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 Note:  Update attached below morning entry at 8:40 pm.

Fighting for its very life, the Resistance rolls out a last-ditch flanking maneuver today in its three-year war against reality as Rep. Adam Schiff’s House Intel Committee presents findings to Rep. Nadler’s Judiciary Committee for crimes as yet unspecified against Mr. Trump, possibly as grave as treason. Buyer beware. The Resistance always accuses its enemy of the very acts it commits — for instance, colluding with Russia, the primal deed that the guiding spirit of the Resistance, Mrs. Clinton, perpetrated in hiring Glenn Simpson’s Fusion GPS outfit and its star front-man, Christopher Steele, to consort with Russian disinformation agents injecting some helpful fantasy into the 2016 election.

Therefore, you can be serenely confident that any charges of actual treason will eventually stick to members of Resistance in government service who did indeed plot a coup to overthrow the occupant of the White House. That process of discovery begins today in another part of the battlefield, when the DOJ Inspector General, Mr. Horowitz, rolls out his report on FISA court shenanigans. His inquiry, of course, was limited to current members of the DOJ and FBI, which leaves out many of the principal actors in that scheme: Jim Comey, Andrew McCabe, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, Michael Atkinson — all either discharged or moved onto other thickets in the reeking wetland of Washington DC. Anyway, the coup ranged far beyond the bounds of Mr. Horowitz’s scope on FISA abuse.

Among those many others, the IG was not authorized to interrogate former CIA chief John Brennan, the Lone Ranger of RussiaGate, or James Clapper, former Director of National Intelligence, Mr. Brennan’s faithful Tonto in the scam. Mr. Horowitz’s report will be necessarily incomplete. At most, it might provide a preview of the comprehensive legal review being carried out by the attorney general, Mr. Barr, and his deputy, the Connecticut federal prosecutor, John Durham. I suspect that Mr. Barr has instructed Mr. Horowitz to be careful with his conclusions, since any further attempts to obfuscate the facts and excuse official misconduct on squishy grounds such as intent will tend to worsen the already gross institutional damage done to federal law enforcement.

One character who has not been heard from lo these many months is former associate deputy attorney general Bruce Ohr, who was not fired, but transferred to some harmless backwater of the Justice Department to answer agency parking violations, or something equally harmless. I suspect Mr. Ohr may have played a decisive role in the IG inquiry, and possibly flipped on his colleagues, since Mr. Ohr was in the uniquely uncomfortable position of having a wife, Nellie Ohr, in the direct employ of Fusion GPS, Hillary Clinton’s oppo research contractor. Mr. Ohr additionally consorted with Fusion’s front man, Mr. Steele, after Steele was officially fired as a paid FBI source. Mr. Ohr will surely play a role on the Durham side of things.

Rep Adam Schiff will be conspicuously absent in today’s hearings, a tactic that enables him to avoid being questioned about his methods, actions, and associations around the UkraineGate chapter of the coup — for instance, his pre-whistle trysts with CIA agent and alleged “whistleblower” Eric Ciaramella. Some minority member of the Nadler committee might ask Mr. Schiff, for instance, if he can cite any federal statute that provides Ciaramella with eternal anonymity (hint: there is none). Instead, Mr. Schiff’s findings will be presented by Lawfare attorneys Daniel Sachs Goldman (yes, his actual name), and Barry Berke, renowned for getting Wall Street grifters off the hook for selling janky securities.

The New York Times is the Resistance’s obverse measuring device for divining reality — whatever they report is likely to be the opposite of the facts. So, naturally, the Monday morning edition is playing-up the supposedly nefarious doings of Rudy Giuliani in Ukraine. In fact, Mr. Giuliani has managed to depose (and record on video) two Ukrainian chief prosecutors, Viktor Shokin and Yuriy Lutsenko who are deeply familiar with the machinations around the inquiries into Burisma Holdings, the Ukrainian gas company that put coke-head Hunter Biden on its board of directors while dad Joe Biden was directing on-the-ground US policy there — and bribed the Ukraine government to back off its investigations. (Shokin video here and Lutsenko video here).

The essence of this colossal radioactive hairball of an historic scandal pulsates in the malicious prosecution of General Michael Flynn. Weeks ago, his new attorney, Sidney Powell, filed requests for DOJ documents containing exculpatory information in the case. The prosecutors, put in by Robert Mueller, stalled on the request, so Ms. Powell asked for an official pause until the Horowitz report is issued, possibly containing information pertinent to the general’s case. Be alert to developments on that front.

So, you see, we have two narratives at war in America: the Resistance story aimed at shoving Mr. Trump out of the White House by any means necessary, including a siege engine of untruth based on bad faith; and Mr. Trump’s story that he has been unfairly and unjustly subject to seditious mutiny by several federal agencies, dedicated to crippling his executive function at least and levering him out of office at most. The two stories can be reconciled in courts of law and the court of public opinion. There’s polling evidence that the Resistance is losing in the latter, as it over-estimated the public’s appetite for official dishonesty. The courts of law await further down the road. Additional comment here to come later today when the IG report is released….

Monday Evening Update:

The Horowitz IG report came out around 1:00 pm,  a 430+-page hermeneutic of FBI procedure around warrants granted to spy on the Trump campaign. Buried in its legalistic prolixities and parsings was the admission of many gross misfeasances, errors, and violations by the agency managers involved. Mr. Horowitz dismissed claims of political bias and declined to make any criminal referrals in the matter. Concurrently, Attorney General Barr and prosecutor John Durham issued statements politely but forcefully demurring from Mr. Horowitz’s vapid conclusions.

Messers Barr and Durham have collected a much broader range of evidence from places beyond the narrow scope of the DOJ and FBI, including the Intel agencies, the State Department, and ministries in foreign lands who participated in the RussiaGate ploy that morphed into a coup to disable and oust Mr. Trump.

Durham issued this statement:

I have the utmost respect for the mission of the Office of Inspector General and the comprehensive work that went into the report prepared by Mr. Horowitz and his staff. However, our investigation is not limited to developing information from within component parts of the Justice Department. Our investigation has included developing information from other persons and entities, both in the U.S. and outside of the U.S. Based on the evidence collected to date, and while our investigation is ongoing, last month we advised the Inspector General that we do not agree with some of the report’s conclusions as to predication and how the FBI case was opened.”

Barr’s also released a statement that he disagreed with the Horowitz conclusion:

Nothing is more important than the credibility and integrity of the FBI and the Department of Justice. That is why we must hold our investigators and prosecutors to the highest ethical and professional standards. The Inspector General’s investigation has provided critical transparency and accountability, and his work is a credit to the Department of Justice. I would like to thank the Inspector General and his team.

The Inspector General’s report now makes clear that the FBI launched an intrusive investigation of a U.S. presidential campaign on the thinnest of suspicions that, in my view, were insufficient to justify the steps taken. It is also clear that, from its inception, the evidence produced by the investigation was consistently exculpatory. Nevertheless, the investigation and surveillance was pushed forward for the duration of the campaign and deep into President Trump’s administration. In the rush to obtain and maintain FISA surveillance of Trump campaign associates, FBI officials misled the FISA court, omitted critical exculpatory facts from their filings, and suppressed or ignored information negating the reliability of their principal source. The Inspector General found the explanations given for these actions unsatisfactory. While most of the misconduct identified by the Inspector General was committed in 2016 and 2017 by a small group of now-former FBI officials, the malfeasance and misfeasance detailed in the Inspector General’s report reflects a clear abuse of the FISA process.

FISA is an essential tool for the protection of the safety of the American people. The Department of Justice and the FBI are committed to taking whatever steps are necessary to rectify the abuses that occurred and to ensure the integrity of the FISA process going forward….

With respect to DOJ personnel discussed in the report, the Department will follow all appropriate processes and procedures, including as to any potential disciplinary action,”

We’ll have to stand by to find out what that really means, but one ought to be impressed by the swiftness of their response. It all seemed to add up to the fact that Barr & Durham simply have better information than the IG could scrounge up, and they have more of it, and they intend to act on it.

I could not read the whole report in the hours since its release, but I digested the executive summary and s0me 0f the meat of the report and I just want to run a few points of interest by you.

Under the heading: The FBI’s Relationship with Christopher Steele, and Its Receipt and Evaluation of His Election Reporting before the First FISA Application:

In June 2016, Steele and his consulting firm were hired by Fusion GPS, a Washington, D.C., investigative firm, to obtain information about whether Russia was trying to achieve a particular outcome in the 2016 U.S. elections, what personal and business ties then candidate Trump had in Russia, and whether there were any ties between the Russian government and Trump or his campaign. Steele’s work for Fusion GPS resulted in his producing numerous election-related reports, which have been referred to collectively as the “Steele Dossier.”

Notice that Mr. Horowitz omits to state that Fusion GPS was in the employ of Hillary Clinton and the DNC, an omission sustained throughout the report.

Under the heading: Conclusions Concerning All Four FISA Applications

We identified at least 17 significant errors or omissions in the Carter Page FISA applications, and many additional errors in the Woods Procedures. These errors and omissions resulted from case agents providing wrong or incomplete information to OI and failing to flag important issues for discussion. While we did not find documentary or testimonial evidence of intentional misconduct on the part of the case agents who assisted OI [Office of  Investigation] preparing the applications, or the agents and supervisors who performed the Woods Procedures, we also did not receive satisfactory explanations for the errors or problems we identified.”

Is Mr. Horowitz putting too fine a point on it? What effort did he make to insist on a more satisfactory explanation. Barr & Durham may press that point, by putting the same crew under oath, and arrive at a more satisfactory outcome.

Under the heading: [Special section] Issues Relating to Department Attorney Bruce Ohr

At Steele’s suggestion, Ohr also met in August 2016 with Simpson to discuss Steele’s reports. At the time, Ohr’s wife, Nellie Ohr, worked at Fusion GPS as an independent contractor….In addition…we concluded that the federal ethics rules did not require Ohr to obtain Department ethics counsel approval before engaging with the FBI in connection with the Crossfire Hurricane matter because of Nellie Ohr’s prior work for Fusion GPS. However, we found that, given the factual circumstances that existed, and the appearance that they created, Ohr displayed a lapse in judgment by not availing himself of the process described in the ethics rules to consult with the Department ethics official about his involvement in the investigation.”

I wrote early this morning that Associate Deputy Attorney General Bruce Ohr had been eerily absent from the news for months. As expected, his activities cast long shadows in the Horowitz report. However, the IG is extremely coy about the role of his wife, Nellie Ohr, who had been on the payroll of Fusion GPS through the summer of 2016, when the “Crossfire Hurricane” operation kicked off. Notice the reference (above) to Fusion GPS again omits its connection as a hired opponent research subcontractor to the Hillary campaign and the DNC.

From Page 271:

Nellie Ohr stated that she was not told who was funding this project and did not know that Steele was also working for Fusion GPS until July 2016. She said that she stopped working for Fusion GPS on September 24, 2016, when she began a full-time job elsewhere….”

I doubt it is possible that Nellie Ohr did not know who she is working for. Insofar as she was not an employee of the DOJ or FBI, it appears that Mr,. Horowitz did not even interview her. That’s how myopic his inquiry was, and how credulous he must suppose the readers of his report are.

From Page 391:

… On October 18, 2016, three days before the first FISA application was submitted to the FISC, and after speaking with Steele that morning, [Bruce] Ohr requested a meeting with, and that same day met with McCabe to share Steele’s and Simpson’s information with him. Thereafter, Ohr met with members of the Crossfire Hurricane team 13 times between November 21, 2016, and May 15, 2017, concerning his contacts with Steele and Simpson. All 13 meetings occurred after the FBI had closed Steele as a CHS for disclosing information to Mother Jones and, except for the November 21 meeting, each meeting was initiated at Ohr’s request….At two of these meetings, both in December 2016, after Nellie Ohr had left Fusion GPS, Ohr provided the FBI with open source research Nellie Ohr conducted on Manafort while working at Fusion GPS.

So, Associate Deputy AG Bruce Ohr was trafficking in political opposition research to the FBI. What could possibly not be actionable about that? We’ll stand by to  see if Mr., Durham has noticed.

From Page 394:

we concluded that Ohr committed consequential errors in judgment by failing to advise his direct supervisors or the DAG that he was communicating with Steele, Simpson, and the FBI on matters related to the Crossfire Hurricane investigation, and that this performance failure had a negative impact on the investigation and ODAG’s fulfillment of its own management responsibilities. We are referring our finding to the Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility for any action it deems appropriate.

I suppose they’ll make Bruce Ohr put on a pointed hat and stand in the corner with his face to the walls for an hour on some as-yet-unspecified day in the future. Or. Maybe Mr. Durham has other ideas.

If you’ve gotten this far in the update, note that I may add further updates to the story as the Horowitz report is parsed further in the days to come by people who can cut through the jargon, gaslight, and bullshit in this report.


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

714 Responses to “The War of the Narratives”

  1. FallenHero December 9, 2019 at 10:08 am #

    Hi James, you have done a good job keeping us abreast of how complex this situation is. Could you write up a post essentially summarizing the key aspects of the story? It s far too easy (like the left has done) to obfuscate the story by every widening disinfo. A good summary would be helpful, thanks!

    • CancelMyCard December 9, 2019 at 11:35 am #

      James would be wise to put off blogging the suggested summary . . . he should publish a book on the whole scenario.

      No doubt he already has accumulated enough material to start with, and there’s much more to come.

      • Ishabaka December 9, 2019 at 3:29 pm #

        That’s a great idea.

    • budizwiser December 10, 2019 at 1:21 pm #

      The only “war” being waged has already been won.

      The “experiment” or “republic” – an unmatched attempt in the history of representative governments – has been foiled by a perverse growth of fascist-like political parties in their unending quest for power.

      To write essays purporting to justify or defend – or more importantly – to vilify any one party or player over the other is sophomoric.

      The rich have successfully perverted all the vestiges of representative democracy and installed politicos that provide circuses for the people and profits for themselves.The only winners in these operas are the rich – the only losers the people

      We now have two branches of government Republican and Democrat – hey JK – why not write about that ?

  2. Ishabaka December 9, 2019 at 10:10 am #

    The entire Democratic Party 2020 political platform has just been leaked. Here it is:

    “Orange man bad”

    • venuspluto67 December 9, 2019 at 10:41 am #

      Don’t forget “My vagina has a voice, and its name isn’t John or Joyce”

    • JohnAZ December 9, 2019 at 11:03 am #

      And having to prove it to the voters.

      Sidebar

      If old Joe is the best the Dems have got, it won’t be hard for the Deplorables to clobber the Left.

      If ever an election where voting for the lesser of two evils was the decision, this is IT.

      • venuspluto67 December 9, 2019 at 11:41 am #

        He’s the best they’ve got that the donor class and the Boomer-Dems approve of. Buttigieg has the requisite charm if not charisma, but he’s even more of a lightweight than Obama was in 2008.

    • Nightowl December 9, 2019 at 11:09 am #

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqqwTgk8ri0

    • Cargill December 10, 2019 at 5:27 am #

      The entire JHK meme for the last three years has just collapsed totally … Horowitz has poured the seriously cold water. Even Barr and Durham can’t spin around enough to get anything out of this.

      JHK is absolutely and totally hung out to dry – with every other fruit-loop Bengazi conspiracist. What a pathetic joke it has been for years. Give up James … try reality for a change.

      • Nightowl December 10, 2019 at 2:47 pm #

        According to the Attorney General of the United States, we are just getting started.

        https://twitter.com/DailyCaller/status/1204469311080935424

        • robyn December 13, 2019 at 9:36 am #

          Yes. I agree NightOwl.

      • benr December 10, 2019 at 5:29 pm #

        Or you could actually ingest oxygen so what little grey matter you have can wheeze back to life and examine the reality that your narrative is 100% WRONG.

        It is amazing how wrong the anti-TRUMP main stream has been and how prescient people like Andrew Wilcow, Mark Levin, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Michael Savage, and Laura Inghram to name a few have been with a nod to our host who has been correct as well.

        Scary actually.

      • robyn December 13, 2019 at 9:41 am #

        Why is all this ilk concentrating on the Dems. Kunstler – have you actually read and processed the bloody Constitution? The oath Trump swore?

        Read the Declaration of Independence? Both parties suck rotten eggs. Maybe you could spread your ‘love’ around? GAH

  3. malthuss December 9, 2019 at 10:13 am #

    What about the repo market? When does the banking system contract or collapse?

  4. MX Vet 57 December 9, 2019 at 10:15 am #

    Good work, Jim. Looking forward to the update.

  5. DrTomSchmidt December 9, 2019 at 10:25 am #

    Mr. Trump’s story that he has been unfairly and unjustly subject to seditious mutiny by several federal agencies, dedicated to crippling his executive function at least and levering him out of office at most.

    I’m sure the Resistance is of the opinion that Trump is an existential threat to democracy in the USA, like that of Hitler in Germany. If Trump IS Hitler, then most people would say that they were justified in suppressing him.

    Of course, Hitler was only put in power by Hindenburg, an extra-plebiscitary mechanism. Something like the way that W was made President. Trump won the majority of electoral votes, fair and square. I recall Democratic voices talking about how Trump would deny the legitimacy of the election if he lost.

    What JHK has identified more than anything in this essay and others is that most of what the Resistance has pushed is projection. They have protested the legitimacy of the election; they have used Central, undemocratic means to obtain their ends; and I’m guessing with all the projection on Trump as Hitler they’re telling us what a Government by Her would have been like.

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    • Nightowl December 9, 2019 at 11:15 am #

      There is a point JHK makes that I have said many times on here: if you want to know what the McResistance is guilty of, simply look at what they are accusing Trump of.

      Based on the fact that this is true in nearly 100% of cases where accusations are made, I strongly suspect Trump also won the popular vote.

      In fact, I would bet my savings on it.

      • benr December 9, 2019 at 12:04 pm #

        How many states are now signing Illegal aliens up for drivers licenses and to vote at the same time?
        I know California does and I suspect at least New York is as well.

        In California you must uncheck the register to vote box in order to abstain.
        DMV admitted 800 got drivers licenses in the first year so how many also voted as a result?

        They have done much to hide this data.

        • benr December 9, 2019 at 12:05 pm #

          800 should have been 800,000.

          • abbybwood December 9, 2019 at 6:36 pm #

            The California DMV is also busy selling our information to insurance companies for $50 million/year.

            I hope the do-nothing CA legislature puts a stop to it, but I doubt they will.

        • Beryl of Oyl December 9, 2019 at 1:04 pm #

          In New York, Cuomo decided that illegal aliens would be given driver’s licenses. Eliot Spitzer had attempted that move previously, but the voters were against it.
          At one time, I had had to renew my driver’s license just after I moved, and the DMV registered me to vote at my new address without asking me.
          There are some people who are legally entitled to driver’s licenses, but not entitled to vote.
          It was obvious to me on my last visit to the DMV, maybe two years ago, that they were going out of their way to register any and all who had business there.
          Another issue in the 2016 election, early voting.
          We did not have that in New York at that time.
          This past election, after early voting took place for the first time, the most popular vote-getter in our city government lost his seat.
          I haven’t yet figured out how early voting can help fraud.
          Maybe someone who was once registered to vote here and moved out of town can conveniently vote in two places?
          I don’t know, but it was suspicious.
          Decades ago, I heard the reporter on an MTV news program state that the failure of some place or other to enact Motor Voter legislation disenfranchised millions of voters.
          I could not see why he editorialized in that manner, which wasn’t even true, but in hindsight I saw that he was letting the cat out of the bag as to the real purpose of Motor Voter.

      • DrTomSchmidt December 9, 2019 at 12:12 pm #

        I’d take that bet, frankly. Trump won the majority of white voters in NY State, but lost the state badly. If I were choosing between voting against the Democrat in California and getting my nails done, the latter would be a better use of my time. Aside from the massive skew in registration, there’s really no incentive for non-Dem voters in California, where Hillary won the majority of her popular vote surplus.

        By contrast, voting in Florida or Georgia has every vote counting, and Dems and Reps know it. If I were a Democrat in Wyoming or Utah, again, a waste of my time. So votes were suppressed in both Trump and Hillary majority states, but the Hillary majority states are much larger.

        That won’t change until the electoral college does.

        • Beryl of Oyl December 9, 2019 at 1:09 pm #

          That’s why Democrat Andrew Cuomo made a big show of traveling to Puerto Rico after the devastating hurricane. He knew that Puerto Ricans, who can’t vote in our elections, would be moving to Florida in large numbers, where they can vote.
          He was planning on being the Democrat’s nominee and winning Florida.

      • Majella December 9, 2019 at 7:34 pm #

        Bizarre. That’s Himself’s schtick exactly.

  6. Minnie Van Horne December 9, 2019 at 10:29 am #

    Schiff’s workshop elves and the Nadler gnomes are all busily working together to weave a great thick blanket that can be thrown over the Horowitz report to suffocate the damn thing as it is birthed. Aren’t the Dems supposed to be voting through their Articles of Impeachment any minute now? That should occupy the NYT, WaPo and the talking houseplants on CNN and MSNBC, who will be grateful to have no time or inclination to worry about little details like FISA Court abuse.

  7. venuspluto67 December 9, 2019 at 10:39 am #

    As manifest evidence of what an utter borefest the impeachment-drama has become, I fell asleep while reading this post.

    • Walter B December 9, 2019 at 10:56 am #

      It most certainly is boring and depressing at the same time, but by Jim doing his biweekly short synopses consider all the time it saves us in not having to watch any of the Mainstream Media’s pathetic farce. Even liberal high school students are seeing through the BS and calling for the sellouts in the congress and senate to STFU and get back to the work they are supposed to be doing.

      I’ll be back in a bit, but right now I have to put the copy of the NY Times I picked up off of a park bench to good use by starting a fire with it. Burn baby burn!

      • CancelMyCard December 9, 2019 at 11:56 am #

        “. . . but by Jim doing his [semi-weekly] short synopses . . . “

      • Janos Skorenzy December 9, 2019 at 12:03 pm #

        Please subscribe and perform this magical act each day. It is a Talisman of the entire Establishment, and you could burn them in effigy every day or at least on Sundays, even as our forbears did.

        Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.

      • pokercat December 9, 2019 at 12:09 pm #

        “sellouts in the congress and senate to STFU and get back to the work they are supposed to be doing.”

        I suppose the sellouts in the House are the Dems that have sent 100’s of bills to the Senate where the sellout Repubs will not even submit them to committees for action?

      • DrTomSchmidt December 9, 2019 at 12:16 pm #

        Been reading The Power Broker, Walt. It’s interesting how the Times covered up the crimes of Moses in the 1920s (and 1950s, when the Times backed black-neighborhood-destroying slum clearance) because it fit with their “Progressive” idea of centralizing power in Al Smith and destroying property law to achieve this.

        They really think that the world would be better if run by people like themselves, with no check on their power. And they’ve thought it at least since the 20s.

      • Beryl of Oyl December 9, 2019 at 1:10 pm #

        Seeing as nobody wraps fish in newsprint anymore.

  8. BackRowHeckler December 9, 2019 at 10:40 am #

    On that Articles of Impeachment vote … will there be even one Republican vote in the affirmative?

    • JohnAZ December 9, 2019 at 10:57 am #

      If none, conviction is doomed.

      I still wonder what Pelosi has cooked up with the Senate?

    • benr December 9, 2019 at 11:38 am #

      Never seems to matter look the DEMS passed a huge bill with zero support from the other side that caused everyone working persons private insurance to go up.
      It was called Obamacare or the affordable care act I believe in putting UN in front of affordable.
      Odd how they named it something that caused the opposite for so many people.

  9. James Kuehl December 9, 2019 at 10:45 am #

    If the process succeeds in removing everyone who’s dirty in all this, who will be left?

    • JohnAZ December 9, 2019 at 10:55 am #

      Who is the aim point for everyone in the Potomac chess pool?

      • JohnAZ December 9, 2019 at 10:57 am #

        Cesspool.

  10. teddyboy46 December 9, 2019 at 10:46 am #

    I am a JHK fanboy, but I will believe it when I see it. But I will be happy to see it happen.

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  11. JohnAZ December 9, 2019 at 10:54 am #

    The main thing that concerns me about this whole thing is the political competence and incompetence being shown by the Dem and GOP sides respectively. I really do not understand the difference.

    The Dems have erected a “firewall” in DC that is impervious to everything. Twenty minutes after any development , it is on the airwaves and every talking head says the same story and buzzwords. Fox shows this over and over as comedy relief. Say the same lie enough times and it is the truth.

    I have lost all faith in the GOP and apparently I am not alone. Many GOPers are jumping ship. They are politically incompetent and the Dems continue to dominate every stage of the Deep State shenanigans. Janos states that the Left has become the moral guidance for the Right. I think that is right, but it is the Right that is at fault.

    Think about it. Watching Fox, aside from Hannity and Ingraham, who has the guts to call out the Dems for the graft they have dropped on America. Add one, Gulliani and the Left is currently trying to drop a bomb on him. Fox has, net impact, turned Leftist over the last couple of years. And you can bet that the Left is trying to clobber Sean and Laura. They already failed once with him. By the way, I have seen Bill O’Reilly poking his head up on a station called NewsmaxTV in his No Spin Zone. Same old Bill.

    Hopefully, prayerfully the Truth will emerge from all of this and the bad guys will get not just clobbered but eliminated. My opinion of course is the elimination of the Democratic old guard and the progressive wing of the Dems AND the RINO GOPers.. The creation of two new moderately Left and Right sane parties would be welcome.

    Probability of that with the dominance of the Deep State and the influence of internationalists is almost nil.

    I keep praying!

    • Walter B December 9, 2019 at 10:58 am #

      Look at the bright side JAZ, we no longer have to labor over which of them needs to be hanged, we can simply hang them all! After a fair trial and conviction of course, but that should be easy to get.

    • DrTomSchmidt December 9, 2019 at 12:22 pm #

      As long as there’s honey in the honeypot called DC, there will be flies, John. When the $1trillion in “discretionary” defense spending gets cut to 1/10 of its current value, ALL this ends.

      Personally, I think that only happens after we lose a shooting war with China or Iran, with the sinking of perhaps $150 billion worth of naval vessels by sea-skimming missiles. I’ll pray for bankruptcy to avoid that threat.

    • Majella December 9, 2019 at 4:39 pm #

      “Same old Bill”

      Same old creepy misogynistic abuser.

  12. venuspluto67 December 9, 2019 at 10:59 am #

    In other news, Afghanistan continues to live up to its reputation as “the graveyard of empires”.

    • JohnAZ December 9, 2019 at 11:05 am #

      Good statement and appropriate. It sure chewed up the CCCP.

      • venuspluto67 December 9, 2019 at 11:22 am #

        And while Alexander the Great succeeded in briefly subduing it, his troops were so worn out from doing so that it effectively halted the eastward expansion of the Macedonian Empire.

        • Walter B December 9, 2019 at 11:51 am #

          It is perhaps THE finest terrain on the planet for waging guerrilla warfare against an invading army.

        • Janos Skorenzy December 9, 2019 at 12:06 pm #

          No, they did go on briefly to India, though his troops were threatening to mutiny. He defeated a Great King there, but the results were short lived politically. But it and the victories nearby did open up India to Greek Culture and the results can be seen in their art for generations.

      • Walter B December 9, 2019 at 11:48 am #

        As well as Elphy Bey and the Brits.

        • DrTomSchmidt December 9, 2019 at 12:25 pm #

          If you haven’t, read the Flashman novels. The first is a retelling of the Afghan disaster. Great fun and good way to learn history. One man alone made it back alive from Kabul.

          As Kipling wrote, save your last bullet for yourself.

          • Walter B December 9, 2019 at 4:23 pm #

            When yer wounded and left on Afghanistan’s plains,
            And the women come out to cut up what remains;
            Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains,
            And go to you Gawd like a soldier!

            Damned straight! I read the Flashman papers, I mean novels every single one of them and the first one thrice! Ah Elspeth, “she alone smiled at me with the open, simple smile of the truly stupid.”

            I loved them all as they were excellent historical fact and fiction rolled into one. Great minds think alike.

          • DrTomSchmidt December 9, 2019 at 10:46 pm #

            Ah, excellent.

            A question: Fraser tells the story of the burning of the Summer Palace outside Peking by the British in the Opium War. It would be a bit like the Nazis burning Versailles to punish Petain, I guess.

            I understand now why the Chinese might not want to cut off the supply of Fentanyl, and why they might be a bit annoyed. And the thought of destroying beauty,as they did also in Dresden, horrifies me… and yet, I cannot get past that they got it right. They wanted to punish the Manchu rulers for their actions and not have the damages fall on the people (as a fine would have been passed on to the normal Chinese), and so they burned their pleasure palace.

            What think you?

  13. RB December 9, 2019 at 11:18 am #

    Some continue to expect truth to emerge.

    Truth is another of those overworked words such as outrage. The truth that matters is being overlooked or even buried. Truth is millions of Americans that are a very short step into living out of their cars. The cars with the 7 year mortgage on them. Truth is that a whole bunch will go into their cars because some medical “professional” sent them a bill that they cannot pay off in a gizillion years. Truth is that the whole damn economy is a sham and a scam. Truth is that the deep swamp cannot be cleaned up because there is zero benefit to any politician for that to happen. Why would anyone expect someone to break their own rice bowl? The truth is the courts are a scourge. When some judge in Hawaii can render a ruling that constipates the rest of the nation is a system with a 1000 dictators. The truth is too ugly for the electorate to bear which is why the impeachment scam lives on and will keep living on beyond Trump’s lifetime. The electorate is too busy to give a shit because another bill just came in they cannot pay.

    • ellipsis December 9, 2019 at 11:39 am #

      Truth is ephemeral it seems, for those unlucky few who haven’t given up and are still actually looking for it anyway. I get the sense that most have perhaps wisely simply given up altogether.

    • BackRowHeckler December 9, 2019 at 11:40 am #

      “The whole damn economy is either a sham or a scam”.

      That’s the way it seems sometime, RB.

      The secret is, you have to get in on the scam. The best way to do that seems to be get a job with the government. One example, in this town of 20,000 our school system has two ‘Diversity Coordinators’ who handle kids being bussed in from the city, salary: $96,000 per year each.

      Another example. The town passed an ordinance saying companies doing roadside construction or maintenance (installing water or sewer lines, tree removal, power line repairs) could not use their own traffic control or flag people, but must employ off duty local police officers, minimum pay: $100 per hour.

      Now that’s what I call working it from the inside.

      Brh

      • DrTomSchmidt December 9, 2019 at 12:45 pm #

        Yep. Compare the growth of university administrators, paid for by turning faculty into adjuncts. The admins need more admins as the university drifts further and further from the mission of teaching young people.

        Humor on it:
        http://www.mit.edu/people/dmredish/wwwMLRF/links/Humor/Administratium.html

        • BackRowHeckler December 9, 2019 at 12:55 pm #

          President of Quinnipiac U in Hamden, salary: $1 million per.

          President of UCONN is paid nearly a million per, but gets 2 mansions, and a car at his disposal with a chauffer.

          We have a retired UCONN administrator in the neighborhood, living large on a pension of $300,000 per year. (Its part of the public record)

          So yes, higher ed is a pretty good insider grift, too.

          Brh

          • lateStarter December 9, 2019 at 1:43 pm #

            But when the ponzii scheme finally collapses, the guy who has learned to get by on 10K or nothing per year will probably be better off. I suspect that when the game is up, a large portion of the grifter class will prefer to off themselves rather than face the music. It will be just too hard for them to imagine trying to eke out a living and actually be destitute.

    • benr December 9, 2019 at 11:45 am #

      Well a middle of the road new car pushes that price tag to 40k.
      Most people can’t handle a 1k a month car payment cut that in half and it is still $500 plus the interest so it’s still $600 a month simple math.
      At least if you get a good car it will last several years past pay off.
      My new one requires an oil change every 10,000 miles not 3,500 a savings of roughly $150 a year in oil changes alone.
      I drove my f150 for 16 years and finally it has so many small things wrong with it when the transmission started acting up again I gave up and acquired a new Toyota,
      I sat down and did the math to make the truck safe to drive it was going to cost around 10k transmission overhaul, shocks, tires, brakes/rotors, front and rear bushings, throttle body, tune up, air filter, gas filters, plugs, fuel injector cleaning, serpentine belt replacement, all hoses replaced, cabin filter, engine air filter and the list just kept going.

    • sunburstsoldier December 9, 2019 at 1:27 pm #

      If there is an objective reality, which progressives would deny, than there is Truth. Truth is what reality IS minus human projection and fantasy…

    • Beryl of Oyl December 9, 2019 at 1:33 pm #

      Speaking of medical bills, RB, and relating to the suggestion last week that Mr. Kunstler drop the comments portion of his blog-
      I recently helped a young woman straighten out a bill from a hospital ER which was sent to collections.
      It was only after reading comments following an article about the hospital, in a local paper, that I discovered the magnitude of the billing mess at that hospital.
      The comments section of yore, the Letter To The Editor, unless some issue got the people really riled, was inadequate for giving a picture of the scope of some issues, including the billing one.

    • redrock December 9, 2019 at 10:26 pm #

      RB – you are my brother. DEAD ON.

  14. ellipsis December 9, 2019 at 11:31 am #

    And so it is that we see conspiracies actually are real and entirely viable things within the halls of power of the US (and likely elsewhere as well) and that they even play out on a scale to commensurate with taking down the Chief Executive of the Land, often dubbed “the most powerful man in the world.”

    If nothing else, we should thank Trump for flushing these people out in his own inimitable style and we should thank the bad actors for finally showing us their hand. However this all turns out, there can be no doubt whatsoever about who’s actually running things these days and what their motives are.

    I rest my case.

    • sunburstsoldier December 9, 2019 at 1:45 pm #

      If he were to accomplish nothing else, Trump’s role in ‘flushing these people out’ makes his presidency of historical benefit to this country. Yet there need to be more and even greater crusaders of a Populist ilk if we are to nail the lid on Deep State’s coffin and wrest our nation away from the insanity of the Progressive No-Think…

  15. benr December 9, 2019 at 11:33 am #

    A questions must be asked.
    How many people in the Democrat party are directly making money from Franklin Templeton Investments now being named in the news piece in the middle of this comment??
    This scandal goes way beyond Joe Biden and Hunter Biden and straight at the Democrat king making process and it’s funding.

    https://en.interfax.com.ua/news/press-conference/625831.html

    Dawning comprehension that this is not so much about Trump and his trolling NO THIS IS Trump and his not being part of the good ol boy club.
    My guess is there are people from both sides feeding at this polluted trough of corruption.

