Note to readers: I'll run an update at the bottom of this blog over the next few days.
* * *
The same creeping nausea that followed the CNN 'all clear' sign in New Orleans six years ago happened again yesterday. Anderson Cooper seemed a little peeved that the lights didn't go out in Manhattan, but then the remnants of Hurricane Irene stomped up the Hudson Valley and stalled a while and commenced to rip apart the Catskills, the eastern Adirondacks, the Mohawk and upper Hudson valleys, and then almost all of Vermont, not to mention New Hampshire and western Massachusetts, and I can't even tell you much about whatever's going on in Pennsylvania, Virginia, Delaware, and Maryland this morning. Connecticut, Long Island, and Rhode Island are in there somewhere, and surely there's more than a few things out of place in North Carolina.
This is nowhere near Katrina's death toll of over 1800 souls, but the damage to scores of towns, businesses, houses, and basic civic armature is going to be very impressive as the news filters in later this week and the disaster is still very much ongoing Monday, even with the sun shining bright. Towns all over Vermont and New Hampshire are still drowning. The Hudson River is still on the rise. The Mohawk River is at a 500-year flood stage and is about to wipe the old city center of Schenectady, New York, off the map. Bridges, dams, and roads are gone over a region at least as big as the Gulf Coast splatter-trail of Katrina.
That story is still developing. A lot of people will not be able to get around for a long, long time, especially in Vermont and New Hampshire, where the rugged terrain only allows for a few major roads that go anywhere. Even the bridges that were not entirely washed away may have to be inspected before people are allowed to drive over them, and some of these bridges may be structurally shot even if they look superficially okay. There are a lot of them. If you live in a flat state, you may have no idea.
The next story is going to be the realization that there's no money to put it all back together the way it was. The states don't have the money. The federal government is obviously broke, and an awful lot of the individual households and businesses will turn out to not have any insurance coverage for this kind of disaster where it was water, not wind, that destroyed the property. I don't know what the score is insurance-wise along the mid-Atlantic beachfront towns - but remember, insurance companies were among the biggest dupes of the Big Bank mortgage-backed securities racket, and when the new claims are toted up they may find themselves in a bail-out line.
This is a warning to America that the converging catastrophes of climate change, energy scarcities, and failures of capital formation add up to more than the sum of their parts in their power to drive a complex society into a ditch - no matter what a moron like Rick Perry might say. But, of course, political ramifications will follow. There will be a lot of pissed-off people in the Northeast USA. Maybe they'll even start giving the grievance-bloated folk of Dixieland some competition in the politics of the bitter harvest. Oddly, the Siamese twin states of Vermont and New Hampshire are political polar opposites. Vermont, the land of Ben and Jerry's ice cream, and other squooshy culture tropes from the attic of Hippiedom, is about as Left-progressive as it gets. New Hampshire's license plate says, "Live Free or Die," and that same draconian mood defines the state's politics: hard Right. It's like a few counties of Georgia shook loose and drifted north somehow. My guess is that the political rage will be about equal on both fronts, as folks are left stranded, or homeless, or without a going business they thought they had only a day or so ago. And my further guess is that their mood will afford some insight into the extreme impotence, incompetence, and mendacity of both major political parties. As I've said before in this space, think of these times as not unlike the convulsive 1850s, preceding the worst crisis of our history.
Apart from the fact that the hurricane season is just gearing up, and that a procession of tropical storm blobs has commenced to pour out of West Africa, there is that other alternate universe of storms, brushfires, and fiascos called the fnancial system, which everybody sort of forgot about over the weekend. Well, it's ba-a-a-ck this morning, too, and the financial weather was deteriorating sharply last time I looked. You can stick a fork in the Euro Zone. Bank of America is panhandling for spare change like a dying wino as it whirls around the drain. Nobody knows what the shadow bets on all this action is, but you can bet on one thing for sure: the counterparties can't pay.
Oh, by the way, anybody remember that we had an earthquake here in the Northeast a few days before Irene rumbled in? Probably not, unless part of your building fell off. God's wrath, some might say, as we beat our path to a world made by hand.
Tuesday August 30
God's wrath, all right. Michelle Bachmann said it, wouldn't you know.
Vermont got whacked badly, as did the northern Catskills. Whole towns drowned, localities cut off from the rest of the world by road and bridge washouts. Lots of buildings of all kinds lost. As is the case with these disasters, many people out there now who have lost everything, are poorly insured, and have no idea how they are going to carry on. It will be several more days before the scope or this thing is really comprehended. It lacked a single dramatic focus, the way that the Superdome galvanized the nation's attention after Katrina struck, but I suspect the damage to the region is just as bad.
For excellent photos of flooding in upstate New York, go to the Albany Times Union's coverage here. For coverage of Vermont, go to the Burlington Free Press.
More tomorrow....
Wednesday August 31
Some official recognition of the scope of Irene disaster is filtering up.
From The New York Times this Morning:
It will be quite a while before we wake up to the long-term disruptions caused by roads and bridges that will take a long time to get fixed (some never).
Well James, after that earthquake on the East Coast, hurricane Irene was nearly a “no-show.” And we in the “first” First World care to hear nothing of the flooding this week in one of Pakistan’s most undeveloped districts that killed dozens and leveled entire villages. Well, Gaia may be giving us a breather here in the USA before she hits us with the big slam. However there is another type of storm brewing and threatening for October. It seems that some portion of the body politic is tired of the increasingly Totalitarian predilections of our imperial regime, and they are threatening to occupy DC and close it down until things change. In the meantime, enjoy my latest offering: Back In The USSR: The New Face Of Totalitarianism. Best, sandy – kulturCritic
http://kulturcritic.wordpress.com/posts/back-in-the-ussr-the-new-face-of-totalitarianism/
JHK is absolutely right that the damage which is being done may or may not be easily fixed. Even if we do come up with the funding this time, will our debt-ridden, collapsing empire be able to fund another round of reconstruction? At this point, there's nothing to change the course of empire, only prepare ourselves and save our knowledge and ideas.
Visit the Leibowitz Society at http://leibowitzsociety.blogspot.com/2011/08/to-prep-or-not-to-prep.html for more discussion on generational survival and long-term collapse.
Is there any substance to rumours that Lloyd Blankfein's cappuccino maker was washed away in the deluge and was last seen floating down the Hudson River out to sea ? That means it won't be blasted to Uranus when the world financial system implodes and that spells the demise of the space program. ;-)
I'm just glad that Jim is back online. If Irene had knocked out CFN, That would have been a catastrophe.
When someone whines about no job, no bridge, no infrastructure, just make sure to ask them point blank:
"Would you rather have terrorists in our town"?
or
"Don't you think that bringing democracy to Iraq is worth a few sacrifices here?"
or
"We need to give more tax breaks to Billionaires so that they can invest it in China"
Newfie:
was hoping to hear about Lloyd B himself, clinging to his beloved cappuccino machine as a riptide carried him off toward the Sargasso sea. Alas.... But the good news last week was the he lawyered up royally in anticipation of some possible criminal prosecution. We await the news!
--JHK
Thanks James, I had no idea of the extent of damage in New England. The media doesn't report such. And I am out of country, as you know. But, Gaia does seem to be converging with our other man-made catastrophes to create the perfect storm.
This year has been one of the most extreme for weather in US history, with $35bn in losses so far from floods, tornadoes and heat waves. That doesn't count Irene. Who, indeed, is going to pay for this?
I think we'll see the Fed bailing out insurance companies this time. Or we'll see what happened to insurance companies after Andrew: many going belly up and many of the rest just not writing new policies. The state of FL had to set up an insurance exchange as too many insurers just plain quit writing homeowner policies in the state. The insurance companies had been trying to undercut each other for years, like AIG did with the credit default swaps, and very few of the insurers had enough to pay out.
As for Cooper, I think he wanted to see Katrina/London types of looting going on and he's ticked off that he can't get the photos.
While America and its local governments certianly have no money, we do have rescources and labor. At some point, people will get sick of waiting for the gubment or insurance companies to come to the rescue and just start to rebuild it their damn selves. This will be the day that we all start to realize that there really isn't a daddy in the wings waiting to make things all better. I feel for the people in the Northeast that are getting an ass whipping from Irene, and I hope that all the media that missed the sexy story in NYC drive safely rushing to cover the tragedy where it actually is.
Whether it could be helped or not, this "epic" hurricane was overhyped to the point that the news outlets lost some more credibility. So what, perhaps, but next time a lot more people may ignore the warnings. This isn't to say that New England did not take a hit that just augmented the long emergency.
Wall Street is all perky and happy this morning like nothing has happened or will happen that really seriously threatens the upward spiral to wealth for all.
rober,
We citizens will of course build it to ADA standards and will build the necessary and morally correct housing projects as well as assure racial and semantic fairness in all that we construct as well as
assure the GIBLET Community full opportunity to lend their essential talents to the enterprise.
Yes, a natural disaster as prelude to the Long Emergency. Good one James!
http://www.gwabert.com/
The media reports the conditions at South Street Seaport, Central Park, and maybe the NYC airports. If there's any time left over they get north of The Bronx.
Mr. K,
Forget Lloyd and his cappuccino machine.
As he is the son of a mailman, I want to know what his kids and their kids are doing.
The old adage, "Shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations" has to be producing some interesting spawn these days. What exactly are the overfed, over "educated" kids of Wall Street doing?
I'm sure there are the requisite number off in Malawi building orphanages or getting high school community service hours for massaging elephants in Thailand. (You can't make up shit this weird, it's actually happening ), but that's temporary.
The residual guilt that the next generation and the next are going to feel is something to already behold. From Seed Savers Exchange being taken over by the daughter of the Goldman Insurance Tribe to the many "artists" out there it is going to be an interesting ride.
People are already sick of waiting. In one local (small) town a road washed out a few months ago, nothing to do with Irene. The local Supervisor had a few truckloads of gravel dumped to at least make it passable, and the heck with the State of the Feds. They sorted it all out later.
Shouldn't we be focusing our attention on countering the idiocy of the political/social/commercial establishment, rather than reveling in its predictable failures? Okay, Jim, agreed that things are screwed up and being made worse by both Obama's faction and the highjacked Tea Party -- So where do sane, thinking people go from here?
How can we, the people, bind together to do something other than wring our hands and gnash our teeth as we visit the Monday Morning Church of the Holy Clusterfuck? Let's talk about solutions that WE can implement.
BTW, I've always hear that hurricanes develop off West Africa, not East. Have the laws of nature been changed by Global Warming?
"....the financial weather was deteriorating sharply last time I looked."
But wait, the well dressed talking heads on CNBC this morning said that things are looking up. They had pretty girls excited about the Dow getting ready to open up over 100 points. They even had the little munchkin criminal Grasso on to show us growth is moving along. These guys had on suits, they must be smart....right? They'll fix everything... Right?
Lock and load, while you still can.
Wardoc
The USA has PLENTY of money - over $1 Trillion wasted annually on endless Wars.
Just the air conditioning bill for tents in Iraq and Afghanistan was $20 Billion last year.
The military used 5.5 Billion gallons of fuel
in 2010....
http://money.cnn.com/technology/storysupplement/cost_military_oil_addiction/
The irony is this was in "Wars for Oil" as the
Chinese make peacetime deals without shedding a drop of blood for access to Iraqi oil and oil all
over the planet...
So the USA HAS the money...
Just stop the Wars!
Here in Vermont Irene was definitely not a "no show" as someone put it. We have been badly hit by the storm and the impacts will be long-lasting. We've lost many roads and bridges including covered bridges that have been around for quite a while.The road down from the mountain where I live is washed out. Businesses and homes are under water. The major news media is starting to pay some atention but pretty much if it wasn't NYC nobody was too interested.
It is going to take a lot to repair all of this and we are still getting over some major flooding that happened a few months back.
I am glad I've got some loggers for neighbors, as they've cleared the downed trees and there is now another way off the mountain even though that is quite a detour. It does make me wonder how things would get if the roads just never got repaired some day.
...next up for disaster is good ole' So. Cal.! The southern section of the mighty San Andreas has not fractured for quite some time (middle section, Ft. Tejone 1857, northern section, San Francisco 1906, the southern section, probably somewhere by Palm Srings) but it's going to make the L.A. riots (that I witnessed first hand, then moved to Oregon) look like a USC frat party gone bad. I have a cousin that is a commercial hard hat diver Unocal that has been replacing oil well caps in the Santa Babara channel for a year. Something down there under the sea floor is heating up and moving around. There has been a shitload of BIG earthquakes on the ring of fire the last couple of years and I think So. Cal is up to bat and mother nature is gonna throw a smokin' fastball right at it's head. "black swan" anyone?
Hope all in the NE are recovering with no loss of loved ones. Just as a side note, to the first few posters who use JHK as a sled to promote their blogs off of, get a grip. I've never read yours nor will I ever!
Schenectady off the map? It was a rather difficult town to pronounce. Maybe that won't be a problem anymore.
Kemp--
Quite right: West Africa (brain fart). Corrected.
But your censorious demand for me to take a more therapeutic tone in this blog is impertinent. If it has no value for you, read somebody e;se's blog.
--JHK
Great post, JHK and looking forward to your additional comments as the ensuing damages reveal themselves this week.
Yes, I understand that there was an earthquake a few days ago in Albany county after the one in Virginia.
(did you feel the earth move under your feet?)
A few issues come to mind, I posted this weekend a link to a pdf from a forum at the New School I attended in 2006 concerning how Fema functioned after being folded into Homeland Security and all that went wrong there.
I feel that there was a real attempt by our politicians to utilize some of the lessons learned from the Katrina debacle and that the idea of minimizing deaths was foremost on their minds. I give them some credit for trying.
The problem is you can't control the variables no matter how much you would like to. You can never think of all that could go wrong.
But here's the problem. We don't have a functioning economy where the government is being fed the proper revenues to deal with these conditions. So it falls on the shoulders of on of our 5 big monopolies in this country,namely the Insurance industry there to make a profit, cannot cope with the damages they are supposed to cover.--yeah, there are riders in insurance that don't cover flooding.
As I said last night to my guy, there are places that houses never should have been built, but developers and the population in general would never go along with careful planning to ensure that housing would not be built in low lying areas close to the water--guaranteed to be a disaster every time.
Then there's the question of generators. If I owned a home I would certainly plan for these weather occurrences. There are even solar power battery generators, that could at least help with keeping a light on and maybe a refrigerator going.
Germany without a huge amount of sunlight at least created a pathway for people to individually set up solar energy in their homes. It may not be effective in running a home 24/7 but in a pinch it could at least make people less dependent on overhead wiring that goes down with every weather system that blows through.
On another note: thanks for calling attention to the Taibbi article and one more thing.
About BofA, my sister made a very good point after I blogged about the amazing returns Buffet got in putting up $5 Billion to bolster-up this loser. She asked me don't you see that Buffet is a proxy for the Fed? He's getting everything back that the govt. would be getting if they floated this deal, but right now the politics go against more bailouts, so the Buffet deal went forward. I give her kudos for that!
Congratulations on the most gripping essay in quite some time, not that I've been reading these all that long, maybe only a year or so. But still, you make it plain that our immediate world is being ripped apart partially owing to our own fecklessness. If we can't afford to fix these catastrophes in the usual manner then there will be cries for the national guard to come save us all. Which of course could eventually lead to fascism. Around here in an equally hydrological environment, northeast Ohio, the local governments have already squandered their credit on absurdities such as $45,000,000 recreation centers for smaller suburbs with populations below 20,000, for instance. Where are they going to get the money to rebuild bridges when they get washed away or simply collapse through neglect?
"A lot of people will not be able to get around for a long, long time, especially in Vermont and New Hampshire, where the rugged terrain only allows for a few major roads that go anywhere. Even the bridges that were not entirely washed away may have to be inspected before people are allowed to drive over them, and some of these bridges may be structurally shot even if they look superficially okay. There are a lot of them. If you live in a flat state, you may have no idea." -JHK
Senor James,
Thanks for mentioning this. I believe too many people take their transport infrastructure for granted. I've been attempting to justify the blessing-to-curse ratio of plentiful water supply for years and years.
I suppose I've been hyper-aware of drainage/runoff patterns because it was the major factor in my excavation job description. When my wife picked this particular piece of ground, the perc. tests had been done and recorded. (I also observed many of the test sites remnants, noticing the fine gravel that had been unearthed.) The placing of the house carefully accounted for grade and material, including septic system planning. (Another thing no one thinks about because they don't "see" it.)
So, although we're damn near immune to flooding on this place, the same cannot be said for 2 miles from here, where rivers and streams roar through the lower areas. The creeks, streams, rivulets, even bogs and swamp areas, all need outlets and the attendant culverts and bridges to route the roads over. In the local case, we're pretty much screwed if the bridges wash away. I've seen a boatload of shaky "solutions" in my travels, so I can see where we're headed. That'll mean no more semi's full of Wal-mart crap rollin' down the road (or what's left of it).
Jim I am glad you and yours are safe, we did get quite a blow yesterday. fursure,
As for New Hampshire and Vermont, both are Yankee bastions of self reliance, the folks on both sides of the Connecticut river are actually quite similar in that way, however at some point we took different paths, and our politics have outwardly manifested themselves in very different ways.
We both have a history of Town Meeting Government a local political culture based upon consensus and collaboration. Why the difference? New Hampshire being so close to Massachusetts, the people from down south who had a antitheses to that state's form politics moved here in reaction to their home state's politics and became the polar opposite in a effort to avoid a repeat of that dysfunction.
While in Vermont people from away, the Ben and Jerry type's moved there not to avoid something as they did on this side of the river but to live the Norman ROckwell version of America that Vermont offered, and yes many of them were actually hippies, so much so that the old line Yankee GOP state became a kind of North American Switzerland,
Although I prefer the more collaborative Vermont style to the more (recently adopted) confrontational political style in N.H., I would never live there, VT is after all on the wrong side of the river, even if NH has a million or so Massholes clogging up the roads and suburbanizing our beautiful country side with their mchovels.
Hey Paul, remember the difference between a problem and a condition, if you want solutions go to Transition Town movement, plant a garden, advocate for zoning that allows for walkable communities, etc. We know all this because of the writings of JHK.
A note about Vermont. Yes, we've got elected officials who can be counted on to vote progressively, but...we've got plenty o'redneck ATV-worshipping ignoramuses who worship the internal combustion engine and can't put two thoughts together. It's not all peace and love up here.
James,
Greetings from across the lake. Not a whole lot of wind, but it was quite a rain event...close to seven inches in my neck of the woods. I've been up all night keeping the pumps running to drain the water from the root cellar in my basement. As we had no power, the thing that saved me is the generator I installed last fall. Though it was an expensive item for me, I figured that the time was right given the increasing uncertainty with the climate, economy, and energy supplies. As Stoneleigh says, "better a year early than a day late". Saved my butt. I would have lost a lot more than the cost of my generator. Cheers.
