PS

Global South to the USA: “Go frack yourselves !”

Watch interest rates go up as the US spends like a drunken sailor while the people who used to buy and hold US Treasuries stop doing us the favor.

PS Why not?, indeed, Mod.

PS

Another - I admit - psychological insight Mod.: - Take people as they sare - there are no other ones. (German saying).

The big news in the Kernberg article is, that even this lifelong Democrat resists the young women/interviewer's - urge - to attac Trump in the way he is usually perceived by liberals: as being malign. No, Kernberg told her: No, he isn't.

That's where people like Eric Weinstein and Sam Harris are just plain wrong. And - another psychologist: Jordan B. Peterson - - - and lots of fly-over-country inhabitants are right: The Trump man undoubtedly has his merits. - I've said that early on: I knew the Trump-Big-Man-archetype from the region, where I grew up; and that's because of the Trump-family ties, I'd say. And the big man attitude is always one of an artistocratic - souvereignity: Let the lesser guys fight over the details - we know where we're headed: What is more important!

By saying this I don't want to say that Trump would be without flaws - no no. I want to make clear where Eric Weinstein and Sam Harris*** here and Jordan B. Peterson and the narcissdism specialist Otto Kernberg there .d.i.f.f.e.r.

Note also, that Trump's advisor Stephen Miller did lots of things to get not-regulated immigration down. - And he still does. I think it's correct to say he was Trumps most improtant aide in this case - as was Dr. Scott Atlas in the Covid case; and I think that both men are - excellent. - Look at Miller's TWITTER at times: A bright and focused guy. - Impressive! - - (Steve Sailer did notice that Stepehn Miller is effective here and there, btw.).

(You're right, of course, that there'd be better ways to be president. What we see now is: There are worse ones too.)

As with the German immigrant critical AfD, Trump did have lots of Jewish voters. But - maybe because this was so, he had the fiercest Jewish opposition too (same with the AfD again). Mainly from Anti-Trumpers like Eric Weinstein and Sam Harris in a prototypical manner insofar as they went very far by opposing Trump. Namely they - almost fully explicit - went to undermine the checks and blanaces and all the other dire principles of a constitutional democracy in order to prevent Trump**** (and his deplorable/crypto-fascist supporters in fly-over country from winning the Presidency in 2020. The severest deviation of the US system ever.

***the fierce jewish resistance might not least be an echo of Trump having German roots: And be acting and looking like a German nobleman/ knight - if not like a Germanic warrior of old (one of those who - always - secure the most beautiful women, the most impressive castles with the most beautiful surroundings - - - - If this is so, this kind of Jewish Trump-resistance is not least one of self-resistance. Because Jews made a living out of serving those in power in Europe - over centuries: The noble, the mighty and the potent... And one problem of the insufficient resistance to Nazism by the European Jews sprang exactly from that well: Their century-long experience was: Even if things get out of hand, we'll be with the winners in the end... Symbioses have a tendency to undermine one's judgement... - - (this is a long story in a nutshell (there's a bit more to it. I'll just stop here).
The bottom line is: Trump Derangement Syndrome went hand in hand with the destruction of the checks and balances - and with US unilaterlism in foreign/world policy - something Jeffrey Sachs points out these days perfectly well: The sixty+ regime-changes the US made happen****: Secretly, - in the last decades. The triumph of the Military-Industrial complex. And of course: This is just another field, in which Trump acted - seen from the perspective of the Uniparty in bed with the Idustrial Military Complex: As a nuisance - if not more.
****there seems to be a scholarly book out, listing these US-regime-changes worldwide. This ought to be big, but - it gets hardly notivced. - Not noticed by the Steve Sailer man too so far. But mentioned by: Jeffrey Sachs.

PS: Dieter, Trump just might have some claim in helping America attain self-sufficient oil production (via fracking). After all, just not blocking this enterprise from going on is always a big help!

That's great, but, man, does he not actually remember these BIG details, storing of oil versus production? I'm sure he's smart enough that he does know about this industry and what's changed for the good during his term (not always having a thing to do with his actions, but inactions can suffice too). Would it be a good idea for him to just sit down sometimes and hash out his thoughts, such as these bragging points, so he doesn't spout a series of about 5 completely wrong statements in a row?

