ExponentialAbsurdity

 
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  • in reply to: Comey and the End of Conversation #34078

    “The MSM have focused on getting Hillary elected, and they failed miserably.”

    I cannot agree with that, because Google News had Trump’s face plastered on articles even about Hillary. Usually his face was on the first 3-6 articles. Daytime TV news was chalk full of Trump Talk, and he kept that going by being controversial, unpredictable. When I lived in Scotland in 1979-1980 working on the BP40’s offshore oil rigs, the daily newspapers were tabloid rags with all sorts of weird articles obviously intended to be shock entertainment. At the time US news was still a serious business, but lately and particularly with the advent of Trump, the political news has become a stream of tabloid type articles. Even when he was caught talking about grabbing women where he shouldn’t be grabbing them, he came out just fine about a week later. People in the US have I think gotten bored with regular, serious news and want tabloid type silly news. They want to know about the Kardashians even though that makes no difference in the world whatsoever. They are taking Opioids to counter their depression over the failure of their own existence to live up to expectations and offer some solace to the manner in which people in the US have sequestered themselves from social interaction, cocooned into the wrappings of a dull and listless existence of work, sleep, work, sleep, and greater debt to keep up pretenses of success while realizing their parents seem like financial wizards due mostly to having lived during a time of more favorable EROEI and a lower population in which housing was much less.

    If we do go up in a big fireball nuclear war, people at the fringes that do survive will be torn between the joy of being entertained and the suffering of radiation sickness. They’ll take an Opioid concoction, smile and perish.

    We are now stuck with a Bizarro-World deviation from what use to be considered normalcy, in which a buffoon like Trump seems entertaining, filling the news with possible nuclear war with NK, or possible impeachment from collusion with Putin to put him in office, using hacked info. on Hillary the EMAILER, or eliminating EPA standards to help the super wealthy get wealthier so they can more easily fund R campaigns so they can eliminate more regulations to get even richer while poor people drink ever more toxic water, and when those poor saps suffer from cancer, they’ll be laying there wondering if that entertainment was killing them and causing their families to go bankrupt on hospital bills. Ah yes, but the opioids can even dull the nausea of cancer while watching tabloid news.

    in reply to: Debt Rattle Easter Sunday 2017 #33723

    “She wouldn’t have dared to do that to a white student.”

    Yeah, well it goes both ways. On my first day of being in an integrated school in 1966 all seemed well. I thought what’s all the bad talk about black people? Then the 2nd day started and from then on for four years it was as living hell! Everyday I walked on to those school grounds it felt like a shot glass of acid had been poured into my gut. I chewed my nails. The worst part was the unpredictability of what may occur, but once something started the teacher/s would not even move to help stop whatever madness had ensued. One teacher had a nervous breakdown, another teacher broke down in tears and dropped to his knees, all the substitute teachers got their money stolen. Our food and money was stolen, routinely bullied,under constant threat. After the 3rd year 65% of the white kids had left for private schools. My father kept us in saying he was paying taxes for public schooling. One student became deranged and fell out on to the streets never to be seen from again. I haven’t even gotten to the bad stories which I will not write about because it’s too sad. And WE never did anything to them, but as I look back we should have organized, mobilized, whatever to try and help each other out.

    in reply to: Debt Rattle March 27 2017 #33345

    I’m sure whatever I post someone will have the exact opposite viewpoint, because it doesn’t really matter what someone writes, someone else always has an opposing viewpoint. It seems like that’s what humankind does now – argue, with little or nothing to show for it because arguing in and of itself without clear action fails to provide results. It’s as if the internet has been a blessing and a curse as every single idea has those for and against it with little if any consensus.

    in reply to: Debt Rattle March 24 2017 #33305

    The US has the most expensive healthcare system because it’s mostly privatized. I got a hernia operation at a hospital in Napa, CA at St. Helena Hospital and the bill was $97,658,54. You might think there must have been complications or I stayed in the hospital for a while, but no, it was an outpatient operation. I paid a few thousand in addition to the Med. Ins., but mostly the Ins. held down the costs by rejecting that large fee. In spite of this the hospital sent me an arbitrary bill for $16,732. for what they referred to as adjustments and assessments, whatever that refers to. I tried to find out what the adjustment was for but they wouldn’t tell me and told me not to worry about it. Then later they tried to get it into a collections agency with a 2nd and final bill 10 days before the 90 days late was inflicted. I was able to orchestrate a conference call between billing and my insurance company, but they still couldn’t explain what the charge was for but agreed to drop it. That’s corruption and a blatant attempt to steal money, but the government does nothing in regards to this type of behavior. But if I went into a store and grabbed a candy bar without paying I would get arrested. So in the US you can figure as an individual you mean nothing whatsoever, but as a corporation you are everything.

