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Why would anybody suppose that the Peoples Bank of China might want to tell the truth about anything that was within their power to lie about? Especially the soundness of any loan portfolio vested unto the grasp of its tentacles? Of course, most of what China has done in speeding toward the wall of financial crack-up, it learned from watching US bankers slime their way into Too Big To Fail nirvana — most particularly the array of swindles, dodges, and frauds constructed in the half-light of shadow banking to hedge the sudden, catastrophic appearance of reality-based price discovery.

When so many loans end up networked as collateral in some kind of bet against previous bets against other previous bets, you can be sure that cascading contagion will follow. And so that is exactly what’s happening as China’s rocket ride into Modernity falls back to earth. Like most historical fiascos, it seemed like a good idea at the time: take a nation of about a billion people living in the equivalent of the Twelfth Century, introduce the magic of money printing, spend a gazillion of it on CAT and Kubota earth-moving machines, build the biggest cement industry the world has ever seen, purchase whole factory set-ups, and flood the rest of the world with stuff. Then the trouble starts when you try to defeat the business cycles associated with over-production and saturated markets.

Poor China and poor us. Escape velocity has failed. Which raises the question: escape from what, exactly? Answer: the implacable limits of life on earth. The metaphor for all this, of course, is the old journey-into-space idea, which still persists in the salesmanship of Elon Musk, the ragged remnants of NASA, and even the nightmares of Stephen Hawking. Get off this messed-up home planet and light out of the territories, say Mars. Of course, this is a vain and stupid idea, since we already have a planet engineered to perfection for all the life systems associated with the human project. We just can’t respect its limits.

So now, that dynamic duo, Nature and Reality, the actual owners of the planet, have showed up to read the riot act to the renters throwing a wild party. The fourth and perhaps ultimate financial crisis of the last twenty years begins to express itself in terms that only the raptors and vultures can see from on high. George Soros, Kyle Bass, and the other flocking shadow banking scavengers prepare to short the living shit out of the old Middle Kingdom. The immortal words of G.W. Bush ring in their ears: “This sucker is going down,” and they are sure to win big by betting on the obvious. Trouble is, this sucker could go down so much further than they imagined, that whatever fortunes they gain from its descent will be foiled by the destruction of the very economic system needed for them to enjoy their gains.

For instance, when banking systems go down, governments usually follow, and when governments go down, societies often unravel. It doesn’t take a great effort of imagination to see China’s one party politburo leadership machine lose the respect of its governed masses, and then its control of events, followed by a Great Struggle among the regions and factions to restore some kind of order. And when the smoke clears there will a whole lot of nearly worthless concrete and steel, and a vast loss of notional wealth, and China will be lucky to land back in some approximation of the Twelfth Century.

It must be interesting for China to watch the horrifying disintegration of America’s political party structure currently on view, with the mad bull called Trump rampaging across the land and the designated inevitable Mz It’s-My-Turn hijacking her collective for the greater glory of Goldman Sachs. The last time China got the vapors politically — the so-called Cultural Revolution of the 1960s — the country went batshit crazy. Surely some of the ruling party remembers that with requisite terror.

Or maybe this is China and the USA’s Thelma and Louise moment. Pedal to the metal, they drive into the abyss of history holding hands. Remember, audiences loved that!

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530 Responses to “Ground Control to Captain Zhou Xiaochuan”

  1. Neon Vincent February 1, 2016 at 9:50 am #

    “The fourth and perhaps ultimate financial crisis of the last twenty years begins to express itself in terms that only the raptors and vultures can see from on high. George Soros, Kyle Bass, and the other flocking shadow banking scavengers prepare to short the living shit out of the old Middle Kingdom.”

    It’s not just them. In response to the situation, JPMorgan Asset Management CEO Mary Callahan Erdoes reassured a panel last month that that slowing growth in China and falling oil prices “are not going to cause some kind of global disruption or recession.” Yeah, just keep saying that while oil prices are the lowest in 13 years and gas is cheaper than it’s been since 2009. Even Paul Krugman is acknowledging that oil prices falling too far, too fast will cause problems. He called it “oil goes nonlinear.”

    Speaking of financial crises, the biggest film about the last one, “The Big Short,” is now the favorite to win Best Picture at the Oscars, placing it ahead of “Spotlight.” The news media, other than the comedians, may not be telling the truth about the present and future, but the entertainment media is at least telling the truth about the recent past. May we have the ability after the coming crash to be able to do so about the current situation in a decade.

    • Pogo February 1, 2016 at 11:20 am #

      “Everything is changing. People are taking their comedians seriously and the politicians as a joke.” Will Rodgers

  2. goat1001 February 1, 2016 at 9:51 am #

    Methane on the ocean bottoms is beginning to thaw and boil to the surface, in unimaginable quantities.

      • Neon Vincent February 1, 2016 at 10:12 am #

        FishOutOfWater is one of Daily Kos’s best climate diarists and well worth reading. However, that report is from nearly two years ago, which is probably why the Doomsday Clock remained at 11:57 when it was revisited last week, despite 2015 being the warmest year on record. That’s a real problem, but that merited hardly even one news cycle.

        In contrast, the Flint water crisis has been making national headlines for weeks now. That’s also a real problem, but it’s one on a human scale with villains and scapegoats who are people that many Americans don’t like and solutions that appear achievable, not something in which all of us are complicit and solutions that people don’t want to acknowledge.

        • elysianfield February 1, 2016 at 11:35 am #

          “In contrast, the Flint water crisis”

          Bill Mahr had a great line several weeks ago regarding the Flint Water Crisis….” The Police Department in Flint is up in arms regarding the current crises…a spokesman for the police said that ‘pumping lead into blacks is our job’….”

          • lsjogren February 1, 2016 at 12:41 pm #

            Ouch. Now that’s what they call black humor.

          • vengeur February 1, 2016 at 1:48 pm #

            And Bill Mahr’s job is apparently pumping out inflammatory racist lies and calling them “jokes”. Sure Bill, Flint P.D.’s job is shooting innocent blacks. That lie is sooooo funny. Ha ha.

          • S M Tenneshaw February 1, 2016 at 6:13 pm #

            You’re the one who’s lying, vengy baby.

          • vengeur February 1, 2016 at 7:58 pm #

            That’s the best you can do? LOL

          • S M Tenneshaw February 2, 2016 at 1:48 am #

            What are you LOLing at? You can’t tell a lie from a joke.

          • seawolf77 February 2, 2016 at 8:17 am #

            That was a great line.

      • K-Dog February 1, 2016 at 11:06 am #

        Goat, I’ll relate the methane bubble to ‘Captain Zhou Xiaochuan’ for you.

        It is a good reason to get out of China. If the wet bulb temperature gets above 92 degrees Fahrenheit you die. Methane will warm large areas of the earth beyond this limit and millions will die. It already begins.

        China Falls Under Suspicion of Covering Up Deaths as Ocean Heat Dome Expands to Blanket Korea and Japan

        You will have to scroll down a bit to find that title.

        • K-Dog February 1, 2016 at 11:08 am #

          The picture of a ‘Road Sign Burns Under Record Heat in Shanghai Region’ is really cool.

      • m111ark February 1, 2016 at 12:54 pm #

        Ah, the great Global warming scam.

        For all those who think we’re headed for warming, move north…I’m north now headed south…

        just a few short years will prove which one of us enjoys what little summer we have.

        • sauerkraut February 1, 2016 at 1:11 pm #

          Well Mark, have you seen what is happening in Greenland? Even 60 Minutes got onto it last night – photographs of rivers flowing over glaciers. Have you ever flown over Greenland? You can see the glaciers retreating, decade by decade.

          Who ya gonna trust? Your lyin’ eyes?

          • m111ark February 1, 2016 at 1:25 pm #

            Trust, that’s the key.

            You won’t trust government(an assumption but if you’re here it’s probably true) but you will trust them on climate.. what could be their motive for lying, hummm,…

            couple of places to consider:

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miIEAOAOgyI
            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_I_lsZCAWi4
            https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=suspicious0bservers

            If you’re still convinced of warming, consider a hedge; build yourself an underground growing room, hydroponics, and insulate to the max. It’ll be about 2035 before we’re back to resembling normal.

          • Janos Skorenzy February 1, 2016 at 1:59 pm #

            Ever ask why it’s called Greenland? Because small parts were green during the Medieval Warm period – fields of high grass and even small trees. In other words, much warmer than today. Then the Vikings came with their heavy industry and destroyed it, changing both Greenland and the entire climate of the World. Damn Whites. They got what they deserved when the Inuit slit their throats and stole their women.

          • MisterDarling February 1, 2016 at 3:51 pm #

            @ Sauerkraut:

            You really need to look on the bright side! They’re growing potatoes in Greenland for the first time ever!

            http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/03/26/17475499-produce-picked-from-the-tundra-welcome-to-climate-change-in-greenland?lite

            Top-Quote; “Change is already under way. Potatoes grown commercially in southern Greenland reached over 100 tons in 2012, double that of 2008. Vegetable production in the region may double this year compared with 2012, according to government data.”

            Property values in Nuuk are a steal I hear. Get ahead of the pack and buy now!

            /S

            ‘Go North, Young Man!’

            😉

          • alphie February 1, 2016 at 4:26 pm #

            “Dam Whites. They got what they deserved…” Janos

            Ok what have you done with Janos?

            I thought you were being sarcastic until you went on to say:
            “They got what they deserved when the Inuit slit their throats and stole their women”

            No longer tragic Macbeth?
            I wait with bated breath

          • sauerkraut February 1, 2016 at 5:30 pm #

            Janos, I did ask that very question of an Icelander.

            He said it was marketing: Iceland had enough people, the place was actually overgrazed by Eric’s time, so they discouraged immigration. So they gave it a forbidding name.

            When Eric was banished from Iceland he had to go West, because he had also been banished from Norway, “because of some killings.” He ended up in a barely habitable place, but it was habitable, and he claimed it. Then the trick was to get people to come there and populate his little kingdom.

            So he named it Greenland.

            Sharp customers, these Vikings.

          • elysianfield February 1, 2016 at 6:40 pm #

            “Well, Greenland is a dreadful place,
            It’s a land that’s never green…
            Where there’s Ice and snow, and the Whale Fishes Blow,
            And daylight’s seldom seen….

            Peter Paul and Mary.

          • Doug February 1, 2016 at 8:18 pm #

            “Ever ask why it’s called Greenland? Because small parts were green during the Medieval Warm period – fields of high grass and even small trees. In other words, much warmer than today.”

            Not true. It was a typical boosterism ploy.

            How Greenland Got its Name

          • Sean Coleman February 2, 2016 at 4:38 pm #

            So now in their desperation to prove AGW and deny the Medieval Warm Period they are driven to historic revisionism and etymological fantasy. Greenland really meant Gruntland or Iceland. Anything but green! And temperatures are getting out of control, just like a hockey stick!

          • Janos Skorenzy February 2, 2016 at 4:56 pm #

            Yes true: read Jared Diamond’s “Collapse” again. Otherwise, how did the colony survive at all or as long as it did.

            Until their heavy industry caused the Global Warmthing called The Little Ice Age.

          • sauerkraut February 2, 2016 at 7:19 pm #

            Sean, it’s hard to know what you think of as evidence, but how about the yearly decrease in Greenland ice? Rivers on the glaciers, for heaven’s sake!

            Did you not see the piece on 60 minutes? Beautiful photography of a disaster in progress.

          • Sean Coleman February 3, 2016 at 3:00 pm #

            Sauerkraut

            I didn’t see it but ‘rivers on ice’ sounds like surface melting – a temporary thing. They were predicting the complete vanishing of Arctic ice some years ago and it didn’t happen, and it probably won’t (and even if it does, which it won’t, it will be back again thicker than ever).

            I still remember that ‘iconic’ photograph of the poor polar bear stranded on a tiny iceberg. Photoshopped of course. I watch little television and don’t care that much for nature documentaries (especially with David Attenborough) but even I knew polar bears can swim.

        • Doug February 4, 2016 at 1:04 am #

          “So now in their desperation to prove AGW and deny the Medieval Warm Period they are driven to historic revisionism and etymological fantasy.”

          Who is it that you imagine is desperate to prove AGW?

          Is it the Ancient Standard history blog, with the 2010 post I linked to? Are ancient history buffs desperate to prove AGW?

          How about the Online Etymology Dictionary? What, exactly, do you think motivates them to “desperately” promote AGW?

          Do you think The Times of India had been captures by “warmists” in 2007?

          I know! You think the desperate conspiracy to alter the etymology dates back to 1880, when the Reverend John Sephton read his translation of “Eirik the Red’s Saga” to the Literary and Philosophical Society of Liverpool:

          = = = = =

          “Now, afterwards, during the summer, [Eirik] proceeded to Iceland, and came to Breidafjordr (Broadfirth). This winter he was with Ingolf, at Holmlatr (Island-litter). During the spring, Thorgest and he fought, and Eirik met with defeat. After that they were reconciled. In the summer Eirik went to live in the land which he had discovered, and which he called Greenland, ‘Because,’ said he, ‘men will desire much the more to go there if the land has a good name.‘”

          = = = = =

          Yup, I’m sure that’s it. Those damned warmists have been pushing this etymological fantasy for 136 years!

  3. Hospice Man February 1, 2016 at 10:05 am #

    I’ve noticed lots of schadenfreude in the blogosphere about China unwinding, as if a crash of the kingdom doesn’t take the rest of the world’s economy with it. I was at the NYC/Union square rally for Sanders on Saturday, and I envy them their enthusiasm. But the vast majority of the attendees are under the mistaken impression that America can vote its way out of the coming economic and environmental disaster. Meanwhile, the Hillary accolytes are under the impression that there’s nothing wrong with ‘Murica that some sound tweaking can’t fix (in this, they’re not that far from the Trumpsters). http://brooklynculturejammers.com/2015/08/18/done-with-hillary-done-with-the-whole-mess/

    • bobinboiseid February 1, 2016 at 11:09 am #

      If we somehow voted for someone that could make a difference, the Oligarchs would over-ride the vote and put their preferred candidate/ puppet in office. The time nears for the American Revolution 2.0.

      • 99 cent nation February 1, 2016 at 11:30 am #

        gong to have to agree on that. Time for a revolution. One of the best solutions to this voting illusion of ours if everyone and that’s everyone refused to vote. But you know as well as I there are many who actually think their vote is going to mean something no mater what ideology they subscribe to. It is so pathetic to watch and read the propaganda thrown about. I do not know if B. Sanders would win but those behind the curtain will certainly put up so many road blocks for Bernie they will be calling him BS. To quote Mark Twain “if your vote really counted they wouldn’t let you vote.”

        • bobinboiseid February 1, 2016 at 12:30 pm #

          The right vote for POTUS 2016 is NONE OF THE ABOVE.
          If I were forced to vote it would be for Trump just for the entertainment value, with no expectations of any good outcome.

          • lsjogren February 1, 2016 at 12:42 pm #

            My pro Trump slogan is as follows:

            Trump is like rat poison. He’ll eradicate the rats in Washington. Unfortunately, your cat might die in the process.

          • SqueakyRat February 2, 2016 at 3:47 am #

            You have an odd notion of entertainment.

        • MisterDarling February 1, 2016 at 7:42 pm #

          “To quote Mark Twain “if your vote really counted they wouldn’t let you vote.” “-99pc.

          Cheers…

          • Doug February 1, 2016 at 9:37 pm #

            Or Emma Goldman:

            “If voting changed anything, they’d make it illegal.”

      • S M Tenneshaw February 1, 2016 at 6:17 pm #

        They already did that in 2000. No one seemed to notice.

    • Layne February 1, 2016 at 2:36 pm #

      A collapse in China would not have that great of an impact on the US. First the US does not export that much to China or to China dependent economies, and their imports into the US could be quickly made up for by moving more production here and to other zones (which is inevitable anyway). The biggest concern would be a sudden, major reduction in capital account inflows, which could set off a long-awaited inflationary whiplash in the US. At any rate, I hope it happens soon so that to the degree there are major negative ramifications for the US, it will come during Obozo’s term.

      • MisterDarling February 1, 2016 at 7:38 pm #

        @ Layne:

        “…and their imports into the US could be quickly made up for by moving more production here and to other zones (which is inevitable anyway).”-l.

        How “quickly” do you think production could be made up, do you reckon?

        😉

        • Doug February 1, 2016 at 8:20 pm #

          “How ‘quickly’ do you think production could be made up, do you reckon?”

          May I answer that, Teacher? Please, please, may I?!?!? ;^)

          • MisterDarling February 2, 2016 at 2:27 am #

            Doug,

            Sure, knock yourself out!

            LOL

            I’d love to hear your thoughts on the matter!

            🙂

        • Doug February 2, 2016 at 3:01 pm #

          I wrote a detailed response earlier today, only to get the “You must be logged in . . .” page when I hit Submit. The forum software really should provide that reminder at the beginning of the reply process, rather than at the end. ;^(

          So, in brief:

          * We’ve destroyed/dismantled/allowed to deteriorate most of the physical infrastructure of a manufacturing society.

          * We’ve almost totally lost the traditional pathways to training in the skilled trades and manufacturing processes.

          * Worse than the above, we’ve spent decades trying to develop a ridiculous and impossible-to-sustain “information economy” in which all “valuable” young people are expected to go to college and become “professionals” — which definitely means never getting one’s hands dirty or accumulating grime under the fingernails. Those who cannot or do not wish to follow this path are consigned to low-paid, menial “service economy” jobs, the military, or to become fodder for the police-“judicial”-prison-industrial complex.

          The result of this is that our “best and brightest” young (and, now, middle-aged) citizens are useless outside their narrow “professional” specialties. And many of the rest are just plain useless.

          * Assembling and deploying the necessary resources, energy, funding, work force, etc. to “quickly replace” the industrial output of China would be be a project of almost unimaginable proportion. It couldn’t be finessed with financial tricks such as QE, CDOs, or any of the other scams that account for a large part of the skill set of our banksters and the political puppets. It would require a complete reinvention of our economy, the structure of our society and would necessitate a fundamental revision of our national identity.

          * I’m pretty sure that we are running (very) short on “other zones” with anything like the resources, including infrastructure, stable governance, central authority and capable labor force to pull off anything remotely like what China has accomplished.

          * All of this “quick replacement” would necessarily have to take place amidst a background of energy and resource depletion, climate change, the resulting resource wars, the early stages of which we have been seeing for some time, already, etc.

          So: “How ‘quickly’ do you think production could be made up, do you reckon?”

          Not quickly at all. Not nearly quickly enough to maintain global-industrial capitalism and consumerism as we know it. Probably, it simply isn’t possible.

          • sauerkraut February 2, 2016 at 7:15 pm #

            You said it clearly, Doug. To that I would add, we’ve lost the necessary quantity of machine tools.

          • EvelynV February 6, 2016 at 4:28 am #

            Not to mention, who’s going to buy up all our treasuries…or have they already stopped?

  4. Gonga Din February 1, 2016 at 10:05 am #

    Watch out, there’s a philosophical deer caught in the headlights of your rhetorical vehicle! That’s what I’m talking about!

  5. hmuller February 1, 2016 at 10:09 am #

    The George Soros crowd has never been about adding value to life on earth, only about channeling more of the world’s wealth into their pockets. Why does Soros even need more money in the time that remains to him? Maybe he’s just the public mask for others who prefer the shadows.

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    • Pogo February 1, 2016 at 11:33 am #

      Where are you getting this from?? How about something to back it up?
      Maybe you are confusing George Soros with the Koch brothers or the Walton klan.

      This is the Soros I know about….”George Soros has made grants worth $8 billion over the past three decades through his Open Society Foundations (OSF), promoting democracy and human rights, among other issues.” and you can read about it at

      http://nonprofitquarterly.org/2012/04/25/soros-family-giving-more-focused-on-philanthropy-than-politics/

      • erik February 1, 2016 at 11:51 am #

        Oh, yeah, promoting Democracy is he?
        How’s that working in the real world of color revolutions and fascist coups that some of Soros’ philanthropy has promoted through meddlesome NGOs in other countries?

      • Janos Skorenzy February 1, 2016 at 2:02 pm #

        In other words, overthrowing stable Dictatorships in favor of war and terror. Dictatorship is the best most of the world will ever do. They aren’t us. It’s as simple as that.

  6. shotho February 1, 2016 at 10:32 am #

    Mr. K nailed it again. Overcapacity kills and, boy, is there every a volcano of overcapacity in China, waiting to explode. And, then, you contemplate that event with the deconstruction of America’s political system (and all other systems) and one looks into an abyss. If it wasn’t so horrifying to imagine what it means to our future, it would be fun to watch “globalism” get its comeuppance. But, as long as human life continues, there will be a revival – at least, a continuation of the effort.

    • 99 cent nation February 1, 2016 at 11:35 am #

      How long have we endured the term globalization and seen the ugly results. What the concept really means is a way to enslave everyone to depend on it. Not long ago it was yea lets go and have everything we sell made by slave labour in China and keep the money and illusion going forever. Another wall street trick to screw the non and investors.

    • seawolf77 February 3, 2016 at 12:40 pm #

      We keep borrowing from our future selves to make today bearable. One day there will be no more future to borrow from.

  7. Htruth February 1, 2016 at 10:33 am #

    All major economies of the world have public and private debt in excess of 275 percent of GDP. There will be no liftoff: https://youtu.be/5ChMAtBl2Fc

  8. K-Dog February 1, 2016 at 10:48 am #

    Your circuit’s dead, there’s something wrong
    Can you hear me, Captain Zhou Xiaochuan?
    Can you hear me, Captain Zhou Xiaochuan?
    Can you hear me, Captain Zhou Xiaochuan?

    Can you hear And I’m floating around my tin can
    Far above the Moon
    Planet Earth is blue
    And there’s nothing I can do.

    Before the circuit is dead and there is something wrong the children of the party hope to gather up enough blilng from the big Star Wars action figure plastic factory to emigrate to this side of the big Pacific pond. They don’t care about American political stability and know that with enough cashola they can become true blue Americans and not give a shit about anybody else as the sucker goes down.

    And ten miles where I live is their favorite destination and English at the local grocery store is now a second language.

    • K-Dog February 1, 2016 at 10:51 am #

      Besides spelling bling right I should have set off the tribute to David Bowe part of my comment in italics or quotes.

    • K-Dog February 1, 2016 at 11:52 am #

      Don’t know why I typed ten miles either. I’m actually at ground zero. I was thinking of one hill of houses in particular but even that is only five miles away when I stop and think about it.

      • Pogo February 1, 2016 at 1:03 pm #

        Are they little houses made of ticky-tacky?

        • K-Dog February 1, 2016 at 3:48 pm #

          Isn’t everything made in the last 50 years! But this tickey tacky is not cheap. $500K on up will get you your very own chipboard and vinyl box on this hill.

        • Sticks-of-TNT February 1, 2016 at 5:31 pm #

          …or a hat tip to Pete Seeger who, were he still alive, would be at the front of the protests against the establishment. -Sticks

          • elysianfield February 1, 2016 at 6:45 pm #

            Sticks,
            Malvena Reynolds, not Pete Seeger.

            “Little Boxes”

          • Pogo February 1, 2016 at 8:24 pm #

            You’re right, Sticks. I miss the Pete Seeger’s of the world…the Woody Guthrie’s, the Weavers…all the great “message” troubadours of yesteryear. I predict they shall return in the Long Emergency when we actually make music again.

            And you are also correct, elsianfield, but I think you must agree that Pete Seeger “owned” this song. It was of course “covered” by many, many groups and singers.

            Funny, it was apparently about Levittown but I always associated it with Daly City (just south of San Francisco) because of all the yellow ones, and the blue ones, etc.

  9. bobinboiseid February 1, 2016 at 11:03 am #

    I totally agree with the stupidity of those thinking we are going to colonize Mars. Maybe a few rich folks go, but it is going to be a one way trip, and a short time until they either suffocate or starve to death.

    I feel that a massive drop in USA consumption has triggered the collapse of China, but am not privy to any Chinese overproduction information.

    The biggest issue on my radar right now is the push to ban cash so that the banker scum can go negative on interest rates, and BIG.GOV can scoop up more taxes.

    • K-Dog February 1, 2016 at 11:17 am #

      Even the rich with their stratospheric assets don’t have enough to buy their way to Mars. But if the rich can eliminate cash their digital assets will become big enough to buy the choice areas of the earth most likely to endure the coming methane/CO2 heat wave.

      Once they eliminate cash they have total control because the infrastructure needed to support a cashless society makes us all their bitch and will be under their control. It is not just about negative interest rates and taxes. Bank accounts of dissenting dogs will be drained with a keystroke and nobody will care because they will be too afraid they will be next.

      • Floaterball February 1, 2016 at 11:48 am #

        Every time I walk into a 7-11 anymore, almost every morning, I notice that very few customers use cash anymore. I like to keep a couple hundred bucks on me at all times; I’m not sure exactly why, but the whole debit card thing has disturbed me from the start. I mean, when the suit-wearing beemer-driving dude is paying with the same method as the street guy with a shopping cart full of bags and a bandanna on his dog, I feel something fishy might be going on. (What’s the old joke about the stockbroker knowing it’s time to sell all when he’s getting tips from his cabbie?)
        Thanks K-dog and bob for at least giving me a clue as to what the purpose of this may be.

        • K-Dog February 1, 2016 at 12:11 pm #

          Gentlemen always carry at least a hundred bucks on them because a gentleman does not much think about money. Having enough to meet your needs just about everywhere you go makes you feel you are above financial concerns and your thoughts of money become unconscious. Additionally there is strong pressure to keep the hundred in your wallet or you wont be carrying a hundred bucks around any more. This causes one to be frugal. To be a real gentleman you should actually carry $300 and with inflation perhaps more.

          Now if you see me walking down the street, I being a dog and not a gentleman should be left alone. No point in mugging me.

          • MisterDarling February 1, 2016 at 7:32 pm #

            “Gentlemen always carry at least a hundred bucks on them because a gentleman does not much think about money.”-kdog.

            Agreed. Always having a more-than-sufficient amount of cash within reach and in reserve removes that needy & vulnerable look from the eyes & tames impulsivity.

            Cheers!

    • K-Dog February 1, 2016 at 11:45 am #

      Tax avoidance and negative interest. You are making it too hard. It is about total fascist control. They already have many of us voting by mail in an invisible process. They monitor all our phone calls and web activity and they now can know everything we do. A cashless society is icing on the cake and the final act in a play in which American citizens have willingly given up all rights and freedoms.

      A cashless society requires a backbone of hard technology. Along with this comes surveillance and full control by the owners of that technology and by government. They, our masters, want everyone to work hard, shun materialism and all unsanctioned sexuality. A new Puritan day has come in a cashless society because every transaction is monitored and because of this they will get their way.

      In a cashless society everyone becomes the bitch of the man and it happens to us now. Every year the ratchet tightens. Everybody thinks credit cards are convenient and nothing more. When America needs its citizens to become agricultural serfs America’s citizens will be ready to take on the role because they will not have any say in the matter. They will be under total control. Without a cry or a whisper the average citizen gives up freedom for convenience. Americans are only one step away from a cashless society and when we are there we will have found we have stepped into a trap from which there is no escape.

      Government will wash its hands of all social responsibilities and all government energy will concentrate on self-perpetuation only. There is no way to stop this from happening. Having a cashless society makes it all happen because with total control empathy will die. Society will be stratified into a permanent layer cake. Garnishment for bad behaviour and payment for good will be instant for average citizens as everyone becomes Pavlov’s dog.

      This level of government control has no precedent in history. The influence will be so great that within generations all originality will be excised from the human gene pool. Influential people will be able to dock your pay with a phone call if you don’t kiss their ass properly in a cashless society. No need for parking tickets any more because a ticket simply becomes a notice telling you your account has already been docked. Rebellion will be impossible and there will be no where to go to live out any renegade lifestyle. All transactions will be identified and while this is going on the planet will continue to be trashed because life behind the masters gate will be bountifully good and pleasantly warm. Resources will not be wasted on environmental concerns by a government who’s only concern is to maintain power.

      Job interviews will be unnecessary as software chews away on everyone’s financial history in the most minute detail and assigns to all their proper pay grade and place. Undesirables will be made broke and they will starve to death.

      • bobinboiseid February 1, 2016 at 12:14 pm #

        Typing on an iPad mini, as I do, is not conducive to a dissertation. Thanks for fleshing out the disastrous consequences of America going cashless.
        I found out that Bloomberg floated the first article promoting the idea from Zero Hedge…
        http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-01-31/bloomberg-op-ed-calls-end-cash
        Read the comments on this and the original Bloomberg article, people are pissed!

      • DrGonzo February 1, 2016 at 6:10 pm #

        I like to use cash because it ensures that (1) every purchase of mine doesn’t go into a database with my name next to it and (2) the small, independent businesses that I like to support don’t have to eat a 3% (?) fee on each transaction.

        • MisterDarling February 1, 2016 at 7:24 pm #

          This is wise of you…

          Cheers!

    • Ken Hall February 1, 2016 at 12:17 pm #

      Up here in the North Country of NY on the 15 of August in the Summer of 2015 Ellen Stofan, Chief Scientist at NASA, spoke at the Lake Placid Institute Adirondack Roundtable. During the question and answer phase one of the questioners asked her if it would be feasible to use terraforming on Mars so as to make it inhabitable by humans. As I recall she said, and I paraphrase, “probably; however, it would likely take about 50,000 years. I am inclined to believe that is longer than we have in which to get our shit together. https://vimeo.com/136762025

      • bobinboiseid February 1, 2016 at 12:39 pm #

        50,000 years is a long time to delay strip mining, logging, overpopulation, and poisoning Mars with toxic chemicals. Thinking we wouldn’t have the patience. We would make it uninhabitable long before the date arrived for terraforming completion.

      • Lonely Traveler February 3, 2016 at 10:49 am #

        North Country? Me too! Nice to know there are Kunstler fans up here on the frozen tundra a.k.a. Plattsburgh and vicinity.

  10. Greg Knepp February 1, 2016 at 11:12 am #

    “…over production and saturated markets.”

    No truer words; market saturation is the proverbial 800 lb gorilla-in-the-room that few are willing to acknowledge. It was instrumental in the Great Depression and is stalking the economy now, both at home and abroad. How many smart phones, flat-screen TVs and fancy bicycles can a man buy?

    A word about space travel: I saw the movie ‘The Martian’ last week. It was well produced (if a bit stodgy) but came across as oddly retrospective – almost Buck Rodgersy…It’s as if the producers knew that what they were presenting never was nor ever will be. This aspect gave the film a melancholic mood despite its happy ending…or maybe that’s just how I reacted to it.

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    • Janos Skorenzy February 1, 2016 at 2:08 pm #

      We could certainly create satellite cities around the Earth though. But instead we chose to worship 3rd Worlders and create 3rd World conditions everywhere. Equality!

      • malthuss February 1, 2016 at 4:08 pm #

        I left some comments for you, yesterday.

      • Janos Skorenzy February 1, 2016 at 8:34 pm #

        Oh, I’ll take a look. I was in fine form yesterday and eviscerated the usual suspects, their only defense being to call me crazy and ignore me. To his credit, Doug attempted to fight, revealing himself as a hardcore Communist in the process. He made a valid point or two against Q’s Capitalism.

        • Doug February 1, 2016 at 9:30 pm #

          “Doug attempted to fight, revealing himself as a hardcore Communist in the process.”

          Nah. I’m a libertarian socialist — that is a real socialist, unlike Sanders; and a real libertarian, unlike the right-wing corporatists who pretend to that identity in the US.

