The False Society

Imagine you are the head of a grocery chain and one of your executives comes to you with a plan to boost sales of over-the-counter remedies. These are the things you buy for a sore throat or an upset stomach. His plan involves subtly infecting the customers with a mild virus. They will get sick and then come back to buy something to remedy the symptoms of the virus. The virus will be mild, but enough to cause most people some symptoms in the week after having been infected.

Unless you are a sociopath, you will think the guy is nuts. Odds are you will think it is some sort of elaborate gag. If he is serious, then you will call security to have the guy removed from the building. The reason is not just the ghoulish plan to poison people, but the fact that he could think of such a thing. You would quickly start to wonder what else this guy is capable of doing. If he is willing to poison thousands of people to boost sales, he is capable of anything.

The truth is though, companies are full of people who think like the ghoulish executive in that short example. For example, there was someone at the multinational that owns the Häagen-Dazs brand who decided to start shrinking the pint. It used to be that a pint is a pound the world around, but no more. A pint of ice cream in the United States has shrunk down to 14-ounces. The container has been subtly changed so the shrinkage is not as obvious to the consumer.

Shrinkflation has been a thing for a couple of decades now. Bottles of beer have started to shrink as well. Many are 11-ounces now. They changed the shape of the bottle to trick the consumer. This was a trick they started at ballgames. They made cups taller, but narrower, so they could call the regular sized beverage a large, when it was the same amount of fluid as the smaller size. Packaging science is now mostly about tricking the consumer into thinking less is more.

The marketplace has always been about deception. The seller is motivated to lie about his product and the consumer is motivated to lie about his interest. Since the dawn of the marketplace, authorities have promulgated rules in an effort to keep the lying to a minimum and therefore maintain a peaceful market. Those rules have fallen away in the modern age, where deception has now become a virtue. In this age, only suckers are honest in their dealings.

Mass media is the prime example. The big media operations publish stories that they know are false when they post them. They are not simply wrong about a few facts, but deliberately designed by a staff of people to tell a false story. We saw that with the Russian collusion hoax in the Trump years. The Post and Times had teams whose job was to make up fake stories, with the help of friends in government. Everyone involved volunteered for the job of deceiving the public.

We see this with the war coverage. This story is being pushed by the Drudge alternative called Revolver News. It looks very official, but a quick search of the three authors reveals they are Ukrainian activists sponsored by the usual suspects. All three are children, fresh from school, with no experience in this area. The people behind that institute had them do the copy editing and let them put their name on it in order to add to their resume. It is a common fraud in Washington.

That is the thing though. It is a swindle and a well-known one. Operations like “Institute for the Study of War” are just lie machines. Their task is to pump out regime friendly information that will get circulated by the media. The media, of course, knows this better than anyone, but they choose to pass it along anyway. Given what we saw in the Trump years, it is possible that the Washington Post put out an RFP for a fake study to fit the latest narrative on the war.

Joseph de Maistre famously said, “False opinions are like false money, struck first of all by guilty men and thereafter circulated by honest people who perpetuate the crime without knowing what they are doing.” This is true, in that the authorities in this age pump out false opinion in immeasurable volume. Normal people inevitably believe some of it and pass it onto friends. That gives it authority and before long a third of the public wants nuclear war over Ukraine.

Of course, that survey could be entirely fake. That is something else that has changed over the last several decades. It used to be that polling firms guarded their reputations by avoiding sensationalism. Now they only care about getting noticed, so we have polling firms publishing complete nonsense. Many are happy to give the customer what they want and those customers are sociopaths in the media. Polling is just a corrupt as everything else now.

If we return to our grocery store CEO and his psychopathic executive, the issue is not the scheme, but the person behind it. The sort of person who thinks it is normal to poison people is not going to think twice about poisoning his boss. Similarly, the sorts of people who think it is normal to fabricate studies, stories and so on in order to fool the general public is no different from the psychopathic executive. These are people who lack the ability to tell right from wrong.

It is tempting to think this is just the way the world is and we just see it more clearly now thanks to the mass media age. Some of that is true, but we also know that this sort of behavior was a primary concern in the past. Medieval governments passed rules to limit deception in the law and the marketplace. The ancients had draconian punishments for those who deceived the public. The ancient Persians treated deception more harshly than murder. People used to worry about this problem.

In this age, we have turned this on its head. Deception is a valued skill. The media selects for sociopathy. Our political parties admire those with a natural skill to deceive and quickly raise them to national status. That grocery store CEO would not exist as described, because he would have hand-picked that executive and probably gave him the idea for the mass poisoning campaign. The lie is the coin of the realm and the liars are the new aristocracy.

America is often called a great experiment and that is true. This is the first society to exist with nothing holding it together but impersonal economic relations. We are reaching the point where there are no rules, just who can get over on whom. It is the anarcho-capitalist society in which no one can trust anyone or anything. Instead, a war of all against all, it is an endless series of confidence games. Everyone has an angle and is trying to get over on someone else.


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Ben the Layabout
Ben the Layabout
2 years ago

Z’s de Maistre quote brings to my mind “Gresham’s Law” which simply observed that bad money drives out good. This was back in the days when money was made of [precious] metals. When debasement of coins, revaluations or other factors changed the relative values of monies, an individual had a rational reason to keep the more-valuable and use the less-valuable in transactions. The analogy to news and ideas at first seems weak, but maybe not. Even if one possessed the truth, it might be rational to hoard it, and pass on the untruth. Why? Many reasons. Not the least of… Read more »

Bartleby the Scrivner
Bartleby the Scrivner
2 years ago

OT but I think maybe of importance.

Tonight, for the second day in s row, Tucker Carlson has called for the U S military to seal the U S border. I wonder how long he will be able to say that?

The usual suspects are presented, but I don’t think it will mean a thing.

BeAprepper
BeAprepper
Reply to  Bartleby the Scrivner
2 years ago

@Scrivner

We may have already crossed the tipping point where it doesn’t matter anymore.

Remember when you were little and your mom said don’t talk to strangers? Never take candy from a stranger? We are now a atomized nation of strangers, hence the low trust Z is talking about.

trumpton
trumpton
2 years ago

Talking of false society the new “Covid Czar” in the US is a WEF “futurist” who will be looking for another $22.5 billion for coof funding.

http://www.weforum.org/agenda/authors/ashish-k-jha

He authored a piece for the WEF stating that “global health professionals can look to the climate movement for inspiration and guidance on how to better engage the business community”

And you thought the coof was over.

Bartleby the Scrivner
Bartleby the Scrivner
Reply to  trumpton
2 years ago

A Pajeet

And from Harvard no less.

Who’d a thunk it!

Falcone
Falcone
2 years ago

Tip of the hat to Z Man

I wasn’t so sure about but I just checked my bottle of Stella.

Eye balling it casually, yeah, it looks like it is a normal 12 ounce bottle

NOPE. On the side of the label in small print it reads 11.2 Ounces

It is all enough to make a man want to strangle someone

….anyway Happy ST. Patty’s Day to all. Been 3 full years since we were last allowed to celebrate it in Los Angeles.

trumpton
trumpton
Reply to  Falcone
2 years ago

Are there many Irish in LA?

JerseyJeffersonian
JerseyJeffersonian
Reply to  Falcone
2 years ago

It’s a European thing. 11.2 oz. approximates to 330 ml, a standard Euro volume. Checked a bottle of Smithwick’s Red Irish Ale, and it is indeed 11.2 oz. But I think that it may actually be brewed in the US, so shrinkflation it is.

My (other) US brews on hand were all still 12 oz., Yards, Victory, Leinenkugel. We’ll see how that holds up as the inflation kicks into high gear; the temptation will be to either shrink the bottle capacities, or sell 4-packs at the old price. Could go either way…

What a time to be alive!

La-Z-Man
La-Z-Man
Reply to  Falcone
2 years ago

I don’t know about the beer bottle example. I think the imports like Stella have always been 330mL (or 33cL as written on European bottles). By the way, just yesterday I commented on how great this beer is. It chased down my grilled pork kebabs last night very nicely.

Whiskey
Whiskey
2 years ago

There is a Quinnipac poll, on Ukraine/Russia/Biden. The most interesting thing is the proxy measure for patriotism. The question was, “If you were in the same position as Ukrainians are now, do you think that you would stay and fight or leave the country?” BLACK: 38/59, WHITE: 57/35, HISPANIC: 61/33. Among Whites: WOMEN: 43/47, Men: 75/19. Basically, the only people who are patriotic are White men. No other group can or will sacrifice for the nation. CAN the elites wage a two-front war, one on Whitey, at home, and abroad against Putin DEPENDING ON WHITEY? My guess is no, they… Read more »

ProZNoV
ProZNoV
Reply to  Whiskey
2 years ago

Smart people hate war, want nothing to do with it, and have to be fooled into it.

White men can be pretty stupid that way. The modern battlefield is suicide.

Winston Churchill figured it out and said it best:

“War, which used to be cruel and magnificent, has now become cruel and squalid.”

The Wild Geese Howard
The Wild Geese Howard
Reply to  ProZNoV
2 years ago

The modern battlefield is suicide. Oh man, what a perfect setup to post a Sky Australia article with more detail and quotes on the Reddit Legionnaire base that was wiped out by Kalibr cruise missiles: https://www.news.com.au/world/europe/unfair-fight-foreign-legion-volunteers-flee-ukraine-after-russian-missile-strike-on-training-base/news-story/3ad8c173eb17bfa4f2c8c002f8906689 A couple interesting points of speculation on this story have surfaced, I wish I could find better sourcing. 1) Apparently the legionnaires’ operational security (opsec) was so poor that they were posting selfies on Instagram. If true, I bet the Russians were able to pull the GPS coordinates straight from the metadata embedded in the photo files. 2) Claims are being made there was… Read more »

trumpton
trumpton
Reply to  The Wild Geese Howard
2 years ago

That will give NATO a pause I would hope.

Hemid
Hemid
Reply to  trumpton
2 years ago

It won’t. But it should remind *us* that the Poles, however “based” they can seem, are fundamentally passive. Whoever owns them fully owns them.

Nikolai Vladivostok
Reply to  Whiskey
2 years ago

I don’t understand. Isn’t this showing Hispanics are most willing to stay and fight?

Horace
Horace
Reply to  Nikolai Vladivostok
2 years ago

for THEIR civilization, yes.

Bilejones
Member
Reply to  Whiskey
2 years ago

Jared Taylor looks at Patriotism gap among other things raised by Ukraine in an hour /15 podcast on What makes a Nation.

It fit well into a drive I had and was a good use of the time.

https://www.unz.com/audio/jtaylor_what-makes-a-nation/

whatever2020
whatever2020
Member
2 years ago

Because globohomo at its very essence is an expression of sociopathy/psychopathy, it arises from the very core qualitative nature of globohomo and so is inevitable it selects for sociopaths and psychopaths. Worse, the more truly horrific and sick the individual sociopath or psychopath, the higher the individual rises within globohomo. It’s the globohomo way. Notice how the “environmentalists” always get their way? For instance, Poopy Joe’s first official “act” was to terminate the Keystone Pipeline. This is because “environmentalism” is a marketing brand and effort for some of the sickest pieces of shit in history (Soros, Gates, et al.) who… Read more »

Alzaebo
Alzaebo
2 years ago

Now I see I really do owe Compsci an apology. I had, panic-stricken, thought out loud of an emptied-out America awaiting a Chinese population dump.

I’m sorry. No need to worry.
The Chinese won’t want a radioactive wasteland filled with roving hordes of ravenous, brain-damaged, infectious cannibal rage zombies.

