203 thoughts on “Looking Back At 2023”

1. Happy New Year.
   I will buy you a beer.

   My prediction for 24 is the color revolution plays out Into chaos as it always does, I mean our American color revolution.

   Millei: You really hate Libertarians lol.
   I just despise them.

2. Happy New Year to all here! 2024 will dramatic. May it also be fruitful

3. Given the porous nature of our excuse for a southern border, I’m getting bad vibes about tonight’s celebrations.

   • Bad is good.
     Just quoting Huey Lewis

   • Jesus, “porous” doesn’t approach describing the reality. It’s to the point of why even bother pretending having a border security service?

4. My brother married a girl originally from Lagos. They live in an apartment in a Left Coast whitopia, but they noticed that they can get a 3-story townhouse with wood floors in Lagos for the same price, so now of course she wants to move there. They are intentionally oblivious leftists–the only kind of people who would move there. Glad to hear Z man is getting out.

   • Sounds like the old joke “Did you hear that you can buy a house 🏡 in Detroit for $1?”

     “Yeah? What’s the catch?”

     “You have to live in Detroit.”

     Sounds like your brother and sister in law have to learn the stove is hot by putting their hands on the lit burner. I hope you can talk some sense into them.

   • She’s *from* there and wants to move back!?! Wow, I can sometimes forgive Portland shitlibs who move to Baltimore or Detroit when they hear about the fabulous bargains on houses there. Sometimes they do this even knowing that those cities are basically 100% black. Portland Whites, though, never meet actual, real blacks. The only blacks they know are the ones on TV who are all neurosurgeons and stockbrokers. I suppose it’s possible that your sister-in-law is one of those people I used to know who would say they were from Baltimore but actually lived way out in Harford or Carroll County and made a point of driving all the way around the beltway to get to the other side of the city.

5. I enjoyed ZMan’s post, but I beg to differ on his assessment of Trump’s chances.

   I don’t think the Donald will be “gone.” He’ll weasel his way out of any conundrum (no disrespect intended by the use of weasel-word). He’s like a rubber ball in squash: whack him as hard as you like against the wall, he only bounces back harder.

   The thing about Trump is THE POLLS SHOW HIM BEATING BIDEN IN A GENERAL ELECTION. Even a year out, polls are pretty accurate indicators of what’s going to happen. It’s been that way since 2008, when Obama defied the polls and had a good personal result.

   And you have to factor in one more thing: the polls tend to underestimate Donald Trump’s level of support among the population. People aren’t always confident enough to tell the truth to a stranger about where their heart lies. If this is the case, we could be in for a Trump landslide come the new year.

   (To read more of my stuff, click on my name with your mouse.)

   • Around Jan or Feb 2020 a second Orange term was looking pretty likely also

   • And how, pray tell, does one win an election when their NAME is not on the ballot?

     The utter farcical illusion of ‘democracy’ is being torn down now in multiple states where leftists are just tossing his name off the ballot.

     You are living in an alternate reality. The only ‘Republican’ that may ever get elected again will be a bone throw RINO just to give the kabuki theater that is our fake & gay government some passing semblance of credibility. See: Nimrata Randhawa Haley

     • Very pleased to see you use her REAL name, not that camouflage one. Would that every dissident did the same.

     • Yes. The GOP thought all of the following were great candidates:

       John McCain
       Jeb Bush
       Mitt Romney
       Ron DeSantis (turned out too ridiculous even for the GOP)
       Nimarata

   • “ Even a year out, polls are pretty accurate indicators of what’s going to happen”

     Not really. Lot can happen in a year—even if you believe in polls. Polls are not necessarily accurate and are subject to great mischief. Let me remind everyone that the “polls” had Clinton ahead of Trump up until the week before the election. One poll had Clinton a 10-12 point favorite! That poll then began to alter their prediction everyday until the weekend before the election. Those statisticians/pollsters in the know said that this was basically impossible and described this organization as trying to “get right with Jesus” before being shown to be corrupt and in the bag for Clinton after the election.

     There are broadly two types of polls. Oddly, often hired by the same folk. One, for internal use only, is to give as precise a description of voter opinion and demographics as possible. The other, for press release, to persuade the masses of your candidate’s viability or ability to win the election and to demoralize the opposition.

     You don’t need a PhD to understand the psy-ops involved here, nor much understanding of polling to see how this is done. Of course, the questions asked and the demographics polled are almost never revealed. For example, If you want Biden to be shown to be winning then simply poll more Dem’s than Rep’s or improperly sample Blue States in preference to Red States or urban folk in preference to rural folk. If you want to show Trump’s lead declining, ask a question of who you’d vote for: Biden, Trump, DeSantis. (Yes, they’re not above such.)

     Such shenanigans was quite common during the Clinton/Trump race. Treat polls as basically entertainment—like pre-fight weigh ins, but don’t bet on them.

6. Often topic, but important, I think. Jared believes that the blacks and the chosen are waking up to his ideas. He says many times, with some relief, “better late than never.”

   https://www.amren.com/podcasts/2023/12/blacks-for-trump/

   This is an important moment because it’s rare when anyone makes a testable prediction in politics.

   Are the blacks and chosen going to take up Jared’s viewpoint to the degree that political changes are made? Or is Jared just making the same mistake that conservatives have been making for the last 50 years?

   My guess is that he is mistaken, but if he turns out to be correct, I will adjust my beliefs. I hope that Jared will do the same if he turns out to be wrong.

   My belief is that racial tribalism is the most powerful force in the world over non-whites. (Other forces, like religion, greed, and the desire for material comfort, are also powerful, but not the most powerful.) Further, the non-whites want to overthrow traditional whites more than they want to the prosperity of maintaining the white civilization that we had before BLM destroyed what was left of our cities.

   • Am not following Jared as closely as I once did. However, the *test* of his hypothesis proves what—that the “talented tenth” might pull away from their “knee-jerk” ethnocentrism?

     85% of the Black population in America is below average IQ. They can never obtain/earn a status equivalent to the population in the upper 50% of the curve. (This goes for other races as well.) Therefore, they have no choice but to band together to obtain power, handouts/welfare, and status unearned through dint of merit.

     Jared should know, this can never end peacefully as Blacks have too much to lose.

7. A year’s end reply to Mr. House, below, re Left Coast Inmate’s urging to use what we have, where we’re at:

   “Me, I’m just broke and in debt.
   Got 5 family situations in several states I’m dealing with here, what do I do, just tell them to eff off?

   Captain of the Titanic, I know. But I was raised on Depression stories. They never quit, though by God they wanted to.”

   All that debt and brokeness is because I invested in other Dirt class like myself.

   I took on hard problems, intractable ones; personal stuff, problems and aspirations that have been years in the making. Things they just couldn’t solve themselves.

   It sucks, it’s bloody awful, I am in dire straits right now, but you know what the big surprise is?

   It’s working. I have gotten several big ones over the hump. I just showed up and things started happening. New stuff is popping up, good cripes already, but each hurdle leaves me better informed and somewhat prepared.

   Now remember, I am a failure in all things, and fall far short of anyone else here. The wind got really knocked out of my sails this year at my greatest failure.

   And no, it’ll never work, it’ll never get any better. So what? No rest for the wicked.

   This place encourages and enlightens me, it gives me direction as to where to point the ship. I entrust myself to the Z-audience for guidance and wisdom.

   When the going gets tough, the tough drink themselves senseless and grab all the hard drugs, fast cars, and trashy women they can.

   So here’s to you, oh most questionable characters at this dive bar. Thanks for all you do for this unworthy one. I’d rather have friends in low places, anyways.

   • Am I the only one who thinks there is potentially a magnificent novel to be written based upon the travails described in this post. True wisdom is born of hard knocks and telling that story in all its inglorious detail can be a lesson to us all. That is your homework assignment. Chapter 1 is due by February.

     • I look forward to your contribution, since you once shared some of your early life. Your writing emphasizes the inescapable truth that life is existential struggle and we forget this at our peril.

       As you wrote, “Chapter 1 is due by February.”

       • Yes.

         Life is a struggle. Once you understand that it will go easier for you.

       • My greatest understanding as I reflect in old age is that my life has *not* simply been a product of my own doing. No, I accept “full* responsibility for my actions and resulting (negative) outcomes.

         However, there are so many points in my life where outcomes have been so fruitful, beneficial, positive (In hindsight) that it is beyond even my human arrogance to attribute such to myself. For those of you who are non-believers, you can call it “luck”.

         My wife and I can only attribute these things to Divine Providence, or Grace—and no one can claim they deserve such. In there lies proof of a higher Power.

         • Nice, Compsci. I’m not a believer, but I think that I understand and respect what you’re saying.

