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  1. #796
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    Quote Originally posted by Dreamtimer View Post
    Trump was aware. But he doesn't care. Why should he, as he says, because he won't be around?

    But will nations really stop using the dollar any time soon? They might have sooner under a second Trump term due to the chaotic and untrustworthy dynamic he created and tried to accentuate.

    People don't really want to leave a system until they have an alternative, and even then...
    It is hard to predict when this will happen, but no reserve currency ever stays on top forever, in fact currencies in general are pretty ephemeral things. Just in my own country's case, we've had three different currencies in the space of a century and a fourth one is likely coming soon (the Euro). The previous one was destroyed by the biggest bout of hyperinflation the world has ever seen (it was Soviet revenge on Hungarian middle classes). My grandma used to show me banknotes from that period, some were denominated in the trillions.

    In the case of the US dollar, it is still going strong at the moment, but US government and Federal Reserve policies are constantly undermining it. I suspect it may be replaced by a cryptocurrency of sorts, perhaps issued by the IMF. It has been suggested that SDRs (the IMF's own currency, backed by its own gold reserves and a basket of currency holdings) could become the basis of a new global cryptocurrency, which seems plausible.

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  3. #797
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    If the below account is accurate, we should probably start calling it the "Disunited States of America".

    https://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/unity/

    “Unity”

    In their latest act of degeneracy disguised as virtue, the Progressive Wokesters of Washington failed again to nail that old orange coonskin to wall. Rather, they only embarrassed themselves in the effort, even as far as submitting faked evidence. You’d think there would be some penalty for dishonoring Congress like that, but Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) has for now just skated for submitting doctored Twitter posts to the court of senators.

    Watch now as some Wokeness-inflamed DC prosecutor is enlisted by the Lawfare beagles to charge former President Trump with a catalog of crimes under the city’s ordinary statutes. They’ll get a conviction pronto in a local DC court for sure — considering the town’s demographics — and then the appeals will drag on well into the next ice age. In the meantime, as long as he remains healthy, and evades assassin’s bullets, Mr. Trump will go after his antagonists in Congress like a mad dog toward the 2022 midterm. Mr. Swalwell had better learn to code. Or maybes his talents are more attuned to hackery.

    The impeachment loss, which was predetermined by simple math, seems to have only driven Nancy Pelosi crazier, perhaps because there are no more traps she can lay for the ex-president, or maybe because her managers’ strategy was revealed to be so shamelessly dishonest. Now she must turn her attention to the Woke agenda, which, she may sense, will only accelerate a cratering US economy — things like the inane Green New Deal and open borders and disabling what’s left of the American oil industry. Good luck with your to-do list, Nance!

    Mr. Biden, rumored to be president — or at least regarding himself as such — has been proclaiming the wish to “unite” the warring tribes of America. He may say so, but he doesn’t really mean it, not one little bit, and everybody knows it. Every executive order he’s issued his first month on-the-job is designed as much as a slap in the face to more than half the country as it is an actual policy goal. He’s only succeeded in demonstrating that Progressive Wokery is a badly manufactured pseudo-reality based on vengeance fantasies and the wish to coerce the people who didn’t vote for him — who probably outnumbered the ones that did, a galling authentic reality.

    This played out dramatically last week in a telephone parley between Mr. Biden and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis over the governor’s refusal to lockdown his state. The world-famous Dr. Fauci was also on the call, in which Mr. Biden threatened to curtail American citizens travel to Florida by road and air — since an offshoot of Covid-19 policy has been to drive a huge demographic exodus from economically failing states of New York, Illinois, and California down there. He also threatened to withhold federal funding to Florida and deny the state access to Covid-19 vaccines. Dr. Fauci chimed in, “Governor, do you want to be responsible for reinfecting the nation? Truth is, we don’t even know how effective current vaccines are against the UK strain.”

    DeSantis told Dr. Fauci he trusted his own state health authorities over financially incentivized federal officials. The conclusion of the conference call went like this:

    How much do you stand to earn from these vaccines, Dr. Fauci? And, Joe, if you continue with this course of action, I will authorize the state National Guard to protect the movement of Floridians,” DeSantis said.

    “Address me as Mr. President or President Biden,” Biden said.

    “I will not, and you can go fuck yourself,” DeSantis said before hanging up.

    Hmmm. Now, that got right to the point, didn’t it? And consider this was not just Citizen Joe Blow mouthing off to alleged President Joe B, but the governor of a populous state. And what if it suggests a trend?

    Another obvious and disconcerting irony in that affair was, of course, that Mr. Biden seeks to restrict the movement of people across Florida’s borders for fear of spreading new strains of Covid-19, while he insolently authorizes thousands of illegal aliens to cross our border with Mexico daily, with no testing for the virus. Could Mr. Biden’s intentions look any worse?

