably know about, but whose title I’ve forgotten – haven’t read it but my husband told me some insane tales from it. Anyway, it’s about all the near misses, in terms of nuclear accidents, including one simply where some guy dropped a component into somewhere he couldn’t get it out of and just missed engendering a nuclear catastrophe. I didn’t get round to reading the details.
Likewise, there’s the issue of what happens when the guards don’t turn up at the high-security jails where the psychos are. I think JHK mentioned this somewhere, possibly in TLE (it’s been years…).
They won’t all be as er…manageable as Wayne Karp and his mates at the dump. Many will form the protection racket outfits who will take my flat when I can’t pay up. And may even club me to death first.
Sometimes I think I should go to CBT for my catastrophising problem… 🙁
I know that we men certainly spend more than enough time complaining about women, but if we are honest, we men could screw up a sunny day. When you consider the ridiculous things we have created such as nuclear anything and world war, it is a wonder that any of us men, women and children still exist. Someday we may not be so fortunate, especially once AI is well underway. If AI is going to be as damned “intelligent” as they claim it will be, I have to wonder how long it will take it to hack into all of the computer systems that run everything and start an actual WWIII?
Woman can screw up a sunny day too, Walter. If Kamala Harris or Liz Warren get elected in 2020, does that mean warfare is a thing of the past? What if Russia made a move into Ukraine and kept on going toward central Europe, or China invaded Taiwan then Japan? How would these ladies respond? Differently than a male president would respond?
Brh
As evidenced by the account that Scratch posted of the navel vessels being struck by the container ships. If you scroll through the story on the link he posted it is clear that the female officer on deck and the female helmsman both froze up and failed to act to avoid the collision. No doubt, we humans of both genders can be wise or stupid. That is why it is best when we work together rather than against one another.
They might be like Maggie Thatcher, brh. The Falklands war got her another election victory, egged on by the tabloid press.
Boadicea put up a good fight too.
I’d offer you Penthesilea as well, but she wasn’t real!
I will raise Golda Mier and Margerat Thatcher as two women that kicked ass when it was needed.
Much more afraid of the Namby pamby Leftists, both genders, that will lie down in front of our enemies.
Mrs T and her cabinet.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyU8qmzGsEg
BRH….add Marianne Williamson to the list of 2020 candidates. Deep yawn, she considers semantics paramount. Years ago she tried to get the government to change Department of Defense to the Department of Peace, as if that would change the world. Bring on the woo woo.
Jen in San Jose
Not only the reactors and weapons.
The main thing inhibiting the implementation of nuclear electricity is:
What the heck do you do with the used fuel rods? Unbelievably radioactive, and they takes hundreds of thousands of years to morph into lead.
Right now, they are all sitting in swimming pools on nuclear sites. I do not know the physics of what water does, but I would guess that some leakage, maybe gamma rays escape.
Anyway, each rod adds to the problem, there is no outflow, not for a couple of hundred thousand years.
That’s no problem, John, all we have to do is make sure someone takes care of them for a span of time longer than modern man has existed. In exchange for that, we get at least 20-30 years of use out of ’em. Small price to pay, I say.
Like I said further up, there’s a meme that says ‘never underestimate human ingenuity’.
Ha…ha…ha… Or human delusion either.
As Einstein (reportedly) said, “There are only two things that are infinite, the universe and human stupidity – but I’m not so sure about the universe.”
You can take your tongue out of your cheek now.
I was being ironic too but it was less obvious 🙂
Getting rid of fuel rods is actually one of the simplest things to do in the nuclear industry – only problem is that political opposition prevents its implementation. All one has to do is grind them down, mix them with clay, vitrify the mixture, and then bury them in a facility like Yucca Mountain.
Plenty of people get their panties in a wad about it, but it will be done once the political process is no longer in the way, IOW after the Emergency is declared.
The main political opposition comes from Las Vegas. Las Vegas will wither on the vine once the credit expansion ends.
Epicur
I remember seeing pictures in the fifties of atomic tests being conducted north of Las Vegas. The mountains with mushroom clouds behind them.
