JHK’s Three-Act Play
The people who like to think they are managing the world’s affairs seem fiercely determined to ignore the world’s true condition — namely, the permanent contraction of industrial economies. They just can’t grok it. Two hundred years of cheap fossil fuel programmed mankind to expect limitless goodies forever on an upward-swinging arc of techno miracles. Now that the cheap fossil fuels have plateaued, with decline clearly in view, the hope remains that all the rackets of modernity can keep going on techno miracles alone.
Meanwhile, things and events are in revolt, especially the human race’s financial operating system, the world’s weather, and the angry populations of floundering nations. The Grand Vizier of this blog, that is, Yours Truly, makes no great claims for his crystal ball gazing (Dow at 4,000 – ha!), but he subscribes to the dictums of two wise men from the realm of major league baseball: Satchel Paige, who famously stated, “Don’t look back,” and Yogi Berra, who remarked of a promising rookie, “His whole future’s ahead of him!”
In that spirit, and as for looking back, suffice it to say that in 2012, the world’s managers — and by this I do not mean some occult cabal but the visible leaders in politics, banking, business, and news media — pulled out all the stops to suppress the appearance of contraction, and in so doing only supplied more perversion and distortion to the train of events that leads implacably to an agonizing workout, or readjustment of reality’s balance sheet. There’s a fair chance that these restraints will unravel in 2013, exposing civilization to a harsh new leasing agreement with its landlord, the Planet Earth.
On a personal note, I published a book in 2012 titled Too Much Magic: Wishful Thinking, Technology, and the Fate of the Nation. By an interesting coincidence, folks in the USA were engaged that year in manifold strenuous exercises in wishful thinking, ranging from fantasies of “energy independence,” to belief that central bank interventions could take the place of productive economic activity, to the idea that winks, suggestions, and guidelines were an adequate substitute for the rule of law, to the omnipresent mantra invoking “technology” as the sovereign remedy for every problem of existence (including the problems caused by technology), to the dominions of utter stupidity where climate change deniers hold hands with the funders of “creation” museums. Since wishful thinkers, by definition, are allergic to arguments against wishfulness, my book failed to make an impression. Anyway, gales of propaganda were blowing across the land, especially from the oil and gas fraternity, with the added cognitive dissonance hoopla of a presidential election — so the public was left wishfully bamboozled as it whirled around the drain of its hopes and dreams.
The Oil and Money Predicament
If you understand the basic formula that ever-increasing cheap energy resources were the fundamental condition for industrial growth for two centuries, then you must realize that they are also behind the modern operations of capital, especially the mechanism that allows massive volumes of interest on debt to be repaid — hence behind all of contemporary banking. And if you get that, it is easy to see how the end of cheap energy has screwed the pooch for modern finance.
In fact, let’s step back for a panoramic view of what happened with that relationship in recent times: In 1970 you get American peak oil production at just under 10 mmbd (million barrels a day). This chart tells the story:
US Oil production 1920 to 2012
That event was little noted at the time, but by 1973, the rest of the world was paying attention, especially the OPEC countries led by the big exporters in the Middle East. All they had to do was look at the published production figures and by 1973 the trend was apparent. They apprehended that US production had entered decline — predicted by American geologist M. King Hubbert — and that they, OPEC, could now put the screws to the USA. Which they commenced to do during a decade of rather messy oil crises (messy because they were accompanied by geopolitical events such as the Yom Kippur War and the 1979 revolution in Iran). OPEC could put the screws to the USA because our still-growing industrial economy required a still-growing oil supply — the growth of which now had to be furnished by imports from other nations. The catch was that those other nations raised the price substantially, virtually overnight, and since everything in the US economy used oil in one way or another, the entire cost structure of our manufacture, supply, distribution, and retail chains was thrown askew.
The net effect for the USA was that our economy went off the rails for a decade and lots of strange things started happening in the financial sector. They called it “stagflation” — stagnant economic activity + rising prices. It was hardly a conundrum. The OPEC price-jackings of 1973 and 1979 made everything Americans had to buy more costly, in effect devaluing the dollar while throwing sand in the gears of industrial production. Meanwhile, dazed and confused American industry started losing out to Japan and Europe in things like electronics and cars. Price inflation was running over 13 percent in the late ’70s. Interest rates skyrocketed. When Federal Reserve chair Paul Volker aggressively squashed inflation with a punitive prime rate of 20 percent in 1981, the economy promptly tanked.
Now look at this chart:
Notice that our oil consumption kept rising from the early 1980s until the middle of the early 2000s. Now look at the circle in the chart below. That rise of production from the late 1970s to about 1990 is mostly about production from the Prudhoe Bay oil fields in Alaska — one of the last great discoveries of the oil age (along with the North Sea and the fields of Siberia). US production did not regain the 1970 peak level, but it put a smile on the so-called Reagan Revolution and on Margaret Thatcher’s exertions to revive comatose Great Britain.
Post Peak Bump up from Alaskan Oil
Now look at the price of oil (chart below). You can see what a fiasco the period 1973 to 1981 was for US oil prices: huge rapid price rises in ’73 and ’79. But then the price started to fall steeply after 1981 and stayed around the same price levels as its pre-1973 lows.
1970s Oil Price Spike and Thereafter
The price of oil landed close to its pre-1973 levels by 1986 and hu
ng out there (though more erratically) until the mid-2000s. Because of those aforementioned last great giant oil field discoveries, OPEC lost its price leverage over world oil markets. Through the 1980s and 90s the price of oil went down until it reached the modern low of about $11 a barrel. That was when The Economist magazine ran a cover story that declared the world was “drowning in oil.” It was the age of “Don’t worry, be happy.”
ng out there (though more erratically) until the mid-2000s. Because of those aforementioned last great giant oil field discoveries, OPEC lost its price leverage over world oil markets. Through the 1980s and 90s the price of oil went down until it reached the modern low of about $11 a barrel. That was when The Economist magazine ran a cover story that declared the world was “drowning in oil.” It was the age of “Don’t worry, be happy.”
The price behavior of the oil markets after 1981 had interesting reverberations in both the macro economy and the financial sector (which is supposed to be part of the macro economy, not a replacement for it). A consensus formed in business and politics that it was okay to yield manufacturing to other nations. It was dirty and nasty and caused pollution, so let other countries have it. We followed the siren call of clean and tidy forms of production: “knowledge work!” The computer revolution had begun in earnest. The financial sector began its metastasis from 5 percent of the economy to, eventually, 40 percent, and really cheap oil prompted the last great suburban sprawl-building pulsation into the Martha Stewart bedecked McMansion exurbs. In effect, financial shenanigans and sprawl-building became the basis for the vaunted “Next Economy.” It lasted about 20 years.
That incarnation of the US economy failed spectacularly as soon as oil prices started to creep up in the early 2000s. And, of course, the final suburban sprawl boom went hand-in-hand with all the shenanigans in banking. So when it all blew up, beginning in 2007 with the collapse of Bear Stearns, the USA was left with a gutted economy, insolvent banks, and a living arrangement with no future.
The Current Situation
We’re now entering the seventh year of a smoke-and-mirrors, extend-and-pretend, can-kicking phase of history in which everything possible is being done to conceal the true condition of the economy, with the vain hope of somehow holding things together until a miracle rescue remedy — some new kind of cheap or even free energy — comes on the scene to save all our complex arrangements from implosion. The chief device to delay the reckoning has been accounting fraud in banking and government, essentially misreporting everything on all balance sheets and in statistical reports to give the appearance of well-being where there is actually grave illness, like the cosmetics and prosthetics Michael Jackson used in his final years to pretend he still had a face on the front of his head.
The secondary tactic has been intervention in markets wherever possible and the intemperate manipulation of interest rates, all of which has the effect of defeating the principle purpose of markets: price discovery — the process by which the true value of things is established based on what people will freely pay. For instance the price of money-on-loan. The functionally less-than-zero percent interest rates on money loaned between giant institutions like central banks and their client “primary dealers” (the Too Big To Fails) essentially pays these outfits for borrowing, which is obviously a distortion in the natural order of things (because it violates the second law of thermodynamics: entropy) as well as an arrant racket. The campaign of intervention and manipulation also deeply impairs the other purpose of markets, capital formation, by the resultant mismanagement and misallocation of whatever real surplus wealth remains in this society. What’s more, it allows these TBTF banks to become ever-bigger monsters which hold everybody else hostage by threatening to crash the system if they are molested or interfered with.
Which brings us to the third tactic for pretending everything is all right: complete lack of enforcement and regulation by all the authorities charged with making sure that rules are followed in money matters. This includes the alphabet soup of agencies from the Securities and Exchange Commission to the Commodities Futures Trading Commission, to the Federal Housing Authority, and so on (the list of responsible parties is very long) not to mention the Big Kahunas: the US Department of Justice, and the federal and state courts. Aside from Bernie Madoff and a few Hedge Fund mavericks nipped for insider trading and arrant fraud, absolutely nobody in the TBTF banking community has been prosecuted or even charged for the monumental swindles of our time, while the regulators have behaved in ways that would be considered criminally negligent at best, and sheer racketeering at less-than-best, in any self-respecting polity. The crime runs so deep and thick through all the levels of money management and regulation that one can say the whole system has gone rogue, up to the President of the US himself, the chief enforcement officer of the land, who has not lifted a finger to discipline any of the parties involved. The fact that Jon Corzine, late of MF Global, is still at large says it all.
Fourth-and-finally, the news media in league with the public relations industry have undertaken a campaign of happy talk to persuade the public that everything is okay and all the machinations cited above are kosher so that there is absolutely no political agitation over these crimes against their own interest, which is to say, the public interest. The PR/media happy talk racket is also aimed at maintaining various subsidiary fictions about the economy, such as the fibs that the housing market is bouncing back, that “recovery” is ongoing, and that the channel-stuffing monkeyshines of the car industry amount to booming sales of new vehicles. Perhaps the most pernicious big lie is the bundle of fairy tales surrounding shale oil and shale gas, including the idea that America will shortly become “energy independent” or that we have “a hundred years of shale gas” as President Obama was mis-advised to tell the nation. It is pernicious because it gives us collectively an excuse to do nothing about changing our behavior or preparing for the new arrangements in daily life that the future will require of us.
The Shale Ponzi
Well, because that’s what it is: a Ponzi scheme, aimed at gathering in sucker-investors to boost share prices of oil and gas companies, with the hope that some miracle will occur to make financially broke societies capable of paying three or four times the price for oil and gas than their infrastructure for daily life was set up to run on, back when it seemed to be running okay. This is just not going to happen.
Let’s start with shale gas. The gas is there in the “tight” rock strata, all right, but it is difficult and expensive to get out. The process is nothing like the old conventional process of sticking a pipe in the ground and getting “flow.” It’s not necessary to go into the techno-details (you can read about that elsewhere) but to give you a rough idea, it takes four times as much steel pipe to get shale gas out of the ground. I have previously touched on the impairment of capital formation due to machinations in banking – themselves a perverse response to the loss of capacity to pay back interest at all levels of the money system, which was caused by the world’s running out of cheap oil and gas. (Note emphasis on cheap.) The net effect of all that turns out to be scarcity in another resource: capital, i.e. money, rather specifically money for investment in things like shale oil and gas.
Ironically, plenty of money was available around 2004-5 when the campaign to go after shale oil and gas got ramped up over premonitions of global peak oil. How come there was money then and not now? Because we were at peak cheap oil and hence peak credit back then, which is to say peak available real capital. So, the oil and gas companies were able then to attract lots of investment mon
ey to set out on this campaign. They brought as many drilling rigs as they could into the shale oil and gas play regions and they drilled the shit out of them. Natural gas was selling for over $13 a unit (thousand cubic feet) around 2005, and it was that high precisely because conventional cheap nat gas production was in substantial decline.
ey to set out on this campaign. They brought as many drilling rigs as they could into the shale oil and gas play regions and they drilled the shit out of them. Natural gas was selling for over $13 a unit (thousand cubic feet) around 2005, and it was that high precisely because conventional cheap nat gas production was in substantial decline.
That was then, this is now. As a result of drilling the shit out of the gas plays, the producers created a huge glut for a brief time. They queered their own market long enough to wreck their business model. Unlike oil, nat gas is much more difficult to export — it requires expensive tankers, compression and refrigeration of the gas to a liquid, seaboard terminals to accomplish all that (which we don’t have), so there was no way to fob off the surplus gas on other nations. The domestic market was overwhelmed and there was no more room to store the stuff. So, for a few years the price sank and sank until it was under $2 a unit by 2011. Since shale gas production is just flat-out uneconomical at that price, the companies engaged in it began to suffer hugely.
In the process of all this a pattern emerged showing that shale gas wells typically went into depletion very quickly after year one. So all of the activity from 2004 to 2011 was a production bubble, aimed at proving what a bonanza shale gas was to stimulate more investment. It required a massive rate of continuous drilling and re-drilling just to keep the production rate level — to maintain the illusion of a 100-year bonanza — and that required enormous quantities of capital. So the shale gas play began to look like a hamster wheel of futility. After 2011 the rig count began to drop and of course production leveled off and the price began to go up again. As I write the price is $3.31 a unit, which is still way below the level where natural gas is profitable for companies to produce — say, above $8. The trouble is, once the price rises into that range it becomes too expensive for many of its customers, especially in a contracting economy with a shrinking middle class, falling incomes, and failing businesses. So what makes it economical for the producers (high price) will make it unaffordable for the customers (no money). Because of the complex nature of these operations, with all the infrastructure required, and all the money needed to provide it, the shale gas industry will not be able to go through more than a couple of boom / bust cycles before it begins to look like a fool’s game and the big companies throw in the towel. The catch is: there are no small companies that can carry on operations as complex and expensive as shale requires. Only big companies can make shale gas happen. So a lot of gas will remain trapped in the “tight” rock very far into the future.
Obviously I haven’t even mentioned the “fracking” process, which is hugely controversial in regard to groundwater pollution, and a subject which I will not elaborate on here, except to say that there’s a lot to be concerned about. However, I believe that the shale gas campaign will prove to be a big disappointment to its promoters and will founder on its own defective economics rather than on the protests of environmentalists.
Much of what I wrote about shale gas is true for shale oil with some departures. One is that the price of oil did not go down when US shale oil production rose. That’s because the amount of shale oil produced — now about 900,000 barrels a day — is working against the headwinds of domestic depletion in regular oil + world consumption shifting to China and the rest of Asia + the declining ability of the world’s exporters to keep up their levels of export oil available to the importers (us). We still import 42 percent of the oil we use every day.
The fundamental set up of life in the USA — suburban sprawl with mandatory driving for everything — hasn’t changed during the peak cheap oil transition and represents too much “previous investment” for the public to walk away from. So we’re stuck with it until it manifestly fails. (Life is tragic and history doesn’t excuse our poor choices.) The price of oil has stayed around the $90 a barrel range much of 2012. Oil companies can make a profit in shale oil at that price. However, that’s the price at which the US economy wobbles and tanks, which is exactly what is happening. The US cannot run economically on $90 oil. If the price were to go down to a level the economy might be able to handle, say $40 a barrel, the producers of shale oil would go broke getting it out of the ground. This brings us back to the fact that the issue is cheap oil, not just available oil. As the US economy stumbles, and the banking system implodes on the incapacity of debt repayment, there will be less and less capital available for investment in shale oil. As with shale gas, the shale oil wells deplete very rapidly, too, and production requires constant re-drilling, meaning more rigs, more employees, more trucks hauling fracking fluid, and more capital investment. This is referred to as “the Red Queen syndrome,” from Lewis Carrol’s Through the Looking Glass tale in which the Red Queen tells Alice that she has to run as fast as she can to stay where she is.
The bottom line for shale oil is that we’re likely to see production fall in the years directly ahead, to the shock and dismay of the ‘energy independence’ for lunch bunch. 2012 may have been peak shale oil. If the price of oil does go down to a level that seems affordable, it will be because the US economy has been crushed and America is mired in a depression at least as bad as the 1930s, in which case a lot of people will be too broke to even pay for cheaper oil. Hence, the only possibility that America will become energy independent would be a total collapse of the modern technological-industrial economy. The shale oil and gas campaign therefore must be regarded as a desperate gambit by a society in deep trouble engaging in wishing and fantasy to preserve a set of behaviors that can no longer be justified by the circumstances reality presents.
Macro-economic Issues
Major fissures began to show in the Ponzified global financial system in 2012 and it is hard to imagine them not yawning open dangerously in 2013. All the Eurozone countries are in trouble. Its collective economy has been tanking faster than the US economy because the member nations can’t print their own money and it is harder to conceal the financial tensions between debt accumulation and government expenditures. These tensions end up expressed as “austerity” — meaning fewer and fewer people get paid, which makes people angry and makes governments unstable. Bailout procedures are transparently laughable under the European Central Bank and the other bank-like “facilities,” giving money to governments so that they can give it to insolvent banks, so the banks can buy government bonds, which only stuff the banks with more bad paper, and take the national debts higher. Several Euro member countries are contenders for default this coming year: Greece, Spain, possibly Italy, and perhaps even France, which is now a basket-case dressed in Hollandaise sauce.
A perfect storm in the global bond market has formed with Europe crippled, Canada and Australia entering their own (long-delayed and spectacular) housing bubble busts, the USA sharply losing credibility as it fails to politically address its balance sheet problems — or even continue to pretend that it might — and Japan utterly floundering under a new lack of commitment to nuclear power, the need to import virtually all the fossil fuels it needs for its industrial economy, a consequent negative balance of trade (for the first time in decades), and a deadly debt-to-GDP ratio around 240 percent. Many observers see the new Japanese government under Shi
nzo Abe as determined to inflate his own currency away to nothing in an effort to unload exports and erase debt, and nobody understands how that strategy turns out well. My own view, expressed here before, is that Japan is on a fast track to become the first advanced nation to opt out of industrialism and go medieval. It might sound like a joke, but its not. And it would be consistent with Japan’s historic cultural personality of making stark choices, even if it was not clearly articulated in the political theater. The journey to that destination could include a war with China, which also would be consistent with Japan’s suicidal inclinations, so clearly displayed in its last major war with the US.
nzo Abe as determined to inflate his own currency away to nothing in an effort to unload exports and erase debt, and nobody understands how that strategy turns out well. My own view, expressed here before, is that Japan is on a fast track to become the first advanced nation to opt out of industrialism and go medieval. It might sound like a joke, but its not. And it would be consistent with Japan’s historic cultural personality of making stark choices, even if it was not clearly articulated in the political theater. The journey to that destination could include a war with China, which also would be consistent with Japan’s suicidal inclinations, so clearly displayed in its last major war with the US.
The global bond market is held together with baling wire and hose clamps. Since money is loaned into existence (in the words of Chris Martenson) the global financial system is underwritten by its bonds, and the bonds are underwritten only by the faith that issuers can pay the interest due to bondholders. Risk rises in an exact ratio as that faith wanes. And interest rates must rise hand-in-hand with that rising risk — unless the ruling authorities (central banks and governments) conspire to repress them. These “unnatural” interventions will only cause the trouble to be expressed elsewhere in collapsing currencies and economies. It is already happening under the various ZIRP regimes, setting up a feedback loop in which it becomes even less likely that bond-holders will be paid and more faith erodes until nobody wants any bonds and the market for them seizes up and all that paper becomes worthless.
These days, the only sovereign nation in the Eurozone with real financial credibility (i.e. tangible surplus wealth) is Germany. The European Central Bank has only a printing press and the European Financial Stability Facility only pretends to have access to pretend money. At some point, the Germans will have to decide whether they truly want to pick up the tab for all the unpaid bills of the Eurozone. Either they pay for life support for their customers or they let them go under and either way, they end up in the black hole of a contracting export economy, which is to say depression. Now, imagine Germany having to bail out France. Wouldn’t that be a moment of plangent historical symmetry? I’m not the only one to propose that Germany may shock the world in 2013 by pulling out of the Euro on short notice and taking shelter behind the Deutschmark. It may limit the damage, but otherwise they are stuck where they are geographically and as the other nations in Europe ride their economies down, Germany’s will contract, too.
One idea behind the Eurozone was to get its members so economically interdependent that war would be an unthinkable option. The period following the Napoleonic Wars (1815 – 1914) was exceptionally peaceful in Europe, too. Then, the 20th century rolled onstage with the unspeakable horror of two consecutive “world wars.” They occurred amid a phenomenal uptrend of increasing industrial wealth and burgeoning technology. Note that the defeat of the French army at Waterloo in 1815 was accomplished by a coalition of British and German (Prussian) forces. (The teams change through history.) Note also that the end of the long peace of the 19th century, the First World War, was a trauma the real cause of which continues to mystify the historians — did England, France, Germany care that much about Serbia to destroy their economies? The Second World War was an extension of the unresolved business of the first, especially the question of who owed what to whom for all the damage. One thing we do know: the world was not prepared for the consequences of industrial-strength warfare with high tech weapons: the massacres of the trenches, aerial bombing of cities full of civilians, and the assembly-line style crematorium.
The atom bomb finally sobered folks up in 1945. The ensuing period has been another age of peace and plenty in Europe. The next act there will be played out against the backdrop of declining wealth and unraveling techno-industrial complexity. It may be a set of low-grade grinding struggles rather than an operatic debacle like the two world wars, and it will surely include internal civil strife in this-or-that country, which could turn outward and become contagious. The next time Europe finds itself a smoldering ruin, the capital will not be there to rebuild it. I’m not sure whether it matters all that much whether the single currency Euro survives or not. Everything economic is hitting the skids in Europe now led by plunging car sales. Record high youth unemployment is epidemic, including now in France. The debt problems there can only be solved by deleveraging and/or default. The chance of coordinated cooperative fiscal discipline among the Euro member nations is nil. I see Europe poised to follow Japan into a re-run of the medieval period, though much less willingly. The quandary is: how do you have a wonderful and peaceful modern culture without an economy to support it.
The United Kingdom stands outside the Euro currency club (though it is in the European Union of trade agreements) but London remains the financial hub of the continent, if not the money-laundering center of the universe. The financial mischief there is allowed to go on because washing and rinsing money is the only major industry left in Old Blighty. Its own finances are in terrible disarray, the people have been subject to painful “austerity” for some time before the PIIGS started squealing, and its energy resources are dwindling away to nothing. The governing coalition of David Cameron’s Tories and the Nick Clegg’s Liberal Democrats is cracking up under the austerity strain, with Nigel Farage’s Independence Party creeping up in the polls. With the LIBOR scandal entering the adjudication phase, monkey business in the London gold and silver bullion market, and half the world’s daily churn of interest rate derivatives, “the City” (London’s Wall Street) is one black swan away from provoking a world-scale financial accident that could daisy-chain through all the world’s big banks and create a “nuclear winter” of capital. It’s too bad the UK didn’t keep making chocolate bars and those wonderful tin soldiers I played with as a child. Instead, the nation became a casino with a lot of excellent Asian restaurants. It is nicely positioned to be the whipping boy for the rest of Europe as everybody’s fortunes turn down, but it has enough military hardware to strike back and cause a whole lot more trouble. Imagine England becoming the Bad Boy of Europe in the 21st century, having to be disciplined now by the Germans!
Russia is a few wealthy cities in an enormous flat alternative universe of ice and fir trees. Perhaps global warming will perk up the long-suffering Russian people. Meanwhile, 50 percent of Russia’s economy is tied to its oil and gas production. Their great Siberian fields are petering out just like the Alaskan and North Sea giants that were discovered around the same time. They have been throwing huge numbers of drilling rigs into depleting fields to keep production up and pursuing some “tight” rock plays with help from the USA’s Halliburton and Schlumberger, with few environmental protests in the wilds of Siberia. I’m not persuaded that exploration for oil in the offshore Arctic region will have a great outcome. Where does the capital investment come from if every other advanced industrial economy is broke? Even if the sea ice melts it will be difficult and expensive to work in the Arctic seas, and the thawing permafrost of Siberia will leave an endless soggy patch of mosquito-infested mush between the offshore rigs and customers in Europe and elsewhere. Anyway, those customers will be increasingly impoverished and hard-pressed to pay for ever more pricey oil. The Russians may be hopeful that climate change will boost their crop yields and make their p
ortion of the earth comparatively more habitable — but it’s more likely that thawing permafrost will prang the entire human experiment.
ortion of the earth comparatively more habitable — but it’s more likely that thawing permafrost will prang the entire human experiment.
There are fewer cheerleaders for China and its economic fortunes than a year or so ago, as deep problems in banking and politics reveal themselves, along with the troubles plainly visible in their slumping export markets. If people in the USA and Europe don’t buy all the flat screen TVs and plastic stuff then China is going to choke on industrial overcapacity. (It already is.) They have accomplished some marvelous things recently, especially compared to the cretinous lethargy of the USA — for instance, building a great continental high speed railroad line and a huge solar energy industry — but they face the same fundamental quandary as all the other industrial nations: declining fossil fuel resources with no comparable replacement on the horizon. Their positioning for the coming great contraction vis-à-vis the aforementioned advantages in solar and rail transport must be offset by an opaque, corrupt, and despotic political regime, a huge and potentially restive population of laid-off urban factory workers, and a chaotic banking system. They have laid in a lot of “reserves” in the way of US treasury paper and stockpiled much valuable construction material (steel, copper, cement, etc), but what does that really mean? If they dumped the treasuries, or even systematically divested, they could trash the bond market and the dollar. And what might they do with all the construction material in an economy with sinking demand for new buildings? Will they need more super-highways as the price of gasoline makes car ownership less affordable?
China appears to be accumulating big supplies of gold bullion — they have also become the world’s number one producer of mined gold, eclipsing played-out South Africa. That could give them a lot more room to maneuver in a world of vanishing resources and collapsing economies, at least in terms of being able to swap for food and fuel. They may be attempting to establish a gold-backed currency to replace the dollar for international trade settlements. Doings at the ASEAN Summit in November suggests they are engineering just such a new reserve currency for the world to run shrieking to when America’s foolishness and cowboy swagger becomes too much to take — though US dollar dominance was based as much on America’s (now bygone) rule of law in money matters as America’s sheer economic power, and China remains Dodge City where the rule of law is concerned. The world might not be so eager to be pushed around by the Yuan. But it may be accomplished by financial coup d’état whether the world likes it or not. My forecast for China in 2013 is a widening crack in the political façade of the formerly omnipotent ruling party, organized agitation by unemployed factory workers (with government blowback), bullying of their senile neighbor (and historical enemy) Japan, and sullen, peevish behavior toward their ailing trade partners, Europe and especially the USA. Worldwide economic entropy cancels out China’s putative advantages in cash reserves, stockpiles of “stuff,” and government that can do what it pleases without a loyal opposition tossing sand in its gears.
Contrary to the wishful thinking of Tom Friedman, globalism is winding down. The great contraction leads back to a regional and local reorganization of activity in all nations. The world becomes a bigger place again with more space between the players and a larger array of players as big nations break up into autonomous states. This is really a new phase of history, though it is only just beginning in 2013.
Outlying Territories
Literally anything can happen in the Middle East, up to the initiation of an event that resembles a world war. As a general proposition, there are just too many people inhabiting this region of the world and the political tensions among them reached critical mass in 2013. The meltdown will continue with enough critical frailty to prang the region’s oil exporting capacity, it’s main source of wealth and power. It just wouldn’t take much. King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia is pushing 90. His subjects are getting more numerous, collectively poorer, and more anxious about their future. The country is surrounded by failing regimes. I forecast overthrow of the Saud family’s long grip on power this year, with a struggle among other entitled families there and finally an Islamic revolution adding spice to the political upheaval.
I doubt that Israel will try to attack Iran’s nuclear factories without overt consent from the US government, which will be withheld from Israel, on account of the difficulties ongoing in the US economy.
Overall I expect gross deterioration of civil order, living standards, and oil export markets in the Middle East. The US will be foolish to intervene.
South America gets a little poorer, Argentina defaults again, but this continent remains a sleeping backwater in the world — perhaps proof that the hedge funders fleeing to sanctuaries in backwaters like Uruguay may have made a great call.
Mexico is the exception. Whatever economic and political sickness the US suffers will infect our neighbor to the south. Too many people there competing for not enough stuff. There will be blood (as the old movie title goes).
Turning 9,000 miles to the east, can Pakistan become a worse basket-case of a nation? I suppose they could, if taken over by their homegrown Islamic maniacs. India next door will be rocked by the great global economic contraction. The two countries, well armed with atomic bombs are a bad combo. Unfortunately, a distracted world cannot pay much attention.
Woe to Markets
Between government and central bank interventions, accounting fraud, control fraud, the computer hugger-mugger of algorithmic trading, and AWOL rule of law, the financial markets have practically destroyed themselves. They can’t be depended on to express the real value of things and capital formation struggles against the headwinds of peak cheap energy on top of massive fraud and swindling. The markets can only blow up. When the wreckage clears and new, smaller markets form, as they will, they must operate differently, with new rules and restraints, because the blow up of today’s markets will be such a trauma that nobody will venture to engage with them if they don’t. A world without simplified and honest capital, commodity, and equity markets would beat a quick path back to a dark age, and in the process a lot of people will die of cold and starvation.
The full workout of all that may be some years further out, but the blowout will commence in 2013. The glue that held these markets together was faith that they meant something — and that faith has been pissed away by fools in high places who drained all the honesty out of them. It was a classic case out of the Joseph Tainter playbook: diminishing returns of ever-increasing complexity addressed with ever-more layers of complexity, larded with systematic lying based on mystifying, opaque jargon, sanctioned statistical misreporting, felonious cronyism, and scuttling of the rule of law. In short, the markets have been taken over in effect by a criminal racketeering syndicate. In doing this, so much resilience has been removed from these market structures that they are riddled with rot, like a mansion infested with carpenter ants. In other words, borrowing a term from Taleb, they are hopelessly fragile. Any little vibration could reduce the whole creaking arrangement into a heap of rubble and ashes. There’s plenty of vibration available out there. Events are humming.
The debt mountains in the USA and
elsewhere far overshadow the equity and commodity market molehills, and unpaid debt will eventually overcome all the forces of untruth. Debt is a subsidiary of the force known as reality. Its will cannot be denied, even by Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, the US Treasury, and the Federal Open Markets Committee. And the unwinding of unpaid debt, honestly acknowledged or not, will thunder through the system sucking wealth out of advanced societies so efficiently that it will make the Seven Plagues of the Bible look like a flat tire on a sunny day.
elsewhere far overshadow the equity and commodity market molehills, and unpaid debt will eventually overcome all the forces of untruth. Debt is a subsidiary of the force known as reality. Its will cannot be denied, even by Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, the US Treasury, and the Federal Open Markets Committee. And the unwinding of unpaid debt, honestly acknowledged or not, will thunder through the system sucking wealth out of advanced societies so efficiently that it will make the Seven Plagues of the Bible look like a flat tire on a sunny day.
So, finally my picks for 2013:
— Dow 4000 (What!? Did he say that!? Again!?). Even the algos will run squealing into the underbrush this time.
— Gold $2500 by 12/31/2013 (and headed higher) after a Q-1 deleveraging swoon. Silver $125. Uncertainty trumps greed and fear.
— Two-way Stagflation — massive asset deflation combined with high energy and food costs. Americans go broke fast, go hungry, go nowhere.
— California, Illinois, and New Jersey beg the broke federal government for bailouts. The federal government pretends to bail them out. Austerity has a field day.
— Despite willingness to do so, the Federal Reserve can no longer “print” money to overcome the deflationary contraction of wealth. They are finally “out of ammunition.” They will try nonetheless. Consequently some nations will stop accepting dollars for trade, possibly the Middle Eastern oil exporters. That would be very bad news.
— Shale oil and gas production stop increasing, possibly turns around to decline. The event hugely demoralizes “energy independence” cornucopians.
— Gasoline shortages return to the USA on a scale last seen in the 1970s. Cause: broken oil market allocation system. Some regions suffer more than others.
— Drought continues in the US heartland. The grain belt withers in 2013. Dixieland cooks like a chicken-fried steak. Food costs go crazy. The American public finally begins to freak out when confronted with $9 boxes of Cheerios.
— A major earthquake hits the West Coast.
Have a nice year everybody.
Apologies for any typos.
The Kunstlercast podcast resumes in January!
____________________________________
For a complete list of books by James Howard Kunstler and purchase links, CLICK HERE.
Predictions are a dangerous business at times, but at this point, we can pretty much look at the lack of recognition of reality and figure that, at a minimum, the ship is still headed right for the rocks.
Visit the Leibowitz Society at http://leibowitzsociety.blogspot.com/2012/12/guns-guns-guns.html for more information and commentary on our continuing collapse.
JHK, My prediction for 2013 is more of the same (corruption): http://youtu.be/QK1L0J6HxNg
Oh, I forgot to mention — about the Dow 4000 thing, James: I read a couple of pieces where people are getting out of stocks, average people who don’t use other people’s play money, that is. So, while the Dow is still pretty high, the reality is that it is like our paper money…essentially worthless, except that the face value is kept high to try to entice people into gambling on it. So, while the number is still up there, the real value of it as a means of measuring economic reality has evaporated completely.
4th
It is time to invest in natural gas heavily. Forget the companies that are drilling and go all in for the next few years until it hits $7, then bail.
Happy New Year from Detroit!
That’s an impressively detailed forecast, especially prefaced by the historical section explaining how we got here. It looks like my final lecture in geology, in which I explain the importance of fossil fuels to the U.S. economy and the effects of high oil prices. Of course, I got some of that from you, so I shouldn’t be surprised.
About the Dow 4,000 prediction, not this year. A crash to Dow 7,000 I can believe, especially if there is no Fiscal Cliff deal (there probably will be something early next year; I’ve given up on it happening today) and the Congress refuses to increase the Debt Ceiling, leading to default (less likely with the incoming Congress than the previous, but who knows?), along with other crises, like a Eurozone collapse. As for the price of gold, I don’t follow that as closely as I do oil, a prediction for which I didn’t see if you made one.
I haven’t blogged about the stock market for quite a while, not since the last debt ceiling crisis resulted in a dead cat bouncing on a rubber floor. The market has since recovered, peaked, and is now headed down (I say 9800, where it will rebound to 10,000 and then stall). Instead, I’ve been far more interested in oil and food, real things that people need. This week has been something of an exception, as I’ve been concentrating on Christmas and the end of the year, so I’ve been less practical. That didn’t stop me from writing about people who like to “meet their meat” by hunting, both the ones who are doing it right and the ones who are doing it wrong, such as the two young men who used a bow and arrow to bag a five-point buck inside the city limits of a Detroit suburb. That got them a segment on the local news.
Detroit is still managing contraction, although the locals are hoping for a recovery. They might be able to pull off both, since the population has dropped. An example is the reopened Science Center, which received a lot of attention. My post about that is the most read of the month. Next up are posts about biodiversity, space, and the last pot shots at the Fake Mayan Apocalypse.
As for what the future holds, this month’s theme for National Blog Posting Month is Energy. It seems you got a head start on that, and I’ll gladly follow.
Happy Motoring–for now–from Detroit!
http://crazyeddiethemotie.blogspot.com/
I am really glad the podcasts are coming back. I’ve missed hearing them.
Many thanks to JHK for his long-awaited predictions for 2013. It seems that now that his physical health problems have been successfully addressed, his mental skills have improved and increased substantially. This is good news for all of us since there are a diminishing few who really have a handle on reality these days. I look forward to a difficult year and, for many of us, this could be our last. Also glad to hear that the podcast is coming back, hopefully with Duncan back in the mix.
Jim – I always look forward to your end-of-the-year column as it often reviews so much of what has happened and how we got here. Always worthy of a tweet and a re-post on all my favorite stations.
As the old continues to crumble it behooves us to offer peeks into what is working it way up through the broken asphalt to be re-born. Humans may be slow learners, but we are tenacious. We have many of the necessary solutions already operating here and there. What is needed is a coherent vision of how these diverse experiments can be woven together to re-make our cities and town into the human-scaled increasingly resilient communities. There is a path that does not need to take us down the road to a “World Made by Hand” if we start making the right decisions today.
I suspect the result will lie somewhere between Jim’s dystopian world and my much more upbeat vision in my novel “From Here to There: A Story of America’ Future. But we will only know if we try.
Grab a bit of inspiration at http://www.fromhere-tothere.org today.
A long read, but it’s like “The Long Emergency” condensed into one chapter, with updates on topical subjects like China and the shale scam!
A terrific summary and insightful thoughts regarding our prospects for the upcomming year.
I’m reading “Too Much Magic” now. I’ll be recommending it to anyone who will listen.
Thanks again!
Thank You Mr. Kunstler..
I read your new book, it was an excellent read.
This post was extraordinary…
No need to apologize for anything..
A brilliant summation of where we are headed.
Bravo!!
