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Here’s one big reason that America is driving itself batshit crazy: the explosion of computerized records, emails, inter-office memos, Twitter trails, Facebook memorabilia, iPhone videos, YouTubes, recorded conversations, and the vast alternative universe of storage capacity for all this stuff makes it seem possible to constantly go back and reconstruct reality. All it has really done is amplified the potential for political mischief to suicide level.

It’s a major unanticipated consequence of the digital “revolution.” It has gotten us stuck looking backward at events, obsessively replaying them, while working overtime to spin them favorably for one team or the other, at the expense of actually living in real time and dealing with reality as it unspools with us. If life were a ballgame, we’d only be watching jumbotron replays while failing to pay attention to the action on the field.

Before all this, history was left largely to historians, who curated it from a range of views for carefully considered introduction to the stream of human culture, and who managed this process at a pace that allowed a polity to get on with its business at hand in the here-and-now — instead of incessantly and recursively reviewing events that have already happened 24/7. The more electronic media has evolved, the more it lends itself to manipulation, propaganda, and falsification of whatever happened five minutes, or five hours, or five weeks ago.

This is exactly why and how the losing team in the 2016 election has worked so hard to change that bit of history. The stupendous failure of the Mueller Investigation only revealed what can happen when extraordinary bad faith, dishonesty, and incompetence are brought to this project of reinventing “truth” — of who did what and why — while it provoked a counter-industry of detecting its gross falsifications.

This dynamic has long been systematically studied and applied by institutions like the so-called “intelligence community,” and has gotten so out-of-hand that its main mission these days appears to be the maximum gaslighting of the nation — for the purpose of its own desperate self-defense. The “Whistleblower” episode is the latest turn in dishonestly manipulated records, but the most interesting feature of it is that the release of the actual transcript of the Trump-Zelensky phone call did not affect the “narrative” precooked between the CIA and Adam Schiff’s House Intel Committee. They just blundered on with the story and when major parts of the replay didn’t add up, they retreated to secret sessions in the basement of the US capitol.

Perhaps you can see why unleashing the CIA, NSA, and the FBI on political enemies by Mr. Obama and his cohorts has become such a disaster. When that scheme blew up, the intel community went to the mattresses, as the saying goes in Mafia legend and lore. The “company” found itself at existential risk. Of course, the CIA has long been accused of following an agenda of its own simply because it had the means to do it. It had the manpower, the money, and the equipment to run whatever operations it felt like running, and a history of going its own way out of sheer institutional arrogance, of knowing better than the crackers and clowns elected by the hoi-polloi. The secrecy inherent in its charter was a green light for limitless mischief and some of the agency’s directors showed open contempt for the occupants of the White House. Think: Allen Dulles and William Casey. And lately, Mr. Brennan.

The recently-spawned NSA has mainly added the capacity to turn everything that happens into replay material, since it is suspected of recording every phone call, every email, every financial transaction, every closed-circuit screen capture, and anything else its computers can snare for storage in its Utah Data Storage Center. Now you know why the actions of Edward Snowden were so significant. He did what he did because he was moral enough to know the face of malevolence when he saw it. That he survives in exile is a miracle.

As for the FBI, only an exceptional species of ineptitude explains the trouble they got themselves into with the RussiaGate fiasco. The unbelievable election loss of Mrs. Clinton screwed the pooch for them, and the desperate acts that followed only made things worse. The incompetence and mendacity on display was only matched by Mr. Mueller and his lawyers, who were supposed to be the FBI’s cleanup crew and only left a bigger mess — all of it cataloged in digital records.

Now, persons throughout all these agencies are waiting for the hammer to fall. If they are prosecuted, the process will entail yet another monumental excursion into the replaying of those digital records. It could go on for years. So, the final act in the collapse of the USA will be the government choking itself to death on replayed narratives from its own server farms. In the meantime, events are actually tending in a direction that will eventually deprive the nation of the means to continue most of its accustomed activities including credible elections, food distribution, a reliable electric grid, and perhaps even self-defense.


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507 Responses to “The Fatal Loop of Recursivity”

  1. stelmosfire October 18, 2019 at 10:06 am #

    So can I say first? wow. From Benr last post:

    Comment edited due to lack of decorum. Also note that anyone crying “first” will be bounced from the list — JHK Admin

    • stelmosfire October 18, 2019 at 10:57 am #

      I didn’t claim to be”first” as some sort of declaration. I was merely surprised that my comment was the first after maybe 10 years posting on this blog. Also as far as decorum goes some people posting are seriously lacking in that regard. I’ve been bounced once before under my last login ” Rippedthunder” and if I will be bounced again so be it.

      • BackRowHeckler October 18, 2019 at 12:55 pm #

        Tagging all Bootleggers on this site.

        G men and Revenuers from Boston headed your way in Ford Coupes, with Tommy Guns and BARs, and axes to break up your still. Oh, they’ll find it.

        Brh

        • stelmosfire October 18, 2019 at 9:43 pm #

          Bring ’em on. .45cal 75 round violin out the door.

          Decorum my ass. oouttou redflag!

  2. stelmosfire October 18, 2019 at 10:12 am #

    “Edjumacated ” I claim it for Webster’s new dictionary. Although it is not of my invention.

    • Neon Vincent October 18, 2019 at 11:35 am #

      “Edjumacated” is not in Webster’s dictionary, but it is in the Urban Dictionary. It’s defined as “To know and understand information that is completely and totally irrelovent(sic) and not useful in any situation.” I don’t know about anything being “not useful in any situation.” I’m a big fan of the saying “no one is completely useless. They can always be used as a bad example.” I think the same is true of information.

      Now for our host, who wrote “All it has really done is amplified the potential for political mischief to suicide level” and “The more electronic media has evolved, the more it lends itself to manipulation, propaganda, and falsification of whatever happened five minutes, or five hours, or five weeks ago.” Those were the points, albeit to a different end, of Carole Cadwalladr’s TED talk describing Facebook’s role in Brexit and the threat to democracy it posed. She didn’t confront government, as our host is doing, but the tech companies, calling social media a crime scene and asking them to comply with governments in their investigations. A TED talk would be as good a forum as any to do that.

      • K-Dog October 18, 2019 at 12:12 pm #

        Great video Sensi.

        She started out pissing me off but she redeemed herself. Some serious Cambridge-Analytica skullduggery going on but it is legal here don’t you know. The propaganda of confusion is like ‘plastics’ was in the old movie ‘The Graduate’. Growing.

        The video is totally on line with this weeks topic!

        Good Job.

        • Neon Vincent October 18, 2019 at 12:20 pm #

          “Good job.” Thank you and “woof!” The latter is how I respond to my wife whenever she tells me “good job.” I guess I’m a dog in spirit as well.

      • Neon Vincent October 18, 2019 at 12:17 pm #

        Speaking of Brexit, it was the subject of one of the Emmy nominees for Outstanding Television Movie. I think it deserved the treatment it got and the nomination. However, it lost to “Black Mirror.” That series examines all the ways technology can make mischief in people’s lives, including in our politics, so it’s still on-topic for today’s discussion.

  3. Walter B October 18, 2019 at 10:21 am #

    “It’s a major unanticipated consequence of the digital “revolution.” It has gotten us stuck looking backward at events, obsessively replaying them, while working overtime to spin them favorably for one team or the other, at the expense of actually living in real time and dealing with reality as it unspools with us. If life were a ballgame, we’d only be watching jumbotron replays while failing to pay attention to the action on the field.”

    Wow Jim an amazing statement, well done. I was think this just the other evening while watching my daughter’s soccer game. I missed the only goal of the game at the far end of the field and immediately pined the lack of an instant replay feature. Even at Michie Staduim there is the jumbotron as you point out, so yes we are seriously distracted from what is happening as we have become reliant on technologies to allow us to “catch up”. Photoshop and CGI included of course. I can almost not wait for the plug to be pulled and we can get back to real life in real time regardless of the consequences.

    • Ghung October 18, 2019 at 11:04 am #

      We can also keep our digital excursions simple. I just log into trumptwitterarchive.com to marvel at the daily rants of our batshit crazy clear-and-present-danger, then go about dealing with so-called day-to-day “reality”.
      Not much I can do to affect this madness. Better to make pickles.

      • Nightowl October 18, 2019 at 11:20 am #

        Imagine what you might know if you did more than read tweets.

        • Ghung October 18, 2019 at 11:30 am #

          Imagine what you would know if you actually paid attention to what people are saying. “Straight from the horses mouth” has always worked pretty well for me. I also don’t attempt to defend the indefensible.

          • Nightowl October 18, 2019 at 12:56 pm #

            You just proved my point.

    • Janos Skorenzy October 18, 2019 at 12:53 pm #

      I realized the essence of that watching Japanese tourists obsessively taking pictures, as if things only become real if they can be frozen in time. Meanwhile, the present moment dies on the vine.

      All unofficial records must be wiped every few years just like all debts. The Jubilee.

  4. ellipsis October 18, 2019 at 10:24 am #

    Great post Jim! The one upside to all this, which you alluded to in the final paragraphs, is that in the end it all cancels out into so much distracting and irritating noise. With so much electronic surveillance of literally everyone going on these days, most of it without any context whatsoever, all of the deep state’s many surveillance tools are rendered mostly worthless, especially for the powerful who have the tools at their disposal to dispute them.

    As for the rest of us, no such techniques have ever been necessary. If representatives of the FBI/CIA/NSA/DHS come to your door with “evidence” that you’ve been up to no good you’ll probably go out in brief hail of bullets anyway, with a suitable prefabricated story circulated instantly afterward to the always compliant press about why your elimination was necessary to further the interests of “freedom and the American way.” [Patriotic drum and fife music played here.] Same as it ever was.

    • benr October 18, 2019 at 11:28 am #

      Indeed and the cache of guns and bullets will be oh so talked up.
      My god he had 1,000 rounds of .22 ammunition!

      • abbybwood October 19, 2019 at 12:47 am #

        Speaking of having a cache of guns, it’s interesting that no full investigation of the Vegas massacre was ever mentioned to the public.

        You wanna talk about a story that was dropped like a hot potato, that is one of them.

        • benr October 19, 2019 at 3:56 pm #

          Notice if they think the person is rightwing or Republican the story gets exploded till the truth comes out and it is always a Democrat supporter and leftist then it gets buried.

  5. Nightowl October 18, 2019 at 10:27 am #

    In fun FBI news, it has now come out that AG William Barr’s special investigator on the Russia Hoax, John Durham, has procured Joseph Mifsud’s hidden Blackberry devices.

    Let us remember that the FBI and co. claimed Mifsud was a Russian agent, when it appears he was rather a Western intelligence asset used to help set up the Coup.

    The devices are now being requested in the Flynn case (by his lawyer Sidney Powell).

    Powder keg time.

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    • BackRowHeckler October 18, 2019 at 1:01 pm #

      Yes, I believe the IGs report being released later today.

  6. Ron Anselmo October 18, 2019 at 10:27 am #

    Second your comment Walter. Astute observation by JHK. Yes pulling the plug, or having it pulled, will be a welcome relief.

  7. GreenAlba October 18, 2019 at 10:28 am #

    Paragraph three is a neat description of our informational predicament.

    It reminded me a bit of the description of poetry as ’emotion recollected in tranquility’. Now it’s all emotion and no tranquility.

    • K-Dog October 18, 2019 at 11:37 am #

      It is all emotion in the lotion dripping on the brain pan.

      Americans have grocery stores where there can be forty kinds of salad dressing all made by the same manufacturer in print to fine to read. That is modern America and America also has a culture where forty different truths are now all come from the same source.

      Whats going on? For one thing too many choices give dogs diarrhea. A few truths closer to the actual narrative of reality would be much better.

      • K-Dog October 18, 2019 at 11:39 am #

        forty different truths now all come from the same source.

        Had an ‘are‘ in there my hearties. I was pirate dog for a second.

    • BackRowHeckler October 18, 2019 at 12:40 pm #

      Current North Pole temp: -18°F.

      Polar Bear population, 1966: 6500

      Polar Bear population: 2019: 25000

      Today, sunny, crisp, light breeze, temp is seasonal but frost almost every night now. (Similar to every year since my ancestors showed up in this valley in 1635)

      My mind is open, but my eyes are open too. Still no sign of any Climate Apocalypse or Human Beings going extinct in a dozen years due to bad weather.

      I know, I know, you have the ‘Science’. What I’ve read is scientific mumbo jumbo, tech jargon designed to secure another government grant, and convince Joe Sixpack in Dover Foxcroft, Maine why there will be no heating oil to keep his house warm in the winter, coal to spin the turbines that provide his electricity, gasoline for his truck. Meanwhile, Big Global Warming Luminaries, Billionaires, the Kennedys, Tom Steyer, Mike Bloomberg and the rest of them, will still be living large, flying around the world in private aircraft, with plenty of juice to keep their 50,000 sq ft mansions lit up like f#kkin Christmas trees, ha! Sacrifice required ‘save the world’ will be the job of the little people IMHO. It’s all scientific. You can’t argue with it.

      Brh

      • abbybwood October 19, 2019 at 12:51 am #

        AOC’s and “The Squad’s” endorsement of Bernie should be looked at as a kiss of death.

        Too bad they didn’t endorse Warren.

      • sprawlcapital October 19, 2019 at 2:20 am #

        We had a beautiful Indigenous Peoples Summer day here in central Iowa today. We used to call it Indian summer. It’s nice warm weather in the low 70s after the first frost. We definitely have had a frost. The tomato plants are dead and the zinnias have lost their colors.

        I remember Indian summer days like this from my childhood in the 1950s. Not much different now.

  8. JustSaying October 18, 2019 at 10:38 am #

    So, the final act in the collapse of the USA will be the government choking itself to death on replayed narratives from its own server farms…

    I guess we kind of overdid the tech thing. The internet and social media has really destroyed this country. And 5G will sicken us so AI and the Borgs can finally finish us for good.

    • K-Dog October 18, 2019 at 11:26 am #

      Choking itself to death on an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of underdone potato. More gravy than gravity in all the wheel turnings!

  9. TiredOfTheTreadmill October 18, 2019 at 10:39 am #

    It really is interesting times that we live in. I knew Trump would be the man to drive this country off the cliff at full speed while blowing off his mouth about his own greatness. However, at the time of his election I didn’t realize he would get so much help in reaching that destination from the corrupt system itself. Now we have two competing teams of corrupt, incompetent people fighting each other over who gets to press the pedal to the floor.

    On one side we have team Trump opening his mouth and removing any ounce of respect or dignity this country once had in the world. On the other side we have team The System on full display showing us that corruption is its standard operation procedure and destroying its credibility. Decline and collapse aren’t measured purely in monetary units.

    • Nightowl October 18, 2019 at 10:56 am #

      Whether one likes his style or not, Trump will go down as one of the most revered presidents in US history. Much like JFK.

      No other president would have dared to take on the neo-con/lib Pax Americana agenda and the deeply entrenched intelligence apparatus that supports it.

      He is not perfect, but his intentions can no longer be doubted. The criminal class who have run country over the past few decades are salavating over the possiblity of bringing him down, yet he manages to outwit them at every turn.

      We are indeed living in interesting times.

      • Ghung October 18, 2019 at 11:10 am #

        Trump’s “style”? Is that a more polite way to refer to insanity?

        • Nightowl October 18, 2019 at 11:17 am #

          No. He is quite sane.

        • JohnAZ October 18, 2019 at 11:19 am #

          You know, if keeping your unsubstantiated opinion to yourself and just developing a logical statement of what you think, this blog would substantially shrink in size. Heck, it would halve if name calling exclusively was eliminated.

          • K-Dog October 18, 2019 at 11:23 am #

            A lead lining in the cloud.

          • MoleMan October 18, 2019 at 8:51 pm #

            “Unsubstantiated opinion”? Isn’t that kinda de rigueur here?

            Interesting experiment #1: who on these threads has firsthand experience with the topics they discuss and/or access to primary documents? A whole lot of secondhand evidence a floatin’ around, methinks…it’s the narrative wars most of the time that I’m seeing on here, not some extensive, deep critical thinking going on.

            Interesting experiment #2: Karl Popper’s notion of “falsification”–can’t have a truly scientific experiment without it. So, @JohnAZ, you believe Trump is a little rough around the edges, but otherwise an ethical warrior sent to free us from the Deep State and other “corruptions.” I happen to believe that he’s a deeply corrupt individual who got lucky in the election after riding the wave of understandable disgust around HRC, and who is savvy enough to know what his base wants to hear, and primetime celebrity enough to make it a delectably crass, slogan-sized, Roman Coliseum-style flavor that keeps ’em coming back for more.
            Back to falsifiability: what events and evidence would it take for you to change your mind on Trump? Is that still a possibility, or is your confirmation bias too strong? If it is not possible, then all dialogue issuing from you is in bad faith. You end up an acolyte, not a free thinker.
            For me, if the man dropped the incessant ego gamesmanship for a brief moment, stopped blowing air into the fake narrative that we can pump up our fake economy endlessly without repercussion (if you’re on this site and you disagree with this assessment, then you haven’t been listening to your guru JHK very carefully), and treated just one person as someone inherently deserving respect–rather than as a vector point either to condemn or praise based on what it will gain him…then I’d change my appraisal.

            Another thought: from a critical thinking perspective, the conspiracy theory approach that is so prevalent on this website and the comment sections (and elsewhere on the Internet) is simple bad faith argumentation. Conspiracy theories are, ultimately, unassailable when faced with the falsification criterion: if any evidence is found to counter said conspiracy theory, then the theorist simply says that the evidence is even more proof of a coverup by…the Deep State, the Reactionary Right, the Radical Left, and on and on and on. This is akin to the Freudian analyst who, when confronted with someone who denies acting out of their unconscious desires, simply replies that they are actively repressing their unconscious with this denial.

            It is a recursive loop that gets us nowhere.

            And that’s fine for what it is–a bit of distraction amidst the mad swirl of modernity. But I just can’t stomach you lambasting another poster for an “unsubstantiated opinion” as if that’s an anomaly on these threads.

          • draupnir October 19, 2019 at 12:05 am #

            My dear Moleman – You completely fail to understand. He is the big, fat, orange middle finger the former middle and working classes, in what is disparagingly referred to as fly-over-country, sent to DC just for spite. He’s performed admirably, and actually managed to accomplish a few things on the way.

            I plan on voting a second term for him. I read an analogy somewhere recently describing him as standing on the balcony of the portico in his boxers, screaming laughter like an ass, holding a diet Coke in one hand while he waggles his junk in defiance. I suspect that if they bring him down he will take both political parties down with him in a screaming, steaming, stinking pile of shills, grifters, hos, bag men, carpetbaggers, liars, deviants and thieves.

          • Majella October 19, 2019 at 2:17 am #

            Moleman – Sir, you have nailed it. Completely. There’s nothing left to say!

          • Majella October 19, 2019 at 2:19 am #

            ..but it will be otherwise ignored. Plain old ‘common sense’ is a rare commodity around these parts…,

          • Majella October 19, 2019 at 2:20 am #

            May I suggest you repost it as a new thread?

          • Nightowl October 19, 2019 at 4:15 am #

            What Moleman seems unaware of is the mountain of evidence available for various “Conspiracy Theories.”

            Say, Moleman, what theories are you referencing? The Coup?

            Let’s see how critically you think. Bring it.

      • Majella October 18, 2019 at 7:29 pm #

        There’s work for you on Fox Primetime, op-ed’ing…

        • Majella October 19, 2019 at 2:15 am #

          That was for Nightowl.

    • K-Dog October 18, 2019 at 11:21 am #

      The System on full display showing us that corruption is its standard operation procedure and destroying its credibility.

      But if a tree falls and nobody is around to hear it, I don’t think anybody knows it fell.

      • Janos Skorenzy October 18, 2019 at 12:59 pm #

        But somebody might be hiking later and see it on the ground and infer from that Evidence that indeed, it fell one way or another.

        Everything is Evidence now. We are all plaintiffs if not judges, jurors, or accusers. Stop trying to read by gaslight. Hear my Word and rejoice.

    • benr October 18, 2019 at 11:31 am #

      HAH as if any dignity and respect was left after Oblamers apology tour.
      Beer summit and red lines in the sand!
      Oh how people forget the dithering of former residents in the Whitehouse.

  10. malthuss October 18, 2019 at 10:40 am #

    Banks collapsing?
    ‘Liquidity’???

    Overnite rate?

    I found this and wonder, how long before the banks take a vacation?

    Recently the overnight loan rate shot up from 2 to 10%.
    Luckily the FED was flying overhead in a helicopter with a spare $300 billion when it heard the desperate cries of the rich.
    Average workers paying 20% on credit cards, please don’t hold your breath

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    • TiredOfTheTreadmill October 18, 2019 at 10:48 am #

      Oh yes, anything and everything will be sacrificed to ensure the wealthy and powerful are well insulated from any discomfort during the coming reckoning with reality. They will likely get away with it too as they have trained the serfs of this country quite well.

      • JohnAZ October 18, 2019 at 11:23 am #

        Consumerism is self destructive. The insane drive to have stuff, and higher tech stuff takes money out of the pockets of Jill and Joe Everybody and puts it in the bank accounts of the rich.

        Again, if you want to find the real culprits, look in the nearest mirror.

      • malthuss October 18, 2019 at 11:25 am #

        reckoning with reality.

        what about us peons? what can WE do?

        • JohnAZ October 18, 2019 at 11:55 am #

          Save instead of spend, each dollar you save for yourself stays in your pocket. Get out of the newest gadget mode, create family capital pools. Take the money from the Elite and keep it for yourself.

          • Sam Stone October 18, 2019 at 12:47 pm #

            @JAZ “Take the money from the elite and keep it for yourself.”

            Good advice John. I agree wholeheartedly.
            Personally I do not understand this need for people to continously upgrade their gadgets to the latest and greatest when they don’t even understand a tenth of their current product’s potential. Why spend hundreds of dollars to get the newest version when it does everything exactly the same as the old one except maybe the camera works a touch better. The average person probably can’t even tell the difference at a glance but can say to all within Facebook shot that they have the “latest and greatest” version (for the next six months or so) of whatever the doohicky of the monent is.

          • benr October 18, 2019 at 5:25 pm #

            Planed obsolesce is built into each device.
            Most devices are really only good for a couple of years of updates before the millions of extra lines of code choke them out but wait it’s worse the hard ware is now built to only last a couple of years!
            Take phone batteries they can’t be replaced in at least I-phones without soldering out the old one and soldering in the new one.
            Most people bust the screens and generally tear them up.
            For the record I have perfectly functioning p1 90 with 16 meg of ram and a 400 meg hard drive running 3.11 that still does most thing I wan tit to do except surf the internet it still plays quake, doom, and blood well.

  11. Ron Anselmo October 18, 2019 at 10:42 am #

    Another interesting trend is that of all things leaning toward video, versus written narrative. If memory serves, some Facebook executive said that five years out, almost all will be video. Video is more easily manipulated, falsified – has a larger psychological impact than the written word.

    • MoleMan October 18, 2019 at 11:04 am #

      Indeed. And with the rise of “deep fakes,” pretty soon each “side” will have corroborative evidence for their claims (if they don’t already with the level of subtle falsehood in the written word that exists for both “sides”). The left will “prove” scandals and subterfuge and the right will “prove” the extent of the deep state. Then what? Some of us will be stuck in the middle limbo still, fumbling for Occam’s razor–which is decidedly less interesting, won’t sell books, and is one big yawn of a blog.

      • Nightowl October 18, 2019 at 11:15 am #

        Doubtful. The Deep Fake hysteria is, at present, media driven, as lies are coming back to haunt them on a daily basis.

        Manipulated digital video will be decipherable at the data/code level. Most of it still looks fake, and no matter how good it gets, its use will only be initially effective — much like the lies peddled by those practicing “accountability journalism.”

