"Set Fire To The Rain" (opens in separate window)
winter storm watch
friday, november 14th, 2024
You can suppose the government will re-open this week, and then what? It could close back down in January when the latest funding patch runs out. And then what? Another shut-down and another continuing resolution? The nation hopscotches toward insolvency and breakdown.
The sorrows of Mr. Trump mount as his enemies devise ever-novel punishments for the people of this land. The mutual animus of the two parties spirals upward like the vortex of a developing superstorm. We live in the dumbest of times and Democrats are truly led by the dumbest of all of us.
It’s the nature of crisis that the outcome is uncertain and the possibilities seem mostly dire. And so it is the nature of heroic action to overcome all that and stick a landing in some safe place out of harm’s way. Can we convert the economy of financial chicanery to an economy of purposeful production without provoking a ruinous crash of assets and debt obligations? The most thoughtful observers doubt it. It’s really only a question of time when the floor you were standing on gives way and suddenly everything is in freefall.
The precious metals are sending out a distress signal in the futures charts this morning, even while the equities markets worldwide melt up. That’s got to be a bad combo. Something is going wrong with money everywhere. The overarching question is: will money continue to be money? (That is, will it be worth anything?) Money that is increasingly worthless leads to some of the worst social and political outcomes imaginable.
The authorities of the money world only pretend to be in control of the forces behind money and its movements. Money is subject to the laws of physics like everything else: actions and reactions. . . momentum / inertia . . . entropy. As economist Herb Stein sagely observed a half-century ago: “Things that can’t go on, stop.” An awful lot of things in our world need to stop if we want to continue the project of civilization. We can see, to our distress, that many things are actually stopping: Truck shipments of goods, idle freight trains, stores closing, closed down construction sites, restaurants empty. That tends toward rents, loans, mortgages not being paid. That leads to daisy-chains of broken obligations. Inflation reverses to deflation. Money starts to disappear.
In a deflation, money will stop losing its value. The catch is, people will have less money. There will be less of it around, chasing whatever goods get produced. Some people will have no money at all. The government will almost certainly attempt to counter that by giving them money created out of nothing. It will also give money to broke institutions like banks, and perhaps to businesses deemed “critical” to society. That will cycle back into money losing more value. We’ve been through this cycle a number of times in this young and turbulent century.
You’ve probably noticed that our country is seething with pissed-off citizens. All the machinations of the money authorities pretending to manage money have produced perversities, distortions, and spooky unintended consequences. Things manifest strangely. For instance, medical care is a godawful mess, namely, the ACC, Affordable Care Act. Got an acute problem like abdominal pain? We can give you an appointment three months from now, the HMO says when you call? Are they insane? Do they not hear themselves speaking? And you’re paying, like, $20-K-a-year for the family’s health insurance, so-called. (Hey, you can always go sit in the ER for eighteen hours with plenty of illegal aliens to keep you company.)
Mr. Trump just proffered a novel gambit: take away federal subsidies and tax credits from the ACC-linked insurance companies and send the money to US citizens to spend directly on doctors, drugs, and surgeries, or on private insurance outside the orbit of Obamacare. Nobody really knows how that might work, but you could allow that sometimes horrible problems call for far-out responses. Make America Health Again (MAHA) was a major plank in the president’s campaign platform. Everybody knows that Obamacare functions as an obstacle to being healthy. The entire purpose of it was to make medicine both unaffordable and unavailable. It’s been operating for going on fifteen years, failing spectacularly in plain sight.
The Democratic Party proposed to fix it, via their shut-down stunt, by enrolling onto Obamacare the millions of illegal aliens they ushered into the country at the cost of a trillion-plus dollars. Some fix. This is why they are known as the Party of Chaos. You can depend on the Democratic Party to always make a bad situation worse. The shut-down has even led to chaos within the Democratic Party itself as members now denounce their own leadership.
This would be a good time for President Trump to beat them with a stick as hard as possible. Ending the silent filibuster would be a good start — since the Democrats aim to do it anyway. Of course, that is up to Mr. Thune, the Senate Majority Leader. A fire needs to be lit under his well-tailored ass. Then, pass some really juicy legislation starting with election reform entailing proof-of-citizenship to vote, paper ballots, end of mail-in ballots (except for traditional absentee voting), and do away with the janky vote-counting machines). That would be an excellent start. Proceed from there.
