SPONSOR

Vaulted Invest in Gold

Visit this blog’s sponsor. Vaulted is an online mobile web app for investing in allocated and deliverable physical gold: Kunstler.com/vaulted


 

Support JHK on Patreon

 

If you’re interested in supporting this blog, check out the Patreon page or Substack.
 
Get This blog by email:

Attention Movie Producers!
JHK’s screenplay in hard-copy edition

Click to order!

A Too-Big-To-Fail Bankster…
Three Teenagers who bring him down…
Gothic doings on a Connecticut Estate.
High velocity drama!


Now Live on Amazon

“Simply the best novel of the 1960s”


Now in Paperback !
Only Seven Bucks!
JHK’s Three-Act Play
A log mansion in the Adirondack Mountains…
A big family on the run…
A nation in peril…


Long Emergency Cafe Press ad 2

Get your Official JHK swag on Cafe Press


The fourth and final book of the World Made By Hand series.

Harrow_cover_final

Battenkill Books (autographed by the Author) |  Northshire Books Amazon


emb of Riches Thumbnail

JHK’s lost classic now reprinted as an e-book
Kindle edition only


 

Clusterfuck Nation
For your reading pleasure Mondays and Fridays

Support this blog by visiting Jim’s Patreon Page


As of this week, the shale oil miracle launched US oil production above the 1970 previous-all-time record at just over ten million barrels a day. Techno-rapturists are celebrating what seems to be a blindingly bright new golden age of energy greatness. Independent oil analyst Art Berman, who made the podcast rounds the last two weeks, put it in more reality-accessible terms: “Shale is a retirement party for the oil industry.”

It was an impressive stunt and it had everything to do with the reality-optional world of bizarro finance that emerged from the wreckage of the 2008 Great Financial Crisis. In fact, a look the chart below shows how exactly the rise of shale oil production took off after that milestone year of the long emergency. Around that time, US oil production had sunk below five million barrels a day, and since we were burning through around twenty million barrels a day, the rest had to be imported.

Chart by Steve St. Angelo at www.srsroccoreport.com

In June of 2008, US crude hit $144-a-barrel, a figure so harsh that it crippled economic activity — since just about everything we do depends on oil for making, enabling, and transporting stuff. The price and supply of oil became so problematic after the year 2000 that the US had to desperately engineer a work-around to keep this hyper-complex society operating. The “solution” was debt. If you can’t afford to run your society, then try borrowing from the future to keep your mojo working.

The shale oil industry was a prime beneficiary of this new hyper-debt regime. The orgy of borrowing was primed by Federal Reserve “creation” of trillions of dollars of “capital” out of thin air (QE: Quantitative Easing), along with supernaturally low interest rates on the borrowed money (ZIRP: Zero Interest Rate Policy). The oil companies were desperate in 2008. They were, after all, in the business of producing… oil! (Duh….) — even if a giant company like BP pretended for a while that its initials stood for “Beyond Petroleum.”

The discovery of new oil had been heading down remorselessly for decades, to the point that the world was fatally short of replacing the oil it used every year with new supply. The last significant big fields — Alaska, the North Sea, and Siberia — had been discovered in the 1960s and we knew for sure that the first two were well past their peaks in the early 2000s. By 2005, most of the theoretically producible new oil was in places that were difficult and ultra-expensive to drill in: deep water, for instance, where you need a giant platform costing hundreds of millions of dollars, not to mention armies of highly skilled (highly paid) technicians, plus helicopters to service the rigs. The financial risk (for instance, of drilling a “dry hole”) was matched by the environmental risk of a blowout, which is exactly what happened to BP’s 2010 Deepwater Horizon platform in the Gulf of Mexico, with clean-up costs estimated at $61 billion.

Technology — that El Dorado of the Mind — rode to the rescue with horizontal drilling and fracturing of ”tight” oil-bearing shale rock. It was tight because of low permeability, meaning the oil didn’t flow through it the way it flowed through normal oil-bearing rocks like sandstone. You had to sink a pipe down, angle it horizontally into a strata of shale only a few meters thick, and then blast it apart with water under pressure and particles of sand or ceramic called propants, the job of which was to hold open those fractures so the oil could be sucked out. Well, it worked. The only problem was you couldn’t make any money doing it.

The shale oil companies could get plenty of cash-flow going, but it all went to servicing their bonds or other “innovative” financing schemes, and for many of the companies the cash flow wasn’t even covering those costs. It cost at least six million dollars for each shale well, and it was in the nature of shale oil that the wells depleted so quickly that after Year Three they were pretty much done. But it was something to do, at least, if you were an oil company — an alternative to 1) doing no business at all, or 2) getting into some other line-of-work, like making yoga pants or gluten-free cupcakes.

The two original big shale plays, the Bakken in North Dakota and the Eagle Ford in south Texas, have now apparently peaked and the baton has passed to the Permian Basin in west Texas. If the first two bonanzas were characteristic of shale, we can look forward not very far into the future when the Permian also craps out. There are only so many “sweet spots” in these plays.

The unfortunate part of the story is that the shale oil miracle only made this country more delusional at a moment in history when we really can’t afford to believe in fairy tales. The financial world is just now entering a long overdue crack-up due to the accumulating unreality induced by Federal Reserve interventions and machinations in markets. As it continues to get unglued — with rising interest rates especially —  we will begin to see the collapse of the bonding and financing arrangements that the fundamentally unprofitable shale “miracle” has been based on. And then you will see the end of the shale “miracle.” It is likely to happen very quickly. It was fun while it lasted. Now comes the hard part: getting through this without the nation completely losing its marbles and doing something stupid and desperate — like starting another merry little war.


This blog is sponsored this week by McAlvany ICA. To learn more visit: https://icagoldcompany.com/


New Paintings by JHK 2016 — 2017


Great Winter Reading… JHK’s new book!

“Simply the best novel about the 1960s.”

Read the first chapter here (click) on Patreon

Buy the book at Amazon or click on the cover below

or get autographed copies from Battenkill Books


Other Books by JHK

The World Made By Hand Series:
Book 1:
World Made by Hand
Book 2:
The Witch of Hebron
Buy World Made By Hand Signed and local from Battenkill BooksBuy World Made By Hand on AmazonBuy World Made By Hand at Northshire Books Buy The Witch of Hebron signed and local from Battenkill BooksBuy The Witch of Hebron on AmazonBuy The Witch of Hebron at Northshire Books
Book 3:
A History of the Future
Book 4:
Harrows of Spring
Signed and local from Battenkill BooksAvailable on AmazonAvailable at Northshire Books Signed and local from Battenkill BooksAvailable on AmazonAvailable at Northshire Books
Geography of Nowhere The Long Emergency
Available on Kindle Buy The Long Emergency signed and local from Battenkill BooksBuy The Long Emergency on AmazonBuy The Long Emergency at Northshire Books

Support this blog by visiting Jim’s Patreon Page


This blog is sponsored this week by Vaulted, an online mobile web app for investing in allocated and deliverable physical gold. To learn more visit:Kunstler.com/vaulted


Order now! Jim’s new book
About the tribulations of growing up

Click here for signed author copies from Battenkill Books

Order from Amazon

Order from Barnes and Noble

Order now! Jim’s other new book
A selection of best blogs 2017 to now!

Click here for signed author copies from Battenkill Books

Order from Amazon

Order from Troy Bookmakers


Paintings from the 2023 Season
New Gallery 15


GET THIS BLOG VIA EMAIL PROVIDED BY SUBSTACK

You can receive Clusterfuck Nation posts in your email when you subscribe to this blog via Substack. Financial support is voluntary.

Sign up for emails via https://jameshowardkunstler.substack.com


About James Howard Kunstler

View all posts by James Howard Kunstler
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.

417 Responses to “Party On, Dudes”

  1. thenuttyneutron February 9, 2018 at 9:59 am #

    Now imagine the carnage when the Chinese and Russians bring a gold backed currency to the world stage.

    • hmuller February 9, 2018 at 10:05 am #

      Hope you’re right about that gold currency. But you realize, nutty, no country wants to have a strong currency; it destroys their ability to run a trade surplus.

      • thenuttyneutron February 9, 2018 at 10:12 am #

        What good is a weak currency to China if they can’t buy up the last remaining oil?

        They don’t need a weak currency because their domestic demand is increasing.

        This is not about China selling us cheap shit. This is about China out bidding the US in the oil markets and getting the oil.

        How long do you think it will take for the US to once again outlaw the export of our oil?

        • FallenHero February 9, 2018 at 10:22 am #

          FEC had a hearing on crypto currency, they actually seemed generally for it, that could have big impacts going forward, esp if there is a flight from normal money.

        • elysianfield February 9, 2018 at 11:44 am #

          “How long do you think it will take for the US to once again outlaw the export of our oil?”

          Nutty,
          No longer than it would take for the US to bar ownership of Gold, Bitcoin or any competitor’s currency.

      • pequiste February 9, 2018 at 10:17 am #

        Strong military trumps strong currency.

        As long as there is enough P.O.L.* to run it that is.

        *petroleum, oils and lubricants.

        • outsider February 9, 2018 at 12:50 pm #

          Nothing uses and wastes more oil than the US War Machine.

          • VCS February 9, 2018 at 3:59 pm #

            Nothing uses more oil than the War Machine?
            Let’s have a parade.

          • Ol' Scratch February 9, 2018 at 5:05 pm #

            Now you’re talking!

      • shotho February 9, 2018 at 10:18 am #

        In the long emergency, gold will resume its proper place as the ultimate “hard” asset and those fiats based on it will wield a great deal of power. Russia and China are buying the stuff as fast as they can get it. I’m not aware either of them is buying cryptosl

      • michael February 9, 2018 at 10:47 am #

        Why would you want to be an exporting country?
        Export real goods for claims on foreign central banks “assets” or promissory notes?

        That’s a suckers deal in the long run.

        By now for example Germany has amassed 700 billion EUR in claims on other central banks in Europe but absolutely no way to get anything of real value from same.
        This is the problem of Target2 balances, so sensitive that all discussion about this here is suppressed as best they can.

        • Ol' Scratch February 9, 2018 at 10:58 am #

          It was a good deal as long as you could trust the foreign central banks’ (the US) promises to pay, or that their payments would actually be worth anything in terms of real stuff (oil). Once you can’t, the spell is broken. We’re nearing that point right now, if we’re not there already.

          • Q. Shtik February 9, 2018 at 1:17 pm #

            Scratch, I responded to your 10:12 AM comment (concerning Cramer) in the prior thread.

          • Ol' Scratch February 9, 2018 at 2:46 pm #

            Hope I didn’t screw up. Let me look…

          • Ol' Scratch February 9, 2018 at 2:59 pm #

            Sorry for the errors Q. I’ve been typing fast and editing loose today. Basis for calling him Cramer an idiot? I dunno [sic], every word that comes out of his mouth? He’s a two bit fucking shill for Wall St. I work with people who have advanced degrees every day [4 PhD’s down the hall right next to me], so I’m no respecter of degrees in lieu of demonstrated intelligence. Even they say that. I’m also a Finance undergrad major and have an MBA too, so believe me when I tell you, they’re not worth the paper they’re written on. Business degrees in general are all smoke and mirrors. Pure bullshit for those of us who didn’t have the horsepower to pursue the sciences or engineering. Wanna [sic] learn how business works? Join a high powered street gang. That’s how business works!

          • GreenAlba February 9, 2018 at 6:10 pm #

            Scratch

            When I was doing a Mickey Mouse post-graduate business diploma an age ago (led to nothing – I went straight back into teaching French) I remember Henry Mintzberg being quoted as saying MBA stood for Maybe Best Avoided. 🙂

    • CHenry February 9, 2018 at 11:30 am #

      What carnage? Why wreck what is working so well for them? Of course what is to stop them from creating a second, parallel asset-backed currency, backed by, say, gold or lithium, or platinum or . . . oil?

  2. Htruth February 9, 2018 at 10:05 am #

    Gull Island Alaska

  3. K-Dog February 9, 2018 at 10:11 am #

    A dose of the truth would prevent going stupid and starting a war. Not that that is going to happen. We will get the war.

    The graph with the bell-shaped curve, (classic M. King Hubbert), shows symmetrical peaks which does not always have to be the case. In hard collapse the fall down to zero consumption can be more rapid than the ascent. However in the shale oil peak the depletion rate can be well understood so unless political chicanery accompanies the decline the rate of fall should be well understood and likely symmetrical à la M. King. I suspect an honest geologist should be able to work it out.

    • GreenAlba February 9, 2018 at 10:30 am #

      Many of the same people who wouldn’t accept climate change (‘Global warming? Pah… look at the snow outside my window…’) tend not to accept peak oil.

      Colin Campbell was an honest (petroleum) geologist but I’ve just checked and he’s 86 or 87 now, so presumably retired from the fray. He did his best, though, a decade ago, and seems to have been still trying as recently as 2012:

      “Banks had been lending more than they had on deposit assuming that tomorrow’s growth was collateral for today’s debt but failing to see that growth depends on growing, cheap, oil-based energy…So in short, Peak Oil means that debt goes bad.” (speaking on the 2008 crash at the New Energy Era Forum, 8 May 2012) [Wiki]

      • Ol' Scratch February 9, 2018 at 10:54 am #

        A classic debt trap. Both the bankers and the producers are locked into the cycle of lending and borrowing to keep servicing prior bad debt. Each round costs more (normally) and produces less leading to the next round, and so on. The only alternative at every point along the way is immediate default, although at some point, default becomes simply inevitable no matter what. Add in current managers’ short term incentive to kick the can down the road just far enough to escape themselves, and you’ve got one helluva little self-destructive system. Extend and pretend indeed!

      • TiredOfTheTreadmill February 9, 2018 at 11:29 am #

        Yep. And many of those who deny climate change and peak oil firmly believe:

        Abiotic oil is real,
        Plenty of oil, yet a conspiracy to not “drill, baby,drill” so prices stay high or because those commie environmentalists own our politicians (as a former staffer at an environmental non-profit this one cracks me up),
        Free energy devices being withheld from us by the evil side of the deep state (with Trump being the master 87-D chess master running the good deep state,
        Said free energy devices were absconded from crashed ufos and reverse engineered for deep state use, but withheld from the public,
        Climate change is a commie plot,
        Trump is a genius (which he likely is to many of his supporters on a relative basis),
        Add your own here…

        • GreenAlba February 9, 2018 at 11:49 am #

          Quite, TOTT, do you remember the old watermelon jibe? That environmentalists are green on the outside and pink in the inside?

          Because putting people and the habitat they depend on before profits is just so damned…evil and ungodly.

          As the otherwise annoying Zac Goldsmith (our side of the pond) famously said, the economy is a subset of the environment, not the other way round.

          • Neon Vincent February 9, 2018 at 1:09 pm #

            I remember reading about “watermelon greens” more than a decade ago. Later, I ran into the expression Green is the new Red. When there was still an Al Jazeera America, one of their reporters asked me what I thought of crackdowns on environmental activism. I told them that phrase and pointed them to the person who coined it. They managed to get quite a story out of the lead I provided them.

          • Neon Vincent February 9, 2018 at 1:37 pm #

            Our host mentioned the current correction in the stock market, the behavior of which over the past two month is making my forecast in The tax bill and the U.S. economy in 2018 and beyond look good: “I expect the Dow Jones Industrials to get above 25,000, struggle to break 26,000, then sink down to between 20,000 and 22,500 over the next couple of years.” The Dow broke 25,000 early in January, had no trouble getting above 26,000 but then struggled to stay there, and has fallen to 23,500, only 1,000 above the upper band of my target. At this rate, the Dow may drop into my range in a couple of months, not a couple of years. I’m not sure I want to be right that soon!

            Speaking of being right, I also posted the EIA’s forecast for U.S. oil production. So far, it is going up as predicted to a peak around 2020 and then down after that. The result so far was gas prices at a 12-year low for the 2017 4th of July weekend. Happy motoring, while it lasts! On the other hand, I think the decrease in production from 2021 on will make, not the recession coming late this year and next, but the one after that in the mid- to late- 2020s as nasty as any in the 1970s. Gas lines and odd and even days, anyone?

          • GreenAlba February 9, 2018 at 2:00 pm #

            “Gas lines and odd and even days, anyone?”

            I remember my brother saying one time, during a petrol shortage, that he’d been queuing to fill his tank and there were people there whose tanks were almost full already but they queued anyway because they wanted that last couple of litres rather than see someone else get it.

            He specifically said ‘You wouldn’t want to be in a food queue with this lot’! Hmmm…

        • elysianfield February 9, 2018 at 11:50 am #

          TOTT,
          Anyone sentient recognizes climate change…it is “human caused climate change” that is the issue…a political issue, not necessarily a scientific one….

          • GreenAlba February 9, 2018 at 12:05 pm #

            It is a scientific issue, elysianfield. It’s extremely complicated to model, obviously, but it’s about ‘other things being equal’ and if you take into account all the other factors, the scientific consensus says it’s anthropogenic.

            The climate has warmed before, but not at the insane rate that it’s warming now. The difference is us.

            So the next level of denialism is to try to discredit the scientists (they only do it for grants/to fit in with the consensus etc. etc.). It will never stop because the difference between a sceptic (which is what a scientist is by nature and profession) and a denialist is that it doesn’t matter what evidence you show a denialist, they won’t accept it.

            There are sites that will answer all denialist arguments with scientific answers.

            https://grist.org/series/skeptics/

            But after being a scientific issue, you are right that it is a political issue (vested interests) and a psychological one (denialism).

          • Walter B February 9, 2018 at 12:08 pm #

            Indeed, the alleged “human” cause is what is not only under contention, but is pretty much non-verifiable period! George Carlin put it best, “We are trying to save the planet? We can’t even take care of ourselves, how the F are we supposed to take care of the whole planet?” Self importance is a disease that is rarely cured and a fool and his money are soon parted. A pretty good one- two punch.

          • TiredOfTheTreadmill February 9, 2018 at 12:09 pm #

            So, like me, you apparently don’t think Senator Inhofe is sentient? Or the rest of the it’s snowing outside so global warming is BS crowd? Perhaps more than just sentience is needed?

          • Walter B February 9, 2018 at 12:22 pm #

            Sorry TOTT but they do not call it Global Warming anymore, it is now referred to as Climate Change, and I agree the climate does in fact change, it’s just not my fault, that’s all. Adapt or join the dinosaurs, right?

          • TiredOfTheTreadmill February 9, 2018 at 12:40 pm #

            Yeah, yeah, I get it. I studied paleo climates in my college days. Climate change/global warming…it’s all marketing BS anyway. Yes it does change.

            My biggest problem with the anti crowd is their belief that technology will save us. Or Geezus is coming back real soon so it doesn’t matter anyway. You know, the “I’m going to shit in he river because it’s going downstream to the next guy anyway” mentality. Talk about self importance. Sure, we all die one day, and the Earth will carry on without us, but that doesn’t mean we should be irresponsible assholes either.

          • GreenAlba February 9, 2018 at 12:42 pm #

            Walter, they changed if from Global Warming to Climate Change because of the ‘can’t be global warming because there’s more snow outside my window than 10 years ago’ brigade, who don’t understand what ‘global’ means (not your garden). It doesn’t matter what you call it.

          • GreenAlba February 9, 2018 at 1:00 pm #

            Psychology of the climate change denier.

            https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/10/161004103313.htm

            “Previous research has consistently shown that it is more common among politically conservative individuals to deny climate change. In her thesis, Kirsti Jylhä has investigated this further and in more detail. Her studies included ideological and personality variables which correlate with political ideology, and tested if those variables also correlate with climate change denial.

            “The results show that climate change denial correlates with political orientation, authoritarian attitudes and endorsement of the status quo. It also correlates with a tough-minded personality (low empathy and high dominance), closed-mindedness (low openness to experience), predisposition to avoid experiencing negative emotions, and with the male sex.”

            And:

            https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/climate-deniers-youre-climate-deniers-deal-with-it/

            “The elder Freud first wrote about denial as a psychological defense mechanism more than a century ago.

            “His daughter Anna penned the seminal work The Ego and the Mechanisms of Defence in 1936. Modern interpreters of the Freuds’ work define denial along the lines of the American Psychological Association’s Concise Dictionary of Psychology: “An unpleasant reality is ignored, and a realistic interpretation of potentially threatening events is replaced by a benign but inaccurate one.”

            “The behaviors they wrote about so long ago are a near-perfect match for modern-day climate denial—some rejecting the evidence outright, some grudgingly admitting the problem while scrambling to avoid addressing it, some seeking to mis-assign blame.”

          • Janos Skorenzy February 9, 2018 at 2:54 pm #

            It was much warmer at various points in the past, thus the “ice men” found in the mountains as the glaciers recede. Or the Greenland colony of the Vikings. Or grapes being grown in much of England, etc. And in the remote past, African conditions existed in Europe and there were no ice caps at all. No man made global warming involved.

            Rate? Newer evidence indicates that conditions can change rapidly. Much of it has to do with what the Sun is doing or not doing. Oh that….

          • Ol' Scratch February 9, 2018 at 3:35 pm #

            So put you (janos) down as a skeptic then, I take it?

