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Are They Lying, Or Just Stupid?
Submitted by James H. Kunstler via Kunstler.com,
It’s not always easy to define what exactly is wrong with America, but what ever it is, it’s huge.
— Roel Ilargi Meijer, The Automatic Earth.com
Nobody knows, from sea to shining sea, why we’re having all this trouble with our Republic.
— Tom McGuane, Ninety-Two in the Shade
Despite its Valley Girl origins, the simple term clueless turns out to be the most accurate descriptor for America’s degenerate zeitgeist. Nobody gets it — the “it” being a rather hefty bundle of issues ranging from our energy bind to the official mismanagement of money, the manipulation of markets, the crimes in banking, the blundering foreign misadventures, the revolving door corruption in governance, the abandonment of the rule-of-law, the ominous wind-down of the Happy Motoring fiasco and the related tragedy of obsolete suburbia, the contemptuous disregard for the futures of young people, the immersive Kardashian celebrity twerking sleaze, the downward spiral of the floundering classes into pizza and Pepsi induced obesity, methedrine psychosis, and tattooed savagery, and the thick patina of public relations dishonesty that coats all of it like some toxic bacterial overgrowth. The dwindling life of our nation, where anything goes and nothing matters.
It’s not just the individual cluelessness of ordinary people leading lives too frantic for a moment’s reflection about anything, but the appalling institutional cluelessness of enterprises where you’d think combined intellects might tend toward a more faithful view of reality. But these days all we get is a low-order of wishful and clownish group-think, such as this item from today’s New York Times discussing a proposed reversal of Gazprom pipelines along the Ukraine / Slovakian frontier as the solution to the Kiev government’s fuel problem:
Nearly all the gas Washington and Brussels would like to get moving into Ukraine from Europe originally came from Russia, which pumps gas westward across Ukraine, into Slovakia and then on to customers in Germany and elsewhere. Once the gas is sold, however, Gazprom ceases to be its owner and loses its power to set the terms of its sale.
Get that? To avoid depending on Russian gas, they’re going to buy Russian gas from sources other than Russia. What New York Times editor can read this story without spraying her video display with coffee? What genius in John Kerry’s “Haircut-in-Search-of-a-Brain” State Department dreamed up this dodge? Who would think that you could improve a Chinese fire drill by tacking on a Polish blanket trick (i.e. trying to make your blanket longer by cutting a foot from the top and sewing it onto the bottom).
The only conclusion the casual observer can come to is, to put it mildly, these institutions have gone completely meshugga. Since I follow the behavior of these organizations, I know that this is not an isolated example. For the State Department, the entire gambit in Ukraine has been a chain of obvious bungles and miscalculations, starting with our sponsored overthrow of the original elected Kiev government, and the absurd presumption that Russia had no legitimate interest in that region’s stability to the strategy of shoot-yourself-in-the-foot financial sanctions. The New York Times (once America’s “Newspaper of Record”), is now a completely unreliable conduit for un-parsed White House backgrounder propaganda and raw State Department spin, with an overlay of editorial PMS brain fog.
Another humdinger on a somewhat different issue caught my attention the other day in the formerly eminent, now degenerate journal Foreign Affairs (May / June 2014): The United States of Gas, by Robert Hefner III . This idiotic article in the current issue hits on all the usual wishful thinking delusions du jour concerning this country’s energy prospects, namely: due to fracking in shale deposits we’ve entered an energy-and-manufacturing renaissance, we’re soon-to-be the premier energy exporter to the world, and US “consumers” (i.e. citizens) can be assured of driving to WalMart forever — in other words, all economic problems solved. These idiots (editors and fact-checkers included) must get all their information straight out of the Cambridge Energy Research Associates (CERA) PR handouts. CERA, of course, is the official public relations shop of the oil and gas industry.
It’s one thing that this article is patently misleading. What’s worse is the complete absence of any understanding of the fundamental dynamic between the high cost of unconventional oil and gas and its effect on capital formation. In other words, the capital investment for continued future drilling will simply not exist. What a surprise that will be to the people who run this land.
There comes a point in the destiny of a failing nation when official lying is no longer distinct from official stupidity. We’ve crossed that boundary in the USA. It pays to remember that societies get what they deserve, not what they expect.
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You can't fix stupid.
No you can't. But delusional rationaliztion helps.
And stupid is as stupid does
So they must be really stupid liars!
"As democracy is perfected, the office of the President represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day, the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be occupied by a downright fool and complete narcissistic moron." - H.L. Mencken, The Baltimore Evening Sun, July 26, 1920
The US passed the Idiocracy event horizon in 2008.
With no more $35 billion Russian discounts to get in the way I guess that Yulia Tymoshenko chick is free to triple the price to her bretheren in the Ukraine again...
"The US passed the Idiocracy event horizon in 2008."
Maybe a bit nearsighted. anyone remember the word "nuculer"
Lying or just stupid?