Greetings to the rest of the clusterfucked nation,
Jim, I live about a half hour from both manchester and Granville, up in the hills, and the road, culvert, and maybe bridge damage is the obvious residue of the storm. it will be intersting to see how long it takes to open some of them back up. the Danby Mountain Road, that goes down to Dorset is totally washed out at this point. The fellows on the town road crew are gonna make bank for a couple weeks at least I would guess working over-over time!
It was great to see all the neighbors out yesterday helping each other pump out basements and build flood diversions. Something that worked real well was staking down square bales to divert water. We didn't have sandbags and this worked just as well. it might not have if the water had gotten any higher. . .
I am a farmer and am guessing that there could be a lot of crop damage out there. I sort of thought our popcorn would be flattened, but the field I looked at today seemed ok. . . I will check the other field later. not sure if the dry beans are going to survive being so wet, but maybe. here is a new adage: "a bean in the hand is worth five in the pod".
thanks for the moral support and snippets of sanity. and hopefully the nation makes an effort to find out how much tastier locally grown, heirloom popcorn is than cheetos (which are themselves so obviously superior to the doodles).
Ok, time to make the rounds and scope out the rest of the damage.
I think Irene performed admirably at its appointed task of Stimulating the Economy.
The noise media reminded us over and over that, while we were being advised to evacuate, should we choose to stick it out we needed to gas up our cars, buy generators, have lots of batteries on hand, and stock that larder to the rafters.
There were gas station lines worthy of the 70s, interviews of people standing in line for generators at Home Depot (product placement ftw!), giving us soundbites like "I'm #63 on the list, so I'm guaranteed to get one!", and my local Stop & Shop in Nassau County on Long Island did $500,000 worth of business on Friday, where they usually do $300,000 per WEEK - and that's just one store out of thousands.
Consumerism and capitalism did a wonderful job of resource exploitation this past weekend - the citizens of the Eastern Seaboard proved a resource ripe for exploitation, with a little fearmongering to prime the pump.
don't forget the beer and cigarettes
How does anyone, who can count, reason that the US "has the money." Perhaps what is referred to here is that we can PRINT the money, which is a different issue altogether; ask any bond owner or trader. (Economics 101 teaches the inverse relation between money supply and value of the currency; Econ 102 teaches the effect of currency inflation on bond pricing). Bond pricing is a critical issue for continued borrowing; if other countries stop buying our bonds (which is happening as we sit here), the US economy will COLLAPSE.
Fact: all of the money in the so called "debt ceiling" increase was burned up, i.e. spent, GONE, within a week of the ceiling being raised; now that's money velocity. :)
The official (admitted by the WH) US debt is around $15 trillion, and the actual debt (see Shadowstats.com), which includes all sorts of fixed obligations (e.g. military pensions and medical care, medicare, etc) is, by most estimates, over $100 trillion. That's 100 TRILLION!!!!! These amounts can never be paid back, even if we taxed every person at 80% or more. The US is bankrupt. Yes we can print more money but that will just deeped the hole we're in (think Weimar, or Zimbabwe). The US is financially done. Every thinking person needs to face that fact.
And to think all you liberal types want to put the Manhattan buttholes in charge of your lives. Oh what irony to find out that "all is clear", just call that the Sheppard Smith call of the day (the Katrina call from the Quarter the morning after it rolled thru).
Sorry folks the Manhattan clique is an incompetant bunch that merely communicates the predjudices you all learned in college, nothing more. I'll take Preacher Rick at least if a coyote needs a shootin' he can shoot.
Jim -
Thanks for connecting the dots on this -- so that people can see, as homes and cars roil by in the rivers, that there are absolute, finite ways in which public policy actually effects them!
It is the paradox of all the tax-cutting, smaller guv'ment types; they want everything -- but they don't want to pay for it. It will indeed be interesting to see how Vermont and NH deal with their separate but equal disasters....
I disagree with JHK here. Things will be "fixed" up North, as they were in the Gulf, but they won't be quite as nice as they were before. Life will go on, a bit shabbier and patched together than before, and after the next disaster, when there will be even less money, shabbier still.
Want the model to follow? Try the slowly deteriorating Interstate system of which the Eisenhower generation was so rightly proud.
America is on its way to Second-World conditions, if we are lucky. Even in the elite suburbs, and perhaps especially there, with economic decline, unstable weather, and dwindling oil supplies, the US will just enter a spiral of shabbiness. We'd prefer a disaster out of a film directed by Emmerich. But we won't get "2012." We'll just crumble slowly like the road system we use.
The wild cards are not the weather, or even the long-term impacts of climate change. The wild cards are the maniacs on the Right like Perry and Bachmann, who wish to bring God's good governance to the US of A.
You want a perfect storm? Let these people come to power. Then you can stick a fork in all of us.
Felt the Earthquake on the 2nd floor here, and was so utterly confused until I checked the internets?!? Such a weird eerie feeling.
Installed another solar thermal system on our building this weekend, and should now be able to heat 50% of our 6,000 sq. ft. facility from sun, or at least keep us ~50-65° if gas lines were to fail for some reason...
Headed back up on the roof now to put some PV panels in...
And the most exciting news to put a jump in my step.. I took a leap of faith and became the solar sponsor for a dedicated 19 year old who is going to change the world with the best of intentions by riding a solar powered trike across the country...
Some good advice is forget about the money. Forget about financial motivation. Follow your fucking heart you cluster fuckers.
PUSH ON. DO GOOD. KEEP SMILING.
I heard Cokie Roberts on NPR this morning say that this is the 10th billion dollar plus natural disaster of 2011. I plan on voting for Rick Perry. I have had enough of climate change. He'll put a stop to it lickity split.
Aimlow Joe was here
http://www.aimlow.com
mountaingal,
I hope you and your neighbors were prepared, with the necessities in place, before Irene came calling.
This should remind us all of the importance of being prepared for anything and for a duration of more than a few days.
All the best to and your fellow New Englanders. I have seen just enough photos to get an idea of the tremendous damage. I'll wager the attention paid this by the MSM will be fleeting.
As a Texan I am outraged. How dare you call Rick Perry a moron!? This is an insult to morons *everywhere* and I demand an apology!
Wardoc:
The obvious outcome of the US and European debt crises is that CREDITORs are not going to get paid back.
Since western nations have fiat currencies not backed by anything, and have moral codes that say debts are supposed to be paid, it would appear that the inevitable solution to the debt crisis will come by the US and Europe massively devaluing the dollar and Euro.
In my view the scenario is considerable economic decline in the developed world, but not total collapse. Global confidence in the dollar and euro will ultimately be wiped out, and I believe the western world will be forced to adopt a hard currency standard. Yes, the gold standard that all the snooty neo-Keynesians are guffawing about, or something akin to it, will come about, because you can't run an economy based on currency that is universally considered to be worthless.
Some fear we are headed toward a global monetary unit (perhaps the "Globo"), as the globalists make use of the "never let a crisis go to waste" principle. Monetary union is impossible without political union, as Europe is proving, although the Europeans have probably years more of head banging to do before they are willing to accept that fact. So anyway, a world currency implies a world government, and even though that no doubt has a lot of appeal to globalists like Obama and Perry, it ain't gonna happen.
sooty wrote:
"...we've got plenty o'redneck ATV-worshipping ignoramuses who worship the internal combustion engine and can't put two thoughts together."
So they don't all live in the South?
GASP! ;-)
The glorious MSM is fixated on damage on a road on a barrier island in NC, while pictures from New England show much worse damage to roads and bridges. Those New England roads and bridges served full-time residents and businesses, versus the NC road that served resort properties on a barrier island in a hurricane prone area where any structures should be minimal and mainly to support temporary access on the island.
Has the tradition of the first poster on here typing First! gone the way of the pet rock? Kulture Critic and Leibowitz are laying down on the job.
Remarks by my friend Brian in Otsego County, NY, may interest you and other readers of this blog:
http://www.facebook.com/notes/brian-foley/power-outages-from-hurricane-irene-in-upstate-ny/10150271398557555
Carnage, death, tragedy families ruined?
Who cares? The Dow is up today.
Screw everyone and everything else.
It's all abour RE election and Wall Street Bonuses (not in that order).
and F*ck Anderson Cooper and the rest of the talking bobble headed media. May they burn in hell forever.
OMG!!! Here comes another one! Tropical Depression Twelve is forming into a hurricane on more or less the same track as Irene (for now):
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/refresh/graphics_at2+shtml/143428.shtml?5-daynl#contents
Oh my, the sky is falling! The, oh so sophisticated and enlightened, Northeast has had some rain. Not only that, we compare it to the storm that devastated New Orleans. But, not to worry. The Great God in Washington has promised that the cornucopia of federal blessings will flow on the sophisticated and enlightened ones. He's not going to be caught out like the hated Bush. Well, thank goodness, ole Rick is on the way.
Grover Norquist and the TP bunch (or is it a wad?) will no longer have to search for a bathtub in which to drown government. They can drown it in Battleboro, VT or just about anywhere else in New England.
-Phut
It was the same thing here with hurricane Rita. Everyone was still talking about Katrina. I guess white folks with chain saws make for boring TV news.
I worked as a professional engineer in water resource development in Texas in the 1960s/1970s. Studied storm records as part of reservoir design. Later, sat at the feet of Saffir and Simpson to learn about hurricanes.
Texas has a history of one-day storm rainfalls of two feet or more. E.g., 22" inches in three hours at D'Hanis, Texas, in 1922. Hurricane storms pretty much as bad as any but Camille of 1969. One storm at Galveston, around 1915, dumped a tad over five inches of rain in fifteen minutes.
The storms of recent years weren't all that bad in and of themselves. They just happened to hit developed areas with more buildings and people.
Bottom line? Can't escape Maw Nature forever.
I won't get into any argument about climate change or global warming. I'm just saying that the before and after of major fossil fuel use hasn't shown any effect on storm intensity when one looks at storm history.
Glad to hear New Hampshire is so rocked ribbed and won't be expecting any federal help with its problems. That'll ease the strain on the budget. I wonder if FEMA will turn the fire hose of federal money on damaged areas as in past years. I have relatives that got substantial checks for water damage they were not entitled to but it's very difficult to oversee such a huge varied country with any precision and Obama lacks the crusaders zeal to take control of the beast. Unfortunately the right wing has trotted a cast of truly frightening specimens for our consideration. But to the Koch Brothers, these are exactly the sort that can be manipulated. Going back to feudal times won't be easy, and many will be declared redundant, but Darwin's law will prevail, whether we like it or not.
Who's going to pay for it? You and me.
Just last month our Allstate homeowners insurance went up. Allstate sent us a letter and openly stated that all the disasters this year were causing them to up their rates.
Next hurricane, I would really like all the people in the media who are criticizing the evacuations to go stand on a beach that's directly in the path of the coming storm.
Jim, glad to hear you're ok. I had been wondering if you would even be able to post anything today. I have family sort of near you, in VT and western CT, and they have not had a relaxing weekend... I am looking forward to reading what Bill McKibben may have to say about this, in the days ahead. His area of Vermont was absolutely deluged. From now on, locals may well refer to anything in the Ripton/Middlebury area that took place pre-August 28th as "antediluvian."
Ya know, I really despise "folks" like yourself who assume far, far more than they actually know. It's a habit of the lazy-minded.
...But I'd guess that would be another reason to root for a blustering, ignorant fuck like Perry. Jesus wept, man!
Michelle You-Know-Who says the earthquake and hurricane were warnings to America from the Almighty:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/29/michele-bachmann-hurricane-irene_n_940209.html
Here's the music to go with the article:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pttF42BGqhU
Beer and cigs is what my parents bought during the cuban missile crisis. There wasn't much point in anything else. i think they threw in some cokes for me.
Legacy railway names pop up in the news from the New England disaster theatre...
---
"Raritan River Railroad": Gen'l Offices, South Amboy, NJ.
Stations listed in the September 1968 OFFICIAL GUIDE OF THE RAILWAYS...
Mile 0 South Amboy
Mile 2.0 Phoenix
Mile 3.6 Sayreville Junction
Mile 4.0 Parlin
Mile 5.1 Gillespie
Mile 6.4 South River
Mile 9.9 Milltown
12.3 New Brunswick
SAYREVILLE Branch -Sayreville Junction to Sayreville 2 Miles
SOUTH RIVER Branch - South River to Wright's 1 mile
---
100's more local rail links in this and earlier OFFICIAL GUIDES. Transportation option so sensible even a world built by hand person would be able to do it...
Jim, have you got your copies of "US Rail Map Atlas Volumes" from spv.co.uk show you can check these obscure points of rail transport connectivity? Anyone at big shippers like Wal-Mart and US Postal Service, Fedex, etc. have the slightest bit of rail savvy? FEMA?
Reformed US Army/Guard rail logistics units were/are natural partners for the rebuild of these no longer obsolete rail connectors...
Bill McKibben was on Democracy Now today, tying the increasing storm severity into global warming, noting that we've always had storms, but increased temperature leads to more water and energy in the atmosphere.
Amy also had the governor of Vermont on, who pointed out that towns that were built 200 years ago were built near rivers, to use the water for power and people.
Homes and bridges that were built 200 years ago, and have stood since are now being swept away. To deny global warming is happening is to put your head in the sand. It's easy to do, since deserts are also increasing.
Living in a 200 year old town near a river doesn't show the same irresponsibility that building a McMansion on the coasts does.
Yes, we've always had storms. That's why insurance companies used to refuse to insure houses built near hurricane prone coasts, until the federal government stepped in, in the 70s, to back up the insurance companies. We've seen an explosion of coastal building since then.
We don't have enough money to rebuild if you consider money to be a commodity, suitable for speculation and hoarding by the ruling class.
If you changed money to be a public utility, the government could issue it to pay for public infrastructure, repair and switching to energy conservation and renewable energy.
But, if you prefer to allow the destruction of the ecosystem and human society, as well as the mass exinction of multiple species, the death of the oceans, and the continuation of turning the Earth into an uninhabitable planet, because it's profitable, then - cool! Because that's what will happen if we carry on the way we are.
Living in the mountains, I deal with downed trees and rock slides whenever bad weather strikes. However, I must admit, it is better than what I face down here at work in metro Philly where I need to deal with roadblocks in the form of Nazi-like fire police. These idiots will be the first obstacle to get by when the s.h.t.f. Of course, most of them are doughnut eaters and it should be easy to outmaneuver the loudmouths.
The Huffington Post is giving the NE damage a great deal of coverage...
Mars, Jupiter and Saturn are closer to the Sun according to Rothschild:
http://www.infowars.com/articles/science/global_warming_rothschild_jupiter_closer_to_sun_than_earth.htm
CERN scientists ar a bunch of racists:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/08/25/cern_cloud_cosmic_ray_first_results/
"There will be a lot of pissed-off people in the Northeast USA. Maybe they'll even start giving the grievance-bloated folk of Dixieland some competition in the politics of the bitter harvest." Well guess what. There are a lot of pissed off people here in the South West, North West and middle earth. We had to sit through hours and hours of the media talking head idiots telling us every little detail about the hurricane over and over again. I guess the big media people really think and feel that the interest in the United States revolves around the eastern seaboard and we living elsewhere in the country are lucky to hear about it. Over and over again. It is quite plane that this country with its corporate masters and the center of the universe wall street thinking actually believe the propaganda. The truth is this country in its present form of haves and have nots, the investor class, media fools, political criminals is to big to succeed. we have the fed throwing money at every thing and destroying the dollar in the process all adds up to failure. To bad it was a good idea built on hypocracy and wishful thinking. Yes it is interesting hear about what the planet has in store for us, but over and over again 24 hours a day? Like nothing else was news in the world except what was affecting the East. Pathetically funny.
AMR, Myrtlemay, Eleuthero and others on last weeks' discussion about snobbery, social class, pretension:
I don't like snobs giving people the high hat for the simple reason that it's cruel (I've been on the receiving end more than once) but also because snobs don't seem to realize how much of their perceived position in life is/was determined by tosses of the cosmic dice/blind luck/cold impersonal fate. But for a few twists and turns it could all have turned out otherwise.
Nor do they seem to understand that they're driving in a dense fog of events and circumstances that they don't comprehend (nor does anyone else for that matter) and so as a consequence how close to the edge of the cliff they always are.
One fuckup, one car accident, one job loss, one illness, one chance encounter and their life goes swirling down the shitter, the whole teetering popsicle stick contraption of money, career, family, robust good health gets blown to bits.
As Myrtlemay once said karma is a bitch, she gives with one hand and takes with two. Wise words these. People may think they're in control of they're lives and to some extent they are. But in my experience, people get to the pointy end of the pyramid not understanding that the flying chunks of rock that life deals out could just as easily have hit them as the people that happened to be alongside them.
I've seen guys on top of the world, broadly smiling, expansive, well connected. And then after a corporate restructuring, job loss, calamitous divorce and a heart attack they've gone from BMW and big house to no car and crappy apartment. And their "friends" and former associates of course make a display of solicitude but really think tough luck sucker never thinking that it could happen to them, that in a few years they could be in the same boat.
It seems to me that fate randomly screws people. But sometimes it seems to me that people that act all superior and huffy are asking for it.
David is Amazing.
"It is the paradox of all the tax-cutting, smaller guv'ment types; they want everything -- but they don't want to pay for it."
We "ALL" don't want everything. I understand that "You don't get what you don't pay for", so I'd rather just pay for it myself, after deciding if I want it *myself* rather than paying someone else to decide if I want it or not, and taking a healthy percentage for the "service". This is called "self-government". A difficult concept for some, but certainly not a paradox.
Does your television have a channel changer?
Does your television have an on/off switch?
Ian wrote: "As a Texan I am outraged. How dare you call Rick Perry a moron!? This is an insult to morons *everywhere* and I demand an apology!"
Yep, every state has its morons, religious and otherwise, and I actually *love* what I've seen of Texas. Y'all deserve better in the Lone Star State, whatever these Yankees say, than ol' Preacher Rick.
Perry is not *just* a moron: he's a dangerously theocratic one. Anyone who thinks Earth is 6,000 years old left his brains in the 15th century.
The age of the earth, like gravity or condoms that don't break, ain't no liberal corn-spiracy theory.
m-Druid -
Good luck with that. You going to build your own roads and storm sewers and fire brigade and all the rest? How does that work? Would New England return to the concept of multiple turnpikes and shunpikes? I'm serious here. How does that work, in a practical sense?
