Guest Post by Jim Kunstler
Around the same time that most Americans set their clocks ahead this weekend, something more momentous shoved the world into an epic phase-change, and the modern era, with all its mighty baggage, was finally swept away, along with that single lost hour of darkness. We’re in a new world, and one night later, out on the freeway of history, the engine of the global economy threw a rod. The chauffeur is still standing alongside the stricken vehicle in the breakdown lane, scratching his head while sour-smelling smoke wafts up from the hood.
You’d think that truly earthshaking events like that might change the so-called narrative, but The New York Times was at it again this morning with this front-page op-ed purporting to explain all the sorrows of our times:
That’s how out-of-it the narrators are, even while a thuggish reality whapped them repeatedly upside the head with a two-by-four for weeks leading up to this. No, Dean Baquet (NYT ed-in-chief), transphobia does not explain the quandaries of our time, any more than sorcery or the wickedness of black cats explained the plagues of the 1300s that put a chapter of the human story to rest and started a new one. That elaborate machine of globalism just never figured on a situation when so many people in all corners of the world would have to hunker down in place to wait out one of Gaia’s super-weapons — though it is still not known if corona virus was actually created by Gaia’s wards, Homo sapiens, themselves, who are suddenly feeling the blowback.
Lots of things are blowing back on us now, especially from the patches, tweaks, and work-arounds we applied to the shuddering system while the “check engine” light was flashing the past twelve years. After the awesome skid of 2008, you’d think the world’s money managers might have learned something about the hazards of stepping on the gas when those lights were flashing. Sadly, the tens of thousands of PhD economists in the back seat couldn’t think of anything else to do. And history will regard them as no better than the hooded priests of the 1300s who swung their smoking censers in the dark streets while the stricken town folk bundled their dead.
The new disposition of things is upon us, and the sooner we get with the program, the better. Welcome to The Long Emergency and its aftermath, a world made by hand. Expect that a lot of things crashing, grinding to a halt, and falling to pieces will not get patched back together and restarted. When the dust settles from all that, we’ll discover one of the primary conditions of the new era: we’re poorer — a lot of what we took to be money, or things that represented money, were figments. “Money” itself, as manifested in currencies, may become a slippery concept, with low credibility. If that’s the case, people ought to ask themselves: how can I be useful or helpful to the others around me in a way that will raise my own social capital and accumulate, at least, the good will of these other people, and perhaps some of their help or service in return for mine? That is the beginning of building a local community — people bound together by mutual obligations, responsibilities, duties, and rewards.
We’re lucky for one thing: this crisis of advanced civilization is striking at the very start of the planting season. If you’re prudent, you can begin at once to organize serious gardening efforts, if you live in a part of the country where that is possible. I’d go heavy on the potatoes, cabbages, winter squashes, and beans, because they’re all keepers over winter. Baby chicks sell at the local ag stores for a few bucks each now and you’ll be very grateful for the eggs. Get a rooster — even though they can be a pain-in-the-ass — and you won’t have to buy any more chicks.
If you live in a part of the country where the terrain is rugged and well-watered — as I do — start scoping out local hydro sites that might potentially generate electricity or drive machinery directly from water power. We will probably need more of that. Around here many of those sites are signified by the ruins of decommissioned factories and hydro-stations from not much more than a century ago. They were originally built with a lot less machine power than we would use today, and a lot more power of men working in groups. We’ve forgotten how effective men can be working together with pretty simple tools. We were too busy devaluing men in recent decades for the sake of a moral crusade to erase “gender” differences. Well, that will be bygone so fast your head will spin.
The big cities won’t do well if supply chains stay down for a month or longer. This ought to be self-evident. If you have friends or relatives in places where food can be grown, or in the small towns favorably located near productive land and running water, maybe this is a good time to start negotiating some new arrangements and making a move, if you can. Nobody knows yet just how deeply the effects of corona virus will cut through daily life in the weeks ahead. The potential for disorder isn’t tiny, looking at the current situation, at least in terms of broken business relationships and the flow of vital goods. We’ve apparently entered the hunkering-in-place stage of the crisis. Be prepared for plenty of action when the hunkering ends and the hungering begins.
