JHK’s Three-Act Play
Looking every inch the Assistant Manager of a J.C. Penny, Rick Perry of Texas stepped on-board the touring evangelical freak show that the Republican pre-primary parade has turned into. I like to think of him as George W. Bush without all the encumbering intellect. I give it three months before media snoops catch him in bed with Michele Bachmann. The two of them will claim it was all right because Jesus was there as chaperone and anyway, “…alls we did was watch the Vikings-Cowboy game….”
Oh these sons and daughters of the high corn! Make no mistake (to borrow a favorite war cry from the presidential cheat sheet), both of these heartland bozos are dumb enough to lead America straight into the graveyard of failed states. Imagine a summit between Rick Perry and whoever succeeds Hu Jintao – the incredulous side-glances of the Chinese leader and his interpreter when Mr. Perry presents the official gift from our nation: a miniature Bible made by the inmates at Stringfellow State Prison and “prayed over by qualified preachers twenty-four hours a day!” Or how about Michele Bachmann and Vlad Putin. I’d sooner watch a gerbil in a terrarium with a King Cobra.
Meanwhile, the other day poor Mitt Romney tried to explain to a crowd of Iowa hot-heads that “corporations are people!” Wasn’t that just the right thing to say to folks whose employment opportunities have dwindled down to eviscerating chickens on an assembly line or humping boxes on the WalMart loading dock for $8 an hour. He was heckled mercilessly. I don’t see how a candidate recovers from that kind of caught-on-camera mockery – but then again, in a culture that has no shame, just about anything goes.
One thing I’d really like to know about the Republican party, though: if they’re so all-fired up about fiscal rectitude and the honest disposition of money, and stuff like that, then how come not a single one of these dissembling ninnies has suggested the investigation and prosecution of the entire Wall Street matrix of swindling grifters – including the officials who rotate between the too-big-to-fail banks and the regulatory agencies like the SEC and the CFTC and all the other utterly failed official watchdogs who stood by whistling Dixie while the future of this country was blatantly sold down the river?
Of course, nobody on the Democratic side asks anything similar of President Obama as he hops from fundraiser to fundraiser. I’d like to know why the fuck the president is even out campaigning more than a year before the election. And hasn’t the mainstream news media noticed that there’s something a little peculiar about a cycle of perpetual election with no governing in between? I suppose everything is show business now, though I don’t expect this aberrant and very dangerous behavior to persist, because virtually all the major operations of the supposedly civilized, “developed” world are veering into a state of obvious failure.
The global financial system is wobbling on its pyramid-tip of debt. Europe is trapped. The members of the currency union can’t make good on what they owe and neither can they surrender their independence to some jerry-rigged extra-national authority. At stake is the European banking system and the post-World War Two amity that allowed the region to become the lovely tourist theme park we lately know it as. They are running out of tricks for pretending that debts can revolve forever, and as this occurs the fear rises that the whole lovely thing will bust apart in mob violence, revolution, and maybe even armed conflict between people who don’t hold their forks the same way. England is not even in the Euro currency club but five decades of rather feckless immigration policy have resolved into something that looks an awful lot like race war. God knows what the French are thinking, with their own massive immigrant slum population ringing Paris.
Anyway, whatever happens around Europe in the months to come, trouble with its banks is sure to blow back into the American ones, which are hopelessly entangled in Europe’s obligations, not to mention skeins of supposed “insurance” swaps contracts primed for ignition at the slightest flap of a black swan’s wing that could propel the likes of Lloyd Blankfein’s cappuccino machine from an upper floor at 200 West Street, NYC, through the roof, clear to planet Uranus. At least we’d have a space program again.
Surely a lot of European and American officials just want to escape to the seashore for the last two weeks of this punishing month and soak their heads in the surf – perhaps a few will decide to not come back up for air. President Obama will enjoy the briny vapors out on Martha’s Vineyard, and maybe even splash around in the wimpy waves there. I’ll enjoy the thought of him tying into a clam roll. And now to check how the markets are doing this opening day of the week….
This blog is sponsored this week by Vaulted, an online mobile web app for investing in allocated and deliverable physical gold. To learn more visit:Kunstler.com/vaulted
New Paintings from the 2022 Season
Barrel Racers, Cambridge, NY
The Jeff Greenaway series of novellas. These rollicking, short books depict the misadventures of an eleven-year-old boy growing up in New York City in the early 1960s
Other Books by JHK
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As the Greatest Depression grinds ever onward, it never ceases to amaze that people continue to believe that the “Recovery” is surely just around the corner, and that we will all soon be returning to the happy expansionist lifestyle of money for nothing and chicks for free.
So many people just will not accept the idea that their “lifestyle” has been permanently downgraded, and that the best thing to do is to adapt to the new reality. And that this same reality is going to grind ever downward, so that the sooner we start shrinking our “needs” and “expectations”, the better we will be able to adjust.
FIRST!
Damn it 2nd…
This is a great article from the Harvard Business Review. He is talking about the riots in the UK but it applies to a lot of the Western World. Here are some good excerpts.
The Great Splintering
http://blogs.hbr.org/haque/2011/08/the_great_splintering.html
For much of the previous economic boom, the bargain on offer in modern Britain could have been abbreviated something like: “Want not merely to get rich — but to get richest, fastest? Then loot, plunder, and enjoy the rewards of conquest.” (Consider the eye-popping bonuses for bankers just after the economy went into meltdown.) It was a recipe not for prosperity, but for fragmentation and decline; less a social contract than a sociopathic compact. And though the rioters are guilty of much — and that deserves nothing less than the iron fist of the law — I wonder if, perhaps, the crime inside their crime wasn’t perversely, insidiously following the hideous logic of this sociopathic compact through to the fatal end.
But the superstorm’s a global one, not just a cloudburst over Camden Lock. From Tahrir Square to Syntagma Square to Puerta del Sol Square, social upheaval’s spreading — sometimes in droplets, sometimes in floods, sometimes placidly, sometimes…not so placidly. Each example is very different from the others. Yet, the underlying ruptures might be said to be similar: What happens when a nation willfully ignores perhaps the most fundamental lesson of economics, and hopes rent-seeking will equal real prosperity? This does. What happens when a nation either loses, or prevents, a stabilizing middle class? This does. What happens when a government — any government — gets so out of touch with the governed? This does.
Our institutions are failing — they’re failing us; failing the challenge of igniting real, lasting human prosperity. If institutions are just instruments to fulfill social contracts, then ours are shattering because the social contracts at their hearts have fractured.
I call it a Great Splintering — not purely an economic phenomenon, as in “Great Contraction,” but a social one: an era when social contracts are being torn up, abrogated, betrayed, abandoned, by accident, by design, by “regulatory capture,” or simply by polities too gridlocked to progress. Broken social contracts aren’t just tidy abstractions, empty of visibly real consequences, disconnected from the noise and clamor of our messy human lives. As they break, yesterday’s ways of living, working, and playing rupture; yesterday’s organizations, from corporations to banks to nations, creak and crack.
The floundering in Iowa is just another symptom that no one has any idea which way to go now, and the default way is done.
Visit the Leibowitz Society at http://leibowitzsociety.blogspot.com/2011/08/expiration-dates.html for information and commentary on the coming dark age, how to prepare, and how to preserve our important knowledge and ideas.
“One thing I’d really like to know about the Republican party, though: if they’re so all-fired up about fiscal rectitude and the honest disposition of money, and stuff like that, then how come not a single one of these dissembling ninnies has suggested the investigation and prosecution of the entire Wall Street matrix of swindling grifters – including the officials who rotate between the too-big-to-fail banks and the regulatory agencies like the SEC and the CFTC and all the other utterly failed official watchdogs who stood by whistling Dixie while the future of this country was blatantly sold down the river?”
BECAUSE those “candidates” campaigns are financed by the grifters with the very $$$$ they stole and are stealing from this very nation. You don’t bite the hand that feeds you, and a good servant does not question its master….
On an aside – I LOVED the JCP reference to Rick Perry…. That made my AM :>)
Good hopelessness! Also, Vlad will certainly have an especially entertaining week with the race war in the UK thing. Kind of like early punks with giant orange mohawks screaming “no future!”. But then Prince Charles and the future Queen inside of whose skivvies Charles attempted to live were assaulted by a mob in their Rolls so the end must be nigh. And as you admonished us last week we can no longer expect Wallmart to run on algae, so I guess we’re all fucked this time.
#COAL, #FRACKING, and #SUSTAINABILITY were all trending worldwide this morning… promising to see the worlds thought collective on something other than Justin Bieber or Jersey Shore…
Sold more solar than I can install this year last week! Pallets and Pallets of panels arriving today…
Speaking of Politics RON PAUL caught my attention again…
And in general:
Curb your Energy Addiction.
Be extremely efficient. Enjoy it.
Grow Food.
Cheers Clusterfuckers.
PUSH ON. DO GOOD. KEEP SMILING.
Anyone catch the 60 Minutes “poor overtaxed corporations” plug last night? Seems as if companies won’t do business in the US because they’re SO overtaxed, yet are more than happy to take government corporate welfare and handouts that we the people pay for.
Some seriously effed up crap that “newspiece” was. Couldn’t tell who sponsored it or what its aim was….
not…….
The dreaded election cycle has begun yet again, who will be the “lesser of two evils” this time around? Here’s an interesting rant about our two equally worthless political parties: http://www.lesswaiting.com/debt-crisis.shtml
if they’re so all-fired up about fiscal rectitude and the honest disposition of money, and stuff like that, then how come not a single one of these dissembling ninnies has suggested the investigation and prosecution of the entire Wall Street matrix of swindling grifters
Because their primary goal is to stop Obama – no matter what it costs. Luntz and crew correctly identified that if Obama were able to pitch himself as the second coming of FDR, the GOP would be locked out of power for another half century. As a result, they’re betting the farm on obstructionism – if they have to destroy America to keep Obama from “winning” then that is a price that we’ll have to pay (the rich will just flee to some other country). The only politician that would fix the problem is Ron Paul and he’s shut out of the media by what is looking more and more like a conspiracy of silence to me.
The reason that none of the political parties are willing to seriously investigate Wall Street is because both major parties are in bed with Wall Street; sucking at the teat of Plutonomy.
If you want some entertainment, look for Citigroup’s Plutonomy reports where they claimed back in 2005/6 that there was no middle class anymore: just plutocrats and “little people”. You, me, we’re just little people and we don’t count for beans in this world anymore.
Just what we need another tejas governor! On a brighter note we had a fabulous concert of local musicians over the weekend celebrating what would have been Dan fogelberg’s 60th birthday. This morning a big order of my hearts of gold cantaloupe to the local college! LOCALIZE!
James, you marvel that no one, Republican or Democrat, has spoken about arresting the thieves of Wall Street. Oh, could it be that the Corporate-Banking Global Oligarchs own our government? And these presidential candidates are nothing more than shadow puppets in scripted play. I know how you mock “conspiracy theorists”; but you have to admit something stinks in the corridors of power. We the people have become irrelevant spectators to the political process.
If all it takes to make Mrs. Bachmann run for the proverbial hills is a self-righeously loud-mouthed high-school kid, it is highly unlikely that she is even remotely any sort of presidential material.
When it comes to Obama, I have to question his campaigning as well. I heard this AM that he’s off on another bus trip or such. WTF? Perhaps the truth is that, like the rest of our political “class,” (boy, is that a contradiction…) he just feels a lot more comfy making specious speeches than he does ACTUALLY GOVERNING.
Besides, four more years of Obama would do what, exactly, for us? I fear the right wing Nexus of Nutballs as much as the next guy, but the choices seem only to be bad…or worse.
“Rick Perry, Assistant Manager of the Religious Notions Department.”
Proud member of the Hillbilly Theocracy.
If Kunstler is right about Perry’s lack of intellect, that is actually a GOOD THING.
My impression of Perry over some years is that the guy is a New World Order booster. Merge the US into a global authoritarian superstate, at the expense of civil and economic rights for Americans.
But perhaps he is a lot dumber than I give him credit for, in which case he is also less of a threat.
I remember when CFN used to say oil was headed to $200/barrel due to… well, due to conditions of war, weather, and economic uncertainty exactly like what we have now.
Yet the Wall Street Journal says this:
The price used to be well over a $100/barrel.
Oil is a finite resource in an uncertain world… and the price goes down?
As to arresting the banksters:
The vast majority of the destructive financial transactions they engaged in were legal.
What is disturbing, however, is that the politicians refuse to illegalize those.
And although I believe on most issues the Democrats are worse than the Republicans, on wall street reform the Republicans are worse than the Democrats.
Catching up on the weekend news this morning, I was introduced to Gov. Rick Perry. He spoke and George W. Bush the sequeal appeared. He governs Texas?
The pre-game bio has Gov. Rick Perry coming from small means (his Dad was a tenant farmer or some such), earned a degree in Animal Husbandry from Texas A & M, and retired(?) as an Air Force CPT.
Humble beginnings, education, and career offer impressive “of the people, by the people” credentials. But verily I say unto you, he thumpeth the Bible loudly. We know how this ends. Mr. Kuntsler’s premonition will be correct. Gov. Perry will be caught “Taking Care of Business” when Bachman puts his Turner in Overdrive.
Thanks JHK, great column this week. Yeah, poor Mitt Romney with the “corporations are people”. Stick a fork in him. Speaking of forks:
> and maybe even armed conflict between people who don’t hold their forks the same way
Does seem like those world wars did solve a lot of economic problems… Maybe Germany is thinking the third time is the charm?
asoka:
Peak Oil believers predict a long-term trend of much higher oil prices, accompanied by a great deal of volatility in the shorter term. As a believer in Peak Oil, the recent price decline is no surprise.
In contrast, however, I believe the low domestic price of natural gas may persist for a long time, since contrary to some Peak Oil believers I do believe the unconventional (shale gas) discoveries made in this decade are big and will delay peak natural gas for 2 or 3 decades. (and may delay the Long Emergency, assuming our national IQ hasn’t dropped so low we don’t even have the intelligence to convert to natural gas vehicles.
As to hypotheses that Bachmann and Perry may have an affair.
One supporting argument would be Bachmann’s husband.
I am astounded that Bachmann would marry such a loser. The guy is ugly as hell and is an utter idiot.
Bachmann, in contrast, is good looking, has a respectable career as a tax accountant, and her only main liability relationship-wise is that a lot of guys would probably be wary of marrying a political blowhard.
Still, she should have done a whole lot better than landing that absolute loser of a husband. It is hard to imagine someone married to such a loser not longing for something a little better.
The funniest thing that I have read about Rick Perry and Michelle Bachman was someone musing whether it is too soon to start the Ken and Barbie jokes. His J.C. Penney wardrobe undermines that comparison.
I find Michelle Bachman scarier than Sarah Palin.
i miss the days when politicians used to have a set on ’em .
such as when nelson rockefeller flipped off the crowd in binghamton ,ny .
“I give it three months before media snoops catch him in bed with Michele Bachmann.”
Oh please oh please oh please.
Jim, you are in fine form and high-corn today. The metaphor of the Gerbil and King Cobra is even better. My gawd, how the halls of the Kremlin will echo with roars of laughter over raised glasses of Vodka as a bigger doofus than W takes the oath of office.
One thing about the Ruskies…never count them out. They not only know how to suffer in silence but how to make others suffer, period. They endured the blitzkrieg and moved their production back 1000 miles out of reach of the Luftwaffe. They sacrificed millions to do so, and until America, land of fatty fat in his SUV, double-chin wagging to Rush’s every word, I suspect that the Russian still have that moral fiber to defend the Rodina.
Putin is a canny man. He’ll never forget the humiliation of the USSR and will enjoy rewarding the “victor” of that contest in any way he can. And considering Russia’s abundant (if peaked) oil and noose of natural gas that he dangles around the Europeans’ necks, Old Crazy Ivan has all the persuasion he needs.
Makes you want to sign up to be a thug for Vlad, doesn’t it? Of course, you could just wait and lead a mob against the likes of Romney, once the jeers turn to fists and broken bottles. The Mob always needs leaders….better to rouse the rabble than be trampled by it.
Should have been “unlike America.” Damn that morning vodka!
Surely there must have been something in the UK “riots” that JHK could have interjected into his essay. He could have said something about tattoos, or plasma screen TV envy. At least he makes a good point about the culpability of “the suits” in our recent economic failures. Prime Minister Cameron’s “plan” to completely revamp all of Britain’s “culture” seems laughable considering the examples of the world’s tax-evading, money-laundering millionaires, not to mention British MPs who routinely abused their positions for personal gains. Why can’t rioters rise up against the suits? I fear, just like in our country. the bread & circuses of modern life are too much a distraction and desire for “the little people.” The cultural capital of having lots of “stuff” far outweighs the cultural capital of intelligence, literacy, health, and compassion. Until we can re-define the value of cultural capital, what good are “morals?”
I happened upon something called The Warrior Dash this weekend. Grown ups were dressed in costumes as they ran through an obstacle course in the Catskill Mountains.
Our mobs know how to get down and dirty in the mud and the muck. Unlike the roving mobs of the English underclass.
I drank myself into a micro brew haze and why the fuck we can’t get 25,000 people to rally around a worthwhile cause.
Do you think that adding costume contests to political protests would aide the turnout?
Aimlow Joe was here
http://www.aimlow.com
The Rockefellers have been flipping off the American People for well over a century, and I don’t find it charming.
“I give it three months before media snoops catch him in bed with Michele Bachmann.”
That might actually help Governor Goodhair. The rumor is that he likes men. Of course, quite a few say the same thing about Mr. Bachmann, too.
“both of these heartland bozos are dumb enough to lead America straight into the graveyard of failed states.”
All these corn references and nothing about how both of these would make for good “corn pone fascists” because both are openly theocratic. After all, when fascism comes to the United States, it will be wrapped in a flag and carrying a cross, something both do? Of course, you don’t go for the easy joke, such as how Madame Representative looked biting onto a foot-long corn dog. Do her eyes roll back like that every time she bites into something long and fleshy? The men who drool over Sarah Palin would like to know.
“And now to check how the markets are doing this opening day of the week….”
Continuing the third day of a rally off the dead cat bounce of the last half hour of Tuesday followed by the collapse of Wednesday, that’s what. Over at Crazy Eddie’s Motie News, I called that “The Mother of all Dead Cat Bounces” and the subsequent rally “A dead cat bouncing on a rubber floor.” Three days is a bit long for a dead cat bounce, however, but it does make for a good sucker rally.
I covered a lot of the stock market and oil market activity last week at Crazy Eddie’s Motie News, including the terrible day that was Black Tea Monday, along with some encouraging news, such as support for extending Detroit’s planned light rail line out to the suburbs, and some food porn. Pretty pictures of Jell-O, anyone?
http://crazyeddiethemotie.blogspot.com/
You read Huxley’s Brave New World, right? Then you have the plutocrats’ game-plan: keep the little people supplied with cheap goodies and fatten them up. They’ll never come for you or even remember that there once was a “middle class.”
Especially when they cannot chase you in those baggy, low-rise cargo shorts with looted bottles of vodka in each side pocket.
“Bread and circuses” worked for the Romans…until it didn’t.
Nice to hear Warren Buffet denounce the plutocrats today. See the NYT Opinion pages. He notes how little he pays in taxes. Maybe we can make him King!
I heard some blowhards on C-SPAN radio discussing the Perry “corporations are people” line — and they didn’t think it was a “big deal.” “After all, he was just telling the truth.” one of them said in support….
OK….yea…
But what I heard (and others, I’m sure) was the sheer “corporate-ness” of his outburst. He sounded EXACTLY like corporate businessmen I’ve had the displeasure of being around over these many years. His unbridled hubris was just spilling over. He might just as well said eff-you; ’cause that’s what he was thinking.
But it was monstrously stupid in terms of politics…if we are still playing by the old rules, which, as Jim hints at, we probably aren’t. The people of NOLA still think serial philandering prick David Vitter is a fine Christian man and deserves to represent them in “the world’s most august deliberative body.”
My head spins anymore…
Very, very funny article, JHK. Wish it wasn’t true! The economy has taken a beating but sadly, many people are unaware of how the stock market actually works. On May 6, 2010, Wall Street experienced a Flash Crash that sent the market plunging down 1,010 points in an instant. It took the SEC investigators months to determine that a single firm in the Midwest had inadvertantly caused the crash. Today’s volatility has been created by the same high frequency trades using algorithms that automatically trade/re-sell/cancel orders in a micro-second. Which explains the wild point swings that occurred last week. High frequency trades are hugely profitable for a few (like Hedge Funds).
The figures for new unemployment claims are up and down depending upon what week you’re looking at. Everything changes all the time. Last week, a barrel of crude was below $81 but refined gas at the pump was $3.79 per gallon. Europe is struggling with debt problems (caused primarily by the real estate fiasco) and may suffer from more toxic investments coming to light. Foreclosures are currently down but may ramp up at any moment. Who can stop the madness? Can President Obama order everyone to stop being greedy and behave? Of course not. Then he’d be a dictator! Capitalism involves a few, lucky people getting the most of what they can and the rest of us just have to take our lumps. Welcome to the hard reality of Capitalism.
Possibly the only way to get out of this mess is with Campaign Reform — i.e. no more PACs, SuperPACS, and of course legislate out Citizens United. Not going to happen of course. Too many politicians are supported by campaign donations but if we could remove the blood flow of cash to these vampires, we might get some decent candidates instead of batshit crazy Michelle Bachmann/Rick Perry. Until then we will continue to spiral ever downward. And even with all his good intentions, Mr. Obama has no chance at fixing the world’s economic mess. Too many Tea Baggers to see to that.
Asoka, I refer you to theoildrum.com for more info on Peak Oil.
If you study the info, you will find that world wide oil production “peaked” a few years ago, with some fields going into marked decline (Mexico, for ex). Saudi Arabian (SA) production increases have barely made up for declines in other OPEC sources.
So we are on a ‘plateau’ of oil production that goes up and down, but the overall trend is down. Prices are falling as demand also falls – that is if no one will pay $100+/bbl, then it falls to whatever someone will actually pay.
Also, producers are now including other liquids in overall production that didn’t used to be counted, so thus SA looks like it has actually increased oil production, but is now including LNG.
Prices are tending to overall rise on the long term.
Dee
“I LOVED the JCP reference to Rick Perry”
On her blog “The World’s Most Dangerous Beauty Salon,” Juanita Jean called Rick Perry “The Dollar Store Version of George Bush.” J.C. Penney’s would be a couple steps up from that. She also said, “Intelligence has the same effect on Rick Perry as daylight does on Dracula.” Let’s hope so.
All sides of the political spectrum have entered a positive feed back loop of ill repute.
As if Putin or the Chinese oligarchs do not laugh at Obama and his grifters, please.
Personally I laugh at the American left’s notion that they can fund a vast welfare state that produces nothing but flash mobs. See the Kansas City papers for the latest and greatest action by a Democratic voting bloc.
Now let me ask you fine deep thinkers including Jim, what do you have against a bible thumper politician telling his/her flock to put their heads down and produce “wealth” and hence tax dollars? Do you wish them not to produce wealth and not to support the welfare state or Jim’s crusading warfare state?
“I’d like to know why the fuck the president is even out campaigning more than a year before the election.”
***
Probably the best sentence you’ve written in the last 5 years. But some of us have been on to you for a while and remember that you were one of the clowns cheering for the Magic Mulatto in 2007 and 2008. You bought the whole “change you can belie’n” rap. How’s that workin fer’ya, Bruh?
Gasoline is headed towards $3.00. The market is back to where it was before last week’s panic and only about level with 6 months ago. The debt “crisis” has been averted.
Nothing much to write about this week, huh? Should have gone with the tattoos and shants again.
I guess it’s gonna be a really, really, really long, long, long, long emergency.
Have you seen Planet of the Apes yet?
Morning Jim and all,
Well the Michelle Bachman thing is really just great isn’t it, deliciously ridiculous, the woman is a bonafide idiot. Please note she has been caught on video stating that she wants to criminalize( ? cameras in every bedroom maybe?) masturbation in the US and further more states masturbation is really adultery( huh?). You just can’t make this shit up! I am sure Putin would approach this nut with every precaution should she be elected to the presidency, as such brainless idiots are truly dangerous. But really watching any such meeting between the two would be hilarious, I’m not sure Vlad would be able to hide his mocking contempt of the woman, he would probably be choking on giggles and snorts any time Miss Brainless opened her piehole
Meanwhile Ron Paul is steadily building his political support base while being studiously ignored in the mainstream media. Look for his interviews on RT or in other alternative media sites, they cover him very well. He speaks very plainly about many issues, eschewing typical political doublespeak, and I don’t think the guy can be bought( I hope). Although I must admit his son is a bit of a disappoinment.
Yah Mitt Romney got “shellacked” with his corporations are people nonsense. Makes the heart warm with delight to know that people aren’t buying that bullshit being peddled by the Supremes and the very rich. He needs to take that paricular piece of chutzpa and stick it where the sun don’t shine.
And in the real world 5 more soldiers killed in Afghanistan last week and 5 killed in Indiana at the state fair. Fukushima continues to smolder and belch radiation with no end in sight. Officials in Japan are making plans to move government out of Tokyo just “in case” as the evacuation of Japan continues to limp along in dribbles and drabs. The news has broken that in the last decade the Pentagon has “lost track” of 10 trillion dollars, and not a peep out of either political party demanding that the generals account for any of that money. Are we surprised by any of this, nope, just business as usual. So the Depression grinds on and we try to get through it as best we can.
Nice weeks work, JHK, thanks!
And I’m liking the humor, gallows humor though it may be. Picture Perry and Bachman in bed together with a ABC news crew providing coverage. Then add in Jesus as a chaperone*, per your suggestion. But, let’s go ahead and put a King Cobra and a gerbil in the bed with them.
Funny Stuff!
And the discussion thread is off to a good start. Solar Guy – always a pleasure to hear from you how Peak Everything is catching the attention of people in everyday life – and hopefully making you a little money as you “push on and do good.” Do you have a website? Or absent that, do you have a FAVORITE website for supplies and information?
Sometimes we wonder how long this internet thingy will keep working – but let’s not be shy about using it while it does.
Isjogren – couple of good ideas from you, too.
And someone has already posted on the bizarre mystery of how Ron Paul can’t gain traction with the RW faction of the Republican Party that makes the presidential nominating decision. Do YOU have a favorite Ron Paul website that proves he’s not a nut? Right now he’s got my vote – but mainly because he’s not Bachman, Romney, or that other guy(s).
You would think that 300,000,000 people – mostly with internet access – could force a better choice that Romney/Bachman/Perry/Other guy vs. Obama.
All those people just need to wake up and use this internet for something besides porn/gambling/banking. Easy, right??
Was hoping for more on the British riots this morning but I guess with the big republican party going on an event that wasn’t about the USA, no matter how startling, didn’t stand a chance.
Here in Upper Canada we had the chance to watch the British Parliament on TV debating the riots and proposed cuts to police services in Britain. After watching that for an hour I was ready to riot myself. It was sickening to watch these over fed politicians from both parties denounce the rioters and declare, one by one, that there was no possible justification for it and that swift and harsh punishment must be meted out.
I think it’s simplistic to conclude it’s just a race thing, it’s much more than that. It’s poverty, and it’s hopelessness. It’s a cold awareness that there is no future for them in the 21st century. In this they differ from many of the American have-nots, who only seem to want more beer and burgers, more parties, and don’t correctly see the enemy. In Britain they are more aware of that, and thus, more angry. I’d say they are considerably more politically aware than Americans and not so likely to buy into a so-called populist idiot candidate like Bachmann or Perry. They’d see them for what they are and not be fooled. Part of their anguish is the recognition that no politician from any party speaks for them or cares about them. They know they’ve been abandoned, declared redundant by the new economy that doesn’t need them now.
Yeah, punish the hell out of them, that’ll show’em, and those hooligans will just stop all that foolishness and go to work in a bank instead. Sure. It’s clear listening to the politicians that none of them has ever wanted for anything, has ever gone to bed hungry, has ever looked in vain for a non existent job. Their charmed little lives have not prepared the politicians for the grim reality lived by so many of their citizens, and they only plan to make it much worse with the drastic proposed cuts they are inflicting on ordinary people.
While there was much to be scared of, the most frightening was the threats to shut down social media outlets somehow so people couldn’t get the word out, couldn’t communicate. For believers in the right to free speech anywhere, this should set off alarm bells. How is that different from China’s actions to control the internet?
It would be instructive for Clusterfuck Nation to spread its gaze beyond the US borders and talk about the effects of the failing global economy elsewhere. What happens there will happen here too, and we may be able to at least learn from what happens in other places. Whether we like it or not, North America is part of the rest of the world, we are not an island unto ourselves.
“I heard some blowhards on C-SPAN radio discussing the Perry “corporations are people” line”
That was Romney. Perry shoots coyotes. However, if that line also sticks to Perry, that’s fine by me.
Just the same, that moment was an example of a true gaffe, which is when a politician says what they really believes in public. Of all the GOP candidates, he’s the one who should least be saying that, as he’s the most corporate of the bunch, which includes the CEO of Godfather’s Pizza. The best way to cause a damaging scandal is for your enemies to create a negative narrative about you, then do something that reinforces it. That moment was a perfect example of doing just that.
What’s going on in Europe is a very mild version of what we are in for in the US; both in terms of bankster collapse and social collapse. Soon, very soon, in the US, the disenfranchised classes will come to the suburban neighborhoods of those who pretend they are wealthy (but in reality owe more than they will ever be able to pay off). This will occur after the aforementioned disenfranchised have burned and looted their own neighborhoods; they will focus their anger and angst on the pseudo wealthy (not knowing the difference between them and the real thing), and they will begin to realize that there is more “stuff” to take in the suburbs, with literally no one with courage to oppose them, and they will come, in gangs. (The situation in London shows that humans devolve into gangs, quite rapidly during crisis). The more civilized and effeminate among the suburbanites will be the first to give up their “stuff” and die along with their families. After the BMW country club types are dead and gone, the real civil war will begin.
BTW: its all been seen many times before: Sarajevo, Croatia, Albania, Cambodia, etc, ad nauseum. And the US will be no exception, despite the american exceptionalism claimed by the lkes of Palin and their ilk.
Lock and load, if you can.
Wardoc
Heard a familiar-sounding story the other day: when Dubya was on the press plane having vacated the office of governor of Texas to run for (or become) President, with Perry taking over his duties, W went out to the press crew and told them, “Y’all think I’m dumb, wait till you get a load of the next guy.”
Anyone here know how to confirm this story?
Two Questions:
1) If Jesus was running for President, would you vote for him?
2) If Jesus was from Texas, would you vote for him?
Good morning Clusterfuckers!
I hope we can all agree that our 2 Party system has collapsed. It’s been taken over by the rich and corporations and “we” the rest of the people need to stop torching each other and figure out what “we” agree on and start doing something about it.
We’re not going to find that agreement through these chuckleheads that are offered up by either Party. So let’s get to work!
“Anyone here know how to confirm this story?”
****
It’s not true. It’s a joke David Letterman told.
Big dick Rick the prick pretty boy Perry. I’ll hold my nose and vote for him. He at least seems more effective than Obama. Some of the things he has done pissed me off, but you can’t govern for ten years without pissing someone off. If you don’t make someone mad your probably not accomplishing anything. THe religious aspect seems to me to have just cropped up. I really don’t understand the fear of Christianity. it is after all the foundation of our culture wether you are a believer or not. I never go to church and i am not uncomfortable with it. I hate the denial of some facts of nature, but the left has denialism in it’s ‘religion’ also.
Does anyone really believe that so called “elections” have anything to do with reality?
Does anyone really believe that it matters whether we have a pseudo educated magic mullato in the white house or a semi-retarded hick?
WAke up people, the PTB put various people in the whitehouse to run whatever agenda is on the front burner at the time. Its that simple.
BTW, the allusion to Perry’s looking like a JC Penney’s manager was brilliant; that association is absolutely right on and it shows the nature of the people pretending to run Amerika. It is also, I am sorry to say, indicative of what the average amerikan wants in their leaders.
Wardoc
It’s always fun to start the week reading the squeals of the chi-chi’s who hate the Christian religion, the American South and the Republican Party. This week, their fear of Rick Perry is palpable. Let’s see, he’s accused of being stupid, homosexual, cheap and lustful of one of his opponents. This must mean that the New England chi-chi’s are worried about the man, and well they should be. As their President and Party implode, a righteous populist from Bushland just might eat their lunch. Not that it makes much difference. It’s just fun to listen to them squeal.
I would have to agree with Bubblehead here. Vlad’s fire has been utterly kindled with this week’s post! Time to head back to the garden I guess;)
But before I go I just thought I’d slip in a link to my blog post this week. I actually did spend the week soaking in the surf, on the Gulf beach at the Alabama-Florida border. Pretty place, and I even managed to wrangle a day of bluewater fishing too.
Probably my last trip beyond sight of land. Here’s why:
http://smallbatchgarden.blogspot.com/2011/08/strangest-thing.html
Cheers, my friends!
inflation does not affect you very much.
Inflation affects one’s life in proportion to
how much one consumes. -Eleuthero from near the end of last week’s thread.
===============
I can’t believe that someone as intelligent as E does not grasp the concept of inflation. If you had absolutely not one penny of savings nor even a coin in your pocket then “Inflation affects one’s life in proportion to how much one consumes” would be true. But if you have dollars you have not yet spent on consumption you are affected (ie harmed) by inflation. Those unused dollars are eroding as we speak.
Whether your dollars are in a bank account, a government bond or under your mattress you have made a financial decision. Inflation is an unrelenting menace to all but the utterly destitute.
Neon –
Thanks for the correction on Romney. Hey, it’s a gaffe within a gaffe! My brain is not working well this AM and I’m dizzy. Perhaps the effect of the Iowa poll…
Pilt
“I hope we can all agree that our 2 Party system has collapsed.”
****
Ummm. No. I think we can all agree that you are a moron, though.
This country looks a lot like it does 20 years ago and not a lot like England last week. Thank you for contributing nothing. Move along.
Perry’s wife is way better looking than Bachman even with the turner overdrive.
For all of his hilarious speculation regarding Bachman and Perry , JHK did not discount the possibility that either one of them might land in the White House. Which is probably a reasonable observation if one considers the following states: Ohio, Florida, Colorado. Chilling indeed for one who knows that the true power of a president resides not in moment by moment governing, but in their Supreme Court nominations.
One interesting sidebar (thorn) regarding Perry is illegal immigration. He once called Tom Tancredo a racist and he also touts a Texas law granting in-state tuition to illegal immigrants. And he opposes Arizona’s anti-illegal immigration law SB1070. This is not sitting well with the Tea Party. All in all he looks to be a GWB clone in terms of illegal immigration: small on border enforcement; big on courting cheap labor.
“….England is not even in the Euro currency club but five decades of rather feckless immigration policy have resolved into something that looks an awful lot like race war….”
you kinda lost me there JHK and that’s a pity as I was anticipating some of the usual about NASCAR and cheezdoodles. But I don’t think your glib one-liner about the UK is really based on any close monotoring of what unfolded there last week.- In fact it sounds a lot like the regurgitation of the far right “Enoch Powell Was Right” brigade who have been very visible in the chatboards. In reality even the most superficial glimpses of the press photographs of the rioters shows a LARGE number of white faces. 25%? 33%? I dunno. But that kinda puts paid to the “race riot” paradigm, doesn’t it? I mean the USA had real ‘race riots’ in the 60s, And you didn’t see white faces among the rioters. This was the real thing JHK: an eruption of class war. Surprised you couldn’t grasp that
But if you invest your eroding dollars in perennial, pro-creative life-support systems, with the goal of preserving your skin, and the skin of your good friends and family, then you will once again find yourself in a growth pattern of sorts, regardless of what’s happening to the formal economy. You should see my figs and peaches after a good hot season! Talk about inflation!
Just yesterday I wrapped up a whopping $15 (beyond salvaged materials) project that I’m calling the “Rabbimatic 2000 Rabbit Recycling Unit”. It consists of a standard rabbit hutch raised on sturdy legs that straddle the mounded beds in my garden. I feed them the greens – chicory, parsley, kale, and so forth – that grow below, and they fertilize the beds, creating a solar-powered rabbit factory. Good eats too. By this time next year I’m hoping to be able to do it without any imported rabbit chow.
