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True Believers

T here is a special species of idiot at large in the financial media space who believe absolutely in the desperate and tragic public relations bullshit that this society churns out to convince itself that the techno-industrial high life can continue indefinitely, despite the mandates of reality — in particular, the fairy tales about oil: we’re cruising to energy independencethe shale oil “miracle” will keep us driving to WalMart forever… our wells doth overflow as if this were Saudi America… don’t worry, be happy…!

Such a true believer is John Mauldin, the investment hustler and writer of the newsletter Thoughts From the Frontline, who called me out for obloquy in his latest edition. After dissing me, he said:

I have written for years that Peak Oil is nonsense. Longtime readers know that I’m a believer in ever-accelerating technological transformation, but I have to admit I did not see the exponential transformation of the drilling business as it is currently unfolding. The changes are truly breathtaking and have gone largely unnoticed.”

Mauldin is going to be very disappointed when he discovers that the vaunted efficiencies in shale drilling and fracking he’s hyping will only accelerate the depletion of wells which, at best, produce a few hundred barrels of oil a day, and only for the first year, after which they deplete by at least half that rate, and after four years are little better than “stripper” wells. The PR shills at Cambridge Energy Research (Dan Yergin’s propaganda mill for the oil industry) must have pumped a five-gallon jug of Kool-Aid down poor John’s craw. He believes every whopper they spin out — e.g. that “Right now, some US shale operators can break even at $10/barrel.”

The truth is the shale oil industry couldn’t make a profit at $100/barrel. The drilling and fracking boom that began around 2005 was paid for with high-risk, high-yield junk bond financing and other sketchy, poorly collateralized financing. Most of the earnings in the early years of shale oil came from flipping land leases to greater fools. Now that the price of oil has fallen by more than 50 percent in the past year, the prospect dims for that junk financing to be repaid. Since that was “bottom-of-the-barrel” financing, the odds are that the shale producers will have a very hard time finding more borrowed money to keep up the relentless pace of drilling needed to stay ahead of the short depletion rates. They are also running out “sweet spots” that are worth drilling.

We will look back on the shale oil frenzy of 2005 to 2015 as a very interesting industrial stunt borne of desperation. It gave a floundering industry something to do with all its equipment and its trained personnel, and it gave wishful hucksters something to wish for, but it never penciled-out economically. Shale oil production turned down in 2015 and the money will not be there to get the production back to where it was before the price crash. Ever.

Some additional uncomfortable truths should temper the manic fantasies of hypsters like Mauldin. One is that we are no longer in the cheap oil age. All the new oil available now is expensive oil — whether it’s Bakken shale or deep water or arctic oil — and it costs too much for our techno-industrial society to run on. That is why the world financial system is imploding: we can’t borrow enough money from the future to keep this game going, and we can’t pay back the money we’ve already borrowed. We have to get another game going, one consistent with contraction and with much lower energy use. But that is not an acceptable option to the people running things. They are determined to keep the current matrix of rackets going at all costs, and the certain result will be very messy collapse of economies and governments.

Industrial economies face a fatal predicament: Oil above $75/barrel crushes economies; under $75/barrel it crushes oil companies. We’ve oscillated back and forth between those conditions since 2005. The net effect in the USA is that the middle class is rapidly going broke. All the financial shenanigans aimed at propping up Wall Street and Potemkin stock markets was carried out at the expense of the middle class, now deprived of jobs, incomes, vocations, stability, and prospects. They may already be at the point where they can’t afford oil at any price. That “energy deflation” dynamic, in the words of Steve Ludlum at the Economic Undertow blog, is a self-reinforcing feedback loop that beats a path straight to epochal paradigm shift: get smaller, get local, get real, or get out.

The hypsters and hucksters won’t believe this until it jumps up and bites them on the lips. These are the same idiots who believe we are going to continue Happy Motoring by other means — self-driving, all-electric cars — and who think there is some reason for human beings to travel to other planets when we haven’t even demonstrated that we can plausibly continue life on this one.

As I averred last week, America is at the bottom of a self-knowledge low cycle in which we are incapable of constructing a coherent story about what is happening to us. The techno-industrial fiesta was such a special experience that we can’t believe it might be coming to an end. So, one option is to believe stories that have no basis in reality. As Tom McGuane wrote some forty years ago: “Life in the old USA gizzard had changed and only a clown could fail to notice. So being a clown was a possibility.”


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487 Responses to “True Believers”

  1. goat1001 August 17, 2015 at 9:14 am #

    The more the “high tech” oil extraction methods are applied, the higher the immediate extraction rate will be (“America Arabia”) followed by a MUCH STEEPER decline of the depletion curve.

    • Neon Vincent August 17, 2015 at 9:43 am #

      Michigan is getting a preview of the results of the process your describe, albeit for a different reason. A major BP refinery in Whiting, Indiana, went down last week. The ensuing gas price spike prompted outrage. Regular jumped 60 cents at the pump in three days. Michigan’s Attorney General says he will prosecute any instances of price gouging and a state senator pledged to hold hearings on how the loss of one refinery could have such an immediate and serious effect. I’m not optimistic he will figure out that’s a problem with efficiency; it works against robustness and resiliency. Both the AG and the state senator belong to a party that’s in favor of “market solutions” and it was the market that produced this efficient yet fragile system.

      There is a double irony in the timing and effect of the refinery failure. The first and very local one was that prices spiked in time for Dream Cruise, metro Detroit’s nostalgic celebration of happy motoring. Gas got more expensive just as all the gas guzzlers came out to be admired as they formed a slow parade up and down Woodward. The more global one is that the same refinery shutdown that made wholesale gasoline more expensive on the regional spot market has reduced demand for oil even more. Consequently, West Texas Intermediate is testing its lows for the year while prices are up at the pump. That combination is making people in the Midwest even more irked.

      • Greg Knepp August 17, 2015 at 10:38 am #

        The term ‘price gouging’ has always puzzled me. If there is a shortage of a particular commodity, an entrepreneur will need to hike his price on that commodity in order cover his overhead (given a smaller volume). This is only reasonable – basic arithmetic, supply and demand, and the like. In a free market, any actual price gouging would typically be taken care of by normal competitive pressures.

        Why would a conservative ‘free market’ governor call for market controls? And how many huge corporations get branded as ‘price gougers’? Are mom and pop gas station owners to be vilified for supply interruptions over which the exert no control? And why is price gouging only brought up with respect to gasoline shortages? Is our addiction to this substance THAT serious?

        I guess so.

        • K-Dog August 17, 2015 at 11:11 am #

          Yes, the illusion that we are all in this together and that under the right circumstances (an American family crisis) capitalism should morph into socialism only to return to a winner take all position once a crisis has passed.

          I share your mystification even though the emotional roots are explainable.

          • Beryl of Oyl August 17, 2015 at 12:31 pm #

            Didn’t Andrew Cuomo, as Attorney General, prosecute one filling station in Colonie for price gouging? I found that odd, because you could just drive right on by and get gas a few cents cheaper someplace else.

      • Pogo August 17, 2015 at 11:04 am #

        Gas prices jumped here in Minnesota too because of the refinery shutdown. Strange because we have our own Koch brothers refinery (Pine Bend) just 20 miles southeast of Minneapolis. Most of the oil is piped from Canada.

        In your blog you note that News 8 TV station reports:
        “Sen. John Proos says if our supply is so fragile that a breakdown at one refinery can causes prices to spike so dramatically there needs to be an investigation.

        Indeed, we are living in very fragile economic, logistical and environmental circumstances. A small stone tossed in the pond ripples outward, rocking the boat of many. We are all interconnected in ways we cannot fathom.

        Try to imagine the chaos and mayhem that would result from coordinated terrorist attacks on multiple refineries or gas pipelines.

      • wayfarer August 17, 2015 at 11:09 am #

        ‘problem with efficiency; it works against robustness and resilience’,

        Well said. Our supply chain is truly long now.

        • MisterDarling August 17, 2015 at 1:46 pm #

          @ Wayfarer and This Thread,

          “‘problem with efficiency; it works against robustness and resilience” is an Orlovian theme as well (Five Stages of Collapse, pg. 78, “Liar Word: Efficiency”).

          I have an ever-greater appreciation for the Optimization-Resilience insight as the years accumulate. Lack of ‘slack’, ‘contingency reserve’ or ‘excess capacity’ crop up constantly when we do root-cause analysis. Things have become so ‘optimized’ and ‘just-tin-time’ modeled that it only takes a single interruption to derail a supply-chain.

        • russ August 17, 2015 at 2:05 pm #

          A long and tenuous supply chain… for some reason, the Battle of Stalingrad comes to mind.

          The Germans had a far better chance of beating the Soviets there than we do of beating geology and laws of thermodynamics now.

      • michigan_native August 23, 2015 at 9:25 pm #

        I am seeing both the denial and the collapse in action out this way.

        First, the denial. People here (and probably everywhere else) seem completely oblivious to the disasters that loom in their near future. Trends forecaster Gerald Celente has predicted a stock market crash and a world wide panic before the end of this year. That means less than 4 months before countries rush to dump their dollars before they lose what little perceived value they have left. A run on the dollar as a prelude to it getting dumped as the world’s reserve currency of international trade. Oil exporting countries either stop taking the dollar and take a basket of currencies. Either case, life in the US, with all the “dream cruises” and cruising for titties and beer are over with. Yet it seems everywhere I go, the road construction crews are out fixing the roads as if the joyride will never end. The cliff is looking like it’s months ahead yet folks are getting all worked up the elections. If only we elect yet another president things will be alright. That is what passes as being important in people’s lives. Donald Trump. That perv Jared (I liked that joke on facebook that said “don’t worry, Jared, you can get your footlong in here” and showed some angry looking black guy in a prison), that asshole dentist with the tiny penis that shot that lion (Bill Maher did an excellent take on that, google it, you won’t be disappointed), etc etc. While amusing sidenotes, what is missing in people’s lives is any sense of the impending financial and energy disaster that they will somehow have to muddle through, and sooner than they could ever imagine. All the ingredients for collapse seem to be lined up and ready to plunge over that steep cliff. The rocks miles below are jagged, this is going to be very, very painful.

        Todays headlines. The US appears to be provoking North Korea now. The sheer insanity of recent US foreign policy tells me that the neocons are getting desperate and that they are in fact on the brink of collapse. The middle east, Russia, and now the theory is that they are trying to provoke China by saber rattling with North Korea. The military solution that will not work. This winter and the winters over the next 20 years are being forecasted as being brutal. Great. When natural gas starts to run out and the price goes up again, our heating bills will crush any remaining bullshit talk about some nonexistent recovery if the price at the pump doesn’t destroy us first. That and Bruce Jenner is facing one year in jail, and Madonna refuses to play in Russia. I posted on RT that Russians ought to be glad that the wench doesn’t play there, as her music always sucked and from what I was subjected to when I saw her show at one of the last super bowls, appears to be some kind of circus act. I got over a hundred likes on that one in just minutes of time. That’s what is important, not losing your job or your transportation, losing your house or freezing to death in it, the prospect of stripped empty store shelves or no money to buy food, let’s concern ourselves with Donald Trump, the usual mind candy that passes for being relevant.

        Ted dogbreath Nugent came onto the stage of the Kid Rock concert to “support” him. Is this about the Confederate Flag? Let the inbreds have their flag, I would rather wipe my ass with it personally, but this is what passes for news? Don’t care for Kid Rock one way or the other but if he does yet another version of “sweet home Alabama” somebody needs to tell him that his favorite band died in that plane crash in the late 70s and people are getting tired of buying the same shit over and over again….”The best of”, The rest of the best, The best of the worst, the greatest hits, etc etc and on and on. What some people will do to extract the last drops of money from a band that never produced a hit let alone a song worth listening to since the plane crash, yet they still tour, put out more releases of the same old shit, and rip their fans off. Ted Nugent. What can be said of a guy that pisses and shits in his own pants for 2 months or whatever to get out of showing his rabid patriotism on steroids to serve in Vietnam, yet has been a mindless, ardent cheerleader for each and every US foreign intervention since? Easy to cheer others on to get maimed, killed, or screwed when they try to come home when you yourself aren’t willing to go steal resources from other countries or punish them for wanting to dump the US dollar or free themselves from US hegemony. Asshole. Most rational people in MI do not miss him, let the inbreds in Texas have him. Like most southern states, life is cheap down there. He will fit right in with the rednecks and inbreds. I could play guitar better than that talking asswipe in the 8th grade. Turning up the volume to deafening is a piss poor substitute for talent. I would have given anything to see one of his “guitar wars”, where I am told he was stupid enough to bring out none other than Frank Marino. Even the shallow minded pea brained Neanderthal Nugent fans conceded that Marino completely smoked “uncle Ted”, blowing him off the stage.

        Well it’s back to work tomorrow while my job still lasts, we are getting hit in the healthcare field as well. Scale backs. The government regulations and inspectors on steroids, trying to find ways to steal money for broken budgets. The places start to lose money and are on a mission to chase out their seasoned veterans and get fresh, green graduates to work for their “revised” wage scale (ahem, substantially less than what we get). Healthcare imploding, my neighborhood has only 4 original families out of the 20 on my block, the houses are foreclosed upon and sit there. All up and down the roads I take to get to the freeways and my hour long commute are dotted with once thriving businesses now closed down, the local furniture store has had a tent sale all summer long, no interest no payments for 4 years, they pay the sales tax and will lick the ball cheese out of your crotch when you wake up in the morning and still, the only cars in the lot are these worried looking employees. That can’t give the stuff away. Signs and symptoms all around, so obvious to see, yet so few are aware, so few have a clue. Amazing, yet typical for Americans. Let’s admit it, we are amongst the dumbest, vile, ignorant people on the face of the earth, our obesity epidemic aside. Methinks that will be cured involuntarily and in ways that fat people never imagined (slow starvation, increased caloric expenditure from growing your own food). Now for the knees, hips, and backs that are sure to give out from fat, out of shape pigs and slobs trying to grow their own vegetable gardens. Their hair will start to fall out from a protein deficiency (sorry, you vegans, but that bullshit about rice and beans doesn’t work and if you don’t have a source of animal protein, your hair will fall out and your immune system will be compromised, amongst other problems).

        • michigan_native August 24, 2015 at 5:52 am #

          It’s started to reach that critical mass we had all been anticipating.

          Nobody has a clue. My family, the bankruptcy lawyer who is putting me through hell right now (more on that later, I need to get that off my chest and try to warn people of the sheer and utter torture they can expect to go though and also not make the same mistakes that I did), the family of this severely crippled teenager who depends on a ventilator and a tracheostomy to breathe as the muscular dystrophy has progressively paralyzed him to a point where he can’t move his arms and legs and his muscles of respiration deteriorated to the point where he can’t breathe on his own is a case study of denial and a struggling family from a decaying middle class and the amount of shit that the government subjects both the family and the caregivers through because they don’t have any money for crippled, dying children is a testament to just how low American society has sank and why I am tempted to say we so much deserve to collapse.

          Meanwhile, a non youtube link that suggests the big one is finally on the way. And as JHK so accurately and astutely points out, fracking isn’t going to save us. How many ways can you say “we’re fucked”, and how many people actually realize the long and severe consequences of this? The who deny will no longer be able to, but the scapegoats are already being picked out (illegals, those on food assistance, minorities, and now The Russians, Iranians, North Koreans, and I suspect the Chinese when they lock us out of the international oil trade and the 2/3 of energy we need to import).

          Read this and weep. http://kingworldnews.com/panic-chinas-stock-market-crash-continues-down-8-5-as-panic-in-global-markets-accelerates/

    • Layne August 17, 2015 at 11:56 am #

      I’d suggest for JHK and everyone else to watch the fascinating recent documentary “Pump”, regarding alternative fuels.

      • miasmo August 17, 2015 at 3:28 pm #

        It does indeed contain “fascinating” amounts of industry-funded bullshit. I got about half way through it before it became painfully obvious that. It was an infomercial for fracking.

  2. goat1001 August 17, 2015 at 9:18 am #

    Sorry Scotty, there is no “warp power” to run this warped society….

    • K-Dog August 17, 2015 at 10:47 am #

      There is also no teliporter to use to beam up on out of here. No place to boldly go either. Soon we will be stuck in cul-de-sacks without a fill up. Some already are.

      Then the Klingons will come and they are not pretty people.

      • Georges1202 August 17, 2015 at 1:24 pm #

        Is “cul-de-sacks” Oliver Sacks’ annoying half-brother?

        • K-Dog August 17, 2015 at 4:56 pm #

          No connection because my bad it is cul-de sac as in:

          “We’re literally stuck up a cul-de-sac in a cement SUV without a fill-up” – JHK (2005)

          Which was in turn ripped off from:

          “Stuck up a creek in a concrete canoe without a paddle”

          A quote I may not have exactly right but one that comes from Tom McGuane’s ‘Ninety-two in the Shade’ published in (1973) about forty years ago. If you read the book JHK’s statement resembles the actual quote unmistakably.

          Today’s article quote:

          Life in the old USA gizzard had changed and only a clown could fail to notice. So being a clown was a possibility.

          Is from ‘The Bushwhacked Piano’ by Tom McGuane published in (1971). Both are great books as is ‘The Sporting Club’ McGuane’s first novel.

      • S M Tenneshaw August 19, 2015 at 5:14 am #

        Looks as if we’ve gone and shit the bed. We’ve done it before of course, but this may be the very last time.

  3. fred August 17, 2015 at 9:29 am #

    John Mauldin has a lot of kids, seven or so IIRC. People with lots of kids, I have found, are particularly resistant to the Peak Oil message. I see this in my own family.

    • K-Dog August 17, 2015 at 10:39 am #

      Having lots of kids is not frowned upon in America where life is all about me and where I can do whatever I want. That is what most people think freedom is. They are wrong but if you tell them that they will just get angry. You’ve made a good observation fred.

    • Fan of Entropy August 17, 2015 at 2:37 pm #

      I’m curious – why do you think that is the case, fred? I mean, is there something inherent in having a large brood which causes a blind spot where Peak Oil is concerned? Mistrust? Belief in the resilience of family?

      • DrTomSchmidt August 17, 2015 at 9:57 pm #

        Dread that you’ve birthed them into an unmitigated disaster?

      • K-Dog August 18, 2015 at 1:53 am #

        It could mean this:

        Consider that couples with fewer children have more sex. Yet they have fewer kids. How can this be? Could it be that the smaller families know how to use birth control and plan their families?

        The implications are horrendous. Even in a cornucopian garden on a planet rich with all things. Planned families in the long run would devolve the species. It is the logical conclusion because as people not smart enough to use birth control wind up having more kids a feedback happens. These kids don’t go far in school they are dumb. The only talent these kids have is having more kids of their own. Lots of them. lots more than the people who plan. Even in the best of worlds this must happen because this function is an exponential.

        Idiocracy

        happens

  4. DrGonzo August 17, 2015 at 9:36 am #

    I enjoy Kunstler’s writing, but I grow increasingly distressed by his total denial of the fact that the fracking revolution HAS fundamentally changed the equation, for at least the next decade or so.

    I mean, good god: there’s no question that once we slide down the far side of peak oil, the cost of the stuff is going to skyrocket, as there are no indications that global demand for petroleum is going to deflate significantly any time soon.

    And yet: the price of the stuff has been COLLAPSING lately (in case no one noticed). That means a glut. That means over-supply. That means anything BUT a scarcity of the product!

    Duh. And yet there seems to be this weird denial of reality in the peak oil church.

    Don’t get me wrong — I’m totally dismayed by our societal marriage to cheap oil and the soulless suburban wasteland culture it propagates. But I’m not in denial that ‘peak oil’, rather than something seen clearly in our rear view mirror, is still years away in any PRACTICAL sense of changing the Happy Motoring paradigm in which we live. Kunstler, meanwhile, seems wedded to the same mindset he had 10 years ago, even with a complete change in the oil demand/supply reality.

    You’re losing your credibility, JHK.

    • Lawfish August 17, 2015 at 9:47 am #

      So many people believe that “peak oil” means a shortage. By its very definition, peak oil means the greatest amount of oil produced in the history of the planet. Right now we’re around a daily supply of 90 million barrels, with demand just below that. It’s the greatest amount of oil ever produced on this planet, and all producers are pumping full-out. With the frac’ing boom over, it looks like we’re at the plateau, after which will come the long descent, or as JHK calls it, the Long Emergency.

      • DrGonzo August 17, 2015 at 10:43 am #

        If, by definition, peak oil means the greatest amount of oil produced in the history of the planet, then by your definition society has been in peak oil mode for the better part of the last 150 years.

        We’ll only recognize peak oil when we can see it in the rear view mirror. 10 years ago I fully expected to see it by now. And without the fracking revolution, I might have. But as of today, all I’m seeing is growing amounts of oil production flooding the global market. Not exactly an indicator of the ‘end of the oil age’, in my book.

        Sorry — just calling it as I see it.

        • BC_EE August 17, 2015 at 1:18 pm #

          Do your homework. Peak conventional oil occurred in 2005. What has been thrown into the basket qualifying as “oil” has been increasing in content since that time.

          “Refinery gains”? So if I take a cup of cream and whip it up into two cups of whipped cream I now have two cups of cream? That is essentially what refinery gains are measuring.

          Peak oil is the phenomena of diminishing returns – not the tap going dry. The very existence of Fort McMurray and Canadian bitumen is clear evidence of the phenomena. Same for fracking.

          The common saying is its not the size of the tank, its the size of the tap.

      • seawolf77 August 18, 2015 at 2:00 pm #

        The Long Emergency is a clever use of an oxymoron, but it hasn’t really panned out. I personally think we will have to ban the burning of fossil fuel or we’re going to kill the planet. The heat is unbelievable now. The hydrological cycles of the world are collapsing. No more snow, no more snow melt, no more fresh water. California is ground zero. Australia used to be. Black Saturday. 173 people dead because of a wildfire.

    • PostPeakRancher August 17, 2015 at 9:56 am #

      Lawfish beat me to it and is correct. So I’ll just add to his reply. If you look at oil production over the long term the rate of growth in production has slowed tremendously during the previous decade compared to other decades.

      And in case you haven’t noticed, global demand for petroleum products has been declining for a while now. Just look at Europe. Look at the USA up until the past couple of years. Chinese demand (not counting govt purchases to fill strategic reserves) is flat to declining as well.

      • Beryl of Oyl August 17, 2015 at 11:34 am #

        If there was still so much profitability in fracking, Andrew Cuomo would have banned it, imo.

      • MisterDarling August 17, 2015 at 2:07 pm #

        @ ‘Rancher’:

        re | “And in case you haven’t noticed, global demand for petroleum products has been declining for a while now. Just look at Europe. Look at the USA up until the past couple of years. Chinese demand (not counting govt purchases to fill strategic reserves) is flat to declining as well.”-ppr.

        This is correct. Feel free to review my response down-thread.

    • JMR August 17, 2015 at 9:59 am #

      Ever hear of the “Bumpy Plateau”?

      It ain’t going to go up and then down in a perfect bell curve. Gluts and shortages are all symptoms of the peak.

    • Anotherplayaguy August 17, 2015 at 10:12 am #

      Two words: demand destruction.

      Two more: as predicted.

      • MisterDarling August 17, 2015 at 2:08 pm #

        @ Another’:

        Two more: Spot On… 😉

    • DurangoKid August 17, 2015 at 10:38 am #

      Peak Oil also means that the growth phase in oil production is over. At 90 million bbl/day the prospect of 95 million bbl/day looks iffy. It wouldn’t matter if current production is 100 million bbl/day. That production would never reach 105 bbl/day is the buggaboo. It’s the growth phase that is attractive to investors. On the bumpy plateau investors get mixed signals. It becomes increasingly difficult to raise capital. And this is with near zero interest rates. Imagine what it would be like to have to borrow with the prime rate at 5%. On the demand side it’s obvious the growth is not in doing useful work but in speculation and swindles.

      • DrGonzo August 17, 2015 at 10:54 am #

        I also remember very clearly the “observation” — roughly 8 years ago — that global production had ‘peaked’ at 82 mbbl/day. So forgive me if I foster a bit of skepticism over the latest forecast.

        But I hope you’re right. The sooner we can wean this unsustainable economy off of a reliance on cheap oil, the better off we’ll all be. However the rapidly falling price of the stuff this year does not bode well for a successful weaning.

        • chipshot August 17, 2015 at 12:02 pm #

          “The sooner we can wean this unsustainable economy off of a reliance on cheap oil, the better off we’ll all be. However the rapidly falling price of the stuff this year does not bode well for a successful weaning.”

          So true, and a conundrum certain to bite us hard in the form of
          price spikes and/or supply disruptions. Whether in two years or two decades, difficult to imagine how we’ll avoid such a scenario.

          In the meantime, enjoy the best of both worlds (low prices and steady supply) and hope the consequences of increasing CO2 emissions don’t unleash their full fury on a neighborhood near you
          anytime soon.

        • DrTomSchmidt August 17, 2015 at 12:07 pm #

          Global conventional (High-EROEI) oil production has peaked. The increase in “oil” production is NGLs, shale oil, and other unconventional oil substitutes. The problem is, conventional oil conventionally provided 100 units of energy for every one invested in producing it; shale returns about 12units. So for shale oil to provide as much “free” energy to the economy as conventional, you need to produce about 8 barrels of it to replace each barrel of conventional.

          Per-capita miles driven in the USAhave declined every year since 2005, the year of peak conventional oil production. More and more people cannot afford the increasingly expensive oil, either here or globally. Don’t look just at price but instead use a measure of how many hours a worker must labor to buy a barrel of oil. If the price of oil drops 50% but my income drops 75% due to economic contraction, I won’t buy much of it.

          • Frank Warnock August 17, 2015 at 3:26 pm #

            I keep hearing this over and over, but the truth is, the price today is commensurate with 25 years ago, factoring in inflation. Pull up any inflation calculator, and punch in the numbers. A gallon in 1989 was about a buck and a quarter. Factored for inflation, that comes to around $2.40 today, right on target at least here in the mid-Atlantic region.

            So minus some price spikes, how does something that’s stayed essentially the same price over a very long period now suddenly damage the economy?

          • DrTomSchmidt August 17, 2015 at 10:14 pm #

            Energy is this magic substance, Frank. You can use it to transform other, lesser things, into better things. You can use it to allow you to sift a gram of gold out of a ton of rock… until it becomes more valuable than that gram of gold.

            To use energy to transform lower-valued things (like empty land on the exurban frontier) into higher-valued things (like McMansions), you need to have it available at an affordable price. If you take a look at this graph of household income, you’ll find that household income in 1989 was HIGHER than today. That might explain why it looks too expensive; relative to 1989, it is. Relative to 1973, when average wages peaked, it’s a LOT more expensive.

            The other thing is those price spikes. Think about someone on the exurban fringe in 2008, when gas went to my personal high paid, $5.40 near Sequoia National Park. That tipped quite a few marginal people over from paying for their McMansions and also changed the calculus of driving 40-50 miles for work; it destroyed a lot of demand, in other words. People who walked away from houses cannot play the debt-financing game any more; I’d guess they move in with relatives and do a LOT more shared commuting.

            Net/net: price needs to be judged against how much of a laborer’s time goes to pay it. If oil had declined in price, it would be more used now and we as an economy would be functioning better.

          • Frank Warnock August 17, 2015 at 11:00 pm #

            Thanks for the very thoughtful reply, Dr Tom, I’ll definitely read up further on this.

      • seawolf77 August 18, 2015 at 1:53 pm #

        That’s the rub. Low interest rates do not stimulate the economy if the economy is unsound. It is the difference in what the investor believes he can make and the interest rate i.e. if he thinks drilling a well will net him 20% return he’ll pay 5% no problem. He’d probably pay 10%.Today the best investment a company can make is buy back its own shares. That says it all.

    • Frank Warnock August 17, 2015 at 12:36 pm #

      I’m with you, DrGonzo. As a walking and bicycling advocate, the challenge of shifting even a tiny percentage of modeshare has never been more difficult. So much so, I’ve moved on to other things.

      Everything out there indicates that the middle east is literally sitting atop on an ocean of oil. By my observation, folks driving less or buying more efficient vehicles simply isn’t true, unless improved technology in newer trucks and SUVs – resulting in a few more mph – is considered “efficient”.

      Sad but true, my thoughts are that Jim (among other Peak Theorists) are less interested in reality, and more focused on selling books (some I still recommend, largely “Geography of Nowhere).

      Here’s a good read. Excerpt:
      “With ever more oil entering the market and a future seeded with yet more of the same, only an unlikely major boost in demand could halt a further price drop. Although American consumers are driving more and buying bigger vehicles in response to lower gas prices, Europe shows few signs of recovery from its present austerity moment, and China, following a catastrophic stock market contraction in June, is in no position to take up the slack”

      http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/176035/tomgram:_michael_klare,_big_oil_in_retreat/

      • Beryl of Oyl August 17, 2015 at 1:11 pm #

        I like to walk, and when I do drive I drive a smaller, more efficient car, but I’m small myself. A family of two adults, two kids with car seats, and their ‘stuff’, does not fit in a Prius. Americans go for the bigger vehicles many times because they are big people, even if when aren’t fat. I’m not disagreeing with what you are saying at all, I’m just pointing out one of the factors driving the large vehicle sales.
        People buy these big boats for the times when the whole family needs to ride together, and because the days of the mother driving the father to the commuter train station in the station wagon are past, one of the parents in the family ends up having to drive the oversize vehicle back and forth to work every day. Mass transit, as it stands now, doesn’t work for families with kids very well, unless they work and live very near where their kids go to school.

        • Frank Warnock August 17, 2015 at 1:49 pm #

          In terms of comfort and convenience, of course most will go that route. I’m talking more about giant pickup trucks and vehicles that are more about size (pecker size) than anything else. Their presence has notably increased with the advent of cheap gas. Led feet have also increased as a result.

          As an advocate, you don’t advocate that folks give up their cars entirely in favor of alternate means (tho’ that would be nice). The fact is, about 40% of all trips in the U.S. are 2 miles or less – or a distance that can be easily walked or biked in most cases. The goal is to encourage at least some to consider this. They’ve been known to in the past, when gas prices were through the roof (albeit briefly). Boulder, CO (among others) has had so much luck that bicycling is now a regular presence with daily traffic.