Majorian
Majorian
2 years ago

I used to follow the “daily assessments” from the Institute for the Study of War as they are main sources for the similarly biased Wikipedia “2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine” page. The Isw is a creature of Fredrick W. Kagan, who is the brother of the chief Kagan, Robert, the husband of Victoria Nuland. Fred has got his own Wikipedia page, and used to author those ISW daily fantasy assessments directly, see https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campaign-assessment-march-9 . Now by the looks of it seems he has sidestepped in favour of his protégés. Invariably, each of these assessments has the Russian military very incompetent,… Read more »

Majorian
Majorian
Reply to  Majorian
2 years ago

Repetita juvant

Alzaebo
Alzaebo
2 years ago

From the web:

“Bars and restaurants are now requiring proof of Ukrainian support”

The Infant Phenomenon
The Infant Phenomenon
2 years ago

Putin’s remarks from yesterday, when he addressed the whole world (in English):

https://halturnerradioshow.com/index.php/en/news-page/world/russian-president-addresses-the-world-over-ukraine

Ponsonby
Member
Reply to  The Infant Phenomenon
2 years ago

I’ve had people literally become hysterical and speechless when I casually remark that Russia’s position is reasonable. Someone might try a GoFundMe to buy airtime to broadcast Putin’s message but that would surely get the Canadian Trucker treatment. Worse, I suppose.

manc
manc
Reply to  Ponsonby
2 years ago

I’ve had the same experience when I talk about how provocative NATO expansion has been from Russia’s POV. People literally can’t process the information; you can almost see the gears grinding to a halt.

trumpton
trumpton
Reply to  The Infant Phenomenon
2 years ago

One of the things I found interesting is that all of Zelensky’s speeches have been targeted at the ruling elite in each state (UK parliament, EU members, US congress, Canadian parliament etc), while from the ones I have seen of Putin they have been mostly directly to the general Russian population.

As Z says a lot the elite are mostly talking to themselves. The population are about as important as the stapler when it comes to making decisions in the west.

The Infant Phenomenon
The Infant Phenomenon
2 years ago

This guy is all over the map. Sometimes he hits the bull’s eye. Sometimes he comes across like a high-school girls writing in the back of your yearbook–he ends sentences with multiple exclamation points!!!!!

But here’s what he is reporting today:

https://halturnerradioshow.com/index.php/en/news-page/world/breaking-news-numerous-russian-air-force-planes-shuttling-people-out-of-moscow-to-ural-mountains

There are a whole LOT of things I’d expect before a nuclear first strike, but I don’t know what I don’t know. So FYI.

Alzaebo
Alzaebo
Reply to  The Infant Phenomenon
2 years ago

Please go easy on the links, Infant.
Your career professionally aggregating data is a hard habit to break, I see.

Run! Run for your lives!
It’s coming!
A Linknado!

Alzaebo
Alzaebo
Reply to  Alzaebo
2 years ago

Dang. I should’ve said, “please do go easy, would you” as a touch of Southron politesse, civility, and refinement.

Spingehra
Spingehra
Reply to  Alzaebo
2 years ago

Wasn’t this post about missing “straight from the shoulder” truth telling? However
Bending the kings English for diplomatic purposes can have a place & time.
Such as “you look great in those pants”

LexSaltu
LexSaltu
Reply to  The Infant Phenomenon
2 years ago

Moscow is huge and it has *deep* underground tunnels. Most of the population can find refuge from our nukes with 20 min. warning. The wealthy can get to their dachas outside the city inside 4 hrs. time by train or car. Although Kolomna is a target (I’m a former US member of the Russian Parachuting Association and I used to jump Kolomna Aerograd, which is a popular location for elite dachas). NATO forces would be annihilated if members attempted to invade even a tiny corner of Russia/Byelorussia. So I question the reported flight en masse.

Bilejones
Member
Reply to  LexSaltu
2 years ago

I have a map above my dining-room fireplace depicting a previous attempt at teaching those damn Russians:

comment image

Paintersforms
Paintersforms
Reply to  The Infant Phenomenon
2 years ago

Re: Ukraine, it’s crazy how the media event is now the geopolitical event. I remember when Russia invaded Georgia and of course the Crimean incident. Both big deals in the news but more or less geopolitically controlled.

This time Zelensky makes a fuss on social media or whatever he’s been up to, and the heads of state are struggling and possibly failing to tamp it down.

It’s taken on a life of its own. I almost wonder if Skynet has become self-aware or something.

James J O'Meara
James J O'Meara
2 years ago

One can’t help but think that, like the fetish for “deconstruction” in the humanities (which should now be called semiticies), or shystering among the law, it’s the result of the replacement of stern, staid Calvinist/Quaker businessmen who valued “fair dealing” and being “straight from the shoulder”, by a certain tribe, know for it’s fetish for “bargaining” and haggling and outright cheating (Got a spare birthright to sell?)

Consider the apparent inability to price anything without “.99”..

The Infant Phenomenon
The Infant Phenomenon
2 years ago

@ Wild Geese Howard: Thanks for the links WAY down there.

Alzaebo
Alzaebo
Reply to  The Infant Phenomenon
2 years ago

Oh heck. I repent of the above. You educated blokes are looking for parsed, quality information, aren’t you?

Sigh. For a barbarian, this civilization thingie is SO dammed hard.

miforest
Member
2 years ago

the power of the media over the normie is complete. people on both sides of the “aisle ” that I know say stupid things like ” we should put in a no fly zone , I know it’s risky but if it stops Putin it’s worth it ” . After the way they were controlled by the insane covid narrative , I was shocked and appalled . from what I am seeing now I am terrified. they can be made to believe anything . really anything . A gerat example of this is Ferfal over at the modern survivalist is… Read more »

The Infant Phenomenon
The Infant Phenomenon
Reply to  miforest
2 years ago

” … modern survivalist is just unhinged in the latest podcast with matt bracken … .”

Thanks. I’ll have a look b/c I have had my doubts about Bracken for a LONG time. I’ll have a look. Maybe I’m mistaken.

Spingehra
Spingehra
Reply to  The Infant Phenomenon
2 years ago

Brackin is on the latest black pigeon speaks, listened this morning.
On bitchute.
I think he knows what he’s talking about.

Alzaebo
Alzaebo
Reply to  The Infant Phenomenon
2 years ago

Bracken and co. do us a tremendous service, but are still damaged by the Holo religion, the source of ‘anti-racism’.

It was the “climate change” of the right, rewiring their moral calculation.

A kind of blinders, an effect of Newspeak.

3g4me
3g4me
Reply to  The Infant Phenomenon
2 years ago

Infant: I cannot speak to Bracken’s legitimacy or accuracy on anything, but my personal experience at Western Rifle Shooters (which I believe he started?) has been decidedly mixed. A lot of neoconnery and color blindness, a lot of bluster, way too much chest-thumping ‘kill a commie’ murricanism, with a dose of reality here and there that historic America is dead and gone. Takes some time to sift the occasional gems from among the dross.

Bartleby the Scrivner
Bartleby the Scrivner
Reply to  3g4me
2 years ago

His piece “What I Saw at the Coup” is a primer for dealing with today’s issues.

JR Wirth
JR Wirth
2 years ago

I have a question. Looking at the politics of today, 2022, where will the bulk of white people be from, 20 years from now, in the dissident movement? Will it be the left or the right? I have a sneaking suspicion that when our politics turn upside down from future crises, that more may actually come from the Portlandia et. al. left than the Southern Baptist Convention et. al. right. I may be wrong. The density of the right on Ukraine, the border, etc., basically shows the right to be nothing but brain stem, with absolutely nothing upstairs. How could… Read more »

The Infant Phenomenon
The Infant Phenomenon
Reply to  JR Wirth
2 years ago

Well, I can see that you haven’t looked at the Southern Baptist Convention in quite some time. (And don’t, unless you want to be distressed.) They are LONG gone.

But you saying this:

“where will the bulk of white people be from,”

reminded me of that Deagle dot com population projection figures for 2025 that I visited a few times in Dec 2020 before it was taken down b/c it had caused quite a stir. Does anybody remember that?

Is that what we are looking at now?

miforest
Member
Reply to  The Infant Phenomenon
2 years ago

I believe it is , Depop on an unimaginable scale . god help us all.

Falcone
Falcone
Reply to  JR Wirth
2 years ago

I agree completely

Among people I meet, the Portlandia types are far more reasonable and open to the DR than Joe Normie. They are soul searching right now and finding they don’t like current day America one bit but just have trouble expressing why.

Hence why I think it is time to write off Normie as a lost cause. And they are never going to like us anyway. They just think we’re weird. Push comes to shove, the chill and grill types would toss under the bus in a heartbeat.

Drew
Drew
Reply to  Falcone
2 years ago

My general view of normie-cons is that they are modest hedonists who are mostly concerned with maintaining or improving their current standard of living. Basically, when you reverse engineer their actions, if always comes down to what they feel is good for them in a material sense.

LexSaltu
LexSaltu
2 years ago

Lara Logan unchained and dropping non-stop truth bombs:

https://www.bitchute.com/video/yrwD23iIvO3M/

You owe yourselves the six minutes, especially near the end when she specifically references the SES (Senior Executive Service).

Alzaebo
Alzaebo
Reply to  LexSaltu
2 years ago

The SES- now you have my attention.

SERCO, I believe, is analogous, as a “private company providing government administrative servicing.”

Another unknown is the ESB, the Exchange Stabilization Board, that was given unlimited powers to wage economic war in 1947 (?), the same year the CIA was organized by Wall Street analysts.

So many rabbit holes. We must understand this overstructure, in the hopes of someday organizing against it.

Alzaebo
Alzaebo
Reply to  LexSaltu
2 years ago

Correction to comment in moderation: the ESB was empowered by Congress in 1940, not 1947. Good timing, I guess.

Alzaevo
Alzaevo
Reply to  LexSaltu
2 years ago

Watched. What people cannot wrap their minds around is that a political mafia, which happens to be J**ish, will hire other ethnic mafias as the situation demands.

The Mossad works with Muslim ISIS to attack Syria. How is this any different from using Azov in Ukraine?

Cherry on top: Azov renewed and staffed by Blackwater contractors, an American firm.

3g4me
3g4me
Reply to  LexSaltu
2 years ago

LexSaltu: Logan really seems to have done a total reassessment of her worldview after being raped and almost killed in Egypt. I knew little of her prior to her ordeal other than that she was your standard female television journalist. But any comments I’ve seen from her in the last 5 years or so has been pretty based.

JerseyJeffersonian
JerseyJeffersonian
Reply to  LexSaltu
2 years ago

Non-stop Czar bombas, I should say. And there are more from where those came from.

OrangeFrog
OrangeFrog
2 years ago

“It is tempting to think this is just the way the world is and we just see it more clearly now thanks to the mass media age.” There is really no historical parallel for how brutally the myriad methods of communication have transformed the way the population behaves. I truly believe this to be uncharted territory. For the first time in history, one can be saturated with news items from anywhere on the face of this planet. War in the Ituri Rainforest? Some wog has probably posted footage of the same on Youtube. Effigy of gay official burnt in Croatian… Read more »

The real Bill
The real Bill
Reply to  OrangeFrog
2 years ago

Spyderco Sharpmaster: best sharpening system I’ve come across:

https://spyderco.com/catalog/details.php?product=77

The real Bill
The real Bill
Reply to  The real Bill
2 years ago
The Infant Phenomenon
The Infant Phenomenon
Reply to  OrangeFrog
2 years ago

A.G. Russell has *everything*
https://agrussell.com/

LexSaltu
LexSaltu
Reply to  OrangeFrog
2 years ago

I trained myself to sharpen to perfection with Japanese water stones. Challenging until muscle memory obtains but the results are crazy sharp and durable.

honing rod, no diamonds
Atoma 400 grit with diamonds
Naniwa Chosera 1000, 3000
Suehiro Rika 5000
Polishing stones to 20,000
Anchored leather strops with jeweler’s paste

OrangeFrog
OrangeFrog
Reply to  LexSaltu
2 years ago

Heh. You’re a serious sharpener. I have an old man made oilstone of dubious quality. Really wanted to get myself an Arkansas stone or a Jap waterstone; not sure how easy it is to get Arkansas stones in the UK.

