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Guest Post: Signs Of The Times

Tyler Durden's picture




Submitted by Nicholas Bucheleres of NJB Deflator blog,
Retail stores are so 20th century.  Really, between Starbucks, McDonald's, and Facebook, who has time to walk around the block, let alone read a book?  Never read a book before?  Don't worry; Fifty Shades of Grey is on audiobook, so you can live Tweet your favorite sex quotes.  Amazon's got you covered.
 
Amazon (white), $SPX (purple), Staples (green), Barnes & Noble (yellow), and Best Buy (blue) over 5 years.
 
Best Buy, Barnes & Noble, and the likes are closing stores and slashing jobs like its 1929 in order to prevent bankruptcy like the barely profitable Circuit City (Rest In Peace).  The 21st century consumer is clearly choosing to stay at home and shop for perfectly demanded goods, so that they can prevent even the smallest amount of sunlight from hitting the waxy rolls in their arms.
 
I always thought that the perfect competition model in micro-economics was mental masturbation, but I suppose this is a perfect example of its application: US retailers carry such similar products and offer such homogenous services that eventually there is not enough demand to go around and businesses fail.  What the micro-economics model I learned failed to incorporate was technological progress--Amazon.  We should have been taught that not only will some businesses fail while others enter the low-barrier market, but that if one single business can offer a better product than every other, then they will usurp the entire marketplace.  We are currently witnessing this take place.
 
It's a Fat-Kid World
 
With nearly every form of media that we consume quickly becoming digitized, it is no surprise that the analogs are rapidly being replaced by the digital.  Today's youth are especially drawn to digital platforms because most of them don't know how to read anyway, and the grease from their sausage-fingers can be quickly wiped off the screen of their iDevice. 
 
This is all great preparation for their high school years: Wake up in pool of own urine, pop Zoloft, drive to McDonald's to eat two sausage McMuffins and two hash browns, pop large dose Adderall, drive to school, wipe nose with shirt while Facebooking in class, more McDonald's, get a couple good hours in on the Xbox while popping more Adderall, Starbucks Mocha Frap extra Whip for dinner, Ambien to fall asleep, then repeat.
 
...but wait! College gets even better:  Fatso gets to do everything above, but he doesn't have to go to class!  Talk about the sweet life; big boy gets his student loan through Education Management Corp., who partners with our friends at Goldman Sachs.  They will get you a student loan with a snap of a finger so long as you attend one of their prestigious for-profit online higher-learning institutions.  No need to worry about repaying those student loans; you've got a college degree, bro!  After 8 years of daily speed-balling on amphetamine and tranquilizers, this McStudent will have such chemically induced confidence that taking a job without a college degree prerequisite will be beneath him. 
 
Next stop: government dole.  The New American Golden Boy will collect not one, but two weekly checks from the government.  First he will get the well-deserved unemployment check, and on top of that he will receive his disability check simply for being a fat-ass.  Oh yeah, and government/US taxpayers pick up the tab when he defaults on his student loans, because Goldman and Education Management Corp. are backstopped by Congress.   TARP2.0 will be of spectacular proportions.
 
$SPX (green), Goldman Sachs (blue), McDonald's (red), Apollo Group (purple), Teva Pharmaceuticals (yellow),  Starbucks (orange), Apple (sea-foam green?) since 1999.  
 
 Looks like our man is making a pretty good name for himself.  Every company that he and his friends and family touch has beat the S&P over the past 13 years. 
 
But let's be real here: these are not rational consumers making rational consumptions decisions.  This is the new America that is being engineered by corporations that force mindless individuals to become addicted to their products with zero regard for health implications.  We are witnessing consumption for capitalism's sake.  This is clearly not a sustainable form of economy if not for the health implications, then for the student and credit-card debt that this cycle is founded upon. 
 
Is There a Pill For That?
 
Rate of change of population (blue), rate of change of GDP (red), and unemployment rate (green) since 1970.  Black line is roughly 1999.
 The corporate benefits of the New United States of Pill Poppers was made clear above: all industries connected to the engineering of the new consumer have been wildly profitable since the arbitrary date of 1999 that I chose.  The economic implications are much more dire: the US population is contracting, GDP growth rate is falling, and unemployment has risen rapidly.  The corporate/economic effects could not be more stark, but everyone is too busy consuming to realize what is going on.
 
An economy is the aggregate of its consumers, and just like its consumers, this economy is structurally sick.  The monetary policy pill that central planners and investors have been high on since 2008 has caused the economy to build up such a tolerance that it is no longer effective unless taken in doses that will kill the patient.



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Thu, 08/09/2012 - 20:36 | Link to Comment The Monkey
The Monkey's picture

Zero Hedge publishing fluff articles!  Now you are learning.

THIS IS A MARKET TOP - EITHER GET THE HELL OUT, OR SHORT SELL!

SPXU and FAZ.

Thu, 08/09/2012 - 20:39 | Link to Comment ACP
ACP's picture

Actually, I wouldn't be surprised to see another flash crash. Perfect time to do it.