    • MisterDarling August 17, 2015 at 2:04 pm #

      @ DrGonzo:

      “And yet: the price of the stuff has been COLLAPSING lately (in case no one noticed). That means a glut. That means over-supply. That means anything BUT a scarcity of the product!”-dr.

      Yes. It means “scarcity” of Demand. Inventories don’t build when Demand is tight. There is no “glut” while demand exists. That is just basic to any understanding of how markets work.

      Tellingly, the collapse of basic commodity prices is not restricted to Oil (et al.) it cuts right across the asset class: Copper, Iron Ore, Coal (both thermal and coke), Nickel & even Timber are flat-lining.

      Underscoring the lack in demand for the basic ingredients of manufacturing, the shipping stats are flat-lined: both the Baltic Dry Index (BDI) and Shanghai Containerization Freight Index (SCFI) are toast.

      SO, if no one’s buying supplies to make things, and things aren’t leaving the shipping-dock, where is the consumer demand to stave off a deflationary down-spiral? There is NO evidence (as of this year) that consumption will revive or increase. The Central Banks of this world can intervene all they want, but they’re ‘pushing rope’…

      JHK is essentially correct.

      • miasmo August 17, 2015 at 4:57 pm #

        In addition to Mr Kunstler’s able explanations, a little dose of Nicole Foss might be helpful: http://www.theautomaticearth.com/2015/08/the-boundaries-and-future-of-solution-space-part-3/

        • sprawlcapital August 19, 2015 at 5:32 pm #

          This is an excellent article. It provides more details about what JHK wrote this week.

          I had a sort of tour de sprawl yesterday: took our 2000 Corolla to the Toyota dealer and the shuttle that drove me to work dropped off some other employees at their places of work, way out in farmland that is in the process of conversion to what are at present widely-spaced office park “developments”.

          It seems central Iowa people are intent upon destroying as much land as possible, as quickly as possible.

          I hope for a collapse of this development model–which has no future–and that the land between these offices and associated parking lots remains not “developed”.

          It’s bad enough when this garbage “development” takes place in the desert of Nevada, but here in Iowa we are talking about the best rain-watered farmland in the world, which makes Des Moines the sprawl capital of the planet.

  5. George August 17, 2015 at 10:09 am #

    “They are determined to keep the current matrix of rackets going at all costs, and the certain result will be very messy collapse of economies and governments.”

    Well yes, that is the future but the collapse you reference is already well underway. And yes, the financial cat’s cradle is imploding, but not just “over there” in Greece. Soon it will be a blockbuster in your neighborhood! A former cabinet level appointee who lives across the street and still is obliged to attend quarterly meetings is predicting a rather significant correction in weeks that will cause lasting “structural” damage.

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  6. K-Dog August 17, 2015 at 10:18 am #

    Idiots only believe what they are told and creepy stories are only listened to once a year; on Halloween. Idiots don’t fact check or they’d not be idiots. Being an idiot as long as you have change in yor pocket is not looked down on in America. Idiots thrive under the red white and blue big top of this fifty state circus. Smart people not so much.

    • K-Dog August 17, 2015 at 10:22 am #

      “Yor’ – Best I can do on an I-phone. My paws are too big. My internet connection is out and ‘idiots’ could be responsible for that!

    • Beryl of Oyl August 17, 2015 at 11:40 am #

      Halloween. When your neighbors suddenly turn into homicidal maniacs and attempt to murder your children with razor blades and poisoned candy.

      • DrTomSchmidt August 17, 2015 at 12:11 pm #

        Neither of those things has ever happened. The one documented case of poisoned candy was a parent trying to kill his own kid for the insurance money.

        • Beryl of Oyl August 17, 2015 at 12:45 pm #

          Oh, I know. But try to tell that to the “safety” crowd, the ones who take their children to the mall to trick-or-treat.
          People from other countries believe that about Americans and Halloween. I tried to explain just what you said to one of them, but he asked a guy from Clifton Park about it, and the guy insisted it really happens, because when he was growing up, a family in his neighborhood was on TV and everything, and the police came, over an apple with a razor blade inserted. There are an awful lot of gullible people out there.

          • DrTomSchmidt August 17, 2015 at 10:18 pm #

            I thought you were a rational one. Thanks for the confirm, Beryl

  7. PeteAtomic August 17, 2015 at 10:18 am #

    As an addition to your post Mr.K, I’ve seen a number of interviews in the last few months with the “techno-futurist” crowd who are predicting all types of miracle type changes in society from biotech and robotic technologies, to name a couple. It’s very heady stuff, and you can tell these individuals have certainly bought into their own fantasist imaginations.
    And look– who wouldn’t want to have something like a replicator from Star Trek? But the problem is that we have an educational system that is wholly unprepared to train anybody past working at Arby’s, and a large and rowdy underclass who are fixated on historical grievance & government subsidies.
    On top of all this, where is the money going to come from for big structural changes, whether it be educational or in another area? The country is in the hole for over 18 trillion. Furthermore, many states get a large percentage of their own budgets from the federal government.
    In another bubble situation which will occur like 2008, there will be a cascading systemic failure from top to bottom.

    • K-Dog August 17, 2015 at 10:26 am #

      Could someone please 3-D print me up a thick char-broiled steak? I’m hungry.

    • elysianfield August 17, 2015 at 11:01 am #

      ” a large and rowdy underclass who are fixated on historical grievance & government subsidies.”

      Gentlemen,
      “Post-peak oil” will be merely an inconvenience….

  8. orbit7er August 17, 2015 at 10:29 am #

    We are in a twilight zone of the last gulps from the punch bowl of Peak Oil and Auto Addiction so that Happy Motoring goes on as if there will be no end to it. Indeed NPR reported this morning that there is now $1 Trillion of auto debt with many people taking out 6 year loans burdened with paying hundreds per month just to pay for their cars let alone run them. With temporarily cheap gas prices mileage driven has taken a slight upturn as shown by Doug Short’s monthly updates for the first time in years. So the delusion continues as Amtrak and the whole NYC metro transit system falls apart for lack of funding. Cuomo, like Christie (both receiving Koch Bros $$$ by the way!) wastes billions on a new autos only Tappan Zee Bridge while Christie chops down trees in the NJ Pinelands to continue widening the Garden State Parkway, At the same time more train alerts that the Midtown Direct trains from New Jersey to NYC are late again and there is cross-honoring of the PATH due to Midtown Direct train problems.
    To show the extent of the self-delusion Flint is all happy that GM is restoring factories there – to produce TRUCKS! As if suburban cowboy/tough guy wannabes are going to be able to afford driving those trucks in a few years. (They have to be good for 6 years to pay off those loans)
    The Auto loans are the new sub-prime granted a loophole as people with no money down gorge on the Auto /Oil addiction punchbowl…
    When the gas prices resume their upward trajectory then what?

    • Helix August 17, 2015 at 11:15 am #

      When gas prices resume their upward trajectory, more and more people on the fringes will use less and less of it. It’s a situation of “only the strong survive”.
      In the end — and this process is going to take a long, long time — it will only be those who have the means to commandeer remaining supplies who will have access to it. In the meantime, first those at the fringes will lose access; then more and more of the average consumers (by then those formerly known as the “working class” and then the “middle class”). After that, it will only be the wealthy and those providing “essential services” — military, police/fire/rescue, agriculture, mass transport. At the last gasp, it will be only the wealthy and well connected, the police, and the military, the latter two of whom will be busy indeed in those days.
      Unless something big intervenes first, of course. But this could play out over a long, long time — perhaps a century or more.

      • Beryl of Oyl August 17, 2015 at 11:52 am #

        Maybe the ‘something big’ will be the people with the declining wages and zero discretionary spending won’t be able to pay ever-increasing taxes to keep the local governments afloat. I see it right now, people’s homes being seized because they couldn’t afford to keep paying for those who in many cases, live elsewhere so they can enjoy lower taxes and well-maintained roads, etc.
        I think this is one reason behind the massive increase in legal immigration, they pack ’em in, and SOMEBODY pays the taxes on the property, even if it’s a slumlord receiving a check from the government.

        • Helix August 17, 2015 at 12:38 pm #

          Re: “people with the declining wages and zero discretionary spending won’t be able to pay ever-increasing taxes…”

          Definitely a plausible scenario. While retrenchment will be necessary as we trudge down the backside of Hubbert’s curve, there is a lot of stickiness in the system. Landlords with mortgages taken out when families earned $50K per year at jobs that may not even exist down the road will still have to either make payments out of the rents, which may become impossible, or default, which will spread the problem to lending institutions. And so the dominoes begin to fall. Ditto with property taxes substituting for rents and muni bonds substituting for mortgages.

          Such predicaments will definitely lead to “difficulties” in the retrenchment process. Difficulties that could get ugly.

          That being said, such difficulties will reduce demand for oil — a negative feedback process. Another reason why I think descending Hubbert’s peak will take much longer than one might think.

    • elysianfield August 17, 2015 at 11:36 am #

      “TRUCKS”

      I remember when gas first hit $4.00 at the pumps…Ford, Chevy and Dodge pickups, 1/2 ton, 3/4 ton and 4 wheel drives, of the 60’s and 70’s vintage were being scrapped…good running, clean trucks…people would drive them to the scrap yards and leave them. I saw this a dozen times in my little neck of the woods…very few of those vintage now on the streets. A new pick-up can now cost over $50,000…real cowboy Cadillacs, however, few cowboys can afford them at the $12.00 per hour wage prevalent here.

  9. Smoky Joe August 17, 2015 at 10:35 am #

    Those denying Peak Oil get this comeback from me: “why are we using shale oil if the old light, sweet stuff is still abundant?”

    My antagonists usually do not understand what “light” and “sweet” mean, let alone why extracting and refining heavier oils add to costs.

    Oil is cheap now because Saudi Arabia opened its spigot to crush US producers. They know, as do Americans other than lumpenprole doofuses and Yergin’s CERA shills, that the Saudis are playing a desperate game with production from their giant fields.

    Those fields are well past peak. When the Saudi gambit ends, only Iranian oil coming on market will slow the whiplash of $100+ / barrel prices again. I’d argue that we do have plenty of nonconventional oil left. But one has to pay for it.

    • DurangoKid August 17, 2015 at 10:46 am #

      There’s more a stake in Saudi Arabia than crushing US producers. The population on the Arabian peninsula is hungry and restive. Petro-dollars are what feeds them and keeps them from taking up arms to send the House of Saud packing. Opening the taps is just running to stay even.

  10. joomlabliss August 17, 2015 at 10:39 am #

    DrGonzo – how can you be so naive as to think that the current drop in price is regulated by demand, supply, etc. Oil prices is a highly political construct. Falling prices do not mean that the product is plentiful and nit scarce. Why don’t you read geological data, including gov. reports, not all of them can be trusted, but having read several, you can get a good ideal of where we are. The easily extracted oil has peaked several years ago, on a global scale. From now on it is a downward spiral, and all the turmoil in the world is connected to this predicament. The question is how fast.

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    • DrGonzo August 17, 2015 at 11:03 am #

      I guess I missed the news that the law of supply and demand has been repealed. Does that mean I can now insist the airlines fly me to Paris at whatever price I think represents fair compensation — regardless of what other passengers are willing to pay, or other airlines willing to offer?

      Oh boy.

      • chipshot August 17, 2015 at 12:14 pm #

        Maybe you missed how the price of everything (from commodities to real estate to stocks and bonds) has been affected by 6+ yrs of QE and artificially low interest rates to the point supply and demand are no longer the driving factors they have been pre-2008.

        • Lawfish August 17, 2015 at 1:32 pm #

          Those aren’t changes in supply and demand, they’re factors that influence supply and demand. Cheap financing tends to increase supply. Same with demand. The ability to buy cars at zero interest rates influences demand.

          • MisterDarling August 17, 2015 at 2:34 pm #

            @ Lawfish:

            “Same with demand. The ability to buy cars at zero interest rates influences demand.”-l.

            You still need customers with sufficient INCOME to make payments – especially at subprime (“special finance” in the parlance of the car-lot) rates.

            Ex-that, you don’t have demand for long, all you’ve done is extended and pretended.

          • chipshot August 17, 2015 at 3:08 pm #

            But if supply and demand is influenced by artificial or unnatural forces (such as QE and zirp), isn’t it in itself artificial and not representative of true supply and demand? (i.e., zero interest rates are NOT a result of supply and demand but rather government manipulation of credit markets)

          • Lawfish August 17, 2015 at 3:34 pm #

            I guess, but governments have been passing laws and/or implementing financial policies to influence supply and demand since time immemoriam.

          • miasmo August 17, 2015 at 3:59 pm #

            I think what DrGonzo is failing to grasp is the degree to which financial games can lead to ponzi style investment schemes that temporarily override real world costs and returns. Oil production is being effectively subsidized by a ponzi scheme. When it collapses, production will fall dramatically. Current production is being borrowed from the future. That explains the glut. It’s tomorrow’s oil being extracted today because financial fraud has replaced rational markets.

  11. Oyaji August 17, 2015 at 10:44 am #

    Interesting statistics that I found in a site I just started reading,

    Credo by Brian Davey, back up just how stupid it is to believe in the fracking revolution.

    “As a matter of fact the USA, Russia and Saudi Arabia almost produce an identical amount of oil but look at the difference in the way that they produce it:

    USA = 11.7 MMBl/d, 35,669 wells, 297 million feet
    Russia = 10.9 MMbls/d, 8688 wells, 83 million feet
    Saudi Arabia = 11.4 MMBls/d, 399 wells, 3 million feet [2]

    In order to extract a roughly equivalent amount of oil the US industry has to drill almost 100 times the footage in wells and drill 90 times the number of wells.”

    • newworld August 17, 2015 at 10:49 am #

      Just viewed the EIA website for crude production that is an amazing spike. I presume they did not play games with the definition of crude. Regardless that is amazing from basically just above 5mbd to over 10mbd.

      • seawolf77 August 17, 2015 at 11:59 am #

        Yes it is. We are equal to the 1970 peak oil point. Production was never supposed to be that high again. I for one had always maintained we would never get there. As soon as we did, the price collapsed. What does that mean? I have no idea. One thing I know one thing for sure, especially if you believe how fast these wells deplete: if it took the stairs on the way up, it’ll be an elevator ride on the way down.

    • Pogo August 17, 2015 at 12:14 pm #

      “Credo by Brian Davey, back up just how stupid it is to believe in the fracking revolution.” -Oyaji

      Good summary of the oil situation. Thanks for introducing Brian Davey. I’ll have to get his book. At Smashwords he writes:

      “Originally part of moral philosophy, economics is a ‘gospel’ that human problems can be traced back to ‘scarcity’, with salvation in efficiency, competitive markets, specialisation, technology and growth. In the contemporary world this guiding faith in the pursuit of growth is crashing against ecological boundaries. The economic system is caught in a Catch 22.”

      So there you have it: The Limits of Growth redux. At some point soon, economies can no longer grow and the debt interest that depends on growth cannot be repaid and capitalism will perish.

  12. newworld August 17, 2015 at 10:44 am #

    At Zerohedge if you can tolerate the trolls there is a piece dealing with the financing for the frack oil plays.

    What interests me though this Monday morn is the lack of outrage over Trump’s hard line on immigration. I would have expected NBC/Comcast to basically blare out this morning a “round up the extremists, save our Glorious Leader’s vision for a New America” type headline. Nope.

    • K-Dog August 17, 2015 at 10:56 am #

      Lack of outrage is a good thing, any time Trump is ignored that is good. Being outraged over trump is joining the peanut gallery.

      • Janos Skorenzy August 17, 2015 at 12:50 pm #

        You are caught between your middle aged commonsense and your youthful Leftist Idealism. It seems to be happening a lot lately. You fall into this big gap of nothingness – leaving you with nothing but pomposity. Why? Because you can’t simply admit you utterly wrong you were about almost everything for most of your life. Life just isn’t the way Howard Zinn wrote about. And the 60’s were an ugly anomaly, but the beginning of a Cultural Revolution that has left our cohort behind in its all consuming tide of destruction.

        Life is less intense now – and you miss that rush of self righteous Idealism, the feeling of being better and special. How could you let it go?

        Trump’s Immigration Plan is based on his three principles:

        A nation without borders is not a nation.
        A nation without law is not a nation.
        A nation that does not serve its citizens is not a nation.

        If you can’t endorse these three principles, then you shouldn’t be voting because you aren’t a citizen in any real sense. You have to rectify yourself. You don’t matter. The Principles matter. You have to change to make yourself fit them, not vice versa. Your angry that he took us back to commonsense and not someone else? Someone more sophisticated, with better hair, with real Leftist credentials? I know it’s incredible. Many of us with the same thing on the right hand of things. But both wings of our system are utterly corrupt and sold out. It was left for an Outsider to take us back into the Real World. The Three Principles are nothing new. In fact they’re so basic that they usually would remain unsaid in generations past. But we’re so far gone now that the Basics seems utterly revolutionary.

        • Janos Skorenzy August 17, 2015 at 12:51 pm #

          Here is the Plan itself.

          https://www.donaldjtrump.com/positions/immigration-reform

          • Q. Shtik August 17, 2015 at 2:36 pm #

            It all sounds good to me.

            I wonder who wrote the plan for Trump (I’m sure HE didn’t).

          • K-Dog August 17, 2015 at 4:03 pm #

            Whoever wrote the plan be it good or bad does not matter. We vote for the man and not the plan. Campaign promises are promises promises promises. Nothing more. Trumps elevator may go to the top floor but it gets there slowly and without too much originality. There is little about him for a dog to love, but about that I could be wrong.

          • Janos Skorenzy August 17, 2015 at 6:24 pm #

            He’s been consulting with Jeff Sessions, so perhaps one of his people.

          • Janos Skorenzy August 17, 2015 at 6:26 pm #

            He’s been consulting with Jeff Sessions, so perhaps one of his people.

            It’s offensive that other groups are named as being helped by this but not White Men, but I admit it’s good politics as things stand.

  13. swmnguy August 17, 2015 at 10:55 am #

    America is seeing the collapse of many of our cultural myths. As America’s culture has become dominant globally, everyone gets to share in the disillusionment.

    It’s not just that technology won’t save us. Technology may indeed save us, but not in the way the Cargo Cultists envision. They see technology as allowing us to keep on doing what we have been doing, without consequences. That’s fantasy; magical thinking; a Cargo Cult. What may happen is that technology allows us to survive the collapse of our current way of doing things, living long enough to come up with new approaches that don’t foreclose the future for present-day short-term profit and comfort.

    The same process is happening with Finance. In this, John Mauldin is a great example of a foil. The American system of finance capitalism, using debt at interest as money, is falling apart as has been widely foreseen and explained since its inception. Our system creates debt first, which is abstract, but is then made concrete when repaid with something of actual value, which has to be created to realize and repay the debt. That can only work if the economy expands. There has to be more money, more of value, tomorrow and next year to pay off the debts of today and yesterday.

    A system that begins with abstract debt relies entirely on faith in the future, and in the system. If I don’t have ironclad faith I will have more money next year than I do today, I won’t take out a loan (with any intention to repay it). We see today a decline in demand among people who have any ability or intention to repay debt. The only debt that is growing is among those who cannot and do not intend to pay it back.

    Meanwhile, we have the absurdity of people claiming we cannot and must not take reasonable steps to head off, ameliorate, or just survive the crisis that looms larger and more immediate; we cannot do what needs to be done because it will be “too expensive,” or will “kill jobs,” or whatever fantastical argument can be made. This is like saying we mustn’t launch the lifeboats off the Titanic because we might scratch the paint on the hull of the ship.

    Solar and wind power are already competitive in price with electricity produced from coal or natural gas. We all understand those sources cannot replace the quantity of power from carbon-based sources, but to not even try is absurd. To not even try because it costs too many contemporary notional debt-coupons is one of the most insane Cargo-Cult rationalizes possible.

    Our Finance system is abstract, not concrete. To use abstract values that have already been shown to be false as arguments against taking concrete actions is insanity. To refer to the “rules” of the current, collapsing financial system as if they were Natural Laws is supremely idiotic. Natural Laws have affected everything on Earth since Creation. Our financial systems change every several hundred years.

    Fracking and the Bond Market have in common that they are absurd responses to physical reality, they’re both collapsing in front of our eyes, and they won’t be the basis of anyone’s survival in what’s developing all around us.

    • K-Dog August 17, 2015 at 11:01 am #

      America is seeing the collapse of many of our cultural myths

      You wish, and I wish it were true.

      But what will replace them anyway? Transexual soup kitchens for the poor; feeding the sexually confused who were once known as straight?

      • Rodster August 17, 2015 at 11:28 am #

        And the thought of Caitlyn Jenner yelling, “no soup for you”.

        • DrTomSchmidt August 17, 2015 at 12:23 pm #

          Oh, that’s excellent!

      • Pogo August 17, 2015 at 12:21 pm #

        “Transexual soup kitchens for the poor…”.
        That gave be a good chuckle this Monday morning, K-Dog. Thanks.

      • swmnguy August 17, 2015 at 12:57 pm #

        We’re certainly not doing a very good job of coming up with a new cultural mythology. That’s the tricky part about fake authenticity (which is something we’re very good at). We have to suspend disbelief somewhat to accept what we know, deep down, is fake. We know McDonald’s serves bad “food” that is bad for us. We like it because we are told to like it, as a part of a whole package of myths that we have decided to agree are more or less positive for us taken as a whole. However, when somebody eats at McDonald’s 3 meals a day and then gets grotesquely fat and sues, we laugh and jeer because in truth we all knew that stuff is garbage and poison for humans. In that we betray our awareness that it’s all fake.

        Same for the gender identity politics being flourished to obscure the fact that social mobility in America is at an all-time low. While the rich get richer and pull up the “Ladder of Success” after themselves, making it less likely today than ever before in America that a child born in the lowest quintile will ever escape that low status, we need to pretend there is still some Opportunity to be had here.

        The Gender thing isn’t going to work because the fact is, 90% of us never think about our gender orientation. Of the 10% of us who do, 50%-70% only think about it because it comes up in conversation. The lesson to be learned as same-sex marriage becomes the law of the land and Bruce Jenner becomes Caitlyn is “NOBODY CARES!!!! IT’S THE OPPOSITE OF A BIG DEAL!!!”

        But the collapse of our economic system is a big deal.

        I’m more concerned that our next mythology is going to be a mystical pseudo/crypto-ethnic thing that involves killing lots of people.

        • Farmer McGregor August 17, 2015 at 1:54 pm #

          “…is going to be a mystical pseudo/crypto-ethnic thing that involves killing lots of people.”

          Had to log in just to give that a hearty ‘Amen’.

        • MisterDarling August 17, 2015 at 2:42 pm #

          @ Swmn’:

          “The Gender thing isn’t going to work because the fact is, 90% of us never think about our gender orientation. Of the 10% of us who do, 50%-70% only think about it because it comes up in conversation. The lesson to be learned as same-sex marriage becomes the law of the land and Bruce Jenner becomes Caitlyn is “NOBODY CARES!!!! IT’S THE OPPOSITE OF A BIG DEAL!!!”

          This is Truth, forsooth…

    • Helix August 17, 2015 at 11:21 am #

      Re: “This is like saying we mustn’t launch the lifeboats off the Titanic because we might scratch the paint on the hull of the ship.”

      I was thinking it was more like saying we mustn’t launch the lifeboats because we might cause panic among the passengers.

      • swmnguy August 17, 2015 at 12:49 pm #

        You’re right. That’s a much better analogy. More disturbing too. Better in every way.

      • Janos Skorenzy August 17, 2015 at 12:54 pm #

        Yes, Janet Reno testified that during the Waco Crisis, she didn’t come into work because she didn’t want to create a crisis.

      • Farmer McGregor August 17, 2015 at 1:55 pm #

        “…like saying we mustn’t launch the lifeboats because we might cause panic among the passengers.”

        Damn! Another hearty ‘Amen’.

    • Beryl of Oyl August 17, 2015 at 11:27 am #

      I’m glad you said that. If there really were all these immutable “laws” of economics and finance, why didn’t the ‘experts’ warn us of what was coming?

      • malthuss August 17, 2015 at 11:35 am #

        Follow the money. Who pays Krugman? He wrote that QE ‘should have been billions more.’

        Well, all these years later it is.

      • Pogo August 17, 2015 at 12:27 pm #

        “why didn’t the ‘experts’ warn us of what was coming?” .

        They did; many of them. The other side of this question is why don’t we listen?

        Chalk it up to the occupational hazard of being a Cassandra: nobody believes you. We all believe what we want to believe and that generally is what the crowd believes. Its hard to be different.

        • Beryl of Oyl August 17, 2015 at 1:21 pm #

          Why didn’t we listen? Maybe because every time we turned on the TV set we heard cheering over the real estate ‘bubble’, as if it was a good thing. It didn’t make sense; how could the price of housing rise higher than people could afford to pay, and how could a building boom continue when after a point, everybody has a house?
          Some people still don’t know what hit us, and I keep hearing about “the recovery” and “adding jobs” or worse, about governments “creating” jobs.

        • MisterDarling August 17, 2015 at 2:58 pm #

          @ Pogo:

          “They did; many of them. The other side of this question is why don’t we listen? ”

          I’ve always been amused when people talk as if things “came out of nowhere” or were “unforeseen”… It’s utter nonsense, but I appreciate them saying that, because they’ve just let me know who I’m dealing with.

    • russ August 17, 2015 at 2:22 pm #

      Very well said, sir.

    • sprawlcapital August 20, 2015 at 3:20 pm #

      Swimn:

      This is like saying we mustn’t launch the lifeboats off the Titanic because we might scratch the paint on the hull of the ship.
      ====================
      You win the prize for best simile of the week, or maybe of the year. (I almost called it a metaphor, but it’s a simile.) Good writing swim!

      Also, Janos, commonsense is an adjective. The noun you wanted is two words: common sense.

      This is a commonsense solution to the illegal immigration problem.

      Donald Trump, or his speech writer, used common sense to formulate the three principles that will solve the illegal immigration problem.

  14. wayfarer August 17, 2015 at 11:34 am #

    ‘True Believers’ are almost always a problem, at the extreme is the young believer who straps a bomb to his belly.

    I wonder to what degree societies also exhibit this behavior. I know individual beliefs can be very difficult to change but are societies the same? Or can leadership quickly change the views of the masses?

    The U.S. has the economic resources for a quick adaptation to a lower energy society but does it have the societal ability?

  15. ozone August 17, 2015 at 11:58 am #

    A good outline of uncomfortable realities by JHK this Monday. I’ve noticed that the more ‘real’ the predicament, the larger the barrage of BS and misdirection by the community of shills. Volume is going up… what does that indicate?

    One thing: Do those who pass on deliberate cornucopian lies about our predicaments realize that they will be tarred with the brush of ‘liar’, and that the line of, “Sadly, I was misinformed” will no longer be accepted by those under duress?

    I really find the job of propaganda disseminator to be a disgusting one. Comfortable ‘lifestyles’ are being nicely padded for these shills; that’s even more disgusting for a truly harmful vocation. People who have not prepared for the coming predicaments, or have not even thought about them will be very much ‘harmed’ by this fairy-dust and sunshine cocktail that’s being blown up their backsides.

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    • russ August 17, 2015 at 2:32 pm #

      Misinformed. I’ve heard that word before – oh yes:

      Captain Renault: What in heaven’s name brought you to Casablanca?

      Rick: My health. I came to Casablanca for the waters.

      Captain Renault: The waters? What waters? We’re in the desert.

      Rick: I was misinformed.

      There will come a Day of Reckoning. Actual, probably several decades of reckoning. We can only hope that the appropriate people get “reckoned” – that’s what’s keeping them up nights now – trying to make sure the innocent get blamed, and not them.

  16. wpa--ccc August 17, 2015 at 12:08 pm #

    “I guess I missed the news that the law of supply and demand has been repealed.” — Dr. Gonzo

    Doesn’t supply and demand only work in ideal economies (i.e., non-existent economies, since the model of prices being determined by supply and demand assumes perfect competition). In the real world there is government economic intervention in the form of subsidies to industries. The law of supply and demand, with regard to the oil industry, was repealed in 1916, which is probably why you missed it, Dr. Gonzo

    In 1916 a new tax provision was passed allowing oil companies to write off dry holes as well as all “intangible drilling costs” in their first year of exploration. Over the next 15 years, oil and gas subsidies averaged $1.9 billion a year in today’s dollars.

    Then, in 1926, Congress approved the “depletion allowance,” which lets oil producers deduct more than a quarter of their gross revenues. Texas Sen. Tom Connally, who sponsored the break, later admitted, “We could have taken a 5 or 10 percent figure, but we grabbed 27.5 percent because we were not only hogs but the odd figure made it appear as though it was scientifically arrived at.”

    So, the oil industry game has been rigged for 100 years. If Big Oil had to pay its own way, without taking money out of taxpayer pockets, it would have collapsed long ago. Renewable sources would have become the most economically viable, and we would not be dependent on oil. We would probably have nationwide passenger rail service and livable cities.

    • DrTomSchmidt August 17, 2015 at 12:34 pm #

      The best proposal for fairly taxing a productive economy is this one from the ArchDruid. For those of you who won’t click the link to read it, he proposes taxing only the financial (“tertiary”) economy, and activities that use goods provided by nature. NO taxes on labor, etc. So, if you use raw materials from the planet, you pay an extraction tax; if you use finance to make profit without producing anything physical, you pay a tax. If you use the produce of the earth to produce something, you pay no tax above the tax on virgin raw materials.

      This would, of course, shift production towards recycling, local production, and organic farming that didn’t strip mine soil fertility to produce “food.” It’s brilliant, would help us back to a real economy, and defund the oligarchy. Maybe we should keep it in mind to use after the whole house of cards collapses.

      • chipshot August 17, 2015 at 7:19 pm #

        I really like that proposal. Think it would do wonders for our economy.

        Taxing capitol gains (making money off of money) at a lower
        rate than labor is one of many asinine trickle-down policies
        in place.

        • DrTomSchmidt August 17, 2015 at 10:28 pm #

          There’s a way for labor to go largely untaxed. Here’s a thought experiment for you: take a married man earning $10,000 and pay him $80,000 in dividends. (Put this all into TurboTax.) Q: What is his Federal Income tax due? A: a number inexpressible in Roman numerals.