Classic false dilemma arguement. They are BOTH lying and stupid.
It is not the American people that are the problem, it is the oligarchical ruling class. They are shoveling this sleaze and general ignorance on us because they are both. Nothing makes someone more stupid than the belief they know everything. Look at our POTUS.
Lying or stupid? I always ask myself that at the end of every Kunstler article.
No, it is everyone. Each and everytime we buy we are encouraging things. We have to realize that corporations do bad things because everyone makes it profitable for them to do so.
Well actually, it is the American people who are the problem. Going back to the beginning the American people have chosen their representatives and leaders. The American people have chosen what we have today.
actually in 2000 don't you remember Alfred e neuman bush?
Are They Lying, Or Just Stupid?
Yes.
Challenge the premise and the mosaic will come into focus.
Hypothesis: “They” really do mean to destroy America.
"A Marxist begins with his prime truth that all evils are caused by the exploitation of the proletariat by the capitalists. From this he logically proceeds to the revolution to end capitalism, then into the third stage of reorganization into a new social order of the dictatorship of the proletariat, and finally the last stage -- the political paradise of communism." p.10
-- Saul Alunski
Obama: “We are ..Days Away From Fundamentally Transforming The United States of America”
To “fundamentally transform America” requires that liberty, freedom, our birthrights and our private property are transformed and no longer a fundamental precept of our country.
What exactly does he want to transform us into?
A Marxist state tyranny where Whites, Jews and Christians will be purged and misery is applied equally among the “little people” while the Elites running a politburo are enriched off of our substance.
What "birthright"?
This is the only birthright all natural born American citizens share: http://www.usdebtclock.org/
Not stupid and not necessarily lying, so much as method acting. To make the on-camera delivery convincing, you have to feel what you're saying. So they work themselves into believing they can spend their way to saving or whatever. They're hollow shells playing their role to earn and keep their positions.
I like Kunstler when he gets fired up.
I love it when cunts become so stupid they believe their own lies.. and I particularly love the next phase when lies demand so much energy to upkeep that rambling, stumbling and fumbling is the only outcome... It´s like they BEG to be exposed because the lies keep them imprisoned.
oh dear.
angry old white dude calls out a boundary crossed.
welcome to a deeper reality *wake up* call.
some passed that imaginary "State" line years ago, but I guess your creature comforts kept you nested just that little bit longer, hmm.
and many are still mired in re-drawing lines of comfort-able-ness, so as to avoid whatever is on its way.
but oh, it's on. whether you can see it or not, it's ON.
WE tried to call out to those who couldn't listen. We tried to get them to wake up, through our posts and shares of videos. They consciously decided to be wilfully ignorant, and decried us; worshipping the creation, instead of the Creator.
WE reached out, and they rejected the love that WE openly showed them.
They called us 'religious nut-jobs' for pointing out that if the People wouldn't listen, the God that created us all would cause signs to come, and make the very Rocks and Stones cry out, in an attempt to wake the slumbering masses UP.
WE used the tools that the enemy uses, in order to try to shine the light of Life upon the dead. Videos, stories, music, anything at all...
LISTEN to the example herein:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXcdYBh3hgg
There are SO many other examples, throughout the days and months and years and decades and centuries and AEONS; that it is painful in the extreme to outline; that WE have demonstrated.
WOE, WOE, WOE unto THEM that heard the Word, but refused to LISTEN!
DEATH is ON. It's visiting us now.
OH, it's ON, all right.
@MACHOLATTE:
Well, you don't get it.
Well, maybe you do, but the Soc's and Vals and Jocks and Dweebs and NERDS 'totally' don't GET IT.
Like, "OhmyGOD! Like, TOTALLY! Like, Encino's SO BITCH-EN'!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-LArv-sEQU
Nicolas fucking Cage HEADLIED in a movie, called 'Valley Girl', back in 1983, you know.
Atlantic Releasing presents:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZaRznRmCqc
Randy and Julie, they 'come together'... the WET DREAM of EVERY 'tweenaged girl'...
NOW, I see, Cage is the HEAD-LIER is the death-bringing Hellrider, according to 5-year-old girls that are being preditctively programmed by their parents to worship fucking SATAN by being set down in front of a Blu-ray DVD player and exposed to the 'movies' that their parents 'like to watch'.
O? O, NO!
NO, they were 'Transforming America' so to speak, decades ago! Bear WITNESS as the DEATH of freedom (and responsibility) is heralded, and anything goes, in the NEW AGE of hedonism (a major goal of this Religion; that decries that Anything is Good, and also worships that which states that all is good, and Death brings Heaven).
Archangel (Dark Angel), lend me thy light; To Death's Veil, 'till we have Heaven in sight!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEY0VdqZoz0
Ahh, (you say); what was all that CRAZY SHIT about the 'Cremation Of Care', that Alex Jones exposed in the 'Bohemian Grove' movie?