Dear Christianistas –
It is not your religion we fear or rebuke, but the tendency of humans to use it as the ultimate excuse or “get out of jail free card,” as well as a way to separate yourselves from the “rest of us,” including atheists such as yours truly.
Saying, “I’m a Christian” has become code for a whole raft of other meanings. It says, “I’m not a Jew, I’m not a Catholic, I’m not a Muslim — and I’m better than all of you.” Saying, “I’m a Christian” says to your fellow travelers that you are in the same club and that you are “safe” to connect on that level.
What I find most frustrating is that you even use that term to refer to yourself — as if it imbues you with some degree of “specialness.”
And personally, I just find you mostly annoying, unctuous and utterly clueless. Stay in your mega-church — but stay out of my life….
And while our nation has Christian underpinnings, that mostly gets down to the “golden rule,” which is something we can all agree on, can’t we?
kun – this was good post…thought you had lost it there for awhile….you do keep beating your head against the wall trying to figure out why americans just ignore all this BS…?…easy answer..they are stupid!
there will not be a ‘save’…we will (already have?!) go off the cliff and nothing will stop us. thre really isnt any point in writing about it. what does it accomplish?
the fun part comes when we can laugh at the dead people in the street and point our finger and say..’i told you so…’
we were right and they were wrong….and we are both dead….hahahahahahaha!
Thanks — can you source that?
Consultant
I think you are right and I think that most people know that the “elected” congress critters really serve only the folks who bought and paid for them. See the latest disapproval ratings on congress, they approach 80% disapproval. Absolutely incredible, but how to get rid of the parasites? That’s the question, a whole new form of the political system needs to emerge, look at Iceland to see a good example. The people there absolutly demanded that their government not pay for the reckless incompetents that sunk the Icelandic banks. And they didn’t stop until they got what they wanted, now that country is prosecuting the criminal banksters and a new constitution is being written by a committee of 25 ordinary citizens. That’s enough to piss off the whole crminal class of lawyers and “lawmakers” isn’t it. Well Mark Twain said it best ” America is the only country to have a distinct criminal class, congress” some things just don’t change.
Really, it is too bad congress just doesn’t stay on vacation permanently, we would all be safer. The real fear is when congress comes back in session to legislate fresh austerity measures and increase their own already drastically inflated salaries. And of course not one word will be said about the criminal conduct of the financial class or about the monstrous military budget. Yup you can bet riots will occurr in North America also and govt will respond by cracking down on the unwashed masses. Take care all and be ready to duck when the mob shows up, cause it will be ugly.
You’re quite welcome. I’m sure Perry agrees with Romney deep down, but is too good a politician (even if he is a lousy governor) to ever let that slip.
Your absentee Daddy named you. How sweet.
As the day progresses on this site, people like Omar Booger get up from their drunken stupor and try to punch out something on this and many other blogs.
What happened Mr. Booger, county lock up not nice to you?
The garbage of society has nothing to say or offer. It’s too spent, too conflicted, too fucked up. All it knows how to do is drag down what it touches. Sort of like the idiots on Wall St.
By noon on this and many other blogs, you might as well cut off the comments.
Immigration was what aggravated me the most with Perry along with the trans-Texas corridor. The corridor project fortunately failed to pass.
The BBC and others are certainly dressing this up as a race riot. We know the BBC is the propaganda outlet for MI6 and the banking corporate aristocracy. But why would the banking corporate aristocracy, i.e. the gov mafia, be interested in turning this revolt against their unrestrained mass thieving and blatant class warfare into a race war between the unwashed masses? Why indeed.
Iceland has a homogeneous population(less than a million people?). it makes it a whole lot easier to change direction than this much larder complex country.
Your right on about the poor state of the politicians and the unending parties to raise money, or long winded speeches that mean nothing. The elections are all rigged. Obama is someones racehorse. The Republicans are like ken and barbie cartoon figures. Where is James Stewart when you need him?
There is something metaphorically rich about that corndog photo. I think most true Patriots would argue that corndogs rank fairly high in the “Our American Way of LIfe” list of comestibles, right up there with JHK’s favorites like cheese doodles and nachos dripping with orange plastic stuff.
A most hilarious missive from JHK on our retarded spectacle of electioneering, as it staggers along!
Then, unnoticed/skimmed by those who most fervently wished not to see it, is this golden nugget in the creek-bed:
“I suppose everything is show business now, though I don’t expect this aberrant and very dangerous behavior to persist, because virtually all the major operations of the supposedly civilized, “developed” world are veering into a state of obvious failure.” -JHK
Oh, there’s that, isn’t there.
BTW, those who believe in the existence of an “organized, political left” make me laugh the hardest. The propagandists have well and truly done a exemplary job in this regard! (In that it’s been deader than a proverbial doornail for about 30-35 years; wake me when you find some small enclave that yet survives as an entity of any clout whatsoever.)
If right-wingers/authoritarian dupes wish to find their enemies, I suggest gazing deeply into any reflective surface; after a few hours of intense concentration, an image of their true enemy may appear. (Yes, it is a bit of black magic, I’ll readily admit.)
I believe the term is actually “jury-rigged”. Not a reference to our corrupt and facile justice system, as one might suspect, but a term that refers to large sailing vessels that are rigged with temporary or “jury” mast and sails.
Not to be confused with “jerry-built”, a pejorative referring to cheap or shoddily produced goods.
Cheers,
Jerry
That about reflects most of my prognosis. Armies of serfs and debt-slaves, blinded by consumerist hallucinations, falling on one another in a frenzy of “revenge”, while the perpetrators quietly pack their royal treasures and slip into the night, leaving their retainers to defend the mansion against the approaching rabble.
In the present, squabbling about loss of lifestyle, political “saviors”, economic “recovery”, and a plethora of other distractions, masks the coming storm. That would be the WHOLE POINT, wouldn’t it?
The ‘Murkin-people ain’t seen shit yet, and who occupies the oval office of the warden of police-state FUSA is the very least of their worries. Support of the plutocrats interests from that quadrant is assured.
BTW, those who believe in the existence of an “organized, political left” make me laugh the hardest. The propagandists have well and truly done a exemplary job in this regard! (In that it’s been deader than a proverbial doornail for about 30-35 years; wake me when you find some small enclave that yet survives as an entity of any clout whatsoever.)
==
Shoosh! Don’t tell “EL TORO”. You might pop his bubble of self delusion. That idiot still believes everything he was taught in his “progressive” university indoctrination classes. Because as befits all idiots, he neglected to inquire as to who was sponsoring them “progressive” university indoctrination classes.
Rick Perry strikes me as more of a Sears kind of guy but, hey, anything goes, doesn’t it? The whole political landscape is a total mess for sure. Two highly polarized sides, dems and repubs that can’t agree on anything and our poor prez bouncing around the court with change we can’t believe in. Is that pocket change? With unemployment through the roof even that change is difficult to believe in.
By now our Founding Fathers must be turning (ah, spinning) in their graves at the pitiful shape this once great country has morphed into. Spinning in graves, um, is that a new source of renewable energy…..
On the bright side, I’m glad we have a really fine mayor!!! A mayor that actually gets (meaningful) things done and with whom you can sit down and discuss issues with, face to face, wow! Local is where it’s at!!!
Q said:
Q, I don’t have many dollars, but I got into the market for the first time ever in 2011.
My most recent portfolio statement shows the year-to-date return on my investment is 12.25% which does not jive with your assertion about the dollars I have not yet spent.
Of course, last week you criticized me for not understanding even basic concepts relating to USA Treasuries and gold.
I must understand something about finance. At least I am happy with my 12.25% earnings. Beats the inflation rate, I believe.
Rick Perry is already dead and does not know it.
When the Evangellies find out about Gaurdisal Vaccince they will freak out dump their boi and head over to the Bachmann camp in droves.
“both of these heartland bozos are dumb enough to lead America straight into the graveyard of failed states.” I would like to know who in the hell is smart enough keep us out of the graveyard? I see know one. The job is to big, to many problems, and what ever direction we head in won’t work out except a very short term. For Christ sake the oceans are dying. It is hopeless and useless to even try. Having fun is the only way to go. Or as they say fiddling while Rome burns. I know it won’t last forever but lighten up and enjoy your lifes. Good luck.
What I thought of Obama back in 2008 hasn’t been at all wrong insofar as the general effort at ruination of the country. So how could Perry do worse?
Granted that I raise an eyebrow at this apparently new-found “Come to Jesus” thing, but the man’s history in government is of favoring small businesses. That seems to be a rarity, nowadays, among politicians.
I’m not a Perry supporter, but he’s bound to better than what we’re stuck with now. That holds true for many of the wannabes, of course.
It’s clever and facile to natter about the Nascar Nation folks, but unless you’re an expert at all facets of home repair and maintenance of utilities, you need them worse than they need you.
Perry may get caught in bed with M. Bachmann, but it won’t be Michele.
“I would have to agree with Bubblehead here. Vlad’s fire has been utterly kindled with this week’s post! ” -Tripp
Ah, that may well be; but, once again, this “race” thang is a SYMPTOM of the societal malaise. Taking everyone’s eyes off the ball is becoming ubiquitous and boring. I think it’s another case of that being the underlying purpose.
I’ll be checking the blog; always enjoy your ruminations! (And, heaven forfend, I learn things too! ;o)
Well yeah Iceland is smaller, but at least they give us a model to build on and adapt to our needs. Anyway, Dmitri Orlov( website club orlov) seems to think the country will break into smaller parts, alot more manageable and responsive to local issues. At least it gives hope that something can be done, no matter how remote the chances for success are, better than fiddlin’ as Rome burns like an above commenter plans to do.
Meanwhile have a chuckle and a snear at Michelle Bachmann and all the other strange clowns that have appeared in the presidential race. More entertaining than the nightly slop on the drug with a plug.
And by the way apparently Ron Paul was only 1 percentage point behind Bachmann, but hardly any MSM coverage of that has appeared. Very strange, do the PTB fear Mr Paul? MMMMM…
I’m only laughing as it seems healthier than crying. In the meantime, I am enjoying life in the boonies.
All ya gotta do is peek at the pi’chers. Says it all, friends. (A tiny rectangular mustache would go well on Ricky’s mug for these photos.)
http://static1.firedoglake.com/1/files/2011/08/Rick-Perry-the-college-years.jpg
Ha ha! I was doing some camping on overlook mtn and heard of this event… . I think more people would be involved in local government if we also made for pie eating contests and swimsuit striptease. My village main street saw another owner run shop close. So much for the Dow going back up for main st..
Speaking of Corn, it is really tragic that this site doesn’t allow images in the comments section. So don’t hesitate to follow up.
http://babyboomeradvisorclub.com/2011/08/14/how-to-eat-a-corn-dog-by-michelle-bachmann-and-marcus-bachmann/
The heading for this photo is easy to construct: “BILL CLINTON JOINS BACHMANN CAMP AS TECHNICAL ADVISOR”
You are probably right about a breakup. It would seem easier to manage the sections. Like JKH says some sections would thrive, others would be chaos. I forget about Ron Paul sometimes. It is a shame he can’t get more traction. He and polar opposite Bernie Sanders at least have integrity.
Good post again. I wasn’t expecting much from the title “High Corn”, assuming it would be another corn-pone Nazi rant, but you pulled it off.
I wouldn’t worry too much about Michelle Bachmann. Americans have had just about enough from a presidential “first”, and doubt they are ready for another unknown to shepherd us further down the slippery slope with a final boot over the cliff.
I’ll vote for Ron Paul again, even if he isn’t on the ballot. Don’t know if voting is more than a “sucker” appeaser anyway. For the gratuitous slam against “tea baggers”, please don’t. It cheapens your argument, similar to calling someone a “do-do head” and thinking you’ve made a scathing rebuttal. The virulent hatred directed toward Sarah Palin still amazes me. Ummm, so far she’s not even running. I don’t care for Rick Perry, but not because I think he’s stupid or because he’s playing the religious right card. I don’t trust people who change their political affiliation because they think it advantageous, instead of a true conversion. He may be all too likely to turn back into Al Gore.
Also, on what evidence do you assume that both Perry and Bachmann are stupid? Do you have any evidence of that? Evidence equivalent to the Left believing Obama is brilliant despite all data indicating otherwise??? It must be comforting, in some strange way, to believe that all the brains in the country are clustered in a small pocket around the Ivy Leagues or L.A. You would be heartily amazed at how many capable and intelligent humans live in fly-over country and the deep South. Don’t be so xenophobic!
Lastly, for the poster assuming that all the posters who post late in the afternoon are true knuckledraggers….. Some of us work for a living and prefer to keep that job by not jeopardizing our standing in a company that forbids using the internet for personal reasons. There is a time to rebel and a time not to rebel. This economy is not the time.
“Just yesterday I wrapped up a whopping $15 (beyond salvaged materials) project that I’m calling the “Rabbimatic 2000 Rabbit Recycling Unit”. It consists of a standard rabbit hutch raised on sturdy legs that straddle the mounded beds in my garden. I feed them the greens – chicory, parsley, kale, and so forth – that grow below, and they fertilize the beds, creating a solar-powered rabbit factory.”
Trip, you might want to reconsider this: rabbit urine is not that great for your vegies; what my father did was put the rabbits over a bed of straw, and then added compost, ash, etc, before using as a fertilizer. But not directly over the proposed food vegies.
Dee
I’ve found that good old human urine has great fertilizer properties and is quite inexpensive and readily (quite readily in fact) available. It has the key nutrients – potassium, nitrogen and phosphate as well as other minerals. I think human urine capture and recycling should be a part of any good gardening program.
From:
http://www.ilovephilosophy.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=176259
The denotation, the indirection, the non symmetry of the circuit: you see some abstraction, remote mechanism that you don’t like (like world hunger, Bill Gates having billions, or any other trillions of news and information from things far away that don’t have a direct pain/pleasure reaction to you, but just imagined, indirect, politics, the choices made, the wars, almost 99.999 % of everything we recieve as information) and you get mad, pissed off, angry, and you would like to change it but you can’t, your effect and power on anything is zero, but the effect of the information is 100 on you because of this circuit. Kill the circuit, ignore all problems, kill the importance of any outside problems like politics, peak oil, global warming, and trillions of others, those suffering here and there and the health kare crap, and this and that, all crap, all invisible and non existent indirections and symbols that punish you but you can’t punish them back, you can’t change them. Disconnect the circuits from both directions. Extreme subjective entity, no more outside, finally free…
Wow, I really struck a nerve. Your name is Consultant. Good stuff.
You’re whining about comments before noon at 12:04. More good stuff.
No my rage was last week. You guys missed it all! I swept all before me. None could stand – nor ever will. None are willing to define what racism is. A question is often half (or more) answered once properly defined. Once defined, racism assumed a benign aspect for the most part. All peoples are racist, favoring their own. Only White Mutants favor others before themselves! If it was just for themselves, well I wouldn’t care. But for the rest of us? Who elects someone so they can be dispossesed? Not the Whites of England!
They think Perry and Bachman are stupid because of the intellectual hubris of the left. They assume that anyone who disagrees with their position must be step down on the evolutionary ladder.
You don’t know how many times I’ve tried to explain this to Soak. Thinks he know everything! Thinks he the only one with the facts! I bought 40 oz. of gold back in 2004 for $400 an ounce. He didn’t get it then, and he still doesn’t get it now. But he still thinks he always right. I’ll be slappin’ him upside the head when I get home.
Mrs. Soake
None are willing to define what racism is.
================
Hey Vlad, you’re stealing my thunder. I have been trying to do just that^ (ie establish a realistic definition of racism) but taking it one step at a time by first defining “race.”
Thus far not one person has even admitted that race is a valid concept.
Right. The difference is that when the masses burn down their own neighborhood in America and go to the Middle Class ones they are going to be facing gunfire, unlike in Ye Olde England where the population has been disarmed and has to cower in fear praying that
the police persons will possibly show up and blow their whistles.
That is absolutely right west, except they would probably face gunfire in their own neighborhood. They do on an everyday basis anyway.
OK folks, here’s the ultimate picture of Bachmann at the Iowa State Fair. What a photoshop opportunity this would be!
http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/images/user5/imageroot/2011/08/bachmann%20corndog.jpg
BTW, Bachmann worked for the IRS as an agent for a couple of years sucking taxes out of the bones of the Middle Class people she’s trying to persuade to vote for her.
Of course her fellow workers said that she spent most of her time on taxpayer sponsored socialistic maternity leave…yet another hypocrite saying one thing after having done another.
Way too many possible captions, but she may have just won my vote!
Bill Clinton as Technical Advisor…shame on you.
Maybe they realize it’s the only way to get popular backing for repatriating people to the country in which they were born?
First you start with the non British Empre immigrans, then the refugees and then all the British Empire free pass to the metropoli types.
i.e. the Jamaican Yardies that sell drugs in England and have engaged in gunbattles with the Bobbies.
Way too many possible captions
============
***** Bachmann Seeks Porn Vote *****
*Chocolate Thunder declares support*
Thus far not one person has even admitted that race is a valid concept.
==
That’s because it’s NOT a a valid concept.
I’ve seen Jews from all over the globe. The Jews from Russia look like Russians. The Jews from Morocco look like Moroccans. The Jews from India look like Indians. The Jews from China look like Chinese. The Jews from South America look like South Americans. And so on and so on.
What that tells me is that “race” is an attribute of geography. Change the geography and you will change the so-called “biological” attributes of “race”. The only reason race as a concept exists, is because the banksters find it useful for their divide and conquer machinations. It’s a political tool. A political tool used to divide people and distract them from the economic war waged against them.
Hopelessly naive position. It would be great if it were true.
Since the theme from the past two blogs seems to be gravitating toward the meaning of money, and comments left by readers that suggest they are open to “getting rid of the stuff”, I want to throw my book link out here for people that are definitely open to someone suggesting some other mode of economic existence other than the series of bullshit “something for nothing” and “money as an end in itself” scams we have all been so used to during the last century and 10 years into this one. (hope you don’t mind Jim)
http://www.amazon.com/Transcendent-Economy-Exploring-existence-ebook/dp/B004TZ06YC
This book deals with replacing obsolete forms of economic exchange like fiat currency backed by usury (money as an end in itself, something for nothing) with time credits, time credit contracts and joint time credit contracts.
The first question you have to ask when dealing with human motives on a macro level is: Would we rather have coercive work(soviet style communism) or incentive work? Everybody on the planet knows that we would rather have incentive, instead of being forced. The intent of proportionalism is to define a system that does not use coercion to force people to work but instead uses a universally agreed form of measurement, time. This is similiar to capitalism, only fiat currency that represents nothing but the delusions of men, has been replaced with something more accurate and modest.
Does anyone else think it is rather strange how we can rant on and on about free markets and incentive, yet we continue with the practice of usury?, Which is probably one of the strongest disincentives to borrowing money. Do I have more incentive in borrowing money with no interest or borrowing money with 25 percent interest? Think about it, clearly we don’t believe in incentive and entrepreneurialship.
For the people that laugh at the idea of my time for your time, just getting rid of usury and keeping the stupid fiat currency and banks that charge fees based on cost might go back to working half-assed if the collective masses started thinking.
I have since changed the description of my book of what the economy would look like in 300 years because that’s the length of time in years I think it will take for the human race to be tired of the existing one. It will also take a lot of collective pain and suffering to get to that point and possibly a huge die off. We would all be better off, and better people, if the financial system just completely died over here, it’s going to happen sooner or later very soon. That’s the only thing that will bring change.
Back in the hippie days, we were all convinced that human urine was beneficial, particularly if it was female. I used to use it while potty training my daughter and had gorgeous flowers and amazing vegetables. Of course, we were the back-to-the-landers, not the drug addicted, diseased group. If you’re healthy, it’s probably a good and feasible source of nutrients. I’d use the material from composting toliets on trees and flowers, but probably not on vegetables.
My fifth grader is doing a book report on Africa.
She is unable to find a place there that is prosperous.
Perhaps you could use your theories to point out a place that is majority African and is safe and successful economically and culturally.
If would make her feel so much better, she is getting discouraged in her research efforts.
Perhaps you could use your theories to point out a place that is majority African and is safe and successful economically and culturally.
==
She should do her report on Israel!
Since Israel lies on the African side of the African fault line (plate tectonics), Israel is part of the African continent. Of-course it would’ve helped if her parents were not such ignoramuses and knew a little geography. 😀
You’re right, Ron Paul’s presidential campaign is being blackholed by the media. At least that’s what appears to be happening on CNN, NBC and CBS. I haven’t watched Fox News recently enough to comment on its coverage.
One amazing thing about CNN’s political team is that it can’t decide for two minutes whether the Iowa Straw Poll is of any significance. The consensus seemed to be this:
Michele Bachmann’s 29% first-place finish was a huge victory;
Ron Paul’s 28% second-place finish? Eh, whatever;
Third place at 12% dashed Tim Pawlenty’s hopes by cutting off support from GOP donors, but slightly weaker fourth and fifth place showings didn’t really hurt Santorum and Cain, and the five guys at the bottom weren’t really hurt by the appearance that they were fighting over the party’s table scraps.
If the Straw Poll really means anything in GOP politics and isn’t just a pretext for donors and activists to abandon candidates that they were on the verge of abandoning anyhow, Ron Paul is a viable candidate. Can CNN really be so obtuse as to think that he is an also-ran when came in a percent behind the winner and smoked the rest of his competition?
My working hypothesis is that the media are blackholing Paul because they want an Obama-Romney general election or, barring that, an Obama-Bachmann or Obama-Perry race. Obama and Romney appeal to the corporatists because they’re both corporatists who aren’t likely to cross the wealthy and powerful. Obama’s track record as President in this regard is stellar. Bachmann and Perry are useful to the corporatists, and doubly so to left- and Democratic-leaning corporatists, because they’re raving nutcases from the Elmer Gantry fringe who will help the Republicans kiss the likes of Pennsylvania goodbye. There’s a well-tested narrative that Democratic operatives use on centrists and old-line Republicans in suburban Philadelphia, usually to good effect: would you rather elect our pragmatist or their unhinged zealot/creep/petty score settler? It has worked for Casey and Rendell in the recent past, and Democrats often have success with similar narratives in other states.
That narrative doesn’t much work on Romney, which is fine by the corporatists, but it also doesn’t much work on Paul. He has some skeletons in his closet, but so does Obama, and Paul isn’t the one gladly executing the innocent or suggesting that people should be forbidden to masturbate in the privacy of their own bedrooms. He’s also an excellent debater with impeccable antiwar credentials and a willingness to make common cause with leftists on fiscal matters by cutting military budgets first. The Beltway bandits must shit their shorts when they see Ron Paul beat all but one his saber-rattling opponents with his undercovered, underfunded grassroots campaign.
Take your US aid and shove it. I’d love to see you imperialist fscks spend another trillion a year, every year, guarding the Suez Canal.
Read “The Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood for a look at what a Christian theocracy might look like. That’s what Perry would like the US to become.
If I had to choose between a nation run by barbarians or one run by “hard working, contributing, giving, moral, ethical, Christians” I think I’d prefer the barbarians. George Bush was supposed to be one of those ethical Christians…
You’re still a bunch of degenerate fascists. When I look at you fscks, it’s like I’m in a time warp. Because I see exactly the same lying thieving degenerate imperialists we fought to expel out of our land 2,000 years ago. Even the Roman symbols are the same.
“…a nation run by barbarians or one run by “hard working, contributing, giving, moral, ethical, Christians” I think I’d prefer the barbarians.”
-helen-
Nice hyperbole, Helen, but I think you have an image of “kinder, gentler” barbarians that doesn’t square with reality.
George Bush was an unmitigated disaster. History will show that he did great harm to the Republican Party, the meaning of the word “conservative,” and probably even to the meaning of the word “Christian.”
He was such a disaster that Mr. Obama managed to ride to victory over McCain on the theory of –
“anything’s better than that old guy and his erratic (erotic??) choice of running mate.
And here we are. Sounds like you’ll be an Obama backer regardless of how good or bad the Republican nominee turns out to be. Right?
“I’ve seen Jews from all over the globe. The Jews from Russia look like Russians. ……The Jews from China look like Chinese……. And so on and so on.”
-mika-
“What that tells me is that “race” is an attribute of geography.” -methuselah-
CHINESE JEWS, Mika?? I’m sure there are a few, but there can’t be that many.
Your point seems to be that Jewishness is not an ethnicity – it is a religion.
Follow that to it’s logical end – and we will have Immediate World Peace if everyone on the planet will simply convert to Judaism.
Which I might be willing to do, no problem, to achieve world Peace and all. I mean – I’m Christian, right – follower of a Jewish dude, already, right??
Except Judaism is a religion. And you’re an atheist, Mika. So – – – – now what??
(BTW, why are you posting as Mika and Methuselah in the same week? It’s probably confusing to new posters and those who don’t keep up with CFN namegame trivia.)
I certainly didn’t catch it, I’ve given up on 60 Minutes years ago. I used to watch it all the time.
You’re veering in the direction of chest-beating jingoistic-cum-theocratic-cum-racist idiocy. Sadly, that’s a pretty good approximation of the louder elements of the Republican base, too, but it doesn’t do a nation good.
The notion that we’re the most forgiving nation on earth is just absurd. We consistently have one of the highest incarceration rates in the world, and not by a long shot are most of our prisoners incarcerated for being violent. It’s nearly impossible for politicians of goodwill in this country to make, or in some cases merely propose, much-needed criminal justice reforms without being savaged by vicious demagogues for being “soft on crime.”
Contrary to public perception, only a small number of these “criminals” are violent or truly dangerous. A lot of them are small-time drug dealers, check-kiting addicts and the like.
Let me make clear that such people are NOT the makings of a University City flash mob. Having lived in Center City Philadelphia and on the edge of the tweaker ghetto in Eureka, CA, I can assure you that it takes a special level of disorder to produce feral, uncontrolled youth gangs, and that such disorder has fuck-all to do with drugs. What places like Strawberry Mansion and black Kensington really need is a cop on every corner at night, ready to intervene in the case of trouble; I’ve seen exactly that in wealthier neighborhoods such as Northern Liberties, so it’s to some extent feasible. The problem in the ghettos isn’t drugs or drug dealing; Center City, University City and Manayunk have long been awash in both. The problem is violent reprobates who show little restraint because they don’t face immediate arrest for street crimes.
I’m glad that the PPD seems to be drawing a line in the sand vis-a-vis the flash mob hoodlums. The city will be much better off in the future if it nips these gangs in the bud by deploying a large, well-disciplined force in the problem areas, so that the hoodlums make no mistake that the cost/benefit analysis is in their favor. Despite the prominent (and genuinely serious) scandals involving violent rogues on the force, PPD has in my experience an exceptionally large number of good, self-controlled, street-smart cops who recognize the difference between small-time losers and real threats and act accordingly.
The agency needs to support these cops and hire more of the same. It’s not hard to draw a line in the sand regarding violence, even without an explicit policy. The hoodlums don’t care what the cops do to peaceable junkies, whether they arrest them or, as they often do in Philly, effectively tell them, “well, you’d be better off not shooting smack behind a dumpster, but carry on if you wish.” What the hoodlums do care about is whether their own asses are collared for beating up Whitey because they’re racists. The answer to that had better be a resounding “yes.”
The Recovery is the economic equivalent of The Second Coming. Waiting, waiting, waiting… We know He/It is coming. But when ?
Your point seems to be that Jewishness is not an ethnicity – it is a religion.
==
It seems that way to you because you’re idiot. How’s that for an answer? 🙂
You wish to play gotcha when there’s no gotcha to be played. I’ve already gone over this with you many times.
The ethnic national basis of Jewish tribe is confirmed by modern DNA studies. We all share the same DNA heritage.
Judaism as a religion is specific to a specific ethnic national group. Even the few handful of outside “Jewish” converts, if they can not produce real ethnic national ties to the Jewish tribe, they are NOT recognized as Jews. While long standing ethnic Jews who are not religious (90% of Jews worldwide) are readily recognized as Jews.
CHINESE JEWS, Mika?? I’m sure there are a few, but there can’t be that many.
==
5 million I’m told. Right on the Chinese Indian border. Bnei menashe.
This blog didn’t bother to set up a climax.
The entire article IS a climax!
Your assertion that we’re the most hardworking people on earth is just nationalistic boilerplate rubbish. A very large part of our business community is devoted to running cons of various scopes. A growing part of our clergy and self-described “Christian” writers and speakers have gone the same route of late. I’d love to be wrong on this, but I can’t think of anyone remotely on or affiliated with the religious right who has been principled enough to denounce Joel Osteen for being the opportunistic, slime-oozing fraud that he is.
“Arbeit macht frei” has crossed the Atlantic. Actually, it was here all along, but these days one doesn’t hear Germans, or for that matter Swiss or Dutch, tooting their own horns about what wonderful work ethics they have. That’s a fairly American habit, and a mightily obnoxious one. I guess it’s acceptable to the extent that it’s done by frightened peons who are just trying to say, “yes, Massa, I’s woykin,” which is more or less the tenor of modern American labor relations. Coming from the superintendent, on the other hand, it’s untenable. German workers, along with the remnants of the American labor movement, have the organization, courage and self-respect to tell Massa to shut up when he starts talking like that.
We have a republican form of government with regular elections. We talk a good game, but if we really valued hard work, we would never have allowed our labor unions to be eviscerated and our industrial base exported to places such as China. Nor would we have allowed companies to take advantage of underpaid prison labor and set up de facto Mexican Jim Crow in the fields. Such labor practices degrade work, and the intellectually honest know it. Work, however, is one of the last subjects on which you’ll find intellectual honesty in America.
As a frequent visitor to TOD as well, I’m with JHK on this one. I agree with you that shale gas findings help significantly over the next decade, but I don’t think they will move the needle much on peak oil/peak gas. Both shale oil and shale gas show fast depletion rates compared to conventional wells once a productive well is found (That won’t stop us from fracking the #*&# out of the northeastern states (just like Alberta won’t stop scraping out oil sands and poisoning their aquifers to keep the infinite growth party going. Drill baby drill!)
As for switching our cars over to natural gas – I doubt we have the will or the money to do so. We’ll surely see more of them – a few cities run their bus fleets on LNG, and more than a few commercial fleets like taxis would be easy and economically viable to switch over. They are more centralized operations and easier to rationalize a switchover all in one go. But as for the rest of us – I don’t think we possess the capital or the time to switch over. Everybody would need a new car, we’d need new filling stations, new pipelines.
I think my most depressing personal observation is this: most of all, we collectively don’t have the mental fortitude for it. Most of the people I work with are engineers for the most part. Most of them cannot even conceive of the idea of natural limits to growth, let alone peak oil, let alone economic contraction, let alone the reason for their own declining status as members of the Middle Class. They make no connection between our choice of lifestyles (the profligate and ignorant use of energy like driving an SUV across four states in a weekend so their kid can play in a #$*&ing soccer game) and the fact that we have to make war to defend the political stability of oppressive regimes. And these folks are (relatively speaking) more enlightened and better-educated in math and the sciences than average.
We are firmly into the ‘bumpy plateau’ of peak oil and gas. The Long Emergency can’t be rescheduled, it’s here now. Our coke-bender of an economy is taking a surprisingly long time to spin down. I don’t know if that’s good or bad, it gives us more time to prepare, but more time for denial.
‘”insurance” swaps contracts primed for ignition…could propel the likes of Lloyd Blankfein’s cappuccino machine from an upper floor at 200 West Street, NYC, through the roof, clear to planet Uranus. At least we’d have a space program again’
Best. Metaphor. Evar. ROFL
“Hey Beavis…Check out this dude who teaches economics at NYU, Nouriel Roubini. He said that “Karl Marx had it right. At some point, Capitalism can destroy itself.”
COOL!!!!!
Roubini: “Karl Marx had it right. At some point, Capitalism can destroy itself. You cannot keep on shifting income from labor to Capital without having an excess capacity and a lack of aggregate demand. That’s what has happened. We thought that markets worked. They’re not working. The individual can be rational. The firm, to survive and thrive, can push labor costs more and more down, but labor costs are someone else’s income and consumption. That’s why it’s a self-destructive process.”
No, I don’t believe that it matters which puppet is in the White House.
Moreover, I agree with Jim that the “election cycle” that now runs pretty much election to election, is ridiculous. Especially when every actual legislative, military or economic decision is analyzed merely as to how it will affect the upcoming election, even if it’s 4 years away!
The effect on actual people is not discussed.
But – like Pavlov’s dogs, or village gossips, we are all discussing trivial missteps by the candidates for the starring role now being played by Barack Obama.
By the way, why is everyone Shocked! Shocked! that Rommey stated that corporations are people?
Does no one remember the the Supreme Court made it so earlier this year?
Newfie, be patient.
The recovery is planned for next year, about six months BEFORE THE ELECTION, guaranteeing Obama’s re-election. Remember, the man is playing chess: no recovery before its time.
Thanks for the reminder though. A pleasant thought.
Alright then, someone inform me as to why deranged “leaders” seem to have this thing about defending their genitals. Or did photographer pose him this’a’way? The sword really is a bit over the top in perverse symbolism. I mean, geez, he could have placed it to one side with only one hand upon the hilt. The Adolph-ian similarity is striking and a bit unsettling.
Remember the hand position of Adolph in nearly every photo; covering the “groinal-region”, to protect his singleton gland. Look out, Ricky; smokin’ grounder comin’ at’cha!
(This is why I thought a tiny squared-off mustache would complete the cavalry-look ensemble.)
http://static1.firedoglake.com/1/files/2011/08/Rick-Perry-the-college-years.jpg
Ever been to South America? Millions of cars have switched over. It’s simple and cheap.
Amazing how poor third world countries can manage things like single payer universal health car and public transportation systems… things you saying the richest country in the world doesn’t “possess the capital” for.
It is not a question of money. It is a question of respect for human beings and the political will to enact beneficial policies. The USA is not broke. That is just what you are being told to justify continued theft by corporations. They want you to believe we are broke so you don’t fight for anything. They want you paralyzed politically and willing to accept your dose of “austerity” … just don’t ask that corporations pay their share of taxes.
Don’t even think about raising the marginal tax rate on the rich to levels of Reagan days or Eisenhower days.
Excellent point: One reason the civil war will really get started after the BMW/country club pussy boys are dead, is that the remaining folks are generally well armed. ARMED and very much willing to use their weapons on the attackers whether they have bones in their noses, uniforms with local or national fascist insignia, or dreadlocks and metalized teeth decor.
South, midwest, rockies, doesn’t matter. It will be the same all over. Note: forget the northeast and west coast; with a very few regional exceptions, they’ll all be eaten right off the bat and their females sold into slavery—if they’re lucky (sorry JHK, you have to funds to migrate to a safer region).
Access to weapons and knowledge about their effective use will make all the difference. None of this standing around with baseball bats like the brits.
Lock and load, if you can.
Wardoc
OH my Zeus, thanks Jim I needed the laugh,but the religious folks that I work with want a Perry/Palin ticket. It would do wonders for USA, a rapid decline so that we can start over. Meanwhile our lovely city down the road from you has a new plan, a Casino!!!!! The olde Italian mob would be so proud!!
Wage,
Isn’t it a bit ironic that you mention ” puppet” in the White House and the Supreme Court in the same post? Because if the current “puppet” would have had just one more of his nominations on the court the decision you lament would have never happened.
Your proclamations of political party equivalency are very generic and lack incisive observation.
AMR
Paul’s performance in the Iowa poll was very impressive considering as you say and is evidenced by the MSM coverage of Iowa, virtually nil. I don’t agree with everything he says but at least he appears rational and seems to operate in the real world. It remains to be seen if he really is in the real world, but hey at least he has a shot at winning. That’s something to be cheered up about in these dark days.
I keep looking forward to the future and I really think we will come out the other side. Much different from now, but that is a definitely good thing. Maybe we will be able to stop and smell the roses in about 10 to 15 years. Maybe.
Best to all for this week
loveday
England. Riots. Tattoos:
‘It Hurts, Therefore I Am’ by Theodore Dalrymple:
http://www.city-journal.org/html/5_4_oh_to_be.html
WD,
I’m not sure why you discount New Englanders like you do. Apparently you’re not acquainted with the hard-bitten, well-armed sons-a-bitches that reside in these h’yar hills. They tend to be a bit fierce about their liberty, but they’re quiet about it.
