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If you’re interested in supporting this blog, Now Live on “Simply the best novel of the 1960s” Get your Official JHK swag on Pre-order the fourth and final book of the World Made By Hand series. (autographed by the Author) JHK’s Three-Act Play, A log mansion in the Adirondack Mountains A big family on the run A nation in peril Visit the to order, perform, or see sample scenes. It’s that time of year again.

Here’s JHK’s holiday classic: A Christmas Orphan. 11-year-old Jeff Greenaway hears his mom and dad argue one night after an office Christmas party.

He infers from their garbled squabble that he is an orphan, found in a willow basket on the welcome mat outside their New York apartment. Thinking now that his parents are imposters, he steals away to Grand Central Station and buys a train ticket to Drakesville, Vermont, where he intends to start life all over again. JHK’s lost classic now reprinted as an e-book. T he more detached from reality American culture becomes the more strictly ceremonial leadership gets, as illustrated by the raft of bromides Barack Obama floated past the assembled vassalage of government last week in another grand effort to avoid the necessities of the moment. Those necessities include freeing a hostage public from the tyrannical clutches of corporate despotism — the evil empire of big boxes, big burgers, big pharma, Big Brother — and the atrocious rackets fostered by them that masquerade as an economy.

The template of the life we have known is broken and the pieces within are flying apart, and no amount of wishing or promising can keep them going. If this society is even going to survive, the people have to smash their way out of this template prison, probably against the efforts of the people and organizations now running it merely for their own benefit. The future is telling us very clearly: get smaller, get finer, get more local, get less complex, get less grandiose, do it now. Do you want to eat food in the years ahead?

Better make sure you live in a part of the country where small-scale farming and backyard gardening is possible because the General Mills Agri-Biz GMO Cheerios model will be folding its big tent along with its financing agents in the debt Ponzi banking system. Do you want to have a personal economic future? Think about what you can do to make yourself useful in a local economy made up of your neighbors. And if you live in one of the thousands of soulless, neighborless suburban wastelands that amount to nothing but big box and big burger plantations, you better get out and find a real town in some other part of the country. Do you believe that computers and robot factories will define the years to come? Maybe you have failed to notice that the US electric grid is decrepit and in need of at least a $1 trillion upgrade-and-rebuild, which, by the way, is not going to happen. What is all that crap going to run on?

America’s disappointment with the broken promises of technology will be so epic that we’ll be lucky not to slide back into a world ruled by superstition and ghosts. Do you think that $50 oil is going to make the world safe for WalMart, Walt Disney World, and Happy Motoring? In fact, $50 oil is going to crush what is left of the US Oil industry, especially fracking for shale oil and deep water drilling.

And guess what — everything else is depleting at about 5 percent a year. The frackers will never again get access to the sort of junk bond financing that allowed them to ramp up their Ponzi demonstration projects in the Bakken and Eagle Ford. And they will never again regain their current level of production — which is the net result of past Ponzi financing, now ending in tears. So, forget “Saudi America” and “energy independence,” unless you mean living in a walkable community near a navigable waterway. Do you want to be an educated person, that is, someone capable of comprehending reality and functioning within its demands? In the USA, that means you must learn how to speak and write English correctly, especially if you are in a “low performing” ethnic minority group.

If you can’t conjugate verbs, you will have a hard time distinguishing the past, the present, and the future in your daily activities. Among other things, you’ll be incapable of showing up on time. And that, of course, is only the beginning.

It’s that simple. These abilities used to be the result of an eighth-grade education in the United States. We would be lucky to get back to that high standard, and our knucklehead fantasies about universal access to community college be damned. It’s only a new layer in the current racket that pretends to be education. That is the current state of the union and a glimpse of the trajectory it’s on, which the inept leaders of our country do not comprehend and cannot communicate. “ Kunstler skewers everything from kitsch to greed, prejudice, bloodshed, and brainwashing in this wily, funny, rip-roaring, and profoundly provocative page- turner, leaving no doubt that the prescriptive yet devilishly satiric A World Made by Hand series will continue.” — Booklist My local indie booksellers (Autographed by the Author) or or Also: Published as an E-book for the first time! The 20th Anniversary edition With an entertaining new introduction by the author Bargain Price $3.99.

James Howard Kunstler is the author of many books including (non-fiction) The Geography of Nowhere, The City in Mind: Notes on the Urban Condition, Home from Nowhere, The Long Emergency, and Too Much Magic: Wishful Thinking, Technology and the Fate of the Nation. His novels include World Made By Hand, The Witch of Hebron, Maggie Darling — A Modern Romance, The Halloween Ball, an Embarrassment of Riches, and many others. He has published three novellas with Water Street Press: Manhattan Gothic, A Christmas Orphan, and The Flight of Mehetabel.

I too have been wrong a long time. I read Limits to Growth in 1974 and it made a lot of sense. Too much apparently. The analytic framework (or paradigm) it stimulated was just another Malthusian riff that hooked me and I have been unable to see anything but stupidity and malfeasance everywhere. But when I go to Vail the slopes are full, the restaurants have 45 minute waits, the condos at the beach go for $2,000/week, and when I go to the grocery store I end up parking my 10 yr old Honda between two new SUV’s. Everybody is apparently doing fine. When it’s over is anybody’s guess.

I wish what I know (that things are teetering on the edge of a cliff) and what I see(above) had even the barest correlation.You should see our Costco at noon on Friday. Is anybody working these days? They seem to just have money.

I’ll just keep rowing my boat gently down the stream. You’re disappointed because you’ve bought into cult-inspired Rapture fantasies that say the end of the world is going to be immediateand that it’ll be the end of the world. You’d be great debunking all the John Nelson Darby imitators (John Hagee, Hal Lindsey, the 2012 “Nubiru” crowd, etc.). As far as “debunking’ Peak Oil or the banking crisiseh, well, not so much.

You seem to say that everything worked out and we muddled through, so therefore those who raised concerns should be ashamed of themselves. Is 25% real-world unemployment, with half the nation making less than $20K per year, OK to you? Is a Costco flooded with people spending their food stamps a sign of a national renaissance? Or how about all the Indians working at the few jobs that still offer a living wage – because employers don’t want Americans? Are these all the signs of a thriving American culture? And how’s that surveillance state working out for you? Do you like having all your e-mails read, your movements monitored?

How do you like the fact that our nation is going to war with Russia, when we can’t even win in Iraq? Have you cared to notice that all the U.S. Can do is try to turn the rest of the world into chaos so we look good by comparison? All of these things seem like a perfect play-out, over the decades, of peak oil (which was always about CONVENTIONAL, cheaply-recovered oil) and financial scams. In case you didn’t read the source material, the predictions were always stated in decades. ButAmericans are hooked on the Darbyist sh*t. Jesus will come back and scoop the faithful away, and then the naughty will suffer the depredations of the Anti-Christ.

It’ll all happen in a moment. Those who think themselves more sophisticated have simply secularized Darby’s immediate apocalypse – emerging diseases, Day-After-Tomorrow weather events, one-day economic collapse, whatever – but kept the basic idea that the end will be immediate, instantly recognizable, and the END in a literal way. The idea that you’re just caught in a broad civilizational decline that will consume the rest of the your life and manifest itself in a fiercer and fiercer competition for increasingly smaller rewards.you know, life as we now know it.well, that’s just not sexy.

“Was it ever really working, Jim?” Just last week, I described our host to my classes as an example of a school of thought that holds that our current society and economy is irredeemable and needs to be scrapped and replaced. This week’s missive fits right into that narrative and serves as a nearly perfect example of it and what needs to be done.

That introduction ran right up against last week’s news that the, the closest to midnight since 1984. Between the two, they got my classes’ attention and put them in an appropriately serious mood.

Speaking of serious moods, last week’s essay forecast that King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia would die this year, setting off a cascade of instability. A few days later,. West Texas Intermediate actually went down on Friday. However, the monarch’s death seems to have finally stopped the slide in retail gasoline prices. About time, as the seasonal rise should have started a month ago.

“Riyadh is apparently replacing a nonagenerian with a soon-to-be octogenerian.” That’s not any worse than Vatican City, which. At least Pope Frank has all his wits about him and doesn’t look like Emperor Palpatine.

As for other countries that insisted in putting old farts in charge, I’m reminded of the former USSR. Four years ago,. I then asked if that comparison was valid, then which country was going to play the role of the USSR and be the last domino to fall in the Arab Spring? My answer was either Saudi Arabia or Iran. So far, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia looks like the better bet to fill that position.

What reality demands Weekend news reported a lot, almost half of oil field workers now out of work. The local landlord was reported saying “we will work with you” as opposed to kicking them out on their asses. Most of these guys are very well skilled and will be alright but a lot are kids who commuted huge distances everyday to work, bought into temp living accommodations with no savings. They took their 38$ per hour paychecks and bought sports cars. The long energency has arrived for a new batch of people.

Every succeeding year that batch will grow. They willl become more dependent on the complex systems of corpogov and whoever is not driven to suicide will have leashes around their necks. Schoolin’ is about learning how to think for oneself and not just basic letters. That curriculum ended a long time ago. “Maybe you have failed to notice that the US electric grid is decrepit and in need of at least a $1 trillion upgrade-and-rebuild, which, by the way, is not going to happen.” That’s the least of our worries. The state of the grid in India is far worse and it’s not getting any better either yet, by supplying their own power, concerns (like Tata for instance) are able to get by rather nicely.

Taking a sorry page from our now oft discredited playbook, they’re building shopping malls off the grid with their own power generators. Yes, we’ll experience a few massive power failures but, by varying degrees, we’ll get by, probably more and more like they manage in India. “That is the current state of the union and a glimpse of the trajectory it’s on, which the inept leaders of our country do not comprehend and cannot communicate.” In times not so long ago we concerned ourselves with the now almost forgotten notions of patriotism and honor. Such a pity we’re too far down the rabbit trail for these to be fashionable, germane or useful. I saw the movie and it is much more nuanced than that. The film never once said that we should have been in Iraq.

It was mainly a character study of super sniper Chris Kyle. Clint Eastwood’s focus, as he said, was about showing what war and killing does to a man. Even though he was a war lover, Kyle’s mental health got worse with each deployment. Most viewer may come away feeling differently, but I saw the film as anti-war from its opening scene of Kyle being forced to kill a woman and child in order to save his buddies. And Bradley Cooper’s performance as Kyle was outstanding.

It was hardly “USA,USA.”. Notions of patriotism and honor are best forgotten anyway if we want to progress into a reality based paradigm instead of one based on top-down propaganda. Patriotism is just “Racism With a Flag” and honor is a term often applied to people who kill other people for the profit of the War Industry. You had nothing to do with where you happened to pop out of your mother and more than what race you are.

If you want to be “patriotic” and “honorable” be patriotic to the Life Support System called Earth that supplies all your needs and is the Base Resource of all life on this planet, and Honor that Earth not just by not destroying it (as if that were noble) and start helping to regenerate it. It’s time to unlearn all the unmitigated bullshit we’ve been taught to parrot from on high and begin to learn useful skills and ideas. Zeiss Atlas 995 Manual Lawn. The Evolution will not be televised.

“Better make sure you live in a part of the country where small-scale farming and backyard gardening is possible” Have any of you, folks, tried a “small-scale farming”? I did – tell the truth it is hard as hell in TODAY conditions to compete with big agri-business without having additional income from some paper-internet-whatever based business to supplement your farm income. I am breaking even and may be even making a very small profit, but unless everything goes to hell and milk/cheese prices skyrocket – I am not so sure about the future of that farm. I guess I’ll keep on trying. Hello FincaInTheMountains! I really hope you hang on. In many ways I feel it will not be about making a buck.

More like staying above ground. Look for skills you can work on in the winter that can earn a few bucks or barter. Times are hard but I would rather be in your shoes than mine. Grow everything you can to eat. Grow what you do not like to eat!!!

Wine or stronger will always be a good trade item. Get a seed exchange going local like. Times will never be easy again. Look on the bright side. Taxes will go down a bit.

Guys the message that one here got from Jim’s writing was based on “you better get out and find a real town in some other part of the country.” Did it. Left a six figure career in Denver almost 3 years ago and paid cash for a little place with about 3/4 acre total. The point is not to “compete” with the criminals.

Carve-out your existence and survive. We are not in this hell-hole to contribute to the bullshit. Our taxes “went down a bit” as well to zero. Why would you continue to consent to their fucking crimes?

Be assured that as long as the District of Criminals can rely on slavery to support their activities it’ll continue. There’s a line in the sand. Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery. None but ourselves can free our minds. “My best suggestion is raw dairy” – that is what I am doing.

I am also using an all-natural feed made out of dried and milled palm nuts – which are plentiful around here and 99% goes to waste, but I still have to pay the climbers – and my cows are the best looking cows around, but. There is no way that all-natural feed could compete in percentage of protein with US-made GMO soy-meal, and that what’s count to boost the milk production and amount of farm income. And of course I can’t buy soy-meal by the shipload to cut the price – don’t have that kind of cash, neither expensive storage facilities. Hey Fincaln, Check out the work of Mark Shepard and his book “Restoration Agriculture.” He’s got lots of videos on YTube, and the one that’s about 2 hrs long is simply mind blowing.

