1. Stucky needs to get back here
2. The old dogs need to post more – SSS, Muck, etc. We need to get the message moving again. And some newbies need to submit articles – EC, Holly, etc.
3. Wage stagnation/decline is going to get more serious. If Trump thinks that there is going to be job growth/ GDP growth/ wage growth, he is delusional. The only way that can happen will be to take the brakes off the regs, so that small business can get going. And I do not see signs of it happening. States stifle growth as much, or moreso, than the Fed govt. Australia has the same issues – but has been buffered from things by its huge resources. It – Australia- has come to believe it is immune, and entitled. Where have I seen that before?
4. Defence, SS, Medicare costs now exceed total tax take. And the Boomers are retiring en masse. Think about that. The costs of all other government functions plus the interest bill = the deficit. It is insane. That is why I say to any poor soul who will listen that welfare states are all doomed. No nation can support a welfare stat’e, as the total welfare bill inevitably grows beyond all ability for the productive to pay for it.
5. Currently, things are moving so fast regarding IT/tech, it is impossible to know what the world will look like in as few as five years. A recent Oz study said as many as 40% of all jobs could be obsolete within 5 years. When I mention that to any poor soul who will listen, I am told “not mine – they will never be able to replace accountants/bricklayers/truck drivers”. There are going to be many surprised and destitute out there if they do not wise up. One of my children is at the cutting edge of this stuff. I understand hardly anything he says re IT and what is developing, as it is so foreign to me. But in a nutshell, he says things are happening at light speed, and the unprepared are going to be obliterated.
6. I am seeing more and more class warfare. I have business interests in the US, and in Oz. More and more there is a mentality out there that the 1% is why “I am not being successful”. The problem is, often by “the 1%”, when queried, these folks actually mean the top 10% or top 20%. Anyone making more than $100k becomes the target – they are not paying their fair share and are holding “us” back. The masses do not know who comprises the top 1%, or 10%, who pays the taxes, who provides the jobs. They simply feel that someone is to blame for their plight. And it is never themselves.
7. Read where California is going to vote on single payer healthcare. No proposal as to how it will be paid for, though. That sucking sound, if passed, will be business and jobs vacating the state.
8. Angel Merkel is mad because Trump would not do what she/the G7 wants. Wow. What arrogance. Since when did the US become a German county?
9. I wish I was there when that politician “tackled” the reporter. It should become an Olympic sport – body slamming reporters.
10. I think we should all take a moment and reflect on what TBP stands for. I am grateful that the Admin has had the vision to keep it running, and the patience of Job in controlling the monkeys all these years. It has been a monumental feat. I also want to thank TMWNN, who has saved the site many times.
11. We need more articles about The Jews.
Iska – don’t be starting no shit.
12. More posts by gold companies and ‘advisors’ with ‘Free financial advice and opinion’.
Llpoh- EC is not a newbie. SSS and Muck have been posting lately which is fantastic.
There is nothing that can be done about automation taking jobs which is why TPTB want to have UBI to keep the non-working public fed and housed. We could debate endless amounts of articles each week and nothing will change this new era from unfolding.
Merkel and the EU can suck it, same shit different day.
EDIT- Almost forgot, I don’t think Stucky wants to come back right now. He needs to spend as much time as possible with his parents while he can.
To me, EC will always be a noob. I Christened him But you are right. He needs to post articles. No free rides. Time to pay the bill with some original material. Maybe share how to use inflated garbage bags to float across the Rio, or best way to roll tortillas – anything will do!
BL – you could write something, too.
Loopster- EC and I work the night shift around here, we are too tired to write articles and I’m old.
We are garden variety commentors, FM and YoBo crank out volumes of articles , HSF adds a jewel here and there and Admin has been on a roll with great works. Why are you in such a tither?
What we NEED is the “shock jock” type of articles that only Stucky can produce, unless you want to give it a try.
Whatever a tither is, I am sure I am not in it.
What I am trying to do is encourage more people to assist the Admin in running this zoo.
And to perhaps re-emphasise its libertarian, Fourth Turning, anti-big government roots (I stole that last bit).
Libertarian, Fourth Turning, anti-big govt is what this place is about, what it was meant to be about, and the education I have received from those roots has been very valuable to me, and to others I am sure. If we can have some fun in the process, all the better. But the core of TBP has always been, in my opinion, this message. And I think we need to remember that.
The Rio Grande was 4′ deep at most. My dad used to take us to the levee on the west side of town, what they called the upper valley. They tapped the river around there to supply a small canal called the American River. It traveled some 40 miles all the way to San Elizario. You could catch small fish in that canal, probably got diverted from the Rio Grande. The canals that fed the cotton fields in the upper valley had plenty of catfish and perch. We loved to play with the greenish-gray minnows at the water’s edge of the river.
I said the river was not too deep, my dad let us splash around in the river, the soft bottom felt like muddy clay with few rocks. I cut my toe on a broken beer bottle in the mud. The southbound river turns east in downtown El Paso. I don’t know the geography of it but my uncle married a woman who lived at the shore of a dry river bed that went due south, as if the Rio Grande at one time had fed that river.
Like many spots in the US, that place is gone now, paved over for houses and people. If you want to see what the land looked like before, you practically have to visit a reservation.
Muck has been shoveling shit by the bushel basket full for the last two months. We made an abortive move to Prescott, AZ (Mom and daughter wanted to be closer together)..
Luckily, a neighbor fell in love with our home and we sold it in a week without using a realtor, saving the buyer a bundle and getting me out of paying 50% of the closing costs in the deal.
My sweet Daughter had a 20X8X8 work trailer, pulled it to Florida, we loaded up and off we went, us driving and she towing the trailer. 5 days and 2,300 miles later, we moved into a nice RV she still has (she has trouble selling things she doesn’t use anymore) down in Prescott Valley about 15 miles from anywhere. We woke up to a blinding dust storm that lasted all day. Hi there, Arizona!