    Get the popcorn and small soda with Meyers in it.
    This will get real interesting as Democrats flail ever harder to slow the narrative down and redirect it to some other “squirrel” distraction.

    Please also pay close attention to the Republicans that suddenly want to slow down this news story.
    As always FOLLOW the money.

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    • sprawlcapital December 9, 2019 at 11:42 am #

      Excellent points. Myers’s (sic) rum is superb. I resent that they have switched from a glass bottle to plastic.

      • benr December 9, 2019 at 11:54 am #

        While in Puerto Rico I took the Bacardi tour and was introduced to Bacardi Anejo.
        Also excellent and I believe still in glass,

        Plastic bottles and alcohol seem to be trouble even food grade plastics worry me.

        Anyone into fermenting beer, mead, ciders or wine avoid plastic even though there are cheap food grade plastics out there glass is always the king.

        Been playing with Mead for the last several years and glass, stainless steel, or wood barrels is all I age stuff in.

        • Janos Skorenzy December 9, 2019 at 12:10 pm #

          So ban plastics, right? No, cuz that would mean big government. Let the Earth go to Hell for our “freedom”, right?

          Freedom is for the deserving. Deserve and then desire. And the ignorant are unworthy…..

          • benr December 9, 2019 at 1:59 pm #

            I avoid plastic if there is a glass alternative even if it costs a lot more.
            Consumer does have power In numbers vote with your wallet in all things I know I do.

        • Beryl of Oyl December 9, 2019 at 1:39 pm #

          benr, I read a book about the infertility industry. Something I learned that surprised me, the Russians have a higher success rate in this field than the Americans.
          One of the things they do is to have the patient get all plastic out of her environment. I don’t know what that entails.

          • benr December 9, 2019 at 1:57 pm #

            Plastics are full of estrogen mimickers it does an even worse number on men.
            They now have BPA free plastics BUT who is really going to trust them after all of this?

            https://www.npr.org/2011/03/02/134196209/study-most-plastics-leach-hormone-like-chemicals

          • venuspluto67 December 9, 2019 at 2:20 pm #

            Given that they are trying to stop Russia’s plummeting replacement rate, it makes sense that they have incentive to get good at fertility-science.

        • BackRowHeckler December 9, 2019 at 3:58 pm #

          We are starting to be able to get milk in glass bottles around here once again. It cost a little more, but the bottles are refundable. A few local dairies are using them, also, milkman service — home delivery of dairy products — coming in the spring.

          Brh

          • sprawlcapital December 9, 2019 at 11:11 pm #

            Back in the1950s we had a milkbox on the front porch. When the milkman put full bottles in the box, he would pick up the empty bottles–glass of course–and take them back to the dairy, where they were washed and refilled.

            The only part of the packaging that was single-use was the bottle cap, which was crimped, wax-coated, heavy paper. No plastic.

            How many times could a glass milk bottle be washed and refilled? I can only guess, but it could have been dozens, if it did not get broken.

            Good to hear you will soon have home delivery of milk, brh. I hope they go back to this system of returning and re-using the glass bottles.

          • GreenAlba December 10, 2019 at 12:54 pm #

            An excellent system it was. I drove a milk float every summer for two months when I was a student, plus a six-month stint when between courses. If you worked 6 or 7 days/week, it paid twice as much as the kind of boring office work that was available (fast food wasn’t as pervasive back then).

            I kept getting doorstep milk until our milkman retired – he’d been made redundant as an HGV driver so I didn’t want to see him lose out again – that was in the 1990s. There are still a few dairies delivering but their customers are few and far between so they use normal vans and lorries, which is a much less efficient use of resources than when almost everyone got their milk delivered by the Co-op, so you could park your float and deliver to about 10 houses before moving on. And even that wasn’t as good as when they had horses (not that long before I did it – some of the women I worked with had used horses early in their working lives) as the horse moved along to your next ‘stop’ all by itself and was there to meet you.

            Supermarkets killed it, of course, and also people all wanting their milk before breakfast, whereas previously some just had to wait and if no-one was at home during the day you might come home to find a bird had pecked through the tinfoil top and enjoyed the cream before you did (there were protective gadgets, naturally). If everyone wants their milk before breakfast and to get it into the fridge before work, then someone has to work through the night to deliver it. By the 90s I used to hear our milkman if I was awake at 2 a.m. – must have been horrendous in the winter.

            It was great for your memory. After a week or two on the same round you could deliver 800 pints of milk entirely from memory, even for people who got different amounts on different days. And eggs and stuff.

            Getting up at 4 a.m. was a bit of a bummer but even so there were much worse jobs. Most people finished early as they had regular rounds, and we were paid till 2 p.m. even if we’d counted the money and clocked off by midday or so, which was common. Although we mostly started before the 6 a.m. start too. Just as well Amazon didn’t exist back then and get itself into milk deliveries – there would have been none of that kind of decency.

            And re single-use components, you could save tinfoil bottle tops and donate them to the RNIB (Royal National Institute for the Blind) who got money for them to pay for guide dogs!

            The milk floats were battery powered too.

          • GreenAlba December 10, 2019 at 1:04 pm #

            I think female ‘milkmen’ must have been a north of England thing – never saw any in the namby pamby south-east where I was a student! The Co-op employed both but the women were considered more reliable for getting up in the morning. 🙂

          • SpeedyBB December 11, 2019 at 7:08 pm #

            GA – wasn’t that ‘great tit stealing cream’ phenomenon the subject of a ‘morphic field’ study by Rupert Sheldrake?

            I find his work really compelling – and the absurd contortions by the ‘fundamentalist scientists’ to ‘splain it away are also astonishing.

          • GreenAlba December 11, 2019 at 8:35 pm #

            I believe it was, SpeedyBB.

        • malthuss December 9, 2019 at 3:58 pm #

          Plastics are over used…as food wrapping, etc.
          Plastics are a big threat to the human race.

        • cbeard December 9, 2019 at 6:42 pm #

          I have a homemade copper pot still. My whiskey touches nothing but copper and glass throughout the process. It’s a fun hobby. I’ve made rum, several brandy’s, various grain based spirits, and sometimes pure ol’ sugar liquor. Which is pretty good as is but its also good to add some wood chips to the jars, such as the Jack Daniels chips which are made from old whiskey barrels. It’s like putting the barrel in the whiskey versus the whiskey in the barell. It gives it a nice color and seems to smooth it out a little. To the topic at hand. I’m looking forward to JHK’s next article. I thought he may have something to say about the recent terrorism in Pensacola. What the hell is the matter with the idiots than run this country and the military. Training Saudi pilots, what could go wrong?

    • DrTomSchmidt December 9, 2019 at 12:47 pm #

      “My guess is there are people from both sides feeding at this polluted trough of corruption.”

      Yep. That’s why, even though it doesn’t benefit the Deplorables, Trump keeps talking up the stock market. He has to help the Republican stock grifters happy.

  16. sprawlcapital December 9, 2019 at 11:34 am #

    Additional comment here to come later today when the IG report is released….
    ==============================================

    Two CFN posts in one day. Patreon contributors will really be getting their money’s worth.

    Now I feel guilty. I got a new VISA card and have not updated the number. Not that I have not tried, but Patreon’s website is not very user-friendly. I will try calling them. The monthly amount will not be $5 anymore, as I am retired now, with a reduced income. It will have to be $2. But, as they say, it’s the thought that counts.

    • elysianfield December 9, 2019 at 1:51 pm #

      Sprawl,
      You have no Paypal account?

      • sprawlcapital December 9, 2019 at 10:21 pm #

        Hell no! My life is too complicated as it is.The more complexity, the more there is to go wrong.

  17. Plennie_Wingo December 9, 2019 at 11:54 am #

    As usual JHK screed unsullied by mentioning any of the criminal malfeasance by this the worst of all possible presidents.

    Jim, you are repeating the same stale nonsense every week – playing to these cheap seats where you know you will get approving grunts and squeaks.

    It is far beneath you.

    • Walter B December 9, 2019 at 12:09 pm #

      Whine away wingnut, you are the one that debases yourself by coming here to cry. That problem is easily solved if you leave and do not return. Besides, Barry O was the worst president in modern times, without doubt.

      • DrTomSchmidt December 9, 2019 at 12:53 pm #

        W. Worst of my lifetime, excepting maybe LBJ. Not even close.

        • Beryl of Oyl December 9, 2019 at 1:41 pm #

          And W. is against Trump. That doesn’t tell some people anything, but it should.

          • EvelynV December 9, 2019 at 2:18 pm #

            Mostly it tells us that he still resents that the most ridiculed, corrupt, illiterate, inept, immoral, narcissistic, moronic candidate in his party made his brother look like a bobble head.

          • Nightowl December 9, 2019 at 3:06 pm #

            The Shrub and his neolib cohorts would love Trump if he’d start a few more wars and offshore a few more jobs.

        • SpeedyBB December 11, 2019 at 7:13 pm #

          DrTomSchmidt – although I was driven out of the country and lost my fledgling career in academia thanks to his determination to pursue the Vietnam War I consider Johnson to be one of the less dangerous and more competent Presidents. He was truly a tragic figure and ended up more or less ready for the bughouse. But in terms of making the system work he did not do that badly.

          Now how he managed to achieve that top office, after years of frustration and humiliation – well that’s another twisted tale altogether…

      • EvelynV December 11, 2019 at 10:56 pm #

        Walter the one doubt that does arise is the one about your sanity for making such an ignorant assertion.

        And the only doubt is whether or not you make such a preposterous claim for some pitiful need to feel accepted here in the asylum or if you truly believe it.

        In the latter case, then that clears it up, there is no doubt.

    • James Howard Kunstler December 9, 2019 at 12:11 pm #

      That’s some really incisive commentary there, Plennie Wingo.
      Go back to your desk in the food service department of the FBI and try to calm down.

      • ellipsis December 9, 2019 at 12:14 pm #

        Ka-zing! Mr. K’s on his game this morning!

        • EvelynV December 9, 2019 at 2:20 pm #

          That’s what passes for “being on one’s game” with you?

          No wonder Trump passes grade with so many republicans.

          • Nightowl December 9, 2019 at 3:04 pm #

            Find any Russian agents yet?

    • DrTomSchmidt December 9, 2019 at 12:52 pm #

      Worst of all possible? Not worse than Wilson, who intervened in WW1 and spurred the Germans to put Lenin on a train to kick Russia out of the Great War, at a cost of millions of lives lost to Bolshevism. Not worse than W, who launched over $4trillion dollars worth of wars in response to a terrorist attack.

      How many brown people has Trump killed by drone or invasion compared with Obama, the Nobel Peace Prize winner?

      Do tell.

      • sprawlcapital December 9, 2019 at 2:27 pm #

        The other result of our intervention in The Great War was the humiliating defeat of Germany, which led to the Third Reich. Maybe a non-interventionist foreign policy would be worth trying.

      • Nightowl December 9, 2019 at 2:55 pm #

        Ask him how Obama did on prosecuting whistleblowers.

        That fact is particularly ironic in light of the treatment given to Schitt’s fake whistleblower.

    • elysianfield December 9, 2019 at 1:55 pm #

      ” playing to these cheap seats where you know you will get approving grunts and squeaks. ”

      PW,

      …Well, that brought a smile to my lips. Not for the supposed truth of the comment, but for the effort you expended to make it…interesting.

    • toktomi December 9, 2019 at 11:34 pm #

      @Plennie, my dear

      It sounds like someone has no palate for fine theatre.

      Whether Jim is part of it or merely intoxicated is immaterial to the likely reality that what is actually nearly a complete vacuum is successfully being sold as all of the missing matter in the Universe.

      In other news…

      The Biosphere May Be Catching a Cold

      or something totally different might be happening.

      https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSEjq2RrQHE-ZjeRQHV0KXfBu5dQ9wRglt4AnL7c2GVEasoa6BF&s

  18. capt spaulding December 9, 2019 at 12:00 pm #

    This is from part of an article written by Matt Taibbi: ” From Donald Trump to Sanders, to Warren, the politicians attracting the biggest and most enthusiastic responses in recent years, have run on furious, throw-the-bums-out themes for the logical reason that the bums by now clearly need throwing out “.

    ” America’s political establishment has created vast inequities not only in the economy, but in criminal justice (where street crime is heavily punished, but white collar crime is not), in war (It’s mostly not the sons and daughters of politicians and CEOs getting killed in overseas conflicts), in health care (where much of the population lives in fear that getting sick will trigger bankruptcy), in debt forgiveness (Wall St. bailout recipients got to write off losses, but people suffering foreclosures and student loan defaults are ruined), and on and on “.

    Welcome to America, it’s YOUR country you know, maybe you should take it back.

    • Nightowl December 9, 2019 at 2:58 pm #

      Indeed, a good start would be refusing to support a coup led by your party, the corrupt intel community, etc.

      But, hey.

      • capt spaulding December 9, 2019 at 7:35 pm #

        Well Nightowl, the Democrat Party is no longer my party. I gave them up during the Obama years, and do not intend to go back. Having done that, and having badmouthed them online here, I keep waiting for supporters of honest government from the Republican side to express similar feelings, but none appear to be forthcoming. Apparently you guys are all in the same boat as Pence, the hypocritical Christian, who is willing to overlook all of Trump’s affairs and payoffs, and still considers himself to be a good, god fearing man. And people who have known me are surprised that I have become a cynic. Go figure.

        • venuspluto67 December 9, 2019 at 8:24 pm #

          Yeah, you and I are sailin’ down that particular river together, methinks.

        • Nightowl December 10, 2019 at 3:58 am #

          I am not a Republican. The last canidate I voted for was Nader.

          I don’t care about Trump’s sex life, nor do I have time to parse what Fake News outfits claim on those matters.

          I do care about his policies, and so far he has proposed or delivered on quite a few things us generally left-leaning indies have wanted to see for nearly 2 decades.

          • capt spaulding December 10, 2019 at 7:49 am #

            “Left-leaning indie” huh? You sound like every other Trump supporter out there. What is it that you left leaning indies have been wanting him to do?

          • Nightowl December 10, 2019 at 1:12 pm #

            No surprise you are entirely unaware of my views.

            Are you as enraged as your bretheren about Trump’s big saltshaker?

          • capt spaulding December 10, 2019 at 1:31 pm #

            I remain unaware of your views. That’s why I asked you what your left-leaning views are, and what you would like Trump to do in order to address them.

  19. benr December 9, 2019 at 12:00 pm #

    Shifty Schiff the bobblehead refused to show up to a hearing he instead sent his staff.
    Was this fool not the one angry because people refused to take part in his faux impeachment inquiry?
    Look at this the shoe is now on the other foot and his toe has blow through the top and soul is shown lacking integrity.
    A dirty turd clogging the plumbing of justice indeed.

  20. Janos Skorenzy December 9, 2019 at 12:21 pm #

    https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/miss-myanmar-swe-zin-htet-openly-gay-miss-universe-contestant-173422863.html

    Another attack on East Asia via Beauty contest. This time against noble Burma. Ban these things or make them national only, run by the actual people of the nation.

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  21. volodya December 9, 2019 at 12:32 pm #

    So, let me see, VP Joe Biden demanded that the Ukraine fire a prosecutor investigating a company that Hunter worked for (doing what exactly nobody knows but it paid well). Or else. Or else what? Well, the US would pull the plug on a whole lotta aid. See, there was alleged corruption in the company in question and the prosecutor wasn’t moving fast enough.

    Result? Ukrainian prosecutor went bye-bye. That’s how it is folks, the USA as the tall, ram-rod straight lawman, riding into town to set things to rights. 

    Onward. Donald Trump demanded that the Ukraine re-start the investigation to get to the bottom of this hairy-looking Biden scenario. Or else. Or else what? Or else the plug gets pulled on a whole lotta aid. Trump’s motive? Blacker than my soul, politics at the bottom of it, digging up shit on Biden.

    Result? Life went on. No withholding of aid. 

    The foundation of one narrative is the proposition that VP Biden’s demands of the Ukraine were in no way criminal or corrupt or questionable, no, perish the thought, because Biden was acting lawfully, in good faith, and with purity of motive in aid of cleaning up a cesspool of evil-doing even if it was in a foreign country that was up to its neck in said evil-doing, but that in contrast, Trump’s own constitute impeachable offenses of the high crimes and misdemeanor variety. 

    Never mind wide-eyed naivete, it takes a disciplined mind to hold these thoughts in a perfect balance of contradiction, like a pencil standing still and vertical on a table top, perfectly poised on its sharpened point. I suppose that it can be done in the case of the pencil if you can get physical forces in exquisite alignment, and I suppose it’s do-able in the other case with finely tuned minds of Ivy League graduates machining legalities to precise tolerances. 

    Or alternatively, creating new universes of logic not yet seen or dreamt of in this cosmos, for example, the conjuration of cluelessness as an excuse for a Secretary of State in the violation of a thicket rules and laws surrounding communications and record keeping, where the excuse of cluelessness or “intent” as they put it, is no excuse, the official in question herself a lawyer surrounded by a platoon of advisers. 

    But never mind boys and girls, the legal reasoning flew like an eagle, soaring above mundane considerations of common sense, national security not to mention somewhat more esoteric issues like the appearance of two systems of justice, one for the well-connected and then another one. So, we’ll see what the Harvard grads come up with. No doubt, it will be good for a laugh. 

    And narratives? Narratives that don’t comport with reality come back to bite you in the ass, or rather, it’s reality that comes back to bite. You can summon up lies to cover up misdeeds, but misdeeds leave footprints for others to follow, and they set in train events in the real world unforeseen in offices in Manhattan and Washington. It’s not as if the malefactors might get fucked by that fickle finger they set loose, they most certainly will be because they’re nowhere near as smart as they think. 

    I mean, how smart can they be? Trump won. Just remember that. 

    In these matters history can be that masterful teacher that it behooves us to listen to. But it’s like this guy said in that mag History Today, that what he’s learned from history is that nobody ever learned from history and nobody ever will. 

    • Beryl of Oyl December 9, 2019 at 1:56 pm #

      I just think what is the benign motive for putting a work server in your basement? And paying the work IT guy out of your own pocket to do it?

      Talking about new logic, how many supposedly educated people even understand any logic?

      A young woman I know was convinced Obamacare was a godsend, because she had a preexisting condition. Even after I asked her how much that condition would cost her in doctor visits, compared to what she paid for insurance, even with a subsidy, she still didn’t get it.

      I think she just enjoyed the official recognition of her special status.

  22. Luhrenloup December 9, 2019 at 1:06 pm #

    Sorry Jim, as per WashPo, Horowitz found no political bias at the FBI; they acted appropriately in their pursuit of an investigation of trump campaign from the info at hand. To be sure, a few low hanging fruit get whacked — end of story.

    • JohnAZ December 9, 2019 at 3:25 pm #

      Oh no, not end of story. Barr does not believe the BS and Durham is still out there investigating. Definitely not end of story.

      • JohnAZ December 9, 2019 at 3:39 pm #

        Durham just released a report repudiating the IG findings according to his investigation, Barr is repudiating the shallowness of the evidence that started the Investigation in the first place. It is DEFINITELY not the end of the story.

      • Luhrenloup December 9, 2019 at 5:09 pm #

        it is never the end of the story

      • Majella December 9, 2019 at 7:47 pm #

        Yes, Barr does not believe it, so he’ll virtually ‘impeach’ Horowitz by simply saying ‘Screw YOUR report, which doesn’t fit our current narrative’.

        Correct me if I’m wrong but isn’t Horowitz an employee of The DoJ & by extension, Barr himself? Yet he won’t fire him?

        More likely, Horowitz will resign, if he wants to retain even a scrap of his professional dignity and move away from the stinking cess-pit of conspiracy & intrigue that is the GOP House Committees members, Barr, and Himself.

        • redrock December 9, 2019 at 10:31 pm #

          Majella, wha kin o koolaid ya drinkn BRO? Dun plug up u bran.

          • Majella December 10, 2019 at 4:27 am #

            Incoherence in response makes YOU look like a dickhead.

            The gaslighting that has consumed the GOP and it’s minions (well represented here) is awesome in its effectiveness.

            Enjoy your narrative…luxuriate in your sense of ‘victory’. It will be short-lived.

        • Nightowl December 11, 2019 at 7:48 am #

          Fake News and anger.

          Will you ever figure it out?

      • venuspluto67 December 9, 2019 at 8:22 pm #

        Yep, good ol’ Election 2016 is the gift that just keeps on giving…and giving…and giving. Much like genital-herpes.

  23. Beryl of Oyl December 9, 2019 at 2:01 pm #

    Nice investigative reporting, btw.

    • Majella December 10, 2019 at 4:32 am #

      Yeah – nice.

      A couple of threads ago, I called you out, JHK, when you stated the Crowdstrike was owned by some unnamed Ukraine oligarch. This was patently incorrect and easily shown to be so.

      From you, not a peep – in either refutation or admission. To me, this error, while small, is significant, and indicates that your perspective may be captive to GOP talking points?

  24. KappaJoe December 9, 2019 at 2:46 pm #

    Biden is toast. Aside from gaining little traction with left-wing youth, he’s now alienated the oldster (pre-boomer) cohort. With his insult-laden tirade against the 84 year old Iowa man for asking a simple question about Hunter in Ukraine, Biden has further reduced his candidacy’s viability. To top it off, he specifically told the senior he didn’t want his vote! Perhaps not equivalent to calling half the voters “deplorable” but he’s getting there.

    • BackRowHeckler December 9, 2019 at 6:08 pm #

      Who then? Biden is still in the lead as far as I know.

      Sanders seems frail. Being out on that campaign trail has to be grueling for an 80 yo man with a bad heart.

      Buttgieg maybe, but if he wins it and has to trot out his husband, Chasten, and gives him a victory kiss up there on the podium, black voters in Detroit, Hispanics in Houston and hardscrabble whites struggling to survive in small towns in Pennsy and Ohio … are not going to be impressed.

      Brh

    • venuspluto67 December 9, 2019 at 8:20 pm #

      Yep, he went and got all “Grandpa Simpson” on us.

  25. JohnAZ December 9, 2019 at 3:23 pm #

    WELL

    I guess we know who the IG is sided with. He said there is no political bias on the start of the investigation or during the Steele Dossier. The only mistakes were from low level FBI people in putting in for the FISA warrants. Ie. No one of any consequence gets any blame for the illegal investigation of a US private citizen, for illicit shaming of Trump in the Dossier, for everything started by the DNC and Hillary, and there is NO political bias? This is insane!

    As usual, the big guys are going to get away scot free and the little guys are going to get gigged for “clerical” errors.

    One left, Durham. By the way, Barr doesn’t buy any of this. It is not over yet.

    Until Comey, Brennan and the CIA guy are behind bars, this is not finished and justice is not done.

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    • JohnAZ December 9, 2019 at 3:36 pm #

      Aha!

      Durham has just released a report saying his investigation does not show agreement with the IG report about bias.

      It ain’t over yet kiddies.

      • Nightowl December 11, 2019 at 7:51 am #

        It was never in danger of being over. Unless you are still drinking from the poisoned well?

        I am amazed at how many non-McResisters continue to get worked up over the latest narratives at WaPo, NYT, and co.

        Do you think they are suddenly telling the truth this time? LOL.

    • Majella December 9, 2019 at 8:17 pm #

      See? JohnAZ: “I guess we know who the IG is sided with”. There you go. That’s the actual problem in a nutshell. Implacable partisanship.

      If the result of an investigation doesn’t fit with your own pre-conceived view, then the Investigator is “partisan”. That is a freaking insult to the IG’s integrity.

      Anyway, Barr can fire him immediately if he’s really not happy and he sure doesn’t SOUND happy.

      Would you be saying the same thing if Horowitz had come down with the opposite result? No. You’d be celebrating FINALLY getting some ‘dirt’ on the Dems. Ha. And if *I* were to claim that Horowitz was partisan and the findings dubious, you’d be all over ME, wouldn’t you?

      • Luhrenloup December 10, 2019 at 11:19 am #

        It’s you who is being biased here. The evidence is OVERWHELMING that they were out to get Trump. I doubt there are 2 people in Washington with the power and courage to speak truth.
        At this point partisanship means very little. What’s at stake is our form of government. These sweaty people vying for $ and power are next year’s detritus.

        • Nightowl December 11, 2019 at 10:04 am #

          Barr lays it all out here. The media narrative will continue to be spouted by the emotionally unstable.

          See also my earlier post and video where he specficially brings up people being upset about the lack of prosecution.

          These things take time. We have a populace who have been gaslit with fake news for the past 3 years at a level previously unseen in this country’s history. The wheels of justice grind slowy but exceedingly fine.

          https://twitter.com/JohnWHuber/status/1204544953948528640

  26. JohnAZ December 9, 2019 at 3:31 pm #

    After the IG report the score in DC stands at

    Dems 4236. GOP. 1

    And the Dems are after the one.

  27. KappaJoe December 9, 2019 at 4:01 pm #

    Lisa Page: “He’s (Trump) not ever going to become president, right? Right?!”

    Peter Strzok: “No. No he’s not. We’ll stop it.”

    No bias there, nope, nosiree.

    The only question: who is “we”?

    King Peter the First?

    Lisa & Peter?

    The FBI?

    The Obama administration?

    The DNC?

    The Deep State?

    All of the above?

    None of the above?

    • Nightowl December 10, 2019 at 1:15 pm #

      The Stroker didn’t really want to stop Trump, he was just channeling bald-spot anger. He is envious of Trumps lusterous golden mane.

      • GreenAlba December 10, 2019 at 7:00 pm #

        Haha…

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCmyZcBnC2M

        But you were being ironic. Obviously. 🙂

        • Nightowl December 11, 2019 at 7:53 am #

          I like that it triggered you enough to point out the obvious.

          • GreenAlba December 11, 2019 at 9:03 am #

            When I’m ‘triggered’ I don’t say ‘haha’.

            But your adulation of the ‘lusterous'(sic)-maned sleb leader is always an interesting curiosity. You jump in to defend him the way SSL jumps in to defend Janos.

            Talking of curiosity, I join the good Captain in his about your left-leaning indie views. I’m genuinely interested. For all I know they might be not that far from my own. Apart from our taste in heads of state/government, obviously.

          • Nightowl December 11, 2019 at 9:55 am #

            I would think you’d know quite a few by now. I am socially quite liberal (as is Trump).

            I am also for ending neocon/lib wars of the past 20 years and shifting foreign policy away from nationbuilding.

            I support bringing back manufacturing jobs to the US and putting an end to neoliberal/globalist practices in this regard.

            I remain a dedicated environmentalist, and continue to compost, recycle, and generally avoid consuming when I don’t need to.

            We have covered most of these in the past. Captain was busy getting riled up over Trump’s saltshaker.

            You were triggered, as no one ever suggested Trump had good hair. But you had to bring up Trump in true NPC fashion.

          • capt spaulding December 11, 2019 at 11:33 am #

            As far as Trump’s saltshaker, I have no idea what you’re talking about. I neither know nor care about said salt shaker. Perhaps you can enlighten me on that subject as well.

          • Nightowl December 11, 2019 at 5:08 pm #

            Your posts are the enlightenment you seek.

          • GreenAlba December 11, 2019 at 8:33 pm #

            I wasn’t ‘triggered’. I wasn’t actually sure if you were being serious or ironic, as you are such a fanboy. I didn’t bring up Trump – you got his name in twice in just over one line.

            But thanks for the précis of your political positions.

          • Nightowl December 12, 2019 at 4:44 am #

            I’ll put a golden warning sign on it next time.

  28. K-Dog December 9, 2019 at 5:47 pm #

    And where am I?

    Not here, The two narratives at war in America can take it outside and not bother me. I have more important things to worry about than Trump trivia. I worry about narratives three, four, five and six.

    Trump is trivia, that is what he has always been and that is what he will always be. The confusion is that Trump is and always has been big trivia. Big flim-flam audacious trivia that is confused with substance. But they are different things and the only thing substantive about Trump is his belly.

    • BackRowHeckler December 9, 2019 at 5:57 pm #

      I think Trump is trying to do his best job for the country as he sees it.

      There’s a 50/50 chance Trump will be out in a little more than a year; we’ll see how the new president handles the situation. Could be worse, who knows?

      Brh

      • K-Dog December 9, 2019 at 11:18 pm #

        I do not disagree, as he sees it. The thing is, his idea of country does not include everybody.

  29. Pucker December 9, 2019 at 6:13 pm #

    How much of the Left’s skulduggery can be explained by Wishful or Magical Thinking?

    Jenny had Forrest’s baby anyway despite knowing that Forrest Gump had defective genes. Of course, Little Forrest, rather than turning out to be a retarded kid masturbating in front of the TV as would be the case in real life, turned out to be a Rhodes Scholar because Gump is so Fuck’n lucky. This is definitely Left Brain wishful thinking….

    “ Some broad agreement exists that the right hemisphere is more in tune with sadness, and less with anger, than the left hemisphere; 281 and that what we call ‘positive’ emotions rely on both. 282 While the right hemisphere is associated with positive affect in many cases, 283 and may even be the principle source of pleasurable experience, 284 it is in general the left hemisphere that tends to take a more optimistic view of the self and the future. 285 In fact there is evidence, which I shall come to, that it may take an unwarrantedly optimistic view.“

    Iain McGilchrist
    The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World

    • Janos Skorenzy December 9, 2019 at 11:49 pm #

      She felt terrible. She had fucked everyone but him. When she was homeless and staying with him, he made a move on her one evening and she rejected him. He said, You don’t love me and walked away. She went to him room later that night and they did the deed and thus little Forrest came into this world.

      Defective genes? Even geniuses can have retarded kids. It’s not always something that is passed on.

      • SoftStarLight December 10, 2019 at 2:17 am #

        Actually she loved Forrest more than anyone else. She didn’t like herself, in fact sometimes she hated herself and started wondering what it would be like to fly. She also hated the men everyone else thought she loved. That’s why she stayed away from Forrest. He was good, genuine and unsullied. It was only in the end when she started forgiving herself that she “got with” Forrest. Plus she knew he would be the only one who would be there with her in the end.

        • Majella December 10, 2019 at 4:38 am #

          Wow, SSL. Thanks.

          That’s the most succinct illustration of ‘Jenny & Forrest’ I’ve ever read.

        • Janos Skorenzy December 10, 2019 at 12:59 pm #

          You see Beauty because you are Beautiful. Contra Puck, Jenny did seem like a wonderful girl in many ways, despite her promiscuity. It was the 60’s after all and she went with the flow, rightly or wrongly. I didn’t pick up on her hating her casual boyfriends and lovers, but you may be right. I could see that she really did love Forest all of her life. After all, he was Good and he wasn’t retarded, just very strange. Autistic in today’s parlance.

          • SoftStarLight December 11, 2019 at 12:48 am #

            Actually hate wasn’t the right expression. Jenny didn’t really like the casual boyfriends and lovers at a deeper level. It was a coping mechanism stemming from mistrust and was always running at odds with another aspect of her personality that was attempting to resolve that mistrust by forming bonds and connections, even if inappropriate. And the simplicity and self actualized balance that Forrest was, was the center of calm in the storm that was really needed. Sorry lol for the deep analysis. I just love that movie and story.

          • Janos Skorenzy December 11, 2019 at 1:24 pm #

            But why did she not go back to Forest when she knew he was carrying his baby? Or after she gave birth to him? She denied him that joy – only returning when she knew she was dying. Would she have ever even told him if she hadn’t gotten sick?

            Yes, she loved Forest, but only as a friend perhaps. And she wasn’t as good a friend back to him, not by a long shot.

          • SoftStarLight December 12, 2019 at 1:07 am #

            I know. I mean, I know that she wasn’t anywhere as good to him as he was to her. For that she didn’t have an answer. Because there wasn’t any good answer or excuse. Remember the night when Little Forrest was conceived? Forrest asked Jenny why she wouldn’t marry him and she told him the truth when she warned him “you don’t want to marry me”. She didn’t want to hurt him. That’s why she left the next morning. I think she kept Little Forrest a secret for several reasons not that they were good or justifiable though I think she would have eventually told Forrest about his son even if she weren’t sick. When Forrest realized he was the father he thought he did something wrong. And then he was concerned Little Forrest would be autistic like him. So I think Jenny felt that Forrest may not be capable of being a dad, or as capable, and I also think she was wanting to forget and remove everything from her past so she could focus on raising Little Forrest and that’s why she didn’t even keep up regular contact with Forrest for a few years. But again, sickness or not I do think she would have eventually told him but I agree that her not saying anything for so long was very wrong.

  30. Pucker December 9, 2019 at 6:31 pm #

    Evangelical Christian optimism must be Left Brain? When all else fails, in a Deux Ex Machina, God will come down from Heaven and Rapture all of the Good Men working for their wives as Garbage Men and then burn all of the Baddies left on Earth to a crisp?

    Did you empathize with the black Christian garbage man who was married to the devout black Christian woman in the PBS Bill Moyers “Frontline” documentary called “Two American Families”? (I see that Pete is now trying to get the black Christian vote despite the fact that Pete’s “Husband” Chaz viscerally hates homophobic Christians.). My Wife seems to want to keep me working until I drop. This must be common female thinking since 80% to 90% of people in assisted living facilities are women. The wives seem to kill off their husbands sucking them dry like a desiccated orange? Fortunately, I don’t work as a Garbage Man….

    https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/two-american-families/

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    • Pucker December 9, 2019 at 6:38 pm #

      At what age do most responsible black parents warn their sons about Ho’s?

      There was that PBS “Frontline” documentary called “Two American Families” in which the black son of the devout Christian black family in which the father ends up working as a “Sanitation Worker” ( a “Garbage Man”) says at the end of the series that he doesn’t want to follow on his dad’s footsteps and marry a woman who wants a bunch of kids. That was a very sad scene in which the father who is getting old confides to his religious black wife that he doesn’t know how much longer that he can work as a garbage man before his health gives out. The wife prays to God that her husband can keep working as a Garbage Man. The black son ends up working in the office of the local black congressman answering telephone calls of people calling up looking for a political job.