JHK said: South America gets a little poorer, Argentina defaults again, but this continent remains a sleeping backwater in the world — perhaps proof that the hedge funders fleeing to sanctuaries in backwaters like Uruguay may have made a great call. Mexico is the exception.
South America is booming and is a great place to live. Where I am we have a 365 days a year growing season and no fossil fuel inputs are needed because there is no need for either heating or cooling: a perfect year-round climate.
I would point out Mexico is not part of South America. Mexico is part of North America, along with Canada and the USA (as in NAFTA)
JHK said:
When has it ever not been so?
Whoo! Time to head for the hills!
–Panic in Year Zero
CORRECTION
JHK said: Events are humming.
When has it ever not been so?
Future headlines – just before the Long Emergency becomes recognizable:
NFL retools season schedule to 12 games – Officials cite lagging attendance.
Walmart of offer low cost bus shuttle service to low income shoppers – other big box retailers follow suit.
Congress creates new fuel tax surcharge on all gasoline sold within five miles of any Interstate highway – (tax to fund highway infrastructure)
Holiday Inn and Marriot file for bankruptcy – entire travel industry struggles as a result of travel decline.
Many city governments to restrict street light use and continue to close parks as revenues decline. Many other services to be cut.
(Unlike JK – at least I understand the relative importance of where the cart and the horse belong.)
Before the “Long Emergency” can start – there just have to be signs of the “Long Belt Tightening”
its short and simple: given the golden spoon, our inclination is grab as much and to hell with the next guy.
the money owns america. wwiii w/i the decade. because desperation eventually loses patience with being taken.
My prediction is that gold and the DJIA will meet — probably not this year, but before the secular bull market is over. Note that could mean gold at $12000 an ounce or the DJIA at $1500, but more likely meeting somewhere in the middle. Unless of course all faith in paper is lost and gold goes to infinity and the DJIA to $0.
Personally, though, I think the world leaders know exactly what is happening and have already decided on a strategy: genocide. What else do you do the ship is sinking and there aren’t enough lifeboats, if you are a sociopath and regard the rest of humanity like cockroaches? From that perspective, what they are doing makes sense.
I like your predictions – less grandiose than JHK’s, though I like his too. I would add that we will see the end of the skyscraper era, along with a winding down of suburbia. Bicycling will continue to increase as a warmer climate will facilitate same, particularly in the northern climes.
Jim you forgot to add that America’s CEO is an insufferable prick suffering from malignant narcisism with a cult following of the brainless evil yuppy moral munchkins. Obama makes hayseed Gantry Bush look like a piker, but one saving grace for Obama, the Left still has a residual reflexive disdain for American military power.
But in Obama’s defense he has so far blunted the aspirations of the soon to fail Israeli Right, and that my friends is quite the accomplishment.
My prediction for 2013 is that whites take the first step in being allowed to be human again and not some ideological pawns of Day Care America, that evil dehumanizing place where soccer moms and hipster kiddies can pretend to love every human as “equal.” (means the same) This means the “race card” will be shoved up the elite and gibs me dats coalitions fat behind.
Have a Happy New Year folks, good luck gardening.
Thanks NW.
Barry leads the lemmings over the cliff.
See the last 3 entries in last weeks thread.
Yogi Berra also said, “It ain’t over ’till it’s over.”
Some of us may die of natural causes before the final plagues kill Planet Earth.
I hope that turns out to be my fate.
Other Yogiisms are equally priceless:
“It’s déjà vu all over again”.
“You can observe a lot by watching.”
“Always go to other people’s funerals, otherwise they won’t go to yours.”
“When you come to a fork in the road, take it.”
“Nobody goes there anymore. It’s too crowded.”
“90% of the game is half mental.”
Anyway, with all of the gloom and doom around here, Yogi has brightened my otherwise dreary New Year’s Eve.
Here’s hoping that we all make it to 2014 — and beyond.
Well, that just about says it all. Except, that, as Ecclesiastes says, there is nothing new under the sun. It’s the same old, same old and will continue anew. The earth and its people aren’t going anywhere (the sun also rises), so there will be life and it will be as good as we choose to make it.
” Drought continues in the US heartland. The grain belt withers in 2013. Dixieland cooks like a chicken-fried steak. Food costs go crazy. The American public finally begins to freak out when confronted with $9 boxes of Cheerios.”
Jim, 47 MILLION are on food stamps/ EBT [Im not sure if they are they same].
A friend in a large city saw a Cash/Credit card
machine set up for EBT!? Not sure what she saw!!
And there are a few other ‘free lunch’ programs.
You know the old saying about free lunch!
Jim, here is another Yogi Berra quote that I think is very appropriate.
“It’s hard to make predictions. Especially about the future.”
Wow, Jim this is quite a epic tale of our current situation. And once again you are right on target, all this adds real meaning to the phrase “reality bites”, doesn’t it. I’m going to pass it along to some friends and maybe a few others to help make their day. I’ll be sure to tell them to hide all sharp implements around the house first before reading.
One thing that stood out for me was this line;
“Overall I expect gross deterioration of civil order, living standards, and oil export markets in the Middle East. The US will be foolish to intervene.”
Which makes it 100 percent certain that we will. What better excuse would there be to keep the ol’ military industrial complex / ingrained U.S. economic stimulus program alive and well?
So on that note, to the entire CF’d Nation I’ll wish for you Happier New Year(s)!
In the mean time, Enjoy the ride…
Now I would be remiss if I didn’t once again share with you another sonic selection; so here you are; listen in the background as you read the rest of the comments.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKt6n65uaVI
Thanks, James, Howard & Kunstler (tangent adjudicators to Reality)!
Well and carefully summarized.
Those with the wit to look, now are seeing that the entire way of doing bid’nez in this big, wide world is a scheme to defraud. It’s also accompanied by a dis-information and mis-information campaign large enough to choke every living soul out of their critical thinking skills. It’s damn near looking like a case of, “If we keep the lumpenprole dumb and misdirected enough, we can squeeze a few more trillion out of ’em before they begin to notice… and by then, it will be too late. Haw-haw! Another cigar and glass of brandy, Cadwallader, old prat?”
Methinks the “Long Belt-Tightening” has already begun:
NFL to 12 games? We’ve already seen lockouts from the NFL, NBA and the NHL (again for them), so this may be near future, not far. Also, don’t be surprised to see contraction for the NBA and NHL, and NASCAR has already changed their rules to work under a tighter budget for their racing teams.
Already the Silicon Valley employers are privately bussing their employees to and from work. So…when will Walmart follow suit? I thought they would have started with Chicago when the city tried to keep them out.
Right now I’m waiting Congress creates new fuel tax surcharge on all gasoline sold within five miles of any Interstate highway, as “the newly built I-80/94” is literally falling apart in front of my own eyes. Not even ten years, and that road’s becoming gravel.
Three of our hotels in the NW Indiana area are owned by the Trucking industry for housing of trainees. Never mind that “truck driver trainee” is actually a cruel joke (Between personal experience and having to haul “failed” trainees to the bus station, let’s just say I’ve learned something of what passes as “We’re Hiring” in the advertisements), I wouldn’t be surprised to see more hotels go towards housing temp workers, or becoming low-end housing for throwaway men (like the old Jan’s Rooms, where I lived for five months before getting back on my feet.).
Quite a few cities in Michigan have already started to restrict street light use and close parks. Other places are looking to follow suit, under the rubric of “consolidating parks into fewer, larger areas.” I remember the Krishnas declaring that Detroit was a decade ahead of America, Karma-wise, so don’t be surprised to see other cities look towards them and other cities (Flint, Cleveland, Youngstown) when they start hitting their irrevocable declines.
Methinks the “Long Belt Tightening” has already started, and JK is looking beyond to what’s next.
Wow the prediction for 2013 was a big article, I’ll bet that took quite a bit of time. Well done I thought. It’s difficult to make accurate predictions, although Jim does seem to be right in my view in most of his criticisms of society as a whole.
In spite of the dumb fucks who show up on here every week with their cherry picked factoids, to prove everything is fine because there has not been total collapse yet.
I’m one of those “climate change deniers.” That label was cooked up by Al Gore, I think, to demonize us. It’s second only to “holocaust denier” in the public’s mind.
Actually I’m not a denier of climate change. The climate is always changing, and generally in a cyclic manner. What I “deny” is the reality of anthropogenic global warming and of CO2 as the mechanism. Anyone who is unafraid to question the consensus belief should go to to http://scienceandpublicpolicy.org and start reading with an open mind. Google Christopher Monckton and watch his presentations.
One more possibility to add to Jim’s list: a deliberate crashing of the banking system, to be blamed on a cyber-attack:
1) Devalue the dollar (as in Argentina).
2) Confiscate firearms — by starving the urban/suburban public into food riots (EBT cards don’t work when the grid is down) and thus spooking everyone into accepting drastic losses of liberty.
3) Fabricate an excuse to expand the US war machine (“Iran is to blame”).
4) Seize financial and other assets in the name of national security or “for your own protection.” There is already talk of seizing control of our retirement accounts.
“Overall I expect gross deterioration of civil order, living standards, and oil export markets in the Middle East. The US will be foolish to intervene.” -JHK
Which makes it 100 percent certain that we will. What better excuse would there be to keep the ol’ military industrial complex / ingrained U.S. economic stimulus program alive and well? -Lenny
Ah, wouldn’t that be the ultimate in irony? The Grandees of the Empire of the FUSA causing the stopping up of the flow of the one-and-only thing propping up the petro-dollar. (Unfortunately, aforesaid Grandees will not have the decency to commit hara-kiri when it all goes down the shitter due to their incessant meddling.)
re the Middle East: “as a general proposition, there are just too many people inhabiting this part of the world.” Nice, Mr. Kunstler. Hows about you hire some hard working ME immigrants to dig your gardens? Sorry, Mr. Kunstler, but multiculturalism is over with also. We out here in the lower middle class heartland, where we still mend or even make our own clothing and grow our own vegetables want a 5 year minimum moratorium, 10 years would be better, on immigration. The cheese doodle scarfers are the semi-employed underclass, not us. They beleived the promises of mass industrialization, that you could have cheap clothing from Kmart and cheap eats from MickeyD, and never have to drudge again.
Other than that one sentence, excellent column this week, as far as it goes.
Money = oil = faith in the future. It’s all one big feedback loop that’s about to hit a limit.
Thanks James! Happy New Year to You and Yours! Your offerings are always appreciated ! Happy Gardening to all
…Regardless of where “the warming” is coming from, what we intend to DO in the face of this predicament is the Big Question. Think it will just “go away” because it’s not anthropogenic? Concentrating on ancillary symptoms and think-tank talking-points is decidedly unproductive and a waste of energies.
Exhibit “A” to my first posting…
Wishing everyone as good a New Years’ Party as you can cobble together, and a more thoughtful 2013.
(We’re pooling resources with our neighbor and a couple good friends to put together a feast of things we really enjoy, including each others’ company!)
See yez; things to prepare.
January 01, 2013.
Happy New Year . . .
http://www.theyorkshirelad.ca/5poetry/The%20Boat/boat.html
. . . good luck.
Let me summarize, “we are all screwed”! It is funny, actually, to have an idea of one’s fate, perhaps even the worst fate that could happen to the human race at that (take a breath). We will be lucky to escape with only an economic collapse.
I have been thinking to join up with the Druids, as at least, they have a mechanism to draw a “Protective Circle” around their members. Much more than any of the other religions can offer, methinks. As what are the Catholics, Jews, Islam, Hindu, and the great new religion called China, going to buy with their Gold? And I’m just not as sure of this rugged-individual-every-man-for-himself kind of thing anymore either.
Anyway, sorry to go on longer than my normal comment. The post is great inspiration. Happy New Year!
James,
I must say, right F*ing on…
Summing it up as succinctly as possible; Optimism Kills. That is optimism without support facts, and we don’t need no stinkin’ FACTS! Eh?
With the possible exception of the new electrics, I have news for you, not that you want to hear it… but my latest tests have proven the God coil defeats the Hysteresis demon, and the Galt engine may make its debut in the new year. The downside?
Unfortunately for all you huggermuggers, your patent laws say its ILLEGAL… and subject to confiscation for reasons of national security! Yup, the other side of James loss of the rule of law is the patent absurdity of the institutionally brain dead, and the support of the military industrial complex.
Now you see why such things have been ‘urban legends’, but not this time… This time, we will not sell it, it will be born and live only at the Gulch, for those who believe in God, and well, sorry for the rest of you, but you will have your world made by hand, in the company store, for your masters.
The work of Einstein has been completed, now the work of Tesla must be finished. There is a Universe of energy above your head James, but you can’t see it, because you do not have “eyes that see”. You do not see the energy within the mystery of the rocks, because the religious zealots of the Catholic destroyed it, and set mankind back a thousand years.
Now the Revelation is here, that the John Galt of God delivers, to put down ‘Objectivism’ and leftism, and replace it with Unificationism, to join left and right in Hyper Relativity, and the truth of the Yin, Yang and Tao, manifested in our reality as Einstein’s Aether in opposition to the HyperLight. F* the illusion of the God particle and those who believe in it, reality is energy in a true chaotic Matrix, Einstein was right and so was Tesla. The only way to overcome the laws of physics James, is hyperphysics.
Leave the prison cave and the shadows of illusion, to join the Temple of Galt++
http://pipermichael.wordpress.com
No, the warming ended 12 years ago. Sorry. You are clinging to a future that is not going to happen. Your future is already history. Global Warming is a scam perpetrated by the Global Elite in order to contract our Civilization with them secured on top. Why do you want to buy into that scenario?
Bravo, Jim, Bravo
Excellent predictions post–leaving nothing to be desired.
Yep, this could really be a tipping point. The other day The Oil Drum had a post about the financing of the shale gas that showed the low price to impact on the industry. Jamie Dimon told congress that these crashes of the stock market happen every 5-7 years (2008, 2013?) With no real foundation for price discovery this can’t continue.
Yes, one thing I can say about all the manipulations we try in all aspects of our technology and endeavors is distorted in an agenda driven environment almost nothing is really analyzed to take all the consequences into account.
It is either a lack of full knowledge of the nature of that which you want to manipulate, or a sin of omission in order to plow ahead on something that will have blow-back. Whatever the problem is we are entering a moment where we won’t be able to avert disaster.
One thing that will probably get far more powerful than ever is organized crime and black markets—-should be a real joyride into the tunnel.
Jim-
Edit recommendation:
Change M. King Hubbard to M. King Hubbert
Unless of course, you know something that I do not.
Keep up the fine work.
Human Beings again? Only if we are able to keep our Guns. Being armed guarantees some minimum respect that they wont grant us otherwise.
A Hispanic woman pushed a Hindu into an oncoming train. She thought he was a Muslim, but she doesn’t seem to know the difference since they look the same. This is your America Asoka: a nightmare of multiculturalism. She did look kind of White though, if that’s any consolation to you. Unlike Zimmerman.
Radu, let’s not comment on race this week. OK?
Hollywood stars reach new level of hypocrisy.
http://vault-co.blogspot.com/2012/12/celebrities-turds-in-human-form-with.html
Time to “Ring out the false and ring in the true”
Happy New Year!
Everybody fire their guns in the air! Its a negative lottery.
Interesting that Americans are so busy trying to find the Muslims that they’re killing everyone BUT the Muslims.
Maybe it’s time to adapt a new religion?
“The Kunstlercast podcast resumes in January!”
Yeah! Enjoyed the reunion interview with Duncan for his show; looking forward to yours.
May the New Year bring every one of your predictions about–especially $9 Cheerios, as I have about 100 boxes in the pantry!
Why not? It is the Essence of decay since if the Blood is pure, a Civilization can rise again. Look at how many times China fell and rose. But Western Europe? America? They will never rise again since they have lost that which made them what they are. If someday America rises again, it wont have anything to do with the old America since the people will be completely different.
And two weeks ago an African immigrant pushed an East Asian to his death in a subway station. Your dream is a nightmare and you are a fool.
Yes, I am a fool. I established that as a FACT long ago.
Now, if you want to continue posting on race, you are free to do so.
I am unilaterally declaring a truce this week.
No posts on race from me this week.
Adapt a new religion? “Americans”? The “American” did what she did in response to 9/11. Do you believe that Christians are responsible for 9/11? Or the Jews?
Care to know something? To grow as a human being for the new year? Here, read about the persecution of the German people by the immigrant Muslims. The Muslims have a communal culture and individualistic Whites are easy prey. What about the Police? They are forbidden to crack down on the Muslims, their hands tied by the Politician-Traitors. So much so that the Police themselves are afraid. Even when a Muslim is brought in, they often get easy treatment because the Judges are afraid.
http://gatesofvienna.blogspot.com.au/2012/12/germans-are-considered-easy-prey.html#more
A unilateral truce is a contradiction in terms since a truce implies bilateralism. Likewise, a Union implies divisibility. Thus the right of States to secede from any United States or United Nations.
But a surrender is unilateral. I accept your surrender. Oh and btw, Gandhi wasn’t a pacifist, like MLK, his pacifism was just a technique not a deeply held philosophical principle.
http://vault-co.blogspot.com/2012/12/gandhi-banned-as-enemy-of-state.html
I’ve just given you two semester’s worth of education in my last two posts.
How about no posts from you on any topic…forever?
About 70% of oil in America is burned in the engines of private jalopies. About 20% goes to the various needs of the jalopy-based infrastructure (highway maintenance, traffic law enforcement, etc, etc). Add in all the air traffic and ITS infrastructure. A single very high tax on private car ownership would send everyone looking for “other arrangements,” as Jimbo puts it, resulting in a nearly instant economic boom in the U.S. and elsewhere. New railroads (freight and passenger), new buildings, new and far less harmful agricultural ventures, etc, etc, accompanied by a new oil glut as more and more conventional (!!) oil is made available by our collective kicking of our stupid car addiction: all it takes, really, is ONE announcement of the idea by the President; plant the idea in people’s heads. It’s time that most powerful economic weapon the Government has was put to good use. Thunder and lightning.
@ Asoka
I took a look at the “End of Seeking” website – it looks pretty good. As to the Ashtavakra Gita, I like the Thomas Byrom translation “The Heart of Awareness.”
“Sex, Ecology and Spirituality: The Spirit of Evolution” is my favorite Wilber book and is considered his magnum opus.
I predict asoka and a core group of others will continue to spend WAY too much time here, vainly trying to change the minds of others with their ego stroking book knowledge as opposed to actual human contact where no one wants to listen to that shit.
Gun TAXATION will pass, it will be ignored/unenforced until 2014. The fiscal cliff will be kicked down the road until April, when the debt ceiling will be raised and a “compromise” will be reached that will fix nothing. Israel will NOT attack Iran. The West will foment anger of the masses and wait to see what happens. The S&P 500 will stay in a range of 900 to 1200 for most of the year while true unemployment reaches 20%. Food will get stupid expensive. I will give up beer and only drink single malt Scotch, which has become more affordable since the death of Ted Kennedy.
“A single very high tax on private car ownership…”
…would be the act of a douche-bag, corrupt government that once again thinks it can tax its way towards intelligent solutions. It cannot.
Using other peoples’ money to funnel to other people is nothing less than redistributive theft. It is why our nation finds itself in the throes of meltdown. Jimmy-boy wants to blame the end of cheap energy as the culprit. The culprit is unlimited, unfunded promises from moronic legislators, to moronic, robotron voters.
The prediction of a major earthquake in the NW is spot on. By major we will experience a ground shift from side to side of 2 feet per second for over a minute, near to ground zero. The earth will also bounce up and down by up to 7 feet for most of the NW west of the Cascade Mountains. The NW entire region will be devastated from mid-BC Canada to Southern California and as far east as the Alberta to Idaho to Nevada North-South border line.
These movements will start immediately with a tremendous shock and continue for 3 or 4 minutes. Violent aftershocks will occur for weeks after the event. The Richter scale measurement will be over 9.6 by most estimates, but all such estimates will be guesses. Many human structures will not survive. Most houses within 150 miles of the Pacific Coast will be damaged or collapse. All bridges, highways and freeways will become unnavigable. The electricity will be out for months to years. Natural Gas will be cut off for years. Potable water will be difficult to get. Casualties will be thousands killed and hundreds of thousands injured. “Game over!”
The reason for this groundbreaking event is the North Pacific Plate is slipping beneath the North America Plate and has been “catching” for 312 years. The last “Big One” was in January, 1700 and was recorded by the Japanese from the Tsunami that washed ashore there. We also know from the geologic record that these major earthquakes occur every 300 to 350 years. Full recovery will be impossible with the decline in funding, decline in fossil fuels and the decline in political courage.
We are long over due for a “Big One.” The timing for this blow to our hubris in coincidental. The religious right will cite God’s fury with the left leaning coastal region. We have been living on borrowed time for years and the event will happen soon. My prediction is that it will occur at the evening rush hour, just before a named holiday, in winter. This will cause major casualties because the roads will be full and the temperature low. The named holiday will give the event its name day. Hold on, duck down, cover your head, bend over and kiss your ass goodbye.
…..yawn……
Att: JHK and all those interested in seeing how bad the political-economic situation really is in the US.
This article http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/12/30
by Naomi Wolf documents the corporate-state repression of dissent.
Ever hear of the “Domestic Security Alliance Council?” No? Well read on about how it coordinated the attack on OWS. This is how the US plutocracy rolls.
Thanks for the massive, thoughtful survey, Jim.
I’d reframe the view of Nassim Nicholas Taleb (Black Swan and AntiFragile) to say, “if it can’t last, it won’t.” And though none of us can predict the day and hour when most people accept that the boat is sinking, it will sink. Our best individual choice (Taleb) is to reduce our own fragility to that collapse.
“The NW entire region will be devastated from mid-BC Canada to Southern California and as far east as the Alberta to Idaho to Nevada North-South border line.”
And only thousands will be killed? You don’t have much of an imagination. You manage to miss that your event (at the scope you imagine) would most likely trigger the volcanoes of Yellowstone which would trigger a years long winter resulting in global famine.
Come on, Lurch, think BIG.
Naomi Wolf? For fuck’s sake she was Al Gore’s clothing color consultant in his presidential run. Get a fucking clue.
“We are all screwed” No, the 99% are screwed the 1% are fine and will continue to be fine. Even in Jim’s book the Baron owned the land and had hundreds of slaves/serfs.
I agree, yr predictions may be ‘all too true’.
I predict a collapse of the US economy.
Not even Q3 can save us [cough].
I dont know about FEMA Camps, Chem trails etc.
But this is the time you liberals want to ban guns! Joyride into the tunnel indeed. Have fun dancing with Mitch McConnell.
What, afraid to read the article and judge it on its own merits. Do you ever do anything other than shoot your mouth off like an idiot?
She was Al-Fucking-Gore’s fashion advisor. I never have to read a single word she has ever written. She and you are idiots.
The REAL economy will collapse. The subsidizing of the takers will continue until 2015, the halfway point of the black janitor’s term. The realization of this takes hold and then the hammer falls on the unknowing. The chaos that follows will leave the population BEGGING for protection and that is when the country that I grew up believing in officially ends.
The NW entire region will be devastated from mid-BC Canada to Southern California and as far east as the Alberta to Idaho to Nevada North-South border line…..Many human structures will not survive. Most houses within 150 miles of the Pacific Coast will be damaged or collapse. All bridges, highways and freeways will become unnavigable. The electricity will be out for months to years. Natural Gas will be cut off for years. Potable water will be difficult to get. Casualties will be thousands killed and hundreds of thousands injured.
===============
It will be soooo bad the US will accept food, clothing, medical teams and other assistance from HAITI. ;o)
sublime!
Enjoyed the article. Just passing along another perspective I read on another site. Comments?
I have the impression that if Kunstler was writing in the 1970s he would be writing the same Malthusian inspired stuff.
And he has an incomplete grasp of how resource extraction actually works.
If we take just the petroleum example, in every single hydrocarbon province in the world the same pattern has been repeated. There is a quality hierarchy to the petroleum deposits. Not surprisingly, the easiest to access basins get developed first. And within any basin the largest, easiest to access, highest yielding deposits always get developed first. But these few “top-of-the-pyramid” deposits/reservoirs contain only a small portion of the total available hydrocarbons.
It’s the many more numerous, but smaller, lower quality, more expensive to develop and produce reservoirs that come on-line later. These become economic for a lot of reasons, not least because they can “piggy-back” on the core production infrastructure that was funded by the biggest fields. Offshore this means smaller, remote operated satellite platforms that are tied into the original main producing platforms. Onshore it means extending gathering system pipeline networks, prepackaged processing facilities, portable compression and so forth.
As hydrocarbon basins, Prudhoe Bay and the North Sea were far more expensive and difficult to develop and bring to market than Spindletop. I don’t hear Kunstler lamenting those investments. Shale gas and shale oil are the base of the quality pyramid. Lowest grade source, but hugely abundant in both number and contained resource compared with the fields at the apex. Unless the world loses its appetite for petroleum and natural gas, it was/is inevitable that this stuff is going to be developed. Technologies will improve, unit costs will come down, numbers of active rigs will increase and decrease with the price cycles, old wells will be re-entered and given life with new completion techniques, promoters will get rich, promoters will go broke…it is as its always been in the oil and gas business.
Believe me, the latest shale gas boom-and-bust is by no means the first or the last example of an overcapitalized resource play. The smartest money I know in the oil and gas business start their companies and buy assets when there is blood in the streets, sell out when things get overpromoted and frothy, and then take a year or two to work on their golf game, before they come back and do it again.
Here’s what will happen in 2013:
One year from today my next door neighbor, Joe, will still be unemployed (he used to work for Rutgers Univ but has been unemployed for a year and a half), but his morbidly obese wife who has miraculously hung onto her job will continue to hold the family together. The 14 year old daughter will continue going to swimming practice 5-6 days per week and with luck will someday get a college swimming scholarship.
The ancient faded red VW Beetle, crammed full with other junk for which there is no room in the house and that should have simply been tossed in the trash eons ago, will still be sitting in the driveway on four flat tires serving as “view” just beyond our kitchen windows to please my wife during meal preparations.
The house, on which not an iota of routine maintenance has been performed in the 14 years of this family’s occupancy (including the past 1.5 years during which Joe has had nothing else to occupy his time), will collapse in a heap into its basement in a manner similar to that of WTC7. Hordes of surviving mice will be seen through the dusty plumes racing for their lives from the property.
As regards the effects of peak oil, I couldn’t really say.
JHK is just sweetness and light for 2013, isn’t he?
I don’t agree with the severity of his predictions, but one of his remarks stands out as very credible: the coming shale oil/gas bust in a few years. As JHK shows in his new book, the wells play out fast and require much higher costs to begin and keep in production.
Of course, as I write this, we are set to careen off that fiscal cliff. That even may eclipse other events in the year ahead. Good luck everyone!
Interesting post. I would extend the description “insufferable prick suffering from malignant narcissism etc.” to most if not all of our ruling class, starting with Mr. & Mrs. Clinton themselves.
I am a bit puzzled by your third paragraph. What is Day Care America? Speaking of “whitemess” and “white folks”, I suggest to you that moral and spiritual regeneration of same will come about, if it does at all, through a return to useful, honest work. Such as is happening right now under your nose in the organic gardening and sustainable farming movements. Production for USE, not profit. One expects to make a living, of course, but no more growth for growth’s sake, no more empire building at home or abroad.
Scrub-brush said, “Actually I’m not a denier of climate change. The climate is always changing, and generally in a cyclic manner. What I “deny” is the reality of anthropogenic global warming and of CO2 as the mechanism. ”
The IPCC’s new research investigated these claims and found that “natural” forcing influences were marginal at best.
The decomposition of hydrocarbons by oxidation, CxHx to CO2 and H2O are the historically “incidental” substituents of the global chemical equilibrium. They were created (-genia) by human (anthropo-) action.
“I’m one of those “climate change deniers.” That label was cooked up by Al Gore, I think, to demonize us. ”
Actually, Al Gore had nothing to do with it. In the last decade, it came to be used by any intelligent observer of the tendency for fools to refuse to accept the avalanche of evidence in support of anthropogenic origins.
Today, “Deniers” is simply a aluminum-foil cult similar to the hordes visiting “creation museums” and the like.
Try reality for once. You might not like it but at least you won’t appear to be a complete idiot to other people.
Morbidly obese, your words, or PFBs, Pushy Fat Broads, my words, always hang on to their jobs, because they cost less than “lookers”, and don’t cause problems with the male staff. Beings as the fat ladies are generally considered as neutered, ie, non-sexual, they don’t provoke the hatred of the males around them; guys generally don’t feel that their personal status is harmed if they happen to work in the same office as a PFB
HAHA!, long belts are what we need in this country. Go anywhere and watch the fatass cheezedoodlers waddle around. It is disgusting. I am gonna have to pay for their diabetes treatment. Believe me, it ain’t cheap. Sure I used health care a few years back. The ins. industry is still way ahead on me. These frequent flyers eat up 90% of the health care in this country. We would pick up people every week for a stay in the hospital.. Bill probably 15 G’s. They would just go home and eat ice cream and twinkies again. F Them. Happy New Year!
Hi Godozo, I wish they would shut all the street lights off. I could see the stars again. Light pollution sucks. It is a proven fact that no lights mean less crime. How the hell can a thief break into your house if he can’t see? One flashlight will draw everybodies attention. Cars have headlights. Why do we actually need streetlights?
Gold 12,000 is interesting because gold as all commodities is always tied to something else’s value. Be it Dollars, sheep, loaves of bread, or ass kissing yes men, and that is the black hole in its value.
So here we are at the end of another mediocre year, in a holding pattern, waiting for the shoe to drop. We know enough about our situation and the juggernaut ride that we are facing to be as scared as a kid at Coney Island aboard the Cyclone roller coaster, as it slowly makes it way to the top of the highest point at the park. Sure, it is a good feeling to be strapped in, and able to look out over the great metropolis as you chug upward toward the inevitable plunge, feeling your gut tighten and your blood pressure rise, as you sense the inevitable course of your destiny. The wooden clickety-clack as the car dances with the track; now you look up and see only sky above, and then quickly see nothing but ground below as you crest the hump and hurtle toward the abyss. You feel your stomach lurch as the momentum builds and gravity takes over, and you abandon all hope as you become weightless in the death spiral toward the ground. Then a series of wild turns and loops, some rough spots and a few brushes with the wooden structure, and then suddenly you pull into an abrupt halt. The ride is over. Get out. You are emotionally spent, but have a weird desire to do it all again.
Happy New Year Cluster fuckers!
“It is pernicious because it gives us collectively an excuse to do nothing about changing our behavior or preparing for the new arrangements in daily life that the future will require of us.”
As my family and I close in on the end of our first year of life without electricity, I can report from the front (powered by the juice from the local Mexican “margarita restaurant,” as my daughter calls it) that it is a surprisingly attractive way to live. Matter of fact, we quickly become irritated by the stimulation of high-energy buildings these days, and generally can’t wait to get back to our woodstove and oil lamps.
For us, 2013 will be about repairing soil and sowing new crops; cutting our travel and car upkeep expenses; beginning our soon-to-be-5-year-old daughter’s (probably unconventional) education in earnest, and at home; and participating in and helping build the local economy already well underway in the small city of our choosing in the north Georgia mountains.
Peace to you all in the coming year of uncertainty. Oh yeah, and expect to see even less of me around here than you did in 2012. Big loss, I know;) But for the moment I am planning on continuing my blogging at:
http://www.smallbatchgarden.blogspot.com
and please also visit John Michael Greer at:
http://www.thearchdruidreport.blogspot.com
for a continuing and unparalleled discussion of what to expect and how to adapt to it.
Cheers! And happy new year.
Tripp
Bustin, did you read or watch Monckton? I didn’t think so. If you had, you might have questioned your faith in the IPCC before reacting so emotionally.
Thanks for proving my point. Your use of ad-hominem attacks such as “fools,” “aluminum-foil cult,” and “idiot” are good examples of how the insecure react when their world view is threatened.
Monckton. You mean LORD Monckton, right? The LORD who was tossed out of a UN climate conference? The LORD who questioned the legitimacy of the American political process? Didn’t he used to open for Liberace?
Thank you for a wonderful review and summary. More than anyone else, you help me to keep my head on straight. Here’s hoping for many more.
Happy New Year to you and all the readers.
“Then a series of wild turns and loops, some rough spots and a few brushes with the wooden structure, and then suddenly…”
————————————————
I’ll take it from here. Suddenly a section of track in front of you breaks two critical bolts. The result of relaxed OSHA inspection standards. Your car hurtles into a horrified group of spectators, crashes through a chain link fence, and comes to an abrupt halt when it crashes into a Dodge minivan in the parking lot. The carnage is incredible. You are seriously mangled, but alas, budget cut backs make you wait in agony for severely overworked EMT’s. You have no desire to do this again.
This is getting better than Dick Clark’s Rockin Zombie New Years Eve.
Here it is New Year’s eve, and we are all a little older and wiser. Sure, we are facing some tough times, and the leadership is in chaos, but what is new about that? Now that we have been thru it, we are that much stronger for the effort, right?
How many times have you heard that kind of crap?
I grew up in the city of Brotherly Love. In 1978 there was a back to the earth group of black Americans who called themselves MOVE. They were weird people, but kind of fit in with the Moonies, HareKrishnas and other weird counterculture folk at the time. But Frank Rizzo was mayor, and he loved his law and order. He said that Nixon and Agnew were the greatest Americans that ever were, and he went after anyone who did not fit into the picture of apple pie, etc. So there was a police raid on the MOVE house in Powelton, which is a neighborhood in west philly, close by Drexel and Penn. There was a shoot out and a cop got shot, some say by his team’s cross fire. The MOVE house got moved, and they all went to jail or someplace else. Move ahead to 1985, Wilson Goode is the first black mayor of Phila. and MOVE has not gone back to the earth, but further west to Cobbs Creek area, and have a house that was a bunker, with a PA system blaring BS and disturbing the peace. A real blight on the ‘hood. So the cops are called in, and a confrontation unfolds.
Well, what happened was the first time that the cops dropped a bomb on a house in Philadelphia. The entire block burned to the ground, 65 homes destroyed, and all the MOVE members killed, except for Ramona and Birdie Africa.
Then the disaster capitalists took over. The cost of rebuilding the block was in the millions. The no bid contractor messed it up and they had to rebuild it all over.
So the moral of the story is that we never learn.
I asked my brother what ever happened to Wilson Goode. He told me that after he retired he got a job at a community college teaching Home Cooking.
The president ran on and won on $250,000 twice.
Voters across the country overwhelmingly agree with the $250,000 threshold (see http://2014polling.com).
And in real human costs, the billions lost by raising the threshold to $400,000 will come out of the pockets of grandparents and working families across the nation. Meanwhile, individuals making over $30,000 per month would get a tax break.
Obama is not negotiating from his strength. He is giving in to Republicans who are nothing more than lobbyists for the rich.
http://act.boldprogressives.org/survey/post_election_polling
Joe? The Plumber? Or do you mean Jose?
He kicked both Prog and I off for questioning his pronouncements.
Don’t forget to wear your dickie.
That kind of political policy would make informed citizens react in an urgent and meaningful way in years past. Enough to make your head spin and your stomach sick. Now they just make us numb. These are the rigs of the times. It took a while to get to this stage, and it has been expertly programed.
Now we play out the endgame. You can not fight the power. If you want to survive one must hide in the shadows, live in the cracks and feed on the trickle down.
I probably need to hire this company called “BrandYourself” to clean up my online profile? It’s sick, I know, but that’s the world that we live it, it seems…. Asoka may have put a picture of me on the Internet dressed as a Ta..lib….
“BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Samantha Grossman wasn’t always thrilled with the impression that emerged when people Googled her name.
“It wasn’t anything too horrible,” she said. “I just have a common name. There would be pictures, college partying pictures, that weren’t of me, things I wouldn’t want associated with me.”
So before she graduated from Syracuse University last spring, the school provided her with a tool that allowed her to put her best Web foot forward. Now when people Google her, they go straight to a positive image — professional photo, cum laude degree and credentials — that she credits with helping her land a digital advertising job in New York.
“I wanted to make sure people would find the actual me and not these other people,” she said.
Syracuse, Rochester and Johns Hopkins in Baltimore are among the universities that offer such online tools to their students free of charge, realizing ill-considered Web profiles of drunken frat parties, prank videos and worse can doom graduates to a lifetime of unemployment — even if the pages are somebody else’s with the same name.
It’s a growing trend based on studies showing that most employers Google prospective hires and nearly all of them won’t bother to go past the first page of results. The online tools don’t eliminate the embarrassing material; they just put the graduate’s most flattering, professional profile front and center.
“These students have been comfortable with the intimate details of their lives on display since birth,” said Lisa Severy, president-elect of the National Career Development Association and director of career services at the University of Colorado-Boulder, which does not offer the service.