Unfortunately after three weeks of living in daughter’s RV, trying to cope with horrible Spring allergy rain of pine pollen (you got allergies? Don’t go to AZ. Florida is a lot easier on you). To our surprise, finding competent medical “professionals” appears impossible. We tried three (One cardio-man and two GP’s and I’ll be damned if all of them weren’t quacks. I’m sure there are some good ones there, you just drive 20 miles to get to them if you can find them. The all acted like they were doing us a favor seeing us.
Need a loaf of bread – no sweat, it’s just 8 miles that-a-way. Need milk? Easy city, just 8 miles the other way. I would have had to drive Annette clear to Phoenix every two months for treatment because there were no physicians in Prescott trained to manage a pain-pump which she must wear for a worn out back.
We were going to build a “mom and pop” addition to daughter Kate’s cabin – at 6500 feet and in old Muck’s opinion (and I’ve build four houses myself) a completely unworkable site arrangement and 7 miles from the closest gas station, much less something worthwhile. I ended up in the ER with altitude sickness (don’t try it, you won’t like it!) and my sweet bride decided she didn’t like Arizona either (I didn’t like it from long ago visits and knew what we were going to face trying to make it work.)
So back to Florida we came – got here three weeks ago – luckily rented a house in our old neighborhood and almost immediately a home came up for sale across the street from where we used to live!
So we bought it. Daughter Kate is going to tow our possessions back sooner or later and $3500 later we will living within a rocks toss from where we lived before. We are now in the midst of overhauling the “new house”, painting, replacing appliances, getting new plumbing and a new A/C/heatpump and for the next six months I’ll be making this place shine like new.
Nice part? I’ve had 40 people welcome us back.
So forgive me, Llpoh, for not writing articles for TBP lately but that too will change.
As for Admin, if it wasn’t for that cushy job he’s got a Wharton, he should sell out the Wildwood property and move as far from Philly as he can.. Like Central Florida.
Be cool all, Muck’ Minute #38 is in the mill and will be along if I survive what I’m having to do right now..
Happy days..
Wow, Muck – that is some major upheaval right there.
But sometimes you gotta find out things first hand. Sorry about AZ, but glad it is coming good now.
Sorry to hear about your wife’s back. Maybe I can help. Maybe not. But here’s a story about back pain. I ruptured a disk in the lower back while carrying a wood stove up some stairs with another guy when I was 17 years old. That was during the summer after graduating high school. (by the way, my employer’s doctor said I had just “strained some muscles”) yeah.. right. I had constant pain. Every time I pushed the clutch on the forklift I drove, I’d feel pain swell all around my lumbar region. I went off to college that fall and wanted to get in shape, so I started jogging. That lasted about a week. All of a sudden, I was constantly having pain running down both legs. I could barely sit through a class because of the discomfort.. I had to constantly move. It finally got to a point where I literally could not bend over far enough to touch my knees while I was standing.
I went to the university hospital to see a doctor. I was sitting on the hospital bed with my legs hanging over the side and he came in, asked a few questions, and then reached down and took hold of my foot and attempted to lift my leg before I knew what he was going to do. I remember jerking backwards as a freakin’ lightning bolt emanated from my spine and shot down my legs. That DID NOT FEEL GOOD! When they took x-rays, that’s when they saw a partially fused sacrum and of course a lot of material hanging around the back side of my disk (blown out). This was 1983. Back then, back operations weren’t known for being successful and people came out of it feeling worse than when they went in. I skipped the surgery. They put me on a stretching routine where I would lay on my back and fold my leg and attempt to bring my knee up to my chest (alternating legs). Then they had me sit at the edge of my bed and attempt to lean forward to gain some movement. Another exercise was standing with my back against the wall and tightening my abdomen to attempt to flatten my back against the wall. I also got some ultrasound treatment and massage. All good and well, but it took about 4 months before I could finally sit on the edge of my bed with my legs out straight (feet on the floor) and bend enough to touch my knees (we’re talking maybe 170 degree angle between trunk and legs.. still not spectacular!)
I decided at that point that their routine just wasn’t cutting it. There were two goals to accomplish: get everything flexible, and strengthen the body for skeletal support. I started on a routine where I would get on the mats for 45 minutes and stretch. I’d sit and spread my legs and then bend over them and between them, then sweeping across them with my trunk while bending over. I’d put my legs together and bend over them keeping the back as straight as possible, even arching back somewhat to get that lower portion to stretch. I’d then fold one leg underneath and lean backwards over it.. then forward over it.. then the other leg. I’d alternate between stretching with legs out in front of me (spread and then together) and then back to a leg folded underneath me. Each time I alternated, I could get a bit more range as the muscles were relaxing. I would also stretch by doing a split (side to side) and also a split (one leg forward, one back). Of course, at first it wasn’t much of a split in either direction.
I would then work on stretching my calves by putting my heel close to the bottom of a door frame with the toes against the jamb and lean in towards the jamb. It would give an excellent stretch of the calves.. you could really feel it behind the knee too.
Then I would work stretching my trunk in all directions, twisting from side to side, leaning each way. Then my arms.. upper arm and forearm, wrists.
After about 45+ minutes, I went into the gym and worked out mostly on nautilus machines… for at least 1-1/2 hours to 2 hours. (i started out with one set of reps of each exercise, and as my muscles adapted (i.e., recovered from the pain of tearing them down) I would add a second set. In the end I was doing 3 sets of every exercise, typically 12-15 reps in each set, waiting only 30 seconds between sets.
Once my workout was done, I would go back to the mats and stretch all over again for another 45+ minutes repeating the whole routine.
After about 6 months of this, I could literally lay my head on the floor between my legs with NO pain whatsoever. I got to the point where I could do a complete front-back split and almost a side to side split. All the pain had gone. Not only was I incredibly flexible, but I was one rugged little dude. The injury wasn’t gone.. it’s just that I had stretched out my spine and muscles so much that my spinal cord wasn’t tensed stretching around the bulges.. that’s all I can think of that relieved the pain. The only time I would feel pain was when I was bending over something while trying to support my upper body, like working on a car engine. I would feel soreness and get lower back fatigue, so I would have to support my upper body while in that position.