           The world is complex and there are many different plausible interpretations for our experiences. It’s hard to adjudicate which one best explains the data.

           On a philosophical note, as much as I am inclined towards determinism and the minimization of free will and nurture, it sure does seem that trying hard sometimes yields results that are surprising. If that feels like Providence or God to you, well, you may be right.

         • Compsci: Beautifully said. I, too, have been the unwarranted beneficiary of so much divine grace. Another important understanding that has come with age is an appreciation of just how much I’ve benefited from what others built before me. Sure, I was born with a certain IQ potential and worked for and earned my academic credentials, but none of that would have been possible without the founders and funders of those institutions (universally White Christians). Not to mention the wisdom of the ages written and printed and passed down and shared.

           So we are all a product and beneficiary of both our genetics and our cultural and physical environments – not in the halfrican “You didn’t build that” shite Obama pushed, but in the sense we are heirs to a civilization and owe a certain debt to those who built it.

   • As a side note, I love the term “dive bar” as a descriptor of this website. It’s a safe place where “locals” can bare their souls without inhibition or facade. Cheap beer and good company is the reward of a real life well-lived.

     • Yes, we are a meeting place of sorts. A “Cheers” writ live. However, the level of thought, insight, discussion, life experience, intellect, is really something special. Where else can a respectful/peaceful discussion be had between people of such divergent belief systems such as Christianity and atheism be found?

       As I’ve said before, I come here half for Z-man and half for his comment section—which has expanded notably in the last couple of years. Some of the postings here are noting short of lectures I remember in my student days—yes, they are on that level.

8. I’ve never heard of Cozy or Ethan Ralph.

   • Or Google. A search engine.

9. I refueled my car yesterday at a Shell station in Freiburg-im-Breisgau, Germany and paid about 1.75€ per liter. There are 3.875 liters in a gallon (6.62€ per gallon). One euro is worth about a dollar ten. So I paid about $7.31 per gallon, not $10.00 per gallon. Gasoline prices are higher here in France, especially along the autoroute (2€ per liter). In 2020, the price of a liter of gasoline was about 1.25€ per liter.

   • I just paid $2.82 per US gallon at the Tonawanda Indian Reservation. All I gotta say for Euros and Canucks is…ouch.

     • In West Texas it’s running around $2.40.

       • Well the rez IS in NY so there’s that.

         • Same here. I paid 2.76 at the res outside of Pembroke NY. Local store is at 3.65. A fill-up of my Silverado saves me about $20, stocking up on smokes, another $80-100. My wife really wants me to quit smoking, and of course she is quite right. Yet, part of the fun of buying – and smoking – cigarettes bought at the res is in calculating the money I did not pay to the pirates in Albany. My monthly sojourn to the res is a pleasant drive too, as I use only back roads, not the Thruway with its Orwellian surveillance system (tolls were supposed to end in 1997, yet strangely, they did not end, thanks to our last “Republican” governor).

   • I’d really really like to know which moron it was who started putting the Euro symbol AFTER the number amount.

     I have seen it go from “not at all” several years ago, to “everywhere”, in every Western European country on the continent, that uses the Euro.

     Good cripes, I thought the average Americans were dumb….

10. Greg the Gay Johnson let appears on his boring blog some stuff against covidist madness.

    I guess he let appears only if no one of his writers refers to Greg himself as mad covidist…

    And OF COURSE, Greg himself carefully avoid to talk about that, between two scripts about random dead gay nazi.

11. The key to understanding Ukraine is Iraq. Same propaganda. Same chest-thumping bravado. And it will meet the same end: a client state of its next-door neighbor. We just decided to throw 500,000 Ukrainian men into the meat grinder instead of our own, having learned the one important lesson of Iraq which is to get other people to do your fighting for you. Once the public catches onto the scam (which they now have), you’re better off if they aren’t seeing body bags flying home in support of that scam. Expect Ukraine to devolve into something akin to the low-intensity insurgency conflicts we saw in the 2000s. The money just isn’t there and it has become politically untenable to sustain a large war front.

    Trump is performing exactly as I thought post-indictments. I didn’t think they’d go through with it because indictments would benefit Trump. But, we are dealing with devious and corrupt people, not smart people. I thought he would be at 70% by now, but he is knocking on the door, and his voting results in the primaries will be well above his polling floor. You’re starting to hear the word “revenge” showing up in the media and among friends and neighbors. People are furious about these phony indictments. If Trump wins, Jack Smith will flee the country. At this point, it’s unlikely Trump’s primary opponents keep him below 1,800-2,000 delegates. He might well run the table at this point because people are so angry. Keep in mind, this is the guy who in 2020 received an epic number of primary votes running essentially unopposed (except that Weld guy, but he was a joke). IIRC he either got the most primary votes of any incumbent Republican POTUS or most primary votes of any incumbent POTUS in history. It’s easy to forget the 92-mile-long parades, the boat parades, the rallies, etc. that happened during the COVID-primaries.

    Everything we are seeing now in CO and ME is a direct response to the utter and complete disaster Jack Smith’s indictments have become. It’s increasingly unlikely that either trial will happen before the election. And the closer to the election these trials get, the more Trump will benefit. People aren’t all that bright or plugged into politics. So having the trials right next to the general election will illustrate clearly that Biden is prosecuting Trump so that Biden can jail his political opponent. Trump will get to double-digit leads over Biden if there’s a trial next Fall. It’s more likely at this point that SCOTUS will try to save Democrats from themselves by throwing these cases out. The judge in Miami might just do it herself if the DOJ keeps lying to her.

    We all thought the Democrats would shove Biden down the stairs by now, so you’re not alone in that. The fact that they haven’t shows how rotten their core is. Newsome did a debate against DeSantis (that nobody watched) and that scared the hell out of Democrats. Newsome is not their savior. They have no savior other than voting fraud. That debate was set up months ago on the idea that Trump would be in jail/disqualified and Biden would withdraw for either health or Hunter reasons. What we got was a debate between two empty suits. For his part, Biden is a vegetable. They will try to repeat their 2020 strategy of hiding him in the basement. They might not even let him debate. Trump, OTOH, will be excited to debate Biden who is falling apart before our eyes. There isn’t an area of economic or political or foreign policy where things got better under Biden. Vastly more people died from COVID. Two new wars. Massive inflation. $5 gas. Political corruption and bribery. Biden is going to get butt-f***ed on national television if they let him debate.

    So we’re down to vote fraud like we saw in 2022.

    The economy is weird. There’s still so much money sloshing around and so much government spending that it’s hard to see what is going on. Recessions in a poor country are easy to spot. Recessions in a rich country where people’s biggest problem is that the 85″ QLED TV at Best Buy is $700 and their house is loaded with stuff they don’t even need are harder to see. When a wealthy country pulls back a bit on spending, it’s a “recession”, but just like a rich person pulling back, it’s usually short-lived to fill up the tanks and start spending again.

    Most of the doomsday stuff predicted for 2023 did not happen. That’s normal.

    Most of the doomsday stuff predicted for 2024 will not happen either. That is also normal.

    The black swan event in 2024, if there is one, will be either the cancelation of the election, a completely in-your-face voter fraud that re-elects Biden, or a Trump landslide. The most likely sitting at my desk today? Trump wins and the US Government goes into full on Civil War mode. They’ll refuse to follow his executive orders and at least one US Government Employee will try to assassinate Trump. Trump’s civil war mode will be mass firings. 2025 is going to be epic…maybe.

    It cannot be overstated how important re-installing Biden is in 2024. Because they’ve gone to war with the country, Biden getting booted means the country gets to go to war with the Government Party.

    I’ve been calling Trump 2024 a “reckoning”. A settling up of accounts. But the word you’re hearing more from even stable people?

    Revenge.

    • Biden deteriorating by the day, his face has the look of a near-death dementia patient and has since before 2020. It loks like a wax figure being exposed to increasing heat and gradually beginning to smooth out and melt and run.

      It speaks poorly of him and his family that they would put him through all this. They, with good reason, hate his guts and are using him for all they can.

      • Yeah I was talking to my dad about this the other day, that while evil people do seem to get ahead in life they usually end up in old age with their entire family hating them and are miserable and alone.

        Biden certainly spent most of his life forcing his family and friends to kiss his asshole because they needed access to his influence. Now that he’s senile and they can just push him around they have no memories of him acting like a human being and justifiably no reason to treat him with any care or respect.

        • @Ploppy…they’ve living out their revenge fantasies.

      • I was calling it elder abuse long before anybody started using that description…

        The entire Biden family is a bunch of whores and perverts who have made a living selling Daddy for cash. They will ride that gravy train to the bitter end. Because without it, they have nothing. If Joe croaked this week, Hunter would be found dead in a ditch within 2 years.