Even if it's got nothing to do with him, or it's the usual leaning on the FED to keep rates down to brag about "the market", you gotta get some facts right.

"Just the regular New York businessman-narcissist."

Sure, OK. We thought that wouldn't impede his working for the American people on the biggest problems - the immigration invasion and the war-mongering. I think it does, mainly just because all his energy put into the blowhard arguments and squabbles left him not enough energy for making strategy to work on the big problems.

PS: Mr. Hail, I understand the benefit of rail travel for fuel efficiency - the Chinese have this down, as I've written about.

However, an entire reserve system for this contingency would be a great effort that could be for naught. It wouldn't, of course, if Americans would travel by train before any such calamity of the oil price.

However, my points in those old posts on rail travel are this:

1) Inner city to inner city train travel worked in the old days when affluent or Middle Class White people lived in them. They don't now, and this is the good point that Steve Sailer brought up in a couple of posts about this subject. If you have to drive out and park for 25-45 minutes, as to the airport, to get on the train, you've lost some benefit.

It is the case in China that these stations are not in city center (the ones I was in) because there's no room of these huge complexes. However, the Chinese cities have very nice subways systems, so some travelers can travel via these HS trains with no car for the beginning/end of the trip.

2) The main point of mine, and keep in mind, it's as a comparison to air travel, is the way US big cities are laid out compared to China's. In China, there are many BIG cities - I mean 3 million, 10 million, the sky's the limit - spread out somewhat evenly in a 2-D fashion over that whole eastern portion of what we see as China on the map. That portion may be only 1/3 the size of the continental US, if that.

Here, we've got that Acela corridor, Washington to Boston, where trains work - that's a 1-D thing. The west coast is 1,300 miles long or so, San Diego to Seattle, with arguably 3 big metro areas that are the size of some Chinese cities, LA, the San Fran bay, and Seattle.

In all the rest of this country the cities are not big enough, IMO to make HS rail travel pay off over those long distances.

My thinking is when the US dollar goes down the tubes, and oil goes way up in $, then Americans will have to cut back drastically, on travel and a lot else. If anything, storing 20 X as much crude (as I noticed that just 1/8 of that PanicFest money could have purchased at the time) might be prudent, but not for the situation of a permanent decline in the value of our currency (just as preppers will tell you that just those beans, bullets, and band-aids are not enough for the long-term). Then too, Americans and their governments are not very prudent these days ...

PS: That's a nice way to put it, Mr. Blanc. I do like the guy, as a person - not so much as an executive. The funny thing is, I know he had that "Apprentice" TV show, but all I know about it was from a few ads, in which he was always saying "Ya Fiyad!" ("You're fired", but in that NYC accent) Well, why not take up that mantra when President as soon as any of his underlings went swamp native on him?

PS
Otto Kernberg, 95 year old psychoanalytic and narcissism specialist (still seing patients in Manhatten - working 12 hours/day) about Donald Trump: He's malign narcissist. - Just the regular New York type of businessman-narcisist.
https://www.nzz.ch/feuilleton/psychoanalytiker-otto-kernberg-ueber-narzissmus-ld.1756764

PS
Otto Kerberg, 95 year old psychoanalytic and narcissism specialist, who still sees patients in Manhatten and works 12 hours/day, says that Trump 'd be NO malign narcissist. - Just the regular New York businessman-narcissist.

https://www.nzz.ch/feuilleton/psychoanalytiker-otto-kernberg-ueber-narzissmus-ld.1756764

PS
The railway car to the Senate thing sounds like it would interfere with ordinary people a lot less than the 100-car motorcade that he currently travels in. Perhaps you could trade a subsidy for high speed rail for a requirement that all Congressmen must use it for all travel to and from DC.

It wouldn't work though. The reason rail travel fell off in midcentury is that rail travel just is much less convenient than automobile.