    The calls for “unity” are a dodge. Unity requires broad consensual reality, not cynically-constructed pseudo-realities designed to cancel any notion of the common good, a common culture, or the public interest. Without Mr. Trump capering in the spotlight, all you see and hear is the clunky stage machinery of a dangerous mass entertainment aimed at crude mind-fuckery. Going forward, the frail and illegitimate Joe Biden is center-stage in that spotlight. He’s already screwed the pooch on so-called “policy” in less than a month, but the brutal facts of America’s crippled economy are crashing down on him and his Woke managers like the wrath of history. How long will it be before he just gets the hook?

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  5. #798
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    I think Mr. Kunstler is a bit too fanatically right-winged ─ in good right-wing tradition, his opinion pieces are a bit too full of resentment for anything left-wing, and he's more focused on The Economy™ than on anything else.

    By the way, just so as to show that I'm no fan of Joe Biden or the course of the US Democrats either, I'll post these two videos from Abby Martin. I've been meaning to do it earlier, but I was too busy and it sort of slipped my mind.


    = DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR =

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  7. #799
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    Quote Originally posted by Aragorn View Post
    I think Mr. Kunstler is a bit too fanatically right-winged ─ in good right-wing tradition, his opinion pieces are a bit too full of resentment for anything left-wing, and he's more focused on The Economy™ than on anything else.
    I've noticed that too, which is why I haven't been posting much from him lately. His bi-weekly column is mostly run by the likes of Zerohedge these days.

    Maybe with age, he has gotten more right-wing, because he certainly wasn't right-wing when I started following him around the 2008 financial crisis. He is actually a liberal Jew from New York and a registered Democrat, who used to work for the New York Times and was editor of The Rolling Stone magazine.

    However, I have no interest in Left-Right paradigm, I am simply looking for signs of collapse and societal, political and economic failure. There seems to be plenty of that out there and I commend Kunstler for coming out with his book back in 2005 (The Long Emergency), which has predicted many of the upheavals we are witnessing today. I read that book back in 2008 and it remains just as relevant today. I also greatly enjoy his work on New Urbanism, I've read most of his non-fiction books on the subject.

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  9. #800
    Senior Member Emil El Zapato's Avatar
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    Here's my spun narrative on Biden's actions:

    Time will tell if Biden is being ingenuous about his actions toward Yemen ... Martin is pressing for action which is cool for her but conjecture should not make for an example of justified condemnation.
    What she doesn't touch on is that for at least 20 years the best nuclear scientist in bad guy land has been living and working in Yemen and that is what may lay at the bottom of the frenzy. Said nuclear scientist obviously works with Iran on their nuclear program. So, the bottom-line question is, is the war in Yemen brought for the wanton murder of innocent victims, or is it brought for the need to keep the globe safe by stopping the Iran nuclear program?

    The harsh sanctions perhaps costing Russian lives were forced upon Trump by literally every power base in the states. I'm a bit confused if those lives matter or not?

    A bit of posturing against both Russia and China is necessary right now in order to restore a pre-Trump balance of 'understanding'. The Biden administration's (not Biden's) intent is to forestall armed conflict by using the threat as a bargaining chip at the economic negotiations table.

    There's much more but ...
    “El revolucionario: te meteré la bota en el culo"

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  11. #801
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    If my brother and sister-in-law can soft-sell the insurrection in the face of their daughter being in clear and present danger, if they can be in that sort of denial, then perhaps we are close to collapse.

    It's really sad to see.

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  13. #802
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    Will [circumstances] cause a dollar collapse? No, at least not for the near future. That is because there is no good alternative. The euro is the second-most circulated currency. It has undergone attack from within, thanks to the eurozone crisis.

    The majority of international contracts demand a dollar payment, so that also adds to its stability.
    Oopsy boo, Boris. No Petro-Euro for you.


    Nations are limiting greenhouse gas emissions to fight global warming. As they shift to electric vehicles and solar or wind power generation, it threatens the profitability of oil-producing nations. The United States has lost its competitive edge in these technologies to China and the European Union. As a result, the petrodollar may lose its role as the world's dominant currency.
    This seems easily possible due to the foolish anti-environmentalism gripping so many Americans. Denial of the dangers of pollution, denial of global climate/habitat change, denial of basic science...Oil is almost religion, kind of like capitalism is almost religion. Religion often leads to lack of logic and reason.

    Two conditions must be in place before the dollar could collapse. There must be an underlying weakness in the value of the U.S. dollar, and there must be a viable alternative.
    The dollar is not exhibiting an underlying weakness. Between January 2008 and 2020, the dollar has strengthened by 30%, from 89.2 to 115. The coronavirus pandemic strengthened it a further 10%, rising as high as 126.4 on March 23, 2020.