          That said, if you don’t read Marx and grok his work in its fullness, at the very least, Capital, you can hardly claim to understand political economics.

          And I’ve always admitted that I’d love to sit down for dinner with Lev Trotsky, Diego Rivera, and Frida Kahlo — notwithstanding Trotsky’s and Rivera’s major, sometimes unforgivable, flaws.

          • Janos Skorenzy February 2, 2016 at 5:00 pm #

            Actually I am too, but since you’re the only to ever put those terms together (that I’ve seen anyway), I have no idea if we agree. From what I’ve seen, I suspect not since my Socialism is National and yours Marxist.

          • Doug February 2, 2016 at 6:46 pm #

            “. . . since you’re the only to ever put those terms together (that I’ve seen anyway). . .”

            Gotta catch up, Janos. The relevant (group of) political philosoph[y|ies] dates back to the 1600s and, for much of European history, “libertarian” would be generally assumed to mean “socialist.”

            You can look it up.

  11. FincaInTheMountains February 1, 2016 at 11:19 am #

    The Chinese logogram for “crisis” has two components – a “threat” and “opportunity”. By briefly analyzing what Chinese authorities are doing in the stock market, and what is the reaction to these actions on the part of international financial speculators, we can see two important things that suggest that China have chosen “opportunity” and uses it to its own advantage.

    Firstly, China’s actions on one hand fully use administrative resources to alleviate panic in society (ban on new IPOs, bans on the sale of shares of public and near-state structures, stop trading in a number of stocks). On the other hand, large-scale funding is allocated to buy up shares on the market at the expense of public funds.

    Second, the “international financial community” unanimously denounced China’s actions in the market, accusing it of killing a free stock market and making it fully controlled by the State. This frank admission that China is doing the opposite of what the international speculators would like to see, indicates that it is doing things right to ensure their own control over the process.

    Firstly, as a result of all transactions share of public ownership of shares of the largest Chinese companies will increase substantially. That will automatically lead to increased state control over all the activities of these companies.

    Second, China will see the departure of the capital of foreign investors, as well as part of the money that the Chinese private investors will withdraw from the country after the foreigners. This moment in terms of the consequences is very important and interesting.

    The money that leaves China must go into the stock market paper assets in other countries. Otherwise, the world will begin immediately hyperinflationary processes.

    Comparable in scale to the Chinese market there are few markets out there. In fact it is only Europe and the United States, where the money could go. That is, we will see another phase of short-term rally in these markets. But this is only the visible part of the problem. The longer term is very negative for the US and Europe. Sooner or later all that money will push the hyperinflationary scenario.

    At the same time China gets a phenomenal opportunity to get rid of significant foreign exchange reserves (dollars and euros), which in the near future expect a significant loss in value. At the same time China is doing what it could only dream of. Exchanges of foreign currency paper for the ownership of real assets at a great price.

    • malthuss February 1, 2016 at 11:43 am #

      ‘Exchanges of foreign currency paper for the ownership of real assets at a great price.’

      Many companies listed on DJIA are losing money, yes?
      So are they ‘assets’ or liabilities?

    • Pogo February 1, 2016 at 12:11 pm #

      Thanks for the informative comments, Fincaln. I always learn something from you. You be one smart guy.

      As for the giant sucking sound of money fleeing China, I would sure like to see some going into gold funds to help the miserable performance of my gold ETF investments.

      And what’s going on with this: “The Shanghai Gold Exchange has stopped publishing its weekly gold withdrawal figures”???

      http://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-gold-market-just-lost-its-best-measure-of-chinese-demand-2016-01-28

    • sauerkraut February 1, 2016 at 1:01 pm #

      Nice analysis, FITM, but I am not so sure about hyperinflation. If QE (1-n) did not spark much inflation, I am not sure why China’s currency flight should. Markets may be too managed, I fear, to allow this response.

  12. DrTomSchmidt February 1, 2016 at 11:28 am #

    Get off this messed-up home planet and light out of the territories, say Mars. Of course, this is a vain and stupid idea, since we already have a planet engineered to perfection for all the life systems associated with the human project. We just can’t respect its limits.

    Everybody, sooner or later, sits down to a banquet of consequences, as RL Stevenson might have said. When your leaders are Trimalchio, however, the banquet is a farce.

    • AKlein February 1, 2016 at 1:45 pm #

      Dr. Schmidt, your point is well taken – the point that we will face a banquet of consequences. But, as recall from my education, Trimalchio’s banquet was by no means a farce – at least not to Trimalchio. He had achieved his objective, which was to become what might be called in modern terms – a “player”. And therein is the problem; our so called leaders don’t necessarily see their actions as courting doom. They are probably oblivious to the doom because of their mindset; they “got” theirs, so to say. And the consequences spell a dismal future? So what, they would say. Fundamentally, they are nihilists, and nihilists are not persuaded by doom. Their motto? In the long run we are all dead. (Despite the fact this is not the meaning which JM Keynes this utterance was meant to convey.)

    • elysianfield February 2, 2016 at 12:48 pm #

      “Everybody, sooner or later, sits down to a banquet of consequences”

      Dr. Tom,

      A great “turn of phrase”…I will shamelessly repeat it in future posts….

  13. RobH February 1, 2016 at 11:29 am #

    Jim

    Given ‘this suckers going down’ it would be foolhardy of me to sign up to a regular subscription!

    But I could buy you a beer if your Patreon page allowed a one off payment

    Can that be added? Or do you have a PayPal account that takes ‘gifts’

    Cheers, Robert

    • K-Dog February 1, 2016 at 12:00 pm #

      Robert,

      But if the sucker goes down there is no point in saving money and a subscription would only be taking something from nothing anyway. On the other hand we can’t know exactly when this sucker is going to go down thus making the proper use and disposition of one’s assets rather important.

      It is a conundrum.

    • Petro February 1, 2016 at 12:08 pm #

      Ha ha. We’re all hedging our bets… JHK’s no different.

  14. Helen Highwater February 1, 2016 at 11:37 am #

    I too would be happy to give a one-time gift if I could do it with PayPal.

  15. malthuss February 1, 2016 at 11:45 am #

    I feel that a massive drop in USA consumption has triggered the collapse of China, but am not privy to any Chinese overproduction information.

    BDI is at an all time low, yet the streets are full of drivers and Costco is full of shoppers.
    I dont get it.

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    • bobinboiseid February 1, 2016 at 12:19 pm #

      The end is near, but how near is hard to tell. Feels really close to me. People in Boise, ID seem to be going feral. I’ve witnessed some pretty bizarre behavior recently.

      • Janos Skorenzy February 1, 2016 at 2:10 pm #

        Thank you lucky stars you’re still mostly White over there. If you haven’t traveled, you don’t know how good you have it.

        • bobinboiseid February 1, 2016 at 3:29 pm #

          Lowlife’s come in an assortment of colors, and we’ve got our share of pasty white ones. Right next to Boise is a place called Garden City where something like 95% of all citizens are convicted felons. Going to need a Jurrasic Park style fence erected around that place soon.

          • Janos Skorenzy February 1, 2016 at 8:40 pm #

            That’s the popular wisdom – and what one expects from a Liberal or one who hasn’t traveled. Travel doesn’t seem to help Liberals. They walk thru ghettoes in some kind of yogic trance.

            In other words, Black crime is much, much higher. Hispanic crime is much higher. Boise has a lot of Hispanics in certain areas or at least nearby, so no doubt has lots of crime from that quarter.

        • malthuss February 1, 2016 at 4:09 pm #

          I know someone who went there, in search of a better place.
          Couldnt find a job.

          And I read there are mosques there.

      • MisterDarling February 1, 2016 at 7:21 pm #

        Hello Bob!

        ” People in Boise, ID seem to be going feral. I’ve witnessed some pretty bizarre behavior recently.”-b.

        I’m interested in stories about ‘feral’ behavior. Feel free to share if you have the time!

        Cheers!

        • bobinboiseid February 1, 2016 at 11:41 pm #

          More people seem angry, and more just stare at you when you say hi, more wearing sunglasses indoors, bizarre crimes happening a LOT more often, lots of suicides and road rage. None of this existed just a few years ago.
          Saw a woman a few days ago racing through a Lowes parking lot in a big 4×4 and passing other cars while blowing a four way stop at probably 30 mph, then she came back through in the other direction doing the same thing. Homeless people begging at nearly every intersection. Used to be really quiet just recently, but things are rapidly getting weird.

          • MisterDarling February 2, 2016 at 2:30 am #

            Hi Bob!

            RE | “more wearing sunglasses indoors”-b.

            Do you happen to have a lot of ‘tweakers’ in town?

            🙂

    • Pogo February 1, 2016 at 1:00 pm #

      The Baltic Dry Index, considered by many to be a leading indicator of economic expansion or contraction, declined 29% the first 27 days of 2016 following a 38% decline in 2015. You are correct: it is an all time low. Good chart here: http://marketrealist.com/2016/01/rate-expectations-dry-bulk-2016/

      I notice here in suburbs south of Twin Cities that restaurant parking lots seem to filled and, yes, extra checkers are needed at local Costco. Cornucopia forever!

      • malthuss February 1, 2016 at 4:21 pm #

        I dont have 20-30 dollars for lunch at a restaurant.

        • S M Tenneshaw February 1, 2016 at 6:36 pm #

          Popeye’s has a Tuesday two-piece $3.99 special including a side and a biscuit. Red beans and rice, baby!

        • Pogo February 1, 2016 at 7:05 pm #

          Applebee’s features Burger Monday when you get any of the burger plates (up to $10.99) for $5.99. And the freedom fries are damn good too…just ask to hold the salt a bit.

    • ozone February 2, 2016 at 7:49 am #

      Malthuss,
      You may have fallen victim to another anomalous feature of the modern age: Instant gratification. …And by extension, no patience for those things that require *time* to fully ripen.

      “Just you wait, ‘Enry ‘Iggens, just you wait…” 😉

  16. Rodster February 1, 2016 at 12:00 pm #

    Good summary regarding China, Jim.

    And yet all I ever read on other forums from China apologists/lovers here in the US and from other bloggers is how this is all part of the plan from China. That China knows EXACTLY what it’s doing. That it will scavenge and take as much riches as it can before the system collapses and convert it’s currency with gold and become the next world’s reserve currency.

    IMO, I don’t think China knows what the fuck it’s doing and is just winging it because after all they learned their tricks of the trade from the Western Banksters.

    The world is so far past a gold backed currency because of the world’s population. A gold backed currency would require eCONomies live within their means, and not rape the Earth for a profit and it would require the money system put in place to completely change. Good luck with feeding 7.2 billion on the planet. Richard Nixon took the US off the Gold Standard to service the debt from the Great Society and the Vietnam war. No way the Banksters or eCONomies will play ball if they can’t live on a “credit card”.

    When this sucker goes down it will be lights out for everyone. Hank Paulson saw the end game when he told GW Bush that there would be martial law in the US because the global eCONomy would stop.

    Someone may want to clue China on the end game.

  17. mdl17576 February 1, 2016 at 12:03 pm #

    China enjoyed a few decades of exceptional growth thanks to the ruling economic classes of the West realizing they could make even more money by doing an end run around labor unions and various hard won protections for the little people by outsourcing labor. China will lose out now that wages have risen above bare subsistence wage slave levels and production moves on to the next bargain impoverished shit hole.

    Declining fossil energy is going to make us all poorer so we don’t need wage arbitrage making it worse. The only hope is for a mass refusal of the current status quo. People need to buy things made by the economy they live in. They need to vote for politicians that work towards, rather than against that goal. I’m working towards that end and documenting my efforts here: http://americareforged.blogspot.com/

  18. teddyboy46 February 1, 2016 at 12:06 pm #

    Consider this. The reason for the Big Push to Mars is the same reason Organized Religion pushes the Return of the Savior. It distracts people from dealing with the problems in front of them in a realistic way. Just as you can escape the Reality of a Unhappy Life by waiting for Jesus to come and make it better. We can escape the Problem here on Earth by going to Mars. Which only a Fool would Believe.

    • vengeur February 1, 2016 at 1:52 pm #

      Not to mention the fact NASA is a government welfare program for scientists. Scientists who would otherwise have to find work building smart bombs for Raytheon.

      • Frankiti February 1, 2016 at 5:05 pm #

        If there was a “stupidest comment” award, I’d submit yours, Avenger of Imbecility.

        • vengeur February 1, 2016 at 7:55 pm #

          LOL. Sorry to criticize you rice bowl.

    • Janos Skorenzy February 1, 2016 at 2:15 pm #

      And five hundred years ago, fools talked about a New World. Look how that turned out. Whites, encircled and threatened by Islam, got a new lease on life. After millennia of losing territory and being genocided by other races, we finally got a chance to breathe again.

      • seawolf77 February 2, 2016 at 10:33 am #

        Your white narrative is diametrically opposed to reality. White have dominated the world for centuries, and we have done so brutally and without remorse, since our deeds are never known in real time, but only come to light years later. My Lai was the exception, occurring in very nearly real time. What’s happening now in the Middle East is a good example. We are massacring Arabs and why? Nobody knows. Just like 50 years ago no one knew why we were killing Vietnamese by the truck load. 3,000,000 dead Vietnamese and all we hear about are 58,000 dead Americans. 50 years from now we will be hearing about 10,000 dead Americans and no one will be talking about the millions of dead Arabs. Yeah we breathed again, while we annihilated the American Indian population and enslaved the African American population. What a breath of fresh air! Pull your head out of your ass Janos!

        • elysianfield February 2, 2016 at 12:58 pm #

          ” White have dominated the world for centuries, and we have done so brutally and without remorse”

          Wolfie,
          Is it not possible that any and all races that have enjoyed hegemony were also brutal and without remorse? Can you give us an example in History of non-white civilizations that dominated with kindness and understanding?

        • Janos Skorenzy February 4, 2016 at 2:47 pm #

          Whites, and I do mean Whites not brown Caucasians, once lived deep into Asia as far as Western China, as well as the Middle East, Asia Minor, North Africa, India, etc.

          They were genocided, driven out, or absorbed in all those places. How can you not know this? Because you can’t stand contemplating Whites not being the abusers but the victims, not even for a second. That’s how strong your guilt complex and superiority complex compensation is. You’re not about to let anything get in the way of feeling superior to other Whites and throwing them under the bus. Certainly not something as tenuous as the Truth.

  19. I AM SULLY February 1, 2016 at 12:13 pm #

    The Thelma And Louise analogy is appropriate – and I have wondered myself, on many occasions in recent years, if most Americans simply “want it to be over” and are willing to commit collective suicide, and even watch their children die, to avoid the pain of recognizing that this current paradigm is finished. They would rather go down in a blaze of glory, than to accept that they need to re-negotiate their terms of existence – and sitting on the other side of the negotiating table are “nature and reality”. We shall see, but it doesn’t look good.

    • Janos Skorenzy February 1, 2016 at 2:31 pm #

      Yes, anything to avoid saying “We matter”. Anything to avoid being called an evil White Racist.

      Political Correctness replaced Christianity as the religion of America and Western Civilization.

  20. sauerkraut February 1, 2016 at 12:18 pm #

    We should differentiate between immediate suicide by religion and eventual suicide by stupidity, although we risk both.

    Immediate suicide by religion is what results from blind conformity to the present economic system. It is sustained by such hypocrisy and lawlessness that even 60 Minutes reports on it. But these resources of convoluted apology will eventually deplete, although exact timing is unknown.

    Then there is environmental suicide resulting from an inability to understand the exponential function. Humans are prone to linear thinking, epitomized by “a little perturbation produces a little response.”

    However, humans have are now in a different, non-linear environment. On the one hand, there are exponential functions, which give perfectly predictable huge responses to small perturbations. Exponential functions describe growth of demand, growth of population, depletion of resources, etc.

    On the other hand, there are chaotic functions, which give wholly unpredictable responses to small perturbations. Chaotic functions include those with ‘tipping points’. Chaotic functions describe the stability of complex systems, like climate, and, interestingly, the economy.

    We have contrived to entertain both forms of suicide. Which gets us first is the question. My hope is for religion, because there may be a recovery from that particular suicide attempt.

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    • Janos Skorenzy February 1, 2016 at 2:34 pm #

      Yes, it was downhill after the invention of fire. Who did we think we were standing up on two legs? And using energy? We thought we were better than the other animals. Utter hubris. The thrown stick became the space ship. But we will pay for this outrage, this piercing of the sky!

      • alphie February 1, 2016 at 7:03 pm #

        Hal is now the economy. Like Hal it becomes dangerous when it is threatened, ordering us into war for it’s life blood- oil.

        … lives offered up on the altar of our economy

        • Janos Skorenzy February 1, 2016 at 8:47 pm #

          Oh you caught the reference. And good take off from it too. Yes, Hal is great. Who knew Computers could go crazy in a human sense?

          No doubt the subtlety of my mind is beginning to influence you, much as a struck tuning fork will set off the other unstruck ones.

    • Sean Coleman February 2, 2016 at 4:52 pm #

      What is this suicide by religion? And the ‘blind conformity’? Have a look at conformity in contemporary thought. There is a lot of it but you don’t see it. Why?

      I think your exponential function is leading you to make huge responses (indeed *predictable* ones) to small perturbations.

      • sauerkraut February 2, 2016 at 7:37 pm #

        I’ll treat this as an honest request for clarification, Sean, although perhaps I should know better by now.

        “Suicide by religion” was defined above as the result of “blind conformity to the present economic system,” crony capitalism being that present economic system. Crony capitalism is not the only possible economic system, but as long as our society pretends that it is, we are doomed. That is what I meant by “suicide by religion.”

        “Blind conformity,” is, I think self-explanatory. Further, since I raised the topic, I think that I have established that I “see it.” Yet you assert that I do not. Why?

        Why so angry and so negative?

        There are many good books on logic, Sean, and you might profit by studying some of them. Anger management might help too. Have you considered consulting the Jesuits, who are said to be good at both?

        • Sean Coleman February 3, 2016 at 3:24 pm #

          I see. Suicide by religion has nothing to do with religion but rather means that crony capitalism can be seen as a religion, which I assume is also a bad thing in your book. Blind conformity is the inability of the crony capitalists and society as a whole to see that there are alternatives.

          It is an odd way to phrase it but I think I get the gist.

          As for conformity I’m afraid you don’t get it. You know what the word means but you don’t perceive it at work in the world. One could say that conformity is in the eye of the beholder.

          Thanks for the recommendation about studying logic but I’m happy staying clear of language such as logical fallacies and syllogisms. I looked up ad hominem the other day on Wikipedia, just for the laugh, and the Wikipedes defined it as a form of logical fallacy. Hold on, I’ve got it open now: it is normally described as an informal fallacy (refs), more precisely as a genetic fallacy, a subcategory of fallacies of irrelevance.

          Why would anyone waste his time writing that?

  21. volodya February 1, 2016 at 12:35 pm #

    Not so sure that the disintegration of the political party structure is so horrifying. I think it would be MORE horrifying if it WASN’T disintegrating because what would such a thing mean? Collective brain-death? Societal end-of-the-road?

    That’s not to say that what we have now bodes well. It doesn’t. Hillary’s political viability, the mere fact that she’s talked about as presidential material, not to mention Trump, indicates to me an apathy so deep and pervasive that nobody worth a damn could be bothered.

    Could it possibly be that, out of 330 million people, these are the best there are? Out of all these people in such a vast country? How can this happen?

    And Cruz? Seriously? OK, they say that he’s a top notch legal talent. But, when I see him on TV, I think of Mr Haney on Green Acres. Yeah, I know, not exactly a penetrating analysis. But does this guy have the royal jelly? I would say an abundance of oiliness, a lawyerly insincerity and maybe flashes of a shark-ish, son-of-a-bitch-ness that I would expect in a personal injury attorney. Or maybe he’d be a great divorce or Hollywood celebrity lawyer. But POTUS? Fuck off.

    And Rubio? WTF? They say he might come up the middle. Lord, can it be true? One trembles. Can you imagine, what if he wins in November? Unlikely, but what if he does? Can you see it, Rubio eyeball-to-eyeball with Putin?

    What we have are the manifestly unfit thinking they have it in them. To state the obvious, not these bozos, not even close. All of them, every single one, baffoons and maroons not remotely worthy of the office.

    But this disintegration of the political system follows on the heels of the disintegration of the economic system. In any non brain-dead polity, that is a people with a few spritzes of piss and vinegar still left in them, you would fully expect this. It’s matter of degree and a question of what takes shape.

    Well, it could be worse. As the economy continues on its swirling descent into the insatiable maw of Wall Street, and people get sucked dry and shat out, I can envision far worse. Like men with a fondness for arm-bands as our friend the Archdruid put it. History is instructive but what history most tells us is that people don’t learn from history. Too bad.

    • Janos Skorenzy February 1, 2016 at 8:18 pm #

      Huh? Fascism is the only thing that can save us as a Nation now – assuming there is any Nation left. If not, then one or two of the more European fragments.

    • ozone February 2, 2016 at 9:27 am #

      “Well, it could be worse. As the economy continues on its swirling descent into the insatiable maw of Wall Street, and people get sucked dry and shat out, I can envision far worse. Like men with a fondness for arm-bands as our friend the Archdruid put it. History is instructive but what history most tells us is that people don’t learn from history. Too bad.” – V.

      The thought-stopper comment that immediately followed reflects this willful and stubborn ignorance. I don’t expect much better from most of the blissful consumers. We’ll probably have to endure a religiously zealous application of authoritarianism once again. (Only when the bodies are piled high enough and enough people’s family members have been tortured, terrorized and murdered will a sudden “epiphany” about the set-up [re]occur.)

    • islander800 February 2, 2016 at 1:33 pm #

      For me, the big question nobody is asking concerning outcomes after Election 2016 is, where does the military stand?

      One of the two major political parties has become, let’s just face it, completely unhinged. Should one of the current leading Republican candidates win the White House, I could imagine a scenario where the Joint Chiefs decide that they cannot let a completely idiotic and dangerous civilian leader take the country to ruin. For the sake of the Republic (and in their minds, to save what remains of the Armed Forces after decades of abuse in failed international adventures), they could take control from the incompetent politicians until they could sort out the mess. Should some civilian leader with a touch of sanity eventually bubble up from the national ooze, they may consider returning power to the political class. But I wouldn’t bet on a quick return to business as usual.

      With people like Trump and Cruz real possibilities for the White House, I would be concerned about what’s going through the heads of the Joint Chiefs, but no one seems to be going there.

  22. Being There February 1, 2016 at 12:57 pm #

    Good point, all, JHK

    Yes, China learned everything they know about Capitalism from us and sadly they learned it from the global neoliberals. Too bad.On this topic Global Research had a really great video describing the deal Kissinger made with China in the 1970’s. It’s worth searching for in their video section.

    Nicely put: Poor China and poor us. Escape velocity has failed. Which raises the question: escape from what, exactly? Answer: the implacable limits of life on earth.

    …..they gain from its descent will be foiled by the destruction of the very economic system needed for them to enjoy their gains.—-

    Reminds me of the
    ‘Twilight Zone” when the bankrobber uses a stopwatch to rob a bank. The stopwatch has the power to stop the world so he can commit the robbery, but alas the stopwatch breaks and he can’t enjoy his ill gotten gain.

    What a farce this is.

    • BackRowHeckler February 1, 2016 at 2:20 pm #

      i remember that episode, BT, starring Burgess Meredith.

      brh

  23. FincaInTheMountains February 1, 2016 at 1:12 pm #

    Many companies listed on DJIA are losing money, yes?
    So are they ‘assets’ or liabilities?
    – malthuss

    What about oil companies that break even at $60 a barrel? Are they assets or liabilities? What if in 6 months oil goes to $120?

    That’s one of the biggest problems of the current economy – correctly “pricing” the assets in the conditions of current economic hostilities and outright “price wars”. It is very far from straight-forward bean-counting.

  24. Doug February 1, 2016 at 1:22 pm #

    “Like most historical fiascos, it seemed like a good idea at the time: take a nation of about a billion people living in the equivalent of the Twelfth Century, introduce the magic of money printing, spend a gazillion of it on CAT and Kubota earth-moving machines, build the biggest cement industry the world has ever seen, purchase whole factory set-ups, and flood the rest of the world with stuff.”
    = = = = =

    Let’s not forget the Western capitalists slavering over the chance to offshore production to a new cheap-labor market and benefit from the much-better margins when they sell the “imports” back at home — for as long as the poor schmucks consigned to the waste heap of the “service economy” can afford them.

    • Pogo February 1, 2016 at 7:33 pm #

      Well it worked well enough for the Wizards of WalMart toiling in the headquarters down in Bentonville, Arkansas. The Walton kids are, collectively, the wealthiest family on earth (but we don’t really know about the house of Saud).

  25. AKlein February 1, 2016 at 1:22 pm #

    I think JHK may have underestimated China’s cleverness. Yes, it may seem that they have imitated our recklessness. There are certainly indications of that, what with empty newly constructed cities and abandoned theme parks and so on. But the Chinese are sufficiently smart to know that in building a modern infrastructure, there will be some dead ends, false turns and waste. Can’t be helped. But the bigger objective has been reached; to become a modern country with a solid industrial infrastructure and a productive populace. The Chinese have a vert long-term perspective. They might use the quarterly mentality to help meet some objective, but I certainly do not think that a couple of decades of seemingly aping the West overrides the wisdom of thousands of years of successful civilization.

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    • MisterDarling February 1, 2016 at 7:14 pm #

      Hello AK,

      RE | “They might use the quarterly mentality to help meet some objective, but I certainly do not think that a couple of decades of seemingly aping the West overrides the wisdom of thousands of years of successful civilization.”-a.klein.

      I’ll agree with you insofar as the China has a lot of cultural ‘ballast’ keeping it moving in a certain direction. The way things have worked out in the more tumultuous periods of China’s past (the period from 1830-1949 for example) was that China burned through an enormous amount of people by undergoing famines, epidemics and province-emptying civil strife (Taiping Rebellion, the Reign of the Kuomintang et al., Fighting of the Japanese Invasion, etc.) and at the end of the day most of the infrastructure remained, there were still enough hands and backs to get work done, and things moved forward with seldom a backward glance. That is the ruthless, brutal reality of it.

      When you’ve got 1.2 Billion souls to burn and a sky-high cultural pain-tolerance, losing a couple USA-population’s-worth is ‘no big thing’…

      I don’t agree with JHK that China will get knocked all the way back the 12th-C. They may never form a world-spanning empire [*] but they’ll always be the big-dog in their region – with the ability to reach out and touch any interloper when aroused.

      Cheers!

      — — —

      [*] there’s an inherent limit to Chinese expansionism… Review maps of territory held by each dynasty all the way back to Qin Shi Huang Ti (the “first sovereign emperor”) and you’ll see what I mean…

      • AKlein February 2, 2016 at 10:26 am #

        MD, A couple of points bearing on China and its mentality. I remember once being told that the Chinese do not see themselves as a “nation,” but rather as a civilization. So I’m not so sure that territorial borders per se make much difference to them (although the Tibetans may disagree with that). For example, China never included Korea within its borders, but the Koreans were certainly within the Chinese political sphere and adopted the Chinese culture and thinking.
        Regarding your point about “burning through population,” I recall hearing that regarding nuclear war, Mao Zedong said to Nehru that in the event of a war, the Chines could afford to lose 500 million people. Whew. Talk about brutally calculating, in a very literal sense.

        • Janos Skorenzy February 2, 2016 at 3:05 pm #

          Yes, China has fallen many times and risen many times. It’s far more than just a State in any case. The essence? Genetics first and then culture. Lin Yutang said China was strengthened by being conquered by Mongolians and Manchus in the sense of new blood, but not too radically different blood. Such people could be assimilated. Obviously not the case if they were conquered by Muslims or Whites and then colonized.

        • Doug February 4, 2016 at 10:06 pm #

          Strangelove: “Mr. President, I would not rule out the chance to preserve a nucleus of human specimens. It would be quite easy at the bottom of some of our deeper mine shafts. The radioactivity would never penetrate a mine some thousands of feet deep. And in a matter of weeks, sufficient improvements in dwelling space could easily be provided.”

          Muffley: “How long would you have to stay down there?”

          Strangelove: “I would think that uh possibly one hundred years.”

          Muffley: “You mean, people could actually stay down there for a hundred years?”

          Strangelove: “It would not be difficult mein Fuhrer! Nuclear reactors could, heh… I’m sorry. Mr. President. Nuclear reactors could provide power almost indefinitely. Greenhouses could maintain plant life. Animals could be bred and slaughtered. A quick survey would have to be made of all the available mine sites in the country. But I would guess… that ah, dwelling space for several hundred thousands of our people could easily be provided.”

          Muffley: “Well I… I would hate to have to decide who stays up and who goes down.”

          Strangelove: “Well, that would not be necessary Mr. President. It could easily be accomplished with a computer. And a computer could be set and programmed to accept factors from youth, health, sexual fertility, intelligence, and a cross section of necessary skills. Of course it would be absolutely vital that our top government and military men be included to foster and impart the required principles of leadership and tradition. Naturally, they would breed prodigiously, eh? There would be much time, and little to do. But ah with the proper breeding techniques and a ratio of say, ten females to each male, I would guess that they could then work their way back to the present gross national product within say, twenty years.”

      • Doug February 4, 2016 at 10:00 pm #

        MD: ” there’s an inherent limit to Chinese expansionism”

        The most fundamental inherent limit is that they have never hungered for world domination. It’s just not their thing.

        But they’ll certainly trade and invest (while they can) anywhere and everywhere.

    • Q. Shtik February 1, 2016 at 10:01 pm #

      AKlein opts out of gloom and doom.

  26. FincaInTheMountains February 1, 2016 at 1:36 pm #

    And this is the bimbo that’s asking presidential questions?

    Donald Trump retweets ‘bimbo’ Megyn Kelly GQ photos

    http://scallywagandvagabond.com/2016/01/donald-trump-megyn-kelly-gq-photos-retweeted/

    Try googling “Trump twitter Megan Kelly nude”.

    Beside the above image, I found a few other images, where the head of Megyn Kelly was attached to the female bodies involved in various exercises, including those in which the ISIL militants forced to participate Kurdish women.

    Megyn Kelly actively stood up for the right of Syrian Sunni Muslims to live and work in the United States, including the radical Sunni Muslims, who refuse to report the terrorists to the authorities.

    It made a strong impression on the Americans, especially Americans of Kurdish origin, who immediately wished Megyn Kelly to experience what radical Islam is by providing corresponding Internet-wishes with online Internet-illustrations.

    So Trump very timely published this tweet, making a lot of Americans to enjoy the above pictures of his enemy, finally convincing his potential voters that he correctly refused to participate in televised debates.

    Smart man!

  27. BackRowHeckler February 1, 2016 at 2:17 pm #

    Meanwhile, here in the Nutmeg State, Land of Steady habits, with unfunded pension liabilities of 1/2 billion $$$, and a working annual deficit of $100 million, three new sports stadium are being built at State U, for baseball, hockey and basketball, a new baseball park is being constructed in Hartford where 80% of the population is on welfare, and the base salary of the new athletic director at State U will be about $1 million per. That’s just base, the perqs not included.

    This is why us proles out here in the burbs are a little puzzled when we hear news of impending financial disaster and collapse on an international scale. It just doesn’t square what we read in the local rag every day, which reports just good news, not bad news.

    brh

  28. hineshammer February 1, 2016 at 2:25 pm #

    Regarding China I recently read a statistic, in last month’s National Geographic, that blew my mind. China has produced more cement since 2012 than the US has since 1900. WTF?! Talk about a boom waiting to bust, a bubble ready to pop. There is no way they need all of that cement, 1.2 billion people or not. It must have been used to build all of those ghost cities.