    in reply to: Debt Rattle March 20 2017 #33219

    He was testifying about what he knows so far, i.e. either there is enough circumstantial evidence to pursue an investigation that may provide proof, or he was going to say there’s nothing to it and we aren’t going to pursue it any further. Well, it was news that the FBI at least think there is sufficient information to continue to pursue a more in depth investigation. That was huge and an insider that is on Facebook says the President is very worried this may be the beginning of the end for him and that’s why he had his daughter move into the West Wing because she helps to calm him down. Now that person may be false, i.e. not in the White House but this is all starting to fit.

    One thing that fits is when Paul Maniford came on board, suddenly Trump dropped talking about Russia in the Ukraine to talking about how NATO members needed to pay more and there was no more talk about the Ukraine. Just today Tillerson cancelled an appointment to meet with NATO members and instead is planning a trip to Russia in April.

    I emigrated from another country, yet I’m aghast at the notion Russia may engaged in cyber warfare to interfere with our election. That’s a pretty big deal if proven correct. I’m holding off on final judgment until more information comes in, specifically a smoking gun type bit of proof. These type of situations always bleed out slowly so we can’t expect Comey to come clean with the sheen in one hearing. Let’s give this situation a chance to develop.

    in reply to: Winners are Losers and Left is Right #33168

    “That craziest thing about the Yellen and Fed rate hike is that they say it’s to FIGHT inflation.”

    That is a laugh, isn’t it. I mean, they have claimed inflation has been too low all the while people have gotten much higher power bills, water bills, home & land tax bills, annual extra bill for the fire dept., so on and so forth until most people are pulling their hair out every time a new and much bigger bill hits the mailbox, yet just now they are intending to fight inflation? I’m so confused by their machinations of what they intend to do without actually doing much except watch and wait, that I now have no confidence in the Fed. All the GDP, Unemployment and other stats are faked now, cherry picking one’s that suit their agenda and creatively churning them to spit out a number that fits their agenda, whatever the heck that is. Seems like end game, but how knows how long this travesty can be kicked down ‘The Road’ (which is also a movie).

    in reply to: How to Drain the Deep Swamp #33036

    I’m right there with you on that one, Hotrod. If the logic has gotten so muddled that Trump seems like a good alternative to someone rational, then all is lost. If the middle class have to lose the little bit of help they got on healthcare to make the rich, richer, and that seems ok to avoid something as foggy as the ‘Deep State’, which is the far right’s definition of providing some entitlements from taxes back to ‘the people’, then count me out. I’ll sit this one out on the sidelines watching in horror as mentally ill Trump let’s Ryan roast what’s left of the American working stiffs.

    in reply to: Debt Rattle March 5 2017 #32977

    I suggest since QE didn’t have a feared inflationary effect, why not just tee off on the printing presses and wire thousands into each person’s account each month to super charge the economy into raging growth. Let’s all work part time and party the rest of the time. Go snow skiing, jet skis, hovercrafts, catamarans, travel, cruise ships, Viking river cruises, jet setting, designer clothing, jaguars, Jacuzzi’s, Ferrari’s, Mazerati’s, Lamborghini’s, Porsche and other luxury cars. Let’s go out on a really high note!

    in reply to: Debt Rattle February 26 2017 #32829

    “The living fabric of the world is slipping through our fingers without our showing much sign of caring,” say the organisers of the Biological Extinction conference held at the Vatican this week. Threatened creatures such as the tiger or rhino may make occasional headlines, but little attention is paid to the eradication of most other life forms, they argue. But as the conference will hear, these animals and plants provide us with our food and medicine.”

