In Part One of this article I made a fact based case that most Americans are experiencing an economic depression on par with the Great Depression of the 1930’s. In Part Two I will compare and contrast two very different men who raised the spirits of the common man during difficult economic times. As we approach the perilous portion of this Fourth Turning, it will take more than hope to get us through to the other side.
Cinderella Man
Likening Braddock to Trump might seem far-fetched, until you think about parallels between the economic conditions during the 1930’s and today, along with the deepening mood of crisis, despair and anger at the establishment. Braddock’s career coincided with the last Fourth Turning. James J. Braddock was born in 1905, to Irish immigrant parents Joseph Braddock and Elizabeth O’Toole Braddock in a tiny apartment on West 48th Street in New York City. His life personified that of a GI Generation hero. One of seven children, Jimmy enjoyed playing marbles, baseball and hanging around the old swimming hole on the edge of the Hudson River as a youngster. He discovered his passion for boxing as a teenager.
Braddock refined his skills as an amateur fighter and in 1926 entered the professional boxing circuit in the light heavyweight division. Braddock overwhelmed the competition, knocking out multiple opponents in the early rounds of most fights. As a top light heavyweight, he stood over six feet two inches, but seldom weighed over 180 pounds. But his powerful right hand was no match for opponents that weighed close to 220 pounds. His star was ascending. He earned a shot at the title in 1929. On the evening of July 18th 1929, Braddock entered the ring at Yankee Stadium to face Tommy Loughran for the coveted light heavyweight championship. Loghran avoided Braddock’s deadly right hand for 15 rounds and won by decision. Less than two months later the stock market crashed and the country plunged into the Great Depression.
As thousands of banks failed and unemployment swept over the land like a plague, Braddock, like so many other millions of Americans lost everything. He labored to win fights so he could put food on the table for his wife and three young children. His career hit the skids as he lost sixteen of twenty-two fights and shattered his right hand landing a punch. As his boxing career spiraled downward, like the economy, he ended up working on the docks as a longshoreman. When even that job couldn’t feed his family, Jim swallowed his pride, hung up his boxing gloves and filed for government relief to help support his family. The strength, spirit and tenacity that had made him a contender were drained from his demeanor. He became just another down on his luck palooka struggling to survive during the Great Depression.
Thanks to a last-minute cancellation by another boxer, Braddock’s longtime manager and friend, Joe Gould, offered him a chance to fill in for just one night and earn cash. The fight was against the number-two contender in the world, Corn Griffin, on the undercard of the heavyweight championship fight between Max Baer and Primo Carnera. Braddock stunned the boxing experts and fans with a third-round knockout of his formidable opponent. He believed that while his right hand was broken, he became more proficient with his left hand, improving his boxing ability. Over the next nine months he upset John Henry Lewis and Art Lasky to become an unlikely contender for the heavyweight title of the world.
Braddock remembered the humiliation of having to accept government relief money and paid it all back with the prize money he earned from his fights. He also made frequent donations to various Catholic Worker Houses, including feeding homeless guests with his family. He never forgot where he came from. He was one of the common men. When his rags to riches story got out, renowned sportswriter Damon Runyon dubbed him “The Cinderella Man“, and before long Braddock came to represent the hopes and aspirations of the American public struggling during the Great Depression. The year was 1935, with the majority of Americans still facing a bleak daily existence.
Max Baer, the heavyweight champion, had a reputation as a destructive puncher and possibly the hardest hitter of all time. He had killed a man in the ring in 1930. On the evening of June 13th 1935 at Madison Square Garden Braddock, an 8 to 1 underdog, entered the ring to face Baer. Jim knew he could beat Baer if he stayed away from his hammering right hand, and that’s just what he did. In an amazing feat of courage and determination, Braddock won the 15 round decision to become the new heavyweight champion of the world. It was considered one of the greatest upsets in boxing history. The “Cinderella Man” had fulfilled the dreams and hopes of the common people, giving them a reason to battle on through those tough times.
Damon Runyan described the event in newspapers across the country the next morning:
Coming into the ring on the short end of the unheard-of price of 8 to 1 with even money he does not come out for the tenth round, and with his chances so little regarded that the crowd does not half fill the “graveyard of champions,” Braddock fights from the opening bell with the desperation of a man leading a forlorn hope.
Brought back from Hasbeenville by the magic wave of the wand of sheer chance, after being such a down-and-outer that he had to go on relief in his home State of New Jersey at $24 per month to provide food for his wife and three children, James J. Braddock at 29 years of age suddenly finds himself occupying the pinnacle of the pugilistic heap, with an utterly new life before him.
At the close of the fight, while the fighters are awaiting the announcement of the decision, the crowd begins filing out, knowing beforehand what the verdict will be, and so ends the fistic fairy tale, as all fairy tales should end, with the poor abused hero finding his pumpkins of failure turned into prancing white steeds of glittering success and his feet incased in the glass slippers of happiness, if you can follow all this twisted metaphor.
Anyway, so ends the strange story of James J. Braddock “the Cinderella Man” of Fistiana. And you cannot match his story anywhere in the realm of the most fantastic fiction.
Braddock lost his heavyweight title two years later in an 8 round KO to “The Brown Bomber”, Joe Louis. He retired after a final win over Tommy Farr in 1938. The beacon of hope for millions had done his part to revive the spirits of a country in crisis. And in true GI Generation fashion, at the age of 37, Jim and his manager both enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1942 where they became 1st Lieutenants. Upon his return, he helped construct the Verrazano Bridge, raising his family, and living out his life as a business owner, happily married to his wife Mae until the day he died in 1974. He was the epitome of everything noble, good, honorable and proud about this country.
Trump – The Anti-Cinderella Man
It may seem like a reach to equate Donald Trump to James J. Braddock, but it really isn’t about the specific person. It’s about the mood of the country during tragically grim economic times and how average middle class (or former middle class) working Americans respond to the message and actions of celebrities they choose to follow or emulate. Their life stories couldn’t be more divergent. Braddock was born into poverty, had to work like a dog to gain a higher stature in life, always maintained a soft spoken humble nature, evoked sympathy and admiration for his rags to riches story, and ultimately inspired generations of Americans to experience a sense of redemption during the Great Depression through his boxing feats. Braddock was a man for his times.
