Debt Rattle November 24 2019
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Pablo Picasso Portrait de femme (Dora Maar) 1943 • Does Trump Have Bunch Of ‘Losers’ To Thank For Growing Economy? (Charlie Hall) • Phase 2 of
[See the full post at: Debt Rattle November 24 2019]Pablo Picasso Portrait de femme (Dora Maar) 1943
The Picasso is lovely; as is the subject…The view from the Hermitage is constantly evolving; the present view seems to validate the pov that no human institution is free of corruption; the government (all), the church (all), and the social, in which we all participate, to greater or lessor degrees…
Individual integrity is constantly under attack.
The question then becomes; is it still possible to be a social animal in this atmosphere and still maintain one’s personal integrity?
As a quasi hermit, I have my doubts…Does Trump Have Bunch Of ‘Losers’ To Thank For Growing Economy? (Charlie Hall)”
He’s missing the point: they KNOW that. What they’ve done is turn money printing into oil. That is quite literally turning straw into gold, or in this case, hot air into gold. It was never meant to turn a profit. The Gov’t, the Oil Insiders, and the Fed, all work together and have since 1974. So if they want to expend four pawns to buy time, they can and have. The taxpayer will foot the bailout or in this case won’t even notice since the debt is so high, the addition on these companies is a rounding error: they, the banks, and the currency will all fail together anyway.
Anyway, no mystery, no intent, and no problem.
“the industry was most worried about “the continued threat of a no-deal Brexit”He’s full of crap, there’s a European or world recession, sales are down everywhere. No sales: no money, no jobs. Simple. No-Brexit or Brexit-accompli wouldn’t fix that.
“Brick & Mortar Melts Down as Ecommerce Jumps by Most Ever (WS)”Similarly, and bad journalism, yes, but online is wildly smaller than retail, so a huge jump in it doesn’t offset the malls. That is, we’re in recession, overall sales are way down because the people don’t have money. So what little money they have is doing discounts online and saving gas by not driving and eating out.
“An enormous effort by Eric Zuesse.”We really need and appreciate it, like the “18 Points” by Solomon. If you think the 607-people thing is a joke, Bloomberg just spend $34M in anti-Trump ads. That’s more than anyone, more than Obama’s top blitz. More than some candidates have every raised. Spent in one WEEK.
Still, they’re following conventional wisdom, DJT was outspent 10:1 and still won because people hate the NeoCon/NeoLib candidates just that much.
“We’ve known this for a while. The OPCW is a cesspool.”
He whole U.N. is a cesspool just like it, approving or not standing down all kinds of war crimes, and protecting rape and trafficking of their members and soldiers. How dare we not fund it?
“How The Firm Lost Its Grip (O.)”
Endless bad behavior, every generation. Edward was a prime example, not only ignoring duties, sleeping around at national intel risk, but a Fascist that supported Europe’s worst. And their close friend, Lord Acton, then said what in watching them? “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Everyone needs a check on their actions, it is a good thing and a benefit, a love to them to do so. They did not love Andrew, because they did not discipline him.
Even now, they do not love him, or the people: they “un-royaled him?” Puh-lease. Serve 2-5 and that’s a gift, and we’ll be serious. Otherwise we know you love importing East European 14-year-olds and raping them, and Meghan too, who sits next house over, watching. And it IS tough, but you must do something.
Speaking out is only the FIRST thing, not the last thing. But when you’ll be jailed for doing even that, it’s a place to start.
To Kosmos, from yesterday’s Debt Rattle thread:
It’s not the idea here that everyone agrees with one another. That’s too boring. So no need to apologize or anything.
I got the time, I got the ideas, I got no money
I found the right answers (many times)
I forgot my point then I remembered then I forgot it again
My answers were not always wrong
Even with my ignorance I survived another day
I prefer to be ignored than to be hated
If I spend my time in the I-pad then I can’t spend my time in the garden
If you thought like me then we could not have a conversation
I prefer to have nobody living in my mind
I don’t know where my mind went when I slept
I won’t know if you don’t come to my funeral• Yes, Ukraine Interference In The 2016 Presidential Election (Levine)
With the creation of the WEB, and social media, sowing discord is a busy undertaking.
Zerohedge has their special kind of comments. Reading the opinions and comments from other bloggers like TAE or other blogs( https://www.moonofalabama.org/2019/11/news-a-russian-operation-us-intelligence-says.html#more ) can be intellectually revealing and entertaining.I’ve got nothing new, but I spent yesterday really studying Professor Nate Hagans’ essay, from the tail end of Friday’s excellent Debt Rattle. You might consider that, too. Nate was at The Oil Drum, and later The Monkey Trap, but in the past few years he has been teaching ecological economics, has students, has a book ou (I just ordered) and another soon. https://www.amazon.com/Bottlenecks-21st-Century-Synthesis-Predicament/dp/1687233160/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2GKWEI9YFFFCX&keywords=bottlenecks+of+the+21st+century&qid=1574604533&sprefix=bottlenecks+of+%2Caps%2C193&sr=8-1
This is superbly well organized, immediately actionable analysis, for the non-avoidant.