        • Hunter Biden is one of the World’s greatest living artists easily making $500k per painting although I am curious what the resale market is for Hunter Biden originals.

          • Yes, I call this one “Still Life with Hooker and Crack Pipe”. The title is a bit of an inside joke but I think she was actually still alive when I started the painting.

        • From your lips to God’s ears.

      • Been looking that way since 2020, eh? Not very near death, then.

        • They have a group of necromancers working tirelessly to animate Joe Biden’s corpse.

          • The ‘Weekend at Bernie’s’ presidency.

    • “We just decided”

      Who is “we” and why do Ukrainians have to die for them?

    • Hookoda –

      excellent post. While the talk of revenge is fine, I don’t see any of it really materializing. For me? Wake me up when 1m+ white people are descending on DC and open fire…

      • It’s nice to think about but if it actually happened then what? I haven’t a clue what would happen short and long term.

        • Who cares? As far as I’m concerned reform is a lost cause. My only wish is for a slow, painful end to the left and ruling class. Woodchippers for all.

    • I hate to be the naysayer on such a magnificent subthread here chez Z, but the following story is surely the moast important in all of 2023 [and moving forward thereafter into the new year]:

      Republican Governor of Ohio Vetoes Ban On Sex Changes For Minors At The 11th Hour
      2023-12-29
      https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4206606/posts

      Ever since the (((Enemy))) began infiltrating our nation in the second half of the 19th Century, White Christian Amurrikkkunz have had an existential blindspot in their surveyance of the purview of the sociological landscape.

      Culture >>>>>>> {Law, Finance, Military, Energy, Health Care, Environment, Wealth, and everything else put together}

      At the end of the day, Culture is all that matters, and the (((Cult of Moloch))) now rules pretty much the entirety of Western Civilization [with just an handful of exceptions, such as perhaps Hungary & Mother Russia].

      Note that the (((Cult of Moloch))) is a subset of the larger phenomenon of Von Munchhausen’s by Proxy, which, in turn, lives at the intersection of Passive Aggression and Cluster B.

      Until we put Cluster B back into Pandora’s Box, and lock it up for several hundreds of thousands of years [a million years would be a good start], nothing will get better.

      Either we defeat Cluster B, or Cluster B will vanquish us, straight into extinction.

      ==========

      PS: The republican governor’s name is

      MIKE DEWINE

      Study the ghey paedo face.

      LEARN THE GHEY PAEDO FACE!!!!!

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_DeWine

      • “White Christian Amurrikkkunz have had an existential blindspot in their surveyance of the purview of the sociological landscape.”

        JQ: are we Jews? EMJ mentioned it recently, certain Anglicans taking up the idea they’re one of the tribes of Israel.

        Someone mentioned on here a little while back Germanic types are natural spergs iirc. Sounds right to me. I can picture people thinking through the logic of Christianity and coming to the contradiction— Gentiles worshipping a Hebrew god. Which, to the sperg mind, might leave two possibilities: apostasy, or we must be Hebrews!

        Ugh, the sperg out. How about Jesus fulfilled the Law to make the radical break possible— preaching to the Gentiles? Which, of course and provided they took to it, would have the effect of making Christianity a Gentile religion, rather than making Gentiles Jews.

        Radical breaks are untidy things that clockwork minds have a hard time dealing with.

    • If Trump just “went away,” I don’t think the “right” would lift a finger. This seems to me like the “3rd way” out of the corner the regime has painted itself into, where it either has to burn it all down to prevent another Trump term, or burn it all down after he becomes president again.

      But they could have something else entirely planned. As I keep saying, who could have predicted the plandemic?

    • “Trump, OTOH, will be excited to debate Biden…”

      That could work. Trump could give his answers, then step a few feet to another podium and give his impression of Biden giving his answers. That would be funny as heck. Could probably even put it on Pay Per View.

      He’d have to focus on Biden’s stupidity, though, probably refrain from mocking his disability. Which might be tough for Trump.

    • The bigger picture re Ukraine and the Mideast is that the movers and shakers are prepping not one, but two key gateway states in the New Silk Road.

      Tollhouses, if you will. In other words, they expect the future to continue.

    • Hokkoda
      You received 33 (at time of posting) likes.
      But man: please consider writing an actual paper book that I can pay for.
      A wall of text, even with considerate paragraph breaks, is too much for this reader; and others, I’d imagine too.

      • I write for me.

      • Long, insightful comments are one of many reasons this blog provides so much value. If a long comment isn’t insightful, it can be skimmed or skipped. If it’s a rambling incoherent mess or disagreeable in some way, it can be downvoted.

        It’s really not that hard.

        The fact that hokkoda’s “wall of text” comment now has 44 likes is strong evidence that it provided value. In contrast, your odd complaint about its length has zero upvotes and five downvotes.

        These numbers speak for themselves.

        • Yeah, the “wall of text” is surmountable with little effort, compared say to Finnigan’s Wake or something.

          • Or an op-ed by George Will, if he’s still alive (haven’t checked).

    • No matter what outcome, the election in 2024 will be a Black Swan. A year from now our country will not be the same. There will be clarity as to the actually-existing battle lines, there will be no more Normies, there will be no more piffle as to “Our Democracy”. My own prediction is that Biden will win, and win handily, quite possibly unanimously, as the GOP may not even have the vigor to field a realistic candidate. The motto of the ruling Party will be, in effect, “What are you going to do about it?” Hard swimming ahead, folks. The nation is in ruins.

12. “the safe bet is that current trends will continue”. Words to live by.

    By definition you can’t plan for something you can’t predict. I stopped investing in my 401k and was hoarding bullets, toilet paper and whiskey, until my sister and brother in-law set me straight. The best bet is tomorrow will be pretty much like today. Invest your time and resources accordingly.

    (How are all you preppers doing? After fifteen years, isn’t the hobby getting a bit boring?)

    • Zulu Juliet: Why not both (bullets/beans/bandaids + investing)? As far as trusting that they won’t nationalize/take your 401k, as they’ve been discussing for years, a lot depends on how the vote fortification goes and how restless some natives get over 2024 economic circumstances. I’d rather have a paid -off mortgage/car than numbers on a screen. Yes, even after they take their damned tax share – we’re past the penalty age but they still ream you on taxes because by now we’re supposed to be living minimally on social security. Too bad we don’t follow their script.

      • Amen @3g –

        Since I started my career I tried to do everything right. I’ve grown my salary, worked hard, I’ve saved/invested the max for retirement. In addition I stocked up on thousands of rounds of ammunition, stayed clear of any doubt outside my mortgage and put as much additional money away as possible in the hopes that my wife and I can retire comfortable in a rural setting where I can be rid of diversity and spend my time fishing, playing music and meddling in the software projects I enjoy.

        The hoarding of the ammunition was for when they decide to nationalize/seize my retirement accounts. For me that would push me over the so-called edge.

        • Tired Citizen: Just keep an eye on your savings and investments. I know that plenty of people do extremely well in the stock market, and my husband bemoans times that he should have done this or that and we’d have an extra ‘x’ amount of money now, but . . . I don’t trust either the market or the banks. Even when it comes to cash, I’m of the belief that if you don’t hold it, you don’t own it. Between the end of Glass-Steagal and bank bail-ins, plus the past three years’ inflation, you’re better off with tangible goods – like land and a paid-for house.

          Yes, I know the lack of allodial title means one must always be prepared for property tax hikes. State of residence makes a big difference there. I am also well aware that precious metals are not an investment but can be (not always are) a hedge against inflation. I would still rather have some.

          I know the cloud-people on the coasts live one way, but the wealthier people I know invest in property, tangible goods, and metals. I think watching what certain people do, rather than what the ‘financial experts’ say, is the wisest course.

          • 3g4me-

            According to this chart, all we had to do 20 years ago is put every last cent into Apple:

            https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/monster-ous-returns-these-are-top-sp-500-stocks-over-past-20-years

          • Look, I was offered Bitcoin at a dollar a coin. Hindsight is an amazing thing. Was relating that story over the holiday and then it was matched by another Bitcoin story from a nerd who during the day remembered a posting of an early adopter who managed to turn (trade) his 29 Bitcoins into a pizza and was quite happy to do something with his worthless/useless Bitcoins. 😉

        • Sounds like we are in the same situation. Buying extra bullets got tiresome. If 5,000 rounds of .223 isn’t enough, another 1,000 rounds won’t solve whatever problems I will be facing.

          PS: All the down votes from you preppers made me smile. Who da seen that coming?

          • indeed, when you can’t decide tween one or the other, go 50/50.

          • Knowing the skill sets of my neighbors and contemporaries, I have accumulated 6,000 butane lighters. They’ll be worth their weight in gold when things turn to shit. Sure, it’s a gamble; after all you can’t eat them. But in a post-industrial free-for-all, barter will emerge naturally, and the ability to make fire will be a “hard asset” exchangeable for other basic requirements.