To this day, I still have the injury and still feel it when I’ve overdone it or am leaning over while trying to work on something. But I tell you, when I do overdo it and feel pain, I get down on the floor and stretch for 45 minutes or so… after a few nights of that, the pain goes away. It’s helpful to have some music on while you’re stretching cause it detracts from the pain of stretching. I’ve been gettin into a regular routine of stretching again..especially in the evening.. not only does it make you feel better, but it helps you sleep because your muscles are all relaxed.
Take care.
My dad had horrible lower back pain when he was in his 20s. A doctor told him he’d be a cripple by 40 if he didn’t start stretching and exercising daily. My dad has done a 20 minute stretch/exercise morning and night since. He’s 87 now and starting to really slow down, but at 80 he used to go work in a mine for 3 weeks at a stretch as a hobby!
LLPOH,
I see where you are using a new avatar here along with your original on another thread.Is this going to be a new avatar identity for you or are you going to be avatar fluid,or are you just experimenting?
It is one of the rare occasions I logged in. I hate logging in. And I am stubborn. Imagine that.
What he said on point 10.
Llpoh
The government number crunchers in California went to work to determine costs for a single-payer health care plan. Oops – it would cost $400 billion, which is larger than the entire current state budget.
Yeah, I read that. But hey, no problemo for Moonbeam, their governor, right?
And if you want to collect $400 billion more from the businesses and peasants, you will get the giant sucking sound I mentioned which will result from the vacuum made by fleeing businesses and productive workers.
Last Nov, CO had an ballot proposal for something similar to what CA is proposing. It more then doubled the state budget. It was to be paid for with a 10%(?) payroll tax. It lost 70-30.
I told my friends there that if you think you noticed an increase in degenerates because reefer was legal wait until the free medical care magnet starts attracting the chronically ill.
Even the proponents admitted it would be in the red from day 1 despite an additional $25B in tax revenue. And you could kiss the booming CO economy adios too.
None of the politicians, or the people themselves, want to address the root causes of why health insurance and healthcare are so expensive. And no, health insurance and healthcare are NOT the same thing. Too many people just want free stuff, and let others pay for it.
From point 5
“Currently, things are moving so fast regarding IT/tech, it is impossible to know what the world will look like in as few as five years. A recent Oz study said as many as 40% of all jobs could be obsolete within 5 years. When I mention that to any poor soul who will listen, I am told “not mine – they will never be able to replace accountants/bricklayers/truck drivers”.”
Show the bricklayers this video if they don’t believe you.
The thing is, with this machine there is no longer a need for a mortar mixing crew, scaffolding crew, hod carriers or any other laborers to support the bricklayer.
I’ve been lurking – and occasionally commenting – for years. The quality of TBP has gone down a lot. I always try to post links to TBP articles on my website, but I find fewer and fewer links to publish.
TBP doesn’t need to be ZeroHedge, and it shouldn’t try.
Go for the articles that ZH doesn’t touch.
And please. PLEASE. Articles that demonstrate critical thought and analysis.
For those who want to do crazy…
…Sell crazy someplace else. We’re all stocked up here.
John Little- I have taken a look at your site. Too many heathens here for a preacher.
Doubt you can dictate what goes on in an open forum like this one.
I’ve been waiting for a Llpoh article about homesteading in Australia since you moved there. Or one on adapting to a new country and what it’s like to be an ex-pate. You’re retired, get to it.
I miss Stucky too.
Replacing 40% of jobs with automation is going to open up a whole new can of worms. It’s one thing to throw the bottom of the intellectual/work ethic crowd into permanent indolence on the taxpayers teat, but when you do it to the kinds of people who see their work as their identity then you are going to have to deal with whatever new diversion they replace that job with and it may not knitting and scrapbooking. Twenty million unemployed guys tinkering with IED’s in the basement is not the kind of pastime you build stable societies on. And how exactly does that computerized robotic bricklayer get to the jobsite? Has anyone every seen what mason’s tools look like after they’ve been in use for a couple of years? What happens when some mortar gets into it’s mainframe? Or if a thunderstorm pops up? Seems like you’d need a permanent crew to keep it loaded up and functioning and in good repair. I have a feeling that the “robots are going to be doing all the jobs” crowd are the same people who promote the “everyone in America should have a college degree” pap. Have you ever seen that scene in Idiocracy where the tattoo robot is trying to barcode Not Sure? If conversion to robotics isn’t the all your eggs in one basket adage writ large I don’t know what is.
Homestead article coming.
HSF- You are leaving out the fact that TPTB intend to use humans to operate bots in many different applications using third worlders for the human side. This is done in much the same way a drone operator commands the drone. High steel work on high rise buildings in NY with humans directing their every action, Mexicans with head sets and computerized gloves (in Mexico) picking oranges in Florida as they direct bots remotely.
Brickwork can be done remotely.
“And how exactly does that computerized robotic bricklayer get to the jobsite? Has anyone every seen what mason’s tools look like after they’ve been in use for a couple of years? What happens when some mortar gets into it’s mainframe? Or if a thunderstorm pops up? Seems like you’d need a permanent crew to keep it loaded up and functioning and in good repair.”
You’re missing the point. We may keep the same number of jobs, but we’re talking about replacing brickmasons, who average $49,250/year in salary, with low-skilled, minimum wage people who load bricks into a machine and hose it down. It’s quality of jobs, not quantity.
(Statistic from https://www.bls.gov/ooh/construction-and-extraction/brickmasons-blockmasons-and-stonemasons.htm#tab-5 – no idea how to embed links.)
But..but..I heard Hillary say unemployment wasn’t such a bad thing because it allowed people free time to explore their artistic side. This brilliance surely came to her after a luncheon with Nancy Pelosi and Maxine Waters.
Or maybe Pelosi said it, I can’t remember for sure; they are all imbeciles, that I am sure of.
It goes the other way, too, BTW. True story, names changed to protect the innocent. Someone I know, conscientious, hard-working, but not rocket-science-ish, who works in various warehouse type jobs, recently “upgraded” to a place that paid more – but was in the midst of operationalizing a system run by a third-party company where the workers wear computer modules with headsets. The headsets tell them which row, rack, and box to go pick up – improving throughput by avoiding looking for the right items – but there is also a “minimum acceptable work speed” that is part of the system where he would continually receive feedback read to him by a computer voice that he was not meeting the required speed, was at 80% or 70% or 90% of the “norm.” The “norm” being set by the third-party company and by the warehouse owner.