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“…maybe this is a good time to start negotiating some new arrangements and making a move, if you can.” Too late for that. I am prepared for what is coming and I don’t need an SUV or large screen or anything else from someone who failed to prepare.
Kunstler is channelling HSF.
They read comments here.
Lots of people do. Am in briefly from scooping poop and getting the cute bunnies all tucked in for the next round of storms.
Do you want to know an interesting but unknown bit of Missouri trivia? Well, you know I will tell you anyway, so here goes.
My husband’s VA doctor told him the longest period of time the Southeast Region of Missouri went without rain in recorded history was 30 days during the Dust Bowl.
They had to drain that swamp and build that enormous Diversion Channel for a reason. It rains a lot here and it also floods a lot here.
Let me be the first to say it… The levee I was filming all last year with the Coonskin Chronicles? This year, I’ll be filming again and I’m putting my money on it going this year. It just feels like it is time.
Oh, about the reading comments here?
People in places are interested in commentary here and they read it, mirror it to other forums and sites and rarely comment but when they do, it is in coded messages like Paula and I use.
And, do you know when we developed the skillset? At work when they first put Instant Messaging on the computers at Boeing. She gave me a lot of access to other people’s hard drives so I could archive the correct copy of our published books. We had idiot “writers” who were subject matter experts and had never written more than a letter.
And, because they all had PhDs in their specific area of knowledge, they thought editors have no right changing “is” to “are” or “lovely” to “pretty” much less trying to fix their obvious naivete about using Word Processing in a standard way. I had to have access to their computers because some of the stubborn asses would save their own copy and after the editing staff had formatted it and it got approved for delivery to the USAF? The arrogant writer would try to make sure “HIS” version got published.
And. because some arrogant corrupt ex-full-bird colonel finagled helped the company win the contract bid by having a nice golf game with his old cronies in the Wing Command and Control, I had to figure out how to get those bootleg copies of technical training books deleted from corporate memory. So, a System Administrator named Paula who had a crush on my husband’s co-worker and because she was flirting with him, she broke some rules for me. Is how it works in the real world.
She dated Bill for a while before she broke his heart and moved to Tulsa.
So, yes. Photographs are not always photos or snapshots. Sometimes they are very carefully constructed messages.
I’ve learned to keep my blabbermouth shut on certain threads and topics. Now, remember that no one here is affiliated with any federal agencies and we are all just speculating based upon our own background experience and knowledge, but certain people here give me heebie geebies, but that’s just because I’m a hillbilly bunny farmer from flyover country and am superstitious, perhaps.
Sometimes, morons are morans and sometimes they are smart people who have learned to talk over your dumbass heads.
How’s that for dropping a turd?
Is that Perfessor Mandlebratwerst around for a contribution to Twofer Tuesday’s offering on Wednesday?
By the way… you inspire me to be a better mangler of musical icons.
Nobody Mangles it Better,
Makes me glad for the rest
Nobody strangles words half as good as her
Red Rope Blabs it Best
[I wasn’t looking but somehow you found me
I tried to hide from your love light]
Like with Road Guard and Stucky, the Red Rope who loved me
is blabbing all my secrets on TBP tonight.
You do the rest … it will be hilarious. It isn’t a twofer though… it is for my personal collection for when I release Coonskin Chronicles. I will play it on piano. No singing.
Carly Simon Lyrics
“Nobody Does It Better”
(from “The Spy Who Loved Me” soundtrack)
Nobody does it better
Makes me feel sad for the rest
Nobody does it half as good as you
Baby, you’re the best
I wasn’t looking but somehow you found me
I tried to hide from your love light
But like Heaven above me
The spy who loved me
Is keeping all my secrets safe tonight
And nobody does it better
Though sometimes I wish someone could
Nobody does it quite the way you do
Why’d you have to be so good?
