". . .They are running the Accords logic to its conclusion: every adversary becomes a counterparty, every conflict becomes a deal, every closed economy becomes an investable market." —Patrick Wood
Meanwhile in the background as everyone is distracted, the real agenda is unfolding at breakneck pace:
"…and this is why today I am announcing this government will make a new, free-of-charge, Digital ID mandatory for the right to work, by the end of this parliament. Let me spell that out: you will not be able to work in the United Kingdom, if you do not have Digital ID. It’s a simple as that."
—Current British Prime Minister Keir Starmer
They will never be satisfied until this is your life:
----
Want to drive your car today? I’m sorry you said something the government didn’t like and your social credit score is no longer high enough, your air conditioner was running during the hottest part of the day and now your carbon footprint has exceeded your daily limit, you missed your last mandatory doctor’s appointment and your vaccination status is not up to date, and you live in a 15 minute city so you can walk anyway. 50 credits have been deducted from your CBDC wallet for attempting to access your rented vehicle while failing to meet these criteria.
—deducts credits—
Your bank account is now negative. 50 additional credits have been deducted for your overdraft and your social credit score has been lowered by 100 points for failing to keep a positive net balance.
---
Under no circumstance should anyone ever comply with getting the ID Digital. It will become your panopticonic slave collar if you put this 'one-ring" of power on your finger.
You are so correct, the very smart Vernon Coleman has been warning people of years and it's taken him from being a recognized and revered authority to squashed under the heel of the black boot. Yet, even at an advanced age where he should retire, he keeps sending out the warnings.
Sir Keir was ready to step down but his wife won't let him. She knows it's now or never. Break the filthy peasants before they revolt. The Orcs are in the shires. They will be armed and used as reserve troops if necessary.
Didn't take long for them to get rolling, did it? As the globalist ship sinks, the strategy must be to ring-fence the Crown holdings and as much of Europe as possible. Then, they'll . . . what? Do they even know?
It's almost like there is a God, and that thumbing your nose at Him for centuries is not all that adaptive.
A true globalist, trying to make his nation fail, so that transnational entities, typically associated with banking, will be in the wings. I don’t know who funds them, but they would be a good bet.
The increasing contrast between South America and Europe is getting more obvious every day. Our closest neighbors are rapidly shedding the shackles of ultra-leftism and jumping on the conservative bandwagon.
Meanwhile, Europe is doing everything it can to protect the dream of totalitarianism and the push for WW3.
Let's hope they don't bring us all down with them as they have tried multiple times in the last century.
Answer be a question. Why the EU insistence on driving Europe to Islam? Britain, just like portions of the US rust belt, is being destroyed by the socialism inherent to Islam. Why? Is this a verification of Lugh’s opinion that crony capitalism drives humanity towards government control? Towards socialism and eventually Marxism. Was Marx right? Is this the natural order?
Your last sentence. Has the USA pouring trillions of dollars into Europe since WW2 been a way of countering the movement toward European socialism, the USSR until 1991, and that what we are witnessing in the USA right now is a counter movement by European socialists against the US.
Crony capitalism? You mean like Government and Industry working together? As if the contrary is even possible? As Marx said, Capital centralizes. Fewer and fewer own more and more. But their credo remains personal profit, so they are not fit to rule. Thus the Government must remain on top since personal profit cannot run a society.
Here we go again. Government is the solution to the avarice of people.
Government is a focus amplification of the greed of people. Government hates people. Government wants power period. Government is the target evil of the Revelation, “Babylon”. Lugh, your treatise about government is so false. Competition dilutes economic power, period. The progression of capitalism to cronyism to socialism to either fascism or Marxism is the decline of competition.
The main cause of the movement to corporate or other cronyism is government interference with the free market. That makes people nervous and they turn to guess who, the government. The cause d’etre of the problem.
Not to worry. Americans will show the Eurotrash how totalitarianism is really done.
Notice that we Americans never seem to celebrate our freedoms more than when we're looking outward.
Turns out our "more perfect union", is nothing more than a federal bureaucracy that enjoys total control over every one of us:
Absolute power, a federal system that can make you disappear, with no semblance of due process. A system that assures that you and I commit, as Harvey Silvergate calls it, 3 felonies a day, just by participating in society.
In the event the bureaucracy decides (and yes, its up to them) to subject you its trial court system, you become a hapless player in a legal theater performance that assures the state will prevail. If the federal system decides to encumber your freedom, except in very rare cases, nobody can save you.
Consider as well, the absolute power by design, of never accountable local district attorneys. They can fabricate whole cloth criminal cases against any one of us. And through commission of false testimony, and omission of truth, send any one of us to a lifetime of prison.
These same district attorneys enjoy iron-fisted control over the application or non application, of criminal laws passed by our elected legislatures. The will of the people is short circuited by the political whim of a few system officials. As a result, America's cities are burning.
And in the rare, extraordinary event that this flawed, even criminal miscarriage of justice is exposed, we're often told by these same DA's that a victim's vindication demonstrates that the system does work...Systemic arrogance. Tyranny is seldom humble.
Nothing personal, but a US citizen, pointing out another nation's lack of freedoms, is like a prisoner bragging that his shackle chains are longer.
Just a question, could it be that the EU, the Europe consortium is playing a game with America? Are they countering the anti-socialistic folks in the US? Does Trump see this and is trying to isolate America from Europe? Is it the reason why he wants to isolate the Western hemisphere?
On our 250 birthday, is it time that the American people realize the Declaration of Independence was America telling Europe to take their monarchies and socialism and shove them where the sun does not shine?