          Next, look up subchapter T dividends. You now have a way for laborers to pay NO Federal income tax, and no Medicare/SS except on the first 10K of salary. That would be $1530 of total taxes on $90K in income. That beats Cap gains rate.

    • Pogo August 17, 2015 at 1:00 pm #

      A good summary, wpa–ccc, and educational too. Also, we should recall that oil production was tightly controlled by (why am I not surprised) the Texas Railroad Commission.

      As recently as the 1950’s, the RRC controlled production rates of about 40% of US oil wells. So much for “allowing the market to work”.

      I don’t agree that it would have collapsed long ago (without tax subsidies) but it would certainly be a different ball game. Oil would still have been pumped like hell because we needed to grow the economy and that requires cheap energy. I like your thought that maybe one result would have been better rail service.

      Same story with ethanol. We were dazzled with the promise of “energy independence” without bothering with little details like ethanol tax subsidies of 50 cents per gallon. Taking EROEI into account, it was a losing proposition…and still is. Funny, you don’t hear much anymore about how ethanol is going to save our ass.

    • Hands4u August 17, 2015 at 5:55 pm #

      Some good points. I’m wondering to what point the US and other governments are going to be willing to subsidize oil vampires to maintain political power. I have even thought that it would make more sense for the OV’s to start investing their excess capital in “green energy tech” rather than continue to gamble on dinosaur bones.

  17. seawolf77 August 17, 2015 at 12:08 pm #

    Let’s look at the rumors. Chemtrails are happening. They are putting metal in the air. Those metals reflect sunlight, limiting the heat into our atmosphere. Now if you were an oil company, you know CO2 is bad. You know if the planet heats up too much your product will be banned. Geoengineering is your only option. Now constructing a machine that sucks CO2 out of the air is not an option. The only option is doing it surreptitiously. What better way is there then chemtrails? Can anyone think of a better way? So then what would you do if all this is true. Sell as much of your bad product before the world figures it out. Oil is way worse then heroin. We’re hooked and it is killing us, and we will do anything…rob, steal, murder…to keep the addiction going. Then we’re dead. I mean it is utterly amazing if you know the Annunaki story. Legend has it that the Gods destroyed their atmosphere and needed monatomic gold, which they aerosolized, to spray into their atmosphere to survive.

    • AKlein August 17, 2015 at 1:49 pm #

      Monatomic gold? I thought gold was naturally monatomic, as are all metals.

      • sprawlcapital August 20, 2015 at 3:43 pm #

        Very good, Aklein.

        Diatomic elements include oxygen (O2), hydrogen (H2). nitrogen (N2), and halogens such as chlorine (Cl2) and bromine (Br2).

    • shastatodd August 17, 2015 at 2:21 pm #

      dont be afraid of clouds:

      http://contrailscience.com/

      • malthuss August 17, 2015 at 3:27 pm #

        But I didnt see grids in the sky 20 years ago.

    • russ August 17, 2015 at 2:40 pm #

      “…Now constructing a machine that sucks CO2 out of the air is not an option…”

      Actually, Nature makes such machines. They are called trees. But to plant them, you would have to get rid of the parking lots at the “Mall of the Jumbo Galaxy”. And that interferes with the Gross (and I do mean gross) National Product number, which is key number #1 in all the economic lies we tell each other.

      And we can’t have that.

      • MisterDarling August 17, 2015 at 3:00 pm #

        @ Russ:

        Thank you for this: “Actually, Nature makes such machines. They are called trees.”

        😉

        Cheers!

      • Lawfish August 17, 2015 at 3:40 pm #

        That was spot-on! They paved paradise and put up a parking lot.

    • messianicdruid August 18, 2015 at 10:46 pm #

      “Can anyone think of a better way.”

      Restore the water canopy.

  18. Q. Shtik August 17, 2015 at 12:44 pm #

    In the meantime, enjoy the best of both worlds (low prices and steady supply) and hope the consequences of increasing CO2 emissions don’t unleash their full fury on a neighborhood near you
    anytime soon. – Chipshot

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

    Reporting from central NJ:

    Friday afternoon (3 days ago) we had to fill the car. Each of the 12 lanes at our local Costco had at least 10 cars in its queue. It was 93 degrees outside; I felt sorry for the pump jockeys who never got a second’s break. Regular was going for $2.159/gal. That’s about as cheap as you can get gas around these parts.

  19. Poet August 17, 2015 at 12:50 pm #

    I expect that these weekly columns are whatever comes tumbling out of the author’s head after he awakens sometime between 7 and 9 AM each monday morning. Actually though there is more profound truth in the title of this week’s post than in its content.

    For those interested in exploring the subject of true believers more thoroughly and with less cynical sarcasm, may I suggest Eric Hoffer’s classic:

    “The True Believer: Thoughts On The Nature Of Mass Movements”

    It is 64 years old but just as relevant in today’s dystopian culture as it was in the post-war US where it was first published.

    It can be downloaded for free here:

    https://www.4shared.com/office/P77FTmx2/eric_hoffer_-_true_believer.html

    • Janos Skorenzy August 17, 2015 at 1:01 pm #

      If you’re saying the average individual is almost always wrong about everything, you’re correct. But that means Democracy is invalid so you probably can’t believe what you believe. But of course you will because the alternative is unthinkable – that of becoming a “bad” person who doesn’t “believe” in Democracy.

      You have to be able to catch yourself in the square. Poetry is so often a way to play hide and seek with oneself instead. Thus Plato would crown poets and then send them out of the city. He doesn’t deny their inspiration, only what they do or don’t do with it afterwards.

      • malthuss August 17, 2015 at 3:23 pm #

        Where to Prog2conserve post?

        • Janos Skorenzy August 17, 2015 at 11:11 pm #

          He didn’t say. I think he was afraid we’d follow him there….

      • Poet August 17, 2015 at 6:19 pm #

        Janos–

        For those (including you if such applies) who are too busy or bored to either read or think, I present the following executive summary of Hoffer’s book (which book’s content to read and think about was the purpose of my mentioning it and not any of the other stuff you opined):

        “The book analyzes and attempts to explain the motives of the various types of personalities that give rise to mass movements; why and how mass movements start, progress and end; and the similarities between them, whether religious, political, radical or reactionary.

        Hoffer argues that even when their stated goals or values differ mass movements are interchangeable, that adherents will often flip from one movement to another, and that the motivations for mass movements are interchangeable.

        Thus, religious, nationalist and social movements, whether radical or reactionary, tend to attract the same type of followers, behave in the same way and use the same tactics and rhetorical tools. As examples, the book often refers to Communism, Fascism, National Socialism, Christianity, Protestantism, and Islam.”

        courtesy of Wikipedia

        • Janos Skorenzy August 17, 2015 at 6:31 pm #

          Walls are made of bricks. You can’t have a Nation, Culture, or Civilization without the “little people” and the movement they comprise. Your elitist contempt for them is palpable – a symptom of the general malaise that has settled over all of academia and hipsterdom.

          There are good mass movements as well as bad. And yeah I agree, it depends mostly on the leaders. The flock needs a shepherd or a commissar. But religion can meet needs Communism never can. You’re missing some of the distinctions here.

    • Pogo August 17, 2015 at 2:39 pm #

      Poet:
      I agree “that these weekly columns are whatever comes tumbling out of the author’s head after he awakens sometime between 7 and 9 AM each monday morning”…with the caveat that he may not be fully awake. Just joking. Seriously, how else does anyone write other than what tumbles out.

      When I try to envision Mr. Kunstler at the keyboard, I see him there in his jammies, big coffee mug close at hand, and wondering what the hell kind of meat he’ll toss to the pack today.

      The truth is that CFN is a pack of dogs, let loose by their owners each Monday morning, for a romp around the neighbor to sniff each other and swap a few ideas. Sometimes we veer off but mostly try to pick up the scent and stay with the pack. Yeah, sometimes we nip each other in the hind quarters but mostly just love being here until we are called home. (I think I hear my owner calling now).

      • Poet August 17, 2015 at 6:55 pm #

        Pogo–

        When I envision JHK, I see a very frustrated and annoyed individual whose ire is provoked because (among other things):

        1. This dysfunctional world just keeps teetering along when everything says it ought to have collapsed long ago.

        2. The need to sway the same old thing consistently but differently in spite of so many of his predictions either not materializing or being repudiated by the situation at hand.

        3. His urgent desire to be taken seriously and not viewed as some fulminating curmudgeon engaged in some mid-life crisis therapy.

        Well, at least the eyesore of the month seldom disappoints and is worthy of an over sized glossy coffee table edition (publishing also being that JHK enjoys doing).

        As your namesake once famously observed, “we have met the enemy and he is us”.

      • K-Dog August 18, 2015 at 9:59 pm #

        Sometimes we veer off but mostly try to pick up the scent and stay with the pack. Yeah, sometimes we nip each other in the hind quarters but mostly just love being here until we are called home.”

        An accurate description, I love it!

  20. I AM SULLY August 17, 2015 at 1:04 pm #

    I know Mr. Kunstler that you are famously immune to conspiracy theories, but I do wonder at times given how obtuse our media is whether there is some agenda to simply push “stupidity” as a product. That doesn’t necessarily require a conspiracy, merely a confederacy of dunces.How anyone believes in the infinite cornucopia, at this point, is beyond me.

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    • PuzzlerStill August 17, 2015 at 4:55 pm #

      Loved the novel Confederacy of Dunces, but part of one review reminds me of a certain front-running Republican candidate:

      “However, [readers] who do not feel charmed or amused by a fat, flatulent, gluttonous, loud, lying, hypocritical, self-deceiving, self-centered blowhard who masturbates to memories of a dog and pretends to profundity when he is only full of beans are not likely to survive the first [chapter].”

      • sprawlcapital August 20, 2015 at 5:28 pm #

        @puzzler:

        I read John Kennedy Toole’s Confederacy of Dunces two years ago, and what I mainly got from it was the brilliant attack on psychiatry and “stupid psychiatrists” from whom the protagonist narrowly escapes at the book’s conclusion.

        The main character’s mental “illness”, as he points out, is simply his world view, which he quite rightly refuses to abandon.

        The book is gross in places and a classic. Sad about the author’s early suicide.

  21. wpa--ccc August 17, 2015 at 1:09 pm #

    “These are the same idiots who believe we are going to continue Happy Motoring by other means — self-driving, all-electric cars” –JHK

    That horse has already left the barn. Apple is looking into adquiring an entire abandoned city to be used exclusively for test driving their driverless self-driving cars.

    http://www.techinsider.io/inside-the-gomentum-station-2015-8

    Money does not appear to be a problem and the technology already exists. The electrical recharging infrastructure needs to grow to make it attractive to drivers to drive without gasoline, relying on solar instead. Recharge stations will be ubiquitous. Map: http://www.plugshare.com

    • Pogo August 17, 2015 at 2:18 pm #

      Apple should consider Detroit for testing the self-driving cars. I understand there are entire blocks with either no houses left or just a few. Sounds ideal to me. Check with Neon Vincent for details. Also would be ideal for Amazon to test its drone package delivery scheme.

      When I think of all the things that can go wrong with either of these nutty ideas, I envision a giant herd of happy lawyers with dollar signs where their eyes should be. There will be enough lawsuits to last a generation. Good times are here again!

    • Q. Shtik August 17, 2015 at 3:00 pm #

      How long does it take to recharge?

      • wpa--ccc August 17, 2015 at 7:14 pm #

        30 minutes for a Nissan Leaf… or less depending upon the charging station.

    • Helix August 17, 2015 at 7:57 pm #

      Of course the first question that came into my mind was “who wants a driverless car?”

      The second is “who do you sue when you’re in an accident with a driverless car?”

  22. I AM SULLY August 17, 2015 at 1:13 pm #

    Another great post!

  23. someonetakethewheel August 17, 2015 at 1:15 pm #

    A civilization that thinks it is going to Mars at the same time that large areas of this planet are in long term drought and raging wildfires, to the point of becoming uninhabitable, and has 5 nuclear reactors in full meltdown pouring radiation into the air and oceans is being a trifle over-optimistic.

    Wait a few more years and Mars will come to you in all its desolate glory.

    • AKlein August 17, 2015 at 1:43 pm #

      5 reactors? I know about Fukushima. Where are the other 4?

      • Farmer McGregor August 17, 2015 at 2:10 pm #

        Pretty sure that three of them are AT Fukushima, and Chernobyl had four reactors, but methinks only one failed (though the explosion damaged one other) and the meltdown is ongoing under the “sarcophogus. Don’t know about other…

        Someone?

      • Lawfish August 17, 2015 at 3:43 pm #

        Chernobyl.

        • someonetakethewheel August 17, 2015 at 9:10 pm #

          That covers the largest meltdowns, but ever since the dawn of the “atomic age” there have been a continuing series of “fuel failures” at smaller experimental or military facilities that contaminated the surrounding environment. Plus 3 Mile Island, right here at home.

          Once released radioactive particles cannot be destroyed, instead they slowly (in many cases over thousands of years) self decay into a wide variety of other isotopes, most of which are still radioactive and toxic. These particles “fall out” on oceans and farmland and become part of the foodchain. Many are radioactive versions of chemicals and minerals needed by biological life, and therefore easily absorbed from air, food and water. Never destroyed they are re disbursed by wind and the food chain to kill over and over again.

          The Big Lie about nuclear power and nuclear weapons is well explained here:

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIEzTKO03do

          • someonetakethewheel August 17, 2015 at 9:12 pm #

            Posted because I believe we were talking about true believers and idiots in particular.

  24. MisterDarling August 17, 2015 at 1:33 pm #

    Hello CFN et al.,

    This week’s contribution is one of the more on-par posts serving to align and reinforce JHK’s central themes. I found these passages particularly interesting:

    “The techno-industrial fiesta was such a special experience that we can’t believe it might be coming to an end.”-J H K.

    Yes, it *was* very special indeed, I’m going to miss all the fun and temptation of it. But… the numbers are what they are, and this party’s over.

    That segues nicely to this:

    “Industrial economies face a fatal predicament: Oil above $75/barrel crushes economies; under $75/barrel it crushes oil companies. We’ve oscillated back and forth between those conditions since 2005. The net effect in the USA is that the middle class is rapidly going broke. All the financial shenanigans aimed at propping up Wall Street and Potemkin stock markets was carried out at the expense of the middle class, now deprived of jobs, incomes, vocations, stability, and prospects. They may already be at the point where they can’t afford oil at any price. That “energy deflation” dynamic, in the words of Steve Ludlum at the Economic Undertow blog, is a self-reinforcing feedback loop that beats a path straight to epochal paradigm shift: get smaller, get local, get real, or get out.”-J H K

    Indeed, what’s left of the American Middle Class already cannot afford the future – as that “Special Species of Idiot” project it. That’s what’s so absurd about the whole thing: these “Idiots” don’t seem to listen to themselves and grasp what they’re implying.

    An even bigger head-scratcher are the sheeple who reflexively follow these idiots up the ramp and onto the slaughter-house truck. They don’t seem to grasp that this is their moment – the ‘ranchers’ in this scenario have nothing to offer (other than destruction). Sounds like as good a time as any to go off-script to me!

    The good news is: each twist and turn of this Collapse offers a different kind of opportunity, but one really does have to be quick about jumping on and bailing out.

    Cheers!

  25. Htruth August 17, 2015 at 1:36 pm #

    I believe Mauldin is a member of the Knights of Malta: https://youtu.be/VEA1KAfZplw

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  26. AKlein August 17, 2015 at 1:40 pm #

    I recall several years ago, and several times, JHK’s prediction that as cheap oil became scarcer, we would see wild swings in it’s price. He wrote that as the price increased, demand would drop as it affected the world economies. The falling demand would ultimately drive the price down. This in turn would drive up demand, to be followed by a rising price. Whence the cycle. I believe he called it a “bumpy road” or something similar. He also said various unforeseen events, such as refinery closings, would cause massive price spikes, because of the inelasticity (fragility) of the “system”. Isn’t that we are seeing now? JHK did not predict a smooth downward failure of the oil market, rather quite the opposite. I guess Mother Nature loves to fool the credulous.

    • MisterDarling August 18, 2015 at 7:46 am #

      Hello AK,

      “Whence the cycle. I believe he called it a “bumpy road” or something similar.”

      I called it a ratcheting down at the beginning of this year. Demand collapses, production falls, prices bounce on the basis of short-term ‘shortage’ bump into the macro-economic demand ceiling and collapse again, this time *lower* still.

      WTI Crude closed at $41/bbl… Yep, think we’re there. Next bounce won’t be trading at the $60/bbl handle.

  27. wpa--ccc August 17, 2015 at 1:48 pm #

    America is at the bottom of a self-knowledge low cycle in which we are incapable of constructing a coherent story about what is happening to us. –JHK

    What is presidential hopeful Trump’s position on peak oil? He says he will make America great again, it will be terrific, it will be great, it will be huge, and we should trust Trump… but I have not heard any details from Trump about how this new version of hopium is going to manifest itself.

    I mean we are going to have a wall. It will be the best wall ever. It will be a great wall, a terrific wall, a huge wall. And we should trust Trump that he will have the Mexicans pay for the cost of the wall… but again no details about how Trump is going to have the Mexicans build the wall.

    I understand that you don’t broadcast details to ISIS about how great, how terrific, how huge, the strategy will be to defeat them, we just need to trust Trump on that one… but shouldn’t we know about what Trump has planned for our own country?

    • elysianfield August 17, 2015 at 6:57 pm #

      ” He says he will make America great again”

      Broken middle class

      18+ Trillion dollar public debt

      Crumbling infrastructure

      Corruptible legislators

      Immigration issues

      dysfunctional education system

      Millions in poverty who are pissed off, hate filled, and well armed

      massive hidden unemployment

      massive visible entitlement programs

      Up armored police and for-profit incarceration

      47 million citizens (and others) on food stamps

      Broken healthcare system

      Declining tax bases for cities, counties, states, and Federal coffers

      Unsound banking system

      Eventual loss of dollar hegemony

      Corrupted electoral process

      Private debt at all time high

      A population that has never known REAL privation

      Widespread use of the prevent defense in the NFL…

      Sadly, America will never be great again….

      • messianicdruid August 18, 2015 at 10:59 pm #

        America will survive the United States.

  28. volodya August 17, 2015 at 1:50 pm #

    There’s a lot of fairy-tales out there. They inter-lock in a Matrix-like mental construct where, to survive day-to-day, you’re required to believe or ACT like you believe.

    Just put your head down and keep going and pretend there’s nothing wrong especially if you’re ensnared in the totalitarian world of the corporation.

    What is the Matrix? Don’t ask. Beware of cool-looking hipsters that offer reality. Don’t take the RED pill, take the BLUE pill. Better still, cross the street and avoid them all. They are shit-disturbers.

    And, if black suited agents come calling, just nod and say yes, yes, and sign what they give you.

    Do you believe government produced statistics? Yes? Good.

    Or do you believe that they’re all mathematical fictions, for example, that unemployment numbers utterly defy belief, that inflation numbers have got zero basis in the real world? Oh no, I TOLD you to take the BLUE pill. Too bad. Oh well, what’s done is done.

    “Zero basis”? Yep, especially in the day-to-day world of an ever-increasing proportion of the population stuck in low-paid, “task-rabbit-y” employment if not destitution.

    When food prices are sky-rocketing and 47% (Romney’s number) don’t earn enough to pay income tax, of what relevance is “core” inflation?

    The inflation number that’s relevant to that 47% is the one that fully includes the one thing they need every damn day: food. And never mind the shit that Wall Street peddles about the “long-run”, you don’t just eat in the “long-run”.

    Invisible hand? Blow me. Who gives a fuck about some mythical “invisible hand” and some fable about a future where there’s optimality and all that other phony fucking baloney.

    The hands on the controls aren’t some mystical force of the universe, they’re very visible, they’re in the office towers in a half dozen big cities and they’re in national capitols where they make laws and give legal and political cover.

    How deep in the rabbit hole? It makes no difference which pill you swallow, in the end, you’ll find out whether you want to or not.

    • Janos Skorenzy August 17, 2015 at 2:32 pm #

      Yes when the power fails, all those bodies laying in stasis will awaken to find themselves strung up like turkeys in the baster.

      We are batteries. Our life force keeps “the lights on”, but once the lights go out, we’ll go on. We must become self generators instead of batteries. AC not DC. Instead of just giving until we run out, we must learn to receive as well. Social Justice Warriors are just batteries dying faster than others.

  29. Janos Skorenzy August 17, 2015 at 2:23 pm #

    A nation without borders is not a nation.
    a+b=b+a

    A nation without law is not a nation.
    If a=b, and b=c, then a=c

    A nation that does not serve its own citizens is not a nation.
    a=a

    https://www.donaldjtrump.com/positions/immigration-reform

    Thus the 3rd is the most fundamental. Service and mutual aid come before law and borders since they are the basis of group cohesion. Law and Territory and Borders come after becoming a group – it’s only logical.

    JFK’s famous “Ask not” speech was empty rhetoric of the worst order. A pernicious repudiation of the social contract. He wasn’t a bad man, but he was all over the place. Never one to turn up a flowery phrase, a natural politician.

    • volodya August 17, 2015 at 2:51 pm #

      So you’ve got a problem.

      The problem is that the Oligarchs that run the show and the lackeys that serve them don’t want to know about national borders. Very inconvenient those lines are, especially when it comes to making money.

      See, if you’re talking borders, of necessity you’re talking laws. Otherwise hardly worth bothering with borders. A real pain in the ass laws are. Laws come with penalties for mis-behavior. They keep you from doing all kinds of things for fear of getting caught. What Oligarch wouldn’t love to do away with them?

      There’s another way though. Make yourself exempt from laws. How do you do that? You can make laws exempting yourself. But that’s another pain in the ass. There’s yet another way. Just buy off the sheriff. Which, in the case of Wall Street and its bought and paid-for law-makers and regulators and prosecutors, is exactly what they did.

      • MisterDarling August 17, 2015 at 3:10 pm #

        @ Volodya,

        “The problem is that the Oligarchs that run the show and the lackeys that serve them don’t want to know about national borders. Very inconvenient those lines are, especially when it comes to making money.”-v.

        Yes, that is at the crux of that issue. How strange it is then someone from the Oligarch caste is proposing a Strong Borders policy…

        Hmmm… Volodya? Do you smell something?

        😉

        • Janos Skorenzy August 17, 2015 at 6:37 pm #

          America is too big to be a good prison, but far more troubling is breaking it up into FEMA zones, and also a Non-Constitution zone for a hundred miles all around the edges. Add to that spot checks on interstates and the TSA monitoring Amrak and Greyhound and then yes, we will have a serious problem.

        • volodya August 18, 2015 at 11:00 am #

          Hmmm, yes, very strange.

          I don’t know what you smell but it smells like bullshit to me.

          Even assuming Trump’s on the level, that Trump really IS all for Strong Borders, the question is, so what?

          Let’s say he gets into the Big House and he wants to enact Strong Borders legislation. Both the Senate and House are fully bought and paid for and Oligarch controlled. If he’s not on board with Oligarch priorities, especially and including illegal immigration, Trump won’t be able to pass gas let alone laws that clamp down on illegals.

          Nothing warms the cockles of an Oligarch’s heart more than many millions of docile and marginalized and impoverished people that work for next to nothing. That’s the aim and that’s why, for all the posturing and rhetoric, nothing will get done on the issue. The many millions that crossed the border will stay and they will stay as illegals.

          More likely in my mind is that he’s outdoing Obama in cynicism. Trump is trumpeting all kinds of stuff and when he gets into power none of it will see the light of day. Including and especially Strong Borders.

          If he’s pushed on the issue President Trump will shrug and say, geez, I tried but you know how awkward Congress is.

    • seawolf77 August 17, 2015 at 3:34 pm #

      If free trade is not allowed to pass borders, armies soon will.

      • Janos Skorenzy August 17, 2015 at 6:33 pm #

        There’s nothing free about free trade. It’s a mechanism of globalism. The tariff on the other hand, is a nation builder.

  30. Janos Skorenzy August 17, 2015 at 2:40 pm #

    https://www.numbersusa.com/blog/trump-joins-critical-mass-other-candidates-making-legal-immigration-numbers-big-issue

    Legal immigration is immensely destructive and should be cut to zero for generations. Trump and the others are only conservative compared to the lunatics running the nation. But at least this is a small step in the right direction.

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    • K-Dog August 17, 2015 at 4:12 pm #

      OMFG

      We agree.

      • Janos Skorenzy August 17, 2015 at 11:13 pm #

        Not only do you take the Lord’s name in vain, you do it like a teenage girl!

        If you must do it, try and do it like a pirate. Perhaps Long John Silver could be your guide.

        • K-Dog August 18, 2015 at 11:41 pm #

          ehhhhhhhhh

          ehhhhhhhhh

          It was honest, appropriate and I’m not afraid of becoming Bruce Jenner, are you?

          Your ‘Trump joins critical mass…’ article has this in it:

          “We need to control the admission of new low-earning workers in order to: help wages grow, get teenagers back to work, aid minorities’ rise into the middle class,” f

          Forgetting about what comes after the comma I’ve been saying the exact same thing for twenty years. Not publicly and not to people I don’t know. It hasn’t been P.C. to say it in what passes as the real world. Trump isn’t afraid to say it and I appreciate that.

          Which reminds me POGO got jumped on last week. I don’t know why (cept for pissing in the wind):

          World Population, watch it grow!

          • K-Dog August 18, 2015 at 11:53 pm #

            If you follow the link above and scroll down the page you can see speedometers for:

            Oil pumped today

            Oil left

            Days to the end of oil (now that’s something to talk about)

            Many other interesting indicators too. You have to follow the link if you want numbers.

            “Sometimes we veer off but mostly try to pick up the scent and stay with the pack.”

  31. Q. Shtik August 17, 2015 at 2:53 pm #

    a confederacy of dunces – I AM SULLY

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

    A great novel……… laughed my ass off.

    • K-Dog August 17, 2015 at 11:49 pm #

      Ignatius J. Reilly meets Donald Trump who gets him a job selling steemedweenie’s but under the counter with the buns are what look to be little packets of black and white skin pictures. Upon closer examination the obverse side is seen to be only a ticket. With the right price tickets which entitle one to a private meeting at the new white two-story Washington Trump tower. Presidential seal is on the reverse side.

      • seawolf77 August 18, 2015 at 8:40 am #

        Oh Fortuna you wretched slut.

  32. BackRowHeckler August 17, 2015 at 4:33 pm #

    Still, the price of a gallon of gasoline has gone south, there’s no denying it, and that’s really all Joe Sixpack gives a sh-t about.

    brh

    • wpa--ccc August 17, 2015 at 4:40 pm #

      Will Joe Sixpack give any credit to Obama’s “all options on the table” approach to energy policy? I doubt it. But if gas was $6.00 a gallon it would certainly be Obama to get the blame.

  33. wpa--ccc August 17, 2015 at 4:37 pm #

    “A real pain in the ass laws are. Laws come with penalties for mis-behavior. They keep you from doing all kinds of things for fear of getting caught.” — Volodya

    Really, Volodya? Do the bankers, politicians, and priests know this?

    Aren’t the laws just for the little guys?

    La justicia es para los de ruana.

  34. nsa August 17, 2015 at 4:47 pm #

    It was only inevitable that Mommy Nature would get together with Father Time and evolved a species capable of benefiting from all that easy carbon based energy stored over the eons in the earth’s crust. That’s where you come into the natural scheme of things…. with your F350 diesel dually parked in front of your 5000 sq ft pressed wood palace heated with gas and cooled with electricity….and the Bayliner boat parked in the four car garage along with skidoos, dirt bikes, snowmobiles, riding mowers, leaf blowers. So get on with it and get your share of the cheap carbon energy before it’s all used up and the inevitable die off begins…….

  35. FincaInTheMountains August 17, 2015 at 4:51 pm #

    “I wonder who wrote the plan for Trump (I’m sure HE didn’t)” – Mr.Q

    There is still no doubt in my mind that Trump joined the presidential race at the request of Hillary Clinton as a spoiler a la Ross Perot. And most interestingly at the beginning of this role, he openly sabotaged it by making provocative statements, but when he saw what effect it has on his audience and how fast he is growing in popularity, he seriously became interested in the possibility of becoming President.

    And most importantly some serious people believe in that possibility as well, so now a team of scientists, businessmen and military are being assembled around him. So Trump – this is no joke.

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  36. FincaInTheMountains August 17, 2015 at 5:23 pm #

    “Still, the price of a gallon of gasoline has gone south, there’s no denying it, and that’s really all Joe Sixpack gives a sh-t about.” – brh

    Apparently, notorious Joe Sixpack does not give a sh-t about the worst nuclear crisis compared to which the Cuban Missile Crisis was just a child play in a sandbox that we just managed to avoid thanks to joint efforts of Obama and Putin.

    Both Presidents have agreed on the withdrawal of American troops from the Baltic States and Poland and likely on joint action against the Islamic State. That means that the main source of IS funding, namely illegal sales of Iraqi oil at a fraction of market price may be cut off some time soon, and oil price should stabilize at a higher level.

    Apparently Obama has lived up to a great heritage of his grandfather, JFK. But the Cold War is still on, at least while Hillary is not in jail.

  37. wpa--ccc August 17, 2015 at 5:28 pm #

    Q., here is a video of an actual 500 mile trip which included hills and night driving. The recharge times were 30 minutes. The charging time will go down with advances in charging stations and advances in all-electric vehicles.

    500 Miles in a Day in a Nissan Leaf: Long Distances with an EV

    http://longtailpipe.com/video/500-miles-in-a-day-in-a-nissan-leaf-long-distances-with-an-ev/

  38. deetrump August 17, 2015 at 5:45 pm #

    Q., have you seen the new David Foster Wallace movie? Did you like it?

    ——–

    “A writer who courted contradiction and paradox, who could come on as a curmudgeon and a scold, who emerged from an avant-garde tradition and never retreated into conventional realism, he has been reduced to a wisdom-dispensing sage on the one hand and shorthand for the Writer As Tortured Soul on the other.”

    http://www.vulture.com/2015/06/rewriting-of-david-foster-wallace.html

    • Q. Shtik August 17, 2015 at 10:21 pm #

      It is not playing anywhere near me yet but I intend to see it the moment it arrives.

