George W. Bush was onto something in the fall of 2008 when he remarked apropos of the Lehman collapse: "...this sucker could go down."
It's my serene conviction, by the way, that this sucker actually is going down, right now, even as I clatter away at the keys -- perhaps in slow motion, so that not many other bystanders have noticed yet, and the few who have noticed are mostly too crosseyed with nausea to speak.
It's perhaps useful to define even what we mean when we say "this sucker." Everybody knows what a sucker is, of course -- say, a Midwestern public employees' union pension fund snookered into buying a fat slice of equity tranche in a Goldman Sachs-engineered CDO. But "this sucker" is something else: a rather large cargo of commercial relations, entailed obligations, hopes, expectations, habits of daily life -- indeed millions of whole lives -- loaded onto the rather creaky vessel we call modern civilization. "This sucker" was such an apt term coming from someone whose understanding of civilization was like unto that of a boy who found a PlayStation under the Christmas tree.
It's also perhaps useful to define what we mean by "going down." To my mind it means an awful lot of money disappears and nobody can pay for anything and an awful of things that have kept going on promises to pay and to get paid will stop keeping going. I don't think that the idea of money disappears -- that is, paper certificates representing claims on future work -- but there will be a lot less of it to go around. Eventually the idea of money could go, too, at least in its current form as Federal Reserve notes. But mostly for some years it will just be a lot of people, companies, and governments who are broke.
"Going down" will mean a society with no money and an infrastructure for daily life that requires gobs of money to run, and a populace too dazed, confused, and inflamed to do anything useful in the way of organizing new infrastructures for daily life for their new circumstances. In retrospect, the Great Depression of the 1930s will look like "The Philadelphia Story" compared to what we wake up to ten years from now.
President Obama's speech at Cooper Union last week was a remarkable performance. It managed to appear forceful and serious without containing any really serious or forceful proposals to discipline a banking system that is running a hostage-and-ransom racket on civilization. If this is finally what the Obama Experience is all about than his detractors have been right all along: he is a tool. Finance reform aside, there are still plenty of laws left on the statute books that could be applied to the frauds and rackets that ran absolutely amok on Wall Street the past few years. I would still like to know why buying CDS "insurance" against your own issue of bonds deliberately engineered to default is NOT a form of insider trading, to put it as simply as possible.
The SEC action against Goldman Sachs is likely to open a Pandora's box of troubles for that company, and perhaps all of the Too Big To Fail banks. But even so, I believe this sucker is going down before 99.9 percent of it is sorted out. Anyway, there was a lot about the SEC action that seemed curious, to put it mildly, from the timing of it, to the brevity of the document, to the strange fact that it emerged at all from an agency whose principal activity the past few years has been the viewing of internet porn, and which has otherwise behaved so indifferently in the face of numberless offenses to common decency, not to mention the public interest, that it might as well have been staffed by a thousand head of Holstein cows rather than licensed attorneys and graduates of accredited colleges.
This sucker is going down because the train of bankruptcies underway has a remorseless self-reinforcing power to provoke more and more bankruptcies at every stop along the line as every promise to pay is welshed on. The mortgages will not be paid and securities will not pay their investors and the banks will choke on the bad paper promises in their vaults and the pension funds will not pay their beneficiaries and the states and counties and municipalities will go broke and not pay their employees and creditors, and the federal government will not be able to "print" new money in sufficient quantities fast enough to compensate for all the money not being paid up-and-down the line... and one morning we will wake up and discover that all those promises to pay were sham promises based on no productive activity whatsoever... and that will be a sad day. Perhaps the Dow Jones Industrial Average will hit 35,000 on that day.
Nothing can stop this chain of bankruptcy. It's already baked in the cake. There is probably some wish on the part of those in charge, like Mr. Obama, to try everything possible to postpone it. And there is likewise surely a huge effort underway in the banking sector right now to cream off as much cash as possible so that when this sucker does go down they will bethink themselves better positioned to survive the consequences.
Personally, I believe that the damage was mostly done during the tenure of poor dim George W. Bush, and his predecessor Bill Clinton. I suspect that Mr. Obama learned at the height of 2008 election campaign -- during those days of the Lehman collapse and the TARP -- just how completely the government -- and the people of the USA -- were in fact hostage to the banking system, and that it has been his unfortunate role to pretend that there is some other fate to bargain for besides this sucker going down. It is probably why he continues to smoke so much. He must be lighting one Marlboro off the tip of another, one after another, in whatever inner sanctum he repairs to when the midnight chimes toll around the White House. It's sad to think of this graceful, still rather young man going down in history as the chump-of-the-century, a reincarnation of Herbert Hoover on steroids, with sugar on top.
Animosities brewing as they are among the white trash elements of the country, I just hope this sucker doesn't resolve into an ugly bout of attempted ethnic cleansing. Certainly Obama's racial make-up has inspired a revival of the Ku Klux spirit around the Nascar ovals. I'm sincerely worried that the misdeeds of people name Blankfein, Rubin, and Madoff could provoke a red-white-and-blue pogrom.
The big mystery for the moment is how come a few good men of stature in important places have not stepped forward to say the right thing or do the right deed. How come no US congressperson challenged the knavish behavior of Republicans who condone malicious idiocy that they know to be false like the so-called "birther" activity. How come no putative "progressive" has called the Democrats on their disingenuous failure to call illegal immigrants what they are. How come no state attorney general has filed charges against TBTF bank misconduct even if the US attorney general lies in state over at the US DOJ. How come no political figure of any stripe has called for the resignation of Summers, Rubin, Gensler and other Goldman Sachs "sleepers" infesting high levels of government. How come Dylan Ratigan is the only visible figure in any major newsroom willing to identify the precise nature of the meta-swindle.
When this sucker goes down, our primary task will be reorganizing American life on a much more local and de-complexified basis. It's a very big assignment and especially daunting against a possible background of political disorder. The losses will be epic and the changes severe, but it doesn't have to mean the end of recognizably American culture. There will be very little money around, and it may end up being a certificate backed by gold issued by a bank other than the Federal Reserve. Or maybe we'll just be swapping stuff for the makings of dinner.
So many forces are roiling around 'out there' now that it's hard to believe that the authorities in government and banking can keep the illusion of normality going a whole lot longer. The possible litigation against Goldman Sachs-style frauds by a thousand aggrieved victims is enough to paralyze the system. Meanwhile, trillions in credit default swaps are ticking away like dirty bombs. Greece is going down, with Portugal, Spain, Ireland, and the UK standing by to go next. Nobody can pay their bills. Before long, the old folks won't get their checks. Then the poor folks. Lately, I wonder if there will even be an election six months from now.
________________
A sequel to my 2008 novel of post-oil America, World Made By Hand, will be published in September 2010 by The Atlantic Monthly Press. The title is The Witch of Hebron.
'the illusion of normality going a whole lot longer'
INDEED!
and Vlad/Qtip/etc...does anyone know much about CECIL RHODES and the agenda of rhodes 'scholars'?
'How come no putative "progressive" has called the Democrats on their disingenuous failure to call illegal immigrants what they are.'
Jim, come on! the democrats would have died a quiet death long ago [1980?] had it not been for immigrants , legal or otherwise!
see: f. wooldridge ' the next 100 million'.
see: 'alien nation' by brimelow..and the lies of ted kennedy it exposes.
TK wanted any caldean anywhere in the world to be able to move here as a 'refugee'.
Yes. Yes. Yes. This sucker IS going down. Just like the 'unsinkable' Titanic did about a hundred years ago. The difference this time is that the Titanic is not just some oversized tin motor launch chugging across the North Atlantic, but our entire globalized civilization going down the tubes all at once. In a kind of slow motion maybe, but simultaneous nonetheless. We are all of us products of our Titanic civilization as much as it is our product. Intertwined...it couldn't exist without us, and we won't continue to exist (for long) without it. The Titanic had survivors because they were rescued the next day by other ships in the vicinity. This time unless some space aliens show up in flying saucers, there isn't gonna be anybody to pluck you out of the drink even if you make it into a lifeboat or a transition town or whatever.
But prosecuting the banksters & etc., & reorganizing American life is just re-arranging the deck chairs, Jim. Unless this collapse completely obliterates any trace of American "civilization" it too will be for naught.
Jimbo, it looks like the only difference between you and the Tea Party bunch is you believe Armageddon will come from not enough government, and they believe it will come from too much government. The End will look the same. Time will tell how it will all play out, but some things are obvious to all. Check out a couple Easy Predictions at http://www.thenothingstore.com
*SIGH*
A long slide indeed, but with plenty of bumps along the way. Most people won't take it seriously until there are interruptions in the supply of food and/or gasoline. The Awakening will come as a surprise to most -- "why didn't they warn us?"
Dow at 35,000? Sure, why not. But it'll probably hit 3,500 first. To those who think 35,000 is far fetched, consider that the Dow first hit 3,500 in May of 1993. Who then thought it would triple to where it is now? Tripling again from now takes it to 35,000.
I would bet that at some point in the not too distant future the price of gold will cross the Dow; whether that point is 3,500 or 5,000 or 6,000 we'll see.
My crystal ball says "new war in the Middle East and oil shooting to $200 this summer."
Hang on to your saddles buckeroos, were in for real rough rodeo.
I believe they are afraid, our congressmen and senators.
That's why they won't come forward. They're shell-
shocked. You know, some commentators talk about the
financial problems, and others about are too big, they
overwhelm us.
Besides JHK's excellent suggestion that somebody (the
Republicans) call for the resignation of Goldman Sachs
affiliates from the White House, how about presenting a
bill to China for the reimbursement of Americans who
suffer from Chinese drywall Hydrogen Cyanide poisoning?
Clearly, the time has come for protectionism to restore
American employment. Protectionism is an old theme in
American history. So why is it a dirty word? Because the
losers would be the big multi-national corporations.
What about man-made environmental poisons? These
chemicals are in all our bodies. Fish contain mercury.
One effect of global warming is the acidification of the
oceans, which threatens plankton. Yes, there are
solutions, but none that do not threaten established
multi-national corporations. Congressmen and senators are
afraid to be the first to speak; they need someone to
lead them.
Free speech? We haven't even the courage to stand up to
the Moslem mobsters who threaten us for asserting it. And
how can there be freedom of religion without freedom of
speech? I suppose Americans aren't much inspired to
defend the freedom of religion when Catholicism protects
child molesters. And Scientologists are another mobster
religion enjoying tax exemptions. And nut-case
Protestants aren't much better.
Soon, Israel will attack Iran. Let's get out of Asia,
please somebody. Please God, get us out of this somehow.
And by the way, JHK, how about a column about what the US
military will look like when the world runs out of gas?
" ...oversized tin motor launch... "
The HMS Titanic was a very large ship for its time and _not_ made of tin, rather plates of supposedly high-grade steel riveted together. Unfortunately, or fortunately in the context of giving our time more nonsense to spin and churn, the plate steel was of inferior quality in the context of the cold water environment of the north Atlantic Ocean.
Please... do due diligence research before you post.
And while our economy and money go to hell, let us remember what's happening on the oil front. I suggest everybody take a gander at the article here: http://www.countercurrents.org/arguimbau230410.htm Check out the graph. And, check out who agrees with the graph!
"A closer look at the graph reveals that it was drawn on the assumption that the world's existing conventional fields contain only 750,000 barrels at this time, enough to keep us going only 25 years."
Doesn't this assume we sit around wringing our hands while saying "We are soooo fucked!"?
And why is there an assumption that "unidentified projects" means petroleum-related projects?
25 years is not "zero time" as the link tries to hammer home... (though my prediction is we have 47 years)
This week's column is titled "A Still Moment"… ominous, scary, and a virtual repetition of so many other metaphors of years past, like when the roadrunner is suspended in air before realizing he has gone past the edge of the drop off and has no more firm ground under him.
Just a quick look back at some previous JHK posts reveal other still moments. Year after year after year of still moments captured in prose. Yet real life is never still and always is changing.
Jan. 26, 2009
we've arrived at a moment when a lot of people have a hard time imagining the future.
Jan. 19, 2009
Cars will be around for a while, of course, but as an increasingly elite activity.
Jan. 12, 2009
What remains to be seen, of course, is whether the new spate of All-American red-white-and-blue Jew-hating will ramp up and turn into something I have been predicting for a while: "Corn-pone Nazism."
Jan. 5, 2009
Those swindles began to unwind in 2007 and they now threaten to sink the USA as a viable enterprise.
Aug. 8, 2002
The Ponzi finances of all South America are unraveling faster than you can do the Macarena. Western markets are saturated. Credit cards are maxed out. … Is this the last summer of Happy Motoring?
July 23, 2002
At a roadside establishment called Ammo-World outside Billings, Montana, a laid-off WorldCom employee purchases a Ruger "Blackhawk" .357 revolver, an ISAPOR #1 Mark 3 grenade launcher (pre-owned), a Chinese-made SKS 7.62mm semi-auto rifle, and 100 pounds of Goex 4FBB military-grade blasting powder. The establishment's policy painted in seven-inch block letters behind the cashier's counter is "You'll have to pry my rifle from my cold dead hands." Under it is a poster of the World Trade Center Tower Number One in mid-collapse. . . .
July 10, 2002
What I'm describing is a possible severe acceleration of trends that have, until now, been happening in slow motion -- the fall after the long wobble. The unwinding in the US is liable to be especially severe, since American misbehavior, greed, and economic recklessness are behind the misallocation of global resources that demands now to be corrected. It seems to me that much of the wealth left after the workout will end up in Europe.
July 2, 2002
The now-perfunctory alarms have been sounded and we're waiting for whatever the Fourth of July brings. The truth is that many Americans feel absolutely impotent in the face of asymmetrical terrorist threats.
June 6, 2002
There's bad hoodoo in the air. The Indians seem determined to put an end to the dangerous monkey business emanating out of Pakistan.
A thousand lawsuits against GS would NOT "paralyze the system".
Far from it. Successful suits against GS and other financial malefactors, and successful criminal prosecutions as well, are the first step in restoring the credibility of our financial markets, not to mention our justice system.
As it is now, our system is nearly paralyzed by not only the sucking of capital from the system by mountains of unrepayable debt, but by the apprehension on the part of investors and the public that the entire system is rigged to fleece everyone but the people who profited from the construction of those mountains. There has to date been no substantive change in the way the street is doing business. Instead, the architects of this disaster have been rescued from the consequences of their malfeasance and insanity, and the government itself, which enabled it all to begin with by its implicit guarantees to backstop the bad bets, has now become the largest subprime lender and is underwriting the next monster wave of defaults- 24% of all recently underwritten (2008-2010 vintage) loans are delinquent or in default.
The financial system will not begin to function normally and regain its credibility until the corruption and insanity of the past 30 years are flushed out of it. We're in for a lot of pain from that process, and the longer we put it off, the worse it will hurt. The suits against GS are better than nothing, since the SEC is ineffectual against the fraud built into complex financial instruments that a bunch of lawyers are simply not trained to understand.
And regarding the SEC and its lawyers- Harry Markopolos, the hedge fund manager who for 10 years besought the agency to investigate Madoff's operation on the grounds that he could not possibly be generating the returns that he claimed, remarked that the reason the SEC will always be many steps behind the fruadsters is because the SEC people are LAWYERS, not financial people. "Securities lawyers never understand finance. They don’t have the math background. If you can’t do math and if you can’t take apart the investment products of the 21st century backward and forward and put them together in your sleep, you’ll never find the frauds on Wall Street," Markopolos stated. Enough said.
Meanwhile back at the ranch I have been working on a free wifi access for all of you. Cut your cable line or dish line and get it free.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=330426738790&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT#ht_1508wt_1167 I am running an auction on ebay for the design plans if any of you are interested.
For additional info try googling fab fi for more extensive coverage.
Help cut the profits of the cable industry that is bilking us of millions of excess monthly fees.
I'm very pessimistic about the whole thing.
There's not going to be any real shake-down on Wall Street. Goldman Sachs was chosen as the sacrificial goat for the show-trials to placate the "off with their heads" crowd only because they already got in trouble with the EU for their "creative" bookkeeping in Greece. Since they're going down anyway, may as well kill two birds with one stone, right? Lehman and AIG were respective experiment to see what would happen if a major company in those arenas failed, and they didn't like the results - hence the bailouts and/or mergers for just about everyone else. There will be no serious attempt at stopping the abuses on Wall Street. Wall Street owns Congress and most of the Presidential Administration, no doubt about it.
Since the Boomers are very wedded to the idea that they are entitled to a cushy retirement unknown in the history of the human race, they can certainly not be expected to simply yank all their money away from the Fat Cat Robber Barons - after all, that would be, in their opinion, cutting off their own nose to spite their face. They still think they can salvage something out of this mess - they can't actually grasp that there is really nothing to salvage. And since the Boomers outnumber the X-ers some 3 or 4 to one, there is no realistic chance that the unfunded benefits of SS and MC can be reigned in. By the time enough Boomers die off so that the X-ers and Y-ers have a chance to properly restructure entitlements and smack down Wall Street, it will be too late to do so. The *&$^ will have already hit the fan.
Nor will the Boomers give up the massive and unsustainable military-industrial complex and US bases all over the world, regardless of how much the expense of US Imperailism is crippling the domestic economy and denying basic human rights like healthcare to non-Boomers. But hey, they have theirs, so they don't care. No, they won't give up their unsustainable (and contradictory) beliefs without a fight, and right now, there's no way to win against their distorted and unrealistic priorities.
Glad to see JHK's groggily emerging from his Obama stupor after penning two ghastly epistles singing the virtues of the ObamaCon-Democrat cesspool. Neither of the ringmasters in the Two-Party-opoly cares a hoot for anyone's interests than their own, the American people are merely a goose to be repeatedly fattened & slaughtered.
Witness the Great Stimulus, 70% of which went to keep fat slob government 'workers' from losing their jobs -- or went for payraises for the same losers. Hmmm, what's it been a year since the Stimulus started? Haven't noticed a lot of work being done...although we heard the Liar in Chief drone on ad vomitum about the millions of jobs 'saved or created'.
Note to everyone: 80-90% of mutual fund 'managers' can't even beat the market, i.e. anyone with a pulse could do better than these self-aggrandizing, caviar-slurping pricks simply by buying an index fund, whose management fees are orders of magnitude lower than 'actively managed' mutual funds. Just buy real physical gold and hold it personally, you'll do fine. It really is that simple.
Thank god this sucker's going down, we need a Long Laxative episode to purge the country of all the fatass, bloated people/finance/government/military/religion.
By the way, what the fuck IS IT with all the gigantically FAT PEOPLE in this country?
For god's sake stop fucking eating already, I never see this overseas...
So Grandma will starve and poor people will be out on the street when the artificial money system collapses?
Really? That's the best we can do?
As FDR said, "and yet our distress comes from no failure of substance. We are stricken by no plague of locusts"
http://wagelaborer.blogspot.com/2009/11/what-is-wealth.html
We are capable of supplying everyone with a decent standard of living, but if the fiat money system isn't functioning, neither can we.
This makes no sense. I believe that we can cooperate to provide each other with a decent standard of living, if we drop the idea that we need leeches sucking off profit to make it all happen.
I think the events in Arizona tell a story about where we are headed as a nation. The seeds of future conflict are germinating there. As the economy continues to weaken, and the USD continues to be undermined by galactically enormous debt, we will see State Governments challenge the weakening hegemony of the Federal Government. The power of those that wish to see endless illegal immigration will wane with the collapse of their spending power. At some point individual US States will recognize the realities and take action to attempt to mitigate the disaster of our financial and economic collapse. Arizona is ahead of the pack. The realize that in order to fix our economy we must find a way to raise the incomes of our citizens. Just look at the formula for GDP. It tells the story of where we are, and what our real options are in the future. Either we protect American Jobs in every manner possible, or we will see continued national decline. Now it is just a matter of how long it takes for a majority of Americans to grasp the reality we face. Once that occurs, then things get interesting!
I'm glad Jim balances out his progressivism
with pragmatism like his insistence in calling
illegal aliens ILLEGAL. However, I don't
understand why enforcement legislation is
always vilified with some meme like "the
birther" initiative. Gee, Jim, do you
WANT the illegals to be ALLOWED to be
illegal or do you actually want the rule
of law??
When do we stop bending over and taking it
up the ass? After all, the illegals come
here and breed like fleas and then get
per-child welfare subsidies because of the
INSANE law that a child born here from the
womb of an illegal alien is LEGAL!?
This kind of thinking is cut from the cloth
that we should legalize marijuana usage but
continue to send the growers to jail unless
they're from the very small minority that
went to the trouble to get a state license
to grow medical pot.
On the other hand, I am heartened to see that
Jim is awakening from his Obama fawning. You
can't hire foxes (Summers, Rubin, etc.) to watch
the chicken coop and then claim that you're going
to "get tough" with investment banks.
My theory? Obama's "get tough" speech is an
orchestrated "good cop, bad cop" show where
he PREARRANGED with the TBTF companies to put
on a "bread and circuses" show while letting
them continue 99% of their current practices.
The proof that I'm right will be "penalties"
for companies like Goldman that are the
equivalent of fining a Major League ballplayer
$200 on a million dollar salary for steroid
use. Those civil suits will get totally
bogged down in legalese and "everyone does
it" rationalizations.
