Ms. Freud is going to meet someone today for lunch whom she hasn’t seen in several years. She’s quite excited about that.
Which made me think — “What happened to so many of our one-time regular posters??“
I’m sure several, if not most, STILL read this blog. It’s vewy vewy hard to kick the TBP addiction. Just the other day “efarmer” submitted a comment!
So, this Q.O.T.D. is mostly for former contributors — of course, “regulars” might want to call out or opine about these former folks.
—1) Why did you leave?
—2) Would you consider coming back?
—3) What replaced TBP (or, what are you doing now?)
This is pretty much true for most former regulars ….
I don’t comment much, but i go through your site almost every day and I repost some of your material on my site, Straight Line Logic (with proper attribution and links, of course). I know I’ve steered readers to your site, adding to your impressive readership. You might consider returning the favor, perhaps starting with “How to Defeat Your Government.”
Robert Gore
Send me any articles you want posted. My email is [email protected].
My opinion on these sites: They all have a slant, and there’s only so much to discuss.
For instance, we all know that the market is going to crash, that the employment stats are a big lie, the retail is going down the tubes, and the Federal Reserve is going to ……
It’s enjoyable to read some snappy, outrageous, responses, but after a while it’s overload, and you just ‘blow by’ the latest post about when the world is going to go to hell.
That’s why I think people drift off.
What’s good about the TBP is that there are articles on a wide number to topics, the participants have wit and intelligence, and you can say what you want!
I’ve never been a regular poster. But, I’ve been a long time reader. Probably since back to 2008 or 2009. I still think Jim’s site is the best site out there, in terms of being the best news aggregator there is. I’ve found several bloggers who I look forward to every week.
To tie on to what has already been mentioned, I can easily scan the headlines and get the gist of our current state of affairs. Shit is fucked up and bullshit. I get that. I read the articles I think are interesting. I generally try and read JC Collins, Fred Reed, Kunstler, Hardscrabble Farmer, etc. But, like many here, I’m overdone with doom porn. Fuck, for all I know, TPTB can keep the whole thing running another 50 years, a reasonable lifetime for me. I’ve been reading about “kicking the can” for the last eight years. I suspect they can kick the can indefinitely if they want. The Collapse may never come. So I scan headlines. I read stories & articles that seem interesting to me, and I skip the rest. Like Mark Dice. I skip the Mark Dice videos.
Recently, Stucky responded to someone about his commenting slowing down. I also echo what Stucky wrote there. I think there’s a high amount of fuckery and douchebaggery in the comments. It’s Jim’s site, and First Amendment rich and all that. I get it and think that’s cool. But I don’t have to read the shit that I think is shit. I always read Admin’s comments, Stucky, llpoh, HSF, DC Sunsets, Billy, and a few others. But to cite the specific example that Stucky used: Running a thread up to some benchmark of 200 comments or 300 or whatever seems a little, I don’t know…..A waste of time, maybe?
I guess I’m at a point where I’m burned out on the doom and sped to focus more if my time on learning things, working on my yard, podcasts, etc.
Just my two centavos,
Timoteo
PS – I, for one, always read Billah’s Wife. I think that shit is hilarious!
ZH has sold out. And their posts, while active, are usually filled with ridiculous comments, green/rookie posters, or packs of wolves waiting to pounce on every single thing they may not agree with.
Your articles are screened much better and generally more intelligent, as are most of the people who do leave comments. I visit the site every day and select the articles that I may not already know or may have something to consider that I have not yet thought about. Most times I don’t read comments.
As Dutchman said, much it feels like overload these days. Been there, done that. I’m way beyond the looking glass. I’m waiting for the day to retire and live a more Hardscrabble life. Hope we don’t implode before I can get there.
I miss TITS MCGEE…………..come back TITS.
On a serious note- I hope Zara comes back some day.
Zara, I know you are there I can hear you breathing, come back lad.
@ Dutchman
“What’s good about the TBP is that there are articles on a wide number to topics, the participants have wit and intelligence, and you can say what you want!”