This poor guy, just exiting youth and hitting middle age, tried as hard as he could to get to 100% of the “norm” for months, but was eventually fired, since the young-buck 20-year-olds could sling 70-pound boxes faster.
People on that job would not talk to others or stop for anything since to do so would be to affect their speed percentage.
Conversion of people to robots… with such a personalized, in-your-face (well, ears) feedback loop, different from the “we need to work faster” group pep talk and team-wide objectives. Work harder and harder until your back gives out, then get tossed aside.
Inhuman. I’m glad he’s back at a lower-paying but more humane place. Until of course the third-party company sells its hardware and software to his new warehouse owner…
Mav
My sister worked for years for a major credit card company as the one you call if you have a problem with your account. Her job required being hounded, surveilled, evaluated, and timed on every call. If her stats weren’t what was expected, she was threatened with job loss. The length of the call was most important, even if the customer was clearly the one lengthening the interchange, but she had to be unfailingly polite to the customer. She put up with this for about 15 years, and gradually her skills declined a bit and she was let go, even after never missing a day of work.
And here we thought Lincoln freed the slaves.
Where the hell is Stucky anyhow? Hopefully Ms. Freud didn’t hypnoanalyze him beyond redemption?
Where are you Stuck.. You are being missed..
A fine wish list. Even though there were frosts last night the season has finally changed. The snows have gone away. Might be time to write another post about the “wildlife” . Sorry Tampa about last time! Anyways today is election day in Nova Scotia. The Socialists are on a rampage promising hell and hither, and money of course, promising to fix everything that ails.
If they get in its ovah for this place. The NDP is promising to run huge deficits. Reasoning is that interest rates are low. Same sales pitch as the furniture store. Buy now. Don’t pay until June of Next year.
It ends the same way. A fella like Dookie Pecker dropping by to repossess all the stuff folks couldnt afford in first place.
Or maybe I should write about Polar Bears. Again.
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An update on how the Bears are doing.
Not to worry RiNS, it seems the socialists are running nearly all the provinces these days. The Liberals here in Ontario might as well be called the NDP…just today they mandated a $15/hr minimum wage and compelled employers to provide anyone who’s worked there more than 5 years an extra weeks vacation. Ontario has long been bankrupt, but no one seems willing to call their loans and stop the borrowing.
The house across the street was built about a decade ago and originally sold for around $350000. Last week it went for sale asking $1.25 million and yesterday a ‘sold for over asking’ sign appeared on their lawn. I don’t know what people are doing for work that enables them to buy particle board palaces that weren’t worth their original purchase price, nevermind what they’re selling for now.
I suspect many of my neighbours finances are as bad as the provincial government. I guess if everyone is already drowning in debt, they see no issue with the government also drowning in debt. It troubles me more that few people ever seem to make the connection that government has no money except for that which it extracts by force from people working in the private sector. Not that it matters though, because here in Ontario the parasite class of public sector workers has grown to a large enough voting block that the Liberals will be able to stay in power forever.
Cue the polar bears please!
Cricket, you’re right. Canada is committing economic and social suicide. British Columbia is getting an NDP (regressive Libtard) and Green Party alliance.
B.C. shouldn’t be a surprise because it’s the granola province. Take out the fruits and nuts, and all you’re left with is flakes.
But the rest of the country? When formerly conservative Alberta elects the NDP, you know the end is in sight.
Cricket
I was left to my own devices on weekend. Wife had bugged out to spend a weekend with D-in-Law along with GrandKids at a camp in Annapolis Valley. I had graciously declined to go with excuse that work needed to be done around house. So Saturday morning. I got up and burned an old shed that was falling down on my property. Got it done although it took all day.
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I have to say one best tool purchases I have made is a reciprocating saw. Just like this one. A fella can cut up into small pieces just about anything that can then be easily disposed of in a burn barrel. So I did my bit for Carbon Cycle. By end of the day, several beers and few hot dogs cooked au naturel, I was done.
I had lots of time that day to think about the mess this Province is in and whether folks here are going to vote to jump into the abyss. I’d say odds are they’re gonna. The NDP is making no bones about running deficits. Promising to spend at least 250 million more than we have per year. Not to be outdone they are also promising a 15 dollar min wage. Pissing and moaning that we need moar investments in roads. Moar investments in Health Care.
Who is going to pay for all this. Of course we all know the answer to that. It’s a two-fer. It is deficits up the ass and a kick in the nuts when you buy a burger. For fuck sakes!
I’d say the NDP have a winning strategy. Most folks live way beyond their means. Why stop now. Maintenant tous le monde dites! Laissez bons temps roulé. So it goes as it seems hardly anyone worries about paying for stuff anymore. Folks want to go on vacation, maybe they think they really need that30,000 RV. Don’t have the money. No problem!
They were born suckers for the “do I have a deal for you”. Only drive away…No Money down, with only 20 fucken’ years to pay.
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Yep by the time they actually own the thing it ain’t worth the gas to haul it away. All these folks then will be at my door wanting to borrow my saw. I’d like to say fat chance, you ain’t gettin’ my stuff. But we all know how this story ends.
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You can count on these ten cent millionaires using the government to steal my saw. Adding insult to their indiscretions they will force me to cut it up and haul it away.
My favourite power tool is also the reciprocating saw, or wrecking saw to some. Bought one a few years back to take down a shed and it’s proved useful for many jobs since then. Lets face it, wrecking stuff is far more fun than the hard work it takes to build stuff.
Here in our greater Toronto area suburban neighbourhood, we’re surrounded by useless consumers who can’t even care for their own houses. Other than us, only one other person on our street has any tools to speak of and does their own home maintenance. Most just hire someone to complete even simple tasks like mowing the lawn, caulking the windows or repainting exterior trim.