Beware the quiet ones; they’ll wait their chance.
I’d take a loose confederation of stoic New Englanders who are used to living lean and cold, over any gaggle of mean, loud-mouthed yahoos any old day.
South America (Brazil in particular) has done amazing work switching over to nearly a solar-operated car infrastructure…but with ethanol, not LNG. A matter of switching from one liquid fuel to another, which *is* relatively simple and cheap. Can’t be done here – Brazil has higher solar energy density, so they can have fast-growing, high energy density sugarcane crops, which means you can convert solar energy to liquid fuel. Can’t happen here, unfortunately 🙁
“It is not a question of money. It is a question of respect for human beings and the political will to enact beneficial policies.”
Couldn’t agree more. It’s way past time for the rich and the ‘corporate’ rich to pay their fair share for the privelige of doing business here. Political will I hoped my vote for Obama would secure.
We are broke; our finances and credibility on the world stage are crap. I am now convinced that beneficial change can only happen at the local level – friends, families, gardens, farmers markets, neighborhoods; small town, old-fashioned urbanism. The national stage will do what it will, until it can’t anymore.
The Recovery is coming next year ? More waiting… I have a feeling it won’t show up. At all. Ever.
http://richardheinberg.com/bookshelf/the-end-of-growth-book
I happened to catch Ron Paul speaking during the straw poll hocus-pocus-palooza. He was spewing his pro-life agenda, and it really seemed to completely contradict his viewpoints concerning individual freedoms that he espouses, when it comes to “illegal” drugs and other “non-govt interference” concerns. Just playing the evangelical right wingers, I suppose. I think I’ll stick to the green party/Nader for the foreseeable future…
I’ve purchased about $300 in hard liquor, and around $1,000 in silver and (copper) wheat cents. Stocking up on hard commodities for barter – doing it slow and cheap. As for liquor, some stoly’s, some makers mark, some canadian club and some smirnoff’s. I hear Heaven Hill whiskey is supposed to be dirt cheap and excellent quality – going for some of that next, and maybe some seagram’s vodka/whiskey varieties (for low-end)…
Dow still stuck below 11.5K – but what a *miraculous* recovery. I love all the talk about how the “individual” investors were concerned and selling/buying. It’s completely obvious the whole market is manipulated, with over 90% of the “trades” happening due to the banks/brokerage (investment) firms, insurance companies, and various other corporations. The con is *ON*, as usual!!! Water/aquifers are drying up fast, and it’s only going to get hotter in the next couple years. The solar irradiance/sunspot max should occur sometime around 12/21/2012, and last a good 5 or so years… Tinfoil hats might not be a bad idea, to *BEAT THE HEAT*! Ha!
“5 million I’m told.”
-mika, concerning numbers of Chinese Jews-
You’re flatly wrong. There are roughly 15,000,000 Jews on Earth. There are about 5,000,000 in the US and 5,000,000 in Europe.
There are about 38,000 in all of Asia.
As I often wonder, mika, what ARE you talking about?
====================
“The ethnic national basis of Jewish tribe is confirmed by modern DNA studies. We all share the same DNA heritage.” -mika-
I accept that as true, mika.
But that makes it impossible for the “Chinese Jews” that you specifically mentioned – to look look like ethnic Chinese.
Impossible.
=================
“It seems that way to you because you’re idiot. How’s that for an answer? :)”
-mika-
Early and unjustified resort to insult usually masks a weak personality or a weak argument, mika.
Which is the case here?
It’s my personal opinion based on 50 years of political observation that both parties, while claiming differences, both produced the same result for our country: Thelma and Louise holding hands as they drive off the cliff. Based on results, not rhetoric, I’d say both political parties are equivalent. In the sense of results, it really doesn’t matter who becomes president.
Read it already and saw the movie. I love post-apocalyptic/dystopian fiction. Probably half the posters on this blog do too. I live in Texas and the only dystopian signs I see are hard economic times and way too much immigration. But both Perry and Obama love immigration for obvious different reasons. The end result is the same.
Your so right about olsteen.
We have tons of agricultural land along the gulf coast that is very suited growing sugar cane. In my area 70 percent is currently out of production compared to thirty years ago. It may not be able to produce as much as Brazil but it could make a good contribution.
Beantown,
In general I agree with you and Wage. But again it feels too generic – the acute planes of distinction are too rounded off. For example, if the presidents of one political party had been stacking the courts for fifty years I seriously doubt it would feel equivalent. In my opinion, the political party equivalence that many feel they are experiencing is checks and balances. This country is like turning a large battleship – slow and ponderous. And with a new captain at the helm every four, eight, or twelve years it feels like the country is stuck in nuetral and not going anywhere.
But here is an area where I do specifically agree with you and Wage: Military spending.
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2011/08/defense-industry-bribes-and-legislative.html
The heartland will gladly part with Michelle Bachmann. Just get her out of Minnesota. The more she brands herself as an Iowan the better off we all will be north of the Iowa border.
Her congressional district is a mix of the outer suburbs and the snowmobile-driving, automatic weapon toting exurbs of central Minnesota. It’s not really indicative of what the rest of the state is like. The district was gerrymandered to guarantee the a seat for a candidate like her.
If you’re looking to bring about Armageddon, she’s your girl. Many condolences to the slightly more reasonable Minnesotan, Mr. Pawlenty who bowed out this week. He was governor of the state, but in reality has been running for president for 8 years. Just to be shown up by a fluffy-haired nut job. Serves him right I suppose.
http://eighthacrefarm.blogspot.com/
It’s good to come across other people who recognize what a fraud Osteen is. A college acquaintance of mine who is now an Army chaplain refers to his preaching as “junk preaching.” He was appalled when a fellow chaplain gave an Osteen-style sermon at a training exercise. It was heartening to see that this fellow had the sense to call bullshit when he saw it, especially since he’s a Nazarene. I’ve spent a fair amount of time around the Church of the Nazarene, and it seems to have more than its fair share of clergy and laity who gravitate to Osteen and equally vacuous preachers, not to mention the shallow end of the Evangelical publishing industry.
One of my rules of thumb for understanding hucksters of Osteen’s ilk is that their audiences’ repressed neuroses are a mirror image of the explicit message. Osteen constantly reminds his audience that God has them exactly where they’re supposed to be with their jobs, commutes, housing, finances and family situations. This would mean that he speaks to, and evidently resonates with, desperate, distressed people who have no agency in their own lives.
A side note about Nazarenes, probably applicable to some other denominations as well: The Naz Church has evidently become much laxer in its theological and liturgical standards since the 1960s. I have relatives who quit the Church then, and they’re amazed by my stories of congregants openly speaking in tongues, extending their arms and closing their eyes without warning, and other displays of Pentecostal ecstasy that were strictly verboten in olden times. Back then, there were widely circulated tracts enumerating the reasons not to be a a Catholic, a Jehovah’s Witness, a Baptist (if I’m not mistaken), a Pentecostal, etc. These days, Nazarenes don’t seem to have beefs with other denominations; the reaction among my Naz relatives and friends when I joined the Catholic Church was overwhelmingly positive. Many Nazarenes do, however, have a beef with Islam, and not generally a well-reasoned or informed one, either; like much of the Christian furor over Islam in the States, it’s mixed up with half-cocked Neoconservative and nationalistic rhetoric.
The Naz Church has gotten pretty loosey-goosey with worship music standards, but the result is really just the substitution of new musical standards for old, i.e. using Christian pop to hook the youngsters since granny and gramps aren’t about to decamp just because “Nearer My God to Thee” is no longer being played on the organ. One of the few points of agreement that I have with old-line Five Point Calvinists, whom I otherwise consider batshit crazy and scary, is that the new music and preaching in Evangelical churches tends to be shallow. Of course, we aren’t living in the deepest of ages, and I suppose it’s better to be shallow and vulgar than to insinuate that the chopping block ought to be restored to the town square in Geneva.
On the other hand, when Joel Osteen’s oily visage is on the telescreen exhorting the faithful to name it and claim it and live that Ephesians 3:20 life, it’s hard to imagine worse preaching. Unless John Hagee is up next. I hate to think of it, but there are probably even worse bottomfeeders in those waters.
As I watched the Republican debate (or any national political debate for that matter, including those on Bill Mahr’s show), my mind flashed/es back to George Orwell’s term for politicians: “hollow dummies.”
Ron Paul is the best of the bunch, hasn’t changed his tune over the years, and while he comes off as impotent, I’ve never heard a politician belittle the powerful like he does. His main focus is on freedom and strict constitutional limits, which makes him a favorite of certain elements of the left and right. He’s decidedly more a third party candidate than a Republican.
THE most revolution action one can take is to buy local food; grown by a farmer, not debauched by a big corporation.
Same old troll, different name.
“… which would you prefer. A nation run by …”
Barbarians – you fscking *TROLL*.
Why in my opinion gold is the “new bubble”
Buy gold, buy silver, if you want to protect your savings…
Many years ago my father (we lived in Italy, with the lira, a currency with very high rates of inflation) used to say: if you want to protect the value of your savings, you should buy gold.
Or you should have bought real estate.
The prices of gold and real estate were the ones that always went “up”.
In reality was the value of the Lira that went down.
But this was the way: if for a Kg of bread you had to pay 2000 liras and for the same bread 5 years later you had to pay 3000 liras, that meant you had an inflation of 50% in 5 years.
The same happened to gold and real estate.
More or less their value “upgraded” with the devaluation of the currency.
Sometimes you also had a bigger upgrade or a lower one, depending on the demand.
But for real estate you had for many years a good demand (from 50 millios people we became 60 millions, so we had 10 millions more people who needed a house) especially in the city, where many found a job in the new factories.
In USA you had a great demand for real estates till 2007.
Prices grew exponentially because there was an exponentially growing demand.
The demand was inflated by the “propaganda” of a “never ending” demand and “never ending” upgrade of prices.
In 2007 the artificially created “demand” stopped and the prices slumped.
The same is happening to gold.
The value of the dollar is slumping, but NOT at the same rate the gold prices are going up.
From 600 dollars to almost 1800 dollars per ounce you have an upgrade in price of 1200 dollars in five years.
Nobody says that it is 300%.
Did the bread price upgrade 300%?
Did the cost of living upgrade 300%?
What upgraded the price was the “never ending“ demand.
The house value NEVER upgraded 300% in 5 years, not even in the bubble time…
Because the demand of real estate is basically “local”.
( even though with derivatives they tried to make it international)
You can sell a house in US usually and mostly to US citizens.
While you can sell a ounce of gold EVERYWHERE in the world.
The price of gold WILL go up, and may be a lot.
But the “demand” will have an end, the moment there will be no buyers any more.
At that point, lucky the ones who bought it for 500 and sell it for the last price, unlucky the ones who believe in “never ending” upgrade.
In Italy we call it “catena di San Antonio” In US you call it Ponzi scheme.
Lucky the first who buys and sells and very unlucky the last.
ALL what goes up too fast will come down even faster…
There is a difference between being broke and being robbed. The corporations have been making record profits, CEO salaries have gone up, the income gap between rich and poor have widened. America has plenty of money. The thieves have it.
One of the most insidious lies currently being spread is that America is broke, too poor to afford police, teachers, and firefighters, and Medicare, Social Security and other important programs.
Many corporations pay no taxes, but get federal subsidies.
If we were “broke,” the USA would not have money to subsidize multinational corporations that ship factories and jobs overseas instead of creating employment in the USA.
If we were “broke,” the USA would have no money to fight wars all around the world.
We are not broke. We have priorities to spend for death. We allow corporate white collar theft to continue without prosecution.
I have lived in South America and ridden in taxi fleets powered by LNG.
I have talked to the taxi drivers who own their own vehicles and decided to change over from gasoline to LNG.
Third world car mechanics with grade school education can do it. It is not rocket science.
See for yourself: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PHpLU–R8o&feature=related
The conversion is simple and pays for itself.
I’m with ya all the way on this one ~
love this post. my new saying applies here…
“I second that emotion”.
and in answer to the poster who asked the 2 questions about ‘jesus’.
1) no
2) no
Above reply for meant for Piltdownmans’ post.
“money as an end in itself”.
That is the problem. I mean that’s like folks who invest in the stock market without caring WTF they are investing IN. Could be Anything, they don’t care, well too many don’t, and as long as they have $$$ they don’t even Think about it.
Some Ahole from Texas, and his Company, clearcut the Redwood Forest, because “he who has the gold rules.” whatever the Ancient timeless Magnificent freaking UNBELIEVEABLY AWESOME
FOREST, Redwood Forests are few and far between, and In California. They took EONS to evolve. . They could have SUSTAINABLY cut the trees, FOREVER, but no he just clearcut the fucking thing. I’ve seen it. Sickening. 200,000 acres, clearcut a major part of it. and well there is much more to this story, it was part of the S and L scandal in the 80’s, anyway he walked, and the other 2 major players did jail time. probably not enough, I don’t know.
While I was up in Humbolt County I saw a bumper sticker that read WHAT? DID YOU WISH FOR A BIG **** and BECAME one instead?” Reminds me of this guy. And he does this when he ‘takes over’ companies, like he did this one. Everyone loses their pensions, etc. He Rapes what he can and who he can, and moves on to Greener Pastures, until he Takes and Takes and Takes from others, again and againg.
Why do people like this get away with this shit.
This got me goin’, sorry for the long post.
Oh and his INTEREST ALONE, for the LOAN he took out was like 7M a month. Well in the end, he goes bancrupt, and begs the govt. for $$$, 2 billion bucks he gets from the taxpayers,shock shock, to bail him out. Prick. Workers lose their jobs.
Probably doing it to other companies right now.
Usery, well I think Muslims don’t believe in it,
and I don’t like the idea either, money for nothin’. Get a real job, or share the stuff eh?
Feed some people do some good. But what do I know.
I had to EDIT part of this out. It was bad. Damn I left the best part out.
I can be as bad as some guys, when it comes to crude. hope not to offend. anyone. except…..maybe Vlad. for fun.
Time for nite nite…..
You should write a book, seriously, you have really good thinking going on in that head of yours. Common sense and thanks for sharing, once again.
Thanks.
I like to think about what is happening.
I post mostly to exchange my ideas.
I like to hear what others think, that helps me to have a clear vision of what is happening.
I, as many others, have some savings and would really hate to loose them.
I had the idea to buy gold or silver, but then I asked myself:
If gold and silver are such a good investment, why people would sell them?
And: Let´s imagine the worst case scenario: the dollar (or euro) slumps to zero.
What does that mean?
It means it looses 100% of its value.
And if gold is 500% of its value, isn´t there something wrong?
Rick Perry’s dissembling about the “successful”
economy of Texas is scary. Texas, you see,
has an 8.2% unemployment rate but as Disraeli
averred, there are lies, damned lies, and
statistics.
In reality, Texas has the most minimum wage jobs
of any state in the union. Thirty-seven percent
of fulltime Texas jobs are at minimum wage. I
know California has a yacht-load of problems but
even barristas at Peet’s Coffee and Tea get more
than minimum wage.
His theocratic tendencies, of course, make him an
even scarier person … yet another Republican
who hasn’t the vaguest notion about separation of
church and state. By what alchemy did these bozo
southern Republicans somehow rewrite the
Constitution without even Obama calling “bullshit”
on them???
Michelle Bachmann won the Iowa straw poll which
proves that Iowa is as divided as the rest of
the USA. We’re now perilously close to being a
country where batshit crazy demogogues are
running for the highest offices in the land in
droves. And their characters are very enigmatic
… people who want to start meetings with
prayers on the one hand and people who look like
they want to be fucked by a thug while being bent
over a Harley on the other.
Whatever problems Europe might be having, you
may have noticed that their currency is STILL
appreciating versus ours. Maybe, just maybe,
too many people around the globe are noticing
the stupendous stupefaction in the land of Old
Glory. I certainly don’t see the like of Palin,
Bachmann, and Perry on BBC’s news about Europe.
Dante had nine circles of Hell to illustrate the
idea of various gradations of evil. Maybe
stupidity is the new world disease and if it is,
the USA clearly looks like it’s in the Eighth
Circle of stupidity, rapidly descending into
the Ninth.
E.
E wrote: “His theocratic tendencies, of course, make him an even scarier person … yet another Republican who hasn’t the vaguest notion about separation of church and state. ”
[Enter Beavis dressed like Jesus.]
“Hi Everybody. I’m Jesus. I need money. Give me money.”
E wrote: “And their characters are very enigmatic
… people who want to start meetings with
prayers on the one hand and people who look like
they want to be fucked by a thug while being bent
over a Harley on the other.”
[Enter Beavis dressed like Jesus.]
“Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! COOL!!!!”
8man said:
information is 100 on you because of this circuit. Kill the circuit, ignore all problems, kill the importance of any outside problems like politics, peak oil, global warming, and trillions of others, those suffering here and there and the health kare crap, and this and that, all crap, all invisible and non existent indirections and symbols that punish you but you can’t punish them back, you can’t change them. Disconnect the circuits from both directions. Extreme subjective entity, no more outside, finally free…
****************************************************
What you said supplies the very reason why I’ve
had a tendency to disappear from this very blog
for weeks at a time. Ultimately, if you
disconnect the TV, limit internet exposure,
avoid people who adore the rat race, and live
life on your own terms, the drowning human race
FEELS like a race you don’t belong to.
It’s like being a Maori tribesman … you don’t
much care what the Dow Jones or All Ordinaries
Indexes did today, you don’t much care about
the new Lexus models, you don’t buy Cheez
Doodles, inflation and deflation aren’t felt
or seen or smelled, … you’re disconnected
from the “hive mind”.
I like your “out of the box” thinking, 8man.
While I have insatiable curiousity about the
current state of modern economic man, in the
short seven weeks since my retirement, I feel
like I’m getting rejuvenated by detaching from
technology, TV, and “news hounding”. Maybe
what I don’t know CAN hurt me but if I cannot
change one iota of it, I can be sure that getting
an ulcer by THINKING about it all the time WILL
hurt me.
Of course, some might call this disconnection
“not caring”. However, if one lives one’s life
in a non-consumeristic way, regardless of my
level of disconnection, I surely can’t be
hurting the planet.
Interesting food for thought, 8man.
E.
E wrote: “It’s like being a Maori tribesman …”
Butthead: “Hey Beavis. Maori tribesmen were cannibals. Cannibals ROCK!”
Beavis: “Eat Me, Butthead…”
It’s smart strategy for Obama and other Democrats to be careful about calling bullshit on theocratic propaganda. By extension, this is probably one of the wisest tacks to take in order to keep the nation out of the theocrats’ hands.
It isn’t dignified, but dignity isn’t a reason to practice realpolitik. The unfortunate fact is that the theocrats have a long track record of bringing out their crazies to electorally smite those who cross them, and it would not be hard at all for Obama to look like he gets his jollies from poking at the Evangelical hornet’s nest. This is a weakness for most, if not all, Democrats today, but doubly so for Obama, who isn’t particularly religious and has used religion of a leftist variety (mainly Jeremiah Wright’s church) for political purposes.
The best candidates to poke holes in theocratic bullshit are centrist and center-right figures with strong Christian credentials who offer “values voters” a third way that doesn’t look to them like Godless Democratic wickedness. I’m thinking of people like Mike Huckabee and Sam Brownback. Of course, it’s tough to imagine how such reasonable people would outmaneuver the nutters in the current political environment and structure.
The general problem with explicitly attacking the religious right is that it has a finely-honed sense of grievance that it deploys against a host of enemies, real and perceived: Washington, New York, Hollywood, the non-“Christian” media, the Democratic Party, the non-theocratic GOP, liberals and centrists in general, atheists, agnostics, homosexuals, Muslims, the National Council of Churches, and probably some others that don’t occur to me offhand. This sense of grievance produces frequent false positives, but a false positive is an asset, not a liability, when one’s audience takes patent fantasies and lies that confirm its biases at face value. For the true believers, politics is an eternal holy war against secular liberal forces that are out to destroy Christianity.
This is a main reason that Barry Goldwater said, “I think every good Christian should give Jerry Falwell a kick in the ass.” When religion and politics are conflated, the stakes become too high and compromise becomes impossible because everything is a battle for the world’s soul.
A large and growing portion of the religious right lives in a parallel intellectual universe, in which theocracy is a worthy goal because–duh!–godly people are ruled by God. Here are some examples from a “Christian” book that happens to be kept on a shelf above the computer that I’m using: Kay Arthur’s “The Truth About Sex.” This is not a book about law, politics or policy, but get a load of some of Arthur’s scary suggestions:
Chapter 3, p. 46: “In Old Testament times, Israel began as a nation under a theocracy, which means God determined how the nation was to be governed….Times changed, however, even though God’s Law and the precepts behind it did not….Stoning a person because they break God’s law doesn’t work anymore, because few governments recognize or honor the God of the Bible….[C]onsider also how the enforcement of God’s prescribed punishments would protect so many women from rape. Rapists would be put to death–and those who were tempted would be greatly deterred if they thought conviction might mean losing their life rather than receiving only a short prison sentence.”
Chapter 3, p. 50: “You may be familiar with the Roman saying ‘qualis rex, talis grex’–‘like king, like people.’ It reminds one of the Clinton administration, when the whole world discovered that the president of the United States had oral sexi with a White House intern. And how did America in general respond? They decided that what he did in his private life was of no concern to the nation. By declining to remove President Clinton from office, our officials sent the message that immorality doesn’t matter.”
Even among Christian conservatives, there is not a consensus on these positions. In fact, they would scare the hell out of plenty of churchgoing Republicans, especially if they pondered the implications, one being that Arthur is an idiot about American politics and criminal justice. Still, few Christian conservatives, even moderate ones, dare openly challenge such poison. At many churches it’s easy to become persona non grata for rocking the boat or airing dirty Evangelical laundry.
I’m a bit stumped as to how to break the theocratic stranglehold, but one thing I’m sure of is that Obama isn’t the man to do it.
Nice to be back in the saddle again.
For the past few days I was unable to get onto this site or post my thoughts. I have been following the thread, though.
Due to many links in my posts, my IP address was marked as spam, so it took a little doing on the part of support to get me back on.
I do want to make it clear to bloggers here that bringing in live urls and text that has key words and links could pose a problem for you cumulatively and when that happens don’t assume there’s a person agenda to keep you off the site, as some here have expressed.
——————————
When I got on this morning I’m happy to say, I read through the posts since 8:00 last evening and am happy to see the level of discussion and the many good posts.
I appreciated the idea that we are always stuck in an election cycle and not governing, as the politics in this country are geared for the greatest show on earth mentality and our newsmedia feeds the carnival for ratings.
The campaign finance issues need to be addressed if we want a government that actually puts forth direction.
Instead we are getting two opposites fighting every issue for their constituents and not for the good of the country.
We simply can’t effectively get anything done and when we finally get a bill that’s signed into law, the objective of the other party is to destroy the bill.
There is no consensus of the conditions we live in whether it’s global warming peak oilor any other issue, scientific or ideological on either side.
With the weakening of organized labor the Dems are getting their money from the same sources as the Reps. They’ve got the same masters.
Both parties are neoliberal (Milton Friedman) and global and we need to define what they are in order to build an argument against these ideas.
Obama wants to push three destructive trade deals to “increase jobs.” Problem is that neither party can stimulate job growth in the global paradigm. The General Electric case so illustrates the empty cant of the Republicans. They paid no taxes and are still investing $billions in a new x-ray division in Beijing.
The past 10 years of lowered taxes on the haves and have mores have only eroded employment here, but the Reps keep repeating their simple-minded mantra. Nobody puts forth a cogent argument against them, as if what they say has credence.
They could be arguing that society governed by those elected by the polity should provide a social contract with the people and define what that should be and why it works.
There’s nothing special abut a country that is balkanized with a few at the top making all the money. That’s all bee done before and what the US meant for people was an alternative to that model. That’s why so many emigrated to this country. Job opportunity and a chance to make it without class systems that plague so many other countries.
I too have wondered why religious leaders from more established congregations have not defined Christianity in it’s more traditional values of caring for the poor, etc.
Instead what we see of contemporary Christianity is a direct link to our latter day Capitalism in it’s most fraudulent form of worshiping the making of money to the enth degree.
It seems pretty clear that the radical right has redefined religion, the constitution and every aspect of their thinking in a manipulative way to further the agendas of those who no longer feel the need to support the nation state.
They hate govt. and want us to be on our own, while saying nothing about the corps, banks and contractors living off the taxpayers. They call these wealthy maggots, “Job Creators”, why even Michele Bachmann refers to herself as a job creator.. that’s their new meme and they’re sticking with it.
What we are watching is the disintegration of the last standing superpower as some make tremendous money at it’s destruction.
My sister put it so well a few years ago when it became apparent that things were going off the rails.
She said that it’s like using the atom bomb to loosen up and syphon off wealth created from the industrial revolution on.
This is what happens when the people in highest eschelons are actually traitors for money.
i had no idea israel was part of aphrika!
peace peaceniks
I have lived in South America and ridden in taxi fleets powered by LNG.
I have talked to the taxi drivers who own their own vehicles and decided to change over from gasoline to LNG.
Third world car mechanics with grade school education can do it. It is not rocket science.
yep, down here in brazil every bloody petrol station offers ethanol, which they just grow themselves in the form of sugar cane. after they’ve extracted the ethanol, they use the refuse to power generators, so it’s a complete closed cycle, very nice to see.
fuck the US, anyone with a brain and the chance should just leave for better shores….there are plenty of them
peace peaceniks
Early and unjustified resort to insult usually masks a weak personality or a weak argument, mika.
==
It wasn’t early. I should have done it long ago. And it wasn’t unjustified. It was completely justified. 🙂
As to the weak argument, it is you with the weak argument. Even if we take your figure of 38,000 , it still totally validates my argument. They don’t look Chinese? All you have to do is look at the fucking pictures. Google images for bnei menashe.
And btw, I distinctly remember a figure of several million. Granted, it’s been many years since, but I know I’m not wrong on this. I don’t have the time now, but I will try to find you a reference to the multi million number, later today or tomorrow.
Jim, Your comments made me imagine a not so distant future press conference, in front of Mount Rushmore, where Bachmann trades Putin our national debt for our National Parks.
I’ve never been to a Starbuck’s but I am going to one today. This is the first CEO to make a gesture that makes me think about unloading my gun.
“fuck the US, anyone with a brain and the chance should just leave for better shores….there are plenty of them” -welles
Let me start by telling you I’ve been many, many places in this world, so I can’t be accused of ignorance of other places and climes.
Perhaps it’s the melancholy in me, but I prefer to watch mortality slip away as the seasons and years go ’round and ’round. Perpetual adolescence of fun in the perpetual sun would only get boring to me. There’s a sense of urgency that comes with living in a place that has changes of seasons. “Live life to the fullest”, and “Make hay while the sun shines” are commands here, not suggestions. I can certainly appreciate residing where one’s adaptation to nature requires less manual input, but then again, I’m partial to this “green and pleasant land” (as once was said of England). I was born in Western NY, but unless I’m driven out, I’ll remain and die in Western MA.
Could it be because of what I’ve “carved out” here? Maybe the “investment” of time and energy [with more to come] since 2005 tempers my outlook more than I’d like to admit. Like LLB, I used to be a very light traveler on this earth (and still consume FAR less than the vast majority), and could become so (mobility-wise) again if circumstances dictate.
I suppose some of us are better served by remaining on the landscape we know and love, and to adapt or die is not really that scary a proposition. Who knows? Those who do could define a new[/old] sustainable relationship with our only support system. Perhaps political considerations will be forced to adapt to physical realities someday, as well. (If they don’t, they will become shadows and dust; ideas with a “shelf life”.)
This is not to denigrate ex-pats; just to provide a different perspective on why people might go or stay.
Howdy Asoka, I have a question that perhaps you may be able clear up for me based upon your contentions: “I have lived in South America and ridden in taxi fleets powered by LNG.” “The conversion is simple and pays for itself.”
Precisely what is it the “third world car mechanics with grade school education” are doing? With a modicum of knowledge in the physics of automotive propulsion I would have expected the video to have included installation of an LPG tank (in a ventilated area), some sort of a gasifier (to convert the LPG to a gas), a metering device controlled by the existing throttle (to create an appropriate fuel air mixture), a coupler to the air inductor of the
existing carburetor or fuel injection system, electro-mechanical switching to change from liquid fuel to LPG at a minimum. The video you linked to appeared to show piece of heater hose being installed. Is this the video you intended to link to?
You further state: “The conversion is simple and pays for itself.”
Assuming a vast conversion of US vehicles to LPG where is the infrastructure to obtain refills for these vehicles?
SNAFU
Howdy Bossier22, Per your comment: “We have tons of agricultural land along the gulf coast that is very suited growing sugar cane.”
I am curious as to what the conversion factor to convert between a ton of agricultural land and an acre of agricultural land is?
Thanks, SNAFU
Hey we don’t have whipmy waves here, South Beach has great waves. Anyway I don’t think the President will be eating many clam rolls, Michelle undoubtedly will make him take her to Sweet Life in Oak Bluffs, and then he never talks to anyone while he is here, and he has a lot of supporters here – go figure.
Howdy Rocco, Per your comment “Meanwhile our lovely city down the road from you has a new plan, a Casino!!!!!”
As a Northcountry resident I have been equally astounded by Cuomo’s insistence on snuffling up Obama’s hindquarters when it comes to placating the wealthy (he is going to let the NY millionaires tax expire) and is slipping the camels’ nose under the tent to make NY the East coast gamboling version of Nevada.
“The times they are a changin”; to merde.
SNAFU
That was beautiful post Ozone. To each his own. I am glad for Welles to have fun down south too.
Now could you go explain the facts of life to those over educated monkeys at the Fed? Especially Bernanke. His connection with economic reality is pretty tenuous.
Just a figure of speech, Im’ a failure as a farmer Snaf. I talked to to rice farmer whose land i duck hunted on and he related that 70% of the land that was farmed in 1980 was out of production due lack of profitability. That land is just as suitable for sugar cane.
Here’s an example of the idiocy that the infotainment outlets are trying to make “acceptable”. WHY?
(This ain’t cute; this is appalling. Would we really let these creepoids dictate the direction of fuckall? I will not consent or yield to such dumbfuckery; nor, I suspect, would many another.)
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/44157690#44157690
That’s quite interesting.
I wonder if he could be convinced to try a small amount of acreage in raising sugarcane? To have access to a portable fuel source is more valuable than no fuel a’tall. (I’m just thinking that not everything can be subverted to a profit motive.)
Hey! Home-cooked rum ain’t a bad idea either! ;o)
We’re in contraction folks, opposite of the great expansion of affluence and middle class that took place between WWII and the Reagan Administration. Sorry to burst the bubble of idealist, but it was that expansion and the general sense of “all boats rising together” that accounts for “societal progress” that the idealist on the Left like to take credit for – such as Integration during the 50s, the Civil Rights Movement of the 60s, etc., etc.
Being my age I witnessed it. More than that, I was among the idealist who basked in the self-aggrandized view that it was how compellingly just was our position statements.
As disconcerting as is the conclusion, I do believe that the more severe the contraction becomes — more scarce resources to population – the more shredded society and nations will become by clamoring for control by hardened factions (tribes, if you will). America had best take note of what’s happening in overpopulated nations; loss of civility. In other words, no “celebrating of diversity” or PC.
(BTW, I don’t believe these “folks” are teaching their kid “humility” and “faith”. They’re teaching him the family bid’ness; a revenue extraction scheme. To put it plainly: a con game. Why isn’t this treated with the derision it deserves?)
Across the border in Louisiana, they grow lots of sugar cane. In coastal Texas it has languished. Sugarland Tx is a mega suburb of Houston now. If I had my way I’d make them tear down all their houses and move back inside the 610 loop where they belong. I wonder If Rick the prick or Obama ever considered how much a boom to Texas agriculture it would be. Besides producing fuel, it would take some of the presser off of corn for food.
I’m considering a still. I think it would be a fun project and a useful LE skill. Home made rum……
I’m a fan but … hardworking JC Penney managers everywhere hardly deserve the slur of being compared to Rick Perry! Ouch!
Rick Perry is the *Wal-Mart* version of GWBush.
Some strange things happen in the pentecostal churches. The pastors have a lot of control over their congregations and I generally agree with your assessment of them. The members , I have different view of. We had two young ladies who baby sat for us for several years and we got to know many members of the pentecostal community through them. outside the church the are everyday people except for the ladies hair styles. My wife and I are not church goers and yet we feel welcomed and comfortable among them.
Here’s a recent article that gives a figure of 2 million people. It’s a more conservative figure than the 5 million given earlier, but I’m pretty sure that when the story broke years ago, the initial estimate was of 5 million people.
http://bethaderech.com/manipur-jews-bnei-menashe/
We talk a good game, but if we really valued hard work, we would never have allowed our labor unions to be eviscerated and our industrial base exported to places such as China. – AMR
Which IMO is the reason your govts are in the financial mess they’re in. People that earn good wages pay a lot in tax. You no longer have that base of tax paying wage earners because those jobs are now in China.
Which is why you’ll soon be mothballing/disbanding large parts of your military. 11 carrier battle groups? Not for long. To my knowledge I’ve only heard one person call this offshoring of your economy what it is ie a national security crisis (Bill Gates if memory serves). No nation in its right mind would have allowed its productive industries to be exported to a potential or likely rival. I heard that you guys no longer even have the industrial capacity to build subway trains.
The industrial half of your military-industrial complex is in foreign lands under de-facto foreign control. This industrial part not only provided the capacity to build massive numbers of tanks, jets and guns in wartime but in peacetime provided the financial wherewithal to support the military that you think you want and need.
We’re in more or less the same mess up here. Maybe not as close to the edge of the cliff as you guys are.
I guess if we have war with china we will have to see if we can buy some tank parts from them first. Gates is one talk. I read where he said his foundation money was better spent outside the U.S.
…how much a boom to Texas agriculture it would be. Besides producing fuel, it would take some of the presser off of corn for food.
===============
boon
pressure
Perhaps Doomster you meant the “Lesser Of Two Weevils”
http://movieclips.com/KcaAM-master-and-commander-the-far-side-of-the-world-movie-the-lesser-of-two-weevils/
I MISS JC Penneys’. Ours went byebye years ago.
One of the Best stores around. IMO.
Now we have Macys’, which alot of the junk is way overpriced. And too much for me anyway.
WalMart is hideous. The whole thing. In some towns in central CA that is all there is.
I wish I would do what I keep thinking of, make my own clothes. Simple cuz I live in a Meditteranean Climate. anyway. Yeah R Perry was sickening to watch. I actually didn’t watch for very long. Hope we won’t have to see him for the next 4 years as President. God I just looked up and he’s on TV right now. Thomm Hartmann show.
Texas, I wouldn’t last very long there. Except for Don Henley of the Eagles lives there. One of my favorites singer songwriters.
Hartmann said that it looks like Perry is actually running for Americas’ Executioner in Chief, and that he loves talking, threatening, and actually putting people to death.
Lovely.
Rickie Perry has come down on da BernaKster calling him a criminal, and as you said why hasn’t this clown-dog called out the Bankstas that make up the golf clubs surrounding Dallas?
Hypocrites and fakes. That is all this Lilboybush-twin is all about.
Obama is out looking for cash so soon because he has nothing else to do. His advisors have already told him forgetaboutdajobs-thing. Save yourself some grief from the Teapublicans calling you a tax and spender.
Also, Obama must be a bit nervous about the competition having corn dogs, as Nouriel Roubini has already said we have a 50% chance for a double-dip recession coming at us soon. He gives 2-3 months of more data to make the call.
Watch the clip:
http://eye-on-washington.blogspot.com
Cash,
Any thoughts or shading of the nuances regarding the below link from Mish which asserts that ” 88.5% of U.S. spending last year was on American-made products and services” and that ” China accounted for only 2.7% of U.S. personal consumption spending in 2010″ ?
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2011/08/made-in-china-only-27-of-us-spending.html
Hope Jim had a good time at Watkins Glen watching NASCAR. Great race, won by the guy with a weird accent, Marcus Ambrose, nice guy otherwise. Track sucks though, very dangerous, the worst wrecks of the year happen there even with the slower speeds.
