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Puerto Rico, You lovely island,
Island of tropical breezes….
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Welcome to America’s first experiment in the World Made By Hand lifestyle. Where else is it going? Watch closely.

Ricardo Ramos, the director of the beleaguered, government-owned Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, told CNN Thursday that the island’s power infrastructure had been basically “destroyed” and will take months to come back

“Basically destroyed.” That’s about as basic as it gets civilization-wise.

Residents, Mr. Ramos said, would need to change the way they cook and cool off. For entertainment, old-school would be the best approach, he said. “It’s a good time for dads to buy a ball and a glove and change the way you entertain your children.”

Meaning, I guess, no more playing Resident Evil 7: Biohazard on-screen because you’ll be living it — though one wonders where will the money come from to buy the ball and glove? Few Puerto Ricans will be going to work with the power off. And the island’s public finances were in disarray sufficient to drive it into federal court last May to set in motion a legal receivership that amounted to bankruptcy in all but name. The commonwealth, a US territory, was in default for $74 billion in bonded debt, plus another $49 billion in unfunded pension obligations.

So, Puerto Rico already faced a crisis pre-Hurricane Maria, with its dodgy electric grid and crumbling infrastructure: roads, bridges, water and sewage systems. Bankruptcy put it in a poor position to issue new bonds for public works which are generally paid for with public borrowing. Who, exactly, would buy the new bonds? I hear readers whispering, “the Federal Reserve.” Which is a pretty good clue to understanding the circle-jerk that American finance has become.

Some sort of bailout is unavoidable, though President Trump tweeted “No Bailout for Puerto Rico” after the May bankruptcy proceeding. Things have changed and the shelf-life of Trumpian tweets is famously brief. But the crisis may actually strain the ability of the federal government to pretend it can cover the cost of every calamity that strikes the nation — at least not without casting doubt on the soundness of the dollar. And not a few bonafide states are also whirling around the bankruptcy drain: Illinois, Connecticut, New Jersey, Kentucky.

Constitutionally states are not permitted to declare bankruptcy, though counties and municipalities can. Congress would have to change the law to allow it. But states can default on their bonds and other obligations. Surely there would be some kind of fiscal and political hell to pay if they go that route. Nobody really knows what might happen in a state as big and complex as Illinois, which has been paying its way for decades by borrowing from the future. Suddenly, the future is here and nobody has a plan for it.

The case for the federal government is not so different. It, too, only manages to pay its bondholders via bookkeeping hocuspocus, and its colossal unfunded obligations for social security and Medicare make Illinois’ predicament look like a skipped car payment.

In the meantime — and it looks like it’s going to be a long meantime — Puerto Rico is back in the 18th Century, minus the practical skills and simpler furnishings for living that way of life, and with a population many times beyond the carrying capacity of the island in that era. For instance, how many houses get their water from cisterns designed to catch rain runoff? How many communities across the island are walkable? (It looks like the gas stations will be down for quite a while.) I’ve been there and much of the island is as suburbanized as New Jersey — thanks to the desire to be up-to-date with the mainland, and the willingness of officials to make it look like that.

We’re only two days past the Hurricane Maria’s direct hit on Puerto Rico and there is no phone communication across the island, so we barely know what has happened. We’re weeks past Hurricanes Irma and Harvey, and news of the consequences from those two events has strangely fallen out of the news media. Where have the people gone who lost everything? The news blackout is as complete and strange as the darkness that has descended on Puerto Rico.


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James Howard Kunstler is the author of many books including (non-fiction) The Geography of Nowhere, The City in Mind: Notes on the Urban Condition, Home from Nowhere, The Long Emergency and the four-book series of World Made By Hand novels, set in a post economic crash American future. His most recent book is Living in the Long Emergency; Global Crisis, the Failure of the Futurists, and the Early Adapters Who Are Showing Us the Way Forward. Jim lives on a homestead in Washington County, New. York, where he tends his garden and communes with his chickens.

416 Responses to “In the Murk”

  1. Graycenphil September 22, 2017 at 9:37 am #

    Puerto Rico faces some big struggles. Peurto Rico faced some big struggles before the hurricane too. They’ll just be harder now.

    Of course we all get tired of a crisis pretty quickly, and it’s on to the next big news item. But really, the main reason the consequencs of Harvey and Irma have fallen out of the news is there’s no news there. They are rebuilding fast and well. Of course some folks suffered immensely, some will for a long time and some will never recover. But most are doing just fine, considering the magnitude of the catastrophe. That is a testament to continuing capablility of our cities, states and countries. Texas and Florida weren’t the beginning of the long Emergency, and Puerto Rico won’t be either.

    • Ron Anselmo September 22, 2017 at 9:49 am #

      There are some days when I’d like to take a little break from reality also. What medications are you on?

      • K-Dog September 22, 2017 at 9:59 am #

        I think the lights are on but nobody is home. No meds.

        • CancelMyCard September 22, 2017 at 10:26 am #

          Oh Jim,

          When will you rid us of this tiresome Graycenphil troll?

          • DA September 22, 2017 at 11:24 am #

            janet’s “significant other” maybe?

    • HowardBeale September 22, 2017 at 9:54 am #

      Graycenphil,

      The road you are walking is becoming exponentially (I hope you know that word) steeper. Truly looking forward to your future entertaining attempts to stay the course…

      • Graycenphil September 22, 2017 at 10:11 am #

        It’s actually getting exponentially easier. As predictions of doom and gloom continue to prove false, it gets more and more obvious that we are not seeing the end of the world as we know it.

        Really, did you guys believe the hurricanes in Texas and Florida were going to destroy the country? Do you now believe the problems in Puerto Rico will do the same? When predictions continually fail, do you ever question the predictions?

        • Ghung September 22, 2017 at 10:58 am #

          Collapse is a process you just haven’t been forced to acknowledge,,, yet.

        • HowardBeale September 22, 2017 at 11:25 am #

          That’s the spirit! LOL…

        • shastatodd September 22, 2017 at 12:04 pm #

          “As predictions of doom and gloom continue to prove false, it gets more and more obvious that we are not seeing the end of the world as we know it.”

          all my life people have been telling me that my death is coming, and yet here i am at 61 and doing just fine still. smh

          • nclaughlin September 22, 2017 at 12:29 pm #

            I’m 74 and having a hard time believing it.

          • Graycenphil September 22, 2017 at 12:34 pm #

            But if all your life, people told you that you were going to die tommorrow, wouldn’t you begin to question that prediction?

          • DA September 22, 2017 at 12:47 pm #

            An exponential tale that illustrates our current situation with respect to any number of things (resource depletion, population growth, climate change, peak debt, etc.):

            “Imagine a magic pipette. It is magic because every drop of water that comes out of it will double in size every minute. So the first minute there is one drop, the second minute there are two drops, the third minute four drops, the fourth minute eight drops and so on… This is an example of exponential growth.

            Now, imagine a normal sized football stadium. In this stadium you are sitting on the seat at the very top of the stadium, with the best overview of the whole stadium. To make things more interesting, imagine the stadium is completely water-tight and that you cannot move from your seat. The first drop from the magic pipette is dropped right in the middle of the field, at 12pm.

            Here’s the question: Remembering that this drop grows exponentially by doubling in size every minute, how much time do you have to free yourself from the seat and leave the stadium before the water reaches your seat at the very top?

            Think about it for a moment. Is it hours, days, weeks, months? The answer: You have exactly until 12:49pm. It takes this tiny magic drop less than 50 minutes to fill a whole football stadium with water. This is impressive!

            But it gets better: At what time do you think the football stadium is still 93% empty? Take a guess. The answer: At 12:45pm.

            So, you sit and watch the drop growing, and after 45 minutes all you see is the playing field covered with water. And then, within four more minutes, the water fills the whole stadium.

            This means that you think you are safe because it seems that you have plenty of time left, whereas due to the exponential growth you really have to take immediate action if you want to have any chance of getting out of this situation.”

          • Graycenphil September 22, 2017 at 1:02 pm #

            I’m well aware of exponential growth. I also know the million dollars a day or the penny that doubles every day story. But I’m also well aware of the “what if” question. One can always imagine a what if that portends doom and gloom. And there is always someone doing it. That doesn’t make it so.

            There is no magic pipette dropping water into the stadium, or anybody offering you a choice of a million dollars a day, or a penny that doubles every day.

            Resource depletion, population growth, climate change and peak debt are all problems that we have to deal with. But they are not the end of the world as we know it.

    • Walter B September 22, 2017 at 10:26 am #

      You are right, these are not the start of the Long Emergency, at least not for you it would seem. We have a phrase in our local government that I am pretty sure is used often throughout the nation – NIMBY, Not In My Back Yard. It takes effect when someone decides to build something not so good near a neighborhood. The neighborhood comes out in force (for a short time) and there is a great gnashing of teeth while everyone else in the town could care less and remains asleep. Nobody notices, nobody cares, as Carlin often said. This principle is the basis for modern America when something horrible happens to somebody else, someplace else. The sellout media shows up beforehand with its logos and catchphrases, jumps all over the decimation, then goes away, off to the next event. People send in their $20 to the Clinton Foundation and then go back to sleep.

      It may not be the start of the Long Emergency for most of us yet, but it is for the Caribbean, especially PR. Any of us that used to frequent those islands can tell you that the destruction and desolation lingers for decades. This chain of events is not only real expensive, but it is going to take a damned long time to overcome if it in fact ever is. How does it all get paid for, why all we need is a little bit of Too Much Magic, right?

      • Graycenphil September 22, 2017 at 10:42 am #

        Good Morning Walter, and I hope you had a few quiet days.

        I’m very familiar with NIMBY, but the acronym is outdated. Now it’s BANANA: Build Absoultely Nothing Anywhere Near Anybody. It doesn’t matter if you’re talking about a nuclear power plant, a wind farm, a grocery store, or a bike rack. Try to build anyting and expect opposition. Somehow, in the end, though, we do get bike racks, wind farms and maybe even a nuclear power plant. As I’ve said before, it’s not always pretty, but it works. Could be better, but could be a lot worse.

        The difference between the Long Emergency and what Puerto Rico faces is that very soon, Puerto Rico will be rapidly improving. For most folks moving back to normal and for many ultimately improving. They faced a huge disaster, but not TEOTWAWKI. The island will still face all the financial problems it faced before, but that is another issue.

        • elysianfield September 22, 2017 at 11:26 am #

          “The difference between the Long Emergency and what Puerto Rico faces is that very soon, Puerto Rico will be rapidly improving”

          Excellent comment…if accurate we will have something to celebrate…lets revisit the question in two months, and see what the storm provided for them…(by extension perhaps) and eventually for us, if the Zombie Apocalypse should occur. A grand experiment by way of the empirical method…a real-life example.

          Can everyone agree that PR, considering it’s fiscal problems and damage to it’s infrastructure, can be an object lesson to study? Can a “proof” of our “Long Emergency” beliefs be at hand?

          Two months…lets call it Christmas Day, adding a few days.

          Feliz Navidad….

          • Graycenphil September 22, 2017 at 12:37 pm #

            I think it is an excellent idea; I’m in.

            Considering all the dire predictions about Houston and Florida, do we want to include them in the study?

          • Janos Skorenzy September 22, 2017 at 1:18 pm #

            I’d say now is right time to grant the Lone Star Territory the Independence they’ve so long desired. It will give them the shot in the arm they need to rebuild in a more modest fashion.

            Jets rule.

          • elysianfield September 22, 2017 at 4:54 pm #

            “Considering all the dire predictions about Houston and Florida, do we want to include them in the study?”

            Phil,
            No, as it would add variables…let’s keep it simple…if Puerto Rico remains livable, we might have to readjust our perceptions regarding our viability…a good case study.

          • Graycenphil September 22, 2017 at 5:04 pm #

            Fair enough. I’ll stay tuned.

        • Walter B September 22, 2017 at 12:21 pm #

          Good morning to you as well. There is one thing that people that do not do the work to create societies, infrastructure. or systems always overlook and that is exactly how long and how it took and costly it was to get it all set up in the first place. To believe that the garbage can all be torn down, cleaned up and new stuff all rebuilt magically in the course of a few short months is ludicrous and an insult to those of us that have worked so long and so hard to construct it all in the first place. The financial end of how things all get paid for is mind boggling, I understand. Ninety percent of Americans cannot even balance their checkbooks or put away enough cash for old age or real emergencies. When you consider the precarious state of the US financial system, the timing could not have been worse. Just last night I advised our Committee of all of the additional expenses that our Township will be incurring next year due to “affordable housing” requirements, debt payoff and the additional management costs of doing all of this and the Mayor just said, “Oh well, I guess taxes are going to go way up, aren’t they”. This in a small municipality where dozens upon dozens of once “wealthy” homeowners have already walked away from their underwater mortgages, and a new term of “Pre-Foreclosure Sales” is underway.

          My wife serves as a part time care giver to a Down’s Syndrome man in his fifties. I was speaking with our neighbor who has this fellow under his permanent care. I pointed out that Chris was always so happy and pretty much care free, and that while none of us would ever consider changing places with him, I could not help but wonder which of us was better off? Those who see and who care and feel obliged to do something about it all or those that simply cannot see at all. Chris’ “Dad” replied that he asks himself the same question every single day. There is a place for us all in the world. I shall hold up my end of the deal, you continue to do yours with my thanks.

          • Graycenphil September 22, 2017 at 12:42 pm #

            Again, I agree with much of what you say. And there is something to be said for blissful ignorance, but I’m not interested. That said, it is very nice that Chris has found a situation where he is always happy and carefree; that isn’t always the case.

            In the particular case of Puerto Rico, I would not be surprised if this disaster relieves them of some of the fiscal pain. They may get resources and rebuilding that were needed anyway. With many sad exceptions, they may come out better than before the hurricane. Time will tell.

        • Walter B September 22, 2017 at 12:52 pm #

          There it is, you just said it. Collapse may be the best thing to happen to PR. I have been saying that all along. Collapse allows for rebuilding from scratch rather than piling on top of what already does not work.

          • elysianfield September 22, 2017 at 5:03 pm #

            “Collapse allows for rebuilding from scratch rather than piling on top of what already does not work.

            Walter,

            Understood. But without resources… finance, materials and the knowledge possessed by a population inured to privation, what chance of success?

            What would happen, however, if the Chinese offered to rebuild the island…? They are one of the few countries that could afford to do so.

          • Walter B September 22, 2017 at 7:20 pm #

            Aye elysianfield, you have been doing your homework, you understand, don’t you? There is the rub. Who rebuilds and at what price? Rebuilding is one thing when done within and another when the help comes from without. Vulnerability changes everything doesn’t it?

        • orbit7er September 22, 2017 at 10:56 pm #

          As Mr Kunstler has pointed out for very many years the US has 233,000 miles of Rail. Lets use it! Further we have medians down the middle of the thousands of miles of Interstate Highways mistakenly built in the huge Auto Addiction expansion paving over our green spaces. Like the 24 lane highway in Houston STILL congested which became a river of flooding water with no way to soak into the ground. Build Rail down those and you can move 10x the people and things you can with highways….

      • tahoe1780 September 22, 2017 at 11:02 am #

        Let’s not forget “uninhabitable” Barbuda and the devastated island country of Dominica. Who will come to the aid of the island’s people who relied on now devastated agriculture (bananas and sugarcane), and tourism as virtually their only source of funds? I imagine their infrastructure is in as bad, if not worse, shape than Puerto Rico’s.

        • malthuss September 22, 2017 at 3:02 pm #

          The solution will not be implemented. The solution is close the border and stop the airplanes flying here, to USA.

      • “It may not be the start of the Long Emergency for most of us yet, but it is for the Caribbean, especially PR. ”

        I beg to differ,

        The population of the USA is about to surge by a potential 3.4 million hispanic (can be of any race) speaking AMERICANS.

        The “Long Emergency” has no such escape clause as, “Or, retreat to the wealthiest country in the world.”

        Q.E.D.

    • DA September 22, 2017 at 10:40 am #

      Gray,

      Your time frames are just skewed. The “long emergency” began much earlier (depending on exactly how you define it), and will last much longer than most of silly human observers can currently conceive of. Although, it will still unfold shockingly fast from a geological perspective certainly, and as the article I linked to yesterday said, from an historical collapse perspective as well.

      From the big picture perspective, the long emergency basically began as soon as we discovered oil and started down the industrialized road we’re currently on. The end game was preordained as soon as we took the first step. We remain a primitive species, and we had no ability whatsoever to resist the allures of cheap and abundant energy and all the attendant misery it has heaped and will continue to heap on us, our fellow species, and the planet we all inhabit.

      • Graycenphil September 22, 2017 at 10:46 am #

        I didn’t see the article yesterday; please post a link again.

        If the Long Emergency started when we discovered oil, bring it on. I think the discovery of oil has probably been one of the most important faactors in creating the wonderful world we live in now. Surely it has brought some challenges, but given all the benefits it brought, I’ll take them.

        • Beryl of Oyl September 22, 2017 at 11:01 am #

          Hmm. Rush Limbaugh has said that the difference in loss of life between the Great Galveston Hurricane and Irma is due to the combustion engine.

          • DA September 22, 2017 at 11:36 am #

            I’m sure that’s largely true. But it’s also at least arguably true that the internal combustion engine at least contributed to Irma’s destructive power as well.

          • bhnj13 September 22, 2017 at 12:04 pm #

            thats a good point but how about weather satelites? and better weather tracking/knowledge in general. mass evacuations would have been near impossible with sailboats and horse drawn carriages. they had steamships but probably little warning.
            in 1780 over 20,000 people died in a hurricane in the carribbean, mostly sailors in the british, spanish and french navies, a fact that has surprisingly not come up recently.

          • bhnj13 September 22, 2017 at 12:06 pm #

            death tolls have been lowered by technology but destructive power and frequency increased by technology.

          • Graycenphil September 22, 2017 at 12:46 pm #

            Burning carbon fuels may have increased the severity of hurricanes, but there is simply no question that the impact of hurricanes is drastically reduced.

        • tahoe1780 September 22, 2017 at 11:10 am #

          People living in countries that suffer from the oil curse may disagree. “Economists have mostly shied away from full costings of the ecological and social devastation of oil use. Were they to do so with thoroughness and authority displayed by Ross in The Oil Curse, they might start to develop the new economic model for oil and other extractive industries that is so desperately needed.” Countries that are rich in petroleum have less democracy, less economic stability, and more frequent civil wars than countries without oil. What explains this oil curse?”

          • DA September 22, 2017 at 11:38 am #

            Oil dependent countries have inherently more volatile and avaricious economies, and thus people. They are, after all, “dependent” now, aren’t they?

        • DA September 22, 2017 at 11:20 am #

          Let me find it. It’s about an MIT guy who basically says that the numbers indicate we’re in for the 6th mass extinction now.

        • DA September 22, 2017 at 11:22 am #

          Surely it has brought some challenges, but given all the benefits it brought, I’ll take them.

          Most of us would. That’s why it was irresistible and will remain so until we run out. And it;s only “wonderful” where we are. That’s a uniquely first world sentiment you’re espousing.

          • Graycenphil September 22, 2017 at 12:50 pm #

            We’ve all heard of the predictions of a sixth mass extinction. What’s the point? We never should have burned oil?

            We will do what we can to avoid this, and what we can’t avoid we will have to deal with.

          • Graycenphil says, “we’ll do what we can to avoid this,”

            Yet, we never really did what we could to avoid it.

            Personally, politically, socially, or culturally.

            Total failure.

            And not justified support for the claim that we will do so in the future.

            Prior performance is the best predictor of future performance.

            The point of the paper is preceisely:

            the elegant presentation of what mathematics can empirically prove when the Earth’s atmosphere on which mammals’ Life support systems depend, can expect to go completely- and totally- unpredictably out of control.

            The implication is that, according to the known laws of nature, carbon pollution will have made our climate unlivable- for us. And not just us, but many familiar plants and animals.

            The mathematical implication is that we will have no known quantity of Energy or material that could ever influence in a predictable way, the climate system at the point.

            If anyone is suggesting Geoengineering the atmosphere, the material implication is that you may require the greater part of the known amount of Energy freely available now.

            E.g., Only atomic bombs could generate sufficient energy to (fantasiazing) somehow generate enough N2, H2O and trace gasses to pump _in Proportion_ to the elevated CO2 (1000ppm) which obviously involves a quantity of a sizeable percentage of the total mass of the atmosphere.

            The other option, removing CO2 from the air, likewise now involve scales which make the process likely to require all available free energy and will never happen.

            Pessimism wins this week, kids.

          • ozone September 23, 2017 at 8:49 pm #

            Greasie,
            The Infernal L’il Debbie sez:

            “Prior performance is the best predictor of future performance.”

            We’re so sorry, that would be the beginning and end of the abject failure that we might label “the human experiment” and its on-going Dominionist exercise in gob-smacking hubris. “Events are now in charge.” (Quoth JHK. To internalize that means casting away a barge-load of wishful thinking and Uberstate propaganda about gold-plated futures, never to be.)

          • Graycenphil September 24, 2017 at 8:09 am #

            We are obviously moving away from carbon based energy. It will take time, but we’re going there. This doesn’t happen overnight.

            Prior preformance is a good predictor of future performance. Since we have made our world into such a great place to live, in so many ways, I’m confident that trend will continue.

            That doesn’t mean the world is perfect, and it doesn’t mean there will be challenges, but we will continue to make it an overall better place.

            I like to quote JKH sometimes too. He’s a great writer. But I don’t put much stock in his predictions.

        • shotho September 22, 2017 at 12:59 pm #

          The discovery of oil and the internal combustion engine to burn the stuff began the process of where we are now; on the brink of massive financial, social and physical destruction. So, take the benefits while you may.

          • Graycenphil September 22, 2017 at 2:41 pm #

            I’m quite confident that we are not on the brink of massive financial, social and physical destruction, though I’ve been hearing that for decades. Must be a large brink.

            Of course, none of us knows for sure. As unlikely as any of that is, it’s possible.

            But what we do know for sure is all the phenomenal benefits that have made this a pretty wonderful time and place to live, for the vast majority of the people. Especially for those of us in the wealthy nations, but really for almost everybody. I don’t know many who would trade that away.