I have a great book by Leonard Lee about sharpening, which I think was first published in the late 80s. Even then he was lamenting the quality of new Arkansas stones and mentioning the best bet was to pick up an old one and re-true it if need be.

LexSaltu
LexSaltu
Reply to  OrangeFrog
2 years ago

This summer when I attend estate and barn sales, I will keep my eyes peeled for a vintage Arkansas stone. If discovered, I will reach out to you and send it/them, gratis, after an anonymous protonmail exchange with you. I’ll calender this so I don’t forget; hopefully, we’ll find what you’re looking for. Cheers.

The Infant Phenomenon
The Infant Phenomenon
Reply to  OrangeFrog
2 years ago

“Really wanted to get myself an Arkansas stone or a Jap waterstone; not sure how easy it is to get Arkansas stones in the UK.”

Go to

https://agrussell.com/

and ask them, They are IN Arkansas. And yes, they do sell, the Arkansas stones. In a fine cherry wood box. Numerous sizes and prices. Friendly and easy to deal with.

Alzaebo
Alzaebo
Reply to  OrangeFrog
2 years ago

“I truly believe this to be uncharted territory.”

Oh it is. We’re adapting to a new technology. I feel like a flint chipper watching that guy over there doing magic with fire and some weird thing he calls “metal”.

Mow Noname
Mow Noname
Reply to  Alzaebo
2 years ago

I always thought the “Arkansas Stone” was buried with Thorin Oakenshield.

3g4me
3g4me
Reply to  OrangeFrog
2 years ago

OrangeFrog: Hope you and yours are all well. So very glad the UK has dropped all its insane covid restrictions and most of the breathless ‘news reports’ on the same. Here, however, they’re ramping it back up. Past couple of days there have been 3-5 headlines about a covid ‘resurgence’ at the Daily Mail Online, and now Fauci has popped his head out of his hole again to warn of new lockdowns. It will never end – disease, war mania, one purported threat after another to justify every insanity. Smart to learn to sharpen knives. I spent a fair bit… Read more »

LexSaltu
LexSaltu
Reply to  3g4me
2 years ago

@3g4me

You should purchase an inexpensive chef’s knife, unserrated, in 1095 steel (not stainless).

Watch free videos re how to sharpen blades. Buy cheap bags of apples or potatoes.

Practice sharpening your throwaway knife using the presently unboxed stones and then slice/chop the veg. Dull the knife, bring it back. Experiment and revisit the videos until you begin to get it. After a few sessions, you’ll be enabled and you can sharpen the Wusthofs, which when sharp are lovely tools.

/s/a lovely tool

LexSaltu
LexSaltu
Reply to  LexSaltu
2 years ago

Mercer, out of Taiwan, is an outstanding line of knives. Buy your practice knife on Amazon, Mercer 1095 chef, say 6″. Inexpensive and as good in the higher pricepoints as the German and Japanese equivalents.

3g4me
3g4me
Reply to  LexSaltu
2 years ago

LexSaltu: Many thanks for the suggestions. My Wusthofs are in dire need of sharpening and I don’t want to damage them. As I said, I realize the need and thus bought the sharpening stones but haven’t yet done anything about it. Now sounds like I have a plan!

The real Bill
The real Bill
2 years ago

Putin may be a psychopath or sociopath; but if he is, he’s a smart one. My guess is that he anticipated most (if not all) of the reactions he’s facing now over Ukraine: He anticipated western economic sanctions, and is ready to deal with them: The Russian people are used to privation, and will adjust to it. And Russian state media will spin it to encourage the Russian people to blame the west. If Europe and America boycott Russian wheat and gas, other markets for them will be found. In fact, western boycotts might be what pushes Russia into greater… Read more »

The real Bill
The real Bill
Reply to  The real Bill
2 years ago

And if Putin IS a psychopath, then the odds are good that he’s ENJOYING all the negative press he’s drawing.

While a normal person would be ashamed and distressed to see himself portrayed as a bloodthirsty devil, a psychopath would love it…. would revel in it…. would take it as a point of pride

Glenfilthie
Glenfilthie
Member
Reply to  The real Bill
2 years ago

Plausible. Personally, I don’t think he cares. There is no denying it. The world HAS to change. Russia cannot assure its future or its success in a world run by Globohomo. Zelensky, Biden, Turdo, Macron, et al – they are actors. That is all we’ve ever known for leadership for the last two generations in the west Perhaps we are so acclimated to the never ending ridiculous parade of eccentric fops, carnies, and lunatics… that we don’t recognize or respect a real warrior when we see one? Putin is not nuts. He has been cold, cunning and brutal through every… Read more »

Anon123
Anon123
Reply to  Glenfilthie
2 years ago

Big issues like Covid and the Ukrainian war sure seem to divide the comment sections. I agree with the assessment of Putin but take Putin as shorthand for Russian Leadership.

Meanwhile at Sailers blog the cold warriors sound like Rachel Maddow supporters and are waiting breathlessly for the Russian Army to collapse. Once the Russians collapse and depose Putin they can go back to thinking they can vote themselves into a new reality.

Alzaebo
Alzaebo
Reply to  Glenfilthie
2 years ago

“Great men are rarely also good men.”
-Wretchard

Alzaebo
Alzaebo
Reply to  Glenfilthie
2 years ago

Russians, talking about their politics, noted that Putin actually tries to be the neutral, objective middleman in their turbulent national debates.

He was hand-picked by Yeltsin to rebuild a wrecked nation, against the wishes of the predatory oligarchs, per Martin Armstrong.

His primary concern is what’s best for Russia’s future- and that she has one. (As she is, too, multicultural, not as some fantasy state.)

He was conscripted into the Soviet Communist Party, not a volunteer, it was required.

Not a Communist.
Of course he’s enriching himself.
A Tsar must project power and success, or be run over.

Alzaebo
Alzaebo
Reply to  Alzaebo
2 years ago

Dang. Meant to say that most impressive is his hard, calculating rationality.

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  Alzaebo
2 years ago

I look into Putin’s eyes and see nothing. He is the consummate poker player. I can’t believe he’s crazy, perhaps a sociopath (aren’t the all?), but not crazy as in irrational. And if not crazy, then he has figured out several end game scenarios to the Ukraine conflict and prepared for every eventuality. Yes, he has taken risk as certain eventualities are more desirable than others, but I’m sure all of them are acceptable in his mind and worth their entailed risk. That’s what the famous totalitarians of old did and are still remembered for. Example, Caesar and the battle… Read more »

The Infant Phenomenon
The Infant Phenomenon
Reply to  Glenfilthie
2 years ago

“I’m beginning to think it’s our guys that are nuts, and Putin is only acting in his country’s interest.” This is the only thing an honest man *can* think b/c it is the truth. Thee is a difference between right and wrong. There is a difference between truth and falsehood. And the Russians are 100% in the RIGHT in this action. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. The Ukrainian gov’t has killed around 14,000 civilians in the former Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts. When Zelinsky was installed by the US after the overthrow of the lawfully elected president in 2014,… Read more »

Vajynabush
Vajynabush
Reply to  The Infant Phenomenon
2 years ago

It was Pete Poroshenko who was installed after the 2014 revolution. Zelensky was elected in 2019.

Andy Texan
Reply to  Glenfilthie
2 years ago

Putin is doing the Lord’s work. Someone has to fight globohomo (‘our democracy’) and the WEF. There is no one in the USA who will stand up.

Jack Dobson
Jack Dobson
2 years ago

“The lie is the coin of the realm and the liars are the new aristocracy.” Whether he said it or not, the pejorative of the United States attributed to Putin, “The Empire of Lies,” is wildly accurate. I don’t know if the description of low-trust society covers it given people have the attention spans of gnats. One lie follows another lie and another follows and people forget the earlier ones so the diminution in trust, while certainly there, is mitigated. The old school of thought was trust was required to run a con or grift. Distraction, repetition and speed mitigates… Read more »

karl von hungus
karl von hungus
Reply to  Jack Dobson
2 years ago

i guess coffee is for liars then 😛

Jack Dobson
Jack Dobson
Reply to  karl von hungus
2 years ago

Coffee laced with meth.

RM
RM
Reply to  Jack Dobson
2 years ago

ABC …always be Closing.
In any case, they were skilled liars

Sid
Sid
2 years ago

What I keep coming back to is the opium crisis. I saw it coming from a good mile. Safe if taken as directed. Slow release heroin. Until you crush it up and throw it back with a couple of jack&cokes. My wife, a doctor, was recruited by a pain management clinic. Good hours, and very good money. I told her it would be better she preformed abortions. Don’t get me wrong. There is a time and place for these drugs. If gut shot, or riddled with cancer. But to cynically foist these dangerously addictive drugs on a people. What kind… Read more »

Jack Dobson
Jack Dobson
Reply to  Sid
2 years ago

From what I gather, the cost-benefit analysis for the Sackler family was fairly accurate and they ended up profiting wildly even with the settlements.

Eloi
Eloi
Reply to  Jack Dobson
2 years ago

They made 12 billion. Paid 1 billion in fines (or something roughly proportional). It’s the equivalent of robbing someone of 100 dollars, and your punishment is paying that back 10 dollars, still profiting 90 dollars. Sounds simply like an operating expense for the (((Sacklers)))

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  Jack Dobson
2 years ago

That’s why I always insist (as if anyone listens) that these guys go to jail, never solely fined. They made a financial decision (to trade lives for $$$) and it’s hard to beat those guys at that game. Turn it into an existential decision and they might think twice.

The Chinese know this. It is “glorious to be rich”, but if you f&*k with their economic system, you win a bullet to the back of the head. End of story.

Ploppy
Ploppy
Reply to  Sid
2 years ago

The funny thing is I remember the sex ed and anti drug lessons in school. You’d die if you drank alcohol or smoked pot, and that nice blonde girl you met at Sunday school almost certainly had AIDS.

Nothing about pills. Yet they’re killing more people than Vietnam every year now.

Alzaebo
Alzaebo
Reply to  Sid
2 years ago

Side question-
Poppy opiates are still one of the most important drugs in the world.

The dog that didn’t bark is, what about that poppy production?

We fought two wars to control the world’s finest painkiller, in Southeast Asia and Afghanistan.
So what happened?

Opium’s political-historical significance is deep, large and long. Nations were broken and created over the Spice Trade..

Lies of fabrication, lies of omission, how to be rational in the empire of the Father of Lies?

These top-tier black markets are what have given us a criminal overclass. We’re ruled by a global mafia network.

The Infant Phenomenon
The Infant Phenomenon
Reply to  Alzaebo
2 years ago

“We’re ruled by a global mafia network.”

Yep. And it’s not a recent development.

The Infant Phenomenon
The Infant Phenomenon
Reply to  Alzaebo
2 years ago

“Opium’s political-historical significance is deep, large and long. Nations were broken and created over the Spice Trade.”

This book is for you:

https://www.alibris.com/Operation-Gladio-The-Unholy-Alliance-Between-the-Vatican-the-CIA-and-the-Mafia-Paul-L-Williams/book/28973726?matches=12

Fascinating chapter in it about the assassination of Pope John Paul I. You might be too young to remember him. He reigned for 33 days. Died mysteriously.

Much more.

How did Billie Holliday die?

Alzaebo
Alzaebo
Reply to  The Infant Phenomenon
2 years ago

Holy Smokin’ Jehosephat, now that’s what I call a synopsis!

A point: “the initial funding for these guerilla armies came from the sale of large stocks of SS morphine that had been smuggled out of Germany”

So they stole the dope, and put it to good use. This ancient gangster culture really don’t change.

Side note: the Nazis created methadone as a heroin analogue that would last for a day, instead of 5 hours between dosings.

You do put some quality linkage out there, yesirree.

karl von hungus
karl von hungus
Reply to  Alzaebo
2 years ago

is there even a market for opium or heroin, anywhere? i mean, with fentanyl being so readily available.