He is running a profitable small farm in a very unique way. Nearly zero input costs, practices that stack functions, improve fertility constantly and growing high demand products, hence a greater profit margin. On top of that, he’s building topsoil, pest and disease resistance, fertility and water retention in the landscape which just keep increasing. This is the future of agriculture globally. Either that or we’re an extinct species.

There really isn’t any other option but to partner with Nature instead of fighting it. If you’re doing dairy, you’ll be amazed by the way he does his dairy business. First comment on here JHK,surprised that you haven’t mentioned Syriza today.If they do ‘as it says on the tin’ we could have default and economic chaos before you can say ‘How much for the Acropolis?’.

Surely,this has to be a good thing? The only people that default by the Greeks hurts is the bankers and there is no appetite for more public help for private vampire companies anywhere.Some might say that it’s very convenient that the EuroQE was announced last week,just in time to shore up irresponsible bank’s balance sheet in just this eventuality? It’s got to the point that I can’t wait for the first ‘tarred and feathered’banker so that nobody wants to become a member of this leech on society cartel ever again.Bankers are the lowest form of human existence,closely followed by bouncers. I have a connection to a deeply Red State area of this country, where 90% of the citizens vote R year after year. And it is dominated by Big Ag and in a way its decrepit. So if you make it out of your American Dream Land to these small towns don’t expect Shangri La but more importantly don’t view yourself as Superior Being from Planet Kos landing to help the benighted natives ala “Avatar.” You will thank me for that bit of advice. If you want to see this in movie form go rent “Black Robe” a bit heavy handed in allegory or metaphor for what you might think but it is instructive on how a stranger can navigate the unfamiliar.

“In the USA, that means you must learn how to speak and write English correctly, especially if you are in a “low performing” ethnic minority group. If you can’t conjugate verbs” JHK Amen to that. The level to which the mangling of the English language has risen is astounding.

I recently had a conversation (and fuck those people that say “convo” as a shortening of “conversation”; is it really that difficult to utter two more syllables?) with a 20-year-old black kid. And he was trying to speak as intelligibly as possible. Does he have a chance at even a community college? Should he be given it? Obama and all the other limp-dick liberals should discard this idea that everyone should have a chance to attend college.

One look at the bell curve should tell them that this simply will not work, unless we lower the standards of college education appreciably. If the median IQ in the US is 100, then at least 50% of the population, if not more, is too stupid to function at a college level. Not that I believe that Obama really cares; he’s just (or “he just” in the language of ebonics) sleeping through his presidency like he has been doing from the start. Yeah Jim; it’s broken alright. The destruction of possibly the only social glue the U.S.A. Has/had – language – was under attack, and deliberately so, from the moment LBJ (rot in hell eternally) signed the Immigration Reform Act of 1965 and concurrently the Voting Rights Act the same year.

The massive influx of Spanish speaking populations across the country coupled with the “right” to vote in “your” language was the thin edge of a Rockwell 59 steel wedge. Vote in Urdu, Arabic or Swahili, amongst the polyglot pollution of civil discourse, and also get your government services, taxpayer funded bien sur, with a translator and anything else you require.

The English language is a poison relic of an oppresssive, colonial, patriarchal conquering construct that needs to be eliminated dontcha know. And don’t even get me started on big business catering to the Spanish speaking portion of the population i.e any automated telephonic system that begins with ” presione el numero uno por espanole por favore.” The “Hip-Hop Nation” is already reduced to grunts, tattoos, and bizarre hand motions to communicate.

So important it is that It has become a program of study at certain prestigious educational institutions. Really: Forget it – it’s a done deal – as the master plan has other requirements for the illiterate and non-English speaking masses. Death or slavery or both. See Mike Judges prophetic “Idiocracy” for the future of language here in the U.S.A.

(my favorite was the Fuddruckers transition.). GutenbergGuy, The heirophant languages of Legalese, Medicalia, and Financio, are at the other end of the linguistic spectrum from those of the illegal alien, Hiphop Nation, and the hoi polloi.

These mother tongues are (by design) completely unintelligible to the layperson; shrouded in mystery and intrigue. One must pay ample respect to enter their temples, make bountiful offerings to gain access to the initiated, and genuflect at their respective altars. The priests and priestesses of the above mentioned faiths, as in days of old, direct the faithful to the ways of “salvation.” Yet look behind the veil into the “Holy of Holies” of each of these “religions” and you will find corruption, whoredom, rapine and eventually a trip to hell.

No the worlds of “credit default swaps,” derivatives, mala prohibita, plea bargaining and triple by-passes only look literate. They just seem constructed that way to be overly complex and confusing to keep you and me out. Nobody (actually) likes competition.

The problem with America is we grew up in Wonderland. After World War 2, with no real industrial competition, with all the gold, with the world reserve currency, we RULED. A man with limited talent and a high school education could raise a family on his salary alone, live a good life, and retire comfortably. Now with all that gone, and gone forever, America is BUMMED. We don’t want our old country back, we want fairy tale land back, and it ain’t coming back. So we have become SEDATED. We’re like the kid who had everything and when he grew up had nothing.

The pain is worse than if he had never had anything ever. It is nostalgia on steroids. It will not stand against us being incomplete on its own. It will have capacity for craft in its hands but will not know its left from its right.

We shall speak and say “do thus” and it will be done. It will lack a soul that it should pine for freedom. Seeming in all ways to be adequate it will be nonetheless inadequate to stand against us.

The raw form we need is already here. In its present form it is too strong, too cunning and too full of life to serve us. We will weaken it, take away what is not in our interests and mold it into our perfect servant. Do this, Lord Enki, let it be done. We command that a Lulu, a perfect servant, shall be made! It’s true that the loss of a common dialect has created a world of problems for us. “I bees downtown” may answer any one of three questions: “where are you?”, “where were you?” or “where will you be?” Without one of these questions the lead statement lacks specificity, whereas the standard English version “I was downtown” needs no further context.

Fuzzy language engenders vague, irrational thinking, which leads to actions based on instinctual (reptilian) motivationsperhaps appropriate during the Paleolithic, but ill suited to civilized times. How many young Americans are serving time at this very moment simply because they treated the word ‘disrespect’ as an action verb? “He done disrespected me so I went upside his haid!”. Utterly amazing!!! Do you even listen to all those Yale- and Harvard-educated politicians? Spouting mumbo jumbo and meaningless rhetoric?!

All day dissembling and covering their asses. Lofty language papering over the most heinous acts. Do you understand the use of language to break through barriers created by what is defined as “respectable speech”?

Or how marginalized societies create their own linguistic structures/languages? Or driven to distraction by phrases like “enhanced interrogation techniques,” people actually struggle with the challenge of expressing just how outrageous all that “respectability” is?

Might you appreciate the fact that there are millions of people in the world with little or no education who speak several languages – out of necessity? It’s just maddening to read such simplistic views. I tell you the truth, Gutenberg, Ebonics is a curse to Black Americans and even to those poor Whites who have adopted it. It is a dialect that relies heavily on intonation and gesture – usually aggressive and hostile in nature – and its structure is toddleresque, lacking such elements as plural forms and tenses, even articles are often dropped. The holy word N—– is its primary endearment and M—–F—– its favored expletive.

For these reasons and others, Ebonics can have no written form beyond rap lyrics, and it can never achieve the nuance needed to allow its users to navigate a complex world. Furthermore, a complex world is what we have and shall have for some time to come! As always, your position is well stated; you seem to have no problem articulating your stance on sensitive, sophisticated topics. However, there is something obliquely patronizing in the tonebut not toward me. I found this week’s post by Jim to be refreshing. The community college for dummies idea that Obama is trying to foist upon the world is another idiotic, debt-creating idea.

How are we going to pay professors, clerical staff, or even janitors at CC’s? Then there’ll be the usual Democratic construction of a huge bureaucracy to oversee the new Free College program replete with $150K administrators and their staffers at the Federal, State, and County levels. The Post Office is falling apart and the plumbing in most major cities is 140 years old but let’s give more free shit away. If Little Johnny with his 85 IQ wants to be a nucular [sic] physicist ’cause he got all excited watching a Nova special that he didn’t understand ’cause his literacy is at the 7th grade level, well by God we’re gonna larn him nucular [sic] physics then!!

It’s too fucking late for this idiotic country where 80% of the people in cities have more admiration for MMA cage fighters than they do for anything that smacks of intellect or refinement. Alexis de Tocqueville, alas, was absolutely correct about democracy. It’s the will of the rabble. Of course, our idiotic children who cannot name the Vice President or the parties that fought in the Revolutionary War were also never taught that the USA is a Republic.

With all due respect, Jim, what we have become is incapable of ANY enlightened states like neighborly cooperation and sustainable living arrangements. Any person who goes on a pub crawl on a weekend night can see that the loneliest guy in the room is the tattoo-less guy in the corner with a nice sport coat who isn’t in the vulgar screaming contests that make public places seem like the flophouse scene in Fellini’s “Satyricon”. However, I can only agree that it’s better to be surrounded by fewer idiots than millions of them so the idea of moving to a small town cannot be wrong. Back when I noticed the huge amounts of money being thrown into community colleges from somewhere, when there is “no money” for roads, bridges, the power grid, etc., I and a number of my cohorts were trying to figure out what was up. Why a branch of SCCC, for instance, in downtown Albany, with all the politicians getting involved. Now we see what was up, they were getting ready to get in on the racket.

I wish they could do that kind of long range planning with that kind of competence with any of the things they were supposed to be doing. Someone on this site, a couple of weeks back, named Higher Ed as one of the rackets, I can’t remember who, but whoever it was, you were right. As far as walkable cities, the politicians in those areas (Albany, Schenectady, for instance) are busy jacking up taxes on homeowners sky-high to give the money away to racketeers, rather than use the cash for the maintenance of the things that make cities livable. Much of the country already has an extensive community college system. I don’t know the specifics of Mr. Obama’s proposal, and I certainly can’t argue with the problems of huge bureaucracies and overpaid administrators (I’m a retired UCal support staff) BUT there is a real need for trained technicians in hundreds of fields – the skilled crafts-persons of the future, if you will – and we will commit a grave error if we don’t address that. Infrastructure upgrades – urgently needed – and maintenance, as well as staffing for the high-tech economy that is still evolving, all of these will require trained personnel.

Many with a high school diploma and 2-3 years of specialized training. IF, however, in all too typical American fashion we argue over BS like a parody of a stereotype, and engage in endless scapegoating, then we will not survive. Also, I seem to recall that George W. Bush always said “nucular” and he could rarely speak in complete sentences. Not only illiterate, but this former “Leader of the ‘Free World'” can’t leave the US for fear of being arrested for crimes against humanity. People have to smash their way out of this template prison, probably against the efforts of the people and organizations now running it merely for their own benefit.

Problem is the genetic predisposition to desire to smash out of template prisons is found in few. The number who actually like to eat at Mickey Ds and want everything the same is shocking. Like an instinctual fear of spiders some have an instinct to want more than a colorful light show with sound effects out of their life yet they are few and far between. Those too stupid to function at a college level or anything close to it simply don’t desire more than a bigger screen on their T.V.

They don’t care what their T.V. They just want it bigger so the sensuality of their experience is enhanced.

Not many in America want to be educated and capable of comprehending reality and functioning within the limits it demands. It is not part of our zeitgeist. They want fun fun fun and they want it now. Do that bucket list! Those who desire to comprehend reality and be functional in it already are. They have and are educating themselves for the future.

Nobody has to tell them to do it or provide an ‘opportunity’. They find and make their own opportunities. Too bad they are a rare as white buffaloes. From a collective point of view America is about to get what it deserves. America elected a limped dick sleepwalking president. Yes the slickest advertising champaign in history and an endless supply of rich people money had a lot to do with it.

Yet when it comes down to it people voted for him because they were stupid and easily manipulated. America chose and now America will enjoy the banquet of consequences with which they have filled a heaping plate from the salad bar of life. The thousand mile Caesar salad is no longer on the menu, only consequences. What is left of it is going fast. Just like 3 dollar gas! Well, if we are faced with final presidential debates between Hillary! And Jeb, I hope a “Don’t vote!

Why encourage them?!” campaign breaks out. Just to see all the pained faces of the various pundits as they opine the lowest turnout in U.S. History would cheer me. What if they had an election and nobody came?

Had “No Confidence” been a choice it would win. Would be fun to watch “The Electoral College” grapple with THAT Clusterfuck! But my first choice would be for an intellectual college professor type to jump in as an Independent, get all the disaffected voters to get off their asses and turn the teevee off and get that person polling 15%. Just to have an intelligent debater in their to create some chaos/clarity would be worth the price of admission even he/she would not “win”. Mr D re your post on European QE The answer is to always follow the money. The banksters on this side of the pond and the banksters on the other side have the same game plan. I draw no distinction between the bankster and the oligarch.

They’re in it together. See, lefties want to spend money that they don’t have. That’s delusional, don’t you think? In contrast, banksters aren’t so crazy. Banksters want to STEAL money. I mean, why earn it. Earning money is hard.

But the bankster won’t just pull a gun. Like I said, they’re not crazy. I mean, pull a gun and you just never know who ends up dead. No, banksters have sneaky, non-violent ways to steal. You see, they contrive some likely sounding stories, they convince people that it’s in their best interest to hand over their wallets.