Donald Trump was born into wealth. He was born on third base, thinking he hit a triple. His is a story of riches to greater riches. His real estate developer father left him $100 million and the family business. To his credit, he turned the $100 million into billions. He’s been a deal maker and risk taker his entire life. He’s had spectacular successes and miserable failures. He has an ego the size of the Empire State Building. There isn’t a humble bone in his body. He’s brash, boisterous and prone to making outrageous declarations. His personality is more on par with Muhammed Ali’s among boxing legends. His is not a Cinderella story like Braddock’s. He is the anti-Cinderella man. Over the last year he has become the great last hope of the downtrodden middle class, as they struggle through their very own Greater Depression.
This unlikely billionaire champion of the silent majority has defied all odds to become the Republican nominee for president, despite the scorn and ridicule of the GOP establishment, neo-cons, political pundits and both the right and left wing corporate media. He defeated more than a dozen GOP establishment lackeys who spent far more on their campaigns than he, with the largest primary vote tally in GOP history. Just as Braddock was considered washed up and a has been after losing sixteen of twenty two fights, Trump was considered a washed up reality TV parody of himself until he announced his intention to run for president. I, among millions of others, scoffed at him and thought it was nothing more than a publicity stunt to generate some new TV program.
The press scoffed at the comeback of Braddock after he was given a new lease on life. Every time he prepared to fight a supposedly more talented opponent the odds makers and “experts” in the media expected him to get knocked out. But no one ever knocked him out and he defied the odds to earn a shot at the heavyweight championship of the world. The GOP establishment had crowned Jeb Bush the champion of their party, but Trump KO’d him in the 2nd round. He methodically knocked out the rest of his opponents on the way to the coming heavyweight championship fight in November against the hand-picked heavyweight contender of the political establishment, Wall Street, the fallacious corporate media, the military industrial complex, and the rest of the Deep State apparatus.
Max Baer was a monster of a man and a killer in the ring. He looked down upon his opponent as out of his league. His smug know it all demeanor was evident to all. He was not loved by the common man. He was respected for his pugilistic talents, but he didn’t inspire the crowds to root for him. He brimmed with over-confidence and took his opponent lightly. He underestimated the amount of fight still left in Braddock. The “experts” all but guaranteed an overwhelming victory for Baer, likely a knockout in the 1st or 2nd round.
Hillary Clinton is the ultimate Washington establishment insider, with a reputation as a killer. She’s been hand-picked to continue the policies put in place by the establishment to benefit the establishment. She is loved by no one. She inspires adoration from no one. She can barely fill an auditorium without paying people to attend. She never mingles with the peasants. She collects hundreds of millions from her Hollywood elite friends, Wall Street titans, Soros, Buffett, the House of Saud and the rest of the billionaire oligarch class. She stays above the fray, letting her handlers set the agenda and telling her what to do and say. She sees blacks, Hispanics, and the working poor as voting blocs – not as real human beings deserving of respect.
Her thirst for power and control is sociopathic as she will stop at nothing to quench that thirst by being elevated to the throne of the presidency. And she’ll hit below the belt to achieve that victory. She openly despises and denigrates her opponent. She believes she is intellectually and morally superior to Trump and believed the political pundit “experts” who declared she would win in a landslide. Overconfidence, hubris and believing the press clippings from an overwhelmingly liberal media are coming home to roost with two months to go until the election.
In the Baer – Braddock fight of the century, Baer came out firing looking for the knockout punch in the early rounds. But Braddock took his best shots and kept plugging away. Hillary and her corner men have spent over $120 million on negatives ads to Trump’s $20 million in the early rounds. Her 10% post-convention lead has dwindled to zero as Trump has taken her best punches and is still standing. As the bout entered the middle rounds Braddock took control and Baer began to tire. Braddock dominated the late stages of the fight and won in a unanimous decision as the crowd went wild and average Americans around country glued to their radios reveled in jubilation as one of their own became champion.
As Hillary’s lies, deleted emails, selling influence through her crooked Clinton Foundation, smashing blackberries with hammers, and brain damage weigh her down, Trump keeps firing punches. Her stamina is in question. Other than CNN (Clinton News Network) and the rest of the Hillary cheerleading press, a large swath of the American people are questioning her honesty, competency, and health. The demoralized and subjugated silent majority are hopeful Trump can deliver them from a political establishment that threw them under the bus thirty years ago. We’ve entered the late rounds and Trump shows no signs of tiring or allowing Hillary to land any knockout blows.
The odds maker “experts” like Nate Silver (who was 90% sure Trump wouldn’t win the GOP nomination) still have Hillary winning in a landslide. The candidate of the ruling class, who pledges to maintain the status quo, is not the change agent of the masses. A victory by Hillary would be a victory for Wall Street, billionaire oligarchs, neo-con warmongers, propaganda media outlets, and corporate cronyism. A
Trump victory would boost the morale of a middle class that has been abused, denigrated, belittled, ignored, and taken advantage of by the ruling class for decades. The hopes and dreams of millions are riding on a victory by the anti-Cinderella man. His popularity rides on a sea of rightful resentment, anger, and fury at how the average American has been screwed by the ruling class (both parties) for decades.
I have no illusions Donald Trump can single handedly reverse decades of bad policies, bad choices, bad government, bad politicians, and shamefully horrendous Federal Reserve monetary policies designed to impoverish millions through man made inflation and debt issuance. His election would be the upset of the century and spit in the eye of the establishment.
It would lift the spirits of disillusioned, angry Americans experiencing depressionary economic conditions who want to take this country back from the vested interests. James J. Braddock lifted the morale of a nation in the midst of a Great Depression, but he lost the championship two years later as the Great Depression eventually led to the bloodiest conflict in word history.