And Tiger Woods still sucks, poor guy had it all and now is gonna blow it. My WAG is that he retreats into the misfit black chauvinism that seems to be developing about some black athletes.
NFL getting back up to speed, NFC champ game predictions (take it to Vegas) Packers versus Eagles, too close to call right now.
And book this; The welfare state is toast. No matter the naughty names the cult leaders of the Left devise for the latest GOP blunderkind, the welfare state is toast.
the welfare state is toast
==
Maybe you should deliver that news to Halliburton, Exxon Mobil, Lockheed Martin, GM, etc.
thank you Q. If I win the lotto i’ll hire someone who can both spell and type.
Sounds good to me. Just read where Detroit is giving every kid free meals in school, must keep the Obama Youth fit and trim and in fighting shape. Actually might help out with IQ enhancement, and those kids need it, politeness and PC keeping society for recognizing them and their culture as massive fails. (In a multi-cultural society I most certainly can say they are not mine, so much for egalitarianism)
I actually like multi-culturalism, while it might help destroy the unitary USA I view it as a natural evolutionary step for humans to want their own and to produce their own. We might tend to becoming a caste society, and if we are to remain a unitary state I expect this is the road we have to travel. Not perfect but in some fashion this is how Jews have perfected their tribalism thru caste politics of in group out group and clustering about certain professions. Without a caste system the multi-cultural state disintergrates like Yugoslavia versus a caste system like India which buffers the worst seccesionist impulses.
the welfare state is toast
==
I certainly hope so. The entire USA military establishment is one giant welfare system that provides clothing, transportation, beds, pillows, toothbrushes, shoes, underwear, etc.
The military should be abolished. Good to know that it is toast.
Just read where Detroit is..
==
Detroit is a stark example of what happens to a place and a people that surrender to the corporations. It is warning to us all.
Does anyone read Elaine Supkis blog and what she says about the military?
Sometimes she blogs daily, ‘Culture of Life’.
Fer Instance the ‘Christian-uh zation’ of the air force!
E=MC2
I’ve figured out what the Republican party is, Whitey Bulger. That is a violent crazy old sonavabitch who is stuck in the past.
Wardoc says ” Soon, very soon, in the US, the disenfranchised classes will come to the suburban neighborhoods of those who pretend they are wealthy (but in reality owe more than they will ever be able to pay off). This will occur after the aforementioned disenfranchised have burned and looted their own neighborhoods; they will focus their anger and angst on the pseudo wealthy (not knowing the difference between them and the real thing), and they will begin to realize that there is more “stuff” to take in the suburbs, with literally no one with courage to oppose them, and they will come, in gangs. (The situation in London shows that humans devolve into gangs, quite rapidly during crisis).
I think your assessment is dead wrong. First, even gang-bangers don’t have the wherewithal to invade suburbia. Suburbia is a network of households. These stakeholders will network. I also don’t agree with your concept of the “Effeminate” suburban easy target. There will be a male in most households, most of the time, and even an effeminate person will react to attack.
Second, even Sun Tzu knew that the defender has the home-court advantage. Invaders into Suburbia will face heavy losses from the kind of block to block, house by house fighting that even the US military would rather avoid. Suburban neighborhoods can be strongholds from which withering defensive fire can be laid down from any number of elevated positions.
Third, once the angered mobs burn and loot their own neighborhoods, the ‘hoods they likely grew up in and never left, they will probably just stay there, like most disenfranchised folks.
Ooo, fourth: the distances between urban hooligans and exurban populations is not insignificant. You can pack maybe 6 goons into a given vehicle. How good are gangbangers at overland navigation and logistics? Lets say they want to assault a suburb 20 miles away. They take 5 cars, for an assault group of 30. They assault a suburban tract home neighborhood, with a population of, 30×2 adults, with a firearm ownership of just 25%, so you have 20 defenders with 3 times the eyeballs for early warning.
30 gangbangers roll up a typical tract-home neighborhood’s controlled access road (1-3 possibilities). They are spotted within minutes as outsiders. Everyone in the neighborhood is aware of intrusion within the first 10 minutes of gunfire. Gangbangers shoot their way into a handful of houses, and then what? Steal the food? The TV? Meanwhile, they face increasing numbers of residents sniping at them from multiple angles.
Nevermind that gangbangers are mostly idiots of low IQ, in poor health, undisciplined and untrained. These people don’t “focus anger and angst”… in fact, it is completely unfocused,
The crimes in London were crimes of opportunity. Their might have been motivations like anger and angst in the property damage, but, in general it was unfocused. The individual crimes of robbery, etc. were mostly against bystanders who were easy targets (young, weak, old).
Likelier attack is against single homes on the fringes, with a single car, at night. Even then, the risk is high for taking casualties.
Roving hordes of stupid, hungry people attempting B&E and assault in unfamiliar situations will face a high failure rate.
“The only one who could ever reach me,
was the son of a preacher man.”
I’ve heard that the Holy Ghost-inspired tongues spoken by Pentecostals often sound like a parody of Hebrew: “ish-kabish-kabosh-kaboo,” etc. Our kiddo could have a bright future of Pentecostal ministry ahead of him.
Yikes. What a pathetic waste of the Interwebs.
Unfortunately, I don’t think the tail is wagging the dog in this case. What appalls me isn’t that the “Today Show” broadcast such mindless idiocy; every time I’ve watched that show it’s gotten progressively worse over the course of the morning, and I’ve long expected Meredith Vieira and company to insult their own intelligence by pandering to goobers (one of Matt Lauer’s colleagues once told a writer for the New Yorker that he absolutely hated doing celebrity interviews).
What appalls me is that according to Vieira the idiotic video of that preaching toddler got four million views on YouTube. I’m floored by the moronic shit that goes viral on YouTube. I’ve been on the site at times when highly viewed police brutality videos (i.e., serious reportage) had roughly half a million views and videos of such rubbish as a simian monkey riding around on a house cat had over ten million.
Of course, the networks shouldn’t be promoting such utter fucking idiocy, but when something so lobotomized gets four million hits before being broadcast on the “Today Show,” it’s more a case of the people getting what the people want. By “people,” I’m afraid I mean disembrained, delusional rabble. If that shit resonates as much as it seems, God help us.
As an aside, I hope that when electricity rationing arrives the first targets include the sections of the cloud hosting these dumbass videos and the round-robin e-mails used to advertise them.
Subway trains? Maybe so. Many American transit agencies buy their rolling stock from Kawasaki and/or Bombardier, which explains everything from the announcements on the SEPTA Broad Street Line (“Daawws Clawsing!”) to your vibrant industrial export sector. On the other hand, rail is one of the industrial bright spots in the States. As of a few years ago, at least, Chinese railroads were buying diesel freight locomotives built by GE in Erie. Between our heavy rail manufacturers and our network of rapid transit overhaul yards, we probably have the capacity to quickly reestablish production of subway rolling stock.
The news isn’t so bright in other sectors. We’ve abandoned large merchant marine shipbuilding to South Korea. Similarly, we’ve allowed our own merchant marine to atrophy terribly; short-sea shipping is all but dead in much of the country, partly on account of high US merchant marine salaries but also on account of various subsidies and other public policies devoted to trucking. As far as textiles and electronics are concerned–holy shit.
Here’s something worrisome: the new east span of the SF Bay Bridge is being built using mainframe beams built in southern China. The State of California determined that there was no foundry in the US capable of building these components, or that there was no foundry capable of doing so at a competitive price; the explanation was inconsistent.
The big brouhaha was predictably over American jobs being exported to China, a legitimate grievance. There is another serious concern, however, that has gotten very little coverage in the US. Even though the Chinese foundry seems to be aboveboard and competent, how the hell will the bridge authority have recourse if there are defects in the beams that become apparent only after completion of the bridge, as often happens in construction projects? This is a Chinese company, and due process and impartiality in Chinese courts are a joke. An American supplier would have a much harder time weaseling out of liability for defective products. It would at least be immediately answerable to a tort case and would probably be unable to corrupt the courts hearing it. Does the bridge authority think it will get a fair hearing against a celebrated Chinese company in a Chinese court, or a hearing at all?
Good point, AMR
In fact Steel industry representatives have claimed that lead molds were found in Chinese steel. Given how badly the Chinese dry wall in millions of homes is holding up, I think it’s a big gamble to build our structures with Chinese made steel.
Last week I mentioned that the NYTimes had an article about Chinese building companies, partially owned by government are slated to build sections of the Tappen Zee bridge and other infrastructure in NYC.
I just reviewed Dylan Ratigan’s article on the Panama Trade deal that Obama wants passed so badly. He claims that this bill will create American jobs.
As the economy is so small there, we are talking about something that will have no impact on job creation.
The real point of this deal Ratigan points out, is that Panama is a great place for American strategic aims and to hide money. It’s already established, but the trade deal will codify it into international trade law making it very difficult to go after anyone under suspicion.
Well here’s the kicker for me. I had a really interesting conversation with a late gold dealer who lived in my building. He told me two years ago that his friends at Goldman Sachs had gotten themselves a freighter and sent their gold holdings to Panama. As sleezy as it sounded at the time, this new piece to the puzzle really ties in what this whole thing is about.
Yes, while Obama tauts how great his trade deal is, Ratigan asks:
[The key question we have to face as a country is how we want to govern ourselves. From World War II until NAFTA, our trading policies were based on geopolitical needs and what would increase prosperity for America. Since NAFTA, however, the mantra of free trade has been warped to generate rights for international capital and nothing else. The agreements Congress and the President are pushing continue this unfortunate trend. What unfettered capital wants is to avoid taxes, regulations, or any state power whatsoever. And that’s what this Panama deal is really about.]
If a corporation doesn’t make money for 3 quarters in a row, the people win, and the planet wins,too.
In fairness to the Chinese, the foundry building the Bay Bridge parts sounds a few cuts above the average Chinese factory. Also, I assume that due diligence is being done by project representatives on quality control for the imported parts, since I haven’t heard anything to the contrary. The oversight of major projects such as that is usually pretty thorough. So I’d say that egregious problems with the metallurgy such as lead contamination are unlikely. This one of the rare projects in China where the external oversight is adequate to strongly deter adulteration and corner-cutting.
What worries me is the prospect of minor flaws and honest mistakes, of the same sort that can be expected from time to time on the part of reputable American steelmakers, but without the legal recourse that is available against American suppliers.
Chinese drywall is another matter entirely. The US has shit for inspections on most cargo at its ports of entry. The same is true of some domestic industries with bad safety records, e.g. meatpacking. Disreputable foreign firms ship all kinds of defective and dangerous products stateside, and our authorities rarely do a damned thing to intercept them.
I suppose the new, unanswered question that doesn’t need to be asked at this point is: who NOW will pay the unemployment benefits for those people out of work for more than 13/26 weeks? That little “benny” went out with the latest package deal sailing through Congress. Will those good folk still without a job walk quietly into that good night? Perhaps they will solemnly pack up their bags and move to, oh, I don’t know, South Dakota, where the unemployment rate is quite a bit lower than it is in say, Jersey.
It might be the case that the most recent case of stock market jitters were all reactionary and the people who know best are investing their money wisely, back into it. This while the majority of us seniors are getting a miserable return on our savings. Or maybe thrift and savings don’t matter anymore either.
I find it laughable that Obama is on the campaign trail, and already has the AUDACITY to yell to his audience, “You’ve got to make your voice heard to CONgress!” What the HELL did we ELECT him for if not to do THAT? Nearly chuckled my ass off at hearing the remark on Public Radio. And you know what? People are just stupid enough to buy it. Yes, it’s that old “obstructionism” we’ve been hearin tell of since ole “W” was in office, and briefly, Clinton before him.
This nation deserves the lot of electorate losers we’ve inherited. Complacency and silence have allowed these thieves to bankrupt the entire country and the world. If there were any justice at all, there would be a world military tribunal (led by WHOM?) that would try and justly hang each and every one of the banksters and politicians who’ve looted this country into financial disaster.
Lb said here’s the kicker: He told me two years ago that his friends at Goldman Sachs had gotten themselves a freighter and sent their gold holdings to Panama.
===============
***** BREAKING NEWS *****
Lbend joins the absurd conspiracy theory crew.
What a coincidence Lb, it was just yesterday that my pal, the shoeshine boy, told me he and his fellow shoeshine buddies got a dingy powered by a 60 year old 5hp Scott Atwater, loaded it with all THEIR gold (the thing damn near sank under the weight) and took it to Panama.
Seriously Lb, “got themselves a freighter?? Do you realize a small freighter would easily hold all the gold ever mined since the BIG BANG?
There are so many people on this blog who see hobgoblins behind every tree that I can’t friggin believe it. I hope Wage read your comment. She would buy in in 2 seconds.
Why would you even bother passing on a word-of-mouth conversation you had two years ago with a now deceased “gold dealer in your building?” And this is supposed to support nefarious motives for Obama’s Panama Trade Deal?
Personally, I insist on reputable living sources. I guess when the freighter got to Panama it was met by a caravan of 18-wheelers and a crew of stevedores who loaded the gold on the trucks then drove it to a highly secured and secret warehouse. Then the crew of stevedores and the truck drivers were all summarily shot and buried by the Goldman Sachs guys to cover the trail.
OMG, the things people will believe.
Maybe you’re right. But maybe Suburbia isn’t as well-connected as you think. So think about it. How many wives (or husbands for that matter) can afford to stay home days to look after the house and kids? Today’s suburbia looks very different from the suburbia I lived in as a young adult.
There used to be a women’s club, church groups, and plenty of youngins meandering around the neighborhood to ensure that your phone rang if and when little Johnny had thrown a rock trough Mrs. Braham’s window (true story – happened over forty years ago). Just imagine our suburban conversations of yesteryear: “Did you see that strange Pontiac parked over at Mrs. Holland’s house this afternoon and EVERY afternoon on Wednesday, before the children were due home?…Well, my dear, I don’t know if you’ve been paying attention as I have, but…”
You get the idea. Today, virtually nobody is home during the day. In a lot of the suburban developments that surround me, you could back a Mack truck into the garage of one of these vinyl McClusterfuck Mansions and maybe a gopher or two would be the wiser.
Bottom line: crooks are smarter than you think. They wait, they watch, and when the moment is opportune, the attack. Take it from one whose been there and knows.
all the gold ever mined since the BIG BANG
==
😀
So what are you saying, Q, Panama is not a tax-heaven? It’s all a conspiracy to unjustly malign them poor innocent corporations, is that it?
Panama is not a tax-heaven?
===============
Haven
Answer the question, you heathen! 😀
while Obama tauts how great his trade deal is
=================
touts
Was anyone else here left scratching their head regarding the inconsistency between the weak London police response to violent, roving gangs earlier this month, and the iron-fisted police response to peaceful demonstrators at the G-20 gatherings in London and Pittsburgh a few years ago?
Hell, in Pittsburgh, cops pulled out supersonic sound canon weapons to keep the peaceful hippies from even speaking badly about banks.
But, underclass: if you want to scare and divide yourselves from the middle class by raping their daughters, robbing their grandmothers, and busting up their shops, have at it.
That seems to be the message.
Divide and conquer at its finest.
Middle class, you are about to be squeezed from the top and bottom.
“Middle class, you are about to be squeezed from the top and bottom.”
[Enter Beavis with his hair shaved to make himself look like Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankein]
Beavis: “Hi Everybody. I’m Lloyd Blankein. I need money. Give me money. Free money…from the U.S. Department of Treasury at a zero interest rate.”
http://www.mtv.com/shows/beavis_and_butthead/series.jhtml
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2025452/Goldman-Sachs-CEO-Lloyd-Blankfein-loses-50m-stock-market-plunge.html
Answer the question
===========
It’s all a CIA/Vatican plot.
And besides, a bar of gold is less valuable than a bag of groceries. Just ask Asoka and Eleuthero.
Obtuse, you are such an ass! … an embarrassment to the State of Israel, the Jewish people and in particular to “millions” of Chinese Jews who resemble Menachem Schneerson except for the slanted eyes.
😉
Sinclair Lewis said, “When Fascism comes to America it will be carrying a bible wrapped in the flag.” He wrote a very interesting book called “It Can’t Happen Here” Well, folks, it’s happening and no one is talking about separation of church and state, etc. I’ve never seen a sorrier bunch of losers in my life as that group in Ames, Iowa. Good Hair Perry joining the race is almost as disgusting as Nit Gingrich crawling back out from under his rock.
Obtuse, you are such an ass! … an embarrassment to the State of Israel, the Jewish people and in particular to “millions” of Chinese Jews who resemble Menachem Schneerson except for the slanted eyes.
==
LOL! That’s the way I intend to keep it. So that racists like yourself will only judge me for me and not for my sexy slanted eyes or flat nose. 😀
It’s all a CIA/Vatican plot.
==
Damn right it is. And more and more people are starting to know and understand this.
“Answer the question, you heathen! :D”
-methuselah, to himself as mika, or somebody-
Ok, Met – I’m not sure which question you are referring to OR which heathen you are referring to –
But this particular “heathen” will take a shot at a question we left hanging earlier.
You originally said that there were 5,000,000 “Chinese Jews.” Then you amended that number down to 2,000,000 – based on the link you provided. Well, here’s the relevant excerpt from that link:
“Most of the residents of Mizoram and Manipur are Christians. Among the Manipur Jews there are some who believe* that all the Manipur and Mizoram residents (about 2 million people) are originally from the Menashe tribe. The Manipur Jews believe that the Christian missionaries in the 19th century, forced these Jews to abolish their Jewish identity and adopt Christianity.
From 1951 after a local chief, named Tchalah revealed to his people that GOD HAD TOLD HIM that his people should return to their original religion and land (Judaism and Israel)….”
-mika’s link-
*some who believe
Sorry, Mika, but a reference to
– -“*some who believe” – –
is a long way from providing proof that there are 5,000,000 – or even 2,000,000 – – “Ethnic Chinese Jews in China” who happen to look almost exactly like “ethnic Chinese.” (I saw the pictures.)
And I still fail to understand how I can marry a Jewish woman – and convert to Judaism in a RELIGIOUS ceremony – yet not be accepted as authentically Jewish by you, an atheist – because my genetic/ethnic makeup is not properly “Jewish.”
Seems like you want to have it both (all?) possible ways.
Doesn’t seem reasonable or sustainable, to me.
Ok, Met – I’m not sure which question you are referring to OR which heathen you are referring to
==
I was referring to the “heathen”, I like to refer to as “Q”. Who, btw, is Jewish.
I still fail to understand how I can marry a Jewish woman – and convert to Judaism in a RELIGIOUS ceremony – yet not be accepted as authentically Jewish by you, an atheist – because my genetic/ethnic makeup is not properly “Jewish.”
==
Simple. YOU will NEVER be Jewish, because YOU were NEVER Jewish. Your progeny by way of your Jewish wife however, can be Jewish, if, and only if, they completely identify themselves as part of the Jewish tribe.
is a long way from providing proof that there are 5,000,000
==
I already told you. The initial estimate when the story first broke some years ago was of 5 million people. That’s the number that stuck with me.
“yep, down here in brazil every bloody petrol station offers ethanol, which they just grow themselves in the form of sugar cane. after they’ve extracted the ethanol, they use the refuse to power generators, so it’s a complete closed cycle, very nice to see.”
That is NOT a completely closed cycle. Tons of energy are required to plant the crops, grow them (water/fertilize/pesticide/herbicide), harvest them, and distill the ethanol – each step producing gaseous carbon (CO2). The ethanol is burned in vehicles, producing CO2. The refuse is burned, producing CO2. Nowhere in your supposed “closed cycle” do I see sequestration of CO2 back into solid carbon.
You are taking the solid carbon out of your soil, and burning it all off into the atmosphere. In fact, some argue that the ethanol process is actually self-defeating – the energy needed to plant/grow/harvest/process sugar cane into ethanol is purportedly more than the energy that is produced by the ethanol.
PS – you ever plan to pay that $10K+ income tax debt off?
Ah, yes, the last refuge of the Democrat scoundrel-the Supreme Court!
Actually, corporations have increased their powers through Dems and Reps, especially over the last 30 years.
As if the Supreme Court could stop them!
So that racists like yourself
==================
How can you logically label me a racist when just two days ago you denied that race is a valid concept?
How can you logically label me a racist when just two days ago you denied that race is a valid concept?
==
True, race is not a valid concept, not for as far as I’m concerned. But how does that apply to you? How does that apply to YOU being a racist? I label YOU a racist because as far as YOU are concerned, racist sterotypes and bigotry are completely valid. You don’t judge people as individuals, you class people into bigoted/racist stereotypes. Maybe it’s a logic that escapes you, but it’s certainly not a fact that escaped me.
Remember when Bechtel spent twice as much time and money as promised when they built The Big Dig in Boston?
And then a woman was killed when a concrete block fell on her.
And they said that they used the wrong glue to glue up the concrete block.
Glue??!!
They glue up concrete?
I certainly hope that the Chinese have better standards than Bechtel.
Good point.
Nothing gets people supporting a police state like visible gangs of looters.
Too bad that Jamie Dimon and Lloyd Blankfein don’t have to show themselves to their victims.
Ron Paul is not a ninny. He is the only politician you have in the USA that makes sense. Listen to him and vote for him and you may finally stop raping the rest of your global neighbours. Yankee go home, you can’t afford to be in everyone’s backyards anymore. You blew your wad.
And Jim, the reason none of your bankers are in jail is because they did nothing wrong. They just did things the American Way. Blame your government for making the rigging of markets legal.
Again, vote for Ron Paul- you owe the world one smart act.
True, race is not a valid concept, not for as far as I’m concerned. But how does that apply to you? How does that apply to YOU being a racist? I label YOU a racist because as far as YOU are concerned, racist sterotypes and bigotry are completely valid. You don’t judge people as individuals, you class people into bigoted/racist stereotypes. Maybe it’s a logic that escapes you, but it’s certainly not a fact that escaped me.
===================
This sounds like a branch of Asoka-logic. You are large…
Good link, Buck.
I don’t really agree about campaign finance reform, however.
Usually when people call for campaign finance reform, they mean public financing of election advertising.
Why? These are public airways, and in a democracy, public airways should be used to inform the public, for free.
To enrich the corporate media at public expense, to do what they should do for free, would be a travesty.
Other countries manage to use their media to inform their citizens.
And campaign contributions are just the beginning. Would the taxpayers then be called on to provide hookers, steaks and golf vacations for Congress? How far will the call for public subsidy of Congressional corruption go?
No. Get rid of the 35,000 lobbyists and require the media to give time to candidates as a public service.
Of course, it would mean giving up the perpetual election cycle. Maybe have a campaign timeline of 6 weeks, like in Britain?
As James Madison pointed out-
“A popular government without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy, or perhaps both.”
We seem to be living in both.
Ahhh,….America has become another banana republic. China is now doing to us what the American Fruit Company did to the people of Central American nations: took over their agriculture so that we Americans could have cheap bananas at expense of the natives driven off land and self sufficiency to end up in city slums. In no way different the Chinese are now able to afford meat, forcing up food prices here in the States. The “free trade” bullshit is coming around to bite us on the butt. Of course, if we American citizenry weren’t chickenshit we’d rid ourselves of the Free Market gospel, enforce our immigration laws and secure our food sources for ourselves, especially in these circumstances of approaching “Long Emergency”
This sounds like a branch of Asoka-logic. You are large…
==
Right. So by your idiotic reasoning, because I’m an atheist and do not believe in god, this would preclude me from legitimately proclaiming other people who do believe in god, to be theists. You are a moron.
I completely understand Bernanke´s understanding of economic.
You, very often if not always, understand what it is convenient to understand.
There is nothing like a lot of money that opens your eyes, your brain and your heart.
But then, there it comes the real difference between a stupid and an intelligent man:
The intelligent can always see beyond his immediate profit the future profit, that sometimes means I loose now, but I will earn later.
Everybody has to gain if things go well, if the wealth is shared.
At least you could go away without fearing the thieves or to be cheated, or to be killed.
I am on the opinion that this world could feed all and provide a decent lifestyle for all.
If only more people were of the same opinion…
Unfortunately, there are serious constitutional obstacles to eliminating lobbyists as you suggest. Lobbyists’ activities are the very definition of political speech. Their very purpose is to petition Congress to implement laws and policies that those hiring them support. They can’t be restricted without severely restricting political speech. There is probably room for the FCC to put more pressure on broadcasters to cover political candidates without effectively extorting them, but the FCC has a long history of pushing the envelope on the First Amendment, so this isn’t a straightforward or entirely positive solution.
As far as I know there’s no constitutional problem with shortening our election season. As it is, our politicians do more campaigning than governing. The absurdly long campaign periods encourage this. Our lengthy campaigns arguably enable ordinary citizens in small states to participate to an extent that they otherwise couldn’t, but they also enable loudmouthed, bullying zealots and pedantic horseracing enthusiasts to hijack the process; witness Bachmann’s win in the Iowa Straw Poll and CNN’s longwinded but vacuous coverage of politics in general.
Here’s the kicker: the lobbyists and elected whores have to be defeated from below. The electorate has to unplug from the hologram and plug into the reality-based community long enough to call bullshit on the rotten bastards and turf them out. The real kickers are that no one can force them to do so and that they have to be invited back into the reality-based community one at a time. It’s a long, painstaking grassroots effort–or, as they say at CNN, retail politics.
I think you’re right that Obama is NOT the man
to break the theocratic stronghold in the Right.
His own house has “termites” (Jeremiah Wright,
etc.).
However, because these Pentecostal doofuses are so
intellectually undermanned and underequipped,
they fall into traps of their own making.
Bachmann was found, today, to be running a
business on the state dole. Perry wants to
diss Bernanke by giving him the cold shoulder if
he comes to Texas.
The good news for sane people is that these people
are sufficiently stupid that the Democrats can
basically just stand by and watch them step in
their own doo-doo.
Thus, I agree with your assessment that the
demands of realpolitik dictate that Obama should
let them self-destruct rather than taking them
on directly and risking losing ALL of their votes
instead of just 75% of them.
E.
LBendet said:
In fact Steel industry representatives have claimed that lead molds were found in Chinese steel. Given how badly the Chinese dry wall in millions of homes is holding up, I think it’s a big gamble to build our structures with Chinese made steel.
***************************************************
The entire Chinese industrial model is
frantic overproduction to be first-to-market.
This, of course, is known to lead to
higher error rates since caution is
thrown to the wind. And they don’t
exactly have OSHA over there either.
Lots of industrial accidents that are
shrugged off.
I’m still reeling at the idea that we
almost trusted the Chinese to make a
nuclear detector to detect nuke materials
on ships coming through the Florida Straits.
One would hope, of course, that calm-headed
purchasers of Chinese goods would have some
quants in their companies to do comparative
error-rate detection. However, we’re in a
“Ferrengi-ized” world where “money talks and
bullshit walks” is the only metric.
Thus, cost is the only metric for buying their
stuff and we’re selling companies to them
because they have suitcases full of money.
The world is in a bear market for QUALITY
and CONSCIENCE.
E.
Good point, although a lot of these nuts believe their own bullshit. On the other hand, there are also preachers like Pat Robertson, a cynic who uses his audience of pious goobers as a customer base and a source of free capital to fund dubious enterprises including blood diamond mines.
Ish-kabish-kaBAM!
That just may be coming soon to a subdivision near you.
You mentioned the corn crunch. If Congress comes across some sense, it may realize that we’re too broke as a nation to keep propping up the corn ethanol boondoggle. It may have no real choice in the matter. For instance, if the options are cutting off a few well-connected Midwestern farmers and agribusiness concerns who will just grumble or making cuts to social services that will cause our cities to burn, Congress will choose the former. Its members tend to be dirty, cruel and contemptuous of their constituents, but when push comes to shove they aren’t obtuse. They don’t want anarchy, and they know which restive elements are likely to torch South Central and Over-the-Rhine again. Or vote them out of office. If things get tight I imagine they’ll be much more hesitant to cross hood denizens and pensioners than Cargill and a few stoic families with quarter sections in Iowa.
Also, as peak oil asserts itself we’ll be seeing more and more home gardening of various sorts. We’re already seeing that. There have been some horrid legal disputes surrounding home gardening, especially the one involving the officious municipal code fascists in Michigan, but that seems less likely in southeast Texas, where I’ve heard that there is effectively no zoning (correct me if I’m mistaken).
Gas prices should put a dent in the 610 spillover problem. If Joel Osteen is any indication, a lot of people in your part of Texas will be happy to relocalize to the extent that it means escaping traffic and their demeaning jobs.
You like dystopian fiction, so here’s a short, bad piece of it, in play form:
Neighbor: “Some of us in the neighborhood don’t like what you’ve done to your yard, removing your lawn and all.”
Homeowner: “Fuck you. It’s my yard. If you’re stupid enough to use gasoline maintaining ornamental pasture, that’s your business, but this is my livelihood. Get out of my cane patch.”
Neighbor: “You know, we’re worried about the neighborhood….”
Homeowner: “Do I have to call the cops?”
—
Homeowner’s son: “Daddy, Rebecca just took my toy trucks again!”
Homeowner: “Hey kids, how about instead of teasing each other y’all go out and cut cane for a while?”
—
–Joel Osteen (over a hand-cranked emergency radio in the cane patch; some static): “You may say, ‘I don’t like cuttin’ cane all day.’ Well, persevere, because I’m tellin’ you, God has great plans for you. He may have you in that cane patch now, but just wait. You’ll have that hour-long commute down that potholed freeway to your new office job. You’ll live that Ephesians 3:20 life. Name it and claim it! If you want to have a thirty-mile commute next year, drive three miles on the freeway today. Can I get a hallelujah for that?!”
OK Q,
Seems that nobody’s really impressed with that assessment I gave about the freighter. I say this, where there’s smoke there’s fire. Just because somebody died last year, it doesn’t mean he didn’t know people at GS and didn’t do business with them.
Though what he described to me might be small potatoes in the scheme of things, that might have been the tip of the iceberg. In all fairness, I could not describe their actions any differently than the way it was told to me, but that doesn’t mean they haven’t continued to send more over.
The gist of this thing is that the wealthy have been sending their money and other valuables to Panama to avoid taxation or confiscation, should history repeat itself.
Here’s my point. Panama is the second largest tax haven in the world, now. What Ratigan was saying is that the ability to track black banking activity in Panama is going to be way more difficult under these new trade laws, because the trade laws themselves act as a barrier and have no teeth to investigate illegal actions.
[“….Panama remains an environment conducive to laundering the proceeds from criminal activity and creates a vulnerability to terrorist financing.”]
I’m happy to see that some of you trust the quality of the steel the Chinese produce here and believe that quality control is used. In the past, it has not been done and there have been spots I’ve seen on TV that showed the structural problems in that steel. Of course it was a steel industry spokesman making the case–I suppose you can say he was a sore loser.
I’m also glad Q seems to not be concerned about these trade deals.
E.,
You understand that there is a fanaticism of free unregulated markets in the neoliberal paradigm, where the idea of quality control is anathema.
People in Florida are suffering because their dry wall is emitting sulfur. Millions of homes were built with this drywall and nobody addressed this before it’s become a health hazard.
What makes anyone think that anything will be different with anything else we import?
While the right wing zealots of free trade and anything the coporations do is fine with me, want to dismantle the EPA, there will be far less resources to check imports for safety. So we’re going headlong into the wrong direction.
Oh, but I’m a conspiracy theorist all the sudden, because I continue to point out that this country and it’s value system from religion on up, is nothing more than a criminal enterprise and money making boondoggle, for just a few while everyone else is being reamed.
Every trade deal since NAFTA has been at the US worker’s expense and will continue to go in that direction until people are willing to fight for what they once had here.
In the meantime Perry is gaining more momentum as bully-in-chief. Yesterday he made a threat to Bernanke, who I am no fan of, btw. Nobody seems to care that Perry replaced investigators with his own people in a case where he pushed for an execution of an innocent man.
He’s also hell-bent on making sure government is not there for any of its citizens and will cease to have any raison-d’etre. I guess that’s when the Secessionists hope the country will break down into regional powers–who knows what their will lead to.
Not bad AMR. you are right about zoning in southeast texas. One of my friends dad( in his 80’s) told me a story about farming in rural east texas. He said, you would not believe how many people made at least part of their living by farming around here just 50 years ago. Now hardly anyone does. there are more and more people gardening though. Our town just built a new farmers market. some progress i suppose.
– on rick perry and US politics –
http://elections.nytimes.com/2008/results/president/map.html
Interesting map – for those with short memories – and it has a slider button that goes back to the ’92 election.
The fact that Rick Perry can campaign for a couple of weeks and outperform guys who have been campaigning for 4 and 8 years, is a measure of several things:
1. The HIGH boredom level of politics for average US citizens
2. The fracturing and bifurcating nature of the two party system – where extreme positions get votes in primaries
3. The constant hunger of US media for a NEW story
4. The idiocy of allowing a “*straw poll*” in, of all places, I O Waaa – (come on, Iowa?) to determine the viability of candidates for national office.
5. The desire of voters to repeat the “success” of the BushII years with, yet another, Texas governor for President. (weird, eh??)
Looking at this list, I’d say the two party system is a big part of our problems. Any ideas for getting rid of it?
———-
Wage – you think Obama is gonna get another term?
I think he might, myself – since the Repubs seem determined to shoot themselves in the feet.
And I wouldn’t care so much,except for immigration, globalism, and possible SCOTUS picks. AND because Obama, as a Democrat, has cover for selling out the lower middle class on Social Security, etc – in a way that a Republican could not.
(In the same way the anti-communist Nixon could liberalize relations with China in a way that a Democrat never could have.)
Nice retort, Wage – Touché! And it’s true, the party hack will overlook endless political equivocation and betrayal with the expectation that a Supreme Court nomination will eventually represent their political philosophy. On the other side of the coin, the militant absolutist will forsake all political outcomes because principle has been compromised. And yet who can argue that Scalia and Thomas equal Sotomayor and Kagan, or that Supreme Court decisions have little impact? Well, I think that you would Wage, and in doing so, must resort to rounding off the corners in order to generalize your assertion. But one rounded off corner too many – another Obama SCOTUS appointment – might very well spell the difference between corporations as corporations or corporations as people.
Lobbyists’ activities are the very definition of political speech.
==
That’s an asinine statement/assertion. Unfettered access and ability to law makers (as long as you have the money) to fashion law is NOT free speech, it is unfettered and unrestricted access and ability to fashion law.
Personally, I have no problem with unrestricted access and ability to fashion law, as long as that ability is equally granted to all. The only way to do that is through direct democracy and direct voting by the entire population on any and all issues.
Btw, the US Supreme Court is an unmitigated corporate sham. The lawyers sitting on that court should all be put in prison on charges of a fascist conspiracy and racketing.
charges of a fascist conspiracy and racketing.
===========
racketeering
What, they don’t play tennis!? 😀
might very well spell the difference between corporations as corporations or corporations as people.
==================
I know there’s been a big stink recently about the SC having made a decision that effectively declares corporations to be “people” (I did not get into the details of this story at all) yet I recall when I took Business Law in college in 1960 we discussed “corporate personhood” (ie corporations at that time were considered as people). What is the difference between NOW and 1960 as relates to corporations being people?
BTW, although what I have forgotten from my course in business law would fill volumes, I DO recall forming a belief at that time that “corporate personhood” was reasonable and proper thing.
was reasonable and proper thing.
=============
was a reasonable and proper thing.
I DO recall forming a belief at that time that “corporate personhood” was reasonable and proper thing
==
Then personal liability for all corporate shareholders should also be a reasonable and proper thing.
Not that I would want to actually deal with Q in real life, but I had two incidents at work which only amused me.
A notice on the wall announced an upcoming fund raiser and proclaimed that many treasurers were for sale. So I scribbled a question about whether our corporate treasurer was for sale. No one else thought that was funny.
Then I had a trauma patient, and the doctor wrote on the chart “Pt hit a deer riding a motorcycle”.
Which I thought was very funny. Why was a deer riding a motorcycle?
But no one else laughed.
Oh Boy! Here comes the New Apostolic Reformation! (No one expects the New Apostolic Reformation!)
Check out Ricky’s “calling”, waaay back in 2009! Got his hand grasped and eve’thang.