Hopefully Putin will torch all 27 EU Capitals, Amsterdam, Athens, Berlin, Bratislava, Brussels, Bucharest, Budapest, Copenhagen, Dublin, Helsinki, Lisbon, Ljubljana, Luxembourg, Madrid, Nicosia, Paris, Prague, Riga, Rome, Sofia, Stockholm, Tallinn, Valletta, Vienna, Vilnius, Warsaw, and Zagreb, not necessarily in alphabetical order, but a combination of Kinzhals, Zircons, and Oreshniks, should do the trick.
Glassing all the "decision centers", where the "deciders" are, should suffice. Same as the US. The majority of Europeans can take care of business, once out from under the yoke of the deciders. Same as the US. For the umpteenth time, same as every civilization, every day we have two choices; protect our way of life or lose it. We're losing - soon to have lost - our way of life.
Meloni is particularly disappointing. Thought she would put Cursula von der Lying in the toaster. Nope, she caved. Trump saw it & Meloni is now just another EU shrew to be thrown from office.
You’re covering a lot of ground today, JHK!👍 The Iranian situation is fascinating and I suspect several members of the current IRGC leadership will soon become familiar with Eddie Money’s hit song “Two Tickets to Paradise”. Kaboom 💥 Elsewhere over there, the European nations you’ve highlighted are all in various stages of capitulation to radical Islam. Perhaps they will learn a lesson or two from their more rational neighbors, such as Hungary, Poland or Sweden (with its recent adoption of “assimilate or be deported”). If not, they will all soon be joining their radical Islamist superiors praying to Allah five times a day. 🤷♂️🤷♂️
Israel has to get out of Lebanon, either willingly or by force. Then and only then can their be peace. Abraham accords? The Iranians are not Sons of Abraham. And even the Arabs should be clever enough not to fall for such bs.
It looks like the European peasantry has had enough. The modern day Braveheart in Scotland taking a blade to random people in a Muslim neighborhood the other day is just the beginning. Starmer's fall is based on the revelation that while he was Home Secretary or whatever they call his previous post, the government sent over 12,500 "stern letters" telling accused rapists that raping English children is not considered good form and if it isn't too much trouble, try not doing that. As author Ralph Peters has said, Europe will eventually revert to form and drive out or massacre these interlopers. This summer, this Fourth Turning is lighting off its afterburners.
Our man Jim continues to see the world through the Israeli lens, as if Israel is righteous and rational, and the rest of the world is insane. Week after week we are told that Iran’s leaders are maniacs and that their only prudent course of action is to let the US and Israel decide what sort of country they should be.
The future is not the failing West. It will be the BRICS nations and the Global South, and the world they create is unlikely to be much like ours, and certainly not Israel’s. We may not like it much, and they won’t care.
Among a number of contentions in Friday’s post that should be addressed, this one stands out:
“Mr. Trump managed to marshal the help of all those Persian Gulf nations in the Iran op so as to end the nuclear threat, and the constant chaos in the region. Who would have imagined that a year ago? Everybody in the region is on the same page now.”
If everybody in the region was capable of unity for any purpose, Israel would have ceased to exist decades ago. The sad fact is that the Arab world is so chronically preoccupied with internal differences that it has never been able to band together for long, even to counter existential threats.
The second dubious implication is that the US can now count on this ephemeral unity to assure us of the region’s long-term gratitude and good will. We have never had the benefit of either from the Gulf States. They regard us with contempt, and have only suffered our building military bases on their territory because that was supposed to assure their security. Turns out, it doesn’t. Those bases simply became prime targets, which Iran has been canny enough to render useless. In doing so, Iran has exposed us as being unable to protect them.
As nations the Gulf States are, of course, largely as artificial as indoor snow skiing in Dubai. During the twentieth century certain Arab tribes were favored as newly-minted ruling elites, enabling them to live lives of indolent decadence that most Americans might only dream of. If it turns out that their best hope of sustaining that enviable lifestyle is the Shia Persians, rather than the infidels of America, they will readily adapt to that new reality.
Your post is rather 2023, actually. BRICS is not forging ahead, particularly as there appears to be quite the conversation between Trump, Putin and Xi. With regard to Israel, please be reminded that Israel responds, they do not attack first. If Hezbollah stops attacking, there is no need for a response. Obviously, despite the MOU, Iran has not told Hezbollah there is a cease fire.
A future alliance of the US with Russia and China is a pipe dream. We have tried to destroy China's North-South railway connection to Tehran, and we continue to permit our NATO puppet to wage war deep into Russia. They will continue to pretend that we are capable of reconciliation. In the meantime, China dumped another fifty billion in US Treasuries last week, because they see the writing on the wall. The composition of BRICS will continue to evolve, but it will happen, because China and Russia want it.
The American empire has fallen into a fundamentalism of its own civic religion. They, and their European servants, have committed the classic blunder of coming to believe their own propaganda and allowing it to shape their world view. They truly believed it was wise to try to push a hostile military alliance to Russia's own border. They have continued to provoke Russia to the point of risking a nuclear response.
I have done so before. My spreadsheet gas about fifty authoritative sources. You would do well to begin with Pepe Escobar, Douglas MacGregor, Alex Krainer (Jim hates him), Larry Johnson, and Charles Freeman. None of them, of course, write for any corporate media.
Thank you for the sane and accurate posts. I fear you are about to be banned from this Substack discussion... i.e. Kunstler's personal Room 101 of Zionist indoctrination.