        Once the public is informed on the tricks of the trade, the wizardry will lose its magic.

        • JohnAZ October 18, 2019 at 11:40 am #

          Nope, when the lies are ubiquitous and all sides are surrounded by a false environment, then that environment becomes reality.

          The Deep State has used this for a long, long time. If the politicians were in a competitive corporate environment, they would not last a week before getting canned. That is why they are where they are, they are failures.

          That is why the idea that these people make the decisions in a socialistic environment is repugnant and the reason why we just keep getting worse.

          • Nightowl October 18, 2019 at 1:02 pm #

            That ties to my other comment on your other post. The Internet has been the great equalizer.

            I also don’t see socialism as being any worse in this regard than what we’ve had here.

            He who controls the flow of information controls reality.

        • Janos Skorenzy October 18, 2019 at 1:02 pm #

          In the end, Woodward and Bernstein just proved themselves to Democrat hacks and non-entities. And Nixon was just a pre-Trump, Trump. Obsessed with giving America away to non-Americans.

      • K-Dog October 18, 2019 at 11:16 am #

        Then what?

        Get serious, you know ‘then what’. He who has the more money and power wins. Facts don’t matter, whoever does the most convincing prevails now regardless of the cards they hold.

        This place is an empty echo chamber from sea to shining sea.

        • Sam Stone October 18, 2019 at 2:13 pm #

          @K-Dog “This place is an empty echo chamber from sea to shining sea.”

          Good words. Describes the current zeitgeist accurately and precisely.

      • JohnAZ October 18, 2019 at 11:34 am #

        Yup, the political scene will just keep on getting away with doing nothing while the US and the world around us circles the drain. The problems tearing us down need to be addressed by rational means and all we get out of the Deep State idiots is BS. Both sides.

        The real answers have to be addressed at the grass roots. But our illustrious leaders have figured out that to keep us quiet in their quest for power, they need to keep us stupid. Their propaganda machine, the MSM, do a great job of fulfilling that mission.

        • K-Dog October 18, 2019 at 12:23 pm #

          The hoi polloi is effectively managed. The lessons of Vietnam were learned.

          There won’t be something happening here and that seems exactly clear.

          And you can quote me on that. I’m not Buffaloaling you.

          • Sam Stone October 18, 2019 at 2:15 pm #

            LOL, but are you Springfielding me?

    • JohnAZ October 18, 2019 at 11:25 am #

      A picture is worth a thousand words.

    • Majella October 19, 2019 at 2:21 am #

      I’m still trying to get to the ‘paperless office’!

  12. MoleMan October 18, 2019 at 10:54 am #

    Fun Quote:

    “Once upon a time, in some out of the way corner of that universe which is dispersed into numberless twinkling solar systems, there was a star upon which clever beasts invented knowing. That was the most arrogant and mendacious minute of “world history,” but nevertheless, it was only a minute. After nature had drawn a few breaths, the star cooled and congealed, and the clever beasts had to die.

    One might invent such a fable, and yet he still would not have adequately illustrated how miserable, how shadowy and transient, how aimless and arbitrary the human intellect looks within nature. There were eternities during which it did not exist. And when it is all over with the human intellect, nothing will have happened. For this intellect has no additional mission which would lead it beyond human life. Rather, it is human, and only its possessor and begetter takes it so solemnly — as though the world’s axis turned within it. But if we could communicate with a gnat, we would learn that he likewise flies through the air with the same solemnity, that he feels the flying center of the universe within himself. There is nothing so reprehensible and unimportant in nature that it would not immediately swell up like a balloon at the slightest puff of this power of knowing. And just as every porter wants to have an admirer, so even the proudest of men, the philosopher, supposes that he sees on all sides the eyes of the universe telescopically focused upon his action and thought.”

    • 100th Avatar October 18, 2019 at 7:28 pm #

      Zapffe identified three psychological, or more specifically repressional mechanisms by which individuals artificially limit the content of consciousness, and protect themselves from the despair that can ensue from becoming too conscious of the tragic sense of life: isolation, anchoring, and distraction.

      Zapffe defined isolation as a “fully arbitrary dismissal from consciousness of all disturbing and destructive thought and feeling”. Semi-consciously or unconsciously, individuals avoid thinking about the terrible truths of human existence, utilizing various strategies to ensure tragic insights into human existence are kept as far away from awareness as possible.

      Zapffe called anchoring, which is a “fixation of points within, or construction of walls around, the liquid fray of consciousness”, “the happiest…protection against the cosmos that we ever get to know in life…” The earliest and primary anchoring point is the home and neighborhood one grows up in. As this primary anchoring point loses its efficacy over time, individuals grasp onto other anchors available to them in their personal and social life – such as one’s vocation, a political party or a religious creed. Such anchorings provide a sense of safety, familiarity, and meaning, protecting one from moods of existential disorientation and feelings of cosmic insignificance.

      In distraction, a “very popular mode of protection”, “One limits attention to the critical bounds by constantly enthralling it with impression.” A quick glance at our culture of instant gratification, whereby individuals have constant access to, and constantly seek out, mindless stimuli and entertainment, confirms Zapffe’s observation that distraction is a popular means used by human beings to minimize their awareness of the tragic nature of life.

      Most of the time, these mechanisms successfully fulfill their purpose of limiting the content of consciousness. The majority of people largely go through life without succumbing to extreme states of world-weariness, and with the conviction that although life is difficult, it has its victories and is ultimately worth the effort.

      But what happens when these mechanisms fail? What happens when an individual becomes increasingly aware of the tragic sense of life? Is such an individual fated to live in a constant state of despair? If one looks deeply into life, is one also fated to suffer deeply?

      Along with the three repressional mechanisms outlined by Zapffe, he also posited the existence of a fourth remedy against the pain of existence – that being sublimation. Sublimation differs in kind from the other three remedies in that it “is a matter of transformation rather than repression.” Via sublimation, the individual harnesses the large amounts of energy associated with being overcome by the “pain of living”, and utilizes such energy to fashion creative works of beauty.

      “Through stylistic or artistic gifts can the very pain of living at times be converted into valuable experiences. Positive impulses engage the evil and put it to their own ends, fastening onto its pictorial, dramatic, heroic, lyric or even comic aspects.” (Zapffe).

      • Rulo Deschamps October 19, 2019 at 10:53 am #

        “The human race come from Nothing and go to Nothing. Above that, there is Nothing.” At the close of his last major writing, Zapffe answers all who despair of this view. “ ‘Unfortunately,’ rues the playful pessimist, ‘I cannot help you. All I have for facing death myself, is a foolish smile.’

  13. MoleMan October 18, 2019 at 10:58 am #

    One more fun one:

    “What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy. As Huxley remarked in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny “failed to take into account man’s almost infinite appetite for distractions.” In 1984, Orwell added, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we fear will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we desire will ruin us.”

    • ellipsis October 18, 2019 at 11:10 am #

      Nice! I can see Huxley’s vision evolving from Orwell’s. Orwell’s would be most people’s first take when considering the subject, with Huxley’s more nuanced and sophisticated view evolving with time and experience.

      In term’s of time scales, Orwell’s view held sway in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and reflected our cultural proclivity of brute suppression at the time, while Huxley’s came into prominence in the aftermath of WWII with the inflation of the great American hype machine and the fine art of mass persuasion.

    • K-Dog October 18, 2019 at 11:12 am #

      It turns out they were both right.

      • JohnAZ October 18, 2019 at 11:46 am #

        That is right. In psychiatric clinical in nursing school, one of the biggest truisms was that human’s prime directive is to avoid or minimize anxiety.

        They are both right!

        • JohnAZ October 18, 2019 at 11:47 am #

          Conservation of energy, minimize flight or fight response.

    • Ron Anselmo October 18, 2019 at 11:19 am #

      On video:

      “failed to take into account man’s almost infinite appetite for distractions.”

      We’re hard-wired as a species, to be distracted by visual stimuli – movement. Our survival depended upon it. Movement out of the corner of our eye, was either predator or prey. A saber-toothed tiger or dinner – our survival depended upon being aware of both.

      Thus, advertisements at the margins of every on-screen narrative we read – most with some form of movement. What did I just read?What distraction?

    • elysianfield October 18, 2019 at 1:13 pm #

      MM,
      Excellent!

    • Janos Skorenzy October 18, 2019 at 1:14 pm #

      And Huxley was playing with his readers since he really was a Globalist who was very much for all that being implemented.

      But yes, pleasure is deeper in many ways than pain since it enlists the subject willingly into the the new paradigm. You can get a person to say anything with pain. The blood of Hoess can still be seen on the Holocaust document his torturers got him to sign. But pleasure pleases and a person will gladly tell his friends all that he really knows.

      Of course one need not choose. The stick is still there in the closet if needed. Meanwhile the Carrot takes precedence.

      • spaceis411 October 18, 2019 at 2:05 pm #

        are you suggesting (in spite of his torture) that Hoess has any claim to a less rough justice?

        just curious.

        personally, i believe that torture is never useful. essentially, no actionable information is ever obtained that couldn’t be gathered more swiftly and beneficially by other means.

        • Janos Skorenzy October 18, 2019 at 5:02 pm #

          If torture was routinely used on them – as indeed it was, why do you believe the narrative to begin with?

          just curious (no caps – so cool, so bell hooks, like wearing your tshirt inside out)

    • RocketDoc October 18, 2019 at 9:14 pm #

      It was Neil Postman in his late 80’s book “Amusing Ourselves to Death” that used the Orwell versus Huxley comparison to illustrate his argument. The quote from ‘The Underground Man’ surely is from that book. The “Closing of the American Mind” by Bloom is another fine book from that time. Back in the days when philosophy not personal improvement could actually make it on the NY Times best seller list.

    • Majella October 19, 2019 at 2:23 am #

      Neil Postman I believe?

  14. Urinthe Village October 18, 2019 at 11:00 am #

    I’ve attended a couple of rock concerts lately, after not having been to one since the ’80’s. The new phenomenon I observed was that the majority of the mostly young crowd was not watching the performance directly. Rather, they were looking at their diminutive iPhone screens held over their heads as they recorded the event, presumably to catch the lousy resulting video and soundtrack at some later time. I could barely see the performance myself because of the oceans of outstretched arms and phones blocking my view of the stage. Apparently actually observing something as it is happening is inferior to watching a poor representation viewed on a screen. Maybe they have been coaxed in to believing that unless there is a recording, the event never occurred. Representation has replaced reality. How is reality to be adjudicated in such a world? It isn’t; it just doesn’t exist anymore.

    • capt spaulding October 18, 2019 at 11:10 am #

      Interesting observation. I have a friend who does a solo guitar act, and he’s thinking of reducing his gigs. The reason he’s doing so, is because according to him, about a third of the audience isn’t paying attention at all. Instead, they’re staring at their cellphones. Perhaps nothing is real anymore, unless you see it on a screen. It’s a different world out there, and changing more all the time.

      • malthuss October 18, 2019 at 11:26 am #

        Phone love–

        in car

        at health club

        in class

        at home

        in park

        etc

      • JohnAZ October 18, 2019 at 11:51 am #

        Is it right that this is happening? In whose opinion? Who is right, Millennials or Boomers? Doesn’t matter, when the Boomers all die, it is a Millennial world. Hmmm, does that make dying a little more palatable?

      • James Kuehl October 18, 2019 at 11:55 am #

        This is a strange phenomenon. For years I played weekly with a small acoustic band in a local brew pub. In recent years people began walking up to me and sticking their phones in my face and recording without my permission. They held no regard for the fact that a fellow human being was standing in front of them. More than once I asked them to step back for the benefit of those who want to enjoy the moment. I’m old enough to remember that Marshall McLuhan addressed the roots of this cognitive dissonance in his masterwork “The Media is the Massage” in which he described Americans as viewing their reality in the rear-view mirror.

      • BackRowHeckler October 18, 2019 at 1:30 pm #

        People with their faces stuck in their cellphone, do you think it’s a permanent fixture of human life, or will something come along and replace it? Maybe something worse.

        Brh

      • DJL October 18, 2019 at 3:30 pm #

        You might read https://www.firstthings.com/article/2016/05/click-fix
        by Marc Barnes. It speaks to this exact phenomena. Very interesting.
        d

      • ShaunTheInvisible October 18, 2019 at 5:41 pm #

        Kind of reminds me of the movie Wall-e where all the humans on the Axiom are fat, infantile blobs completely absorbed by the screens in front of them and incapable of noticing the world around them or interacting with it without being plugged in. It took a severe jarring to pull them out of their trance. Seems more of an allegory of our current state of existence than a children’s movie.

    • ellipsis October 18, 2019 at 11:12 am #

      Nice example of mass simulacra.

    • MoleMan October 18, 2019 at 11:14 am #

      Not just the youth; I’ve seen many a self-respecting adult going the mediated route during a public “experience.” Sadly, it’s not a new phenomenon, but part of a technological contiuum. Check out what Neil Postman argued in the ’90s:

      “A new technology does not add or subtract something. It changes everything. In the year 1500, fifty years after the printing press was invented, we did not have old Europe plus the printing press. We had a different Europe. After television, the United States was not America plus television; television gave a new coloration to every political campaign, to every home, to every school, to every church, to every industry. And that is why the competition among media is so fierce. Surrounding every technology are institutions whose organization—not to mention their reason for being—reflects the world-view promoted by the technology. Therefore, when an old technology is assaulted by a new one,institutions are threatened. When institutions are threatened, a culture finds itself in crisis.”

      • JohnAZ October 18, 2019 at 11:59 am #

        Used to be that boredom was a major cause of stress, now we have anti-boredom machines in our hands. One of the primary problems with quitting smoking is not having something to do with your hands.

        Now we have cell phones.

    • Ron Anselmo October 18, 2019 at 12:02 pm #

      Precisely. Like watching a TV show, where the characters are watching a TV show. Reality, twice removed…

    • Janos Skorenzy October 18, 2019 at 1:17 pm #

      Yes, sad and weird. I will never use those little screens for anything unless it becomes necessary to get a smartphone. I have a tracphone which is all I need.

    • Sam Stone October 18, 2019 at 1:44 pm #

      Isn’t this constant recording phenomenon amazing? I am amazed and appalled by it at the same time. I guess I just don’t get it.

      I remember my wife explaining to a group of friends who were concerned with my behaviour at a “Bad Company” concert in the 70s, that “Sam” just enjoys watching and listening to the concert. My friends were concerned because I didn’t talk or listen to any of them or partake in the Frisbee and beach ball tossing. Nor would I leave my seat to stroll around the auditorium. I was there to see the musicians perform. Imagine that!

      I now know that for many people it is being able to tell others they went to such and such concert that is important. The concert itself… not so much. Perhaps now the thing is being able to say “yea man I was there and recorded it on my phone. Here, check out this video of me in my (insert band name here) tee shirt.”

    • RocketDoc October 18, 2019 at 9:27 pm #

      I have weeks of video of my 3 children playing soccer–hoping to capture the sequence of events when they might do something extraordinary. At all the critical moments of play I would drop the camera’s aim to see the game better and missed recording all the interesting footage. So I have hours and hours of unbelievably dull footage of other people’s children doing unexceptional things.

      You can watch or participate. We American citizens seem to have chosen the ‘let’s watch’ and bitch about it option.

  15. K-Dog October 18, 2019 at 11:02 am #

    Now, persons throughout all these agencies are waiting for the hammer to fall. If they are prosecuted, the process will entail yet another monumental excursion into the replaying of those digital records. It could go on for years.

    In yer dreams! Because right above you say:

    It had the manpower, the money, and the equipment to run whatever operations it felt like running, and a history of going its own way out of sheer institutional arrogance, of knowing better than the crackers and clowns elected by the hoi-polloi.

    Saying it don’t make it so. Besides we don’t want to hurt the feelings of all the ten-follower bloggers out there, such as moi.

    They find out all their web traffic has been is bot traffic that already knows which database threads to check for changes and they will not be happy. Bot traffic that does not even have to go through an index page to read where things are.

    The bigger your database the more faux traffic you have. I’ll take a peek right now. ——-> No way are 20 ‘guests’ reading the Doomstead Diner as I type. I doubt there are twenty real people even here at CFN at a time, and this place has to get way more traffic.

    To cover K-Dogs newly discovered security hole it is necessary to make bots look more like the people thy pretend to be as they collect data for Utah Servers.

    I should get paid for this.

    Support this blog on PatreonSupport this blog on Substack
    Support this blog via Patreon or Substack
    • K-Dog October 18, 2019 at 11:04 am #

      it is necessary to make bots look more like the people they pretend to be

    • Janos Skorenzy October 18, 2019 at 1:21 pm #

      Somebody looked at Finc’s performance and realized he had made a dog’s breakfast out of it. Reassigned or fired. No bot, just a clown pretending to be an Orthodox Christian after denying any interest in it the previous week. I remember Lemuria.

      • BackRowHeckler October 18, 2019 at 1:34 pm #

        Finca was part of the Internet Group in St Petersburg Russia. If you read the posts closely there was more than one Finca, maybe as many as a half dozen. They apparently work in 6 hour shifts showing up on numerous sites under different disguises.

        • Janos Skorenzy October 18, 2019 at 1:39 pm #

          You realize that Finc hated the real Russia, right? That he was really a Russian version of a Neo-Con, with Israel as his real Nation?

      • Majella October 19, 2019 at 2:28 am #

        No doubt some evaluative measuring algorithm reported that most readers scroll through his posts at 10x reading speed,”. However, that also indentifies the ‘persuadable app so all is not lost.

        • Majella October 19, 2019 at 2:29 am #

          ‘Persuadables’’…

  16. debt October 18, 2019 at 11:15 am #

    “I fear the day that technology will surpass our human interaction. The world will have a generation of idiots.”
    Albert Einstein

  17. JohnAZ October 18, 2019 at 11:15 am #

    Wow.

    Computers make people lazy and dumb. They also make “experts” of anyone, on both sides of any question. Cherry picking is the new intelligence source for everybody. Where is peer review? Where is the verified sourcing journalism required in the past? The NYT and Washington Post booth have moved their reporting to the editorial room, cherry picking the data base and picking out the negative news about any subject, especially Trump. No where is it more obvious than the hundreds of so called pundit experts on cable news. The stupidification of America is no more evident than the idiocy of CNN, MSNBC and Fox News.

    Every person self edits what they choose to hear, myself included. Cherry picking has become individualized as all of us pick out the news we want to hear. This blog is full of it, with all sorts of obvious bias evident, again myself included. The insanity of the social media combined with the memory of the NSA just facilitates the process.

    The real loser is the Truth. Washington, DC has always been a land of liars, this change in sourcing of the lies just makes the process much easier.

    Maybe it is why Trump is a breathe of fresh air, his overtness blasts open the secret pathways of the cherry picking crowds, even with his own supporters. With him, take some data, make a decision, act, evaluate, act, evaluate act. He does not use data as an excuse for inaction. That has been the Deep States source of control for a long time, do nothing!

    • MoleMan October 18, 2019 at 11:24 am #

      Phew. I was with you until that last paragraph. I think you are wearing different glasses than I when viewing POTUS. How do you reconcile a warrior against the Deep State who has hired and lost an inordinate number of administrators based on proven corruption/ self-benefit while in office? And, hey, why not host the G7 at my own place (don’t worry about the bill, after my kids’ cut, I’ll send the remainder to the American farmers as a cover for how I’ve been screwing them). Any dismantling of the Deep State by this guy is tangential or accidental at best…he is an AMWAY salesman par excellence.

      • JohnAZ October 18, 2019 at 12:07 pm #

        Your interpretation of Trump is exactly what the Machine wants you to think.

        Compare Trump with the alternative. If you are a socialist in your belief system, you will sign up to every evil finger aimed at him, if you are a staunch capitalist, he does no wrong.

        My belief system is that Trump may be a narcissistic neophyte in DC, he is extremely superior to the alternatives. If you believe otherwise, we agree to disagree.

        • Janos Skorenzy October 18, 2019 at 1:31 pm #

          Compare with the alternative? Bad thinking. First look at him as he in himself. The lesser of two evils is still evil.

          You lack of Any philosophical background is obvious.

          • JohnAZ October 18, 2019 at 1:46 pm #

            And your lack of practicality is alarming. Enjoy your fairy tale world of useless philosophy. Your philosophy is so distorted, I want no part of it anyway.

            When we have two choices, you must choose one. The best one? The lesser of two evils?

            How do you choose perchance?

          • JohnAZ October 18, 2019 at 1:50 pm #

            Oh yeah. I forgot. Your solution is National Socialism. That explains your non-feeling for choice. In your world, there are no choices. Do it my way or I will call you names.

          • spaceis411 October 18, 2019 at 2:08 pm #

            evil is a result of ignorance. less ignorance is preferable to more ignorance.

          • Janos Skorenzy October 18, 2019 at 5:09 pm #

            When presented with two choices? By whom? The media? No, cut the Gordian knot. Knock the game board over. That’s our real choice. You’re lost in relativity. Your Conservatism conserves nothing. It is just the Liberalism of yesteryear.

            The real problem: Conservatives accepted Liberalism as their Star of Truth a long time ago. And without owning it, Liberals as their moral superiors. They offer token resistance, but they follow a decade or so behind. It used to be more but the tokens are getting smaller and smaller.

        • capt spaulding October 18, 2019 at 1:33 pm #

          Not only is Trump a neophyte, he is totally corrupt, and his kids as well. I wonder whether Pence stayed in the Trump Tower while he was in Istanbul.

          • BackRowHeckler October 18, 2019 at 1:40 pm #

            Ah, there it is

            Two minutes hate

            Speaking of Orwell

            Brh

          • Majella October 19, 2019 at 2:53 am #

            RH – you’re really starting to lose it! ‘Two minute hate’??? You’re confusing natural & logical disgust and labeling it ‘hate’

            Hate is a word almost exclusively used by you RWNJs in here. Anyone who expresses a centrist or left-leaning view, is usually – often very quickly viz.your remark above) instantaneously. Apparently, based on the various & repeated accusations posted, I HATE:

            1) white people
            2) the Constitution
            3) conservatives in general
            4) guns
            5) anti-abortion laws…I could go on but what’s the point?

            A) I don’t ‘Hate’ white people. I’m as white as rest of you old coozers, and I don’t even hate you guys, not even the nastiest racists or the blithering neophyte of Janos. I think you’re misled or misguided and sometimes use some sharp words to rebuke, but that’s not ‘hate’

            B) the Constitution is your national founding document. It’s (at least been) a beacon to the world for 250 years. What I see in Trump and his minions, and his ‘base’ (amply represented here) is a distortion of what the Constitution actually is and an unwitting (?) attempt to undermine it.

            C) conservatives in general. No. Again, I know many people who disagree with me on many points about how a nation should self-organize. No problem with them politically or personally. In here though, there’s the Trumpistas who simply use that utterly bullshit ‘RINO’ label. That pisses me off – it’s intellectually lazy and cheap.

            D) you keep and play with as many guns as you like, as long as you keep within the laws of your state. If the laws tighten up, comply or move to Texas.

            E) Anti-abortion laws. Surprisingly possibly to many here, I’m not pro-abortion. I hold yuh at life starts at conception and would, personally never choose an abortion on any ground (it’s academic, of course) . I deplore the idea of abortion as a substitute for contraception, but I cannot in any way demand any ‘right’ to make such a personal decision for anyone else.

          • Nightowl October 19, 2019 at 4:40 am #

            “He is totally corrupt.”

            Evidence of crimes?

            And I thought you said he was broke? How does a broke guy own a luxury hotel in Istanbul?

            I really need this explained.

          • GreenAlba October 19, 2019 at 8:29 am #

            “How does a broke guy own a luxury hotel in Istanbul?”

            Same way I ‘owned’ my first house immediately after I signed the missives, I expect, but I’m not getting into the actual argument!

          • Nightowl October 19, 2019 at 3:55 pm #

            Evidence GA?