Pilt
"...we have the fed throwing money at every thing and destroying the dollar in the process all adds up to failure..."
http://washingtonisbroke.com/sites/default/files/Chicago%20Tribune%201934%20cartoon600.png
A little rain; some "shakin;" and Wall St is all happy: nothing to see here, please move along folks
After the incessant barrage of media inducing fear and frenzy (I own no TV and I still couldn't avoid the hysteria) Irene leaves us unfulfilled and wanting more. It is worth noting that the tropical storm that made its way in New England, while providing plenty of rain and damage, was just that - a tropical storm; a lightweight, not-too-serious kind of weather event. Katrina my butt JHK.
And it still packed a wallop to our disintegrating infrastructure and morale.
Can we conceive of the situation caused by a category 4 or better hurricane really hitting NYC and environs or a no-nonsense major earthquake to demolish Washington D.C.?( a sublime fantasy for many)
The bulk of Americans (not CFN persons as evidenced by this blog), are, as JHK never fails to remind us ( thank goodness,) of the Dizneyfied subspecies, and their perception of these happenings constitute either more entertainment or an unwanted interruption to normal programming. All the while eagerly anticipating the kick-off of the NFL season with attendant comfortable ensconcement in front of monster LED TVs. No, nothing is going to change for the masses, the government, or the Wall Streeters pining for an extra few weeks in Southhampton before the real "work" season starts after Labor Day.
You'd better buckle up good because when the real emergency hits there shall be chaos. Godspeed to all.
Bill McKibben on Democracy Now! this morning, commenting that we have known what the climate effects of carbon pollution would be 25 years ago, and yet, our elected officials did nothing; the average citizen did nothing.
Ignoring the entire population over the age of 25, I ask those of you between 16 and 25: do you really expect that the older generation will solve this problem, or simply give you the means to solve it? Or do you rather think they will stand in your way, obstruct, and generally make the situation worse?
Caveat: No one under 25 reads this blog.
I used to live in New Orleans. Every year we'd have a storm season. Saw several whoppers come through, flooding, ripping off roofs, boats floating down the streets, etc.
Life was as it should be. Normal.
I've never understood why so many vehicles are left in areas known to flood. I guess there is no way for people to cooperate and move them. I saw quite a few that appeared to be ruined in the North East.
Weather news is always neat. Cheap to produce copy and visuals - no chance or need to spend big buck "learning" the story.
Much like the news reports from Libya - I no longer feel like I can get any "real news."
Anything coming over MSM is taken with a healthy dose of cynicism.
So -I hear it rained a lot in the East - too bad.
Hopefully things won't stink afterward - you know like NO.
Hopefully everyone will be able to get a loan and rebuild.
leave well enuff alone
allstate raising rates to offset disaster losses? imagine that!
I think E is a very smart guy, really gifted, but, like many people on here, even Jim, he often seems to have a contempt for ordinary people. I see most Americans as being victims, more or less of their time and place. That doesn't excuse completely everything, the climate change denial, biblical obsolutism, etcetera. There are a lot of eletists in the U.S that never shut up about 'white trash, 'rednecks' but wouldn't say nigger to save themselves. Frankly I get sick of that kind of shit, this 'we are so superior' mentality. Hell we're all in the same boat really, if JHK is right about the Long Emergency, and I believe he is.
Seeing is a good first step. Taking action is a good second step.
I am not as smart as E., but in the last three years (thanks in part to CFN) I have managed to simplify my life in the following ways:
-- learn how to build a small adobe house which utilizes passive solar
-- utilize permacultural principles to grow some of my own food
-- join a food coop to buy what I need to buy
-- become part of a community of friends, so I can help out when they are in need
-- pay off my debt (including the mortgage)
-- move my money out of Bank of America to a local community bank
-- reduce my income (so as not to pay for war)
-- become a vegan (so as not to support factory farm animal abuse)
-- reduce my energy consumption (so as not to support either wars for oil or Middle Eastern dictatorships).
These are just some of the changes I have made in response to USA corporatocracy. I am happy with these changes.
Energy contraction is an opportunity for improved quality of life.
All it takes is to listen to Brother Marley: “emancipate yourself from mental slavery” and then act in nonviolent, independent, and interdependent ways.
JHK wrote: "Kemp--
Quite right: West Africa (brain fart). Corrected."
What do "Brain Farts" smell like?
How do you know when someone "Brain Farts"? Do they make a loud noise?
Katia,- the next storm, may be forming now off Cape Verde - possibly too far out to affect anyone - but it could just as easily strike NYC in the middle of next week during Fashion Week and ironically turn the Big Apple into a place as unfasionbale and as damaged as Detroit. Katia is expected to be smaller than Irene but stronger.
" Cash | August 29, 2011 1:34 PM | Reply"
WOW. Great Post! I have been thinking and unfortunately witnessing much of what you put into words the last few years.
Any smug bastards thst think calamity doesn't apply to them or their loved ones would do well to print your post out and re-read daily. Maybe twice daily...
Attitude of Gratitude the order-of the-day for many, ME especially included. I have been so blessed with so much for so long it is easy to lose perspective IMO...
Have a Safe and Prosperous week!
Jim_ There's nothing wrong with the Vermont infrastructure that a few Bolivian-style zip lines and some cargo bikes couldn't fix.
All that's needed is a some heavy fence wire, some laundry line pulleys and a posthole digger. Instant bridge.
http://youtu.be/NZ_J2WYyoVE
MD, you posted this (on CFN!) in your link:
Do you agree with Alex Jones that oil men and environmentalists are on the same side re: peak oil?
Who does debunking peak oil really benefit?
Cash_ When you're right you're right. I know a guy, electrical engineer, who made millions in 2000 in the computer business. In the ten years since he's made one bad investment after another all the while living very high on the hog to the tune of a $25K/month lifestyle.
His $2 million dollar house is now getting foreclosed and his new venture still isn't paying salaries to the staff. I expect to hear that he's selling laptops at Best Buy any day now.
Life is a lottery and we need to be kinder to those who've drawn bad numbers. We can get pulled to the bottom in the space of a heartbeat or the popping of a relatively minor cranial artery.
Asoka_ That all looks good on paper but if had bet on that lifestyle in Oklahoma you'd be looking at the bottom of an empty bowl right now.
We need to retain trade and the capacity for trade simply to survive in the near future. That's a cold, dry fact.
I see that Barack and Michelle have hung a painting in the White House that includes the word "Jigaboo".
According to the Internet, a "Jigaboo" is defined as: "The proper, polite term for a guy of color.
A person who stands on a street corner yelling "sheee-it!" and "mo fo!" and "gimme some skee-in!"
A person well-versed in the fine art of shuckin' an' jivin'. "
For the definition of "Shuck and Jive", please see:
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=shuck+and+jive&defid=1340082
By the way, for those who imagine the FEMA fairy riding in and showering money on the undeserving disaster victims- here in the midwest, after the floods last spring, it was announced that FEMA would take applications for 3% loans for rebuilding.
That's it? Billions of taxes paid, and when catfish come swimming in your trailer, you can borrow money at 3% to - what? rebuild? When you could barely afford the rent on that singlewide to start out with? What are you going to rebuild?
And the bankers get money at 0% interest? That you now owe the government for? Guess you can't afford another trailer, with the kind of money you owe for the Bank of America bailout.
"BTW, I've always hear that hurricanes develop off West Africa, not East. Have the laws of nature been changed by Global Warming?"
You actually managed to troll the OP with this "correction"? Too bad your "correction" was incorrect (heard). That's always a problem for the nitpicking critic, and even Qtab has gotten "fooled again" on occasion...
Some food for thought: I'll bet less people ended up dying during this storm, than would have died during a "normal" day, where "they" all would have been out guzzle-driving to shopping malls/etc, in their death-metal-coffins. How many miles do *you* "drive" each year - 8K? 10K? 12K? 15K? 20K? Auto manufacturers would like to know, for their "X year/Y miles" warranty (along with auto/life insurance companies)!!!
I wonder how the storms are going to be next year? And in the 5-7 years after that, when we hit peak solar irradiance/sunspot max cycle? Are these large, dense, east coast cities "magnets" for hurricanes? Let me explain - these dense population centers are pumping out hot CO2 almost constantly (with a slightly lower outgassing at night). They are also concrete/asphalt jungles, resulting in typically 5-15'F hotter temperatures than surrounding "suburbs". This heated CO2 and heated N2 (air) is expanding the local atmosphere, creating low density regions, which should be magnets for anything with some density (read: cold humid mobile vortexes).
I wonder what the "programmers" for these hurricane prediction models have to say about global warming/atmospheric thinning? I mean, they nailed the original hurricane path prediction to within 10 miles, and their "90% confidence intervals" on path deviation were at least an order of magnitude too loose. Do they just collect their paycheck (bribe?), and then turn the other cheek in silence?!...
Damn, Ozone, you're so advanced that I don't even know what you're talking about.
But I'm glad that you and the rest of the East Coast Clusterfuckers are safe and sound and have electricity.
I know you're a fan of Phil Rockstroh's, and I'm now his Facebook friend, and I think you'd like his comment today-
"Well, Michele Bachmann, Pat Robertson, et al, if God was throwing a divine snit about the wicked, wicked ways of Sodom on the Eastern Sea Board, by pounding the ground with an earthquake and pummeling the land by hurricane, the eternally foul tempered sky daddy seems to feel as though there are much worse sins being perpetrated in, let's say, North Carolina and Virginia, than on the island of Manhattan e.g. the hurricane hit more mega-churches than gay bars."
JHK,
I'm glad to see that you're safe, your power is on, and you're connected to the internet so that you can keep all your readers informed. Looking forward to your updates on the situation in upstate N.Y.
As for your readers, the number of comments is down from where they usually are at this time of the day and week. I guess a lot of them are among the 5-7 million without power along the East Coast. Here's to hoping they get their power and internet restored ASAP.
I like your observations about how Vermont and New Hampshire are the mirror image twins of New England. The only problem I have is that New Hampshire isn't Georgia. What you have are most of the most economically conservative people in New England, especially Boston and its suburbs, collecting in one place. I know, my ex-roommate's family is among them. They may be the most conservative state in the Northeast, but there's nothing corn pone about them.
Finally, I didn't forget that there was both an earthquake and a hurricane in the same place during the same week. According to Discovery News, that's the first time that's ever happened in U.S. history. I blogged about that over at Crazy Eddie's Motie News on Sunday. I also continued the saga of the maniac politician Michele Bachmann doubling down on her promise of $2/gallon gasoline, Paul Krugman thinks a fake alien invasion might be good for us, the effect of affluence on environmental impact, and other sustainability topics, all this past week at Crazy Eddie's Motie News.
http://crazyeddiethemotie.blogspot.com/
Obama refuses to deport Illegals, Including his relatives...SHUCKS n Jive!
Is there anyone in Obama’s family that’s here legally? ..
You have his illegal aunt living in government housing in Boston, and now you also have his illegal uncle named Onyango Obama arrested for drunk driving in the same general area.
According to cBS Boston, the 67-year-old Onyango Obama was arrested on August 24 after police say he nearly ran his SUV into a police cruiser and later failed several sobriety tests.
What a shock. Of course you probably didn’t hear about this sooner because of all the hype on hurricane Irene [ thanks fireandremitchell.com]
Wow, So TV sets have an off switch, and a channel changer? Wow who would have thunk it? I am surprised you would even know that seeing you are busy building mud huts, and seeing those first and second steps. How else could you be an authoritarian jackass know it all that at least can go to bed at night feeling superior than most. Get off your high horse and join the rest of us fools down here in the trenches with the rest of humanity struggling against oppression from mutant business school robots and their mantra of continual growth.
Your electrical engineer friend did not draw bad numbers; he made foolish spending and investment decisions.
I'm saying to make local decisions that result in a more sustainable lifestyle. It can be done.
It works for me and my friends, but everyone is free to choose their lifestyle ... until the larger transportation and trading networks break down and it is no longer possible to get a 2,000-mile-salad from California or 2,000-mile-apples from Chile.
Do you want some cheese with your whine?
"Bond pricing is a critical issue for continued borrowing; if other countries stop buying our bonds (which is happening as we sit here), the US economy will COLLAPSE."
Here's one thing I don't understand: the week after the US credit rating downgrade and market crash, somehow 10-year rates dropped from 3% down to 2%?!? Shouldn't the rate have gone up, as the rating was lower, so a higher yield would be required to entice bond investors to take on increased risk?
Of course it becomes moot with the inflationary magical printing press, making money out of thin air. The 10-year rate seems to have recovered some, so something like 2.2% or so. Perhaps the "money movers" (Bank/brokerage investment firms, insurance companies, corporations) that control over 90% of market/investment volume did not want people moving out of stock/indexed funds, and cratering the market even more?!? But don't we need China to buy another $trillion$ in bonds fairly soon?!...
That's why Chinese peasants used to crouch in irrigation ditches during a good rice harvest yelling, "bad rice, bad rice" - they were afraid of being too happy and suffering the nemesis that inevitably follows such hubris. Also on a simpler level, it's was an attempt to trick the gods into not punishing good fortune because they would hear only the "bad rice" chant and not look any closer.
Your desire to bring in tens of millions of aliens in the "hope" that they will assimilate is incredible hubris. It's like gambling one's whole home and fortune on the hope of getting double 7's.
Jim, Jim, Jim... don't you understand. This is all good. Damage to property, well... it is G R E A T. So what if people are inconvenienced? A few unlucky souls pass to their reward. No biggie, Jim. Because, you see, it all adds to the GDP.
G D P, G D P
is good for our country.
Even if it might kill you,
It helps us stay with B A U.
Craig
"I'm just saying that the before and after of major fossil fuel use hasn't shown any effect on storm intensity when one looks at storm history."
Before and after major - when? You might want to take a look at atmospheric CO2 concentrations since about 1800 or so - it's been going through the roof ever since the late 19th century industrial age began (~1860).
How about quantity of storms? Is 10 "intense" storms every year, now, the same as 1 "intense" storm every 10 years, back then?
Oh, just had to ask - has it started *raining* down there in Tejas, yet?!...
as long as it is served in a mud hut and bought at the coop.
Thanks for this weeks work, JHK.
Stay dry up there, don't let a tree fall on your head, and don't cross any damaged bridges.
"This is a warning to America that the converging catastrophes of climate change, energy scarcities, and failures of capital formation add up to more than the sum of their parts in their power to drive a complex society into a ditch..."
-JHK-
Add US population growth to the above list, James - just to make matters as bad as they can possibly be for us in the US - in another decade or less.
One very important reason for the number of increasingly recurrent "100 year" and "500 year" floods - is development. Forest land and trees absorb torrential rainfall pretty well - roofs, parking lots, and agricultural land - not so well.
Yet the US continues to grow at 1% per year, mostly due to immigrants and their children. That's 100,000 new LEGAL immigrants every month.
That's 3,000,000 new souls in the US every YEAR.
These are not sustainable numbers.
These numbers WILL be reduced, sooner or later - by proactive choice - OR by physical constraints, floods, and pestilence.
I prefer conscious and proactive choice, over the much less desirable alternatives.
There are good organizations devoted to international population control and to reduction of immigration into the US. I will share some names and websites if someone asks nicely - or perhaps, if someone merely wants to provoke me - over this most important issue.
Ah yes,…..now the megalopolises of the East Coast find themselves to be in the same fix as Haiti and Somalia; awaiting rescue from regions that haven’t yet exceeded sustainability. You know, those regions that for decades have been snootily referred to as “provincial” (pejorative usage) by the east coast publicist – implying that rural folks were culture challenged. Does anyone visiting this site believe our nation will receive an “aha” awakening from Irene’s sweep up the coast?
Touche!
Living in mud huts is noble. Why don't you join me and the rest of the world where three billion people on six continents lives or works in buildings constructed of earth?
Ah yes,…..now the megalopolises of the East Coast find themselves to be in the same fix as Haiti and Somalia; awaiting rescue from regions that haven’t yet exceeded sustainability. You know, those regions that for decades have been snootily referred to as “provincial” (pejorative usage) by the east coast publicist – implying that rural folks were culture challenged. Does anyone visiting this site believe our nation will receive an “aha” awakening from Irene’s sweep up the coast?
I don't know about that CP. Keeping an eye on Tropical Depression 12 though (thanks Newfie).
cesatmep said "There are a lot of eletists in the U.S that never shut up about 'white trash, 'rednecks' but wouldn't say nigger to save themselves. Frankly I get sick of that kind of shit, this 'we are so superior' mentality. Hell we're all in the same boat really, if JHK is right about the Long Emergency, and I believe he is. "
Ehh? What are you talking about? I'm elite as fuck, and I have no problem with my dark skinned African brothers. And we can't all possibly fit in a boat, we're almost 324 million people!
If black people- "niggers"- can't do shit right then why is the 3rd richest country in North OR South America essentially a Black nation?
The Bahamas has a per capita income of around $25,000- compare that to this list of US counties: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lowest-income_counties_in_the_United_States#100_counties_with_lowest_per_capita_income
Also notice: all these counties are in the Southeast. What is it about the god damn rednecks??
Asoka, this is for you.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXBCQp9Zsqg&sns=fb
I can't believe that a self-described peace lover would be high-fiving Obama for his successful attack on a country of six million people. As if dropping 20,000 bombs onto these people isn't an act of war.
It was illegal and immoral, and the fact that it succeeded doesn't make it anymore justified than when Bush did it to Iraq.
Shame on you!
Pokaeman said, "One very important reason for the number of increasingly recurrent "100 year" and "500 year" floods - is development. Forest land and trees absorb torrential rainfall pretty well - roofs, parking lots, and agricultural land - not so well.
Yep. But still, increased water surface movement means increased erosion. At this scale, its difficult to imagine the cubic meter tons.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/54330479@N03/6092782463/
All I know is Rick Perry is going to have a tough time selling his anti-climate change message in Vermont. Or Ron Paul telling people in NH to enjoy paying for their reconstruction. Or Michele Bachmann convincing America's voting public that "God" is responsible.
Wage,
I'm in total agreement with you in regards to Libya. The U.S. had no business bombing Libya. For me, it was Obama's final straw. Wanna bet their new boss is as bad as their old boss?
Changing topics, I'm ticked off because the biggest bitch I know (mom of one of my daughter's friends) asked if I want to join her menopausal support group. What an icktastic idea....paying MONEY to spend time with whiney women.
She's a doula that thinks every woman should give birth at home. She breast fed her son until he was 5-years-old....ehh gad. She had "Rent Tent" parties when her girls started their periods. Horrid!
Off to mow the lawn,
SJmom
Wage,
According to a number of articles I've run across, under Obama a drone attack has taken place every four days.
Next stop Syria? Stay tuned...
What? You don't want to celebrate the moments of your life? :)
It's hard to guess what these SOBs will do next.
We've been guessing Iran for years, and they up and bomb Libya. No matter that Ghadaffi tried to kiss and make up to them after 2003.