Alzaebo
Alzaebo
Reply to  karl von hungus
2 years ago

That’s just what I was wondering. Has synthetic elephant tranquilizer replaced the oldest and most valuable organic painkiller?

Alzaebo
Alzaebo
Reply to  Sid
2 years ago

“Safe if taken as directed. Slow release”

And it was a good idea, a damm fine idea. Chronic pain sufferers are being murdered in the worst way- slowly, in agony- by the stiff-necked cruelty of the moralist zealouts.

RoBG
RoBG
Reply to  Alzaebo
2 years ago

Obamacare (and Romneycare before it) legislated the independent practitioner out of existence for all but the wealthy. Patient care became subservient to corporate dictates and corporate profits. It’s all defensive medicine now.

Panzernutter
Panzernutter
2 years ago

I used to smoke Drum tobacco, you had to roll em yourself. The bag was 1.41 oz. One day 1.14 oz. I called them up to tell them I was on to their bullcrap and was switching brands. They said I was the only person they herd from and send me some coupons. I don’t smoke anymore, but that was the first time I noticed something like that. On the drive in today ,the boomer radio was pontificating about Russia getting its ass kicked . And of course a new strain of kung fu dojo creeping crud….

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  Panzernutter
2 years ago

This reduced content in packaging is at least 30 yo. Way back when, there was a coffee bean blight and the price of coffee went through the roof. All of a sudden we got the “new” containers with 14 oz’s at same pricing. However, in those days there was still a semblance of embarrassment of the seller and some respect for consumer sentiment, so there was an explanation printed on the can: “…new grind technique…14 oz brews the same amount of coffee as old 16 oz can…”. Hell, even today ice cream in 16 or 32 containers is a rarity… Read more »

karl von hungus
karl von hungus
Reply to  Compsci
2 years ago

you would think people would check the store signs, next to each item, with the price per unit listed. but i suspect normies can’t bend over to read given their extreme bulk (and general aversion to reading and comparing).

BeAprepper
BeAprepper
Reply to  Compsci
2 years ago

“Note: Please don’t be alarmed if this package appears less than full as some settlement may have occurred during shipping.”

Drew
Drew
Reply to  Compsci
2 years ago

Blue Bell, to my knowledge, is the only commonly available ice cream that comes in a true half gallon (and is made like proper ice cream). Unsurprisingly, it’s the most expensive ice cream in the super market. It’s also the best, and the only one I consider buying anymore, primarily because they deal honestly with consumers.

Falcone
Falcone
Reply to  Panzernutter
2 years ago

What about “chicken wings”? I have been asking that question for years and always falls on deaf ears. Isn’t this a class action lawsuit waiting to happen? But when you order wings you get mostly drumettes, a cheaper part of the bird and not as tasty, and if you do get wings they are like a tiny bird’s or a quail. Total TOTAL deception and gets me in a lather if I dwell on it And HERE is another deceptive scam for any people out there who like to collect coins, but silver spot price is like $25/ounce, but goo… Read more »

Good ol' Rebel
Good ol' Rebel
Reply to  Falcone
2 years ago

Re chicken wings: having raised meat birds, “wings” disgust me. The birds they raise for that are some messed up abomination akin to the Eraserhead baby. It is surely a step along the “eat your bugs, podboy” pathway.
As for metals, gold was worse. After the first dip to 1600-ish, the actual retail market hasnt gone below $1900 irrespective of “spot price.” Gold market would swing $100 and retail would be 0% changed. The market for commodity market buyers and retail markets are entirely detached..

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  Falcone
2 years ago

Yep, and the “premium” is more for US and Canadian coins. Those I assume are in demand as they are recognizable. As with most commodities, precious metals are not an investment, but rather a hedge and safety blanket. If the US government pulls a “Canada” on the populous and cuts you off from the banking system, you’ll at least have some barter for getting out of town. Beats caring around dead chickens or whatever.

JR Wirth
JR Wirth
2 years ago

Lies always cost money in the end. Businesses can make money on lies for sure, but the underlying transaction provides diminishing and usually negative returns. So, of course, when we look at the government/corporate/consumer debt pile that’s grown over decades, one giant lie comes to the forefront. In the words of Dick Cheney 20 years ago…”deficits don’t matter.” This is a man who spent his entire life enriching himself beyond belief darting between politics and the defense contractors. So that lie, the greatest of lies, was close to his heart from the beginning…and is still close to the beating heart… Read more »

The real Bill
The real Bill
Reply to  JR Wirth
2 years ago

“Lies always cost money”

True: but only when they’re recognized; hence the subtle shift from lying to deception.

If I can deceive you without telling you a recognizable lie— if I can lead you to believe that that container of Haagen-Dazs is still 16 oz.— then I’ve managed to fool you in a way that doesn’t have the monetary cost that an outright (recognizable) lie would incur.

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  The real Bill
2 years ago

This is precisely the Chinese way of doing business. Son has dealings over there and expresses this regularly. Basically, it is expected that the (Chinese) producer will do everything and anything to get it over on the purchaser and it is the purchaser’s responsibility to call him on it. In short, if you are stupid enough to be cheated you deserve it. And this is wrt to Fortune 500 type companies doing business over there—not just trivial consumer junk.

Jack Dobson
Jack Dobson
Reply to  JR Wirth
2 years ago

If people defraud for a short period of time without detection and/or prosecution, lies are quite profitable. Unfortunately, as a short-term matter, it is lucrative.

The Infant Phenomenon
The Infant Phenomenon
Reply to  Jack Dobson
2 years ago

Scene: a high-end shopping mall with Lord & Taylor and Sacks 5th Ave as the anchor stores. From the sidewalk outside L&T, you can see through the menswear dept, all the way down the mall. Rich, older matron exits store. Sees scruffy-looking black guy skulking around her Jaguar. She retreats to the sidewalk, uncertain what to do. Well-dressed, clean-cut young white man notices. Asks, “Ma’am, is everything all right?” “Oh, young man, well … ” and she points and explains. Young man: “Oh, well, ma’am, I’d be glad to walk over there and get your car and bring it up… Read more »

Good ol' Rebel
Good ol' Rebel
Reply to  The Infant Phenomenon
2 years ago

Now 60 years later, that clean cut white boy is in the Oval Office and his irreputable compatriot has a presidential library.

Falcone
Falcone
Reply to  JR Wirth
2 years ago

Not if they are the only game in town AND the big players in town are all operating on the same shitty premise, think Target and Walmart. How is anyone going to beat them when they decide to collude and shaft the consumer. Chinese junk is now selling for almost what good German products are selling for, and you will notice there are more and more guys out there saying something like “Yeah, I know China used to make some real low quality tools and machines, but you should really take a look at Brand X. I was shocked at… Read more »

Jack Dobson
Jack Dobson
Reply to  Falcone
2 years ago

I seriously cook, and hunt and fish. The Chinese-manufactured cookware and tackle started to become absolute crap over the last five years. As an example, high end reels fall to pieces within two years, and the most expensive Dutch ovens have half the shelf life of their predecessors. The one thing that has maintained its quality are high end, American-made shotguns, in particular.

People have noticed, too. The first things snapped up at estate sales are pots, pans, and rods and reels.

LexSaltu
LexSaltu
Reply to  thezman
2 years ago

I still have my late grandpa’s S.S. Kresge reels which predate WWII. Once I shine the brass, they look brand new. Built like tanks and butter-smooth actions. I don’t fish anymore, so I am wondering what they would sell for. Trivia.

Jack Dobson
Jack Dobson
Reply to  thezman
2 years ago

Yeah, it’s amazing. The price vs. the quality of reels almost is inverse. Some of the brands are zombies. ABU Garcia reels, particularly the bait-casting line made in Sweden, have a cult following for those manufactured prior to 1980. I have an earlier one that gets oiled after every trip. Friends think I’m OCD over it, but once gone it cannot be replaced. Even in terms of actual dollars the ones made now cost more and are absolute junk.

The Infant Phenomenon
The Infant Phenomenon
Reply to  Falcone
2 years ago

There’s still Emile Henry:

https://www.emilehenryusa.com/

Different material, but first-rate French cook ware.

Falcone
Falcone
Reply to  The Infant Phenomenon
2 years ago

Thanks a million

I’m sold. Ordering a few of them.

Plus ceramic materials and earthen materials in general are best for slow cooking sauces

Good ol' Rebel
Good ol' Rebel
Reply to  Falcone
2 years ago

Ditto on the qc thing; i have been trying for around 14 months to get acceptable cast iron sinks. It is impossible to pay for quality, all you can pay for is warranty coverage on the backend after it inevitably fails. Ditto for tools: why buy the Lincoln Electric for 600 when it’s made in the same Guangdong factory as the 150 dollar harbor freight? For power tools, the Blue brand with silver accents and red lettering, the yellow and black brand, all of it is made in the same Chinese province as the cheapo wallyword stuff and it ALL… Read more »

RoBG
RoBG
Reply to  Good ol' Rebel
2 years ago

Isn’t it funny how all the people pushing for “eat the bugs” “live in the pod” “net-zero emissions” never advocate for the near-indestructible appliances, furniture, housing that my grandparents took for granted?

Krustykurmudgeon
Krustykurmudgeon
2 years ago

I feel that colleges themselves have changed. Like in the old days you had the “joe college” stereotype where the average college student looked like some combination of Pat Boone, the lettermen (60s doowop group) or Fred from Scooby doo.

They tended to be the ones to go into the professions (doctor lawyer) and into business administration. Now it seems the business world is full of reddit types.

The Infant Phenomenon
The Infant Phenomenon
2 years ago

Spam filter kept this out of the other post:

This site is *always* reliable:
https://www.voltairenet.org/

Machine-translated English:
https://www.voltairenet.org/?lang=en

The Infant Phenomenon
The Infant Phenomenon
Reply to  The Infant Phenomenon
2 years ago

Spam filter again:

Always reliable (but written by a Russian):
http://thesaker.is/

Always reliable (also by a Russian):
https://smoothiex12.blogspot.com/

The Infant Phenomenon
The Infant Phenomenon
2 years ago

“Revolver.News also has stories from the Russian perspective on the war.”

I’ve scanned one of the articles three times, and it looks like disinfo to me. There are no specifics. There’s some repetition about the 150th Motorized Rifle Division, but the article says that that info is unconfirmed.

Disinfo or not, it’s not from the Russian perspective.

This is the one I looked at:

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campaign-assessment-march-16

Anonymous White Male
Anonymous White Male
2 years ago

“In this age, only suckers are honest in their dealings.”

P.T. Barnum. The patron saint of the American Corpocracy. Except he was wrong in his assessment of suckers. Its really, “A sucker is born every microsecond.”

If you doubt the dumbing down of America, all you have to do is look at who TPTB are importing. You need low IQ, gullible people to rule a corrupt country. Its the same reason they made negroes citizens and gave the vote to women.

Enoch Cade
Enoch Cade
2 years ago

Excellent definition of “the great experiment.” Which of course was part of the rationale for the Republican assault on the South in the 1860s.

Epaminondas
Epaminondas
Reply to  Enoch Cade
2 years ago

And the same folks are still running the show.

Quintus
Quintus
2 years ago

To the Z Man’s well-founded observations, I would add that there is a strong current of religious fanaticism behind the motivations of a certain segment of the liars and deceivers that plague what’s left of our society. In my lifetime, the old quote of how “you can’t make an omelette with out breaking a few eggs” was attributed to historical monsters like Stalin; now it is a dogmatic operating principle by our immoral elite and their rabid true believers. These people (cultists) have no qualms about lying because they do it in service of their degenerate, evil beliefs – in… Read more »

Falcone
Falcone
Reply to  Quintus
2 years ago

We are dealing with the fanaticism of non-believers

Ergo, it stands to reason that a fanatic disposition is a feature of humanity and only finds expression in whatever is put in front of someone be it a religion or an ideology or whatever else is cooked up. The fanatic WILL find something to sink his teeth into. Like my puppy, who opens his mouth and bears his teeth while running around for something to sink them into, most commonly the ankles of my other dogs. But he opens the mouth first, teeth in search of something to bite.