            On the same principle I have begun stocking cases of decent (though by no means superior) bourbon. People are going to want disinfectants, and getting seriously lit from time to time.

            Highly exchangeable, value-dense commodities answering basic needs of life in an environment of privation, confusion, and terror.

    • Have you learned nothing from the last five years? Since then government, federal, state or local, can shut any business down, lock everyone in their house, your neighborhood can be burned down with police standing by drinking coffee. Gov can demand to see your permit to walk the street, food can get twice as expensive in a few months, civilian ammo production can be shut down. Medicines run out. And there are currently at least two wars with the potential to go boom!

      Better to have extra food and fuel and not need it than to need it and not have it But hey, whadda I know, good luck with your no prepping strategy.

      • Why would you wish this fool good luck? Especially after insulting you? He’s gonna get what he deserves.

        • Hey man they listened to their sister and brother-in-law, so you can’t argue with that sort of condescension.

    • Everybody should prep “some.” The mistake is thinking you can prep for the end of the world, and predict when and how that happens (unless you really want to live that way). Probably the best prepping is not having any debt.

      Unless you’re a billionaire and can afford your own self sustaining compound on some south seas island. In which case you’re probably not reading this blog.

    • All preppers are is a target for the local warlord. If you join a church and learn a stone age skill you’re better prepared than organizing cans and bullets.

      • Defending yourself with kitchen knives will be a lot harder than with bullets. The local war lord won’t last long if he picks all the houses with bullets wrapped in guns. His successor will pick the “guns are evil” houses

      • Unless you’re the warlord, that is.

      • And you’re not a target for the zombies if you don’t prep? Another genius!

      • After reading the comments on prepping, my only advice is, don’t tell anyone what you are doing.

        • ‘Loose lips sink ships’.

        • Good OPSEC is critical. Look as normal an unassuming as possible.

    • 100%. Prepping is just stupid.

      The Communist takeover of Russia and the ensuing Soviet domination of the surrounding area went on for almost 100 years.

      You can’t hide in a cave for 4 generations.

      The better bet, if you truly believe the end is nigh is to use your US Passport and go somewhere else. You choose where.

      • 2020 really narrowed down the expat options. Pretty well eliminated the “west” and the Pacific Rim entirely. The country that came through that with its sanity most intact just happened to be right next door. Mexico. If they don’t become part of the Greater North American Co Prosperity Sphere in the ensuing years, which I think is a danger. But you can’t plan for everything.

        • If I were a young white man in the United States today, I would seriously think about emigrating to Uruguay. It’s a relatively stable country and Spanish isn’t a particularly difficult language to learn.

          • Even they had a jab mandate (Mexico never did). But I guess you could do worse.

      • Actually some people did go hide in the woods from the Soviets for 4 generations. They got really good at chopping wood.

      • ProZNoV: You’re better than this ‘all or nothing’ fallacy. I’m not hiding in a cave, but I have moved far away from the city and I love it. Yes, I am safer and more private but I am no hundred-year hermit. I don’t have 10 years’ of food put aside, but I do have extras so I don’t have to drive into town all the time other than for fresh produce or extra meat. I have no emergency medical training but I do have a variety of OTC meds.

        There is prepping and then there is prepping. We lived through the 2021 Texas freeze, learned some lessons, and made some provisions thereafter. Same when our water heater died and we had 3 days without public water (shut off valve wouldn’t work) until the plumber could get to us. We’re not learning to plow at age 65, but it’s just common sense and exprience to plan for some shortages and delays after the scamdemic and now with the world shipping woes.

        There’s been a problem finding dry-eye drops for my husband (necessary ever since vision surgery many years ago) because of recalls due to a number of people blinded by unsterile drops from India. All of our meds and toiletries come from China and India. Half our beef is imported, although labeled “USDA” and processed in the US.

        I’ve lived overseas, and I well know the grass isn’t always greener. But planning to prepare (for anything – from a test to a sports competition to the very uncertain future) is planning to fail.

        • Edit: failure to plan etc . . . is planning to fail.

        • 3g4me:

          I respect your opinion. +1., all comments, always.

          Prepping for a disruption (natural disaster like a hurricane, grid overload, flood, or tornado) is common sense. Personally, I’m good for a year, minimum.

          MAYBE for an EMP event (weeks, or months).

          But “prepping” for a totalitarian cycle like a civil war or communist takeover isn’t rational. It’s insane.

          Absent a “mannerbund” (non-existent, in the USA), the only rational response is to leave. Even then, some fights can’t be won.

          Before it’s too late. Our forefathers had the courage to come here from their troubled countries.

          Those who survived the 6+ million you-know-what did. They fled.

          Do you? Do I?

          (Not to humble brag: I’m well above “middle class” income”. Some fights cannot be won, and honestly, may not be worth fighting for. I’m actively looking for options. Are you?)

          • ProZNoV: I equally respect and value your comments and opinions. Now that you have clarified your comment, I can agree that ‘prepping’ with a view to somehow surviving or waiting out “x” decades of an actively hostile regime is not rational or feasible. And I take your point that various people leaving their European nations for America over the past few centuries was a rational and ultimately good decision.

            But it was also a large gamble. They had no guarantee the US was going to continue to be hospitable and succcessful, but given their era and worldview it was a logical assumption.

            Today, that is no longer so for most of the civilized world. As I’ve noted before, I have been privilged to reside, for 1-3 years each, in five very different countries outside the US. While I could have been happy and possibly successful in a few of them, they were not ultimately ‘home’ – and that sense of difference was what led me to initially examine the questions of nationhood and culture that ultimately led me here.

            Could my children possibly emigrate and live successful lives elsewhere? I think it’s highly questionable, because I think the situation is going to be as dangerous and uncertain for White people just as much elsewhere as in the US. No offense to those who’ve happily settled in Uruguay or Argentina, but having my future posterity be mixed race Spanish speakers is a suboptimal outcome in my opinion.

            All one can do is prepare as best one can, both physically and mentally, for coming travails in the short term. In the long term, no one can predict nor possibly ‘prepare’ for what may happen. The ‘option’ my husband and I have chosen is to stay in the US, but relocate to an area of White heritage Americans who have a history of independence, combativeness, and survival. We are content for now, and can only pray that we’ve chosen wisely.

      • I used to tease my wife about how she would buy a case of TP every time we went to Sam’s Club. She had been doing that for years, and we had probably 4 cases (5 packages per case, 9 rolls per package)…maybe 180 rolls squirreled around the house. Then COVID hit and she would laugh at me and pointed at what was probably a 3-year supply of TP. She also had bought an extra 25lb bag of jasmine rice which got hard to find for a few months. Suddenly, her mild bit of prepping didn’t seem so dumb.

        We don’t eat a lot, so the little bit of prepping we did ahead of COVID paid off. I went to the store one day in late March 2020 when the shelves were empty. I just needed some fresh veggies which were easy to find. Anyway, I saw several people wandering the empty aisles with a panicked look and two items in their carts.

        They didn’t have any food backup to ride it out.

        Prepping isn’t stupid. It’s just a natural extension of what everyone should always be doing. Learn useful skills that you can barter – electricians and guys that drill wells will never go hungry. Stock up on shelf stable essentials. TP is no joke. Arm yourself. Get out of debt. Have an alternative way to power your stuff. (If I get one battery, I’ll no longer have a need for the power company.)

        I don’t believe collapse means the zombie apocalypse. It might just mean empty store shelves and thieves trying to rob you. So have a plan for that.

        I do think it’s easy to get carried away with it, and you’ll end up with a lot of stuff thrown away.

        • Do you have any idea how completely dark it gets when there is no ambient light, like car headlights, streetlights, lights from buildings etc. I’m talking so dark that you could walk off the road into a ditch if you didn’t have a flashlight. To that end I have bought, and regularly test, hand crank lanterns with solar cells on the tops, 1 minute of cranking provides 15 minutes of light similar to a 40 watt bulb. So far it’s really working out, one is enough to see what’s on your dinner plate, milk the goats in midwinter, do homework, and find the TP in the bathroom. When I purchased them they were about $12 each, don;t know what they cost now. Apparently they work using a windup dynamo because I have looked at them from top to bottom and there is no battery slot.

          As an aside, how many of us remember standing up at our desks and placing our right hand over our heart and reciting with the teacher “I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all”.

          • We live outside the edge an urban area in Colorado and even there if I turn off the lights around my porch it’s a squint-and-step to the mailbox after dark.

            I had a set of those hand crank flashlights as a kid. Squeeze it 10-15 times and get enough just to power the bulb for 30-40 seconds. I imagine with LED technology you can get a lot more time these days.