I am new to comment, but have been reading for some time. 2nd site I go to.
Addicting…yes.
I think many of those who comment are awaiting what we know is coming. 4th Turning Crisis. Coming soon to a theater near you.
TBP is one of my top 3 daily reads although I don’t comment much. TBP commenters are among the best there is. TBP commenting quality is far superior to ZH quantity.
My contributions have dropped down to nothing…I consume your content and then rarely have the time to add anything.
1) Why did you leave? – Work has gotten crazy. My boss went off the deep end and rather than get fired the CEO has rallied behind him, but has pushed off 90% of the guy’s work load onto other people. It sucks.
2) Would you consider coming back? – I never really left, but my time has dwindled to rare, and is ending soon I think.
3) What replaced TBP (or, what are you doing now?) – You guys really raised my abilities in online rhetoric, for that I thank you.
I’ve started taking part in my community. The few Millennials who are in a position to start being politically active are starting to become….vocal.
My wife and I have joined local groups, began going to events, and started “converting” people to the side of the sane.
We are the only ones out of these idiot kids who didn’t have mommy and daddy hand us everything. They partied it up and had fun all throughout college, many of them popped out a couple accidental kids along the way. Its amazing what the nuclear unit does for family stability.
They don’t seem to know what to make of us, but since they aren’t used to push back on things then fall into line pretty readily.
its the fucking boomers that I get the most pushback from. They vote straight ticket Republican, and think that Social Security is a god given right. They also think I’m arrogant, and since I’m younger than them I should be dismissed.
I have an easier time convincing Sanders supporters I’m right than I do Cruz supporters.
I don’t know why I bother trying, our nation is completely screwed. Everybody wants to be in control of each others lives, nobody wants responsibility for their own. What a bunch of bullshit.
I haven’t left – just don’t have much to add to the conversation – if I ever did – LOL!
The “Truman show” and all it’s zombie inhabitants appear more obvious with each day and in an effort to combat that insanity I’m attempting to be more productive by spending more time creating – watercolors, slip-covers, gardening – doing real activities with real objects so that my life has a less surreal quality.
Also – I can get a bit over-whelmed with the number of posts – by the time I come back to see “who said what” about a particular post I found interesting there can easily be an additional 5-10 posts on top of the one I was following.
And I found the “comment count contests” to be tiresome.
I feel like I am running out of commentary because I would be saying the same things over and over. I have been informed for years that a great financial catastrophe looms, but it never seems to get here. Five years ago I was warning people to get out of the markets, etc. What do I say to them now, when they didn’t believe me then? I don’t want to waste time arguing with those whose reality is framed by what the MSM spews out to them. Today the market is tumbling; ho hum they will jack it up tomorrow.
TBP is the refuge to confer with kindred souls. I love the good discussions and the reasoned arguing. I get bored with extended superficial commentary characterized by witticisms cast between posters. Intelligent pointed humor is great, and I too never pass over anything by the mysterious Billah’s Wife. I so appreciate those of you who write your own articles as well as Stucky’s photo essays. One of the things I admire most about Jim is his generosity in sharing the Platform with us lesser mortals. I currently have two articles germinating: one is about Sabbath Economics and one is on Moral Intelligence. The challenge is disciplining myself to finish my research and get the damn things written. Now that I have mentioned them, perhaps I will be more motivated.
I have also noticed that several longtime regulars are rarely heard from. Where is TE? Olga? Eddie? Dunno. I wish TBP could generate more faithful readers and posters with diverse views.
Well hi Olga!
The only solution to runaway Democracy is to reform ( i.e limit) the vote by legislating FSA, non citizens , those under 35 , and government employees get no vote. . It’s a pretty simple solution really, but totally impossible due to the gutless nature of the corporate pwnd political class.
“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the people discover they can vote themselves largess out of the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the canidate promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that democracy always collapses over a loose fiscal policy–to be followed by a dictatorship.”
― Alexander Fraser Tytler
I return once in a while (~1/wk to 1/mo) but I’m trying to reduce my Net habit.