    • Jigplate September 22, 2017 at 1:22 pm #

      The liklyhood is that the island will simply de-populate, putting a cap on the trend that has been underway now for many years. Where will they go? probably New York and Florida. ( If you’ve been in NY recently it feels like there are all here already) With the island depopulated, the destroyed infrastructure will simply be abandoned, and the population that remains will once again revert to pre-industrial levels

      • Walter B September 22, 2017 at 1:40 pm #

        Bingo. This will certainly happen because it is the only choice, the bulk will simply come to the mainland. Given time and someone that is willing to pay the bills, the mess will be removed first and then left vacant or rebuilt if some moneybags decides to do it again. From the destruction that I have seen in the past two decades on the islands rebuilding takes a very, very long time even under the best of circumstances. I hope the Welfare System can support the extra load.

    • skamander September 22, 2017 at 5:48 pm #

      STFU, you idiot troll Gracie. Just. Shut. Up.

      Nothing you say has any basis in reality. This is a consequence of your miniscule IQ.

      Cretin.

    • orbit7er September 22, 2017 at 10:59 pm #

      Vieques the Island was totally devastated by Hurricane Maria.
      But it was ALREADY devastated as a major Superfund polluted site by decades of destruction by the Military using it as a bombing space until stopped finally by local residents…
      Where will the money come for any redevelopment when the US Senate just voted for $700 Billion for the Endless Wars?

  2. SteveO September 22, 2017 at 9:51 am #

    ” Nobody really knows what might happen in a state as big and complex as Illinois, which has been paying its way for decades by borrowing from the future.”

    I think what happens is pretty well known, at least in the circles of informed individuals. Just like in 2006, when some small Asian bank defaulted, it would start the latest debt implosion. Those bonds have been sliced and diced just like the toxic mortgages were. Every bond that has AAAAAA++++++++ rating (or whatever insanely high level) that contains these things would default. Boom! There goes the debt bomb.

    It may not take that big a player like Illinois either. Puerto Rico may have enough weight to do it. Like we didn’t learn in 2006, it doesn’t take a very big disruption in a non-linear system to make it fail.

    • DA September 22, 2017 at 10:47 am #

      GREAT points! As Jim and Gail Tverberg both insist, the precipitating causes for crises might be any number of things, but the most calamitous effects on human societies, here in the west especially, will almost certainly be due to the following financial collapse.

  3. orbit7er September 22, 2017 at 9:56 am #

    However as Puerto Rico collapses Corporate Democrats and Republicans voted overwhelmingly for an $80 Billion increase to a record $700 Billion Endless War budget!
    The proposed Pentagon budget increase is larger even then Trump’s outrageous proposal derided by Dems for a few minutes after it was proposed. The US DOES have money! A trillion dollars a year wasted on the Endless Wars!
    Only 9 voted against the absurd Endless War budget, more even than the Pentagon requested as FEMA faces cuts, the EPA faces cuts, apparently some stone from the Morris Rail Line carrying thousands every day to NYC crumbled…Right now my Rail Lines are DOWN!
    from Commondreams.org and not mentioned by any of the touted “Resistance” Corporate Media:

    https://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/09/19/us-says-no-money-social-programs-700-billion-kill-people-yeah-we-have

    • DA September 22, 2017 at 10:48 am #

      Simply amazing. The power of the MICC’s force is strong and apparently still growing! Go figure.

    • bhnj13 September 22, 2017 at 11:35 am #

      Concrete in a train tunnel between New Providence and Summit “shifted” (eroded and partially collapsed?) and hit two trains, damaging one. If you’ve been to summit station recently and looked at concrete retaining walls you can imagine what the tunnel looks like – pockmarked and spalled with gouges and cracks inches deep, rusted rebar exposed – it’s been like that for years now. This was same line that was closed completely for over a month after sandy and only came back online with diesel locomatives, due to 5 miles of wires going down and flooded substations in flood-prone hoboken.
      But the tunnel’s already been repaired – this mornings delays were due to a trespasser getting caught on tracks in Newark. Cant blame NJT for everything.

      In NJ and the Northeast and Midwest its slowmotion destruction due to deferred maintenance and many freeze-thaw cycles every winter, along with antique infrastructure (read: portal bridge). In puerto rico and caribbean/gulf areas destruction is varying but widespread and all at once, and to jim’s point PR is just about as densely populated as NJ and bigger than delaware so for the whole island to be powerless with no money to fix the system is a huge deal. They will recover eventually but will be fighting other islands and states for resources (money, materials and manpower). It will definitely be “A” long emergency if not “THE” long emergency. And hurricane season runs through November…fun, fun, fun!

      Also, yes the military-industrial-complex will always get their disproportionate billions, big chunks of which are going to forces in Europe (to counter russia) and Korea and Japan (china & n. korea). Billions more will be wasted in the graveyard of empires – afghanistan. Which has lived up to its nickname once again. We can’t sustain our empire but we can’t pull out and cede our allies to russia and china either which is a loss for us as well, so what to do when the money is so badly needed at home. Trump so far seems to have sided with the “administrative state” ie M-I-C.

    • shotho September 22, 2017 at 1:03 pm #

      There isn’t “real” funding for either the welfare or the warfare states. It isn’t either-or, it’s neither.

      • HowardBeale September 22, 2017 at 3:54 pm #

        Great point. If PR is salvaged, it will be with the same funny money that added, over the last 8 yrs, $14T acknowledged dollars to the “debt” (debt, in contrast, is to be repaid) and who knows how many $Ts to the deferred promises that aren’t acknowledged…

  4. orbit7er September 22, 2017 at 9:58 am #

    Call the Capitol switchboard 202-224-3121 if your Senator was not among the 8 to vote against $700 Billion for the Endless Wars when we are broke…
    Only 8 senators voted against the NDAA, which is expected to become law by the end of this year: Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Pat Leahy (D-Vt.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Ron Paul (R-Ky.), Mike Lee (R-Utah), and Bob Corker (R-Tenn.). Three senators did not vote.

  5. orbit7er September 22, 2017 at 10:04 am #

    Just a while ago the Corporate mainstream media was chortling over the brilliant play against Trump by Sen Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi to get Trump to agree to a 3 month extension of the debt ceiling limit. A bit later Trump said the deal was made to increase military spending. Now we see that WAS the deal as the Dems go lockstep over the military cliff…
    If the Dems really wanted to RESIST the Trump rightwing agenda they would have voted with the 3 Republicans and defeated this Bill.
    That would have sent Republicans into a tizzy forgetting all about the vaunted ACA Repeal as the true golden goose faced the oven.
    But it is all Kabuki Theater..
    Except eventually with REAL consequences!

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    • DA September 22, 2017 at 11:26 am #

      But it is all Kabuki Theater..

      THIS!

  6. orbit7er September 22, 2017 at 10:14 am #

    By the way the Pentagon is both the world’s largest oil consumer and greenhouse emitter as well as responsible for huge amounts of pollution outside of the ravages of the endless bombings in the Endless Wars.
    Yet somehow alleged Environmentalists, just as they blind themselves to the true Environmental costs of Auto Addiction also ignore the Endless Wars:

    https://www.counterpunch.org/2015/07/23/72279/

    “…According to its own study, in 2013 the Pentagon consumed fuel equivalent to 90,000,000 barrels of crude oil. This amounts to 80% of the total fuel usage by the federal government. If burned as jet fuel it produces about 38,700,000 metric tons of CO2. And the Pentagon’s figures do not include carbon produced by the thousands of bombs dropped in 2013, or the fires that burned after the jets and drones departed.

    Corporate media reports on alarming climate change never mention the Pentagon. Newspapers and television stations run puff pieces on air shows like the Navy’s Blue Angels without noting that the jets from a typical show generate about 300,000 pounds of CO2 into the air. A photographer at the Great Maine Air Show in 2012 captured a runway covered with a wall of flames that organizers said was a “simulated bombing.” Carbon generated by burning napalm for entertainment? Unknown….”

    • Walter B September 22, 2017 at 10:39 am #

      Trying to shirk your responsibilities in the Global Warming issue by blaming it on the military are you? How absurd of you – the cause of this problem clearly lies on the shoulders of you and me and any other private citizen that drives internal combustion engines or uses hair spray! Confess and BE Saved!

      Sorry, I just had to do that. The fact you point out is clearly something that the government does not want to get out, that THEY are the problem, just as Ronald Reagan once said. Of course whenever one of the few non-sellout politicians even talks about cutting back on the MIC excesses, the MSM attacks with the “They want to take the bullets out of the soldiers weapons defense” which works every time. Wake up America, our government is not only killing off millions of foreign nationals in their own countries, they are killing us off as well, only slowly and by the time they are finished, they will have ruined the entire planet as well.

      • DA September 22, 2017 at 10:51 am #

        Hat’s off to the MICC: they’ve done an AMAZING PR job in selling all this death and destruction to the American Sheeple.

      • orbit7er September 22, 2017 at 10:54 am #

        Nope can’t get me on the “its all my fault” BS.
        I went 3 weeks without driving my car…
        I have solar panels already but also used the least electricity ever
        in my August electric bill. Also lowest gas consumption ever.
        I have a manual push mower which consumes no gas, costs $0 to run, makes little noise and makes no pollution.
        Every week I get veggies from a local farm about 10 miles from my house.
        I recycle, never get plastic bags at the grocery store, compost, and
        dry most of my laundry on the line until late Fall…
        But individuals as we know cannot fix this problem…
        Kindof hard to run my own train…
        Or pay no taxes to the War machine

        • DA September 22, 2017 at 11:18 am #

          I took Walter as being sarcastic in that opening salvo.

          • Walter B September 22, 2017 at 12:22 pm #

            Absolutely and thank you for pointing it out.

        • elysianfield September 22, 2017 at 11:33 am #

          “I went 3 weeks without driving my car…”

          “Every week I get veggies from a local farm about 10 miles from my house.”

          …long walk….

          • HowardBeale September 22, 2017 at 3:58 pm #

            EF,
            You and I combined have probably put off the TEOTWAWKI by at least a couple of seconds, as I sold my cars in 2004 and haven’t owned one since…

          • orbit7er September 22, 2017 at 11:14 pm #

            they deliver to over 30 families and I walk to pick up my share from the local church

      • Beryl of Oyl September 22, 2017 at 11:11 am #

        Globalists such as former mayor Michael Bloomberg definitely do not want air travel linked in any way to Climate Change or pollution.
        It would have made it really inconvenient for him to live in his mansion in Bermuda and commute to his day job in NYC, for instance.
        https://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/11/blizzard-mystery-solved-air-bloomberg-seen-in-bermuda/
        Tell me again, just what did this guy make himself filthy rich by doing?
        It must have been something that required a really high level of smarts, as he’s now qualified to tell everyone in America exactly how they should live, right down to what they should eat.

        • draupnir September 22, 2017 at 1:03 pm #

          “Behind every great fortune there is a crime.” Balzac

  7. Lonely Traveler September 22, 2017 at 10:23 am #

    Living in far northern New York it is hard to imagine complete and total collapse. If I lived in Houston or Tampa or Charleston or San Juan it might be easier to imagine. I have a feeling that all the bad news from the hurricane zones will be suppressed going forward just because there’s too much of it and it doesn’t support the sunshine and happiness agenda. Little towns across the northeast and sufficiently far from the coasts are starting to look like better places to live all the time. I am harvesting the best crops ever from my backyard garden and am looking to buy a little more land just outside of town to grow even more food next year. Hurricane refugees would be welcome here if they were to come with good hearts and open minds.

    • Cavepainter September 22, 2017 at 10:36 am #

      Oh you’ll get’um, from there and everywhere else around the world, all the billions of them, and no matter how unmissable they are for bearing cultural identity, beliefs and values that don’t comport with those of our Western cultural alignment. Of course, the resulting burden of overpopulation and discord will totally disrupt prospect of survival here. Kum-bah-yah.

      • Lonely Traveler September 22, 2017 at 11:28 am #

        Would you be okay with red-blooded Americans from the southern climes migrating north? I expect that will happen soon enough or may already be in progress. I’ve seen a lot of Florida license plates in the past couple of weeks.

    • orbit7er September 22, 2017 at 10:59 am #

      Agreed the Northeast is actually a better prospect if you stay away from
      sea level areas. We get enough rain, already have Green Transit, can grow our own vegetables and have culture. I have been amazed running Street Fairs for my Peace Group about the wonderful real Main Streets all over densely populated New Jersey. Every one centered on a train station!
      Before I retired from working for money to work fulltime to save the planet a bunch of coworkers asked “Are you moving to Florida? North Carolina?” No way!
      Florida as we see will be underwater and face major problems…
      North Carolina’s weather will soon enough be moving to New Jersey while they get hot as blazes…
      We have culture here and a civilized life in the New Jersey New York area…

      • Beryl of Oyl September 22, 2017 at 11:41 am #

        We don’t have the natural disasters, but we have more of the unnatural ones, the Corzines, the Cuomos, the Christies, etc.

        • bhnj13 September 22, 2017 at 12:20 pm #

          lol nice.

    • 100th Avatar September 22, 2017 at 11:20 am #

      @LT “open minds” reads like a sexcapade solicitation on Craigslist casual encounters. Just sayin’

      • Lonely Traveler September 22, 2017 at 11:29 am #

        Maybe in your world.

        • 100th Avatar September 22, 2017 at 7:58 pm #

          My swinging days have long since past. Those trips to the Caribbean, dodgy hotel parties, sleazy private clubs, “pasta nights” with the neighbors, well, they leave a man exposed. Exposure will wear you down quicker than the drugs and booze. It’s a vulnerability, even in this day and age. I’m just saying’, the mind stays open only when the libido is floatin’, by morning’ people gotta cope with it. They soon accept anything, they can’t judge or lest be judged and all. Anything soon goes, so long as nobody gets hurt, in at least some obvious way. Keep that mind open though, it might guide you into many worlds.

    • Beryl of Oyl September 22, 2017 at 11:21 am #

      An awful lot of the hurricane-afflicted in Florida started out here in New York, didn’t they?
      BTW, I just got back from the airport, where I had given a young woman a ride, on her way to catch a flight to Florida.
      There’s quite a bit that only lost power, and is getting that power restored in record time, it looks like.
      I personally find the stupidity so in evidence at the airport much more indicative of the long emergency than any potential problems we may face due to an already bankrupt area under US jurisdiction getting walloped with a storm.
      The signs, no standing at any time, right where you have to stand for at least a few moments, as your passenger collects her luggage. All under the watchful eye of the security state. They have to keep an eye on you, because a small woman in late middle age and an attractive young blonde might at any moment decide to become terrorists; who knows?
      I would have thought they were staring at the blonde, but they continued to give me and the vehicle the hawk eye after she was almost in the building.

    • Janos Skorenzy September 22, 2017 at 1:27 pm #

      Puerto Ricans? Oh, dude. They’ve been a curse to N.Y City. Are they going to magically change their ways if they move upstate?

      • bhnj13 September 22, 2017 at 2:16 pm #

        plenty of puerto ricans in rochester, have been for a long time

      • malthuss September 22, 2017 at 3:10 pm #

        THEY LEFT THEIR ISLAND HOME FOR MANHATTAN

        SEE THE GLORY OF THE ROYAL SCAM

        ((( Steel Dan)))

        Blame John Lindsay. He changed the residence rule.

        • 100th Avatar September 22, 2017 at 8:00 pm #

          Are you saying’ steely dan was a jewish dildo? I guess they all are though come to think of it, I mean, yet to see an uncut one.

  8. DA September 22, 2017 at 10:24 am #

    In a way, they’re lucky, collapsing now, hopefully to a permanently less energy intensive lifestyle. People here in the “first world” US likely won’t be so lucky after forestalling their own collapse for years or possibly even decades from now, as their own false hope in extending and pretending that current problems simply don’t exist will make our own inevitable collapse many orders of magnitude worse than it would otherwise have to be. Think of it as “the big one,” a building earthquake in an active fault zone, saving it’s fury for years and years past its due date, only to unleash seismic hell in an unexpected instant on the foolish denizens who chose to ignore the danger. In the prospective words of the great Orange One, “It’ll be fun. REALLY, REALLY fun!. We’ll be totally freaking rooned, but fear not, I’ll be there to cash in on the aftermath.”

  9. Being There September 22, 2017 at 10:27 am #

    Indeed there is no discussion in Attention Deficit Nation about what the conditions are in Tx. and Fla.
    We are not allowed to know of the devastation to our country by natural forces we fuel, from the 80 forest fires in the West and high temperatures there and the aftermath of hurricanes.
    We have over 800 bases around the world for never ending wars we never win, while some kind of money laundering operation is taking place moving money from the commons to private interests continue unabated and tax breaks for the wealthy is the only passion the Republicans show for any policy that comes before them.
    Yes, keep your eye on the infantile back and forth between the tweety bird Trump and lil Kim, cuz that’s entertainment, my friends and what could possible go wrong?
    Yes if the media which is nothing more than the PR for the CIA actually did its job, some of this could be dealt with, but not gonna happen.
    I am entering into my senior years very shortly and let’s just say, shuffle-boarding is not in my future.

    • DA September 22, 2017 at 10:55 am #

      I am entering into my senior years very shortly and let’s just say, shuffle-boarding is not in my future.

      Ain’t that the truth. I’m fully committed to shedding my extra pounds now and getting off my BP meds before the inevitable supply and/or funding disruptions begin. Time to get back down to bi’ness!

  10. K-Dog September 22, 2017 at 10:33 am #

    “Where have the people gone who lost everything?”

    Since the subject is Puerto Rico saying those who lost everything have been ‘voted off the island’ expresses dark humor but I’m not as insensitive as Graycenphil and humor here is not my purpose.

    The people who have lost everything will now be ignored. This is what has to happen to continue the fiction that everything is fine and peechy-keen. American is not about sharing and helping others get by. America is about taking as much as you can for yourself and to hell with everyone else. That is a fundamental American value. It is demanded by the status-quo so that the existing system can be maintained for as long as possible. This value is why Graycenphil is here. That this value is alive and well is also demonstrated by the ease at which $700 Billion was passed by a congress who otherwise can’t even manage a garage sale for the endless wars.

    There is a small number of Americans who perennially oppose this value and advocate for equity, sharing and community but as always this is a small minority. That this always remains a small minority bakes collapse by inattention into our social cake.

    The game of vanishing middle class musical chairs has hurricanes stopping the music right now but the season of financial hurricanes just starts and it may be next to stop the music to pull another chair in the prosperity circle away.

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    • bhnj13 September 22, 2017 at 12:43 pm #

      communist! … jk. we have always been capitalist and profit-driven but not always the assholes we are today. certain sectors of the economy have run amok to replace declines in jobs elsewhere namely healthcare and education, two fields that until relatively recently at least tried to hide their profit motive. most americans have little to no sense of community now, have less leisure time, less family time, which was not the case historically. All of these factors have made us more indiviualistic. plus cost of living increases and wage stagnation have forced most to do more with less financially, so yeah people look out for themselves first, probably moreso than in generations past but i would argue out of necessity.
      also most americans are politically centrist and the hacks in dc have to align with either the left or right to even get to dc so the great american center, who would love to see less $ overseas and more at home updating and strengthening our infrastructure and cities, are not well represented.

    • Janos Skorenzy September 22, 2017 at 1:31 pm #

      People don’t want to give to those who aren’t like themselves by large. Certainly they don’t want to be Forced To as you seem to be suggesting. Puerto Ricans are utterly alien and will never fit in. Annexing that island was a huge mistake as they are a complete liability in every way imaginable.

      • Beryl of Oyl September 22, 2017 at 2:00 pm #

        I can remember when Puerto Rico was THE vacation spot for many Americans.
        Generally when some desirable location experiences a sharp decline in its fortunes, it is because of the government, not the people.
        Look at Niagara Falls. It isn’t quite the destination it used to be for us, but people from around the world still want to see it, yet the municipality is a run-down dump for the most part.

      • DA September 22, 2017 at 2:43 pm #

        Capitalist greed once again. It was originally viewed as another resource (sugar) provider and as a haven for gambling and tourism. Never amounted to all that much, though.

      • Being There September 22, 2017 at 4:49 pm #

        Sometimes I have to agree with you.

      • sophia September 23, 2017 at 12:47 pm #

        Actually, Americans give quite generously in disasters. They did during Katrina and also when that tsunami hit the coast of India and was it Indonesia? Just my small department raised 6000 dollars to donate.

    • orbit7er September 22, 2017 at 11:16 pm #

      Who talks about Greece anymore as they descend further and further into destitution to the bankers and the looting of their public resources for the billionaire plutocrats?

  11. pequiste September 22, 2017 at 10:46 am #

    As a result of Hurricane Irma delivering a mere category 1 experience to chez moi, I was without electricity for nine days coupled with dicey cell phone and internet service for seven of them. Insignificant damage to the property (part of the fence down, two trees down and a lot of muck. House unscathed. No flooding a la Harvey.

    IT WAS BLOODY AWFUL.

    I cannot imagine how the residents of Puerto Rico, and other Caribbean islands devastated by Hurricanes Irma and Maria, will or can, live with the prospect of a pre-industrial living arrangement for an indeterminate period of time. (Maybe they should be booking flights to Paris, Stockholm, and Berlin for the winning lottery tickets in the natural disaster refugee game – – and the big question would be: will these countries provide these poor people the same succor as Yzlamik jihadis?)

    Try and sleep in sweat-filled bed for a day or two – that’s quite a wake-up call if you can even get to sleep at all. The return to a hammock on a porch becomes a scintillating option, however, the mosquitoes are waxing powerful during such events and have a hankering for quick take-out meals nearly around the clock. Keep a large stock of DEET handy.

    The aroma of rotting vegetation and dead things gets quite fulsome but if you cannot wash one’s clothes and bedding due to the water being corrupted then that pile of dirty linen becomes a festering insect-laden mound of vile corruption. Bleach, bleach and more bleach for the hand- washing but remember too, nothing dries very well in 95% humidity.

    Refrigeration not-working is a death knell to any modern convenience as food acquisition becomes a daily chore ( nobody keeps chickens around anymore except for the odd illicit Cock-fighting club,) and tasty pineapples, starfruit with guavas, while lovely for dessert, do not take the place of carbohydrate staples rice and beans. Canned food is fine for emergency uses but for the “Long Emergency?” It all starts to taste and look like dog food. Pass the mustard will ya!

    My water service never stopped —– the thought of chemical, human waste, and plentiful insect larvae, among other tasty additives, filled H2O makes me nauseous.

    Psst: regarding a sure-fire investment for such circumstances: you can take this next little morsel to the bank – ice is king.

    Puerto Rico is truly going to be the prototype large-scale experiment in, to use JHK’s prescient nomenclature, “The Long Emergency.” We should all pay close attention; this is the clarion call that very few shall heed.