            We have a lot of solar-powered lights. If you don’t leave them out in the weather, the batteries last a decade or more.

    • Prepping is only really expensive if you’re using it as an excuse to have a giant gun collection. And the boomers doing that aren’t going to be ruling the world with their AR-15s, the marauders will simply wait to move in until the rascal tips over and Rambo is left helplessly flailing his diabetic limbs like a flipped turtle.

      Beans and mylar bags are cheap, and setting up your home with stuff like water collectors just takes time and effort not much money.

      • Ploppy: Or if you want a fairly extensive solar power backup system. I cannot imagine exposing my private life to public view by having a video blog, but I will admit envying all the free solar batteries/generators/inverters vloggers get in exchange for promotional and how-to videos.

        • Household solar isn’t that pricy if you just stop using your major electrical appliances, which, unfortunately, includes your coffee pot. I have two chest freezers that I’ve covered with several layers of cheap extruded foam board, and it’s a negligible draw.

          But unless you live somewhere far enough away that the drones won’t catch the reflection off the panels, you are not likely to be able to keep them if it really does go SHTF.

      • Good Lord top pissing on the boomers, that’s just what theTribe wants you to do.

        • I’m just calling them as I sees them, and when I go to a gun store I see a lot of gray hair and dudes that seriously need to trade just one of their guns in to go buy a gym membership. The AR-15 is essentially a giant pacifier so we Americans can stay fat and weak convincing ourselves that we’re strong and secure.

    • I think it was investment guru Jim Dines, back in the 1970s who famously observed that a trend, once in motion, tends to continue until it ends. 🙂

      I didn’t go to quite the lengths Dad did (in the 1970s “prepper” was called “survivalist”). But I do have a collection of tinned food ca. 2020 most of which is past sell date and is slowly being eaten.

13. I’m expecting housing prices to go up at least 5.4% due to expected Federal Reserve rate cuts and the stock market ETFs like VTI to return at least 10%.

    Looking at housing, I don’t understand how the US isn’t on a path toward favelization, particularly with the massive inflows of third world poor just walking across the border. Concurrently with this, there’s comparatively little new housing for either purchase or rent being constructed.

    • The swarthy hordes don’t need much new housing; They are packed into hotels at government expense, or living thirty-five to a McMansion (twelve to a double-wide).

      • Zulu Juliet: “living thirty-five to a McMansion (twelve to a double-wide)”

        At some point in muh adolescence, it dawned on moi that necessarily pioneers in dirt-floored one-room log-cabins must have all slept in the same room [on account of there having been only one room, in the first place, to possibly have slept in].

        Then almost immediately thereafter, muh adolescent pea-brain started wondering, “Well then how do the youngsters get made, if everyone is in the same room?”

        And pretty quickly muh adolescent pea-brain realized that the older children just had to lie there on the dirt floor, pretending to be asleep, whilst they listened to their parents making [what nine months later would become] their younger siblings.

        ==========

        The 2006 movie, “The Nativity Story”, had a scene wherein the Virgin Mary and her fambly all laid down and fell asleep on the floor for the night.

        ==========

        I hate to dis da Nukular Fambly, but throwing lots of h0rny young teenagers into very close quarters with one another must go a long way towards maximizing fertility rates [although it also likely tends to maximize the genetic diseases of incest].

14. Crystal ball gazing is an inherently difficult affair and one of the hazards is extrapolating on the basis of past trends. So don’t be too hard on yourself if some odd prediction comes out not quite right. Meanwhile — and I know you don’t like him — here is Jim Kunstler’s prognosis for the new year:

    https://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/do-you-dare-even-look-forecast-2024/

    It’s bleak but plausible. I need my daily bad news to slake the needs of my pessimistic personality and this delivers it in spades.

    • Arshad Ali: Kunstler is very much a “sky is falling” type, but still interesting to read/skim. His personal rabbithole is ‘peak oil,’ which I think is a distant ‘x’ to many other threats and concerns. I don’t make specific predictions (too many areas I’m ignorant of plus I don’t think the way most other people do) but enjoy reading others’. Plus ‘doomporn’ has its own black appeal.

      • Fair enough. I’ve mostly stopped reading him myself because of the sheer repetition. Not that I don’t agree with him, but you can’t keep saying the same thing over and over again.

    • The problem with Kunstler is he is pessimistic for all the wrong reasons. He’s a “limits to growth” type guy. While there is probably some truth in limits to growth, we really don’t know where they are or where we could become steady state. The only thing we know for sure is we cannot extrapolate the last 100 years very far in the future without cooking ourselves. Not by global warming, but by the waste heat of our heat engines. Whatever happens, I don’t think any of us will ever see anything like what he proposes in his fiction books, a kind of 17th century living. Even if that eventually happens, it very likely won’t happen within our lifetimes.

      However, I still think he is worth reading or listening to his podcasts. His eyesore of the month is a definite must-see. His criticism of modern architecture is spot on. His sarcastic tone is full of ridicule for our so-called betters. I like the way he laughs and makes fun of them.

      • Why is this subject not being treated as, (((Kunstler)))?

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Howard_Kunstler#Background

        Reading (((insert any y!d’s name here))) is simply inviting the Mind Virus into your brain.

        Unless you’re reading it for purposes of reverse-engineering it [either to understand history or to prepare for future (((psy-ops)))].

        PS: The concept you’re encountering here is known as, “(((Demoralization Pr0n)))”.

      • JHK is a master of invective, and if he’s repetitive, well, so is Z man for that matter. Guys who crank out free hardcore dissident text several times a week, while also living their lives and earning their daily bread, are to be respected if not admired. Kunstler doesn’t get lost in lucubrations about the “death of conservatism”, the “failure of libertarianism”, the travails of internet wannabe “influencers” like Nick Fuentes et al, who in the real world no one has ever heard of.

        No. He doesn’t waste his or our time searching for sources of our crisis in the English Civil War, the founding of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the victory of the Northern armies in 1865, or any of that. Kunstler lives and writes in the here and now; he goes straight for the jugular in his short essays on the current situation.

        And as for ((this)), for goodness’ sake, stop. Does every writer have to score 100% on the purity test or can we just agree right now to hate everybody?

        • What’s the “w” for?

          Weinstein?

    • I think we’re a nation of trust fund brats. Can’t figure otherwise. I mean, people work at home and speculate (gamble), and I’m supposed to believe that creates wealth? Yet the consumption goes on. It has to be seed corn being eaten.

      The idea that wealth can be conjured by fiat makes no sense. To my mind, that’s an infinite debt that can only lead to slavery, and I imagine that’s why I look around and see these people farming operations everywhere. Milk cows probably think they have it good and never realize what McDonald’s hamburgers are made of. How long until people are eating Soylent Green and loving it lol.

15. I think the regime’s focus for 2024 will be on maintaining the appearance of “normalcy.” It’s an election year after all, and not one in which the orange man is the incumbent (for which the opposite was required in 2020). This should hold true whether or not Biden is replaced on the ballot. If he is replaced, it will be sold as normal, with a lot of LBJ comparisons. Their ability to maintain the normalcy facade will be a great test of how powerful they still are. Any big plans they have for shaking things up will wait ’til 2025. Or at least until the latter half of November. Such as meat rationing, to save Gaia. That will be sold as normal too, since it was done in WW2, and saving Gaia is a WW2 level struggle. But that’s for further off, not for 2024.

    • Since you are mentioning WW2, did you know that official excess deaths (non-Covid) are now far exceeding WW2 deaths in the UK and in the US? And yet, it’s not not considered important enough to be in the news.

      • It’s important enough, but the news is controlled wrt these things. Eventually it will get out, but look for the argument that this excess death rate is directly responsible *by* Covid—not the vaccine—and further that those not adhering to the “program” were responsible for the spread and subsequent “after effect” of Covid infection. Never however, will the government authorities accept any responsibility. The US system is too corrupt for this “truth and reconciliation” process. Look to Europe for a more reasoned “after action” analysis.

        • “Never however, will the government authorities accept any responsibility.”

          The surest prediction for 2024.
          I doubt Europe will do much better. We may hear some noise, but no consequences for the people responsible.

          • No consequences? Yes, no consequences here and over there most likely. However, there seems to be some hope for a more truthful examination of the Covid scamdemic and aftermath IMHO coming from Europe. At least I see some hope there.

16. Tough year for many of our folk. The loss of Jeff Winston is a definite blow. We could use more men like him creating those on-ramps for dissident/pro-white topics and ideas as Zman has mentioned in the past.