Thu, 08/09/2012 - 20:54 | Link to Comment mick68
mick68's picture

 most of them don't know how to read anyway

Thu, 08/09/2012 - 21:36 | Link to Comment old naughty
old naughty's picture

Downfall of an Empire...

Obesity planned.

Fri, 08/10/2012 - 00:07 | Link to Comment SheepDog-One
SheepDog-One's picture

'Sausage fingers'...lol

Thu, 08/09/2012 - 21:07 | Link to Comment vast-dom
vast-dom's picture

uh.......it's really hard to get fat on Adderall....

 

read this: SHORT THE PLANET

Thu, 08/09/2012 - 21:17 | Link to Comment roadsnbridges
roadsnbridges's picture

Which planet?  Please be specific.  Most gays are long Uranus.

Thu, 08/09/2012 - 21:22 | Link to Comment vast-dom
vast-dom's picture

looks like there's some long gay pride tapestry coming out of ur unicorn Uranus already so you could infer which planet.

Fri, 08/10/2012 - 01:20 | Link to Comment A Nanny Moose
A Nanny Moose's picture

..and Chick-Fil-A

Fri, 08/10/2012 - 08:43 | Link to Comment QuantumCat
QuantumCat's picture

"Short the planet"... YEP, should have hitched a ride with the new Mars rover Curiosity, although I wouldn't be surprised if the rover is actually a Federal Reserve asset on a mission to find more borrowers.     

Thu, 08/09/2012 - 21:29 | Link to Comment Zionist Jew
Zionist Jew's picture

The market couldn't be more bullish.  Rising hyperinflation raises all stocks.

Thu, 08/09/2012 - 22:31 | Link to Comment MunX
MunX's picture

Nah this is the right shoulder of the rounded top. The market top was in 2001.

Fri, 08/10/2012 - 00:33 | Link to Comment Dingleberry
Dingleberry's picture

You forgot the chart on tattoo prevalence.

Fri, 08/10/2012 - 02:51 | Link to Comment James_Cole
James_Cole's picture

Congrats to the author of this "article" worst POS yet posted on zh.

Thu, 08/09/2012 - 20:39 | Link to Comment lolmao500
lolmao500's picture

Good. The bigger the leech, the faster this whole crooked system will collapse. That's what we want right? When it collapse, the purge can happen then the world can have 100 years of peace and prosperity...

Thu, 08/09/2012 - 21:10 | Link to Comment AbelCatalyst
AbelCatalyst's picture

When this thing cracks it ain't gonna be pretty... Careful what you wish for as it is highly likely you are not prepared for the storm about to land on our shores... Hunker down my friends... Hunker down!!

Fri, 08/10/2012 - 05:45 | Link to Comment 10mm
10mm's picture

I say crack motherfucker.Sooner the better.

Thu, 08/09/2012 - 20:39 | Link to Comment nmewn
nmewn's picture

Ghost written by AnAnus?

Thu, 08/09/2012 - 20:54 | Link to Comment Dr. Engali
Dr. Engali's picture

That's funny. I kept looking for U. S. citizenism somewhere in this post.

Thu, 08/09/2012 - 20:52 | Link to Comment krispkritter
krispkritter's picture

Could be. But I'm guessing he's 'plop-plop-plopping-up' on a dirt road somewhere.

Calling all UScitizenism-hater twats! Go for it!

Thu, 08/09/2012 - 22:06 | Link to Comment greenEagles
greenEagles's picture

I was thinking trav777

Thu, 08/09/2012 - 20:41 | Link to Comment Duke of Con Dao
Duke of Con Dao's picture

will I ever make a new segment in the You Didn't Build That series? will Walter White catch a bullet at series (Breaking Bad) end? 

You didn't Build that Oil Rig, James Dean. Someone else pumped that oil for you! says Obama

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mFRJLxJ5KQ

0r

"You Didn't Build that Nazi Party Adolf. A hatecore band did it for you!" 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeBkIt_NPXc

...

el Dukerino

 

Thu, 08/09/2012 - 20:44 | Link to Comment lotsoffun
lotsoffun's picture

drive nowhere.  they will be so fat - it's delivered by 'health care workers' employed by macd's that shove it into the guzzle, like geese in provence.  watch.

 

Thu, 08/09/2012 - 20:43 | Link to Comment GernB
GernB's picture

Interesting. I foolishly thought consumers were in charge. That consumers were reluctant to part with their money because it took hard work to earn it. That consumers decided what companies made and thus corporations were slaves to the whims of the consumer. Apprently I was wrong. Apparently all us readers of Zero Hedge (unless you don't consider Zero Hedge readers people) are mindless, spineless, zombies who have no chouice but to buy the products the corporations hypnotize us into buying. We are powerless to resist.

Thu, 08/09/2012 - 20:59 | Link to Comment IndicaTive
IndicaTive's picture

"Ignorance is bliss."

 

-Cypher

Thu, 08/09/2012 - 21:13 | Link to Comment defencev
defencev's picture

This "article" caught my attention not because it reveals something interesting or new but because it mostly correctly describes the destructive role of a socialist government but (for whatever reason) blames the corporations for the current miserable state of affairs. Total bullshit.