    (And, may I add, It is good to be back.)

    • ozone September 22, 2017 at 11:09 am #

      Pequiste,
      Happy to hear that luck was (mostly) with you.
      …And you’ve provided a real-life look at sweltering in the south unaided by air-conditioning. Thanks for that. The cornucopians had better figure out a way to make that magic work by other non-‘lectrical means.
      Mud huts! That’s the ticket… although I’m not sure how they’d hold up in a serious rain event LIKE A HURRICANE.

      Anyhow, glad you’re okay.

      • bhnj13 September 22, 2017 at 12:47 pm #

        thermal mass and catching breezes, how we built buildings for millennia. mass refrigeration is a different, sadder story

        • Beryl of Oyl September 22, 2017 at 2:02 pm #

          I’m thinking of that Theroux novel, The Mosquito Coast, I think it was- “Does anyone require a beverage?”

    • DA September 22, 2017 at 11:15 am #

      VERY informative. Thanks.

      Reminds me (in an exceedingly small way) of my year at Kunsan AB ROK in 1995-96. The isolated base had a single water main, which, as luck would have it, broke THREE times during the winter of 95-96 due to shoddy construction and the fact that it was buried much too close to the surface. Turns out water main parts were hard to come by in the “land of the morning stench/hangover,” so each time, the base was without water for 10-14 days. Took the USAF the whole first occurrence and part of the second to figure out that porta-johns would be something more than a luxury item to have on hand [Ah, the smell of overflowing, shit-filled dry toilets in the morning, I remember it like it was yesterday! Hot tip, convert your trash can – with liner of course – into a single use shitter, and simply throw your shit out in the mornings with the garbage!], and that the local BX would probably need to stock a few extra truck loads of bottle water (which they were happy to sell to us at “bargain basement” prices, of course!) as well. It was cold, so the misery was mostly tolerable in a climate that would have been truly miserable to suffer through in July and August, but needless to say, everyone got used to feeling a bit gamey everyday, and the normally drunken and jocular GI population was quite a bit more sober and edgy that year.

      • hmuller September 22, 2017 at 12:00 pm #

        I spent 1994 – 1997 in Yongsan in the heart of Seoul. Our biggest problem was the very aggressive bar girls. LOL

        • DA September 22, 2017 at 12:20 pm #

          Ah yes, the bar girls! Quite the entrepreneurial bunch, weren’t they?

    • Beryl of Oyl September 22, 2017 at 11:28 am #

      I was wondering how you fared. Glad to hear there was no permanent damage.
      Lose power for a period of time, it seems like an adventure, but lose it for more than a few hours, and it becomes exponentially more of an ordeal, doesn’t it?

    • Janos Skorenzy September 22, 2017 at 1:41 pm #

      Think they’ll televise the Puerto Rican invasion of Florida? Sounds bad down there. Why did White Men ever choose to live there?

      • DA September 22, 2017 at 2:40 pm #

        Now that’s good question. Been to FL numerous times in the USAF. Looking forward to never going back.

        • malthuss September 22, 2017 at 3:12 pm #

          why? It is or was a beautiful place.

          • DA September 22, 2017 at 5:36 pm #

            Depends on your POV. Definitely not great for fair-skinned white boys.

          • Q. Shtik September 22, 2017 at 6:58 pm #

            why? It is or was a beautiful place. – Malthuss

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

            Nice along the coasts but shittier the farther inland you go. I cannot tolerate heat and would never move there. Spending 3-4 winter months there might be OK.

          • Billy Hill September 22, 2017 at 8:19 pm #

            Thank you Malthuss. Florida is still a beautiful place despite the pressure of population. Quite diverse topographically– It’s at least six distinct zones. I have lived here the past 20 years in West Central (Tampa Bay) and now the Red Hills of North Florida. For perspective — TECO restored 99.9% in Tampa Bay by the first Sunday night. Yes, the breadth of the damage is breathtaking — coast to coast. The damage is wind-driven: one can drive for miles and see nothing and then the effects of tornadic winds… ancient oaks ripped apart at 10 ft. Today I saw evidence of huge rainfall in the Ocala area — where they breed thoroughbreds.

            Except for the Keys Florida will be back quickly.

            The islands are not so fortunate. This has been going on since before the Europeans ventured west. As for Puerto Rico and Puerto Ricans, I personally have worked with/hired completely Americanized PR’s who voted for Trump – if that matters. The Cubans are even more conservative, and have been in Florida for more than 100 years. Next time in Tampa be sure to eat at the Columbia restaurant. And smoke a cigar.

        • Q. Shtik September 22, 2017 at 6:51 pm #

          To Janos and DA,

          Get your hands on a book titled How We Got To Now (Six innovations that made the modern world) by Steven Johnson.

          Go to Chapter 2 titled Cold which talks about the use of ice and the invention of refrigeration and air conditioning which made places like Florida in southern climates livable.

          The other 5 chapters (Glass, Sound, Clean, Time, Light) are all really interesting too.

          • DA September 23, 2017 at 9:04 am #

            Thanks Q. I’ll go to Amazon and preview it. I live over here in NM, so I’m well aware of the precarious nature of our existence in hot climes. The weather’s dry and more comfortable over here, but then again, so is the ground. Without the benefits of industrial civilization, this place could only support maybe a tenth of the current population. And of course AZ, NV, and SoCal are MUCH, MUCH worse off in that respect than we are!

            But I spent most of the 80’s in the USAF in Valdosta GA (working outside no less), just north of the GA-FL line. A steaming, cockroach infested, hell-hole of a place! Even the locals admitted as much. NEVER, EVER going back down there EVER again!

  12. ozone September 22, 2017 at 10:58 am #

    Lest we forget (or didn’t know in the first place), all of the grid power in Puerto Rico is (or was) provided by old oil-burning plants. Now, even supposing they had invested in solar and wind, that infrastructure would likely have been “basically destroyed” by Maria (and her future brothers and sisters) as well. Nature will not be denied; artificial “civilized” construct, meet real-world [catastrophic] constraint. Those who were already making do with little to nothing will build another frond-roof shack (probably an even “nicer” one, with all the scrap materials scattered hither and yon), gather up the chickens and get on with fishing and surviving. Those who are in the employ of “modern business and civilization” are seriously shit-out-of-luck. Can you trade a flat-screen for a fish when there’s no ‘lectricity? It’s about to get much more than interesting, as our host avers. I’m just wondering if the blackout of information will continue… whether by accident or design, because news from there could be most instructional.

    Just heard a “report”/”agenda promotion” from Puerto Rico on National Petroleum Radio. Let’s try and imagine how that piece of “journalism” got into the airwaves, shall we? Battery power and portable dish? [Precious] gasoline generator and portable dish? I don’t think very many cell towers remain upright (much less running). How long does the fuel supply last when not being imported and how much can possibly be hoarded? We’re about to see.

    BTW, I was also struck by the grim irony of “Maria” flattening Puerto Rico and the juxtaposition to West Side Story. “…Maria, Maria — I just met a storm named Maria…”

    • bhnj13 September 22, 2017 at 11:43 am #

      here, here

      • bhnj13 September 22, 2017 at 11:47 am #

        frond roof is a stretch for most of pr but point well taken. ny/nj may see another wave of puerto ricans in the very near future, south florida being at least temporarily a no-go

    • elysianfield September 22, 2017 at 11:49 am #

      The rain is “Tess”

      The water “Jo”

      And they called the wind “Maria…h”

    • SvrzoH September 22, 2017 at 11:52 am #

      …..probably an even “nicer” one, …

      Osteen, a mega-priestess in Huston to neu-homeless:

      ‘God had destroyed your homes for he has a plan for you to have a bigger and nicer one !’

      • DA September 22, 2017 at 12:35 pm #

        Osteen’s funny to watch with the sound muted. What a ham!

        • SvrzoH September 22, 2017 at 1:16 pm #

          For those in the church sound was real, and they were soaking in those words uttered with their eyes closed and waving hands.

          • DA September 23, 2017 at 8:56 am #

            Watching the sheep followers is even funnier!

    • Janos Skorenzy September 22, 2017 at 1:43 pm #

      You can’t be for the Jets and the Sharks: you have to choose. Not to choose is to choose the Sharks given the current political situation.

  13. 100th Avatar September 22, 2017 at 11:14 am #

    “Where have the people gone who lost everything? The news blackout is as complete and strange as the darkness that has descended on Puerto Rico.”

    What is happening with the 1 million reported totaled vehicles in Houston? Are they making a reef in Galveston?

    Reports wrong or interest fatigue?

    Apparently we should be more interested in a petition to make WonderWoman bisexual…

  14. robert magill September 22, 2017 at 11:15 am #

    The new big thing will be all the boats leaving Miami to provide water taxis from P.R. to the mainland. It won’t make the MSM until the Coast Guard begins the rescue missions.

  15. Anon1970 September 22, 2017 at 11:18 am #

    I am surprised that the stock price of bond insurance company, MBIA, has held up so well, considering all of the Puerto Rico debt that it has insured.

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  16. Beryl of Oyl September 22, 2017 at 11:34 am #

    I submit that truly old-school dads did not worry about entertaining their children.
    How does the child who is entertained learn how to entertain himself?
    You get a bunch of unimaginative, frustrated, noncreative dullards.

    • volodya September 22, 2017 at 11:41 am #

      You’re right about that. When we were kids, we were let loose and left to our own devices, whether it was going to the schoolyard for a game of baseball or basketball or roaming the woods or heading out to the pier for a swim. All we had to do was show up for lunch and dinner. Adult presence and intervention was not welcome.

      • DA September 22, 2017 at 12:34 pm #

        Those were INDEED the days!

        • Janos Skorenzy September 22, 2017 at 1:45 pm #

          You’re a Jim Jones devotee just like most Democrats. You hide it now, but it has never changed.

          • Beryl of Oyl September 22, 2017 at 2:04 pm #

            Who’s a Democrat?

          • Janos Skorenzy September 22, 2017 at 2:15 pm #

            Jim Jones was the toast of the town back in the day. Given what’s happening on Campus now, he was a few decades ahead of his time. A man of vision. Surely you know that the Democrats are Communist now? And thus Commander Rockwell is vindicated in his, “Liberalism is Communism’s pimping little sister” remark. Move On Dot Com? Where they movin’ TO, eh B? To the Right?

            Have you drunk the Kool Aide? Da has.

          • DA September 22, 2017 at 2:38 pm #

            Stop with the bluster already Janos. You’re better than that.

          • CancelMyCard September 23, 2017 at 7:47 pm #

            No.

            He’s not.

            He is a near-perfect sociopath.

            Almost there,

            but still, at around 96%,

            pretty much closing in on his fave . . .

            Adolph.

      • Q. Shtik September 22, 2017 at 7:14 pm #

        When we were kids, we were let loose and left to our own devices – volodya

        ===========

        Same for me. The only entertainment I can recall my parents being present for was ice skating (on double runners) on Newton Creek in South Jersey.

        Conversely, my oldest son and his wife take their two little boys (ages 5 and 4) to some sort of activity every weekend without fail. And rarely are those activities free of charge.

        • DA September 22, 2017 at 8:07 pm #

          You might say we’ve rooned their childhood experience, eh Q?

  17. volodya September 22, 2017 at 11:36 am #

    The Political Class, as a component of the Deep State, doesn’t give a damn about Puerto Rico. I mean, if they didn’t give a damn over these past thirty years or so about the plunder and ruin of continental interior, then why on earth would they worry about Puerto Rico?

    I’ll give the Deep State one thing, they’re transparent as to their priorities. You see it right here on this website. They’re so confident about their position in the food-chain that their Trolls, going under different monikers, don’t give the slightest bother with plausible sounding propaganda. Different readers of this blog made note that none of it is remotely connected to reality.

    These ludicrous attempts at disinformation fall somewhere between comical and sinister. If Deep State confidence was supported by actual capabilities and competence, it would be sinister. Of their malice there’s no doubt given their ability to ruin people and to harass and destroy reputations and livelihoods and oh yeah, to kill.

    But Deep State unconcern is comical in the sense that they ought to know that they don’t remotely have the resources to deflect historical tides. Of all people they ought to know this because they’re so damn smart. And they know so damn much. See, they went to COLLEGE.

    So they can beat down individuals, they can insist that everything is a-ok, that there’s nothing to see here folks, but the reality of no electrical power is something that can’t propagandized away, and neither can the inability of states to pay their obligations.

    The election of Trump shows everyone their slippery hold on events. This wasn’t supposed to happen. It was supposed to be Jeb vs Hillary. But, given Trump’s improbable nomination, which itself wasn’t supposed to happen, Hillary was supposed to win. It was in the bag, the polls told us so, all the Big Thinkers said as much, Robbie Mook’s serene smile reassured us.

    And Hillary lost. You’d think that someone up there would have got a clue, but no. Deep State confidence and unconcern has very little basis in reality. Their position is not remotely as solid as they think.

    • Beryl of Oyl September 22, 2017 at 12:00 pm #

      I’ve been watching the Ken Burns Viet Nam documentary. One of the things that struck me, in last night’s installment, is how the media and those who considered themselves liberals really cared about things like the government lying to the people, and the CIA’s illicit actions in America, such as infiltrating the anti-war protests.
      Many of the media ”greats from that time are still alive and kicking.
      Then why do we find stories like this buried on the internet:
      https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/267923/why-obama-really-spied-trump-daniel-greenfield
      Don’t like the reporter? Question his motives, or perhaps his character?
      Then why aren’t today’s wannabe Woodward and Bernsteins (or even the real ones) conducting their OWN investigations of these matters?
      The White House asking for an receiving information from the IRS they have no more right to than you or I?
      Why don’t these people care?

      Oh, look, an artificial stalk of cotton IN ITS RAW STATE!

      • DA September 22, 2017 at 12:30 pm #

        Beautiful!

        “And the Dems finally get their Watergate. Except the star won’t be Trump, it will be Obama. Rice, Power, Lynch and the rest of the gang will be the new Haldeman, Ehrlichman and Mitchell.

        Once Obama and his allies launched their domestic surveillance operation, they crossed the Rubicon. And there was no way back. They had to destroy President Trump or risk going to jail.

        The more crimes they committed by spying on the opposition, the more urgently they needed to bring down Trump. The consequences of each crime that they had committed spurred them on to commit worse crimes to save themselves from going to jail. It’s the same old story when it comes to criminals.

        Each act of illegal surveillance became more blatant. And when illegal surveillance couldn’t stop Trump’s victory, they had to double down on the illegal surveillance for a coup.

        The more Obama spied on Trump, the more he had to keep doing it. This time it was bound to pay off.

        Obama and his allies had violated the norms so often for their policy goals that they couldn’t afford to be replaced by anyone but one of their own. The more Obama relied on the imperial presidency of executive orders, the less he could afford to be replaced by anyone who would undo them. The more his staffers lied and broke the law on everything from the government shutdown to the Iran nuke sellout, the more desperately they needed to pull out all the stops to keep Trump out of office. And the more they did it, the more they couldn’t afford not to do it. Abuse of power locks you into the loop familiar to all dictators. You can’t stop riding the tiger. Once you start, you can’t afford to stop.

        If you want to understand why Samantha Power was unmasking names, that’s why. The hysterical obsession with destroying Trump comes from the top down. It’s not just ideology. It’s wealthy and powerful men and women who ran the country and are terrified that their crimes will be exposed.

        It’s why the media increasingly sounds like the propaganda organs of a Communist country. Why there are street riots and why the internet is being censored by Google and Facebook’s “fact checking” allies.

        It’s not just ideology. It’s raw fear.”

      • Janos Skorenzy September 22, 2017 at 1:51 pm #

        They don’t believe in the First Amendment. It was only ever a means to tear us down. Now that they’re in power, they’re for censorship. Abstract freedoms are a European thing after all, especially Northern European. To expect other peoples to be interested or to honor our Traditions is to expect too much – just more of the foolish idealism that got us to this pass.

      • Sean Coleman September 23, 2017 at 10:04 am #

        That’s a big story. I don’t expect to hear any more about it.

        Of course, they only care about governments lying when they don’t happen to like them. In the same way they preach democracy until there is a vote to leave the EU or a man like Donald Trump is elected. Then the complaint shifts to ‘populism’.

        It seems Obama was very keen on press censorship too:

        https://nofrakkingconsensus.com/2017/01/15/obamas-war-on-the-media/

        Then you have an award-winning film like Spotlight glamourizing ‘fearless reporting’ while the true story behind the Boston abuse scandal is most likely hysteria and deceit.

    • Janos Skorenzy September 22, 2017 at 1:48 pm #

      That’s the essence of nationalism: Not to give a damn about Puerto Rico or the Ricans who live there. Because if you give a damn about them, you have to give one about the Jamaicans and the Haitians. And so on. Pretty soon you won’t have any damns left for your own people. Damns are a limited resource.

      • DA September 22, 2017 at 2:55 pm #

        I think we’ve been critically short on damns for most of my lifetime now. Damn sure since 1980 and the coming of Ronnie Raygun.

        • Janos Skorenzy September 22, 2017 at 3:17 pm #

          Exactly. That’s why you only give them to your own People. Duh, Da. Because of Reagan? Yeah right. It’s intrinsic to Nature, the nature of Existence. They’re a limited resource in the human body mind, not to mention the national economy.

  18. JohnAZ September 22, 2017 at 12:03 pm #

    Speaking of desolation, history time. The US did not like the way that Japan was decimating China prior to WW2. So we put worldly sanctions on Japan, especially oil, to try to get the Japanese leadership to stop the takeover of China. What happened? Pearl Harbor, in spite of Yamamoto’s warning of a Sleeping Giant. Common sense does not enter in when these countries decide to get into a fray. NOKO is run by the same sort of kooky leadership that ran Japan then. With one difference, Nukes! You think PR is decimated and will throw us into the Long Emergency, wait until NOKO starts throwing Nukes at us. If we have to respond to nuclear aggression by NOKO, we will be forced to obliterate their capability to send Nukes our way. Total destruction!

    • DA September 22, 2017 at 12:34 pm #

      “we will be forced to obliterate their capability”

      Always the first words before an American initiated conflict begins. Kim could have been eliminated or bought off long ago, almost certainly peacefully. NOKO is pure MICC sponsored political theater.

    • Janos Skorenzy September 22, 2017 at 2:05 pm #

      How about we send North Koreans all our PR’s? Swamp ’em!

      Plato said even changing the State’s music will utterly change the State. Yet we think we can we change the People themselves and suffer no change? Sure, an a triangle can have four sides, barren women give birth, and the blind see though still blind. Truly, there are none so blind as those who refuse to see.

      • DA September 22, 2017 at 2:36 pm #

        Thing is Janos, we Americans were always mutts from the very beginning. A bit more cohesive, yes, but mutts all the same.

        • Janos Skorenzy September 22, 2017 at 3:00 pm #

          Ridiculous. We didn’t defend what we created is all.

          Why do Mexicans swarm across the Rio Grande? The natural resources and landscape are quite similar on both sides. But the People were different – and that makes all the difference.

          Would you accept a large check of money you were owed if all the zeros were there, but the 1 left out that should be in front of them? People are the 1, the factor that makes all the difference, that give the zeros meaning.

          You’re in the Majority (feel good?)! And thus we are doomed. You accepted poisonous ideas and now spread the poison to the best of your ability. Thus despite your high verbal ability, IQ, and likeability, you are a Disease Vector.

          • DA September 22, 2017 at 3:17 pm #

            A Disease Vector? Can I use that one? Maybe I’ll become DV now instead. LOL! You’re extraordinarily bitter today. What’s got into you? By the way, I’m hardly “in the majority” in almost any category you can name.

          • Q. Shtik September 22, 2017 at 7:36 pm #

            But the People were different – and that makes all the difference. – Janos

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

            I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference. – RF

          • DA September 22, 2017 at 8:05 pm #

            Janos,

            Well, you’ll be happy to know that the second and third generation Mexicans living here in “New” Mexico feel the same way about the recent arrivals as you do. That reeks more of provincialism than racism, which I think is probably at the root of all your pent up angst and hostility as well.

            As far as the great white race goes, I’m one of them and I’ve been surrounded by them all my life, and I have to say that they’re at best no better than the rest, and in actual fact, mostly lazy, stupid, fat, entitled, and boring. Other than the rich that is. They’ve got a whole host of MUCH UGLIER attributes that I won’t bother listing here, as I’ve repeated them here over and over again many times already.

            The Zionist Jews, after long historical observation and much careful consideration, were certainly right in concluding any race this fucking greedy, short-sighted, and stupid FULLY DESERVES the shit they were about to unleash on us. As they have, as they do now, and as they will continue to do until they exterminate or enslave every last fucking one of us. Provided we don’t wreck the planet altogether first and exterminate us all in the process. My bet’s on the latter.

          • Janos Skorenzy September 22, 2017 at 8:23 pm #

            So if we’re so evil, why does everyone try to get into our countries? You’re not seeing clearly – perhaps you don’t wish to. Part Jewish perhaps? Jews doing “My Fellow Whites, let’s all kill ourselves” public service announcements are a thing. Check out Ruiz-Grossman on twitter.

            https://dailystormer.is/my-fellow-white-people-blowing-up-on-twitter-again/

          • DA September 22, 2017 at 8:33 pm #

            No Jew in me old boy. Strictly white bread northern European Protestant stock, although certainly of no distinction whatsoever. A rather dumb and uninspiring lineage, truth be told, with more than our fair share of drunkeness, obesity, and marginal mental capacity.

            Why does the rest of the world want to come here? Capitalist GREED, plain and simple. That and the quite understandable desire to escape the military carnage our government sponsored stormtroopers have been leveling on the rest of the world in the aftermath of WWII.

          • Janos Skorenzy September 23, 2017 at 1:29 am #

            I believe you. The WASPS often hate themselves the most. No will at all to resist Leftist/Globalist propaganda and the death wish it has instilled. Worse, they often take masochistic pleasure in it. Obviously you are just such a worst case.

          • DA September 23, 2017 at 8:54 am #

            The WASPS often hate themselves the most. No will at all to resist Leftist/Globalist propaganda and the death wish it has instilled. Worse, they often take masochistic pleasure in it. Obviously you are just such a worst case.

            Thanks! But I think my commenting record supports the fact that I’m hardly “Leftist” (as currently defined at least), and I’m certainly not a Globalist, although I will admit, I fell under the sway of both very briefly back in the 90’s, as did most Americans I knew.

