Open Thread - 05-20-22 - Assorted Ramblings

Chugga chugga, what's that sound? It's the American Dream leaving your house headed for DC. See that steam rising from the smokestack? That's your dollars burning, rolled up into logs, working for the man. See that caboose? That's you running like the dickens behind the train, but you'll never catch up. The dollar train left the switchyard long ago, when moneystreet decoupled from mainstreet. With abundant dollar logs to burn, hot off of the printing press, the train chugs onward. Until it derails. But maybe that IS the point.

Don't let them kid you folks, this economic disaster was caused by decades of can-kicking. Remember all the mewlings about balancing the federal budget? That was big back in the '90s if I remember correctly. We don't hear much about that anymore. It's print, print, print. Print for endless wars, print for endless programs, print big piles for Wall Street, print, print, print, on and on.

Now it looks like this could be the last bender. No wonder there's a call for a Great Reset. The moneychangers want to wipe the slate clean and start over. To save their asses while they maintain control. To save their necks from the proverbial gallows.

As every excuse in the book is unleashed, let us not forget where the truth of this disaster lies, directly in their laps.

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Isn't it odd?

Billionaires and baby milk.

$7 billion in weapons are left in Afghanistan. Enough to supply an army, just in time for WWIII.

Zuckerberg creates a virtual world, the metaverse, just months before the energy crises. It's almost like Zuck knew a huge downturn was afoot and wanted to frontrun it by building a fake world for fake people to have fake relationships. Can't travel, sit back in your sofa, you can fake it in the metaverse! Put on your VR goggles and interface with the soul destroying software.

Isn't it odd? It's a frontrunner's world, I guess.

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Meet my favorite Nazi: Sgt. Schultz.

sergeant-shultz.jpg

Since discussion of all things Nazi has escaped from Godwin's closet and has become en vogue from all corners of the mediasphere and has become mainstream in the nation's discourse, I feel it only fitting that I share with you all my favorite Nazi, Sgt. Schultz.

He's a lovable, simple, cuddly Nazi, don't you think? Nazi's aren't all that bad now are they?

But, if you want to make an associative assumption as to whether a large segment of boobus americanus politicus exhibit Nazi tendencies then look no further than the Ol' Sarge himself. His ability to act totally unaware and totally innocent is so down home that he could doppelgang for any number of the hand-shakers and baby-kissers in our tripartite monkey house, no? If he wasn't German he'd be the President, don't you think?

"I see nothing! I hear nothing! I know nothing!" should be the national motto.

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Disclaimer: This was written early this morning, if any inaccuracies are found it is not the fault of this author. Look to Russia for that.

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it's a brand new day.

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usefewersyllables's picture

They'll just keep on stoking that sucker. Nobody will notice that you have to add water, too...

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10 users have voted.

Twice bitten, permanently shy.

@usefewersyllables
we'll run out of cotton and linen to print all of that funny money. Then we'll have to switch to digital dollars. Oh, wait, never mind.

And also to add, those two desperadoes, yuan and ruble, lie in wait just around the bend.

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ggersh's picture

@JtC @JtC @JtC Peoria named one of the happiest 30 cities in america!!! I kid you not!

http://peoriaceocouncil.org/peoria-named-26th-happiest-city-in-the-u-s/

Now back to reality or is it fantasy. Everything in america is based on lies
and falsehoods

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4GYiPBBiPw]

EDIT:Adding a video which shows how MSM now treats surrender evacuation

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQmHAK3ytyw]

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I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish

"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

@ggersh
look what else I'm missing out on:

All of Illinois facing rolling blackouts, except Chicago area

One of the reasons for the Texas grid problems is there are so many people moving here the grid is overwhelmed. With so many people leaving Illinois they can't use that excuse, now can they.

I don't recall seeing a lot of happy faces in Peoria the many times I've been there. That's good PR though.

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12 users have voted.

@JtC , like that 5-day roll in 2021/TX. So much rumbling about power grid problems. Makes me wonder what's coming down the track. My freezer can't take the heat with no power. All that frozen stuff....forget about it.

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/vast-swath-of-us-is-at-risk-of-summer-blacko...

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@randtntx
this:

https://www.duromaxpower.com/collections/e-eh-series/products/duromax-xp...

It will be wired to kick on when the power goes out. It will run on gas or propane. Then we'll either build or buy a gasifier for possible SHTF occurrences. It burns wood to produce methane that can then be used in the generator.

We got a quote for $4,000.00 not including the gasifier. That's much cheaper than a Generac.

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@JtC , that gasifier. It sure does have to get hot though, wow. But then I don't know anything about it so there is that. Smile Thanks for the link.
Yes, a backup generator is not a bad idea. I've been dragging my feet on that.