Eleuthero
then
I don't know about the disappearance of symbolic money and the return of barter. I think some form of digital currency will replace paper. The events of the last two decades; the information technology revolution makes me think uneasily of the idea of "technological determinism". As a dearth of energy kills over-complex systems like modern aviation, the highly evolved, much more energy efficient (as compared to brick and mortar libraries and paper books for instance) information exchange system generally known as the internet will survive. And with it, probably the evolution of human science and technology.
It seems the ever evolving blob called technology is better prepared to survive the end of energy-boon than any other forms of intelligence. It seems it has evolved just in time for peak oil.
Paper currency, dead. Pixel currency, the next big thing.
http://hurricanekatrinakaif.com
JHK-Obama today is the same guy you praised so lavishly in 2008 when obviously it was anyone but Hillary. Right? I became so angry with you then that I deleted you from my favorites. But,of course, you do get it right a lot of the time so I am forced to Google you every Modnay.
No pol anywhere is going to tell the truth, they are already seduced by the time they reach office and will do/say anything to keeps the perks and the perceived power (watch The Candidate w/ Bobby Redford).
Why are Americans so obese? It is a combination of Big Farm and Big Pharm-get them fat with subsidized carbs and keep them medicated with drugs. Read Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes. Right up there with Overshoot and The Long Emergency.
We're screwed and only have ourselves to blame. In our defense, we have Paleolithic brains but somehow have created this modern dystopia. God help us all.
"that it might as well have been staffed by a thousand head of Holstein cows rather than licensed attorneys and graduates of accredited colleges."
Jerry Rubin, a 60's activist proposed a very similar concept and I truly believe it has merit. We would get the same for far less.
"that it might as well have been staffed by a thousand head of Holstein cows rather than licensed attorneys and graduates of accredited colleges."
Jerry Rubin, a 60's activist proposed a very similar concept and I truly believe it has merit. We would get the same for far less.
Jim,
You have inspired me to look at the possibility of moving to a small town surrounded by lots of agricultural land.
We've got one in mind not far from where we live now.
The only meaningful things I see going forward are to organize a workable life on a local level
My interest in national politics is at a lifetime low. Sure, I'll watch what's going on, but will no longer harbor any hope Washington can do anything meaningful for us.
Goldman Sachs is experiencing a veritable siege. In due course this may turn out to be the turning point in the fortunes of the Investment Banking industry. Their protectors may decide to turn their backs on them, and if that happens, things will develop quickly from there.
http://www.goldsubject.com/
>Cut your cable line or dish line and get it free.
Abbey and/or others, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this a parasitic idea that will fail if large numbers of people attempt to use it? It's predicated on SOME people paying cable companies to connect to the Web and using wireless routers inside their homes/buildings, that your antenna will essentially steal? If many cable customers go with your idea, there won't be enough wireless broadcasts for your antennas to pick them up, right?
"When this sucker goes down, our primary task will be reorganizing American life on a much more local and de-complexified basis."
So true and that's the task today too. Don't have "the answer" but some ideas for helping prepare ourselves and local community are here:
http://www.radicalrelocalization.com/
>There is no reason to value some labor so much >more than others.
and
>But why should the labor of sewing skin be worth >so much more than that of sewing cloth?
Wage, this is borderline non-sensical. It's self-evident that some skills take a much greater investment in time, resources and intellectual capacity to master than others, and therefore they demand greater compensation. If there was no potential reward for cultivating skills and knowledge, there would be little incentive to pursue them. You're right that some of the best-compensated people in our culture do NOT in fact have the highest or the most useful skills, but your blanket statement that all skills have equal value or equal worth are not serious.
"Or maybe we'll just be swapping stuff for the makings of dinner." That is right. And we'd better know how to thresh dry beans and what to do with rutabaga in January.
Part of what makes it impossible for there to be a groundswell of action to change the direction things are moving is that there are a number of bad directions speeding simultaneously toward oblivion. I just finished Storms of my Grandchildren and James Hansen ends with the sentence, "This is our last chance", while only predicting economic breakdown as a late-stage development of post-tipping points climate change. He's concentrating on saving the Monarch butterfly, which is much like James Lovelock's 'Enjoy life while you can'.
Myself, I feel somewhat prepared for harder times by having learned to live like a smart poor person, poorer than I actually am.
Lynn
http://www.10in10diet.com/
Diet for a small footprint and a small grocery bill
"Before long, the old folks won't get their checks. Then the poor folks."
When we get to this point, likely sooner rather than latter, there will be no chance of maintaining any semblance of the Amerika we all thought we once knew. Once the easy money stops flowing completely (it has already slowed, substantially), the credit cards will become worthless, and the all the toys bought on credit will have to be given back to the banks so they can sell them for pennies on the dollar. At that point, the gloves will come off and we'll see the true nature of humanity without the veneer of a sane and civil society; such civility is only maintained by the fear of losing one's status, money and toys. When those things are gone the governors on behavior will come off; CRIME will become ubiquitous, just like it happened in Argentina when their currency collapsed, in Sarajevo, throughout Bosnia and Croatia and in Russia, after the wall fell. Nothing really new to others but very new to pampered and naive Amerikans who think bad things only happen "over there."
Your neighbors will become criminals and you will be their target, everywhere in every neighborhood in the former Amerika.
Lock and load, and learn to aim......
Wardoc
Jim, how can you say, "...how come a few good men of stature in important places have not stepped forward to say the right thing or do the right deed. How come no US congressperson challenged the knavish behavior of Republicans who condone malicious idiocy that they know to be false like the so-called "birther" activity."?
Has the media magic of ignoring Congressman Ron Paul to render him invisible also worked on you? He comments practically every day on some aspect of the many aspects of the Fed's behavior that made the housing/financial bubble and the other Wall St. swindles possible. He even ran for president in 2008 -- Don't you remember him?
Republican Congressman Ron Paul saves his comments for issues that are more important than the "birther" distractions.
It's kind of funny that you fell for the Obama schtick and voted for him, but now you can't recall that there ever was a serious alternative candidate who has been hammering away daily on the issues you now, belatedly, find important.
Keep up the good work on encouraging Obama and his Attorney General to do something about the fraud that allows Wall St. to continue to drain the Treasury and the personal finances of the people of the U.S. Don't expect much response on getting him to turn on the people who put him into office, though.
There have been some politicians screaming about this for decades. The person who comes to mind is Rep. Ron Paul of TX. He's been largely ridiculed for years as a self styled Cassandra. Whoops.
Where would Jim be without white trash nascar boogeymen? oh yeah, its the same meme the corporate media sells - a festering nest of home grown tim McVeighs out there about to blow cause there be a black man in the white house.
enough already. why not stick with the ample and concrete examples of the real problems: over-centralization with the power in the hands of a very few elite with no allegiance to nations, law, or their fellow man?
my husband just pulled out of the driveway and is heading back to the big city where he faces endless clients who will not, possibly can not pay him for work completed. and then there is the debt his company owes from trying to stay alive and make payroll during the *recovery*. Im the doomer of the family, so i wont be riding back with him.
i stay here at our place in the mountains which i am on my second year of food gardening. I harvested head after head of spinach, romaine lettuce, buttercrunch lettuce and chard. Radishes of many colors, spring onions and baby carrots. I thinned the valentine mix of lettuce for a micro salad last night which would have been a special treat on any big city menu.
my notion of wealth has shifted.
clean air. fresh water. real food untouched by Monsanto. physical labor. no noise pollution. raising chickens. hiking in the 60% of wilderness in this county. learning to fish. and small town civility.
say what you will about rural southern people (jim's white trash) but i never had a latte-sipping cell-phone-holding over-coiffed slag flip me off from her Range Rover just because i happened to share the same unfortunate slab of asphalt.
*********
Tripp Ticket: you in here? I planted "Elizabeth" yesterday! There she sits waiting to fruit along with my southern varieties. Sunchokes in a barrel as per your advice. Comfrey didnt make it. :-(. Putting in the squash and beans just as soon as the nights arent too cold. later, gator!
I was in Northern Manhattan on Friday night. Seeing Elvis Costello at the United Palace Theater. I was shocked at the 40k cars parked in the the streets. Twenty years ago this area was a mess. On Friday the streets were alive with very normal looking people, not the thugs and murderers of years ago. It was nice to see.
Maybe the ship is going down, slowly but at least we enjoyed the ride. Some much more than others obviously. I am not optimistic, I would just rather feel some happiness in the face of doom. I have been out of work for almost a year now. I am blogging about it at http://www.aimlow.com
Aimlow Joe
1. He IS a tool.
2. He IS the 'chump-of-the-century', even if the world ends today. (Clever photo-op this weekend between Marlboros with the dead and doomed miners families though - very touching).
3. There ARE NO 'Good Men (or Women)of standing They are ALL bought and paid for crooks and liars.
4. The Goldman Sachs Gangsters RUN America now. You just happen to live here, consumers.
5. America is DEAD. The rotting, stinking shit-filled corpse will not yet fall dowm. Even a shark would take a bite and spit it back out. The only thing to do with America is to treat it like AIDS and run it through an industrial shredder at full throttle and bury the tailings in a cement wrapped sarcophagus in the middle of the ocean.
Have a Great week unless you are run over and killed by an uninsured drunken illegal alien in a stolen car and killed or maimed.
Good Night and Good Luck.
Asoka,
Your point?????
Jim:"I suspect that Mr. Obama learned at the height of 2008 election campaign -- during those days of the Lehman collapse and the TARP -- just how completely the government -- and the people of the USA -- were in fact hostage to the banking system..."
Yeah, that's why Obama chose former investment banker Rahm Emanuel to be his Chief of Staff, not to mention former investment bankers Summers, Rubin, Gensler, Geithner, Kashkari, and who knows how many other Goldman and/or general inventment banking alums to work in his administration:
"After serving as an advisor to Bill Clinton, in 1998 Emanuel resigned from his position in the Clinton administration and became an investment banker at Wasserstein Perella (now Dresdner Kleinwort), where he worked until 2002.[29] In 1999, he became a managing director at the firm’s Chicago office. Emanuel made $16.2 million in his two-and-a-half-year stint as a banker, according to Congressional disclosures." - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rahm_Emanuel#Career_in_finance
"Open Secrets reported that Emanuel "was the top House recipient in the 2008 election cycle of contributions from hedge funds, private equity firms and the larger securities/investment industry". - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rahm_Emanuel#2008_Election
puzzler said:
"Dow at 35,000? Sure, why not. But it'll probably hit 3,500 first. To those who think 35,000 is far fetched, consider that the Dow first hit 3,500 in May of 1993. Who then thought it would triple to where it is now? Tripling again from now takes it to 35,000."
Puzzler, as an electrical engineer, I liken our monetary system to a "floating node".
Put a voltmeter to a copper wire that's not connected to anything. The voltmeter will jump around because, with that wire not being connected to anything, it is "floating" and its voltage is indeterminate.
Similarly, in our monetary system, the US Dollar is not connected to anything, therefore the price of anything can be expected to jump around like the needle on that voltmeter. (OK, that dates me but needle seems a little classier than an LED readout) So, Dow 3500, 35000 who knows what reading you are going to get from a floating node.
I know this will probably get me labeled as a nut on this forum, but Matthew chapter 24 in the bible has some interesting parallels with what's going on these days.
Wars and rumors of wars, check.
Famines (soon!) and earthquakes in various place, check.
"Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold", just take a look around at the angry faces when you are out and about then, check.
"For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now—and never to be equaled again", I think we all can agree with that, check.
And the one line that leaves me with an ounce of hope (I know JHK hates that word) "If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened."
There's a storm coming in...and we're done.
Quiz says: "Socialism/communism lasted about 72 years in the USSR and then fell into utter collapse."
=====================================
conflating communism and socialism as if they are the same thing is a little like equating fascism and capitalism. I think you might have benefited from a few more courses in social and political science and a few less in English grammer.
Well, this is one boomer that wants to see the US out of Iraq and Afghanistan and the rest of the US military budget cut in half! Then eliminate the cap on Social Security contributions. The fat cats that make over $106,800 a year can certainly afford the 6.2% (OK some will argue that it's really 12.4% since the salary will be decreased by the "employers share" of the tax).
But don't expect it from Obama, he's going to try to keep the game going until he is out of office, then the next president will do the same thing, but eventually, some future president will be left holding the bag.
Jim, whose fan I am. I've read all your books/play hot-off-the-press, but this blog is the first and foremost highlight of my week (with six l-o-n-g days between). Always, my eyes are opened wider and with more clarity about what's happening after reading your blogs (admittedly, almost always). Your wit and humor never fail to give me smirks and chuckles throughout, but today your description of a chain-smoking president in his private quarters gave me a good, gut-busting laugh. Thank you, and thanks for your time invested in these blogs. They leave me wanting more--I know, I know; Jim does have a life beyond Klusterfuck.
"I'm sincerely worried that the misdeeds of people name Blankfein, Rubin, and Madoff could provoke a red-white-and-blue pogrom." The old canard of anti-semitism? Is that what Kunstler is really "worried" about? That instead of the black-white conflict or the urban-rural or the rich-poor conflict he is really worried that the focus might be on the jews? Kunstler are you trying to deflect some of that focus? Or are you really prepared to tell the truth?
Agree with mean dovey cooledge. As much as I admire Jim's writings, he is decades out of date with respect to the South. My experience is that the less well off are usually fine people; it is the faux upper middle and upper class who are the clueless assholes. Getting scareder and meaner, too.
One other matter, which is related to surviving on self-grown food and the joys of clean air and water. Jim occasionally gloats about how Southerners will suffer when the air conditioning goes down. What are folks in New England and upstate New York going to do to keep warm in winter--chop down the Adirondacks?
To Asia, SNAFU and Wagelaborer,
Near the end of last week's (Where's Rico?) comment section you will find replies from me to your posts.
White Trash, huh? Why are racial slurs against Whites permisable but not anyone else? Is this attitude going to lead to the promised land? Or is it a sign that we have been taken over by an alien elite?
The "White Trash" - rural Whites of Scots-Irish and Geman descent, are still the predominat group in the Armed Forces. They are the ones who will save America or some portion of it if, it is to be saved at all. You want to be near them when the shit hits the fan and not Blacks, Latinos, or liberal,latte sipping, effete White Haters of other Whites.
We are capable of supplying everyone with a decent standard of living
I love this. The mind and essence of the pure and true socialist are captured in the single word
" S U P P L Y I N G "
In the same vein as Jim's theme today, Teddy Kennedy said something before he died while in a small gathering of very intimate friends in Chris Lawford's Manhattan apartment (WSJ, 10/27/08):
"Teddy was expansive. If he hadn't gone into politics he would have been an opera singer, he told them, and visited small Italian villages and had pasta every day for lunch. "Singing at la Scala in front of three thousand people throwing flowers at you. Then going out for dinner and having more pasta." Everyone was laughing. Then, writes Mr. Lawford, Teddy "took a long, slow gulp of his vodka and tonic, thought for a moment, and changed tack. 'I'm glad I'm not going to be around when you guys are my age.' I asked him why, and he said, 'Because when you guys are my age, the whole thing is going to fall apart.' "
Mr. Lawford continued, "The statement hung there, suspended in the realm of 'maybe we shouldn't go there.' Nobody wanted to touch it. After a few moments of heavy silence, my uncle moved on."
"Lawford thought his uncle might be referring to their family--that it might "fall apart." But reading, one gets the strong impression Teddy Kennedy was not talking about his family but about . . . the whole ball of wax, the impossible nature of everything, the realities so daunting it seems the very system is off the tracks.
"And--forgive me--I thought: If even Teddy knows . . ."
I think, as a dying man, Teddy indeed knew.
>>I would still like to know why buying CDS "insurance" against your own issue of bonds deliberately engineered to default is NOT a form of insider trading, to put it as simply as possible.
*because these are OTC derivatives are not stocks, so the SEC has no real authority to regulate them. That's the job of the CFTC (http://www.cftc.gov/index.htm) - Commodity Futures Trading Commission. If like to see how useless they are, take a look at their recent 'investigation' of manipulation of the Gold and Silver market but the US, JPMC and HSBC (*they are the same, I guess).
>>Perhaps the Dow Jones Industrial Average will hit 35,000 on that day.
*so the stock market will triple as a result of all this madness. learn to count JHK. Then you can move on to more complex financial predictions.
>>The big mystery for the moment is how come a few good men of stature in important places have not stepped forward to say the right thing or do the right deed.
Is that really a mystery to you? If it is, let me answer - they don't want their professional reputations ruined, or worse yet, end up in a fatal 'car crash', suffer a sudden 'heart attack' and decide to commit 'suidice'.
You are allowed you rantings because, simply put, you(JHK) have NO CREDIBILITY in real circles of power. Sure, plenty of loonies populate your blog and postulate on the oil-inspired 'end-times', but most smart people that understand the rig have ZERO intention of coming clean because they are wedded to the system, and understand what the system will do to them if they decide to color outside the lines. Just to put a fine point on it - read this link: Mark Pittman, Reporter Who Challenged Fed Secrecy, Dies at 52 (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=afp8OC.OvRnI#). This guy is one of hundreds of people that blow whistles, and suddenly some life-ending tragedy befalls them. Oh, these tend to happen during slow news cycles, like Thanksgiving - when newsrooms have skeleton staffs.
IF you are real, and you spill the beans on Peak Oil or any other gov. BS - death is but one tool. You can get audited, threatened, and all other manner of nastiness will befall you.
You ask 'why' people don't come forward? In the word - they aren't stupid. Or - better put - not as stupid as you.
conflating communism and socialism
Do I conflate? Well then I conflate. I am large. I contain multitudes. (paraphrase of WW)
I'm curious as to where (State? Region?) you are contemplating a move to as you are describing the area I live in. (Always looking for prep-minded neighbors--SE MN.)
The only thing about Ron Paul that bothers me,when push comes to shove,he'd be using his "other"passport.
Clinton's signing the repeal of the Glass–Steagall Act was criminal. W, a stupid man coming into office in a go-go era, was just too dumb to see that Clinton, Greenspan, and bankers' buddies in Congress had sewn the seeds of a massive crisis.
And the oil-addled, wanna-be-a-millionaire public sucked it all up until the house of cards fell.
Put that in the history books.
"It's kind of funny that you fell for the Obama schtick and voted for him, but now you can't recall that there ever was a serious alternative candidate who has been hammering away daily on the issues you now, belatedly, find important."
Thank You for repeating what many wish to ignore. RP has been saying it for 30 years. He also ran for President once before, and was ignored then also. He has been saying the these things, apparently to people who cannot hear, which has caused my "cramped with nausea".
I have heard Dennis Kucinich speaking up consistently over the years
This post elegantly describes the scurrilous behavior of our nation’s financial professionals. When it’s raining money, nobody asks where it came from. Then, we learn it was all a sham and we all got fleeced, so we go looking butts to kick. But how do you bite the only hand that’s been feeding you? We’ve built a system that relies on a constant parade of fast-money schemes that soon crumble. I’ve been having a similar argument for years with people who say things are okay because the U.S. still controls most of the world’s money. I’ve argued that moving columns of numbers around a spreadsheet isn’t really doing anything productive. The U.S is reduced to being good at financial slight-of-hand and blowing shit up with remote control drones. Both activities are intrinsically short-lived. My only advice is to remain aware that what we’re seeing is contraction and collapse being called things like “resurging economic growth” and other wishful malarkey. Get good at smaller, fewer, and closer to home.
"that it might as well have been staffed by a thousand head of Holstein cows rather than licensed attorneys and graduates of accredited colleges."
At least we might get some milk.
And Abby, people have been promoting some such thing for years, have you ever heard of the 'Pringles can-tenna'? Why pay YOU when you can make it your self?
JHK opines"...and the federal government will not be able to "print" new money in sufficient quantities fast enough to compensate for all the money not being paid up-and-down the line..."
No, clusterfucker, they CAN print "fast enough", that's the beauty of owning your own Printing Presses spewing Trillions in faith-based money. The Matrix is alive & humming along nicely, until Faith Runs Out.
As for state/municipal gov't/pension funds running out of 'money' -- the Devils Pulling Levers over at the FED & The Gov't will ultimately decide whether to let 'em suffer or 'make them whole' with a few taps on their keyboards.
You really think 'money' has to be backed by anything other than 'trust'? Ha! My boy, THAT'S THE WHOLE SCAM!
There are many reasons to read Kunstler who sounds like a blues musician serenading a dark future yet to happen.As if his foghorn on the lonely coast of American demise gives us a solemn pleasure to at least have a notion of were we are going to be when the moment arrives , ship wreaked and in need of saving. To understand his motivation one only need to take a gander at his paintings, whereas the pleinaire daylight studies show the sunlit hope of the passing day in mostly neutral light with no compelling focus, it is his nocturnes that illustrate the ongoing struggle between dark and light with the radiant artificial signs of civilization the only apparent savior . There is a reason to guard against the darkness which for many is the ignorance of common sense.
I think the moment of America's collapse has already reached me. It is a small thing, though, and something which I have already accepted as the outcome.
The future will take care of itself.
I told a person filling his Hummer H3 (with the engine running and the a/c on, by the way) that gasoline was going to be $5 a gallon next year. I told him that by wasting gasoline he was gambling with his very own life. But who can reason with an entitled American hyperconsumer?
So it goes ...
http://www.flickr.com/dmathew1
Yo, tarwater:
metaphor |ˈmɛdəˌfɔ(ə)r| |ˈmɛdəˌfə(ə)r|
noun
a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable : “I had fallen through a trapdoor of depression,” said Mark, who was fond of theatrical metaphors | her poetry depends on suggestion and metaphor.