Jim, you quietly avoided stating that Israel is occupying Lebanon. Bombing towns, killing innocent civilians. I know that being put in that situation, where I was not a "Hezbola" fighter in the past, I would join up after my family's town, infrastructure, churches had been destroyed. Each family they destroy, creates enemies. To label anyone wanting and fighting to get Israel out of Lebanon as "Hezbollah" is dissembling. https://homebrave.com/home-of-the-brave//from-lebanonhttps://www.instagram.com/courtneybonneauphotography/
Thank you for shining the light of reason on the real issues in the middle East and elsewhere. It is telling that we never see a rational response to your arguments---just emotional name-calling.
For decades, the deal has been straightforward. In 1973, after the post-war boom receded, the USA went from trade surplus to deficit and its hegemony was in danger. Kissinger went to the Gulf states and made this offer: The USA pledges to guarantee their defense. In exchange, the oil-rich nations will only sell oil for US dollars and will recycle those dollars in the US markets.
That arrangement held for five decades. Its ending was chimed earlier this year when Iran rained missiles on its Gulf neighbours and the USA was powerless to stop them. The Gulf countries now know full well the security they've been purchasing isn't real, so they will be looking for new arrangements. And the MOU makes it official: the USA will orchestrate a $300 billion rebuilding fund for Iran and hand over the Persian Gulf as its sphere of influence. Iran will now join the other Gulf countries, who have the $300 billion under their couch cushions, in a new security architecture.
Lindsey Graham and other national-security chowderheads will want to spin this as a victory for the USA, but it's a stunning defeat.
Yes that treaty exists but it was the result of talks between FDR and King Ibn-Saud in 1943. The Joint Chiefs told FDR that there was not enough domestic oil to fight a two theater war.
Trump visited the Gulf States in 2025 and they all agreed to invest Billions in to the US? So it's amazing that you ramble on seeming like Mr Smarty Pants! Lol....
The Israel haters cannot concede that Iran is an evil country, using Shia Islam as justification to control the Persian Gulf and the flow of global oil. Just another hyper-inflated bunch of religious assholes.
Israel committed the genocide, not Iran. You talk like supporters of Karmelo Anthony. As if he's the victim and not Austin Metcalf.
Stop twisting Christianity and maybe you can untangle your twisted mind. They killed Christ and revile Him to this day. The Muslims see Him as a great prophet.
When the MOU first came out I found and printed it, it's here on my desk. As I read it I had to chuckle because it reminded me of the "letter of intent" I saw so many of in my commercial real estate career. We called them "Swiss cheese agreements" for they were full of holes. I'm no international expert on politics but I've done business if a few foreign countries including the middle east and these people think very differently than us. I feel Trump knew full well this agreement would be violated almost immediately and that part of his plan. While the press thought it great, he was merely sitting back waiting for them to so violate it as that will give him power to act. Trump is always 8 steps ahead of everyone else with a clear view of the outcome he wants.
As to Starmer, a man who shouldn't have had that position ever, I spoke to a friend of mine who lives in the UK and he says most of the citizens there, or as he says at least the smart ones, are thrilled with him quitting. However, they also know the next one will be even further left than Starmer. Their joy may be short lived.
Starmer was 'lent' as PM by the Trilateral Commission, of which he was a member. He's a dedicated global technocrat and a Fabian. Burnham is the same. The globalists already supported devolution (Wales, Scotland and NI). Now they'll sell the 'democratic deficit' agenda because England doesn't have a separate devolved parliament. But what they're going to do is create English regions instead, with regional mayors (Burnham fashion). They are pushing 'citizens' assemblies', i.e. random 'representative' groups of people who will act as think tanks, but will be manipulated through the Delphi technique. There is to be no real democracy (not that there ever was). This agenda is the global gulag in operation, with pretend local 'democracy', but all directed from the centre.
I don't think sympathy for a 3-year-old Syrian boy is remotely out of place, no matter what his death was used for. The UK and US governments were complicit in creating the situation in Syria that led to the refugees leaving in the first place. It was not the fault of the Syrian refugees.
'They' are Syrian now? Burning innocent people out of their homes because of something someone else did is an outrage and a heinous crime. Note also that your government and mine put the current ISIS/Al Qaeda head chopper in power in Syria, so there may be more refugees, including you Syrian Christian brothers and sisters.
Let's get real- no way could Queer Kier survive the Pakistani Rape Gang Investigation Report.
That being said- how is it that they (the Lib Commies) are just going to put in a carbon copy of Starmer and totally ignore the millions of Brits who support Tommy Robinson, Rupert Lowe and Nigel Farage's efforts to unite the Kingdom?
How is it? Didn’t Burnham just get a lot of votes ? Who “ voted” for him? What does the population of greater Manchester look like? Where are those millions when it comes time to vote?
If you really want to understand what is actually going on geopolitically... Ukraine/Russia, US+Israel/Iran, US+Israel/Palestinian genocide, US+Taiwan/China, etc... you can check out Judge Napolitano's YouTube channel.
He interviews multiple subject matter experts daily. The likes of: Prof Jeffrey Sachs, Prof John Mearsheimer, Scott Ritter, Col Macgregor, Phil Giraldi, LtcCol Danny Davis, Prof Seyed Marandi, Ray McGovern, Larry Johnson, AMB Chas Freeman, Max Blumenthal, and several others.
Congratulations JHK. You have now gone 100% certifiably insane. Everything you say is going on is 180 wrong. Everything you say is not going on is also 180 degrees backwards. Down is up; up is down. Good is evil; evil is good. Between you and Huckabee and Trumpenstein and Netanyahoo you haven't told the truth since February 28th. You are about to blow up the world. At least the two worst evil terrorist organizations USA and Zionist Israel will be gone forever. Then we can start over.