  39. BackRowHeckler August 17, 2015 at 5:59 pm #

    Somebody mentioned ISIS. Turns out territorial conquest, mass beheadings, mass drownings etc, its all a sideshow. The main event is mass rape, that’s what its all about, preferably of young Christian and Yazide girls, the younger, evidently, the better. What we have here is a rape club for young Muslim men, drawing membership from all over the world.

    brh

  40. BackRowHeckler August 17, 2015 at 6:05 pm #

    No doubt these Gentlemen would go after Jewish girls too, but let them try moving east toward the Israeli border, a few tactical nukes deployed in tandem would end the party for these sonsabitches for all time.

    Mohammeds Rape Club, permanently out of business.

    brh

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  41. FincaInTheMountains August 17, 2015 at 6:17 pm #

    Tanks in Texas

    What are these tanks for and why does this train seem to be carrying hundreds of vehicles normally used in war against a foreign enemy… in the continental United States of America?

    https://www.facebook.com/WNDNews/videos/1065079830170940/?permPage=1

    • MisterDarling August 18, 2015 at 7:38 am #

      Were they going to/from Fort Hood or Fort Bliss? Then it would be completely normal…

  42. PuzzlerStill August 17, 2015 at 6:31 pm #

    Q et al, I loved the novel Confederacy of Dunces, but part of one review reminds me of a certain front-running Republican candidate:

    “However, [readers] who do not feel charmed or amused by a fat, flatulent, gluttonous, loud, lying, hypocritical, self-deceiving, self-centered blowhard who masturbates to memories of a dog and pretends to profundity when he is only full of beans are not likely to survive the first [chapter].”

  43. Q. Shtik August 17, 2015 at 6:41 pm #

    Legal immigration is immensely destructive and should be cut to zero for generations. – Janos

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

    Janos, you’re shooting from the hip here. Let’s quantify your statement. I would take “for generations” to mean 3 or more. A generation in today’s world is usually considered to be 25 years (back in the day when people had children earlier it was 20 years). So, you would allow zero LEGAL immigration for a minimum of 75 years and it goes without saying you would not tolerate ANY ILLEGAL immigration.

    Now, seriously, can you NOT imagine a scenario over the course of 75 years in which the country might literally be begging for immigrants to come here? I can.

    • Janos Skorenzy August 17, 2015 at 11:34 pm #

      Yeah, I can imagine us not begging for immigrants too. We’re over 300 million and already have an unemployment rate of 20% or so. Assuming no collapse, that will rise gradually as more and more jobs are done by robots. And that trend will accelerate in a decade or so. The problem of what to do with people is going to be immense. Obviously they’ll have to be provide with free everything including soma or some kind of soporific intoxicant. Another road to take would to run a wire into the brain to stimulate the pleasure centers of the brain. The current needed would be very small and such addicts (wireheads) would use very little other energy, basically staying “pluggd in” all day or for days. Security measures would have to turn of the current to allow them to sleep, eat, etc. No doubt many addicts would tamper with the device to undo this – assuring themselves a slow and blissful suicide where the energy of their being (Aman) joined the greater energy field of the planet (Brahman).

      Don’t get me wrong: this is nothing I want. It’s the anti-Utopia your choices lead to. I would have veered off from this nightmare generations ago and prevented such a lotus eater existence for the masses.

      Just to retouch your thesis: America closed it’s borders some time early in the 20th century and didn’t reopen them until 1965 or so. Let’s say two generations. Were we ever stronger or more prosperous? And even so, it wasn’t easy. The Italians and Greeks were quite different looking and acting and the Irish had a deep grudge against American’s founding ethne. And again, this when we were strong, needed more people to work, and had a coherent culture that demanded they assimilate. Now we’re supposed to do that with far, far more alien peoples whom we don’t need and when we’ve lost the will to assimilate them and have in fact, nothing to assimilate them to? Face it, you haven’t thought any of it through. Will you at least shell out a few bucks and get Ann Coulter’s book? You have the money I hear. In that way at least, yu and tRump are brothers of another mother.

  44. wholy1 August 17, 2015 at 8:07 pm #

    Any anybody subscribe to the possibility that the, what we are led to believe Saudi instigated oil price plunge, was/is just a ploy to mask the real price plunge cause – DECLINING CONSUMER DEMAND by way of declining economy?

    • MisterDarling August 18, 2015 at 7:34 am #

      Hello Wholy,

      I see demand destruction as the primary reason for the plunge – along with the lunge in the rest of the industrial commodities and shipping stats… Feel free to check my post up-thread.

  45. someonetakethewheel August 17, 2015 at 9:28 pm #

    If gas was now $6 a gallon … our system encourages short term fracking (despite earthquakes and toxics in the aquifers) as both a financial play and to distract the masses from the Larger issues. Its no coincidence that the only shiny spot in the economy is new car sales at no interest rates and “Happy Motoring” at $2.xx a gallon.

    Please notice that we are currently setting new records in (besides temperatures) both vehicular deaths and heroin deaths. Peak anger and peak depression.

    The peeps aren’t happy or optimistic, And they’re hot.

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    • BackRowHeckler August 17, 2015 at 11:09 pm #

      Yes, we are at ‘peak heroin death’ here in CT, not just in dysfunctional and entropic urban centers, but in suburbs, small towns and in the few remaining farming towns, too. What a regrettable cultural development it is, young people (mostly in their 20s and early 30s) OD ing on heroin and dying miserable and pointless deaths.

      a few weeks ago I was getting my haircut and I noticed the barber, a middle ages woman, had a tear in her eye. i asked what was wrong, she said her 19 year old daughter was addicted to heroin and she hadn’t been seen in a few days. She lives in a pretty little rural town on the Mass. border; it doesn’t matter where you live, heroin will find you. Whoever thought a narcotic like heroin would get loose inside ordinary small town Amrica?

      Anybody remember, back in the day, luminaries like Tim Leary and Ken Kesey promoting drugs and drug abuse; 50 years on we’re witnessing the human wreckage of their misguided enthusiasms.

      brh

      • Janos Skorenzy August 17, 2015 at 11:43 pm #

        A small operation to install a jack in the brain which could be plugged in to the wall would save so much time, money, and misery. Those who overdo the current will die quietly and perhaps a monitor could alert authorities before their neighbors complain about the smell.

        Nothing scifi here. They know how to do it. Eight Ape come back to us! We need your guidance.

        Alternately, the current could be combined with drugs and/or music or sound waves for an endless array of inner experiences. Remember the combination of spice and music was often used by Sardarkar on Dune.

        Don’t worry, you will still be allowed to go to work – even though there is no need of it. It’s an addiction like any other and you have the right to get your responsibility high just like anybody else.

        • BackRowHeckler August 18, 2015 at 12:01 am #

          I’m at work now, Jan. How’d you know?

          This heat plays havoc with the printing process; presses down for the moment, a few mechanics working furiously to get them going again.

          Do you have a job, Janos? If not, how do you live?

          For me a job kills 2 birds with one stone. 1) i earn a few bucks here. 2) it gives me something to do, other than hobbies.

          brh

          • malthuss August 18, 2015 at 1:09 am #

            I met a granny on methadone.
            Since USA has invaded Afghanistan, we sure have a lot of heroin.

            Was it Karzais brother who was or is in charge of heroin there?
            Not destroying it, selling it abroad.

          • Janos Skorenzy August 18, 2015 at 3:23 pm #

            I have gone into poverty to preserve my integrity. How much longer I can continue is anyone’s guess.

      • malthuss August 18, 2015 at 1:12 am #

        Leary, Ginsburg, Alpert, Hoffman and Rubin.
        I didnt know Kesey was. I thought he retired to farm.

        I once knew a hippy gal who lived in a 4? floor walk up in Chinatown, NY with a heroin pusher and one of the Rockefeller’s.

        • BackRowHeckler August 18, 2015 at 1:57 am #

          You’re in Cal, Malt?

          That’s where it all started, ‘Brotherhood of Eternal love’, Owsley, Merry Pranksters ‘Can You Pass the Acid Test?”

          brh

          • malthuss August 18, 2015 at 6:12 pm #

            Now its Pills, Heroin, Cocaine.
            The hard stuff.

  46. RocketDoc August 17, 2015 at 11:37 pm #

    I recall a bit differently. The “peak” was supposed to be 88 million/day, reached in in 2008 BUT I looked up IEA and saw 96 million/day for last year. One would have to be an idiot to believe there are limitless supplies and there WILL be a year when it generally falls, but Dr Gonzo’s point seems to me to be true -we are at plateau. Undoubtedly achieved by creative accounting and perhaps by wringing the hell out of fracking fields but I see slight Increases in the IEA numbers since 2010. I like Kunstler’s analysis but think he is just wrong before he is eventually right.

  47. Pucker August 17, 2015 at 11:38 pm #

    Abraham Lincoln at the Lincoln – Douglas Debates in 1858:

    Lincoln: “Anything that argues me into this idea of a perfect social and political equality,” complained Lincoln of Douglas’s innuendos, “is but a specious an fantastic arrangement of words, by which a man can prove a horse chestnut to be a chestnut horse.” Lincoln believed black people “entitled to all the natural rights enumerated in the Declaration of Independence, the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” But “I do not understand that because I do not want a negro woman for a slave I must necessarily have her for a wife. (Cheers and laughter)” So that his horse chestnut should no longer be mistaken for a chestnut horse. Lincoln spelled out his position with clarity: “I am not, nor ever have been in favour of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races, (applause)—that I am not nor ever have been in favour of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the races which I believe will for ever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality.”

    “Battle Cry of Freedom”.

    • Janos Skorenzy August 18, 2015 at 1:59 am #

      Both Jefferson and DeTocqueville said that the two races must separate completely or merge completely – and to Jefferson, the latter was “unthinkable”. But Jefferson’s nightmare is coming true and with it, the end of America since such mulattoes have no capacity to continue the Nation of our birth in any real sense.

  48. Pucker August 18, 2015 at 12:11 am #

    They may have left that part out of the movie “Lincoln”?

  49. Pucker August 18, 2015 at 1:16 am #

    I read that scientists are going to build a prototype fusion reactor, but that at best it will only produce 6 times the amount of energy that it will consume, which I presume won’t yield near enough energy output to replace oil?

    • Helix August 18, 2015 at 11:25 am #

      That’s the theory. But tokomak-style fusion power schemes have consistently been stymied by new and unforeseen issues with plasma containment. Time will tell whether “this time it’s different.”

  50. Pucker August 18, 2015 at 1:30 am #

    It seems that even the extreme egalitarianism of the Cuban revolution was only marginally successful in achieving equality for negroes in Communist Cuba, and today the white people in Cuba still basically run everything. One wonders whether the American delusion of slavery in the early 19th century was any more unrealistic than the delusion of absolute statistical equality between the races today in the US?

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  51. Pucker August 18, 2015 at 1:45 am #

    Lincoln: the idea of perfect social and political equality is a “Horse Chestnut”.

  52. Janos Skorenzy August 18, 2015 at 2:02 am #

    Both Anne Coulter and Kevin MacDonald are well pleased with Trump’s position paper. Only half in jest, Coulter called it “the most important political document since the Magna Carta”.

    Or she might have been completely serious. After all, this is the last chance for America. And as America goes, so the whole West will tend to go.

    http://www.dailystormer.com/kevin-macdonald-on-the-state-of-the-donald/

  53. Pucker August 18, 2015 at 3:38 am #

    Why didn’t Bernie Sanders respond to the Black Lives Matter thugs with “Mokusatsu”?

  54. FincaInTheMountains August 18, 2015 at 4:32 am #

    WSJ: U.S. Officials Invoke Threat to Dollar in Pitching Iran Deal

    The argument is part of an attempt by the administration to press the case that Washington can’t return to the sanctions regime without seriously damaging its credibility with its partners, who are already committed to the nuclear accord.

    Attempting to reinstate such sanctions on Russia, China or Western allies that negotiated with the U.S. “is a recipe very quickly…for the American dollar to cease to be the reserve currency of the world, which is already bubbling out there,” Mr. Kerry said Tuesday in New York.

    http://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-officials-invoke-threat-to-dollar-in-pitching-iran-deal-1439477139

    Kerry understands that the status of the dollar is not a given, but the result of the fact that other countries are willing to tolerate this status.

    It seems that this readiness is becoming smaller and smaller, and therefore the US Secretary of State urged US politicians to speed up the process and not complicate already difficult situation.

    It is hard to disagree with Kerry. For the US, any problems associated with Iran, is a mere trivia compared with the effects of deprivation of the status of the dollar as the dominant world currency.

  55. FincaInTheMountains August 18, 2015 at 5:28 am #

    Austrian intelligence says that American organizations are funding African immigration to Europe

    News of how African and Middle Eastern immigrants are able to pay the costs of immigration is blocked.

    An anonymous employee of the Office of the Austrian Defense under the administration of the Austrian Federal Ministry of Defense said that some groups in the US are paying smugglers to bring more African and Middle Eastern immigrants to Europe.

    “Traffickers demand exorbitant sums to bring the refugees to Europe illegally. The conditions are often very poor, but, nevertheless, transport is currently worth about 7,000-14,000 Euros …” – said the Office of Defense of Austria.

    “There is an understanding that the organizations in the United States have created a model of secrete co-financing of significant amounts of expenditure on human traffickers.”

    “Not every refugee from North Africa has 11,000 Euros in cash. No one asks where the money comes from.”

    http://www.info-direkt.at/insider-die-usa-bezahlen-die-schlepper-nach-europa/

    One of the ways US sabotaging Europe to keep it subordinate to American interests

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    • MisterDarling August 18, 2015 at 8:15 am #

      This is interesting FitM.

      Right now though I’m more interested in the myriad ways that Big Business supports the flow of refugees into the USA from the failed states south of it.

      It still hasn’t dawned on enough people that we have nothing to give them – except borrowed time.

      Cheers!

  56. FincaInTheMountains August 18, 2015 at 6:16 am #

    Rostislav Ishchenko: Population is absolutely clueless

    The current international battles are beyond the understanding of the general public in principle, both because of the lack of appropriate qualifications (including journalists) to evaluate them and, above all, because of the closeness of objective information (in the first place, the content of the negotiations always remains a mystery, and secondly, hardly anyone outside the professional circle understands the “bird language” of official briefings and joint communiqués).

    Most simply do not understand what is happening. And cannot understand, no matter how much it is explained, because to understand the principle of the mechanism is necessary to understand its structure. A large part of the population of any country does not have a clue about the goals, objectives, principles and methods of work, not only of modern highest levels of the state apparatus, but even the passage of administrative decisions at the local government level.

  57. MisterDarling August 18, 2015 at 7:57 am #

    @ CFN et al.,

    We can discuss ‘the market’ at one level as if it were ‘free’ and that *market fundamentals* determined what was or wasn’t in demand – but that’s not entirely true and it hasn’t been for long time. After all, we’re not experiencing Capitalism, we’re seeing the death-throes of Cronyism. The most basic market valuations are distorted by payoffs and subsidies.

    Here’s the most basic subsidy of all:

    http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/may/18/fossil-fuel-companies-getting-10m-a-minute-in-subsidies-says-imf

  58. MisterDarling August 18, 2015 at 8:11 am #

    Oil Is Subsidized at a rate of $10 million/minute.

    Here’s another link, this time from Scientific American:

    http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fossil-fuel-subsidies-cost-5-trillion-annually-and-worsen-pollution/

    If Capitalism were actually allowed to function the world would be a vastly different place. Our currently biggest industries would not exist. In a financial not just moral/ethical sense, they were built on the backs of future generations. The population of the planet would probably be about 1/2 of what it is now, we wouldn’t be staring Climate Change in the eyeball and we’d have accumulated less than half of the wars we did in the past 50 years.

    Proponents of the status quo and it’s continuance aren’t Capitalists, they are parasites. They’re part of the problem.

    “Capitalism takes you into the future… with innovation, failure, and surprise. You invest, you lose your money, you try something different, and you stumble forward. Capitalism is constantly burying its mistakes and discovering tomorrow.

    Cronyism, on the other hand, keeps you in the past. It is today and yesterday trying to stop tomorrow from happening.”-zero hedge.

    On the other hand, I really do not have time for utopian Libertarians who believe (actually they ‘have faith’) in the ‘almighty’ invisible hand. Money appeals to sociopaths. Stripping away institution that hedge against them is simply stupid.

  59. Walter B August 18, 2015 at 9:28 am #

    Growing up as a tail end Baby Boomer I had the good fortune to observe these doped up, drunken dysfunctionals blunder about avoiding reality without getting caught up in the sham. Now that they have all sold out and traded their microbuses for Mercedes after breeding future generations of tattooed, tribal illiterates and have grabbed the reigns of power themselves they have found that they can simply create a reality for the masses while living the high life once again behind the doors of power which once stood in their way. These same doors now shelter them from those who would question them. On one hand they tell us that oil is a non-renewable resource yet they deny it can ever run out. They admit that the “value” of such resources are determined arbitrarily, yet swear that the game is not rigged, but responds to “market” conditions. They have turned the banking and financial systems into Casinos where only the house makes money and the rest of us all suck wind. I have spent an entire lifetime having to see these bags of dirt “skate away on the thin ice of a new day” and I lust for the dawn when they will crash through and sink below the cold waters beneath. America has been sold out and the tribesmen that will inherit the foul wind left behind when the sellouts are gone seem to be well trained to scavenge in the ruins of what society will remain. Good luck kids!

    • sprawlcapital August 21, 2015 at 1:09 am #

      Walter:
      . . . and have grabbed the reigns [reins] of power themselves . . .
      ==========================
      Otherwise a good post.

  60. FincaInTheMountains August 18, 2015 at 9:38 am #

    The decision of the People’s Bank of China’s to devaluate the Yuan noticeably affected the mood of speculators, and almost all world markets. Over the past few days, a few passions subsided, but the questions remain. What this devaluation was needed for?

    First, let’s analyze the two most popular versions of explaining actions of the Chinese central bank. Conventionally, they can be called “official” and “cynical.”

    The “official” version postulates that China has made a decisive step on the path of reforming its currency market in order to increase the chances of inclusion of the Yuan in the list of reserve currencies by the IMF. Chinese officials argue that the devaluation was a one-time and will not be repeated:

    http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/b94b1178-3ffa-11e5-9abe-5b335da3a90e.html

    However, over the course of three days Yuan was reduced by 4.65% to the lowest level since July 2011 Proponents of the official version indicates that the IMF has long been demanded of China that the Yuan exchange rate determined by the market rather than the directives of the Chinese Central Bank.

    If the IMF does not swindle Beijing again and will include the Yuan in the list of reserve currencies, the Central Banks over the world will start to buy Yuan to replenish their reserves. Now, at least at the official level, Beijing met IMF goal and fixes the official exchange rate of the Yuan about where market wants to see it.

    Here we must make a small technical digression. There are at least two “Yuan” – “internal” – the Yuan for which you can buy a moped in Harbin and “offshore Yuan” – Yuan that circulates outside the Chinese economy. Between courses of offshore and domestic Yuan there is a difference, and “offshore Yuan” market rate is largely determined by financial institutions Chinese as well as Western, which trade on the international interbank market. Offshore Yuan is quoted slightly cheaper than domestic.

    The Chinese central bank, instead of “imposing” its official rate (which is how it behaved before), for some days has just agreed with the collective opinion of the offshore players, setting a course at about equal to the results of trading in offshore Yuan. After three days of the devaluation the People’s Bank of China announced happily that it is now white, fluffy and very market-friendly.

    Note that if Beijing will continue to follow the course of the offshore Yuan market, the devaluation will not stop at 5%. With high probability the market will continue to drag the Yuan down.

    Now the “cynical” explanation. According to this theory, all the stories about that the Chinese Central Bank wants to give the market the right to vote in the process of determining the official exchange rate of the Yuan is nonsense, designed for gullible foreigners. In fact, China has engaged in “currency war” against the US and its neighbors on the continent.

    According to Donald Trump, US presidential candidate and renowned “cut to the chase on a live TV” guy, “devaluation of the Yuan will destroy the American economy”.

    Which of these two versions is closer to the truth is difficult to say. Truth we shall learn pretty quickly. If the Yuan would be devalued by 10% or more, it means that China has a policy of rigid monetary confrontation with the European Union and the United States, and the economy of these regions should expect a very difficult time.

    http://fritzmorgen.livejournal.com/808371.html

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  61. wpa_ccc August 18, 2015 at 11:45 am #

    “Anybody remember, back in the day, luminaries like Tim Leary and Ken Kesey promoting drugs and drug abuse; 50 years on we’re witnessing the human wreckage of their misguided enthusiasms.” –brh

    The business was too lucrative and was taken away by Big Pharma. Now 70% of Americans are on drugs. But I wouldn’t blame Leary and Kesey. The doctors are the pushers now.

    http://www.cbsnews.com/news/study-shows-70-percent-of-americans-take-prescription-drugs/

  62. wpa_ccc August 18, 2015 at 11:51 am #

    The labor force participation rate has been declining for more than a decade and is not related to Obama. There are three main reasons for a declining labor force participation rate:

    1) The aging of baby boomers. A lower percentage of older Americans choose to work than those who are middle-aged. And so as baby boomers approach retirement age, it lowers the labor force participation rate.

    2) A decline in working women. The labor force participation rate for men has been declining since the 1950s. But for a couple decades, a rapid rise in working women more than offset that dip. Women’s labor force participation exploded from nearly 34 percent in 1950 to its peak of 60 percent in 1999. But since then, women’s participation rate has been “displaying a pattern of slow decline.”

    3) More young people are going to college. Because students are less likely to participate in the labor force, increases in school attendance at the secondary and college levels and, especially, increases in school attendance during the summer, significantly reduce the labor force participation rate of youths.

    • MisterDarling August 18, 2015 at 1:22 pm #

      @ WPACC_sock;

      re | “The labor force participation rate has been declining for more than a decade and is not related to Obama.”

      First of all, this is irrelevant nonsense. Obama is a symptom and a sock-puppet, nothing more. He’s not the cause of anything significant, just a willing collaborator.

      “There are three main reasons for a declining labor force participation rate:”

      All three of your points are WRONG & it’s just to easy to disprove your errant BS. This will be the first of several links I’ll present [*]

      https://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/CIVPART

      See that chart? That indicates a multigenerational systemic issue, not a short-term down-turn, But Wait, There’s More!

      • Therian August 19, 2015 at 4:31 am #

        Don’t get into a statistical fight with SOCK. It’s a waste of vital energy. I gave it up for Lent.

  63. volodya August 18, 2015 at 12:55 pm #

    WB

    The people that you’re talking about only act as if they’re going to “stick it” to The Man. They tell you they’ve got your back, that they’re looking out for the “little guy”.

    In the last forty years they took power in the judiciary, the civil service, the educrat bureaucracy, much of the university money machine, the Wall Street kleptocracy, the Fortune 500 C Suites. These people THEMSELVES became The Man they would “stick it” to.

    Paranoia is one of the guiding forces in human affairs and one of the instincts that makes you watch your back. So these people in power, the Oligarchs and their minions, will do just that and “stick it” primarily to people not of their own class but to others who speak up, who are obvious malcontents, people that would upset the established order. And often times just based on fear, on motivations they THINK they see.

    Like every other elite in world history they will guard their power and wealth. Just what do we think the surveillance state is all about? Terrorism? Islamic terrorism? That’s just the cover story. It’s the means of safeguarding privilege and position.

    There’s ways of maintaining control if intimidation and blackmail and threats of prosecution and various other dirty tricks don’t work. What do we think happened to the Kennedy interlopers? I mean, seriously, how dare these two-bit offspring of an Irish bootlegger presume to power? Two bloody whacks in full public view set things to rights.

    These people are the problem, the creators and perpetuators, like The Fed and other central banks that pledge to fight inflation, all the while being the creators of the inflation they pledge to fight. Don’t look to them for answers. You’re on your own.

    • Walter B August 18, 2015 at 1:48 pm #

      Absolutely! They taught the sellouts that followed JFK a hard lesson, play ball or get dead! Has not been a man left to occupy the Anal Office since that dark day. The only way a herd of scum like these will be taken down is from internal decay and ROT and they are well on the decline as far as that goes. Karma’s a bitch isn’t it?.

  64. MisterDarling August 18, 2015 at 1:25 pm #

    @ WPACC_sock;

    Exhibit 2:

    http://atimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/SPENG1.jpg

    This chart shows the multigenerational displacement of MEN from the workplace. And there’s a solid (rational) reason for that trend, and I’ll get that in a few…

    • volodya August 18, 2015 at 1:39 pm #

      Yes, a multi-generational problem with various factors including the closing and relocating of 60,000 American factories to the third world. Millions of jobs went with those factories.

      You know what the politicos say, that infrastructure and education of American workers is key. The Republicans say that low tax rates are the key. Let’s just say that none of the above are relevant.

      What CEOs look at aren’t tax rates but wage rates. They exploit low wage workers, look to nasty foreign regimes to make sure there’s police and military muscle to keep a lid on things.

      And you can build infrastructure up the wazoo and get everybody two degrees and it won’t make a stitch of difference. Why? The places that CEOs offshore factories to have primitive infrastructure, the rule of law is farcical, education is a joke. The key is that people in those places are desperate and work for peanuts.

      CEOs don’t want to pay living wages or breadwinner paychecks. When 75% of company expenses in the US come from wages the CEO will look to minimize wages.

      Declining work force participation? Part and parcel of the gutting of America.

      • MisterDarling August 18, 2015 at 1:57 pm #

        Hey Volodya!

        Beat me to the punch…. 😉

        Add ‘automate everything possible’ to that picture, and that’s it pretty much. Regarding American oligarchs: they almost cannot help it, it’s in their ‘cultural DNA’ to exploit without regard for long-term consequences. That’s their level of understanding.

      • Walter B August 18, 2015 at 3:36 pm #

        And these greedy old bastards do it all without marketable skills or talents other than their abilities to manipulate others to create the wealth that they steal. It is the classic Goose That Laid the Golden Egg tale playing out right here right now.

  65. MisterDarling August 18, 2015 at 1:29 pm #

    @ WPACC_sock;

    Exhibit 3:

    http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS11300000

    This chart makes it VERY CLEAR that there are fewer people employed now because there are fewer jobs overall.

    The job market is *not* creating new jobs to replace old ones, that is a ridiculous fiction cooked up by half-bright putzes misreading and misquoting Schumpeter.

    Stand-By, More Comin’ Atcha!

    😉

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    • Therian August 19, 2015 at 4:12 am #

      The nature of our culture now is will-to-mass-delusion. Thus, instead of quoting THE most important employment stat (Workforce Participation) they quote the most jury rigged stat routinely (U3 unemployment). Instead of quoting GDP sans inflation, the quote it WITH so most of the “growth” is all inflation. Instead of “core” inflation being food and fuel it is all but!!! And how often does one ever hear of the BDI trend? Uh, like never?!

      The stats that are quoted are the ones with “hedonic adjusters” and “demographically estimated”. Our media are not government owned but they might as well be.

      • messianicdruid August 19, 2015 at 11:52 am #

        “Our media are not government owned but they might as well be.”

        This depends on who you think the government (who really runs things) is.

  66. progress4what August 18, 2015 at 1:38 pm #

    “Prog’s aversion for the “new” format got better of him and he seldom posts here anymore. He plies his Anti-Immigration message on sites more conducive to discussion.” – janos, last week –

    You are correct on both counts, janos. There’s not a whole lot of genuine discussion happening here at CFN these days, especially after Tuesday or so. And I’m convinced that what discussion does happen is being witnessed by relatively few individuals – along with multitudinous representatives of various govt. agencies, of course.

    I don’t think anyone else has linked the John Mauldin letter that JHK referenced this week.

    http://www.mauldineconomics.com/frontlinethoughts

    It’s quite a read, setting records for optimism in a way that makes one want to dance continuously, naked in the street in the rain. Mauldin’s wrong sometimes, of course, so is JHK, sometimes. That’s what makes life interesting, right?

    Excessive incoming US immigration is always bad. Everyone at CFN gets that, of course, save the occasional troll.

    • Janos Skorenzy August 18, 2015 at 3:11 pm #

      Can you tell us the good sites? My passion for this issue is undiminished. I’m sure you rejoicing at the Trumpening as am I.
      If you don’t wish to, I understand. Perhaps you fear wpa will follow to harass you. Also no doubt you find me annoying on occasion…

      What do you think of Trump’s plan?

    • Therian August 19, 2015 at 4:22 am #

      I don’t dig the current format either, P4W. I think this is my second post in about the last 3 weeks. If one counts those who’ve averaged at least one post per day one gets down to a total number of posters that can easily be counted on one’s fingers. Participation here is dying.

      I’m totally with “the Donald” on immigration. It is killing/has killed our country. It’s not like the immigration in the middle of the 20th century where everyone was dying to be an American. It’s the type of immigration which is destroying language and culture with multilingual ballots, dumbed down college English courses so that aliens can get to the next math level (and “escape” English), and balkanized neighborhoods where whitey is stared down as if HE is the intruder.

      I live in the SF Bay Area where there is no cultural continuity even vis-a-vis the 1990s. It’s like the natives were teleported out and 1.5 million aliens were teleported in from some other planet. Whether they be Democrats or Republicans, natives of this area speak in hushed tones at cafes about the Chinese takeover of the entirety of San Francisco, Palo Alto, Mountain View, Cupertino, and several other Silicon Valley towns. There’s no denying it which is why people at opposite ends of the political spectrum speak with one voice.

  67. MisterDarling August 18, 2015 at 1:40 pm #

    @ WPACC_sock;

    They’re doing a nice job of working with the data over at ZH, observe:

    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-05-08/old-workers-hit-new-all-time-high-all-april-jobs-go-55-and-older

    Old Folks are NOT leaving the job-market, they’re flooding back in… At the Bottom.

    Next !

    • Therian August 19, 2015 at 4:34 am #

      The Great Recession clobbered many of their fragile retirement funds so they arrive at age 75 needing to be a clerk at Lowes or the local Seven-Eleven. The bottom indeed!! I see it with my own two eyes at CVS, Seven-Eleven, and many other businesses.