Haid down; powda drah…
http://www.texasobserver.org/cover-story/rick-perrys-army-of-god
Well, Gee Dubya didn’t get that agenda kicked in real well, but then again, the heavy cocaine and ak-ahol use musta burned out the Jesus-good, Debbil-bad node of his twisted little brain. He did try (bless his heart), but kinda plopped his whole wad of “political capital” on a big Mid-East Crusade deal. That failed to bring the love ‘n’ light of the gun-totin’ Jeebus to them benighted A-rabs, but you’ve got to give him credit for a swell attempt. (He should’ve turned the troops loose on those sinners right here at home first, to get all the good Americans on the same page; and all the unrepentant sinners into the privatized prisons. Oh well, “if at first you don’t succeed…” and all that; maybe Ricky will do better.)
I would be one of the rubes that DOES want to know why the deer was riding the motorcycle! ;o)
(Funny stuff about the “treasurer” too. Good one.)
Ouch! Bull’s-eye!
I’m laughing. 😀
Honestly, I think Q is doing us all a great service with these corrections. Good for him.
Thanks for the further interesting reading All.
Gotta git…
The poignant yearning of Democrats for a return of the Warren Court, which increased rights for ordinary Americans, is unrealistic.
The Supreme Court, except for that brief shining time, has always been for wealthy property owners over the peasants.
And I don’t think that the Supreme Court should be able to throw out Congressional laws. Apparently this happened way back in 1804, when the Marshall court appropriated that “right”, and Thomas Jefferson was appalled. (According to Thom Hartman).
The Supreme Court upheld slavery, but we still managed to abolish it. FDR fought against his Supreme Court, and won.
Obama is to the right of Eisenhower.
I think that the ruling class will put up a bat shit crazy Republican to run against him, giving Democrats a reason to rally behind him, even though he is screwing them daily.
And they will breathe sighs of relief when the bat shit crazy Republican loses to the corporate fascist Obama.
It would help if we could get the average American to stop voting for the lesser of two evils, but both sides are so incredibly intrenched, the half assed Nazi Republicans aren’t going to vote for a Democrat, and the bleeding heart multi culturalists aren’t going to vote for a Republican. You could see this in the recent debate over the debt ceiling, both sides were wrong, (in my judgment) especially the Republicans, and neither one of the them wants to give an inch, all they want is to name call and blame the other. I think a lot of the left realizes that Obama is a corporate tool, not much different than the Republicans, but they’re gonna vote for the pinhead anyway.
I’ve been voiing for the Green Party, Constitution Party, anything rather than perpetuate this nonsense, is Joe Blow gonna do this? I dont’t know, half of the people in polls don’t know who the Vice President is.
There are a lot more independents than there used to be, that’s encouraging.
I love death, worship death, kill “life”, love the void, static, “nothing”. That is the secret, love the “end”, death, no life, no movement anymore, the final defeat (or victory ?).
Prefer “nothing”, love empty, nothing, kill life, love death, a new religion…
Prefer “nothing”, love empty, nothing, kill life, love death, a new religion…
————-
Google Nihilism (Nietzsche)Beyond good and Evil and Freud’s Thanatos (death drive, opposite of Eros).
I guess these ideas keep coming up as we circle the drain.–We seem to be in the Weimar cruising toward Bruning. That’s something I’ve mentioned before after having read a post by Webster Tarpeley a few months ago. I think he’s got something there.
I had two incidents at work which only amused me.
================
Wage, the 2 incidents struck me precisely as they struck you. But let’s set those 2 incidents aside and discuss the words above that I excerpted from your post.
To make the reader understand clearly what you are saying you would need to have expressed yourself in one of the following two ways (perhaps there are others):
. I had two incidents at work which only amused me. (ie Emphasis on the word “me” excludes others.)
. I had two incidents at work which amused only me. (My ear prefers this one.)
No, it’s not asinine. You’re right that the pay-for-play that pervades lobbying is corrupt, but access to politicians can’t be regulated without unduly regulating political speech. The whole point of lobbyists is to speak to Congressmen and influence their positions, which is exactly the same point as citizens who call the Congressional switchboard. The truly asinine notion is yours that equality of outcomes in terms of access to legislators can be made the law of the land. Also, your proposal for a Swiss referendum system on steroids in a country as politically fractious and unwieldy as the United States is completely unworkable. Just look at the referendum process in California and Washington State.
Jim,
I understand you write this column to make a little money. You have to admit that the people who respond are sometimes so ridiculous in their banter that I wonder what keeps you writing. It is quite upsetting to see how the people who answer others become so involved in what they have to say, and so self righteous, or preachy. The topic you choose to write about gets people motivated to respond, but the response is very crude and mean spirited. I do not like the majority of people in this blog because they really just become more and more stupid as they try to convince others that they are right. They insult each other and prove that their narcissism contributes to the downfall of this country. You must be very sad indeed to read the response each week, save for the few that tend to stand above the others in their ability to add something to the conversation that is worth reading. Sorry state of affairs indeed.
There is a similar ignorance about the history of farming around Philadelphia. A friend of mine has a grandfather, about 86 today, who grew up on a truck farm in Bensalem, a township bordering the city of Philadelphia to the northeast. This fellow tells stories about growing up on the farm to anyone who will listen, but most of his kids and grandkids and their friends are social climbers who are bored by his stories of farm life. He has better success transmitting his veritable library of off-color country jokes.
Similarly, my mom grew up on Staten Island, where one of her grandparents ran a small dairy farm in the early 20th Century. Farms disappeared from Staten Island fairly early, by the Thirties for the most part. One thing I had no idea of until she told me last month, however, was that when she was a child in the Forties and Fifties Secaucus stank to high heaven on account of its pig farms. Secaucus Junction is the last station in New Jersey on the Northeast Corridor before Penn Station in New York, so it hasn’t exactly been boondocks for a long time.
Insufferable – you could not have said this better. A little light and a lot of pointless fury. This is the intelligentsia? Doomed from the start then… maybe this proves the point of no-education since Raygun stole the WH….
Been reading TLE a long time and trying to learn but there is very little here to learn… a few great posters and a lot of dribble….
“Been reading TLE a long time and trying to learn but there is very little here to learn… a few great posters and a lot of dribble….”
-sirius B- now, B Serious –
Sirius, what are you talking about? You and Insufferable should have been here last week. The place was dribbling worse than usual. You need to just pick out a topic from JHK’s week’s work and jump in with the rest of us dribblers.
Like anything else –
“You get what you put in,
And people get what they deserve.”
– kid rock –
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmUgSGiBTbk
Metuselah, all due respect, but you’re basing your arguments on incorrect information.
“YOU will NEVER be Jewish, because YOU were NEVER Jewish. Your progeny by way of your Jewish wife however, can be Jewish, if, and only if, they completely identify themselves as part of the Jewish tribe.”- metuselah, concerning conversion
“With the notable exception of some Syrian Jewish communities,[9] all mainstream forms of Judaism today are open to sincere converts,[10] with all denominations accepting converts converted by their denominations. The rules vary between denominations.” – wiki –
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conversion_to_Judaism
So, all I’ve got to do is find a sponsoring Synagogue, fulfill the requirements they specify – and I’m Jewish.
Judaism is a religion.
Not an ethnic group.
Thus, there can exist, the 38,000 to 2,000,000 ethnic Chinese Jews that started this discussion between us in the first place.
Myrt said, “You get the idea. Today, virtually nobody is home during the day. In a lot of the suburban developments that surround me, you could back a Mack truck into the garage of one of these vinyl McClusterfuck Mansions and maybe a gopher or two would be the wiser.
Bottom line: crooks are smarter than you think. They wait, they watch, and when the moment is opportune, the attack. Take it from one whose been there and knows. ”
I never figured you for muscle. Technically, being a roving gangster is difficult. Robbing a place and then attacking it are two different things. Sure, incidental robbery/rape/murder may occur with slightly increasing frequency, but these people tend to be dumb- not planners. To my mind it remains a phantom menace of suburban dwellers. The excessive concern with security is overblown as it is. That translates as excessive fear, distorted perception of actual threats and risks.
I’m merely pointing out where there are barriers to the whole-scale mad max scenario. I’ve pointed out practical and tactical evidence. As far as the lack of community, I’d say that is true; but, there is no inherent barrier when two households live side by side, when a multitude of households are invested in a living arrangement which is communal to some degree (even if they ignore that reality for the time being). Basically, the people in neighborhoods, especially suburbia, are homogenous for the most part and, even if they don’t know it or practice it, are closer to community than they realize. If the need arose alliances would happen quickly.
The mad max scenario neglects the fact that people have invested interests in quality of life and integrity of the home. It also neglects the real disparity between risk and reward. It overestimates the actual capability of amateur douche-bags.
Isolated people and families are far more victimizable than concentrated neighborhoods or suburbs.
Everyone instinctually suffers from a distortion in the perception of reality and inaccuracy of prediction in the climate of fear. Thanks to Hollywood and the news media, and the home-security business, many are convinced of dangers that statistically will never occur or be thwarted by simple means (human presence increasing chance of confrontation or capture or simply not leaving open doors or windows facing the street.)
People end up being scared little twinkies living in fear, gathering an arsenal of guns against threats that will never appear, getting a crappy dog to bark all day and night to provide a false sense of security that was created in their minds.
The greatest deterrent of violence and crime is not just the 2nd amendment, but the belief that anyone and everyone could be packing lethal firepower. England and other countries are suffering because without the existence of equalizing force, society regresses to medieval conditions where bigger people threaten little people, might makes right, and edge weapons are common. In America, I feel safe walking the streets and the thought of someone threatening me with a knife or physical violence is unthinkable.
You are correct that the whole “They’re all out to get you, so buy our security system.” thing is grossly exaggerated. I didn’t mean to imply that our folks out in the burbs are headed for a Mad Max scenario. In my opinion, nothing of the kind will happen to the suburbs. What we’ll see is an escalation of what we are currently seeing. Increasing vacant Mchouses that have been foreclosed on and are sometimes inhabited by vagrants/homeless. That is what I meant to convey in my earlier posting.
When times get tough, people move, for better or worse. Job opportunies close one place and may look better somewhere else. It’s happening a lot where I live. The “official” unemployment rate is 9.1% here. I live in an apartment building which is reasonably stagnant in its population (24 units and about 2/3rds are owner occupied for at least 5 years). As I look around though, I see in my neighborhood and others many yard signs indicating a house or apartment is for rent/sale, sometimes both. My whole point is that in a highly mobile environment, when people are being evicted or foreclosed upon, having an “Ethel Mertz” neighbor of 15 years is something that we don’t have anymore. Sorry if I took your argument in a direction you didn’t intend. 🙂
we are still far enough in the boonies some of that agriculture could come back. there were once four dairies in the area. i can remember one. i have no idea where milk is shipped in from now.
“No one expects the New Apostolic Reformation!” Ha! Nice Monty Python reference; even they would have had a hard time devising something so absurd. “Pray by lifting the hand of the one I show you that is in the place of civil rule” is beyond parody. When news of the branding irons, Jezebel’s minions and such goes national, I do believe Perry will be able to kiss the Democratic-leaning swing states goodbye.
a few great posters and a lot of dribble….
================
Pretty sure the word you’re going for here is drivel
childish, silly, or meaningless talk or thinking; nonsense; twaddle.
… although drivel and dribble are related words. See Dictionary.com for more thorough explanation.
Wordsmithing aside, thanks for the compliment about “a few great posters” and ditto to Insufferable. (I’m blushing.)
😉
Hi Buck,
My thoughts on this are pretty simple. In general I would believe the evidence of my own eyes above all else. If what you’re being told doesn’t square with what you see then believe what you see and not what you’re being told. On this China stuff, what do you see?
Anyway, economists and economics as a field are full of shit from top to bottom. And what is the Fed? Just errand boys for the big swinging dicks on Wall Street.
My $0.02 worth on the perpetual election cycle:
I blame the 24/7 news channels for this. And, apparently some of their viewers as well, as they seem to lap this sh!t up, hook/line/sinker-style.
And now, I’m seeing all the same FOX channel commercials on CNN and NBC (when I happen to turn my head and look at the TV/listen to the audio). The nat gas fracking and oil shale/tar ones are the most annoying, but the gold ones get a bit irritating as well.
Remember, don’t buy ETF commodities – buy the *ACTUAL* commodity, and hold it in your hands. I have to admit, the Canadian Club 10-year reserve and the Smirnoff’s red label (no flavoring, 80 proof) are very killer/clean hard liquors, for cheap ($13-14 a fifth). Gunna sample the Heaven Hill whiskey next week (special order) – hope it’s as good as “they” claim…
And no Q – I’m not as *THINK* as you were, *DRUNKARD* (I loved it tho –
http://kunstler.com/blog/2011/08/high-corn.html#comment-65568 )…
Griftopia continues…
Matt Taibbi has yet published another great article about the lack of prosecution for white collar financial crimes and now we know why we haven’t seen much action in this obvious leniency.:
[Is the SEC Covering Up Wall Street Crimes?
A whistleblower claims that over the past two decades, the agency has destroyed records of thousands of investigations, whitewashing the files of some of the nation’s worst financial criminals.]
Yes, I remember JHK asking in one of his blogs Where’s Rico? If you read this new article you’ll find out. Rico’s been systematically stopped from functioning. By getting rid of the information from the past, there was no paper trail to follow investigations into wrong doings. Federal laws stated that files should be kept for 25 years, but new directives were given and investigations were killed in their infancy.
[With a few strokes of the keyboard, the evidence gathered during thousands of investigations – “18,000 … including Madoff,” as one high-ranking SEC official put it during a panicked meeting about the destruction – has apparently disappeared forever into the wormhole of history.]
The article describes how Deutsche bank used former SEC agents as lobbyists to quell investigations.
This five page article is scathing and even has some real perversions described–I mean of the sexual nature—that outta get someone on this blog curious to read it.
It isn’t that everyone was clueless–Don’t ever believe these people in the practice of high finances and misdemeanors didn’t know what was happening. This was completely deliberate and international at that.
In the meantime we are all like lambs to slaughter and we’ll have to give up our social safety net for these creeps.–They always land on top.
Agriculture can come back on a small scale pretty much anywhere with arable land. That includes most major cities and their suburbs. In fact, it’s already coming back in the form of backyard and community gardens. As the Russians have been showing the world for decades, fairly small gardens can feed quite a few mouths.
Milk is often a coals-to-Newcastle commodity. I’m amazed by some of the sources that I’ve seen. Humboldt County has a large, thriving dairy industry centered around Ferndale and Loleta in the bottomlands near the mouth of the Eel River. Much of our local milk, however, is exported to major markets, while probably 80% or more of the dairy products that I’ve seen on local grocery shelves is imported from the Central Valley, Tillamook or beyond. When I was living in Philadelphia, which is an hour’s drive from some of the most prolific dairy regions in the country, I found milk from northeast Texas (somewhere around Tyler, if memory serves) at the Fresh Grocer in University City. Cheese, of course, is routinely shipped all over hell, and not always because it’s particularly good.
These arrangements are a colossal waste of diesel. Also, the major dairies that undercut small dairies in their home markets practice terrible animal husbandry. They keep their cows in awful conditions that are breeding grounds for superbugs with the potential to jump species to humans.
In Eureka, I usually avoid the major dairies and buy from Humboldt Creamery, even though it’s a few cents more expensive and its corporate management is a notorious disaster. (The creamery has been nickel-and-diming is producers in order to pay creditors and its former CEO is in federal prison for corporate fraud.)
that outta get someone
=============
ought to
“Oh, but I’m a conspiracy theorist all the sudden”
I suppose you believe there were actual launches for Apollo 18 and 19 (I mean, it was all paid for and assembled, ready for the green button launch)…
Hehe – Choir preacher!!! I’m still not sure which one of *you* is JHK, but I’m betting 6 to 1 for AMR…
I still wonder how, if you were brought up in Waterloo, that you’d confuse the mass murderer for the cowboy. Maybe because “faux-pas” statements generate *10x* as much free advertisement. Did she make a second “faux-pas” already?!… And did Elvis (the drug overdose) get 10x+ the coverage it should’nt’ve?
PS – I recommend tin-foil hats, for this next 6-7 years of peak solar radiation.
Judaism is a religion. Not an ethnic group.
==
Exactly! Just because someone decides to practice Judaism, does not make them a Jew/Judean. You can practice Judaism all you want, nobody will stop you, but practicing Judaism will give you the blood ties to the Jewish tribe or the ancestral ties to the land of Israel/Judea.
Thus, there can exist, the 38,000 to 2,000,000 ethnic Chinese Jews that started this discussion between us in the first place.
==
These are Israelites (part of the 10 lost tribes from the northern kingdom of Israel). They are not Jews/Judeans. But they are our hebrew brothers and sisters, children of Jacob/Israel.
“You can practice Judaism all you want, nobody will stop you, but practicing Judaism will give you the blood ties to the Jewish tribe or the ancestral ties to the land of Israel/Judea.”
Logic *faux-pas*?
Did you mean to insert a *not* between word 15 and 16?!… Q wouldn’t be *proud* – ha!
You’re right that the pay-for-play that pervades lobbying is corrupt, but access to politicians can’t be regulated without unduly regulating political speech. The whole point of lobbyists is to speak to Congressmen and influence their positions, which is exactly the same point as citizens who call the Congressional switchboard.
==
Good. Let the lobbyists call the the congressional switchboard like everybody else. They can their message at the tone.
They can ^leave their message at the tone.
Did you mean to insert a *not* be
==
Yes, thank you. That should read: practicing Judaism will NOT give you the blood ties to the Jewish tribe or the ancestral ties to the land of Israel/Judea.
– audit the Fed? –
For all of you “AUDIT THE FED” posters who drift through ClusterF*ck Land from time to time –
Rick Perry demanded that somebody needs to, “AUDIT THE FED!” Just today, Wednesday, in fact.
http://money.cnn.com/2011/08/17/news/economy/rick_perry_federal_reserve/
Only thing is, apparently the Fed is subject to regular audits – and the results are published online and in print on a very regular basis.
So now Perry wants to “AUDIT the fed… policies….or some. thing.” ?
Cash and Q – you guys are accountants.
What do you think?
“… I recall when I took Business Law in college in 1960 …”
OMG, you are my *Dad*, aren’t you – LOL!!! He got a 5-year degree in business (BS/MS) in the early 60’s.
OK *Dad* – should I write you into my will?! – hehe!!!
Also, your proposal for a Swiss referendum system on steroids in a country as politically fractious and unwieldy as the United States is completely unworkable.
==
It only seems fractious and unwieldy because CIA propaganda outlets (aka, the MSM) manipulate public perceptions to make it seem so. I guarantee you that 90% of the public was against handing the banksters and the auto industry billions and trillions of free money, and that a significant majority of the public is also against corporate welfare, the “free trade” agreements, the UN, and these endless wars.
“Yes, thank you.”
I always find your posts sane – save those that claim no racism in defining your ancestry/religion.
I know you speak 2+ languages, and English is not your first. “Bot” you really need to redefine that racist thang you and Q/PoC argue about *INCESSANTLY*.
Same is true for immigration. Seventy percent would like to see all immigration curtailed.
I always find your posts sane – save those that claim no racism in defining your ancestry/religion.
==
My argument is that there are Jews/Israelis of all skin colors. We all share the same biological ancestry, but because 2,000 years we were scattered all over the world, we now look as the people from different types of geographic regions. The point being, since we know we all share the same biologic ancestry, the differences in our appearance and skin color is completely due to the geographic area we lived in prior to our arrival in Israel. We’re not of different races, that is absurd. And that’s why I argue that the whole concept of race is absurd.
S&P downgrades US debt to AA
French debt remains at AAA
YET, the Euro remains high, relative to the dollar.
Is this weird or what?
George Soros suggests to Der Spiegel that China is propping up the Euro. That makes sense, for some of the weirdness that has been occurring lately.
http://www.johnmauldin.com/outsidethebox/der-spiegel-interview-with-george-soros
An excerpt:*
“Soros: Yes. There is a mysterious buyer that keeps propping up the euro.”
“China, of course, has been the great winner of globalization, and if globalization collapses, the Chinese will also be among the losers. So they have a strong interest in preserving the current global system.”
-george soros, to der speigel-
*and Lbend – you hinted that too many of the wrong sorts of live links could get a poster banned, per JHK to you.
And you hinted that use of certain banned words could get a poster banned, also per JHK.
If so, JHK needs to put these guidelines in writing at the top of the blog every week.
==================
And I suppose I may be coming back to you as
Progress3Conserve, pretty soon. ;0(
Yes, exactly. The American system and constitution was designed from its inception as deceptive propaganda to make people believe there was some kind of democratic political accountability in the system, when in fact there never was. It was always a system designed to serve the elites.
“Same is true for immigration. Seventy percent would like to see all immigration curtailed.”
-bossier-
Yep. And I will GUARANTEE you that MOST of the remaining 30% will want to see US immigration drastically curtailed –
– just as soon as they get their OWN families into the US.
I made it to Wednesday, boss!
Join FAIR
Join NumbersUSA
If US population trends concern you.
When I travel in the north I marvel at the local ag products. We have some but nothing compared to the northeast or northwest. Check out beecher’s cheese from Seattle online. Found it at the Pike Place Market this summer. At least for now, I am sometimes grateful for cross country shipping.
And no Q – I’m not as *THINK* as you were, *DRUNKARD* (I loved it tho –
=================
I’d like to poll the membership here at CFN: Whose posts are more incomprehensible, Ixnei’s or Asia’s (aka Anti Soak)? Write-in votes will also be accepted.
“When I travel in the north I marvel at the local ag products. We have some but nothing compared to the northeast or northwest.”
-bossier-
You’re in Texas, right? I think what you are noticing is the ability of the climate to support more agriculture (people) in the north, especially in the Northwest – relative to the South.
You don’t see large scale in Georgia, for example, without large scale irrigation – which is impossible without fossil fuels.
Georgia was farmed into agricultural worthlessness in the 1930’s with less than 1 million people.http://www.gastateparks.org/ProvidenceCanyon
We are now at nearly 10,000,000.
Somebody’s gonna starve, when the oil and coal run short.
You don’t see large scale AGRICULTURE in Georgia, for example, without large scale irrigation – which is impossible without fossil fuels.
Cash,
I wonder what the percentage of U.S. spending was on American-made products and services back in the fifties and sixties when labor unions were more prominent and the middle class stronger. The 88.5 percent figure is a stand alone stat, lacking context. I have a feeling that in the fifties and sixties it was somewhere in the 90% range and a seemingly small percentage difference in an economy as large as the US can have devastating results. In other words, a deceptive stat.
We have some [local ag] but nothing compared to the northeast or northwest.
================
New Jersey license plates proudly declare we are the “Garden State.”
I am taking your advice on Fair or Numbersusa tonight. Our crops are plentiful but not much fun in in a local market setting. I don’ t get excited when I see rice, milo or corn. Fruit, vegetables, dairy and fish are fun to see.
“….U.S. spending was on American-made products and services back in the fifties and sixties when labor unions were more prominent and the middle class stronger. The 88.5 percent figure is a stand alone stat, lacking context.”
-buck-
Absolutely, Buck! More importantly, in the 50’s and ’60’s we actually sold THINGS WE HAD MADE – to each other in America.
Today, a huge chunk of that 88.5% is finance, insurance, and real estate, in the FIRE sector.
In other words, FIRE adds to the bottom line for the economy – but it doesn’t all have a genuine, tangible value – that puts food on the table.
(same thing can be argued for most of the US defense budget, too, come to think of it.)
And the FIRE sector, in the US – doesn’t mean diddly when it comes to the global economy and competition with China and other genuinely growing economies.
When I eat an apple in the northeast in the fall, I can’t hardly look at one in the store back home. Mexican food, however I don’t take a chance on north of Dallas or east of the Sabine River.
“I’d like to poll the membership here at CFN: Whose posts are more incomprehensible, Ixnei’s or Asia’s (aka Anti Soak)?”
LOL @ your feeble prediction, that required a debt ceiling *crash*.
Is it getting even more incomprehensible, as the Dow still teeters below *MY PREDICTION*? You feeling *gud* abt that?!… My prediction for this year being the hottest on record (and the year after that, and *THE YEAR AFTER THAT*) – I made all 3 of those predictions in Oct 2010, and they are documented. Heh – where’s yer *water* now?!?
I seriously hope you got all yer sh!t in ETF’s – LOL!!!
somewhere in the 90% range
===========
Not to be pedantic (ha ha, that’s a good one, right?) but you have given one number and called it a range. This is very common and one of my many pet peeves.
A range requires two reference points.
. 85-90%
. 90-95%
. 87-93%
And Myrtle May, not too long ago I had a conversation with 2 men that were into ‘security’ somehow. The car they were driving was just same as mine, so I struck up a conversation. And I noticed the antannae that was on the car, so I asked if they were into law enforcement. It was ironic because I had just left a store where I was considering buying a taser or stun gun. Left without anything, then run into these guys.
They were very informative conversation.
Here is what I want to say that your post made me remember.
Almost always, with few exceptions of course, if it’s in the daytime that a stranger enters your home, it is to rob it. If you had to defend yourself shoot to kill, hit them in the front, not the back, well we know that. but:
If this is at night they are more than likely their for YOU, violence. So shoot to kill, and if you shoot them once in the front of their body and they turn to run, if you then shoot them in the back, you are screwed. It’s not right or fair but it is the way it is.
But talking with these guys was interesting. I meet alot of folks and learn from them.
Yes it is true that being isolated you would be more vulnerable.
But yeah definitely better to live among decent folks, I agree.
Barking dogs are a major nightmare, chiwawas allowed to bark all night, houses right next to eachother. Unreasonable neighbors are a nightmare.
Still better not to be isolated, IMO.
Did anyone see Jimmy Fallon last night ? or early morning ?
Funniest thing, there was this Gospel Singer, I mean if you had the sound off you would think he’s singing Gospel, looked the part and all.
It was so funny, maybe you had to be there but he was singing about Pizza.
Song called Jesus Crust. The voice and the tune and all was great.
Parmesan 1:7 was a song.
Cracked me up.
It was being advertised as a new CD, had all these song titles and lyrics that were well just funny.
That’s about all I could remember cuz it was very late / early. It won’t sound funny now, but if you saw it, then you know what I’m talking about.
I believe in God. And Life, I just cannot understand the Bible Story. So I can’t call myself a Christian.
Do unto others before they doo doo onto you is how I live.
Actually I live to do to others as you would have them to do unto you. but that doesn’t seem to work sometimes either. oh well…..
Who knows.
Heh – where’s yer *water* now?!?
======================
I have no friggin idea what you’re talking about. What water?
Even though I live five minutes from my office, home is isolated at the end of a road. I have good neighbors but I can’t see any of their places from mine. We should probably be less blase about security. I own firearms but I would never wake up in time. When I’m out, I’m out.
This milk thing…
Doesn’t it seem strange to you to drink the milk of another species? I mean, why cow’s milk? Why not kangaroo milk? Or opposum milk?
And didn’t nature devise mother’s milk so that infants who can’t feed themselves and haven’t got fully developed digestive tracts can survive? Isn’t it kind of weird that an adult would drink a fluid designed specifically for the very young?
At least that’s my viewpoint from being a vegan.
Ixnei may be bucking for votes.
And before you say milk is high in protein and is very nutritious, you must know there are major tradeoffs, like milk being designed by nature for cows, what with its inherent indigestibility for humans, high hormone levels from dairy farming and the destruction of nutrients because of high-heat pasteurization.
“why cow’s milk? Why not kangaroo milk? Or opposum milk?” -Bill of Boston-
You ever try to milk a herd of ‘possums, Bill?
I noticed the antannae that was on the car
===============
singular: antenna
plural: antennas or antennae
Also:
Left without anything, then run into these guys.
ran (ie past tense)
There were more but I’m trying NOT to be overbearing tonight.
“Left without anything, then run into these guys.”
-q, to jackie-
Jackie was speaking in present tense. Thus, the sentence above makes sense with “I” understood as the subject.
“I left without anything – Then I run into these guys.” -jackie, slightly edited, to make Q happy-
=================
And get the Taser, Jackie – my advice – especially if you can get a class or some training with the thing. 😉
Lbenit sed, “The article describes how Deutsche bank used former SEC agents as lobbyists to quell investigations. ”
You are referring to http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/is-the-sec-covering-up-wall-street-crimes-20110817
Of course I have. Here in Massachusetts we have great herds of wild opossums running free. At night, you can their thundering footsteps as they rampage thru the bush.
Seriously, though, you do get my point, right?
I forgot the word “hear”.
“Seriously, though, you do get my point, right?”
-Bill, the ride em’ opossum (cow?) boy-
Yeah, Bill – The following are all used for milk for humans: Camel, Donkey, Goat, Horse, Reindeer, Sheep, Water buffalo,Yak. So, it’s hard to be a vegan, it would appear, in many cultures.
Milk production by human mothers is a VERY effective means of natural birth control, though rarely mentioned by Catholics and the US religious right.
I suspect that use of “baby formula,” without concomitant availability of artificial birth control – is largely responsible for Earth’s out of control human population numbers.
JB2yu said, “Almost always, with few exceptions of course, if it’s in the daytime that a stranger enters your home, it is to rob it. If you had to defend yourself shoot to kill, hit them in the front, not the back, well we know that.”
My point was that you can not own a gun in America because other people do.
You can also not lock your front door because the chances a bad person is going to open it is approximately nil.
This is how I live.
Now, you might be wondering how I got the peace of mind that other people pay out the nose for. The kind of peace of mind that comes from developing a case of obsessive-compulsive disorder checking all the doors and windows every hour of every day. How is it that I walk around in the middle of the night, alone, unarmed, with the peace of mind that is impossible for someone who has to carry mace or a gun or a dog?
Its basically like playing the lottery. Chances are, your house will not be burgled, your bunghole buggered, your peonies pilfered, simply by taking common sense precautions.
The numbers don’t lie. Step into a car and drive the roads of America and your chance of being obliterated go through the roof. Yet people do it all the time, and then go home and lock-down when the chances are astronomical that someone will invade.
Tested time and time and time again it is revealed: human beings are terrible at figuring odds. We can’t see them. We can’t grasp the numbers. We can’t contrast the abstract with physical reality.
As a result the commercial industries have us buying deodorant for non-existent social faux pas, showering every day because we think other people notice things. We buy flood insurance, fire insurance, home protection systems, brush our teeth 3 times a day, yet, fail to notice that lightning never strikes. But we feel the visceral easily. We feel fear too easily. We are scared of losing our teeth, being unattractive, repulsive, home invasions, going outside alone, being raped by strangers, etc.
We get our brains emptied out by Tv and Hollywood. The average person is likely to have witnessed murders, rapes, tortures, etc. in the last week just watching TV. Does our hind-brain distinguish? No. Does it find security with the crowd? Yes. Who is the crowd? All the other scared people!
We live our lives in a mental cage that we are scarcely aware of, that outside forces are daily working to reinforce.
The premise of first-world society is that life is de-fanged in every possible way. The grass must now grow past 4″. All paths must be brightly lit.
The reality is that the vast majority of the people around us…. are just like us. I.e., not rapists, not murderers, not brutal thieves. Instead of this happy community of brave people linking hands under the rainbow, we are segmented, isolated, in fear of phantoms.
Nonsense. That is not a CIA parlor trick. The US appears to be politically fractious and unwieldy because it is exactly that.
That’s a separate matter from Congress acting against the will of its constituents on account of corruption, but you are not helping your case by conflating the two.
You’re effectively proposing that certain types of political speech and political speech by certain organizations be restricted because you find them offensive or contrary to the public interest. Doing so puts civil rights on a slippery slope, and not just for the CIA and corporate mouthpieces that you nonsensically claim have a stranglehold on power in my country. The real purpose of the First Amendment is protect not popular speech but unpopular speech. When legislatures are allowed to arbitrarily restrict speech on account of its content or the identity of those engaging in it, there is little to stop them from abusing that power against ordinary citizens.
Also, there is nothing stopping me or any other ordinary citizen from requesting meetings with Congressmen. It happens all the time, and Congressmen routinely grant meeting requests from all sorts of people. One advantage that organizations have over individuals in petitioning elected officials, however, is that they can represent large groups of likeminded individuals at once. The ACLU, the NRA, religious organizations, Amnesty International, the Chamber of Commerce and a wide variety of other organizations do this. It’s one of the things that their members pay them to do because, for one thing, there wouldn’t be enough time for elected officials to meet with members one by one. And what these dues-supported organizations with ordinary citizens as their members are doing when they meet with elected officials is–cover your eyes–lobbying.
Nice post, Bustin – all of it!
You said once that you’d been in agriculture, right?
Were you ever in marketing? ‘Cause your post was a pretty good look into how we let ourselves be manipulated through our own powerful instincts, intuitions, and fears.
This part of your post was funny to me, though:
“How is it that I walk around in the middle of the night, alone, unarmed, with the peace of mind that is impossible for someone who has to carry mace or a gun or a dog?” -bustinj-
Good stuff! Except I notice that my dog does a little better at scaring off the intruders, the bears, and the deer if I don’t “carry” him.
He’s more effective on his own 4 feet. 😉
I heard that Barack “Blacula” Obama has hired Susanne Eman to advise him on how to cut fat from the federal government budget:
http://au.news.yahoo.com/world/a/-/world/10064711/woman-in-bid-to-be-worlds-fattest-woman/
POC: “Were you ever in marketing?”
For a brief time. It sucked. Marketing is capitalism’s front-man. We could have solved world hunger easily with a mere fraction of what is spent annually on marketing. Its nothing to be proud of. Marketing is just big lies. Marketing is how everyone and everything got sold down the river, from the environment to peak energy to technology to politics, it has done nothing but distort, distract, and deceive. Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden after falling for false marketing. 8man ‘markets’ his ideas to us every week. Spin is marketing. Whatever, its all rotten. Truth: happiness requires very little. Corollary: marketing makes people unhappy.
Myrtyl said, “You get the idea. Today, virtually nobody is home during the day. In a lot of the suburban developments that surround me, you could back a Mack truck into the garage of one of these vinyl McClusterfuck Mansions and maybe a gopher or two would be the wiser. ”
Oh yeah, I know. But in TLE – Mad Max variant, we imagine “people inhabiting the landscape differently”. ie, people not having the mobility to stray farther from home, or creative living arrangements with extended family. Concentrated humanity, if you will. Nobody is nosier than the unemployed.
And although community as it stands may be impaired, the barriers to it are not significant. After all, most people live in neighborhoods in which they are likely to share lots of demographic details. Combined with the incentive to collectivize, collaborate, commiserate, why wouldn’t community self-organize?
I was wondering this morning how Chinese people are stupid, and Europeans and so on.
Everybody is so eager to produce to export to US to be paid…in dollars.
And how Americans are smart payng with freshly printed paper.
Chinese do not want to see that they work for getting back paper.
If I was in the Chinese government, since they are so good in copying, I would just print dollars and pay the production to be exported with paper home made.
I would then give the production to the people for the current value in Yuan, making a huge internal market.
Why should they keep alive a zombie economy, where they consume products of others giving them paper in exchange?
Wouldn´t it be time to stop pretending?
This could also be good for America.
They would HAVE to produce again.
What is the advantage of our “democratic regime?
“Before a presidential election in the U.S., everyone who’s even contemplating running for president spends 100 percent of his time announcing how he would change everything if he was elected,” said Kenneth Lieberthal, who held Russel’s post under President Bill Clinton.
“In China, the incentives are exactly the opposite, your incentives are to do nothing except praise what the current leaders are doing because they’re the ones who decide whether you replace them.”
The results are, paradixically, exactly the same.
Because the elected president will go on leaving everything as it is, as the ones who paid for his campaign want.
In China, at least, they save the money in campaigns that are for nothing, in election expenses, and the time the average voter spends to look, to listen, to decide, to vote.(which anyway is wasted time).