  19. sprawlcapital September 22, 2017 at 1:34 pm #

    This is rather mundane compared to NOKO nukes or jail time for the Obama/Hillary crowd. But anyway, about two weeks ago I expressed concern that there would be a major influx of refugees from the recent hurricanes into Iowa, resulting in more suburban sprawl and the destruction of even more of the best farmland in the world.

    Then a commenter asked whether the Iowa economy could provide jobs for a large number of storm refugees?

    The answer is, it would have to be a gradual flow of people. The farm economy is mostly capital-intensive, not labor intensive, with enormous tractors and combines, and heavy doses of chemicals. Not much chance of additional jobs in that sector.

    Then there is FIRE, finance, insurance, real estate. For those qualified, there would be some job openings. FIRE is very big in Iowa, as in much of the USA, since we shipped real productive industry overseas.

    Then construction. If new housing and other structures needed to be built, there would be construction jobs, for those with the skills and good health to do that kind of work.

    There’s retail and service, but we have lots of folks already doing those jobs.

    Then there is the possibility that the refugees would serve as raw material for welfare workers to work on. At least that would provide jobs for welfare workers, and keep the refugees fed, clothed, and sheltered, but not productively employed.

    Can’t think of much else. It would be a mess we do not need, but the powers that be would celebrate how welcoming and inclusive Iowa is, as our irreplaceable land resource is destroyed.

    • Beryl of Oyl September 22, 2017 at 1:46 pm #

      There’s big money in human trafficking.
      Locals many times like the appearance of economic vitality it brings, but don’t realize they are the ones paying for it.
      Places like Walmart make out, as the locals give the newcomers the money to shop with.
      The ones who make out the most are the ones working for the resettlement agencies and so forth.
      It would be much better if the NFP agencies involved would use their own money to care for the refugees for the duration, but they won’t. Less for them.
      Maybe the Clinton Foundation could pay. They raised a heck of a lot of money for Haiti, and didn’t spend more than a tiny fraction of it. Where’s the rest of it.

      • malthuss September 22, 2017 at 3:20 pm #

        HT—go to youtube and check George Webb, but go thru hours of his early talks on haiti and that horrid woman hitlery raced there to rescue.

        SHE NOW WORKS OR WORKED FOR AMBER ALERT….

        Laura Silsby, Child Trafficker, Rescued by Hillary Clinton in …
        Laura Silsby, Child Trafficker, Rescued by Hillary Clinton in Haiti After Trying to Steal 33 Haitian Children
        [Search domain http://www.timeofreason.com] https://www.timeofreason.com/laura-silsby-child-traffick

    • Janos Skorenzy September 22, 2017 at 2:11 pm #

      As long as people think you are nice, isn’t that all that matters? As Stormin’ Bob Dornan used to say of California: So what if we look different in fifty years? Don’t have blue eyes or White skin anymore? We’ll still be CALIFORNIANS!

      In gratitude for his service, the Mexicans voted him out in favor of one of their own at the earliest possible opportunity. The Mexicans certainly don’t believe any crap about race not mattering. As La Raz says, For our Race everything, and for other races, nothing. And no sane person likes or respects a traitor, since he or she will always be willing to sell you out.

      • DA September 22, 2017 at 2:34 pm #

        I just noticed fully yesterday, you’re a frustrated idealist, aren’t you? Underneath all the racist bluster, you’re just a good old-fashioned, frustrated idealist, aren’t you? I think that makes you relatable at least.

        • Janos Skorenzy September 22, 2017 at 3:15 pm #

          Duh, OF COURSE I’m an idealist. And you are a Degenerate. Beyond that, you have offended me. You offend my eye, my nose, my ear, etc. When I am an Inquisitor, you will stand before me seeking my mercy, but none will be given. I advise you to run if such an eventuality begins to arise.

          You’re in the majority? No, hell you’re in the lead. Most Leftists don’t actually say they want the White Race to commit suicide. Perhaps most don’t even believe it. But you believe it and you have said it. If you recant, will I believe you? No, not while under duress. That will be part of my job too. I’m studying “A Hammer for Witches” for ideas. The authors were immensely learned and compassionate men.

          If you should escape my net by recanting early, then I’ll have to go the Dueling route. It will be legal in the White Republic. Oh yes, you will seek to stay. You have no intention of living up to your disordered beliefs.

          • malthuss September 22, 2017 at 3:19 pm #

            Please give me more information on Blood Sacrifice.

            When I first was told the Pope and the Top Masons are cannibals, I didnt believe.
            With Pedogate, I am more incline to believe. Anything is possible.

          • DA September 22, 2017 at 3:19 pm #

            You and that big fat roller brush of yours painting things again! I seriously doubt you’re half as gruff as you let on.

          • malthuss September 22, 2017 at 3:22 pm #

            The liturgy of the ritual was discovered by Dr Toaf.
            Julius Streicher was also put to death I believe – for writing about the Jewish Cult of murdering Christian boys, often quoting from Catholic sources. I don’t know for sure, but I would guess the Orthodox Church also believes in the reality of the Cult or at least did when they were still healthy.

          • Janos Skorenzy September 22, 2017 at 3:33 pm #

            That a boy, Malthus! You go right for the good stuff. Da’s like, “Tell me about the waters of your home world, Usul.” Malthus wants to watch our kanly. Malthus is better.

            It all comes down to blood and soil, the blade and the shovel. But first you need the blade to take the soil. And you need to keep the blade to hold it. But before you can wield the blade, you have to know and value your own blood. Da doesn’t know who he is, so he’s fit only for the shovel. Only one who values his own blood is able to spill another’s.

            Someone asked the Spartans about taking care of their fields. They replied, We take care of ourselves and that’s why we have the fields in the first place. A just response. But of course, they enslaved other Greeks to work their fields – not a good or just long term solution. We can copy some of their spirit without making their error.

          • DA September 22, 2017 at 8:23 pm #

            Janos,

            So, I’m guessing you found Conan the Barbarian inspirational? LOL! I will definitely be on my highest alert should you be named Grand Inquisitor. Thanks for the considered and graphic word picture.

          • GreenAlba September 23, 2017 at 8:16 am #

            @Janos ‘When I am an Inquisitor, you will stand before me seeking my mercy, but none will be given. I advise you to run if such an eventuality begins to arise.’

            It’s both a shame and an inevitability that views like yours can never be expressed in the language of Shakespeare;

            The quality of mercy is not strain’d,
            It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
            Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest;
            It blesseth him that gives and him that takes:
            ‘Tis mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes
            The throned monarch better than his crown;
            His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,
            The attribute to awe and majesty,
            Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;
            But mercy is above this sceptred sway;
            It is enthroned in the hearts of kings,
            It is an attribute to God himself;

            Life is hard enough, in and of itself. It is sad indeed that some people choose to make everything worse by adding toxic and unnecessary prejudices to the mix.

          • Janos Skorenzy September 23, 2017 at 1:31 pm #

            Nice, Green. But of course no doubt you take it to mean that Mercy is Everything and the Law is nothing. And that Kings were all evil, etc. But as possibly a secret Catholic and a lover of the Medieval in Renaissance England, Shakespeare didn’t think that way at all.

            A King who is not feared is no King at all. If it be His Will, the Law can be set aside for Mercy. But Justice and the Law always take precedence, Mercy is the exception to the norm. But you hate norms. All norms must die, right?

          • sophia September 23, 2017 at 5:45 pm #

            You are actually reading that book? It is in English? And you truly find the authors compassionate?

          • GreenAlba September 26, 2017 at 11:50 am #

            @Sophia

            ‘You are actually reading that book? It is in English? And you truly find the authors compassionate?.

            Not sure if your question is aimed at me, but I do hope you’re not suggesting Shakespeare’s works were written by a committee 🙂

          • GreenAlba September 26, 2017 at 12:57 pm #

            Janos, you seem to be very confident that you know what I think. I’m afraid you are wrong. My thinking is somewhat more nuanced than your own. The Law is vital (when it is good law – I’m obviously not including abominations to humanity like your own Jim Crow laws, for instance, or laws introduced by the Nazis in Germany, or indeed many in Stalin’s USSR), but even the law cannot dispense justice – it can only dispense the law.

            And mercy is one of the things that makes us human. If I were religious I suppose I would pray for you 🙂 One would have one’s work cut out!

      • DA September 22, 2017 at 2:53 pm #

        Hey Janos, just for reference, how old are you approximately? I’ll be 60 in Dec, so are you older, younger, or about the same age?

        • malthuss September 22, 2017 at 3:17 pm #

          I guess older.

          • DA September 22, 2017 at 3:20 pm #

            That’s what I guess too.

          • elysianfield September 22, 2017 at 5:32 pm #

            Janos is younger…probably under 40.

            Boomers rarely use back-packs.

        • Janos Skorenzy September 22, 2017 at 3:25 pm #

          Think of me like Lao Tzu, seventy years in his mother’s womb. The Old Boy. I was born older than you’ll ever be, and thus am always young and getting younger.

          • DA September 22, 2017 at 5:33 pm #

            Ah! An enigma.

          • S M Tenneshaw September 22, 2017 at 9:35 pm #

            “Ah, but I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now.”

            So, underneath all that dried-out Nazi filth you’re covered in, you’re really a Bob Dylan fan, eh? Who knew?

          • Janos Skorenzy September 23, 2017 at 1:35 am #

            Tenney, you leftist, degenerate Queer, welcome to the Party!

          • S M Tenneshaw September 24, 2017 at 2:39 am #

            Lame reply, Janny Methinks thou projects too much..

        • GreenAlba September 23, 2017 at 7:34 am #

          ‘Hey Janos, just for reference, how old are you approximately? I’ll be 60 in Dec, so are you older, younger, or about the same age?’

          I’ve always imagined Janos about 17 and sitting angrily in his mother’s basement because no-one else in the family will listen to his demented, hate-filled verbal diarrhea.

          • DA September 23, 2017 at 8:49 am #

            A distinct possibility. But he does seem smarter than the average 17 year old.

    • DA September 22, 2017 at 8:26 pm #

      That commenter was me. Thanks for the info. I grew up in Iowa, but have never really considered going back. It’s a nice enough place to live though. Even with the destruction of the family farms, the people are still grounded and sensible for the most part, unlike most places you go these days.

  20. FincaInTheMountains September 22, 2017 at 3:01 pm #

    Moscow Caliphate: Lublino against the Nikitsky Gate

    People laughed at me when I said that Russian Muslims consider Putin a Caliph, that is, a Defender of Islam. Meanwhile, Kadyrov’s appeal to Putin in connection with the genocide of Muslims in Burma is an appeal to him as a Caliph. And Putin understood this and assumed this burden.

    But yesterday’s events in Lublino in the TC Moscow are something directly opposite – this is a test of the mobilization readiness of the Islamists, who at this stage are the main enemy of Muslims, but recruiting almost exclusively among them:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBmax9ihJcs

    I saw TV reports from Myanmar: Buddhists I’ll tell you … the Islamic State has faded compare to them…

    Putin agrees to be the Caliph. Not openly, but for those who understand is enough.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqHt2WzdS2E

    The first Caliph in Russia was Khan Uzbek, who made Islam the state religion of the Golden Horde. What is characteristic is that under him the principality of Moscow became a Russian State and Orthodox Russia.

    Otherwise, the collector of Russian lands would not be Ivan Kalita, but Alexander Tverskoi, who would almost certainly have made Russia a Catholic kingdom of the Western type.

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  21. messianicdruid September 22, 2017 at 3:06 pm #

    full-of-grace says, “As predictions of doom and gloom continue to prove false, it gets more and more obvious that we are not seeing the end of the world as we know it.”

    It is the end of the world SYSTEM, and the people will rejoice. D&G for the PTB el permanente, but for we the people short-term tribulation.

  22. Bro Jobe September 22, 2017 at 3:30 pm #

    Even if the optimists who responded here are correct, and I hope they are, our systems for responding to crisis are getting the biggest workout of the past half-century.

    Let’s see how Puerto Rico fares, because it’s only a matter of time and steering currents before a Cat 4 or 5 hits a major city on the East Coast. In 2003, Isabel, as a Cat 1 storm, took down the grid here for days and in my case, 2 weeks.

    The first couple of nights were Mad-Max time, with motorcyclists racing at 100mph down a major street nearby, and the darkness was punctuated by a lot of gunfire, including a few full-auto bursts. You just stayed in and stayed small, with the guns loaded. For the first night, no cops were on the streets and they were still overwhelmed for a few days after.

    Lesson for me? Move out of down. Americans don’t fare so well in a crisis, after a certain point.

    • elysianfield September 22, 2017 at 5:40 pm #

      “Americans don’t fare so well in a crisis, after a certain point”

      Bro,

      THAT will be the baseline for any of a dozen issues…you have heard the opening shots of the Zombie Apocalypse…smelled the sulfur, but only sampled the bile.

      With all respect to Mr. Tibbs and his “New Republic”…suck on this…it is an all-day sucker and the fatal flaw in your paradigm.

  23. sophia September 22, 2017 at 3:53 pm #

    Speaking of silence, Jim in Florida has lost his power, at the least.

    • DA September 22, 2017 at 8:14 pm #

      Maybe he’s out bushwackin’?

    • Janos Skorenzy September 23, 2017 at 1:34 pm #

      He said goodbye before all of these storms descended. He thought he was about to be kicked off the site for his opposition to the Tribe.

      • sophia September 23, 2017 at 5:53 pm #

        Oh. Does that mean he got a warning? I don’t recall his opposition being any worse than some of the others, which are pretty sharp!

  24. malthuss September 22, 2017 at 4:39 pm #

    Julius Streicher was also put to death I believe – tell us more about him.

    • elysianfield September 22, 2017 at 5:47 pm #

      Malthuss,
      He was a respected publisher in his country, was an early proponent of the “Graphic Novel”…Millennials take note. Stan Lee, Frank Frazetta, et. al. but understudies.

  25. skamander September 22, 2017 at 5:44 pm #

    Has anyone noticed that the troll Gracie only posts comments early in the comment stream? S/h/it (the new generic pronoun) makes sure to do so for maximum stunt publicity. I really think it’s time to make the cretin(s?) go away.

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    • elysianfield September 22, 2017 at 5:49 pm #

      ” I really think it’s time to make the cretin(s?) go away”

      Skamander,
      No. Celebrate the diversity.

      • skamander September 22, 2017 at 6:43 pm #

        Celebrate a known troll who hijacks the comments in order to push a discredited agenda? What an incredible waste of time.

        No sir/mam; I’ll leave. And to hell with the comments on this blog.

        JHK is great; I’ll reserve my support for him.

        • 100th Avatar September 22, 2017 at 8:05 pm #

          Are you like, 23? I mean, why so aggro? These types just want to get under your skin, Best ignore them. You know who they are, Everyone does. The tongue-in cheek, let me get a rise shtick? They feed off the responses. Let it go brah. Just let them swim and starve. Can’t stay out of the sea ’cause the man in the gray suit is out there, am I right, or what? Hang in there, and hang loose. As they say in PR brah, “cogelo and take it easy”

        • Q. Shtik September 22, 2017 at 8:14 pm #

          Celebrate a known troll who hijacks the comments in order to push a discredited agenda? What an incredible waste of time. – skam

          ==========

          Skam, you’re working yourself into a lather over nothing. Graycenphil, janet and perhaps fodase are genuine optimists. We pessimists need a better definition of what we mean by ‘collapse’. Surely we don’t mean the literal end of the world and nothing but that would suffice for Grayce.

          If a 10 mile wide meteor struck the Yucatan and didn’t immediately snuff Gracie, he/she/it would find a silver lining.

          • skamander September 22, 2017 at 8:57 pm #

            Fair enough; thanks.

          • malthuss September 22, 2017 at 9:50 pm #

            Grayces posts seem a lot like another current poster.
            Or imposter, as the case may be.

        • sophia September 23, 2017 at 5:54 pm #

          Never ceases to amaze me how few people believe in free speech.

      • ozone September 22, 2017 at 8:15 pm #

        e.,
        I’m sure you’re aware that there’s a yuge difference between “diversity” of opinions and purposeful thread disruption; deliberate contentiousness for its own sake; along with a nice layer of utter bullshit, slathered on nice and thick.

        *As I’m sure you’re aware*.

        Killer hurricanes don’t give a shit for foolish humans or their abstract Dominionist fantasies… they just blow the man down.

        • elysianfield September 23, 2017 at 10:45 am #

          Oz,
          Aware, yes, but I am a bit slower to judge…even slower to condemn.

          I look, in a post, for a thread of honesty. We (most of us) believe…approximately in what we posit…some statements unbelievable, but if honestly offered helps form a perspective of humanity at it’s edges.

          I am not unlike those unfortunates reportedly starving in various failed states, picking through animal shit for a piece of grain, or other edible.

          Starved for dialogue? Maybe I’ve said too much….

          • ozone September 23, 2017 at 9:37 pm #

            e.,
            Personally, I think you’ve said that just about right, and no fault is forwarded or received regarding quantity or quality.

            Having lived a laizzez-faire existence wherein I’ve found listening to be of much greater value than speaking, the time is now that I feel comfortable in my [admittedly *very* personal] judgements and condemnations.

            Regardless of a plethora of interesting interlocutions, the hour has grown late and the long, twisting road ahead is rough and unlit by even a feeble moon. Travel with the wary.

  26. DA September 22, 2017 at 8:13 pm #

    What, no janet copy/pasting Dem agitprop today? Come out, come out from under the bridge, you liberal feminist troll, you!

  27. Billy Hill September 22, 2017 at 8:40 pm #

    Forget the storms. Here is the real story:

    http://dailycaller.com/2017/09/22/its-shocking-how-empty-the-stadium-was-for-thursday-night-football/

    • beantownbill. September 22, 2017 at 9:03 pm #

      Not in my hometown.?

    • malthuss September 22, 2017 at 9:50 pm #

      Bring it on.
      Let the National Felons League die a swift death.

  28. FincaInTheMountains September 22, 2017 at 8:41 pm #

    The US war with the N. Korea benefits everyone, except those who die in it

    The UN Security Council declared sanctions against N. Korea, that is, the supreme world gathering of the bourgeois national oligarchy declared the Brilliant Comrade a bitch, and the people of North and South Korea sentenced to destruction.

    Should I explain how the US will liberate Seoul from the North Korean infantry? The Vietnamese experience taught nothing the South Korean puppets, but our American friends learned the lessons and in this case they do not even need a victory in the war with the N. Korea: all Asian capitals will flee to the US, and the economies of competitors such as Japan, China, South Korea with a high probability will collapse.

    The US today is in crisis and if all of this paper ocean of Wall Street is not filled with real money everything will collapse. Here, for the United States, everything is unequivocal: it is necessary to strike the N. Korea, N. Korea will very quickly capture the entire South Korea in retaliation, and there may not be a retaliatory strike against the US at all!

  29. beantownbill. September 22, 2017 at 9:00 pm #

    I’m either a realistic optimist or an optimistic realist, I’m not sure which.

    • malthuss September 22, 2017 at 9:51 pm #

      You are an optimist.

  30. beantownbill. September 22, 2017 at 9:09 pm #

    Last time I was in a major hurricane was 1954. I know we are very overdue in Boston, not counting the blizzard of ’78.

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    • Q. Shtik September 22, 2017 at 9:12 pm #

      Let me guess, was it Hurricane Hazel? It passed over us in South Jersey.

      • beantownbill. September 22, 2017 at 9:15 pm #

        Sorry, Q, it was hurricane Carol.

  31. Q. Shtik September 22, 2017 at 9:11 pm #

    Speaking of PR, Florida and no electric, here is a little anecdote:

    Tomorrow is my wife’s 50th HS reunion party. About a year ago a classmate who had long ago moved to Florida from Jersey got it in ‘her’ head that a 50 year celebration was called for. ‘She’ started to pull together a team and my wife was among them. I am putting small quotes around all references to the reunion leader’s gender because ‘she’ is a male to female tranny formerly named Robert H. and now named Barbara K. Barbara K. has gone the whole nine yards by having SRS (Sex Reassignment Surgery) which, if you are a male and viewed the video someone posted here a month or so ago of the procedure, you would barf. How any man could watch this well-done animated video and say to themselves “Yeah, I’m up for it” is beyond incredible.

    Barbara K. has taken tons of hormones to grow tits and to otherwise try to take on a female persona. And to an extent it has worked in that ‘she’ has become a female-like emotional mess.

    Barbara K. is married to another male to female tranny who immigrated from Norway or Denmark (I forget which) and ‘she’ drives a long haul 18 wheeler. ‘She’ loves taking off on one of ‘her’ long road trips because (we assume) ‘she’ cannot tolerate being around ‘her’ over-emotional, nut case spouse, Barbara.

    This pair of trannies live on the West coast of FL in the St Petersburg area. Irma knocked out their power for 5 days while the truck driver tranny was away on a road trip leaving Barbara K. to fend for ‘her’self. (‘She’ went and lived for several days with a relative in Panama City until ‘she’ got word that the juice was back on at home.)

    With the reunion date of 9/23 rapidly approaching and with flight ticketing issues but no computer usage, etc., Barbara K. was becoming an emotional wreck, even threatening suicide to her teammates on the committee. Then the juice was restored and things calmed down briefly. But Wednesday, just before she was to fly north to NJ, an 18-wheeler took out 3 electric poles and Barb was without power AGAIN.

    I have been kept apprised of this soap opera because my wife refuses to pick up our house phone when she sees that it is the pain-in-the-ass Barbara calling yet again. The chore falls on my shoulders. On two occasions my wife has told Barbara K. to go fuck ‘her’self and hung up on ‘her’.

    I am going to meet this Barbara K. tranny for the first time tomorrow at 6 PM.

    Long story short: loss of electric power is a bitch.

    • beantownbill. September 22, 2017 at 9:21 pm #

      Lol! You gotta tell us about the reunion. Sounds like it wil be a real trip!

    • malthuss September 23, 2017 at 12:23 am #

      There is the sad story of some gigantic hormone [male] filled weight
      lifter who has an alternate female persona.

    • Janos Skorenzy September 23, 2017 at 1:38 am #

      Remember, Chastity! You are a married man.

    • “I am going to meet this Barbara K. tranny for the first time tomorrow at 6 PM.”

      Prepare to be underwhelmed.

    • sophia September 23, 2017 at 6:06 pm #

      So…two guys cut off their dicks and then marry each other???

      They were lesbians trapped in men’s bodies?

      Which means that they were always attracted to women sexually but now they have sex with fewer tools?