    • SoftStarLight December 10, 2019 at 2:04 am #

      “The wives seem to kill off their husbands sucking them dry like a desiccated orange?” I’m sure you have some interesting nightmares lol. Well that’s great to know that you think most women are the human equivalent of black widows. But seriously, I find it curious that you think Evangelical Christianity is left brain optimism. It’s just because in my experience I have seen a lot of fatalism and austerity associated with Evangelical Christianity. There is that whole streak of Jesus had His cross to bear and so do you type mentality. Some people seem to welcome suffering as part of their refinement and salvation. It’s just something to consider. But yes that is a very sad and dismal story and I do have empathy. Garbage men should make a ton more money and should be far more respected than lawyers because they actually do something and everybody has garbage to get rid of. But society is so twisted to respect white collar criminals over the “salt of the earth”.

      • Majella December 10, 2019 at 4:41 am #

        Some would say lawyers ARE ‘garbage men’, in several senses…

        • SoftStarLight December 10, 2019 at 9:18 am #

          Yes, I think for the most part I would agree with that. Legalism is very destructive spiritually, emotionally, mentally, and sometimes physically. What does the Law even mean if the Heart and Soul are lost.

          • Majella December 10, 2019 at 12:19 pm #

            Well, I’ve heard it said that “The Law and Justice are often complete strangers”.

  31. Pucker December 9, 2019 at 6:46 pm #

    Ho’s

    Do you remember when the young teenage black kid who you hired to help you to rake the leaves and to clean out the gutters got confused when you asked him “to bring around the hose to the tool shed in the back yard”?

  32. Pucker December 9, 2019 at 6:47 pm #

    He replied: “Do you mean the “White Ho’s, or da Black Ho’s?”

  33. Kellyfrombayfield December 9, 2019 at 7:46 pm #

    Good summation of the IG report by Karl at Market Ticker
    http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=237580

    • sprawlcapital December 9, 2019 at 9:52 pm #

      Kelly–

      this article is powerful. It points out that if the errors made by the FBI were not intentional, they would be random, which means half of the errors would benefit Trump. In fact, zero errors were to Trump’s benefit. Therefore, the FBI must have intentionally targeted the president.

      • sprawlcapital December 9, 2019 at 9:53 pm #

        this ;This]

      • Kellyfrombayfield December 10, 2019 at 6:51 am #

        exactly, and the majority of people will not clue into this..

        • sprawlcapital December 10, 2019 at 11:36 am #

          I hope someone points this out to Barr and Durham.

          • Majella December 13, 2019 at 3:06 am #

            If your highly-overrated ‘Dynamic Duo of Disinformation Dispersal’ haven’t already figured this piece of non- thinking out for themselves, they’re not really up to the job, are they.

            I’m guessing this Barr-Durham Report will be DEVASTATING, based on Barr’s obvious partisanship and ability to spin any ‘bad news’ (Mueller, Horowitz). The outcome will therefore be so compromised that if not be accepted by the wider audience in any case.

  34. Minnie Van Horne December 9, 2019 at 9:00 pm #

    Dear Mr. Kustler, I spotted this one detail you might want to revise. You typed Horowitz where you meant Durham. Thanks for getting us this fast summary of your first impressions.

    It all seemed to add up to the fact that Barr & Horowitz simply have better information than the IG could scrounge up…,

  35. Walter B December 9, 2019 at 9:09 pm #

    After reading your update Jim, I must say that I am appalled and disgusted that the job of investigative reporting and weeding out of details and facts about the sham that has been going on in our nation’s capitol has been so totally abandoned by those agencies that are tasked to do this for us and fall instead on the shoulders of an isolated upstate New York author and artist. Thank God for you James Howard Kunstler for you are a true light shining in the darkness. Thank you.

    As I. as we pursue our own task of righting what is wrong here in my little Township, the final battle has been set for the evening of 02 Jan 20. Knowing that there are men like you our there fighting for the truth as well lightens my load more than you could know, and fuels the fire within that shall, at least to a small degree, cast corruption and fraud into the pit where they belong. Fight on Jim, Onward and Upward!

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  36. sprawlcapital December 9, 2019 at 9:31 pm #

    Thanks for the update, Jim. I agree this is the investigative reporting we ought to be getting from the MSM.

    Minnie has already pointed out that we need one slight correction, where you wrote Horowitz when you meant Durham:

    It all seemed to add up to the fact that Barr & Horowitz [Barr & Durham] simply have better information than the IG could scrounge up,

    This changes the meaning of a key sentence.

    • James Howard Kunstler December 10, 2019 at 8:33 am #

      It was late, after a long day.

      • SoftStarLight December 10, 2019 at 9:24 am #

        It was just a simple mistake Mr. K. I’m certain everyone who read it knew who you meant anyway. Thanks for providing us with this updates on the report. There aren’t many outlets looking at the report as critically as you are here so it is appreciated! The mainstream is convinced the report says the FBI didn’t do anything but make a few little ole errors.

        • sprawlcapital December 10, 2019 at 11:41 am #

          Agreed!

  37. Pucker December 9, 2019 at 10:11 pm #

    It looks like the ship of state is mentally cracking up with the Democrats basically voting to impeach Trump for doing what the lead Democratic candidate (Biden) openly admits to doing on video tape. Go figure….

    They’re obviously insane….

    What about the Ho’s in the F..BI?

    • Minnie Van Horne December 9, 2019 at 10:26 pm #

      The hyperbolic rage and panic of the Swamp People tells us they know — with the greatest certainty, THEY KNOW — that they are facing an existential crisis. Every day, they exceed the unprecedented level of batshit crazy they reached the day before. The venality and malice that drives them is becoming clearer and clearer to anyone with eyes to see.

      • BackRowHeckler December 10, 2019 at 6:48 am #

        ‘Climate Change’ is an existential crisis too.

        Apparently the simple fact that 60 million Americans voted for Trump is an existential crisis. Pretty much everything lefties disagree with causes an existential crisis.

        • Majella December 13, 2019 at 3:08 am #

          …while everything the RWNJ cohort disagrees with is ‘bar-shit crazy’ There’s no way out of this mess.

    • Walter B December 9, 2019 at 10:48 pm #

      Insane Pucker, and hell bent on plunging this nation into chaos, which I why I see a demonic entity at the core of this movement. As people stare with moths agape as the nonsense plays out, the most pressing question for me is whether or not there is going to be a counterattack on the heels of this failed coup and what form such a countermeasure will take. The future of this nation shall rest on what follows this failure by those who serve the darkness and if a major counter offensive is not soon released all gains will surely be slowly lost. It may not be nice to hit ’em hardest while they are down, but that is exactly what must be done if this menace is to be stopped.

      • sunburstsoldier December 10, 2019 at 12:32 am #

        What we see happening is darkness being pushed into the light and revealed for what it truly is–lies and deceit. There is no return now to the pre-Trump status quo. The process has gone too far and will continue to play itself out. We are in all likelihood witnessing the birth pangs of a new age…

        • SoftStarLight December 10, 2019 at 1:34 am #

          Hopefully this is true. Inertia is so powerful. Maybe real change will only happen when people are really uncomfortable and in trouble. But its also probably true that there will never be a return to the globalist heydays before Trump.

          • EvelynV December 10, 2019 at 3:23 am #

            Xmas haiku

            Reeking shepherds move
            Grudgingly giving way to
            Elbowing wise men.

          • SoftStarLight December 10, 2019 at 9:26 am #

            So you at least admit that the shepherds and the wise men were fighting over seeing the baby Jesus. If He was nothing special then why did the reeking shepherds give way to the elbowing wise men?

          • EvelynV December 10, 2019 at 11:38 am #

            SSL – So you are a mentally advanced thinker then, huh? I know all the elements of your fairy tale better than you do I suspect. Just because I include them in my haiku you think it is proof I believe your fairy tale? How about this one? Does it prove I leave cookies and milk out on the counter on xmas eve?

            Sick with morbid fear
            She helps her failing spouse load
            The decrepit sleigh.

          • SoftStarLight December 11, 2019 at 12:33 am #

            Well of course you leave milk and cookies out on Christmas Eve. Its like your own little inside joke and celebration since you know hubby is out on a drunken sleigh ride and won’t come tumbling down the chimney till dawn. Your alone time is your gift clearly so no wonder this is your most wonderful time of the year. And that’s why you are inspired to write these haikus.

        • EvelynV December 10, 2019 at 11:43 am #

          sunburstsoldier

          More likely they are the death agonies of a dying age.

          https://youtu.be/lyLUIXWnrC0

          • sunburstsoldier December 10, 2019 at 7:58 pm #

            That too.

  38. Pucker December 9, 2019 at 10:19 pm #

    The pedophilia is a bit weird. I wonder why some blokes are into pedophilia? It’s natural to be attracted to young women rather than old women. You’re not going to hang out at nursing homes trying “to pick up chicks”. But, at the same time, you’re not going to stalk a day care center either. It must have something to do with the configuration of some people’s brains?

    • Nightowl December 10, 2019 at 1:17 pm #

      It is about power, much as rape is.

  39. sunburstsoldier December 9, 2019 at 10:45 pm #

    From Townhall:

    “During an interview with Axios, former Vice President and Democratic candidate Joe Biden still couldn’t explain why his son Hunter was hired by Ukraine’s largest energy company. Hunter, who had recently been discharged from the Navy for drug use, was hired by Burisma and paid more than $80,000 a month despite the fact that Hunter had no relevant experience whatsoever. When Hunter was hired by Burisma, the company was mired in a corruption scandal and Hunter’s father just so happened to be the point man on Ukraine for the United States. Hmmm. 

    It gets worse. Biden forced Ukraine into firing the prosecutor investigating the company that was paying his son’s lucrative salary by threatening to cancel a billion-dollar loan guarantee from the United States. Basically, all the accusations of “bribery,” “quid pro quo” and “abuse of office for personal enrichment” that you hear Democrats accusing Donald Trump of doing, Joe Biden actually did. It’s a problem.

    “There’s one thing that a lot of Democrats even do wonder about, and that is Hunter Biden, your son, was getting paid a lot of money to serve on the board of a Ukrainian energy company facing serious corruption charges,” the interviewer began. “You were the vice president running point on Ukraine. The average joe hears that and says ‘that sounds fishy.’ What’s your understanding of what your son was doing for an extraordinary amount of money?” 

    “I don’t know what he was doing,” Biden responded indignantly. “I know he was on the board. I found out he was on the board after he was on the board. And that was it.”

    “Well, you’ve had a lot of time,” the interviewer pointed out. “Isn’t this something you want to get to the bottom of?”

    “No, because I trust my son,” Biden alleged. 

    “That doesn’t pass the smell test,” the interviewer followed up. “Like when you’re vice president, isn’t there a higher standard? Don’t you need to know what’s happening with your family? Don’t you need to put down some guard rails?” 

    “No, unless there was something on its face that was wrong,” Biden inexplicably asserted. “There’s nothing on its face that was wrong.” 

    When it comes to the Bidens, everything appears wrong on its face. Biden then tried changing the subject.

    “If you want to talk about problems, you know, let’s talk about Trump’s family,” Biden said. “I mean c’mon.”

    Biden then began to laugh nervously while adding, “you guys are amazing.” 

    “So you think that everything that happened is Kosher?” asked the interviewer. 

    “You know there’s not one single bit of evidence, not one little tiny bit, to suggest that anything done was wrong,” Biden protested. “You know that, but you keep asking me these questions.” “

    • sprawlcapital December 9, 2019 at 11:32 pm #

      “i found out he was on the board after he was on the board.”

      So, Joe, after you found out Hunter was on the Burisma board, why didn’t you demand that he resign from the board?

      This is not rocket science, after all.

      • sunburstsoldier December 10, 2019 at 12:04 am #

        Interesting how he tries to switch the topic to Trump and his family as if they had done something worse…

        • SoftStarLight December 10, 2019 at 1:13 am #

          The Left has perfected the art of projection. So much so that anything and everything they accuse their enemies of doing is actually an inadvertent detailed summary of everything they are doing. That’s why Trump’s name was on Biden’s tongue so quickly. At least Trump is humorous in his cut downs. Joe seemed bitter and mean. I would love to see his reaction if someone in the crowd just said totally unscripted “wow you need Jesus!” 🙂

          • sunburstsoldier December 10, 2019 at 5:04 am #

            He’s mean because he is laden with guilt…

          • hmuller December 10, 2019 at 5:13 am #

            I like Biden’s remark “No one has accused my son of any wrong doing!”

            Oh Joe, crawl out from the rock you’ve been living under. Everyone is accusing Hunter Biden of wrongdoing, including an unwed mother in Arkansas who has the DNA test proof.

            And I know you are such a “close” family. But did Hunter really have to pork his dead brother’s widow before the body was even cold in the ground?

            If unqualified drug addicts (like Hunter) can get paid $63,000 a month to sit on some board of directors, we’ve solved the homeless problem. Maybe we should thank you for that, you paragon of integrity, Joe.

          • SoftStarLight December 10, 2019 at 9:32 am #

            Great points! Hunter Biden is one of the last actual “Good Ole Boys”. He can do whatever he wants to do and he never does any wrong. But you see isn’t that amazing! You would think Trump was supposed to be a “Good Ole Boy”. But all he ever does is wrong apparently and he is not safe from anything. But then again we are in upside down world so it all does make sense that this is the case. Joe was silly enough that he gave away Hunter’s status. If he would have even said something like, “I really wish he would not have done X, Y, or/and Z” I think the reaction would be totally different and the Bidens would have a lot more sympathy.

        • Majella December 10, 2019 at 4:46 am #

          They are, daily.

  40. malthuss December 9, 2019 at 11:26 pm #

    Search for this:
    Tulsi Gabbard Claims Anti-War Credentials After Accepting Over $100,000 From Arms Dealers.

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    • SoftStarLight December 10, 2019 at 1:01 am #

      So I did, and at this point I am of two minds on this. On the one hand, they-re saying that she stopped taking defense contractor donations sometime in 2017 based on a stated commitment she made to do so. Meanwhile on opensecrets I’m seeing that Bernie Sanders has received $174Gs from the defense industry in 2019 and I’m pretty sure he says he’s “anti-war”. So part of me is thinking that this is another smear on her from the Left. Hillary does want her gone. But then I stop and consider that Tulsi can’t be trusted on the borders or immigration. So then maybe she really is pro-war and she’s just telling people what they want to hear. In that sense, if that is who she is she is a perfect RINO lol. A globalist interventionist who loves open borders, wars, etc. I really hope that isn’t true.

  41. SW December 10, 2019 at 12:25 am #

    Thanks for the update. I watched the NBC news tonight and when they got to the part about Christopher Steele, they didn’t say a word about Fusion GPS or the fact that it had been hired by Clinton to dig up dirt. Not a peep. The news media are going to do their best to bury it and my guess is they’ll be successful. People are exhausted and confused with all the drama, reports, hearings, accusations/counter-accusations, shrill denials, and bait-and-switch tactics of terms and labeling of “crimes.”

    • ellipsis December 10, 2019 at 7:04 am #

      As luck would have it, I watched CBS News last evening while working out for a change of pace. The first thing you notice when watching this over-commercialized pap is that the format itself is totally unconducive to any kind of actual analysis. What it is good for is dispensing propaganda in nice chewy, bite-sized chunks, whether it be as ads for commercial sponsors, or ads for their official Deep State/Corporate sponsors. It’s all just so much manufacturing of consent. All the news your fit for you to believe!

      • Nightowl December 12, 2019 at 4:54 am #

        More fun is to get into the more subtle forms of manipulation, the word choices, the structure of the content for the purpose of planting seeds and framing narratives, the use of specific colors, camera filters, and lighting to alter images, distraction via graphics in segments where info. disadvantageous to the narrative must be aired, etc.

        I admit that as a professional editor who has worked in media for quite some time, I spot this stuff easier than others might, but it doesn’t take much once you know some of the tricks of the trade.

        There was a great example in the last Dem “debate” where they had the podiums for the 3 outsider candidates (Gabbard and co.) in front of a solid red background, and the establishment picks with blue. If you look at the overall design of the backdrop, it is clear that this was intentional.

  42. CancelMyCard December 10, 2019 at 12:49 am #

    ” . . . by people who can cut through the jargon, gaslight, and bullshit in this report.”

    AH HhHahahahahaHahhhhahah!!

    NOW, we are into the real meat of it aren’t we James!!!

  43. 4014HAMPHEDGE December 10, 2019 at 2:40 am #

    There are goings on in Asia and thee Middle East suggesting reality check is in the offing…

    What could possibly be of greater concern than Democrats agreeing on something? Debka.com December 8 2018 @ 20:29 report on US beginning systematic air campaign against Iranian Qods (Jerusalem) military assets in Syria is a candidate of significance.

    Over the oceans, 38North reports PDRK clamoring for attention with stepped up ICBM testing. JHK in past years notes gathering financial storm going into the New Year… 2019 seems different politically & militarily. In fact, so many anxious special interests at one moment in time is unprecedented! So pregnant a moment for a “False Flag” event going through the Holidays.

    Scary rumblings are discernible from UE proponents of Globalization, particularly as they observe US champions of One World Government in the Bulls-eye in the current political maelstrom. Clintons and Democratic party patrons have promoted Globalization for decades, now find the game in jeopardy. George Soros et al sweat bullets.at the thought of Trump continuing another term.

    The Long Emergency may come via nuclear detonations in the Troposphere, not initiated by financial collapse. EMP impacts food distribution via electronic controlled transport. Aftermath of EMP shall demand fallback to railway capacity & reach all but forgotten for a half century. Certainly time to get familiar with dormant railway corridor into food production districts even if rail rebuild programs must follow the “ONE SECOND AFTER” event written by William Forstchen. All time US railway map books from spv.co.uk (Mike Walker).

    We are on edge of EXTRAORDINARY events, and there is private money available to enable wealthy persons opportunity to “Adopt” Agricultural railway corridor and investigate ways and means of assembling material for rebuilding. American Short Line Regional Railroad Association is appropriate go-to organization for interested persons and consortia. Famine Hedge is the existential byword.

    • BackRowHeckler December 10, 2019 at 4:18 am #

      All the shortline RR track, laid 1840 — 1870, was ripped up by 1975. The steel — excellent steel, incidentally — was shipped to China.

      Brh

    • JohnAZ December 10, 2019 at 1:23 pm #

      Good post

      Corollary on your detonations. It triggered in me an interesting thought.

      We have spent 150 years trying to live down slavery in one of our ethnic groups in the US.

      Our growing dependence on AI is a gradual downslope to slavery for all of us. Yes. We are becoming slaves to the IT world. Our lives are scheduled by computers, our choice of work is computer generated, our movies are all partially computer generated, kids of all ages play games in computers not action sports. It is disgusting running into people because the are oblivious to where they are watching their damn cell phones. Just watch people in a restaurant to get a pretty lousy view of what people are today.

      So we have the Black folks trying to climb out of slavery just in time to descend back down into servitude to the Matrix with all of us. Trump’s brief economic peak will not last long as Silicon Valley becomes the number one power in the world.

      Sidebar

      Could it be that the loss of power in the Deep State to The IT structure is being felt by all sides. Their response is to fight for the scraps of what is left. Could it be that uniparty in DC is the only power structure that will exist because the real power source is coming from IT, a single source. IT runs everything today, not people, not bosses, not politicians.

      SkyNet!

      No wonder Silicon Valley wants to be internationally liberal, they are in process of taking over the world. My hat is off to the countries that are trying to block this incursion.

  44. BackRowHeckler December 10, 2019 at 4:15 am #

    Russia has been banned from the Tokyo Olympics, also from the next World Cup tournament in Qatar. The West keeps poking at The Bear, thinking we can do so with impunity, and that The Bear won’t wake up, perturbed, and looking to get even.

    Brh

    • hmuller December 10, 2019 at 5:03 am #

      The current ban on Russia involves athletic doping. Thank goodness we never do such things.

      I remember when Russian female athletes were viewed askance as being of possible ambiguous gender. Now that would be applauded as commendable, courageous, and oh so liberating.

      • malthuss December 10, 2019 at 9:46 am #

        The way I recall the story, it was East German women, growing beards.

      • elysianfield December 10, 2019 at 12:21 pm #

        “I remember when Russian female athletes were viewed askance as being of possible ambiguous gender. Now that would be applauded as commendable, courageous, and oh so liberating.”

        hmuller,
        You can consider me a big athletic supporter.

    • SoftStarLight December 10, 2019 at 9:35 am #

      The more they hate Russia the more I love Russia. Now if only Putin could be a real White Nationalist. Then I would apply for asylum lol!

      • BackRowHeckler December 10, 2019 at 10:20 am #

        SSL

        it can’t be lost on Putin, or the Russian people, that this ‘critical aid’ for Ukraine the Dems are so worried about … is intended to buy weapons to kill Russian soldiers.

        From my vantage point Ukraine and Russia are nearly the same people with a common history and any conflict they have is akin to a Civil War, one we would do well to stay out of.

        Brh

      • BackRowHeckler December 10, 2019 at 10:23 am #

        Think how we would react if Russia began providing weapons to Mexico to wage war on the United States. Germany did exactly that in 1915, the result of which was invading Mexico, and declaring war on Germany.

        Brh

        • SoftStarLight December 11, 2019 at 1:00 am #

          Yes, the last thing we need to do is get bogged down in another foreign civil war. And I’m pretty certain we would not tolerate any other power arming our neighbors againt us so openly.

  45. tucsonspur December 10, 2019 at 5:08 am #

    Thank you for the weekly political reviviscence Jim, and for all the clarification. Certainly a glaring omission, Horowitz not stating that Fusion GPS was in the employ of Hillary Clinton.

    One might say ‘civilization’ is a war of the narratives.
    Getting down to it, there are ultimately only two Narratives. One is Life, the other is Death. Go the way of Gilgamesh if you will, but you will not find otherwise.

    Between these larger Narratives, Barr and Durham must now create their own, an epic, nation saving narrative filled with fortitudinous fervor.

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    • Janos Skorenzy December 10, 2019 at 1:04 pm #

      Those who don’t learn from their experience are weeded out and thrown into the fire.

      After 9/11, we sill invite Saudis over to learn how to be pilots without vetting them. That local terror cell may have been planning something big before one of them got antsy and went off prematurely.

      America is a joke and is going to break up in the next fifty years. Thank God. Maybe something can be salvaged from the mess.

  46. So many liars December 10, 2019 at 5:40 am #

    “Elections have consequences” – Barack Obama

    Indeed, they do! – Deplorables

    Lady Liberty is sick. Her tummy hurts. Her bowels are cramped. The waves of pain and nausea, the sudden fevers and chills, the gastric rumblings and noxious emissions all insist on release. Her attendants had better put on some goggles and a face mask, because Consequences are imminent.

    America is watching a painful expulsion in slow motion, in detail, and at close range. Careers and reputations, fabrications and distortions, collusions and coverups have disintegrated. Their fragments are percolating in a putrid soup that cannot be, must not be, digested and absorbed.

    The patient retches. The spewing begins. Consequences are in motion, and they are foul!

  47. wm5135 December 10, 2019 at 6:33 am #

    The village was saved.

  48. capt spaulding December 10, 2019 at 8:06 am #

    Just read this online: Trump Family Comes together To Call Out Joe Biden’s Nepotism: Donald Trump has brought together his senior advisor and the joint heads of his business organization (sometimes referred to as his children) , to call out the shocking nepotism of Dem. presidential candidate Joe Biden.

    “Don’t you think it’s a little suspicious that the guy who gets a sweet job on the board of a Ukranian gas company has the surname ‘Biden’ the very same surname as the front runner for the Democratic primaries”, Eric Trump told a rally in Nebraska today.

    “He wasn’t qualified for the job. He had no experience. Clearly he got that job because of his dad,” said Jared Kushner, who has been assigned to bring peace to the Middle East by his father in law.

    “This is family favoritism at it’s very worst”, the President’s senior adviser/daughter, Ivanka Trump told journalists. She said she would use the next G-20 summit to express her country’s dismay at the blatant corruption.

    • JohnAZ December 10, 2019 at 10:24 am #

      A telling tale was Biden himself yesterday where he was trying to foist the blame on his Obama era staffers for not informing him that his son’s job in Ukraine “might” be a conflict of interest and nepotism. The latest info says that those same staffers are countering his claims with documentation stating that he was well informed and did it anyway.

      My take

      Both sides are very dirty with Ukraine and Russia during the Obama time. NATO and the US were very responsible for the Russian reaction to the elected president of Ukraine being Russian sympathetic and being removed from power by protests fostered by the Allies. Ukraine should be a buffer state but oh, no, we have to stick our corrupted noses in there and turn it into a NATO State. Both sides. Oil deals gas deals, both sides. It is no wonder Ukraine was corrupted so badly with so many opposing forces there. So, onstage walks Hunter Biden.

    • sprawlcapital December 10, 2019 at 12:46 pm #

      Are any of these Trump family folks payed $80,000 a month?

      Were any of these Trump family folks kicked out of the Navy for drug use? By the way, what kind of discharge did Hunter get? Honorable? Dishonorable? Medical? Administrative? Please explain how any of this qualified the young man for a posh job at Burisma.

      Obviously, these are what we call rhetorical questions. I hope Biden gets to answer them under oath at the Senate trial.

      • Majella December 11, 2019 at 3:43 am #

        Hey Sprawl…you don’t seem to get the Capt’s particular brand of satire yet.

      • hmuller December 11, 2019 at 10:44 am #

        I hear he had at least one dishonorable discharge which will cost him monthly payments for about 18 years. LOL

        • capt spaulding December 11, 2019 at 11:35 am #

          That’s a good one, Mr. Muller.

        • capt spaulding December 11, 2019 at 1:49 pm #

          I just remembered that that’s what the Japanese call an orgasm.

  49. venuspluto67 December 10, 2019 at 8:14 am #

    I think that the general reaction to the IG report shows that partisanship so colors what so many people recognize as facts, that some kind of authoritarian government aimed at restoring order is the eventual inevitable outcome. Team Blue will hope the new authoritarian state will wear a Blue uniform, and Team Red hopes the new authoritarian state will wear a Red one. But I predict it will wear neither of those uniforms.

    • venuspluto67 December 10, 2019 at 9:39 am #

      Though it’s possible this authoritarian regime would adopt a handful of Team Red affectations and one or two Team Blue affectations for the sake of appearing even-handed.

    • SoftStarLight December 10, 2019 at 9:42 am #

      I think the new uniforms will be Black. What do you think?

      • malthuss December 10, 2019 at 10:18 am #

        On you tube, I keep seeing this ad for Amazon, with a black family in a mansion.

        • elysianfield December 10, 2019 at 12:26 pm #

          Malthuss,
          Well, then what would you call seeing a black family in the back of a sedan with a white driver?

          • malthuss December 10, 2019 at 2:26 pm #

            CADILLAC ESCALADE AD…W a White butler.

          • elysianfield December 11, 2019 at 12:21 pm #

            “CADILLAC ESCALADE AD…W a White butler.’

            Malthuss,
            …No, you would call them…”under arrest”.

            An old joke, poorly told….

      • JohnAZ December 10, 2019 at 10:37 am #

        The reaction of the fly over states to the impeachment is heartening. The independents are deserting the Democrats in droves. The Democratic lies are starting to turn off, not the Trump base, but the independents. The Dems are on the defensive this morning on the news trying to save face from this stupid move. “We have to convince the country that we are saving democracy”.

        We may be witnessing the demise of the Democratic run for the presidency in 2020. The impeachment is done, there are no more Dem ideas or headlines. The Trumpers are just getting started, the Senate fiasco will be refreshing when we can hear the whole story.

        Side bar

        A Harris poll of potential Dem candidates was run yesterday. Guess who was highest percentage

        HRC 21%, Biden 20%

        That is the best the Dem aggregate can come up with. If you care about the future of the country, I cannot think of a single derogatory action you can take than to vote for either of these two reprobates.

        USMCA is finally getting finished. Listened to Dems talking about how their actions saved a trade agreement deeply flawed by Trump.

        My Gawd, these people are nuts!

      • Janos Skorenzy December 10, 2019 at 1:13 pm #

        Yes, police thugs wear black and the black guns will decide in the end – but the thugs aren’t the only ones who have those. And for the Blacks, nothing – or at least I hope so.

      • Majella December 12, 2019 at 3:45 am #

        I’m sure you’d prefer white, but it’s just SO impractical!

  50. Minnie Van Horne December 10, 2019 at 9:56 am #

    So what happens next?

    1) The House votes to impeach the Bad Orange Man

    2) The Senate shrugs and refuses to convict the Golden Golem

    3) A day or two later, Ruth Bader Ginsburg lays down for her dirt nap

    4) The Swamp goes full Hieronymus Bosch

    5) Schiff, Nadler and Pelosi lead their pustulous troops onward into the final battle of the Zombie Apocalypse, cheered on by Rachel Maddow, John Brennan and the shrieking demon queen HRC.

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    • Minnie Van Horne December 10, 2019 at 10:21 am #

      And I neglected to add:

      6) It will all be catered by that nice family pizza place, Comet Ping Pong,

      • BackRowHeckler December 10, 2019 at 3:40 pm #

        Yeah Minnie, its going to be great theater when Trump appoints his next Supreme Court Justice.

        A woman with children this time around. Nobody will be able to dig up a rape charge from 1982.

        Brh

        • Minnie Van Horne December 10, 2019 at 5:35 pm #

          Although she has no children that I know of, a stellar choice among women with law degrees would be Ann Coulter. She does not suffer fools for a nanosecond and her every comment in the Supreme Court would be hilarious.

          If President Trump opts for a man to replace RBG, how about someone the lefties can really clutch their pearls over. He does not have a law degree, but he has real insights into the legal system. I present to you Supreme Court Justice John McAfee.

          • Janos Skorenzy December 10, 2019 at 8:15 pm #

            Good picks. One doesn’t have to be a lawyer after. Probably better if one isn’t so as to be able to take a fresh look at the issue without being bound by the jargon.

            As long as he doesn’t pick any weird little Jewish ladies or Leftists.

          • elysianfield December 11, 2019 at 12:24 pm #

            “John McAfee.”

            Brown boy…or so the book I read of him claims.

          • elysianfield December 11, 2019 at 12:26 pm #

            …or so the book…

            Correction,
            It was a documentary regarding him.

            Apologies.

    • Ricechex December 11, 2019 at 11:58 pm #

      Minnie–that gave me such a laugh!!!

  51. JohnAZ December 10, 2019 at 10:56 am #

    Read JHK update and one major question needs addressed.

    17 “mistakes” in presenting data to the FISA court. Mistakes my ass.

    Intentional shaping of data is what Horowitz and the assessment of Russiagate shows over and over again. Cherry picked data omissions are evident throughout.

    Horowitz had no power to punish liars and consequently 17 lies or more were committed to CYA a huge bunch of jerks. Just the fact that the continued Democratic sponsorship of the Dossier was omitted from the investigation report condemns is credibility. You might as well just recorded all the baloney being spouted at the depositions and released the audio. Horowitz did exactly that, in effect, nothing but transmit the Democratic line.

    Just add Horowitz to the list of Deep State operatives along with Christopher Wray. I sincerely hope Trump, or Barr fires the rest of these bums after the beginning of the year.

    By the actions of Barr and Durham casting suspicion on the Horowitz “findings”, the absurdity of Horowitz is going to blunt any effect it might have had. I wonder how much it cost the taxpayer to create this non-entity. Barr and Durham are going to fry the operatives that forced those 17 errors. And they will not will not be the minor characters that Horowitz is trying to paste the blame on.

    Go, Trump. Once the Dems have shot their wad, I hope you go to war against these Un-American bozos. Looking forward to 2020.

  52. James Kuehl December 10, 2019 at 1:23 pm #

    The Dems have an easier sell. Here’s a summary of what they presented this morning.

    Trump withheld funds in exchange for dirt on his opponent. He then blocked the truth from coming out.

    Eighteen words. Try that with the narrative in his defense.

    • Walter B December 10, 2019 at 2:11 pm #

      Here’s a good response. The funds were delayed because some grunt screwed up the process and it had to be redone and the culprit has been punished, move along.

      The second is that the truth cannot be blocked because there is no such thing as “truth”.

    • JohnAZ December 10, 2019 at 2:56 pm #

      One problem.

      It is not an impeachable crime!

      The Dems made it up. First, no crime. Second, nothing to hide. Trump released the transcript, remember. How is that blocking the truth?

      • JohnAZ December 10, 2019 at 3:03 pm #

        Want to hear another one?

        How about hiring people to go to Russian to dig up dirt on your opponent and when they can’t, make it all up and push the line of BS for three years.

        Does that resemble using foreign governments or peoples to set up a political opponent.

        Once again, the Dems are going to find out that living in a glass house is difficult.

      • benr December 10, 2019 at 5:41 pm #

        Here is one why is it NOT ok to investigate Joen Biden because he is running for election but it was ok to investigate Trump?

        Why was it ok to attack a 13 year old boy but a 51 year old drug addict kicked out of the NAVY for cocaine abuse is off limits?

      • Majella December 11, 2019 at 3:47 am #

        JohnAZ – sorry, you’re entitled to your opinion but you’re not in the jury. No doubt the same conclusion will be reached because the GOP senate is a spineless creature. Oh, well….

        • benr December 11, 2019 at 8:08 am #

          I will agree with you the Republicans are spineless and still trying to play gentleman politics (except Trump he gets it)when it has become are bar room brawl just bordering on a cartel war.

          After all that is what the two parties really are opposing mobs with convergent interests. At war publicly sometimes bitterly but in the end they both only want power, control and most of all the loot.

    • BackRowHeckler December 10, 2019 at 3:16 pm #

      Withheld funds?

      So? What do we owe Ukraine?

      • James Kuehl December 11, 2019 at 6:07 am #

        You are all helping to make my point. Trump’s team is too inarticulate to counter the Dem’s concise narrative for presenting criminal behavior. Just shouting “witch hunt!” and “hoax” doesn’t get it done. The “perfect call” defense is also obvious bluster, so that’s not helping.

        Trump needs a clear and intelligent response, like, “This is an attempt to use a legitimate diplomatic negotiation to remove a duly elected president.”

        If Trump weren’t such an oaf he’d have a better shot at defending his legacy. He’ll beat this impeachment rap all right, but he’ll dance around like some professional wrestling character and history will paint him as a buffoon.