Eloi
Eloi
Reply to  Falcone
2 years ago

As the philosopher Bob Dylan once stated, “Gotta serve somebody.”

Paintersforms
Paintersforms
2 years ago

People look back on the middle ages as a barbarous period, but it was a time when extreme discipline was necessary. In the great reset, social credit score, etc., we see history starting to rhyme, but the people concocting these schemes are merely recognizing and attempting to surf the tide of history, not controlling it. They think they’re shooting the curl, but they’re headed for a gnarly wipeout, dude. (Lame, I know. Couldn’t resist 🙂 )

The Wild Geese Howard
The Wild Geese Howard
2 years ago

Here is an excellent example of deceptive propaganda from our controllers:

Younger Workers Believe ‘Remote Work Revolution’ Has Gone Too Far

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/younger-workers-believe-remote-work-revolution-has-gone-too-far

Yes, dear reader, they really expect you to sit here and believe that a generation that has been online since the cradle is just itching to get back into the office.

Someone is desperate to prop up the value of their commercial real estate so they can unload it to the next sucker…

Jack Dobson
Jack Dobson
Reply to  The Wild Geese Howard
2 years ago

the study was conducted by realtors. You can’t make that shit up.

mmack
mmack
Reply to  The Wild Geese Howard
2 years ago

“Yes, dear reader, they really expect you to sit here and believe that a generation that has been online since the cradle is just itching to get back into the office.”

Because everyone wants to be hectored by HR, cat-ladies, bug-men, and the H1-Bs from parts unknown, while having your internet blocked or filtered. And thanks to Puddin’head Joe, gas to drive to and from the office has skyrocketed.

A.B Prosper
A.B Prosper
Reply to  The Wild Geese Howard
2 years ago

Absolutely. We all knew that the propaganda campaign would be massive as there is so much money on the line. if employees work from home, not only do office buildings empty out but all the ancillary businesses go up with them along with a huge chunk of the tax base. There is a good chance that consumerism itself will go away. Another possible casualty of a “stay at home” culture is the mating/dating market Its in awful shape now and city people after COVID go out less and less anyway but a larger decline will have interesting effects. Reality though,… Read more »

Lori Grondin
Lori Grondin
2 years ago

as this story is pointing out, propaganda is in our midst. I would hope any reader of this, would understand that the author, is in fact spreading propaganda. The author is trying very hard to make you second guess yourself. You know very well that the sky appears blue because of science. ( https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/blue-sky/en/) However this author is trying to tell you that the sky is in fact red. Even though you see blue, the author is trying to make you second guess and pretty soon you believe the sky is red. Continue to think critically. Use your brain to… Read more »

The Infant Phenomenon
The Infant Phenomenon
Reply to  Lori Grondin
2 years ago

“as this story is pointing out, propaganda is in our midst.”

When you say, “the author,” to whom do you refer?

The Infant Phenomenon
The Infant Phenomenon
Reply to  Lori Grondin
2 years ago

“We are stronger than that.”

When you say, “we,” to whom do you refer?

Alzaebo
Alzaebo
Reply to  Lori Grondin
2 years ago

Good lord. Now they’re telling you the sky isn’t blue.

The Infant Phenomenon
The Infant Phenomenon
Reply to  Alzaebo
2 years ago

“Good lord. Now they’re telling you the sky isn’t blue.”

Well, on *their* planet, it prolly ain’t.

TomA
TomA
2 years ago

First, all is not lost. Solutions exist. Second, the sociopaths that afflict us are best described as disease cells. If everyone was a disease cell, then our society would already be dead. The disease cells are still relatively few compared to the whole population. Most of the sheeple have just been trained to acquiesce to this sociopathy in exchange for a comfortable life in the burbs. Third, if the sociopath in the example of today’s post were to die in a horrible accident in which he is run over by his own riding mower and experiences an agonizing death therefrom,… Read more »

Falcone
Falcone
Reply to  TomA
2 years ago

TomA, you should definitely consider taking up playing the Hitman series of video games. Your lawnmower thing is a perfect fit for it. He he he. Very devious ! But Good hitman !

Ploppy
Ploppy
Reply to  TomA
2 years ago

This is a real drawback to the orderly court system that exists in “civilized” societies. The sociopath can hire a sociopath lawyer to work every angle until the system is operating opposite of what was intended.

You go to a place where the government doesn’t give a shit about your problems, and the villagers take it upon themselves to arrange lawnmower accidents for the guy who’s selling deceptively sized ice creams.

btp
Member
2 years ago

I think the central idea is that democracy is the kind of thing the must select for sociopaths as leaders. It’s the nature of the beast. There’s no getting back to a time when the democracy was not selecting for sociopaths, because that would be like looking for dry water. That’s why there is some benefit to older systems where the elite was expected to fight. At the very least, your elite could be counted on to have the virtue of courage. In a world where the options are either to select for wickedness or else to select for a… Read more »

The real Bill
The real Bill
Reply to  btp
2 years ago

I wonder if TV has anything to do with political office attracting sociopaths? The pull of seeing themselves on TV would certainly appeal to the latent megalomaniac in a person.

3 Pipe Problem
3 Pipe Problem
2 years ago

Deprived of divine authority, the concept of human personality has been relentlessly defined conditionally, and therefore arbitrarily. The concrete person is now an abstraction, the subject of legal freedoms and restrictions. Rights are now conditional. This is humanism put into practice. Resting as it now does on arbitrary, flimsy, and shifting foundations, Dostoyevsky observed that such unmindful, “humaneness is only a habit, a product of civilization. It may completely disappear.”
As a modern bard had it, don’t it always seem to go, that you don’t know what you got til it’s gone?

Falcone
Falcone
Reply to  3 Pipe Problem
2 years ago

Here’s a little thing anyone can do I have a puppy. A beautiful chocolate lab. Everything he does cracks me up. He was walking around yesterday with a green grape hanging off his mouth and didn’t even know it. And I think I remember Z saying something similar about the role of pets in our lives. But imagine when the dog is sitting there that God created him solely to be our entertainment, that the dog is there for us and God made us to be the rulers of the earth. It may take a while to get your mind… Read more »

Jack Boniface
Jack Boniface
Member
2 years ago

Revolver.News also has stories from the Russian perspective on the war. It’s not clear what their own position is. Their funders may be divided.

Falcone
Falcone
Reply to  Jack Boniface
2 years ago

I’ve been taking note of all of this too

Breitbart and revolver are like 50/50

Gateway Pundit is 90/10 on Putin’s side

Populist Press has been 95/5 on Ukraine’s side. Which makes me wonder who might be behind it.

I’ve been reading Sputnik and the Saker and Southfront to get my info on how the war is going. These sites are definitely pro Putin /Russia but they seem fairly objective in their reporting.

And we all know Fox is 99/1 on the Ukraine side. The rest of the MSM is positive 1 million to negative 1 trillion

Ploppy
Ploppy
Reply to  thezman
2 years ago

Their tendency to be laconic and dour helps as well. American extroversion always has this disingenuous salesman quality to it.

Marko
Marko
Reply to  Falcone
2 years ago

I think most people shouldn’t even pick a side. I know the dissident reflex is to support Russia, out of spite if nothing else. But many in our ranks would elevate the foulest leader of the most disgusting third-world shithole just because he doesn’t do globohomo. This little war is not about globohomo vs. its resistors. It’s an ancient turf war that the Liberal West and the Little Hats have stuck their pricks into. I’ve been to that part of the world and it sucks. Imagine Bismarck, ND but with a thousand Cabrini Greens instead of homes, and trash, dogs,… Read more »

The Infant Phenomenon
The Infant Phenomenon
Reply to  Marko
2 years ago

the Ukraine produce nearly 700 million bushels of wheat a year. Most of the wheat in the Middle East and N Africa comes from the Ukraine.

There’s an *enormous* amount of gas and oil beneath the Crimea.

This is resource war, but this one is for *all* the marbles. The stakes could mot be higher. We are watching the beginning of the Third World War.

Good ol' Rebel
Good ol' Rebel
Reply to  Marko
2 years ago

Between the Big Guy kickbacks, the Newland Disease Centers (that may or may not have been “researching” corona viruses before 2019), the slush funds for Cloud Kids, the prostitution and kiddy diddling, etc etc – Ukraine was the playground of Dirty Deeds for western elites for the last decade. I am very hopeful that enough dirt comes out to sink a couple of our people’s bigger enemies, or failing that, turn a couple million more ppl to Our Side by the rank corruption and hypocrisy. I mean, there are videos of street walkers rump-railing the stoned son of the US… Read more »

acetone
Member
Reply to  Jack Boniface
2 years ago

Darren Beattie runs Revolver. He’s got pretty good DR bonafides and has expressed pro Russia sentiment on his personal twitter account. Since Revolver is largely a news aggregator, it mostly publishes things that other people write. Beattie’s problem now is that the coverage of the Ukraine conflict is so one sided against Russia that there are few credible new sources to publish with a pro Russia perspective. So when his news aggregator publishes news of the conflict, it naturally reflects the pro Ukraine bias of the MSM. In the case of the ISW story, where else is he going to… Read more »

Major Hoople
Major Hoople
Member
Reply to  acetone
2 years ago

It’s easy to get taken in. The ISW site seemed legit to me, come to find out it was a Kagan operation. Or so I’m told by another site. The internet has turned into a hall of mirrors.

The Infant Phenomenon
The Infant Phenomenon
Reply to  Major Hoople
2 years ago

I must respectfully disagree. ISW looks like disinfo to me, just at a glance.

If it’s true that it’s connected with (((Kagan))), I’m not in the least surprised.

Anti-Gnostic
Anti-Gnostic
Reply to  Major Hoople
2 years ago

There is an entire fake, gay non-profit/think-tank industry that advances the interests of the lords of this world.

I read Marginal Revolution regularly, and Tyler Cowen doles out A LOT of grant money, and you start looking at all these “Institutes” and they are all connected and the money just pours in to employ these eaters.

The Infant Phenomenon
The Infant Phenomenon
Reply to  Anti-Gnostic
2 years ago

“and they are all connected and the money just pours in to employ these eaters.”

Shameful.

usNthem
usNthem
2 years ago

It’s telling how Joseph Goebbels is always cast as the peak evil propagandist (for basically telling the truth about the nose), but he’s got nothing on our current j-media. How much death and destruction has resulted from their lies and distortions over the past couple of decades? Probably easily into the millions and they’re apparently not done yet. Now, supposedly nearly 1/3 of Americans favor war with Russia even if it risks nucs. That’s just f-ning great. I have to say though, it may be true as nearly every conversation I hear is decidedly anti-Russia/Putin. The progagandist’s seem to be… Read more »

Tars Tarkas
Tars Tarkas
Reply to  usNthem
2 years ago

Most polls don’t mean jack. It all depends on how the question is framed. It’s probably trivially easy to get the same person to say he strongly supports X and strongly opposes X in the same survey/poll. I want to know what the questions were and how big the poll was and if it was a truly random sample from across the US. I’m sure DC bugmen support war more than ranchers in Montana. I am quite sure the question was not framed like “Would you support military action against Russia if it means a 40% chance the city closest… Read more »

JerseyJeffersonian
JerseyJeffersonian
Reply to  Tars Tarkas
2 years ago

Bingo. You should view much of polling not as an attempt to get the public’s views (let alone your informed views), but rather an attempt to find out how to exploit the public’s profoundly, jaw-droppingly, comprehensively uninformed views to vault the already decided upon regime propaganda. Very “Bernaysian”, if you catch my drift; implantation of a nose ring, and learning how much, and in which direction to tug on it.