As I’ve noted before, we’re outnumbered by takers in this province, they will keep voting for ‘free’ stuff as long as it’s offered. I used to think it would be good for the lights to out in Toronto, much like the end of Atlas Shrugs, but I know I’ll soon been surrounded by those with no food or tools or skills, and they will attempt to force me to fix their problem.
I never get tired of hearing ‘Ontario Sucks’ by the Arrogant Worms though 🙂
…although at the moment with Notley’s NDP crew in charge, I’m not sure they’re correct in their assertion that Alberta doesn’t suck…right now, none of Canada’s provinces are looking like a good place to live.
That’s a great video! Thanks man made me laugh!
They talk funny too.
NDP and Greens just agreed to a coalition after our provincial election a few weeks ago. This gives them a minority gov’t so we slightly more conservative/responsible types are now screwed on the left coast as well. Am currently drafting an exit plan for my business to coincide with the discharge of my mortgage. I am done slaving for people who believe I owe them something simply by virtue of the fact they exist. Will disappear into the hinterlands in a few years to grow potatoes, carrots, and peas and shoot deer and moose. I am minimizing my contribution to this shit show.
I believe you’re correct that withdrawing consent and minimizing your contributions is the only course forward right now. The question we’re struggling with is where to relocate to.
Off grid anywhere north of here. And not in Ontario. Apparently it sucks. 🙂
Ontario: birthplace of Rush. Avoid it like the plague.
I commented a couple of weeks ago that I missed Stucky and got thumbed down, well, sit on those thumbs and fucking spin.
As far as the shit storm coming regarding single payer, more regs, more taxes, more debt, less jobs, finger pointing, war, civil discourse, etc. Not a damn thing we can do to stop this train wreck.
Talking to the 20 and 30 somethings they blame their plight on boomers and old rich white men politicians. But their choice for president? A rich old white woman and a rich old white man. Stupid is as stupid does.
They cry and moan about student loans we talked them into, low paying jobs because we in our greed sent jobs offshore, etc etc etc.
Then try to explain how their demand for federal aid dove up the cost of college, or their demand for free health care dove up the cost of insurance, or their demand for free shit drove up the cost of everything, or their demand for higher wages and all the above to just show up and collect a paycheck is driving the small businessman out of business………..
Clueless stupidmotherfuckingidiots, and they all vote for change. I hear the train a coming, it’s coming round the bend……ChooChoo motherfuckers, crash bang boom and fuck you.
Nice to see you posting Llpoh! Reading Bill Bryson, In a Sunburned Country, it’s not as good as his Universe or Appalachian hiking book, but still very interesting.
“Talking to the 20 and 30 somethings they blame their plight on boomers and old rich white men politicians.”
And rightly so. Mistakes will be made and perhaps irrevocably so,but the path forward was obscured so long ago by the avarice driven interests of the spawn of the greatest generation of fools, that it’s the only route left open.
God help US all.
Card, never mind the down-thumbs. They are Daily Stormer types that Stucky threatened to ream once he gets back. Generic pussies.
Ha!
Yeah, I don’t give a shit about down thumbs, I just found it funny.
Articles can be submitted? I didn’t know that.
I’m working on an article on ‘Career Advice’ based on 40 years work experience that I think young people would find useful as it’s based on common sense. Most of the stuff on the internet is crap. Old farts like me could share it with youngsters.
Would an article like that be worthy of submission?
Gerold,
The beauty of TBP is the Shit Throwing Monkeys decide that for you. Submit it and they’ll let you know…
Here’s your career advice article:
1) Be presentable
2) Show up on time
3) Provide value
4) Do a little extra
5) Show initiative
6) Don’t be abusive (of policy, co-workers, company property)
7) Don’t complain
8) Come pre-programmed
9) Be made of metal
10) Never sleep
dawg- You forgot work for slave wages with no benefits.
Good ones, Rdawg. There’s a couple I missed that I’ll include.
Gerold – if admin does not respond (might not see your post) send him an email. He usually will authorize posts. Email [email protected].
Gerold
I can set you up as a contributor if you like. Send me an email at [email protected]
Loopy, I was just finishing up Uncle Billy Sherman’s memoirs and after the most uncivil war, he became commanding general of the US Army in which official capacity he successful worked hand in glove with railroad barons to build a transcontinental railroad. He thought the West in particular valuable to young men fresh from plunder and destruction of the Southern nation to have another outlet wherein to continue the great adventurers they’d come to love.Suffice to say Uncle Billy loved his mischievous boys.
The poor red asses should have gotten hint from the destruction of the Southern nation what was in store for any other peoples that dare defy US authority. Uncle Billy being a born blue blood patriot hated anyone who defied the power of the Union and the injuns paid the price. Uncle Billy declared the savages unproductive thus worthless and that was that…their fate was sealed. I bring this up to give you another American hero, besides Andrew Jackson, to hate.
BTW, On top of being accused of racism agasint the noble African slave, Uncle Billy was quite the successful banker before becoming the best general of either side during the most uncivil war. Imagine that. A racist banker who freed a plague of slaves , but murdered hordes of indians just trying to escape the cultural enrichment of the white Europeans.There’s poetic justice for an empire of idiots in there somewhere.
Memoirs of General William T. Sherman, by himself
by Sherman, William T. (William Tecumseh), 1820-1891
https://archive.org/details/memoirsofgeneral00ilsher
EXCELLENT post Flash. Sherman was the worst kind of SOB and is still hated by southerners who know and understand their history.
I always see references to “logging in”, but how does one do that? I’ve never noticed any place to log in here.
Got a promotion and my wife’s consulting business has born enough fruit that I help her by ghostwriting content and coordinating the workload.
I try to read the articles on my phone during my standing lunchbreaks.
Thank you all who keep this place running.
Well done, TPC. You are a credit to all young. Really.
Now, when your missus lets you wear big boy pants, that will be your crowning achievement. (I never forget these things! 🙂
You bad bad boy, you.
Is visitor count down?
You say the youth want to blame the 1% instead of themselves, but just before that you acknowledge that the 1% has little intention of employing anybody. I think the young people know damn well who their enemies are in this scenario.