'THEY told Me that it was a 'Crazy Conspiracy Theory' by 'Tin-Foil Hat-Wearing Crackpots'; and "Religious Nutters"', you reply to yourself (fully knowing the Truth now, but denying it to your last breath of LIFE; resorting even NOW to lying to yourself about the REALITY; and the MAGNITUDE of the lie).
YEAH, it was THOSE guys, the MARXISTS, what done that...
A ROSE, by any other name, I suppose, would smell as sweet (right before it decays and falls to ashes). A Marxist state tyranny where Whites, Jews and Christians will be purged...
OH. The PUT-UPON 'Whites', 'Christians', and 'Jews', (OH MY)!
I almost forgot about them. Thanks for reminding me, Pastor HAGEE!
DAMN, he's a fat, pork-eating little fucker; A WHITE 'CHRISTIAN' PRICK, who espouses the love of his Zionist (JEWISH) brethren, as well as the idea of 'replacement theology' and 'fly-away' rapture shit while he raises funds from the sheople who willingly give their las dollar to support his style of religious fervor.
If 'Macho-Latte' is simply deluded by his ignorance, press '1'.
If 'Macho-Latte' is a member of a 'totalitarian socialist sleeper cell', press '2'.
If 'Macho-Latte' is stupid enough to think that he isn't serving his Master (the one who is the Prince Of The Power Of The Air), press '3'.
If 'Macho-Latte' is simply a stupid fuck, who is too ignorant to understand that he has been owned by all the propaganda that those who wish to control his Free Will have achieved; as witnessed here by his racial, religious, and pro-Zionist bullshit posting of his HONEST opinion (and deluded one), press '4'.
Thank you for your time. Your opinions (including the one that 'Macho-Latte' gave) are greatly valued.
The 'People Of the Way' like myself, thank you in advance.
You have just insulted President Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho...
Close. It was actually in 2000. But other than that you've got the right idea.
Yeah, we were very close to putting Al Gore into the white house. Al. Gore.
Thank god for election fraud, eh.
And Bush turned out so much better....
You bloody idiot.
They were both world-class twats. I find it easy to believe that Gore would have been worse.
I would say that the line was crossed when we elected an actor as Prezidentz. Then again, at several junctures in our past, we elected military commanders as Prezidentz.
Nothing good can come from putting individuals in positions of power who are accosumed to;
A) having all then guns
B) issuing orders that everybody around them obeys.
Carl's Junior: "Fuck you, I'm eating!".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wW-4LU79qbU
The US passed the Idiocracy event horizon in 2008.
Nope.....that was 2000. George W. Bush. And to make matters worse....it could have been Al Gore. That was a perfect storm of the choices available from the Idiocracy.
And this was the picture that summed up Idiocracy on parade for that election.......
http://media.washtimes.com/media/image/2012/09/23/20120923-171949-pic-22...
hahhhahahah, thanks for that.
<chuckle>.....That never fails to get me too. And then after I've had a good laugh...I pause to think how far we have fallen since that time....and then I get depressed. But not for long anymore. I'm moving from the grief stage to the acceptance stage. Or what I like to call the "Carlin Stage" as expressed here by the man himself.....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZ6mCI3wpEk
ahh yes, I can understand where Carlin was coming from there, blaming "commerce & religion" and ultimately feeling "disappointment & disillusionment". . .
one can only hope he eventually made his way towards the great Bill Hicks' larger perspective.
peace, truly, eh.
Disagree with your time line. It was 1989 - 1990. No evil empire to constrain us, western military reigns supreme in the world and banksters un-leashead to fraud, pillage and plunder with no constraints or fear.
There always is a 'perfect storm of the choices'. That's the whole idea. It's risk-free politics, makes no difference who wins.
Foresight in The Marching Morons.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Marching_Morons
In our Case, the "Ranks of the Elites" are replaced and/or taken over by many via the means of Treachery, Usury, Thieviry, Debasement, and Debauchery.
“Democracy is the art and science of running the circus from the monkey-cage.”
? H.L. Mencken
To invoke Hillary, what difference does it make whether it's lying or stupidity? At this point, the end result will be the same — the US will gradually fade into obsolescence.
This country's epitaph should read:
"Here lies America. WTF?"
If it was nothing but stupidity the situation would be self-correcting. Do you see any signs of this situation self-correcting? Me neither. Therefore, more is going on than just that.
The sheeple have been educated to believe they are educated. Young chick driving a Prius in front of me at a stop light, smoking a butt, and then throwing it out the window but I'm sure she's onboard with saving the planet.
She thinks she is.
That is all that mattered to the marketing team that wanted her to keep doing what they need her to do.
I, naturally have several random brain farts to convey...not necessarily in this order:
A) Thanks to Eddy Bernays, the Suffragettes, and torches of "freedom"
B) Who was responsible for her education?
C) "We're gonna save the fuckin' planet?" -George Carlin
Well she is saving gas
Not even that.
aye, that's a great meme.
here's one for ya, fighter jet pilots dropping bombs on humans for more. . .
jet fuels.
equivalency?
