Clusterfuck Nation
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A February night in 1924, in a Manhattan concert hall owned by the Aeolian piano company… the wailing, warped, and flatted clarinet glissando that opens George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue announced the 20th century’s self-recognition that something new was up in the world, and especially in the USA. The composer tried to represent the stupendous energy of the maturing industrial culture in a symphonic cacophony with a core of the deepest tenderness — capturing all the wonder and grace of the moment. For America, everything was on the move. Love and power were in the air.
The idea that this was the American century stuck. The 1920s were a kind of hormonal rush of wonders and amazements. Radio, movies, airplanes, giant industries, electric power in farm houses, the dizzying rush of progress that welled up into a dangerous wave that broke over the world in economic depression, and then war in 1939 — by which time George Gershwin was gone at 38.
America performed splendidly in World War Two, rescuing Europe and Asia from manifest evil. The nation found itself the fully mature leader of the free world, with daunting responsibilities in the Atomic Age, filled with confidence, but tinged with an understandable paranoia in the nervous peace of the 1950s. This was the time of my childhood, along with my fellow travelers, the Baby Boomers. What a time to come into this world!
For a while, the USA luxuriated in power and stability. I sang the Davy Crockett theme song from the Disney TV show, and wore a coonskin hat, and lived in a home where dad left for work in a business suit, and all was well in the world. To me and my childhood friends, the mindboggling horrors of the recent war were reduced to comic books and plastic soldiers in the sandbox. Everything else in America seemed to work as advertised. We built a lot of stuff and saw the USA in our Chevrolet. President Ike bossed around Britain’s PM Anthony Eden. The Yankees bossed around the major leagues. Hardly anyone knew what the Federal Reserve did, or even what it was. Elvis was in the Army, babysitting the defeated Germans. Then somebody splattered John F. Kennedy’s brains all over Dealey Plaza in Dallas, and everything changed again.
That event was not the beginning of the Deep State, but it was the recognition of a more deeply sinister thing than the public had previously imagined — if they thought about it at all. The Vietnam War coincided exactly with the Baby Boomers’ adolescent rebellion and was widely viewed as an exercise in Deep State wickedness. It was violently opposed, and it only ended when our vaunted military lost control of the entire field of operations and got ignominiously shoved out. Meanwhile a rush of events confounded and aggravated the country: the civil rights commotion, more assassinations of major political leaders, Watergate, Feminism, and then the slow, demoralizing dismantling of the very industry that made the 20th century America’s moment in history.
The memory of all that lingers on, while dreams die hard, the clichés go. The institutional damage along the way has been epic. The outstanding moral lesson of World War Two was that there are some things worth believing in and even fighting for. The scene today is a debris field of broken ideals and lost trust in any organized endeavor that advertises itself as having national purpose. The Baby Boomers in their own twilight’s last gleaming seem to be equally composed of the most hardened cynics and the most credulous fantasists. In any case, we are doing a controlled demolition on what used to be pretty rigorous American values while leaving the planet a ruin.
That was not exactly the plan, but as the sad song goes: sometimes things turn instead of turn out. The century we are now in may turn out to be somebody else’s, or perhaps nobody’s — and by that I don’t necessarily mean the end of the world, just the end of a certain chapter in human history. In a mere hundred years we’ve journeyed from George Gershwin’s tender nocturne at the center of his Rhapsody to the clanking, thrash-metal morbidity of Megadeath and beyond. You cannot possibly miss the point. But even that is passing into history. The question begging this haunted country now is: what do we become? And can we find any grace in it?
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Polls are propaganda. Polls are manipulative. They’re meant to maipulate perception and shape perspective. Honest, objective journalism should never reference polls. Polls are not information to support a point unless your point is that polls are manipulating propaganda.
Check out this article from The Nation published prior to the 2016 presidential campaign. Was this blubbering buffoon, this apocryphal apparatchik, forced to eat his words and wear the hair shirt for the entirety of Donald Trump’s tenure as POTUS? If not, why not? Where is the accountability for such ribald rubbish?
When I see polls about Trump’s approval ratings, I laugh and spit at the television or the radio and tell it/them to fuck off. You should to if you have half a brain or even quarter of a brain. Same goes for the polls showing Biden as the most popular Democratic candidate. These polls are not meant to inform you, they’re meant to persuade or dissuade you. They’re meant to shape your perception. They’re meant to make you misperceive our reality. Ignore them and spurn & repudiate those who report on them, and we’ll all be better off.
Are Hillary Clinton’s Strong Poll Numbers Misleading?
So for all the hand-wringing over the polls, maybe the best way to predict the results in November is not to discount the polls. Instead, maybe we should rely less on the pundits who say the polls could be wrong, and more on the polls themselves, which have been pretty accurate about Trump’s support so far this election season. Of course things could change in the next 90 days, but the polls right now are clear: Our next president is Hillary Clinton.
Case in point.
Poll: Trump beats O’Rourke, nearly ties Sanders and loses to Biden in hypothetical 2020 matchups
My polls show the Dems in 2020 will go down to the most resounding defeat since the Afghan Olympic Women’s Swim Team all drowned in their burqa’s.
Trump hasn’t done much for Michigan, PA, or Wisconsin, and those three critical defections from the D column helped put him over the top. Take away the 46 electoral votes from those three and Trump loses.
Where will he gain votes to offset that?
Trump doesn’t have to win. All it takes is for the Dems to lose which it looks like they are trying to do. Of course, if the economy implodes between now & the election, then let’s recalculate the odds.
Stop taking polls at the family reunion.
And this statement reflects the point that the author of this blog seemed to be making. We are now so non-responsive to reality that we think propaganda, a la polls, is now what really matters. We’ve lost the way that made America dominant (whether or not it should have ever been is another question) and its not to be found again; at least, not in that configuration.
I like that Kunstler does mention that the world is not necessarily ending (we don’t have any real say in that), but that the future is now cloudy. My own belief is that the two world wars of the twentieth century was the coup de grace for Western civilization, regardless of who is supposed to have won. There is no undoing of the incredible damage from those events and I don’t mean only material damage. There seems nothing for westerners to believe now except buy and possess. Those values do not a civilization make.
After the WW2, the new Elite started calling White Americans, Nazis even though we helped them defeat the Nazis. So obviously we lost every bit as much as the Nazis did. After the death of Kennedy, these efforts intensified. Now Whites are third class citizens behind every non-White who enters America legally or illegally.
Whites are still in charge of most of the levers of power in the West, but, yes, that is changing. It’s what our host is calling a turn. There has never been any certainty that whites would permanently dominate the world.
Agreed that the death of JFK was symbolic of the death of more than one man.
But it is guaranteed that we will disappear if things don’t change. Our Ruling Class has simply no loyalty to us at all – and thus do they wrong us. And we always hate those whom we have wronged so they hate us as well, a hatred commensurate with their total betrayal of us.
Needless to say they don’t represent us in any way, shape, or form. Trump pretended to and then betrayed us.
shotho states: ‘…My own belief is that the two world wars of the twentieth century was the coup de grace for Western civilization, regardless of who is supposed to have won…
Now that’s a very intriguing and thought-provoking supposition. This type of statement is one reason why the Comments section of Jim Kunstler’s twice-weekly blog is so insightful, and worth reading.
You’ve got me to a-thinking. Rare stimulus.
Think you’re on the money, 450. I don’t believe for a second Biden is ahead of Bernie.
If the DNC and msm stay neutral, Bernie will be our next president.
Agreed. 450 is correct – modern day ‘polls’ are manipulative, and lucrative for those in the business.
Social polling on any useable scale only arose once the telephone provided mass communication. Initially, they were reflective of actual reality at any given time, the demise of the ubiquitous telephone landline has thrown them all to hell, along with the cynicism of the populace at large that means many will simply lie for the fun of it.
If any of the 24 (and counting) mental midgets who comprise the field of Dem presidential candidates win, that will end America, either as the AOC’s of the world swarm over Washington as the victorious communists swarmed over the Winter Palace when the Romanovs were deposed or in a full-blown civil war that will make the fun times of the 1860s look like an ice cream social. I didn’t support Trump in 2016, but I basically have to now because the alternative is beyond horrifying. “But free shit! The crazy bastard from Vermont promises to give us everything — money, medical care, education, an end to any environmental threats, total equality — paradise! Who wouldn’t want that?” Who indeed — except maybe Venezuelans, Chinese, Vietnamese and former residents of the Soviet bloc who have endured other “paradises.” He careful what you wish for, in other words, because you might get it, and lose your ass in the process.
Foxist alert!
Uncle Bob has been brainwashed by the Murdoch agenda.
You know, ideas like we can’t afford Med for All or tuition-free higher ed, or an infra-stucture building jobs program or a transition to greener energy, but $800,000,000,000 for the Pentagon every year, no problem.
@chipshot
Tell me were in our system of government it says everyone should have free (to them) medical, college or this catch all phrase of green energy?
Talk about group think and brainwashed idiocy.
Do you have ANY concept of what it takes to pay for all that crap and like it or not the military does provide a return on investment. Do you thin you wave a pixy dust wand and poof the money to pay for all that crap magically appears?
Ever hear of the Weimar Republic sunshine?
You might actually want to put a little Fox in your life or Mark Levin, Andrew Wilcow, Rush Limbaugh, Michael Savage, Alex Jones, Glenn Beck, G Gordon Liddy, Actually just about anyone but who you have been subverted by.
Hard pass, benr. Obvious by your reply how toxic those sources are.
@chipshot
ROTFLOL
You utter toxic and want all the freebies talk about toxic you have been absorbing the sewer pipe of ideas.
Uncle Bob
Hey, don’t give up! Trump is a joke president and will again still be a joke candidate in Nov 2020 – if he makes it that far.
You seem to have succumbed to all the BS the right constantly trots out about the progressive agenda being all about ‘free shit’ and ‘rainbows & unicorns’, and then flip to Venezuela as the ‘See? ??? I told ya” exemplar.
Use your logic. Look at countries where they don’t suffer this tribalism-driven rabidity and just get on with it, where the wealth of society is more fairly distributed. You know, like the US between 1933 and 1980, the ‘Golden Years’ so longed for by the reversionary conservatives.
Compared to now most of all that used to be virtually free. A broken arm didn’t cost a year of pay, college was vastly more affordable. Movie actresses didn’t make $100,000,000 for making a single film.
The money to pay for everything exists but it exists in the pockets of a very few people.
Why does everyone wanting free crap under the banner of Socialism always not think things through?
Why do you think Health care has become so ridiculous?
Answer:
Lawyers
Regulations
Government got involved.
Education got so expensive….Why?
Once again government got involved.
Now ask yourself what is government actually good at?
Waste…check!
Taxing us into oblivion…Check
Not much else and yet your answer is more government?
Let me ask a question if you have splinter is the answer to give yourself another splinter?
Or maybe just smash your thumb with hammer so you forget the annoyance of the splinter.
Amazing.
Yea the Donald is a poor choice the Democrats are even worse choices and Bernie who got booted from a hippie commune and never worked a real job in his life is your answer?
Bernie is a moron.
@majella
So tell us which country that you want the US to be like.
No wait how about you just move there and leave the rest of us in peace.
See how easy that is?
benr
I’m not a Brit, but I’m also not American, though I’ve lived here for over 20 years, and currently in Northern California for some time (married to an American).
Don’t worry – you’ll get your wish before long. Once my Other Half retires, we’re certainly off to my homeland (sooner, especially if the Clown President gets re-elected), a South Seas Paradise, where education & healthcare is tax-payer funded and the top rate of income tax is less than the US (at 33%).
In the meantime, and even afterward, I have as much a right to observe and comment on world affairs as anyone else here, regardless of whether you like it or not. And don’t kid yourself, the rest of the planet is keenly & legitimately interested in what the US President does, like a drunk uncle at Thanksgiving, stumbling into furniture & spewing hateful & almost incomprehensible word salad at everyone regardless.
benr
“Why do you think Health care has become so ridiculous?
Answer:
Lawyers
Regulations
Government got involved.”
The UK government got involved in healthcare in 1948 by creating the NHS. Prior to that poor people didn’t get healthcare – they just died a lot sooner than less poor people and left families bereft. (The poorest still die sooner than wealthy people but not nearly as early as they did then.)
Our system is underfunded. It manages on about 9 percent of GDP, while yours costs twice that because it has to feed layers of parasites, like insurance companies, in addition to paying for actual healthcare. And, as you’d expect, its health outcomes are not remotely proportional to the extra cost it bleeds from the population.
The NHS is also in a position to negotiate prices directly with pharma companies (something that will be outlawed in the even of a a trade deal with the US post Brexit).
But our system isn’t ‘free’. It’s taxpayer funded and free at the point of use. The system is currently being bled dry by a huge transfer of wealth from the public to the private realm (as has been the direction of travel for decades) through PFI/PPP contracts which are an absolute scam for the enrichment of private equity funds. And the NHS has been softened up for privatisation for years – and not for the good of the people. Majella could tell you that too because she watched the video I posted (a film made by doctors), which I presume you didn’t.
There are other European countries that manage a balance of the two systems.
The system Majella describes in NZ sounds pretty good to me. Nobody else puts up with what the US puts up with in terms of healthcare. All in the name of ideology.
in the *event*…
benr
“and like it or not the military does provide a return on investment. ”
Are you measuring that in barrels, out of interest?
@ga
In barrels that is one measure or global stability and regional stability, jobs, research and development.
Plus it gives the anti-America hate the military crowd something to whine about rather pay people to man a post then their couch waiting for a welfare check.
Lol. All you had to do was read the first sentence to know that “Jon Wiener,” author of that article, was then & probably still is, clueless.
“Political science tells us that…” & then goes on to conflate polysci with statistical sampling. Actually, they’re two separate subjects, Jon.
No, don’t expect any hair-shirt wearing by Jon & the jolly journo’s at The Nation.
This is a dumb analysis. For one thing, the contest was very close. Second, polling is a science (subset of statistics). These pros will apply scientific methodology to improve accuracy.
This is a dumb analysis. For one thing, the contest was very close. Second, polling is a science (subset of statistics). These pros will apply scientific methodology to improve accuracy.
Donald Trump agrees with you.
Trump Loves Record Poll Numbers — Including Ones He’s Apparently Made Up
I’ll bet you still believe in the tooth fairy, don’t you, Lil’ Snacker?
Polls are total BS – Trump and Brexit are proof of that. They are meant to change elections, not predict them.
Many people no longer take calls from people or phone numbers they don’t recognize, including pollsters.
I do remember Davy Crockett and Duvid Crockett, the Yiddish recorded version made popular by Mickey Katz, who was the father of actor Joel Grey.
For millions of Americans, the US in the 1950’s was not exactly the land of milk and honey. Schools that catered to black children were separate and inferior. In 1953, President Eisenhower signed an executive order that called for the firing of gay Federal employees. I just learned about this particular order yesterday from CBS Sunday Morning. You can read about it here: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-lavender-scare-how-the-federal-government-purged-gay-employees/
Some 65 years later, I am enjoying a much higher standard of living than I did in the 1950’s.
I agree polls are faulty gauges of political reality if precision is what you are after. Ditto for their accuracy as well. Nevertheless if such a contemptible candidate as Hillary was able to nevertheless manage to win the popular vote as polls suggested, what chance does the golden cockatoo have when polls suggest he will lose by a landslide?
My hope and expectation is that once the primaries begin Biden will be weeded out and someone with wide appeal with the young generation will come to the fore.
After that Trump begins to give serious consideration to what kind of deals he can make to escape prosecution for all of his non-presidential criminal activity that he will be forced to deal with when the scepter is taken away.
Another case in point. There are so many. If you search long enough, and trust me you won’t have to search long, you can find a poll to support your misperception so ubiquitous they are.
Trump is Popping in the Polls
If that kaka website is what you are forced to base your case on it just shows how desperate you are.
Quinnipiac University Poll. June 6-10, 2019. N=1,214 registered voters nationwide. Margin of error ± 3.5.
“If the election for president were being held today, and the candidates were [see below] the Democrat and Donald Trump the Republican, for whom would you vote?”
Donald
Trump (R) Joe
Biden (D) Someone
else (vol.) Wouldn’t
vote (vol.) Unsure/
No answer
% % % % %
6/6-10/19
40 53 1 2 4
Donald
Trump (R) Bernie
Sanders (D) Someone
else (vol.) Wouldn’t
vote (vol.) Unsure/
No answer
% % % % %
6/6-10/19
42 51 1 2 4
Donald
Trump (R) Elizabeth
Warren (D) Someone
else (vol.) Wouldn’t
vote (vol.) Unsure/
No answer
% % % % %
6/6-10/19
42 49 1 3 5
Donald
Trump (R) Kamala
Harris (D) Someone
else (vol.) Wouldn’t
vote (vol.) Unsure/
No answer
% % % % %
6/6-10/19
41 49 1 2 6
Donald
Trump (R) Pete
Buttigieg (D) Someone
else (vol.) Wouldn’t
vote (vol.) Unsure/
No answer
% % % % %
6/6-10/19
42 47 1 3 7
Donald
Trump (R) Cory
Booker (D) Someone
else (vol.) Wouldn’t
vote (vol.) Unsure/
No answer
% % % % %
6/6-10/19
42 47 1 3 7
NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist Poll. May 31-June 4, 2019. N=783 registered voters nationwide. Margin of error ± 5.
“Thinking about the 2020 election, do you definitely plan to vote for Donald Trump for reelection as president or do you definitely plan to vote against him?”
Definitely
for Trump Definitely
against him Unsure
% % %
5/31 – 6/4/19
36 51 13
4/24-29/19
33 54 12
3/25-27/19
35 54 11
1/10-13/19
30 57 13
Monmouth University Poll. May 16-20, 2019. N=719 registered voters nationwide. Margin of error ± 3.7.
“Looking ahead to the 2020 election for president, do you think that Donald Trump should be reelected, or do you think that it is time to have someone else in office?”
Should be
reelected Time for
someone else Unsure
% % %
5/16-20/19
37 60 4
3/1-4/19
38 57 5
1/25-27/19
38 57 5
11/9-12/18
37 58 4
Quinnipiac University Poll. May 16-20, 2019. N=1,078 registered voters nationwide. Margin of error ± 3.7.
“In the 2020 general election for president, if Donald Trump is the Republican candidate, would you definitely vote for him, consider voting for him, or would you definitely not vote for him?”
Definitely
vote for Consider
voting for Definitely
not vote for Unsure/
No answer
% % % %
5/16-20/19
31 12 54 3
4/26-29/19
33 13 52 2
3/21-25/19
30 13 53 3
Fox News Poll conducted by Beacon Research (D) and Shaw & Company Research (R). May 11-14, 2019. N=1,008 registered voters nationwide. Margin of error ± 3.
“If the 2020 presidential election were held today, would you definitely vote to reelect Donald Trump, probably vote to reelect Trump, probably vote for someone else, or definitely vote for someone else?”
Definitely/
Probably vote
to reelect
Trump Probably/
Definitely vote
for someone
else Too soon
to say
(vol.) Wouldn’t
vote (vol.) Unsure
% % % % %
5/11-14/19
38 54 5 2 2
12/9-11/18
38 55 5 1 2
1/21-23/18
35 56 8 1 1
4/23-25/17
36 55 5 – 3
“If the 2020 presidential election were held today, how would you vote if the candidates were Democrat Joe Biden and Republican Donald Trump?” If unsure: “Well, which way do you lean?” Options rotated
Donald
Trump (R) Joe
Biden (D) Other
(vol.) Wouldn’t
vote (vol.) Unsure
% % % % %
5/11-14/19
38 49 5 3 5
3/17-20/19
40 47 4 3 5
“How would you vote if the candidates were Democrat Bernie Sanders and Republican Donald Trump?” If unsure: “Well, which way do you lean?” Options rotated
Donald
Trump (R) Bernie
Sanders (D) Other
(vol.) Wouldn’t
vote (vol.) Unsure
% % % % %
5/11-14/19
41 46 5 3 5
3/17-20/19
41 44 6 3 5
“How would you vote if the candidates were Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump?” If unsure: “Well, which way do you lean?” Options rotated
Donald
Trump (R) Kamala
Harris (D) Other
(vol.) Wouldn’t
vote (vol.) Unsure
% % % % %
5/11-14/19
41 41 7 4 8
3/17-20/19
41 39 7 4 9
“How would you vote if the candidates were Democrat Elizabeth Warren and Republican Donald Trump?” If unsure: “Well, which way do you lean?” Options rotated
Donald
Trump (R) Elizabeth
Warren (D) Other
(vol.) Wouldn’t
vote (vol.) Unsure
% % % % %
5/11-14/19
41 43 6 4 6
3/17-20/19
42 40 7 4 8
“How would you vote if the candidates were Democrat Pete Buttigieg and Republican Donald Trump?” If unsure: “Well, which way do you lean?” Options rotated
Donald
Trump (R) Pete
Buttigieg (D) Other
(vol.) Wouldn’t
vote (vol.) Unsure
% % % % %
5/11-14/19
41 40 7 4 8
CNN Poll conducted by SSRS. April 25-28, 2019. Registered voters nationwide.
“If Bernie Sanders were the Democratic Party’s candidate and Donald Trump were the Republican Party’s candidate, for whom would you be more likely to vote?” N=456; margin of error ± 5.6
Donald
Trump (R) Bernie
Sanders (D) Other
(vol.) Neither
(vol.) Unsure/
Refused
% % % % %
4/25-28/19
44 50 0 4 2
“If Joe Biden were the Democratic Party’s candidate and Donald Trump were the Republican Party’s candidate, for whom would you be more likely to vote?” N=470; margin of error ± 5.5
Donald
Trump (R) Joe
Biden (D) Other
(vol.) Neither
(vol.) Unsure/
Refused
% % % % %
4/25-28/19
45 51 – 1 2
“If Pete Buttigieg were the Democratic Party’s candidate and Donald Trump were the Republican Party’s candidate, for whom would you be more likely to vote?” N=439; margin of error ± 5.7
Donald
Trump (R) Pete
Buttigieg (D) Other
(vol.) Neither
(vol.) Unsure/
Refused
% % % % %
4/25-28/19
44 47 1 2 6
“If Kamala Harris were the Democratic Party’s candidate and Donald Trump were the Republican Party’s candidate, for whom would you be more likely to vote?” N=453; margin of error ± 5.5
Donald
Trump (R) Kamala
Harris (D) Other
(vol.) Neither
(vol.) Unsure/
Refused
% % % % %
4/25-28/19
45 49 0 3 3
“If Elizabeth Warren were the Democratic Party’s candidate and Donald Trump were the Republican Party’s candidate, for whom would you be more likely to vote?” N=452; margin of error ± 5.6
Donald
Trump (R) Elizabeth
Warren (D) Other
(vol.) Neither
(vol.) Unsure/
Refused
% % % % %
4/25-28/19
48 47 0 2 3
“If Beto O’Rourke were the Democratic Party’s candidate and Donald Trump were the Republican Party’s candidate, for whom would you be more likely to vote?” N=469; margin of error ± 5.5
Donald
Trump (R) Beto
O’Rourke (D) Other
(vol.) Neither
(vol.) Unsure/
Refused
% % % % %
4/25-28/19
42 52 – 2 4
ABC News/Washington Post Poll. April 22-25, 2019. N=865 registered voters nationwide. Margin of error ± 4.
“Assuming Trump is the Republican candidate for president in 2020, would you definitely vote for him, would you consider voting for him, or would you definitely not vote for him?”
Definitely
for Trump Consider
Trump Definitely
not Trump Unsure
% % % %
4/22-25/19
30 14 52 3
1/21-24/19
28 14 56 1
Georgetown Institute of Politics and Public Service Battleground Poll conducted by the Tarrance Group (R) and Lake Research Partners (D). March 31-April 4, 2019. N=1,000 likely voters nationwide. Margin of error ± 3.1.
“Now thinking ahead to the election for president that will be held in November 2020, do you think Donald Trump has performed his job as president well enough to deserve reelection, or do you think it’s time to give a new person a chance?”
Trump
deserves
reelection Time to give
new person
a chance Unsure
% % %
3/31 – 4/4/19
38 57 5
Suffolk University/USA Today Poll. March 13-17, 2019. N=1,000 registered voters nationwide. Margin of error ± 3.
“If the 2020 presidential election were held today, would you vote for President Trump, the Democratic nominee, or a third party candidate?”
President
Trump Democratic
nominee Third party
candidate Unsure Refused
% % % % %
3/13-17/19
39 36 11 14 1
NBC News/Wall Street Journal Poll conducted by Hart Research Associates (D) and Public Opinion Strategies (R). Feb. 24-27, 2019. N=720 registered voters nationwide. Margin of error ± 3.7.
“Looking ahead to the next election for president, if Donald Trump runs for reelection as the Republican candidate, will you definitely vote for Trump in that election, probably vote for Trump, probably vote for the Democratic candidate, or definitely vote for the Democratic candidate?”
2/24-27/19 12/9-12/18 12/13-15/17
% % %
Definitely Trump
27 23 18
Probably Trump
14 15 18
Probably Democrat
15 13 14
Definitely Democrat
33 39 38
Someone else (vol.)
2 2 n/a
Depends (vol.)
5 3 4
Neither (vol.)
1 2 3
Unsure
3 3 5
Wason Center for Public Policy Survey Research Lab at Christopher Newport University. Feb. 3-17, 2019. N=1,001 likely voters nationwide. Margin of error ± 3.2.
“If the 2020 presidential election were held today, would you vote for the incumbent president, Republican Donald Trump, or for the Democrat running against him?”
Trump Democrat Someone
else (vol.) Unsure/
Refused
% % % %
2/3-17/19
37 48 5 9
“And if instead the choices were the incumbent president, Republican Donald Trump, the Democratic Party’s nominee, or a candidate running on an independent ticket, for whom would you vote?”
Trump Democrat Independent
candidate Someone
else (vol.) Unsure/
Refused
% % % % %
2/3-17/19
34 32 16 1 17
CNN Poll conducted by SSRS. Jan. 30-Feb. 2, 2019. N=1,011 adults nationwide. Margin of error ± 3.8.