The video I posted showed Wesley Clark naming the next targets, and Iraq, Somalia, Sudan, and Libya have already been attacked. Lebanon has been attacked by Israel. That leaves Syria and Iran, and we know that the US already has ties with "rebel forces", called "terrorists" if they were targeting us.
The drumbeats seem to be after Syria now. And it's way more vulnerable than Iran.
We'll see. Here in the Land of the Free, where our only role is to watch what our ruling overlords do. And speculate over which puppet they'll put up for us to vote for.
"Also notice: all these counties are in the Southeast. What is it about the god damn rednecks??"
-BustinJ-
You've got statistical blinders on BustinJ.
In other words your looking at mathematics - but your using your emotions to do it.
Only 33 of those 100 counties were in the Southeast US. Yet you say, "all the counties are in the Southeast."
==============
And, I'm happy for the Bahamians and their $25K incomes, Bustin - but there is a simpler explanation than "race," or the lack thereof - of the Bahamians.
The Bahamas benefits from a LOT of International (american?) Banking, from a LOT of (american?) tourism - and the Bahamas likely still benefit financially from a fair amount of International (US?) drug money.
Wage,
Borrowing a word from Vlad, Syria is enabler of Iran.
Thanks for that link. It sure looks like Libya is filled with ex?-military contractors and hardware.
Just watched a quartet of videos of Rick Perry. If this guy is the Republicans' great white hope... HAHAHA
He has zero game to bring against Obama.
"bridges may be structurally shot even if they look superficially okay"
==wow
could he SAY anything more unsubstantiated than this?
==because i can;t imagine what it would be
==wle
'New Hampshire's license plate says, "Live Free or Die," and that same draconian mood defines the state's politics: hard Right. It's like a few counties of Georgia shook loose and drifted north somehow.'
Actually, if I remember history correctly, the migration is the other way around. The Scots-Irish settled in the northeast (hence the towns of Derry and Londonderry, NH) and then migrated south, where they became the 'rednecks' that so many love to hate.
Sooty,
I've lived and worked with a lot of those rednecks, and as much as I deplore their V-8 pickup-truck and 4-wheeler approach to life in the green mountains, I have no doubt most of them will be out in the next few days and weeks helping their neighbors dig out and rebuild.
Steve
"In other words your looking at mathematics - but your using your emotions to do it." -P2C
AANK, AAANK, AAANK - Grammar Error Alert!!
How about if I said, instead, "In other words, YOU'RE looking at mathematics, BustinJ - but YOU'RE using your emotions to do it.
And, yeah, South Dakota, Wisconsin, lots of places made your list that aren't in the Southeast.
And I think Texas may have had the largest individual number of counties in your "Top 100 Impoverished Counties in the US" list.
Wonder if Mr. Perry will use this interesting piece of demographic trivia in his campaign for POTUS?
here is an update on new york state road closures :
http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Update-Thruway-closed-from-Amsterdam-to-Syracuse-2144830.php
I've got a running wager with my brother about which blow to the US economy will be the one that finally causes the entire structure to crumble like a sand castle at high tide. There was 9/11, of course, although the immediate cost wasn't nearly as great as the eventual (and still growing) tab for the ensuing wars. Then there was Katrina; The gulf oil spill; The spate of killer tornados; Floods in the midwest and other areas; Massive drought in the southwest; And now, Emily wreaks havoc on New England, to the tune of billions more. Any guesses on how many more hits we can take?
Steve -
The amazing thing is that, despite all these "death blows," we have yet to succumb. We are a nation of fat, lazy jerks, but also of strong, self-reliant folks. It'll be interesting to see who wins...
I don't have a lot of faith in the currently aging "millenials," but who knows...
The funny thing about "disasters" is that they foment jobs. Someone will have to rebuild those towns and bridges and stores in VT and NH which have been ruined by the flood waters. And if I know New Englanders, they'll do it!
Pilt
"Good luck with that."
User fees for the things I use. Maintenance fees for the things I've already paid for, and use. Nothing for the things I don't use.
"Damn, Ozone, you're so advanced that I don't even know what you're talking about." -Wage
Not a damn bit of it! ;o)
Just your basic ditch-digger with lots of experience in digging cellar holes with attendant drains, installing septic systems, and grading lots and driveways.
(Didn't mean to be arcane. A "perc test" is just a small, 30" hole dug with a post-hole digger to determine how fast water poured in will "percolate" or disperse through the soil. Then a "test hole" is dug by machine [or a lot of labor] 8' deep so a certified soil engineer can examine the deposited layers of material to determine the septic design and its' maximum depth. In the case of this property, test holes were punched all over creation, which showed intent to either build or mine for the material. I dug a test hole where I sited the septic for the engineer, and he was curious as to how far down the gravel went. I dug to 10', then to 12' and the stuff just kept on going! So "well-drained" is what we's got. Does not bode well for water retention however; that's why the raised garden beds containing denser and richer soil.)
Thanks for the good wishes and the comment from "Rockin' Phil"! Take care your own selves too; there's gon' be plenty weird times to go 'round, methinks. :o)
"We next story is going to be the realization that there's no money to put it all back together the way it was. The states don't have the money. The federal government is obviously broke, and an awful lot of the individual households and businesses will turn out to not have any insurance coverage for this kind of disaster where it was water, not wind, that destroyed the property. I don't know what the score is insurance-wise along the mid-Atlantic beachfront towns - but remember, insurance companies were among the biggest dupes of the Big Bank mortgage-backed securities racket, and when the new claims are toted up they may find themselves in a bail-out line."
...from The King. Thanks, JHK, you nailed it once again. Was thinking the exact same thing myself this past day or so. In your own words, "what got us into this trouble - insurance companies, BB mortgage securities rackets..." The thieving degenerates should rot in prison for what they've done to bankrupt this country and its citizens.
Some day soon there will be an accounting for all these shenanigans. And that day will be coming soon. The Information Age is upon us, for better or for worse. If your hands are found to be bloody, sooner or later you will have to answer for your crimes.
Have faith in the youngsters. I think there's an ap for bridge building.
I have great faith in the ability of Vermont's yeomanry (and government) to bring our state back from this disaster. But we're a small state, with a population less than many nearby cities. What happened looks terrible under the distorting lens of the media, but it's really small potatos compared to the loss of a major city or the poisoning of the gulf. I just wish we could keep most of the taxes we send to Washington to support military-industrial machine, and use it to repair our roads.
"However there is another type of storm brewing and threatening for October. It seems that some portion of the body politic is tired of the increasingly Totalitarian predilections of our imperial regime, and they are threatening to occupy DC and close it down until things change."
Do you mean the "Enough is Enough" March, scheduled for October 29th? If so, keep talking about it. It could use the free publicity.
JHK
You had Irene and in Australia we had Yasi and the Queensland floods which despite killing more than 20 people and wreaking $2-3bn damage in infrastructure, helped break our drought and at least our financial situation is not too bad. However when we wake up in the not too distant future and find that China no longer needs us as their iron ore, natural gas and coal quarry the proverbial SWHTF and we might find ourselves panhandling for spare Remnimbi.
As we move into our summer season the biomass bounty derived from those excessive rains will begin to dry out and as we start experiencing those 43+ degree celscius days we will likely fuel another firestorm the likes we have never seen.
Climate Change is a cop out word invented by crooked politicians and their fossil fuel lobbyists.
Global Warming now there's a description from the euphemism free zone I can relate to.
Bring on the Yasi's and Irene's and start destroying more homes more infrastructure. Let it become more unbearable until the lumpen masses put down their cheesedoodles and vote for leaders who will lead by telling the truth.
Bring on that world made by hand and lets get to our crisis point so we can start to rebuild sustainably, hopefully before the methane clathrates and permafrost release their deadly bounty. I won't be holding my breath though...
50+ degree celscius days will likely be our inheritance. But look on the bright side, the crop failures will cause cheesedoodles to retail at $50.00 per bag, resulting in the lumpen proletariat becoming somewhat more svelt and less wobbly.
"As for your readers, the number of comments is down from where they usually are at this time of the day and week."
I noticed thatalso - hardly took any time at all, to read all the poasts.
"Do you mean the "Enough is Enough" March, scheduled for October 29th? If so, keep talking about it. It could use the free publicity."
Me thinks me smells a Koch brothers' teabagger! GL with that.
Why? Because Corporations set up there and rich Whites vacation there, maybe? Bustin, for a bright guy you really have your moments....
Nothing to do with Blacks - NOTHING.
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Screw Vermont. Vermont sold its soul to the devil when it opened its arms to the homosexual perverts running amok in the Northeast. Screw Vermont.
Here's a review of "The Help" from the Political Cesspool. Minnie makes a pie out of her own fecal matter and feeds it to a White girl. Hilarious, right? Jesse Jackson used to spit in White People's food when he was a waiter. No one seems to mind but Whites on the far right. Such nonchalance is decadence and leads to ever great outrages.
Imagine at the outrage if a movie was made about Palestinian Maids doing this to their Jewish clients.
http://www.thepoliticalcesspool.org/jamesedwards/2011/08/23/driving-miss-ditzy/
Vermont isn't all hippies, socialists and Phish fans. It's a mixture of all types of people, like anywhere else. I went to school there for awhile, and I did the Big Brother program. I got to know the family of the kid I was paired with, pretty well. The dad was a truck driver, and the mom stayed at home watched the kids. They were just trying to get by, like most people.
Interesting thing to note:
Most of the disasters the past few years have been happening in the Republican areas. From Alabama to Texas to Oklahoma to Arkansas this year, the disasters have been mainly to the solid south.
Hurricane Irene may be the first to happen to a solidly Democratic area. (as shown in the Electoral Colleges for the past twelve years, New Hampshire to a debatable contrary). And if some of the reactions on this blog are an indication as to what a large portion of the nation thinks, there will be nationwide celebrations when NYC finally gets hit (and proves unable to handle a hurricane, I'm guessing).
Thanks Vlad for posting the link. Once I got past the racists, Jew haters, homophobes, and down right paranoids I came upon a voice of reason in Kay Moe:
" I find it hilarious how you say that in this particular film, no black was portrayed in a negative light, when the irony of the matter is that the blacks’ very status in society at that time was in ITSELF negative. Having old black men and women saying “sir” and “ma’am” to whites less than half their age was just ridiculous, just as paying someone to do easy, regular house duties was. And even if it wasn’t so distasteful, has anyone here thought that this whole argument could be flipped? Just as you are upset that blacks in the film were not portrayed in a “Negative Fashion”, I find it quite upsetting that you believe that most of the white employers back then were these noble, understanding CEO’s!"
Yes, the kind of person who throws around the slur "teabagger" is what's wrong with Vermont.
"Most of the disasters the past few years have been happening in the Republican areas. From Alabama to Texas to Oklahoma to Arkansas this year, the disasters have been mainly to the solid south."
You startin' to sound liek that k00k Bachmann. Good thang it's not a *global* effect, that we're witnessing... [/sigh]
As to *Ghad*, that vengeful m0f0, I have my doubts. After all, *He* gave us all free will - so why would *He* interfere?
As to Mother Nature, that byotch is fsk'n pissed, and I have no doubt her wrath hast cometh (so to speak)...
Good point: I agree. Slavery was bad for Whites too. Whites have to learn to do their own work.
That doesn't change the fact that Blacks have benifitted from serving Whites. Their numbers have increased drastically and they have attained a standard of living they could never have created for themselves. Too bad they aren't big enough to have any appreciation for that. They are devoid of any humility whatsoever. The Slave dreamed not of freedom but of becoming the Master over Whites. Let them try!!
"Here's a review of "The Help""
LOL, you actually watched that flic?
Even after it was advertized as nothing more than a slave labor/elite plantation set, circa the 21st century?!...
LOL, I bet it tasted *splendiforous*ly!!!
You're identifying with Blacks again, Buck. You've got to fight it - it's conditioning. Don't you want to be free? Don't you want your dignity back? Nothing is more pathetic than Whites who want to be Black or who kiss Black ass. Blacks feel the same as I do about this.
Look at South Africa: Blacks came from all over Black Africa to get into the Racist State. They knew that Blacks were reaping the benefits of serving Whites. Their countries were shit holes - as Black countries always are.
Good Points JHK. The only reason in my area that we know of the extensive damage in NE is because of the many folks who attend college here from that region. The news groups were such idiots, I cannot wait to see the Daily Shown Version. On a happy note many of my right wing co workers are dreaming of Perry and Bachmann. Perry led an economic revial in Texas,thats what they say. The 10 year freeze dried can report, like the meats, butter was awful. It seems flour, rice, beans of all sorts, powdered milk are great, the rest yuck. Plant, and pray to Zeus.
Why Ix, don't feel bad - you should hire a Black Woman to make you a similar Pie.
Vlad,
It has nothing to do with "identifying with blacks". Are we discussing the film critique or something else, as in a segue way to generic racial strife? At any rate, I find it disingenuous that this “film critic’ and people like him are able to contextualize and defend the likes of a Christopher Columbus against charges of racial genocide based upon being ‘a man of his time’ ( not a false argument, in my opinion) and yet are seemingly unable to contextualize the historical reality of slavery.
This is the staple diet of a large part of the human population of the planet:
http://sinosoul.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/img_3639.jpg
".....are seemingly unable to contextualize the historical reality of slavery."
-buck-
This film is not set in slavery times.
Neither the film critic, nor Vlad, mentioned slavery.
This film is set in the early 1960's - nearly 100 years after slavery ended.
Why are you bringing up slavery?
"Perry led an economic revial in Texas,thats what they say"
-------------------
Except Perry doesn't control world oil prices... he just benefited from oil going up during his term.
Even so, he left Texas with a Billions of dollars shortfall in the state budget. Perry criticized Obama's stimulus, but took $17 Billion of stimulus money to pay down the Texas state debt he created.
Oh, yeah... he created jobs in Texas ... the most poorly paid jobs (with no benefits) in the nation.
Perry is good on being pro-immigrant. Texas economy depends of immigrant labor.
This is the staple diet of a large part of the human population of the planet.
Have any of you Clusterfuck-ups ever farted in the bathtub?
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Jim, you are on a roll for connecting the dots and predicting the demise of modern civilization as we know it. Thanks once again for an excellent post.
Someone on this thread asked how we are going to pay for the $35 Billion in damages from this little tropical storm.
Put this number into perspective. We have shoveled $34.2 Billion into Fannie Mae and $51.7 Billion into Freddie Mac in direct government support to offset their losses from all the crap mortgages they bought. We could have built a substantial portion of a nice, modern Rapid Rail (NOT "high speed"}for that... and we also could rebuild Joplin, MO, or many other locales wrecked by natural disasters for that.
Never mind the $117 Billion shoveled into AIG.
Or the $200 Billion in TARP.
Or the money shoveled into HOPE Now, or any of the other programs to offset losses from bad mortgages or help "struggling" home borrowers. We're talking about $3 Trillion at least in bailouts and assistance pursuant to the credit debacle of the 00s... .money that has by and large not only not relieved the situation but has gone to help create more bad debt while keeping housing prices artificially high in many locales still.
Let's demand that money being allocated to Fannie, Freddie, the FHA, HUD, the major financial houses and other participants in the debt debacle and/or government agencies that had a major hand in creating it, be allocated to rebuilding civic infrastructure and lifeline support systems critically damaged by major natural disasters, as well as to help individual victims who were wiped out.
I went to your blog, KC, and agreed that we
are now living under "soft" totalitarianism.
The Democratic and Republican parties are
the two wings of the Mo' Money Party. In
other words, America has become a KLEPTOCRACY
in which everything not bolted down goes to
the first taker and the best scammer. All
the multinationals give to BOTH parties so
the nitpickers can quibble over whether, say,
$1B from Corp. X to the Dems and $1.4B from
Corp. X to the Republicans is worthy of discussing
who is "most loved".
However, if there's a "nit" I want to "pick" it
is MY recurrent theme that, in a very real sense,
we are getting the government we DESERVE. I am
in a constant state of awe when I deal with
agencies in ANY business whatsoever. One day
my brokerage screwed up the records on which
email address was my "official" email address
without me having even visited their site. Next
day, it's some doofus from HR at my school
about details of my health coverage they neglected
to pass on before I retired. The day after that,
a credit card issuer closed my account due to
inactivity WITHOUT WARNING. Whose "bitch" is
whose?? The SERVICE REPS, almost always paid
at the rate of a Walgreen's clerk, aren't smart
enough and/or willing enough to enter data
correctly, double-check the accuracy of their
work, or entertain the idea that people's LIVES
are affected by their conscience or lack
thereof.
Now, in 1965, service FAILURES were rare, greeted
by kissing the customer's ass, and profusely
apologized for. But we ALL know how it goes
down now ... it's YOUR fault for being ANGRY
at the employee's absolute disinterest in the
accuracy of their work. Here's where I am an
equal-opportunity hater ... I don't care WHAT
ethnicity these frontline people are, I want
my bank accounts, brokerage accounts, health
care accounts, etc. not to be fucked up every
six months whereupon I've gotta DOG 'EM.
Now, it IS a "chicken and egg problem" about
whether the low pay preceded the low conscience
or vice versa. However, we are where we are.
And when our fragile Republic's service personnel,
our "first contact" with many vital concerns, are
USUALLY some sort of douchebag (there must be a
hundred varieties ... the fashionistas, the "my
real job is artist", the "I'm only virtuous for
show in the biz world but ... I BE BAD" people,
the "I'm openly trashy to show you the futility
of virtue" militants ... I won't bore you
further).
The mainstream people of the USA have simply
dropped one or two levels of conscience and
ADDED one or two levels of avarice. It almost
doesn't matter, in some very fundamental sense,
whether we get Peeping Tom cameras, Internet
censors, etc.. Before it even gets this
creepy we are TOAST because it takes a middle
class of much better demeanor and tastes than
this to organize intelligent resistance, to
be ACCURATE in their resistance (to do the
research legwork) to their oppressors, in other
words, to SUCCEED in recouping their liberties.
The hyperbolically corrupt and stupid politicos
are a mere mirror of their constituencies. Why
should we expect otherwise?? People care more
about their home value, their trinkets, and
how they can use Optionetics from home than in
how to BE BETTER PEOPLE.
So, my supposition is that, through worship of
vanity, stupidity, and greed, we have CREATED
and NURTURED these traits at the highest levels
because WE are THEY.
E.
Good points, E.
But it's not just the clerical class that is so remiss with accuracy.
How about doctors. You know they guys that think they're entitled to big money.
My mother at the age of 89 and on heart medications went to see her cardiologist before undergoing cataract surgery. The Dr. said she was doing so well he didn't need to see her for another year! Imagine that.