The way that you hold me
Whenever you hold me
There’s some kind of magic inside you
That keeps me from running
But just keep it coming
How’d you learn to do the things you do?
And nobody does it better
Makes me feel sad for the rest
Nobody does it half as good as you
Baby, baby, darlin’, you’re the best
Baby, you’re the best
Darlin’, you’re the best
Baby, you’re the best
Baby, you’re the best
Baby, you’re the best
Baby, you’re the best
Better version.
Boeing is the biggest POS company in the world. Sacrificed lives for profit. Should be shut down and the people responsible for the MAX should be executed. After all, that’s what they did to over 300 crew and pax that were killed in airplanes that they knew were death traps.
Hey, I filed a grievance against them and got suspended as a union rep. I hate Boeing.
Can you play Adele’s “Someone Like You”?
Asking for a friend 🙂
yes… is the type of accompaniment I prefer actually.
I think after all the shovelling of shit I’ve done today, I deserve a day learning a new piano piece. It looks awesome and fun to learn.
https://sheetmusic-free.com/download/7175/
The elaborate machine of Globalism just never figured etc.. Sure they did.
Good books, if you haven’t read them.
Excellent advice so long as we retain property rights as citizens of whatever we call this new/old place.
Transphobia?
Vomit.
Fake.
http://mileswmathis.com/westboro.pdf
It’s impressive to see the about-face Kunstler has done over the years. Glad to see him awake.
Age will change perspectives, youth is bullet proof, old age knows better. Can’t remember who it was that stated that if someone in their youth wasn’t liberal and conservative as they aged then something was wrong with them.
As to gardening, start now and over-plant, you’d be surprised how much just doesn’t make it for whatever reason. I try to be organic but there are times when a sprinkle of Sevin dust is in order…as a last resort mind you.
Churchill said “If you’re not a liberal at 25, you have no heart. If you’re not conservative at 50, you have no brain”
It is amazing the differences in perception watching 12 Angry Men (made in 1957) as a 7 year old and then as a 70 year old.
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2007/03/12_angry_men_turns_50.html
Good thing I had an astute Grandfather and Father to counter and block the liberal propaganda.
My passion for so dishonest a film is a testament to the great acting, directing, editing, and dialogue throughout. It may be akin to having undying feelings for a love interest who has conspicuously done you wrong. You know you should break it off, but something keeps piquing your interest.
“Sixty three years after it first appeared, this film is worth coming back to, if you recognize its major faults.”
Mygirl…I have found a little, tiny sprinkle of Sevin dust in the hole with squash and zucchini will sky rocket its survival rate from the roots up.
I also use it as a 360 sprinkle out from the plant to deter attacks.
Toilet paper rolls over young tender plants will be castle walls to many crawling gnawing insects.
Every time I finish a roll it’s another victory for self-defense!
Mark:
Sevin is mild compared to some other pesticides and it washes off easier too. It’s the only pesticide I keep on hand. Those big green horned caterpillars, the ones that can eat a tomato plant down to a nubbin? Those grow into Pharoh/Sphinx moths so I gently pick them off and put them over the fence onto the pasture. I let some weeds grow in certain areas, just for the native wildlife. I love dandelions and purple thistle. Both are edible and useful.
https://texasbutterflyranch.com/2012/06/21/loathed-by-gardeners-tomato-hornworms-morph-into-Mrkmagnificent-sphinx-moths/
Then I will stop feeding them to my chickens. Sphinx moths are a regal beastie.
you made me laugh because in the Family of Families we learned to save space, we could remove the toilet paper roll and vacuum seal the TP, but SAVE THE ROLL. And, for a while, I saved the rolls and finally Nick said you gotta draw a line somewhere.
The theme was to make people realize some of those things they just toss in the garbage are actually quite useful for something else.
By the way, Mark? Biologist on a Bike is still teaching and his lecture on the hippocampus and sharp wave ripples and how the brain stores data in memory is just fascinating too. And he ties it to the virus, as you must realize all of this is tied together.