      • elysianfield September 23, 2017 at 10:13 pm #

        Sophia,
        …It’s a “guy thing”….

        • sophia September 24, 2017 at 9:38 am #

          But maybe the trucker didn’t cut his off…

  32. beantownbill. September 22, 2017 at 9:12 pm #

    I’m starting a pool. What comes first, the great Boston hurricane or the”Big One”?

    • DA September 23, 2017 at 9:39 am #

      I’m betting on The Big One. CA and OR have been long overdue since the 80’s, even with the numerous small ones relieving the pressure somewhat.

      • beantownbill. September 23, 2017 at 11:25 am #

        Me, too.

    • sophia September 23, 2017 at 6:06 pm #

      The Cascadia fault.

  33. pequiste September 22, 2017 at 9:14 pm #

    After a full day cleaning up my small 1/4 acre; cutting Bougainvillea bushes that fight back, Coconut palms laden with fronds and fruit, the awful Queen palm with its useless flowers and berries that bees love; adding to and watching my yuge pile of Irma-waste (TM) continue to sit on my former lawn, attending the yard waste disposal truck, now in arrears for three weeks….. time for a hot shower (something else we take very much for granted but save that discussion for another time although “hygiene” is another critical area for survival in any disaster or emergency.)

    The “Murk” is one of those things in modern times that we barely are conscious of. A flip of a switch at home or the car and shazzam — LIGHT. My whole house has those fantastic LED bulbs which make a great difference in reducing electric usage.

    And then someone (Harvey or Irma maybe Maria) shuts the power off. &#(!>*$^#@

    To wit:

    Battery operated LED flashlights are just the ticket for bright but with rechargeable Lithium Ion batteries from cordless power tools the lights stay on with conservative use for about a week. Where to charge up when needed? Generator power for how long?

    LED and fluorescent lanterns, great for bedrooms and bath, are fine for a week or two but you better have on hand a big collection of batteries.

    Propane and butane for lighting? Are you serious? Wasting such a high-value fuel for light is plain foolish. For cooking only — the gas barbeque grill is a lifesaver and one cylinder goes a long way. Have several.

    Oil lamps are reliable and put out a nice light but that awful acrid smell and smoke coupled with a constant fire hazard – not inside ever again. Those things are now only used outside with the BBQ grill on the patio for al fresco dining. Had to salvage food from the freezer – got away with five days.

    In the final analysis, after a small empirical investigation; this CFNer fully endorses the candle as the lighting of choice for the Long Emergency (and the short ones too.) The wonderful subdued light, portable, cheap and each one lasts a considerable amount of time. No wonder civilization has used them for centuries. Romantic too.

    I even had a few of the famous Bayberry candles, the kind they still make at Old Sturbridge Village in Massachusetts or historic Williamsburg, Virginia; oh that wonderful aroma. Can you make your own? Good for you, plus you will have something for barter when the damned ATM machine doesn’t work.

    AND DON”T FORGET THE MATCHES!!

    Fiat Lux.

    • beantownbill. September 22, 2017 at 9:31 pm #

      I found candle light annoying for reading because of the flickering, and the burnt camphor (?) blackened my ceilings. Of course, in an emergency I would love them.

      The bad thing about prepping is that you eventually discover you forgot to store something important.

    • Imagine….

      All the hand and human powered tools…

      worth their weight in gold?

      2100 is the real beginning of the end.

      MIT professor predicts Earth’s next mass extinction on USA today dot com.

      This is a Looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong Emergency.

      Like Goooogle, Looooooooooooooong Emergency.

      PR will be OK vis a vis modernity.

      • elysianfield September 23, 2017 at 10:25 pm #

        The Great and Infernal,

        Twenty years ago, when a friend was becoming an “Old China Hand” I suggested that he find, or have developed in China , a unitized steam fired generator…small enough to fit into the back of a pick-up truck bed, capacity about 5Kw. Easily done, can burn any type of wood scrap/would have been relatively cheap to manufacture in China, probably a great market in the US.

        There will always be electric power for tools and machinery.

        Give me several weeks and I could make one myself, or design a wood gasification system to run gasoline engines/generators.

  34. SvrzoH September 22, 2017 at 9:27 pm #

    Take this Harvey, Irma, Jose and the Co.

    http://www.constructionmanagermagazine.com/news/amphibious-grand-design-ready-take-water/

    Single cell organism practicing architecture is beside himself that he created such a ‘simple’ solution that nobody thought before.

  35. Q. Shtik September 22, 2017 at 11:25 pm #

    OK, one more story and I’ll call it a night:

    At 11AM on this exact date 3 years ago (i.e. 9/22/14) I screwed a small block of wood on to the top of the pyramid that I had been building the better part of the summer. It was the “capstone” and 44th tier of my structure which was designed to replicate the Great Pyramid of Khufu in Egypt. The screw that held this piece was cleverly done (if I may call myself clever) without being visible. The same as all the screws used to build it except 4 vertically placed screws and 4 horizontally placed screws at the 10th tier from the top. These 8 screws are the only ones visible in the entire structure and they are visible so that I can remove the top of the pyramid in one piece that leaves a one foot square opening to the interior (in case I should ever want to put something inside).

    The pyramid was finally done. Pictures were taken and then I retired to my air-conditioned man-cave. At 3PM the phone rang and a detective in Miramar, FL introduced himself with some sad news. My brother had died several days earlier and newspapers were piling up at his front door. A neighbor woman noticed this and notified appropriate authorities. She herself was a police dept employee. She had observed for years my brother’s extreme reclusiveness and his daily habits. The moment early in the morning that the Miami Herald and Wall Street Journal hit the walkway at his front door he would step out to retrieve them and would avoid any eye-contact with neighbors if any happened to be nearby. He had no wife, no kids, no known friends and, frankly, that is just how he wanted it.

    I believe I am the ONLY person he had any communication with and that amounted to perhaps one brief email a month at most, and always something about the stock market, the price of silver, and the like. He was in the habit of writing one short sentence and attaching a cartoon.

    My wife and I flew to Florida and began the process of having his body cremated, cleaning out his possessions, selling his home and dealing with his half dozen or more financial accounts. Somehow I was able find my way through his Byzantine but orderly computer files until I stumbled upon the Rosetta Stone… an Excel file that contained the totality of his market accounts and transactions which by pure happenstance he had last updated on 9/16/14 and saved at 3:30 PM only hours before he died. It summed up to a significant amount right down to the second decimal.

    We know he died either in the evening hours of 9/16 or the wee hours of the morning of 9/17 because his 2 newspapers dated 9/16 were in the house but the papers from 9/17 and later were piled up at his door. His body laid on the floor at the foot of his bed until the detective/police broke in and found him on 9/22. That’s 5 days. His home’s thermostat was set for 83, anything to save a buck. When my wife and I started working in the house (from morning till night for 3 weeks) we immediately turned it down to 70 or I would have melted.

    The detective said that we were very fortunate my brother had not lain there even a day or two more or the process of decomposition would have advanced much further and made selling the home an ungodly nightmare. The detective had been through this scenario a few times as old people living alone frequently drop in their tracks with no one the wiser.

    The coroner’s autopsy was brief and, I suspect, perfunctory. Once they see that there was no foul play and no quantity of empty pill bottles signifying possible suicide, they basically assign a cause in fancy words which mean “heart attack.”

    I could visualize that this was, in fact, accurate because my brother had bragged to me that he had not been to the doctor in decades even though he would have been covered by Medicare. To go to the doctor would have meant interfacing with another human being and that was to be avoided at all costs. I think the extent of his contact with people was probably a monthly haircut and visits to the Publix supermarket a quarter mile away. To keep these forays to buy food items and his usual lottery ticket he had doped out the exact layout of the food aisles. He would cut newspaper coupons, make a list of exactly what he was going to buy in the order of the markets layout so that he could nearly go down the aisles blindfolded and pluck the items from the shelves. All this, I can only assume, was to minimize his time in the presence of other people.

    My brother was on the floor in his lightweight pajamas. (The detective provided me nearly a hundred photos of my brother on the floor and others of every room in the house.) It appears he had gotten out of bed (I surmise, in pain) stumbled into the bathroom, grasped the towel rack which was torn off the wall at one end. His glasses were on the tile floor. He crawled out of the bathroom, rolled onto his back, one knee up, and drew his last breath.

    I inherited his money and paid off all debts of my 3 kids and their spouses giving them a clean start. His purpose and pleasure in life was to observe a growing balance in his spreadsheets. Having money had absolutely nothing to do with any plan or desire about spending the money on any earthly possessions.

    One year to the day after his official date of death (9/22, the date his body was found) I removed the top of my pyramid and suspended the container holding my brother’s ashes from a hook along with a one page essay like the one you are reading…to be found by someone in the future perhaps 50 years from now when we are all dead and gone. Not a day has gone by in 3 years that I have not pictured the circumstances of my brothers odd life ans death. He was 77 years and 4 months old.

    I apologize for this long-winded personal story but I feel it is the least I can do to continue my brother’s life in memory.

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    • Buck Stud September 23, 2017 at 12:07 am #

      A man that learns to love being alone is a rich man indeed:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86QvWlaGXjc

      • Buck Stud September 23, 2017 at 12:12 am #

        Well that was the wrong link although Janos probably liked it…

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95ND_fwX2fM

        • DA September 23, 2017 at 8:43 am #

          Janos has been particularly mean-spirited this week. I think I pissed in his Wheaties.

          • Janos Skorenzy September 23, 2017 at 1:39 pm #

            Dude, you said you agreed with the Jews’ sentence of death upon us – what the hell do you expect? And last week you gushed enthusiastically about how we need to commit suicide, to make it easy on them I guess?

            The incredible thing is how everyone here is fine with it or doesn’t notice – they go to sleep when they hear things like that a la Dark City. But no sleeper or unconscious servant you, but wide awake and gleeful. You deserve my condemnation and you have it. You earned it, now enjoy (in the Vedic sense) it.

          • DA September 23, 2017 at 4:16 pm #

            LOL! Thanks for that.

          • sophia September 23, 2017 at 6:19 pm #

            Janos,

            Regarding DA, I have noted it, but I don’t argue with him. It makes me sad to see all the white people who think that our recent sins mean we’re any worse than anyone else.

            Makes me sad to think of the white race being lost, and I had thought Europe would hold down the fort but now that is no longer so.

            The Chinese deliberately torture animals to death to tenderize the meat.
            The Japanese drag live dolphins tied by the tail fin behind a pickup truck until the blubber gets scraped off by the pavement and then the blood pours out. Can’t even be bothered to put a bullet to the brain or a club to stun them. School children walking past.

            Slavery endemic to Africa both north and south.

            Of course, it is hard to beat the inquisition, although the Aztecs came close.

            Why am I locked up here in this asylum for the criminally insane?

          • Janos Skorenzy September 23, 2017 at 10:08 pm #

            Thank you. Only you and I are sane. And I often have doubts about you.

    • Janos Skorenzy September 23, 2017 at 1:45 am #

      Did he ever go to a shrink? When did his mental illness, if illness it be, begin? How did he make his money? Was he richer and smarter than you? How do you feel about that?

      • DA September 23, 2017 at 8:44 am #

        What if he wasn’t “mentally ill” at all. What if he just despised people and society?

        • Q. Shtik September 24, 2017 at 2:31 pm #

          What if he just despised people and society? – DA

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

          If you think he may have “despised people and society” I have failed to adequately describe my brother. He did not dislike his fellow man or society in general. What he did was project an aura of indifference to them so that they would keep their eyes off him.

      • elysianfield September 23, 2017 at 11:04 am #

        Janos,
        Mental Illness? What of wisdom? I think you too quick to make such a snap judgment. Your reaction to the outward manifestations of his life does not consider the man’s ultimate wealth…peace of mind.

        Why does being a-social appear deviant?

        • Janos Skorenzy September 23, 2017 at 1:40 pm #

          Read it again, Sam. You might just see “if illness it be”.

          • elysianfield September 23, 2017 at 10:28 pm #

            Janos,
            …Missed the qualifier…apologies.

      • Q. Shtik September 23, 2017 at 11:45 am #

        Did he ever go to a shrink? When did his mental illness, if illness it be, begin? How did he make his money? Was he richer and smarter than you? How do you feel about that? – Janos

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

        I’ll take your questions one at a time in order.

        Did he ever go to a shrink? Not of his own volition, I am absolutely certain but I overheard my parents once discussing having sent him to a shrink as a kid. My parents certainly didn’t share any details of the outcome with me.

        When did his mental illness, if illness it be, begin? I would call it a ‘condition’ of extreme self consciousness and it began at birth or even in the womb. He did not come across as a crazy person. He functioned in society: school, college, jobs, a brief stint in the Army. But always, unbeknownst to anyone but himself was his desire not to be among others. His ‘condition’ was less when young (we played sports, went fishing, etc with the neighborhood kids but his reclusiveness grew and grew the older he got.

        How did he make his money? He held several different positions, all in the accounting realm which was his major in college (as was mine). His first job, after the brief Army stint, was in a low level accounting position at some company in Philly. He would commute to this office job by bus, come home and never discuss what it was like there, how he liked it…nothing. After, I don’t know, 6 months or a year he announces out of the clear blue at the dinner table that he has found a new job as a traveling auditor for S&H Green Stamps. (You may recall that a couple of years later I came out of the Air Force and took the identical job with S&H.) The job provided a company car, paid all meals, hotels and other misc expenses while he traveled non-stop about the country performing audits of S&H Redemption Centers and warehouses. I knew him to depart home on Jan 2nd and never return home till Labor Day or later. His paychecks went, nearly untouched, straight into the bank. As you might imagine, the balance grew quickly. This job was a godsend to him. He would walk into a redemption center, interface with the store manager and a few employees for a week, then be on to the next location on his home office directed itinerary. No having to nurture any daily office interpersonal relationship and no boss breathing down his neck. He did this for maybe a dozen years and then announced that “he had retired to play the market full time.” Years later he just as suddenly announced that he had taken a job as an accountant with the City of Miami Beach. Years later that office asked for volunteers to take a sweetened retirement package. He didn’t hesitate a second. He took the package and turned right around and got an almost identical position with the City of Sunrise FL. Ultimately he retired from there and for the last 10 or 15 years of his life was receiving Social Security plus pension checks from two FL cities. Counting in his extreme frugality, the bank and investment balances grew.

        Was he richer and smarter than you? His net worth was more than double my 401K balance but it’s hard to compare because I always earned a higher salary while he would be content in low paid low level jobs out of the limelite. He was probably smarter than me but I was more educated. He became a whiz on the computer, essentially self-taught, while I remain ‘technically challenged’ to this day. He would create the most amazing, densely packed spreadsheets.

        How do you feel about that? What are you, a fuckin shrink?

        • Janos Skorenzy September 23, 2017 at 1:47 pm #

          Wow, a very impressive though possibly tragic man. To the above posters: Yes, Peace of Mind is the Sumum Bonum of Life – but there are different levels to it. To attain the Spiritual Level (God consciousness or communion with Him), generally you have to go thru the worldly travail of relationships and not just retire into your own mind. I’m not getting the picture of a spiritual man here, but rather an amazingly high functioning Autist. But who can say for sure?

          • Q. Shtik September 24, 2017 at 3:02 pm #

            I’m not getting the picture of a spiritual man here, but rather an amazingly high functioning Autist. – Janos

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

            I can’t say what went on in the depths of his mind but I feel certain he was a non-believer.

            Google tells me autists generally are communication impaired. My brother communicated quite well both verbally and in writing. He sometimes allowed his sense of humor to show. He audited an S&H store somewhere in the midwest, Paducah, KY perhaps. The store manager was a Mrs Coyne. In the narrative portion of his report he allowed himself to make a personal observation (something he almost never did…his reports were always sparse, non-wordy affairs containing ‘just the facts ma’am’, unlike your’s truly). He stated for whoever read these reports that “Mrs Coyne has flipped.”

    • DA September 23, 2017 at 8:42 am #

      GREAT story Q! Thanks for sharing.

      My uncle died under somewhat similar circumstances. He was a loner as well, although he had once married to a shrew who totally despised him. I only found out later that she had become pregnant by another man while they were going out before they were married and he still married her and raised my cousin like she was his own.

      His wife turned out to be a neurotic hypochondriac for the remaining years of her short life, who never left the house for anything. She eventually died from what can only be described as “terminal wasting disease;” she simply refused to eat or interact with the world whatsoever and eventually wasted away to nothing. The doctors had always said that absolutely nothing was wrong with her.

      My uncle kept a stiff upper lip through it all and never once uttered a bad word about her, and continued to love and treasure my cousin until the last. He died several decades later in a manner similar to your brother. He was gregarious and outgoing in public (a bus driver in Omaha NE), but once he was off work, he retired to his modest bungalow and was never heard from again until the next day. All the windows were covered and he wouldn’t even answer the door. My mother could contact him by phone, but other than that, nadda.

      Total enigma, and of course, the proverbial “black sheep” of the family. His mother, in particular, detested him, and I think that was almost certainly the root of his “problems.” HIs older brother had died of polio in childhood and had become a virtual saint in the family lore. Poor Dave was left to carry on the family name with only 3 girls behind him in the lineup growing up in the small town Depression era towns and farms of eastern Kansas and Nebraska, and he was evidently overwhelmed by the task.

      But in all my many interactions with him he seemed to be the happiest and most content person I have ever met.

      • Q. Shtik September 23, 2017 at 11:59 am #

        GREAT story Q! Thanks for sharing. – DA

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

        Thanks for sharing the story of your uncle too. I think ‘normal’ people, who don’t have any experience with reclusive characters like your uncle and my brother, don’t realize that there are probably millions like them whose very reclusiveness keeps them out of sight and out of mind.

        • DA September 23, 2017 at 1:39 pm #

          Likewise good buddy! I’ve got a bit of the recluse gene myself. I have to work, so I have to interact with people quite a bit on a daily basis, but I have a very short fuse for the corporate games they play and have to take them in extremely small doses to retain my sanity. It’s been an extreme career limiter for me as well, and like your brother, I’m also a MS Excel genius of some repute. It’s been pretty much my sole bread and butter after the military, although it’s largely viewed as a “parlor trick” in the modern corporate idiocracy, where posing and brown nosing are the chief desirable traits.

          • Janos Skorenzy September 23, 2017 at 2:29 pm #

            You’re all things to all people, aren’t you Zelig?

          • DA September 23, 2017 at 4:14 pm #

            There’s a grain of truth in that. But then again, aren’t we all to some extent?

      • sophia September 23, 2017 at 8:55 pm #

        Wow, how can a mother despise her son when he apparently was a perfectly nice guy. She took her grief out on him instead of treasuring him.

  36. Q. Shtik September 23, 2017 at 1:01 am #

    I’m sure Janos is thrilled with the news that the beautiful Kylie Jenner is pregnant by her black rapper boyfriend. Well, it was either gonna be him or the previous black rapper that she used to go with. Someday maybe they’ll even get married and remain together till death do them part. NAH!

    • Q. Shtik September 23, 2017 at 1:06 am #

      I often wonder, what does a black rapper do when he becomes a washed up nobody, as it seems MUST happen to 99.9% of them? Go into accounting?

      • DA September 23, 2017 at 8:21 am #

        Do copious drugs with what’s left of the windfall and/or adopt a life of crime and then die early of all the usual life style diseases.

    • Janos Skorenzy September 23, 2017 at 1:46 am #

      A family tradition. Her non-White Armenian genes triumphed over her Aryan ones.

      • thwack September 23, 2017 at 10:27 am #

        she chose a man of higher status than you.

        Thats what women do.

        Hypergamy: the other white meat.

      • Q. Shtik September 24, 2017 at 1:51 pm #

        Her non-White Armenian genes triumphed over her Aryan ones. – Janos

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

        Offhand, I don’t think I know anyone from Armenia. Are they some shade of brown that makes them definitely non-Whites.

  37. Q. Shtik September 23, 2017 at 1:37 am #

    Did you all notice that Jake LaMotta just died at age 95? He was the subject of my number one favorite movie of all time: Raging Bull, and his character was played superbly by Robert DiNiro.

    My favorite scene involved Jake’s brother as portrayed by Joe Pesci. I call it the “You fuckin my wife?” scene. Jake get’s it in his head that his brother is fucking his wife. I forget why. He roughs up his bleach-blond wife, throttles and screams at her and she, of course, denies it because she hasn’t been fucking his brother. Jake barges out the door and begins walking at a fast pace down the block to his brother’s house (Nice touch — Italians are always tight-knit and live close to one another). The scene then switches to Pesci at his family dinner table and he’s ranting at his young son about something and he says “you do that again and I’m gonna stab you in the eye with this fork.” He brandishes the fork close to his frightened child.

    The family dysfunction is so thick you could cut it with a knife.

    • Janos Skorenzy September 23, 2017 at 1:47 am #

      You’re just a boring WASP like Da. No vibrancy like this family has in spades. No Luv!

      • Q. Shtik September 23, 2017 at 2:03 am #

        No, Janos, I’m a boring WASA…White Anglo Saxon Atheist.

        Nice touch on your part though, the LaMotta’s were not dysfunctional (that’s bullshit shrink talk), they were ‘vibrant.’

        • DA September 23, 2017 at 8:19 am #

          I am too. Never did adopt the Protestant thing. Too much drama!

          • Janos Skorenzy September 23, 2017 at 2:36 pm #

            Aren’t you Zelig! All things to All People!

          • DA September 23, 2017 at 3:38 pm #

            LOL! I’ve disappointed you, haven’t I? Sorry, old boy.

            But rest assured, I forgive you and accept you just as you are. You’re a frustrated idealist, and I can definitely relate.

            It’s a bitch carrying the world on your shoulders all the time, Sisyphus. Why don’t you try putting it down once in awhile, just to experience how liberating it feels?

            I’m betting you might like it.

        • Janos Skorenzy September 23, 2017 at 1:52 pm #

          And you’re fine with Da’s desire for White Suicide too. You’re just one generation behind him in the decadence scale. People like you help produce people like him. Godlessness and Indifference produce such malice. See Dostoyevski’s “The Underground Man”.

          • DA September 23, 2017 at 4:11 pm #

            See now, you continue to misinterpret me Janos. I don’t have any particular “desire” for white suicide; although I’ve certainly observed that that desire quite obviously exists and is being played out in the news we read every day. Yes, I also stated that in my in personal opinion that such an outcome was “deserved,” that’s just me thinking out loud. I’m under no illusion that some authority is going to read my comments and say, “Well then, let’s just exterminate the bastards now then, shall we?”