            You also own hotels and golf courses?

          • Janos Skorenzy October 19, 2019 at 4:48 pm #

            You don’t understand our Laws. They can’t outlaw guns because they didn’t grant the Right to Bear them. They recognized the pre-existing Right was already in place.

            In other words, If G, then G. If God, then Guns.

            Also, If G, then no G when the G stand for Gays and God.

      • elysianfield October 18, 2019 at 1:18 pm #

        MM,
        “Buy American” to become a reality again will not be accomplished without pain.

        • Majella October 19, 2019 at 8:47 am #

          You’ll be happy with an inferior product at twice the price then! Great.

          • elysianfield October 19, 2019 at 11:35 am #

            Majella,
            Twice the price might be the standard, but since when has “Made in China” been an imprimatur of quality?

            You have enjoyed the results of offshoring, as have I…however, the luster of goods marked “imported” has become tarnished in the last half-century. Your next purchase of rubber novelties, we would hope, will say “Proudly made in the USA”….

          • Majella October 19, 2019 at 9:35 pm #

            I guess I’m thinking of US autos in the 80s & thereabouts as the Japanese invaded the global market with well-engineered, reliable and relatively cheap alternatives.

            Now it’s Toyota, BMW et al that are ‘proudly made in the USA’

      • Janos Skorenzy October 18, 2019 at 1:30 pm #

        Yes, Trump held a meeting with Media people about censorship online. Not one critic of these people was present. Trump doesn’t know any critics. He’s only about “winners”. No fundamental change can ever come from someone like this.

        If everything is privately owned, with no “commons”, then free speech died in the public square. Because there is no public square anymore. Trump is far too ignorant and selfish to understand that, or if he does, to do anything about it. He doesn’t want to offend his peers, the Class Tyrants.

      • Nightowl October 18, 2019 at 5:19 pm #

        Spoon fed the corporate media narrative.

        How do folks like you even find this site?

    • Nightowl October 18, 2019 at 11:26 am #

      On the other hand, if the Internet and computers had never existed, we would not have access to the “truth” with regard to may of the subjects discussed here.

      Critical thinking is always going to be in short supply. I would much rather have a wide range of information available that may or may not contain truth r than to go the other direction

      One of the biggest threats modern society faces is, in fact, control of the free flow of information on the Internet. What would replace it? We have more access to the truth now than ever before.

      • JohnAZ October 18, 2019 at 12:02 pm #

        The truth, or somebody’s interpretation of the truth.

        Maybe ignorance was bliss?

      • BackRowHeckler October 18, 2019 at 1:38 pm #

        That’s true. How would I know that right now in Antarctica its -56°F?

        Greta and GA claim glaciers are melting in Anarctica. I would have to believe them.

        Brh

      • MoleMan October 18, 2019 at 9:09 pm #

        Spoonfed narrative? I’m talking about looking over the public information available on Trump’s multiple bankruptcies and his own claims in interviews, etc. Am I supposed to not evaluate the man on his own word? What else is there?

        And in response to your Internet/wide range of information post, I’ll defer to the old words of Plato (commenting on writing, which held true to an extent, and which we can apply to information vs. wisdom in the Internet age as well. There are subtleties for sure, and there are benefits to this technology, but to give a blanket–“I’d rather have a wide range of information”–feels a tad foolish to this old gadfly):

        “And as for wisdom, your pupils will have the reputation for it without the reality: they will receive a quantity of information without proper instruction, and in consequence be thought very knowledgeable when they are for the most part quite ignorant. And because they are filled with the conceit of wisdom instead of real wisdom they will be a burden to society.”

        • Nightowl October 19, 2019 at 4:23 am #

          You are free to evaluate him on his word, but your posts here are largely word salads, free of evidence.

          What crimes has Trump committed? Provide concrete evidence.

          • Majella October 19, 2019 at 8:53 am #

            Same old line of ‘offended’ buulshit from you, Nightowl. Clearly, if you’re accessing the same information – public record and Trump’s ow words but see a Svoronata-hero, then all your education has been wasted. Demand a refund!

          • Majella October 19, 2019 at 8:54 am #

            …saviour/hero…

          • Nightowl October 19, 2019 at 3:52 pm #

            What crimes has Trump committed?

            This must be the 15th time I’ve asked.

          • Majella October 19, 2019 at 4:36 pm #

            Any lust of crimes will be simply denounced by you as ‘fake’ and/or still in-evidenced. However, no-one here has the resources to meet your faux demands. It’s a canard.

          • Nightowl October 20, 2019 at 3:28 pm #

            Tumbleweeds …

          • Majella October 20, 2019 at 5:33 pm #

            SDNY…

          • Majella October 20, 2019 at 6:31 pm #

            How about tax & bank fraud? You know, the reasons Manafort & Cohen are currently doing time…

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REMOC7vBLRY

    • Janos Skorenzy October 18, 2019 at 1:25 pm #

      True. All the technology in the world hasn’t helped you realize that Capitalism isn’t going to save us or gotten you out of your Left/Right paradigm. Until you do, they have you. You are owned.

    • Georgie October 19, 2019 at 7:45 pm #

      JohnAZ, since you are apparently adverse to “socialism” in so many of your posts, are you over age 65? If so, call the Medicare office post haste and relinquish all your benefits because it’s socialized medicine. So to be consistent, don’t partake of this socialistic benefit. If you are under 65, please tell the government you will be declining ALL of your Medicare benefits once you reach the magic age. Socialism for the little people is quite beneficent and makes for a better society; you should know that as a nurse. Corporate socialism, practiced rampantly in this sorry country, not so much.

  18. Luhrenloup October 18, 2019 at 11:31 am #

    As Hillary recently commented about the Ukrainegate brouhaha, There he goes again, using a foreign country to win the 2020 election!
    All of the Mueller investigation seems to have slipped her mind. We have reached the Josef Goebbels stage of repeating something long enough to make it fact. Russiagate still lives in the heart of liberal America.

    • Luhrenloup October 18, 2019 at 6:18 pm #

      She is now claiming that Tulsi Gabbard is being groomed by the Russians, and Jill Stein of the Green Party is a totally Russian asset! It appears Hillary’s behind all the msm’s Tulsi is a Russian Asset accusations.

      • Majella October 19, 2019 at 8:56 am #

        Screw Hillary. She’s as irrelevant to the discourse as you or me. She’s done and won’t becoming back.

        • Rulo Deschamps October 19, 2019 at 11:45 am #

          In fact, she’s less relevant: I read and think about what both of you say. I may or may not agree, but think about it carefully. Anything she has to say, on the other hand, is just background noise to be ignored.

          • Luhrenloup October 19, 2019 at 12:57 pm #

            you are wrong Monsieur Deschamps; Clinton power with the people may be next to zero, but they are not the ones who make decisions about what the elite geopolitical power in this world wants and gets. As a matter of fact, the people don’t even get to choose who will be president. Have you checked out how the DNC together with the MSM is maneuvering who will become their candidate?
            Why do you think the elites still hand out huge sums to hear the Clintons speak?

  19. RB October 18, 2019 at 11:33 am #

    Well golly gee. When I was young, long, long ago, we could only get our lies from one major newspaper and 3 tv networks. Then there was Miss Jessie who listened in on the party line. Who knew she presaged NSA? Now, we can get more lies from more sources. Ain’t that progress? All the folks with a nanny complex can be heard whether we like it or not. It is all noise. Imagine if the communications infrastructure existed during the Civil War. The folks back home might have gotten a different idea on the wisdom of the whole affair. Oh well, the folks with power continue to oversee the slaughter of others while getting richer by the body. I think I will have a drink or two earlier today. Nobody gonna be prosecuted. Not ever.

    • JohnAZ October 18, 2019 at 12:10 pm #

      What is in the internet is a mixture of fact and opinion. When opinion becomes the majority, the Truth becomes irrelevant. Whatever truth is?

      Proof of the pudding, cable news.

      • capt spaulding October 18, 2019 at 1:38 pm #

        Nowadays, the truth is whatever you agree with, everything else is lies, like the drive by media Rush is always bleating about. The only truth is what he and Hannity say it is.

        • Nightowl October 18, 2019 at 5:09 pm #

          Unfortunately, that is what your practitioners of “accountability journalism” believe.

          The truth is objective and verifiable, and not based on your feelings.

          • Majella October 19, 2019 at 8:58 am #

            Pity you seem incapable of accessing this objective truth.

          • Nightowl October 19, 2019 at 3:58 pm #

            Any updates on crimes? Evidence?

            No?

  20. 100th Avatar October 18, 2019 at 11:53 am #

    Excellent post.
    Reporting.. a lost art.
    Reading about the supposed hijinks at CNN where content priority is determined by its extreme sensationalism and hence click-baitability, it reminds one that the public, the infotainment consumer, is complicit, because as Zapffe reminds us:

    “Most people learn to save themselves by artificially limiting the content of consciousness”

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    • sprawlcapital October 19, 2019 at 1:24 am #

      Avatar–
      That quote from Zapffe is excellent. All of Kunstler’s writings, especially the World Made by Hand books, show a consciousness of where our poorly chosen arrangements for living are going to take us. The majority, who remain oblivious to all this, may have saved themselves for now, but their happiness will prove fleeting.

      In addition to concerns about the way we live in suburban dystopias, I have grave concerns about the effects of genetic engineering technology on life itself. We are approaching Huxley’s Brave New World, but much worse. Will there be anything left of nature if we engineer all of life? A genetically-engineered world is not one I want to live in.

      • 100th Avatar October 20, 2019 at 8:22 am #

        And neither do many, again this leads to the untethering.
        Unable to anchor or to find a stable place to anchor in this increasingly synthetic existence, we have coping mechanism failure in man. As information outruns the innately human ability to categorize and protect, all the old protections fail: religion, home, diversion, even art/sublimation.
        We in turn have batshit crazies.
        With a natural world on way to cataclysmic ruin, a social order in end stages on way to failure, and with much of what constitutes human existence uploaded into the ether.. man turns to opioids or a life of greed and decadence to ensure his time in the now is well played.
        Soon, with all coping mechanisms lost, man will embrace the post human existence. Engineered and hybridized. Uploaded and on a cloud. It’s the next way out of the misery of our existence, of our creation

  21. volodya October 18, 2019 at 1:19 pm #

    What boggles the mind about the messing up is the sheer scale and comprehensiveness of it. It’s not just a few absurdities here and there, so many major fields of endeavor are utterly and irretrievably screwed, a few decades of easy living based on abundant oil inculcating slovenly living habits and sloppy thinking which in turn bequeathed unworkable economic arrangements, irreparable personal and public finances, with delusional educators at all levels encouraging the abandonment of knowledge and reason for their opposites which, of course, is the opposite of what they’re mandated to do. 

    And, as JHK points out, the magnum opus of our civilizational clusterfuck, the internet, the electronic storage tank for our lunacies, whether personal or business or large or small or public or private. No detail seems to be too tiny to be overlooked by this technological monstrosity, so while it nets the minnows as well as the whales, we’re so bedazzled by the minnows that we manage to overlook the whales.

    Maybe the minnows are more interesting. So while people obsess over their “smart” devices, pissing away time checking the screen multiple times every hour, the large issues of national life stay unexamined. Nothing changes, like the mis-education of youngsters, the pervasiveness of precarious work, the mill-stone of student debt and the gigantic misallocation of resources to an increasingly toxic financial sector. And then there’s a catastrophic health-care system which, like the “educational” system, does nothing of the sort, delivering not much resembling “health” or “care” but rather anxiety and financial distress.

    The mutilation of logic and reason and the re-invention of fact is what the shot-callers do nowadays, but the more they indulge in these fantasies of Russians and stolen elections, the more the real world with all its exigencies slips their grasp. That wouldn’t be a bad thing but a good thing, as it inevitably spells the end of an incompetent, self-dealing elite. 

    Nobody in his right mind, let alone la creme de la creme of the Deep State, seriously believes that Trump and his boys conspired with Russians. If they do, then they need a time-out in a mental health facility. Not even a reasonably astute fifteen year old would fall for this nonsense.

    But they told the lie and having insisted that this is what happened, they have to back it up with tight, credible narratives and with supporting testimony and hard evidence even if it’s all cut from whole cloth. They failed most spectacularly, never telling a plausible falsehood, never supporting it, never mind the resources at their disposal. 

    And the mainstream media blew it even worse, failing to apply even a modicum of common sense in analyzing the various yarns being spun. It was laughable, all we heard was “this is it”, “the walls are closing in”, “we’ve reached a turning point”, none of which came to pass. A complete joke. 

    So we read that overseas, especially in China, they’re incredulous, they’re laughing. The American brain-trust better start to pay attention because being laughed at is not good. Any kid in a school yard will tell you. 

    • Sam Stone October 18, 2019 at 2:53 pm #

      Good post Volodya. Our host writes another exceptional article and then a plethora of great responses follows. A good day in the CFN Salon.

    • sprawlcapital October 18, 2019 at 4:12 pm #

      “health” or “care”
      ==============

      What a health “care” provider really cares about is their checking account. I exaggerate only slightly.

      • Sam Stone October 18, 2019 at 6:13 pm #

        So you don’t care about your checking account? Do you work for free? Are you willing to work for free?

        • sprawlcapital October 19, 2019 at 1:41 am #

          Very funny, Sam. A visit to any US emergency room will result in bills that are so far beyond working for free as to be pure racketeering and extortion, all done in collusion with insurance companies.

          I’m retired now, but when I worked, it was honest work, with a lot of heavy lifting that damaged my health.

          I hope you do not have to go to a hospital anytime soon, but if you do. you will see what I’m talking about.

          • Sam Stone October 19, 2019 at 5:20 pm #

            I am not being funny in the least. Over the last 9 years, after being forced to medically retire from my “hard working” job as a long haul trucker (O/O), a career I loved I might add, I have spent one hell of a lot of time in hospitals, and various Doctor’s offices. I lost my private health insurance because of Obama Care and am inches away from bankruptcy. So yeah I have a pretty darn good idea of health care costs.

            I’m not going to bore all here with my personal problems but suffice it to say my health problems are as serious as it gets. I am not suppose to even be here among the living but this old trucker isn’t going down easy.

            All the health care providers I have dealt with have been wonderful, hard working, and professional as all get out. They work hard for their living. The problem isn’t with health care providers. The problem is with the incessant government meddling, Obama care in particular, and our litigous society that has driven costs into the stratosphere.

            I am sorry that heavy lifting contributed to your own health problems. It is very possible our paths have crossed at some time in the last several decades as I have delivered to every conceivable type of dock, building, construction site, hospital, school, govt facility, warehouse, tradeshow, airport, on and on ad nauseum, one can imagine.

          • Majella October 20, 2019 at 5:36 pm #

            Sam Stone

            You say ” I lost my private health insurance because of Obama Care” – can you please explain to me how that could have happened? It’s not that I doubt you – I simply can’t understand what process could result in that outcome.

  22. sevensec October 18, 2019 at 1:24 pm #

    Well, the entire “aura” of the digital world is recursive–based on simulation, replay, duplication. This leads to an infinite feedback loop of delusional screen-based navel-gazing, focused mostly on the minutiae of the near-past at the expense of the present. It’s deeply postmodern, right up to the implicit idea that simulation is ultimately no less valuable or even no different from reality.

    I think the logical endpoint of this drift, and what will blow it sky-high finally, is the wide adoption of GANs, a.k.a. Generative Adversarial Networks or “deepfakes”.

    GANs are a big-data/AI technique that has recently come of age, which basically allows you to generate near-indistinguishable digital simulacra of peoples’ faces, movements, and voices based on samples of their actual voice/appearance.

    For examples of GANs at work, you can find a recent short video where words are put in the mouth of an eerily believable simulated Obama. There’s also ‘thispersondoesnotexist.com’, which generates—from the Void, as it were—often perfectly believable faces of people who, well… do not exist. Lastly I believe there was recently a website that allowed you to type in anything you want, and have it spoken in Jordan Peterson’s voice, but I think it was since taken down after legal threats by JBP.

    Up till now, though the Internet may have been a hypnotic swamp of banalities and infra-cultural excreta and “fake news”, the underlying assumption still endured that if you see a video of someone, or hear a recording of them, then that ultimately must trace back to some actual event outside of the digital realm. In short, we intuitively still take videos and audio recordings as *evidence* that something “really happened”, something which meaningfully corresponds to what’s in the video.

    Watch for that last vestige of realism on the Internet to fall apart as the GANs take over. Increasingly, the existence of a video or picture on the Internet won’t just require that you should be skeptical as to how it was edited, scripted, etc.—it will require that you doubt that it has any basis in any actual reality at all. (The alternative will be to deny once and for all the existence of any such thing as *actual reality*—something many postmodernists and leftists are already champing at the bit to do.)

    • Janos Skorenzy October 18, 2019 at 1:36 pm #

      Well said. The hate objectivity and all the White racist stuff. No more math once Whitey goes. No laws of physics. Blacks will be able to fly once Whites aren’t here to hold them down. Just like O’Brien told Winston about how he could float up to the ceiling if he wanted to; but only if the Party needed him to do so of course.

    • spaceis411 October 18, 2019 at 2:11 pm #

      when has reality ever been anything else?

      we do not see things as they are; we see things as we are.

      • Janos Skorenzy October 18, 2019 at 5:05 pm #

        In other words, you are floating around your room in the lotus posture right now. Or you could if the Party wanted you or filmed you doing it. 0 for 2. Keep it up.

        • malthuss October 18, 2019 at 8:49 pm #

          Years back, you mentioned a song and what you felt it meant.

          I was reading about the great Stephen Foster and he inspired a more recent song, by one B. Hilliard.

          Sure enough, BH is from Tin Pan Alley.

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

  23. JohnAZ October 18, 2019 at 1:34 pm #

    Zuckerberg has done an interview where he has said that there should be no manipulation of the internet and that political opinion should be uncensored. He said that the reading individual should be the determiner of Truth.

    Absolutely right. It takes away the power of all the Silicon Valley political correctness. Kamala Harris wants to cancel Trump’s ability to Tweet, who exactly does she think she is. And is she willing to give up her access to the internet? Such a grab for power.

    No censorship, no directing data flow, anybody’s opinion is allowable, even foreign. It is up to the voter to make themselves informed.

    In other words, a truly Free Press, not this fiasco we have now.

    • malthuss October 18, 2019 at 8:50 pm #

      You jest. I was censored on fakebook, as have 1000s ro millions have been censored or white listed.
      [they luv blacks and hate Whites].

  24. capt spaulding October 18, 2019 at 1:54 pm #

    Just read that the Kurds are “happy” with Trump’s cease fire, in fact ,they are suggesting that he be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. “Trump has broken new ground in the Middle East, and should be admired for what he has done for the benefit of the Kurdish people, indeed, the whole world”, said one of the leaders of the Kurds, between exchanges of artillery fire with the Turks.

  25. Robert White October 18, 2019 at 3:13 pm #

    The CIA & NSA have always been overarching & authoritative in the extreme. Around election time they are always enmeshed in investigations of either Democrats or Republicans and therefore cannot be considered to be unbiased in whatever approach they take. Clearly, the last election gambit of FBI & CIA/NSA was sidelined by Republican tactical superiority in their War Room.

    Aside from impeachment, it is clear that the Democrats have a very good chance of beating the Republican Party outright for the next electoral round but the fly in the ointment of elections is necessarily the law enforcement branch of governance which is why they are always caught hands-in-the-cookie-jar via some sort of technological leak or slight-of-hand.

    Republicans are looking for 30,000 emails & Democrats have Intelligence Officers poised to provide testimony for impeachment proceedings. Not much actually unifies the political spectrum for these two camps except maybe the attainment of majority government which is next to impossible when the nation is evenly split along fault lines of party talking points.

    Middle America seems to be left out of the calculations for politics & power as it becomes one-upmanship between competing War Room tacticians and not actually their prospective candidates. The rallying cry from the top down is to support leadership at a cost to the followers that must place their bets upon the work of the War Room tacticians instead of the candidates they promote.

    Looking beyond the political spectrum to the fields of populations that depend upon the leadership we evidence the schism between the haves & have nots.

    The haves want more of the same and the have nots just want to attain power no matter how fleeting attainment may be. Political entrenchment exists along every class line and will always exist if competition for power is incentivized via a voting process that picks winners & losers every four years without much in the way of content for electoral process to run on. In brief, the rich & middle class voter typically makes determination for POTUS instead of the working class voter that does not vote en masse as the wealth extracting class does.

    With superpacks defining electoral outcomes via dollar funding we can conclude that only the corporatists of America actually control the outcomes via the messaging & commercial journalism.

    Alternative voices need not apply it would seem.

    Snowden has been rendered voiceless as leadership speaks for the deep state & vice versa. The corporatist feedback loop never looks at real life issues, or facts.

    RW

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    • JohnAZ October 18, 2019 at 3:35 pm #

      Wow! Great post!

      The formation of the Deep State was and is the separation (and eventual elimination) of the middle class from the ruling glass. Look at the way things are going. The financial power structure is in two places NY and DC. Obama was owned by Wall Street. The emphasis on consumerism keeps the flow of capital upward. Income inequality is a fact. The best evidence is California, but it is in evidence everywhere.

      So what is the goal. Where do we seem to be heading?

      The people in DC are interested in one thing, power. They do not care about the public. The Elite want their power and the rest of us as serfs. Feudalism. You cannot have a middle class competing with you as the ruling elite so they must be eliminated. You want an explanation of why the Deep State wants an open border, there you go. More serfs, less competition.

      Another idea. When the two sides get to 50% each, the vote is obsoleted. So how do we effect change? Impeachment and assassination. Our vote counting systems are incapable of telling the real difference between winners and losers, so it takes recounts and the SCOTUS to tell who won.

      • Robert White October 18, 2019 at 5:38 pm #

        Lehman Moment ushered in Democrat administration given that McCain & Bush had no plan of action to ameliorate the banking crisis whereas Obama was fully prepped by UBS Chairman Robert Wolf and Geithner before his inauguration. Wolf rode in the limo with Obama to his inaugural.

        Geithner is a Robert Rubin, Alan Greenspan, Larry Summers protégé. The Committee to Rule the World decided that Obama was their guy when it became clear that the Republican Party had no chance of beating Obama. McCain publically called for cessation of his campaign so that Congress could convene on the banking crisis but when he attended the meeting that Bush called in the White House he was only prepared to play checkers instead of chess which was what Obama was playing for the meeting with the president.

        Bush actually walked out of the meeting in disgust over the name calling and derision that was levied at McCain for not having any sort of plan at all. McCain was ambushed via a lack of preparation for that meeting and Obama was unanimously considered presidential material in all the eye of those in attendance.

        Republicans were declaring that even they were going to vote for Obama after that meeting where McCain was completely unprepared.

        I have always believed that UBS Chair Wolf was behind the allegiance to the Democrats post Lehman.

        Republicans had no chance at all of beating Obama and they all knew it all too well upon exit of the Bush meeting at the White House.

        The bankers played the politicians & Congress like a fiddle.

        RW

        • hmuller October 18, 2019 at 6:32 pm #

          I think they are getting ready to do it again. The FED repo market intervention and resumption of QE (by whatever name they want to call it) is growing exponentially every day.

          This latest iteration of the FED creating money to buy “impaired” debt instruments from banks just started a month ago. It indicates a financial meltdown – credit crisis is coming.

          The system is a bigger mess than is generally known. Brokerages and banks buy and sell Treasuries and shares over and over which are many times rehypothecated. In other words, they are selling crap which doesn’t even exist except in their computers as notional derivatives.

          But wait, it gets worse! Nearly all actual corporate shares are the legal property of Cede & company, a Delaware corporation owned by the Rothschilds. They own your shares; good luck when the shit hits the fan!