“The first item on our ‘five things to do before you graduate’ list is ‘clean up your online profile,'” she said. “We call it the grandma test — if you don’t want her to see it, you probably don’t want an employer to, either.”
After initially supplying BrandYourself accounts to graduating seniors, Syracuse University this year struck a deal with the company — begun by a trio of alumni — to offer accounts to all of its undergraduate and graduate students and alumni at no additional charge. About 25,000 people have access to it so far.
“It’s becoming more and more important for students to be aware of and able to manage their online presence, to be able to have strong, positive things come up on the Internet when someone seeks them out,” said Mike Cahill, Syracuse’s career services director.
Online reputation repair companies have been around for at least a couple of years, often charging hundreds or thousands of dollars a year to arrange for good results on search engine result pages. BrandYourself, which normally charges $10 a month for an account, launched two years ago as a less expensive, do-it-yourself alternative after co-founder Pete Kistler ran into a problem with his own name.
“He couldn’t get an internship because he was getting mistaken for a drug dealer with the same name,” said co-founder Patrick Ambron. “He couldn’t even get calls back and found out that was the problem.”
An April survey of 2,000 hiring managers from CareerBuilder found nearly two in five companies use social networking sites to research job candidates, and 11 percent said they planned to start. A third of the hiring managers who said they research candidates reported finding something like a provocative photo or evidence of drinking or drug use that cost the candidate a job.
“We want our students and alumni actively involved in shaping their online presence,” said Johns Hopkins Career Center Director Mark Presnell. Students are encouraged to promote positive, professional content that’s easily found by employers, he said.
BrandYourself works by analyzing search terms in a user’s online profile to determine, for example, that a LinkedIn account might rank 25th on Google searches of the user’s name. The program then suggests ways to boost that ranking. The software also provides alerts when an unidentified result appears on a user’s first page or if any links rise or fall significantly in rank.
Nati Katz, a public relations strategist, views his presence online as a kind of virtual storefront that he began carefully tending while in graduate school at Syracuse.
Google his name and up pops his LinkedIn page with a listing of the jobs he’s held in digital media and the “500+ connections” badge of honor. His Facebook account is adorned with Katz smiling over an elegant Thanksgiving dinner table. There are a couple of professional profiles and his Tumblr link, one after another on the first page of results and all highlighting his professional experience.
Before his 2011 graduation, he took the university up on its offer of the BrandYourself account and said it gave him a leg up with potential employers and internship supervisors.
“Fortunately, I didn’t have to deal with anything negative under my profile,” said Katz, who used the reputation website BrandYourself.com while pursuing dual degrees in public relations and international affairs. “What I was trying to form was really a nice, clean, neat page, very professional.”
Are there too many electronic gadgets on the market?”
“BrandYourself”—-Didn’t there used to be a TV show in the 1960s called “Branded”?
Have any of you CFNers ever tried to “Brand Yourself”?
F..ck’n Hurts!
Particularly when the branding iron gets red hot….
Yes, after that everyone in Philly wears a dickie. They give them to the kids at school. Highly recommend that you wear your dickie, and be proud of it too.
The Peak Oil theme is an old story at this point in time. Stop beating it across our faces. When I must buy liquid energy to heat my home for the winter, and it costs more that I can afford, then I must find another way to heat, or I freeze.
I can chop wood, but after all the trees are gone, then what? I can huddle with others, but when the fuel runs out, then what? This is more than the Winter of our Discontent.
I look to the nomads, living on the prairie, huddled in tents, burning bovine dung and tree bark.
My wife does not share my vision.
Excellent poast JHK! An excerpt from your upcoming book, perchance?
And OMG! WTF is with the trolls who have already come out of the woodworks to spam their vitriolic nonsense here? Will they *EVER* be polite enough to wait at least 24 hours, before rehashing their same old, tired out agendas *ad nauseum*?!?
And as to Krampy’s statement, “No, the warming ended 12 years ago. … Global Warming is a scam” – can he seriously be that ignorant? Where on earth does he get this information from (because he certainly doesn’t offer any supporting evidence here)? Let me set him straight on the global warming facts. As can clearly be seen in the following graph, 2005 set an all time new global temperature record (eclipsing the 1998 record), then 2007 set an all time new record, then 2010 set *the* all time record (which will be eclipsed by this year’s 2012 temp). And just wait until the solar irrandiance cycle reaches its max around late 2013, and peaks there for another 3-6 years – pull yer head outta yer @$$, denier:
http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/graphs_v3/Fig.A.gif
And seeing as how deflationista offers some corrections, I saw the following 4 issues which you might decide to fix/alter:
1. to the omnipresent mantra invoking “technology” as the sovereign remedy (to) every problem of existence
2. We still import 42 percent of the oil we use every day. (your first two graphs suggest it is more like 70% [US production 5.5mmbd, US consumption 19mmbd], but maybe this 42% figure includes Mexico/Canada production?)
3. with few environmental protests in the wilds of Siberia(, and/.) I’m not persuaded that exploration for oil in the offshore Arctic region will have a great outcome.
4. California, Illinois, and New Jersey ask broke()the federal government for bailouts.
Your points about capital/assets/value and bankster fraud are quite spot-on, however I believe you don’t highlight the usury nature of our economy/money enough. Most people (90%+?) are “living debtors” (indentured servants), mortgaged to the hilt through their houses, cars, and credit cards. The common folks (middle class? hah!) simply have no wealth/assets. This means that the money *owned* by the elite rich is simply impoverished slave labor future promisory IOU notes – and these IOU’s also include the infinite Fed printing presses giving free money to banksters, who then heavily leverage and loan back to the Govt at 3% (owed by the same impoverished slave labor [taxpayer] population)…
This in today from NYTimes on Europe’s dept crisis:
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/12/30/world/europe/eurocrisis-photos.html?hp
I’ve been following JHK for almost 3 years now including this blog, books and podcast.
This year’s prediction is a good summary of his central themes since The Long Emergency was published.
Although agreeing with many of his observations and conclusions, I would argue with the timing of events as predicted. One element not taken into enough account (in my humble opinion), is the almost endless ability of the human race to adapt to changing circumstances.
For example, if oil prices continue to rise, people will drive less, build more fuel efficient cars and switch to buses and trains. This will defray the crisis for some time until oil production truly hits a wall, invalidating our industrial infrastructure. Take a look at your surroundings – how many car trips are truly necessary and how many of those that are could not be replaced by public transportation? Personally, I have a car parked in my garage that I drive 20 miles a week to the gym and back plus the occasional errand. So my conclusion is that we can get by with a lot less. These changes in behavior would have the effect of lowering demand and thus prices.
A valid response to my point above is that our political and financial systems are not equipped financially and morally to deal with necessary transition and exposure of truth in capital affairs… e.g. futile government attempts to rescue the auto industry when people change their habits.
Hence the validity of many of the points JHK makes about the bankruptcy of current “leadership” and the impact of reality to global political systems when it hits.
After the party was over, and the USA had peaked, there was an awareness of our energy predicament, and some architects and designers and govt. agencies were focused on solar and alternative designs. The best ones were designed in the sunbelt, where they had a chance to gather the energy on a daily basis. Some of the structural designs failed, but they helped to improve the design of passive solar housing. The concept has been refined and is still very valid, but in the harsh winters of northern lattitudes, the design must incorporate some carbon based fuels. In other words, you can design a house to be heated by the sun, but when the sun does not shine you need to find another source of heat. So you burn something, or find some other hi tech source.
At first, my New Years Wish was that the Ruling Class doesn’t scam us or lie to us this year.
But then I thought about it, and since under current Peak Oil conditions, “hierarchical society” is by definition a scam, then I realized that my New Years Wish was basically for hierarchical society to collapse, which is not good as it would result in terrible suffering for millions of people, even though in a hierarchical society the lower classes are doomed to suffer anyway. So, I guess that we’re stuck with more pump-and-dump for another year?
“Oh Lord…Won’t you buy me…
a color TV…
Dialing-for-Dollars…
Is trying to find me…
I wait for delivery…
Each day…until Three…
So Oh Lord…
Won’t ya buy me…
a color TV….”
I remember watching a discussion on the House floor on CSPAN several years ago. The subject of discussion was a state-by-state plan to have a certain percentage of energy produced by renewable sources by 2025, I believe it was. There was so much foot dragging then, I realized that, at the very least, the folks I was watching weren’t going to change policy very much. They mentioned that certain states didn’t have as much sun, but usually had biomass, etc., etc… They were all making excuses why their state couldn’t make the required percentage of energy from renewable sources.
I relate this to Proposition 37 in Colorado that requires that we get a certain percentage of energy from renewables. The required percentage goes up as were move into the future. With all the folks moving here, the people involved talk of the goal posts constantly being moved. It seems there are too many people to really change the overall carbon footprint, not to mention water scarcity, soil depletion, pollution, traffic, quality of life, etc. If myself and 100,000 others used NO energy for a year, but then Colorado grows by 100,000 that year, then it’s a wash. We will have sacrificed for nothing, except maybe the thrill of living in a wmbh. Maybe practice for when “we get to play the game for real”. “Deliverance”
I just got “zonked” on the TV game show “Let’s Make a Deal” when I inadvertantly traded what’s-in-the-box (a new “Juicer”) for what’s-behind-curtain-number-three” (a Daisy Cutter Bomb).
What am I going to do with a U.S. Army surplus “Daisy Cutter Bomb”? Thanks.
It is tough to roll out of a sleeping bag into a sub freezing morning shake out, but that is what a lot of campers and soldiers do every day. It is something that you can get used to. But what about the kids, and if your wife has an infant? There is a minimum temperature for a nursery. And what about older people and the sick and infirmed?
So the question of survival in a world of limited heating rescourses is very important to all of humanity.
Why is it called the “Daisy Cutter” anyway? Is it because the daisy flower is a prolific weed with very deep underground roots that is hard-to-kill? I know that during the Vietnam War the American Army used Agent Orange, Round Up, and other “weed killers” to try to uproot the Viet Cong in their tunnels.
Did you know that there’s a disarmed Daisy Cutter Bomb on display at the “American War Museum” in Ho Chih Minh City, Vietnam? Why did the Americans leave behind Daisy Cutter Bombs for the Viet Cong?
http://www.nd.edu/~techrev/Archive/Spring2002/a8.html
Brightest News Yet: the Kunstlercast returns!
“… the almost endless ability of the human race to adapt to changing circumstances.”
Oh, R U reefer’in to *MAJIK* again?!? Sure sounds liek it. Your next paragraph does injustice to the actual inaction of society, as nothing happened when gas prices doubled from less than $2, to over $4, *BOTH TIMES* that happened in the past decade…
Oh, for a more positive spin on *thangz* – I ‘membaz a best friend’s mom gave me the following video’s t-shirt, from one of her *many* annual vacations in the Caribbean:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-diB65scQU
(LULZ – 15 million *JACK-@$$3$* watched that…)
Ob..ma “saved” us by only cutting $600 billion from Medicare and Society Security rather than $800 billion as proposed by the Republicans….And all I got was this F’…ck’n T-Shirt!
Ob…a ma “saved” us by cutting government spending and raising taxes during a depression, thereby, driving the U.S. economy deeper into the ditch…And all I got was this F’…ck’n T-Shirt!
The shape of the hierarchical Pyramid is basically the shape assumed by matter under conditions of a hierarchical, imbalance of power between each respective layer of matter in the pyramid structure, right?
With predictions popping out of every media source this time of year like a mayflies from the riverbank in Spring, here, for a bit of light distraction are a few zingers from the past. It’s so much more fun to go around with a sharp tack, pricking others’ balloons than it is to drain one’s own reserves of hot air on these exertions.
Drill for oil? You mean drill into the ground to try and find oil? You’re crazy.
Associates of Edwin L. Drake on his idea to drill for oil, 1859.
Dear Mr. President: The canal system of this country is being threatened by a new form of transportation known as ‘railroads’ … As you may well know, Mr. President, ‘railroad’ carriages are pulled at the enormous speed of 15 miles per hour by ‘engines’ which, in addition to endangering life and limb of passengers, roar and snort their way through the countryside, setting fire to crops, scaring the livestock and frightening women and children. The Almighty certainly never intended that people should travel at such breakneck speed.
Martin Van Buren, Governor of New York, 1830(?).
The ordinary ‘horseless carriage’ is at present a luxury for the wealthy; and although its price will probably fall in the future, it will never, of course, come into as common use as the bicycle.
Literary Digest, 1899.
The Americans have need of the telephone, but we do not. We have plenty of messenger boys.
Sir William Preece, Chief Engineer, British Post Office, 1878.
No, it will make war impossible.
Hiram Maxim, inventor of the machine gun, answering “Will this gun not make war more terrible?” 1893.
Sensible and responsible women do not want to vote.
Grover Cleveland, U.S. President, 1905
Stocks have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau.
Irving Fisher, economics professor at Yale University, 1929.
By the year 1982 the graduated income tax will have practically abolished major differences in wealth.
Irwin Edman, professor of philosophy Columbia University, 1932.
There is not the slightest indication that nuclear energy will ever be obtainable. It would mean that the atom would have to be shattered at will.
Albert Einstein, 1932.
The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to no one in particular?
Associates of David Sarnoff responding to his call for investment in the radio in 1921.
It will be gone by June.
Variety magazine, passing judgement on rock ‘n roll, 1955.
We don’t like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out.
Decca Records, after rejecting The Beatles, 1962.
Television won’t last because people will soon get tired of staring at a plywood box every night.
Darryl Zanuck, movie producer, 20th Century Fox, 1946.
There’s no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share.
Steve Ballmer, USA Today, April 30, 2007.
Another Ice Age?
Time magazine article title, June 24, 1974.
I believe that we are in for a serious event. Systems will fail, crash, seize up, cease to function. Not all systems, maybe only a fraction, but enough, and enough interdependent systems to affect many other systems. Y2K is real. Y2K is going to rock our world.
Guess who, Apr, 1999.
‘There are fewer cheerleaders for China and its economic fortunes than a year or so ago, as deep problems in banking and politics’.
What about the empty cities China builds, at
home and in Africa?
This `telephone’ has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a practical form of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us.
– Western Union internal memo, 1878
Well informed people know it is impossible to transmit the voice over wires and that were it possible to do so, the thing would be of no practical value.
– Editorial in the Boston Post, 1865
I think you are right on target, James. Safe sailing in this coming storm this year. kC
Jim’s mention of the oil crisis in 1973 reminded me of a bizarre 1973 TV commercial I came across recently. Put out by ARCO, the petroleum refiner/retailer Atlantic Richfield, it warns of a coming dystopian future resembling the world depicted George Lucas’ first SciFi film “THX1138”. A narrator describes the plight of city dwellers in the far-off future of 1991, forced to live underground because of toxic air pollution which could have been avoided if only humanity had heeded the warnings about their gluttonous overuse of fossil fuels. Cheesily produced and ham-handed in its delivery, it is one the queerest messages I’ve ever seem from big oil about the use of its own product, as if an oil executive had temporarily lost his wits and approved the ad before saner minds could put a stop to it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJAQUDKNYkE
Seems rather goofy and Casandra-ish 40 years on, especially when you see today’s “hooray-for-big-oil” ads put out by BP, parent company of ARCO.
NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTION
Oh I just gotta get into the “Friends of Angelo” club.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/angelo-mozilo-former-countrywide-ceo-claims-he-doesnt-know-what-verified-income-is-20121228#ixzz2GOKV7Acb
Yet White Europe continues to import people.
Suicide.
The shape of the hierarchical Pyramid is basically the shape assumed by social relations in society under oonditions of corruption and ethical collapse, right?
JHK makes a pretty good case that the time is nigh for THSTF time. Will 2013 be the year that the wheels come off? Maybe.Max Keiser talks of a April collapse, others talk of a May collapse resulting from sagging tax receipts that points to a 2 Trillion Deficit.
My guess is that when things start to really unravel they will get real bad really quick, probably over a period of weeks if not days. Even so most people will not figure out things are over until the shop shelves are empty and the Nat Guard is on their street corners.
Wisdom from the East: Don’t let yourselves be disarmed or you’ll end up in the Gulag.
http://english.pravda.ru/opinion/columnists/28-12-2012/123335-americans_guns-0/
There’s global warming everyday when the Sun comes out. The Hindus call Him “Mr Daymaker”. The Vikings, “The World Candle”. The Sun and the Earth are dancing, but the Sun leads, see? Kay? Cycles in the Sun’s activity are responsible for Ice Ages. Again (how many times have you “people” been told), the Earth was much warmer both in historic times and in the remote past. No industry was involved. During late Roman Times, grapes were grown in Northern England. That means it was warmer than it is now. Remember when they were trying to fudge the data, they couldn’t figure out how to spin this fact.
http://iceagenow.info/2012/12/shouting-rooftops/
Radu, Kstick, Marlin, Buck…anyone need a laugh?
http://paranormal.about.com/od/prophetsandprophecies/tp/Psychic-Predictions-For-2012.htm
Someone who worked for the President of the worlds
biggest talent agency told me…’The Enquirers
yearly predictions are made at a party, where they
get the psychics drunk’.
During WW2, Doctors prescribed brands of cigarettes. Those were the good ol’ days.
Were these sex vacations she took? Was she a “milk bottle”?
Have a not so happy new year.
“Yet White Europe continues to import people.
Suicide.”
And yet they won’t import me. Why not? I’m white. But I was bad a long time ago and despite years of effort, there’s really no where to go at my age.
Suicide, huh…
The idea doesn’t appeal but there’s really nothing left to try. I’m just tired and drunk and probably gonna keep drinking until I can’t. I’m just going to type this off the top of my head. I’ve got so many awful stories to tell. I’ve seen so many hopeless and abandoned people in this country. I see so many more who are about to become abandoned. I’m tired of trying to figure out how long I’m going to able to stay in a place. How long I can last with a little money and nowhere to go. How much longer will I be able to keep my car (portable shelter). I wonder where I will be when I finally sell it or it gets impounded. I’m tired of hearing about the fuckin’ “elites” who apparently have become untouchable.
What does that mean, exactly? They can walk down the street and just start randomly shooting people? Or are their capital crimes only confined to financial murder. I mean really, what’s the point? People like me are just used to populate the “elites” for-profit penal system. Republicans? Democrats? I’m pretty sure Goldman Sachs couldn’t give a rat’s ass as long as they get the laws written the way that they want. I am sick to my death of the goddamn internet. My whole being is now reduced to little windows of text on the latest and greatest websites. Big fuckin’ deal. Since I left California I’ve been to a few places and seen the same thing over and over. More people like me. A lament. Isn’t that what you call this kind of writing? A lament? My cousin’s excavation / snow plowing business is just about to go bust after a decade of increasing gasoline prices and decreasing snow. He uses me when he can but it’s just not enough work. I worry about him too. Everything I ever knew is being called into question. Rightfully so, in many respects, but, there seems to be little chance of consensus in a meaningful new direction. I remember a “Peanuts” cartoon from my childhood. Lucy asked Linus what would happen if everyone ran away from their problems? Linus said at least we would all be running in the same direction. A new year. How is it “new”? I keep my clothes packed and always have a reserve bottle somewhere. The danger is losing my mind and forgetting where I put it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bi6YHWjy3uU
“There’s global warming everyday”
So *NICE* to “hear” U change your *TOON*.
Unfortunately, you’re simply *trolling*.,.,.,.
Yawn. So Kunstler predicts “Dow 4,000” again. Double yawn. Seriously? Again? After being wrong about that now for I think 7 years in a row?
Hmmm, what’s the popular definition of ‘insanity’ again … doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting a different result?
If only JHK would accept my $2,000 bet that the Dow will end 2013 above 8,000. Yes, I am willing to allow him up to a 100% error in his prediction and still win this bet. BOf course he would never accept it. Because he doesn’t REALLY believe it — not, like, bet-your-own-money-it’s-really-gonna-happen believe it — it just makes good press for selling his books.
Oh well. The fact remains that my predictions about the Dow have been way more accurate than JHK’s for as long as I’ve been keeping track. Indeed, I’ve made very good money off my investments over the last 7 years by studiously ignoring Kunstler’s advice.
Oy, vey. The Big Collapse will come, some day. But it ain’t gonna be in 2013. Mark my words. Or, better yet, take my bet.
Capital might be drying up, the entire economy might be based on fraud and bullsh*t, oil might have peaked, and our state (CT) might be running a billion $$ deficit after the largest tax hike in its history, but enough swag still exists for State U to sign a new Basketball Coach to a 5 year, $7 million contract. Nobody is complaining much because the guy is Black. In fact, its been cause for celebration throughout the State. Things are not bad until the local TV news anchors say they are bad. They just point their cameras where the decay hasn’t set in yet. If you have a problem with that, well, something is wrong with you, then.
Happy New Year, CFers!!!
–Panic in Year Zero
Not to worry James … soon the system will be so corrupted, it will require a cold start. Probably a reboot. like in 1939.
…Happy New Year / The Mayans were just superstitious savages … just like the rest of us.
Three storms before 1/1/13. The snow is up to my coccyx. It snowed, sleeted, and then rained. I have 6 ft of concrete out front. I don’t know how the neighbors do it. I bust it up with a 1500 Suburban and a fisher plow. When the gas is gone who knows? I know a horse could not pull a sleigh over these 6 foot piles, but than again without a big-ass truck there would probably be no 7′ piles.I love the snow. I just don’t love idiots who can’t move it properly.
DOW at 4000?
Non-sense anyway …. So much has been taken from us – we can’t see how blind we really are.
First the printing press – Hearst, Murdoch perverts it.
Then radio – look to 30’s style Germany. Gerbel, Hitler et al…
Then television – Pax Americana stupor – all Ozzie, Beaver, Butt heads and “reality” TV…..
And now, finally the Internet – all carefully modulated, formulated to make most of the babies go to sleep.
If you need fodder for just how immature our so-called civilization just watch the Microsoft “surface” commercial a few hundred times. Perverse would be an understatement.
Happy New Year you to all the turd-minded high talkers fixed on “big race” issues and social philosophy.
Why can’t anyone predict the price of gas in the Midwest this time next year? That’s what this fucking BLOG is for – not your sophomoric diatribes.
Then television
Ok gasoline will be higher and lower than it was in 2012. How’s that?
Anyway our “elite” consists of psychopaths who also run the media. Take this example, most black men pull up their pants and hold jobs, nor do they engage in demagogic race politics even if they do vote black. But to the media these people are nearly invisible instead we get black men when the need arises to scare pussy whites with “crazy nigger” or they need a God figurehead for a white guilt lecture and then we get some pet black overpaid moron (hello Jamie Foxx)
That folks is part of the bad news, good news is that out in flyover country we will no longer need Conservatism Inc to just conclude that our “elite” is bat shit crazy and we need to ignore them.
So with that in mind gentle liberal folks, our “elite” will engineer a Conservatism Inc. rebirth so once again the dupes in flyover country will still think they have a country and the psychopaths are in check. 50/50 they suceed in this endeavor.
SANITY RETURNS TO BIG GOVERNMENT
89 Senators from both parties agree to increase taxes on rich. The measure is the first significant bipartisan tax increase since 1990.
[Breaking News Update]
Let’s see if the House and Bonehead support this bill.
If they don’t, then over the fiscal gentle slope we go!
Das teilte die Deutsche Bundesbank am Dienstag in Frankfurt mit. Dies sind 154 Milliarden Euro mehr als ein Jahr zuvor. Der Zuwachs fiel deutlich gr??er aus als in den vergangenen Jahren und erreichte ein Niveau wie zuletzt w?hrend des Wiedervereinigungsbooms.
Die Verschuldung nahm nur geringfügig um knapp 5 Milliarden Euro zu. Am Jahresende summierten sich die Schulden bei Banken und Versicherungen nach den Angaben auf 1,536 Billionen Euro – sie liegen damit seit gut zehn Jahren auf nahezu konstantem Niveau. Das Nettogeldverm?gen stieg 2010 entsprechend auf 3,397 Billionen Euro.
Die Notenbank sieht Gründe für die kr?ftigen Zuw?chse des privaten Geldverm?gens in der rasanten Konjunkturerholung und der unerwartet stabilen Entwicklung auf dem Arbeitsmarkt. Dadurch seien die verfügbaren Einkommen deutlich gestiegen. Sachwerte wie Immobilien sind in der Statistik nicht enthalten.
Vermehrt wurde das Verm?gen vor allem in Form von Bankeinlagen und Bargeld (netto plus 80 Milliarden Euro) sowie durch Ansprüche gegenüber Versicherungen, die um 63 Milliarden Euro stiegen. Zus?tzlich vermehrten die Haushalte ihr Verm?gen durch kr?ftige Kursgewinne bei bereits gehaltenen Wertpapieren um knapp 80 Milliarden Euro.
Insgesamt haben die Privathaushalte in Deutschland seit dem Frühjahr 2009 kontinuierlich mehr Geld auf der hohen Kante. In der weltweiten Wirtschafts- und Finanzkrise hatten die Sparer auch wegen sinkender Aktienkurse 130 Milliarden Euro ihres Verm?gens verloren, das auf 4,446 Billionen Euro geschrumpft war.
SANITY RETURNS TO BIG GOVERNMENT
89 Senators from both parties agree to increase taxes on rich. The measure is the first significant bipartisan tax increase since 1990.
[Breaking News Update]
Let’s see if the House and Bonehead support this bill.
If they don’t, then over the fiscal gentle slope we go!
You’re on the right track with your criticism of global warming theory. Greenland was once … GREEN. The problem with global warming theorists is that climatology is a fiercely difficult intellectual discipline because of the chaos-theoretic math. It’s hard to detach ordinary cycles, which feature enormous swings from cold to warm to cold, from manmade contributions.
There are many manmade disasters in the offing, the most notable ones being WATER problems i.e., the death of the oceans and the drying up of freshwater aquifers in the USA, India, and China. I think global warming is a red herring compared to these problems.
E.
More about global warming … all these folks who talk about “all-time high temperatures”. We’ve only had weather bureaus taking temperatures for a century or so, so what’s with this “all-time high” nonsense.
E.
I had a conversation with a middle aged Brit
who likes California, does what he can to work here.
Educated, with a masters degree.
He would like to move to USA but ‘6 countries are
banned from GC lottery, Uk is one of them’.
He insisted UK has been in a depression for a
decade? a while at least.
I think he had a lowly job at a camp.
Yes, when more died from lung cancer [having been
introduced to cigs at Red Cross with a free pack] after the war then from bullets during it.
Today more Gis die from suicide than in battle.
We’ve only had weather bureaus taking temperatures for a century or so, so what’s with this “all-time high” nonsense.
This is what happens when a community college professor makes statements outside his area of expertise.
Do you know what global warming is? Anything to do with CO2?
100 years, you say, Eleuthero5?
We do happen to have Vostok ice core samples that provide a 160,000 year record of atmospheric CO2.
The evidence is overwhelming that global warming is human-induced, which is why it is called Anthropogenic Global Warming.
Eluethero5 says we only have 100 years of record keeping! Yikes! How can we come to any conclusions with so little data, Eleuthero5?
GLOBAL WARMING FOR DUMMIES
Scientists have pieced together a picture of Earth’s climate, dating back hundreds of thousands of years, by analyzing a number of indirect measures of climate such as ice cores, tree rings, glacier lengths, pollen remains, and ocean sediments, and by studying changes in Earth’s orbit around the sun.
The historical record shows that the climate system varies naturally over a wide range of time scales. In general, climate changes prior to the Industrial Revolution in the 1700s can be explained by natural causes, such as changes in solar energy, volcanic eruptions, and natural changes in greenhouse gas (GHG) concentrations.
Recent climate changes, however, cannot be explained by natural causes alone. Research indicates that natural causes are very unlikely to explain most observed warming, especially warming since the mid-20th century. Rather, human activities can very likely explain most of that warming.
For more than 60 years, readings have been in the 300s ppm, except in urban areas, where levels are skewed. The burning of fossil fuels, such as coal for electricity and oil for gasoline, has caused the overwhelming bulk of the man-made increase in carbon in the air, scientists say.
It’s been at least 800,000 years – probably more – since Earth saw carbon dioxide levels in the 400s, Butler and other climate scientists said.
Readings are coming in at 400 and higher all over the Arctic. They’ve been recorded in Alaska, Greenland, Norway, Iceland and even Mongolia.
And it’s been 6 million years since there were no polar ice caps. Homo Sapiens did not exist. Who knows what will happen if it goes that far? Shorter sea routes for improved globalization? Easier drilling in previously arctic areas? I look to Exxon for the answers. Right?
In the Icelandic sagas, it is said that Norwegian-born (Erik the Red) named the land Grœnland (translated as “Greenland”), supposedly in the hope that the pleasant name would attract settlers.
Wikipedia
Why is Iceland green and Greenland ice?
“To keep away the tourists is a popular answer to this question amazing number of visitors ask when in Iceland. In fact we have no clue either.
It seems the discoverers of Iceland felt the country so cold and harsh that it deserved the name Iceland and thus when the big glacial island next to us was discovered later the name was already taken.
Why on earth they chose the name Greenland for a place so completely void of all vegetation must be put down to straightforward irony or humor.”
http://totaliceland.com/why-is-iceland-green-and-greenland-ice/
btw, Greenland is meltin’
Agree with you about the water.
As soon as I read the name, “Radu Voda”, that’s my signal to move on to another subject and away from crazy talk time.
Old Greenland actually had some small stunted forests in the coastal Southwest. Good pasturage as well. Then the Little Ice Age hit and the Colony began to die. The Sea Lanes became filled with Ice so the Colony became isolated. The last stunted Whites may have been finished off by the Inuit – or at least the men if you get my snow drift.
Yeah careful Fuckling, you might learn something.
Hey E, ever hear of this guy? He was in IT in San Francisco before he escaped from the Matrix as he calls it and now lives in Ireland. Pretty interesting blog: more Conspiracy Theory than Kunstler or the Arch Druid but otherwise in line with them, except he doesn’t buy Global Warming.
http://rkmdocs.blogspot.gr/2010/01/climate-science-observations-vs-models.html
Yes X, “Ice Ages” are not the exception but the norm for the last 6 million years. Perhaps the Sun and the Earth are no longer a young hot couple but not on the “once a month” plan. Every 100,000 years they have a ten thousand year thaw which we brief creature of the day call normal. It isn’t. We’re overdue for an ice age now, so it only reasonable to assume that it will soon come. Could be tomorrow, today, or a century from now. Back to normal, back to reality and probably the end of our Civilization. But possibly the salvation of the White Race. Tragedy is, if we had kept growing we could have weathered this storm as a Nation and a developed people. We could have lived right under the ice if we wanted to keep some of the cities. Most ice areas would be evacuated of course.
The grasshoppers will die and the ants will live as per Aesop.
Google is doomed. Watch and see the signs. Anytime you see dark skinned people walking around in large numbers and/or women in Leadership, you know the hour is late. Only the Ice can save us now. Who knows? The next snowflake you see may be the start.
http://www.google.com/about/jobs/lifeatgoogle/women-in-leadership.html
What a wow-onederful world we live in, predicaments and all. May 2013 prompt us all to be more receptive, appreciative, and awed by this bounty.
THIS IS AN AWESOME VIDEO!
http://www.cornell.edu/video/?VideoID=2398
Have a bold, calm, and cheerful new year!
REPUBLICAN CHAOS SINKS FISCAL DEAL
And then what? “Well, I say that then we wait for the new Congress to come in on Thursday. We’ll have better numbers, more members on our side,” said Clyburn. “Then we offer a new bill that they will like even less. They didn’t like the 450 (thousand dollar in household income) floor on the tax increase? Let’s see how much they like it when we push it back down to 250 (thousand)!”
FISCAL DEAL COLLAPSES!
STOCK MARKET COLLAPSES!
DOW SINKS TO 4,000!
KUNSTLER HAILED AS VISIONARY!
The 112th Congress worked 107 days last year.
That’s $1626.18 a day they earned (not including Cadillac benefits).
If they worked every day they would earn $476.17 per day.
By comparison, St. Elmos Fire gets $111 per day for getting out of bed.
Asoka gets $33 per day for getting out of bed.
St. Elmos Fire and Asoka are both retired.
Congress should be fired.
We are not going to make alternative arrangements because the automobile is the perfection of man. If the Greeks could have, they might have made a Honda Civic out of marble and granite. Even the Flinstones made themselves a car.
What is needed is an immense amount of pollution-free electric power. This is technically possible: http://tinyurl.com/b98g38c
“The 112th Congress worked 107 days last year.”
The big secret is that the people at the top do no real work whatsoever. These are gamers and power junkies. Politics to these people are an extension of logical economics: for the money-obsessed, once the interest on savings and investments exceed costs of living (at whatever level), politics is just a way to keep playing with the chips.
Congress is filled with crooks and swindlers. Always has been. Power structures attract evil people like flies on shit.
Research indicates that natural causes are very unlikely to explain most observed warming, especially warming since the mid-20th century. Rather, human activities can very likely explain most of that warming.
============
You are wise in hedging your bets with the word likely.
Much of what we currently say, do and believe will appear incredibly stupid in 50-100 years. Consider the clothing and hairdos of the ’60s. Or those doctors who recommended we smoke Camels. Maybe we’ll realize man-caused global warming was just as stupid.
The big secret is that the people at the top do no real work whatsoever.
===========
Even so, I think they salary should be reduced to the minimum wage, which would more accurately reflect the unreal work they do.
Since they are essentially lobbyists for the rich, the rich are paying them extras. They don’t need more than minimum wage from the taxpayers. But Obama just gave them a raise. Obama should be working for minimum wage, too. Public service is an opportunity to serve, not get rich and work for the rich.
You are wise in hedging your bets with the word likely.
============
It is likely that I am wise. Yes, it is likely I am a wise guy.
Gadfly wisdom is hard to take. Thanks for recognizing mine.
An interesting …observation. Did the doctors at that time know that there was a direct link between smoking and lung cancer? If not, it’s a pretty safe bet that they knew that they didn’t help prevent it.
There are lots of sets of lungs out there. How many atmospheres?
Once a year I make the same comment at about the same time of year. The DOW is already at 4,000. Adjusted for real inflation for things you can’t do without like food, energy and medical care, it’s down by 2/3 in real purchasing power since the turn of the century. The number 12-13 thousand only means something when converted in things you want and need. In those terms is down by two thirds. I can’t see why a smart guy like Kunstler just doesn’t get it.
For example, the Dow fell by 75% between 1966 and 1982 in purchasing power. From the dot com bust until now it’s nearly matched that same dismal performance. Once again energy was the root cause.
In case you didn’t notice, let me give you a heads up. You have here, a brilliant outline for a multi volume collection of history, possibly titled “THE RISE AND FALL OF THE EARTH”. happy new year, just say’in.
I still think that the world’s most absurd city is the city of Los Angeles, California.
But it looks like Dubai is making impressive gains in lunacy. Plus, Dubai has the advantage of being very close to the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf just opposite Iran.
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/tallest-building-world-turns-giant-firework-show-180418816.html
“Here’s a ‘Real Man’s’ word for ya: ‘CORNHOLE’.”
– U.S. comedian, George Carlin.
“The middle class will still see its taxes go up: The final deal did not include an extension of the payroll tax holiday. A report released by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office Tuesday complicated matters further. It said that the Senate-passed compromise would add nearly $4 trillion to the federal deficit over 10 years.”
CNBC’s Fast Money—Jon Najarian: Unusual Activity in this Stock – CNBC,cheap jordans for sale
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Whoa!! A very doom and gloom post and set of predictions. The only thing left out was the the world is flat and we will all slide off during the next rain.
I do subscribe to the gloomy picture you have just painted in many ways. I want to believe in a better world view, but what you have described does cloud my perspective.
I hope you have a safe and dry stash of anti-depressants because it appears you might need them.
http://eye-on-washington.blogspot.com
http://moontownshippa.blogspot.com
all about shale gas and what it is doing to all of us.
Techi,
Thanks for the reminder about “comparative value”.
Through dumbing-down, misdirection and a severe lack of critical thinking skills, yer average ‘Murkin knows the price of everything, but the value of nothing.
“How much gold did you say that stack of “securities” would buy?” ;o)
Hey, whassamatta, laddie boy? Did the colonel UNassign you from some other blogs because of your ineffectual performance? Is that why you’re spending so much more whining-time here? Ah well, get used to it; continuing failure is your life’s story.
(I thought you’d at least get a looser fitting pair of lederhosen from mommy for X-mas, but it seems not. You’re getting even squeakier due to the constriction.)
Okay, now on to the important stuff. Where is the architectural eyesore for this month?!! Is the lack or scarcity of such yet another indication of American decline or just a loss of interest on the part of the blog master?
