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Prez: No, you're not -- you'll be stone dead in a moment.

Even if the dems nominate her. I like her more than that other lady

Richard Simmons for VP

Let's bring America back from the brink!

I think I understand now why some people are very keen on open water swimming (wild swimming). I've just been on holiday and spent a lot of time swimming in the sea (yes, in the UK, with a wetsuit) and doing a spot of body boarding. It's very relaxing. You can spend hours in the water. It's quite fun when the waves are breaking over you, but it's also good when they're smooth and you bob over the top.

There's a bit of a knack to body boarding, catching the wave at the right point, and adjusting the attitude of the board so it stays on the leading edge of the wave for longer. I don't think I'll ever get around to trying proper surfing. I think that would take some lessons and quite a bit of time. It's fun to watch though.

We are knee-deep in wharrgarrrbling white-supremacist bullshit. I don't think this site's going to last much longer as anything but Stormfront 2.0 at the rate things are going. Nevertheless, I'm the kind of person who can't just walk past a giant gibbering clusterfuck of wrong without snarking on it, so here goes.

Have you ever noticed that none of these people can give you a straight answer about what it is precisely to be "white?" I'd like to know when micks, dagos, polacks, and krauts...oops, pardon me, Irish, Italians, Poles, Germans, and basically anyone not a WASP began to qualify as "white." What caused this sudden shift in the definition of whiteness, when did it happen, and why?

Also, scratch these cowardly little whiners a bit, and something interesting emerges. It's not white skin they seem to be after so much as "white culture." This, if anything, is even more ill-defined than simple "whiteness." Requests for clarification from, as a pertinent example, our very own XivLacuna, have proven to be...less than enlightening, shall we say. Apparently "white culture" is what raises property values and is more or less synonymous with being a good neighbor? But also apparently, very poor and extremely dysfunctional areas with majority or entirely white populations are *not* examples of "white culture" despite their demography, because something something hurrrarghl Jews and liberals and banning coal?

I don't even know what the fuck. This kind of incoherent blather is par for the course from white supremacists. Bunch of idiot historically-illiterate rebels without a clue, let alone without a cause. Sounds like a load of maladaptive, resentful little manchildren who think the world owes them a living and are looking for something, or someone, to break when it doesn't fall into their laps. Boo-stupid-hoo. How about you use that supposedly superior white-with-a-capital-W intellect and pull yourselves up by your bootstraps?

I'm not even going to touch on the complete avalanche of non-sequiturs, half-truths, whataboutisms, false dichotomies, or outright *lies* these people attempt to bury opposition under. I do notice, though, that when you counter them properly, they simply stop responding to you, as if that somehow means they won. And, holy god damn, I don't think I've ever seen goalposts move that fast; I'm pretty sure some of these boys are breaking the sound barrier here!

What it all boils down to is this: white supremacists are incoherent, ignorant, cowardly whiners, scared of their own shadows for being dark. I will never comprehend how empty, how gullible, how utterly suggestible, how completely in the grip of total moral and cognitive surrender someone would have to be to fall for a supremacy movement that can't even define itself internally!

In case any of this crowd of upstanding, rational, well-spoken pillars of society (ye gods...) would like to attempt to explain their agenda so that it makes something approaching coherent sense, I'm all ears :) I'm also prepared to be completely let down on that front, though will probably at least get some cheap laughs out of it.

"You can't prove a thing"

See how easy it is?

Ok, moving along... What's next on the docket?

Correction: The Russians didn't co-sign

It was the Saudis...

President Donald Trump is so eager to complete hundreds of miles of border fence ahead of the 2020 presidential election that he has directed aides to fast-track billions of dollars' worth of construction contracts, aggressively seize private land and disregard environmental rules, according to current and former officials involved with the project.

He also has told worried subordinates that he will pardon them of any potential wrongdoing should they have to break laws to get the barriers built quickly, those officials said.

Mexico border wall: Trump orders aides to seize private land and disregard environmental rules

I apologize for being relatively inactive on SoylentNews since at least Oct 2018. I wrote a few scripts which allow me to inhale huge amounts of text via the wonders of text to speech. I've steadily increased the rate of speech and I currently have my computer read text to me at the rate of 440 words per minute; sometimes for 10 hours per day. I've peaked 0.5 million words per week. While text to speech is a terrible medium for absorbing numerical information, I have grazed quite broadly and followed many of the hyperlinks given on SoylentNews. Unfortunately, these are often collected via another script when I connect to the Internet at a local Internet café. Sometimes, this occurs weekly or less frequently. On occasion, I have fetched more than 3000 URLs. Unfortunately, my awareness of topical events often lags by two or more weeks. Delay plus thorough examination of references are major contributors to apparent lurking.

During this period, I have also followed fringe news websites, including some capitalists and the un-reconstructed Trotskyists. While I do not claim that sources are free from bias, it is curious to observe massive economic downturn described from opposing sides of a global economic system.

I do not have time to explain problems in detail or give citations. Regardless, the most optimistic economic predictions found among mainstream experts is that severe economic recession will occur by Dec 2021. Pessimists and people without an economic buffer are more likely to say that severe economic recession started at least three months ago. We only have to wait for the official figures to be collated, published and re-stated until we get an accurate assessment. Economic experts are also comparing the current economic charts to every economic downturn over the past century, including the 1929 stock market peak, the 1930s depression, the Second World War, 1970s stagflation, the Oct 1987 crash, the Dot Com boom, the Dot Com bust and the 2008 stock market crash.