          • GreenAlba February 9, 2018 at 3:46 pm #

            Janos is a denialist about a whole host of things. But I’m not wasting my time.

            As I said, the whole point about denialism is that evidence means nothing to them. They spout anecdotes like ‘medieval warm period’ (which wasn’t global) that they’ve read somewhere. They read morons like Delingpole (professional contrarian journalist) and Viscount Monckton (professional moron and laughing stock of the scientific community). And they like to put ‘scientists’ in inverted commas as if they actually know something themselves. Waste of a person’s time.

            There is no lack of sites with responses to all their hackneyed ‘arguments’, like the one I linked to above.

            https://grist.org/series/skeptics/

            https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/7-answers-to-climate-contrarian-nonsense/

            But the point is that it’s a waste of a sensible person’s time. Would you argue with a flat-earther? Or a gravity denier?

            I’ve said my piece and I’ll leave them to it – they’ve lost the battle, but they won’t stop going ‘but, but, but…’

            Let them spout. No-one cares. But their grandchildren will know who wasted time when time was of the essence.

          • aibohphobia February 9, 2018 at 5:09 pm #

            The most correct** answer is probably ‘all of the above.’

            In addition to politics and human-caused return to the active Carbon Cycle of a bit more than half of the kajillion tons of carbon that was sequestered away for millions of years, there is also:
            The homeostasis of the planetary environment working to slow changes;
            The possibility of cascade events like massive chain-release of methane from methane hydrates at the bottom of certain seabeds, or supervolcano eruption at Yellowstone (perhaps due to a badly-aimed missile from Kim & co that was meant for Seattle?);
            The onset of a new ‘Maunder Minimum-style mini-ice-age, indicated by the sharp drop-off in sun spots;
            Economic collapse after the Juan-de-Fuca fault drowns Seattle and Vancouver (30% chance within the next 40 years–also BTW subject to Kim & Co meddling);

            And lastly, Gaia.
            We’ve all forgotten about the Gaia Hypothesis, that the skin of the Earth is actually a single organism that keeps everything in balance. Well, I hope that this was a wrong hypothesis. If it is true, Gaia may whiz up something to trim the humans way, way back.

            Most of this is stuff we can’t do anything about at this point, but IMHO climate change is the least of our worries…

          • Janos Skorenzy February 9, 2018 at 5:55 pm #

            So when there were no ice caps at all, it was due to Dinosaur Industry?

            What would you like to do to us “deniers”? Don’t hold back gang (green), tell us what you really think.

          • GreenAlba February 9, 2018 at 6:15 pm #

            “What would you like to do to us “deniers”? Don’t hold back gang (green), tell us what you really think.”

            I don’t want to do anything to you, Janos. Just witter away – be my guest. The grown-ups are in another room.

            Once you’ve figured out that climate denialism isn’t about facts, it’s about personality (they’re ‘mavericks’, they’ve read Professor Blah Blah Blah who can see through what the sheeple have fallen for, etc. etc.) you don’t waste your time.

            Witter away. Nobody who matters is listening.

          • orbit7er February 9, 2018 at 7:36 pm #

            Global warming is not really that complicated scientifically in principle nor that hard to understand. It is simply the same greenhouse effect that heats the inside of your car to over 100 degrees on a sunny day as the light comes in through the glass and gets converted to heat trapped by the glass. Carbon dioxide and other gases like methane act just like glass in a closed car to trap heat. I dare anyone who challenges this to hang out in a car on a sunny summer day for a few hours….
            So the trapping of heat is just that simple.
            How that heat is dispersed, the changes it causes in weather and climate and their precise outcomes is more complicated.
            But the overall global warming is just basic physics and also the capture of this heat energy in the Earth’s atmosphere does have some general effects which we have seen – more energy means more powerful storms like the triple Hurricane whammy last year, more likely desertification, more volatility in rainfall patterns and hence the unprecedented wildfires in the Pacific Northwest and California.
            Climate change disasters cost the US economy over $300 Billion in 2017:

            https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/01/08/climate-crisis-intensifies-300-billion-damages-makes-2017-costliest-year-ever


            As Climate Crisis Intensifies, $300+ Billion in Damages Makes 2017 Costliest Year Ever
            Published on
            Monday, January 08, 2018
            by
            Common Dreams
            As Climate Crisis Intensifies, $300+ Billion in Damages Makes 2017 Costliest Year Ever

            Experts say this “historic and unprecedented year of disastrous extremes” reinforces “the fact that climate change is a threat to our health, and also a threat to our economy.””

          • GreenAlba February 9, 2018 at 7:50 pm #

            “Global warming is not really that complicated scientifically in principle nor that hard to understand.”

            Exactly, orbit7er. Svante Arrhenius demonstrated even before the turn of the 19th century that adding CO2 to the atmosphere would cause it to warm, so the fact that we’re still trying to persuade people who choose not to face reality is sad. And they ALWAYS have a vested interest in not wishing to face it, despite their spurious ‘arguments’.

            Fossil fuel industry denies climate change – you don’t say! Person with big car and patio heaters who takes lots of foreign holidays denies climate change – well I never!

            And as you say, an atmosphere with more energy is going to have more extremes of weather. It’s not rocket science. 🙂

          • Janos Skorenzy February 10, 2018 at 2:12 am #

            So why was it so Hot in the remote past? I noticed you forgot to answer….

          • GreenAlba February 10, 2018 at 6:39 am #

            “So why was it so Hot in the remote past? I noticed you forgot to answer….”

            I once witnessed a politics tutorial where some numpty asked why, if Greece was the cradle of democracy, was a military junta now in power (it was the time of ‘the Colonels’). The lecturer just kind of looked, open mouthed. So consider me sitting here open mouthed.

            Just keep wittering, Janos. It’s all been said before and people listening have yawned before. People with the personality I described above will agree with you. Biological determinism. 🙂

            And in the case of climate change, if there are too many of them, they could collectively get us a Darwin award. In fact we’re possibly going to get it as a species because we’ve let them waste our time for so long.

            http://www.darwinawards.com/darwin/darwin2017.html

            “Named in honor of Charles Darwin, the father of evolution, the Darwin Awards commemorate those who improve our gene pool by removing themselves from it.”

            That would be a species lifetime award, wouldn’t it? A species that was so ‘clever’ it engineered its own extinction. Shame there will few people around inclined to clap.

          • Janos Skorenzy February 10, 2018 at 1:58 pm #

            No, you folks win the Darwin Award because you want to decommission our industrial civilization AND bring in masses of aliens at the same time – the first based on an unproven theory and the second based on utter the utter nonsense of White Guilt.

            And you still haven’t answered why it was So, So Very Hot in the remote past. The BBC doesn’t ever talk about that so you don’t even have an incorrect theory. First time hearing about it perhaps?

          • GreenAlba February 10, 2018 at 2:59 pm #

            I thought you were going to stop telling me what I want and think and what ‘groups’ I belong to.

            https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/GlobalWarming/page3.php

            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geologic_temperature_record

            I don’t know why you’re asking me about this – you have any number of search engines at your disposal. Hint: AmRen won’t be any use to you at all. There are endless respectable scientific sites that will give you the information you need.

            But you can lead a horse to water, but if its biases won’t let it drink, it will remain thirsty.

          • Janos Skorenzy February 10, 2018 at 3:09 pm #

            So it could have been Dinosaur Industry, a hotter sun, or a different orbit. But probably not Dinosaur Made Global Warming or Man made either since we weren’t around yet.

          • GreenAlba February 10, 2018 at 3:23 pm #

            Janos, I suggest you start from scratch with something basic:

            https://www.amazon.co.uk/Should-Climate-Change-Childrens-Sciences/dp/1541940164/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1518294046&sr

            But well done on knowing that humans haven’t been around that long. And that they didn’t hunt dinosaurs. 🙂

  4. robert magill February 9, 2018 at 10:16 am #

    As I see it the US has one, just one, last shot at staying at least a player on the world scene.  What’s happening all over the Eastern Hemisphere must be reproduced here or we stagnate and drift into redundancy. Trump and the leadership must ‘make nice’ with China. That’s where the money is; ditto the energy, and the vision. 

    China, Russia and Japan are ready to do it; have the money and the expertise.  It’s up to the US now.  To join the China B&R movement; actually the 21st Century movement, by linking the two hemispheres via the Bering Strait High Speed Rail project through Alaska and British Columbia to the rest of our Hemisphere.

    Trump knows all about it. We’ll soon see if he champions the effort or it , along with us, dies aborning.

    • Ol' Scratch February 9, 2018 at 10:33 am #

      The US will never, ever collaborate with, never mind take second seat to, the Chinese or the Russians in anything. The Cold War propaganda effort – still thriving as we speak – was far too successful to ever let that happen. I can’t see the Russians or Chinese being amenable to it either, as they’ve learned the hard way over and over again not to trust anything that comes out of DC.

    • elysianfield February 9, 2018 at 11:54 am #

      “It’s up to the US now. To join the China B&R movement; actually the 21st Century movement, by linking the two hemispheres via the Bering Strait High Speed Rail project through Alaska and British Columbia to the rest of our Hemisphere.”

      Robert,
      Excellent idea…although I would like to see cell phone service in my area before they start….

    • Janos Skorenzy February 9, 2018 at 2:57 pm #

      What a horrible idea. Nothing but an invasion vector extraordinaire. Two hundred million Chinese are ready to invade at a moments notice. Even now China is expanding into Siberia and Russia seems unable to stop them.

  5. Ol' Scratch February 9, 2018 at 10:29 am #

    Now comes the hard part: getting through this without the nation completely losing its marbles and doing something stupid and desperate — like starting another merry little war.

    That’s the problem, isn’t it? Nations – especially global hegemons long past their prime, whose only remaining industry is corruption in the guise of “defense” – pretty much ALWAYS resort to war when faced with financial and social collapse. And for those who haven’t been paying attention, guess what? WE ALREADY ARE! It’s called the Global War Of Terror, brought to you by Lockheed Martin, et al.

    Support this blog on PatreonSupport this blog on Substack
    Support this blog via Patreon or Substack

    • outsider February 9, 2018 at 1:04 pm #

      WTF is going on in Syria now anyway? The US is bombing Assad’s forces. Is a war against the Turks coming? And where are the Russians in all of this? After helping the Syrian patriots to win the war against the US-funded Jihadists, are they willing to sit back and watch all their good work go for naught as Assad falls?

      • Ol' Scratch February 9, 2018 at 3:28 pm #

        Pretty good rundown here:

        http://www.moonofalabama.org/2018/02/syria-us-may-have-arranged-self-defense-attack-on-syrian-government-forces.html

        More US MIC smoke and mirrors. Both the US and Russia are playing with fire (and at least one of them knows it) here. It comes down to a chess game to see who can inflict the most damage – both short and long term – on the other by proxy in the region. Oh yeah, this could end very badly if they’re both not careful!

        • outsider February 9, 2018 at 5:12 pm #

          Thanks for providing this, Scratch. The situation there remains grim. So, US bombs killed another 100 of Assad’s SAA. Why were we told that the Syrian insurrection was over once ISIS was driven out? I often wonder, if millions of young Syrian men fled to Europe, and a large portion who stayed joined with the Jihadists, how many men does Assad have left? If the US is not stopped here, I guess it’s on to Teheran.

  6. janet February 9, 2018 at 10:31 am #

    “like starting another merry little war.“

    If the oil runs out, there will be no merry little wars. The DoD is heavily dependent on oil… and extremely wasteful of oil resources.

    • Ol' Scratch February 9, 2018 at 10:34 am #

      That’s why there will be wars, numbnut!

    • Walter B February 9, 2018 at 10:54 am #

      That is the most retarded statement I have ever heard JJ, there have been wars for thousands of years before there was oil and there will be wars for as long as humans remain on the planet. No one needs oil to kill. It only makes it easier.

      • hmuller February 9, 2018 at 2:07 pm #

        I think Einstein said something about WW3 being fought with nuclear weapons and WW4 being fought with sticks and stones.

      • Janos Skorenzy February 9, 2018 at 3:02 pm #

        Steve Pinker of Harvard said, The Bushmen are relatively peaceful for hunter gatherers – their murder rate is only about that of Detroit. At their tribal gatherings, they settle their differences with poison arrows. But at least they don’t hunt each other AS GAME like the Australian Aborigines used to do.

    • elysianfield February 9, 2018 at 11:58 am #

      “If the oil runs out, there will be no merry little wars.”

      Well, that is precious! Oil will never “run out”, but will, rather become extremely expensive with scarcity…who do you think will get that very expensive oil on a priority basis?

  7. GreenAlba February 9, 2018 at 10:35 am #

    I always remember someone (possibly Rob Hoskins of the Transition movement) describing tar sands extraction, in its early days, as being similar to a pub running out of beer and trying desperately to squeeze out the carpet to try to recuperate what the punters had spilled.

    When it comes to tar sands and shale, what I don’t get is that people don’t immediately see that it looks just…desperate.

    • Ol' Scratch February 9, 2018 at 10:39 am #

      LOL! Back in the day we used put pantyhose over the vacuum cleaner nozzle and vacuum the couch and surrounding carpet for stems, seeds, or any other detritus remaining after a long night of partying. Those were the days!

      • GreenAlba February 9, 2018 at 10:54 am #

        🙂

  8. Petro February 9, 2018 at 10:36 am #

    Well, let’s see how long it takes before some of the usual trolls punch in for their shifts—to blame peak energy on Jews, Blacks, Mexicans, Women, Liberals, Democrats, the Deep State, the FBI, the Steele Dossier, Hillary Clinton, Robert Mueller, etc. etc. etc.

    • Ol' Scratch February 9, 2018 at 10:43 am #

      Nope, peak oil’s a human problem, although there’s certainly groups who exploit it more than others. The Deep State has certainly long been cognizant of it and has been planning accordingly. They wouldn’t be much of a Deep State if they hadn’t.

    • Janos Skorenzy February 10, 2018 at 3:11 pm #

      Any or all of these can make any situation worse of course. Does it makes sense to be bringing in endless immigrants during a worsening energy crisis – when we’ll need all the social capital we can muster? Think….

  9. JohnAZ February 9, 2018 at 10:42 am #

    Personal experience

    The family has mineral rights to a well in the Eagleford formation that has been pumping for six years or so. The oil output has followed the curve JHK has talked about since the fracking started. The dollar revenue per month started out in four digits but has been three digits and falling for at least the last four years. The glory days lasted about a year. Now they sent us a proposal to sink the vertical well down another 5000 feet and frack the new level. Evidently the vertical distance is limited that can be fracked. I have no idea how thick the formation is i.e. How many times a site can be fracked. It will cost of course to drill the new well “extension” so the finance part is still the same I imagine. It will put off the inevitable for another period of time but the initial attempt has lasted for about six years to drain the original site with most output in the first year. I wonder how 4-5% interest rates are going to fit the Frackers financial models?

  10. Bro Jobe February 9, 2018 at 10:43 am #

    Thank you, JHK, for getting back on a topic that matters. This is going to be a show-stopper unless the economy collapses first from our borrow-and-party way of life.

    I just give up trying to explain these facts to the “oil is oil” folks, who only care when they see a change at the gas pump.

    Support this blog on PatreonSupport this blog on Substack
    Support this blog via Patreon or Substack
    • K-Dog February 10, 2018 at 2:26 pm #

      Yes a refreshing respite from the fake issues Trump generates. I do wish Oil depletion did not have to happen at the same time as climate change. The two are related and I don’t need that fact explained to me. My point is psychological.

      Say, someone like JHK wants to get detailed about oil production. He has avid devotees such as myself but general readership does not want to read things that are not upbeat and even with innocence but perhaps also with some clever malice in some cases climate change is introduced into the discussion.

      In the book of national woes that is another chapter and there are plenty who would like to turn the page. Away from the oil chapter.

      They want you to party on Dudes.

      My own observation regarding oil is surreal. All my life oil was invisible. Gas went into tanks silently in the night at gas stations and pumped as if from endless pipes into cars in the daytime. Infrastructure was well hidden. I’d seen dirty coal care in my life but that’s it.

      The rail lines into Seattle come in from the south. I work South Of DOwntown. We busy workers in the SODO area are of many kinds but we all know about trains. I waited for the Train to Portland to pass me the other day. The one that derailed last month. They had enough extra cars to get it going again. It has a nice color scheme.

      Arriving at work this week and waiting for my elevator I looked out a window towards the rail lines a couple of blocks away. This particular window lines up with a crossstreet to an alley and gaps between buildings let me see a shiny black oil train. Perhaps all the tanker cars in the train were new. The cars were of the largest size. I could only see a couple but it was clear. The infrastructure of oil is no longer invisible here. There is a refinery north of Seattle.

      Often I go home along a route that parallels the main line into Seattle along an airfield Boeing uses. Oil trains park along this stretch of tracks waiting for their chance to go north. Sometime I will see a mixed train of cars but mostly all tankers tells me they are on the way north and not worming back down south to marshal up for another trip east through mountain passes empty. Some of these trains are miles long. I counted Eight big diesel engine cars in one not so long ago. It is an impressive operation.

      Life is change, once I remember none of these trains were there and trains on these tracks carried only freight and people. How soon will it be again before the oil trains are not there? When that happens how much freight and how many people can these tracks then carry?

  11. Walter B February 9, 2018 at 10:52 am #

    Yes Jim, sooner or later the wells go dry. As they do, the Big Boys with the Big Guns will continue to “convince” places that are not yet depleted (or getting there soon) to send their supplies of the Devil’s Excrement” to US(A). Iran stands out as a big target and perhaps Syria as well. As far as war goes, well President Trump has and will continue to retain his office through at least this first term as long as he gives the Dogs Of War their daily biscuit. I see no reason why he will not. It is all about the Middle East, THAT is where things will happen. THAT is where is will get serious and perhaps even on the brink of out of control. The latest assault in Syria is simply one more of many to come.

    Does oil run out or in such short supply that it creates really serious global disaster? While it is certainly possible, I think that somebody has something that they are planning on pulling out of their pocket just when all seem certain for despair and that this something is going to come out of Antarctica. There is a lot , and I mean a real lot of activity going on there right now and it is ramping up. Finding details about it is damned near impossible and the one person that I knew that wintered over there in the late 1970’s was so tight lipped about his time there that I was even more convinced that some day it will be the center of something that will appear good but be not so good in reality.

    In the meanwhile, conservation is the key, debt is the enemy and the beauty and splendor of this planet and in what nature brings us all should be fully appreciated while it lasts.

    • GreenAlba February 9, 2018 at 11:01 am #

      “In the meanwhile, conservation is the key, debt is the enemy and the beauty and splendor of this planet and in what nature brings us all should be fully appreciated while it lasts.”

      Which is why they shouldn’t be desecrating Antarctica, Walter. There’s not much left anywhere that we haven’t ruined.

      • Ol' Scratch February 9, 2018 at 11:08 am #

        First it was the whales and now it’s the stuff in the ground. We’re rapidly tightening the hangman’s noose.

      • Walter B February 9, 2018 at 11:09 am #

        They should be leaving Antarctica completely alone GA, I agree, but they won’t. I don’t think they have a choice anymore and I am expecting nothing good to come out of any of it trust me. But then haven’t our “scientists” never failed to push things until they fall over the edge? Like nuclear power/weaponry? Wait till you see how the CERN gig works out – dark matter, God Particle, Satan Particle? Wow, this ought to be good, eh?

        • GreenAlba February 9, 2018 at 11:18 am #

          Indeed they won’t, Walter. I think it may have been JHK in The Long Emergency who scoffed even back then at the idea that anything would be left unmined and unburned if it was there to be mined and burned (I’m paraphrasing, obviously, even if I’ve got the sentiment right – it’s been years!).

          • elysianfield February 9, 2018 at 12:06 pm #

            “that anything would be left unmined and unburned if it was there to be mined and burned (I’m paraphrasing

            Alba,
            What about that “dominion” thing in the Bible”

          • Walter B February 9, 2018 at 12:10 pm #

            Well ef, we are charged with being Good Stewards and not give free reign to rape, pillage, and plunder.

          • GreenAlba February 9, 2018 at 12:18 pm #

            Not sure what your question is suggesting, elysianfield.

            The dominion thing in the Bible is one of the biggest excuses conservative Christians have come up with as an excuse to do whatever they want to the planet and its flora and fauna without accountability. Daddy gave me the keys…

            For the evangelicals, there’s also the ‘rapture’ – there will be a new heaven and a new earth so they don’t need to worry about the old one that is all the heathens have.

            Even when I was a young’un and went to sunday school and church regularly, the talk from the pulpit was of ‘stewardship’, not ‘dominion’. That’s what stayed with me.

          • GreenAlba February 9, 2018 at 12:20 pm #

            We crossed in the ether, Walter. 🙂

          • elysianfield February 9, 2018 at 7:08 pm #

            “Even when I was a young’un and went to sunday school and church regularly, the talk from the pulpit was of ‘stewardship’, not ‘dominion’. That’s what stayed with me.”

            Stewardship…dominion…conservation…partnership….

            Kinda makes you pine for the absolutes offered in the Koran…the un-alloyed word of God…and not subject to spin or interpretation.

