(as if we needed a new one. we already have enough of the old ones!)

http://wolfstreet.com/2016/02/22/a-new-level-of-absurdity/

The Boneheaded Logic of Negative Interest Rates.
By Bill Bonner, Chairman, Bonner & Partners:

This whole website, other than our little corner of the universe is irreversibly damaged. The Cult of Clintontology is a disaster for the country, and what used to be Democrats.

Just a bunch of fascist wannabes following Dear Leader down the road to oblivion for the middle class.

And I can see a familiar pattern emerging. I've seen it before. My posts just disappear. No alert. No hide. Just gone. Been there, done that.

Tansy and I have signed on to the bitter end (which I suspect has already happened and right now we're dancing in the afterglow) Our plans for the near future are to meet up here in the ruins and yak it up like old times. I'm really looking forward to that.

The only way I can keep coming back is to remind myself that I can't change any minds here, because, that requires active reasoning. A lost science of late. Somebody was promised they'd be the nominee in 2008 and come Hell or high water, it's going to happen. Screw the repercussions to the base who's situation has only become more dire since then. I was told in so many words here on DU that me voting in the primary would not matter. It will already be decided by then, but, since I live in a swing state they'd appreciate it if I could show up for the General in Nov.

I'm hoping you'll be here for our yak fest Fudd, but, you do what's best for your sanity.

Someone will need to send me a message so I know the date of the yak fest.

I gave up on DU a long time ago. Maybe really in November 2008, when the true nature of you-know-who was revealed. At that point I knew that the "underground" no longer existed. DU had become the establishment. It would, I suspected, become a cult not too different from its arch rival, demanding purity of thought and absolute blind faith. And so it has proven.

It would be easy to say I'm too old and too set in my ways to change, but that's not true. I think maybe I'm more flexible, more open to change and new ideas than I used to be. More independent, and even more of an iconoclast. Of course, I could be wrong on that score, too.

In the past seven-plus years, I've learned that even those I thought were loyal friends could turn out to be . . . not. Some in real life, some on DU, some elsewhere. I cannot and will not rely on them, only on myself. If I stay true to myself, nothing else matters.

I will not go elsewhere in search of a new underground. I tried one of those a few years ago as a potential alternative to this one, and it was worse, with leaders who proclaimed their venue was more pure and more open than this, but who allowed no challenges to their authority. DU was not the only cult.

In light of what's happened more recently, I see no sense in following someone who has already exhibited that tendency, someone who always knew what was best for everyone and couldn't understand why some disagreed. I began to see something beyond mere frustration in the outbursts, to the point that I wasn't surprised when the demand of "agree with me and support me or else" finally came. I refused, and I offered one last warning. Now I've just reached the point where I no longer hesitate to pull out the rubber stamp.

Neither will I waste time trying to convert the stupid. That is a waste of time and effort. Even more wasteful is arguing with them. It's pointless. I used to think I did it for the lurkers, but in the end I think I did it for myself. I didn't need DU for that.

I'll turn the lights out when it's time.

Other than that it's a complete waste of time. I never used to have anyone on ignore, but a month ago I had 30. It doubled in a couple of days, and I could spend a week adding assholes.

I've already dropped off my primary absentees, and am keeping my party affiliation only to vote for Alan Grayson over Patrick Murphy in the main primary. Great choices huh?

But trying to weed thru them for that easter-egg, it is just too time consuming.

As much as I admired everyone here on the economy group, the bile spurting in GD was enough for me to take myself out of DU.

Still held a star membership as I did lurk sometimes, but not often enough to feel at home. If, that makes sense?

I was shocked when I heard Demeter got the axe. It was a WTF moment.

Any way, just wanted to say hi.

And thanks Holter and Tansy.

And Ms Demeter et al.

Not here in this forum. It's the general discussions that went from interested views to course tribalism at its worse iteration.

The offerings to be offended by what are supposed to be peers engaged in political discussion, is not something I enjoy. That's just me.

Any more I am at my last bit of energy when it comes to politics, thinking about the economy and the world of money and working for the "Man". The Du that I enjoyed is long since pasted and now is truly a Jonestown. SMW and WEE has become my little corner of a mad, mad world and coming here allows me to feel safe and catch a breath. I will also stay till the end as there is strength in numbers and we all can lean on each other if need be. I truly think our democracy and country is past being fixable outside of a true revolution. If a revolution happens it will be very ugly. Most Americans do not have the critical thinking skills to make the choices and decisions that are needed to right this sinking ship. Ignorance, hate, and selfishness seems to be the norm.
Peace
Steven

IF they ever get better.

He's a retired rocket scientist (really). NASA put him in charge of the SRB program after the Challenger disaster. He likes to "jokingly" say that he assigned Bill Nelson the wrong rockets. But, he has the most brilliant analytical mind I've ever seen.