“I’m going to read you the names of a few people who are running or may run for president in 2020. For each one, please tell me whether you would be very likely, somewhat likely, not too likely, or not likely at all to support them if they decide to run in 2020. …”
Very/Some-
what likely Not too/Not
at all likely Unsure/
Refused
% % %
“Former vice president Joe Biden”
1/30 – 2/2/19
50 47 4
“President Donald Trump”
1/30 – 2/2/19
41 58 1
“Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders”
1/30 – 2/2/19
41 54 5
“California Senator Kamala Harris”
1/30 – 2/2/19
38 51 11
“Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren”
1/30 – 2/2/19
36 56 8
“New Jersey Senator Cory Booker”
1/30 – 2/2/19
29 55 15
“Former Texas congressman Beto O’Rourke”
1/30 – 2/2/19
29 56 15
“Former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg”
1/30 – 2/2/19
27 65 8
“New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand”
1/30 – 2/2/19
22 63 16
“Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown”
1/30 – 2/2/19
21 55 24
“Businessman Howard Schultz”
1/30 – 2/2/19
20 66 14
Fox News Poll conducted by Anderson Robbins Research (D) and Shaw & Company Research (R). Dec. 9-11, 2018. N=1,006 registered voters nationwide. Margin of error ± 3.
“Just your best guess: As of today, do you think Donald Trump will be reelected president in 2020, or not?”
Think he
will be Don’t think
he will be Unsure
% % %
12/9-11/18
39 52 9
CNN Poll conducted by SSRS. Dec. 6-9, 2018. N=1,015 adults nationwide. Margin of error ± 3.8.
“As you may have heard, Donald Trump has decided to run for reelection. Please just give me your best guess: Do you think he will win the presidential election in 2020, or do you think he will lose?”
Think he
will win Think he
will lose Unsure/
Refused
% % %
12/6-9/18
43 51 6
10/4-7/18
46 47 7
3/22-25/18
40 54 6
Grinnell College National Poll conducted by Selzer & Co. Nov. 24-27, 2018. N=828 likely voters nationwide. Margin of error ± 3.4.
“If a vote for president of the United States were held today, would you definitely vote to reelect President Trump, consider someone else, or definitely vote to elect someone else, or would you not vote?”
Definitely
Trump Consider
someone else Definitely
someone else Would
not vote Unsure
% % % % %
11/24-27/18
35 17 45 1 3
8/29 – 9/2/18
36 17 43 – 3
Gallup Poll. Oct. 15-28, 2018. N=902 registered voters nationwide. Margin of error ± 4.
“Please tell me whether you think each of the following political office-holders deserves to be reelected, or not. … How about President Trump?”
Deserves to
be reelected Does not
deserve Unsure
% % %
10/15-28/18
41 56 3
4/9-15/18
37 59 3
CNN Poll conducted by SSRS. Jan. 14-15 & 17-18, 2018. N=913 registered voters nationwide. Margin of error ± 3.8.
“I know it’s a long way off, but thinking about the election for president that will happen in 2020, if [see below] were the Democratic Party’s candidate and Donald Trump were the Republican Party’s candidate, who would you be more likely to vote for: [see below]?” If unsure: “As of today, do you lean more toward [see below]?”
Donald
Trump (R) Bernie
Sanders (D) Other
(vol.) Neither
(vol.) Unsure/
Refused
% % % % %
1/14-15, 17-18/18
42 55 1 2 1
Donald
Trump (R) Oprah
Winfrey (D) Other
(vol.) Neither
(vol.) Unsure/
Refused
% % % % %
1/14-15, 17-18/18
42 51 2 3 1
Donald
Trump (R) Joe
Biden (D) Other
(vol.) Neither
(vol.) Unsure/
Refused
% % % % %
1/14-15, 17-18/18
40 57 1 1 1
Quinnipiac University Poll. Jan. 12-16, 2018. N=1,212 registered voters nationwide. Margin of error ± 3.4.
“Would you be inclined to vote to reelect Donald Trump as president, or not?”
Inclined Not
inclined Unsure/
No answer
% % %
1/12-16/18
34 62 3
“If the presidential election were being held today, and the candidates were Oprah Winfrey the Democrat and Donald Trump the Republican, for whom would you vote?”
Donald
Trump (R) Oprah
Winfrey (D) Neither
(vol.) Someone
else (vol.) Unsure/
No answer
% % % % %
1/12-16/18
39 52 4 2 4
NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist Poll. Jan. 8-10, 2018. N=1,092 registered voters nationwide. Margin of error ± 3.
“Do you want Oprah Winfrey to run for president in 2020, or not?”
Want
her to run Don’t want
her to run Unsure
% % %
ALL
33 56 11
Democrats
47 40 13
Republicans
15 77 7
Independents
32 56 12
“If the 2020 election for president were held today, whom would you support if the candidates are Oprah Winfrey, the Democrat, and Donald Trump, the Republican?”
Donald
Trump (R) Oprah
Winfrey (D) Unsure
% % %
ALL
39 50 11
Democrats
4 91 6
Republicans
85 8 6
Independents
37 46 17
CNN Poll conducted by SSRS. Nov. 2-5, 2017. N=1,021 adults nationwide. Margin of error ± 3.6.
“Please tell me whether you think each of the following political officeholders deserves to be reelected or not. … How about Donald Trump?”
Deserves to
be reelected Does not Unsure/
Refused
% % %
11/2-5/17
33 63 4
Democrats
4 94 2
Independents
30 64 6
Republicans
80 17 3
9/17-20/17
33 61 6
Democrats
7 91 1
Independents
28 64 8
Republicans
76 18 6
Among registered voters:
11/2-5/17
35 62 4
9/17-20/17
35 59 6
Quinnipiac University Poll. March 2-6, 2017. N=1,283 registered voters nationwide. Margin of error ± 2.7.
“Do you want Oprah Winfrey to run for president in the 2020 election, or not?”
Want
her to run Don’t want
her to run Unsure/
No answer
% % %
ALL
21 69 10
Republicans
11 82 7
Democrats
32 56 11
Independents
19 70 11
“America performed splendidly in World War Two, rescuing Europe and Asia from manifest evil” – That reminds me that last Thursday was the 75th Anniversary of D-Day. Time to reflect on when the U.S. was at the peak of its power and used it for good.
“[T]he slow, demoralizing dismantling of the very industry that made the 20th century America’s moment in history” — Andrew Yang thinks universal basic income is the solution to automation and deindustrialization. That’s a science-fiction solution to a science-fiction problem. Of course, that assumes that business as usual will continue, not an assumption most of the readers of this blog share.
The US was primarily patient and played its cards right. If there had been no Russian front there would have been no allied landing and things would have turned out very differently indeed. The US and UK were using the Russians right from the start, as Stalin was always viewed as a far greater threat than Hitler. Fortunately for them, Hitler was just dumb and egotistical enough to play along.
Count me among the “most hardened cynics” among the Boomers. There will always be a diehard remnant however of the “most credulous fantasists” although the mood is certainly swinging toward a general cynicism. We approach the elephant at our hazard because sometimes it’s just better to remain ignorant.
Many of the myths really die hard. How many here question, for example, that shining moment in our history: the Greatest Generation, our role & motives in World War II? I don’t question that Hitler had to be defeated once events came to a head, just the recasting of this conflict as some great moral crusade. That came much later, the historical recasting, if you weren’t aware.
“Many of the myths really die hard. How many here question, for example, that shining moment in our history: the Greatest Generation,”
Tate,
They were the Greatest Generation” because they sucked up their angst and self interests, were sent to war and did as they were told…and like the Russians and the Germans, they did it well….
You’re right. It’s a convenient placeholder but the ordinary men (& women) who served were dupes of those who engineered the conflict. I didn’t mean to denigrate their effort.
3.5 million remaining European Jews were grateful for them being ‘duped’.
You are shameless. Believing you’ll be called to account one day for your words, actions and the younger, more innocent minds you infect makes you even more so.
Oh, I have no delusions about the power I’m up against in ‘infecting young innocent minds.’ It’s probably a fool’s errand. I’m probably putting myself at serious risk (within this lifetime, not the next) by voicing any skeptism of certain received ‘truths’ that you & other of the good-thinkers (or NPCs, take your pick) blindly adhere to.
*skepticism”. Yeah.
Tate. He’s listening.
And He saw it all, didn’t He? Careful.
And by ‘denigrate’ I wasn’t referring to negroes (polite Southerners used to say ‘nigra’ instead of ‘negro.’) They’ve been duped where they’re most susceptible by their own kind like Mad Maxine & the ever-present powers that pull her strings.
Tate: given that you’re clearly hinting at Holocaust denial, you’re certainly putting yourself at risk of getting banned by JHK.
He’s generally committed to freedom of speech, but on this matter he drops the banhammer without a second thought.
I can’t speak for JHK. I think your program needs an update though. If you haven’t been aware, just look around going back, oh I don’t know, months. Maybe he’s curious too. Just a theory. It’s not denial to question the details of a narrative.
Tate: “Count me among the ‘most hardened cynics’ among the Boomers.”
Here’s an excellent quote I came across recently. “The cynic … created nothing, he made nothing. His role was to undo — or rather to attempt to undo, for he did not succeed in his purpose. The cynic, a parasite of civilisation, lives by denying it, for the very reason that he is convinced that it will not fail. What would become of the cynic among a savage people where everyone, naturally and quite seriously, fulfils what the cynic farcically considers to be his personal role?” — José Ortega y Gasset
I like that a lot. It puts my own feelings about the prevailing discourse on this blog into plain words. People should be putting a quarter of the effort they expend in jawing about doom into preserving what’s good in the present order instead.
“What would become of the cynic among a savage people where everyone, naturally and quite seriously, fulfils what the cynic farcically considers to be his personal role?”
The more germane question is what would become of that savage people. But you could ask the same question substituting most of the roles that exist in a civilized society but which are unknown in a savage one.
For example,
“What would become of the securities analyst among a savage people where everyone, naturally and quite seriously, fulfils what the securities analyst farcically considers to be his personal role?”
Your point? I am strongly pro-civilization — just ask elysianfield. I don’t know what this riposte of yours is supposed to accomplish.
Wasn’t the first cynic (“dog” in Greek) Diogenes, the fella who went around Athens with a lamp in broad daylight claiming he was looking for an honest man? He was called a ‘cynic’ because he slept with dogs in a barrel in the agora. Sounds like an early Huckleberry Finn, or even an early ‘Nature Boy’ (q.v.)
Now that I think about it, it seems that the phrase ‘hardened cynic’ is an oxymoron. A true cynic cannot be hardened.
The reason being, if this isn’t obvious, is that he would end up questioning his own cynicism.
And I guess to answer your question more directly, there are no cynics in a savage society. There can’t be. Think about it. A cynical philosopher, basically a ‘layabout’, only emerges at a certain level of societal development, requiring existence beyond the subsistence level.
Elrond,
Well…a cynic in a classical sense is a person who does not believe in empathy, and/or seeks his own personal benefit at the expense of others.
The term is miss-used to denote a person who views the world in a negative light….
I, myself, feel intensely empathetic, but do not allow my judgment of reality to be skewed by emotional input. I do not consider myself, or Tate, or Janos, to be a cynic.
Do we observe the world in a positive light? Not so much…. Do we have good reason? Yes, as do you.
“Well…a cynic in a classical sense is a person who does not believe in empathy, and/or seeks his own personal benefit at the expense of others.”
I don’t know that that’s true, though, ef. That’s not how I think of cynicism, in the classical sense. The second part, about seeking his own personal benefit, definitely isn’t part of the definition. But the term has acquired something of a negative connotation as someone who never sees anything in a positive light, which isn’t fair.
We all know Trump used it. He had to bitch about Nasty Nancy with American Headstones in the background. The idiot planned it that way figuring he deserved respect by osmosis or heat transfer or association or something. Trump knows parlor tricks. Trump is like a troll who comments before he reads an article to try and always be first. Men under those headstones knew about something Trump never will. Those men knew about sacrifice. Like a dog lifting a leg on a mailbox. Trump showed no respect.
You might have something there KDOG but he also reminds me of a dog that wants attention even negative attention so it defecates on the floor to get Dad’s attention.
Any attention is better than being ignored and forgotten.
Ok dad, and a big woof to you. That is a very deep thought. One could even say that appears to be the state of things.
How exactly is the president of the United States “ignored and forgotten”?
Look at the news cycles as soon as Trump is not at the top of the heap he says or does something on Twitter to rile the lamestream media.
“good publicity is preferable to bad, but from a bottom-line perspective, bad publicity is sometimes better than no publicity at all. Controversy, in short, sells.”
? Donald J. Trump, Trump: The Art of the Deal
As Oscar Wilde so perspicaciously observed,
“There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is NOT being talked about.”
Ya! Ya! Ya!
In the words of all children, “who started it”. Why is it that Trump is always criticized after counter-punching a contentious statement by the opposition, especially when 90% of them are lies.
You are obviously a believer in the BS put out by the MSM and lying DNC.
How much respect did Pelosi show Trump with her declaration of prison? But that is okay, right? Because she is a Democrat.
BS, it goes both ways. Hypocrites!
That has been the status quo for as long as I can remember Democrats attack and Republicans take it until the Donald showed up now even the most milk toast of REPUBLICANS suddenly has found some semblance of a spine even Mitch McConnel.
When John McCain took his dirt nap even Mitch started fighting back.
Weird huh?
Oh? Here’s some ‘whaddabout’ism – who stirred hordes of supporters to chant ‘Lock her Up!’ Not a lot of due process there.
ANd what Pelosi actually said was that, after due process, she wanted to see him in prison. I’m with her. And, unreliable polls notwithstanding, I’m with a significant majority on that too.
So, quit being a frigging ‘white-wing’ snowflake.
However, I’m impressed that you went with ‘90% of them are lies’ rather than the usual response of the rabid Trump-dumpster that EVERYTHING he says is freaking gospel.
More than he deserves but roughly the same amount of respect his former attorney who knows more about him and his criminal activities has for him.
Keep trying JohnAZ, sooner or later you might have something worthwhile to contribute here.
When the U.S. was at the peak of its power and used it for good, the Allies were nonetheless performing mass bombings of civilians. In the case of Dresden, they achieved a firestorm that incinerated people where they stood. This is to say nothing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The men tried at Nuremberg were acquitted if they were charged with actions that happened to resemble those of the Allies. “The record on which we judge these defendants”, it was said, “is the record on which history will judge us tomorrow. To pass these defendants a poisoned chalice is to put it to our own lips as well.” So when the U.S. was at the peak of its power, it sometimes used that power for good, and sometimes in other ways. We should judge things as they are, not how we’d like to see them.
Neon Vincent: “That’s a science-fiction solution to a science-fiction problem.”
But these are science-fiction days. And I mean that seriously. Ordinary fiction is made-up stories about made-up people. In science fiction (and fantasy), you also get to make up the world the stories happen in. To do that requires a leap of the imagination, to the idea that a world different from the one you know is even possible. That leap happened to our civilization generations past, and it’s a permanent part of our consciousness now. We are the heirs of H.G. Wells and Hugo Gernsback as much as Thomas Edison and Henry Ford. (Note to JHK: World Made By Hand 100% qualifies as science fiction, whether you intended it as genre fiction or not. Change doesn’t always have to be in ways we’d like.)
Back in Shakespeare’s day, public spectacles of cruelty like bear-baiting and public executions were commonplace. But that was around the same time the printing press was invented, and literacy began to become widespread. The novel was invented and became popular, and it became normal for people to start consuming narratives of other people’s interior lives, both for information and entertainment. Over time, the result was an expansion of people’s circle of empathy and a gathering unwillingness to inflict wanton cruelty. Executions never stopped, but people began to find them shameful and feel they should be done out of sight. The guillotine, believe it or not, was actually part of a movement against cruel and unusual punishment, and toward reform of penal practices along rational lines.
In short, change in technology can result in a change in consciousness, and things never really go back the way they used to be. Whatever else happens, the things we leave behind will be an unending reminder to our descendants of the kind of world that, manifestly, can exist. It’ll be up to them what they do with their own conditions.
Unless we nuke everything, of course. So, fingers crossed.
War is war people die and honestly people that don’t deserve to die. There is no sane way to fight a war because the act of war is a last ditch effort to make the enemy give up.
There should never have been a police action which started with the Korean war nothing but weasel wording.
War is war fight it to win or don’t bother either way the innocents suffer.
War is legalized murder! Robert Mitchum’s character, a newspaper correspondent, In Anzio spent the movie trying to figure out why people fought wars.
His conclusion was chilling
They fight wars because they love it. They love the upwelling of emotions when firing and being fired at. People have invented so many reasons to fight, it must be inherent to our genes.
Do not blame politics, or religion, they are excuses to go to war.
So there is never anything legitimate to fight about or for?
When he was a war correspondent in the former Yugoslavia, Chris Hedges was talking to one of the fighters about what they thought they were fighting for. They said to him: “War is a force that gives us meaning.” Hedges made that the title of his book.
Meaning is a dangerous thing. People hunger for it. If you don’t afford them good and constructive meanings for their lives, they’ll create nasty and hateful ones rather than go without.
>>> War is legalized murder!
Self-defense is not murder. A nation defending itself and thus unwillingly engaging in “war” is not committing mass murder.
So we’re living in a fantasy science-fiction inspired world? Could that explain financial bubbles, an emergent phenomenon that began about the same time as the beginnings of the scientific revolution? The first of these was the so-called Tulipomania in Holland.
To me, it’s more like industry and science fiction co-evolved with one another. Each one being part of what made the other possible, they traded influences back and forth in an ongoing dialogue.
More – as the people ran for the lake to escape the flames, fighter bombers flew low and strafed them. These murderers deserved to swing but instead they were made into heroes.
Just filthy Germans? Actually there were many Allied POWs in Dresden too – but the New World Order doesn’t care about its own people either, that should be clear by now. Remember the Liberty!
Your heros invented the verb ‘coventrieren’ for what they did to Coventry and other cities before Dresden. Dresden was payback. Inexcusable in its intensity (Bomber Harris was a bit of a psycho) but payback.
You never mention Coventry – why is that?
And if Herr Lebensraum had stayed in his own back yard none of it would have happened at all.
The people murdered in the camps were civilians too.
*heroes…*
“The record on which we judge these defendants”, it was said, “is the record on which history will judge us tomorrow. To pass these defendants a poisoned chalice is to put it to our own lips as well.”
An idea such as this is now incomprehensible to most.
Jim,
Beautifully written, expresses the joy and sorrow of living through this time with you. Always appreciate your insight and love of language. Keep up the good work, buddy.
Thanks for the article. Wonderful. It’s nice to see a few comments beyond the usual Deep States, rah rah Trumpers, and Hillary bad/me mad. Yes, the Clintons are bad, no bankers were jailed by Obama, and Obama sold Boeing 737max overseas and removed FAA oversights. And Trump ___________ , well. the list is still being written and too long to fit in a book let alone a comment section.
My 2 cents as this unfolds: (and it is unfolding rather quickly)
get rid of your debts
take care of your health
move to somewhere liveable
make a few preps (the list is insanely long and personal)
develop community relationships
don’t believe in political explanation (any), or solutions
live each day deliberately
etc etc etc
Take care of your health…don’t get old.
If you had something noteworthy on Trump, you would have mentioned it.
Classic. “Yeah, there’s just too much to list.”
Lists of crimes, misdemeanors & just downright blithering idiocy of the Insane Clown President has been written in so many other places, let alone on other posts on this blog, that it doesn’t bear repeating anymore.
Anyway, it would be out-of-date by the end of the day.
By all means, list these crimes and provide concrete evidence.
Hi Jim, thanks for this, buddy.
I think this particular blog post has so much to say in its sad thoughtfulness and introspection. I really like the imagery of playing with the plastic soldiers out in the garden while dad is leaving for work in the new car and his nice suit. I grew up much later then you, but my upbringing was luckily filled with that same types of memories. It really is sad– its the destruction of a lifeway that did have an enormous stability & promise involved in it.
Furthermore, the Left’s dismissal of those previous decades as illegitimate because “it was all racist” is the failed message in the anemic political response of the vanishing of post-WWII America. The political establishment can not “make America great again”, so instead, the democrats (in particular)– argue that none of the years post-WWII mattered. I think that argument is as dangerous as it is insane.
I hope I’m writing all this down correctly so its understandable.
We had about ten good years after the war, if you count the insanely uptight and hysterical 1950’s, before it all went to shit again. By that time the globalist imperialists had firmly taken over and everything began to go to shit again. The insane nuclear cold war was bound to ruin both major parties involved in it, and in that respect, the USSR actually came out ahead by folding their hand first and getting on with things. The US on the other hand, came completely unhinged in the aftermath, leading up to today. Hegemonic Fever will do that to you.
yeah, bud you are right. I guess I’m addressing a more personal and individual level. Not as much a macro political level.
The threat of Soviet destruction was there, I remember too doing the ole ‘get under your desk’ routine LOL! cuz of nukes. There was an Order to it all, however, growing up. There was a concrete sense of reality, I suppose is what I’m trying to write here. This occurred in politics, in economics, and society as a whole. The nation was much more hegemonic demographically & culturally, as well.
Now all of that appears to be fading pretty quick– and the people out there who are cheering the destruction of the old way shouldn’t be too excited about what they wanna create. It seems to be some model of Venezuala-styled socialism mixed with Anything Goes cultural relativism. I don’t think its gonna work out.
“I don’t think its gonna work out.”
Kind of like trying to make chicken salad out of chickens#!t.
great analogy! nice
Hegemonic Fever AND Hillary Clinton will do that to you…
“Hegemonic Fever AND Hillary Clinton will do that to you…”
ha ha ha
oh boy
Part and parcel, Ol’ Finc, but that’s good anyway!
By 1970, the USA had hit peak conventional oil production. Did the Globalists have anything to do with that, or was it geophysics? Did peak conventional oil have anything to do with the collapse of the 50s economy?
The “insanely uptight & hysterical 1950’s?”
What are you talking about? The Venona papers & documents uncovered from the Soviet archives show it was far from hysteria.
I was referring to over here, with the McCarthy Great Red Scare Inquisition and all that.
That’s what I was referring to.
It is difficult to admit that the wars, recessions, bad times are all caused by one institution, our illustrious Federal government, to protect the PTB. It is also noticeable that good times seem to stem from the people. Taking power from the Feds seems to improve our lot in life.
Remember that when you favor government control.
But the USSR was our ally! Stalin was a Saint – Uncle Joe!
Absolutely beautiful piece this morning, Jim! As a fellow baby boomer (’57), I can attest to and share in the memories, feelings, and impressions shared here. We are indeed at a historical turning point for the US, and almost certainly for mankind as well. The allure of unleashing financialized industrialism based on exploiting the burning of millions of years of fossil fuels proved to be irresistible, and having sown the wind of all that wonder, we’re now reaping the whirlwind of its inevitable backside results. The only question remaining now is whether or not mankind – and indeed, most of the remaining current species – will remain “going concerns,” to borrow a term from the pin head bean counters. Personally, I have serious doubts.
“The only question remaining now is whether or not mankind – and indeed, most of the remaining current species – will remain “going concerns,” to borrow a term from the pin head bean counters. Personally, I have serious doubts.”
ha ha
here I’m trying to put a positive spin on the apocalypse and you gotta come along and shit all over it.
thanks, buddy! 😉
i’m teasing u
LOL! No problemo, I’m just a died in the wool truth teller.
We will be returning to a medieval style of existence as Mr. K said last week, if we are lucky. As it is already our economy is becoming neo-Feudal with an extravagantly wealthy, very tiny aristocracy and the rest being part of the peasant masses. This is reflected in everything from the economy to the 2016 electoral map. Whether the environment can survive the incessant destruction reaped by cancerous growth? That does remain to be seen.
In feudalism, serfs had obligations to their lords, and the lords had obligations to their serfs, enforced by Church and State.
Feudalism would be an improvement over the current situation.
I agree with you. We are however missing at this time the agreement upon reciprocal obligations of the aristocracy and peasantry. And our society certainly rejects any influence of the “Church”. So quite a bit of change must happen in order to get us there. I am actually hopeful and not cynical. Once things get really really hard people will be malleable. Much of the problem now in addition to outright disagreement is inertia because there isn’t widespread famine yet.
SoftStarLight: A society that took for granted the relationship between aristocracy and peasantry is just what the U.S. founding fathers rejected. They dismissed the idea that there should be different rules for different people, and proposed instead that all are created equal and should be subject to equal treatment regardless of status. This founding principle has been your country’s guiding light ever since.
It’s not that I expect you to change your mind, but your position is fundamentally un-American in addition to being totalitarian. And I think that fact is something you should have to wear in public. Expect me to keep reminding you of it.
Our system has failed Elrond. I mean aren’t you the one who is always telling us that? And in order to create equality, you desire to make Whites third class citizens here and everywhere they live. The form of Serfdom you desire for us is along the lines of South Africa, I think. She’s talking about a system where the higher and lower class share the same culture and race.
>>> subject to equal treatment regardless of status
Equal before the law—yes. But somewhere along the line, the Left got confused and thought it meant equality of outcome. And now they push wealth redistribution policies in a vain attempt to create literal wealth equality.
And after that? What other aspects of the human condition will the Left try to equalize? Will models be disfigured to make the rest of us feel better about ourselves? Or perhaps the SJWs have more ambitions plans to equalize all life forms. After all, oysters have rights!
Well mark me and shun me then if that’s what you think is best Elrond but it won’t change what’s true. You can’t hide from it even when you silence us. He’s right. Our system has failed us. The American experiment was a beautiful thing. Hearing stories of the “good ole days” both here and IRL makes me mad about how things are now and what happened and how we were betrayed. And we is White America. I can’t help that it displeases you. And you can tell me there is equality until the cows come home but I am telling you there isn’t. Each person is unique and each person does not receive the same treatment by the law nor by society. That’s because we all have different places in society. But to maximize how we work together means that we need sameness and trust. And so the aristocrats and peasants most definitely need to be of the same race and bound by the same culture.
>>> That’s because we all have different places in society.
Societies will always value some roles more than others. “Healers” for example are valued more than “cleaners”. But it is not for any society to tell you your place in it. Beware of any political system that seems to support the idea that it can.
Hmm, several comments. I’ll take them in order.