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  JerseyJeffersonian
2 years ago

There are basically two types of political polls. One type is to get results that produce a desired public response—favorable to whatever your agenda is. The other, secret/private/internal is to sample the public’s opinion as correctly as possible—again of course to aid in manipulating the public.

That’s why I try not to listen to poll results. You will never get the complete information as to the constriction of the polling and therefore are most assured of being mislead.

FUBSY
FUBSY
Reply to  Tars Tarkas
2 years ago

I’m not worried about nuclear fallout, I’m sure they have a mask and vaccine for that!😜

The Infant Phenomenon
The Infant Phenomenon
Reply to  usNthem
2 years ago

“The progagandist’s seem to be winning the battle for hearts and minds – … .”

Let’s see … hearts and minds … hearts and minds …

Nope. Ain’t buyin’ it.

Major Hoople
Major Hoople
Member
Reply to  usNthem
2 years ago

Goebbels was born too early. He was made to run an American tv network.

The real Bill
The real Bill
2 years ago

Thinking about our evolutionary origins as human beings— in hunter-gatherer groups made up of 50 to 150 members of our extended family and their spouses and kids— it’s not hard to see why honesty was considered so vitally important. Lying was corrosive of the social fabric of the group, in the same way that stealing and murder would be. A sociopath who was unable to refrain from lying would eventually be cast out from the group; and being separated from the group meant certain death. So refraining from lying and deceiving was important on two levels: for the individual, since… Read more »

Captain Willard
Captain Willard
2 years ago

“We are reaching the point where there are no rules, just who can get over on whom. It is the anarcho-capitalist society in which no one can trust anyone or anything. Instead, a war of all against all, it is an endless series of confidence games. Everyone has an angle and is trying to get over on someone else.” This is as American as Apple Pie. The “medicine show”, patent medicines, “snake oil” etc. have been part of our scene from the beginning. The glib salesman is ingrained in our culture (Music Man, Death of a Salesman). The main difference… Read more »

Alzaebo
Alzaebo
Reply to  Captain Willard
2 years ago

“All restaurants are Taco Bell now.”

Instead of a Communist ration card system, we get a Capitalist one.

Fragility? Redundancy? What’s that?

ArthurinCali
ArthurinCali
2 years ago

I posted the comment below on an article related to the military support Biden recently announced that will be sent to Ukraine. Judging from the replies calling me a Russian puppet, Trumper, coward, et all, it seems alot of people enjoy being misled. Not much debate on the negative repercussions that may occur. While most couldn’t find Ukraine on a map yesterday they now give full-throated support for starting WWIII. One of the greatest fallacies in decision-making at all levels, from personal, professional and especially in the political realm of foreign and domestic policy, is the belief that there are… Read more »

TomA
TomA
Reply to  ArthurinCali
2 years ago

Very true. Some of these weapons most assuredly will be sold off to nefarious third parties for a quick buck and then used outside the current theater of Ukraine’s war. Those future deaths will be blood on Biden’s hands also. And since the US chickenhawks will never stop promoting endless war, it’s a good bet that our military will once again be engaged in more hot conflicts overseas in the near future. What if Russia then decides in tit-for-tat to arm the goat herders with sophisticated arms that kill US servicemen in large numbers. That blood will also be on… Read more »

Alzaebo
Alzaebo
Reply to  TomA
2 years ago

Arthur & TomA nail it.
The black market in arms must be white hot right now.

They’re arming the dusky invaders for the coming Conquest of White Europe.

miforest
Member
Reply to  Alzaebo
2 years ago

the famine coming will cause mass migration out of africa, the middle east and central America. probably part of the plan

The Infant Phenomenon
The Infant Phenomenon
Reply to  TomA
2 years ago

“What if Russia then decides in tit-for-tat to arm the goat herders with sophisticated arms that kill US servicemen in large numbers. That blood will also be on Biden’s hands.”

Good post. May I add to it?

What if the Russians decide to get serious?

What if they activate their assets *inside* the US and other countries?

What then?

I was marveling only yesterday that they haven’t activated assets inside the US already.

I’d expect that to happen before anybody goes nuclear. But somebody might go with tactical nukes in Europe.

We are skating on very thin ice.

Good ol' Rebel
Good ol' Rebel
Reply to  The Infant Phenomenon
2 years ago

Infant: my take is that Russia is holding off the zero days and “shut down the grid” stuff in case NATO gets too frisky. Deterence doesnt work if you pop your big guns at the outset. If those pollack migs take off from Rammstein, I expect some backbone american utility to have sudden, unexpected, practically permanent catastrophic failures. I do NOT think our ruling class is smart enough to counteract or prevent whatever it is that Ivan has planned. Dangerous times to have such stupid rulers.

Tars Tarkas
Tars Tarkas
Reply to  ArthurinCali
2 years ago

” This is money that would have been great for job training programs, childcare, healthcare and a slew of other areas that used to be in the wheelhouse proclaimed by the Left.”

This would be pure grift. Everything in America is a racket.
Do we really want free or reduced childcare encouraging more of our mothers to work? Or blowing money on “training programs” for people who don’t work and won’t work. The training racket is real. What percentage of such money would be made available only to certain groups like Indian affairs.

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  Tars Tarkas
2 years ago

True story. Working through school, I got a job in a gas station. Owner/operator had an unbelievable tool collection for such a small, two bay affair. I asked him where he got all the tools once. He simply explained he bought them all from “graduates” of the then government’s CERT program in automotive mechanics. All “graduates” received a voucher for tool purchase upon graduation. In those days, the best of the best, Craftsmen. They of course had no interest in employment, so simply picked up the tools—brand new—and sold them to gas stations in the neighborhood. 🙁

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  Compsci
2 years ago

Correction to above. CERT should be CETA. That program has a long list of reviews and discussion.

JerseyJeffersonian
JerseyJeffersonian
Reply to  Compsci
2 years ago

My dad, who came from a childhood in Depression Era Arkansas, made something of himself. He was an only child, his dad an electrician for the Missouri Pacific RR originally from a family in Nebraska, his mother a stay at home mom with roots in Missouri. Dad grew up in Little Rock, as that was a nexus for his dad’s RR. My dad earned his doctorate in Psychology, but focused on cognitive psych/human factors engineering, and not any sort of clinical work. Built his own company from scratch, and it was a grinding, years long effort. So he valued individual… Read more »

ArthurinCali
ArthurinCali
Reply to  Tars Tarkas
2 years ago

Tars Tarkas,

The line about the money being spent otherwise for more gov’t cheese was meant as sarcasm against the Left, as they were allegedly the side that used to be anti-war. Kind of my attempt to use their own platitudes to point out the hypocrisy of this situation.

Tars Tarkas
Tars Tarkas
Reply to  ArthurinCali
2 years ago

Ah, OK. Sorry about that.

3 Pipe Problem
3 Pipe Problem
2 years ago

I worked, and now run a contract lab, for a consumer products company. After successful launch of any product, the very next project is to “cost-save” the product. i.e., cheapen it up while given the illusion it still performs as well as the original. So, it was no surprise to me, and this many years ago, perhaps in the 90s, when the vending machine started featuring Mallo cups, three to a pack. Theretofore, it was two cups. Upon closer inspection, the package read, “now, with 33% more cups!” It goes without saying that the net weight had been reduced. Oh… Read more »

Screwtape
Screwtape
Reply to  3 Pipe Problem
2 years ago

“The lie is the coin of the realm” indeed. Which means that marketing and all the rest solve toward the lie. The skilled work is in dressing the lie. Business schools teach innovation that is just fashion accessories for the lie. Commodify, normalize/familiarize, then change. Collusion is also a regular part of this as well. Looking at any packaging across the absurd number of brands and amazingly they are almost all the same. Why are they all 3.45 ounces? The shaker pint glass, that familiar shaped “pint” is everywhere. But while it used to be 16oz to the brim, there… Read more »

La-Z-Man
La-Z-Man
Reply to  3 Pipe Problem
2 years ago

That should have read 50% more cups. It went from 2 to 3, and 1 is 50% of 2. Had it gone from 3 to 2, then it would be 33% reduction (1 in 3).

imnobody00
imnobody00
2 years ago

“People used to worry about this problem.” During the entire human history, people used to think that good and evil were absolute things and you have a responsibility to do and enforce good and to avoid and persecute evil. This was not limited to laws (which are always the last emergency mechanism, only when conscience and stigma have failed). Read “Bring back stigma” by Roger Scruton https://www.city-journal.org/html/bring-back-stigma-11807.html Now the theory is that good and evil are relative and that anybody can define these concepts by himself. Only the most important evils (like killing or stealing in a traditional way) are… Read more »

Memebro
Memebro
Reply to  imnobody00
2 years ago

“Only the most important evils (like killing or stealing in a traditional way) are punished by law.”

And as we’ve seen recently, even those laws are malleable if the murderer is non-white and the victim is white.

Tars Tarkas
Tars Tarkas
Reply to  Memebro
2 years ago

Stealing is de-facto legal in many localities across the country. The DA sends out a letter saying they will no longer prosecute “minor” crimes like shoplifting under 700 Dollars. We have SJW prosecutors getting elected in a lot of our cities. That is how they can get de-facto laws. The DA has ultimate discretion and cannot be punished for abusing that discretion. The very same discretion that allows de-facto legal stealing is also used to brutally enforce every jot a title of the law against disfavored people.

BeAprepper
BeAprepper
Reply to  imnobody00
2 years ago

Roger Scruton. Always worth reading. Thanks for that link.

Tired Citizen
Tired Citizen
2 years ago

This reminded me of a conference I attended years ago which had numerous guest speakers. One of them was an accomplished entrepreneur who had worked in the automobile industry for a long time. He gave a presentation about how American car companies needed to reinvent themselves because their prior business model was to build cars that would crap out at around 70k to 100k miles so they could cash in on the service required to fix them.

Of course, this all came crashing down when Americans began buying Honda and Toyota vehicles.

Falcone
Falcone
Reply to  Tired Citizen
2 years ago

Yep, the old planned obsolescence game

Spend your life making things that are made to break.

Lol. What a life and career. You spend more time and effort thinking of how to make something last for two years rather than making it last for 20 years.

I don’t see how decent people cannot either quit or lose a bit of themselves staying on with a company like that, but then people have to eat so you get guys who hang on and just become old and cynical. I know a number of them. They started out as decent people.

Mow Noname
Mow Noname
Reply to  Falcone
2 years ago

I used to be a skeptic, now I’m a cynic. It stinks. Here at GloboBank, as valued employee number 35, 463, my health and safety is the companies number one concern. Since I haven’t taken the experimental Covid19 gene therapy nor the required booster, the company cares so much that I can’t go into the office nor attend any client or business events. Needless to say, I press the appropriate buttons and do the absolute minimum, each and every day. If something is broken or can be improved? I don’t care. “Not my job.” I’m sure the serfs in the… Read more »

Dennis Roe
Dennis Roe
Reply to  Mow Noname
2 years ago

I used to be a cynic, now I’m a hermit.

mmack
mmack
Reply to  Tired Citizen
2 years ago

“One of them was an accomplished entrepreneur who had worked in the automobile industry for a long time. He gave a presentation about how American car companies needed to reinvent themselves because their prior business model was to build cars that would crap out at around 70k to 100k miles so they could cash in on the service required to fix them.” I read Z’s post this morning and thought about how the “Big Three” committed the Sin of Omission in building cars. Two examples jumped to mind: 1) The Chevrolet Vega. Skimp on steel liners for the aluminum engine… Read more »

Steve
Steve
Reply to  mmack
2 years ago
Fred Beans
Fred Beans
Reply to  mmack
2 years ago

Ahhh, the 70s, what a great time to get your driver’s license. Cars with melting engines, rolling bombs, rust-buckets, planned obsolescence galor. It took the Japanese carmakers to shake US manufacturers out of their complacency.