• a thing regarded as representative or symbolic of something else, esp. something abstract : the amounts of money being lost by the company were enough to make it a metaphor for an industry that was teetering.
The birther movement is promoted most heavily by Obama himself by not producing his birth certificate. No, a certificate of live birth is NOT a birth certificate and it proves nothing.
If you of such faith in the guy could muster any skepticism about this Chicago politico, you'd demand he put an end to this highly divisive secrecy and just show the real certificate (if it exists).
BTW, I had a certificate of live birth myself. It wasn't accepted as proof of citizenship for a passport. I had to produce my birth certificate. So how can you possibly defend Obama's refusal not to show his? Is it that deep inside you know the truth which is that he's a 100% fake?
Eleuth, although we got off to a bad start awhile back (with your refusal to keep typing when the sentence approached the right side of the comment box) I find myself in agreement with most of your (well-expressed) opinions ... the current post being a prime example. One of the things you mention - the notion of "allowing" illegal immigration - I agree, is truly insane.
Good writing today Jim.
[Holder]"...lying in state over at DOJ" and "Goldman Sachs 'sleepers' infesting high levels of govt."
Classic Kunstlerisms.
Also, I too, as other comments, thought about Ron Paul. Seems like everything he says makes sense. What is it exactly that he says (or is it how he says it?), that makes people not take him seroiusly?
I hope you'll comment on him in a future blog Jim.
A Big Thinkers Conference on Big Problems just happened north of the border attended by thinkers with tall foreheads.
What came of it? The essence was in this exchange in a hallway.
A retired premier said to a former Prime Minister:
"We're fucked."
Replied the former Prime Minister:
"The whole world is fucked."
I can imagine the complete denial that would swirl around a 35,000 DJIA. Banksters and Fraudsters would claim it to be some type of "engineered easing."
The Fed would tell us it's a "necessary market correction."
The Executive Branch would mumble back and forth some bullshit about "strong dollar policy and the new jobs data" while guys like Pete Schiff and Ron Paul will be closing the chamber doors behind them.
WTF? If bullshit were currency, we'd have plenty of wealth in this country.
Tommy
http://freedomguerrilla.com
"If this is finally what the Obama Experience is all about than his detractors have been right all along: he is a tool."
My Gawd, the light comes on! YEA!! Glad to have you on board, Jim!
But I thought we were in recovery? I wonder if things actually happen as you predict, if people will finally get mad/realize they have been lied to, bent over, and taken. Or will they still sit in front of their T.V. and lap up the bullshit our "leaders" and media are telling us.
I can see it now. Joe six-pack is watching football, eating scraps of food he found out of the Rocky Rococo dumpster, while the roof leaks and car is dead due to no cash to fix it. He looks up at the wife - "what did Obama say in his speech today? Is he going after the bankers again? I hope he gets a second term, the economy will REALLY start to take off. He is the first president who really seems to care about the average joe."
This sucker is going down and it indeed will take awhile. Take Scott for example. Scott lives in Southeast Pennsylvania and has had to switch jobs due to the economy. He has been at his new job for about one year where he makes a "measley" $80,000 salary. His wife lost her "no factor in our GDP" job like so many more will at a steady rate. In the meantime, having three kids, he has managed to fall four months behind on his mortgage. He took his Infiniti SUV to the bank parking lot, and left the keys on the visor. He then made a call to the bank and told them he would do what he could, when he could, about the balance owed. Unfortunately, his wife's car was co-collateral on both leases so the bank showed up the next day and repo'ed her car too. But in a typical American happy ending he took back the Duramax Chevy diesel he had sold to his father, since he could no longer afford the payments anyway. Yes, the chain letter is unraveling. In a related story on the wires last week, it was reported that the bank of "mom and dad" is rapidly approaching its discountinuance of no payback loans. Thank God the youngins have heroin to fall back on!
While Jim is probably right about the long term trends, doom is always right around the corner, say in the next 6 months, and it always has been for years. This kinda weakens the credibility to say the least.
I suppose a "black swan" event could come along and tip us into the abyss, but in the meantime it's assumed that change in the sense of "happy motoring suburban nirvana" coming to an abrupt end is just not going to happen in the way Jim talks about, but may happen incrementally. Imperial decay and decline
seems to take time in history and that's what this is all about.
>Since the Boomers are very wedded to the idea that they are entitled to a cushy retirement unknown in the history of the human race, they can certainly not be expected to simply yank all their money away from the Fat Cat Robber Barons - after all, that would be, in their opinion, cutting off their own nose to spite their face.
Correction. That would be the Boomer's parents. Pensions have been eroding in the US for 25 years. The Boomers are just starting to retire now. If JimK's predictions come true, many of them, myself included, will get nothing.
No, clusterfucker, they CAN print "fast enough", that's the beauty of owning your own Printing Presses spewing Trillions in faith-based money. The Matrix is alive & humming along nicely, until Faith Runs Out.
yo welles -
the bond market will prevent unlimited printing. the us is a debt junkie and our suppliers are foreign central banks.
once the international debt model is broken, then the printing presses will kick into hyperdrive. but that day is years away . . .
Encouraging to see JHK finally naming Bill Clinton along with Bush as running things when "the damage was mostly done..." rather then just all Bush's fault.
I think Alan Greenspan, Bawney Fwank and Chris Dood should always be named as well as their contributions to this debacle were trememdous.
Unfortunately, I agree with a previous poster about your comment of the "white trash element" and racism toward white folks being perfectly acceptable. But the same comment only changing the word "white" for "black" would have gotten your post labeled racist on the national news. What is fair about that.
I also interpret that "white trash element" comment to be descriptive of your attitude of the TEA party folks. What snappy, short phrase might you use to describe the folks at ACORN?
"Chump-of-the-Century" does not adequately describe Obama. "Liar-of-the-Century" is more apropo. It is really ok to call him what he is. Accurately describing this man does not mean you are a racist. It means that you are smart enough to recognize when a person in high office is lying through their teeth because he thinks you are too stupid to know he is lying to you. You can put lipstick on a liar, but he is still a liar. Admit it.
"Myself, I feel somewhat prepared for harder times by having learned to live like a smart poor person, poorer than I actually am."
Lynn,
I enjoy your posts and your website. We are trying to do the same here. It's a work in progress.
The hens give us 6 eggs/day on average, we'll have a few steers grazing the pasture in the next week or two - one for the freezer in late fall/early winter. The pond is stocked with fish.
DH has built raised beds where two beautiful oak trees once stood before the ice storm a few years ago. They are now growing beautiful spinach, lettuces and radishes. Tomatoes, peppers, cabbage and asparagus are growing in the big garden, with squash, peas, beans, corn, and more to be planted this week as weather permits.
Four rain barrels collect rainwater for the chickens and for watering the raised beds and various ornamental plantings.
We purchased a front-load washer a couple of years ago which has lowered our water consumption considerably. Laundry is drying in the breeze on the clothesline DH built for me a couple of years ago.
I mill fresh flour and make most of our bread, cook and bake most of our food "from scratch".
It amuses me how some of the folks who live around us complain about their electric bills and the cost/quality of food (and their weight!) but wouldn't dream of doing any of the things we're doing... and then drive 25 miles round trip, 2-3 times a week, to go to a gym to "work out". lol!
Good luck to them.
Jim - I have to assume that the some of the power that be simply can't believe that this house of cards will really come down. And the vast majority are just to scared because they do not understand how to present any kind of "positive" perspective on what we should or can do instead. It is the problem of the Emperor having no clothes.
On another note I would like to strongly suggest that in your upcoming sequel, you include some example of someone who installed solar panels and has become the local "utility" even if all they do is offer rechargeable batteries for the folks in their part of the state.
Jim,
Nobody in government (including Mr. Obama) wants to talk about this, because nobody has any answers. I get the feeling sometimes when I watch C-Span that these guys aren't talking so much as whistling by the graveyard.
Just a few years ago, they were the all powerful elite. The smarter ones, the ones who've looked at our economy, and what's happening with oil are scared - scared little boys and girls who don't know what to do.
Oh, none of them would admit that. Some won't even admit that to themselves. Some are in such denial that they don't even see the problem. Not so many now. Word's getting around.
And frankly, there's nothing anybody *can* do. Nobody can create oil, or magically reduce the debt in a way that won't wreck the economy.
All we can do is wait for the storm.
The 'debt doesn't matter' idea, both in business and government, started gaining acceptance way back in the early 1980's, as the baby boomers were starting to take control from the men who remembered the Great Depression, and fought in WW II. The boomers were better educated, and had a different mind-set. They were much more open to the financial unconventional. Fewer had a strict moral compass. As we will soon discover, liberalism is not a good concept in finance.
The amazing thing is that only the coming of peak oil will cause the coming collapse, because the USA, being in possession of the world's reserve currency, can, by issuing debt, create all the money it needs, for a far longer time than would seem logical, without having the system collapse.
Many very smart people, got extremely wealthy by creating the debt that is now everywhere. I recently read an article in the NYT about a bunch of hedge fund fellows who took over a thriving matress company, then created needless company debt by selling bonds. They used some of the money that they got from selling the bonds, to pay themselves huge bonuses. The company is left with the debt. In what business school did they learn that? It is nothing more than legal looting. And some of the people who originated and sold subprime mortgages, are living on their own Caribbean islands.
Jim is right. It's going down, but not tomorrow. Not until $200 a barrel oil arrives. They can print money, but no one can make crude oil. Start your food stockpiling when it reaches $150 a barrel.
The southern vernacular architecture had a foundation raised above ground with a design that allowed for cross-venilation. If youve ever seen a florida cracker style house you know what i mean. i dont have air conditioning and only august is rough but it is far from unbearable; ceiling fans help. so does "dealing with it".
J Lee, no one needs to worry about anti-semitism. The neocons who laid out our U.S./Nato world war campaign were mostly Jews (see Gilad Atzmon, it's okay for Jews to call themselves Jews but not for non-jews to call Jews Jews), the thieves of Wall Street, all the big financial cheeses of Obama's administration, the Hollywood studio chiefs are Jews, AIPAC rules Congress and the media and read this from the great Israeli peace activists Uri Avnery: http://www.counterpunch.org/avnery08032004.html Six of the 7 oligarchs who plundered Russia were Jewish. This much trouble caused theoretically by "one" group already and this much theoretical control by them and no groundswell of anti-semitism is evident anywhere. It ain't going to happen. There is no anti-semitism. That's just trotted out--as you allude to in your comment--whenever someone heads for the source of the problems: our financial and political oligarchs, our congressional/industrial war machinery, apartheid in Israel, AIPAC. It's more a convenient coincidence and benefit to themselves that all these people happen to be Jews. They always get to trot out the fear of resurgent anti-semitism if you point your finger their way. 98% of people have no idea of these (irrelevant) tribal groupings in places of power--and if those same powerful people would stop trotting out the worry over anti-semitism then we could get to 99.9%. If enough people ever wake up to defuse or take away the power of the American oligarchs anti-semitism will play no role whatsoever. And rightly so.
Does a "world made by hand" await us?
As Thomas Friedman would say, the next six months will be crucial.
I try to be mindful but occasionally am mindfool.
As I've noted before, while the scale is huge carbon petrochemicals can be synthesized using (solar?) energy:
Olah's Book:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methanol_economy
Recent work on methanol synthesis from CO2
(yes CO2):
http://www.physorg.com/news159098987.html
Energy is not a mystery. Thermodynamics is a well-understood science. Politics is not as well understood.
So, why are we all so surprised about this? Andrew Jackson TOLD us all, 190 years ago, this would be the outcome of allowing the banks to own the power to create money...
Jim I have genuinely gotten a kick out of your "clusterfuck" diatribes, but I gotta call you out on a few things on your latest: First - no pension funds EVER buy "equity tranches" of CDO's. Second, Obama as "Herbert Hoover on steroids"? WTF? Hoover has gotten a hugely bad rap. The man's presidency was cursed, but he was perhaps one of the more admirable humans to ever sit in the oval office - a logistical genius whose efforts saved over a million lives from starvation post World War I in the low countries. look it up. yet people gush over FDR, who sold more souls down her river than anyone. And speaking of our current prez, just what the hell has "Sportin' Life" obama ever done - aside from the dubious distinction of being the first ever editor in chief of the Harvard Law Review without so much as a "Note" or "Comment" to his name. The man is pure flim flam, as empty a suit as his predecessor, Bushling II.
actually, it was substandard RIVETS - the plates themselves were sound. - Chubbz, ex HT3, usnr
Unconventional Ideas asks: "Your point?"
Read curmedgeon. He conveyed my point perfectly...
Takes time... about 47 years. In that time it is possible humans will exhibit creativity and innovation and discovery as they have in past history. That possibility seems to be discounted in favor of a "We are so fucked" attitude that is paralyzing. That is my point. The same one I've had for years now in reading various ways things are about to imminently collapse and never do.
April showers bring May flowers and for just $6.66 you can order an extra large genetically modified corn cob pipe designed in our labratories by over worked and under paid workers just like you and me. Hurry now and we'll throw in some imported wacky tabacky, as this offer is sure not to last. Visa and Mastercard accepted. Get it now before you get your pink slip.
PARTIAL LIST OF BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA'S WORK
Obama, Barack. The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream. New York: Crown Publishers, 2006.
Obama, Barack. The Politics of Hope: The Words of Barack Obama. Cape Town: Zebra Press, 2003.
Obama, Barack. Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance. New York: Times Books, 1995.
Obama, Barack. "Bound to the Word - Guardians of Truth and Knowledge, Librarians Must Be Thanked for Their Role As Champions of Privacy, Literacy, Independent Thinking, and, Most of All, Reading." American Libraries. 36. 7 (2005): 48.
Obama, Barack. "EBONY'S 60th Anniversary - The Political Movement In Black America." Ebony. 61. 1 (2005): 116.
Obama, Barack. "The War We Need to Win: We Must Look for a Political Solution." Vital Speeches of the Day. 73 (2007).
Obama, Barack. "TIME TO TALK - America Will Have a Brief Window of Opportunity When Bush Leaves Office. To Take Advantage It Needs a President Unafraid to Meet with Friend and Foe Alike." Newsweek. 12 (2007): 40.
Obama, Barack. "Campaign 2008 - The First Articles in a Series Leading Up to the 2008 U.S. Presidential Election - Renewing American Leadership - After Iraq, We May Be Tempted to Turn Inward. That Would Be a Mistake. The American Moment Is Not Over, but It Must Be Seized Anew. We Must Bring the War to a Responsible End and Then Renew Our Leadership -- Military, Diplomatic, Moral -- To Confront New Threats and Capitalize on New Opportunities. America Cannot Meet This Century's Challenges Alone; the World Cannot Meet Them Without America." Foreign Affairs. 86. 4 (2007): 2.
OBAMA, BARACK. "Only a Political Solution for Iraq." New Perspectives Quarterly. 25. 2 (2008): 54-57.
obama, barack. "Our Kids, Our Future." Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education. 107. 2 (2008): 198-201.
Obama, Sen Barack. ""A More Perfect Union"." The Black Scholar. 38. 1 (2008): 17.
Obama, Barack. "2008 Democratic National Convention: Keeping the American Promise." Vital Speeches of the Day. 74 (2008).
Obama, Barack. "A More Perfect Union: Racism." Vital Speeches of the Day. 74 (2008).
Obama, Barack. "Choices for a Rising Generation." Teaching Tolerance. 34. 34 (2008): 45.
Obama, Barack. "Organizing Essentials." Social Policy. 38. 4 (2008): 8.
Obama, Senator Barack. "Affordable Health Care for All Americans: The Obama-Biden Plan." JAMA : the Journal of the American Medical Association. 300. 16 (2008): 1927.
I appreciate your kind words, Qshtik.
Indeed, the idea to "overlook" certain
illegalities in the USA while throwing
the book at others is a mockery of the
idea of JUSTICE.
In his weekly missive, Jim was a bit
disingenuous, I thought, when he thought
that illegal aliens were ILLEGAL but then
he crapped all over a state (AZ) that
actually wanted to do something about it.
I don't think too many Americans have a
perspective on how many BILLIONS of dollars
for FREE healthcare and bi-lingual education
are spent on illegals. Moreover, since
illegals almost always get paid for jobs
UNDER THE TABLE they are also defrauding
the tax system leading to lower government
revenues which leads to the cutting of
services for LEGAL Americans.
"Insane" almost doesn't even go half way
to describing such a system.
Cheers,
Eleuthero
Well, this week Jim is sounding like Ron Paul and the folks at the Mises Institute (Austrian economics). They predicted this mess when the economy was going gangbusters based solely on the Fed's counterfeiting of money (you can call it "printing" if you want). The only plus I can see is that Mr. Greenspan put up a lot of condo towers in the New Urbanist tradition here in Miami, which are revitalizing the nicer parts parts of the city.
The operative moment was during the campaign when candidate Obama, in the tradition of social engineers worldwide, came out quickly for the bank bailouts. Candidate McCain went into hiding, presumably to consider his options: do I win this election here and now by opposing the bailouts and have a hell of the first 2-3 years as President, and watching the banking cartel do everything possible to ruin me personally and the economy generally or do I just go with the flow, "bailout" all comers and ensure the bankers still loan to the US government? We know he chose the latter and given the choice between two men essentially offering up the same plan, the voters went with the greater orator.
One more thing: Herbert Hoover was also a big time social engineer/"do gooder" busy body. We remember him as a deer caught in the headlights, but he was nothing of the sort. Virtually everything FDR did was merely a massive intensification of what Hoover had started--FDR was just willing to venture much more into unconstitutional grounds.
Remember, the next big bubble to blow is worldwide government debt (Greece is just the tip of the iceberg). When that baby blows, all that inflation we've been exporting (on the strength of holding the reserve currency) will hurl its way back to us. We won't need peak oil to force dire change, each individual dollar will simply buy a whole lot less petroleum. Heck, it might actually reach what we might call its "true value" (you try to do what a barrel of petroleum can do for $80--not the poorest peasant in the world will work as cheap as petroleum does).
My confusion grows by the hour. On paper, it all seems simple enough: we got mugged by punks in suits and they used the cash to buy fancy cars and prostitutes. Same old story. Where I get lost is in trying to decide whether we should be grateful to the thieves for stealing a future that wasn't really worth it anyway, or very afraid that we'll find ourselves battling in the streets for toilet paper and toothpaste. These aren't mutually exclusive: certainly we can be grateful that Rush Limbaugh and Jerry Springer and all the rest will be silenced forever by the rolling blackouts and the bankruptcy of their employers; and we can imagine how the shortages and deprivations will cause anger and frustration and violence. But suspended somewhere in between is the question of what we can become if the mythology of progress disintegrates into a fractured narrative of incoherent need. Everywhere you look you can see it starting to crumble: now, in Arizona, where the ethnic cleansing begins, not because the people who live there are evil, but because the banality and increasing hopelessness of their existence has driven them into the arms of a harsh and punitive legality, one that promises to arrest the decline of their falling status, even though there's nothing that can be done now short of genocide to repair the present and return it safely to a past that never existed. But these things are happening now, and I'm baffled by how quickly this is all beginning to unravel, a carefully constructed western mythology just coming all to pieces, and yet everywhere people persist in their daily denial of the obvious, like the hapless citizens of Pompeii watching the volcanic plume grow, until finally the suffocating cloud of their ruin overtakes them, and shape of their ignorance is preserved forever beneath the ash. When they--who or whatever they are--finally excavate our story from the strata of history we are destined to occupy, I wonder what they will find in that still moment.
Who, but a person as skeptical as JHK, could have predicted that overpopulation, peak oil, a financial meltdown of biblical proportions and acute climate change would come to a head at exactly the same time and in such a way as to doom our very civilization?
All you ‘gloom and doomers’ should stop slavishly listening to JHK’s warped financial predictions and bad economic analysis. Start thinking for yourselves.
JHK has made too many dumb predictions about US economic collapse, which in his view - is always a few months off. The stock market is always getting ready to crash (in particular), and Walmart is always about to go out of business. He has pushed this crap for years. While he has some good ideas about what could transpire in the future as a result of Peak Oil, but he is not a Delphic seer.
While you are at it – stop praying for The President, the Republicans, the gov. or the Tea Partiers to save you. Someone posted here that ‘Obama is an empty suit”. That nails it. Here is an articulate guy with about as much understanding of the problems facing this country as G.W. Bush had (*maybe even less). The crap just sounds better coming from an articulate, and well-dressed brother.
Stop worrying about the impending collapse of society, and start thinking about ‘HOW YOU CAN PROFIT FROM PEAK OIL.’ There is a lot of money that can be made betting Peak Oil scenarios. I have done my best to invest in oil, nat gas, gold and silver (over the last 5 years – since I became aware of PO in a WSJ article.). Clearly I’m not a highly paid wall street professional. Despite that, I am $50K shy of hitting my first goal of a One million US and I’m not even 40. I started investing with $4000.
The way I look at it, the more money I have, the easier it will help me protect you my wife, kids, and family from the worst effects of Peak Oil:
- Possible supply chain failures
- Gas shortages (I now own a Vespa, on top of my BMW. 75 miles to the gallonJ
- I also want to buy some land soon, when I get afford it, and they equip it will a well, solar panels, and a few acres to produce food (*if it comes to that).
So – stop praying for The President, the republicans, the gov. or the Tea Partiers to save you. Someone posted here that ‘Obama is an empty suit”. That nails it. Here is a well-meaning, articulate guy with about as much understanding of the problems facing this country as G.W. Bush had (*maybe even less). The crap just sounds better coming from an articulate and well-dressed brother.