            My comment serves to showcase the subjectivity of the matter. Don’t even get me started on the conjugal duties that “submission” portends.

            You know…”…the Bible sez you gotta…”.

          • GreenAlba February 9, 2018 at 7:36 pm #

            Re ‘submission’:

            “The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband. Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife. Do not deprive one another, except by mutual consent for a limited time, so you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again, so that Satan will not tempt you through your lack of self-control.”

            Seems quite equal to me, albeit a bit neurotic in lay terms! But really, are we looking to books written by and for people who lived thousands of years ago as a rule book for living our lives? My parents did – I’m not going to, although I’m happy to absorb the best bits of their wisdom, filtered through the brain that a believer must imagine God gave me to use.

            Not sticking to absolutes inappropriately is what makes us thinking adults – and makes our lives both worth living and difficult.

          • Ol' Scratch February 9, 2018 at 8:47 pm #

            VERY NICE O’Greeny!

          • Elrond Hubbard February 11, 2018 at 11:34 am #

            elysianfield: “Kinda makes you pine for the absolutes offered in the Koran…the un-alloyed word of God…and not subject to spin or interpretation.”

            Some may pine for that, maybe. Not me, though. The will to believe is a will o’ the wisp — chase it, and you’ll end up where all such fancies lead you, which is nowhere.

            What makes the master narratives offered by patriarchal religions like Islam and Christianity so persistent is how satisfying they are. They address deep hungers in humanity: for meaning, for place and identity, and for ways to make sense of the world in human terms. But the world makes its own kind of sense which owes nothing to our expectations or desires. That’s why I value science and rationality — turning away from the shadows on the wall, to reveal the light that makes them. A truth, however humble, that can be ascertained independent of human bias has its own kind of immunity to spin or interpretation.

            Those who prefer the bargain offered by received narratives often recoil from the super-rational viewpoint, seeing it as alien to human meaning. I don’t think that needs to be the case, because all the old imponderables are still there. What rescues the hyper-rational viewpoint is to achieve Keats’ negative capability: “when a man is capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason”. Honest uncertainty is better than false certainty.

          • elysianfield February 12, 2018 at 11:04 am #

            Elrond,
            A good post….

      • Janos Skorenzy February 9, 2018 at 3:09 pm #

        Yeah and lets not pollute Outer Space – as if one even could….

        There’s no ecosystem to destroy in the interior of the continent. Of course we should be mindful of the Sea and Shore, since that area is very important for whales, penguins, etc. But if they can find oil under the ice in the interior, they should go for it. Your Solar just aint gonna cut it. It’s either Oil, Nuclear, or Coal – for now at least.

        • outsider February 9, 2018 at 5:32 pm #

          Really, the biggest problem is not our failure to conserve our natural resources, it is that our finite globe is seriously overpopulated. It is the crisis that drives everything else, yet even conservationists seldom mention it. And the more that the Third World demands to enter modernity, the worse the crisis will get. Overpopulation always leads to war. A great Die-Off is needed. Our Overlords know this and are seriously and surreptitiously working at it.

          • Janos Skorenzy February 9, 2018 at 5:59 pm #

            All true. And a contradiction with my Traditional Catholicism. They just didn’t get it – why would they since it wasn’t a problem yet? So since they refused to think about such things, other people did – people who hate them.

            Yes, the Elite know and are ruthless enough to do what it takes, secretly for now.

        • Walter B February 9, 2018 at 7:01 pm #

          Not pollute Space? Have you not seen one of these images my friend?

          https://duckduckgo.com/?q=satellites+in+space&t=hf&ia=images&iax=images&iai=http%3A%2F%2Fi.telegraph.co.uk%2Fmultimedia%2Farchive%2F01518%2Fspace-junk_1518051a.jpg

          Too late!

        • elysianfield February 9, 2018 at 7:13 pm #

          “Yeah and lets not pollute Outer Space – as if one even could….”

          Janos,
          Well, there is a fine Tesla Roadster somewhere out there…soon to become space junk. Who would have thunk that the area the size of Rhode Island would be one massive plastic float in the middle of the Pacific?

    • Janos Skorenzy February 9, 2018 at 3:05 pm #

      Putin has claimed much of the Arctic and patrols it heavily.

  12. wm5135 February 9, 2018 at 10:55 am #

    Ask among your acquaintances who has read any or all of the following:
    1. 1984
    2. Animal Farm
    3. Lord of the Flies
    4. A Clockwork Orange
    5. Any Immanuel Kant or any synopsis of Kant

    You should be able to anwswer why most of those we know think things will be the same as always, only different. I have discovered lately that the majority of those I speak with have not read anything that was not assigned in high school or some series of entertainment novel. Every single one of these citizens have finished junior college at a minimum. Don’t speak ill of millenials, they are just following our lead.

    Producing slightly less than half what is consumed is termed “energy independance” and a new golden age. This idea sells readily to the group of whom Janos is so proud.

    Have a good weekend

    • elysianfield February 9, 2018 at 12:08 pm #

      “. Any Immanuel Kant or any synopsis of Kant”

      Kant? Tried but couldn’t…. Read the others, however.

      • aibohphobia February 9, 2018 at 7:28 pm #

        That reminds me…

        Can you cope with Kant? Well you can, or you can’t;
        Those who can cope with all that Kant kenned
        Can consider Immanuel Kant as a friend.
        Those who can’t cope say, “What Kant kenned is cant.”
        Can Kant’s canned cant help them? Well no, Kant cant can’t…

        • elysianfield February 9, 2018 at 8:19 pm #

          Aibohphobia,

          I fear you are a madam? Perhaps a mom”

      • K-Dog February 10, 2018 at 2:41 pm #

        Same here but that still qualifies us because we both know we ‘KANT DO IT‘ because we tried. We still get 5 out of 5.

        But that is only a tidbit from who cares and forgive my conceit. Fact is America is not a land of readers. Huge sections of the country are benighted and consider it a virtue to be unlearned.

    • Janos Skorenzy February 9, 2018 at 3:14 pm #

      I’m fine with Conservation – I just want my people to be around to experience it. Whites are an Endangered Species. When it comes to immigration, You People become cornucopians, ignoring the basic natural realities of ecosystem, borders, territory, ect – all of which predate man and are common to all living things. Instead, you take refuge in wacky revisionist Christianity and Cultural Marxist ideology, both of which are focused on the shaming of Whites.

      • Ol' Scratch February 9, 2018 at 8:43 pm #

        I think you’re beginning to get it Janos, or more likely, you’ve always got it, but just didn’t want to admit it. Funny you should mention “taking refuge in ideologies,” since that’s what whites (and you) have always done to defend their privilege. It sucks when the tables finally get turned, doesn’t it? And so it goes. Time to look for somebody else to blame.

        • Janos Skorenzy February 10, 2018 at 2:17 am #

          No, it’s Survival Time. We’re the Indians now. Doesn’t that strike your funny bone? Or you inner Rhett Butler who loved a losing cause? The Pawnees accepted that fighting was useless – they’re not around anymore. The Sioux fought really hard and still have a place in this world. If we fight really hard we might win ourselves a home as well. But you don’t value us at all. You want revenge against your own people – and thus yourself….

          Face it – it’s a disease and you are sick unto death.

  13. KK February 9, 2018 at 10:57 am #

    Our marbles rolled away a long time ago. – KK

  14. JohnAZ February 9, 2018 at 10:59 am #

    Three WW2 stories

    The US and the world embargoed Japan and cut off the SE Asia oil. Japan started running out of resources and of course decided to fight back. To stop the US from interfering with their takeover of SE Asia and its oil, they had to destroy the Navy at Pearl Harbor.

    Hitler started to run out of readily available oil from the Balkan sources and needed to acquire a new source. He thus invaded Russia to go after the Baku oil region. That attempt ended poorly at Stalingrad forcing the Germans to go to coal based fuel. Definitely a factor in Germany’s decline.

    The US started running out of oil reserves in 1943 and the Joint Chiefs informed Roosevelt that we could not keep fighting the two ocean was with current oil resources. Roosevelt headed for the Middle East and made a deal with the Saudis to supply us with oil for our protecting them militarily. And that deal is still in place.

    Does oil availability cause war. The twentieth century should be called the oil war century. The twenty first century may be no different.

    • Ol' Scratch February 9, 2018 at 11:06 am #

      Good work JohnAZ!

    • GreenAlba February 9, 2018 at 11:10 am #

      Except maybe that we’ll have water wars too. There are lots of people competing for a share of the Tigris and the Euphrates, just for starters.

      • outsider February 9, 2018 at 5:47 pm #

        GA,
        There was a report on Reuters.com that Cape Town, South Africa will run out of water by April.

        • GreenAlba February 9, 2018 at 6:34 pm #

          I know, outsider – was watching it on the news tonight. The well-off will feel it most. They said the poorest 20% of the population only use 5% of the water to begin with – they’re not the ones with the swimming pools. Same old, same old…

          They were all queuing together for extra water from the collection points, though, black and white, rich and poor together and all talking eminently sensibly to the reporters. A good sign.

          Apparently they need two years of decent rain to fill the empty reservoir (and I mean totally empty – the reporter was walking on sand) that provides 40% of Cape Town’s water, but I remember how long the big drought went on in Australia.

          • Elrond Hubbard February 11, 2018 at 11:38 am #

            Here’s a good read about a near future where something similar happens to the American southwest:

            https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23209924-the-water-knife

          • GreenAlba February 11, 2018 at 5:38 pm #

            Thanks, Elrond. I remember reading years ago about the new water barons buying up water rights in Texas and elsewhere (ex-oil baron,T. Boone Pickens was, I think, the one mentioned at the time, but they’ve all gone global now). They’ll be buying rights to the air we breathe next.

      • SpeedyBB February 10, 2018 at 9:45 pm #

        Oh yes. Not to mention the Mekhong.

    • sprawlcapital February 9, 2018 at 11:19 am #

      Your third story, about the origin of our special relationship with Saudi Arabia, is particularly interesting, AZ.

      To keep our happy motoring going, an alliance with a vile monarchy is necessary.

      • sprawlcapital February 9, 2018 at 1:19 pm #

        With great reluctance, I have to concede the point to ZD:

        As I recall, peak production of conventional oil was reached in the continental US in 1970. So we could not have been running out of oil reserves in 1943.

        SA is still a vile monarchy.

    • zekesdad February 9, 2018 at 11:56 am #

      You need to go and re-read history. Your understanding of Japan’s role in World War II is exactly backwards. The U.S. cut off Japan’s oil because of their aggression in Asia and the Pacific. Japan was the aggressor, not the U.S. They didn’t bomb Pearl Harbor to stop U.S. aggression. They bombed it to prevent the U.S. from stopping their aggression.
      The U.S. was not “running out of reserves in 1943”. The Permian Basin, the largest producing basin in the lower 48 currently, was discovered only 20 years before that time. Other fields in east and south Texas came on in the 1930s. There was so much oil being produced that it was selling for 10 cents a barrel. Later, production in the U.S. may have been down which is not surprising since by 1943 we were 13 years into the Great Depression. If the Joint Chiefs told Roosevelt we did not have the oil to fight a 2 ocean war, they were obviously wrong, as we did precisely that. We shipped oil by the tanker full to Great Britain. We weren’t importing oil from Saudi Arabia in any meaningful way until after the war.

    • PeteAtomic February 9, 2018 at 4:49 pm #

      good points, there

  15. sprawlcapital February 9, 2018 at 11:07 am #

    “Propant” was a new word for me. I thank our host.

    Fracking damages Iowa .land in two ways: a new oil pipeline now cuts across our state, and, if environmentalists do not stop it, there may be mining of fracking sand, which, along with places like Wisconsin, Iowa has a decent supply of.

    It takes a very special grade of sand, you see, to serve as a propant in the fracked wells, that is, to hold the fractures open so that oil can be pumped out.

    Let’s hope the fracking play is brief.

    Support this blog on PatreonSupport this blog on Substack
    Support this blog via Patreon or Substack
    • Ol' Scratch February 9, 2018 at 11:12 am #

      Cheney was right: the “American way of life won’t be negotiable,” right up until the time there’s nothing left to negotiate for. Hope that old bastard lives to see it.

      • Walter B February 9, 2018 at 11:56 am #

        As long as there are plenty of healthy 25 year old men with good hearts for Dirty Dick to replace his with, he should live forever! True evil never dies.

        • outsider February 9, 2018 at 5:52 pm #

          Cheney and his ilk are the best reason to take your name off of the organ donor list. One wonders if McCain will get a brain transplant.

          • Walter B February 9, 2018 at 7:03 pm #

            If he does, it will be the first one he’s had!

        • malthuss February 9, 2018 at 7:29 pm #

          https://CA.NEWS.YAHOO.COM/SPECIAL-REPORT-U-BODY-BROKERS-SUPPLY-WORLD-TORSOS-133238485–FINANCE.HTML

          The book Body Brokers woke me up to these macabe evil doings. My concern is if someone is on govt assistance do they have a say in what happens to their body at death? How about these companies (some states) send out offers of FREE funeral/end of life services.

          I say let those barbarians dig up the graves in their own countries, or produce their own corpses.Given the history of many of these countries, they should have plenty of extra bodies around or have no issues creating more of them.

      • wolfbay February 10, 2018 at 6:31 am #

        I remember Carter during the oil embargo suggesting Americans wear sweaters and turn up the thermostat in winter. Obviously one of Carter’s bigger political mistakes. Americans don’t accept any kind of austerity and exponential growth in everything including debt is our god given right.

        • Q. Shtik February 10, 2018 at 11:57 am #

          and turn up the thermostat – wolf

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

          I’m guessing you meant down……. or is this opposite day?

    • zekesdad February 9, 2018 at 11:41 am #

      Big deal. There’s a pipeline across Iowa. Currently there are over 175,000 miles of oil and liquids pipelines in the U.S. There has to be someway to move the stuff around so that farmers can buy fuel for their tractors, and that you can put gas in your car.
      So they quarry sand for fracking. What of it? I assume they also quarry sand, gravel etc. for other purposes such as cement production and road construction.

      • DuckandCover February 9, 2018 at 12:13 pm #

        Now hold on just a minute “zekesdad”, don’t be introducing common sense and logic here. This is a “Chicken Little” Comments Section. Remember: Doom and Gloom, Doom and Gloom.

      • Gerold February 9, 2018 at 1:05 pm #

        We’ve achieved “Peak Aggregate.” We’ve run out of economically accessible sand and gravel. San Francisco barges gravel from Vancouver Island (expensive.)
        Other populated areas have resorted to ‘mining’ it. Nobody wants a quarry’s noise and dust from blasting, crushing and screening it in their backyard so they go underground to do it. (also expensive.)

    • elysianfield February 9, 2018 at 12:10 pm #

      “Let’s hope the fracking play is brief.”

      And, God willing…not in my back yard….

  16. JohnAZ February 9, 2018 at 11:16 am #

    1973 the first oil embargo was a miserable time when America showed how poorly it would handle an oil shortage. The politics of oil have been shaped by the fear of this embargo ever since. The drill, drill, drill folks know that if we do not, civilization as we know it, will change for the worse. Washington’s actions are consistent, do whatever it takes to get oil and the environmental effects will be increasingly ignored. If energy flags, people will pray for global warming to stay warm, and they will move south, quickly. How much will people pay to stay warm or to avoid walking? Oil will be drilled, scraped, and burned no matter the cost. Replacement is limited and is not an answer, plug for the Long Emergency. And for all the debt hawks, a large portion of our 20 soon to be 30 trillion debt has been acquired in the process of getting more oil.

    • GreenAlba February 9, 2018 at 11:25 am #

      JohnAZ

      I don’t think most people have a clue how precarious their daily bread is. I remember there was a road hauliers’ strike here in the 90s and I read later that we were apparently 2 days away from there being no food on the supermarket shelves, but practically no serious discussion of it at the time and no discussion of the perils of just-in-time living afterwards either.

      • 4014HAMPHEDGE February 9, 2018 at 1:21 pm #

        Taking Jim at his closing words -A Merry Little War- Green Alba is close to the heart of this blindfold dart game….Famine

        Weary Jim Kunstler who so many time and ways over the years made comment to the destruction of ubiquitous local railway footprint in the USA no longer wastes comment on Parallel Bar Therapy. However, giving up on talking trains actually gets us off topic when we look closely at what the expansion of already established conflicts means in terms of famine in North America.

        Taking the words of Think Tank gurus like Anthony Cordesman to bear (see updated “Middle East War Consequences” papers), Electro Magnetic Pulse impacts to utilities and transport are to expected in Jim’s “Merry Little War”. Adversarial powers already orbit fleets of Killer Satellites maneuvering to very close proximity of US and other nations’ communication and surveillance satellites. Iranian/PDRK collaboration more than hints Middle East “Regional” conflict becomes a Pacific War as well.

        William Forschen’s “ONE SECOND AFTER” fact based fictional account of American life after EMP/HAMP presents Kunstler’s “THE LONG EMERGENCY” on steroids. Coincidental with JHK previous calls for railroad expansion in capacity & reach, the post EMP period describes agonizing detail of society without trucks dealing with Balkanization and horrific efforts to maintain life & civility as participants deal with shortage of every imaginable commodity, plus fending off groups subsisting via cannibalism. Companion read for Mr. Kunstler’s post petroleum chronicles.

        If nothing else, Forschen’s famine primer alerts to Jim Kunstler’s prescient pleas to rebuild the railway matrix extant before motor mania silenced railway distribution/warehousing methodology. Warehousing and backroom stocks in stores was intrinsic guarantee of extra supplies at hand in emergencies…

        Jim is short on the how to rebuild railways. Taken with understanding “Preservation Of The Union” is a Lincolnesque thought process with regards to the railway net, reformed US Army/Guard Railroad Transportation Battalions (Ft. Eustis VA template) brings Federal participation to making a famine hedge. War either slid into or commencing with a False Flag EMP starting shot, early dispersal of retired/surplus container handling equipment to metropolitan outskirts & communities along rail mains is near painless baby step famine hedge?

        Sesquicentennial Golden Spike celebrations have prompted Union Pacific to restore one of their “Big Boy” Steam locomotives to operation. Southern Pacific Cab Forward Mallet #4294 in Sacramento (Transcon Rail Western starting place) is in the same class, and awaits ability to represent the west in a replay of the Golden Spike Ceremony with two steam monarchs from East & West sharing the stage. Reminders of railway heritage will help NIMBYS hold their tongues as the necessity of Branch Line Rail rehab is seen more clearly.

        This writer has much more on ways & means to achieve “Second Dimension Surface Transport Logistics Platform”; let Jim do some homework and lay some updated train renaissance talk on us through his Blog… Jim Kunstler knows many people able to help.

      • SpeedyBB February 10, 2018 at 9:51 pm #

        The gloried ‘Just-in-time’ production strategy suffered mightily in northern Honshu when the tsunami swept across the east cost. Transport is temporarily disrupted… no backup inventory of parts to cushion shortages… tools down in the factories…

    • akmofo February 9, 2018 at 1:32 pm #

      In 1973 the problem was not lack of Saudi oil but lack of US gold. The war was engineered to migrate the world’s financial system from one to the other.

  17. zekesdad February 9, 2018 at 11:34 am #

    I have a couple of problems with this piece. The projected fall-off of production after the year 2020 is pure speculation. Where is the data that supports it? Secondly, the article states that companies are heading into the Permian Basin as their last hurrah. The Permian has been producing since the 1920s, and there was an article in yesterday’s paper how a mid-size oil company is selling all of its other properties to solely concentrate production there. The Bakken has been a hot play for only about 15 years. The Eagle Ford has only recently come on. The point is that these fields often have multiple producing zones that take years to discover and produce. Enhanced recovery techniques can also extend the life of a field which is one reason the Permian is still going 90 years after its discovery. We may very well have reached peak oil, but James and most of the rest of us will probably be dead by the time it’s all gone.

    • Ol' Scratch February 9, 2018 at 12:07 pm #

      Good points. But a reminder: it’s not when it’s all gone that matters, it’s when it’s no longer profitable to produce and/or service the accumulated and ever-mounting debt overhang. The oil industry is caught in a vice between its two main constraints: if the price goes too high, it’s eminently profitable to produce, but the demand will fall precipitously. If the price falls to low, demand will soar but production will begin to fail. And as the economy falters doe to the whipsaw effects of this process, the vice will continually get tighter. Gail Tverberg, among many others, constantly harps on those points.

    • GreenAlba February 9, 2018 at 12:35 pm #

      “We may very well have reached peak oil, but James and most of the rest of us will probably be dead by the time it’s all gone.”

      I’m not sure why that is a critical point. Most of us have children and many on this site even have grandchildren. And even if we didn’t, we know other people do.

      • outsider February 9, 2018 at 6:04 pm #

        GA, That seemed like a typical comment from a selfish, Ugly American.

        • GreenAlba February 9, 2018 at 6:38 pm #

          I think it’s just human nature, really, outsider, nothing specifically American about it. Some problems are so big they hurt to think about.

          • outsider February 9, 2018 at 6:55 pm #

            You’re a better person than I, GA.