Seems rather obvious the EU and Britain are increasing their push for war with Russia due to pure hatred of, and desire to take over their resource riches. Their disdain and even deranged hatred for Trump adds more fuel to the fire. Of course the ongoing assault on their citizens in favor of the illegal invading hordes makes a threat of civil war another reason to start WWIII. Even Spain, under the communist Premier, is facing a potential rehash of the Spanish Civil War as he moves to grant citizenship to over one million illegal invaders, the Spanish people's opposition be damned. The brutal treatment of native citizens by every EU member and the British Commonwealth nations makes insurrections and even civil wars more likely as invaders are granted more rights and powers. The leftist loons will do anything to retain and consolidate power, including murdering many millions in their planned war against Russia. Without the war, they will simply continue imprisoning protesters and opponents and driving their societies closer to revolt.
Wow. I've heard of moving the goalposts, but Mister Social Critic has devised an all-new strategy to secure, protect and defend his delusions: swap the goalposts. Don't want to admit that Iran scored a touchdown against the USA? Easy: redefine the game. When the other team carries the ball past the goalposts behind you, that means you scored a point. It's genius!
That squawking you hear is Iran getting dragged kicking and screaming into getting everything it's asking for. Because in February, the USA tried and failed to impose its will on them by force, there is no military solution, and Trump's only option if he wants to avoid a Great Depression is to accord the existing Iranian regime its sphere of influence over the Persian Gulf and hand it the Gulf's security architecture, leaving Israel in the cold.
Donald Trump's problem now isn't getting the Iranians to gracefully submit to him giving them a hummer. It's getting Congress and the national security state to do so. This is how empires fall: not just with humiliating defeat, but with humiliating delusion.
I've tried several times over the years to imagine what the final fall would look like, but now that it's actually happening I have to admit that never in my wildest imagination could I have come up with all this. Reality exceeding fiction once again!
I guess we can live with the fantasy that Trump making the only sane choice he has left is proof of his genius. It is no surprise that one of his staunchest believers not in his administration, should paint it such. We might nominate JHK for first place in the “shadow cabinet”, iPhone on speed dial. No matter.
An end to this war is worth listening to a bit of nonsense. Like the conclusion that the poor IDF wasn’t really attempting to take out a Hezbollah position in southern Lebanon bringing on the shelling but it was the reverse. The Queen believes “six impossible things before breakfast” we hear. No matter. Trump either brings Israel around kicking and screaming or is forced to cut them off from certain military aid. The Curtis LeMay doctrine is toast and he knows it.
Though I share his opinion of the current state of the Democratic Party his opprobrium is better served directed at AIPAC payroll masquerading as patriots in the GOP, FOX News and elsewhere.
Yes, Iran didn't like Trump's subtle diplomacy of not only threatening to bomb the shit out of Iran but that they the diplomats wouldn't make it back to Iran either. The fucking savage.
Vance is acting well. Trump is not acting. Given the bullshit performance of the Iran negotiation team and the killing fields back home, DJT will hammer them and soon.
The Brits have been fighting the USA since 1776. F off .
The EU has self inflicted itself with the invited Muslim invasion and windmills.
Meanwhile in the background as everyone is distracted, the real agenda is unfolding at breakneck pace:
"…and this is why today I am announcing this government will make a new, free-of-charge, Digital ID mandatory for the right to work, by the end of this parliament. Let me spell that out: you will not be able to work in the United Kingdom, if you do not have Digital ID. It’s a simple as that."
—Current British Prime Minister Keir Starmer
They will never be satisfied until this is your life:
----
Want to drive your car today? I’m sorry you said something the government didn’t like and your social credit score is no longer high enough, your air conditioner was running during the hottest part of the day and now your carbon footprint has exceeded your daily limit, you missed your last mandatory doctor’s appointment and your vaccination status is not up to date, and you live in a 15 minute city so you can walk anyway. 50 credits have been deducted from your CBDC wallet for attempting to access your rented vehicle while failing to meet these criteria.
—deducts credits—
Your bank account is now negative. 50 additional credits have been deducted for your overdraft and your social credit score has been lowered by 100 points for failing to keep a positive net balance.
---
Under no circumstance should anyone ever comply with getting the ID Digital. It will become your panopticonic slave collar if you put this 'one-ring" of power on your finger.
An appropriate warming for all western nations.
You are so correct, the very smart Vernon Coleman has been warning people of years and it's taken him from being a recognized and revered authority to squashed under the heel of the black boot. Yet, even at an advanced age where he should retire, he keeps sending out the warnings.
Dr. Coleman knows this axiom well:
“Silence in the face of evil itself evil. God will not hold us guitless.
Not to speak is to speak.
Not to act is to act. “ —Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Yes, he certainly does. I have read many of his books and am never disappointed. he, and apparently you, have great insight.
Panopticon
by Killing Joke
https://youtu.be/H7KlZJ21bt0?si=xaE9M12UBIq9Lro1
----
"Self censorship, self policing
Shaping human behaviour
Computer games, low attention span
Distractions for the servile brain
Inside the, Panopticon
You don’t have to have your phone on
All behaviour calibrated, from bulk metadata
--
Weishaupt comes alive
The all seeing eye
--
All your habits, all your movements
All your sexual preferences
All your colleagues, all your friendships
How often you take a shit
All your debts, all your bets
All your hopes and fears are known
Consolidation in every nation
The great work is nearly done
--
Weishaupt comes alive
The all seeing eye
--
Retaining bulk metadata to be held against you
The elitist leanings of man appealed to by corporations
Diminishing expectations can be seen in every nation
Many tongues, one voice
The great work of age has come
--
Weishaupt comes alive
The all seeing eye
--
Everything is known, health and your loans
All privacy gone, in the Panopticon
Everything is known, health and your loans
All privacy gone, in the Panopticon"
...And Whitey's on da moon....