    • malthuss February 1, 2016 at 4:12 pm #

      4 in 5 on welfare. Yikes.
      I left some comments for you, yesterday. Enjoy.

  29. volodya February 1, 2016 at 2:37 pm #

    China’s ghost cities and theme parks and shopping malls (one in the shape of the Pentagon no less) will collapse into rubble in no time.

    A stupendous waste of effort and resources and all of it will come out of the hides of gullible Chinese shareholders and, most of all, the average Joe.

    It will be interesting to watch how fast nature re-asserts control. A while back I saw a documentary on the abandoned area around Chernobyl. Seems that, as soon as people left the place, wild-life moved in apparently untroubled health-wise by the radioactivity. Canals fell to ruin, dammed by beavers, swamp-land took over followed by water fowl, moose, wolves etc. An amazing transformation.

    But, the American oligarchy gifted China with the industrial infrastructure of the United States of America and the millions of jobs that went with all this productive capacity. If Chinese leadership play their cards right, they may salvage enough of it to maintain their own political legitimacy. But that’s a big “if”. If they don’t play their cards right…

    Interesting, don’t you think, the flood of money coming out of China. So much of it buying up property in places like London and NYC and Vancouver. What does it tell you about Chinese confidence in their leadership? The Chinese can’t vote with an X on a ballot so what do they do?

    • malthuss February 1, 2016 at 4:14 pm #

      What does it tell you about Chinese confidence in their leadership?

      LEADERSHIP?
      Slave drivers.

      I assume those with the gold want to avoid the rulers.
      A new golden rule.

    • MisterDarling February 1, 2016 at 7:54 pm #

      Hello Volodya,

      “Interesting, don’t you think, the flood of money coming out of China. So much of it buying up property in places like London and NYC and Vancouver. What does it tell you about Chinese confidence in their leadership? The Chinese can’t vote with an X on a ballot so what do they do?”-v.

      As soon as HSBC in Hong Kong shut-down offshore mortgage facilitation for Mainland Chinese buyers, RBC in Canada removed the requirement for established local credit for first-time buyers… So interesting, isn’t it?

      Gotta git while th’ gittin’s good, boy-o!

      /S

      Cheers!

  30. MisterDarling February 1, 2016 at 3:34 pm #

    I ENJOY reading a post that shifts the direction of the conversation in a humorous way, like this one.

    RE |”Trouble is, this sucker could go down so much further than they imagined, that whatever fortunes they gain from its descent will be foiled by the destruction of the very economic system needed for them to enjoy their gains.”-J H K.

    Some seem to believe that the financial ‘wizards’ who conjured up the dead-end mess we’re in remain utterly in control. They profess to believe that this latest set of hurdles before richly deserved professional death is duly delivered *is *actually* all part of some carefully planned, brilliantly executed plan for ultimate domination. [*]

    Is the rising demand for a ‘cashless society’ [**] a triumph for the ‘PTB’? I never seen these over-payed nitwits successfully execute a three-stage plan, let alone a multi-foliate multi-generational one. Their planning ability is solidly on the reactive not proactive side of the line – with few exceptions. They’re never above ‘Forrest Gumping’ or buying their way into an apparent victory – and then claiming that this what they intended all along, however.

    “Of course, this is a vain and stupid idea, since we already have a planet engineered to perfection for all the life systems associated with the human project. We just can’t respect its limits.”- J H K.

    “Vain and stupid”? Yes, certainly not one of the more reasonable course of action. BUT… Given the nature of the challenge – an entrenched, ruthless global oligarchy utterly heedless of ecocidal consequences no matter how dire – building pleasure domes under the Lunar or Martian surface looks like a more do-able course of action.

    Stephen Hawking (no slouch in the critical-thinking department) suggested settling outside of the gravity-well as a way that humanity might survive a global plutocracy’s killing the planet. Personally, if he suggests it I’m willing to consider the pros & cons.

    “Or maybe this is China and the USA’s Thelma and Louise moment. Pedal to the metal, they drive into the abyss of history holding hands. Remember, audiences loved that!”-J H K.

    This is a great conclusion: exciting scene-description with a payload of poetic truth packed away in its cream-filled center…

    Cheers!

    — — —

    [*] Some people spend a lot of time day-dreaming about being dominated apparently…

    [**] This has been trending up for a couple of years now. Sweden has almost succeeded in eliminating banknotes and coin altogether – they’ve certainly managed to stigmatize it. As the financial world destabilizes and the desperation spread, NIRP and cashlessness goes viral. Europe first, Japan, then…

    😉

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    • K-Dog February 1, 2016 at 4:03 pm #

      I don’t think one has to think about ‘domination’ very hard. All the American public has to do is keep mindlessly bumping off the walls of destiny without a plan and let the concentration of power continue to be concentrated in fewer and fewer hands. Human nature will take care of the rest and we will arrive at serfdom without even trying. Hedonism is already the dominant moral force in America and restraint has been kicked to the curb. Mindless cruelty is already part of the human genome and only needs the right circumstances to express.

      The stew is already made and simmers on the stove. It is only a matter of time before it is ready. Perhaps president Trump will ladle us up a steaming cup of tyranny.

      • MisterDarling February 1, 2016 at 6:49 pm #

        ‘ello K-Dog!

        RE | “Human nature will take care of the rest and we will arrive at serfdom without even trying.”

        I agree that ‘serfdom happens’ (to paraphrase), but then again so does anarchy, rugged egalitarianism, democracy in all it’s variegated splendor, and multipolar regional & global power-sharing based on a solid foundation of no-nonsense pragmatism … Accompanied by the advent of !Rough Justice! vigorously applied to it’s Neediest Recipients.

        It stands to reason that there must be an ‘Iron Law of Freedom’ just as there is an ‘Iron Law of Oligarchy’ – otherwise democratic notions, language, traditions, institutions and ethnic cultures conducive to it would not persist across millenia

        Cheers!

        • K-Dog February 1, 2016 at 8:25 pm #

          That would actually be called the iron law of slavery and would go as follows.

          All forms of organization regardless how free they may be to begin with will eventually and inexorably reduce its most disenfranchised members into a state of bondage.

          It would be same kind of coin as the law of oligarchy but it is the flip side. Tails instead of heads.

  31. And So It Goes February 1, 2016 at 3:54 pm #

    The last few months James has sounded like an angry white man.

    Today he is back to form.

    Thank You James…

    Support Forthcoming….

    • Frankiti February 1, 2016 at 5:03 pm #

      or

      “Say everything I want to hear or I won’t support you.”

      Keep the change ya filthy animal…

  32. Frankiti February 1, 2016 at 5:01 pm #

    Here is Musk floating ’round in his tin can
    Far above cold Mars
    Planet Earth is blue
    And there’s nothing he can do.

  33. Pucker February 1, 2016 at 5:38 pm #

    We’re all supposed to love each other regardless of race, creed, color, gender, economic or social class, nationality, ideology, or sexual orientation, like the members of Jim Jones People’s Temple, and worship the god leader.

  34. alphie February 1, 2016 at 6:01 pm #

    “…we already have a planet engineered to perfection for all the life systems associated with the human project. We just can’t respect its limits.” JHK

    “Don’t it always seem to go, that you don’t know what you got till it’s gone…” Joni Mitchell

  35. Pogo February 1, 2016 at 7:21 pm #

    Calling Mr. James H. Kunstler.

    Hey, Jim, I just saw this in the Twin Cities PBS guide and thought you might be interested in case you pass this part of the country.

    The Minnesota Historical Society is featuring “Suburbia: Land of 10,000 dreams”. Hahaha. ROTFLMFAO as they say. Land of 10,000 dreams. Hahahahahah!

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    • BackRowHeckler February 1, 2016 at 8:41 pm #

      You mean Land of 10,000 Somali Tribesmen, many of whom have gone to fight with ISIS.

      brh

  36. wpa_ccc February 1, 2016 at 7:49 pm #

    REALITY CHECK

    CFN Sturm und Drang is in fine form today, but take a step back and re-evaluate. China going back to 12 century? Hardly. Y’all are severely underestimating China, which is now the world’s largest economy.

    China is also the world leader in creating infrastructure to provide non-fossil energy. China is already the world leader in wind and solar energy. (Nothing at all like the 12th century!)

    China boosted its investment in clean energy another 17 percent in 2015 to a record $110.5 billion, about equal to the combined investment of the United States and the European Union. China has also just surpassed Germany as the world’s largest installer of solar panels.

    China has been able to cover all of its growth in electricity demand since 2011 – a 20 percent increase – with non-fossil energy.

    Between now and 2020, China plans to triple its grid-connected solar capacity to 100 gigawatts and double its grid connected wind capacity to 200 gigawatts, achieving grid price parity with coal power.

    By 2030, China plans to install more wind (345GW) and solar (325GW) energy than exist in the world today, doubling the world’s total capacity.

    China has adopted a slew of policies to level the playing field for clean energy, including a priority dispatch policy for renewable energy and a national carbon trading program to be launched next year.

  37. BackRowHeckler February 1, 2016 at 8:39 pm #

    Even now, it seems there’s plenty of excess swag floating around the US economy. How else can you explain the new NFL stadium going up in LA, price tag $10 billion? How could such a place be built if there wasn’t available credit, and lots of it? Not a week goes by that I don’t hear about this centerfielder signing a $110 million contract, a point guard signing for $75 million, a running back for $90 mill. That money is coming from somewhere. Even in the train wreck that is Detroit the pro teams pay out enormous salaries. Colleges, too, pay their coaches and ADs huge sums. You’d think if the economy was in real trouble these superfluous activities would be the first to go under, but they’re richer than ever.

    Not having enough resources is General Washington melting down silver from his house in Virginia to pay the troops at Valley Forge. I don’t see anything like that happening here. Of course Im not an economist and don’t have the spread sheets here in front of me, showing things headed south, and fast!

    brh

    • malthuss February 2, 2016 at 2:00 pm #

      10 B is only 1000 per person?
      10b -10 million people.

  38. Pucker February 1, 2016 at 9:12 pm #

    The 12th Century may not be so bad?

    “The products, ranging from “toasters to bedsheets, light bulbs, cameras, toothbrushes, door locks, cars, watches and other wearables,” will give the government increasing opportunities to track suspects and in many cases reconstruct communications and meetings.”

    http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/02/01/us/politics/new-technologies-give-government-ample-means-to-track-suspects-study-finds.html?smid=tw-share&_r=1&referer=https://t.co/PuXgIAtxQv

  39. Q. Shtik February 1, 2016 at 9:59 pm #

    Yes, it was downhill after the invention of fire. Who did we think we were standing up on two legs? And using energy? We thought we were better than the other animals. Utter hubris. The thrown stick became the space ship. But we will pay for this outrage, this piercing of the sky! – Janos

    ==========

    You forgot ‘Sarcasm off’ but very artistic.

    • elysianfield February 2, 2016 at 1:33 pm #

      Q, et al;

      Regarding the use of emoticons and “signals of intent”,

      I was, several weeks ago, gently reminded that my asides might be taken with the wrong intent, and that I should use “internet shorthand” to direct the readers to my posts true meanings. Emoticons, Sarcasm “toggling” etc being in common useage on the internet.

      My writing is marginal, and, even with continued effort, will never improve to be what I would like. But if I had to use emoticons to convey my meaning in a post, I would consider my poor contributions a failure, and an embarrassment. Does our host use emoticons? Did Hunter Thompson, a contemporary of our host, use emoticons (Hell’s Angels, A True and Terrible Saga…wink wink…Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas/Sarcasm on)?

      Most contributors to this blog are educated, intelligent, and obviously well spoken. With all respect, do we really need road signs to tell us when to think, laugh, or understand that a ridiculous statement, in context, might be other than absolutely literal?

  40. Q. Shtik February 1, 2016 at 10:04 pm #

    A stupendous waste of effort and resources and all of it will come out of the hides of gullible Chinese shareholders and, most of all, [the average Joe.] – volodya

    =============

    [the average Zhang.]

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    • bukowskisghost February 1, 2016 at 10:54 pm #

      . Hey you!, Skorenzy!! Nobody took your bait this time you Nuremberg has been. Aw, the pity……. Internet bullying is So passé. You remind me of someone who writes hate mail with a crayon inside of a fist….

      Guten tag verlierer

      • Janos Skorenzy February 2, 2016 at 3:25 am #

        You must be happy about the mass rape of German women and the destruction of Germany at the hands of the Muslims. Mopping up actions continue, right?

        Both the Kaufman Plan (sterilization of men) and the Morgenthau Plan (starvation) of German genocide failed to be implemented. So this is the next attempt and has been implemented. And, obviously, all White countries are Germany now.

      • Janos Skorenzy February 2, 2016 at 3:27 am #

        The real Bukowski refused the draft to fight Germany and took pleasure in their military successes.

        You must know this if you read Post Office, his first and in some ways best book. What a stinking little clown you are.

        • malthuss February 2, 2016 at 2:22 pm #

          Go to Tropicana official website.
          Check the 2 new commercials.

  41. BackRowHeckler February 1, 2016 at 11:17 pm #

    well, here’s the final tally for the month of January, 2015, in Chicago, City of Big Shoulders, hometown of Studs Terkel, Nelson Algren, Hamlin Garland, Ernest Hemingway, Carl Sandburg, Bernard Malumud, and many other talented people thru the decades (courtesy of HeyJackass.com/)

    Shot & Killed: 53
    Shot & Wounded: 246
    Total Shot: 299
    Total Homicides: 57

    incidentally, no one has been shot and killed by police in this period.

    One of the murder victims was white.

    Pretty impressive numbers by any measure, equal to a low level war, say Vietnam in 1971, or the Philippine Islands in 1900.

    Not a record, however. Those were set in the 90s.

    I have fond memories of Chicago, taking the train down from Great Lakes Training Center on weekends, never felt I was in any danger walking around that city. Things have changed, evidently.

    I wonder how Tiny Dancer, the Esteemed Mayor, sees the situation?

    Hyenas are prowling, circling, measuring their own strength, probing for weakness, growing hungrier by the hour. Whoop whoop whoop!

    brh

    • malthuss February 2, 2016 at 1:59 pm #

      Hey Homophobe,

      There are pictures of Le Ballerina, oops Danseur, online.

      The early, non professional picture really is him.
      The photo of a kneeling guy in beautiful garb is fake. It was done to make him look manly as a dancer.

    • Janos Skorenzy February 2, 2016 at 2:49 pm #

      I can’t stand Rahm either (obviously), but he’s no fag. Remember, he was IDF, an officer I believe. He could probably kill you with his bare hands. I know this is hard for you, but the Jews just don’t take your liberal/conservative categories as seriously as you do. National Socialism comes naturally to Jews. To some extent, the Germans were inspired by their example. And that means radically “liberal and radically “conservative” at the same time.

      Yes, many male ballet dancers are gay. But that’s not always the same as fag either. And as far as physical prowess goes, could you hold a hundred pound girl over your head with one hand? Pound for pound, they are some of the strongest men out there.

      • malthuss February 3, 2016 at 12:29 am #

        Word is that in Israel the gullible goyim are ‘snookered’ [is that word yid?] into going to the Holocaust [tm] Museum.

        Israelis and smart jews go to the War Museum.
        True?

        Rahms dad was a killer? terrorist?

        • Janos Skorenzy February 3, 2016 at 1:29 am #

          Don’t know. Don’t know. There is so much to know. And as the Zen Master said, we must keep a don’t know mind even when we do know. Perhaps that’s easier if we don’t know to begin with?

          Rahm is obviously dangerous, a human shark. That should keep him from high office. Ted Cruz, the dough faced Xtian, is far more dangerous since he will work for Rahm’s agenda in secret. Simple White Peasants have no resistance against this Zionist, married to a Goldman Sachs executive. Some say that Cruz family are from Cuba by way of the Canary Islands – a land famous for their crypto Jews.

  42. Walter B February 2, 2016 at 12:23 am #

    Well James, mankind may recall the prophetic line once spoken by Clint Eastwood that “A man’s got to know his limitations”, but mankind has never been able to realize exactly what his limitations actually are until he has exceeded them. Our entertainment business taunts us all with tales of Frankenstein, Godzilla, Jurassic Park, yet even these tongue in cheek reminders pass in and out of our collective psyches without really making any headway towards correction. Nope, we are destined to screw it all up in the end, FUBAR they call it in the military and THAT, rather than any Martian wet dream, is our future. Smaller, more local, sustainable, it will be the only way whether we choose it or it is thrust upon us. You knew that and that is why we are here. Thank you.

  43. MisterDarling February 2, 2016 at 1:30 am #

    Business News is getting even weirder.

    Walmart; they came, they saw;

    http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-25/wal-mart-it-came-it-conquered-now-it-s-packing-up-and-leaving

    – They blew a hole in small town economies, then they bugged-the-f@@k-out two year later. Yep! It’s all part of some nefarious ‘Grand Design’… /s

    Next up? The ongoing saga of international shipping:

    ‘Accident’? Or something more?

    http://www.businessinsider.com/modern-express-cargo-ship-drifting-towards-france-2016-2/?utm_content=buffer44bac&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer?r=AU&IR=T

    Yeah, I dunno. Cargo-hold full of “timber” and “heavy construction equipment” en route to “France”? [*] It looks like an insurance job to me. I think that we can all expect to see a lot more of this – along with “zombie ship” strandings and walkaways. What are your thoughts on the matter, CFN?

    😉

    — — —

    [*] The market price (and demand) for both items is trending down, and so is France’s economy, so looks like someone may have wanted to “do something for the good of everybody”? Yeah, hmmm… maybe-so.

  44. pequiste February 2, 2016 at 1:35 am #

    While the Chinese are world-class gamblers individually, I do not think the Central Committee of the CPC have rolled the dice, or will play pai gow or mah jong, for that matter, with the future of the PRC.

    They, the Chinese, have worked non-stop since they passed the Mao, to become the factory for the entire fucking world. Just like the U.S.A. was after WWII. Only now with 21st century technology and distribution.

    They have expanded their resource extraction, manufacturing operations, and financial reach, also, around the entire world.

    Hutchinson Whampoa operates the Panama Canal; Hutchinson Whampoa is the majority owner of Freeport Bahamas port and manages the airport there: 60 miles as the crow flies from Boca Raton. Were else are they buying land, mines, wells, buildings, banks, conglomerates, and cough- cough, influence? Every continent.

    Check and see who has been buying gold in large quantities and is also, at the same time, the world’s largest producer of the precious metal. They have a ways to catch up with the U.S.A. officially, but I don’t think the “official” number for either country is correct. U.S. probably has moths and some empty pallets down in Ft Knox, as the whole shooting match is hiding at the N.Y. Federal Reserve and in Mike Bloomberg’s bunker, because they now own it. While the Middle Kingdom is sandbagging – A WHOLE LOT.

    Careful with that Petro-dollar situation Ms Yellen and Mr Lew!

    So while brand spanking new ghost cities are spread out all over the forth largest country by land area, there are hundreds of millions of people to occupy them should the opportunity present itself – either because housing prices have dropped; the Yuan gets very strong, or a national emergency occurs. Have a tour of once great Detroit; Newark; Camden; St Louis; and half a hundred other, once great, manufacturing and infrastructure towns around America. Scary. We Merkans are busy working on creating tent cities it seems.

    The Chinese economy, financial system, government and the whole apparatus of industry is a Command model and the marshaling of resources to where they are needed could be a gigantic order but – a breeze – compared to the free-wheelin’ hyper-Capitalist “democratic government model of the U.S.A. or even moribund “Socialist” “What are we going to do with all these Yzlamik invaders” Europe.

    I do not share Jim’s conviction that China is the Death Star and the karmic forces of their using the Western Bankster model (the Dark Side) will cause it to implode – nope, sorry.

    The Chinese have a 5,000 year old civilization that takes history very seriously. The Chinese Communist Party has engineers in the leadership positions not politicians. They are playing the long game while most Americans can’t see beyond the Stupor Bowl.

    Yes, they may even have an actual “face-plant” fall with their system;it would undoubtably cause much grief, but they are not going to return to Sung Dynasty days. I am much more concerned as to the consequences of world-wide derivatives trading. Over a QUADRILLION dollars worth it is told. Should ” that suckers going down” infrastructure collapse, or be hacked, the consequences would bring the West back to the Medieval and the rest of the world to pandemonium.

    But Ted Cruz won the Iowa caucases comedy convention today and his wife works for the Vampire Squid from Hell. That should suggest to all the CFN which system is more fucked-up and ripe for that journey into deep space.

    Over and out Col. Kunstler.

    • MisterDarling February 2, 2016 at 2:14 am #

      @ Pequiste:

      RE | “They, the Chinese, have worked non-stop since they passed the Mao, to become the factory for the entire fucking world. Just like the U.S.A. was after WWII. Only now with 21st century technology and distribution.”-p.

      I agree with you about on one important point: Yes, they have been “sand-bagging” gold furiously. And they’ve been doing it the entire time that the Federal Reserve has been suppressing gold’s price by dumping massive paper-trades on the exchange since 2013. At this point it’s an open secret that gold is ridiculously undervalued – thanks to ‘The Fed’ – and the Chinese (and the Russians and Indians) have been taking advantage of The Fed’s all-out fight against the future… As well they should have.

      However, I do have a few qualms, to whit:

      Yes, they “worked” very hard in the past. “Non-stop”? Now, not so much:

      http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/17/world/asia/china-coal-mining-economy.html?_r=0

      http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/jul/09/steel-cheaper-per-tonne-than-cabbage-in-china-as-iron-ore-hits-six-year-low

      These are bedrock industries for China. When they shut down the entire manufacturing supply-chain curls up in the corner and takes a a little ‘dragon nap’.

      The Chinese Central Committee is working harder to slow the rate of layoffs than the are resourcing and directing actual manufacturing and exporting, because they don’t want to deal with – and possibly can’t handle – the violent social and political chaos that will ensue. Strategically, China’s sitting on top of a ton of nitro-glycerine – while afflicted with a nasty case of the hemorrhoids. They could easily be just as f*@ked as everyone else is.

      Pequiste, you might consider taking a look at the Shanghai Containerization Freight Index, the Chinese Manufacturing Index and all relevant electricity utilization stats going back five years. You may find it stimulating.

      Cheers!

  45. MisterDarling February 2, 2016 at 1:43 am #

    CFN,

    I would never want anyone to think that I was ‘down on America’. We often hear about what’s going wrong in the USA, but there was a time when Americans really were striving to do what was best for all of us – as a nation.

    For instance, did you know that Cincinnati had an entire 1st-class subway system built, and then never used it?

    http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/cincinnati-built-a-subway-system-100-years-ago-but-never-used-it?utm_source=Atlas+Obscura&utm_campaign=76adf68346-Newsletter_2_1_20161_29_2016&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_62ba9246c0-76adf68346-61246289&ct=t(Newsletter_2_1_20161_29_2016)&mc_cid=76adf68346&mc_eid=0dcd627ba9

    Cincinnati’s dream denied… We struggle trying to imagine America living up to it’s full potential nowadays. Well, struggle no more! As likely as not the way things could’ve been is hiding in plain sight!

    😉

    Cheers!

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    • ozone February 2, 2016 at 8:54 am #

      Only by casting an informed and educated (and sometimes, properly cynical) eye upon our society do we show that we care what happens to it. (This would be why I’m not impressed by spittle-spraying, love-it-or-leave-it asshattery. Those who find this a fine and fitting tactic might want to get “Ignoramus” proudly and boldly tattooed on their forehead in Gothic script.)

  46. FincaInTheMountains February 2, 2016 at 4:38 am #

    I am much more concerned as to the consequences of world-wide derivatives trading. Over a QUADRILLION dollars worth it is told. Should ” that suckers going down” infrastructure collapse, or be hacked, the consequences would bring the West back to the Medieval and the rest of the world to pandemonium. == pequiste

    Now a wide range of political pundits are predicting “horror without end” with the collapse of civilization either in a world war or financial tsunami.

    However, such findings do not relate to the actual nature of the political elites and even counter-elites who were educated for the last 70 years in purely mercantile, hedonistic spirit of “growth of material prosperity”. Finding willing to sacrifice what have been achieved will not be easy.

    Even ISIL militants are primarily shady businessmen in the field of smuggling, and their “horror movies” are mostly staged. All players have something to lose.

    Still, even those who were able to see in current events constant balancing act, manage to make of this wrong conclusion – they say that it is impossible to balance indefinitely, so there is going to be a war, collapse, horror. Firstly, it is possible to balance if not endlessly, but long enough to achieve specific tasks of the elite survival.

    For the global political elite the center of all conflicts is the global financial system, reformatting of which has long been discussed and prepared in the framework of G20 and other global forums.

    Now from the discussions they had to go to the active anti-crisis measures because the delay is no longer possible. Another thing is that the very anti-crisis medicine is not much sweeter than the disease itself, but still gives a hope to do without the universal collapse and collapse of the world into new Dark Ages.

    At the level of backroom bargaining negotiations on the terms and principles of the global “constitutional financial reform” are in progress. And in about 5-7 years, these principles will be finalized and adopted by all.

    In parallel, the new structure will form a representative financial branch of the global political power. By the time a permanent settlement of the major conflicts (in about 10-12 years) it will be clear which of the Financial Coalitions and with what weights will be involved in determining the global financial policy.

    Probably, it will be the completion of the reform of foreign exchange quotas and votes in the IMF, or the global reserve system to replace it.

    Another five to seven years will take to restart and launch of the new “dual” system of global finance. In addition to the system based on currency reserves of states or alliances emitting reserve currency there will likely be clearing houses, based on inter-zone currency swaps. And global Financial Control, a kind of “Interpol” in tracking “illegal” international financial transactions will resolve the contradiction between these two.

    Thus, the transitional period of globalization will take approximately 16-18 years. All this time the high level of uncertainty will remain, especially in rational assessments of various economic projects, forecasts, exchange rates and stock indices. “Pre-election” period will affect competition in the emergence of many different, conflicting assessments.

    Source: http://oohoo.livejournal.com/198046.html

  47. FincaInTheMountains February 2, 2016 at 5:20 am #

    1999: In China, Yeltsin Lashes Out at Clinton

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ke2Gb9tHBJo

    Yesterday, Clinton permitted himself to put pressure on Russia, It seems he has for a minute, for a second, for half a minute, forgotten that Russia has a full arsenal of nuclear weapons. He has forgotten about that.

    It has never been the case, and will not be the case, that he alone dictates to the world how to live, how to work, how to rest and so on. No, and again no. Things will be as we have agreed with Jiang Zemin. We will be saying how to live, not he alone.

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPcap/1999-12/10/123r-121099-idx.html

    • FincaInTheMountains February 2, 2016 at 9:00 am #

      With all his tremendous faults, President Yeltsin was the one who prevented the breakup of Russian Federation a la Soviet Union which was planned by the Clinton’s clique using the Chechen insurrection.

      I also have to say that George W. Bush was an excellent politician and military leader, who was mostly slandered by Clinton-controlled media, even to the point of accusation in 911 attacks.

    • FincaInTheMountains February 2, 2016 at 1:05 pm #

      And on this clip we see Yeltsin slightly drunk, playing the fool, and at the same time thinking how he is going to remind Clinton from China about the presence of Russian nuclear weapons, and then give Russia a successor who will first crush Chechen DAESH, then recover nuclear submarine fleet, and under its cover will begin to restore the army, which is capable of destroying any enemy of Russia, who dare to shoot down Russian planes and dump oil prices below the cost of production.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3eiIMZQWkdQ

  48. Frankiti February 2, 2016 at 5:41 am #

    Hillary Vs. Rubio; The Establishment Strikes back

    • wpa_ccc February 2, 2016 at 9:44 am #

      Frankiti/Cold, time to eat your hat. Jeb was the establishment, not Rubio.

      • Frankiti February 2, 2016 at 11:52 am #

        If you think Rubio, backed by Adelson and the Kochs, is not the establishment candidate, than you are far dimmer and more disingenuous than previously confirmed.

        • wpa_ccc February 2, 2016 at 12:38 pm #

          Being backed by billionaires does not make you an annointed RNC insider. It just makes you a puppet of billionaires.

          “DAVENPORT, Iowa—Florida Sen. Marco Rubio likes to remind GOP primary voters of the long odds he faced running for the Senate in 2010. “Everybody in the Republican establishment came forward and said, ‘You can’t run, it’s not your turn, you’ve got to wait in line,’ ” Mr. Rubio told the crowd at a recent campaign stop in early-voting Iowa. The underdog narrative helps Mr. Rubio cast himself as a political outsider to a party desperate for change.”

          • Frankiti February 2, 2016 at 5:03 pm #

            “Narrative” is code, you do understand that, right? It’s a euphemism. It means fiction. It’s a fabrication created by his campaign. It’s marketing you dolt. He is not, and never was, an underdog. It took about 3 weeks for the establishment wing (after Graham bailed) to come to grips with the fact that ole Jeb is worthless. Rubio, a sitting Senator, is next in line. He is the establishment. I know that you are an imbecile, but try to follow, the story being weaved before your glazed over eyes. Every major publication and or so-called paper of record has caught on to Rubio’s ascendency as the establishment campaign. He is the found shallow pulse in the erstwhile cadaver. Now, I do know that your modus operandi is to parrot stupidity and present mendacious claims in the spirit of stirring the pot. I try to leave the drooler in the corner alone for the most part, but when your making a mess of the floor that’s bible to make another slip, well, I take precaution.

  49. FincaInTheMountains February 2, 2016 at 5:49 am #

    Even a razor-thin win of H. Clinton and Party of War (or Party of Economic Crisis) in the Iowa primaries gives a renewed vigor to oil-price war and decline in Dow futures.

    Would be interesting to test my little theory on the New Hampshire primaries.

  50. FincaInTheMountains February 2, 2016 at 8:05 am #

    Syria, Turkey: New Russian Rules of Engagement

    Russia has taken the initiative in Syria and established its dominance on the full breadth and width of the country. Politically, in Geneva on Monday the Russians are determined not to yield to the opposition anything that would endanger the grounds gained on the battlefield, and not to accept anyone who has been or still is in communication with Salafi-Jihadis ( Al-Nusra, Ahrar Al-Sham, and whoever pledged their allegiance to them or fights within their ranks). Furthermore Russia will not halt any military advancements during the Geneva talks as stated in the UN resolution, especially now that Damascus and the Kremlin hold all the cards”.

    http://www.fort-russ.com/2016/01/new-rules-of-engagement-on-battlefield.html

    Middle East is a very serious trump card in ongoing negotiations regarding the future of the world financial system, and Syria – important key region.

    That is beside the fact that Russia plays a positive and active role in the defense of civilization in Syria.

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  51. ozone February 2, 2016 at 8:07 am #

    Lying and Fudging and Grifting… oh my! (No one would lie/fudge about a vote count, would they? I’m shocked, I tell you, shocked.)

    https://www.rt.com/usa/330989-bernie-sanders-vote-count/

    At least Bernie is intending that the coin-toss bullshit is brought right out in the open. (Aside from the fact that a “determination” was made by Lady Luck, Hillary wins by coin-toss in *all 6 instances*? Quite the candidate pickin’ process you’ve got there Unka Sam.)

    NPR: Clinton “wins” by the slimmest of margins. Sanders “happy” with the results.

    Riiiiight. And Ted the Cruiser won also. (Not a peep/word about coin-tossing; how ’bout that?)

    • ozone February 2, 2016 at 8:11 am #

      In future, I say that all important governmental decisions (like going to war and funding any-damn-thing) be determined by a fair and open coin-flip.