    As it is an election year, there will be more general interest about social and political ideas dissident creators champion. It’s a good time for us all to get more involved. Not just in discussions about matters outside of our control, but doing things meaningful and uplifting for the people in our community. If anyone reading has some useful links to dissident artists, writers or content creators worth following please let me know.

    Hope the new year brings everyone here plenty of insight and wisdom, new and meaningful friendships and peace to you and your loved ones.

17. With regards to my comments yesterday, here is something to ponder:

    https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/when-will-fed-pivot

    I think the gentleman is being optimistic, we won’t make it to august.

    • The Fed will pivot when they finally break the stock market, because that is what is most visible to the masses.

      • Perhaps, but they pivoted before then in 2019. Remember, the market started to collapse in December of 2018. Fed started cutting rates from the ever so high of 2.5 in the spring of 2019. By the fall of 2019 another banking crisis had begun, the did some QE but didn’t announce it. They needed something big to really open the floodgates. We all remember what came next.

        • Good point. But they are much higher now. TBH, I am very surprised the stock market has not collapsed yet.

          • I only think they were able to go higher this time because they had injected somewhere around 5 to 6 trillion in a few months in 2020. QE from 08 ended around 2015, the fed began raising very slowly in 2017. Yellen did a .25 raise in 2015 i think, and the market thru a fit, so she quit. The Fed also resumed limited QE in march of this year when those banks failed. Its only a matter of time before they destroy the currency one way or another. QE is like a drug, each next hit has a lesser effect unless the amount is raised substantially. Its funny and sad to have realized that back in 08. Torture in a way, watching this all slowly unfold and not being able to do anything about it.

          • I’m more surprised housing hasn’t collapsed, but then again people are locked in a super low rates, so they ain’t moving. And i think alot of .govs 2 trillion yearly deficits and the QE from the FED in 2020-2021 is keeping alot of corporates from laying off. Its all politics now, fundamentals are dead and gone.

          • I believe we have quite a way to go yet, Dont buy the magnificent 7 though.

    • What explains the insane market run up in Q4? Is it pre-loading the gains that the expected rate drops will bring or can we expect even more gains when the inevitable rate drop is announced?

      • “What explains the insane market run up in Q4?”

        From what the FED has said, i’d say it was because they stated at the beginning of december they weren’t planning on any rate cuts in 2024 and then about twelve days later they said they did see rate cuts in 2024. Usually the market drops with rates being cut. The biggest difference between now and 2008 i would argue, is that the rest of world might be sick and tired of us and europe setting prices. I think that was what 2020 was about. In my opinion 2020 was the continuation of the 2008 crisis that was never fixed, but as we all know, its a confidence game, so they couldn’t admit that. Instead they drummed up fear like post 9/11 and drove the herd where they wanted them to go. But because the rest of the world didn’t go along and we were sanctioning russia we ended up getting alot of those printed dollars coming back here instead of the rest of the world absorbing them. If they rate cut and print again soon, i expect the inflation to be even worse, and any gains you make on paper will not be worth it.

18. Gasoline in Germany is $6.60 per gallon. Not $10. Prices topped under $10 only for a few months.

    • I was in Germany last month and paid €2.50 a liter. That roughly ten-fifty a gallon, after currency conversion. Maybe I was in a pricey area.

      • That must have been an extremely expensive area. Sometimes they put a high premium on gasoline along the highways. Same in Austria or Slovenia.
        Normal price is around €1.60. Was even lower earlier this year.

      • Not sure why my response was not allowed.

        Anyway, the real prices are almost a whole euro lower and have been for several months. Your experience was a freak outlier. Sometimes, they add a large premium next to highways, so maybe you paid there?

      • My brain briefly went on tilt at that exchange rate until I realized it was a communist volume measurement.

    • Why can’t I respond to Z’s comment?

19. Sundance at Conservative Treehouse has a theory about the sanctions on Russia. He says the sanctions were not for the purpose of punishing Russia, TPTB knew that would not work. Instead the sanctions are part of a plan to isolate us in order to invoke their digital currency scheme. The cabal is fencing us in not keeping Russia out.

    The sanctions are designed to keep us in the system. The scam will be complete when the digital currency is enacted. TPTB will have near complete control.

    • Sundance had been staring at the sun too much. TPTB’s modus operandi is “submit or die (if eventually)” expansionism, not fencing in and drawing borders.

      • Well the fencing in part is for us. Not for the GAE.

      • Oh, and the Borders are financial and investment in nature only. TPTB have no intention of stopping the invaders coming in.

    • The sanctions were clearly targeted at Europe and designed to keep it within the empire. CBDC also may be a goal, but the main one it would seem was to make the Western satrapies even more dependent. This portends to be a dreadful year, and watch Germany. The industrialists there are pissed at what has been done to them.

      • As well as the NS pipeline destruction.

      • At this point I’d think that the big German industrialist families are beginning to contemplate finding another painter with a funny mustache….

        • But he needs to be from Austria.

    • It seems to me that CBDC is a plan-b and not really a goal. Whatever problems the Dollar has, it is a major source of their power. Severing connections with the USD severs them from that power. Tying the USD to the CBDC just brings all of the problems of the Dollar onto the CBDC. It wouldn’t give them a clean new start. I’m pretty ignorant of finance, so there may be aspects totally invisible to me. But at best, it seems like internal control would be the only real benefit.

      • They would have to announce some jubilee, which would also destroy their control. Debt is the modern form of slavery when not used for productive purposes. Or perhaps remove all supports that have been keeping things on life support, let people starve, and beg for a CBDC? If people lost their jobs for a year or two, how many wouldn’t have to beg for something? They think their 401k is a savings account………

      • I think TPTB want CBDC, but I don’t think they have fully grasped the infrastructure and human capital required to implement, operate, and maintain such a system.

        The X-factor is – do those resources still exist in the GAE?

        For various reasons, I don’t believe they do.

        That said, TPTB are going to do immense amounts of damage as they fail to fulfill their digital currency wish.

        • They’ll likely wait to see how China manages to do it, make some half-hearted noises about it being an impingement on human rights, and then implement it anyway at the first available moment. However, it will have none of the efficiency of China’s digital currency.

          • IIRC, Beijing ran a high-profile digital currency pilot program during the 2022 Winter Olympics.

            I don’t think that pilot went all that well.

            I know they have had ongoing pilot programs since then, but I haven’t seen much reliable information on them.

      • The CBDC will be in “U.S. dollars.” It will not eliminate the dollar.

20. Fun walk down memory lane; good on you for a review.

    In re: Alex Jones verdict. Rudy Giuliani fined nearly $150 MILLION for “defaming” two randos in another state. Absolute madness and a taste of where the winds are blowing.

    SBF is actually in trouble. Apparently rich, powerful people don’t like to get publicly screwed. The money power beats the political power, for now.

    —

    Requests for next years predictions:

    1. Southern Border woes. Infinite immigration?

    2. “America’s Greatest Ally”: Does the world figure out just bypass the US for help and just go direct to AGA and ask them to yank our chain and jump to their commands? Seems cheaper.

    3. Will the Karens be stopped? They’re the “foxes” in government, but they’re terrible at it and invite the “lions”.

    • Looks like the swamping of the US is one of their main objectives, so millions of illegals will continue to come until we meet them with force…
      Covid was no accident..Japanese scientists have established that all variants were made in a lab….The deathvax continues to kill, as many obits confirm, though the cause is always listed as something else..
      No one foresaw the incredibly effective Houthi blockade which is changing the ME…

21. Prediction? PAIN.

22. Bitcoin is, surprisingly, above $40k. Maybe it will collapse in 2024.

    • So far crypto is behaving like “collectibles,” specifically trading cards, with prices moving almost meaninglessly, almost all products suddenly falling entirely out of the market, etc. Bitcoin is the big name, the Magic The Gathering of the genre. There *will be* a last guy who pays $70,000 for a Black Lotus, and soon thereafter nobody will regard it as anything but ugly old cardboard. The “market” is don’t be him.

      It’s been an interesting test run for our future social-credit currencies. Bitcoin *is* surveillance; it has no other plausible claim to value. Who buys it? Reliably regime-obedient demographics who consider themselves otherwise. None of the “cyberpunk”/2600/cDc guys were prescient enough to recognize themselves as The Problem. Or maybe only Beto was.

      • My recommendation is to sell Magic/Pokemon Cards and Super Nintendos when the bulk of the Millennials hit their midlife crises. Although maybe they already had that happen in their 30s instead of the typical 40s/50s.

    • I don’t understand how anyone even thinks bitcoin is an investment…… you may as well just buy a pet rock. Lets see, randomly came out of nowhere in 2008 or 09. Nobody knows who created, the Feds had just injected at shit ton of money into the markets (for the time) and it doesn’t occur to anyone it just may have been an inflation escape valve? Something you can’t hold physically and requires electricity and the internet to access. Yeah that sounds like a great way to buck the system!