          But don’t believe me. Here is what the MSM Wikipedia says

          “Cede and Company, also known as “Cede and Co.” or “Cede & Co.”, is a specialist United States financial institution that processes transfers of stock certificates on behalf of Depository Trust Company, the central securities depository used by the United States National Market System, which includes the New York Stock Exchange, Nasdaq, and other exchanges together with associated clearinghouses such as NSCC, FICC, DTCC, and others.[1]

          Cede technically owns substantially all of the publicly issued stock in the United States.[2] Thus, investors do not themselves hold direct property rights in stock, but rather have contractual rights that are part of a chain of contractual rights involving Cede

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

          • Robert White October 18, 2019 at 7:59 pm #

            REPO is sclerotic due to Federal Reserve hesitancy on announcing QE-Infinity which will signal to markets that recession is certain for the Great Unwashed. We already know that QE-Infinity is certain but Chair Powell thinks he can obfuscate around it with overnight REPO operations to the tune of $60 + billion per night.

            The White House & Federal Reserve know that they are backstopping all the bad non-performing loans that are emanating out of the broker/dealer non-bank money markets that can no longer forestall the defaults without free money from the Federal Reserve taps on overnight lending.

            If the USA Fed announces QE 4 it will signal no holds barred recession which spells certain disaster for that fat guy with the big mouth in the White House eating BIG Macs and expecting yet another electoral round of international histrionics via the twittersphere.

            The new IMF Chair is calling for a China USA trade truce.

            Guaranteed that Elizabeth Warren will be the next POTUS.

            I know Rothschild Bank is the little man behind the curtain in the Wizard of Oz. Elizabeth Warren is Dorothy & the Federal Reserve is the Cowardly Lion. Trump is the Tin Man and Pence is the Scarecrow.

            The Wicked Witch has to be Hillary Clinton, and Maxine Waters can play the Good Witch of the North.

            Dorothy [Warren] makes it back to Kansas [White House].

            Toto too!

            RW

          • hmuller October 18, 2019 at 9:19 pm #

            Maxine Waters as the good witch?! Not in my version of OZ.

            But as an aside. someone pointed out that Glinda – good witch of the north – may have been Oz’s most crafty power grabber.

            She maneuvered Dorothy into dropping a house on one witch, murdering another witch, and then persuading the Wizard to permanently leave Oz. All this leaves Glinda and her diabolical munchkins in charge.

            Is it any coincidence that the Treasury Secretary is named Steve Munchkin? Food for thought!

        • JohnAZ October 18, 2019 at 7:46 pm #

          McCain was a fence sitter, the “Maverick”. He probably did not have a position in the meeting.

          Recessions erase part of the imaginary house of cards of finance, ie Wall Street. The lost money needs to be regenerated which QE was all about. So what was the result?

          Trillions of phony dollars was injected into the system until the clowns on Wall Street got their confidence back. Obama was a dupe of Wall Street but he had no choice.

          To the tune of $10 trillion during the Obama era.

          What is that injection of money called now? The National debt.

          And yes it is just paper. The Fed just refinanced the lost house of cards section into debt over 30 years.

          And we just kept on spending.

          • Robert White October 18, 2019 at 8:03 pm #

            We should start a bank.

            RW

  26. Frank October 18, 2019 at 3:15 pm #

    Excellent James, forumm moderation second only to todays musings

  27. sprawlcapital October 18, 2019 at 3:27 pm #

    So, the final act in the collapse of the USA will be the government choking itself to death on replayed narratives from its own server farms.
    ======================================================

    I appreciate that JHK referred to data centers as server farms, because of the extreme irony: these “farms” destroy large amounts of farmland and they destroy the real, productive farms that were supported by that land.

    Here in Iowa, the tech giants get to do some serious greenwashing, since they can run their data centers on renewable energy–wind-generated electric power. I discussed here recently the damage that windmills do to land. Each wind generator takes about two acres of land.

    The areas being taken for data centers are large. Apple recently announced plans to purchase 2000 acres near Des Moines, Iowa’s capital, to construct a $1.4 billion, 400,000 square foot data center. Facebook and Microsoft are also major players in the rush to convert the best farmland on earth to data “farms”.

    A story from the 1961-62 school year at Merrill Junior high, now middle school. It was the fall semester, as I recall, and our 7th grade geography teacher told the class, “The richest square mile on earth is just north of Des Moines.” Our teacher was not talking about gold, or silver, or diamonds, or oil. He was talking about rich farmland.

    The richest farmland and the most greedy destroyers of that land. Now you can understand why I call Des Moines the Sprawl Capital of the world.

    • BackRowHeckler October 18, 2019 at 7:10 pm #

      Very disturbing, SC.

      We are being told now that ‘renewables’ will be replacing ‘fossil fuels’ in the near future to meet the energy needs of the United States. Really, how wonderful that will be. Then I read an article in National Review stating that to replace the current energy produced by coal, oil, and natgas, windmills and solar panels would need to cover about 1/2 of the existing landmass of the lower 48. The country would become jungle of electrical apparatus, with no room for anything else.

      Brh

      • JohnAZ October 18, 2019 at 7:32 pm #

        Solar farms everywhere! Guess we will have to farm crops elsewhere.

        • BackRowHeckler October 18, 2019 at 7:54 pm #

          On Mars?

          • JohnAZ October 19, 2019 at 10:13 am #

            Remember Matt Damon in “The Martian”.

            Remember how he grew potatoes?

            The true meaning of recycling?

    • tucsonspur October 18, 2019 at 7:21 pm #

      Right on, SC. We also like to ‘farm’ out jobs, as if we’re actually growing something good.

    • SoftStarLight October 19, 2019 at 3:37 am #

      “Green energy” generating technologies as they are now would poison, pollute, and result in the paving over of much of the landscape. It would be a grotesque 21st century version of the dirtiest 19th century industrialscape but worse. The Truest and Toothiest of True Green believers don’t won’t any part of cleaner traditional or “green” energy. They want a return to the Stone Age and for like 95% of the world’s population to be eliminated. The suffering to get there is worth it to them. Simple collateral.

      • BackRowHeckler October 19, 2019 at 5:00 am #

        Quite true, SSL.

        I’ve suspected the same thing myself.

        The anti world thugs shutting down London purportedly over ‘Climate’ are clearly ‘Hostis Humani Generis’, enemies of the human race … whose goal seems to be the end of Western Civilization.

        Brh

      • GreenAlba October 19, 2019 at 9:56 am #

        SSL

        ” It would be a grotesque 21st century version of the dirtiest 19th century industrialscape but worse.”

        Why the 19th century? This is now:

        https://insideclimatenews.org/news/25072018/appalachia-mountaintop-removal-coal-strip-mining-satellite-maps-environmental-impacts-data

        • GreenAlba October 19, 2019 at 10:03 am #

          And I know China is still building coal plants, but they’re beating you hands down in solar power.

        • GreenAlba October 19, 2019 at 12:16 pm #

          http://post.queensu.ca/~pearl/oilsands/SurfaceSummerHigh.jpg

          We shouldn’t forget the very 21st century bucolic delights of the Athabasca tar sands. Goodness knows when anyone will want to drink the water in that area.

        • SoftStarLight October 19, 2019 at 4:15 pm #

          Because I like thinking about the 19th century I guess, but also that is the time when industrialization was accelerating exponentially and there wasn’t environmental regulations, etc. So in some places it was a very dirty and dingy time, like in London no? I dunno Alba. A hillside full of solar panels is ugly, like a billowing smokestack is ugly. At least IMO. Both alter the environment.

          • Majella October 19, 2019 at 4:49 pm #

            Right SSL, but aesthetically ugly is not enough of a reason to condemn such structures on environmental grounds.

            There’s often put up the argument that amount of fossil fuels is required to build this green renewable generation technology. However, Once the carbon/oil has been expended – or actually invested – in creating that facility, thereafter it runs carbon-free

          • SoftStarLight October 20, 2019 at 9:05 pm #

            Actually I am pretty sure you’ll expend carbon and fossil fuels in the maintenance and repair of the panels, turbines, etc.

          • GreenAlba October 21, 2019 at 6:20 am #

            Best to leverage it, then, SSL, so the accessible stuff lasts as long as possible and does less damage than it might. We’ll miss it when we don’t have it for medicines.

  28. JohnAZ October 18, 2019 at 3:39 pm #

    Well, well. HRC just insinuated that Tulsi Gabbard is a Russian plant, and is being groomed by the Trumpers and Russia to run as a third party candidate to allow Trump to win. She said that Jill Stein was the same.

    This lady is insane. It gives me the shivers to think she almost became president.

    Think she is ready to run?

    • Nightowl October 18, 2019 at 5:15 pm #

      Tulsi’s reply to her on Twitter:

      “Great! Thank you @HillaryClinton. You, the queen of warmongers, embodiment of corruption, and personification of the rot that has sickened the Democratic Party for so long, have finally come out from behind the curtain…”

      🙂

      • hmuller October 18, 2019 at 9:09 pm #

        Nightowl, I thought that twitter message was a joke you wrote up. Now I see Tulsi actually wrote that. I’m stunned. A Democratic candidate who actually tells Hillary and the world in blunt language the way it is. To quote Oprah, “You Go, Girl!”

        This will certainly help set Gabbard apart from the pack. She’s ready to toss the old witch aside and take the party in a new direction. I think a lot of people agree with that. Now stick a knife into that doddering, corrupt Biden and the people will shout with jubilation.

        • Nightowl October 19, 2019 at 4:11 am #

          I never joke about this kind of stuff. 🙂 I am not entirely sure if Tulsi truly has the backbone to stand up to the neo-con/neo-lib machine in the long term, but I’ve liked what I’ve seen for quite some time.

          Also, if you liked that, you may want to watch (or revisit, if you have seen it), Trump do the same to Clinton at the Al Smith charity dinner.

          This was brutal:

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

      • Majella October 19, 2019 at 9:18 am #

        Go Tulsi!

      • malthuss October 19, 2019 at 10:41 am #

        She might be murdered.

        • hmuller October 19, 2019 at 11:33 am #

          The MSM will call it a suicide.

    • hmuller October 18, 2019 at 6:10 pm #

      Yes JohnAZ, I had to chuckle when I read Hillary’s latest paranoid conspiracy theory. Oh My God, Russian agents everywhere! One has to wonder: why does the MSM keep treating her like a sane, reputable person we should listen to?

      And Quick Joey, forgive me I’m terrible with initials. Who is E.C.?

      • Quick Joey Small October 18, 2019 at 6:49 pm #

        A recently deceased person of congress

        • hmuller October 18, 2019 at 7:29 pm #

          OK I understand now. Didn’t know that’s what killed him.

          • hmuller October 18, 2019 at 8:04 pm #

            Although it’s hard to imagine Billary having sex with E.C. I have old shoes that look better.

      • Walter B October 18, 2019 at 6:50 pm #

        “One has to wonder: why does the MSM keep treating her like a sane, reputable person we should listen to? ”

        Fear! They want to live.

        • JohnAZ October 18, 2019 at 7:22 pm #

          The power structure of this country fears her. Why? What does she have over the Deep State? Dig into this and one might find what is ailing this country. Could it be that the head man in charge might have multi-focal control of the Deep State? Finca would say that person is HRC and her Black Project. I think it may be bigger than her. That is the real source of fear.

          • hmuller October 18, 2019 at 7:28 pm #

            People can mock me, but I think there are powers beyond flesh and blood involved.

          • Walter B October 18, 2019 at 7:42 pm #

            Mock you? I could not agree more with you, “for we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high place.”

          • hmuller October 18, 2019 at 8:09 pm #

            If you mention the elite being mixed up with occultism, Luciferianism, and pedophilia, people will declare you ready for a rubber room at the asylum. But even in the MSM the evidence, the bread crumbs, are there if you look.

            The celebrity occult symbolism is truly “in our face” but most people don’t know what they are seeing, unschooled in such arcane topics.

          • JohnAZ October 18, 2019 at 8:26 pm #

            Mock you?

            The advent of the perversity in our society, the pedophilia, woman abuse, human trafficking, and drugs has increased with the ascent of the Progressive Left for the last fifty years. It started in the middle sixties, the drug part at least. When I graduated high school in 65, there was no apparent drug usage. Four years later, my sister graduated and the drugs had saturated in the school nabbing her in the process. Four years!

            Why is there not a huge human outcry coming from the population of this country? Because a lot of them are in it, and the Deep State has become wealthy because of it.

            Maybe one of the hate reasons for Trump by the DS is that he is anti-booze, drugs.

            Sidebar

            The Mexican authorities just released the son of El Chapo. Surprise, I think we ought to celebrate by allowing in another 100000 of these fine people from Cartel country.

          • hmuller October 18, 2019 at 9:00 pm #

            The Mexican Narco-Lords are well armed thanks to Obama’s AG Eric Holder. Operation Fast and Furious – a little matter you won’t hear Democrats discussing. That arrogant shit (Holder) should be in jail instead of going around inciting violence against Trump supporters.

          • Walter B October 18, 2019 at 9:23 pm #

            Where is the best place to hide something hmuller? Why right in front of our faces of course! When a truth is so foul, so evil the masses will see around it or ignore it completely rather than acknowledge it, but you know that, don’t you my friend?

          • elysianfield October 19, 2019 at 12:11 pm #

            “Where is the best place to hide something hmuller?”

            Walter,
            Permit me. In law enforcement, it was a long held belief that to hide something from a criminal, you should put it under a Bible or a bar of soap….

        • tucsonspur October 18, 2019 at 7:23 pm #

          Does she own the croak machine?

    • Steveplustax October 19, 2019 at 7:21 am #

      David Duke certainly thinks so!

    • Majella October 20, 2019 at 6:01 pm #

      This topic arose on Bill Maher Overtime this weekend, where two guests were Susan Rice (an insider for sure) and one Danielle Pletka, a YP at the American Enterprise Institute, a climate denier, and rabid right-winger.

      It is briefly touched upon at 6:20:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nqb6SFCYUUY

      The view of Tulsi of these two women is the polar opposite of that expressed herein, and most interestingly to me, Susan Rice casually implies that Hillary is correct.

      This is confusing – here an insider Democrat appears to be in total agreement with a right-wing apologist with a high pedigree. Anyone care to speculate on the potential meaning of such strange bedfellows?

      • hmuller October 21, 2019 at 12:37 am #

        Attaching the word “rabid” (as in insane with rabies) to anyone with a conservative viewpoint won’t win you my admiration.

        The answer to your question is so simple and obvious, I’m stunned you can’t see it. Try harder to think, Majella.!

  29. tucsonspur October 18, 2019 at 7:02 pm #

    Let’s take this to another level like the movie “Brainstorm” did back in the eighties.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rILGlZFg-7s

    You use a brain state recorder to record a person’s brain activity, then play it back and experience that person’s life from their own view point.

    A life completely encoded and recorded, ready for playback so that you can live the life of another. You become that person.

    You can just imagine how it would be ‘wearing’ the recordings of certain people. How about Trump to keep it timely? How about Leonardo or Newton, etc., etc., if that were possible?

    But what would happen to your brain? Would it get scrambled? What would the quantum interactions be?

    Go to the “Life” Library, take a person out, but don’t forget to return him. Maybe he or she won’t return you?

    • SoftStarLight October 19, 2019 at 3:17 am #

      A fascinating post tucsonspur! I haven’t seen this movie before but it looks really good. What an amazing and horrific thought. And with the technological advances to this point don’t you think they could do this or more now? What if downloading someone’s mind to your mind created imprints that flashed on and off long after the download? Or what if the download created a new self of that person within you? And what if that new mind actively worked against your own until it ultimately overrode and deleted your mind and conciousness altogether!

      • tucsonspur October 19, 2019 at 5:37 am #

        Thank you, it sure is fascinating stuff. Yes, many questions. The wonders of the ‘3lb. Universe’. And remember, the brain is almost all electro-chemical reaction between neurons with glial cells helping out.

        Would brain waves only (electrical), produce an accurate record of thought? Anyway, it’s a fun idea.

        • SoftStarLight October 19, 2019 at 4:05 pm #

          Yes, it is really amazing to think that we generate electricity. And more amazing that it is involved in how we perceive and remember the world and events!

  30. JohnAZ October 18, 2019 at 7:31 pm #

    All you Dems out there. You better purge yourself of this sick soul. As long as she is the spiritual leader, you do not stand a chance.

    Support this blog on PatreonSupport this blog on Substack
    Support this blog via Patreon or Substack
  31. 100th Avatar October 18, 2019 at 7:43 pm #

    Here’s the other reason they (Americans) have grown bat-shit crazy:

    “Apart from the fact there is no normal standard of health, nobody has proved that man is necessarily cheerful by nature. And further, man, by the very fact of being man, of possessing consciousness, is, in comparison with the [donkey] or the crab, a diseased animal. Consciousness is a disease.” (Tragic Sense of Life, Miguel de Unamuno)

    With the 3 (few have the courage to see, let alone harness, the 4th) coping mechanisms of isolation, anchoring, and distraction failing, man is left staring into the abyss of reality: there is no grounding in that nothingness, no hope that can escape the vacuum, no walls tall enough to shield you from the view generated inside your mind; the view to the end.

    • BackRowHeckler October 18, 2019 at 8:33 pm #

      Phew!

      That’s deep.

      Deeper than I want to go,

      Or dare go.

      • hmuller October 18, 2019 at 10:07 pm #

        “Consciousness is a disease”.

        No, consciousness is a gift and an opportunity. You can take it to the dark side or take it in other directions.

        As an aside, I recently noticed in my readings that nearly half of all the really brilliant mathematicians suffered from nervous breakdowns, even permanent insanity. Is this a realm of insight humans may not yet be emotionally ready to handle? A matter of “when you stare into the abyss, sometimes it stares back?”

        • tucsonspur October 19, 2019 at 6:14 am #

          Georg Cantor is a prime example. He was hospitalized many times at the Nervenklinik in Halle, Germany, after breakdowns.

          And it’s no wonder, since he delved deeply into Mathematics and the Infinite. But it’s not just the alephs and the continuum hypothesis that are in play. It gets bigger. ( No, not bigger than Infinity.)

          A great little book on all this is “The Mystery of the Aleph”, by Amir Aczel. Here’s a quote to see what I mean by bigger:

          “A key tenet in the Kabbalah is that the Ein Sof contains the Ein. The infinity of God also contains nothingness. For there is nothing within things that are of God beside infinity. In mathematics, too, infinity contains emptiness. An infinite set also contains the empty set.”

          The sub title is the key: “Mathematics, the Kabbalah, and the Search for Infinity”

          • hmuller October 19, 2019 at 11:04 am #

            Thanks tucsonspur. I find the Kabbalah interesting. I’ve read a dozen books on it, but have not yet slogged my way thru the Zohar. I suspect there are hidden mysteries there which the published commentaries aren’t revealing.

            It was the self-referential paradox which drove Bertrand Russell batty (though not to a nervous breakdown).

            Some books make reference to themselves; most don’t. You compile a book for publication with the compelling title “A Complete List of Every Book Which Does Not Reference Itself”. Then you realize the list is incomplete. You should add your own book to the list. But once you do, it becomes “a book which references itself” and does not belong on the list.

            So you’re making a mistake if you put your own book on the list; and you’re making a mistake if you leave it off. Suddenly. you’re facing a bigger conundrum than Hillary finding more crawl space to bury new bodies. (Hint: This ultimately relates to trying to describe the universe while leaving your own conscious mind out of the description.)

          • Janos Skorenzy October 19, 2019 at 1:08 pm #

            Warning: The Kabbalah is the higher octave of the Torah and Talmud. One system, vehemently Anti-Christian. Slog thru the Zohar and you will find hatred as well as profundity.

            To be fair, other systems have their own partial universalities. Cantor talked of higher and low infinities. Saint Bernard wrote some very beautiful words in his Commentary on the Song of Songs. Yet (as Finc used to remind us) he founded the Knights Templar and desired that they crush the enemies of Christendom and that it should expand to become the only religion on Earth.

          • hmuller October 20, 2019 at 12:04 am #

            Janos, did you mean “high octane”, because a “high octave” is something opera singers work on.

            Once I did spend a few hours pouring over the Zohar in Aramaic. Not that I’m trained in Aramaic, but with knowledge of Hebrew and the English translation right there, it wasn’t too hard to figure out what each Aramaic word meant.

            Anyway, that night I had a strange and vivid vision; it was as if a page of the Aramaic text was glowing with golden letters on a white background. At the time I was lucidly conscious of it having great power. It wasn’t a frightening vision; I didn’t feel threatened or in danger, nor did I feel warmth or love. I just felt its power.

            I’m not the adventurous type, and never tried that again.

    • RocketDoc October 18, 2019 at 10:02 pm #

      It’s probably why people go to church. They are sure THEY don’t have any answers.

    • SoftStarLight October 19, 2019 at 2:58 am #

      So if conciousness is a disease would we would be better off as automatons? If that were reality than we would be better off letting the Pod People take over. Is this who you want to be?

      https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wTP_SdjD5ms

    • hmuller October 19, 2019 at 11:11 am #

      No offense, Avatar, but please don’t volunteer to man the suicide help line.

      • 100th Avatar October 20, 2019 at 8:33 am #

        Ha! But suicide often occurs when one’s protections from reality fails him. Unable to accept truth, unable to process. The world in the mind they created, the buttresses against cosmic indifference failed him. Never knowing how to approach the real, the world outside his mind, he chooses out. It takes strength and courage to exist out in the elements. Many lack as they are unconditioned.

        • hmuller October 20, 2019 at 6:39 pm #

          My old Uncle Jakob used to say, “There are few problems which whiskey can’t solve” – right before he died of cirrhosis.

    • Rulo Deschamps October 19, 2019 at 11:59 am #

      I’m grateful for your posts. Keep it up!

  32. Pucker October 18, 2019 at 7:54 pm #

    They’re obviously insane…. My country is run by people who are literally Off-Their-Rockers….Psychopaths…. Like that new psychopathic serial killer with the photographic memory that they just caught largely by accident in Texas who claims to have killed over 90 women over 40 years. They asked him why he strangled women. He replied: “women’s necks turn me on.”

    “Hey Hunter, why do you and your dad and The Clinton Foundation take billions of dollars from foreign governments of competitor countries? It’s not like you need all that money…”

    “Democrats are just as tainted. According to Secret Empires, Hunter Biden, the son of former vice president Joe Biden, teamed up with the Bank of China to create a $ 1 billion investment fund called Bohai Harvest RST. Schweizer reveals that in early December 2013, Hunter Biden flew with his father on Air Force Two to China. While the vice president was meeting with CCP leaders, Hunter may have had some meetings of his own; approximately ten days after the trip to Beijing, the deal for a billion in funds “backed by the Chinese government” was finalized. A July 7, 2019, New Yorker article reported that “the deal had been signed before the trip” and a business license “came through shortly afterward.” Everything about the deal—the players involved, the timing, the amount of cash—reeks of undue influence on the part of both China and the profiteering son of a premier power broker. As Schweizer wrote in a May 11, 2019, op-ed piece for the New York Post, “It was an unprecedented arrangement: the government of one of America’s fiercest competitors going into business with the son of one of America’s most powerful decision makers.” Amazingly, Joe Biden doesn’t seem to have any issues with his son’s choice of business partners or the inescapable negative optics—of potential bribery, of purchasing access, of elite privilege, not to mention the misuse of Air Force Two—created by such deals. But then Biden has been a China cheerleader for decades, actively pushing to pass permanent national trade relations with China in 2001. Recent comments Biden has made on the campaign trail reveal that he remains utterly clueless about China’s strategic long game against the West. “China is going to eat our lunch? Come on, man,” he said. “They can’t even figure out how to deal with the fact that they have this great division between the China Sea and the mountains in the . . . west. They can’t figure out how they’re going to deal with the corruption that exists within the system. . . . They’re not bad folks, folks, but guess what? They’re not competition for us.” When a nation gives your son and his partners a billion dollars to invest, I guess it’s hard to think of them as competition. But tricking America into this kind of short-term thinking is all a part of China’s ultimate strategy. This is how dangerously entrenched and intertwined China has become with America’s political elite. But China has equally hypnotized the so-called wizards of Wall Street. The heads of major investment houses have become some of China’s most vocal cheerleaders. Blackstone Group CEO Stephen Schwarzman and Ray Dalio, cochairman of the massive Bridgewater hedge fund, have consistently portrayed China as an unquestionably positive economic force.“

    Robert Spalding
    Stealth War: How China Took Over While America’s Elite Slept

    • JohnAZ October 18, 2019 at 8:32 pm #

      Now you can add the NBA onto this

    • SoftStarLight October 19, 2019 at 2:47 am #

      The short term thinking plaguing Western Elites, like the Bidens, is the seemingly singular focus on capital gains. It sounds like the Chinese are willing to lose capital in the short term in order to gain it back and hopefully more in the future. Both sides are gambling but one is making the right move. A Black Swan could change the entire game overnight and render these concerns vain . But there is always the possibility that China will own us one day.