Then she went for surgery and the morons gave her a water pill, cause that's the standard CYA in this type of surgery.
They clearly didn't look at her charts to see what medications she was on. They couldn't be bothered with specifics.
So dutifully, she took the water pill and within three days her kidneys shut down and she started going through renal failure.
She stayed in the hospital for two weeks so they could balance her water retention and in that time she had a pacemaker put in.
She snapped back but her water balances were too hard to monitor and she died a few months later at the age of 90 of congestive heart failure.
I have no doubt that she had a few more good years, but that one error destroyed her homeostasis and ultimately cost her her life.
Oh, but that eye surgeon thinks he should be a millionaire! I'm sure he never thought twice about my mom.
"MY recurrent theme that, in a very real sense,
we are getting the government we DESERVE."
-eleuthero-
Yeah, no doubt, E.
Part of the problem is that honest productive work - and the people who do it - have been denigrated and mocked for decades, simply because they choose - or are forced by life - to do honest and productive work.
This attitude got worse in the "Greed is Good, 1980's" but it began LONG before that.
===============
As an example, consider this statement from Buck Stud:
"....just ridiculous, just as paying someone to do easy, regular house duties was."
-buck-
Thus does Buck denigrate the honest work involved in doing "regular house duties."
Somehow - deep in the American psyche - honest labor, subservience, and slavery have become hopelessly conflated.
And we wonder why front line employees sometimes act conflicted - or even a little bit pissed.
As an example, consider this statement from Buck Stud:
"....just ridiculous, just as paying someone to do easy, regular house duties was."
-buck-
Prog, I never said that, it was a quote from one of the posters on Vlad's link.
I'm sorry about your mom, LBend - and especially about the circumstances surrounding her death. We all know we're all gonna die - one way or another, one day or another - but none of us wants to see someone die "in error," so to speak.
My own mom had a minor heart attack, triple by-pass, pacemaker - and lived for 7 pretty good years after all of that. Several mistakes were made along the way that could have killed her, easily and quite literally.
Everybody makes mistakes. Some people work in professions where mistakes can do harm. Many professions have "tightened up" the quality control over the past 10 years - using good equipment, good training, and a good system of checks and balances.
Patient contact medicine seems to be - "lagging behind" - some other professions that deal with "life and limb" in important ways. Mostly, medicine seems to lack accountability for recurrent errors - that sometimes lead to death.
=================
On a personal note - for a while in college my major was known as "pre-vet, pre-med, pre-law, pre-life," before I finally changed it to something that would actually give me a degree and let me get out of there (college).
So I knew a bunch of people who were destined to become "professionals." And I've kept up with some of them. And the doctors I know - have not been well served by many of the things that have happened to American medical practice.
For the most part, these guys - after doctoring for 30 years, now - are making less money than they thought they would. And society gives them less respect than it used to give their father's generation of doctor. And the Great Respect (and the big bucks) now go to the CEO's and the Bean Counters in the medical INSURANCE and administration guilds.
Weird, huh?
Prog,
I meant to say, historical LEGACY of slavery. I also should have mentioned Jim Crow, but it was late. The reason I mention these two legacies was because the "film critic" asserts that " cultural Marxists" never tire of mentioning the Civil Rights movement.( And why do all these White Supremacist types always seem to look like they belong in the back row of a porn theater with Pee Wee Herman?)
Anyway, legacies and lineage imbue humans with a certain sense of pride or a certain sense of failure - all those Scottish Highland festivals, for example. And even those antecedents who fought for the wretched, reprehensible side of a battle are held up for pride and praise a hundred and fifty years after the fact(i.e., the Southern blowhard proudly lionizing some Johnny Reb warrior in their blood line).
"Prog, I never said that, it was a quote from one of the posters on Vlad's link."
-buck-
OK, Buck, sorry about that. But I assumed that you agreed with the ideas expressed - or, otherwise you would not have posted it. Right?
Prog,
Why do you feature one part of a sentence when the other is more indicative of the overall point. Below is what you featured:
“ just ridiculous, just as paying someone to do easy, regular house duties was."
And this is what you omitted from the same sentence:
“ Having old black men and women saying “sir” and “ma’am” to whites less than half their age was just ridiculous”
Prog, you practice exactly what you accuse Asoka of doing: Impeding honest dialogue. And more and more I am coming to find you coy and evasive . For instance, the anti-immigration group you vociferously touted before it was suggested that it was infected with a racist tributary, is now offered up by you in a much more discrete and clandestine manner. And if it’s a new group, why not just state who it is, forthright? Perhaps I should refer to you as “The Great Dissimulator “ in the future ?
Furthermore, I did not post and explicate every phrase, clause, sentence, or thought from the poster as evidence of unanimous agreement; I posted it because it stood relatively alone in a sea of bias and the general tenor was at least sane and lacking in racist fury.
But I should have known that Vlad was not interested in discussing the film review itself; it was just the ignition switch for yet another drive down that muddy, furrowed road of racist misdirection. My bad and apologies to the board.
Vermont is SOL, just as the people in Missouri and Alabama were earlier this year. There just aren't enough hapless welfare people standing around to rile up Anderson Cooper and Sean Penn.
Home boy is gonna find out what it's like being treated like a corn-pone.
If the Bahama's income is so great, why are you inundated with beggars and criminals when you step out side your hotel gate. Staying on the out islands like Guana Key you don't see any of that though. Wonder how they weathered Irene.
You're overanalyzing me and my posts, Buck.
"For instance, the anti-immigration group you vociferously touted before it was suggested that it was infected with a racist tributary, is now offered up by you in a much more discrete and clandestine manner."
-BuckStud-
The reason I'm being "discrete and clandestine" is because I don't want to lose another screenname to posting too many live links.
And because the regular posters on here know about FAIR and NumbersUSA because I mention these two websites at least once a week.
And because I don't claim to be an expert on internet research - I think someone else might find even BETTER organizations than these two - especially if I leave the idea open for discussion - especially on a Monday.
=================
"Prog, you practice exactly what you accuse Asoka of doing: Impeding honest dialogue. And more and more I am coming to find you coy and evasive..."
-buckstud-
Whoa there, Buck - you really know how to hurt a guy! It won't be long before Q comes sailing in, calling me "vagina" and agreeing with you.
If I seem "coy and evasive" - - - It may be because I'm working through my own attitudes on race, work, and love - as I'm going along here on CFN.
For example -
I grew up in the EXACT time frame that "The Help" is set in. I had a black maid who kept me so my mom could go back to teaching when I was one year old. I loved that woman almost as much as I did my own mom. And she did honest work. And my mom and dad paid her an honest wage. And they even paid both shares of her Social Security.
And to think that that loving woman would take her shit - and mix it in a pie, and serve it to me, or my mom, or my dad - EXACTLY like the woman in the movie -
Is a very hateful idea.
Yet, apparently audiences think it's OK.
What do you think about it?
That was a reply to BustinJ
Today in the Mercury News is word that the city is going to destroy its Martin Luther King Library in downtown. The columnist states, "This is brutalism 101." Not only that it has a mote around the bottom and it looks like a place to store ammunition. In 1970 it cost $4.1 million to build. It will cost over a million to bring it down.
Apparently they are going to use the space to annex the convention center. Ugh...I'm sure it will be horrible....and why? It's not like the business convention biz is going anywhere.
Could this be a sign the economy is recovering, so a bigger convention center is needed?
I've been through two hurricanes in the last six years on the texas coast. I wouldn't wish it on anyone. Even though I'm a red state redneck, my wife and I especially love New England. We are actually hoping for a 'lite' tropical event here this weekend. No decent rain in a while.
Wage, both the Iraq invasion and the Libya bombing were illegal and immoral. We agree on that. The killing of Iraqis and Libyans is criminal. We agree.
All I was doing was comparing Obama and Bush with regard to removing dictators.
I said Obama was more intelligent to involve NATO instead of going it alone.
I said Obama was smarter to not risk a single American life, instead of Bush's sacrifice of 4,500 American military.
I said Obama was smarter to remove Gadaffi at a cost one thousand times less than Bush spent.
So, yes, I am high-fiving Obama as an intelligent Commander-in-Chief.
While I don't agree with either one in initiating American participation in conflicts, it seems obvious that it is better to conduct war with less loss of life and at less cost to the nation Obama loves so much.
So you'd rather have Texas buttholes in charge? Republican suckers are just as stupid as Democratic suckers. If a coyote needs shootin' I'll do it my fucking self.
Weird, huh?
What isn't weird about anything in this counter-intuitive system we live in. There's no end to the distortions of a system turned in on itself deliberately to glean profits for a few.
It takes 5.5 Billion gallons of fuel for our Wars,
we are spending hundreds of thousands for every Predator Drone, and $20 Billion for air conditioning Iraq and Afghanistan.
Somehow the Powers-That-Be running the USA can find money for that, $1 Trillion worth annually, but
there is no money for Green Transit, solar cells or thermal heating in Florida, recycling, etc.
My point is the enormous waste of resources involved in the MIC and Auto Addiction needs to be redirected ASAP to the Transition to a sustainable
civilization and economy.
Unfortunately it WAS real gasoline/diesel/jet fuel
wasted last year in the endless Wars...
It will never return...
"All I was doing was comparing Obama and Bush with regard to removing dictators."
I got news for ya, Bush ain't running for re-election. Why don't ya compare O's policies to somebody that might make a difference?
Answer: Progressives and liberals may agree on many social issues but can't support Dr. Paul. His ideology opposes governments excessive intervention into the affairs of the people. Liberal/progressives are wedded to the idea of social justice, a term that to them means equality; that government must be used to redistribute wealth and dictate what ever they think is best for all. There is a very long list! One should not mistake liberal progressives for the far left, who's views are more radically socialist.
Please tell me it ain't so...
Christopher Columbus had no clue as to the effect of his arrival in the new world would have on the western hemisphere. European germs conquered the western hemisphere. Neither the Europeans nor the indigenous peoples had any knowledge of what was going on. Were the Europeans bent on conquest? You bet. would it have been as easy without their secret weapon? No way. It was so secret they didn't even know about it. read "Guns, Germs and Steel," if you haven't already.
Or learn about the Columbian Age in "What is America" by Ronald Wright:
http://www.walrusmagazine.com/articles/2008.09-book-review-what-is-america-imperialism-ronald-wright-daniel-baird/
The beginning of TLE heralds the end of the Columbian Age.
MD,
This is somewhat off-topic, but I guess our choice of who we'll have lead us into the darkness does have some bearing.
Mr. Paul had better be verrrrry careful. We've seen what happens with "advisers" wedging in their slimy agendas on the coattails of "populists"...
The Grim[m] Tale of Dr. Fine and Mr. Fein:
http://www.boilingfrogspost.com/
(These neocon/globalist assholes never go away voluntarily.)
Your desire to bring in tens of millions of aliens... Vlad
I desire no such thing. Who told you this?
...in the "hope" that they will assimilate is incredible hubris. - Vlad
I don't hope for such a thing. I demand and expect it. By and large and thus far, as I've said in previous posts, these "aliens" have assimilated quite nicely within a generation or two of arrival. How do I know? By observing and by believing the evidence of my own eyes. I'm a living example as are millions of others in this country. Assimilation works. E pluribus unum is a damn fine idea.
I must say that I find the last sales bot very interesting. One would think the bots were smarter then the above one but in this case I think its a live human and they knew what they were doing.
Prog writes:
“ Is a very hateful idea.
Yet, apparently audiences think it's OK.
What do you think about it?
I haven’t seen the film. The film is portraying a fictional event and the review of the film is a redoubling of an event as seen through the eyes of one with an obvious racial agenda. So basically were discussing the simulacra of a simulacrum, and yet “reality” was never folded over and “doubled” in the first place - it’s the fiction of film. What becomes hyper-real is that you seem to believe the interpretation of the film critic below.
“While attending this movie I noticed that the audience was an equal mixture of whites and blacks, and both groups howled with equal delight as the white characters in the film were ritually humiliated and degraded. I wondered to myself what the response would have been if a white character had made feces pie and served it to an unwitting, credulous black character? Somehow, I think the audience response would have been different. “
Prog, do you really believe all these chuckling white people are suffering from the “politically correct” hypnotic spell of the Hollywood Jewish film producer? Or is there something more nuanced, something more historically contextual that the howling white folks were reacting to?
You seem to believe it is hate, but perhaps it was the one of the only forms of retribution for a people subject to centuries some of the most barbarous oppression and brutality ever racially inflicted on one group of humans from another. After all, looking cross-eyed at a white person in the South during the ‘60s might get a black person killed. So the black person, whose grandfather may have been lynched for no good reason, serves the white person a small plate of their own shit- Gasp. And the Hollywood producer [ Jewish, no doubt] manages to interject a little comedy into an otherwise tragic historical legacy- Double Gasp.
And the morally upstanding white person, operating in a historical vacuum, demands that the victims of every form of reprehensible evil possess no real human proclivity for retributive retaliation. And not only that, but from the vantage point of moral superiority, minimize said historical oppressors contribution to the human need for a pressure release valve in the form of retribution. And not only that, but from the beneficent vantage point of morally superior historical oppressor, demand that the oppressed possess the culture, class, and forgiveness that might only be surpassed by Christ himself, or else be deemed hateful.
There’s a shit sandwich being served, I will agree, and it’s not in some fictional film.
We're talking past each other Buck.
I'm trying to argue from the specific to the general - because I lived the specific. I loved my black maid. She took care of me for 7 years, 1956 until 1963, when we had to move because of my dad's work. I played with her son and my family ALWAYS had a good relationship with her family - even years and years later.
Now, regarding:
"You seem to believe it is hate, but perhaps it was the one of the only forms of retribution for a people subject to centuries some of the most barbarous oppression and brutality ever racially inflicted on one group of humans from another."
-buckstud-
That IS hate, buck, there's no other way to describe it. At some point, the cycle of retribution and hate has to stop. I'm doing what I can to understand it, and to try to stop it - in my corner of the world.
Part of that involves presenting the idea that not all whites in the '60's in the South - were hate filled racists whose children and grandchildren deserve a lifetime of shit sandwiches.
===============
Who's advocating continual shit sandwiches? If anybody is, it would be Vlad and his ilk who can't seem to distinguish between a film portraying a particular timeline, the audiences response to it, and their own longing for segregation that denies the present day reality of a multicultural society.
Let me boil it down. You enlist a mechanic to work in your area - no you capture him and force him to work without pay - and subject him to the most dehumanizing conditions possible, for years and years on end. You rape his wife, and you sell his children into faraway labor. Then one day you go back and offer a descendant of this mechanic a pittance to work (in comparison to the going wage of white workers) with a smile on your face. You believe yourself to now be kind and moral - you're going to pay him to work on your car!
The mechanic agrees but inside he is flipping you half the peace sign. And he also recalls the injustice - he was one the offspring who was allowed to stay on the mechanic plantation with his Pop. But he works on your car anyway, and along the way pours some sugar in your gas tank just for good measure. What a hateful guy.
But not as hateful as the Hollywood Jewish film maker who has the audacity to portray and chronicle the above scenario via artistic license.
And poor Vlad Krantz, so offended and indignant, perhaps he can provides some fodder for some future potential creative effort: " The Pathetic Victim "
Hey, thanks for that bullfrog thing, I think you found a snake in the grass.
Hey, no problem.
If I find 'em, I toss 'em out for perusal... whether they may support my bias or no. (Older "life" is a fine time to begin to learn things; much too little, much too late, eh? At least we'll get some entertainment value out of these amazing incongruities that surrounds us! ;o)
Wow, Buck!
I applaud your taking on "the burning Issue" that exists in the fevered imaginations of the socially inept; it's one that is the last bastion of the pissed-without-knowing-why. Could it possibly be a CLASS system that's fucking these fuckers? (Oh no, my "own kind" would NEVER fuck me so hard that it hurt.)
IM[slightly warped]O, this "terrible burden" will be one of very least of our problems as things begin to "shake out" in TLE. Sure, it will be focused on as a "real" schism when the great crumbling is in its' initial rush (especially by the existing media as a divisive tactic of the oligarchs), but later it'll be, "What do you have for skills, mate?"
-------- (that guy) as victim, is just perfect! That is the only incarnation that they can get any traction from. Of course, it's all bullshit, but what other quadrant will grant them a soapbox?
Poor, poor, downtrodden white folk; sorry that all the good stuff was handed out to them "coloreds", and the scales of justice are weighted wrongly.
Again, good luck wid dis discourse, but there's a definitive reason I will not engage these fools. As one of the minor knock-ons, [in future] they can't be trusted! If they'll turn on other humans for spurious reasons, what do you think they might do to you or me when things get REALLY tight and they feel you might be suddenly "expendable" and use the excuse of "racial-wrong-headedness"?
***"SURROUND us" (singular). Sorry... goin'... gone...
Ps.
Thanks, Mr. Kunstler, for the photo links.
Check in to see how everyone is doing tomorrow.
Stay incorporated til then, All!
'After all, looking cross-eyed at a white person in the South during the ‘60s might get a black person killed'
And looking at a Black or Mexican in LA [especially if you are GAY] will get you killed today...
ask Reginald Denny, Chandra Levy or 1000s of others.
I mean 1000s.
40 million more people added over the next 10 years..
Many of whom hate USA, Euro Culture, the English language, Christianity, Suth'nuhs etc.
Especially Muslims...gawd dang.
what gets to me is all the old Russians in LA.
I assume they get 'the dole'.
Theres a building at 3405 [?] Via Dolce in Marina del rey.........Owned by the Government but taken over by the Myfya...
I am told by a residents son...EVERY ONE IN BUILDING IS RUSSIAN JEW WHO PAID THE MAFIA A BRIBE TO GET ALMOST FREE GOVT HOUSING.
CAN YA NAME A LIST OR SITE OF AFRICAN ATROCITIES?
Buck, interesting post, but your time line is all wrong:
"Let me boil it down. You enlist a mechanic to work in your area - no you capture him and force him to work without pay - and subject him to the most dehumanizing conditions possible, for years and years on end. You rape his wife, and you sell his children into faraway labor. Then one day you go back and offer a descendant of this mechanic a pittance to work (in comparison to the going wage of white workers) with a smile on your face. You believe yourself to now be kind and moral - you're going to pay him to work on your car!"
-buckstud-
The man to whom you are referring as "you" was dead by 1890 or so. Yet, this "you" continues in the above paragraph - in the present tense no less - for nine more references to "you," "your," and "you're."
No children have been sold into "faraway labor" since 1864 - yet the man called "you" is still responsible.
Even though the grandchildren and greatgrandchildren of the African-American beneficiaries of the Civil Rights Act have walked totally free in America for 47 years -
the man called "you" is still responsible -
In other words, I, as a white guy - born in the South or in the US - can NEVER -
NEVER - NOT EVER - be forgiven for Black Slavery -
because my great-great-grandfather was "you."