Instead of wasting time with JHK’s unchanging rant, read his books and move on to follow what money men are doing: Start with Richard Rainwater:
The Rainwater Prophecy (http://tinyurl.com/gun9a) and then look at other investors are positioning themselves for Peak Oil. T.Boone Pickens, Jim Rogers, George Soros…even Warren Buffet seems to be positioning himself for Peak oil (check out his petro China investment, the mechanics of the BMI deal, or the recent BYD investment).
So, re-focus your energy and makes some fat cash with the knowledge that you’ve picked up learning about peak oil. U can do it, and you can start today.
I hope some of you are bright enough to listen, so good luck!
Wow, such hyperbole & mischaracterization of our admittedly dire predicament. Now we've got "...ethnic cleansing" in Arizona where "...nothing short of genocide" will fix matters.
Also, we'll soon face "...rolling blackouts" and people skirmishing in the streets over toilet paper shortages.
And I'm really bummed that I'll have to cancel The Rest of My Life because of "...acute climate change" & other Real Scary Stuff like "theres too many people on the planet [my made up quote]" and a conflagration of other calamities that have "...doom[ed] our very civilization."
Dudes, go back to your Dungeons & Dragons game with your dork friends who also live with their parents even though they're in their 30's & 40's.
Other than that you're all okay, peace to you.
But Jeeeeezus.
it's interesting to see how this is all going down from japan, where contrition is always part of an admission of guilt, which refreshingly occurs with regularity irrespective of its sincerity. to wit, compare the reaction of toyota officials to that of enron or gsacks. one of the things i love about living here is that people always say "sorry" even though they are not fault, again irrespective of actual sincerity, but isn't it nice to be "sorry" instead of denial?
i love it when i am welcomed by a chorus of "irrashaimase!" (welcome) from the staff of any starbucks when i drop $3.80 for a cup of java. and oh yes, they say thank you when i leave...
i'll keep watching how this all "goes down" from the other end of the pacific, hoping, but not expecting... best to live each day as a gift, which it is...
Hey tinkerbell,
'The Audacity of Hope'...Id say its audacious to be 'hopeful' now. as do many others who read here!
'80-90% of mutual fund 'managers' can't even beat the market'
How can one beat the market when they ARE the market?
if or when people bail on MMF and MF, watch out!
To me, the term White Trash denotes an attitude rather than economic status. Plenty of poor people are decent folks doing the best they can. I came from a poor family and worked my way up in the world. Some of the poor people we lived around were White Trash indeed. Drinking, fighting, committing crimes, uneducated & proud of it. I lived in a shanty town, and was well aware of the nature of many of my neighbors. Many of them were just not very bright
Several weeks ago I typed these words on CFN:
Drill baby drill = Rape America First
I criticized both Obama and Palin for their drill offshore strategies.
Today the Coast Guard is confirming the presience of my words:
Correction:
Today the Coast Guard is confirming the prescience of my words
asia, my blood brother, the darker the CFNers paint the picture, the more audacious hope becomes... thereby confirming Barack Obama's prescience.
First, dude, bragging about your investment
acumen and your bank account balance is tacky
in the extreme. Can you spit farther, fuck
longer, and does your American Express card
limit exceed all metric numbers? Sheesh.
Second, "geniuses" like you who only seek
to PROFIT from problems are PART of the
problem. Most investing is LUCK and
that's why even the greats like Mario
Gabelli often fall on their ass for
decades at a time. Buffett has been
underperforming the S&P for some time
now. Does that mean you're better
than they are? It just means you
made the right bets at the right time.
It doesn't enhance the credibility of
even a SINGLE other word you utter.
Finally, we all have SOME arguments with
some part of Jim's missives but I doubt
that Jim expects people to be DISCIPLES
who wait with baited breath for every
word he utters.
Jim's predictions are LONG TERM predictions
and that is abundantly obvious from his
"Long Emergency". If he occasionally uses
a bit of literary panache to claim that
something is months away I can live with
that if I agree with the overall direction
he points at.
Finally, after TWO stock market crashes in
a decade and the phoniest recovery I've seen
in my life (I am 58), it's pretty cocky of
you to proclaim him wrong when precedent
appears to be on HIS side.
That MONEY you suppose will protect you
when crisis hits might not be worth a
hammer, a hoe, or a wheelbarrow. Then
again, since you see a future which is
mainly just an orderly "tweak" of the
present (i.e., with no damage to your
brokerage accounts or the exchange
value of your assets), it's obvious
that you've fallen prey to the same
puffery that money seems to confer on
all people who JUST obtained it.
It always seems like it's the NEW
RICH who are so eager to show off
a SMALL fortune while the OLD RICH
actually seek to HIDE it.
But, hey, thanks for the parody ...
whether you intended for your words
to be that or not.
Eleuthero
What you DON'T see (not that anyone really
does) is the PANIC represented in the
decision to engage in radical, offshore,
East Coast drilling.
Obama's controversial decision to drill
may be politically incorrect but I'd
make a sizable bet that it's based on
his energy advisors giving him the
straight dope on the intermediate term
future of supplies.
I think his decision is wrong, too, but
not for the same reasons as yourself.
I think it's TOO LATE for these reserves
to make any difference.
Yes, hope really IS audacious when there's
not much factual basis for it. So many
of his ideas might have worked if we
started on them THIRTY YEARS AGO. Like
his high-speed rail plan. Those things
are many millions of dollars PER MILE.
Like we have the money. Sigh.
If Obama were a REAL visionary, he'd
be subsidizing LOCAL FARMING and the
REAGRARIANIZAION OF CONCRETE. Dig that
crap up and reclaim the earth!! Instead,
he's a shill for really expensive and
economically infeasible (and belated)
infrastructure projects that add almost
nothing to true sustainability at a
nationwide level.
Eleuthero
I appreciate a realist. These days,
everybody sneers at them and mocks
their "negativity". However, just
as the first step of an alcoholic's
recovery is admitting that he's an
alcoholic, one must admit just HOW
negative circumstances are in order
to have an appropriate sense of
PANIC and ALARM.
You're right, Ian. If we try to go
solar, our lack of MONEY will stop
us long before resource shortages
stop PV panel construction. Same
with high-speed rail.
We've waited so long that the "solution"
to throw money at a bunch of hip-sounding
projects is a cruel hoax. We don't have
a pot to piss in and the hyperinflation
necessary to produce money from nowhere
will create social disorder just like
it did in Weimar, Germany.
I completely agree with your "whistling
past the graveyard" analysis. Completely.
I think Obama is just a kind of front man
for a KLEPTOCRACY which is trying to steal
anything not tied down because the
kleptocrats want to SURVIVE and they will
use their means of power to ensure that.
If Obama gave a real damn about the average
American's plight, he wouldn't have kept
Gates as his Defense Secretary, he wouldn't
have hired Summers, Rubin, Geithner, and
other dirtbags, he wouldn't have reappointed
Bernanke, and his "tough guy" routine about
the TBTF banks would have happened in April,
2009 ... NOT last week.
Bread and circuses, my friend. Bread and
circuses.
Eleuthero
The only bank I really trust is the soil. If you make regular deposits in the form of compost, minerals, humus and the like you generally get richer soil and a better return of nutritious food.
>Obama's controversial decision to drill...based >on ...straight dope
Somehow I don't think so. LOTS of money will be made by some folks in the process. It's really sad because we still have an opportunity to mitigate the worst shock waves of the upcoming Peak Oil, and it's ridiculously cheap: all Obama has to do is go on Nat'l TV, EVERY WEEK, and say "My fellow Americans, small cars are patriotic, salvage your children's future and demand from your automakers and your legislators cars that go at least 40 miles per gallon". Or something like that. What's the use of his charisma and leadership if he can't be a spark that starts a revolution? Masses follow the elites as someone here said. So, by drastically reducing transportation energy expenditures would free up capital to invest in the transportation systems with a future, be it rail, subways, or whatever. Half of the people I know drive trucks and SUVs that range from 8 mpg to 18 mpg, and almost all of them can function perfectly well with cars like Honda Fit or even the Smart car.
It's insane that people drive trucks as lifestyle vehicles... blindly driving toward a precipice, metaphorically speaking....
So, Obama's Energy Policy is all about big money, same old story...
Well, thanks for holding back Diogen.
I agree that some professions take much more time and brains to master, that's why I think people should be paid to go to school. If all labor were paid equally, even while in school, the belief that 6 more years of school entitles someone to decades of higher pay more than someone who didn't go to school would dissipate.
We all get approximately the same time here on Earth, unless hit by a car, so why should some people's time be worth so much more?
That doesn't make sense to me.
Plus, I know a carpenter with a doctorate in Philosophy, a painter with a master's in English, and two more carpenters with bachelor degrees in Liberal Arts and History, respectively. They are smart and they spent time and money in college, but they are not compensated for it monetarily in this society, which promises great riches in return for investment in higher education. This is a farce, and a way for the FIRE to profit from young people.
Perhaps you have to be a nurse to lose the reflexive doctor worship that so many have. The reason that doctors get paid so much is that the AMA restricts the supply, not that their education makes them so brilliant.
And many of them are in it just for the money. Wouldn't you rather have someone do it for the love of healing and not the love of money?
Millions of dollars PER MILE? So, we could build 720 miles per day with what we are spending on war.
http://www.costofwar.com/
Wouldn't take very many days and we would have a high speed rail system in place. It is only a question of priorities and I rarely hear any comment about the fiscal waste on war.
It is dishonest of you to quote one sentence and not the next which shows very clearly that I am talking about a society in which everyone works and contributes to the common good, and not a society in which the evil guvment hands out goodies to the undeserving, as you seem to believe that socialism is.
We have a society that is capable of feeding and sheltering everyone, and we have it although millions of people work at worthless and/or destructive jobs and millions more can't find work and thousands suck off billions of dollars from the productive ones.
So if we can do this with so many non-productive people, why can't we do it if everyone worked in a productive way?
Just because the fiat money is shut off. OK, now society has to collapse.
That doesn't make any sense to me.
"(" ...oversized tin motor launch... "
The HMS Titanic was a very large ship for its time and _not_ made of tin, rather plates of supposedly high-grade steel riveted together. Unfortunately, or fortunately in the context of giving our time more nonsense to spin and churn, the plate steel was of inferior quality in the context of the cold water environment of the north Atlantic Ocean.
Please... do due diligence research before you post.)"
Sorry to have to out-pedant a pedant, but the Titanic was dedignated RMS (Royal Mail Ship) not HMS (His Majesty's Ship).
Due diligence eh!
You're that close to a million dollars and you can't afford to buy land?
Where you looking, Monte Carlo?
>Wouldn't you rather have someone do it for the >love of healing and not the love of money?
Sure, but that would take a different species. We're talking here about Homo Sapiens. That's one of the problems with socialism/communism, they're completely divorced from the reality of Human Nature. They "solve" this problem by stating the need to change Human Nature (a species to be called Homo Sovieticus or some such thing), but Human Nature is probably immutable, what do you think?
Last year an inland hurricane hit here (once in a hundred year storm, they told us. Yeah, pre global warming, I'd say.)
Anyway, the insurance company paid for a new roof, so I got a shiny metal one.
We had 85 degree days last month, and the house stayed cool all day. Woohoo!
I don't use air conditioning either, but my house usually got VERY hot about 3pm, when I had shingles. Then it stayed hot until about midnight, even though I opened the windows and turned on the fans when night came.
That's one of the problems with socialism/communism, they're completely divorced from the reality of Human Nature.
An adherent steps forward.
I'm guessing that you're being sarcastic, George, but Kevin Philipps wrote a book, (American Theocracy) about those very problems, plus right wing Christian nuts.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/067003486X
>we could build 720 miles per day with what we >are spending on war.
Also subways, rail lines, libraries, clinics on every block. Right now I'd just ask for sidewalks on all city streets and shelters and benches at city bus stops. The other day I saw the most undignified scene -- an elderly lady was waiting at a bus stop, and there being no bench or shelter, she was sitting on the planting strip lawn, 24" away from cars and huge trucks zooming by at 45 m/h. Most bus stops in this city have no benches/shelters. It was said about the old USSR that it was a 3rd-world country with the 1st-world theoretical science and military. I think in many ways we're heading to be a 3rd-world country (outside a few wealthy cities and suburbs) with the 1st world military and corporate finance...
>An adherent steps forward.
You could't be further away from reality, my friend. Perhaps your inference circuits are down today :)
It is nice to here a rich guy apoligize. It certainly won't happen in this country. And thank God for Toyota and Honda and even Datsun. Without them America would still be producing Pintos and K-Cars with Phase-1 emission controls. Not only that, they would still be breaking down every 15.000 miles. It is cute however, to see Howie Long standing next to Japanese clones. The only thing he says that is true is the fact that General Motors couldn't make a decent lawn mower. For the record I own both American and Japanese vehicles and knock-on-wood, they all run well, if taken care of, these days.
Hear
For me it all comes down to population. When I was born there were c.2.5 billion people on the planet, now there are nearly seven billion, and rising. A majority of these are exposed to the advertisers' dream of the good life, and given that the good life we enjoy is built on diminishing and otherwise damaged resources, and cannot be sustained even for us, there is going to be universal anger and resentment when reality bites. It will bite hard too and nobody will be unaffected.
I fear for those who think buying a farm somewhere away from a population centre will save them. Throughout history small farmers have been the first to suffer when the legions of the dispossessed and hungry go on the warpath; they will, I'm afraid, be enserfed and forced to work to feed the few who are prepared to kill indiscriminately and so take what they will.
Look to the past and see the future.
Crops need care and tending. A bunch of bandits can torch a field in seconds, if the peasants don't agree to hand over all they have in return for their lives.
Great historical revolutions, such as the American and the French, were underwritten by a rule of law and property ownership. The next revolution will be no such respecter: universal economic meltdown combined with hunger and cold are hard to control by law when the establishment administering it is destroyed.
>Great historical revolutions, such as the >American and the French, were underwritten by a >rule of law
Which French revolution are you thinking of? The one with the guillotines and the rivers of blood in the streets, and Robespierre deciding who will live and who will die?
I agree with you though, the countryside can get very messy when the law and order breaks down.
No, I think that humans contain multitudes.
I think that we can be vicious, horrible creatures or kind and loving creatures, depending on our circumstances.
As the capitalist economy collapses, we see a push for the nasty brutal response called fascism on Fox News and right wing radio.
I prefer the kinder, gentler sharing approach.
>I prefer the kinder, gentler sharing approach.
Of course, who doesn't? Too bad our species preaches but doesn't practice it...
Eleuthero. This thing about bragging, and old money versus new money is a joke. My guess is that you are neither. The tell? That you would actually consider less that a million to be wealth. It’s a bad payday at JPMC. But, I’ll address your points, since I think your blatant stupidity could hurt some of the people reading this.
>>Buffett has been underperforming the S&P/no one can ‘really’ beat the market.
Buffett’s specific problem is size, which he himself flagged over 5 years ago in one of Berkshire Hathaway’s annual reports. As an investor has more money to manage it becomes harder to beat the overall market. Why? Because your trades move the market itself and that process narrows your investment choices to fewer and fewer high market cap stocks. E.g. put a few billion into a small market cap stock and you send the price to the moon. Sell out, and you crash the price back to Earth. This is a problem I’m unlucky enough NOT to have.
>>As for the rest of your hogwash about just ‘getting lucky’ with my bets.
What you are referring to is Efficient Market Hypothesis (*Google it - for anyone that feels like finding out where this fool parrots his ideas). The idea is that no one can beat the market long-term because the market efficiently processes information and is correctly priced at all times. Or put another way – the stock market is basically unemotional. If you believe that, then piss off and go stay poor. Besides, there are more investment vehicles than just stocks. Try futures, calls, puts, precious metals, shorting stocks, etc.
>>profiting from Peak Oil is part of the problem
How do you figure that BS? To come to this conclusions – you would have to know the intentions of everything I do, and not plan to do, with whatever financial resources I have.
Everyone gather around the campfire and listen to this:
Do you believe that most people living in the US, Asia and Western Europe have become aware of Peak Oil? (*from scanning this blog, I think the answer is likely no).
If your assumption is correct, then the markets have NOT fully digested Peak Oil as a market-moving factor. That is YOUR advantage in the market – you’re betting against people who don’t fully understand that Peak Oil will wreak tremendous havoc in the economy. Think about it like this - Every investment has a counter party – someone that is betting against you. I short sub MBS, someone on the other side is long MBS. That is how the market balances out.
I think people who believe that Peak Oil is real and who are rational human beings, should profit from what they have figured out. That will help do more good in terms of alerting the rest of society to the grave danger that we currently face.
It certainly will do more than pissing and moaning like a grumpy old man that we are screwed, and nothing can be done to fix it.
BTW, JHK has made some startlingly bad calls on the market, and always has a bunch of idiots cheering his sideways view of reality (“Way to go, Jim. Great post!”) Go back and read his archives. Come up to speed on what you’re talking about Urethra or Eleuthero – whatever your handle is.
There is 'land' and there is 'land'. I'm in CA, and believe that land price here have much further to fall. The places I'm looking may not be Monte Carlo - but given some of these outrageous prices I've seen - might as well be.
I also think there is more to make in other assets right now. To your key point, I guess i could head off to Utah or something. Just not my preference.
Titus, don't neglect to invest some of your wealth into weapons, and be prepared to hire mercenaries to use these weapons to defend you. You also need to build a castle in the middle of your farm to defend you. These days, you'd need 100's of millions for that, so you have a long way to go... And with your attitude, I'd bet lots of peole will want to take what you have, so learn to sleep lightly...
I don't disagree that everyone should dramatically cut their own personal energy consumption. As for Obama getting on TV and telling everyone to go buy a prius (now that the US Gov. owns GM) is just not in the cards.
Also, there is lots of money to be made off this. If you think that Peak Oil had something to do with the housing bubble, and subsequent crash - then you have already watched the first wave of extreme wealth destruction and wealth creation that resulted from PO.
I'll keep that in mind Diogen.
Why don't you share your plans. Let me guess - an eco-village in Berkeley? Maybe we can re-reclaim peoples park and turn it into a farm. OR - are you joining a militia to fight for our right to party with AK-47s.
Come on buddy. I want to hear your game plan...
Suckers going down alright. One reason is because when it comes to money the average joe cannot think in a straight line.
Personal finances as presented by the bullshit artists in the financial industry are so twisty turny and upside downy no one can make any sense of anything they say. There's a reason for that. It's because nothing they say makes any sense. It's all designed to separate you from your money.
Here's another Big Lie that helped create the mess we're in:
-paying your mortgage is "forced saving".
It is not forced saving, it is the opposite. It is forced spending.
The spin you get from the real estate industry is that when you make a mortgage payment you are building equity. What you are actually doing is paying down debt and paying interest. People think of equity as the same thing as savings. It is not.
Equity in your house is based on an opinion on what your house could sell for. An opinion, nothing more. Debt and mortgage interest, on the other hand, are hard numbers based on a contract.
Actual saving is also a hard number based on a contract. You put cash in a bank account and every month you get a bank statement showing how much you have accumulated. This is money the bank owes you, enforceable in court and FDIC insurable.
If instead of paying a mortgage you saved up and paid cash for a house, let's say $200,000, what you are doing is depleting your savings to buy a house. You no longer have savings, you have a house.
You say you have $200,000 in equity in your house. Based on what? On what you bought it for. The issue is, so what? That number is history, now you are in opinion territory. Times change and sometimes they change really fast.
Cash. Now you are talking! Keep up the killer posts.
Pullo
I see this a lot on CFN, the admonition that a farm out of the city center won't save you from the mad maxian scenario. While i am a bit of a doomer, i am a doomer with a little "d". I read this blog for its entertainment value and the often hilarious comment section. I do not think Kunstler is the Oracle ( especially on timing) but i do find lots of interesting ideas presented in these posts. If i was a hollywood screenwriter, i'd be all over this for my big summer box office mega-disaster.
They way i see it, armageddon is already here: it manifests itself in Dancing with the Stars, celebrity worship, frankenfood, a klepto political class and relentless corporate malfeasance. I wasnt making much $ as a painter (surprise!) i thought, 'well, what do i have?" i had land. paid for land. so i started putting it to use growing food. Maybe as a hedge against future loss of buying power - definitely as a hedge against Monsanto. along the way, i found i preferred this lifestyle. its one of the few labors i actually "own"...unlike the work we do on the books. If i get killed someday by locust people looking for food -well, c'est la vie. it would be a sh*tstorm at that point anyway.
We've seen enough psychos in glass and steel towers to know that "Trash" transcends categories of income and personal wealth. I think enough of us have seen execs advancing up the ladder leaving a trail of broken people in their wake. But for a wobble of the cosmic dice they'd be dead eyed killers on death row.
You could't be further away from reality, my friend.
The words of your 10:04AM post to which I replied were quite similar to words I wrote two days ago and the thrust of those words was virtually identical.
Your words:
That's one of the problems with socialism/communism, they're completely divorced from the reality of Human Nature.
My words at 4:18P on 4/25:
This [socialism's] goal ........ can never and will never be reached because of the relentless opposing force of human nature.
It sounds to me, Dio, that we're "on the same page."
I had some 85 degree days last week too....you might be close. Today its in the 60's as it should be. I have a tin roof...when it was still silver it reflected sunlight well and cooled the cabin...now its rust and absorbs light. I am right on a rather large active creek so it stays pretty cool here. I will replace my old tin with metal as soon as i can though. What color is yours? theres some strategy for winter and for summer considering the landscape.