    Read that last sentence again…provide us… So even people writing about a topic like other species disappearing in an effort to get people’s attention have to make it about ‘people’. Why can’t we just love the wild kingdom for its inherent beauty without it having to pay us a dividend?

    in reply to: Debt Rattle February 25 2017 #32819

    “So let this part be crystal clear. What is coming down the track is the mother of all debt ceiling showdowns and the virtual certainty of government shutdowns and deferred payments to states, contractors and even some transfer payment beneficiaries.”

    Absolutely fantastic! The R’s were so enraged with hatred for the D’s about rising debt levels, however now they rule all three branches of government, so there are no excuses for not remaining at or under the debt limit. Go ahead and reduce corporate taxes from 35 to 15% and give more tax cuts to the super wealthy, then do your infrastructure bill and massive nuclear armaments modernization program and NOT exceed the debt limit. Sure, I want to see this.

    in reply to: When Was America’s Peak Wealth? #32793

    “I am drawn to wonder if civilization could ever have worked any other way. I’m calling it not very likely.”

    I concur, as people naturally take the path of least resistance just like electricity, always doing what is easiest, most enjoyable yet not necessarily, if ever, most prudent.

    in reply to: Debt Rattle February 23 2017 #32784

    Something that is starting to really fascinate me is how all these economic pressures can continue without collapse or some kind of long term resolution. How long has Greece had economic trouble but no matter how much it gets written about nothing changes. Spain, Italy and other EU countries, the same thing. It’s like a pressure cooker that just keeps having a tad bit more pressure applied. You figure it will explode at some point, but in this case it just gets to be a bigger more intense set of problems.

    in reply to: Fake and False and Just Plain Nonsense #32568

    I actually differ on the comments about the press, instead suggesting they have done a better job of holding him to the fire of truth after the innaugeration than before. What I cannot understand is how anyone, the press included, expected Trump to be a different more serious person after taking the oath. What was there in his behavior to suggested he would be any different? He’s a dangerous person because he’s willing to make up any information he deems necessary to hold up that firewall that supports his narcissistic state of mind. Fake numbers, fake assertions, fake ideas all point to a person with mental illness. If he doesn’t get the US into a major war with a super power it will just be dumb luck.

    in reply to: He’s Just Not That Into You #32242

    The situation between incoming prez Trump and the EU could be perceived as humorous, or it could be viewed at taking a 180 degree turn as it seems as though Trump intends to establish Russia as a US ally while walking away from the EU as an ally. That’s a rather dramatic turn of events if it comes to pass.

    If you think about it, Trump pivots to whomever puffs up his ego and goes on a tweet rampage against anyone with criticism for him. He’s that simple. What’s ironic, is the original statement by Putin about Trump was in Russian lingo a huge put down but Trump took what was said in an American context, which is different, and perceived it as a compliment. Putin at some point realized it was preferable to have an idiot leader of a superpower think he likes him and simply went with it because it was self serving.

    in reply to: Debt Rattle January 10 2017 #32114

    “Why provoke Russia with yet another mass deployment? Because as NATO Major General Timothy McGuire told reporters, last week, when asked if the large deployment was meant to send a message to Russia, “The best way to maintain the peace is through preparation.” And while we are quoting, here is another good line from the movie Spice Like Us: “A weapon unused is a useless weapon.” The US military industrial complex is doing everything in its power to make sure a lot of weapons are used in the future.”

    I think it’s a bit of a misleading statement to infer there is an intention to deliberately instigate conflict to make more money by the MIC to use more weapons as they don’t make military strategic decisions. It would probably be more accurate to depict these actions as saber rattling. Use of military is most often not used in direct combat but as a way of getting across a point by positioning more troops & equipment or just a big parade with missiles etcetera on display. In this case the message is, “Don’t try it or we’ll meet you half way.” Think about the numerous times when you were a kid and you had to enforce some decorum regarding respect. Most of it consisted of posturing, bluff, name calling and so on but only on rare occasions did it come to all out blows.

    in reply to: Debt Rattle January 8 2017 #32087

    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-usa-taiwan-idUSKBN14T02Q

    Ah, if you want to get a taste of the interaction between China and Trump before he’s even prez, take a gander at that article. There is some very hard rhetoric going back and forth. I’ve never been into the survivalists bit, you know with the freeze dried long storage food back up, water source, etc., until my wife and I are concerned this is Nostradamus’ 3rd badass. So anyway, we’ve ordered a long food supply of freeze dried food, getting water delivered, acquired a SW radio, pills to counteract radiation poisoning, seed packs for growing in the new world as long as it isn’t irradiated. Seriously this is the type of mentally ill person that starts big conflicts. China doesn’t realize he’s playing a game of bluff/pressure to put forth a stronger negotiating position. They’re not up to speed yet that he’s a business man, not a politician. By the time both sides get up to speed with one another, things could get nasty. How nasty I won’t speculate on, but this is a dangerous situation.