Sir Keir was ready to step down but his wife won't let him. She knows it's now or never. Break the filthy peasants before they revolt. The Orcs are in the shires. They will be armed and used as reserve troops if necessary.
Didn't take long for them to get rolling, did it? As the globalist ship sinks, the strategy must be to ring-fence the Crown holdings and as much of Europe as possible. Then, they'll . . . what? Do they even know?
It's almost like there is a God, and that thumbing your nose at Him for centuries is not all that adaptive.
A true globalist, trying to make his nation fail, so that transnational entities, typically associated with banking, will be in the wings. I don’t know who funds them, but they would be a good bet.
Well said, TT.
The increasing contrast between South America and Europe is getting more obvious every day. Our closest neighbors are rapidly shedding the shackles of ultra-leftism and jumping on the conservative bandwagon.
Meanwhile, Europe is doing everything it can to protect the dream of totalitarianism and the push for WW3.
Let's hope they don't bring us all down with them as they have tried multiple times in the last century.
The difference is that if you don't earn in South America, you starve.
They all tried Socialism and ran out of other people's money.
The more Socialism one gets, the worse life becomes.
Europe is still sponging off big daddy Uncle SAM.
Answer be a question. Why the EU insistence on driving Europe to Islam? Britain, just like portions of the US rust belt, is being destroyed by the socialism inherent to Islam. Why? Is this a verification of Lugh’s opinion that crony capitalism drives humanity towards government control? Towards socialism and eventually Marxism. Was Marx right? Is this the natural order?
Your last sentence. Has the USA pouring trillions of dollars into Europe since WW2 been a way of countering the movement toward European socialism, the USSR until 1991, and that what we are witnessing in the USA right now is a counter movement by European socialists against the US.
Crony capitalism? You mean like Government and Industry working together? As if the contrary is even possible? As Marx said, Capital centralizes. Fewer and fewer own more and more. But their credo remains personal profit, so they are not fit to rule. Thus the Government must remain on top since personal profit cannot run a society.
Here we go again. Government is the solution to the avarice of people.
Government is a focus amplification of the greed of people. Government hates people. Government wants power period. Government is the target evil of the Revelation, “Babylon”. Lugh, your treatise about government is so false. Competition dilutes economic power, period. The progression of capitalism to cronyism to socialism to either fascism or Marxism is the decline of competition.
The main cause of the movement to corporate or other cronyism is government interference with the free market. That makes people nervous and they turn to guess who, the government. The cause d’etre of the problem.
You still have not come up with a single socialist win.
South America becoming what Europe was. Europe becoming what South America was. I'll take Buenos Aires over Paris at this point in history.
SEE MY REPLY DOWN IN "HIDDEN REPLIES" BELOW.
THE SUBSTACK CENSORS ARE HARD AT IT TODAY.
With the exception of It-Lee, I'll take Greater Buenos Aires over Euro cities anytime!
Not to worry. Americans will show the Eurotrash how totalitarianism is really done.
Notice that we Americans never seem to celebrate our freedoms more than when we're looking outward.
Turns out our "more perfect union", is nothing more than a federal bureaucracy that enjoys total control over every one of us:
Absolute power, a federal system that can make you disappear, with no semblance of due process. A system that assures that you and I commit, as Harvey Silvergate calls it, 3 felonies a day, just by participating in society.
In the event the bureaucracy decides (and yes, its up to them) to subject you its trial court system, you become a hapless player in a legal theater performance that assures the state will prevail. If the federal system decides to encumber your freedom, except in very rare cases, nobody can save you.
Consider as well, the absolute power by design, of never accountable local district attorneys. They can fabricate whole cloth criminal cases against any one of us. And through commission of false testimony, and omission of truth, send any one of us to a lifetime of prison.
These same district attorneys enjoy iron-fisted control over the application or non application, of criminal laws passed by our elected legislatures. The will of the people is short circuited by the political whim of a few system officials. As a result, America's cities are burning.
And in the rare, extraordinary event that this flawed, even criminal miscarriage of justice is exposed, we're often told by these same DA's that a victim's vindication demonstrates that the system does work...Systemic arrogance. Tyranny is seldom humble.
Nothing personal, but a US citizen, pointing out another nation's lack of freedoms, is like a prisoner bragging that his shackle chains are longer.
Do your handlers pay well?
Asking for a friend.
Just a question, could it be that the EU, the Europe consortium is playing a game with America? Are they countering the anti-socialistic folks in the US? Does Trump see this and is trying to isolate America from Europe? Is it the reason why he wants to isolate the Western hemisphere?
On our 250 birthday, is it time that the American people realize the Declaration of Independence was America telling Europe to take their monarchies and socialism and shove them where the sun does not shine?
Hopefully Putin will torch all 27 EU Capitals, Amsterdam, Athens, Berlin, Bratislava, Brussels, Bucharest, Budapest, Copenhagen, Dublin, Helsinki, Lisbon, Ljubljana, Luxembourg, Madrid, Nicosia, Paris, Prague, Riga, Rome, Sofia, Stockholm, Tallinn, Valletta, Vienna, Vilnius, Warsaw, and Zagreb, not necessarily in alphabetical order, but a combination of Kinzhals, Zircons, and Oreshniks, should do the trick.