  68. MisterDarling August 18, 2015 at 1:44 pm #

    @ WPACC_sock;

    It’s pretty clear what kind of ‘opportunity’ there was in the job-market on it’s way out:

    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-05-11/average-age-minimum-wage-worker-america-36

    Just in case it slipped your mind, “Retail Service Worker” is the #1 most common job in the USA.

  69. MisterDarling August 18, 2015 at 1:48 pm #

    @ CFN et al.;

    Just in case you were wondering where the discretionary income went:

    http://www.businessinsider.com/most-popular-jobs-in-america-2014-4?op=1&IR=T

  70. Janos Skorenzy August 18, 2015 at 3:58 pm #

    http://www.dailystormer.com/hateful-director-makes-shakespeare-without-blacks-or-cripples/

    The only legitimate use of Black actors in Shakespeare would be for Othello or Caliban.

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  71. FincaInTheMountains August 18, 2015 at 4:55 pm #

    You would never guess what race or nationality these women are. They are typical African women living in Morocco – members of Berber’s tribe.
    http://img-fotki.yandex.ru/get/9166/1118136.53/0_9b379_9a40fad4_XL.jpg
    http://img-fotki.yandex.ru/get/9113/1118136.52/0_9b33e_393a1164_XL.jpg

    • Janos Skorenzy August 18, 2015 at 7:13 pm #

      Yeah well they obviously aren’t typical. We have the stereotype of Moors being dark because most of them are.

      But yeah, it’s interesting. I don’t know if the original Moors were White or are these the last remnants of the Vandal invasion of North Africa? Or an earlier Aryan invasion? The King himself is apparently married to a red haired beauty who could have come from County Clare but is in fact, a native.

      The Moors are now mixed to some extent with Blacks and of course, Arabs. I have no idea what they think about this. Remember in Libya, the Eastern Alliance was enraged at Quadaffi for favoring Blacks. His Black troops were accused of atrocities and God help the ones the victorious Easterners caught.

      Remember, racism is natural. There are racisms we as Westerners know nothing about.

      • MisterDarling August 18, 2015 at 9:36 pm #

        @ Janos;

        re |”But yeah, it’s interesting. I don’t know if the original Moors were White or are these the last remnants of the Vandal invasion of North Africa? Or an earlier Aryan invasion? The King himself is apparently married to a red haired beauty who could have come from County Clare but is in fact, a native….The Moors are now mixed to some extent with Blacks and of course, Arabs. I have no idea what they think about this.”-j.

        The Berbers are native to North Africa, predating the Arabs, Romans and Carthaginians. Jugurtha (of the ‘Jugurthine War’) was Berber.

        Helpful reference:

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

        Their name for themselves in the various Berber dialects means ‘The Free Men’. They inspired the fictional people of the same name in Frank Herbert’s novels.

        A smart and capable people, very spirited & well put together, are they not?

        🙂

        • Janos Skorenzy August 18, 2015 at 11:47 pm #

          Read the link. Much as I thought – they are now a utterly mixed people stretched out into more than half a dozen countries. Instead of being a People, they are now a “cultural group” and I have no doubt that that is passing away into being just a language group.

          In other words, they have failed in war and are now essentially history. They are the flotsam and jetsam in the stream of time. They were defeated by the Arabs and Europeans, and inter-bred with Blacks. What future could “they” have? There is no they anymore.

          One is reminded of the Old Celts. The Classical authors describe them as tall and fair haired. A few centuries later, they’re short and dark too – with only Nobility retaining the old phenotype. Soon they are just a “cultural group” and now they are becoming just a language group. They lost in war to the Anglo-Saxons and Normans, and even when they won their independence in Ireland, the old culture was crushed and could not be revived. There is no “mind” left, so the body is dying, mixing with people from the four winds, mostly Blacks, Brazilians, and Muslims.

          • MisterDarling August 19, 2015 at 1:55 am #

            Yes, Janos… I *love* our little talks!

            😉

    • MisterDarling August 18, 2015 at 9:27 pm #

      Yes… Fantastic aren’t they?

      😉

      • Janos Skorenzy August 18, 2015 at 11:53 pm #

        The Blonde? Yes, that’s why we do what we do: that this Beauty does not pass from the earth.

        David Duke related one of his last conversations with William Shockley, the inventor of the transistor and famous “racist”. There was a hurricane coming and the elderly Mr Shockley had been ill. Duke wanted to know if was doing Ok. The usually acerbic and severe Shockley become very emotional, saying what an unspeakable tragedy it was that a blonde actress was throwing away countless millennia of evolution to marry a Negro – and that he would give up his Nobel Prize if he could prevent it.

        Fanatical? Absolutely. Only this degree of feeling and will can save us now.

        • Therian August 19, 2015 at 4:29 am #

          Well, Janos, you’re quite aware that it’s only “fanatical” when whitey supports his own race. If Mexicans, Chinese, or Muslims strive mightily to keep from beings truly assimilated Americans it’s “cultural pride” which is not allowed to whitey. If whitey demonstrates cultural pride it’s racism.

          And it’s prosaic knowledge that if white Americans go to China or Mexico or Saudi Arabia we have to assiduously obey cultural norms or get beaten up, go to jail, or get marginalized in society. We allow anybody BUT white’s to “work the system” to get benefits, driver’s licenses, etc. but whitey cannot even work his own system!!! Did you know that in CA, Mexis are allowed to get 5 wrong on the test to get a driver’s license but whitey is only allowed 3 wrong? If I didn’t see it with my own two eyes I would scarcely believe it.

  72. FincaInTheMountains August 18, 2015 at 5:03 pm #

    Just some images for you to hold in your mind when you start discussing dirty African refugees.

  73. Pucker August 18, 2015 at 6:53 pm #

    Lincoln: the idea of perfect social and political equality is a “Horse Chestnut”.

    The US Civil War was about stopping the spread of slavery into newly acquired territories and preventing America from becoming a Slave Empire. It was NOT about equality. FREEDOM is not equality. Equality is slavery.

    There are a lot of “Horse Chestnuts” out there now.

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  74. Pucker August 18, 2015 at 6:56 pm #

    The psychology of the victim is the urge to victimize others. The psychology of the negro slave is to make others into negro slaves.

  75. wpa_ccc August 18, 2015 at 8:34 pm #

    “Obama is a symptom and a sock-puppet, nothing more. He’s not the cause of anything significant” — Mister Darling

    This statement is irrational, indicative of a cynical conspiracy-minded prejudice which ignores reality.

    The U.S. economy not only grows faster, according to real GDP and other measures, during Democratic versus Republican presidencies, it also produces more jobs, lowers the unemployment rate, generates higher corporate profits and investment, and turns in higher stock market returns. Indeed, it outperforms under almost all standard macroeconomic metrics.” –Princeton economists Alan Blinder and Mark Watson, “Presidents and the U.S. Economy: An Econometric Exploration”

    Cut the crap, Mr. Darling. Here is a list of 308 significant accomplishments of President Obama, complete with citations:

    http://pleasecutthecrap.com/obama-accomplishments/

    • MisterDarling August 18, 2015 at 10:06 pm #

      Hey WPACC-sock, I was being charitable.

      That list of “accomplishments” is pathetic government propaganda.

      What Obama also is (besides a willing muppet) is a WAR-CRIMINAL who has (as one of his signature initiatives) extended the war in Afghanistan – knowingly giving aid and succor to heroin-peddling pederasts.

      Every time you speak in support of Obama I remember the raped young boys (under 12 years of age) that had to be taken to an aid station on a stretcher – kids that been shared by Afghan National Police people with visiting warlords.

      Or I can just think about the bits of scalp, limbs and guts slapped against walls and littering bushes after a drone-strike. They called it “a bad day” in the TOC, but the kids and women were just as dead.

      You’re a clueless delusional idiot and exactly the kind of civilian p.o.s. I despise.

      • wpa--ccc August 18, 2015 at 11:44 pm #

        Get some help for your PTSD.

        • MisterDarling August 19, 2015 at 1:39 am #

          WPACC/Sock:

          “Get some help for your PTSD”

          Oh, did I tell you something that upset you, sweetheart? Did I let a little to much *real* into the picture?

          Simply telling you like it was and is – after you’ve irritated me and the rest of this list for more than a year with your fact-free sewage is not the result of PTSD. You’d know that if you knew combat veterans better.

          I’d tell you to get some help for your problem, but “no fix for stupid!” as the saying goes.

          Whether you’re paid to spout this nonsense or you have nothing better to do, you are a very obviously a ludicrously naïve overgrown child with no real understanding of what’s out there, where, or why. You are simply NOT QUALIFIED to comment on the issues of the day… But that’s not what disgusts me about you. Your incessant yammering about The Pederast Coddler Obama is what lets me see what spineless scum you are.

          Obama has claimed Afghanistan as his war since before his first inauguration. Of course at that point in time he probably had no idea who or what he was supporting… But post-2010, there is absolutely no excuse.

          Educate yourself: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacha_bazi

          And we still have troops there, making the world a safe, cozy place for boy-chasing opium warlords. Add that to the long list of things Obama pretended to try to correct and failed at, or never attempted… Between golf swings.

          • Sticks-of-TNT August 19, 2015 at 2:07 am #

            Amen!/Fist Bump MD…from an Army vet.

            -TNT

          • ozone August 19, 2015 at 10:41 am #

            Recognition of reality is not dependent on military service. It just so happens that life-or-death situations tend to clear out the delusional bullshit much faster than wallowing in decades of ease and comfort….

    • Therian August 19, 2015 at 4:37 am #

      Obama isn’t a bigger failure than YOU. Is that the 309th “accomplishment”??

  76. Frankiti August 18, 2015 at 8:46 pm #

    “… America is at the bottom of a self-knowledge low cycle in which we are incapable of constructing a coherent story about what is happening to us. The techno-industrial fiesta was such a special experience that we can’t believe it might be coming to an end. So, one option is to believe stories that have no basis in reality.”

    Humanity, and society, depends upon stories, or more accurately, ignoring the true story, in order to function and persist on a daily basis . The uncomfortable truth is buried and filed away behind our will and wants and goals and checklists. When it occasionally rears its unwelcome head we experience cognitive dissonance. Of course there is a reason for us, our toils, our tinkering… for all of this… we are the eyes and and the moving finger of creation. Or so the story continues.

    • K-Dog August 19, 2015 at 11:14 am #

      As JM Greer pointed out a few weeks ago people spend entire lives becoming familiar with the wackadoo stories their particular culture and civilization is founded upon. Entire lives becoming comfortable with accepting local myths and perversions of truth as the gospel of reality. For example in America transsexualism could soon be accepted as if it were anointed upon the blessed by our creator as a commandment burned into a tablet of stone. One wackadoo point of view replaces another and it all feels comfortable because the subconscious ingests and digests without examination, consideration, or conscious thought. The day may come for instance when if you don’t have a ‘tat’ you will feel naked and you won’t even know why!

      He of course did not put it quite like I just did.

      • messianicdruid August 19, 2015 at 12:17 pm #

        What keeps Greer’s views (stories) from being wackadoo? Simply, you believe them.

        • K-Dog August 19, 2015 at 9:11 pm #

          The standard is a little higher than that.

        • K-Dog August 19, 2015 at 9:52 pm #

          This week Greer has in his missive:

          Nietzsche’s sly description of moral philosophy as the art of propping up inherited prejudices with bad logic.

          There is a difference between good and bad logic and belief has little to do with it. That something be wackadoo is a measures of how far it deviates from reality. Constant repetition makes the absurd seem plausible. Nothing provides constant repetition better than today’s electronic toys which dumbs down the average and provides a tool of understanding to only a small minority.

  77. BackRowHeckler August 18, 2015 at 11:31 pm #

    Read this week, $1 Trillion auto loans now on the books, $1 Trillion student loans on the books.

    Gentlemen, what is offered for collateral on these loans?

    Where did this $$$ come from in the 1st place?

    And will the $$$ ever be paid back?

    I was just thinking the other day, look at all the new cars on the road now. The SUVs are looking bigger and more menacing than ever. Their drivers glare at me from behind tinted windows in air conditioned comfort, not a little angry because I’m obstensibly slowing down traffic on my ’54 Lee Enfield British army bike, only 1 solitary cylinder, top speed 54 MPH, making these esteemed citizens reach their destinations a minute or two later than they would otherwise.

    brh

    • MisterDarling August 19, 2015 at 1:47 am #

      @ BRH;

      “Their drivers glare at me from behind tinted windows in air conditioned comfort, not a little angry because I’m obstensibly slowing down traffic on my ’54 Lee Enfield British army bike, only 1 solitary cylinder, top speed 54 MPH…”-brh.

      You actually have a diesel Enfield motorcycle? That’s fantastic. Diesel motorcycles truly are post-apocalyptic.

      Royal Enfield slogan: “Built Like a Gun, Goes Like a Bullet!”

      • BackRowHeckler August 19, 2015 at 3:26 am #

        Yeah MD, I got it in New Hampshire about 5 years ago, went to look at a Wyllys Jeep and found this old MC in the barn, picked it up for a few hundred bucks. It took awhile to get it running, parts were kind of hard to get.

        Now I ride around the Village on it, wearing vintage aviator goggles, a local eccentric, embarrasing the whole family.

        brh

        • ozone August 19, 2015 at 10:35 am #

          “Now I ride around the Village on it, wearing vintage aviator goggles, a local eccentric, embarrasing the whole family.”

          Good on yer, BRH! 🙂
          (I *did* notice that you missed the Brit Jam AGAIN this year. Just last Sunday. Too bad, the door prize bike was a corker. ’67 Triumph Daytona T100R that I have on *very* good info now has a completely rebuilt engine that needs breaking in! They put about 4 grand into it, in total.)

          • BackRowHeckler August 19, 2015 at 3:27 pm #

            Pretty nice prize, Oz.

            Is that something the club was able to provide? If so its pretty generous.

            Did you provide entertainment, or just an interested observer?

            brh

          • ozone August 19, 2015 at 5:06 pm #

            BRH,
            Yes, the club provides a motorcycle for the door prize each and every year. They find an old one for cheap and spend about half a year wrenching, painting and rebuilding it, soup to nuts, so that you have something nice and ride-ready to give away.

            And, yes, I’ve been doing the music for the show for many years now. Interested observer and mercenary party. 😀

      • elysianfield August 19, 2015 at 11:02 am #

        “You actually have a diesel Enfield motorcycle?”

        With all respect, guys, Enfield never made a production model diesel motorcycle….an impressive “barn-find” in any event.

        • MisterDarling August 19, 2015 at 3:20 pm #

          @ Elysian’;

          Ahem:

          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diesel_motorcycle#Royal_Enfield

          • BackRowHeckler August 19, 2015 at 3:30 pm #

            I should of clarified MD, this RE has an ordinary gasoline engine … I figured it out it gets about 80 mpg, and that’s just with a rebuilt stock carburator. One problem is finding leaded gasoline.

            brh

          • elysianfield August 19, 2015 at 7:03 pm #

            MD,
            I stand corrected…my knowledge of the Royal Enfields ends about the time they stopped producing them in England…around 1958, or thereabouts.

            I actually owned a Royal Enfield 500cc Tomahawk…branded as an Indian.

    • K-Dog August 19, 2015 at 10:55 am #

      SUVs are indeed bigger, more menacing, and faster. At least compared to what was on the road a few years ago.

      My vintage diesel sedan with a top speed of 85mph makes a few of our moneyed gentry get wherever they are going a bit slower but that’s OK. Since they are all distracted on the hand video wall they don’t generally notice. Having more horsepower to get out of their way would be nice. I’m sure you know the feeling.

  78. Pucker August 19, 2015 at 12:16 am #

    What if the Confederacy had won the US Civil War, and America became a Slave Empire extending into the Caribbean and Central and South America? Aye Carumba!

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    • Janos Skorenzy August 19, 2015 at 3:43 am #

      What if? The White Race would be flourishing and slavery would already be over, the Blacks shipped back to Africa or South America.

      • malthuss August 19, 2015 at 2:52 pm #

        ‘Blacks shipped [back] to Africa or South America.’

        Those Blacks had never been to those two locales.
        Amazing how 1-2 million Black females under the age of 40
        have multiplied into 43,000,000 and growing.

        The colored gals I see often have 2-5 babes, and no visible adult male.

  79. wpa_ccc August 19, 2015 at 10:03 am #

    “Every time you speak in support of Obama I remember the raped young boys” –MD

    “Bacha bazi has existed throughout history, and is currently reported in various parts of Afghanistan” — from MD’s link to Wikipedia

    Something that has existed for millenia is Obama’s fault? LOL! We have spent years and millions of dollars for our inept military to “train” Afghan forces. More money down the drain.

    Obama is the commander in chief and you call him a “war criminal” (in all caps). The armed forces are all volunteer and join up to carry out Obama’s mission… so what does that make them? “Following orders” is no longer an excuse. Consult your UCMJ if you need help.

    Be careful what you say about “clueless” civilians, MD. Without those “clueless” civilians there would be no military.

    Clueless civilian tax dollars pay for military training, the clothes on soldiers’ backs in Afghanistan, the weapons in their hands, and all the benefits they continue to receive stateside as veterans.

    • messianicdruid August 19, 2015 at 12:22 pm #

      Should have taken the 5th.

    • Janos Skorenzy August 19, 2015 at 2:19 pm #

      So you admit this practice is utterly deviant? The manifestation of a degraded culture?

  80. volodya August 19, 2015 at 12:02 pm #

    Therien, Mister D et al

    I wonder what breed of fucking idiot the various faculties of economics are educating. Is there a special test they take before they’re accepted? Or do they take normal people and cretinize them?

    Zerohedge is reporting that one Fed governor is saying that QE was ineffective. Well, holy shit, you don’t say guv, but isn’t this what we knobs have been saying all along?

    I mean ponder what everyone with a stitch of sense has known and has been saying: why the fuck would you be encouraging inflation? They say the goal was 2%. Why 2%? Where is it written in economic theory anywhere that 2% is THE number?

    No matter, everyone knows they pulled 2% outta their asses. But I guess they didn’t stop to think things through. Imagine Romney’s 47% that doesn’t even earn enough to pay income tax. How does 2% inflation benefit them?

    Why, shit, you don’t say, it doesn’t help them? It hurts them? It erodes their earnings? These people with the least market power when it comes to getting more wages is LOSING 2% per year?

    Now imagine what that does over time. Imagine 47% of the populace gets more and more angry, more and more desperate. Hmmm, haven’t we scene this movie before?

    And how did the movie end? Not well, that is, if you’re thinking of the same movie as me.

    OK, let’s get back to reality, this 2% they’re “shooting” for is pure unadulterated bullshit. Why so? The actual RELEVANT rate of inflation for most people and especially the bottom half of earners is already FAR in excess of 2% and has been for a long time. Nobody who’s been to a grocery store could fail to notice.

    At best, the Fed is the place where useless and helpless people talk shit because they can’t do otherwise seeing as they’re helpless and useless. They just do what Wall Street tells them. I think it was Mr Debt Denier over at the NY Times said that the Euro people don’t know what they’re doing. Jesus H Christ, has he ever cast a glance at the Fed?

    At worst the Fed is a fraud factory, putting out full-of-shit statements, full of skilled liars, an organization that works hand in hand with the most pernicious criminal society in history, that being Wall Street.

    Whatever view you take of the Fed, it appears that it does not give the slightest fuck about inflation or real economic activity. What the Fed has been doing is inflating stock and bond markets. Cui bono? Do you have to ask?

    So how does this movie end?

    • malthuss August 19, 2015 at 2:54 pm #

      WAS TOO EFFECTIVE.
      Made Goldman Saks richer.
      Obama got 4x as much money from the street than did the Rino.

    • elysianfield August 19, 2015 at 7:19 pm #

      Volodya,

      “why the fuck would you be encouraging inflation? They say the goal was 2%. Why 2%? Where is it written in economic theory anywhere that 2% is THE number?”

      Jim Rickard’s book, “The Death of Money” describes, in macro-economic terms, why the Fed targets inflation at 2-3%. The reason for that rate of inflation is that the public will accept the increase, an “insensible” tax, if you will…hardly noticeable. What the purpose of the inflation is that, over 30-40 years (sort of like the magic of coumpound interest), it consumes the national debt…the inflation coupled with GDP growth will bring a trillion dollar debt down to 300 billion or so in constant terms. Everyone has cheaper dollars that buy less, but more of them so that they don’t feel the bite. This is how the 100% debt to GDP the US had after WWII was whittled down to 30% of GDP in the early 70’s. This works if GDP is increasing 3+% per year, and the dollar maintains its hegemony. The debt is never intended to be paid off…just rolled-over year after year.

      The Fed cares deeply abut GDP growth…they’ve rolled the dice and spent trillions trying to jump-start the economy. How does the system work with no real GDP growth? Not so well.

      • MisterDarling August 20, 2015 at 2:34 am #

        Thanks for this Elysian. Nicely done!

  81. wpa--ccc August 19, 2015 at 1:08 pm #

    MessianicDruid, as you know, the founders of our nation did not want a standing army. The military should be abolished or reduced drastically.

    The military makes us less secure and drains our national budget through fraud, outright theft, lifelong veteran entitlements, defense contractor welfare in all 50 states, a spectacular waste of our all our resources: including human, fiscal, and natural resources.

    • Frankiti August 19, 2015 at 1:30 pm #

      The United States has painted itself into a corner. It has over-relied on its military, upon forces of destruction. China, allegedly, steals an enormous trove of data and what is the US’s response? It builds islands in international waters, and what is the US’s response? It devalues its currency, and what is the US’s response? They own our debt, they make our goods, and they own global resources. We are left with threats of our ships and bombs and planes. Veiled, useless threats. The world knows this because the US has only one response… total destruction. Well played China.

      • MisterDarling August 19, 2015 at 3:15 pm #

        @ Frankiti:

        “The United States has painted itself into a corner. It has over-relied on its military, upon forces of destruction.”-f.

        This is a great strategic point. The best I’ve seen you make so far, and I couldn’t agree more…

        By the way, just because I’m a veteran does not mean that I’m not keenly aware that US Military ‘Might’ is a vastly overplayed hand. You can thank the people in the Pentagon for that, it’s not a military institution as much as it is a clearinghouse for defense contracts, bribes and other ‘incentives’.

        Cheers!

    • messianicdruid August 19, 2015 at 10:51 pm #

      Why does the Commander in chief get a free pass?

      • Frankiti August 20, 2015 at 7:30 am #

        Let’s review the POTUS’s options… strongly worded warnings, clandestine (assuredly this is happening) hacks of its own, and total war. Regrettably, the US and its leaders, from Ike on down the line, subscribed to the M-I-complex’s belief that military power was the best answer for global hegemony. Wrong answer. Particularly in a world so inextricably intertwined. When you simultaneously allow your capitalists to shift production, labor, and resource procurement abroad (to make more $) well, you expose a real vulnerability. When you let the financiers shift debt off shore, to allow for unmitigated growth (consumption, to make more $), well, you get even more vulnerable. So what is a commander-in-name-only left to do? Bomb, in a world of mutually assured destruction? Perhaps… at least that would solve the overpopulation problem.

  82. Sticks-of-TNT August 19, 2015 at 2:06 pm #

    wpa-ccc,

    MisterDarling did NOT state, as implied in your recent post, “Something that has existed for millennia (bacha bazi) is Obama’s fault” rather, the point made by MD in his post, which you conveniently ignored in your response, was that Obama, “as one of his signature initiatives, EXTENDED THE WAR IN AFGHANISTAN–KNOWINGLY GIVING AID AND SUCCOR TO HEROIN-PEDDLING PEDERASTS” accompanied by harrowing personal reminiscences of victims of their evil.

    I suspect that was not one of the “308 significant accomplishments” of our President your esteemed colleague from pleasecutthecrap.com chose to include in his groundbreaking list.

    MisterDarling then recounted a grizzly, up close encounter of the “collateral damage” to women and children from President Obama’s relentless and brutal drone warfare. This wanton and indiscriminate killing too, despite the unprecedented scale of the campaign, and its dwarfing of significant targets by the numbers of innocent civilians killed in the process was, I’m certain, also absent from pleasecutthecrap’s list of Obama’s greatest hits.

    Instead, the President uses his prominence in drone warfare history as fodder for his stand-up comedy routine, as he (in)famously did at a White House Correspondents Association dinner, including this in his “shtick” (hat tip to Q.), as he yukked it up at the podium. “I have two words for you…Predator Drone.” Pausing for hilarious comedic effect, “You will never see it coming.” Then, looking steely-eyed, directly into the camera, “You think I’m joking?”

    This from an erstwhile community organizer who quipped to his aide’s in a staff meeting, “I’m really good at killing people!”

    “Balls said the Queen, if I had ’em I’d be King!”

    -TNT

    • MisterDarling August 19, 2015 at 2:56 pm #

      @ Sticks:

      re | “MisterDarling did NOT state, as implied in your recent post, “Something that has existed for millennia (bacha bazi) is Obama’s fault” rather, the point made by MD in his post, which you conveniently ignored in your response, was that Obama, “as one of his signature initiatives, EXTENDED THE WAR IN AFGHANISTAN–KNOWINGLY GIVING AID AND SUCCOR TO HEROIN-PEDDLING PEDERASTS” accompanied by harrowing personal reminiscences of victims of their evil.”-s o dyn.

      It’s great to see the light of Critical Thinking shining forth on CFN. Thanks for the assist, Sticks! You handled my rebuttal precisely.

      Of course, you realize that ‘he’ is just spewing forth on cue from the Sock-Puppet FM. ‘He’ is attempting a classic diversionary maneuver.

  83. Janos Skorenzy August 19, 2015 at 2:14 pm #

    Rangers fell yesterday. Today the Navy Seals have fallen as well, like pins knocking each other down. It was inevitable once the special forces guys started writing books and having movies made about themselves. Women can’t let men have anything of their own. If you didn’t want this, you all should have kept mum.

    http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/2013/Jun/17/Pentagon-women-combat-seals-riverine/#article-copy

    People know it’s not going to work. That it will destroy the masculine espirit de corps. That men will start helping women and women granting sexual favors – even in the field. One desperate last ditch tactic is to let women have their own units – and keep male ones intact. Does anyone really think the Regime will allow such a thing? It’s contrary to the whole ethos of integration.

    No doubt there is a massive fraud being perpetrated. The women aren’t passing the same training as the men.

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    • Sticks-of-TNT August 19, 2015 at 2:28 pm #

      Amen/Fist Bump JS!
      Great post.

      -TNT

    • BackRowHeckler August 19, 2015 at 3:20 pm #

      I’d like to hear Mister Darling’s opinion on this subject.

      brh

      • MisterDarling August 20, 2015 at 1:14 am #

        @ BRH:

        I’m going to post a reply down-thread, to help maintain thread momentum.

  84. Q. Shtik August 19, 2015 at 2:14 pm #

    WOW!

    WTI crude, $40.68/barrel

    • Janos Skorenzy August 19, 2015 at 2:41 pm #

      MOM! Q is drinking holy water again.

      God will give you oil to drink.

  85. Janos Skorenzy August 19, 2015 at 2:38 pm #

    http://twitchy.com/2015/08/04/wait-wut-illegal-immigrants-appointed-to-city-council-in-huntington-park-calif/

    Stupid liberal scumbags thought they should be inclusive – now they face the wrath of the awakening people. They should be literally taken by the collar and given the bum rush out the door. Governor Moonbeam being in office is encouraging some of the worst lunacy in American history.

    They are now doing sex changes for prisoners on the public’s dime. It’s only a matter of time (weeks or even days – everything is speeding up as we approach the abyss) before they start giving them to illegals.

  86. MisterDarling August 19, 2015 at 2:45 pm #

    @ Ozone,

    re | “Recognition of reality is not dependent on military service. It just so happens that life-or-death situations tend to clear out the delusional bullshit much faster than wallowing in decades of ease and comfort….”-oz.

    I did not and do not take the position that cognition of reality is dependent on military service. Please do not misconstrue Oz’…

    😉

    • Sticks-of-TNT August 19, 2015 at 3:06 pm #

      MD,

      I’m glad you’re back on duty.

      Did my best to defend your honor against the “slings and arrows” from wpa in your absence but, as you know, the amount of b.s. he heaps onto his monstrous catapult makes the task daunting indeed. I’ll do what I can, but I’m glad you’re the one up front on point.

      -TNT

      • MisterDarling August 19, 2015 at 4:08 pm #

        @ Sticks’:

        re | “I’ll do what I can, but I’m glad you’re the one up front on point.”

        Good to know that I’m not a patrol element, *of one*!

        All people of military background *know* the power of teamwork, and the beauty of task-oriented organization. Good on ya!

        Cheers!

    • Janos Skorenzy August 19, 2015 at 4:22 pm #

      Well, the citizen soldier is the ideal, but so many of our soldiers are so dumb they shouldn’t be allowed to vote – much less silence other people who haven’t “served” (who is the question).

      It is strange for a President to send other men to their deaths if he himself hasn’t served. I can understand that. Ideally, in the Just State, such a thing would never happen. There should be a place for conscientious objectors though. They could gain citizenship by some other kind of service.

    • ozone August 19, 2015 at 5:00 pm #

      “I did not and do not take the position that cognition of reality is dependent on military service.”

      MD,
      I never said you did, did I? *I* said that it isn’t! Simple. 😉

      • MisterDarling August 20, 2015 at 12:46 am #

        Just as I never said that you *were* misconstruing my statements

        😉

        You realize of course that none of this is meant for you. This started with comments addressing one | singular | target. Follow-on remarks are for the sake of clarification.

        Chip-Cheerio!

        • ozone August 20, 2015 at 7:40 am #

          Ahhhh…. now I’m gettin’ it (duh). Well then, er, nevermind! ha

  87. Janos Skorenzy August 19, 2015 at 2:51 pm #

    http://news.yahoo.com/white-house-hires-first-openly-transgender-staff-member-192007467.html

    Check out its picture – absolutely revolting. Soon they will be openly favored before normal people. Young guys will have to put on a dress and change their “gender” to get considered for a good job.

    What an Ichabod. The Glory is departed.