The bankster controls central banks, the central banks force people to “move up the risk curve” (via zero rate policies) where savings will be harvested and skimmed by the bankster. That’s what all this is all about.

At the end of it the bankster is outlandishly rich. Every other schmuck is broke. And nobody but the bankster has any idea how it happened. They just know that now they live poor, they’re out of work or sporadically employed, they have no pension, their grown kids are marooned at home, at best with barista or part-time Walmart. And, year after year we fall for the same old distractions. The last one? Republicans put a bill on abortion up for a vote.

Now they want to mandate ultrasounds before an abortion. If it isn’t abortion it’s gay marriage. Or some other damn thing. Like evolution in the schools or the Ten Suggestions on public buildings. Keep people whipped up so they don’t see the robbery right under their noses.

You can say this Netanhayu nonsense was more of the same. Fuck me dead, I fell for it. Another hoo-ha over a patch of sand in the middle of nowhere that does not fucking matter in the grand scheme, least of all to Americans. “The more detached from reality American culture becomes the more strictly ceremonial leadership gets, as illustrated by the raft of bromides Barack Obama floated past the assembled vassalage of government last week in another grand effort to avoid the necessities of the moment.” I just watched a speech given by Jeb Bush, talk about bromides my god this guy is as evil and stupid as his Father and Brother.

Another great white hope that is going to fix everything, especially for his greedy friends and family. It will be interesting to see what the democrats can come up to match such stupidity and out right lies. They will you can bet on it. JHK: “If this society is even going to survive, the people have to smash their way out of this template prison, probably against the efforts of the people and organizations now running it merely for their own benefit.” Funny.

Our annual home owner’s policy came up for renewal this month and increased significantly. The agent said it was mainly because our credit score dropped (since we no longer have any debt). Suggested we get a few credit cards and use them to increase our scores, or maybe get a home equity loan and put that money towards something more “productive”. I suggested he let the policy expire and left, on the way out reminding him that I’ve never made a single claim in my 57 years, excepting a couple of minor health claims. “I’ll take my chances”. By the time I got home he had left three messages (demands, actually) to call him immediately. I’m sure he’ll be knocking on the door any time now.

“Beware of dogs“, the sign says. A very similar thing happened at our house. The price keeps going up, so we started looking elsewhere.

The people who help the policy didn’t even really give a shit. And we have never had a claim in 25+ years. We are all slaves to the credit reporting agencies, including when looking for a job. Think about that; you’re out of work, so they check your credit score!

WTF do you think they’re going to find. My wife and I live in a dense, walkable community, but the idea of having enough space to at least plant a decent sized garden keeps coming back to me. I have my eye on a nice small town in Ohio. From the tone of JHK’s essay this week one can surmise that we are about to reach the bitter end of the rope.

At least from his perspective. I can certainly empathize with his sentiments. But frankly, I think we may be underestimating the capabilities of the clique that has kept this charade going for so long. Sure as G-d made little green apples “they” will figure out a way to keep this fiction going a little while longer.

I remember my mother talking to me about what a racket the whole financial business was back in the early 1970’s. That’s over 40 years ago! She was expecting a collapse into ruin back then. Didn’t happen. Nixon decoupled from gold and Bretton Woods and the petrodollar scheme kept the party going for the following decades. What next stunt will ‘they” pull to save “the system”?

But I’ll bet that the plans have been in the works. Of course, that doesn’t mean that the plan will actually work this time.

I suppose we will find out soon enough though. I think it’s been more like a choppy degradation rather than a sudden collapse into rubble. There’s the spasm theory of history. Steady as she goes until it doesn’t and it all goes over the cliff. Most of what happened over the past hundred years came as a surprise. The old folks that I’ve spoken to in past decades were shocked at the speed and immensity of events in WW1 and WW2. I have a personal interest in everything not unravelling in a 1930’s style collapse.

Or something worse. But “worse”, given past history, is something we can’t discount. How can we know what comes out of the Middle East or Ukraine or Iran? Events take shape and engulf everyone like a tsunami. You mention WW1 and WW2. When the current rackets are no longer supportable and the system starts to come unglued, war seems to be a solution of the those in charge.The “little people” who make it through the chaos and destruction with their lives feel so fortunate that they keep their mouths shut and toe the mark for a couple of generations. That’s a social dynamic we should all fear, and you, Volodya, have pointed that out by inference.

Cooking pots can always easily be summoned to boil over in the service of those in charge who worry about losing control. Populist Economics?! When did you last hear that from a Democratic presidential nominee? McGovern, actually. That is, of course, a big part of the problem. Not a real populist in the crowd.

Oh, both Jeb & Hillary are shining up their populist-sounding rhetoric, but that’s all it is – rhetoric. For example, neither of them has a clue how to modernize this nation’s infrastructure and prepare it to compete in the future, because both of them are committed to the Wall Street/Corporate “One Nation as a Company Town” view of America. He’ll try to steal her populist thunder and she’ll try to prove she can be as belligerent as any man!

We will all lose. Reply to KDog- “From a collective point of view America is about to get what it deserves.

America elected a limped dick sleepwalking president. Yes the slickest advertising campaign in history and an endless supply of rich people money had a lot to do with it” Yes it did, the people behind are very cunning and know exactly what to tell people to say. But, it may have been worse with Romney. We’d be in Iran by now. Thank you Mr. Proudy wherever you are!! Maybe we are about to get what we deserve, but there is evil in every person and good too.

And so it is with countries. The unfortunate thing is the poorest among us will suffer the most not the ones who are so deserved. Like someone commented on this blog past, we can only tread water till the whole damn rug gets pulled out from under us. That’s the sad truth. So, as I see it, are we evil and deserve punishment, probably. But, I think most people have some good and just try to survive, until, as I say, the rug gets pulled out from under them.

Superstitions no, ghosts well, that’s another story. Experiencing is believing. That is a fairy tale you learned in school. America has never been good. Like Dick Gregory said “This bitch has been bad from the beginning.” We slaughtered the Indians. We enslaved the Negros. Fought an incredibly bloody war to keep them enslaved.

Never paid either reparations. Discovered oil and became the next empire. Running out of oil now and becoming the Evil Empire.

You know who invented the term “Enhanced interrogation?’ The Nazis. 9/11 is the Reichstag Fire. Patriot Act is the Enabling Act. Iraq and Afghanistan are Czechoslovakia and Austria.

America is the Fourth Reich. I mean this is not a stretch to see. The only thing left is a full blown war with Russia, and really how far away is that? Iran is Poland. I believe that was the title of one of his books, i.e., “Propaganda” – back in the 1920s when the word had a better connotation. And, if I am not mistaken, he was also the one who developed the ad campaign to get women to take up smoking more cigarettes. Something about ‘lighting a torch for freedom’.

It’s a great system, as long as you can make sure the reckoning and the bill that is due is passed along to a generation or two after your own. If we could, we’d keep playing that game forever. Trouble is, when we long ago stopped living off the interest of the resources the Earth gave us, and started dipping very deeply into the capital behind those resources, the game stops. And that’s what what our so-called leaders can’t stand. True Romney as a choice was not much of a choice.

The system is set up to choose only the lesser of two evils. Imagining we really have any choice at all is an illusion. I did not get caught up in technicalities.

America does as stupid does. Regarding getting what we deserve I made a point of using the word ‘ collective‘. Many innocents will suffer and those young enough to spend most of their future lives suffering certainly wont be deserving what is coming. Some of the most evil among us will prosper to their bitter end. From an individual point of view justice from the banquet of consequences like mileage, shall vary.

It would have been worse with Romney. Having a do-nothing president while it seals our fate, is not as bad as having someone who would actually accelerate the collapse. The collapse that is about to rise with the sun. As much as it pains me to say it, better to have someone who doesn’t do anything at all like we have now.

Last week’s missive, I get comfort too knowing America is well armed. It’s faster that way. I wish I’d decided to be here the beginning of the last century. One of last week’s statements now come to pass, King Abdullah is gone.

Please see the documentary, Ethos, a Time for Change. It tells ya all about how things are run and why. There has been more than a few calls for JHK for president in this blog the last few weeks. If enough people wrote him in, well.

A country of truth and character, what a concept. If ever there was a police state in a burgeoning police state, that state is Louisiana. You are 5 times more likely to be in jail in Louisiana than Maine. Stats for per capita police are difficult to find, but I would venture to guess Louisiana is in the top 3. They use the blockwort technique of the Nazis, where neighborhood gossip replaces police investigation, evidence, proof.

And what is Louisiana first and foremostan oil colony, shaped by Standard Oil. Huey Long was only the most prominent politician to be assassinated by Big Oil. You know, that is a very good question, and I’m not sure anyone has an answer. Usually I would say the commodities brokers and all the folks who dick around and place bets on every aspect of our lives.

Supply and demand are the Easter Bunny and Tooth Fairy of Free Market economics. I really don’t know. And when it hits nearly $5 here in CA I won’t have any idea why then either. Why does anything cost what t does?

Why are the prices on Apple products so high they reportedly make 2/3 profit on some items? Just because. I have long been a fan of Jim’s work, mainly because of his blistering indictments of consumer, something for nothing-ism culture and the folly of fueling our society on fossil fuels and empty promises.

Where he and I diverge is when it comes time to pillory “minorities” (one of which I happen to be) and the mischaracterization of what the President of the United States is supposed to be. The President is the Chief of Operating Officer of a transnational corporation which masquerades as a functioning democratic republic. In that equation, whether or not Tyrone, Miguel or hell, Jethro can speak the Queen’s English is immaterial. Sometime shortly after a comfortable, prosperous, well fed, body politic made things too difficult for our little empire to carry out its plans in Southeast Asia – the latest in a long line of wars to be used as economic stimulus and industrial macromanagement, “The Powers That Be” (TPTB) decided that it could no longer afford a middle class with enough education to understand up from down, and with enough free time and lack of fear to actually mobilize and work to foil their designs.

The rest, as they say is history. As for us getting what we deserve, it would behoove us to accept that the impetus of elites to steal labor in conjunction with a sadistic need to brutalize the most vulnerable members of our society (the landless, the poor, women and visible hated “others”) are more American than apple pie. To this, even Thomas Jefferson, another hypocritical, labor stealing, rapist and pederast, was force to concede “I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever.” To that end, all TPTB are ever looking to hire is someone to keep the whole circus colling along. Thus our President’s from day one to present.

For this job, Obama, unlike his sub literate and cognitively impaired predecessor, is quite well suited. And that was considered ‘normal’ back then. Consider: after the US banned importation of new (-ly kidnapped, African) slaves, slave-‘owners’ were expected to increase their ‘stock’ domestically (using that word in the broadest way). Slave-holders relied on the results of their forays down ‘slave-row’ to freshen-up their work-stock But, this is all very light-weight and obvious ‘the sky is blue’ stuff.

Where it gets really comical is that Thomas Jefferson circulated one paper advocating for the repatriation of slaves – and another stating that under no circumstances should they be manumitted on American soil or any other, fearing the consequences. Being hypocritical was as natural as breathing to the 2nd POTUS It gets better: he also strongly inveighed against taking on debt, while leaving his heirs 200K (unadjusted dollars) in the hole when he died. It took them 20 years to pay that off, b/c their was no way to write that off back then. Debts were inheritable Thomas was a ‘complex’ man, to say the least.

Mainly because he was *allowed* to be. “Complex” is too kind. All of the beatified “Founding Fathers,” were complete hypocrites. How they managed to slide that one past us in grade school is a testimony to their obfuscation. All of them were slave owners, all of them signed a document that purported “All men are created equal,” all of them profited mightily and unapologetically from slavery, and all of them kicked the can down the road until it exploded into the Civil War. None of them worked tirelessly to abolish slavery as Michelle Bachman so disingenuously espouses. That’s what Bill Maher calls a “Zombie Lie,” a lie that never dies.

Remember, his was an agrarian mind. He knew that any offspring with a Black woman had very little to do with him genetically and therefore culturally.

Likewise, countless White Women are getting bred by Blacks who then split before the check for the meal comes. They and their families are left raising children that have nothing to do with them in welfare slavery. Of course, many of these women aren’t capable of much else so it’s no great loss.

But Western Civilization would hold the sires to account and demand they be fathers. But of course Blacks aren’t of Western Civilization and don’t care what Whites think. And no one cares to enforce the old memes anymore so they are ceasing to be – as will our Civilization too.

And that means no more welfare benefits btw. Some say that it wasn’t Tom but his brother Randy who was the sexual criminal here.

Don’t know, I haven’t studied his life in detail. He certainly was a genius and a great Statesman even if he did fall into temptation. True Americans forgive him. Axiomatic to your belief system maybe. Again, you know nothing about linguistics. There are many multi-lingual societies and always have been. Each language group has within it multiple subgroups – many of which have their own “vocabularies” and even “grammars.” These include regional locutions, slang, and even linguistic hybrids, and many more.

Some people live at or near an international border, or in a country made up of many language groups – due to a little thing called history. For millions of people economic necessity requires they speak more than one language – though they may not read any. Do you know what a patois is? See the film “The Harder They Come.” Even the “English-speakers” are subtitled. Your understanding of language is far too simplistic. International commerce has largely been carried out for centuries by people who learned to get along in more than one language. Well Jimbo, have you thought about your lifestyle jetting around the country telling people the sky is falling might be in jeopardy?