    in reply to: Debt Rattle January 7 2017 #32078

    Who needs Putin/Russia to help elect Trump when the American people desperate for greater entertainment, voted him in against their own best interests, because they will now lose a big chunk of the social safety net; due to higher retirement age for SS, 1/3 less $ for food stamps, exit Obamacare which helped my wife and I enormously and millions of others, loss of mortgage deduction, school vouchers increasing the wealth divide, massive tax reduction for corporations from 35 to 15-20% so they can buy back more stocks to the benefit of their shareholders aka the wealthy & buy more companies but not necessarily hire anymore people, privatization of Medicaid, reduction in benefits for veterans, pipeline completed from tar sands to Gulf refineries to the chagrin of the native Indians and those concerned with GW, elimination of unemployment extensions during extended and harsh economic downturns, building of a wall at taxpayer expense to keep out the people that will still work hard for very little, increase in coal usage & drilling for oil and gas anywhere and everywhere including the Arctic, elimination of Dodd-Frank so banks can gamble with depositors funds, rejection of any large scale renewable projects and many other eventualities we will find out about later.

    But hey, the tabloid entertainment just isn’t making it anymore, so now there’s Trump. At some point when it reaches it’s most despicable level of abject poverty for 10’s of millions, Trump should come out and say, “Are you not entertained?!!!”

    in reply to: Debt Rattle January 4 2017 #32048

    “One thing to bring up with UBI, is although we’re discussing who we’ve giving the money TO (the unemployed and people who were getting assistance already) we have to address where the money is coming FROM.”

    Possibly the answer lies in the list of articles, i.e. banks making money from nothing. Are the Indian central banks creating money to dole out to people in an effort to generate more GDP? Just another form of quantitative easing but without the public knowing where the money is coming from. In other words unlike your example of someone has to pay, in this case it’s just made up stuff people can use. It would seem likely to cause inflation and maybe it will.

    in reply to: Debt Rattle January 3 2016 #32032

    I don’t think we need to worry about a North Korean ICBM landing in the US. Why? Because either a ground to air missile or a fighter jet will intercept to eradicate it. When it would get difficult is if hundreds or thousands of such missiles were coming in at the same time. Then some % would get through.

    But as far as Trump goes, I’ve got to say, he spouts off like no prez elect/prez I’ve heard of before. The only president in any way similar would have been Teddy with the Big Stick. T. Roosevelt of course. He just tweets whatever’s on his mind, vs. the carefully crafted lines usually coming from the top dog. My opinion is; if Nostradamus was correct, i.e. there are three bad boys, Nap, Hit and now Trumpet (as Nostradamus referred to him) then this would be that guy. Who else fits the bill? Now we just sit back on a bunch of boxes of freeze dried food and see if it actually comes to pass in a bad way. One prediction of Nostra-baby’s is his prediction of a 27 year war in this time period. How could a war go on so long? One way is for it to be a cyber-war.

    Ever watch a documentary called Nitro Zeus? It’s a true story about a cyber war orchestrated by the US with Israel against Iranian nuclear enrichment centrifuges. Via sub-contractors that would insert flash drives into computers on site with a virus that would allow them to remotely change the speed of the centrifuges. Too slow or too fast and damage would occur to them. The plan was going great while the US was handling it, but once the Israeli’s changed the code to do damage faster, it was figured out it was a cyber attack by US/Israel. Resulting from that fiasco, Iran developed their own cyber warfare team that later showed their prowess by disabling US east coast banks for 24 hours. It was a not so subtle a message they could play that game too.

    Resulting from realizing Iran had that capability, the US developed what was referred to internally as ‘Nitro Zeus’. A cyber program in which they could supposedly disable just about all electrical infrastructure in Iran if it became necessary.