          • GreenAlba February 9, 2018 at 8:13 pm #

            No I’m not, outsider, I’m just a natural worrier who can’t not look ahead to what needs to be worried about. 🙂

          • Ol' Scratch February 9, 2018 at 8:32 pm #

            No, O’Greeny, you’re just what used to be known as a person “of good sense.” Short supply that, these days.

      • K-Dog February 10, 2018 at 2:47 pm #

        And it does not have to be all gone to suffer bigtime. This is not a binary situation unless you consider that you might be dead if the current path continues to be followed.

        • GreenAlba February 10, 2018 at 4:22 pm #

          Absolutely, K-Dog. And as JHK has pointed out many a time, it ‘only’ needs the global finance system to go into meltdown (for the circular reasons he has also pointed out) for it to become suddenly impossible to extract the oil that is otherwise still technically recoverable.

          When I first read Heinberg’s Powerdown ideas, it struck me as the obvious way to go. But it would only be obvious to people reading it (or at least a proportion of them) and how many did?

          I remember Peak Oil making a brief appearance on mainstream TV a decade ago. Most people didn’t want to believe it even then, so given the… ahem, ‘shale miracle’ etc. I think there’s even less chance of it being believed in widespread fashion now. Mostly people believe in the inevitability of human ingenuity plugging all gaps.

          And yet, powering down (and putting the brakes on population, although that’s a slow process – except when it unfortunately isn’t) seems to me the only humane solution. But as I think I said under a previous post, that involves *planning*. Try promoting planning in the US and see how far you get without being accused of being a Marxist.

          It wasn’t my intention to detail the discussion into climate change – I was initially merely making a passing psychological comparison which I think is valid here too. The ‘don’t tell me how to live my life’ sentiment is stronger in the US than almost anywhere else, I think.

          • GreenAlba February 10, 2018 at 6:41 pm #

            *derail*

  18. FincaInTheMountains February 9, 2018 at 11:48 am #

    What happens when a dumb broad from reality show tries to run for President of Russia

    Ksenia Sobchak proposes a brilliant solution to the Crimea issue: Everybody (including, apparently, Martians) should vote on the status of Crimea in an “international” referendum

    https://www.facebook.com/sgrablev/videos/1777911175602062/

    • Ol' Scratch February 9, 2018 at 12:14 pm #

      My my, the stupidity has gone international these days!

  19. FincaInTheMountains February 9, 2018 at 12:09 pm #

    The price and supply of oil became so problematic after the year 2000 that the US had to desperately engineer a work-around to keep this hyper-complex society operating

    I think all these considerations are valid if we assume that the US is still operating under capitalist “for-profit” economy and not under some mix of planned and market economy. Basically the losses of the shale companies will be underwritten by the society as a whole to bridge us until the time Elon Musk will mine the first ton of thermonuclear fuel on the Moon to power his Tesla cars that was the only passenger in his recent Space-X launch.

    http://www.explainingthefuture.com/helium3.html

    • Ol' Scratch February 9, 2018 at 2:40 pm #

      Tongue firmly in cheek – I hope.

      • FincaInTheMountains February 9, 2018 at 6:03 pm #

        I am dead serious about Helium-3.

        • GreenAlba February 9, 2018 at 6:44 pm #

          I was reading about it earlier, because I nearly made a tongue-in-cheek comment about it myself.

          This one’s less optimistic about the economic viability of the idea

          https://www.space.com/28189-moon-mining-economic-feasibility.html

          “”It’s a fossil fuel reserve. Like mining all the coal or mining all the oil, once you’ve mined it … it’s gone,” Crawford said. The investment required and infrastructure necessary to help solve the world’s future energy needs via moon-extracted helium-3 is enormous and might better be used to develop genuinely renewable energy sources on Earth, he added.”

          Sounds about right.

          • Ol' Scratch February 9, 2018 at 8:29 pm #

            O’Greeny,

            Finca was talking about inhaling helium, the “-3” was just a typo or drug fueled hallucination.

            I hadn’t realized that Finca was a cargo cult guy before, but you never really know, do you?

            First it’s the 180 proof moonshine, then it’s a little Caribbean ditch weed infused with it and smoked through a bong with it, and then it’s the “hard stuff.” Its hard to explain where this generation first went wrong, and indeed – what does it matter anymore? They’re grasping at straws these days, which, to be fair, is pretty much all that we’ve left them.

            Queue akmofo telling us about the “just discovered straw energy revolution.”

          • Ol' Scratch February 9, 2018 at 9:02 pm #

            Yes Q., I realize – and repent for the fact – that my use of “queue” was a misuse of the word “cue.” I think it was worth it, however, just so I could type that last sentence.

  20. Ludwig Beck February 9, 2018 at 12:29 pm #

    The only problem with all this is that North Dakota and Texas oil production combined in 2017 averaged 4.5 mbpd. The same as in the peak year of 2015. It dipped slightly to 4.2 mbpd in 2016 as the global price of crude crashed.

    Texas produced a record 3.9 mbpd in November 2017, the latest data available. Total US production in November 2017 was a record 10.0 mbpd. In 2015, the US averaged 9.4 mbpd. In 2016, 8.8 mbpd.

    The “shale miracle” is a straw-man used by both sides in the peak-oil debate. It is a waste of time. The US is for all intents and purposes energy independent when viewed in conjunction with the overall North American energy market, supplies from West Africa, and the maybe 1 or 1.5 mbpd we get from our secure Sunni suppliers in the Gulf. That may be their sand, but that is our oil buried underneath it.

    Aramco stands for Arab AMERICAN Oil Company.

    As long as the Arabs keep it flowing to our friends in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan in tankers protected from Somali pirates by the US Navy – then everything is cool.

    We are Rome.

    Party On, Dudes!

    Support this blog on PatreonSupport this blog on Substack
    Support this blog via Patreon or Substack
    • Ol' Scratch February 9, 2018 at 3:13 pm #

      Like the man Prince said: “Tonight we’re going to party like it’s 1999” – FOREVER!

  21. volodya February 9, 2018 at 1:03 pm #

    The baloney inherent in the finances of the fracking industry is no wonder given that the economic and financial system is built on a system of lies which nobody will challenge if they value their livelihood or their standing in their social group .

    The Book of Lies permeates the thinking and behavior of homeowners, oligarchs, small stock investors, the managerial class, the academic community, government regulators and the accounting profession.

    It’s not like JHK sez, that “reality” is optional. If only. “Reality” is to be actively denied. “Reality” is that pubic hair on the restaurant table. It’s there, if you look you can see it, in fact everybody sees it, but it’s not to be mentioned.

  22. akmofo February 9, 2018 at 1:20 pm #

    A sick mind sees only sickness.

    In 1910 there were few paved roads in America, and the biggest worry in cities was what to do with all the horse manure that was piling up.

    In 20 years, oil and gasoline engine cars will be replaced by electric cars run on solar energy.

    People who don’t see this approaching reality, don’t see it because they don’t want to see it.

    • FincaInTheMountains February 9, 2018 at 1:35 pm #

      I really doubt about the solar, but thermonuclear – with pleasure.

      • akmofo February 9, 2018 at 1:49 pm #

        See my reply to: “Shut up and calculate”

    • Ol' Scratch February 9, 2018 at 2:42 pm #

      Typical cargo cult mentality. That’s sick.

      • akmofo February 9, 2018 at 3:22 pm #

        Don’t you have some butt hurting exercises to do with your pig friends in the wood shack? You both can enjoy fucking around in the mud.

        • Ol' Scratch February 9, 2018 at 3:32 pm #

          Sounds fun. You’ve got expertise in this area, I see.

          • akmofo February 9, 2018 at 3:46 pm #

            I’m not the 70 year old loser country hick driving a leased Hellcat, that would be you.

          • Ol' Scratch February 9, 2018 at 5:01 pm #

            Well, I’m not 70, but I get your point. That leased Hellcat is more fun than a grown man is otherwise allowed to have these days. You should try one.

          • akmofo February 9, 2018 at 5:32 pm #

            Is there anything you wont do just for fun? You must be that Vietnam vet who enlisted to the war at age 12, just for fun. How about taking a cartridge of BB pellets to that red turkey head of yours. Just for fun, you know.

          • Ol' Scratch February 9, 2018 at 6:35 pm #

            You’re real sweet-talker today, aren’t you? You must be fun at parties.

    • Ludwig Beck February 9, 2018 at 4:09 pm #

      There are 253 million passenger vehicles in the United States. Their average lifespan is 11 years each. In any given year there are between 15 and 17 million new vehicles sold.

      That means that it would take a minimum of 15 years to replace the entire fleet with electric vehicles. However – that is a fantasy.

      In 2017, 200,000 electric vehicles were sold in the US. That is a 25% increase over 2016. If you actually believe that there will be demand for, let’s say, one million new electric vehicles per year sometime soon – that would mean 253 years before electric vehicles have replaced the internal combustion engine.

      The Unites States currently uses around 9.3 million barrels-per-day of ground-transportation gasoline. That is the equivalent of 360 million cars getting an average of 30 miles-per-gallon, each travelling 12,000 miles per year.

      The only strong pressure to convert to electric vehicles, outside of government action, will come from the steady increase in the price of gasoline.

      Currently, electric vehicles make NO economic sense unless
      gasoline sells for between $6 and $8 a gallon. The trade-off for convenience is too much. The paradox is that as electric vehicles gain as a percentage of the overall vehicle fleet, the resulting downward pressure on gasoline demand will continue to make the internal combustion engine the more attractive product.

      There is no question that your figure of 20 years is a pipe dream.

      • akmofo February 9, 2018 at 4:29 pm #

        In 20 years there will be no gasoline engine cars sold. It’s that simple. I might be 5 years late or early in my estimation of the time line, but the basic reality remains.

      • akmofo February 9, 2018 at 5:44 pm #

        All the car companies have positioned themselves to deliver electric cars in the next 2 to 3 years, according to their public declarations. Those that are lying and haven’t will likely go bankrupt. They will not receive a bailout. It is also the time I expect Iranian oil exports will be at zero.

        Suddenly EVERYTHING makes economic sense. Funny how that works.

        • Ol' Scratch February 9, 2018 at 8:16 pm #

          Indeed, it is funny that anyone would believe this. PLEASE hang around for the next three years so I can say I told you so. By the way, I’ll have wrung out my Hellcat by then and turned it back over to Chrysler Capital. If you want to pick it up, I could put in a good word for you. Oh, that’s right, you won’t be 18 yet, will you?

          • akmofo February 9, 2018 at 10:00 pm #

            You’ll have wrung out your clickely clack dumb ass mobile doing what, spinning your wheels in the dirt? How exciting for you and the squirrels.

          • Ol' Scratch February 10, 2018 at 4:05 pm #

            LOL! More than likely!

      • trolleybill February 10, 2018 at 12:05 pm #

        I’ve voluntarily gave up vehicle ownership 20 years ago when I was privatized out of a State job and moved from N.E. Ohio to Las Vegas as I flew out and sold all my belongings and became aware I didn’t need a vehicle. Eight years later I returned home to take care of my Mum and was in walking distance of every thing and got a bicycle like I left behind in Vegas. I retired to N.E. FL. 3 years ago and still without a vehicle I took a train down because of a lot of personnel items. Jax FL. has a good public bus system and being a senior they give a free photo ID bus pass. I live a 5 min walk to a bus stop and can go 8 miles downtown or 7 miles to the beach. Inside a 2 mile perimeter I have every store imaginable yet down the road are 1/2 acre lots were chickens in yard and citrus trees show orange and yellow orbs among other colorful tropical and flowers. I’m a proponent of light rail and investigated the interurban which was the modern go between horse and buggy and the automobile. I never been to Florida but studied it thanks to the internet and decided it made sense with the amenities and climate. My all electric 750 sq ft stand alone apt has one unit above and a 8″ wide breezeway to the next unit and have a yard behind and a choice of 3 pools. I can go to the train station but they only run along the east coast and only go to Miami. I would take it to the keys but doesn’t travel down to escape to for a winter respite. If we had light rail everywhere I surely would utilize it. It took me 2 days to make it down to Florida from Cleveland which only stops once a day at about 1am and goes to DC with a 12 hour lay over then on to Jacksonville. So I lived in Southwest, Great Lakes and now Florida without a vehicle or the head aches and costs that accompanies a few tons of a wheeled power plant. Oh! By the way a responder earlier mentioned the stats on converting the liquid fuel vehicles to electric but never mentioned the power plants or the electric grid needed to power them. I’d like to see some research on that. I bicycle and benefit from the exercise and not have to park in some asphalt lagoon but pull up to the door as most stores have bike racks here. I never used it but have an app for Uber and my smart phone has an app for the bus as the Next Bus GPS tells me what minute it will arrive. Oh I wish I had a crystal ball to tell the future to see all these predictions about no liquid fuel cars and I still see people not wanting to give up engine powered personnel vehicles. I see us back at 1900 some day with walkable living arrangements and rail transportation. We will have golf cart sized vehicles and bicycles will be my grasp at a prediction and will go one further that financing a vehicle will be as much a problem as its power source….Peace…:)

        • Ol' Scratch February 10, 2018 at 4:33 pm #

          Hey Trolley. Thanks for the thoughtful and considered post. I myself, never thought I’d find myself in my current conditions 20 years ago either.

          Twenty years ago in 1997-98 (has it really been that long?) I was still in the USAF stationed at Cannon AFB NM. I came back from a one year remote assignment at Kunsan AB ROK at wearing ~196 lbs on my 5’10” frame and found myself officially “fat,” even by the USAF’s admittedly modest standards. So I set myself a goal: get back to 175 lbs, quit or at least moderate my consumption of alcohol (all beer), and increase my overall fitness in recognizance of the fact that I was on the cusp of 40.

          And so I did. Reached and maintained all of my goals within 6 months. Rode 12K miles (1K miles/mo) in both ’97 and ’98, largely by commuting to work 20 miles each way in the warm months, all faithfully logged and documented every step along the way. And I have never felt better, before or since.

          Unfortunately, you can probably guess the rest. In ’99 I met a woman (long since gone, thank god!) who encouraged me to believe that such an ascetic lifestyle was stupid, and so I adopted a more typical American lifestyle. You know the rest.

          I also spent 3 years in the US Army in Hawaii from 1977-1990, where I rode a bicycle from home in Wahiawa to Schofield Barracks every day and first discovered what it was like to actually acknowledge my latent physicality. Purely magical!

          In short, I HEAR YOU good buddy, but some recognizance of the rather dire straights current Americans currently find themselves in with regard to improving their current lot in life is also in order too.

      • GreenAlba February 10, 2018 at 5:53 pm #

        There isn’t much point in talking about wholesale conversion to electric cars anyway without discussing how the extra electricity is going to be generated.

        • GreenAlba February 10, 2018 at 6:48 pm #

          Sorry, Trolleybill, didn’t see your comment saying exactly this before I wrote it. It rarely gets mentioned when people talk about the electrification of everything.

  23. DurangoKid February 9, 2018 at 1:23 pm #

    If you factor in EROEI the current euphoria over tight oil is just that: feeling good for no reason. In terms of net energy, the newest sources of oil are falling behind what was produced at the 1970’s US peak of production. It’s like telling someone to build a bridge out of feathers because a pound of feathers weighs the same as a pound of steel, so they must be the same.

    • Ol' Scratch February 9, 2018 at 8:13 pm #

      Psst! Don’t wake up akmofo and Finca. They’ll be very upset to hear this!

  24. FincaInTheMountains February 9, 2018 at 1:28 pm #

    If only Trump could if not defeat, than at least put the Black Project under a check, the real crisis – which is a crisis of scientific method – could be overcome and technological progress could restart with a vengeance.

    If things came to the state when modern “science” is denying the main achievement of the twentieth century – the Einstein General Relativity theory – and replacing the development of theoretical science with “shut up and calculate” method, no wonder we are regressing.

    Even the World War II anti-bacterial and anti-biotical remedies (which are still being sold in Russia) are better than overpriced shit American pharmaceutical companies are peddling on the market.

    https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7440/13067838433_81e612e433.jpg

    • akmofo February 9, 2018 at 1:48 pm #

      “Shut up and calculate”

      But we can’t!

      We live in an Electric Universe where the quantity of electricity available to us is UNLIMITED. Nikolai Tesla gave us a glimpse to that reality, as did Immanuel Velikovsky and Kristian Birkeland.

      Russia did and does nothing to illuminate this UNLIMITED reality. It is an active partner in the so-called Black Project, that is, the Counter-Reformation and Counter-Enlightenment.

      KGB = CIA = Vatican

      • Ol' Scratch February 9, 2018 at 3:11 pm #

        Let me guess: LSD or Angel Dust?

        • akmofo February 9, 2018 at 3:15 pm #

          Fuck off.

          • Ol' Scratch February 9, 2018 at 3:29 pm #

            Maybe PCP then?

          • akmofo February 9, 2018 at 3:49 pm #

            Go self-medicate yourself on some benzene.

        • Janos Skorenzy February 9, 2018 at 3:55 pm #

          He’s become a disciple of Finc it seems. Not that he’s giving up his own Vatican schtick….

          • FincaInTheMountains February 9, 2018 at 4:32 pm #

            I am against drugs.

            Except for 180-proof sugar-cane moonshine, in reasonable doses.

          • Ol' Scratch February 9, 2018 at 4:59 pm #

            But not in the bong Finc, NOT IN THE BONG!

        • PeteAtomic February 9, 2018 at 4:42 pm #

          Putin works for Frank??

          Holy shit 🙂

  25. GreenAlba February 9, 2018 at 1:53 pm #

    Do you mean phage therapy, Finca? I read a bit about it years ago in New Scientist I think. Very interesting and all because the Soviets couldn’t get access to standard antibiotics, if I remember correctly. I was telling my husband about it a while ago – he didn’t know anything about it, as medics don’t tend to outside of the areas where it’s used.

    Might be the way to go when traditional antibiotics lose their power.

    Support this blog on PatreonSupport this blog on Substack
    Support this blog via Patreon or Substack
    • FincaInTheMountains February 9, 2018 at 4:40 pm #

      No, I mean streptocide and mikoseptin, for example.

      We, Russians, do believe in hi-tech medications and vaccines, not like Americans who prefer to look for various medicinal plants in the public park, cause their medications are so damned expensive.

  26. janet February 9, 2018 at 2:05 pm #

    “And many of those who deny climate change and peak oil firmly believe: Abiotic oil is real…” –TiredoftheTreadmill

    True, and some who do believe in climate change also believe in the possibility of abiotic oil, based on science. In 2009, the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm reported research that suggests crude oil and natural gas can be generated outside of the decomposition of flora and fauna fossils.

    That Swedish Royal Institute of Technology finding provides support for the idea that petroleum and natural gas can form through more than one method. They outline six possible mechanisms that could support the processes described in the abiotic oil theory, creating organic matter from inorganic matter.

  27. janet February 9, 2018 at 2:14 pm #

    “Most of us have children and many on this site even have grandchildren.” –GA

    And some of us care about the seventh generation to come. Seven generation sustainability is the idea that decisions should be considered for their impact on the seventh generation to come. It is inspired by the laws of the Iroquois. The Seventh Generation Amendment (aka The Common Property Amendment) is a proposed amendment to the U.S. Constitution to put ecologically sensitive areas under government control:

    “The right of citizens of the United States to use and enjoy air, water, wildlife, and other renewable resources determined by the Congress to be common property shall not be impaired, nor shall such use impair their availability for the use of future generations”.

    • GreenAlba February 9, 2018 at 2:32 pm #

      Quite so, Janet. I did say it wasn’t just about our own children and grandchildren, as we need to care about other people’s as well – you have extended vertically in addition to my horizontal extension. 🙂

      • Janos Skorenzy February 9, 2018 at 3:53 pm #

        But our own come first as you said. That’s what a Nation is – an extended family.

        • Elrond Hubbard February 11, 2018 at 10:30 am #

          “No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend’s or of thine own were: any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind—and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.” — John Donne

          “Maybe if we felt any loss as keenly as we felt the death of one close to us, human history would be a lot less bloody.” —Commander Riker, Star Trek: The Next Generation

          • GreenAlba February 11, 2018 at 11:27 am #

            Indeed Elrond. Beautiful words.

            I would add, less poetically, those of Edith Cavell, just before she was executed by the Germans in 1915. I remember her photo being on the wall of my high school, with the quote.

            “But this I would say, standing as I do in view of God and eternity, I realize that patriotism is not enough. I must have no hatred or bitterness for anyone.” [Wikiquote]

            “Edith Louisa Cavell… British nurse, humanitarian and spy… celebrated for helping some 200 Allied soldiers escape from German-occupied Belgium during World War I, for which she was arrested… court-martialled, found guilty of treason and executed.”

          • Elrond Hubbard February 11, 2018 at 11:59 am #

            Here in Canada, things tend to be newer than what you find in Scotland, GreenAlba. You can pretty well date a number of locations by the names of streets and institutions built during the First World War or just after. There was an Edith Cavell elementary school (now converted to condominiums) very close to where I grew up, while in another part of town you will find streets named Vimy, Amiens, Ypres and Somme, among others. And where I live now is not far from a Cavell Avenue. God save the Queen!