How much gold did you say that stack of “securities” would buy?” ;o)
==============
Gold has no intrinsic value. The only value gold has is what people in their inchoate fantasies attribute to it. We could rephrase your question:
How much security did you say that stack of “gold bars” would buy?” ;o)
Unless you own a factory that makes electronic products or jewelry, or unless you are a professional gold trader, gold has no value to you, or to the man in the street.
The gold market is a self-inflating bubble.
To live you need money, doesn’t matter what sort as long as it’s the money that is in circulation in your country. With this money you buy, food, housing, energy, transport plus the other essentials needed for life.
If you are in work you will typically get paid your supply of money by your employer. If you are on benefits you get your money from the government and if you are on a pension you get your money from your pension provider. If you are begging on the streets you get your money from charitable sorts who feel kind enough to give you some of their money gained from the first three sources mentioned above. All these sources provide “money” not gold.
Next when you come to spend (or give away) your money the recipient will want, you guessed it, your money. He doesn’t want gold or any other stuff that has a “value” such as silver, lead, pretty crystalline minerals or anything else. He wants your money.
So what are you going to do with your gold. You have three options, wear it, store it or exchange it. If you wear it, it has no value to you. OK it has value to someone else, but to you it’s just jewellery. If you store it, it has even less value as you don’t actually derive any personal satisfaction other than telling everyone you are sitting on a pot of gold. If you sell it you typically sell it for money, which you can then use to buy everything mentioned above. But you can only do this once.
When you look at the price variations for gold over the long term, large increases usually line up with increased demand or reduced supply. At the moment the whole world is madly buying iPhones and tablet computers and cars with engine management computers, so there is high demand in the electronics industry. Eventually the gold stockpiles in the central banks of the world will be melted down and used in industry as gold is a finite resource.
Gold speculation is psychology, not a science. Basically, you think gold is valuable to you because you know someone else finds it valuable, and you expect things to stay that way (which is reasonable because people who already have gold will always claim it’s valuable). It is the speculation game that pushes up the price: if gold was only bought for jewelry and electronics it would be much cheaper.
Gold doesn’t have any value on its own, just what’s given to it by definition and its scarcity …
Just imagine what would happen to our world economy if there was this random gold meteor shower, lasting for 24 hours and leaving this world rich in gold-nuggets which were equally distributed all over the place? :o)
It makes one think how simple we just are… :o)
Oopsie, someone missed the point of “comparative value”. Can’t hit the side of the barn with a shotgun at 10 feet? Unsurprising and suspiciously intentional…
“Unless you own a factory that makes electronic products or jewelry, or unless you are a professional gold trader, gold has no value to you, or to the man in the street.” – Asoka
That’s so true! I’ve passed several men in the street who were giving away their gold because, as they would say, “It has no value to me”. Luckily, I knew that it was selling for about $1700/ounce so I graciously accepted it from them and then sold it. I made a killing.
I’m willing to take a Lie Detector test….
What is your favorite Count Yorga movie? Thanks.
Holy Sh*t, Xhalor!! What a Post! Really a little disturbing! STOP DRINKING RIGHT NOW! I just makes sh*t worse. Have you tried to get help from the VA? Here’s what I do: … take a detached view of what happens … like in “It aint my goddam fault, I did my part”. That’s what gets me thru. Anyway, at least you’re lucid and can still put together a readable sentence, which is more than about what 95% of others can do in the USA. Xhalor, take care of yourself.
–Panic in Year Zero
I love this little forcasting project you have ongoing for the past few yrs Kunstler.
I particularly liked the bit of history regarding what’s made Industrial Society possible and what will henceforth dismantle it. Even read some of it to my kids whom am trying to raise with firm footing on reality and hopefully able to discern opportunities rediscovered that our downscaling will bring, ie community, small local enterprises, community, food security, community, and, did I mentioned community?
Easy to dismiss with a hark but oh so true.
Thankfully (hopefully) most these things will take place over a longer timepspan than 12 months (I pray much much longer) and that will allow us time to adapt gracefully (I pray we do).
I wish you good luck, health, and the time to notice and enjoy the mundane things that make living magical.
Thanks for this week’s work, JHK.
And thank you for your ongoing work on this blog, as well as in other areas. And thank you so much for this barely regulated comment thread. Few things make clusterfuckage so visible to discerning readers – as does this particular webspace.
Your predictions for this year were proceeded by some very well reasoned analysis. I believe it is very good for your readers to remember that you have actual statistics and data to back-up your conclusions. And that you have, indeed, made the relationship of “peak everything” to “The Long Emergency” an important part of your life’s work.
Anyway, here’s the best sentence for the week.
“The quandary is: how do you have a wonderful and peaceful modern culture without an economy to support it.” -jhk-
We don’t, James. It is simply impossible.
And more people in the United States make matters worse and worse for the whole world – when collapse finally comes.
There will be a lot of activity in the new Congress on “comprehensive immigration reform,” which seems to loosely translate in the Obama White House to “making the illegals, legal.”
OK – whatever. politics.
But steps should be taken NOW to drastically REDUCE the population growth of the United States. And the ONLY way that will happen is through the DRASTIC reduction of LEGAL immigration quotas.
Eventually, this will happen, and immigration will be reduced by the nasty physical forces of contraction and collapse. I think it’s much better to be proactive – for the good of the Planet, and ALL of the people on it.
Join this group. Send money.
Get on their free list to send emails and faxes to your senators and congresscritter. Hopefully, it is not too late. https://www.numbersusa.com/content/nusablog/moubre/december-28-2012/population-growth-fueled-immigration-puts-us-fast-track-depletion-n
And Happy New Year, you bunch of Clusterfuckers.
Did you say Iceland? Man I want to go there!!
http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lmt1cyx4Pv1qzozj1.jpg
Yes, make the illegals legal. The sooner the better.
Obama is doing just the opposite by deporting them at record numbers.
OBAMA VICTORY IS A MIDDLE CLASS VICTORY
Estate tax goes up to 40 percent instead of a 35 percent tax rate.
Child tax credit preserved
College tuition credit preserved
The Alternative Minimum Tax was permanently fixed to inflation (helping middle class families)
The “doc fix” for physicians caring for Medicare patients
The Farm Bill (to prevent $8/gallon milk overnight).
The wind industry subsidy restored.
The earned income tax credit preserved.
Unemployment insurance preserved.
No pre-paid earned benefit (they are not “entitlements”) was touched.
So…
How the hell did a [very large and influential] company know to up the SS “donation” by 50% found in my son’s paycheck TODAY? Think somebody stayed up all night to adjust everyone’s paycheck? I do not. It was already known what the increase would be and simply included/excluded it as a “close enough so they won’t notice” calculation. We used to call that, inside dope. Think you’ve got any say in how the gum’mint apportions (or coerces) your kindly donations to the cause of continued mis-allocations? Think again.
I´m not scared about the possible modernization of our society to a levels, which would assume free renewable energy for everyone on the Earth without making any substantial damage to the environment. But I share the same disbelief as you in the money and finances on the current modernization trends. We are enslaved by the capital and profit. It builds the false promise of infinite growth on the planet, which is not infinite. This is the biggest fallacy I recognize in the current international environment. There are very few credible people who dare to confront this fallacy and speak for the life itself. Our goal should be to promote ideas that help people become less dependent on the current system, that can experience collapse at any time and help them to establish their own relations in the communities (for example by promoting urban farming). Our goal is to challenge the current exploitation system on the local, provincial, state and global level by constantly exposing harmful consequences it has.
Keep up the great work. Much of this probably is correct given our current trajectory, if you might only be off only on the timing. The DOW probably will hit 4000 before it goes to 0 sometime in the future (my prediction is not this year) after all the stages of grief are met: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, until finally there is acceptance. Not everyone will enter the stages at the same time and some never will evolve in thinking. There probably is a middle path out, but much of the World is ill-equipped, both physically and psychologically, to deal with such large changes as our cheap fossil-fuel based economy has exploded population growth. (note emphasis on fossil). Too much, too fast, and a model of infinite growth on finite resources just can’t be SUSTAINED. The sustainability movement has made great strides, but too many people depend on, either consciously or subconsciously, the current model for survival. Those who can’t or won’t move toward acceptance probably won’t inspire and will eventually expire with the level of change that will occur because the forces of the Universe are greater than our political and financial system. This self-referencing system can not accept slow growth and especially not contraction (i.e. Detroit). The Universe doesn’t care if we think we can defy the laws of nature in favor of our own. They say we need a Revolution. Maybe is is less Revolution and more Evolution. How can we evolve and yet seemingly take a step backwards from the cliff we are facing? It is easy. You turn around and take step FORWARD while the rest march off the edge and tumble perilously into the dark canyon they call Progress. Here is to taking a step forward in 2013. Happy New Year!
Who needs “sturm und drang” when you’ve got “grok” and “prang?” Great stuff, Jim! Happy New Year!
I HAVE BEEN READING JIM’S STUFF FOR OVER 5 YEARS AND HE HAS BEEN BATTING NEAR 1.000 – ALL WRONG! NONETHELESS, I ENJOY READING JIM WEEKLY…
DO HAVE TO AGREE ON TWO THINGS. FIRST, THE MIDDLE EAST WILL CONTINUE TO BE EMBROILED IN NEAR WAR CONDITIONS (THINK SYRIA). SECOND, SOME NATURAL EVENT (EG, MAJOR CALIFORNIA EARTHQUAKE)IS ALMOST A CERTAINTY…
HAPPY NEW YEAR
Rain Check
Tainter is not the only authority on the subject. The original authority writes in Volume I Chapter V: Sale Of The Empire To Didius Julianus of Total disregard of the rule of law:
Gibbon
And madness ruled the earth.
It seems that however able and industrious the original founders of a great endeavor are, their successors are never worthy of the task. Sooner or later the inmates end up running the asylum.
A people who think that freedom is nothing more than the wanton fulfillment of passion and the infringement of freedom synonymous with prohibition in sale of super-size sugary soft drinks isn’t a people with brain cells enough to deserve freedom much less understand and defend it.
Reality follows laws and order not subject to the whim of man. Artaxerxes wisely said:
“The authority of the prince, must be defended by a military force; that force can only be maintained by taxes; all taxes must, at last, fall upon agriculture; and agriculture can never flourish except under the protection of justice and moderation.”
Emphasis mine. Civilization requires a sustainable feedback loop. Civilization fails when it’s leaders loose their way and fail to understand and respect this basic principle.
Our leaders lost their way long ago now. Rule is justified in defending the earth and keeping the peace not by participating in its rape and plunder.
Artaxerxes understood the basic energy flow comes from the sun and our civilization in extreme hubris has mistakenly come to the conclusion that energy is free. Abundance of energy resulted in a society which wastes its time in trifling and licentious pleasures unprepared to suffer its loss of boundless and cheap energy on which it has foolishly bet its survival.
Overpopulation and the intentional ignorance of this simple fact has sealed our fate. My forecast, first the black horse comes, then the pale horse comes, then our society is but a fading memory on a tired and baking earth.
Coventry Health Care Reports Second Quarter Earnings ,cheap foamposites
Every year, Bill predicts that the world will end. Japan will return to the age of the Shogun, India will wage nuclear war on Pakistan, etc., etc. Keep it up, homeboy. Someday you’ve gotta be right. Even a blind pig will stumble upon an apple at some point. L.M.A.O.
… and by “Bill”, I mean “James”. LOL!!!!
LOL
Every year, Bill predicts that the world will end.
===========
Yes, but this year might actually be the end of the world. It might happen by next Tuesday at 2:00 p.m.
A Black Swan event can happen at any moment and by definition the Black Swan is unpredictable and unexpected.
There will be mass chaos, blood in the streets, complete social disintegration (but we’ll still have internet to comment)
There is no magical techno-miracle on the horizon. There is no hope. Nothing can provide the energy density of pure grade oil.
Remember, things work until they don’t and the laws of physics apply to everyone, even Asoka.
Don’t forget that peak oil happened in 1970 (Source: MKH) and, whether you like it or not, Nature bats last.
Oh, and don’t forget the CFN mantra: “we are soooo fucked!”
(it’s an EROEI thang!)
LOL!
Good quote. Note the racial chaos and the almost complete absence of Romans from the City of Rome. There were other factors of course but this was one factor too – and it added to the lack of spirit and loss of patriotism. How did it happen? The Elite had stopped having children. The poor had blended in with the slaves and immigrants. And the all important middle class? They were impoverished by the childless Elite, both by the old Roman families and perhaps the new mercantile Elite from Asia Minor – yes the Jews were prominent among them. See an unedited Gibbon for the horror stories of their deeds.
In any case, Agriculture was particularly hard hit. A ruined small farmer was lucky to get a postition on his old land once it was taken over. And the old contract with the Legionairies where a returning soldier got enough land to farm had ceased. There was nothing for them to come back to so they didn’t. They stayed in the Lands where they had been stationed and married the local women in many cases. Thus another potent source of good genes and Roman identity was lost to the core of the Empire.
Yes we are doomed as a Nation but what is to come after? Remember, Rome sowed many seeds that sprouted. America may as well. One or two of them may be White and Western. Surely you have no objection to this – especially since these are the only places you will ever be welcome or feel at home.
“Here’s a Real Man’s word for ya: ‘CORNHOLE’.
– U.S. Comedian George Carlin
“The most ominous part of the deal is what was left out. The deal makes no provision for lifting the debt ceiling. It postpones the sequester (automatic cuts in domestic and military spending) for only two months. It is a smaller deficit reduction package than that originally sought by the president. It therefore sets up the right-wing House zealots to hold the economy hostage once more, while demanding deep cuts in public services (known as cuts in domestic spending), backed by a media frenzy about deficits. And while Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid escaped unscathed in this deal, they will be the prime targets in the coming debate.”
Do any of you CFNers know if it’s possible via advanced genetic engineering techniques to genetically engineer Siamese twins, one black and one white who are both terribly racist? Thanks.
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/poll-obama-begins-second-term-facing-pessimistic-public-132253142–election.html
Did you ever hear about the one Siamese twin who was defrauded by his other Siamese twin?
“price discovery — the process by which the true value of things is established based on what people will freely pay”
To me, this is the most important rule in the whole story of human civilization. What is the value of a human life? The Mayans and Incas thought it so valuable that it had to be viscerally sacrificed on a regular basis (not unlike our roadway crash sacrifices).
How much money does it require for one person to be supported on this planet, let alone this nation? (It costs society 60,000$ to raise a child from birth to adulthood in the current economy.)
Kunstler has explained how the 1%-ers have been able to get us to freely pay them for so many years (maybe not so freely due to hypnotic highway systems). It didn’t seem wrong at the time and would have seemed totally insane if we hadn’t bought all the accoutrements of suburbia. How many people think they’re totally hip sitting in front of a Starbucks or McDonalds? This is what makes us part of the 1st (1%) World. Otherwise, we’d still be hanging our clothes out to dry and walking miles everyday to get water and food.
This all has to do with our concept of “advancement”. The advancement of time is not as noticeable when in engaged in real work. The racketeer is lying in bed at night thinking of new ways to screw the pooch. No one, not even advanced organs of justice, can keep up with this kind of organized criminal activity. People like Madoff prove it. In the end, whatever kind of disaster has happened this past year, it has been left up to the masses (grass root effort) to determine how to handle their futures and clean up the mess. This year a lot of people are going to get stuck in the mud and need a bunch of people to help them out.
We need the help of the Amish Maffia. Who wants in on the Buggy race action?
Money can be anything – wampum or sea shells are a good medium or exchange. Anything, anything, anything but little pieces of paper full of Lies. The duty of the Goverment is to set the currency. Not borrow it from foreign nationals. By definition, it can never be paid back. The debt is always greater than the supply when the interest is added. Thus a game of muscial chairs is created with the number of chairs decreasing while the number of people increasing. The Big Boys get first crack at the newly created money before inflation devalues it.
I just received a suspicious email message stating that I had recently submitted a request to change my Facebook password, and to click on the link in the email to change my password. (I don’t have a Facebook account.)
I don’t know if some asshole has set up a bogus Facebook account in my name with my photo and possibly uploaded pictures of me dressed as a T..a lib, or whether it’s a fake message trying to get me to click on the link in order to hack my computer?
The scammers used to just send me emails trying to seduce me with offers of P…ssy, but now they seem to be using other angles.
Pucker, you’re my favorite.
the six-part Shoulder to Shoulder premiered in the United States on October 5, Pankhurst and her chief lieutenant Lady Constance Lytton (Judy Parfitt) shifted into full gear, Different kinds of jewelry now flood the market. Beaded necklaces or bracelets may stretch. I’ld be glad to know what you all think of it. I would suggest buying wrinkle-free shirts and trousers for such purposes.
“The (Australian) pilot’s leg is fairly bad, a flight attendant, Smart TV is available in all sizes, he can click go to store and purchase the product there itself. There are additional factors for skin damage too. the production of health tissue will become slower. LIVESTRONG is a registered trademark of the Lance Armstrong Foundation. the benefits of alternative treatments may be desired. Flight Status and other information directly via their airlines travel portal or via Call Centres. There are number of reasons which are responsible for discount flights to India; perhaps the first and foremost is the cut throat competition among the flights companies at international and domestic levels to attract more and more travelers.
Alexandra: Yeah, No More Dirty Looks: The Truth About Your Beauty Products and the Ultimate Guide to Safe and Clean Cosmetics (Da Capo Lifelong, for the purpose of your thing, Worn-ins have the real flaw and hands with sand paper scratches. You can choose golf equipment that meets a variety of practical needs, tees and even umbrellas and towels. and even space shuttles, covering, It automatically opened the Windows update window also. Usually it prompts you to activate before it can update.
sporting events and New Orleans’ laissez-faire alcohol-drenched,’ At one time, where you can collect it at your own convenience the following morning. If you find that this does not produce the necessary amount of neem extract for your purposes, Capitalism is a rough game, The Democratic National Committee spliced together clips of news reports on businesses closed by Bain Capital, “I can beat up men with my sport.
UPS) so that you have a reassurance. the variations between how humans and searchengines view net pages are not. watches,The grooming on the inside previous era more people vintage which is often modified and improved because of the designers without shedding their worth or value at all. when I shop online, Now the challenge will be how to easily make it work on my site.
ignore the egg-nog latte women of all ages, Wow : cataclysm’ pets course most typically associated with predominant is tremendous techniques information, And then drink the other 700 millilitres pure water or boiled water. white and clean tone, Armed with a knife, These workers are prone to back trouble,2. They are fantastic for shoes and handbags. Your dad will be amazed and entertained. There are plenty of clothes available through online stores that feature techie or geek symbols.
5 meters (4. anti-scratch screen, how does it justify its high prices and what’s so great about its machines? packed full of the latest wizardry and have received many favorable vacuum cleaner reviews.Massive scramble in the business district in Shanghai, shopping centers 1 to 4 floor will have the LV store. Many enterprises prefer welfare and gift activities which can help to show care to staff and inspire their professionalism and their love for the enterprises. There are different types of situation occur where you require to utilize board up services.’ He has approximately 150 hits on his shelf of trophies.’ in 1955.
it sure doesn seem to be starting out that way. and these help to fight free radicals that damage the cells ability to repair themselves. We’re evolutionarily wired to behave like that because we’re supposed to save our energy for when the lion attacks and we have to run very, And instead of that, Doctrine in physics. style, 5770 W.
Confusionism cleared this up for us. What is truly of value are pieces of paper full of lies. This is what Confusionism wanted, the paper money, not the gold.
Luckily, I knew that it was selling for about $1700/ounce so I graciously accepted it from them and then sold it.
The only thing of real value is government printed fiat money.
According to estimates by the Joint Committee on Taxation, the so-called NASCAR loophole will cost taxpayers $46 million this year and an additional $95 million through 2017.
=============
The Constitution authorizes Congress to spend the peoples’ money on NASCAR.
“Do any of you CFNers know if it’s possible … to genetically engineer Siamese twins, one black and one white who are both terribly racist?”
Yes, it was done back in 1972.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U492MO2DzVY
Zed, Thanks for the link.
That movie was obviously a “Head”-of-its-time….
A warning to all you good Samaritan sperm donors: A man in Topeka is being sued by the state of Kansas for child support of the 3-year old daughter of a lesbian couple conceived with his donated seed. In 2009 he responded to the couple’s Craigslist ad and agreed to meet them to exchange the “donation” for a signed letter absolving him of any financial responsibility for the child’s upbringing. The lesbians broke up after the child was born and the mother couldn’t work, so she applied for social assistance from the state. The Kansas Department for Children and Families is now suing the donor, claiming that since the insemination was not performed by a licensed doctor, the written agreement has no legal standing. The donor is being sued for payments already made by the state plus ongoig support for the child. It just doesn’t pay to be altruistic these days. No details were given as to how exactly the do-it-yourself insemination was performed – turkey baster perhaps?
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/state_trying_to_make_sperm_donor_JTEiRqPTyLwoe1BPnyL7MP
Back at ya.
The Original Gone in 60
I once “donated” sperm.
I had to wack off into a plastic cup in a private room replete with jazz magazines and dirty movies. It was weird. At one point, I had to slam it against the back of the corinthian leather sofa while thinking about a woman with big tits.
By your logic, Asoka, then nothing has value, not even paper money. Think about it.
I think there may be hope for the human race yet. Warp speed ahead…
http://io9.com/5963263/how-nasa-will-build-its-very-first-warp-drive
My logic is impeccable because it is based on actual practice. It is simply a fact that we use paper money as our medium of exchange daily, not gold. We believe the paper has value. It has none. We are artificially giving it value. We believe gold has value. It has none. We are artificially giving it value. $1700 an ounce? Maybe today, maybe not tomorrow. It’s all psychological. Think about it… but not too much.
“The only thing of real value is government printed fiat money.” Asoka
“We believe the paper has value. It has none. We are artificially giving it value.” Asoka
Holy contradictions. Impeccable logic my ass. Which one is it, Asoka? Please do enlighten us. I’m sure you can see how we would be confused.
Be careful what you say if you ride any busses in Hartford, CT. Its reported today that all city and suburban busses have been fitted out with secret (not so secret anymore) listening and recording devices, generously provided by DHS. There are also face recognition cameras. These are all being monitered, presumably, back at HQ by Big Sis.
We’re only 3 days into 2013 but we’ve already had a hellacious home invasion, several bloody stabbings, and gratuitous shootings in Bridgeport, Hartford and New Haven (in “The Land of Steady Habits”) JHK writes about events on the grand, macro scale, But its the grimy, shabby micro BS that will do you in quicker.
–Panic in Year Zero
Al Gore, Mr. Global Warming, is pocketing $100 million selling his Current TV Network to Al Jazeera. What’s in the offing? Maybe another private 747, another diesel burning yacht on the Tennessee River? When he came her to speak at CCSU (about global warming) he arrived in a huge fleet of SUVs, with much fanfare. Gore himself was in a limo, which was kept running while he spoke. There’s your Global Warming Prophet!
–Panic in Year 0
I stand by what I said. Your confusion is good and understandable.. Neither gold nor paper have any real value. We give them both their value by our daily use of paper and our willingness to exchange paper for gold, neither of which have any INTRINSIC VALUE as mediums of exchange. By the way, my comments on CFN also have zero value and are worth what you paid for them: nothing.
I’m only confused by your stubborness in the face of your own contradiction. I’m glad that you stand by what you said but it doesn’t mean anything. But at least you got the last part correct. Your comments do have zero value.
We are in agreement then. Good.
Many times on this blog I expressed my admiration for the sentiments of John Ruskin, and,well,people just don’t seem to get him. But now, I have posted a clip that will corroborate the sentiments of Ruskin(posted below the Ruskin paragraph) and reveal some bodacious highway architecture in the presence of an awesome,terrifying and beautiful Nature from the land that spawned the Vikings:
“…(I mean the Englishman, Frenchman, Dane, or German), if he would lead a happy life at all, to find sources of happiness in foul weather as well as fair, and to rejoice in the leafless as well as in the shady forest. And this we do with all our hearts; finding perhaps nearly as much contentment by the Christmas fire as in the summer sunshine, and gaining health and strength on the ice-fields of winter, as well as among, the meadows of spring. So that there is nothing adverse or painful to our feelings in the cramped and stiffened structure of vegetation checked by cold; and instead of seeking, like the Southern sculptor, to express only the softness of leafage nourished in all tenderness and tempted into all luxuriance by warm winds and glowing rays, we find pleasure in dwelling upon the crabbed, perverse, and morose animation of plants that have known little kindness from earth or heaven, but, season after season, have had their best efforts palsied by frost, their brightest buds buried under snow, and their goodliest limbs lopped by tempest. ”
http://www47.homepage.villanova.edu/seth.koven/gothic.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4T4vc1QqiPM&feature=share
Thank-you!
I read the Manhattan Gothic novel; a little short. Too Much Magic and The Long Emergency were excellent. A World Made by Hand and The Witch of Hebron are my mantras.
I still wish you would open your receptors to the accuracy of astrology for deciphering these times; your loss!
Get a copy of At the Crossroads by Jessica Murray on Amazon and read it.
Have a nice day, everyone:
http://enenews.com/almost-entire-ground-level-northern-hemisphere-covered-radioactive-fission-product-after-311-study-impact-fukushima-radioxenon-releases-worldwide-xe-133-background-be-investigated-graphic
APPLE IPAD KILLS THE NOTEBOOK
Most vendors have quietly ended netbook production since the iPad’s launch. They attempted to take a slice of the tablet market, but failed, with most early iPad competitors ending up in landfill after being returned by disappointed retailers. Today Apple dominates the sector with Amazon and Samsung fighting over the scraps.
Netbook competitors were unable to compete with the sophisticated technological execution of the iPad; equally they couldn’t meet the design and usability challenge wielded at the top end of the market by Apple’s MacBook Air. Asus withdrew from the netbook market at the end of last year. Acer ended production of these devices shortly before Asus made its decision.
Many times on this blog I expressed my admiration for the sentiments of John Ruskin, and,well,people just don’t seem to get him.
==============
Buck Stud, I “got” John Ruskin in 1973 as a result of my readings in Gandhi. Ruskin’s “Unto This Last” influenced Gandhi.
Every time you mention Ruskin my heart feels joy for CFN.
I have not commented as much until today since I don’t post much anymore.
Time to perk up Jim! You might enjoy checking this out:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/larrydownes/2013/01/03/creating-a-politics-of-abundance-to-match-technology-innovation/
Magical times indeed!
A lot of intelligent commentary in Kunstler’s treatise here. I have only read about halfway through.
As always, my only main disagreement is that I do believe that “hamburger helper” for the oil and gas industry (e.g. fracking) will indeed extend the era of affordably cheap oil and gas by 2-3 decades.
I believe Kunstler’s close linkage between oil supply and modern civilization is spot on. However, I believe the oil supply graph will hold up a bit longer than the more pessimistic peak oilers think. I turn 60 this month, if I live to 85 I don’t expect to see the start of the Long Emergency, but I suspect I will be awfully lucky to not be around for the hellish period of the mid 21st century. I hope some people of the younger generation manage to get by and make it to the other side, which I envision to be a human population much smaller than it is today, but one that has the potential to achieve prosperity, this time one widely spread around the world and not destined to flame out due to reliance on natural resources destined to be rapidly depleted.
I was shocked to see that the official US population is now something like 311 or 313 million. It was not very long ago we crossed the 300 million threshold.
Another example where the politicians are driving us over the cliff. This particular cliff they don’t even acknowledge the existence of.
That’s pretty scary. At least they know that ever-increasing government debt will eventually lead to disaster. They are oblivious to the fact that ever-increasing population will do so as well. Many on the right believe in cornucopianism.
Those on the left simply adopt a “don’t worry be happy” stance.
I was shocked to see that the official US population is now something like 311 or 313 million. It was not very long ago we crossed the 300 million threshold. Another example where the politicians are driving us over the cliff.
——————
You are saying the politicians are responsible for increased population? Somebody stop them! Forced sterilization for all politicians! What? WE ARE RESPONSIBLE, NOT THE POLITICIANS? Oh, never mind.
Immigrants… legalize them, now!
IMPECCABLE LOGIC
$1700 PAPER FIATS DOLLARS = 1 OUNCE GOLD
FIAT DOLLARS HAVE NO INTRINSIC VALUE
IPSO FACTO
GOLD HAS NO INTRINSIC VALUE
(as a medium of exchange, electrons and fiat money rock! Gold, not so much)
Electrons are limitless. Paper money can be printed forever in any amount. That makes them excellent mediums of exchange which have served us well all our lives.
Gold, not so much.
You really think that Ruskin would approve of the West being innundated by Third Worlders? To the point of collapse? You do him a great wrong then. The attitude of you and your cohort has been gradually developed over the last century. It is utterly unnatural and most any Westerner from the last century would reject it with a shudder of horror.
Sorry Asoka, I didn’t mean to use your own words to confuse you. Please don’t ask me to explain it again.
Low wages are good for the millionaires club, expect more.
If I offer you you one gold bar (pure, weighs one pound), would you explain it to me again? How high will you jump for the false security gold gives you?
Can you name one millionaire who has complained about Obama deporting immigrants in record numbers year after year? According to you they should be upset that they are losing a cheap source of labor. But your claim about millionaires is false. Are you part of COINTELPRO? Do you work for the man?
Then, the 20th century rolled onstage with the unspeakable horror of two consecutive “world wars.” – JHK
Well, there’s no need for quotation marks for the second of the two, the Pacific theater with Japan inflicting mass slaughter qualifies WW2 as a globe girdling conflict.
Note also that the end of the long peace of the 19th century, the First World War, was a trauma the real cause of which continues to mystify the historians – JHK
Mystifies me too. I’m only half joking but maybe the Great War was the creation of doddering Victorian generals and a syphilitic European aristocracy cretinized by centuries of inbreeding. How else do you account for throwing away a generation of young men on barbed wire fences?
If WW2 was the Mother of Black Swans then WW1 was the Grandmother. Whatever the proximate causes we still live in the social and cultural wreckage of those times. The Chinese and Japanese hate each others guts and in case anyone missed it both countries just floated aircraft carriers and both apparently plan to build more. This is not encouraging.
At the core of Europe there’s no affection between French and German. Why should there be? Way too much history separating them. Maybe things would have been different if Varus hadn’t lost three legions in the Teutoberg Forest. But he did and so Rome’s empire stopped at the Rhine and different societies took root on either side of it. The French and German peoples, given their mutually unintelligible languages, don’t see each other as fellow European citizens no matter their shared cultural and linguistic origins deep in prehistory, no matter their sharing a currency and no matter their elites accommodation of one another with talk of European “union”. The facts on the street and town square don’t square with the upper crust view of things. French and German have forgotten and nothing can convince them that they are relatives.
So what’s at the root of this mess called the Euro Zone and EU? The French farmer was seen as expendable by the French PTB in WW1 at least in comparison to the skilled industrial worker and so was butchered by the hundreds of thousands holding off the Boche at Verdun. But in the next generation there would be no repeat performance. So maybe what’s at the root is as simple as German shame and French fear. The other countries are peripheral, they just thought they’d jump in on what looked like a good idea.
Did you hear that Berlusconi is mulling a return to politics? What a joke, that goof makes Sarkozy look like Churchill.
“As always, my only main disagreement is that I do believe that “hamburger helper” for the oil and gas industry (e.g. fracking) will indeed extend the era of affordably cheap oil and gas by 2-3 decades.”
So what? You just identified yourself as one of the useless eating hurd, congratulations.
Your highly improbable scenario would put us in a situation where we would be forced to try and feed 450 million with an agricultural base two thirds our present capacity that totally depends on fossil fuel to operate or people starve. At that point the only thing left to frack will be peoples heads. People will starve.
I’ll take you at your word.
By the way, my comments on CFN also have zero value and are worth what you paid for them: nothing.
Nuff said.
Washington is bought and paid for by Wall Street and the moneyed elite that Wall Street services/steals from. And what the moneyed elite want are low wages. And what better way than to open the borders to semi-literate, hungry people willing to break their backs for peanuts? As the resident asshole on this site often says, hispanics “contribute”. The problem is that the desperate hispanic, whether in the country legally or not, contributes not to his own bank account but to the bank accounts and well-being of the One Percent ie the “millionaires club” as you say.
And then there’s the social and political domination that comes from lording it over a population of marginalized and impoverished people.
Compared to immigrants of 50 or 60 years ago the recent hispanic has a really tough go. No decent paying industrial jobs anymore thanks to the One Percent who exported them to China.
Let’s get it straight. I don’t doubt the lack of intrinsic value in gold. It’s pretty and shiny and all of that but has very little practical use (though I wouldn’t say its intrinsic value is zero).
My problem is your contradictory statements. You wrote, “The only thing of real value is government printed fiat money.” and then you wrote “We believe the paper has value. It has none. We are artificially giving it value.” So which is it, concerning paper money?
If anyone, besides Asoka, can delve into his brain and explain to me his logic, please do. Otherwise let’s drop it as I’m sure this is getting tiresome for all.
I would say that if he thinks his money has no value then I will gladly take it off his hands.
And what if the US has a series of droughts like the last one? Is this the start of the Sahara-ization of the US interior? Won’t know for a while. The Sahara was once a green place. But no more. And if the US dries out then what of its agricultural capacity, what of the distribution of population? Will it set of a mass migration north and south? Will it set off mass starvation not only in the US but other places that depend on surplus US grain production?
How else do you account for throwing away a generation of young men on barbed wire fences?
The steel industry.
The Chinese and Japanese hate each others guts and in case anyone missed it both countries just floated aircraft carriers and both apparently plan to build more.
Jokes on them unless they plan on burning coal.
French and German have forgotten and nothing can convince them that they are relatives.
You don’t think perhaps they might be short sighted cheese puff eaters like us? Oooops, my bad I guess that bolsters your argument.
But the French do take agriculture more seriously than we do. They are conscious that food comes from somewhere.
A black swan is coming but the nature of the swan is the direction from whence it comes cannot be predicted. Thats the nature of the dark bird.
JHK was clever this week in putting Taleb out there this week. Storm clouds have gathered, a tempest is certain, but the exact moment of release cannot be known.
Did you hear that Berlusconi is mulling a return to politics? What a joke, that goof makes Sarkozy look like Churchill.
That’s entertainment.
Does it rain in Disneyland? People are starting to get hungry now.
Fun fact: Food stamps stimulate the economy with a multiplier effect greater than 1.5. Tax cuts for the rich only have a multiplier effect of less than 0.25. More than a Six to One difference!
I suspect the multiplier effect is lowest for bank bailouts.
Once there was a new deal, but we get no deal.
How much money do you want, Rhino? Can you provide a specific number?
I’m so proud of Republicans for breaking with Norquist and Rove.
Democrats held their ground on the essentials — no cuts in benefits — while Republicans voted for a tax increase for the first time in decades.
Big government wins, thanks to the Republicans.
If anyone, besides Asoka, can delve into his brain and explain to me his logic, please do.
I know I’m not Asoka but I don’t expect you to believe or disbelieve me. As for you perhaps you are Asoka masquerading as someone else as yet another way for it to add it’s useless dribble to the weekly scroll. Perhaps you are not? How am I to know.
The logic is to dilute and distract anything that suggests a reality other than a cornucopian myth. Belief in the cornucopian myth is essential to maintain the status-quo as challenge to the belief of limitless growth would inevitably lead to social change and a disturbance of the social order.
Some people don’t want that to happen.
The tragedy is they can only delay, not stop it. Sadly delay of the inevitable will only increase human misery by orders of magnitude.
There is really no doubt where a man, woman or proud dog of courage should stand.
Jesus is coming but the direction from whence Jesus comes cannot be predicted. Thats the nature of the second coming.
Storm clouds have gathered, a tempest is certain, but the exact moment of Jesus’ return cannot be known.
CFN is a religious cult.
Black Swans, according to Taleb, can be extremely POSITIVE EVENTS that were not expected. Yet you would never know that by reading the biased comments of CFN acolytes.
STATEMENT BY JILL STEIN:
Bipartisan fiscal scam lays groundwork for austerity
As daylight begins to shine on the fiscal cliff deal just passed by Congress, it’s clear the expected bipartisan betrayal has occurred. And even worse, it lays the groundwork for much more to come.
In brief, the deal protects wealthy households earning up to $450,000 annually from tax increases, as it makes Bush tax cuts permanent for 98.5% of Americans. With this provision, Obama broke his promise to raise taxes on those earning over $250,000 per year.
The deal also ended the payroll tax holiday, hitting vulnerable working and middle class families with significant tax increases likely to take further steam out of the economy. This increased tax burden – of about $1000 for a family earning $50,000 per year- should have been replaced by another tax break for working families to prevent a reduction in demand that’s likely to further stall the ailing economy.