As for those troubled financial markets and shaky money venues, they will do what they will do. If they wobble and crater, great opportunities will open up to decisively fix so much that has gone wrong in our country. You might not know it, considering the drift of recent years, but there are still a lot of capable people in this country ready to roll up their sleeves and go to work repairing what is broken.
© 11.10.2025 by James H. Kunstler, "ClusterFuck Nation".
A Day In The Life.
Up at 0a on Friday, a cold 39°F, mostly cloudy, windy morning, I upped the heat, made coffee, fired-up the Win-7 Pentium HP Desktop to let 32 million lines of code load, tuned into the "CP Show LIVE" from 9-12, had a couple smokes in the garage and checked the leftover errands list. Today and next week are clear, so Sherry will come by around 1-1:30p today, and we can enjoy the beautiful day together.
After a late breakfast, I got ready for the day and waited for Sherry's arrival. We had a wonderful afternoon together, and she hit the road at 4:30p, since it's now getting dark before 5p. I had some dinner, watched the evening news, and switched to Discovery's new season of "Gold Rush" until 1a. Lights out.
Up at 9a on Saturday, 47° outside, I upped the heat, made coffee, scanned the news and weather, and planned the day" chores, computer and a nap. Chores went fine, but the seemingly simple, computer installation of the new Belkin Ultra-Slim 7-Port USB 2.0 Hub was a 5hr, electronic nightmare. Some of my 4 external HDs kept disappearing, no matter what combinations I tried. Frustrating as hell. And I never got to the nap part of my plan. By 4, I was physically and mentally tired -- the bright spot in my day was Sherry's call to ask how I was doing with the 'Belkin Project'; somehow she knew I'd be trying to install it -- so I gave up until tomorrow. If I can't fix it, I'll have to call MBIT for some professional tech help.
I had dinner, watched the evening news, and switched to Discovery's "Expedition Files", and History's "Ancient Aliens" until 12 midnight, and bagged it for the day.
Up at 9:30a on Sunday, I bumped the heat up, 44° outside, made coffee, checked the weather and news, had breakfast, and enjoyed the several heavy downpours we were getting. I got ready for the day, watched the F1 Brazilian Grand Prix from 12noon to 2p, and did the usual Sunday laundry loads.
OK, I sort of figured out the Belkin Mess: no blue light indicators on the front of the My Books = NO POWER. That must/ MIGHT mean I have some dead sockets on the power strip, connecting computer peripherals. The USBs are firmly in the slots on the computer backside. Shit.
I hit the LR couch around 4p, for a 2hr nap, and when I woke, I was in severe pain in my left hip/buttock, where the .32cal bullet (shot 7.14.1975, and bullet remains in-place) resides. That, plus my very sore left elbow, made for a lousy evening. I took 2 50mg Tramadol, and they helped for a short while, but the pain returned with a vengeance. I had dinner, and watched Discovery's 'In The Eye of The Storm" and TWC's "Rocky Mtn Wreckers" until 11:30, and unplugged.
Up at 7:30a on Monday, 39° outside and windy, I upped the heat, made coffee, scanned the weather and news, and tuned into the "CP Show LIVE", from 9-12. The next few days are forecast to be in the low-40s, and then into the low-50s until next week. The times of Fall-like weather are over, and we're finally coming into Winter. Duh. I kept the heat at 75°, did a few errands, had a Weis Market (Enola PA) delivery and cleaned out the garage... so piles of Pin Oak leaves could blow back in. Meh.
It was dark by 4:50p, I watched the news, made dinner, and switched to MotorTrend's "Iron Resurrection" and the new season of History's "Ancient Aliens", until midnight; lights out.
Up at 6a with the alarm, on Tuesday at 27°, as my cleaning lady JoAnne, would be in at 8:30, and I needed some prep time, and to fully wake up. I upped the heat, made coffee, scanned the news and weather, and had a few smokes in the garage. JoAnne arrived at 8:30 and got to work. I finished some paperwork in my office-sunroom, and grabbed and ran a couple of quick errands. JoAnne was gone when I returned, I had lunch, and took a 2hr snooze on the LR couch.