A bunch of mildly clever, highly social apes broke into a cookie jar of fossil energy and have been throwing a party for the past 150 years. The conditions at the party are incompatible with the biophysical realities of the planet. The party is about over and when morning comes, radical changes to our way of living will be imposed. Some of the apes must sober up (before morning) and create a plan that the rest of the party-goers will agree to. But mildly clever, highly social apes neither easily nor voluntarily make radical changes to their ways of living. And so coffee and stimulants (credit, etc.) will be consumed during another lavish breakfast, but with the shades drawn. It’s morning already.
It is likely that, in the not-too-distant future, the size, complexity, and (literal) `burn rate’ of our civilization will be much reduced by forces other than human volition. This paper suggests that we will not plan for this outcome.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921800919310067John Day,
Good on you that you took the time to read Nate’s latest. He sent me this saying: if you have an hour to spare, and I’m always like: I read so much online already, any hour I have to spare I’ll sit outside here in Athens with a coffee or a beer.
Nate and I have kept in touch through the past decade or so, and we both have the same teacher, the unfortunately deceased Jay Hanson, and our notions and ideas are very close. The main difference perhaps is that Nate keeps on looking for the solution, and I’m thinking there’s no such thing, let nature have its way.
Maybe that’s why TAE is not more successful than it is: I should be offering ways out of the misery. But all I can do is to give you what I see, be it politics, Trump and all that, or a much grander scheme,
Still, what Nate talks about is to a large extent what I do in recent essays like Energy vs DNAand Energy vs Waste
It’s all the same thing, except he’s more optimistic. But what do you have left if you can’t be optimistic? Good question. See, that optimism is about the future, not today. Maybe that’s where the optimists should focus their focus. Today. Not the -at 20 you start paying into your pensions plan- and at 65 you will reap the rewards-. That model is dead.
“But still fascinated with Musk. Why?”
My only guess is that Musk has become the most reliable snakeishly oiled pork barrel creator around. He has a gift for selling ideas to the public which in turn gives Congress to grant subsidies and tax breaks that attract investors into stuff Congress can reliably drain their 10% off.
He’s like advertisement for an expansion of the milindustry complex via private investment inspired/sanctioned by government largesse.
It’s all I got.
“…yes, but online is wildly smaller than retail, so a huge jump in it doesn’t offset the malls. That is, we’re in recession, overall sales are way down because the people don’t have money. So what little money they have is doing discounts online and saving gas by not driving and eating out.”
Also, a minor but symbolically giant factor, is that so many people work in lousy retail/service jobs of the brick’n’mortar variety that going to the store to shop is the last way many people want to spend their money.
Go back to the salt mines to buy lingerie when a smiling robot will leave it at your friend door with a beep, a wink, and a friendly wave?
@John Day
Interesting point of view of our social/economic structures
“Economics for the future – Beyond the superorganism” by N.J.Hagens“Jay Hanson”
Sort of an insider joke. I joined what was the last, I think, of Jay’s Brain Food fora, one discussing what might be pragmatically practical (that’s so close to a tautology I might have it p[rinted on my too-too tutu).
He moderated with some sternness on that forum. Kicked several people out. Some of them deserved it. Some of them just ran afoul of what I assumed were Jay’s volatile mood swings from dealing so long with such a dire set of issues.
Anyway, we named him The Claw, after The Claw in the first Toy Story:
I leave it as his unflinchingly Darwinian epitaph.
Brick’n’Mortar replaced by robo-drones
Well, banking is traditionally a brick’n’mortar retail biz, jah?
I see homeless people.
Curious little trouble-maker observation from the wiki on America First:
“Conservative commentator Pat Buchanan has praised America First and used its name as a slogan. “The achievements of that organization are monumental,” writes Buchanan. “By keeping America out of World War II until Hitler attacked Stalin in June 1941, Soviet Russia, not America, bore the brunt of the fighting, bleeding and dying to defeat Nazi Germany.”
Cold hard logic there. Pat Buchanan is a very odd duck, but on certain issues of realist geopolitics, he is almost always spot on when few others are. He may not be right any more often than a stopped clock, but like a stopped clock, when he is right he is spot-on.
And then there’s that oh-so-earnest hound dog squint of his, an expression on his face like he suffers severe chronic gas, or maybe an undescended testicle.
I’d like to see him alone, holding a baseball bat, in a room with Bill O’Reilly.