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Lookout's picture

FtPayne1889 031.jpg
1889 Lookout Mt.

The bubble is about to pop. Glad my goal has never been to accumulate money and stocks.
Slowly, slowly, then all at once. One thing about it, we live in interesting times.

A garden is a pretty good ace in the hole. Those who don't have access, buy this summer when produce is cheap and freeze, can, dry,etc to store. A food account is better than a bank account.

Thanks for the OT!

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10 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

@Lookout

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snoopydawg's picture

"I see nothing! I hear nothing! I know nothing!"

Speaking of money printing included in the recent $40 billion for Ukraine Zelenksy wants $7 billion a month to pay the salaries and pensions for Ukraine including the Nazis and most Americans think that’s quite all right because Russia Russia….

The obvious lack of contextual awareness which doomed the Afghanistan mission is very much an ongoing problem for the US when it comes to Ukraine. The failure to address the problem of corruption up front at a time when the US Congress is trying to rush through some $40 billion in appropriations seems to be little more than an instance of history repeating itself. The bill includes $11 billion in presidential drawdown authority funding that allows the White House to send military equipment and weapons directly from US stocks. It also provides for $6 billion in Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative funding, which can be used to buy weapons directly from contractors and then provide those weapons to Ukraine.

On the surface, this would appear to be simply about weapons. However, buried in this funding is up to a billion dollars earmarked to pay the salaries and pensions of Ukrainian government workers and soldiers. This isn’t a one-time payment – the government of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has indicated that up to $7 billion per month will be needed to keep Ukraine functioning. While most US citizens might not blanch at the thought of their taxpayer dollars being used to underwrite Ukrainian soldiers and civil servants, the reality is that much of this money will be deployed to pay the salaries and pensions of ultra-right Ukrainian politicians and soldiers who espouse neo-Nazi ideology.

In 2015 congress put its foot down on supporting Nazis, but the pentagon said congress should mind its own business….

Within in a year, however, the Pentagon had lobbied the US Congress to remove Conyers’ amendment from the 2016 budget, claiming that the amendment was unnecessary in light of the existing Leahy Law, which prohibited funding to groups that have “committed a gross violation of human rights.” The problem, however, was that the US Congress had never formally designated the Azov Battalion as a group covered by the provisions of the Leahy Law. Accordingly, the US military was once again given the green light to train and equip Ukraine’s neo-Nazi military formations. Congress eventually woke up to the Pentagon’s end-around, and in 2018 reinserted the language of the 2015 Conyers amendment into the defense budget, stipulating that “none of the funds made available by this act may be used to provide arms, training or other assistance to the Azov Battalion.”

The Biden administration, together with the US Congress, seems content to ignore the restrictions imposed in 2018 – none of the current funds being allocated to Ukraine are hampered by any such restrictions. Underwriting the training, equipping, and sustainment of Ukraine’s neo-Nazi element is de rigueur for American politicians, it seems.

It’s written by Ritter who gives congress a pass for being naive about supporting Nazis and other terrorists as it has since well probably forever. He thinks that they have just forgotten the lessons from the past. I see them as being thoroughly captured by their donors and jumping to keep the trillions and trillions money laundering scheme going. But it’s worth a read.

Meanwhile in America more cities are wasting money on homeless programs and are busy destroying the last things many vulnerable people have left to their name.

F3E68831-D275-4C4E-82BD-CD43610E5EE3.jpeg
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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

@snoopydawg
to make Ukraine the 51st state?

Thanks Obama.

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CB's picture

@JtC
Scott Ritter talks about the expansion of NATO that is an existential threat to Russia in this 6 hour interview.

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@CB
especially since we put the kibosh to Cuba becoming a Soviet Union satellite state. Typical American double standard.

But I guess that's par for the course since we've extended Manifest Destiny across the world. You didn't really think that we'd stop with just North America, did you?

Come on man! [Spoken with an angry tone and a far away look in my eye, like no one's home, just like Joe]

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enhydra lutris's picture

what to do but dance and shake them bones

so get with the beat and get down. What beat? THE beat

be well and have a good one

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

@enhydra lutris
mi hermano:

Like a Gordian knot.

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enhydra lutris's picture

@JtC

just keep on keepin' on

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7 users have voted.

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

How? Austerity! Like we always do. All those poor people who get earned income credit..tax 'em. No free rides for them. Social Security! Socialism! Medicare! more socialism. Maybe we can get Obama to re convene his Kat Food Commission. Not to worry, there's plenty of money to be had.