Eyesore McGee: I’m not the one who’s always talking about a failed (or failing) system; you must be thinking of JHK. There’s a difference between being apprehensive about system failure, versus half-jonesing for it the way he and so many others around here do. There’s quite a bit about the system we have today that’s worth preserving, in that it affords at least a fairly decent standard of living to hundreds of millions or even billions of people. So what I want is for the system to do well in that respect, and also to become a better system. I point out failures where I see them, but all in all I think my own attitude is quite a bit more constructive than what is the norm around here.
Exscotticus: You’re arguing against a straw man. No one begrudges people advantages that they worked to achieve for themselves. When Bernie Sanders’ most recent book did well, he was widely derided on social media because the book made him a millionaire, but that’s bogus. He gets to keep the proceeds of his own work because of course he does. And he will pay taxes on it, because of course he should, because he benefits from being part of the wider society.
The issue isn’t people having money, it’s (a) people appropriating the value of other people’s work and (b) people accumulating so much money they’re able to leverage that into power over the system itself, making it serve them at other people’s expense. There are good reasons to believe that widespread wealth inequality makes everyone (including the wealthy) more fearful, more unhealthy, less satisfied with their lives, and that it even endangers the system. A more economically equal system will be better, not only because it better reflects the real value of what people contribute (as opposed to the minimum they can be coerced into accepting), but because equality itself is good for people.
SoftStarLight: You write, “each person does not receive the same treatment by the law nor by society… because we all have different places in society”. This neatly reverses cause and effect, like saying our ears and noses are where they are so as to hold up our eyeglasses. Regardless, like Eyesore you’re an openly professed totalitarian and I see no reason to debate you. I simply speak for the record.
>>> No one begrudges people advantages that they worked to achieve for themselves.
Socialists do indeed! The mere act of being wealthy is enough to raise their ire. Show me any socialist nation’s tax code that has one tax rate for “wealth you achieved yourself” and another for “wealth you did not achieve yourself”.
>>> [The issue is] people appropriating the value of other people’s work
Huh? If you agree to work for Jeff Bezos at a certain salary, how is he “appropriating” your work? He’s paying you for your labor–a contract you freely entered into.
You seem to think that you have a right to Jeff Bezos ideas, wealth, and all that it creates. Jeff took the RISKS with his MONEY. Anything that comes out of that is HIS—not YOURS. What you get is the salary you agreed to.
@ Elrond
That was very succinctly and eloquently put, Elrond. However, Exscotticus didn’t actually READ it, going by his rabid response.
@Majella, not only did I read it—I quoted it. Maybe YOU didn’t read it.
Socialists aren’t merely asking for an inheritance tax (which already exists, and which taxes wealth yet again, as that wealth was already taxed multiple times by multiple sovereign taxable authorities).
Socialists are arguing for an ownership stake in all corporations. And that’s fine. The problem is: they don’t want to pay for it.
You can take an ownership stake in any publically traded corporation right now by purchasing stock. Or you can be a bond owner, and have a corporation in your debt.
But that’s not what the Left is arguing for. What they’re suggesting is that “the workers” should have an ownership stake in anything their labor touches. They’re not investing any wealth. They’re not taking any financial risks. They’re simply salaried employees doing the job for which they were contractually hired.
Clearly, this “I work it I own it” socialist position would severely discourage wealthy people from investing. The idea doesn’t even work with things that are already public from day one. Do you think you have ownership of your city’s public buses? Try to sell your stake in them. Go to City Hall and say, “I’m moving to another area, and would like to cash out all my positions on all the public stuff for which I am part owner.” Please record the response and share it!
Do you think the cleaning crew at Fort Knox should get an ownership stake in the gold because they mixed their labor with this enterprise when they emptied the waste baskets?
All socialist ideas involve stealing wealth one way or another. And just what do the wealthy do under such systems? They pack and leave and take their wealth with them. Then what? Take your pick: USSR, Mao’s China, Venezuela, etc.
Wow Elrond. You say I am an open totalitarian so you see no reason to debate me. That seems a bit intolerant of you. More like grandstanding. My contention that eveyone has a place in society is unacceptable why? It seems to be logical and realistic. I didn’t suggest people deserve to be treated differently. Simply that they are and have been and that fact is related to where people are within the social hierarchy. Our whole point is that a homogenous society wouuld stand a much better chance of resolving these class imbalances. A common purpose and shared vision would also help alleviate class tensions.
Exscotticus I agree with you that individuals must be allowed the freedom to find their place in society rather than being assigned to a specific role or path by society. Creativity and innovation are good things. But moderation is good in all things too. So the desires of the individual must be reconciled with the desires of the collective. The two don’t always have to be at odds.
>>> So the desires of the individual must be reconciled with the desires of the collective.
I would say the desires of the individual must be reconciled with the needs of the collective. That is we have laws. But the onus—the burden of proof—should always be upon the collective to explain why an individual’s liberty should be curtailed. We don’t want a tyranny of the majority. That is why we have a Constitution with a Bill of Rights.
Exscotticus: “The mere act of being wealthy is enough to raise [socialists’] ire.”
Not really. What raises ire is (a) getting rich by soaking up other people’s contributions – I’ll describe this below – and (b) the unwarranted political power that comes with having unchecked money power.
Ex: “If you agree to work for Jeff Bezos at a certain salary, how is he “appropriating” your work? He’s paying you for your labor–a contract you freely entered into.”
The starting wage for an associate at an Amazon fulfillment center is $11 an hour, average $13. Keep in mind how far $11 an hour will get you in the good ole USA as we discuss the following. If Jeff Bezos employs me at $X an hour, he does so for his benefit, not mine. The work I’m doing for him isn’t worth $X, it’s worth $X+Y dollars, where Jeff Bezos keeps the $Y. The beauty is that the $Y doesn’t show up in the accounting, yet it’s obviously there since there’s no way on god’s earth my shitty $11 job would exist without it. Jeff Bezos, and pretty much all of capitalism, works on this basis of alienating workers from the value they themselves create.
What Jeff Bezos wants is to keep $X as low as possible and $Y as high as possible. That’s why Amazon fulfillment centers are such infamous sweatshops, where workers are tracked continuously (i.e. subjected to totalitarian surveillance, don’t kid yourself), break times are minimal, and the company notoriously prefers calling ambulances to treat exhausted employees versus, say, turning up the air conditioning. Only the latter costs money which Jeff Bezos would like for himself, thankyouverymuch.
Multiply all this umpteen times over and you have Jeff Bezos, the plutocrat’s plutocrat. Multiply times everything else and you have capitalism. All this is what I mean by getting rich soaking up other people’s contributions. You can despise Karl Marx all you want. But he absolutely nailed this — it can’t be coherently contradicted. It can only be defended through special pleading and propaganda, justifying pharaonic lucre on the one hand, and people working themselves into the hospital in exchange for a pittance on the other.
Here’s an addendum, so I don’t run on too long at once.
Exscotticus: “You seem to think that you have a right to Jeff Bezos ideas, wealth, and all that it creates. Jeff took the RISKS with his MONEY.”
Oh my GOD, he took RISKS with his MONEY? What a HERO! Except, for whose benefit was he risking his money? People call soldiers heroes because they risk their lives and bodies for their country. But what Jeff Bezos was risking was money. And what he was risking his money for is, more money. For himself. So, yay?
Ex: “Anything that comes out of that is HIS—not YOURS. What you get is the salary you agreed to.”
This is exactly my $X+$Y proposition from above, except with pop eyes and foaming at the mouth. To the contrary, you and Jeff Bezos both seem to think that Jeff Bezos has a right to the value of my work. That is, part of that value: the difference between the actual, full value of the work versus what scraps Lord Jeff deigns to leave on the table. That difference goes into Lord Jeff’ pocket; it’s where all capitalist profits come from. You’ve got some nerve proclaiming that as Jeff Bezo’s due and proper, when I was the one who created the value by doing work.
This is why the labour movement is vital: bargaining power. Without workers’ solidarity, the individual worker doesn’t have a choice, i.e. there literally is no actual bargain between worker and employer. Workers accept work at the going rate, or they accept destitution. And don’t give me bootstrap arguments about this. There’s no such thing as a society of freebooting entrepreneurs above the pure subsistence level. Anything better than that requires cooperation and coordination between individuals. And that means people going to a workplace and doing work.
The labour movement allows for that cooperation and coordination to take place on terms that are not purely tyrannical, which is what Jeff Bezos benefits from and which you are defending so vociferously. What would be better still would be worker ownership. People want to own where they live, after all, and not pay rent. so why not own where they work as well? Everyone who works should have a share of ownership in their workplace, meaning they keep the full value of the work they do. Of course the Jeff Bezoses of the world will squawk. No one expects them to do otherwise; they simply need to be brought to heel.
>>> The work I’m doing for him isn’t worth $X, it’s worth $X+Y dollars, where Jeff Bezos keeps the $Y.
Says who? What authority determines the value of your labor? Some central planning committee of socialists sitting in a Star Chamber somewhere? No thanks.
In all of human history, the best mechanism we’ve come up with to determine the value of things is a free market. Every nation that tries to set prices fails, as it immediately spawns a black market.
Do you think rocket scientists should be paid a lot? Perhaps. Depends on whether or not you need one. Depends on how many you have. That’s the beauty of the free market. There isn’t much intrinsic value in anything; it all depends on supply and demand. In this regard, free markets are more responsive to the needs of the many, of society, of the collective, of the people, than anything socialists have ever come up with.
If you don’t think Jeff Bezos is a guy who achieved wealth on his own merits, then no one qualifies. He did not inherit wealth. He started Amazon in his garage. Amazon was successful long before it went public (and made lots of other people wealthy).
No doubt the wealthy people you’ll give a free pass to are the ones who embrace and promote socialist ideals. George Soros, perhaps? Tell us, Elrond. Give us examples of wealthy people that pass your “achieved wealth on their own merits” test.
>>> Everyone who works should have a share of ownership in their workplace,
Well in that case, I’m off to Fort Knox to be a janitor. Can’t wait for my share of the gold.
You socialists have a very inflated idea of the value of your labor. It’s ironic because, at the same time, you demand that millions of cheap labor immigrants be allowed to flood our markets, raising the costs of living while simultaneously lowering the value of your labor even more.
Ex: “All socialist ideas involve stealing wealth one way or another. And just what do the wealthy do under such systems? They pack and leave and take their wealth with them. Then what? Take your pick: USSR, Mao’s China, Venezuela, etc.”
There you go again with entirely unjustified claims.
Is wealth not ‘stolen’ in the capitalist system? Tax is the commonality between socialist & capitalist systems. I guess you’d like a ZERO tax regime…and look forward to hearing how it would work.
On average in the Western community extracts around 28% of GDP by way of taxes
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_tax_revenue_to_GDP_ratio).
Interestingly, the US stands at 27.1% while the evil demonic Venezuela is 25%. How do you explain this anomaly?
The rich pack up and leave? I don’t think you know how this works, do you…the uber-rich life everywhere and nowhere, as global citizens, paying if not NOTHING, then the least possible in taxes. The vast majority of their wealth is sequestered offshore.
Your passionate defense of Jeff Bezos is quite disturbing though. Amazon pays zilch in corporate income taxes, and while he personally is paid a salary by Amazon of $81,000 which will be subject to withholding, I’m guessing he pays Sweet Fanny Adams in effect.
I read somewhere that there’s a weird phenomenon that exists only in the US – most everyone expects to get rich, sooner or later, they’re just not there yet…and as a result, they defend the wealthy and their dodgy tax games in order to preserve tehir own future right to play.
Sad, really…does this explain your defense of one of the richest plutocrats of the 21st century who pays minimum wages, works his people like slaves, will eventually replace tehm all with robots, is destroying communities across the country (he’ll eventually take Walmart out and that’ll be the end of employment in Buttfuck, Arkansas) and pays nothing in taxes? Good luck with that.
>>> I guess you’d like a ZERO tax regime
As a matter of fact, when the USA first took its place among the sovereign nations of the world, there was no income tax. And when income tax was first enacted, it was around 1% for the stupid wealthy only. Now, even POOR people are required to pay income tax…
According to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, the lowest-income quintile — those making less than $19,000 a year — pay almost 11 percent of their income in state and local taxes
>>> Interestingly, the US stands at 27.1% while the evil demonic Venezuela is 25%. How do you explain this anomaly?
Easy. Venezuela has the largest oil reserves in the world. The fact that socialism can’t make a nation work that’s literally sitting on a pile of free wealth is the ultimate testament to its failure. Venezuela doesn’t have to steal wealth from others as it’s endowed with wealth courtesy of time, dead things, and the sun. But that wasn’t good enough! And so its socialist leaders stole wealth, regardless.
>>> The rich pack up and leave? I don’t think you know how this works
Show me any wealthy people or corporations investing in Venezuela.
>>> Amazon pays zilch in corporate income taxes
Straw man. I’m against corporate welfare. And it has nothing to do with capitalism. But feel free to quote Adam Smith and prove me wrong. You’ve read Adam Smith, yes? Or was it all just hate-whitey courses? And how’s your Latin, btw? What? They don’t teach Latin at the universities anymore? So sad for you. So much money spent on your worthless liberal brainwashing education…
>>> one of the richest plutocrats of the 21st century who pays minimum wages, works his people like slaves,
Salaries at Amazon.com Inc range from an average of $58,578 to $147,825 a year.
58k is the median salary for a FAMILY in the USA. So if you have a husband and wife working for Amazon, they’re making TWICE the national average.
Maybe get your facts and talking points from someone other than job-killer AOC?
So what is your weapon of choice gonna be, SSL??
crossbow, longsword, or mace? 🙂
Gee if I had to choose from those I would pick the crossbow. If I don’t like you why would I want to get close lol ;-).
good point.
I’m gonna wield a samurai sword and some nunchucks. yeah yeah its a little Walking Dead, but it’s the end of the world, who gives a fuck
a fun mental exercise is to imagine what some of the posters on the blog would have IRL…
Janos with some kind of big, Germanic weapon like a battleaxe…of course Green Alba would have to have a claymore.. Scratch would have a trident in one hand and a net in the other (total Spartacus style), and Elrond would have something dainty & kinda feminine.. maybe like a stiletto knife 🙂
Wow a straight up Ninja that is so frickin cool! I wish I felt brave enough for that. That is funny to think about. I can’t picture Elrond with any weapon. He will probably have a scepter though that he will point with when he is angry.
“There are three things all wise men fear: the sea in storm, a night with no moon, and the wrath of a gentle man.” — Patrick Rothfuss
I’m a man of peace, SoftStarLight. I restrain myself because violence is terrible. So if things ever get so bad that I feel it necessary to take up violence, watch yourself, because that will mean I have abandoned all restraint.
Actual violence is an art, Elrond. You can’t just pick up a weapon and be any good at it. You will be a Mandarin of the New Order, just as you are now, whatever that Order happens to be.
“He will probably have a scepter though that he will point with when he is angry.”
OMG! hilarious!!
🙂
🙂
Thank you for letting me know Elrond. I wasn’t trying to provoke you. It was just a silly joke and some innocent fun.
PeteAtomic
I’ll take the bow and arrows with Comanche training everytime.
The problem with the Medieval idea is that all labor was animal or human driven. So there was lots to do for the serfs.
Not so much now as we continue the insane drive towards AI, and labor reducing everywhere.
One of the huge political questions of the 21st century will be, what to do with all the extra people.
In Medieval Times, the Black Death took care of the problem.
Watch the west coast.
Well presumably that is why the current Elite are so interested in massive depopulation.
*sigh*
“the current elite” – who do you actually mean? Please define a little
‘so interested in massive depopulation” – on what basis can you make such a claim? Please provide at least some pittance of evidence…
Wall Street/K Street/Hollywood/Chamber of Commerce/Big Business/Big Pharma/The Bureaucratic Deep State/Congress/The Pentagon……the list goes on I am sure.
And as far as the depopulation agenda goes, one small pittance of evidence is the Georgia Guidestones.
I think if you grew up in this time you ought to count yourself as being a winner of a cosmic lottery, and be grateful.
I also argue that things are changing, and we have an opportunity to create a positive future for ourselves & our children– however different this future will be from our current time. We ought to embrace the changes and make them our own– so the change is acceptable & not frightening or gets out of hand. Maybe that will be one of the greatest challenges.
It definitely had its moments. I remember so well the popular zeitgeist of the 60’s – even with all the cultural turmoil of the time – as compared to now. It’s just impossible to convey to the young’ns now who weren’t there. But I suppose it’s that way for every generation. I heard similar stories from my mother and grandmother, even though their childhoods growing up in the Great Plains states were much, much tougher by any reasonable measure.
“I heard similar stories from my mother and grandmother, even though their childhoods growing up in the Great Plains states were much, much tougher by any reasonable measure.”
yep, same here. I still live in Northern MN and yes the winters can be tough, but we do have great gas powered snow blowers! So, I can’t complain.
Grandmother lived in a one room house in the middle of NE up to the early ’60s. Cold water from an outdoor well pump and elimination via 2 hole outhouse, complete with an adjacent corncob pile. Wood burning stove in the “kitchen” for heat, cooking, and warming an occasional bath water. Baths in a big tin tub, which was also used for scalding chickens to enable plucking at slaughter. Hard to imagine now, but I don’t think she was ever as happy after moving into their modern house, which was no palace either.
For the most part “stuff” doesn’t make anyone happy.
“The question begging this haunted country now is: what do we become? And can we find any grace in it?”
The grace to be found is in accepting our limits. We will not accept them until Nature drives us to rock bottom in the coming winnowing of the population.
Only when we stop pointing fingers of blame and bargaining for irrational solutions will we get there.
All true, but much easier said than done. Exponential growth economies like ours require exponential contraction/pain to return to a lower equilibrium.
Definitely will not be easy. I doubt that even the majority of survivors will find that kind of peace.
“Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, one by one.”
? Charles MacKay, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowd
I would change that go mad as in lemmings right off the cliff but yea that is a pretty true statement.
The Great Depression is a good example of your statement.
One big difference now though, there is no reserve to bounce back with as we have destroyed our ability to respond.
Can you imagine FDR telling England and Russia that we have no steel making ability, or aluminum.
But if you need info, we have Google and if you want to talk we have Facebook, or if you need a package delivered from China, we have Amazon or Walmart.
A wonderful adjustment to our situation might be a well placed nuke right on top of Silicon Valley.
It doesn’t have to be this way. Meaning we wouldn’t necessarily have to wait until Nature drives us to the rock bottom. But people are unwilling and incapable of coming to any consensus. No doubt it is due to the balkanization of our society in general and it is something we are not going to ever get back with the current composition of the country. So, short of a totalitarian approach nothing will likely work and it will continue to be a war of all against all.
Practically speaking, it does have to be this way, just as it did at every point along the way up. We could have turned our backs on all this madness, say, after the collapse of the Soviet block in ’91. And at that point there was still a smidgen of a chance that we could have turned things around with a somewhat reduced amount of pain. To forsake industrialism now is to sign the certain death warrants of billions and the continued huge profits for a select few, and that is never going to happen. Granted, we’ll end up in the same pickle eventually either way, but then we’ll at least be able to blame the results on seemingly exogenous factors out of our control. That’s how societies have always collapsed and we will be no different. By doubling down on the very factors that will lead to our demise right up to the bitter end.
Well we don’t have to forsake industrialism but we could begin to power down in areas that make sense. There is no reason that we have to follow the same historical path of other nations before us but that is apparently the collective choice that will be made. In that sense I do understand your cynicism. I don’t think that blame will be seen as exogenous though. The population as ignorant at large as it may seem is aware to varying degrees of the destruction being reaped upon the human and natural environments. And most people are aware of the control held by the Elite. Though the Elite may be different for different people. So in short I am not sure if we can safely say that this is going to go according to the way it has gone so many times before.
Ol’ Scratch,
Just to further your point, the phrase, “Too late!” springs instantly to mind.
United Technologies just made a deal to purchase Raytheon. Now what do you suppose their vision for the future might be? …And let’s not forget how many politicians they can buy on the cheap to make their products desirable and eminently necessary.
Well stated!
Destroy what you are good at. I think that borders on insanity!
We’ll never know a moments peace until we become a People again. And that means jettisoning the minority detrius – all of them. Impossible? In the short and medium term, barring catastrophe, Yes. So No, we will find no grace in anything.
Have you watched the recent Season 4 of “Designated Survivor”?
You & SSL would have paroxysms of joy at the underlying plot, of the ‘Elites’.
Yes, we can’t have peace until we are one People again. To receive Grace is truly a blessing and no one can be sure of the hour in which it will come. So there is always hope. Even when all seems lost.
So, you & Janos would LOVE this plot…an evil corporatist who’s made his money in Big Pharma hatches a plot to deploy a virus that is responsive only to the level of melanin in the host. SO, white people are immune while brown and all shades darker are. But the twist is that it doesn’t kill them – it causes sterility so they’re the last generation. All that’s left afterward will be white folk. Bliss!
“…are infected”
I have no interest whatsoever in the dreams of some genocidal maniac. I simply want White people to have intact homelands. The plot of the story is too conventional. White genocide is real however and the more likely scenario in reality.
Ah yes the Sunday night airing of The Wonderful world of Disney.
I remember well having all of five channels to watch and what a great night of T.V. that was.
Now we have 1,000 channels to watch and the selection still seems a bit short and never as exciting as that single Sunday night airing.
Funny how I can still sit down and watch Davy Crocket, I love Lucy, Gilligan’s Island and F troop and still enjoy it.
It sort of takes me away from todays modern problems with the woka-saraus tds insanity.
It’s odd that politics has always been a nasty business and the other side is the enemy syndrome but with Social media and the instant access to all that is part of the got to have it now generation I really do miss the decorum of the average person.
This shit here has to stop.
Warning language and severe derangement.
https://pjmedia.com/trending/tds-on-steroids-leftist-thug-parks-car-in-the-middle-of-the-street-to-attack-trump-supporters-in-la/
We have a local over the air channel the reruns all the oldies. Great stuff! The dramas, mostly westerns or late 50’s era crime dramas, are all simple morality plays in 4 acts, while the sitcoms are all family oriented and morality tinged as well. Quite refreshing!
“We have a local over the air channel the reruns all the oldies. ” or, if you don’t, youtube!
I fondly remember watching Sunday night television. Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom and The Wonderful World of Disney.
Jen in San Jose
I think you might like next years new TV series.
Instead of viewing the dining experiences of real wild animals you will be able to see the actual beatings and murders of real indigenous people.
The opening episode is rumored to be about land thieves displacing natives from the land as the last vestiges of Amazon rain forest are destroyed.
At the beginning of every episode Trump will introduce a modern dictator and show off a gift they have given him. Then he will explain how that dictator is helping to make America Great.
Then you can watch your mayhem. Just like in the old days.
Naturally Jair Bolsonaro will be first interviewed.
A propos: have you heard the news today, oh boy? Somebody seems to have leaked a trove of documents out of the Brazilian government proving what was already pretty obvious: that a group of insiders conspired to frame former president Lula and thrown him in jail, to prevent him running for re-election (which he likely would have won).
HOW AND WHY THE INTERCEPT IS REPORTING ON A VAST TROVE OF MATERIALS ABOUT BRAZIL’S OPERATION CAR WASH AND JUSTICE MINISTER SERGIO MORO
How and Why The Intercept is Reporting on a Vast Trove of Materials About Brazil’s Operation Car Wash and Justice Minister Sergio MORO
https://theintercept.com/2019/06/09/brazil-archive-operation-car-wash/
Exclusive: Brazil’s Top Prosecutors Who Indicted Lula Schemed in Secret Messages to Prevent His Party From Winning 2018 Election
https://theintercept.com/2019/06/09/brazil-car-wash-prosecutors-workers-party-lula/
Exclusive: Leaked Chats Between Brazilian Judge and Prosecutor Who Imprisoned Lula Reveal Prohibited Collaboration and Doubts Over Evidence
https://theintercept.com/2019/06/09/brazil-lula-operation-car-wash-sergio-moro/
—
It all sounds like such fun reading. Who doesn’t love to see a vulgar authoritarian shitbag get exposed?
Like Omaha’s Wild Kingdom where every episode showed a different way to eat Bambi, the new series will also take every opportunity to illustrate the cycles of nature.
Even as Whites are savaged in every major city in the Western World by Minorities. Attention, care, and compassion are limited resources. You have chosen and chosen wrongly on what to focus on.
As Jim Fowler tries to subdue the now enraged anaconda it slowly constricts him into a puddle of jelly.
Kids don’t try this at home.
Yep remember well the antics of Jim Fowler and Marlin Perkins there was another animal centric series on as well wild kingdom!
That music is in my head now.
Memories are funny the music popped in my head but the name of the show took a bit.
I remember Jim! Yeah, great stuff. And remember Marlin’s smooth segues from animal mayhem to the perils of every day life and the need for insurance?
Whatever happened to this dynamic duo after the show ended? Probably not much.
Oh yes. And Flipper, my absolute favorite 😉 although that wasn’t on Sunday night. What an innocent time that was.
Just got another flash: Jacques Cousteau. One of his men making out with an octopus at twenty thousand leagues under the sea. In his heavy frenified English Jacque explained the ecstasy that both were experiencing.
In her series, the OA, Brit Marling had an Octopus named “Old Night” as one of the characters in season two. I don’t think it was real though, not like Jacques…..
That must have been on past my bedtime!
Might I offer this counter to television nostalgia?
https://livinginliminality.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/gin.pdf
That’s one of the greatest articles I’ve ever read. I suspect the mass communication system is permanently broken, and that’s a good thing. I doubt the social media internet will survive much longer, though.
Interesting, DrTom. From now on, maybe this will be my go-to answer when exasperated reactionaries demand to know why I carry on posting here: I have to do something with all the time I’m not spending on watching TV.
“F troop”
…Larry Storch was a God….
benr, for some reason, based on comments you made regarding your dad a few weeks back, I had the impression you were much younger but it sounds like you’re knocking on 60, right?
Like Scratch, I’m a ’57 model (like my dad’s old Chevvy Belair!)
going on 51 but I was an old soul preferring abbot and Costello and danny kay movies over all the stuff my class mates liked.
Nature abhors a vacuum. It could be the century of the cockroaches. But not from NTE (I like to to add an ‘H’) but from stupidity.
I put this here only because I have to be next to Mary Tyler Moore.
Good GAWD did she ever age badly!
Really? Have you gotten a look at Marilou Henner lately?