    • Janos Skorenzy February 9, 2018 at 3:51 pm #

      The Iroquois ended up making war on those who refused to join their League of Peace – thus betraying the real message of their Prophet who inspired it.

  28. Don February 9, 2018 at 2:14 pm #

    I’m gonna fill the tank of my F-350 right now so I don’t have to worry about it no more.

    • janet February 9, 2018 at 2:36 pm #

      F-350 gets about 14 mpg… I hope gasoline does not continue to increase in price. Gas (national averages) has increased from $2.27 a year ago to $2.57 today.

      On Trump’s watch, in just one year, a thirty cent per gallon increase.

      That means only five gallons of gas (not even a half tank) eats up the touted “wage increase” … in only five gallons of gas there goes that $1.50 paycheck increase Ryan tweeted about. But Trump’s buddies get big tax cuts, enough to fuel jets and yachts. Deplorable.

      • Ol' Scratch February 9, 2018 at 3:04 pm #

        My Hellcat gets about 10 on the daily commute, which is thankfully very short (<5 miles daily round trip). But it's a lease, so I'm not wed to the thing forever. It's the people dependent on long commutes – and out west here that can easily be 50-100 miles or more – that will really be up a creek.

  29. janet February 9, 2018 at 3:06 pm #

    Stock market has its worst week since 2008. Millions of Americans (48%) are invested in the stock market, including the deplorables who voted for Trump… who voted against their own best interest.

    • Ol' Scratch February 9, 2018 at 3:09 pm #

      Go ahead and say it… millions of Americans are dupes. But guess what? They still wouldn’t vote for Saint Hillary or any other of the Dem losers!

      • janet February 9, 2018 at 3:39 pm #

        They seem to like to vote for old white christian men… like Biden, who won in 2008 and 2012, and appears to be running for 2020.

        • Ol' Scratch February 9, 2018 at 4:58 pm #

          Mark Blythe is convinced the old gas bag herself will give it a go again in ’20. Never say never! Not until someone’s driven a stake or two through it anyway. Biden would be a nice gag candidate in the mold of Trump, though.

        • outsider February 9, 2018 at 6:23 pm #

          Biden for POTUS in 2020? He should pick Bernie for Veep, then we’d have the first octogenarian ticket.

          • Ol' Scratch February 9, 2018 at 6:33 pm #

            And the death watch would be on!

      • janet February 9, 2018 at 3:44 pm #

        I’m eagerly awaiting sister Ann Coulter’s new book: In Trump We Distrust: E Pluribus Awful!

  30. janet February 9, 2018 at 3:53 pm #

    Trump’s airstrikes on Syria violate Syria’s sovereignty. They are illegal. They have no legal authorization. They violate the Constitution, which gives warmaking power to Congress, not the President. Trump is a war criminal who is murdering Syrians, a crime against humanity. An impeachable offense. Blue wave coming.

    Democrats just flipped the 35th State Assembly seat from Red to Blue since Trump was elected president, and Charlie Cook says it’s clear there’s a blue wave and an ever more forceful blue wave is gathering for the 2018 midterm elections. Some of the seats flipped had gone for Trump by 30% in 2016… and still lost in 2018.

    When Democrats take control of Congress, they will not forget that bombing a sovereign nation without legal authorization is an impeachable offense.

    Support this blog on PatreonSupport this blog on Substack
    Support this blog via Patreon or Substack
    • pequiste February 9, 2018 at 6:37 pm #

      Impeachable offense? Right, just ask Barry Soetoro Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton…on the consequences of bombing the shit out of sovereign nations without legal authorization.

      D or R makes no matter; if the Evil Fuckers want Grenada, Libya, or Serbia bombed, then by golly gosh the place will be bombed.

      The U.N., The court at The Hague, or any international body for jurisprudence for that matter, can go suck an egg.

    • outsider February 9, 2018 at 7:12 pm #

      EVERY war since WWII has been unconstitutional. That was the last one authorized by Congress. Since it became the world hyper-power, the Oligarchs have followed Plato’s dictum: “I affirm that might is right, justice the interest of the stronger.” The rest of the world exists to support our profligate lifestyle, and they must grovel at our fat feet, or suffer the consequences.

      • Ol' Scratch February 9, 2018 at 8:55 pm #

        What outsider said!

        • cbeard February 10, 2018 at 6:16 am #

          What Ol’ Scratch said!

  31. thwack February 9, 2018 at 4:29 pm #

    The cold war ended, the Russians are no longer communist; they are white and Christian…

    so how did we end up with another case of the ass with them?

    (((shakin my head)))

    This is why we lose.

    Fuck this gay, faggety ass planet.

    from space.

    • Janos Skorenzy February 10, 2018 at 8:18 pm #

      There is an advanced Black Civilization called Wakanda. Whites have hidden its existence, but we’re selling tickets to Blacks for a trip there.

  32. tucsonspur February 9, 2018 at 4:32 pm #

    Here’s a couple of oil slicks for ya. A necessary by-product of both production and politics:

    http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3613414/posts

    • thwack February 9, 2018 at 5:18 pm #

      deflection noted.

      • elysianfield February 9, 2018 at 8:05 pm #

        “deflection noted.”

        Thwack,
        Dismissive, superficial response also noted.

  33. PeteAtomic February 9, 2018 at 4:39 pm #

    When the West does gets to the end of the Long Emergency, and things are starting to smell like medieval spirit, what will be the major cultural currents of that society?

    Will there be a new resurgence in the Church? Which church? Maybe in Europe it will be Islam. Perhaps in large parts of the world, Roman Catholicism will once again prove that its feudalistic bureaucracy and organization is why it is still around, like some unregarded cockroach.

    I just hope I’m dead when all that madness is jingle jangled. I wanna die in the last gas operated convertible, drinking the last modern distilled bottle of whiskey, listening to the last rock & roll station, and eating the last 2/3rd pound Monster thickburger from Hardees. 🙂

    • tucsonspur February 9, 2018 at 5:07 pm #

      Hard to say, with pure survival first and foremost. You’re talking organization, and that may be in short supply.

      Anarchy and cannibalism could reign. Maybe you see a softer landing.

      A good, American exit.

    • Ol' Scratch February 9, 2018 at 8:09 pm #

      I’m with you Pete. For the most part, there already has been a resurgence in the Church, in general, over the last 50-75 years or so. Totally hypocritical (as it always is) for the most part, but a resurgence all the same. I remember distinctly back in the 70’s how we all thought that religion was dead and mass consciousness had been raised (Kum-ba-ya!). Wow, was that ever a drug fueled total miscalculation! Now, as we approach 2020, we’re apparently determined to replay the 20th century all over again, albeit on steroids.

      Mankind – and the west is the prime example here – stripped of it’s technological delusions of grandeur, still shares the primitive monkey brain mentality it has always had prior to the cheap energy fueled “industrial revolution.” That’s a fact that’s – predictably – only growing more entrenched as we continue to paint ourselves into corners of our own device. It’s fun to watch from a distance, but unfortunately, not so fun to actually experience up close and personal.

  34. FincaInTheMountains February 9, 2018 at 4:49 pm #

    We live in an Electric Universe where the quantity of electricity available to us is UNLIMITED. Nikolai Tesla gave us a glimpse to that reality, as did Immanuel Velikovsky and Kristian Birkeland. == Mofo

    Tesla, Schmesla – don’t believe everything you read on the Internet.

    Of course there is Black Project in Russia, Khrushchev was blacker than coal, Gorby, may be Andropov.

    Whom do you think CIA cooperated with when they were preparing Oswald to become a patsy for an assassin of US President who came from Russia, or who cooperated with Hillary on making a bogus dossier on Trump?

    I can proudly state that Russian Deep State is much deeper than the American! We have the deepest deep state in the world!

  35. tucsonspur February 9, 2018 at 4:49 pm #

    Let’s party! The glasses are full and overflowing, just like the oil barrels. The Earth is a Sponge. Give her a squeeze, get oil for your toil, if you please:

    https://www.investors.com/politics/commentary/we-are-not-running-out-of-oil-earth-produces-crude/

    Support this blog on PatreonSupport this blog on Substack
    Support this blog via Patreon or Substack
    • Ol' Scratch February 9, 2018 at 7:52 pm #

      OMG! Akmofo is spooing at this one!

  36. FincaInTheMountains February 9, 2018 at 5:05 pm #

    The truth emerges in the Washington swamp piece by piece (Part 2)

    This post is a continuation of the previous one and I want to begin it with the statement that some lodges know perfectly well what is happening in other lodges, even if these lodges belong to another Colored World Project, in which case they do not suffer Hamlet’s indecision.

    So :

    Boston Tea Party – December 16, 1773
    Earlier in June 12, 1773, the British East India Company acquired a monopoly on the purchase of Bengal opium, which makes me wonder what was in those bags thrown overboard during the Boston Tea Party – tea or some other spice.

    As I have mentioned in the previous post that America’s conquest and the construction of the United States was carried out by the quasi-religious organizations, which can be called lodges, and the Founding Fathers’ Democracy was formed as a way of peaceful coexistence of these lodges, of which the most influential was the lodge connected with the Anglican Church, the British monarchy and the West Indian company, which also was a kind of lodge.

    The basis for this compromise was the gentlemen’s agreement of the leaders of the lodges, who survived both the Civil War and the assassination of several presidents, but could not survive the bitching feminism of Hillary Clinton, who obviously hates all gentlemen’s reasons for existence since the time she was moonlighting as Deep Throat during free time off her college studies.

    I write about the collapse of the US political system caused by Hillary for some time now, and four days ago, the US president makes the same conclusion about the political reality in the US, accusing Democrats of treason during the rally in Cincinnati.

    It is true that the next day the White House speaker stated that Trump “joked”, but after the Democrats stated that the deputy director of the FBI, Strzok “joked” when, in letters to his mistress and part-time FBI agent, he referred to a secret society that should overthrow President Trump, God himself ordered Trump to use this to apply the technology of Overton windows to put his enemies on the defense.

    And yesterday he almost word for word voiced my post about Hillary and the economic crisis that the fall of the Dow Jones by 1125 points was organized by the same secret society. This secret society, also known as the “deep state”, is a product of the disintegration of the US political system and I think that if not today, then on Monday, President Trump knew in advance of the Clintonoid-induced fall in the Dow Jones and how they would be on the camera enjoying the fall of the indexes, reflected on the TV screens showing Trump’s performance in Cincinnati.

    All this resembles the Clintonoid argument that President Roosevelt knew in advance about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, but allowed it to happen in order to persuade Congress to declare war on Hitler Germany.

    https://thinkprogress.org/trump-claims-stock-market-is-rigged-against-him-3cee051d4736/

    And from the above link it follows that this disintegration happened already in 2000, and only George W. Bush’s selfless struggle did not allow Hillary Clinton to place her puppet Al Gore into the White House.

    Moreover, I think that the reminder from President Yeltsin on the eve of the election in 2000 to Bill Clinton of Russian nuclear triad has greatly contributed to the fact that the team of Jeb and George Bush have the determination to win, since when they sat in their Florida headquarters after the elections and waited for attacks of Bastinda’s professional killers from the corps of the flying monkeys ala president Salvador Allende, they understood perfectly well that Yeltsin was not joking and their loss would be the loss of entire mankind.

    And the fact that Yeltsin said these words in Beijing, sitting next to Chairman Jiang Zemin, makes us remember once again who brought Putin to power and who was the architect of the current geopolitics of the Russian Federation.

    In view of these circumstances, imagine my astonishment yesterday, when, after a year and a half of silence in the middle of President Trump’s harassment by the united republican-democratic establishment, President George W. Bush announced that he had no doubt that Russia had interfered in the US elections in 2016. But just a few minutes later the next piece of truth surfaced when I read in the yahoo newsletter that the FBI snitch is giving testimony to the congress about the so-called “Uranium One” case, during which the congress investigates the participation of Hillary Clinton in the sale of American uranium to Russia.

    The fact is that under the intervention in the US elections one can understand not only Trump’s mythical cooperation with Russian intelligence to discredit Hillary Clinton, to whom the American court issued a statement that the Democratic Party has the right to forge the results of the primaries and Russian hackers in vain penetrated the server of Democratic party in order to publish on the eve of the election documents on the forgery of the results of the primaries of 2016 in favor of Hillary Clinton.

    And Trump does not have such a certificate and therefore he needs to prove that Russia intervened in the elections when it handed over Trump’s files to Hillary Clinton’s henchmen, unlike Hillary Clinton, who just needs to prove Trump wanted to get a Russian file on her.

    That is why it is best for Trump if this is proven by the special prosecutor Mueller, whom the congress authorized to investigate any interference by Russia in the elections in the US, and the investigation of the Uranium One case, in which Mueller is involved up to his ears, will undoubtedly contribute to the proper understanding by him of his mandate, since it was Mueller who absolved Hillary from criminal prosecution in connection with this case.

    And the third piece of truth that emerged yesterday in the Washington swamp was the stylistic similarity of the court decision in which it opined that Hillary Clinton forged the results of the primaries, but there is nothing wrong with this, since the Democratic Party is a private entity and they can choose whatever candidate in the national presidential election, with the decision of the sports arbitration that Russian athletes were illegally excluded from participating in the Olympic Games, but this does not mean that they can participate in them, since Olympic Committee is a private shop and they can invite or not invite anyone they wish.

    • Ol' Scratch February 9, 2018 at 5:12 pm #

      The basis for this compromise was the gentlemen’s agreement of the leaders of the lodges, who survived both the Civil War and the assassination of several presidents, but could not survive the bitching feminism of Hillary Clinton, who obviously hates all gentlemen’s reasons for existence since the time she was moonlighting as Deep Throat during free time off her college studies.

      Priceless! Now that thar’s [sic] funny, I don’t care who you are! In the witch’s defense, she’s still working off all that pent up aggression from Bill’s philandering all those years – and even worse – making her carry Webb Hubble’s butt-ugly spawn to term.

  37. janet February 9, 2018 at 5:38 pm #

    “The only way that Donald Trump can be a two-term president is if they run another Hillary Clinton, including Hillary Clinton. You think she’s gone? She’s not gone.”

    “But the Democratic establishment hasn’t gone anywhere. They’re the same guys, the same donors, the same guys on TV who support them wall to wall. Bernie Sanders is the most popular politician in the country, and you would be hard-pressed to name two Bernie Sanders supporters on all of television,” said the TYT host.

    He concluded: “So those guys will try to regain control, they’re trying to do it right now. They’ve got a thousand dirty tricks. The only way that Donald Trump can get reelected is if the Democratic establishment wins, and they have another status quo, no change, pro-establishment, pro-elite candidate.” –Cenk Uygur

  38. janet February 9, 2018 at 5:42 pm #

    You think Trump is going after MS-13? No, here is who Trump has just deported to Jordan.

    https://cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/180208121330-palestinian-deportee-5-exlarge-169.jpg

    • janet February 9, 2018 at 5:48 pm #

      Ohio Congressman Tim Ryan describes Adi as a “pillar” of their community, who creates jobs with his multiple businesses and distributes hundreds of turkeys to the poor on Thanksgiving. He had lived in the United States for 39 years before being deported by Trump.

  39. Janos Skorenzy February 9, 2018 at 6:50 pm #

    https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2018/02/john-perry-barlow-internet-pioneer-1947-2018

    One of the last remotely decent progressives has departed for the Realm of the Lute and the Lyre.

    • janet February 9, 2018 at 7:00 pm #

      Yes, janos, you could learn something from Barlow about race. Barlow stood by his vision, of “a world that all may enter without privilege or prejudice accorded by race, economic power, military force, or station of birth… a world where anyone, anywhere may express his or her beliefs, no matter how singular, without fear of being coerced into silence or conformity.”

      We might think of Barlow’s code, which he laid out in a list he called the “25 Principles of Adult Behavior,” as a series of instructions for turning life’s difficulties into challenges, an adventurous reframing of what it means to grow up. For Barlow, that meant defying authority when it imposed arbitrary barriers and proprietary rules on the once-wild-open spaces of the internet.

      But being a grown-up also meant accepting full responsibility for one’s behavior, life’s purpose, and the ethical treatment of oneself and others. See his list below, notable not so much for its originality but for its plainspoken reminder of the simple, shared wisdom that gets drowned in the assaultive noise of modern life. Such uncomplicated idealism was at the center of Perry’s life and work.

      1. Be patient. No matter what.

      2. Don’t badmouth: Assign responsibility, not blame. Say nothing of another you wouldn’t say to him.

      3. Never assume the motives of others are, to them, less noble than yours are to you.

      4. Expand your sense of the possible.

      5. Don’t trouble yourself with matters you truly cannot change.

      6. Expect no more of anyone than you can deliver yourself.

      7. Tolerate ambiguity.

      8. Laugh at yourself frequently.

      9. Concern yourself with what is right rather than who is right.

      10. Never forget that, no matter how certain, you might be wrong.

      11. Give up blood sports.

      12. Remember that your life belongs to others as well. Don’t risk it frivolously.

      13. Never lie to anyone for any reason. (Lies of omission are sometimes exempt.)

      14. Learn the needs of those around you and respect them.

      15. Avoid the pursuit of happiness. Seek to define your mission and pursue that.

      16. Reduce your use of the first personal pronoun.

      17. Praise at least as often as you disparage.

      18. Admit your errors freely and soon.

      19. Become less suspicious of joy.

      20. Understand humility.

      21. Remember that love forgives everything.

      22. Foster dignity.

      23. Live memorably.

      24. Love yourself.

      25. Endure.

      • Walter B February 9, 2018 at 7:06 pm #

        Serious JJ, have you ever even attempted to embrace ANY of those 25 items yourself? Humor me, please.

        • Ol' Scratch February 9, 2018 at 8:53 pm #

          Good advice generally, but sounds a bit “new age-y” to me as well.

        • Janos Skorenzy February 10, 2018 at 3:17 pm #

          She is more like Barlow from Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot. One of the greatest Vampires who wandered this world for centuries seeking a Home, and upon finding it in Salem’s Lot, turned the whole town into Vampires.

      • Janos Skorenzy February 10, 2018 at 2:27 am #

        Some of that is crap, like giving up the blood sports. Some of it is good, some really good – but only for your own people. You should meet the “other”, the stranger, the alien, with dignity and deep reserve. You should meet the enemy with contempt and hatred to his face, but be not blind to his power nor underestimate his cunning.

        Again, in a Sacred Order, where even the Enemy was understandable and decent in their own way, some of that might not be necessary. War would be between Warriors only. And by praising such a worthy enemy, one would be praising themselves.

        One of the Black Tribes the White South Africans defeated would not hurt a household of women and children found undefended. Chivalry? Taboo? I’m not sure anyone ever found out, but they went easier on them because of it.

  40. BuckP February 9, 2018 at 7:21 pm #

    Newsweek on 2/5/18 reported that China is now building a new nuclear powered submarine run by artificial intelligence that can think for itself with enough firepower to destroy an entire continent. What could possibly go wrong? Maybe AI will take care of mankind so Ma nature won’t have too! Now that’s a scary thought!
    Oh hell! It’s Friday night! Time go drink a few cold brews, listen to some tunes, and forget about the bullshit! Viva, Las Vegas!

    Support this blog on PatreonSupport this blog on Substack
    Support this blog via Patreon or Substack
    • Walter B February 9, 2018 at 7:39 pm #

      Hey Buck, we can still hoist a few back and chat here as well! You know, the interesting thing about what you have posted here is that any country that built such a device and ran it by AI, might not feel compelled to put their own name on the beast but that of another maybe even more belligerent nation now couldn’t they? They might even call it Plausible Deniability. What a concept.

      • Ol' Scratch February 9, 2018 at 7:49 pm #

        Damn Walter, you’re Johnny on the spot with that observation! I wonder which country that might be?

        But yeah, that’s the next logical iteration of AI, isn’t it? Pretty damn sobering. Especially considering that if you thought of it here just musing, you can bet your ass one of the Pentagon’s whiz-kids probably thought of it ten years back or more.

        • Walter B February 9, 2018 at 8:07 pm #

          Well I did serve my time and I do know how they think. I am always sadly amazed how civilians (and none of you guys here BTW) have not come to realize that since the dawn of time, the absolute primary tool of warfare is DECEPTION! Trojan Hose anybody?

          • Walter B February 9, 2018 at 8:08 pm #

            Horse that is…

          • Ol' Scratch February 9, 2018 at 8:49 pm #

            LOL! Hose presents definite comedic possibilities!

          • ozone February 9, 2018 at 9:02 pm #

            Walter,
            Well, I’ve noticed that Russia has done nothing to disabuse the American Jingo media (that would be, most of it) that it has the textbook definition of an invincible military. I’ve been watching their emphasis on [relatively] cheap, *excellent* and *superior* missile technology advancement, while the American MIC is mired in political job-creating bullshit of every state in the Union cobbling together the latest versions of obsolete (and vulnerable) WW2 weapons. …And when we try to replicate that kind of missile tech, failing miserably. But hey, “jobs” in every state and a politician in every pocket.

            That would be what we’d call a particularly dangerous hubris, lead by a firm belief in one’s own bullshit. (Meanwhile, KNOWING it’s all bullshit! Absolutely gobsmacking.) Would that be *self*-deception?