      Aside: Aha! Coin-flip admitted by NPR. And Cruiser by Evangelical vote…

  52. FincaInTheMountains February 2, 2016 at 10:56 am #

    Some win – in the state in which local Republicans should love Cruz, he got 8 delegates and Trump got 7.

  53. lostinspace February 2, 2016 at 10:57 am #

    Here is a prediction Jim if you ever read this far into the comments, I think this Zika virus is going to turn into the biggest thing since the black plague. Do not underestimate the power of mothers. After the first baby is born in the US by a woman that didn’t leave the country there will be a witch hunt for anyone who has. Look at how sars hurt Asian economies. And their were no American deaths.
    But maybe I’m wrong and the media can sweep it under the rug like Fukishema and crooked politicians.

    • lostinspace February 2, 2016 at 11:29 am #

      After thinking about it the plague is not a good comparison. Anyone have a good one.

      • Q. Shtik February 2, 2016 at 11:52 am #

        I just keep thinking of all those sweaty fans in the Brazil Olympic stadiums being eaten alive by mosquitoes, then going back to their hotel rooms to knock off a piece with their significant others or whoever.

        Your thought that the Zika virus could be the next black plague doesn’t seem all that crazy.

        • lostinspace February 2, 2016 at 3:44 pm #

          We live in interesting times. It will be the first summer games where all the women will be wearing long John’s(:-)

        • San Jose February 2, 2016 at 4:26 pm #

          I predict that the tropics will no longer be a popular honeymoon destination.

          Jen in San Jose

          • Janos Skorenzy February 2, 2016 at 4:48 pm #

            Europe too – because of the Muslim virus. Hello Niagara Falls!

      • elysianfield February 2, 2016 at 7:49 pm #

        Lost,
        I seem to remember, back in the ’50’s, of fears of an outbreak of hydrocephalus also vectored by a mosquito, in the southern states. Whereas the current fears of mosquito-induced microcephalus are warranted, the outbreak of hydrocephalus was contained through mosquito eradication programs. I expect microcephalus will devolve into a similar level of concern, after the usual sturm und drang….

  54. FincaInTheMountains February 2, 2016 at 11:16 am #

    Looks like Soros and the whole cohort of billionaire-speculators from the US financial sector announced a financial war on China, with the ultimate goal to bring down the Yuan and China’s economy as a whole.

    Chinese, judging by the statements of their media and the actions of the Central Bank are more than willing to take up the challenge and are tightening the screws.

    The main problem for Xi Jinping in this situation, is not Soros, but the part of the Chinese elite, who now moves the capitals and the families to the West.

    The outflow of capital in the amount of $1 trillion a year is a serious challenge.

  55. Q. Shtik February 2, 2016 at 12:03 pm #

    This morning I have heard a couple of politicians giving their two cents on the Iowa caucuses (one was Lindsay Graham).

    In each case they ended by saying “wool see.”

    What has become of the word we’ll?

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    • volodya February 2, 2016 at 12:20 pm #

      They say that in centuries past the word “home” was pronounced like “hame” ie with a long “a”. They say that the sound is evolving such that in a couple of centuries it’ll be pronounced more like “hoom”. I’ve heard “we’ll” pronounced more often like “will” as in “will see.”

      • Q. Shtik February 2, 2016 at 1:19 pm #

        It makes you wonder (why not wunder?) how any foreigner learns our language.

        I don’t mind language evolving, I just don’t want it happening on my watch.

        • volodya February 2, 2016 at 2:21 pm #

          The way I understand this language is that England was under the thumb of a French speaking aristocracy for about 350 years.

          The common people, though, spoke English. But, because the lingo of learning of government and lernin’ wasn’t English, there wasn’t much in the way of uniformity in terms of English usage and pronunciation and spelling.

          So, for example, way back (and maybe even nowadays) you had some parts of the country saying “kirk” instead of “church” and people spelling English words every which way depending on their local dialect, that is, to the extent it was actually written. This goes a way towards accounting for the loosy-goosiness of spelling. There’s not much consistency.
          And this regional variation may be the root of the different accents you hear in different parts of the Anglo world.

          For one thing, widely disparate spellings for the exact same sound might have been caused by the fact that the spelling originated for sounds that were nothing like the present usage.

          “Laugh” for instance. How do we know that it was pronounced “laff”? How do we know that the “augh” was meant to represent the sound “aff” and not some other maybe more guttural sound.

          When the King of England lost his last possession on French soil, French as the language of government in England was abandoned as their didn’t seem to be any rationale to keeping it. At that point English usage took off with a lot of absorption and adaptation of Latin words.

          Bottom line is that the foreigner has a bitch of a time learning to spell. Learning to speak English isn’t as big of a problem. Because of the early Viking domination of large parts of the country, English was greatly simplified so ruler and ruled could understand one another. At least that’s how I understand it.

          As far as evolution goes, if a lingo doesn’t evolve, IMO it dies. Just like Latin. In the market place it changed into Spanish, French, Italian etc. But Latin, the way the Romans spoke it and the way the Roman Catholic Church tries to preserve it, is gone. IMO if French linguistic chauvinists have their way and they try to preserve French from foreign linguistic contamination, it too will die.

          • volodya February 2, 2016 at 2:23 pm #

            FUBAR: But, because the lingo of learning of government and lernin’ wasn’t English…

            Should be: But, because the lingo of government and lernin’ wasn’t English…

          • volodya February 2, 2016 at 2:27 pm #

            Fubar: …as their didn’t seem to be any rationale to keeping it.

            Should be: as there didn’t seem to be any rationale to keeping it.

          • Janos Skorenzy February 2, 2016 at 2:57 pm #

            Yes, language isn’t the essence, genetics are. The Quebecois let in Blacks from Francophone Africa and Haiti, and now their streets are war zones.

  56. fodase February 2, 2016 at 1:48 pm #

    they’ve actually been able to recreate what shakespearean english sounded like, the accent, that is.

    it sounds just like what americans believe the irish accent to be

    re home sounding like hame (with long a sound), that’s more than likely since icelandic says it precisely that way, and icelandic has changed extremely little (relatively speaking) the past 800 years or so.

    i’m sure you can find tons of places in Englaland and environs where that pronunciation is still lingua franca.

    interesting stuff

  57. fodase February 2, 2016 at 2:09 pm #

    re zika virus,

    i know two or 3 peeps down here who’ve had it (i think one had chicungunya virus, which is related) and they experienced aching heavy joints and the usual malaria like symptoms.

    it’s another ebola hype as far as adults go

    re the unborn, it’s bad news all the way round, microencephaly etc.

    nasty

    they have city workers go round knocking on your door, you let ’em in and they inspect your premises to see if you’ve got any puddles of water that need to be eliminated – breeding ground for nasty skeeters.

    i caught dengue fever once (they’re all related) and it ain’t pretty, specially when you know you can’t count on the clinics and hospitals here for squat – private’s the way, it’s very cheap

    i was once admitted to hospital here for 2+ days in a good private hospital, specialist visits 3 times, tons of meds, shared room with meals, IVs etc

    being a US american, i figgured it’d cost me 20k or so….

    bill came out to $900

    whew….

    • lostinspace February 2, 2016 at 2:34 pm #

      Just listened to Hammering truth and he read a item that said the mosquito’ s were gmo. Need to listen again an g find article.

  58. fodase February 2, 2016 at 2:56 pm #

    yep drudge reported that, or breitbart.

    in any case, brazil is one damn inept country.

    heads need to roll here, like in many other places

  59. fodase February 2, 2016 at 4:03 pm #

    admitted: german government doesn’t allow any negative news about illegal muslim invader vagrants:

    http://www.breitbart.com/london/2016/02/02/top-german-journalist-admits-live-on-air-national-news-agenda-set-by-government/

    merkel should H.@.N.G. for what she – and all the insane leftists – have done to utterly ruin that country

    • Janos Skorenzy February 2, 2016 at 4:52 pm #

      Trump says she should be overthrown. Does that mean he will allow that to happen if he becomes president? Bring home the troops from Occupied Germany?

      India was the crown jewel of the British Empire. Germany the crown jewel of the American.

  60. wpa_ccc February 2, 2016 at 4:20 pm #

    “Iran: The New China?” (Pepe Escobar)

    youtu.be/hRhbs_m463A

    China is taking a long view, forming strategic partnerships with Iran, Russia, i.e., a new Eurasian integration for trade and commerce. China already has 47 countries on board with its investment bank. Iran is central to the integration, among the top three suppliers of oil to China.

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  61. Frankiti February 2, 2016 at 6:31 pm #

    “…Answer: the implacable limits of life on earth. The metaphor for all this, of course, is the old journey-into-space idea, which still persists in the salesmanship of Elon Musk, the ragged remnants of NASA, and even the nightmares of Stephen Hawking. Get off this messed-up home planet and light out of the territories, say Mars. Of course, this is a vain and stupid idea, since we already have a planet engineered to perfection for all the life systems associated with the human project. We just can’t respect its limits.”

    And we cannot respect our limits. We cannot accept balance, Chi, Karmic equilibrium. In everything we do it’s excess. Reproducing, hoarding wealth, updates on Face*uck, etc. We see what our mind, in a giant coping mechanism, presents us. We as apart. The Earth tells us otherwise. We tell us otherwise, but stumbling through the nightmare into a dream seems to be more preferable to stumbling into an awakening.

    Heraclitus was right, we want to sleepwalk, we want to dream it all away. Hand-held LCD screens, rocket ships, and somnambulistic VR goggles beckon. We do not want life on another planet. We do not want life at all.

    • Janos Skorenzy February 2, 2016 at 7:46 pm #

      How not? To the mortal mind, the person who has not read Leaves of Grass or has but thinks Walt is lying, we only go around once, so we have to grab for all gusto we can. Women don’t accept passes from homeless prophets, skinny pants pansies, or peacenik, pencil necked geek pacifists. They want Men with money, muscles, power, position, and prestige. Morality is optional. Thus society doesn’t change: despite their idealism, women vote with their vaginas and ovaries. And to the extent these traits are genetic, they get passed down more than the nice guy/loser ones. Not for nothing did Christ and the Alchemists call Satan, the King of this World.

      • Buck Stud February 2, 2016 at 8:26 pm #

        Or as a Taoist Sage once observed, ‘for just another twig in the nest’.

        Just be honest Janos. You want a broad willing to devote her life to nothing but pleasing you: You, the Whole You, and nothing but YOU!

        • Janos Skorenzy February 2, 2016 at 11:13 pm #

          The benefits accruing to any such woman would be well nigh incalculable. But alas, Satan is in control.

  62. Buck Stud February 2, 2016 at 8:20 pm #

    Only in America. Belly up to the betting bar and lay down some cash on how many timeS Bernie Sanders rumbles and roars “Oligarch” and “Part of The Establishment” between now and the NH primary 😉

  63. fodase February 2, 2016 at 8:33 pm #

    women can’t stand it when you don’t need them.

    that’s what every woman needs, a man who doesn’t need her.

  64. FincaInTheMountains February 3, 2016 at 12:06 am #

    A.Brodsky: A warning shot to “Deep Throat”

    Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton scored almost equal number of votes in Iowa primaries, and Hillary is ahead of Sanders by only 0.3%. The probability of such an exact match is about one in a million.

    According to the theory of probability, such results could be obtained only in the case if they are tampered with by both sides, but the Hillary side had overwhelming superiority in terms of opportunities to forge the election results, and the opposite side (NOT Sanders), had a much more modest abilities and put them to use at the last moment when Hillary Clinton decided that the work is done and relaxed.

    Apparently the other side decided to influence the elections in Iowa with only one purpose – to remind Hillary Clinton what took place in 2000, when she was celebrating the victory of her protege Al Gore.

    Then at the last minute it turned out that the difference between Al Gore and George W. Bush was about the same as between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. And today as then the steel nerves of Hillary Clinton gave way, and she declared herself a winner, without waiting for the final counting of votes, which made then (as now) continued for many months votes counting by hand several times more humiliating for her and her supporters, than a simple defeat and recognition of the victory of the opposite side.

    Interesting detail: in 2000 the closest aide of George W. Bush, responsible for the legal aspect of the above operation to ensure the legitimacy of the 2000 elections was the winner of today’s Iowa caucuses Ted Cruz !!!

    http://www.thenation.com/article/how-the-2000-election-in-florida-led-to-a-new-wave-of-voter-disenfranchisement/

  65. Janos Skorenzy February 3, 2016 at 12:50 am #

    Check out one of Bowie’s last videos, Blackstar. An absolutely ghastly Bowie, his eyes covered and replaced with buttons, is dying the death of the decadent. But he repents and joins the new religion instituted by Major Tom’s descent onto the Black Sun. The new life is symbolized by a lovely woman with a tail walking towards Tom’s body and retrieving the skull which becomes the cult object of the new religion. Other decadents are shown doing penance and exercises to attain the new life. But it is not a guaranteed process: some go too far and are devoured by the primitive towards the end. Or are still weak and unable to defend themselves against those who never decayed in the first place.

    Does this not pertain to our current plight?

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  66. Q. Shtik February 3, 2016 at 1:11 am #

    ‘snookered’ [is that word yid?] – Malthuss

    ===========

    No, I believe it’s an English word. Snooker is in the pool/billiards family. It’s played on a huge table (6’x12′, I believe), the balls are smaller than pool balls and the pockets are very tight.

    Snooker is big in Britain and countries associated with Britain (Canada, India, Australia) but not so big in the US.

    Snooker rhymes with looker as pronounced in the US but in Britain the snook part of the word rhymes with luke.

    I played snooker once in my life at age 15, in Pembroke Ontario (Canada) next to the Ottawa River.

    • elysianfield February 3, 2016 at 10:56 am #

      Q,
      Snooker tables come in two sizes…5’X10′ and 6’X12′. In 1974 I bought a 5’X10′ and had it for 25+ years in a commons building on our ranch (left it “in situ” when the property was sold). Spent many an hour playing the “long green”. It teaches discipline… certainly improves your eye and shooting ability when playing on a regulation size pool table….

      • Q. Shtik February 3, 2016 at 11:18 am #

        Where are you located? You a Brit?

        • elysianfield February 3, 2016 at 6:35 pm #

          Q,
          Located in the wilds of Costal Oregon…Coos Bay, to be exact. We suffer many things here…70+” rain a year, Seattle-type depression during the wet, cold dark winters, many miles to drive for a “quart of milk”, and, oh yeah, a soul-wrenching lack of cultural and racial diversity….

          • Q. Shtik February 3, 2016 at 10:23 pm #

            I’m surprised to hear that someone in Oregon would have owned a snooker table for twenty five years.

          • elysianfield February 4, 2016 at 11:07 am #

            Q,
            Yes, and a majority of us even wear shoes….

  67. wpa_ccc February 3, 2016 at 1:37 am #

    Frankiti, weren’t you opposed to the young first term senator running for president in 2008? Rubio is a young first term senator not at all prepared to run the country.

    Rubio has to go to New Hampshire, and to South Carolina and to Nevada, etc. If he does not achieve third place in any of those places and he gets knocked out of those situations, at that point in time he will have lost all momentum… with or without “establishment” support…. with or without billionaire backing. He will still be a loser, like Trump.

    Bernie Sanders 2016

    • Frankiti February 3, 2016 at 5:43 am #

      You don’t see that the fix is in? We’re in the part of the process that makes it appear as if anyone and everyone has a chance, that the voters make all the difference. It’s quaint, and therefore reassuring for those that believe in the democratic america NARRATIVE. The entire apparatus is in favor of Clinton. The Dept. of State, the Justice Dept. all are delaying or postponing or avoiding her date with justice so as to ensure her coronation. Bloomberg is waiting to see how she fares. But alas, if she does go, the entire momentum swings to Rubio, a product and dependent of the system.

      In a year’s time you will be complaining along with everyone else about Clintubio in the office. Yawn.

    • BackRowHeckler February 3, 2016 at 6:16 am #

      Far Out!

      Pass the Bong, will you WPA?

      And those volumes of Alan Watts and Herman Hesse.

      Now excuse me whilst I Q up this Hendrix LP.

      brh

      • malthuss February 3, 2016 at 12:32 pm #

        Hendrix Vinyl in Mono goes for $3000.

  68. Pucker February 3, 2016 at 2:10 am #

    Think Positive: Is there an Upside to the Downside?

  69. Pucker February 3, 2016 at 3:16 am #

    If oil prices are going to stay low for a while, does this mean that we should buy RVs? Maybe install armor-plating and load up on firearms?

  70. BackRowHeckler February 3, 2016 at 6:26 am #

    Somebody above mentioned Haiti; electing that musician to the presidency didn’t work out as hoped and Haiti is devolving, once again, into a bloody morass.

    brh

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    • malthuss February 3, 2016 at 12:34 pm #

      1 in 4 Mexicans is in USA.

      1 in 4? Haitians, here.
      With their IQs of 70. [DNA 95% african].

      Miamian says ‘they smell so and have ruined this city.’

      • wpa_ccc February 4, 2016 at 1:16 pm #

        My doctor is from Haiti. Beautiful person and very smart, with a perfect IQ.

        • Q. Shtik February 4, 2016 at 10:12 pm #

          My doctor is from Haiti. Beautiful person and very smart, with a perfect IQ. – wpa

          ==============

          Ha ha. What is a perfect IQ? Is it like scoring 800 on the SATs? Did you ask the Dr. ‘her’ IQ and ‘she’ said “it’s perfect?”

          I can see the headlines now:

          Prolific blog commenter dies after routine doctor visit 🙂

  71. FincaInTheMountains February 3, 2016 at 7:56 am #

    The Syrian army has blocked the supply line of militants from Turkey (Finally!!!)

    Bashar al-Assad’s troops in an alliance with the pro-government militia forces were able to cut off the main supply routes of terrorists in the north of Syria. In particular, government forces took control of the road leading from Aleppo to the location on the Turkish border town of Azaz. It was in this village the location of the main militant’s rear base.

    Air support was provided by Russian Air Force.

    http://1prime.ru/News/20160203/823374446.html

  72. FincaInTheMountains February 3, 2016 at 8:37 am #

    Russia invented a new method of making music clips by recording on car’s DVR. Nice addition to making selfie pictures and posting it on Facebook. Patent is pending…

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45re9YPPYmM

  73. BackRowHeckler February 3, 2016 at 8:46 am #

    Today’s migrant news.

    ‘Pensioners attacked on train trying to protect German girls assaulted by migrants’

    Available video shows several elderly Germans being pounded by young men speaking Arabic.

    For God Sakes, German Men, get off your asses and protect your women and grandparents! What the hell is wrong with you? I know you’ve been de balled, you have no weapons, many of you are queer, the Prime Minister, Burkha Merkel hates ordinary Germans, the Defense Minister is a radical feminist, as are most of the mayors and leading politicians, but hour is getting late, maybe too late … what kind of country is being created for your children and grandchildren? (if you have any, most of you don’t).

    What’s really remarkable is German and Swedish feminists stepping up for Muslim immigrants accused of mass rape. How could this possibly be? Only one explanation makes sense: Hyenas have found a way to shape shift into human form, and have wormed their way to the top ranks of leftist and feminists organizations. That’s right Fritz, you are being ruled by Hyenas, whose main agenda consists of eating you alive. All this time you thought you were free men. Underneath Angela Merkels Burkha is the face of a Hyena, with yellow eyes and sharp teeth.

    brh

    • malthuss February 3, 2016 at 12:35 pm #

      No surprise. Feminazis and legal infanticide.
      Thats how low they go.

      • Doug February 3, 2016 at 1:03 pm #

        “Feminazis and legal infanticide.”

        I won’t even bother to address the moronic racism, xenophobia and sexism, because I know you positively revel in it — wallow in it like pigs in shit.

        I will, however, attempt to introduce you to an historical anthropological view of actual infanticide:

        = = = = =
        A Brief History of Infanticide

        In 1978, Laila Williamson, an anthropologist of the American Museum of Natural History, summarized the data she had collected on the prevalence of infanticide among tribal and civilized societies from a variety of sources in the scientific and historical literature. Her conclusion was startlingly blunt:

        Infanticide has been practiced on every continent and by people on every level of cultural complexity, from hunters and gatherers to high civilization, including our own ancestors. Rather than being an exception, then, it has been the rule.
        = = = = =

        Much more at source.

        • Janos Skorenzy February 3, 2016 at 3:49 pm #

          Well said, Doug. Since Whites are the problem, the destroyers of the Earth, we have no right to feel morally superior to anyone. If Aborigines choose to eat their kids, who are we to say nay? Ditto the Chinese. It’s said to be a delicacy in fact, one that can even be found in the West by discrete and discerning, consuming patreons of the larger Chinatowns? Have you, Doug?

          Luckily the West is throwing off its chains of hypocrisy and joining the rest of humanity. Planned Parenthood is already marketing body parts, and sending heads thru the mail. A group of bigots tried to bring them down, and got themselves indicted instead. How ya like that, Christian bigots? It’s only a matter of time before Planned Parenthood is sending out directly to restaurants.

          What else do we feel superior about it? Giving up slavery? Blacks practice slavery. Are we better than Blacks? Clitororectomy? African Muslims practice this. Are we better than them? Of course not, so how can we ban it? Polygamy? All Muslims have the right. Better? How can we ban it? Beating women? All Muslims do. Are we better? No. How can we ban it?

          As Doug says, as Whites, our job is bow and learn from our betters. That’s everyone. So of course cannibalism, slavery, polygamy, and the beating of women are coming back. Trying to stop it is hypocrisy of the worst kind, the kind that Whites excel at. Doug is so far ahead of us that he only seem to be far behind. And the Devil take the hindmost.

          • malthuss February 3, 2016 at 5:55 pm #

            fu-k doug. s/he dont like facts.

          • malthuss February 3, 2016 at 6:01 pm #

            I forgot to mention the [reported, I wasnt there]
            STANDING OVATION that ‘After Tiller’ got at Sun dunce.

            re,

            I won’t even bother to address the moronic racism, xenophobia and sexism, because I know you positively revel in it — wallow in it like pigs in shit.

            Racism??? Xenophobia. Gawd yr dumbbbb.

        • Sean Coleman February 3, 2016 at 3:53 pm #

          Doug

          Your comment just caught my eye in passing.

          Without looking it up I thought that in Christendom it was explicitly outlawed.

          All right, I have just looked it up. I was trying to find if Williamson had an axe to grind, or rather, assuming that she does, whether it was the standard liberal relativist one. My quick search got no further than Wiki where you got your quote. I treat that institution with caution.

          Even assuming it was widespread (a big assumption I would need a lot of persuasion with) it doesn’t justify the practice.

          • MisterDarling February 3, 2016 at 4:23 pm #

            @ Sean:

            RE | “Even assuming it was widespread (a big assumption I would need a lot of persuasion with) it doesn’t justify the practice.”-s c.

            Widespread? Yes, it certainly was – and in the most civilized parts of the world. The trick was not calling it what it was explicitly. Ever heard of ‘foundling hospitals’? Benjamin Franklin got curious about where unwanted children went when he was assigned to France circa 1785. He discovered that ‘foundling hospitals’ had a mortality rate of 85%. [*]

            Many foundling hospitals had revolving street-facing drawers so that a parent could quickly ‘un-burden’ themselves & walk-on.

            In less developed areas, things were handled in a more gritty manner. . . ‘Accidents’ happened, etc.

            This of one of those subjects that pierces through the veneer – not unlike other basic facts about the inputs of civilization.

            Cheers!

            — — —

            [*] citing Lepore, J. (2009) New Yorker, “Baby Food”.

          • malthuss February 3, 2016 at 5:57 pm #

            Until 1900 or there abouts, mortality was 50% for children.

          • Sean Coleman February 5, 2016 at 12:16 pm #

            Mr D

            My point is that I am sceptical of such sweeping assurances, including those from experts like Miss Williamson (particularly when filtered through Wiki).

            I came to Ireland nearly thirty years ago (born in London) at a time when anti-clerical hysteria was beginning to climb up through the gears. This was part of a modernizing process, which meant that a confused imported dogma (originating in the main in your own fine country) was to supplant traditional values. I lost count of the number of times I was told that child abuse within the home, or by priests, had always been widespread. Everybody knew it existed and the only reason we hadn’t heard of it (apart from your interlocutor knowing nothing about history) was because they kept it quiet. Further reasoning, or evidence, was not considered necessary. This was part of the campaign to denigrate the past and its values.

            Other popular ‘dicta’ included ‘a car is a loaded weapon’, ‘rape is rape is rape’ and the hilarious ‘I see myself as more European than Irish’ (it was popular at the time to rename, say, your launderette as a ‘eurolaunderette’). They hadn’t yet twigged that it is run by the Germans.

            Infanticide wasn’t practised in my parents’ part of Ireland and neither was it found in the South-East London of my day. This may have been because of strict laws, social disapproval or even a want of desire.

            I recall reading about infant exposure in ancient Sparta and traditional Chinese attitudes towards baby girls. But Moses was not killed but set adrift in a basket. The Massacre of the Innocents was not recalled as a joyful event. In Daniel Everett’s book about the primitive Piraha tribe in the Amazon they don’t systematically dispose of unwanted children (why would they?) although he talks about them finishing off the life of a seriously ill new-born baby who they were sure was going to die anyway (I think the mother had died after giving birth). They are uncivilized but they are not uncivilized.

            There is a difference between abandoning your child and giving it up for adoption or to an orphanage. Infanticide is another thing again.

            So I see what I grew up in as civilization. Is this what you mean by the word or are you thinking of China or the Soviet Union, where abortion seemed to be the main form of contraception? The USSR was open about it and so, it seems, didn’t see any need for a veneer. This is also the approach of feminism although they still like to use euphemisms such as ‘termination’ (perhaps for the benefit of the squeamish whose consciousness hasn’t yet been raised) and they don’t like pictures of the results being published (’emotive’ and ‘divisive’).

            I suppose infanticide in the past may have been motivated by custom (female children) or perhaps even dire poverty. The modern version is for convenience. The argument that it is universal and always existed suits the liberal agenda and that is why it is heard.

            Compare it with prostitution. The world’s oldest profession. You can never eradicate it only regulate it. The world’s oldest aphorism will vanish if and when they want to abolish it.

    • Janos Skorenzy February 3, 2016 at 4:21 pm #

      These are the people America put in power. Remember, Germany is an occupied land. Trump says Merkel should be overthrown. Will he do his part if elected? Bring home the Legions and put them on the Southern Border to help build the Wall and then defend it?

  74. FincaInTheMountains February 3, 2016 at 8:54 am #

    Chinese ChemChina intends to buy Swiss Syngenta for $43 billion

    Chinese state chemical company China National Chemical Corporation (CNCC, ChemChina) made an offer to acquire the Swiss chemical company Syngenta AG at the price of 465 dollars per common share, as reported by the Swiss company.

    Thus, the proposal would value the company more than 43 billion dollars. In addition, ChemChina offers shareholders get an extra dividend of 11 francs (10 dollars) per share in May 2016. Completion of the transaction is expected by the end of 2016.

    http://www.reuters.com/article/us-syngenta-ag-m-a-chemchina-idUSKCN0VB1D9

    The Chinese are switching their excess dollars for real assets? It seems that the size of the transaction does not matter.

  75. FincaInTheMountains February 3, 2016 at 11:24 am #

    Otherwise, she would face more serious charges that she intentionally “leaked” to hackers of ISIL above-mentioned documents, which contained the names of the US secret agents in the Middle East, many of whom paid with their lives for it, after having undergone the most horrible torture by ISIL adherents.

    http://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/the-agonies-of-sensible-people/#comment-259736

    Hillary Clinton Email Leak: Dangerous ‘Operational Intel’ Puts Lives At Risk

    Hillary Clinton has been slammed for misconduct in handling sensitive materials once more, as a slew of new emails containing highly classified information were used from her personal account, Fox News reveals.

    According to the publication, emails discussing “operational intelligence” were discovered on her server. A source close to the situation shared that they contained content that could “jeopardized sources, methods and lives.”

    http://radaronline.com/celebrity-news/hillary-clinton-email-leak-dangerous-intel/

    Green Mile?

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  76. FincaInTheMountains February 3, 2016 at 3:19 pm #

    Judging by headlines in Western Media, like this one:

    Syria conflict: Aleppo offensive threatens peace talks
    http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-35482051

    Russia and Assad are kicking DAESH ass in and around Aleppo big time.

    The Syrian army, with the support of Hezbollah troops completely blocked the passage of supply line of militants coming from Turkey and passing through Azaz and freeing their own enclave, which has long been cut off from the main forces.

    At the same time the Syrian army continues to develop successful attack to the east of Aleppo. The large group of the Caliphate is on the verge of falling into the cauldron.

    All is left for mechanized units of the Syrian army to do is to get to the highway that runs through al-Bab, and then the entire Caliphate group to the east of Aleppo will be completely cut off supplies.

    Aleppo – Stalingrad style

    • Janos Skorenzy February 3, 2016 at 3:51 pm #

      Interesting. There’s a total new blackout about it lately so it only makes sense that the War is going against America and its ISIS allies.

      • FincaInTheMountains February 3, 2016 at 4:15 pm #

        All it means that The Witch controls most of the media.

      • BackRowHeckler February 3, 2016 at 5:00 pm #

        The media here is worthless, a bunch mendacious, lying, obfuscating, PC POS. F-ck all of ’em! The sooner these newspapers go out of business the happier I’ll be, and I work for one. TV networks are even worse than the newspapers, a sewer for cheap advertising and corporate and government agit/prop.

        I’m not sure if it was ever any good.

        brh

        • malthuss February 4, 2016 at 12:13 pm #

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?

          v=HsPazROIqM8

        • malthuss February 4, 2016 at 12:14 pm #

          My link is info on Kardashians.

  77. MisterDarling February 3, 2016 at 3:50 pm #

    2nd-Stage Collapse continues, apace;

    BP’s in very bad financial ‘deepwater’;

    http://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/feb/02/bp-annual-loss-biggest-for-20-years-axes-thousands-of-jobs-deepwater

    Meanwhile in China, they have spotted the ‘enemy at the gates’ and realized that __it is *them*__;

    http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/fear-and-unrest-as-jobs-disappear-in-chinas-industrial-heartland/article28528103/

    “… And Hell Followed After.”

    😉

    • Janos Skorenzy February 3, 2016 at 8:24 pm #

      If you were offered roast fetus at a special event, either of officialdom or coolness, would you partake? If not, why not? After all, it’s not like it’s human, because that would make countless women into murderers. And in any case, the Court has ruled that it’s just tissue. So what you be your objection? Why risk offending your hosts unless you had a deep seated problem with it.

  78. FincaInTheMountains February 3, 2016 at 3:50 pm #

    The result of the battle for Aleppo has become a total cutoff of a “Turkish corridor.” This means that DAESH will not be able to sell oil to Erdogan and receive from him money and weapons. Erdogan, for the same reason, will not be able to help the Turkomans on the Syrian border.

    In addition, the militants are fleeing the broken home – into Turkey, bringing the unprecedented growth of terrorism with them. It is worth mentioning that the Syrian Kurds will be able to keep a buffer zone on the border with Turkey that Turkish Kurds could take an advantage of. Mutual assistance will allow them to undermine the state border of Turkey and in the future take the Turkish south-east – Anatolia – under a Kurdish government.

    And if the Syrian army will continue to liberate their land at the same rate (and it will), then soon in Geneva will simply left no one to negotiate with. Assad will be the only legitimate force in Syria, and terrorism will go deep underground to neighboring countries.