But as i am sure you know from experience, your body becomes accustomed to natural temps if you give it a chance. now in the summer when i go into public spaces, usually i am freezing. I wonder how many people think about what that comfort costs, in every sense of the word. I get it, though. you wear a suit and work on the 18th floor of a glass building you need air. everything we did was based on endless cheap energy.
I'm in Southern Illinois. It's 52, according to my window thermometer.
Yeah, I was bragging on my roof at work and someone said that I'll be cold in the winter.
But-
In the winter the sun is low and brief, so the effect on the roof is much less than in the summer. I have a southern overhang on my roof, which blocks the sun in the summer and lets it shine on my house in the winter.
I chose Gavalume, which is a shiny metal. I chose it because Stephen Chu said that if we all had white roofs, we could stop global warming. I have my doubts about that, but, what the hell? I was getting a new roof anyway.
My carpenter with the degree in Liberal Arts, talked me into a metal roof (which shows that he has extreme smarts) and I figured that a shiny one would reflect more light than a white one.
You're singing to the choir here about adjusting to the weather. My work overheats in the winter and overcools in the summer, which annoys the hell out of me.
I do complain when I'm dressed for winter and walk into a store and end up sweating. Or in the summer when I'm barely dressed and walk into a 65 degree store. That's just wrong.
Sometimes I'll get people who come in in the winter wearing T-shirts and I'll ask them why? They usually brag that they keep their house heated to 85 or something. They have no shame, they don't even realize that they might as well have said that they burn kittens to keep warm, in my eyes:)
My thermostat is broken, so all winter I kept the heater off except in the morning and in the evening, to get it up to 58 degrees. The only time I really need heat is in the morning, before I put on my four layers of clothes, so I have a space heater in the bathroom. That works fine, and my gas bills stayed low.
In the summer, I have strategically placed fans, and two big trees outside. That's enough, except for in extreme heat, when I just wilt.
Q, I misunderstood your "adherent steps forward" comment. Yes, we do agree that various Utopian ideas are great but for the pesky reality of human nature. Communism works for ants, termites and bees, but Mammals? Never. Sorry Wage, we're a wrong species for any social organization that's predicated on the abandonment of our individual instincts, good or bad.
>Dancing with the Stars, celebrity worship, >frankenfood, a klepto political class and >relentless corporate malfeasance.
Well put, MDC. Don't forget imperial militarism and my-religion-is-truer-than-yours mindset.
I like your outlook. Do what you love most days, while producing something of value for daily life, and don't worry too much about the worst-case scenarios, since in the end we'll all end up in the same place anyway. If you can enjoy being alive on $$$$ less than the Masters of the Universe, the joke's on them :)
It is dishonest of you to quote one sentence and not the next
Do I cherrypick? Well then I cherrypi ... oh never mind ... just kidding.
Look Wage, here's the thing. You have a good heart. You wish well for every person on the face of the earth. (Actually, though I know you doubt it, I do to.) The difference between us is that you think your egalitarian dream can be achieved via socialism while I don't. Not only that, I don't think your dream can be achieved by any economic system including capitalism although I believe capitalism will provide the best net results (varying degrees of prosperity for most).
I believe, further, that you become extremely frustrated with a person like me for saying politically incorrect things that you fear in your heart are true.
>Come on buddy. I want to hear your game plan...
OK, I'll let you in on it, but don't tell anyone.
No game plan. Other than enjoy being alive every day. We do grow most of our veggies in the backyard, but not as a hedge against uncertain future, but because we enjoy it. Now that we finished paying for kids' education, the crumb-snatchers are on their own, we try to take a few big trips every year (saw Morocco a few months ago, here's a country that won't miss a beat when Peak Oil hits). The future is too uncertain to give up any joy today. And when the SHTF... well, we'll join the Plymouth Colony in our neighborhood and contribute to the best of our ability to the common survival. I guess.
“I believe, further, that you become extremely frustrated with a person like me for saying politically incorrect things that you fear in your heart are true.”
There are too many things wrong with this statement to even begin to address them fully, but I will briefly mention just a few.
1.There is nothing “politically incorrect” about your views, they are disturbingly mainstream. In this day and age where “socialism” in this country is used as some sort of dirty word by an entire media network and dozens of popular commentators I think it's time folks who call themselves “tea party” members or whatever, stop trying to depict themselves as shouting their views over the main chorus of opinion. If anything, their views get much greater coverage than they deserve in the media and elsewhere, based on their numbers.
2. There is nothing very “human” all in all, about being entirely selfish. This seems much more like the behavior of lower animals or children at best. What evidence do you have of this being a part of some innate character we are unable to rise above? It seems to me we hold up the best in ourselves and regard our fellow humans most highly when they do exactly the opposite and demonstrate the sort of maturity that is compassionate and unselfish. To regard selfishness or self-centeredness as an irreversible element of our character, is nothing more than the worst sort of popular Darwinian psychobabble.
3.Please Qshtik, spare us being subjected to your mind reading talents. You neither know that anyone else here is “frustrated with a person like (you)” or whatever, if anything, is in any of our hearts.
"We are capable of supplying everyone with a decent standard of living, but if the fiat money system isn't functioning, neither can we.
This makes no sense. I believe that we can cooperate to provide each other with a decent standard of living, if we drop the idea that we need leeches sucking off profit to make it all happen."
I've been hearing words to that effect since the 1970s. I'm sure people were saying them in the 19th century.
Yes, we have the capacity to do better. Or at least a subset of society does. But collectively speaking, what you see around you is our very best effort.
I'm seeing reports everywhere that the IMF may soon play a big role in feasting on our rotting..., I mean, helping us through this financial crisis. Everything continues on a predictable schedule.
Highly Socialistic Mammals...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naked_mole_rat
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meerkat
'For me it all comes down to population..'
and for all on planet earth...but most REFUSE to recognize its a very closed system!
Population of USA set to double from its 1960 level...as earth moves to 7 or 8 billion.
any thoughts from anyone here about 'dead microbiologists'?
Did you mean: Kevin Phillips
[sorry Q beat you to it]....
SO WHAT DID THE BOOK SAY?
We started a garden...
Riding the Fuji back and forth to work ~once a week...
Yaaawwn.
Solar Installs are picking up...
Eminent Domain in effect up the street. Nice houses all boarded up and no money to even begin construction on the new highway they were kicked out for...disgusting
My mind often drifts to building an electric car lately...or maybe start with an electric bike...
PUSH ON. DO GOOD. KEEP SMILING.
selfishness ...depends how you devine it.
i wouldnt call a hermit monk selfish, others would. Including luminaries like Meher Baba.
There is nothing “politically incorrect” about your views, they are disturbingly mainstream.
If you believe in color coding the country is mostly "blue" - aka leftwing, aka socialist (see '08 election results). Ergo, my views on socialism are un-PC, not mainstream. Take a look at the NY Times op-ed columnists Krugman, Dowd, Rich, Blow, to name just a few. If they leaned any farther left they'd topple over. The NYT is generally considered the greatest newspaper in the country.
What evidence do you have of this being a part of some innate character we are unable to rise above?
I have no copy and paste data. For that you would need to check with Asoka. All I have is what the two eyes in my head observe. And BTW, I don't think of our character as flawed and needing to be risen above any more than cats need to stop being aloof and act more like dogs. We are what we are. If human nature is subject to change the pace is apparently glacial.
You neither know that anyone else here is “frustrated with a person like (you)” or whatever, if anything, is in any of our hearts.
That's a hoot. Your entire post demonstrates your annoyance and frustration.
depends how you devine it.
Define or perhaps divine (used as a verb) but not devine (no such word). That's payback for correcting Phillips before I had a chance ;o)
Breaking News from the MSN homepage:
"Stocks suffered their sharpest one-day losses since early February today. But it wasn't the fault of Goldman Sachs (GS), whose shares closed up on the day."
"Instead, blame Greece and Portugal, whose long-term debt was downgraded by Standard & Poor's this morning."
The whole Goldman Sachs looks like a tempest in a teapot compared to the prospect of the entire European Union going bust, doesn't it JHK?
The country as I knew is on its last legs and there's nothing anyone can do to save it.
The Republican Party is encouraging every repulsive and disgusting aspect of the American character, aspects that were once hidden and suppressed but which are now openly and shamelessly flaunted in some twisted, insane parody of patriotism. Thanks to the Right, the corruption is so deep, so endemic that there's no way it can be put back in the bottle. Like the Black Death this plague will just have to run its course after which the survivors, the rot burned out of them, can attempt to piece together some semblance of a just and equitable society.
O Divine one i stand corrected....
THAT WAS VERY MUCH A FREUDIAN SLIP!!!
and how bout markets rallying on ggod news of greek bailout????
yahoo news:
Many investors think Greece will have enough money to avoid default in the coming weeks, but the future is cloudier.
Both Standard & Poor's and the Greek finance ministry insisted that the country will have enough money to make the euro8.5 billion bond payments due on May 19.
Even if it does, Greece faces years of austerity with living standards sharply reduced. Standard & Poor's warned that the Greek economy was unlikely to be as big as it was in 2008 for another decade.
............what if they dont make payment?
last week sone posted that Obama was rightwing..like nixon[?]
Obama...for:
abortion
late abortion
legal infanticide
bankrupting the country
amnesty [# 4? for usa]
open borders
refuses to salute flag
AND LET US NOT AFTER SLAUGHTER AT FT HOOD HIS;
dont rush to judgement statement
frankenfood,
I was listening to public radio,,,,something about southern forests of Franken trees...it had to do with some bill on carbon or GW or something.
"Yes, we have the capacity to do better. Or at least a subset of society does. But collectively speaking, what you see around you is our very best effort."
Ha! Pretty good, WD. I tend to agree, and thus would say we're well and truly skeeee-rewwwed, eh?
The plunge will be dizzying.
I have always thought that the grasping, gorging, giddy greed would lead to our extinction via resource depletion, AND that massive fraud would "help" a lot by dissolving what remained of simple trust. Trust ain't that simple in that it requires careful nurturing of a connective "web". (I guess it relates to that maxim of the 3 ways to do "trade"/"business": Fraud, theft, or fair dealing. Only the last will allow you to sit without your back to the wall. The other two, mmmmmm, not so much. ;o) )
Soon, friends, soon... this "sucker" is going down. Take a quick peek at Arizona, where they're about to get racially "purified". Hope that goes well for them when they drive out all the cheap labor the right-wingers (and everybody else) have been abusing for yeeeeeears. Good luck, Dim-watts. (It'll probably be the very LEAST of their worries, shortly.)
Nicely said.
I feel the same.
Oh, hell, it's snowing. Don't that about tear it? Glad we don't have too many plants out yet...
Asia, here's what I know so far. I left the house at 2:40PM to take a humongus walk. The DOW was down about 115 pts. When I got back home the markets were closed and the DOW had lost 213. I assumed the Golden Scrotum hearings were the cause but then I read that S&P lowered Greece's dept rating to "junk" status and lowered Portugal too. I don't know if this is the start of the long awaited correction (or worse) but if so it's OK with me. I have my portfolio hedged with 3 inverse ETFs. As a result I only lost $95 today. I believe you can't beat the negative feedback of failure (whether companies or countries) to help correct things for the future; i.e. "spare the rod and spoil the child."
As to any further insight ... well ... if I was that smart I'd be sippin pina coladas in the carribean.
Everywhere, from Europe to the United States to the state of California, they keep saying that all this debt was needed to deal with budget deficits.
What's wrong with taxing the rich? It's like we're doing everything else but that.
I mean, do we really think that the rich are going to be investing any of their money in job-creating activities any time soon?
LEGALIZE THE IMMIGRANTS NOW!
IT'S THE ECONOMICALLY SENSIBLE THING TO DO
IMMIGRANT ECONOMIC ACTIVITY IS A NET GAIN
LEGALIZE THE IMMIGRANTS NOW!
Please stop with the vapid 'tax the rich' insanity. It doesn't matter if you tax 'the rich' 100%, the politicians will SPEND 150%.
We SPEND too much, got it? We're in this galactic-sized crisis because we SPENT too much. You can't solve a SPENDING crisis by TAKING WITHOUT END & SPENDING EVEN MORE.
GodDAMN will everyone just please REDUCE, DOWNSIZE, SAVE, SPEND LESS, CUT BACK. Of course millions are, but of course not the beloved, execrable "government".
Muthafuckahs, I don't NEED to be governed.
http://rochester.ynn.com/content/top_stories/503056/rg-e-rate-hike-plan-irks-hearing-attendees/
i LOVED THIS above story from our local Western NY cable news. Its just the begining. Hey I just convinced some neighbors to plant hazlenut and fruit trees and bushes great deals from the abor day foundation.
Youre talking about the eucalyptus -a non native species that sucks up water like a hoover and crowds out natives, of course. So a private company can make cellulose with the Euc's and profit from putting genetically engineered trees into a public environment. because you are not going to stop wind and seeds. Once these poachers have finished destroying our common forest heritage, they'll leave us holding a bag of expensive eradication programs and less indigenous trees. happens all the time
malaleuca trees
switch grass
kudzu
asian swamp eels
many more. but here on CFN we see all this left -vs- right while the pirates that own them both slip away with the all booty. and thats they way they like it.
I have no problem with a company growing real trees on their property for profit. i do have a problem with introducing genetically modified trees into a forest system. its criminal.
welles, right on! There are 2.3 million prisoners being governed in prisons. Let's set them free and cut back on government spending.
There are millions of USA military on hundreds of bases all over the world costing us trillions of dollars. Let's abolish the military like Costa Rica did in 1949 and cut way back on government spending.
We're giving huge subsidies to whole industries: dairy, farmers (to not grow crops), etc. Let's abolish all those subsidies and cut back on government spending.
What checks do you receive from the government? Disability? Social security? Whatever, send them back and tell them you don't want their money... you want them to cut back on government spending.
And those roads being repaired, and bridges, and water purification, and food and medicine inspections, etc. Stop all that 'cause you don't need no stinkin' government, right?
Fire department? Schools? VA hospitals? Courts? Prisons? Police? What for? Close 'em down and cut back on government spending!
I also want to eliminate Homeland Security, TSA (thousands standing around), ICE (Immigration/Customs), and all the national parks. We got to cut back on government spending, Muthafuckahs, I don't NEED to be governed.
I would like to keep the public libraries since they are practical socialism in action: to each according to his need, the public sharing of books. Libraries aren't really that expensive.
The Coast Guard has to go, though and we won't need the IRS anymore... we'll eliminate them to cut back on government spending.
Greece's dept rating
Quick like a bunny before anybody spots it ... make that debt rating ;o)
welles, you got to be kidding about not taxing the rich. That is the way to have economic stability like in the 1950's.
Before the 1st Great Depression, Republicans slashed the top marginal Tax rate, leading to a bubble and a bust.
From the 30s through the 70s, top marginal tax rates were around 90%, America saw its strongest middle class ever (hello, Detriot!) and there were no economic meltdowns or burst bubbles.
Then, Reagan slashed the top marginal tax rates to around 20%, followed by Bush I cutting that rate even further to 15% and all that followed were burst bubbles, meltdowns and hardship for the middle class.
Cutting taxes on the rich does not lead to "trickle down", it leads to the rich taking more and more and more without giving anything back. It institutionalizes their greed and causes havoc for society at large, as we have seen with Bush II, Wall Street hedge funds and bank meltdowns.
JHK: ...How come no -----------?
I told you last week. Honey traps and planes crashes.
Re-read my comment. I said it's futile to tax 'the rich' if you SPEND more than you TAKE IN IN TAXES. This creates unserviceable DEBT. The ghastly crew of public 'servants' in Washington are spending TRILLIONS more than they TAKE IN; what they take is NEVER ENOUGH.
Re marginal tax rates, do you HONESTLY THINK people will produce anything if they know they'll just end up paying 90% tax on it? Go ahead & knock yourself out if you do.
How did the US become the richest country on the planet without an income tax? Were there no roads, no medical care, no army, no electricity, no inventions, no agriculture, no cars, no railroads etc etc?
How did we EVER SURVIVE without robbing people of their income?
Muthafuckahs, I don't NEED to be governed.
Asoka, when I first read the above sentence in Welles' post I thought to myself, I wish he had added three more words: "nearly so much." Then I could have said "Welles, I'm in total agreement with your post."
If you catch Welles on some other day when he's not frothing at the mouth I believe he would agree that there are some legitimate functions of government.
You, Asoka, have mentioned many functions currently being performed by govt in a sarcastic way as if to say "of course we couldn't do without these govt functions." When you think it through however you realize there is very little beyond our physical security (military, police, courts, jails) that we need government for.
I say:
Free all political and victimless crime prisoners (drug dealers and users, prostitutes etc) and close many prisions.
Keep the military but massively reduce our foreign presence.
Eliminate all subsidies (like dairy, paying farmers not to plant etc) and all foreign aid. Aid to countries like Haiti due to natural disasters is a function for charitable institutions. Let's end the practice of buying friendship.
End illegal immigration and foster modest legal immigration.
Your idea to have people send back their Social Security checks would be ridiculous after a lifetime of paying in. The govt should calculate every penny paid in by individuals plus the "employers portion" (which is actually part of the employee's pay that simply never passed through their hands) and apply compound interest then send a check to the individual and end SS. Then individuals should be encouraged to start their own old age savings plans.
Interstate highways, state and county roads etc appear to be legit government responsibilities but with enough thought on the subject by some smart people, maybe not. Likewise for bridges, water purification, food and medicine inspections and fire departments. But why on earth should the govt be involved in schools and hospitals?
Homeland Security and Immigration/Customs are legit Govt functions.
Let whatever is left of brick and mortar public libraries in 25 years be funded by philanthropists like Gates and Buffett. That sort of thing makes rich people feel good about themselves.
While we're at it, go to one very low flat tax rate, do away with all exemptions and deductions like mortgage interest, RE tax and charitable contributions. Eliminate capital gain, dividend and interest income taxes (it would massively encourage savings). Almost forgot - do away with the Federal Reserve (with a tip of the hat to Ron Paul).
I could go on and on but you get the idea. Since I find politics and politicians revolting and the source of much of the world's troubles you should not be surprised that I hate big govt.
...that's what I meant to say, i.e. I don't NEED to be governed so much.
Peace to you all.
Jim, did I hear you right? "Graceful"??? Obama is "graceful"? WTF does that have to do with anything? You are so far beyond hope and beyond help. I'll bet your shorts are sticky just thinking about this "graceful", "young" President. (Gag!)
Yes, Bush was deficient in so many ways. But Obama was a US senator in the period preceding the meltdown, voting for every abortion of a spending bill that came along, with all the other liberal members of the Senate and House, and half the Pubs, who are equally guilty. THEY are the culprits here. Bush was an idiot for not vetoing their putrid bills, but Congress writes the bills and passes the bills. So how do you get that crap about Obama inheriting this mess. He helped cause this mess, which by the way, Bush should have vetoed and didn't. Damn both of them. Damn all of them. But wear out the machines of retribution on the most guilty first.
killacommie said: "Damn all of them."
Even Bill Clinton. All of you so concerned about debt and government spending that exceeds revenue should idolize Bill Clinton. The man reduced government spending, was fiscally conservative, and balanced budget after budget until he finally left Bush with a BUDGET SURPLUS.
Then Bush created $12 TRILLION debt.
Obama has added another $1 TRILLION.
So let's hear praise for Bill Clinton ... if it is true you are concerned about deficit spending.
I suspect what you really want to do is tear down a Black man in the White House and all the talk about deficit spending is bogus.
Bush $12 TRILLION
Obama $1 TRILLION
Why weren't you tea partying during Bush's terms?
Hey IDIOT, a tactic like calling me
"Urethra" is sandbox stuff. Once I
saw that I knew that more than a
brief reply was a waste of time on
a scoundrel like you.
I *live* by the principles of CONSERVING
so don't lecture me about "doing something".
My lifetime average annuals miles of driving
is 5000 miles per year. Do you have any
clue of how far away a real oil crisis
would be if everyone followed my example
instead of averaging 12,000 miles/year??
I don't engage in "boredom" buying where
I throw something that is still serving
me well because it "bores" me. So lecture
someone who fits your ill-gotten inference.
It's not I, your dudeness.
Finally, I didn't say that a million bucks
constituted wealth. However, you're being
disingenuous because you know damned well
that my critique was that we don't give a
damn what you investing acumen and/or NAV
is anyway? The sun shines on DOME dog's
ass every day. Big deal. YOU made a
big deal of your acumen and I simply
called you on it. Sorry that you have
a hair-triggered temper.
Your self-image is inflated, your critiques
rely on inferences you can't possibly know
to be true, and the name-calling (especially
a vulgarized one like "Urethra" takes us
back to our days in 4th grade when we got
a rush out of saying our first cuss word.
Your posts, therefore, appear to be CONTENT
FREE.
Eleuthero
Yeah, you're right, Asoka. I don't care about any of this. It's all just an excuse to give me a chance to bitch about the black man being president. You found me out. I'm an evil white racist, the same as all the other evil white racists. We're all the same, us racists.
Jesus H. Christ. That the best you got?
US Ambassador Christopher Hill said Monday that he is concerned that the process of forming a government is taking too long, and that elements of disorder may take advantage of the power vacuum to destabilize the country.
Too long?