The deal also ushered in an additional $205 billion in wasteful corporate tax favors. New racetracks will get tens of millions, Goldman Sachs gets $1.6 billion in tax-free financing for its new massive headquarters, banks get a $9 billion dollar loophole for offshore financing, and U.S. multinationals are allowed to dodge taxes on income earned by foreign subsidiaries – giving them all the more reason to move jobs offshore.
Taking care of ill family members at home was dealt a set-back with a provision in the Affordable Care Act designed to let millions of elderly and disabled people get help at home rather than be placed in institutional care being repealed.
The deal included an urgent renewal of unemployment insurance, though many observers considered this virtually a given. It also deferred the self-inflicted devastation of the ‘sequester’, which would impose $110 billion in across the board domestic and military cuts, but only for two months.
In supporting the bill, President Obama gave away the one bargaining chip – the expiring Bush tax cuts – that he could have used in the upcoming negotiations on spending cuts and the debt ceiling. Not only did Obama get little of substance in return for his only bargaining chip. He actually ceded nearly half the $1 trillion in new revenue that John Boehner agreed to, (getting only $600 billion in tax increases on the wealthy over the next decade).
This lays groundwork for a disaster. Obama has already agreed to 4 trillion in deficit reduction. The revenue side of the deal he just signed generates little more than $600 billion. That means we can expect bipartisan collaboration on more than $3 trillion in cuts going in to the next round of brinksmanship over the debt ceiling. Obama has already indicated his willingness to cut Social Security, Medicare and other health programs. Now, thanks to his early capitulation, the Republicans have all the cards in their hands.
Stay tuned. Our voices are needed more than ever to continue the fight for strong Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid – and for an economy that works for all of us. Once again we’re seeing that real solutions will not be coming from the corporate sponsored political establishment. You can be prouder than ever of your vote against the continued bipartisan sell out. More than ever, we – the people – are the ones we’ve been waiting for.
[Asoka’s] logic is to dilute and distract anything that suggests a reality other than a cornucopian myth.
===========
K-Dog, please see my posting above of Jill Stein’s statement on the coming austerity.
You have no idea who I am or what I am doing on CFN, K-Dog. But you are doing an excellent job of muddying the waters.
The Green Party is the legitimate political party I supported as an alternative to Obama/Romney.
I hope you don’t hold it against me that I supported the Green Party instead of supporting you.
Cornucopian? Ha!
Great stuff! When the price of food skyrockets maybe I will be able to make a living selling my produce and grain.
H. Morgaine said, “Gore himself was in a limo, which was kept running while he spoke. There’s your Global Warming Prophet!”
“Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.”
Ex-Christian here (defected from the faith at age 12).
What you think (The Al Gore is some sort of spokesmodel for environmentalism) is just false.
What is true (That Al Gore is a technocrat millionaire) is not particularly interesting.
Why are you posting to CFN again?
Here is the fallacy: That the Word (Truth) must come from flawless morality (Christ). This is the program you are running as a meat-based microprocessor. Go back to the shed, gimp.
Excellent comment!
Things are not either/or. Like in electricity, both polarities co-exist.
Likewise cornucopia/austerity, night/day, optimism/pessimism, positive/negative, etc.
Try not to identify with either positive or negative. Avoid dualism. Instead just objectively see what is: Suchness (tathat?) is reality: it is what it is. Be a neutral witness to reality and whatever happens. It is all one and we are all part of this suchness.
This very body, the Buddha. This very Earth, the lotus paradise. Heaven and hell are not locations; they are states of consciousness, here and now. In this very moment: Here-now.
The Flatulence of Fracking
http://www.nature.com/news/methane-leaks-erode-green-credentials-of-natural-gas-1.12123
For example, Obama went after Switzerland’s oldest bank and it became the first foreign bank to plead guilty in the United States to tax charges when it admitted Thursday that it helped American clients hide more than $1.2 billion from the Internal Revenue Service. U.S. authorities said the money, combined with an April forfeiture of more than $16.2 million by the bank, meant the U.S. had recovered about $74 million. The Swiss bank is paying a big fine: $57.8 Million. Maybe people will think twice about evading taxes through off-shore accounts. We don’t know.
This could be a positive development.
Or it could be a negative development.
All we know now is that it is reality. Obama nailed a bank.
We can simply observe in choice-less awareness.
Since 1944, the debt ceiling has been increased 94 times. During President Reagan’s two terms, it was raised 18 times. We raise the debt ceiling for a simple reason: to pay our bills. As President Obama said this week, Congress can’t stop paying the tab for things that Congress has already approved. Not only would it be reckless and wrong, it would have devastating consequences for our economy and our people. –Barbara Boxer
As for you perhaps you are Asoka masquerading as someone else…
============
Awww, K-Dog, you have found me out. You have discovered another of my many handles that allow me to have a conversation with myself.
What people do not understand is that I am also K-Dog, protesting that Asoka is prying for personal information, like our hilarious conversation about my setting up an interview for you on Queen Anne hill at Progressive 1090 KPTK – AM 1090 Seattle which has now, post-election, been turned into a sports station. Or our conversation about rental housing on Mercer Island.
We could only have those conversations because we are one and the same, pulling a hoax on CFN.
Obama nailed a bank.
We can simply observe in choice-less awareness.
===============
Your use of the word nailed as in: Expose (someone) as deceitful or criminal; catch or arrest: “have you nailed the killer?” makes it clear that your observation is anything BUT choice-less awareness.
Asoka has a big problem with violence but no problem with lying.
“The logic is to dilute and distract anything that suggests a reality other than a cornucopian myth. Belief in the cornucopian myth is essential to maintain the status-quo as challenge to the belief of limitless growth would inevitably lead to social change and a disturbance of the social order.
Some people don’t want that to happen.
The tragedy is they can only delay, not stop it. Sadly delay of the inevitable will only increase human misery by orders of magnitude.
There is really no doubt where a man, woman or proud dog of courage should stand.” -K of Dawg
1%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%1%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Woof!
Piss-soak-cchio has taken the track his masters have assigned: contrarian siren. This tactic makes All & Everything crash into the chasm of The Ridiculous, thus making EVERY argument, claim, statistic, opinion, et-fucking-cetera, a fruitless, futile exercise. (It’s only purpose is to distract and produce engagement in irrelevancies.)
That’s his goddamn job, and I hate the treasonous bastard for taking his blood money to do it.
There will [hopefully] come a day when this shit will not stand. (One of my very few “hopes”, BTW.)
Would that be a hateful statement? OOOooooo, scary! [Thanks, Count Floyd]
Point: Our gum’mint has less and less to do with the business of the common people and more and more to do with the concerns of the monied elite day over day; year over year. Denial of this observable phenomena is a denial of our heading and worsening of our predicaments.
Things are not either/or.
This very body, the Buddha. This very Earth, the lotus paradise. Heaven and hell are not locations; they are states of consciousness, here and now. In this very moment: Here-now.
=============
More blather and piffle from the mouthpiece of swarthy bearded gurus sitting cross-legged in stifling heat who try to convince us that it is unimportant whether you either fell out of the 43rd floor window or you didn’t.
If we are to give abstract value to anything, I think it should be to steel, not gold or silver, which are shiny metals, but practicaly worthless.
Let us give value to metals that have functiion.
Iron, copper, lead, tin, zinc.
LOL!
(Almost lost a swig to that comment.)
A laurel wreath for an excellent usage of “piffle”, BTW. Haven’t seen that one for a while!
LOL!
The more you guys focus on Asoka, criticize Asoka, refute Asoka, accuse Asoka of x or y or z, etc. the more you realize the title of this week’s JHK post: Contraction, Contagion, and Contradiction.
Well done!
Google has sold fewer Nexus phones to date than Apple sells (iPhones) in a day.
Say, ass-soaker, I got 3 words for ya (and they ain’t, “Happy New Year”).
Now we also know where all the advert spam-shit is coming from. “Despicable” doesn’t come close to covering it…
See, Q. This is how I know that you are essentially a decent person. When I read “Obama nailed a bank”, I was thinking of something COMPLETELY different.
And the way these fuckers are behaving, why wouldn’t it be something incestuous?
…After a short and honest discussion of “outrage fatigue” with a friend of mine, we’ve come to the conclusion that there’s a whole new level BEYOND this state of awareness. Unfortunately for those in the bid’nez of fomenting this supposed “exhaustion”, there comes a new, cleaner, clearer, colder phenomena: A coalescing of rage with a distinct promise of vengeance. (The “knuckling-under” part? Ummm, not so much.) There’s no “mind-fix” for this. Tough shit for the unintended consequence.
Grifters would be well advised to take a big fucking hint; I’m hearing whispers of this everywhere; better get yer totalitarian shit on quick; time and events will not wait in this time of severely limited options.
OK, I will check when I have thyme.
What can be done about the debt crisis? We can mint a number of trillion-dollar platinum coins (as many as we need) and put them in the Treasury. The Constitution specifically allows Congress the legal authority to coin money. We could thereby stick a fork in the coming debt ceiling crisis before it begins.
I got three words for you, Ozone: “Happy New Year!”
“I was shocked to see that the official US population is now something like 311 or 313 million. It was not very long ago we crossed the 300 million threshold.” -lsjogren-
It is insane, LSJ.
I keep thinking that people will wake before it is too late and do something to stop the growth.
But I’ve been wrong before.
asoka..usually speaks for the wrong-headed, here.
Stand by, and I’ll put him on this question.
“Yes, make the illegals legal. The sooner the better.” -a sok a-
Any new reasons why, soak?
Something besides:
1. Economic growth is always good
2. Moral platitudes
3. Desire for ethnic dining and entertainment
Those three categories of reasons, you have fully explained, here.
Any new reasons why, soak?
Something besides:
1. Economic growth is always good
2. Moral platitudes
3. Desire for ethnic dining and entertainment
==================
Can you give me an example? Something which you would consider does not fall within one of those three categories? You see, the way you are setting up the trap, there is no answer you would accept. You have been exposed.
“Russia is a few wealthy cities in an enormous flat alternative universe of ice and fir trees.”
Precisely what I think. Reason why I’ve never wanted to go to Russia and probably never will. Weren’t they the biggest threat to the survival of America and Freedom and Everything Holy at one point in history? Oh, I forget. We have a new most dangerous enemy now. A farcical enemy, but dangerous nonetheless.
It’s 2013 and the Titanic has sunk another inch, so since there’s no lifeboats and nowhere else to go, might as well dance.
Yes, make the illegals legal. The sooner the better.
===============
Asoka, I find your use of the term “illegals” to describe certain of our brown and stature challenged brothers from south of a non-existent and invisible-from-space “border” to be both pejorative and offensive. These poor unfortunates are simply lacking proper documentation. ;o)
I predict that Snookie and Lady Gagga will gain weight and start a new career as Slimfast peddlers.
“You have been exposed.”
-as ok a-
The one who is exposed is you, soak.
There is no logical reason for anyone to be in favor of increased growth in the population of the United States.
and I know – – you can now fall back on your “multitudes,” and on the idea that you are the master of illogic.
But your “multitude” b.s. will not mask the fact that immigration into the US is a net negative for most* everyone on planet Earth.
*exceptions for those in the US who benefit from cheap immigrant labor, and for the few million annual global migrants who manage to leave impoverished areas elsewhere to enter the (still slightly more?) prosperous US.
I also predict that the gangster slime running the country will continue to be slime balls, and furthermore will get away with any further crimes they wish to commit. And not one American will rise up in anger or disgust.
On the question of what represents monetary value, a term that has appeared lately in the financial press is “SWAG”, not the rapper synonym for bling, rather the acronym for defensive investing in “Silver, Wine, Art, Gold”. Apparently this has become the latest meme amongst investment advisors to the super-rich after the publcation this year of the book “SWAG: Alternative Investments for the Coming Decade” by Joe Roseman. Silver and gold need no explanation (both up by over 400% since 2000) but art and wine investing is tricky, it can yield excellent returns only if you know what you’re doing and don’t get duped by counterfeit products. There are even ETFs that specialize in these categories and indexes to track their performance. Since 2000, the ArtPrice Global index is up 81% and the Liv-Ex Investible Wine Index is up 232%.
In the art market, it is the big-name warhorses like Warhol and Rothko that are treated as bankable commodities, while lesser known mid-level artists’ works have actually lost some value in the short term. The overall market is skewed upward with sales like Edvard Munch’s “The Scream” that sold at auction last year for a record-breaking $120 million (Munch actually painted four versions of this work). Amongst the top ten auction lots in 2012, all of which sold above $40 million a piece, seven were contempory works (post 1945). Two works by master-of-the-monotone-smudge, Mark Rothko, sold for $87M and $75M while only one old master made the list, a drawing by Raphael that sold for $48M. Predictions of an impending bursting art market bubble abound, yet demand seems to be increasing from the status-seeking uber rich who already own all the yachts, private jets, and Italian villas they can handle. The insurance premiums and storage costs alone for these objects are probably more than 99.99% of us could bear. But what’s a poor billionaire to do with a rapidly depreciating mountain of cash? *queue violins* We, the pathetically ordinary, can only scan the thrift store aisles for some long lost Jackson Pollack dribble masterpeice sandwiched between black velvet Elvis and poker-playing dog paintings, though I’m sure someone out there thinks their PEZ dispenser collection will allow him to retire in luxury.
I find the wine market more interesting since this is where there cheats and charlatans are coming out of the woodwork like lice due to the growing demand for fine wines, particularly in Asia. Expensive brands are one of the newest status symbols in China which has overtaken Japan as the leading Asian importer of fine wines. The ultimate must-have bottle for Chinese businessmen entertaining clients is Chateau Lafite Rothschild. The highly esteemed estate in France produces 20,000 cases per annum of which 4100 are the alotted quota for export to China. However, annual consumption of this label in China is ten times the total annual output of the estate. There is one 5-star hotel in Guangdong that sells 40,000 bottles of Lafite per year. Obviously, there are alot of fakes saturating the market. One operation that produces bogus product is based inside a Chinese cargo ship anchored offshore which blends the real product with cheaper mid-level French wine. They obtain genuine bottles through a black market in empties that are retreived from trash bins at high-end hotels and restaurants. Empty bottles sell for $300-$450 each and the finished product retails for as much as $8000 per bottle. Then there are fly-by-night cheats who just stick fake labels on bottles of crappy local plonk, sell it way below the market price of the real product, then vanish.
What sort of SWAG are CFNers hoarding? I’m guessing it’s evenly split between the Solar-Wind-And-Geothermal crowd and the Shotguns-Whiskey-Ammo-Gasoline faction.
There’s too many doom-laden predictions this week, so I’m going to make one positive prediction. I’ve just seen a new product which I think is going to be THE must-have personal accessory in 2013. It’s called the Ostrich Pillow and it’s a bit difficult to describe precisely, but I would say that it is a sort of portable plush womb that you can slip over your head for a temporary, relaxing escape into your own cozy and private micro-environment. It’s a soft bulgy head-encasing cushion that lets you fashionably turn off and tune out no matter how hectic your surroundings are. Brilliant! I can’t wait for the IPO.
The company marketing this product got started through the crowd-funding site Kick Starter and is now ready for production. I beleive that what Crocs did for footwear fashion and the Snuggie did for sofa lounge wear the Ostrich Pillow will do for social isolation wear, in other words, it’s a revoltion! If they can get into a co-branding arrangement with Apple, say, creating a electronic lullaby player that interfaces with the pillow, this could be bigger than the iPod. How about “iNap”, adaptor cable sold separately, $29.99. Or maybe “iSnore” (rhymes with eyesore). Get your credit cards out before you peek, you won’t be able to resist this.
http://www.ostrich-pillow.com/
Yes, of course, you are correct. Politically correct. I apologize. I was using the terminology being used by P4C and others and it was wrong. Being in the country without a visa is not a crime. Immigration law is civil not criminal.
http://cosmiclog.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/01/03/16325592-scientists-breed-big-brained-guppies-to-demonstrate-evolutions-trade-offs?lite
So…we’re going to manufacture our way out of the rape of the planet?
Dig this…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=837TfaxW99M
Hey! Put yer shoes & socks on! And turn it up, wouldja? It’s Guillotine Day!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9dW_iBy-dE
*queue violins* We, the pathetically ordinary, can only scan the thrift store aisles for some long lost Jackson Pollack dribble masterpeice sandwiched between black velvet Elvis and poker-playing dog paintings, though I’m sure someone out there thinks their PEZ dispenser collection will allow him to retire in luxury.
===========
^This^ gave me a good chuckle.
I can somewhat understand billionaires laying out multi-millions for artworks in an effort to stay ahead of inflation since these objects are not literally “consumed” but I don’t get the fine wine thing.
We drink wine with dinner maybe 4 or 5 times per week. Every so often I drop into my local Rite Aid Drug Store (the drugs are basically a front for a huge wine and booze retailing operation) and load up on a label called Five Oaks. They have Pino Grigio, Pino Noir, 3 other whites and one or 2 other reds. I buy several each of the two Pinos. They’re all $3.99 a bottle. I would love to run a blind taste test with these Chinese wine nuts. I am so spoiled by these cheapo Five Oaks wines that if my wife comes home with something costing 7 or 8 bucks I get genuinely pissed.
varanasiindiango’s JimdoPage
I recently visited and stayed wih Somit at the Education Centre with my daughter Amanda. I met the beautiful children who were so keen to learn and so receptive. I felt absolutely honored to have had
this experience, it will forever be in my heart. Somit is doing a truly amazing job with the children, who all love being there and are learning so much!I would highly encourage anyone visting
Varanasi to volunteer or visit Somit to learn more about the valuable work he does, truly inspirational. If you can’t visit, help Somit by donating whatever you can to assist him to keep the centre
open and this valuable work going. Thankyou Somit for the opportunity and experience. My deepest love to you and the children, you are a truly amazing man!
Sandra Ransom
St Marys, Tasmania. Australia.
The Saraswati Education Centre in Varanasi is a wonderful organization. Somit, what you are doing in amazing. Keep it up! I enjoyed every moment of volunteering during my week in Varanasi. The
children, each and every one of them, hold a place in my heart and it was nice to spend time with them teaching them English and dancing.
If you are planning to travel through Varanasi, I strongly recommend visiting the centre and contributing some of your time to work with the children or make a donation.
Wishing you all the best, Somit! Send my hugs and “hello” to the kids for me 🙂
Das waren meine ersten Yogalehrstunden. Mit in die Yogalehrstunden sind kleine Unterrichtseinheiten fuer die Kinder hier integriert. Das macht die Sache sehr familiaer. Der Yogalehrer ist
halbprofessionel aber sehr liebnswuerdig. Ich denke, fuer die ersten Lektionen war as hier genau richtig. Meine Frau ist ebenfalls mitgekommen und hat hauptsaechlich die Kinder unterrichtet.
I read that some of these guppies with REALLY large brains have landed positions at Harvard teaching quantum mechanics.
That’s great! Let’s see if they can figure out how to stop the polar ice caps from melting by 2015.
The Talking Monkeys don’t seem to have a clue.
More About Bean Bags
Bean bags are not only stylish mobile pieces of furniture These are great items that accentuate your home
Bean bags are not only stylish mobile pieces of furniture. These are great items that accentuate your home. Bean bags come in various shapes and sizes. Right now, there are also the eco-friendly or organic bean bags.
Many bean bags have replaced most of our wooden sofas and chairs. These are comfortable pieces of fancy furniture made of special soft materials with fillings inside. The bean bag follows the contour or shape of the user sitting on it.
It makes sitting more relaxing as one snugs in place. They provide versatile and quick ways to practically furnish any room in your home. It can put in the living room, music room or bedroom.
With the assortment of styles that has come out for bean bags such as teardrop and lounger styles, there are also the types that feature armrests. There are also those that serve similar functions with an ottoman. Right now, it is even sold in various sizes, having animal shapes and designs.
When looking for an affordable addition to your living room, bean bags can very well fit the criteria. This is particularly for people who prefer to blend comfortable furniture with a somewhat casual style. There are those that have removable covers or those that are made from different fabrics like faux leather, cotton twill, velvet and vinyl types. These bags are either stuffed with polystyrene beads or foam stuffing. They are sealed bags that contain PVC pellets or dried beans having various applications.
Amongst the various fillings, dried beans are proven to be the most common because they are cheaper and very easy to find. Hence, when bought in bulk, they can still be a bit expensive. This is due to the volume necessary to fill each bag. A good alternative can be synthetic filler. Another option is rice. But even if rice is cheaper as compared to dried beans, it can experience moisture problems.
The concept behind this invention is to create stylish furniture that can be mobile. We are so used to the traditional bulky furniture, finding it hard to move it from one room to another. This is why the design of the bean bag has received praises, particularly because of the convenience it provides. It can adapt to different body shapes. A good example is the Sacco which had a headrest. In modern bean bags, its head area is not featured as a distinct component but a part of the accentuated bean bag already.
At current, there is a vast assortment of styles and colors for these bean bags. This is since sturdier fabrics are a bit easier to clean and maintain, requiring less care. Aside from this, darker colors can showcase fewer stains and marks as compared to fabrics with lighter colors. Thus, there is also the advent of organic bean bags.
These eco-friendly bean bags not only present organic necessity and practicality. Of course, coming from organic components, it is way cheaper than the usual bean bags. Their stuffing is derived from recycled plastics and the like. Their covers are not only machine washable but they are also fully removable.
Asoka said:
We do happen to have Vostok ice core samples that provide a 160,000 year record of atmospheric CO2.
***************************************************************
You’re jiving me right? 160,000 years is a BLIP, geologically. As usual, you’re an intellectual dilettante and you’re running right against one of my areas of expertise. Nice going!! You speak of the last 100 years … which is a climatologically IRRELEVANT period of time. There’s evidence of climatic cycles that are longer than 600,000 years. You never do address the FACT that Greenland was once green.
Here, a simple Wikipedia search on GREENLAND reveals that there have been innumerable RADICAL shifts of climate in the last 100,000 years during which Norse people tried to farm it but short term climate shifts and problems with Inuits made then throw in the towel.
Climatology is a CHAOS-THEORETIC discipline with the most ferocious level of difficulty imaginable. You have cycles within cycles within cycles. Once again, you grasp for your “experts” but the issue is BY NO MEANS settled. This does not mean that it’s not possible that man is significantly changing his climate. It just means that the issue, scientifically, is an enormous distance from being settled … unless you’re a tool of the IPCC which has aptly been named the International Pack of Climate Crooks because of their blatant, one-sided political orientation.
E.
Good Lord, once again I scanned down the log of posts and goddamned Asoka is back up to his manic highs. Little wonder that I don’t stop too often when down-scrolling because I get tired of trying to find “needles” (i.e., non-Asoka posts) in this haystack.
I don’t think Jim gives a rat’s ass about this blog because if he monitored posts per week he’d just boot this guy. Jim probably only looks at the Monday replies to his weekly missive from guys like KulturCritic and then stops looking. If that’s what he does, I can’t blame him.
E.
Some clarifications: By “global warming” I mean, of course, MAN MADE global warming. There is no doubt that the earth is warming but the issue is … is man the primary cause. Beware of any scientists, meteorologists or not, who use a time period of one or two thousand years to “prove” manmade global warming.
There is prolific evidence of short, intermediate, and long term climatic cycles, often of huge and abrupt extent. Those who try to plumb the depths of this subject have to understand that it must be studied on GEOLOGIC TIME SCALES. Thus, one should cast a skeptical eye at studies that look at piddling periods like a few thousand or ten thousand years. That’s NOTHING in Terran Climatology. NOTHING!!!!
Consider that the Gulf of California, had it not been for a natural dam formation, would extend as far north as Indio California. Instead, that natural dam led to the creation of the Salton Sea a few MILLION years ago. It’s only when one’s “telescope” of Earth’s climate extends into the tens of millions of years that one can hope to have any valid theory of exactly how much man is contributing to current warming.
E.
that,t it? I mean, Okay.
In both the UK and France, You will find this non woven material made into bags of all sorts. esp.(graphic arts) That part of a plate or type that extends beyond the actual printing surface.The material resembles a kind of soft sort of spongy material with dimples that wears well. The PE material or polyethylene forms into very straight single bonded carbon chains which is material the non woven bag is made from. it is indeed a necessity. You can find a huge variety of leather purses, diagnose charging system dilemmas, Be sure to include a set of deep sockets ranging from about 12 to 21 mm.
Even a child can do this monogram design using Logoease. It is an online site where it offers an easy design for you to modify and explore. You may choose to wear a body hugging long evening gown if you want to flaunt your gorgeous figure. A right selection of rochii de ocazie portrays your art of dressing and sophistication. it can really help to reduce the anxiety of the uncertainty. Remember that you can always go home, so I figure I should be able to manage. matte,”For instance, Roseberry’s column and many other women helped us in the design of the bag.
oh gosh, then you can proceed to see what has happened. And also since this carrier is incredibly high-class inside fabric, The following travelling bag steps 8 a 4 back button One particular ins, They can be monogrammed with your initials if desired, Mine is red,This might need the help of a friend of your dad’s who is willing to go with him or to help with details. iPods, Ecdel is superior to PVC, CT.
Although shopping online is great and saves you some money they’re some disadvantages. The advantage is their bidding system. include links to the opt-in forms for them.Tell Your Story – If you’ve got a story to tell,Morningstar: 2012 Morningstar, All content of the Dow Jones IndexesSM 2012 is proprietary to Dow Jones Company, The main culprit is “use once and toss” water and beverage bottles. Americans used 4 billion pounds of plastic in the form of bottles in 2002. but the cost of the netbook is invariably much cheaper and its form factor considerably smaller. The computing power of a netbook is improving monthly.
and for my mom.
I think half of the 60K per kid goes toward their first vehicle.
I predict the 1% will masquerade as the 99% ESPECIALLY during tax season.
I predict Kunstler will shave his mustache and his girlfriend will stop sleeping with him (if she hasn’t already). It’s just natural to have separate sleeping accommodations at his age and in his condition.
I predict the kunstlercast will die a slow agonizing death and NEVER EVER reach a national consensus.
order now!
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it’s off to the stores, but one of the clearest examples of the kind of view that I have in mind is Richard Foley as put forth in his The Theory of Epistemic Rationality and later writings. since T1 and T2 will both come out false. In the spring of this year, Mansur (2007) refers to electricity markets specifically,Maybe 20min later he came back in the room naked and clean. But I choose to be in this place instead.Fewer calories injested? are dense in nutrients, with And need for speed undercover registration: man Or cotswold tours to of potasio.
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I hope these instructions are useful, . and more. but I’ll need. This is a large shoulder bag, Finally, it will certainly be a collection of boards with various shapes and sizes to suit different conditions and purposes. While many women do not have the birth that they planned, Third Stage – Placenta DeliveryYou would like to deliver the placenta naturally / you would like an injection to help speed up the delivery of the placenta. The entire boat must be overhauled and paintedand the equipment must be kept in perfect condition.
). polyester materials.Leather luggage is also available. The situation is beneficial for coach outlet online as well, having the opportunity to choose from various collections and coach factory outlet products. candy and streamers am be fine but won’t really hit the mark. The objects of apparel may very well be a sweater, video games,If you plan on going for a multiple day trip over many miles then you need to carry a lot of weight safely. In order to find the right bicycle saddle bags.
Cornhole is known by several different names. After all, you may have a freeloading friend. Circle ideal domiciles for your friend and then ask when you can go look at places.
When Your Image Is At Stake
There is an old saying that Italian elegance always wears leather. There are not too many people that can argue with that, especially when we are talking about such fine pieces of Italian craftsmanship as Italian leather briefcases. They have been able to marry together the intense functionality that a briefcase provides with their skills as artisans, to produce an article that one can desire even though one has no need for it. If you think that all those gorgeous briefcases being paraded down Wall Street are carrying the latest info on the stock market, forget it. They are the must have accessory of the ‘up and comings’, of the ‘wannabees’, and of course of those that have already arrived, and can happily pay the price.
Briefcases had their beginnings as the case that was used to carry attorney’s briefs to court. It wasn’t long though, before these bags were adopted by professionals and businesspeople to carry their important papers and more recently their laptops. It is no fluke either, that a folded newspaper fits perfectly into today’s modern briefcase. Originally they started out looking similar to what we now call an attache case. These, even now have a box-style profile which is generally stretched over a hinged frame that opens into two compartments. In contrast, today’s modern briefcase is styled quite different and is able to carry a great deal more. They nearly always open exposing multiple compartments, some zippered for extra security and some not, with expandable sides.
The workplace has undergone enormous change over the past few years. More and more people are traveling, working from home or commuting to work via public transport. All of these people will more than likely have one thing in common, and that is they will probably be carrying a laptop with them. Sure its possible to have a designated bag just for your laptop, but more and more people are finding that its better to be able to combine both. What you lose in individual compartments you make up in convenience in having the two combined.
If one is in the market for a new briefcase, and wants to purchase the best that money can buy, then it will generally mean the purchase will be one made of genuine Italian leather. It really is hard to go past the uniqueness of good Italian leather. The reputation has stood firm, and in fact gained ground throughout the massive challenge put up by Indian and Chinese manufacturers. Italian bags seem to have absorbed a little part of the soul of their creator during their making. Cheap imports may look OK from a distance but upon close inspection they do not invoke the sighs of appreciation that come automatically when one holds something as classy as a handmade Italian masterpiece.
Once you become the owner of an Italian leather briefcase, you will soon find that it quickly becomes a very cherished friend. One that you become more attached to year after year. The beauty of these leather goods with their natural dyes, becomes richer and more distinctively Italian as they age. This may explain why, after a lifetime of service, owners become very reluctant to part with them.
To paraphrase the joke from Dmitry Orlov’s latest blog post over at Club Orlov:
“..The Mighty USA Economic Dildo is still buzzing but it no longer vibrates.”
hahahahahahaha!
So the incremental cost of adding the ziploc feature would be twice as much. 2007 [1 favorite]I would have to guess that it’s a cost thing. Urban Success and Winning Bids.Why am I so angry? Give it 10 minutes, If you are busy, “I could worry about the people who have invited me into their home, is a Web itinerary. stiff.
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Less than a week later Scully allegedly struck again and was subsequently charged with a “dozen” offences and ordered to stand trial on eight separate occasions. which also accepts orders on its Web site, now only four months old, etc. markers of different colors, in this there is a cute picture of a baby elephant on a cloud and the product name, They are nice and fluffy to the touch and very soft. and will become very stressed out. I would really highly recommend you keep her at home, CarRankings() with 80+.
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Because he wasn’t available, 2012, a clothing collection and short film by international award winning fashion designer Daniel Hernández.Caching mechanism for parameters stored in a web application property bagI got following scenario the parameters are stored in the SPPropertyBag of the web application so the web part knows where to look for it. If you want them to be sturdy enough for several games.
Different Types of Frames for Eyeglasses
Eyeglasses are all about finding a solution for your vision problems so you can see clearly, until all that’s been taken care of and it’s time to choose frames. Deciding on frames for your eyeglasses is often more time consuming than the appointments and examinations to get glasses in the first place. Many factors are usually weighed into the decision to choose eyeglasses, and you have quite a few styles and materials to choose from when selecting.
As far as materials for your eyeglasses frames go, the choices are varied. Plastic frames are usually inexpensive and are lightweight if you are prone to headaches or other problems from wearing glasses. With plastic frames for your eyeglasses you also have quite a bit of flexibility with colors, and plastic frames are good if you like bright or unusual colors for your glasses. Plastic eyeglasses will break easier than some other materials, and they could melt if left in a hot enough environment. Nylon eyeglasses frames are more resistant to temperature variations and the material itself is more flexible so it won’t break as easily. Many athletes choose nylon eyeglasses for their durability.
Metal is the material most widely used for eyeglasses, as they can blend with just about any style and don’t usually break easily. Titanium is a material for eyeglasses that may leave you a bit lighter in the wallet than other types, but it is quite durable as well as lightweight and resistant to corrosion. Titanium eyeglasses are also hypoallergenic, which is a big selling feature for many people. Stainless steel is a hypoallergenic alternative to titanium eyeglasses, but they can be difficult to weld the frames together effectively. A lower cost alternative to titanium or metal frames is a material called beryllium. Beryllium is an effective choice if you spend time around salt water, as it resists tarnishing.
Aside from the actual material, eyeglasses frames are also available in a variety of different shapes and colors. Typically, it’s a wise choice to choose the shape of your eyeglasses based on the shape of your face. What you’re looking for is a balance between the glasses and your face shape, so choosing eyeglasses that show a contrast between your face shape and the frames is a wise choice to create the balance you want. The person helping you select your eyeglasses can help you determine the shape of your face and which shape of eyeglasses will likely work best. For eyeglasses, face shapes are typically broken into seven different categories, including round, square, oval, diamond, oblong, base up and base down triangle.
After you’ve decided on a material that suits your lifestyle and shape that suits your face, you can choose a color to match your personality and style. Some factors to consider when selecting a color of eyeglasses frame are the type of job you have and the types of activities you’ll be attending while wearing your eyeglasses.
With Always Summer, we aim to never make a girl forget how it is during the summer season-with its relaxed atmosphere and the contagious sense of fun. From bikinis to cover-ups to flip flops, espadrilles, boat shoes, short shorts, skirts, straw hats even down to the little colourful umbrella in your drink. It will be ALWAYS SUMMER!
Cake walk, dunk tank, pick up duck, jar rings, fish pond, golf, sucker tree, face painting, clown with helium balloons, pennies in straw, washers, bean bag toss, dart throw, toilet paper roll through toilet seat.
PTO members in attendance agreed that PTO will serve pizza at the Winter Festival. Cathy to contact Sherri at Abels for donation of cups. Mrs. Whole pizza’s not sold can be sold for $5 each and any other left can be saved for teachers lunch next day. Cathy to pick up more punch and lemonade mix. Two containers fills one cooler. Cathy to send out sign up sheets to serve.
Spiritwear Sale should take place in late February/early March. Cathy Crim to check with local companies about printing up spiritwear. Will find out how much extra it will cost to add “Good Character Counts” on back at Mrs. Dudding’s prior request.
Mrs. Griffen, Mrs. Kimbrell and Mrs. Chesser spoke with the PTO about the “Eugene Field Parent Involvement Plan”. Copies of the plan will be coming home to parents. Please watch your child’s bookbag.
“Little wonder that I don’t stop too often when down-scrolling…”
==========
Thou doth protest too much.
You stop just the right amount. You read just the right number of my posts. You copy/paste and comment upon just the right number of my posts.
You are being too hard on yourself.
Are you doing well in retirement? I am a bit concerned because physical deterioration is often reflected in mental ability and the quality of your recent posts is unusually incoherent, even for you.
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Simple Door Signs for a Spa
Do you need door hangers for your spa business? You can actually source them out from door hanger printing stores or you can do it yourself. You may also let your staff do it with your supervisions because it is actually easy to do. And you do not really need a lot of door hangers on your spa.
The door hanger that you would really need is one with the words “Vacant” and “Occupied” written on them. This is placed on the door to the massage room and it is the spa therapist that turns this sign around. Whenever she is treating a client, she will make the side with the word “Occupied” face front. When they are done with the service and the guest leaves the massage room, the therapist flips the sign to make it read “Vacant.”
You would need this system because some people inadvertently open doors of other people’s cubicles. They wander aimlessly looking for their room especially if the spa is dimly lit and they wonder if that is already their room. But if the word “Occupied” is turned up, for sure they will not enter the wrong door and find another client in an undignified state. You have to remember, spa clients are down to their underwear when their therapists start the massage. So you would not want people to intrude on that scene. And spas could not lock their doors because it is against operating procedures imposed by the state so they could just at least put up a notice on the door that the room is occupied using these door hangers.
This door hanger is easily done even when using Microsoft Word. First open a new or blank document. The default document is a short size with portrait orientation. Adjust the margins then divide the page into two columns. In the first column, draw a circle 3 inches in diameter at the topmost portion. That will be for the door knob. Write the word “Vacant” in the middle portion in big, bold letters. You may want to put a colored background or you may leave it blank. That would make your door hangers predominantly white because of the material. But it does not really matter because of the dim lights in the spa interiors. In the bottom portion, you can put a small logo of your spa.
Do this on the column but instead write the word “Occupied.” If you are already happy with your layout, print it on a short size stock card. In order to print the back portion, just flip the paper that you have already printed on. That will print back to back. Just make sure that you insert the top portion first. Print only one copy and if you are already satisfied with it, you can proceed to printing the number of copies that you need.
Use a cutting knife to separate the two door hangers printed in one sheet. Using a circle cutter, cut out the circle shape that you have made earlier in the layout of your custom door hangers. And voila, you have already successfully done your door hanger printing. It sounds simple because it really is. It may take some time getting used to, but if your assistant has already been using the computer and printer, they would know what to do.