Venal institutional directives and perverse incentives feed the lies.
Is the Housing Market Filled With Over 1,000 Mini Bubbles?
The housing market is experiencing a case of deja vu. While the economy is still trying to recover from the credit meltdown that took place more than five years ago, home values in more than 1,000 cities and towns are already at or near their bubble-era peaks.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/housing-market-filled-over-1-123701766.html
Gee, how did my town miss this ?
Housing market is booming in middle Tennessee...
.
I would only add a single line to that:
"Here lies America, because here lied America, especially to itself."
"Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard." - H. L. Mencken
GW was close. We now 'ARE THERE'...
i prefer the power of AND
they're lying AND stupid.
Some really believe their own BS (I suspect very few- the unfixably stupid). Some don't believe that it matters if they lie (the "magical" thinking of zero consequences to achieve short term aims). But the dangerous ones know EXACTLY why they lie (they have a plan, and one you wouldn't like if you knew what it was).
Agree 1000%. Some people are convinced that the IRS did not target the Tea Party even though the story broke when the IRS admitted targeting the Tea Party at a press conference.
Speaking of liars, Holder shakes down the banksters for Dem Party contributions.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-05-05/holder-signals-criminal-charges-coming-against-some-banks.html
Holder has cancelled speaking engagements lately because of the public outcry surrounding the events (namely that they would book a known traitor :).
Now he needs to appear that he will do his job so that he can get back on the speaking circuit. But it will definately help in the shakedown of Wall Street for the mid-terms, I agree.
*chuckles* A dangerous on eh? We will need to be popped on a few gov lists for it to be official.
– Fortress’ Novogratz: Bitcoin is a fascinating story, and I think it’s real http://hedge.ly/1iVu9WT
I doubt it, but why post your drivel here?
For the benefit of Zerohedgers, I will channel Fonestar here:
"BitCoin isn't just fascinating or real, it's FASCINATINGLY REAL!! Hail Satoshi! Only he can save us now."
Mark Twain said it first:
"Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on, or by imbeciles who really mean it."
"True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country."
Kurt Vonnegutdon't worry, your highschool class will never run America, You went to the wrong highschool. However, even the right highschool class is a disASSter
pinocchio is a good metaphor... time to start hanging some jews... the "right ones"... "of course"... lol
"You can't fix stupid."
Darwin fixes stupid.
Hold my beer and watch this!
But the state does subsidize it and insures against it, in exchange for votes.
Reminds me of another quote:
"When stupid people do stupid things, that's nature's way of getting rid of stupid people."
Some morning shock jock said that in the 1990s in response to the fact that those shade thingys you put in the windows of your car to keep it cool in summer contain the warning: "Remove before driving."
Sadly, these are the people 'running' the world today...
BUT you CAN hang it alongside of corruption and treason
Try a gun;(remember the bullet must be able to penetrate cement or cast iron.) Mileatones
Are they lying, or just stupid?
The answer of course is pickles.
I'll take the "The penis mightier" for $600.
That's "The pen is mightier", Mr. Connery.
@ Eyeroller: "You can't fix stupid"
Do not attribute to stupidity that, which can adequately be explained by greed.
They aren't stupid. They are lying. Voters love liars. The bigger the lie, the bigger the turnout in favor of it.
Why not both?
No one posted this Clemens quote yet? OK here we go:
Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on or by imbeciles who really mean it.
You say that like we have to choose....
The official lying is the norm and the official stupidity is our puttin up with this BS
Lying is to politicians as stupid is to Average Americans.
JHK would have paid you for that line. "I like the way you think"
I'm pretty sure the Osama slayer is lying whenever he talks.
I up-arrowed you for that epic avatar of yours!
"It’s not always easy to define what exactly is wrong with America, but what ever it is, it’s huge. — Roel Ilargi Meijer, The Automatic Earth.com"
"Nobody knows, from sea to shining sea, why we’re having all this trouble with our Republic. — Tom McGuane, Ninety-Two in the Shade"
I can explain it:
What is Wrong With the People.
First, there is plenty of reason for hope, so don’t despair, but …
Something is wrong with the people, who seem increasingly partisan, ignorant, apathetic, dishonest, evasive, cowardly, hypocritical, passive aggressive, insecure, conformist, closed minded, irrational, illogical, and unprincipled. Perhaps most obvious is the increase in cognitive dissonance, but the entirety of the character devolution of the people should be really obvious to any American who has lived long enough. I first noticed it during the Clinton Administration, but the root cause actually started long before that and merely caused a rather obvious leap under Clinton.
A lifetime of experience has taught me that just about everyone has the potential for the dark side as well as the potential for nobility. Both impulses are in our genes, but something in our environment is favoring the dark side.
First, let’s identify the rather obvious trends that motivate us to find a cause. Then, we will learn how they all have the same root cause:
(i.e. infertility, cancer, autism, diabetes, Alzheimer's, and allergies.)