      • JohnAZ October 19, 2019 at 10:07 am #

        SSL

        From within, look at the West Coast of the US and Canada.

        The white and American flags will be offered by the Deep State and their supporters in California, Oregon and Washington.

        Down the road a piece.

        • SoftStarLight October 19, 2019 at 4:01 pm #

          It may not be that far down the road John. Look how those involved in the so far soft coup have eluded Justice. The system is in terminal mode. Its now up to those who have to live within it to realize its really almost gone and it doesn’t appear that anyone can put it back together again. The traitors have already given our house away and the foreigners are coming to collect outstanding debt. We need something totally different now.

  33. axisboldaslove October 18, 2019 at 8:01 pm #

    Love the first three paragraphs, Jim. Bravo!

    After that, it starts to feel unbalanced again to me and I start scratching my head. Don’t both (or all) teams (good god, how I hate that word these days) play the same game? If the other “team” wins next time, work the current one do the same nonsense? It’s all bat-shit crazy to me. Or better stated, it’s all a- that word we all know a love- clusterfuck.

    • axisboldaslove October 18, 2019 at 8:02 pm #

      meant to say “won’t” not “work”. Damned arthritis!

  34. Pucker October 18, 2019 at 8:01 pm #

    I like the part wherein the bloke confides that the Billionaires confide in him that “Democracy is dead, and the Chinese have the best system.” Hard to believe….

    They are enamored with a system that can literally raze neighborhoods and relocate thousands of people and throw up bridges and buildings in a matter of days. They’re all insane….

    If you’ve ever studied ancient Chinese History, there are a plethora of examples in which one weaker kingdom adopts a long decades long self-strengthening strategy in order to overcome and to conquer a competing neighboring Chinese kingdom. Today, the US is the target to be dominated by the C…c..p kingdom. In some ways, I would benefit if the Chinese crushed the US as I would be part of an intermediary compradore, overseer class. It’s a bit weird how the centuries old feudal mindset still predominates in China. The Chinese turned out to be a big fly in the ointment of Globalism.

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kl5279dWqGs

    • Pucker October 18, 2019 at 8:06 pm #

      Do you remember in the book “Catch 22” when the Germans pay Milo to bomb his own airfield?

      • Majella October 20, 2019 at 6:11 pm #

        “Profit before Country”…a Trump meme.

    • JohnAZ October 18, 2019 at 8:37 pm #

      Seriously, I wonder about the relationship between the Chinese and our favorite group of globalist whipping boys. I wonder if Soros Et al and Xi et al are cooking up plans to tear down America.

      • JohnAZ October 18, 2019 at 8:49 pm #

        Nope, Soros considers Xi to be the most dangerous person against liberty.

        I thought he thought Trump was that.

        Means that the US, Europe, Russia and China are all of the New World Order’s hit list. US first, because we are the biggest economy and the biggest suckers.

        • Janos Skorenzy October 19, 2019 at 1:11 pm #

          Yes, there’s more than two sides. Your black/white, good/bad, liberal/conservative paradigm is simply inadequate to understand global reality – or even the full reality of the United States.

  35. Robert White October 18, 2019 at 8:07 pm #

    Where has Ol’ Scratch gone these days?

    Where is that glowing red headed avatar guy with the horns & wit?

    RW

    Support this blog on PatreonSupport this blog on Substack
    Support this blog via Patreon or Substack
    • Walter B October 18, 2019 at 9:01 pm #

      Perhaps he prepares for Armageddon.

      • Robert White October 18, 2019 at 10:30 pm #

        Ol’ Scratch was a base manager in the USAF. Guys like Scratch are born prepared, Walt.

        I miss his funny red head popping up when I scroll the threads.

        RW

        • elysianfield October 19, 2019 at 12:17 pm #

          “base manager in the USAF.”

          RW,
          What is a “base manager”? The Base Commander of a USAF field is usually field grade.

  36. Pucker October 18, 2019 at 8:25 pm #

    The Catch-22 for the Chinese is that if the C..c..p succeeds in completely dominating the Americans, then the filthy rich Chinese Co,,Munich…nist Party members who have stashed all of their money in the US beyond the reach of the C…c..p will then have to cough it up and repatriate it back to China, and they could also themselves potentially be repatriated back to China to receive occasional prostate massages with an electric cattle prod. They want the financial windfall that unchecked tyrannical power confers, but they also want to keep it in a rule-of-law jurisdiction beyond the C..c..p’s reach.

    • JohnAZ October 18, 2019 at 8:40 pm #

      Do you think that Hong Kong might be a way of laundering illicit China money flow and that is why Beijing is playing it cool with them?

      Just wondering!

      • Pucker October 18, 2019 at 9:43 pm #

        Hong Kong is a strategic “Base” (Gen Ju Di) for wealthy Chinese “Businessmen” to stash their money beyond the control of X..I Ji,,,nping and the C..c…p, particularly the Jiang Zemin faction which is X..I’s enemy. This may be the reason why they wanted the Extradition Law passed in Hong Kong so that the C…c..p could project power over X..,i’s enemies and to deprive them of a safe harbor base in Hong Kong? (This is my read on the situation, and it may not be correct?). The C..c..p will also endeavor to project its power over the US in order to deny the US from becoming a safe harbor base area. The Americans, particularly Wall Street, don’t have a problem with this. They’re all insane….

      • Majella October 20, 2019 at 6:14 pm #

        JohnAZ,

        Any money-laundering going on would be for the benefit of the Chinese Billionaire class, which I’m pretty sure the CCP would not be encouraging.

        Capital flight from China is hurting it already, and its acceleration could be crippling.

  37. Pucker October 18, 2019 at 8:37 pm #

    The fundamental problem with Religion, in my view, is that, except for Buddhism (and maybe Daoism?), Religion does not begin with the premise of Man’s basic existential condition which is that a huge swath of people ranging from one-third to two thirds of any given population are bat shit crazy from-the-git-go.

    • JohnAZ October 18, 2019 at 8:42 pm #

      Religion, Christianity being one, tries to keep those bat shit crazy people from destroying themselves. As religion fades, destruction advances.

      • Pucker October 18, 2019 at 9:33 pm #

        John D. Rockefeller, Sr. was a big supporter of organized Christianity not because he believed in God (he didn’t, at least not the conventional Christian God), but rather because he considered Religion socially useful. He was right. Without Christianity many white people are apt to go-off-the-rails….

    • Walter B October 18, 2019 at 9:04 pm #

      The fundamental problem with religion is that it has nothing to do with God and that organized religion is an organ in the eye and is all about filling seats. Only a fool will blame God for the shortcomings of mankind.

      • JohnAZ October 18, 2019 at 10:35 pm #

        That is correct. God has provided us with a pathway to grace through Jesus. Period.

        We are the problem, Jesus is the solution.

  38. Exscotticus October 18, 2019 at 10:05 pm #

    Well of course Hillary’s accusing someone of colluding with Russians. Last time she did that, it kicked off a two-year multi-million-dollar investigation against her greatest enemy. That trope is a gold mine for her.

    After all the incantations from the Left’s magic book of spells failed to destroy Trump, including the oldie but goldie accusation of racism, Hillary has revitalized a forgotten charm from the 1950s McCarthy era. She raised it from the dead like the hag witch necromancer that she is.

    • Steveplustax October 20, 2019 at 3:00 am #

      (RMIII’s escapade actually ended up turning a profit due to property seized.)

  39. Pucker October 18, 2019 at 10:28 pm #

    According to Spalding, the current US Treasury Secretary and Mitch McConnell’s wife, has a business relationship with Jiang Zemin’s Shanghai Gang, which is the mortal enemy of X…i Jin…ping. Spalding portrays this business relationship as a Conflict of Interest, which it is, but he fails to mention the ongoing power struggle in China between X…I’s faction and Jiang’s Shanghai Gang, which, via McConnell’s wife and Trump’s Transportation Secretary, may be leveraging US support for Jiang against X…i? I read a Chinese book recently in which it was briefly mentioned that North Korean dictator, Kim Jongun, likes to play the Jiang Faction off against the Xi Faction to elicit favors from the Chinese. Kim Jongun recently flipped to support X…I during the last Party Ho Down by giving X…i a break by not shooting off more missiles during X..I’s big Party 70th Anniversary Ho Down.

    Robert Spalding
    Stealth War: How China Took Over While America’s Elite Slept

    • SoftStarLight October 19, 2019 at 2:28 am #

      It’s really difficult to imagine that Chinese people would be capable of actually conducting a ho down lol. Given their propensity to extreme discipline, stoicism, and conformity it seems like it would be a series of highly staged rituals. Can military marches and alcohol inspired line dancing be reconciled? Apparently Republicans like Mitch McConnell can be reconciled with Chinese Communists, as I am sure most Elite Westerners are or will be too. No doubt the Chinese Communist Party is already deeply imbedded throughout our society. If they can make a fortune in the process our Elites will do business with anybody. Why are they not considered therefore a threat to national security?

      • Pucker October 19, 2019 at 4:34 am #

        Americans are easy to bribe. Except for the Christians, the Americans generally don’t believe in anything except money since we redefined “Freedom” to mean Hedonism.

        The biggest problem for the Chinese is the Chinese, a slippery, mischievous, high IQ people who are very adept at pretending. Often the rituals, and disciplined regimentation is just pretending. At some point, though, I guess that they’ll be able to put chips in everyone’s brains to determine who’s sincere?

        • JohnAZ October 19, 2019 at 10:00 am #

          Pucker

          Your rebellious Chinese are now to a large degree either American or Canadian. Starting back in the 1800’s.

        • SoftStarLight October 19, 2019 at 3:55 pm #

          Yeah that is true. Didn’t the hedonism really start in the 1960’s or was it a process that took a long long time? I hope their slippery and deceptive nature will be a snare for them. Yes, I think that the government will want to chip everyone at some point. It’s so easy to see that the purveyors of culture will be down with it. It will likely be a global government that does it too.

      • Janos Skorenzy October 19, 2019 at 1:16 pm #

        They like to gamble – a break from the discipline. Also to eat. I saw a video of Chinese Dinner Theater: sitting above a bunch of lions who didn’t know how to kill an antelope that was thrown to them, so they just started biting it and clawing it.

        • SoftStarLight October 19, 2019 at 3:47 pm #

          That is awful and disturbing.

  40. KL Cooke October 19, 2019 at 12:43 am #

    “what about us peons? what can WE do?”

    To quote, I think it was Burt Reynolds in Hooper, “Tuck your head between your legs and kiss your ass goodbye,”

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    • JohnAZ October 19, 2019 at 9:44 am #

      No-o-o!

      Want to stop the damage the Deep State, both parties, has done. Join a revolution.

      Stop spending for the sake of spending. Keep your money for yourself. Make family capital pools. Get every dollar into the best return, for yourself. Instead of using corporations as scapegoats, the favorite Democratic ploy, invest every dollar you can into the stock and bond markets, and stay diversified. Keep your money away from the elite and keep it for yourself.

      Vote! Vote to protect your money from the Deep State leeches that want to take it away from you. Give to charity, not the government. Just listen to the Democratic debate to see how badly they want to steal your money. Warren will not even fess up to how much she wants, that is how bad their greed is.

      Love your God and love your fellow man. That is it.

      Happy Saturday!

  41. kyoto motors October 19, 2019 at 8:28 am #

    Dear Jim,
    Thanks for another compelling post. you’ve been building a an intriguing alternate narrative that I would like to believe… my problem is i have trouble connecting the dots from week to week – as life would have it, i cannot pay close enough attention to the details to recognize all the references and connections you propose. and so each Klusterfuck blog is just a tease. i crave the in-depth exposé in book form. please tell me that’s what you’re working on in the background.
    maybe you’ll call it “The Politics of Nowhere”

    ;^)

    • JohnAZ October 19, 2019 at 9:46 am #

      Start with the Long Emergency, then read his follow up, Too Much Magic. Good start to putting the big picture together.

  42. stelmosfire October 19, 2019 at 8:55 am #

    “239th” so there ! bite me!

    • stelmosfire October 19, 2019 at 9:36 am #

      If I’m late please excuse. Happy Birthday to our blog post. HAPPY BIRTHDAY JIM!. Good first name. same as mine. Stay young my friend!

      • stelmosfire October 19, 2019 at 9:38 am #

        You got a mention over at James Rawles site. 71 you old fart.

        • stelmosfire October 19, 2019 at 9:42 am #

          Another James. Old names are the best. My crew at the firehouse had 6 guys named James. We used nicknames to avoid confusion. I was GOOMBA. Another guy LURCH. Another slow moving fellow ADAGIO.

          • BackRowHeckler October 19, 2019 at 9:48 am #

            James, brother of Jesus,

            When ‘Mohammeds’ begin to outnumber ‘James’ on the birth register, like what’s happening in the UK right now, it’ll be time to worry.

            Brh

          • JohnAZ October 19, 2019 at 9:57 am #

            A demographic map of Muslims would be useful.

          • stelmosfire October 19, 2019 at 10:31 am #

            Adagio was slow and leisurely. Sure footed, on the ground or on a roof,and trusted. Always pulled his weight and my own if needed. One thing about the fire service, there are the trusted cadre which were the core, everyone else were there for the paycheck.

          • GreenAlba October 19, 2019 at 11:59 am #

            JohnAZ

            I don’t have a demographic map, but I’m sure you will take comfort from this article on Muslim birthrates falling off a cliff worldwide. There are numerous others in the same vein.

            https://www.catholicity.com/commentary/macfarlane/muslim-birthrates.html

            The source is Christian, so I presume that helps.

  43. volodya October 19, 2019 at 9:52 am #

    Big Brother is watching you.

    Two Minutes Hate. From the movie 1984:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRbMpLKjA80

  44. JohnAZ October 19, 2019 at 9:56 am #

    Tulsi Gabbard

    HRCs latest goat. I am sitting here listening to AM Liberal spinners defending Hillary and call Tulsi a dupe of the far Right.

    Jill Stein, remember her? They one that demanded recounts after 2016 and defended Hillary’s first challenge? Well, she is now an asset of Russia, like Tulsi, and the newest reason Hillary lost in 2016.

    Face it, the woman is delusional. She cannot be let anywhere near the White House.

    But how many other deluded folks does she represent, that think her rantings are “right on”?

    Tulsi may be chased out of her party by the ult-Left, but no GOPer can be elected in Hawaii. This story is far from over.

    • stelmosfire October 19, 2019 at 10:11 am #

      Tulsi Gabbard, god forbid we have someone under 40 run the country, I think it is high time we have some young blood in charge. Trump stirs the pot, but I may swap sides and go with an anti-MIC candidate.

      • JohnAZ October 19, 2019 at 10:17 am #

        Some real political shenanigans are brewing IMHO. There definitely is a force growing that is against Hillary, her ult-Left and globalist pals. Trump has been the lone cheerleader.

        Up to now??

      • Walter B October 19, 2019 at 10:37 am #

        Tulsi was an early bright spot for me though she will never get the party of loonies to give her the spot, will she? The way HRC operates works, she might do that she (Hillary) could have the VP spot. That way, when Tulsi hung herself, Hillary would finally have her turn. I hope I have not given her any ideas….

        • hmuller October 19, 2019 at 11:51 am #

          Hillary had her chance 2009-2013. The line of succession was and remains:

          1) President
          2) Vice President
          3) Speaker of the House
          4) President Pro-Tempore of the Senate
          5) Secretary of State.

          Maybe she thought killing off 4 people in rapid order might look suspicious.

        • Sam Stone October 19, 2019 at 5:41 pm #

          Be glad she won’t get the nomination. Just my opinion but after listening to the way the opposing party adherents talk her up, I think she would beat Trump handily. Yes she may have an item or two that resonates but she is a card carrying prog. She is HRC lite. Just easier on the eyes. I hope they keep slinging mud all over each other.

  45. BackRowHeckler October 19, 2019 at 10:07 am #

    Current temp, South Pole : -58°F

    Current temp, North Pole: -15°F

    One day after ‘Extinction Friday’ I’m keeping close watch on the weather right now. Goddam right I’m worried about it, earth’s atmosphere heating up to the point within 11 years cascading catastrophic events will be rendering human beings extinct. It’s pretty nice today the warm autumn sun pouring in thru my picture window overlooking the river where I’ve spent so many days and caught so many trout. But you never know. Not for nothing are distinguished climate protesters getting arrested in London. I have a bugout bag made up and ready to go in case I have to make a quick getaway. Where would I go when extinction events begin? Common sense would say — North. Colt revolver, my Bible, a few granola bars, a first aid kit, that’s what’s in my bugout bag. Like a pilgrim in Cormac McCarthys ‘The Road’, I won’t last long once the Climate Extinction’ begins.

    Brh

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    • stelmosfire October 19, 2019 at 10:15 am #

      Keep a couple rounds for those close to you. Better quick then to suffer a slow decline. keep some vino to ease the pain!

      • stelmosfire October 19, 2019 at 10:18 am #

        Then again, It’s out to rake the leaves. Same old same old. Trees are in glorious colors. Same as the last 50 years as far as I can remember. I wish the ’68 beemer was out. I didn’t put it on the road this year.

        • BackRowHeckler October 19, 2019 at 10:44 am #

          Same with my Royal Enfield MC, laid up in the garage all summer. Ignition problem — Lucas electronics — can’t locate parts.

          • BackRowHeckler October 19, 2019 at 10:47 am #

            And when I say I’m headed ‘North’ Rip I mean I’ll be showing up at your place for a few jars of that bootleg hooch.

          • stelmosfire October 19, 2019 at 10:52 am #

            English mechanics can’t get anything right. Jags, MG’s, Triumphs, . It’s a good thing we pulled their ass out of the fire in ’41. Although I really think the wooden Mosquitoes kicked ass.

          • GreenAlba October 19, 2019 at 3:10 pm #

            You forgot to mention Rolls Royce, StE. The second best known brand in the entire world after Coca Cola. And wouldn’t you rather have RR? It’s there in the language: the Rolls Royce of …hmmm. Doesn’t quite roll off the tongue in the same way with Coca Cola. 🙂

            https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/rolls-royce-of-sth

            The Coca Cola of…of…?

          • GreenAlba October 19, 2019 at 3:11 pm #

            The survey was in 1987, so I guess you’ve got Apple now, to be fair, plus Facebook and Google.

          • GreenAlba October 21, 2019 at 6:27 am #

            My French ex-father-in-law used to wax lyrical about car suspensions as if he was telling you about Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

            British suspension is tooooo rigid’, he’d say; ‘American suspension is tooooo soft’. And (surprise, surprise), ‘French suspension is juuuuust right’. 🙂

        • elysianfield October 19, 2019 at 12:24 pm #

          “I wish the ’68 beemer was out.”

          Saint,
          For twenty years, or so, in my youth I owned a ’67 R-60. Currently own a ’57 R-60, fully rebuilt years ago by Capital Cycle.

      • JohnAZ October 19, 2019 at 10:25 am #

        Any bad situation looks rosier when viewed through a bottle of wine!

        • stelmosfire October 19, 2019 at 10:48 am #

          Got that straight! Or maybe not so straight!

          • stelmosfire October 19, 2019 at 12:17 pm #

            Janos will tell you. German engineering was always the best. I was always a a Mercedes’s/ BMW guy. Detroit was OK.Germany over engineered to a fault. Tolerances to tight. Sloppy is better for the battlefield The AK trumps the AR simply for the reason that it loves mud. ,

          • stelmosfire October 19, 2019 at 12:35 pm #

            I’m not rich. Just Frugal. Mercedes 1970 280 S, 1972 4.5 SEL, 1975 280, 1978 450 SEL, 1985 500 SEC, BMW 1968 R60/2US, BMW 1978 R100. and a bunch of other Japanese gas hogs.

          • BackRowHeckler October 19, 2019 at 1:10 pm #

            Holy Sh#t!!

            You don’t lack for transportation, my friend.

            Are you paying taxes on all those classics?

            Brh

    • JohnAZ October 19, 2019 at 10:24 am #

      Ha!

      Or Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath.

      The main goal of our society should be the continued elimination of FF for two reasons

      Reduce pollution

      Reduce the shock of Peak Oil effects.

      Does anyone think that maybe the shifting of warmth into Canada, Greenland and Siberia might increase the availability of arable land, land for Man to grow into? Alaska too.

      • messianicdruid October 19, 2019 at 10:37 am #

        The shifting must be to the idea that corporations can no longer own land. Only a living, breathing man or woman can steward a piece of land, with the help of kin [ kindred spirits ].

        • JohnAZ October 19, 2019 at 10:48 am #

          Economies of scale is what big boxes everything it seems. It works as long as the big boxes have unlimited resources. Hmmm.

          I agree with you, but must be enforced by national policy.

          BTW, if these new lands open up guess who benefits

          US, understand Trump’s move toward Greenland?

          Northern Europe

          Russia

          Greenland

          During the Late Middle Ages, I believe it was warm enough for Greenland to have farmers living there.

          • Janos Skorenzy October 19, 2019 at 1:34 pm #

            That’s why it was called Green. And it was so much warmer without any industry. No wonder the Climate Extinction hacks tried to fudge the data. It doesn’t fit the narrative.

          • GreenAlba October 19, 2019 at 2:56 pm #

            Janos, you do know that the Medieval Warming Period didn’t affect the whole world, don’t you?

            Globally, the planet was cooler than now.

            https://skepticalscience.com/medieval-warm-period.htm

            It would be far more useful to you to read some proper science and less tedious for those of us who already have.

          • GreenAlba October 19, 2019 at 2:59 pm #

            “After finding a habitable area and settling there, [Erik the Red] named it Grœnland (translated as “Greenland”), supposedly in the hope that the pleasant name would attract settlers. The Saga of Erik the Red states: “In the summer, Erik left to settle in the country he had found, which he called Greenland, as he said people would be attracted there if it had a favorable name.”

            Wiki

          • Janos Skorenzy October 19, 2019 at 4:41 pm #

            Yet there was pasturage, and even little forests here and there. Sounds much like the Newfoundland of today, though it is much larger and was probably colder in the north. The Vikings settled in the part of the southern coast.

        • Janos Skorenzy October 19, 2019 at 1:25 pm #

          Tell them about the asteroids. Instead of answering my question about the need for birth control to avoid war, you just got sci-fi silly. Anything to avoid struggling with a hard truth and a real question.

          Even with 19th century medicine, far too many people will survive to breed, filling the land like locusts and thus necessitating a need to invade other people’s land. Or our new solution: stack ’em all in cities and use chemical fertilizers to amp up the productivity of land. Now that that’s failing, you want to go back to the old, failed solution. Fatal recursivity and lack of sensible imagination.