1. I don’t have the answers to the predicaments of our times.
2. No one has the answers.
3. The river cares not what I, the ant who rides the leaf in the stream, desire. The river does not alter its course. The future is pretty much already set in stone due to conditions of the present and past.
Therefore
A. I keep yelling the same refrain (h/t to Gayle).
B. No one honestly cares what I rant about, unless they agree with me, in which case the comment section simply turns into an echo chamber.
C. The Net now primarily serves to reinforce our preexisting biases. (I have several.)
D. This reinforcement tends to cause me to over-indulge my Fear Factor.
I wrote my final word on the Market/Financial/Monetary catastrophe all the way back in 2009
Nothing has changed, except that I’ve been BITCH-SLAPPED by reality yet again. We got a reprieve these last 6 years during which the height from which the dive begins was simply raised. My kids moved fully into adulthood (bought houses, got married, started having kids.)
Nothing. Has. Changed. Otherwise.
So the less I comment, the better off (and more productive) I am. Hell, I published an 86,000 word novel so arrogant was I (close to two decades ago) that I could impact the larger picture.
What a fool I was. What a fool I’ve been. No doubt, what a fool I’ll remain.
I didn’t leave but I did scale back on my activities on TBP and I mostly skim the articles now. There’s only so much gloom and doom I can handle. All that is left on this economic travesty is for it to fucking collapse already. This has been a long depression.
Hello there Gayle – thanks for the “shout-out”!
I too find the minds here exceptional – I may not always agree but the opportunity to learn – and be amused – is ever present.
Olga- Good for you, have a real life doing things that make you happy……but if a 9/11 thread should ever get heated up, promise to jump it with some comments. You are missed.
PS: As a kind of rant (at myself) combined with a boast, followed by self-recrimination, I got side-barred last week into looking up what my ACT, SAT, LSAT, MCAT and GRE (yeah, I took a lot of standardized tests) indicated about my intelligence.
I discovered I have an IQ between 140 and 146, give or take.
That means a few things:
1. Reasonably smart people still do lots of stupid things. I have a list of mine.
2. There are approximately 2,000,000 people in the USA smarter than me. They must all be laughing their asses off at my folly.
3. No matter what you do, your intelligence, your aptitudes and abilities will always seem to fall short of your desires, wishes and dreams.
It is maddening.
The more I learn, the less I know. Staying on Happiness Plateau (much less finding the path to get to it) is a full time job.
@Stephanie,
One of my sons works for a Major Industrial Firm (unnamed, but you see their products whenever you’re out and about.)
They just reported a year-over-year decline in revenue (I think, or sales maybe?), the fourth year of declines in a row.
During the Great Depression they only reported declining revenue 3 years in a row.
This is very definitely already the longest economic depression in US history. I doubt it’s anywhere near being completed, either.
@Calamity – 2016 will be a grand year for doom and gloomers, you can count on it.
Here are some folks I really miss. You folks out there?
Colma
Punk
Eugend66
Howard
Newsjunkie
TE needs to post more, and Hope, and Pirate Jo
Smokey RIP
AWD RIP
Davos
SAH
Tampa Gold
And many more. Come out come out. Alli alli auction free!
I’m here all the time…but I rarely comment anymore. I can only echo the sentiments of other:
1) Noting new to say
2) Most people here already agree on the general, so we are left to squabble endlessly about silly and generally unknowable specifics
3) Waiting for doom has become a bit boring
Also, whatever happened to Montefrio?
While I’m on meaningless specifics:
DOW ate shit again today…but predictably, the PPT is trying to ramp up to a close over 16k. ~91 points to go and 42 minutes left…will they make it?
Doesn’t matter in the long run of course, but this type of game is what we are relegated to.
Great site, the second site I visit everyday (after ZH, but the adverts there are getting too much lately so am scaling back).
Like others, am bored of the doom porn which although I agree with, it never actually happens, but really enjoy the articles relating to social and moral decline – particularly those that related to personal experience or observations.
I tend to think about these things a great deal as I look around the train and city. Yes, I’m one of those people spending hours in a metal tube everyday.