Thu, 08/09/2012 - 21:56 | Link to Comment draghithebearslayer
draghithebearslayer's picture

Consumers were in charge back in the days when ads read like user manuals, listing every bits of facts about how their product is superior to the next competing brand. Just search for vintage ads from early 20th century and see how unappealing they are! Advertising industry has since come a long way, and nowadays a typical ad is more akin to highly sophisticated mind-control technique than to a user manual.

Sure, I agree with what I think you're saying, that we aren't mindless hypnotized, powerless zombie slaves to the corporates, but when TV ads are generating wants and needs in consumers that weren't there in the first place if it weren't for those ads, I have to say the notion of consumers being in charge is questionable at best.

 

Fri, 08/10/2012 - 02:12 | Link to Comment A Nanny Moose
A Nanny Moose's picture

Eddy Bernays would be proud

Fri, 08/10/2012 - 02:53 | Link to Comment Herd Redirectio...
Herd Redirection Committee's picture

"The Century of the Self" and "The Power of Nightmares"

Now there's some "Must Watch TV".  Really.  It should be mandatory viewing!  But luckily for the oligarchy attention spans have been degraded so much people wouldn't even be able to make it through, never mind actually learn something by watching.

Thu, 08/09/2012 - 20:45 | Link to Comment PatientZero
PatientZero's picture

lol U MAD, Amerifats?

Thu, 08/09/2012 - 21:00 | Link to Comment MsCreant
MsCreant's picture

Saudis are even fatter.

Fri, 08/10/2012 - 22:10 | Link to Comment Charles Bishop ...
Charles Bishop Weyland's picture

 Of course-- they're gorged on our blood.I heard their legs are going vestigial.

Thu, 08/09/2012 - 20:48 | Link to Comment death_to_fed_tyranny
death_to_fed_tyranny's picture

Amazon should consider lobbyist pressure to legalize all drugs. Then you could click a button and get your fix with free super saving shipping. As a libertarian, I am all for it!

Thu, 08/09/2012 - 20:58 | Link to Comment pavman
pavman's picture

Amazon should consider lobbyist pressure to legalize all drugs. Then you could click a button and get your fix with free super saving shipping. As a libertarian, I am all for it!

Then Amazon (or possibly Al Gore) can invent a a series of tubes that can deliver the drugs right to your house w/o the need for UPS.  Imagine it...and make it so!  Of course, there will be a couple of years of liability issues until they get that standard, unalterable legal form figured out that absolves them from all responsibility should someone buy too much at once and OD on it all in one shot...but hey, that's just recycling which would be totally green, right?

Thu, 08/09/2012 - 22:07 | Link to Comment Obadiah
Obadiah's picture

Imagine this: 3-d personal drug printers, load the cable cos demarkation taps with with the base pschy chemicals  then pipe into home when they push the button.  Frekin sweeeet

Fri, 08/10/2012 - 03:13 | Link to Comment the tower
Fri, 08/10/2012 - 00:35 | Link to Comment monad
monad's picture

The tubes that you are reading this on are already capable of inducing a state of hypnotic concentration with the capacity for euphoric arousal and mesmerizing fascination. Side effects may include catatonic withdrawal, social and gender disorientation, surreal perpectives, depending how crazy you were to begin with heightened or impaired judgement, loss of privacy, loss of liberty, and unusual behavior.

Not all psychedlic drugs are chemicals, or bad for you. Isn't this enough? You guys want more?

 

Al Gore did not build this!

Thu, 08/09/2012 - 20:50 | Link to Comment Landrew
Landrew's picture

Can I have the time back it took to read this?

Thu, 08/09/2012 - 21:06 | Link to Comment Mercury
Mercury's picture

Next stop: government dole.  The New American Golden Boy will collect not one, but two weekly checks from the government.  First he will get the well-deserved unemployment check, and on top of that he will receive his disability check simply for being a fat-ass.

Next stop: Remember to dance with the one who brung ya when you head to the polls in November.

For far too many entitlement space/time is little else but a virtual vote farm. Although I think the government is the egg here and the crap merchants are the chicken. When circumstances change the crap merchants will sell something else.

Thu, 08/09/2012 - 21:53 | Link to Comment max2205
max2205's picture

No top in amzn yet. Look to short at a 500 PE

Thu, 08/09/2012 - 22:41 | Link to Comment earleflorida
earleflorida's picture

the Amazone and iApple are both rooted in the osmosis world of techno'horticulturist aborigines dreamtime?

tis a good thing,...

Thu, 08/09/2012 - 20:51 | Link to Comment q99x2
q99x2's picture

During the revolution they'll need the fat and the nimble trigger fingers.

Thu, 08/09/2012 - 20:59 | Link to Comment death_to_fed_tyranny
death_to_fed_tyranny's picture

If we are in a revolution, it is most likeley due to high food prices. Fat fingers equals fattened calves. Therefore a young nameless former gamer, with some barbecue sauce, paired with some beer makes a great sheeple roast. fafafafafa!

Thu, 08/09/2012 - 21:02 | Link to Comment pavman
pavman's picture

During the revolution they'll need the fat and the nimble trigger fingers.

Esp. when they get those government jobs flying UAVs from their laptops while eating a muffin and drinking their morning latte at a Starbucks.