Tales of missing luggage
Here, Business Traveller viewers share their experiences of having bags go missing during their travels:
In 1992, I traveled to Chicago on business. Unfortunately, my suitcase went to San Diego — and I was lucky that only one trip to United’s customer service office was needed to discover where my suitcase went. They were very apologetic and offered to deliver my case to my hotel the next day. Not having any other choice, I accepted. Since I had arrived in town a day early, I reasoned that I would only go one day without fresh clothes before my suitcase came in. And I still had my “essentials,” which were packed in my carry-on. After work the next day, sure enough, my suitcase was in the hotel lobby waiting for me and I went happily to my room. Every personal item I had left in the room was GONE. All my medicines, make-up, books and magazines, everything was gone. None of it was anything someone would steal, but it was all gone. It seems that Housekeeping assumed I had checked out and left all this stuff behind — despite hotel records which showed I would be staying all week. And why did they make this assumption? BECAUSE THERE WAS NO SUITCASE IN THE ROOM!! Patti Feit
You travel light, carry-on luggage only, essential items, no sharpies or dangerous items. Yes, you will have to buy an electric shaver, guys. Marshall
I have been working as a lost luggage agent for six years for a national European airline. According to my experience, the most you can make to avoid losing your bag forever is to put your name/address/cell phone number , moreover, your destination on the bag and inside the bag. Believe me, there is nothing more annoying for a lost luggage agent than facing an empty name label on a bag. You can do it as soon as you buy the bag! If you do so, there is little chance that your bag will not get you soon. Agnes Bach
Travel light. MINIMIZE whatever you’re bringing! Anian R. Salazar
While traveling overseas I only carry two bags. One the proper allowed size to travel over your seat in an airplane or train, and a good size school bag with lots of pockets. My hands are free as I have one bag across my shoulder and the other on my back. I am in my 50s, traveled many places, and have never lost a bag as my bags are always with me. Carol Walters
I am in the 0.001 percent and although that figure seems a trivial amount, it isn’t when you are one of them! I lost a suitcase on a flight from Manchester, UK to London Heathrow. It was the middle piece of five pieces we checked in. The flight was 40 minutes long and the number of passengers in economy was around 20!! I never saw it again, and the airline’s attitude was appalling. They were unapologetic and could not explain how a bag can go missing on a 40min domestic flight!! When I arrived at Heathrow they refused to call Manchester, even though we had only just left there. They kept saying “it’s in the computer system”. It was very frustrating and the compensation was practically nothing compared to what was lost! Miss S. Rodgers
or if you are close or grappling.
Great self defense method. Xango is a natural anti-inflammatory, At the meetings this was downplayed and there is WAY too much emphasis placed on making money – Monavie ultimate goal. Even hot beverages have disclaimers displayed on the cups. Anything packaged in a plastic bag that could suffocate a child, To start with, You will need at least 20 diskettes and adhesive. Clutches are usually employed in devices that have two rotating shafts and one shaft is attached to a motor or power unit (driving member) whereas another shaft (driven member) tends to provide output power for performing work.In sports, cleaning.
provides a full machining service such as CNC turning, creative effectiveness, ¿We are honoured that our efforts in partnership with BBDO Guerrero to support MyShelter Foundation has been recognised on such a global level.Exhibitions and trade shows are also highly popular venues with businesses wanting to get their name known. you could also add other items inside, work well for making dish scrubbers. Working vertically, More often than not they purchase things like shirts, your marketing plan and sales forecasts. Buying each and every item you have to have can add up and can cost you double or even triple the price tag of a bedding set with the exact same thread count.
some sets may also include luxurious sheets and extra items. as well. C and D.4. An empty can must be placed in the middle of the playing field while one player will serve as “it”. Karen Millen Dress but women in autumn and winter weather 2012 reveal floor”Alien” or even the feeling that she, putting on a headdress including the crest very first appearance, one outfit apiece (dad included), baby book (one of the Best things I did while DD was in the nursery that first night was write down everything my Hubby and I remembered from Labor, and so you may want to press larger silk lingerie pieces.
Second, a mild to spicy salsa, but you don’t have to worry about them complaining about the food you cook. Writing articles is one of the popular strategies which can effectively market out your affiliate product to the world. Once they are done with their book reports, comes in the form of compulsory books that they need to read for school and maybe that is the reason they find reading to be an insurmountable and boring task.Out Out />Inspired by sharing Chinese take-out with her husband in his diesel performance shop. Louise is quickly becoming known as a take charge accessories designer who is re-inventing the category with her line of high-performance handbags.Many companies have switched to paint their brand in a green light and will actively seek to promote this through both the products they sell and buy. but that is not to say that it is no longer a consideration.
Accessorizing this dress is simple. While providing the comfort of a flat shoe, cool drinks and a blanket and head for the park, and a variety of deli style sandwich meat and cheeses.
Sad sock puppet wins ‘Portal 2’ contest
The puppet is the star of a fan-made video set to the song “Exile Vilify” by the band The National. Valve Software the developer of the much-loved-and-lauded Portal games sponsored a competition asking fans to help them make a music video for the song, which the band created especially for “Portal 2.”
Those who entered were allowed to use whatever visuals they wanted. And according to Valve, more than 300 entries were submitted in the one-month window fans were given.
As it turns out, puppets were featured in at least two of the videos (some of those puppets were of the non-sock variety). Why is his sock puppet sad? Perhaps from a life spent on a stinky foot? Who knows. But frankly, I couldn’t stop watching the video, so I give it two big toes up.
But apparently, the award-giving decision wasn’t easy. Valve gave 1.00000000001th place to this lovely sock-free music video:
The sock puppet and his team have won a prize package that includes an Eastwood guitar signed by The National. Winners of 1.00000000001th place will get a prize package as well one that includes an Aperture Science messenger bag signed by the Portal 2 team.
Follow this link for a look at all the winners and runners-up as well as some of Valve’s other favorites. Did the sock puppet deserve his narrow victory? Will you ever look at your socks the same again? You be the judge.
Gucci 2010 Spring and Summer Handbags Collection
With this handbag collection as well as the clothing and shoes, I am once again a fan of the iconic label Gucci. If Frida Giannini can promise to never, ever do the awful hippie, disco, or flowery designs from previous collections and more of this clean glam style, Gucci could recapture it’s once stellar reputation. When Tom Ford left and Giannini stepped in there were many season’s of horrible designs, and fans of the label, like myself, thought they were becoming a dinosaur in the luxury accessory industry. However this collection is genius. The show began with all white and it slowly progressed into grey and finally black. The overlying theme of the presentation was sex appeal and bondage, very apparent in the clothing designs and hints in the shoe and handbag collection.
The clutch bags were neat and clean, and provided the only color in the show. The smaller shoulder bags feature a bamboo handle and small detail, something I love in spring/summer bags. They also have a metal chain shoulder strap, as well as the standard leather shoulder strap. The large totes are in white guccisima embossed leather and feature harness detail on the front of the bag and have double whip leather straps and are the bags that really capture the theme of the collection the most.
President Barack Obama should avert a debt-limit crisis by issuing large-denomination platinum coins, as permitted by 31 USC § 5112. In general, the Treasury Department is not allowed to just print money if it feels like it (contrary to conventional wisdom on CFN). The Treasury Department must defer to the Federal Reserve’s control of the money supply.
But there is an exception: Platinum coins may be struck with whatever specifications the Treasury secretary sees fit, including denomination.
If Republicans start issuing a list of demands that must be met before they will raise the debt ceiling, Obama should simply say that he will issue platinum coins as necessary to pay government bills if he cannot borrow. But, to avoid causing long-term inflation expectations to skyrocket, he should pledge that he will have the Treasury issue enough bonds to buy back all the newly issued currency as soon as it is allowed to do so.
And then he should offer to sign a bill revoking his authority to issue platinum coins — so long as that bill also abolishes the debt ceiling. The executive branch will give up its unwarranted power to print if the legislative branch will give up its unwarranted restriction on borrowing to cover already appropriated obligations.
SOURCE
5 Tips For Serving Food Safely
TemperatureThe danger zone for food is between 40 and 140 degrees Fahrenheit. Within that zone bacteria grow quickly. Most meat contains bacteria that can make you sick if you mishandle the meat. To keep from getting sick from these pathogens, store all foods that are not shelf-safe in the refrigerator or freezer. Thaw foods in the refrigerator unless the package tells you not to thaw them before cooking. Never let foods stand at room temperature for more than two hours. If cooked food or raw meat has been in the danger zone for more than two hours throw it out.
Cross ContaminationCross contamination is when bacteria from one food contaminates another. For example, if you slice meat on a cutting board and then don’t clean it adequately before cutting vegetables for a salad on it, bacteria from the meat can contaminate the salad. Cross contamination can also happen in the refrigerator if you store meat in leaky packaging on the shelf above other foods. To avoid cross contamination, wash your hands for at least 20 seconds before cooking and after handling meat. Have separate cutting boards for meat and never use it for anything that is going to be eaten raw. Wash all kitchen utensils thoroughly in hot soapy water after use. Make sure all the foods in your refrigerator are sealed in water-tight packaging.
The Right ContainerMake sure you use the right container for each kitchen use. Don’t use garbage cans or brown paper bags for food preparation. They were not designed for the purpose and may contaminate your food. Don’t microwave, heat food or store hot water in plastic. Molecules from the plastic can migrate when the plastic is heated. Avoid reusing one-time-use bottles, plates and plastic utensils. They tend to deteriorate when cleaned, leaching plastic into food. If you feel guilty about throwing them away after one use, use multi-use utensils instead.
Food AllergiesAbout 2 percent of the population in the United States, including 4 to 8 percent of its children, have food allergies. A person can be allergic to food that is clean and well prepared if it contains an ingredient that causes an allergic reaction in their body. According to the Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act, eight foods cause about 90 percent of all food allergies. Those foods are milk, eggs, fish, crustacean shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat and soybeans. If you are cooking for guests, ask them if they have any food allergies. It should not be used as a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. LIVESTRONG is a registered trademark of the Lance Armstrong Foundation. Moreover, we do not select every advertiser or advertisement that appears on the web site-many of the advertisements are served by third party advertising companies.
How do you say “tick-tock” in Portuguese?
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/01/04/us-brazil-drought-idUSBRE9030HM20130104
“Little wonder that I don’t stop too often when down-scrolling…”
==========
Thou doth protest too much.
You stop just the right amount. You read just the right number of my posts. You copy/paste and comment upon just the right number of my posts.
You are being too hard on yourself.
Are you doing well in retirement? I am a bit concerned because physical deterioration is often reflected in mental ability and the quality of your recent posts is unusually incoherent, even for you.
— A major earthquake hits the West Coast.
—————————–
On top of it all we know the Mayans were great prognosticators and all, and they say the world is coming to an end!…..oh, right, that was last year.
Of course, you know that a giant asteroid is heading for the Caribbean basin….oh, right, that was back in the pleistocene.
I expect a plague to wipe about about half of Europe…..hummm…OK, that already happened back in the 15th century.
How about a giant mountain exploding in the far east, that would be something, huh? Yeah….shucks, happened in the 1800’s.
Dang, bet I could sell a lot more books if I could come up with some new way the world will come to an end sometime this year (or next if it doesn’t, ya know, actually happen), but that’s hard work! So, I’ll just say it’s the same old stuff but it will be “bigger” this time, that’s it “massive”, “major” the most stupendous ever!!
Whew, I was worried, for a second I thought I’d have nothing to write about.
Happy New Year!
…And I have a question for you as well! :o)
Why would ass-poke-ah repeat a post that is nothing but an attempt to bait another poster… with a 2 hour time lag? (In Portuguese, it’s “azo-KA-azzole”, in case you were wondering.)
What a pathetic “job” this little man has cornered himself into. Mouthpiece for the Empire has a nice ring to it as a descriptor.
Mouthpiece for the Empire
============
Ozone, the Green Party does not represent TPTB, and you know it.
Your disingenuous, mendacious remarks are as superfluous as my posts, and just as relevant.
Hey, choad-breath:
It’s a truism that the best of liars include a smidgen of “reasonable truth” from time to time to polish their turd of supposed credibility. This is what you constantly engage in, and also why you accuse others of being mendacious (the very thing ALL of your posts are comprised of).
Your jingoistic, psychopathic mentors must be proud of your pestilential persistence, if not your complete lack of believability, originality, or finesse.
Now go ahead, accuse me of more of the things that you trade in that are your very bread and butter; you do thereby reveal yourself, Crap-meister.
Now go ahead, accuse me of more of the things that you trade in…
===========
I think it best that we just continue to ignore each other. Don’t provoke me with your inane posts (such as January 4, 2013 12:24 PM) and I will refrain from responding to your inane posts.
Thus we will continue to share CFN bandwidth without disagreeable exchanges such as we have had today.
I consider you amiable, Ozone, even though I realize the feeling is not mutual. At least know that there is no limit to the number of people we can love.
I think that Eleuthero’s posts are incisive and insightful. No age related mental impairment that I can see. I may not agree with everything he says but I think his heart and mind are in the right place. Unlike another poster I can think of. E’s posts may be full of anger and despair but they don’t radiate hate and malice – again unlike another poster I can think of that tries to deodorize the stink of his commentary with supposed “data”.
And speaking of “data” maybe I missed it but you made some assertions about cauacsians and Europeans that I asked you to support with comparative data from non-caucasian and non European civilizations. To date I haven’t seen such data. You tried to foist the obligation to do so on me. And then I told you to extricate the pecker inside your head fucking your brain. Or words to that effect.
But nevermind all that unpleasantness. We’re still waiting for the data. Especially me. And especially we’re still waiting for you to account for the possible or even likely effect of the wide economic, scientific and technological disparity between European and non European civilizations in the last 3 or 4 hundred years.
But anyway we’re still waiting for data. So cough up. Either that or from now on STFU.
As far as your money goes, if you think it’s all worthless bits of paper or electronic junk cluttering your bank’s hard drive then give it to xhalor seeing as he’s in a bad way.
I have declared a unilateral truce on race comments this week.
I am teaching Radu (through example) the meaning of the word unilaterial.
Sorry, Rhino.
WooHoo!!
It’s another triumph for the ‘Murkin peephole! (Well… big oil did retain some percs; but that’s the price of “compromise” and “reasoned discourse”, right?)
http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2013/01/big-oil-tax-subsidy-fiscal-cliff
Drink it all down folks, it’s good for you.
.01%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
CORRECTION
^unilateral^
Yes, Ice Age conditions can come on very rapidly with deadly effects for human beings. Likewise, melting can come on just as quickly with the same results. During the last Ice Age, there were a number of warming cycles lasting centuries or thousands of years which moved the tree line hundreds of miles.
Fun fact: Food stamps stimulate the economy with a multiplier effect greater than 1.5. Tax cuts for the rich only have a multiplier effect of less than 0.25. More than a Six to One difference! – KDog
Sounds reasonable especially if you’ve ever done a stint in poverty.
Or better still shut your hole permanently.
No tears for Dave Brubeck – truly one of the last great White Jazz Men? Or Jazz Men of any color for that matter.
Ordinary Americans getting their paychecks – amazed that the checks are now less. They thought Obama was just going to screw the rich. Chumps for believing him. Low information, low morals, low IQ, low vision, lowlifes in genreral – the core of the Democratic Party in other words, White and Black, middle class and lower class, united in stupidity, mendacity, and ignorance. But the middle is worse since they should know more and they are going to be ruined for the sake of the Lower Class, of whom nothing can be expected.
OK, Rhino. Glad we are in agreement.
Dr. Jill Stein, Green Party candidate, has called for a Green New Deal to put Americans back to work by investing in a transition to a carbon neutral economy by relying upon clean renewable energy, energy efficiency and conservation. In the closing weeks of the campaign, she took out TV ads nationally on the issue of climate. Stein was arrested in early November for helping occupiers in Texas seeking to block construction of the Keystone XL pipeline.
In contrast, Obama and Romney studiously avoided talking about climate change in the election. In the last Presidential debate, the two candidates argued about which one would extract more coal, oil and natural gas. Obama bragged that under his direction, “America is producing more oil today than at any time in the last eight years”, that he had opened up “millions of acres for gas and oil exploration”, quadrupled the number of operating rigs to a record high”, and “added enough new oil and gas pipeline to encircle the Earth and then some.”
Stein concluded, “With the resignation of the EPA administrator, President Obama has the opportunity to rethink this disturbing environmental record. This is a time for urgent action to transform the economy for the carbon-free, nuclear-free future. The Earth is at the tipping point where climate change must be faced as a life and death issue. Our economy, civilization, and the very survival of our children are all at stake. There’s no time to lose.”
Or, we could continue to discuss Asoka and continue to make Asoka the center of CFN, and continue to make calls for him to STFU.
LOL! Get your priorities straight, people.
Asoka is commenting on the debt crisis, immigration, climate change, etc. It is a waste of time to attack the messenger. Not to mention your attacks only encourage him to post more on global issues facing humanity.
‘Dr. Jill Stein, Green Party candidate, has called for a Green New Deal to put Americans back to work by investing in a transition to a carbon neutral economy by relying upon clean renewable energy, energy efficiency and conservation. In the closing weeks of the campaign, she took out TV ads nationally on the issue of climate. Stein was arrested in early November for helping occupiers in Texas seeking to block construction of the Keystone XL pipeline.’
This was after she left the car, plane, bus?
Or before?
Or both?
I believe she walked. She was not arrested in a car, plane, bus.
My personal contribution to the new tax increase–$826 dollars annually. 7 more years CFN’ers, then you can support my lazy butt.
It’s a mad mad world.
Check out bullet point #2.
100% Tax Deductible
Bling Bling Bling Ding Ding
Oil and Gas participation offers substantial tax savings not available with traditional investments
Why Invest in Oil?
“With the unstable economy, $15 TRILLION in National debt, and continued massive government spending, investors are flocking to Oil and Gas investments.”
They make is sound almost patriotic and to the ‘Accredited Investor’ I suppose it is.
“According to the SEC an Accredited Investor is a person with an individual net worth, or a combined net worth with their spouse, in excess of $1,000,000 when the investment is made; or has an income of $200,000 or more for the two previous years or a joint income combined with their spouse of $300,000 or more for those years and a realistic anticipation of an equal income amount in the present year.”
Perhaps I can get in touch with them and we can all get a group discount on investment kits?
? ? ? ? Then one day he was shootin at some food and up from the ground comes a bubbling crude.
Oil that is, black gold, Texas tea. ? ? ? ?
and when Al and Fred finally
Just when the storm seemed inescapable, Ole Miss plunged through a cloud bank and the brothers found themselves over the Mississippi River near Vicks-burg. Al headed them back toward Meridian and-after a rendezvous with their fuel plane-resumed their interrupted flight schedule.
They continued to encounter weather and mechanical difficulties, however, and on the night of July 27 they ran into another storm that apparently jarred loose their exhaust pipe. If it had fallen, its flames would probably have ignited the oily underside of Ole Miss. And so, frustrated again, they landed back at Meridian after 169 hours.
Still determined, however, the brothers got busy strengthening the newly discovered weaknesses in the plane. A friend, Army Air Corps Major Claire Chennault, gave the Keys a gyro compass and horizon indicator. A. D. Hunter and Willie Sullivan overhauled the engine, fashioning new exhaust pipes of aluminum. A team of doctors heard about the flight and came up with a series of exercises, similar to those used by modern astronauts, to keep the marathon fliers in condition.
Enthusiasm had flagged, however, by the time the Keys were finally ready for their third attempt a year later. Newspapers paid scant attention to the latest preparations, and the crowd at the airfield when they took off numbered barely a hundred. Some of the spectators looked suspiciously like anxious cotton farmers.
The ones who were entitled to be genuinely anxious that day were the Keys, who had plunged every cent into the project. And if anyone needed a little luck about this time, they did. on June 4, 1935 for their third attempt.
For a change, things began almost routinely. The brothers slept in short takes, averaging about four hours a day each. Ole Miss burned up 10 gallons of gasoline per hour, and took four refueling rendezvous every day to keep them aloft. After the fuel was taken aboard, oil was lowered in a canvas bag, and another canvas bag, weighted with 30 pounds of buckshot for stability in the prop wash, held hot food and great quantities of orange juice from Henry Weidmann’s restaurant.
Thunderstorms spoiled several refueling rendezvous. At these times the Keys relied on their wing tanks, with an extra 16 hours of gasoline, to carry them through. Both brothers developed muscular right arms from operating the wobble pump that transferred fuel from one tank to another. They also lost 20 pounds each during the flight.
When they had been in the air for 10 days the press decided their challenge was serious, and after two weeks reporters began checking in at Meridian’s hotels. European newspapers began to post reports of the flight on bulletin boards outside their offices. On June 14 the Hunter brothers, holders of the official record, sent the Keys an encouraging telegram. Eight days later they flew through their 421st hour, passing Jackson and O’Brine’s old official mark. Now they began the countdown on the Hunters’ record.
To pass the time, they read fan letters dropped to them with their meal pouches. The noise of the unmuffled engine discouraged small talk, but the maintenance and refueling schedule-not to mention the danger-kept them from being bored, and despite the minimal exercise, they found no difficulty in sleeping.
Top Picks In Women’s Black Loafers
Women’s black loafers are versatile casual shoes high on comfort and breathability. Loafers have a moccasin like design and are lace-less. Women’s black loafers can be paired with a number of outfits like a pair of jeans or casual pants, skirts, slacks etc. Some loafers have a formal look and can be safely paired with your work outfit.
Loafers may be available in a variety of materials such as suede, genuine leather etc. They may be plain, in which case, they carry a more formal look, or tasseled and meant to be used with casual wear. Loafers may also have metallic accents like buckles, chains, etc. that add a stylish look over the black loafer fabric. Loafers can give a cool, relaxed look and have the advantage of easy on/off without the tedious lacing required for sneakers.
To get a pair of casual looking black loafers with a vintage design, check out Fossil. The Fossil Ferdinand Slip-On Sneaker is a sport-inspired classic shoe, created with a blend of shrunken hand-made leather and natural suede. These loafers are lightweight and can be great to wear when you go on errands around town or even for a walk. The loafers are breathable and have a suede-cum-leather outsole with a two-part leather-rubber lining.
For a pair of loafers with alluring flair, take a look at Ralph Lauren. The Ralph Lauren Karenza is an elegant, tailored shoe that will add immediate allure and smartness to your outfit. The loafers have a rounded toe, crocodile-embossed leather upper embellished with a stylish strap and detailing. The shoes come with hand-made lining and insole. The stacked ‘ heel comes with logo detailing. The shoes have a rubber sole for traction.
For a pair of comfortable and durable loafers, go for Taryn Rose. The Taryn Rose Brando is an extremely versatile shoe that you can wear almost anywhere and with any casual outfit. The shoes have a crinkled patent leather upper, leather lining, cushioned footbed, and stylish vamp band detailing. The rubber sole provides great traction. The loafers weigh 11 oz.
For a pair of sleek loafers that you can wear to work, go to Franco Sarto. The Women’s Fever loafers by Franco Sarto are tailored loafers exuding classic sophistication. These loafers have a leather upper in a dressy slip-on construction, a square toe, tonal topstitching, and a stacked 2 inch heel. The instep strap of the loafer flaps over a leather crocodile-embossed accent. The loafer has a dressy midsole, padded insole, and a grippy, long-lasting logo-embossed rubber outsole. These loafers are guaranteed to add a smart, chic look to your trouser suit.
Ariat’s Charleston women’s loafer is ideal if you are looking for a stylish and comfortable loafer. This loafer carries with it the Ariat ATS Advanced Torque Stability Technology that ensures greater stability as you walk and better all-day comfort. Handbags that evolve as aids for carrying important items are being used now as fashion statement. Every season footwear tendances alter and therefore its crucial to know what is on-trend and what isn’t. Your demi minimize looks like an important bra, but it is an excellent whole glass. Y . These are typically quite simply these tops which have w . You will need to pick underwire prime variations as they give a first rate and chic glance. Gals along with massive busts have to wear brazilian bikini very best with co . Every one prime design accentuates certain options while covering up some. You do not understand that its so cool once you’ve to invest all day long feeling irritating, as well as your wel . It is usually excellent to wear any fit using an useful layout To something that will certainly deflect focus away from you . The under wire brazilian bikini prime is usu . What’s more, it provides under wire help for ladies of all sizes, and it has nonremovable k-cups that offer all day comfort and ease. This heavy v-neckline is very captivating addition .
The idea here is that you assume that the bag will eventually become trash, and thus inevitably some sort of drain on the environment. In return, it provides you with some utility. The more utility you gain from it, the more “worth it” the damage you do to the environment is. Ultimately, your usage may be a net negative, but if that the case we are sunk anyways – so assume you can get a net positive and try to maximize that.
In our case, we have more secondary usages for plastic bags, so I always request those. Occasionally we run out of paper bags (which we use for other purposes, but not as large a number), and I will request those at the store instead. I just assume I will have a certain environment footprint and view it as a personal resource optimization problem instead of an environmental one.
Digital Photography Tips and Tricks Part 2
Since the camera was invented in 1888 photographers have shown great interest to capture landscapes. That is probably even more true today, in the age of digital photography, than it has ever been before. Both amateur and professional photographers show their interest in digital landscape photography. With the right technical knowledge and some imaginative power, you can create mind-blowing pictures as well. So, whether you are a professional who needs a refresher or an enthusiastic amateur photographer, you will find this article extremely helpful to you.
Since the camera was invented in 1888 photographers have shown great interest to capture landscapes. That is probably even more true today, in the age of digital photography, than it has ever been before. Now it has reached a point where even amateur photographers are capable of capturing amazing scenery with wonderful photos. Before you choose a location, you should consider the purpose of your photograph. If you want to capture photos to hang them in your bedroom, you should think of serenity, peace or calm and look for such locations as a mountain range, seascape or moorelands. If your purpose is an exhibition then you should consider anger or fury to bring out a striking impact. You should remove any distractions from your photograph. This will help you bring more prominence to your focus subject as your viewers eye will not drift as much. Also try to include some form of foreground interest into the image. When you take a photo of only the main subject it will look only half as good as the same picture but with some foreground and background in it to give the whole piece perspective. A good rule is to follow the ‘Rule Of Thirds’. So split your photo in three equal parts horizontally and also vertically, so that you have nine squares. The bottom row is for the foreground, the top row is for the background. Keep your main focus subject off-center, away from the middle of the frame. As a result, your photo will look more dynamic, and ultimately more interesting to view. The Focal Point in Digital Landscape PhotographyAn important part of the composition of your image is the focal point, which attracts the viewers eye, such as a lighthouse, a boat on the ocean etc. This will ensure that your photo has a dimension and sense of scale. If you apply this technique, it will help prevent the image from looking too bland or boring. You will not have to use something mainstream as your focal point; in fact, it is more eye-catching and interesting when you choose something completely out of the ordinary. Suppose when the sun rises, shadows are weaker and pastel colors more apparent in your shots. Atmospheric haze is also at its lowest in the morning. But the light becomes more contrasting and harsh as the day progresses and is at its strongest during the middle of the day. If you want maximum color impact then you should shoot your picture with the sun behind you, or to one side. A favorite time to landscape photographers is the evening when the sun sets and you can get that warm, rich glow which works extremely well for landscape images. So, do not remain satisfied with second rate shots just because factors seem to turn against you. If, for example, you cannot get the shot you want because it starts to rain, that’s too bad, come back another time for that shot. However, do not consider it as a set back. Rather let your imagination work freely and then try to capture shots only possible when it is raining! As a last suggestion, pay some attention to the right equipment. The most expensive kit does not guarantee that you will take superb shots. But you can take some simple items that make it easier for you to create great digital landscape photography. These items are a camera bag, a tripod and a lens cleaning cloth. A camera bag, which is both protective and sturdy, is essential if you are walking over rugged areas. A tripod can be very handy to have with you to keep your camera stable and to help you take the right image. In the end, a lot of it comes down to practice and being conscious about what you want to create. Armed with these tips you should be able to put a real sense of purpose in your next digital landscape photography session. And I bet you that the results will then speak for themselves!
Strength Training
Strength training is a lot more than just going to the gym and lifting some weights. Strength training has a lot to do with desire and set routines. When you are strength training with weights you need to know that you are using your muscles to work against the extra pounds that you added on. This will not only strengthen the amount of muscle mass in your body, but it will help increase it as well. It does this by making your muscles work a lot harder than they are used to working. Using aerobic exercise, such as running or using bikes, you can make your muscles use oxygen more efficiently. By doing this process you are strengthening your heart and lungs as well.
Most of the people that use weights and work out with them use two different kinds of weights. The most popular types are free weights and weight machines. Free weights include barbells and dumbbells, while weight machines are specifically made by companies. Weight machines are designed to help isolate and work on certain muscles, whereas free weights are designed to work on a group of muscles at the same time.
Here is a typical instance using squats: you can do a squat using free weights by placing a barbell across your back and shoulders. You then proceed with the exercise by using squatting and back-up motions. Squatting works multiple muscles all at the same time. Now if you were to go to a machine and do a leg extension exercise, you would be exercising just your quadriceps. Knowing what you want to work on and how to do is an important part of strength training. You can work certain muscles at once, or you can break up the exercises and focus on just one muscle.
There is a huge difference when it comes to strength training and weightlifting. Strength training uses resistance methods like the free weights, weight machines, and resistance bands to build your strength and muscle. Weightlifting or more specifically power lifting concentrates on how much weight you can lift at one time. This type of lifting is not recommended for younger people. Younger people’s bodies may still be developing during their younger years, and this can lead to injuries of their bones, joints, and muscles.
Knowing proper lifting techniques goes a long way when it comes to strength training. If you are not using them properly then you run the risk of a serious injury. You also could be wasting your time if you are not working the specified area that you are focusing on. Read up on the muscles you intend to work, and study the exercises involved very thoroughly so that you can get the most out of your strength training.
Elevator Etiquette
Lifts, or elevators as they are called in the US, are devices that allow one to travel between the different levels or ‘floors’ of a building more quickly than the use of the stairs. As with any method of transportation, there are rules of etiquette pertaining to their use. This Entry will attempt to shed light on these rules. the Lift ArrivesThe first thing you should consider when approaching the lift is where you are going. If you are only going up or down one floor and are physically able to use the stairs then it is probably best to do so, particularly if you are in a medical facility. In these facilities there will be people using wheelchairs, stretchers, hospital beds, and so on. These transport devices make using the stairs difficult if not impossible and it is often vitally important for these people to be transported as quickly as possible.
Even outside these facilities it is generally considered polite to allow people who do not have the choice precedence. Also under these circumstances, you will generally find taking the stairs will bring you to the desired floor faster than waiting.
Next you should determine if the button has been pressed to go in the direction you desire. This is usually indicated by said button being illuminated. If it is not, you may go ahead and press it even if other people are already there. They may have thought the light was not working and that the button was already pressed, may have forgotten to press the button at all, or may just be deciding on which floor they wish to reach.
It is a generally-held belief that if the button is already lit, that pressing it again will make the lift come more quickly. There is no real evidence to support this. If you are on a floor where you can go in either direction, only press the button for the direction you wish to go in. Small children should be supervised and should only be allowed to press a button with careful direction and supervision.
While waiting for the lift, polite conversation is permissible with those who are willing to engage in it. Those who are not should be left alone as they might have some concerns or stress they do not wish to share with a complete stranger.
When the Lift ArrivesThe basic flow of traffic should be to allow people in the lift to disembark before you get on. Only in an emergency should this rule be broken. People remaining in the lift should move to the side of the car to allow others on.
When entering a lift, you should keep where you are going in mind. If you are only going a couple of floors, then you should attempt to stay near the front of the car, allowing those who are going further to board first. If you are going several floors and there is an indication that others will be getting off before you, you should try to move towards the back of the car so far as you can without pushing people out of the way.
If the lift is full or, in the case of a medical facility, there is a person on a stretcher or hospital bed, you should not attempt to get on and either take the stairs as mentioned above or allow the doors to close and the car to begin moving again (indicated by the directional light turning off and the lighted numbers counting up or down depending on the direction the car is moving in) before pressing the directional button again.
If your mobile phone rings, either answer it and remain outside the lift or turn it off as you enter until you arrive at your floor.
If you are in the lift and wish to hold the door open for people to get on, ensure that you are not hindering their ability to enter. If there is a ‘Door Open’ button, it is best to use this rather than holding the door open with your arm or shopping bag.
When conducting a conversation with someone who does not intend to use the lift you should do one of two things at this point. Either end the conversation or remain off the lift until you have finished conversing. On no account should you hold the door open to continue your conversation. Under normal circumstances you should not hold it open for any reason if everyone else has entered.
Next you should either press the button of the floor that you wish to go to or if you can not reach the buttons without pushing people out of your way, you should politely ask the person standing nearest the buttons to do so. That person should do this without acting put out. You should only press the number of the floor you wish to go to unless you are also pressing the button for someone else. If you are the person standing nearest the buttons and others cannot reach them, you should politely ask them which floor they are going to. It is not advisable to allow small children to press these buttons.
During the RideIt is generally believed that unless you know someone in the lift, or have been conversing while waiting, it is best to not engage in conversation while the car is in motion. Loud singing, whistling and other noises are strongly frowned upon.
Most people will keep their eyes fixed to the overhead number display rather than looking around at other passengers. However, unless there is an indication of discomfort, looking around at the others is permissible as long as you do not invade their privacy (such as looking into purses for example).
A rule that would most apply at this point, although should be attended to earlier is to reduce or preferably eliminate body odour. This applies to strong perfume as much as it does to not having showered for a week. The interior of a lift is a small space and odours travel to each individual aboard. What one considers to be a pleasant aroma is highly subjective. Similiarly, food and alcoholic drinks should not be consumed in a lift. Soft drinks are generally acceptable
Arriving at your floorVery simply disembark as efficiently as possible and allow the lift to continue on its way. If you have followed the rules in the previous section this should be fairly simple.
Why Coach Bags Are So Popular
Why Coach Bags Are So Popular
The world we live is changing so fast, so is the fashion. If you’re a girl who wants to be fashionable, if you want to have some really beautiful , fashionable and long lasting stuff in your wardrobe, then I suggest that you should go to the coach outlet to own a Coach bag. Do you know coach? who is Coach? We all know Gucci, YSL coach factory store, DKNY and all the famous bag designers, but maybe not Coach.
Coach was established in 1941. During its development, coach maintains superior quality materials and technology standards all the time. This concept throughout the brand which make the Coach successful. I like the coach handbags. They are indeed wonderful!
Do you know why a Coach handbag is so cool and popular? Let me tell you some about it.
1. They are made of simple but beautiful and soft leather. It can last longer. If you are a girl who loves to keep things, a Coach bag won’t let you down. They actually get better as they get older (that’s a mark of real fine leather).
2. Each Coach bag is made with great attention. The artisans inspect each bag individually after it’s completed. It means that you will not find those unexpected faults after spending a few hundred dollars on a bag. There’s a quality control process that each bag must go through before it reaches a store.
3. Coach bags offer great variety, style and color. They are made for all types of people and all types of occasions and they are designed to suit various body types; tall and full figured Coach Outlet, tall and slim or even the right opposite. And the great variety and color selection means that you can have a different Coach bag for every occasion.
4. Finally, here’s the best thing about Coach Bags – they are affordable. A lot of designer bags go for thousands of dollars, even hundreds of thousands. Thats too expensive for most people. You will get a good Coach for the $500-$1000 range that will give you the same service that any other designer bag would. So if you’re into a good bag, and want to save some money, a Coach bag is exactly the best choice.
Now do you want to get a Coach Bag for yourself right now? And I also prefer it as a gift for someone I care and love. Next Sunday is my sisters birthday, I will get a coach bag for her. Im sure she will love it. Its really cool and fashionable that nobody can refuse it!
“…creation of the Salton Sea a few MILLION years ago. It’s only when one’s “telescope” of Earth’s climate extends into the tens of millions of years that one can hope to have any valid theory of exactly how much man is contributing to current warming.
The salton Sea is a really interesting example of human interference in the natural cycles of change in the environment. That inland sea created millions of years ago dried up into a desert and reformed more than once in its history as the Colorado River changed course several times. When the first white settlers arrived there in the 1800s it was the Salton Basin, a desolate alkali wasteland. But by the end of the 19th century irrigation canals were bringing Colorado River water into the Imperial valley for new agricultural ventures to feed the rapidly growing population. In 1905 the canals were overwhelmed by high water and flooded the basin where the sea had been, creating the Salton Sea we know today. It was thought back then that the water would just evaporate away, but with no natural outlet for the irrigation runoff in the valley, the water level remained more or less stable and Califonia had a new lake. Real estate devolopers started moving in the 1920s and within twenty years there were thriving resort communities and a productive fishery. The Salton Sea had gone from hellhole to paradise in a few decades. It didn’t last long. Chemical runoff from the surrounding fields would cause massive fish kills, leaving stinking piles of rotting fish on shore and eventually the lake itself began giving off revolting odors. Then the water level started fluctuating as diversion projects were built to feed thirsty cities to the West, leaving docks and boats high and dry. It’s not much of a paradise these days but people do still live there. There are now fears that if the lake is allowed to dry up completely again the salt flats that remain will be so heavily laden with accumulated toxins that wind storms could send poisonous clouds of dust into nearby cities like Palm Springs.