He sees this election as the spark, where everything comes unraveled. Really a clash between two authoritarians that nobody really likes. The Supreme Court nomination will be the window dressing setting the stage. The right wing will not tolerate another Democratic presidency, especially if it's someone as universally loathed as the presumed nominee. And Trump is just a big mouthed bully with a large audience of lemmings.

I don't think the presumed nominee is as universally loathed as some of us might want to believe. And I also think that if the presumed nominee wins the nomination, there will be sufficient support to elect a Democratic president, DINO as that might be. At least it isn't bat shit crazy.

The Democratic establishment will get behind that nominee, and I believe they will eviscerate the GOP.

The real issue is the other elections -- governors, the senate and the house, local offices. There is where the power has to be shifted.

I believed up until a few days ago that the GOP establishment would pull out the nomination for Jeb. He's weaker and wishy-washier even than his dumber(?) brother, but he never had the personality to pull it off. The GOP allowed the nutjobs too much power, and they didn't latch onto Jeb because they didn't see him as crazy enough. Trump played to them; Jeb tried to look normal. The nutjobs don't want normal.

In a way, the broader Dem electorate will vote against their own self interest the way the nutjob base does, but it will still be less crazy than the nutjobs.

No, maybe I'm operating under some delusions in a perfect example of Dunning-Kruger, but I have sufficient faith in what remains of the American educated classes that we will not elect a clown. We didn't elect Palin, and we didn't elect Romney. Romney was slick and successful and couldn't win.

The GOP establishment doesn't want a clown, especially one they have no control over, especially one who has no control over himself or his followers. That way lies anarchy of the bloodiest kind, in which the Cliven Bundys of the far right will start shooting without hesitation, and people will start wishing Obama HAD taken some guns away.

The GOP convention will be interesting. A third party candidate will be interesting. But I do not thing the ultimate outcome will be much of a surprise, and I do not think it will be as bad as we fear. Not as good as we could hope, but it will at least not be batshit crazy.

More later.

worse.

The current system is unsustainable.

Trump is a clown; Cruz is an ayatollah. Rubio is another W, but without a brother to rig Florida for him.

The current economic system is unsustainable in the long run, but it has a ways to go before total, catastrophic, one-fell-swoop collapse.

IMHO, and maybe just gut thinking rather than anything else, the Great Depression/WW2 generation set the foundation and the boomers would have built on that with the anti-war, Earth Day, happy hippie mindset. The oligarchs who had been held at bay by FDR. Truman, and Eisenhower got lucky with Reagan -- and used the Iran revolution to their advantage to install him, then began the great dismantling. They became complacent under Bush1 and the renegade Perot split enough votes to put Clinton1 in the White House. But like Reagan, Clinton didn't come from the senate; he came from a governorship and didn't have a machine behind him. He fell prey to the oligarchs and we got NAFTA, repeal of Glass-Steagall, etc. he also gave them the scandals by which they could control him.

Gore was a different proposition, and he was young enough to bring with him some of those hippie-dippie ideas anathema to the oligarchs. They used Bush1's anger and resentment to put two of his sons in place to control the 2000 election if at all possible. They got lucky, but they also had everything in place to take full advantage of the opportunity. Having done it in 2000, they were poised to do it again in '04.

The problem for '08 was that they didn't have anyone in position to inherit from W. McCain was the sentimental favorite, and I think the GOP saw the fight between Obama and Clinton2 as a weakening of the Dems. McCain was a weak candidate on the issues, and the tea party was already gaining strength. They had to add a VP candidate who would appeal to the far right.

By all measures, Palin was a disaster and should have been laughed out of the election. But the oligarchs had control of the media and could silence a lot of the opposition. Had McCain been a stronger candidate, or Palin less batshit crazy, they might have pulled it off. This time the oligarchs' luck didn't hold. Close, closer than it should have been, and maybe close only because sufficient racism lingers in the Dems, too, but at least we eked this one out.

Clinton2 is now where McCain was in '08. "Entitled" to the nomination because she came so close before. But she brings with her a lot of negatives that McCain didn't bring. And she's got a challenger just as she had in '08.

If she wins in November, she can be controlled by a solidly Dem congress that sticks to Dem principles. There are a few. And I think Sanders' challenge is going to make a difference.

The big difference, however,is going to come from Obama's SCOTUS nomination. Keep your eyes on that.

nt

You're giving him too much credit. This guy makes an empty straight jacket look smart. He's nothing but a tool. Doesn't even know how to pander. His backers will just tell him to "fetch", and he'll probably fuck that up too.

Spot on, as usual


I miss your postings, but like everyone else, life intervenes that has taken much of my time.
Don't forget me in the yak fest!