(e.g. psychotropic drug prescriptions.)
(i.e. 9/11, Obama, Clintonomics, anthropogenic global warming, the crash of 2008, the economic recovery, money, the police state, Syrian intervention, the Tea Parties, energy independence, Detroit, race, racism, Trayvon, gender, guns, abortion, homosexuality, the Constitution, history, the free-market, science, innovation, libertarianism, progressivism, fascism.)
Before we can solve a problem, we usually must understand the cause; otherwise, the unintended consequences could be worse than the original problem. In fact, the solutions of the past are the cause of most of our problems today.
Given that those who are most successful tend to be those who are least principled, we can see why every other problem is the result of unhealthy interventions at the top, but how did it get to be this way?
After a few generations of unhealthy interventions from the top by men who may or may not have been principled, we can see how their bad solutions created a perverse incentive structure that rewards bad behavior and punishes good behavior. Just like bad parenting creates a spoiled child who suffers from arrested development, now an entire people are increasingly spoiled children who suffer from arrested development.
The Soviet Union had a system that rewarded unprincipled people, and it crumbled from within.
Everything afflicting the people (that wasn’t caused by evolution) is caused by dishonest banking and a dishonest money supply, and the watershed of problems are self reinforcing. One unusually large cause of problems, that was itself indirectly caused by dishonest banking and dishonest money, is political correctness. Another unusually large cause of problems that was itself indirectly caused by dishonest banking and dishonest money, is media bias. Of course, the chain of cause and effect is long, complex, and suppressed by the media; whereas, myths are substituted by the media, but the chain of cause and effect should be clear by the end of this article.
This is where the real explanation begins.
Dishonest banking and money are caused by:
Central Banking: The Federal Reserve is a private bank with a government granted monopoly on currency creation; whereas, money is a product just like any other, and thus would benefit from competition just like any other product. Why do you think the Federal Reserve refuses to be audited? Central banking was universally considered dishonest until the 20th century.
Fiat Currency: What most people still don’t know is that all of the money in America is created from nothing and backed by nothing except confidence, and thus it is referred to as fiat currency. Fiat currency was universally considered dishonest until the 20th century.
Fractional Reserve Banking: The main cause of fiat currency is that banks can lend at least ten times as much money as they receive in deposits, and depending on the type of loan and type of deposit, it can be even more. Over time, the government has been making it increasingly easier for banks to create more unearned money out of nothing. This is known as fractional reserve banking, which was universally considered dishonest until the 20th century.
Quantitative Easing: In addition to fractional reserve banking, under Obama, the Federal reserve has been creating a much larger than usual amount of money and loaning it to the government and the banks. This is known as quantitative easing, which was universally considered dishonest until the 2oth century.
ZIRP: The federal reserve has reduced the interest rates to nearly zero percent on money it loans to the government and on money it loans to those banks who own the Federal Reserve. This is known as Zero Interest Rate Policy (ZIRP), which was universally considered dishonest until the 20th century.
Consider that any entity who borrows money at zero interest has little incentive to ever pay it back, and will in fact have much incentive to keep borrowing. That’s a very corrupting influence.
Bailouts: Before Quantitative Easing and ZIRP, the government tried bailouts. Does anyone believe that the crash of 2008 and many of its prerequisites would have happened if all the self-proclaimed Elites had been certain that bailouts were an impossibility? It is almost as if bailouts were part of some plan.
Bailouts are unconstitutional, but they happened anyway, so we see that it is really just the character of the American people that gives the Constitution its power, and the American people lacked the character to stop the bailouts. It is almost as if character devolution were part of some plan.
Bailouts were universally considered dishonest until Obama.
Cronyism: Dishonest banking causes the government and the big banks to receive a flood of unearned money, which then finds it way to their closest cronies, which thus tempts cronies to become closer cronies and which tempts honest entities to become first-time cronies. This is called cronyism, and although it has been growing for a long time, it was universally considered to be dishonest – until Obama became the President.
Government rewards cronies with bailouts, contracts, tax breaks, regulations that help the crony and/or hurt honest competitors, and with selective enforcement of laws and regulations. Once the media became cronies, then media bias also helped other cronies and hurt honest competitors.
Once cronyism took hold at the top of government, the cronyism trickled down to the local level. Cronies in local government thus have the support of the cronies directly above them.
A system that favors cronyism makes it increasingly difficult for honest individuals and honest businesses to compete with cronies. It also manufactures more cronies by corrupting honest people. Furthermore, the dwindling number of men of principle limit their success by avoiding doing business with cronies.
Dishonest bankers corrupted honest banking, which then corrupted government, which then corrupted the free-market, which thus corrupted the people, which thus reduced entrepreneurship, innovation, efficiency, and honesty.
Read the rest at What is Wrong With the People.
You sure talk a good tangle.