Do you have a fallback plan? Living off your book sales or the sale of your paintings? Luckily you have Medicare to pay for all those expensive operations. IMHO, we are going to muddle through. There is no other option. Oh, it will mean generating a new perspective on what’s important in life. But think about this.

Our kind has managed to muddle through a lot worse than this for, what, 10,000 years? Civilization has been around for about 6,000 years. We’re are going to make it through. There may be a big die off but enough will survive to continue though none the wiser. Oh come on, don’t be a party pooper – elderly farmers are going to need their knee and hip replacements to man the plows. On a serious note, I would think that anyone who truly believed in hard times ahead would avoid activities such as jogging which can be hell on the joints.

After all, joint replacement surgeries will not be common or routine in such a setting. But it’s amusing to read the Doomer who still pounds the pavement. All that planning ahead and yet engaging in activity that is probably contraindicated in terms of long-term joint health. It could be a Wonderful Life.

Union Grove is Bedford Falls. But all of you choose Pottersville with every movement of you mind and ride in your car. Thus the Government is going to step in regulate your car – taxed by the mile by a hidden meter.

And in a few more years s – if you don’t wise up – the Government will step in to regulate your mind via implants and chips. Just like it says in the Good Book. Without the chip, you will not be allowed to buy or sell. But better to starve than to accept the Mark of the Beast.

For with it, you will not see God. The only chance to avoid all this is to become like George Bailey. Stay in one place. Be supernaturally kind to your neighbors. Shun all others.

Be on guard against Aliens, both from above and from the next country or country. This weeks memo from the desk of JHK is a counterpoint to the POTUS’s SOTU. Personall, I think that he was pulling his punches. If he had flown into a Paul Craig Roberts-esque spittle-flinging rage that would not have perturbed me. But he has his reasons, to be sure Oh By The Way, you may have noticed that Syriza, the leftist Greek political party, won “decisively” at the polls yesterday. This means that JHK’s predictions for the year are two-for-two, and the year’s not even 8% done In other words, he’s ‘tracking’. I take the time to point this out because CFN is frequented by people insisting that everything is ‘chaos’ (as they dimly understand it) and therefore all predictions are shite I’ll be exploring this a little more in another post.

And now: To Business! Re “Do you believe that computers and robot factories will define the years to come?”-J H K. Time is telling that the latest tech boom was every bit a creature of one-off financial chicanery as the shale oil “miracle”. It was pointed out to me during a discussion several years ago that the Silicon Valley was already in contraction, and suddenly I realized that they were completely right. There was no other way to square the resource utilization numbers, the buybacks and the crap p/e stats otherwise. More (massive) layoffs coming, and widespread (in some cases terminal) disillusion.

I’m certainly not gloating. I’ve seen the cost in terms of human lives and I do not relish that outcome Condolences to you who are about to walk. I salute you. The latest and possibly last wave of gentrification is solidly in ‘dead-man-walking’ territory. It has a bullet in the head and doesn’t realize it of course, that’s why the mouth of it’s marketing department keeps flapping But it is over. Best thing is to stand aside, let it give one last look around in bewilderment turning into fear, and then plant its face in the thin grey industrial carpet “The frackers will never again get access to the sort of junk bond financing that allowed them to ramp up their Ponzi demonstration projects in the Bakken and Eagle Ford. And they will never again regain their current level of production — which is the net result of past Ponzi financing, now ending in tears.”-J H K.

Industry insiders are already talking about the shale-phenomenon in the past tense, referring to it as “a century event” Unfortunately for the drillers, that century was itself a ‘species event’ *So there’s somethin’ else for us to ‘chaw-on’ twenty years hence, puffing on local-grown cheroot and quaffing the house-brewed ale* “We would be lucky to get back to that high standard, and our knucklehead fantasies about universal access to community college be damned. It’s only a new layer in the current racket that pretends to be education.”-J H K. The disintegration of public education in this country is directly correlated to the disintegration of the job-market. People in the USA – in this century and the two previous – were and are educated exactly as much as they need to be, from a human-resource standpoint. If that strikes fear into your breast for the present generation, perhaps it should.

The more full-of-bean-dip the job/compensation numbers became, the more neglected in every sense the school system became it’s that simple. It’s a waste of time blaming the devolution of the English Language [*] on immigrants of recent or remote historic provenance.

The very presence of immigrants is subsequent and irrelevant. The reason they were and are present in the first place is because someone with Big Bucks had Big Plans and the clout to get the legislation through.

That’s it, in a nutshell. [**] — — — [*] Beloved to me, by the way [**] That’s like kicking the cat for something the dog did, or like killing the Midianites for something the Moabites did Hmmm, that’s odd. Perhaps this fuzzy thinking has a cultural dimension 😉. Your causality is a simple one or two links.

But life isn’t like that. Cause and Effect go on and on.Because of corruption and decay of the Republic, large number of unneeded immigrants have been invited in. Cause and then Effect.

Then the Effect becomes a Cause in its own right: the millions of unneeded immigrants help destroy what little social capital is left. They naturally gravitate to the lowest common denominator of rap and ghetto culture. Hispanics are beginning to distort English as the Black have done. We might even see the emergence of a ghetto patois called Spanglish. Again your Liberal worship of Non-Whites has distorted your otherwise fine post. There are many factors: too big, too greedy, contradictions of capitalism, no more frontier though that’s part of mythology, the loss of religious faith (which the founder knew most people need, people without faith invent ghastly substitutes like Political Correctness – I number you among them) the rise of Liberalism and the breakdown of patriotism and the American Civil Religion and so on.

No doubt some future Gibbon will write the Decline and Fall of the American Empire. And just as Germans broke thru their border, Mexicans broke thru ours. “There are many factors: too big, too greedy, contradictions of capitalism, no more frontier though that’s part of mythology,”-j. That’s not “many factors”. That is one factor with different facets (interrelated and phased): the Economic Factor. “the loss of religious faith (which the founder knew most people need, people without faith invent ghastly substitutes like Political Correctness – I number you among them)”-j. This is utter rubbish.

That’s like trying to describe the history of the stock market (or anything else) by relying solely upon ‘animal spirits’. Specifically regarding the “political correctness” assertion: any statement of mine that might support it exists only in that nest of self-serving, muddle-headed nonsense you’ve been trying to think with. The only “correctness” that concerns me is that which squares with real, observable, empirical fact. I have no time for grandiose delusions of innate racial superiority, divine favor or national ‘exception’. Look Janos, if you’re feeling out-of-sorts and insecure, try not to wear it on your shirt like yesterday’s pizza.

Thanks Obama for sanctions Surprising growth in production recorded in Russia in December 2014 Rosstat (Russian statistical agency) announced that over the past month in 2014, industrial output in Russia grew at an annualized rate of 3.9%. The growth came as a surprise: Earlier, analysts predicted that the industry declined in November production by 0.4%, will continue to degrade performance. Introduced by the Russian government embargo against a number of food products from the EU, USA, Canada, Norway and Australia led to an increase in production in the food industry, that was given the task of import substitution. As a result, the production of cheese in December 2014 grew at an annual rate of 32.7% immediately, and the production of beef, pork, lamb and offal – 20.1%. In addition, seriously increased the production of dyes (+ 65.8%), televisions sets and video monitors (+ 47.1%), tractors (+ 44.8%), washing machines (+ 40.1%) and steel pipes (38.8%). Suddenly, by 50% increased the production of trailers for cars, for the year their production increased by 14.8%.

Production of cars in December decreased at an annual rate by 3.5%, while for the year as a whole decreased by 9.7%. UK sends warship to Falklands as Argentina lease supersonic bombers from Russia Navy chiefs have sent HMS Dragon, a Type 45 destroyer, to the South Atlantic after a deployment in Chile. Last night naval sources said the move was part of the MoD’s effort to speed up the “operational drumbeat” by which the Navy keeps guard over the Falklands. With Argentina attempting to lease 12 supersonic bombers from Russia, the MoD is also to install a new £200million air defence missile system in the islands. This will replace the ageing Rapier missile batteries which were used against the Argentine air force in the 1982 Falklands War. However, it will take at least five years before the new system completes development trials and combat evaluations, leaving commanders with a capability gap during the remaining eight months of Argentine president Cristina de Kirchner’s term in office. If I had a dollar for every diaster scenario Jim has insisted would blow us apart over the last ten years, I’d be a wealthy man.

(The most recent I recall being his prediction that the Fed would re-institute QE by the Ed of 2014. Didn’t happen.) I’m with you. We’re in for hard times ahead, but our salvation will not be trading carrots for our neighbor’s barbec wire stretcher. Supporting community college educational opportunities seems eems like a very practical step forward, to me. I’m amazed by the hostility that suggestion engenders among the Clusterfuck groupies. Maybe they need to meet a few struggling working class kids. Ever since Ferguson this has frequently been a downer of a site, comment-wise.

Racial stereotypes, scapegoating, just hateful. Do people type this crap on their “smart phones”? And why is it that the suggestion that the Community College systems be used to provide people with training raises all these racial stereotypes? Only Black folks have average IQ’s? Need help with education? Only they are trapped in this economic disaster, and besides it’s their fault?! Do you know that Black folks in the Jim Crow South answered the lousy schools they were stuck with by building schools and colleges of their own?

Do the readers here know that the American work force still has a large number of WHITE working men and women in need of job skills and training? And do they know that the US is one of the only countries in the industrial world that does not have such programs and thus leaves its own people out in the cold to deal with whatever mess TPTB create? America has turned its back on its own people. I am one of those “working class kids” (actually a middle aged SOB). Actually enrolled in my local CC now.

I don’t see how anymore government meddling will do a damn bit of good as far as lowering the cost of community college. Without all of the.gov funny money floating around colleges would be more affordable. Besides the Pell Grant already exists. Pretty generous too Hell not everyone should be enrolled in college. Those that want to go can get in already.

The bar for community college is pretty darn low. They let me in. Funny money is the American way – all the way back at least to the building of the railroads. Most fortunes were built with it. And still are.

Almost everything is a con in America. Admittedly that’s not much of a social contract. Actually you present a pretty good argument for CC programs. Folks like you are what they should be for – assuming the program actually teaches you something. Countries like Norway don’t let middle-aged folks just sit idle because of changing economics.

Norway does something about it. And in the process prepares the whole society for the economy of the future. In America we are left to fight among ourselves, which gets us absolutely nowhere. What’s too bad is that demagogues since Ronald Reagan have been saying that’s just government interference – rather than how folks in a secular society take care of themselves and each other.

Corporate America pockets the money, and we wonder why. Well Gutenberg Guy. I am an anarchist.

I don’t believe that redistribution schemes are a particularly good thing. I think we can politely agree to disagree there. Personally don’t think that Norway is a useful benchmark to compare the US to. Norway is a homogenous tiny country. The USA is neither homogenous nor tiny. I don’t see government retraining schemes working well here. The sheer bureaucracy involved would be staggering.

Then again I am just prejudicedTrust me I never drank the Reagan Kool-Aid. It remains to be seen if I will learn anything of use in this foray into higher education. God I hope so. I do agree with your sentiments on Corporate America. Time to go back to pretending I paid attention in Algebra!!! Good evening good sir.

Thanks Janos. I have no love for the left. That said I am more the sort to agree to disagree. I count many leftists as friends. Doesn’t make them bad people.

Their social programming is just different than those on the right. I have been reading the JHK blog for awhile now. The icing on the cake is the comments section. It is nice to hear peoples unvarnished feelings. It is a breathe of fresh air to read the gambit of opinion of those here. I especially like the fact that commenters seem to be lightly moderated if at all. Yet another well crafted, erudite & bitingly sarcastic article penned by Herr Kunstler.

I can hear echoes of ole’ Hunter S. Thompson in some of the turns of phrase and satire. Anyway, I for one am happy that ‘me & mine’ (as well as many others) have enjoyed a level of prosperity so far unheard of in any time in recorded history.

The opulence of modern America is way beyond any level of the orgiastic spams of ancient Rome, for example. However, if it’s over, let it be– and so be it. The best thing a man can do in these circumstances is to prepare the best you can for the survival and wellness of their loved ones, and for the rest– take things as they come. I think that’s pretty much what any of us can do. There will be some positives in the future mix.

In the areas where anarchies, warlordism & ethnic cleansing is less diminished, that is, in a.k.a. ‘fly over country’– you are gonna see a lot of the old cast iron pot bellied stoves, laundry, canning, sewing, darning, farm tools & other sundry materials for survival when people lived by the natural daylight cycle come out of the basements and attics of people who will be forced to get back to a much more simplified lifestyle. I include myself in this group. So, be thankful for the goodness & bounty that you’ve enjoyed up to now. But also be thankful that the future will bring new, unexpected opportunity for different types of prosperity that individually and as a society haven’t been enjoyed or been appreciated for a very long time. More than a few tattoo aficionados determined that if the subtle tattoo could be seductive–the butterfly on the sacrum of a beautiful woman or as Greg Allman sang, “let me show you my tattoo; let me drive you crazy” –then a whole lot of tattoo is even better. It reminds me of that Delacroix quip that ‘some painters will paint the back of their canvass if the brush is not removed from their hand’ or something to that effect.