When did we invade and occupy Iraq? How many years ago? Only to have it continue unstable, with no steady electricity or water, which Sadaam was able to supply.
All the thousands of USA soldiers who died in Iraq died in vain. And on top of everything Sadaam was holding Iran in check. Now Iran is ascendant in the region.
"You found me out."
Yes, I did. You were incapable of saying anything laudatory about Bill Clinton's fiscal discipline.
You are busted.
I don't care who you are - Lloyd Blankfein is the Enemy of all human life on this planet whether you're White, Black, Brown or "other". Except maybe the Jews, maybe. You can see it on his face - no real humanity whatsoever, just an imitation of it. Just like bacteria move towards sugar, Blankfein and Co move towards money. Morality is a joke to such "people". And psychopaths can recognize other psychopaths - and cooperate with them. Such is the story of Golman Sachs and the rest of our financial system.
Please post your address - I want to move in with you. You have no choice and no right to say no. We are all one. Everything you have is mine and vice versa or is that versa vice? Oh don't worry, we'll work that part out when I get there.
I am you and you are me and we are all together. Remember the personal is political. All politics are local. What could be more local, more politically correct, than me moving to your locale? It'll be like I'm an illegal immigrant - you will get points! I'll even talk broken Spanglish.
I see Vlad took offense to the term "white trash," saying it's racist against white people. I would agree that it's racist, but I contend that it's actually racist against minorities. For to use a term like "white trash," you imply that such white people are not the norm or rejects, and that white people are normally upstanding people. But you never hear the term "black trash" thrown around. And that could point to a racist mindset in our country surrounding browns and blacks -- e.g., the down-and-out black skid-row drunk isn't "black trash," rather, he's simply black because that's the way all of them are."
So, really, it should be black people who should take offense to the term "white trash."
The Far Right has been right about just about everything, in essence if not in all the details. There is a New World Order. It is increasing its power through the International Bankers who control not only the economies, but the politcal systems throughout most of Western World. The Bankers and the Politicians are openly hostile to Nation States and their traditional cultures. And they mean to undermine them. All of this was predicted decades ago by the Far Right - and they were laughed to scorn by Liberal Egotists and Ignoramuses.
The Banking Class is mostly Jewish - at least people here are starting to get that. The Far Right has also stated that America is ruled via the Federal Reseve which is owned by European Jews connected to the Rothschilds. Can anyone dare say categorically that this is not true? It will almost surely be proven if the Fed is ever publicly audited. As to the members of the New World Order, that is a bit trickier. The Jews seem to be very well represented, but they may not be completely dominant. An open question in any case.
Other correct predictions: that the hand over of power to Blacks would be a disaster for Southern Africa. And that the same disaster awaits America to the extend it happens here. That Blacks are a lower race and that not too much can be expected from them and certainly they should be denied any power over Whites. Revenge and bitterness are their response to any weakening of our will not gratitude and forgiveness.
Any attempt to oust the American Bankers will cause a war. The last time WW2 was the result of such an action. The whole Jewish World will unite as one by any such attempt - and it doesn't matter if you ignore the fact that they are Jewish. They aren't going to ignore the fact that they are Jewish and that their power is being threatened.
How old are you Welles? From the technique of opening mouth and allowing ignorance to fall out, which you espouse, I would guess 20's to early 30's. Perhaps if you would take the time to read about the 1950's, 60's and 70's tax rates and the standards of living experienced by the majority of Americans, which Asoka correctly attempted to lead you to, you might, not likely but possibly, comprehend the rip off by the rich which was put into full blower by the "great communicator". ("Full blower" USAF speak for maximum afterburner)
So you think we all need to stop spending and downsize. I agree and those that take far more than their share are the "rich". I agree wholeheartedly with Asoka they are the ones to start with especially those hoovering up the corporate welfare.
You don't think you need to be governed eh? Me thinks you would not have fared well in the old West when shooting an undesirable in the back was the preferred technique for settling disputes among the "ungoverned men".
SNAFU
We can't tax the rich. They will take their ball and go home. The biggest bunch of pussies ever gathered in one country and everyone is scared to death of them.
"All I have is what the two eyes in my head observe."
===================================
....and where your head is pointing is pretty subjective.
About 2,000 years ago people were commonly murdered in Circus Maximus for the pleasure of others. Torturing people and enslaving them was pretty "politically correct" in those days as well. Perhaps the next step in evolution is demonstrating caring for all those around us. I suspect that if we don't, we won't survive.
"That's a hoot. Your entire post demonstrates your annoyance and frustration."
====================================
Quiz....you have no idea how difficult it would be for you to frustrate me.
George said, "The whole Goldman Sachs looks like a tempest in a teapot compared to the prospect of the entire European Union going bust, doesn't it JHK?"
GS and other banks have been working together to collapse nations for profit, for decades.
They bribe politicians to get their operatives installed in positions of power, (Tim Gheitner for example), then set the nation on the course to bankruptcy. Then when it's ruined enough, those same operatives sign up for loans and austerity measures.
With Austerity measures, the banks are given full control of the nation's economic system and assets.
1. One third of all government revenue is funneled straight into the banks.
2. Government owned assets are sold off to personal friends of bankers at fractions of a penny on the dollar. This would be things like Federal lands, railway right of ways, roads, water and sewage treatment plants. (Often the facilities are shut down or poorly maintained after, until they close).
3. Private and government pensions, 401ks, IRAs and like are seized and given to the banks as tribute on the debt.
4. Savings and checking accounts are closed and funds seized.
5. The currency is swapped out (in a limited amount), to eliminate any chance someone is holding large quantities of cash.. Gold and silver may be seized.
As a for instance in 2001, in Argentina, Bank of America and Goldman Sachs had huge losses in derivatives. They shut down lending to businesses and told the gov that if they didn't get a bailout, then they couldn't go back to normal lending practices. They got their bailout, but didn't start lending again. Instead they asked for and demanded an endless stream of bailouts and other concessions. The gov gave them the oil industry, the railway networks, the trains, etc... The banks sold all of this off and the nation is circling the drain. Still the banks continue to feed.
Same banks, same bankers that are running the USA and Greece.
No, GS isn't a tempest in a teapot. It's the hurricane. It's the reason Greece is circling the drain.
Asoka, this long copy-and-paste has more holes in it than a swiss cheese. I wish when you copy such stuff off the internet you would clearly identify the source so I know where to direct my scoffing derision ... besides yourself, of course.
http://immigrationimpact.com/2010/01/13/new-report-estimates-economic-benefit-of-legalizing-unauthorized-immigrants-in-california/
From the 30s through the 70s, top marginal tax rates were around 90%, America saw its strongest middle class ever (hello, Detriot!) and there were no economic meltdowns or burst bubbles.
Your view of cause and effect reminds me of people in the markets who actually rely on such nonsense as the level of women's hemlines and the so-called "Super Bowl Indicator" as predictors of market direction. Or my sister-in-law (the credit union board member) who won't drink Coke because a friend of hers drank a Coke and the next day came down with a case of pink-eye. The poor dears don't recognize the difference between correlation and coincidence.
A quick scan of your underlying source - the Immigration Policy Center - shows that organization has "an agenda" which is not the fair and unbiased airing of all sides of a complex issue ... much like yourself.
Qshtik, Qshtik, Qshtik, where to start do I "cherry pick" or "broad brush"? How about some of each. (a statement not a question) As I said of you last week "you have raised the flags of your true colors".
From your reply to me last week you stated "The worse thing we could do would be to create a perfectly level playing field. It would be soul-deadening for everyone to the Nth degree."
What a crock of shit! A level playing field is the espoused mantra of conservative free market capitalists world wide. My interpretation of their and your definitions of such is that a level playing field in your reality means a "Government" policy that gives you and yours a leg up and fuck everyone else.
"I hope I haven't given you the impression that I am wealthy and surrounded by luxury."
Were you not one and the same posting from Bahrain or Dubai or some other Arab country (I did not take time to look op your posts) a month or so back. Seems I recall you were all hyped up about an automated warm water ass washer that eliminated the need for toilet paper and could not wait to get home and have one installed in your NJ abode. I point you to Asoka's well researched views about the standards of living in the US from the 50's to the 70's when the wealthy were taxed according to their ability to pay not their ability to plunder.
"BTW, I can get away with using words like "always" and "never" because I won't have to answer for them till the end of eternity."
WTF does this sentence mean? Are you implying that you will live to the end of eternity (which is when?; heat death of our universe?). Or are you a BAC who is convinced that you will reside in heaven for all time? Your illogical statement here is too far off my reservation for me to comprehend.
Your response to Asoka today continues your flag waving ad nauseum:
"When you think it through however you realize there is very little beyond our physical security (military, police, courts, jails) that we need government for."
I am still chuckling over this pile of merde you had the audacity to toss out as a cogent thought.
You say:
"Free all political and victimless crime prisoners (drug dealers and users, prostitutes etc) and close many prisions."
We have political prisoners in the good old USA?
Drug dealing is a victimless crime?
prisions? perhaps you meant prisons.
"Keep the military but massively reduce our foreign presence."
Do you prefer the Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD) only philosophy?
"Eliminate all subsidies ...... Let's end the practice of buying friendship."
Hell yes let us go back to boom and bust agriculture. Who needs friends you can buy? Bomb the bastards into being our friends; that philosophy has worked well since the 1960's
"End illegal immigration and foster modest legal immigration."
Who is going to put in your warm water ass washer, pick your vegetables, kill pluck and slaughter your chickens .......? Me thinks the biggest reason illegals are afforded easy access to the US is because corporate interests demand it.
Once again Qshtik your true flags are snapping in the brisk breeze.
SNAFU
Asoka, Whether or not it's economically sensible to legalize these people is beside the point really. I would say that as a practical matter there is no real choice. So do something like an amnesty for a certain period ie 24 months and get people signed up.
I think that the US govt neglected or declined to guard the borders especially the southern border of the country.
But I would also say that as a practical matter a country that doesn't control its borders is not long for this world. At the same time as this amnesty it has to get control of its borders.
The people that walked across this unguarded border settled into your country, many of them years or decades ago and no serious effort was made to remove them and require them to seek residence in the US via legal channels.
Meanwhile these people (call them what you want, illegals, immigrants, migrants, whatever, it doesn't matter) established lives in the US, many raised and are raising families there.
I would say that the US govt has defacto given them the right to reside in the US because of its failure to act. This failure wasn't a one day failure or oversight, it was decades in duration. Why it failed to act doesn't matter. It's academic at this point and has been for a long time.
There is no practical way to move or remove millions (maybe tens of millions) without inflicting a humanitarian disaster.
Plus the US govt is bankrupt and does not remotely have the resources (unless you repatriate all your military) to chase down and physically remove so many millions.
Talk about fucked up - Just moments into the trading day, Bob Pisani on the floor of the NYSE reported just how far things had deteriorated in Greece: All of their Air Force pilots pulled a sick-out in protests of lower pay plans.
The top marginal tax rates in the USSR were 100% in the 30's thru the 90's and that resulted in lots of prosperity. So you're right, the more we take from everyone who's producing, the more prosperous we become.
My beef's not with the rich per se, they of course use their wits and others', to avoid paying. In my previous comments I repeatedly capitalized the word 'SPENDING' to indicate that that's the problem. We're giving up enough tribute & more to the miscreants in Washington, it's just that THEY won't STOP SPENDING more than they take. So it's a futile game.
And you're also right that all forms of governance, fire department & police service, civil protection, in fact all advances that make up modernity, only occured after the IRS was established. Pre income-tax no great cities sprang up, no hospitals could operate, no great factories built, and no crops grown.
I'm all for giving 10% in income tax, NO MORE, if you can't make do with 10%
People who're corrupt on the inside need laws on the outside.
Peace to you all, prosper & be free.
Snaf, I could amuse myself for the rest of the day by answering your reply point by point but instead I'll let my original post just stand there on its own two legs ... except for my misspelling of "prison." That, I truly regret.
BTW, thanks for the new addition to my vocabulary: merde
I'm sure I'll have occasion to work it into some future post.
P.S. The ass washer (called a hand bidet) was cold water and I installed it myself. Easy to do and its a great invention. How the US could be so far behind (pun intended) the rest of the world baffles me.
P.P.S I wonder why it is that when a person's "true colors" are mentioned it is always intended pejoratively.
Perhaps the next step in evolution is demonstrating caring for all those around us.
Is it Perhaps or is it Definitely? I had already marked you down in the column of those who believe in the perfectibility of human nature. Should I cross out that entry or footnote it as "maybe?"
No, Welles. Spending is not the problem. It is the solution. You're letting your ideology cloud your judgment.
Inflation-adjusted workman's wages have remained relatively stagnant since 1975, while the cost of living has done nothing but increase. In an effort to make up the difference, we take out debt. This wasn't "living beyond our means." This is simply, as the phrase says, "the cost of living."
If the free market doesn't want to put money in the pockets of the consumer, then there is no other option but for the government to spend. If the free market doesn't want to create jobs, then the government needs to do so.
Bjork: It's Definitely Maybe
Roughly speaking, the point at which household debt isn't 100% of income is when consumers hit the $40,000 a year mark. THAT'S the bottom line.
Why Germany dumped the mighty Deutschmark in favour of the Euro baffles me. If I were a German pensioner or worker I would want to be paid in the German currency and not have to share one with those corrupt and lazy southerners.
Now they're talking about German taxpayers bailing out Greece. Was there ever anything in the long history of human affairs more foreseeable than this? Does anyone blame Angela Merkel for demanding that Greece present a viable financial plan before coughing up a sliver of German tax money? How about for starters getting Greek taxpayers to actually pay tax?
There's an old saying in the banking business: your first loss is your least loss ie don't try to string along a bad loan. The sooner you act the sooner you recognize your loss the smaller your loss will be.
I think same goes with the Euro. Get rid of Greece, make them refloat the drachma, same with Portugal and maybe Italy. There will be pain ie currency and bond markets going nuts but the longer they try to string along deadbeats and bail them out the worse the economic damage to everyone else in the longer term.
In other words, on average you need to be making $40,000 a year before you can live debt-free and still live a good life.
Where does govt money come from? If the answer is to print it then the answer is effectively that money grows on trees ie currency has no real meaning or value. That is the way of places like Argentina and Zimbabwe.
If the answer is that it comes from someone's pocket ie the taxpayer then you're maybe onto something. Question is which taxpayer? If you're talking about the average wage earner whose family income has gone nowhere despite now having the wife also working then you're not making things better for him/her. You're in effect telling them they don't get to spend their money as they see fit.
But if the answer is wealthy taxpayers whose effective tax rate has been coming ever down then maybe you're onto something. What I'm saying is that there's no such thing as a free lunch and money does not grow on trees.
I would argue that the fiscal incapacity of the US and its citizens is a result of the gutting of the US economy through offshoring its industries. Unless the US can rebuild its productive capacity then relative poverty is the way of the future. Ramshackle housing, hunger, sickness, threadbare clothes, walking to work (if you can find work) is the way it will be. Tighten your belts.
"...I would want to be paid in the German currency and not have to share one with those corrupt and lazy southerners."
Oh yah, those corrupt and lazy southerners, the dark ones...not like the good white northerners. Plus, if you go far enough south, whadya got? ...Arabs!...and farther south still? Why, nigg.....er Africans, I mean. Corrupt and lazy.
I like your style, Cash. A big broom. Why get specific? "Southerners" will do fine. Kill em all and let God sort it out. So simple and kind of a self-righteous thrill too! Here, let me try one:
Everyone living west of Winnipeg is a square-headed, emotionally repressed, brainwashed, humorless, churchifed, hayseed bigot who smells faintly of pig manure. Everybody. No exceptions.
Hey, I feel better already!
[i]Salutations de Montreal[/i]
Cash sez:
"Unless the US can rebuild its productive capacity then relative poverty is the way of the future. Ramshackle housing, hunger, sickness, threadbare clothes, walking to work (if you can find work) is the way it will be. Tighten your belts."
Agreed; and as in all things, shades of success and failure will be mixed in, according to the availability of inputs. I'm convinced that a centralized/governmental effort to "rebuild productive capacity" will not be forthcoming, due to slavish devotion to the status quo (including its' myriad corruptions).
So, localized economies will be our touchstones... and I don't see too much of Arizona (or the other "dry" states) having a chance of producing anything but destitute wanderers.
And, yes, belts everywhere will be permanently tightened, and no "recovery" is coming. (My personal prediction.)
Thanks....nice name u have.
it was part of a phoney 'climate change' bill,
i missed some of the radio show so i appreciate you filling us in.
“Progressives” don’t talk about “illegal immigrants” because absolutely everything attaching to the issue is disingenuous at best, dishonest as a rule. Immigration is “illegal” for exactly the same reasons that drugs are illegal. It serves the interests of our Lords and Masters (L&M) for them to be so. The two issues are tragically intertwined.
Immigration—we’re really talking mainly about Mexicans and others from Latin America—is illegal because it serves to drive down the wages of undocumented workers and, coincidently, of American workers. You sure don’t have much worry about “illegals” unionizing, do you? Low wages benefit our L&M.
Drugs, on the other hand, are illegal because it’s the only way to drive up the price of what would otherwise be cheap, plentiful and effective intoxicants. Marijuana is a weed that would thrive uncultivated in every corner of America except perhaps Death Valley. Subjecting drugs to prohibition means you’ve got an “industry” that brings in sufficient gobs of cash to assure that crime continues to be organized and that every judge, official and policeman can be bought off six times over. Local police jurisdictions are awash in the cash that drug seizures generate. Unionized prison guards are quite content to grow the prison population.
Mainly, though, our Lords and Masters love illegal immigrants and drugs because they feed the one abiding American passion that is guaranteed to keep the great idiot unwashed at one another’s throats: racism.
My understanding is that studies of usage patterns in white, black and brown communities are pretty comparable. That is, whites use and deal drugs at least as much as African-Americans and Latinos do. Yet we’ve spent the last three or four decades building and filling our prisons predominantly with people of color. And the attempt to interdict drugs at their source has been a perfect cover for interfering ever more deeply in Latin American affairs—where we are deathly afraid that a viable model of socialism will find fertile ground if left unmolested. That’s our real fear.
Our “intelligence” agencies and our military have devastated Latin America. As have our agricultural policies and exports of corn. That’s what’s been behind the waves of immigration, legal or not. Quit fucking with Latin America. Let them solve their own problems without US interference, and you’ll see much of the immigration dry up.
Without addressing fundamental causes the only solutions are to frog march the US further down the road toward a police state by stopping people who “look” Latino to ask for their papers, further militarizing the boarder patrol, more and more surveillance at the boarder, more fencing, on and on.
BEFORE any efforts are made to further “secure the boarders,” Congress AND the President should legally proscribe and criminalize any further US military or intelligence involvement in Latin America, including training of Latin American military and intelligence personnel. Additionally, they should proscribe and criminalize all “Drug War” related activity in Latin America.
Finally. Very few will say so out loud of course, but much of the hysteria about illegal immigration is fueled by the 1965 reform of immigration reform which finally opened America to a much more fair legal immigration of people of color, from every corner of the globe.
Yes. One strong implication of what Kunstler has to say is that we should work to re-develop and protect local American industries and jobs—for American citizens. Our failure to do so has devastated not just Detroit but nearly every city in the country, especially those in what was our industrial heartland, Akron, Cleveland, Pittsburg, on and on. America, however, is now exactly the melting pot that we have always claimed it to be. We have citizens of every shade and hue the earth has ever spawned. Our only hope of ever living in peace is to grow beyond racism. Re-focusing our attention and our economy locally—without reverting to an atavistic nativism—is going to be horribly challenging.
P.S. Don’t you know that descendents of Native Americans toss sleepless in their beds every night of the world, thinking: “If only our forefathers had thought to pass laws against the immigration of the pesky white skins.”
I do a lot of genealogy. It’s quite instructive to watch an animated census map depicting the counties in Georgia evolve from the east coast, spreading west and expanding as “Indian Territory” continues to shrink. And as we stole the land from the Indians, we recorded the deeds in the county deed books in flowery legalisms: “To have and to hold the said bargained premises with them the said H N _____ & William M. _______ together with all the rights members and appurtenances thereto belonging or in anywise appertaining to the same to them their heirs Executors administrators and assigns in fee Simple.”
Law serves two functions. It keeps our Lords and Masters from ripping one another’s jugulars out over competing property claims, and it keeps us great unwashed in our place (bent over).
Italy is so corrupt even the cats have pimps. My parents are from that neck of the woods and we have a lot of family living there.
Organized crime infects and degrades life and it's not just the Mafia but criminal societies on the mainland that are even more cut throat and ruthless than Sicilian gangs. The gangs have innumerable collaborators, enablers and sympathisers without which they couldn't do business. Are political parties there the political arm of the gangs or are the gangs the military arm of political parties. Take your pick.
I don't buy this crap that it's just a few bad people that sully every one else's good name. Corruption there is culturally ingrained, a way of life.
In Greece also, if you want anything done you pay a bribe. Heard of the fakilaki (little envelope)? Tax evasion is a way of life (like Italy).
I also spent years living west of Winnipeg so I am familiar with those folks. I like them, they're my kind of people.
'the US govt neglected or declined to guard the borders especially the southern border of the country'
curious, when the USA is fighting 2 undeclared wars and terrorists keep bombing / killing us citizens here and abroad.
I agree it's curious. It's gone on for too long for it to not be deliberate. Like Ipat says, it keeps wages down.