Not. ever.
Is that the way it is in your mind, Buck?
Does this seem reasonable?
YA MEAN THIS ASSHAT:
Whenever the Left encounters massive public skepticism regarding the benefits of homosexual marriage,
open borders,
global warming,
Obama’s presidency,
or whatever the liberal cause du jour may be, they can always depend on striking a sympathetic chord with mainstream conservatives and liberals alike by dusting off yet another reminiscence about the bad old days of segregation to remind us of how righteous liberals are.
WHITE GUILT, FOOL [ACTUALLY YER NOT A FOOL BUT]
LB said:
But it's not just the clerical class that is so remiss with accuracy.
How about doctors. You know they guys that think they're entitled to big money.
***************************************************
Point taken!! In denigrating our "service
personnel class" I was most assuredly NOT
saying that professional class was doing
much better. My sense is that doctors are
MUCH dumber than just a couple of decades
ago ... which is just a blip in historical time.
I could write a lengthy missive about what has
become of doctors, teachers, school admins,
and engineers such as PROGRAMMERS for ten
paragraphs. However, my overarching point in
my post was, and is, that our politicians are
COMPLETELY REPRESENTATIVE of a country with
diminished competence and conscience.
And, yes, that DOES include the big money guys
that the phone flunkies work for!!!
E.
Far as 'tearin down good Buildings' its the same in Soviet Monica...Especially at the College, which has been called a 'construction site not a school'.
The leftist green creeps now have covered 4 huge fields in Plastic [astro turf]...Huge football sized fields.
That the stuff soon starts to fray and send plastic beads into the bay doesnt matter to them...
AND THE PLASTIC STINKS.
The contractor must have made millions.
The Bahamas has a per capita income of around $25,000
=================
per capita
by or for each individual person: income per capita.
Bust, I find this HARD to believe. Picture this: a man, a women and their two little kids with a total income of $100K.
I've been to the Bahamas a couple of times ... AIN'T NO WAY!
I'd even be surprised if "household" income averaged $25K.
Amazing;…….I never realized that spouting lofty ideals worked as incantation. What a relief that our nation is no longer confronting the otherwise implacable calculus of limited carrying capacity. Why hell yes – if that be the case – let all the world’s overpopulation seek refuge here in America. Crazy, selfish me; somehow I just didn’t have faith in another miracle like the one of Christ feeding thousands on table scraps.
P2C said:
Somehow - deep in the American psyche - honest labor, subservience, and slavery have become hopelessly conflated.
And we wonder why front line employees sometimes act conflicted - or even a little bit pissed.
****************************************************
I don't disagree with you but I don't think low
level employees EVER got THAT much respect and
admiration even in 1965. Yet they did their jobs
with conscience and accuracy.
I've noticed in California that the "old school"
practice of making your 16-year-old kid WORK in
the summer seems to be rarer and rarer. When I
was in my late teens I was a tire changer in a
Sears Auto Center ... a VERY physically taxing
job. In other summers I was a janitor, a melon
picker, and a caretaker in a dog pound.
I think our entire society just got spoiled by
the stock/bond/housing bubbles in the 1990s and
the 2000s and when they couldn't achieve "wealth
without work" they just got PISSED. The young
kids got pissed because Mom and Dad started to
struggle and their fainting asses actually had
to work. Mom and Dad got pissed of because
their brokerage account and house stopped paying
20% per year.
We have become a degenerate nation because of a
couple of decades of asset inflation and our
"addiction" to it.
E.
"IM[slightly warped]O, this "terrible burden" will be one of very least of our problems as things begin to "shake out" in TLE."
-ozone, on racial differences-
Ozone, I hope you're right.
But I fear you're wrong.
Despite 47 years of the Grand Experiment known as racial mixing in America - the races are as stratified as ever. Look at any city in the US and you will find communities that are stratified by race and social class - but especially by race.
Look at any lunch room at any racially mixed high school in America - and you will see racial segregation - as students, generally, CHOOSE to eat with their "friends."
Even look at the US military - a "showpiece" of racially mixed harmony if one EVER existed - -
but look during off-duty hours, and racial segregation hasn't budged very much since the 1960's.
People are tribal, generally.
When placed under stress - they become more tribal, not less.
JHK acknowledges these facts, in his TLE books.
We can wish this were not so.
Wishing will not change reality.
Consider all possible realities, O3.
Thanks Vlad... P cesspool is A great SITE!
GOT THIS THERE:
Many of our political elite use the “Frankfurt School” ideology to run and ruin our society:
To further the advance of their ‘quiet’ cultural revolution – but giving us no ideas about their plans for the future – the School recommended (among other things):
1. The creation of racism offences
2. Continual change to create confusion
3. The teaching of sex and homosexuality to children
4. The undermining of schools’ and teachers’ authority
5. Huge immigration to destroy identity
6. The promotion of excessive drinking
7. Emptying of churches
8. An unreliable legal system with bias against victims of crime
9. Dependency on the state or state benefits
10. Control and dumbing down of media
11. Encouraging the breakdown of the family
One of the main ideas of the Frankfurt School was to exploit Freud’s idea of ‘pansexualism’ – the search for pleasure, the exploitation of the differences between the sexes, the overthrowing of traditional relationships between men and women. To further their aims they would:
• attack the authority of the father, deny the specific roles of father and mother, and wrest away from families
• their rights as primary educators of their children
• abolish differences in the education of boys and girls
• abolish all forms of male dominance
• declare women to be an ‘oppressed class’ and men as ‘oppressors’
Munzenberg summed up the Frankfurt School’s long-term operation thus: ”We will make the West so corrupt that it stinks.”
The School believed there were two types of revolution: (a) political and (b) cultural.
Cultural revolution demolishes from within. ‘Modern forms of subjection are marked by mildness’.
They saw it as a long-term project and kept their sights clearly focused on the family, education, media, sex and popular culture
" look at the US military - a "showpiece" of racially mixed harmony if one EVER existed - -
but look during off-duty hours, and racial segregation hasn't budged very much since the 1960's. "
WAY MORE MEXICANS NOW!
James is right. Made it up to the family farm along the Mohawk River, and it is nothing short of shocking to see the water levels that high.
With all the focus on NYC and DC, few considered the NE water dumping zone... except Michelle Bachman maybe.
Ozone, I hope you're right.
But I fear you're wrong...........WHAT WAS HE TALKING ABOUT?
FORGIVE MY DENSE NESS!
You say in the good old days, sixteen-year-olds worked in the summer. A week after I turned 16 my dad told me to get a job. I worked at Sears as a cashier.
But today their are no jobs for teenagers under 18. I know of three guys that looked all summer...out pounding the pavement. Nothing. One of our friends, who is 19, got a job bagging groceries a nice Italian grocery store--but his parents know the owners. That being said, he only got 8 hours of work a week.
My son has experience as a sign waver. The summer before the 2008 crash he would go out to the very busy intersection of Almaden Expressway and Blossom Hill in a sandwich costume waving a Subway sign.
He actually saw a want ad where they wanted applicants to have EXPERIENCE as a sign waver. You had to demonstrate your waving and spinning technique. Experience for a sign waver? What is the world coming to?
" Even though the grandchildren and greatgrandchildren of the African-American beneficiaries of the Civil Rights Act have walked totally free in America for 47 years -
the man called "you" is still responsible -"
Prog,
This movie is set in the '60s, right around the time George Wallace was blocking a university entrance and canines( was anti-soak on a leash, making citizens arrest?) and fire hoses were set loose on African-Americans. In other words, the tail end of Jim Crow. So can we agree that, in terms of timeline, gradations of brutality and oppression were in play?
I highly doubt the audience, including white people, is sanctioning this behavior in 2011 just because they had a chuckle; subtle minds are able to recognize the frailty of human morality when confronted with the overwhelming urge of vengeance and retribution, especially given a historical portrayal in the medium of film or the theater.
So the larger question for me is why some fail to acknowledge/recognize the context of the movie narrative and misrepresent this context as a present day affirmation of one race serving another shit?
Of course, that is not a hard question to answer when talking about self-serving racists with a twisted, psychotic agenda.
So how do you feel about the assertions/declarations of the film critic, Prog?
The pathetic neurosis of the CNN/eternal death watch on the approach of Hurricane Irene was the producers' bet on the conditioned voyeurism gripp the american audience to do nothing but watch how man millions of fellow consumers (not citizens) suffer "an act of god" (not) if the storm maintain category 2 winds.NOT the NE megalopolis centric priorities in mass media (oK that supported the usual lets watch a disaster smoke millions voyeur treat). Even if it included themselves as they watched. Or includes them as the Gloabl Titannic sails speedily into the ice flow .....
PS: Thanks to PBS providing momentary relief in the airing of Ernesto Cardenal reading from his newest book, Pluriverse .
"So how do you feel about the assertions/declarations of the film critic, Prog?"
-buck-
Buck, I feel that we have worn this thing out by talking about it - especially considering that neither you nor I have seen the film.
We're also trying to have an argument/discussion about historical context of historical actors. There is something about you that seems to infer that the oppressed in history were always good - while ALL members of the society that included the oppression were always evil.
Maybe I'm off base and/or projecting things on to you that are undeserved. But there's a lack of consideration of context - on the part of many posters on CFN - who identify ONLY with the victors of the American Civil War.
As illustrated by this block of text from you, from earlier in the discussion:
"And even those antecedents who fought for the wretched, reprehensible side of a battle are held up for pride and praise a hundred and fifty years after the fact(i.e., the Southern blowhard proudly lionizing some Johnny Reb warrior in their blood line)."
-buck-
"Wretched" and "reprehensible" indicate a certain prejudgement concerning historical context, I believe.
====================
And BTW, I've been saying for months that CFN tilts liberal and atheistic.
It also tilts Yankee - now that I think about it.
And someone is, even NOW, saying to himself - I wish Buck and P2C would JUST SHUT UP about the American Civil War - for Gawd's Sake.
Well, to that person - tough titty.
But also consider that we're still refighting the thing 150 years later - this means something.
Is there a lesson for the modern US and our warlike interventions into the Civil Affairs of other countries?? I would say that there is.
{Anyway, legacies and lineage imbue humans with a certain sense of pride or a certain sense of failure - all those Scottish Highland festivals, for example. And even those antecedents who fought for the wretched, reprehensible side of a battle are held up for pride and praise a hundred and fifty years after the fact(i.e., the Southern blowhard proudly lionizing some Johnny Reb warrior in their blood line).}
I am happy to be a Southerner, BuckStud. Note the difference between happy and proud, if you will :) Something that really angers me is that as a Southerner, you catch it from both sides . . . here, on JHK's forum, Southern people are always pigeonholed as cheeze-doodle-munchin', Nascar watchin' brain-dead fucktards, regardless of our individuality (I'd venture to say that it takes folks of a certain level of intellect to even seek out a forum like this to begin with . . . after all, there's shit on cable to watch, ain't there? :) You get this from the elitists of all races, no matter where you go or what you're doing, if you happen to have a trace of a Southern accent. Ask Prog, but I imagine it's worse for us women than it is for the menfolk :)
Next, as a white person, in the South, you have a distinct possibility of catching hell from blacks as well, whether you consider yourself to be racist or not (me, I do NOT consider myself to be racist . . . I consider myself to be anti-hassle-fucking-bullshit :) . . . I went to pay a parking ticket at the municipal court the other day . . . I was standing in line for an hour behind the same slacker video-game-playing-living-in-his-mom's-basement standard white guy, and there were a couple of what I would consider to be "ghetto" women steadily cutting line (they just HAPPEN to be black . . . they were ghetto to the bone, regardless of their color . . . I guess similar whites would be called "white-trash", a la Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia :)~ . . . when I got near the front of the line, one woman said to the other, "oh, hell naw . . . you better NOT let that white lady cut in front of you!" And I turned and calmly said, "I've been behind this guy for an hour, and I am not cutting line as you have been . . . ask these other people you so rudely have been cutting in front of and see what they think about it." The other people who were being dissed quickly affirmed my position, and they backed down, but not befor the "senior" ghetto lady with gold front teeth got really close up in my face and said, "Uh huh . . . oh, ok, Miss Lady . . . uh huh." But she backed down. Probably because she sensed that I don't take no guff and I'm willing to go to jail if necessary if I'm physically assaulted :)
So, at home in the South, with my "people", I'm kinda like Joe Bageant always talked about . . . you feel like you don't quite fit . . . you're intellectually superior to some, but on their wavelength culturally. And others who you may be intellectually equal to, you are "culturally inferior" to, evidenced by your cursed accent :)
It's a quandry, for sure, Buck :) But personally, I don't refight the Civil War, nor do I hold up as heroes some long lost Rebel ancestor. My people were humble Scots-Irish sharecroppers . . . we were more likely to be working side by side in the field with a negro, than to be owning any :) Just a thought, just a playful thought.
Well Prog, you didn't answer my question. But I'm burned out on this anyway, and in no small part because your responses are so fractionated. But if you post any more thoughts on the Civil War etc., I will read with interest.
{“ Having old black men and women saying “sir” and “ma’am” to whites less than half their age was just ridiculous”}
I don't know about saying sir and ma'am to people half my age, but as a Southerner, I was taught to say "sir" and "ma'am" to anyone who was my elder, regardless of their color. And now, these kids of all colors are saying "ma'am" to me! And I wanna smack 'em upside the head! :)~~ When did I become a "ma'am", dammit? :)~ Perhaps when I hit 35? :) Seems to be around then :)
{And the morally upstanding white person, operating in a historical vacuum, demands that the victims of every form of reprehensible evil possess no real human proclivity for retributive retaliation. And not only that, but from the vantage point of moral superiority, minimize said historical oppressors contribution to the human need for a pressure release valve in the form of retribution. And not only that, but from the beneficent vantage point of morally superior historical oppressor, demand that the oppressed possess the culture, class, and forgiveness that might only be surpassed by Christ himself, or else be deemed hateful.
There’s a shit sandwich being served, I will agree, and it’s not in some fictional film.}
Jesus Christ, Buck. That makes a whole bunch of sense if you're not one of the descendants of the fucks who did that shit to those folks :) I was born in 1969, in ALABAMA, and I rode the integrated school bus with a whole bunch of these black children, and we got along fine. People tried to tell me that I should call them "niggers" and I never bought it. They were just people like me. That's the way I grew up. I agree with every thing MLK ever espoused. I think I even posted "I have a Dream" here in a past week at one point. So I should be responsible for the sins of my ancestors? WTF? I've had this conversation with black friends, among others. I've asked them why it's ok for them to call each other "niggers" if it's not right for any one else to call them that . . . my perspective is that if it's wrong for ONE, it's wrong for ALL :) They're not down with that, for some reason :) I've talked about reparations with my black friends . . . they think reparations should COME ON WITH IT . . . I've asked them why people who never enslaved them personally, should have to pay for the sins of their fathers . . . . no good answer for that either, except THEY SHOULD, because they OWE US! I have tried to delve, but people get MAD, as you can imagine . . . I consider myself fortunate that I have black friends that I care about and care about me in return, that I can even ask these questions of :) Otherwise, they'd have shived me in my liver about 10 years ago already :)
The reason that experience, personality tests, background and credit checks and the like are required for menial temp jobs is that our recruiting class has become dominated by self-referential bullshit artists and low-level sadists. It is quite simply sadistic for recruiters to instigate stampedes, make applicants jump through needless hoops or subject them to demeaning procedures that have no bearing whatsoever on job qualifications. Through sheer repetition and thanks to our excessive ability to suffer fools and worse gladly, Americans have become inured to workplace procedures that are frankly beyond the pale and that would have European employees on strike in a matter of hours.
We will probably very soon need additional public housing and laws providing for vacant houses to be seized by the authorities or legally homesteaded by the homeless. The alternatives will be massive homelessness on the part of people who have hitherto been materially secure, a very volatile situation, or some sort of mass imprisonment or conscription of the poor, which would have its own practical problems on account of its mightily pissing people off. The housing problem is much, much easier to address than the paid jobs problem. But at some point, if the basic material needs of the population aren't addressed, our cities will burn.
Never mind. Squatters recently set a vacant house on fire in Eureka, so that's starting to happen already.
Still the same cranky worthless bastards trying to win the goddamn Civil War by typing. GET THE FUCK OVER IT ALREADY!!! You dumbshits LOST and lost hard.
Guess what else you lost? Your lily-white majority because Southerners were too fucking stupid to unionize and protect their jobs and meat processors went and imported tens of thousands of illegals to replace citizens with workers rights.
They're here to stay suckers. The U.S. is better off for it too. For starters you can now get decent birria without driving to L.A..
The "oh-look-shiny" media hyped the hell out Irene because it was an easy freaking story that was hand fed to them by the national weather service. Every 2-bit news station in the country sent reporters to the East Coast to do the stupid-human-in-the-storm gig. I guess it beats working for a living.
Reading this crap I'm starting to believe the whack-jobs that think fluoride in the water is making us stupid. There's a fuck-ton of evidence for that.
Great post, Pangolin!
Participatory democracy demands low-energy technology, and free people must travel the road to productive social relations at the speed of a bicycle. --Ivan Illich
Ha! One of my friends is looking forward to menopause: "I like the idea of not getting my period and feeling warm all the time. Sign me up, I'm down with that!"
Another friend is very much like your frenemy from the menopause support group, except not a bitch. She is salty of tongue but pretty much sane, stable, responsible, decent and friendly. This girl is a doula, vocal home birth advocate and close follower of the lunar cycle, especially full moons. Some of the hippie ideas that resonate with her are a bit fringy, but she isn't an extremist or a nut. She recently joined one of her good friends, a doula trainee and sex advice blogger, for a new moon women's circle in Santa Monica. (Some things are beyond parody.) This friend of hers (who, to her credit, is much saner than most people who make public pronouncements on sex) has recently been chasing the holy grail of the old-time cycle--menstruation beginning on the new moon, ovulation on the full moon--that was standard in the days before artificial light.
My thesis is that that sort of thing isn't just hippie nuttery, but also American micromanagement of things that shouldn't be micromanaged. An astounding number of Americans apparently think that a major obstacle to their self-actualization is that they can't always take a shit on time. "Dammit, I was supposed to take a dump at 6:00 this morning, but it's noon and I still haven't gone! Not only that, I don't have to go!" Laxative and stool softener sales in the US are out of this world, even in comparison to scatalogically obsessed Germany. The difference is that Germans mainly talk about their shit, while we micromanage ours.
It fits in nicely with some of our other traditions, like play dates.