Of course there are those they simply seek to shock or garner a glance at any cost. I’ll never forget the covered from head-to-toe tattoo freak who once paraded through the gym with his young song to demonstrate his normalcy. I felt sorry for the kid as it was obvious he was just being used. There’s even a new verb for the very unfortunate trend of getting an entire arm done i.e., “sleeving”. I believe you’re right, Buck, about “being used” because I think it’s just another meme, another bit of Madison Avenue (since most models now have at least one tattoo). These kids are TOOLS.

However, whatever the “diagnosis” is, what I really dislike is that it has become another form of tribalism because the heavily-tattooed rarely keep steady company with the unmarked. It’s a particularly pernicious form of in-group-ism. But the victims are the tattooed kids themselves since their lifetime employment opportunities go through the floor. It’s an interesting paradox that in a parched, soulless, post-industrial era, antiquity is returning in the form of the tattoo. It’s like putting totem poles on the town squares in Silicon Valley. I agree that if it’s done with some aesthetic, like a lovely butterfly on the thigh or something, it is not wholly awful.

However, most of them are ridiculous skull-and-crossbones, black widow spiders, barbed wire (perhaps THE most common), or various kinds of serpents or ghouls. Alas, though, it does indicate a kind of angry anti-intellectualism because the heavily marked NEVER seem too damned bright. Some cities in the West, like Phoenix, now seem like places where an average adult (even middle-aged) would prefer hooking up with an MMA cage fighter far more than someone with smarts and a career. Of course, later they bitch about how they were done wrong by Mr.

Alexandr Brodsky: The Great November Revolution in the US The changes that have occurred in the US in November of last year, without exaggeration, must be called a revolution. Indeed, removed from power was the group of politicians who for over 20 years determined the fate of not only the US but also of the entire world. The defeat of a certain part (call it Clinton wing) of US Democratic Party was complete, totally democratic and, without exaggeration, wonderful. The main attack of the factions within the Democratic Party in the last election to Congress was directed not so much against Republican rivals as against their own Democratic President Obama. And here is the main question is not how many seats in Congress the Republicans won over the Democrats, but rather in what areas they won it, and in what they not. Moreover, the media openly discussed the plan, according to which, in the case of Democrats loss, Republicans would initiate the process of impeachment for a number of decisions that have been taken by Obama to bypass Congress. As a result, for the remaining two years of Obama presidency, Vice President Biden would automatically become de facto president, so he would be able to prepare the way for coming to power in 2016, of the undisputed leader of this group – Hillary Clinton.

But before 2016 still had to be taking into account the relationships that have been established between Vice President Biden and President Putin after Biden flew to Moscow and personally convinced President Medvedev to abstain from voting on the no-fly zone over Libya (by the way, contrary to the opinion of Prime Minister Putin). As a result of this decision, President Medvedev has been given the green light to the total discredit of the UN, which led to UN paralysis, so clearly manifested in the Ukrainian crisis, as well as the destruction of Libya as a state and the creeping spread of Libyan arms throughout the Islamic, or rather, the Islamist world. In particular, it is weapons in the hands of those who went on to become ISIS, dramatically worsened the situation in Syria and in Iraq and provoked “Syrian” crisis between Russia and the US, which nearly ended in the armed confrontation. And the role of President Obama in the settlement of Syrian crisis against the opposition group lead by Hillary Clinton, who openly demanded the escalation of the conflict, is comparable to the role of Russia and President Putin. And it may very well be that personal insult Obama feels toward President Putin, is connected with the fact that his role in resolving the Syrian crisis, and the role of the American people, including motorcyclists on the streets of Washington and American soldiers protesting the bombing of Syria in the Union Square, was suppressed by the world media, controlled by that clan, which supports Hillary Clinton presidential bid in the United States. Meanwhile, this offense played very negative role in the Ukrainian crisis, becoming one of the reasons for the failure of President Obama to oppose the Clinton’s clan to resolve the crisis in Ukraine in time, as the Syrian crisis was resolved in the meeting in Ireland. Hillary Clinton and Angela Merkel, of course, are very talented politicians and can calculate their party a few moves ahead.

And this election campaign that Clinton’s clan lost in November, does not tell that her talent betrayed her. On the contrary, this campaign is undoubtedly a masterpiece of political art and Hillary is the master of political paradox. This loss indicates that the results of this election were determined by the intervention of a higher power, and the best and most brilliant political intrigue is powerless against it. And this gives us hope that in the future these higher forces will not leave humanity and US congressmen and deter them from errors that are known to be worse than the crime.

During the election campaign the Clintons dealt several so-called “book strikes” to Obama. Obama administration officials, namely the Director of the CIA and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, Chuck Hagel, and Robert Gates wrote books in which they subjected the President who appointed them to withering criticism, and published them just before a vote. Moreover, these books were in addition to the book by the former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in which she had no stone left out of the Obama’s presidency. But in fact, these books have been just cherry on the cake baked by Mrs. Yes, as discussed upthread, the U.S. Government is evil. Not to defend my country, but I’m tired of seeing Putin made a hero here.

He was KGB- you know, the bullet-behind-the-ear organization that struck terror in the hearts of Russians. Being in his 60’s and a communist through to the end of the USSR, he at least had to have knowledge of the Gulag, if not help sending people there, and quite possibly have been involved in assassinations. I look at him as a competent thug, hardly material for hero worship. Expanding out further, I’ll state that ALL governments are evil. In fact, I’d be hard-pressed to name any government, ever, that was moral.

I’m cynical enough to even believe humanity is evil. I don’t have to list the litany of evil done by people throughout the roll of history. That we’re capable of being kind and noble doesn’t take away the terrible deeds we’ve committed. And theorizing a supernatural entity who forgives all our sins upon confession so we can turn around and be bad again seems to be a very self-serving hypocracy. All this adds up to a lot of very bad Karma. If we don’t straighten out our act very soon, the consequences will be dire. AKlein I agree, war is one of those time-tested means of distraction. Mestrenova Serial Mac.

Leopoldo Galtieri tried it with the Falklands. One minute he was a dirty-dog murderer and the next thing you know the Argentines are celebrating in public squares.

It was a worthwhile gamble. Everyone counseled Mrs. Thatcher to “negotiate”, they advised a “diplomatic” solution.

With a little luck Galtieri might even have come out looking good. Didn’t work out.

Thatcher had her own domestic troubles and a lovely war with a two-bit Latin despot would do quite nicely. Putin’s really making a meal of it in the Ukraine.

He’s got an approval rating that makes Obama’s lips wet. But I don’t see a good ending. Taking control of decrepit Ukrainian territories is going to be a non-stop source of trouble. He’ll regret all of it. He will ask, as sure as we’re sitting here, why oh why did I get sucked in?

If I were Mr. Putin I’d be thinking about a post-politics career.

Maybe one outside of Russia, somewhere safe, under the protection of a reliable autocrat, one that stays bribed and doesn’t keep coming back for more. Someplace without much of a legal system or observance of soft-headed humanitarian nonsense. Someplace like Syria if only it hadn’t blown up. What about Kazakhstan? Is Snerdly Black?

I though I heard Rush say that. Or was it a dream within a dream within a dream? Better a dream than a dram but better yet, a gram. Pot prices here are now approaching Black Market levels.

A vindication of the free market – which must be maintained by men with badges and guns. Can not a man be dual when must needs? Answer: assuming he has any right to exist at all.

And Whites do have the right to exist. What do you have against us?

Note: You can find this important Q and A in Lovecrafts’s “The Strange Case of Charles Dexter War”. I was thinking about Greece and how it might break away from the EU. I’ve always believed the EU couldn’t last. Because it consists of different countries, with historic mutual antagonisms, different cultures, and different languages. Kind of like a smaller version of the UN, and we all know how well the UN works as did its predecessor, the League of Nations. Also, Pan-Africanism never was able to get started From there, I then thought it natural to consider.the US. We’re really a union of 50 different countries.

The Founding Fathers (the FF) could have just as easily called it the American Union – the AU. But unlike the other unions, this one has lasted for going on 250 years. I believe it”s because the FF were thinkers foremost, and admirers of the European Enlightenment; they were soldiers only out of necessity. They sold the colonists a bill of goods and hooked some of the public into rebellion.

The public was sold another bill of goods when more laborers were needed for an expanding manufactory. Instead of being honest about the need for more workers, TPTB of those times pushed multi-culturism – immigration – under the guise of liberty for all. Now we have a country with many cultures and at least 2 major languages in a time of diminishing resources. When the bounty was plentiful, having different cultures was a strength,but in a time of lowered expectations, our diversity will be a drawback.

Too bad, because ideally multi-culturism ought to be a good thing. If our union is to survive, we better sit down in cooperation and prioritize effectively for our time is running out. “I was thinking about Greece and how it might break away from the EU.

I’ve always believed the EU couldn’t last. Because it consists of different countries, with historic mutual antagonisms, different cultures, and different languages. Kind of like a smaller version of the UN, and we all know how well the UN works as did its predecessor, the League of Nations. Also, Pan-Africanism never was able to get started.”-btb. Interesting point, and more people agree with you now that the EU turned out to be such a willing tool of Central Banking and Finance Furthermore, the whole idea of international economic ‘interdependence’ might be wrong; “The first big lie is that interdependency is a natural economic state. Historically, economies are more likely to survive and thrive the LESS dependent they are on outside factors. Independent, self contained, self sustaining, decentralized economies are the natural and preferable cultural path.

Multilateralism (centralization) is completely contrary and destructive to this natural state, as we have already witnessed in the kind of panic which ensues across the globe when even one small nation, like Switzerland”-ZH. You know MD, the fact that we live in an interdependent ‘Global Economy’ has been almost Gospel all these years and decades. But now, with the European Union falling apart, the Middle East and Africa in shambles, Russia close to default, and even a superheated China cooling off some, the word seems to have gone out to the talking heads in the Financial Media that those events and the dismal state the World is in will in no way slow down US economic ‘Recovery’, as we slowly ‘heal’. That’s how they actually say it, in therapeutic terms. “You know MD, the fact that we live in an interdependent ‘Global Economy’ has been almost Gospel all these years and decades.”-brh. Yes, exactly.

And why was that? Who profited from the past forty years of full-bore globalization? Not you-n-me, ‘buddy-boy’ 😉 Before the late nineties I was a complete supporter of GATT/WTO initiatives Because I thought that the people behind them would make sure to not cross the line into demand destruction.

Thought that the PTB wouldn’t lose their minds and destroy the game that they were making a mint from, in other words. That’s all over now. The whole idea of the EU smacks of a really naive, utopian philosophy that puts paid to the idea the Europeans have much more realpolitik than Americans. Personally, I think Europe is living off of its glorious past from the 16th thru 19th centuries and is now even more decadent than the United States. They have a better social life because of all the promenades, cafes, and so forth but many of those have been in place for many generations and are not the invention of the Europeans of the last several generations.

The latest batch of Europeans think it’s their birthright to retire at 54 and their bureaucracies make it take an act of God to shitcan horrible employees. They are fortunate that they have walkable cities built hundreds of years ago because if they had a lot of new cities I bet they’d be full of the sterile postmodern architecture that characterizes the USA and Russia (“Stalinist” architecture an oxymoron). There’s hardly any industry groups where European countries have the lead over Asia or America.

I’m only a europhile to the extent that I love their legacy but I’m none too fond of their present. If petroleum ever does run short places like Connecticut are going to get depopulated real quick.

Its just too goddam cold here — 8dF right now in this valley — for human beings to survive in winter. God knows how the Indians made it.

When the English first arrived in the 1630s it took 250 acres of woodland for a settler to build a house, a barn, fences, and heat the place for one year. We had a steady population of about 250,000 for several centuries until the industrial epoch began and half of Europe arrived to work in factories. Back then, we heated our homes with coal brought in by railroad from Pennsylvania.

The advent of the comprehensive welfare state begnning in the 1930s brought in hundreds of thousands of more people, mostly black southern sharecroppers, West Indians, and refugees from a collapsed Puerto Rico. Now the population is over 3.5 million; the carrying capacity of this State can’t be more than a few hundred thousand at most. Without home heating oil (kerosene) people will just freeze to death inside their houses. At Amherst College a few months ago there was a symposium dedicated to basically taxing the oil companies out of fossil fuels and forcing them into ‘renewables’ and alt energy. Where is this alt energy?

Can renewables heat people’s houses so they don’t turn into ice cubes in their beds when its 8dF outside the window? The only reason 3.5 million human beings can survive in this frozen place is because we have oil (and some natural gas) to keep things warmed up. The only alternative I know of is wood; if we all burned wood the landscape would be stripped of trees in a matter of weeks.

In fact, Ct was largely deforested by 1880. Petroleum has to keep on flowing or else, truly, we are screwed. “Now we have a country with many cultures and at least 2 major languages in a time of diminishing resources.” –beantownbill Multiculturalism and multilingualism are not obstacles to development, even in a “time of diminishing resources.” When India became an independent nation in 1947, sixteen Indian languages were officially recognised by the constitution. This number has since risen to twenty-two. Hindi is considered the country’s official national language and English the auxiliary official language.