    Recently you may have read about Russia infiltrating our electric grid to cause disruptions, but mostly just feeling their way around to know how systems work and if necessary later, how to disable them on short notice. We are currently on the leading edge of a period in which wars may be fought remotely vs. the in your face tank battles etc. that use to take place. That’s how a 27 year war could be waged. Let’s hope not.

    in reply to: 2017: Where The Truth Lies #31954

    Fake news is just another sign that anything goes and nothing matters. Society has reached a point where it’s imploding on itself, inviting a madman into the white house for the sole purpose of providing political entertainment because tabloid magazines are only interesting while waiting for your groceries to be tallied up. People have become addicted to their IPhones, glued to them everywhere they go. Why do they bother to have children if they don’t interact with them? I read somewhere there are seven stages to civilization and the last one, #7; the point when it is breaking down.

    The internet is great at providing information and opportunity for like minded people to connect, but the fact all those people can communicate with one another has also led to an explosion of hatred against people that are not like minded. It’s as if the internet as a Global Brain, is feverishly nipping away at one another in a desperate attempt to balance out in a middle ground that will never form.

    in reply to: Debt Rattle December 23 2016 #31898

    Jim Rickards has been predicting this kind of stuff for many years. In fact, numerous people have been predicting this, but it still hasn’t happened. Doesn’t mean it won’t but the record is definitely stuck on repeating this kind of rhetoric over and over again.

    On a similar but different front, how many people have been predicting peak oil would be our undoing, but that still hasn’t happened either. In fact, nothing seems all that much different than it has for the past several decades except debt levels continue to rise.

    I would say our worst chance of difficulty is with The Donald. He plans to stick a monkey wrench into the way things are done and that can lead to a lot of problems. Even best case scenario he will make it much harder on the average person and much better for the top 5% because he’s self serving, ultimately wanting the rules to favor him and his offspring. That means less labor union power and influence, higher retirement age to collect SS. Restrictions on medicare and reductions in food stamps, along with abolishing or greatly reducing the Federal minimum wage, ending Obamacare with nothing to replace it throwing millions off their insurance. He’s also talking about getting rid of the mortgage tax deduction which will hurt tens of millions of people using that for their primary residence. Yet, he’s going to reduce corporate tax rates from 35 to 15-20%, and we just know for sure there will be massive tax cuts for the highest income producers.

    So it won’t be some cataclysmic end, but rather the screws tightening ever harder on regular people. That’s much more difficult to experience than some sudden end. It’s called slow torture brought to us by stupid people voting against their own best interest, because they’ve been conned by social issues.

    in reply to: Heal the Planet for Profit #31779

    Wow, I’m a new registrant – what a feeling!

    Great post Ilargi, because it gets to the root of the problem rather than the usual diatribe of how we can fix our litany of problems. The last part about what would happen if there was Fusion energy cuts through and defines the situation as untenable. I am certain that with fusion we would inflict the final insult on the mega fauna, just as you suggest. Humankind for whatever reason only knows full tilt, pedal to the metal, in a no holds barred race to decimate as much as possible in the raging insistence on going as big and as fast as possible.

    A perfect example of this can be seen in the recent Mars episodes by the National Geographic, in which the French billionaire funding the fictional portrayal of a Human Mars settlement, gets his ego in a twist about accelerating the expansion of the settlement (ahead of what makes common sense). So he sends two extremely self involved people to have authority to make decisions, which are contrary to the concerns of the current leader. As a result they lose their energy source and end up getting colder and colder while the remaining energy ebbs from the batteries. Then all sorts of psychological problems begin to set in with the crew. To make a long story short, it was greed that causes the problems and it’s a perfect analogy to the human experience in which ‘what is’, ‘is never enough’. Ever work for a manager that was satisfied with the amount or speed of your work? No, because that’s the game, to push labor as hard and as fast as possible.

    We have a nephew that works for Amazon as an electrician. He’s been working 10 hours a day, 6 days a week until Xmas passes. But that pace caused one of the electricians to get injured. So they have now just asked him to work 12 hours a day, 6 days a week. Get the picture. No compassion whatsoever in the pursuit of profit, just as Ilargi was explaining.

    When shtf some day due to one reason or another, those having passed through the population bottleneck will be forced to live in the slow lane. That is until someone gains sufficient power over those remaining people to push them as hard as possible for the leader’s comfort, profit. Humans won’t change no matter what, but the circumstances certainly will.

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