If Trump can win an upset victory in November, the initial surge of confidence and anticipation of game changing policy changes will shortly be replaced by the left hook of reality. Trump will likely be thwarted at every turn by the corrupt members of both parties. Debt will continue to pile up at a $1 trillion per year rate. Trump’s volatile nature will inflame passions both domestically and abroad.
His election would not change the nature of politics in Washington, but could be the push which brings this teetering welfare/warfare empire of debt crashing down. The destruction of the existing social order is the only chance for real change and Donald Trump is the only person who could trigger that change. His pugilistic demeanor may come in handy as our country confronts the final bloody stages of this Fourth Turning.
The climax year of the American Revolution happened in 1781. Almost like clockwork, the Civil War climax year of 1863 followed 82 years later. The Great Depression/World War II climax year of 1944 followed 81 years later. This would put the climax year of our current Fourth Turning around 2025, at the end of an eight year presidency of Clinton or Trump (both Prophet Generation leaders). The years leading toward the climax of a Fourth Turning have always been chaotic, dangerous and bloody. The core elements of debt, civic decay, and global disorder will accelerate the chain of events leading to the climax, whatever it may be.
No matter who is elected in November, the next eight years will try men’s souls and the outcome for our country could be glory or destruction. The technology exists to extinguish all life on the planet and human nature does not change. All it would take would be human malevolence, disastrous decision making by flawed leaders, and some bad luck to destroy the world. Who do you trust to lead during the most dangerous period of this Fourth Turning? Our choices do matter.
“Imagine some national (and probably global) volcanic eruption, initially flowing along channels of distress that were created during the Unraveling era and further widened by the catalyst. Trying to foresee where the eruption will go once it bursts free of the channels is like trying to predict the exact fault line of an earthquake. All you know in advance is something about the molten ingredients of the climax, which could include the following:
- Economic distress, with public debt in default, entitlement trust funds in bankruptcy, mounting poverty and unemployment, trade wars, collapsing financial markets, and hyperinflation (or deflation)
- Social distress, with violence fueled by class, race, nativism, or religion and abetted by armed gangs, underground militias, and mercenaries hired by walled communities
- Political distress, with institutional collapse, open tax revolts, one-party hegemony, major constitutional change, secessionism, authoritarianism, and altered national borders
- Military distress, with war against terrorists or foreign regimes equipped with weapons of mass destruction”
The Fourth Turning – Strauss & Howe
Most people don’t understand the Supreme Court is at stake. She will immediately appoint Judges hostile to our second amendment .She will also open the flood gates for all third world immigration which will finally destroy what is left our our European heritage. She will then go after the internet. I believe our REPUBLIC will be lost.The Marxist traitors will have a solid majority after 4 years of Hillary Clinton. I just wish the treasonous Bitch would die.
bb,
“I wish the treasonous Bitch would just die.”
Would that the American retardation be tied to the water,
and vile (non) food, and the particles being sprayed in the air.
Then we might reverse it.
Supreme Court Justices? One was (likely) murdered at a remote
“resort?” and no fuss about it or the bizarre aftermath. One
hears about the dreaded ninth circuit court of appeals loaded
with corrupt judges appointed for life? that make decisions
based on what the bosses want. Not on justice, in any case.
Sometimes, in an odd moment I get a vision of what our “system”
is really about, and it is chilling. The more we learn, the more we
realize how deep and foul the system really is. IMF people are
talking about a “one-time” wealth tax, to save the system. Ha!
Will anybody with real money be taxed a dime? No, they will be
exempt. The former middle class will be paying that tax.
The rulers of the peons want their powerful bureaucracies in place
and kicking ass. Thus, socialism. Welfare for the bankers and corps. and all the great lobbies of pig-trough stealing…and the
bread lines are obscured with the EBT plan. We have been looted,
and they are not finished.
Thank you bb, for the thought, and the opening for me. Sometimes, you are the bomb!
That is the most important thing to me too – the Supreme Court. I also think we are too far gone to save and we need collapse, and only fear the MSM and masses will blame Trump and lean left crawling out of the rubble. I really appreciate these articles by Jim as they come off to me as being spot on. Too bad most folks are clueless and believe that whatever the problems, things will get better with time. What they don’t know is that the very cure the CB’s are prescribing ensure that things will only get worse and until we get a collapse. It is almost humorous to me how my family and friends think that we just need Trump and the problems will be solved. I will vote for him twice if I could, but know we are too far gone to turn things around from here without collapse and so the Supreme Court is the best reason to get him in there.
I understand what your saying but they have plenty of others to step in and do the same dirty work even if she suddenly fell out for any reason. Trump is our only hope and that is a long shot. SAD to say.
If only she would just get sent to prison. Hopefully Trump’s first few decisions will be to pursue the crimes committed by Clinton, to have Obama tried for treason and pardon General Peteraus, for sharing with one person some classified information that was never leaked anywhere.
Yup I wish that too
I have also been reading on other blogs that many believe if she is elected The public will immediately start buying guns and ammo.In other words there will be shortages of certain guns and rounds of ammunition. If you need a gun now is the time to buy.
Scary times.
Completely agree, but I am finally starting to believe that Trump will Trump her. Now he just needs to stay alive till he is sworn in
I’ll vote for Trump, twice if I could, in the wild hope that he can raise the dead body of America. I am not optimistic even if Trump was really all his most ardent supporter think he is. The American Empire is dead and being eaten by worms.
Most people, especially here at TBP, don’t put much stock in astrology. But mundane astrologer Jeff Harmon (and some others) have done readings for January 20, 2017, which of course is inauguration day. He sees a bad day for Hitlery and a good day for the Donald. [Mundane astrology looks at events, not personalities.]
I set that video to start with 20 minutes remaining. The Inauguration Day reading is in the last minute of the video.
Admin–you could have saved a lot of ink and condensed this 2 part series into one sentence.
“If you don’t understand what’s happening to you, you’re FUCKED!!!”