Like somehow nobody can seem to find Bin Laden after years of "effort". Very curious, that. I'll bet he has tea with the President of Pakistan.
There's a local greasy spoon run by an Afghan immigrant and his wife. He's a really rough peasant but very sharp. So's his wife. Muslim but serves up a really tasty pork souvlaki. I've had a few chats with him about the state of affairs there. He says that if they find Bin Laden the movie's over. Wise words those.
"Southerners" will do fine. Kill em all and let God sort it out.
NoGood, I suspect finance is not your forte. If you were to listen/watch CNBC all day as I do you would realize that the problems with the Euro are mainly in the southern tier of countries, namely Greece, Portugal, Spain and Italy. The one other basket-case which is not southern is Ireland. The five combined are known affectionately as the PIIGS. So when Cash makes reference to those corrupt and lazy "southerners" he is simply using the language of TV financial journalism. Of course the TV folks are too PC to say "corrupt and lazy." The listener is assumed to be smart enough to read between the lines. So, calm that ire you're throwing at Cash.
"Should I cross out that entry or footnote it as "maybe?"
==================================
Whatever I believe, one thing is for sure. We won't better ourselves, either individually or as a species, as long as we take as a certainty that whatever we are at our worst, is the best we can ever be.
Vlad,
Not for Nothing, are you familiar with Ellsworth Huntington and his 1946 book, "Mainsprings of Civilization," and his 1919 book "Red Man's Continent,"... The former is a great read and tries to tie much of things in history together. Some reviews are not too kind, but no one doubts its epic nature.
Like most of your posts, Squish, this one is another shovelful of pompous horseshit. What you suspect about me, after a single post, is of zero interest to me, having looked at dozens of yours, and having found them generally puerile in the extreme.
As usual, your lecture on how to watch TV and what journalists really mean is the pedantry of an interfering busybody.
Wherever did you get the idea that you are an eminence grise around here? And at what point did Cash make you his official spokesman and fartcatcher? And who made you the playground monitor in charge of "calming that ire?"
Kindly keep your condescension to yourself.
'Mainly, though, our Lords and Masters love illegal immigrants and drugs because they feed the one abiding American passion that is guaranteed to keep the great idiot unwashed at one another’s throats: racism.'
O please,...the 'r' word.
'P.S. Don’t you know that descendents of Native Americans toss sleepless in their beds every night of the world, thinking: “If only our forefathers had thought to pass laws against the immigration of the pesky white skins.”'
Im only PART native so i cant speak for the tribes...
in answer to that id say NO! but they do or should wonder what their reservations ill be like as Mexicos narco terrorists take over here.
Who is going to put in your warm water ass washer, pick your vegetables, kill pluck and slaughter your chickens .......? Me thinks the biggest reason illegals are afforded easy access to the US is because corporate interests demand it.
I read that the prisons are 1/3 to 1/2 immigrants..so who would fill the prisons?
Us has more imprisoned than other nations? yes?
boarders
its borders dingbat..when they land in clubfed they are 'boarders,”
[ again DivineQ sorry but i got there first]
whatever we are at our worst
I keep trying to drive home this point but I suspect I am wasting my breath: "at our worst" or "at our best" are irrelevant terms. We are what we are.
If you look at two photos of lions and in one the lions are ripping apart a young Impala and in the other they are snoozing and nuzzling one another in the shade of a tree, which photo shows lions at their worst?
If your answer is that humans are special and they're not lions then we have no need for further debate.
I don't buy this crap that it's just a few bad people that sully every one else's good name. Corruption there is culturally ingrained, a way of life.
Bah. So your family is from there. That says nothing, except perhaps that your family are...um, well-connected.
All the gangsters, even with their enablers and sympathizers included, represent a tiny minority preying on a much larger majority. It's ludicrous to pretend that everyone is in the mafia.
As for petty corruption, tax evasion, etc., show me a locality where there is none. Is there a black market in Germany? You bet there is. Are there tax cheats in Canada? Hundreds. British fiddling the accounts? French under the table payoffs? Of course.
I repeat: tarring all Southerners with the same brush is bigotry.
I blame the outsourcing of the American manufacturing sector on the American consumer.
Always considering price as the main determinant in their purchasing decisions, consumers purchased their way out of jobs.
So now, they're buying stuff that they used to make on credit cards they can't afford.
I don't know who they're expecting will buy all of these goods and services if they keep fucking with our wages!
Welcome to the third world, folks!
No big catastrophe ahead...just a slow and painful descent into a much lower standard of living.
its borders dingbat
I believe I've spawned another spelling ball-buster.
Soooo, aside from all that are me and the old lady still on for dinner with you guys this Saturday??
P.S. I think OEO/Zzz/NotMommy has returned from the grave.
>> Hey IDIOT
I’m curious Urethra. What is the difference between me making fun of your lame handle, and you calling me an idiot (in all caps no less :- ), ‘your dudeness’ and a scoundrel?
Let me guess. It is only name-calling if someone does it to you. You on the other hand, can spew derogatory comments, cal names, and that is...maturity? Who is in 4th grade here, pal?
So what should we call you then: the Devil’s Scrub or Siberian Ginseng Man (*yes folks, sadly, this is where Eleuthero got his name from - an herbal remedy. Take a look for yourselves: http://tinyurl.com/24tjyva ).
If anything, you should thank me for helping you come up with a new handle. Urethra is both edgy and somewhat cool. People will immediately understand what it is, and they will also accurately assume that your posts are a load of piss. Perfect!
>>re: I only drive 5000 miles a year, and I even reuse tin foil! (2, often 3 times!!)
What does that have to do with my response to you? You might have me mixed up with some other person you are in a flame war with. Perhaps more Siberian Ginseng will help improve your failing memory :-).
Since you mention it though, I do think people who are aware of Peak Oil should do their part to conserve energy. That’s pretty basic.
The irony (again) is that you blast me for ‘bragging’ about my investment prowess, and then you proceed to brag about only eating up 200 gallons of gas a year, as opposed to the evil people who use, say, 480 gallons. I lived in NYC for years and didn’t own a car. So f’ing what.
>>the rest of your BS and investing Peak Oil
Your original attack on me centered on my encouraging people who understand Peak Oil to invest. To use their knowledge and conviction to help themselves financially.
You then accused me of bragging about my investment chops (*which I simply wasn’t), then you declared that I’m ‘part of the problem’ (*an assertion you still have not backed up or explained), you also implied that you are ‘old money’ by contrast (which is a joke), and then ranted about JHK having a long term view of things. You also peppered in some of your limited comprehension of a BS investment theory, and then basically said that anyone that beats the market is just plain lucky. I feel sorry for the poor half-wit kids you spawned to replace yourself. It must have been tough having to grow up with such a dope for a father.
Let’s take your assertions one-by-one and see if together - we can get your head around my rather basic points :
>>Peak Oil Investing
*My view is that market participants that understand PO as an event with drastic economic consequences have an intrinsic advantage. I say this because I do not believe that the market has fully priced in Peak Oil yet. I am encouraging people who understand Peak Oil to press their advantage. Some of these people may be unemployed, or be working jobs with limited employment security, or jobs that Peak Oil will eventually destroy. For these folks - having some extra financial resources could help them out.
Acting on this information does not require genius - just an empirical view of the worlds energy supply. The point is to help people, not to brag.
>>‘part of the problem
How so? Despite your claims of strict limits on your driving, and your ‘conservative’ attitude towards consumerism - how am I worse than you?
I think you confuse my post as having something specific to do with you. You dislike the idea of someone or anyone profiting from these events (*someone other than you, that is). It’s all about you. Typical baby boomer crap. I’m curious - do you have a bumper sticker on your Ford Taurus that says, “I’m Spending my Kids Inheritance”. You seem like the type who be into bumper stickers.
>> BS investment theory/successful investors are just plain lucky!
Where to start. First, I like your use of NAV - net asset value. However, that is a term typically used to describe the value of a company, not a person. That would be Net Worth. I suppose by throwing NAV into your post that supposed to make me think that you have some clue about financial markets. It did the opposite. You again revealed yourself as a poser.
If you think that all market beating investors are just lucky coin flippers, then you should take your DMV paychecks to the nearest Indian Casino, or maybe a dog-track. You can test how lucky you are. But do yourself a favor, and stay out of the markets. While your at it, don’t pretend like you know anything about them. It just makes you look pathetic.
>> JHK having a long term view of things.
Yes he does. He’s also a condescending guy who dislikes suburbia, and won’t mind seeing it come to an end. He is entitled to his views, and at least he can say, that they belong to him (Unlike you). On the other hand, he has made numerous short term financial predictions that have proven quite inaccurate. No big deal - it’s just the truth. But it seems that people like you, my friend, can’t tolerate anyone that deviates from the JHK party line. To that I say, learn to accept alternative points of view. You might get something useful out of it.
Here endeth the lesson, Urethra. I hope you learned something.
If not, I hope some other people on this board get the message that they can help themselves with the knowledge they already have in the palm of their hands. That knowledge is golden.
"The big mystery for the moment is how come a few good men of stature in important places have not stepped forward"
WOULD NOT THE MEDIA DEMONIZE THEM?? AND WHO CONTROLS THE MEDIA?? SO...WHO WOULD VOTE FOR THESE MEN OF STATURE???
World Awry: Yes, indeed! Anyone remember Dennis Kucinich? Remember anything the media reported about his statements during the candidate debates? When asked why he voted against the "Patriot Act", he said "I read it". What a revelation. He was against industry "out-sourcing" jobs, and really, now, how can we do anything to heal this country if there are no manufacturing jobs??? He was for the elimination of health insurance companies -- and aren't they just middlemen???-- to be replaced with medicare-type health coverage. It's truly upsetting that the man was ignored.
And there's Bill Moyers. What a light he sheds -- and his program is going off the air!! What's left? Fox?
The media IS fixed, and we're a country FULL OF PEOPLE WHO DON'T THINK CRITICALLY, and don't look for more than one source for information.
AF:
yes, but WHY was 'the media' asking him?
wasnt it only he and cynthia mc kinnon who voted against. so indeed they were REALLY going against the grain.
[wish i had the divine ones ability to BOLD 'really']
And so many people decidedly are NOT paying attention.
They keep thinking any time now, it's going to go back to "normal".
They just aren't sure when.
Mo Rage
the blog
[wish i had the divine ones ability to BOLD 'really']
Asia, to bold do the following: immediately before the word or phrase you want bolded type:
the less than sign
followed by capital B
followed by the greater than sign
then type the word or phrase to be bolded (no spaces)
then, immediately after the word or phrase type
the less than sign
followed by a forward slash
followed by capital B
followed by the greater than sign
If you want to italicize do the same as above except instead of capital B use a lower case i
Try doing a post as follows:
This is a test
This is a test
Mutual fund managers are NOT 'THE MARKET'. The Market means, if you bought a basket of stocks in proportions representing the S&P 500 companies, or the Russell 5000 companies. So you'd own 500 stocks mirroring the S&P 500, or, in the case of the Russell 5000, you'd literally own 5000 stocks via shares in a mutual fund.
That type of mutual fund, known as an index fund, doesn't even require a human fund manager. And index funds beat 80-90% of active fund managers.
Nice scam the investment industry has going, gulling people into buying mutual funds with exhorbitant management fees, which funds' performance pales in comparison to index funds whose fees are 90% lower.
That difference in management fee means $10-40k less for you at retirement.
Just buy gold, I'm really tired of saying it, been admonishing folks to do just that since 2002. For normal folks, the stock market's returned just about ZERO between 2000-2010, while gold's up what, 300%+ ?
I reserve the right to be wrong.
Peace to you Asia
Qshtik, don't teach Asia how to bold when he can't even capitalize the first word of each sentence.
I did not say everyone was in the Mafia. There are many organized crime groups in Italy and not all are Sicilian or Sicilian derived. Neither did I say everyone was a member of one of those criminal groups.
Neither did I say that all corruption in that country was all connected to organized crime. What I did say was that it is culturally ingrained and widespread (like Greece). My exact words were, "Italy is so corrupt even the cats have pimps" which is maybe a colourful way of making the point.
Tax evasion in places like Italy and Greece is nothing like what you see here. In those places it's a national sport. In Canada and the US we are innocent, pink cheeked girl scouts in comparison.
There is no place on earth with no corruption but there are places on earth where it is much more widespread. Maybe you need to get out more.
OEO etc? I think you you may be right. Thanks for the support by the way.
I blame the outsourcing of the American manufacturing sector on the American consumer. - john66
I agree that was a strong element. Sometimes it looks like a chicken/egg scenario.
O please, indeed. None so blind....
More immigrants are needed to resolve deficit
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/28/bill-clinton-sees-more-im_n_555415.html
In my view, the base of what made the US & it's citizens well to do was the fact that we were the world's leading manufacturer. You could get out of H.S., and go to work in a factory & work your way up to making a decent wage. Millions of people did it, and the Govt. profited through taxes. Those days are gone, and if they don't come back then we are all done. I was born in 1945, and I've witnessed the good times and now the bad, and when the jobs started going to China, I knew it was the beginning of the end. Without those factory jobs for the blue collar workers, we're not gonna make it.
Any Amnesty will just encourage more illegals to come through. And the whole point of illegals is that they work cheap. Once they are legalized, they can no longer be exploited so much. So more illegals must be brought in to keep the party going. You talk as if it's just something that happened...No doing nothing was intentional - a conspiracy by both the Right and the Left. The Right got cheap labor and the Left got constituents. It's amazing that the Republicans can't seem to understand this, at least at the lower levels. They will never get the Mexican vote because they can never pander as well as the Democrats. The Republican reward is campaign funds from the farm lobby. This is a small windfall politically speaking compared to what the Democrats get. But that's what their big contributors want so that's what they have to do -or so they think. Actually if the Republicans became the party of White America no one could stand before them. But they will never do so - it's not in the Big Picture that the Higher Ups desire. And they don't care about who wins - Dems vs Repubs is just theater which they indirectly direct. They fund both sides in other words. Once you do that, you can't lose.
Cash man, they gots to go. Human Rights Disaster? It's all ready a Human Rights Disaster -for us. You have to choose. Caring about everyone equally all at once is the end of any Nation. As has been said, Liberalism is the Death Song of the West. We come first. You can care about the Mexicans once they're back in Mexico. Compassion for an Enemy is fine - once they're defeated. Not before. Eisenhower deported a million of them once they were no longer needed. It's no big deal once your heart is in the right place.
http://blog.al.com/live/2010/04/coast_guard_says_5000_barrels.html
If you're uncomfortable living on conquered land then you should leave. America was made possible by the conquest of the Indians and their displacement. Any other understanding is fatuous. Many of the Indians have accepted the situation and have become good Americans serving with honor in the Armed Forces. And Southwestern Tribes dread the coming takeover by Mexico - their lands were granted to them by the United States not Mexico.
Thus your romantic views serve no one - except the Liberals and their minority clients of the moment. The living, breathing Native Americans of today are not served by romantic notions about their past - which was full of conqests and dispossesions of each other. If they had united, they could have stopped us from taking over America. And if Whites do not unite now, America will be taken from us in turn.
my people were slaughtered1 I can only speak for myself. i dont want any more immigrants to the USA.
weve taken in 100 million in less than 50 years.
and you know it is by design. no accident in it.
what about emma laz and that dreadful poem. please share.
If you're uncomfortable living on conquered land then you should leave...all lands were conquered.
advice to JFK..nation of immigrants...ALL Nations are!
WTF?????????????????????????????
Please Qshtik, spare us being subjected ..
Hes admitted he likes to inflame peeps here.
I meant.....much of stocks are owned by MF [ and the little peeps leona disparaged....vlad did you know she was jooish?]
in other words if MF own 51% off all DOW,they MF are much of the market..so how can they beat their own churn/burn game????
isnt that the problem Magellan had as it got huge?
'Human Rights Disaster? It's all ready a Human Rights Disaster -for us'
certainly for the 3,000 peeps murdered by illegals [gawd knows how many by legal immigrants ] each year.
as ive noted here Ph arizona is the kidnap capital of the world supposedly....and its mex x mex kidnappings.
lie:
'Quit fucking with Latin America. Let them solve their own problems without US interference, and you’ll see much of the immigration dry up.'
baaa
the population there is skyrocketing even as they dump some of the surplus on USA.
see: brimelow and p.erhlichs various books.
indeed if the WSJ says so!
since when are citizens 'consumers'..since when is a nation just ' an economy'..eh
The Sicilians are very eloquent and funny when they get deep into their cups. Apparently some of the FBI tapes are a hoot. The Irish Mob, such as it was, was very hard to bring down. Their modus operandi was: never write when you can speak, never speak when you can nod, and never nod when you can blink. The Jews were hugely influential with the Mafia apparently. But they have moved onto bigger and better scams. And their Mob activities have been dropped down the memory hole by their Co-Ethics in Hollywood. But they are quite comfortable slandering Italians.
Did you see the clip of Gordon Brown? Oh it's rich! What an outrageous Liberal Elitist Snob and Swine. He dismissed the concerns of a life long Labor Supported and assasinated her character to boot. I'd much rather be ruled by a Mafia like the Sicilians rather than these vicious frauds. As you know, the Mafia once at least, had a moral code and supported the people against their oppressors.
The Statue of Liberty was a gift from the French People in honor of our successful revolution. Only later was it defaced by the Emma Lazarus poem. But the Spin Masters have made the monument and the poem synonomous - a blatant distortion of history. One is reminded of the Jefferson Memorial which makes Jefferson seem like he didn't want Blacks sent back to Africa.
You identify as Native American? I can sympathize - I would prefer a simple way of life to the current American monstrousity. I simply state a historical fact when I say that America was founded on Indian dispossesion - just like Israel was founded on Palestinian disposession. Whether it was moral or not is another question entirely - and a very complex one. I make an exception with the Aztecs who were utterly evil. I certainly don't feel that way about the vast majority of the tribes or civilizations of Ancient America. And Cortes had alot of help - the subject tribes rallied by the tens of thousands to his standard.
Many Whites are enamoured of the Native Americans, the Germans especially. You see in this, we are yearning for our own tribal past. But as much as we can learn from the them, we cannot be Native American. We must go forward and backwards simultaneously to find a genuine way that can sustain us. The future will be like the past, but hopefully on a much higher level of the spiral. I tried to give this to Tripp, but he's stuck on hating his own people and thus wants to wipe away thousands of years of Western History. And where would that leave us? A people without a past is a people without a future.
asia: "certainly for the 3,000 peeps murdered by illegals"
asia, are you referring to 9/11?
All those Saudi immigrants with box cutters were here legally and were enrolled taking flying lessons.
ALL THOSE TRILLIONS SPENT ON THE MILITARY ARE WASTED
WAR IS NOT THE ANSWER
And war spending increases the deficit (especially in a long protracted unsuccessful war).
We need to reduce spending, right welles?
USA out of Afghanistan now!
Thank you, Dale, for taking up the gauntlet while I was out.
It is indeed amusing to watch straight white Christian males bemoan their oppressed status.
The entire corporate media feeds us the glorification of capitalism daily, but qhstick insists that he holds maverick views. Downright rouge.
The tea parties get amazing amounts of media time, whereas anti-war protesters, pro single payer advocates, and the poor people's march now in progress from New Orleans to Detroit get bupkis.
I wonder why.
Scoundrel is a noun which perfectly
describes a person who calls another
person "Urethra" on a blog as his
primary gambit of discourse.
I think it's totally valid to call you
both a scoundrel and an idiot because
of this tactic and because your line
of reasoning in a crisis is "how can
we make money from this".
"How can we make money from this" describes
the reason for: 1) The TWO stock market
crashes within ten years, 2) The existence
of vermin like Blankfein, 3) The something
for nothing mentality of the flotsam and
jetsam that pass for "citizens" in the
current version of the USA. Apparently,
you are all too proud to join the ranks
of the "financially obsessed".
The thing about NAMECALLING, sir, is that
it be ACCURATE. I am not, nor will I ever
be, a "Urethra". I ignored the rest of
your post because I'm not interested in
the opinions of avaricious people with
limited and vulgar personalities.
I don't care what you think about Peak
Oil, Obama, or any other topic. I think
you're about self-aggrandizing YOU and
your greed. Whatever else you may think
issues forth from these central truths
so I don't care if you're "right for
the wrong reasons" on ANY topic.
We're through. That's the message.
Eleuthero
Watching Lloyd Blankfein on Bloomberg was
nauseating. First, the Bloomberg reporter
(Eric Schatzker) threw Blankfein nothing
but SOFTBALLS. He didn't even come CLOSE
to asking about the disinformation dispensed
to countless customers of GS.
Blankfein was given a pulpit to sound like
he LOVES the SEC and its role as a public
watchdog and to sound off like he's "God"
i.e., he "cares" about every sparrow that
falls off a wire.
This interview was truly a double-play of
brown-nosing on the part of the reporter
and Bloomberg giving free air time to
Blankfein to sound like he's the head
of Scottrade.
Surely, there's much material for excellent
farce that can issue forth from such parodies.
Eleuthero
Vlad, you are so transparent. I in no way implied that there should be forced sharing of living quarters. You just want to move in with me.
I said that if every able-bodied person worked in a productive constructive capacity, we could have a very comfortable life for everyone with reduced hours of labor for all.
But if you really want to know where I live, rent the movie "Poor White Trash".
Yes, it was filmed right here in Southern Illinois. Next town over.
But those tricky rich film makers told us that the movie was going to be called "Good Bye Sunrise".