  88. Buck Stud August 19, 2015 at 3:09 pm #

    I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop concerning Donald Trump’s presidential bid;after all, that is what ‘those in the know’ are predicting.

    But I don’t think he’s going away and the truth of the matter is that many in this country relate to and support Trump’s anti-illegal immigration stance. In fact, the more honest and frank he is on the subject, the more popular he becomes. He has tapped into something extraordinarily visceral and it is galvanizing many a potential voter. And I would also state that some on the left are being seduced by the utter bodacious temerity of his declarations: He is not bullshitting!

    Trump has the bread and he doesn’t need to grovel for TPTB, hence his tremendous appeal. His campaign is a gathering Avalanche.

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    • Janos Skorenzy August 19, 2015 at 4:30 pm #

      Your surprise is illogical but not surprising. It’s simply normalcy bias. You have lived all your life in a culture that was nose diving into the toilet. And you have taken that as progress evidently. And the mentality that drives it is simply seen as normal by you. But it anything but. And what we see now is the reaction – the return to true standards and real cultural normalcy.

      Likewise in culture as a whole. A guy I worked with said how traditionally Catholics don’t sing. I told that “traditional” means what is passed down from generation to generation. Much like “classical” – that which is worth preserving. It’s not simply what he remembers from his childhood. It’s the memory of a society, not merely personal memory. The personal memory is going to be wrong if things are tampered with as they have been in the Church.

    • Janos Skorenzy August 19, 2015 at 4:37 pm #

      Do you actually approve of Illegals being given public office and allowed to vote?

      Most of us see it as the Elite giving our Nation away – but of course not their wealth. The’re giving it away to keep us from taking it back from them and also so they don’t have to pay us just wages. And of course, the more consumers, the broader the base. The broader the base, the higher the Pyramid can go and richer they get.

      One would expect a Socialist to understand these things. But of course as a Marxist, you are dedicated to the destruction of nations whether you know it or not. National Socialism preserves, Marxism destroys. You can take that to the bank. And we will be. America was never theirs to give away.

  89. Janos Skorenzy August 19, 2015 at 4:45 pm #

    Male Fetus (baby) delivered alive. “Doctor” (butcher) cut through its face (the most sacred part of the human – the very image of God) to get to the brain.

    Cut through the face. Cut through the face. Cut through the face. All for a bit of money. May they burn in hell after being in prison for the rest of their miserable lives. That’s my idea of Liberalism. But I’d prefer public execution for them. Far more merciful and just – with the added social good of deterrence added on.

    • malthuss August 19, 2015 at 10:08 pm #

      Obama approves. Is this [murder] legal?

  90. wpa_ccc August 19, 2015 at 4:51 pm #

    “Do you actually approve of Illegals being given public office and allowed to vote?” –janos

    Any true patriot would since we fought a revolutionary war over the principle of NO TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION. “Illegals” live here, shop here, drive here, buy gasoline here, and work here, so they pay all kinds of taxes here… and have a right to vote for representation or run for office to be a representative.

    • Q. Shtik August 19, 2015 at 5:14 pm #

      “Illegals” live here, shop here………

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

      Ohhhh…….. I get it. You’re talking about people who are merely undocumented.

    • elysianfield August 19, 2015 at 7:32 pm #

      Wpac,

      Argumentum ad absurdum….

  91. FincaInTheMountains August 19, 2015 at 6:56 pm #

    ForeignPolicy: Spiritual Roots of RussoAmerican Conflict

    Whatever Russia is called outwardly, there is an inner eternal Russia whose embryonic character places her on an antithetical course to that of the USA.

    The rivalry between the USA and Russia is something more than geopolitics or economics. These are reflections of antithetical worldviews of a spiritual character.

    Amidst the geopolitical confrontation between Vladimir Putin’s Russia and the US and its allies, little attention has been paid to the role played by religion either as a shaper of Russian domestic politics or as a means of understanding Putin’s international actions. The role of religion has long tended to get short thrift in the study of statecraft (although it has been experiencing a bit of a renaissance of late), yet nowhere has it played a more prominent role—and perhaps nowhere has its importance been more unrecognized—than in its role in supporting the Russian state and Russia’s current place in world affairs.

    Gogol depicts the scorn in which trade is held, and when commerce
    has entered among Russians, rather than being confined to non-Russians associated with trade, it is regarded as a symptom of decadence:

    I know that baseness has now made its way into our land. Men care only to have their ricks of grain and hay, and their droves of horses, and that their mead may be safe in their cellars; they adopt, the devil only knows what Mussulman customs. They speak scornfully with their tongues. They care not to speak their real thoughts with their own countrymen.

    They sell their own things to their own comrades, like soulless creatures in the market-place…. . Let them know what brotherhood means on Russian soil!

    The father loves his children, the mother loves her children, the children love their father and mother; but this is not like that, brothers.

    The wild beast also loves its young. But a man can be related only by similarity of mind and not of blood. There have been brotherhoods in other lands, but never any such brotherhoods as on our Russian soil.

    The Russian soul is born in suffering. The Russian accepts the fate
    of life in service to God and to his Motherland. Russia and Faith are
    inseparable. When the elderly warrior Bovdug is mortally struck by a
    Turkish bullet, his final words are exhortations on the nobility of suffering, after which his spirit soars to join his ancestors’s

    The mystique of death and suffering for the Motherland is described in the death of Taras Bulba when he is captured and executed, his final words being ones of resurrection:

    ‘Wait, the time will come when ye shall learn what the orthodox
    Russian faith is! Already the people scent it far and near. A czar shall arise from Russian soil, and there shall not be a power in the world which shall not submit to him!’

    Spengler foresaw new possibilities for Russia, yet to fulfil its historic
    mission, messianic and of world-scope, a traditional mission of which
    Putin seems conscious, or at least willing to play his part. Coyer cogently states: ‘The conflict between Russia and the West, therefore, is portrayed by both the Russian Orthodox Church and by Vladimir Putin and his cohorts as nothing less than a spiritual/civilizational conflict’.

    http://cdn8.foreignpolicyjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/150814-Russo-American-Conflict-Bolton.pdf

    Wow, someone in States gets it.

    • Janos Skorenzy August 19, 2015 at 7:07 pm #

      Exactly. And this is why the Orthodox Cossacks had to crush the Jews who were ravaging the Ukrainian People on behalf of the Polish Lords and of course being well paid in the bargain. It’s so simple. Why is it that you and I are the only ones who get it here?

      No one made the Jews become overseers, tax collectors, and thugs in a conflict between civilizations. They chose to put themselves in such a dangerous position – all for profit.

  92. Janos Skorenzy August 19, 2015 at 7:12 pm #

    https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/breaking-i-saw-an-aborted-babys-heart-beating-outside-his-body-new-undercov

    Compare the higher ups in Planned Parenthood and try and find even a spark of humanity in these evil women. Dare you. Compare them with the soulful technician who cut through a baby’s face and then could not continue working there, regretting it to this very day.

    Mitch McConnell attempted to block the attempt to defund Planned Parenthood – an obvious Satanist in the guise of a weak good old boy who looks like Martha Washington.

    • malthuss August 20, 2015 at 12:36 am #

      How were babies kept alive?
      See ‘Washington Times.’

  93. Pucker August 19, 2015 at 7:35 pm #

    “Black Lives Matter is not just a slogan! ” Hillary (It’s a slogan shouted by a bunch of angry menacing dangerous-looking negroes.)

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  94. Pucker August 19, 2015 at 7:38 pm #

    “Vote for Pucker, and that’s how we’re gonna do it!”

  95. Pucker August 19, 2015 at 7:52 pm #

    “If elected President, Pucker promises to give a Presidential pardon to anyone who tars and feathers a current member of Congress from any state!

    Pucker chooses as his running mate a black African Voodoo practitioner of the Santeria religion.

    That’s how we’re gonna do it!”

    • Florida Power August 19, 2015 at 8:49 pm #

      Allow tourists to cast absentee ballots. After all, they shopped and paid taxes here on their visit.

      • wpa_ccc August 19, 2015 at 9:16 pm #

        Tourists are not “citizens” is the very real sense that millions immigrants who live here permanently are. Immigrants are citizens because they assume all the responsibilities of citizenship: having a job, owning property, fight in our wars, having kids enrolled in schools and helping their children to succeed, paying taxes daily, not just during a visit.

        Absentee voting for tourists makes no sense, because tourists don’t live here, don’t fight our wars, etc. Tourists have no commitment to our nation. Immigrants do live here and are committed to this nation.

        You raise a good point, Floridapower: tourists who live here permanently (or for more than half the year), who have a job, who own property, who have their kids enrolled in schools here, who fight in our wars and who pay taxes here (for more than half the year) should be allowed to register and vote.

        • messianicdruid August 19, 2015 at 11:08 pm #

          Are not ” the responsibilities of citizenship ” including obeying the law, incumbent upon tourists as well?

          • wpa--ccc August 19, 2015 at 11:59 pm #

            Yes, but by definition tourists are not residents of the nation and have no rights to an absentee ballot. Immigrants are residents. Floridapower was just kicking up shit. He was not making a serious point.

          • Florida Power August 20, 2015 at 8:25 am #

            Au contraire Herr New Deal, I was absolutely serious, and intending to help flesh out Pucker’s Platform. My neighbor is Canadian, pays hefty real estate taxes and the usual taxes and fees that accumulate just by existing in the USA. Are you saying he has no rights compared to an – for politeness sake — undocumented simply because he chooses to live in Canada approximately 6 months and a few days of the year? Where’s your sense of proportionality? Does he get at least a half vote? In Florida those Canadian half votes would add up.

            No sir, you are simply on the wrong side, and all the verbal obfuscation and mental gymnastics simply reveal that you do not comprehend sovereignty. Mexico certainly comprehends sovereignty. We enforce sovereignty on the Northern border against all those deserving Canadians. Why not the Southern border? You are being used.

            In Europe it is about to get ugly, and they have a long tradition of ugly behavior to tap.

  96. Pucker August 19, 2015 at 9:51 pm #

    I suppose that the empty cliche “Guiding Principle” sounds better than the term “empty slogan”?

    In her video encounter with that negro Black Lives Matter bloke Hillary looked afraid. Perhaps in the back of her mind Hillary was afraid that the angry negro male was going to throw her on the ground and make Hillary do it?

    “At both stops, she added some symbolism of her own, trumpeting the mantra “Black Lives Matter,” which has become a rallying cry of and name for the activists who have organized protests in several cities amid several high-profile cases of black citizens being killed during encounters with police.

    “This is not just a slogan,” Clinton said. “This should be a guiding principle.”

  97. wpa_ccc August 19, 2015 at 10:06 pm #

    “Recognition of reality is not dependent on military service. It just so happens that life-or-death situations tend to clear out the delusional bullshit much faster…” –ozone

    I agree with you, ozone, that recognition of reality is not dependent on military service. It also makes no sense for someone who calls Obama, the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces, a WAR CRIMINAL … to then claim to have “served” in those Armed Forces … to voluntarily carry out the mission of said “war criminal” Obama ….

    Soldiers today volunteer. They voluntarily swear themselves into the armed forces. They have the support of the UCMJ to refuse to carry out unlawful orders. Time to man up and take responsibility for our own actions.

    Some had the balls to refuse to go along with the US role in Afghanistan. Others just call Obama names from the safety of their keyboard. To whine about Obama being the war criminal … after the fact of your own participation … is hypocrisy.

    “Let’s not forget there is no mandate in law for aggression nor any mention of – or authority for – brutally occupying Afghanistan in the UN resolutions regarding it. Which is why I refused to serve a second tour in Afghanistan. I was sentenced to five months in military prison for it but other soldiers too have refused and are refusing to serve in Afghanistan – as is their right.”

    Why I refused to return to fight in Afghanistan’s brutal occupation –Joe Glenton

    http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/apr/25/why-i-refused-to-fight-afghanistan-occupation

    • BackRowHeckler August 19, 2015 at 11:12 pm #

      Link didn’t say what kind of discharge this guy got. I wonder if they gave him a Dishonorable Discharge along with that jail sentence. you get one of those you might as well hang it up.

      brh

      • wpa--ccc August 19, 2015 at 11:55 pm #

        “Dishonorable Discharge along with that jail sentence. you get one of those you might as well hang it up.” –brh

        Oh, really? So are you saying with a DD you lose all your post-service benefits?

        That raises the question: were you in the service for the sense of belonging to a band of brothers? Or for the financial gain, advancement, and perks? Or because you are a patriot who really wanted to serve? Does the oath sworn to mean nothing?

        • BackRowHeckler August 20, 2015 at 12:20 am #

          With a DD, I think you do lose all your benefits. Its like being a convicted felon.

          The Military doesn’t really give out too many Dishonorable Discharges; I never knew anybody who got one. You really got to be a f-ckup and a repeat f-ckup.

          Bradley Manning got one, its probably hanging on the wall of his prison cell at Leavenwoth right now.

          brh

    • MisterDarling August 20, 2015 at 1:10 am #

      @ WPACC/Sock:

      “Some had the balls to refuse to go along with the US role in Afghanistan. Others just call Obama names from the safety of their keyboard. To whine about Obama being the war criminal … after the fact of your own participation … is hypocrisy.”

      See, this is why you haven’t been called on your nonsense enough: because *it is* such outrageous nonsense. All of your messages seem like they were written by someone who spent his life side-stepping it. It’s all irrational derivative drivel written by someone too chicken-shit to get out there and develop his own ideas about the way things actually play out.

      I’m going to set something straight: no soldier went downrange with more than a Fox ‘News’ version of what was happening there. All they had to go on was that ridiculous horseshit and rumors. Your argument that the *soldiers* are war criminals because they got conned into getting on the plane is as absurd as blaming victims of fraud for the fraud.

      And this is why I got out at the earliest opportunity and did not go back. After Afghanistan I resolved to never relinquish control of who I was lashed-up with. I’m a pure-contract, pure-project person now.

      By the way this response is not meant for you… you seem impervious to facts, statements based on reason, etc. so why bother with you?

      You know what? I’m not even mad at you personally, it’s the waste that you are evidence of that irritates me. You’re just another bit of flotsam bobbing around under the Empire of Fake’s pier.

  98. Pucker August 19, 2015 at 10:17 pm #

    Hillary: “‘Black Lives Matter’ is not just an empty slogan. It’s an empty cliche.”

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  99. wpa--ccc August 19, 2015 at 11:06 pm #

    “Argumentum ad absurdum….” — Elysianfield

    The argument is not just Taxation without Representation, or residence more than half the year or assuming the responsibilities of citizenship. Immigrants have a fundamental constitutional right to vote. For all the provisions and principles that the 14th Amendment stands for — and birthright citizenship is only one of them — one of the amendment’s cornerstones is its promise of equal treatment for everyone. Equal treatment for everyone living here means immigrants have the right to vote.

    • Q. Shtik August 20, 2015 at 12:25 am #

      wpa,

      I see you are back to using your alternate handle this week where wpa and ccc are separated by two dashes instead of one underscore.

      Whut’s up wit dat?

      The switch actually began on Sunday, 8/16 on last week’s blog thread.

    • elysianfield August 20, 2015 at 11:39 am #

      “Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. ”

      Wpac,
      Not equal treatment…equal protection.

  100. MisterDarling August 20, 2015 at 12:39 am #

    @ BRH;

    re | “I should of clarified MD, this RE has an ordinary gasoline engine … I figured it out it gets about 80 mpg, and that’s just with a rebuilt stock carburator. One problem is finding leaded gasoline.”

    Still pretty cool, though. It’s just the kind of ‘in yer eye!’ gesture I love to see cruising down the roadways of Trustfundia.

    • BackRowHeckler August 20, 2015 at 1:27 am #

      MD, if your still looking in, I would be interested in your opinion on bringing women into specialized units like the Rangers, Seals etc (in light of recent developments) Or even into regular Marine Infantry?

      It seems the standards were not lowered for these two gals and they made it thru the training fair and square.

      One thought, what happens to these female soldiers when they get captured by the likes of ISIS or Russian infantry. i wonder if that’s been taken into consideration by the brass in the Pentagon.

      brh

      • MisterDarling August 20, 2015 at 2:46 am #

        @ BRH:

        I replied to your question – at length – down-thread.

        Regarding what happens when women… etc.? I remember that Pashtun men were utterly horrified by females being armed, trained-to-kill soldiers. And I remember thinking that this was another good reason for female soldiers to be there.

        Besides, if and when Pashtuns capture a group of soldiers it’s not the women they go after first.

        😉

  101. trypillian August 20, 2015 at 1:45 am #

    The financial chicanery of fracking is one thing, the destruction of groundwater another. Bush 2, (the decider) decided the Clean Water Act does not apply to fracking. Subsequently, the freaking frackers poisoned or will poison all the aquifers. No more clean , pristine, life giving water; at any depth. It gets worse. The WIPP (Waste Isolation Pilot Plant) east of Carlsbad NM, the repository of spent nuclear weapons putonium, has fracking wells within a mile or two of the facility. The plutonium storage facility is already comprimised with a ruptured plutonium barrel emiting radioactivity which escapes filtration. The former salt mine is admittedly not geologically stable and now fracturing of fault lines wthin the bedrock is permitted. By a twist of fate Bush 2 in downwind. Send in the clowns.

  102. MisterDarling August 20, 2015 at 2:31 am #

    @ BRH:

    Regarding ‘women in the military’, several thoughts occur which I’ll share with you:

    1. In my view, service-members are people who have stepped forward, sworn an oath of military service, been formally trained and socialized in a way that optimizes their usefulness to their organizational mission and – by extension – the ‘greater good’ (ideally).

    They’re all people that can be relied upon to make a meaningful contribution day-in-and-out for the duration. If a service-member is a woman, that woman is not less of a service-member. She’s been trained to keep up, and keep it together at the proper standard. If she cannot then the Uniform Code of Military Justice comes into play. Until then she remains a soldier/sailor/marine/airman etc. in good standing – and therefore worthy of all due courtesy and respect. She belongs.

    2. I’ve had the honor of serving with women on the field of combat. One woman in particular – an NCO – I became (professional, platonic) friends with. I witnessed her go outside the wire for days and weeks at a time doing route clearance. This is not safe work. Combat engineers have many ‘opportunities’ to die horribly, and this woman geared up, mounted up and rolled out just like any (good) male soldier without complaint, repeatedly.

    I doubt any of us can really believe a thing until we actually see it. I’m not expecting to change deeply held beliefs and biases on the basis of what I write here, but let the record show that when I looked at that woman I saw a soldier.

    3. With the aforementioned clearly in view, I state that I know that women can be reliable soldiers in combat.

    4. Regarding certain women surviving Ranger School and earning the Black & Gold Arc-Tab, I lack sufficient information to make a statement.

    Are shenanigans played at some of these qualifications schools? I can say yes, it happens. But that usually winds up not mattering at all or worse yet, back-firing horribly.

    Ranger School isn’t just training skills, it’s an endurance and fatigue test. Even if you can find a way of faking your way through parts of it, you’re still going to be one sorry, suffering critter. Nobody gets off ‘easy’.

    Secondly, getting Ranger or Special Forces qualified doesn’t make you a member of a Special Forces team or Ranger battalion… That’s a whole other challenge.

    For instance, if you tried to fake your way onto a Special Forces team, they might take you into the team room for a day… maybe two. But as soon as they smelled a rat they would take all of your gear, toss it in the hall, lock the door and that would be that. Unless of course you wanted your butt kicked in new, creative ways you never even thought about. They do like to ‘experiment’.

    😉

    TL;DR Answer: this isn’t something that I can get too worked-up about. These are the Killing Trades we’re discussing, after all. Some-how, some-way things ‘sort themselves out’. It may not be pretty or favorable, but it will happen.

    😉

    Cheers!

    • Janos Skorenzy August 20, 2015 at 3:01 pm #

      Even if the two young “ladies” (have their genetics and hormones been checked? Remember East Germany’s swimmers) passed fairly, will they be able to hold up? Stay the course? The IDF experience says no. Such women will break down.

      And American experience indicates that this is a just a beach head. These two young ladies may have passed fairly, but the hairy legged throng of menstrual blood smearing virgin viragos behind them will not.

  103. FincaInTheMountains August 20, 2015 at 2:57 am #

    Hello, middle class? Reaganomics is over
    (Point of view which I personally do not 100% agree with)

    Once Reaganomics achieved its goal in 1991 (the destruction of the USSR and the defeat of socialism), the United States should’ve closed all social programs, avoid long wars in distant lands, all to impose its economic will, without ideological or religious component and do something about what our American friends dispute with a foam at the mouth today. All the economic, ideological, social, and military reforms in US are already too late. For at least 20 years. The euphoria of the victory over the Soviet Union and the almost complete power over the entire planet did not allow US elite to soberly assess the real possibilities of the future development of all humanity and the Earth’s ecosystem.

    Reaganomics in its ideological component was based on a mythical American middle class that includes skilled workers, engineers, and all civil servants. Let’s just say, it is easier to list those who have not been included there, even though capitalism involves two classes: the exploiters (the minority) and those who are exploited (the majority). And then we come up with the middle class, a comfortable center, the Democratic majority.

    To create such a myth an unprecedented amount of wealth had to be pumped into the American and Western society in the shortest possible time that allowed the Communism to be rented for the Western population until the end of Reaganomics. All resources of Western society were mobilized, all forces thrown in, all colonies looted and stripped to create a capitalist idyll.

    What to do now with 250 million US unnecessary extras? They are just not needed and dangerous to the functioning of modern American society in the modern world. And irreparable environmental damage which is caused by their over consumption? How to dispose of its unnecessary, unhappy population? Eco-Fascism or neo-feudalism with slavery of biblical proportion, the entire infrastructure for that is ready in the US. Americans sincerely believe that the three-meter fence with barbed wire everywhere, metal detectors, video cameras are all against the mythical terrorists. How about a dual purpose: the whole multi-billion dollar infrastructure to protect the minority from the hungry and unwashed majority (zombies).

    US needs to drastically and urgently reduce inefficient 300 mil inhabitants of the country, to an effective 50 millions, who will be covered with renewable resources of the United States. It is easy to say, but how to do it in practice and under what pretext? Once the oil-producing countries refuse to sell their oil and in the US even 50 million may become unsupportable.

    Marxism and the dialectics of the development of society is a harsh thing: if capitalism does not begin in the near future to dispose of tens of millions of US population, socialism (compulsory distribution of all material resources within the community among all its members according to their minimum acceptable requirements through the socialization of the means of production of material goods) will become inevitable.

    http://sasha-portland.livejournal.com/35944.html

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  104. FincaInTheMountains August 20, 2015 at 3:29 am #

    Navy admiral confirms US pulling aircraft carrier from Persian Gulf this fall

    The U.S. Navy will not have an aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf this fall for the first time in years, President Obama’s nominee to be the Navy’s top officer told Capitol Hill lawmakers Thursday.

    http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/07/30/navy-admiral-confirms-us-pulling-aircraft-carrier-from-persian-gulf-this-fall/

    Fleeing an ambush?

    This is something new. “Holy cow” of the US Navy – the Persian Gulf – is left unattended by aircraft carrier group? Yes, the last time this happened in 2007, when the “Arab Spring” has yet been planned in the Pentagon, and the situation in the region, allowed the US Navy not to bother too much.

    However, – today, when so many conflicts around the Gulf (IS, the war in Syria, the Saudis against Yemeni Huthis …) withdrawal of US Navy flagship leads to the gloomiest thoughts.

    Why Americans demonstratively “wash their hands” at a time when local forces already deploying full-scale hostilities? What are Yankees so afraid of?

    Something is being prepared, and the Americans know about it. Perhaps even preparing themselves?

    • ozone August 20, 2015 at 8:10 am #

      This is purely speculative on my part, but I would say that “losing” (as in, “sinking”) an aircraft carrier would constitute a huge loss of men and materiel. Perhaps there is a fear that Israel may start some serious shit with Iran and Syria, and that a carrier sinking would be an obvious target of retaliation. The means, via missile tech, are certainly there.

      The old saw comes to mind: Don’t start something you can’t finish. (…or have someone finish *for* you).

  105. JB August 20, 2015 at 5:06 am #

    I believe that this implosion started in Japan back in the 80s-90s. It only spreads from one technologically advanced country to another, and we have to admit that oil prices play a crucial role in the whole process. So while you enjoy your sake with sushi, we all know that this global capitalist scenario of ever increasing technological advancement is nothing more than an empty ideology. It is time to revisit our belief in consumerism.

  106. FincaInTheMountains August 20, 2015 at 6:14 am #

    Russia’s Troll Army Is Making Life Harder for US Spies

    How Moscow’s robotic feeds and paid social-media commentators complicate open-source intelligence gathering.

    When Facebook posts and tweets blamed Ukrainian rebels for downing a Malaysian jet there last year, U.S. spies studied social media trend lines to gauge public opinion of the Kiev-Moscow conflict.

    The number of Facebook “likes”; statistics on retweets and “favorited” tweets; and other social media analytics told one story.

    But intelligence officials know that, increasingly, autocracies are deploying “trolls” – robotic feeds or paid commentators – to sway social media trends. So officials say they were cautious when compiling situation assessments.

    Director of National Intelligence James Clapper depends on open source information in addition to classified material, to provide American decision-makers with objective information. There is a concern that social media campaigns orchestrated by overseas powers could distort open-source intelligence gathering, some U.S. officials say.

    http://www.defenseone.com/technology/2015/08/russias-troll-army-making-life-harder-us-spies/119179/

    Well, I guess it goes both ways. Like we say in Russia, for every smart ass there is a dick with a screw.

  107. Pucker August 20, 2015 at 9:52 am #

    Redneck Lives Matter!

    Did you know that statistically, except for fuck’n, beer drinking, fish’n, hunt’n, and shoot’n guns, Rednecks are disproportionately represented towards the disadvantaged end of every statistical indicator of well-being in the US?

  108. wpa--ccc August 20, 2015 at 9:55 am #

    “Your argument that the *soldiers* are war criminals because they got conned into getting on the plane is as absurd as blaming victims of fraud for the fraud.” — Mister Darling

    “They got conned” is not an argument. “There will always be wars” is not an argument. “War is hell” is not an argument. “I was just following orders” is not an argument. We proved that at Nuremberg. “That is just the way things are” is not an argument.

    We are responsible for our actions. Trying to put the blame elsewhere, i.e. only having a “Fox ‘News’ version of what was happening there” or “All they had to go on was that ridiculous horseshit and rumors” is denying criminal behavior.

    You don’t have to be a genius to know killing is wrong. Most cultures and religions (including Islam) have ethical codes that teach the GOLDEN RULE.

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

    When you voluntarily join an organization dedicated to killing, you are the responsible party, as much as you want to make excuses now and weasel out of that ethical responsibility.

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    • MisterDarling August 20, 2015 at 2:24 pm #

      @ WPACC/Sock;

      As usual you reply with another cowardly salvo of non sequiturs and deflections, like an oceanic invertebrate covering their retreat with a blast of ink. My reply, item by item:

      “We are responsible for our actions. Trying to put the blame elsewhere”-sock.

      I’m not guilty of war-crimes. Stop deflecting away from what started this discussion: your outspoken *support* for Obama the war-criminal & Obama’s complicity in war-crimes: i.e., shielding the previous administration from prosecution, vastly expanding the indiscriminate killing of non-combatants and by knowingly aiding and abetting child-raping opium warlords (which form the bulk of Afghanistan’s ruling elite).

      “as much as you want to make excuses now and weasel out of that ethical responsibility.”-sock.

      You pathetic chicken-shit wretch, I never made any “excuses”. I joined the military to defend a nation and to kill when and wherever necessary. The only question was whom, why, and under what conditions. I’ve never said otherwise.

      You disgust me all over again by attempting to invoke a moral authority you have no claim to. By the way ALL of my kills were confirmed and legitimate targets. This I know for _sure_. In addition, I allowed no one to commit unrequired violence, crimes against children or ‘inadvertent’ deadly ‘accidents’ on my watch – at no small risk to myself. I came away from that war clean and got out to stay that way.

      Obama on the other hand, has done nothing but double-down on his atrocious mistakes. To the fiasco that is Afghanistan we must of course add the unwarranted trashing of Libya (a nation that was cooperating with ‘the west’ fully on terrorism), Yemen, Syria and his support of the avowedly neo-Nazi regime Kiev. It’s been one bad move after the next. But what does he care? Ultimately he’s just following orders from the various lobbies that control the White House. King Muppet to the bitter end.

      Lastly, I don’t expect you to understand the paradox of killing: i.e., that to kill is very wrong, but to kill is sometimes very necessary.

      How would you understand something that speaks to the way that human existence fundamentally *IS*? You’ve spent your life ducking and hiding from your own apparently, so chatting about these weighty matters with you is like trying to talk about sex to a virgin. You’re a stranger in your own skin. This entire reply is for the worthier people looking in…

      By the way Sock, don’t you have someone’s hind-tit to be sucking on?

      🙂

      @ Those With Critical Thinking Skills: The subject of ethics and war was best covered by Joseph Campbell (mhrip) in an essay called “Mythologies of War and Peace” (1967), IMO. Check it out. It’s information worth reviewing.

  109. volodya August 20, 2015 at 11:10 am #

    Elysian, that’s exactly the key, that people will have more dollars to offset higher CPI. And that’s where this scheme doesn’t work.

    Maybe, in the best case scenario, that is, if we were dealing with an intellectually honest profession (which IMO we aren’t) economists could say that in THEORY people will have more dollars because their salaries would increase as prices go up.

    But THEORY and REALITY diverge. As the oligarch class offshored industry to China a couple things happened: unemployment shot up massively, good-paying (often unionized) jobs disappeared, the worker’s bargaining power correspondingly disappeared.

    What we’ve seen over the span of the last 40 years or so is a steady year over year diminishment of real incomes as pay failed to stay even with inflation. What took the place of steady work was crappy part-time, minimum wage, temp and contract work.

    What plugged the gap between incomes and expenses was a steady increase in household indebtedness.

    And not only that but a massive upswing in government debt as tax receipts followed personal incomes down the drain. Not only that but tax cuts for the rich, the rich not being rich enough.

    What took the place of fairly evenly distributed economic growth was a series of asset bubbles, all of which came to grief.