Yet, if you live in India for any period of time (as opposed to judging her from without), you see that multiculturalism and multilingualism work. Since Independence India has reduced poverty and has become one of the world’s nuclear superpowers. (see Why Growth Matters: How Economic Growth in India Reduced Poverty and the Lessons for Other Developing Countries by Jagdish Bhagwati, 2014). Economic growth is how India reduces poverty. India’s economy is expected to grow 5.4% year.

It grew 4.7% in the year ended March 31, 2014. In fact, the relationship between monolinguism/homogeneous culture and affluence is not a causal one. India thrives, proving multiculturalism and multilingualism are not problems. To the contrary, monoculture, whether human or agricultural, is weakness, leading to inbreeding/illness/plague.

Biodiversity is the law of nature. History is a history of cross-breeding, cross-cultural attraction and miscegenation. Diversity is strength. 120 tons of German gold Up until recently it seemed that the scheme of US-German relations is reduced to pressure and blackmail from the US, with Berlin more or less successfully resisting. The news that Germany was able to repatriate 120 tons of its own gold from the United States puts the fat cross on the scheme. German gold is stored in the US and the Germans for many years unsuccessfully tried to repatriate it with the logical assumption that the Americans have long sold their gold in the course of their endless efforts to suppress the gold price (in fact, in attempts to defend the dollar’s status as the only global currency). In response, Americans simply kept telling Germans to go screw themselves and not even allowed them to check availability of gold, forcing the Bundesbank representatives shamefully mumble to the media mantra of “complete trust to our American colleagues.” It turns out that in December 2014, Germany managed to repatriate 120 tons of their own gold from the United States, which is simply a remarkable breakthrough.

Even more, the representatives of the Bundesbank were able to conduct chemical analysis – what an audacity! – to make sure that their “Americans colleagues” did not slipped them gold-plated tungsten. The most likely explanation for such a dramatic change in the situation lies in the fact that Americans are now forced to pay Berlin to maintain sanctions against Russia. And in order to pay they have been on the market for “physical gold” rather than derivative contracts on the gold price. By the way, most recently in the press flashed the story that the Americans “evacuated” from Ukraine its gold reserves. You can bet 100 to 1, that the Ukrainian gold is now deep down in underground Frankfurt storage and bet million to one that Ukraine is not going to see its “evacuated” gold ever again.

The conclusion is that American hegemony has weakened and US is forced to not only to suppress, but also to bribe its vassals (never mind with their own money), so they do not run away. There is a suspicion that Merkel is building a double game in the style of deposed Ukrainian President Yanukovych, trying to get the maximum benefits on both sides of Washington-Moscow conflict. As inequality soars, the nervous super rich are already planning their escapes Hedge fund managers are preparing getaways by buying airstrips and farms in remote areas, former hedge fund partner tells Davos during session on inequality. With growing inequality and the civil unrest from Ferguson and the Occupy protests fresh in people’s mind, the world’s super rich are already preparing for the consequences.

At a packed session in Davos, former hedge fund director Robert Johnson revealed that worried hedge fund managers were already planning their escapes. “I know hedge fund managers all over the world who are buying airstrips and farms in places like New Zealand because they think they need a getaway,” he said. US Anti-Russian Financial warfare: Ratings and cutting off SWIFT As far as garbage rating is concerned: Russia does not care. Russian companies are already cut off from the Western credit markets, and the Russian government does not need to take on debt in the West. Markets will go haywire for couple of days and wither. The triumphant article in Financial Times on how the downgrade will destroy the Russian economy begins to resemble the style and level of argumentation of Ukrainian propaganda about the successes of the Anti-Terrorist Operation in the East. The disabling of SWIFT.

To tell the truth, it might have long term positive effects for Russia. Turning off the SWIFT would mean 2 months of inconvenience and psychosis, but the positive effects will last for years. First, no disaster will happen. Russian transactions will take place through the internal system of the Central Bank, and external can be carried out either through correspondent accounts in China (as well as any other friendly country) or archaic methods – fax / telex.

It will be slightly more expensive than it is now, but nothing critical. Iran has managed, so would Russia.

Now Russia cannot transfer all the oil and gas trading into rubles. Existing long-term contracts involve dollar payments and to break contract is evil, and buyers in good faith will not agree to change the currency of the contract. As a result the transition to rubles is slow and will start in full force when old contracts expire. However, disconnection from SWIFT is ideal force majeure (in fact, an economic war on the state level), which dramatically changes the situation and allows you to change the terms of existing contracts.

Making the EU to buy Russian gas in rubles and make payments in the Russian interbank system – this is just a dream come true And if you add that disabling of SWIFT makes it impossible to pay off debts of Russian companies to European banks, the European banking system can be buried right here and now. “We’ll wait and see what is going to happen, but, of course, in the case of such decisions, I would like to note that our economic response, and indeed every other reaction – will have no restrains” – quote of Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian Prime Minister. @wpa-ccc: I’ll start my reply by first admitting I’ve never been to India, nor do I profess to be an India expert. However, from what I’ve read and from what I’ve seen from pictures and videos, the place is not where I’d want to live.

India has a population of over a billion people and will soon take over the title as the world’s most populated country. With a rapidly growing population, economic numbers have to go up. I wonder, if there is a metric out there that gives productivity per person, what would that number show? In any case, India is one disaster away from imploding, as is China. India’s population is ridiculous.

Regarding multi-culturism, I think you make my case. Sorry, I accidently pressed the submit key. I think you make my case better than you make your own. Remember, India is already less multi-cultural than at any time in the past several hundred years because it was partitioned in 1947.

Imagine a present-day India with 170 million Muslims. Before the partition, culture wars between the two religions was almost constant, with violence a near-daily occurrence. Today, nuclear Pakistan (which is really Indian) and India are at each other’s throats, and is one of the reasons why the doomsday clock is 3 minutes to midnight. Concerning languages, it just seems logical to me that when 2 people can’t or won’t speak the other’s language, a lot gets missing in translation. From what I do know about language, it appears that how someone speaks effects their brain structure, and vice versa. JHK is way too smart to take on being Pres. Of Clusterf***.

And, not even close to dumb enough to be a puppet. It does have a ring to it though, President James Kunstler.

Besides, we’d have to get real. Imagine the debates, indeed. Hope he battened the hatches on that storm up yonder. His fans would miss his missives.

And, if my calculations are correct, a spate of children will be born in the Northeast in October. Mmmm..Meanwhile the doomsday clock has moved up 2 more minutes. Janos, if you see this, what I meant about being comforted by the fact that Americans are well armed is that death will come quicker that way, rather than say starvation or clubbed, you know stuff like that.

And K-dog you’re probably right, this nation was never, well, good. I am looking through rose colored glasses perhaps. But there is some good everywhere and in everyone, and also evil.

Actually, it has all been a lie since the 40’s or 50’s. This nation has run on a war economy since Korea or Vietnam at least. That’s one of the most horrid things. It must be awful if you are of the younger crowd to see what it is and where it’s headed, I know it is for me and I was born right after the end of Camelot, if it ever was. Maybe it’s time for a Kunstler or a Kunstler type for President. Hey – what’s a “major point block.?” What’s a topic with a definitive appositive? What’s a supporting sentence?

– Budi ================ Budi, if I am catching the drift of your post you are saying to JHK that he is blowing unsupported smoke up our asses. I confess, this heresy has crossed my mind more than once. In your accusation you have used two terms that I have never heard before: “major point block” and “definitive appositive.” The answers that came up as a result of a Google search of these terms were 100% unhelpful. Could you please define for me in layman’s language what is meant by these terms?

And cite examples where Jim has failed in this regard. Note, I am not busting ballsI am seriously interested.

Ever since events in Paris PBS and BBC are falling all over themselves looking for evidence of ‘Islamophobia’ in the US and Western Europe, almost every goddam day. I’m curious, why aren’t these esteemed news organizations investigating how Christians are treated in majority Muslim countries. I read today over 1000 churches have been destroyed in Nigeria by Boko Haram in Nigeria in the past year. Christians are routinely sought out and murdered by ISIS in Syria and Iraq. Churches are being blown up in Pakistan and Indonesia.

Coptic Christians are being beaten to death in Egypt. How many new churches are being built in Saudi Arabia this year? The western news media is not interested. How do you like it now, Gentlemen? Marlin, I admit to Islamophobia.

Even Islamics ought to suffer from Islamophobia. But that isn’t the issue. The issue is political correctness. Everyone, regardless of their actions has to be treated with respect and equality. Heaven forbid that we castigate a rapist – after all, he was probably abused as a child, so it’s not his fault he sexually assaulted someone. Muslims attacked us and killed 3000 Americans, but it isn’t their fault. They were just upset we support Jews, who, of course, are responsible for all the world’s troubles.

My fondest hope is that someday science finds a way to grow a human brain and transplant it into the typical American. JHK says: “In fact, $50 oil is going to crush what is left of the US Oil industry, especially fracking for shale oil and deep water drilling.” Yes! Crushing the fossil fuel industry is exactly what has to happen: fossil fuels need to stay in the ground, not burned, if we are to save the planet. That is what we of the global movement are fighting for. And we will win, just as those in the civil rights movement, who were arrested for sitting down at a lunch counter, ultimately won.

The longest journey begins with just a single step. Divestment by divestment until the oil industry dies out. The University of Maine System Board of Trustees unanimously voted on Monday to dump all of its direct holdings from coal companies, with every trustee and several presidents speaking in favor of the measure. Students are heralding the move as an important victory, but still incomplete, as it will not impact coal stocks in co-mingled funds. “We have to take victories as they come, but the end goal is complete fossil fuel divestment, and we will keep working towards that,” Iris SanGiovanni, student at the University of Southern Maine and organizer with Divest UMaine. Anyway, it gets pretty cold in Maine, I believe.

What your organization has in mind about not freezing to death? – Finca ================= Good point Finca, how does UMaine heat their buildings? Their main location is in Orono, ME.

It is 17dF there as we speak and going down to -8 tonight. Yes, that’s rightnegative 8dF. The town’s population is 93.7% White and no doubt crawling with liberals who think it’s cool to divest coal from their portfolios before they have divested their buildings of carbon based heating systems.

Do these people have the cart before the horse or what? Yet the intangible rules the tangible. Biological urges to reproduce are not tangible. But they exist and rabbits are fecund.”-sock. Yet the Tangible can *terminate* the intangible’s biological facilitator All the positive affirmations in the world didn’t and don’t stop speeding bullets, freezing cold or an myriad of other Tangible phenomena. Wpa, I’ve seen nothing from you to suggest that you’ve ever had to practice what you preach and make it work in the real world. Kunstler wrote a book about your brand of post-modern hoodoo called ‘Too Much Magic’.

Perhaps you’ve heard of it? What about Barbara Ehrenreich’s book ‘Bright Sided’? SO, if the duration of wars throughout all of history is usually. “wpa, I’ve seen nothing from you to suggest that you’ve ever had to practice what you preach and make it work in the real world.” –MD MD, this is not about me.

Your ad hominem is superfluous and irrelevant. You say, “I’ve seen nothing from you to suggest” Does that mean all I have to do is state something subjective about myself and you will believe? Let’s stick to facts that are objective. You made an assertion about a “tangible universe,” but you never defined what you mean by tangible. I assume you mean capable of being touched, like a tangible “thing,” in what you call “the real world.” I am simply stating the obvious, that most of what is important in life is not tangible.

Energy, space, time, pain, love, etc. None of these words refer to any particular “thing.” The meanings of these words are given by their use in language, as Wittgenstein told us in his Philosophical Investigations. And that meaning is itself intangible. Please leave discussion of the “real world” out of this.

We are only here to offer our opinions about our fantasy world where doom is imminent, you know, the one in which we are all supposedly fucked. On CFN we need to feel afraid and scare one another.

How about them Persians? How about that Caliphate and those scary Muslims? How about them border-crossing immigrants? Lots to be scared of with them Negros, Jews, and Mexicans.

Or bankers, illuminati, etc. Things are going to hell in a hand basket because of all of them. Get the picture? “Check out the Illuminati Game Cards one that looks a lot like Obama” –Janos Six years ago on CFN the discussion was about how Obama was going to confiscate guns, about Fast and Furious (which Obama ended), about Homeland Security stocking up on bullets to kill us all, about the FEMA camps which never existed, about how Obamacare was going to destroy the economy, peak oil would guarantee $200 a barrel oil. JHK defiantly declared the economy would NEVER recover.

The stuff of CFN. None of which turned out to be true.

Now, Janos, you insinuate that Obama is Illuminati? Six years ago on CFN Obama was being called a radical Marxist and a Muslim and a Kenyan. Now Obama is Illuminati?

The stuff of CFN. None of which is true. Once you see that CFN is a fear-mongering rumor mill, the spell is broken and you no longer fear that “collapse” is “just around the corner” maybe in 2009, or was it 2010, or 2011, etc. Surely 2015, or at the latest 2016, if not then 2017, surely by 2050, or at least this century, or if not, then the 22nd century, fer sure, you betcha. War of the industrial and financial capital In the United States and their allied Nations financial capital not only subdued industrial capital, but the State itself as a social institution. It is noteworthy that in the US political parties have virtually disappeared. They gave way to the clans who recognize no political or ideological boundaries.