Combine that with the conventional wisdom that bodily functions are supposed to be terrible embarrassments, especially for women, and we have a recipe for stupid neuroses that plays right into the hands of marketers. Consider some of the recurrent themes of Cosmo Magazine: "Omigod, I was in a massage parlor and my tampon flooded! The masseuse tried to discreetly tell me, but...." It's a bit psychotic for a flooded tampon to be a mortifying embarrassment for a woman who is naked on a table while someone else is rubbing her thighs. That's some serious cognitive dissonance. At the same time, the answer isn't to go to other extreme by sitting in a circle and saying, "I am woman, see me menstruate!" (Unless one's occupation involves menstrual porn, in which case saying that is smart business. There's no way that menstrual porn isn't popular in part because menstruation is considered so titillating and forbidden. Some Arabs get their jollies from ankle porn.) The better solution is to say, "Oops, I forgot to change my tampon. What, you think that's weird? Grow up." But that's neither prudish nor salacious enough for Americans.
I'll see your Red Tent obsessed doula and raise you a _nt-obsessed orgasmic birth filmaker. Why just go through a painful labor when you can go through a painful labor with a giant Hitachi vibrator buzzing the works like a fresh poured cement driveway.
Don't neglect to point a four-inch lens at the operating end the whole time to savor the moment later or at least post it on a perv-porn board.
You want real crazy try this: http://youtu.be/3fJdnvQSOcA
All of this crap is just endless variations on the global "Queen Bitch" contest that all women seem genetically compelled to indulge in. Women are either angling for Queen, manipulating their Queen or riding some Queens coattails because they can't focus a social group around themselves.
Dig around the internet a bit and you'll find that teen girls the world over are cutting to the chase and just posting porn videos of themselves. Why beat around the bush when you can own men's eyeballs with a simple expedient.
Finally this Slutwalk stuff; this is a trend that is not going to end well. I expect escalation to proceed post-haste.
Drawn and Quartered
or is it
Quartered and Drawn
I'm positive all regulars would support that to be implemented on the Canadian Geese Whatever bot-maker {publicly).
(I wish this site would add a 'thumps-up/down' button*, and dynamically adjust itself)
*] -like fmr MW
Pangolin said:
All of this crap is just endless variations on the global "Queen Bitch" contest that all women seem genetically compelled to indulge in. Women are either angling for Queen, manipulating their Queen or riding some Queens coattails because they can't focus a social group around themselves.
****************************************************
It wasn't too long ago that 99% of women, even
in the USA and Europe, were too tied up with
issues of household budgets and making ends
meet to indulge in the Queen Bitch contest.
I think the Queen Bitch phenomenon of which you
speak has been vastly amplified in the last
couple of decades. Talk to any lawyer you know.
In virtually all in-court cases involving "he
said, she said", the man is found guilty mainly
because he has a penis.
Remember Tawana Brawley!! How long was she
nattered at by lawyers before she 'fessed up??
The pendulum has definitely swung in terms of
jurisprudence. If a woman gooses you at work,
it's to be taken as the sweetness and light of
capricious femininity. Females fired or
incarcerated for sexual harrassment?? Gotta
be a very few anomalous cases.
Men have to be REALLY careful about reining in
their horny-dog proclivities in this society.
If a nutter cries "rape" in your apartment, the
law convicts the man FIRST and tries to find the
facts LATER ... at a very "leisurely" pace.
This may sound misogynistic to the many fine
women on CFN but I've got two lawyer friends
who assure me that having a penis in 2011
means you're half guilty of all incidents with
the opposite sex before you're even read your
Miranda Rights.
E.
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The latest offering from Nike are two pairs of Dunks adorned with premium leather, suede, perforated leather and canvas. Dubbed the Winter Animal pack,UGG Boots Classic sale, the black and white pair are called the “Huskie” and the all white pair, the “Polar Bear”. From a first glance, the Huskie seem a lot more winter ready in comparison to the Polar Bear. It’s kinda hard to associate white perforated leather and canvas with the cold weather. But regardless both pairs look amazing. Currently, they are available at Corporate and Proper in a full range of sizes.
Progess2Conserv,
The past 47 years of racial mixing as you put it is not a total flop, though I agree there are still very strong vestiges of past segregation lingering both in reality and figuratively.
I don't think NYC is as segregated as you describe. Much of what you see is an economic striation more than a social one if you understand my distinction.
I have worked and lived in many places where black and whites not only work together or live in close proximity, but interact and enjoy each others' company, and sense of humor.
It is naive to think that blacks have not entered the middle class and upper middle class in the last 47 years. I've worked with and become friends with blacks who have either married whites, or grew up with swimming pools in their backyards and there was plenty of commonality to draw from.
I have also served on jury duty where blacks have not backed a person of their own race. In fact they were embarrassed by and were actively against the plaintiff and/or defendant.
Although there is a history of unfairness in the justice system, I still saw attitudes and reactions that were based more economic standing than racial. That's the truth as I've seen and experienced it although I've allowed people to say otherwise on this blog in the past.
I felt this morning I should step up to the plate and counter some of these discussion, though I am loath to do it. The fact is that people write things here that may have never interacted with blacks, but make blanket statements about a whole race of people. It's just not that simple, is all I'm saying. There are complicated issues, here concerning culture, money and having to navigate in a society that doesn't accept or understand you.
You have a President of mixed race, doesn't that register with you? Could that have happened 47 years ago?
So,
As the [human] world descends into utter madness, Big Dick Cheney is coldly pursuing his now-standard ploy of revision via teevee. I think Mr. Wilkerson is starting to like the idea of seeing Dicky in the dock at the Hague... Dicky probably would like to pre-empt those types of proceedings by giving false testimony over the "public" airwaves.
He's spinnin' pretty fast, I think he's finally scared. Good, hope he stays just that-a-way for the remainder of his miserable hidey-hole life.
Ha, Ozone
If only I were a writer, I would write a script for a horror film called "The Man with No Pulse" featuring Dick Cheney as the war criminal he is.
Lying has become second nature to this man and he keeps fighting tooth and nail since he left office to spin his perverse memes for the record of course.
Once you think it's ok to lie a country into "preemptive" war, because the ends justify the means, you're no better than any other monster.
...Oh, and that's not to say that Col. Larry and Colon Powell don't have a river of blood and a mountain of bones to atone for. I'm not forgetting that Wilkerson put together the text of Powell's UN "presentation" on Iraq's oh-so-potent stockpile of WMD's.
Nobody's motives in this giant clusterfuck are pure as the driven snow. (More like, spattered with the driven shit.)
"If only I were a writer, I would write a script for a horror film called "The Man with No Pulse" featuring Dick Cheney as the war criminal he is."
-LB
Soon to be staged as a terrifying, off-off-Broadway production at the Hidey-Hole Theatre! ;o)
So, I come home last night and my husband tells me that the neighbors have had their electricity turned off, so they ran an extension cord from our barn to their house to run their refrigerator.
I think that this is a fire hazard.
Does anyone more knowledgeable know?
I am sorry that they are poor, but maybe they shouldn't have run their air conditioner day and night if they didn't have enough money to pay for the energy.
This is the new America, too poor to pay for air conditioning. And having the damn security light (!) on all night.
Watching Vermont flood, I have to say I don't feel too bad about that.
But I don't want to burn down my barn because their electricity is off.
So. Does anyone have an informed answer? Once again, my husband and I are arguing about energy!
I hope no one misinterprets my comment about Vermont.
It is horrible what is happening to Vermont. If it takes poverty to stop the overuse of energy in the US, thereby slowing global warming, and the attendant floods, fires, droughts and hurricanes, then I am OK with that.
Perhaps there should be education, however, so it isn't betweeen cooling your house to 70 degrees in the summer, and no energy at all.
These people are really stupid, and they would have to have it spelled out to them.
Not by me, though. I think they're violent, also. The police and the parmedics were there last week.
I'm thinking the TV should run some education on how to save energy.
Wage,
I mentioned the other day that there are solar powered generators out there for under $2,000.00. I know for some this is way too much though they prob. could charge it and pay slowly. Point is how can you own a home and not have some kind of back-up?
It is tragic that the way of life as we have known it is slipping away from our ability to pay for it. There will be all kinds of norms we will no long afford, this is just the tip of the iceberg.
Sorry about your dilemma.
So you are seriously bragging that Obama is a more efficient war criminal!
How nice that no Americans were killed in the destruction of Libyan society and the murder of thousands of Libyans.
Do you realize that the "rebels" are slaughtering black Libyans? And also African immigrant workers?
As Phil Rockstroh points out, do you really think that the dead Libyans, Pakistanis, Iraqis, Somalis, Sudanese, and all the others are OK with being killed, because it's a smooth talking black President instead of a bumbling white one responsible?
They don't own the home. They rent it, but probably not for long. I'm guessing the eviction notice is coming soon.
I live paycheck to paycheck myself. I have no generator backup.
When the electricity goes out, I just make do. The advantage to living next to the sewage plant is that getting their electricity back on seems to be top priority.
After our hurricane, the hospital's electricity was back on in two days, and mine was back on in three days.
Whoo hoo!
I think that Glenn Ford says it well -
http://www.blackagendareport.com/content/libyan-soldier-true-heroes-nato%E2%80%99s-war
LBend - Wage's neighbors do TO have a backup plan; they sponge off of Wage.
You're a wonderful person Wage -
Or an easy mark. Sometimes it's a fine line. ;0)
But I do love a good technical question about electricity, so here goes:
Assuming that your barn is properly wired -
And assuming that the circuit breaker/fuse on the plug that has the refrigerator extension cord in it is properly sized -
And assuming that the extension cord coming out of your barn is in good condition and of a large enough wire gauge to carry the load without overheating -
Then, if all these assumptions are OK - you should have a fire hazard near zero. The fire hazard may increase inside your neighbors house, though.
But I'd still be careful with it.
And most common outdoor-use drop cords are usually 16 gauge wire. That's too small to run a refrigerator at a distance of much over 25 feet or so - depending on the size of the 'frig.
And LBend - I'm researching your New York City contentions. Interesting stuff!
LBend -
My response was to Ozone. He argues race won't be a factor in TLE. I believe it will. So does JHK.
But moving on to your contention about NYC. I will agree with you that the crowds one sees in Lower Manhattan, for example, look completely and joyously integrated. But, LBend, where do all of those people go to sleep?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/walkingsf/4981444199/
Above map is based on 2000 census data.
NY City LIVING (as opposed to working) patterns look pretty well segregated by race.
Here are the directions for the map key - which struck me as hilarious, for some reason:
"To match his map, Red is White, Blue is Black, Green is Asian, Orange is Hispanic, Gray is Other, and each dot is 25 people. Data from Census 2000."
Comments at the bottom of the map are generally quite constructive, too.
Thank you, prog, for the info. It's my husband who's the easy mark, though.
I don't know if any of your assumptions are true. I did have the circuit breaker box changed years ago, when the electrician was horrified to see a bird's nest in the old one.
But the particular plug that they are using? I don't know. And it's way more than 25 feet.
And I'm worried about my baby goats chewing on the wire.
Here's LBend's original comment about NYC, linked.
"So you are seriously bragging that Obama is a more efficient war criminal!" - Wagelaborer
I guess that's what my Dad was talking about recently when he said "I'm sure glad we didn't get involved in Libya." wth???
I worry about him. Seriously. Seems he's now trying to fabricate a new reality.
"As Phil Rockstroh points out, do you really think that the dead Libyans, Pakistanis, Iraqis, Somalis, Sudanese, and all the others are OK with being killed, because it's a smooth talking black President instead of a bumbling white one responsible?" - Wagelaborer
+1
Put your hand on the wire and feel it while the 'frig is running. If the wire feels much more than warm at your end of the circuit - personally, I'd unplug it, or else trip the breaker myself. Circuit sounds like it's probably pretty close to being overloaded, anyway. (hint hint)
And yeah - baby goats and electricity don't tend to mix well - from what I've heard.
looking forward to hearing part 2 of your discussion with Richard Heinberg
I'm not sure what you're talking about but if you're looking to kick me for your fellow citizens' fecklessness w.r.t. controlling their own borders you've got the wrong man. I'm not an American. You need to take issue with your own govts and elites for letting it go on.
As far as immigration in general goes it has to have rational underpinnings. Importing people that need jobs while exporting the jobs that people need is a recipe for societal suicide. You won't find me supporting such a formula.
Immigration at a time when a country has a need for labour and the space and resource capacity for them is fine. Keeping the immigration floodgates open while you have a serious unemployment problem is LUNACY.
Insisting that immigrants pledge their allegiance to your country, your people, your flag is imperative. Insisting that they drop their allegiance to the old country, old flag, old people is just as imperative as is insisting that they learn the ways of their new country and leave behind the old ways and old customs.
What we have here is what I call "first and foremost-ism". A lot of people here are too squeamish to insist on undivided loyalties. So, to these folks, as long as citizens are Canadian "first and foremost" it's fine. It's as far as people in a society embarrassed by its own existence are willing to go. And besides it shows how broadminded and morally elevated they are. None of this laughable 'Murkan George Dubya Bush-ian e pluribus unum stuff for them. Never mind the reality of what's been happening here for generations.
So Wage, because your neighbors are likely wasteful with energy, likely unwilling to sacrifice their comfort and very possibly stupid as well, YOU are now supplying them with electricity to run their fridge? WOW.
But that is the plan after all...from the "haves" to the "have nots", eh?
Sounds like they need some "tough love" but I understand your reluctance.
Hopefully they're on their way out.
Good luck!
"I'm thinking the TV should run some education on how to save energy." - Wagelaborer
I'm sorry Wage, too many people don't want to educate themselves.
They prefer to hold their hand out.
It's all my fault. I should have prayed harder.
I wish there were a "like button" on this thing.
I'm not very comfortable with racial things.
Last night, one of my black co-workers asked me what a baby (that I had triaged 2 hours) before looked like.
I couldn't remember the baby, let alone what she looked like.
So he said "Was she black or white?"
I didn't want to go all Stephen Colbert, and claim that I don't see race, but I really couldn't remember. Plus, her name was Miracle, which sounded like a black name to me, but was it racist to say so?
It turned out the baby was white. So there you go.
But I think that black people have to put up with a lot of bullshit. Poverty, racism and police harrassment especially.
Even people here who argue with Vlad frequently announce that he would never say his racist things in front of black people, the assumption being that he would get beat up, I guess.
But I have seen black people very politely ignore racist comments. And when I was a band parent, and we went to one of our small racist towns, one of the black kids looked at a stand selling confederate flags and told me that that scared him.
Of course it would, if he knew the history of lynchings in the South.
Prog, you say that slavery was over a century ago, and that's true, but lynchings were within the lifetime of that kid's grandma.
JHK and the rest frequently predict riots and marches on the Hamptons when TSHTF, but TSHTF for black people 30 years ago, and they very rarely riot.
I agree with lbendet that what I call NAACP black people really don't approve of what I call ghetto black people. I think that they feel that all black people are judged by a few, and I agree.
And I don't think that living in the ghetto makes you a low pants wearing, gang banging person anymore than my living in a trailer park for many years makes me white trash.
I have been door to door (campaigning) in the ghettoes around here, and most people are intelligent and polite, just to make myself clear.
Please tell me which of the current candidates has a record of removing dictators and I will gladly compare their record with Obama's record in terms of costs to taxpayers and American lives lost.
FORMATTING CORRECTION
Wage, I don't think so much in terms of nationality. In war everybody loses.
On the other hand, I do not value American* lives any less than others.
Given that criminals exist and wars will be carried out, I prefer a President, like Obama, who manages to destroy fewer lives. Bush destroyed 4,500 USA military through his bad decisions.
*By "Americans" I include North America, Central America, and South America. All are Americans.
Life is a lottery and we need to be kinder to those who've drawn bad numbers. - Pangolin
You bet it's a lottery. You have no say in who your parents are, what country they move to, what town and what neighbourhood they settle in, what school you go to, what teachers the school board hires, what kids live around you, what chicks you meet. And on and on. So much is blind chance. You get thrown into a vortex of events and circumstance and you get lucky or you don't. So much of our lives are totally out of our control.
What are you & hubbie discussing here? Just pull the plug. You can bet that your crack head 'boors are running more than just the 'fridge on that cord, probably the TV too at the least. Are you really willing to bet the safety of your goats & barn on it?
Pull the plug! Then put a lock on the box they are hooking into. DO NOT let this go on much longer, or you will find yourself in a pile of trouble, and stuck with a huge electric bill too. What, you think they are going to pay you when you walk over next month and tell them your bill has now doubled or more, and you would like some payment from them?
They are going to laugh in your face, and if you don't pay the utility, they are going to shut your power off too. Then what will you do?
PULL THE PLUG NOW!
Don't be a twit.
Easy there, Ms. Dee,
Being a "twit" can be a two way street, if one is not careful where one steps.
Maybe those of us out in rural areas have to be a little more willing to help our neighbors - because one day it may be us that needs the help.
And Wage's neighbors aren't going to get more than about 1000 watts of electricity through that wire, at the most. At $0.10 per KWH that will be about $2.40/day. Again, these are pretty much max numbers.
So, personally, I wouldn't want to let it go on longer than a week or so - and I sure wouldn't let it burn down my barn - or let it perform a premature electric bar-b-que of one or more of my baby goats.
And anyway - maybe wage's neighbor is this guy below - and he's going to pay his 'lectric bill AND take Wage out to dinner tonight.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/31/unemployed-illinois-man-f_n_943167.html
Sorry for sticking my nose in your and Dee's CFN business, there, Wage.
I just thought this situation was funny enough to warrant jumping into it! ;-)
Wage's neighbor is putting her house at risk for a fire. Should the power get turned back on the power company technician has no way of knowing that there is a power feed from wages barn. This could injure or kill said technician.
More importantly there is a 50% chance that the power feed from her barn is out-of-phase with the power feed to her neighbors line. Should the neighbor have his/her power restored the voltage on that line could (50% chance) spike to 240 volts and most likely fry something along the line as soon as it's connected to a neutral by some power using appliance. This normally takes place as an electrical fire.
How do I know this? As maintenance manager for a property management firm I would get calls when the power was restored to apartments where people had been evicted. Typically the new tenant would plug in some appliance that would promptly explode. The previous tenant had been stealing power after a disconnect and had got the phase matching wrong.
Tell your neighbors they have to haul their fridge over to your barn if they want to use your power.
"More importantly there is a 50% chance that the power feed from her barn is out-of-phase with the power feed to her neighbors line."
-pangolin-
Pang, you deal with more sophisticated power thieves than what my suspicions would be for Wage's neighbor.
I envision Wage's guys with the 'frigerator, a little desk lamp, and maybe a hot plate - with each appliance taking its turn being plugged into the extension cord from Wage's barn.
Your power thieves are actually taking apart the breaker boxes in disconnected apartments and "permanently" wiring in the power that is being purloined from the next apartment over, or else stolen straight from the power company.