It is quite possible that what you hope for and what I hope for are diametrically opposed. Oh, and I certainly do not despair.
Yeah. I know.
Could you have said it shorter??? Okay. I'll try:
The Bad: People ... seem increasingly partisan, ignorant, apathetic, dishonest, evasive, cowardly, hypocritical, passive aggressive, insecure, conformist, closed minded, irrational, illogical, and unprincipled.
The Fix: Entrepreneurship, innovation, efficiency, and honesty. [I would add DEMAND TRANSPARENCY FROM AUTHORITY, UNDER EVERY AND ALL CIRCUMSTANCES, NO EXCEPTIONS. (The people will fix it once they understand it.)]
Now make that work. Okay. I'll try again:
Go out and tell people in public. Protest. Put your life on the line for the sake of all you hold dear.
Yeah... I know...
"The people" don't deserve it. They allowed their spirit to be usurped by the sirens of seduction and now it is time to pay the toll. No Free Pass, No EZ Pass. The toll is blood. Always has been, always will be.
History may not repeat itself, but Human Nature never changes.
You need to repost this at every opportunity. I still say that most will not get it however.
The plain truth. It takes integrity to just speak it. Thank you very much.
The path of least resistance? Yep its allways down.
'Tattooed savagery' ....yea sure that's it. In my opinion it's too little savagery and a dumbed down consumer society....why on earth shouldn't they lie and act like dumb clowns in tuxedos at their politician/media dinners?
He sure has a hate-on for tattoos.
It's all the bad ink on the aspirational crowd that is an eyesore. Good ink is timeless like a tuxedo, bad ink is faddish like bell bottoms and hypercolor T-shirts. Good ink takes money and creativity, bad ink is indicative of the EBT crowd.
Tatts are a generational thing. My old man warned me never to come home with a tattoo or a Ford product. He later did rather well with the Christiana Securities deal but I still wanted a 65 Mustang.
http://www.autonews.com/article/19960626/ANA/606260744/feds-took-15-year...
"A child is amoral. A Papuan too, for us. The Papuan slaughters his enemies and devours them. He is not a criminal. But if a modern person slaughters someone and devours him, he is a criminal or a degenerate. The Papuan covers his skin with tattoos, his boat, his oars, in short everything he can lay his hands on. He is no criminal. The modern person who tattoos himself is either a criminal or a degenerate. There are prisons in which eighty percent of the inmates have tattoos. People with tattoos not in prison are either latent criminals or degenerate aristocrats."
- Adolph Loos, Ornament and Crime
A Tatoo is Like Never Having to Say You're Stupid
Everybody Instantly Knows!
Dumb fuckin' assholes, really. It's masochism and an advertisement for same, simultaneously.
Tattoos are forever as proved by countless aging biker chicks with those stretched and washed out butterfly tattoos just above their butt cheeks they all seemed to think was a good idea at the time.
Tattoos 20 years ago vs. tattoos nowadays:
http://theoatmeal.com/pl/minor_differences5/tattoos
Just the mattering bits.
when that moment where the masses wake up and see things for what they really are, the scramble for argentenian bonds will be breathtaking.
lol
I don't care who you are, that's funny right there.
I can't even get this stuff out right lately. My brain is toast. I'm starting to miss words and just type incomplete sentences. i'm glad you guys can put the pieces together.
I hit that point about 10 years ago. You'll get past that.
LOL! It can get worse or get better. If it gets worse, you won't notice anyway.
that needs to be tweeted at Kyle Bass...
The scramble for food, water and protection will be more breathtaking.
And I didn't think anything could make me laugh after the day at work I had.
Don't ever change Fonz.
It is easy to see the lies now. They are just everywhere. And they are systemic.
I could not survive in college now knowing what I know.
pods
as long as you sent in your tuition check i have a good feeling u would have made it to graduation.
I think you would survive college there, pods, ole buddy. It is the student loans that may prove fatal.
Freshman year I did a presentation on "Petro dollar recycling and the real reasons for the Iraq war", I actually got into it with a classmate who was a soldier cause apparently I didn't understand the threat of terrorism well enough, 3rd year in I did a presentation on "Osama, dead or alive", this was before the fabricated seal team 6 bullshit, and I got into it with the teacher because I pointed out there was no proof that he actually masterminded 9/11 and that all the supposed Osama tapes post 9/11 were radically different from his old transcripts (his new ones most likely written by Adam yahiye Gadahn).
Yea it's kind of tough going through college with a culture that refuses to think critically.
I started taking Poli Sci something like 12 days before 9/11. And yet the syllabus handed out at the beginning of the semester was the one we followed, through to the end of the year!
I thought it hilarious that we were essentially learning 'last years geopolitics', rather than discuss the events that were taking place before our very eyes! Because apparently a university is not the place to have a critical discussion...
any Poli Sci prof worth their label would realise "deviating" from the standard story, particularly those early post-911 days, would have repercussions.