Thu, 08/09/2012 - 20:52 | Link to Comment francis_sawyer
francis_sawyer's picture

You won't get no dessert til u clean up your plate... So EAT IT!

~~~

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcJjMnHoIBI

Thu, 08/09/2012 - 20:54 | Link to Comment Nothing To See Here
Nothing To See Here's picture

What kind of idiot thinks that we are living in a capitalist economy?

ZeroHedge standards are being lowered it seems...

Thu, 08/09/2012 - 20:57 | Link to Comment reader2010
reader2010's picture

Give em EBT cards, let em eat GMOs, which will make em sick big time later. While iShit owners enjoy themselves now, the Big Pharma will win big in the end. Hey, don't forget to drink your milk and eat your animal protein every three hours.  

Thu, 08/09/2012 - 20:57 | Link to Comment blindman
blindman's picture

http://aadivaahan.wordpress.com/2012/08/09/last-post/#comment-5622
Last Post…
August 9, 2012
"Greetings,
Hope you are well." ... v

Fri, 08/10/2012 - 01:11 | Link to Comment old naughty
old naughty's picture

best wishes to ORI,

and thanks for sharing.

Thu, 08/09/2012 - 21:05 | Link to Comment MsCreant
MsCreant's picture

Fire works, so the blurb says.

Thu, 08/09/2012 - 21:04 | Link to Comment MsCreant
MsCreant's picture

As I look over the comments here so far, what I realize is that a good bitch smacking hurts.

Thu, 08/09/2012 - 21:23 | Link to Comment Hulk
Hulk's picture

Hurt me bad MsC !!!

Thu, 08/09/2012 - 23:32 | Link to Comment MsCreant
MsCreant's picture

Green hiney...probably a real hard ass. Best to not piss off the Hulkster. ;-)

Fri, 08/10/2012 - 02:20 | Link to Comment StychoKiller
StychoKiller's picture

YOU might like Hulk when he's angry! :>D

Fri, 08/10/2012 - 14:29 | Link to Comment MsCreant
MsCreant's picture

I might.

Thu, 08/09/2012 - 21:36 | Link to Comment Cabreado
Cabreado's picture

Or misunderstood, underestimated, miscalculated altogether.

I suppose it's a bitch smacking if only understood as such.

You think it hurts, I think it's a disturbing "immaturity."
But probably most of all, simple ignorance and fear.

 

Thu, 08/09/2012 - 23:33 | Link to Comment MsCreant
MsCreant's picture

I interpreted what I saw as defensiveness. We all have "shades of grey" we can locate in that article. Let's start with the idea that many of us spend a tad too much time on this particular blog...and others...reading obsessively...trying to get a read on what the early adapters are thinking and doing. I don't write myself a free pass on this one, I own being too plugged in to the net.

So yeah, I think recognition hurts. Then what? Many coping strategies surface to deal with what comes next, most types of them are in this thread. In "financial culture" there is no room for fear; hesitate or look weak, you will get eaten alive. Humor, defiance, repression, reaction formation, projection, and more serve to get the job done. 

Ignorance? I genuinely doubt it. There is another pass I won't write.

Fri, 08/10/2012 - 13:00 | Link to Comment Totentänzerlied
Totentänzerlied's picture

Actually it's because the article engages in a long list of inflammatory rhetorical techniques to support its unsourced claims. Oh, and the victim blaming - the pervasive subtext of the whole thing is: "young people's fault, they deserve it", engaging in age-chauvinism and ignoring the obese elephant in the room - parents: Baby Boomers. Or is Obama wrong - did the younger generations truly build themselves?

If the general character and parental habits/abilities of the Baby Boomers is any indication, then, in a way, the young really did build themselves, and the result, shockingly, is both appalling and tragic.

Just consider this: From which generations are the psychiatrists who started this massive prescribing-frenzy of psychoactive drugs, beginning roughly 20-30 years ago (ex: Ritalin exploded in the early 90s)?

You can deny their guilt, you can't deny their actions.

Fri, 08/10/2012 - 14:28 | Link to Comment MsCreant
MsCreant's picture

I think your response has merit. I re-read the article. I cannot deny the contempt in the tone of delivery, this author does not find the "straw kids" he erected to be appealing. I don't see the blame being put on the kids, I see the blame being put on "consumer captialism." That might intrinsicly be the parents, but more to the point it is cultural critique, critique of what we have all let happen. What looks efficient (centralization, standardization, technology) is not what is always healthiest.

I think "blaming" boomers is just as wrong as blaming the kids. The concept you point out above, age-chauvinism, runs both ways.

A slap has been a way to snap someone back to reality. I think this was written to shock and to get the reader thinking.

 

Thu, 08/09/2012 - 21:08 | Link to Comment Peter Pan
Peter Pan's picture

I am not entirely sure why this submitted article has provoked such ire, but let's be honest, the US citizenry would fare very badly today if war was by hand to hand combat. Minus the guns of its more conscious and worried citizenry the situation  would be a lay down misere.

Perhaps it's just as well the US maintains its nuclear weapons.

Mind you this epidemic of moribund youth is not confined to the USA and even in China and India, diabetes is becoming a major issue.