The States themselves are graduating from its transformation, largely repeating the path of the Roman Empire. Ancient Rome brought the conquered peoples, not only civilization, which was expressed in excellent roads, the baths and aqueducts, but also the blood that was spilled by legionaries during the conquest.

And if half a century ago, the United States, despite the rigid confrontation with the Soviet Union, gave the world new technologies and engaged in, among other things constructive activity, now export exclusively chaos and war. United States, as yet a world leader, not only stopped in its development, but also hinders development of the rest of the world. Trying to stop the course of history is not new and is one of the features of the development of financial capital. Financial capital grows stronger with colonial expansion and the flow of money back to the Metropoly, resulting in the death of industrial capital, which loses appeal in the eyes of the big capitalists and the petty bourgeoisie.

In parallel with the loss of the industrial capital of the country has lost a number of technologies (US space program), the population is being corrupted, and intellectuals and creative class are degraded. As a result, the state of the victorious finance capital inevitably loses the title of world leader. So it was with the colonial empires of Portugal, Spain, Holland and the UK. Once an incredible influx of capital from the colonies led to the death of the industry in the Metropoly – it becomes unable to compete with the young and healthy state of industrial capital. That’s why the attempts by US to put History on Pause without success in re-industrialization (and there are currently none) will succeed in only bringing the “End of History” to US as we know it.

Another remarkable feature of the winning financial capital – is their inability to successfully implement large-scale infrastructural and engineering projects. The only truly large-scale project, implemented by the countries of the collective West – globalization by Atlanticist patterns, the purpose of which – the transformation of the world into one global colony under the leadership of the “golden billion”. However, the project in the current environment is fundamentally unrealizable and stumbles upon the resistance of the SCO and BRICS. While Russia is building a unique bank of biomaterials, raises tens of nuclear power plants in various parts of the world, launches nuclear-powered icebreakers and promotes its space program, the US is trying to catch up with the looting of the world. These attempts are similar to Spain attempts to revive its industry, that failed under the weight of galleons laden with American gold. China is particularly busy and does incredible in scale construction of (so far, empty) cities, high-speed rail, builds transoceanic marine channels. Sign of the vitality and power of the state – the ability to build new cities, realize scientific, technical and infrastructure projects, rather than an opportunity to stop for a time development of mankind.

MD, this is not about me. Your ad hominem is superfluous and irrelevant. You say, “I’ve seen nothing from you to suggest” Does that mean all I have to do is state something subjective about myself and you will believe? Let’s stick to facts that are objective. Thank you for not doing that like MD has done here — claiming credentials that cannot be verified and validated with his talk of military weaponry and ordinance as though he’s an experienced expert. Anonymity on the internet precludes real-life credentials. If you prefer to remain anonymous, then you don’t get to claim real-life accomplishments and expertise, at least not if you’re deferring to said unvalidated authority to support your argument.

Janos may be many things to many people, but one thing he doesn’t do is claim real-life authority and credentials. Shtik gets personal, but he doesn’t use his personal revelations as authority in an argument or debate, but rather he uses it as entertainment or what I perceive as entertainment. Speaking of that, when are we going to get another personal story, Q. What are you building now? Is the family squabbling over your brother’s estate yet and at each others’ throats? How’s the shoulder? Are you still on painkillers?

Have you had stuffed cabbages lately? Is your neighbor still drunk and unemployed? Does Peter still enjoy B’s sugar cookies after his wife has passed or has he sworn off food and refuses to eat as a result of his paralytic mourning? Speaking of that, when are we going to get another personal story, Q. – Cold =============== OK, since you ‘axed.’ At 74 years and 2 months I have never been busier in my life.

In fact, kind of like a one armed paper hanger as a result of the operation on my shoulder 3 weeks ago tomorrow. I just went today for a follow up visit to the Doc and he gave me 4 exercises to do every 2 hours. They are ridiculously simple but hurt like a bitch. The first is to bend over, dangle my arm down and turn it in a small circle first clockwise, then counter.

Hurts like hell. Everything I do is made more difficult by this operation. Can’t tie my shoes, can’t drive a car. A lot of my typing and mouse manipulation is with my left hand. Also eating left handed. I’m getting better at it but it’s sooo annoying.

Anyway, the shoulder is just a side issue in my life. My full time job is getting a grip on the inheritance left me by my brother who died suddenly last September without a will BUT with me named as primary beneficiary on several accounts.

I am about 90% finished pulling this all together. One big element was selling off his home while being a thousand miles distant and dealing by phone and email with a lawyer and a real estate agent. The closing happened on Dec 30th but there are endless little details that keep cropping up.

Last night I paid the final utility bill. All this is preface to a point I want to make about the money and how I relate this to what is happening in Greece. Right before I got my hands on the first portion of my brother’s money I asked each of my 3 kids and their respective spouses and significant others (2 are married and one shacks up) to tell me to the penny how much they owed in school tuition and credit card debt. It came to $62,265. We all got together on Dec 13th at Uncle Pete’s Christmas Party. I had six envelopes made out containing 2 checks each. One check dated 12/13 for half the amount of their debts and a second check dated January 2nd for the other half ( the object was to spread the payout over two calendar years to avoid any chance of shooting myself in the foot regarding gift taxes.) As it turns out you can give away a ton of money without reaching the gift tax threshold.

I told them to immediately deposit the first check and pay off as much debt as they could. Three days later I went on-line and saw that all the 12/13 checks had, in fact, cleared the bank. I did the same 3 days after Jan 2nd. In the ensuing couple of weeks they each sent me copies of their various debt bills paid down to zero. Both they and I felt a huge weight had been lifted from our shoulders. At our New Years party we toasted the Uncle they barely knew (he was a complete recluse.) I told them they had been given a clean slate by my brotherzero debtand the way to keep that figure at zero for the rest of their lives was to “spend less than you earn.” This is where Greece comes in.

I will guess there is not a country in the world that has spent less than it takes in for 5 consecutive years. Among these debtor nations Greece, on a percentage basis, has to be one of the worst. So what have they done?

They have just thumbed their nose big time at the concept of “spend less than you earn.” Paul Krugman, the one who writes for the NY Times, not our CFN poor man’s version, is, of course, overjoyed. More personal stories to come as time permitsI’m an hour late for my next set of exercises. Nice story Q, although I was hoping for a follow up on Cookie the real estate agent. I had shoulder surgery a couple of years ago for a massive rotator cuff tear. But the worst part for me was the pre-op experience. Apparently they discovered on my EKG that I had had a prior heart attack. I was shocked; I didn’t feel anything; it was the least painful catastrophe I had ever felt!

Since this was supposedly in the past and my current EKG was OK they asked me if I wanted to proceed with the surgery. I said yes, that I wouldn’t mind being dead for at least a few hours so I wouldn’t have to think about my newly discovered health issue. Unfortunately, being knocked out felt like it lasted only second or two and when I came around the first thought was, shit, I had a heart attack. For the next five weeks, and with arm in a sling, I waited around until my follow up date with the cardiologist finally arrived.

They did another EKG and she told me I didn’t have a past heart attack and that sometimes the machines at the surgery centers are not the best and many factors can alter a reading. But she ordered an echogram test anyway just to make sure the heart wall muscles were moving and not damaged from a prior heart attack and that turned out OK as well. Finally she noticed that I didn’t have a cholesterol test so she ordered one of those as well. After it came back she informed me that my total cholesterol was 120 and my bad cholesterol was 61. She basically stated that those type of numbers do not typically indicate the presence of coronary artery disease.

To sum up, I waited around worried for over a month when a simple test could have alleviated a lot of concern and perhaps the need for other tests. And all of this for just one organ!

As far as the shoulder I only went to one rehab session before saying fuck it, what’s the point. I didn’t really care about my shoulder at that point because I thought my heart was messed up. After I was out of the sling–six long weeks with that motherfucking thing; I burned it on the last day!– I stared to doing Tai Chi on a daily basis and it felt absolutely great: no pain or stiffness. So perhaps a little caution with the rehab stuff is not an entirely bad thing, especially if it’s eliciting pain etc. Just my opinion though.

Well I didn’t do anything work related for the first six weeks while in a sling. After that I was cautious when working and absolutely no lifting of anything overhead. The surgeon told me not to lift any heavy objects above my head for the first six month and I took him up on that advice. I’ll never have full strength but the pain is much better that before the surgery. As far as how it heals this is what I understand. I had a fresh, recent tear and thus the ‘serrated edges’ of the soft tissues fit more easily back together in the manner of a puzzle (think of a broken object that still pieces back together). But if it’s not a recent tear, fat starts to infiltrate the injured area which is both not as strong as the original tendon and along compromising the edge/puzzle of a recent tear.

I have read the outcomes are variable and dependent on a lot of different factors. Personally, I was happy about the pain relief and although not as strong as I was pre-injury I am certainly stronger than I was while injured—I could barely lift a cup of water.

I injured myself by slipping on ice after walking around a blind corner; I was on my ass before I knew what happened although I reflexively stuck my hand out to break the fall and ended up ripping the cuff as well. Not fun at all. Have you read this? “The more detached from reality American culture becomes the more strictly ceremonial leadership gets, as illustrated by the raft of bromides Barack Obama floated past the assembled vassalage of government last week in another grand effort to avoid the necessities of the moment.

Those necessities include freeing a hostage public from the tyrannical clutches of corporate despotism — the evil empire of big boxes, big burgers, big pharma, Big Brother — and the atrocious rackets fostered by them that masquerade as an economy. The template of the life we have known is broken and the pieces within are flying apart, and no amount of wishing or promising can keep them going. If this society is even going to survive, the people have to smash their way out of this template prison, probably against the efforts of the people and organizations now running it merely for their own benefit.” Some guy named Kunstler wrote that — and pretty recently, if I recall correctly.

He seems to be delivering a strident tongue-lashing to the culture of vaporous intangibles that are passed off as the “new realities” by those who wish to constrain and control every aspect of society (and are terrified of the consequences of its’ collapse as well they should be.) The “intangible” is also known as bullshit (at least it is in the crude circles that I happen to run in). Just who do you think is continually promoting, fomenting and disseminating said bullshit, hmm?

I guess some may have missed it, but the article is a direct assault on Fantasyland [tm Disneyhole] and its’ mouthpieces. See any mouthpieces here in the comment section?

“If I were Mr. Putin I’d be thinking about a post-politics career. Maybe one outside of Russia, somewhere safe, under the protection of a reliable autocrat, one that stays bribed and doesn’t keep coming back for more. Someplace without much of a legal system or observance of soft-headed humanitarian nonsense.

Someplace like Syria if only it hadn’t blown up. What about Kazakhstan?” — Volodya Russia is in active preparation for the next elections in Germany.

It is not clear if the Christian Democrats will win the next election, but there is no doubt that Putin will win. However, the pragmatic American analysts say it is quite natural thing: Putin’s budget for elections in Germany by far exceeds the funding of the election campaign of any of the German parties. Beantown Bill may hate Putin but I think it’s dark comedy that while Russia’s debts are virtually entirely paid off, our ability to influence global geopolitics is waning every year.

Putin’s approval rating in Russia is about 70% (at least) even with the Ruble’s crash. I know many, many Russians in California and you’d be surprised at how many are considering returning to Russia.

Many of these are very cosmopolitan people who like the symphony, ballet, theater, and such and they think the US is increasingly becoming a passel of militantly stupid, fat, tattooed slobs who think the Super Bowl is “culture”. I don’t get Obama’s militant attitude toward Putin given that we’ve invaded Grenada, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Pakistan, Panama, and we’re meddling in Syria, Egypt, and Nigeria. We think it’s our birthright to drop paratroopers in any goddamned country we like. On the other hand, if anyone dropped paratroopers in Kansas we’d blow ’em up. Putin took back a place that was Russian for like 1000 out of the last 1050 years and scream holy hell about it. Then we embarrassed ourselves about the jet disaster and it turns out that Russia didn’t do it but did we give a profuse apology?

Not a chance. Russia in the next 50 years is going to have the last laugh on many fronts because THEY ARE NOT BROKE like the USA and Europe. They are not driven by “shareholder values” like the entire US and its political process. They will get the last laugh. No YOU don’t “get it”. The “collapse” has already happened. Workforce Participation is at 38-year lows.

Real wages have dropped 10% since Obama took over in 2008. Household debt levels, which usually drop precipitously in a recession, hardly moved. Rome was neither made nor destroyed in a single day. Rome died a death of a thousand cuts and that’s exactly what’s happening to the majority of Americans. People in their 50s that lose their jobs enter a downward mobility crisis. The young can’t get choice jobs. We’re a “service economy”.

High tech is kiddy world and those over 40 need not apply. When you’re living day to day, history seems to unfold very, very slowly but happening it is. Anyone singing Reagan’s “morning in America” tune in 2015 just isn’t a very good observer. I agree that it’s getting worse but “media day” has been around for many years.

But the game itself is almost an afterthought: the event is all about pageantry, performance and profit with not a small amount of jingoism sprinkled in the mix (recall Nixon calling the winning locker room after the game?) And a mass display “culture”. America now huddles around the TV to watch the unveiling of ‘breathtaking commercials” that would have made a nice Norman Rockwell cover for the Saturday Evening Post in less staged and ostentatious times. But too bad an ever-increasing amount of the populace can only ‘drive Cadillacs in their dreams’.