All the evidence you presented is dandy, but lost on many that live for the moment and think not of the past nor of the future.
Like always, Admin, you did your good deed supporting your conclusions with an abundance of facts and commentary. Keep up the good work. Even if only one person gets it and is saved, it would be worth it.
Reading something like this is fairly easy, going through the actions so to speak, but reading something like this and understanding it, is really hard work which is why most of the readers draw a blank when thinking about it. Extrapolating your understanding of the past into future action is even harder. Actions follow understanding. Like I said understanding ain’t easy. Most people want to be led and the MSM is doing a good job of it, not that they are doing you a service.
@Homer, most people here on TBP “understand”. And we’re still fucked.
It’s the challenges in life that make the man!
Homer, not to argue, but i disagree. I think this is what Jim is best at. Taking huge amounts of data that would glaze most people’s eyes, and turning it into something people can understand. Ever look at his readership numbers over on Zerohedge? They dwarf just about everybody else, consistantly. In other words, he is very good at, what he is very good at. In a couple of years, when Jim is a big media star, and has no time for us riff raff, remember we used to get to pull his chain for fun, and he was always a sport, albeit a slightly grouchy one.
Admin- thank you for the VERY well written essay- I noted the reference to the “demonization” of Max Baer by the press- perhaps a German, he was becoming a lightning rod for the buildup towards the war with Germany. It should be noted that the New York Times had a front page headline “International Jewry ” declares WAR on Germany ” as soon as Adolph Hitler was elected Chancellor in 1933- by the largest percentage of registered voters ever in German history. The drive to war ironically included funding of the buildup of Hitlers war machine by Prescott Bush- GHWBs father. As an ancient funder of Napolean’s AND England’s military machines noted “no matter who wins these wars, we make money.”
Your portrayal of Max Baer as unsentimental, unseemly, and uncaring is in total opposition to what I understand. Max Baer, Jr. is a good friend of mine and we have talked at length about his father.
His father, Max, Jr. told me, was very upset at the death of Frankie Campbell and he spent time at the stricken boxer’s bedside. Campbell’s death severely affected him. Baer was tall and muscular and in that regard a ‘monster of a man’, but not a monster, personality wise. He was kind and caring toward his wife, who was Irish Catholic, and his kids.
Campbell and Baer knew each other and were friends as he was friends with other boxers like Lewis. All the media rivalry and pre fight talk was just to increase the draw and purse, to increase the interest in the upcoming fight. Max Baer was a good man living in difficult times.
I will vote for Trump. Not that I really believe he can do 10% of what needs to be done, but at the least he will put a pause in the unrelenting assault on all of us real Americans.
I’m a glass half empty guy, so I’ve resigned myself to hitlery getting elected. If she is inaugurated, then I will go to ground and never vote again or participate in anything to do with the former USA.
BUT……….if by some miracle Trump wins (and wins BIG!), then I will be like the people in the movie Cinderella Man after Braddock wins and just go nuts with joy.
I will know I’m not alone and Americans still have heart, and that in it’s self is enough for me.
Just a random thought , if the glass is half empty , or indeed if it is half full , um maybe it is the wrong size glass?
Just an engineering standpoint that’s all .
As far as voting goes , I would vote Trump .
I do not think at this point in time with POCB’s that it can possibly mean anything .
Especially with so called DHS jumping in to “regulate ” the voting apparatus aka voting machines etc when they have zero cyber pros to properly monitor anything ? lol this is so stupid !!!!!!!
Just another stupid thought ? who owns the electronic voting machines ? Research , Research , Research .
Good article though Mr. Quinn
I was at a cocktail party the other night, in a town here in SoCal, and the gentlemen I was talking to, retired professionals and executives, are no different than the rest of the clueless – complacent and brainwashed. All are 100% in equities because there isn’t yield anywhere, other than in junk, which in no way, compensates for the risk.
They were unaware that the market for all assets, other than PM’s, are the most overvalued in history. They don’t realize that the pension and insurance industries, private and public, are on the brink of collapse after nine years of ZIRP. In other words, all’s well and good. I would characterize these people as part of the 1% and sure the status quo will carry on. I guess that means a coronation for HRH HRC.
I didn’t contradict them of their investment strategy, as I was thinking, why deprive them of an opportunity for a learning experience of a lifetime. Not that they would listen anyway.
The most dangerous armies are below the radar. Jesuits are a very powerful army. Real research would be helpful in understanding real power. Real power is rarely out in the open for the plebes. Both VPs are Jesuits, how interestingly unusual. Indicates a major script change may occur no matter which Cinderella goes to the ball. I just love fairy tales.
Bea Lever,”both VPs are Jesuits”, you say. How can I take what you say seriously?
Bea, retire your tinfoil hat and put on your thinking cap!
Homer, your reluctance to acknowledge actual historical facts regarding “agents of change” is unbecoming when you start to insult an intelligent, educated, and engaged woman (?). Historical cycles are often driven by those who have control of the public narrative and very long time preferences; power struggles among those whose hands dole out the shekels have been going on longer than this nation has existed. The matrix in which the proles live, and whose lives are in the hands of debt usury masters, is created by those who enslave the world in an ancient web of deceit.
coyote, since you are so well informed as to “actual historical facts regarding “agents of change.” Please, enlighten us and stop commenting in generalities that we are suppose to take for granted. Please, don’t hold back the details.
Bea Lever made a, I’ll be polite, ignorant statement about the Vice Presidential candidates being Jesuits and she should be held accountable to prove such an over the top statement. Since when did they join the Order? I’ve heard it all before–Kennedy’s a Catholic and if elected to the presidency will be taking his marching orders from the Pope. Gad!
I have a brain and I do use it and don’t fall pray to idiotic emotional statements that smell like garbage. Her statement doesn’t pass the smell test. But, I am willing to change my thinking if Bea comes up with the goods and proves it. An apology will be forth coming!