FROM KULTURCRITIC – quoting Jim:
“I suppose everything is show business now…”
James – It always was show business… it is a culture of make believe that we have created, and that marches us straight off the cliff. But you know this… KULTURCRITIC offers you his latest missive, rather late.
http://kulturcritic.wordpress.com/posts/a-tale-of-two-cities-london-and-rome/
Actually, breastfeeding is very heavily promoted in natural family planning and Catholic parenting circles. A lot of people involved in NFP, mothers especially, are members of the La Leche League or else vocal breastfeeding advocates. Their usual reasons for supporting breastfeeding have to do with infant health and mother-baby bonding, although some explicitly recommend it as a de facto contraceptive method.
Otherwise, you’re pretty much right about the religious right’s silence on breastfeeding. The Catholic hierarchy encourages it only sporadically, in contrast to its constant attacks on contraception, and it is nearly absent from Evangelical parenting advice. I think it would be hard to find Evangelical activists who are opposed to breastfeeding (although you never know what weirdness might rear its head in that swath of Christianity), and the Catholic hierarchy is certainly supportive of it. It’s more that breastfeeding doesn’t occur to these people as a relevant matter.
They just arrested some teenager who was planning to blow up “Freedom High School” in Florida.
The Freedom High School website states “The FREEDOM Vision”:
“The FREEDOM Vision
Freedom High School will provide a safe and caring environment with an academic focus, which will foster students’ growth, responsibility and positive self-esteem to develop motivated, self-disciplined individuals who will reach their academic and career potentials.”
http://au.news.yahoo.com/world/a/-/world/10062846/us-teen-in-columbine-like-school-plot
http://freedom.mysdhc.org/
When the deranged student, Jared Cano, started hurling pipe bombs in “The FREEDOM High School” cafeteria, this, according to the FREEDOM High School website, is what the victims would have been eating during Jared’s rampage:
“Lunch includes:
Value Meal Entrees come with your choice of up to 3 sides and choice of milk
Premium Meal Entrees (Chicken Sandwich, Big Daddy Pizza, Buffalo Chicken Strips, Cheeseburgers, Burritos, Rice Bowls and Entree Salads) come with your choice of up to 2 sides and/or choice of milk
Daily sides include: Assorted Fruit, Garden Salad, Sun Chips, Pretzel Twists, 100% Fruit Juice, Lettuce, Tomato & Pickle, and Gelatin
* Indicates a Vegetarian Meal Item. Upon request vegetarian entrees can be provided. Please contact your Student Nutrition Manager.”
http://www.sdhc.k12.fl.us/SNS/Calendar_View.asp
The photo of Providence Canyon is amazing. I didn’t know there was anything like it in the American South, let alone due to agricultural denudation. That place should be an object lesson for modern farmers.
Since this wasteland was created at about the same time as the Dust Bowl, it goes to show the underappreaciated aggravating effects of agricultural problems on the Great Depression. Drought and soil exhaustion were bigger problems than the financial meltdown in some agricultural districts. There’s an eerie parallel between the timelines: on the High Plains, at least, the Roaring Twenties were go-go years for wheat, followed by a devastating crash around the turn of the decade as the soils were exhausted and then blew away. In both High Plains agriculture and the national economy, signs of an impending crash (soil stress and drought in the former, rising market saturation in the latter) were visible in the mid-Twenties but willfully ignored by most observers. I suspect that the parallel timelines were not entirely coincidental.
We seem to have our heads less deeply lodged in the sand with respect to soil management today than we did prior to the Dust Bowl, but soil exhaustion and erosion are still serious problems, especially in the Midwest. At least we seem to be making meaningful progress on soil conservation. What worries me more is what we’re doing to our aquifers. Last I heard the Oglallah Aquifer was still being drawn down at an entirely unsustainable rate, as were aquifers beneath the Central Valley and Las Vegas.
progress2conserve,
I wasn’t just hinting, I’m telling you that the spam software that will flag you over time and stop you from getting onto this site if you put too many live links that is seen as spam.
At this point, not only can’t I put in a live urls for you to click on I also only see this type in this box as plain text, and rather small at that.
So, I’m recommending to people that they make copied text from articles into plain text first to knock out the links before they post here.
It’s nothing personal.
To those who think everyone’s a sock puppet, JHK really doesn’t have that kind of time. He does have other projects and isn’t pretending to be someone else. I doubt he looks this over more than Monday morning.
Bustin, The article I was discussing of Taibbi was in fact the Rolling Stone article you linked to. Again, I can’t provide links for you, I can only tell you where to google.
The real purpose of the First Amendment is protect not popular speech but unpopular speech. When legislatures are allowed to arbitrarily restrict speech on account of its content or the identity of those engaging in it, there is little to stop them from abusing that power against ordinary citizens.
==
Your argument is complete nonsense. Nobody is talking about restricting anybody’s free speech or political speech. You and your corporations are free to make whatever speech you and your corporation care to make. That, however, does not mean that I’m required and obligated to listen to your free speech or political speech and give it my undivided attention. It also does not mean that just because you and your corporations want to make your free speech or political speech heard by me, that you have the right to basically assault me by coming uninvited to my place of work or my place of residence.
Furthermore, I completely reject the notion of corporations as people or persons. Corporations are not people, they are a legal construct. They are an extremely privileged legal construct, and it’s long past due that this extreme privilege be rescinded. This privilege was granted on a limited time basis and on the notion that corporation will serve the public good. That these corporations will enhance the public commons. This has not happened and actually quite the opposite has occurred. It’s time to end this experiment and revoke the special legal privileges granted to the corporations (and the banks).
Of course, and how utterly logical. And since it is one of your pet peeves, I will refrain from making the same mistake in the future. ( I am not ignoring your earlier question, but time is bit tight at the moment.)
” If I was in the Chinese government, since they are so good in copying, I would just print dollars and pay the production to be exported with paper home made.
We could call it the FU, with a grinning Ben extending the middle digit.
Actually I live to do to others as you would have them to do unto you. but that doesn’t seem to work sometimes either. – JaCKIE
Jackie, had some technical difficulties there.
To continue: Actually I live to do to others as you would have them to do unto you. but that doesn’t seem to work sometimes either. – Jackie
I know what you mean. It doesn’t seem to work mainly because I feel that people take advantage. People don’t feel obligated to treat me the way they want to be treated. So instead I tend to treat people the way they treat me. For me that seems to work better.
That is NOT a completely closed cycle. Tons of energy are required to plant the crops, grow them (water/fertilize/pesticide/herbicide), harvest them, and distill the ethanol – each step producing gaseous carbon (CO2). The ethanol is burned in vehicles, producing CO2. The refuse is burned, producing CO2. Nowhere in your supposed “closed cycle” do I see sequestration of CO2 back into solid carbon.
hello, the sugar cane sequesters carbon from the air when it grows, then it’s released, resequestered, rereleased…
what’s not to love? sounds at least *fairly* carbon-loop processy, and tons better than just extracting fossil fuels and releasing all the co2 into the atmosphere.
btw the sugar cane crop is harvested multiple times a year.
caveat – only shangrila’ans are perfect
peace peaceniks
As far as the Fed goes I don’t think an audit would help. IMO the Fed sees its mandate as helping Wall Streeters make their bonuses. Until you have an uncompromised and uncorrupted organization that has its collective head on straight you can audit the shit out of it and it will be for nothing.
I don’t know how Q feels about it but, in my own experience, audits were a sham. A meaningless ritual. As it is now you have an opinion letter from a public accounting firm attached to published financial statements. I would do away with this letter. It’s useless.
I would include a statement from the CEO, CFO and Board of Directors stating unequivocally that the financial statements represent fairly in all material respects the consolidated financial position of the company for whatever period ended in conformity with generally accepted accounting principles.
That way the CEO, CFO and the Board have their nuts (and their nuts only) on the anvil. They can’t point the finger at an accounting firm after a major botch or fraud comes to light and say “golly they were audited by Bumfuck and Nimnode Certified Public Accountants and they gave us a clean audit opinion”.
And, in turn, B&N CPAs can’t point the finger at management and say, the way they do now, that the financial statements are the responsibility of management and, gee whiz, they followed the standards of the Public Accounting Oversight Board in conducting the audit so it’s not their fault.
There’s nothing stopping company management from hiring an accounting firm from doing an examination to give management some comfort that the numbers aren’t a mess. That’s assuming that company management wasn’t up to their necks in falsifying financial results. But, from what I’ve seen, nobody should give an audit opinion the slightest attention. And IMO the audit opinion should not be included with published statements.
Sugar cane is yet another scam, that was even perpetrated thru the oildrum site via a paid shill of an oil company that wanted corn ethanol off the market. Cane is a biennial grass that like all other grasses requires heavy nitrogen doses to grow to any appreciable yield and burning its stalks to create ethanol only robs the field of minerals that much faster. Free lunch syndrome strikes again.
High “corn” is right. (We could call it “kitsch”, or even “camp”; whether high or low, I’m not sure.)
All has left the realm of rationality, and decamped to the absurdist, faith-based bullshittery gatherings (apparently quickly convened via twits, tweeting and facebookers sincerely facing…. er… something).
Hillary the Bold and Gun-totin’, has declared that the Syrian regime, “must step down”. WTF? Why is anyone taking this kind of crap as anything but demented ramblings by representatives of fascist, warmongering greed-heads? Somebody tell Entergy Hill’ to shit in her hat and wear it, fer cry-eye! Tell it like it is; you fucks ain’t got nothin’ left to threaten anyone with; what’choo gonna do? Kill a bunch of people? That most certainly won’t come back to bite you in the ass, will it?
“The Market” down about 500 now, as the big players pulled the rug out and left the little people holding the empty bag, on news of European impotence to correct their financial crumbling. (In which US banks have LARGE exposure.)
Then there’s this by Taibbi, that says a great deal about general stupidity and a keen hatred of critical thinking skills. Those who can “think” are now considered “the elite”. WTF? (I ask again.) This is a bald-faced EXCUSE for lazy-mindedness and covetous consumerism. Sure, it driven by the Great Wurlitzer, but if one’s brain-switch is in the “on” position, that can easily be seen for the wealth-Hoovering operation that it is, and promptly ignored. So, without further ado; beware the Idiocracy; coming to a position of power near You!
“It could happen. Michele Bachmann has found the flaw in the American Death Star. She is a television camera’s dream, a threat to do or say something insane at any time, the ultimate reality-show protagonist. She has brilliantly piloted a media system that is incapable of averting its eyes from a story, riding that attention to an easy conquest of an overeducated cultural elite from both parties that is far too full of itself to understand the price of its contemptuous laughter. All of those people out there aren’t voting for Michele Bachmann. They’re voting against us. And to them, it turns out, we suck enough to make anyone a contender.” -MT
(…And, let’s get real, this is certainly NOT a reason to vote for ANY lesser evil. It’s a stern warning to disengage from a system that allows such degenerate “choices” to emerge as “viable”/”serious”.)
Hmmm, I seem to have left out the word “is” in several places. Guess I’m not real convinced about the “substance” of much anymore. Truly Existing or simply, Manufactured Mirage?
We are scared of losing our teeth, being unattractive, repulsive, home invasions, going outside alone, being raped by strangers, etc.
================
I hear ya Bust … when I’m being raped I much prefer it’s by someone I know.
This is a boring blog to read on a bus ride to work. Nothing but a foul mouthed leftist/marxist writer and a bunch of “groupies” who cheer the writer/pornographer onward and downward toward hell. At first I thought there would be something meaningful here, but there is nothing of true meaning. The dirty minded, foul mouthed, name calling hater and author should remember the words of a fellow Jew, Roy Masters (at fhu.com and a truly fine fellow): Hating wrong and feeling right about it is NOT the same as simly loving what is right. Feel free to ban me from the comments, which I rarely do anyway.
This site isn’t required reading. So if it doesn’t turn your crank and if collectively we’re not your type then by all means feel free to go read something else. You won’t be missed. At least not by yours truly.
possibly correct , i’ll do more research. i wouldn’t discount out of hand tho’.
world’s been around for eons, & won’t dry up and blow away cuz we’re using sugar cane ethanol.
what say you scientists about the at least semi closed carbon loop of growing/burning plant-based fuels?
peace peaceniks
I suggest you start your own blog. That way, all content will be correct and proper. You can git ‘er done on the bus ride to work and will be freed from boredom. (Plus, you’ll be considered a truly fine fellow by at least one person.)
How’zat?
Feel free to ban me from the comments, which I rarely do anyway.
================
If you’re banned Joe, it will be for poor sentence structure like the gem above^. (You rarely do what? Ban yourself from the comments section?)
Mr. Obama–Let down those regulations
Last night I saw a clip from Rick Perry saying he would demand that the President stop all restrictions from industry in order to jump-start employment. That’s because the uber-persons, the corporations told him so.
Of course that means the end of environmental protection and protection against being exposed to industrial poisons. Hey let’s be just like China and live in pollution? Hey we’re rich enough to move away fro those areas. We won’t have fire from fracking coming out of our kitchen sinks. Our kids won’t be exposed or have birth defects. Our wives won’t be experiencing miscarriages, We won’t get Cancer, lung disease ….. and you know when the medical bills come in there will be no help for those poor folks that happen to live in all the wrong places. Too bad you’re poor and we’re not…
It’s the usual simplistic two-step anyone can dance—even you!
T’is all you need to increase work for the lower middle class. Do away with taxation and regulations and then we’ll have a true free, global market where everyone will be happily working, everyone can be home-schooled and be innovators–of course.
Gee, nobody ever mentions that the countries we’re doing business with have barriers to entry. Without regulations you get monopoly capitalism and cronyism–why should human nature be devoid of all its imperfections in the face of free market laissez faire anything goes–we don’t have to go to jail if we break laws nobody enforces? Oh, and we’ve got Europe doing the same. Why, they are planning a QE of their own. I believe we’re too broke to help them, but I’m sure supportive money finds it’s way around.
Yes, now our Liberty American Revolution types are charging money for you to have the privilege to hear them say the same empty memes over and over–well, ya gotta admit they are easy to remember and soon somebody can write music to those lyrics and —Hallelujah we’ll all be singing the Milton Friedman chorus.
And speaking of Michele Bachmann, her bodyguards, two blond very tough women are pushing members of the fourth estate around now. And JHK thought Nancy Grace was scary…
Yep, not only do candidates on the Right hate their constituency who are beginning to figure out that they’re getting screwed in favor of corporations, they hate to have to answer any questions at all. Why can’t we just make stuff up out of thin air and hear ourselves talk? Why does someone have to make us substantiate anything we say?
Well, we going to prove to the world that we still got that Walt Disney magic. This election circus is going to be the greatest and most expensive show on earth. Wait till we get the bill.
I’d be very cautious in giving any economics stat any credence whether it comes from a governmental statistical agency or anywhere else. As whatshisname said there’s lies, damned lies and statistics. I don’t trust economists to give the straight goods whether they work for the govt or unions or a university or private business.
What that study is essentially saying about China is “nothing to see here folks, move along, move along”. I don’t buy it. I go to any retailer and what do I see? “Made in China” everywhere. And I’ve seen economic prospects for ordinary people here get worse and worse and worse over the last 40 years and especially in the last 20. And especially for men. I’ll trust my own eyes on this.
And who is this Mish? Should I trust him? I don’t know him. I know he’s an investment advisor. But do I trust people in the investment industry in general? No I don’t. They’re interested in blowing sunshine up your ass.
What about Switchgrass?
And those concerned with invading species..WATCH OUT…………Capybara SEEN WILD IN US..
SEE YAHOO
Giant rat – Capybara – CachedSimilar
Capybara are semi-aquatic mammals found wild in much of South America …
I consider lobbyist activity to be bribery, not exercises of free speech.
I tried to find numbers on the growth of registered lobbyists since the 1970s, but couldn’t. I have heard before that the numbers have skyrocketed.
If I call or write my congressman, I get a nice letter in return, which usually shows that he didn’t listen to or read what what I had to say.
Lobbyists, on the other hand, take congressmen to fancy restaurants, and on golf vacations, provide them with hookers, and write the legislation that they introduce into Congress.
I agree with Methusalah. We need national referendoms on matters of national import, such as invading other countries, or handing the Treasury over to Wall Street.
Elections are a spectator sport, good only for arousing partisan passions, and have nothing to do with actual democracy.
Can you imagine how many more would be against
if USA Today published..hard cold facts?
Instead of ‘Wow we reach 300 million today’!
I read once that Long Island was once the source of much of New York City’s food.
I live in a converted shed on the site of an old dairy. I read in the local paper that the retail sales place of this dairy was once the local hangout spot for area teens.
Now, of course, the milk comes from somewhere else and the kids hang out at home, on their computers.
When I was a kid in Los Angeles, we used to pass the local dairy on the way to visit my grandma, and we would stop so that I could pet the cows, and feed them grass from the other side of the fence. Yep, they were out grazing.
The dairy is gone for many years, and covered with subdivisions.
My grandmother lived in a town of 100 people in Utah. All white, all Mormons. When I would walk down the street as a kid, people would ask me who I belonged to. And I would say my dad’s name, and they would tell me stories about him.
A young couple married, and stored their wedding presents in an abandoned house. (There were a lot of abandoned houses in town).
One day, in plain daylight, a truck drove up to the house and some people loaded up all the wedding gifts and drove away.
The neighbors saw them, but thought that they were friends of the couple, helping them out.
Wow, lbendet! I have always enjoyed and appreciated your links.
That is too bad that JHK has set up software to block linkers.
By the way, I also appreciated your story from your neighbor about the speculators moving gold to Panama. It doesn’t seem out of line to me.
About the SEC destroying evidence.
I have read that there was a great deal of SEC evidence destroyed on 9-11, with the destruction of WTC 7, in which the SEC had offices.
Also, when the plane went all the way around the Pentagon, instead of hitting the side it was coming from, the side with Rumsfield and the top brass, it hit the side with the auditors working on the missing billions that Rumsfield had told Congress about on 9-10.
Also, when the anthrax attacks were carried out, and it was determined that they were the Ames strain, all of the anthrax samples in the Ames Iowa State University laboratory were destroyed, on Oct. 10 and 11.
Seven decades of anthrax collection – destroyed.
Sounds good to me also. I will do same, well actually have been doing at ‘home’ for quite awhile. Others Really Do take Advantage. Both in big issues and little issues.
For instance a ‘friend’ borrowed small amounts of money, she was totally broke.
She said at the time I would have it back same day, in the eve. Then mentioned the next day a reason why I still don’t have it. 5 days later, nothing. So I know how to draw that boundary now.
It was a 25$ lesson, and I learned it in a weeks’ time. She won’t get another dime out of me, but she DOES have the nerve to ask.
Before she tried to get large amounts 10K. As if.
Tried really hard.
I would not do this to anyone. It’s a matter of principal. even at the $25 level.
Oh yeah and ‘do you have any coffee / eggs / milk /? AND ‘can you bring it down to me?’
She has a position of power over me, and I want to live here, so I have to just draw better boundaries, and bite the bullet, but not give in anymore to her. She takes too much, without giving back.
They’re everywhere ! But not all folks are like that. Too many are tho.
I am transitioning from dumbass to badass and wiseass !
I don’t think that the Fed has been audited up until this year, Prog.
Bernie Sanders and Ron Paul teamed up to get it done.
That is how we know that they spent so much money propping up the stock market.
Hey Wage,
Just listened to a Webster Tarpley from yesterday’s Guns and Butter. As usual it covers great topics from false flag terror to the financial terrorism in this country. I know you’ll enjoy.
I’m also trying to get a video of Celente talking about another 16 trillion…oh, boy. I’m working on something and waiting for client comments, so I have time to peruse the web for interesting interviews.
The software issue was a culmination of many live links through time. I don’t think just putting in live URLs is the issue, but if you get thrown into a different field on the site, you know there’s a problem. The software always did have that issue, but there’s another layer, now. I think it was a necessary evil if you catch my drift..
The aptly named Insufferable!
So you are better than ‘Us’!
Qstick said, “‘We are scared of… being raped by strangers, etc.’
I hear ya Bust … when I’m being raped I much prefer it’s by someone I know.”
That is precisely my point, Q. Most people are not raped by strangers. They are raped by people they know. And yet what people are scared of is the unlikely scenario: the wild rapist in the bushes (at night).
Parents keep their kids indoors where Uncle Fester can get at them. Or, send them off for 8 hours a day to School/Child-care where god knows what goes on.
And what about the women? Constantly freaked out believing that the guy in the ski mask is hiding around every corner, in every dark alley… confirmed by the exposure of sensational cases in the media.
WL said, “A young couple married, and stored their wedding presents in an abandoned house. (There were a lot of abandoned houses in town).
One day, in plain daylight, a truck drove up to the house and some people loaded up all the wedding gifts and drove away.”
This is not surprising. First, notice that the target was goods, not people. Second, the main deterrent to crime is the possibility of capture and sanction, not the ostensible punishment. Nobody was home. This type of crime is relatively common. Impersonate authority figure, snatch goods. The suburbanite needs to watch out for the impostor masquerading as the phone-book salesman. The guy selling vacuum cleaners or bibles wants to access the house to get a feel for the layout. This is called ‘casing the joint’.
So, the criteria for selecting targets is: ease and impunity.
You could draw a picture here that homogeniety of population is negatively affected by low population density. You could also surmise that public bridal registries are a bad idea. Or that storing goods in abandoned houses is insecure.
I remember my youthful excursions into these areas…. Had some great hot tub parties. A house without anyone in it is certainly inviting if you’re homeless. But the homeless aren’t usually perpetrators.
By the way, I also appreciated your story from your neighbor about the speculators moving gold to Panama. It doesn’t seem out of line to me.
=================
As I predicted. OK, well, it took a little more than 2 seconds but Wage bought in.
Even to the friggin freighter part Wage? Surely you don’t think those dudes needed a friggin FREIGHTER do you?
Silly question, of course you do.
Ya know, this is the kind of shit that keeps me coming back to CFN day after day … the entertainment is first rate. Honest, except for CNBC (stock market) and some pro sports I have given up regular TV. Where else but a site like this can you watch the crazy shit that is actually going on in other people’s minds?
For Cash —
Modern events aside.
I’ll be in Normandy next week for a few days.
I’ll make an extra effort to get to Bény-sur-Mer and pay respects to the Canadians there.
Maple Leaf Up!
Cheers
The mistake is that of concentrating much of the money, trillions in the same old hands over and over again, the same old rich and monopolists and such over and over forever and they get richer and richer. Sure some new rich and inventors and companies are born but 90 % of the cash keeps on going in the same hands. This doesn’t create economic growth because the rich already have all they need, you can’t pump up consumerism and the economy by giving money to the rich, that money doesn’t go back into the economy and create more wealth and such it just goes into financial crap and such.
In order to change this you got to give out Free Salaries and Cheap Rents, hire millions of people, even to do nothing at all but just to give them a salary (the higher the better) we need less of “you have to deserve it” mentality and more redistribution.
But the dominating metnality and powers that be keep on insisting you have to deserve the cash and job, you got to be productive, you got to have skills and such huge crap. So, this arbitrary mistake, this choice that the dominating will powers want, just because, because they suck, can’t be changed so TOUGH LUCK.
I’ve been out of touch – out in “corn country” ….
I did catch this story, Warren Buffet talking non-sense about tax code……
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/15/opinion/stop-coddling-the-super-rich.html
Gosh, anyone wish to opine on the matter?
It would seem this kind of matter would be something worth mentioning by the major candidates – unless of course you had your hands out for a campaign donation…..
From:
http://www.ilovephilosophy.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=176259
The mistake is that of concentrating much of the money, trillions in the same old hands over and over again, the same old rich and monopolists and such over and over forever and they get richer and richer. Sure some new rich and inventors and companies are born but 90 % of the cash keeps on going in the same hands. This doesn’t create economic growth because the rich already have all they need, you can’t pump up consumerism and the economy by giving money to the rich, that money doesn’t go back into the economy and create more wealth and such it just goes into financial crap and such.
In order to change this you got to give out Free Salaries and Cheap Rents, hire millions of people, even to do nothing at all but just to give them a salary (the higher the better) we need less of “you have to deserve it” mentality and more redistribution.
But the dominating mentality and powers that be keep on insisting you have to deserve the cash and job, you got to be productive, you got to have skills and such huge crap. So, this arbitrary mistake, this choice that the dominating will powers want, just because, because they suck, so since this can’t be changed TOUGH LUCK.
From:
http://www.ilovephilosophy.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=176259
The mistake is that of concentrating much of the money, trillions in the same old hands over and over again, the same old rich and monopolists and such over and over forever and they get richer and richer. Sure some new rich and inventors and companies are born but 90 % of the cash keeps on going in the same hands. This doesn’t create economic growth because the rich already have all they need, you can’t pump up consumerism and the economy by giving money to the rich, that money doesn’t go back into the economy and create more wealth and such it just goes into financial crap and such.
In order to change this you got to give out Free Salaries and Cheap Rents, hire millions of people, even to do nothing at all but just to give them a salary (the higher the better) we need less of “you have to deserve it” mentality and more redistribution.
But the dominating mentality and powers that be keep on insisting you have to deserve the cash and job, you got to be productive, you got to have skills and such huge crap. So, this arbitrary mistake, this choice that the dominating will powers want, just because, because they suck, can’t be changed TOUGH LUCK.[
Welz said, “hello, the sugar cane sequesters carbon from the air when it grows, then it’s released, resequestered, rereleased…”
Thats essentially true. A plant does convert CO2 to carbon in its structure.
Composting is a complex series of reactions, most of which are aerobic, meaning CO2 is released. Simple above-ground rotting of plant matter proceeds similarly. Carbon in material turns into CO2.
The bottom line is that Carbon is absorbed and released by plants, but less than 0.1%- is converted and incorporated into long term stable form.
Nature sequesters carbon in living biomass only. It is the total amount of biomass that is important. This is why the Amazon is critical to maintaining global carbon equilibrium. It is the largest sink in the world. And Brazil is quite frankly, letting it be cut down so that people can eat beef. Beef for people now, nothing for people later. What is the opposite of Shangri-la? Hell on Earth?
Humanity could have been great. We could have built lasting institutions, worked with nature instead of against it. Yet we did precisely as 8man/Old69 recommended and built the national highway system, and millions of skyscrapers. Capital was the system. Vlad’s crowning Western achievement was the continuing destruction of the world.
Probably been posted before but I’m feeling nostalgic:
Q.
So you just hated the anecdote, don’t you.
Well this guy thought he was buddies with the GS Blankfein coterie doing god’s work, alright.
He did business with Wolfowitz too.
Yes, he was his own best salesman, yes–who knows what these guys told him, none-the-less there was hiding of assets going on. Believe what you want about what form it took. All you need to know is that they are not sharing with Uncle Sam what they have. Don’t get hung up on freeighters or amounts, its the spirit of the usual manipulations that counts.
Do you doubt that these playas are hiding their wealth there?
Wanna find out all the reasons why we’re doing a bad trade deal with Panama that does nothing for US workers?
Heres how the world ends: CO2 increases, temperature warms, animals migrate north (or south). As they invade new areas disruption ensues. Nevertheless, eventually they reach the sea. The only way to go is up- into the mountains. Up and up and up they go until they’re at the top- the end.
The earth’s atmosphere resembles Mars. All plants and animals gone; humans extinct.
Enjoy your hamburgers and defecation.
“Enjoy your hamburgers and defecation.”
Ahem, I’ll have to step in for “Q” at this point. Did you mean that we should enjoy our hamburgers which (from what I’ve read) have fecal matter in them, or the process in which we rid ourselves of the digested hamburger?
Stupid economists and politicians still can’t get it through their think head that this economic system, the Technological Economy is creating “joblessness”, “negative work”, “Free Time”, by the boatloads, ever more millions of people idle, not needed to produce, not necessary anymore, ever more Free Time, idle time, millions of people that have way too much Free Time on their hands and nothing to do (in hobby factories they could have produced trillions of Skyscrapers and Rockets to Mars, go figure, instead they are kept in front of the Internet and TV).
We are producing the “NOT need of jobs” the “NOT need for work” by the boatloads ever more: work is becoming obsolete, is old fashioned, is not necessary anymore but everyone has this idiotic idea like brainwashed drones that we need to “produce”, we need to “work”, we need to be active and all such lies.
This old fashion production – factory based – work ethic based – 18th century ideology just can’t be changed but the rich and corporations gain trillions of dollars by the boatloads brainwashing everyone that they need to be productive, produce, make things and all such crap and hence don’t deserve to have a salary, they “have to deserve it”.
We need much less, nay, we need to kill this idea of “you have to deserve it”, the only thing this economic system is producing for real is Free Time, worklessness, “negative work”, ever more Free and Idle time, ever more no need to work (and no need to apply). The more productive that little real work left becomes (and it is becoming ever more so through technology and optimizations) the ever more less real work and future jobs will be needed. Get over it.
From:
http://kunstler.com/blog/2011/08/high-corn.html
The mistake is that of concentrating much of the money, trillions in the same old hands over and over again, the same old rich and monopolists and such over and over forever and they get richer and richer. Sure some new rich and inventors and companies are born but 90 % of the cash keeps on going in the same hands. This doesn’t create economic growth because the rich already have all they need, you can’t pump up consumerism and the economy by giving money to the rich, that money doesn’t go back into the economy and create more wealth and such it just goes into financial crap and such.
In order to change this you got to give out Free Salaries and Cheap Rents, hire millions of people, even to do nothing at all but just to give them a salary (the higher the better) we need less of “you have to deserve it” mentality and more redistribution.
But the dominating mentality and powers that be keep on insisting you have to deserve the cash and job, you got to be productive, you got to have skills and such huge crap. So, since this arbitrary mistake, this choice that the dominating will powers want, just because, because they suck, can’t be changed then TOUGH LUCK.
Also Bustin J. get over protecting nature, kill nature, hate nature, dominate nature, MIND OVER MATTER, build trillions of Skyscrapers and Rockets to Mars and such, get over this religion worshiping nature you have, it sucks.
Ahhh, probably not, actually with the abundance of water at surface level – it is much more likely that the Earth could go the way of a Venus-like atmosphere.
In addition to water, the smaller orbit and larger volume/gravity of the planet assure the continuing suspension of a very thick atmosphere.
But I digress. This is at least a century away – unless of course we somehow start settling our problems and inadvertently speed up the process through continuing growth.
From:
http://www.ilovephilosophy.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=176259
Stupid economists and politicians still can’t get it through their think head that this economic system, the Technological Economy is creating “joblessness”, “negative work”, “Free Time”, by the boatloads, ever more millions of people idle, not needed to produce, not necessary anymore, ever more Free Time, idle time, millions of people that have way too much Free Time on their hands and nothing to do (in hobby factories they could have produced trillions of Skyscrapers and Rockets to Mars, go figure, instead they are kept in front of the Internet and TV).
We are producing the “NOT need of jobs” the “NOT need for work” by the boatloads ever more: work is becoming obsolete, is old fashioned, is not necessary anymore but everyone has this idiotic idea like brainwashed drones that we need to “produce”, we need to “work”, we need to be active and all such lies.
This old fashion production – factory based – work ethic based – 18th century ideology just can’t be changed but the rich and corporations gain trillions of dollars by the boatloads brainwashing everyone that they need to be productive, produce, make things and all such crap and hence don’t deserve to have a salary, they “have to deserve it”.
We need much less, nay, we need to kill this idea of “you have to deserve it”, the only thing this economic system is producing for real is Free Time, worklessness, “negative work”, ever more Free and Idle time, ever more no need to work (and no need to apply). The more productive that little real work left becomes (and it is becoming ever more so through technology and optimizations) the ever more less real work and future jobs will be needed. Get over it.
Dude answers:
“I think we need to develop laws against unnecessary automation. As automation is taking jobs faster then we can create them.”
I reply:
No we need hobby factories and superproduction of everything, build trillions of Skyscrapers and Rockets to Mars by robots and automation, progress, the future, you name it, kill the past and all old fashioned stuff and ideas.
I mean Earth relative to Mars…..
Oops! Just looked at the last post I made and I’m going to have to forbid myself ever to type directly into this site, as I’m seeing plain text a prob. 5 pts.
Thanks Q for not screaming at me especially since I was addressing you. Guess you’re not all bad…Ha
So you just hated the anecdote, don’t you.
================
First of all, pick a tense, past or present, and stick with it. Also, end questions with a question mark. It’s either:
. So you just hated the anecdote, didn’t you?
or
. So you just hate the anecdote, don’t you?
Now that we’ve got the grammar and punctuation issues taken care of ……
Yes, I hated it and here’s why:
Panama has been a tax haven for decades. When the “Goldman Sachs” dudes took their gold to Panama it had absolutely nothing to do with Obama’s NEW trade agreement. You are trying to impugn the trade agreement (whether deservedly or not is irrelevant) by mentioning that these guys (ne’er-do-wells?) were Goldman Sachs employees and thereby smear this gold transfer incident with the already lousy reputation of the GS bank. Your story just would not be as juicy if the guys moving the gold had been some ordinary schlubs like me, my brother-in-law and the house painter I used to shoot pool with. Or were you implying that the gold was actually an asset of Goldman Sachs, the corporation?
And then (now) you have doubled down with this lame tactic by mentioning that the gold dealer in your apartment also “did business with Wolfowitz too.” (When? in 1973 or 2011?) Maybe Wolfy came in to have his wedding band re-sized but it is so much more intriguing to say “did business with.” I wonder if the checkout clerk at the super market brags to her friends “I did some business with Wolowitz today” (when he dropped in for a quart of milk and a jar of peanut butter). Whose aura is worse than Wolfowitz’s unless it’s W himself?
The “freighter” image though is the best. As the rusty old hulk steamed out of NY harbor in the moonless gloom, loaded to the gunwales with its illicit cargo, the Goldman Sachs boys tossed back celebratory shots of Jim Beam to the sound of fog-muffled bell-buoys.
But getting around to the hiding of gold itself. If I possessed any more than the few gold coins that I actually DO possess I too would think about hiding them somewhere to avoid not so much tax as confiscation, a la Roosevelt in the ’30s.
Yes, Lbend, I dislike this whole lame tale.
We all have our hardons. With Old69 it’s free salaries and cheap rents, with PoC it’s immigration, with Wage it’s the destruction of Bldg 7, with Vlad it’s brown people and da Jooze, with me it’s spelling and grammar. And with you it’s Milton Friedman and a host of nefarious financial intrigues.
“The earth’s atmosphere resembles Mars. All plants and animals gone; humans extinct.”
http://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&hl=en&source=hp&biw=640&bih=428&q=mars+trees&btnG=Search+Images&gbv=2&oq=mars+trees&aq=f&aqi=g1&aql=&gs_sm=s&gs_upl=578l2703l0l4952l10l10l0l2l2l0l297l1469l0.3.4l7l0
“Elections are a spectator sport, good only for arousing partisan passions, and have nothing to do with actual democracy.”
I called in to AFR Tuesday to gripe about the media ignoring RP and the supposed 3 front runners they were touting, and the first thing the guy brought up was drugs and abortion, indicating that RP was not in tune with the “christian right”. He was making an argument about “legislating morality” except he thought RP wouldn’t be doing it enough of it.
My argument was that it was not the government’s place to be legislating morality, but simply to enforce it. I told them when the government causes more immorality than it corrects its time to question what we are asking the government to do FOR us, and that just maybe its more than government CAN do. Its our job to influence those around us to be better people, and treat each other as we would want to be treated.
He then threw in “murder” as if RP would allow murderers to get away with it, which of course tainted the discussion with capital crimes as opposed to more subjective activities that people must decide for {and suffer for} themselves.
The element that wants to impose morality rather than teach {slower} and live {harder} morally will continue to support tyrants, just as those who deny it. We must trust the Holy Spirit to move folks and stick to sweeping our own doorsteps instead of our neighbors.
http://www.infowars.com/ron-paul-they-call-me-extreme-theyre-the-extremists/
Well, Q.
I’ve got to admit your characterization here is actually very funny and I got a good laugh. I realize I can’t type directly into this window because the type, now that I’m back in the blog is too small for me to read. It’s vanilla plain text so I can’t bring in live links.
I apologized for the typos and tenses issues already which looked pretty bad, indeed.
I guess you’ll have to live with my sources like Charles Hugh Smith, Michael Hudson, Henry C.K. Liu, Dylan Ratigan, Matt Taibbi Gerald Celente and Max Keiser, Zero Hedge, Baseline Scenario as well as many others who see what I see going on here.