This one is strictly direct at his class/audience who are not assholes at TBP. I’m thrilled for him and feel like the feedback here has added a lot to his presentation.
Don’t tell Carbon Dioxide lover I posted this for you to peruse or not… I listen to him because, remember, I have a brain situation to think about, so I’m interested.
My son said “yes, this is how I see the world” so I’m onto something. He’s a Millennial and he is working for Cerner Medical in KC. A software engineer who helped on the ebenefits page tying all federal medical databases together.
Isn’t that interesting?
Mark? Would you remind people that everyone is Forest Gump’s Sister in a way? We all were present when history occurred.
It is just that most people never pay attention while some of us are nosy from the word “go.”
You, sir, are an officer and a gentleman in my book, like other marcs around the joint. I like to just listen to the talk about memory traces and the firing order of neurons while I’m looking at Pittsburg. This one is just 17 minutes reviewing papers assigned to his class.
And, he actually ties the 11 papers he reviews and assigns to the virus, but I just like him. He’s the missing link between me and my son. A GenX college research professor of neuroscience and biologist. You know I have hydrocephalus, right?
Synchronicity and harmonic frequency. The music behind the madness.
And CO2? Why don’t you ask the biologist about H2O2 aka heavy water. Ask him if the Germans had succeeded with heavy water before the U.S. succeeded with Uranium, if the V2 would have dropped the bomb here.
Science plays a role in the politics of the world.
And there is a reason why the U.S. brought all those scientists from Germany to the U.S. and just put them into government positions of research. They were onto something.
Stucky? Could you tell us about Werner von Braun, whom you MET? The original Rocket Man… designed the V2. And a few years later, the Saturn.
Leave it right there.
I’ve found DE works just as good without the pesticide.
Will have to try that; every EVERY EvErY eVeRy year my squashes/zucchinis get squished by borers/stink bugs/beagles/east wind/west wind/north wind/thundernados/gophers/unnamed death.
Ok, granted, thundernados are probably BEYOND the mission statement of all sevindusts.
Not sure how awake. Just smart enough to know the jig was up.
The Pale Horse is not alone. The 80% actually have more to do than elect a Bolshevik or a Senile Socialist Retard; but they haven’t got a clue and even when they do, they haven’t got the pluck.
What a bunch of hooey. Who got to JK, and what did they threaten him with? And whay does he think his regular readers are not going to see right through the bs he has (recently, it seems to me) been pitching?
Yes, the scam money system is shedding it’s skin, morphing from larva to adult. The emerging adult will not last long. The people who think that the adult scam is any more durable than the larva will be screwed.
There is no big war going on, and none of the big players want one. We have plenty of capacity to produce all the food and hand sanitizer needed, it is only a matter of what to pay for it with. It will work out, it always does. Willing sellers and willing buyers always find a way. That a lot of people have been making a living selling fairy dust is just going to be a damn shame for them.. Sorry about that, Goldman traders!
No, the world is not ending. We are just going to take out the trash. Unless you ARE the trash, it is no big deal.
Huh.
Who could have seen this coming?
“no one” said the belligerent pig, plowing his nose deeply into the public trough and eating until he could hold no more.
“no one” said the goat, butting his head against the wall, destroying the shelter built for him.
“no one” said the cow who continued to chew her cud to digest her corn and grain supplement enhanced diet while a milking machine drained her milk each day, production enhanced by hormones and antibiotics and her feces washed away by hoses and plumbing, her hooves cleaned for her and never touching the cool grasses of pasture.
“Hoot,” said the owl, spreading his wings and soaring away.
“Baby chicks sell at the local ag stores for a few bucks each now and you’ll be very grateful for the eggs. Get a rooster — even though they can be a pain-in-the-ass — and you won’t have to buy any more chicks.”
Oh man this guy is hilarious.
Even Mike Bloomberg was not this stupid.