Homer- You little shrivel-dick douche weasel you know better than to refer to me as she ya fukkin idiot. You have no clue how the world works and no clue that you have spent almost eight years with a Jesuit VP by the name of Joe Biden and that includes his criminal son the Jesuit, Hunter Biden.
Half of Washington is working for the Vatican but you are so smug with your Fox News indoctrination, go fuck yourself and look this shit up for yourself, I have a sinus infection/headache.
Bea, why is it that when confronted with reason and asking for verification that the intellectually challenged, always resort to the lowest common denominator of name calling?
How in the world can I take you seriously? You’ve demonstrated a penchant for misinformation and character abuse.
You only hurt your own reputation when you engage in such behavior. I never called you an idiot, but merely referenced statements that are emotionally based that smell like garbage as idiotic. The fact that you took it as a personal slight indicate to me that you view your statements as idiotic garbage and are offended by your misapprehension of what I said.
You still haven’t proven anything or even provided evidence to support your claims. Only to include Joe Biden and his son as Jesuit proxies.
Bea Lever, you seem to me to be an intellectual lightweight, seeing Jesuits at every turn.
Looks to me like Bea has a thing against Catholics. Half of Washington is working for the Vatican. Proof much?
How about I say the other half are working for the Baptists. Prove me wrong in my Strawman
Whatta Maroon. You might think yourself a Christian but you ain’t a man of faith.
Homer
You have to realize that the Mickeys are a global cabal. Mindlessly wandering the world oppressing the protestants and subverting national governments. At least according to Saint Bea.
Don’t be clueless. Big change coming. Get ready to work. https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2016/09/06/donald-trump-discusses-the-false-economy/
r.t. that was a good one. thanks
Greetings,
In my line of work I occasionally come into contact with the .01%. Without a doubt, these guys and gals couldn’t pour piss out of a boot with instructions written on the heel. They do not have to compete in the “real” world nor do they ever suffer any consequences for their actions. Because of this and the fact that they are surrounded by yes-men, they are 100% disconnected from the rest of the world and what is going on.
The Fourth Turning will be quite a shock to most of them.
Gary Johnson for President!
He is no good.
Gary Johnson is for the TPP and an anti gun advocate and it’s hoped he will split the Republican vote.
G. Johnson also pushes the GloBull Warming (Hoax)
Johnson the pot-eater won’t get 3%. That’s 47% short of a “split”.
Johnson is further into la la land than Ron Paul.
Douglas W. Thomson for President
Check out cincinnatus2016.com. He is a fan of TBP.
Great essay.
Wow. Jim – this was a kick ass piece of writing. You call it part two but truthfully it could easily stand on its own. Probably one of your best works actually. There was a lot of passion and heart in it. I could feel you pour yourself into the piece, building like a crescendo into a sort of fourth turning symphony. Very cool.
Francis
Thanks. The first half of this article was really part one of the overall article. Then I had the Great Depression stuff, and finally the Trump stuff. But it was 6,000 words and that doesn’t fly on ZH and many other sites. So I cut in half as logically as I could.
You did an exceptional job cutting it in two stand-alone pieces. It is as if the Invisible Hand of the BlogSpace helped.
You really do have a gift for simplifying multiple complex ideas into easily interpreted analogy. If I were not knee deep in chicken canning activities, I might make you a jar of apple pie.
Admin- you say that if Trump is elected it is most likely congress will continue it’s criminal activity and the Fed will continue printing . Then you say because of Trump’s lack of ability or ineffectiveness, he will trigger a bloody revolution of some sort as a result of his “volatile nature”.
Careful what you wish for, you might get it. Do you really want blood to flow in the streets? Really? We will get that with major inflation and crushing tax and healthcare increases which are coming. There is a saturation point to everything.
When that left hook of reality hits the sheep as you put it, they will realize they have been had…again. Either the Trump fans here are being polite or they have not figured out what you are actually saying.
Does anyone here realize the Mexican President Niento is most likely going to be impeached as the Mexican citizens are calling for his head? There was no lovefest for Trump in Mexico last week.
As long as Trump’s handlers can spin trip as diplomatic coup in USA it doesn’t matter. As for the sheep most of them know they have been had. Having been bought off with a slice of cheese at first of every month. As long as it keeps coming nothing will happen.
As for the Trump fans. I don’t see much conviction here for him on TBP. History might in the end define him as a disciple of the next Prophet. Maybe. We will know in about 20 years or so.
If we make it.
I don’t want Hacking Hillary as next Prez. She looks to be on way out and angling to take as many with her as possible. She will be a Sociopath to the very end shouting orders and getting people killed even with a gun in her mouth, just like Hitler in his bunker, during the end times of the Fourth Reich.
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The real government cheese was much better back “then.”
Yes it was. Not the modern goo we are all conditioned to eat.
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The mexican media is owned by the same (({people)}[ as our media: do you except them to say something different about Trump?
Jim ! I am no American, and live in India. I therefore have little interest in U S elections other than knowing who is the President. But your brilliance with the pen, is stunning, really stunning ! Magnificent skill with the pen and superb clarity of thought. Keep going Jim .
Bea, I am probably going to try and register to vote just so I can vote against them.
Nothing personal.
That is beside the point. My reply is mainly to point out that whether Trump’s win causes revolt or Hillary’s coronation leads to neverending wealth taxes on anyone who can actually pay their bills (see the irony? If you can pay, you obviously have not given the gubment its fair share), either way, this country is over.
I know you hate Trump for being a FlimFlam man, but when the choice is between the Whore of Babylon and the FlimFlam man, I have to go with my Baptist upbringing and vote against her.
Maggie- Did you see my first post on this thread ? Did you understand?
Maggie- Your Baptist background is probably much the same as mine and you are correct to realize that we have entered the stage where it will become very religious. The symbol of a woman (the whore of Babylon) is The United States. We are entering the time when Luciferian doctrine will be put above all else. No matter which candidate Americans vote for, it could be only a short time after elements dedicated to bringing the dark side forward for acceptance will be in place. I do not refer to Clinton or Trump as they are merely puppets used in a war between good and evil. Right now evil is “winning”. There is no choice in this election that is not from the dark side.