Glassing all the "decision centers", where the "deciders" are, should suffice. Same as the US. The majority of Europeans can take care of business, once out from under the yoke of the deciders. Same as the US. For the umpteenth time, same as every civilization, every day we have two choices; protect our way of life or lose it. We're losing - soon to have lost - our way of life.
Again, could it be that Europe is behind the socialist movement here! Is Trump reacting?
Again, the idiocy. Communism is an offensive arm of Capitalism.
And your opinion on government shows total ignorance.
Meloni is particularly disappointing. Thought she would put Cursula von der Lying in the toaster. Nope, she caved. Trump saw it & Meloni is now just another EU shrew to be thrown from office.
This is what Democracy will deliver, either thru human stupidity or bureaucratic finagling.
You’re covering a lot of ground today, JHK!👍 The Iranian situation is fascinating and I suspect several members of the current IRGC leadership will soon become familiar with Eddie Money’s hit song “Two Tickets to Paradise”. Kaboom 💥 Elsewhere over there, the European nations you’ve highlighted are all in various stages of capitulation to radical Islam. Perhaps they will learn a lesson or two from their more rational neighbors, such as Hungary, Poland or Sweden (with its recent adoption of “assimilate or be deported”). If not, they will all soon be joining their radical Islamist superiors praying to Allah five times a day. 🤷♂️🤷♂️
it is really a sad state of affairs. Stunning ignorance
Israel has to get out of Lebanon, either willingly or by force. Then and only then can their be peace. Abraham accords? The Iranians are not Sons of Abraham. And even the Arabs should be clever enough not to fall for such bs.
Have they joined Iran and the rest of BRICS+ in an anti-American movement?
It looks like the European peasantry has had enough. The modern day Braveheart in Scotland taking a blade to random people in a Muslim neighborhood the other day is just the beginning. Starmer's fall is based on the revelation that while he was Home Secretary or whatever they call his previous post, the government sent over 12,500 "stern letters" telling accused rapists that raping English children is not considered good form and if it isn't too much trouble, try not doing that. As author Ralph Peters has said, Europe will eventually revert to form and drive out or massacre these interlopers. This summer, this Fourth Turning is lighting off its afterburners.
If so, who voted for Burnham?
Our man Jim continues to see the world through the Israeli lens, as if Israel is righteous and rational, and the rest of the world is insane. Week after week we are told that Iran’s leaders are maniacs and that their only prudent course of action is to let the US and Israel decide what sort of country they should be.
The future is not the failing West. It will be the BRICS nations and the Global South, and the world they create is unlikely to be much like ours, and certainly not Israel’s. We may not like it much, and they won’t care.
Among a number of contentions in Friday’s post that should be addressed, this one stands out:
“Mr. Trump managed to marshal the help of all those Persian Gulf nations in the Iran op so as to end the nuclear threat, and the constant chaos in the region. Who would have imagined that a year ago? Everybody in the region is on the same page now.”
If everybody in the region was capable of unity for any purpose, Israel would have ceased to exist decades ago. The sad fact is that the Arab world is so chronically preoccupied with internal differences that it has never been able to band together for long, even to counter existential threats.
The second dubious implication is that the US can now count on this ephemeral unity to assure us of the region’s long-term gratitude and good will. We have never had the benefit of either from the Gulf States. They regard us with contempt, and have only suffered our building military bases on their territory because that was supposed to assure their security. Turns out, it doesn’t. Those bases simply became prime targets, which Iran has been canny enough to render useless. In doing so, Iran has exposed us as being unable to protect them.
As nations the Gulf States are, of course, largely as artificial as indoor snow skiing in Dubai. During the twentieth century certain Arab tribes were favored as newly-minted ruling elites, enabling them to live lives of indolent decadence that most Americans might only dream of. If it turns out that their best hope of sustaining that enviable lifestyle is the Shia Persians, rather than the infidels of America, they will readily adapt to that new reality.
Skillington — if you think I'm shilling for Israel today then you show no reading comprehension ability. I'm getting sick of your bumptious bullshit.
Calling it bullshit falls well short of cogent refutation.
Your fealty to a pack of decrepit narratives is doing you no credit, Mr. Kunstler. You should have stuck to urbanism.
Advice from someone who puts pineapple on pizza.
I've been informed that chocolate-covered bees are served and enjoyed at movie theaters in South America. Takes all kinds.
Your post is rather 2023, actually. BRICS is not forging ahead, particularly as there appears to be quite the conversation between Trump, Putin and Xi. With regard to Israel, please be reminded that Israel responds, they do not attack first. If Hezbollah stops attacking, there is no need for a response. Obviously, despite the MOU, Iran has not told Hezbollah there is a cease fire.
A future alliance of the US with Russia and China is a pipe dream. We have tried to destroy China's North-South railway connection to Tehran, and we continue to permit our NATO puppet to wage war deep into Russia. They will continue to pretend that we are capable of reconciliation. In the meantime, China dumped another fifty billion in US Treasuries last week, because they see the writing on the wall. The composition of BRICS will continue to evolve, but it will happen, because China and Russia want it.
The American empire has fallen into a fundamentalism of its own civic religion. They, and their European servants, have committed the classic blunder of coming to believe their own propaganda and allowing it to shape their world view. They truly believed it was wise to try to push a hostile military alliance to Russia's own border. They have continued to provoke Russia to the point of risking a nuclear response.
https://dgap.org/en/research/publications/russias-nuclear-signaling-2026-and-implications-european-security
And if they do, they'll consider themselves the injured parties. Diplomacy is dead.
I suggest you continue to watch CNN, or whatever leftist media you currently get your information from.