Damn little funny when your neighbor has a rooster. Damn things cock-a-doodle-doo right on cue too dang early every morning. Just an aside, but if you keep hens make sure to keep Cock Pheasants away. They will visit your hen house and fill in for the Rooster. Knew a guy who could not figure out why he had fertilized eggs continuously with no rooster anywhere in the area. One morning he sees a big Cock Pheasant parading down the ramp. Mystery solved.
Jim Kuntsler asked to show this instructional video on the ease of raising your own eggs and or chickens straight from the rooster’s mouth.
Guess most don’t realize that getting a broody hen from the big box stores is a rarity.
Amen, he has not done it or certainly would have reccomended an incubator.
Same same with the garden, good luck.
But hey, maybe this is not the big one and he will convert however many more.
Golf clapp.
I don’t raise chickens out here, my neighbor behind me did and I helped him out but between the hawks, coyotes, bobcats, snakes, raccoons, feral hogs and foxes, his chickens all met an untimely and violent fate. I don’t want to spend my days and nights protecting chickens from predators and I sure as hell don’t want those predators attracted to the house.
If I lived in a gentler place I’d have some chickens again, as to Kunstler’s advise re chickens? Please. He’s obviously never raised chickens or else he’s been really lucky. There are breeds that are broody and will hatch out chicks, those chicks tend to get nailed by something and Mama can’t protect them all unless she’s kept in a pretty tight enclosure.
There is one spectacular exception to protecting babies. Fighting cock breeds tend to have very aggressive hens and those birds can be downright vicious and fierce. Ask me how I know…..
I had a couple of what they call Easter Eggers and those birds are gorgeous but very agressive. I do love the green shelled eggs when I have kids around (Aunt Maggie really does make green eggs and ham) but the birds are more of a fighting bird, though I’ve never been to a cockfight, I would go if someone invited me to see one.
That is what Nosy Nosensteins do. And, even though it would be gruesome, I wouldn’t say boo because don’t go if you can’t handle it. I would go.
I might bet on a rooster.
Down here in Tejas, it is Mexico writ large and cock fights are the local’s entertainment. These guys ‘love’ their birds, you see the cages in the yards with the prize roosters, sometimes fifty or more. They also ‘love’ their bullfight but don’t get those in Tejas….yet. Ditto pitbulls.
I abhor blood sports and those mental deficients who participate in same. I have a rescue dog, pit/boxer cross, he’s pretty beat up, lot of scars and I’d bet he was tied up and used as a bait dog. Found him running around the area, starved and skittish. I managed to coax him to me. He’s now my shadow.
Good on ya… ?
woof
Maybe move in with Mags and Nick. I’ll be another wabbit.
My white rabbits do not get named. They are useless eaters. But, to be honest… they are adorable too… I’m going to build a bunny paradise where little fat domestic bunnies hop along inside little wire tunnels and play and graze.
And, once in a while, one comes up missing.
Damn it woman! Got beer all over the place!
A glaring omission: Living off the land without investment. How with so many people? 🙂 Yes, Petunia.
“We are grateful to the Washington Post, the New York Times, Time Magazine and other great publications whose directors have attended our meetings and respected their promises of discretion for almost 40 years……It would have been impossible for us to develop our plan for the world if we had been subjected to the lights of publicity during those years. But, the world is more sophisticated and prepared to march towards a world government. The supernational sovereignty of an intellectual elite and world bankers is surely preferable to the national auto determination practiced in past centuries.”
“Some even believe we (the Rockefeller family) are part of a secret cabal working against the best interests of the United States, characterizing my family and me as ‘internationalists’ and of conspiring with others around the world to build a more integrated global political and economic structure – one world, if you will. If that’s the charge, I stand guilty, and I am proud of it.”
David Rockefeller
Did he say ‘The New York Times” ???
annuit coeptis novus ordo seclorum <<——-==
Can you say Evil Fucker!
They certainly have your best future in their plans.
Thanks to admins constant recommendation I finally put that 6 lbs tome down. And Quigley clearly loved them, worshiping the hallowed ground they tread.