Hopefully, we are smarter than that now.
I totally agree. Much ado about nothing. It is a political hot potato that gets tossed around endlessly. The stuff can be neutralized and returned to the ground in a way it can’t go anywhere as you describe. I like the idea of deep mines in a subduction zone but that is just being cutie pie. Totally unnecessary.
Can’t they be used for heating or something? If not shoot them at the sun to help it keep going. What is poison for man is nectar to the gods.
I have wondered why they don’t shoot it into solar orbit.
John,
Because rockets fail, and blow up at inopportune times and can scatter debris for hundreds of miles.
An industry in a small to mid sized town with industry to entomb the waste safely digging tunnels 1000s of feet deep to take the final product. The product can decay over the aeons in isolation and it would provide lots of jobs. That heats homes and also allows for the purchase of nectar in aluminum cans.
Since government money would run the show we can have a town with demographics which reflect the melting pot ethos of the American dream. Black white and brown all smiling together eating burgers and shopping on Saturday. High School homecoming dances and the football team has tunneling prairie dogs as their team mascot. No job in the town less than 1.5 times the minimum wage or more than 7 times it
Go Dogs!
But,,,,,,,
Rather than do something so boring and sane. Radioactive bricks can be made which won’t degrade. A tempered glass outer layer that can even be rained on. They would just be a danger to anyone right up next to or holding them. A wall built with such bricks could be made fatal to anyone within ten feet of the wall but a fatal dose to a person a few hundred feet away would take months and a mile away would be not to worry about.
A wall made with radioactive bricks would only need a minimum of razor wire on top to slow passage down long enough to get the dose.
‘When the walls come tumbin down’ can’t ever be played with the same joy but there are trade-offs. Always are.
Nation nuclear weapons facilities have the no-how. All T has to do is ask. Any comparison to capital punishment is moot. Climbing the wall would be voluntary.
no-how is not a misprint.
The prison industrial complex could build prison walls out of the same kind of brick. An inner wall high enough to shield the outer wall can keep exercising prisoners with short sentences reasonably safe. Cell walls would also shield.
Robots do the construction.
Did I say tunneling prairie dogs? I did. My bad, a horrible image I know. This is America and we do not have collectivist propaganda on cultural propaganda. It would be one bad-ass prairie dog kicking ass or…………
The ultimate mascot would be a cartoon school shooter but I prefer animals. A school with a shooter as a mascot would win all their games. They would go to state playoffs every year for sure. Everybody they played would be thrown off their game.
Collectivist images on cultural propaganda. We take after Islam that way.
Dog,
How long would it take before the bricks start showing up on the dark net? Perhaps the Cartels would use dynamite or a RPG to vaporize and disperse the radiation into the U.S. Maybe the Organs of internal security would place on in the trunk of your car.
Surprise!
Didn’t we bomb Iraq with bombs made out of radioactive metal? Pretty evil.
Tank buster warheads and the bunker busters use uranium based heavy metals, I believe,
Compounds of uranium are extremely poisonous. Large molecules so completely different from organic life rearrange DNA like a circular saw cutting pine. Three-headed fish can result even after the radioactive part has been totally depleted from the mix.
But not to worry, nobody cares. What happens over there can stay over there. Then entire town of Flint Michigan had its water supply poisoned by Republican grifters in a money making scheme. All the children have lead poisoning. But walls and Russian dolls make all the bad shit get small in the rear-view mirror real quick.
Really? Is there 1 Republican within 50 miles of Flint, Michigan?
What happened in Flint, Michigan is that the distinguished citizens for some reason didn’t think they had to pay their water bill — ever. Somebody told them it was free, and that the water just magically appeared in the faucet.
Kind of like now where some people think we can have electricity without power plants to generate it; or it can be had with ‘zero emissions’, and many other delusions listed in the Green New Deal.
Brh
BRH: February 10, 2019 at 4:13 pm
Like I’ve said elsewhere, lots of shit in this country is subsidized.
When Nature demands that we start balancing the books there will be wailing and gnashing and teeth.
“gnashing of” – rats!