      • GreenAlba October 19, 2019 at 12:08 pm #

        “Does anyone think that maybe the shifting of warmth into Canada, Greenland and Siberia might increase the availability of arable land, land for Man to grow into? “

        The shifting of warmth into Siberia is already liberating a lot of methane, JohnAZ, which is, as you know, a greenhouse gas some 30 times more potent than CO2, albeit one that sticks around in the atmosphere for less time.

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

        The 20-year global warming potential of methane is 84. That is, over a 20-year period, it traps 84 times more heat per mass unit than carbon dioxide and 32 times the effect when accounting for aerosol interactions. Global methane concentrations rose from 722 parts per billion (ppb) in pre-industrial times to 1866 ppb by 2019, an increase by a factor of 2.5 and the highest value in at least 800,000 years.

        But it’s nice round brh’s way so no worries. 🙂

        • GreenAlba October 19, 2019 at 12:12 pm #

          And that’s before we consider the methane clathrate at the bottom of the oceans.

          • JohnAZ October 19, 2019 at 12:20 pm #

            Ha! Right, see below.

        • JohnAZ October 19, 2019 at 12:19 pm #

          You miss my point. I acknowledge mans CO2 contribution to Climate change. Methane , if it is defrosted, with increase the effect. By the way, ocean bottom trapped bubbles of methane are a bigger threat.

          My point is, in the insanity of climate change power politics, there may be a benefit of warming the planet.

          Unless the Gulf Stream shutdown occurs putting us into northern hemisphere Permanent winter.

          The scary part is the instability of national and ethnic boundaries will change, and we know what that brings. Hmmm? A possible solution to overpopulation?

        • elysianfield October 19, 2019 at 12:26 pm #

          Alba,
          But what of that “Solar Minimum” thang?

          • GreenAlba October 19, 2019 at 1:09 pm #

            What of it, EF?

          • GreenAlba October 19, 2019 at 1:13 pm #

            https://skepticalscience.com/grand-solar-minimum-mini-ice-age-intermediate.htm

            Peer-reviewed research, physics, and math all tell us that a grand solar minimum would have no more than a 0.3°C cooling effect, barely enough to put a dent in human-caused global warming.

          • Janos Skorenzy October 19, 2019 at 3:10 pm #

            Wot’s a milk bar?

          • GreenAlba October 19, 2019 at 3:18 pm #

            You asked that already.

            http://www.marysmilkbar.com/

          • BackRowHeckler October 19, 2019 at 3:25 pm #

            I’ll join in on protests against volcanic eruptions. Those damn things launch all kinds of pollutants into the air and nobody is doing a thing about it. There was Krakatoa in 1881, which darkened the surface of the earth. There was the eruption in Malaysia in 1815, which cooled the climate to the extent it was known in New England as ‘the year without a summer’.

            Let’s do something about these volcanoes, CFNers! One person can’t do it all. We can shut down these mofos. Who’s with me?

            Brh

          • GreenAlba October 19, 2019 at 3:31 pm #

            I’m beginning to think the real brh has gone on holiday and left his youngest nephew to pass the time on here in his place and just have a laugh.

            And that’s saying something.

          • Janos Skorenzy October 19, 2019 at 4:38 pm #

            No, that’s an example of a milk bar, not the definition thereof. A common but serious mistake. I know you can do better….

          • BackRowHeckler October 19, 2019 at 5:45 pm #

            GA, some people claim we are going extinct in 12 years, actually 11 years now. These are prominent people, scientists, politicians, journalists, artists, writers and so on. They are saying we need to cease using oil and coal, which underwrite modern life. What, it can’t be questioned? Or mocked? Are these people sacrosanct, beyond reproach? You’ve apparently bought into it, but many of us haven’t.

            Brh

          • JohnAZ October 19, 2019 at 6:11 pm #

            BRH

            Do not forget wildfires.

            Forests have been burning down for millennia as a way of recycling nutrients from aged generations to new ones.

            Lots of CO2 generated.

          • Sam Stone October 19, 2019 at 6:27 pm #

            @ Janus For a fictional view of a milk bar see the opening scene of “A Clockwork Orange.” The Korova Milkbar was a milk-plus mesto.

          • GreenAlba October 19, 2019 at 6:37 pm #

            “No, that’s an example of a milk bar, not the definition thereof. A common but serious mistake. I know you can do better….”

            You didn’t read far enough. I know you can do better…

            Or maybe not.

          • GreenAlba October 19, 2019 at 6:41 pm #

            “GA, some people claim we are going extinct in 12 years, actually 11 years now. These are prominent people, scientists, politicians, journalists, artists, writers and so on.”

            brh, please show me a serious scientist who says ‘we are going extinct in 12 years’. Or 11 years.

            You make yourself worse than whoever it is who says we are.

            And it’s tedious. I wish they’d all go home just so you’d give it a rest.

          • elysianfield October 19, 2019 at 11:43 pm #

            Alba,
            Just another variable….

          • GreenAlba October 20, 2019 at 10:30 am #

            EF

            “Just another variable.”

            Of the many whose discrete contribution climate scientists have been isolating for decades in order to calculate AGW. Thanks for pointing it out.

          • GreenAlba October 20, 2019 at 10:32 am #

            I realise all that effort, globally, isn’t worth brh licking his finger and sticking out the car window in CT. Obviously.

  46. JohnAZ October 19, 2019 at 11:04 am #

    Hmmm.

    Just thinking about it.

    Tulsi Gabbard in the last 24 hours has shown more intestinal fortitude against the Hiilary domination that the rest of the Deep State put together. This woman needs a closer look.

    And I am including Trump in that statement.

    The new anti-Deep State party, hopefully, needs young blood like Tulsi’s.

    • Steveplustax October 20, 2019 at 3:10 am #

      Gabbard is endorsed by
      ~Bashar al-Assad
      ~David Duke
      ~Richard Spencer
      ~Steve Bannon
      ~Tucker Carlson

      • Janos Skorenzy October 20, 2019 at 11:00 am #

        All very wise and impressive people. All against the Washington, London, Tel Aviv, Riyadh, Axis of Evil

        • malthuss October 20, 2019 at 11:53 am #

          TG is all for demon, I mean, Demon crat stuff….

          immigration
          late abortion etc

          and she is mixed race, female…the new [un] americans.

  47. BackRowHeckler October 19, 2019 at 1:03 pm #

    Well CFNers, it’s time for a few additions to Ambrose Bierce’s ‘Devil’s Dictionary’.

    ‘Denier’, pronoun, ‘He denies the world is ending in 12 years’. Luddite who ignores irrefutable scientific evidence, dangerous person, not convinced of climate extinction despite fanatical protests in London and NY, speaks untruths, candidate for Rm 101.

    ‘RWNJ’, acronym that stands for ‘Right wing nut job’. An unwoke individual, not part of the resistance. Insufficiently hateful toward existing order and Potus. Inclined to support his own people, and his own country. Sexist, racist, homophobe, a despicable individual on all counts. Candidate for Room 101.

    ‘Undereducated person’, term describing Trump supporter, ignorant individual who doesn’t know what’s good for him, loves guns and shooting, still thinks the US Constitution and Bill of Rights are worthwhile, doesn’t read the NYTs or love Hollywood celebrities. An neandrethal 3who thinks marriage means a union between a man and a woman, and drag queens are freaks of nature. Definitely a candidate for Rm 101.

    Brh

    • SoftStarLight October 19, 2019 at 3:40 pm #

      That is very true! Kinda like we are the new Indians, we are also the new Neaderthals in their perceptions. At least we have been given notice. Now the ball is in our court or whatever that saying is. I don’t see how it couldn’t be more clear that the current order does not have our best interests in mind. So there is no incentive to be a part of it or support its existence. That is why they are turning the world into a prison or police state IMO. They don’t won’t any dissidents or escapees.

  48. Janos Skorenzy October 19, 2019 at 1:32 pm #

    Messianic doesn’t think we should have conquered the Indians. Just like Leftists? Yes, just like the Leftists. How deep is could his patriotism be? Without the conquest there would be no United States. If he thinks otherwise, then he is lacking in commonsense. In any case, he would not be allowed to vote in my America. Not after answers like that on essay part of the test. Or the blather about asteroid farming to solve natural population growth. F or Fail.

    Such things are interesting and I’m for continued exploration of space if possible. But let’s no confuse that with practical solutions unless some very radical breakthroughs are made in the very near future.

    If humanity and/or the Earth fails, maybe we should have a colony or two on Mars or in orbit. Or a Starship that goes out to colonize other systems. But that’s not going to solve the problems here on Earth, right?

    • SoftStarLight October 19, 2019 at 3:28 pm #

      Yes, it is very important to face obstacles and problems so that they can be removed and/or stopped from growing in most cases, right? I mean David was not timid and shy in confronting Goliath. And he defeated Goliath despite all the odds. He didn’t apologize for winning either.

    • messianicdruid October 19, 2019 at 4:59 pm #

      Of all our energy sources we are immediatly releasing 80% of the heat directly into the environment, while we burn our oxygen.

      “Cultures are human creations, and you can play a role in accelerating the shift from domination to partnership worldwide. Let us break out of the domination trance that makes insensitivity, violence, and cruelty seem inevitable, and use our enormous capacities for creativity—as well as for consciousness and caring—to build the missing foundations for that more peaceful and equitable partnership future we so want and need—for ourselves, our children, and generations to come.”

      —Riane Eisler, “Breaking Out of the Domination Trance” (2018)

      First, keep your word. Conquest is one of those “live by die by” things.

      • JohnAZ October 19, 2019 at 5:52 pm #

        We seem to have an inherent reluctance to share cultures, each one feeling they want to dominate the other. Ethnicity, religions are based on that premise.

        The USA, the great American experiment, has been an attempt to change this inherent trait of humans. The Founding Fathers wanted to make a government that was blind to differences and based on rule of law.

        Domination is blowing this dream away.

        • JohnAZ October 19, 2019 at 5:55 pm #

          But maybe that is as good as it gets. The US is plenty big enough that every group gets their share. Balkanize?

        • Janos Skorenzy October 19, 2019 at 6:05 pm #

          Law is based on values. “Blind to differences” – like different values? Silly stuff, but conservatives can’t get enough of it. To the extent the Founders believed this, to that extent they were fools.

          • JohnAZ October 19, 2019 at 7:59 pm #

            Different values, different culture, different color, different IQs

            Brings up an interesting question, Janos.

            If we could Balkanize the States into different areas per group, how would we do the group division?

    • JohnAZ October 19, 2019 at 6:08 pm #

      Europeans overpopulated, started urbanizing, and the Black Plague got them back in balance. 200 years later of overpopulating and their escape was the New World, off loading folks here. BTW, Africa was doing the same thing and the dominant tribes captured and sent the surplus to the New World as slaves. Many of the initial Americans from Europe were indentured servants, ie slaves.

      In the 1800’s, here we went again, Europe overpopulating, potato viruses wiping outa staple crop, and the US just said, Give us your tired, you poor.”

      The East Coast was overpopulated, so the immigrants went west. The Native Americans were in the way and they chose to fight rather than assimilate into the oncoming hordes. They lost to overwhelming numbers and technology.

      To you apologists, what is your alternative? Do you think the US should have put up a wall to prevent European immigration?

      And aren’t you the same folks that are trying to stop a wall at the southern border now.

      When you are the “natives”, and the next wave is killing your kin, How will you feel then?

      • malthuss October 19, 2019 at 8:44 pm #

        I disagree. Plague got them, unsanitary conditions borne of ignorance.
        They were not over populated but over taxed.

        • GreenAlba October 20, 2019 at 10:42 am #

          Born‘ of ignorance; ‘borne‘ by fleas, which were ‘borne’ by rattus rattus from Central Asia, along the Silk Road and thence by ship… It got the rich as well, unless they left the centres of population in time.

          • malthuss October 20, 2019 at 11:42 am #

            I guess the rich had country estates to escape to.

          • malthuss October 20, 2019 at 11:54 am #

            Globally, the planet was cooler than now.

            thEn now. My dear girl.

            Right back at ya.

          • GreenAlba October 20, 2019 at 5:48 pm #

            Oh dear. Malthuss, you’re lucky Q isn’t around. This one (confined to the US, I think) drives him bananas. Get your dictionary out.

            Or maybe you meant it was cooler then than now.

            Always better to check first anyway, eh, malthuss?

  49. Janos Skorenzy October 19, 2019 at 2:41 pm #

    I spent many years fighting against anti-Semitism, but then it dawned on me that Jews weren’t really fighting against anti-white racism.

    Kind of a one-way street.

    Stefan Molyneux, back in July. He has Awakened, saying that the Patriot marche in Poland “changed him”. He has also become a Christian and says he finds it hard to trust Non-Christians now. We didn’t think it would ever happen. But after years of being of exploring every side to every issue, and two steps forward and two steps back, he has finally reached the other shore.

    If he can Awaken, so can any of you Whites.

    • SoftStarLight October 19, 2019 at 3:20 pm #

      So maybe Christian Identity is the path of survival for the White race. In the end it doesn’t matter if we are the descendants of the Lost Tribes or not. Christianity in one form or another has in reality been a part of Western European White identity for more than a thousand years.

      • Janos Skorenzy October 19, 2019 at 4:36 pm #

        Yes. Whatever will serve at this point. We can debate Truth once we have secured our survival and after we have reestablished real Education that helps people learn how to think.

        It’s not that I’m so good, it’s that most everyone else is so bloody bad at it. I’m sound, not brilliant. And in the country of the blind, the one eyed man is king.

        • JohnAZ October 19, 2019 at 5:46 pm #

          Janos

          Remember when it was basics first, memorization and then more abstract thinking later. It is a lot easier to divide when you can multiply in your head.

          My daughter teaches fourth grade and these liberal education techniques are insane. They try to teach kids to critically think in lower grade school. “Show them three ways to multiply and let them choose what is best for them”. Instead of teaching basics, they try to teach them abstractly.

          Each generation of teacher is less able to teach than the one before, so no wonder the kids coming out are dumber.
          Same with parents.

          • Janos Skorenzy October 19, 2019 at 6:10 pm #

            Alright, I’ll ask you as well: If farmers have more than two kids or so, there won’t be enough land for them as the population expands. So they will have to go elsewhere to conquer and take. So which is the Christian pov: Birth Control and Peace or lots of kids and war?

            Messi already made a mess of it, let’s see what you can do. You can knock my board over, but you have to show your work and offer an alternative.

          • Sam Stone October 19, 2019 at 6:37 pm #

            Q. If a Southbound train doing 100 mph, driven by an engineer stoned on moloko velocet, misses a signal before entering the city how long will it take to get to the Morova milk bar?

            A. Depends on how long it takes the hazmat team to clean all the red red groovy from the tracks.

          • messianicdruid October 19, 2019 at 6:50 pm #

            Conquer to survive is a strawman. Better ideas will overcome worse.

            “Of the increase of His government and peace There will be no end, Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, To order it and establish it with judgment and justice From that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.”

            God still speaks and He has the answers.

          • JohnAZ October 19, 2019 at 7:52 pm #

            Janos

            Is this a trick question. Ha!

            My opinion is mixed.

            Mankind has always used the lots of kids and war approach.

            It really works good.

            The birth control and peace routine is a fallacy. If everyone in the world had birth control, there would be no kids. If only certain areas had birth control, you would have what you see now. Responsible areas have replacement birth rates and other lots and lots of kids. Result? The overpopulated areas would overrun the responsible areas, and war would ensue.

            No difference, just different winners and losers in the wars.

          • JohnAZ October 19, 2019 at 7:53 pm #

            I have little faith in humanity.

          • Janos Skorenzy October 20, 2019 at 1:54 am #

            Yeah, based on “Christian” answers like this, I don’t either. I’m not surprised. You don’t even see the importance of it because it’s never been discussed on Fox news. But in fact, everything hangs on it. At least Messi saw the point and bloviated bullshit in the direction of an answer. You didn’t even care. War is fine in other words.

          • GreenAlba October 20, 2019 at 10:58 am #

            “If everyone in the world had birth control, there would be no kids.”

            What a bizarre idea, JAZ. Most of us who use(d) birth control have a couple of kids. Birth control isn’t sterilisation, unless you choose that after having your kids (or earlier for the minority who don’t want any).

          • Janos Skorenzy October 20, 2019 at 11:06 am #

            Fucked up world. My ideological enemy is the only one who gets it.

            Again, for the record, Whites aren’t really the problem right now. Our birthrates are below or at the replacement level. But if we are ever to have a Reset and a new Beginning, the old problems and challenges would immediately arise too. Do we strive for a steady state or do we go out and conquer – in contradiction to our religion? Muslims don’t have this problem, you see…..

            And I’m glad we did some of it nonetheless. America wouldn’t exist otherwise. I admit I don’t have one perfect formula that solves everything. Would you rather I pretend and I did and then be a hypocrite like these others?

      • JohnAZ October 19, 2019 at 5:35 pm #

        2000 years

    • malthuss October 20, 2019 at 11:43 am #

      I spent many years fighting against anti-Semitism,–boy, have you changed.
      I once thought of Israel as a nice place.

  50. Pucker October 19, 2019 at 8:00 pm #

    The Romans used crucifixion to keep the foreign
    slaves in line which were the basis of Roman luxury and splendor. The Chinese use money to keep LeBron and the Americans in line. I prefer the stockade as a form of discipline. It’s not as brutal as crucifixion, and it’s basically just making the bloke bend over locked down with his head and hands locked in the stockade in the public square in the hot sun. The white women love it. The white women would love to put Bill Cosby in the stockade so that they can give him a big vituperative tough lashing all day long and make a big example out of him. Do the same to Judge Kavanaugh.

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    • Pucker October 19, 2019 at 9:09 pm #

      The Crucifixion represents “Transparency” to the extent that the victim on the Cross (“Crux”) was stripped naked. The popular depiction of the crucifixion of Jesus is inaccurate to the extent that Jesus’s loins were covered. Right?

      • elysianfield October 19, 2019 at 11:50 pm #

        “The popular depiction of the crucifixion of Jesus is inaccurate to the extent that Jesus’s loins were covered. Right?”

        …Depends….

      • EvelynV October 20, 2019 at 3:49 am #

        Way more inaccurate than that. The Romans used impaling. The crucifix should be replaced by showing the alleged jebus with a sharpened wooden pole up his keester except of course it wouldn’t be evident that the pole up his ass was sharpened.

        • messianicdruid October 20, 2019 at 11:05 am #

          He could have called ten thousand angels, but He died alone for you and me.

          • ellipsis October 20, 2019 at 3:32 pm #

            Much more likely he just died and the myth was concocted afterward.

            There are no special cases and there is no one in need of saving. Hero worship is just another case of worshipping a graven image. We can do better.

        • elysianfield October 20, 2019 at 6:22 pm #

          Evelyn,
          Impailment. Actually, the sharpened end was an act of mercy, the weight of the body pulling itself down onto the shaft sending it through the viscera and killing quickly.

          Much more gruesome, the end being blunted…release takes a bit longer…(or so I’m told).

  51. Pucker October 19, 2019 at 9:18 pm #

    The Chinese, like the Romans, are big believers in “Order” (and hierarchy).

    “Order, the order loved by the gods and upheld by magistrates vested with full authority of the greatest power on earth, was what counted – not the elimination of such vermin as presumed to challenge it.”

    “Dominion”, Tom Holland

    • ellipsis October 20, 2019 at 3:26 pm #

      Too many people in too small a space with too few resources will tend to do that for you. Not surprisingly, Americans are now following suit, our current MSM’s efforts notwithstanding.

  52. Pucker October 19, 2019 at 9:33 pm #

    I wonder if there’s ever been a pious Christian preacher who has opened his Sunday sermon with:

    “I’ve got some Good News, and some Bad News.”

    I wonder if there’s ever been a pious Christian preacher who has opened his Sunday sermon with:

    “Knock, Knock.”

    Is Beto still threatening to tax churches that don’t permit homosexuals to engage in sodomy of the church altar?

  53. BackRowHeckler October 19, 2019 at 10:29 pm #

    Beto is good for a bit of comic relief in these exceedingly dull, embarrassing, banal, predictable Dem debates. What a way to pick a candidate! Time to go back to choosing the candidate by vote at the convention. At least we wouldn’t be bored to death, there was some excitement to it.

    brh

    • malthuss October 20, 2019 at 11:45 am #

      Dont laugh.

      Butt may someday be ‘USAs last emperor’
      Nixon would tell insiders, ;Romes last few emperors were all queers.’

  54. Pucker October 19, 2019 at 10:51 pm #

    “For the human spirit that believes itself to be of divine origin will thereby be emboldened in the undertaking of mighty deeds, more energetic in accomplishing them, and by its freedom from care rendered more successful in carrying them out.”

    Varro. Fragment 20

    Tom Holland
    Dominion: The Making of the Western Mind

    • ellipsis October 20, 2019 at 3:22 pm #

      Mighty deeds emboldened by the divine power of fossil fuels no doubt during the latter half of the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries. We humans tend to see what we want to see and then ascribe the results to whatever power we see fit.

  55. BackRowHeckler October 19, 2019 at 11:26 pm #

    Quite a cat fight between Tulsi Gabbard and Hillary Clinton, whoo!

    what set that off? It seemed to come out of the blue.

    I saw two women square off once at a bar over a shipmate of mine in Norfolk, Va. Much hair pulling and face slapping as I can recall.

    “Ladies, ladies, there’s enough of me to go around. No need to fight”, was his line, which I thought was pretty good.

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  56. Pucker October 20, 2019 at 12:10 am #

    What’s all of this controversy re: LeBron James? Is LeBron any good?

    • elysianfield October 20, 2019 at 11:16 am #

      ” Is LeBron any good?”

      …Depends….

  57. Janos Skorenzy October 20, 2019 at 4:54 am #

    Blue collar hero. French Italian type Bostonian goes to Chicago to run their marathon. On the morning of the race he’s riding the train and sees an armed nigger robbing people. He disarms him and holds him until the police arrive. Some of the Blacks don’t like it. One Black lady says, Please don’t make this any worse than it is. What the hell that does that mean? He holds the perp with one hand, gun in the other, threatening to break his head with one punch. Great stuff.

    https://patch.com/illinois/chicago/real-life-bruce-wayne-disarms-gunman-blue-line

    • Janos Skorenzy October 20, 2019 at 5:00 am #

      And yes, he makes it to the marathon and runs it as intended.

      • malthuss October 20, 2019 at 11:47 am #

        I once had the misfortune of meeting Kenny Gong.
        he told a colorful tale of disarming a manhattan mugger [Black]
        and handing the knife to the guy, then disarming him again.

      • BackRowHeckler October 20, 2019 at 4:09 pm #

        I hope he won.

    • Majella October 20, 2019 at 8:43 pm #

      Ah. Thanks, Janos. You finally used it. Was it a slip?

  58. KesaAnna October 20, 2019 at 5:28 am #

    ” So, the final act in the collapse of the USA will be the government choking itself to death on replayed narratives from its own server farms. ”

    I think maybe this was really the first , last , and only act.

    Even if we do not run out of cheap energy , even if global warming , overpopulation , nuclear war , and so on , amounts to much ado about nothing , this total obsession with power and control cannot end well.

    ” cannot end well ” is a big , fat , misnomer though .

    It has already happened , it has been the status quo for a long time now.

    The proportion of innocent persons , or those convicted of minor and trivial crimes , in American prisons is tiny.

    99.9% of those in American prisons are really bad eggs.

    There is no good news or anything flattering in that , though.

    THE reason for that circumstance is that if the book was thrown at everyone convicted of a crime , even some pretty serious crimes , then very quickly , in comparison , North Korea would look like a very good model.

    90% of those convicted of a crime , even some pretty serious crimes , get probation , or even are simply , finally , dismissed and dropped . ( after the lawyers , the police , the court stenographers , and social workers , get their cut of your money , of course. )

    Even with the largest prison population on Earth , we can ONLY AFFORD to send the very worst to prison.