You have no clue of my sources, obviously.
Then be brave and cite them, so others can gain your insight and wisdom.
I have done so before. My spreadsheet gas about fifty authoritative sources. You would do well to begin with Pepe Escobar, Douglas MacGregor, Alex Krainer (Jim hates him), Larry Johnson, and Charles Freeman. None of them, of course, write for any corporate media.
You have no clue of mine...
Thank you for the sane and accurate posts. I fear you are about to be banned from this Substack discussion... i.e. Kunstler's personal Room 101 of Zionist indoctrination.
Do you even know what the definition of Zionism actually is??
Does it include a Palestinian genocide?
There is no Palestinian genocide. Stop subscribing to propaganda and do a bit of research.
Well, I suspect I know what it looks like;
https://imgflip.com/i/auxgdd
I suspect you’re pretty much of an asshole.
Jim, you quietly avoided stating that Israel is occupying Lebanon. Bombing towns, killing innocent civilians. I know that being put in that situation, where I was not a "Hezbola" fighter in the past, I would join up after my family's town, infrastructure, churches had been destroyed. Each family they destroy, creates enemies. To label anyone wanting and fighting to get Israel out of Lebanon as "Hezbollah" is dissembling. https://homebrave.com/home-of-the-brave//from-lebanonhttps://www.instagram.com/courtneybonneauphotography/
https://www.instagram.com/p/DZxAYrRo_w7/
Would Sunni Saudi Arabia tolerate a Nuclear armed Shia Iran?
Maybe you can read up on that Sinni/Shia fault. It might be enlightening.
Yes, the Shia are much more peaceful than the Sunnis. Of course we're allied with the Jihadis. Of course!
Duh. Jim claimed fifteen weeks ago that Saudi Arabia would be instrumental in defeating Iran. Didn't happen, did it?
Yes, and remember we are committed to defend Saudi Arabia by treaty.
Thank you for shining the light of reason on the real issues in the middle East and elsewhere. It is telling that we never see a rational response to your arguments---just emotional name-calling.
Iran has united the gulf states? I guess you missed that!
For decades, the deal has been straightforward. In 1973, after the post-war boom receded, the USA went from trade surplus to deficit and its hegemony was in danger. Kissinger went to the Gulf states and made this offer: The USA pledges to guarantee their defense. In exchange, the oil-rich nations will only sell oil for US dollars and will recycle those dollars in the US markets.
That arrangement held for five decades. Its ending was chimed earlier this year when Iran rained missiles on its Gulf neighbours and the USA was powerless to stop them. The Gulf countries now know full well the security they've been purchasing isn't real, so they will be looking for new arrangements. And the MOU makes it official: the USA will orchestrate a $300 billion rebuilding fund for Iran and hand over the Persian Gulf as its sphere of influence. Iran will now join the other Gulf countries, who have the $300 billion under their couch cushions, in a new security architecture.
Lindsey Graham and other national-security chowderheads will want to spin this as a victory for the USA, but it's a stunning defeat.
Yes that treaty exists but it was the result of talks between FDR and King Ibn-Saud in 1943. The Joint Chiefs told FDR that there was not enough domestic oil to fight a two theater war.
Trump visited the Gulf States in 2025 and they all agreed to invest Billions in to the US? So it's amazing that you ramble on seeming like Mr Smarty Pants! Lol....
You are careless reader. I explicitly pointed out that they are not capable of being united.
I imagine the Gulf States have been united as Iran was consistently bombing them…
The Israel haters cannot concede that Iran is an evil country, using Shia Islam as justification to control the Persian Gulf and the flow of global oil. Just another hyper-inflated bunch of religious assholes.
Israel committed the genocide, not Iran. You talk like supporters of Karmelo Anthony. As if he's the victim and not Austin Metcalf.
Stop twisting Christianity and maybe you can untangle your twisted mind. They killed Christ and revile Him to this day. The Muslims see Him as a great prophet.
Great post James, as always.
When the MOU first came out I found and printed it, it's here on my desk. As I read it I had to chuckle because it reminded me of the "letter of intent" I saw so many of in my commercial real estate career. We called them "Swiss cheese agreements" for they were full of holes. I'm no international expert on politics but I've done business if a few foreign countries including the middle east and these people think very differently than us. I feel Trump knew full well this agreement would be violated almost immediately and that part of his plan. While the press thought it great, he was merely sitting back waiting for them to so violate it as that will give him power to act. Trump is always 8 steps ahead of everyone else with a clear view of the outcome he wants.
As to Starmer, a man who shouldn't have had that position ever, I spoke to a friend of mine who lives in the UK and he says most of the citizens there, or as he says at least the smart ones, are thrilled with him quitting. However, they also know the next one will be even further left than Starmer. Their joy may be short lived.
Starmer was 'lent' as PM by the Trilateral Commission, of which he was a member. He's a dedicated global technocrat and a Fabian. Burnham is the same. The globalists already supported devolution (Wales, Scotland and NI). Now they'll sell the 'democratic deficit' agenda because England doesn't have a separate devolved parliament. But what they're going to do is create English regions instead, with regional mayors (Burnham fashion). They are pushing 'citizens' assemblies', i.e. random 'representative' groups of people who will act as think tanks, but will be manipulated through the Delphi technique. There is to be no real democracy (not that there ever was). This agenda is the global gulag in operation, with pretend local 'democracy', but all directed from the centre.
You've come so far. Remember when you were for "Syrian boy" and mass refugees? Now they are getting burned out of their homes and you say nothing.