Chubby – employment is not a right. Neither the 1%, the top ten per cent, nor anyone else has an obligation to employ anyone.
I have employed many people, and, unfortunately, still do. I do it for one purpose – to make a profit. I am not in the business of providing jobs. I am in the business of making money.
In my opinion, people should stop thinking about having to have a job. Instead they need to think about making money. A job is just one way.
Give me a lawn mower, and I will make money. And in fact can make a reasonable living with a mower, broom, and rake. Give me a pick-up, and I will soon have a business.
People do not need jobs – they need to go to work.
Blaming the 1%, or anyone else, for not wanting to hire lazy, irresponsible, poorly educated, costly, entitled workers is absurd. Who would want to do that? I do it because I want to make money. If I can make money with no workers, I have hit the mother load and have reached Nirvana.
Do not count on me. Workers need to count on themselves. Because the minute I can stop employing, believe me, I will
Nothing personal. Just business.
Exactly!
Not only do people not understand that it is not the business owners job to create jobs, when we do create a job we do so at great risk. An employee is the business owners worst asset, sometimes.
I’ve spent time and money training what I thought was a replacement for myself and the person, who at one time, came to me wanting to buy the painting company I started. For the past year we’ve been grooming him to take over.
He just told me yesterday, two weeks notice, he’s going to use the skills I took a risk on teaching him to estimate for a home renovation company. His mother in law told him he would be a fool not to take the job, I think he’s terrified of being an owner. So in effect I payed to give him the skills he needed for a new job.
Oh well, shit happens.
I didn’t say that youth shouldn’t look to themselves.. I just said that the 1% is dead-set on extracting from them rather than employing them.
See the student-loan debacle.. Tell me how many US employers will even look at resumes of people without a college degree.
All they are told is to get a STEM degree, while in the background employers lobby for H1-B visa types to come in and do those jobs for 50% less because they’ll live 12 to an apartment and work ungodly hours because they are skeered of being sent back to Pakistan.
LLPOH, what you also don’t understand is that you don’t MAKE money.. you relieve some other person of it, or you rape the earth to get it. Money is a means for *transfer* of wealth, not the creation of it. What industrial society does is not wealth creation, but rather ill-th creation, its opposite.
Well said, Chubbs. One of the myriad fundamental issues with out current society is the elevation of money from a place-holder for things of value to the thing that is valued above all others. Another fundamental issue (related but separate) is that the employee/employer relationship is fucked everywhere you look. LLPOH perfectly state the current state of mind of employer–that employees are nothing but a necessary pain in the ass to be stripped-mined for everything of value they can possibly provide. Of course, the only reason to have employees is to make money, but that doesn’t make “resources” to be exploited and then dumped–though almost every business operating in the world does just that. And yes, employees are very much in the wrong in the current system as well. Do as little as possible to avoid getting fired and when they do, go running to daddy government to coddle them. The current corporate scheme is just another example of how fucked our entire society is. Government is at the heart of the problem (just like all the other ones) but only in a sick culture is such a godawful government allowed to grow.
And BTW, I have come to loathe the phrase “It’s just business.” All manner of despicable behavior is justified by it. IMO, it’s not too far of leap from there to “I was just following orders.” We’re here for just a very short while…if I’m going to have words to live by I prefer these:
“We’re here to help each other through this thing, whatever it is.” -Kurt Vonnegut
Drud – you too are a dumbass. Employees sell me their labor. If I buy it, then choose not to, I am not strip mining a damn thing. I pay them the agrred wage. When it is no longer a benefit to me, I do not. I am not a fucking charity, you socialist asshat.
Re it is only business – it IS only business. It is a business transaction, pure and simple. My customers can stop buying from me at any time for any reason.
But you think I should keep paying employees anyway, even at a loss?
Blow me.
“Of course, the only reason to have employees is to make money”
from my post. Do you read? I agree, it’s a business transaction and in a proper market employers should pay whatever the fuck they want as a wage and be able to fire an employee for any reason at any time.
“But you think I should keep paying employees anyway, even at a loss? ”
Where the FUCK could you have possibly gleaned that from my post????????????
I was making three arguments, 1) money is NOT wealth, 2)our corporate system is fucked beyond belief and 3) there is a balance to find in the employee/employer relationship.
Anyone with the slightest clue who has ever read a single post from me would no I am about as far from a socialist as a person can be–I NEVER said there should be laws to force us to help each other. I just say helping each other is a good way to live.
Two final points: 1) I will not spend a second of my time (a infinitely more valuable resource than money) trying to convince you of my philosophy of individual balance in a free society. 2) I really don’t give the slightest fuck what you think of me.
Have a nice day! 🙂
Drud, you dumbass – I gleaned your position when you talked about expoiting them and dumping them. Silly me. I should have realized you meant something else.
It’s funny, I almost never disagree with you about anything and I don’t disagree with anything you’ve said here. I just find you to be an irascible, joyless asshole. It seeps into everything you write. Like a bank of heavy fog on an otherwise sunny day.
So, genuinely, have a nice day. 🙂
Chubby – you are a dumbass. I create things. How about you? By employing people with my money, I accelerate the flow of money. Money has a multiplier effect. Buy paying employees, they pay others, and so on. In effect, one dollar becomes many. How does that fit into your socialist views?
Profit is perhaps the more appropriate term than money. I can make profit simply by facilitating creating more goods for the same money. Money is a medium of exchange. If I take one dollar, and can usually get one widget, but by my skill can get 10 widgets made, I have profited. As has the whole of society. Everyone benefits.
Huh. MIT didn’t think I was dumb when I matriculated there.
Do you ever ask yourself whether anyone *really needs* your widgets?
Everyone does not benefit from poisoned air, water and soil.
It’s always been a less-than-zero-sum game (2nd Law of Thermodynamics). You happen to profit now, but others bear the cost. Look up the word “externalities”.
I don’t have socialist views. Socialism is where the state controls the means of production. I’m for re-localization and for people producing for themselves. I’m for disintermediation.