By 6p, I'd watched the evening news (shutdown crap), switched to History's "Mystery of Oak Island" thru the evening, until midnight, and unplugged for the day. Good night, Irene.
Up at 8:30a on Wednesday, a very cold 39°, cloudy and windy morning, I upped the heat, made coffee, and tuned into the "CP Show LIVE", from 9-12. Somehow, the phony baloney DC morons just can't seem to end the BS shutdown, and that'll continue to dominate the news cycles, until hell freezes over. I scanned the weather and news, wondering why same-o, same-old crappola is still 'news'. Their crap is never-ending. Blech.
Sherry called around 11, and we rescheduled today's visit, until tomorrow or Friday. I had some chores here to do, but no errands, and kept busy for the afternoon. Around 6, I watched the soporific evening news -- morons and their idiotic 'shutdown' crap -- and switched to Discovery's new season of "Expedition Unknown", and "Ghost Adventures" until 11:30. Lights out.
Up at 8:15a on Thursday, I fired-up the furnace -- need to change the filter today -- made coffee, checked email, and tuned into the "CP Show LIVE" from 9-12. I scanned the weather and news: the demonKKKrats' gov't shutdown has ended, is the big story. Meh. After getting ready for the day, I had a few condo chores to do, Sherry called to set-up a day for us, tomorrow, I had lunch and drove east to nearby Saubel's Market to get a few things. A "few things"? Like $125.44 worth of things? Damn. Never go to a supermarket on an empty stomach!
Back home in just over an hour, I unloaded, unpacked and made a toasted English Muffin w/ Country Sausage Gravy. Mmmmmmmmm, darn good. Next, a short nap. Back up at 5p, I finished the morning's coffee, skipped dinner, watched the evening news, Discovery's well-done series, "Filthy Fortunes", and MT's "Roadworthy Rescues", until 11:30, and unplugged.
Tomorrow starts a new week, here in the "Journal", and it's another clear one for me. Just the usual condo chores and errands. Hopefully, Sherry will be here tomorrow and we'll maybe get something planned for next week, too.
The Feast
Last week, pundits noticed the results of a Gallup poll showing the only group that holds a positive view of Socialism are the Democrats, putting them out of step with Republicans, Independents, and voters overall.
The takeaway generally has been one of glee on the Right. If the Democratic party becomes the party of Socialism, that extreme view will seal their fate as a political force for the foreseeable future.
I don’t think that’s wrong, necessarily. Most people, however, are missing the larger picture.
While the Democrat party does seem to be dying the death of a thousand self-inflicted cuts, the political Right is also undergoing something of a disturbance. It’s clear there are some pain points that are causing division.
One big point of contention is whether or not the GOP’s newfound disdain for “forever wars” necessarily means that the party must also embrace strict non-interventionism as a principle. Those who push this view most vociferously do so very selectively chiming in especially when the principle applies to any sort of military support for the nation of Israel and not, for example, Japan, South Korea, or any of our other Five Eyes allies.
In years prior, many of these Israel skeptics had previously taken a hardline stance in support of Israel and so their shift has come as a shock. Other pundits have been more consistent in their disdain for the Middle East’s only modern democracy.
Last week also saw the meeting of two representatives from both types of “principled” non-interventionists: Tucker Carlson and Nick Fuentes. I find it curious that this meeting comes after the two traded accusations at each other. Fuentes claimed Tucker was a CIA plant and Tucker claimed Fuentes was the real plant. And also gay.
Though both seemed to hold these views with great conviction, those views apparently weren’t strong enough to prevent their meeting for this interview. Perhaps things were hashed out at the last picnic held by “the company” as the CIA has been called. It seems a curious transformation on both their parts that has my BS Geiger counter cracking loud and clear.
For some on the Right, this is just noise. A minor internal squabble that will hopefully work itself out for the better. Some are alarmed at this sudden appearance of factionalism just when the party had reached peak influence. They blame one or both sides for needlessly causing division that might hurt Conservative chances in the future.
We know this is happening. And we can see who the actors are and what they’re saying. But a good question to ask is why is this happening now? Why not after the midterms? Or after 2028? After fighting against so much Leftist violence and corruption for so long, it feels like we’re being cheated out of a few more much-needed victory laps to consolidate not only our political position but to underscore the ascendant cultural power of Conservativism in the wake of the fraud and failure of Leftism.