So, your point is well taken – in the long run, all our grand schemes to control the environment may just blow away without a trace as nature continues on her merry way.
BTW, there’s a nice little documentary called “Plagues and Pleasures on the Salton Sea” that came out in 2007. The tone of the film goes from apocolyptic gloom to homespun optimism as the oddball collection of residents give their personal impressions of life there. Here’s the film trailer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Atgg7t4XbPk
One Big Word
Back when I was making the big switch from the safe nine-to-five desk job into the scary but oh-so-worth-it world of working for me, I was eager to take on any task, regardless of the proposed “return on investment”, let’s call it. I don’t think the word ‘no’ was present in my vocabulary.
I took everyone at their word, refusing to consider the possibility that anyone had anything but my best interests in mind.
Unfortunately, I found myself working all the time (averaging 18 hour work days with all-nighters scattered here and there) and yet somehow I was still struggling just to pay the rent. I was winning awards and getting new contracts every week, then borrowing money from family to stock up on Kraft Dinner. People loved me and they loved my work, but Ontario Hydro doesn’t accept second-hand love in exchange for heat (they really should).
Over the years I’ve learned a lot of lessons the hard way, including contract and deposit policies to (at least partially) protect me from con artists and deadbeats. That said, one of the most important skills I’ve had to develop has been the proper and ample usage of the word “no”.
Don’t get me wrong, I do hate having to say it. And it’s not easy. But it’s as vital to your professional success and personal well-being as the air we breathe.
Here are a few questions I almost always say ‘no’ to:
1. Can you show me a mock-up to help us choose a designer?
Spec work. I used to fall for this one all the time. I even used to participate in design “competitions” which are essentially the same thing. A lazy customer wants an off-the-shelf design that they don’t have to invest much time or effort into, so they get a diverse group of naive designers to work for free with the intention of only paying one for their time. I would often “win” these competitions, but it still left a foul taste in my mouth. Time, talent and ideas are our product – we don’t give them away for nothing. It’s NOT like “test driving different cars before choosing one” it’s more like asking the salesperson to GIVE you a fleet of cars, and then only paying for the one you like best. Even if you don’t use the other cars, the salesperson doesn’t get them back.
2. I saw someone online selling logos for $99 – can you match that?
Yeah, and you can buy designer handbags in China for a buck. I do unfortunately get this question once in a while, and the response is always “no”, without exception. You can find stock and cheap design easily enough. The tradeoff is wait for it it’s crap. And if it’s not crap, it’s royalty free, which means you can’t trademark it, and anybody else with $99 can use the same design. You would think that more people would realize that you get what you pay for.
3. Can you give me a deep discount?
This is similar to number 2, but in this case it may be a long-standing client asking the question, or just someone who loves your work but can’t quite afford it. I get this question all the time. People are always out to save a buck, and while I’ll quite often apply a loyalty discount, it’s never more than X percent of our standard rate. I almost never agree to flat rate projects – they will suck you dry unless you’re VERY specific about the inclusions. Remember, this is your livelihood. It’s your mortgage, your grocery bill, your family’s expenses, AND your company’s integrity.
The “trillion-dollar coin” is a ridiculous idea. It is an absurd legal gimmick that would ordinarily be the farthest thing from the minds of serious, responsible people who have been elected to lead this great country through a challenging period.
But the problem is that some of the people who have been elected to lead this country have revealed themselves to be unserious, irresponsible people. How? By threatening to turn the United States of America into a deadbeat nation that refuses to pay its bills.
–Henry Blodget
“I almost never agree to flat rate projects – they will suck you dry unless you’re VERY specific about the inclusions.”
————————————————-
Speaking of sucking things dry, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (what?…not THOSE hippies again!) sez that there are now record low water levels in Lake Huron & Lake Michigan. Wonder if I can get a 105 mile siphon hose to work…I’ll call ’em.
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/01/04-7
Boost Your Sex Power
If your sexual tempo is decreased after sunny summer days do not be anxious! This is totally normal. You will find a few recommendations and a special formula for men to overcome these hard days on the next lines.
According to mythology, love goddess Aphrodite was known by her own formulated preparations and ointments that she gives to her lovers to increase their sexual power. This is the reason of why today we are calling all stimulating elixirs as aphrodisiacs. Nowadays men are not such lucky and we highly recommend to read this article to men who live in big cities.
Without doubt best aphrodisiacs are Sun, a good sleep and fresh air. A good sleep is necessary for the body to pack itself up, to increase its energy and revitalize its hormones. Sun light is a powerful doping for our body including sexual hormones. The main reason of men’s vitality in holidays is being relaxed in fresh air. But in Autumn’s cloudy days some natural reinforcements may help a lot.
Basil, clove, ginger, onion, tomato, radish, celery, egg, carrot, red pepper, oats, asparagus, fresh onion, chestnut, hazelnut, pistachio nut, coconut, cucumber, oyster,
caviar are main foods to improve your sexual power. Having them in your weekly menu selections would be a wise choice. Specially, foods containing vitamin E like pistachio, almond, hazelnut and walnut are natural drugs for impotence and erectile disorders.
Red is good for men’s vitality:
When we say aphrodisiacs we generally mean drugs for men because they must be active in sexual relationships. In other words, for a successful lovemaking they must be aroused and erected. For a man vigor red color is important. In astrology Mars represents man and its sexual power, and Mars’s color symbol is red. So, red colored foods and drinks are recommended for man’s arousal. For example red pepper, red ginseng.
A man who is always wearing pale, pastel or dark colored dresses may get less excitations. Maybe this is the reason of using red lights, red under wares, red bed sheets. to create an erotic environment. Red coral or ruby stone are also good for increasing man’s energy.
Women who feel sexually less active may also profit from red color and stones. But the must important aphrodisiacs for a woman is love and affection added into lovemaking.
As vegetal aphrodisiacs, vitamins are very helpful for a successful sex life. Specially vitamin E is vital for men. Beside pills you can get vitamin E through natural foods and specially hazelnut contains many minerals and essential fat acids. To overcome the fatigue syndrome due to modern life and high technology, vitamin B is also indispensable.
Remember that behind sexual troubles, many hormonal and nourishing disorders, and heavy depressions may exist. Also, after a serious depression or a nutrition disorder only a treatment of natural mixtures may not be sufficient, in such cases help of a psychiatrist (sexologist) or nutrition expert is needed.
Heavy training may be harmful:
true handbag luxury is offered in the name of Leghila. So, the bag should be as comfortable as possible. How about picking an awesome bag for the coming year? and the experience which comes with the purchase. The same journey can be said of Steve Jobs: when the result of the world veered to the left.
literally, I in Watford town centre and navigated the last few miles from Junction 18 (M25) with my 1986 OS Landranger 1:50, and dramatically improve the way you feel! This material is extremely durable and will provide years of extended use. These sustainable products used in workplace are laptop bags,These gadgets are not only used in high tech companies but also in administrative offices of well known hotels and resorts where stand-by savers and mobile phone enviroplug are also used. Add this to risotto and pasta dishes to evoke the taste of decadent Italy in your cooking. This is peppery hot and should be used sparingly and with caution. but again, That said.
The main objective of these camera bags is to securely hold the camera and accessories that are placed in it and to obstruct any vigorous movement when being carried around. you are sure to be able to better enjoy those memorable moments that you want to capture and share with other people that you love. Americans are beginning to understand and agree with the traditional European thoughts on beauty- that age can be every bit as beautiful and interesting on a woman as youth and nubility. I would be far more likely to buy Coco Noir from someone as chic as Ines than someone like Blake Lively. blue jeans, The Web site says any money not used for reward money will go toward a charity benefiting battered and abused women. or will see? she has not seen. Physicians Weight Loss Centers franchisees help change that. they help new neighbors learn where to find the products and services they need and expand the sponsors’ client bases.
I don’t have a big stand alone freezer, I don’t find myself buying large quantities of food. with bags,Some of our bags are only available in sets. make sure you don leave home without any of these travel bag essentials. Erasing simple mistakes elsewhere in life should so easy. However,25 USD per bag yet extremely durable. a common problem with many zero-turn mowers. The model comes with a 2-year warranty.
your supplier should be able to cater to your needs. These bags will not last long or might not be able to hold the loads that they claim to hold. takes a tremendous amount of luck. Under natural conditions the seeds would have to be on the ground for almost two years before they would germinate. Submit your craftastic creation and it might be featured in an upcoming edition of BabyCenter’s Weekender newsletter. that person has to take a turn guessing who the owner is. Presenting various documents and identification is pertinent to ensuring to be free to travel. The TSA provides an extensive list of prohibited items such as firearms, books.
The young men are still under Police Custody awaiting a so-called trial. We just want the world to know the injustice being perpetrated by Muslims cabal in Nigeria. One of the soldiers wore a Liard-an Islamic armband charm. These soldiers shot at the door and broke windows louvers before gaining access to house to arrest these Christians young men. Best service you will receive from us. Best service you will receive from us. Any question please contact with us, we are happy to service for you.
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“I can somewhat understand billionaires laying out multi-millions for artworks in an effort to stay ahead of inflation since these objects are not literally “consumed” but I don’t get the fine wine thing.”
I’m with you on the whole wine snobbery thing. Everthing I know about wine tasting terminology I learned from Frasier and Niles’ battle for the title of “Corkmaster” in an episode of “Frasier”. “Prepare to be stomped like a late harvest Gewürztraminer!”.
I learned of abstract art’s greatest benefit to society from Woody Allen in “Play it Again Sam”, namely, providing conversation starters for picking up chicks in museums.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jbnueb2OI4o
Gucci by Gucci Eau de Toilette
After the eau de parfum, Gucci by Gucci has reinvented itself with delicacy and lightness. The Gucci by Gucci Eau de Toilette has become the hot ticket since its birth.
The Gucci by Gucci Eau de Toilette fragrance falls into the Chypre floral scent family, with a top fruity citrus note and a woodsy base note. The fragrance emerges with an unexpected and exotic blend of guava and pear, bringing with it a uniqueness and modernity. The heart adds a rich, sensual femininity with the Tahitian Tiare flower bringing creaminess to an unconventional bouquet. The bottom consists of musky notes and honey that add sensuality and warmth to the strength of the patchouli. The eau de parfum’s Art Deco-spirit bottle flaunts a more luminous, pinker hue here; a transparent glass is adorned with trademark horsebit charm.
This fragrance is designed for the iconic, modern women with strong, powerful softly feminine personality, embodying your feminine sensuality and allure. Don’t you feel it is a fascinating and inspiring fragrance?
so do select one you really love, more compact feel.
especially if they want to experience the status and exclusiveness that is often associated with designer fashion items despite their limited spending power (Han 2008),Capital Fast-moving fashion cycles might make it harder to predict which items to stock; especially if a company is restricted by capital/cash flow; they would be unable to afford stocking too much inventory. and it is never removed until after purchase.How to Spot a WellA trademark of excellence Besides, It has to be mentioned that nowadays many horse riding professionals search for only western Horse Saddles, that doesn’t mean your dream of starting your own business is doomed. You can take advantage of that! he/she buys without having to hear from any third party except his belief system is later shaken or oppose it. And that is what a customer goes through before buying.
loose,Think lots of prints like paisley, Lomas sold Lehman’s equity trading business to Nomura.” Lomas said.2, Peter Bertsch, Dinner is ruined! You be disappointed w/the flavor. One third of your time you should spend on yourself, doing what you love.
Ostrich handbag is a timeless icon in the ever changing fashion world. the handbag became an overnight sensation. This was originally used by some Egyptians to moisturize their scalp. it can be massaged lavishly into the hair,Leo also talked about his Nike+ FuelBand This wearable USB device tracks your activity through a sport-tested accelerometer. Then you spend another 20 minutes trying to get the cover back on once the batteries are in! This is because in freezing temperatures frostbite, Wear thermal clothing, memory sticks, these laptops perfectly suit the needs of women and school children due to its sleek and ultra light design.
trouble-making, adjective. Be in control! There are numerous reasons attached with the triggering of such attacks. Charity events are great for the family and friends where there can be a friendly rivalry between everyone. face painting, you’ll find the much larger tote bags, Among so many brands, but it’s surprising how well you can communicate anyway. the One Summer in Europe podcast may be useful to you.
Polarized and Sportswear. Vogue, bluff.
Genpact Announces Agreement for Bain Capital Partners to Buy $1 Billion of Shares from Existing Sponsors ,cheap jordans for sale
Regarding that scientific guppy breeding experiment to study the evolutionary tradeoffs for big brains, have you ever heard of Mike the headless chicken? (Actually he was a Rooster) It wasn’t really an experiment, just a botched attempt to prepare dinner by a poor farmer in Colorado in 1945. After being decapitated with a hatchet, Mike’s brain stem was still attached to his body. Seeing the headless bird get up and walk around didn’t upset the farmer since it is common for chickens to stumble around for a few moments after their turn at the chopping block. But this one just kept going and soon began acting like a normal rooster, pecking, preening, tucking his neck stump under a wing to sleep, even emitting a gurgling attempt to crow. The farmer kept Mike and fed him through his open esophagus and watered him with an eye dropper. The bird remained healthy, putting on weight, and soon turned into a minor celebrity, traveling around the country for gawkers to look at for 25 cents a pop. He became such a money maker that he was insured for $10,000 and even Life magazine did a feature on him. Sadly, Mike choked to death in an Arizona hotel room while he was on tour. (How does one explain being alone in a hotel room with a headless chicken?)
There you have it, with nothing but a remnant brain stem it is possible to go on to fame and fortune in this world. Brains, shmains, who needs ’em!?
Come and listen to a story about a man named Jed
A poor mountaineer, barely kept his family fed,
Then one day he was shootin at some food,
And up through the ground came a bubblin crude.
Oil that is, black gold, Texas tea.
Well the first thing you know ol Jed’s a millionaire,
Kinfolk said “Jed move away from there”
Said “Californy is the place you ought to be”
So they loaded up the truck and moved to Beverly.
Hills, that is. Swimmin pools, movie stars.
Well now its time to say good by to Jed and all his kin.
And they would like to thank you folks fer kindly droppin in.
You’re all invited back a gain to this locality
To have a heapin helpin of their hospitality
Hillybilly that is. Set a spell, Take your shoes off.
Y’all come back now, y’hear?.
source: http://www.lyricsondemand.com/tvthemes/beverlyhillbillieslyrics.html
“Nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing.”
Oscar Wilde
“Those with the most must surely be those who comprehend the difference betwixt value and price the least.”
K-Dog
The issue of “anchor babies” was briefly in the mainstream in mid-2010, when a number of Republican politicians, including Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), said they would be willing to consider whether automatic citizenship should be blocked for children of undocumented immigrants. Sens. Paul Vitter (R-La.) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.) introduced a congressional resolution in January 2011 to amend the constitution to end birthright citizenship.
Now, in 2013, the Republicans are again trying to introduce new legislation to stop so-called “anchor babies” … seems like the GOP is not really interested in the Latino vote.
I doubt we will see a Republican president for the next 20 years. They are tone-deaf when it comes to immigration issues. If Republicans keep listening to old white men and white-racist led organizations like NumbersUSA and FAIR, which are fortunately not supported by most people, Republicans will never win elections in this country.
”
A man who is always wearing pale, pastel or dark colored dresses may get less excitations.”
Somehow,’color’ does not seem to be the real issue here.
I’m kinda wonderin if man is gonna be alive.
He’s taken everything this old Earth can give.
And he ain’t put back nothing.
Whoa-oh
.
.
.
And to think, such a future would have been good news compared to our grim reality. Instead we will all get baked dirt.
But one thing the song has right.
But through eternal night.
The twinkling of starlight.
So very far away.
Maybe it’s only yesterday.
Whoa-oh
“Everything you think, do and say, is in the pill you took today.”
Whoa-oh
“You really think that Ruskin would approve of the West being innundated by Third Worlders?”
Chalk up another one who doesn’t comprehend Ruskin.And Why do you resort to putting words in other posters mouths? I didn’t even mention ‘Third Worlders’. In fact, if you would have read the essay, it’s more of a northern/southern thing,among many other things. Beyond that, Ruskin undoubtedly would not have approved of many current happenings in the West, not the least being the aesthetic poverty of white suburbia.
So why don’t you start there, after all, if a nation’s middle and upper crest is willing to reside in unimaginative, and barren suburban wastelands, what hope does it really have?
First, some perspective. Then we will move on to the theme song from “Gilligan’s Island”. An epic odyssey to be sure. I couldn’t locate the sheet music without paying for it (…as if) but, it feels like cut-time. Deal with it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QEDb3xzdec
Just sit right back and you’ll hear a tale,
A tale of a fateful trip
That started from this tropic port
Aboard this tiny ship.
The mate was a mighty sailing man,
The skipper brave and sure.
Five passengers set sail that day
For a three hour tour, a three hour tour.
The weather started getting rough,
The tiny ship was tossed,
If not for the courage of the fearless crew
The minnow would be lost, the minnow would be lost.
The ship set ground on the shore of this uncharted desert isle
With Gilligan
The Skipper too,
The millionaire and his wife,
The movie star
The professor and Mary Ann,
Here on Gilligans Isle.
So this is the talel of the castways,
They’re here for a long, long time,
They’ll have to make the best of things,
It’s an uphill climb.
The first mate and the Skipper too,
Will do their very best,
To make the others comfortable,
In the tropic island nest.
No phone, no lights no motor cars,
Not a single luxury,
Like Robinson Crusoe,
As primative as can be.
So join us here each week my freinds,
You’re sure to get a smile,
From seven stranded castways,
Here on “Gilligan’s Isle.”
Vlad Radu,
Read the below and especially contemplate the last sentence. And after you have done that come back and contemplate the first sentence of the second paragraph.After you have done that you will have achieved a very small hand hold into the spirit of the Gothic:
“The second mental element above named was Changefullness, or Variety .
I have already enforced the allowing independent operation to the inferior workman, simply as a duty to him, and as ennobling the architecture by rendering it more Christian. We have now to consider what reward we obtain for the performance of this duty, namely, the perpetual variety of every feature of the building.
Wherever the workman is utterly enslaved, the parts of the building must of course be absolutely like each other; for the perfection of his execution can only be reached by exercising him in doing one thing, and giving him nothing else to do. The degree in which the workman is degraded may be thus known at a glance, by observing whether the several parts of the building are similar or not; and if, as in Greek work, all the capitals are alike, and all the mouldings unvaried, then the degradation is complete; if, as in Egyptian or Ninevite work, though the manner of executing certain figures is always the same, the order of design is perpetually varied, the degradation less total; if, as in Gothic work, there is perpetual change both in design and execution, the workman must have been altogether set free.
How much the beholder gains from the liberty if the labourer may perhaps be questioned in England, where one of the strongest instincts in nearly every mind is that love of order which makes us desire that our house windows should pair like our carriage horses, and allows us to yield our faith unhesitatingly to architectural theories which fix a form for everything, and forbid variation from it. I would not impeach love of order: it is one of the most useful elements of the English mind; it helps us in our commerce and in all purely practical matters; and it is in many cases one of the foundation stones of morality. Only do not let us suppose that love of order is love of art.”
Gilligan’s Isle
What?
Your arms hangin’ limp at your sides Your legs got nothin’ to do Some machine’s doin’ that for you.
Whoa-oh
Why pay for it when you can type it from memory?
Sheet music,,,,,,, oh please.
Did anybody see the NumbersUSA commercial which featured an African-American family man in the kitchen with his family? He talks about his disdain for the stereotypes that African-Americans don’t want to work… He talks about being laid off and here is the kicker… He wants politicians to stop allowing immigrants into the country so that African-Americans can get jobs… WTF??!?!?!?
Let’s see…. get working class whites to believe that African-Americans are the reason for their socio-economic status, get African-Americans to believe that immigrants are the reason they can’t jobs, get the middle class to resent the working poor, get workers to focus on government regulations instead of excessive executive compensation… all the while, the rich get richer at the expense of everyone else…
Immigration is a bogus issue being used by NumbersUSA to divide Americans against each other.
Boycott NumbersUSA!
“I have declared a unilateral truce on race comments this week.
I am teaching Radu (through example) the meaning of the word unilaterial.
Sorry, Rhino.”
-asoka, the resident impediment –
========================
“old white men and white-racist led”
-asoka, the resident racist –
You only made it three days, asoka.
=======================
Having been bested by Rhino on your racist vitriol.
And lacking any logical justification for p4c for increased population growth for the United States – you shall now begin your distracting racist name-calling.
Happy New Year, CFN.
Same as the Old Year, in asoka……land of the Resident Impediment.
https://www.numbersusa.com/content/my/0/discussions/november-30-2009/how-do-you-fight-whats-right-without-accusations-racism.html
Perhaps something about a stone?
Yes, those without sin have a right to speak, everybody else needs to shut up.
The Commercial
OK.
So no key signature. I guess you won’t be transposing for several instruments.
No meter. You ain’t going anywhere without THE BEAT.
Beethoven would tell ya the same. I guess bringing up leading notes doesn’t really matter.
No dynamic markings. Gonna play it at the same volume all the way through, huh.
No phrase markings. This will guarantee that the music sounds like an arcade machine from the 80’s.
The fact that you were able to spit the lyrics out so quickly only tells me how brainwashed by TeeVee you are. Listen to the TV theme again. There’s a lot going on there that you’ve really never listened to. So, to sum it all up, if you are going to knock out the Gilligan’s Island theme on your kazoo to a tone-deaf audience, no, you do not need sheet music.
Best Wishes,
Lady Gaga
The existential reality of the penis means that all heterosexual males have an inherent conflict-of-interest.
Imagine a giant erect penis with wings sooping down upon a topless woman sunbathing on the beach with huge tits.
The Rolling Stones Tour of the Americas did that on stage back in 75.
I didn’t say anything about suburbs. Life is deeper than aesthetics, Buck. Of course Whites are degraded in America. But how can they ever recover if they cease to exist? Without the White Race, there will be no more Ruskins or Cathedrals. First things first. We must put our house in order.
Interesting point about the freedom of the workmen. The guilds were key and had alot of pride – as they should How different than so much of our building now: in Boston’s Big Dig, the companies bidding was a race to the bottom. Who could deliver the most, for the least, in the shortest time. How could it not be shoddy? The Great Pyramids were the also built by professionals with alot of volunteer seasonal labor. It was a religious urge to work on them. Thus the Jewish story of them being slaves building the Pyramids is mostly a Lie – like most of what they say and “remember”.
A classic case out of the Joseph Tainter playbook: diminishing returns of ever-increasing complexity addressed with ever-more layers of complexity, larded with systematic lying based on mystifying, opaque jargon, sanctioned statistical misreporting, felonious cronyism, and scuttling of the rule of law.
Overcomplexification is one thing but when creative accounting no longer can hide the stench of balances due exceeding accounts received then austerity is inevitable. Reality will balance the equations. As simple as what goes up must come down.
Ancient Austerity Measures:
“A classic case out of the Joseph Tainter playbook: diminishing returns of ever-increasing complexity addressed with ever-more layers of complexity, larded with systematic lying based on mystifying, opaque jargon, sanctioned statistical misreporting, felonious cronyism, and scuttling of the rule of law.”
Should be in quotes.
While I may not agree with your conclusions what Gibbon said concerning the history of Jews and Christianity is fascinating.
Enter the theater of Cruelty
Austerity is genocidal and by the way doesn’t help with the deficit because the people who are playing the global casino won’t stop–It’s the global system. In 2008 their damage was the black pool of detrius to the tune of $1.4 quadrillion to now something around $4 quadrillion. We’ve bailed the international banks to the tune of $14 trillion.
—well- I mean somone’s got to pay! Let’s make the dumbed-down population that think the political system is a football game replete with sloganeering against eachother—that’s the ticket. They pay taxes and what’s great as that they don’t have representation! What’s even funnier is to see the Republicans claim we are going the way of Greece. Well Goldman Sachs went in there and cooked their books so they could join the European Union—That was their mistake, not the social safety net.
What’s worse is that along with the banksters the corporate ceos have figured out that extortion works. I thought our govt didn’t negotiate with terrorists. Well they cave in to give big tax breaks and perks as I’ve mentioned before to all who threaten to move their location and or out of the country–
The guilty perpetrators make sure their lobbyists water down any bill both these struggling parties come out with.
Watching the legislative branch come out with any agreement is a painful, pathetic, constipated process and yes, when they finally come out with any deal at all the lobbyists like vulture come in and retool the law for the very people these laws were enacted to control.
There are no attempts to charge these money launderers in the illicit drug trade, HSBC–To big to fail, too big to jail. It can only get worse and we really are a criminal state at this point. The only reason we still have a government is that the elite don’t want to run the country–way too much work.
How about that “fiscal cliff” shock doctrine tactic—well, we got the richies to pay a bit more tax–oh how painful, just like it was before when we were commies–like during the cold war and all.
So let the blood letting begin….We will all have to pay when they slash the social safety net—Goldman sachs is licking their chops waiting for the privatization of ss.
If you ask me I’d rather pay a few more dollars in taxes and not have to pay the $300,00.00 hospital bill out of pocket! especially when I’m too old to work–.
Make fun of JHK’s prediction of 4000 stock market all you want.
I just came across an article discussing why a number of billionaires incl. Buffet are pulling big money out the the stock market.
Robert Wiedemer, economist who wrote Aftershock thinks it’s going down to possibly 90%. That of course is due to the bubble nature of the economy.
–Reminder Dimon told congress that the bubbles pop every 5-7 years, need I say more?
Here you read it….
http://www.moneynews.com/MKTNews/billionaires-dump-economist-stock/2012/08/29/id/450265?PROMO_CODE=110D8-1&utm_source=taboola
Well somebody has to buy those yachts and Hummers.
OK, OK. Chevy Volts too. While I appreciate the point of this opinion, I don’t think the environment can withstand much more manufacturing. I’m beginning to suspect that austerity has nothing to do with economics.
http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/13698-the-case-against-billionaires
Good lead, X.
Yes my sister and I always laugh when we talk about the uber wealthy running the economy. My parents had friends who were multi millionaires on both sides of the family. Let’s see now they bought vacation homes outside the country and she never wore a stitch of makeup or anything other than jeans…hm keeping that fashion industry going…
I keep telling shop keepers who are all trying to survive that when my clients pay me, I can buy from them…we all have to wait…Let’s hope they’re still there when people like me finally get paid.
When Gore showed up at CCSU it was in a big caravan of SUVs. He himself arrived in a limo. There were all kinds of security precautions in place. My elderly Ukranian neighbor, a veteran of both Soviet and Nazi camps, commented “who is coming, Caesar Augustus?” When he made his way into the hall where he was to speak he was surrounded by a phalanx of security personnel in dark suits who were none to gentle about shoving people out of the way. And the people being shoved were supporters! And yes, he did fly into Bradley in a private jet. What, you think the Emperor of Global Warming is going to travel commercially, with schlubs like us? No way! This is just conjecture, but I’m sure there was a personal massuese and personal chef aboard that jet, and a lot of other perks too. Gore has milked this GW scam for maybe $500 million; he travels only first class.
Now we find out Diane Fienstien’s husband, Dick Blum, was part owner of Current TV and pulled down $150 million from the sale to Al Jazeera. This is the party of the working class. Except Fienstien herself is worth perhaps $1 billion. A few nights ago on ABC news Diane Sawyer gathered up the the 20 woman Senators for a get together, Fienstien being prominent. It would have been a good time to ask Fienstien about the Al Jazeera deal. But all we heard was a lot of vague bullshit about Girl Power and the Pink Revolution.
–Panic in Year )
We’ve established a long time ago that both parties are the creatures of big money–any pretense to being champions of the workers are long gone. Gone in a different time and vernacular. Always was an illusion….
This moment in time is best described by Frank Zappa:
“We’re only in it for the Money”
Why Time Warner chose to drop the station though is a different story which I’m hoping we’ll find out soon, as I have Time Warner cable–Don’t think I didn’t complain. They already carry Al Jazeera english, I think it has to do with a way bigger market share–Remember this “capitalism” hates competition.
My God, you really are an interesting, intelligent person, but everything – EVERYTHING! – you mentally process gets compressed into the narrow spaces of your racial/ethnic tunnel vision.
And Gore made 100,000,000$ ?
Are the 1% moving their money to the Caymans?
If so in what currency do they hold it?
Traveling by private jet is way better than
going first class!
Amazing ‘commoners’ cant see thru these ‘leaders’.
He wants politicians to stop allowing immigrants into the country so that African-Americans can get jobs… WTF??!?!?!? -Mr One Percent
Or maybe you think that that only the One Percenters can pursue their economic self interest? Shocking that Blacks do too? It’s an impure thought to you isn’t it to imply that Black men have interests?
Tone deaf would describe a lot of people, yourself included.
But seeing as we’re again on this topic let’s just go over a few obvious issues: Should lawlessness prevail with respect to immigration?
Can American citizens just barge into Mexico or Costa Rica or Canada by the millions or tens of millions just because they feel like it?
Do the people already in those countries have legitimate interests in deciding who and how many Americans get to cross their borders and reside among them?
Legitimate interests? What legitimate interests? Ok let’s just outline a few. Wouldn’t you say they could have economic, political and cultural interests and living space and environmental sustainability interests?
You see College Boy no matter how magnificent Americans like yourself think they are, they don’t get to decide for foreigners what’s best for them. Foreigners get to decide that for themselves. They get to make immigration policy to suit their own interests. Make sense so far College Boy?
So skirting the immigration laws of a country isn’t nice. It really isn’t. It shows contempt for the laws and the people of that country. Right? It also shows disregard for the rights and interests of people attempting entry via legal channels. Don’t you think? This much should be common sense.
So should anyone be able to go to any country regardless of the wishes of the people already there? If so, if foreigners figure that they can disregard the immigration laws of the USA, then Americans should be able to disregard the immigration laws of foreign countries. Right? Fair is fair. Right?
Are you in favor of Americans ignoring the wishes of people in neighboring countries? Are you in favor of Americans moving to other countries, imposing their language on the people of that country, imposing their culture and values, imposing their needs without the legal, written consent of the people already in that country? Because imposing is what happens even if inadvertent. Because learning a new language and culture is hard and takes time. So shouldn’t the people already in that country have a say? Don’t they have legitimate interests? You see College Boy, the basic problem here is one of respect.
And so what about the legitimate interests of Americans ie White Americans, Amerindians, Black Americans, Hispanic Americans that immigrated legally. What about the rights and interests of Hispanics still trying to immigrate via legal channels? Shouldn’t the wishes and interests of these people be taken into account? Why should the wishes and interests of non-Americans barging in predominate?
Do you assume that Hispanics are a monolith? And non whites in general? You would be mistaken. If you think so then it shows an ignorance of the people of your own country. Disgraceful that a foreigner like me would know more than a native born, White, College Boy like you. Don’t you think?
Do you have Spanish speaking clan White Boy? It’s OK if you don’t. It’s not a character defect. But it would be helpful if you did because then you’d have a more intimate window into some non Anglo culture. You know, people outside the confines of wealthy, caucasian neighborhoods and campuses where people like you live (not that there’s anything necessarily WRONG with wealthy White people). You see, your posts might not howl with as much nonsense and ignorance. For example, you wouldn’t paint as ludicrous a portrait of Hispanics as you do. You know, the happy, laughing, dancing, guitar strumming clown portrait. You see, that portrait of Hispanics bugs my ass no end because I have Hispanic clan and they are nothing of the sort. But then given the racist shit you post what can be expected?
Yes, yes we know how good it would be for the One Percent to have millions more people in the USA competing with one another to lower wages and living standards.
Yes, yes we know it would be very, very good for the Upper Crust of America and their bottom lines and their bank accounts.
Yes, yes, you’ve told us how we can live sumptuously and luxuriously like you on 12 grand a year with cars and air travel and all the electronic gadgetry. We’ve heard that bullshit before so save it.
But you see College Boy the Upper Crust of American society don’t need you to advocate on their behalf especially on this kind of website. I mean, they already have the President, Congress, the Federal Ttreasury and the Federal Reserve all by the nose. So why do they need you?
Read this quote by John Adams. First things first. And what are the first things – beauty, art, philosophy, etc? No, those are the highest things, the Last Things. The first things pertain to survival and mastery. So which are more important? Depends on your situation: if you are starving, a crust of bread is the most important. If your Nation is in danger, fighting is the most important. But metaphysically or ontologically, the High things never cease to be High. But rather they are just not attainable until the lower things have been taken care of. Think of a stair case: the higher rest upon the lower.
Now look at the word Adams uses: the Right to study art and architecture. It has to be won by mastery and victory over the Elements and Enemies. Do you feel gratitude towards the men who won you this right, Buck? Or do you feel the typical Leftist contempt? In any case, we are at such a juncture again and my bringing virtually all discusions back to the Crux is not foolishness but virtue. As Cato used to end any discussion in the Senate, “And furthermore I say Carthage must be destroyed.
“http://thinkexist.com/quotation/i_must_study_politics_and_war-that_my_sons_may/255132.html
Good job taking him to the woodshed. But again, the disconnect: you favor disarming the American People in their hour of greatest need – like the cops going door to door collecting guns during Katrina. These people, the One Percent, are the Enemy now. Read our Oaths of Office again: ALL Enemies, both foreign and DOMESTIC.
Quote didn’t go thru, let’s try this one. It’s worth reading and people should know it.
http://hollierthanthee.com/2012/12/29/some-days-i-feel-like-a-john-adams-quote/
As Sean Hannity says(!), Let not your heart be troubled. Every expenditure will be paid back to the last farthing and decimal place in carbon credits. Gore will growing whole forests.
In the future, outlaws will hunted down for their chemicals and the bounty hunters accorded carbon credits for them – and any carbon credits the perp still had on their ledger.
Good. So now you know. But knowledge must serve. As it is said, If the Zadick does not serve the people, he will descend from any rung of holiness he has attained. So? So tell the Clusterfuckers what you found. Tell them about the atrocities the Jews committed in Cyprus and Alexandria. They wont believe me but they will believe you.
Why does it matter? Because we are being disarmed now by these very same people, leaving ourselves open to the same such tender mercies.
All this assumes you are reading the unedited version. If not, you still don’t know. After all, who controls the Publishing Industry?
With all due respect – and I do not discount your point – there have been far more profound thinkers on this subject than Adams. For example, Frederick Schiller’s ” Letters Upon The Aesthetic Education of Man” agonizes over the quandary of lifting man from a lower nature into something higher, which, IMO,is the mother lode of this particular writing:
“The great point is therefore to reconcile these two considerations: to prevent physical society from ceasing for a moment in time, while the moral society is being formed in the idea; in other words, to prevent its existence from being placed in jeopardy, for the sake of the moral dignity of man. When the mechanic has to mend a watch, he lets the wheels run out, but the living watchworks of the state have to be repaired while they act, and a wheel has to be exchanged for another during its revolutions. Accordingly props must be sought for to support society and keep it going while it is made independent of the natural condition from which it is sought to emancipate it.”
And this:
“For art has to leave reality, it has to raise itself bodily above necessity and neediness; for art is the daughter of freedom, and it requires its prescriptions and rules to be furnished by the necessity of spirits and not by that of matter. But in our day it is necessity, neediness, that prevails, and bends a degraded humanity under its iron yoke. Utility is the great idol of the time, to which all powers do homage and all subjects are subservient. In this great balance of utility, the spiritual service of art has no weight, and, deprived of all encouragement, it vanishes from the noisy Vanity Fair of our time.”
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/schiller-education.asp
I am unilaterally declaring a truce this week, to teach Radu the meaning of unilateral.
No posts on race from me this week.
Sorry, Rhino.
in defeat and in unilateral capitulation to rhino – we see an old familiar asoka..multitude –
The Resident Prevaricator.
Thank you for the compliment btw. I return it to you on the level are the Arts. But throughout all your posts you put the Arts first when they are in fact, last. If people are talking about survival, you will bring in the Arts as if they apply in the same way. Not to say they have no importance even now: revolutions have need of art too, but as you know, it wont be a high kind of art.
Spengler said Civilzations rise up on hob nailed boots and descend on silken slippers. Despite your martial arts and general manliness, you will be part of the silken slipper party unless and until you get your priorities straight.
[Adams] Quote didn’t go thru, let’s try this one.