The quality of the human genome is definitely on a decline. In another 50 years we will be voting for some computer software program to be President and its Vice President will be some piece of hardware. The position of Homeland Security will be run by the pharmaceutical companies.

Thu, 08/09/2012 - 21:23 | Link to Comment toomanyfakecons...
toomanyfakeconservatives's picture

Maintains it's nuclear weapons? Obama slashed our nuclear arsenal to the bone. If things were to continue the way they are going, I could not argue with your last sentence. However things are not going continue they way they are going. The MASS ARRESTS and subsequent restoration of the Constitution and Treasury Notes are going to begin the big rollback of all the madness... http://tinyurl.com/cd5cyjo/

Fri, 08/10/2012 - 22:18 | Link to Comment Charles Bishop ...
Charles Bishop Weyland's picture

"Nuclear ARSENAL?"Seriously? you actually believe that "We' NEED more than two hundred of them , TOTAL?What does it matter now? That genie has been out of the bottle since Hiroshima--and the first one to use it...LOSES- Because everyone else will launch, thinking that if they DON'T the other side will "Win".

 Rod Serling has been over this already.

 

Fri, 08/10/2012 - 00:35 | Link to Comment monad
monad's picture

Why are you criticizing DNA? Fungus is the oldest & noblest living thing on this planet. Its survived every catastrophe for over 4 billion years. Every time, under all conditions, from the fungus arises more complex lifeforms like ourselves. We are quite literally the fruit of psychedelic fungus; we are flowers.

In your limited time to experience and discover this extraordinary dimension of awareness, how can you presume to know that what comes next is worse, in any dimension of time beyond your immediate material concerns? Do you think that thats your body? You didn't build that! Go outdoors, enjoy the summer and fuck more. Don't complain, just take the bell curve away from the idiots.

DNA! DNA! DNA!

Fri, 08/10/2012 - 01:02 | Link to Comment DavidPierre
DavidPierre's picture

monad:

If you have not seen this... take a peek.

THRIVE:

What on Earth Will it Take?

http://www.youtube.com/user/ThriveMovement

It is a couple of hours long but well worth the time. It covers all the bases.

Fri, 08/10/2012 - 02:05 | Link to Comment monad
monad's picture

His geometry doesn't take into consideration the fact of quantum nonlocality. Crop circles? Uniforms? ~_~

The Electric Universe

 

Fri, 08/10/2012 - 02:37 | Link to Comment DavidPierre
DavidPierre's picture

 

The Electric Universe

Saw it a couple of years ago.

Very interesting indeed!

Fri, 08/10/2012 - 10:00 | Link to Comment monad
Fri, 08/10/2012 - 05:28 | Link to Comment Disenchanted
Disenchanted's picture

 

 

 

"I am not entirely sure why this submitted article has provoked such ire"

 

Maybe because the truth does hurt. At least hurts those who still embrace some aspects of the failed status quo.

Thu, 08/09/2012 - 21:10 | Link to Comment element115
element115's picture

Fuck yeah! I abuse oxy and ambien. Don't stop, just keep rollin' down hill!

Thu, 08/09/2012 - 21:14 | Link to Comment ojaimalibu2012
ojaimalibu2012's picture

the romans had 'bread and games', today i call it 'corn and porn'.

 

Thu, 08/09/2012 - 21:14 | Link to Comment roadsnbridges
roadsnbridges's picture

Charts are incomplete.  Need Amerikan Idle and Dancing with the Stars viewership plotted.

Thu, 08/09/2012 - 21:16 | Link to Comment Never One Roach
Never One Roach's picture

Hong Kong grows lowest since Lehman's in 2008:

 

http://www.bloomberg.com/video/hong-kong-economy-weakens-as-chinese-spen...

 

Remember all those $25k luxury wrist watches stacking up?

 

 

Thu, 08/09/2012 - 21:17 | Link to Comment toomanyfakecons...
toomanyfakeconservatives's picture

10 years ago I visited a friend who worked cleaning a movie theater overnight. Around closing time he paraded 4 or 5 teens in front of the analog clock up high on the wall in the lobby and asked then what time it was. Not a single one had any clue.

Thu, 08/09/2012 - 21:22 | Link to Comment buzzsaw99
buzzsaw99's picture

Wake up in pool of own urine, pop Zoloft, drive to McDonald's to eat two sausage McMuffins and two hash browns, pop large dose Adderall, drive to school, wipe nose with shirt while Facebooking in class, more McDonald's, get a couple good hours in on the Xbox while popping more Adderall, Starbucks Mocha Frap extra Whip for dinner, Ambien to fall asleep, then repeat...

 

hell ya!

Thu, 08/09/2012 - 21:26 | Link to Comment Piranhanoia
Piranhanoia's picture

2015;  McDonald's city food alert;  Expect shortages for Monday's "you will be happy meal".  If you are not on time you will not be one of the trillions served.  Tuesday has been cancelled.  

Thu, 08/09/2012 - 21:35 | Link to Comment Never One Roach
Never One Roach's picture

Hey, McD's and Walmart may be better buys then that iPad company. Here's the very nice Lauren Lyster talking about why Walmart may be 'as good as gold'  as well as other news:

 

http://www.silverhoarders.com/content/gata-s-chris-powell-silver-manipul...

Thu, 08/09/2012 - 21:36 | Link to Comment Lost Wages
Lost Wages's picture

I know twentysomething ravers who are so lazy they mail order their drugs with bitcoin and the post man brings them.

Thu, 08/09/2012 - 21:46 | Link to Comment Non Passaran
Non Passaran's picture

Helping create the next Amazon!

Fri, 08/10/2012 - 17:17 | Link to Comment Lost Wages
Lost Wages's picture