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  Tired Citizen
2 years ago

Oldest vehicle I ever drove as a Toyota Tacoma. About 140k miles when I sold it. Changed the oil and timing belt. Nothing else, ever. Never was an “American” car that had this reputation. Funny thing was, the damn thing was made in Tennessee. So who’s fooling who. Americans can make good stuff if the company is behind them.

miforest
Member
Reply to  Compsci
2 years ago

my 2006 ford crown vic has 272K on it . routine maint only .

Joey Jünger
Joey Jünger
2 years ago

I had a buddy in psyops who was fond of saying, “You want to know how the psyop campaign has begun? Don’t look for the flyers falling from the airplanes onto the civilians of the invaded country. Look on your TV for the first story about enemy bombs hitting a civilian hospital.” Of course, in this kind of transactional con artist society (where even the authorities are on the take) the only kind of justice that can exist is frontier justice. You need to be able to string up the pickpocket quickly, and, though it’s barbaric (and stinky) you have… Read more »

mmack
mmack
Reply to  Joey Jünger
2 years ago

I posted this at Severian’s site (linked here as Rotten Chestnuts) the other day:

Bombing Hospitals, Orphanages, and Schools is your go-to for propagandists on either side of the conflict. Gives you the moral high ground over the “Monsters” facing you. I remember the TV series “World At War” had an episode titled “Whirlwind” that covered the UK/US strategic aerial bombing campaign. Among the historical footage the producers included was a German newsreel that claimed the RAF targeted a children’s hospital.

Yeah, the Germans, who flattened Guernica, Rotterdam, Warsaw, London, Coventry, etc.

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  mmack
2 years ago

Yeah, and the aerial campaign was pretty much shown after the war to be ineffective strategically in after-war Air Force analysis (white paper still can be found online). Some interesting facts I came across recently. Some relics in the UK (or US) war museums on heavy German armor, i.e., Panzerjäger, with a December 1945 serial number. Yep they were still making them with the Allies swarming over the Rhine. The Allies were particularly interested in this weapon, which was built in Koln (Cologne). So after the surrender, they recalled the factory workers reopened the factory, and had them build another… Read more »

karl von hungus
karl von hungus
2 years ago

Well the thing is supermarkets (and pharmacies) do sell poisonous products, that do induce further sales. Half the products in a grocery store are demonstrably unhealthy to consume, but there they are. The herd of normies isn’t getting obese (and diabetic) all on its own; they are getting plenty of help along the way – including from the media. Then there is Pfizer…

Isn’t it possible – if not likely – that having so many gullible people in the populace, not only allows, but actually causes, so many sociopaths all over the economy/government? i.e. society got dumb, first, then predatory.

Falcone
Falcone
Reply to  karl von hungus
2 years ago

An operative word and concept is chutzpah The image that pops up in my head is you get starry eyed white people who want to become stars so they go onto something like a talent show and perform for the (((judges))) their version or interpretation of chutzpah. And they end up having to take it to increasingly absurd lengths to get noticed. Meanwhile the judges are sitting there smiling deviously and loving it, loving the taste. More more more. And if you think about it, what has our society become but an endless parade of ambitious goys tripping over themselves… Read more »

The Infant Phenomenon
The Infant Phenomenon
Reply to  karl von hungus
2 years ago

” … products in a grocery store are demonstrably unhealthy to consume, but there they are. The herd of normies isn’t getting obese (and diabetic) all on its own; … .”

We have traded away health and real food for speed and convenience.

One of the worst things you can do to your body, btw, is microwave your food. Microwaving your food generates free radicals, which, long-term, are carcinogens.

Speed & convenience. That’s what we have traded away health for.

The Wild Geese Howard
The Wild Geese Howard
2 years ago

Here in Hochulstan a bag of Utz potato chips is now $4.29 for 7.75 oz.

In North African countries like Egypt, prosecutors are jailing people for, “storing food commodities to exploit recent price increases”:

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20220317-egypt-jails-merchant-to-5-years-for-hiding-commodities/

Egypt is also imposing price caps on unsubsidized bread:

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20220316-egypt-caps-unsubsidised-bread-prices/

I wonder what things will look like in that region in 3 months’ time…

karl von hungus
karl von hungus
Reply to  The Wild Geese Howard
2 years ago

thee will not be any bread for sale. for a start.

The Infant Phenomenon
The Infant Phenomenon
Reply to  karl von hungus
2 years ago

“thee will not be any bread for sale. for a start.”

Most of the Ukraine’s exported wheat goes to the middle east and N Africa.

And we already know what they will do when food prices rise beyond their reach.

Argentina has just decided not to export soy meal. Many countries are now stopping food exports.

The Wild Geese Howard
The Wild Geese Howard
Reply to  The Infant Phenomenon
2 years ago

The country of Algeria has banned the re-export of the food that it spends a mint to import:

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20220316-algeria-bans-food-exports-amid-fears-of-global-shortages/

Yeah, North Africa is gonna be lit in the near future…

The Infant Phenomenon
The Infant Phenomenon
Reply to  The Wild Geese Howard
2 years ago

” … Algeria has banned the re-export … .”

Thanks. Didn’t know that.

Not familiar with that site, either, so thanks for that, too.

karl von hungus
karl von hungus
Reply to  The Wild Geese Howard
2 years ago

that’s about $9/LB for effin potato chips, which are nutritionally garbage. i can get a can of tuna for $2 (3 or 4 oz) or a pound of ground chuck for $6. only a goober would pay that for chips (which i don’t buy regardless of price).

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  karl von hungus
2 years ago

Come and live where I live. Potato chips, what potato chips? Here, real men eat taco chips—and there’s no shortage of them. Nothing like living just North of the border! 😉

RoBG
RoBG
Reply to  The Wild Geese Howard
2 years ago

And yet corn will be harvested for ethanol.

Citizen of a Silly Country
Citizen of a Silly Country
2 years ago

Btw – and I apologize for bringing up a an off-topic subject and promise not to do it again but I do think that this is important – is anyone else a tad concerned that the Senate voted unanimously and Biden said publicly that Putin is a “war criminal”? They just made this whole affair a win or die situation for Putin. Why would he negotiate with the US? For that matter, why would the US negotiate with a war criminal? Our leaders are so used to having absolute power over those whom they choose to “cancel,” that they act… Read more »

Evil Sandmich
Evil Sandmich
Reply to  Citizen of a Silly Country
2 years ago

GAE funds and trains terrorists in Ukraine to endlessly* harass, murder, and maim Russian civilians for no other reason than to get a rise out of Putin, and Putin is the “war criminal”.

*I say “endlessly”, but their end is very near if not already in the rear view mirror. Good riddance.

Rando
Rando
Reply to  Evil Sandmich
2 years ago

The Gay American Empire is desperate and lashing out. These senile old fools and overgrown man-children who’ve never been punched don’t understand that the other powers aren’t scared of them anymore. It would be funny if it wasn’t risking WW3.

Falcone
Falcone
Reply to  Rando
2 years ago

Z Man among others have studied up on the fall of the USSR I wonder if there are parallels. Such as at that time, many guys in the upper ranks of leadership were saying just as many stupid things as our guys today? Were there guys in the background calling for Reagan’s assassination a la Lindsey graham? And things of that nature. I guess my larger point is to look for similar behaviors from a people whose worlds as they knew were similarly ending. And if we find enough maybe we have yet more circumstantial evidence and hints that our… Read more »

The Infant Phenomenon
The Infant Phenomenon
Reply to  Falcone
2 years ago

” … maybe we have yet more circumstantial evidence and hints that our system is also about to break apart.”

I don’t think we need any more. And I’m being serious, not ironic or jocund.

Member
Reply to  Falcone
2 years ago

Well, let’s do a checklist.
1. Geriatric, barely functional top leadership? Check. The Politburo’s choices near the end were Brezhnev (75), Andropov, (a spry 69), Chernenko, (73).
Biden’s already pushing 80, Pelosi (81) and of the Vichy Right, McConnell is 80.
2. Assassination as statecraft? Check. Andropov as KGB chief decided to kill the Polish Pope, contracting it out through cutouts to a Turk.

Jack Dobson
Jack Dobson
Reply to  Falcone
2 years ago

We found out after the Cold War ended that Andropov had suggested a nuclear first strike in response to missile defense systems. Like, seriously suggested it. A few days later he died. The claim was Andropov had developed a previously unknown illness.

The United States does not have people around those who would make the decision lined up to take out our would-be mass murderer (it would NOT be Biden and likely someone we don’t know). So as someone who loathed the USSR, I have watched my own country become something worse.

The Wild Geese Howard
The Wild Geese Howard
Reply to  Evil Sandmich
2 years ago

Did you see Pelosi’s recent incoherent rant about bombing the Russian convoy in Ukraine?

She’s looking and sounding way less functional than Joe right now.

The Infant Phenomenon
The Infant Phenomenon
Reply to  The Wild Geese Howard
2 years ago

“Did you see Pelosi’s recent incoherent rant about bombing the Russian convoy in Ukraine?”

No. Do you have a link? Was she serious–I mean, had such a thing actually happened, or was she talking tough or something?

The Wild Geese Howard
The Wild Geese Howard
Reply to  The Infant Phenomenon
2 years ago

TIP-

I do have a link for Pelosi:

https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2022/03/15/nancy-pelosi-has-putin-strategery-figured-out-he-is-trying-to-bait-her-into-a-nato-attack/

I also have a link for Joe sputtering about how, “…every American knows someone blackmailed by explicit photos…”:

https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2022/03/16/joe-biden-says-every-american-knows-someone-blackmailed-by-intimate-naked-and-sexually-explicit-pictures/

I suppose sometimes the mask slips a bit…

Moran ya Simba
Moran ya Simba
Reply to  Citizen of a Silly Country
2 years ago

Completely reckless in an increasingly dangerous crisis. They, incredibly, still do not understand that they are not dealing with some backwater, desert sh*thole but the country with the largest – and most advanced mind you – nuclear arsenal in history. And they are just making absolutely sure there can be no meetings of the mind now. Wanting to avoid too much foul language, I have no words for this. They are literally provoking a nuclear war. [further thoughts deleted for the sake of decorum]

Moran ya Simba
Moran ya Simba
Reply to  Moran ya Simba
2 years ago

* for technical accuracy; largest nuclear arsenal in the world; the USSR in the 1970s or 1980s had the largest in history and far larger than today. Not sure how much of a silver lining that is.

Falcone
Falcone
Reply to  Citizen of a Silly Country
2 years ago

It’s in the hands of fate if you ask me

I mean, if Putin truly is a righteous man, events will unfold accordingly. If we are truly an evil nation, the same. If there is a little bit of both in both sides, then who knows.

But it is like a duel, where righteousness gives one a slight edge.

My take is that the Russian side is the more righteous. Not only their military but their people. And their collective desires and prayers may outweigh ours and cause the cosmos to tilt and shine on them. Or however it works.

David Wright
Member
Reply to  Citizen of a Silly Country
2 years ago

who knew that the cancel culture we inhabit would rise to America’s highest virtue or raison d’etre.

Falcone
Falcone
Reply to  David Wright
2 years ago

Tucker touched on something either last night or night before, but the idea was that the Covid thing may have even made our leaders crazy. The masking etc the shock of it all etc

Wouldn’t that be poetic justice that they set out to demoralize and cripple us mentally and spiritually and yet they are the ones who had it happen to them!

Never ever underestimate the powers of a guilty conscience even among the most sociopathic people. These people know they did wrong and no amount of lying to oneself will ever change it. Nature won’t be fooled !

The Infant Phenomenon
The Infant Phenomenon
Reply to  Falcone
2 years ago

“Never ever underestimate the powers of a guilty conscience even among the most sociopathic people.”

I doubt that some–probably most–of “them” don’t even have a conscience, let alone guilty ones.

The Infant Phenomenon
The Infant Phenomenon
Reply to  The Infant Phenomenon
2 years ago

Haste does make waste.

I doubt that they *have* a conscience.