I've travelled in Europe by rail, that utopia of "walkableness". It's not really. The "poor" travel in Europe by rail ("poor" is relative, they're rich compared to Africans); the rich still travel by car - in private. There's more rail travel in Europe because they are poorer than we are.

PS
PresidentTrump increased US energy production a lot. - I'd assume that was his real point: That he shrank the necessity for a strategic oil reserve.

Your ethno-nationalist not least infos about George Kennan are interesting, Mr. Hail.

Jeffrey Sachs refers to George Kennan with great - admiration when he talks about Ukraine - and the Biden administration's foreign policy in general. German chancellor Helmut Schmidt, who knew George Kennan well, did go public with his admiration for the Japanese model (sharp immigration restrictions; ethno-nationlasim). - Those were the days. Nobody would have dared to call Mr. Schmidt a Nazi. Strange to think, that this is - or: was: not long ago.

PS

How about a "Strategic Railway Capacity Reserve"?

The funny thing is that one of Biden's supposed positives is that he likes trains and would ride in a secret-service-protected first-class car by Amtrak from Delaware to join in on sessions of the Senate, which was indeed the way planners envisioned things working especially when, in the early 20th century, they built the mega-scale new train station in Washington terminating just north of the Capitol building, with a secret rail connection to the Congressional complex itself. But by some point almost no Congressmen did this anymore, Biden a notable exception.

One occasional-theme here at Peak Stupidity is "railroad travel doesn't work for America," but that's funny because the USA was among the world-leaders in it for many generations running, until decisively falling away in the mid-20th century. Only the very oldest among us today would remember a time of somewhat-normal rail travel as a general-purpose option. Most tracks have long since been torn up, though lots of "stumps" of the system or ghosts of once-living systems dot the landscape (such as the very-successful Rails-to-Trails bike-trail construction campaign ongoing for thirty years or so now).

What if there comes a time when the price of gas goes from $3.50/gallon to $35/gallon (10x increase)? This would be a crippling shock in many ways (and suddenly there would be a lot of understanding why a pro-war faction gained the upper hand in 1941 Japan after F. D. Roosevelt and co. imposed their oil ban on Japan). What would the White Middle America "little guy" do? It seems he would just be crushed, for there is no existing option to travel outside of the single-car model.

I have been for some years a follower of J. H. Kunstler and some others who often talk of such things. In many circles it's even a cliche by now to say the turn away from railroads was a mistake, but it would require some huge-scale project to go even begin to provide a "Strategic Railroad Reserve." I would support this in principle as smart policy, while recognizing the major hurdles it faces including the way communities are laid out, but the challenges could be overcome by a nation of White-Western-Christian men seeking to solve a problem, perhaps some balance of rail and communal efforts at pooling wheel-transport resources, solutions would tend to differ by local circumstances. (The Sailerite criticism would be the systems would have a huge cost imposed on them by Diversity, as many local-area rail systems already do.)

This is also the kind of proposal I have never heard from Trump, who might well laugh at it and say it is the God-given right of every American to use a personal-automobile as much as possible and railroads are a socialist plot to destroy America.

I have cited George Kennan in these pages before -- that was the U.S. diplomat, scholar, and ethnonationalist (the latter per his diaries and private conversations, he predicted doom via stupid immigration policy). Partly a Europe-oriented figure and partly an old-stock-American-oriented figure, Kennan said railways always tend to tie communities together whereas the automobile tends to undermine them.

PS

As has become obvious, Trump is a bullshit artist, and not even a very good one.

PS Or Trump being Trump vs lying.

PS: Alarmist, I think they'd have been able to "get him" even if he were not such a bullshitter. They can get anyone on anything - all who/whom, as Mr. Sailer says.

I would miss him for sure. Does he still brag about the vaccine? You'd think he'd just stay mum on that, but he can't seem to stay mum on anything.

PS

And through Warp Speed, Mr. Trump delivered a huge, be-yoo-tee-full safe and effective vaccine that saved 15 million people.

I’ll miss Mr. Trump’s solipsistic hyperbole after they suicide him in jail, where he’ll be cooling his heels for civil contempt of court because he doesn’t know when to shut up.