Yes. It's called "Silk Road." Here's a Forbes article:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2012/08/06/black-market-drug-s...

 

Fri, 08/10/2012 - 13:03 | Link to Comment Totentänzerlied
Totentänzerlied's picture

Safer than dealing with fellow twenty-something dealers in person. Better selection and quality too. Deny the economics all you want.

Thu, 08/09/2012 - 21:36 | Link to Comment Atomizer
Atomizer's picture

 

 

And to top it off, you get characters like this who fake assault reports to the police. The BAR association business is in, ‘You didn’t built it, we our creating it’ chaos mode . BAR association, why not first educate the feeble members of society on the dangers of back flipping on a city curb.. rather than blaming anti-gay gangster’s . LOL 

Man who claimed he was beaten for being gay admits he made it all up after police receive video of him hitting HIS OWN head after back-flipping off a curb 

Those metrosexual characters are sure clever in attempting to condition the international TV masses. Let’s ask Obama to carve out grant monies by conducting a behavioral study on metrosexual back flippers and inter-city anti-gay attacks.  

Thu, 08/09/2012 - 23:27 | Link to Comment SwingForce
SwingForce's picture

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LRTANpUPAc Queensryche Sign O' the Times

Heading for the classroom yesterday
The kids file through the metal machine
It finds what they may hide
No it just aint right...
A sign of the times

Another church is burning to the ground...
Looking for the vandals and they're nowhere to be found
But the hates alive
A sign of the times, sign of the times...
A sign of the times, sign of the times...

(accoustic break)
Would someone please let me know how we have spun out of control? 
Has the captain let go of the wheel? 
Or could we please try to find a way to be a bit more kind? 
I see the road to tomorrow in the haze!

(solo)

On the senate floor they congregate
Many pockets lined with green,
From those behind the scenes, yeah they take the bribe ( it's on the side )
A sign of the times, sign of the times...
A sign of the times, sign of the times...

Thu, 08/09/2012 - 23:23 | Link to Comment monad
monad's picture

This piece is brilliant. Do it again!

Thu, 08/09/2012 - 23:43 | Link to Comment BlackholeDivestment
BlackholeDivestment's picture

The Great Wal Mart of China New World Order Socialist HOPEium War Of The Suicide Vampire Squid 

                        ...Hell bent on the transuman singularity of the Black Hole. 

                                http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AjvGIBgpF8 

What do you think will happen in the coming months when a 100,000 people or more are taken out by a weapon of mass destruction event? Is there any doubt? After 911 the same fools that dawned American flags post 911 and joined the military, after the inside job lead to the slaughter of people by Iraq again; preconditioned by fake calls of WMD's through lying bastards like George Tenet and the agency that aided Hussein and sold missiles to Iran while it ran drugs sold to Americans that end up in the political slush fund prisons, which house more prisoners than any nation on the planet etc... etc..., they will accept the same mark of the beast only this time it will not just be Americans. The Elite have mapped out their plan throughout history and this time is different because it's borderless and the market has been softened up like the nations around Israel. The Matrix of Skynet and the global market has been primed by religious dogma tied to the a masonic map and market makers call for peace with Israel and all the nations and the capstone is Jerusalem. This generation has a Balck and White Muslim Socialist bastard with a false social security number claiming as a Christian that the Bride of Christ is a Drag Queen and people from Berlin to Egypt and America are buying it. Rosemary's Baby is the spitting image of the Beast that will sign that peace deal and seal the New World Order market call in agreement with the same historic map of the so called gods and heros of old. Once again Iran is key to the coming slaughter and the ensuing blind agreement that will rise among the people after another 911 call is made. Past is prologue and the proof is already well defined that this scenario is hardy far fetched and 100% on target in more ways than most people know. Fat people in the spiritual black hole and government workers will continue to vote 2 party and dial in 666-ADD-Debt and dawn the offense against life freedom independence in agreement with the voice and image of the Citizens United Supreme Robot Algo Nova Hal 9000 straight to Hell on Earth. There is no stopping it, but for The One Host, whom they meant to perish, which represents the very foundation the deceived require in order to be sustained in agreement with the meaning of life and The Truth. Tha Host is a mirror image of their own agreement. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2HvUpufuC0

Fri, 08/10/2012 - 05:45 | Link to Comment Disenchanted
Disenchanted's picture

 

 

@BhD

 

I agree with much of that up until you said this:

 

"This generation has a Balck and White Muslim Socialist bastard with a false social security number"

 

Could you explain to me why a 'Muslim' would have as his main handler/advisor a Zionist Jew by the name of David Axelrod? Not to mention that this 'Muslim's' primary financial backers from the beginning of his political career's rise have been rich Jews.