            But I must say, unlike most here, I rather enjoy the intellectual “thrust and parry” you provide on this board. Not terribly sophisticated, but quite provocative nonetheless. I’ve often thought that you were simply a troll, but mostly concluded that you’re either EXTREMELY consistent and effective at that task (not likely), or, more likely, genuine. Much as people like me often LOVE to HATE people like you, you are simply an angel in disguise; prompting us to go back to the drawing board and sharpen our arguments.

            That said, whether you’re a troll or not, you’re quite obviously a very intelligent and adept practitioner of internet argumentation, so I applaud you for that. I continue to read your posts for the often inadvertent truths they contain, and rest assured; your many explicit and implicit personal slights are forgiven in the same understanding spirit with which they were given.

          • elysianfield September 23, 2017 at 5:51 pm #

            Janos,
            …yeah, what DA said….

          • Janos Skorenzy September 23, 2017 at 6:54 pm #

            E, did you miss this? If you are Ok with this, you are suffering from normalcy bias and are thus a big part of the problem, one of the citizens of Dark City.

            You generally try to be reasonable and moderate, which leads to big errors in extreme times like this. This guy is playing for the other team. He’s a fully conscious traitor. If you find that funny or don’t believe such things matter, or think it’s an irrelevant term, than you are an enemy as well or at least fast asleep at the wheel.

            DA
            September 22, 2017 at 8:05 pm #

            Janos,

            Well, you’ll be happy to know that the second and third generation Mexicans living here in “New” Mexico feel the same way about the recent arrivals as you do. That reeks more of provincialism than racism, which I think is probably at the root of all your pent up angst and hostility as well.

            As far as the great white race goes, I’m one of them and I’ve been surrounded by them all my life, and I have to say that they’re at best no better than the rest, and in actual fact, mostly lazy, stupid, fat, entitled, and boring. Other than the rich that is. They’ve got a whole host of MUCH UGLIER attributes that I won’t bother listing here, as I’ve repeated them here over and over again many times already.

            The Zionist Jews, after long historical observation and much careful consideration, were certainly right in concluding any race this fucking greedy, short-sighted, and stupid FULLY DESERVES the shit they were about to unleash on us. As they have, as they do now, and as they will continue to do until they exterminate or enslave every last fucking one of us. Provided we don’t wreck the planet altogether first and exterminate us all in the process. My bet’s on the latter.

          • DA September 23, 2017 at 7:28 pm #

            LOL! And who, pray tell, is “the other team.”

          • elysianfield September 23, 2017 at 11:05 pm #

            Janos,
            I mostly concurred with his last paragraph. I will only comment on his posts on a case by case basis.

            “The Zionist Jews, after long historical observation and much careful consideration, were certainly right in concluding any race this fucking greedy, short-sighted, and stupid FULLY DESERVES the shit they were about to unleash on us. As they have, as they do now, and as they will continue to do until they exterminate or enslave every last fucking one of us.”

            DA,
            Do you mean the white race? Mozart, Vivaldi, Schubert,? Do you mean the men of the Renaissance, the builders of the cathedrals of Europe? Or do you mean the corrupted culture that the US population has reluctantly embraced?

            Regarding the Zionists…I don’t recall them having the moral position to pass judgment upon anyone.

            I understand your angst, our current culture IS corrupt, as are our politicians…our institutions, our former WASP values.
            No one fully deserves the shit-storms on the horizon. The majority of the population have no more power to change the current paradigm than you or I.

            I expect that you will not strongly disagree with what I’ve suggested…it is more a question of language discipline…considering that, in a peer to peer exchange, one’s words will be carefully parsed, and that one might then be called to account for what might have been nothing more than a moment of mental laxity.

          • Janos Skorenzy September 24, 2017 at 1:51 am #

            Da, “Who is ‘the other team?” Read your post again, which I have conveniently copied. You really are a decaying, disorganized shell.

            E, Thank for replying, though in a puzzling way. You “concur” with his last paragraph and then tear it apart. Was that a mistaken word choice?

          • elysianfield September 24, 2017 at 3:48 pm #

            “That said, whether you’re a troll or not, you’re quite obviously a very intelligent and adept practitioner of internet argumentation, so I applaud you for that. I continue to read your posts for the often inadvertent truths they contain, and rest assured; your many explicit and implicit personal slights are forgiven in the same understanding spirit with which they were given.”

            Janos,
            I agree with this(see above) last paragraph…not the other one condemning the white race…I suspect DA himself does not fully agree with his own post, if closely questioned…impossible to defend his statement.

            I would never condemn a race…any race. I will, however, condemn other cultures that do not measure up to our WASP ideals. Race is not the issue, Janos…culture is…and it is everything.

            Cultural Diversity=non-assimilation=Balkanization=eventual civil disorder=loss of civilization (If taken to the extreme).

          • Janos Skorenzy September 24, 2017 at 5:36 pm #

            And it’s pure coincidence that Whites came up with WASP Culture, right? Just like the Chinese have nothing to do with Chinese culture. Black Africans can just walk right in and fit right in. Just give them a copy of the Analects and Lao Tzu as they step off the plane.

            You need to spend more time with the animals out in the yard. Watch the birds, how like associates with like and not with other types of birds, even if similar to our eyes.

            Darwin bred very similar types of Finch, each from a different Galapagos island. Basically identical, their nest building behavior was slightly different: the different breeds would carry the twigs differently. The crossbreeds tried to mix the way they carried the twigs, making the carrying clumsy and inefficient, leading to difficulty and delay in building the nests.

            Or do you claim some special metaphysical nature for Man, completely above Nature? I’ve never noticed any such thing from you….

          • elysianfield September 24, 2017 at 8:41 pm #

            “And it’s pure coincidence that Whites came up with WASP Culture, right?”

            Janos,
            Not at all… There was a period of time when the homogeneous races of Europe contrived a culture of civility. Their culture allowed them to reinforce and advance civil conduct. We have seen the benefits of this culture. The Ghetto culture, however, evolved apart from civil discourse…for reasons that can be argued.

        • GreenAlba September 26, 2017 at 11:48 am #

          ‘No, Janos, I’m a boring WASA…White Anglo Saxon Atheist.’

          Sounds a bit tautological – I’m not aware of Anglo-Saxons who came in any other colour, but if you know something the rest of us don’t, for the love of God don’t tell Janos…

          (I think the original WASP is more logically ‘Wealthy Anglo-Saxon Protestants’ since it doesn’t tend to include those poor rednecks who were originally Ulster Scots (and before that, Border Reivers from not that far from where I’m sitting).

    • SpeedyBB September 23, 2017 at 1:53 pm #

      The mass-media obituary for Jake LaMotta I read left out several curious / tragic facts.

      He lost one of his offspring (can’t remember how) and then his son died in that horrendous Swissair Flight 111 crash off Nova Scotia. This was a double whammy for the old fella.

      My pal Jourdan A. worked on the set when Scorcese was shooting ‘Raging Bull’. A memo had reportedly gone around stating that ‘Mr. LaMotta is not to be allowed on the premises at any time’. His opinion on the cinematic interpretation of his life was not desired.

  38. windward September 23, 2017 at 3:42 am #

    When I read “and its colossal unfunded obligations for social security” I tried hard to give JHK the benefit of the doubt. Does he really believe that vicious right-wing lie that Social Security is a federally funded welfare program?

    Since it is not, I hope that our host will explain what he meant.

    • capt spaulding September 23, 2017 at 8:22 am #

      It may be a welfare program created by left wingers, but I have yet to see it turned down by any right wingers in their 60s.

      • elysianfield September 23, 2017 at 11:15 am #

        Capt,
        Yes. Tell the Government to keep their God Damned hands of my $148 per month….

      • windward September 23, 2017 at 4:44 pm #

        I enjoyed your comment, but we must state the truth. Social Security is not a government welfare program. It is not funded by the federal government. It does not affect the deficit.

        But Pete Peterson and his cronies at the Committee For a Responsible [!] Federal Budget, and many others of their ilk, have managed to make a lot of people who should know better believe that we must cut Social Security to reduce the deficit. This is rank, stinking bilgewater and a vicious lie. These rich right-wing savages just want to get their hands on the money, and they don’t care how they do it or who they hurt.

        The best explanation of Social Security that I have found is by Dean Baker:

        http://cepr.net/blogs/beat-the-press/lesson-for-reporters-social-security-does-not-add-to-the-budget-deficit

        • GreenAlba September 26, 2017 at 11:58 am #

          @Windward

          Thanks for the link. It’s so difficult to get actual facts from right-wing America… I’ve bookmarked this one for later.

  39. tucsonspur September 23, 2017 at 3:46 am #

    Trump wants NFL anthem protesters fired. Good.

    The Ape Man Elliot on Dallas was held to .8 yards a carry against Denver. Must have worn himself out beating his women. Good. And bad.

    Had to open a bathroom wall to seal off and stop an invasion of sewer roaches. Thought I was in Puerto Rico. Bad. And good.

    No hurricanes here. Weather is becoming cooler, we may start to see some high eighties. But it IS a dry heat, as one skeleton in the desert famously said to the other.

    As I write, the first day of fall has flowed into the second, and the moon and any planets that may visible are seen lower in the South, because the ecliptic is least inclined to the horizon this time of year.
    You don’t give a shit? Well, you should.

    This Jet ( brawled in most boroughs ), has enjoyed today’s sparring matches, and of course the clear cut winner is another gang member, that gold medal kid with the heavyweight crown.

    Speaking of sexuality, the man-woman thing, Puerto Rican girls, sexy-ugly, ugly-sexy, I leave you with that epitome of androgyny….

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hic-dnps6MU

    • pequiste September 23, 2017 at 6:33 am #

      I always liked that line….about the PR girls that is.

      Tarnation, Mick has such a large mouth.

      Let me commiserate with you about your roach issue: the hurricane brought me some palmetto bugs (enormous flying red Cucarachas) who were angry , hungry and testy. No Boric Acid or Raid was going stop these fellers. Looking to go Totaler Krieg with these invading forces.

      • beantownbill. September 23, 2017 at 11:36 am #

        Before you go to war, read “Leininger and the Ants” so you know what you’re getting into.

        • Q. Shtik September 23, 2017 at 12:14 pm #

          Bean, the correct title is Leiningen Versus the Ants. It is probably the only thing (a short story, in this case) that I have read multiple times.

          • beantownbill. September 23, 2017 at 1:33 pm #

            Thanks for the correction. I’ve read it a few times. Now that I think about it, I feel like reading it again. It’s one of those stories that are highly readable – several times.

          • Janos Skorenzy September 23, 2017 at 1:54 pm #

            Sounds good but I’ve never heard of it. Whose the author?

          • DA September 23, 2017 at 3:31 pm #

            OK, Q’s got me hooked now.

            Janos: “Whose the author?”

            No. A contraction. “Who’s the author?”

          • elysianfield September 23, 2017 at 6:00 pm #

            Q,
            First exposed to the story at about 12 years of age.

            Another author, in the Science Fiction Genre, wrote a similar story, only with rats as the antagonists. Early 60’s, as I recall.

  40. Janos Skorenzy September 23, 2017 at 4:18 am #

    https://dailystormer.is/31000-scientists-speak-out-against-global-warming-hoax/

    Remember, you’re only entitled to an opinion on what’s good for your country if you desire the good of your country. If you secretly want to destroy it or hate the race of people who created it, thus desiring to change it utterly (in other words, destroy it), then your opinion is, by definition, worthless.

    Carbon Dioxide – it’s what plants crave! Plants feed people and animals, animals we then like to eat. Warmth? Another factor that plants love – go to the tropics and see. Water? Oh yeah, they love that shit too. We’re batting a hundred here. Let’s melt those ice caps in the fires of industry. I plan to have a Cotton Plantation in Antarctica. Yes, with slaves, but White Leftist ones. No Blacks allowed to be slaves. They’re unworthy of such an honor.

    Support this blog on PatreonSupport this blog on Substack
    Support this blog via Patreon or Substack
    • DA September 23, 2017 at 8:17 am #

      LOL! You’re on top of your game this week Janos!

      • malthuss September 23, 2017 at 12:44 pm #

        CHEM TRAILS, You tube, Dane Wiggington

    • sophia September 23, 2017 at 9:14 pm #

      My question to the global warming believers :

      What do you think is the right level of CO2 in the atmosphere?

      (to be followed up with further questions should you answer)

  41. MrTibbs September 23, 2017 at 6:02 am #

    One of these days,boy…..gonna see my baby.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoORyePRbq0

    Transform the world.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1e6D8R82U84&list=PLl55Zh3U2VW7YD-JKHT0vYIk1ZCrK7c4-&index=203

    -T

  42. FincaInTheMountains September 23, 2017 at 7:25 am #

    The time is out of joint — O cursed spite,
    That ever I was born to set it right!

    Hamlet, Shakespeare

    Finally, the time is back on track!

    The ballet troupe of the Bolshoi Theater accepted great-great-granddaughter of Matilda Kshesinskaya.

    The great-great-granddaughter of the beloved of the future Emperor of Russia Nicholas II ballerina Matilda Kshesinskaya, graduate of the Russian Vaganov Ballet Academy Eleonora Sevenard was admitted this season to the ballet troupe of the Bolshoi Theater, RIA Novosti reported.

    https://ig-s-c-a.akamaihd.net/h-ak-igx/t51.2885-15/sh0.08/e35/p750x750/21690426_1395961747192042_3652245553485447168_n.jpg

    I hope that now the people of the post-Soviet era will finally understand this anecdote:

    In the late Soviet Union, the most anti-Soviet anecdotes caused hysterical laughter, but it was absolutely impossible to imprison for them. For example:

    Vladimir Lenin comes home after work, and he is met by Nadezhda Krupskaia:

    – Vladimir Ilyich, the walkers came, they brought you a canary.

    Vladimir Ilyich comes to the cage with a canary, opens the door and says:

    “Fly canary – you are free!”

    And the canary does not fly away – during this time she managed to fall in love with Vladimir Ilyich …

    https://scontent-ort2-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/21752325_1958518341091768_610250222028655989_n.jpg?oh=43fb939a0bc48fa99db89522a4f932cd&oe=5A4F695C

  43. thwack September 23, 2017 at 7:36 am #

    “Martina Big”

    lol

    http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/white-glamour-model-size-32s-11217500?service=responsive

    I think this COULD have worked; but she went too far and overshot the runway; looks too much like a tranny now.

    • DA September 23, 2017 at 8:16 am #

      The horror! The whore-er!

  44. AKlein September 23, 2017 at 8:25 am #

    What’s happening in PR right now is a foreshadowing of things to come for a much larger part of the US. It may take a while yet, but in fact we are just a couple of large disasters away from the Dark Ages. Most people just don’t seem to “get” that our miracle lifestyle is fragile, very fragile; 3000 mile food distribution chains, living in swampland (Florida) that requires air conditioning to be tolerable, everything run on electricity and/or oil. PR is a harbinger of the future. Those who are rational and have eyes open will pay attention and act accordingly.

    • beantownbill. September 23, 2017 at 11:41 am #

      Maybe so, maybe not. Best is to prepare in advance, if possible

    • HowardBeale September 23, 2017 at 12:24 pm #

      I think an 8.0 on the Cascadia, with a tsunami follow up would probably tip that first domino–not to mention any number of other possible catastrophes…
      And if the death of 10s of 1000s and the effective destruction of a large swatch of infrastructure, from Vancouver to San Francisco, didn’t cause the financial panic and market crash that it should, which would be the beginning of the “positive” financial feedback that would spiral the U.S. into the dark ages, it would only be a momentary delay in the inevitable, as the $Ts the fed printed to salvage the moment would surely accelerate the de-dollarization that is becoming the latest trend…

      • DA September 23, 2017 at 3:28 pm #

        Agreed. I think that is indeed one of the worst case scenarios (among several/many) currently imaginable out there.

        • capt spaulding September 23, 2017 at 4:29 pm #

          The more advanced the society, the greater the impact if it falls. When the Japanese invaded China, they surrounded Shanghai and cut off the electricity and everything else. People died like flies. Peasants in the countryside didn’t see any effects at all because they had nothing to start with, and were used to living that way. Nowhere to fall to.

  45. FincaInTheMountains September 23, 2017 at 10:35 am #

    Finita la Commedia

    After the de-blockade of Deir-ez-Zor, the army of Bashar Assad is one step away from freeing the road to Iraq. It remains only to settle the matter with the Kurdish militia. The main ally of the Kurds – Washington – is gradually losing all influence in Syria. Moscow, on the contrary, strengthens military, diplomatic and humanitarian positions in the region.

    The de-blockade of Deir-ez-Zor became not only the beginning of deliverance from the three-year siege of hundreds of thousands of residents (part of the city’s quarters are still under the control of the Islamic State), but also the launching of the liberation from the power of terrorists in the eastern regions of the country. Now the army is busy clearing the area around the city and especially the airbase – in the very near future it will work in full force, allowing the transfer to the province of Deir ez Zor reinforcements and equipment for subsequent offensives.

    New Afghanistan for Russians? He, he, he…

    Support this blog on PatreonSupport this blog on Substack
    Support this blog via Patreon or Substack
    • DA September 23, 2017 at 3:25 pm #

      In spite of (or is it because of?) all its faux “bluster” and actual corruption, the US/Israeli Zionist MICC is rapidly proving itself to be the best friend Russia and China could have ever wished for. It’s almost as if the Zionist neo-con/libs actually planned for all these outcomes. Alas, it still appears at this late date that they’re simply not that fucking smart. We will see. We will see.

  46. malthuss September 23, 2017 at 12:42 pm #

    T Mobiles One World Propaganda,

    https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/festival/2017/

  47. volodya September 23, 2017 at 1:09 pm #

    “Suddenly the future is here and nobody has a plan for it.”

    The Republicans sure don’t. At least not any plans they’ll discuss openly. All they talk about is tax cuts and what upstanding and pious and patriotic Americans they are. They tell us that the marketplace will solve all problems. So what do you need plans for?

    Of course that’s not at all what Republican think. Along with Democrats and like-minded foreigners they’ve worked towards a vision of a globe where monied interests count and nothing else matters.

    Democrats are like Republicans. They have no plans, at least not for the American constituencies they pretend to be ceaselessly working for. Democrats are for Black people? And Hispanics? And Dreamers? What a joke.

    Like the Republicans, Democrats have a vision of a world order where a political class works hand in glove with economic elites to run things for their mutual benefit. That this means the ruthless exploitation of impoverished Third World countries and the ruin of multitudes at home doesn’t bother them in the least. Quite the contrary.

    In the “meritocracy” they envision (which isn’t meritocratic in the least) the ones that come out on top SHOULD come out on top. In this rigged regime they’re trying to create, they take for granted that it should be Democrat elites on top with some crumbs for their minions and Republican partners. Accordingly, Republican elites see themselves at the apex with some reward for services rendered to Democrats and their own Republican lackeys.

    That their schemes are unworkable doesn’t seem to occur to either Democrats or Republicans. Neither does it occur to them that the people they seem to think they can move around like chess pieces actually have minds and interests of their own. How did Trump get elected after all? That wasn’t at all in the plan.

    The future is here and there are plans but the plans don’t take it into account.

    • beantownbill. September 23, 2017 at 1:58 pm #

      The markets WOULD have straightened it all out if the TPTB
      left them alone. Now it can’t happen. Something unplanned is gonna come down the pike to destroy the dollar – there’s no wiggle room. Maybe it’ll be Howard Beale’s 8.0 Cascadia quake or a political assassination or Mad Kim’s errant missle launch or any of a number of events. It’s even possible that nothing will happen and we’ll chug along throughout our lifetime – but I don’t think so.

      Globalism as we know it is evil, but it didn’t have to be that way. It could be very effective in a more ideal world.

      • DA September 23, 2017 at 3:15 pm #

        Globalism as we know it is evil, but it didn’t have to be that way. It could be very effective in a more ideal world.

        A popular sentiment in some quarters, but I beg to differ(!) with you there Bill. Even so, I think that’s a MUCH longer post best saved for another day. Cheers!

    • DA September 23, 2017 at 2:34 pm #

      Congrats, your mirror is highly polished indeed, Vol! Keep it up and soon you’ll be observing that there is no mirror and there is no reflection; there is only your perfect awareness of all the shit that’s going down on our behalf.

  48. FincaInTheMountains September 23, 2017 at 1:55 pm #

    While I was writing about the grandiose battle of Nyasha and Matilda for the corpse of Nicholas II, there were events in the world that I did not comment on, including because I had already commented on them long before they have occurred.

    But since many new people have come to the site, and the old ones have forgotten how my theory of Western Colored Projects is applied to the objective reality given to us in sensations transmitted by TV, I will allow myself to sum up the above-mentioned events at least at the most basic level.

    The UN General Assembly

    a) The UN is the organization of nations that defeated the Hitler’s Germany, which was created after Hitler’s first defeat near Moscow. And if this defeat did not happen, then the UN would not have been. So it’s funny to listen to talk about depriving Russia of the right of veto – without Russia, with the right of veto, the UN turns into the League of Nations, which will wait for a series of defeats like the defeat of the UN in North Korea in he 50s, when the USSR did not use its right of veto.

    b) The goal of creating the UN was to prevent wars and the destruction of such states as Hitler’s Germany and present-day Ukraine. The UN Charter prohibits war and genocide, and when Trump bombed Syria without UN authorization, and Ukraine, leading open genocide against Russians, remained a member of the UN, this organization was dealt a fatal blow. That’s why Putin did not go to the General Assembly – it’s not the Tsar’s business, picking the corpse of the UN. Fortunately, there is such a president as Trump in the US, and he must decide for himself whether he will carry out the UN resuscitation or its patho-anatomical autopsy, and Putin will decide after the end of these works whether Russia will sanctify the result with its veto.

    North Korea

    a) On the eve of the scandal with Matilda it became known quite officially that informal negotiations are going on between North Korea and the United States, and Donald Trump told that he would have been honored to negotiate with Kim Jong-Un. And after that one can only be surprised at the seriousness with which the media covers the rap battle between Donald and Kim, with which they entertain the respectable audience, showing her what she wants to see. And if it leads to disaster, then this public can be told: “There is nothing to blame the mirror for, look at your own face!”

    b) This topic is related to the UN theme, since the United Nations fought with North Korea in the early 1950s, and the United States killed North Koreans as UN peacekeepers. And they suffered a crushing defeat there, according to which Stalin decided to land the Russian troops in Alaska and within two weeks of fighting to reach the city of Seattle, where the Boeing factories are located. And only his mysterious death saved the US from the war on its own territory.