Also good for me as I write letters to my daughters in case I die, so they have a voice and guidance. I find myself writing to them more on their decision making, thought processes, outlook on life and dangers of following all the other idiots in the world.
And they’ve done it folks…what a stunning example of market manipulation. Consider this can kicked for at least one more day.
DRUD- Right now the Dow is at 16,073 so somebody must have turned on the HFT bots. Life is good, don’t be so glum.
I never really left, i read the posts and comments fairly often but don’t contribute much outside of an occasional video or repost and existing article. I used to gain something from it but found i was jsut perpetually arguing with people with no positive result during or afterwards.
basically you don’t change people, especially adults, only thing i can change is myself and how i will act and react. so i am training my mind and body to be able to take on the issues that will arise during the hard times ahead.
i occasionally write but it is articles for my buddies training/weight lifting site. less doom, more creating positive changes on a smaller and impactful level.
plus i have a young son so how can i have fun with him while molding him into a young man that can find something positive in all this bullshit and live through the upcoming hard times.
i’m getting more involved in local clubs and finding more people that are like-minded.
DRUD, no PPT necessary. The technicals were screaming for a rally by 1:30 PM central. So one materialized.
What no one seems to be noticing is that AMZN and NFLX are both down 30-35% in two months. That’s Big Stuff, my friend.
Once again, the PPT is no more than all the king’s horses and all the king’s men; when Humpty Dumpty does in fact fall, the will not put him back together again.
To me, this is just the usual drip-drip-drip of a bear market.
Blue Chips topped in Jan. 2007 but went down a bit, then sideways for almost 20 months before the real damage was done (during the last two weeks of Sept and first week of Oct in 2008.)
Bear markets are made of screaming dives interspersed with long periods of “see, no need to sell out, the worst is over” bullshit.
It’s the screaming rapids we remember, not the long periods where the river is calm.
1. Stocks are a sideshow. The real wealth destruction that comes our way will arrive in bonds.
2. My conjecture is that we won’t see a real “holy crap” crash for weeks if not months. Mr. Market has to work his way up to that.
3. I still think the real fireworks are months away.
4. I still think that even when the SPX is down to the 2009 lows it won’t be the end of the bear.
I think stocks in the USA, Canada and Europe have to collapse back to levels not seen since before 1987. Everything since 1980 is simply due to credit inflation, most of which flowed into the bond market, not stocks.
When bonds truly get destroyed, more wealth than can be imagined with disappear. Vast political promises will prove utterly empty.
I see no way for stocks to avoid a 95% collapse if overall wealth, mostly floating in bonds and other forms of IOU, collapses as far as seems likely.
“It’s the screaming rapids we remember, not the long periods where the river is calm.”
Very well said. I have no idea how to read or even find the “technicals.” What I do notice is that every major down day is ended with a ramp-up (usually a steep one) in the last hour–especially when a psychologically important number (16K DOW, 1900 s&p ETC) is at stake.
We are all sure there is a stock market massacre somewhere in the fairly near future.
Long popcorn!
DRUD @ 3:14 PM asks: “Also, whatever happened to Montefrio?”
Montefrio flounced on the “Are You a Entrepreneur” Question of the Day back in early December after he felt Dutchman insulted Stephanie. Never seen him since.
Absolutely DC. The bond market is much larger and when interest rates rise, game over. The dollar is destroyed and, as you have stated prior, it will be the end of “American Exceptionalism”. (As we once knew it and how some may still perceive it now, that is)
A hearty shout-out to long lost friends (in alphabetical order). Sorry if I missed someone!