            (I’ve not seen too much on what the Chinese have sequestered up their sleeve, but I’m not convinced the Russians haven’t shared a few choice things to blunt the American adventurism. They are keeping their cards fairly close to their vests, aside from a few instances of justified bluster. “Stay ‘way from Chinee-make islan’, Yankee sailor boy!”)

          • ozone February 9, 2018 at 9:04 pm #

            Sorry!
            …that *America* has the textbook definition (etc.)…
            Should have proofread that more carefully; I know what *I* meant, but that’s no help. 😉

          • Walter B February 9, 2018 at 9:34 pm #

            Are you aware OZ that going back to September 2000, Dick Cheney’s PNAC (Rebuilding America’s Defenses) put forth the idea for the future of America’s military to be smaller, mobile strike forces, the control of space and cyberspace and a move to dehumanize and computerize America’s military machine?
            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_for_the_New_American_Century

            These men know that less than 1% on Americans ever serve in the nation’s armed forces and that over time, armed forces themselves will be very, very short of capable troops. Warfare has already moved beyond missiles, ships, submarine and islands that you buy on Amazon. They only manufacture these things as vehicles of profit sort of like fireworks on the 4th of July. The future is here and it is now. It is also very, very scary.

          • ozone February 10, 2018 at 9:31 am #

            Walter,
            Thanks for the reminder of that portion of the Infernal Document. And, yeah, it’s all going to end very badly as it continues to be pursued. Fun parameters and goals laid out by a claque of psychopaths! What could possibly go wrong?

          • elysianfield February 10, 2018 at 6:22 pm #

            “Trojan Hose anybody?”

            …AND…sometimes a cigar is simply a cigar….

        • Janos Skorenzy February 10, 2018 at 2:31 am #

          Remember that original Star Trek episode where the Enterprise found a planet that had been at war for centuries – a war game run by computers with real casualties. When a “hit” occurred, people would willingly enter extermination chambers. They explained that this Game insured mutual survival via acceptable losses of population and no losses of infrastructure or property.

          • outsider February 10, 2018 at 2:20 pm #

            Was that the one before William Shatner became Captain Kirk?

          • Janos Skorenzy February 10, 2018 at 3:13 pm #

            No, not the later prequel series. But the original Shatner and Nimoy series – the Eternal Star Trek.

      • BuckP February 9, 2018 at 9:44 pm #

        Interesting comment Walter! I never thought of that and it could very well be ours. Operation Mockingbird still alive and well perhaps!
        Per Catherine Fitts, the DOD and HUD had over 21trillion in “undocumentable adjustments” on their books between 1998 and 2015. Dark money is moving from the Treasury through HUD and DOD to someplace unknown. All this is unconstitutional, of course! Total amount of dark money could be more than 40 trillion. That is a lot of Maglev trains, light rail, veterans’ hospitals, highways, cancer research, free college, free healthcare, etc. These trillions are being used for something we are not privy to.
        Reference Dr. Mark Skdmore/Solari Report

        • Walter B February 9, 2018 at 9:51 pm #

          If I found half as many intelligent people our here in the real world as I find here on this site, I would have more than enough encouragement to give the fight in front of me an effort which the opposition could not stand against! Thank you for being wise and being here friend.

          • BuckP February 10, 2018 at 1:59 am #

            Thank you too Walter! Truth-tellers are hard to find in this day and age!

        • akmofo February 10, 2018 at 3:13 pm #

          These numbers translate to a trillion a year over a 20 year period. That’s the entire US budget basically. How can that be possible?

        • Ol' Scratch February 10, 2018 at 4:01 pm #

          By most accounts, at least $2T of DoD/MICC skim was written off in the 9-11 extravaganza, although that was a relatively minor benefit of the greatest scam every perpetrated in modern history.

          • BuckP February 10, 2018 at 9:17 pm #

            I agree with you Ol’ Scratch. A lot of exotic, secret technology was used that day on our people (and foreigners) along with a lot of money moving around. Our constitution has been under heavy assault ever since that coup d’etat. The perpetrators, whoever they were, had our nuclear launch codes and threatened to blow Air Force One with W on it out of the sky.
            Reference Webster Tarpley – “Angel is Next” on you tube for an excellent synopsis.

      • Janos Skorenzy February 10, 2018 at 2:34 am #

        That was the deal Klatu offered Man: rule by a race of Police Robots like Gort – who would destroy any planet that threatened Galactic Peace.

    • Walter B February 9, 2018 at 7:46 pm #

      And hey, the US AI drone ship could go after the Chinese drone subs…..

      http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2018/02/05/new-unmanned-sea-hunter-ship-could-revolutionize-us-navy-operations.html

      Oh boy it is so exciting technology promises to bring us all a New Golden Age of Prosperity through unmanned AI warfare.

  41. DavidS February 9, 2018 at 8:04 pm #

    Increasing oil production: how to burn through your reserves exponentially faster.

    • Ol' Scratch February 9, 2018 at 8:50 pm #

      My thought as well. Might actually be a good idea, in a ass-backward sort of way.

  42. ozone February 9, 2018 at 8:39 pm #

    I have nothing to disagree with in James’ analysis and prognostications. Anyone that sees a savior (either technical or human) on the near/far horizon is a deluded dreamer, or a purposeful bullshitter… not unlike our carnival barker of a president.
    Prepare; if you’re damn lucky, you or your progeny may squeeze through to the other side of a world strictly constrained by natural limits, not roadsters destined to fly to their inevitable destruction in the asteroid belt. (Oopsie, missed that cool Mars orbit didja?)
    Sorry folks; no one gets away from the dirt they are made of, they just get put under it or scattered by the scavengers.
    Good luck.

    • Walter B February 9, 2018 at 10:00 pm #

      We can only be saved from this morass on a spiritual level and there is only one way to do that. In respect for those that do not Believe and their opinions I will leave it at that. But if a man can sleep, perchance to dream, what heights can then be achieved, by those spirits that acquire flight of their own. Aye, there’s the rub.

      • Janos Skorenzy February 10, 2018 at 2:35 am #

        He hates all that spiritual stuff. Anarchist Materialist.

      • Ol' Scratch February 10, 2018 at 9:00 am #

        You have a valid point Walter, but religiously inclined people almost always go wrong in equating being spiritual with belonging to this or that religion. Just as all energy is local (which is why the ignorant screeds above about an “electric universe” are so misguided), all faith is inherently personal. Religion opportunistically slaps a hierarchical structure on top of that and first politicizes it, then more often than not, monetizes it as well for good measure. I’d go so far as to say that religion is the anti-faith, as most true believers are simply too lazy and too scared to consider true faith on a personal level, so they seek out a hierarchical structure that will tell them what to believe, what to do, and perhaps most importantly, how much to give.

        • Janos Skorenzy February 10, 2018 at 2:10 pm #

          On one Polynesian Island, the Priest goes out onto a promontory and calls a Whale to come in, they being important in this religion. If you called, would they come? It’s Who You Know, just like in ordinary life. Religion introduces you to the ruling Spirits and Powers of a given “realm”.

          Shakespeare: I can call spirits from the vasty deep.
          Why so can I. So can any man. But will they
          come when you call.

          Think I got it right. Don’t know the Play though.

          A Revelation is a Tide into this World from the Infinite. The religions are the tidal pools that remain after it goes out. But thru them, people can get a taste of the infinite. And thru the rituals and symbols the Prophet and his Disciples create, a Way to commune with the Infinite and return to it.

          Thus it’s inherently social. But yes, we need personal experience, not just belief. Belief is just the first step. I mean you’re unlikely to take a second if you think there’s nothing there to begin with. Call it a working hypothesis. If you want to go it all alone, you may go wrong – or just end up reinventing the light bulb.

          • Ol' Scratch February 10, 2018 at 3:55 pm #

            Very nice! You’ve obviously given this a lot of thought. I’m genuinely impressed!

            But in answer to your final question, YES, I DO want to go it alone, as I believe everyone of us of us ultimately needs to. Faith, which is a quantum step beyond mere belief, is inherently personal, and no man can let another prescribe it for him or her.

            By the way, I’m also genuinely impressed with your apparent new posting style. Much more succinct and at least occasionally thoughtful and forgiving. Another quantum step forward IMO. Good for you, Janos!

            I would only add that although culturally accepted rituals are certainly useful – especially for the neophytes – in developing and/or thriving cultures, they are also equally useful as tools for exploitation for thoroughly calcified cultures such as ours.
            Western culture is now so far beyond its sell by date – religiously, philosophically, politically, economically, and every otherway-ly [sic] – that even its most ardent supporters have grown grossly cynical and self-centered.

          • Janos Skorenzy February 11, 2018 at 3:12 pm #

            Yes, the root of Culture is Cult. Our culture is very corrupt of course, but I’m hoping for a Renaissance and a 2.0. Won’t happen without Christianity. As T.S Elliot said, it would take centuries for a completely new culture to form – and not one of us would be comfortable in it if we were magically brought there. And it would mean a new Cult for the Culture to form around.

        • Walter B February 10, 2018 at 4:21 pm #

          Organized religion is the work of man. All of the works of man are flawed, some are even seriously fucked up. However, we cannot allow the flaws of man or organized religion to keep us from the Truth.

          • Ol' Scratch February 10, 2018 at 4:37 pm #

            Agreed, Walter.

    • ozone February 10, 2018 at 9:15 am #

      Walter,
      Agreed. Now, just what form a spiritual awakening may take is anybody’s guess at this remove. I don’t think it going to be groveling and petitioning before an altar erected to an invisible sky-ghost though. (We can see how well that’s working for everyone currently engaged in doing just that.)

      But *first* a reckoning will be enacted. There is no way people brain-trained to the screen swipe and thumb twiddle are going to emerge from their cocoons until the million pound shit-hammer descends. (That would look an awful lot like deprivation.)

      • ozone February 10, 2018 at 11:44 am #

        (See thoughts on hierarchical religion as “anti-faith” by Ol’ Scratch just above.)

        • Janos Skorenzy February 10, 2018 at 2:13 pm #

          What about that Scripture, The Old Farmer’s Almanac? And the ritual of planting by the phases of the moon? What say you, heathen (old believer)? Negger (man of the earth)?

  43. FincaInTheMountains February 9, 2018 at 10:30 pm #

    The truth emerges in the Washington swamp piece by piece (Part 3)
    Or the Great Quest of a Man without a Biography Devin Nunes

    Devin Nunes, after the publication of the memorandum named after him, went out on offensive in earnest.

    It was Nunes who initiated the connection of the Uranium One case to the case of Hillary Clinton’s collaboration with some part of the Russian government that compiled the Trump’s dossier, which fell into the hands of the British spy Steele and through him served as the basis for the FISA court’s warrant to eavesdrop on Trump’s counselor Page.

    And the case of Uranium One is a matter of the conflict of interests of Hillary Clinton, on the one hand, as the Secretary of State allowing the purchase of American uranium by a Russian firm, and on the other receiving money from buyers of this uranium, let through third parties, but receiving. And the way he gave this interview did not leave any doubt for Trump’s supporters that this episode was not the only case of trade in US foreign policy by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, especially considering that before buying Uranium One Russia almost free of charge transferred its weapons-grade uranium and weapons-grade plutonium to the United States as an indemnity for the loss in the Cold War.

    And I would be very surprised if it turns out that Putin, Shoigu and Lavrov did not take an interest in these counter-agents of Hillary Clinton in Moscow, in particular the question of whether their cooperation with the US State Department is deeper and longer-term than simply compiling the Trump’s file and not whether they are connected now with someone in the government of Medvedev or in the United Russia party, which Medvedev is leading and a Presidential candidate from which Putin refused to be.

    The latter is all the more interesting because Nunes is a man without a biography: he was born on a farm, graduated from an agricultural college, for ten years he disappeared wherever he was, and now he is a congressman from a specially created Congressional District, and then the Chairman of the Congressional Intelligence Committee.

    In addition to Trump’s statement accusing Democrats of high treason, he gave a couple of interviews in which he informed the registered US voters that the committee of the Congress on Intelligence he leads, in addition to the FBI, is investigating the State Department for its involvement in illegally obtaining permission to eavesdrop on Trump’s adviser Page, who also turned out to be an FBI agent.

    And you will not believe it, but this Sunday, Victoria Nuland gave an interview about this, and during this interview her eyes glistened damply, her nose plopped, and her voice broke, so that she seemed to be holding back tears by the questions posed to her. As it was felt that she listened to Nunes’ interview and suddenly lost her sense of impunity for her actions as Deputy of Hillary Clinton. It felt that she knew something about the biography of Nunes that destroys her faith in the intercession by Hillary Clinton and the view of the sky through a caged window already loomed before her eyes.

    • Ol' Scratch February 10, 2018 at 9:11 am #

      The latter is all the more interesting because Nunes is a man without a biography: he was born on a farm, graduated from an agricultural college, for ten years he disappeared wherever he was, and now he is a congressman from a specially created Congressional District, and then the Chairman of the Congressional Intelligence Committee.

      Classic profile of a deep state agent. This saga’s going to uncover some very interesting stuff before it’s all over, although most of the American plebes will have no idea what any of it is about. Hillary’s coven is definitely in the skullduggery up to her beady little eyeballs.

  44. FincaInTheMountains February 10, 2018 at 9:14 am #

    The Amazon-Alexa’s index of popularity of the Kunstler site has frozen for two days on a double-Angel’s number 181,181, which, of course, is a complete statistical improbability.

    https://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/kunstler.com

    https://angelnumbersmeaning.com/angel-number-181-meaning-and-symbolism/

    We’ve been noticed, we’ve been warned.

    • Ol' Scratch February 10, 2018 at 9:25 am #

      Well, we’re trending upward anyway.

  45. Ol' Scratch February 10, 2018 at 9:19 am #

    Classic spy vs. spy.

    *********************
    “It’s a Really Weird One”
    The inside scoop on the New York Times’ Russian spy story from the guy who reported it.
    By ISAAC CHOTINER

    FEB 09, 201810:14 PM

    Isaac Chotiner: If someone said to you, “Matt, I haven’t read your story. You have 15 seconds. What should I take away from it?” It’s such a crazy story that I want to know what you’d say.

    Matthew Rosenberg: It’s a really weird one, and it’s a hard one to do in 15 seconds. But let me see if I can try. The topline is that American spies went out looking for these hacking tools that the NSA had created that had been stolen. And they found a Russian who said he could sell it all, but said, “You are also going to get all the kompromat on Donald Trump. The sex tape. All of it.” The Americans were like, “Oh, God, we don’t really want that, we want those hacking tools,” so they kept negotiating.

    It’s basically a story about what a weird, kind of strange, difficult time this is. Spy games happen all the time, but you need a confluence of circumstances [for this]: You need an election with Russian interference. You then need a president to win and deny interference ever happened and say there is no collusion. You need the Russians to say, “Oh, wow, let’s take advantage of this. This really worked out. Let’s make it worse and start selling this stuff off.” And you need that dossier to exist, and get the idea in the public imagination that this stuff is out there. And you need all these things to come together to get this truly bizarre thing where American spies, who aren’t supposed to spy on American citizens—full stop—are suddenly confronted with [the idea of], “Wait, a possible foreign agent wants to sell us a sex tape of the president?” That’s not something they usually do.

    ********************

    https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/02/the-nyts-crazy-russian-spy-story-explained-by-its-author.html

    Support this blog on PatreonSupport this blog on Substack
    Support this blog via Patreon or Substack
    • FincaInTheMountains February 10, 2018 at 9:42 am #

      Devin Nunes was planted into US Congress in 2003, during W. presidency. A very long-distance sniper’s shot into 2018, between W. and his buddy Putin?

      Still think that W. is a village idiot?

      • outsider February 10, 2018 at 2:12 pm #

        I do! W is a village idiot!

        • Ol' Scratch February 10, 2018 at 3:30 pm #

          And a very useful one at that!

        • pequiste February 10, 2018 at 6:04 pm #

          And gets a very handsome government pension for it too:

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhmdEq3JhoY

          It is we who are the idiots for actually voting for such persons: W. Slick Willy, Barry O……

    • volodya February 10, 2018 at 12:32 pm #

      Seems that with every passing day it looks more and more like it was the Clinton gang and their Deep State allies that were colluding with Russkis to sway the election. The CIA is all wide-eyed innocence, oh no, not us, we didn’t want to be seen to be buying scurrilous information on Trump.

      Sure, like we were born yesterday.

      Money talks, bullshit walks. Follow the money. Always follow the money.

      • elysianfield February 10, 2018 at 6:41 pm #

        Volodya,
        Any meddling, by any entity, in our elections is completely a non-issue. Any Country that could expect to enhance their interests if possible by determining a favorable outcome for themselves is a given. We do it to others when we can, they do it to us insofar as they are able.

        What we should be concerned with is our own agencies who are charged with preventing this meddling from occurring…Was an external state found to be attempting to manipulate an outcome? Were they successful? Who’s job was it to keep this from happening? NSA? FBI? CIA?

        If Russia was successful in their meddling…who’s ass do we fry? With oversight authority comes responsibility….

  46. FincaInTheMountains February 10, 2018 at 9:59 am #

    Hillary is accused of getting a bribe the sale of US uranium to Russia, but if combined with Megatons to Megawatts Program, it turns out that she took uranium from Russia for a nominal fee, and then sold it back for a lots of money, and for this, she also requested a bribe.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megatons_to_Megawatts_Program

    What a woman!

  47. Being There February 10, 2018 at 10:50 am #

    Great post on our energy reality. And speaking about techno-triumphalism……
    Let’s talk about Elon Musk sending a rocket into space and leaving what I call traveling 3-D graffiti in space….

    If there is intelligent life out there, what do you think they’ll make of us? More clown-like than Trumpy?

    SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket flung that Tesla car on a path that goes beyond Mars….mhmm.

    http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-spacex-falcon-heavy-orbit-20180207-story.html

    • Ol' Scratch February 10, 2018 at 3:29 pm #

      Great points. Even among many of us lowly mere mortals, the hubris of the techno-triumphalists in our midst seems desperately comedic. Which signals loud and clear that fear of the inevitable (techno -failure) is what’s driving all of this.

    • stelmosfire February 10, 2018 at 7:41 pm #

      Hi BT, Here’s a selfie of Musk’s roadster on the way to Mars. I think the energy could have been better invested elsewhere.
      https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html

  48. Elrond Hubbard February 10, 2018 at 11:30 am #

    Montana state worker refuses demand from ICE to help round up undocumented immigrants — quits job instead

    https://www.rawstory.com/2018/02/montana-state-worker-refuses-demand-ice-help-round-undocumented-immigrants-quits-job-instead/

    “Jordon Dyrdahl-Roberts had a safe government job as a legal secretary with the Montana Department of Labor and Industry, but on Wednesday he quit it all when he was asked to comply with subpoenas for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

    “‘So, yeah, about that. I put in my two weeks notice. I work at Montana Department of Labor. There were going to be ICE subpoenas for information that would end up being used to hunt down & deport undocumented workers,’ Dyrdahl-Roberts tweeted Wednesday after quitting his job. ‘It would have been my responsibility to prepare the information and hand them off to ICE. I refuse to aid in the breaking up of families. I refuse to just “follow orders.” This isn’t an easy decision as it puts me in a delicate financial position.’

    “The initial tweet has now spread by 14,000 retweets and has

    “‘When I put it out on Twitter, I wasn’t expecting it to get the legs it did,’ he told the Independent-Record.

    “It isn’t as if he comes from a wealthy family that can save him from being unemployeed. He explained on twitter that he has a toddler at home and an ‘underemployed wife in graduate school.’ This was a step too far.”

    Principle above personal interest — surely Kim Davis would approve.

    • Janos Skorenzy February 10, 2018 at 2:16 pm #

      False principle. Your principles are going to shatter this country into pieces. California is now a sanctuary state – and Whites are beginning to flee the once lovely San Francisco.

  49. beantownbill. February 10, 2018 at 11:35 am #

    BT, I know that Musk is a huckster, that all his businesses would have gone under without governmental and private financial aid, and that, yes, you could say this is space graffiti.

    But come on, I find the picture of Starman in the Tesla with the globe of Earth behind “him” uplifting and poignant. I admit to being a space nut, and I won’t go into why I am that way, but you have to have some appreciation of the image – I find it spiritual; a representation of man’s striving for the infinite.

    • FincaInTheMountains February 10, 2018 at 12:39 pm #

      The launch is significant, but not a breakthrough, although it certainly is a step in the right direction.

      So you’re writing America off too early, it will still show itself, and not only as the second edition of the Third Reich.

      As for flight to Mars, this is still nonsense. Outside the Earth’s magnetosphere, cosmic rays will penetrate any protection except for a double solenoid and kill all life within a maximum of 15 minutes.

      And for a superconducting double solenoid, you need not 64 tons, but 64 thousand tons. So Mars will have to wait, but on the Moon, apparently the first to land all the same will be an American who even will mine there the first ton of thermonuclear fuel.

      http://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/8912/#comment-337786

    • Janos Skorenzy February 10, 2018 at 2:21 pm #

      Almost done with Pillar in the Sky. He makes some good points: thousands died in early aviation. No one cared – it was just too damn exciting and promising. Another and to your point: NASA succeeded in making some of the most exciting events in human history into a dull and boring routine. No marketing to ordinary people at all. That mistake won’t be made again.