Must of been Jews.
After the good ol' boys bragged about bagging the bit parts, those deceiving bastards renamed it!
It's actually a pretty entertaining movie.
And two weeks after we saw it, my son and I were climbing the steps to the courthouse featured in the movie, due to a little scuffle he had with the law. I called my boy "poor white trash", and he took offense.
As you would, I'm sure.
i stay here at our place in the mountains which i am on my second year of food gardening. I harvested head after head of spinach, romaine lettuce, buttercrunch lettuce and chard. Radishes of many colors, spring onions and baby carrots. I thinned the valentine mix of lettuce for a micro salad last night which would have been a special treat on any big city menu.
my notion of wealth has shifted.
clean air. fresh water. real food untouched by Monsanto. physical labor. no noise pollution. raising chickens. hiking in the 60% of wilderness in this county. learning to fish. and small town civility.
say what you will about rural southern people (jim's white trash) but i never had a latte-sipping cell-phone-holding over-coiffed slag flip me off from her Range Rover just because i happened to share the same unfortunate slab of asphalt.
wow, you really hate city people don't you? Can't you see that if things go the way you believe that they will that tens of millions of starving "latte-sipping" city folk are going to be visiting your little isolated farm. Yup, they are going to harvest your garden for you and there will be nothing you or your small community will be able to do because, and I'll say it again, TENS OF MILLIONS OF STARVING PEOPLE WILL BE VISITING SMALL FARMS ALL ACROSS AMERICA.
Now, you might think that you can somehow protect your farm but your neighbors will be protecting their farms and you will be by yourself (or with a few people perhaps) and it will be terribly difficult to protect your little garden 24/7 365 days a year.
It is time to leave your little garden and work towards preventing the collapse of civilization because the tidal wave of famine that will come will leave no family untouched.
Though I am a "fan" of Jim's, I agree with
you that Jim's assessment of rural people
from "un-hip" areas is WAY off base. I live
in the SF Bay Area and I'm so sick of it that
I'm retiring from my teaching gig in one year
and moving back to my birthplace ... PA.
The Bay Area is chock-a-block with exactly
the sort of people you describe i.e.,
cafe intellectuals who stare at their Iphones
and laptops and look at conversation as an
imposition, status-mongers who imagine that
they are "liberal", and puffed up artistes
who imagine that their hipness can make up
for their shallowness and cliqueyness.
Allegedly, the Bay Area is "liberal" but it's
just the sort of liberalism I detest. My two
closest friends are both liberals but they
didn't line up to buy an Ipad, they hate New
Age thinking, and they've never been climbers
of anyone's social ladder. They simply manifest
Enlightenment ideals, that's all.
If there was ONE aspect of Jim's line of talk
that I'd change, it's his continual talk about
"corn pone" this, that, and the other. Sorry,
Jim, but those effete people that are likely
MOST of the people you meet at those Bookstores
to pass on your message are often philosophical
hypocrites. Many drive gas hogs. Most have a
carbon footprint bigger than a Yeti because
they are OPULENT, not poor. You've got to
be more evenhanded by describing a kind of
"California poser" disingenuous with at least
as much bile as you describe other forms of
ignorance.
Eleuthero
Urethra / Eleuthero
I checked out some of your other post, to see if they were the same ‘caliber’ of dribble directed at me. My lord...what a masterful intellect you have. I’ll bet a brain as big as yours is well versed with the works of Bill O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, and Glen Beck. It’s also clear that you are, “mad as hell and not going to take it anymore!”
You have so many beefs:
Illegal immigrants, that “breed like fleas” (your words)
These people who work under the table to game the IRS
Costing us honest americans billions in free healthcare, making government ‘services’ less available to hard working REAL americans (*I’m guessing you take advantage of as many government services as you can - including food stamps).
and your assertion that the US constitution is ‘insane’ for granting citizenship to people with the temerity to be born in this country to parents of illegals. What’s with that shit, Urethra?
You are also after the bankers.
Evil investment bankers who run the ‘Kleptocracy’ in concert with the politicians
These Goldman guys who want to steal everything not nailed to the floor. Crooks.
Tarp, to big to fail banks, ect.
Oh, let’s not forget anyone taking jobs away from hard-working americans. Sadly, I work in a business that forces me to compete with people from all over the world - so I don’t moan about protectionism. I’m ok competing.
There is so much that you are against. I’m curious - what exactly are you for?
From your writing, I get the impression that your anger may be related to a nasty case of latent homosexuality. Are you attracted to men Urethra?
Is that what got you so riled up about my response? Mind you, I don’t judge you for your sexual preference. I just think you might want to consider coming out of the closet to your family - it might mitigate your intense anger a bit, and help prevent that first or second heart attack. Then you can fulfill some of your freaky fantasies about buffed black men in ass-less chaps :-).
What do you think? Am I close?
10 bucks says the Eleuthero handle mysteriously disappears from this board after all these ass whippings, especially now that we all know that his name came from a funky type of ginseng. Good luck!
I've always assumed Eleuthero's handle derives from the Greek for "freedom". In John Fowles' The Magus there is mention of Greek partisans in the Second World War using the word "eleutheria" (freedom) as a battle cry.
>if every able-bodied person worked in a >productive constructive capacity, we could have a >very comfortable life for everyone
Wage, you should've written "IF" instead of "if".
The reality is, of course, that MANY able-bodied people don't want to work in productive capacity. I know several people who faked or exaggerated injuries to receive disability. I also know people who just don't want to work because they'd rather watch TV all day long. And what about the people who work in non-productive capacity (gambling and various other vice industries, some MBA's I know and other assorted "managers", many if not most lawyers, sub-prime mortgage salespeople, etc.?
That's one of the problems with various Utopian ideas like communism/socialism, they disregard the reality and are predicated on some bug "IF". How do you propose to deal with that?
>we could have a very comfortable life for >everyone with reduced hours of labor for all.
We could do it with well-regulated Capitalism as well, if for example we didn't waste trillions on unnecessary foreign wars, prisons for non-violent offenders, tax-giveaways for rich leeches, and numerous other black holes in our public and private budgets (like millions spent on buying cell-phone ring tunes :)
You know, its a literary device. I describe a recognizable type in humorous terms and you take that straight to the red zone on the hate-o-meter? Look at the hostility you blew back on me. I wouldnt presume to tell anyone on this forum how to conduct their life or how to approach collapse. There is no one way. for anything!
"TENS OF MILLIONS OF STARVING PEOPLE WILL BE VISITING SMALL FARMS ALL ACROSS AMERICA."
you and George Romero should get together.
Like i SAID, if that *unlikely* scenario happens, it happens. i spend zero time worrying about it. Youre supposed to enjoy life. its a gift.
>I would prefer a simple way of life to the current >American monstrosity.
Vlad, the complex way of life was created by people with high IQ. Since you stated many times that we whites have higher IQ than blacks and various other assorted dark-skinned people, and it makes us superior and them inferior, you're paying the price for our superior IQ.
Let me tell you another anecdote about a lower IQ person. We were in Morocco a few months ago, lost on the streets of Fez. We asked a passer-by, a dark-skinned man, to help us find the Medina. He looked around nervously, hesitated, but finally motioned us to follow him. Apparently it was in a direction different from where he was going. He went about 20 minutes out of his way, we couldn't talk to him, so we just followed him. When we saw the Medina, we offered him some money, but he smiled and shook his head no, then walked off in the opposite direction. Later we found out that there are SEVERE penalties in Morocco for "non-licensed guides" to offer any assistance to tourists, including stiff fines and prison!!! (this was done to protect tourists from scammers that was hurting tourism).
The guy was obviously a fool to take such risk for total strangers, must be low IQ, eh?
There you go Vlad.
I've been out and about in the heartland - the "fly over country" - that makes up much of America. (haven't read anything since Monday morning)
Stopping back in to skim and scan so many posts left me with an impression that there has been an increase in the intensity or vehemency of the postings. More urgency, more emotion seems to be coming through from regulars as well as new-comers.
So what's up? Last week I mused whether the GS investigations could create a template for "regular folk" to take some legal pitchforks to a couple of hundred other financial entities and cause an increase in Tums sales among all the Master Market Fuckers.
After reading a review of the situation(s) and the perspectives put forth in this BLOG I realize a new sense of discombobulation with regard to which monstrous destruction of social/personal well-being I should fear the most.
Please, Clusterfuckers, help me to remember just what aspect of life should keep me awake tonight?
So many of you make so many meaningful points. How does a modern-man deal with the daily onslaught disingenuous contradictions spewed continuously by leaders and media of all stripes and philosophies?
Thanks.
If your answer is that humans are special and they're not lions then we have no need for further debate.
=================================
Yes, that would be the difference between you and I, I guess. I do believe that, among other things, we were gifted with the ability to make ethical and moral distinctions beyond the capability of most animals. That you seem to think otherwise is sort of unbelieveable to me. Good luck with that, I'll not contest that you are a savage animal in the future.
>10 bucks says the Eleuthero handle mysteriously >disappears from this board after all these ass >whippings
Man, you're one arrogant dude!
Eleuthero, I'll gladly pay you $20 to not disappear, but I don't think it would be necessary.
And Titus, your homo allegation is exactly what one would expect of an adolescent jock posing as a thoughtful adult. Perhaps it's your own sexual ambiguity? Yeah, this is it, that's why you're trying to prove your manhood with your financial brilliance.
Did you see the clip of Gordon Brown?
Vlad, the paragraph that begins with the sentence above must be missing a word or have some words scrambled. I can't make sense of it. Also, please provide a link to the "clip." I'm curious to see what has caused such contempt in you.
Ashes, ashes, we all fall down...
>I'm curious to see what has caused such contempt in >you.
Didn't see the clip... perhaps it was a revelation that Gordon Brown has a black fifth cousin thrice removed? Or a 15th-century jew in his bloodline?
Downright rouge.
I do not use rouge nor any other cosmetics although I sometimes enjoy painting my toenails ... shhh, don't tell anybody.
Must of been Jews.
Must have been Jews.
the same ‘caliber’ of dribble
drivel
there is mention of Greek partisans in the Second World War using the word "eleutheria" (freedom) as a battle cry.
I believe the Greeks protesting in the streets today are using the same battle cry but now it translates as "we want freedom to continue the Welfare State on the backs of the more industrious people to the north and to retire at 60."
Vlad, I knew you would object to the amnesty part. I agree you are just encouraging illegals. That's why I talked about controlling the borders, if you're going to have an amnesty, going forward, you have to have borders that cannot be breached.
Do what has to be done on the Rio Grande ie build machine gun towers, mine fields, get the Israelis to show how it's done if necessary, whatever, but the borders have got to be controlled.
The thing is how on earth are you going to ferret out maybe 20 million people and move them all? My preferred option would also be to boot out all illegals. But how? I think it's much lower cost to keep them out in the first place.
But like you say you need people in leadership positions that don't work against the interests of the country. I think that's the biggest problem. You have leaders that are letting the US get fucked black and blue in a multitude of ways by Wall Street, big business, the Chinese, illegal immigrants and on and on. You guys see yourselves as a superpower but I see the US more and more as a punching bag.
But you have company. As I've said before the elite in this country especially in the Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal triangle see a good Canadian as one that diligently works against Canada, who takes an adversarial stance against it, who loathes the boys and girls that serve in its military, who takes a prosecutorial stance against them. It's a disease of the mind.
I agree with you that you have a disaster bubbling away for the US and the sooner you guys get serious the better. Sharing a continent with you guys is like sleeping with the proverbial elephant. You guys twitch and we get crushed.
"we want freedom to continue the Welfare State on the backs of the more industrious people to the north and to retire at 60." - Q
Earlier still if they can get away with it.
Wage, you should've written "IF" instead of "if".
Precisely, Dio. I was thinking of emphasizing the word "if" to Wage but then I thought "what's the use?"
Loved the line about $millions$ for ring tones.
what aspect of life should keep me awake tonight?
Drinking regular coffee just before you go to bed.
I saw the Gordon Brown clip. He has a disease of the mind, this disease infects people's thinking on this side of the pond also, especially in this country. It will be the end of us. The basis for nationhood is control of a land area by an exclusive group, whose members control who gets in. If you cannot or will not get with that you will not have a country.
That's fine with many people who don't give a damn about their country or who see nationhood as a source of terrible evil but they refuse to realize that the nation is your life support ie the system of laws, customs, personal relationships plus use of the land and resources. It's where we grow food, build houses, run businesses, raise families. Without a nation is chaos.
Literary device? I'd say it's filler in a drunkards pathetic story. How do these authors become famous for total garbage. "The white sails represent freedom.....". BULLSHIT!
the difference between you and I,
the difference between you and me,
But be that as it may ... I would think it would be obvious to you by now that what is moral and ethical, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.
Well put Cash. It puzzles me who's more responsible for neglecting the control of our borders, the left or the right? The lefties say "come in and take what you want". The righties say "keep out" but open the door wide so they can profit from cheap labor. The difference appears to be: the left is misguided, and the right is hypocritical, and BOTH are responsible...
War is not the answer? Really?
War got rid of slavery in your country, the Confederacy, Nazi-ism, fascism, Japanese militarism. Would you have preferred that the Japanese still be in power all over Asia raping and murdering, the Nazis still be exterminating what they consider lesser breeds, that black people still be working on plantations?
You're black aren't you? I've met black tax executives working for large banks, black financial managers just to name a couple of examples. Without the civil war do you seriously think they would be in these positions of power? It wasn't affirmative action either. One of these black people was my wife's boss's boss. This guy was/is brilliant. The two guys I worked with in charge of consolidating financial results at US HQ are accounting titans, walking reference books for FASB pronouncements, their minds are subtle, sharp and quick. But no matter how brilliant, these guys would be picking cotton without the sacrifice of 1861-1865.
Here’s a direct quote from Eleuthero’s 4/26 post
“When do we stop bending over and taking it up the ass?”
*There are a few other comments, plus his rage expressed towards anyone that disagrees with him, that make me think he’s probably a repressed homosexual. I’m guessing his real question is “when can HE bend over and take it in the ass?” Don’t take my word Diogen - look for yourself.
Besides, I’m not making any value judgements other than he should consider being more truthful with himself and those around him. He likes guys - so what?
>>Arrogance
Perhaps I am. No more so than any of the folks who start flame wars with people they disagree with. I throw a little info. up once in a blue moon, and you can take it for what it is.
What bothered me about Urethra is that he made some outrageously ill-informed statements that could actually screw people over. These things begged for correction. He also implied some things about himself that were obviously untrue.
I suspect he figured out how much I enjoyed his tirade against me. I cut to close to the bone when I pointed out that it’s evident he’s a wage slave geezer, and not a well paid one.
>> your $20
Don’t worry. He’ll be back as soon as he can figure out how to get a new Wordpress handle (*however, that might take the old man a while).
>>I am adolescent jock.
You guys crack me up on this one. You call the poster a child for making an observation about someone (*which you take as an insult, of course). Then, you proceed to call that person names - specifically that this person is a kid...?
“Maybe you’re a young jock?” or “maybe you’re the fag”.
You miss the irony that YOU are doing the thing you are accusing me of.
Like I said before, I make no value judgements about sexual orientation. If I were gay, I’d just tell you. Who cares who shags who? Welcome to 2010 Diogen.
He dismissed the concerns of a life long Labor Supported and assasinated her character to boot.
Cancel my request for the link re Gordon Brown, I found it.
If your sentence had read Labour supporter it would have been perfectly clear.
However, Brown is no more a Swine than any other politician. This is what happens all day long in the lives of politicians. They cannot speak their minds. That's why I loathe politics and politicians. Imagine if you knew every word ever uttered (much less thought) by Obama, Bush, Lincoln or Washington. It would not be pretty. This explains why we are all here at this blog where we can speak our minds with the protection of anonymity.
Cash nailed it.
I'm as a big a John Lennon fan as the next guy, but sadly, war is occasionally necessary.
The Nazis had an atomic bomb program going, and if they hadn’t tried to put so many jews in ovens, they might have had more success with it. Look at what they managed to pull off with the V2 program. much of that scientific talent went to the US and eventually Nasa after the war.
Imagine Hitler with nukes. Unthinkable.
DEMOCRATIC FINANCIAL REFORM: FOCUS ON CONSUMERS
1) a chief appointed by the president
2) an independent source of funding
3) the authority to write consumer rules
4) ability to enforce them against unscrupulous lenders.
REPUBLICAN COUNTER PROPOSAL ON FINANCIAL REFORM: FOCUS ON INSTITUTIONS
(released this week)
1) a council led by the heads of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and the Federal Reserve.
2) the council issues rules
3 the council supervises "our nation's largest financial institutions, large non-bank mortgage originators, and other financial services providers who have violated the consumer protection statutes"
3) the council enforces the rules
NO DIFFERENCE BETWEEN REPUBLICANS AND DEMOCRATS? THINK AGAIN.
Greetings,
*You know, its a literary device. I describe a recognizable type in humorous terms and you take that straight to the red zone on the hate-o-meter? Look at the hostility you blew back on me.*
Really? You made a long post where you negatively typecast city dwellers and then went on and on about gardening. Now, since this blog and the responses deal directly with The Long Emergency one can only assume that your gardening (since you did go on and on and on about it) must be related to The Long Emergency.
Next, it is not uncommon for people to suggest ways to survive The Long Emergency and it is also not uncommon for people to suggest that a tiny plot of land far away from the *latte-sippers* will somehow protect them and their families.
Finally, if you look up my responses on this and other Clusterf*ck blogs you'll see that I almost always respond to the person that thinks that the backyard garden will somehow carry them through this emergency.
I suppose that there are some people that just enjoy gardening but if that is true then they need to post about it on a gardening site and not here.
Youre supposed to enjoy life. its a gift.
From what I've read the Mafia will soon be a quaint remnant of an innocent past. There are criminal organizations eating the Mafia's lunch from societies on the Italian mainland like the Ndrangheta, Camorra, Corona Sacra Unita and these guys are supposedly much more ruthless. There's a really good book on the Camorra titled Gomorrah by Robert Saviano. He grew up in Naples, ground zero for the Camorra. He's now in hiding. Unlike what certain commenters seem to think, you don't have to be um... "well connected" to know these things, you just have to be um...moderately well informed.
To me, Italy is not so much a nation state as it is this kind of fictional entity. The dialect that is my mother tongue is as different from Italian as is Portuguese. The people speaking dialects 50 miles from where my parents grew up are utterly unintelligible to me and I to them. These old languages are still taught in school as heritage languages. The different regions on the Italian map like Tuscany, Lazio, Umbria correspond to ancient pre Roman tribal territories.
There are regionalist, separatist, autonomist parties based variously on distrust of Rome, loathing of southerners, local pride etc.
There is a real animosity between north and south. Northerners call southerners africani and southerners call northerners tedeschi. There is a political party based in the north (Lega Nord or Northern League) that advocated autonomy at dfferent times for northern Italy based in Lombardy or to establish a new entity called Padania.
Anyway the place is a fucked up mess. Like Greece, they fudged their national accounts to get into the Euro zone. Their tax collection and compliance is a disaster.
A former colleague of mine who is a tax lawyer in Milan (he handled my employer's corporate taxes in Italy) said that tax audits in Italy typically start with police vans full of auditors and machine gun toting cops pulling up to your office. Then they cordon off the office like a crime scene. The first you hear of an impending audit is when they burst through the door.
Contrast that to Canada. The first you hear of an impending corporate audit is typically a telephone call from your friendly local Canada Revenue Agency office who politely ask when it would be convenient to come in. Not nearly as exciting.
I'm hoping the likely revolution/devolution will be less murderous than the French revolution but who can know. I am reminded of a line from the Terminator movies..."the future is not set..no fate but what we make". Modern farmers are in much better shape than medieval peasants. Historically farmers were usually denied use of arms and could do little about depredations of bandits or foraging military units. In most of USA the tools and training for defense are available for those who are willing to take on the responsibity. Many farmers hunt and are better marksmen than the average predator. Cooperative local farmers groups could have a few veterans, aux police, EMTs, radio Hams, etc.(with help from official sherrif/police if/while possible) to form the backbone of an emergency response team. Most all will have to practice marksmanship first aid and secure communications to make this work but it is doable
What we have is a nation of corporate predators willing to destroy the nation any way they can. From Lehman to Goldman to Massey Energy to BP to Exxon, they are all predators. None are in jail for life. Their companies still getting rich.
Goldman is now trying to make a deal with the SEC. Where is the RICO statute? Where is Holder's outspoken voice? Where is Obama's outrage and determination to take down the nation's predators?
Where is our anti-trust brigade?
People are blindly walking into that good night. In Toronto, Ontario, Canada, it does not feel like there was an economic meltdown. Their core city is building tall buildings like crazy. From apartment/condos beginning from $3 million per unit, to beautiful hotels. The city is boom with construction, yet the news people talk of a housing bubble. UH DUH!
This unwinding will likely take a long time. A slow burn. Be ready.
http://eye-on-washington.blogspot.com
Yeah imagine Hitler with with nukes propelled by V2s.
Sometimes I think that Hitler came close to pulling off a victory. Maybe if he didn't invade the Soviet Union, maybe if he waited till he had more U boats or had built an invasion force to conquer England. Who knows. I think the war was a catastrophe, it bled Europe and Asia dry but it could have been a lot worse.
>You miss the irony that YOU are doing the thing you >are accusing me of.
Yep, an old Psych prof taught us to use the tactics of the person we're debating, he believed it was effective. Old school th