The Wild Geese Howard
The Wild Geese Howard
Reply to  Falcone
2 years ago

Yeah, that’s great poetic justice, except for the fact these fools are on track to get us all killed in a nuclear WW3.

Falcone
Falcone
Reply to  The Wild Geese Howard
2 years ago

WWW3 is next episode

We are not there yet 😜

The Infant Phenomenon
The Infant Phenomenon
Reply to  The Wild Geese Howard
2 years ago

Yeah, I agree with Falcone here. W are not there yet.

They have assets inside the US and other countries that they can use. And they have some bad-a** conventional weapons they can use against North America.

Nukes are last-ditch utter-desperation weapons. And everybody involved has a lot of stuff they can do before going nuclear.

It would cause more problems than it would solve, and even our lunatic rulers know that.

But there was that Deagle dot com site with the population projections for 2025.

The Infant Phenomenon
The Infant Phenomenon
Reply to  Citizen of a Silly Country
2 years ago

“Why would he negotiate with the US?” You’d think he’d have asked that question of himself several years ago, but he continued negotiating in good faith with utterly faithless (((people))), until last month, when he seems to have realized–and accepted–that negotiating with liars and lunatics was pointless. Right up until the very last moment, he and Lavrov continued using the phrase “our Western partners.” “For that matter, why would the US negotiate with a war criminal?” They wouldn’t. They have no intention of doing such a thing. They never did. They are going hell-for-leather for their beloved “regime change.” In… Read more »

Moran ya Simba
Moran ya Simba
Reply to  The Infant Phenomenon
2 years ago

“I am beginning to feel a bit nervous. These Great Reset freekazoids might do *anything.*” Honestly I think the problem is that they basically know that drawing and quartering or burning at the stake, both meant literally, probably awaits them if they lose control now and their historically great mega-crime against their Western homelands were fully exposed and the veil lies dropped. They may actually have decided that they stand a better chance in nuclear war than if they lose control of the countries they have raped and destroyed for decades. We may be seeing that, them having concluded that… Read more »

The Infant Phenomenon
The Infant Phenomenon
Reply to  Moran ya Simba
2 years ago

“We may be seeing that, them having concluded that only something like nuclear war will distract people enough that they can make a get-away … .”

You know, you might be onto something with that. I hadn’t looked at it that way, but it makes a bushel and a peck of sense when you write it out and look at it in b & W.

The Infant Phenomenon
The Infant Phenomenon
Reply to  The Infant Phenomenon
2 years ago

@ Moran ya Simba: Yeah, if they had told the truth in August of 2019, when Jerome Powell announced the Fed’s “special Repo market window for foreign central banks,” they would have been torn to pieces in the streets, and that’s why the chinkypox was proclaimed less than 5 months later. And that kept them safe for 2 years, but it has stopped working. And who believes it’s coincidental that Fauci disappeared simultaneously with the arrival of the Ukraine business? And Armstrong has reported that “they” actually believe that the world has only five years left if they don’t fix… Read more »

Jack Dobson
Jack Dobson
Reply to  miforest
2 years ago

Those bunkers need to be bombed now if that is real. Surely there is one patriotic and loyal soul left in the MIC who would do it.

The Infant Phenomenon
The Infant Phenomenon
Reply to  miforest
2 years ago

“. no kidding , lots of them are in NZ.” Yeah, that’s what I’ve read. But going nuke would cause more problems–for them–than it would solve, and *some* of them know that. They surely cannot imagine that they could come out of their bunkers in three weeks and just go back to their old lives, only with fewer dirt people in the world. Not even *those* idjits are that stupid. And who are these true believers anyway? We saw the O’Bamas buy a multi-million-dollar beachfront property in some equally hellish place. Martha’s Vineyard, was it? Anyway, it is clear that… Read more »

Outdoorspro
Outdoorspro
Reply to  The Infant Phenomenon
2 years ago

I’m not worried that they’ll go crazy(er) and start a nuclear exchange right away. But these are people who have absolutely no concept of consequences, especially over the long term. They have zero ability to consider their actions, and all the possible outcomes and potential reactions. They are like children, where the totality everything is right here, right now.

That’s what worries me. The idea that there may be unintended consequences does not occur to them.

The Infant Phenomenon
The Infant Phenomenon
Reply to  Outdoorspro
2 years ago

“I’m not worried that they’ll go crazy(er) and start a nuclear exchange right away.”

I hope to God you’re right. But for them, it might not be “right away.” They’ve been planning this for a long time.

Armstrong is saying the week of April 18th (Paul Revere’s Ride!) going into the first week of May are possibilities for this crisis to become a “confrontation.”

NATO has mobilized hundreds of thousands of soldiers. The US has mobilized 100,000. Apparently since yesterday.

Outdoorspro
Outdoorspro
Reply to  The Infant Phenomenon
2 years ago

“Mobilized” usually means to call up your reserves to active service. As one of those reservists, I have yet to see any mass mobilizations, especially not the huge number you suggest.

The Infant Phenomenon
The Infant Phenomenon
Reply to  The Infant Phenomenon
2 years ago

@Outdoorspro
on:

Good catch. I was relying on my memory. Here’s the exact quote:

” … Lloyd Austin, stating that hundreds of thousands of NATO troops were placed on high alert along with 100,000 US troops.”

My fault.

ProZNoV
ProZNoV
Reply to  The Infant Phenomenon
2 years ago

Major airlines in the US are full of reserve military pilots. At least 10-20% of total staffing.

These guys aren’t getting war orders; if they do, you’ll know, because every major airline schedule will go in the toilet overnight (pilots are trained to specific aircraft, retaining en masse takes many months)

Just a tea leaf reading. Take a deep breath, real war drums haven’t started yet.

I suppose another proxy would be if US lady soldier LARPers start getting preggers in high numbers.

Jack Dobson
Jack Dobson
Reply to  Outdoorspro
2 years ago

These types would rather enjoy a nuclear war if they thought, delusionally or not, they would survive it. These are evil people, perhaps the worst in history.

Tired Citizen
Tired Citizen
Reply to  Citizen of a Silly Country
2 years ago

To the pack of morons known as the ruling class, this is just another attempt at doing anything and everything the opposite of the previous administration.

Living in the fantasy world they live in, using hashtags to smear Putin will surely defeat him, right?

acetone
Member
Reply to  Citizen of a Silly Country
2 years ago

I expect bad things from Democrats. But I am still surprised at the poor quality of Republicans in the Senate. Isn’t there a single Republican there that sees things from even a vaguely DR perspective? What is going on?

Citizen of a Silly Country
Citizen of a Silly Country
2 years ago

“We are reaching the point where there are no rules, just who can get over on whom. It is the anarcho-capitalist society in which no one can trust anyone or anything. Instead, a war of all against all, it is an endless series of confidence games. Everyone has an angle and is trying to get over on someone else.” In essence, we’ve taken on the culture of our rulers – the usual suspects – who slowly gained control of the commanding heights of society, particularly media, over the second half of the 20th century and took full control (behind the… Read more »

Evil Sandmich
Evil Sandmich
Reply to  Citizen of a Silly Country
2 years ago

I’d watched a show on Tokugawa era Japan that mentioned that towards the end of the system the merchants, who were technically on the bottom of the rigid social hierarchy, had amassed more wealth than the nobles. It was part of what led the Shogunate to try and reform their system, though in hindsight the proper course of action would have been to put all the merchants on a boat and sink it in the ocean.

Forever Templar
Forever Templar
Reply to  Evil Sandmich
2 years ago

Fascinating era. Towards the end, however, reform of the noble classes wouldn’t have done much. The shogunate system and samurai class were nearly as disconnected from the common person as our beloved cloud people. People saw them as severely anachronistic, even alien.

Moran ya Simba
Moran ya Simba
2 years ago

“It is tempting to think this is just the way the world is and we just see it more clearly now thanks to the mass media age.”

NO! Since Glubb, civilizational cycles should be considered established knowledge, not speculation. Cultures can be healthy or sick. The West is culturally terminal and is becoming the ugliest d*mn thing you could ever imagine. The Woke disease is absolutely real, the West IS dying.

Falcone
Falcone
2 years ago

The initial scenario doesn’t sound so crazy to me. I mean something like a McDonald’s puts chemicals in their foods so you don’t feel like you’ve eaten enough and eat more. Think about that. Not a bridge too far to them poisoning you lightly so you buy an aspirin. Or look at how insane our pop culture is, which I know has some planning involved around it so people feel confused and buy anxiety meds and stuff like that to help cope. I wouldn’t be surprised if the cartels are behind it so people buy heroin and fentanyl to cope.… Read more »

Moran ya Simba
Moran ya Simba
Reply to  Falcone
2 years ago

I feel impotent, murderous rage tbh

Falcone
Falcone
Reply to  thezman
2 years ago

Oh geez, well isn’t that even worse? Why not just sell them chemically-deceptive cardboard or saw dust burgers ? Why even bother with the food at all?

But who am I kidding. They are already trying to pass off flavored slime as alternatives to meat.

And the media and press and oligarchs like Gates are cheering them on like coaches on the sidelines

The real Bill
The real Bill
Reply to  thezman
2 years ago

Back before our modern era of processed foods, our bodies developed two means of gauging when we’d eaten enough: 1) there are ‘stretch receptors’ in our stomach walls that alert our brains when our stomach is becoming distended: sending us the message “You’re full; stop eating”. 2) there are ‘calorie detectors’ or ‘richness detectors’ in our stomach and intestinal walls that gauge how rich the food is that we’ve eaten: what the ‘caloric density’ is. The more calorie-rich the food in our digestive tract, the quicker satiety signals are sent to our brains to tell it to shut off the… Read more »

Falcone
Falcone
Reply to  The real Bill
2 years ago

You bring up great points One thing I am I guess proud of or at least fortunate for was that I had the luxury of spending much of my youth and adolescence in Italy and Spain and France and if home then among Italians and the French cajuns etc. So eating well has always been an important thing in my life, but more importantly I was “trained” in Italy on how to eat. How you want small portions but a nice balance of foods. But after a while you “get it” and realize you are just as well fed and… Read more »

Moran ya Simba
Moran ya Simba
2 years ago

“…and before long a third of the public wants nuclear war over Ukraine.”

Paging General Pinochet, paging General Pinochet; the f*cktards are getting us all killed. We need you to take charge immediately. The helicopters are being lined up outside per your request.

The Infant Phenomenon
The Infant Phenomenon
Reply to  Moran ya Simba
2 years ago

” … a third of the public wants nuclear war over Ukraine.”

And they just might get it:

https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/world-news/war/nato-calls-up-hundreds-of-thousands-of-troops-ready-to-begin-wwiii/

The Wild Geese Howard
The Wild Geese Howard
Reply to  The Infant Phenomenon
2 years ago

Somehow the US managed to sneak over 100k troops into Europe for the first time since 2005.

The normies at work are all excited because, “…this Ukraine thing is gonna provide job security!”

The Infant Phenomenon
The Infant Phenomenon
Reply to  The Wild Geese Howard
2 years ago

“The normies at work are all excited because, “…this Ukraine thing is gonna provide job security!”

Okay, if this is stupid, just tell me so point blank. But things are so weird nowadays that I have to ask: Are normies saying that?

The Wild Geese Howard
The Wild Geese Howard
Reply to  The Infant Phenomenon
2 years ago

TIP-

Not a bad question at all.

That is a direct quote from an early 60s technician that watches Faux News and surfs Citizen Free Press.

Of course, he got double-jabbed and boosted with Moderna as soon as they were available.

miforest
Member
Reply to  Moran ya Simba
2 years ago

the power of the media over the normie is complete. people on both sides of the “aisle ” that I know say stupid things like ” we should put in a no fly zone , I know it’s risky but if it stops Putin it’s worth it ” . After the way they were controlled by the insane covid narrative , I was shocked and appalled . from what I am seeing now I am terrified. they can be made to believe anything . really anything . A gerat example of this is Ferfal over at the modern survivalist is… Read more »