    Why? The U.S. economy is still seen as the strongest in the world. Investors trust the U.S. government will back its currency.
    That trust would have likely greatly eroded under a second Trump term as it became abundantly clear how unreliable he is and how he'll betray even those closest to him. That just can't stand up to the test of time. Trump could easily have been the catalyst for collapse.

    There is no viable currency alternative for everyone to buy. The next most popular currency after the dollar is the euro. But it comprises only 21% of central bank reserves.

    China and others argue that a new currency should be created and used as the global currency. China would like it to be its currency, the yuan. That would boost China's economic growth. China has not taken enough steps to make its currency widely traded. It's only 2% of central bank foreign currency reserves.
    Bitcoin's value is highly volatile because there's no central bank to manage it. It's also become the coin of choice for the black economy. That makes it vulnerable to tampering by unknown forces.


    The economies of Japan and China are dependent on U.S. consumers. They know that if they sell their dollars, their action would further depress the value of the dollar. So their products, still priced in yuan and yen, would cost relatively more in the United States. Their economies would suffer. Right now, it's still in their best interest to hold on to their dollar reserves.

    China and Japan are aware of their vulnerability. They are selling more to other Asian countries that are gradually becoming wealthier. But the United States is still the best market in the world.
    A second Trump term could have easily ended that. As could martial law and overturned elections. That could easily have spurred economic collapse due to instability and loss of trust.

    Whew! Guess we squeaked by on that one.

    For now.


    The Balance

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  15. #803
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    Good article, DT.

    The conclusion seems to be the that the end of the oil age (which is much closer than most people realise) will also bring about the collapse of the petrodollar system. There is nothing else underpinning the US dollar, as it is way overvalued, compared to the actual productive capacity the US economy represents. I think the surest sign of that is how incredibly expensive many things are in the US and yet they produce less than satisfactory results for all that money.

    I'm referring of course to the various rackets underpinning the "service" economy, such as healthcare, the legal profession, plastic surgery, banking, insurance, and so forth. Most of these rackets cost many times more than similar systems in comparable countries and produce far worse results. This is a sign of the rot that has been created by the petrodollar system and the reserve currency status of the dollar. Americans as a whole don't actually have to engage in productive activity themselves, because they steal the rest of the world's resources and productivity, not in absolute terms, but relatively speaking.

    I don't know what will replace the dollar in international transactions, but I suspect it will be a cryptocurrency of sorts, perhaps even backed by gold.
    Last edited by Chris, 16th February 2021 at 21:14.

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    We are in denial, about oil and much more.

    I've seen first hand the results of denial. Please forgive the endless repetition. I think it's because we're crazy.

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  19. #805
    Senior Member Emil El Zapato's Avatar
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    Well, For Whatever it is worth. There is not enough gold below or above ground to sustain the Global economy. Gold's value is just a fraction of the global economics. Cryptocurrency, whatever that is, seems like a more likely backing mechanism to me.
    “El revolucionario: te meteré la bota en el culo"

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  21. #806
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    Quote Originally posted by Aragorn View Post
    I think Mr. Kunstler is a bit too fanatically right-winged ─ in good right-wing tradition, his opinion pieces are a bit too full of resentment for anything left-wing, and he's more focused on The Economy™ than on anything else.

    By the way, just so as to show that I'm no fan of Joe Biden or the course of the US Democrats either, I'll post these two videos from Abby Martin. I've been meaning to do it earlier, but I was too busy and it sort of slipped my mind.


    I still need to listen to these.

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  23. #807
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    Quote Originally posted by Dreamtimer View Post
    I still need to listen to these.
    There was also an article earlier ─ I looked into posting it here, but most of the photos were protected against linking, and the article itself was incredibly long ─ regarding the Pentagon's plan to develop a new USD $100 billion nuclear weapon, rumored to be ─ and I quote ─ "50 times more powerful than the bombs that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki."
    = DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR =

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    Oh God, I heard something about that too. We may well have lost our wits at this point.

    What's supposed to be the follow-up plan to destruction of our home?

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    Administrator Aragorn's Avatar
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    Quote Originally posted by Dreamtimer View Post
    Oh God, I heard something about that too. We may well have lost our wits at this point.

    What's supposed to be the follow-up plan to destruction of our home?
    None. It's the MAD principle, alias Mutually Assured Destruction, or as I like calling it, the "spoiled brat" strategy ─ "If I can't have the whole world, then I'll make sure that you won't ever have it either."
    = DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR =

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    Quote Originally posted by Aragorn View Post
    There was also an article earlier ─ I looked into posting it here, but most of the photos were protected against linking, and the article itself was incredibly long ─ regarding the Pentagon's plan to develop a new USD $100 billion nuclear weapon, rumored to be ─ and I quote ─ "50 times more powerful than the bombs that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki."
    Sounds a bit suicidal to me. (It won't come to that though)

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