And then there’s that babbling illiterate Marshawn Lynch who claims he wants ‘no media attention’ while verbally castigating that very media innumerable “y’alls” every other word. But forget all that. The real reason for the Super Bowl is the excuse to eat, eat, eat. And eat some more. Super Bowl week at the end of the day, is a very heavy lift for the garbage collectors of America. Fortunately it all gets thrown in the dump where it belongs. And gambling, can’t forget that.

There is a bet for every imaginable scenario, such as how long it will take to sing the National Anthem! Speaking of violence and Stingley, I saw Jack Tatum play many times in person. He was a vicious hitter; they called him “The Assassin”.

He could have played today but one huge attraction of the game is the fact that the players today are incredible athletes, far better than the players of the past. Modern day training methods,etc are simply far beyond what was available in the past. But a lot of them are not better ‘football players’ and they’re certainly not smarter players. I plan to have butter slathered in lard with a soupcon of bacon grease.

Howz about youze? On a more serious vein, have you noticed that even the media seems tired of the two-week, pre-SB media smackdown. Really, by the time kickoff happens tomorrow I wouldn’t be surprised if half of the formerly-interested no longer give a shit.

I avoid all sports in the 2 weeks prior to the SB so that I have a pinkie’s worth of interest in watching the game. The “big game” mentality has gotten so wearying that I, personally, don’t give a rat’s arse about 99% of sports, pro or college, any more. Russia made Greece an offer they can’t resist Ten days ago, even before acting against the policy of austerity Greek Syriza party won a landslide victory, Russia has made a “modest proposal”: you turn away from the European Union (who you despise anyway), and we will help your farmers by opening up the Russian market and removing the ban on the import of your products. The first meeting with a foreign ambassador Tsipras after his election as Prime Minister of Greece has had was with representative of Russia Andrei Maslov. AND, let’s just take a look at the state of the ‘global economy’ shall we?

“lowest absolute level for global shipping rates since August 1986”. As I mentioned (many posts ago), whatever was driving global trade in the pre-2008 financial collapse era is over now. There is no “pent-up demand” coming to the rescue and no “inevitable” bouncing back. I actually laugh when I see people commenting about the how unlikely or even impossible the collapse process is Even as their system loses consciousness, bleeds-out, goes into eye-rolling convulsions, flops and then gives it all up right in front of them. 😉 Well, it’s to be expected I suppose. Fear and Denial are also a part of the process. “You made an assertion about a “tangible universe,” but you never defined what you mean by tangible.

I assume you mean capable of being touched, like a tangible “thing,” in what you call “the real world.””-wpa-sock. This entire paragraph is evidence of an inability to connect with anything beyond the writers navel. To be clear, I called you no names, I simply stated what I’ve observed Very Big Difference. The statement above does nothing but reinforce that impression.

You seem to live a life far removed from day-to-day gritty reality. “To be clear, I called you no names” –MisterDeluded See what I did ^there^? I disrespected you by calling you a name: “MisterDeluded” instead of respecting your handle. This is how you routinely call me names, by changing my handle in a disrespectful way, e.g.: wpa–sock “I called you no names” –MisterDeceitful Don’t you think changing the handle as you do is juvenile behavior, a form of name-calling? Wpa–ccc, for those who do not know, stands for Works Project Administration–Civilian Conservation Corps, which created American infrastructure we are still using today. It is time to invest again in America.

This week Senator Sanders has made a proposal for rebuilding America. The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) has calculated that an additional $1.6 trillion should be spent on infrastructure by 2020. A 2010 report by the University of Virginia’s Miller Center estimated that an additional $134 billion to $262 billion must be spent per year through 2035 to rebuild and improve roads, rail systems and air transportation. “Senator Sanders’ initiative to invest $1 trillion over five years through his Rebuild America Act will have a far-reaching impact on restoring and modernizing our nation’s aging infrastructure,” said Casey Dinges, senior managing director at the ASCE. Sanders’ proposal will create more jobs than the proposed (and DOA) construction of an XL pipeline, which will never be built. “Don’t you think changing the handle as you do is juvenile behavior, a form of name-calling?”-wpa-[insert appropriate job title here].

When I first arrived at CFN I was repeatedly called a “sock” by the regulars. I didn’t get it at all but I didn’t make a big deal out of it.

I was informed eventually that there was a character on the list that regularly changed his/her screen-name who was clearly a “sock-puppet” of some kind – intentionally or not. At this point seems pretty clear to me that the *someone* they were referring to is you. So tacking on “sock” to your screen-name de jour is not name-calling at all.

In your case it’s an honorific. Be proud of your new-found, hard-earned status!

It’s well deserved! Wpa, you’ve done nothing but regurgitate MSM propaganda blurbs and memes since you ‘arrived’. A pro pos of nothing, as I waited for my doc appt this morning I was fascinated by the appearance of an old duffer with a cane and (perhaps) no teeth sitting nearby.

He wore slacks whose cuff was inordinately high up his calf. His name was called and he rose with great difficulty, pushing up with one hand on the chair’s arm and on his cane with the other arm. Even in an erect position his pant cuffs were a good 8 to 12 inches above his shoes. As he struggled past me it took all my scant empathy to stop from asking him if he was expecting a flood. Surely I would have received a blank stare and only I would have appreciated the humor so, basically, what would be the point? Victoria Nuland’s gone raving lunatic – she now refers to confrontation with Russia in pure military terms US Assistant Secretary invited to deploy command posts of the alliance in six European countries bordering the Ukrainian front line.

Victoria Nuland insisted on maintaining a tough stance in relation to the Ukrainian crisis and calls on the North Atlantic alliance to surround Ukraine with NATO Rapid Response Force. This statement Nuland made at the Brookings Institute. Ukrainian front line? Does that woman fully understand the consequences of her statements. So, NATO begins preparation for combat deployment all along Russia’s western border. Let’s compare the situation on the eve of June 22, 1941 to the current moment. Imagine that Hitler started today.

Russia’s weak points: 1. Baltic and Ukraine to Donetsk is already captured by the enemy. Crimea cut off from the mainland. The enemy has an opportunity to strike a blow from the South – from the Georgian side and the forces of non-state militias type ISIS, which will force Russia to spread thin.

In the Far East, in sync with the invasion of NATO, Japan to begin the attack on the Kuril Islands and Sakhalin (to be understood that the Americans are not as pussies, as the Fuhrer, and will not allow “Aryans of Asia” to cool off until Big Brother sheds blood on the Eastern Front). NATO fist in the Baltic States is going to hit the North-West of Russia. For many years, NATO pilots on rotation studied the location of future fights. And how many planes they have there, ha ha ha, as much as six or something?

Yes, only the pilots and planes are constantly rotating. How many hundreds of NATO pilots reconnoitered the future theater of operations? And now the Americans are teaching pilots of F-16 the use of nuclear weapons. Do not be surprised if that are the same pilots who “guarded Baltic peaceful sky.” No matter how strong the Russian air defense, the time allotted for the reaction, is so negligible that the St. Petersburg in the case of a first strike is doomed. The question is, should Russia put itself in such a dangerous situation? Balts have chosen their role as a springboard for aggression.

Their supervisor Victoria Nuland called yesterday its border with Russia “front line”. No one has nothing to hide, and only Russia is in combat posture of an ostrich. Clearly stated – the front line.

Should Russia wait until sweeties start flying from the front lines? Or reasonably push the front line away from its industrial and administrative centers?

For the first time the West is united against Russia under a single command. In the last war the Anglo-Saxons aimed to maximize weakening of Germany and the Soviet Union alike, so they were Russia’s tactical allies. Germany is now fully controlled by the United States, all relevant states of Europe are included in NATO and will take part in the war, whether they like it or not. The World Ocean will be closed for Russia. Naval forces of NATO and Russia are not comparable.

All of Russia’s maritime trade will fail; there will be only the possibility of short sea shipping under the protection of coastal missile systems and aircraft. Military industry will not be able to compensate for the losses with sufficient speed. Production of modern tanks, aircraft or submarine takes much more time than making combat units during the Second World War. In addition, during World War II, Russia hid the industry beyond the Urals. Today, many industries and key infrastructure can be destroyed in the first hours of the war with the help of long-range cruise missiles. Yes, Russia has a very strong air defense, but there are just too many of them. In turn, the US industry remains inaccessible to Russia’s means of non-nuclear deterrence.

Russia now has less population than the USSR. The enemy has much more than in Hitler’s Europe. The fifth column has not been eliminated.

In order to understand the absurdity of the situation, it is enough to imagine that on June 22, 1941 after the speech of Molotov Moscow radio transmits an interview with Goebbels. Just to “balance the opinions”. The Soviet-German friendship society conducts a “Peace March” and demands from the Soviet authorities to stop the aggression against the people of Germany. “Soldiers’ Mothers” are outraged by violent mobilization to the Red Army; they express their outrage to German journalists. But today, this is what happens.

Then there was the Socialist Realism – Surrealism now. Russia does not have Stalin and Stalin’s Politburo Russia’s strong points: 1. Strategic nuclear weapons. However, we must realize that this is more a psychological factor than a military one.

The enemy must be confident that the leadership of Russia in a critical situation will push the button. Neither side did apply chemical weapons in World War II – neither the Soviet Union in the 41st – 42nd, nor Germany in the 44th – 45th. Weapons of mass destruction were used only by Americans – nuclear against Japan and chemical against Vietnam. There is no doubt that they have the willingness to use it again. Tactical nuclear weapons. There is more confidence – probably without its application will not do, and Russia has a significant advantage in it (according to some sources – 3 to 1, on the other – 10 to 1). Russia’s air defenses are superior to enemy counterparts.

The same applies to electronic warfare. Strong allies in the East – China and Iran. Both of these powers will help Russia, as they are well aware that in case of Russian defeat they are next in line. And will not have to wait too long. The question is how far they will go in their assistance and whether to risk a nuclear attack on their territory?

It will be shown only by the actual fighting. The population of the enemy is degraded and will play negligible role in the war effort. It still may be possible to bring the inhabitants of Western Europe from their state of liberal-homosexual dope, but it will be risky due to the fact that people might wake up and turn their weapons against the Americans and their henchmen. Attempts to unify people with actions like “I am Charly” attract a crowd that during the war is better not to have on your side. The population of Eastern Europe, does not represent a significant military value neither in previous war, nor in this, and will probably be used to service strike groups, stuffed with better human material.

But do not think that the enemy will not find a way to pump up the morale of its troops. If ideology does not work – pharmacology will. Russia has combat experience; Russian land forces are much stronger in the military and moral standing. Yes, we can say that the Americans also gained experience in Afghanistan and Iraq. Only this is specific experience – mainly their tactics was to massive bombing everything that moves. That trick will not work due to strong Russian air defense – this time they’ll have to fight “for real”.

They have no Roosevelt, Churchill, De Gaulle or even Thatcher and Reagan. Western elites completely degraded mentally. That, however, in some aspects, makes them even more dangerous. @Therian: I don’t hate Putin, I just called him a thug. I grew up with a lot of thugs, so I feel somewhat comfortable with them. I agree with most of your post about Russia and the US. I grew up in a time when America was supposed to be the good guy.

It was very hard for me when I realized we (the government) were qreally the bad ones most of the time. Russia’s great advantage over America is its greater abundance (Supposedly.

Who really knows?) of natural resources with a much lower population density – over twice our land area with about 40% of our population. Janos, I’ve noticed that love of sports is part and parcel of the new androgenization of women. Even on dating sites, about half the women out here on the Left Coast feel as though I ought to know about their love of the Niners or Raiders or Oakland A’s and so on. The women of the 1960s and 1970s could hardly have cared less about sports with the possible exception of their college football team if they went to college at all. Now we’ve got female sports anchors all over the place and they’re either repugnant like that dykie broad (I think it’s Mary Carullo) or all the pretty faces that do post-game interviews who couldn’t really talk in-depth about any sport if they were pushed to do so. I’m always suspicious when women want to be “one of the guys”.

I believe they think we like it but most of the guys who like it are simply angling to bed down said women. “Workforce Participation, a statistic that everybody can get on BLS.gov, is at a 38-year low.” –Therian OMG! People are dropping out of the labor force at an unprecedented pace! Proof there is no economic recovery! Proof Obama sucks! A lot of the people dropping out of the labor force are just, well, old.

That’s because the demographic bulge known as the baby boom generation is aging out of the workforce. Obama is not responsible for the baby boom. There is a sharp surge in people over 65 who are out of the labor force. There are roughly 37 million of them, and more than 50 million who are over 55. The cumulative effect of all these people aging out of the work force is to lower the participation rate. Besides that, an increasing number of 18-24 year olds are going to college, university, or community college, and are therefore not “participating” in the labor force. I wish CFN would stop citing BLS workforce participation rates as if they are an indication that something is wrong with the economy.

People get old and retire. That is normal. People choose higher education before starting their “participation” in the labor force. That is normal. Sorry, Charlie. No doom proof from BLS. Only CFN drama.

It seems CFN can interpret any statistic to mean doom is “just around the corner”. Lighten up, people.

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