No. I’ll have to Google.
Not too terrible. Definitely a little scarecrow thing going on with all the wight loss, makeup, and botox, but otherwise holding up reasonably well. Now Meg Ryan on the other hand… There’s some major construction work going on her neighborhood!
https://www.nowtolove.com.au/health/fitness/meg-ryan-is-unrecognisable-at-latest-event-21897
I’m watching Mary Tyler Moore again and loving it. Lou Grant is one of my favorite characters. Hell, I love them all, including Ted. Such great messaging.
“You’re gonna make it afterall.”
Love Is All Around
Truly great show!
The last television show I had any desire to watch on a regular basis was “Desperate Housewives”, and even that was a step way, way down from the last era of classic television that ended in the late seventies/ early eighties. And DH became unwatchable after that sudden, jarring “jump five years into the future” thing they pulled halfway through the series.
What about Rhoda? Mary was so WASPY. Jews are real!
It was supposed to be a show about Jewish Rhoda but the writers knew that wouldn’t go over too well, so they made Milquetoast Mary the main character and Rhoda her frumpy, fat Jewish sidekick.
I meant to say Maude. Was Rhoda her daughter? So reeeall! Not like that uptight, stiff necked Mary. Even Marlo (That Girl!) is better than Mary because she was ethnic, not some lumpen generic White.
Janos: “… lumpen generic White”…but surely that describes the vast majority of your tribe, Janos? What makes them so ‘worthy’?
Because they’re Us. We are the Whites therefore We come first. We matter more. This is what every healthy people believe about themselves. As Tom Jefferson said, Survival is the first morality. Think the paragons of supposed virtue, the self chosen, think differently?
Maj has outed herself as the Other…..
This explains a lot. Now the apparent eagerness to sow division comes into a much clearer perspective.
Otto and SSL can dry up and blow away. The dissension is coming from their side of the fence.
From the Internet Movie Database site comes these facts about a current sitcom, The Goldbergs:
///////////////////////////////////////////////
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2712740/?ref_=nv_sr_5?ref_=nv_sr_5
This ABC show takes place in Jenkintown, Pennsylvania in the 1980s and follows the lives of a family named The Goldbergs.
Wendi McLendon-Covey Beverly Goldberg
Sean Giambrone … Adam Goldberg
Troy Gentile … Barry Goldberg
Hayley Orrantia … Erica Goldberg
///////////////////////////////////////////////
Get the point?
“As Tom Jefferson said, Survival is the first morality. ”
Not what Jesus said though, eh?
Troy Gentile – now there’s a real name if ever there were. Much like John Kerry. And it’s just one show. One show. And no one ever claimed all actors were secret Jews – just a lot of them. Or some of them. Why would they even bother to hide it at this point since their people control the whole thing and have for a very long time?
“..the Other.”. Huh?
SSL – “…the apparent eagerness to sow division…”
Yes, that’s sure A1 Totalitarian thinking right there, Jean.
I challenge you on your childish statements and ask for a justification for some of the truly bizarre claims you make, and this is ‘sowing division’.
You’re always good for a laugh, at least.
Let the good times roll.
Laissez les bon temps roulez
‘Everything else in America seemed to work as advertised’
then what happened?
Well change was underway.
Federal reserve and federal income tax. 1913
World war soon after.
Then the jews [yes the jews] opened the flood gates. Look at who was behind Ted and LBJ. 1965.
Hey, I saw your post last night and you said you would explain what happened to me. I think I already know but I will let you tell me. I am not upset or anything :-).
my comment was not meant for you but the man you were quoting.
That’s what I figured and sorry for misunderstanding.
I think it’s worth pointing out that the peak of the idyllic age of which you speak could be placed at about 1961. That’s when world population reached three billion after reaching two billion in about 1931 after reaching its first billion in about 1751. In 1961, we were in serious danger of running out of food to feed all three billion of those hungry mouths.
So we applied industrial science and technology to our agricultural endeavors as intensely as possible, creating the so-called Green Revolution. The descriptor “green” might make one think it was something good for the ecological health of the planet, when in fact it was the extreme, exact opposite.
And you will notice that after 1961 is when we started adding another billion people reliably and predictably every 12-14 years. We are now on track to have a world population of eight billion in 2026. If it occurs to you that quality of life in this world, even in the good old USA, has slipped considerably since we were at a mere three billion people, you would be right in thinking this is not a coincidence. Providing for so very many people impacts the environment and general quality of life. If the status quo hasn’t started falling apart in earnest by the time we hit that eight billion, I’m pretty sure it will then.
It’s 7.6B now, so I’ll be surprised if we don’t exceed 8B before that.
Can you add caverns that fast?
Not that it matters, you would not mind a bit of overcrowding. That would fit in with the plan.
Lots of help down here, so no problem. And of course they work 24/7 too. No rest for the weary and the damned!
And certainly no rest for the wicked huh Devil lol ;-)?
When do we reach the mark of Gideon tipping point like in Star Trek?
Have we hit it already in parts of the world?
It boggles my mind how much the world’s population has grown just in my lifetime. I think we are indeed crowded and stressing the planet’s resources. And of course, there is absolutely no way to feed or provide for these numbers without fossil fuels.
many are poor now.
I read about Egypt. Population has tripled and the sorry tales told, yet we take more of them in.
An interesting graphic. Start watching at about the 4 minute mark. Truly frightening.It reminds me of a petri dish
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUwmA3Q0_OE
Maybe we should pay attention to Peak food and Peak water as well as Peak oil. Hard to eat or drink oil!
America is likely to become thermonuclear ground zero after decades of threatening world powers that are not American.
The entire USA economy is far too indebted to create growth in CPI and commercial & residential MBS used to be the primary source of growth since the 80s & Reagan’s Urinate on my leg & tell me it’s raining Trickledown Economics was instituted.
Manufacturing defines a healthy economic sovereign but America offshored manufacturing because the Wall Street executives at the time mistakenly thought that they could turn China into the manufacturing base of the world if they pegged China’s growth to the petro-dollar and held them in bondage to Central Bank Interest Rates & USD world reserve currency status.
Unfortunately, since the 08-Lehman Moment China has realized the flaw in the ointment of American global power relations with respect to their manufacturing sector and the fact that it is the only manufacturing sector that can possibly provide for the world demands for manufactured goods.
American administrators literally bet the farm on the structural moves that took place during the Reagan Revolution only to find decades down the road that American manufacturing had been misallocated to a foreign sovereign.
In brief, America & Americans writ large will become a defunct nation that has been relegated to third world status as a once powerful manufacturing base of the Western empire of Capitalism.
Today, Capitalism is known to be largely a mythology in light of a lack of free markets and global trade wars that are ushering in the obverse of what was once known to be free market Capitalism. Today, we are all being poised to accept the violent end game of hot war given that trade wars are not abating or being ameliorated by diplomatic means. In sum, adversarial business perspectives held by competing sovereign nations will not reach resolve through diplomatic channels as the competing nations are all vying for supremacy & world reserve currency status.
The sovereign with the greatest potential to provide the world with manufactured goods is going to hold the new world reserve currency status as a requirement for free market growth is based upon a healthy manufacturing base that is capable of meeting demands of nations with the goods and not promises of future earnings.
Wall Street micromanagers destroyed the USA from the inside out on their quest for yield since 1980.
Hopefully, Wall Street will become ground zero for the hot war nukes that are most assuredly on the way given trade war environs.
RW
Agreed. I’ve always felt that those nukes would come out before we ever give up the ghost peacefully.
Out a nuke near a nuke plant and Chernobyl² is at hand.
Ironically, mankind may depend on bioweapons to save the world from nuclear war.
While I expect some of the minor players to launch nukes as the Pax Americana winds down, it may be that the consequences of a full-scale exchange are dire enough to stay the major power’s hands. At least I don’t think that is a futile hope.
Robert
Correct in every statement.
However, the Great stupidity started with Deep State and Wall Streeters thinking that they could force China to think and react as we do. So the cowardly presidents just kowtowed to China thinking that they would change.
Ha! Who did the changing, us!
Now we have Trump in there trying to regain our position with China.
It is too late,
“, Wall Street will become ground zero for the hot war nukes ”
…But what of Dannyboy/Thwack?
…or me? (Not that you’d much care anyway.) I ain’t going anywhere; “The Road” is a grueling and futile fantasy. It’s scavenger food for the likes of me, as there’s little to nothing I can do about living/dying in an irradiated hot zone. I might have at least a slim-to-none chance with marauders, but “the big bad nuk-u-lar weapon”? ….Pah! Buh-bye now; much too close to the assholes that profit from that ultimate stupidity… and, you betcha, they’ll be on the short list.
Ozone,
Sorry, I did not know you were a Manhattanite…to coin a phrase.
The interesting thing no one talks about is the future impact rising costs of low wage jobs. I am guessing this is true in most populated regions of the USA. I’m a salesman for for a Commercial Janitorial company, we clean big buildings, schools, courts, municipal buildings etc…in Virginia.We cannot find decent workers south of $13 per hour. I’m talking about people who are responsible enough to actually work, to complete a simple and consistent series of tasks not at break neck pace. We have to submit all prospects to background checks and there are people who pass them but not as many as one would like. We stay away from violent felonies or recent non-violent felonies. So far when we bids hire costs most clients are receptive to why as their facilities have been mishandled in accepting low ball bids. The judges don’t seem to want to change clothes in a filthy bathroom.
Indeed finding decent people is now a very tough sell.
Consider being in the IT industry and having to pass a background check as well as a drug test.
Sadly in sunny Southern California most people now pass the drug test which disqualifies them for the job.
Quality over quantity. That would be awesome if our entire society could really incorporate that into daily life. And not allowing non-violent felons back into the working world is ridiculous and counter-productive. There is a such thing as work release. But we really don’t invest in people so it makes sense that it is not a widespread practice and that our justice system actually creates hardened criminals.
In continuation of the previous post: Galloping across Europe and Latin America and some New York rumors
https://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/going-where-exactly/#comment-421648
The opening of the border between Venezuela with Colombia made me pay attention to the outright joy of the Queen Elizabeth in connection with the arrival of Trump.
Now I will not tell you the course of my thoughts, I will only note that it is associated with the “Chronicles of Captain Blood”, which describe very important details of the emergence of the Morgan-Stanley banking group, which has a direct bearing on the struggle of World Projects, but the Queen rejoiced at Trump’s arrival so openly that it was possible to understand the reasons for this joy even without Morgan-Stanley.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_Blood_(novel)
First of all, before he arrived, Trump talked so much about Brexit without an agreement and about a possible Anglo-American economic union against the EU, that her joy could not mean that she disapproves of these plans, and this is not far from the conclusion that it’s Her Majesty’s Most Honourable Privy Council made Cameron to initiate a Brexit referendum, and Donald Trump won the elections in 2016 not without the intervention of the Englishwoman.
And I’m not talking about the Big Bargain – just look at the list of those who came to the funeral of George H. W. Bush.
But the Germanophiles don’t care – they have their own program, or rather the ordnung, and they, like robots, will not part ways from the program, despite the sad example of Ukraine.
Actually, I came to these conclusions in 2015, when General Breedlove planned the start of large-scale NATO maneuvers on the border with Russia on June 22, and the BBC released this film, which is called World War III: Inside the War Room:
https://vimeo.com/154370371
And after Trump’s State visit, this film can be considered an unofficial position of the United Kingdom and the British Commonwealth, in which the United States is an associate member.
It’s even hard for me to imagine how much money was spent in US and Russia by the European Union in order to degrade this film, but for those who don’t have time to watch, I’ll briefly remind you that its essence is that the policy pursued by General Breedlove and Theresa May will lead to the destruction of Britain and the United States, and even a hint is made that EU spies and its useful idiots control NATO and the US, and this NATO no longer protects the UK and the US, but tries to expose the Anglo-Saxon world to Russia’s nuclear blow – that is to provoke a war between the allies who defeated the Nazi Germany.
I don’t know what you’re on, Finca, but I’m beginning to regret a lifetime of never trying any of it!
“…made me pay attention to the outright joy of the Queen Elizabeth in connection with the arrival of Trump.”
From Landsend to John O’Groats, we were as one in that, Finca. 🙂 🙂
And from north of the border, although we didn’t get to see him here, we stood as a man and sang, as to ‘Bonnie Chairlie’..
Bonnie Donald’s noo awa’,
Safely ower the friendly main;
Mony a heart will break in twa’,
Should he ne’er come back again.
Will ye no come back again?
Will ye no come back again?
Better lo’ed ye canna be,
Will ye no come back again?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_bbguAugXc
I always love when they start asking what shit I am on – means I hit the pain point!
I’m afraid you only hit the giggle point, Finca. But laughter’s the best medicine, so you’ve probably done something for my BP to mitigate the effects of sitting here instead of taking the dog out again!
It’s the 190 proof grain alcohol bong water that does the trick, GA! I’ve warned him about it many times, but Ol’ Finc just loves to live dangerously!
Take the dog out I just got 4,000 steps in up and down hills in the 90 degree heat!
Hurray 90 degrees at 9:00 am.
benr
“Take the dog out I just got 4,000 steps in up and down hills in the 90 degree heat! Hurray 90 degrees at 9:00 am.”
My nightmare – I am fashioned for my environment. Here it’s been lovely but maybe 16 degrees (Celsius). I think that’s about 60 in old money. With a pleasant breeze – or perhaps because of the pleasant breeze.
I was in Paris for work the hottest weekend of that year (2003?) that all the old folks died of heatstroke and heat exhaustion while their families were away on holiday. 14,000 people died of causes attributable to the heatwave, just in France (35,000 in Europe).
Getting off the plane at 9.30 at night was like walking into an oven – over 38/100 degrees.
On the way back the pilot said ‘we’re just coming over Scotland. There’s a light wind and the temperature is a cool 16 degrees – and I just thought ‘yes!!!’.
They were baking in London and the south coast of course. Nothing like city pavements in the scorching heat to make you lose the will to live – well me, anyway.
But I will take the dog out again, even if it’s not up hill and down dale 🙂 .
When is Terry leaving office again? Once out, you three Golden Girls, (Theresa May, JK Rowling, and Green Alba) can go clubbing again, all dressed in Nazi regalia.
Once out, you three Golden Girls, (Theresa May, JK Rowling, and Green Alba) can go clubbing again, all dressed in Nazi regalia.
Now that thar’s funny, I don’t care who you are!
“Once out, you three Golden Girls…”
Beware the dangling participle, Janos – it can lead to foolish sentences…
I suspect young Joanne is the only one of us who’s ever been clubbing, but she’d at least have more in common with me than either of us would with the Maybot. And she fits in better round my way – we even crossed paths in front of the café on my corner.
The ex-LINO would look distinctly out of place here.
No offense there GA, it’s just that the imagery that Janos conjured up there struck me as funny.
Funnily enough, Scratch, my three old student housemates with whom I catch up periodically in our various corners of the world (well, Europe) refer to ourselves as exactly that from time to time. I coined it first. Although we don’t go clubbing, obviously. Prosecco under the parasol is more our thing for a treat than grab-a-granny nights at the local meat market 🙂 .
I had a senior moment a few years ago and bought the entire box set of the GGs – had only seen a dozen episodes at the time.
I didn’t get very far, but it’s still there for ‘some day’.
My god, though, those clothes and hairstyles… What were people thinking in the 80s?!
Uh, where is the dangling participle? Problematic comma placement in one spot, but it would appear the subject rightly comes after the participal phrase.
Nightowl
“When is Terry leaving office again? Once out, you three Golden Girls “etc.etc.
‘Once out’ (of office) refers to ‘Terry’ (Theresa May).
‘You three Golden Girls’ is the subject, not ‘Terry’.
Hence the dangling.
Easily fixed.
Once [she is] out, you three GGs…
GA,
I didn’t see the preceding question.
Breedlove was a curious case. He came onto Cannon AFB on short notice as a Lt Col in the late 90’s, leapfrogging another guy on base who had already been scheduled to get the Ops Group Commander slot. He was physically unimpressive even then, rather short, stocky, and already balding as a Lt Col, he certainly didn’t look the part of a fast track fighter pilot. Pretty decent guy, but rather aloof. Always seemed to have something else on his mind. I remember him coming around to the Fighter Squadrons for periodic dog and pony shows, where the Squadron Commander would be fawning all over him and telling him all the great shit we were doing, but he was just totally indifferent to it. Did a shorter than normal stint as Ops Commander and had a Wing King job in ROK lined up before he left. Real fast tracker, he rode the express elevator all the way to the top. I learned afterward that the USAF officer corps is basically a large fraternal organization, so all the promotion decisions are made behind the scenes, with key high ranking generals being able to designate the haves from the have nots very early on in their careers. Not sure exactly who Breedlove’s patron saint was, but he clearly had serious traction from a very early point in his career. A side note, he was also related to Craig Breedlove, the 5 time land speed record holder, so maybe that figured into it somehow as well.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craig_Breedlove
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_M._Breedlove
I think Malthus says they’re controlled by the Satanists, with orgies and rituals determining who advances.
Id guess. I talked to someone who knew one of Wasserman Shultzs employees.
The pols in DC are drugged at parties and photographed, with underage companions.
The Satanic stuff I know less about as its even more under wraps.
Breedlove. What a sinister name. Straight rhymes with Hate. A name a Gay Nazi would adopt, aping and mocking at the same time.
Nice tie in with Strangelove as well. Maybe it was an inside joke?
Funny how throughout so much pining about television shows when in fact television was the beginning of the end. Television is what accelerated the onslaught of the end.
I would disagree with you I think Radio was the start t.v. sped it up and smart phones was like kicking the after burner.
Consider back in this age most people watched an hour or two of T.V here and there they were not addicted to it.
Most of what I see is that people are disconnected from reality and have way to much free time on their hands.
So what do they do wander around bumbling with smart phones in their hands watching puppies and kitties all day.
Driving and watching, walking and watching, working and watching.
Screen time is through the roof.
Even acts like we are doing NOW posting here to much time taken from walking, working or living.
In fact I am going for a walk around the block right now!
Walking is good for you. You should at least be taking 10,000 steps every day.
I go by time. Much easier to keep track of.
Ok well the last gadget you will get before the world as we know ends is a smart watch. Just a simple one that tracks your basics including foot steps. I am already putting together my Christmas gift list. Will the Devil accept a gift for Christmas?
The Devil is not above accepting gratuities.
You can get a mechanical pedometer for under a buck if you look around.
Um hello you can’t give the Devil a rinky dink pedometer when he knows smart watches exist ;-).
No.
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/sep/03/watch-your-step-why-the-10000-daily-goal-is-built-on-bad-science
Oh look, it’s “Hey guys, click bait.”
I thought it was an interesting post since we were discussing it Mister. Am I going to have to tell you to quit being rude again ;-).
Benr, technology causes everything to move at an ever faster rate, including even more technology. You are right as far as that after burner, and at some point, things will just spin out of control. Think overpopulation, along with climate change, depletion of resources, and on and on, being accelerated at an ever greater speed, and feeding on itself to the point of flying apart.
Right. We didn’t watch a lot of TV. It was pretty much restricted to a few shows aimed at kids and we all watched the same shows and listened to the same music so there was this commonality that I don’t think exists today.We didn’t have a gazillion TV channels, video games or phones to entertain us. We mostly played outside, even in the city.
I have often and loudly told the women in my family that all the unreality T.V. is built on showing people how to not interact with each other.
Back biting, sniping and just plain nastiness.
The TV is the location of the human behavioral sink.
Whosoever still owns a TV today does not understand what is going on.
Haven’t owned a TV since my son was little and I got it so he could watch Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers. I haven’t watched TV since I was a kid. Probably why I can still think!
Interesting post Evelyn. Mass marketing and subliminal messaging destroyed the American mind. Now there are multiple avenues to achieve this same end.
And it is not quite finished.
In a sense that is true, but I’ve always considered that it was moral decay that has led us to where we are now.
Yes, moral decay is certainly and most definitely part of the equation.
The decline did not arise in a vacuum. What caused it?
Corporation induced consumer culture. A drive toward increased convenience, shelter from cold, heat, any type of exertion.
Intellectual laziness (computer simulation instead of reasoning).
The rise of the image. Appearance over substance. Increasing isolation from nature and physical reality. Increased speed.
Dismantling of value and belief systems with no believable alternatives.
The spread of tools, prefabricated templates, professional looking shells allowing incompetents to create empty works which on superficial inspection look convincing
(say most of what business consultants produce).
Unchecked growth everywhere. Thousands to tens of thousands of pages (which nobody can read) for every minor operation.
The growth of garbage – physical, spiritual and intellectual.
There is no end to corrosive developments but we need to stop somewhere.
This is a great list. I would add however the loss of national and cultural identity. The loss of a majority White Christian America. This explains much in terms of the loss of traditional values and belief systems as well.
Very true. My grandmother was a very late adopter, and that’s exactly what she said at the time. She was right, but family demand eventually won out. By the time she died 25 years later it was the only company she had, as family had long since died or dispersed, driven by the demands of the new corporate economy.
Television, the perfect propaganda tool.
Goebbels would have loved TV.
24/7 MSM sure does.
Very poignant post, Jim. For me, the ‘50’s weren’t the best of times, but I do remember how relatively uncomplicated life was. Whatever happened, happened, and that was the end of it. No worries about the future. In my memories, the Zeitgeist was benign. The only negative was the Russians – they could nuke us out of existence. Yeah, I went through the hide-under-the-desk drills in the school basement, but that seemed like a game, not an existential threat, despite the rise of Godzilla as a symbol of nuclear paranoia.
What we have come to is the result of techno-evolution, for better or worse. We do live in interesting times.
Less TV no internet. less gadgets.
“In a mere hundred years we’ve journeyed from George Gershwin’s tender nocturne at the center of his Rhapsody to the clanking, thrash-metal morbidity of Megadeath and beyond.”
In Dark Age Ahead, Jane Jacobs argued that you could hear the death of a culture first in its music. Mahler’s death in 1911 was the last gasp of tonal music. I think the killing of Glenn Miller in a wartime accident was the death of Big Band, the last universal music that adults and children both appreciated.
After that, rock n roll literally represented the Devil’s music, with each generation of children hearing “turn that noise DOWN” from their parents, separating parents from children. Megadeth sounds to Kunstler’s ears like Acid Rock sounded to his parents, I’ll bet.
Rock is dead for the most part now. The Soundtrack to the final destruction is Rap.
Perfect description. Rap should have faded out after a year or two, but the demise of civilization required it.
If music is a reflection of the time it was produced in then I’d say there is such a huge difference between the times that produced Dylan, the Beatles, Joan Baez,James Taylor, Simon & Garfunkel etc. versus rap “music”. Music from the 60’s and 70’s was full of hope and thoughtful. Rap seems to me to just be full of hate, misogyny, and evil.
Mainstream rock, yes. Plenty of good bands doing independent music.
MegaDETH.
I actually met someone who was in that band.
Mustain is a bad guy and was a satanist.
‘Rap is the kali yuga soundtrack’–Lord Janos.
Understanding the heavy metal of the early 80’s most of them played up the Satanic aspects even Ozzy did and lets get real Ozzy ain’t much of a devil worshipper now. Sorry Ol Scratch no live renditions of faeries wear boots, lukes wall or paranoid when he takes his dirt nap.
Well Dave claims to be a born again Christian and listening to his music doesn’t make me want to dispute his claim.
His older stuff was pretty good.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Mustaine
Countdown to extinction I physically wore the cd-rom out I played it some much while in Uncle Sam’s Canoe club.
He is more conservative in his views then most in hollyweird or the music industry and he claims if he was President he would build a wall and let no one in.
His Satanism was probably just a theraputic distancing from dead and dying forms. I’m not a Black Sabbath scholar, but some of his songs like “The Ancient Warrior” were life affirming and overtly pagan – not Satanic.
People don’t understand the difference I fear.
I have an uncle who is a pagan fairly famous and bat shit crazy when you listen to him.
Television is what accelerated the onslaught of the end
Oh, crap!
After the World War II you allowed the Nazi money and, more importantly, the Nazi ideology to penetrate the very soul of American society.
And now, when it finally came to a standoff between the Nazi, pro-Reich Deep State and Constitutionally elected US President, you are looking for culprit anywhere, but where it actually resides.
Don’t forget the NAZI scientists and projects.
Operation paperclip.
In last Friday’s comment section I expressed thoughts about WWII that were largely driven by having read Churchill’s 6 volume series he wrote about is management of WW2. I’ve have been a big fan of Winston ever since.
Now I come upon this and am thinking I’ve been suckered (once again).
The Lies About World War II
PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS • MAY 13, 2019 • 3,800 WORDS
?
In the aftermath of a war, history cannot be written. The losing side has no one to speak for it. Historians on the winning side are constrained by years of war propaganda that demonized the enemy while obscuring the crimes of the righteous victors. People want to enjoy and feel good about their victory, not learn that their side was responsible for the war or that the war could have been avoided except for the hidden agendas of their own leaders. Historians are also constrained by the unavailability of information. To hide mistakes, corruption, and crimes, governments lock up documents for decades. Memoirs of participants are not yet written. Diaries are lost or withheld from fear of retribution. It is expensive and time consuming to locate witnesses, especially those on the losing side, and to convince them to answer questions. Any account that challenges the “happy account” requires a great deal of confirmation from official documents, interviews, letters, diaries, and memoirs, and even that won’t be enough. For the history of World War II in Europe, these documents can be spread from New Zealand and Australia across Canada and the US through Great Britain and Europe and into Russia. A historian on the track of the truth faces long years of strenuous investigation and development of the acumen to judge and assimilate the evidence he uncovers into a truthful picture of what transpired. The truth is always immensely different from the victor’s war propaganda.
As I reported recently, Harry Elmer Barnes was the first American historian to provide a history of the first world war that was based on primary sources. His truthful account differed so substantially from the war propaganda that he was called every name in the book. https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2019/05/09/the-lies-that-form-our-consciousness-and-false-historical-awareness/
Truth is seldom welcomed. David Irving, without any doubt the best historian of the European part of World War II, learned at his great expense that challenging myths does not go unpunished. Nevertheless, Irving persevered. If you want to escape from the lies about World War II that still direct our disastrous course, you only need to study two books by David Irving: Hitler’s War and the first volume of his Churchill biography, Churchill’s War: The Struggle for Power .