    • MisterDarling February 3, 2016 at 4:02 pm #

      RE | “The result of the battle for Aleppo has become a total cutoff of a “Turkish corridor.” This means that DAESH will not be able to sell oil to Erdogan and receive from him money and weapons.”-fitm.

      I’m pleased with the Russian-led campaign to retake & stabilize Syria. . . Things are going precisely as I said they would when it began.

      Cheers CFN!

      • BackRowHeckler February 3, 2016 at 5:03 pm #

        How do you think it will end?

        Its shaping up to be one helluva summer, IMO.

        brh

        • MisterDarling February 4, 2016 at 2:39 pm #

          @ BRH:

          If it’s up to the Russian’s coalition-of-the-butt-kicking it will end with ISIL and their Islamic extremist pseudo-rivals neutralized. Syria will have been thoroughly ‘deloused’ and Mr. Assad will be required to make tangible reforms – so that this whole crazy bloodbath is never repeated.

          However, the risk that one or several players will do something ‘stupid’ is still unacceptably high. By ‘players’ I mean specifically: 1) Turkey & 2) US forces under the sway of a pro-war faction.

          The regime currently running things in Turkey is expected to attempt an armed incursion into NW-Syria – to clear ISIS/extremist smuggling routes and to secure a place for them to keep fighting from.

          The US pro-war faction wants to continue down the same road they’ve pursued for the last 25 years by covertly backing any/everyone fighting their enemy-du-jour… I leave it to you to decide how successful they’ve been.

          Neither of these players seems to understand that it no longer matters what they want. I invite you to read what happened the last time the US Navy sailed into the Black Sea to put ‘pressure’ on Russia;

          http://www.voltairenet.org/article185860.html

          Top-Quote:

          “As the Russian jet approached the US vessel, the electronic device disabled all radars, control circuits, systems, information transmission, etc. on board the US destroyer. In other words, the all-powerful Aegis system, now hooked up – or about to be – with the defense systems installed on NATO’s most modern ships was shut down, as turning off the TV set with the remote control.”

          This is not the first time I’ve heard this and similar reports, and now the news is out in the open. The Joint Chiefs of Staff have apparently been appraised of this situation, and the results of recent war-gaming a conventional confrontation in the region was not favorable (at all). *But*… there are still these idiots that don’t comprehend how deeply the US war-machine has been compromised by corruption (J-35, ahem).

          One hopes that things are allowed to run their course toward stability and an end to the blatant barbarism. Biding their time, updating, re-planning, resourcing and preparing for the next round is the smart thing for players 1 & 2 to do… On the other hand, that’s just not how *dumb* rolls.

          Forward Guidance? Hedge and plan resiliently.

          • Q. Shtik February 4, 2016 at 10:20 pm #

            apprised

  79. MisterDarling February 3, 2016 at 3:55 pm #

    They do things differently in Iran. For instance, they *KNOW* exactly what to do with unemployed young horn-dogs:

    https://www.oximity.com/article/Iran-Dragooning-Thousands-of-Undocumen-1?utm_campaign=it&utm_source=it-1-autoTw&utm_medium=twitter-@OximityHumanRts&utm_term=articleId-893389

    …Cost effective, and keeps unwanted hands off of unavailable buttocks. Hey wait a minute! I have a suggestion… 😉

    /S

  80. FincaInTheMountains February 3, 2016 at 3:56 pm #

    Good news for civilization from Aleppo affected oil price and magnificent turnaround of US indexes in the midday.

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  81. MisterDarling February 3, 2016 at 3:56 pm #

    “feminazis”…

    http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/02/yahoo-sued-over-employee-rankings-anti-male-discrimination/

    Yahoo!

    😉

  82. MisterDarling February 3, 2016 at 3:59 pm #

    @ Doug;

    RE | A very recent trip to Poland…

    http://linhdinhphotos.blogspot.de/2016/01/poland-looking-west.html

    I recommend Linh Dinh’s work. I don’t always agree with him, but I’ve never found him boring.

    Cheers!

    • Doug February 5, 2016 at 11:42 am #

      Thanks, MD.

      I don’t really know Linh Dinh, but his take on Poland is entirely consistent with what I’ve been observing from afar over recent years.

      The bottom line is that Poland is a deeply nationalist, racist, homophobic, religious, xenophobic culture with a long list of ingrained hatreds. At the top of that list is hatred of Russia, which long pre-dates the USSR and the postwar occupation.

      The Polish government has been the most aggressive in the EU, by far, in its stance toward Russia since the US-sponsored coup in Kiev, and has been obscenely eager to host as many NATO troops and as much military hardware as they can possibly convince Stoltenberg and Breedlove to send.

      Poland is a wet dream for the architects and project managers of the Wolfowitz Doctrine and (Pole) Zbig’s Grand Chessboard strategy of surrounding and, eventually, dismantling Russia.

  83. FincaInTheMountains February 3, 2016 at 4:02 pm #

    “Interesting. There’s a total new blackout about it lately so it only makes sense that the War is going against America and its ISIS allies.” — Janos

    Janos, if you are talking about America of Hillary Clinton, then yes, you are correct.

    But Russia is an ally of America of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Jack Kennedy, President Bush (both) and President Obama.

    • Janos Skorenzy February 3, 2016 at 8:32 pm #

      Time Traveler John Titor said the same, predicting a war between the urban elite and rural Americans. The war drags on for years in classic guerilla fashion – until Russia nukes American cities. Thereafter, America and Russia are the closest of allies.

      http://johntitor.strategicbrains.com/CopyrightProof.cfm

      • BackRowHeckler February 4, 2016 at 7:50 am #

        The Urban Elite will deploy their new feminized Army, Obama’s new model American army, mostly ladies with tranny NCOs, led by Ash Carter, sporting a new kind of combat footwear, more stylish, with a slight heel, based upon the Ruby Slippers in the Wizard of Oz.

        But they’ll have the latest high tech weapons, you can be certain of that.

        brh

  84. FincaInTheMountains February 3, 2016 at 4:34 pm #

    Putin Sends Russia’s Deadly New Fighter Jet to Syria

    http://media.defenceindustrydaily.com/images/AIR_SU-35_Armed_AAMs_Test_Flight_lg.jpg

    Beautiful machine, isn’t it? Compared to F-35 is like BMW to Ford Taurus.

    • BackRowHeckler February 3, 2016 at 5:12 pm #

      That really seems to be quite an aircraft. Why is Russia deploying it right now, do you think? Maybe just test it out in combat? Give Turkey something to think about? (what if they shoot one down?). Sometimes these small wars are an opportunity for major powers to try new weapons, to see how they perform and shake out any bugs, like when French, British and German colonial troops brought Maxim machine guns to Africa in the 1880s, (and mowed down the Dervishes, hence the term ‘Whirling Dervish’) and Germans and Soviets introduced new fighters and bombers into Spain 1936-1939.

      brh

      • Janos Skorenzy February 3, 2016 at 9:01 pm #

        The Whirling Dervishes are a Sufi sect in Turkey. They are named thus because they whirl. So did you when you were a kid – it’s a natural way to alter consciousness. Don’t you remember?

        http://whirlingdervishes.org/whirlingdervishes.htm

        • Sticks-of-TNT February 3, 2016 at 10:15 pm #

          Yet it’s easy to imagine the colonial soldiers from brh’s post adopting the slang term as they applied the new technology against their enemy. Soldiers have done that for as long as there has been war. -Sticks

          • Janos Skorenzy February 3, 2016 at 11:41 pm #

            Especially if they had heard about the real whirling dervishes already.

            Over time more and more reflections and knock offs build up until we find ourselves living in a hall of trick mirrors that distort reality. If you try and show someone the real thing, he’ll accuse you of being smart and trying to trick him.

            The first thing one experiences is seen as real just as goslings imprint on a beach ball as mom. Later they are attracted to beach balls and try to mate with them. There’s nothing “fun” about the fun house and beach ball world.

          • Sticks-of-TNT February 4, 2016 at 8:28 am #

            “Especially if they had heard about the real whirling dervishes.”

            Yeah, that’s what I meant. I guess I should have said, “adopted the term ‘whirling dervishes’ as slang as they…”

            The rest of your post (“Over time more and more…”) is just more brilliance (and/or lunatic ramblings ;>) from the genius of Janos. -Sticks

          • Janos Skorenzy February 4, 2016 at 2:39 pm #

            Well BRH doesn’t have any truck with that Sufi stuff. Hates it. He don’t care – for him whirling dervish is when a Muslim guy gets shot. He weren’t thar, but he know what he like and he like that.

            I applaud his prejudice. Our prejudices make us who we are. And at some point, they become postjudices. The Muslims have revealed themselves and they don’t belong here.

            Every Man has the right to his own Hall of Illusion. What is a Culture but beings in the same Hall and sharing the same general set of illusions? Of course, each person has his or her favorite rooms and mirrors…

        • malthuss February 4, 2016 at 12:18 pm #

          Check my link to you tube about Kardashians and OJ.
          Its worth 10 minutes.

  85. fodase February 3, 2016 at 6:04 pm #

    huh, didn’t know that all cultures down thru tyme have harbour’d brephophagists.

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  86. Janos Skorenzy February 3, 2016 at 11:34 pm #

    http://bbs.dailystormer.com/t/italy-homeless-italian-man-freezes-to-death-outside-4-star-hotel-housing-migrants/2317/25

    Compassion? To suffer with. But for whom? Surely our capacity isn’t infinite. We have to carefully choose who we suffer with. In other words, who comes first so do we run out of gas on our own people.

    Leftists always choose the most alien people to suffer for. And always put them first in line. Their own come last or preferably not at all. Why? Because they hate them. Sick animals.

    • malthuss February 3, 2016 at 11:41 pm #

      First world countries have a long way to go before they are 3rd world.
      Why are there homeless people in Italy?

      • Janos Skorenzy February 3, 2016 at 11:49 pm #

        How do you figure that? There’s three days of food at home and three days worth in the supermarkets. After that it’s the jungle. Whites will be hunted thru trash filled streets for their meat.

        A couple of EMP strikes over the lower 48 could do effectively take us out. If something like that doesn’t happen, the decline will be slower, of course. But Civil War could bring on such conditions locally since the rurals will hit the power stations, bridges, etc.

        • malthuss February 4, 2016 at 1:30 am #

          Time will tell.

          I was at library and I read Wendy Davis book. Yuk.

      • Frankiti February 4, 2016 at 5:41 am #

        The US is quickly becoming the next Brazil. Affluent oases in the cities surrounded by concentric circles of impoverished favelas (deteriorating early 20th century suburbs). An enormous income and wealth gap, high crime, and a deteriorating natural landscape is the reality of today’s poorer suburbs and its cities.

        • BackRowHeckler February 4, 2016 at 6:55 am #

          A few days ago Bridgeport CT police raided a house, inside they found bones and decayed bodies from dug up graves, home of a Santaria? High Priest. This is not the first. These people are migrating here from their stinking Carib and SAmerican jungles, accessing our ample welfare benefits, then setting up shop robbing graves to perform their twisted religious ceremonies.

          Frank, the 3rd world is already here, all around us, what’s more, we’re paying for it.

          brh

          • malthuss February 4, 2016 at 12:17 pm #

            The biggest cost is the Race Replacement Act.

            USA — once 90% White [and almost debt free].

            Now – Whites -60%.

            Soon we will be a minority in our own homeland.

            PR is defaulting? Whats going on there?

  87. FincaInTheMountains February 4, 2016 at 4:54 am #

    Giving the increasing military successes of Syrian Army, it does not make sense for Assad to make required by opposition concessions and he exhibits necessary firmness. In late February when the resumption of peace talks is planned, the map of various control zones could be quite different than today and much more favorable to Assad.

    It is clear that the success of the Assad army are related to the high activity of Russian aviation, which helps to breach the fortifications of “greens” and “blacks” and paves the way for the advancing mechanized units of Syrian Army. If the opposition really wanted to negotiate, then it shouldn’t have started with the ultimatum that was trivially rejected, while on the battlefield in Syria was clearly demonstrated that currently it is the opposition (and its sponsors) should be more interested in the negotiations, as the emerging military situation is clearly not in their favor.

  88. FincaInTheMountains February 4, 2016 at 5:07 am #

    The current drop in oil prices is a war that Saudi Arabia plus part of the Western Financial elite are conducting against Russia. And the United States is hurt by it to much greater extent than Russia (the US market because of these actions have lost $2 trillion since the beginning of the year).

    But because Russia has not yet recovered from the collapse of the 90th, and it depends on the price of oil to much greater extent than the West, stability of its economy is much smaller. And if the Russian economy would die they are planning to compensate themselves with a printing press.

    Of course they have a whole theory of the collapse of the Russian economy and the plan is called “privatization”. Russia is a self-sufficient country and can provide for itself with everything, and dollars for expensive oil that were before going to the United States, now stopped.

    But in Russia, there is a very strong project that wants to take advantage of low oil prices in order to buy Russian industry and Russia’s natural resources for pennies on the dollar, as they did in the 90s.

  89. Q. Shtik February 4, 2016 at 11:32 am #

    Q,
    Yes, and a majority of us even wear shoes…. – Elysian commenting on his ownership of a snooker table in Oregon

    ============

    I don’t think I made my point properly. I’m not saying Oregonians are hicks. Let me ask it a different way: aside from the snooker table YOU owned did you ever see ANOTHER snooker table anywhere (a pool room, a bar) in Oregon?

    • elysianfield February 4, 2016 at 8:17 pm #

      Q,
      No offense taken, and there could be a good argument regarding “hicks”…we call them “hilljacks”, and their numbers are legion….

      Yes, there are many snooker tables out and about…most not privately owned, I would expect. I know of four that were placed in bars in small towns out and about. It might be argued, in your defense, that to root out the locations of the illusive “snooker”, you would have to frequent low places, and likewise indulge in untoward and, yes, destructive behavior…which in this state is more than a spectator sport.

      I’ve heard the term “Italian Hockey” used in reference to all manner of billiard games…living on the East Coast, that term might have greater import than “West Coasters” might recognize

      Am I a Brit? No, German extraction.

  90. BackRowHeckler February 4, 2016 at 12:43 pm #

    “PR is going to default. What’s going on here” -Malthus

    What’s going on here? Most likely similar to Connecticut, Illinois and Cal., hundreds of thousands of parasites living off Govt. largesse, and tens of thousands of highly paid unionized Govt. employees handing out Govt. largesse. Add in Govt. retirees with pensions as much as $240,000 per year, at the polls, its an unbeatable combination, they win every election.

    There’s your Body Politic, c2016!

    brh

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    • MisterDarling February 4, 2016 at 1:49 pm #

      Hey BRH! Don’t look now!

      http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/border-agent-we-might-as-well-abolish-our-immigration-laws-altogether/article/2582401

      Top Quote:

      “Immigration laws today appear to be mere suggestions. There are little or no consequences for breaking the laws and that fact is well known in other countries. If government agencies like DHS or CBP are allowed to bypass Congress by legislating through policy, we might as well abolish our immigration laws altogether,” Judd concluded.”-washington examiner.

      😉

      RE | “Add in Govt. retirees with pensions as much as $240,000 per year, at the polls, its an unbeatable combination, they win every election.”

      Of course this is a factor – a *lesser* factor. People with 240k pensions aren’t even ‘small fry’ in the American political arena – they’re microscopic in comparison to the actual shot-callers.

      What’s going on here? From the early 60’s forward there was a big push to loosen-up immigration so that wages would be more “flexible” nationwide…

      Fast forward to the Post-2008 Era: no effective immigration control, and a dwindling supply of jobs that don’t pay enough to make a living regardless. But they’re not even coming here for work anymore, they got the memo about our economy – now they’re just fleeing the process of Collapse in their homelands – and piling into our ‘lifeboat’.

      So, at a certain point you have to ask yourself; how many people can survive in this life-boat before it becomes a ‘death-boat’?

      Cheers!

      • BackRowHeckler February 4, 2016 at 2:46 pm #

        Good question, MD.

        I realize retired state employees with their $240,000 per year pensions is ‘small potatoes’ in the grand scheme of things, but it seems to be quite a lot of money to pay somebody for doing nothing, in a state up to its ears in debt. The Govt. class seem to take care of itself, that’s all I can say.

        Hey, MD, I picked up this book, ‘The Savage Wars of Peace’, by Max Boot, about America’s small wars from the Barbary Pirates to the most recent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Are you familiar with it? It remarkable how similar these conflicts are thru out the centuries. A lot of stuff I didn’t know in it, like Naval and Marine assault on the Korean Peninsula in 1871, shooting wars in Haiti, Panama, Dominican Republic, South Seas Islands, Philippines and China (to name a few) When the US Army was fighting Indians on the western frontier, the Navy and the Marine Corps was sailing around the world, fighting everybody else. Who knew?

        brh

      • Frankiti February 4, 2016 at 6:30 pm #

        The current immigration system is based on Jeh Johnson’s (yeah sure, he came up with it all right) 11/2014 priority memo.

        Everything is determined by US criminality and/or post Jan, 2014 deportation orders. That is the criminal record IN the US. You can be a cannibal rapist in Sri Lanka, but that doesn’t matter because the US only checks your domestic criminality…

        That means everyone who entered prior, does not have a significant misdemeanor, 3 or more misdemeanors, or felonies gets to stay.

        Now, that doesn’t mean those that do meet the criteria get deported. They claim fear. They see an asylum officer, they render it credible (you only get fired and or in trouble if you deny credibility, so of course, make an immigration judge decide) and then a judge (who falls under Dept of Justice, you know Holder’s old crew and not under DHS) grants relief in over 90% of the cases. Sole provider? You stay! Kids in US? You stay! Gay? Not really, but you are when it comes to immigration? You stay! Your husband in the US or your home country beats you? You stay! Gangs back home? You stay! Aggravated felons, rapists, gang members, drug dealers, and murderers are getting released on fear and or because an immigration judge is sympathetic, or the government prosecutors are weak. Heck, some if not most, don’t even see a judge, because if you are a low priority, overwhelmed ice attorneys have power of prosecutorial discretion and make it all go away.

        Now, don’t forget that many countries simply don’t issue travel documents or passports. Many. People can’t leave without a way to get in their homeland. China, Sudan, Vietnam, Cambodia, carribean nations, eastern european nations, middle eastern nations, simply refuse to issue… and whammy, criminal alien is in limbo, but in limbo in the US.

        If a non-mexican enters the border, does not have a known criminal record (IN THE US!!!) he is let go with an appointment. He may get a bracelet that GEO Corp’s BI are mass producing on a huge govt contract. That’s where the money is these days: electronic GPS monitoring.

        If a visa holder, a visa waiver or other non-immigrant entered, overstayed, well, he or she meets 0 priorities and is free to stay.

        In other words, we don’t need visa, passports, border agents, inspectors. We just need a line where we run you for criminal records (IN THE US!!!??), if none, well, you stay… Visas, passports, etc have been rendered worthless. The money and labor spent on previous patrolling and deportations? Worthless, because if you come back in after deported one or 50 times and are not a serious criminal and it was before 01/2014, you stay, Heck, if it was after 2014, and you don’t have criminality you’ll be fine because you are a low priority…

        So whatever you do, do not believe the lies. If you are a mexican male without kids with some crimes, sure, you’re on a bus… for now, but everyone else?

        Bienvenidos y gracias de Obama.

        • MisterDarling February 4, 2016 at 8:40 pm #

          @ Frankiti;

          You know the deal. I’m not going to ask if you work for or with DHS/ICE but – then again – I don’t have to, do I?

          LOL 😉

          Good stuff in this post. I see this on a weekly basis.

          Cheers!

    • malthuss February 4, 2016 at 3:03 pm #

      Will US Federal Government somehow cover PRs debt?
      Will PR refuse or be unable to make any payment?

  91. BackRowHeckler February 4, 2016 at 2:55 pm #

    Also, MD, thanx for that response above (about Russia and situation in Syria) Well thought out, seems like an appraisal you’d see in a professional journal …

    brh

    • MisterDarling February 4, 2016 at 8:36 pm #

      Hello BRH,

      “Well thought out, seems like an appraisal you’d see in a professional journal …”

      I see you making an effort, reporting and engaging in good faith during every session. I think that you deserve the same.

      Cheers!

  92. MisterDarling February 4, 2016 at 2:57 pm #

    Trendiest vacation spot for Daesh leadership? Libya!

    http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-35486158

    They are literally fleeing Iraq & Syria (under R+6 pressure) and “taking refuge in Libya”. Wow! Taking down Qaddafi really cleaned that neighborhood up! Nice work State Department!

    /S

    • wpa_ccc February 4, 2016 at 4:13 pm #

      “Trendiest vacation spot for Daesh leadership? Libya!” –MD

      More disinformation, MisterDarling. Ask Wissam Najm Abd Zayd al Zubaydi, also known as Abu Nabil, Daesh top commander in Libya. Oh, wait, you can’t. He is dead… from a USA airstrike in November near the eastern Libyan city of Darnah. Some vacation spot for “Daesh leadership”…

      Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff says: “The president has made clear that we have the authority to use military force” … and now Daesh leader Abu Nabil is dead.

      But why should the USA always be the cop on the beat? Any further intervention should be Saudi boots on the ground, paid for by the Saudis, not the USA. We don’t have the money for such expensive adventures.

      Ask brh. He can tell you where the money went: a few Connecticut $240,000 pensions (that is $657 dollars a day). Of course, brh spreads misinformation also: the average pension for Connecticut retired teachers is $47,386, or $130 a day. brh just cites the big scare numbers of a few pensioners.

      But he won’t talk about US military costs. According to the Pentagon, as of December 15, 2015, the US has spent $5.5 billion fighting the Islamic State since August 2014, the month the unofficial war began. That’s an average cost of $11 million per day (compare to $130 a day for the average CT teacher pension). That is $11,000,000 per day just for the air war, not counting all the other related military expenses.

      How do you like it now, gentlemen? Is it an effective use of your tax dollars, those $11,000,000 per day for airstrikes? Do you feel safer?

      What bin Laden wanted to do is bankrupt the US economy, based on fear inspired by his terrorism. And we have gone along with bin Laden’s plan, spending TRILLIONS on useless military actions, like MisterDarling’s 110 “legitimate kills” which were a complete waste of USA taxpayers’ dollars, an immoral military boondoggle, and a violation of international law.

  93. wpa_ccc February 4, 2016 at 3:03 pm #

    “Fast forward to the Post-2008 Era: no effective immigration control” –MisterDarling

    MD, don’t you get tired of spreading misinformation? Since 2008 southern border immigration has gone down to net zero. In absolute numbers there has been a DECREASE. Here are the facts:

    There were 11.3 million unauthorized immigrants in the U.S. in 2014. The population has remained essentially stable for five years, thanks to President Obama and his deportation mania, and currently makes up 3.5% of the nation’s population. The number of unauthorized immigrants peaked in 2007, under George W. Bush, at 12.2 million, when this group was 4% of the U.S. population.

    There were 5.6 million Mexican unauthorized immigrants living in the U.S. in 2014, down from 6.4 million in 2009 thanks to President Obama. The absolute number has gone DOWN, MisterDarling, not up, thanks to President Obama’s penchant for deportation.

    SOURCE: Jeffrey S. Passel, a senior demographer at Pew Research Center.

    Barack Obama has called himself the “champion in chief” of immigration law reform. Latino activists, angry at his administration’s removal of illegal immigrants, have responded by calling him the deporter in chief. What do the data tell us?

    “America is expelling illegal immigrants at nine times the rate of 20 years ago; nearly 2 million so far under Barack Obama, easily outpacing any previous president,” the Economist wrote in February 2014. “Border patrol agents no longer just patrol the border; they scour the country for illegals to eject. The deportation machine costs more than all other areas of federal criminal law-enforcement combined.” Wanna save money, brh? Start by eliminating border patrol and ICE.

    Critics may declare President Obama soft on immigration, but as this Reuters graphic shows, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) data the Department of Homeland Security deported 414,481 people in fiscal year 2014, down from 438,421 the year before. Each year of the Obama administration has seen more deportations than any preceding president.

    It is patently false right-wing propaganda to say “no effective immigration control” … shame on you, MD.

    • Frankiti February 4, 2016 at 6:03 pm #

      Peddling government produced statistics, oh… I want to engage… nice try.

      Dear everyone,

      WPA is more than a trolling, agent provocateur, it’s a certified retahhd as they might say in Beantown. Not only does it tell outright lies, it disrespects your intelligence with the mere presumption that you may believe that this retahhd actually believes the disingenuous propaganda, lies, spin, and BS it throws out as bait.

      As is common decorum, don’t ever engage the retahhd. Don’t point, don’t look, and most importantly don’t heed it.

      • wpa_ccc February 4, 2016 at 6:51 pm #

        The Economist and the Pew Research Center are not government entities.

        • Janos Skorenzy February 4, 2016 at 10:32 pm #

          It applies the lotion.

      • MisterDarling February 4, 2016 at 8:34 pm #

        Frankiti,

        RE | “As is common decorum, don’t ever engage the retahhd. Don’t point, don’t look, and most importantly don’t heed it.”

        Indeed. Would you make eye-contact with every crazy-person, hooker and crack dealer on the street? No. Why would you? Why bother?

        😉

        • Janos Skorenzy February 4, 2016 at 10:34 pm #

          You don’t make eye contact with every one, just the ones who have what you (non-generic) want.

  94. Doug February 4, 2016 at 4:27 pm #

    Sean Coleman, above, in response to my (and others’) correction of Janos, about the etymology of “Greenland,” wrote:

    “. . .’So now in their desperation to prove AGW and deny the Medieval Warm Period they are driven to historic revisionism and etymological fantasy.’”

    And I responded to Sean, but my comment is lost in “waiting for moderation” limbo, probably because it contains a number of active links. So, first we’ll repost it without the links:

    = = = = =
    Who is it, Sean, that you imagine is desperate to prove AGW?

    Is it the Ancient Standard history blog, with the 2010 post I linked to? Are ancient history buffs desperate to prove AGW?

    How about the Online Etymology Dictionary? What, exactly, do you think motivates them to “desperately” promote AGW?

    Do you think The Times of India had been captured by “warmists” in 2007?

    I know! You think the desperate conspiracy to alter the etymology dates back to 1880, when the Reverend John Sephton read his translation of “Eirik the Red’s Saga” to the Literary and Philosophical Society of Liverpool:

    = = = = =

    “Now, afterwards, during the summer, [Eirik] proceeded to Iceland, and came to Breidafjordr (Broadfirth). This winter he was with Ingolf, at Holmlatr (Island-litter). During the spring, Thorgest and he fought, and Eirik met with defeat. After that they were reconciled. In the summer Eirik went to live in the land which he had discovered, and which he called Greenland, ‘Because,’ said he, ‘men will desire much the more to go there if the land has a good name.‘”

    = = = = =

    Yup, I’m sure that’s it. Those damned warmists have been pushing this etymological fantasy for 136 years!

    And next, I’ll provide the links, one at a time.

    • Doug February 4, 2016 at 4:28 pm #

      How Greenland Got its Name

      • Janos Skorenzy February 4, 2016 at 10:31 pm #

        Read Collapse again – you’re getting it wrong. If the island was nothing but ice everywhere, the colony never would have been founded much less survived. You got to learn how to think, Dug.

        • Doug February 5, 2016 at 1:37 pm #

          “If the island was nothing but ice everywhere, the colony never would have been founded much less survived.”

          Straw Man.

          Nobody said it was “ice everywhere” and that’s not what the discussion was about.

          We were talking about the etymology of the name. You were wrong and the rest of us in the conversation were correct.

          Who has to learn how to think?

          • Janos Skorenzy February 5, 2016 at 2:40 pm #

            No Doug: WE were talking about conditions in Iceland. You shifted to the name as a way to discredit what I was saying. Did you know that’s what you did? Did you choose to do it? Or does such chicanery and mental sleigh of hand just come so naturally to you that it just “happens”?

            Shifting one’s ground rapidly and repeatedly is the essence of intellectual bad faith.

            To repeat: the climate became much colder after being warmer than it is today. That’s what killed the colony. The Inuit butchers were just the coup de grace. Obviously you are very, very uncomfortable with the FACT that climate was much warmer today – without any industry.

          • Janos Skorenzy February 5, 2016 at 2:59 pm #

            Likewise the question of the White right to have their own countries: in every country in Europe some different reason is given why it’s morally impossible. Not just the big colonizers, but even countries that never had any 3rd world presence. It’s really quite extraordinary. The meaning of the word “indigenous” is never allowed to apply to Whites, but always deconstructed one way or another. But when it comes, to non-Whites, it’s a perfectly valid word/idea and is left strictly alone.

            Thus Leftists always rapidly shift their ground, to hide (even from themselves) their true intent: the destruction of Western Civilization and the White Race. Not to be wondered at, such malice is hard to own and even if owned, certainly not something to be admitted to in front of those whom you intend to destroy.

            Here’s a piece by a professional philosopher that should help you clarify your thoughts and help you realize what you are.

            http://www.counter-currents.com/2016/01/the-autochthony-argument/

    • Doug February 4, 2016 at 4:30 pm #

      Online Etymology Dictionary

    • Doug February 4, 2016 at 4:31 pm #

      Times of India

    • Doug February 4, 2016 at 4:34 pm #

      Eirik the Red’s Saga

    • ffkling February 4, 2016 at 5:52 pm #

      Well done, Doug, but the global climate change denialists can’t be bothered with inconvenient facts, and there will never be enough evidence since it’s not about the science.

      Jim references China’s population of around 1 billion when in fact it’s 1.380 billion, the differential being larger than the population of the US by 60 million. The fact that we are rounding off human population figures to the billion says we are way past population overshoot.

      • Doug February 4, 2016 at 10:57 pm #

        “The fact that we are rounding off human population figures to the billion says we are way past population overshoot.”

        Yup.

        Synthesizing the views of the population ecologists and energy scientists I most respect, having focused on this for more than two decades (along with the possibilities of a sensible and humane built environment), I simply cannot imagine that the biosphere, treated with the greatest possible care and wisdom, could sustainably support more than about 2 billion people, living at the comfort and consumption levels of working- or lower-middle-class Europeans in the 1950s.

        And I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if, in reality, it was half that.

        Since it’s impossible to imagine modern humans voluntarily taking the steps necessary to get there peacefully and incrementally . . . St. Matthew Island seems like the most likely analogy to our fate.

        • Frankiti February 5, 2016 at 5:19 pm #

          Bu-bu-but… h–hu-human life is sacrosanct!! Human’s are special, mad in god’s image. It’s inviolably paramount to any and everything. We must do whatever it takes to support, proliferate and amplify human life not only on earth, but the universe. We can’t possibly accept being another life form, just another animal. We are not another branch on the hominid tree, we are the pinnacle, the leaf, the flower, it stops with us. We are the eyes and ears and the hands of the universe. We give the universe the ability to see itself and control its destiny. It’s all concentrated and culminated here in homo sapiens. The supreme being. The elephant in the room. The ultimate taboo can never be broached, it’s simply unthinkable… human life is precious, always and forever.

          • Janos Skorenzy February 5, 2016 at 7:01 pm #

            You jest, but speak more truly than you would otherwise.

          • Frankiti February 5, 2016 at 9:48 pm #

            Well, “mad” in god’s image was my wink to sarcasm…

  95. wpa_ccc February 4, 2016 at 5:14 pm #

    In other news, nine weeks ago nsa recommended that CFN suckers get on board the “UUP dollar express train” … and since then UUP has gone DOWN 4.5% … seems the express train only knows how to go in reverse! (unless it takes more than nine weeks to warm up the engines) … Between nsa, brh, and MD, this place is a fount of fact-free misinformation. Oh, and the economy is going to collapse… maybe next Tuesday.