        • benr December 11, 2019 at 8:09 am #

          But guess who will be painted as even worse?

          Yes the Democrat party of this era.

          • James Kuehl December 11, 2019 at 10:57 am #

            Yes, Ben, I agree that the Democratic Party is corrupt, inept, and deserves to go down in history as a criminal enterprise. But in twenty years when you do a Google search (or whatever the equivalent is at that time) of all this you’ll get Trump and his foibles.

        • Nightowl December 12, 2019 at 10:55 am #

          Your message would be forgotten as soon as it was uttered. There is a reason politicians dumb down their speech and adopt fake accents.

          You have much to learn, young padowan.

    • Nightowl December 12, 2019 at 5:03 am #

      Mr. Zelensky said he was never pressured and knew nothing of a hold. The facts are on the President’s side.

      And, of course, those are the actual facts.

      So there is that.

  53. JohnAZ December 10, 2019 at 1:29 pm #

    One more!

    I am getting really I’ll today watching a very obviously arrogant Hillary reacting to the polls putting her as no.1, and talking about how many people are pressuring her to run. The idea of watching her face continuously for the next 11 months is making me nauseous.

    • Walter B December 10, 2019 at 2:09 pm #

      I hope that everyone remembers that I said she would run again right after she lost. This will be one “I told you so” that will hurt everyone including me.

      • benr December 10, 2019 at 5:39 pm #

        She has an illness that will not allow her to run with anything near the vigor of Donald J Trump.
        To many instances of her almost face planting and having to be dumped into waiting cars.

        Or the series of bizarre facial expressions hen they dropped the balloons. Is that to much LSD in the 70’s coming to haunt her in her old age or what?

        https://www.google.com/search?sxsrf=ACYBGNTCeU4qA5yu-NE8u6HWGdbT0OBnqQ:1576017344821&q=hillary+clinton+balloons&tbm=isch&source=univ&client=firefox-b-1-d&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwivyv2PkqzmAhWVr54KHYPVBg4QsAR6BAgIEAE&biw=1920&bih=966

        • JohnAZ December 10, 2019 at 5:57 pm #

          Yeah, and Biden is so senile he cannot keep things straight.

          This is the best the Dems can come up with?

          YES! It is. When you raise your voter base by brainwashing kids and bringing in ignorant immigrants, what do you expect?

          The remaining field is a homosexual, no surprise and an old Communist looking for his nirvana, and a bunch of angry reverse racists that want to pay back whitey. Add on a billionaire that wants to buy the election and guess what it adds up to.

          The return of the Witch.

      • Walter B December 11, 2019 at 12:37 am #

        What is torquing me up is that these Loonie Lefties keep demonizing old white men and who the fuck do they put out there? Thee old white men, millionaires all. Hey Bernie, Joe, and Michael, is there something about your age and sexual proclivities that you are keeping secret? Really, what’s up with that shit?

        • benr December 11, 2019 at 8:05 am #

          Yes while claiming to be the party of “diversity” no less.
          You can’t make this shit up we are living in bizarro world.

  54. malthuss December 10, 2019 at 2:29 pm #

    Chicago is only 13 bodies away from 500 homicides in 2019.

    As usual, 81% involve negroes as victims 14% involve the brown ones from Mexico.
    That leaves a whopping 5% of homicide victims for whites, asians

    Another fact is that of those 5% about half of them were killed by negroes or beaners which means that whites and all other races account for about 2-3% of all homicides in Chiraq.

    The same song is playing in many other cities, towns, counties and states. Sad but nobody will tell the truth except here.

    • BackRowHeckler December 10, 2019 at 3:13 pm #

      Another astounding stat: in Chicago, about 80% of those murders are unsolved. Think of that 80%.

      I was reading that the ‘gun violence’ rate of white America is about the same as in the Czech Republic or Finland, IOW, infinitesimal.

      Brh

      • JohnAZ December 10, 2019 at 5:47 pm #

        In The Long Emergency, part of the social breakdown is going to be an inability of government at all levels to provide security to people. We are witnessing the unfolding of that, along with the schism of the country. They are tied into each other.

        • malthuss December 10, 2019 at 6:14 pm #

          It is racial.
          Read ‘Negroes in Negroland’–its free.

        • Walter B December 11, 2019 at 1:57 pm #

          No one cares about blacks killing blacks, not evem the blacks themselves. Heck even Barry O had no problem with the death toll did he?

  55. malthuss December 10, 2019 at 2:33 pm #

    This is for Janos,

    In another story involving one of our favorite black DAs, Rachel Rollins, who is seeking to make crime legal for blacks in Boston…

    https://www.masslive.com/news/2019/12/bampumim-teixeira-the-man-accused-of-killing-two-doctors-in-bostons-south-end-allegedly-threatened-prosecutors-wife.html

    Here we have the murder trial of an African immigrant who in 2017 broke into the apartment of a pair of doctors, tied them up, slit their throats with a carving knife, scrawled a threatening message on the wall with their blood (that I guess was an attempt to implicate a former patient), and was in the process of robbing them when the police arrived and shot him.

    Even though he was found in the apartment holding bags full of their belongings, the defense is claiming he simply happened into the apartment with the dead bodies and didn’t do anything. Being that Rachel Rollins is the DA prosecuting him, he might have a chance with that defense.

    Meanwhile, this same African was arrested for robbing banks in Boston in 2014, but his charges were reduced to simple larceny so he wouldn’t be deported:

    https://www.masslive.com/news/boston/2017/05/suspect_in_slaying_of_boston_d.html

    Finally, the murderer (who is always pictured smiling in court) threatened in court to rape the (white) assistant DAs wife when he got out of jail. In a twist of irony, DA Rollins denounced the threat, but at the same time is likely working to help the murderer spend as little time in jail as possible and eventually carry out his threat.

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    • JohnAZ December 10, 2019 at 2:52 pm #

      By any chance, is this another DA that was supported by Soros in her campaign.

      • benr December 10, 2019 at 5:33 pm #

        Yes.

    • Walter B December 12, 2019 at 9:51 am #

      The system wants these career criminals, especially the violent ones, out on the streets rather than behind bars or dead. They are profitable at the working taxpayer’s expense and they help keep the workers in line through fear and need of a system that threw us all overboard decades ago.

  56. LarryFitz December 10, 2019 at 3:08 pm #

    Thanks for the update after the Horowitz report was released. Your posts have been essential reading on the Russia hoax matter. Solomon, Turley, McCarthy, Felton, Manhattan Contrarian are also my preferred reads. I will look forward to your post on Fri 13th after the Wed Senate hearing that may challenge Horowitz’s claims of: 1. no political bias, and 2. sufficient evidence to launch an FBI probe. Even Horowitz’s list of 17 flaws and 51 Woods issues just scratch the surface and gloss over the underlying misconduct. I am most interested in how the FBI obtained the final piece of Fusion GPS info in Sept-Oct 2016 to get the final FISA approval. Did it involve the edited e-mail likely to ring a criminal referral, or is there more? And, what was Nellie Ohr’s “new job” after leaving Fusion GPS 9/24/16?

  57. BackRowHeckler December 10, 2019 at 3:28 pm #

    Drove by the old Stanley Works plant earlier today, a 175 yo company. HQ is still there, but blocks of redbrick factory sit empty and unused. (A few years ago bought a set of Stanley socket wrenches, was surprised at the ‘Made in Taiwan’ label)

    At any rate, outside the office building a massive, multi colored ‘Gay Pride’ flag underneath the Stars and Stripes flapping in the wind. I mean this banner was massive. Across the street sit a grimy 1950s public housing complex, beyond that a tidy urban neighborhood of Ukrainian and Polish immigrants. I wonder what they make of that flag?

    Brh

    • Janos Skorenzy December 10, 2019 at 5:10 pm #

      In the Eternal War between Blacks and Gays (much like that between Lions and Hyenas), score one for the Blacks as Conservative Black, Jesse Lee Peterson, crushes Gay Episcopalian “Priest”, Tom Carey, in his slavering Jaws. Attn Indian Lover, Venuspluto.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2c5aQ_q2ogw&feature=emb_logo

      • benr December 10, 2019 at 5:31 pm #

        There is a large segment of on the down low black men with families out there.

  58. Janos Skorenzy December 10, 2019 at 4:17 pm #

    Liberal Operative: Demographic Replacement (of White People) is Our Goal

    Frank Roman, wvwnews.com

    Decades of warnings went unheeded.

    But now it’s out in the open.

    Far-left activists are letting the mask slip, and admitting that their plan is to use demographics to replace America’s white majority and create a grievance-based voting bloc that will usher in radical socialism.

    Panelists admitted the demographic reality during the first day of the We Are Democracy 2019 Conference, which is still ongoing in Washington D.C. right now. Guests of the conference are speaking about social justice issues and discussing strategies on how to spread the far-left agenda.

    “So that when we get to 2042 or 2045, whatever year you want to use, that we actually will not be suffering from what other countries like South Africa had, which is having the numbers but not having the power,” said Judith Browne Dianis, who works as the executive director of the National Office for the Advancement Project.
    “We want… You know, people say demographics are not destiny. Well, we’re trying to make it destiny so that’s the work that we are doing,” she added to a response of “Amen!” from former Obama administration official Stephanie Valencia, who was leading the panel.

    The exchange can be seen here:

    Wait I thought they said this was just a conspiracy theory? pic.twitter.com/fn3U99x781

    — zyntrax (@zyntrax) December 6, 2019

    Dianis’ Advancement Project is an organization that is steeped in social justice rhetoric. They advertise their primary issues as voting rights, immigrant justice, education justice, policing and criminalization, and school-to-prison pipeline.

    “Rooted in the great human rights struggles for equality and justice, we exist to fulfill America’s promise of a caring, inclusive and just democracy. We use innovative tools and strategies to strengthen social movements and achieve high impact policy change,” they write on their official website.

    The Advancement Project works to get felons in the voting booth, promotes privileged athletes like washed-up NFL player Colin Kaepernick to disrespect the flag, and end cash bail to keep violent criminals on the streets.

    While Dianis admits the agenda that the Left is obviously perpetrating, far-left thought control groups like the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) still regularly smears anyone who understands the reality of demographic replacement and its political implications as anti-Semitic conspiracy theorists:

    “White Genocide” is a term coined by white supremacists for propaganda purposes as shorthand for one of the most deeply held modern white supremacist convictions: that the white race is “dying” due to growing non-white populations and “forced assimilation,” all of which are deliberately engineered and controlled by a Jewish conspiracy to destroy the white race. This same conviction can be seen in the so-called “14 Words” slogan, the most popular white supremacist slogan around the globe: “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.” White supremacists commonly claim that they must take action, even violent action, or the “white race” will “perish from the Earth.”

    Like most supposed conspiracy theories, concerns about the demographic shift and its political consequences have proven to be justified.

    JS: Do Elrond, Maj, Alba, et al not understand this? Are they dumb or just playing dumb? Either possibility is possible. It is amazing how disconnected Whites are from the organic realities of life. So they could really be this dumb. On the other hand, deception of others is par for course on the Left. As Sun Tzu said, War is Deception. So they could just as easily be playing dumb. In which case, they are doing a very good job of it.

    In any case, no matter how dumb they appear to be, they are not dumber than “conservatives” who believe all this is going to work out somehow; that colored immigrants are going to become real Americans and carry on our American traditions of Western Culture. That is simply utter Idiocy.

    • JohnAZ December 10, 2019 at 5:33 pm #

      Hmmm!

      Pakistan and India. If Whites set up a United States of White Americans and the Rest set up separately, the Browns would inherit the cities and the city intense states. Janos, it is happening now. If the Feds could figure out a way to segregate the two areas, it could be done fairly quickly. Ten years from now, the wealth would be in the White zones and the cities would be broke. Then the Browns would come and get what they could by force. So the civil war would be delayed by ten years.

      Build the wall, it is the start to control the Brown influx to prevent the coming violence. Otherwise, ??? First, re-elect Trump, without his direction and a Deplorables government, the violent end is inevitable.

      Then we need to make sure we put the treason whites in the front lines.

      • JohnAZ December 10, 2019 at 5:36 pm #

        Seriously, Janos, I think people want a peaceful resolution to the question, Where the heck did all these Brown people come from? If we had only known that they are after our butts..

        Uh-huh.

      • Janos Skorenzy December 10, 2019 at 11:44 pm #

        The Browns aren’t going anywhere until we deal with you people and you fellow travelers, the Communists. You all love them for their cheap, dependable labor – with the costs in welfare outsourced onto the American People.

        Apparently they are good workers. The White Working class is often sunk in bad habits and despair in contrast. Their uplift is one of the tasks of any future National Socialism.

        Was at Church today in a Sanctuary City. The Hispanic ladies behind me were giving their kids candy to keep them quiet during mass. Instead of taking the wrappers, they deposited them under my coat. I felt the Christ within me suddenly displeased and I wondered what it was. That’s what it was. What a trashy thing to do – and in Church no less.

    • SoftStarLight December 11, 2019 at 1:22 am #

      Wow, I feel like we are not extremists at all though that is such a common aspersion cast on us. We are a neglected and overlooked Center. As you note, we are attacked directly and indirectly from both the Left and the Right. What a great point to begin from too. Brand new and no longer tainted by the caustic conflicts between those factions in control right now, all of whom have betrayed us.

      • GreenAlba December 11, 2019 at 1:03 pm #

        “We are a neglected and overlooked Center.”

        That’s such a cute Goldilocks picture. Nasty Dems on one side, nasty Repubs on the other, and cute little Nazis in the middle where the ideological porridge is juuuuust right…

        And not tainted by anything. I’d say ‘haha’ but what you’re tainted by isn’t funny.

        Not brand new. Sorry. New if you’re your age and observe life through a funnel, maybe.

        You can control your borders without going full Nazi. Jesus would like that. Nazis would have annoyed him more than sweetie papers left under a coat in church (not your story I know, but it’s that Tweedledum and Tweedledee effect).

    • Majella December 11, 2019 at 3:52 am #

      Skorenzy, if I could be bothered reading your c&p’d ‘wisdom’, I could give you an answer.

      But your question doesn’t actually invite an answer.

      It’s just more of the same old, same old tripe masquerading as ‘intellectual’ engagement. You have contributed zero NEW ideas (under any nom de plume) in all the years I’ve been visiting this blog.

      *YAWN*

    • Elrond Hubbard December 12, 2019 at 9:36 am #

      Eyesore continues to yearn for pogrom, dispossession, and ethnic cleansing. What he is pleased to refer to as ‘organic realities of life’, criminologists call motive.

  59. JohnAZ December 10, 2019 at 6:10 pm #

    JHK

    A request.

    If you are not already doing it, the Afghanistan Report May be another Pentagon Papers? Your opinion on this potential Deep State disrupter would be invaluable.

    Before the Deep State buries it.

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  60. tucsonspur December 10, 2019 at 6:24 pm #

    See how Universities are destroying the Nation.

    And an explanation is given (accurately?) as to why the market place has not provided any correction.

    Here’s some Heather Mac Donald from “The Diversity Delusion”. Start at about 30 minutes in, at least.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffIpRC9cSUc

    • benr December 11, 2019 at 8:03 am #

      And they wonder how the kids today are so leftist in nature,
      They wear Che shirts not knowing what an evil POS he was.
      They stop around screaming for anarchy and Socialism and yes I am seeing commie flags and hammer and sickle flags off and on in San Diego.

      • Nightowl December 12, 2019 at 5:10 am #

        To be fair, this is not new. I am in my early 40s and kids wore these shits when I was in HS and college, too.

        It was an alternative to the Bob Marley shirt half the school was wearing. No one knew who the fuck Che was or what he stood for.

  61. KappaJoe December 10, 2019 at 6:27 pm #

    Be ever wary of the false premise. I’m frequently amazed as to how these are established and then commonly accepted as self-evident.

    To wit: Triumph used Russia to dig up “dirt” on HRC. As if anyone needed any source beyond the history & actions of the Clinton’s themselves. Hillary is nothing but dirt – it oozes from her every utterance & deed.

    Likewise, we are now flooded with Trump used Ukraine to dig up dirt on Biden. Same deal as Hillary, though perhaps not to the same degree. There’s no dirt to “dig up”, it’s already plainly there in the Burisma dealings. Investigating is not digging up, though additional findings may turn up incidental to the investigation. In any event, how much more refreshing than simply making up dirt, whole cloth, as the Dem operatives are wont (or forced) to do.

    • Ricechex December 12, 2019 at 12:35 am #

      The mainstream media asserts that Trump was trying to dig up info on Biden so that Trump could win in 2020. Ummm. Like Trump is that dumb! He knows he does not have to dig up info on Biden to win. Like Biden is some big contender. Ludicrous.

  62. Pucker December 10, 2019 at 8:01 pm #

    One of the basic rules of the game is that you have to first identify the relevant Crime or Offense that the subject allegedly committed. For example, Bribery is an Offense, albeit vis-a-vis POTUS this refers basically to POTUS accepting a bride rather than giving a bribe. But let’s leave that aside. Next, you have to identify to elements of the Crime or Offense. For Bribery, this is basically the offering of something of value to a government official with the Intent to obtain some benefit. Here, we have a Ukrainian government official, and we have a potential benefit to Trump of getting dirt on Biden who is incredibly corrupt by the way. But, we lack the offering of something of value since Aid was not withheld, nor did the Ukrainian President know or felt pressured re: the Aid. So, no Banana. Also, one has to prove the above with legitimate evidence. All that they’ve got is Hearsay, so, again, No Banana.

    As far as I can tell, “Pressuring a foreign government official”, and “Abuse of Office” are not impeachable offices. Nor are the elements of said Offenses defined since they do not exist as independent Offenses. So, No Banana.

    It’s a bad farce….

    End of story….

    • JohnAZ December 10, 2019 at 8:55 pm #

      Pucker

      Just the idea that we send folks out for two and half years to try to find something to hang him with, to find a crime to frame him with. They end up with abuse of power and obstructing congress.

      What the heck is that? It sounds like a bunch of kids.

      Anyway our justice system says that when you commit a crime, it is up to the syste to find you guilty then punish you.

      This is just the opposite, Deep State justice, I guess. Guilty until proven innocent we just need to spend millions trying to find anything that he did wrong.

      It is scary in one regard. If this is what the Dems want to change the country to with justice, what other abuses of power are they going to drop on us if they ever get power back. Elimination of the electoral college ay be just the start as they try to lock in their uniparty system.

    • elysianfield December 11, 2019 at 12:35 pm #

      “Pressuring a foreign government official”,

      Puck,
      THAT is called “diplomacy”.

  63. Pucker December 10, 2019 at 8:53 pm #

    I wonder if pedophiles tend to get jobs working as Santa Claus in shopping malls during Christmas time? I read that it’s typical for pedophiles to seek out opportunities to hang around kids. Chaz Buttigieg is always using his elementary school teacher Rap, Harry Potter, teaching the Arts, and the LGTBQ adoption pitch to hang around kids. Many years ago, I taught kids English on Saturdays for 12 hour stretches in Taiwan to finance my studies. But I didn’t really like the kids. Once before a class performance for the parents, a fat, miscreant Chinese boy sprayed the crotch of my knickers with water which made me look like I had just pissed my pants. Little Fucker…. Fortunately, I was able to procure a hair dryer to blow dry my crotch dry in time for the performance. The problem was that the warm air of the hair dryer gave me a Big Boner, which I had to suppress before appearing before the parents. This is probably the kinds of shenanigans that Trump has to deal with in negotiating a trade deal with China?

    • malthuss December 10, 2019 at 11:01 pm #

      Micheal jacksons fantasy playland for kiddies…..a magnet for
      pre teens.

      • Nightowl December 12, 2019 at 5:17 am #

        Jackson was innocent.

        • Majella December 13, 2019 at 3:29 am #

          An opinion, I presume, given no evidence is proffered?

          • Nightowl December 13, 2019 at 6:18 am #

            A statement of legal fact.

    • elysianfield December 11, 2019 at 12:37 pm #

      ” the warm air of the hair dryer gave me a Big Boner, which I had to suppress….”

      Puck,
      Yeah. That’s what they all say….

  64. JohnAZ December 10, 2019 at 9:05 pm #

    BRH

    Think how we would feel if Mexico armed Mexico to fight against us.

    Remember Eric Holders Fast and Furious gun running to the cartels in Mexico?

    We sent arms to Mexico to fight against us. It doesn’t get better than the Deep State.

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  65. JohnAZ December 10, 2019 at 9:09 pm #

    Until Durham uses his investigative power to grand jury these criminals in the deep State, nothing will change. Send Comey or Brennan or Holder to jail, the whole wall of BS holding up the Deep State will start to collapse.

    Deplorables, you need to clobber these jerks, not play pussy foot with them. Your control of your government is at stake.

  66. Pucker December 10, 2019 at 10:23 pm #

    “It’s not a court of law so we don’t have to be honest and fair, and we can do whatever we want!”

    It’s the blatant dishonesty that I find so shocking. The America that I grew up in, albeit very flawed, was not so dishonest. Western Law since Roman Law has always incorporated a duty of “Good Faith”. Here, even though the strict Court rules and procedures may not apply, they would be referred to by reference given the overarching Duty of Good Faith. It’s very Sick to start with the premise that you’re going to fuck the bloke over. Sick….

  67. tucsonspur December 11, 2019 at 3:05 am #

    The Senate now awaits the articles of impeachment.

    Gerrit Cole signs with the Yankees for $324 million over nine years. Looks like $36 million per.

    The working grunt fortunate enough to make 50K per would have to work 720 years to match the 36 million.

    Juice WRLD, 21 year old rapper, is almost DOA. But his private jet was alive with guns and drugs. What is it now, about 40 years of rap? Even Whites won’t let it go.

    https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/codeine-41-bags-of-marijuana-found-in-luggage-when-rapper-juice-wrld-collapsed-report-203909722.html

    The day was gunfire grim back in Jersey City.

    https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/active-shooter-situation-in-jersey-city-sources-say/2238983/

    These narratives are not at war. Along with many others, they co-exist in an overall Narrative of National decay.

    • BackRowHeckler December 11, 2019 at 9:15 am #

      TS

      It costs a family of 4 (do such units even exist any longer) over $500 to attend just 1 mid season Yankee game. It’s a little cheaper to see the Mets, and easier to get to. Ordinary people are simply priced out of attending MLB in many cities. I’m not even sure who the fanbase is anymore, or who these games are marketed to.

      The Yankees gave Stanton a huge contract a few years ago based upon his 59 HR season with the Marlins. He’s proven to be a flop so far. If the economy turns sour — as many here predict it will — it would be wise for MLB and the Players Assoc not to rub people’s noses in these huge contracts, which will be the source of much resentment.

      Brh

      • JohnAZ December 11, 2019 at 9:44 am #

        I am continuous amazed at how much presence the 1% show in this country. Sports events, especially the Super Bowl, are one of the most evident. I would imagine the impact football and baseball in the US and soccer elsewhere has on poor folks elsewhere in the world. As things shrink iI would guess this would get more severe.

        • JohnAZ December 11, 2019 at 11:03 am #

          A corollary is San Francisco. The 1%, the high tech group, has moved in with their money and displaced the regular folks out of the city. Those with the means leave, those that do not have the means are on the street. Tourist areas are another example. Wealthy folks elevate the prices of everything and the regular folks leave.

          Another item on the Democratic fix list. Income inequality! Not a single item in their agenda shows any solution for this capitalistic effect. All talk. Any power drivers like socialized medicine just make the government wealthy wealthier.

  68. Majella December 11, 2019 at 4:02 am #

    Okay.

    Let’s get things back to reality.

    No-one hereabouts feels that the ‘deep state’ has her interests at heart. Most of you – including the die-hard Trumpsters – actually really BELIEVE he’s anything more than a grafting shyster, sent out to suck you in and spit you out. All the admiring attributions of a ‘higher cause’ are -and you know it – total bullshit. He’s only out from HIMSELF.

    So, watch this – even if at first sniff you think ‘yeah, nah…’ it’s only a few minutes long. Then comeback and provide arguments as to how he’s deluded, crazy, out of touch or whatever else.

    Considered arguments will be discussed. Bullshit arguments will be considered before being shot down…

    https://youtu.be/FoJ7V5dfBYQ

    • ellipsis December 11, 2019 at 6:48 am #

      The trouble with the diminutive elitist egg-head Robert Reich is that he’s an old time Clinton hack who talks a great game, but when actually given a chance during the King Clinton administration didn’t actually do anything. He’s a typical left wing academic; talk, talk, talk ad infinitum, with absolutely nothing to show for it ever. It’s entirely possible that he’s a paid agent provocateur, whose real job is to stir up the pseudo left so that they can be easily identified for political purposes (if not something more nefarious) and any resulting heat they might generate be more easily dissipated. I used to be enamored by the crap he spews, although I must admit, I was a big Paul Krugman fan too in my earlier, far more naïve, incarnation. I see through them both now, as well as all the rest of that Clintonian “third way” bullshit. It’s intellectually titillating at first blush upon facile analysis, but lived experience has revealed these shysters’ true intent, which is why they’ve long since been consigned to the scrap bin of history already.

      Trump, the prototypical bigger and better shyster, is the masses “fuck you!” response. He’s the clearest signal yet that the masses are perfectly willing to burn down the entire rotten political edifice in order to clear the decks for something radically new. And the Dems, true to form, career professional corporate globalist boot-licking lackeys that they truly are, adamantly refuse to admit that, as he holds up a perfectly polished mirror reflecting back at them and all to see their own grotesque hideousness. Warren, one such agent provocateur, a poor man’s Obama 2.0 wrapped up in a femme pseudo-woke package, has already equivocated her way to the proverbial middle of the road (which is actually far right, pro-corporate, globalist), while Sanders, real or not, is simply a pipe dream for the pie-in-the-sky far left liberal fringe. He’s a sounding board for ideas that will never be adopted by the current wealthy east coast political establishment.

      In short, I never would have believed that Trump had a snow ball’s chance in hell of being re-elected back in 2016, but JM Greer called it exactly right all along. Thanks to Dem malfeasance and slapstick comedic incompetence, Trump looks to be in perfect position to consolidate his lock on power in 2020, providing the one truly good thing to come from the whole electioneering fiasco: watching elite Dems’ heads explode and their pitiful party go down in flames for all to see. Then and only then can we turn our destructive focus on the equally corrupt and inherently evil Republican right after they no longer have the political cover of a putative “liberal left” to obfuscate their actions. Time to clear the decks once and for all!

      • benr December 11, 2019 at 8:01 am #

        If you think Warren is far right then you are left of Mao.
        The rest of your post I agree with except I would add Republican slightly less evil at least they are not playing identity politics yet.

        • ellipsis December 11, 2019 at 10:11 am #

          Warren is pure triangulating puffery. She’s changes her position – always discretely – with every new poll indicating a change in the political winds. Pure Clintonian third way bullshit. The ID pol bullshit is likewise all for show, much like Bush’s compassionate conservative born again Christian ruse was in 2000. He was none of those things and knew it full well.

          • elysianfield December 11, 2019 at 12:41 pm #

            “…pure triangulating puffery.”

            Interesting turn of phrase.

          • Nightowl December 12, 2019 at 5:31 am #

            Bernie is no better. Though I agree with several of his points in the general sense, the presenter in the video is quite disingenuous.

            He claims Trump serves the elite. The statement is presented without evidence, and, ofc, his alternative is Sanders who literally backed one of the most corrupt corporatists to ever run for office.

            Keep in mind Bernie also knew himself that a good portion of his own base went to Trump; that Trump financed most of his own campaign, so was free to speak as he wished; and that there was no logical argument for backing Clinton, given what he (Bernie) ran on. In fact, it was a betrayal of the highest order.

            The presenter is knee-deep in cognitive dissonance, and has political foresight akin to Bloody Bill Kristol.

        • ellipsis December 11, 2019 at 10:25 am #

          If Obama – like BillyJeff before him – taught us anything, it’s that Dem campaign promises are cheap. They mean nothing, other than as clever lies to their naive followers to get them elected every 8 or 12 years or so. The “tell” in this shell game is to listen to their promises over time, as they ever so cleverly tweak them with obfuscating language to soften their promises and thus provide plausible deniability for the inevitable betrayal that’s revealed the moment they are elected. As political games go, it’s as intellectually pretentious and cute as it is boringly repetitive and derivative; by now revealed as nothing more than the now standard repertoire for an aging and out of touch political jazz ensemble who’s simply run out of catchy riffs to play.

          • JohnAZ December 11, 2019 at 10:54 am #

            Remember the definition of insanity. Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result every time, that never happens.

            Look around you. See any insanity around?

          • elysianfield December 11, 2019 at 12:48 pm #

            “Remember the definition of insanity…”

            John,
            Let me be the first to question the veracity of that oft-offered canard.

            …Sounds closer to “stupidity”, which can be considered the inability to learn.

            ANYONE on this site that can give a cogent answer to define “insanity” will be feted….by the readership…or at least by me….

          • Janos Skorenzy December 11, 2019 at 1:28 pm #

            Tim Leary: Playing the wrong game. Game A when everyone else is playing Game B. You show up ready to play football on a baseball diamond.

        • BackRowHeckler December 11, 2019 at 12:09 pm #

          I’m looking forward Warren dismantling private health insurance companies as she has promised to do — Blue Cross, Aetna, the Hartford, Connecticare etc. … 2,500,000 white collar jobs lost, a trillion in capital wiped out, economic dislocation that has been seldom seen in the US. It’ll be fun to watch the drama unfold.

          Brh

          • Nightowl December 12, 2019 at 5:41 am #

            The best choice is to provide both a public and private option and to try to ensure that the public option offers quality that is largely comparable, with the private options offering more comfort (at a cost, ofc).

            That is what we have here in Germany, and it works pretty well.

      • JohnAZ December 11, 2019 at 10:24 am #

        Ellipsis

        Seriously, to what end. There is no vision in the US of what we should be right now. The greatest enemy of the Dems is their total lack an idea of where the US is going, what are our goals. What should we look like in ten, twenty or fifty years.

        That is what elected Trump. He provided a picture of a US of the future, walls to protect borders, nationalism to protect the common culture, lower taxes to promote private sector wealth development, SALT to allow wealth and power buildup in the flyover regions at the expense of the big cities, an “in your face” foreign policy including “allies”, etc, etc.

        You may totally disagree with his policies but the reason he is winning everywhere is he HAS policies, the rest of the Deep State have nothing to offer.

        One area that I agree with the Left is climate change. The trends are there, things are changing. Are we doing it? Who knows for sure.

        The idea that CO2 is the total culprit is at best a guess. Circumstantial evidence is being used to create a world reaction to the warming effects we are observing. The evidence is not even that conclusive, that is why the Greta supporters cannot seem to get a real foothold anywhere. BTW, she is Time’s Person of the Year.

        Right here is the Left’s biggest problem and why they are losing the battle. They spend all their time bitching about things. Things they discover, things they make up, real things and out and out falsehoods. The public is getting wise to this. We are so inundated with problems to deal with being invented that you cannot keep up. The real corker though is that the Dems have no ideas to offer to solve the problems.

        Think about it. Foreign issues, income inequality, climate warming, truckers going broke, RRs and highways falling into disrepair, cities turning into crime ridden slums, a totally corrupted judicial system, trade imbalances that have destroyed our manufacturing capability, a world wide Islamic movement that is still killing Us, job knowledge mismatches, idiotic university training, kids who have lousy handwriting, cannot do math and cannot write intelligent prose.

        Make a list. Pick and prioritize. Analyze effect. Come to a conclusion the best way to spend the next six months to serve the people.

        I have it. Let’s impeach the President. Guess why the idiots on the Left are going to be obliterated in 2020, in every way.

        • ellipsis December 11, 2019 at 10:37 am #

          I’ll give him that. He definitely has policies, but his execution of those policies is so laughably haphazard and moronic I’m not sure any of it is remotely defensible, even allowing for the fact that he’s being hamstrung at very turn by the army of Dem Lilliputians as well as the Neo-Con holdovers (John Bolton!) that he stupidly brought on board as well. For such a supposed great “Decider in Chief,” his inability to surround himself with honest, intelligent, and competent advisers speaks volumes otherwise.

          I’ve worked staff jobs for guys like this before, and I remember well the WTF! dismay of coming out of a staff meeting with them. Discussions gone completely astray, priorities redefined by the hour or never defined at all, and mass confusion and infighting within the ranks, as an every man for himself mentality takes hold in the midst of chaos. Not a pretty sight at all.

          • JohnAZ December 11, 2019 at 10:51 am #

            Well here is my counter offer.

            1. Maybe his inability to place officials into roles is a consequence of the lack of a real talent pool to choose from. Maybe the apparent lack of practicality in DC is exactly that, no common sense, just politics. Remember that politicians are folks that have failed at their professions.

            Ronald Reagan operated by providing a policy direction to move towards and then getting his folks to work towards his goals. Think the Apprentice. Exactly the same. Maybe the real problem with the “confusion” of the Trump WH is that he has a gang of incompetent thieves working for him that want to cut his throat at every opportunity.

            He sure has fired a bunch of them. What would you prefer, a micromanager like Carter or a hands off manager like Trump?

            Both have their problems.

          • Janos Skorenzy December 11, 2019 at 1:32 pm #

            Trump has no high Vision and to the extent he has any, he picks the wrong people to implement it – “Winners” who hate him and his vision.

            Reagan’s entire cabinet was Council of Foreign Relations. He was not. Utterly fatuous, even more so than Trump in many ways. Things are worse now because the Nation is far worse now.

            That Conservatives worship such senility as Reagan’s shows how little substance they actually have.

          • Nightowl December 12, 2019 at 5:44 am #

            IMO, the efforts to hamstring his hiring process are simply another sign that the establishment was/is scared to death of the man.

        • GreenAlba December 11, 2019 at 11:42 am #

          JohnAZ

          “The idea that CO2 is the total culprit is at best a guess. ”

          Even you know that’s a disingenuous insult to those who have been doing the actual work over the last 40 or 50 years to isolate the factors involved in current climate change, and whose efforts have led to the conclusion that human-induced CO2 is the principal driver.

          Margaret Thatcher, who was not my cup of tea politically, but happened to be a scientist by training, didn’t come out with stuff like that, even if it would have helped her in her mission to have everyone driving everywhere to help destroy everything public.