?
Irving is the historian who spent decades tracking down diaries, survivors, and demanding release of official documents. He is the historian who found the Rommel diary and Goebbles’ diaries, the historian who gained entry into the Soviet archives, and so on. He is familiar with more actual facts about the second world war than the rest of the historians combined. The famous British military historian, Sir John Keegan, wrote in the Times Literary Supplement: “Two books stand out from the vast literature of the Second World War: Chester Wilmot’s The Struggle for Europe, published in 1952, and David Irving’s Hitler’s War.
Despite many such accolades, today Irving is demonized and has to publish his own books.
I will avoid the story of how this came to be, but, yes, you guessed it, it was the Zionists. You simply cannot say anything that alters their propagandistic picture of history.
In what follows, I am going to present what is my impression from reading these two magisterial works. Irving himself is very scant on opinions. He only provides the facts from official documents, recorded intercepts, diaries, letters and interviews.
?
World War II was Churchill’s War, not Hitler’s war. Irving provides documented facts from which the reader cannot avoid this conclusion. Churchill got his war, for which he longed, because of the Versailles Treaty that stripped Germany of German territory and unjustly and irresponsibly imposed humiliation on Germany.
Hitler and Nationalist Socialist Germany (Nazi stands for National Socialist German Workers’ Party) are the most demonized entities in history. Any person who finds any good in Hitler or Germany is instantly demonized. The person becomes an outcast regardless of the facts. Irving is very much aware of this. Every time his factual account of Hitler starts to display a person too much different from the demonized image, Irving throws in some negative language about Hitler.
Similarly for Winston Churchill. Every time Irving’s factual account displays a person quite different from the worshiped icon, Irving throws in some appreciative language.
This is what a historian has to do to survive telling the truth.
To be clear, in what follows, I am merely reporting what seems to me to be the conclusion from the documented facts presented in these two works of scholarship. I am merely reporting what I understand Irving’s research to have established. You read the books and arrive at your own conclusion.
World War II was initiated by the British and French declaration of war on Germany, not by a surprise blitzkrieg from Germany. The utter rout and collapse of the British and French armies was the result of Britain declaring a war for which Britain was unprepared to fight and of the foolish French trapped by a treaty with the British, who quickly deserted their French ally, leaving France at Germany’s mercy.
Germany’s mercy was substantial. Hitler left a large part of France and the French colonies unoccupied and secure from war under a semi-independent government under Petain. For his service in protecting a semblance of French independence, Petain was sentenced to death by Charles de Gaulle after the war for collaboration with Germany, an unjust charge.
In Britain, Churchill was out of power. He figured a war would put him back in power. No Britisher could match Churchill’s rhetoric and orations. Or determination. Churchill desired power, and he wanted to reproduce the amazing military feats of his distinguished ancestor, the Duke of Marlborough, whose biography Churchill was writing and who defeated after years of military struggle France’s powerful Sun King, Louis XIV, the ruler of Europe.
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In contrast to the British aristocrat, Hitler was a man of the people. He acted for the German people. The Versailles Treaty had dismembered Germany. Parts of Germany were confiscated and given to France, Belgium, Denmark, Poland, and Czechoslovakia. As Germany had not actually lost the war, being the occupiers of foreign territory when Germany agreed to a deceptive armistice, the loss of approximately 7 million German people to Poland and Czechoslovakia, where Germans were abused, was not considered a fair outcome.
Hitler’s program was to put Germany back together again. He succeeded without war until it came to Poland. Hitler’s demands were fair and realistic, but Churchill, financed by the Focus Group with Jewish money, put such pressure on British prime minister Chamberlain that Chamberlain intervened in the Polish-German negotiations and issued a British guarantee to the Polish military dictatorship should Poland refuse to release German territory and populations.
The British had no way of making good on the guarantee, but the Polish military dictatorship lacked the intelligence to realize that. Consequently, the Polish Dictatorship refused Germany’s request.
From this mistake of Chamberlain and the stupid Polish dictatorship, came the Ribbentrop/Molotov agreement that Germany and the Soviet Union would split Poland between themselves. When Hitler attacked Poland, Britain and the hapless French declared war on Germany because of the unenforceable British guarantee. But the British and French were careful not to declare war on the Soviet Union for occupying the eastern half of Poland.
Thus Britain was responsible for World War II, first by stupidly interfering in German/Polish negotiations, and second by declaring war on Germany.
Churchill was focused on war with Germany, which he intended for years preceding the war. But Hitler didn’t want any war with Britain or with France, and never intended to invade Britain. The invasion threat was a chimera conjured up by Churchill to unite England behind him. Hitler expressed his view that the British Empire was essential for order in the world, and that in its absence Europeans would lose their world supremacy. After Germany’s rout of the French and British armies, Hitler offered an extraordinarily generous peace to Britain. He said he wanted nothing from Britain but the return of Germany’s colonies. He committed the German military to the defense of the British Empire, and said he would reconstitute both Polish and Czech states and leave them to their own discretion. He told his associates that defeat of the British Empire would do nothing for Germany and everything for Bolshevik Russia and Japan.
Winston Churchill kept Hitler’s peace offers as secret as he could and succeeded in his efforts to block any peace. Churchill wanted war, largely it appears, for his own glory. Franklin Delano Roosevelt slyly encouraged Churchill in his war but without making any commitment in Britain’s behalf. Roosevelt knew that the war would achieve his own aim of bankrupting Britain and destroying the British Empire, and that the US dollar would inherit the powerful position from the British pound of being the world’s reserve currency. Once Churchill had trapped Britain in a war she could not win on her own, FDR began doling out bits of aid in exchange for extremely high prices—for example, 60 outdated and largely useless US destroyers for British naval bases in the Atlantic. FDR delayed Lend-Lease until desperate Britain had turned over $22,000 million of British gold plus $42 million in gold Britain had in South Africa. Then began the forced sell-off of British overseas investments. For example, the British-owned Viscose Company, which was worth $125 million in 1940 dollars, had no debts and held $40 million in government bonds, was sold to the House of Morgan for $37 million. It was such an act of thievery that the British eventually got about two-thirds of the company’s value to hand over to Washington in payment for war munitions. American aid was also “conditional on Britain dismantling the system of Imperial preference anchored in the Ottawa agreement of 1932.” For Cordell Hull, American aid was “a knife to open that oyster shell, the Empire.” Churchill saw it coming, but he was too far in to do anything but plead with FDR: It would be wrong, Churchill wrote to Roosevelt, if “Great Britain were to be divested of all saleable assets so that after the victory was won with our blood, civilization saved, and the time gained for the United States to be fully armed against all eventualities, we should stand stripped to the bone.”
A long essay could be written about how Roosevelt stripped Britain of her assets and world power. Irving writes that in an era of gangster statesmen, Churchill was not in Roosevelt’s league. The survival of the British Empire was not a priority for FDR. He regarded Churchill as a pushover—unreliable and drunk most of the time. Irving reports that FDR’s policy was to pay out just enough to give Churchill “the kind of support a rope gives a hanging man.” Roosevelt pursued “his subversion of the Empire throughout the war.” Eventually Churchill realized that Washington was at war with Britain more fiercely than was Hitler. The great irony was that Hitler had offered Churchill peace and the survival of the Empire. When it was too late, Churchill came to Hitler’s conclusion that the conflict with Germany was a “most unnecessary” war. Pat Buchanan sees it that way also. https://www.amazon.com/Churchill-Hitler-Unnecessary-War-Britain/dp/0307405168/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=Pat+Buchanan&qid=1557709100&s=books&sr=1-3
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Hitler forbade the bombing of civilian areas of British cities. It was Churchill who initiated this war crime, later emulated by the Americans. Churchill kept the British bombing of German civilians secret from the British people and worked to prevent Red Cross monitoring of air raids so no one would learn he was bombing civilian residential areas, not war production. The purpose of Churchill’s bombing—first incendiary bombs to set everything afire and then high explosives to prevent firefighters from controlling the blazes—was to provoke a German attack on London, which Churchill reckoned would bind the British people to him and create sympathy in the US for Britain that would help Churchill pull America into the war. One British raid murdered 50,000 people in Hamburg, and a subsequent attack on Hamburg netted 40,000 civilian deaths. Churchill also ordered that poison gas be added to the firebombing of German civilian residential areas and that Rome be bombed into ashes. The British Air Force refused both orders. At the very end of the war the British and Americans destroyed the beautiful baroque city of Dresden, burning and suffocating 100,000 people in the attack. After months of firebombing attacks on Germany, including Berlin, Hitler gave in to his generals and replied in kind. Churchill succeeded. The story became “the London Blitz,” not the British blitz of Germany.
Like Hitler in Germany, Churchill took over the direction of the war. He functioned more as a dictator who ignored the armed services than as a prime minister advised by the country’s military leaders. Both leaders might have been correct in their assessment of their commanding officers, but Hitler was a much better war strategist than Churchill, for whom nothing ever worked. To Churchill’s WW I Gallipoli misadventure was now added the introduction of British troops into Norway, Greece, Crete, Syria—all ridiculous decisions and failures—and the Dakar fiasco. Churchill also turned on the French, destroying the French fleet and lives of 1,600 French sailors because of his personal fear, unfounded, that Hitler would violate his treaty with the French and seize the fleet. Any one of these Churchillian mishaps could have resulted in a no confidence vote, but with Chamberlain and Halifax out of the way there was no alternative leadership. Indeed, the lack of leadership is the reason neither the cabinet nor the military could stand up to Churchill, a person of iron determination.
Hitler also was a person of iron determination, and he wore out both himself and Germany with his determination. He never wanted war with England and France. This was Churchill’s doing, not Hitler’s. Like Churchill, who had the British people behind him, Hitler had the German people behind him, because he stood for Germany and had reconstructed Germany from the rape and ruin of the Versailles Treaty. But Hitler, not an aristocrat like Churchill, but of low and ordinary origins, never had the loyalty of many of the aristocratic Prussian military officers, those with “von” before their name. He was afflicted with traitors in the Abwehr, his military intelligence, including its director, Adm. Canaris. On the Russian front in the final year, Hitler was betrayed by generals who opened avenues for the Russians into undefended Berlin.
Hitler’s worst mistakes were his alliance with Italy and his decision to invade Russia. He was also mistaken to let the British go at Dunkirk. He let them go because he did not want to ruin the chance for ending the war by humiliating the British by the loss of their entire army. But with Churchill there was no chance for peace. By not destroying the British army, Hitler boosted Churchill who turned the evacuation into British heroics that sustained the willingness to fight on.
It is unclear why Hitler invaded Russia. One possible reason is poor or intentionally deceptive information from the Abwehr on Russian military capability. Hitler later said to his associates that he never would have invaded if he had known of the enormous size of the Russian army and the extraordinary capability of the Soviets to produce tanks and aircraft. Some historians have concluded that the reason Hitler invaded Russia was that he concluded that the British would not agree to end the war because they expected Russia to enter the war on Britain’s side. Therefore, Hitler decided to foreclose that possibility by conquering Russia. A Russian has written that Hitler attacked because Stalin was preparing to attack Germany. Stalin did have considerable forces far forward, but It would make more sense for Stalin to wait until the West devoured itself in mutual bloodletting, step in afterwards and scoop it all up if he wanted. Or perhaps Stalin was positioning to occupy part of Eastern Europe in order to put more buffer between the Soviet Union and Germany.
Whatever the reason for the invasion, what defeated Hitler was the earliest Russian winter in 30 years. It stopped everything in its tracks before the well planned and succeeding encirclement could be completed. The harsh winter that immobilized the Germans gave Stalin time to recover.
Because of Hitler’s alliance with Mussolini, who lacked an effective fighting force, resources needed on the Russian front were twice drained off in order to rescue Italy. Because of Mussolini’s misadventures, Hitler had to drain troops, tanks, and air planes from the Russian invasion to rescue Italy in Greece and North Africa and to occupy Crete. Hitler made this mistake out of loyalty to Mussolini. Later in the war when Russian counterattacks were pushing the Germans out of Russia, Hitler had to divert precious military resources to rescue Mussolini from arrest and to occupy Italy to prevent her surrender. Germany simply lacked the manpower and military resources to fight on a 1,000 mile front in Russia, and also in Greece and North Africa, occupy part of France, and man defenses against a US/British invasion of Normandy and Italy.
The German Army was a magnificent fighting force, but it was overwhelmed by too many fronts, too little equipment, and careless communications. The Germans never caught on despite much evidence that the British could read their encryption. Thus, efforts to supply Rommel in North Africa were prevented by the British navy.
Irving never directly addresses in either book the Holocaust. He does document the massacre of many Jews, but the picture that emerges from the factual evidence is that the holocaust of Jewish people was different from the official Zionist story.
No German plans, or orders from Hitler, or from Himmler or anyone else have ever been found for an organized holocaust by gas and cremation of Jews. This is extraordinary as such a massive use of resources and transportation would have required massive organization, budgets and resources. What documents do show is Hitler’s plan to relocate European Jews to Madagascar after the war’s end. With the early success of the Russian invasion, this plan was changed to sending the European Jews to the Jewish Bolsheviks in the eastern part of Russia that Hitler was going to leave to Stalin. There are documented orders given by Hitler preventing massacres of Jews. Hitler said over and over that “the Jewish problem” would be settled after the war.
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It seems that most of the massacres of Jews were committed by German political administrators of occupied territories in the east to whom Jews from Germany and France were sent for relocation. Instead of dealing with the inconvenience, some of the administrators lined them up and shot them into open trenches. Other Jews fell victim to the anger of Russian villagers who had long suffered under Jewish Bolshevik administrators.
The “death camps” were in fact work camps. Auschwitz, for example, today a Holocaust museum, was the site of Germany’s essential artificial rubber factory. Germany was desperate for a work force. A significant percentage of German war production labor had been released to the Army to fill the holes in German lines on the Russian front. War production sites, such as Auschwitz, had as a work force refugees displaced from their homes by war, Jews to be deported after war’s end, and anyone else who could be forced into work. Germany desperately needed whatever work force it could get.
Every camp had crematoriums. Their purpose was not to exterminate populations but to dispose of deaths from the scourge of typhus, natural deaths, and other diseases. Refugees were from all over, and they brought diseases and germs with them. The horrific photos of masses of skeleton-like dead bodies that are said to be evidence of organized extermination of Jews are in fact camp inmates who died from typhus and starvation in the last days of the war when Germany was disorganized and devoid of medicines and food for labor camps. The great noble Western victors themselves bombed the labor camps and contributed to the deaths of inmates.
The two books on which I have reported total 1,663 pages, and there are two more volumes of the Churchill biography. This massive, documented historical information seemed likely to pass into the Memory Hole as it is inconsistent with both the self-righteousness of the West and the human capital of court historians. The facts are too costly to be known. But historians have started adding to their own accounts the information uncovered by Irving. It takes a brave historian to praise him, but they can cite him and plagiarize him.
It is amazing how much power Zionists have gotten from the Holocaust. Norman Finkelstein calls it The Holocaust Industry. There is ample evidence that Jews along with many others suffered, but Zionists insist that it was an unique experience limited to Jews.
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In his Introduction to Hitler’s War Irving reports that despite the widespread sales of his book, the initial praise from accomplished historians and the fact that the book was required reading at military academies from Sandhurst to West Point, “I have had my home smashed into by thugs, my family terrorized, my name smeared, my printers [publishers] firebombed, and myself arrested and deported by tiny, democratic Austria—an illegal act, their courts decided, for which the ministerial culprits were punished; at the behest of disaffected academics and influential citizens [Zionists], in subsequent years, I was deported from Canada (in 1992), and refused entry to Australia, New Zealand, Italy, South Africa and other civilized countries around he world. Internationally affiliated groups circulated letters to librarians, pleading for this book to be taken off their shelves.”
So much for free thought and truth in the Western world. Nothing is so little regarded in the West as free thought, free expression, and truth. In the West explanations are controlled in order to advance the agendas of the ruling interest groups. As David Irving has learned, woe to anyone who gets in the way.
Careful next you will be listening to Alex Jones!
Then the imperial conditioning will kick in and make you question your own sanity.
I’m already questioning it.
BTW – if you only watched 2 hours a day of TV that was pretty good. The Mickey Mouse club and two westerns wasn’t a whole lot of TV. Bonanza and Ed Sullivan ate up two hours on their own. That would mean no Rifleman, Bounty Hunter, Gunsmoke, Groucho Marx, Lucy, Paladin, Range Rider, Lone Ranger, Roy Rogers, Your Are There, Craft sumpin, sumpin hour, Carol Burnett, Cecil and Beanie, Gene Autry, Lassie, Sky King, Rin Tin Tin, Walter Cronkite, Disney World, Topper, etc, etc
Perish the thought of listening to viewpoints that don’t line up with exactly your own now.
I mean God Forbid you grow in wisdom and knowledge.
>=)
Wow, Evie, what kind of ‘wokeness’ is this? The wrong kind, so say our Masters.
I’ve read that column previously as well. Quite provocative. Something fishy was definitely going on behind the scenes that western history books have conveniently omitted.
EvelynV
It’s quite useful to have a summary of all the ‘arguments’ used by Holocaust deniers, so here’s a link to one compiled by Deborah Lipstadt:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/genocide/deniers_01.shtml
Make of it what you will. There are many others – holocaust denial and its rebuttals are well documented.
You may well ask why you should trust the BBC or Deborah Lipstadt – see here details of her successful defence after being sued for libel by David Irving for referring to lies he has told about the holocaust:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irving_v_Penguin_Books_Ltd
But you’d presumably need to ask yourself also why you choose to believe David Irving.
Likewise there is information in Wikipedia about the use of Zyklon B, including evidence that it was purchased for the specific purpose of murdering the inmates of the death camps. If you choose to believe it was bought for a bit of light kitchen gardening to keep the workers busy while their laundry was being fumigated in the oven blocks, then that’s up to you.
Yikes! I didn’t realize watching the film would be a 9 hour commitment. I’m sorry I got myself into this, I have no regard for holocaust deniers.
I think I was blind sided by the fact the article was written by Paul Craig Roberts who I’ve often thought had sensible things to say on other matters.
What the article says about Churchill doesn’t necessarily go hand in hand with holocaust denialism and as I said, that was what disturbed me the most.
It’s OK, Evelyn, you don’t have to watch it all – it was just a suggestion to help put paid to the vile stuff about oven blocks being built as laundry facilities.
Some people on here would benefit, though.
Just discovered it’s all on YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=shoah+full+movie
victimhood is nothing to brag about.
Industrial-scale murder is something it is not decent to deny.
I don’t agree Alba. One shouldn’t deny it, but it needs a short shelf life. The holocaust, slavery, etc have become the fables of our times. Hitler and the actions of the 3rd Reich pale in comparison to what has happened since. What about the shock and awe Iraqis were subjected to, the horror of the ongoing mideast wars, Libya, Afghanistan, Syria, Somalia? Families escaping the horrors on foot for hundreds of miles, drownings at sea. Think of the suffering being imposed on the Venezuelans. One could fill pages of these atrocities. What do you think of Hillary’s crack about the horrific death that befell Gaddafi? Is that not Hitlerian?
The trope of antisemitism has become a go-to accusation for anything the Israelis object to. The only thing the Israeli have yet to do to the Palestinians is to order them to wear a crescent moon and star armbands.
Similarly with American Blacks who pathetically cling to the idea they are owed something for what happened to them 200 years ago. I say, stand in line the list of grievances on diverse peoples since then have greatly multiplied.
“I am a victim” cripples those who wear its badge. We see their distasteful pandering for what it is and lose respect.
“I don’t agree Alba. One shouldn’t deny it, but it needs a short shelf life. ”
Its shelf life should last as long as people deny it for their own political ends. It was the first literally industrial genocide and therefore holds a special place in the folk memory. That will fade after current generations are gone, and that will make it even easier for people like those on this site would like to have future generations believe it didn’t happen in the way that we know it did.
I criticise Israel all I want to – it doesn’t interfere with my opposition to anti-semitism, as they are not the same thing. Some Israeli influences would have you believe that they are. And we make a mistake if we think everyone in Israel shares the same monolithic opinions about everything.
And you miss the point. I am not crippled because I am not saying ‘I am a victim’. I am standing up for the truth as it relates to other people who were victims. Because I respect the truth as well as the memory of the victims – victims who are among many victims – I totally agree. And I know why they want to pretend it didn’t happen, because that affects their political aims now.
But so far no one is telling me that slavery didn’t happen, or that the suffering of the Libyans, Venezuelans, Afghans, Syrians or Somalis didn’t happen and isn’t continuing to happen.
If they do I will intervene as I have done for the Jews. I’m sorry if that offends you.
Victimhood is nothing to brag about and its sister, virtue signalling is the ultimate empty gesture of preening moral superiority.
Luhrenloup
“Victimhood is nothing to brag about and its sister, virtue signalling is the ultimate empty gesture of preening moral superiority.”
Victimhood isn’t anything to brag about, I quite agree. I always feel a bit sad when people have no actual argument so are reduced to accusing people of virtue signalling.
It’s not about me or moral superiority but if it makes you feel morally superior to say that, go for it.
The reason lies and denial need to be confronted on here is not because it makes the slightest difference to the deniers or as an empty gesture, but because there are others – mostly younger – reading who fall for this stuff and then fall for the propaganda outlets elsewhere who promote it – for a reason, not because they just like arguing.
It’s not about victimhood – it’s about opposing liars who manipulate the truth for their own current purposes.
But it’s OK. I get that you want holocaust deniers to be able to deny with impunity – we should all just let them and say nothing. I don’t know why, but that’s your business.
And I would highly recommend this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoah_(film)
I have it at home. I’d be interested to re-read your thoughts after watching it, if you get the opportunity. It’s probably available from libraries, although £25 isn’t all that much for the nine hours of film, resulting from 11 years of work, and based on 350 hours of raw footage.
I’ve welcome Janos and Tate to watch it in my house, without respite for 9 hours. I’d keep them supplied with tea and biscuits, while I made sure they didn’t miss anything.
*I’d* welcome…
Tea & biccies, please, but could I bring a wee bottle o’ Laphroaig to sweeten the tea, Alba?
(And, perhaps you should explain that your ‘biscuits’ means ‘cookies’, not scones)
I won’t be there to partake of her tea & biscuits, nor your froggie. Shoah is parasitic propaganda but she doesn’t have a clue. See, that’s just what parasites do.
If you are out of Laphroaig just substitute a shot of Listerine, they taste closely the same enough no one would notice.
Majella
Yep, scones are scones, and ‘bis-cuit’, like ‘bis-cotti’, just means ‘baked twice’, like the way you’d make ‘cantucci/cantuccini’, which are the same thing.
https://thechiappas.com/recipes/cantuccini-biscotti-recipe/
The best ones I ever tasted (just from the corner shop when it was owned by a Scots-Italian, before he sold it, were made with orange essence instead of almonds. Aaaahhhh… I never got round to making them (they weren’t cheap to buy) even though I bought the orange essence.
I’ll try them out if you visit, though 🙂 . And there will be scones.
Of course you won’t. You don’t have the guts to sit through nine hours of real people telling their real stories. Your god might prod your conscience and that would never do.
And it’s not me you have to justify yourself to, Tate. You’re the one whose belief system tells you you’ll be asked hard questions when you ‘pass on’.
Good luck with that. You really don’t want to get it all wrong, do you?
The synagogue of Satan that sacrificed hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of its own blood into the industrial war machine? What upstanding fellows!
EvelynV:
“If you are out of Laphroaig just substitute a shot of Listerine, they taste closely the same enough no one would notice.”
LOL!!! I get the meaning but have to argue that it’s a matter of taste. Many don’t like the ‘smokey bacon’ effect of all that peat. Besides, Listerine has a lower alcohol content (28%), so Laphroaig (48%) is a more efficient mouth wash (plus you don’t have to spit it out!)
But for the fussy, perhaps you’d prefer a light crisp Islay, like a Bowmore or McLelland, with a hint of dried seaweed & salt on the nose?
Tate:
That Unz Review – hmmm…it proudly claims to express ‘controversial perspectives largely excluded from the American Mainstream Media”.
There’s a good reason for that. Enjoy your echo chamber – no wonder you’re so angry all the time.
I’m not angry…
YOU FUCKIN’ CUNT!!!!
GreenAlba
I didn’t realize until after finishing the article then googling David Irving that he was a holocaust denier.
I was mostly taken by his assertions that WC fostered war with Hitler. I would prefer to think otherwise having gone on record many times among friends expressing my opinion WC is the greatest leader of any nation in modern times.
It sounded bogus to me that Hitler would be unaware of what was happening to the Jewish population but these days I’m being forced to accept that nothing is outside the realm of possibility.
I haven’t checked out your recommended film yet but I will. Thanks.
Even if Churchill had ‘fostered the war with Hitler’, were we all to let him murder the Jews of Europe and do nothing?
BTW, living in Vichy was no picnic either if you were Jewish – Pétain had them rounded up and sent to concentration camps too. His own fellow citizens. He fought bravely at Verdun, but he was a Nazi collaborator and was treated as such.
Vichy France, that is – the regime, not the town.
Oh, I see, that’s why we went to war against Hitler.
Not.
Study your history, if you can find an accurate version of it in your scepter’d isle.
I didn’t say it was, Tate. But it was a very good reason to and if we hadn’t gone to war when we did it would still have become apparent to all and sundry what was happening eventually.
Your fellow countrymen were sickened by what they found.
Less strong stomachs than you, clearly, despite your bravery.
*their* bravery. Obviously.
“Your fellow countrymen were sickened by what they found.”
All those piles of bodies they continually show being bulldozed were from malnutrition (see PCR’s article posted by EvelynV above as to why), & typhus (ran out of Zyklon B to delouse).
Still photos from Andersonville showed the same conditions. Lincoln instituted the policy of refusing to exchange parolees, one early method of total warfare, so the Confederates had to keep them without the means to do so. They knew what they were doing. I’m sure Churchill studied his methods.
And I’m not brave. My Dad & his brothers, one who lost his life at St. Lo, they were brave.
Since the subject has come up and you are asking forbidden questions: Google Judea declares was on Germany. They did – about seven years before the outbreak of military action. Economic war that is. Why did Germans boycott Jewish shops? That’s why. Because at some point the international boycott was tightened or really began to hurt the Nation.