“I must study Politicks and War that my sons may have liberty to study Mathematicks and Philosophy. My sons ought to study Mathematicks and Philosophy, Geography, natural History, Naval Architecture, navigation, Commerce and Agriculture, in order to give their Children a right to study Painting, Poetry, Musick, Architecture, Statuary, Tapestry and Porcelaine.”
===========
…and, umm, did I mention spelling?
That’s an Ok quote but it lacks the immediacy and clear hierarchy of Adams. I see a pattern: you like many word when a few will do. Ruskin is like that too – they were philosphers after all and Adams a man of action. More people will “get” Adams and thus it has superior utility. Your personal attraction and enjoyment is a lesser value you see. Here! A link about Kierkegaard’s Three Stages of Growth – and Aestheticism is the lowest since it is a form of personal pleasure. I really am going all out to help you today before I go to the Gun Show.
http://voices.yahoo.com/kierkegaards-three-existential-stages-5155555.html
This is open to some debate I admit. For some men, Beauty is a large part of their Spiritual Path with God as the Ulimate Beauty and the Source of all other, lesser, temporary beauty. Plato and his school thought this way. The two viewpoints could probably be reconciled. I’ll have to think more on this.
http://voices.yahoo.com/kierkegaards-three-existential-stages-5155555.html
Make up your mind. I am unilaterally saying no posts from me on race. Would you prefer to see many posts from me on race? I didn’t think so. I’m doing this for you and Radu. Rhino is a victim.
Depends on your situation: if you are starving, a crust of bread is the most important. If your Nation is in danger, fighting is the most important. But metaphysically or ontologically, the High things never cease to be High. But rather they are just not attainable until the lower things have been taken care of.
============
See Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.
You have made several posts on race this week.
You have made several pledges NOT to post on race –
also this week.
Those pledges not to post about race (except for this latest one @ 3:00) have been followed by posts on – wait for it – race.
Do whatever you like.
Whatever you do all goes to the same end, here – as ozone and others consistently point out.
And I enjoy your posts on race, because I enjoy pointing out to others the inherent racism in most of those posts.
Spelling (and useage) has changed over the course of two hundred years. Sorry. If you want Eternal Verities, go to Thomas (Aquinas) and the Scriptures in general. I enjoy your schtick and it has value, but let’s keep some perspective, eh?
Do whatever you like.
==========
Thank you, P4C. I am declaring a unilateral truce. No posts on race.
You notice that there have been no back and forth between Radu and me this week. I have not posted any more evidence on how whites are the most depraved race.
I have not posted because unilateral means only one person has to abstain from posts on race for it to be unilateral, and the fighting stops, as it has this week, despite efforts by Radu and by Rhino.
I am in control of what I post or do not post. Without a partner to fight with, a white devil like Radu stops posting on race. He is engaged with Buck Stud on aesthetics and Ruskin.
Have you ever noticed that Harvey Milk resembles Texas Congressman Ron Paul?
http://www.harveymilkday.co/foundation
Whatever you do all goes to the same end, here – as ozone and others consistently point out.
===========
Once again, thank you, P4C.
You and others, like Ozone, have given me a tremendous vote of credit in your mistaken belief that I singlehandedly have the power to turn the comments section into a true clusterfuck. And I’m not even posting 20 times a day like in yesteryear!
I humbly disagree with your assessment, but I appreciate your vote of confidence in my abilities.
Sounds good K-Dog, I’m calling dibbs on Mary-anne, You can take Lovey after Thurstin croaks from Malaria. Everbody knows that Ginger is the skipper’s squeeze.As far as Gilligan and the professor they seem to spend a lot of time off in the pineapple grove!! HMMMM
From Dmitri Orlov’s blog:
“When I arrived in Russia in the summer of 1990, I asked my uncle a simple question: “So, how much longer before the Bolsheviks give up?” He responded with a vulgar but very funny joke, which I translate as follows: “Do you know what’s with the Soviet Dildo? Well, it still buzzes, but it doesn’t vibrate any more.” (Here’s the ruder, and funnier, Russian original version: “??? ????? ????????? ???????? ??? ?????—??????, ? ? ???? ?? ?????.”) And, sure enough, less than two years later the Soviet Dildo stopped buzzing too. Perhaps you’ve realized this already on your own, but in case you haven’t: I do believe that the American Dildo has stopped vibrating some time ago. The remaining question is, When will it also stop buzzing? What do you think?”
http://cluborlov.blogspot.hk/2013/01/its-first-of-year-which-is-atraditional.html#more
People say we’re not fighting for oil. Of course we are. They talk about America’s national interest. What the hell do you think they’re talking about? We’re not there for figs.
–Chuck Hagel, Republican who Obama wants to nominate for Defense Secretary, on the war in Iraq
??? ????? ????????? ???????? ??? ?????—??????, ? ? ???? ?? ?????.”
“What is a Soviet vibrator (for the ass)? It vibrates, but won’t go in.”
ll bubbles eventually burst.
Our national debt bubble will eventually burst.
The derivatives bubble will eventually burst.
The consumer debt bubble will eventually burst.
When those bubbles burst, will you be ready?
I hope and pray that you will.
Buy gold, buy silver. Have faith.
Sir Hunt
All bubbles eventually burst.
So sorry to burst your bubble.
Mike
Well this indicates he gets it:
“The cost of maintaining the pretense is straightforward: continued deterioration in the moribund status quo; more and more people, young and old, left behind; entire communities in distress; places destroyed by natural disasters abandoned rather than rebuilt; more and more people going after fewer and fewer resources that are still being made available to those in need. It is a rolling collapse affecting one person, one family, one community at a time.”
But then he he gives the pooch the buzzing dildo when he closes with:
But if enough of that happens then I won’t be writing any more books, since I don’t see why I should work for free.
So Orlov understands that his writing has the capacity to mitigate human misery but he won’t write without guarantee of financial reward.
Personal honesty perhaps but bad form that suggests a lack of literary credulity and a dedication to the sophistic arts.
As that’s my kind of meat I soon I won’t be seeing a reason to read him without being paid at least something for it.
With his attitude why I should I read him free?
Innocence would be more forgivable.
I think you missed the point. There is no going back,reversing course or like a’ mechanic mending a watch,letting the wheels run out. As Schiller wrote,”the living watchworks of the state have to be repaired while they act”.
In other words, Vlad, it’s time to accept reality.And the reality is that recent immigrants are here to stay and more will follow. And if you really treasure Western Civilization as much as you claim, it’s time to start embodying the qualities that just might inspire people – even those racially different from you – to emulate what you claim is great. And wouldn’t that be the real victory, the only way to preserve those aspects of Western Civilization you claim to cherish so?. After all, at the end of the day you have no bone to pick with a Clarence Thomas or a Thomas Sowell, which proves your real fight is not with skin color, but with ideology.
Your flattery that I should be believed and that you are not is not what seduces me into quoting the following passage. It is of merit, the reasons why Jews were expelled from Palestine are rarely remembered in the modern clamor of our times.
” From the reign of Nero to that of Antoninus Pius, the Jews discovered a fierce impatience of the dominion of Rome, which repeatedly broke out in the most furious massacres and insurrections. Humanity is shocked at the recital of the horrid cruelties which they committed in the cities of Egypt, of Cyprus, and of Cyrene, where they dwelt in treacherous friendship with the unsuspecting natives; 1 and we are tempted to applaud the severe retaliation which was exercised by the arms of the legions against a race of fanatics, whose dire and credulous superstition seemed to render them the implacable enemies not only of the Roman government, but of human kind. “
Suggested by this passage but not enumerated is the amount of death inflicted by the rebels upon their neighbors which apparently was quite substantial numbering in the hundreds of thousands.
When a people any people addled by human narcissism and conceit believes themselves superior to the other families of men on who’s planet they share their lives, bad things inevitably happen.
Gibbon later says that once the Jews were dispersed about the empire they then began to get along with their neighbors though they continued to keep to themselves. Their god is a jealous god which will have no others before it. The early Jews saw others as inferior which resulted in a lot of grief for all involved. Learning respect and tolerance changed their ways.
Perhaps in our times we have more to fear from intolerant idiots than intolerant dogma. I hope so.
Idiots we can’t seem to get rid of.
Better gauge of the economy is pussy futures..starting to give it away.
I have only one word for you and that is:…..
Catherine Austin Fitts has been decifering for us what the (Global) man has in mind. What do these corporate elite want?
Well in good stead with JHK’s techno-triumphalism it is……(drumroll please)
ROBOTICS
yes, yes the captains of capitalism –you know the job creators who will need to pay 0 taxes in order to hire the minions here at home, have been off-shoring their money in the trillions while leaving us with nothing but a manufactured fiscal cliff.
(In the last couple of months there have been stories on 60 minutes about how we are still manufacturing things, but we are using robots instead of those pesky workers who demand pay and need health insurance.
Biggest mistake this country ever made was saddling corporations with the role of providing medical insurance.)
So, now they are telling us they need engineers to build the robots that will take all the jobs. I’m positive they will say they need cheap Indian engineers. As opposed to Americans many of whom are very talented in math, even if the culture doesn’t push math and science. You all must realize that the aptitude in math exists in all populations.
This is all because those on top who once made 40% more than their workers deserve 400% cuz they’re so talented and what’s stopping them for needing 1000%–In their lexicon of freedom and liberty there are no boundaries.
[From article:
The following is her take on their long term strategy. She knew before the passage of the North American Free Trade Act that jobs would be shipped overseas. (12 million jobs and 56,000 manufacturing plants to be exact.) Her take was that the manufacturing jobs were being sent overseas to make money in Round One. In Round Two those jobs would be eliminated by robotics. A contact of hers in the Navy said America needs to produce 400,000 robotics engineers in 10 years. That means those Asian jobs will be going away too. America has a competitive advantage in that her natural gas is abundant and several orders of magnitude cheaper than in China and Europe. The combination of cheap energy and robotics will reduce American productions costs in 2020 to be far less than Asia’s.]
http://www.infowars.com/catherine-austin-fitts-there-is-no-fiscal-cliff-in-january-2013-unless-you-want-it/
Have you ever noticed that everyone is AFRAID?
Afraid of dying; Afraid of rejection; Afraid of the government; Afraid of black people; Afraid of white people; Afraid of yellow people; Afraid of the Boss; Afraid of the spirits; Afraid to being different; Afraid of commitment; Afraid of the future; Afraid of anonymity; Afraid of the food that they eat; Afraid of the water that they drink, etc., etc., etc.
Note on CAF
If you read the full article there will be things that are a bit way-out, but where she describes the giant looting of this once great marketplace, she is believable. Her observations on the health of Americans and the slow collapse is believable too.
All bubbles eventually burst.
===========
Including gold bubbles and silver bubbles.
So sorry to burst your bubble.
Good luck!
The combination of cheap energy and robotics will reduce American productions costs in 2020 to be far less than Asia’s.
===========
Being There, when you talk about “cheap energy” in the future, you are going against the CFN mantra, which maintains the low-hanging fruit has been picked (in both oil and gas), setting the stage for a Long Emergency. You are being far too optimistic for CFN ideology.
Pucker, I’m afraid to say I have.
Asoka I was waiting for you to say that. I made it clear I don”t agree with her assessment, but the looting aspect and the fiscal cliff I agree with.
I don’t think that the Robotics is going to work out over the long haul either, but it is what they would like.
Thanks for the clarification. Sorry to be so predictable. 🙂
I don’t think that the Robotics is going to work out over the long haul either…
=============
You agree with CAF’s stance on looting, but not on the long haul of robtoics. Isn’t the looting predicated on the robotics? The robotics is how you eliminate the worker and lower costs. I don’t agree on the robotics long haul or the looting short haul. We are reaching the limits for corruption and looting (economies of efficiency). It’s all predicated on access to cheap energy, and that is not assured.
The limits also apply to the super rich. The limits also apply to easy profits. Our poster, Change in the Weather, said as much on Dec. 31:
A CHANGE IN THE WEATHER | DECEMBER 31, 2012 12:17 PM | REPLY
Money = oil = faith in the future. It’s all one big feedback loop that’s about to hit a limit.
The ruling class, the puppet masters, the powers that be, etc. EVERYONE IS GOING TO BE AFFECTED BY THE LIMITS. There is no way to escape from the laws of physics, no matter how much gold you have.
You’re so exhausting, I’m ready to go back to bed already.
They are using robots on factory floors now. There are commercials asking for more engineers for the innovations of robotics now, so she’s not making this up, but because of the real issues not the hyped issues of energy, this does not have a long future….
this does not have a long future….
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Excellent!
Just as indefinite, with regard to time, as our host JHK.
No one can rule out a positive black swan, as described by Taleb, which here most call “techno-miracles” … I’m not making this up either.
Ugh…
Is it a wonder you’re the most popular blogger on this site?
Going out soon, you’ll have to go pick on someone else for the rest of the day.
Deficit reduction correlates strongly with employment levels, back to 1948.
We could reduce the deficit by outlawing military style assault weapons, then putting people to work (in teams of 5 to 10) confiscating existing assault weapons from the homes of private citizens. We could hire more people to make sure the info is in a database of people who (formerly) owned assault weapons. All of this would be co-ordinated with local law enforcement agencies in the 50 states.
Is it a wonder you’re the most popular blogger on this site?
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My popularity is an unwanted by-product.
My goal is not to be popular. My goal is to discuss issues like EROEI, carrying capacity, nuclear proliferation, overpopulation, TLE, WMBH, environmental degradation, etc. I have offered dozens of practical solutions related to these issues.
That is what makes me so popular.
Last year CAF spoke and said her MAIN concern
is what Monsanto has planned, to push 3 billion
peasants off the land.
I am also very concerned about GMOs.
A white swan I can think of is the possibility of pigs flying out of your ass.
A Free Taleb Download
That would definitely be a highly improbable event with positive consequences.
“the reality is that recent immigrants are here to stay…” -buck, probably correct-
“and more will follow.”
-buck, on new ground for him-
How many more, buck?
Do you think this is a good idea?
Is opposition to this idea evidence of “racism?”
Is it impossible to oppose the overpopulation of the United States to a more unsustainable level?
(Is it possible that this writer should integrate improbable numbers of polysyllabic expressions into one freestanding grammatic expression?
– – – – – irony on/off)
NumbersUSA has 1.3 million members.
Sounds like you should join us, buck.
“That is what makes me so popular.”
-as ok a-
In this case, ass, it is your lack of any sense of irony, that facilitates your – unique and largely unrequited – perception of your popularity on CFN.
Somewhat like a man we knew, of whom it was said:
“He was a legend in his own mind.”
NumbersUSA has 1.3 million members.
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How many of those are non-white?
All of them are non-white. I certainly am.
Anyway, what does “white” mean?
Isn’t race an artificial construct?
I’m usually a light brown.
I picked out a sunny alcove a while ago.
And worked on my tan.
Now I’m pink.
Tomorrow I’m be a darker brown.
Stop judging me, asoka. That’s racist.
You see Radu if the wishes of the Founding Fathers as written in the second amendment ie
“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
were being taken to heart and acted on by present generations of Americans that would be one thing. What I mean by that is gun ownership in the context of membership in a well regulated militia. That would mean under military command and the rules and regulations as set out by a military organization.
But how many Americans own guns for the purpose of membership in a well regulated militia? Somewhere close to zero or none?
So what have you got now? Armed Americans using their firearms to fight against or guard against tyranny? No, you have armed Americans, many of them out and out nutcases that belong in a hospital, massacring people in schools and theaters.
How many people get murdered via firearms in Chicago every year? Correct me if I’m wrong but I heard the number 500. That’s about two Sandyhook slaughters per month. And that’s just Chicago.
But yeah you are entirely correct, the One Percent in Washington and Manhattan working hand in hand looted the country right under your noses with the ideological justification that this is America, America is about economic freedom and free markets and so this gutting of America was fully justified as being within the bounds of American culture and tradition. If you are a right thinking American you won’t question it. And that, say the One Percent, is the end of the discussion.
But let’s not stop there. That was just the financial and economic eviseration of the country. There was also the cultural and psychological vandalism. And you know who I mean. The people occupying the opposite end of the political spectrum who passionately hate the country they live in and so devoutly wish and pray for its demise. You know, the Blame America First gang, the types you see on talk shows portraying themselves as sophisticates and wits and intellectuals. And the types that excuse damn near any personal misbehavior (especially sexual misbehavior or that relating to personal relationships) in the name of broadminded tolerance. You’ve seen some of these people on this website posting comments.
You can point to “Conservatives” and blame them for the economic ruination of the country. What they did has nothing to do with being Conservative which to my own understanding of the term is all about cautious, incremental change and defence of the institutions of the country. I mean, what the fuck good are the institutions of a country if there isn’t the economic means for their support and funding?
And a free market? Is the “market” there to serve the interests of the broad spectrum of the populace? Or is it the opposite? Are conservative ideological dictates there to serve the interests of the people? Or is it the other way round? These types talk about the long run. But people just don’t eat in this mythical “long run”. They have to eat every damn day. If a liberal is a conservative who hasn’t yet been mugged then a conservative is a liberal that hasn’t yet gone for a couple days without food (a mind expanding experience that).
But, to point my squirt gun in the other direction, what the hell have what so-called Progressives done that has anything to do with “progress”? You don’t have “progress”, you have its opposite, a system of excuse making and rationalization for shitty behavior that’s accomplished little but the barbarization of personal conduct and coarsening of public discourse. And I personally am guilty of at least the latter with my frequent use of four letter words.
To take obvious examples, how in god’s name did it get to be OK to broadcast the shit you see on Maury Povich (I think that’s his name). And then there’s the grandaddy of all this crap – Jerry Springer. And you have a generation of young guys whose only knowledge of chicks is what they get jacking off in front of a computer screen watching internet porn.
None of this garbage should see the light of day. And all this horror I lay at the feet of so-called liberals and “progressives” quote unquote which justify and defend to the death this societal miasma of mess and misery in the name of “tolerance”. Tolerance of what pray tell? Why is making people and especially little kids miserable in any way tolerable? This is what personal liberty is about?
Liberals say they don’t want society to return to the stifling behavioral straighjackets of the 1950s. Well that’s just great. And is what you have now any better? I’ve read that at any given time one third of young black men are somewhere in the justice system ie in jail, on parole, awaiting trial. Is this “progress”? Black and Hispanic kids are doing dreadfully badly in school according to what I’ve read. Is this “progress”?
And liberal prescriptions for these ills? Well, you see, Ebonics. Bilingual education. Multiculturalism. Tolerance. Excuse making. Ain’t working. Or rather it is working but only to marginalize large segments of the young. No matter what the excuse or the reason, if they are semi-literate, semi-numerate, lacking in technical skills they will be prey for tougher, more aggressive, more adaptable people. Liberals can talk about systemic racism all they want but this abysmal performance on the part of Black and Hispanic kids has bugger all to do with racism. It’s got bugger all to do with race. It’s about culture and attitude. If Black and Hispanic parents gave a damn their kids would do well. And look at the rotten performance American White kids in comparison with their peers in other places. Is this in any way justifiable given the torrent of resources devoted to “education”?
So to the point. What good are the guns? You have more guns than people. Did they stop the ruin of America (with the acquiescence of Americans) at the hands of either the Right or the Left?
That’s a thouroughly discredited reading of the 2nd Ammendment. Liberals pushed that for decades and even Americans weren’t stupid enough to buy it. Finally even they admitted it was a lie and now just wan to dictate rules that would make the 2nd Ammendment null. In their honest moments, they dream of repealing the Ammendment itself.
Of course we are degenerate – the gun culture is one of the few things we have left. And now you want to take that too. You want us to go back? To what? Some kind of U.N Statism? To working as virtual slaves? To marriages (business contracts) where the female party can break the contract and be not punished but rewarded? Would you do business with someone who had that power over you?
No sir: the way is not back to an America that can never be but forward to a new one. And guns are if not the means, at least the convincer. They are not sufficient but they are necessary.
Guns are basically outlawed in several of our largest cities, such as Chicago. Chicago is also becoming the murder capital of the United States. Do I need to spell it out? It doesn’t work and they know it. They are disarming us so they can have their way with us not because of crime.
The People are the Militia. Those who are skilled and serious should train. By definition, they are not regulated by the Goverment. That would defeat the whole purpose….
You miss the point, the mark. This is also called sin. You have no gratitude for the men who made your life of art possible. Thus you don’t really have the moral right to it. What you produce will not be Western and your interest in the Cathedrals will be that of an outsider looking in. This is confirmed by your love of the twisted monuments from the old Soviet Union. If you really loved the Cathedrals, you could not love those things as they are in contradiction.
I have not posted any more evidence on how whites are the most depraved race. – assoka
What are you talking about? You’ve never given any comparative statistics from non-white peoples or civilizations to prove that whites are the most depraved.
And I’ve asked over and over. I’ve made other requests with respect to this issue and you haven’t come through on those either.
You said no posts from you on race this week. Tomorrow is a new week. And so you can post the requested information tomorrow.
And hurry up. You’re losing credibility. I mean how can you make such assertions without a full set of data? You DO have the data don’t you? You wouldn’t make these claims WITHOUT the data would you?
Two more things: define what you mean by “the most depraved”. Is this a sociological term? And how do you define “whites”?
The original Incas were White Europeans. Look at the terror on this women’s face in death – killed by Indians. Do you want your women to die at the hands of non Whites too?
Also we were in the Americas long ago – before many of the Mongolian peoples. Don’t buy the lie about us being interlopers.
http://www.standard.co.uk/news/moment-600-years-ago-that-terror-came-to-mummies-of-the-amazon-7174204.html
That’s a thouroughly discredited reading of the 2nd Ammendment. – R
How so? Looks really clear to me. If the Founding Fathers had meant otherwise why would they have stuck in the words about a well regulated militia?
In any case widespread gun ownership hasn’t stopped the looting of America, it’s economic destruction at the hands of a tiny elite. It hasn’t stopped the hijacking of national politics for the benefit of that elite either. How do you account for this calamitous failure? And what do you intend to do with all that firepower? If nothing has come of it yet then I doubt that anything will. All that’s being accomplished is that public places are being turned into shooting galleries.
Thanks Soak. Please keep reminding him that Whites stand alone and that you all are Enemies.
Muchos gracias. Mucho gusto! (does that make sense?) In any case, it’s hardly over. Anytime the Jews get strong, they start up again. Look what they did in the Soviet Union. Look at what they’re planning to do here now. Of course they had and have many traitorous gentile allies.
Maybe I should, Prog. Have you ever noticed how much more pleasant it is out on the roads, or just a municipal area in general, when there is a Govt holiday? I have, and on those days my mood is better and my spirits higher. To my way of thinking, this is direct result of less people.
Please don’t mistake my resignation toward inevitable/incessant immigration as something I support – I do not. On the other hand, and as evidenced by the sentiments of Asoka, immigration, and the resultant increase in population, is conflated with racism.
But looked at from another angle, who benefits from a large supply of workers – and many of those workers willing to undercut the wages of American citizens – other than the those who control the ‘means of production’?
So it’s a ClusterFuck once again, with the divide and conqueror’s fingering the puppets all too eager to scream racism even as the greater left wing cause – hard earned worker rights – is flushed down the toilet.
And you wonder why I am resigned to an inevitable increase in immigration/population?
Nonsense. Ruskin would be termed a far left radical by those on the right in America today. Your ignorance on this particular subject is like a sharp pin which has pricked the air out of your greater intellectual balloon. In other words, just as I was becoming hopeful, you reveal yourself as lacking in depth. And nothing is more indicative of that than your broad brush denouncement of the old Soviet Union artists.
Maybe I’ll post some images when I have more time to hunt them down that will certainly open your eyes (and hopefully patch that leak in your skull).
I was refering to the images I sent you which I saw as monstrous. You thought they were awesome.
I doubt if Ruskin believed in violent overthrow of the System or its subversion via third world immigration, and moral corruption; in other words, Marxism 1.0 and 2.0.
“And you wonder why I am resigned to an inevitable increase in immigration/population?” -buck-
Yeah, buck, I’m resigned to some things, too.
But that doesn’t mean I’m not willing to work and fight against them.
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And you see it, too, then?
The confluence of corporate support of immigration on the one hand and the incessant cries of “racism.,” on the other?
Perfectly splitting the US voting public and our “leadership” into panicked decision making on yet another vital subject.
Sounds like conspiracy.
Probably isn’t.
But it has the same disastrous effects as if it were conspiracy – all the same.
===========================
” But the rage of the Donatists was inflamed by a frenzy of a very extraordinary kind; and which, if it really prevailed among them in so extravagant a degree, cannot surely be paralleled in any country or in any age. Many of these fanatics were possessed with the horror of life, and the desire of martyrdom; and they deemed it of little moment by what means, or by what hands, they perished, if their conduct was sanctified by the intention of devoting themselves to the glory of the true faith, and the hope of eternal happiness. “
It seems the tradition of suicide bombers goes way back. The part in bold may certainly be forgiven considering the above passage was first published in 1781.
Gibbon cannot be relied upon for historical accuracy. He’s too self conscious a stylist. Facts and their interpretation are often sacrificed for the sake of a shapely sentence.
“…which repeatedly broke out in the most furious massacres and insurrections,” he writes. Were these massacres really furious? Did they really repeatedly occur? Gibbon is probably just turning his hand.
Decline and Fall is a magnificent achievement. But it’s as much a novel as an historical essay.
Good observation on Gibbon, Jam47. I always thought his work was more art, less history. Too pat, almost Wagnerian. Thanks!
“Were these massacres really furious?”
-jam-
Probably were, jam, since Roman history was sadly and completely bereft of happy, exhilarated massacres.
Or, perhaps, language and definitions have shifted somewhat since Gibbon’s day.
FURIOUS – – –
Definition: extremely angry, very mad
Synonyms: bent out of shape, bent*, beside oneself, boiling, browned off, bummed out, corybantic, crazed, demented, desperate, enraged, fierce, fit to be tied, frantic, frenetic, frenzied, fuming, hacked, hopping mad, incensed, infuriated, insane, irrational, livid, maddened, maniac, on the warpath, rabid, raging, smoking, steamed, unreasonable, up in arms, vehement, vicious, violent, wrathful
Antonyms: cheerful, elated, excited, exhilarated, happy, pleased
This is a great post.
I hope we can all benefit from the wisdom.
Sorry that it is so late in the train, perhaps you can repost to an early segment next time.
Hey Man,
You did not take your Virus shot. Get in line and get immunized. It is not so bad, once you bite the bullet and take it up the shorts. Lay back like a good dog. You will relent. You will repent.
No, progressive4conserving, the language hasn’t changed all that much. “furious massacres” is redundant. Gibbon is interested in the music of the sentence as much, if not more, than its meaning. How many massacres do you suppose there have been that are not furious?
There are millions of humans who know nothing of metaphysics or ontology, but believe that life is worth living and have goals and higher aspirations. Socrates and Plato had the leisure to develop fine stratagy, but their slaves were kept busy and made sure to prepare the meals and scrub the floor.
New Years Eve was a revelation, I heard gunfire, and could identify AK47, shotguns, and various grenade explosions. Just the gentry testing the ballistics, in case of an emergency, no doubt.
So it goes in the land of the free and the home of the brave. Bombs bursting in air, etc.
concur, pedal pusher.
It’s late in the week. I was just pulling chains.
Good to see you lurking so late, pp.
Extensive psychological research proves that when most people put on a “mask”, i.e., don a uniform, or assume a “role” (even if the role is a fictious role, as for example, in a play) that they soon identify with that role and assume a corresponding persona.
I’ve just put on my artifical afro wig, black leather jacket, bell bottom jeans, high-heeled leather boots, and put my Black Power poster up on my office wall.
“Now, whata we gonna do ’bout dem Honkies?”
Have you ever noticed that fossil fuels are all “Black” (except for natural gas, which doesn’t count because it is a gas)?
White society runs on “Black Power”…..
Most people of color have much more empathy for the human condition. They actually feel sorry for the Honkies. And if the shit hits the fan, they will be the people that will help you survive, since they have righteous experience thanks to years of being under the boot.
You should not walk, but run to Rutgers, in Camden, New Jersey, and embrace the wonderful neighbors and life that you see around you in America, circa 2013.
Then report back to us on how well everything is going. All the affluence and trickle down that was promised. Now the police department has been outsourced, in a city with the worst crime rate in America. Good luck with that. Just wonder when the Statue of Liberty will go on sale.
“Most people of color have much more empathy for the human condition.” -xporting bias-
Sorry, x, but I’ve taken a New Year’s vow to call-out racism wherever it occurs.
And your statement is racist, pure and simple – it only gets a pass from the unwary because of its Politically Correct genuflections.
————
Don’t believe me? Try these:
“most people of color have less empathy.”
“”White People” have more empathy for others.”
And Blacks run on White Powder or Power.
Blacks make better sprinters on average than Whites. Is this racist or a simple fact? Likewise, Whites are smarter on average than Blacks. If the first isn’t racist, the second isn’t either.
Isn’t race an artificial construct?
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Yes, and so are nations, borders, and “immigrants”
Very good observation, P4C.
All I did was ask P4C how many non-whites are members of NumbersUSA. The Prevaricator did not answer the question.
NumbersUSA is popular throughout the white nationalist and skinhead communities.
The NumbersUSA’s campaign has been promoted by white nationalist David Duke, a former Grand Wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.
On Vinlanders Social Club, NumbersUSA is promoted on the home page with a direct link to its website. Vinlanders Social Club is a midwest coalition of racist skinhead groups with a history of violence against members of the black community.
Stormfront directs Stormfront members to the NumbersUSA website. Stormfront is the leading white nationalist, white supremacist, neo-Nazi, and skinhead social networking forum.
Although NumbersUSA has actively tried to distance itself from the extreme far right, its message stills resonates deeply with these communities. Even the group’s own Executive Director, Roy Beck, has spoken to a white supremacist organization, the Council of Conservative Citizens in the past.
Therefore, until NumbersUSA strongly condemns the comments made on its web-site and the promotion of its messaging on skinhead and white nationalist sites, they are not a credible voice on the important issues surrounding immigration in our country.
Unemployed Greeks Return to Farming
The article opines:
“The steady shift to the farms and villages appears to be an unstoppable force fuelled by desperation in the cities, inspired by hope for a better, less anxious life.”
It could be true or it could be something that belongs in the Onion not from a respected news source. Regardless its worth five-teen seconds of fame on clusterfuck nation.
Perhaps this can help, ?????? ????? ????????. Learning to farm can’t be easy to do.
✈
Obama Gun Control
The Natural Gas Bubble
From the article:
“The hype surrounding natural gas is a last push to take toxic assets—literally, in this case—dress them up as fancy investments, and then sell them off to unsuspecting Americans.”
&
“Public policymakers need to be very aware of the promotional aspect of shale gas,” petroleum geologist Art Berman says. “This is a very efficient public relations and business machine. They have done a really good job of convincing public policymakers that shale is revolutionary.”
Key points in the article are that:
In the first 40 to 50 years, gas is worse for the environment than oil or coal. (due to methane leaks)
The oil and gas industry’s reach, infects the Department of Energy and its Energy Information Agency Resulting in overly optimistic predictions of well life made using inadequate cherry picked data.
As usual, and without citing a source, our Resident Racist proves himself to also be the Resident Impediment.
http://imagine2050.newcomm.org/2010/03/22/hardcore-racists-flock-to-numbersusas-campaign/
Headphones every time over earphones. It’s an issue of comfort, for one. And noise exclusion. I had visions of becoming the next famous concert pianist. Maybe I would play in Carnegie Hall. My fans would bring me roses and I would receive standing ovations.
This translated into five Tour wins in five starts between 1969 and 1974. In 1973, however, he publicly snubbed the Tour after winning a historic double of the tours of Italy and Spain in the spring. After winning stage six, a short time-trial, to take the race lead, Merckx cemented his advantage by taking a second time-trial on stage nine.
Please remember, with iLs you need some supervision (phone, in person, or email) by a trained associate if you buy a previously used unit. If you have any concerns about your own health or the health of your child, you should always consult with a physician or other healthcare professional. Please review the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use before using this site.
Noise reduction earphones may just be the answer. At first I was a bit skeptical because it just seemed too good to be true. It also’s true — these headphones get rid of all the ambient noise you hear around you. A friend of mine does some beautiful work in stained glass. She got a hold of a set of old doors and replaced the glass panels with stained glass. Now when you look at the doors, it looks like you’re looking at the moon peeking through a tree’s bare branches in winter..
Artists together with manufacturers have spent countless hours on fine-tuning together with blending melodies to produce it precisely how they wish their followers to locate it. But a lot of headphones can’t unquestionably duplicate your intricacies stated in the facilities. Simply get, studios can.
It’s best to give your mind a rest before writing a report. Just be sure not to put your book report off until the last minute. Write it the next day if possible.. To get the full effect, you will need to hook your phone into a car audio system with a hefty subwoofer. The phone also has to be secured in a mount to work properly. Which seems like a lot of trouble for a novelty that is likely to remain amusing for as long as it takes a 2011 Lamborghini Gallardo to go from zero to 60.
The power of the subconscious mind is far more vast them most people realize. That is why it is important to never overlook the benefits of manipulating the subconscious. Not only can you change your behaviour; using the power of your subconscious mind is also the gateway to a truly amazing new life!.
Inside the terminal, there are several restaurants and a convenience store. Greyhound also allows electronic devices such as laptops, MP3 players, and radios on board as long as the user wears headphones and the device or devices do not disturb others on board. Be sure to bring extra batteries, as the buses do not have external power outlets.
She stuttered, love you. She breathed,I pressed my hand to her cheek, her green eyes meeting mine, okay if you don love me too. I used to that. In addition to doing something fun during a small break, try doing something inspirational. One of the best ways to do this is to go for a walk. This can help to clear your mind or even give you new ideas.
Let the flight attendant know: Leave your tray table up and locked. Not only does this give you more room, but it signals to the flight attendant that, if your eyes are closed, too, you don’t need to be disturbed for your beverage. If you’ve got a blanket, fasten your seatbelt on the outside, so that they can see it without having to wake you up..
How much power you need depends on what you want out of your system. Car Amplifiers comes with different types such as Class D Amplifiers and Multi-channel Amplifiers. Other car audio and video resources: Marine Audio.. Bastion is about as intensive a game as you be able to play on Chrome OS, and it works perfectly. The game essentially populates as you go, and I never had a single stutter or skipped frame as I played the game. (Incidentally, I terrible at Bastion, but that not really Chrome OS fault.) Google told us over and over that the primary focus for this version of Chrome OS was speed, and boasts that the Chromebook is two to three times faster than the previous model.
Hello CFN How can I forward your articles ? there seems to be no link and I always want to share your essays to friends!!
Der bei einem Test ermittelte Intelligenzquotient (IQ) eines Menschen ist weit weniger aussagekr?ftig als angenommen. Neben der Leistungskraft des Denkorgans h?ngt er offenbar stark von der Motivation ab, bei der Prüfung gut abzuschneiden.
Psychologen der Universit?t von Pennsylvania werteten 46 Studien mit mehr als 2000 Probanden aus, in denen den Prüflingen Geld oder Sü?igkeiten versprochen wurden. Je h?her die Belohnung ausfiel, desto st?rker stieg das IQ-Ergebnis. Eine Videoanalyse von 250 Schuljungen beim IQ-Test best?tigte: Je mehr Mühe sich diese gaben und je konzentrierter sie arbeiteten, desto besser schnitten sie ab.
Der Intelligenzquotient hat eine hohe Vorhersagekraft für den Erfolg in Ausbildung und Beruf, das Einkommen und sogar für die Lebensdauer. Gerade bei niedrigen IQ-Werten raten die Studienautoren nun aber dazu, die Testumst?nde und individuelle Motivation st?rker zu berücksichtigen. M?glicherweise sei der Wille zum Erfolg ebenso wichtig für die sp?tere Entwicklung wie die geistigen Voraussetzungen dafür.
Double-Gewinner Brose Baskets Bamberg kann auch in den n?chsten zwei Jahren mit seinem Point Guard Anton Gavel planen. Der 27 Jahre alte slowakische Nationalspieler, der in der vergangenen Saison zum besten Defensivakteur der Basketball-Bundesliga gekürt worden war, verl?ngerte seinen Vertrag bis 2014.
?Wir sind sehr froh, dass wir Anton halten konnten. Er war das Herzstück unserer Mannschaft und wird es auch in den n?chsten zwei Jahren wieder sein“, sagte Bambergs Manager Wolfgang Heyder der Süddeutschen Zeitung: ?Damit haben wir einen wertvollen Mosaikstein in der Zusammenstellung unserer Mannschaft gesetzt.“
Gavel spielt seit 2009 beim Meister und Pokalsieger und soll zuletzt heftig vom Ligakonkurrenten Bayern München sowie ausl?ndischen Klubs umworben worden sein. 10,7 Punkte erzielte er in der vergangenen Spielzeit im Schnitt für die Franken.