          Scientists have been sitting ‘guessing’ for 50 years? Right. Even the ExxonMobil ones who came to the same conclusions as all the others, regardless of their paymasters.

          I really don’t have the stomach for another evening of climate nonsense, but you can do better.

          We can all agree it’s a bugger to even start to mitigate, but pretending the problem isn’t what it is is something else.

          • GreenAlba December 11, 2019 at 12:06 pm #

            And the CO2 isn’t just causing climate disruption – it’s killing coral reefs and the fish stocks they support.

            Australia’s got it coming on a whole lot of fronts, but they’re led by fossil-lobby shills.

          • elysianfield December 11, 2019 at 12:53 pm #

            Alba,

            The BBC, this AM, provides this;

            https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-50708544

            …Just another God Damned Variable….

          • Janos Skorenzy December 11, 2019 at 1:33 pm #

            Prince Andrew wants to come back as a virus. You want to come back as a CO2 molecule.

          • RIB December 11, 2019 at 5:01 pm #

            How does you explain the well documented rise of temperatures on mars. alba? And for pity sakes, what set of circumstances led to the drop in temperatures that created the Ice Age, and the rise in surface temperature to cause vast sheets of ice to recede?

          • GreenAlba December 11, 2019 at 8:13 pm #

            EF

            “…Just another God Damned Variable….”

            Methane has always been a variable. Did you notice anywhere in the article where it was suggested that this changed the consensus? No, me neither.

          • GreenAlba December 11, 2019 at 8:14 pm #

            RIB, sorry but you’re not even ready for the remedial class.

          • GreenAlba December 12, 2019 at 6:35 am #

            https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/12/11/australias-big-smoke/

            To whom it may concern…

          • elysianfield December 12, 2019 at 4:38 pm #

            “Methane has always been a variable. Did you notice anywhere in the article where it was suggested that this changed the consensus?”

            Alba,
            Of course methane is a variable. Methane, released in unquantifiable amounts in what might be considered a single event is just another.

            Changed the consensus? which one? That climate change is, by far, and above all, a human caused event?

            The lack of consensus change might, in itself, be of concern.

          • elysianfield December 12, 2019 at 4:45 pm #

            “To whom it may concern…”

            Alba,
            Again…ANOTHER unquantifiable variable that might affect our climate. And the fishes. And the corals.

            Somehow.

            Someway.

            Or another.

          • GreenAlba December 12, 2019 at 8:21 pm #

            “The lack of consensus change might, in itself, be of concern.”

            Only if the consensus were wrong, EF. You have yet to provide any evidence of that.

            I don’t understand your last post.

          • elysianfield December 12, 2019 at 11:05 pm #

            Massive fires contribute unknown and unquantifiable variables. Climate may be effected.

            Massive fires may be, on the short term, considered as symptoms, rather than causes of climate. The end results of the massive fires, may however, drive climate into a different direction…millions of tons of particulate airborne, scourging the Earth of vegetation, destroying uncounted animals and insects.

            Who knows exactly?

            …that is my point…. I do not need to provide alternative models, nor provide a solution. I just need to know the answers are way above my pay grade, and further, that the issue of climate change has been politicized, not to mention weaponized. It has become less a science, and more a religion.

            …Hail Greta, sour of face, the left is with thee….

      • Majella December 11, 2019 at 3:40 pm #

        You started out okay-ish but then, having smeared his record, couldn’t resist going to the ‘idiot’ level with:

        “It’s entirely possible that he’s a paid agent provocateur, whose real job is to stir up the pseudo left so that they can be easily identified for political purposes (if not something more nefarious)”.

        Such statements negate any credibility you might wish to claim.

        • K-Dog December 11, 2019 at 11:44 pm #

          cointelpro Majella. I am sure you have heard of it. The new version pays a lot of bills. Through the years keeping track of Dogs who Bark has paid many a mortgage. In our age of big data none of that is going to change. Just the way it is done will change. But Robert Reich is a University Professor. A scholar, the real deal. He teaches and has nothing to do with Spy vs Spy. He is a good intelligent man. With a few flaws. Like the rest of us. Robert would be good to listen to. I’d put him in charge of restoring the middle class. Give him 90 days I would.

          The little guy just needs some more ass kicking authority. About Russia he drank deep the Democratic Party Kool-Aid. Nobody is perfect> But loyalty and brains are not a bad combination.

          • Majella December 12, 2019 at 4:01 am #

            Exactly…Robert Reich has an educated intelligence and is exquisitely articulate. Hence, he can get no traction with the RWNJs hereabouts – it’s just so outside their experience now, after the last 3 years of Trump-gaslighting.

            No-ones perfect, for sure, but RR is the real deal, despite any sins of credulity regarding what is now disparagingly referred to as “Russiagate”.

            The facts of Russian interference are indisputable. What has been discredited is the idea that Himself’s campaign COLLUDED in it. It tried to, but Himself’s two-bit half-arsed players lacked the necessary competence to pull it off, is all.

            Sure, Himself may be entitled to feel aggrieved about the ‘pee-tape’ allegation, but it was easy to believe wasn’t it?

          • Nightowl December 12, 2019 at 5:51 am #

            “They didn’t collude with the Russians because they were too incompetent to collude with the Russians.”

            You’ve been utterly broken.

    • JohnAZ December 11, 2019 at 9:50 am #

      Arguing with you is useless.

      You would have looked at Jesus Christ as only looking out for himself for holding all those rallies with the people, like the Sermon on the Mount.

      The CFN world gets it. You do not like Trump.

      • Majella December 11, 2019 at 3:46 pm #

        Your ‘Jesus’ reference is interesting.

        I don’t recall the Sermon on the Mount ‘rally’ going into ranting lunacy about how great he was or how everyone was out to get him.

        John Prine’s song “Jesus was a Capricorn” lyrics come to mind:

        “Jesus was a Capricorn
        He ate organic food…
        He believed in love & peace
        And never wore no shoes…
        Long hair, beard & sandals
        And a funky bunch of friends
        Reckon they’ll just nail him up
        If he comes down again”

        The ‘they’ in there sounds more like the RWNJ cohort to me.

        • RIB December 11, 2019 at 5:02 pm #

          Christ was actually born in September

          • Majella December 11, 2019 at 9:00 pm #

            Oh. Okay. That makes ALL the difference… for sure!

          • K-Dog December 11, 2019 at 11:23 pm #

            Try to remember the kind of September
            When life was slow and oh so mellow
            Try to remember the kind of September
            When grass was green and grain so yellow….

          • sunburstsoldier December 12, 2019 at 3:56 pm #

            No. August…

        • GreenAlba December 11, 2019 at 8:08 pm #

          That’s Kris Kristofferson. 🙂

          • Majella December 11, 2019 at 8:57 pm #

            Yep. Kristofferson had a hit with it, but HE attributes (“owed”) it to John Prine, another word-master.

          • Majella December 11, 2019 at 8:58 pm #

            https://www.google.com/search?q=jesus+was+a+capricron&oq=jesus+was+a+capricron&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l7.5982j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

          • GreenAlba December 12, 2019 at 6:11 am #

            I stand corrected, Majella. It’s not in my John Prine ‘Greatest Hits’ collection, but I had the KK Jesus was a Capricorn LP (and CD)!

            I remember KK saying Prine was so good ‘we may have to break his thumbs’.

      • K-Dog December 11, 2019 at 11:46 pm #

        It is said that the bread and fish were very good.

        • GreenAlba December 12, 2019 at 8:23 pm #

          I heard it was worth bringing a doggie bag. 🙂

  69. Pucker December 11, 2019 at 7:23 am #

    “Fed Pumps $70.2 Billion in Short Term Liquidity into the Markets”

    Have you ever done a “Pump Fake” in football? What’s the difference between a “Pump Fake”, and a “Fake Pump”? A “Pump Fake” involves some kind of fraud occurring after Sex, whereas as a “Fake Pump” entails pre-sex a priori fraud?

    I guess that it feels good getting “Pumped by the Fed”?

    Wilma Flintstone was getting pumped by Fred. When Fred ejaculated he’d shout: “Yabba Dabba Do!”

    Support this blog on PatreonSupport this blog on Substack
    Support this blog via Patreon or Substack
    • JohnAZ December 11, 2019 at 10:36 am #

      As long as the folks have confidence that a piece of paper has a value that is relatively constant with time, printing more of them adds “wealth” to a society. The idea that the paper has to be backed by something, gold, oil, hours of labor is just as much of a construct. We are cruising toward where a dollar is a couple of bytes in a computer.

      As long as everyone believes that paper has value, things are humming. The more bills produced the less effect old debt has.

      A good exercise is to explain what breaks down the faith and causes hyper inflation and Great Depressions. Who is changing the attitude of the public to create emergencies? Even God put in an economic rule that all debts are cancelled every seven years. Maybe it is people’s attitudes and not manipulations that control markets.

    • SoftStarLight December 11, 2019 at 11:20 am #

      LOL you are so silly sometimes.

  70. venuspluto67 December 11, 2019 at 7:52 am #

    My big takeaway from the impeachment dramas of the past few years is that establishment Democrats are just as brainwashable and likely to say 2+2=5 at the prompting of their authorities as Faux-Newzer right-wing Republicans. This, naturally, makes me despair profoundly for the future of this country and its society.

  71. BackRowHeckler December 11, 2019 at 9:34 am #

    PBS is playing this impeachment hoax as a solemn and historic occasion, giving it wall to wall coverage, speaking in hushed tones using dramatic flourishes, as if to convey the importance of this moment in history. Aha hahahahaha aha hahaha!!!

    Brh

    • JohnAZ December 11, 2019 at 10:39 am #

      BRH

      Give the Left a break. Making up BS is the only things they have left to get up in the morning for.

      2020 is going to take away what is left of their games.
      Aha hahahaha!!!

    • SoftStarLight December 11, 2019 at 11:18 am #

      They have been so amped up for this impeachment for years. They simply cannot help themselves. This is how much they hate everyday Americans and historical America. This is a very solemn and historic occasion for them because they see us transitioning into a Hunger Games type dystopian society. The type of society where their ideologues will have absolute authority and power and the masses have no representation, voice, or power. They feel like they are within reach of their dreams. It’s funny, but they are Deadly Serious. So serious that power may have to be wrested from their cold, dead hands. It’s a very sad time for America. The Communists (today’s Progressives) actually did win big in the 50’s and 60’s but most of America never received the memo.

      • EvelynV December 11, 2019 at 11:49 am #

        What a bunch of drivel.

        It’s a sad time in America all right, because we have a buffoon in the WH.

        • benr December 11, 2019 at 1:45 pm #

          And the senate, house, supreme court, state politics, local politics and most of all electorate.
          Hell the local county dog catcher is probably a buffoon.
          After all we have elected all these idiots into positions of power so who are the real buffoons?

      • BackRowHeckler December 11, 2019 at 12:01 pm #

        “Hunger Games type Dystopian Society”

        Except for top lefty billionaires who I suspect are behind the twin Climate Change and impeachment hoaxes … something tells me no matter how much chaos is stirred up by this latest coup attempt, and ‘Climate Mandates’ that make gasoline, No 2 heating oil, electric power and natgas unaffordable to ordinary citizen, leaving us stranded and cold, they and a few of their favored groups like academics and Antifa shock troops, will still be living large, building oceanfront mansions and flying around the world to attend quarterly ‘Climate Change’ conferences, dining on the best Kobe steaks and drinking the finest French wines (why not, after all, they’re saving the planet) while they implore the rest of us to eat insects and worms.

        Brh

      • Majella December 11, 2019 at 3:29 pm #

        “…they see us transitioning into a Hunger Games type dystopian society. The type of society where their ideologues will have absolute authority and power and the masses have no representation, voice, or power.”

        No, SSL – it’s YOU who is seeing this potential future, and it is a delusion.

      • K-Dog December 11, 2019 at 11:58 pm #

        Transitioning into a Hunger Games type dystopian society. The type of society where their ideologues will have absolute authority and power.

        You got the first part right but the second part is non sequitur. I think if you made me a burger I would have to check to make sure you gave me everything you charged for. I think you would stiff me. Where do you get your –ist, –isms, and –ives. A list from old magazines and defunct websites? I think you just wanted to tickle your keyboard and made shit up.

        ‘wrested from their cold, dead hands’. <– I met him once. That's right. Holy Moses.

  72. SoftStarLight December 11, 2019 at 11:13 am #

    John, you mention that you agree with the Left on Climate Change though you have no idea if we are causing the climate to change or what trajectory such an influence on the climate would create so I must ask you. What exactly do you propose to do with such little factual or “untainted” information? I am not suggesting anything one way or another. In fact, I think that a smart society would be prepared as best as possible for any number of eventualities. Weather and Climate or everchanging and uncertain. On the other hand we do know a great detail about what the sprawl of the built environment, pollution, and out of control resource consumption are doing to the environment and ecological systems. It seems like if we were smart we would tackle the lowest hanging fruit and work our way up the tree so to speak. And again, I personally think we should be preparing for warming, cooling, desertification, increased precipitation, higher and lower sea levels, etc. It seems like an intelligent species that wishes to survive anything that Nature or the Universe throws its way would naturally do such things.

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

      Americans don’t care about species survival. Blind obedience to capitalism and the American myth that says everyone can make it if they try requires your compliance. Clean up your act and stop with this nonsense.

      Preparing for warming, cooling, desertification, increased precipitation, higher and lower sea levels is too much. An overload of activity. It can’t be maintained. People used to go to tent revivals and get all excited. They would feel the lord tremble and weep with joy. Then they would go home and do and extra sin to cancel out the piety. The energy can’t be maintained. We know you are not here at the behest of any political influencing machine but I must point out that:

      no idea if we are causing the climate to change or what trajectory such an influence on the climate would create so…

      A typical statement from a climate change denier confusing issues. Or a paid sock puppet doing the behest of the Department of Homeland Security. We of course know that can’t be true about you, so please think about what you put out. You might support the existing order and preventing needed change with your random musings.

      • BackRowHeckler December 11, 2019 at 12:16 pm #

        “Americans don’t care about species survival”.

        K-Dog, do Pakistanis, S Asian Indians, Chinese or Nigerians (half the world’s population) care about ‘species survival?

        “Blind obedience to capitalism”

        Let us examine the environmental record of socialism and communism, beginning with the Russian revolution in 1917, to Venezuela in 2019.

        Brh

        • GreenAlba December 11, 2019 at 12:44 pm #

          I’m still waiting for whataboutery to solve anything at all. Or even make a start.

          Maybe it’ll be tonight…

          • BackRowHeckler December 11, 2019 at 1:37 pm #

            Purportedly, climate change is being caused by westerners burning oil, coal and natgas to heat our houses, power our cars, produce electricity and run industry.

            GA, we’ve gone round and round on this. Here and now, tell me how we will power up industrial civilization without burning fossil fuels? Simple question.

            Brh

          • K-Dog December 11, 2019 at 2:09 pm #

            Triple insulate homes and turn the heat down? Use passive solar. Ditch the car in favor of the footmobile. Rebuild cities so they are walk-able. Embrace a minimalist stoic philosophy.

            Determine that what we do and how we live makes a difference and commit to less destructive ways of life. Limit family size to two kids. Provide a social safety net so the wolf is not always at the fucking door and people might have noble thoughts making the above possible. Around and around you go.

            The radio and the telephone,
            And the movies that we know
            May just be passing fancies
            And in time may go

            But, oh my dear
            Our love is here to stay

          • GreenAlba December 11, 2019 at 3:55 pm #

            brh

            “Here and now, tell me how we will power up industrial civilization without burning fossil fuels? ”

            It’s not about powering up, it’s about powering down.

            https://www.amazon.co.uk/Powerdown-Options-Actions-Post-carbon-Society/dp/1905570104/ref=sr_1_9?keywords=richard+heinberg&qid=1576097357&sr=8-9

            https://www.amazon.co.uk/Post-Carbon-Reader-Managing-Sustainability/dp/0970950063/ref=sr_1_4?keywords=richard+heinberg&qid=1576097394&sr=8-4

      • Janos Skorenzy December 11, 2019 at 1:42 pm #

        You have to take people as they are. Just Americans? No, this is the human species by and large. Thus Democracy? Are you fucking crazy? Democracy is contraindicated. The prescription is for a benevolent Elitism – unlike the Evil one that is actually hiding behind dumboxcracy and moving the strings.

        • K-Dog December 11, 2019 at 2:19 pm #

          Everybody else does it why should not I. One of the eternal questions that actually has an answer. Ponder and cogitate over it. Mash it up in your brain. A nodded out doze when your guard is down can bring the answer. A simple and obvious truth revealed. The answer will poke itself through your hubris and defenses. Then the question will bore you all the rest of your days.

          • Janos Skorenzy December 11, 2019 at 6:37 pm #

            Thus you avoid the point – by pondering, something the masses will never do.

            I’m right. It’s that simple. Democracy is wrong and you are wrong in supporting it and denying the nature of Homo Sapiens as we actually find him.

          • K-Dog December 11, 2019 at 11:20 pm #

            Would you consider a democracy of the competent?

          • Janos Skorenzy December 12, 2019 at 12:35 am #

            Well of course. That’s what we were supposed to have had. But the Founders made it too loose and dependent on property as was their wont. We have to modernize and tighten it up. Military service boyo, as well as financial solvency and knowledge of our System, Issues, and Current events. That means high IQ, laddy.

            You have nothing to worry about there, but you will find yourself amongst a New Elite, a White Aristocracy of the Spirit (merit in the common parlance). Will you be comfortable? Or desire to return to fleshpots of Starbucks, Thai Restaurants, and big haired and thighed cafe au late temptresses?

        • JohnAZ December 11, 2019 at 2:58 pm #

          You are right. All of Kdogs suggestions will take an extreme dictatorship to force people to make the changes needed.

          BTW, that is why AOC is currently ridiculed. The American Constitution will not survive the reaction to global climate change.

          • K-Dog December 11, 2019 at 11:14 pm #

            That is one way to look at it. The changes are daunting. But we are like ants walking across a picnic table. Half the way across. No matter which way we look it all looks the same. Try and remember a time before Trump. Already it gets hard.

            Once change gets rolling it may force an awareness that a boot heeled dictator would envy.

            Or not.

    • GreenAlba December 11, 2019 at 11:57 am #

      “What exactly do you propose to do with such little factual or “untainted” information? ”

      What exactly do you propose to do with your interpretation that there is [so] little factual or ‘untainted’ information’?

      TFTFY

      It’s a common denier ruse to take a stated opinion (that considers itself more worthy than the findings of the world’s climate scientists) and try to build on it as if it were a fact.

      Standing on the shoulders of giants it ain’t.

      • GreenAlba December 11, 2019 at 11:58 am #

        Bold should stop at ‘there is’. Sorry.

    • sunburstsoldier December 11, 2019 at 12:20 pm #

      Excellent point SSL. We should practice an optimal or ideal (and thus sustainable) way of life as an end in itself and not simply because nature forces our hand…

      • sunburstsoldier December 11, 2019 at 12:31 pm #

        The issue is not whether or not human beings are causing climate change but whether or not we are living optimally (sustainably). If we were living optimally there would be no reason for having a climate change debate in the first place…

        • GreenAlba December 11, 2019 at 12:42 pm #

          How would you work out what was optimal and sustainable without scientific evidence on how your living was affecting the climate? And the coral reefs? And the future for marine vertebrates in a more acidic ocean?

          • sunburstsoldier December 11, 2019 at 1:24 pm #

            Do we really need such evidence to know what would be optimal or sustainable? For instance garden farming vs industrial farming, high density magnetic centers vs sprawl. Basically you just turn the clock back before the Industrial Revolution…

          • Janos Skorenzy December 11, 2019 at 1:48 pm #

            The situation is so serious that she wants to let India, China, and the Third World continue to expand their Industrial base for decades. Only the First World needs to stop NOW.

            There is something utterly fishy about all of this.

            Greta has become Time’s Man of the Year. All over the world girls are practicing in the mirror trying to imitate her sneers and scowls so they can teach it them to older women.

          • GreenAlba December 11, 2019 at 2:33 pm #

            Janos

            (1) I never mentioned Greta. You did.

            (2) I do not limit my aspirations/wishes/whatever you like to call them (remember I haven’t a smidgeon of power or influence) to the ‘First World’. Unfortunately, though, the First World got the benefit of a couple of centuries of fossil burning before the Third World started to get serious, which is why they were able to negotiate some marginal relief before following the same agreed protocols as the First World. You’d have demanded the same, as you very well know. Not the the First World is doing much either. The UK has done a bit, but nobody anywhere is being honest about what it would take to genuinely mitigate the situation.

            (3) Why do you refer to me in the third person when I’m here? It’s rude.

            sunburst

            If you’re advocating feeding the world with garden farming, at this stage of overpopulation and depleted soils, then you’ll need some evidence of how many of the current 7 billion can be sustained that way. And maybe some guidelines on how to tell the losers they’re not going to be included.

            I live in a high-density ‘magnetic’ centre, so yes, I agree that’s more efficient. My high-density centre has also done it quite elegantly, for which you can thank the Georgians and the Victorians. But it still needs food from outside.

            And it’s not just urban sprawl that’s high-energy, it’s individual farms too. Just ask brh, who keeps pointing out how much oil country folks need to keep warm.

            Evidence remains useful. It gives you an idea of what you need to do, quantitatively speaking.

          • K-Dog December 11, 2019 at 2:35 pm #

            I agree with you sunburst but it only works when everyone is on the same page. I can get into being stoic and living a meaningful life centered around minimalist values as I am sure you can. But in the capitalist wasteland that is America that choice is not allowed. If we had that choice we would have single payer health care. We would be free to live with less but America is the bitch of capitalism and now we are all its’ slaves.

            Money makes the rules. One of the rules is get off your ass and get some or have a friendly mailbox that gives it to you. Don’t think about anything else and the days of self-expression are over. People stopped making the rules a long time ago. Now it is clean up your Linked-In profile and be as phony as the most stupid self-serving jerk in the room. Get a gig or die. And the universe does not give two fucks if you do or don’t.

          • K-Dog December 11, 2019 at 2:43 pm #

            Now it is clean up your Linked-In profile and be as phony as the most stupid self-serving jerk in the room. Get a gig or die. And the universe does not give two fucks if you do or don’t.

            With that said I leave to work on mine.

          • sunburstsoldier December 11, 2019 at 3:20 pm #

            Why do we have to start with feeding the whole world Alba? Why don’t we develop a functional model at the local (village) level that can be duplicated worldwide when people are ready for it? That itself is a tremendous challenge and might possibly entail a transformation in human consciousness…

          • GreenAlba December 11, 2019 at 3:33 pm #

            Village level already exists in poorer countries. But the excess population has gone to the towns, so if they all came back half of them would starve.

            In advanced nations, there are already small pockets where people live sustainably (sort of), but if you’re talking about a large-scale collapse, they’d just be swamped. Maybe not so much over your way, as it’s a vast country, where you can still ‘hide’, but here there aren’t many places you couldn’t walk to, given time and enough motivation.

            There will be lots of ‘solutions’ at the micro level, but it’s a great bit macro problem. Events will take over. I’m kind of glad I don’t know what they’ll be and when they’ll happen – I couldn’t look at my grandson, and keep hoping things won’t get horrendous while he’s still a tiny, vulnerable child. Just as everyone else does – those who are capable of thinking beyond Christmas parties anyway.

      • sprawlcapital December 11, 2019 at 1:04 pm #

        Wall Street and their PR firm, the Mainstream Media, want us to live for endless growth, which is the opposite of optimal.

        • sprawlcapital December 11, 2019 at 1:12 pm #

          To be fair, the USSR lived for economic growth without end as well. Same with China under communism.

        • sunburstsoldier December 11, 2019 at 1:19 pm #

          True.

        • sunburstsoldier December 11, 2019 at 1:54 pm #

          Anyway who gives a damn about Wall Street and the Mainstream Media. They don’t tell me how to live my life and they can’t stop me from striving to do the right thing.

        • GreenAlba December 11, 2019 at 2:40 pm #

          “Wall Street and their PR firm, the Mainstream Media, want us to live for endless growth, which is the opposite of optimal.”

          Ordinary folks are just as hypocritical. They want the shops not to be full of unnecessary crap but they want the people in the crap shops to still have jobs. And they moan when the crap shops close down and leave people redundant.

          It’s the same with offshoring. Everybody wants jobs to stay in the US, but nobody wants to pay five or ten thousand dollars extra for their car. Not that I’ve noticed anyway.

      • JohnAZ December 11, 2019 at 2:59 pm #

        And who will make the decision what that is?

    • JohnAZ December 11, 2019 at 2:52 pm #

      If we could overcome the mutual hatred and distrust between ethnic groups long enough to show some intelligence it would made a huge difference. Assuming something is going to happen, a good assumption, our ability to survive depends on our adaptability. The strongest will survive.

      We are all going to die in 12 years according to AOC and her cohorts. We do not have time to pick the lowest hanging fruit. We have to spend trillions of dollars we do not have doing everything at once

      Yes, ludicrous. A big decision is should we spend our wisdom and resources into trying to prevent something that is already here, or put resources in moving people and resources where things are still inhabitable.

      I sure as hell do not have this answer. And even if people had the answer, we as a species are not spiritually good enough to get the job done. So more than likely the survivors of The Long Emergency will write the future stories of mankind.

      • GreenAlba December 11, 2019 at 3:16 pm #

        Not sure what they’ll be writing it on, JohnAZ. It might be back to stories round the campfire.

        Talking of which I’ll be having farewell drinks next week with the last six of my ex-colleagues (there were 70 of us in 1998) to mark the closing of the Edinburgh office (by our US masters) and with it the end of 150 years of medical publishing in Edinburgh, never to return. The Long Emergency started a while ago.

        • Majella December 11, 2019 at 3:53 pm #

          GA

          Tha’s sad news…you’ve been offshored & AI’d to the point of extinction. What a loss.

          On a personal note, do you have work in your near future?

          • GreenAlba December 11, 2019 at 4:21 pm #

            It is very sad, Majella. I’ve never known a workplace that’s engendered so many decades-long friendships. Lots of us will still meet up and those who are scattered are contactable via various grapevines and a dedicated Facebook page!

            But yes, it was offshoring and the internet ‘wot dun it’. Mostly the internet.

            When I took voluntary redundancy five years ago and a bunch of my colleagues got the heave-ho, the Americans wanted the money for ‘e-product’, and I gather this time they’ve used the spare change to buy a 3-D anatomical animations outfit.

            Good luck making any money from that. People expect everything for nothing and we can work for two years on a lovely new edition of something and students will buy an old edition for £3.95 from the internet. Or pirated. Not that you can blame them.

            Maybe one day when there’s no internet, people will be fighting over the old books! Gray’s Anatomy is ‘ours’ – they must be working on the 42nd edition – somewhere…

            For myself, I’m not that bothered (thanks for asking). I’ve done five years of freelance since I left but I wasn’t doing that much. If someone contacts me from one of the offices down south once the dust settles, I’ll see, but I’ll manage fine if not.

          • elysianfield December 11, 2019 at 6:17 pm #

            ” Gray’s Anatomy is ‘ours’ – they must be working on the 42nd edition – somewhere…”

            Alba,
            And You have the dirty parts bookmarked? My copy does.

          • GreenAlba December 11, 2019 at 7:25 pm #

            I don’t have a copy, EF.

            Medical publishers and medical illustrators are quite grown up about these things. We’ve seen it all. With knobs on. And lesions.

          • GreenAlba December 11, 2019 at 7:25 pm #

            And lesions on knobs. 🙂

          • Majella December 11, 2019 at 9:13 pm #

            The Brits seem to have a peculiar interest in such things (lesions on knobs, I mean…even as far as making prime time TV out of people’s afflictions.

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

          • GreenAlba December 12, 2019 at 5:41 am #

            Now, that programme is gross, Majella! Not one I watch. It’s a bit different from a clinical photo on a page (and even some of those you had to look at between your fingers if they opened up at high resolution on your screen without adequate mental preparation. 🙂

            I couldn’t work in a GUM clinic…

            But on the whole it takes men to get worked up about random body parts in an anatomy textbook! Gray’s isn’t pathology, it’s just normal anatomy. Some of it from cadavers.

            We once had Damien Hirst contact an editor I worked with to ask for permission to use a photo of a cadaver for one of his artworks and he was told to f*ck off (I paraphrase) and have some respect.

  73. toktomi December 11, 2019 at 12:06 pm #

    Back on Earth, for example…

    “Shedding light on dark matter: Scientists claim new evidence of ‘5th force’ of physics”

    [https://www.rt.com/news/475585-fifth-force-physics-particle-x17/]

    ~toktomi~

    • ellipsis December 11, 2019 at 3:15 pm #

      I’d say this was just more infantile navel gazing, but even that would be a quantum leap.

  74. sunburstsoldier December 11, 2019 at 1:09 pm #

    From the perspective of an optimal or sustainable way of life, long as we are still plugged into the current dysfunctional, inefficient grid we are part of the problem. Yet to disconnect from the grid would demand a very radical change in lifestyle. Also, since almost all of our knowledge of what is going on in the world comes through the grid we would be disconnecting from the human community itself. Thus it is all but impossible to live optimally (off the grid) and remain a bona fide member of Western Society.

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    • BackRowHeckler December 11, 2019 at 1:41 pm #

      Unplug from the grid?

      Live in darkness? No heat? A Hobbsian world, bare sustenance survival, all against all?

      Brh

      • sunburstsoldier December 11, 2019 at 1:50 pm #

        Exactly. That’s the point. It cannot be realistically done. Or only with great ‘hardship’…IF we are to live optimally and sustainably, Bhr, we will have to learn to do it at the village or town level…

        • BackRowHeckler December 11, 2019 at 2:07 pm #

          Sounds good to me.

          If I’m anything, I’m a small town local yokel.

          Ask Ozone, he’ll tell ya …

          Brh

          • GreenAlba December 11, 2019 at 2:49 pm #

            Where are you going to get your heating oil from in this set-up, brh?

      • capt spaulding December 11, 2019 at 2:13 pm #

        If we were forced to live the way people did in, say 1900, we would be unable to, for the most part. People today have lost most of the skills and knowledge that was available to people living in that time. Along with that, the infrastructure that was available to people living back then is no longer around. For example, where would you go to purchase wicks for your kerosene lamp? Do you have a wood burning stove? How about a chimney that will support a wood fired stove?

        There would be so many obstacles they would be impossible for most of today’s people to overcome, at least quickly enough to keep from starving or freezing to death. People evolve to live within the technology and knowledge available to them at any given time. Another example: when the Japanese invaded China, they surrounded the city of Shanghai and cut off the water and electricity and food. Within a few weeks, people started dying like flies. Curiously, out in the country, where people lived as they always had,ie; primitively, and in mud huts, nothing changed and life pretty much went on as usual. Technology is wonderful if you can sustain it. But if you can’t, you become vulnerable. In other words, if you ain’t already living that way, you are probably gonna wind up in trouble.

        • capt spaulding December 11, 2019 at 2:16 pm #

          The impact would probably be less severe in a third world country, where they already live at a bare subsistence level, although some would surely die there as well.

          • GreenAlba December 11, 2019 at 2:47 pm #

            That’s very true. The poor are the most resilient. They’ve been recycling since before the rest of us had heard of the word.

            A week without plumbing will eliminate most of us. I share a back garden with 7 other households and there isn’t even enough soil depth to dig a composting toilet. I guess it will all go in the canal down the road, but we sure won’t be drinking from it.

          • BackRowHeckler December 11, 2019 at 3:10 pm #

            Now we’re really getting down to what this blog is all about, IMHO.

            Truthfully, personally, I’m not that much in disagreement with GA and KDogs suggestions on how to minimalize our ‘carbon footprint’; walk not drive when possible, keep the thermostat low, insulated the house, endeavor to live simply (reading, gardening, fishing) and locally … all those things I try to do as a good philosophy to live by.

            Brh

          • GreenAlba December 11, 2019 at 3:21 pm #

            Agreement is good. 🙂

          • Nightowl December 12, 2019 at 7:51 am #

            There are options that don’t require digging. Nearly every other Schrebergarten here has one that consists of nothing more than an oversized bucket in which you just layer dirt/mulch. Works fine.

            IMO, if the shit hits the fan, the Germans will be the only ones left standing.

          • GreenAlba December 12, 2019 at 2:26 pm #

            Allotments have composting toilets here too. Did you think it was a uniquely German bit of engineering or something?

            There’s generally a lot more mulch available in an allotment than in an Edinburgh drying green. Not sure ours could accommodate 16 human digestive systems, but we’ll give it a go and then start raiding the posh people’s gardens after they’ve cut the grass.

          • Nightowl December 13, 2019 at 3:30 am #

            No, I pointed out that you don’t need to dig a composting toilet.

        • JohnAZ December 11, 2019 at 3:03 pm #

          Your wood fired stove is a good example.

          My question back is even if you could get a wood fired stove to work, how long will the wood last with 7 billion people hitting the forests. Ask the ghosts of Easter Island.

          • capt spaulding December 11, 2019 at 8:11 pm #

            That’s the ironic thing, JAZ. One of the things that technology also made possible was the ability to sustain a much larger population. Doubly ironic, is the fact that population demands are what drive global emissions, which lead to eventual climate change.

        • sunburstsoldier December 11, 2019 at 3:10 pm #

          Perhaps someone still has a few Whole Earth Catalogs lying around. If the will is there and if people are in sufficient agreement and accord such obstacles can be surmounted. Perhaps that’s what life is really about; overcoming obstacles and addressing challenges. This is after all how we learn to be genuinely creative, and those who are creative are more fully alive than those who are not.

          • BackRowHeckler December 11, 2019 at 5:21 pm #

            SbS

            Mother Earth News promotes the same zeitgeist as Stuart Brand’s Whole Earth Catalogs did. It’s still around, subscription is only about $10 per year. I’ve gotten a lot of good practical tips from Mother Earth News. I know, now I sound like Snacks promoting the New York Times.

            Brh

          • sunburstsoldier December 11, 2019 at 6:16 pm #

            I have a handful of yellowed volumes of Mother Earth News from the early seventies. About this time a lot of the communal experiments had either failed or were in the process of doing so. In one of the volumes there is a heartfelt testimony of why one such commune failed (I don’t remember its name). The woman who wrote it (one of the original ‘flower children’ I assume) said it was because being cooped up all winter in close confinement made people antsy and bored. Eventually they began to argue over petty things to the point where they didn’t like each other anymore. Sound familiar?