Your search will lead you to images of newspaper headlines. But you weren’t taught that, were you? You are supposed to believe the Germans just boycotted Jewish shops out of pure malice and not in response to a crushing economic assault.
I know you’re not, Tate. That’s why I corrected my typo.
Although you may indeed be brave for all I know. Nobody’s all bad 🙂 .
Janos
“You are supposed to believe the Germans just boycotted Jewish shops out of pure malice and not in response to a crushing economic assault.”
Boycotting shops is anyone’s right. But I’ve never heard Kristallnacht’ described that way before. Casts it in a whole new light.
Tate
“All those piles of bodies they continually show being bulldozed were from malnutrition…”
I was referring to the living human stick insects.
“(ran out of Zyklon B to delouse).”
Like I said, shameless. And you are getting confused.
Gas — ovens. Zyklon B —- showers. Showers that were sealed up. But had peep holes.
They’ve certainly done a good job on you.
But He won’t like it. It’s not too late to repent.
Sorry: coal —- ovens; Zyklon B — showers.
Janos
“The Anti-Nazi Boycott of 1933 was a Jewish led international boycott of German products in response to violence and harassment by members of Hitler’s Nazi Party against Jewsfollowing his appointment as Chancellor of Germany on January 30, 1933.”
There are too many holes in the narrative for anyone who cares to actually look at the evidence. But few will venture down that rabbit-hole. Obviously, a lot of Jews died — from overwork, neglect, mistreatment, even executions. War is a nasty business, & they were involved as always as partisans.
\I don’t even deny that higher-ups had something nasty in mind at the Swansee conference if you study the minutes. Don’t bother with the dramatic re-creations. That is fiction.
“Obviously, a lot of Jews died — from overwork, neglect, mistreatment, even executions. War is a nasty business, & they were involved as always as partisans.”
‘even executions’?
Give it a rest, Goebbels, it’s tedious. You should be ashamed of yourself.
“I don’t even deny that higher-ups had something nasty in mind at the Swansee conference”
Swansea. Love it.
I expect they had a male voice choir too and a brass band from the local colliery.
Methinks the old gal spent too much time in the ‘Content Development’ dodge.
Goodness, Tate, leave the bottom of the barrel for someone else to scrape.
If you think ‘content development’ for a medical publisher is the same as ‘content development’ for a PR firm, I guess that doesn’t really surprise me. I mean what would you know?
Doctors, nurses, midwives, and their counterparts in the relevant teaching institutions have day jobs. We make sure what they do in what would otherwise be their ‘free time’ or time with their families, for the benefit of those who follow them into their professions, is put together and presented in a way that aids learning.
And leaving aside main authors and editors who get royalties, many of those who contribute get nothing more than a copy of the book for their pains. If they were all to get an honorarium commensurate with the effort they put into their labours (in their ‘spare time’) the generations aspiring to follow them wouldn’t be able to afford the books.
There’s a small part of the world out there you fail to appreciate. I just help them make sure that what they contribute is in a state to be as useful as it can be to the people for whom it’s intended and that others involved in illustration and design for their work do what they are briefed to do. And for £20/hour, before tax, £16 after. Such can be the lofty rewards of a degree.
But I get that you are desperate, Tate, so feel free to witter while you scrape.
None of which gives me anything like the nobility of the sons of the soil, BTW, Tate. But there are worse things to be doing, while the possibility remains to earn an honest crust.
Like spending your life looking for reasons to hate whole groups of people.
H*te, the “H” word.
Rhymes with Tate.
Shameless!
I don’t care which words you hate, Tate. Your lexical preferences are not a big deal to me. But you can have ‘despise’ if you prefer.
You used the argumentum ad hominem’ in referring to the way I earn my living (on which topic you have shown yourself, in addition, to be totally clueless – you can’t even get your insults right), when you ran out of any kind of genuine argument.
That says what it says, clearly and simply.
Gee, I think this is kind of a glaring instance of the pot calling the kettle black regarding the ad hominem thing. I mean, really, are you not self-aware of how you respond to my comments?
Speaking of human stick insects, do you know what amoebic dysentery does to a person? My Dad contracted it during the war, he dropped from 165 to less than 100 lbs. He looked like a walking skeleton, I’ve seen the pictures. For a time, he didn’t think he was going to make it.
It’s funny how, going by the newsreel footage, some of the concentration camp prisoners when liberated, looked like that but others looked healthy with no weight loss. So what explains that disparity if there was an diabolical systematic effort to wipe them all out? Intestinal diseases such as typhoid fever or dysentery are out of the question, I suppose, according to you.
EvelynV
Fascinating.
There’s one passage though that leaves me confused:
“After months of firebombing attacks on Germany, including Berlin, Hitler gave in to his generals and replied in kind. Churchill succeeded. The story became “the London Blitz,” not the British blitz of Germany.”
Admittedly, I’m using ‘conventional’ sources, but I can find only 1 reference of British bombing (Berlin August 25, 1940, 3 weeks after German blitz bombings of Birmingham & Hull), but especially I can find no records of fire-bombings, before the Battle for Britain (July – October 1940) and the London Blitz proper, which started on Sept 7 1940 and lasted 57 nights of consecutive bombing raids on civilian London.
Serious & regular British bombing didn’t start till late in 1941, and in mid-1942 the USA joined in.
So, I call BS on that point, which ipso facto calls any other assertions into question.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_air_operations_during_the_Battle_of_Europe
“For America, everything was on the move. Love and power were in the air.
The idea that this was the American century stuck. The 1920s were a kind of hormonal rush of wonders and amazements. Radio, movies, airplanes, giant industries, electric power in farm houses, the dizzying rush of progress …”
Replace the word America with China, and I suspect that is how the youth in China view their situation today.
https://www.scmp.com/video/china/2116697/whats-life-chinas-young-people-really-desire
Then consider which nations population will be best equipped to win the rat race.
Good point and of course China is far better prepared to embrace the future because they are not infected by the fundamentalist religion of malignant wokesterism.
Hi lbs,
Do you see any viable cure for “malignant wokesterism”, or do you just think human nature is going to have to play-out?
I didn’t experience the 1950s.
I was a soul waiting in queue to be attached to a human chloroplast, to face my personal Omaha Beach: almost certain abortion. Thankfully, God’s plan was fulfilled, and now here we are.
One thing has said the test of time, though. The New York Times. The press production line still runs 24 hours a day. The hot ink drying on the crisp white sheets… The union man breaking a sweat… The news man, on the phone, checking facts…
Who turned their back on the past, the hard fought victories? Who exchanged the cool breeze for hot air? The column inch for the style sheet? The written word for the talking head?
The New York Times reported today on the ailing democracies of Asia and Africa (China’s Hong Kong possession, Russia, Khazakstan, Sudan), profiled the 15 year old black kid who somehow enlisted in the Marines and was killed by a sapper in in Vietnam, the strange candidacy of Mike Gravel, who read the Pentagon Papers on the floor of the Senate, and analyzed the current presidential candidate field.
Every ejac is an Omaha Beach, Deb. These days most hit the rubber or bathroom floor. Thus the passing of the Great Race as Madison Grant said.
“that assumes that business as usual will continue, not an assumption most of the readers of this blog share.” Neon Vincent
NV we are touching a different part of the elephant. The most common assumption i observe is – the same as always only different – this is often phrased, it will be different this time. Amid all of the potentially accurate forecasts presented here, right at the apex of every scenareo the prognosticator finds himself safe and secure in an exclusive and profitable market based community.
Most folks just have never been hurt physically to the point their survival was assured but years of slow recupperation was at hand. Many virtues can be won or lost in such a path. One thing you will learn about first hand is compassion and the lack thereof. A person who has won any degree of success along that path will have knowledge and strength apart from the more fortunate.
There is more than an abundance of our fellow citizens who have and are bearing the brunt of an open assualt on their beings. Before the day is over there will be countless sophisticated calls to exclude those who are in possesion of the knowledge, strength and determination to achieve a positive outcome.
Will compassion arrive before the pain? Maybe to arrive born by grace.
Thank you Mr. K – lyrical prose – i sat on Fess’s lap with cap.
What do you become, Jim? You’ve already answered that question with sharp insight in your WMBH series. That, and JMGreer’s futurist musings, together, give a pretty good idea of what NAmerica will look like before too long – if you’re dead lucky.
Oh, and about this: “America performed splendidly in World War Two, rescuing Europe and Asia from manifest evil.” And Russia destroying the Wehrmacht, and they and China losing approximately 40 million dead in driving out the Nazis and the Japanese…? They were just part-time stretcher-bearers, perhaps, to USuk’s glorious all-conquering heroism?
I believe that you in US and we in uk, combined, lost less than a million dead, didn’t we? That tells a somewhat different story, doesn’t it? But perhaps you’re lumping the – nominally – Communist belligerents in with the Nazis, as all being “manifest evil” – ?
If so, that’s a historical narrative that’s bound to be revised eventually. Already happening, in fact.
Remember one thing different about the US in both world wars.
Unlike Russia, China and England, we were not fighting for our territory.
We were fighting to protect others.
… and to expand the zone of dollar circulation…
MOSTLY that. NO ONE ever truly fights for others. That’s always just a ruse to get us into the shit.
But the fact is that Capitalism and Communism were allied against the Fascism and National Socialism – philosophies of Nationalism. And the Fact is that they still are. Who funds Antifa? Or the mass migrations of non-Whites into Europe and the United States? The Banker Elite do.
Lol! Megadeth?! A cheesy metal band from 80’s and 90’s that at least played instruments.
Look into “Truffle Butter” song, and then try and complain about Megadeth…
“The earth starts to rumble
World powers fall
A’warring for the heavens
A peaceful man stands tall
Tall, tall
Just like the Pied Piper
Led rats through the streets
We dance like marionettes
Swaying to the symphony
… of destruction”
Megadeath is actually pretty talented and very political.
Not as huge as Metallica but should have been.
Killing for religion
Something I don’t understand
Fools like me, who cross the sea
And come to foreign lands
Ask the sheep, for their beliefs
Do you kill on God’s command?
I prefer I kind of out grew Megadeath but never this band which was purely a Southern California phenonium. The singer is very famous and hates his former band now.
Johnny was bad, even as a child
Everybody could tell
Everyone said, “If you don’t get straight, you’ll surely go to hell”
But Johnny didn’t care
He was an outlaw by the time that he was ten years old
He didn’t wanna do what he was told
Just a prankster, a juvenile gangster
His teachers didn’t understand
They kicked him out of school
At a tender early age
Just because he didn’t want to learn things
Had other interests
He liked to burn things
The lady down the block
She had a radio that Johnny wanted, oh, so bad
So he took it the first chance he had
And then he shot her in the leg
But this is what she said:
He’s only a lad
You really can’t blame him
Only a lad
Society made him
Only a lad
He’s our responsibility
Oh, oh, oh oh oh
Only a lad
He really couldn’t help it
Only a lad
He didn’t want to do it
Only a lad
He’s underprivileged and abused
Perhaps a little bit confused
Oh, oh, oh, oh oh oh
Whoa whoa whoa
Oh, whoa whoa whoa
I read today the social justice warriors have taken over the knitting world, and if you want to post your knitting tips or patterns online, and you are white, mandatory self-flagellation for your white privilege is demanded. I think that shows we have a turning indeed.
I’ve heard that too. Conservative knitters are savaged. How weird is that? No doubt more and more of the leftist women are without vaginas and feel left out – thus the term “front hole” was coined to make them feel better or something.
LOL you are so inappropriate in such a good way.
Hoo boy. I hope they don’t ‘penetrate’ needlepoint. Mrs. Tate will be grumpy.
Tanks. Front hole is a particularly grotesque example of the corruption of our culture via transgender ideology.
What? Explain this. I don’t knit(well managed to knit a scarf once) but how does whiteness involve knitting? Or how is social justice linked to knitting? I’m confused.
https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2019/2/25/18234950/knitting-racism-instagram-stories
Wow, people are just getting tired of all these ‘conversations,’ which are really just disguised lectures scolding Whites for their supposed sins, primarily for the sin of being White.
Yes the lectures are very tiring indeed. You would think some of these agitators were getting paid based on how often and how numerous these “conversations” are. Progressives are great at organizing and networking so it would come as no shock.
Today is so different than 50 years ago.
TV is a big part of it as well as it’s close relative, video games.
Today’s folks have such a short attention span. Why?
Watch TV, everything any more are divided into short skits, thirty second plot bits. Why? So we can watch the commercials.
Watch a video game. The shooters move from place to place in short “episodes”.
No wonder kids cannot sit through a two hour movie or read a book.
Even Facebook and Twitter are short segmented.
I once read that the scenes used to take a minute or two to change now they are 30 second or lose attention.
Very good post, Jim.
“The 1920s were a kind of hormonal rush of wonders and amazements. Radio, movies, airplanes, giant industries, electric power in farm houses, the dizzying rush of progress…..”
All of this given expression by the energetic Charleston dance. Some didn’t consider it “poetry with arms and legs”, and it was banned from many dance halls, considered indecent and too provocative. Yes, sometimes things sure do turn.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUpAcPAipDA
Nice video, TS.
Those flappers were really hoofing. Was that filmed in a Speakeasy? I expected Scott and Zelda to walk in any moment with Harry Crosby and Caresse, their expensive Flivver parked out front.
If you’re blue and don’t know where to go
Why don’t you go where fashion sits
Puttin on the Ritz
Dressed up like a millionaire trooper
Tryin hard to look like Gary Cooper (super duper)
Downtown
Uptown
Get you kicks
At the Ritz
Dine and Wine
But not til nine
The time is right for us tonight
We can move to the rhythm
We can move
Puttin on the Ritz
brh
Interesting to apply the term “deep state” to the high ranking bureaucrats who brought us the Vietnam War.
It does seem that today’s deep state (Comey, Brennan, Clapper, the Democrats, the neocons, the media) are in fact direct evolutionary descendants from those who brought us the Vietnam War and other heavy-handed policies of the mid-late 20th century.
Deep State is the part of American bureaucracy working for the Fourth Reich.
After all, what else could explain their tireless labour of destroying their own country by destroying the educational and health care systems, flooding the country with illegal immigrants and illicit drugs?
How about a total lust for power.
A lust so huge that they become traitors to their own Constitution.
Just plain old Deep Staters who believe that we are dolts and they must instruct us on what is right and wrong.
Send them to Russia or China where their autocratic format fits right in.
And sly Europeans, remembering Berlin in 1945 and Paris in 1812, watching with pleasure how stupid Yankees poking a stick into the bear’s den.
you only hit the giggle point, Finca
Green Alba, giggle your soul off:
The most dangerous moment was June 22, 2015, when General Breedlove pointedly focused rather significant forces on Russia’s borders, ostensibly for exercises to repel Russian aggression.
Moreover, the NATO intercept system of the Russian retaliatory strike on the basis of SM-3 missiles and radars in Poland and Romania was already in place, while Russia still had neither tested Calibr, nor Iskander-M, nor Buyan-M, neither modernized Tu-160, nor group of repaired and modernized nuclear submarines: K-266 Oryol, K-44 Ryazan, K-114 Tula, K-419 Kuzbass, K -335 “Cheetah”, B-336 “Pskov”, as well as the BS-64 “Moscow Region” (K-64) which, after modernization, is the head sub of the Status-6 and together with “Losharik” can take the obligation to cause unacceptable damage to the enemy, who decides on a sudden nuclear attack on Russia.
It is enough to recall the island of La Palma and the Cumbre Vieja volcano off the coast of West Africa, which, even without Status-6, can explode at any time and slide to great depths.
And this will inevitably cause mega-tsunami, which will drown all of England and most of Scotland, as well as all of Western Europe and the entire East coast of the United States, up to Philadelphia.
And this threat saves Russia from the need to compensate for the progress in the strength of the first US disarming strike, by a tenfold increase in the retaliatory strike – tactics which led the USSR to defeat in the Cold War.
“And this will inevitably cause mega-tsunami, which will drown all of England and most of Scotland, as well as all of Western Europe and the entire East coast of the United States, up to Philadelphia.”
Not as far as Scotland, apparently, Finca, although it won’t make much difference if all our supply lines are cut and half of England is drowned.
But I was referring to the British parts of your story, with (as ever) the Queen, Trump and the Privy Council. 🙂
Of course, the special English humor!
When the Constitutional Monarchy is when you have a Monarch, but do not have a Constitution.
We do have a body of law that serves as a constitution, FInca, but you are right that it is about time it was collated into a single written Constitution. There are increasing calls for it – recent events have made it more necessary.
And let’s hope Cumbre Vieja and Yellowstone don’t pop at the same time in a double whammy.
If the Brits write a constitution now, it will live up to Eric Blair’s worst nightmare. Mao would approve of it, however, I’m sure.
We’ll drop you a note when the time comes, Herr T, and give entirely due consideration to your suggestions.
Well, at least one state in the union has plenty of swag. California has just voted to grant welfare and free medical bennies to illegals age 26 and under. California apparently is running budget surpluses to be this generous with non citizens. The bill will run in the billions but what the hell, Cal has money to burn.
Brh
They’ll just destroy the health care for everybody, except for the super-rich.
Try trillions.
As a citizen of California I am very close to not paying state taxes anymore in protest.
My vote is always over ruled by the courts if it wins or by the progressives bent on destroying a once great state.
A few monthe ago Gov Newsom announced to the world all were welcome, you just had to get here by nook or by crook, legally or illegally, it didn’t matter. Thru out the 3rd world 2 billion sets of ears were listening, and its onward to the Golden State. Its only right, now that they are begining to arrive, invited and honored guests, they be given free medical care and a nice welfare check.
Brh
Research the murder of the Bologna family, on Thanksgiving.
GN has blood on his hands.
I hope I answered your question about Warren Kimbro, Malth.
I was trying to remember what I talked with him about, I know it wasn’t politics. Probably just mundane stuff going on around campus at the time.
I wanted to ask you, in LA, back in the day, did you run across SoCal musicians like Graham Parsons, the Byrds, New Riders of the Purple Sage? (Driving home the other morning I heard ‘Lonesome LA Cowboy’, I thought ‘there’s Malthus, one last cowboy amongst 3 million libs)
Brh
There are reports of illegal aliens getting across the border and asking our BICE agents where their checks are for making it here.
You can’t make this insanity up.
Gavin Newsome should be recalled and put on trial.
Hate that prick even more than moonbeam greasy used car salesmen is all I see and hear every time he excretes the verbal diarrhea he spews forth when he speaks.
He has no right to promise anyone our tax money and yet here he is taxes through the roof State government almost in default and this douche is promising people something for nothing.
What’s the solution? Is there a solution?
The same solution seems to happen over and over given enough time, insanity and problems.
Play this rendition of Gershwin playing Rhapsody in Blue and you will gain a deeper meaning of Jim’s essay.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTOJXxTypuU
Anne Coulter, Vdare.com
Apparently, we must also be bombarded with fictional “documentaries” and TV series re-telling the left’s Central Park Rape fantasy. Instead of an evidence-based approach to determining guilt, today we rely on story-tellin’ to get at the truth.
Thus, according to lore, in 1989, five black and brown choirboys were framed by a racist New York Police force and a racist district attorney’s office for the attack on the Central Park jogger.
Unfortunately for the choirboys, the two juries that pronounced them guilty were not allowed to consider fictional movies, but were stuck with the now-discredited facts-and-evidence method. So it’s been a long, hard slog, getting the fable to be accepted as Truth. It’s probably going to take a few more movies.
This week, the “oral tradition” of the Central Park wilding as told in the debut of Ava DuVernay’s Netflix series, “When They See Us,” forced the chief sorcerer—er, prosecutor—Linda Fairstein to resign from the boards of three charities and Vassar College. As one of the convicted, then “exonerated,” rapists said, “Even if it’s 30 years later, she has to pay for her crime.”
The actual evidence against the convicted rapists was, and remains, overwhelming, as I have described repeatedly in columns and in my book, Demonic: How the Liberal Mob Is Endangering America. Evidently, I will be forced to continue restating the facts periodically, in some third-world version of Nietzsche’s eternal recurrence.
In our new country, nonsense like “objectivity” and “written documentation” are mere tricks, chicanery, hocus-pocus, used against “communities of color”—as Schools Chancellor Carranza explained—in order “to win victories for white people.”
JS: The Elite are moving very fast now to consolidate their victory and to make any counter-attack impossible. Thus they aim to criminalize any and all dissent and make it impossible to the extent they can by deplatforming. And in place of the facts or historical truth, they inject lies and fantasies about Non-White achievements and White villainy against Non-White Saints and Geniuses.
Another group of Blacks has now to been awarded sanctity. The police who worked on the case are utterly disgusted. And the jogger herself, who didn’t remember anything and who has always been a voice of reason, doesn’t agree with adulation either. She said that she was told that her injuries indicated more than just one person was involved, even if the others didn’t join in the rape.
I believe that some of these Scottsboro boys have been involved in other crimes as well.
Students of the future will read that the first person to walk on the moon was a Black Women named Neela Armstrong.
The complete Coulter article:
https://westernrifleshooters.wordpress.com/2019/06/09/coulter-on-folk-tales-the-third-worlding-of-the-west/
Coulter is a right-wing shill who is raking it in, playing on the hearts & minds of the Everything-Is-A-Conspiracy Set.
I hope you didn’t fork out actually fiat money for her book, Janos.
Yeah, and probably a XENOPHOBE too like Ozzie said the other day.
Xeno is the dark god of the Scientologists. Could Oz be one of those? When I knew him he was into contacting UFOs at night. I used to see him out in his yard doing morse code with a powerful flashlight.
Very interesting.
From the Wiki anent Xenu:
Xenu (/?zi?nu?/),[1][2][3] also called Xemu, was, according to Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, the dictator of the “Galactic Confederacy” who 75 million years ago brought billions[4][5] of his people to Earth (then known as “Teegeeack”) in DC-8-like spacecraft, stacked them around volcanoes, and killed them with hydrogen bombs. Official Scientology scriptures hold that the thetans (immortal spirits) of these aliens adhere to humans, causing spiritual harm.[1][6]
These events are known within Scientology as “Incident II”,[7] and the traumatic memories associated with them as “The Wall of Fire” or “R6 implant”. The narrative of Xenu is part of Scientologist teachings about extraterrestrial civilizations and alien interventions in earthly events, collectively described as “space opera” by Hubbard. Hubbard detailed the story in Operating Thetan level III (OT III) in 1967, warning that the “R6 implant” (past trauma)[8] was “calculated to kill (by pneumonia, etc.) anyone who attempts to solve it”.[8][9][10]
Within the Church of Scientology, the Xenu story is part of the church’s secret “Advanced Technology”,[7] considered a sacred and esoteric teaching,[11] which is normally only revealed to members who have completed a lengthy sequence of courses costing large amounts of money.[12] The church avoids mention of Xenu in public statements and has gone to considerable effort to maintain the story’s confidentiality, including legal action on the grounds of copyright and trade secrecy.[13] Officials of the Church of Scientology widely deny or try to hide the Xenu story.[14][15] Despite this, much material on Xenu has leaked to the public via court documents, copies of Hubbard’s notes, and the Internet.[14] In commentary on the impact of the Xenu text, academic scholars have discussed and analyzed the writings by Hubbard and their place within Scientology within the contexts of science fiction,[16] UFO religions,[17] Gnosticism[18][19] and creation myths.[11]
JS: Who wants to be a Scientologist? Hands!
Very strange. It’s interesting that you have to literally pay to play in the Church of Scientology. In most other religions one has to pay with sacrifice and virtue in order to get anywhere.
I am sure you are all in for the retelling of our history. Certainly you don’t accept America as it was founded.
I tempted her and she fell. I waved aroud their meme about how boring Whites are and she couldn’t resist affirming it. They think they are special and we are nothing. I feel we are special and they are extraneous.
Yes very clever of you! And she fell right into the trap.
I’m very thankful for you.
Janos:
“I tempted her and she fell. I waved aroud their meme about how boring Whites are and she couldn’t resist affirming it.”
SSL:
“Yes very clever of you! And she fell right into the trap. I’m very thankful for you.”
Please… Self-congratulatory bullshit coupled with sycophantic dick-sucking.
You always find a way to sully that which is beautiful. You are truly an unclean comment squatter. And you wouldn’t know what devotion or love was if either one of them slapped your face. How dare you!
SSL
“You always find a way to sully that which is beautiful. “
You responded on a previous thread, in a positively approving and encouraging manner, to a comment which described numbers of your fellow humans, who came into the world with no more volition or choice in the destination of their arrival than you or your sons, as ‘human waste’.
Not even the slightest quizzical raising of eyebrows from someone – an endlessly proselytising Christian, no less – with two young children of her own.
And yet you worry about a metaphor with slightly bawdy connotations which probably 50% of your countrymen wouldn’t have the slightest hesitation in using online or elsewhere.
Maybe your scale of values is a bit skewed?
SoftStarLight: “Certainly you don’t accept America as it was founded.”
It’s always interesting to hear right-wing chuds opine about the founding of the USA. They serve the useful function of making the unspoken explicit — turning subtext into text. For example, Eyesore once ranted about the damage that ‘one throwaway line’, referring to all men are created equal, has done to the United States. When in fact, this ‘throwaway line’ is the founding creed of the USA and has found great favour around the world, though not everywhere, for hundreds of years since.
When chuds talk about how America was founded, as I say, they’re not referring to the text but the subtext. In 1776, the USA was a machine for stripping wealth and land from other people: from native Americans by genocide, from Mexico by war (in Canada they failed, to my great benefit), and from Africans by kidnapping and enslavement. This machinery has softened in the time since, mostly because it succeeded in its aims, and turned those aims outwards to other spots on the globe. But nowadays, the extreme right looks back with fondness on those old, taken-for-granted ways and would reinstitute them at home once again if possible. This is what SSL means by ‘America as it was founded’ — not the nation of laws envisioned by the founders, but the nation of rape and pillage that constituted the actual facts on the ground.
The permafrost contains three times the CO2 that’s been released into the atmosphere by humans since the dawn of the industrial age. If it’s unlocked and released, and it’s being released as we type & discuss, it’s game over as in civilization as we knew and know it is no more. Sure, some human life may survive when it’s all said and done, but the humans will resemble the moronic, brutish humans in the Planet of the Apes.