AKAnon
Archie
Bluestem
Boston Bob
Buckhed
Colma Rising
Crazyivan
Cynical30
Daniel
Dave
Davos
DaveL
Dilligaf
Econman
Efarmer
Ecliptix543
Eugend66
Gaffer
Gemini
GilbertS
Golden Oxen
Goldorack
Hagar
Jeebus
Howard in nyc
John Angelo
Jmarz
Maddies Mom
Mary Malone
Marissa
Matt
MethodMan
Ncognito
Newjunkie
Novista
Peaceout
Plato_Plubius
Punk In Druplic
Ragman
Robmu1
Roy
SAH
Skinbag
Spinolator
Sonic
Ssgconway
Steve Hogan
Subzero
Surly1
TaxSlave
Thinker
Tampa Gold
Welshman
Whippet
Winston
Wyoming Mike
Zara
ZombieDawg
Billah’s Wife is getting WAAAAAAYYY to much love here!!
Just sayin’
No offense Stucky, but I too like BW’s comments! Sorry! I also wish that some of your aforementioned would come back. But some are still here, including you (thank God) and I will take what I can get..
Also, regarding my earlier comments above – when it comes to understanding the intricate mechanics of economics, I will freely admit I am a mental midget compared to Admin, Robert Gore (above), DC Sunsets, llpoh, etc. But one does not need to have a PhD to understand the broad ramifications of it all thanks to the writings of the above as well as other truth-tellers. Thank you.
On another note, some may not like commenters here responding to other commenters on the various threads, but I believe it is these conversations that make TBP special even when not “on point” and seemingly frivolous.
Just my opinion….
Have not gone anywhere, just staying off the ridge line, watching, reading, listening…waiting, and loaded.
Stuck – great list.
But Goldorack? Really? If I never hear from that douche again it will be too soon.
Unplugged
No offense taken. BW’s commentary does add a certain bizarre flavor to TBP. Truth be told … once in a while I even laugh at them.
Same with Goldorack. heh heh
Wyoming Mike is the same Mike In PA that posts the QOTD.
I’d love to hear an update from Mary Malone. She’s going to be ass deep in mortgage matters for decades!
Colma became too good for us.
Zombie Dawg just posted the other day.
SAH joined the He-Woman man haters club after her man was found to be fishing other waters.
BostonBob posts almost daily I think.
Who was the guy who worked as a crop duster?
We had another guy that worked as a truck driver besides the resident idiot too but he has not posted in some time.
Thanks for the updates I_S.
Haven’t been reading every day so I missed Zombie’s post.
Big brain fart on BostonBob!!! There was another (something)Bob I was thinking of …. or was it Bob(something)? lol Hard to keep track.
“SAH joined the He-Woman man haters club ” ——— funny shit right there. I’m probably near the top of her list. Man, oh man, she fucken’ HATED me. The feeling was somewhat mutual.
Hey you Meatheads , you are lazy goonies. To lazy to write a 15 second comment .I do it everyday especially when I got nothing to say. This could be forgiven if any of you worked like me .Somebody has to pay taxes to feed those bastard babies.
Don’t you worry Stucky . I am NEVER leaving you !
Tim , I am glad you took my advice about wearing the pants in your house. I see you’re improving. Good job.
Fourth Turning Fatigue
Oh yeah, Howard in NYC went away when so many comments became Dindu this and Nigger that. I liked Howard.
Archie and Thinker are still posting.
Jeebus has left the building.
Indentured servant , are you trying to insult me ?
To all ,this place claims me down after a full day of traffic , dealing with customers or people at the terminals. I come here to relax , Read some good articles and have some fun.I have to be spot on serious about my work and sometimes it wears me out. I enjoy reading the comment section most of all.Some very wise ,smart , funny people on this site. I’ll keep coming around as long as admin lets me.Cheers.
I/S
I’m sure John Angelo, Buckhed and Ragman posted within the last week.
I haven’t been posting much. Winter blahs kind of have a hold on me. I did have plans on writing more but there always is something on the books. Just got back from roadtrip to Montreal for hockey games and Super Bowl. 50 years old but acted like a 18 year old. Good times to counter the doom.
TBP is one of just a handful of websites that I feel compelled to return to daily. Also it’s the only website I have ever contributed to financially in the form of donations and Amazon purchases. I try to comment intelligently or just go with the mood of other posters when in agreement (or disagreement).
Sometimes I just post for fun…(this one’s for you, Bea).
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