Name for me all the prominent Muslim advisors, cabinet members and such in this 'Muslim's' Administration...I'll wait.

 

Btw I think the Oblahma Admin. is just as much fascist as the Bush II team was. Sure, there are cosmetic differences between the two, but nothing meaningful. Keeping in mind that Oblahma's words/speeches don't mean shit...it's the actions that really count.

 

carry on...

Fri, 08/10/2012 - 10:28 | Link to Comment blunderdog
blunderdog's picture

The Obama administration works for the bankers, the Dubya administration worked for big oil.  That's the only real difference.

Thu, 08/09/2012 - 23:41 | Link to Comment SwingForce
SwingForce's picture

REVOLUTION CALLING.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7avDRrjtgy0

For a price I'd do anything

Except pull the trigger

For that I need a pretty good cause

Then I heard of Dr. X

The man with the cure

Just watch the television

You'll see there's something going on
Got no love for politicians

Or that crazy scene in D.C

It's just a power mad town

But the time is ripe for changes

There's a growing feeling

That taking a chance

On a new kind of vision is due
I used to trust the media

To tell me the truth, tell us the truth

But now I've seen the payoffs

Everywhere I look

Who do you trust when everyone's a crook?
Revolution calling

Revolution calling

Revolution calling you

Revolution calling

Revolution calling

Gotta make a change

Gotta push, gotta push it on through
I'm tired of all this bullshit

They keep selling me on TV

About the communist plan

And all the shady preachers

Begging for my cash

Swiss bank accounts while giving their

Secretaries the slam
They're all in Penthouse now

Or Playboy Magazine

Million dollar stories to tell

I guess Warhol wasn't wrong

Fame fifteen minutes long

Everyone's using everybody

Making the sale
I used to think

That only America's way, way was right

But now the holy dollar rules everybody's lives

Gotta make a million doesn't matter who dies
Revolution calling

Revolution calling

Revolution calling you

Revolution calling

Revolution calling

Gotta make a change

Gotta push, gotta push it on through
I used to trust the media

To tell me the truth, tell us the truth

But now I've seen the payoffs

Everywhere I look

Who do you trust when everyone's a crook?

Fri, 08/10/2012 - 01:22 | Link to Comment ReactionToClose...
ReactionToClosedMinds's picture

with all the respect in the world ...lot of you here think this post by TD is a waste of time.

Ironically, since the early part of this year I have repeatedly run into numerous variations of the 'fiction' this guy just wrote.  It was fascinating & scary the first time I saw it.  Then after witnessing various replications, all reasonably similar, I started to speculate what the heck is going on ......

I swear to heavens this little post is the basis of a screenplay reflecting what is starting to happen in USA (West overall?).  But if Sean Penn represents any semblance of present hollywood, well then the next chapter is the rise of Hugo Chavez in the ashes/successes of Team 44

Fri, 08/10/2012 - 03:49 | Link to Comment Mr_Wonderful
Mr_Wonderful's picture
Dementia appears to be a pandemic in the making. http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2010/oct/05/dementia-appears-to-be-a-pand...

There is little therapy to deal with the rising numbers, the world will not cope. We will run out of nursing homes, of carers, money to look after these people. Sufferers may run out of money to buy medications; erratic Behaviour will cause more problems, and families and relatives will be stressed to the max.  Soon, Government sponsored Euthanasia may well be seen as the solution.

 

Fri, 08/10/2012 - 07:43 | Link to Comment QuietCorday
QuietCorday's picture

There is some evidence now to suggest Alzheimer's is a third type of diabetes (a brain diabetes), and may be caused by the overconsumption of dietary sugars and underconsumption of clean animal fats. This would make sense in light of the type two diabetes and obesity pandemic we now see globally.

I read a fascinating anecdote from a British woman whose elderly mother had Alzheimer's and who stopped eating about three months before she died. Apparently, her Alzheimer's lifted during those three months and she returned to her normal self. Fasting is now being suggested as a way to prevent Alzheimer's and Parkison's.

It is the modern diet of way too many sugars, imo. It's wrecking health.  

Fri, 08/10/2012 - 13:24 | Link to Comment Totentänzerlied
Totentänzerlied's picture

Utterly inconceivable that we have pushed lifespan beyond what is economically optimal. Checked an age-demographics chart for the developed world lately?

What the fuck ever happened to dying with dignity when you got old? Now we've got how many millions waiting their turn to check in to the assisted living hotel at ludicrous cost to delay their death by a few miserable years because anything else is CRUEL AND INHUMANE. And next to no one is willing to say the obvious thanks to the cult of sentimentalism (paid for with debt pledged on the backs of the unborn, of course): when a person's mind is gone, the person is gone. A body is not a person.