I only bring up the Friedman thing so often because the media won’t, but that’s the ongoing ideology in practice that is hurting this economy and ruining the basis for wealth creation from production to monetarism.
Let’s just agree to disagree about our world view. You can interpret the issues as you see them and I will continue to see things as I do.
Sometimes they may even converge–who knows.
I probably don’t mention it, but I too check out the link-es from youse guys and thank you for them.
:o)
As far as building 7 tumbles and crumbles, it is my firm (almost unwavering) belief that #7 was the control center for detonating the charges in the towers. Why not “kill two birds with one stone”? Fire off the towers and then bring down the evidence, PLUS all those cute financial records that can prove so embarrassing to “certain people”.
Call me nutty, but I see a lot of really powerful incentives for a lot of suspiciously wealthy people to do some really, really bad things. (The invasion of Afghanistan, etc., comes to mind as a really bad knock-on step in the same road. …Amid all those other jack-booted steps.)
Anyhoo, again, thanks for the links. I’ll keep reading as long as the juice and a freedom or two keeps flowing; I’m compulsive like that. ;o)
Well hey, now I’m getting some entertainment value from you too!
(Not that it’s rare; you like to have a laugh or three, all same like me.)
Could the freighter possibly be carrying OTHER GOODS? Not just loaded to capacity with gold bars, ya un’erstan’. Say maybe as part of the cargo, a few hundreds pounds or so, at a time. That would be within the realm of the feasible, would it not?
C’mon, you’re more imaginative than, “The whole blasted ship was stuffed to the scuppers with gold doubloons, I tells ya true! Arrrrrrr!” ;o)
All you need to know is that they are not sharing with Uncle Sam what they have.
==
And neither should you! Neither should anyone! Taxes are theft. So is the gov mafia debasing currency and causing inflation. It is economic and political tyranny. And YOU need to vote with your feet and stop paying them and stop patronizing their institutions and participating in their system. This is what Jesus did and this is what he was preaching before the Romans crucified him and turned him through their propaganda tale from a Roman resistor into a non-political figure supposedly oblivious to the brutal Roman oppression and occupation of Judea. Again, for anyone interested in the truth regards the Roman/Vatican propaganda story, I highly recommend reading Hyam Maccoby’s The Myth Maker.
“The “freighter” image though is the best. As the rusty old hulk steamed out of NY harbor in the moonless gloom, loaded to the gunwales with its illicit cargo, the Goldman Sachs boys tossed back celebratory shots of Jim Beam to the sound of fog-muffled bell-buoys.” -Q.
Holy Shit!
You did the do! That’s just wierd (and funny too). I hadn’t seen this when I reponded a’fore.
..Roman resister..
>
(Re-ponding would probably be filling the ol’ fishin’ hole with water by artificial means. ;o)
Gotta git.
Don’t ferget: defecation is usually safer than defenestration. So, defecate before you defenestrate. One less mess to scrape up! Neat and tidy gets you golden stars in Heb’bin. Shirk thee not, thou foul creature! -So sayeth the sayer.
(The Sayer would be BustinJ. Thanks for the [window] frame of reference.)
-Adios
{Thus far not one person has even admitted that race is a valid concept.}
Q, I’d like to respond to you from last week, regarding this query . . .
Ok, I AGREE with your idea that race is a valid concept/question . . . everyone out there identifies with their own ethnic group, first and foremost. Call me a lily-livered-liberal, or whatever, however . . . I’ll go even farther to say that ultimately, the racial affiliations will subordinate themselves to the human affiliations. And here’s WHY I believe that . . .
When I was growing up beneath-dirt-poor in the Deep South, I lived in a very “mixed” neighborhood . . . that is to say, there were a lot of us poor whites living in the same neighborhood as a lot of equally poor blacks. Sure, there was racial strife, but there was also a degree of solidarity . . . when a hurricane hit a time or two, the PEOPLE, regardless of color, looked out for one another, and during the times without water and power, helped our neighbors, regardless of race, and it was very reciprocal. I think humans really are wired that way, when it comes down to survival instincts. When I was a kid in this neighborhood I speak of, the teenage black girls who lived next door to me, tried to start some shit with me and whoop my ass a time or two, but then my sister and I banded together and whooped ass back on them 🙂 It was pretty much a draw. But then, another day when I was walking home alone from school, some other white “roughs” tried to start some shit with me, and these neighbor black girls jumped in and defended me . . . it was kind of that thing, I guess, where . . . “oh, hell naw! . . . WE are allowed to talk trash and start shit with our “sister-girl” Whitey, but YOU’RE NOT, dammit! 🙂 I think people are more tribal in love and bonds than they really are in actual race, myself . . . I really do, based on my experiences.
About 20 years ago, my grandmother (who is still alive, and still lives in the same duplex) had a situation where it was a warm summer evening, she had her front door open, and all of a sudden someone knocked on the door, hollering, “My MAMA! She’s havin’ a baby, HELP!” My granny told me it was a little black boy, and his mother had gone into labor, and they didn’t have a telephone at their house, so they were walking down the street to find help, and she REALLY STARTED ‘a having that baby, all of a sudden! My grandmother (who is now 97 years old, and who was raised in the DEEEEEEP South, Alabama . . . who I have heard say the “N” word MANY times in my life, opened up her door and hollered, “Come on in HEAH! I’ll call the doctor!” Well, before the doctor (ambulance) could get there, my granny had done birthed a beautiful 8-pound baby boy 🙂 And she told me that was the cutest little baby of any color she’d ever helped birth (and she’d had the opp to do it for several others, white and black 🙂
So before anyone wants to talk about racism, and think it lies in a color, or a word, look into your heart and ask yourself what you would do if you had a friend or a relative who was of another race, or if you were put in the position like my granny to help another HUMAN BEING through a tough time . . . I doubt, if you put it on the scale of one man or woman’s love for another human being, that you could make it quite so clear cut, this race thing.
Thanks for letting me share my two cents 🙂
Wage/Metuselah:
The First Amendment problems that I mentioned with respect to restrictions on lobbying do not concern restrictions on elected officials receiving bribes or gifts given with the intent to bribe. The First Amendment does not restrict Congress’ ability to pass or enforce ethics bylaws against receiving gifts from parties with an interest in pending legislation. Such ethics rules are currently on the books, although they could be stiffened and more consistently enforced. Lobbyists could full well be barred from wining and dining Congressmen without restricting their right to petition Congressmen in person.
Restricting access to elected officials per se, however, is constitutionally problematic. Lobbyists, like ordinary citizens, have a right to petition elected officials for in-person meetings, and elected officials have a right to grant or deny such requests. If an elected official chooses to hold meetings with lobbyists but not with ordinary citizens and his constituents consider that evidence of corruption or undue influence-peddling, that’s an issue for the constituents to address, by whatever lawful means they consider appropriate–letters, public protests, media pressure, voting against the crook, etc. Let me reiterate, though, that there are serious constitutional problems with placing restraints on the manner in which specific parties–including our dreaded lobbyists–may petition elected officials for redress of their grievances.
That doesn’t change just because their idea of a grievance is not being given handouts from the public purse or allowed to rob the public at will. All three of us have just as much of a right to petition our Congressmen for special dispensation to commit wire fraud as lobbyists have to petition for special exemptions from tax or labor laws. The offensiveness, disgracefulness, immorality or sheer absurdity of requests such as these does not in any way negate the right to make them.
Ultimately, the solution to official corruption, which I agree is a serious problem in the US, is for voters to bring countervailing pressure on their elected officials to shape up or ship out. Another way to look at it is that if we want to be treated like adults, we need to act like adults. We’re fools to expect some magical structural fix to stop the bullies from beating us up on the playground and taking our lunch money. We can’t change human nature and stop people like that from angling for power, but we can teach them a lesson by giving them a good kick in the ass when they cause trouble.
Ok, I AGREE with your idea that race is a valid concept/question . . . everyone out there identifies with their own ethnic group, first and foremost.
=================
Truth, you’re getting way ahead of me with these personal anecdotes. The first thing I want to establish is that most of us believe there is such a thing as race. Some people don’t believe that. As I explained initially my own daughter argued that race does not exist. Those pinko commie fag academics at Rutgers did their job well 😉 I don’t want to get into the issue of “racism” until there is general agreement that something exists that we call “race.” Race is a recognition of differences in groups of people due to relative geographical isolation from other groups.
The differences as spelled out in the definition of race I quoted from Dictionary.com are so obvious as to be almost unnecessary to enumerate, but enumerate I must:
. persons related by common descent or heredity
. distinctive physical characteristics: skin color, facial form, eye shape, genetic markers such as blood groups
. a human population partially isolated reproductively from other populations, whose members share a greater degree of physical and genetic similarity with one another than with other humans
. people united by common history, language, cultural traits, etc.
It takes an exceptionally stubborn person to deny the obvious validity of these elements that constitute race and the reason for the stubbornness is the fear and distrust of where such recognition might lead politically.
So, before proceeding beyond the word race to the word racism, I will ask others once again: do you believe there is such a thing as race as defined above?
without restricting their right to petition Congressmen in person
==
The 1st amendment states: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
This does not state that your congressperson is required to give you or anyone a hearing in person or even listen to your petition in person or otherwise. Your right to petition or protest does not include the forced obligation of anyone to hear your petition or protest. Because if it did, as I stated earlier, this would be tantamount to an assault.
This “right to petition Congressmen in person” is therefore a wild interpretation, and it’s an interpretation that I don’t see as at all valid.
“…love for another human being, that you could make it quite so clear cut, this race thing.”
-truthteller-
Nice stories, Truthteller, and with the honest ring of “Truth” to them.
It’s interesting that you, like I, grew up in close association with black folks in the small town and rural South. And it’s interesting that both you and I turn to sharing stories when we’re trying to get at something that’s important – that’s on our minds.
I’ve shared a bunch of stories like that, in these CFN threads.
Race cuts deep. I’ve seen, up close, the hate that race can engender – in a hurry – in both blacks and whites. That hate is deep in human nature. I know it exists in races other than blacks and whites, though I’ve been fortunate to never encounter deep hate from these other races, directed toward me, in my personal life.
I’m going to stop, and maybe pick this up tomorrow.
===================
Q – of course “race” is a valid concept for the human species. And we’ve got every race and category in the US. And we’ve got more pouring in every month. And we’re locked into this gigantic experiment in racial mixing involving 313,000,000+ Americans.
Only a fool would argue that race – and an examination of race – is not important to average human beings in the world, and in the United States.
I’m sure one will be along, soon.
You got that right.
Where is a woman most unsafe ?
I know you know the answer.
Interesting note about race: In certain Latin American countries, race does not exist as far as the census is concerned. But blacks are still much worse off economically than the other racial groups there — that is, apparently though race doesn’t exist in these places, it exists in a de facto fashion and, of course, so does racism.
But because race isn’t recognized in these countries, there is no formal way for blacks to get their grievances addressed through social programs, etc.
Liberals should be wary about playing the race-doesn’t-exist card. It could come back to haunt them.
Let me rephrase it. I did not argue that anyone has a right to compel one-on-one meetings with elected officials (and I don’t see how such an argument could be inferred from reading in context the sentence that you excerpted; my wording could have been better, but you could also refrain from misreading things in ways that support your prejudices). What I argued was that the First Amendment restricts Congress (and I should add, since the Civil War, state and local legislatures) from arbitrarily barring certain parties but not others from specific methods of petitioning officials.
Face-to-face meetings are a means of petitioning officials–in fact, one of the most effective means. You suggested in an earlier post that lobbyists be barred from having face-to-face meetings with Congressmen and forced to call the switchboard instead. I suppose this could be done constitutionally by barring all private ex parte meetings between Congressmen and members of the public, but that won’t happen because it’s completely unfeasible and nuts. Since you don’t seem to grasp the constitutional implications, let me reiterate that procedural and ethics rules like these cannot constitutionally be applied selectively.
Nowhere did I suggest that anyone has a right to harass officials in person; to the contrary, I explicitly wrote that officials have a right to refuse requests for meetings. You’re putting words into my mouth.
arbitrarily barring certain parties but not others from specific methods of petitioning officials
==
Again, you’re trying to infer a right were none exists. Your “specific methods of petitioning officials” includes personal meeting with congresspersons to which NOBODY is entitled. The practice and privilege of private personal meetings with congresspersons should be revoked for all. It is one of the methods by which corporate and private non-corporate interests manage to game the system and it needs to end. Of-course there are many other issues that need to be addressed where corporate corruption and the subversion of the political/legal system (and economy) is concerned. Personally, I think the US Constitution needs to be abolished, as from my point of view it is little more than an imperialist farce, devoid of any redemption. But working within the imperialist US constitutional framework, I don’t see how what I’ve suggested is at all at odds with the US constitution.
little more than an imperialist farce
==
The very idea that 300,000,000 people can be somehow democratically represented by 500 or so people is a profanity in itself.
“without restricting their right to petition Congressmen in person”
Let me rephrase it. I did not argue that anyone has a right to compel one-on-one meetings with elected officials (and I don’t see how such an argument could be inferred from reading in context the sentence that you excerpted
==
You want to put this to a vote? I guarantee you that most people here would interpret the first statement exactly as I did.
So let’s be clear, what exactly did you when you wrote “without restricting their right to petition Congressmen in person”, because as you’ve already conceded you don’t have the right to petition Congressmen in person.
..what exactly did you ^mean when you wrote..
Good luck actually getting legislators not to have private ex parte meetings on the down low. Many of them don’t abide by existing ethics regulations in practice, so we can’t expect the same rotten crop to willfully abide by stricter regulations. It’s a much better idea to allow influence to be peddled in the sunshine, where an alert and engaged citizenry can spot it and take action accordingly.
Also, good luck finding an alternative to the US Constitution that doesn’t have fewer protections for the rights of individuals. Humankind’s record of writing sound constitutions is pretty shaky; it’s not often that a group of people as wise as the Founding Fathers is in the right place at the right time. Before you suggest that we go Icelandic and appoint a citizens’ committee to reinvent the wheel using public input from an internet forum, mark my words: if that is done in America, the result will be a bloodbath.
I’m done debating you for the time being. You have gone off the rails on the crazy train. If anyone else wants to criticize me for losing my patience and temper or back up your paranoia and pedantic insistence that I’m the unreasonable one, so be it.
Further to my previous post copied below, I have to ask: Does the irony lie in the fact that FREEDOM High School produced an Anarchist, or does the irony lie in that FREEDOM High School does not produce Anarchists?
They just arrested some teenager who was planning to blow up “Freedom High School” in Florida.
The Freedom High School website states “The FREEDOM Vision”:
“The FREEDOM Vision
Freedom High School will provide a safe and caring environment with an academic focus, which will foster students’ growth, responsibility and positive self-esteem to develop motivated, self-disciplined individuals who will reach their academic and career potentials.”
http://au.news.yahoo.com/world/a/-/world/10062846/us-teen-in-columbine-like-school-plot
http://freedom.mysdhc.org/
It’s a much better idea to allow influence to be peddled in the sunshine
==
It’s not peddled in the sunshine, it’s peddled in private meetings under a system where the media is beholden to an elitist establishment and does not report on anything of import. Furthermore, the last 100 years are a complete rebuttal of your assertion.
I see you’re still smart-bombing the general population into a pre-bronze age state of being.
The horror, the horror.
if that is done in America, the result will be a bloodbath
==
Why is that? Who will do the killing? Name the party!
As to the result, it will result in the end of America. And that will be a *good thing*. The only reason and the real reason you will dispute that this is a *good thing* has nothing to do with freedom and dignity, because freedom and dignity NEVER existed in the US except as propaganda and an illusion. The real reason has EVERYTHING to do with you being economically invested in US imperialism and the ill-begotten loot that the US gained on the back of hundreds of million enslaved and murdered by your government and a planet that is completely trashed by poison.
World’s Highest Standard of Living
http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2008/05/31/worlds-highest-standard-of-living-if-youre-white-and-not-poor/
8man is a welcome addition to CFN and I
wholeheartedly applaud his creative view
of things. I note that LBendet second’s
my view.
Indeed, the ethos of the times is a helter
skelter death spiral. It’s as if the ethos
is: “I will outlive the disasters and chaos
I create. Therefore, how can I make money
off of this.”
I’m nonplussed at all the talking heads
who insist on being the stopped clock that
is correct two times a day. “It’s a buying
opportunity for long term investors.” They
are either mindnumbingly stupid or they’re
sociopaths because even people with an IQ
of 80 recognize that this is a WORLD INFLECTION
POINT INTO DARKNESS and not just some ordinary
cyclical downturn.
One does not have to posit this or that to make
such a bold prediction. I just look at all the
white trash in the Bay Area who would’ve been
shockingly crass to longshoremen in the 1950s
… and their incredibly broken families, bimbo
children, and disastrous finances … to arrive
at my prediction.
It’s a bull market in avarice, stupidity, and
vulgarity. I envy the few people out there
with fully functioning, coordinated, and
loving families. Personally, I’d rather be
the recalcitrant bachelor that I am than be
a part of the families of the many women I’ve
dated over the last decade. They’ve reminded
me of H.L. Mencken’s dictum: “There are only
two times in life when men are really happy;
when they’ve met their first love and when
they’ve left their last one.”
Solitude is waaaaaaaay better than what I’ve
seen when I peer into ordinary suburban family
life. It’s chaos with sappy overexpressions of
affection followed by backbiting and dissolution.
E.
“Solitude is waaaaaaaay better than what I’ve
seen when I peer into ordinary suburban family
life. It’s chaos with sappy overexpressions of
affection followed by backbiting and dissolution.”
Not down here in Gun Barrel City, Texas where “We Shoot Straight with You.”
http://www.gunbarrelcity.net/site/page/pg3109.html
I guess “time being” was a relative term. As lunatic as you can be, you aren’t baiting me, so I’m back.
“Bloodbath” was hyperbolic on my part. But only slightly. As a figure of speech, it’s a pretty damned good description of what would happen if the US tried the Icelandic approach to constitutional reform. And there’s no reason that the violence surrounding such a process couldn’t turn literal. It’s bound to piss off a lot of people. Even with a closed-door process involving the leading intellects of the day we barely assembled a critical mass of states the first time around, and one of the ramifications of that process was a bloody civil war eighty-odd years later to resolve unfinished business.
Drafting a new constitution for Iceland is akin to drafting a new constitution for the city of Bakersfield. That is, an extremely homogeneous, socially cohesive version of Bakersfield without Asians, Blacks, Mexicans or Okies. Consider this: Bakersfield, a much-ridiculed redneck backwater among California cities, has a population of about 308,000; Iceland has a population of about 320,000. In addition to not having Bakersfield’s ethnic and class divides, it lacks American-style “local color” in its politics, especially of the deranged Southern variety that likes to make things miserable for those who aren’t of a fascist or theocratic bent.
Iceland is also a supremely literate, well-educated society, which Bakersfield is not. (Fresno, a couple of hours downstream, has been found in surveys to be the least book-reading city per capita in the US.) To be fair, the US as a whole isn’t nearly as intellectually benighted as the Central Valley, but it falls pretty far behind Iceland. And what we make up for as a nation in intellectual capacity relative to our less educated regions we lose in the sort of common culture that makes drafting such things as constitutions workable.
Your premise that the United States is too unwieldy to keep whole isn’t outlandish; my country has repeatedly proven itself a bitch to govern, and Rick Perry aside, there are some Americans who have reasonable arguments for their regions to secede. On balance, however, I do not consider their arguments compelling. We have a lot to lose by fracturing. Maybe something resembling the Swiss or Belgian federal systems would make sense, but I’d hate to see some of the results of renewed political devolution in the South. Decent Southerners often can’t secure protection against their vicious local and state governments even with a national government that has full sovereign powers in their region. Our national security would suffer, too, partly in terms of total manpower but also in terms of Southern soldiers and officers, who are a huge asset to our military, underappreciated among Northern civilians.
Do I benefit materially from American imperial misdeeds? I’m sure I do, along with all Americans, mostly in ways unseen. But my support for my country and its physical integrity is not a function of my having been bought off with ill-gotten foreign swag. And once again I’ll repeat, probably not for the last time, that the freedoms and civil rights that my countrymen enjoy are not just a CIA/Vatican/Skull and Bones parlor trick. I know this because I’m sane, informed, alert, and a lifelong resident here.
There is a difference between private meetings and secret meetings. In many, if not most, cases the identities or affiliations of those meeting with officials are a matter of de facto public record. They’re often a matter of de jure public record. The mass media, which you insist never report on anything important because they’re gagged by their owners, release independent political reportage all the time. They’re beholden, but not that beholden. The difference between always and merely often can be huge.
Once again, I come to this weird conundrum. What will I believe: the paranoid blanket statements of someone living abroad or my own lying eyes?
Great post. Ironically, though, I have good news to report on the family values front from, of all places, Eureka, where my paternal grandmother and her clan have achieved the ideal that you describe, or else come too close for me to detect a difference. Our dynamics aren’t perfect, but this lineage is completely free of white trash, most of us are on genuinely good terms, and no one stays estranged from anyone else for long. None of the Eurekans has gone native, either, and the same is true of most of the families in their church, which goes to show that there are benefits to being a churchgoing square.
That said, some of the in-laws come from families with hilarious white trash lurking in the background. One has a clan of such relatives scattered around Sacramento (a thirty-mile wide Ed Hardy vortex if ever there was one)*, and my maternal grandmother all but married into low English Adirondack grifter trash of the sort that burned their trailers for the insurance money. Two dear family friends on my mom’s side, both supreme class acts, have had the misfortune of watching their grandchildren descend into working-class disorder. One of these families, in Vacaville, is an important data point for my thesis that every family around Sac regresses to the mean within two generations.
It isn’t surprising that the elders in a cultural milieu like that have such trouble imparting their wisdom to the kids, or merely getting them to not be vulgar reprobates; filial piety is not a virtue among white trash. That’s no country for old men. Or for men of any age with a residual sense of decorum.
I’m with you on not marrying into most families. I’ve seen some real Twilight Zone family situations. Even my own family–and I’m truly blessed to have such a good one–can be a vortex of smothering domesticity or hive of gossip, so I try to have a temporary escape plan ready at all times.
I’m inclined to go a step further than you, though, and say that it’s generally a bad idea to date available women. This isn’t a matter of principle, but of practice. I’m not ashamed to say that I’ve been the third wheel on occasion, partly because these relationships kind of worked and ultimately ended on account of something other than their being love triangles. The other big reason is that sharing a woman with someone else doesn’t even register as an embarrassment, let alone as a degradation, compared to being manipulated by one.
I’d rather share a good woman than have a dud to myself. The sad truth is that a great many unattached women are that way for a reason. (The same thing goes for guys.) The good ones really are taken. I’ve discovered that in Eureka the ones left behind include a disproportionate number of vanity cases who fancy themselves artistes and take advantage of men’s sexual interest for constant ego boosts. I try to keep a straight face when such people complain in my presence that they aren’t married. I’ve seen some real dregs hanging out on Craigslist, too (“you: like BBWs; have car and job; able to host; enjoy being my sugar daddy, uncompensated cabby and bedroom slave”). I’ve been involved with fickle, ambivalent, sometimes emotionally unstable women who avoid me for months at a time without explanation; the singles scenes that I’ve found are worse.
At the other extreme from the vanity cases are well-adjusted single women who would make great lovers and companions but who hang out in gossipy, overbearing social circles. Like church. Or one’s family. Either one can be too much of a good thing, especially if the two intersect. As edifying as these institutions often are, when sex is at all involved they tend to keep people from leading self-actualized lives, which is a real shame.
*Excluding Davis; there is some truly weird shit in Davis, but to its credit not of the pants-on-the-ground variety.
Well, E
You have a point, there. Looking at where things are going I thank myself for not having kids. At least I don’t have to worry about how in the world they’re going to survive.
When I was growing up I considered the nuclear family to be a little cell that produces neurosis. That said, as the Woody Allen joke goes, “I need the eggs”.
During High school we became aware of just how meaningless our entanglement in Viet Nam was, I decided since many people were going to have kids there was no reason for me to add to the population. I wanted a different adventure in life, so I chose not to get married and have a family, but I would want to be in an adult relationship with someone. So here I am doing just that.
Point is we have two cats and what did we do? Somehow two otherwise rational people transformed them into our kids and are no less neurotic than any nuclear family.
________
About the talking heads on the media pretending that everything’s fine-well you know they need people to keep investing in brackish waters. Gotta keep the charade going–after all as you say someone’s thinks they’re going to take the money and run. (New Zealand, anyone?)
Every week I keep a copy of JHK’s musings and the best comment(s) from the collective CFNers. Grouchy Old Girl, your insightful, touching and truthful comment made the top of my list this week. Thanks for encouraging a broader, more worldly, discussion. It may shock some in North America to understand that the riots and unrest that have now broken out in a dozen or so countries, including the UK, are NOT symptoms of some “Arab Spring” or a hollering for US style democracy, but the reactions of disenfranchised populations facing food and energy shortages while the elites in their countries get richer and govern without care. The USA too has a growing divide between elites and “little people” and a declining economy that will soon make survival a struggle for those on the bottom rungs. Somewhere in your great country there exists a group of younger folk who understand more than the popular culture they are force-fed, see their future being stolen by an uncaring political and banking”class” and will one day become angry enough to bring similar scenes to the USA. Look beyond the cartoon of a political system you have, people, and learn from a world descending into chaos. It is your future if you don’t take positive action now.
Madcat
Once again, I come to this weird conundrum. What will I believe: the paranoid blanket statements of someone living abroad or my own lying eyes?
==
Paranoid? Paranoid about what exactly? Explain.
What is it that your eyes see that is not manipulated by and through the MSM? What independent sources are your eyes subjected to that makes you somehow believe that you are aware of the full horror that is your government? You’ve been psychologically conditioned your whole life to not see or emotionally register what your government does not wish to see and emotionally register. They are masters at marketing and propaganda. What makes you believe that you’re somehow different than rest of the US population that has fallen to their spell and are for all intent and purpose completely deaf dumb and blind.
That is an extremely interesting post on family values and relationships. I’d like to comment more but but i can’t rap my small brain around that much truth at one time.
Mornin, Miss Myrtyl, If my Yorkshire attack dogs don’t scare off the marauders I know for a fact one of these would make ’em think twice.
http://www.defensedevices.com/shotgun-alarm-signal1.html
Totally harmless but man what a bang! If you ever heard a 12 gauge go off indoors, you would not be hanging around for the second live round!
From the Archdruid Report, titled “The Twilight of Meaning”:
“I’ve discussed more than once before in these posts the multiple ironies of living at a time when the liberals have forgotten how to liberate and the conservatives have never learned how to conserve. Still, there’s a third dimension to the incoherence of contemporary America, and it appears most clearly in the behavior of people whose actions are quite literally cutting their own throats. The kleptocratic frenzy under way at the top of the economic pyramid is the best example I can think of.”
Rest of the article here:
http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.com/2011/08/twilight-of-meaning.html
IMHO, this is exactly what happens in every case of subverting ALL to the profit motive. The slavish worship of Mammon leads to dissolution and death, and is the fastest way to the precipice’s edge. The people of the FUSA are just beginning to see the bloom of the resulting rot, but I don’t think most will ever know what the hell hit them. (Can’t change what you don’t know.)
AMR, I thoroughly enjoyed your perceptive observations on people in general and women in particular.
My chuckle of the morning came from this line:
all but married into low English Adirondack grifter trash of the sort that burned their trailers for the insurance money.
G’day RT,
If’n you get the chance, come on down to the Haddam Neck Fairgrounds on Sunday for the Brit Jam; one of the most extensive motorcycle shows in this h’yar country.
I’ll be there all day; I think they draw for the door prize bike at 3:00. This year’s is a 1970 BSA Lightning A65L. Not bad for a $10 entry fee and about a 1 in 4000 chance. (That’s my guess for attendees; last year was right around 5000.)
Have fun whatever you do. It’s going to be another fine day!
There is a difference between private meetings and secret meetings.
==
Bull shit! And I’ll prove it to you.
Find me in ANY newspaper anywhere, where the public record of the meetings held in private of ANY congressperson in the last 6 months and the contents thereof is to be found. Find me ONE person who is aware of the full itinerary of private meetings their congressperson has, their content and their ramification.
As I said earlier, you’ve been psychologically conditioned your whole life to not see or emotionally register what your government mafia does not wish you to see and emotionally register. In shot, you are dupe.
What you have is not a government by the people for the people, what you have is a sick farce. It is a complete make-believe sustained by uncritical dupes such as yourself.
you are ^a dupe
AMR, you’ve been “debating” with Obtusela for hours. I’ll give you an A+ for patience and common sense but there comes a time when, surely, you must realize you’re wasting your breath.
BTW, I see the following sentence in Obtusela’s 12:12PM post: “In shot, you are [a] dupe.” Interesting that he writes with a Boston accent.
‘right wing zealots of free trade and……….. ‘
Sorry L, GattNafta was Clintons!!!
Why our mind is always wrong, why everyone is wrong no matter what: because it is so easy to criticize anything, just criticize, say that “that” is a bad solution or whatever, easy, always being done, because everyone is wrong.
The BRIC (Brazil, Russia, China) was supposed to grow like the USA and EU and JAPAN in the golden decades from 1950 to 1990, but it isn’t happening because all the negative feedback loops kick in: the house and rent prices (aka the Real Estate Hogs) go way up right away (like in China, young couples can’t afford to rent or buy but they have millions of empty homes (just like all other nations from the USA to JAPAN)), downward pressure on wages as usual, in other words, that golden situation of growth the West had can’t be repeated: yes, there is some growth worldwide here and there, but right away everything ends and gets choked and all the negative feedback loops kick in (speculation, the need for profits, you name it), so no solution, the only solution is Free Salaries and Cheap Rents.
But it is all a useless quirk, all insignificant, Man and Civilization is worth that pebble down the street, nothing at all, just an arbitrary quirk of pain/pleasure circuits responding in large groups, all crap, all useless crap, all insignificant.
………
Even Candy land has soured, due to Immigrants and
“Sharecropping’:
Hundreds of foreign students on a State Department cultural exchange visa program walked off their factory jobs in protest on Wednesday.!!!!
The J-1 visa program brings foreign students to the country to work for two months and learn English, and was designed in part to fill seasonal tourism jobs at resorts and seaside towns. ………………………………..
The 400 students employed at a Pennsylvania factory that makes Hershey’s candies told The New York Times that even though they make $8.35 an hour, their rent and program fees are deducted from their paychecks, leaving them with less money than they spent to get the visas and travel to the country in the first place.
Some of the students were assigned night shifts, and said they were pressured to work faster and faster on the factory lines………………
Hershey’s said they didn’t hire the students when the Times asked:
A spokesman for Hershey’s, Kirk Saville, said the chocolate company did not directly operate the Palmyra packing plant, which is managed by a company called Exel. A spokeswoman for Exel said it had found the student workers through another staffing company…………….
Last December, the AP revealed that federal immigration officials were investigating two human-trafficking abuse cases related to J-1 visas. Strip clubs openly solicited J-1 visa holders in job listings, and some foreign students told the AP they were forced into sexual slavery when their passports were confiscated by a ring of criminals. About 150,000 J-1 visas were
…………………………………………………………………………………..
……………………………………..
Find me 10 honest Jews and they wont burn Sodom!
You can see that there is no investment worth making anymore, no further progress, no innovation left, just look at what Google and HP invest in: billions of dollars in a cell phone company and in a software fluff company, insane, all old stuff, all useless crap, nothing new, no new breakthrough, nothing worth anything.
They are embarassed to have billions of dollars and not know what to do with it, they have to “do something”, but there is nothing left to do so they just gift it to their friends (it is all a club of rich people exchanging picture cards, just for fun).
Notice they don’t hire research engineers, no hires here, actually just people always layed off (and some hired to show that there is some kind of “objective reason” when there is nothing at all behind the fires and hires, only fluff, excuses, and quirk will powers that just want to do what they want for fun, for the kicks, because they are bored).
Sodom is long gone. But your turn is next.
Interesting that he writes with a Boston accent.
==
Take it up with my secretary.
It’s weird how all you snobs think you’re so fuck assing cute, trailer trash my ass.
Can’t disagree here. Took me alot of years to ‘see’ this. And I know I still don’t ‘see’ things as they are.
It is kind of a game of Charades, it seems.
Sounds like a very Cool Show !
This weekend, starting today is Concourse d ‘elagance or something like that.
Most expensive cars in the World. Old and New.
Whoop de doo.
Motorcycles much more fun, and the people probably cool, not snobs, like mostly here in Carmel.
I always wanted to ride a motorcycle, not a big one. I actually did once and it was the THE Funnest thing I did. I drove it. But there is SO much traffic and all here, I didn’t persue it.
anyway, that and snow skiing. Funnest things ever.
enjoy the Party !
Could somebody who understands better than me explain the mistery of those toxic derivatives?
One day somebody talks about one quadrillion, today I heard that Societe General has 600 trillions debts in derivatives.
My first question: if they have debts to whom do they owe the money?
Usually when you have a debt, somebody has a credit.
If ALL USA citizens bought a house, making a mortgage, and ALL do not pay, how much money could that be?
And if the real money lent, thanks to the fractional reserve was in reality just 1/10 (and that is the money of the bank deposits)instead of bailing out the banks, couldn´t US and Europe bail out the citizens, close the banks and put in jail the responsibles?
What is really behind?
hey where I live a ‘trailer’ costs 100k for a single wide. Because there are no spaces in this county. you buy it because it’s already in a park. Also that is for one that you will tear out and put in new modular costing 120K and up.
in 06 right before the bubble burst, these modulars on a spot in a park sold for up to 400k. sometimes you had to pay rent space also, around $500.00, unless it was a resident owned park. now tho same would sell for 250k now.
and it would sell.
Central Coast California. Great Climate. Too many people. Was really nice 30 yrs. ago, when the thought never crossed my mind, what mind ? to buy something. and even then I could have afforded it.
I mean here you are livin’ large if you can afford that, and you are in a ‘trailer.’ There are some nice parks. With warm swimming pools.
In Auburn CA, 200 miles NE same would be about 50K for a ‘nice’ one in a nice park. Gets very hot tho in that area, inland.
Now I need to go see what you liked so much about
AMR’s thoughts on women and people in general.
Excellent post. IMO.
I’ve had similar thoughts about the situation.
And I can’t cast the first stone either.
I get it. I married into a total Twilight Zone family. Worse than ‘mine.’
“YOU” have BMW, House, $$$, no kids ! to leave it to !” I know women like this. Men exploit women. Most guys ain’t all that innocent. I know how you feel. It’s sad how we are. Most of us.
Also I have been to Eureka several times in my life. Cuz as we all know I love Redwood Forests.
The trailer park out on that country road is the worst. total white trash. can’t think of the name, it’s been awhile. And all the others are pretty bad also.
Here they are much nicer, yes I know if there is such a thing. A nice trailer park is an oxymoron.
There is a band called The Trailer Park Troubadours, and they sing a song called Livin’ in Aluminum. It’s funny and it’s good rock n’ roll.
okay I’ll stop now…..
con’t.
yes Sacto is awful. but keep going up to Auburn and Colfax and it is different.
You know it is pretty nice up there. But getting from here to there is a nightmare. Traffic.
Loved it when my bro had an airplane, he used to come pick me up and it would take little over an hour, driving is 4 and that is if no traffic jams.
yes, yes, I know
You haven’t read much of what I’ve written here in the past. I’ve often said that all the presidents from Carter on have been globalists and neoliberal.
I refer to it as game, set and match…
Yep, Clinton was bad news. NAFTA and the repeal of Glass Steagall.
I 3rd ed it.
Hey,
Just wanted to call attention to an interview you can get to through Energy Bulletin. It’s Chris Martenson interviewing Charles Hugh Smith on peak oil and finances. Similar message as JHK.
“Two dear family friends on my mom’s side, both supreme class acts, have had the misfortune of watching their grandchildren descend into working-class disorder. One of these families, in Vacaville, is an important data point for my thesis that every family around Sac regresses to the mean within two generations.”
I don’t find this surprising, after all, there is nothing inherently cultured about “Eurekans” (or those from similar geographical locales) other than being the descendants of those who chopped down trees, panned gold, poured drinks, and provided shelter. Perhaps the real gold nuggets of Eureka and other similar municipalities, were architects such as Newsom and Newsom, but your rather derisive comment about a female “artiste” leaves me to presume that you hold some contemptuous and stereotypical views of the arts as well.