          • elysianfield December 11, 2019 at 6:30 pm #

            ” Eventually they began to argue over petty things to the point where they didn’t like each other anymore. ”

            SBS,
            Called Cabin Fever,
            Or the “Shining” Syndrome, Yo…
            Here’s Johnny! Get Out!

        • Majella December 11, 2019 at 3:59 pm #

          These days, the technology that is making modern life so easy & ‘wonderful’ has also given us a huge level of genuine fragility.

          E.G. if due to some disaster or malicious action, the internet went down with no apparent hope of resurrection, we’d be f**ked.

          • sunburstsoldier December 11, 2019 at 6:24 pm #

            I guess subliminal anxiety is the cost we pay for comfort and convenience…

          • Majella December 11, 2019 at 9:14 pm #

            Good point, SBS.

          • GreenAlba December 12, 2019 at 9:51 am #

            “I guess subliminal anxiety is the cost we pay for comfort and convenience…”

            You get it in the health service too – the ‘worried well’.

      • ellipsis December 11, 2019 at 3:21 pm #

        The Hobbesian world has long since arrived, regardless of one’s “grid status.” Disconnecting would be the first small step – albeit probably futile in the end – of escaping it; but the world as currently configured could in no way provide for 7B+ people disconnected from the grid, nor would the current authorities even possibly allow it. The capitalist growth paradigm could not withstand such a thing.

        • capt spaulding December 11, 2019 at 8:24 pm #

          That’s right ellipsis, technology made it possible to overpopulate, and it requires technology to sustain it. It’s a long way to fall. Incidentally BRH in his post above said something about this conversation being what this blog used to be about, and I agree wholeheartedly with him. The political direction this blog has taken has cheapened the quality of the conversations that take place here. How I long for the discussions of cheap oil and related subjects which provided knowledge to the people here. As far as I’m concerned, you can shitcan the politics any time you want, and lose about half the posters here, and it wouldn’t break my heart.

  75. malthuss December 11, 2019 at 3:11 pm #

    ELYSIAN,

    “No, you would call them…”under arrest”.

    An old joke, poorly told….Times have changed, E.
    they are kings.

  76. beantownbill. December 11, 2019 at 3:38 pm #

    With 7.7 billion people, the world needs modern technology to survive. Technology allows the 7.7 billion to survive. Take it away, and a large percentage of the human race perishes. JHK must realize this because his world made by hand can only accommodate a much lower population.

    People don’t go quietly into the long night, they claw and scratch trying to survive. You think the have-nots would leave a low-tech America alone? Improper use of technology has brought us to this state. Only the proper use of technology can get us out of this mess.

  77. beantownbill. December 11, 2019 at 3:54 pm #

    Ultimately, it doesn’t matter whether the Democrats or the Republicans win out next year. The political issues are the result of our love of power and our greed. Both parties suffer from these maladies; the only difference is which path we take to go on our road to Hell. You notice that while people abide, all governments eventually succumb? Democracies, republics, socialism, fascism, and empires all fail. Why is that? Yet humans keep on keeping on.

    • malthuss December 11, 2019 at 4:29 pm #

      DJIA at all time high.

      FED pumps repo market, its all too much for me.

      • BackRowHeckler December 11, 2019 at 5:24 pm #

        Malth, WSJ has run a few articles on the repo market in the past week or so. No sense of alarm or foreboding in the articles.

        • malthuss December 11, 2019 at 11:47 pm #

          what do you think?

          • BackRowHeckler December 12, 2019 at 7:03 am #

            I don’t know enough about it to comment. The sums of $$$ are vast. Where does it come from, where does it go?

  78. malthuss December 11, 2019 at 4:30 pm #

    They’ve been recycling since before the rest of us had heard of the word.

    I thought pre 1950, everyone recycled.

    • GreenAlba December 12, 2019 at 5:29 am #

      It wasn’t called recycling. People just automatically kept bits of string, old tools, bottles and jars, buttons off old cardigans and coats, and everything else you might think of, in case they might be useful. If something’s part of your unconscious habits you don’t necessarily need to give it a name. And people bought less crap anyway. People used to unravel old jumpers and wind the wool into skeins, then steam it over the kettle to straighten out the kinks, then re-use it.

      Even in the 60s, at school, I remember a friend of mine making a pair of trousers and a trendy maxi-coat out of a pair of old velvet curtains. It was like The Sound of Music, except that they were fashionable and not covered in flowers.

  79. Pucker December 11, 2019 at 4:48 pm #

    “Fed Pumps $70.2 Billion in Short Term Liquidity into the Markets”

    Jealous boyfriend gets angry when he hears that his loose girlfriend is getting pumped full of short term liquidity by Fred.

    Pump that sucker! Pump it good, Freddy!

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    • RIB December 11, 2019 at 5:08 pm #

      What this blog needs is a block button.

    • Pucker December 11, 2019 at 5:47 pm #

      Tell the black teenage kid after raking the leaves and cleaning out the gutters and taking the Ho’s around back to the tool shed, to pick up a copy of the “Wall Street Journal”.

      Ask him what he thinks about the Fed pumping the markets full of short term liquidity?

      • Pucker December 11, 2019 at 6:02 pm #

        Ask Joe Biden about his son Hunter Biden in Ukraine and China.

        Challenge Joe Biden to do some push ups and to a foot race….

  80. Pucker December 11, 2019 at 5:39 pm #

    I don’t typically get Angry, which suggests that I’m Right Brain oriented since anger is Left Brain. When I get angry, it’s usually when some Asshole abruptly disturbs me when I’m lost in thought about something and then he/ she abruptly disrupts my mental state. I’m not sure why this is? Also, I tend to get angry if I have to endure something tedious for a long period of time, particularly if I’m tired. For example, watching TV or one of those Marvel comic book movies for about 5 minutes.

    The other problem with women is that they’re very security conscious. They fundamentally want to feel “Safe”. In fact, they identify Love with a feeling of Safety. Hence, all of the rubbish about “Safe Spaces”. They ultimately aspire to be taken care of and lobotomized in an assisted living facility eating strawberry shortcake and sucking on the Socialist government Tit. Horrifying….

    “ DeGroot claimed that females become upset more easily, making it more difficult to engage in unemotional academic disputations, because their logic is more likely to be overwhelmed. Females are also more conformist than men, which militates against challenging received knowledge and thus discovering new things.”

  81. BackRowHeckler December 11, 2019 at 5:43 pm #

    The identities and the allegiances of the killers in Jersey City is slow to emerge. I wonder why that is?

    • malthuss December 11, 2019 at 10:50 pm #

      ‘Jews’..but will media mention this?
      Black Jews????

      • BackRowHeckler December 12, 2019 at 7:01 am #

        ‘Jews’ were the victims, Malth. The killers were something else.

        • malthuss December 12, 2019 at 10:52 am #

          Killers considered themselves Jewish, Id guess.

  82. Pucker December 11, 2019 at 5:59 pm #

    Do you remember the JHK podcast in which JHK interviews the intellectual bloke in California who says that he sometimes stands next to the jam packed eight lane highway in Southern California in his underwear contemplating how fucked up and fragile everything is and the End of the World?

    The character Walter White in the TV series “Breaking Bad” was always walking around in his white Fruit of the Loom KMart underwear.

    • Janos Skorenzy December 11, 2019 at 6:33 pm #

      Tulco took Jesse and Walt hostage, making them empty their pockets. He laughed when he saw that Jesse carried a condom. He didn’t use such things. His bitches were lucky to get pregnant. Now which people are going to survive: Tulco’s or Kdog’s who advises couples to have just two, max?

      He forgot to mention closing the borders – the only way to make such a policy anything other than racial suicide.

      • K-Dog December 11, 2019 at 11:03 pm #

        Jesse is in Alaska doing fine. Tulco has no bitches. His bitches be looking for a new baby daddy. Tulco is dead. How do you feel about chopping knards at the border? Rocky mountain oysters for a green card? A shot of Depo-Provera for an 18 month tour?

        • Janos Skorenzy December 12, 2019 at 1:04 am #

          What’s a knard? Is that like the knob of the vegetable kingdom?

          We already had a race of agricultural workers – the Blacks! Why did we bring a whole new hostile nation? Weren’t the Blacks hostile enough? Didn’t one cataclysmic error in judgement suffice?

  83. Janos Skorenzy December 11, 2019 at 6:34 pm #

    Never Forget by Zman

    One of the odd results of the mass media culture is a sort of collective amnesia in which we forget things almost as fast as they happen. The Jeffrey Epstein murder was a big deal and then it was forgotten. The fake investigation was forgotten while it was happening, as by now everyone knows the drill. The result of the communications revolution is that the public lives in a permanent state of now. Yesterday and tomorrow no longer exist, as they are not in the frame of the permanent now.

    The phrase “conspiracy theory” now applied to anyone dredging up old scandals or old controversies. You can be sure that next year, anyone mentioning the FBI spying scandal will be called a conspiracy theorist. This happened with the white wash of the Clinton e-mail scandal. Within the frame of the present, the event happened, the good guys won and the event was moved out of the frame. Anyone bringing it back up is treated like a lunatic talking about how they saw Big Foot.

    As dangerous and taboo as the recent past may seem, there are useful lessons to be drawn from the last decade or so. For example, there was a representative from Illinois way back in the far away times of 2014. His name was Aaron Schock and he was considered a rising star in politics. All the right people liked him, because he was an extreme open borders globalist. Peter Singer was a big supporter. Schock used to make videos like this one where he promoted demographic replacement.

    Schock had to resign his seat when it was learned he was stealing money from his campaign to finance his unusual lifestyle. He was charged with 24 criminal counts in Federal court related to his theft from his campaign. Despite his pro-family positions, he kept turning up at gay bars and in photos with gay dancers. In other words, he was a complete fraud, a paid actor hired to fool the voters. These are the types of people hired by guys like Paul Singer to corrupt and subvert conservatives.

    You’ll note that Conservative Inc. has developed a real taste for sexual deviancy over the last decade. Charlie Kirk is fond of hanging around openly gay men at his college speaking tours. The most fruitful lines of attack thus far by the groypers was simply pointing out that TP-USA looks like gay disco. Kirk, standing in front of a sign that reads culture war, next to a flamboyant homosexual, while mocking normal young males is a great visual. It brings it all home to people.

    Of course, Paul Singer is just one guy, so he is somewhat limited in what he can do with his billions to warp the political process. Even billionaires are limited in how much they are allowed to give the actors they hire for these roles. That’s where operations like American Enterprise come into the mix. In case it has been forgotten, they were the ones helping poison millions of America with the opioid crisis. At this point, calling it a holocaust is not unreasonable, given the numbers.

    American Enterprise, in addition to housing Jonah Goldberg, is also big into promoting sexual deviancy. They have a whole section dedicated to it. They also have a tranny in senior management. Giselle Donnelly used to be Thomas Donnelly until he decided to reintroduce himself to Washington as a trans woman. AEI, by the way, is a big supporter of Ben Sasse and was a big supporters of Aaron Schock. Also of note, Paul Singer, the small town killer, is a major donor to American Enterprise.

    As scary as it seems, this is why it is useful to rummage around in the recent past, particularly when it comes to Conservative Inc. These scoundrels have been able to hide in plain sight, because they can rely on their media organs to constantly shift the focus to the next thing. That’s the role of talk radio and right-wing rage heads like FNC’s Sean Hannity. They fill the air with noise over the latest outrage, so no one takes notice of what their paymasters are doing in the shadows.

    The great scandal of Conservative Inc. is not that these people were just stuffing their pockets with donor cash. It’s not that they took bribes to promote the sale of opiates to unsuspecting Americans. It is not a case of an institution becoming corrupted by material temptations. The real scandal is that Conservative Inc. was always this corrupt and dishonest. It was always a bust-out. It was always just another tentacle of a ruling class that hates and despises the people it rules.

    • Janos Skorenzy December 11, 2019 at 7:49 pm #

      The Long Con. How apropos. Strictly for suckers and rubes. Never give a sucker an even break is the motto of the Carny Race.

      Zman doesn’t have any answers though, not for us at any rate. Z is for Zimmerman and the answer for Whites simply has no appeal to him. He
      knows of course, but he doesn’t want us to know.

    • ellipsis December 12, 2019 at 6:34 am #

      http://thezman.com/wordpress/?p=19238

    • Nightowl December 12, 2019 at 9:25 am #

      Only responding to the first to paragraphs here, as the rest doesn’t really interest me.

      Consider our present situation similar to Plato’s cave. Once the mechanism of disinfo. is destroyed (the media in our situation), new possibilities open up.

      Many will never contemplate if there is a narrative that limits their thinking and their world, and those who do/have have long been more or less powerless to expose it.

  84. JohnAZ December 11, 2019 at 8:27 pm #

    Heard two things looking at the future today.

    Dem representatives calling Trump a cheat anticipating interference with the 2020 election

    Dem rep already calling for impeachment after Trump wins in 2020.

    I am really starting to wonder, no joking aside, about the sanity of members of the Dem party.

    If there was ever proof that the goal of the Democratic Party is the destruction of America, there are two examples.

    The Dem needs to be reconstructed or destroyed next November and a new party honestly representing mainstream liberal White America needs to be started.

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    • EvelynV December 11, 2019 at 9:57 pm #

      Trump is the most prominent fool in the picture these days. Did you happen to notice all the big kids snickering at him a few days ago?

      Did you happen to pick up on Kim Jong-Un yanking his wienie…
      “Christmas Surprise unlike you have ever received”

      Whether or not the senate votes to kick his worthless ass out of office, take comfort in knowing Trump’s brain is going to be squirming like a toad and the knots in his stomach until this thing is settled will probably have him off to a few more unscheduled “routine” physical health check ups that make it impossible for any doctors important to his “routine” checkups to leave town.

      • BackRowHeckler December 12, 2019 at 6:58 am #

        I don’t think so. Trump thrives on this sort of thing.

        Recently I saw a list on the various causes and organizations he donates his presidential salary to, his entire salary. He doesn’t really need the job.

      • sunburstsoldier December 12, 2019 at 7:22 am #

        This profound hatred of Trump truly baffles me. What has he ever done to warrant this degree of wrath and disdain?

        • Nightowl December 12, 2019 at 8:52 am #

          Oppose globalism.

        • EvelynV December 12, 2019 at 9:41 am #

          If you substitute the word “Obama” for “Trump” in your post the question makes perfect sense.

          • Nightowl December 12, 2019 at 10:15 am #

            Obama = Operation Timber Sycamore. Crime of the century, IMO.

            Trump = big salt shaker.

            Orange man bad.

  85. Pucker December 11, 2019 at 9:21 pm #

    Dishonest system….

    It makes one contemplate becoming a devotee of Ancient Persian Zoroastrianism….

    Apparently, “Magical Thinking” is Left Brain. There may be something to the observation that our current civilization is Left Brain? I wonder why this is? I used to refer to the Americans as the one-eyed Cyclops people because they can’t seem to focus on Reality. The one-eye must be the Right Eye controlled by the Left hemisphere of the Brain?

    Why “This Sucker Is Going Down”
    December 11, 2019
    Once the contagion starts spreading, loose money won’t put the fires out.
    As the nation’s political and economic leaders struggled to contain the 2008 financial meltdown, President George W. Bush famously summed the situation up: “If money doesn’t loosen up, this sucker will go down.”
    Eleven years into the loose money recovery , this sucker is finally going down for reasons that have little to do with tight money and everything to do with the inconvenient fact that none of the structural problems have been addressed, much less actually fixed.
    We live in a bizarre world dominated by magical-thinking, a world in which the Federal Reserve creating more dollars out of thin air is supposedly the solution to everything, while all the knotty structural problems–unsupportable pensions and entitlements, unsustainable dependence on debt to fund everything from infrastructure to a new iPhone, a sickcare system that is bankrupting the nation, a higher education system that is looting an entire generation for diplomas with marginal market value, a runaway National Security State that burns trillions on unwinnable wars and lies about it–are left untouched because they’re, well, difficult, and it’s so much easier to say that looser money will solve everything.
    Alas, loose money has created a new set of metastasizing problems that will bring this sucker down : widening wealth-income inequality, the only possible result of our system of creating and distributing new money to banks, financiers and corporations ; soaring systemic leverage that few see, much less understand; and perhaps most perverse, yet equally unnoticed, loose money has widened the gap between the real economy and the top layer of arcane finance to the point there is literally no connection at all.
    The happy story about debt-dependent capitalism is that thriving companies borrow money from our wunnerful banks to invest in new factories, research, software development, etc., hiring millions of top-notch people–top-notch!–at generous salaries to boost productivity and make the entire nation wealthier.
    Alas, it’s all a fraud. What actually happens is banks “invest” the new money in faster High Frequency Trading (HFT) computers so they can skim even more profit from the rigged “markets.” Productivity increase: zero. Social benefits: zero. Economic benefits to the nation at large: zero.
    Virtually all the loose money created by the Fed is socially useless financial activity , enriching the few at the top of the wealth-power pyramid who own the financial machinery of repo’s, derivatives, FX swaps, leverage, and all the other tricks of the financial trade that has completely disconnected from the real-world economy.
    The conventional media constantly hypes the fantasy that trade deals matter, holiday sales matter, employment numbers matter–none of that matters.The big money is made by gaming the financial system, buying regulatory approval, i.e. legalized looting , funneling a few measly millions to craven politicos who have zero understanding of how the nation’s financial system actually works, and then running a monstrous skimming operation behind the complexity thickets of “modern” finance, which all boil down to the same toxic concoction that’s destroyed economies throughout history:
    — The unlimited greed of those at the top.
    — No real oversight or limits on financial gaming of the system.
    — Abundant central-bank loose money to fund speculative activity in rigged markets.
    — 100% socially useless financial activity.
    — No limits on leverage, so every $1 of financial legerdemain can spawn a $100 dollar bet.
    — Total dependence on debt to fund the government, consumer spending, corporate buy-backs– everything.
    This sucker is going down, and sooner than we think. The Fed can create trillions out of thin air and give it to banks, financiers and corporations, but they can’t force them to actually invest in the nation’s real economy or even buy the assets the Fed so desperately wants them to buy, i.e. stocks.
    The banks and financiers have used the Fed’s trillions to enrich themselves for eleven years, and nothing will stop their legalized looting except a collapse of the entire machine. The great karmic irony is they’ve rigged and gamed the system so rapaciously, absolutely confident there’s no end to the loose money , that they’ve overlooked the increasing fragility of the entire system they’ve ruthlessly exploited.
    Once the contagion starts spreading, loose moneywon’t put the fires out. The idols and false gods (The Fed et al.) will fail most spectacularly, and the karmic fury will not abate until the every last skim and every last con has been consumed.

    • Pucker December 11, 2019 at 9:44 pm #

      Is this a “Pump Fake”, or a “Fake Pump”?

      “ Alas, it’s all a fraud. What actually happens is banks “invest” the new money in faster High Frequency Trading (HFT) computers so they can skim even more profit from the rigged “markets.” Productivity increase: zero. Social benefits: zero. Economic benefits to the nation at large: zero.”

    • ellipsis December 12, 2019 at 6:28 am #

      That was Charles Hugh Smith at (among others):

      https://www.theburningplatform.com/2019/12/11/why-this-sucker-is-going-down/

      • ellipsis December 12, 2019 at 6:30 am #

        Smith nails it with this post.

    • elysianfield December 12, 2019 at 1:43 pm #

      “We live in a bizarre world dominated by magical-thinking, a world in which the Federal Reserve creating more dollars out of thin air is supposedly the solution to everything,”

      Puck, et al;

      Look at it from a different perspective. It DID solve the immediate problem, and kept the balls in the air for 11 years and counting….

      Times change, shit happens, nothing is forever.

      Count the last 11 years while you were warm, safe and well fed as a positive.

      “Eleven years into the loose money recovery , this sucker is finally going down for reasons that have little to do with tight money and everything to do with the inconvenient fact that none of the structural problems have been addressed, much less actually fixed.”

      Structural problems addressed will not necessarily save us.

      Times change, shit happens, nothing is forever.

  86. sprawlcapital December 11, 2019 at 9:25 pm #

    A fascinating article on the Afghanistan Papers, as important to our time as the Pentagon Papers were nearly 50 years ago. The officials responsible for all the lying and stupidity that went into our our military fiasco in Afghanistan need to be held accountable. These leaders are the very definition of The Swamp that President Trump promised to drain.

    https://humanevents.com/2019/12/11/the-afghanistan-papers-show-the-swamp-at-its-worst/

    • ellipsis December 12, 2019 at 6:26 am #

      Assuming Trump actually meant any of that “drain the swamp” BS in the first place, he’s obviously finding it much harder job than he expected. Of course actually hiring the Swamp People he was allegedly trying to get rid of to staff his administration might have been a poor choice right out the gate. He’s such a poser. What else should we have expected from our first reality TV president?

      • JohnAZ December 12, 2019 at 9:39 am #

        Jeez!

        Just what would you do different with the cast of losers he has had to deal with.

        Vote for HRC instead in 2016? Are you kidding me?

        I agree that he would have been better off in hindsight to bring his folks from NYC and replace the Swamp instead of trying to make a deal. If these first three years have shown anything, it is that DC really is a group of special interest whores that will do anything to prevent Trumpism from taking root in DC. The Deep State lives in DC.

        The Dems, the heart of the Deep State, have made a critical error putting the impeachment above everything else. A big question is why the panic. They cannot convict the man, even their charges are BS. With Horowitz, it ain’t over folks, and Barr/Durham, they better be looking after their own butts. Trump will be exonerated, win the sympathy reaction vote in 2020, the poll reactions are occurring already. The Dems actions are so dumb, he may not even have to campaign that much

        Dems, while you have been wasting your time with the impeachment, guess what the Trump crew are brewing up. A very effective 2020 campaign concentrating on getting the House back, and then ripping the Dems Deep State apart in the next four years during his Lame Duck term. If I was a Deep Stater, including Mitt, Susan, and Lisa I would be worried that my time in the power seat may be in jeopardy.

        • ellipsis December 12, 2019 at 10:31 am #

          Why did he have to deal with them in the first place? If there were truly no good people out there then he was fucked in the first place and should never have run. It’s far more likely he just didn’t have a plan for actually winning and then just naively chose whoever was readily available. [For instance, he talked shit up and down about the idiot generals, and then lo and behold, fills his cabinet with former generals, who he then proceeded to ignore anyway.] Assuming of course he was truly legit from the start, which is by no means a given either.

  87. BackRowHeckler December 11, 2019 at 10:46 pm #

    What’s the difference between LIBOR and the Repo market?

    It’s all very complicated.

    Apparently the are problems in Repo which could signify greater problems with finance and liquidity in the markets, but how bad can things be if the Yankees have the swag to pay Gerrit Cole $375 million? Still plenty of access cash floating around the system, used to fund all kinds of stupid sh#t. For example, ‘Rappers’, hip hop artists, flying around the world in private jets stuffed with cash, drugs, and illegal weapons. And then OD ing at touchdown.

    Brh

    • ellipsis December 12, 2019 at 6:22 am #

      Liquidity indicates how much cash is on hand at any given second (yes, they’ve taken it down to that level now), while the ability to pay a salary is a long term obligation (of sorts). Needless to say, the Yankees (or any other large corporation, for that matter) wouldn’t hesitate to stiff Gerrit Cole (or any other employee, for that matter) for any or all of that $375M if conditions demanded it. Money’s incredibly easy right now for some things, virtually nonexistent for others, per design. All of which could change (for the worse) and any second without notice. I’d worry less about rappers and hip hop artists though, they’re merely small fry imitating (poorly) their oligarch overlords.

      • BackRowHeckler December 12, 2019 at 6:52 am #

        Good points, my friend.

        I brought up ‘hip hop artists’ merely because of the recent death of ‘Juice WRLD’, who I’d never heard of (why would I?) but surprisingly was wealthy enough to travel around on leased private aircraft with a posse. You need a lot of excess spending cash to do that.

        Brh

        • malthuss December 12, 2019 at 10:57 am #

          considering how music downloads sales have shrunk, not sure
          how its done. concerts?

        • elysianfield December 12, 2019 at 1:48 pm #

          “You need a lot of excess spending cash to do that.”

          BRH,
          Well, He was an African American who had disposable income and, perhaps, spent it unwisely.

          Jesus saves, Moses invests…Juicy did neither.

          • elysianfield December 12, 2019 at 1:49 pm #

            “Juicy did neither.”

            Permit me a wild-assed guess….

      • JohnAZ December 12, 2019 at 9:49 am #

        Money value has always been based on Gold. But not really. If I was going to put a goodness meter on money credibility it would be how much of the money is backed up by human labor, how much is earned by labor rather than financial shenanigans. Faith is based on involvement, when the working folks become a non-issue with money creation, the wheels start coming off.

        Wall Street used to be 10-20% of national wealth, it is now approaching 50%. Income inequality just keeps growing, but with the good employment numbers, hopefully this will improve.

        This does not portend well, IMHO.

      • ellipsis December 12, 2019 at 10:26 am #

        I should add government pensions and entitlement programs, and public and private pension funds to the list of future “obligations” (such an ironic term!), than can and most likely eventually will be defaulted on, followed by the inevitable asset seizures of the poor claimants, which is where the real bounty lies.

        • JohnAZ December 12, 2019 at 10:55 am #

          You are on target. It takes creditors’ demand for payment to force insolvency. If people do not demand payment, integrity continues.

          When the later Boomers demand payment on their retirement savings, it will be the first crisis of insolvency. The second may be when the GenXers try to cash their parent’s assets.

  88. Pucker December 12, 2019 at 12:54 am #

    Page v of the IG FISA Report states that Steele and consulting company was hired by a company called “Fusion GPS”, which was retained by Clinton and the DNC to dig up dirt on Trump in order to get a FISA warrant to spy on the Trump campaign. Page vi in part reads: “We determined that the Crossfire Hurricane team’s receipt of Steele’s election reporting on September 19, 2016 played a central and essential role in the FBI’s and the Department’s decisions to seek the FISA order.”

    CNN and MSNBC both report that the Steele Dossier played no part in obtaining the FISA order to spy on Trump. CNN and MSNBC are Liars.

    Sick….

    From April 2016 through October 2016, the law firm Perkins Coie, on behalf of the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee, retained Fusion GPS to continue opposition research on Trump.[28][29][30] In June 2016, Fusion GPS retained Christopher Steele, a private British corporate intelligence investigator and former MI-6 agent, to research any Russian connections to Trump. Steele produced a 35-page series of uncorroborated memos from June to December 2016, which became the document known as the Donald Trump–Russia dossier.[28][31] Fusion GPS provided Marc Elias, the lead election lawyer for Perkins Coie, with the resulting dossier and other research documents.[

  89. Pucker December 12, 2019 at 12:56 am #

    The IG FISA Report on page ii says:

    “A Full Investigation may be opened based upon an “articulable factual basis” that “reasonably indicates” any one of the three defined circumstances exists including: An activity constituting a federal crime or a threat to the national security has or may have occured, is or may be occuring, or will or may occur and the investigation may obtain information relating to the activity or the involvement or role of an individual, group, or organization in such activity.”

    A “Full Investigation” includes uses of spies (“Confidential Human Sources”) and UCEs [(I don’t know what a UCE is?)], mail opening, physical searches, electronic surveillance, or requests under Title VII of FISA.

    All that they have to do to spy on the President of the United States is to hire some asshole to cook up some bogus accusations and then they can spy on the POTUS. They only have to take the accusations at face value. Of course, now in our Sick Society, everyone is a Liar. Sick….

    It’s a Farce….

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    • Pucker December 12, 2019 at 1:57 am #

      The process assumes Good Faith.

      If there’s no Good Faith because everyone is hopelessly dishonest, then the process is basically meaningless, and the citizen has no defense against absolute tyranny.

      • elysianfield December 12, 2019 at 1:54 pm #

        “The process assumes Good Faith.”

        …And a big boner is just a big boner….

        Assuming the statement given in good faith….

  90. Pucker December 12, 2019 at 1:07 am #

    The MSM assholes: “See! The IG Report did not conclude that Trump was being spied on!”

    Of course, the verb “to spy” is not used in the IG’s lexicon or the IG FISA Report, which does include more specific terms such as “electronic surveillance”, “mail opening”, “physical searches”, “Confidential Human Sources”, “Undercover Employees”, etc. So when the IG says that the Trump campaign was subject to “electronic surveillance”, the MSM assholes declare: “See! No spying!”

    Hopelessly dishonest…..

    • Pucker December 12, 2019 at 2:21 am #

      Do you remember the Clint Eastwood movie “High Plains Drifter”?

      Clint Eastwood plays a gunslinger who rides into the dishonest town of sidewinders called “Lago”. The shiftless, fat, clown sheriff tries to convince Clint Eastwood to hire out his services to save the town from a gang of outlaws who are about to get released from prison who will reap vengeance on the town for a past grievance.

      Eastwood to the Sheriff: “Sheriff, I’m not sure that I like this town.”

      Sheriff lies: “This is a God-fearing town. These are God-fearing people.”

      Eastwood: “If you like ‘em, then you save ‘em.”

  91. drewkeeling December 12, 2019 at 6:57 am #

    Adding my “two bits” (or four bits):

    1. It seems there are different competing versions competing within some of the “warring narratives.”

    2. A recently trendy sound bite, along the lines of “we may never get to the bottom of this,” may have staying power.

    3. Once Trump has departed from the White House, there will be a pent-up bipartisan/transpartisan desire to forget he was ever there.

    4. Therefore, don’t “write the book” on this, as at least one poster suggests above. The current political meltdown is part of the “long emergency” but not, in its current form, necessarily a long part of that long emergency. Move on to something else instead. Personally, I would vote for more on “rebuilding the national rail network.” Haven’t heard much about that lately. If the “Green New Deal” is to become something other than a distracting mirage, then rail travel should be part of it.

    • BackRowHeckler December 12, 2019 at 7:11 am #

      I don’t think we’ll be rebuilding the national rail network. We made our choice in 1956 when we built the interstate highway system; now we are stuck with it. The track that is laid down now is basically for freight, altho AMTRAK uses it too. Alas, it is not structurally sufficient to run high speed trains over it like they have in Japan and France.

      Brh

      • sunburstsoldier December 12, 2019 at 7:27 am #

        Maybe we don’t need high speed trains Bhr. Everyone is in such a hurry to get somewhere. Maybe it’s time to slow down a bit, even take a minute or two to smell the flowers…

        • BackRowHeckler December 12, 2019 at 8:24 am #

          Good point, just trains that run on time and will safely get you to your destination. That’s what’s needed. Amtrak does a pretty good job with the resources they have.

          At one point just about every little town in Ct was served by rail or trolley. The system seemed to have peaked around 1920, and went into a long decline after that. Now most of the lines are part of the ‘rails to trails’ project.

          Brh

      • sunburstsoldier December 12, 2019 at 7:31 am #

        Why not lay track over the highway system?

        • stelmosfire December 12, 2019 at 9:52 am #

          A lot of the curves and grades are in no way suitable for railways.

          • JohnAZ December 12, 2019 at 10:49 am #

            I remember a fatal derailment in either N.Y. or NJ a few years ago where the cause was going through a curve too fast because safety protection equipment was not is place. So instead of fixing the problem, fixing the curve, we put a band aid on it with a “protection system”.

            We need to produce a dual system, moderate speed for urban corridors and high speed rail for long distance travel.

            We are starting to run out of air space so this may become necessary.

      • JohnAZ December 12, 2019 at 10:00 am #

        Both locations you mentioned had the base of their RR systems destroyed in WW2. Thus the rebuild was latest technology.

        We have a 1890 network of track in this country that makes little sense today. No one wants to start over however, so there is an impasse that make RRs politically in feasible.

        Until Peak Oil effects occur. Hang in there RRs, your day is going to return.

  92. sunburstsoldier December 12, 2019 at 7:12 am #

    So what is the long term energy source for the human species? Is it renewables (sun, wind, water, etc.), nuclear fission, or an energy source as yet to be discovered? If it is to be renewables we will have to devolve to a lower tech civilization (world made by hand). Bhr talks a lot about coal but surely this is not a long term source. Personally I believe, based on research I have done, the energy source which will serve us throughout the far-flung future still awaits discovery…

    • sunburstsoldier December 12, 2019 at 7:29 am #

      Sorry, its Brh not Bhr…

    • JohnAZ December 12, 2019 at 10:02 am #

      I think the high tech intelligentsia believe it is fusion.

      • JohnAZ December 12, 2019 at 10:03 am #

        Of course, they also believe the answer to Climate change is going to Mars.

    • elysianfield December 12, 2019 at 1:59 pm #

      “Personally I believe, based on research I have done, the energy source which will serve us throughout the far-flung future still awaits discovery…”

      SBS,

      Awaiting the “Black Swan”? Human history and current events might suggest, however, a “Black Schwanz” will be in our future…far more likely.

    • GreenAlba December 12, 2019 at 2:11 pm #

      sunburst

      This guy’s very good on the energy situation, if you want a second opinion on TLE issues:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WPB2u8EzL8&t=1s

      He’s also excellent on general ecosystem collapse.

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

      • GreenAlba December 12, 2019 at 2:13 pm #

        But I’m intrigued as to how ‘research’ can lead you to conclusions about an energy source that’s still to be discovered…

        • RIB December 12, 2019 at 2:46 pm #

          RIB, sorry but you’re not even ready for the remedial class.

          I’m impressed by the middle school tactics you use to avoid answering a question.

          • GreenAlba December 12, 2019 at 8:34 pm #

            Says the person with a scrotum fetish.

            The question was about as meaningful as asking me how climate change could be real when the moon is made of green cheese.

            There are legitimate scientific sources where you can read the basics. I’m not paid for this – and if people display clear evidence of not having read the slightest bit of the basic science, they’re wasting everyone’s time.

        • sunburstsoldier December 12, 2019 at 2:55 pm #

          Thanks Alba. Research in a very loose sense of the word. Just hints here and there. The physicist David Bohm for instance, and some things I have read on antigravity as a possible long term energy source (gyroscopes and all that). Also the Urantia Book, but this is revelatory material and not something you would perhaps buy into…

          • Janos Skorenzy December 12, 2019 at 6:18 pm #

            One word: Plastics? No, the Tides. Doable today as Kdog has confirmed.