If you are such a child that you cannot accept this, pay for the insanity of keeping your mindless relative alive a little longer with your own fucking money, stop using Medicare to fund years of palliation which, obviously, always ends the exact same way. What did you gain for your now vaporized life savings: delaying the inevitable by a few years - of humiliation and torture for your relative - for the sake of your emotional infancy. Good job, may the same be done to you.

Fri, 08/10/2012 - 04:13 | Link to Comment Mr_Wonderful
Mr_Wonderful's picture
Sex Story: Fifty Shades of Grey Health-Medical Documentary hosted by Miranda Richardson, published by Channel 4 in 2012 - English narration Information ------------------------------ Sex Story: Fifty Shades of Grey Sex Story: Fifty Shades of Grey examines the phenomenon of the UK's fastest selling paperback of all time.
 Has Fifty Shades of Grey really transformed us from a nation of prudes to one of happy spankers?
 It may have brought bondage into the mainstream, but are the British really ready to embrace sexual experimentation?
From visiting a spanking class, where novices are trained in the art of a good caning, to exploring the world of an S&M couple
who have written sex contracts with each other and have honed their more extreme practice to perfection, this documentary
uncovers what the Fifty Shades of Grey craze tells us about 21st-century Britain. The programme examines the sociological
and cultural effects the book is having in the UK, as sales of obscure classical music and bondage gear increase.

http://thepiratebay.se/torrent/7493924/Ch4_Sex_Story_Fifty_Shades_Of_Gre...
Fri, 08/10/2012 - 13:29 | Link to Comment Totentänzerlied
Totentänzerlied's picture

This time, the Jews really may be behind this. Really. They LOVE that book.

Uh-oh, I must be a goose-stepping, sieg-heiling Nazi.

Fri, 08/10/2012 - 09:22 | Link to Comment JMT
JMT's picture

Wake up in pool of own urine, pop Zoloft, drive to McDonald's to eat two sausage McMuffins and two hash browns, pop large dose Adderall, drive to school, wipe nose with shirt while Facebooking in class, more McDonald's, get a couple good hours in on the Xbox while popping more Adderall, Starbucks Mocha Frap extra Whip for dinner, Ambien to fall asleep, then repeat.

 

What is wrong with Adderall?? It is great to help focus for 8-10 average a day at the average mindless corporate job. same with Prozac.. Besides Adderall at least initially kills your appetite so for me the thought of McDonalds is sickening.  

You should have said this "Wake up, pop two Adderall Pills, wash down with a full can of Monster No Carb..."

Fri, 08/10/2012 - 09:22 | Link to Comment JMT
JMT's picture

Wake up in pool of own urine, pop Zoloft, drive to McDonald's to eat two sausage McMuffins and two hash browns, pop large dose Adderall, drive to school, wipe nose with shirt while Facebooking in class, more McDonald's, get a couple good hours in on the Xbox while popping more Adderall, Starbucks Mocha Frap extra Whip for dinner, Ambien to fall asleep, then repeat.

 

What is wrong with Adderall?? It is great to help focus for 8-10 average a day at the average mindless corporate job. same with Prozac.. Besides Adderall at least initially kills your appetite so for me the thought of McDonalds is sickening.  

You should have said this "Wake up, pop two Adderall Pills, wash down with a full can of Monster No Carb..."

Fri, 08/10/2012 - 09:22 | Link to Comment JMT
JMT's picture

Wake up in pool of own urine, pop Zoloft, drive to McDonald's to eat two sausage McMuffins and two hash browns, pop large dose Adderall, drive to school, wipe nose with shirt while Facebooking in class, more McDonald's, get a couple good hours in on the Xbox while popping more Adderall, Starbucks Mocha Frap extra Whip for dinner, Ambien to fall asleep, then repeat.

 

What is wrong with Adderall?? It is great to help focus for 8-10 average a day at the average mindless corporate job. same with Prozac.. Besides Adderall at least initially kills your appetite so for me the thought of McDonalds is sickening.  

You should have said this "Wake up, pop two Adderall Pills, wash down with a full can of Monster No Carb..."

Fri, 08/10/2012 - 09:24 | Link to Comment JMT
JMT's picture

You won't get fat if you 'speed ball' on Amphetamines & Tranquilizers'.. also, I see very few 'fat' people even fewer who are young. Maybe it is different in middle America than it is in the greater Boston area & in the NYC metro area. 

Fri, 08/10/2012 - 09:24 | Link to Comment JMT
JMT's picture

You won't get fat if you 'speed ball' on Amphetamines & Tranquilizers'.. also, I see very few 'fat' people even fewer who are young. Maybe it is different in middle America than it is in the greater Boston area & in the NYC metro area. 

Fri, 08/10/2012 - 10:31 | Link to Comment blunderdog
blunderdog's picture

You may want to lighten up on the speed, JMT, I think your tremors are affecting your posting.

Fri, 08/10/2012 - 15:23 | Link to Comment malek
malek's picture

A very good article, Nic, but you blew it at the US population is contracting.

Maybe want to check out Japan, Germany, and Italy for comparison, to name a few.

Fri, 08/10/2012 - 22:04 | Link to Comment Charles Bishop ...
Charles Bishop Weyland's picture

"WALL-E: one of the greatest,most prescient pieces of cinema since--the
Five o' clock NEWS!"

  "Hard TRUTH--In a CUP!"

 

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