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  96. wpa_ccc February 4, 2016 at 6:32 pm #

    “WPA is more than a trolling, agent provocateur, it’s a certified retahhd as they might say in Beantown.” –Frankiti

    Congratulations, Frankiti! Another fact-free, name-calling post on CFN, the doomsday entertainment site, peddling fact-free fear of imminent collapse since Y2K… fifteen years of “any day now collapse is going to happen” and other brillian observations like this one: “everything is fine… until it’s not.”

    CFN has gone through all the plagues and epidemics fears (SARS, MRSA, H1N1, Zika, Ebola, bird flu, etc.) and fears about all the triggers for world-wide economic collapse (Greece, Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Spain, China, Crimea, North Korea, Daesh, etc.) and fears about imagined consequences of all the “black swan” type events (Y2K, the Fed, peak oil, 9/11, BP oil spills, global warming, etc.) … yet we are still here, with internet access, in first-world comfort, wasting our time bitching and name-calling as usual.

    Nothing has changed in 15 years …. except oil did not go up to $500 a barrel, as JHK suggested it might … instead, post-peak oil, post-easy picking oil, the tight oil, went down in price. CFN prefers to continue fear-mongering about peak oil when even big oil is investing in renewable energy.

    Facts are such inconvenient things.

    • Doug February 4, 2016 at 8:06 pm #

      “. . . instead, post-peak oil, post-easy picking oil, the tight oil, went down in price.”

      Yes, that’s right, it did. That’s because profitably extracting unconventional oil requires prices that the world economy can’t afford and producing it at affordable prices is impossible for most oil companies and insanely unprofitable for the majors and the state operators who are desperately trying to maintain market share, even at prices that are killing them.

      Pick a tight or deepwater oil/gas play, or three, and watch what’s happening: The Bakken, Brazil Deepwater, the Arctic, the Marcellus, Eagle Ford . . .

      Facts really are inconvenient.

      • MisterDarling February 4, 2016 at 8:55 pm #

        @ Doug:

        “Facts really are inconvenient.”-d.

        Yes they can be – IF you think that personal bias or agenda matter more than they do… Doug, you’re hitting ‘reply’ to something that has no use for professional-grade data & information, let alone first-person reports, assessments or ideas from others. It’s a closed information feedback loop.

        When ExxonMobil is on credit watch, BP just took a massive loss, The KSA is liquidating assets to cover expenses, and all the shale-oil players have been downgraded, why would you ever even bother arguing the point?

        I’m communicating this to you because there’s a level of seriousness that some have about research & analysis, and that others do not. For the serious people – who do it like lives depend on it, it is readily apparent who isn’t.

        Consider: according to that sock-puppet Putin was already “sleeping with the fishes” – last Spring.

        Cheers!

        😉

        • wpa_ccc February 4, 2016 at 10:16 pm #

          It was the only way to force Putin out into the open… and it worked.

          • Doug February 4, 2016 at 11:00 pm #

            “It was the only way to force Putin out into the open… and it worked.”

            MD is right: there is just no hope for this one.

        • wpa_ccc February 4, 2016 at 10:19 pm #

          “professional-grade data” is all too often “paid-for data” and the outcomes are dictated by the corporations paying for the “research”

          • Q. Shtik February 4, 2016 at 10:52 pm #

            Unlike govt data, right?

  97. wpa_ccc February 4, 2016 at 6:59 pm #

    After yesterday’s CNN Town Hall in New Hampshire, Bernie has increased his lead over Hillary. I guess Bernie “won” the Town Hall. LOL!

    (CNN)Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders continues to hold a wide lead over Hillary Clinton among likely New Hampshire primary voters, according to a new CNN/WMUR tracking poll conducted entirely after the Iowa caucuses.

    Sanders stands at 61% support, up slightly from the 57% he held in a late January CNN/WMUR poll conducted before he and Clinton divided Iowa caucusgoers almost evenly on Monday night. Clinton holds 30%, down a tick from the 34% she held before the caucuses. Both changes are within the poll’s margin of sampling error.

  98. Q. Shtik February 4, 2016 at 9:45 pm #

    the average pension for Connecticut retired teachers is $47,386, – wpa

    =================

    Wow, you gotta be shitten me….is that really a good number? That’s MORE than twice my pension after working 26 years in the biggest gravy train of them all: THE DEFENSE INDUSTRY 😉 And I’ll bet I’m at least as educated as the average retired CT teacher.

    Not only that, my pension will never increase a penny…….. no COLA. My check is exactly the same as it was when I retired 10 years ago this month. I’ll bet the CT teachers get periodic inflation adjustments.

    And mine is not some oddball one-off situation. My employer was/is one of the largest defense contractors in the WORLD.

    Public education is one of the biggest rackets in America. We need to privatize education.

    • wpa_ccc February 4, 2016 at 10:14 pm #

      “Wow, you gotta be shitten me”

      Shitten is not a word. I think you are looking for a contraction of shitting, by leaving off the final consonant: shittin’

      • Q. Shtik February 5, 2016 at 12:54 am #

        Yep, that be the word I was looking for.

    • wpa_ccc February 4, 2016 at 10:56 pm #

      Yeah, Q., privatize everything, like pensions. Have 401K’s invested in the market, then watch your pension funds:

      http://images.all-free-download.com/images/graphiclarge/the_stock_market_crash_picture_165498.jpg

      Go ahead, watch your privatized pension and your future security.

    • Doug February 4, 2016 at 11:03 pm #

      “And I’ll bet I’m at least as educated as the average retired CT teacher.”

      And we all know that the “more educated” one is the more comfortable old age one deserves.

      Why, it’s one of our articles of faith.

      • Q. Shtik February 4, 2016 at 11:44 pm #

        And we all know that the “more educated” one is the more comfortable old age one deserves. – Doug

        ==============

        It’s not a given but it is generally the case. Otherwise shoe shine boys would be living in the lap of luxury.

        • Q. Shtik February 5, 2016 at 12:07 am #

          The only person I have firsthand knowledge of with an 8th grade education who wound up living in relative luxury was my father-in-law. He was a unionized Ford assembly line worker for 35 years. A terrific worker and loyal to Ford and the UAW. Retired to a nice home in Toms River, NJ, drove a Lincoln Town Car, and fished the bay in his 18′ Boston Whaler. Cookouts every weekend on his large wood deck. Wahduh country!

          Unions were the biggest cause of the offshoring of labor.

          • Q. Shtik February 5, 2016 at 1:10 am #

            Did I mention he had a first rate health plan in retirement?

            My company retirement plan has zero health benefits.

            BRH, do those teachers in CT have any state provided health bennies?

        • Doug February 5, 2016 at 11:51 am #

          “Otherwise shoe shine boys would be living in the lap of luxury.”

          Or at least in comfort. And they just don’t “deserve” that in our culture. As I said, it’s an article of faith — in the religion of dog-eat-dog capitalism.

    • elysianfield February 5, 2016 at 10:46 am #

      Hmmm, “Open Kimono” time?

      My Social Security Check totals $152 per month…as any number of denizens, located on any number of street corners might opine…”…suck on that, Bitches!”

  99. FincaInTheMountains February 5, 2016 at 12:41 am #

    Moscow officially recognized the Syrian Kurdistan

    February 10 an opening ceremony of the representative of the Syrian Kurds will be held in Moscow. As the participants of the event are invited leading Russian politicians and members of the Russian Foreign Ministry.

    Political analysts believe that the real initiators of these processes are in Washington. The United States gave a green light for political division of Iraq – the assignment of autonomy to Iraqi Kurdistan.

    A similar process in Syria is the Kremlin project, carried out for the balance of the situation in the Middle East.

    Source: Russian Media

    The Turks will regret the downing of the Russian plane for years to come.

  100. FincaInTheMountains February 5, 2016 at 12:50 am #

    “I believe in the law of supply and demand” — Q
    “Everything else is rigged” – Finca
    http://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/the-agonies-of-sensible-people/#comment-259800

    Pepe Escobar: A Rigged Game of the US Markets

    Global markets continue on a roller-coaster ride two weeks after this column revealed how Saudi Arabia had been unloading at least $1 trillion in US securities, crashing global markets in parallel to its market share/oil price war.

    The House of Saud may even hold more than $8 trillion in US Treasury bonds and stocks; that depends on how much of the Aramco profits they monopolized, and how well they invested.

    A New York investment banker with solid Saudi connections confirms the Saudis coordinate their major oil moves with Goldman Sachs “and others” (he did not specify), so as not to antagonize Wall Street.

    This would mean the House of Saud share in the profits with Goldman Sachs through derivatives in their oil trades. And this spells out a multi-trillion US dollar bonanza both to the Saudis and to Wall Street — considering some serious action could flow through partners of Goldman Sachs and others offshore to conceal the massive volumes.

    http://sputniknews.com/columnists/20160204/1034230798/saud-capital-flow-us.html

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    • Q. Shtik February 5, 2016 at 1:04 am #

      Global markets continue on a roller-coaster ride two weeks after this column revealed how Saudi Arabia had been unloading at least $1 trillion in US securities, crashing global markets in parallel to its market share/oil price war. – Finca

      =============

      Oh well, then that settles it………I take back everything I said about the law of supply and demand. Sarcasm on.

      • FincaInTheMountains February 5, 2016 at 1:20 am #

        The law of supply and demand could still work as long as strong state with strong anti-monopoly regulations and enforcement agencies acts as balancing force.

        It is not the case in US right now – Obama and his “FinControl” is weaker than other 2 major wings of financial oligarchy and only could act in coalition with one against the other.

  101. FincaInTheMountains February 5, 2016 at 1:09 am #

    American Political Scientists planned formation of ISIL years ago

    ISIL is not an independent phenomenon and acts in the interests of other states. Back in 2006, a proliferation of so-called “New Middle East” political maps or “bloody borders” by Pentagon Colonel Ralph Peters, in which he divided the Middle East states.

    And he noted Sunnistan state on the part of the territory of Syria and Iraq, which in 2014 was occupied by ISIL. There are other coincidences. In addition, as early as 1993 in his book “The Grand Chessboard” Zbigniew Brzezinski wrote that the United States will lead the process of Islamization and will contribute to the spread of radical Islam.

    Experts call the three states that support terrorist organizations – Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey. Subsequently, this “assistance” may lead to the fact that those countries themselves will be on the verge of destabilization and disintegration. Terrorists can easily direct their weapons against their own patrons, if they for some reason, change their policies.

  102. FincaInTheMountains February 5, 2016 at 1:56 am #

    It is not an easy job to be President of the United States

    On November 3, 2014 the security chief of Barack Obama was fired after an armed man with a history that indicates his propensity to armed violence appeared in one elevator with Obama. The main thing is not known how long the man was next to Obama before, apparently for at least a year.

    In conjunction with story in New York Times that there were plans to replace Joe Biden with Hillary Clinton as Obama’s running mate in the elections of 2012 indicates that the Witch never trusted clueless American voters with “important” decisions.

    http://www.cbsnews.com/news/security-guard-fired-after-elevator-ride-with-obama/

  103. FincaInTheMountains February 5, 2016 at 5:56 am #

    BBC’s World War Three: Inside the War Room

    The film is a warning about how 5 idiots doing something very similar to what people are already doing now, step by step, put the world at the brink of nuclear war.

    And initially they have no reason for this, except the desire to intimidate Putin and once again kick Russians in the ass.

    You could watch the entire movie here:
    http://rutube.ru/video/70855cda8b8e8533cdea370a3650a960/

  104. Janos Skorenzy February 5, 2016 at 6:45 am #

    First snow ever in Okinawa. The Sun has gone to sleep and the Ice Man cometh. Yet the humans (Sumerian word for “weak slave bred by serpent”) are preparing for global warming instead of an ice age. Mind blowing. Al Gore conditioned them well with his movie, no doubt full of subliminal commands.

    http://www.vault-co.blogspot.com/2016/02/the-sun-has-gone-to-sleep.html

    • elysianfield February 5, 2016 at 10:58 am #

      Janos,
      I lived on Okinawa, in the mid-50’s, for three years. The East China Sea was always “piss-warm”…plenty of typhoons, relatively high humidity, never cold, as I remember.

      • Janos Skorenzy February 6, 2016 at 6:47 am #

        Any Nationalism there? Or do the people now identify as Japanese?

        I love geography. I was wondering why Mahleur seemed to have so much snow and I found out that Eastern Oregon is much higher than Eastern Washington – and also lacking the rivers that make Eastern Washington so productive. Interesting thread if you like this kind of thing.

        http://www.city-data.com/forum/oregon/2308251-why-oregon-so-much-less-populated.html

        • elysianfield February 6, 2016 at 10:04 am #

          Janos,
          Nationalism? I cannot speak to that, however, now, and even in the ’50’s there were constant demonstrations against the US presence…then purportedly agitated by local communists.

  105. BackRowHeckler February 5, 2016 at 8:25 am #

    WPA and Q,

    In Ct public school teachers work for the BOE in a town, not for the State. The $47,000 per year average teachers pension WPA sites comes out of specific town or municipal operating budgets, not the state treasury.

    Good thing, too, because the state pension system is underfunded by about 42%. There is no way the state can ever meet the retirement obligations it has made over the past 40 years. The Governor admitted this himself in a speech he made earlier this week.

    For the past 4 decades, since state employees began forming unions, here’s how the scam worked: the Democratic legislature and governor negotiated generous contracts with the unions, in turn the unions supported, with votes and cash, democratic candidates for office. So instead looking out for the interests of the citizens of the State of CT, they were looking out for the interests of the public sector unions. Indeed, many union chiefs got themselves elected to the state legislature, or into the governor’s staff negotiating contracts with their own union. At the same time we became known as a welfare capitol, so any criticism of what was happening was shouted down with charges of racism and xenophobia. The result are unbelievable salaries for state employees and right now a deficit of $535 million. It was a pretty cozy relationship while it lasted, that is while we were 90% white and an industrial powerhouse, and the cities were still livable, not 3rd world sanctuary cities and the dystopic crapholes they have become. Another result is that middle class people, i.e. white people, are simply selling their houses and moving out. Businesses are abandoning ship, too, as seen last month when DE announced it was clearing out. What’s moving in is poverty stricken refugees from Latin America, Africa and the Middle East. The Democrats make a big show of welcoming these people with open arms, claiming the moral high ground I suppose. The future is not looking good and from what I understand we’re not alone here, much of the country is in the same predicament.

    brh

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    • malthuss February 5, 2016 at 11:54 am #

      The future is not looking good and from what I understand we’re not alone here, much of the country is in the same predicament.—-

      Lets look at a few figures;

      1960– USA 90% White
      2000? –USA 70% White
      2016–USA 60% White, yet Whites continue to vote for Anti white politicians, from both parties.

      • malthuss February 5, 2016 at 11:54 am #

        and sheer population increases in leaps and bounds.

        • BackRowHeckler February 5, 2016 at 1:52 pm #

          the 2020 census ought to be interesting.

          watch the gleeful way the MSM reports we’ve become a minority here in the USA, which probably has been the plan all along, at least since ’65 anyway.

          brh

  106. FincaInTheMountains February 5, 2016 at 8:32 am #

    Zero Hedge acts as a shill for Wall Street – ridicules US Congress initiative to turn USPS into a bank

    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-02-04/congress-wants-turn-us-postal-service-bank

    • FincaInTheMountains February 5, 2016 at 9:15 am #

      Wall Street needs your savings and checking accounts to be able to hold US taxpayers hostages to their reckless financial gambling – they’d hate to have a sound competitor with existing vast infrastructure of local neighborhood offices.

      So a few years ago they pushed through the Congress law requiring USPS to pre-fund the pension plans. Members of the postal workers union say the pre-funding requirement has created a fiscal mess. Some people have even claimed that law has the effect of requiring the postal service to fund retirement obligations for people who are not yet employed by the USPS–potential future employees.

      That is why the fiscally sound and profitable public enterprise is short on cash.
      http://www.cnbc.com/id/45018432

  107. wpa_ccc February 5, 2016 at 10:06 am #

    Unemployment at 4.9%

    Hillary: “We did differ. A vote in 2002 is not a plan to defeat ISIS.”

    The right vote in 2002 could have prevented ISIS from ever forming. Bernie had the judgement, based on evaluation of evidence also available to Hillary, and Bernie made the correct vote against the war.

    Reagan: “Are you better off now?”

    After seven years of Obama: Unemployment at 4.9%

    • Doug February 5, 2016 at 1:25 pm #

      “. . . Bernie made the correct vote against the war.”

      And then repeatedly voted to fund it. Standard political scam.

      Bernie also supported the pointless and unending war in Afghanistan, rather than treating 9/11 as the criminal act it was.

      Bernie also supports Obama’s target killing by drone.

      Bernie also supports the F-35 (jobs and money for Vermont).

      Bernie is also a vocal and unapologetic Russophobe who supported the US-sponsored coup in Kiev and called loudly for punitive sanctions against Russia for its defensive response to that oligarch-operated, Nazi-fronted overthrow of an elected president.

      And Bernie supported Bill Clinton’s shameful bombing of Serbia, which led his aide and friend Jeremy Brecher to submit this resignation letter.

      • wpa_ccc February 5, 2016 at 8:32 pm #

        LOL! Yeah, Bernie is a real military hawk! I wonder why there isn’t more support from CFN for such a militaristic candidate?

        • Doug February 7, 2016 at 8:26 pm #

          “Yeah, Bernie is a real military hawk!”

          Well, you know, there are differences of degree, but Bernie certainly isn’t the peacenik that Berniebots have convinced themselves he is.

          = = = = =

          Bernie on War & Peace, mostly from VoteSmart, with frequent reference to congress.gov:

          1993, HR 2446 – Military Construction Fiscal Year 1994 Appropriations Bill, providing $3.63 billion for military construction. Sanders: Yea

          1993, S J Res 45 – Authorization for Use of US Armed Forces in Somalia. Sanders: Yea

          1994, HR 4453 – Military Construction FY95 Appropriations bill, providing $2.52 billion for military construction. Sanders: Yea

          1995, H Res 247 – Bosnia Troop Deployment Resolution, a non-binding House resolution indicating the intent of the not to use ground forces Bosnia and Herzegovina and to require Congressional approval for deployment of such forces. Sanders: Yea (This would be a “good thing” IMHO — if it actually meant anything and if Sanders had a consistent position on the war(s) in the former Yugoslavia.)

          1996, HR 3107 – Iran and Libya Sanctions Act of 1996, imposing “sanctions on persons exporting certain goods or technology that would enhance Iran’s ability to explore for, extract, refine, or transport by pipeline petroleum resources, and for other purposes.” Sanders: Yea

          1997, HR 2159 – Foreign Operations FY98 Appropriations bill, including $3 billion for Israel, ($1.8 billion in military assistance & $1.2 billion in economic assistance); $2.12 billion for Egypt, ($1.3 billion in military assistance & $815 million in economic assistance); $770 million to former Soviet Republics; and $215 million for “international narcotics control and law enforcement.” Sanders: Yea

          1998, HR 4059 – Military Construction FY99 Appropriations bill — $2.82 billion for general military construction. Sanders: Yea

          1998, HR 4655, the Iraqi Liberation Act of 1998, “Declares that it should be the policy of the United States to seek to remove the Saddam Hussein regime from power in Iraq and to replace it with a democratic government.” Sanders: Yea (Bush the Lesser used this act to help push the Authorization for use of Military Force Against Iraq in October 2002, and it is cited in that AUMF.)

          1999, HR 2465, $4 billion for military construction. Sanders: Yea

          1999, HR 3196, providing $2.16 billion for military and economic assistance to Israel; $760 million for military and economic assistance to Egypt; $535 million for Eastern European and the Baltic States, including $150 million for assistance to Kosovo; $300 million for military and economic assistance to Jordan; and $285 million for international narcotics control. Sanders: Yea

          2001, HR 1954, extending the Iran-Libya Sanctions Act of 1996. Sanders: Yea

          2001, H J Res 64 – “Authorizes the President to use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, or harbored such organizations or persons, in order to prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the United States by such nations, organizations, or persons.

          “States that this Act is intended to constitute specific statutory authorization within the meaning of the War Powers Resolution.” Sanders: Yea (Only Barbara Lee voted Nay.)

          2002, H J Res 114, Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002. Sanders: Nay (along with 126 Democrats and 6 Republicans)

          2003, HR 5010, providing $355.1 billion in appropriations for the Defense Department for FY2003 ; $71.6 billion for procurement of aircraft, missiles, weapons, combat vehicles and shipbuilding; $7.4 billion for ballistic missile defense; and $58.4 , million for foreign aid, including humanitarian assistance, foreign disaster relief & de-mining programs. Sanders: Yea

          2003, HR 2800 – Foreign Operations Appropriations, FY 2004, providing, among other things, $1.8 billion in military and economic assistance to Egypt and $2.2 billion to Israel for military assistance. Sanders: Yea

          2004, HR 4613, providing $25 billion for emergency defense spending for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, and $77.4 billion new weapons procurement. Sanders: Yea

          2005, HR 2863 – Defense Department FY2006 Appropriations Bill, allocating $50 billion for ongoing operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Sanders: Yea

          2006, HR 5631, providing $70 billion for ongoing operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Sanders: Yea

          2007, HR 1585 – National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008, providing $187.14 billion for Iraq and Afghanistan operations. Sanders: Yea

          2009, HR 2647, National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010, providing, among many other things, $309 million for research and evaluation, procurement, or deployment of an alternative Missile Defense System in Europe, authorizing the Secretary of Defense to increase the active-duty number for the US Army to a number greater than otherwise allowed by law up to the 2010 baseline plus 30,000 troops. Sanders: Yea

          2009, Sanders votes to deny funding to close Guantanamo. Glenn Greenwald and others argue that it’s not that he didn’t want to close the torture camp, he just didn’t want to let that happen without knowing exactly what Obama was going to do with the prisoners.

          2011, S. Res. 85, co-sponsored by Sanders, urging the UN Security Council to take action to protect civilians in Libya from attack, including establishing a no-fly zone over Libya. Sanders: Yea

          2014, Sanders calls for punitive economic sanctions against Russia: “The entire world has got to stand up to Putin,” he said. “We’ve got to deal with sanctions.”

          2014, Sanders permits S. Res. 498, effectively endorsing Israel’s months-long vicious military assault against Gaza to pass by unanimous consent.

  108. wpa_ccc February 5, 2016 at 10:14 am #

    “Unions were the biggest cause of the offshoring of labor.” –Q

    Really, Q? The UAW membership took a vote and decided to offshore their jobs? As usual, you have it bass-ackwards.

    UAW fought to get better wages, safer working conditions, health benefits and pensions for the workers, fighting management every step of the way.

    Management greed offshored labor because management did not want to share the corporate profits with the workers who made those profits possible. Management was the biggest cause of the offshoring of labor.

    • Q. Shtik February 5, 2016 at 11:13 am #

      Really, Q? The UAW membership took a vote and decided to offshore their jobs? – wpa

      ==============

      Effectively, yes.

  109. wpa_ccc February 5, 2016 at 10:23 am #

    National polls have Sanders and Clinton virtually tied. (Quinnipiac, Feb. 2016)

    The picture of a neck-and-neck race is a huge change from Quinnipiac’s last national poll conducted Dec. 16-20 that showed Clinton with a massive lead over Sanders, 61 percent to 30 percent.

    So Clinton has lost 30% support in one month, as the public learns more about the political revolution happening… and feel the Bern.

  110. ozone February 5, 2016 at 10:37 am #

    Stockman steps up. (“Stockman”; interesting appellation, no?):

    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-02-05/war-savers-and-200-rulers-world-finance

    We (your paymasters) are terribly sorry wpasoka, but you’re going to have to double the output of your blizzard of bullshit (although remuneration will remain the same). An awakening is beginning and the tide has begun to turn against the status quo. Redouble your efforts or report for weapons training; the gravy train is over.

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    • BackRowHeckler February 5, 2016 at 11:23 am #

      Snowing like a sonofabitch here, O. About time, huh?

      brh

      • ozone February 5, 2016 at 11:44 am #

        Yessiree; long delayed (to say the very least)! Gotta go plow the drive. Best of luck; don’t take any unnecessary chances.

  111. Q. Shtik February 5, 2016 at 11:34 am #

    My Social Security Check totals $152 per month – Elysianfield

    ===============

    This, obviously is a very low figure. There is probably a good story as to why it is so low. Were you regularly employed all your life and contributing to SS? Did you retire early, i.e. did you start taking SS payments early…that would cost you 6%(?) for each year early.

    In any case, SS payments are a separate issue from company pensions. It does raise the question though, are those teachers in CT getting SS checks in addition to their pension checks or are they like railroad workers who are not part of the SS system?

    BRH?

    • BackRowHeckler February 5, 2016 at 2:03 pm #

      Not sure Q.

      The teachers deserve whatever they get. In the first place they have to put in 35 years. My neighbor retired a few years ago from the Hartford School system. You should hear some of the stories — they are hair raising! Suffice to say not a lot of teaching and learning is getting done. What’s happening, after 5 decades of trying everything and having everything fail, the state has given up and decided to bus the young scholars out to surrounding towns. You can imagine the problems that is causing.

      On a brighter note, out local system has 3 ‘Diversity Coordinators’ — at $95,000 – $100,000 per year. The state picks up the tab for that.

      brh

    • elysianfield February 5, 2016 at 3:46 pm #

      Q,
      For most of my productive life I was self employed, and in the ’70’s and 80’s, one was able to “opt out” of the system if self employed…laws are different now. Around the year 2000 I elected to hire myself and provide a small stipend so that I might pay into the system…and now I am reaping the big bucks from Uncle Sugar. I did not participate in the system for the retirement check, but rather for Medicare. I can live on very little (even donate to the site), but few can afford the “gold standard” health programs, or out of pocket treatment. If I did not have Medicare, I would have to insure through Smith and Wesson, an old and venerable firm….

  112. volodya February 5, 2016 at 12:18 pm #

    Q,

    How do you educate kids? Big problem. Doesn’t have to be but apparently it is.

    Maybe, given that huge swathes aren’t getting educated anyway and the teaching establishment and parents don’t give a damn, just give up on it. Because if hundreds of millions of people don’t want to do something it’s pretty hard to make them do it. If the great mass of people want to live like pigs there’s not much you can do.

    If there’s parents that actually give a shit about raising educated and civilized kids they’ll find a way. And the hell with the rest.

    There’s no way around it. If Americans are determined to turn the country into a Brazilian piss-hole, it’ll become a Brazilian piss-hole.

    • ozone February 5, 2016 at 3:58 pm #

      V.,
      “How do you educate kids?”

      1.) Instill a love of reading and literature.
      2.) Provide a *few* answers to “WHY?”, and as for the rest, “Look it up, Peanut.”
      3.) Make sure to stimulate an unslakable curiosity with enough varied literature, encyclopedias and dictionaries (I recommend the Oxford English Dictionary, UN-A-fuckin’-BRIDGED).
      4.) Provide a bit of reasonable advice as to how to handle ovarian and testicular urges when those inevitably rage to the forefront. (Hopefully avoiding extra mouths that have little chance of being properly fed, housed, clothed or given the same advantages as enumerated in items 1 thru 3.)

      Done. From there, it will be what it will be. Live with the nagging uncertainty of what you may have wrought…

  113. fodase February 5, 2016 at 2:09 pm #

    hey, watch it! Brazil isn’t a piss-hole….it’s a shit hole.

    that said, lotsa nice folks in ‘n amongst the rabble.

  114. Q. Shtik February 5, 2016 at 2:13 pm #

    “Otherwise shoe shine boys would be living in the lap of luxury.”

    Or at least in comfort. And they just don’t “deserve” that in our culture. As I said, it’s an article of faith — in the religion of dog-eat-dog capitalism. – Doug

    ==============

    It’s not dog-eat-dog capitalism, it’s dog-eat-dog LIFE.

    I am not a religious person but I do find many truths in the Bible:

    . The poor we shall always have with us
    . There will always be wars and rumors of wars
    . The years of a man are three score and ten ….. etc

    If you disagree with the first bullet, please name a time (with supporting reference), a place, a culture, a nation where there has NOT been a huge difference between those on top and all the rest. Please leave out 50-person tribes.

    • Doug February 5, 2016 at 2:31 pm #

      “If you disagree with the first bullet, please name a time (with supporting reference), a place, a culture, a nation where there has NOT been a huge difference between those on top and all the rest.”

      Do you suggest that asserting that the situation is undesirable, whether or not Jesus’ prediction is correct, suggests that I have some obligation to find some earlier culture in which it did not apply? Why would that be?

      “Please leave out 50-person tribes.”

      But, what if I believe that 50-100 person tribal groups are the kind of societies to which humans are best suited, as a result of our evolutionary development?

      • Q. Shtik February 5, 2016 at 2:53 pm #

        But, what if I believe that 50-100 person tribal groups are the kind of societies to which humans are best suited, – Doug

        =============

        Good, go and create, found or join your 50 person tribe where everything gets divvied up even-steven. I guarantee that in a month’s time someone will be rising to the top, probably based on smarts.

        Frankly, I’m surprised that for someone as smart as you are, you haven’t recognized that this is how life is.

        But you don’t like “how life is” and spend inordinate time and energy trying to change how life is. Let me know when you develop your anti-gravity machine.

        • Janos Skorenzy February 5, 2016 at 3:19 pm #

          Good point. Have you read the Unabomber’s Manifesto? A brilliant and accessible work. Supposedly an amended version is going to be coming out.

          A Ted talk for the ages…..

          • Janos Skorenzy February 5, 2016 at 3:21 pm #

            That was supposed to be for Doug. I don’t know how Q snuck in there. Probably the same way he snookered people at pool as clean cut college freshman.

          • Doug February 5, 2016 at 5:36 pm #

            “Have you read the Unabomber’s Manifesto?”

            Yes. It definitely needed editing.

          • malthuss February 5, 2016 at 10:06 pm #

            You adored Breivek as well.
            And Hitler.

          • Janos Skorenzy February 6, 2016 at 1:44 am #

            As if there’s something wrong with that! Neither of these gentlemen were perfect of course. But soft heartedness will be the end of us now. No two ways about that.

        • Janos Skorenzy February 5, 2016 at 3:24 pm #

          True, they can’t deal with Hierarchy, but Hierarchy deals with them.

          But it is a matter of degree. When Executives made 10 to 12 times what the workers made, we had a viable, thriving nation. Obviously that’s shattered when Executives make hundreds of times what the workers do. No amicable relations or mutual understanding are possible at such rates.

          • Q. Shtik February 5, 2016 at 6:46 pm #

            But it is a matter of degree. When Executives made 10 to 12 times what the workers made, we had a viable, thriving nation. – Janos

            ==============

            By what degree do you suppose the wealth and privilege of King Tut and that of his ‘court’ exceeded that of the workers who built his pyramid?

          • Janos Skorenzy February 6, 2016 at 1:47 am #

            Well I did say “our Civilization. Can Americans become Egyptian peasants who worship a Pharaoh as God? Or even just Catholic ones in awe of Bishops, Lords, and Pope? We’re a long way from Kansas at that point.

        • Doug February 5, 2016 at 3:42 pm #

          “Frankly, I’m surprised that for someone as smart as you are, you haven’t recognized that this is how life is.”

          Reading comprehension: It’s fundamental.

          • Buck Stud February 5, 2016 at 10:59 pm #

            What you don’t seem to understand–and Janos does–is the more that the “whole’ becomes stratified and attenuated, the weaker it becomes until the proverbial rubber band breaks for good.