Alright, Who Let It Rip?
A well-appreciated Russian perspective. Notice him smoking the cigarette.
Siberia: The Melting Permafrost
Also methane is locked in there which is 36x more heat retentive than CO2.
A real threat is at the bottom of the oceans where large amounts of methane are trapped in large pools by the cold and pressure. A warming ocean may release these pools.
If the polar ice cap melts at the NP, the lock ice has on the ambient temperature of the northern hemisphere will be gone. No one knows, no one what is going to happen.
What a pensive post. I appreciate not just the ideas but the elegiac tone and the use of Gershwin and his famous tune as a framing device. I’ve been reading your work for 15 years, JHK, including this blog, but this is the first time I’ve been moved to comment. We are indeed a “haunted country,” and we are indeed living through a cultural-historical moment that calls out for authentic answers to the two questions you articulate. Thank you for continuing to direct attention this way.
Welcome to the comments section may you post in good health and spirits!
Ah, Mr. Kunstler, we are all getting old. Case it point – it is “Megadeth”. Kind of like my father talking about Lead Zeppelins!
Brilliant essay today, as usual, Jim!
Joke: If you lock three economists in a basement they won’t worry about starving, because they know their grumbling bellies will soon cause sandwiches to appear. (Courtesy of Chris Martenson)
We Boomers have lived in and helped create the Age of Magical Thinking. Where more is better and to be comfortable and powerful in the present is more important than the future conditions we leave our progeny. Maybe it was Walt Disney’s fault! Why worry about resource depletion, population growth, the environment,etc, when you can just print paper currency to get what you want and force the world to use it by pointing a big gun at their head or through bribery, specifically giving them weapons.
Per the St. Louis Fed, all US sectors, debt securities and liabilities, were at $2 trillion in Q1-1973; in Q4-2018, this liability had increased to $73 trillion. For the next twenty years to resemble the last twenty, estimates are that his debt will have to triple. Welcome to the exponential function!
“The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function.”
~ Dr. Albert Bartlett, former Physics Professor, University of Colorado
Exponential Growth or Entropy? Which one will get us first is an even bet!
Estimates point at a 1.4 quadrillion in toxic derivatives!
That is what will send us all skidding off the rails into the trash heap.
Yet, and yet, 15000 sq ft McMansions being built here and in surrounding towns.
Who is buying these monstrosities I don’t know.
What’s particularly egregious is that historic estates are being bought and broken up, and historic houses dating back to the 18th century knocked down, to build these giant places.
Brh
How are the hedge funds doing these days? Have the hedge fund hustlers moved on to some new hustle?
Always good until the credit swaps stop and someone gets left holding the bag with all the toxic assets.
Ha! And then a miracle happens.
If you line up 100 economists in a straight line, they will all be pointing in a different direction.
I am 71, I hope entropy gets me first, I do not envy succeeding generations.
I always think of Manhattan when I hear that tune. And my favorite quote:
“… he’s a genius, she’s a genius, wow, you know a lot of geniuses, you should meet some stupid people sometime, you might learn something”
Everyone here can agree to that.
100th Avatar
Now, that’s downright funny!
Reminds of the saying: God created the simple to confuse the wise!
A few years back, United Airlines coopted it for a pre-flight presentation. You know, during that uncomfortable portion of a flight with cabin full of fumes, old people taking too long to stow overheads, when you’re squirming in your seat, rooting through your carry-on looking for your book, or headphones.. when somebody at the wrong seat thinks your in their seat… all those splendid associations for this rather unfortunate ditty.
Where we are headed….
“While few of today’s professors of the humanities are able to articulate grounds for protest, I would think the humanities of old would be able to muster a powerful argument against this tendency. Its warning would be simple, recalling its oldest lessons: at the end of the path of liberation lies enslavement. Such liberation from all obstacles is finally illusory, for two simple reasons: human appetite is insatiable and the world is limited. For both of these reasons, we cannot be truly free in the modern sense. We can never attain satiation, and will be eternally driven by our desires rather than satisfied by their attainment. And in our pursuit of the satisfaction of our limitless desires, we will very quickly exhaust the planet. Our destiny, should we enter fully down this path toward our complete liberation, is one in which we will be more governed by necessity than ever before. We will be governed not by our own capacity for self-rule but rather by circumstance, particularly the circumstances resulting from scarcity, devastation, and chaos.”
Patrick J. Deneen
Why Liberalism Failed
I don’t think that legalized Weed will help? Somewhere along the line we fucked up and redefined “Freedom” to mean doing whatever one wants to do rather than Virtue and self-restraint, and Culture necessary for self-rule. The jig may be up for the 500 year experiment of Liberalism?
“LIBERALISM has failed because liberalism has succeeded. As it becomes fully itself, it generates endemic pathologies more rapidly and pervasively than it is able to produce Band-aids and veils to cover them. The result is the systemic rolling blackouts in electoral politics, governance, and economics, the loss of confidence and even belief in legitimacy among the citizenry, that accumulate not as separable and discrete problems to be solved within the liberal frame but as deeply interconnected crises of legitimacy and a portent of liberalism’s end times. The narrowing of our political horizons has rendered us incapable of considering that what we face today is not a set of discrete problems solvable by liberal tools but a systemic challenge arising from pervasive invisible ideology. The problem is not in just one program or application but in the operating system itself. It is almost impossible for us to conceive that we are in the midst of a legitimation crisis in which our deepest systemic assumptions are subject to dissolution. The “Noble Lie” of liberalism is shattering because it continues to be believed and defended by those who benefit from it, while it is increasingly seen as a lie, and not an especially noble one, by the new servant class that liberalism has produced. Discontent is growing among those who are told by their leaders that their policies will benefit them, even as liberalism remains an article of ardent faith among those who ought to be best positioned to comprehend its true nature. But liberalism’s apologists regard pervasive discontent, political dysfunction, economic inequality, civic disconnection, and populist rejection as accidental problems disconnected from systemic causes, because their self-deception is generated by enormous reservoirs of self-interest in the maintenance of the present system. This divide will only widen, the crises will become more pronounced, the political duct tape and economic spray paint will increasingly fail to keep the house standing. The end of liberalism is in sight. This denouement might take one of two forms. In the first instance, one can envision the perpetuation of a political system called “liberalism” that, becoming fully itself, operates in forms opposite to its purported claims about liberty, equality, justice, and opportunity. Contemporary liberalism will increasingly resort to imposing the liberal order by fiat—especially in the form of the administrative state run by a small minority who increasingly disdain democracy. End runs around democratic and populist discontent have become the norm, and backstopping the liberal order is the ever more visible power of a massive “deep state,” with extensive powers of surveillance, legal mandate, police power, and administrative control. These methods will continue to be deployed despite liberalism’s claim to rest on consent and popular support. Such a conclusion is paradoxical, not unlike Tocqueville’s conclusion in Democracy in America, in which he envisions democracy culminating in a new form of despotism. But the instabilities that surely would accompany this outcome suggest a second possible denouement—the end of liberalism and its replacement by another regime. Most people envisioning such scenarios rightly warn of the likely viciousness of any successor regime, and close to hand are the examples of the collapse of the Weimar Republic and the rise of fascism, and Russia’s brief flirtation with liberalism before the imposition of communism. While these brutal and failed examples suggest that such possibilities are unlikely to generate widespread enthusiasm even in a postliberal age, some form of populist nationalist authoritarianism or military autocracy seems altogether plausible as an answer to the anger and fear of a postliberal citizenry.“
Patrick J. Deneen
Why Liberalism Failed
What is the receipt of a life?
He had
1 day in the sun
1,650 days in traffic
Twenty years slept away,
Seventy-five years to get it right.
By Forty Three,
Twenty Six journals
Sixty thousand in mortgage and family obligations
One hundred, thirty eight Diastolic: Hyper tense
And then,
Four Men,
Two with knives,
One killed Them all.
One hundred days behind now,
Twenty-five minutes stationary bike cardio every day
Sleep is fitful, unpleasant
Dull the pain, concentrate
Fifty years to get this right.
Oil $250 and rising
100 degrees in the shade
the dust, the helicopters
“Get grandpa in the chappa!”
Grandpa gets himself into the chopper.
Bionic legs click-whir
Give thanks to St. Elon
One hundred fifty years, new skins:
New bones, new fingers
Yet Americans are still “Smart phoning”
As we evolve into data
2020 Joe Biden for President. This message was approved by Joe Biden for President, LLV
Please tell me you’re not really doing this.
A Word on Statistics
BY WIS?AWA SZYMBORSKA
Out of every hundred people
those who always know better:
fifty-two.
Unsure of every step:
almost all the rest.
Ready to help,
if it doesn’t take long:
forty-nine.
Always good,
because they cannot be otherwise:
four—well, maybe five.
Able to admire without envy:
eighteen.
Led to error
by youth (which passes):
sixty, plus or minus.
Those not to be messed with:
forty and four.
Living in constant fear
of someone or something:
seventy-seven.
Capable of happiness:
twenty-some-odd at most.
Harmless alone,
turning savage in crowds:
more than half, for sure.
Cruel
when forced by circumstances:
it’s better not to know,
not even approximately.
Wise in hindsight:
not many more
than wise in foresight.
Getting nothing out of life except things:
thirty
(though I would like to be wrong).
Doubled over in pain
and without a flashlight in the dark:
eighty-three, sooner or later.
Those who are just:
quite a few at thirty-five.
But if it takes effort to understand:
three.
Worthy of empathy:
ninety-nine.
Mortal:
one hundred out of one hundred—
a figure that has never varied yet.
Just watched the 2020 Dems criticizing Trump’s deal with Mexico re, the border and tariffs. One thing was missing from all the invective
Any Democrat ideas of what to do about the problem. Idiots!
It’s exactly the same here in the UK. Rarely will a politician do anything other than bitch and swipe at the opposition at every opportunity.
We’re currently suffering the beauty pageant of a Conservative party leadership race. Merely days in and all we’ve heard is the usual platitudes, same old tripe, nothing new, nothing learned.
Since Brexit is hamstrung I’m half-hoping that Labour wins a GE. If we’re going to fuck the country we may as well do it in style.
It’s still going to be Boris, Slugoon!*
Are you enjoying the parade of ‘I smoked or snorted xyz when I was young when I was a student/journalist/young and foolish. I made a mistake. But I don’t think the answer is to change the law – it’s to recognise your mistakes and learn from them’?
All snorting the right words now – they’re a hoot. But apparently the membership in the shires who will make the final decision are about (very loosely) 75% male, geriatric, wealthy and pro-‘no deal’, so, yes, Boris. The 25% of ladies will vote for him too. They won’t fancy Gove (literally!). AND Boris is promising tax cuts for people on over £50K just to seal the deal.
But please, don’t wish Jeremy on us. I can’t. I just can’t…
I don’t care if I’m wrong, though. It’s all just entertainment at this point. Rory Stewart’s quite decent (he did the opium pipe in Afghanistan so marks for originality!) but he won’t get a look in.
I think we’re safe from Matt Handjob/Matt the App, Dominic Raab and her from the Women’s Institute. 🙂
Hehe, I am enjoying the bits I’ve seen but have missed most of it since I’ve been working the past four days. My personal highlight so far comes from Matt the App (that made me laugh btw):
“I offer an emotionally-charged platform to improve lives that is rooted, rooted in objective fact.”
Total bobbins.
I can only imagine all the drug admissions are an attempt to replicate B-Rabbit’s strategy in 8 Mile: get in there first. They must be aware that it’s going to be a very dirty fight, sad to say.
As male and pro-‘no deal’ you might suppose I’d be a Boris supporter but I don’t care (not that I’m a member anyway). I’d certainly value the entertainment but Brexit is no longer up to any leader of the Conservative party (save for scrapping it) so it makes no odds.
At least we can laugh about it together.
That quote from Matt the App is a peach. I wonder if he wrote it himself – he looks like someone who still gets Mum and Dad to help with his school projects.
Emotionally charged, eh. That makes me wonder if there’s a solution for sustainable transport after all – get your car emotionally charged here and it will run for a full day. Makes a change from hot air I suppose, although they share some chemical properties, possibly!
I don’t think I’d want to stand on an emotionally charged platform – not without rubber soles anyway 🙂 .
Interesting exchange between GA and Slugoon.
Its almost as if you speak a different language over there.
Brh
@EvelynV:
Check out David Irving on Wikipedia. I need not say anything more.
Wikipedia lol.
Tate:
Are you so LOST in your false narrative/conspiracy rabbit hole that you trust NO source of information aside from the nut-job right-wing cabal, selling you ‘brain power’ snake oil, ‘doomsday kits’, and God with an AR15?
And ‘publish’ this sort of horse-shit and call it ‘news’?
https://www.infowars.com/exclusive-roger-stone-breaks-his-silence-plus-more-africans-arrive-in-texas-from-ebola-ravaged-congo/
@majella
I hate to break it to you but the infowars site is correct more often then not.
When he is wrong he is very wrong but that’s what happens when you fill in the blanks with no data.
INFOTAINMENT after all but he is still better than MSNBC or Cnn.
I like Ol’ Alex. We thought he was just a harmless goof, but the proof he’s more than that is the level of fear he’s engendered within Wokesterdom.
Infowars is now relegated to page 3 in a Goober search.
This Alex? Psychotic Alex?
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/03/30/us/alex-jones-psychosis-sandy-hook/index.html
Notice they tolerated his ravings as long as he confined himself to safe topics such as Sandy Hook, crisis actors & such lunacy. They found him a useful tool to discredit the right in that respect.
They would have kept him around, until he began to touch on topics relating to Israel… That’s when they knew they had to pull the plug. And that’s the only reason he’s been deplatformed.
Tate
Yeah, the ‘gay frogs’ meme was a doozy.
I consider this one of JHK’s best pieces yet. Clear and to the point. Thank you for it.
Believe me, it’s very difficult at this moment to give anybody credit for anything because some fucking scumbag human came into my yard this morning while I was gone for a short while and stole something I had mistakenly not locked up. We’re talking multi thousand dollar felony theft. And I live in a safe town with one of the lowest crime rates in the state. I don’t feel safe now. Here’s wishing you burn in hell, thief, and soon.
You think this is something, on an ocean coast hike yesterday I watched a status signaling hiker put his Rolex watch down on a rock and almost immediately a wave rolled in and took it way. It was something to behold. That was an extremely expensive screwup. It was not insured. It was your classic Murphy’s Law situation. Just like the theft in my yard today, completely avoidable.
Don’t mind me, I’m venting, and thoroughly pissed off.
Decades ago, in NYC, had an entire small apt. on York Ave., a “good” upper East Side neighborhood, cleaned out except for the heavy furniture.
Life’s a bitch then you die.
It’s coyote. He’s always waiting. Coyote always waits.
Loves mistakes.
An enchanting post, James, with some tender introspection. For some reason I was reminded of the scene in Mulholland Drive where the opera singer collapses but the vocals play on.
I was just driving home from work listening to a ‘plant extinction expert’ on late-night radio. Apparently his research showed a five-hundred fold increase in the terminal loss of plant species during the previous 250 years.
Chapter 6: The Anthropocene. Who knows what we become. It’ll be an interesting study for the alien anthropologists.
In 1956 we paid after we pumped- I could wander across the town and fields with my dog Shep.
Mailboxes were unlocked, and dad worked days , mom wa the Welcome Wagon Lady –
WE WERE ALL THE SAME AMERICANS
We were white – a community.
Children weren’t weeds, and there were not yet ghettos of hardened mommas and dirtbag dads.
WHITE and Black have the same general connotation in every language.
Purity, hope and godliness
And dark, devilish demonic
How could every language assign these qualities yet we are told to ignore them.
Rap on
And Rap is almost Rape or put the e in the middle and you get Reap. The Reaper is coming for America. We sowed the wind and now reap the whirlwind. And we learned nothing from Black slavery as we have brought in an even more dangerous people, namely the Mestizos of Mexico and Central America.
Is coming? He has arrived and his Scythe is already cutting down young White Americans via the drug crisis and suicide.
Why should I care if he’s cutting down young White Americans? I’m a hateful old White coot who didn’t get enough a’ that tight ass booty when I was a young ‘un. I say, “Screw ’em!”
LOL ok. Sounds like you need an attitude adjustment you old White coot :-).
“…And dark, devilish demonic
How could every language assign these qualities yet we are told to ignore them.”
I have to say it’s very generous of you, Gus, to hand over your share of the oil and coal, to preserve your purity. The less scrupulous have asked me to thank you. Enjoy getting the groceries with Shep 2.0 or 3.0 or…
Hope he doesn’t have any devilish, demonic patches.
If he does you can take him for his daily ‘exorcise’ or just try some hair dye?
Our greyhound is almost totally of the devilish and demonic palette.
Tripped over her once in the dark and cracked a rib. Gave me the Dark Satanic Chills.
Like Lord Janos, you now post riddles. Inside Jokes.
Where’s the riddle? I’m sure you can cope with a couple of puns.
Mr G said he abhors all things black because they have devilish and demonic connotations in all cultures. So we wouldn’t want him going near coal or oil, would we? Best he walks from now on and that will keep him warm too.
Isn’t Beto the Congressman from El Paso?
“James and his kids are a dramatic example of the pain I found in the world of Hunts Points and Portsmouths. It was a pain I found in every town I visited, from Buffalo to New Haven to Cleveland to Selma to El Paso to Amarillo. In each of these places, there’s a sense of having been left behind, of being forgotten—or, even worse, of being mocked and stigmatized by the members of the world who are moving on and up with the GDP.”
Chris Arnade
Dignity: Seeking Respect in Back Row America
Good essay today, Jim, though the 50s were horrific if you were Black, female, or queer.
With regard to heavy metal music, it has been a medium for social justice messaging. The heavy metal fan base is mostly white and mostly male. They may not realize it, but many of those heavy metal headbanger anthems were screaming for economic justice, human rights, and demilitarization.
For example, the band’s name you cite in today’s essay is not Megadeath, it is Megadeth, a term used by nuclear strategists to stand for 1 million deaths.
Nonsense. Many women would give their eye teeth to be able to stay home with their kids now.
“Part of moving toward a postliberal age is recognizing that while liberalism’s initial appeal was premised upon laudatory aspirations, its successes have often been based on a disfigurement of those aspirations. Its defenders often point to the liberation of women from conditions of inequality as a significant example of liberalism’s success, and regard any critique of liberalism as a proposal to thrust women back into preliberal bondage. Yet the main practical achievement of this liberation of women has been to move many of them into the workforce of market capitalism, a condition that traditionalists like Wendell Berry as well as Marxist political theorists like Nancy Fraser regard as a highly dubious form of liberation. 1 All but forgotten are arguments, such as those made in the early Republic, that liberty consists of independence from the arbitrariness not only of a king but of an employer. Today we consider the paramount sign of the liberation of women to be their growing emancipation from their biology, which frees them to serve a different, disembodied body—“ corporate” America—and participate in an economic order that effectively obviates any actual political liberty. Liberalism posits that freeing women from the household is tantamount to liberation, but it effectively puts women and men alike into a far more encompassing bondage.“
Patrick J. Deneen
Why Liberalism Failed
Yet the main practical achievement of this liberation of women has been to move many of them into the workforce of market capitalism, a condition that traditionalists like Wendell Berry as well as Marxist political theorists like Nancy Fraser regard as a highly dubious form of liberation. 1 All but forgotten are arguments, such as those made in the early Republic, that liberty consists of independence from the arbitrariness not only of a king but of an employer.
EXACTLY!!! And in so doing, enlarge and dilute the total workforce so that EVERYBODY – men and women alike – make less money and find their employment in general more at risk than they otherwise would. Women have been “liberated” to have their labor subjugated to the tyranny of the market place in the same way that men have always been. And their kids pay for it on the back end, as their parents are now distracted and/or MIA altogether. A lose-lose proposition all the way around.
50’s also not so great if you had tooth decay, a heart attack, cancer or a shitty job that was dangerous and oppressive.
And what is so great about today? Aren’t we still a horrible and racist society? That is what the multitudes of privileged and fragile SJWs remind us of on a minute by minute basis at least.
I’m getting right riled about the use of SJW to mean something it doesn’t.
When your cohort uses “SJW” you intend it as an insult and you are referring to the crazies who get on Twitter and denounce EVERYTHING they don’t agree with. These people are internet trolls and nothing more.
The REAL Social Justice Warriors can be seen every day, in courtrooms all over the US fighting, for justice for poor and dispossessed citizens who are their wits’ end; they can be seen working in not-for-profits supplying needed support and sustenance for the homeless and destitute.
And they don’t seek your approval. They seek social justice and will fight for anyone who needs assistance regardless of race or creed. Even a down-and-out white supremacist will get what she needs, Jean.
That is what it used to mean not anymore.
No, Ben, it does STILL means that…unfortunately the term has been hijacked by the fuming right as a convenient label for the voice of the rabid far left internet trolling community…the people that JHK et al quite rightly despise for their ridiculous identity politics and toxic ‘STFU’ attitude assumed when they hear or read something they don’t like.
…you know, these guys!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgKnKBdpnKc&t=27s
So, maybe we need to find a non-triggering term for those in our communities who do good from a generous heart, without ‘virtue-signaling’ or seeking some form of recognition. However, it would be more just to call those currently labeled as ‘SJWs’ with a term more accurate to their reality. ANy ideas?
@majella
I believe we have actually found some common ground.
The problem is language evolves or in some cases devolves.
Prove it.
Res ipsa loquitur, SSL.
Anyway, benr seems to agree – is that proof enough for you?
“Billy Bunter is indeed one of the great comic characters of English literature… today his stories have something that his creator & early readers could never have foreseen: a thrill of the forbidden. The stories are very politically incorrect. Bunter is a myopic, morbidly obese schoolboy who is mocked for his greed, dishonesty, selfishness, stupidity & sloth.” — Tobias Langdon
Sample from a Billy Bunter story:
“At that moment Nugent opened the cupboard to lift out the cake. There was no cake to be lifted out… ‘Bunter, you podgy pirate!’ exclaimed Harry Wharton… ‘Where’s that cake?’… ‘How should I know? I never even looked into the cupboard, & I never saw any cake when I looked in, either—‘… ‘I-I-I say, you fellows, it wasn’t me,’ yelled Bunter. ‘I-I expect you put it somewhere else. It wasn’t there when I ate it — I mean, when I didn’t eat it…’ whoooop! whoooop! Yarooooh!”
Since Bunter is stupid, he typically implicates himself in his denials. The British newspaper the Guardian supposedly exists on a far higher intellectual & literary plane than Charles Hamilton’s Billy Bunter stories. But its pages are full of unintentionally Bunteresque-like self-exposure. In May 2019 it ran an indignant story about Black criminals being deported to Jamaica. Its Bunteresque headline reads: ‘Things are so bad even the [Jamaican] police are scared’: deportees live in fear in Jamaica.’
“The Guardian knows that its good-thinking readers will not draw any heretical conclusions from that self-accusing headline. Instead, they will feel anger & dismay that vulnerable Blacks are being deported from the magic dirt of Britain to the tragic dirt of Jamaica. However, I’m a bad thinker, so I’ll point out the obvious… it’s inevitable that Jamaican immigrants & their descendants will be over-represented as violent criminals in Britain.”
Well, they’re not Polish, or Canadian, or Belgian, or Swiss, are they? They’re Jamaican after all, despite the inevitability of their being declared thoroughly British by the media.
“Obviously, the Black criminals don’t like [their deportation]. They want to return to the still mostly White nation of Britain, where life is much less dangerous & there are lots of Whites to prey on. The Guardian carefully avoids the question of precisely what crimes the Black deportees have committed & instead tugs at its readers’ heart-strings with claims about their suffering: ”
Many complain about having to go into hiding for fear of their lives. They’re dismayed that guns are carried openly on the streets of Kingston. Gunfire is constantly heard at all hours of the night from the gang battles. One criminal desperately misses his children in the UK. Of course, men from Black countries are notorious for fathering numerous out-of-wedlock children & then declining to provide for them. This is a pattern seen across Africa; It’s hard-wired, lads & laddies. See r/K Selection Theory.
There is the notorious case of the Mary-Ann Leneghan rape, torture & murder at the hands of a Black gang led by one “Adrian Thomas, son of a feckless Black called Tony Thomas, who expressed his contrition at being a ‘fringe father’ to his string of illegitimate children.”
“Fortunately, a small number [ed.: but unfortunate that the number is not larger] of Jamaican criminals have been deported to their own nation to live among their own kind. And the supposedly feminist & pro-LGBTQ+ Guardian wants those [rapey] criminals back in Britain to carry on where they left off… Billy Bunter was an innocent joke. The Guardian is a sick joke. And the joke gets even sicker when it comes to a politician whom the Guardian helped put into power back in 1997. While he was in office, Tony Blair appointed a Jewish immigration minister, Barbara Roche, to preside over unprecedented levels of immigration from the Third World.” Huge numbers of Blacks, Muslims & other non -Whites are still pouring in.
Meanwhile, Blair, having become very wealthy after leaving office, is in the Guardian’s spotlight again. The newspaper is hosting an event, “The new populism: In conversation with Tony Blair.” He’s going to explain why White voters across the Western world are abandoning the old parties & turning to populist “extremists” LOL like Matteo Salvini & Nigel Farage. But the publicity for the event contained some Bunteresque self-accusation:
“One ticket per person & tickets are strictly non-transferable. Government issued photo proof of ID must be shown & must match the name on the ticket. If you cannot provide this proof you will be refused entry…” yada yada ‘strict security arrangements security checks’ yada yada. “Attendees will be informed of the venue during the weekend prior to the event.”
“Large numbers of people want to kill Tony Blair, you see, because he has been central to the mass slaughter & nation-wrecking of hugely expensive wars undertaken by neo-conservatives on behalf of Israel.”… Wait! What?… Yep, those people who seriously want to kill him, YOU SEE, are not the native British, much as they might have some justification, but the very same Muslim immigrants whom he & Barbara Roche, ironically, are responsible for bringing into Britain from their devastated Middle Eastern homelands.
“IOW, it’s not Salvini or Farage who are extremists, but Blair & other shabbos goyim. Populism is a rational response to the behaviour of politicians like Blair… I hope that Tony Blair, Barbara Roche & other traitorous or goyophobic politicians will go on trial one day for their crimes against the White British.”