I agree that we seem to be shooting ourselves in the foot. And I think I know why.
At first blush, this whole scenario is the result of a massive power vacuum caused by the assassination of Charlie Kirk. Indeed TPUSA is feeling the heat for continuing to platform Tucker Carlson even as Tucker winks at the idea that it was Israel who really murdered Kirk.
Tucker spoke at Kirk’s memorial. He also joined TPUSA at a tour stop in Indiana on 21 October. Clearly, the organization is at the very least not hostile to him even as he feeds theories that other influencers like Candice Owens have used to accuse members of the TPUSA organization of collaborating in the plot to kill Charlie Kirk.
And then Tucker brought Nick Fuentes on his show. Fuentes, it turns out, is loathed by Charlie Kirk. As Dinesh D’Souza revealed in a private exchange between the two where Kirk disdained Fuentes and referred to him as “vermin.” At issue was D’Souza’s agreement to publicly debate Fuentes over the Iran-Israel conflict.
That Tucker platformed Fuentes shortly after appearing on stage at a TPUSA event is key.
In a podcast this week, D’Souza also pointed out that no mainstream Conservative is defending Tucker on this move.
Tucker understands his current position is difficult to assail without his detractors being tagged as “agents of Israel” by the knee-jerk mob that has assembled to defend him, Fuentes, Owens and their like.
This appears to be a maneuver for power. If TPUSA can be commandeered by this crowd, their influence becomes amplified beyond their current numbers. The reasoning may be that he who controls TPUSA controls a major faction on the Right.
But that’s not what’s happening either. Control of TPUSA is only one component in a much larger scenario. It’s imperative that we don’t think too small.
That’s because as the Democrat party dies, the Republican party gets ever larger and, consequently, equally less capable of containing all the new factions currently developing amid her ranks.
The Democrat party will die, and when that happens a new party will take its place which will be formed from a good number of political refugees currently calling the Republican party home.
In other words, if one party dies, both parties, essentially, experience some form of death. And while the resulting two parties will hopefully be more Conservative in the aggregate, there will be substantial differences in their platforms.
What’s happening now will set the foundation not just for one party but for both parties. For the entire American political landscape for generations to come, for better or worse.
That’s the real play here. These ambitious men have applied a little predictive analytics, and seeing the inevitable resulting party chaos, have decided to try to one-up Trump’s own transformation of the GOP by positioning themselves as both ideological leaders as well as major change agents of the entire American political landscape.
The problem with this thinking is the same with all overly-zealous schemes: hubris. Clout leverage is not thought control. And it’s also not debate. Defenders of Tucker and Fuentes like to accuse anyone recommending TPUSA distance itself from Tucker of spitting on Charlie Kirk’s legacy as a debater. But Tucker isn’t defending his views in an open forum. He’s running from those challenges. And the truth is, Kirk was never open to any random viewpoint. He encouraged the voicing of views he found repugnant so that he may casually eviscerate them with logic.
We are a long way from the days when the conversion of a king meant the conversion of his whole kingdom. And even in the time of Charlemagne, that conversion protocol required the execution of 4,000 holdouts.
There will be much greater resistance and disenfranchisement within the ranks of TPUSA should Tucker think that he can steer the ship into groyper waters.
If TPUSA is hesitant to distance itself from Tucker over his views on Jews, then it should do so based on his cowardice in the face of debate. That is the real affront to Kirk’s legacy which must be avoided.
As I’ve said before, brands can be permanently damaged by such conceit taking them to a point beyond which they can be repaired. TPUSA needs to give serious consideration to the advice that they engage in a course correction.
In order to stop the groypers from completely destroying the platforms they infect with their pretensions, they must be replaced by true leaders -- men of talent and competence. Until then, organizations like TPUSA will be treated like the high-end dish at an all-you-can-eat buffet. The groypers see the current US political climate as an opportunity and have descended upon these organizations like vultures on a carcass.
These organizations need to act like they aren’t carrion but very much alive. It’s the only way to prevent themselves from being torn to shreds by the hunger of the power mad.
© 12.03.2025 by Matt da Silva Bullet, "da Silva Bullet". (H/T Ben)