    Putting it all together, it turns out that Trump decided to reanimate the UN by rejecting a whole set of principles embedded in it by Hillary Clinton’s international policy and known as Regime Change. In addition, he announced that the presidents of the UN member states should consider their countries first, as well as Donald Trump considers the America First, and this statement is the most important – an implicit declaration of the principle of moral equivalence, according to which the US measures itself and its actions with the same moral measure, as the actions of other countries.

    A list of rogue states to which these principles are not applicable has been known for a long time and its announcement was necessary to emphasize that Russia is not included in it now, and all this Aesopian language was necessary for purely domestic use as a concession to that part of American society that is now personified by Morgan Freeman.

    • DA September 23, 2017 at 2:52 pm #

      Nice post Finca. Do you have any links to support the Stalin assertion in North Korea b) above? I hadn’t heard that particular assertion before, but it sounds entirely plausible. The dark ops skull-duggery and intra- and international political double-crossing in the immediate aftermath of WWII was, by all accounts I’ve read, almost unimaginably rich and complex, even by modern standards, as all the major and minor power players of the time jockeyed for position in what everyone knew would certainly be – for better or worse – a truly entirely new world order.

      But once again, great post! Much “meat on the bone” here to digest.

      • FincaInTheMountains September 23, 2017 at 3:42 pm #

        The only real “dark ops skull-duggery and intra- and international political double-crossing in the immediate aftermath of WWII” was done by pro-Nazi American elites personified by Vice President Truman who on May 8, 1945 concluded a separate peace with the Nazi Germany after negotiations done by Allen Dulles with Reichsführer Himmler behind Roosevelt’s back.

        Roosevelt died a few weeks after finding out about negotiations from Stalin’s letter under mysterious circumstances.

        That opened a flood of Nazi technology, especially in the field of “human management”, the Nazi Ideology and Nazi money (about 20 trillion dollars) into the United States.

        As for Stalin readiness to land Russian troops in Alaska in the early 50s – I wrote a lot about that on this very site. Of course Stalin was not planning to occupy the US; he wanted to destroy US war-making capacity by capturing the Boeing factories.

        The name of the Commander of Invading Army was General Oleshev.

        • DA September 23, 2017 at 4:30 pm #

          Agreed in principle. But I’d still like to see some journalistic evidence of your assertions of whatever pedigree to support your claims. The evidence of the US/Dulles brothers complicity in both pre- and post- war US/Nazi conspiracies is already firmly established, so your claims certainly fall on fertile ground. Thanks.

        • elysianfield September 23, 2017 at 6:34 pm #

          “As for Stalin readiness to land Russian troops in Alaska in the early 50s – I wrote a lot about that on this very site”

          Finc,]
          Stalin, Marshall of the Armies, would not conduct a campaign with such extended lines of communication…he knew better.

          It wasn’t just General Winter that defeated the Nazis…as German supply lines became vastly over-extended, the Russian lines shortened….

          Then there was that A-bomb thing….

          • FincaInTheMountains September 23, 2017 at 6:51 pm #

            You underestimate the ability of the Red Army and its commanders: General Oleshev defeated the Kwantung Army in just two weeks, while Americans were thinking Russians would be bogged down for at least two years.

            As for the A-bomb. Americans simply did not have the means of delivery against the Russian MIGs, as was proven by the MiG Alley in the North Korea.

          • FincaInTheMountains September 23, 2017 at 6:57 pm #

            14th Army (Soviet Union)

            The 14th Army was a field army of the Soviet Army, formed twice. The army was first formed during the Winter War, in which two of its divisions fought in the Battle of Petsamo. After Operation Barbarossa, the army fought against German and Finnish attacks in Operation Silver Fox.

            In the middle of July 1941 the army was able to hold its positions. In October 1944 it fought in the Petsamo–Kirkenes Offensive and seized Pechenga. The army defended and guarded the newly captured territory until the end of the war. Its headquarters became the Belomorsky Military District at the end of July 1945. The army reformed in June 1948 from the 126th Light Mountain Rifle Corps as the 14th Army (Assault).

            Stationed on the Chukchi Peninsula, the army’s mission was to invade Alaska in event of a war. It was disbanded in May 1953 after Stalin’s death.

            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/14th_Army_(Soviet_Union)

          • DA September 23, 2017 at 7:23 pm #

            Stalin was also operating in rather dire straights in the immediate aftermath of WWII, what with Truman walking around with his balls hanging out after the obscene and intentionally provocative bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (their original intent in the first place). It was common knowledge that both the British and the Americans feared the communist Russians at least as much as they did the defeated Germans (whom Allen Dulles, most notably, had worked long and hard to support behind the scenes; before, during, and long after the war), so I would think Stalin would be willing to accept a considerable amount of risk to forestall what he must have viewed as almost certain American post-war aggression.

          • elysianfield September 23, 2017 at 11:19 pm #

            “As for the A-bomb. Americans simply did not have the means of delivery against the Russian MIGs, as was proven by the MiG Alley in the North Korea.”

            “If any bombs should fall on Germany, then you can call me “Meyer”~ Herman “Meyer” Goering

            A difficult argument, Finc.

        • BackRowHeckler September 23, 2017 at 9:31 pm #

          You f-ckers would’ve been wiped out before you set one toe on Alaskan soil, just one toe.

          brg

          • BackRowHeckler September 23, 2017 at 9:41 pm #

            And incidentally, we kicked your ass at MIG alley.

  49. volodya September 23, 2017 at 2:18 pm #

    Sean Coleman, of course you won’t any more about it. Not if you rely on the main-stream press or establishment media.

    Those guys are in the business of preposterizing. For example, Trump’s America First-ism plays into Putin’s hands somehow (don’t ask me how). Or you hear all the time about American neo-Nazis. You’d swear the streets were FULL of neo-Nazis. And fascists. And Russians busily undermining American democracy. And who gets to use what pissoir.

    What you DON’T hear about is what actually matters or what is really happening.

    • volodya September 23, 2017 at 2:30 pm #

      correction: won’t HEAR any more about it…

      • DA September 23, 2017 at 3:05 pm #

        LOL! You’re forgiven! Go forth and sin no more, my son!

    • Sean Coleman September 23, 2017 at 5:08 pm #

      Volodya, I would love to find out where this ‘fake news’ thing came from. If anyone reading knows of a good article please let me know.

      • sophia September 23, 2017 at 9:51 pm #

        My memory is that it was the Washington Post, and that they were irritated with several popular blogs to which many people turned for news and opinion before the election.

        Sad for them, I think that most people turned that idea on its head, considering mainstream sources as purveyors of fake news.

        • Sean Coleman September 24, 2017 at 5:10 pm #

          thanks

  50. volodya September 23, 2017 at 2:23 pm #

    Beantown, actual markets as related to us via economics textbooks, you know, red in tooth and claw and all that, involve risk. What the monied set is NOT interested in is risk. What they want is the rigged bid, the can’t-lose bet. Do these guys want competition? Yeah, but only if they’re the apex predator, the one that dines on the competition. Otherwise, not so much.

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  51. Janos Skorenzy September 23, 2017 at 2:27 pm #

    https://dailystormer.is/epidemic-of-crazy-thots-teaching-in-american-schools/

    Teaching must become a male profession again. Women can’t be trusted to do this anymore – they are too crazy now. It’s better if they stay home anyway. They should be having kids, giving suck, and doing housework.

    Suffer the children to come unto Me, I will teach them.

    • DA September 23, 2017 at 3:03 pm #

      I actually agree with your post here for the most part Janos. Good work!

      Bringing females into the workforce was always nothing more than an attempt to undermine the traditional family and roles of the sexes, while also doubling the workforce and driving down wages for the working class in the process. The destruction of the traditional family is a hallmark of American Capitalism, with obvious and undeniable corrosive effects.

      I would equivocate slightly in adding that grades K-3 might be better served by women teachers. Most kids are still in need of a strong mother figure at those ages.

      How are you doing today, old boy?

    • sophia September 23, 2017 at 9:59 pm #

      Why do you blame women for the degeneracy of our culture? Are the men thinking straight? Not from what I can see.

      • Janos Skorenzy September 23, 2017 at 10:14 pm #

        Quite so. As the character in Mr Kunstler’s novel said (a woman), “Women aren’t moral beings.” Is there anything women hate more than having to take responsibility? They don’t feel guilt by and large but feel shame very deeply. So it all comes down to getting caught!

        So it’s men’s fault that it has gone this far. That we let them dominate whole professions. That we encouraged them to become hyper-sexual and called it normal. Now they want to replace us with other men who will keep them in line it seems as is happening in Northwestern Europe.

        • sophia September 24, 2017 at 12:00 pm #

          Kunstler said that? Hmm. Maybe he bears a grudge. Yes, I think women are capable of taking responsibility, but you have to realize that in our current life situation, consequences are not dire. so people in general may be a bit weak in that area.

          • Janos Skorenzy September 24, 2017 at 2:10 pm #

            Remember, an author is not his characters. But sometimes he is.

            We don’t know.

  52. volodya September 23, 2017 at 2:28 pm #

    Beantown, the thing about the dollar; what we had was a confluence of events and circumstances that led up to the greenback as the go-to currency. But times change and circumstances never stay static. Once upon a time Britannia ruled the waves and it was the British pound that reigned supreme. No more. So it will be with the dollar.

    • capt spaulding September 23, 2017 at 4:33 pm #

      Perhaps the world will develop a yen for Chinese money.

      • capt spaulding September 23, 2017 at 4:34 pm #

        I know, I know, it’s the ren min bei, but it was too good to pass up.

    • elysianfield September 23, 2017 at 6:27 pm #

      “Once upon a time Britannia ruled the waves and it was the British pound that reigned supreme. No more. So it will be with the dollar.”

      Volodya

      I recall reading that, after WWII(1945-6) our staunchest ally Great Britain was “on its fiscal ass”, and needed a loan of approx. 1 Billion Dollars…We gave the loan to them on condition that they divest themselves of their colonies, and that the dollar would take the place of the Pound as a reserve currency. It was a “long stroking”* of epic proportion, and an object lesson to those that believe in empathy and fair-play among nations. It would seem to most that a loan without pre-condition would have been the order of the day.

      “If you want a friend in this town…get a dog….” seems to apply also in geopolitics.

      *The taking of advantage in an untoward manner.

      • DA September 23, 2017 at 6:50 pm #

        LOL! WWII was the greatest extortion opportunity in modern history. Credit where credit is due: US capitalists saw the opportunity and seized it BIG TIME! And we’re all STILL paying the freight all these many years later.

      • Sean Coleman September 24, 2017 at 5:09 pm #

        Yes. And economist Michael Hudson points out that the US demanded repayment in full of loans to their gallant pre-1917 WWI allies at commercial interest rates.

  53. FincaInTheMountains September 23, 2017 at 5:20 pm #

    Manul. The cat that conquered time

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vwfI7w2Lmc

    • DA September 23, 2017 at 6:45 pm #

      So, just where in the hell has our janet been lately? Word on the street has it – and please don’t repeat this – that she gave Thwack the cold shoulder (Too beaucoup! Too beaucoup!) and took up with Janos. Said something about “size doesn’t really matter,” or some such shit. Women! Go figure! They’re an enigma!

      • sophia September 23, 2017 at 10:01 pm #

        Maybe she lives in Florida. Or Puerto Rico.

      • elysianfield September 23, 2017 at 11:44 pm #

        “Too beaucoup! Too beaucoup!”

        Nice FMJ reference…,

        • DA September 24, 2017 at 9:35 am #

          Thanks. I wondered if anyone would get that.

  54. FincaInTheMountains September 23, 2017 at 7:42 pm #

    British and the Americans feared the communist Russians at least as much as they did the defeated Germans

    As History proved many times, they feared Orthodox Russians, communism – in essence the Western Red Project that descended on Russia in 1917 – was just an excuse.

  55. ozone September 23, 2017 at 8:33 pm #

    Apologies in advance for this little bit of futile pissing into the wind —

    I’m still wondering who ceded “this very site” to Fincky O’Blather and his endless speculations on the wretched machinations of the stinking pile o’ death that was known as “WW2, The Big One”.

    As others have said before: Git yer own blog, you hog. If it’s even mildly informative, incisive or entertaining, they will come… or not; we don’t really care; time and space (haha) are in shorter and shorter supply (along with patience and attention spans) as the weeks roll quickly by.

    Go right ahead pretended “free-speechers”, take offense; just letting you know that some of us tire of this constant off-topic drivel and wildly non-germane speculation. If it were that important or intriguing, “the internet community” would support these pearls… of something or other. Instead it’s a crass (and frankly, rude) co-opting of someone else’s bought-and-paid-for site for purposes of forwarding someone’s own agenda and self-aggrandizement.

    Sorry if I find such behavior disrespectful and distasteful, but that’s how I was raised. Perhaps such sentiments are foreign to some folks’ cultural/familial standards; at least that would be some slim excuse.

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    • sophia September 23, 2017 at 10:04 pm #

      It is not a free speech issue and could be a legitimate complaint, but why not just skip his posts?

    • Janos Skorenzy September 23, 2017 at 10:17 pm #

      I’m with you in spirit, Pete. But we do have that horrible thing called the First Amendment. To use your lingo: The Freedom to run yer mouth.

      • FincaInTheMountains September 23, 2017 at 10:33 pm #

        look who’s talking…

        • Janos Skorenzy September 24, 2017 at 2:10 am #

          How come you guys don’t have “Easterns” to match our “Westerns”? The Cossacks were Freedom loving Men! Look how they defeated the Mongols – and humbled Poland’s Jewish Thugs in the Ukraine.

  56. janet September 23, 2017 at 9:02 pm #

    “I’m still wondering who ceded “this very site” to Fincky O’Blather and his endless speculations on the wretched machinations of the stinking pile o’ death that was known as “WW2, The Big One”” –ozone

    My guess is Finky is a Russian propaganda bot because the translations from original Russian are awkwardly translated with errors similar to those of machine translations. I agree they are off-topic and clutter Jim’s excellent blog. Many good posts today.

    Janet, in Cruces, searching for DA who misses me so much…LOL

    • DA September 24, 2017 at 9:37 am #

      Cruces? No kidding?

  57. BackRowHeckler September 23, 2017 at 9:38 pm #

    I have a Jamaican friend who worked at the islands main power plant in Kingston, Kingston Town as he calls it. He told me the British built it but now its all falling apart due to poor maintenance, lack of investment, sabotage, no spare parts etc. “Marlin, we have brownouts everyday, sometime even total blackouts”.

    All the trained engineers, like himself, have left the island. He told me who you are related to determines whether or not you can get a job at the main power station in Jamaica. It doesn’t matter if you know anything.

    Incidentally, the plant is powered up by oil, brought in by ship.

    brh

  58. Buck Stud September 23, 2017 at 11:03 pm #

    It might not be a mental health issue if a man is a recluse/loner. Indeed, he/they might be a closet homosexual or hopelessly impotent and so they instead masquerade as ‘loners’ in order to “save face” even though the face they save is rarely seen. Irony abounds

    Myself, even though I am constantly seeking out solace I always seem to run into somebody. About six months ago, a very vivacious new age type redhead came strolling up to me off the beaten path in order to observe my painting. By the time the conversation had ended five minutes later she had given me her phone number and told me she would like to give me a free ‘psychic’ reading because she felt a deep connection to me. Later on when I had moved along from my painting spot, I spotted her trying to spot me from afar at where I was originally painting, unaware that I was now watching her and enjoying my ego elevate in the process.

    That night I thought a lot about the smell of her slutty perfume that reminded me of an encounter back when I was in my late teens.

    More recently, and when I was in the mood to paint some brightly colored houses/architecture, another woman strolled up to me and again asked me about my painting and divulged that she also use to be a painter before her corporate business career dominated all of her time and energy. She then informed of her second and third homes in a way which was all about revealing her wealth, which I later learned was extraordinary indeed. She also told me she was retired and I responded somewhat aghast: “You’re too young to be retired!” Of course, this remark brought a big smile to her face.

    Not two minutes after I left and I had a friend request and personal message telling me how nice it was to meet. As it stands now, I am going to do a painting commission of her Victorian house when she returns from Europe. She didn’t want me to start until she returns because she wants to observe the process in person as I paint.

    Maybe it’s my friendly demeanor and knowledge of art which these women found captivating, but who can say for sure.

    In the future, and even though I look somewhat disheveled in my painting outfit, I should probably refrain from taking off my hat and revealing a head of hair that might be described in the same manner that a GQ writer described Jeff Bridges’ hair: “Leonine”.

    If I want to be left alone, that is.

    • Buck Stud September 23, 2017 at 11:18 pm #

      Solitude not solace–stupid device.

      For those less experienced–Janos grab a pen and paper.

      When a women eagerly reveals her wealth to you she is either red hot for you or about to embark in a game that can never be won:

      ” You only want me for my money and I can never be sure otherwise.”

      Unfortunately there is often no way to know in advance if it’s the former or latter. If the latter turn away and never look back–ever.

      • BackRowHeckler September 23, 2017 at 11:21 pm #

        Buck, it sounds like you’ll be laying more than serious paint in that Victorian manse.

        I’m thinking, before the night is thru, you’ll be laying down some serious pipe!

        brh

      • Janos Skorenzy September 24, 2017 at 1:58 am #

        Are they better preserved than Susan Sarandon? I hope so for your sake. Or perhaps you don’t care about such things. As Somerset Maugham said, he was often amazed at the low standards of sexual libertines like Frank Harris. In any case, I don’t envy you having such sloppy “work”. But being able to pick up women while doing what you love and then make money at it with them – that’s priceless.

        • Janos Skorenzy September 24, 2017 at 2:00 am #

          If she is hot for you, how does that rule out option two from developing later? Assuming you’re open to the possibility of a relationship developing.

  59. BackRowHeckler September 23, 2017 at 11:28 pm #

    Down at Yale snowflake undergrad SJWs are popping corks and giving toasts right about now, oh yeah!

    Earlier today two police officers were shot in New Haven.

    Just last week a professor at John Jay school (of all places) in NYC said he was proud to be teaching future dead cops.

    I wonder if he is proud tonite?

    All that protesting in St Louis this past week was over a heroin dealer who led police on a reckless high speed chase, then pulled a revolver when cops caught up with him. It is this exemplary human being that lefty street warriors are smashing up St Louis over.

    brh

  60. FincaInTheMountains September 24, 2017 at 1:17 am #

    You f-ckers would’ve been wiped out before you set one toe on Alaskan soil, just one toe. == brh

    Used to easy-shmeasy victories over the Papuans with banana-guns, ha?

    Forgot what it means to run against the real soldiers with real toys?

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    • FincaInTheMountains September 24, 2017 at 7:54 am #

      But, of course, you still could beat those guys (even a monkey could do it):

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03bQB2vkx9g

    • elysianfield September 24, 2017 at 4:04 pm #

      “Forgot what it means to run against the real soldiers with real toys?”

      Finc,
      Yes, it has been years since we had a peer to peer conflict…us against 10,000 Bayonets, as you opine. No one argues the Russians as anything but hard people, given often to privation and adversity.

      Who might prevail is, however, a never ending argument, one without resolution. Circumstances, however can be factored into advantages of one side or the other. We obviously cannot defeat the Russian “Hordes” in Europe, or Asia, without nuclear weapons…the 10,000 bayonets would not fare well in the wastes of Alaska/Canada in similar circumstances….

  61. FincaInTheMountains September 24, 2017 at 1:53 am #

    And incidentally, we kicked your ass at MIG alley == brh

    The Black Thursday of American Air Force in North Korea

    Devastation

    The fact is that the main reason for the initial defeat of the North Korean army was the bombing aviation of the “UN forces”, which used a tactic “to bomb into the stone age.” As soon as Soviet pilots appeared in the skies of Korea, the course of hostilities changed abruptly.

    Of course, this was a common effort – Soviet fighters who chased the US bombers, and China, which supplied Kim Il Sung with volunteers and military assistance.

    “Black Thursday” is connected with military assistance. Its supplies were delivered to Korea by a railway bridge across the border river Yaluqiang. The destruction of the bridge meant the cessation of the supply of arms and ammunition.

    On April 12, 1951, 48 B-29s were sent to the bridge, under the cover of F-80, F-84, F-86 – about 150 fighters.

    To intercept this armada, the famous Soviet ace Ivan Kozhedub picked up everything he had: 36 MiG-15 fighters of his division (according to other sources, there was still a couple on duty at the airport), which was only transferred to Korea in early April.

    It should be noted that the attack was not at all suicidal. Only the F-86 could compete with MiGs on equal terms, with the rest Russian pilots got involved even with a 10-fold advantage of the enemy – thanks to the military experience of the pilots and the advantages of the MiGs in the armament and speed.

    The word “devastation” best describes the events of that day. American losses amounted to 12 B-29 and 5 fighter aircraft. About 100 American pilots and shooters (crew B-29 – 12 people) were captured. The bridge survived.

  62. Janos Skorenzy September 24, 2017 at 2:21 am #

    Kirk asked, Are they Archons?

    There can be no viable State, be it a Monarchy or a Republic, without Men who embody the essence of the Culture in their being, and by so doing, unite the Public and Private spheres. Without Archons or if the Archons are thrown down or constrained, the Democrats will then take over and from there, rule by the Mob and those behind the Mob is only a matter of time.

    From the wiki “Ephialtes”

    Attack on the Areopagus[edit]

    At about this time, Ephialtes and his political allies began attacking the Areopagus, a council composed of former archons which was a traditionally conservative force. According to Aristotle and some modern historians, Athens had, since about 470 BC, been governed under an informal “Areopagite constitution”, under the leadership of Cimon.[6] The Areopagus had already been losing prestige ever since 486 BC, since when archons were selected by lot. Ephialtes accelerated this process by prosecuting certain members for maladministration.[7] Having thus weakened the prestige of the council, Ephialtes proposed and had passed in the popular assembly, a sweeping series of reforms which divided up the powers traditionally wielded by the Areopagus among the democratic council of the Boule, the ekklesia itself, and the popular courts. Ephialtes took away from the Areopagus their “additional powers, through which it had guardianship of the constitution.” The Areopagus merely remained a high court, in control of judging charges of murder and some religious matters. Some historians have argued that Cimon and his hoplites were still in the Peloponnese at the time of this proposal,[8] while others have argued that the proposal followed his return.[9] Those who place the proposals during Cimon’s absence suggest that he attempted to overturn them on his return, while those who believe he was present at the proposal believe that he opposed them in the initial debate. All agree that his resistance was doomed to failure by the fact that his hoplite force had just been rudely dismissed by the Spartans, an action which demolished the political standing of Cimon and other pro-Spartan Athenians.[10]

  63. FincaInTheMountains September 24, 2017 at 8:27 am #

    Was AK47 “lifted” from German StG-44?