    90% of your politicians are lawyers , and at least 70% of the population of officials in Washington are lawyers in one guise or another.

    This legal system is basically a gigantic extortion racket by another name.

    The boys in blue , with badges , the police , is basically a giant jobs program that produces little of a tangible nature except feelings of well – being , control , and power.

    This will — this has — driven you into penury , even if petroleum remains cheap.

    • GreenAlba October 20, 2019 at 10:51 am #

      “99.9% of those in American prisons are really bad eggs.”

      Or not. Some suggest 25% of them are seriously mentally ill, with prison being one of the replacements for the old asylums. The streets being the other.

      https://www.truthdig.com/articles/were-having-the-wrong-conversation-about-mental-health/

      Just dropped in my inbox this morning, by coincidence.

      Although I hesitate to get people started on California again. But the exchange is interesting, the interviewee’s sister having suffered both the illness and the system.

      • elysianfield October 20, 2019 at 11:24 am #

        “Or not. Some suggest 25% of them are seriously mentally ill”

        Alba,
        Many of those seriously mentally ill are among the worst offenders. Their acts might beggar the human imagination for cruelty and perversion. Ordinary criminals may evince a spark of humanity…the criminally insane…maybe not so much.

        …And we both know that there is no reliable cure for the mentally ill…nor even a good definition of what mental state is considered sane.

        Snake oil, y’all!

        • JohnAZ October 20, 2019 at 11:48 am #

          Is the Deep State’s drift to the left a mental illness? Or the recalcitrance of the Right to change?

          Guess it is determined by what side you are on, and who is the majority

        • GreenAlba October 20, 2019 at 1:18 pm #

          “Many of those seriously mentally ill are among the worst offenders. ”

          I take your point to an extent, EF, but are you talking about mental illness or psychopathy? I wasn’t including personality disorders and psychopathy/sociopathy as mental illness, but views change on the issue among professionals and I have no expertise.

          I don’t know why a person who’s mentally ill would be a proper candidate for prison – shouldn’t they be in a secure ward in a mental hospital? I presume prison is cheaper, although not cheap – as the author pointed out, prison staff aren’t qualified mental health professionals and, like the police, they didn’t join up to be social workers either.

          We have a lot of people in our own prisons who are mentally ill but not dangerous – poor souls who can’t cope on their own and end up sucked into drugs, then petty crime to pay for them. Prison isn’t really going to help, except in giving them a bed and a supply of drugs they have to figure out different ways of getting. And the prison service could do with the space for real criminals.

          • GreenAlba October 20, 2019 at 1:51 pm #

            I should say a ‘secure unit’, rather than a ‘secure ward’, in modern parlance (and accommodation).

          • elysianfield October 20, 2019 at 6:37 pm #

            “…mental illness or psychopathy? I wasn’t including personality disorders and psychopathy/sociopathy as mental illness”

            Alba,
            The point is that the definitions are nebulous…imprecise and poorly applied. The “criminally insane”, as the term is used in this country, denotes a person who has been adjudged as having committed a felony crime, but also judged “insane” and thereby not accountable for his/her actions. It is like killing and eating small children. Even though they taste good, it is not a defense…but “insanity”? Well, now….

            Having been around countless felons, jail cells full of miscreants, and courtrooms where “insanity” was being pled, I cannot think of very many “victims of the system” that I thought should not have been there…I am sure that there were a few, however.

          • GreenAlba October 21, 2019 at 6:44 am #

            I have never doubted your profession experience in the matter, EF. In the UK we have secure psychiatric hospitals for the criminally insane (best known is Broadmoor). They are part of the NHS, not the prison system, although if you’ve been detained there (via the criminal justice system) for 30 years (the average is apparently six – the odd ’30’ skews it) it probably doesn’t feel much different, except that there are doctors and nurses there. You must have something similar for at least some of these people?

  59. Pucker October 20, 2019 at 7:22 am #

    According to Spalding, the American banks took the bulk of the post-2008 Quantitative Easing money and lent it to Chinese banks that mostly used it to build ghost cities in China. Now, since China has a non-convertible currency they can’t get their money out of China. The Americans have been financing China’s military build up and their Belt and Road Initiative and the creation of tot..Ali…Tarian surveillance infrastructure in Third World countries. Crazy…. They’re all insane….

    Robert Spalding
    Stealth War: How China Took Over While America’s Elite Slept

    • ellipsis October 20, 2019 at 3:11 pm #

      They don’t call it “Globalism” for nothing. Which makes me question the title of the book. While America’s elite slept? Really? I don’t see a whole lot of sleeping going on here, other than on the part of the sheeple who continued to support the government who did this to them. Quite the opposite I’d say.

  60. messianicdruid October 20, 2019 at 11:01 am #

    “At least messianicdruid saw the point and bloviated bullshit in the direction of an answer.”

    “the one-eyed man is not king, he’s a heretic, a lunatic: dangerous, insane, and he gets locked up pretty quick. When he tells the blind that there is a thing known as sight, that the vague shapes and shadows of their imagination or “inner eye” can be vivid pictures and strong indicators of place and distance, they confer and their spokesperson said:   ———— We would know that already. do you think you are the only clever one? —————-

    To this the one-eyed man replied: ‘I am not clever, often people lose an argument or misread a situation and they claim their adversary was “clever'” — not that they  themselves were wrong or made errors or failed to fulfill their own position’s requirements or promises they had made, they simply were “outpointed” by a more “clever” speaker or wordsmith. So they have permission in the broad sense to act as they had been acting. And this is bad; we will never learn the differences between things, only how to get more clever than their challenger. We seek not truth, but a shadow within which we can tell our stories and reinforce them in the familial glow of our Dreamtime. But when will you stop tripping over undetected rocks or crashing flush against walls, emerging groggy and staggering and bloodied? Isn’t it logical that what we sense is a reality we are simply too limited to fully perceive? Someone built those walls with more abilities than we have.”

    https://www.likethetruth.com/in-the-land-of-the-blind.html#

    Stop trying to fix stuff that is above your pay grade, and learn to follow simple instructions.

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    • Janos Skorenzy October 20, 2019 at 11:14 am #

      Asteroids? My pay grade? And the going to remote parts of the world? Any good land is those “remote” parts of the world is already inhabited. You’d have to subdue and dispossess the people already there. Back to my original point.

      I assume your religion forbids birth control in other words. And you simply refuse to follow the dots….

      If we had attained a stable United States of 200 million Whites with secure borders and the Blacks and Indians kept securely down and the Mexicans securely out, we’d have the Leisure to try and shoot for outer space and other worlds. But we blew it in the most fantastic and disgusting ways imaginable.

      We could have seen if any of that was realistically possible. And again, as an adventure of the Human Spirit and not as a way to save ourselves from our errors down here. But sure, the research may well have benefited us in all kinds of practical ways – without negating the basic limitations of the Earth, namely resources and population.

      • elysianfield October 20, 2019 at 11:29 am #

        “But we blew it in the most fantastic and disgusting ways imaginable.”

        Janos,
        How did we “blow it”? Johnson got what he wanted, and he got the results he prophesied…you know, got ’em voting Democratic for the next 100 years….

        A plan well conceived and executed.

        • JohnAZ October 20, 2019 at 11:35 am #

          I think Janos idea of “We” and yours is different.

          • malthuss October 20, 2019 at 8:33 pm #

            I think EFs response was sarcastic.

      • SoftStarLight October 20, 2019 at 11:33 am #

        There is NOTHING in the Bible saying that birth control is right or wrong. Therefore the belief that birth control is wrong or a sin is an invention of men. The original commandment to be fruitful and multiply was given at a time when the Earth was desolate in terms of human population and was given one time. There is a great deal of emphasis on the use of wisdom and planning and forward thinking though throughout the entire Bible. The Earth now has many humans and a great deal of environmental devastation due to the sheer number of us. I think anyone who says that birth control is sinful in this instance isn’t using the wisdom God gave them. My two cents for what its worth.

        • Janos Skorenzy October 20, 2019 at 11:40 am #

          It’s worth far more than that. The yokels can’t past that Genesis verse, Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the Earth and subdue it. They can’t realize we’ve already done that and it’s time for some new instructions. Like maybe subduing our inner nature now that the outer is subdued? How can one really subdue the outer unless the inner is subdued? Unless one equates destruction with subduing…..

          Sometimes I wish we had the idea of ongoing Revelation. But of course the Mormons have that and they’ve used it to cancel out the beliefs of their founders. As Scalia said, I like my Constitution safely dead.

          • malthuss October 20, 2019 at 12:01 pm #

            Violence descends.
            A robbery goes wrong.
            Shots ring out.
            33 year old man shot dead.
            Four teens in custody.
            Looking at life at hard labor.
            To never leave prison alive.
            And it started on Martin Luther King Drive.

            Toodles!

            https://www.wdsu.com/article/four-teens-in-custody-charged-with-murder-in-slidell-shooting/29523631

          • SoftStarLight October 20, 2019 at 12:51 pm #

            The New Testament addresses subduing the inner nature. But yes, most unfortunately cannot see. And none of us really see all the time or in all things. Did the Fathers not hear Jesus say that He will come back to destroy those who destroy the Earth? Also, we do have ongoing Revelation. We were told that since Jesus would not be in our physical presence that He would be with us in the Holy Spirit. The prophecies that are written are unchanging but that does not mean we cannot receive Revelations in our times.

          • GreenAlba October 20, 2019 at 1:09 pm #

            “They can’t realize we’ve already done that and it’s time for some new instructions.”

            SSL has pointed out that ‘God’ has given you wisdom (or just a functioning brain) so you don’t need any further instructions on the matter, do you?

            Finite earth + finite resources + existing overshoot = need for birth control. End of. Obviously some need to hear the message much more than others, which is why I’ve always advocated spending more money in those places on health clinics than on bombs and regime change.

            And yes, more than two cents for SSL.

          • GreenAlba October 20, 2019 at 1:24 pm #

            For her post at 11:33 am, not the one with all the unchanging prophecy stuff!

          • SoftStarLight October 20, 2019 at 10:54 pm #

            In time you just may get to a state of mind in which the 12:51 pm post will make total sense. I find it to be sublime. And sometimes euphoric.

          • GreenAlba October 21, 2019 at 10:17 am #

            “And sometimes euphoric.”

            I know. That’s why it works on the emotions. But it’s all good – people find euphoria in different ways. I don’t even look for it – I’m not demanding like that. When you get to my age you feel gratitude for the very ordinary. But mostly I always did.

        • JohnAZ October 20, 2019 at 11:41 am #

          The religious source of condemning birth control is centered on two, Catholics and Mormons. Both for the same reason, more of themselves means more control. In the US, it fits as politics depends on demographics.

          Immigration is doing the same thing, concentrating folks in demographic areas for political control. It has been going on for a long time.

          God gave us the power of reason to manage this planet. Our idiocy is blowing it. Religious dogma is man made.

          • SoftStarLight October 20, 2019 at 1:05 pm #

            I agree. Dominion doesn’t mean destruction. Why would anyone destroy their garden? In fact it would seem that the Bible indicates that the more you are given the more you have to answer for.

          • GreenAlba October 20, 2019 at 1:28 pm #

            The word I always heard from the pulpit as a young’un was ‘stewardship’, not ‘dominion’ (not read directly from the Bible, of course – it did say ‘dominion’), but translated through a human brain.

            Perhaps some of those concerned with not giving ‘dominion’ a bad name could extend their efforts to large-scale, industrial animal husbandry? Preferably before we sign a trade deal with you. 🙂

          • GreenAlba October 20, 2019 at 1:34 pm #

            Not that we’ll need to worry about that if there’s a no-deal Brexit. Since Congress won’t ratify a deal if the Good Friday Agreement isn’t respected.

            Dilemmas, dilemmas… What would Nigel do? There’s money to be made for experienced commodities brokers in them thar American hills. And not just commodities. There’s McHealthcare to be exported… So many new ‘business opportunities’ to be wrought over the heads of Jack and Jill in their two-up, two down…

          • SoftStarLight October 20, 2019 at 11:08 pm #

            Now explain how all this Brexit talk has anything to do with the Biblical concept of Dominion? I heard that the UK is going to become a haven for tourism after Brexit. Something about wine, among other things, being cheaper. Not sure if it was true or not.

          • GreenAlba October 21, 2019 at 7:05 am #

            Well, SSL, you have a habit of turning many a topic towards your hobby horses, I’d say. But I think ‘dominion to Brexit’ was made quite clear in my post. You have dominion over your livestock. In your infamous industrial agriculture sector they are treated abominably, because of regulations that, for ideological reasons to do with er… money, are much lower than those in the EU.

            When we are grovelling for that trade deal with your government, post-Brexit, your negotiators will insist we lower our standards so that we can buy meat and poultry produced more cruelly and less hygienically than in the EU, and with the use of vastly more antibiotics (plus growth hormones, which are not legal in the EU). I’m sure you were able to follow that the first time, with fewer words, but there you are.

            ‘Dominion brings responsibility’, is all I suggested, hence the use of the better word ‘stewardship’. Perhaps God could have suggested that instead, but those were different times and the Bible was written by a whole bunch of different people with their own epoch-dependent views.

            But I’m sure you agree with me anyway about treating livestock decently and not as if they were carrots or turnips.

            “I heard that the UK is going to become a haven for tourism after Brexit. Something about wine, among other things, being cheaper. Not sure if it was true or not.”

            Something about everything being cheaper – for you – because of the plummeting pound. It’s currently 20% lower than it was and we haven’t left yet. So the small amount of English wine that is produced will indeed be cheaper in that sense. But so will toothpaste and DVDs. But only for you. Not for the British, sadly, who will have to pay a higher price for imports, including raw materials and components for manufacturing.

            But, like I said, if you’re a hedge-fund manager, such trials and tribulations are for the little people.

    • JohnAZ October 20, 2019 at 11:51 am #

      Too many chiefs and not enough Indians.

      Surprise, in a society where going to college is paramount. The educated result is everyone wants to be a chief and if I can’t be one, I’ll go live in my parents basement.

  61. SoftStarLight October 20, 2019 at 11:17 am #

    I think the timing of the Tulsi/Hillary dust up is suspect. How do we know for sure it was not staged? In just a flash it has brought Hillary back into the spotlight. She has been directly challenged. So it would thus be logical for her to get more involved in the campaign and maybe just maybe start campaigning herself. Who knows what was promised to Tulsi in return. As it stands she is already back in the limelight as well. And of course she has Conservatives abuzz simply because they like her challenge to Hillary. The Left is great at herding Conservatives and defining the conversation for Conservatives.

    Tulsi may be great when it comes to dismantling the MIC if given the chance. And that in and of itself is doubtful. Dismantling the system requires a True Outsider. However, based on what she has said so far she would not do anything to stop the flow of legal and illegal immigrants into the country. Immigration (legal or no) and migration would be fostered and encouraged by a Gabbard administration. She also does not believe in nor would she be a friend of White America. But she would indeed be a wonderful friend for Greater Israel.

    • JohnAZ October 20, 2019 at 11:43 am #

      Tulsi/Hillary May be bigger than we think.

      • hmuller October 20, 2019 at 6:52 pm #

        There are venereal diseases more popular than Hillary, but you’d never know it listening to the MSM.

    • ellipsis October 20, 2019 at 3:51 pm #

      Gabbard – or any one person for that matter – stands no chance whatsoever at dismantling the MIC. That’s just foolish and should not be repeated.

      Your assertion that it might be just another opportunity for the Queen Bee to get her name in lights is more on point, whether or not Gabbard planned it that way or cooperated in any way.

      • SoftStarLight October 20, 2019 at 11:15 pm #

        It does seem very suspicious. Queen Bee has made it clear for a long time that she should have been President so it seems impossible that she has let go of all that. Plus this recent dust up is a distraction from the rolling Democrat campaign disasters.

  62. JohnAZ October 20, 2019 at 11:32 am #

    Watching Britain’s battle over Brexit, the riots in Barcelona, and the US problems with getting things done, could it be that the political centers are so fractionated that a majority vote on anything Is impossible. Special interest groups and lobbyists are actually controlling the flow of policy making everywhere by playing the politicians against each other. Parliamentarian systems work by the leaders having to consolidate factions until a majority exists, this is not happening much lately. The US Congress works the same way internally with party led compromise, and this is not happening much either. The two party system should smooth the process of compromise. A big problem is that we no longer have a two party system in reality. Count them up

    Ult-Left example Antifa. Pacific Northwest

    Progressives. AOC, squad, the anti Trumpers in Congress, Hollywood

    Moderate Left. Tulsi Gabbard, Buttagieg, Delaney

    Moderate Right. RINOs

    Populists. Trumpers

    Ult Right. David Duke

    The ability to compromise at the party level here is disappearing, like Boris Johnson’s inability to pass Brexit, or Spain’s inability to compromise with the Catalonians.

    There has been more discord inside the parties recently than between the parties, a significant change. Why?

    Because as progress in one direction or the other is stymied, frustration grows and violence ensues. It is happening everywhere.

    Things have been toned down over the last couple of decades by the RINOs being able to kowtow to the Leftist moves in the Deep States. Both Bushes are guilty. The Left unified around the Clintons, Obama’s, and now Bidens but are now moving even farther Left with Bernie and Warren.

    The public has been hurt significantly by the move to the Left, so they elected in the worst candidate possible re: consolidation, Trump.

    So now, everyone Left of the populists have anti-Trump as their credo.

    It should tend to consolidate things except for two items.

    The public is still behind Trump because the Left is still not addressing any of their issues.

    The moderate Left is increasingly having major issues with the Leftward drift of their party and are starting to revolt. Where do they go?

    IMHO, we are going to get a major realignment in the country, even if the country stays together. The split will be moderate pro USA patriots versus the Leftist trending Deep State.

    Fed vs. States

    Socialism vs. capitalism

    Religion vs. secularism

    Foreign oriented culture vs. “American” culture.

    Nothing for the public is going to improve until the reorganization is over. IOW, not for a while. Fiscal problems left untended may bring the whole house of cards down before it happens, possibly accelerating the change. World wide!

    The main culprit for the whole thing? Intermixing cultures, yes diversity. It is a signal that the American Dream of a mixed salad society is not going to work.

    The accelerator and aggravator of the process, the Media trying to outdo each other for the biggest news story and being totally biased in doing so.

    Eternally fanning the flames.

    • GreenAlba October 20, 2019 at 1:00 pm #

      ” could it be that the political centers are so fractionated that a majority vote on anything is impossible ”

      Well you could call the Johnson family a bit of a ‘political centre’, JAZ, and they’re as ‘fractionated’ as anywhere else in the UK, with brother Jo not able to stomach his brother’s ‘no-deal’ scenario, and his sister Rachel unable to see how anyone is going to benefit from Brexit other than hedge-fund managers. And Boris choosing to do what he judges helpful to his good self staying in power, as ever.

      Must be fun for them discussing it all in Latin round the dinner table.

      But one should be wary of concluding that it’s all about tribes. Some of it is, of course, but the Johnsons are a very close tribe and they don’t see eye to eye on Brexit, like a lot of other families who belong to the same ‘tribe’. The issues are more complicated than ‘tribalists’ would like them to be.

      • JohnAZ October 20, 2019 at 7:46 pm #

        Understand.

        The politics of the American Civil War era ripped churches, and families apart. We are headed in that direction again.

        A good question is why? Why does politics raise its ugly head and destroy what glues together society?

        Maybe because it is the summation of our two inborn “original “ sins

        Power

        Ethnocentrism

    • SoftStarLight October 20, 2019 at 1:15 pm #

      Yes John you are exactly right. The diverse mixed salad idea of a country is an unworkable idea. Thus we are back to the idea of ethnocentrism and ethnostates which I believe you reject? So then we simply must prepare for war and conflict. The only other choice is to disavow race mixing, multiculturalism, and diversity itself.

      • JohnAZ October 20, 2019 at 1:35 pm #

        I am a main proponent of the effects of ethnocentrism and its destructive power. You are mimicking Janos too much. My statements have always supported building the Wall and stopping illegal immigration. Then allowing immigration of people that the country needs.

        I believe that the country will Balkanize with each group going its own way. It is already happening, de Jure , as evidenced by the West Coast divorcing itself from mainstream America legally. When they figure out how to defend themselves and what to do with the federal lands and defense facilities, it will be bye bye.

        I do not know how war can start with everyone intermixed as now. Look at what happened in India that led to the creation of Pakistan. Riots, active fighting, violence increasing, until the geopolitical division occurred. Maybe a model for what is happening here.

        One difference. India had two factions to declare war on each other. We have dozens, who is going to fight who?

        Answer this question. The focus of the split is Trump, period. What happens when he is gone, one way or the other.

        That is what scares me! Tulsi may be an indicator.

        • SoftStarLight October 20, 2019 at 11:19 pm #

          Ethnocentrism will prevail because multiculturalism and diversity are failures. It will likely prevail after much conflict and pain.

  63. mccobb October 20, 2019 at 1:02 pm #

    If we are all “levitating above an abyss,” that should be the focus. We should be making sure that this is the common understanding. Mr. Kunstler’s rhetoric, well written by the way, is instead about “deep state” actors working behind the scenes to engineer a government coup. But the president won’t be removed from office because the Senate is controlled by the Republicans. And he’ll probably win the election in 2020. if this is a coup, it’s not well thought out.

    Another way to look at this mess is simply in terms of human failings: a Vice President’s son took a job with a company in a foreign country he wasn’t qualified for, a former mayor took 500,000 from a company owned by his Ukrainian associates in 2018 that was dissolved in Florida in 2016, our Energy Secretary attempted to replace the Naftogaz CEO, and so on.

    Back in 2016, Republicans talked about impeaching Ms. Clinton if she was elected. Phrases taken from the stolen DNC e-mails were interpreted as a child sex ring run by Ms. Clinton out of a pizza
    parlor. Many FBI agents hated Ms. Clinton, at least at the time. How are events this time around any different, or surprising?

    • JohnAZ October 20, 2019 at 1:21 pm #

      Do not so assured about Trump not being convicted. The Right side of the Deep State, the Never Trumper RINOS are salivating at the possibility of getting rid of Trump. I will guarantee you that deals are being made, including Mike Pence, and votes are being counted in the Senate to see if 2/3 of them can be recruited to vote him out. Jeff Flake, my worst vote, wrote his memo about how many GOP senators will vote against Trump if the ballot was secret. I think this is what triggered Nancy. “If the ballot was secret”, think about that. A repudiation of the public,” if I could vote in secret I could vote to remove the people’s choice.”

      This is just another example of the split between the Deep State and the people they are supposed to represent. Trump goes, the power of the vote of the people is nullified, American ideals gone.

      The rest of the world will love this, so will a certain group of globalist bandits.

      • malthuss October 20, 2019 at 3:22 pm #

        what if he refuses to go away [from WH]?

        Obamas and Clintons wont go away,[yet]
        but did steal furniture and move on.

      • Majella October 20, 2019 at 6:41 pm #

        …and about 60% of Americans…

        • JohnAZ October 20, 2019 at 7:48 pm #

          51 disputed percent to be exact

          Polls are a crock anyway.

        • benr October 20, 2019 at 9:26 pm #

          Polls said President Hillary…polls lie…polls are massaged..polls are rigged.

  64. Tate October 20, 2019 at 1:51 pm #

    Today a woman on Nextdoor was pleading for someone to identify a location in a photo so that she could call channel 7 to come out & rescue a deer she claimed had a broken jaw in the photo. For one thing, as if the deer is just going to remain in that one location until help arrives. The inevitable mocking replies got her dander up. How nasty & uncaring this world is! she chided. One thing you notice is that those who will sympathize tend to the feminine side. In this area men are about 50/50, women more like 75/25. Lotsa latte-sippers, software designers & such. Older women tend to be more practical.