I used to be a small-business owner, making “things” (it was actually a business service, but things were designed by us). They were all stupid things that nobody really needed. I did well enough that I could charge $100-120/hour back in the 1990s. I walked away from it because I didn’t want to live with people phoning and faxing me from Europe to California from 7 in the morning to 8 at night, all with their absolutely-positively-has-to-be-there-on-time fuckery. You would think babies were being tortured, given the desperation in their voices, resonating from smelly plastic oatmeal cubicles, the sour tang of office coffee in the back of their throats. They worked for guys like you, LLPOH.
We ran our shop as a partnership. We were just as bad of bosses as we had been good employees (we basically fired our boss to create our enterprise).
===
Nobody benefits from work outside the home/town. Nobody benefits from sitting in traffic, putting kids in daycare, 401ks, health “insurance”, office parks, special work attire or any of that shit. Go back a couple hundred years and see what people “needed”.. hint: it probably wasn’t your widget.
Read some hardscrabble farmer.
“Jobs” are an extremely recent invention. In the past, you either belonged to the land, you belonged to your trade, or you belonged to somebody more powerful than you. I don’t plan to belong to anybody.
MIT? And you spout shit like that? Do I make things people need? You running a “service” business is not making things. I make things. You did not.
Over my career I have made exclusively things people need, unless you think whitegoods, clothes, transportation, furniture, etc., are not not needed. Even 100 years ago.
You have zero understanding. Localized, as you call it = craft lifesryle. You want to make your furniture by hand, be my guest.
The idea that it is a zero sum game is also ridiculous. Why? I take my dollar/widget, which cost $1/widget, and hire 10 people for 1/10 of it, having figured out how to make widgets cheaper. Ten widgets are made. I sell 5, at 1/10 dollar. I now have 5 widgets and 1/2 dolaar. I figure out how to make ten widgets for said half dollar, and on it goes.
The people ai hire could not afford widgets, but now they can. The price of widgets has fallen. They trade for gizmos. Etc. ad infinitum.
And the money supply need not expand at all. You simply get more widgets per unit of money. I make a profit. Others make a living.
This cannot go on forever, as resources are limited. But it is not zero sum anytime soon.
MIT? Guess you were too stupid to make it to an Ivy. Go figure.
Depends on what you mean by “need”. Do people need refrigerators and washing machines? They do not. Do they need “transportation”? Not really. Do they need furniture? You can get by with very little furniture.. The Japanese use a simple cushion instead of a Barca-lounger.
Anyway, my larger point is that these things will not be made in the future, for a number of reasons: one is that most people will not be able to afford them ( this is already happening). Another reason is that the energy will not be there to produce them or—in the case of transportation—power them. Current oil field production is declining at 5-6% per year.
For mathematical reasons (the exponential increase in population, consumption, pollution, etc.) this ride is coming to an end sooner than you think. This is not how I want things to be.. It’s not a matter of ideology.. It’s simply How Things Are.
At some point your making-of-things in what you regard as the conventional, “smart” way will come to an end, a victim of its own dubious success.
Yeah, I was dumb to pick MIT over Brown.
By the way, I admire what HSF does. But he does not live like 100 years ago. That is absurd. He lives respectful of the land. But he uses solar energy, modern communications, modern transport, etc. and benefits if need be from modern developments in medicine, etc. No one would choose a 1917 lifestyle in its entirety, save you, I guess.
Nope, no one benefits from work outside the home/town. That is the stupidest thing posted here in a long time. Well done.
You are a Luddite.
Well, in 1917 we didn’t have a lot of “widgets” like the nuclear power plants which aren’t going to be decommissioned but which will rot in situ after making LLPOH-types a nominal “profit”.
We didn’t have GMOs or nanoparticles. We didn’t have plastics choking the life out of fish and seabirds. We still had pretty clean air and water, overall. Kids could play outside and write in cursive without having their head stuck in phone “widgets.” People could make stuff and fix it themselves. I don’t think it sounds too bad.
From what I understand about the Luddites, they weren’t opposed to machinery per se.. They were opposed to Leaving their independent workshops and submitting to long fixed hours away from home, all so that a LLPOH-type could make a profit off their labor.
Disintermediate. Buy local from a direct producer where you can.
It just blows me away when Canada’s governments and private debt holdings are now over 1 Trillion dollars when there is only 12 million workers!!
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ca.html
This fiat experiment is NOT going to end well…….
LLPOH.
On # 3.&4. I don’t think you can improve on your’e comment about why it won’t be fixed, way back on the Horror III.
As for Newbies posting. I did post something besides my usual insults and Anti-Big government BS and you never Blessed Me with your wonderful profanity laced insults. My precious little feelings were SSOOO hurt.
As for EL C posting something, it will have to be about pussy because that’s all he has his mind on lately.
BTW. I respect You for your’e sincerity and willingness to fight for what you believe. 2 rare things these days. That’s why I haven’t joined the lovefest you and Yoji have going. Don’t want to fight a good man over that, so we can fight over something else if we have to.
You mention poontang one time and right away your a serial masturbator. It’s just color, flea; guy-talk. Sorry if I offended your sense and sensibilities. If your going to be soo wimpy, it’s a good thing Llpoh took it easy on you. He’s getting soft in his old age. I was a creampuff before I ran into LLPOH. He and KB and Stuck had me doubting my sanity.
Noobs have it so easy nowadays.
El C
That was a joke. I thought you were going to orgasm over Holly O’s article the way you hijacked it trying to get some O finger.
Nobody took it easy on me either. Go back and re-read it. Uncola pointed out that I was hijacking an article so I apologized and told him I wouldn’t continue doing it. Then I told LlOPH The same thing and was man enough to let him have the last word, all 3 gigabytes and never brought it up again. He was man enough to burry the hatchet later on.
Now that that’s cleared up do you want me to bring up how that all started and how you did that classless victory dance in your clogs and pink panties. As LlPOH would say, I don’t forget things.
FLEABAGGS.
Fleadick, What are you trying to say? HO’s title said it was about pussy. I kept to the topic, hardly what you might call hijacking.
Am I supposed to be impressed that you apologized to LLPOH? First of all, numbnuts, it isn’t good form to apologize to LLPOH or anybody except Admin. He’s better than everybody. The rest are scumbags. Smart scumbags.