Remember, it was Enoch Powell who said in his mischaracterized [by the British press corps, of course] “Rivers of Blood” speech that it was
“[t]he supreme function of statesmanship… to provide against preventable evils.’ Tony Blair, clearly no statesman.
“The White nation of Britain was once entertained by stories about the fictional schoolboy Billy Bunter, who stole cakes & made fatuous excuses. Nowadays Britain is appalled by stories about real schoolboys who hack people with machetes, stab them with knives, & spray them with acid. Meanwhile, fatuous excuses are made by politicians & police chiefs. As I’ve pointed out before, we live in a ‘Land of Lies.’ But the lies will not last for ever. Nor will the liars.”
The foregoing excerpted & heavily plagiarized from a very recent article by Tobias Langdon. There’s much more at the link. — Tate
Interesting post. I am more and more convinced that if it were not for White people, Black people would have possibly exterminated themselves at this point or at least greatly reduced their overall numbers due to the inherently violent culture that they appear to typically embrace. We truly are subsidizing our own demise and these White neoconservatives and neoliberals have gotten away with their betrayal of us. The lies will definitely not last for ever. A day of Decision is at hand.
“Interesting post. I am more and more convinced that if it were not for White people, Black people would have possibly exterminated themselves at this point or at least greatly reduced their overall numbers due to the inherently violent culture that they appear to typically embrace. “
That would be hilarious were it not so morally repulsive and sick.
The African population had reached 25 million by 1850. It might have been twice that if 12 million of the youngest and fittest hadn’t been removed as slaves by those kind, benign white people with their gentle non-violent culture.
Talking of violent cultures, have you ever tried getting through your day with leg irons? Give it a go. We could give you a matching necklace. You might start a new trend – don’t worry about the naysayers accusing you of cultural appropriation. You’re the good people, remember – your motives are pure. Tell them you just want to walk a mile in their shoes. Well, not shoes exactly…
Ah and I see you are prepared to lie your way through the entire slave trade story. Yes, stupid White people decided to participate in it. However, I suppose you are unprepared to discuss the fact that Black tribal chieftains willingly sold their people to Arab Muslim and European Jewish slave traders who then sold their “goods” to White Europeans and Americans. And what is morally repulsive and sick to me is your constant denial of facts and reality. Black culture to a large extent is nothing but gangland thug culture. But will you ever acknowledge this? Absolutely not. In fact YOU are the denier!
I wonder if s/he is paid to be here.
Black tribal chieftains willingly sold their people ..
Id guess.. Black tribal chieftains willingly sold their enemies people to mid eastern and white slavers.
SSL
I could write your replies myself. I predicted that one too – almost said in my post what it would be.
I didn’t deny any of those things, Angry Lady, if you change the ‘to a large extent’ to something more realistic in terms of the proportions. I just wanted to put you right about the inherent benign non-violence of people lacking in melanin.
“I wonder if s/he is paid to be here.”
You do, don’t you, malthuss, quite often? It’s kinda your answer to everything.
Haven’t you got some theories to be reading up on, like people being abused in the basements of Pizza parlours that don’t have basements?
And you forget, SSL, that is was me who introduced you (to your whooping delight) to the book ‘White Cargo’ about the riff-raff swept out of the streets and bars of old England and shipped off to indentured slavery chez vous.
Those low-melanin lowlifes can be bastards to their own as well. I expect you think that’s even worse. Aristos and peasants, eh, same culture.
‘White Cargo’ wasn’t some deep dark secret.
I didn’t say it was, Tate, but SSL hadn’t heard of it and it was relevant to the conversation.
Try not to behave like a 12–year-old.
So is this your roundabout way Alba of recognizing that Blacks, Arabs and Jews were integral to the slave trade? Please point out where I said White people were perfect in all of this. And while I haven’t read or heard of White Cargo before I did know about White indentured servants and the way they were treated in the same period of time. And your right and I never suggested differently. White people like any other race can be nasty to one another. For example, the Black on Black violence in Chicago. But that doesn’t take away from the point that more often than not people of the same race and culture but from different classes can find more similarities and get along with one another.
Yes malthuss you are correct. I should have said that at least I have read that Black chieftains would sell enemy tribes into slavery. But I thought I also heard that some chieftains actually sold there own people too.
SSL
“So is this your roundabout way Alba of recognizing that Blacks, Arabs and Jews were integral to the slave trade?”
I never said anything about Jews but you know perfectly well that I’m aware of Arabs and Africans participating in slavery.
We’ve had this discussion before – everyone knows about the Barbary pirates – I told you they once lifted an entire Irish coastal village and left no-one.
So give it a rest with the ’roundabout way’ nonsense, thanks.
“But that doesn’t take away from the point that more often than not people of the same race and culture but from different classes can find more similarities and get along with one another.”
In the light of (a) the example of poor whites being sent to America as indentured slaves, (b) Highland lairds kicking the crofters off their land to make way for sheep, (c) any situation you care to name where the treatment of the peasantry by their betters led to violent revolution and (d) any number of historic labour disputes where ordinary working men were basically murdered by the owner class for daring to demand humane treatment etc. etc. I find your ‘point’ a bit pointless.
Geez, SSL – weren’t you just the other day saying how valuable GA’s knowledge & experience would be after a collapse?
Yet here you are, accusing her, virtually, of intellectual dishonesty…which is rich considering it’s coming from you,
What I saw and heard tonight on the Laura Ingraham show is beyond astounding. The number of illegals being apprehended each month recently is going well over the six figure mark. Bad enough.
Now I hear that in the last two weeks we had 500 or more Africans from the Congo being settled in San Antonio. A city official reached out for help, to Portland, Maine in one case, and Portland said no.
According to Laura, more will be coming, and Dan Patrick, the Lt. Governor of Texas says the drug cartels are behind it. Really. Has to be more than that, a cartel much more insidious and treacherous than that. People From everywhere are being dumped in US cities anywhere. Often without notification.
We know what’s happening in California with Gavin Gruesome. Health care for illegals, etc., as the state swims in homelessness, drowns in high taxes, and floats in its own cesspool.
Patrick Henry:
Speaking of George III, he stated that, “Caesar had his Brutus, Charles the First his Cromwell and George the Third — .” At that point he was interrupted by cries of “Treason!” from delegates who easily recognized the reference to assassinated leaders. Henry paused briefly, then calmly finished his sentence: “…may profit by their example. If this be treason, make the most of it.”
As it looks now, it will have to be blood to stop this madness. It’s going to far. Only Red Blood and White Heat will save us now.
Let the Left say the words of Patrick Henry, and let us make more than the most of it.
Dems by continuing to deny Trump the money necessary to harden US border with Mexico, will essentially have to admit that either they are really sabotaging the US government, or that they are on the pay of a drug cartels, bringing heroin and illegals into the US through the unprotected border with Mexico.
But the most interesting thing is that Trump went all in and was going to use the money of the drug cartel El Chapo for building the wall, and El Chapo is rumored to be Hillary Clinton’s front man for opium-running operation – that is, Bastinda’s personal money.
Trump was also going to use the money allocated to building a high-speed railway in California, from the 12th district of which the representative is Nancy Pelosi. This money was allocated to California a few years ago, but was never used for its intended purpose, and now Trump is demanding their return.
https://finance.yahoo.com/video/trump-demands-california-return-high-221006512.html
No way to prove it, but the cartels I believe are so powerful that they do have influence in the highest reaches of our govt.
Brh
I wouldn’t be surprised if John Durham will find a way.
They got sloppy and drunk on seemingly complete impunity, they probably left a track a mile wide.
No way to prove it, but the cartels I believe are so powerful that they do have influence in the highest reaches of our govt.
I’d be absolutely sure of that! I have no doubt whatsoever that the cartels work hand in hand with the DEA and law enforcement on both sides of the border. Busts that get made are almost certainly mutually agreed upon ahead of time and mostly for show, with renegades to the system getting fingered and shut down preemptively. Nothing as big as the drug trade is without rampant corruption on both sides of the fence. Same goes for the refugee flow as well. I guarantee you!
Makes sense to me.
Cartels? Don’t get it wrong – are they paying someone to do this or is someone paying THEM to do it. The Latter. Now the question becomes WHO.
Good points! I think we both know who.
There is no way to vote ourselves out of this. We have tried everything and seemingly our desires and lives mean nothing to those in power. The time of peace is passing away and days of darkness are coming. The hordes will continue their trespass until they are shown that this land is sacred to us. And we will have to remember the sacrifice that our ancestors made to bring us here and give us this inheritance.
Word as in Logos as in Truth.
Good piece, Jim.
What do you think about the storybook romance of Beauty and Heavy?
“She left her first pimp, the one who brought her. He didn’t treat her right, beat her badly, and started cheating on her. Over the following years she kept falling in love and kept being disappointed. All of her boyfriends did drugs, and all, like her, were homeless. They all also pimped her and some beat her, but that didn’t stop her; she kept hoping and dreaming that eventually one would work out. Beauty wanted nothing more than to be in love. She wanted her version of the white picket fence, the only version she really knew, the only version that she felt was available to her. “Heavy and I are tight. He used to be just my friend, and now it’s all intimate and he wants to get married. That shit is tempting. I mean, he got disability. I don’t know if I should marry Heavy. I mean, he has been good to me. He gave me my own cell phone, he took me to Coney Island; none of my men ever took me to Coney Island. But marriage is a huge step. That is serious shit, taking a name. Maybe we should enter a domestic partnership first. I mean, every girl wants to live in a house with a decent man and have kids.” It didn’t matter that the house was a homeless shelter or under a bridge. What mattered was that they were together. “My friends Livy and Will are in a shelter at 125th . . . . They have a tarp space under the Bruckner they willing to share. They invited me to join, but I don’t want to go disrupting their situation. Livy got it good, because Will is an upright man; he ain’t pimping her. That nigger gets up and hustles.” She kept getting arrested, and when she did, she ended up spending months in Rikers. She quickly took to it, falling into the structure it provided and taking pride in the work they gave her, and then falling in love with another inmate.“
Chris Arnade
Dignity: Seeking Respect in Back Row America
Dystopia
“Inside the Bakersfield McDonald’s, the fear, the trauma, and the lack of education are all present—as are the drugs. But in the context of McDonald’s, the fear isn’t palpable, expressed instead as a resignation to being on the outside. In the McDonald’s, there is a battle over the ice and soda machine. There are always people in McDonald’s who come in, maybe with an old cup, or grab a cup from the garbage, and fill it up for free. Most McDonald’s employees ignore it as the cost of doing business. Now with the heat spiking higher, with this McDonald’s being a social services clinic and a restaurant, there is an open battle between the shift manager and the people trying to get free ice and soda. It also seems to be a particular concern of the afternoon manager. There is a switch behind the counter that turns the soda fountains on and off, and the afternoon manager is quick to use it, frustrating the various people who run in, fill up a container, and then run out. As the day goes on, the game gets more involved, with people trying different strategies, different methods of deception, and the manager becoming more frustrated. Some people come in and claim they’ve always been there; others use it in stealth and sit quietly until a moment opens up. Others use speed. Others are blunter. One guy, shirtless and riding a stripped-down ten-speed, waits outside until he sees the machine turned on for a large family, then runs quickly inside with a massive dirty container that looks as though it is from a construction site and starts filling it, the ice loudly hitting the metal bottom. The manager comes running out from the back, waving his hand, threatening to call the police. The shirtless man just looks at him, finishes filling up the container, a process that takes about five minutes, and then walks out. While the game goes on, families sit and chat, paying no mind to any of it. At another table a man sits quietly staring at a newspaper, sipping his soda. He is here pretty much every day, all day. He comes early, buys a soda or coffee, grabs a paper from another table, or from the garbage, and sits with it opened in front of him. We exchange glances at the battle for ice. Sometimes we both start laughing at the same time when someone pulls off a particularly audacious move that angers the manager, and eventually we start talking. In response to my question about whether he’s homeless, he says, “You could say that. I have the auto shop I work in. I also sleep in it at night, after it is closed up. So I guess so.”
Chris Arnade
Dignity: Seeking Respect in Back Row America
Prostitute drug addict with 8 kids…
“While we talk, the controlled chaos of the McDonald’s swirls around us. The fight over the ice machine continues. Black Jesus throws his hand up every ten minutes in his salute. The woman with the swept-back gray hair continues to stare at her “Joy to the World” Christmas card. Outside, a cluster of homeless—most of whom I now recognize—pester each person entering for money. When she is composed again, I ask her another question, even though I know the answer: “Why so many kids?” “I didn’t mean to have so many, but sometimes I get pregnant.” “People gonna read that and think you need to stop having babies,” I tell her. “Them people need to walk a mile in my shoes. I got nothing but my family. That is all I got. That and my habit.”
Chris Arnade
Dignity: Seeking Respect in Back Row America
Hey, Pucker
Thanks for that. I just bought it…
PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS: David Irving, without any doubt the best historian of the European part of World War II.
So, PCR is calling on us to revise the moral lessons of the WWII.
How interesting!
Paul Craig Roberts is a pretty smart man – after all he was one of the main architects of “Reaganomics” policy – it is hard to consider him to be just a useful idiot for the Fourth Reich – got to be their paid shill!
PCR’s pretty damn smart, but more than that, he’s pretty damn observant and independent enough to trust his instincts and resist being influenced by the crowd. Pretty damn rare attributes.
Yes, part of the old guard that has been shouldered aside. A White Intellectual who has said, Non Serviam.
I don’t agree with his economics of course. Nazi Economics were far superior and actually worked. That’s why Germany had to be destroyed before other countries followed and threw out the International Bankers too.
You KNOW where you’re going!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnU6Sx9mgEU&list=PLl55Zh3U2VW7YD-JKHT0vYIk1ZCrK7c4-&index=8
#oathkeepers
Q.
Brilliant.
With all that you mention here Mr. Kunstler, perhaps the most damaging to the American psyche and her glory is the exposure of all religions as a major fraud, a money racket and a centuries-long safe haven/playground for secret sexual deviancy and other deviant, psychopathic criminal activity.
In some sense yes. But, as if deviant, psychopathic, criminal behavior hasn’t become mainstream and acceptable for the most part in society today. Plus there has always been deviants and psychopaths no matter what form of society or organization is considered. It’s called human nature. Human nature is basically wretched and animalistic without an experience of redemption. Thus the false notion that our society can exist without a religious system. Sure it can, but the religious system will be replaced by something else. So for instance, today since we have rejected traditional religion altogether, the new religion of our society is “Progressivism” and Political Correctness. And you better adhere to it or you will face serious consequences. And if they get away with it the consequences will become most severe.
“But, as if deviant, psychopathic, criminal behavior hasn’t become mainstream and acceptable for the most part in society today”
We still live a society of laws, SSL. What is legally ‘deviant’ or criminal is still clearly defined (though enforcement is another matter).
It just happens that many standard natural human behaviors which were once considered legally ‘deviant’ are no longer so considered – like homosexuality, for example.
Religiously-driven snowflakes like you apparently don’t accept these changes in societal values and cannot help but see it as a ‘loss’. Too bad.
Sexual deviancy seems to be a common theme throughout our culture now, regardless of “religion.” But of course we all know that our real religion these days is worship of the triumvirate god of money, power, and social status, (all three are usually intertwined into one) so I guess that explains everything, as money, power, and social status are the top three aphrodisiacs out there.
I agree with you and would add one additional item which I know detracts from your very relevant trinity of evil. And that is selfishness. Selfishness could be wrapped up into money, power, and social status. As you say they are intertwined. But the extreme selfishness today and unhinged individualism seems to stand out as an important theme in today’s self indulgent religion of materialism.
Yeah, selfishness – personal exaltation – is really at the core of it all, isn’t it? Strictly prohibited by ALL the major religions as well, other than the one we actually worship, that is.
And that selfishness leads to sexual deviancy in a variety of ways, including of course passively – that is to say, if a person is abused as a child. Not his or her fault, but the damage is real and they will pass it on in turn unless they are resilient and virtuous enough to refrain and thus stop the wheel of karma.
Driving home this morning, BBC tuned in on the radio (a trustworthy source of information, a little biased, yes, but believable) At 3:05 am, in their ‘Newsmax’ segment, presenter said over 100,000 migrants crossing the US — Mexico border each month, not only from C America, but from Africa, Asia, and the Middle East as well.
100,000!
Brh
why?
EBT?
Sec8?
why USA?
Apparently, these human waves are unstoppable, and like Visigoths engulfing Rome in the 6th century, nothing can be done.
Not to be provocative, but why not funnel these migrants up into California? Big Pols like Pelosi and Newsom have announced many times in public all are welcome, the entire 3rd world is welcome to live in the State of California, ‘human bundles of joy’ Pelosi calls them. It seems that would be an answer instead of releasing hordes of illegal aliens into the rest of the US, some of whom have to be criminals, others carrying infectious diseases.
Brh
Something can definitely be done about it. But that’s just it. Those in power don’t want anything done about it. And the rest of the country is attempting to live lives, often disconnected from what is going on in the larger society not realizing that society as we know it has basically reached the end of the road. Of course, there are a growing number of people waking up to this. We can’t shy away from being provocative. After all, its being quiet and passive that got us to this cliff edge of extinction. Traitors are traitors. When we come back into power being a traitor will actually mean something. We will be unable to tolerate the presence of traitors among us. Unlike in today’s cowardly and disgustingly spiritless culture.
And all Trump does is tweet. tweet. tweet. He’s the President! for crying out loud. He could stop it, if he was really what he claims to be, but his son-in-law won’t allow him to really do anything.
Thus he is President Donald J Kushner and his daughter is his mommy.
I know! I can’t even describe how disappointing it has been to see him fold so completely. I have to admit that I never expected it.
Not to be provocative, but why not funnel these migrants up into California?
Honestly, best idea I’ve heard yet. Although, there’s very little to stop them from spreading to the wind after that.
We could wall off California? Or surround the entire state with an army.
Just another border to defend. We could chip and track the little bastards, but then that would just start a whole de-chipping industry to get around it. In the end, it’s really tough to keep people out if they really, really want to be here. Especially when the so-called “authorities” are working both sides of the fence.
Mud hut, no food, no money, no electricity, no running water and no rule of law.
Or cleaning toilets 10 hours a day at eight an hour.
In your place I’m sure people would kill each other (if they were not already dead) for a cool sip of ice water. You really do know how determined people can be!
Start making examples of some of them. The rest would get the message. But it is not to be. America is over I’m afraid, barring a miracle.
I have a hard time believing all of the migrants come from mud huts. How do they get the thousands of dollars needed to pay off the traffickers? I mean I know they get money from relatives already here but jeeze peeze. It’s hard to believe that they are all completely destitute. I am more than certain that some of them are and were stuffed in trunks, etc. Plenty of migrants are hurt and killed in this process too. Where is the huge concern about that? If we had that big beautiful Wall that would keep most out. And yes, if you trespass a national border there maybe should be consequences. It is true as Janos says. I know it sounds harsh and it is. Life is harsh. But a few examples would stop thousands no doubt. And between a Wall and Consequences I think we could get it mostly under control IMHO.
Yes, Scratch, and it would be the ever-alert entrepreneurial American who’d cash in on it.
It took the barbarians 200 years to finally sack Rome. There was very little left of classical Rome by then.
Rome’s demise was caused by rotten politics, period. Just like this country. Most of their northern army was comprised of barbarians, Rome’s equivalent of appeasement. Appeasement, control by cowards.
I believe the root cause of both situations, Rome and the US is a decline in self identity and self pride. Half of the US population and body politic want the USA destroyed. And they do not have a clue what to replace it with.
Good point on your last sentence the JAZ.
If this place goes down who knows what would replace it.
Its a good bet it’d be worse than what we have now.
Brh
And yet you deny White Nationalism and set up Idols to take its place – as if Culture can replace Race. But in fact, the former is the expression of the latter by and large. Pride? Did you people say anything when MLK was put above the Presidents? Or even now as Blacks are put above Whites? Or now when Conservatives fall over themselves to praise Gays?
Once money becomes the be all and end all, the Culture is over. Healthy Pride and Borders get in the way of Business you see.
It’s true John. You are going to eventually have to accept that we are either a White country or not. America isn’t just an economic and cultural idea. And to the extent that it is it will disappear in due time.
“…a decline in self identity and self pride. Half of the US population and body politic want the USA destroyed.”
An astute observation, JohnAZ. I think this is reflected in the Remain/Leave split over here. I don’t believe either ‘side’ wants to destroy the UK, and both are largely acting in good faith, but we are presented with two deeply entrenched, drastically different and mutually exclusive world views. Throw in the utter obsession with race, gender and multiculturalism and you realise that a common identity is not common at all.
I’m possibly too old for conscription but I often wonder, if I was called up to serve Queen & Country, who would I be fighting for? The charlatans in Westminster? A bunch of preaching parasitic Royals? The gobshites wearing those stupid blue EU hats? Siobhan Prigent? Politely declining, thanks.
I think that makes you a conscientious objector, Slugoon.
It’s the Land Army for you, then. Dig for Britain!
Calling Her Maj a gobshite, though – you could be banged up the Tower of London for that 🙂 .
https://southendnewsnetwork.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/FullSizeRender-6.jpg
Man alive! She even borrowed one of Angela’s power suits.
They’re sure going to miss those bumper CAP subsidy payments.
She’s not wearing black trousers!
And we’re going to miss having a healthy, thriving farming sector.
But I agree with you about CAP for agribusiness and agri-royalty 🙂 . I’m happy to support our ‘real farmers’ against the hormone-boosted, chlorinated chicken brigade, though.
A few good, spirited public hangings is what you need, SSL. The spiritual folks used to love those.
Who would get hung?
Probably should follow the example of English King Henry the VIII, who hung quite a number of Cistercian monks high and short for provoking the civil war in English society – the War of the Roses.
By the way, the monks were working under the direction of continental Valois dynasty – don’t you find that amazing?
It is not going to be hard to figure out who are the analogue of Cistercian Order is in the modern Anglo-Saxon world on both sides of Atlantic.
You asked about celebrities. singers.
I knew an old Jewish man who had dated Janis Joplin [she was an unhappy gal] and been a photographer to famous musicians.
He said ‘in the 60s the photographers of bands did photojournalism, David Garr and others were the guys.
Then ‘closet fag’ [his term] Jann Wenner hired Annie Lebowitz
[one Jew helps another] and it became vogue to have singers in Vogue Magazine type photos.
He said Jann would have a woman put Jann in handcuffs in the closet.
..Then Jann came out of the closet.
Interesting, Malthus.
Say what you want about Wenner, Rolling Stone lasted 50 years — a pretty good run by any account — and was pretty influential in its day.
Brh
I also have spoken to folks who knew Arthur Lee…he was weird…flushed his drugs in the toilet and then hoped to find them in the sewer..or something like that.
Keith emerson set a friend of mines mattress on fire, while in bed w a hooker..killed himself due to his carpal syndrome and inability to play at top form.
Bobby Womack, Billy Preston.Richard manuel…. Yikes.
rolling stone magazine argues
‘rs’ has been almost single-minded in its dedication to the eradication of the white race of human beings, and as their more infamous, deliberate hoaxes have shown, they’ll stop at nothing to achieve their aims.
that is to say, they’re pretty much like the rest of the ‘controlled media’–only more so. the less attention we give them the better. except perhaps to call them out now and then as mr kersey does here.
rolling stone magazine argues rebuilding of notre dame cathedral shouldn’t reflect france’s white/catholic history, but its multicultural (muslim) future
brh
“Who would get hung?’
A tribunal led by SSL and Janos would decide. I was just trying to be helpful.
Americans already have a tribunal. It’s called John Durham prosecutorial office – I heard it’s pretty darn big.
We’ll see.
Yep – a concern I’ve expressed previously…
Hanged, not hung.
Only men are hung, both men & women are hanged.
They once hanged a sheep for witchcraft.
I was being polite and not pointing out the (common) error.
In Hartlepool they reputedly hanged a monkey as a French spy during the Napoleonic wars.
I think she needs to go into the kitchen next time she is out on the town and has a great meal. Walk right into the kitchen and say to everyone there; ‘Thank you very much wherever the fuck you are from.
Then they could thank her for paying the taxes to support their welfare scams. Mutual thanks all around.
Do welfare scammers still drive Cadillacs or have they gone Japanese?
They drive Teslas now. They’re very concerned with the environment and climate change.
If immigrants are scamming welfare, they wouldn’t be working in the kitchen. If they are working in the kitchen, then they are paying taxes. In whole numbers (not percentages), there are more whites on welfare than immigrants. For specific welfare programs, such as cash assistance and housing, native citizen households are using more of these benefits than immigrant households.
No, they do both. They’re impressive like that – at least the Hispanics are. Way above the Blacks as well as the Whites I’m afraid.
JS–do not be afraid and do not praise the so called Latins.
“In whole numbers (not percentages), there are more whites on welfare than immigrants.”
Hah! You think we’re innumerate? Duh, yeah, it’s because at the moment at least Whites are still the majority. But what happens when that ceases to be? Someday the money runs out, slick.
Duh! Whites are still the majority in the US so yeah they are the majority of welfare recipients. I suppose that will be until Whites are no longer the majority. Wow that is math I can do too!
Auburn do you believe what you have posted and who told you this?
If they are here illegally then how are they paying taxes they DON’T have a Social Security number! If the employer is withholding taxes it is not going anywhere but to the employer. Are they using the real id system if so then they are not illegal!
If they do have a Social security number then they stole it from someone else which causes someone else a whole lot of pain! My brother in law had that happen to him and it left him with a nasty tax mess and identity problem. He actually wound up homeless and penniless as a result he was already on the margins and lived his last years living in a van in Sylmar working at a park cleaning up bathrooms. He never got it cleared up all the way and no one would rent to him. He actually died in his van at the ripe old age of 55. I firmly believe that was the final straw that sent him over the edge.
If they are paid cash under the table they are still not paying taxes.
They do how ever get wic and welfare which you don’t need a social security card for!
They will even take the very easily fraudulently received Matrícula Consular card which is used to commit all sorts of fraud! There is not real checking or verifying to see if you are who you say you are and some of these people have dozens of them.
Illegal immigration is not a victimless crime!
LOL now that made me smile.