That's two whole different levels of theft/borrowing and (you're right) two totally different levels of risk to power linemen and property.
=====================
On a different note -
EVERYONE ON CFN - who thinks they are so self-actualized and racially self-aware - - needs to try a mental exercise - with themselves playing Wage or her husband and the neighbors as:
lower class?
middle class?
white?
black?
brown?
asian?
It's just a thought exercise - graded only by yourself. But I'll guarantee you that some of you WILL be surprised by the results.
OK, it is not true that I'm putting a lineman at risk?
I LOVE linemen. Ice storms, thunderstorms, hurricanes, tornadoes - damn, if it was me, I'd wait inside and fix the lines later.
But not them. My power almost always comes back on when the weather outside is still frightful.
I'll pull the plug right now if they are in any way at risk.
But you think not?
One more thang, Pang -
Do all of your racial analyses end as their bottom line - with you thinking about your belly?
"They're here to stay suckers. The U.S. is better off for it too. For starters you can now get decent birria without driving to L.A."
-it's a Pang thang-
First of all, I had to look up birria.
It's any of a number of meats, in a spicy sauce.
Spicy iguana actually sounds pretty interesting.
But I'd be willing to travel to get it.
And chances are it will never be available in my little mountain town - now matter our hispanic %.
=================
But I'll bet there were cultural relativists like you, thinking with their bellys - on the outskirts of Rome as the Huns poured it.
Pangolin's Roman ancestor: "Wow, man! Those damn Huns have stolen ALL of my slaves. And one of those Huns is over there having "nonconsensual sex" with my wife right now!
"But I don't mind, because now we can get Hungarian Goulash locally!"
"Cultural Invasion ROCKS!!!"
I read your link.
OK, Americans today are so sure of the power of Big Brother that they're afraid to use found money!
If the government fears the people, you have freedom.
We've got it the other way around.
And that isn't my neighbor. I wish it was!
"I'll pull the plug right now if they are in any way at risk.
But you think not?"
-wage-
No - if the 'fridge is plugged straight into to extension cord that runs straight to your place - then no power linemen are being put at risk in the situation as described.
Your barn and goats may be at severe risk, OTOH.
And I'd really have to look at it to be sure.
When is that old boy getting out of jail for that concert, anyway? And how was your potato crop?
Wage,
I'd let them use the power cord for a week. Set boundaries and tell them that will give them enough time to make other arrangements.
Well, I felt the extension cord, and it was not hot. One of my babies was standing on it, but not chewing on it.
My potatoes didn't work out so well. I only had some planted when the rains came. I bailed out 8 buckets of water in one day.
Then I fell and injured my ankle and was laid up for 4 weeks, followed by my dog's illness and death.
I got a few potatoes, but most were small.
However, I still have the bags. I thought all the potatoes were rotten, but some weren't, so I've been planting them as I find them.
And I have NO idea what "hilling up" means, so I've been throwing some of those old wood chips on them, hoping that is what they have in mind.
It is very true that survival skills, as in gardening, die out very quickly.
My Dad took a very strong dislike to farmers, when his coal mining daddy decided he'd rather be a farmer. They moved to a farming town, right after my Dad's favorite brother got killed by a car, so he had no one to play with, and the farmer's casual brutality appalled him.
So I never saw either of my parents plant anything.
Anyway, that good ol' boy will be out of prison soon. In the meantime, they've made a documentary about him.
http://woodboxgang.homestead.com/
Investment fraud? Are you kidding me? They threw a talented redneck into prison while the Wall Street assholes walk free?
Yeah, there are class differences in the USA.
Joining a menopause support group is a sign that some women should get moving and find a job or some worthy cause and volunteer.
My "frenemy" is the poster woman for this. Every two weeks, on the day that her maids come (no habla Engelska) she posts something on facebook like, "I feel like shit, I have to clean for my cleaning ladies :(."
She also has a gardener. Her three un-employed able-bodied teenagers should be cleaning the toilets, thank you very much.
I don't know if I mentioned it, but experienced gardeners around here tell me that potatoes don't do well in this climate and soil.
They say that sweet potatoes do well, so I planted some of them, and they do seem to be flourishing. Too bad I don't like them.
SJ Mom, that's a nice compromise, but I think I'm unplugging it tonight, for the night at least.
The refrigerator should stay cold overnight. I'm assuming that they won't open it at night, and anyway, it's cooler at night. I have a feeling that that may interrupt their TV watching, but it's best not to watch too much TV anyway!
Back when I ran a local bookstore, the lead singer's daddy used to come in with a self-published quarterly of local poetry and short stories, that we sold on consignment.
That apple didn't fall far from the talented tree.
"Your power thieves are actually taking apart the breaker boxes in disconnected apartments and "permanently" wiring in the power that is being purloined from the next apartment over, or else stolen straight from the power company."
-P2C, to pangolin-
Folks, Wage's neighbors could also cut off the female end of the drop cord from her barn and plug the bare wires directly into a socket in their house. Pang's correct - that could electrify roughly 1/2 of the circuits in the neighbor's house. And that would DEFINITELY put linemen at risk. Although - if linemen train up in Illinois to the same standard as Georgia Power, then:
"It's not dead unless it's grounded,"
are the words they live by - and they are never at really high risk from a situation like what Pang describes.
It's also known as a "reverse feed" situation.
And it's a big deal if you run a generator in power outages and hook it into your house wiring. Or if you generate solar (or other) power and sell it to the power company.
By the way, I'd already written about my neighbor, if anyone wants a hint for your thought exercise-
http://wagelaborer.blogspot.com/2011/07/two-americas.html
Wage, I love that song "Leave Poor Jesus Alone" ... I love the pacing, the picking, and the words. It makes a good anti-Bachmann, anti-Dominionist anthem.
Qoothpick said, "per capita
by or for each individual person: income per capita.
I'd even be surprised if "household" income averaged $25K."
You're correct, it doesn't make much sense. Per capita income is something the CIA referenced in their "World Factbook".
There is obviously severe economic stratification.
Per Capita Income is a metric that doesn't make sense. That is why economists love it.
Yeah, it was a good song.
What did you think of the Glen Ford commentary?
Wage,
Read your blog about the neighbor....the only thing the neighbor could manage to talk about upon meeting your husband were the well-hung goats?
Yucky.
Yes, and he was slavering.
(It's only one goat. I couldn't take more than one billy.)
P2C_ My ancesters WERE the huns on both sides. Mom's a blue-eyed arab whose parents came from the British Palestinian Authority, now the west bank. Dad is fishbelly white due to his Ukranian-Russian grandmother.
I can walk into any Jewish temple in the land and they automatically hand me a yarmulke. I also don't have "round eyes" like western europeans do. I have to explain to people that i'm not jewish and double when I make borscht.
The vietnamese around here are opening Pho restaurants and the Hmong barbecue chicken is to die for.
Variety is the spice of life. We sit here in the U.S. because Christopher Columbus was looking for a faster way to get to India for the pepper and cinnamon spice trade. He came back with chiles instead.
"Mr. Paul"
That guy's pro-life agenda completely flies in the face of his *supposed* libertarian ways. Me thinks he merely panders to the evangelical right wing bible-thumpers...
"I must say that I find the last sales bot very interesting."
I believe I counted at least 3 different aliases, posting *one after the other*. Not sure why/how he still manages to poast such *BUY MY CLOTHES* drivel.
Might have something to do with a *non-IP ban* spam enforcement agenda...
"Older "life" is a fine time to begin to learn things; much too little, much too late, eh?"
You'd be surprised what kinds of "tricks" you can "treat", err teach an old dog. I taught my 10 yr old dog 4 new tricks at that time, which he nailed every time thereafter. Poor old guy didn't make it past 13.5 years, tho...
Now, as to the close-minded, stubborn, self-righteous human geezers, your mileage may vary (LOL!). Maybe try using their Medicare/Medicaid/Social Security payments against them - you might gain some ground that way (Zzz...).
"Bust, I find this HARD to believe. Picture this: a man, a women and their two little kids with a total income of $100K."
Median versus mean. I'm shocked you couldn't have figured this one out all by yourself.
Mean is $25K - *GHAD only knows how low the median is ($3K? lower?)...
And boyie! Your DOW just seems to be working *MIRACLES* right about now, given all the standard/routine data showing awful prospects...
But, LBend, where do all of those people go to sleep?
In my apartment building, for starters and they can well afford it too!!
Does one require an "agenda" to be opposed to snuffing the unborn?
What other buzz-word labels have you been taught for "pro-life"-ers, in case these don't fit?
What ever happened to Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP)? Have things been so deregulated, as to *IXNEI* even that basic principle?!...
I've been wondering lately about the fed's free interest rate loans, that the banks sell back to the govt at 3%. Think about this for a single moment - these banks are still leveraging @ 30:1 (50:1? 100:1?). Even uld-skul it was a 10:1 leveraging rate. So these banks get a loan equivalent to their underlying assets (2x? 5x?), and get a free 3% @ year's end. At 30:1, this doubles their assets every year, on the taxpayer's shoulders. Even with a *conservative* leveraging of 10:1, they double their assets, *ON THE DOLE,* every 3 years.
LOL @ the taxpayers - where does this *LINE ITEM* appear in the annual budget?!... Hehehe!
"6. The promotion of excessive drinking"
Thx, Myrtle, for the *doctor's orders*. I mean, Coco Chanel?!...
Alcohol has been shown over and over, to be the bane of cancer, and other causes of *old age* death. Don't expect *4 out of 5* dox to recommend it, however. LOL @ dox - once they get their liability/malpractice insurance paid for, it's all a *NO BRAINER* Free For All (FFA) thereafter...
I LOVE linemen. Ice storms, thunderstorms, hurricanes, tornadoes - damn, if it was me, I'd wait inside and fix the lines later. - Wage
So Wage here's one for the linemen.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HFCuBLAjXo&feature=related
Wage, Glen Ford is cheerleading for the Libyan Armed Forces. I do not cheer lead for either side, because I think killing human beings is stupid and does not really solve human problems or lead to peace. Absence of gunfire is not peace.
Glen Ford said: "the Libyan armed forces maintained their unit integrity and personal honor" which makes him an apologist for killing done by the Libyan Armed Forces.
I condemn Obama's actions as criminal. I have said many times that Obama's use of drones and aerial bombardment entitles him to be put on trial in the Hague for war crimes.
But I feel for the 4,500 families of USA military sacrificed under Bush. I am glad military families have not suffered losses in Libya under Obama.
I don't want anyone (Libyan or USA) to lose a family member. I don't want anyone (Libyan or American) to die or to kill.
Bush engaged in wholesale slaughter and bombing of infrastructure needed by civilians. Obama has achieved policy objectives more intelligently, and no American lives were lost in Libya.
That doesn't justify killing Libyans. It's just a fact that American lives were spared by Obama's military strategy and Gaddafi is gone.
...And the neighbors are:
A.) Stupid, lazy-minded, ignorant
B.) Smart, curious, well-informed
Much more important in the FINAL analysis.
I'll say it again, FINAL... (after bullshit no longer talks, walks, balks, caulks, fills your so[l]cks, or holds the chalk).
Glen Ford said: "the Libyan armed forces maintained their unit integrity and personal honor"
Then the F-18's showed up.
C.) Brown, caring, college-educated (next door on the west)
D.) Fratman and Barbie, white, clueless and inconsiderate (next door on the east)
E.) White, single mom, mensa. (2 doors on the west)
F.) White, lesbian, well-read lawyer. (across the street)
G.) White, psycho, stacked. Went by "Oral Laurel" at Cal Poly.
Mmmmm.... could be! ;o)
If it saves a panda, is pandering okay?
I didn't mean step on you, Asoka, but for some reason, inexperienced Americans really believe the precision bombing lie. Modern military hardware is absolutely ferocious. And I'm not talking about nukes. A few eggs are going to get broken.
LOL!
Perfect; hell of a lot of gradations and shades beyond what the outward appearance is, no?
I just tried "pandering" to Jack Cafferty on CNN. He wanted to know what the people wanted to say about Sarah Palin. My blog post queried "if Ms. Palin still believes in her invisible friend, does she feel the need to be purged of witchcraft AGAIN?" They wouldn't post my response. Am I doing something wrong?
I cannot bring myself to support Ron Paul because of his ant-abortion stance and his pandering to the Christian Right.
It's difficult to believe that a person can call himself a Libertarian while supporting an amendment to outlaw abortion. Since when does a half-formed fetus have more rights than the woman who is providing it with a free lease on her life systems?
Paul should refer to Ayn Rand, who was an ardent supporter of abortion rights.
Youse guys-es is crackin' me UP! :o)
...was McJack horrified or mystified? Suspicious minds want to know!
As long as you remain an undifferentiated group of cells no larger than a mosquito bite, I personally am inclined to go with the words of the late modern philosopher Bill Hicks. I paraphrase, if your name and phone number doesn't show up in my White Pages, you don't exist.
LOL @ Queen Bee:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLz1l6SClag
How about that atmospheric thinning? Is it greater in city-centers? Questioning minds must *KNOW*!!!
Do any of you care, that the solar max is 2 years away, and it will last 5-8 years?!... I thought *NOT*.
I just read Pangolin's post. It's one of the most brilliant things I've ever read here. If you will excuse me, I'm going to go cry now.
Sincerely,
Paul Wolfowitz
Excellent thought experiment!
Huh? Damn, James, if you need money that bad, I 'spose I can cough up a $5.00 money order.
...insanity is a relative thing.
For example, all of my relatives are fuckin' crazy.
Until Later,
Gore Vidal
Stuff White People Like: Having Mexicans do the actual work.
Or, as Tom Lehrer put it in his song "George Murphy" in 1964:
"Should Americans pick crops? George says no,
'Cause no one but a Mexican would stoop so low,
And after all, even in Egypt the Pharaohs
Had to import Hebrew braceros."
Lazy bums who complain about Mexicans not working hard enough are certifiable douchebags. My grandmother knew a very abrasive old man from church in Palo Alto who loved to butter up old ladies but was an asshole to pretty much everyone else, so much so that his own daughter married at the age of sixteen to get out of his house. The first time I met him, when I was about eight, he called me a snot-nosed brat to my face. The second time, when I was fifteen, he gave a commentary on the lazy Mexican construction crew that his neighbor had hired: "Come 4:30 it's manana!" Because God forbid another person's Mexicans don't work according to one's own idea of a fitting schedule for brown people. Fuck, the only option left would be to insult one's social equals.
You just had to quote Tom. Makes me think about our Congress. Poison a pigeon? It just takes a smidgen.
Since 1900 we've had around 10 sunspot maxes and many solar flares. While increased solar activity can disrupt telecommunications and cause infrastructure damage, there's never been a solar max that destroyed civilization or caused a mass loss of human life; also a lot of critical electronic systems are radiation-hardened. So although we could suffer some serious problems in our shrunken, electronic world, they wouldn't compare to those caused by a large-area EMP. I don't worry too much about it because the next cycle should be more or less the same as the last 10.
Biology vs. Divinity. Damn it, Snookie is on TV talkin' about her Alien Abduction. I don't have time for this shit. I have been looking for years. With all kinds of shit. I've never seen one. Nobody knows, the Trouble I've seen.
Regretfully,
Paul Robeson
So... Rick Perry doesn't believe in climate change? Good to know. Sorry to see the carnage in New England! :(
I don't see much hope in surviving if your predictions are true. There isn't enough real community in this country and people have extremely delusional values. If a person is lucky enough to live in the right little corner of the country, things might be OK if the community there is strong and people can work together.
I live in Southeast Michigan. A few people who live here might agree that it is not a stable situation. People are mad with anxiety. The road rage problem makes this painfully evident. I don't even see moving up north as a real option. After a real energy collapse, zombie-like hoards would spill out of the sprawling former motor city's suburbs desperate for food. Might be better to head INTO the city of Detroit. They have urban farms there now. Half of the land is vacant of buildings. Detroit may truly be the city of the future.
The zombie thing might sound silly, but have you really looked at some of the people around lately? Have you visited a mall?
Many of my Philadelphia drinking buddies have had summer jobs as lifeguards or regional managers at a pool management company. The ethical environment at this company is a terrible one. The owners take advantage of kids from well-to-do families to get away with not reimbursing their job-specific training and certification costs until after fifty hours on the clock. They and their managers bitch and moan about what slackers their guards are, as if they expect a bunch of rich teenagers earning walking-around money at below-market rates from a stingy employer to be models of discipline. For their part, a number of the guards fudge their timesheets, while their managers, who are salaried, fudge their mileage expenses, which are reimbursed at about half the Federal government rate.
One of the lifeguard trainers at this company was demoted to low reserve status last fall after graduating from petty to epic fraud. This fellow is the boyfriend of a good friend and sometime date of mine. My friend is an all-around good girl, although she has sometimes been unethical or incompetent as a pool manager. Her boyfriend, on the other hand, always given off a shady vibe that I couldn't quite articulate. For one thing, he and my friend got really hot, heavy and sappy in their romance, which seemed uncharacteristically shallow and foolish compared to my friend's prior behavior around guys. He spoiled her in a truly ostentatious manner, sometimes with trips to Florida on a more than monthly basis. On several occasions mutual friends asked me whether I had any idea how they afforded it all.
The answer was that the boyfriend paid for it with disability fraud to the tune of $30k, which the owner finally stopped by insisting that he be seen by a physician if he wanted additional checks. The boyfriend refused to go to a doctor because his wrist injury was either a minor, long-healed sprain or a total fabrication. But that's not the best part. This dude, who is about 28 (my friend is 21), was caught red-handed because he and my friend posted multiple photo albums documenting their travels on their Facebook accounts, without even enhancing the privacy settings. Even more brazenly, the boyfriend asked one of the owners to give him his old job back after he had been put on reserve status following the discovery of the fraud!
The generally unethical environment and brazen fraud by a sugar daddy boyfriend, however, aren't responsible for the Twilight Zone environment at this company. The truly bizarre thing to my way of thinking is that a number of other employees are now pissed off at my friend for being disloyal to their employer! My sociopathic buddy recently compared her unfavorably to a problem guard, a classic mean girl who constantly stirred up needless interpersonal drama by being a gossipy bitch, saying that "at least she had some loyalty." He has been calling my friend a "traitor" for taking a better-paid, lower-stress job with a competitor when she had hitherto been extremely ambitious and apparently loyal to the company that her boyfriend had ripped off to the tune of $30k. He was also disappointed that no one had believed the mean girl when she accused my friend of stealing supplies, yet he sees nothing wrong with the owners hosing every guard to the tune of over $100 annually by dragging their feet on reimbursing training costs.
You have to be deranged to feel loyalty to a crowd like that.