    Someone sensibly pointed out that she should call Colorado Parks & Wildlife & another replied that the deer had already been reported to CPW & were told to leave it alone & report if the deer appeared to be losing weight. The woman would have none of it! It must be reported to the TV news. They would know what to do! That between the virtue signaling about how caring she is compared to everyone else.

    Of course, this is why the 19th amendment has been such a disaster. Men are in general more practical-minded & understand that politics shouldn’t be a moral-preening beauty contest. What’s best for the overall good of the community should be foremost. Chesterton’s Fence. Sometimes cruel outcomes are best for the overall health of society. But women often fail to understand this. They are better equipped with the maternal instinct to tend to matters of domestic economy. In the home, that is & leave matters concerning the larger world to the men-folk.

    A few women do understand the larger picture, like Mrs. Tate for example. She wanted to hang a photograph of some of her pioneer forebears surrounded by piles of animal carcasses in a hallway. I said that it wouldn’t be the right ‘look.’ She thought it would be a festive touch bless her heart! I said well put it in the guest bedroom where day visitors probably won’t venture.

    Somebody mentioned that the deer with the broken jaw would only be put down by CPW if it appeared to be starving. Otherwise, they would leave it alone. That’s a sensible approach. Nature is cruel & uncaring. The Lord in His infinite wisdom allows that suffering as part of a necessary plan of cleansing of the weak & feeble, which are those who suffer the least. Thankfully that suffering is only temporary compared to the eternity of suffering He has planned for those disobedient to His Will (at least according to some interpretations of the scriptures.) In any event, suffering on this earth is only temporary & could we strong endure it any better in recompense if we thought that the Lord hasn’t given release to the weak & feeble first?

    How did the deer get the broken jaw? Probably struck by an automobile was the general consensus. No one wants to inflict suffering on a dumb animal, but it happens. Deer follow established migration patterns, sometimes crossing road traffic. If you see a deer-crossing sign along the road, especially at dusk & dawn, slow down! The sign was put there for a reason. I almost hit a cow elk a couple weeks ago, & it was nine o’clock at night! A few moments before that I almost hit a dude darting out in front of me crossing the road. A drunk most likely. There are some bars in that area. Channel 7 would be interested in the second instance, probably not in the first.

    • ellipsis October 20, 2019 at 3:01 pm #

      Deer are a particularly sore subject for many of us who live in mountainous areas and who must put up with them. Yes, it’s true, as a lefty neighbor is quick to remind me, they were here first, but that’s totally irrelevant in that we are here now and have no intention to leave, regardless of politics.

      In the end, deer living amongst humans (as they are wont to do, especially when humans encourage them to do so) is a bad situation for both, and treating them like wild pets is the worst of both worlds. Yes, sometimes it’s cruelest to be kind and sometimes it’s far kinder to be cruel.

    • malthuss October 20, 2019 at 3:20 pm #

      they shoot and eat deer, so what does one sick deer matter?

    • Tate October 20, 2019 at 3:53 pm #

      When I used to hunt, in antediluvian times of yore, I was occasionally confronted with the suffering of animals, those which had been wounded only. It drove me to kill without hesitation by any means necessary with the mercy shot or the equivalent, & not with any pleasure. Only those who have seen the suffering of other creatures expressed through their eyes can understand this. I’ve never believed that other creatures are less than humans in their capacity to suffer. So a sick deer matters. IMO, they should ‘waste’ a bullet on that deer with the broken jaw, but only if it indeed does have a broken jaw.

      • ellipsis October 20, 2019 at 4:15 pm #

        Perhaps you’re putting too much thought into this? There is no shame or waste necessarily implied in death nor in killing. Intent matters in the act, as always, but one need not be ashamed if one’s actions are pure. Both life and death are both part of the same eternal cycle.

        • Tate October 20, 2019 at 4:20 pm #

          You’re right in the larger scheme. But CPW has to have some objective criterion to put that deer down.

          • GreenAlba October 20, 2019 at 6:18 pm #

            ” In any event, suffering on this earth is only temporary & could we strong endure it any better in recompense if we thought that the Lord hasn’t given release to the weak & feeble first?”

            You will keep us informed, I hope, Tate, when the deer passes on to its final reward for all that suffering that the Lord in his wisdom sanctioned.

            You could put it on Nextdoor too – inquiring minds will want to know.

          • Tate October 20, 2019 at 6:48 pm #

            You’re so inquisitive GA. Would you like hourly updates?

          • SoftStarLight October 20, 2019 at 11:36 pm #

            I think it’s actually very humane to put the poor animal out of its misery. Unless there is a way they could do something about the deer’s broken jaw. Suffering is simply a part of life. But that doesn’t mean we should be unfeeling or blind to it. Do you agree Alba that it would be humane to put the deer down if that’s the only choice?

          • GreenAlba October 21, 2019 at 8:51 am #

            “Do you agree Alba that it would be humane to put the deer down if that’s the only choice?”

            I entirely agree, if it’s suffering and can’t eat, and especially if it’s suffering because of a human driving a car, rather than anything we’d normally call ‘nature’.

            Of course there is great suffering in nature. Suffering we can’t remotely imagine now that only a few people far away are eaten by wild animals, on the whole (barring the odd shark or alligator attack).

            One might wonder why ‘God’ didn’t create a system where all animals were herbivores – perhaps he finds the alternative entertaining. Or perhaps…the other option. I will spare you the account I once read of a the long, drawn-out agony of a young buffalo trapped by some komodo dragons. There was no heaven to make that suffering meaningful. It was just nature red in tooth and claw, as it evolved. I mean, what kind of mind would design that into their system?

          • GreenAlba October 21, 2019 at 9:18 am #

            “You’re so inquisitive GA. Would you like hourly updates?”

            Goodness, no, Tate, I wouldn’t want to take you away from your philosophical convolutions. Just let me know when it’s ascended into Bambi heaven to claim its great reward for all that suffering.

          • GreenAlba October 21, 2019 at 9:23 am #

            And I do hope it’s been a good Bambi. Imagine if you’d been thwacked by a car, got a broken jaw, died slowly of starvation, and still had to go where the bad Bambis go because of your prior misdemeanors?

  65. BackRowHeckler October 20, 2019 at 4:28 pm #

    Participated in a skeet shooting event today at a gun club at a remote, rural part of the state. Not really my ‘thang’, and Im not that good at it, but I went as a guest, took the opportunity to try out a new shotgun I bought when the ladies of the house took off for Europe. Several hundred people present, all with shotguns, and it was my observation, in certain segments of the American population, the presence of firearms causes no problems whatsoever. In fact there was much conviviality and comeraderie extant even tho I didn’t know too many people there? A cool vibe ran thru out the place, abetted by the golden hue on the oaks and maples surrounding the grounds, and blue sky with billowy cumulus clouds floating overhead.

    Reading the local city edition now. Unfortunately, its clear the presence of firearms does cause a problem in certain, other segments of the population.

    Brh

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    • Tate October 20, 2019 at 4:44 pm #

      It (the presence of firearms) engenders an immune response among certain demographics, as in a foreign body which must be ejected from the system. It seems ironic to me that the NRA was founded to defend the rights of blacks in the South to own firearms (if such narrative is true, but I have no reason to doubt it).

      The negro temperament — by nature more impulsive & ebullient than any other racial category — by having been arrested in its development from its neolithic heritage by the civil rights & voting rights acts of 1964 & 65 — must be harnessed to the benefit of the dominant culture, to expunge through the free use of firearms & automobiles the rowdier elements among the ebon brothers. This will take 6 or 7 generations.

    • stelmosfire October 21, 2019 at 8:51 am #

      What is a gun? A wooden and metal stick with fire inside. A gun never killed anyone. It is a tool just like the ratchet wrench in the trunk of my car. I have been to a couple auto/deer accidents.. The cops would show up and dispatch the poor critter with a round to the head. Against the regs. we would wrap him in a blanket, throw him in the ambulance, have him hangin’ at the station within a half hour. No need to waste the meat.

  66. Tate October 20, 2019 at 4:53 pm #

    Hate crime psychologist is brutally killed in her South African home by intruders who waited for her husband to go out before breaking in and slitting her throat

    by Jamie Pyatt in Cape Town for MAILONLINE
    10/09/19

    Leading scholar, Dr Mirah Wilks, was murdered in her home after a gang broke in, stabbed her 12 times and slit her throat. A brilliant psychologist and specialist in hate crime and violence in South Africa was brutally butchered and had her throat slit in her own home by a gang of armed robbers.

    Leading scholar Dr Mirah Wilks was ambushed and attacked by the men who had waited until her husband Frank left to worship at the local synagogue, leaving her home alone.

    The group had climbed up onto the roof and removed tiles and dropped down inside the house and stabbed Mirah at least twelve times in the chest and back then cut her throat.

    Retired husband Frank, 72, returned home from evening worship on Sunday night and found the blood soaked body of his wife of 45 years lying dead on the floor of the family home.

    Dr Wilks, 69, was renowned for her research into hate crimes, trauma and violence and was a highly respected former Chair of the Psychological Society of South Africa.

    South African Police have launched a major man-hunt for the gang who struck at the home in Johannesburg and killed her just to steal two laptops and a mobile phone.

    Former art teacher turned counsellor, Dr Wilks qualified last year with a PhD in Hate Crimes from the University of South Africa after spending many years in South Africa as a top psychologist.

    Dr Wilks had moved to Australia from Israel as a young girl and had a daughter Tarryn and son Brett in Melbourne, Victoria, with husband Frank and the family later emigrated to South Africa.
     
    She had also gained degrees at the University of Queensland in Australia and the University of Pennsylvania in the USA and was working at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg when she was murdered.

    Dr Wilks had moved to Australia from Israel as a young girl and had a daughter Tarryn and son Brett in Melbourne, Victoria, with husband Frank and the family later emigrated to South Africa.

    Dr Wilks had recently started important research into ‘resilience as a means of adaption and survival’ with a special focus on South Africa’s [LGBT] community.

    South African Police said they believed the men had waited for Mr Wilks to leave the home before breaking in through the ceiling to perhaps get round the security doors and windows.

    A source said the helpless grandmother was stabbed at least twelve time and during the struggle the ruthless gang slit her throat before making off with two laptops and cell phone.

    Police spokespeman Colonel Lungelo Dlamini said: ‘A case of murder is being investigated and the post mortem will determine the exact cause of death but a sharp object was used.’

    ‘It was used in the fatal assault on the victim who was found by her husband when her returned home from church [sic] and we are appealing for witnesses to come forward.’

    Professor Juan Nel who was a close friend of Dr Wilks, and her supervisor, said that the Pyschological [sic] Society of South Africa was distraught after learning of her murder.

    He said: ‘Dr Wilks was the victim of a violent crime that took place in her home and Mirah’s untimely death has left us with a deep sense of loss that will affect all of us here.’

    ‘Mirah was known to a great many of her colleagues in the psychology fraternity and was a good soul and a person in the profession who had great integrity and honour’ he said.

    Counselling psychologist Dr Ingrid Artus said: ‘We have a scarcity of psychologists in South Africa and the service they provide to society are vital and her loss will impact on patients.’

    ‘The work that she was doing in SA was vital to helping a country such as ours. This will perpetuate the fear that many associate with crime. She will be greatly missed,’ she said.

    The Psychological Society of South Africa shared a poignant letter Dr Wilks had shared with her students, describing herself as a childhood polio survivor and Jewish refugee who had battled cancer.

    ‘Everyone has a story,’ Dr Wilks wrote. ‘I have often wondered how I survived, rebounded and found new pathways to health. What was the source of my ability to regenerate? Where was my source of hope and positivity? Did my attitude on life and my personality have anything to do with my experiences of resilience in adversity?’

    The society added: ‘And hopeful and positive, she was. Always.’

    Prince Harry has just returned from a royal tour of South Africa with wife Meghan and son Archie and both spoke out against the violence inflicted on women and children across the country.

    Meghan, 38, tied a yellow ribbon to railings outside a post office in Cape Town where university student Uyinene Mrwetyana, 19, was tortured, raped and murdered days shortly before the visit.

    She made the private pilgrimage with her detectives to pay her respects to the teenage victim of a brutal sex attack in a country where violence is rife and 21,000 people are murdered a year.

    • elysianfield October 20, 2019 at 6:52 pm #

      ” Dr Wilks, 69, was renowned for her research into hate crimes, trauma and violence…”

      …Consider it field work for the post-Doc.

    • malthuss October 20, 2019 at 8:31 pm #

      what did Ms Israeli consider hate crimes?

      I didnt get thru the whole article.

    • BackRowHeckler October 20, 2019 at 9:29 pm #

      The NY Post has been covering a similar story in the Marshall Islands (an American Protectorate), woman Civil Rights lawyer from NYC appointed Attorney General on the Island of Yap, apparently to tackle the problem of human smuggling taking place, gunned down along with her dog by a native who apparently didn’t appreciate her efforts.

      The FBI has showed up, looking for clews.

      Brh

  67. Tate October 20, 2019 at 6:34 pm #

    “The violence, the mass shootings, and the casual sociopathy of modern America are not simplistically political in the way many journalists want them to be. America’s soul has been ripped out, and these acts are existential rage, not political terrorism. Alienation is not a matter of Left and Right. It’s something far deeper, and the grim, hostile world of the Joker is just believable enough to appear as a brilliant projection of our increasingly diverse, rootless society.”

    — Gregory Hood

    https://www.amren.com/features/2019/10/joker-the-face-of-america/

    • Pucker October 20, 2019 at 7:03 pm #

      That’s a great rendition of the movie “Joker”. Some people viscerally hate the movie. People seem to either Love It, or Hate It. I thought that it is quite “Good”. I know a bloke whose personality is similar to the Joker’s. There are many people like this now.

      • Pucker October 20, 2019 at 7:05 pm #

        Anomie

        • JohnAZ October 20, 2019 at 7:38 pm #

          Hey, looked it up. Right!

          Why is it happening?

          Diversity?

          • SoftStarLight October 20, 2019 at 11:59 pm #

            It certainly isn’t because of Ethnocentrism. The Joker is right. We get what we deserve. We can make a different choice though.

  68. Pucker October 20, 2019 at 6:48 pm #

    21 October 1805 – A determined Admiral Nelson in dress uniform with a patch over one eye, metal hook arm, a wooden peg leg, and a parrot on his shoulder, on the eve of the Battle of Trafalgar. About to execute a daring move to ram his ships through the line of EU Spanish and French ships, Admiral Nelson orders the fateful colors hoisted to his ship’s mast that read: “England expects that you will do your duty.”

    • Tate October 20, 2019 at 6:52 pm #

      Suffering personified. The earliest photographs show the suffering etched on the faces of our ancestors. By the photographs of the elite denizens of the Eastern enclaves their unlined faces are remarkably modern & untouched.

  69. Pucker October 20, 2019 at 7:03 pm #

    The new football helmets today make the college football players look like Pee Wee football players. It kinda freaks me out. Are you one of those deranged blokes who’s really passionate about the drama of Professional Pee Wee Football?

    If you think about it, it’s all Pee Wee Football. LeBron is just an oversized Professional Pee Wee Basketball player? It’s rather amazing that grown adults give a shit about this stuff? I used to be passionate about it when I was 12 years old, but I grew out of it.

    • BackRowHeckler October 20, 2019 at 11:30 pm #

      LeBron went right from HS into the NBA, skipping college.

      Yes he makes $50 million per year but he is a leader of the resistance and a hero in ghettos across America, and a profound political thinker.

      • stelmosfire October 21, 2019 at 9:07 am #

        50 million here 50 million there, It’s all just funny paper. I would be willing to bet that LeBron can’t even tie his own NIKES! Nevermind can his own salsa.

  70. JohnAZ October 20, 2019 at 8:28 pm #

    Tulsi vs. Hillary

    Not recent. Started in the DNC fiasco in 2016.

    Source CNNs Van Jones

    Tulsi was made a “golden girl” by the DNC in the 2016 primary season and made her assistant Democratic chairman. She got wind of what was going on with the conspiracy of Debbie Wasserman Schulz and others supporting Clinton and blew the whistle. She resigned, supported Bernie Sander’s campaign and was warned about crossing HRC. Animosity has existed since.

    Guess she just finally has had enough of HRC. The realignment of our polity is hopefully underway.

    Trump, if you hear the front door bell on the WH ring, you might answer it. It might be Tulsi with the answer to get rid of the Clintons forever.

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  71. malthuss October 20, 2019 at 8:35 pm #

    Oh dear. Malthuss, you’re lucky Q isn’t around. /

    Id like him to be around. sadly this thread dies tomorrow morning.

    • malthuss October 20, 2019 at 8:35 pm #

      Then/ than.

      I was thinking of now as time, hence ‘then’ would be my go to.

      • GreenAlba October 21, 2019 at 9:38 am #

        ‘Now’ is time. ‘Then’ is also time. ‘Than’ is a conjunction allowing comparison of the two.

        Hence ‘cooler then than now’. Or just ‘cooler than now’, as I said.

        • GreenAlba October 21, 2019 at 9:39 am #

          Maybe they sound the same if you’re American. 🙂

  72. BackRowHeckler October 20, 2019 at 11:09 pm #

    What are your plans for ‘Climate Extinction Friday’?

    Stopping trains, vandalizing aircraft, closing streets, spreading around red paint, its getting kind of lame, people. Look around you, comrades. Despite our best efforts, useless eaters are still driving their cars, heating their houses, having babies, eating meat, enjoying life goddamit! How dare they? HOW DARE THEY? THEY’RE NOT GETTING THE MESSAGE!! The world is on fire! There is no Planet B! Direct action clearly is needed, and that means taking the fight to the people themselves, and to the polluters. Nuclear power plants, natgas pipelines, petroleum storage facilities, all of it’s on the block. And when Joe Sixpack and his kids in nowheresville spend a few cold nights without heat, hot water and electricity, he’ll know we mean business.

    The fate of the planet depends on us.

    When carrying out any aktion, ask yourself, ‘What would Greta do?’

    CLIMATE EXTINCTION, Yeah!

    crossed fists held high!

    Onward!

    Brh

    • Cavepainter October 21, 2019 at 12:03 am #

      Yeah, yeah, what a blather. China, having a cohered plan (not hampered by our silly diversity and social justice BS) will move ruthlessly, as it did in Tibet, filling the vacuum as the US dissolves into warring tribes, unable to coalesce back into a nation to prevent it. Russia will sit tight, not foolish enough to challenge China’s real-politic acumen.

    • SoftStarLight October 21, 2019 at 12:12 am #

      I think Greta’s parents are beginning to collect bigger paychecks. Its just a hunch but what do I know. I should probably be more thoughtful and just assume they do it all for the love of humanity.

      • BackRowHeckler October 21, 2019 at 12:19 am #

        Right now Greta and her handlers are travelling around North America in Teslas. Despite the best efforts of several journalist in Canada and the US it’s still not clear who exactly is paying the bills.

        They lost out on the Nobel Peace Prize payout, which surprised me.

        Brh

      • GreenAlba October 21, 2019 at 9:56 am #

        “I think Greta’s parents are beginning to collect bigger paychecks. Its just a hunch but what do I know. ”

        Perhaps you shouldn’t say it out loud until you know? Otherwise it might come under that bearing false witness against your neighbour thingy. Not very Christian. And here you are telling us how much better you are than Greta’s parents. 🙂

    • stelmosfire October 21, 2019 at 9:10 am #

      Your on a roll my friend!

  73. Pucker October 21, 2019 at 12:22 am #

    They’re so insane that they’ll just make shit up because it’s convenient.

    Apparently, Hillary has a Hard On for Tulsi Gabbard because Tulsi exposed corruption in the Democratic Party. So, to get even, Hillary smears Tulsi as a “Russian Asset” with MSM complicity. They’re all insane.

    “ Since Monday, traders said China purchased eight bulk carrier cargoes of soybeans from Brazil, or about 480,000 tons, worth $173 million.
    Brazil is China’s top soybean supplier, and Reuters made an interesting point, “large purchases from South America are unusual at this time of year with the US harvest coming in.” Translation: China isn’t buying US soybeans, so President Trump’s tweets about agriculture purchases are meaningless at the moment and are only used to calm fears of Midwest/Central US farmers.”

    • Walter B October 21, 2019 at 8:52 am #

      The American public is easily distracted and the corrupt media and political “leaders” take full advantage of the technologies and systems that provide them with almost total control over the minds of the plebes. China is clearly on the rise geopolitically while America is in decline. My friends in Washington confirm that the Chinese will indeed be the next Number One Superpower and sooner rather than later.

      You know, it is almost funny that back when I was a teenager, we were warned that communism would spread all over the world through the domino theory, eventually coming to US(A) across our borders. Fifty years later I can see it actually occurring but from the Chinese not the Vietnamese, through our porous southern border and even Canada as well. If you consider how much of our stuff they actually already own outright, well it looks as though it is soon to be unleashed upon us.

      • stelmosfire October 21, 2019 at 9:17 am #

        Tulsi is against the MIC, For that reason only she may get my vote. The problem is if the MIC was cut back the economy would basically collapse around here. In these parts( Western Ma. and Northern CT.) the machine shops are all reliant on jet parts. All very good paying jobs.

        • Walter B October 21, 2019 at 9:24 am #

          Catch 22 eh?

          • GreenAlba October 21, 2019 at 9:52 am #

            Not hugely different from poor people growing poppies in faraway countries, in some ways.

  74. BackRowHeckler October 21, 2019 at 9:25 am #

    Current temp, South Pole: -62°F

    Current temp, North Pole: -6°F

    Plenty cold so no glaciers will be melting today, raising sea levels and devastating coastal communities, rendering human life extinct in 12 years. That’s what they’re saying, we’ve got only 12 years.

    Brh

    • GreenAlba October 21, 2019 at 9:46 am #

      Perhaps you could retain the sensible stuff, brh, and ignore the silly stuff. Isn’t that what you do in other parts of your life? That’s what your brain is for.

      I don’t hear people here saying human life will be extinct in 12 years (although I have heard people saying we’ve only got about that amount of time to make a serious start to slowing down climate change, in order to mitigate the worst effects decades and centuries hence).

      I mean, why would scientists be telling you what the sea level would be in 2100 if they thought we’d all be dead in 12 years? Who would care?

      Perhaps you should just stop being silly and read some actual science. Slogans are rarely the way to go, whether they’re on a placard or a hat.

    • GreenAlba October 21, 2019 at 10:05 am #

      BTW, there’s a 30-year lag or so between the introduction of extra CO2 to the atmosphere and its manifestation in global warming, so if we’re going to be dead in 12 years, that was kinda fixed already about 18 years ago.

      What we do now – good or bad – won’t start showing climate-wise till around mid-century. You’re currently enjoying the effects of activity up till the late 80s. This is one of the reasons it’s hard to get people to do anything (or stop doing anything). Another is the kind of thinking you demonstrate.

      • Cavepainter October 21, 2019 at 10:30 am #

        Contrary to the Left’s pet pitch that oppressive behavior is exclusive to “Whitey” history shows that any advantage will be applied to advantage by the beholding. Yes, true even among the “noble savages” of the north American continent, now applying all the marvelous technology to fleece “ol’ blue eyes” by drawing them into casinos on “tribal lands” (which they wouldn’t have had any other culture….,say, the Chinese,….conquered north America). And, believe it, when the Chinese gain the required advantage (which they already have socially) they’ll conquer the US and we “natives” won’t be given “reservations”.

        • BackRowHeckler October 21, 2019 at 11:10 am #

          California will go down first. PLA Divisions land unopposed in Baja Cal, head north, accompanied by a few ragtag Mexican Regiments and 500,000 migrants, following the north star into the land of milk and honey.

          The Tranny and Drag Queen formations recruited from around the Bay area probably won’t offer up must resistance. It’ll be over in about 3 weeks.

          Brh

  75. John Joslin October 23, 2019 at 2:00 pm #

    “… the government choking itself to death on replayed narratives from its own server farms.”

    What a succinct insight !

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