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@Snode
there's no need to tax the wealthy, we'll just cut the excess from the hoi polloi. They've had it too easy for too long. Just think of the poor billionaires.

We've got our prepper pantry chock full of catfood. Meow!

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where are the social mechanics when you be needing 'em?
trying to fix their own damn selves
more than likely

40 billion ain't going to fix shit
the USasians are going to pay for this
big mistakio for a long damn time

sorta like col. custards last stand
they will be going down in the history books
as the stupidest bunch of greedy grinches
evah to walk the halls of power on their way outta here

thanks for the OT!

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@QMS
in short order, Ukraine may realize that they have been awarded 40 billion worth of worthless fiat toilet paper.

It will serve them right though:

I'm not so sure they're the stupidest bunch of greedy grinches though, once it's understood that they're in it only for themselves and not us. Kind of makes us, the electorate (present company notwithstanding, of course), the stupid ones, donnit?

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@JtC

but since voting doesn't matter
and rebellion is a felony
what is left for us?

J. Geils crudite destroyit style

and in Texas time ..

have mercy

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@QMS
this blues band in Fredricksburg, Texas a few weeks ago. They played Whammer Jammer, their harp player was right on, note for note, with Magic Dick. Having played the blues harp since I was 18, I knew exactly how difficult that song is to play, so I just had to jump out of my seat when they finished and gave the harp player a very vigorous high five. Good stuff!

Going to Luckenbach soon to see them again.

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@JtC if Fredericksburg and Luckenbach are in range!

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

CB's picture

@JtC
I believe about half will be going to US arms manufacturers to purchase brand new military equipment that will replace the old materiel already given to the Ukraine army by the various NATO countries. This was a great way to rearm those countries who still had outdated equipment on their books. This is preparation for a new NATO posture against Russia. Ukraine will be getting 'Lend-Lease' to finance any new equipment purchases. Washington must realize that any cash they send will soon disappear into the pockets of Zelensky and his cohorts.

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6 users have voted.

Started stocking up again on some basics like tuna various types of veggie based stuff in jars. We have enough of a backyard to grow some serious quantities of veggies...but health issues...probably next year for sure. Anybody have opinions on solar ovens to cook food, boil water, etc? My gut is telling me that end of year could see shit we have not seen in America before in recent memory.

First, the war in Ukraine will escalate big time. Here is my brief take. While US/NATO may be able to send infinite amounts of arms to the Ukraine, the Ukrainians do not have an infinite number of soldiers for the Russians to wipe out. In fact, I can see a peace movement starting in the Ukraine by its women refusing to let their sons, husbands, uncles, nephews, and grandfathers getting slaughtered in Eastern Ukraine.

And what happens next. NATO moves troops into the Ukraine. All hell breaks loose.

Saw this short video and thought it was funny. Russian response to sanctions. Have to laugh a bit.

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@MrWebster

from Russia with love!
Thanks

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@MrWebster
with a solar stove but you might want to take a look at a rocket stove. You can buy one or make one yourself. They work by burning a few twigs.

The Ukrainians may not have an infinite number of soldiers for the Russians to wipe out but I'd be willing to bet that there are copious mercs there already.

I hope you're wrong about NATO moving into Ukraine.

Thanks for the great vid, is she the real life version of Boris Badenov and Natasha?

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@MrWebster How funny!

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

enhydra lutris's picture

@MrWebster

with a crude homebrew solar box cooker. I'm at latitude 37.71 North, just a wee bit south of Oakland, CA. I was able to cook some stuff successfully, but it takes a while to cook anything and it works best if you re-orient the box to the sun at least every half hour.

I mostly cooked things that had a good chance of success, though I did make rice in it once, and lentils too (i think), The trick is to cook stuff that you could roast in the oven at a medium or low temp. Think 250 to 300 or 350 degrees F for a simple box cooker. You will do most of your cooking in a pot/dutch oven (dark color) or something like a lidded braiser or cake pan with some sort of lid. Small portions cook best, also slab shaped cuts rather than spheroidal or similar. Water is a bit of a problem because it doesn't even boil until all of it gets to 212, so large quantities of rice, which require large quantities of water will take a loooong time. Pasta is ridiculous if you cook it traditionally, and pasotto style fails too because of the constant stirring. Stews with minimal liquid work well, as do hunks of meat or spuds, carrots and like that. I decided to not bother unless I went and got a good quality professionally made one.

be well and have a good one

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

@enhydra lutris When I look into these things, seems they are oversold. Rather just get a big empty coffee can and build a fire in it.

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of how much I've been missing what is great about this blog.

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NYCVG

@NYCVG
good to see you posting again.

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