    I remember well the 1950s and 1960s when the average Joe saw his pay increase in REAL terms and not just in nominal terms. In THAT world, when there was REAL growth in economic output and people had REAL money, the national debt was getting whittled both in nominal and REAL terms.

    After that, even in the 1970s when unionized factory jobs were still relatively common, people’s pay didn’t keep up with prices. And if you remember those days, inflation was rip-roaring ahead, much worse than nowadays.

    Anyway, that’s what I saw with my own eyes.

    You’re absolutely right that the key is GDP growth. But, in addition, it has to be REAL GDP growth.

    Nowadays with “growth” just an inflationary figment of the statistician’s imagination and just a tool for the politician to make nonsensical claims about prosperity, we’re just fucking with numbers.

    I have to say though that we differ as to the Fed’s motivations wrt all the “jump-starting”. I think all they were doing was trying to keep the Wall Street scams and swindles afloat.

    • elysianfield August 20, 2015 at 12:13 pm #

      Volodya,
      yes, you are correct. For the system to work, there must be real growth…something we are lacking.

      Rickard also says that the canard of “false growth” is necessary to keep “nominal GDP”, which is the sum of inflation and GDP growth, at a level so that interest on treasuries is kept at a low figure…called “plausible sustainability”…. Rickard also says that the indicator of success in this effort is the interest on the 10 year note…keeping the interest rate under 3% is their goal. The Federal Open Market Committee…FOMC, is also part of this effort…buying treasures by the billions of dollars a day, to keep the interest rate on the notes at the targeted level. Rickard states that if you see the interest rate on the 10 year start to spike, that you could consider this a sign of the Apocalypse.

  110. volodya August 20, 2015 at 11:52 am #

    Anyone else see what’s on zerohedge about Iranian nuke inspections? That the IRANIANS will be doing self inspections. See, some sites are of “military significance” and so are off limits.

    Yeah, military significance, no doubt. Can’t let foreign inspectors interfere with expeditious production of a nuclear arsenal.

    First a pointless re-establishment of relations with a shitty offshore despotism. Now this.

    So, what are the odds now of an Israeli first-strike?

  111. nsa August 20, 2015 at 12:17 pm #

    American and Iran are natural allies….Israel and their joohadi assets along with all their gulf state pals are the enemy.

    • volodya August 20, 2015 at 1:12 pm #

      I’m not the first to ask this question, in fact, I’m sure it’s been asked a million times, but why do we care who rules what patch of dirt in the middle east just as long as he pumps and sells the oil?

      To elaborate a bit, why is there a natural alliance between the U.S. and Iran? Or, to turn it around, why is Israel an enemy? Or, to put it another way, what difference does it make to Americans who rules Jerusalem?

      Iran and Israel are a long way away. They each have their own national and regional interests that, aside from oil, I have trouble seeing as intersecting with those of the U.S.

      • MisterDarling August 20, 2015 at 2:30 pm #

        “I’m not the first to ask this question,”-v.

        And you won’t be the last!

        😉

      • Janos Skorenzy August 20, 2015 at 2:56 pm #

        Why? Same reason you know about the “six million” but don’t know how many Americans died in WW2. Our Nation has changed hands and we are ruled by a new Elite. Who cares? Well then the question is whether the new Elite will rule as well as the original, or whether they will continue to see themselves as an oppressed minority – one who wants vengeance.

        I emphasize that it was the Old Protestant Elite, not the grifters they turned into. The ones who actually sent their sons to war. The Bush’s are illustrative of this: old man Bush served, but his sons did not or at least not fully. Not sure about Not Sure.

        None of this is very radical, even if seldom discussed. The Jews themselves are talking about it more openly. Start here if you are a beginner. Lots of links for more inquiry.

        http://www.vdare.com/articles/thoughts-on-americas-jewish-ruling-class-and-noblesse-oblige

      • elysianfield August 20, 2015 at 7:56 pm #

        “why do we care who rules what patch of dirt in the middle east just as long as he pumps and sells the oil? ”

        America has been seeking long-term sustainability…oil now and 20 years from now.

        ” what difference does it make to Americans who rules Jerusalem?”

        We needed Israel, once, as a proxy to project American Power in the Middle East to ensure the stability of our oil supply. Their boots on the ground, their boys being killed rather than ours. Who cares now that the role of being our cannon fodder has diminished? Deluded Christian Fundamentalists and the Israel lobby….

        • MisterDarling August 21, 2015 at 3:30 pm #

          “oil now and 20 years from now.”-elysian.

          *Congratties!* “Mission Accomplished!”… (Just not the way it was envisioned).

          😉

          [chuckle]

          Cheers!

  112. MisterDarling August 20, 2015 at 2:36 pm #

    @ CFN et al;

    JHK has often written about the physical/mental/moral and spiritual decay of American Menfolk. It occurred to that the slope of that decay exactly matches the slope of this one:

    http://atimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/SPENG1.jpg

    Furthermore, JHK has often remarked about the nature of modern work-relations: that corporate jobs are merely updated servant positions and about the ephemerality of ‘job security’ in a nation with no use for it.

    Comments? Opinions?

    • Janos Skorenzy August 20, 2015 at 3:22 pm #

      And not even good servants. Some Corporations noticed that there’s a certain class of high power executives who move around a lot. They come in with much fanfare, shake everything up and move on. In their wake, they end up alienating and firing many long time steady workers. The question becomes, Are they really worth all the trouble they cause? They have no loyalty obviously. And Corporations want loyalty, even though they have none of course.

      To you existential question, obviously the American Revolution was enacted by Free Men. How would hirelings get the time off to do it? And an employee is just a hireling, no matter how well paid.

      • MisterDarling August 20, 2015 at 6:55 pm #

        “The question becomes, Are they really worth all the trouble they cause? They have no loyalty obviously. And Corporations want loyalty, even though they have none of course.”-j.

        It could be argued that the current job-market not only incentivizes criminality, but terminal counter-productivity… As if they were so fixated by their sophomoric understanding of “creative destruction” they want to give it a helpful shove.

  113. Q. Shtik August 20, 2015 at 2:43 pm #

    Oh hum …….. yawn ….. Dow down 280.

    Forty seven more days in a row like this and we’ll be at Jim’s target: Dow 4000.

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  114. Janos Skorenzy August 20, 2015 at 3:25 pm #

    They took America over in the same way as Innsmouth was taken over.

    http://www.counter-currents.com/2015/08/h-p-lovecrafts-the-shadow-over-innsmouth/

    They promised next time it would be someplace bigger. Who knew that they meant America?

  115. wpa--ccc August 20, 2015 at 3:59 pm #

    Mister Darling: “By the way ALL of my kills were confirmed and legitimate targets. This I know for _sure_.”

    Do you know any of the names of your “kills”? Do you speak the language of your “kills”? Had you spoken to any of them before murdering them? (The correct word is murder, not kill.) Did you meet with any of the familty members of your “kills”? Do you know if your “kills” were married or had children? Do you know the reaction of their relatives upon learning that you murdered their loved ones?

    Your pathetic justification for creating widows and orphans? Because your “kills” were “confirmed and legitimate targets”! You have now confirmed that you are a war criminal.

    Like the true believer Nidal Malik Hasan, you are unapologetic and have no idea how much ongoing suffering and grief your actions have created. Like Nidal Malik Hasan, apparently you don’t care… as you state: “I never made any “excuses”. Instead, you are self-congratulatory because, after doing your killing, you say: “I came away from that war clean and got out to stay that way.”

    You were thousands of miles away from your country, invading another country. You were murdering people. Now you use euphemisms like “defending a nation” and “legitimate kills.” You depersonalize your victims by using words like “kills” for the human beings you murdered. The way you use language reminds me of a poster who Q. used to call a slippery eel. You cannot even admit you were commiting crimes. Instead, you continue to use sanitized military-speak.

    None of the people you murdered were threatening the United States … you went thousands of miles to invade their country. You were defending nothing, just following orders (apparently with some measure of unit level autonomy) in order to commit crimes.

    You are a true believer … “defending a nation” … when the reality is you are just as guilty as the architects of the Afghanistan war policy, a policy you were carrying out. You should be brought before the Hague’s ‘s International Criminal Court for the crimes you have freely admitted to commiting.

    The families of those you murdered, your “kills,” should receive reparations. By the way this response is meant specifically for you… you seem not to be impervious to facts and statements based on reason, etc. so that is why I bother with you.

    • Sticks-of-TNT August 20, 2015 at 4:32 pm #

      So if you really feel this way, how is it President Obama is exempt from your charges? Seems to me that was how this conversation got started. Your hypocrisy knows no bounds.

      -TNT

      • K-Dog August 20, 2015 at 4:42 pm #

        Obama the super-droner is not exempt. He was shoehorned into office to keep the neocon band playing. He loves being a star of the war room and has admitted to being enraptured by the video games played there. He has admitted as much but not directly or in those words of course. He becomes enthralled with making ‘the hard decisions’. Those are his words but when he talks about it he feels intensity but no shame or distress.

      • MisterDarling August 20, 2015 at 6:46 pm #

        “Seems to me that was how this conversation got started.”-TNT.

        Notice how he keeps trying to lay false trails and spin out little distractions? Pathetically transparent. It’s like tracking down a novice.

    • K-Dog August 20, 2015 at 4:33 pm #

      It is a wonder nobody has ever mentioned ‘thinning out the hurd’ as justification for invading a country that was not a threat but which simply had what we wanted. The absurdity of murdering them for their own good is no more whackadoo than any other justification for the neocon nightmare of invasion that has bankrupted our country and brought us shame.

      • malthuss August 21, 2015 at 7:36 pm #

        Have you herd?

    • elysianfield August 20, 2015 at 8:06 pm #

      “You were thousands of miles away from your country, invading another country. You were murdering people”

      Wpac,
      To paraphrase Janos…For your lack of respect you will be judged….

  116. wpa--ccc August 20, 2015 at 5:05 pm #

    “how is it President Obama is exempt from your charges? Seems to me that was how this conversation got started. Your hypocrisy knows no bounds.” –Sticks-of-TNT

    ———————-

    No, this “conversation” got started when I dared to post an explanation of labor force participation which absolved Obama. Mister Darling, showing his Obama Derangement Syndrome, made a ridiculous statement that Obama had not done anything significant. To which I replied with 309 significant Obama achievements (with complete citations for all 309). Mister Darling then began to engage in juvenile name calling, and brought in Afghanistan, calling me a “p.o.s. civilian.”

    That brings us up to date: Mr. Darling turns out to have voluntarily joined the armed forces to participate in an illegal war and commit crimes in Afghanistan. Mr. Darling’s actions are war crimes, since Afghanistan did not attack the United States. Indeed, the 19 men charged with the crime of the 9/11 attack were not Afghans. The US war in Afghanistan was not authorized by the UN Security Council in 2001 or at anytime since, so this war began as an illegal war and remains an illegal war today. Our government’s claim to the contrary is false.

    This war has been illegal, moreover, not only under international law, but also under US law. The UN Charter is a treaty, which was ratified by the United States, and, according to Article VI of the US Constitution, any treaty ratified by the United States is part of the “supreme law of the land.” The war in Afghanistan, therefore, has from the beginning been in violation of US as well as international law. It could not be more illegal.

    Now, to your question about Obama, Sticks-of-TNT. I am not a hypocrite. Mr. Obama is guilty of not ending the war, breaking his promise to do so. Mr. Obama is also guilty of war crimes through his use of drones in multiple countries to indiscriminately kill “civilians” (who like Mr. Darling, Obama may consider to be “p.o.s. civilians”).

    Obama’s “legitimate kills”, like Mr. Darling’s “legitimate kills”, constitute crimes against humanity. For his war crimes Mr. Obama deserves a place in the Hague docket beside Mr. Darling.

    • Sticks-of-TNT August 21, 2015 at 7:09 am #

      “…Sticks-of-TNT. I am not a hypocrite.”

      You’re not guilty of hypocrisy, so you want to change your plea to schizophrenia?

      Have we just seen a Jack Nicholson as Marine Colonel Nathan R. Jessep in “A Few Good Men” moment, as he screams back at the young Navy JAG officer, played here by MisterDarling, “You can’t handle the truth!” and in his rage, falling into the rhetorical trap so skillfully set for him by the young lawyer?

      So President Obama really is “guilty of war crimes…crimes against humanity…deserves a place in The Hague docket…?”

      Forgive me, for just a moment for myself. Man I love hearing you say that!

      Now then, back to the matter at hand. For I’m having trouble reconciling your North American Man Boy Love Association-level of admiration for our President, what with your Obama’s 308 (or did you say 309, I’m kind of losing track here?) Greatest Hits list from pleasecutthecrap with your recent acknowledgement of “crimes against humanity.” You see, there’s a big-enough-to-drive-a-truck-through size disconnect here.

      This is reminding me a lot of that whole Benito Mussolini was an evil, murdering fascist, sure enough madman, but at least the trains ran on time argument. Just doesn’t add up or balance out. Like the Old Testament scripture about Belshazzar, “He was weighed in the balance and found wanting.”

      Now don’t you go trying to shift this back to MisterDarling. You’re in the chair right now. Do you wanna change your plea to Not Guilty for Reason of Insanity now so we can all go home?

      -TNT

      • MisterDarling August 21, 2015 at 1:25 pm #

        @ TNT;

        “This is reminding me a lot of Benito Mussolini was an evil, murdering fascist, sure enough madman, but at least the trains ran on time argument. Just doesn’t add up or balance out. Like the Old Testament scripture about Belshazzar, “He was weighed in the balance and found wanting.”-t.

        Just like “Il Duce” Obama’s military adventures are fiascos, but unfortunately the trains do not run on time and for all supposed ‘stimulating effect of war’ no stimulus is in evidence at street-level. . .

        I must admit that also like the Belshazzar reference. In Obama we have an ‘acting ruler’ (a puppet) presiding over an eight-year butt-covering, rearguard action.

        Alas! To no avail.

        “Mene, mene, tekel, upharsin” indeed!

  117. MisterDarling August 20, 2015 at 6:37 pm #

    @ WPACC/Sock:

    “No, this “conversation” got started when I dared to post an explanation of labor force participation which absolved Obama. Mister Darling, showing his Obama Derangement Syndrome, made a ridiculous statement that Obama had not done anything significant. To which I replied with 309 significant Obama achievements (with complete citations for all 309).”-sock.

    More lies and obfuscations. Actually, I replied with a series of posts destroying your ridiculous assertions about the job market.

    You replied with that “cut the crap” comment. . . And that’s when I thought it was time to throw a spot-light on what a hollow little punk you are, thus calling into question why we’ve been patiently putting up with your nonsense all this time. You have used my screen-name one too many times and I’ve had enough of it. I want nothing to do with you, but apparently you don’t want to return the favor. So now the beatings must continue.

    Your false accusations against me are melodramatic nonsense not worth my time engaging line by line. Culpability for wars of aggression does not fall on individual combatants, but on the people who declare them: the previous POTUS, his administration and the muppet currently occupying the Oval Office.

    I was unaware that the war was an utter fraud, therefore I’m not feeling guilty things subsequently done in order to protect my life an the lives of those with me.

    @ CFN: The generally *excellent* Dahlia Lithwick put together a most amusing interactive outlining the earlier ‘tranche’ war criminals operating out of 1600 Pennsylvania:

    http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2008/07/crimes_and_misdemeanors_2.html

    This might help shed some light on who is a war criminal and who isn’t.

    In regards to myself, I whacked people who were in the act of trying to kill me and those in my charge. I flew out of BAF with no nagging doubts or horrifying regrets. . . And I’m very grateful for that. So grateful in fact that I knew I’d never be that lucky again.

    FYI (and just as an interesting aside): I did actually know the names, clan and the Malik of the people I did directly or was involved with doing.

    Their clan elder (Malik) was someone who I chatted with face-to-face – he was a tall handsome grey-blue eyed Pashtun who smiled in my face and tried to get information, who disappeared for four months of mourning after we whacked 8 of his sons, nephews and their friends in one engagement, and who reappeared smiling and chatting with me again like nothing had happened – because that’s the way the game is played on the borderlands.

    • BackRowHeckler August 20, 2015 at 10:36 pm #

      Hey MD i see the makings of a novel in your posts, do for the Afgan and Iraq wars what ‘The Naked and the Dead’, ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’, and ‘Through the Wheat’ did for earlier conflicts. Actually your writing reminds me of recently deceased Robert Stone in ‘Dog Soldiers’.

      We did have a published novelist posting here for awhile. Was it you?

      brh

      • MisterDarling August 21, 2015 at 3:22 pm #

        “We did have a published novelist posting here for awhile. Was it you?”-brh.

        We already have a published novelist that posting to CFN: Mister Kunstler!

        😉

        [just kidding]

        All of this recent chit-chat makes me realize how much of my life I’ve never been able to talk about in the open… [hmmm, food for thought 😉 ]

        Cheers!

  118. FincaInTheMountains August 20, 2015 at 8:26 pm #

    Dmitriy Sedov: The Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU is finally filled with some life

    The President of Ukraine Poroshenko has a chance to deal directly with the two big challenges: to win the Donbas and realign sagging demographic balance.

    He was just informed that the European Union aims to reinforce Ukraine sagging population with 100 thousand migrants from North Africa and the Middle East. Poroshenko of course was asking for money, money was not given but instead he was helped with some additional warm bodies.

    As you may know, the Syrians, Tunisians, Algerians, Iraqis and the Tuaregs are extremely belligerent nations. Especially Tuaregs. Planted on camels, and armed with spears, they turn into a hurricane capable to sweep all in its path. Especially the Donbas miners, who never seen a live camel except in the Zoo or on Discovery Channel.

    Algerians also, according to the German tourists, are skilled in the science of love making, which can raise the birth rate in Galicia that had fallen due to the outflow of men to the forests, away from military draft centers.

    European Commissioner for Migration Dimitris Avramopoulos (in Ukrainian Dmytro Abramovich) said that since the beginning of the year to the EU came 250 thousand new democracy seekers. It’s too much, but judging by the number of cars burned in Paris, problems with them are even more. And they keep coming. And who, I ask, should take them? Those who bombed Libya or Iraq? It’s impossible. Neither France nor any other civilized country can cope with such stream!

    Then they remembered that in NATO they have a “three musketeer’s principle” of “one for all and all for one.” Washington alone decides whom to bomb and all other must pay for it. It called Transatlantic solidarity.

    At first glance it may seem that Kiev should organize from migrants Cossack paramilitary settlements. So they could feed themselves by going hustling in Donbas. However, on mature reflection, it appears that the construction of forts is a healthier idea.

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    • MisterDarling August 21, 2015 at 1:43 pm #

      @ FitM:

      “As you may know, the Syrians, Tunisians, Algerians, Iraqis and the Tuaregs are extremely belligerent nations. Especially Tuaregs. Planted on camels, and armed with spears, they turn into a hurricane capable to sweep all in its path. Especially the Donbas miners, who never seen a live camel except in the Zoo or on Discovery Channel.

      Algerians also, according to the German tourists, are skilled in the science of love making, which can raise the birth rate in Galicia that had fallen due to the outflow of men to the forests, away from military draft centers.”-f.

      Thanks for this it gave me a good chuckle. I like your sense of humor!

      Cheers!

  119. BackRowHeckler August 20, 2015 at 10:27 pm #

    Hey Janos it looks like your beloved Germany may soon cease to exist. The same day we find out the Germans are forking over another $90 billion loan to Greece (never to be paid back, money down a rathole) we learn this year alone 800,000 more ‘migrants’ are showing up from 3rd world failed states, and its just the beginning. How much can one country take?

    brh

    • Janos Skorenzy August 21, 2015 at 4:26 pm #

      You know how I feel but how do you feel about this unspeakable tragedy? Do you read the link I sent you about the Kalergi Plan? Do you really think this is by accident and that such a thing wasn’t planned long in advance? And if you can admit that much, your whole worldview goes up in smoke. I liked the Rat Patrol as a kid too. But there comes a time to put away childish things. And that you are a big reader makes your world view even more bizarre and objectionable at this point. You’re an educated man and you can’t claim ignorance as an excuse.

      Btw, there’s no evidence the National Socialists knew about the Kalergi Plan per se. But they had a pretty good idea about what the nascent New World Order intended to do.

      • BackRowHeckler August 23, 2015 at 1:25 am #

        Janos, forget what the Natonal Socialists knew or didn’t know. That was 7 decades ago, it doesn’t matter now. What’s important is that Germany has a political elite that seems bent on destroying the country from within, beginning with Janet Merkel. Nowhere in my post do I state I’m happy with this state of affairs; in fact I consider what’s happening a tragedy. As far as the second world war goes, my own father (NCO in 793 Combat Military Police) bore no ill will to the Germans, and expressed regret in having to hunt them down and summarily shoot SS men who wouldn’t surrender.

        brh

        • Q. Shtik August 23, 2015 at 11:27 pm #

          Janet?

    • malthuss August 21, 2015 at 7:38 pm #

      And how many trillions has Germany paid to Jews?
      Ever hear about al the stolen art?
      No? I will tell you why, bc it was stolen by the tribe from Christians.

      If the Germans wont fight for their land, does it deserve to exist?

      • Janos Skorenzy August 22, 2015 at 2:59 am #

        Interesting philosophical question. They have bourn the brunt of generations of self hating propaganda and it may be too late for them. Hopefully some will go down fighting and inspire the rest of Europe to rise up before it’s too late.

  120. Pucker August 21, 2015 at 12:02 am #

    Ukrainian Lives Matter!

  121. Pucker August 21, 2015 at 12:41 am #

    This “Black Lives Matter” slogan is so fucking stupid! Can you image if I got up in China and started shouting “All Lives Matter!” The Chinese would point to the nearby overcrowded bus and remark wryly: “Too many people and not enough resources.”

    “Filipino tilt-a-whirl operators’ lives matter!

  122. Pucker August 21, 2015 at 1:27 am #

    One major project of the Clinton Foundation involves Bill Clinton flying around the world in a private jet to help people in Africa with AIDS. As if Bill Clinton really gives-a-shit about poor black Africans with AIDS. Black Lives Matter—My Ass! They just coined the phrase as a cheap marketing ploy to dupe naive stupid black kids into acting violently to divide the American people.

    • malthuss August 21, 2015 at 7:40 pm #

      THEN WHY DOES BILL GO TO AFRICA?
      I want to know how it benefits him.

      • Pucker August 21, 2015 at 11:24 pm #

        Bill Clinton collects huge speaking fees. Also, it gets him away from Hillary and he can play Rock Star and get some pussy.

  123. Pucker August 21, 2015 at 2:02 am #

    The “Black Lives Matter” organization is not about a particular agenda to help black people (as Hillary observed). Rather, it’s a cult for black kids to get a sense of self worth and belonging akin to a Gang—hence the violence. It’s totalitarian.

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    • Janos Skorenzy August 21, 2015 at 4:27 pm #

      The Leader of the group is hardly Black at all.

      • Pucker August 21, 2015 at 11:27 pm #

        The Black Lives Matter leaders don’t have an agenda, but rather they talk about “changing hearts”, which is a euphemism for “Brain Washing” people. BLM is a communist cult.

  124. FincaInTheMountains August 21, 2015 at 6:30 am #

    Beijing feels very unpleasant. What they did not do in Beijing to appeal to the IMF: devalued Yuan, introduced market mechanisms of exchange rate, eased the access for foreign capital to the Chinese financial markets, and it turns out that it all was in vain. IMF behaves with China as the EU and Turkey – promises that everything is bound to be … but sometime later.

    The essence of the problem: China is keen for Yuan to be put on the list of IMF reserve currencies. Highly. And not only for sake of prestige, although it must be admitted that the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China is very fond of prestige, which confirm the status of China as a world power such as the Olympics or the status in various international organizations.

    But now Beijing intentions have practical side. The inclusion of the Yuan in the list of reserve currencies will actually make the central banks of various countries to buy Yuan for its foreign reserves. This, in turn, will contribute to the process of internationalization of the Yuan, and this will open up many interesting possibilities for China.

    China will be able to enter the very limited club of countries that are rather actively using the printing press to accelerate their economy, and for patching holes in the budget.

    If some Albania begins to actively print Albanian Lek (this is the local currency), the Albanian economy would receive a full-fledged inflation shock, but if a similar exercise would be performed by the country whose currency is very widely used in world trade and investment in other countries (such as United States or, to a lesser extent, the United Kingdom) the inflationary effect is spread to all holders of currency.

    IMF suddenly said that the current list of reserve currencies is fixed (“frozen”) for another year. The candidacy of the Yuan in November will be considered, but it will not get to the coveted club until the end of 2016 and even then, only if China will conduct the necessary “market reforms” and if the IMF did not come up with any more reason for the delay.

    Interestingly enough, anger or concern is not observed in the Chinese media and in the statements of the officials. As you know, a happy man – is the one who, being sent to fuck himself, comes back well tanned, rested and happily laid. It is also very Chinese. The Chinese can wait a year or two, and ten, but the waiting time will likely be spent on replacing the IMF itself with the development of BRICS pool of currency reserves.

    http://fritzmorgen.livejournal.com/809424.html

  125. Sticks-of-TNT August 21, 2015 at 7:45 am #

    @MisterDarling and “for the worthier people looking in”

    Since you’ve allowed the beatings to continue just awhile longer, I thought I would get in a few more licks before the end of the week.

    I should have posted here “down-thread, to help maintain thread momentum.” Instead, absent-mindedly, I posted above at wpa-ccc’s previous post. Sorry for the back-tracking.

    -TNT

    • MisterDarling August 21, 2015 at 1:32 pm #

      @ TNT:

      Found message and replied to it. On a light note: It’s amazing how quickly a certain kind of person will throw their idols overboard when pressure is applied.

      • Sticks-of-TNT August 21, 2015 at 5:04 pm #

        @MD,

        Yeah, I saw your reply. Great post!

        Now I’m hoping he’ll park it for awhile. I’d like to get back to economics and the CFN issues our host writes about. I can tell that’s your true passion. I guess it’s why most of us are here. (With obvious exceptions.) You’re good at juggling multiple threads simultaneously. I’m more linear. But I’m reading all your posts and I like what I see. See ya around campus!

        -TNT

  126. Q. Shtik August 21, 2015 at 11:14 am #

    I got a good laugh from a quote in yesterday’s NY Times:

    Jeb and Trump were both doing “town hall” meetings in NH on Wednesday, 20 miles apart. Trump stepped to the lectern and told his large and lively crowd:

    “You know what’s happening to Jeb’s crowd right down the street? They’re sleeping.”

  127. Q. Shtik August 21, 2015 at 11:25 am #

    Oh hum ………. yawn …….. DOW down (another) 300 as we speak.

    • MisterDarling August 21, 2015 at 2:38 pm #

      “Did you say that the in-flight movie is on? Okay… That’s great.”

      [turns head, slides the window-shutter down, snuggles into head-rest]

      “wake me up when they pass out the customs declaration…”

      <>

    • ozone August 21, 2015 at 6:12 pm #

      Slumber while ye may, oh Snoozy-Q., our heavily-invested one. The last two days losses are approaching 900 points. Ah, not to worry, even now I hear the pounding hooves of the Plunge Protection Regulators galloping to the rescue of the Wall Street Fraudsters and the True Believers…. The scheme will continue until a true panic sets in! Huzzah!

  128. capt spaulding August 21, 2015 at 11:52 am #

    So who really benefits from the restructuring of Greece’s debts? I thought that austerity policies were shown to be the wrong approach when it comes to nation’s debts? What am I missing here?

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    • volodya August 21, 2015 at 1:32 pm #

      There’s nothing here that you’re missing. It’s as straightforward as it looks.

      People aren’t rational when it comes to money. The very existence of the Euro is testament.

      But, when it comes to Greece, it’s not at all about Greece. The real problem is Italy. Greece’s troubles are pea-sized irregularities compared to Italy’s.

      Austerity? The issue is who pays for Greece’s government expenditures. The Greeks don’t want to and neither does anyone else. The Greeks want to spend far in excess of what they collect in tax.

      The idiots who lent Greece money want their money back. Well, Greece won’t pay.

      So the alphabet soup of Euro-cracies goes through the farce of lending Greece money so Greece can pay what it owes.

      This can’t go on. Tsipras is calling for new elections because of too many defections from his own party. IMO there will be an abrogation of the debt by a future Greek government.

      The Eurocrats are taking a hard line on Greece so Italy sees what’s ahead, that being, no write offs.

      Italy is just a mess, Naples is Europe’s own Calcutta, the whole of the place is in the vice-like grip of criminal gangs, so much so that nobody can tell where political parties end and where Camorra families start.

      In short, the Euro project was a fool’s errand, the Germans were idiots to give up the D-Mark to share a currency with piss-holes like Greece and Italy.

      But there’s greater and lesser travails, and Italy is by far the greater. I don’t know how the Germans extract themselves from this disaster.

      Does Germany finally come to its senses and says screw it and heads for the exit and refloats the D-Mark?

      • MisterDarling August 21, 2015 at 2:28 pm #

        @ Volodya:

        You’re in good form this Friday. Feedback, line-by-line:

        “People aren’t rational when it comes to money. The very existence of the Euro is testament.”-v.

        Well said.

        “The idiots who lent Greece money want their money back. Well, Greece won’t pay.”-v.

        That was a forgone conclusion when they were finally allowed to join the EU – with Goldman-Sach’s coaching, counseling and advanced skills in ‘negotiating’ of course. Greece was and will be a penniless Balkan nation, it’s not a matter of if, just when and how much blood gets spilled in the process…

        “The Eurocrats are taking a hard line on Greece so Italy sees what’s ahead, that being, no write offs.”-v.

        Correct.

        “Italy is just a mess, Naples is Europe’s own Calcutta, the whole of the place is in the vice-like grip of criminal gangs, so much so that nobody can tell where political parties end and where Camorra families start.”-v.

        Let’s be a little more accurate here. It’s not the Camorra that makes Naples a tinderbox, they’re like a corporation at the ‘mature’ stage – cooled-down, leveling off, it’s the Ndragheta: “Currently the most powerful criminal organization in the world”.

        “But there’s greater and lesser travails, and Italy is by far the greater. I don’t know how the Germans extract themselves from this disaster.”-v.