"patriotic" student embeds have always lain in wait, the military does pay for tuition, y'know. . .
I learned a long time ago to believe nothing you hear and only half of what you see... Hell, I don't even believe what I see anymore because it is all quite bizarre...
Hell, pods, I can barely make it through a gunshow knowing what I know now. Nevermind college.
The New York Times (once America’s “Newspaper of Record”), is now a completely unreliable conduit for un-parsed White House backgrounder propaganda and raw State Department spin, with an overlay of editorial PMS brain fog.
You are a bit late to the party, Mr Kunstler. The New York Times has been a Pentagon propagandist for at least a decade if you remember the lies told by Judith Miller about Iraq's nuclear capabilities that led to the Iraq war.
Today the New York Times continues its proud tradition of propaganda with lies about Ukraine:
The US media, led by the so-called “newspaper of record,” the New York Times, shares political responsibility, having brazenly promulgated government propaganda and lies since the Ukraine crisis began last November. The Times, in particular, both in nominal “news” stories and in columns by State Department mouthpieces such as Andrew Higgens, C.J. Chivers, Roger Cohen, Nicolas Kristof and Thomas Friedman, has promoted the line that the incipient civil war in Ukraine is the result of Russian aggression, not US-European subversion.
In order to promote this grossly distorted version of events, the Times has gone so far as to publish an article with fabricated “evidence” and doctored photos supposedly proving that the rebellion in southeast Ukraine is the work of Russian military and intelligence forces—a story the newspaper was forced to retract—and dismissed as Russian propaganda warnings about the fascist and anti-Semitic politics of Washington’s ultra-right allies in Kiev. Chivers has also penned on-the-spot reports on the right-wing Maidan protests in Kiev sympathetically painting the ultra-nationalist paramilitaries as honest patriots and obscuring their fascist politics and pedigree.
Thus it is not surprising that the Times responded to the fascist murder of 38 people in Odessa on Friday by burying the story and deliberately obscuring the identity of the perpetrators. The only mention of the torching of the Trade Unions House and murder of 38 people holed up inside occurred in a story on page A7 of the Saturday edition of the newspaper—on the fourth page of the International section.
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2014/05/05/time-m05.html
We're upvoting a citation from the World Socialist website now? OK, whatever.
Read Chomsky. The NY Times has been a propaganda outlet for, like, ever.
"Are They Lying, Or Just Stupid?"
I'm going with lying.
What did I win?!
A fine color photo (framed) of Stupid. You may claim your prize at any federal gubmint office.
I don't think they are stupid. They don't mind playing the "that was me being stupid" card when they get caught doing something really clever, but otherwise they tend to be really clever about appearing stupid.
They are all really really accomplished liars.
100% of the time, all the time, every day, all day, any time they make a statement or put their name on any commitment, liars.
You can think they are stupid, and if you do they'll be laughing at you for being a simple minded little monkey thinks he knows his shit from Shineola, cuz brah you do not know jack about the extent of their lies if you are going to accept that they are just stupid.
All I know is, if I was an evil sumbitch, I would LOVE if people thought my corrupt complicity was merely stupidity.
Since you already have the mechanics working and know the system maybe you ought to sign up for the Evil Sumbitch in your area. You should probably go ahead get your Evil Sumbitch license just to have it. Might come in handy when the whole planet is you know being run by Evil Sumbitches.
Remember us little people when you hit the big-time.
Sounds like my kid sister who, back in the late 40s, set up a stand in front of the house and sold off all our comic books at 50% off face or $0.05 each. Her sale went well as the word got out around the neighborhood. Then she dissapeared, later to reappear with more comic books and continue selling at the discounted rate. Business was brisk. We finally asked where she had been when she dissapeared. A trip to the local drug store to replentish her inventory from her profits. I think that was my first "facepalm" moment in life.
Have your sister have a chat with Bezos.
You, you mean it might have been my thinking that was in error?
An apology to her after ~65 years should be interesting.
Trying to explain why, even more.
Math is hard for some. Sometimes you experience even worse.
I was working once with a lab assistant that was told to pour off patient serums to be sent for another lab for HIV testing. I had placed 5 in a rack to remind myself to call the nurses to order another blood draw because there clearly wasn't enough specimen to do the test. I came back later but my rack was gone. I asked the lab assistant where it was. Oh, I poured off the samples and sent them out. What? There clearly wasn't enough to do the test. Yeah, I noticed that so I added some of the patients that had plenty of specimen to them so there would be enough. I kid you not, she still didn't know what was wrong with that even with my exasperated explanation. Thank god this was during a time when you could be fired for clear incompetence and she was. Today she would have received counseling. I warn people who freak when they get unexpected lab results. Before you proceed to slitting your throat, consider retesting.
I am so weary of hearing it is the process not the person. I've seen fabulously talented people succeed with terrible processes but I've never seen a perfect process overcome the incompetence of a person.