            So stop with the silly stuff, Tut.

    • BackRowHeckler February 5, 2016 at 3:19 pm #

      Q, your last paragraph … that’s what Orwell’s ‘Animal Farm’ is all about.

      Doug, you might want to read ‘Animal Farm’. Orwell was a communist, but he was a hard headed realist, too.

      brh

      • Doug February 5, 2016 at 5:32 pm #

        “Doug, you might want to read ‘Animal Farm’.”

        That’s a kinda funny suggestion.

        “Orwell was a communist . . .”

        There isn’t much sense in attempting a serious discussion about politics, economics, sociology or a wide range of other topics with someone who thinks that.

  115. Q. Shtik February 5, 2016 at 3:07 pm #

    I am surprised no one here has mentioned this Shkreli guy. Is it stupidity or just brass balls. His body-english and facial expressions practically guarantee that he’ll be doing BIG time. I’d like to hear what his lawyer must be telling him in the privacy of a conference room.

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    • elysianfield February 5, 2016 at 4:03 pm #

      Q,
      If I would really hate someone, it would be him for his predatory activities, and his smug attitude regarding the almost universal contempt in which he is held. I don’t wish him ill, however, but rather a long stay in government housing, with friends and acquaintances who will, you can be sure, be aware of his crimes
      (considering many of those friends and acquaintances might be HIV positive, and therefor directly and negatively impacted). Prison isn’t so bad, considering a warm cot, three decent meals a day, and I hear the sex is great.

      We’ve all heard to old saying…”…Be seen’ ya, glad I ain’t be’n ya….

    • BackRowHeckler February 5, 2016 at 4:56 pm #

      Yeah, he won’t be smirking so much when they throw his ass in Leavenworth.

      brh

    • Frankiti February 5, 2016 at 6:38 pm #

      He is an indisputable genius.

      He held up a mirror to our inept politicians. What they saw back was a lack of respect, care, decency, morals, and principled behavior.

      They’re powerless, useless, and not worthy of respect.

      They deserve contempt, albeit the passive aggressive variety.

      Good for him.

  116. Q. Shtik February 5, 2016 at 6:24 pm #

    Do you suggest that asserting that the situation is undesirable, whether or not Jesus’ prediction is correct, suggests that I have some obligation to find some earlier culture in which it did not apply? Why would that be? – Doug

    ================

    Yes, that is basically what I am saying. Your case would certainly be strengthened if there had ever been in the history of humankind a society like you describe. I don’t know of one.

    And BTW, concerning those three bullets I posted earlier, they were not PREDICTIONS made by Jesus. They were in all probability aphorisms recorded by wise men from antiquity.

    aphorism:
    . a pithy observation that contains a general truth.
    . a concise statement of a scientific principle, typically by an ancient classical author.

    They got to be aphorisms because of their near universally recognized truth.

    • Doug February 5, 2016 at 9:23 pm #

      Do you suggest that asserting that the situation is undesirable, whether or not Jesus’ prediction is correct, suggests that I have some obligation to find some earlier culture in which it did not apply? Why would that be? – Doug

      ================

      Yes, that is basically what I am saying. Your case would certainly be strengthened if there had ever been in the history of humankind a society like you describe. I don’t know of one. –Shtik

      = = = = =

      What case? My opinion that it would be desirable if the poor were not always with us?

      How would anything in the history of mankind justify or invalidate that opinion?

      In any case, for 90% (or much more, depending upon how “human” is defined) of our development as a species, humans lived in “radically egalitarian” societies — basically small hunter-gatherer bands or tribes (see James Woodburn, et al.) We have been settled agriculturists for perhaps 12,000 years, not nearly enough time for the evolution of genetic traits adaptive to such a fundamental change in lifestyle.

      In other words, the situation of inequality you see as “normal” is exactly the opposite of that in terms of our genetic makeup.

      Now, there are advantages to agriculture and technological development, but there are also very serious drawbacks, including vast inequality between classes of our populations.

      I hope (probably in vain) that this helps with your understanding of the matter.

      “And BTW, concerning those three bullets I posted earlier, they were not PREDICTIONS made by Jesus.”

      Well, the first two certainly are ascribed to Jesus in the Bible (read the Book of Matthew) and I think they sound very much like predictions.

      The third is from Psalm 90.

      None of them are statements of scientific principle and whether they contain or express general truths is merely a matter of opinion — in this case, yours.

      • malthuss February 5, 2016 at 10:05 pm #

        Surely you jest. You and Margaret Mead. ———

        In any case, for 90% (or much more, depending upon how “human” is defined) of our development as a species, humans lived in “radically egalitarian” societies.

        • Doug February 5, 2016 at 11:23 pm #

          No, I don’t jest, and Margaret Mead and the related controversies and confusions regarding the Samoans have nothing to do with what I said.

          I’m rapidly coming to the conclusion that these threads are a waste of time and energy.

      • Janos Skorenzy February 6, 2016 at 1:56 am #

        Don’t forget about the cannibalism of so many hunter gatherers. The Aborigines hunted each other for meat. On that note, would you eat fetus? You don’t have to explain why you would since the Supreme Court agrees it’s just tissue. But please explain why wouldn’t if you wouldn’t.

        Growth is hard, Doug.

        • elysianfield February 6, 2016 at 10:12 am #

          “would you eat fetus?”

          Janos, the very thought is disgusting. However, with a bit of chianti and fava beans….

          • Janos Skorenzy February 6, 2016 at 7:42 pm #

            I guffaw but weep for you as well. Few notice because of the rain. Those who do, don’t care. The tears of a clown are cheap. As Harada Roshi said, “For forty years I’ve been selling water by the riverside. My efforts are wholly without merit.”

          • elysianfield February 7, 2016 at 6:43 pm #

            “The tears of a clown are cheap.”

            How can I argue with that…I am diminished. However, another quote….The Frenchman said…”for twenty years I go to the Seine, and everyday I set up my easel and paint…twenty years, and no one calls me an ‘Artiste”….but suck one dick, and they all call you a “cocksoukaire!”

            Anyhoo, you may be seeing the clown reference in later posts…the Genie is out of the bottle….

  117. FincaInTheMountains February 5, 2016 at 6:41 pm #

    View from Russia: Yuri Baranchik: H. Clinton is a virus and Donald Trump is American immune reaction to it.

    The experience of the last twenty-five years has shown that as soon as Russia becomes weak, the United States, in the absence of a counterweight, plunges into chaos and corruption, which is clearly visible on the example of not only the current US foreign policy, but also, more importantly, – internal since anti-systemic factor in it is not Donald Trump, but Hillary Clinton, and Donald Trump is, on the contrary, the reaction of the system, the core of US society.

    Clinton is a virus that destroys the American political system, and Trump – a vaccine, an antidote produced by the immune system of American society.

    • Buck Stud February 5, 2016 at 10:42 pm #

      Fincaln,

      You make some great posts at times but then you resort to the above: posting cliche,in-advance manufactured thought devoid of receptive empiricism.

      If you had been actually paying attention instead of pumping a preconceived agenda, you might have noticed that Trump is not going anywhere politically. He might win a primary or two but Frankiti is correct: Rubio has already been selected by the GOP Establishment.

      • FincaInTheMountains February 6, 2016 at 7:03 am #

        Well, we all have bad days. The overall situation is extremely complex, very hard to make sense out of it or the direction in which it’s headed.

  118. Buck Stud February 5, 2016 at 10:53 pm #

    Well, it was bound to happen: the skeletons of absurdity are starting to be excavated from the closets of Sanders past. Thus, the Democratic Party nightmare begins:

    “… he[Sanders] wrote some articles about health, including one in which he cited studies claiming that cancer could be caused by psychological factors such as unresolved hostility toward one’s mother, a tendency to bury aggression beneath a “facade of pleasantness” and having too few orgasms.”

    “Sexual adjustment seemed to be very poor in those with cancer of the cervix,” he wrote, quoting a study in a journal called Psychosomatic Medicine.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/04/us/politics/bernie-sanderss-revolutionary-roots-were-nurtured-in-60s-vermont.html?_r=0

  119. Buck Stud February 5, 2016 at 11:12 pm #

    A man goes home and masturbates his typical fantasy. A woman on her knees, a woman tied up, a woman abused.

    A woman enjoys intercourse with her man — as she fantasizes being raped by 3 men simultaneously.
    Does anyone seriously doubt that the GOP propaganda machine will make short work of the author below–Sanders?

    “The man and woman get dressed up on Sunday — and go to Church, or maybe to their “revolutionary” political meeting.

    Have you ever looked at the Stag, Man, Hero, Tough magazines on the shelf of your local bookstore? Do you know why the newspapers with the articles like “Girl 12 raped by 14 men” sell so well? To what in us are they appealing?
    Women, for their own preservation, are trying to pull themselves for all of humanity that they do so. Slavishness on one hand breeds pigness on the other hand. Pigness on one hand hand breeds slavishness on the other, Men and women — both are losers. Women adapt themselves to full the needs of men, and men adapt themselves to fill the needs of women. In the beginning there were strong men who killed the animals and brought home the food — and the dependent women who cooked it. No more! Only the roles remain –waiting to be shaken off. There are no “human” oppressors. Oppressors have lost their humanity. On one hand “slavishness,” one the other hand “pigness.” Six of one, half dozen of the other, Who wins? ”

    http://www.tabletmag.com/scroll/191337/bernie-sanderss-1972-essay-man-and-woman

    • Buck Stud February 5, 2016 at 11:15 pm #

      Does anyone doubt that the GOP propaganda machine will make short work of the author above? I certainly don’t.

      • wpa_ccc February 5, 2016 at 11:47 pm #

        “Does anyone doubt that the GOP propaganda machine will make short work of the author above?” –Buck Stud

        I do. I doubt something written in 1972 can countervail having been married to his wife since 1988 (four kids, seven grandchildren). The GOP will go on a fool’s errand and waste money trying to impugn Bernie’s integrity and they will fail. If Rove, Koch, Adelson, or any of that ilk had any concern about Bernie, they would already have started throwing mud.

        When it comes to baggage, Hillary has a lot more baggage than Bernie… not to mention she is being investigated by the FBI and may still be indicted. Hillary has a rep of being dishonest. Bernie is not perfect, but his rep is synonymous with integrity.

        • Buck Stud February 6, 2016 at 9:46 am #

          God bless your soul WPA, but you’re the one who predicted that the Democratic Party would retain the Senate a week before the mid-terms–recall that Rugman?

          Anyway, the reason the GOP is laying off Bernie for the moment–and not because if they “had any concern about Bernie, they would already have started throwing mud”–is because they would much rather run against Bernie than HRC at the end of the day. Try and think of the electoral math, WPA. And when you do, think of Florida and Virginia and Ohio and Colorado. Then states ain’t Vermont, Iowa or Rhode Island. Out another way, there is no way that Florida or Virginia is going to “Fell The Bern”. I wish it wasn’t so WPA, I truly do, but let’s not kid ourselves and skip down the yellow brick road of foolishness.

          And while you’re at it, try and imagine a GOP Super Pac constructing an attack ad with a woman narrator incredulously asking: “Really Bernie, not enough orgasms is the cause of cervical cancer?”

          You really don’t think they would do that, WPA?

          And why do you, like a lot of Bernie supporters, regurgitate right-wing talking points/slanderous propaganda to demonize HRC?. If you had any clue, you would realize, based on latest revelations, that HRC has NO Chance” of being indicted. Shame on you for allowing yourself to be used as Rovian tool.

          Now take yourself out to the workshop and grind away that defect in your mental thinking edge. You have a nick in the brain and need to sharpen up.

          • Q. Shtik February 6, 2016 at 12:02 pm #

            Now take yourself out to the workshop and grind away that defect in your mental thinking edge. You have a nick in the brain and need to sharpen up. – Buck to wpa

            =============

            And when you’re done that, go churn up some butter and make your own clothes. We’re ‘settlers’ boy, we’re gonna settle for Hillary. 🙂

  120. wpa_ccc February 6, 2016 at 12:11 am #

    Donald Trump is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist, birther and bully who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims — 1.6 billion members of an entire religion — from entering the U.S.

    Donald Trump is losing mojo, after losing in Iowa, and will not be the Republican presidential candidate.

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  121. Q. Shtik February 6, 2016 at 12:30 am #

    Donald Trump is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist, birther and bully who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims — 1.6 billion members of an entire religion — from entering the U.S. – wpa

    ==============

    Yeah, all the things about half the country loves about him…… especially my brother-in-law.

    • wpa_ccc February 6, 2016 at 12:48 am #

      Half the country? Hardly. In the USA 23% of the country identify as Republicans. Of Republican voters, 28% support Trump.

      .28 x .23 = .0644 or 6.44% of the country support Trump

      Obviously, not enough voters in Iowa agreed with your brother-in-law, since Trump lost in Iowa; a great start for a loser like Trump.

      • Q. Shtik February 6, 2016 at 12:18 pm #

        .28 x .23 = .0644 or 6.44% of the country support Trump – wpa

        ==============

        Good job on the arithmetic this time.

  122. wpa_ccc February 6, 2016 at 12:40 am #

    In case Hillary wonders why she is not crushing Bernie, this is an example why on Social Security benefits:

    The Huffington Post quoted Clinton’s campaign as saying, “She has no plans to cut benefits.” PCCC co-founder Stephanie Taylor responded:

    “Hillary Clinton says she has ‘no plans’ to cut Social Security — but George W. Bush had ‘no plans’ to invade Iraq. That is not a promise, and our grandparents and veterans need a promise.

    “It is an absolute must for a Democratic nominee who claims to be progressive to say clearly and unequivocally that they will never cut Social Security benefits. Bernie Sanders has made that commitment. Hillary Clinton should make that commitment before the New Hampshire primary so Democrats can focus on expanding benefits.”

    We know Clinton is willing to make promises. In last night’s debate, she said, “Yes, let’s fix the VA [Veterans Administration], but we will never let it be privatized! That is a promise.”

    • BackRowHeckler February 6, 2016 at 8:49 am #

      Outa sight, WPA!

      Wavy Gravy sends his regards… saw him at the ‘Pig Farm’, I was there with Ram Rod, Cassady and Jerry Garcia the other nite, making plans to head east this summer to a town called ‘Woodstock’ — I think its in New York — for an outdoor concert this summer. Sounds like a groovy scene.

      Wavy sends these gifts WPA, an lb. of Panama Red, primo stuff, 100 hits of Orange sunshine from our friends in LA (Brotherhood of Eternal Love, puts Owseley’s stuff to shame) and this new book about our friend Ken Kesey and his band of Merry Pranksters “The Electric Koolaid Acid Test”, by some square named Tom Wolfe. Power to the People, dig?

      Bernie Sanders for President!

      Yours in Solidarity,

      the BackRowHeckler

      • Buck Stud February 6, 2016 at 10:04 am #

        LOL BRH; if only it could have been:

        “The wind in the willow’s playing, ‘Tea for two’
        The sky was yellow and the sun was blue
        Strangers stopping, strangers just to shake their hand
        Everybody is playing in the heart of gold band, heart of gold band”

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qftn3sYj8CM

        • BackRowHeckler February 6, 2016 at 10:46 am #

          Scarlet Begonias, phew!

          I was headed out to shovel snow but now I’m tripping … will put a ‘Dead’ CD on the old player I got in the garage, turn it up loud, play ‘Friend of the Devil’ over and over, freak out the neighbors.

          That’s the plan for today.

          brh

          • wpa_ccc February 6, 2016 at 11:22 am #

            Comrade, you are a clandestine Sanderista! Yay!

    • Buck Stud February 6, 2016 at 9:56 am #

      More passive-aggressive insinuations from the Grandpa Sanders gang. I recall the days when Bernie pronounced he would ‘not be going negative’ and so he hides behind his supporters or worse yet, makes subtle, oblique inferences and then raises his hands innocently stating, ‘but I refuse to engage in negativity’.

      IOW, Sanders is a phony and a passive-aggressive one at that. Indeed, he reminds this observer of possessing some of the most reprehensible PC characteristics so emblematic of the American far left today. I believe our host would toss in “Maoist” as an adjective for more descriptive umph.

      At the end of the day, Sanders will be the second coming of George McGovern.

      • wpa_ccc February 6, 2016 at 10:26 am #

        Sanders has gone far beyond McGovern in popular support. Sanders has gone beyond Obama in attracting the vote of those under 30 years old. Sanders is getting more support from women than Hillary. Sanders is heading a movement for a political revolution.

        And just as with Obama, people like you Buck Stud are saying he is “unelectable.” Bernie is an Independent and he has wrested control of the Democratic Party from Hillary, but she has not realized it yet because she lives in a world where she imagines party endorsements are the key to winning.

        Sanders arrived in Iowa with no organization, no name recognition, no money, no endorsements, trailing Hillary by 31 points… and fought her to a tie. Yay socialist Iowa!

        Hillary is the representative of stale “realist”-establishment-DLC-Wall Street-Goldman Sachs politics. If she has the guts to release the transcripts of her speeches to Goldman Sachs, pay attention to what advice Hillary gave Goldman Sachs re: how to handle Elizabeth Warren.

        The first woman who thinks she will be president cannot even get the support of young women.

        Why young feminists are choosing Bernie Sanders over Hillary Clinton

        http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-clinton-millennial-women-20160203-story.html

      • Janos Skorenzy February 6, 2016 at 4:26 pm #

        You’re still going to vote for It? After all the lies and corruption? After saying about Goldman Sachs giving her 640,000 for a little speech, “That’s what they offered”?

        You apply the lotion to It.

  123. wpa_ccc February 6, 2016 at 10:30 am #

    “the Grandpa Sanders gang” –Buck Stud

    Is that all you’ve got? Name calling?

    Grandpa Sanders ran a 4:37 mile in track and field and doesn’t seem to have any trouble doing 18-hours days for weeks on end, keeping up just fine with the young, svelte, energetic Hillary Clinton.

  124. wpa_ccc February 6, 2016 at 10:55 am #

    “In Iowa, women 29 and younger voted for Clinton’s challenger, Sen. Bernie Sanders, by a stunning margin of roughly 6 to 1, much as young men did, according to the poll of voters arriving at precinct caucuses conducted for the television networks and the Associated Press.

    Clinton has aggressively reached out to young women with the promise of breaking a glass ceiling that the women’s movement has worked for decades to shatter. The newest generation of feminists is responding with a shrug.”

    Hillary just doesn’t get the Bern. But the voters do, as they showed by booing Hillary’s “artful smear” remarks. That kind of dark attack politics just doesn’t fly anymore.

    Let’s see if she releases the transcripts of her Goldman-Sachs speeches. Let’s see what the FBI investigation yields. Let’s see if Hillary is indicted. That would put a crimp in her presidential aspirations. Hillary appears to not have the common sense to know that you don’t take important intelligence and ship it off of government servers. 100 FBI agents are working on the case.

    http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-clinton-millennial-women-20160203-story.html

  125. wpa_ccc February 6, 2016 at 11:04 am #

    A closer look at Hillary’s “win” in Iowa:

    Here’s just how unlikely Hillary Clinton’s 6-for-6 coin-toss victories would have been

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/02/02/heres-just-how-unlikely-hillary-clintons-6-for-6-coin-toss-victories-were/

    In the article you can flip the six coins and see how likely it is. Warning: you will be flipping coins for a long, long time. I guess it helps the odds if you are an establishment candidate willing to engage in election fraud.

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  126. volodya February 6, 2016 at 11:37 am #

    Q, about this business about unions and off-shoring.

    You can argue that unions pushed too hard in a lot of instances. But then there were companies that made really stupid deals with labor unions, so sure and secure were they that their products would sell no matter what.

    What I’ve repeatedly heard was that it wasn’t so much wage and benefit demands that made life tough for business, it was work rules. This is may be exaggerating a bit but, for example, a worker that spent the day turning a wrench was not supposed to pick up a hammer. How many job classifications did GM have? In contrast, how many did Toyota have?

    This is really broad-brushing things, but I would argue that a business got the union it deserved. My dad spent most of his life at one company at which there was repeated attempts by a union to get in. It was tailor made for it as there were multitudes of businesses like it that were unionized.

    But every attempt failed. Know why? It was no picnic working there but the owners and management were reasonable and paid a decent wage.

    Everyone in business bitches about onerous regulation. Are you in compliance? Think so, hope so, but even if you spent all your waking hours combing through the deep underbrush of rules you’d never be sure. Even George McGovern complained after the 1972 election when he tried to buy an inn and found out first hand what it was like.

    I bring up regulation in the same post as unionization because the impetus for both comes from the same place. Way too often in the business community you see the most egregiously asshole-ish behavior. I could give a list that goes around the earth three times.

    Yeah, I know how hard it is to survive in business. I’ve seen it. But I would argue that if survival requires that you behave like a total dick towards employees and the wider community then maybe you don’t have a workable business model.

    As far as offshoring goes this is another example of a business model that can’t work. The billionaire class (to use Bernie’s terminology) suppressed world-wide demand for the products their companies make by taking apart American industry and moving it to China. Who did they think would buy their output? The unemployed American worker? Or the slave-wage Chinese worker?

    Now they realize they’re in TWO binds. One is that they have got world-wide over capacity. The other is that they find themselves under the boot of some really nasty dudes in Beijng. Those Beijing guys know where power really comes from and it ain’t the company boardroom. It’s guns. And no, the US military is in no position to rescue the billionaires’ fortunes. No jaw flexing by any American President, no sail-past by a US aircraft carrier, not even Tom Cruise at his most heroic, will fix it.

    It’s like JHK sez in his post, the Davos types will have destroyed the economic system they need to enjoy their gains. Makes me laugh. Why couldn’t they see it going in?

  127. volodya February 6, 2016 at 11:42 am #

    Ozone, good advice.

    • BackRowHeckler February 6, 2016 at 11:53 am #

      Did you see this CNBC headline, yesterday?

      Citi: World Economy Caught in a ‘Death Spiral’

      This might explain the massive movement of 3rd world populations in Latin America, Africa and Asia north, into the USA, W Europe and Canada; nations south of the equator with the exception of New Zealand and Australia have simply collapsed and life there is simply unsustainable.

      Our poster, Mister Darling, postulated this theory earlier this week; it makes a lot of sense. But why isn’t this ever brought up in the MSM as a possible explanation of what is happening, instead of giving us highly emotional photos of dead children on the beach, and still bleating on about ’emerging economies’, instead of ‘economies that will never emerge’?

      brh

  128. malthuss February 6, 2016 at 12:29 pm #

    Merkel and Zuckerberg met to figure out how to fight Xenophobia.
    Zucks business threatens to delete ‘open borders for Israel’ page.

    Soros and Zuck want an ‘open society’, follow the money.

  129. volodya February 6, 2016 at 12:47 pm #

    BRH,

    The term “emerging markets” and “emerging economies” was brought to you by Wall Street, the same shysters that brought us nonsensical concepts like “EBITDA” and “market cap”.

    EBITDA was used to misdirect people. DON’T look at THIS number that includes all expenses, look at this less shitty number that excludes some expenses. Sadly, people fell for it.

    Same idea with the oft heard term “ex items” ie excluding “non recurring” or “one time” expenses. Meaning this is the money they would’ve made if not for all the money they’d lost. “One time” my ass. There’s ALWAYS non recurring expenses. Yeah, yeah I know sometimes the non recurring item was a gain of some kind.

    Another one: “core inflation”.

    Maybe we see so much turmoil in some shit-holes is that life is still sustainable after a fashion but it’s unendurable.

  130. Q. Shtik February 6, 2016 at 1:19 pm #

    After seven years of Obama: Unemployment at 4.9% – wpa

    ================

    Here’s the truth about the supposed 4.9% unemployment rate from someone who knows how the numbers are assembled.

    http://davidstockmanscontracorner.com/why-the-bulls-will-get-slaughtered/

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    • wpa_ccc February 6, 2016 at 2:47 pm #

      “the seasonal adjustment factor for the month is so huge that the resulting month-over-month delta is inherently just plain noise.” –David Stockman

      Yes, thank goodness we are getting positive “noise” month after month, for 72 consecutive months of PRIVATE job growth! (Obama has shrunk the government)

      Does no one remember 2007, when we were losing 800,000 jobs a month. Obama stopped that and turned job creation into positive territory, a joyful noise if you will.

      • wpa_ccc February 6, 2016 at 3:01 pm #

        One other thing: the BLS methodology has remained the same under Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Obama. So the way noise is measured has been consistent, making comparison easy.

        4.9% … going down to 4.0% by the end of 2016.

        • Q. Shtik February 6, 2016 at 4:04 pm #

          Not true. You obviously didn’t read Stockman’s entire essay.

  131. Q. Shtik February 6, 2016 at 1:46 pm #

    What case? My opinion that it would be desirable if the poor were not always with us? – Doug

    ===============

    Yes, THAT case.

    How can you say that all of man’s history has been a big mistake… that the world would be a better place if all wealth were evenly divided. What is your basis for thinking this (since it has never happened) other than your knee-jerk reaction of empathy for the poor?

    I believe mankind has evolved and continues to evolve along Darwinian lines.

    P.S. I don’t agree with your statement that “for 90% (or much more, depending upon how “human” is defined) of our development as a species, humans lived in “radically egalitarian” societies.” I wasn’t there but can’t imagine that there were societies who didn’t have “top dogs” living the high life relative to there lessers. And speaking of dogs….. observe the hierarchical structure of any dog/wolf pack.

    • Doug February 6, 2016 at 9:53 pm #

      ” And speaking of dogs….. observe the hierarchical structure of any dog/wolf pack.”

      I’m afraid that you’re not quite up to speed. Wolf “packs” don’t really have hierarchical structures.

      Why everything you know about wolf packs is wrong.

      Now, at least for the moment, I’m finished with your silly social Darwinism. It reeks of defiant ignorance: dumb as a box of rocks.

      • malthuss February 6, 2016 at 10:43 pm #

        You havent read or been around canines much, Id guess.

        I read a book about wolves re introduction to Yellowstone.
        The handlers messed things up.
        They threw road kill into the pen [instead of always having road kill there or throwing it in in several locations at the same time.

        I forget the exact words.
        Alpha bitch started to gorge. She was pregnant and maybe not in top bitch form.
        Another bitch was hungry. alpha snarled.female 2 attacked and alpha was soon dead.

        This is nearly verbatim,
        ‘The unchallenged alpha for months now lay dead, killed in an instant by a challenger.’

        all over some roadkill.

        • Janos Skorenzy February 7, 2016 at 5:17 pm #

          And if he can’t even get straight something so simple, how can he be trusted about anything? His egalitarianism is always likely to be twisting things.

          • malthuss February 7, 2016 at 5:49 pm #

            Thanks.
            Its wolf eat wolf.

            I do not support Idtatrod or whatever irs known as.

            What do sled racers do with the huskies as the race continues and the sled gets lighter?

            Well, I read the racer kills a dog and feeds it to the team.

  132. Q. Shtik February 6, 2016 at 2:00 pm #

    Trump …. has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims — 1.6 billion members of an entire religion — from entering the U.S. – wpa

    ==============

    A new plan for the Muslim refugees emerged this morning from the Trump camp:

    Allow them all in but they must be confined to Flint, Michigan. 🙂

    • wpa_ccc February 6, 2016 at 4:09 pm #

      This must be Snyder’s plan to revitalize Michigan. Refugees and immigrants are net contributors and economic drivers of any economy. Smart move on Snyder’s part.

  133. Buck Stud February 6, 2016 at 3:11 pm #

    “And when you’re done that, go churn up some butter and make your own clothes. We’re ‘settlers’ boy, we’re gonna settle for Hillary. 🙂 “–Q

    Good one Q haha.

    Some of us just don’t get to feel ‘true love’ with the likes of a Ted Cruz or Marco Rubio. So yes, call us “The Settlers”!

  134. MisterDarling February 6, 2016 at 3:37 pm #

    @ Volodya:

    I’m responding to you because you seem to be one of the few not embroiled in discussions about fetuses, sham elections and whether the poor will always be with us.

    “The term “emerging markets” and “emerging economies” was brought to you by Wall Street, the same shysters that brought us nonsensical concepts like “EBITDA” and “market cap”. . . EBITDA was used to misdirect people. . . Another one: “core inflation”.”-v.

    Agreed about using EBITDA for decision-making. It’s part of a gaggle of misleading financial measures that arrived when reinvestment went out the window.

    In regards to the ‘what happened to American unions’? question, consider the US Auto Industry: here was a market that the US *owned* in the 1950’s… Problem was, those in ownership decided that it might be neat to see how little they could put back into the business and still keep the party going. . . That is a mistake that you only get to make once. The rest is history: Japanese automakers found a toe-hold, then exploited the hell out of it and expanded until they were eating the American oligopoly’s lunch.

    The issue with blaming the unions is that it is nonsense. Unions are not nor were they ever in a position to make strategically proactive decisions. Unions were and remain on their back foot: reacting to what the majority-share owners are doing and demanding their ‘cut’. As US business lost footing it sought to stave off the inevitable by making labor costs more ‘flexible’… For all the good that did in the end.

    The moral of the story here is that you don’t fix strategic issues with tactical solutions, AND if you’re a CEO making a proposal to a board of directors and you come to the part about your actions-steps – and you notice that you *suddenly* lost the full attention of half the people in the room – this is why: your proposals are tactical stopgaps, not strategic game-changers. Oh, and by the way, your influence with the board was just cut in half. Buh-bye.

    In my opinion – after long observation and formal education on the topic – American business culture is to blame. We have a bunch of people in ownership who are always looking for an easy buck, and want something for nothing.

    From a Big Picture root-cause perspective, it started with a bunch of B-list English aristocrats launching get-rich-quick schemes in Virginia colony on stolen land with uncompensated labor, it metastasized, became the ‘American Way’ (duly sprouting all sorts of useful & self-serving rationalizations) and now we get to see the payoff: the collapse of all the hopes and dreams of people who invested too little in and borrowed too much from The Future. But that’s pretty much you expect from B-list leadership.

    “Maybe we see so much turmoil in some shit-holes is that life is still sustainable after a fashion but it’s unendurable.”-v.

    I am amused at this idea circulating that America can or will stabilize as the next Mexico or Brazil. As I’ve mentioned before, the reason that Mexico still stands is that it is resting against US consumer demand (such as it is) for support. To a lesser extent this is true of Brazil. Here’s where it gets interesting: in the past the pattern was for failed plutocrats to flee the nations that they f*cked-up and plop themselves down in Florida or some other rich-criminal friendly area.

    Where are American plutocrats going to hunker down? So far the best bet has been New Zealand. Buying your ten-acre allotment of farmland with access to an airstrip is all the rage in certain circles…

    Cheers!

    — — —

    [*] Remember, Japan is a place where the right to form a union is a constitutional *right*, no ‘right-to-work’ states there. What other workforce is highly unionized? Germany’s – one of the best compensated and most productive workforces in the world. So the argument that unionization reduces competitiveness is horse-shit.

    • Janos Skorenzy February 6, 2016 at 4:16 pm #

      So you would eat a fetus, since it’s just tissue, and very nutritious tissue at that? Or you wouldn’t because you think it’s wrong – making you some kind of supremacist since so many of Earth’s people did eat human flesh.

      Or perhaps you wouldn’t because it’s “gross”? But no more so than any other kind of meat, really. Much morality hides under aesthetics and squeamishness perhaps.

      Now fess up – one way or the other. Remember, eating fetus is a strong vote of confidence for woman’s rights. And you believe in that don’t you?