        They don’t, not without bloodshed. And let’s be honest with ourselves here, German bankers and American hedge-funders (ahem, GS, ahem) are making a killing out of the Greek mess. The ‘aid’ given to Greece is nothing more than a bridge-loan from the Greeks back to the banks as a partial-payment on the interest of earlier loans whose principal continues to grow exponentially.

        The whole thing’s a financial farce that would be funny, if it weren’t for all the bodies that’ll stack up as a result.

        Meanwhile, this is happening:

        http://globalnews.ca/news/2177746/macedonian-troops-fire-stun-grenades-at-migrants-stuck-on-border-with-greece/

        Uninvited refugees are trespassers. It’s only a matter of time before they get shot.

      • elysianfield August 21, 2015 at 6:46 pm #

        “The Eurocrats are taking a hard line on Greece so Italy sees what’s ahead, that being, no write offs.”

        Volodya,
        The current talking points define this as the “moral danger”…setting a bad example for other debtors.

  129. MisterDarling August 21, 2015 at 2:57 pm #

    @ CFN:

    Q: Fuel Price Drop?

    A: Demand destruction. That’s the funny thing about ‘creative destruction’; it doesn’t just work on job-types, it works on business models, economies, you name it.

    X-posting this from ZH:

    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-08-21/oil-crash-result-excess-supply-or-plunging-demand-answer-one-chart

  130. MisterDarling August 21, 2015 at 3:00 pm #

    @ CFN:

    A lot of people think that they’re Capitalists: they aren’t. A lot of people think they know Schumpeter: they don’t.

    See page 61, read the paragraph at the bottom:

    http://digamo.free.fr/capisoc.pdf

  131. wpa--ccc August 21, 2015 at 3:06 pm #

    “Uninvited refugees are trespassers. It’s only a matter of time before they get shot.”

    (CNN) Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump said Friday he “would never condone violence” after Boston police said two men beat a homeless man while making anti-immigrant statements.

    “Donald Trump was right,” the two men said, according to police, as they beat the man with a metal pipe and then urinated on him. “All these illegals need to be deported.”

    Trump tweeted on Friday that the incident was “terrible.”

    “We need energy and passion, but we must treat each other with respect,” Trump said.

    Bullets do not convey respect.

  132. BackRowHeckler August 21, 2015 at 3:49 pm #

    I thought the Dow would snap back today like it usually does after a severe downturn, not the case this time. A close reading of the FT of London and the WSJ all week reveals what a mess everything is worldwide; mass exodus from the 3rd world in the south into Europe and the US is but one indication as to how bad things are, China dicking around with the value of its currency is another. If anything sums up 2105 so far its the image of a distinguished archeologist hanging upsidedown by his ankles off a lamppost in Palmyra, head sawed off. For me that says it all, except ‘Where’s the Pharaoh’?

    brh

    • MisterDarling August 21, 2015 at 7:06 pm #

      “If anything sums up 2105 so far its the image of a distinguished archeologist hanging upsidedown by his ankles off a lamppost in Palmyra,”-brh.

      Seems like we’ve had this scene before: Hypatia fleeing the zealot mobs swarming the streets of Alexandria… 415 AD.

    • malthuss August 21, 2015 at 7:42 pm #

      Twitter link to “ShordeeDooWhop”, an idiot negress BLM agitator who posted THIS nonsense:

      “I encourage everyone to keep doing the work you’ve been doing to dismantle white supremacy. It’s crucial.”

      Yes ShordeeDooWhop, let’s dismantle White supremacy…
      Dismantle every single jumbo jet & airplane, the airports & all skyscrapers Nationwide. Dismantle the cell phone towers & Interstate freeways. Dismantle the pharmaceutical industry brick by brick & drug by drug. Dismantle the ENTIRE communications grid & Computer industry. Dismantle the Education system. Dismantle the Hospitals & Emergency care. Dismantle the Military that one TWO World Wars with a 98% White force. Dismantle the Symphonies & Art Museums whose doors are rarely darkened by a black. Dismantle the Space Program. Dismantle MIT and all the other Engineering Schools. Dismantle all the span, cable & arch bridges in America. Dismantle the food producing farms that feed the entire World.

      • malthuss August 21, 2015 at 7:43 pm #

        BRH–you must check her out.

        Her page declares ‘Poverty is Violence’

        what a dumb c-nt,

        https://twitter.com/nettaaaaaaaa?lang=en

        • BackRowHeckler August 22, 2015 at 12:33 am #

          BLM threatening to disrupt the Minnesota State Fair coming up (because its racist) or even shut it down. 2 years ago they went wild at the Wisconsin State Fair and started stomping and beating (white) people up, including mothers and fathers in front of their kids.

          Even you Libs here in CFNation have to be growing a little tired of the Negro antics we are seeing in the summer of 2015, and the high body count in the black urban communities.

          brh

  133. BackRowHeckler August 21, 2015 at 4:03 pm #

    Is a second Korean War ready to ignite 62 years after the first one ended? It sure looks like that’s the case.

    Finca, what’s your prognosis.

    Good thing we got those lady Rangers, we’ll need about 100,000 more like them. NKorea fields an Army of 7 million.

    Somebody tell the Pharaoh vacations over, time to pack up the golf clubs.

    brh

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    • MisterDarling August 22, 2015 at 2:14 am #

      I look forward to seeing what actually happens at 0830 hrs Korean Peninsula time…

  134. wpa--ccc August 21, 2015 at 4:40 pm #

    brh, CIC has been busy with Fadhil Ahmad al-Hayali.

  135. carlosperdue August 21, 2015 at 6:21 pm #

    The Shale Fluffers!

  136. MisterDarling August 21, 2015 at 6:48 pm #

    ‘Murica!

    http://uk.businessinsider.com/us-marines-foiledterror-attack-on-french-train-2015-8?r=US&IR=T

    Sometimes all it takes is a few ‘boorish Americans’ to sort things out. . .

    Represent!

    😉

    Cheers!

    • malthuss August 21, 2015 at 7:44 pm #

      How is that a good thing?
      The poison must be lanced from the system.

      • MisterDarling August 22, 2015 at 2:09 am #

        I just like the image of three young knuckle-heads cruising around Europe on a (more than likely) drunken 4-pass becoming instant heroes… The whole thing is a like a scene from a ‘made-for-TV’ movie script.

        On the other hand, it’s never a bad thing when innocent bystanders can avoid getting aerated.

        Cheers!

        • MisterDarling August 22, 2015 at 2:11 am #

          EDIT: “4-day pass”

          😉

        • BackRowHeckler August 22, 2015 at 8:47 pm #

          It looks like those kids saved a lot of lives, MD, along with the help of a middle aged Brit. They had this Morocan hogtied on the deck; he was carrying an AK with many magazines, plus a knife and 9mm pistol. It could have been bad.

          brh

      • Janos Skorenzy August 23, 2015 at 4:13 am #

        http://www.dailystormer.com/anti-immigrant-riot-in-dresden/

        Signs of life perhaps?

        Meanwhile in Greece, the immigrants kiss the ground and thank Allah as reach the Greek islands. They don’t bother thanking the Greeks but rather begin to order them around like servants, much as Huma Abedin orders around the Secret Service. She must have learned that from Hill. Or maybe they’re just born that way.

  137. Q. Shtik August 21, 2015 at 7:11 pm #

    See, Sprawl and ‘me’ aren’t the only ones…….

    https://scontent-lga1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xtf1/v/t1.0-9/11258785_10203354236851751_7711066016597958513_n.jpg?oh=0516ff44289f02b4549102fc502b393b&oe=563DBDA8

    As it turns out, a small bird Egyptian hieroglyph is a preposition…who knew.

  138. MisterDarling August 21, 2015 at 7:47 pm #

    @ Volodya:

    “More likely in my mind is that he’s outdoing Obama in cynicism. Trump is trumpeting all kinds of stuff and when he gets into power none of it will see the light of day. Including and especially Strong Borders.”-v.

    Agree. The most likely scenario. It is interesting to see people get all worked up about the campaign though. Who doesn’t like to see all the smiles on the kids faces when they watch the circus-matinee?

    “If he’s pushed on the issue President Trump will shrug and say, geez, I tried but you know how awkward Congress is.”-v.

    Yes, yes… That good ol’ standby: “Congressional Gridlock”.

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  139. Q. Shtik August 21, 2015 at 9:05 pm #

    oh Snoozy-Q., our heavily-invested one. – Oz

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

    Guess I forgot to mention, I was feeling mighty bearish back in early March so I went to a 2/3rds cash position on 3/13/15 (thus yesterday and today’s yawning bravado) and so I am getting killed on “only” 1/3rd of my money.

  140. FincaInTheMountains August 21, 2015 at 9:42 pm #

    “Is a second Korean War ready to ignite 62 years after the first one ended? It sure looks like that’s the case.

    Finca, what’s your prognosis.” — brh

    Not much interesting news in the Russian press. Besides, everybody are on vacation in August.

    Apparently, the military hot points are being consistently shifted to around main American competitor for world domination – China. I would expect gradual American withdrawal from ME and East Europe (Ukraine) and concentrating more on Far East. So expect more trouble there.

    Chinese Yuan represents even greater threat to US than Russian Nuclear Triad.

  141. FincaInTheMountains August 21, 2015 at 10:48 pm #

    Question of the year: Does Merkel has a map? Or she hoped that refugees will sail across the ocean to America?

  142. Pucker August 21, 2015 at 11:30 pm #

    The Black Lives Matter leaders don’t have an agenda, but rather they talk about “changing hearts”, which is a euphemism for “Brain Washing” people. Black Lives Matter is a communist cult for young, naive angry black kids.

  143. Pucker August 21, 2015 at 11:36 pm #

    “Vote for Pucker, and that’s how we’re gonna do it!

    Filipino tilt-a-whirl operator lives matter!”

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  144. Pucker August 21, 2015 at 11:44 pm #

    August 21st is the anniversary of the first Lincoln-Douglas debates in 1858. The first debate focused on the issue of the expansion of slavery into new territories of the US.

    “Vote for Pucker, and that’s how we’re gonna do it!

    Filipino tilt-a-whirl operator lives matter!”

  145. Pucker August 22, 2015 at 1:12 am #

    Do you CFN “Dill Holes” “Root for the Underdog”? Or, do you “Root for the Overdog”?

  146. wpa--ccc August 22, 2015 at 1:39 am #

    How is that a good thing? The poison must be lanced from the system. — Malthuss

    What are you talking about, Malthuss? Contrary to brh’s posts, it appears Obama is aware of what is going on.

    President Barack Obama expressed his gratitude on Friday for the “courage and quick thinking” of the passengers on a high-speed train in France, including U.S. service members, who overpowered a gunman.

    It appears the Commander in Chief is not on vacation.

  147. Pucker August 22, 2015 at 1:47 am #

    I wonder if any of the cannon fodder in the landing craft about to hit Omaha Beech on D-Day were so nervous that they farted? Many of them threw up. The last thing that many of those blokes smelled was fart and puke. I wonder if any of those cannon fodder had any illusions whether Black lives Matter?

  148. MisterDarling August 22, 2015 at 2:19 am #

    $39/bbl Oil. . . That has got to be SO much fun for Saudi Arabia.

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  149. Pucker August 22, 2015 at 2:42 am #

    I would like to hear a responsible politician reply to a Black Lives Matter loud mouth as follows:

    “You Black Lives Matter people need to GROW UP! No, Black Lives DO NOT Matter! All Lives DO NOT Matter! Now, if each of you as individuals work very, very hard, do not break any laws, lead law-abiding moral lives, and become responsible fathers, mothers, and citizens, then maybe, just maybe your lives will then matter.”

  150. Pucker August 22, 2015 at 3:15 am #

    Donald Trump says that his favorite books are: The Bible; followed by “The Art of the Deal” by Donald Trump.

    Donald Trump says that he likes his ties “even though they’re made in China.”

    The crowd cheers wildly.

  151. Pucker August 22, 2015 at 6:00 am #

    Vote for me, and we’ll be so strong that no one will fuck with us! And as far as your Grandma is concerned, she shouldn’t have been mouth’n off like that!

  152. FincaInTheMountains August 22, 2015 at 6:32 am #

    Hundreds of thousands of refugees and migrants in Europe – it is only at first glance is a force of Nature. In reality, we are dealing with artificially provoked phenomenon.

    Those who caused it, have double goals. First, switch growing in Europe dissatisfaction with the actions of local pro-American elites and Brussels bureaucracy slavishly committed to Atlanticism onto the migrants.

    Secondly, using the pressure wave of migration, obtain additional means of control over those elites when they try to move away from US and EU line in trade and energy policy – mainly trading with Russia.

    After all, the notorious EU quotas on reception of refugees and illegal migrants that Brussels establishes for individual countries could be manipulated almost indefinitely (at least until there is a European Union) – as well as funds allocated or not allocated to their settlement.

  153. FincaInTheMountains August 22, 2015 at 6:47 am #

    Athens agreed on a deal to transfer of 14 airports to German company Fraport

    The subject of the transaction are international and regional airports on the island of Crete, Corfu, Kos, Rhodes, Samos, Santorini, as well as in Thessaloniki. Every year, these airports serve about 19 million passengers. The total cost of acquiring rights to operate totaled 1.234 billion Euros. This could be one of the biggest investments in the Greek economy since the beginning of financial crisis.

    How funny: no matter what happens in the EU, Germany is still a winner. Once France, Spain and other countries possessed colonies around the world, Germany is now catching up, having transformed them, and along with the rest of Europe, into its semi-colonies. United Europe, you say? Well, well … the spiders in a cage…

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  154. FincaInTheMountains August 22, 2015 at 7:37 am #

    “Does Germany finally come to its senses and says screw it and heads for the exit and refloats the D-Mark?” == Volodya

    It is just amazing how you, guys, are still not getting it.

  155. MisterDarling August 22, 2015 at 10:50 am #

    @ CFN et al.

    At this point even Fox News publicly acknowledges it:

    http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/08/21/army-kicking-out-decorated-green-beret-who-stood-up-for-afghan-rape-victim/

    Welcome to the moral/ethical climate of Collapse. Consider this ‘Exhibit A’…

  156. MisterDarling August 22, 2015 at 10:57 am #

    @ CFN et al.

    ‘Exhibit B’:

    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-08-21/paul-craig-roberts-america-gulag

    “See, it just doesn’t matter what you did or the length of the sentence we handed out. We made a decision and we’re gonna stick with it”-paraphrase.

    Not even top-tier judges are defending the policy of ‘finality’ over every fundamental principle of justice… But that’s what we’re down to.

  157. FincaInTheMountains August 22, 2015 at 11:54 am #

    For the first time the world economic crisis as a means of pressure on the enemy did not start the US, but in China. Chinese say US – enough already transfer your economic problems to other countries.
    And this fact no longer has any economical solutions, because this decision is purely political in nature.

    This is not America who is currently wages an economic war against the whole world, but China and Russia. With Syria and Ukraine, Moscow has pushed Americans from the political and military pedestal and Beijing wages an economic part of the global war for a new world leadership, which has pushed the processes of the global recession, but, above all, a recession in the US.

    Thus, at this time the initiative to begin the global crisis belongs to China, and the United States are on the receiving side, with much smaller leverage over the situation than it seemed five or six years ago. In this regard, we can say that Moscow and Beijing are really formed a tandem and silently knocking the “king of the hill” down from different directions.

    http://regnum.ru/news/economy/1955823.html

  158. FincaInTheMountains August 22, 2015 at 1:15 pm #

    Gen. Martin E. Dempsey: Russia has developed quite threatening space capabilities

    Chairman Delivers ‘Best Military Advice’

    O’Boyle invited the chairman to share his thoughts with the Irish Defense Force staff.

    As the man tasked with providing the “best military advice” to the president and defense secretary, Dempsey deals with capabilities, not intentions. He still has not given up on the idea that Russia, for example, might turn away from its current course.

    “Threats are the combination, or the aggregate, of capabilities and intentions,” he said. “Let me set aside for the moment, intentions, because I don’t know what Russia intends.”

    But when he looks at capabilities, Dempsey said, he notes that Russia has developed capabilities that are quite threatening in space, in cyber, in ground-based cruise missiles that violate treaties, in submarines and other activities that seek to sever communications.

    “I do think one of the things that Russia does seem to to do is either discredit, or even more ominously, create the conditions for the failure of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization,” he said.

    http://www.defense.gov/News-Article-View/Article/614147/dempsey-shares-worldview-with-irish-officers

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  159. wpa--ccc August 22, 2015 at 3:42 pm #

    Trump/Ventura 2016

    Washington (CNN)Jesse “The Body” Ventura, the former Minnesota governor, touted Friday his victory in a $1.8 million defamation lawsuit against Chris Kyle, the former Navy SEAL who was the subject of “American Sniper.”

    “Imagine, I took on this alleged dead war hero and his grieving widow, how much evidence there must have been for the jury to have overwhelmingly sided with me as well as the judge,” Ventura told CNN’s “New Day.”

    http://www.cnn.com/2015/08/14/politics/jesse-ventura-chris-kyle-defamation/

    • Sticks-of-TNT August 23, 2015 at 12:30 am #

      Ventura’s statement summarized the situation quite well. Justice was served, but he has been treated as a pariah by some of his fellow SEALs who took Kyle’s side. The “grieving widow” will not be hurting financially. She has made out like a bandit from her late husband’s notoriety.

      -TNT

  160. ZrCrypDiK August 22, 2015 at 5:17 pm #

    The Pacific NW is burning down – what “they” left behind from their incessant 2-decades-long clearcutting *escapade* is simply kindling fire now.

    I just went in the backyard to walk the dogs (mine and my sister/bro-in-law’s), and it’s a cloudy orange-scape of smokey smell. Last July was the hottest planetary record, as whuz the year 2014, and this July beat last year… Has the solar irradiance finally kicked out of that decade-long low?!?

    Like I’ve always said – it’s not global warming – it’s clearcutting (mass extinction). NO ONE will ever say that these days – but look for forests in China/Malaysia (palm oil crops 7 years tops)…

  161. wpa--ccc August 22, 2015 at 7:58 pm #

    BIDEN / WARREN 2016

    Washington (CNN) Vice President Joe Biden met privately with Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Saturday in his residence at the Naval Observatory, CNN has learned, another sign he is seriously deciding whether to jump into the Democratic presidential race.

    The meeting between Biden and Warren, confirmed by two people familiar with the session, is the biggest indication yet that Biden is feeling out influential Democrats before announcing his intentions.

    There are many possible candidate combinations which do not include either a Bush or a Clinton.

  162. Q. Shtik August 22, 2015 at 8:48 pm #

    Here are some pointers to keep in mind when you are writing your blog comments:

    https://scontent-lga1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpf1/v/t1.0-9/p480x480/11904628_10203358599040803_3522037581234698578_n.jpg?oh=f0a9903eb65bcc638062677d83de5337&oe=56823511

  163. wpa--ccc August 22, 2015 at 10:09 pm #

    Qshtik, I hope you are aware the title, HOW TO WRITE GOOD, is incorrect. Good is an adjective. Adjectives modify nouns. To write is a verb. Verbs are modified by adverbs. Well is an adverb. The correct title would be: HOW TO WRITE WELL

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    • Q. Shtik August 22, 2015 at 11:55 pm #

      How about the 10 items?

      Number seven is especially for you.

    • elysianfield August 23, 2015 at 10:35 am #

      ” I hope you are aware the title, HOW TO WRITE GOOD, is incorrect. Good is an adjective. Adjectives modify nouns. To write is a verb. Verbs are modified by adverbs. Well is an adverb. The correct title would be: HOW TO WRITE WELL”

      Wpac,
      Humor is a noun, humorous an adjective, embarrassing is your post….

      • wpa_ccc August 23, 2015 at 10:41 am #

        For your lack of respect you will be judged

        • elysianfield August 23, 2015 at 3:51 pm #

          Yes, very good.

  164. FincaInTheMountains August 23, 2015 at 7:44 am #

    Webster Tarpley: Convergence of Putin and Obama Against ISIS and Erdogan

    “The delivery of six MIG 31 combat aircraft to the Syrian government in Damascus corresponds to the withdrawal by Germany, Spain, [and the US] of Patriot missile batteries from Turkey within the framework of NATO. On this subject, there is a kind of cooperation between Moscow and Washington. The idea is to give the Syrian Arab Army the equipment required for a bombing campaign in northern Syria.

    Up until the present moment, the Syrian Arab Army’s aviation has been deterred from doing this by the Patriot missiles stationed in southern Turkey, and did not possess a sufficient number of combat aircraft able to operate at altitudes low enough to evade the surface to air missiles now in the possession of the jihadis. It is for this reason that the Syrian Air Force has not been capable of defending the Kurds in a city like Kobane.

    http://tarpley.net/convergence-of-putin-and-obama-against-allen-and-erdogan/

    This is the response of Putin and of Obama to the maneuvers carried out by General John Allen, who had gone off the reservation to stipulate an accord with Erdogan for a safe zone for rebels in Syria.

  165. FincaInTheMountains August 23, 2015 at 8:57 am #

    What Tarpley fails to mention (he actually fails to mention a lot of things) is that the Russian MIG-31 supplied to Syria could be used for the bombing of oil wells and pipelines to Turkey controlled by Islamic State, to finally stop that thieve’s paradise.

    Flows of contraband oil not only finance the Islamic State, they allow US to depress oil prices in order to punish countries that suddenly decided not sell oil for dollars, but for their national currency.

  166. FincaInTheMountains August 23, 2015 at 11:07 am #

    ARSENAL OF A DEMOCRACY or the biggest mistake ever made by American Elite

    In March 2006 Foreign Affairs hinted that the US has finally acquired the ability to deal overwhelming nuclear strike on Russia unexpectedly:

    … the age of MAD is nearing an end. Today, for the first time in almost 50 years, the United States stands on the verge of attaining nuclear primacy. It will probably soon be possible for the United States to destroy the long-range nuclear arsenals of Russia or China with a first strike. This dramatic shift in the nuclear balance of power stems from a series of improvements in the United States’ nuclear systems, the precipitous decline of Russia’s arsenal, and the glacial pace of modernization of China’s nuclear forces. Unless Washington’s policies change or Moscow and Beijing take steps to increase the size and readiness of their forces, Russia and China — and the rest of the world — will live in the shadow of U.S. nuclear primacy for many years to come

    https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/2006-03-01/rise-us-nuclear-primacy

  167. FincaInTheMountains August 23, 2015 at 11:57 am #

    Shortages of animal feed on the Island

    Due to drought that is lasting for more than 3 months now, animal feed is becoming sparse and very expensive. A 125 pound bag of rice bran that I used to buy under 400 pesos is costing now 750, and I can’t find a wholesale supplier who would agree to sell it to me – they all have previous engagements. On the other hand, I am not raising the price of my feed, since I am still developing a customer base.
    On the bright side, I easily doubled the number of customers in just one month. Unfortunately for me, that means I am nearing my current production capacity of Royal Palm Nuts feed, and would probably need an additional investment to increase the production. I just had to buy a bigger truck capable of transporting up to 250 100-pound bags – my old truck could not take more than 50.

    Millions of tons of that nuts are going to waste every year, which represents a substantial resource in producing milk and meat, just better and more productive collecting and drying technologies must be employed. Also, it could generate additional local employment, paying at least double the current employment rate.

  168. BackRowHeckler August 23, 2015 at 3:31 pm #

    Sunday business press not too concerned with market meltdown last week, WSJ: ‘a hiccup’, FT of London: ‘a buying opportunity’, IBD: ‘ … blame lies squarely on China’. Not even that much about it, but today in WSJ a feature article by Daniel Yergin about the future of energy. One notable thing he says, Solar is an important energy producing resource, but now only adds up to 1% of total. Just 1%.

    brh

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  169. wpa--ccc August 23, 2015 at 4:47 pm #

    “Sunday business press not too concerned with market meltdown last week” –brh

    Because it was not a “meltdown” and did not compare to a real crash like Black Monday Oct. 19, 1987: 22.6% drop in one day

  170. wpa--ccc August 23, 2015 at 9:20 pm #

    AMNESTY FOR ILLEGAL WHITES?

    At a meeting on Friday in Taos, New Mexico, Native American leaders weighed a handful of proposals about the future of the United State’s large, illegal European population. After a long debate, NANC decided to extend a road to citizenship for those without criminal records or contagious diseases.

    “We will give Europeans the option to apply for Native Citizenship,” explained Chief Sauti of the Nez Perce tribe. “To obtain legal status, each applicant must write a heartfelt apology for their ancestors’ crimes, pay an application fee of $5,000, and, if currently on any ancestral Native land, they must relinquish that land to NANC or pay the market price, which we decide.

    “Any illegal European who has a criminal record of any sort, minus traffic and parking tickets, will be deported back to their native land. Anybody with contagious diseases like HIV, smallpox, herpes, etc, will not qualify and will also be deported.”

    European colonization of North America began in the 16th and 17th centuries, when arrivals from France, Spain and England first established settlements on land that had been occupied by native peoples. Explorers Lewis & Clark further opened up western lands to settlement, which ultimately led to the creation of the Indian reservation system.

    Despite the large number of Europeans residing in the United States, historical scholars mostly agree that indigenous lands were taken illegally through war, genocide and forced displacement.

    Despite the council’s decision, a native group called True Americans lambasted the move, claiming amnesty will only serve to reward lawbreakers.

    “They all need to be deported back to Europe,” John Dakota from True Americans said. “They came here illegally and took a giant crap on our land. They brought disease and alcoholism, stole everything we have because they were too lazy to improve and develop their own countries.”

    • BackRowHeckler August 23, 2015 at 11:10 pm #

      Somebody pour this Chief Sauti a good stiiff shot of firewater.

  171. Q. Shtik August 24, 2015 at 12:07 am #

    …did not compare to a real crash like Black Monday Oct. 19, 1987: 22.6% drop in one day – wpa

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

    Making predictions is very hard, especially about the future – Yogi B.

    I don’t want to make a fool of myself by making some radical prediction like: ‘8/24/15 will be the new 10/19/87’ however I will simply point out that the DOW futures are at this minute down more than 400 points and the Shanghai Index is down 8.45% in Monday’s trading in China.

    These kinds of numbers are no longer funny.

    I have a feeling Jim will be treating us to a screed on this subject 9.5 hours from now.

  172. FincaInTheMountains August 24, 2015 at 2:30 am #

    Zugzwang (German for “compulsion to move”) is a situation found in chess and other games wherein one player is put at a disadvantage because they must make a move when they would prefer to pass and not move. The fact that the player is compelled to move means that his position will become significantly weaker. A player is said to be “in zugzwang” when any possible move will worsen his position.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zugzwang

    Current crisis is connected with the apparent exhaustion of the political means, the lack of tools for the resumption of political hegemony. It will be connected not with the military confrontation, but with the policy of the Fed, which happens to be in a Zugzwang. If it raises the interest rate in September, it will ruin the over-leveraged banks and many other players will not be able to service their debt. And if it does not raise rates, including coupon payments on government bonds, then pension funds and university endowments will not be able to perform their functions, putting the social system on a brink of collapse.

    In the current situation the optimum solution – de facto cessation of functions of the Fed as the issuer of the world currency, that is, the separation of the foreign and domestic contours of the dollar circulation (of course, supposedly, temporary). The foreign dollar will float separately from the domestic and trade higher and not be controlled by the FED.

    I don’t think we have long to wait for the resolution.

    • ZrCrypDiK September 2, 2015 at 12:27 pm #

      Zugzwang? You watchin’ too much Criminal Minds!!! The moment when you know you’re check-mated, but you still have to *MOVE*…

  173. FincaInTheMountains August 24, 2015 at 4:46 am #

    Where money will come to die

    The dismantling the world global financial system based on the dollar has began. In this process, all the money will migrate to the place of origin of the capital.

    The money that returns to the US with the collapse of the stock markets worldwide will increasingly be concentrated in Treasuries, and will perish together with the debt market as a whole.

    Money coming back to Europe will be mainly deposited in bank accounts, where they will perish together with the banks as a result of their bankruptcy.

    And what about a perfect storm? It is yet to come. The storm will come when the debt markets will just follow the stock markets. It is when the price of gold and silver skyrockets, paying no heed to the rules of technical analysis. Start rise in prices for precious metals will trigger the start of a perfect storm.

    We should see it all before the year’s end

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  1. The "I'm Just Going To Leave This Here" Thread - Please Add Your "Finds" - Page 19 - August 17, 2015

    […] True Believers | KUNSTLER Reply With Quote […]

  2. "There Is A Special Species Of Idiot At Large In The Financial Markets" | QuestorSystems.com - August 17, 2015

    […] Submitted by Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com, […]

  3. “There Is A Special Species Of Idiot At Large In The Financial Markets” | DailyDeceit - August 17, 2015

    […] Submitted by Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com, […]

  4. Red, Green, and Blue | Patriotism that loves our country, our land, and our planet - August 17, 2015

    […] By James Howard Kunstler […]

  5. Howard Kunstler -"There Is A Special Species Of Idiot At Large In The Financial Markets" - Progressive Radio Network - August 18, 2015

    […] Read More […]

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  6. James Howard Kunstler: As fracking implodes, the clowns deny reality : SRSrocco Report - August 18, 2015

    […] article was written by James Howard Kunstler and can be found here: True Believers.  The title was take from Red, Green & Blue.org […]

  7. James Howard Kunstler: As Fracking Implodes, The Clowns Deny Reality | The Falling Darkness - August 19, 2015

    […] article was written by James Howard Kunstler and can be found here: True Believers. The title was takem from Red, Green & Blue.org […]

  8. As Fracking Implodes, The Clowns Deny Reality | The Liberty Beacon®™ England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales - August 19, 2015

    […] article was written by James Howard Kunstler and can be found here: True Believers. The title was takem from Red, Green & Blue.org […]

  9. Sunday, 8/23/15 | Tipsy Teetotaler - August 23, 2015

    […] As long as I’m in a depressive mood: […]

  10. Red, Green, and Blue | Patriotism that loves our country, our land, and our planet - October 27, 2015

    […] appeared at Clusterfuck Nation; image some rights reserved by […]

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  11. James Howard Kunstler “True Believers” | Peak Energy & Resources, Climate Change, and the Preservation of Knowledge - September 30, 2016

    […] James Howard Kunstler. August 17, 2005. True Believers. […]