I never take political volley personal, please don’t feel that you have to explain your choices to me, worry about explaining them to God when your book of life is read at the end of your time here.
Bea- even Satan has his off days. Do NOT despair in the face of evil: IT SHALL NOT PASS. BELIEVE. just like your name. And I, as a fellow Christian, shall agree to disagree with you that we are not entering a time of Luceriferian distress. BECAUSE SATAN IS THE RULER OF THIS WORLD. Already. It says so in our Good Book. And GOOD keeps winning. When we BELIEVE. If this nation falls- It does not mean the end of our faith, or our people. We shall wield our swords of Christendom (no matter what caliber : )) and carve out a new nation for us and our children. BELIEVE.
Maggie, you realize that you don’t elect the president. The Electoral College does. You don’t really know who those Bozos are. The incumbent government just doesn’t trust you beanheads. So much for real democracy.
“The United States Electoral College is the institution that elects the President and Vice President of the United States every four years. Citizens of the United States do not directly elect the president or the vice president; instead they elect representatives called “electors”, who usually pledge to vote for particular presidential and vice presidential candidates.”– Wikipedia– Pledge? hahahaha
So, Maggie, who are the “electors” that you will vote for? Name them! Ahhhhh! Don’t know. I didn’t think so!
Perhaps they should be named by law and their vote revealed by law within 4 weeks after they vote. There is no sanctity with their vote as to secrecy, so I don’t have a problem with revealing their votes.
Maggie your voting would just be a formality, giving you the impression that your vote counts. It doesn’t.
Maggie, perhaps, it’s better that the beanheads don’t directly elect the president. They would most likely vote for the likes of Hugo Chavez, Nicolás Maduro or that presidential candidate that has the aptly appropriate initials of B.S., which is what he spewed during his campaign–that would be Bernie Sanders with the inevitable outcome that Venezuela is currently experiencing.
Whoever wins in Nov. should name Sanders ambassador to Venezuela. Then he could live in the “workers’ paradise” he wanted to impose here. If his airhead fans follow him there, so much the better.
During the primaries I very helpfully wrote the following campaign slogan:
BERNIE SANDERS — BRINGING VENEZUELA TO AMERICA!”
I’m still kinda peeved that Bernie never adopted it. Heck, it was free of charge!
Admin, read your article on ZH just to see what folks out in the wild are saying these days. Have to say that the comments here are far more thoughtful and on point.
It seems obvious that 2016 is the inflection point in this crisis. Who could have imagined but you the parallels between Trump and Braddock as laid out in article. One was, and one might be, a hero of their times.
In the case of the Braddock he shone a light on what had made the country great.
And what would eventually save it.
And then there is Trump. A symbol of a our present Potemkin world exposed.
The only question is our only hope.
One man real.
The other the reality.
Great article. How ironic our political situation is. Donald Trump saves the nation. WTF! The craziest thing I’ve ever heard …except for the terrible danger represented by Hillary and the rogues’ gallery of perpetrators she will likely bring into the Whitehouse, particularly those crazed belligerents, the neocon masters of war. I recently saw another chilling Hillary moment. She was castigating Trump for associating with “conspiracy theorist” Alex Jones. Her eyes narrowed and gleamed coldly as she expressed her contempt for anyone who would dare to question the Great Received Truth delineated in the contradictory and logically impossible government account of 9/11. Anyone who does not accept that THREE enormous steel framed buildings collapsed in the exact manner of a controlled demolition because TWO of them were hit by airplanes (even though they were specifically designed to withstand such a hazard), anyone who does not believe that from his cave in the mountains, the wily Osama defeated all the air defenses of Washington and the Pentagon, such a person is a moon bat crazy paranoid who hates puppies and apple pie. AND THE DONALD HAS ACTUALLY ASSOCIATED WITH THIS KNOW ENEMY OF THE STATE! The look in Hillary’s eyes was almost as scary as the cackling glee she displayed at the brutal beating to death of Quadafi. I note she hasn’t much lamented the subsequent collapse of Libya, formerly a prosperous country.
God knows how this will end. I’m afraid The Donald does not really understand what he is up against. I think some of his utterances are lunacy, but he is at least human and really seems uninterested in pushing the globalist agenda forward at the risk of nuclear destruction.
At least he knows that nuclear war is bad for real estate values.
Maybe sane elements in the military would work constructively with him and properly chastened politicians as well. However little the American population knows about the facts on the ground in the Middle East, they do have an inkling that American interventionism has NOT served their interests and has in fact endangered us all as well as the planet. The chaos and bloodshed, the refugees…..gee, even if they don’t talk about it on NPR or Fox, most people know that Hillary’s record is NOT reassuring. AND she shows NO REMORSE for any of this havoc. Better keep a close eye on how the exit polls compare to the final vote tallies. Oh, my God, what is happening to me ? I sound like a Trump supporter!
You really think Trump does not know what he is up against?
Have you seen his Secret Service agents and private security? Have you noticed his family is hardly ever with him now?
I submit, dear poster, Trump knows EXACTLY what he is up against….making him a figure of great courage , just like Braddock.
Early in the primary season I recommended Trump dismiss his Secret Service detail and rely solely on his own private security. His people are loyal to him because he pays them, while the Secret Service is part of the Obama-controlled DHS. Never forget, in 1984 Indian PM Indira Gandhi was shot dead by two of her bodyguards.
Do you really get nothing for going 15 rounds against the champ?
If Trump should manage to get in, that’s really only one tiny step. To do the job he’d have to use persuasion on all of us to replace incumbents with outsiders on all levels. We’d have to understand and agree that it’s worth losing our Uncle Sugar dollars to prevent anyone else from getting them. We’d have to understand the Constitution envisages 50 separate states with 50 separate legal systems, competing for our citizenship. State is the word for ‘sovereign entity’. Fifty separate entities, with the right of free travel between them and the right to trade between states without taxes. Wouldn’t it be better if the state had to compete for your business?