            Long terms? What fuels the Northern Lights? It’s always sunny up there. We must need to get it down here via laser.

  93. Nightowl December 12, 2019 at 7:43 am #

    Greta Thunberg’s car full of plastic bags and non-eco-friendly junk:

    https://twitter.com/TheRealKeean/status/1204916873651007488

    Posted mostly for a laugh, but honestly this reminds me of every hard left, ecosnob I used to be around back in my punk band days in Wash. DC.

    Lights on in the whole house (row house worth 800k, naturally) all day, power bills over USD 200 per month, mountains of WholeFoods bags and assorted (unsorted) non-recyc. trash for the landfill, brand new cars, consumer crap everywhere (“artisinal” ofc).

    Oh, Greta.

    • sunburstsoldier December 12, 2019 at 8:02 am #

      A lot of folks seem to think if they just engage in climate change debate they don’t have to do anything, like for instance actually practice a sustainable lifestyle…

    • RIB December 12, 2019 at 2:50 pm #

      Somewhere, in fantasy land, Green Alba is sucking Greta’s clit to a massive orgasm

      • lilykline December 12, 2019 at 3:57 pm #

        Seriously JHK, this needs to be removed.

        • SoftStarLight December 12, 2019 at 6:41 pm #

          See I told you that you were against free speech. You know that includes speech that is offensive. One time someone here responded to a comment I made by starting out saying “Next time you are on your knees…..”. And you know what. The only person that stood up for me was Janos. So you got two things wrong at least and I’m not appreciative of any of it.

          • malthuss December 12, 2019 at 6:52 pm #

            JHK has removed comments, including Qtips and mine and we are not trolls.

          • lilykline December 12, 2019 at 7:48 pm #

            Oh SSL, Once again this isn’t about free speech, there is a big difference between saying something offensive and saying something sexual in nature to do with a child. Oh that’s right, you don’t think 16 years old is a child. I take comments about sex with minors very seriously, and there is no place for those online. JHK constantly deletes comments on here, so does he not believe in free speech? That disgusting comment above about a child has no place here.

          • SoftStarLight December 12, 2019 at 10:04 pm #

            It is a disgusting comment and so is your presumptuousness and that was my point Lily.

          • lilykline December 13, 2019 at 12:34 am #

            SSL,
            You are being a bit vague, what is it that you say I’m being presumptuous about? Enlighten me with your brilliance

          • EvelynV December 13, 2019 at 3:17 am #

            Nothing vague about SSL,

            She made it very clear what a hypocrite she is and a skanky one at that.

            Endorsing if not outright encouraging pedophelia.

            I have zero respect for her.

        • GreenAlba December 12, 2019 at 8:40 pm #

          I think it’s quite amusing, lily. RIB referred upthread to ‘middle school tactics’. He (?) clearly prefers locker-room tactics.

          I don’t think we should make too much of a fuss. His mum and dad probably don’t even know he’s still up and on the computer.

          • lilykline December 12, 2019 at 9:03 pm #

            You are right GA, thanks for the reminder:)
            Mum and Dad should really limit RIB’s screen time.. On another note I really enjoy reading your comments!

    • Majella December 13, 2019 at 3:21 am #

      Funny.

      You do the ‘piqued off’ by hypocrisy thing, based on some internet meme with nil verification as to validity of the accusation, while Himself trashes The Constitution and accepted norms daily, with lies and hypocrisy and utter crassness earns your respect.

      For a ‘left-leaning’ American living in a democratic socialist society, you must suffer all sorts of internal philosophical conflicts on a daily basis.

  94. wm5135 December 12, 2019 at 8:35 am #

    “This profound hatred of Trump truly baffles me. What has he ever done to warrant this degree of wrath and disdain?” sunburstsoldier

    Go have a look at the General Schedule for US government employees.

    Go have a look at the benefits available to US government employees.

    Ask yourself, “Do the Afghanistan Papers reflect the reality of every war effort the US has undertaken since and including the Korean War?”

    Why does a open and free society need National Security Secrets?

    Look at the labor participation statistics.

    Do you live in an affluent neighborhood with a low or nonexistent crime rate? Do you keep everything you possess under lock and key? Lock your doors during the day? Have a security system?

    Try to estimate what the salary of a large percentage of the US civil service employees would be worth in the private market.

    Did you believe the findings of the Warren Report? Did you believe the findings of the investigation into the collapse of the buildings at the World Trade Center?

    Do you believe that Mrs. Gabbard is a Russian asset?

    Do you believe poverty is evidence of a moral failing?

    Do you believe I hate the United States and her population because I ask these questions?

    What is your ratio of debt to income?

    The answer to your question soldier lies in the list above.

    ps. Can we now put to rest the belief that a big secret could not be kept out of the public domain? What did Upton Sinclair opine about understanding and it’s relationship with salary?

    What was the prophet of Judea’s view regarding the pharisees?

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    • sunburstsoldier December 12, 2019 at 11:20 am #

      Sorry, I may be stupid or naive but are these reasons to hate Trump?

  95. Majella December 12, 2019 at 8:47 am #

    Is John Kasich a genuine Republican? To my mind, yes. Other views are probably available…watch this interview and start the RINO-calling, JohnAZ et al:

    https://youtu.be/qsrWwmywoXQ

    • JohnAZ December 12, 2019 at 10:15 am #

      Define RINO. Janos words are appropriate. They are conservatives that have taken on the Deep State for their ideals. They have sold their souls to the Left trying to maintain power in the DC arena. A bunch of them band together to get Trump who they see stealing their national power base. In the meantime, real conservatives are trying to actually shrink the Potomac power machine and are swarming to the Trump leadership to do it. The real conservatives are taking over the GOP.

      This Trump time is a fight for the spiritual heart of the US.

      • sunburstsoldier December 12, 2019 at 11:31 am #

        John,

        Does a RINO admit to being one or does he/she consider the term an unfair characterization?

  96. BackRowHeckler December 12, 2019 at 9:12 am #

    And we hear of the sad story of Tessa Majors, pretty 18 yo freshman at Barnard College, stabbed to death in a Manhattan park Wednesday by a group of ‘Youts’, during a street action (robbery and beatdown) Looks like she weighs about 100 lbs, don’t know what kind of resistance she could’ve put up against 4 or 5 ‘Youts’.

    Brh

    • malthuss December 12, 2019 at 2:02 pm #

      UNZ.COM Paul Kerseys sub site.

    • RIB December 12, 2019 at 2:48 pm #

      I’m sure Green Alba in her tart, foreign manner, has all the illumination you need on “youts” BRH

      • BackRowHeckler December 12, 2019 at 4:11 pm #

        The esteemed ‘Youts’ were brandishing daggers and wearing hoodies. That’s all we know so far.

        The victims father is novelist Inman Majors. The incident itself occurred at Columbia University at 5 in the afternoon. Apparently she was stabbed many times and tried to crawl to the safety of an unmanned security booth, trailing blood.

        18 years old, a pretty coed, a freshman away from home only a few months.

        Brh

        • malthuss December 12, 2019 at 6:53 pm #

          Harlem so close. poor girl.

      • GreenAlba December 12, 2019 at 8:00 pm #

        I’ll leave you to illuminate your own social problems, RIB.

        Try not to be so butthurt. It’s not your fault you’re so ill-informed about AGW and climate change – fortunes have been spent to keep you that way and money talks. And is listened to, it would seem, with reverence.

  97. SoftStarLight December 12, 2019 at 10:15 am #

    So I guess it’s true in a very general sense that men are generally slower to anger than women. Maybe that is what is wrong with our times right now? There is a whole lot to be angry about but it almost seems like we are stuck in this twilight zone of never ending talk, appeasement, and accommodation, and thus evil doers can roam free and prosper before our very eyes with no consequences. Meanwhile, ordinary people who struggle to put in an honest day’s worth of work can’t seem to make ends meet. So maybe instead a real Witch is actually what is needed right now, not just some sixteen year old girl who is still practicing her fake theatric scowls and frowns of indignation as she devours the Earth. Or the handmaidens of the Evil Elite who pretend to fight for commoners in the Halls of Power while enriching themselves in secret – sort of. Do you tire of calls for rationality and measure? I know, me too. Just think if the Witch had the power and influence that the do-nothings have right now. She would invite all the powerful people to an honorary banquet. She would serve them, talk with them, laugh with them, intrigue them, and over power them with charm, grace, beauty and girlish playfulness. Then once they were all full of food and wine and foolishness she would bring them all to a gathering place for storytelling. She would tell them the story of the pretty girl who everyone loved who always did right. But slowly her goodness was chipped away at by the wickedness she saw done to her fellow countrymen. While the workers toiled and died in neglect, the wealthy were drunk and merry living in safety and security behind their walls. This made the beautiful and sweet girl sad and then angry and then she realized that Kali lived inside her. So she unveiled that reality to the wicked Elite and suddenly in their stupor they realized that she was an inescapable manifestation of Vengeance and Judgement. And she vanquished them with fire and lightning.

    But probably it will just be another day of compromise and false peace while the country rots from the inside out….

    • GreenAlba December 12, 2019 at 1:57 pm #

      “So maybe instead a real Witch is actually what is needed right now, not just some sixteen year old girl who is still practicing her fake theatric scowls and frowns of indignation as she devours the Earth. ”

      You really need to get a grip, SSL. And maybe try not to judge everyone by your own standards.

      Autistic people don’t do ‘fake’ very well, by all accounts. I think that, actually, you know that. (And don’t waste my time or yours by telling me that’s why she’s practising.)

      But generally, that was a seriously nasty piece of evidence-free character assassination. And I don’t even follow the girl. But at this moment, I think I’d choose her character over yours.

      • malthuss December 12, 2019 at 2:04 pm #

        Is she autistic?
        I read aspergers, but I doubt that as well.

        Others say fetal alch syndrome. mommy drank way too much.

        ‘character assassination’—she is immoral. no character, just personality. dont mistake one for the other.

        • GreenAlba December 12, 2019 at 2:34 pm #

          Asperger’s is a mild autism spectrum disorder.

          Thanks for the lesson in character judgement – I’ll treat it with the veneration it deserves.

          • RIB December 12, 2019 at 2:53 pm #

            The only thing you venerate Green Alba is Bill Nye’s scrotum

          • sunburstsoldier December 12, 2019 at 2:59 pm #

            That’s a fairly mean thing to say RIB. You should apologize…

          • Majella December 12, 2019 at 3:30 pm #

            RIB
            What’s your problem? Maybe talk to your GP about medication adjustment. You’re really losing it.

          • GreenAlba December 12, 2019 at 7:06 pm #

            Somebody told me men were rational and women were emotional. I guess from that we have to deduce that I’m a fella and this RIB person is female.

            Sunburst, thanks, but it’s not mean, it’s moronic and rather sad. (So maybe not even an adult female.)

            RIB’s nose is out of joint because I wasn’t prepared to spend any time on her(?) *cough* argument that climate change is a hoax because Mars.

            Diddums.

          • Janos Skorenzy December 12, 2019 at 8:43 pm #

            You got your DNA from him, Eve. You should be more respectful.

        • Nightowl December 13, 2019 at 3:08 am #

          Her condition is whatever they want it to be. Should any of you climate heathens have the temerity to attack a child, they made sure there is one more layer for you to go through.

      • SoftStarLight December 12, 2019 at 2:39 pm #

        LOL that was a humorous post Alba. Clearly you were so infuriated that you didn’t delve deeply into the meaning of the post. If you believe a 16 year old is fully self actualized and does not rely on some level of coaching or outside influence then I don’t really know what to say to that. If you don’t believe there are adults shaping her then I don’t know what to say to that either. Clearly if she is traveling the globe then she is certainly growing her Carbon Footprint. Plus you know boats put fuel directly into the ocean. I wonder if any sea life has been destroyed because of her travels? Thank you for attacking me so viciously. It will help build my character.

        • Majella December 12, 2019 at 3:32 pm #

          Fake ‘pearl-clutching’, SSL. It’s not possible to ‘delve deeply’ into your post – that require to have some substance.

          • SoftStarLight December 12, 2019 at 3:50 pm #

            Then why do you delve deeply into my post? Because you can’t help yourself. And that is good. You are learning so much. We almost came into agreement earlier in this thread but I see your back to your cantankerous ways. I won’t give up on you though the way Alba gave up on me.

          • GreenAlba December 12, 2019 at 6:59 pm #

            Gave up on you, SSL? You’re not some project of mine, you’re a relatively young person with opinions. I’m a relatively old person who sometimes disagrees with them. That’s it.

          • SoftStarLight December 12, 2019 at 10:11 pm #

            Sometimes disagrees with my opinions :-)? Um I’m thinking that you meant often but I’ll accept your generosity. OMG has the spirit of the season taken hold of you?

          • Majella December 13, 2019 at 4:10 am #

            SSL..you may as well ‘give up’ on me. Your gaslighting pretense to help me ‘find my inner Christian racist’ has no future…

        • GreenAlba December 12, 2019 at 7:19 pm #

          “I wonder if any sea life has been destroyed because of her travels? ”

          Is this what you are reduced to? Really? CO2 absorbed by the oceans is destroying coral reefs and the fish stocks they support and you’re genuinely concerned by the harm you think was done by the sailboat she got a lift on?

          “Thank you for attacking me so viciously”

          This from a mother who implies that a 16-year-old teenage activist is a witch. A witch ‘devouring the earth’ no less, while she practises her fake scowls. She’s on the spectrum. She presumably hasn’t spent her life practising those winsome smiles you are so proud of yourself.

          Like I said, get a grip.

          You folks spend half your time telling us that 16-year-olds are old enough to get married and have babies and the other half telling us they’re not old enough to formulate their own opinions.

          She’s not even claiming to be Einstein. She’s just volunteered to be the figurehead of a youth movement that wants the light shone on climate inaction.

          If you want a worthy adult opponent, try David Attenborough. I’ll pay for a ticket in a ringside seat.

          • lilykline December 12, 2019 at 9:35 pm #

            Well said GA:)

          • SoftStarLight December 12, 2019 at 10:39 pm #

            Wow isn’t it quite amazing what you do with words. I find it interesting that someone who is so concerned about the environment and the climate would question me questioning the potential ecological impacts of these globetrotters preaching the wickedness of the fossil fuels they’re using in their travels. I never called Greta a witch at all. Clearly you didn’t either read or understand my post. Yes, I did say that she was devouring the earth. Don’t we all in a sense Alba? Isn’t that what animates your concerns about resource consumption, ecological destruction, etc.? The sheer destruction our activities cause. Here is a big idea. Clearly one her own parents couldn’t imagine to tell her obviously. If fossil fuels are destroying the planet then don’t travel gratuitously and participate in the destruction. Practice what you preach sunshine. It’s a simple but important message and life lesson. And David Attenborough doesn’t scare me. I’ll tell him the same thing. Get off grid and be a Cave Man. Then! I will consider it’s maybe a bit genuine.

          • Majella December 13, 2019 at 4:22 am #

            SSL

            *PFFFT!!!*

            That little self-indulgent rant is a prime example of what a waste of space your ‘arguments’ on this board have always been. I’ve tried -really TRIED – to just let the wish-washy bullshit you like to spout go.

            I can’t count how many times I’ve started typing a response, but deciding “nah, it’s not worth the mental energy to respond, because all she do is give you more of the same impossibly insubstantial word salad, and where will it end?’

            But this particular string of utter crap, false equivalencies & faux-outrage from you is worth the effort to put my opinion on the record, just how sadly deluded you really are.

    • lilykline December 12, 2019 at 2:30 pm #

      I seriously don’t understand what is happening to people. The President of the United states, the most powerful person in the country is currently bullying a 16 year old girl on twitter. Online bullying is dangerous, whether or not you support Trump, this is just wrong. This has nothing to do with partisan ship, it’s infuriating to me that none of his supporters will call out this appalling behavior. Yet when Professor Karlan at a recent hearing stated “Trump can name his son Barron, but not make him a Baron”. Now, I agree she shouldn’t have said that and I cringed when she did. But seriously? The republicans were all over that, how shameful that was of her to say that. Yet crickets now when the President mocks a 16 year old girl. And what a joke of Melania’s “Be Best”, I call “FAKE SLOGAN’!!! Regardless if you believe what Greta stands for or what she is doing or all of your theories that she is being coached, she is still a child and there is no place for that, EVER! I would have more respect for Trump supporters if they could at least call out his bad behavior. But he gets a pass time and time again, he’s held to such low standards, Others could never get away with the things he says. My friends 10 year old killed himself last year over online bullying. It’s no joke.

      • SoftStarLight December 12, 2019 at 2:47 pm #

        And this is exactly what is wrong with our society right here. You say that a 16 year old is a child. Sorry, a 16 year old is not a child. Specifically, I don’t view a 16 year old as a child if she makes it her life’s story to dictate to the world exactly how life must be lived and who must be punished and when. At the same time of course I don’t believe she should be bullied. So saying that someone is acting out fake theatrics when screaming at the world “How Dare You” is now considered online bullying? Wow, I guess we won’t have freedom of speech much longer. Absolutely ludicrous and ridiculous. And another thing, maybe actual children should have their online time monitored heavily, when they are even allowed online, since most of the internet is a cesspit.

        • lilykline December 12, 2019 at 3:01 pm #

          Softstarlight,
          You are entitled to your opinion and I disagree with you. I do believe a 16 year old is a child, in capable of handling things like being bullied by the President of the United States. This isn’t about Greta and how much time she spends online. It’s about the President of the United States, obviously hurt feelings since he didn’t get Times person of the year and he chose to attack Greta. Who said anything about Freedom Of Speech? Just because you have Freedom of Speech doesn’t mean you SHOULD say whatever you want. You think Trump is a good example to children, that they should look up to him and try to be like him? I find that you are defending Trump in your response and still more upset about what a 16 year old girl is doing.

          • SoftStarLight December 12, 2019 at 3:08 pm #

            I never mentioned one thing in my post regarding Trump at all. So I won’t now. So if Greta is a child, then she has no business on the world stage whatsoever since the world is not a kind, child-friendly place. And so what are is your opinion of her parent who placed her directly into the line of fire? Surely, you must view their actions of allowing her to be used as a lobbying tool as abhorrent?

          • lilykline December 12, 2019 at 3:13 pm #

            SSL;
            You said you never mentioned one thing in your post regarding Trump at all.
            Let me refresh your memory
            “So saying that someone is acting out fake theatrics when screaming at the world “How Dare You” is now considered online bullying?”

            I mean who were you talking about if not Trump, as you were replying to my comment on Trump Bullying online?

          • SoftStarLight December 12, 2019 at 3:47 pm #

            I never mentioned Trump in my original post. You mentioned him and now he has become part of the discussion.

          • lilykline December 12, 2019 at 4:04 pm #

            Softstarlight,
            Ok, I think I see now what you meant. And see I can admit if I have misspoke. I was referring to your response to my post. You were saying you didn’t mention Trump in your Original post that came before my comment. Understood. My apologies.

          • SoftStarLight December 12, 2019 at 10:53 pm #

            Oh wow I’m just seeing this now after I commented about how presumptuous I thought you were being upthread. Oopsie lol!

        • lilykline December 12, 2019 at 3:05 pm #

          SSl,
          Yet heads were rolling when this was said at the hearing “Trump can name his son Barron, but not make him a Baron”…Hypocrites.

          • SoftStarLight December 12, 2019 at 3:11 pm #

            Whose head rolled? To my knowledge no one in government has answered for any of their treasonous behaviors.

          • lilykline December 12, 2019 at 3:15 pm #

            Oh SSL,
            Do I really need to break this down again? Everyone was upset about what was said in the hearing about Baron…read above the quote if you forgot. Melania, the press secretary, almost every Republican tweeted how classless, cruel, etc it was for her to say that. They all called her out on it.

          • lilykline December 12, 2019 at 4:02 pm #

            SSL,
            Your response”I never mentioned Trump in my original post. You mentioned him and now he has become part of the discussion”
            My original comment was all about Trump online bullying Greta, and you came back with a bunch of stuff including this ” So saying that someone is acting out fake theatrics when screaming at the world “How Dare You” is now considered online bullying?”
            Ok I guess you didn’t directly say his name but you were responding to mine about Trump bullying, and clearly your comment above was referring to Trump. Case closed.

      • Janos Skorenzy December 12, 2019 at 2:56 pm #

        Rush: The Left doesn’t consider her just a child. They have made this troubled girl into the world’s leading authority on climate change. So as political figure, Trump has every right to take shots at her. So if and when she has a breakdown, it’s on you people, Lilith.

        She is already complaining about too much media attention – especially when the media uncovers her hypocrisies.

        By way of contrast: The early Quakers of England didn’t like the way the Stagecoach industry abused the horses and stable boys. So they refused to have anything to do with it. They walked on their preaching missions throughout the length and breadth of England. Compare this with the Climate Change Leaders, Greta included.

        • lilykline December 12, 2019 at 3:02 pm #

          And of course I’m not surprised by Janos response. Always hateful.

          • Janos Skorenzy December 12, 2019 at 3:09 pm #

            So canned. So trite. So by the numbers. So lilykline!

          • malthuss December 12, 2019 at 6:49 pm #

            he is right. she is a pawn.

        • GreenAlba December 12, 2019 at 6:52 pm #

          “They have made this troubled girl into the world’s leading authority on climate change. ”

          Now, I may have missed something, because I haven’t been following the Greta train, but I don’t recall reading anywhere that she remotely considers herself to be ‘the world’s leading authority on climate change’. She’s taken on the role of figurehead for a youth movement, as far as I can see, which aims to bring attention to the issue of climate change which it doesn’t see adults doing much about it. And she’s right that it’s their future more than that of the adults who aren’t doing anything.

          She doesn’t even have a programme, as far as I’m aware (happy to be corrected on this) – she just wants governments to pay attention to climate scientists and act according to their recommendations. The climate scientists who are ‘the world’s leading authority on climate change‘, not her.

          And for this she has to be vilified by certain cohorts of adult men who can’t cope with a spotlight being shone on their inaction. And their uninformed denial of the problem, in many cases.

          If some of those men got up and offered to have a debate on what can or can’t be done rather than disingenuously claiming there isn’t a problem I’m sure Greta would be happy to oblige. And possibly to learn something too. But that’s now how they want to play it – they prefer scorn, because you don’t need any evidence for that.

          As for ‘troubled’, yes, she seems to be troubled by the lack of action on the issue, as any rational and informed person would be.

          And she does seem quite rational and informed, and pretty damned eloquent in a language that isn’t even her first.

          • malthuss December 12, 2019 at 6:56 pm #

            TIME made her girl of the year, for cripes sake.

            RIB–The only thing you venerate Green Alba is Bill Nye’s —-
            He could have added Niel de GrasseTyson as well.
            BBC.

          • malthuss December 12, 2019 at 6:57 pm #

            oops..Neil. not Niel.

          • GreenAlba December 12, 2019 at 7:48 pm #

            Malthuss

            Your logic escapes me. You seem to be suggesting that a magazine making Greta Thunberg ‘girl of the year’ makes her ‘the world’s leading authority on climate change‘, rather than a plucky teenager pursuing her legitimate concerns.

            I had to look up both Bill Nye and Neil de Grasse Tyson. I can only suggest that perhaps your reason for not understanding the issues in question is that you’ve failed to realise you need to pay attention to what the better informed are saying rather than staring at their balls. I obviously wouldn’t presume to know where your bizarre fetish comes from.

          • Nightowl December 13, 2019 at 3:09 am #

            Guys, she hasn’t been following the “Greta train.”

            LOL.

          • Majella December 13, 2019 at 4:29 am #

            Nightowl

            Quit being such a fucking wanker.

      • SoftStarLight December 12, 2019 at 3:02 pm #

        Why even bother having “childhood” when a child can have an abortion or a sex change on demand? Children are apparently very capable of making decisions that will follow them for the rest of their lives when it comes to those issues. But God forbid if someone simply laughs at an idea or action of theirs’. Then they are a child that needs a safe space from the mean adults. Think through that please.

        • lilykline December 12, 2019 at 3:09 pm #

          SSL,
          Why i still get surprised and disappointed in humanity still is beyond me, every Trump supporter comes up with ridiculous reasons why it’s ok that Trump does this. Mean adults? Its the President, she is a child and just because you don’t believe she is doesn’t make it so. The President shows his fragile ego when he attacks a 16 year old girl. Are you proud of that? Why not just ignore her? Act like an adult maybe?

        • lilykline December 12, 2019 at 3:10 pm #

          Typical Janos again! Always blabbing nonsense! So fun

        • GreenAlba December 12, 2019 at 6:55 pm #

          “But God forbid if someone simply laughs at an idea or action of theirs’.”

          Then laugh at the idea, not the person, and provide scientific evidence for your scorn of the idea. And explain why your think your evidence is better than that of the world’s climate scientists.

          • SoftStarLight December 12, 2019 at 10:57 pm #

            I have provided evidence and it has been met with scorn. But you forget that those with the most funding always win and you are on the team that has been winning.

          • Majella December 13, 2019 at 4:33 am #

            Evidence? What evidence? When provided?

            A link to some Nutjob website? An obscure biblical quote?

            I can’t recall any such offerings from you.

    • EvelynV December 13, 2019 at 3:24 am #

      SSL – you are a pig. Who has the time to read your boring chittering?

  98. sunburstsoldier December 12, 2019 at 11:04 am #

    From Townhall:

    “During debate on articles of impeachment in the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday night, Chairman Jerry Nadler undermined the vote of millions of Americans and said they can’t be trusted to decide who should win the White House in 2020.

    “We cannot rely on an election to solve our problems when the president threatens the very integrity of that election,” Nadler said during his opening statement. “Nor can we sit on our hands while the President undermines our national security—and while he allows his personal interests and the interests of our adversary Russia to advance.”

    For years Democrats like Nadler have accused President Trump of “undermining Democracy” and yet, that’s exactly what they’re doing with impeachment.

    There is zero evidence to justify Nadler’s statement. In fact, Robert Mueller’s Special Counsel investigation found not a single person from the Trump campaign “colluded” with Russians to win the 2016 presidential election. Additionally, President Trump requesting investigations into corruption in Ukraine and Ukrainian efforts to bolster Hillary Clinton in 2016 is not “proof” that the 2020 election should be annulled in advance because Democrats think they’ll lose. ”

    Jerry lets the cat out of the bag…

    • lateStarter December 12, 2019 at 11:44 am #

      And now we have the invisible former AG Eric Holder declairing that Barr is unfit to hold the office. It made me laugh. You just can’t make this stuff up.

      • sunburstsoldier December 12, 2019 at 11:56 am #

        Holder is trying to get ahead of the eight ball. What is the basis of his argument that Barr is unfit for office?

        • sprawlcapital December 12, 2019 at 12:33 pm #

          Barr has a brilliant legal mind. To Holder, that disqualifies him.

      • capt spaulding December 12, 2019 at 12:00 pm #

        Some other stuff that makes me laugh, is watching on you tube as our President mocks New York Times reporter Sege Kovalski by pretending to be handicapped, and then watching that back to back with his on stage imitation of Lisa Page having an orgasm. Watching the leader of our country as he does this is a million laughs, and it takes a lot of class to pull it off, but Trump delivers as usual. And no, you just can’t make this stuff up.

        • sprawlcapital December 12, 2019 at 12:41 pm #

          The Kovalski incident was childish and, to coin a term, deplorable. I have no sympathy for Lisa Page.

        • lateStarter December 12, 2019 at 12:41 pm #

          Which is why I am not coming back to the US. Other places are just as dysfunctional but they don’t try to pretend they are some shining light on the hill. The US resistance postition that they are the good guys is just absurd. It makes me embarrased to be a US citizen. I usually tell everyone I’m Irish.

          • sunburstsoldier December 12, 2019 at 1:26 pm #

            Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater…

          • elysianfield December 12, 2019 at 2:08 pm #

            ” It makes me embarrassed to be a US citizen”

            Well, LateStarter,
            You can walk into any US Embassy and renounce your citizenship.

            What is the value of a mind a peace?

            …everything.

        • Nightowl December 12, 2019 at 1:28 pm #

          He never mocked a reporter for his disability. Yet another fake news story long ago discredited.

          That you repeat it is no surprise.

          • lilykline December 12, 2019 at 2:14 pm #

            Nightowl,
            He did, do you need to see the video of him mocking the reporter? Happy to add the link.

          • Janos Skorenzy December 12, 2019 at 2:59 pm #

            He shook and stuttered like the vicious spaz did. Disabled people often think they can abuse the healthy with impunity. Fuck them.

          • lilykline December 12, 2019 at 3:21 pm #

            Janos your evil hatred still surprises me. He mocked a disabled, and you think it’s ok. At least you acknowledge it happened, there you go Nightowl, even Janos admitted it happened woohoo!

          • lilykline December 12, 2019 at 3:26 pm #

            Janos,
            Here is a word I’m most certain you don’t know what it means, it’s called “Empathy”.
            Something you don’t have, SAD

          • Janos Skorenzy December 12, 2019 at 6:23 pm #

            You’ve never worked in retail or health care. The Disabled are often vicious beyond belief, dripping with a hatred and envy that exceed even yours.

            Watch Sinatra’s movie, “Man with a Golden Arm”, his wife, an invalid, dominated him with guilt. But she was just faking it – she could walk! Just so, many women face the choice between Over-Eating and being an Invalid in a Chair. They choose the latter, and make their chair into a mobile throne. A few men too but this one is mostly a female thing.

          • lilykline December 12, 2019 at 7:42 pm #

            Janos’
            Your comment”You’ve never worked in retail or health care.”
            You must have forgotten our conversation weeks ago where I let you know that I’m a hospice nurse. SO YES I WORK IN HEALTH CARE, I deal with disabled dying people on a daily basis you hateful person. You don’t know anything but choose some Frank Sinatra movie to prove a point. What a genius.

          • Janos Skorenzy December 12, 2019 at 8:30 pm #

            So you should know this evil better than any. But you are too busy building up the grievance coalition, the tyranny of the weak over the strong to even notice or care. Read your Neitzsche again, Lil.

          • lilykline December 12, 2019 at 9:48 pm #

            Janos what happened to you seriously?
            There’s always a few bad apples everywhere, like you, but to say that disabled people are evil, vicious etc is wrong. It’s so sad that you feel that way. Many disabilities are silent, you can’t see them. Many people look healthy, are young, yet you have no idea what is going on inside there body. There not just physically disabled, like walking problems. I have a young, pretty friend and i’m pretty sure if you saw her park in a handicap spot you would probably be one of the people who leaves nasty notes on her car for “Faking” a disability because they “Look” fine. But what you don’t know is that she has a serious life threatening illness but because she doesn’t look like she is on death’s door, the judgement from strangers is unbelievable. And I have no doubt Janos you would be one of them. And it’s really just sad, that could be you one day, and then how would you feel?

          • Nightowl December 13, 2019 at 3:16 am #

            Lily,

            False, it was a narrative.

            There is a video on YouTube (pulled down, of course, but i found a similar link below) showing that he uses the exact same mannerisms any time he is mocking someone he has caught in a lie.

            You’ve been fakenewsed, which is ok, but if you start doubling down things might get really embarassing.

            https://www.catholics4trump.com/even-more-video-evidence-trump-did-not-mock-reporters-disability/

          • Majella December 13, 2019 at 4:39 am #

            Lilykline

            Just forget Skorenzy – he matters less than his defunct political philosophy.

            In fact, he’s living proof of the old adage

            ‘If on any given day, everyone you meet are arseholes, then guess what? YOU’RE the arsehole’.

          • Majella December 13, 2019 at 4:44 am #

            Nightowl

            You link to a religious zealot’s opinion website as evidence? That’s rich…really rich.

          • Nightowl December 13, 2019 at 6:02 am #

            I linked to videos in which the President makes the exact same gesticulations and noises related to the video from the FakeNews story.

            The videos speak for themselves.

            But not everyone is intelligent enough to recognize the obvious.

  99. sunburstsoldier December 12, 2019 at 11:28 am #

    Is that Buckminister Fuller? What’s it all about? Change comes one person at a time simultaneously. Interesting concept. Is this already happening? Sounds like a melding of mysticism and science which kind of describes Fuller’s worldview…

    Support this blog on PatreonSupport this blog on Substack
    Support this blog via Patreon or Substack
  100. beantownbill. December 12, 2019 at 1:02 pm #

    Maybe we ought to bring back the Guardian Angels?

    • elysianfield December 12, 2019 at 2:17 pm #

      “Maybe we ought to bring back the Guardian Angels?”

      Bill,
      Why not the Black Panthers, or the Simbianese Liberation Army ? Why not the KKK? All at times professed lofty motives. There might in each group, have been a period of time when they actually believed they were doing good, or may even have done some good, but lofty ideals suffer the fate of most human endeavors….

      Guardian Angels were just another gang.

      • Janos Skorenzy December 12, 2019 at 3:06 pm #

        Did you see any pictures from the New Jersey shooting? Orthodox Jewish “police” or Shomrim were on the scene. Do Whites have the right to have their own police like this? If not, why not? Indians too. That’s the future – each group having their own little nations and armies. Obviously they will attempt to prevent Whites from having the same rights of course.

        No doubt they alter evidence in favor of their own whenever possible if they get there before the official police.

        • cc rider December 12, 2019 at 4:58 pm #

          I guess you know that Trump signed an EO proclaiming “Judaism” to be a race. And yet there are still morons on CNN and MSNBC who say that Trump is an anti-semite.

          But really, this EO is very disturbing. Most likely it’ll be shot down in federal court. But who knows anymore. Who knows.

          • Janos Skorenzy December 12, 2019 at 6:44 pm #

            Well, it is how Jews think after all. No one asks whether you are observant or practicing if you seek Israeli citizenship. They ask you about your heritage and/or give you a genetic test.

            The real question is why are they getting special treatment.
            “Anti-Semitism” was a crime punishable by death in the old Soviet Union. That’s a hint as to who was in charge of the Revolution, I should think.

            When Blacks attack Jews, they often get “hate crime” added to their sentence. But Whites? Not so much, not so much by a large margin.