The big stock market crashes usually occur in October but some think that it could be days away in September. The final straw could be a fourth round of Quantitive Easing [QE4]. With globally inter-connected supply chains and multiple central banks trying to keep floating fiat currencies in proportionate ratios, we may see every major currency become virtually worthless. I hope that I'm wrong but cash may decrease in value by 1/3 by Dec 2019. Ignoring this scenario, the global economy is completely screwed.

Vehicle sales in the US, India and China are all down. Almost every major US company is in trouble. That includes Apple, Boeing, FedEx, Ford, Netflix, Tesla and Uber who are collectively losing more than US$50 million per day. Elon Musk's ventures have received more than US$7 billion of direct and indirect subsidies from the US Government. US shale and fracking is an economic mirage which has skewed global data. Retail sales are down. Trucking is down. Shipping is down. Recycling is down. Smartphone sales peaked in 2016. Cinema tickets are down. Disney and Warner are defying industry trends. The Disney mega-mergers account for much of this success. However, Disney is also rushing through live-action re-makes of (almost) every musical cartoon rather than pacing themselves. Why? Musicals are very successful in a economic depression.

The average US farm is US$1.3 million in debt and food shortages have begun. Due to flooding in the US, 19 million acres of farmland didn't get planted. In China, more than 20% of pigs have been slaughtered to combat swine fever. The loss of animal protein from the global supply chain would feed the US for a year.

Homelessness in California exceeds 0.3 million people and is likely to accelerate. Opioid deaths have peaked but could be overtaken by deaths from measles, tuberculosis, typhus and bubonic plague. The world's second worst incident of Ebola hasn't been contained. Earthquakes around the "Ring Of Fire" are also unusually high.

National protests in France have been ongoing for more than 40 weeks. Protests in Hong Kong have been ongoing for more than 10 weeks. Expect these to become more widespread. Also expect telecommunications to be filtered, cut or filled with dis-information to hinder mass gatherings.

Decreased wealth, decreased purchasing and decreased shipping is causing a glut of oil. This is causing proxy battles involving the US, Russia, Europe (except Germany), Turkey, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Iran and Israel. Asia, which has become the workshop of the world is also squabbling. As sales decline, divisions are being drawn between South Korea, Japan, Taiwan and China (with its honorary province, North Korea). India and Pakistan are also on the verge of war. Eight or more of these countries are declared nuclear powers and a treaty banning medium range missiles just expired.

Resource allocation (glut of oil, glut of metal, shortage of water, shortage of food) plus religious tension could lead to a world war with a starting position of China, North Korea, Iran and Pakistan versus the world with Italy switching sides, France surrendering and Russia selling weapons to all sides. Minimum casualties from physical injury, mental trauma, disease and famine will be 3% of the global population. (250 million people.)

Global war could be deferred for up to two decades. Unfortunately, we'll only have a steep depression until war begins. Arguably, the global economy has been under-performing since the Dot Com bust and we may only be midway through the trend towards the historic mean. We've definitely been askew since the market wobble on Wed 28 Feb 2007, bank bail-outs and Quantitative Easing. Many of the worst financial practices of the past 20 years have been restarted. This includes flipping unprofitable tech companies and 100% mortgages with no proof of income.

National debt cannot be repaid. When one nation's debt reaches 85% of GDP, it is considered to be distressed. However, the sum of national debts is 320% of GDP and that excludes state debt, city debt and private debt. US$15 trillion of bonds have negative yield. Investors are guaranteed to lose money if they are redeemed in full. We also have negative yield junk bonds and Denmark is pioneering the negative rate mortgage. Yes, the debt owed decreases even if you miss a payment. Why would anyone lend on such terms? It is safer than stock market investment. As an example, the P/E ratio of the S&P 500 is 16.7 but, by 2026, the average duration of company listing is expected to be 14 years. 18 out of 20 criteria show similar poor value. On this basis, funding a negative rate mortgage in Denmark is a better investment. If debt is reset through hyper-inflation, a physical asset is a *much* better investment.

We're in a hole deeper than the 1930s depression - with much of the economic and political turmoil ahead. The global economy is completely primed to collapse. This time, it won't be Germans with wheelbarrows of worthless cash. It'll be Zimbabwe, Greece and Venezuela for everyone.

We're also living in a post-truth era where Jeffrey Epstein died in suspicious circumstances. With no obvious source of wealth or financial success, he spent decades collecting incriminating video of many rich and famous people; possibly on behalf of a nation state. As soon as DeepFakes made the archive worthless, he becomes a British establishment pedophile Arkancide. Unfortunately, this is only one example where authority is distrusted and justice is not served. Disputed facts leave us with fragmented politics, no easy answers and no uniting cause. Without the political consent of the population, national interests don't get defended and the chaos continues until it becomes untenable. Then we get a despot with a unifying message. Any message will do.

Predictions

• US stock market crash by Dec 2019.
• Global currency devaluation by Dec 2021.
• Netflix, Tesla and Uber cease trading by Dec 2021.
• Homelessness in California to exceed 0.5 million people.
• Two mass shootings in Switzerland by Dec 2021. In the US, 40 mass shootings in seven consecutive days by Dec 2021.
• James Howard Kunstler's Long Emergency scenario. Emergency services don't respond. Infrastructure degrades. Oil rigs explode, chemical refineries explode, oil pipelines explode, gas pipelines explode, power cuts, fatal aircraft crashes, bridges collapse, tower block fires. Pot holes don't get repaired.
• Citizen protests spread to another five countries. Police kill protesters in all of them. Protests continue.
• Multiple political assassinations. Not metaphorical. Mark Zuckerberg, Greta Thunberg and Andrew Windsor dead by Dec 2029.
• China invades Taiwan.
• Ebola in Europe.

Hook it up (yeah yeah, spare me the details) to her brain at this moment.

Wanna do it twice? Let's try hers.