Miffed;-)
I got blood work done several years ago that said my kidneys were failing and had high cancer markers. The doctor wanted to send me to the hospital that day. Seemed odd to me as 6 months earlier I had the same tests and everything was fine.
Told him no, let's try it again. Came back the next week and he didn't say anything! I had to ask him about the lab results. He said everything was fine, lab must have mixed the blood up. I still wonder about the person whose blood work I got. Crap, I wonder about the blood work everybody gets.
Reminds me of a sidewalk blood/glucose test I took - twice. Both came back at ZERO.
I asked the tech administering the test how I could be not dead or at least unconcious at that point and she had no answer.
Your surname IRL wouldn't be Yellen, would it?
No. However, both our ancestry lines may come close in Poland.
Is she a democrap?
we are the STUPID ONES...we must start to eliminate the elite class...are you game/
A guy ran out in front of the crowd shouting "let's all kill the elites" and there was a big fight. Bullets and grenades. Smoke and fire everywhere. It all ended sometime during the night.
Nobody ever found out what became of the people in the crowd. Soldiers came, and the people who went out to kill the elites just sort of disappeared.
The guy who ran out in front of the crowd shouting "let's all kill the elites" turned out he worked for the rich people.
Nothing happened to the rich people.
No wait I think they ate cake. Or something.
CW - don't feed the .gov (and other) trolls. There are many here. Some blame all of the worlds ills on the "joos" (forgetting that they themselves represent corruption and lies - as do many others) and others promote the idea of "getting together" and committing crimes. They are relatively easy to spot. And trolling the wrong web site.
They should know by now that ZH's roll on the web is not to "organize" but to "evangelize". To speak the truth as much as we mear humans can see and understand it. We are not here to organize violence .gov - just to shine the light into the darkness as much as we can.
You trolls are criminals in the truest sense of the word. Manipulaters, conivers, spies and thugs. Mafia of a sort. I liken you to the rot/fungus that appears on the bottom one's feet after trudging through miles of swamp and marsh in wet heavy boots. You know and understand that it is a natural part of the world of men but you wish like hell it didn't have to be that way. I feel the same way about mosquitos, black flies, the plague, syphilus and sun burn.
What are you gonna do....
My adivce to the paid trolls: Get a real job. A productive one. Take up painting. Bake bread. Something. Because when you are old and you look back on your life with the perspective that only time can provide do you truly want to regret it all? Crime might pay in the short run boys and girls but it exacts a heavy toll over the long run. And what you are doing and the people you are working for may have "the law" on their side but mark my words - they and you are criminal in every sense of the word.
Search your souls brothers - and remember - once upon a time even slavery was "legal".
Jreb out.
I know all that. I just like to write clever stories.
:-) I know - and I like to toss barbs at the trolls that couldn't get jobs as greeters at Wal-Mart because they are just way to creepy. It's sort of a hobby. I don't get a lot of free time but when I do I like to guilt the paid help.
hey jreb, I get what you're saying, but just want to add,
that I prefer to see ZH as "fight club" still, open to arguments, and not preaching some "side" of a "truth" - because the Truth is relative to the mind be-hold'ng it.
and there are deeper/higher levels of Truth, which sometimes get teased out in the exchanges.
a frat-house club is fine, but sometimes it helps to open the mind-doors and air the place out. . .
Agreed.
Must is a tough nut to crack.
I've created a new axiom. Don't blame stupidity when the plan is going as directed.
That is my conclusion, stupidity, greed, incompetence, avarice, all patsies. The plan is moving forward as directed. They can see the system is unsustainable, so loot hard now, and destroy the evidence. That is the plan. One man's opinion.
"loot hard now" has been the plan nearly every time an empire has wound itself down. It's funny to watch the "fat and stoopid" government fucks who couldn't get shit done at some point turn into maniac marathon runners for the loot. It would restore your faith in humanity if it weren't so damned disturbing.
To be fair, most people don't want to hear the truth.
It's just too monstrous.
The monster is fine if you don't want to know about it. In fact I hear the monster get its jollies eating the ones who didn't want to know.
I've been down the rabbit hole for so long that I'm sure that I come across as a raving lunatic to most people I cross in real life. I don't have the patience to explain things to people anymore, by now anyone who wants to know how the sausage is made is already enlightened.
It's impossible to explain it all, it's just too fuckin' big.
“The individual is handicapped by coming face to face with a conspiracy so monstrous he cannot believe it exists.” -- J. Edgar Hoover
And yet...he must have had to confront part of it, at least...
When I was a kid, bad guys were actually afraid of the FBI, but now it's like they are political cops, not Lawmen.
In fact, this year their mission was officially changed from an investigative service to an internal security force.
Oddly, it didn't make the cover of the NYT.
Well said. Sadly, those that get it are a minority of the 315 million that inhabit this country. There will not be a voluntary or planned awakening and recovery of the American Republic. Most have lost the capacity for rational thought about humainty, family and law.
double post