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:StG_44

    I shot a little from both Schmeisser and Kalashnikov, and believe me Stg-44 is more similar to M-16 than to AK-47. AK-47 is a purely Russian weapon, the genius of which consists in the correct combination of tolerances.

    And in the Schmeisser and the M-16, the ordnung is just everywhere and spoils everything. Parts are too well fit against each other and it is this accuracy that causes when the dust particle gets into the mechanism, this mechanism gets stuck.

    And you just kick Kalash with the heel of your boot, and the dust particle cracks and Kalash is ready to shoot again.

    https://scontent-ort2-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/21687696_10211856015808650_6119308215919053084_n.jpg?oh=816c6a504c2fc6e9a01e772fae9dc4d4&oe=5A400053

    • FincaInTheMountains September 24, 2017 at 1:07 pm #

      How to kill AK47

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtFhfwrsWy4

    • elysianfield September 24, 2017 at 4:07 pm #

      Finc,
      What was lifted from the StG 44 was the cartridge design….The 8mm Kurtz round became the 7.62X39.

  64. DA September 24, 2017 at 10:00 am #

    Interesting thoughts in this excerpt from Dimitry Orlov’s latest Patreon post (behind a donation wall), which focuses on linguistics:

    http://cluborlov.blogspot.com/2017/09/arise-you-prisoners-of-semantics-part-3.html

    “But now, in English, we face assaults on gender, with some people demanding that “he” and “she” be eschewed and replaced by “they” or the synthetic new “ze.” At the same time, “who/whom” is being erased and replaced with “who,” which in turn is being replaced with “that.” Please don’t think me a conspiracy theorist, but I think that this is all going according to plan, which is to replace us all with machines. As I wrote in Shrinking the Technosphere,

    “Perhaps the technosphere would prefer it if everyone were vaguely androgynous and sexually ambiguous, with meek, effete, ladylike men and women who are essentially emasculated men? After all, all today’s men and women are ever required to do is push buttons and follow written instructions (until such time when they are duly replaced by algorithms and robots), and they can do these things well enough even if they are entirely unsexed. On the other hand why not indulge their sexual fantasies, no matter how perverse and bizarre?”

    The easiest way to convince us to surrender to machines is to make us love them. Since machines are sexless, and therefore genderless, gender must be destroyed. But there is a remaining unsettling feeling attached to their inanimacy. Thus, animacy must be destroyed too. Consider the sentence “It loves her.”* This feels wrong, doesn’t it; inanimate objects aren’t supposed to love. But now consider “It loves zer.” Is it wrong? Who cares! That’s like “X loves Z”—some arbitrary transitive verb involving a couple of mathematical symbols.”

    • capt spaulding September 24, 2017 at 11:10 am #

      If you are gonna have sex with a machine, make sure to wear a washer.

      • pequiste September 24, 2017 at 4:23 pm #

        And don’t forget some Singer Sewing Machine Oil to replace the old KY. A light lubricant that the ladies used to be used to — well maybe once again?

        Some nuts are on tighter than others you know.

  65. Janos Skorenzy September 24, 2017 at 2:22 pm #

    A couple of weeks ago I was listening to a news account on the radio about people being evacuated into shelters in advance of hurricane Harvey. In this account, the lady newscaster referred to “people bringing their partners and their children” into the shelter.

    Now, everyone who has been paying attention knows that for quite some time, the chosen vernacular for homosexuals to refer to their romantic interests was “partner.” So the term denoted a homosexual relationship. But this particular usage took the term to the next level — where the term refers to all sorts of different relationships without distinction.

    Now, let’s talk compost.

    Anyone who has done much gardening knows the value of compost because it is truly amazing stuff, holding nutrients in a biological matrix that will enrich soil and protect plants in myriad ways. But how is it made?

    I could certainly go into lots of technical details, but the gist is that anything that was once alive, decomposes. Compost is the decomposed remains of things that were once alive. When you make compost, you can combine excrement, old animal carcasses, sawdust, old leaves, scraping from dinner plates, grass clippings and all sorts of stuff. As it all decomposes and melds together, you will know your compost is done when it looks uniform and you can no longer distinguish what it was made from.

    Life is a force that runs contrary to entropy. Evolution of attributes such as high intelligence is also a force that runs contrary to entropy. Traditions that allow for the building of advanced civilizations — such as patriarchy and monogamy — run contrary to entropy.

    Although entropy has many ways of being expressed scientifically, the gist is that everything has a tendency to move to the lowest possible energy state. Grass growing in my lawn is in a high energy state, whereas grass clippings in compost are in a low energy state. Ultimately, entropy returns us to the primordial ooze from which we came. Entropy is how your partner, mixed with sawdust, can become indistinguishable from chicken manure and grass clippings after about six months.

    “Partners” are compost.

    Although many modern leftists are guided to serve ends of global elites, at its core, modern leftism is violent advocacy for a surrender to entropy.

    We see this in the cult of equalism, in which Sir Isaac Newton is not distinguished from an illiterate savage, or in which women are imagined to be as capable as men in combat. We see this in the endless attempts to explain away differences between peoples in terms of “privilege” and the absolute denial of provable biological realities — while at the same time undertaking everything possible to harm or even extinct those most capable of saving them from their folly.

    Leftist language follows certain patterns, and one of them is that it never adds specificity, certitude or distinction. Instead, it always subtracts details, resulting in less information so that distinctions disappear until an amorphous meaningless blob.

    This is what the lady newscaster was doing.

    A husband means something. We understand, viscerally, what a husband is and what makes a husband different from anybody else on earth. A wife is also someone with unique defining attributes and certain expectations and powers, so a wife means something.

    Husbands and wives have a certain type of relationship that is unique, important and unlike other relationships.

    There is a difference as well between people who are married, and people who are not. There is a very important difference in the level of commitment, the stability and longevity of that relationship, its suitability for giving children a good environment and the fact that these sorts of relationships are in large measure what makes the difference between living in a place with running water, and living in a mud hut.

    And there is also a difference between heterosexual and homosexual relationships. The average heterosexual man has 6 sex partners in his life, whereas the average homosexual man has more than that in just six months. Although infidelity is an unfortunate fact of life, it is still considered a problem in heterosexual marriages, whereas it is practically an expectation within homosexual marriages. Heterosexual marriages by and large raise healthy well-adjusted children, while lesbian couples have abused male children by using medications to castrate them.

    So there are some big differences here. And all those differences just magically disappear with “partners.”

    “Partners” is a surrender to entropy. It is a pathogenic drive for the destruction of civilization and it is anti-life. It is the reduction of vibrant and important differences to such a low energy state that it is indistinguishable from chicken manure and grass

    How to Compost your Partner by John Young

    Janos: Yes, the loss of information and meaning is stunning. Ozone’s(an intellectual who hates intellectuals) thought is full of just such reductionism. He’s not a Sudra or Worker, but rather a Kali Yuga intellectual who has lost his high estate; traded it in for a mess of pottage. But he’s hardly alone. Most here are in the same boat and almost everyone everywhere to some degree. If you think that an anus is the same as a vagina, (hey both convenient holes, right?), then you are a most profound reductionist, eager to turn our Culture into shit.

    In Ozone’s defense, he has never said that Whites need to commit mass suicide. But any attempt to distinguish ourselves or defend our uniqueness will provoke his rage. That’s not being humble or humus (earth). Thus his policies insure our eventual extinction as we sink into the dark humus of common humanity or are conquered by more virile peoples and cultures who still believe in themselves. So in the end, it’s not a difference that makes such a big difference. But at least he doesn’t hate – unlike Da – he just doesn’t love.

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  66. pequiste September 24, 2017 at 5:14 pm #

    Overheard at a Boca Raton soiree:

    Some of the really Big Boyz from Wall Street; the usual suspects – Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan Chase, Citibank and some lesser-known but still loaded-with-lucre firms coupled with some of the still solvent European Banques are going to make the Federal government such a deal.

    They are going to manage to buy lock, stock and barrel the entire fucking island of Puerto Rico!

    And the best part is they are going to have Janet Yellen and Sergio Draghi magically make,up-front, the cash and bonds needed to make the deal.

    Yep, a distinguished Swiss third-party agent is going to make an appointment in the near future with President Donald J. Trump and let him in on the real estate deal of the millennium. The principle’s smooth agent tells The Donald how the Syndicate will take the former island paradise – now a destroyed, mosquito-infested bankrupt, powerless shithole, off of the U.S. hands for a mighty princely sum; paying off the debt, ensuring the infrastructure gets rebuilt and that the inhabitants will have work. The best part, according to the elegant agent, is that the President will get to pick 10,000 hectacres of the primest oceanfront or mountain real estate, to be held in fee simple for perpetuity for his family after his presidency….all for the sum of $1.00. Wow.

    And like Napoleon and the Louisiana Purchase back in 1803 or Sewards Folly with the great state of Alaska, the U.S.A. will sell the territory of Puerto Rico to the Syndicate of Syndicates who shall then ship 90% of the inhabitants to Bill DeBlasio and Andy Cuomo in New York, and Spanish friendly states includingTexas, Florida and California. No problemo with passports or any paperwork like that with the new refugees as they are already Americanos.

    The incentive is free airfare for the entire famillia with housing provided by section 8 housing vouchers by the generous Gringo taxpayers. The Syndicate will be issuing a check to each emigree family, upon arrival in the U.S.A. to the tune of $50,000 smackers. Remember the Federal Reserve has the back of the Syndicate so no worries about the freight charges here . Special arrangements made with airlines and cruise ship lines to entice a swift departure to the mainland with brochures with heaping plates of pollo con arroz, cold cervezas and air conditioning beckon the weather weary.

    As for the 10% of the population who will stay – they will staff and operate the Goya Foods and Bacardi factories as well as the plantations, hotels, brothels and palaces of the new citizens of the place who will have, by secret shareholder vote prior to the acquisition, by changing the name of the former U.S. territory to something a bit less Hispanic and more to the liking of the new ownership:” New Rothschildia” being the name on every tongue at Mizner Park.

    Docking for 500 ft yachts and airports for the latest private jets will be built to order; protected by a mercenary army, naval and air forces. The very best that money can buy. All with a pre-approved codicil for a mutual defence treaty with the U.S.A. NATO and Israel.

    A limited exclusive demographic with habituees of the Hamptons, Gstaad, silicon Valley, London, Texas Oil Patch and Washington D.C. is being considered for citizenship. If you have to ask how much it is you cannot afford it.

    Yes, sirree bob. that answers the question JHK profers this week. “Who’s going to pay for this?”
    A simple buyout. (Courtesy of the Evil-FUckers-In-Charge.)

    • pequiste September 24, 2017 at 5:28 pm #

      Sorry, not a codicil (which is for a will) but an addendum to a treaty.

      NY State can’t wait: https://www.governor.ny.gov/

  67. sophia September 24, 2017 at 6:17 pm #

    Janos,

    “Thank you. Only you and I are sane. And I often have doubts about you.”

    Likewise, I’m sure.

    Is it possible for a nonmoral being to be sane? Hmm. I suppose so.

    I wonder about you as well. What about that witches hammer book? Were you serious about calling the authors compassionate?

    I spent a bit of time at Jim’s advice looking into MGTOW. While I for the most part agree that it’s probably the right tack, I have noted in the past that birds of a feather flock together. Souls of relative immaturity attract similar, and are in fact largely NOT attracted to more mature souls. So I see a lot of the complaints these men make, and while they are very often valid, I also see the kind of women and the kind of situations where they meet these women, and I know what kind of women they are. The only reason I know their type, is that I sometimes might work with them.

    In my personal life, I don’t spend much time with such people. They just don’t happen to me. I never fight with my friends, and if I did it would probably quietly end the friendship. I don’t do drama.

    I’ve dated plenty of men and never once did I come close to a situation where they might hit me or I was afraid of them. One or two made me a bit uncomfortable. There are all kinds of men who are mess ups. Since I believe in reincarnation, it is apparent that we are all in our own trajectories, and some women are very responsible and kind and reasonably honest, despite the fact that on an animal level, it is true that women seek resources and men seek sex and service. So, what I’m saying is that while these MGTOW men often nail things down pretty accurately, what they don’t see is the log in their own eye.
    Now that sounds like I am saying it always takes two to tango. I’m not saying that at all. Maybe there are not enough good women to go around. Maybe they are a small minority. But I think some of these rather good guys don’t have good judgment of character.

    • Janos Skorenzy September 24, 2017 at 6:51 pm #

      Well there’s truth in that. Out of the raw material of the World, we all create our little worlds, which tend to perpetuate themselves whether we will or not. And that’s karma indeed. But the greater World is still there, along with its Law. And the glorification of Women has been a huge project for centuries. It will take time for it to stop or be railed, and to be pushed back to something resembling normal.

      Do you want a man who is your height, shorter, or taller? The latter.
      Do you want a man who has as much money as you, less, or more? The latter. Woman is not in Monogamous, but Hypergamous. Exceptions none? No, just few.

      • sophia September 24, 2017 at 10:38 pm #

        Actually, I couldn’t find an explanation of hypergamy. It means looking for a man better than oneself?

        • Janos Skorenzy September 25, 2017 at 1:26 am #

          “I have the simplest tastes. I’m always satisfied with the best.”

          Oscar Wilde

          So if someone better comes along, honey suddenly wants to get on with her life. Eat, Pray, Love. Kids? Suddenly they’re hers not ours. Serial Monogamy in other words.

          Better than herself? Well more money, taller, and stronger. She doesn’t want a man who looks better than her in her slip. But better than any other man in her purview? Oh yes.

      • GreenAlba September 26, 2017 at 12:49 pm #

        ‘Do you want a man who is your height, shorter, or taller? The latter.
        Do you want a man who has as much money as you, less, or more? The latter. Woman is not in Monogamous, but Hypergamous. Exceptions none? No, just few.’

        Let’s leave aside that the last option of three is ‘the last’, not ‘the latter’, which refers only to the second of two – you’re welcome :-).

        In a world where 60% of males cheat on their wives when someone better looking comes along (in the reverse direction it’s 40%), I think maybe you need to get your priorities right.

        I’ve been married twice. The first time I was young and married someone who turned out to be a useless and self-centred husband and father. If he’d even been a decent father I’d have made the sacrifice and forced myself to stay. However, I chose to get on and bring my children up on my own – they are now productive and honest members of society. Hypergamy was not involved – I chose to give my children the stability for which they are now thankful by putting my personal needs on the back burner until they were grown up. That took over a decade of complete independence and hard work.

        I am now remarried, but when my current husband (then ‘partner’, that concept that bothers you so much!) moved into my house he had just been declared bankrupt due to a failed business venture (he is a professional and has since recovered but we still live in my home). He had nothing but the clothes he stood up in, as his lovely apartment and its contents went to the receiver. His pension savings went the same way, so the effects will also be felt when we retire.

        Some of us marry for love, and we leave when that love is not properly reciprocated, not because someone better comes along. Most people I know are like that, but I suppose like attracts like and you do seem to move in very bitter circles, which probably explains your horrendous political views as well.

  68. sophia September 24, 2017 at 6:51 pm #

    My question to the global warming believers :

    What do you think is the right level of CO2 in the atmosphere?

    (to be followed up with further questions should you answer)

    • elysianfield September 24, 2017 at 8:53 pm #

      Sophia
      That level, and no higher(nor lower), that maintains a viable climate. This may sound a dodge…but current climate modeling is such that the true figure can only be speculated upon. …Speculated upon by the learned and respected, but speculation still….

      • sophia September 24, 2017 at 10:40 pm #

        Hmm, that was unexpected. It sounds like you’re saying we have no idea what an ideal level might be, and if so, why are we obsessing over a little rise?

        Well, the hour is late but it would be interesting to continue.

    • GreenAlba September 26, 2017 at 12:18 pm #

      ‘My question to the global warming believers :

      What do you think is the right level of CO2 in the atmosphere?’

      That’s a very odd question, since those who accept the science of climate change are not religious believers but just people educated enough to accept the evidence of science (produced by even more educated people). It makes not a whit of difference to the climate whether you think climate change is a matter of conjecture or science – the changes that are under way will continue their course no matter how much you wish it were about nothing more than faith or personal choice.

      You could be helping, though, instead of obstructing. Future generations will not thank you for your prevarication.

      To answer your question, the ‘right’ level of CO2 in the atmosphere would be within the range that has allowed the human race to survive and thrive thus far. ‘Wrong’ levels, from a human point of view, would be beyond that range, i.e. where we are heading, with the blessing of your ‘president’, who wouldn’t know ‘evidence’ if it fell in his soup.

  69. BackRowHeckler September 24, 2017 at 9:02 pm #

    Meanwhile, ‘In the Community’, aka ‘da hood’, 6 shot in Hartford this weekend, 4 shot in New Haven including 2 police officers.

    It was an unusually warm weekend here in southern New England, I’ll give you that. In the city, this heat gets the blood boiling and the trigger finger itchy.

    ‘Taking the knee’! The NFL, what is it really but a venue for expensive advertising, hawking junk we don’t need and can live without? F=ck em, I hope they go down.

    brh

  70. BackRowHeckler September 24, 2017 at 9:40 pm #

    So far, it looks like this church shooting in Nashville is being covered by the media a little differently than the church shooting in Charleston a few years ago.

    I wonder what the difference is? It bears some looking into.

    brh

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  71. sophia September 24, 2017 at 10:42 pm #

    Sigh. Civil war, race war being relentlessly promoted and why? The relations between the races has never been better but now the masses are being convinced otherwise, and if they are slow to be convinced, a few dead bodies should do the trick.

  72. Q. Shtik September 25, 2017 at 12:14 am #

    While on the blog this evening I had the Sunday night pro football game on TV in the background, muted… no idea who was playing or who won but when I looked up at the end I un-muted to hear the female reporter interviewing a few players from the winning team.

    One was this very polite black guy who was just overwhelmed with the wonderfulness of his team’s performance and all the various individual player’s performances. He even praised the coach’s play ‘collin’. As he spoke his head slowly and continuously made the ‘no’ motion as an emphasizer of the truth of what he was saying.

    There was also footage of the earlier anthem protest and counter protest. I am conflicted on this issue. I favor free speech but does that really mean the NFL and the sponsors must provide a paid-for platform for the protesters? I say, take a knee in the parking lot before you climb behind the wheel of your Bentley for the drive home.

    • BackRowHeckler September 25, 2017 at 12:28 am #

      Free speech, ok.

      But what about boorish speech, Ken? Must we tolerate that, too?

      brh

    • DA September 25, 2017 at 6:26 am #

      I agree on the anthem issue WQ, but it looks like Trump really stepped in the dog’s business again on this one. Maybe he even thinks there’s some sort of strategic political advantage to be gained by doing so? Who the hell knows anymore!

    • elysianfield September 25, 2017 at 11:22 am #

      Q,
      Free speech means what is said is allowed to be said…not that we have to like it….

      • Q. Shtik September 25, 2017 at 11:08 pm #

        Nowhere do I say anything about liking or not liking what anyone said. I simply don’t think platforms must be provided by others at others expense. Protest on your own dime.

        • GreenAlba September 26, 2017 at 12:27 pm #

          ‘Nowhere do I say anything about liking or not liking what anyone said. I simply don’t think platforms must be provided by others at others expense. Protest on your own dime.’

          Not being from your country, but finding the state of race relations there extremely disturbing, my first sympathies are with those minority Americans who are treated with extreme brutality by your police officers – the police are discriminating using your dime and in your name. To me, that is a much bigger concern.

          On the other hand and in a totally context-free definition, I agree with the point about free speech not meaning that you can say what you want just anywhere (so, for example, our host could choose to delete posts written by actual fascists, and not be limiting anyone’s free speech, because it’s his platform.

          I’m very fond of the definition below 🙂

          https://xkcd.com/1357/

  73. FincaInTheMountains September 25, 2017 at 7:09 am #

    The main news of Europe became the resuscitation of the history of the Fourth Crusade, seemingly buried under the eight centuries of propaganda.

    Apparently, many have the impression that I associate the Western Black Project with the Germans and Germany as the main anti-Christian force in Europe. In fact, this is not so – I associate the Western Black Project with the Carolingian Dynasty and the Teutonic Order, the first victim of which became Orthodox Germans subjects of Merovingians, descendants of Frank King Clovis, who was baptized in 498.

    Which made the Franks the only Orthodox nation in continental Europe at the time, but the Christianizers of Europe were not the Franks, but the Irish, who were baptized by St. Patrick 50 years earlier. And it happened because the Irish did not conquer Europe, but sent out missionaries who baptized different European Nations, including the Vikings, the great civilizers who created the great Western European civilization.

    And the anti-Normanists in Russia are actually obscurantists who deny the connection to the Western European culture, which in its basis was Orthodox, and the more they tear Russia’s connection with Western Europe in what it was really great, the more they become slaves of the West-European vileness.

    This is evident from the shameful story with Russian movies “Viking” and “Matilda”, and from the referendum scheduled for October 1 in Catalonia and to election in Germany that decides nothing.

    Meanwhile, preparations for a referendum in Catalonia show that if Nations like people have their own providential destiny, which can be understood from history, then this history and this fate began to emerge from the depths, despite centuries of lies.

    First of all, Catalonia, according to one of the legends, was created by the Alans, whom Maxim the Confessor himself baptized in the Caucasus and who quite possibly are the ancestors of those same Slavs who from unknown sources appeared on the Russian Plain in the 6th century.

    And the history of the Christianization of Gotlandia (Catalonia) is most directly connected with the year 862, when the Russian state was founded, and Saint Ansgar baptized the king of Jutland Horik II. And all the historiography of the Berlin Hegelians, which became the basis of both Russian liberalism and Russian obscurantism, collapses like a house of cards at a glance at the cross of St. Ansgar, as it is a Celtic cross.

    And in preparation for the referendum, a rather large role was played by the fact that Aragon was one of the victims of the Albigensian crusade, for which the Aragonese avenged in 1282 during the Sicilian Vespers, which was a joint operation of the Aragon, British and Byzantine intelligence services.

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