        • malthuss December 12, 2019 at 7:01 pm #

          My understanding is much of the anti terror $ from gov goes to them.

          here–

          *Since 2004 15 Jews, including the Pittsburg 11, have been killed in shootings
          PUBLIC SCHOOLS GET NO SECURITY FUNDING FROM HOMELAND SECURITY
          BUT….
          THE JEWS DO
          Jewish groups get security funding despite talk of rollbacks
          The Department of Homeland Security disbursed the funding last week, the vast majority of which goes to Jewish institutions.
          https://www.jpost.com/Diaspora/Jewish-groups-get-security-funding-despite-talk-of-rollbacks-504700
          US Jewish Groups Welcome $60 Million Federal Security Funding …
          https://www.algemeiner.com/…/us-jewish-groups-welcome-60-million-federal-security&#8230;

      • malthuss December 12, 2019 at 6:59 pm #

        symbionese liberation army

        Patty Hearst is into toy dogs at westminister..how yuppy w a puppy.

        • elysianfield December 12, 2019 at 11:13 pm #

          Patty Hearst, victim?
          suggests Stockholm Syndrome, Yes?
          Money walks…always.

  101. bibliomaniac December 12, 2019 at 1:08 pm #

    Here’s a narrative for you: “in Orwell’s dystopia in 1984 there is no word for “science,” because “the empirical method of thought, on which all the scientific achievements of the past were founded,” represents an objective reality that threatens the power of Big Brother to determine what truth is…

    Michiko Kakutani –“The End of Truth”

    The irony will be watching climate-deniers argue with hurricanes.

    • sunburstsoldier December 12, 2019 at 1:24 pm #

      That’s a great point. Thanks for sharing it. Progressives are attempting to deny the existence of a shared objective reality under the rubric of ‘intersectionality’…

    • BackRowHeckler December 12, 2019 at 2:35 pm #

      There weren’t any hurricanes before the Climate Change Hoax was cooked up around 1990, right after the Soviet Union went down and lefties needed something new to believe in.

      Hurricanes are a recent phenomena, 3 decades or so old.

      Brh

      • bibliomaniac December 12, 2019 at 3:06 pm #

        Brh: You might want to check up on your hurricane history.

        1495–Columbus encounters a hurricane in the New World–records it in his journals

        1559–Spanish Fleet is destroyed by a hurricane

        1609–Jamestown colonists compelled to seek refuge in Bermuda after hurricane destroys their ship

        1743 —Ben Franklin undertakes the study of hurricanes

        (But I am sure this is all liberal blather…etc.)

        • BackRowHeckler December 12, 2019 at 3:58 pm #

          Don’t forget the Hurricane of 1635 that slammed into New England, commented on in separate journal entries by William Bradford in Plymouth and John Winthrop in Boston, causing so much damage and destruction that soldiers mentioned seeing it in 1675 during King Phillip’s War, 40 years later.

          Brh

        • Majella December 13, 2019 at 4:49 am #

          Think you missed his sarcasm, Biblio

  102. sunburstsoldier December 12, 2019 at 1:18 pm #

    The ‘crazy one’ strikes again…

    From Townhall:

    Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) tweeted on Thursday how white supremacy was responsible for the deaths in the hours-long shooting in Jersey City. The tweet was later deleted as the alleged gunmen were African-American and one once belonged to a black supremacist group.

    Tlaib was responding to a tweet that detailed the Jewish-Americans who were killed by suspects David Anderson and Francine Graham. 

    “This is heartbreaking,” Tlaib said. “White supremacy kills.”

  103. elysianfield December 12, 2019 at 2:28 pm #

    Well, ladies and germs;

    How many of the readership can identify Trump’s signature campaign music? It is played at every one of his Rallies.

    The sentiment is pretty clever for a supposed dullard.

    • ellipsis December 12, 2019 at 2:34 pm #

      Rumor has it that HRC’s going with Sympathy for the Devil for 2020. Seems appropriate.

      For the winning celebration ball they’re going with this:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iypUpv9xelg

      None other than Bill himself, of course, will be the actual dead man referred to in the song.

      • BackRowHeckler December 12, 2019 at 2:42 pm #

        Not Sir Mix-a-lot’s ‘I like Big Butts’?

        It’s a hip hop classic.

        • ellipsis December 12, 2019 at 2:51 pm #

          Certain “accommodations” had to be made to ensure an HRC victory in 2020 involving immortal souls and the like. Nothing they were using anyway, so it was an easy decision to make.

        • PeteAtomic December 12, 2019 at 3:36 pm #

          LOL!

          nah.. that was the song Jeff & Bill had on while the orgy was happening on the private jet…

        • ellipsis December 13, 2019 at 9:06 am #

          When it comes to big butts, who can forget the words of the immortal Spinal Tap?

          Big Bottom

          Spinal Tap

          The bigger the cushion, the sweeter the pushin’
          That’s what I said
          The looser the waistband, the deeper the quicksand
          Or, so I’ve read.
          My baby fits me like a flesh tuxedo
          I love to sink her with my pink torpedo.

          Big bottom
          Big bottom
          Talk about bum cakes
          My gal’s got ’em.
          Big bottom
          Drive me out of my mind.
          How can I leave this behind?

          I saw her on Monday, twas my lucky bun day
          You know what I mean.
          I love her each weekday, each velvety cheek day
          You know what I mean.
          My love gun’s loaded and she’s in my sights
          Big game’s waiting there inside her tights.

          Big bottom
          Big bottom
          Talk about mud flaps
          My gal’s got ’em.
          Big bottom
          Drive me out of my mind.
          How can I leave this behind?

    • JohnAZ December 12, 2019 at 7:33 pm #

      A dullard that knows that the more people he convinces he is a dullard the easier the campaign is going to be. He made billions in the meat grinder called NYC, if you want to believe he is a dullard, it shows who really is dumb.

      Sidebar

      The man has gotten quite a bit done the first three years, including a tax law that is re mapping the US, against the entire Deep State that dominated every President since Clinton.

      • Majella December 13, 2019 at 4:52 am #

        Yeah – he works it so his adoring cult followers secretly think ‘Gee, I’m actually SMARTER than he is! Yea me!”

        • Nightowl December 13, 2019 at 6:10 am #

          The parallels between Maj and the Trump supporters she imagines in her head are uncanny.

  104. Majella December 12, 2019 at 4:54 pm #

    The railers hereabouts aginst ‘socialism’ as an evil nasty thing really are blinded by their paranoid narrative, when the true evil is the unconscionable wealth inequality that racks society.

    Plutarch put it quite bluntly when he wrote:

    “An imbalance between rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics.”

    Adam Smith wrote in ‘The Wealth of Nations’:

    “Wherever there is great property there is great inequality. For one very rich man there must be at least five hundred poor, and the affluence of the few supposes the indigence of the many.”

    Teddy Roosevelt said:

    “The man of great wealth owes a peculiar obligation to the state because he derives special advantages from the mere existence of government.”

    It’s not an argument of Left v Right (as many hereabouts point out regularly), nor an argument of Republicans v. Democrats (ditto) but about plain, simple justice.

    • benr December 12, 2019 at 5:10 pm #

      What a canard as if there is still not a rich minority under Socialism but now you have less middle class and even larger gimme class.

      Name a country with close to 400 MILLION people that is Socialist and successful.

      • Majella December 12, 2019 at 5:59 pm #

        The US has a fair chunk of socialist policies in place already – shall I name them? I shouldn’t need to…

        I recall the irony of some mind-numbed Tea Party protestor some years ago, carrying a placard saying:

        “Keep your dirty government hands off my social security”. Res ipsa loquitur.

      • Majella December 12, 2019 at 7:02 pm #

        I have to laugh at how often you lot refer to the ‘gimme’ class.

        Can you not see it?

        The Wealthy and Privileged ARE the ‘gimme’ class these days – go read some useful stuff like “Free Lunch” by David Cay Johnston if you’d like to have half a clue as to what the real problem is. The lobbyists work hard for these guys and they get so much in the way of ‘free stuff’ between huge tax cuts, loopholes & ‘bounty’ (that is, private profit from public assets).

        The USA’s population is currently around 329 million – not ‘close to 400 million’ unless you’re including the imaginarily inflated illegal population for dramatic purposes. The actual number of illegals is estimated to be 10.7 million or 3.3% and counted within the 329 million stated.

        In terms of successful democratic socialist economies, let’s combine the European economies and we get to 325 million, or about the same size as the US. Is that enough for you?
        Significantly more pleasant places in which to live than the USA mainly due to the fairer system and smaller wealth/poverty gap.

        And yes – you’re perfectly entitled to get obscenely wealthy in a democratic socialist state – fill your boots! You’ll just be taxed a little more and be restricted in how easily & how often you can screw others for your own benefit (e.g. Walmart employing someone and simultaneously providing information on how to get on welfare to top up their shitty wages).

      • Majella December 12, 2019 at 7:46 pm #

        As to canards, benr, you do a load of ‘quacking’ yourself, mate.

    • sunburstsoldier December 12, 2019 at 5:31 pm #

      There is no other way to ensure sufficient incentive for innovation but through some form of capitalism. Socialism will not address the problem of greedy, exploitative entrepreneurs, rather it will only drive them underground. At least capitalism is amenable to the rule of law whereas socialism is not….

      • Majella December 12, 2019 at 5:56 pm #

        Democratic socialism is NOT non-capitalism. The economies of the democratic socialist nations operate on exactly the same economic capitalist principles, but seek to see the fruits of that economy’s success more evenly spread and inequality reduced.This is Teddy Roosevelt’s view.

        The greedy exploitative entrepreneurs will be driven underground? How would that work SBS? The only model is the world of gangsterism.

        As to the ‘rule of law’, how’s that working out, when the punishment for wrongdoers, especially in the financial sector, are just considered the cost of doing business, while little people get shafted and even the prosecution of wrong-doing provides them no financial redress or compensation?

        • sunburstsoldier December 12, 2019 at 6:48 pm #

          The economic model we have here in the States is not ideal, but it’s the best there is at present (show me a better working model and I’ll gladly sign on). The system works for those who are sufficiently motivated. Admittedly there is the problem of minorities trapped in declining urban centers without access to good jobs, which have largely relocated to the suburbs (at least that’s the case here in Detroit). I fail to see however how Socialism would alleviate this. What I mean by capitalism being amenable to the rule of law is simply that the government does not control the means of production and thus corruption is to some extent minimized.

          • Majella December 12, 2019 at 7:11 pm #

            SBS – in NONE of the democratic socialist economies mentioned above does the government ‘control the means of production’ – you’re conflating what *I’m* talking about with the utterly failed & debunked command economy of the USSR era.

            “The economic model we have here in the States is not ideal, but it’s the best there is at present (show me a better working model and I’ll gladly sign on).”

            Okay, try these (all of which have some working model of a tax-payer funded free-at-point-of-use healthcare system):

            New Zealand
            Australia
            Great Britain
            Finland
            Sweden
            Norway
            Canada
            Ireland
            Denmark
            France
            Belgium
            Netherlands
            Germany
            Singapore
            …I could go on, but I suspect you get the point.

          • sunburstsoldier December 12, 2019 at 7:19 pm #

            I’m no expert at economics Majella. Someone else would be a better sparing partner for you in this regards. I will say this, innovation is the life blood of civilization, it is what keeps us advancing forward to a more ideal way of life. Thus whichever economic system best serves to foster innovation is the one I will go with whether it be capitalism, socialism, or some hybrid of the two…

          • GreenAlba December 12, 2019 at 7:38 pm #

            I don’t know if anyone’s seen this allegedly viral video of the naivety of some Brits regarding the costs of healthcare in the US.

            It’s an eye-opener. It certainly was for the people interviewed.

            I don’t condone the young woman’s closing expletive, obviously. She seems to hold Trump responsible for the current state of US *cough* healthcare, whereas we all know it took generations of ideology to achieve.

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kll-yYQwmuM&t=214s

          • Majella December 12, 2019 at 7:52 pm #

            SBS

            I was not intentionally throwing shade on you.

            I get really frustrated that so few hereabouts ‘get’ what modern democratic socialism actually IS – that it’s NOT a Soviet-style command economy, that it’s NOT a society full of ‘freeloaders’.

            It’s actual capitalism (not the obscene ‘cronyism’ such as has infected the USA) with a little leavening of giving a shit about EVERY stakeholder in an economy – much like the first example above regarding the buffalo herd or the flock of birds.

            The ‘hybrid’ you refer to is just not that complicated to get to.

          • Majella December 12, 2019 at 7:55 pm #

            GA

            Yes – I saw that last week. Not in the least bit surprised by their surprise.

            It also points to the fact that they (at least these Brits) really don’t have a clue what the actual costs of the NHS are… it might be educative for the hip-replacement recipient to be informed that the NHS has just spent 12,000 quid on them, don’t you think?

          • Janos Skorenzy December 12, 2019 at 8:34 pm #

            Who comes up with Law and enforces it? The Corporations? Private Individuals?

            Your comment is almost too inane to even criticize. As if organizations dedicated to profit are not corrupt. They are corrupt by definition since profit alone is an evil motivation. Read your Gospels.

          • GreenAlba December 12, 2019 at 9:28 pm #

            Majella

            I think it would. There was a suggestion a while ago that it might be a good idea to put the cost of medications on the packet, but it was decided that pointing out what things cost might make people feel they were being got at for needing them!

            There are some people here who get miffed because the doctor isn’t allowed to prescribe medicines that they can get for buttons over the counter, like paracetamol.

            And I don’t know how many times my husband has had to go, with a driver, to a situation where some drunk person with a personality disorder is bawling out of a window about jumping or generally making a loud nuisance of themselves, and there might be four policemen there, and an ambulance crew that’s being kept from something important for an hour while everyone waits for a CPN, with the possibility of wasting 3 hours of multiple professionals’ time to section them, or just to persuade them to behave themselves and go to bed.

            It’s no wonder GPs are leaving in droves. It’s like being an arm of the social work department and everyone’s punchball. Not what youngsters go into medicine for.

            It’s not going to last.

    • JohnAZ December 12, 2019 at 7:54 pm #

      You are right! Income inequality has been solved in the past with revolution, war between nations where one wants what the other has. The Black Death took care of a period of income inequality during the Middle Ages.

      Income inequality comes partly because of talent inequality between peoples. What do you do with folks that just cannot keep up and compete. Socialism is the Leftist answer all the way to income redistribution, taking from the rich to give to the poor. It does not work.

      Taking from the wealth generators to give to the non-generating consumers destroys economies. Governments create zero wealth, they consume wealth. Take away the incentive for wealth creation creates USSRs, Venezuela’s, and Cuba’s.

      The safety net is a necessity for any Christian nation. But the structure of the process needs to point at making people independent instead of dependent. Bottomless welfare, like the Roman mob, terminates civilizations.

      Workfare, like Clinton and Newt Gingrich came up with, where the aim is getting the fallen out person a ladder to climb back up.

      Know why it doesn’t last? Because tapping into the wealth stifles the economy and the nation cannot afford its safety net. Keeping the economy charging on all cylinders solves many problems.

      In other words, keep the damn government out of the public’s pockets.

      And quit importing welfare cases.

      • Majella December 12, 2019 at 8:02 pm #

        JohnAZ

        “Taking from the wealth generators to give to the non-generating consumers destroys economies. Governments create zero wealth, they consume wealth.”

        Not so. Governments provide the infrastructure that the private sector would NEVER invest in – Eisenhower & the Freeway System for example – and scientific advancements in many fields, which are then freely GIVEN to private interests to develop and monetize – GPS, Darpanet, serious orbital-sized rocket engines and so many many more.

        “Take away the incentive for wealth creation creates USSRs, Venezuela’s, and Cuba’s.”

        I could not agree more regarding the USSR – a Command Economy is always going to end in disaster. (However, the Venezuela & Cuba tropes are hackneyed and incorrect, BTW.)

        • JohnAZ December 12, 2019 at 8:45 pm #

          Government should plan, should invest tax dollars into new ideas, then get out of the way and let the wealth creators go to work. This is the way China works today and for the last couple of decades, they have kicked our butt with it.

          Your examples are all areas where the government made investments and allowed the private sector to execute them.

          Politics make the government an inefficient business man. They do not create wealth. But as and idea generator, that is part of their job.

          Sidebar

          The interstate system was a pet project of Eisenhower. He was so impressed by the Autobahn system in Germany that he brought the desire back to the US and built it. NASA was another project that come from Germany. Werner von Braun.

          • Majella December 12, 2019 at 9:37 pm #

            Re: interstate & NASA – yes, Hitler had his moments.

        • BackRowHeckler December 13, 2019 at 9:12 am #

          Three finger shot of Wild Turkey, for breakfast!

          And the day was starting out so good, too.

          Brh

      • sunburstsoldier December 12, 2019 at 8:35 pm #

        Good post John. I would emphasize innovation rather than wealth creation because it is innovation which advances civilization. Wealth is largely ‘mechanical’. It is an external facilitator. Innovation, on the other hand, speaks to the essence of humanity, that inner creative spirit which compels us to confront whatever challenges bar the path to a more ideal soc (as exemplified by JHK).

        • sunburstsoldier December 12, 2019 at 9:11 pm #

          Majella,

          Your vision of democratic socialism is very beautiful and highly idealistic. Yet I must ask, who decides the ‘leavening ‘ process in this system? What checks and balances would be put in place to ensure those responsible for ‘spreading the wealth around’ do not become corrupted by the power they hold? What safeguards would there be to prevent these elites from becoming another Deep State?

        • JohnAZ December 12, 2019 at 9:30 pm #

          Can we agree that wealth is the result of innovation? Think about the migration of wealth to Google, Facebook over the last ten years. Mr. Zuckerberg is a very wealthy young man. Think Jeff Bezos, created a way to effectively distribute good and services, and wealth followed.

          Our society’s problem is that wealth stagnation stops innovation and needs to be recirculated constantly so that new ideas are constantly being generated. I happen to believe in Non punitive progressive taxes are the answer, feeding venture capital sources to stimulate innovation. As the big innovators typically use more of the governments resources, they should pay more taxes.

          Non punitive, meaning that when the degree of taxation of higher incomes starts stifling investment, the scales are changed. The rates are flexible indexed to an index tied to innovation and job creation

  105. cc rider December 12, 2019 at 4:55 pm #

    It’s obvious that the Democrat field of candidates are looking even weaker now than they did six months ago. By the early summer of this coming year Biden will probably be drooling on himself and may even forget his name. The party needs a savior to swoop in and save them. So……Michael Bloomberg. LOL! He’s both a joke and scary. Totally out of touch with “flyover country” in which many swing states are. No amount of high dollar ads will change the fact that he’s clueless regarding how average folks think and live. Even most Dems despise him. So scratch him.

    Then there’s Hillary. Again……..LOL! Don’t really need to elaborate on her. Scratch her.

    I just can’t think of anyone left who is a heavy weight. No one in the Dem bullpen who can go toe to toe with “Orange Man Bad”.

    Except………..dare I say it? Could this really be a possibility? Oh why not?

    Drum roll please……………

    How about……….The Whistleblower! Yes, I think he’s a brilliant choice! And even though he’ll be running for high office he still won’t reveal his true identity! It would be an historic campaign. He could even appear on the ballot as “The Whistleblower”. Can you just imagine how Trump would deal with this? Whistleblower wouldn’t even show up to debates. He would just type out prepared comments and answers to the canned questions. Liddle Adam Shifty could be assigned to read them on his behalf. No change in role there.

    Oh it would be beautiful. Hey……could the Dems do any worse?

    Now let’s all grab our beads and say the “Hail Whistleblower”:

    “Hail Whistleblower, hidden of face, the deep state is with thee; blessed art thou amongst Spooks, and blessed is the home of thy Scheme….Hallowed Langley.
    Holy Whistleblower, Mysterious Ghoul, pray for the Democrats, now and at the approaching hour of their demise. Amen.”

    • BackRowHeckler December 12, 2019 at 5:14 pm #

      The ‘Whistleblower’ will have to campaign with a brown paper bag over his head to preserve his anonymity. Two eyes hole cut out so he can see will be permitted.

      • JohnAZ December 12, 2019 at 8:09 pm #

        Remember the sports fans with brown bags over their heads because they were ashamed at how bad their team was.

        The Democratic Party.

        A major, huge mistake has been created by the Democrats. Instead of conferences coming up with ideas to boost the economy, create opportunities for immigrants, create legitimate workfare, address AGW with legitimate remedies, etc. they keep trying to impeach the President.

        Wait! Could it be? Could the real destroyer of the Democratic party be, get ready, Trump himself, setting these jokers up for overwhelming defeat next year. Keep egging them on, sit back and watch them commit suicide.

        All you folks that think he is so dumb, ha!

    • cc rider December 12, 2019 at 5:16 pm #

      ….sigh….I do wish there was an edit function on this blog…. The perfectionist in me needs to correct the syntax and grammar in the first sentence:

      It’s obvious that the Democrat field of candidates is looking even weaker now than it did six months ago.

  106. PeteAtomic December 12, 2019 at 6:59 pm #

    One of the best narratives today during the House impeachment melodrama had to have been Gaetz s’ description of Hunter Biden trying to score crack cocaine with the help of a homeless fella.. It was like fear & loathing meets Frank Gallagher from Shameless

  107. PeteAtomic December 12, 2019 at 7:15 pm #

    The democrats arguments for impeachment today were at best illogical, and at the worst, bizarre. One of the impeachers argued that, paraphrasing, the highest of high crimes was the death of 13 Ukrainian servicemen ?? Another impeacher rambled on about jesus, esther, Judas ??? I had trouble following what the flying Fuck they talking about half the time..

    • JohnAZ December 12, 2019 at 8:14 pm #

      That is because they are insane with fear of their own destruction.

      This guy in the WH is going to Drain the Swamp. And they are desperate to stop him. Their panic stricken mode is a good indicator of how effective he is. If a GOP win happens in 2020, the Dems are back at the drawing board. And good things can come from crises.

      • capt spaulding December 12, 2019 at 8:42 pm #

        How you can sit there and say that Trump is going to drain the swamp is a perfect example of how people are able to bullshit themselves. Trump is part of the swamp, and he’s got you gullible types believing him. Not just believing him, but cheering him on.

        All of his cabinet members are known to be against the policies of the very agencies they head. Some were directly employed by the very corporations they are supposed to regulate. Watching the Republicans play you people like a fiddle would be funny if the outcome wasn’t so serious. Drain the swamp huh? You people are unbelievable.

        • JohnAZ December 12, 2019 at 9:13 pm #

          Ha! Who is unbelievable?

          If the Trumpers are such a part of the Deep State, why the hell have they been trying, unsuccessfully, to stop them, to resist everything they are trying to do, even prior to his election.

          One thing for example not being covered yet is a move to decentralize the various departments away from DC to different states. This will be vigorously opposed by the Deep State once the impeachment insanity is over.

          Trump is not a part of or even a friend of any part of the Deep State.

          One thing you might be right about however is that the Trumpers are “trying to drain the swamp” but are not giving anyone a picture of what they want government to morph into. Both sides bitch and moan but have not a clue what they want.

          Right now, the Dem model of socialism needs to be blocked at all costs ImHO.

  108. JohnAZ December 12, 2019 at 8:19 pm #

    GA

    Just saw that Boris Johnson is kicking butt in the elections. I watched Brexit just barely pass years ago and wonder why the backlash from the public is running as it is. With this new Parliament, Brexit is a shoe-in. Do you think folks are basically saying, we voted in Brexit, now do your job.

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    • GreenAlba December 13, 2019 at 7:18 am #

      Several reasons, JohnAZ, including that:

      (1) the Labour Party has been incapacitated for years now by its ineffective leader, whom the bulk of Labour supporters (unlike Labour members) don’t like or trust. If he’d had his arse in gear in 2016 Leave wouldn’t even have won.

      (2) people are fed up with dithering, no matter which way they voted. It was a ‘just get the f*cking thing done – we don’t care any more’ vote, on the part of many people.

      Obviously Brexit is a shoe-in. It was always going to be (I won a fiver from my husband re the margin!). Interesting, though, that the totality of pro-Brexit parties got fewer seats (48%) than the totality of anti-Brexit parties (52%). There’s a thing.

      One has to be grateful for small mercies. It was good to see the Brexit Party get no seats whatsoever, as usual. Nigel Farage (who has tried eight times to get a seat in Parliament) said he was going to spoil his vote, as he doesn’t consider Boris’ Brexit deal to be Brexit. And there wasn’t a Brexit candidate in his constituency. Oh, dear. The British public doesn’t seem to agree. It remains resolutely ‘soft Brexit’ or no Brexit, probably because it likes having a job and some public services.

      To say the First Past the Post system is flawed democracy is an understatement. I noticed you only noticed the election in England and missed that it also happened in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. That kind of attitude is of course why Scotland will doubtless (very sadly and to everyone’s detriment, in my view) opt for independence in due course. Scotland didn’t vote for Brexit, and had been assured loudly by English Tories in 2014 that a vote for remaining in the UK was its best chance of staying in the EU, to the benefit of the economy. Oops.

      Notice also what FPTP does in Scotland (which you missed as being irrelevant…). The Scottish Tories have six seats in the UK Parliament. Nicola Sturgeon has 48 out of 59 seats. My own MP is back to being the Billy No Mates of the Scottish Labour Party as its only representative. Nicola is calling this her mandate for Indyref2.

      And yet, in the Scottish Parliament, which uses PR, she only has 62 seats out of 129 – but interestingly doesn’t use this figure when discussing her ‘mandate’ for Indyref2, even though it is more accurate in terms of reflecting the degree of popular support for her party and for independence. Electoral systems, eh…

      Not that you’d noticed anyway, because England. There we have it.

      Good to see the DUP lost two seats too, which you presumably didn’t notice either. So, more nationalist-plus-neutral members in NI (not that any of them have sat at Stormont for over two years because of their squabbles) than unionist ones. Oh dear.

      Not a good time to be a Unionist anywhere, it would seem. Thank you Brexiters. Law of unintended consequences. I guess my country is destined soon to be the economic backwater of a slightly bigger economic backwater. I’ll have to get back to the hillwalking. 🙂

  109. JohnAZ December 12, 2019 at 8:26 pm #

    Hmmm. Wonder if the election results in England are a predictor of what is going to happen here next year.

    I wonder how the Dems think they are going to get any GOP conviction votes, let alone the 20 they need.

    Come on Hillary, run. I would like to see you be the one that is buried once and for in the Deep State cemetery.

    • PeteAtomic December 12, 2019 at 9:07 pm #

      I think she’ll do it! Power hungry sociopaths just can’t themselves..

      HRC was on Howard Stern recently and claimed she liked men and had never been with another woman. According to Cathy O’Brien, HRC sexually assaulted her back in the 80s. Is it true? no idea.. would I be surprised that this what she is really like? Nope!

      https://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/sociopolitica/sociopol_mindconMKULTRA01.htm

      • PeteAtomic December 12, 2019 at 9:08 pm #

        correction

        ..Power hungry sociopaths just can’t help themselves.. ..

    • BackRowHeckler December 12, 2019 at 10:25 pm #

      JAz

      There won’t be one Republican vote in Congress to impeach, not one.

      In the Senate the Dems may get a single Republican vote to remove the President from office — Romney — but at least 3 Dems will vote with the Repubs. IOW what a colossal waste of time this impeachment effort has been. It will be interesting to see what other sneaky and underhanded BS the Dems have in store for the country in 2020. On the other hand thru all the smoke and fog, the lies and the hate, this impeachment is going down in flames, and Boris Johnson unbelievably has won in the UK. The good guys are coming out on top.

      Brh

  110. cc rider December 12, 2019 at 9:08 pm #

    The legacy MSM is pretty much silent on this:

    On Friday The Gateway Pundit reported on the news that Democrat operative and Robert Mueller chief witness George Nader was indicted for his involvement in illegal campaign contributions from foreign entities to the Hillary campaign in 2016.

    Nader was one of Mueller’s top witnesses and he is a top Democrat donor and convicted child molester.

    https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/california-ceo-and-seven-others-charged-multi-million-dollar-conduit-campaign-contribution

    But there is more to the story:

    Bill Barr on Friday indicted eight individuals for illegally funneling foreign money to Adam Schiff, Hillary Clinton and several Democratic senators.

    https://newsthud.com/bill-barr-indicts-8-for-illegally-funneling-foreign-money-to-adam-schiff-and-multiple-dem-senators/

  111. Pucker December 12, 2019 at 10:41 pm #

    It’d be worth paying a black kid $20 bucks to show up at a Joe Biden event and ask Biden about Hunter Biden. Old Joe would be some old rich white bloke freaking out at a black kid.

    • ellipsis December 13, 2019 at 6:48 am #

      Better yet, a young athletic type who also offers to take up Ol’ Skeezy Joe on his pushups offer. Bet Joe doesn’t wander into the crowd and start running his mouth then.

  112. Pucker December 12, 2019 at 10:43 pm #

    I’ll probably read at least the Executive Summary of the IG FISA Report. I’m a bit curious as to why the MSM made such a big deal deal declaring that the IG did not conclude that there was political bias in the FBI since the first few pages of the Report that I read clearly states that it’s ok to submit information obtained from a dodgy biased source to get a FISA warrant? In fact, it happens all the time. I suspect that it’s a Red Herring and that since political bias alone is not evidence of FBI wrongdoing therefore the IG investigation did not even pursue the issue of political bias. As a result, for the MSM to declare that the IG did not find political bias at the FBI is very dishonest because the IG didn’t even address the issue. They’re very dishonest….. It’s all gaslighting…. I’m not sure that I like this town….

    • Pucker December 12, 2019 at 10:53 pm #

      It’d be like the Health Inspector declaring that he didn’t find any evidence that the food service workers pissed in the cole slaw during a routine inspection because all of the food service workers denied pissing in the cole slaw, and the system is set up so that the restaurant can pass inspection notwithstanding that the food service workers often piss in the cole slaw.

      • Pucker December 12, 2019 at 11:22 pm #

        The food inspection system only works if the food service workers are honest. No one is honest…

      • elysianfield December 12, 2019 at 11:27 pm #

        “the food service workers often piss in the cole slaw.”

        Puck,
        I NEVER eat the Cole Slaw. I order he Hollandaise sauce, instead…better safe than sorry.

        • Pucker December 12, 2019 at 11:37 pm #

          I know a bloke who many years ago used to work in a fried chicken joint. He said that he and his mates used to urinate in the big sink in the back of the kitchen where they mixed the cole slaw in order to get even with the rude customers and management. This didn’t seem to be an obstacle to passing health inspection. It’s like the FISA court process….

          • Majella December 13, 2019 at 12:04 pm #

            Urine is sterile in any case unless the urinator has a unrinary tract infection.

    • SoftStarLight December 13, 2019 at 12:34 am #

      I’m not sure that I like this town…. Do you mean DC?

  113. tucsonspur December 13, 2019 at 2:40 am #

    Mark Steyn said that there’s another Democratic candidate running:

    I. M. Peachment

    Rashida is no Bushido:

    https://nypost.com/2019/12/12/rashida-tlaib-wrongly-claims-white-supremacy-behind-jersey-city-slaughter/

    The Ms. Jackson Lee set up:

    When it was her turn to ask questions of the witnesses, Jackson Lee drew a parallel between President Donald Trump and a monarch.

    “What comparisons can we make between kings, that the framers were afraid of, and the president’s conduct today?” Jackson Lee asked Pamela Karlan, a constitutional law expert and professor at Stanford Law School.

    “While the president can name his son Barron, he can’t make him a baron,” Karlan responded, inciting light laughter in the room. Karlan was one of four legal experts called to testify on the constitutional grounds for presidential impeachment.

    We already know about Maxine Waters.

    A dangerous black trio, a demon like foe.

    Inundation is what we face, flooding over our mighty race.
    Blacks, Browns, even Yellows:

    https://abcnews.go.com/US/11-chinese-migrants-found-hiding-inside-furniture-moving/story?id=67620551

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    • SoftStarLight December 13, 2019 at 9:44 am #

      Yes, the house cannot be saved if it is flooded. Even if you get just a few inches in the house then its all over. That is the biggest story and that will be the determining factor. Who is going to be the Wall Builder? I wish we had an American Nehemiah. But we have Maxine Waters. She is where she is because of our neglect and our tolerance. Clearly she doesn’t have the intellectual capacity for the office she holds but our Affirmative Action mentality allows her to hold a club over peoples’ heads. Foolishness that must be stopped.

  114. tucsonspur December 13, 2019 at 2:56 am #

    Is Graham right? Does he have a hidden agenda?

    https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2019/12/12/graham-impeachment-goal-senate-judiciary-committee/

    He does make a point, but the Republicans better have a rock solid offensive plan for the future if the Dems get a pass here.

  115. tucsonspur December 13, 2019 at 4:57 am #

    Eight more years?

    https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-begun-2024-campaign-eligible-015357541.

  116. benr December 13, 2019 at 9:05 am #

    Boris wins in a LANDSLIDE!
    The conservative movement is afoot in merry old England!
    Seems many brits are tired of the way it has been and good on them!

    • BackRowHeckler December 13, 2019 at 9:17 am #

      We probably won’t be hearing from Green Alba anymore, at least for awhile.

      Brh

      • messianicdruid December 13, 2019 at 10:00 am #

        Oh, ye of little faith, the sincere have voice, always.

    • SoftStarLight December 13, 2019 at 9:38 am #

      Small steps but wonderful steps nonetheless! But the big question for the Conservatives is what are you conserving? The first wave of Populism has been refreshing but it is not enough to save us. We need a complete phase shift in our collective thinking if we are going to preserve European/White identity. Even though Populism is here, all the borders are still open and the migrants a flowin. The Elite still sit in their seats of power. Once they are dethroned and the Walls go up then I personally will be able to rest a little easier.

      • Majella December 13, 2019 at 12:14 pm #

        SSL – sorry, but you’re back to mindless unfounded drivel there.

    • Majella December 13, 2019 at 12:12 pm #

      This is not a ‘change’ election, benr. The Conservatives have been in charge since 2010. It was the dipstick Tory PM David Cameron who gave them the binding Brexit referendum in the first place, believing it would never win, and would shut the nagging “Leave” cohort up once & for all.

      BRH – no idea why you’d think GA would melt away, unless you’ve never actually read (as in comprehended) any of her posts.

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