Thank you Raül!
Have to recommend Vice’s special on Ukraine where they follow the conflict from the maidan on the ground. They dont get into much background but follow the events as they happen both political and the battles. You get to see the whole Crimea thing from the perspective of ordinary people and soldiers. I think there are around 110 short episodes on youtube. Really good to combine with articles like the one from Zuesse and the one from Stockman yesterday. Highly recommend it.
From yesterday, DNC group demand to know, What were Guliani talking about???
Here ya go: https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/state-department-releases-detailed-accounts-biden-ukraine-corruption
State Dept releases 100 pages of document implicating Biden and Burisma, that Guliani was looking at.
Rumor has it “America First” was the name of a group of Generals who were trying to bend the U.S. back to the Constitution back in the 90s. They all died in a mysterious plane crash, you know, ‘cause for security Generals fly on the same plane all the time. Kind of like Navy Seals. Anyhoo, weird how Trumpster, put in by the Marine Generals, used the phrase about 100 times in his inauguration. But hey, you know that phrase ain’t gonna kill itself. Buchanan is right: Russia won the war, we were a rounding error. But that’s okay: the Anglos backed Hitler (see Bushie and Chamberlain) and set up the war TO attack Russia, and also divide Eurasia, under MacKinder’s “World Island” concept, so although it went sideways midstream, overall it worked pretty well: Germany is still occupied and subject to the Anglos today. …Except for the 60 Million dead, but they were all peasants so who cares? Daddy Warbucks made his, amirite?
Yes, Kosmo, please disagree. We don’t learn anything if we’re the same. It would be shocking indeed if I, an American, were to the LEFT of you, a Swede. But that’s the demands and characters of our nations.
Is it too late for me to be known as The Claw?
How do you like to be addressed? Illagi or Raul or either?
Anyway you say: “any hour I have to spare I’ll sit outside here in Athens with a coffee or a beer. ”
So you are in Greece, what is your thinking on China buying the port of Piraeus? I know the EU thru them under the bus, and the conservative govt. is selling off all it can, but… belt and road? An entry to the EU market. But selling an important money source to China? How can that benefit Greece? Or is this all a short term solution to bankruptcy?Also I too have had old friends go ballistic on me when I wanted to see “facts” about Russia-gate. It seems today all that is needed is a Loud Accusation and presumed guilt. Whatever happened to due process? Now people seem to have forgotten “innocent until proven guilty”. While Trump is obviously guilty of many sleezy business crimes, but Russia? War is bad for business, so I guess Trump is anit-war for that.
Today accusations seem to carry more weight than in the past. Now if I even associate with some one accused of bigotry, then I am tainted too, unless I un-friend them as in FB. Can no one have friends or associates without being 100% in agreement with them? This seems to go both ways – I’ve gotten slammed from both sides of a discussion, if I don’t join a “side”. It’s all “be for me or against me” with no gray zone, no middle. This kind of divisiveness is killing off associations of diverse paths, too much contention. Too much anger floating around. Everything is getting polarized.
I too enjoy reading your blog over my coffee, along with other alt news sources. Thanks for hanging in there. There are too few people who even want to think for themselves.
“Is it too late for me to be known as The Claw?”
Only if you don’t ‘splain, or point to where you’ve already explained why it is that yiou claim the military, Marine Generals in particular, who got Trump elected.
I don’t wanna go from RussiaRussiaRussia to gen’rlsgen’rlsgen’rls, jah? I have this severe allergy to unsubstantiated dogma, even the sole-sourced unique variety.
Gimme that and I’ll not only call you The Claw, I’ll call you The Claw of Dr. D.
Don’t give me that, I just might call you The Crab. And then send someone’s kids to track dirt all over your nice clean kitchen floor. cuz that’s how I roll. 😉
P.S. Since you quote your share of Calvin & Hobbes, I would welcome high-quality HD images of the finer color Calvin & Hobbes, especially his Spiff the Spaceman work. I’d love to suffocate Andy Warhol with a rolled up Calvin & Hobbes illustration-size paperback.
We could discus it as art. Zappa would smile in his grave, and the Might Hobbes Himself would beam upon us from His Heavens.
srsly
Historical forebear:
Dr. D: A Swede who grew up in a communist workingclass home at that. Went to commie camp and when the adults talked revolution we kids got to throw darts at a picture of Ronald Reagan. As far away from the American culture as can be I guess. Now I have friends who ask me if I would have been a gun toking republican if I lived in the states.
And by the way a far right conservative party is leading the polls here now, the social democrats are loosing hegemony and the conservative block is by far the biggest if thay choose to cooperate with the far right (think a cleaner version of Svoboda) and it seems they will. Wonder what Sweden will look like ten years from now.
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