You call my imaginary victory dance ‘classless’ yet you get downright nasty talking about fingering Holly. Hypocrite.
Perhaps LLPOH didn’t mention your apology because he was embarrassed that you waffled like a soggy tortilla. Once again, I looked forward to a Trump/Sanders prizefight and I get chumped down. LLPOH is getting fat like Raging Bull, isn’t there somebody out there who can challenge the champ?
EC – no apologies rendered to my memory. Just we reached common ground, acknowledged some good thoughts, and decided there are better fish to fry. Fleabags posts some great stuff. I do not agree with everything, but I admire and acknowledge the general substance.
Same goes for you – I am a big fan of the Coyote.
El Gayote
Your dumber than Mrs. Bundy. I said it was classless to prance and dance like that when it was you who started that whole thing so you could sit back and watch.
Does Maggies Man know you bird dog her all the time. Remember “I love a Woman with big titts”. I said O fing You said stink finger and you were all over that article.
Now for the good stuff.
How in the hell did you know how long Llpoh’s dick was before even he mentioned it. If it’s as long as he says which is likely because studies show that native americans have the longest schlongs in the world, the you must have a DIKK-OMETER installed in back of your tonsils so you can measure it on the way down while leaving your hands free to perform other pleasure enhancing functions. You should be embarrassed the way you were licking his boots that day.
You were just complaining about nobody getting your joke and then when someone makes one about you you act like I just shoved my big Irish dick up you’re Chicano ass without grease. fuck you.
You made me come back here for this sophomoric bullshit, Fleadick? LLPOH is a gentleman and you will love and respect him once you get to know him. It wasn’t ass-kissing.
I hope, for your sake, that you were drunk when you wrote this shit. I hurt your feelings, I understand. You were stewing and you got drunk. It happens. Thanks for playing.
I’m kind of worried that you know all about Native American dick. No wonder my references to pussy offended you. Hey, we’ll still like you if you come out of the closet.
I made a pun: I’m a sucker for big tits. Get it? ‘sucker?’ I made no reference to Maggie or anybody. Your the asshole that can’t quote shit straight.
You’re the asshole.
Dumbass.
EL GAYOTE.
You are the one who made me come back here. I made 1 harmless joke after you complained about nobody getting your joke and you copped an attitude and started this stupid flaming war. You’re acting like a thin skinned little prick. 1 harmless little joke and you go apeshit aand deny you always make remarks about women. fuck you.
Instead of just opening the closet and looking at your man pants, put them on and practice. You mentioned how long his penis was not me.
I just got done telling him I respect him and you tell me I don’t. Get you glasses fixed and grow up.
HEY! Leave me out of your fight, boys.
Nick knows I have a set of bodacious boobs.
This thread has done to heck. It all boiled down to boobs.
“You mention poontang one time and right away your a serial masturbator.”
Is there something wrong with being one of those guys?
If so,is there a self help group?
Tampico, You’ll have to go it alone and taper off at your own pace.
Actually, Stucky was the driver of the group, but since he’s been absent so long, someone else will need to take the stick.
I still dont get why this site doesnt have a modern set of forums, or at least a Disqus comment section. I will personally toss in a couple hundred dollars if you make it happen.
Icono – because fuck you, that is why! No offense, but that was the response I got previously, so just passing it along.
Since then, I shaddup my face on the issue!
Discus? No way.
Apparently you fail to understand that discus aggregates your comments all over the internet creating a dossier of everything you ever posted on any website with discus installed.
Thereby creating a profile of YOU, in case anyone ever wants to dig into who you are for some reason.
I won’t comment on any platform which requires a discus registration or a facebook login. This is one of the few places that uses neither.
Apparently Iconoclast, you don’t get what this website is about.
“If Trump thinks that there is going to be job growth/ GDP growth/ wage growth, he is delusional. The only way that can happen will be to take the brakes off the regs, so that small business can get going. And I do not see signs of it happening. States stifle growth as much, or more so, than the Fed govt.”
—-Llpoh
Correct. The Choctaw Indian hits another home run. His other points are well considered and supported by economic facts. Pay attention, folks.
Thanks SSSS.
Re. states and growth (in the larger sense of States)
Where do you see spending growth these days EXCEPT by States/states? If it weren’t for Obamacare propping up the ins.co.s and the hospitals and Big Pharma, and the USDA propping up Monsanto and Big Ag, and the Congress and Trump boosting revenues for defense contractors and the growing surveillance state… and forcing the constant spending on testing and re-vamped Education shit like No Child Left Behind.. who would be spending? Individual states ramp up their spending in concert.
But consumers are tapped out. As they correctly choose to cut spending, States/states step in to take up the slack and force consumption.
The oil is running out. The clean air and water and the fish and the soil are running out. The uranium is even running out. There is no reason to expect more economic growth on the horizon. Effectively negative interest rates tell the tale: we have run out of road. Diminishing returns in every real enterprise, hence the mad impulse to financialize everything.
You can’t have infinite growth on a finite planet. THAT is a fact. We are in a phase of de-growth. De-growth breaks all the stories we tell ourselves about money, and interest, and debt, and what the world “owes” us (in your case, customers, supply chains, legal and banking systems.. all the things that allow you to “make” your so-called money).
I’m not saying there won’t remain places for canny predators to scrounge a meal for a while.. but, while the rising tide floated a lot of boats, the sinking tide will find most left aground.
Medicare is a huge growth bubble. As is SS, and probably defence.
I didn’t stay at a Holiday Inn last night but I did stay, with my african princess at a resort on lake texoma last weekend. Yesterday we went to the Choctaw Casino in Denison Oklahoma and while I didn’t gamble, she won enough to pay for brunch for both of us, and then some. Thanks on behalf of your people, Llpoh.
PS. It’s still Death to Israel 🙂
PPS. Admin, In June Jethro Tull are performing there. There is plenty of parking at no charge and if you’re lucky you might win enough to pay for the admission if hit the tables. On the other hand, it couldn’t be worse than Camden. Eisenhower’s birthplace is near, but I doubt the injuns had a casino back then,