      A parallel to the first point: In one ice storm in New York, hundreds of people were electrocuted as lines came down. No one thought of giving it all up though. It was too good.

    • Being There February 10, 2018 at 4:09 pm #

      Well, B. I know its a cool image. but…..then you realize we just sent some expensive trash into space.

  50. Janos Skorenzy February 10, 2018 at 2:27 pm #

    Orthodox Patriarch Anthony of England (a Russian emigrant) hated the spirit of the Gothic as epitomized in the spires of the Cathedrals. To him it symbolized man seeking God – an implicit denial of the Incarnation and God coming to Man.

    Interesting take. Not saying I agree necessarily. But certainly the Promethean Project can get out of control. And a validation of Huntington’s putting Orthodoxy as its own Civilization separate from Western Christendom.

    Support this blog on PatreonSupport this blog on Substack
    Support this blog via Patreon or Substack
    • tucsonspur February 10, 2018 at 5:03 pm #

      I guess one could say that God came to Man as painted on the Sistine Chapel. (“The Creation of Adam”). But the fingers never touch. Aren’t the spires the result of that Gap between man and God?

      • Janos Skorenzy February 11, 2018 at 3:07 pm #

        No man can see God and live, what to speak of touching God. After Moses came down from the Burning Bush, his face was so bright that people couldn’t even look at him.

        The spires are perhaps antennas, trying to catch a wave a la the Beach Boys.

    • FincaInTheMountains February 10, 2018 at 6:11 pm #

      And a validation of Huntington’s putting Orthodoxy as its own Civilization separate from Western Christendom.

      You mean Western heresy? It was the West that split away from Christianity in 1054.

      • Janos Skorenzy February 10, 2018 at 11:14 pm #

        Work and effect righteousness for the Night cometh when no man shall labor. JS remembering from somewhere in the Bible. I can hear the clanking of your chain of sins right thru the monitor.

        Encyclical of Pope Leo XIII promulgated on 28 December 1878.

        QUOD APOSTOLICI MUNERIS (On Socialism)

        To the Patriarchs, Primates, Archbishops, and Bishops of the Catholic World in Grace and Communion with the Apostolic See.

        At the very beginning of Our pontificate, as the nature of Our apostolic office demanded, we hastened to point out in an encyclical letter addressed to you, venerable brethren, the deadly plague that is creeping into the very fibers of human society and leading it on to the verge of destruction; at the same time We pointed out also the most effectual remedies by which society might be restored and might escape from the very serious dangers which threaten it. But the evils which We then deplored have so rapidly increased that We are again compelled to address you, as though we heard the voice of the prophet ringing in Our ears: “Cry, cease not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet.”1 You understand, venerable brethren, that We speak of that sect of men who, under various and almost barbarous names, are called socialists, communists, or nihilists, and who, spread over all the world, and bound together by the closest ties in a wicked confederacy, no longer seek the shelter of secret meetings, but, openly and boldly marching forth in the light of day, strive to bring to a head what they have long been planning—the overthrow of all civil society whatsoever.

        Surely these are they who, as the sacred Scriptures testify, “Defile the flesh, despise dominion and blaspheme majesty.”2 They leave nothing untouched or whole which by both human and divine laws has been wisely decreed for the health and beauty of life. They refuse obedience to the higher powers, to whom, according to the admonition of the Apostle, every soul ought to be subject, and who derive the right of governing from God; and they proclaim the absolute equality of all men in rights and duties. They debase the natural union of man and woman, which is held sacred even among barbarous peoples; and its bond, by which the family is chiefly held together, they weaken, or even deliver up to lust. Lured, in fine, by the greed of present goods, which is “the root of all evils which some coveting have erred from the faith,” they assail the right of property sanctioned by natural law; and by a scheme of horrible wickedness, while they seem desirous of caring for the needs and satisfying the desires of all men, they strive to seize and hold in common whatever has been acquired either by title of lawful inheritance, or by labor of brain and hands, or by thrift in one’s mode of life.

  51. tucsonspur February 10, 2018 at 4:30 pm #

    Social media is supposedly ablaze with the following claims, some of which many want to be true:

    “That the world’s oil supply will be completely exhausted in three months, and that this fact is not being disclosed to avoid further market volatility.

    That Hillary Clinton will soon be locked up, with the proviso she be allowed certain sex toys and visits by Huma Abedin, whose “weenie” is himself behind bars.

    That Melania Trump hired an exorcist to “cleanse the White House of Obama’s demons”.

    That Putin has issued an international arrest warrant for George Soros.

    That NASA will pay you $18,000 to stay in bed for a week and smoke weed for 70 straight days.”

    • janet February 10, 2018 at 5:59 pm #

      Well, if it’s on the internet, then it must be true. /s 🙂

  52. janet February 10, 2018 at 5:57 pm #

    “BT, I know that Musk is a huckster…” –beantown bill

    Musk is not a huckster. He is a visionary who follows through on his spoken words. For example, providing 50,000 Australian homes with solar energy.

    “The partnership between Elon Musk and the Australian state of South Australia continues to grow, with the tech entrepreneur reaching a deal with state premier Jay Weatherhill to provide free Tesla solar panels and batteries to at least 50,000 homes.

    Late last year, Tesla completed its project to build the world’s largest li-ion battery as a solution to power outages that were plaguing South Australia. The project was initiated via Twitter as a bet (which proved successful), with Musk promising the system “100 days from contract signature or it is free”.

    The proposed network of solar-enabled homes will constitute the “world’s biggest Virtual Power Plant”, with energy companies covering the cost by selling off excess electricity generated by the homes.”

    http://www.techradar.com/news/elon-musk-is-giving-50000-south-australian-homes-free-solar-panels-and-batteries

    Party On, Dudes

    • beantownbill. February 10, 2018 at 6:47 pm #

      Musk indeed is a visionary. However, his Tesla operation and SpaceX business have yet to turn a profit. They are still around only because the government and private investors keep giving him money. This is where the hucksterism comes in. I wish him luck and hope he can make a profit someday so space R&D can continue.

      • FincaInTheMountains February 11, 2018 at 9:13 am #

        Profit, schmofit – we are talking about the future here.

        • beantownbill. February 11, 2018 at 11:03 am #

          Everything depends on money even if we’re talking about the future because people with money control everything.

  53. FincaInTheMountains February 10, 2018 at 6:06 pm #

    Cornered rats bite more painfully than usual

    The attack on the Russian Private Military Company in Syria and the downed Israeli plane is the rat bites that were cornered in Washington.

    DEBKAfile: Over the past 48 hours, the US and Russia have begun military action to expose players participating in the Syrian war.

    In connection with the shooting down of an Israeli plane, I want to say that this is an objectively strong blow to Trump who, a few days ago, finally decided to abandon the F-35 and order F-15 and F-16 for the US Army, referring to the experience of operating the F-35 by Israeli Air Force, which is seriously preparing to bomb Iran itself, and not the Iranian proxy in Lebanon and Syria.

    https://globalnews.ca/news/4018304/israeli-f-16-shot-down-after-bombing-iranian-backed-positions-syria/

  54. janet February 10, 2018 at 6:13 pm #

    There are a lot of people in this country, probably 20-25% (many on CFN), who hate their lives and want to watch the world burn.

    There’s another 10%-15% who are extremely greedy, extremely rich or extremely brainwashed by religion.

    That gives you your 30-40% of voters who delight in Cadet Bone Spur, whether he’s burning down the house or robbing the poor to pay the rich.

    • K-Dog February 10, 2018 at 9:55 pm #

      There are a lot of people in this country, probably 20-25% (many on CFN), who hate their lives and want to watch the world burn.

      Do you have a source for that or did you read tea leaves.

      http://www.teaanswers.com/how-read-tea-leaves/

      There’s another 10%-15% who are extremely greedy, extremely rich or extremely brainwashed by religion.

      Probably true. They knock on my front door on weekends when the weather is nice.

      That gives you your 30-40% of voters who delight in Cadet Bone Spur, whether he’s burning down the house or robbing the poor to pay the rich.

      We all thought the number would be higher and even I took solace in the potential of future amusement. The exact subject of Trumps amusement was dinner talk. Fact is however we have all been disappointed. It really is our fault we should have known better.

      Here is the problem. Trump is an empty bag. His elevator does not go to the top floor. Say what you will, all Trump does is present a vapid narrow colorless agenda that is without interest to anyone but himself. Everyones reptile brain kicked in listened any your 30- 40% listened to the voice of social hierarchy, class and social position and then they got got stupid and voted.

      Thinking Trump would be amusing was part of the mental internal deceptions so attitudes could match the irrationality of letting a rich idiot run the country. We did it to stay sane.

      But Trump is not amusing or the subject of this weeks blog. Oil is the subject. Oil that is actually too expensive to get out the ground in a way that can let us party on dudes. Oil from fracked hard rock which should be used to develop renewable energy infrastructure instead of being dissipated in a thousand useless ways.

      A dissipation over which Trump presides. Trump is only a small part of the cosmic master plan of American collapse from lack of energy. He is the denial visage in a nightmare we all share. His appearance in our dreams will be brief and his pomposity will but span the lifetime of a productive shale oil well. Then he will be gone but we will not wake up.

      • K-Dog February 10, 2018 at 9:57 pm #

        anb your 30- 40% listened to the voice of social hierarchy, class and social position and then they got got stupid and voted.

        • K-Dog February 10, 2018 at 9:58 pm #

          d

    • Walter B February 11, 2018 at 8:30 pm #

      You are a mindless idiot Janet and you are really starting to become a serious nuisance to those that come here to discuss issues and exchange ideas. Bullshit on your statistics of who want the world to burn, which asshole did you pull THAT one out of? Did you not ever consider that there is a huge difference between not being happy with the way things are going, not having any say or control over any of it and actually wanting it to BURN? What idiot burns down his own house to make a statement (yes I know the answer but I am not going to go there) Perhaps you are aware of a some, but all that that I am aware of are quite unhappy about it once it happens. You can hang your hat of hate on Donald Trump and all those that do not bash him as you do but all you really are is a whiner with a really bad attitude. Sorry I was compelled to go there but true or not, it is certainly how you come across. Lighten up, please.

  55. janet February 10, 2018 at 6:22 pm #

    Two lessons from Cadet Bone Spur’s WHITE House:

    1) A bankrupt casino owner doesn’t necessarily make a good president.

    2) An old Marine Corps general doesn’t necessarily make a good manager of a daycare center.

    Support this blog on PatreonSupport this blog on Substack
    Support this blog via Patreon or Substack
  56. pequiste February 11, 2018 at 6:39 am #

    The petroleum party will end like closing time at a bar. First, most customers have a real fine buzz, at least, going when there is the “last call.” Everyone is still partying, having a great old time, trying to pick up the “double-bagger” while attempting to have the band play “Free Bird” for the final time. Then in a flash, the lights come on, the band stops playing, and the staff is sweeping up, collecting bottles, whilst the bouncers encourage everyone to the door.

    Since I am so damn intoxicated by my own oil-addiction, can anyone tell me when “last call” was?

    • pequiste February 11, 2018 at 6:44 am #

      Hi JHK,

      Maybe your site has been corrupted, sort of like the F.B.I. – the pingbacks are massive plus I didn’t write ” Your comment is awaiting moderation.”

      • ozone February 11, 2018 at 1:10 pm #

        Maybe??? Ahahahahaha!
        pesqui, you’re so funny.

      • elysianfield February 12, 2018 at 11:12 am #

        Pequiste,
        Start worrying when you see “Your comment is awaiting maceration”….

    • ozone February 11, 2018 at 1:13 pm #

      pequiste,
      Last call was when the first confident cry of, “Now we’re absolutely energy independent!” went to press for the public to consume.
      Party on, Garth.

  57. FincaInTheMountains February 11, 2018 at 8:46 am #

    Boston Tea(??) Party – December 16, 1773
    Earlier in June 12, 1773, the British East India Company acquired a monopoly on the purchase of Bengal opium, which makes me wonder what was in those bags thrown overboard during the Boston Tea Party – tea or some other spice.
    == Finca

    Opium was first introduced to England from the Indian province of Bengal in 1683 on the tea clippers of the British East India Company. Opium was brought to England for a sample to see if it is possible to addict simple peasant people and lower classes to this drug.

    But the peasants of England and the so-called “lower classes” rejected the smoking of opium, and the experiment ended in complete failure. “Then the oligarchs and plutocrats of England’s high society,” writes John Coleman, “began to look for a market that would be more receptive.

    Officially all the business of British East India Company was tea trade, but just on tea you can’t earn even 1 percent of the huge money that this company operated with.

    Almost 13 percent of India’s income under British rule gave the sale of Bengal opium to its distributors in China, operating under British control. Britain had a complete monopoly on the supply of opium to China. It was the official monopoly of the British government and royalty. The Indo-British opium trade in China was one of the most strict secrets around which empty legends, tales and fables about the “treasures of India” grew up. In fact, the history of the British occupation of India and the “opium wars” of Britain in China are among the blackest pages in the history of Western civilization and there is no doubt that, having gained superpower status, modern China will properly “repay” the English snake island for the brutal genocide of its people for several centuries.

    The scheme of the British-American transnational narco-transit, which worked for almost two hundred years, was very simple and effective. The British East India Company monopolized the industrial production of opium in Bengal, a former part of the British colony of India. It was there that the highest quality opium was produced. The members and shareholders of BEIC were the first persons of the British Empire-the peer lords. It was they who began to form the drug civilization in China.

    Initially, the company established the “China Internal Mission”, whose task was to adduce to the opium of Chinese peasants through the promotion of opioids. This created a market for opium, which was filled by the British East India Company. In proportion to the import of opium, drug use has increased in China to huge proportions.

    The other most important commodity after opium, which was sold by BEIC, was cotton (according to other sources TEA – ha ha!!!). It was also grown in the British colonies – in the south of the United States even before the civil war of the North and the South. Most cotton from the plantations of the southern states of the United States was processed at factories in North England. There, working 16 hours a day, women and children earned a meager livelihood. Textile factories belonged also to lords from the highest society in London – Palmerston, Barings, Keswick and, above all, D.Mateson – owner of the shipping company “Blue Star”, whose ships transported cotton fabrics to India.

    Exported to India, cheap cotton textiles ravaged traditional Indian producers of cotton products – including in Bengal. Thousands of Indians suffered from a terrible need, being thrown out of work as a result of the fact that markets were captured by cheaper British goods. India economically became even more dependent on Britain, because it needed a currency to pay the British for railways and finished textiles. As a result of the policy of the colonialists, the only solution to Indian economic problems was the production of more and more opium and its sale for a pittance to the British East India Company.

  58. FincaInTheMountains February 11, 2018 at 8:58 am #

    In view of the previous post, it appears that the fight in Congress over the immigration policy and 2 million “Dreamers” is in fact the fight of the Trump’s administration to establish control over the drug trade on the US-Mexican border.

    That he needs to do for 2 reasons:

    1. For US re-industrialization he needs sober, responsible work-force and not the dope-heads Americans tend to become.

    2. Deprive his political opponents of the significant portion of their financing.

    Mr. President, Build Up that Wall!

  59. janet February 11, 2018 at 12:09 pm #

    “But Trump is not amusing or the subject of this weeks blog. Oil is the subject.” –k-dog

    Thanks, k-dog, for the reminder that oil is this week’s theme. That means we should consider all new science related to abiotic oil, as reported in ScienceDaily. Researchers at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm have managed to prove that fossils from animals and plants are not necessary for crude oil and natural gas to be generated. The findings are revolutionary since this means, on the one hand, that it will be much easier to find these sources of energy and, on the other hand, that they can be found all over the globe.

    “Using our research we can even say where oil could be found in Sweden,” says Vladimir Kutcherov, a professor at the Division of Energy Technology at KTH.

    Together with two research colleagues, Vladimir Kutcherov has simulated the process involving pressure and heat that occurs naturally in the inner layers of the earth, the process that generates hydrocarbon, the primary component in oil and natural gas.

    According to Vladimir Kutcherov, the findings are a clear indication that the oil supply is not about to end (contrary to the fears of researchers and experts).

    • beantownbill. February 11, 2018 at 1:16 pm #

      Don’t forget about artificially created oil. The raw material must be subjected to high heat and pressure, which could be attained in a specially designed facility. I don’t have the time to research this, but I wouldn’t be surprised if experimental work is already progressing.

  60. FincaInTheMountains February 11, 2018 at 1:15 pm #

    Source: The United States struck at the Russian PMC “Wagner Group”

    The “defensive” US air strike in Syria was dealt to the units of the Russian private military company, there are KIAs among the fighters, the author of the newspaper VZGLYAD Igor Dmitriev said with reference to his sources.

    “The air blow was inflicted on the soldiers of the” Wagner Group”. Two hundred of them successfully attacked the headquarters of the Kurds and believed that the Americans would not dare to interfere.

    Apparently, the Wagner Group investor received permission from the Syrian government to extract oil in the area. And this territory from ISIS was taken by the Kurds, with the help of the Americans. Apparently, the Wagner Group decided to conduct a hostile takeover of the profitable territory. ”

    15 to 25 people were killed and 50 wounded.

    In Russia, Private Military companies are still illegal – apparently it is a company registered in the offshore jurisdiction, employing former members of Russian Special Forces.

    And what the hell they were doing in the American zone of responsibility? To me it looks like a provocation, a set up to increase tension in Syria between Russians and Americans.

    Support this blog on PatreonSupport this blog on Substack
    Support this blog via Patreon or Substack
    • FincaInTheMountains February 11, 2018 at 2:26 pm #

      Is in the “New Republic” gloating at someone’s misfortunes is still admissible?

      When you are for the last 70 years in a state of war with the biggest military power in the world and don’t want to share the fates of Yugoslavia, Serbia, Iraq, Iran, Libya, Syria, Egypt, Ukraine, it’s a wonder you still have dogs to eat.

  61. janet February 11, 2018 at 4:22 pm #

    “There’s sort of this question, is the military budget too small or maybe is our mission too large around the world?” Rand Paul said. “And because Republicans are unwilling to confront that they want more, more, more for military spending.”

    That is correct. Redefine the mission and we could cut our military budget by half (50%) and have a better defense posture. Ohio Republican Rep. Jim Jordan said the recently passed government funding agreement, which raises budget caps by $300 billion over two years, was “not consistent” with the promises Republicans made to cut spending, and that Ryan’s support for the deal undermined his leadership.

    Cut the defense budget by half and we cover that $300 billion.

  62. BackRowHeckler February 11, 2018 at 4:29 pm #

    Hey Jim I saw that oil production chart in FT of London last week. These limeys had a little different take on it than you did; in their view, fracked wells will last forever, the future is indeed bright, and it is time to party on.

    Nowhere have I read we are still importing more than 1/2 of the oil we use, at least 11 million barrels a day. On TBD network the other nite I watched a millenial environmentalist type assert in a TED like talk that right now solar and windmills could easily replace coal and petroleum. And the only thing preventing it massive oil company/government conspiracy.

    brh

    • rhys12 February 12, 2018 at 2:23 pm #

      Oil is distracting people from a much more immediate problem – water. Fighting over water will trigger wars long before oil runs short enough to do so – the wars have already started. Many of the wars being fought in Africa and the Middle East that the media attributes to tribalism, religion, or ethnicity are actually about water.

      Cape Town is on track to be the first of many cities to run dry!

      https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-02-11/11-cities-most-likely-run-out-drinking-water

  63. janet February 12, 2018 at 12:46 am #

    Trump’s infrastructure plan is revealed Monday, Feb. 12, 2018. OMG! I can’t believe it!

    Who is going to pay for this plan? Not Mexico. YOU ARE going to pay for it, through higher state and local taxes, and an increased reliance on user fees, such as tolls, water and sewer fees, transit fares and airline ticket taxes. This is a slap in the face of Trump supporters who were told they would have jobs, higher wages, and tax cuts… only to be saddled with higher taxes and fees in the actual plan. Trump’s plan is D.O.A.

  64. FincaInTheMountains February 12, 2018 at 3:22 am #

    Mr. President, Build Up that Wall! == Finca

    Nowadays, drug trade is no longer limited to drug trafficking, albeit with NarcoSubculture, which origins date back to youth counter-culture.

    It forms a kind of “lower floor”, more likely even – the foundation of the process of globalization.

    Drugs in the global super-society of the future are assigned the role of a social regulator.

    As once in China, the century before last, or the modern United States, global drug control will not only bring huge profits, but also pacify, transferring to the world of dreams and illusions and making it safer for this super-society those who, in the opinion of its masters, are “superfluous “, or represents a threat to the “new world order”.

    https://ic.pics.livejournal.com/matveychev_oleg/27303223/2237847/2237847_900.jpg

    By the end of the century, opium smoking was also widespread in other Asian countries, where England’s colonial influence was great.