Poetic, for JHK, but nothing is as easy as he makes it sound . . . leaves out the sweat and tears of cutworms, potato blight, vine borers, downy mildew, early blight, late blight, whatever it is that stinkbugs carry that kills everything they touch, how much ‘coons love chickens and eggs, how hard it is to prep the plot before you plant, and how important it is to have good dirt (as opposed to clay) so that drainage is not a foreign concept. Foresight is more precious than common sense, near as I can tell, and, without it, you do not plant until the crisis is upon you.
No clay for me pure gravel, 15 years in and I am finally getting somewhere, with max effort I can augment our diets.
Damn, if you have to use gravel, your dirt really sucks.
Upvoted you to counteract the negative f&ck who downvoted you
I have an asshole trailing me and down voting every comment, sad that he seems to have an accomplice….but then, there are petty assholes in many places, ignore them because they are petty assholes.
Troo
I have an asshole trailing me too, and shame on me for speaking of it in mixed company.
how much ‘coons love chickens and eggs, how hard it is to prep the plot before you plant, and how important it is to have good dirt
We double fenced to keep the damn coons and possums out. I’m trying to plant the Mennonite/Amish way this year. We’ll see if it works. It is not easy to just dig holes and plant seeds. I’d forgotten how much work goes into preparing the soil and planning the runoff.
Local tree services and three years of mulch deliveries (100 yds. per year wouldn’t hurt) and many of your soil problems are solved. All of it involves time, which is of course a precious commodity these days.
Box traps baited with bacon grease and cheap pancake syrup and a box of .22 shorts are the best remedy. If you catch someones pet, no harm done. Conibears if you don’t have roaming pets. Feed them to a feeder pig.
Conibears? Is that a trash-panda under a different name?
Niebo.
Conibear is a neck trap that works in either direction.
Am with you . .. the Amish in these parts use plastic groundcover in long rows and they plant every 24 inches or so. I use roofing shingles instead of plastic and punch holes with a sledgehammer and maul. I figure if it survives the maul it deserves to live, Idgaf what it is, earthworm, cutworm, mole, snake, groundhog, grub worm, gopher (immortal f&ckers, near as I can tell . . . f^ck a honeybadger, wolverine, opussum, squirrel, blue herring, cooper hawk, red hawk, black hawk, purple hawk, phoenix hawk – damn their flames – chicken hawk, plot hound hawk, condor, dragon, dragon hawk, eagle, eagle hawk, buzzard, buzzard hawk, buick, oldsmobile hawk, ford hawk, chevy hawk, MRAP hawk, B-2 bomber hawk, Barrett Hawk, AK Hawk, AR Hawk, Remington 700 Hawk . . . gophers are the gods of garden destruction . . . and beagles too) . . . got a Great Dane to guard my shit and he is scared to death of butterflies. Anything/body/helicopter/tank that comes over that fence is dead, but he squeals like a baby seal when he sees a butterfly. Or a moth. Or a ladybug.
Damn it, MG. I just realized what a wuss my Great Dane is.
Damn it, woman.
When’s he going to write about his ” NASCAR Phobia ” ?
the best defense for your garden, is offensive plantings:
plant a tight ring of garlic seedlings around your carrot patch or other plants that get munched by mice/rabbits/etc. (garlic seeds are the flowering head you get if you forget/miss to snip off the scape as the plant matures) you can do the same thing with chives but they will overtake your garden if you don’ cut them before they flower.
I’ve never had any serious bug infestations like some of the gardeners here mention, and I don’t use any chemicals, we amend the soil with composted poop, either pig or cow, and also whatever we composted over the year. you have to maintain good soil. Adding pesticides or chemical fertilizer is not sustainable, it weakens the natural ecosystem.
I am always amazed at how people pay to have their leaves and lawn clippings bagged and removed, and then run out to the box store and buy back the exact same thing, only this time it is in a plastic bag and it is called “garden soil”. A bag of wet partially composted leaves and small sticks, mixed in with some of the sand to give it weight.