This election is about two things.
SCOTUS & WAR!
If the beast wins, the world loses.
Admin, great articles (both part one and part two).
Did you see this report? Michael Savage reported on it today and it’s fresh news,
just after the cold standoff between Obummer and Putin at the G20.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/1735372/putins-official-presidential-car-involved-in-head-on-horror-crash-in-moscow-killing-russian-presidents-favourite-chauffeur/
Putin’s official presidential car involved in head-on horror crash in Moscow, killing Russian president’s ‘favourite chauffeur’
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Uh oh!
From Remus, a year or two ago
The Sting
Things are rarely what they seem. Records confirm the Bolshevik leaders were on Germany’s payroll during World War I in a sort of “work release program”, their mission was to bring down the Czar and take Russia out of the war, which they did. This was well known even at the time, long before the documents were made public. Leon Trotsky found it necessary to say,
“They are throwing dirty accusations at Lenin and Zinoviev. Lenin has fought thirty years for the revolution. I have fought for twenty years against the oppression of the people. And we cannot but cherish a hatred for German militarism. I have been sentenced by a German court to eight months’ imprisonment for my struggle against German militarism. This everybody knows. Let nobody in this hall say that we are hirelings of Germany.”
In turn, the early National Socialist German Workers Party was very nearly an invention of the Soviets, one of many, with the mission to bring down the elected German government and install a socialist regime friendly to Moscow. The connection between Russian and German socialists remained strong and mutually supportive. The Luftwaffe, illegal under the terms of the World War I armistice, trained on Russian airfields in the 1930s. The SD was modeled after the Russian NKVD, the mass arrests and slave labor camps after the Soviet gulags. When Germany launched its invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, its biggest trading partner, Russian freight trains were still rolling through the front lines and into Germany, loaded with steel and grain.
One theory of history says Ernst Rohm, a committed Marxist revolutionary and thoroughly contemptible in other ways, was Moscow’s preferred boss. His arrest and execution in 1934, along with the rest of the Stormtrooper leadership, made the showdown of 1941 inevitable. Even so, when Germany invaded Poland in 1939 it was a joint invasion with the Soviets. Much can be made of England and its allies’ failure to declare war on both the Soviet Union and Germany. It suggests World War II in Europe was a contest between National Socialism and International Socialism, and the Western Allies made their choice.
All this, and the propaganda from both sides, would lead a reasonable person to conclude ideology was the driving force of the war. It was no such thing. The wars in Europe and the Pacific were about what wars are always about, control of peoples and resources. The socialist wave crested during the years between the end of World War I and the start of World War II. These were years of unending crisis, each more dire than the one before, each nudging the hapless populace of Europe closer to a decisive catastrophe. At the end of the war only international socialism was left standing, and its formal embodiment outside the Soviet Union—the European Union, was already in the planning. Only the United States has yet to declare itself a socialist state, and so it is that unnecessary, avoidable and downright weird crises are maturing thick and fast.
This regime admits crisis is opportunity. As with all socialist theatre, DC contrives and directs crisis for its own purposes. President Obama, a secretive man with a shadowy past and even more shadowy present, and the permanent DC cadre of adaptable henchmen, fit the profile of ruin from within. Consider: state governments are all but captured by DC, the middle class impoverished, the currency disemboweled. The military is benumbed with purges and political correctness and non-military missions amounting to social work. Citizenship and the vote have been watered down, racial animosity ramped up, voter fraud mainstreamed, in short, the whole basis of a democratic republic—its institutions, traditions and values—is being discredited, anesthetized and smothered.
The first question of crime investigators, television aside, is: who benefits? The agents provocateur themselves already are in control of the nation, shouldn’t they be consolidating power rather than diminishing the nation they control and thereby diminishing their ability to influence international events, or even to participate credibly? They don’t appear to benefit and the cause of international socialism doesn’t appear to benefit, even though the US has been its protector, enabler and cash cow for most of a hundred years. Socialism isn’t the game itself, it’s a management device, the industrial Team Concept writ large. If not them, then who?
A case can be made for old-fashioned global power politics, but the beneficiary is far from obvious. If China is the leading candidate it’s hard to explain their single, consistent political demand, which amounts to “leave us alone”. And any scenario involving the imposition of Islam comes up ninety-nine yards short of a hundred if reality is given more weight than fantasy. Reality suggests the West should invite Moslems to absent themselves from everywhere that isn’t Africa or Arabia, perhaps to return when they’ve accepted the ninth to twenty-first centuries.
Still, all crime has a beneficiary, so again, who benefits? Simple. As with any crime, the criminals benefit. For example, who benefits from weakened or unenforced bank regulations? Ahah! Who benefits from disarming crime victims—the criminal benefits. Who benefits from open borders with Mexico, and who benefits from its payoffs and money-laundering and campaign contributions? Criminals again. Who benefits from selective enforcement of law, or of ignoring the Constitution, or of circumventing its protections, or of learned interpretations that insult reason itself? Who benefits from tax law so complex and contradictory that even specialists merely take their best guess, the taxpayer or the tax spender? But even these are incidental to the main theft.
It’s well said that the surest way to rob a bank is to own the bank. The depositors just keep coming in, and week after week they give you money, you give them a receipt, everybody’s happy. With socialism—and that’s closest to what we have—whole nations are the bank, and as with all conspiracies, you’re either in or you’re out, getting the payoff or paying the payoff, riding the wagon or pulling the wagon. No in between. And it’s a mature criminal enterprise which deploys market-tested brands—progressive, socialist, left, right, Republican, Democrat, communist and so forth—and an exit strategy. In other words, it’s a sting.
The beneficiaries are already world class wealthy, but they’re not quite done. When the weight of insolvency brings about an event horizon, and it will, then they’ll be done. And they’ll be gone, far away from the vortex. By then they’ll have ownership of nearly all actual wealth, and in every form worth having. Productive farm land and all the earth’s resources, for instance. Everybody else, including the true believers and other useful idiots, will be holding worthless claims on debt. The name brand activists will merely end up with a taller pile of worthless paper than the rest of ’em.