      • at least you can take your pet rock to parties to show your friends!

23. As Yogi Berra was supposedly quoted, “It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future.”

    Congratulations on the new abode and good luck fixing it up to your liking Z.

    Whatever happens in 2024, it’ll be dumber than we could ever imagine.

    • The next big thing; “why didn’t I think of that??” Because you’re not insane or satanic so you don’t stand a chance in this game

24. Pretty solid predictions. Globohomo didn’t get the Serbian regime change they wanted. But instead they got one in Poland. And their first move was to crack down on independent media. So now Poland can be properly enriched

    I agree with the comments that the “no recession” is probably fake. They lie about everything and the economy is one of the easiest things for them to lie about.

25. The party did try to rally around the sacred black man, but he turned out to be too ridiculous even for the Republicans.

    The firehose flow of…stuff…is such that I read this and had to think for a few seconds before remembering Tim Scott.

26. The future is always going to be different than we think it will be. Things will happen and be invented we aren’t expecting. So Z had a good hit rate for this year.

    The problem with predictions now is more than normal reality plays no important role in the worldview of the elite and managerial class. In any organization, the easiest way to get ahead now is by jumping on any bandwagon cheered by the top people. Yes, a tranny will help us sell working class beer. Yes, we can defeat Russia since it is only a gas station with nukes! On the other hand, pointing out a popular bandwagon will go off the cliff is the short path to career suicide.

    I won’t make predictions but I think the key issues will be:

    1. Do they succeed in getting Trump off the ballot? If so what are the societal consequences?

    2. Will the tribe and its US government continue waging 3 simultaneous wars against the tribe’s traditional enemies: Russians, Palestinians and right of center Christians? Seems as though this 3 prong war is fraying at the seams and there is a split on how to adjust.

    3. Will the desire to help Mother Gaia defeat the Sun God while transferring wealth to the elite and moving decisions to the global elite advance further, thus hurting the global economy, or will the rise of BRIC+ but the brakes on that outside of white countries?

    4. Will the desire of white women to virtue signal by destroying their nations’ economies be reigned by business leaders?

    Should be an interesting year!

    • My prediction is Trump will not be the GOP candidate. He will be on the ballot in a few red states but that’s it. Playing in the system is like playing chess with someone who can change the rules as he pleases

      • Well, the RNC seems resigned to Trump as the nominee. They’ve canceled the remaining debates – because it’s pointless. There is no electoral way to stop Trump. The usual suspects put out some puff polls for Nikki Romney, but nobody believes those.

        Trump will easily secure a majority of delegates by Super Tuesday in March. He will win by margins 10% or higher than his current polling. For base voters, this is about inflicting a political vendetta, revenge, on the Government Party.

        Recent feeble efforts to keep him off the ballot will not succeed because their assertion of “insurrection” is so blindingly stupid that even the SCOTUS won’t be able to rescue them. Those ballot controversies are for MEDIA consumption, not actual legal acts intended to keep Trump off the ballot. You have these CO and ME Democrats looking for a way to say “We hate Trump” to their deranged voting base. Notice in both cases that they said they would stay their decision if Trump appealed to SCOTUS…effectively keeping Trump on the ballot as long as he submitted an appeal. It’s a completely toothless pantomime. Some idiots yesterday reported that CO backed down and would put Trump on the ballot. No. They kept Trump on the ballot because he appealed to SCOTUS just like the Democrat judges told him to.

        The two serious court cases (the NY and GA ones are irrelevant and stupid) probably won’t get tried until after the election. Trump says he has immunity. The 5th Circuit is probably going to agree with him. If they don’t, it’ll go to an en banc proceeding which will probably agree with him. If they don’t, it’ll go to SCOTUS where Trump has an absolutely stellar record of wins. All of that will not get done fast enough for a trial in 2024…and it’s quite likely the two important cases get tossed because 1/6 happened when Trump was POTUS and the documents thing is the result of the Government giving him the documents that were rightfully his…and then demanding them back. Which is as stupid as it sounds. Best case for Democrats, they get their trial in 2024…but it’s so close to the election that even a lot of Democrat voters will see it as Stalinist and vote Biden out.

        The only way they keep Trump out, once these silly ballot questions are tossed, is that they will try to kill him. In that respect, you may be right and I give it 30% odds somebody takes a shot at him and 20% odds they succeed.

        Oh, and he’s +5 in RCP right now with RFK Jr. in the race. Expect Biden to do even worse as RFK takes away more votes and gets more of an audience. RFK is the mule who will get Trump elected in November.

        After that? We will see an outright rebellion by Federal Government employees. They will refuse to go to work. They will refuse to obey lawful orders. A lot of Trump’s “first day” is going to involve firing tens of thousands of people.

        If Biden wins? Game over. There will never be a legitimate election in this country again, and they will start a full-court press to start arresting and killing people like us. They know what power is and they are unafraid to use it.

        • I hope you’re right. But they’re trying all the lawfare tricks and they’re talking about smoking him, in the Washington Post no less. I think they’d do anything to stop him. We’ll see

        • My only issue with your analysis is thinking Trump can get elected. The only question is how many fake ballots in PA/GA/AZ/NV/MI would be so many that the media could not spin election fraud as a conspiracy theory. He would probably have to win by 10% nationally, where several hundred thousand fake ballots in each swing state is not enough.

27. I predict a Ruby Ridge type event somewhere in West Virginia next year. Hopefully thwarted.

    • Good god, that comment is pure black humor. (or would be better to say “noir” humor at this point)?

    • Maybe not West Virginia but somewhere, good chances of that

    • Maybe not Ruby Ridge, but if Trump gains traction and energy despite the regime’s best efforts, expect a MAGA killing. Trump will disavow and then step in every regime trap laid for him.

      • That would make sense if he had stepped into every trap laid for him so far. They’ve literally had to invent crimes in order to find a way to charge him.

        Government: Here are your documents
        Trump: Thanks, deliver them to MAL
        Government: OK, here you go.
        Government: did you put a lock on the door?
        Trump: No, but we have one now.
        Government: Give the documents back.
        Trump: Why?
        Government: They’re classified
        Trump: But you have copies of everything, and I declassified them.
        Government: No, they’re called “National Security information” now.
        Trump: You made that up. Prove it.
        Government: No, we can’t.
        Trump: Why?
        Government: It’s classified. Btw, you’re going to prison for 400 years.

        THAT is their case. They had to invent something and try to create a crime out of it. I mean they literally are trying to convict him of “interfering in an official proceeding” when he offered more security and told everyone to protest peacfully and to go home. First insurrection in world history where nobody was armed and they all got on their tour busses at 3pm to get home before dark.

        That’s not a trap. That’s “Show me the man and I’ll show you the crime.”

        The reason there’s a “Volume 2” of the Mueller Report (the obstruction of justice thing) is that they tried to entrap Trump and he successfully evaded them.

        The thing you’re going to see this time that we did not get last time is a purge. A massive, massive, purge. Trump already has a group working on it which is why the media is now whining about Trump getting “revenge” on his enemies. They know what is coming because Trump is openly talking about it and he appears willing to hire the proper executioners this time.

        • I hope you’re right. I fear there are no where near enough executioners to pull it off.

          • Me too. I call it operation:decapitation. Fire as many as you can and do it all at once.

    • The first line of self defense in a rural environment is instead of paying someone to pump your septic tank you dig it out yourself and put the stuff in strategically placed holes with a very thin layer of dirt on top to hide it.

      • What if I save myself the effort and buy a high-pressure water pump, connect it to the tank, and hook it up to a motion detector with a manual override option?

        That would be glorious.

        • Ever driven past a dairy farm? Sure the pasture is nice and lush but that smell….

          • Back in the late 1980’s the local meat processing plant that employed most of the town decided to turn the unused cattle parts into a sludge and spread it on their corn fields.

            It was like living next to an open-air cemetery during the plague. We didn’t have A/C back then, so you had to sleep with your windows open at night in June and it was just awful. A few years later everyone figured out that mad cow disease was being caused by inserting the nervous systems of dead cows back into the food chain, so the practice was stopped. The family-owned plant sold out to Cargill which imported a bunch of Mexicans and the town was never quite the same.

            Dairy farm smells, though, always remind me of home. It’s a weird thing to enjoy a foul smell. Like the smell of gasoline or newly tarred pavement.

    • West Virginia? That’s Tim Pool compound territory. Surprised he hadn’t been Ruby Riged yet.

    • First nuclear strike, they have to be sure

      Outlaw graffiti, 2026: “Zman lives!”

28. I thought 2023 was just going to be a crappy year and was right. The stolen-election administration doing it’s best to destroy and replace any opposition. Every foreign policy move is the opposite of our national interests. The economy limps along. How bad this is gets more obvious to anyone paying attention.