    For example, in Iran, where the number of regular smokers by 1914 was more than 10% of the population. Out of the remaining areas of West Asia, the territory of modern Pakistan and Afghanistan was distinguished by the amount of opium smoking. In South-East Asia, this vice was widely spread to the territory of the English colony of Burma (now Myanmar).

    By 1945, more than a million hectares had been occupied in poppy cultivation in China, and 20 million people were officially registered as drug addicts.

    However, the British-American stupor soon lost influence, receiving a blow in the form of a communist regime.

    https://ic.pics.livejournal.com/matveychev_oleg/27303223/2239055/2239055_900.jpg

    Communists were able to cope with the disaster; they differed from their opponents by determination, strict discipline and belief in “revolutionary ideals”. And no matter how we relate to these ideals, the anti-opium laws adopted in February 1950 – immediately after the victory of the Communists in the civil war – must be recognized as a great merit of the Communist Party of China before the Chinese people.

    On February 24, 1950, Chou En-Lai signed a decree on the strictest ban on the production and smoking of opium. The Communists arrested hundreds of thousands of people engaged in drug trafficking and many of them were shot. The main result was achieved. He showed that the drug mafia can be defeated only if one acts adequately to this terrible threat.

    • BackRowHeckler February 12, 2018 at 4:02 am #

      We thought trouble was over in Syria when ISIS was defeated, we were wrong. Under the fog of war Iran has moved its military assets into Syria and Lebanon close to the Israeli border. An Israeli Apache helicopter destroyed an armed Iranian drone on Friday, then on Saturday an Israeli F-16 was shot down by Iranian anti aircraft fire. This could get bad. This could be the start of the worst middle east war since 1973. And in ’73 nobody in the ME has access to nuclear weapons.

      The US under President Trump steadfastly stands with Israel. The question is Finca, where does Russia stand?

      (I won’t ask which side the worms in western europe back. They’ve made clear from Stockholm to Brussels to Paris their hatred of Israel)

      brh

      • FincaInTheMountains February 12, 2018 at 5:08 am #

        Which Russia are you talking about?

        The Putin’s Russia or the Clinton’s Russia? (The majority of current Russian oligarchs and Medvedev’s government officials made their career in the 90s under responsive leadership of Clintons).

        Putin stands on Stalin’s principles, who created Israel as the 16th Republic of the Soviet Union.

        Hillary, as shown by her authorship of the Oslo accords, stand on the racial anti-semitic positions of the Third Reich, following “Saint” Bernard of Clairvaux, Hitler and Khrushchev.

      • FincaInTheMountains February 12, 2018 at 5:44 am #

        The most interesting thing is that on Russian television people who for years have been calling to love the Shining City on the Hill, when this hill was a swamp and a bunch if disgusting Reptiles wriggled in it, without worrying about the possible draining of this swamp, suddenly became rabid anti-Americans when in the US came to power President, who does not hesitate to openly express sympathy to Russia and the desire to see an ally in it.

        It seems that Russia has a powerful group of people that completely shares the goals of the Serpentarium in the Washington Swamp and they are categorically not satisfied with America, which is an ally of Russia or even related to Russia neutrally.

        Which is not surprising, given that the most valuable pieces of Soviet property were handed out by American advisers who were sitting in Russian ministries when a big rat named Bastinda commanded the Serpentarium in the Washington swamp.

        • Q. Shtik February 12, 2018 at 7:38 am #

          Am I the only one who doesn’t understand a word of what Finca is saying. Please, tell me I am not the only one!

          • FincaInTheMountains February 12, 2018 at 7:47 am #

            Party on, dude!

  65. FincaInTheMountains February 12, 2018 at 4:55 am #

    WWIV? (WWIII was a Cold one)

    U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis dismissed concerns on Thursday that the United States was being dragged into a broader conflict in Syria, after a major clash with pro-Syrian government forces overnight that may have left 100 or more of them dead.

    Actually there are rumors in Russia that Americans for 2 hours were killing Russians. Maybe Mattis dismissed this concerns because this conflict can’t be made any broader?

    https://www.yahoo.com/news/more-100-pro-syrian-forces-killed-thwarted-attack-051310933.html

    Support this blog on PatreonSupport this blog on Substack
    Support this blog via Patreon or Substack
    • FincaInTheMountains February 12, 2018 at 6:33 am #

      The order given by an unknown person, for the Russian Wagner PMC to appear in the area on the eastern bank of Efrat in American zone of responsibility where the trap was set, negates all the advantages of Russia in Kurdish politics, and Russia has always been extremely careful with the Kurds, which was one of its main advantages Russia in the Greater Middle East.

      In addition, after the killing of many Wagner soldiers, Russia is drawn into such a whirlwind that all the advantages of its position are reduced to zero, and any attempt to answer as it is appropriate to this provocation will lead to an impeachment of Trump and a complete revelry of the Serpentarium in the Washington swamp.

      And after Israel was informed by its “friends” from certain special services that the Israeli aircraft was shot down by missiles that Russia, in violation of the agreements with Israel, transferred to Syria in revenge for the shooting of supposedly Russian PMCs, and also to demonstrate on the Israeli fighter its ability to shoot down American fighters, the peace in Syria, paid dearly for, began to look like the beginning of a big war, including in Ukraine, where Russia categorically did not want to participate in the horribly vile Ukro bloodbath, but now it seems it is necessary, since it is there that you can find American PMCs, whom you can send greetings from their Russian colleagues in Syria.

  66. FincaInTheMountains February 12, 2018 at 6:03 am #

    The main pro-Trump resource “INFO WARS” of Alex Jones today reported that in the crashed at Domodedovo An-148 plane flew high-ranking managers of Rosatom, including its CFO, who were key witnesses in the case of a bribe to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in “Uranium One” case.

    https://youtu.be/FNA8013ezNQ?t=1632

  67. FincaInTheMountains February 12, 2018 at 6:42 am #

    Still it is not known where the Deep State originated earlier – In the USSR or in the USA?

    No wonder Stalin was so nervous about the Alpenstock mission.

  68. FincaInTheMountains February 12, 2018 at 8:07 am #

    Am I the only one who doesn’t understand a word of what Finca is saying == Q

    Translation from Finca’s Russian into American Disney-speak:

    A bunch of bad dudes from Washington conspired with a bunch of bad dudes from Moscow to arrange a little Armageddon in Syria, Ukraine and, God willing, EVERYWHERE else.

    Bam! Bam! Whack! Whack…. Please stay tuned, we will be right back after a brief message from our sponsors…. Whack! Whack!

  69. FincaInTheMountains February 12, 2018 at 8:23 am #

    European Commission Chairman Jean-Claude Juncker, a heir to the Third Reich dynasty of famous World War II planes manufactures Juncker that bombed most of European Russia into a stone age, expressed his condolences over the crash of the An-148 plane near Moscow, on board of which 71 people were on board, without even trying to hide a gloating smile on his vile face of a finished drunkard.

    • FincaInTheMountains February 12, 2018 at 8:33 am #

      Fuck his condolences!

      This time Germany will have to pay with money, not just with the lives of the Germans!

  70. numerologyline September 26, 2019 at 7:42 am #

    What carnage? Why wreck what is working so well for them? Of course what is to stop them from creating a second, parallel asset-backed currency, backed by, say, gold or lithium, or platinum or . . . oil?

    22:22 mirror hour meaning

    Support this blog on PatreonSupport this blog on Substack
    Support this blog via Patreon or Substack
  71. thutrangctp February 20, 2020 at 3:49 am #

    I think I have the same opinion as you. This is probably a coincidence.
    http://www.facebookbaixargratis.com.br/

Trackbacks/Pingbacks

  1. Party On, Dudes – Olduvai.ca - February 9, 2018

    […] Party On, Dudes […]

  2. Contra Corner » Party On, Dudes - February 9, 2018

    […] http://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/party-on-dudes/ […]

  3. The Shale ‘Miracle’ & The Reality-Optional World Of Bizarro Finance – Earths Final Countdown - February 10, 2018

    […] Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com, […]

  4. The Shale ‘Miracle’ & The Reality-Optional World Of Bizarro Finance – iftttwall - February 10, 2018

    […] Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com, […]

    Support this blog on PatreonSupport this blog on Substack
    Support this blog via Patreon or Substack
  5. The Shale 'Miracle' & The Reality-Optional World Of Bizarro Finance - Telzilla - February 10, 2018

    […] Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com, […]

  6. The Shale ‘Miracle’ & The Reality-Optional World Of Bizarro Finance | Investing Daily News - February 10, 2018

    […] Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com, […]

  7. The Shale ‘Miracle’ & The Reality-Optional World Of Bizarro Finance | Real Patriot News - February 10, 2018

    […] Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com, […]

  8. The Shale 'Miracle' & The Reality-Optional World Of Bizarro Finance – Wall Street Karma - February 10, 2018

    […] Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com, […]

  9. The Shale 'Miracle' & The Reality-Optional World Of Bizarro Finance - Investing Matters - February 10, 2018

    […] Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com, […]

    Support this blog on PatreonSupport this blog on Substack
    Support this blog via Patreon or Substack
  10. The Shale ‘Miracle’ & The Reality-Optional World Of Bizarro Finance – forex-4you.com, ??????? ??????? ?? - February 10, 2018

    […] Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com, […]

  11. The Shale ‘Miracle’ & The Reality-Optional World Of Bizarro Finance - Forex forexshaft.com - February 10, 2018

    […] Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com, […]

  12. The Shale 'Miracle' & The Reality-Optional World Of Bizarro Finance | costamesalibraryfoundation.org - February 10, 2018

    […] Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com, […]

  13. The Shale ‘Miracle’ & The Reality-Optional World Of Bizarro Finance - megaprojectfx-forex.com - February 10, 2018

    […] Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com, […]

  14. The Shale ‘Miracle’ & The Reality-Optional World Of Bizarro Finance - forexdemoaccountfree.com - February 10, 2018

    […] Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com, […]

    Support this blog on PatreonSupport this blog on Substack
    Support this blog via Patreon or Substack
  15. The Shale ‘Miracle’ & The Reality-Optional World Of Bizarro Finance - uroptions.net - February 10, 2018

    […] Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com, […]

  16. The Shale ‘Miracle’ & The Reality-Optional World Of Bizarro Finance – top10brokersbinaryoptions.com - February 10, 2018

    […] Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com, […]

  17. B?idlice “Zázrak” & Reality-Volitelné Sv?t Bizarní Finance – options168.com - February 10, 2018

    […] Autorem James Howard Kunstler p?es Kunstler.com, […]

  18. Le Schiste “Miracle” Et La Réalité-En Option Monde De Bizarro Finances – mypees.com - February 10, 2018

    […] Rédigé par James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com, […]

  19. The Shale ‘Miracle’ & The Reality-Optional World Of Bizarro Finance – eforexblog.com - February 10, 2018

    […] Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com, […]

    Support this blog on PatreonSupport this blog on Substack
    Support this blog via Patreon or Substack
  20. The Shale ‘Miracle’ & The Reality-Optional World Of Bizarro Finance – forexreadymax.info - February 10, 2018

    […] Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com, […]

  21. The Shale ‘Miracle’ & The Reality-Optional World Of Bizarro Finance - construction24h.com - February 10, 2018

    […] Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com, […]

  22. The Shale 'Miracle' & The Reality-Optional World Of Bizarro Finance – ProTradingResearch - February 10, 2018

    […] Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com, […]

  23. The Shale ‘Miracle’ & The Reality-Optional World Of Bizarro Finance – fastforexprofit.com, ??????? ??????? ?? - February 10, 2018

    […] Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com, […]

  24. El Esquisto ‘Milagro’ Y La Realidad-Opcional Mundo De Bizarro Finanzas – theforexcenter.info - February 10, 2018

    […] Escrito por James Howard Kunstler a través de Kunstler.com, […]

    Support this blog on PatreonSupport this blog on Substack
    Support this blog via Patreon or Substack
  25. The Shale ‘Miracle’ & The Reality-Optional World Of Bizarro Finance – fandianjian.cn - February 10, 2018

    […] Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com, […]

  26. The Shale ‘Miracle’ & The Reality-Optional World Of Bizarro Finance – Binarybrokersblog.com – binary options trade forex - February 10, 2018

    […] Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com, […]

  27. The Shale ‘Miracle’ & The Reality-Optional World Of Bizarro Finance - forex analytics Forex Factory provides information to professional forex traders; lightning-fast forex news; bottomless forex forum; famously-reliable forex calendar; aggregate - February 10, 2018

    […] Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com, […]

  28. The Shale ‘Miracle’ & The Reality-Optional World Of Bizarro Finance – forexsignals4trading.com - February 10, 2018

    […] Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com, […]

  29. Le Schiste “Miracle” Et La Réalité-En Option Monde De Bizarro Finances – forex-enligne-fr.com - February 10, 2018

    […] Rédigé par James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com, […]

    Support this blog on PatreonSupport this blog on Substack
    Support this blog via Patreon or Substack
  30. The Shale ‘Miracle’ & The Reality-Optional World Of Bizarro Finance – Easy start at Forex - February 10, 2018

    […] Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com, […]

  31. The Shale ‘Miracle’ & The Reality-Optional World Of Bizarro Finance – rodrigopegorari.net - February 10, 2018

    […] Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com, […]

  32. The Shale ‘Miracle’ & The Reality-Optional World Of Bizarro Finance – customchakra.com - February 10, 2018

    […] Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com, […]

  33. The Shale ‘Miracle’ & The Reality-Optional World Of Bizarro Finance - entertainment-ask.com - February 10, 2018

    […] Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com, […]

  34. The Shale ‘Miracle’ & The Reality-Optional World Of Bizarro Finance – Forex 323news.xyz - February 10, 2018

    […] Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com, […]

    Support this blog on PatreonSupport this blog on Substack
    Support this blog via Patreon or Substack
  35. The Shale ‘Miracle’ & The Reality-Optional World Of Bizarro Finance – wordforex.net - February 10, 2018

    […] Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com, […]

  36. The Shale ‘Miracle’ & The Reality-Optional World Of Bizarro Finance - pustakaforex.com - February 10, 2018

    […] Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com, […]

  37. The Shale ‘Miracle’ & The Reality-Optional World Of Bizarro Finance - binaryoptionsplatforms.co.uk - February 10, 2018

    […] Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com, […]

  38. The Shale ‘Miracle’ & The Reality-Optional World Of Bizarro Finance – forexnewstoday.net - February 10, 2018

    […] Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com, […]

  39. The Shale ‘Miracle’ & The Reality-Optional World Of Bizarro Finance – voluntariadostarbucks.mx - February 10, 2018

    […] Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com, […]

    Support this blog on PatreonSupport this blog on Substack
    Support this blog via Patreon or Substack
  40. The Shale ‘Miracle’ & The Reality-Optional World Of Bizarro Finance - forex-trading-profits.com - February 10, 2018

    […] Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com, […]

  41. The Shale 'Miracle' & The Reality-Optional World Of Bizarro Finance | 4forex.info - February 10, 2018

    […] Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com, […]

  42. The Shale ‘Miracle’ & The Reality-Optional World Of Bizarro Finance – myforexx.info - February 10, 2018

    […] Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com, […]

  43. The Shale ‘Miracle’ & The Reality-Optional World Of Bizarro Finance - arabiarr.com - February 10, 2018

    […] Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com, […]

  44. The Shale ‘Miracle’ & The Reality-Optional World Of Bizarro Finance – tradingbinaryinfo.com - February 10, 2018

    […] Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com, […]

    Support this blog on PatreonSupport this blog on Substack
    Support this blog via Patreon or Substack
  45. The Shale ‘Miracle’ & The Reality-Optional World Of Bizarro Finance – olegmironov.xyz - February 10, 2018

    […] Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com, […]

  46. The Shale ‘Miracle’ & The Reality-Optional World Of Bizarro Finance – whatisaforex.com - February 10, 2018

    […] Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com, […]

  47. The Shale ‘Miracle’ & The Reality-Optional World Of Bizarro Finance – stocksoptionsandforex.com - February 10, 2018

    […] Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com, […]

  48. The Shale ‘Miracle’ & The Reality-Optional World Of Bizarro Finance - binary options trading blog.com - February 10, 2018

    […] Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com, […]

  49. El Esquisto ‘Milagro’ Y La Realidad-Opcional Mundo De Bizarro Finanzas – opinionforex-oficial.com - February 10, 2018

    […] Escrito por James Howard Kunstler a través de Kunstler.com, […]

    Support this blog on PatreonSupport this blog on Substack
    Support this blog via Patreon or Substack
  50. The Shale ‘Miracle’ & The Reality-Optional World Of Bizarro Finance – forex518.com - February 10, 2018

    […] Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com, […]

  51. The Shale 'Miracle' & The Reality-Optional World Of Bizarro Finance | Easylinkspace.com - February 10, 2018

    […] Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com, […]

  52. The Shale ‘Miracle’ & The Reality-Optional World Of Bizarro Finance – forex analytics forexpic.com - February 10, 2018

    […] Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com, […]

  53. The Shale 'Miracle' & The Reality-Optional World Of Bizarro Finance | verylost.me - February 10, 2018

    […] Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com, […]

  54. The Shale ‘Miracle’ & The Reality-Optional World Of Bizarro Finance – nakhasah.com - February 10, 2018

    […] Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com, […]

    Support this blog on PatreonSupport this blog on Substack
    Support this blog via Patreon or Substack
  55. The Shale ‘Miracle’ & The Reality-Optional World Of Bizarro Finance - 07forex.com forex binary trade - February 10, 2018

    […] Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com, […]

  56. The Shale ‘Miracle’ & The Reality-Optional World Of Bizarro Finance – 92lishi.com - February 10, 2018

    […] Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com, […]

  57. The Shale ‘Miracle’ & The Reality-Optional World Of Bizarro Finance – binboom.net - February 10, 2018

    […] Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com, […]

  58. The Shale ‘Miracle’ & The Reality-Optional World Of Bizarro Finance – forexoperate.com - February 10, 2018

    […] Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com, […]

  59. The Shale ‘Miracle’ & The Reality-Optional World Of Bizarro Finance – forexlivetoday.com - February 10, 2018

    […] Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com, […]

    Support this blog on PatreonSupport this blog on Substack
    Support this blog via Patreon or Substack
  60. The Shale ‘Miracle’ & The Reality-Optional World Of Bizarro Finance – The Constitutional News Network - February 10, 2018

    […] Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com, […]

  61. The Shale ‘Miracle’ & The Reality-Optional World Of Bizarro Finance – The Constitutional News Network - February 10, 2018

    […] Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com, […]

  62. The Shale ‘Miracle’ & The Reality-Optional World Of Bizarro Finance – youssif.me - February 10, 2018

    […] Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com, […]

  63. B?idlice “Zázrak” & Reality-Volitelné Sv?t Bizarní Finance – binaryoption.cz - February 10, 2018

    […] Autorem James Howard Kunstler p?es Kunstler.com, […]

  64. The Shale ‘Miracle’ & The Reality-Optional World Of Bizarro Finance – The Conservative Insider - February 10, 2018

    […] Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com, […]

    Support this blog on PatreonSupport this blog on Substack
    Support this blog via Patreon or Substack
  65. The Shale ‘Miracle’ & The Reality-Optional World Of Bizarro Finance – The Conservative Insider - February 10, 2018

    […] Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com, […]

  66. The Shale ‘Miracle’ & The Reality-Optional World Of Bizarro Finance - forexguided.com - February 10, 2018

    […] Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com, […]

  67. The Shale ‘Miracle’ & The Reality-Optional World Of Bizarro Finance – 777daili.com - February 10, 2018

    […] Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com, […]

  68. The Shale ‘Miracle’ & The Reality-Optional World Of Bizarro Finance - binaryoptiontop.de - February 10, 2018

    […] Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com, […]

  69. The Shale ‘Miracle’ & The Reality-Optional World Of Bizarro Finance — rubelforex.ru - February 10, 2018

    […] Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com, […]

    Support this blog on PatreonSupport this blog on Substack
    Support this blog via Patreon or Substack
  70. The Shale ‘Miracle’ & The Reality-Optional World Of Bizarro Finance | bestecforex.com - February 10, 2018

    […] Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com, […]

  71. The Shale ‘Miracle’ & The Reality-Optional World Of Bizarro Finance - Binaryoptions-news.com - February 10, 2018

    […] Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com, […]

  72. The Shale ‘Miracle’ & The Reality-Optional World Of Bizarro Finance – comparforex.com - February 10, 2018

    […] Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com, […]

  73. De Schalie ‘Wonder’ En De Realiteit-Optioneel Wereld Van Bizarro Financiën – binary-option.nl - February 10, 2018

    […] Geschreven door James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com, […]

  74. The Shale 'Miracle' & The Reality-Optional World Of Bizarro Finance - Sell The News - February 10, 2018

    […] Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com, […]

    Support this blog on PatreonSupport this blog on Substack
    Support this blog via Patreon or Substack
  75. The Shale ‘Miracle’ & The Reality-Optional World Of Bizarro Finance – add-mag.net - February 10, 2018

    […] Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com, […]

  76. The Shale ‘Miracle’ & The Reality-Optional World Of Bizarro Finance – automatic-trading.info - February 10, 2018

    […] Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com, […]

  77. James Howard Kunstler: Fracking through the shale oil illusion on the road to peak oil - Red, Green, and Blue - April 24, 2018

    […] By James Howard Kunstler […]