So other than being a member of the lucky sperm club, what innate/acquired characteristics and qualities constitute the high-brow culture of a Eureka California?
the freedoms and civil rights that my countrymen enjoy are not just a CIA/Vatican/Skull and Bones parlor trick
==
Really? How is the US gov mafia any different than the Syrian gov mafia or any other dictatorship? The US gov mafia cut off cellphone service in the San Francisco Bay Area, with the excuse that they wished to thwart a protest. WTF!? The protest blocked was a planned protest on Aug 11th against the latest police shooting of an unarmed man. But that was just a dry run. The US Congress and the CIA are now working on an INTERNET KILL SWITCH to be able to shut down internet service altogether, whenever they want, on the pretext that they wish to thwart a terrorist attack. The definition of a terrorist being YOU, if you dare to disagree with the gov mafia.
The US gov mafia does what ever it wants when ever it wants, and it is ALWAYS the burden of the impovrished citizens to prove in court AFTER THE FACT that they have any rights at all, including free speech and the right to assemble peaceably. There is no rule of law. There’s only cronyism and selective enforcement against those who are not part of the gov mafia, in courts that are stacked with former gov mafia prosecutors.
They say about eachother I Love Her but I don’t Like her. sisters that is.
I feel like you do about this and most things.
Good page.
Most people think they are in the movies instead of real life. It’s all about Image to them. Phony pretentious.
I know so many women like that. More women than men for sure.
It’s weird how all you snobs think you’re so fuck assing cute, trailer trash my ass.
=============
Whenever my wife and I attend a Broadway opening (wink wink) or just a plain ‘ol cocktail party she always makes a point of telling me I’m the cutest guy in the room which, of course, is ridiculous since I’m 70 and in various ways falling apart at the seams.
But cuteness aside, you make a good point Ctemp … how it never crosses the minds of all we snobs to burn our abodes to the ground for the insurance money when we need to scrounge up some dough. I guess that’s what makes us snobs.
We snobs are usually more subtle. We are into financial maneuvers like “splitting” (ie departing in a hurry under duress, usually in the middle of the night) and mailing the house keys back to the bank if we can’t make the monthly nut and the mortgage is “under water” (ie the house is worth less on the open market than the amount still owed on the loan). Arson is just so trailer trashy.
Thankyou Montsegur my friend. That is most thoughtful. I hope you have a good trip.
Did you hear the Canuck government is restoring the names of the branches of our military? So it’s now going to be the Royal Canadian Navy, Royal Canadian Airforce and Canadian Army?
Maple Leaf Up!
I see you’re still smart-bombing the general population
==================
How so? I don’t get it.
So it’s now going to be the Royal Canadian Navy, Royal Canadian Airforce and Canadian Army?
==================
Cash, why the 3rd class treatment of the Army … ie no “Royal.”
forgot the question mark
There is no rule of law. There’s only cronyism and selective enforcement against those who are not part of the gov mafia … – Mika
I’ve disagreed with you on a lot of things but on this you’re right especially w.r.t. commercial crimes. It’s hard to come to any other conclusion other than the fix being in especially after the financial debacles of the last 15 years or so.
To AMR: we’ve tried constitutional reform up here and it proved to be impossible. We’ve had a couple prime ministers who gave it a go mainly for their own self glorification and it nearly came to disaster.
IMO the main benefits to the federal system both our countries have is that you have one citizenship with mobility and residency rights. No need for internal residence permits. You want to move from Quebec to Alberta? Just pack and move. Same with New York to Texas. Plus the locals who pay the freight for local issues get to have things their way. That’s the beauty of having powers divided between the feds and the states/provinces. I don’t think it could be any other way in continent sized countries with widely diverging economic interests and varying political points of view.
Barack “Blacula” Obama and the international bankers suck the life out of the black community:
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/thousands-show-job-fair-jobless-rate-rises/story?id=14336519
Beats me. With the Brits it’s the same. Royal Air Force, Royal Navy but no royal for the army.
The reason we changed back in the late 1960s was allegedly to unify the different branches of the military. And there were some good arguments for unification. But there were a lot of people that thought that it was done as part of the Liberal/liberal agenda to dismantle an institution the intellectual hipsters held in contempt. And they did enfeeble our military. It is still wretchedly weak in manpower and IMO needs several times as many people as we presently have.
And in fact a lot of liberals in this country make no bones about it. They despise our military. But we have a majority conservative government at present that is taking some measures to restore some of our military capacity and restore some of its old symbols. Make our boys and girls in uniform feel good about themselves IOW.
As I scan the blog I am watching/listening with one ear to CNBC’s after-the-close commentary on today’s stock market action.
I notice something in Maria Bartaromo’s manner of speech that is new in the past month or so and it is creeping rather noticeably into the speech of a lot of women … a lisp. Even my daughter is doing it. What the hell is going on? The only thing I can think of to explain it … perhaps they think it makes them look more vulnerable and adorable.
Has anyone else noticed this?
The trailer park that you remember is probably on Old Arcata Road, along the boundary between the bottoms and the hills east of 101. There’s a trailer park on Old Arcata near the Indianola Cutoff that probably has the gnarliest country living that I’ve seen in Central Humboldt. There may be some nasty pockets that I’m not aware of on the outskirts of Fortuna, Blue Lake, or Rio Dell, but I doubt it, especially for Fortuna, which gives off a rather sanctimonious middlebrow redneck vibe (the “Friendly City” gives me the willies, although for very different reasons than Eureka). Otherwise, the only places in Humboldt where I’ve found that sort of rural squalor are in the villages and country shacks along the Avenue of the Giants, and on and around the Yurok Reservation between Orick and Klamath.
My dad and his siblings lived intermittently in Grass Valley when they were kids, and I’ve been there a number of times. I can’t say I really like the area, though, because I find the landscape inhospitable. I really prefer coastal oak and pine scrub to the inland version. There are certain parts of the Gold Country that I like better: the section through Coloma, the Sonora area, San Andreas, but not so much Auburn to Grass Valley; I don’t quite have the words to explain why.
One thing I can say is that Grass Valley is not as free of white trash as it might be. It was swarming with them at the Fourth of July street fair in 2009. I assume that most of them were flatlanders, since Sac is within easy driving distance for an evening out and they seemed a few cuts below GV townies. I didn’t get a look at any of their cars, though, and I wasn’t about to ask them where they lived because they were pretty much as Eleuthero has described. Then again, some of them could have been hillbillies. I’m told that there are some really rundown, disorderly rural neighborhoods east of Auburn in Foresthill.
One telling thing that I’ve heard about the Grass Valley/Auburn area is that residents of rural subdivisions and ranches there don’t execute citizen’s arrests on common trespassers. Residents of Kneeland, an equivalent area near Eureka, do. I heard this from a very credible fellow I see around town occasionally who grew up near Grass Valley and was astounded when he discovered how jealous people in rural Humboldt are about their property. For what it’s worth, word on the street is that the Penal Code doesn’t exactly permit citizen’s arrests in these situations.
Yeth, I’ve notithed the lithp. I can’t say so for sure, but I think you’re right that it’s becoming more common among American women, and I tend to agree with your interpretation pending a more compelling one.
“Motorcycles much more fun, and the people probably cool, not snobs, like mostly here in Carmel.” -JB2u
Yeah, I dunno about your native Carmelites (nuns too? ;o), but I find bike enthusiasts [in general] to be a pretty inclusive bunch, and poitical differences get overlooked in favor of the machines.
I wouldn’t say any such thing about outlaw clubs, however! lol
Anyhoo, I’ve been playing this show for about 15 years now, and it’s always a good time, as my buddy Tom usually shows up to play keys, mix our repertoires and help yell a lot. It’s gets real off-the-cuff, but still sounds good, so for us, it’s a grand old release from the same old grind.
Here’s a pic of an example of the give-away bike this year. Yes, you could ride one of these road rockets, a lot of women like ’em. (Could be jammin’ on one of these for about 3 grand [for a really cherry one] or less.)
http://www.ctbritiron.org/gwbike2011.html
It’s even worse in the Bay Area, especially in Silicon Valley. Housing prices there are wildly inflated even as a percentage of median household income. At the peak, shacks in Palo Alto within the spillover zone for street crime from East Palo Alto couldn’t be had for less than $550k. Prices have hardly fallen on that part of the Peninsula since then.
In Palo Alto proper, one reason for the sustained prices is that the city’s school district is allegedly the best public school district on the face of the earth. I attended what was allegedly the best elementary school in all creation and consider such statements wild exaggerations. Frankly, I got a better education after I moved to a hick district in Pennsylvania because my new elementary school was more interested in actual education than in self-esteem platitudes and political correctness.
What all this carrying on about the quality of the PAUSD misses is that most families in the market for a house in Palo Alto could put their kids through Catholic or even private school on the money saved by living somewhere cheaper. The problem with my reasoning is that Palo Alto is full of social climbers who look down at places like San Jose, Redwood City and the entire East Bay. I do not believe this is just a rational response to accurate perceptions of disorder. The insistence of immensely wealthy parents on sending their kids to public school smacks of politically correct posturing. Ironically, it really fucks things up for poorer parents who work around Palo Alto.
What the Peninsula in particular badly needs is more high-density apartment housing. Enough people work there and want to live there to make it economically viable. I can’t think of a technical reason why some fifteen- or twenty-story apartment blocks couldn’t be built on the east frontage of the Bayshore Fwy. and served by a bus loop from Embarcadero and University. The commercial highrises in Foster City, which has terribly unstable soils, are an indication of the engineering feasibility.
The real obstacle, of course, is the riff-raff. Palo Altans would rather that the help live discreetly in self-storage units in San Jose (pun intended). That’s a harsh thing to say about my old homeys, but that’s exactly what happened during the boom, and few in the PC set lifted a finger at the time. I’d guess there are still a lot of Mexicans living in self-storage. When push comes to shove, the help, like children, are to be seen, not heard.
And, lest we forget, The Royal Can-A-‘jan Kilted Yaksmen! (Hollered in that stentorious announcer’s voice, it sounds kewler. ;o)
Ren and Stimpy, me puppies; it’s all good.
You’re projecting fantasies onto me. In fact, you’ve replaced Vlad as this forum’s habitual projector.
You have no reason to infer that I believe everything I hear from the mainstream media or, bizarrely, that I have been brainwashed by the CIA. For the record, I consider the CIA a dangerous criminal agency that ought to be dissolved because Congress has proven inadequate to oversee it and keep it from illegally running its own unauthorized foreign policy, including gross violations of human rights.
In no way does that mean that the CIA is the puppet master of all mainstream media. In Washington’s interminable power games, the CIA is often outfoxed or simply outgunned (figuratively, in case you plead confusion) by the likes of the FBI and the Pentagon. The press routinely reports damaging news about the CIA, as it does about other federal agencies. In spite of the very real abuses of government power and attempts to impose tyranny in recent years, this situation is very different from what exists in Syria.
You’re right about the threat of the kill switch, except for your assertion that the CIA and Congress are conspiring together. Neither body plays well with others, so I’m doubtful. We’ll see what happens; if the recent past is a guide, there will be enough of an outcry to force Congress to retreat with its tail between its legs. You’re sort of right about the BART cell service disruption, too. It’s potentially a threat to civil rights, provided that BART doesn’t have a legitimate property rights exemption as an agency maintaining its own signal network. I doubt, however, that BART is cutting service at the behest of shadowy Washington figures. It could be true, but I won’t believe it until I hear it from a source that doesn’t cry wolf about the CIA several times a day.
In no way does that mean that the CIA is the puppet master of all mainstream media. In Washington’s interminable power games, the CIA is often outfoxed or simply outgunned (figuratively, in case you plead confusion) by the likes of the FBI and the Pentagon.
==
I see ZERO distinction between the gov mafia agencies. Your so-called “power struggles” are kabuki theater, meant to serve an Hegelian dialectic to drive policy forward and confuse people who are ignorant of this basic technique. The same puppet masters control all the federal agencies.
this situation is very different from what exists in Syria
==
Really? How many Syrians were gunned down in Syria this year (and these were armed Jihadists with heavy machine guns), versus unarmed Americans gunned down by “law enforcers” in the US? How is the cronyism and the thieving by the US gov mafia any different than the cronyism and the thieving by the Syrian gov mafia? How many Americans, on scurrilous political charges, are held and abused in prison waiting trial, versus Syrians held and abused in prison waiting trial on similar scurrilous political charges? How many Americans are “disappeared” and inexplicably “commit suicide” when they try to make public damning information of gov mafia misdeeds, versus Syrians that are murdered for basically the same reasons.
So what’s the fscking difference? That your US gov mafia propaganda outlets put on a better show and a better smile on the naked display of fascism?
Spitfire List | FTR #482
Interview with Daniel Hopsicker
– http://goo.gl/MNvQl
“Among the frequently overlooked aspects of the 9/11 investigation is a group of media reports that emerged in the aftermath of the attacks maintaining that some of the hijackers (including Atta) had received training at secure U.S. military bases. “ . . . Atta had learned at U.S. military facilities, we discovered. As many as seven of the hijackers were in this country at the invitation of the U.S. Government. Keeping this knowledge secret has been an objective of the cover-up currently in progress. On the Saturday following the Tuesday attack, the Los Angeles Times broke the story in a long article on their front page . . . ‘A defense official said two of the hijackers were former Saudi fighter pilots,’ reported the paper, ‘who had studied in exchange programs at the Defense Language School at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas and the Air War College at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama.’” (Ibid.; p. 135.)”
Explain to me, why isn’t this extensively discussed anywhere on the MSM?
Contradiction in terms:
Extensive discussion non-Main Stream of topics not a feature of Main Stream Media… except for:
Charlie Rose
Colbaire Rapor
Bill Moyers until he was kicked off
Andy Rooney, kicked off
…add yours here.
Tell me this, econo-apocalyptists:
When gold is so valuable you’re trading it for, I don’t know, Dinner or… DIABETES MEDICATION…
How much in relative value is a wrapped box of chocolates?
I want to sort out my “investment” options.
Interesting question, Bustin. Link below analyzes relative prices of gold and Hershey’s chocolate going back to 1908. And it does the same thing for Kellog’s Corn Flakes.
Right now, premium chocolate is about $3/ounce – therefore gold is roughly 600 times more expensive.
If you wanted to get out of the country with $100K of gold – that would be about 3.5 pounds of the yellow stuff.
If you wanted to get out with $100K worth of Ghirardelli chocolate – that would be two thousand and eighty three pounds of the brown stuff.
(somebody check my math)
Plus, chocolate has to be eaten relatively quickly, or else refrigerated or preserved, somehow.
Gold just sits there, gathering dust.
=================
I’m not much of a goldbug, but I’ve got a little. Plus I’ve got GLD and SLV the proxy metal ETF’s – in my portfolio. And I’ve got GDX, a gold miner stock ETF.
Even if the ship is sinking – it’s nice to see some of my poker chips going up in “value,” so I can keep playing for a little while longer, maybe.
http://seekingalpha.com/article/270530-the-gold-chocolate-ratio-a-yummy-look-at-gold-values
Your picture reminds me of a picture the Onion used to illustrate a great article, showing a sample of the American people.
I’ve been gone, so jumping into the lobbyist argument is too daunting.
I will say that I can’t believe the AMR really sees no difference between a citizen visiting their Congressman and a lobbyist wining, dining and writing laws for a Congressman.
Anyway, check out the Onion article. (You too, AMR)
http://www.theonion.com/articles/american-people-hire-highpowered-lobbyist-to-push,18204/
A little 3 year old girl was murdered last week by a neighbor. She used to play with his kids.
Her mother reacted by saying that she wished she’d have kept her kid locked in the house all day, instead of letting her ride her bike and play with the neighbor kids.
Stories like these, endlessly repeated by the TV news, reinforce the paranoia.
Thanks for the heads up.
I listened to the show, and, as you said, it was pretty interesting.
I’m surprised that Tarpley left out another reason that our ruling overlords may have targeted the right wing, however.
The really far right ones are against the banking bailouts.
Remeber when Michael Hudson pointed out that Michelle Bachmann was for letting insolvent banks fail?
And Greece supposedly has a “socialist” president, who is busily selling out the people and the national wealth of Greece.
It’s the far right who are opposed. They must be discredited.
Also, I’m not good at reading between the lines. I have to have things spelled out.
Too many live links? Necessary? I’m not sure what you mean.
From the link that Ozone provided, and relevant to the corrupt Congress problem that we were discussing-
“The number of representatives in the House, for example, hasn’t increased since the early twentieth century, and we now have an enormous class of career bureaucrats and military officers that outlast our elected officials. In other words, each representative is answering to more people, diluting your voice (unless you’re rich); this trend will continue as long as the population continues growing and Congress doesn’t increase the size of the House.
Folks rightly complain about the acrimonious political atmosphere in Washington, but what do you expect when you’ve got 535 men and women in Congress working on behalf of 300+ million people spread across a continent? The system hasn’t scaled very well, and we’re starting to see it break down.”
Originally, there was supposed to be one Representative for every 30,000 people, not counting slaves and Indians, of course, but all those immigrants swelled the population and they fixed the House at 435 in 1911.
Now each rep “represents” about 700,000 people.
Well, 700,000 citizens and a couple dozen lobbyists.
Even if inflation at 100% proceeds for three straight years driving a gallon of gas to $28…
28 miles: 38 minutes: $28 dollars….
Biking will still be free.
Wow-e-e, foreign nationals in our country illegally are demanding to be accepted as a legitimate political body, insisting that our elected bodies of government acknowledge them as such and represent their wants and desires.
Let’s see, doesn’t that amount to a subordination of our citizen will — their having violated the immigration laws that were crafted and enacted into law on our behalf? Hmmm, causes me to wonder; how would we citizens of the US be treated if we invaded their nations of origin in blatant disregard of immigration laws. Am I the only one posting at this site who gives a damn that our nation’s destiny is being jerked out of our hands? Does anyone else see irony in the DNC and RNC carrying on about off-shored jobs but avoiding mention of illegal aliens here stealing jobs from our own labor force by undercutting the wage floor?
No, I do see a difference. As I mentioned above, I also see a difference between meetings without gifts and meetings with gifts, and see no problem with restricting gifts to elected officials on the basis that they create (intentionally, of course) a conflict of interest.
The problem that I have is with restricting ex parte meetings. Doing so officially and across the board will drive meetings totally underground, where there will be much less public scrutiny than there is today. Selectively imposing restrictions will limit the right (and, yes, it is a right) of certain individuals and the organizations representing them to petition officials.
I’ll say this yet again, since you and Metuselah don’t seem to grasp, or perhaps care about, the constitutional implications: there are serious First Amendment problems with selectively restricting the rights of specific parties to petition officials. It doesn’t matter that the parties in question are deemed corrupt, dangerous or otherwise undesirable. Placing prior restraints on their free speech rights endangers the free speech rights of everyone else. If Congress may make such laws to restrict lobbyists, it stands to reason that it may also make such laws to restrict the free speech rights of ordinary citizens. I do not for a second believe that our government is benevolent enough to limit itself to targeting corrupt, well-connected influence peddlers once it has crossed the threshold of restricting the manner of political speech for specific, unpopular parties.
Once the Rubicon is crossed in that fashion, we can expect all hell to break loose. Genies like that are hard to put back into their bottles. This shows one of the important benefits of checks and balances, in this case specifically of a judiciary with the power to block enforcement of legislative acts that it holds unconstitutional. Without the judiciary to occasionally tug at Congress’ reins, we almost certainly would have less freedom of speech than we have today. (Metuselah: if you think Americans have no more freedom of speech than Syrians, you’re full of shit. I live here; you don’t; this ain’t Damascus, and we don’t have an equivalent to the Assad clan.)
I believe you’re referring to the Secure Communities program. I was listening to an Amy Goodman Democracy Now interview yesterday on the subject and it was interesting to note how absolutist agenda trumps common sense.
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/aug/18/local/la-me-0817-secure-communities-20110817
Metuselah,
I realize that I was a bit harsh in my last comment, but I wouldn’t expect to be treated any more kindly if I constantly made wildly exaggerated declarations about the level of tyranny in someone else’s country and accused that person of being brainwashed for disputing my claims. Belligerence begets belligerence. Or, more to the point, I don’t feel like handling those who ceaselessly twist my words with kid gloves.
Cavepainter, “Am I the only one posting at this site who gives a damn that our nation’s destiny is being jerked out of our hands?”
I increasingly think…
That the one-world government we have always heard about is coming together as the inexorable web of capitalism reaches a size and scope in which it renders nations irrelevant.
Think about how different the world is today, how the economy is mediating the political economy.
In this world, “players” can call up, say, Assad in Syria, Mubarak in Egypt, anyone, really, and then lay out some series of economic sanctions- just threats of sanction, and the result is regime change.
Who are the “players”? Lets call them what they are: extra-national, non-governmental “players” made so by the nature of a complex system at immense scales and energy intensities and complexities.
The aggregate worlds created by distance and time are being consolidated.
All cultural markers, races, ethnicities, languages, are all disappearing into large condensating cultures. Even if some mixing takes place, the incorporated population dwarfs the unincorporated.
The races ARE mixing, one economic system IS dominating, Nation-state politics ARE becoming less effective.
I think a major cause of American disengagement from reality was the constant environment of unreality. Politics seems like a sideshow whose purpose it is to remind us of stories about what kind of people we should be- never mind that we simply aren’t.
Basically, we aren’t our “heroes”. We are not the kind of people that stormed the beaches at Normandy or broke ground settling the continent or even the people who created the internet or landed men on the moon.
There is a trick hypnotists use where, if you repeat commands as statements, a person can be induced to believe the literal and not figurative truth of the sentence. For exmaple, how many times in your life have you heard:
“We landed a man on the moon, surely we can fix this Peak Oil problem.”
Focus on the first part: “We landed a man on the moon.” You might say its just a figure of speech, a colloquial way of saying, “we, Americans, 1969, in general, etc.” and this is allowed under the typical ad hoc rules of communication.
Ostensibly, it is. On the other hand, taken literally it means that the person saying “We landed a man on the moon,” is stating that he was responsible.
The hypnotist knows that the subconscious ALSO responds to literal meaning as well as intentional meaning. This is a sly way of “imprinting” your target with suggestions. When he says “you are getting sleepy”, your BODY responds to the literal meaning even if there is no suitable or rational context otherwise. In effect his statement becomes a COMMAND which is registered as a belief.
People call this “Learning” and its also practiced in schooling and education but I digress.
So, applied to the general education (programming) of “what it means to be an American”, and given that all self-identified Americans’ beliefs as such represent a cumulative, evolved body of claims, inherent in that body are tons of claims that literally make no sense.
After all, when someone says, “we landed a man on the moon,” it is absurd on its face. Neither the speaker, his family, or anyone they knew, or are talking to, was ever capable, in practice or theory, of landing an obital spacecraft on the moon and delivering a human being to its surface.
There are only a certain number of people that can make that claim. Yet invisibly, Jack Shitt from Cleveland thinks he is good enough, smart enough, and crazy enough to “land a man on the moon”.
Lets see what else everybody believes about anything:
“We drove to the store & got a 6-pack”
“We can build millions of skyscrapers and pay cheap rents”
“Whites are X, Blacks are Y”
Everybody wants to know when “we” will cure cancer.
Will “we” have Whirled Peas?
“We” fought the war in Vietnam.
Etc.
So my theory is that, (American, other) have a set of beliefs about themselves that is simply a borrowed narrative. A narrative about… other people that did stuff
Imagine what conversing would sound like if the literal implication was substituted for an original meaning.
“We can solve the financial crisis, heck, we work as Floor managers for JC Penney.”
or, your original statement, “”Am I the only one posting at this site who gives a damn that our nation’s destiny is being jerked out of our hands?”
Notice “our” hands. Whose hands? The fact is, maybe our destiny was never in “our” hands to begin with.
From one perspective, you could name individuals that have had their hands on our destiny: JP Morgan comes to mind. Barack Obama, Geithner, who else? Republican party puppet-masters? Charismatic politicos? Billionaires like the Koch brothers?
But us, as individuals? None of us ever had a hand on it. Voting is a joke, our political system a fraud. Oops, there I did it.
My contempt isn’t for all artists or for the arts. My contempt is for pretentious artists who angle for constant affirmation from those around them. People like that are really just another annoying eruption of the self-esteem nonsense that has been degrading respect for genuine competence in the US for over a generation. In other words, it’s more bullshit artistry in a country already awash in BS and in desperate need of a rectification of names.
I didn’t arrive at this view by absorbing stereotypes. I reached it through direct interactions with pretentious, emotionally needy artists who imposed upon me in ways that I quite frankly do not impose upon on those around me, in part because I would be mortified with embarrassment to do so. It was a combination of “flatter me, I’m an insecure, self-absorbed mediocrity” and “support me, I’m a starving artist.” It was narcissism and crass salesmanship rolled into one: to be charitable, not the stuff of greatness; to be blunt, two vices that America really ought to purge from its character for compelling ethical and pragmatic reasons.
In the dating situation that I mentioned, the indignity of being subjected to this rot was compounded by sexual tension with, and manipulation by, the lady subjecting me to it. I put up with it because I otherwise enjoyed hanging out with the gal and didn’t have other dates waiting in the wings, but I was under no illusions that it was a dignified or sustainable dynamic.
You asked what I would consider hallmarks of a “high brow” Eurekan. We have some local examples, including the Arkleys, our billionaire property speculators/philanthropists/newspaper owners prior to the Times-Standard’s monopolistic lawsuit/civic leaders/official lefty whipping posts. We also have Assistant District Attorney Allan Dollison, who shares a surname with one of our city streets and is bar none the preppiest dresser I’ve seen around town.
Dollison and the Arkleys, however, are outliers; there are too few of them to affect the ambient street culture. So what I really have in mind isn’t high society but a modicum of class among the plebes. This has practically nothing to do with money, except for the desperately poor, whom I can’t blame for having more pressing concerns than etiquette. It’s really more a sense of pride, decency, taste–that je-ne-sais-quoi that says, “I’m not stooping to the level of white trash.”
Some good starts: not looking like a fool with one’s pants on the ground; not sporting Ed Hardy; putting on another layer over the wifebeater because it’s fucking underwear; not slouching down Broadway like a yardy at Corcoran; being judicious with the crank; not hanging out on the porch all day and yelling at passersby to intrude into their business (this applies to rednecks, too); cleaning up the single-room occupancy hotels on Broadway because they’re disease-breeding eyesores that attract and create white trash, whom they plunder for rent to the point of being unable to escape the cycle, externalizing the costs onto the rest of us; breeding only intentionally and when conceivably able to raise children in a stable, wholesome environment.
Even Congressmen don’t have total recall of every meeting they’ve had. That doesn’t mean that they’re conspiring under cover of darkness. Certainly plenty of them are doing exactly that, but your outlandish blanket statements and leaps of logic aren’t what proves that Congress is corrupt.
Why don’t newspapers print comprehensive lists of meetings involving elected officials in their articles on politics? For the same reason that their articles on public transit service cuts or increases don’t include copies of all timetables, a fare schedule and a system map. There are two reasons for not publishing such data dumps, neither of which has anything to do with deceiving readers. First, these materials are available to anyone interested by calling the MTA or going to the depot. Access to the original documents can be a bit trickier in the ex parte meeting example, but newspapers often publish their source documents online; in many other cases, FOIA requests or queries of nonprofit agencies can do the trick; much of the work can be done in a matter of seconds to minutes online.
The other reason for newspapers not to do data dumps is that doing so would keep their readers from seeing the forest for the trees. We’d have no use for reporters if we all had the capacity to evaluate rooms full of source documents. We’d be much less informed if they didn’t evaluate and synthesize large quantities of information and print relevant synopses.
Yes, reporters sometimes lie to us, but other reporters sometimes call them out for lying. There is a degree of accountability in the industry.
A brief example demonstrating that we do, in fact, have an independent, accountable press: A few months ago, American newspapers got egg on their faces for covering up the CIA affiliation of Raymond Allen Davis, the ex-special forces gunslinger facing murder charges in Pakistan. They were scooped by the foreign press, and not due to their incompetence, either; they were trying to curry favor with federal officials by censoring themselves. Within a week or so, pressure from bloggers and the like forced them to publish Davis’ CIA affiliation because they were losing credibility with their readers.
Why did our CIA overlords allow that? You won’t like to hear this, but it was because they aren’t really our overlords. Government agencies, including the CIA, often get into trouble in the American press for overplaying their hands in efforts to mold the narrative. There is a separate matter of the citizenry not caring enough to follow such stories, but that’s a cultural matter only tangentially related to the vigor and independence of the press. We have plenty of shady characters who are up to no good and have bought the complicity or assistance of parts of our media, but they absolutely do not control it lock, stock and barrel as you insist. That often makes a huge difference–say, the difference between complete, unchallenged tyranny and incipient, openly challenged tyranny; the difference between an often dysfunctional but so far enduring republic and an autocracy of mobsters.
You’re right that I’ve been psychologically conditioned. Much of the American media, especially advertising and PR, is devoted to psychological conditioning. But here’s the part that you’re too paranoid and narrowminded to get: I recognize a huge amount of the propaganda and disregard it, and I’ve demonstrated exactly that in this forum. For you to continue to berate me with nutty blanket statements about politics in my country and your pigheaded insistence that I’m a victim of CIA propaganda for not agreeing to be deprogrammed by you is completely paranoid and ridiculous.
It’s good to find someone on CFN who can critique the hologram with well-reasoned arguments rather than descending into a batshit crazy shouting match. Keep up the good work.
I’m with you on a lot of what you just wrote, at least to an extent. I see the NWO as a real threat, but not in the black helicopter sense of a nefarious formal plot. It’s somewhat more informal than that, but I certainly see worrisome elements of it in some international organizations, particularly the IMF and the World Bank. These organizations have some dangerous corporate allies, too, including Monsanto.
Elected governments and citizens owe it to themselves to tell predators like these to fuck off, and back up their words with military force if necessary. The NWO seems to be made up of chickenhawks who won’t do or pay for their own dirty work. They look like opportunistic predators who back off when the cost-benefit analysis isn’t in their favor.
You raised interesting points about hypnosis and semantics. I’m not sure that the first person plural semantics that you critiqued are the crux of the problem, but I do think that they’re consistent with our (oops!) descent as a country into grandiose fantasy. The noise about American exceptionalism amounts to “we’re special because we say so.” It has the appearance of the vain thrashings of a dying beast. In a country that values perception over reality to the extent that the US does, such rhetoric is useful as a fig leaf for profound deterioration. If we can peddle self-esteem to our schoolchildren, why can’t we concoct a version for the entire country?
Oops, I did it again. It’s just that I’ve long thought of myself as a small but potentially influential part of the national enterprise. I’m not cynical or nihilistic enough to assume that any effort I make to improve things will be in vain. For one thing, I’ve seen positive results from small, incremental actions by all sorts of people. I’ve also seen negative results from small, incremental actions by individuals.
I’m sounding like Gandhi, telling people to be the change they want to see (Obama, too; shit), so enough navelgazing for now. But basically, I’ve seen quantifiable costs to reflexive nihilism in terms of potential good not done, so I’m not ready to raise the white flag to our CIA overlords, the indifferent cosmos or whatever. The fact that my relatives have chosen not to be nihilistic white trash like their fellow townspeople is evidence enough for me to carry on.
Re: the American political system being a fraud, it’s worth noting that con artists prey on the gullible, not the savvy, and that our electorate is very gullible. Campaign finance reform wouldn’t be an issue if most Americans didn’t believe whatever crap they saw advertised on TV. Too much time in front of the boob tube is not healthy. Our public schools don’t encourage independent thinking, either.
In many cases, however, the fundamental problem is that individual Americans assume that they don’t have any free agency, or that they shouldn’t have to exercise free agency because they’re the very special residents of the most special land in the world. The mentality is incredibly childish and lazy, and damn well demoralizing on close inspection, but I’m not ready to throw up my hands because my countrymen are all irredeemable losers, especially since I’m fairly good at finding ones who aren’t.
AMR said:
I’ve been involved with fickle, ambivalent, sometimes emotionally unstable women who avoid me for months at a time without explanation; the singles scenes that I’ve found are worse.
***************************************************
I’m now dating a very attractive 52 year old who
appears to be the most loved person in her entire
extended family. As you know, appearances can be
deceiving.
On dates, she checks her goddamned text messages
every five minutes which makes her family seem
CLANISH and overly meddlesome about what the
others are “up to”.
She has a very calm energy but then I find out
that it’s because she’s on Lithium Carbonate
and Seroquel for Bipolar I … class manic
depression. Who knows how much of that “calm”
energy is drug-induced or how much past traumas
have made her so NUMB that she’s UNDERreactive?
Many undiscerning people mistake a NUMB person
for an “all-accepting” person because they don’t
react with any amplitude.
Then I meet one of her two children … an
absolute bimbo with a penchant for drinking
to the blotto stage. The son is having a
kid with an Asian woman and they’re only
boyfriend and girlfriend with no mention of
marriage yet, to my mind, the sole utility
of marriage is to cement a relationship to
create stability for kids.
“Nothing is what it seems. Skim milk masquerades
as cream.”
E.
8man said:
They are embarassed to have billions of dollars and not know what to do with it, they have to “do something”, but there is nothing left to do so they just gift it to their friends (it is all a club of rich people exchanging picture cards, just for fun).
****************************************************
When you analyze it for only a few minutes, there’s only so much one can spend. Once you
have a few Gulfstream Jets, mansions, Rolls
Royces, etc. you normally don’t get new ones
the NEXT year you make $50M. You’re good for
many years. So whaddya do with the lucre.
Answer: Speculate in the securities markets.
We’re at the point where the rich trade financial
chits with each other and the poor will end up
doing each other’s wash and mowing each other’s
lawn and pretend that we have “economic activity”.
E.
LBendet said:
You have a point, there. Looking at where things are going I thank myself for not having kids. At least I don’t have to worry about how in the world they’re going to survive.
When I was growing up I considered the nuclear family to be a little cell that produces neurosis. That said, as the Woody Allen joke goes, “I need the eggs”.
****************************************************
The human race, according to geological records,
appears to have gone through “keyholes” where
only five or ten percent of the starting
population remains after some sort of natural
disaster.
That’s why I see your decision to NOT have
children as a perspicacious one. I’m convinced
that the “keyhole” this time will be a true
“Clusterfuck” of resource shortages from sheer
Malthusian levels of overpopulation, poisoning
from the use of desperate measures to get some
resources (e.g., fracking and consequent
groundwater toxicity), the poisoning (and
NUMBING) of the “hive mind” by stupefying
mass media, fractured families (now the rule
in the Western World), zombiefying psychiatric
drugs, and lack of activism to do anything
about any of the above because we’re divided
and conquered and enervated.
Your comment about the family unit makes me
recall a quote from psychiatrist R.D. Laing
in “The Politics of the Family”: “A family
is a conspiracy of people who believe themselves
to be its members”.
I’ve peered into the families of middle-aged
women I’ve dated in recent years and all the
while that they’re extolling how great their
families are, I subsequent find out that all
the kids are drunkards, sluts, etc. but they’re
all “sweet”.
It’s truly amazing how dysfunctional families
can create a mythos about their love and unity
which gets exemplified by their constant texting
to one another which interrupts and kills any
ongoing interactions with NON-members of the
clan. It’s mass, self-reinforcing delusion
and the constant messaging shuts out outside
influence from bursting the bubble.
E.
I like products, I like “dead things”, “objective things”, things where there is no subjectivity, no human judgment, no human “touch”, biological, pain/pleasure crap touch, no carbon atoms busting balls. I like machines of Steel and Iron, Big Buildings, Huge Buildings, Skyscrapers, Cars, Rockets, Trains, Iron and Steel, Power, Energy, Computers, Logic, all objective, mathematical entities, no more puny this is good and bad, you are good and you are bad, no more puny humans and their petty fighting, their crappy subjectivity (they are proud of their subjectivity, they are proud of fighting (how can they be so sick!) of confronting, of being alive, what total pukes humans be, what a hu