    2024 looks really ugly. Bad enough that I’m stocking up on ammo, seeds, and dried food. Hope I’m wrong.

    • Good things to stock up on. There’s no saying what nutty thing happens next. I’d include gold and silver (physical possession) if you can afford it and you probably have a plan for water already

    • Maxda: I don’t want to go down the rabbit hole, and everyone has his specific theory, but between the push to eat bugs and the increasing cost of everything, not to mention last year’s drought impacting price/availability of hay so lots of culling of cattle, I believe one ought to stock forms of animal protein. You can easily ‘put aside’ various grains, rice, beans etc. at what is an increased but still modest cost. But protein and fat – specifically olive oil and beef – have skyrocketed.

      Fwiw – I first saw mention of these a few years ago at a blog called Big Country, where I generally skim. There is one YT channel that also mentions them and has a 15% discount code for them. I have been surprised how many have never heard of them. Instead of various soups/stews/casserole type things like Mountain House, they sell MEAT – both raw and cooked. They are a supplier for US military (midrats and LRRP). I have purchased (but not cooked/tasted) their steaks, chicken, and pork – as well as a few veggies and specialty items (they have done name-brand outlet pizza and burgers/fries too).

      Check out Freeze Dry Wholesalers. Discount code/link available at youtube iridium242: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKXv3tPWF2g

      • Also, chest freezers are cheap (small/medium ones) and use minimal electricity. Just bought one for a friend for Christmasl.

        • Wow, Prepper meats, top o’ the list.
          Super thanks, 3g,

          Seeds
          Water tanks- use 55 gal plastic trash cans (I do)
          Water filter straws
          Fire, lighters, candles
          Peroxide & alcohol

          Layabout: “The future, my friend, is one word: Gerbils!”

    • The Fed can pump out enough funny money to keep it going until November. Then it all comes crashing down.

29. Maybe we are not technically in a recession because we borrowed another two trillion dollars and inserted it into the economy?

    How many years in a row can a country borrow two trillion dollars before something really bad happens?

    • This. They delayed a recession by setting the stage for a depression and collapse.

    • You will never have a technical depression with fiat currency. The establishment will always print to infinity and real, useful assets like housing will continue increasing in price.

    • The second leg down of the 2008 depression began in 2020. Change my mind.

      • Depressions don’t have massively inflating equity prices, housing prices, and a blue collar labor shortage.

        Even from 2010 through 2019, the economy was generally improving and asset prices greatly increased.

        • You never heard of weimar germany?

        • It was only “improving” if you played their game. That game was to rob anyone who didn’t want to gamble in the stock market of their return on savings. Think about it, 2008 was a liquidity crisis. What goes up in value when money is short? If everyone is going bust and you have cash, do you lend it for 0% or do you lend it for 20%? All the industries we’ve touted the last 40 years, healthcare, higher education, do not create wealth. They just transfer it from one person to another. Not to mention both of those industries receive insane subsidies from the federal and state governments. You need to be able to look at things objectively, just because it benefits you doesn’t make it good if everyone else is falling off the cart.

          • You must play the game based on the expectations of what the other players are going to do. Just because you are unhappy with the establishment doesn’t mean you should play sub-optimally. Stocking up on gold and silver to use because you want a total collapse of the current system is not a good investment, they’re fantasy investments.

            ‘Safe’ investments will never match the true inflation rate of important goods and services such as housing. Yes, people will be forced to invest in the stock market and yes, I would encourage that over becoming impoverished via fixed rate investments because Western governments will continue deficit spending and performing central bank shenanigans.

          • @leftcoastinmate

            So why do you even come here to comment if you’re just gonna play the game? Why are any of us here?

          • People like yourself who rationalize cheating and evil are why we are where we are. Hope you and yours make it thru to the otherside with all your material possessions! Theft is ok as long as i play the game! Murder is ok as long as i play the game!

          • Because, House, it’s the only game in town.

            You gotta do what you can with what you have, where you’re at.

            If it allows me to buy time, or beans & bullets, or prep land- then I’ll use a tool to better my people’s chances.

            Least harm, greatest good. It’ all a tradeoff.

          • The only thing you do by doing what “they” want you to do, is provide them with more fuel. More power. Do the opposite. Stop supporting those you dislike and disagree with.

        • Look where that game has gotten us now? Was it worth it? Serious question.

        • There is no labor shortage; the term you’re looking for is competency crisis.

          • You’ll only get competency if you allow failure. So again, stems from the bailouts in 2008 and 2020. Printing money isn’t meant to make your life better, its meant to keep those in power in power.

    • It all resembles Boiler Room and the scene about ‘nigger rich.’

      “Greg Weinstein : [to Seth, while driving in his Ferrari] You’ve got to realize half the kids you and I grew up with, remember in Hebrew school shoving match was a big deal? Worst case scenario somebody got their Yarmulke knocked off it’s true these guys are no joke they get all tanked up, throw a quick fist some of them actually enjoy it, like Richie what the fuck is that? Probably thought I was being tough back there with that guy, I was shitting my pants, fucking Guineas, half of them do coke, they all drink, zero capital, no fucking stability. they make all this money and always living three steps ahead, there’s guys at the firm that make a million a year but can’t even get a loan for a Honda because their credit is so bad, everybody’s just waiting for the fifteenth of the month, they may have the Porsche but they don’t have ten bucks to put in the gas tank, its nigger rich.”

      What recession?

      My portfolio is a friggin rocket ship. And my advisor has me going long. The house I bought two years ago with a 3.0% note is already worth 30% more. We sold more units at work last year than ever so my bonus is looking great. My rental properties have doubled in five years and I’m jamming rent +15% this year. Prime rib from Costco at Christmas and a holiday in Hawaii on the books for this spring. Daughter got into Duke Law and my son is an absolute ace on the mound and has scouts all over him.

      Now I gotta go. My buddy is throwing a watch party for the Clemson game. Also, FJB!

      • Some of us have principles and look down on corporate welfare 😉

        If things keep going the way they’re going though, we’ll all be corporate welfare soon.

        • Me, I’m just broke and in debt.
          Got 5 family situations in several states I’m dealing with here, what do I do, just tell them to eff off?

          Captain of the Titanic, I know. But I was raised on Depression stories. They never quit, though by God they wanted to.

30. “I did not finish my book.”

    An interviewer once asked Michener how he found the time to write those expansive novels. His reply was “Four pages a day.” A 1,000 page book in less than a year.

    Sounds easy until you’re staring at a blank page on a typewriter (or screen on a computer in this modern age) but it sounds as though you have the discipline for it. Put me down for a copy when it’s for sale and Happy New Year with blessings for your new abode.

    • Talent is far less important than discipline as well as output. Michener left that part out. I really am a firm believer that applied discipline leads to revealed talent. The lack of instant gratification in that, though, is enough to put off most people.

      • Hemingway had that mentality. Wrote all morning and played with the kids all afternoon. Like it was an office job.

      • From chatgpt

        James Michener, the renowned American author known for his epic historical novels, was known for his meticulous research and attention to detail. While Michener did not have a “research staff” in the way modern media or corporate structures might envision, he did employ a team of researchers, editors, and assistants to help him gather information, fact-check details, and assist with various aspects of the writing process.

        Michener often traveled extensively to the locations he wrote about, spending time immersing himself in the culture, history, and geography of each place. Additionally, he consulted numerous primary and secondary sources, conducted interviews, and gathered firsthand accounts to ensure the authenticity and accuracy of his narratives.

        Furthermore, Michener worked closely with editors and assistants who helped him organize his research, review drafts, and refine his manuscripts. While the exact structure and composition of his support team may have varied from project to project, it’s clear that Michener valued collaboration and the contributions of others in bringing his epic novels to life.

        In summary, while James Michener may not have had a formal “research staff” in the contemporary sense, he did collaborate with a team of professionals and experts who played essential roles in the research, writing, and production of his expansive novels.

31. Reposting three from me. The rest are best forgotten.

    >Iran and Saudi Arabia hold direct talks brokered by Erdogan.

    Brokered by the Chinese not the Turks. They are now talking, but the Borg is engaging in reality avoidance about this, because it upends almost half a century of US policy. Sort of proud of this call.

    >The Daily Shoah ends after episode 1088.

    TDS lives, but is gasping for air (despite the wooden doors). NJP not so much.

    >The ADL reports a troubling upswing in whites engaging in blatant anti-defamation.

    This was supposed to be a gimmie. Like predicting the sun will rise in the East. But then Elon went and bought Twitter. The upswing is real, and it is spectaular.

    My only call for 2024: by the end of it we will have forgotten 2023.

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