I don't think sympathy for a 3-year-old Syrian boy is remotely out of place, no matter what his death was used for. The UK and US governments were complicit in creating the situation in Syria that led to the refugees leaving in the first place. It was not the fault of the Syrian refugees.
'They' are Syrian now? Burning innocent people out of their homes because of something someone else did is an outrage and a heinous crime. Note also that your government and mine put the current ISIS/Al Qaeda head chopper in power in Syria, so there may be more refugees, including you Syrian Christian brothers and sisters.
Let's get real- no way could Queer Kier survive the Pakistani Rape Gang Investigation Report.
That being said- how is it that they (the Lib Commies) are just going to put in a carbon copy of Starmer and totally ignore the millions of Brits who support Tommy Robinson, Rupert Lowe and Nigel Farage's efforts to unite the Kingdom?
It's the definition of insanity is it not? Refusal to accept reality is the hallmark of leftist parties.
How is it? Didn’t Burnham just get a lot of votes ? Who “ voted” for him? What does the population of greater Manchester look like? Where are those millions when it comes time to vote?
Exactly.
If you really want to understand what is actually going on geopolitically... Ukraine/Russia, US+Israel/Iran, US+Israel/Palestinian genocide, US+Taiwan/China, etc... you can check out Judge Napolitano's YouTube channel.
He interviews multiple subject matter experts daily. The likes of: Prof Jeffrey Sachs, Prof John Mearsheimer, Scott Ritter, Col Macgregor, Phil Giraldi, LtcCol Danny Davis, Prof Seyed Marandi, Ray McGovern, Larry Johnson, AMB Chas Freeman, Max Blumenthal, and several others.
Congratulations JHK. You have now gone 100% certifiably insane. Everything you say is going on is 180 wrong. Everything you say is not going on is also 180 degrees backwards. Down is up; up is down. Good is evil; evil is good. Between you and Huckabee and Trumpenstein and Netanyahoo you haven't told the truth since February 28th. You are about to blow up the world. At least the two worst evil terrorist organizations USA and Zionist Israel will be gone forever. Then we can start over.
Jeff...I wonder if JHK will respond?
"you haven't told the truth..."
Jeff,
The truth? I would not know the truth if I saw it...neither would you. Opposing viewpoints are not lies.
Seems rather obvious the EU and Britain are increasing their push for war with Russia due to pure hatred of, and desire to take over their resource riches. Their disdain and even deranged hatred for Trump adds more fuel to the fire. Of course the ongoing assault on their citizens in favor of the illegal invading hordes makes a threat of civil war another reason to start WWIII. Even Spain, under the communist Premier, is facing a potential rehash of the Spanish Civil War as he moves to grant citizenship to over one million illegal invaders, the Spanish people's opposition be damned. The brutal treatment of native citizens by every EU member and the British Commonwealth nations makes insurrections and even civil wars more likely as invaders are granted more rights and powers. The leftist loons will do anything to retain and consolidate power, including murdering many millions in their planned war against Russia. Without the war, they will simply continue imprisoning protesters and opponents and driving their societies closer to revolt.
Wow. I've heard of moving the goalposts, but Mister Social Critic has devised an all-new strategy to secure, protect and defend his delusions: swap the goalposts. Don't want to admit that Iran scored a touchdown against the USA? Easy: redefine the game. When the other team carries the ball past the goalposts behind you, that means you scored a point. It's genius!
That squawking you hear is Iran getting dragged kicking and screaming into getting everything it's asking for. Because in February, the USA tried and failed to impose its will on them by force, there is no military solution, and Trump's only option if he wants to avoid a Great Depression is to accord the existing Iranian regime its sphere of influence over the Persian Gulf and hand it the Gulf's security architecture, leaving Israel in the cold.
Donald Trump's problem now isn't getting the Iranians to gracefully submit to him giving them a hummer. It's getting Congress and the national security state to do so. This is how empires fall: not just with humiliating defeat, but with humiliating delusion.
I've tried several times over the years to imagine what the final fall would look like, but now that it's actually happening I have to admit that never in my wildest imagination could I have come up with all this. Reality exceeding fiction once again!
I guess we can live with the fantasy that Trump making the only sane choice he has left is proof of his genius. It is no surprise that one of his staunchest believers not in his administration, should paint it such. We might nominate JHK for first place in the “shadow cabinet”, iPhone on speed dial. No matter.
An end to this war is worth listening to a bit of nonsense. Like the conclusion that the poor IDF wasn’t really attempting to take out a Hezbollah position in southern Lebanon bringing on the shelling but it was the reverse. The Queen believes “six impossible things before breakfast” we hear. No matter. Trump either brings Israel around kicking and screaming or is forced to cut them off from certain military aid. The Curtis LeMay doctrine is toast and he knows it.
Though I share his opinion of the current state of the Democratic Party his opprobrium is better served directed at AIPAC payroll masquerading as patriots in the GOP, FOX News and elsewhere.
Yes, Iran didn't like Trump's subtle diplomacy of not only threatening to bomb the shit out of Iran but that they the diplomats wouldn't make it back to Iran either. The fucking savage.
This kabuki theater is getting long in the tooth. My predictions are predictably off mark, but it feels like the denouement is imminent.
Regarding Ukraine, they also attacked their own cathedral in a false flag effort in order to pave the way for their attack on Moscow.
Nice, succinct summary of recent events.
Vance is acting well. Trump is not acting. Given the bullshit performance of the Iran negotiation team and the killing fields back home, DJT will hammer them and soon.
The Brits have been fighting the USA since 1776. F off .
The EU has self inflicted itself with the invited Muslim invasion and windmills.