Those who say socialism works until they run out of other people’s money are close to the truth, it lasts until there’s nothing left to loot, and then they are gone. And the chattering about what went wrong will go on for years afterward. With some it will be the shame of being had but not quite knowing how, with others because they do know how, but with most it will be the Stockholm Syndrome, “surely it wasn’t our leaders who fought for the working people and sincerely cared about the least among us and were selfless enough to take our earnings for our own good, to make a difference by investing in the future … for a positive outcome … in an inclusive environment …”
So yes, DC is run by agents provocateur, creating and using crisis after crisis to advance a colossal sting operation, the bait being a glittering can’t-lose proposition where everybody wins. Everybody not in on the sting loses of course, which means pretty much everybody, period.
in re Remus – the sting: Cui bono? The same people who funded Trotsky et al, who funded the return of Charles II to the throne of England. The same people who have funded both sides of wars throughout history. The woe of Babylon- slavery to the interest on debt has all the world in chains; wars and literal white slavery selling young girls off our streets to the same sheiks of Araby Jefferson spoke about, sending shekels into their coffers while they mock and destroy our culture and people. At least the monarchs and priests of our heritage had enough sense to expel them every so often.
juandonjuan–Very, very interesting comment. You seem to have an understanding greater in depth than others.
So, what’s the final outcome? What do you see? Is there an alternative vision than the one that Admin and you project?
Instead of looking for a messiah, like Trump, to save us, perhaps, we should look to the messiah within each to bring the change necessary to bring on a new paradigm, a new and better change for mankind. I think, a belief without any substantiation, that the consciousness of mankind will change as it always does when the truth is understood and new realities present themselves. Perhaps, it will be Extraterrestrial aliens that become a truth that is understood by all. What would that do to your relationship to governments? Governments would lose much in the eyes of the people if there is a higher order in the Universe. Other black swans could impact people’s thinking leading to changed beliefs. One things for sure, the revelations about the political process and economic system are already changing how people think of government.
Truth, undeniably, changes people’s beliefs. The change is like a grist mill, slowly grinding illusions ever so thoroughly.
well. as far as the “Sting” aspect, the ‘masters of the universe’ often forget that paper title depends on the loyalty of the praetorian guard to enforce their claims. The first hint of vulnerability, (or a better offer), plus the inevitable class identity conflict, will bring the real world to their attention real quickly.
I miss Remus posts every tuesday.
he’s back. Has been for about 6 months
ADMIN–Gravatar or something changed my avatar. I liked that avatar. It suited my personality. I do kinda rant from time to time.
Can I please get it back.
Homer
Maybe it was the Jesuits that took your avatar. They are always looking for new ways to undermine us all. Isn’t that right Saint Bea of Forlorn. Seeing as he is a Baptist and has a direct line to God maybe he can be kind and get it back for you.
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I greatly appreciate your article and think it is very valuable.
The only problem I have with your article is that you have Donald Trump’s history wrong. You must have borrowed it from his opponents. His success was not certain. He is more of a Rags-to-Riches story than you claim. Both Braddock and Trump are self made men. Braddock started from the lowest class while Trump started from the Middle class.
Trump received $100 million from his father’s estate, but this was in 2000, long after Donald was a Billionaire. In 1968, he graduated from college and went to work for his father’s small construction company. Donald could have remained there. Neither his sister Elizabeth nor his younger brother Robert were fabulous successes. They were good middle level managers for major corporations. Neither of them took Donald’s risks.
Donald’s father, Fred, was a small scale entrepreneur in Queens and Brooklyn. Donald set his eyes on Manhattan, but his father discourage him. There were many good reasons for that. Fred thought that Donald would be rejected. Donald Trump never adopted Manhattan’s upper crust ways; he was always an outsider. His vulgarity and conspicuous consumption can be seen as him thumbing his nose at his betters.
Manhattan, in the early 1970s, was a shambles. The Democrats had ruled New York City for decades; their mismanagement had damaged it. Think of Chicago as it is now: corrupt, dysfunctional, bureaucratic, dangerous, crime ridden and descending to penury. The largest buildings, such as the Chrysler building, were in bankruptcy and no one was constructing anything. It looked as though New York City needed a federal bailout. The business climate was dismal and depressed. The dystrophia “Escape from New York” showed Manhattan Island as a Ultra Maximum Security prison. The Movie was released in 1981, but it had to be somewhat believable in the early 70s when the script was being flogged.
Trump took advantage of the fact that the Penn Central Railroad was in bankruptcy. They were desperate enough to trust a nobody from Queens. The Railroad’s receivers had many properties on Manhattan Island which they could not sell. Trump took options on three properties and was only able to develop two. Putting together the construction of the Grand Hyatt Hotel and selling the land for the Jacob Javits Convention Center were profitable enough that he could buy the Bonwit Teller building so it could be turned into Trump Tower. By the mid 1980s, New York City started to recover.
Trump’s plans were opposed by many people. They were very complex requiring the help the city and state government. The city was so desperate to change Manhattan’s business climate that it allowed a long tax abatement. Trump’s successes could have faltered in the way his plans for the 60th street railroad yards did. If so, he would have returned to working for his father and perhaps, we would have never heard of him.
Interesting.
Admin, IMO there is a much more recent allegory to Trump’s unexpected rise — the Leicester City soccer team. They had barely avoided relegation a year or two earlier, yet came out of nowhere last season to win the English Premier League by a wide margin. If anything, Trump’s rise is even more remarkable, given the visceral hatred of the MSM, GOPe, neocons, and the rest of the Deep State, plus their attempts to sabotage him. LCFC did not have to contend with crooked referees or hostile media, nor did other teams throw games on behalf of runner-up Tottenham. For this reason I suggested awhile back that Trump (and now Pence) wear LCFC shirts at campaign rallies.