    • elysianfield February 6, 2016 at 6:57 pm #

      MD,

      “In my opinion – after long observation and formal education on the topic – American business culture is to blame. We have a bunch of people in ownership who are always looking for an easy buck, and want something for nothing. ”

      I agree that American business culture is to blame, but I believe it is motivated, significantly, by the quarter by quarter growth demands from Wall Street. The CEO might actually want to do the right thing, but may be constrained by Wall Street demands. In Academia, it is “Publish or Perish”…As a CEO, it is show growth or be gone.

      I actually attended a Wall Street “dressing down” of a CEO by the team that handled his IPO…another story for another day.

      • MisterDarling February 7, 2016 at 1:41 am #

        @ Doug:

        “I agree that American business culture is to blame, but I believe it is motivated, significantly, by the quarter by quarter growth demands from Wall Street. The CEO might actually want to do the right thing, but may be constrained by Wall Street demands.”

        Fine point, and I do have some measure of sympathy for the CEO with guts & vision facing a room full of slash-n-burn vultures with a fistful of lackluster perf’.

        But having written what you did, you have to ask yourself: How did we get stuck in planning/goal-setting from quarter to quarter? And you then arrive back at who sets priorities (“maximize shareholder value!”) and their culture that informs establishes their values and frames their decisions.

        The upshot is that enterprises stuck working on a quarterly basis tend to lose ground to innovative enterprises executing long-term goals, unafraid of blue-ocean game-changing – Amazon v. WalMart for instance. Apple v. Microsoft for another…

        Cheers!

        😉

        • elysianfield February 7, 2016 at 11:12 am #

          “(“maximize shareholder value!”)

          MD,
          Maximizing leads to destructive behavior…maintaining shareholder value would be almost universally applauded in “hard times”.

          Massive job cuts, outsourcing, predatory contractual agreements with end users, share buyback programs, gutting of secondary and tertiary programs involving future growth, safety concerns, and overall stability, creative bookkeeping…all designed to keep the CEO in place and on the gravy train. Thousands of lives negatively impacted so that one man can keep his key to the executive washroom….

    • Doug February 6, 2016 at 10:07 pm #

      Very nicely done, MD. Much more fun to read than the claptrap using Bible verses to defend social Darwinism.

      But don’t you be goin’ on puttin’ down EBITDA. I’ll have you know that I worked in small businesses that financed many tens of millions of dollars worth of telecommunications equipment in the 80s and 90s, largely based on my projections of EBITDA. The vendor/bankster cabal loved it, couldn’t wait to write the checks/ship the equipment.

      Of course, since even my projections of gross sales were total SWAGs (everyone’s were), my EBITDA projections were pure fantasy.

      And thanks for setting the mean and benighted straight on the matter of the unions and American industry.

      • Q. Shtik February 6, 2016 at 10:49 pm #

        Definition

        realist: the mean and benighted

      • Q. Shtik February 6, 2016 at 11:04 pm #

        And thanks for setting the mean and benighted straight on the matter of the unions and American industry.

        =============

        Google “downfall of the uaw.” Read this article and dozens more like it.

        http://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/who-killed-detroit/

        • Q. Shtik February 6, 2016 at 11:17 pm #

          Doug and MD, try to keep an open mind to the obvious.

          Who Killed Detroit?

          3/23/2011 6:48 PM EST

          Cities: Poor Detroit. It hasn’t had any good news for decades, and now, despite a $77 billion bailout of the auto industry, its population continues to implode. The No. 1 reason: the United Auto Workers union ……………………..

          Sure, a lot of the blame goes to a generation of bad management. But the main reason for Detroit’s decline is the greed of the industry’s main union, the UAW, which priced the Big Three out of the market.

          • Janos Skorenzy February 7, 2016 at 5:28 pm #

            Other Midwestern Cities faced the loss of industry and rule by Democrats. But they didn’t have nearly as many Blacks – and thus didn’t undergo massive White flight to escape from Black terror and lawlessness.

            How could you possibly leave race out of the equation? The mind reels….

            Amazingly, Detroit’s success lead to its fall. And Unions did play a part. When they struck, Henry Ford brought in the Blacks as strike breakers. Ford was Jew wise but not Negro aware. Utter tragedy ensued.

      • MisterDarling February 7, 2016 at 1:04 am #

        Doug;

        “But don’t you be goin’ on puttin’ down EBITDA. . . Of course, since even my projections of gross sales were total SWAGs (everyone’s were), my EBITDA projections were pure fantasy.”-d.

        We all did what we did when we were younger to get our foot in the door and try to get ahead of the debt collector, and back in the 80’s the cost of capital was nothing like it is now.

        When things are in an economic upswing all that ‘creativity’ is basically ‘okay’ – and almost all of it is forgiven & forgotten. What chafes my hide is when those games are still being played when there clearly is no room left to do so.

        Cheers!

        • Doug February 7, 2016 at 11:49 am #

          MD: “When things are in an economic upswing all that ‘creativity’ is basically ‘okay’ – and almost all of it is forgiven & forgotten. What chafes my hide is when those games are still being played when there clearly is no room left to do so.”

          In the case of the wireless telecom industry, it was all really a game where everyone knew the outcome: all of the small players who had won their licenses in FCC lotteries would be progressively gobbled up by the larger players and, ultimately by the reconstituted giant remnants of the AT&T Goliath.

          Latterly, in the contexts to which you refer, it’s just another of the tricks being played in a desperate attempt to keep the gravy train to the top running for “a bit” longer: deeply destructive and doomed.

      • Janos Skorenzy February 7, 2016 at 5:41 pm #

        [Man] has diverged into distinct races, or as they may be more fitly called, sub-species. Some of these, such as the Negro and the European, are so distinct that, if specimens had been brought to a naturalist without any further information, they would undoubtedly have been considered as good and true species.

        Charles Darwin

        The individual most adapted to his or her environment is more likely to survive and pass on their genes. Thus groups form sharing similar characteristics in a given environment. Evolution is a group or racial affair. Believing that all people are the same irrespective of their race or sub-species, shows a gross misunderstanding of Darwinian Theory.

  135. BackRowHeckler February 6, 2016 at 3:56 pm #

    Pope Francis is going to meet with the head of the Russian Orthodox Church in Havana, Cuba in the near future, it was announced. This is the first time in 1000 years the two main Christian branches have got together. Nobody said this but it has to be ISIS slaughtering Christians in Syria and Iraq, and the Muslim threat to Europe that is the catalyst for this. Now all we have to do is bring Judaism aboard and we can present a united front against Islam, and prevent it from devouring the world and bringing down western civilization.

    brh

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    • wpa_ccc February 6, 2016 at 4:25 pm #

      Deeply offensive and ignorant post. The world’s 1.6 Billion Muslims are builders of civilizations. brh, please don’t make me post again how Muslims gave the western world innovations in mathematics, medicine, hospitals, universities, astronomy, first scientific attempt at flight, surgery, etc.

      We have learned so much from Muslim contributions to civilization. Now is the time to join hands with our Muslim brothers and sisters and create a world free of poverty, where the phrase about the poor always are with us becomes obsolete. Daesh is not Islamic. Daesh has hijacked the word, but does not represent Islam, which is a religion of peace.

      • BackRowHeckler February 6, 2016 at 7:27 pm #

        That reminds me of hearing about all the great scientific and cultural accomplishments coming out of sub Saharan Africa Henry Gates talks about every night on PBS.

        The Muzzies must have forgot about the wonderful cultural milestones you mention above. What I see now are explosive vests, 130 dead in Paris, and German women being mass raped in Cologne, Germany.

        brh

        • malthuss February 6, 2016 at 10:45 pm #

          That reminds me of hearing about all the great scientific and cultural accomplishments coming out of sub Saharan Africa Henry Gates talks about every night on PBS.—————-

          Like wot?

  136. MisterDarling February 6, 2016 at 4:06 pm #

    @ BRH;

    RE | “Our poster, Mister Darling, postulated this theory earlier this week; it makes a lot of sense. But why isn’t this ever brought up in the MSM as a possible explanation of what is happening, instead of giving us highly emotional photos of dead children on the beach, and still bleating on about ’emerging economies’, instead of ‘economies that will never emerge’?”

    ‘Emerging economies’ or ‘developing nations’ were feel-good titles bestowed on poor-nations to keep them paying into the mountains of debt they took on – ostensibly to ‘develop’ their economies… As of about a dozen years ago they got wise and started defaulting and nationalizing – thus S. America’s turn to the Left circa 2005. [*]

    It’s not the MSM’s job be too direct about the state of things. If they stopped talking as if the Global South wasn’t ‘inevitably’ becoming a version of the Global North, investors would wonder WTF was investment-grade, and they would stop plunking down cash, and… You get the picture. *Bad For Business*.

    And so the show had to go on, until it couldn’t. From as strategic perspective the crumbling of the Global South was a milestone: because that was the resource hinterland of northern nations. Notably, imperial decay is well underway when they lose their hinterland.

    What we’re seeing now on our borders (and others), is the same thing that beset the Western Roman Empire at the end: vast numbers of people fleeing the end of their living arrangements elsewhere.

    In the time of the Romans, it was a horde of displaced agriculturalist barbarians fleeing the expansion of pastoral nomads, who were fleeing an even bigger bunch of horse-riding nation-slaying bad-asses in turn. But that was a time ruled by a global ‘marketplace’ of brute-force. Nowadays, there are more steps to go through before it gets down to that.

    Cheers!

    — — —

    [*] – when Condoleeza expressed the USA’s wishes about who would head the OAS and they duly elected exactly the person her paymasters did not want. 2005 was tough on Condoleeza; everywhere she went doors were slamming and heads of state were telling to fuck-off in diplo-speak. Tsk, tsk. . .

  137. Janos Skorenzy February 6, 2016 at 4:23 pm #

    http://bbs.dailystormer.com/t/finland-releases-bizarre-video-instructing-women-to-avoid-rape-by-hitting-haji-with-purse/2628/65

    Ah foolish women and the knaves who lie to them. Extraordinary how Europe is just being thrown away to the Muslim Jackals. Women can’t tell the difference between fantasy and reality, nor can Liberal Men who are basically feminized at this point. As for the real men, are they going to protect women who don’t see the difference between them and the hajis? And then go to jail for their trouble?

    A bunch of hajis tried this in Russia and they got stomped. The police showed up and helped beat them, before taking them into custody and to the hospital. That’s how it’s done, folks. That’s how you maintain a Nation. No charges against the Russian Patriots. Gay Pride parades, same thing.

  138. Q. Shtik February 6, 2016 at 4:36 pm #

    For years here I have been singing the praises of novelist/essayist David Foster Wallace.

    Janos once asked me what his opus, Infinite Jest, was all about. A question impossible for an ordinary mortal to answer. But, here is a reasonably good attempt. It comes on the 20th anniversary of Jest’s original publication.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/07/books/review/everything-about-everything-david-foster-wallaces-infinite-jest-at-20.html?_r=0

  139. Q. Shtik February 6, 2016 at 4:46 pm #

    So the argument that unionization reduces competitiveness is horse-shit. – Mister Darling

    ===============

    Perhaps you can explain to us the cause of the near collapse of the US auto industry during the second half of the 20th century and the inundation of Volkswagens, Toyotas, et al.

    • Doug February 6, 2016 at 10:25 pm #

      He already did. In simple English.

      Scroll up.

      • MisterDarling February 7, 2016 at 12:50 am #

        Thank you Doug!

  140. Q. Shtik February 7, 2016 at 12:13 am #

    Now is the time to join hands with our Muslim brothers and sisters and create a world free of poverty, where the phrase about the poor always are with us becomes obsolete. – wpa

    =============

    Obsolete my ass! ^This^ is just wishful thinking and you, Doug and MD know it.

    A suggestion: help your immediate and extended family if you want to reduce poverty.

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    • wpa_ccc February 7, 2016 at 12:16 am #

      Define “extended family”

      • Q. Shtik February 7, 2016 at 12:56 am #

        Define “extended family”

        ============

        What? All of a sudden your helpless?

        Extended family
        An extended family is a family that extends beyond the nuclear family, consisting of aunts, uncles, and cousins all living nearby or in the same household.

    • MisterDarling February 7, 2016 at 12:49 am #

      Hello Q!

      RE | “Obsolete my ass! ^This^ is just wishful thinking and you, Doug and MD know it.”

      Regarding the poor and whether they shall always be with us: I’ve already communicated that I’m not interested in debating that?

      You seem to be making some assumptions about my outlook. I’m not exactly a ‘leftist’, I’m not a ‘right-winger’ either. The way things actually work in the real world is more interesting than that.

      By the way, were you a Lockheed-Martin person?

      Just curious…

      • Q. Shtik February 7, 2016 at 1:16 am #

        Regarding the poor and whether they shall always be with us: I’ve already communicated that I’m not interested in debating that? – MD

        =============

        Is that a question or a statement?

        In any case, similarly, I’m not interested in debating 2 + 2 = 4. I accept it without further thought or discussion and I wonder about people who don’t.

        • MisterDarling February 8, 2016 at 1:58 am #

          “Is that a question or a statement?”-Q.

          Both?

          😉

      • Q. Shtik February 7, 2016 at 1:18 am #

        were you a Lockheed-Martin person? – MD

        ==============

        No.

  141. Q. Shtik February 7, 2016 at 12:34 am #

    I’m afraid that you’re not quite up to speed. Wolf “packs” don’t really have hierarchical structures. – Doug

    ===============

    Read about alpha, beta and omega wolves:

    http://www.wolfcountry.net/information/WolfPack.html

    • Q. Shtik February 7, 2016 at 12:46 am #

      Dominance behavior is nearly universal among social animals.

      http://www.jneurosci.org/content/17/16/6463.full.pdf

      I suspect the world would fall into chaos without the structure provided by dominance and submission. Think of planet earth without gravity.

    • Doug February 7, 2016 at 11:42 am #

      You didn’t read the authoritative sources, a trailhead to which I provided a link, did you?

      The alpha wolf concept is a long-lasting error that originated with a study of captive wolves and persisted into modern times largely due to to a researcher named Mech, who has since renounced the concept of the alpha wolf and is “chagrined” that his 1970 work remains in print.

      Let’s try one more time, just for fun, to see if we can demonstrate, yet again, the phenomenon of belief perseverance:

      Why Everything You Know about Wolf Packs is Wrong

      • malthuss February 7, 2016 at 6:16 pm #

        And I doubt you have much experience around dogs.

        youtube– leerburg dog training videos. This one

        Establishing Pack Structure with the Family Dog

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNQuqY1oXpE

        • Doug February 7, 2016 at 8:35 pm #

          First, I’m not sure what basis you think you have for your doubt, but it’s irrelevant (and wrong, BTW).

          And if you think that you can use videos about training animals that have been domesticated and bred largely under human intervention for 30,000 years to make an argument about wild wolf behavior, well — as is abundantly clear already, you just don’t get it.

  142. wpa_ccc February 7, 2016 at 2:45 am #

    “What? All of a sudden your helpless?” –Q

    I think the word you meant is you’re, a contraction of you are. Spell checker defeats you once again.

    Everybody knows that extended families are fuzzy: Q. probably defines his own extended family more broadly when making up his Christmas card list than when thinking about who he’d donate a kidney to or who is included in his will to receive some of his estate.

    There is no biological reality underlying extended families. There are social fictions in defining a family (many people dote on their adopted nephews as much as their biological ones). There are no limits to social constructionism (see 20th century anthropology). Asoka used to say his extended family is the human race. Conceptions are many and varied. There are multitudes of conceptions of what an extended family is.

    Q., that is why I asked. It had nothing to do with being “helpless.” Rather I wanted to know your concept of extended family.

  143. BackRowHeckler February 7, 2016 at 2:46 am #

    General Motors,

    A company of less than 75,000 employees that provides pensions and health insurance benefits to over 1 million retirees.

    Basically what you have is is an insurance company and social service agency that happens to make a few cars on the side.

    brh

    • Doug February 7, 2016 at 11:27 am #

      “. . . provides pensions and health insurance benefits to over 1 million retirees” from whose labor it profited, typically for decades, and with whom it made contracts to provide these benefits as part of the compensation package for their labor.

      We could have other schemes for providing health and decent income for the retired and disabled, but the US hasn’t made those arrangements.

      Or we could, as some of the social Darwinists around here mights prefer, set these useless eaters out on the ice.

  144. FincaInTheMountains February 7, 2016 at 4:13 am #

    A.Brodsky: Moscow rumors in connection with Henry Kissinger’s visit

    The last time Henry Kissinger came to Russia was at the beginning of the Nazi coup in Ukraine, but then the reason for his visit was a coup that was carried by Hillary Clinton surrounding Barack Obama with her men, including controlling the security of the US President and his family.

    And former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger came then as a representative of the Deputy Secretary of State William Burns – one of the leaders of the financial power group that stands behind Hillary Clinton.

    That visit was connected with a conflict between Russia and Saudi Arabia, or rather between Putin and the head of Saudi intelligence Bandar bin Sultan, who demanded from him to stop supporting Assad in Syria, threatening otherwise the terrorist war during the Sochi Olympic Games, which naturally caused Putin to remind him about the presence of Russian nuclear weapons.

    Moreover, on the eve of these events, Barack Obama, too, had problems with Bandar bin Sultan because of US talks with Iran and President’s refusal to support with newest weapons anti-Assad rebels in Syria (e.g. ISIL)

    Information about these events leaked into serious press (New York Times, Financial Times), and Henry Kissinger came to explain to Putin that Hillary Clinton coup is not a “seizure of power in the United States by Saudi intelligence,” but an internal US affair.

    Speed with which Putin accepted Henry Kissinger as the most honored guest this time, says that he now came as a representative of a group, which freed Barack Obama from custody of Hillary Clinton. And the very fact of the visit confirms the assumption that this time the defeat of Hillary Clinton is fundamental and applies not only to her personally, but to the whole financial power group that stands behind her. To the extent that there was leaked information that the commission of the US Congress requires the arrest of the principal leaders of the State Department for attempt to obstruct the investigation of former Secretary of State.

    During last democratic debate Bernie Sanders tore Hillary Clinton apart and she hysterically attacked him, showing her true colors, including her role in bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers that triggered the economic crisis of 2008 with combined losses of no less than $6 trillion.

    And the figure of Bernie Sanders with his bulldog grip, for the second time in the TV debates have shown that he is even more serious figure than Donald Trump, as he is an authorized representative of the Western Red Project.

    And in this light Bernie’s words publicly voiced at televised debate, that to him constantly come political enemies of Hillary Clinton and urge him to publicly support the investigation of “Servergate”, certainly are a warning shot sent not only to Hillary Clinton, but to the entire establishment of the democratic party, and a reminder that if the situation comes to the extremes, it will not be limited to just resignations.

    And the fact that these events coincided with the breakdown of talks on Syria, which resulted in large-scale offensive of the Syrian government army and seizure of Aleppo, as well as the rejection of dialogue with Erdogan and visit by Kissinger to Moscow says that Norman Ultimatum to Putin was a reality, and now the world is facing a comprehensive settlement on Syria and Ukraine in one package, including paying reparations to Russia for damages incurred.

    http://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/the-spectacle-so-far/#comment-245104

  145. FincaInTheMountains February 7, 2016 at 5:08 am #

    Henry Kissinger: The fates of Russia and the United States remain tightly intertwined

    The prevailing narrative in each country places full blame on the other side, and in each country there is a tendency to demonize, if not the other country, then its leaders.

    As national security issues dominate the dialogue, some of the mistrust and suspicions from the bitter Cold War struggle have reemerged.

    These feelings have been exacerbated in Russia by the memory of the first post-Soviet decade when Russia suffered a staggering socio-economic and political crisis, while the United States enjoyed its longest period of uninterrupted economic expansion.

    All this caused policy differences over the Balkans, the former Soviet territory, the Middle East, NATO expansion, missile defense and arms sales to overwhelm prospects for cooperation.

    Perhaps most important has been a fundamental gap in historical conception.

    For the United States, the end of the Cold War seemed like a vindication of its traditional faith in inevitable democratic revolution. It visualized the expansion of an international system governed by essentially legal rules.

    But Russia’s historical experience is more complicated. To a country across which foreign armies have marched for centuries from both East and West, security will always need to have a geopolitical, as well as a legal, foundation.

    When its security border moves from the Elbe 1,000 miles east towards Moscow, Russia’s perception of world order will contain an inevitable strategic component.

    The challenge of our period is to merge the two perspectives—the legal and the geopolitical—in a coherent concept.

    http://nationalinterest.org/feature/kissingers-vision-us-russia-relations-15111

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  146. San Jose February 7, 2016 at 11:44 am #

    Ground control to homeland security…..

    Here in San Jose I’m wondering how much money the government is spending for Super Bowl security. Twice yesterday my house was buzzed by a pair of fighter jets. (I complain, but I secretly hope a stealth jet or bomber will fly by on it’s way to Levi’s Stadium–because it would be cool to see.)

    Our family isn’t going anywhere near the Super Bowl today. I’m planning on grilling skirt steak for the occasion. My next-door neighbors, Barbie and Fratman, are no doubt holding their annual Super Bowl booze fest. Last year after the big game, I awoke Monday morning to a half dozen red plastic cups that had migrated over to my driveway from their yard. Oh well.

    I’m going to root for the Panthers simply because their defensive end, Jared Allen #69, grew up part-time in the neighborhood ….. his mother, Sarah, used to live four doors down the street. (Sarah, 5’3″ 105 lbs. giving birth to a guy who ends up to be 6’5″ 260 lbs. is one of life’s mysteries). I remember Jared painting the house as a teenager.

    Jen

    • BackRowHeckler February 7, 2016 at 2:14 pm #

      Nice report from the ‘Left Coast’, Jen.

      I’m assuming you’re far enough out of San Francisco the madness of the Grand Spectacle known as the ‘Superbowl’ doesn’t affect you directly. What, about 50 miles south of SF?

      Article in WSJ about the private and chartered aircraft flying in this week, hundreds of jets bringing in luminaries from all over the world to watch the ‘Big Game’. I’m thinking how bad can things be if people are still flying around in luxury aircraft like I drive to the hardware store.

      brh

      • San Jose February 7, 2016 at 5:31 pm #

        The game is in Santa Clara, which is just to the north of San Jose. I’m 50 miles south of San Francisco.

    • Janos Skorenzy February 7, 2016 at 5:10 pm #

      Is he Black? So you can feel like Sandra Bullock in that football movie?

      For decades Feminists perpetrated a hoax of millions of women being beaten to a pulp on Superbowl Sunday but their drunken, brutal boyfriends and husbands. A holocaust.

      • San Jose February 7, 2016 at 5:35 pm #

        Total Viking type Janos. And Jared has given a lot to help out veterans!

        • Janos Skorenzy February 7, 2016 at 6:25 pm #

          How about Marco Rubio? Do you think he’s a hunk? Could you see yourself as being Lucy to his Desi?

          • BackRowHeckler February 7, 2016 at 8:55 pm #

            Why the snark and sarcasm, Vlad? Is it really necessary? She makes an interesting and informative post about an event in her back yard and you jump all over her. This is probably why there aren’t more female visitors on this site.

            And you’re the one who frequently writes about being a Gentleman.

            –brh

          • Janos Skorenzy February 7, 2016 at 11:37 pm #

            You don’t understand our relationship. It’s very different from yours. She understands. Don’t interfere with something beautiful.

  147. Buck Stud February 7, 2016 at 2:23 pm #

    Did anyone see Chris Christie expose Marco Rubio as nothing more than a windup talking doll in last night’s GOP debate? Christie absolutely crushed Rubio; he’s simply not presidential material, period.

    I’m guessing the pendulum swings back to “The Donald”.

    • volodya February 7, 2016 at 2:56 pm #

      You could be right. I think that for the Republicans it comes down to a choice of the least worst. So who’s the least worst? There’s a case to be made for the Donald. I don’t think any of those clowns has remotely got the leadership or executive moxie or judgment or temperament or intellect to do the job. Not even remotely. But they have to nominate somebody.

      Same for the Democrats. The idea of Hillary in the White House makes me shudder. Bernie at least has consistency as his selling point. He’s been saying the same things since he was in short-pants. Not that anything he’s touting has the slightest likelihood of being implemented.

      So imagine Bernie in the White House. Imagine the Middle East getting shittier by the day. Imagine the usual establishment types in in full-on war mode. Imagine them beating the war drums. Imagine that they demand that the US immediately, and I mean IMMEDIATELY, send in the 101st to quell whatever shitty thing is happening.

      Would Bernie have the cojones to say no? Would he have it in him to say given the disastrous record of US action in places like Iraq and Libya and Afghanistan and Vietnam and Somalia that there is no way in hell he’s going to send American soldier boys?

      Bernie might have it in him. I doubt that Hillary would. IMO that is.

      • wpa_ccc February 7, 2016 at 3:03 pm #

        “Would Bernie have the cojones to say no?” –volodya

        You betcha! Bernie is not opposed to using Special Forces… those guys joined up chomping at the bit to be sent to their deaths. What Bernie is more hesitant about is sending hundreds of thousands of grunts to their deaths. That strategy just has not worked well.

    • Janos Skorenzy February 7, 2016 at 5:13 pm #

      He is the Manchurian Candidate. Also, some say, Gay.

      Rush has humiliated himself by forgiving him for his gang of eight leadership. It’s far too late to have any forgiveness for such traitors.

  148. wpa_ccc February 7, 2016 at 2:59 pm #

    “Christie absolutely crushed Rubio; he’s simply not presidential material, period.” –BuckStud

    Frankiti/Cold said Bush was the establishment candidate. Then he changed to Rubio. If he hasn’t choked eating his hat, Frankiti/Cold will now have to find a new establishment candidate.

    Rubio has not had any executive experience. The governor candidates (Christie, Kasich, Bush) should all benefit by the decline and fall of Rubio. It was nice to see Bush actually challenging Trump.

    • Buck Stud February 7, 2016 at 5:07 pm #

      Predicting anything about the 2016 election is simply a wild guess at this point as we now see it was previously too. I mean who would have thought Trump?

      I actually thought Bush would have been the GOP nominee; it seemed logical at the time.

      I won’t ask why you think Frankiti is Cold. I enjoyed Cold’s posts/writing immensely and really admire Frankiti’s rapier intellect as well.

      We have a big tent type of ideological diversity here on CFN and I appreciate it. Thankfully, JHK has resisted calls to ban posters and turn this site into a dull, generic mutual admiration society.

      • wpa_ccc February 7, 2016 at 10:54 pm #

        Predicting the 2016 election is simply a wild guess. I mean who would have thought Bernie Sanders, who was 30 points behind Hillary nationally, would now be in a statistical tie to become president… in national polls?

        Iowa voting results have been reviewed and Hillary lost more … making it virtually a tie, with equal distribution of delegates between them.

        I won’t predict anything about New Hampshire or South Carolina or Nevada, but Bernie does seem to have $27 individual donor momentum.

  149. FincaInTheMountains February 7, 2016 at 6:26 pm #

    Russian TV Channel One today aired a segment about proliferation of Chechen Muslim Special Forces working for Putin and Kadyrov into the ranks of ISIL.

    One of the secrets of so successful air campaign of Russian Space Air Force in Syria.

    https://img.rt.com/files/2015.09/original/56053199c46188b2418b45f3.jpg

    • FincaInTheMountains February 7, 2016 at 6:33 pm #

      Russian Air Force has a word “Space” attached to it for about a year now. It has space flights capabilities as well as interception of satellites and ballistic missiles on their space flight stage.

  150. Janos Skorenzy February 7, 2016 at 6:26 pm #

    http://www.toqonline.com/blog/the-racial-caste-system-in-sports/

    The ruthless discrimination against Whites in College and Pro-Sports.

    Support this blog on PatreonSupport this blog on Substack
    Support this blog via Patreon or Substack
  151. Q. Shtik February 7, 2016 at 10:50 pm #

    Let’s try one more time, just for fun, to see if we can demonstrate, yet again, the phenomenon of belief perseverance: – Doug

    ================

    I have a better idea, lets talk about the huge new Ford facility that will be built in Mexico over the next two years because Mexican labor is 1/5th (YES, just 20%) the cost of American labor.

    • Q. Shtik February 7, 2016 at 10:57 pm #

      Auto giant Ford is planning a new assembly plant south of the U.S. border, the Wall Street Journal reported Sunday, and will sharply increase factory output from Mexico just months after signing a labor deal.

      Citing people familiar with the matter, The Journal reported that Ford will add half a million units of annual capacity from Mexico starting in 2018, which is double the amount it built in 2015. The new assembly complex will be based in An Luis Potosi, and Ford will expand an existing facility near Mexico City, the publication added.

      The move may heighten the debate over cheaper foreign labor. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Manufacturing labor costs in Mexico are approximately 1/5 of those in the United States. In November, Ford signed a new labor contract that gave factory workers higher wages.

  152. Q. Shtik February 7, 2016 at 11:12 pm #

    Did anyone see Chris Christie expose Marco Rubio as nothing more than a windup talking doll in last night’s GOP debate? – Buck

    ==============

    WHAT?! Does wpa know about this? Is that tub of lard still around? I thought that lezzy was supposed to have put him behind bars a year ago wearing a XXX orange jump suit.

  153. BackRowHeckler February 7, 2016 at 11:48 pm #

    16 murdered in Chicago — City of Big Shoulders — already this month. Interestingly enough, only 9 of those killed were shot, the rest stabbed. The blade is being resorted to more and more as firearms get harder to obtain. That’s the lesson learned here in the Constitution State, with some of the most restrictive gun laws in the US.

    Any street riots in Denver tonite?

    Q, did you see the video of the ‘knock out game’ assault in Patterson, NJ? I understand the TV stations are showing it down there. A man is on a street corner, undersized, looks like he might be handicapped in some way, sometimes you see adults in Hartford on the streets, carrying little bags, moving around the city trying to make it on their own, what we used to call ‘retarded’, ‘God’s Children’ in other words, gentle souls who trust anybody and everybody. He’s approached by a young negro who towers over him, you hear shouting and cackling in the background, the negro says something to him, then sucker punches the poor man with an enormous powerful roundhouse, sending him sprawling onto the sidewalk, out cold. What, didn’t see it on CNN? The elegant little NY queer Anderson Cooper didn’t run with it on his cable TV program? This reminds me of the incident in the north end of Hartford in the 90s, when a retarded 12 year old boy, a member of the last white family in the neighborhood, living with his elderly grandparents, got off his bus at the wrong stop and was beaten to death by a gang of about 8 ‘Youts’, the boy crying out for his grandmother while he was being stomped bloody?

    The day’s coming when we won’t be putting up with this anymore. Its been happening for a long time but now its being recorded and can’t be hidden any longer.

    brh

    • Q. Shtik February 8, 2016 at 1:08 am #

      Q, did you see the video of the ‘knock out game’ assault in Patterson, NJ? – BRH

      ==============

      Just Googled and watched it……disgusting.

  154. Q. Shtik February 8, 2016 at 7:53 am #

    The wife and I went to the movies on Saturday night and saw Hail Caesar. I can’t recall a movie as dull since “A Most Violent Year” in 2014 which was really really incredibly bad. My advice: Stay home and save $20. As an alternative check out a Netflix TV series titled Master of None starring Aziz Ansari……very clever and funny.

  155. Q. Shtik February 8, 2016 at 8:23 am #

    For what it’s worth, and if correlation were causation (it’s not), the Broncos Super Bowl win suggests a down (possibly bear) market for the balance of the year. This so-called “Super Bowl Indicator” (Google the definition) has an 81% accuracy record. If this morning’s futures market – down big time – means anything the indicator is once again looking good.

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  156. info11 July 19, 2016 at 5:46 am #

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