About 15 years ago or so, Dimitri Orlov said in a podcast, when asked what happened in Russia immediately after the collapse of the Soviet Union, his blunt response was "a lot of people got shot."
I heard that during the Great Recession, when I was still hanging out at the Doomstead Diner, and believed in fast collapse/apocalypse. Now, here in America, I expect a comparative high standard of living the rest of my natural life, though continually degrading overall. Catabolic collapse, as JMG says.
Back then though it never occured to me Dems would open the borders to anyone from kids to cartel. Or folks in the cities would allow the city to degrade to third world because "empathy". Or Repubs would pass a biden budget. Or so many boomers would sacrifice the future for their retirement. Or so much of the economy would be based on fraud....
"Puritans sailed to the New World to practice their religion and live as they saw fit."
Something missing here. Does "as they saw fit" include genocide, pox infested blankets? Were the Puritans free of the Old World assumption of racial supremacy, of "right", "might", and "money," an invented piece of shit, and power accumulation equalling god given rights to do "as they saw fit"? Europe and all of western nations were born of something that will destroy all life on the planet while they try to keep the power to do so. Only the truth will set us free. We need to be telling all of it, including how capitalism lives up to its name to capitalize on every living thing. Including an obvious human propensity to steal, take, by any means necessary, that which belongs to indigenous others by way of their long living traditions, culture, long before US and EU countries' refugees landed on the shores of an already, but not capitalized upon beautiful people with resources they didn't gather to make themselves rich or end those resources' ability to sustain them. Get it right. Puritans were North America's first refugees, but they brought some bad shit from their original countries with them, and survived only by the kindness of the indigenous. Others saw how vulnerable the indigenous were and how rich they were in resources, and then came others from EU without the claims of escape from religious persecution. If I am wrong in my comments here, I am open to factual history; much has been hidden from us or we would not be where our country is right now, with a president that knows nothing of the sword of Damocles or other things mention by XI in his meeting with said.
To start with, the single documented incident of smallpox blankets happened 150 years after the Puritans settled New England, and was perpetrated by a British military officer. Puritans had nothing to do with that.
The Puritans also dealt with Native Americans as sovereign nations, which is how they viewed themselves. The Wampanoag offered the land on which the Plymouth colony was built, with the understanding that the Puritans would provide military support against the Narragansetts, who were attempting to conquer Wampanoag territory. It wasn’t kindness, but hard-nosed politics. Some in the tribe argued for murdering the Pilgrims and taking their guns and livestock, but the peace party won the political debate and the resulting alliance lasted 50 years.
Did the Puritans discover this beautiful continent; did they predate Columbus or Amerigo? How many of us have read Columbus' journals? We seem always wanting to wiggle our way out of seeing or admitting Truth. Want a better world, insist truth does its work in our pubic schools. The goddamn facists know that one well which is why we don’t have historical truth in all its facets like a diamond, a blood diamond we desperately need in our public schools so to become a more perfect union with some damn well deserved changes for many folks, esp of color. Some say, “you got no color, you got no soul.” Looking to be too damn true.
Lovely, more history than I learned in American schools. Where do you find such history? Why is it not taught in our schools? Where do we go for a deep dive?
I appreciate your reply Kagan. I would appreciate your view on how the caucs became so predatory on other nations and why and thru what means. Hell yeah, it’s all complicated, but sometimes we just have to admit human beings, esp leaders, can be fucking assholes to each other. It’s part of our nature we don’t like to admit. Give us power and we will use it sort of thing over everyone not doing what we want them to do. We haven’t evolved much at all.
The Twa (formerly called Pygmies, though this is now seen as a slur), the San Bushmen, and many other different indigenous ethnic groups lived throughout Africa; the Bantu were confined to an area around modern-day Cameroon and Nigeria. Sometime around 400BC the Bantu discovered how to work iron. Over the next 2,000+ years we saw a "Great Bantu Migration" as the Bantu, armed with iron, proceeded to conquer most of Sub-Saharan Africa. The Bushmen, Twa, and other groups were largely wiped out or forced onto marginal land to eke out a living.
The Ainu are an indigenous people living in northern Japan and southeastern Russia. They got nearly eradicated by the expansion of the Nippon Japanese. And the Negritos -- short-statured, dark-skinned people who were part of the earliest great migrations out of Africa -- have largely been eradicated in India and the Philippines where they resided for millennia. In neither case were they eradicated by Caucasians.
Europe happens to have had a very successful technologically-fueled migration, with predictable consequences for the people who were on its receiving end. The idea that they are some special kind of evil is wrong; they are simply human and doing what humans do when they find new land occupied by a people with lesser technology. It's ugly, but it's part of being human. Trying to reduce it to one particular ethnicity only ensures you'll miss what is happening.
"Putin has shown a remarkably practical streak. He has kept Russia together and remains popular because, in the eyes of many Russians, he brought continuity and order."
Perhaps those with a longer history of their country, who they are, their tribulations and avenues to NOW are much more important than a Jamestown only 419 years old or a declaration of independence only 250 years old. What happened in between? And what do we know of the Persians only 6000 to 2000 thousand years old. I say that because it is always differing how old Iran's Persia is, depending on who is speaking.
Religion is a groundwork for lots of conflicts. Jews like interests on loans, Islamics, not so much. Why did the Narragansetts tribe want to kill the Puritans, while another tribe wanted to protect them? Did Puritans settle on a tribe’s land that was in dispute between two tribes?
Land by the sea is hugely important to all people everywhere on subsistence living, which is why great cities congregated there, but in THIS new world, we are killing the “no see ums” that the indigenous believed in. Few know that microscopic creatures in the ocean, that one cannot see with the eye, are responsible for 70% of the world’s oxygen. Think about that as we continually destroy it. I want to support but I am out of boxed in thinking, and having enough money evades me on a sort of rebel level. I still garden at over 70 yrs because I know the importance of not allowing a huge system who gives fuck about you to control where your food comes from. All I have to do to know I'm right is look around at other people of my own age. It's sad and it
05/17/26: (con't) is maddening as well. It does not have to be this damned way. I am not one who capitalizes on anyone or thing, well maybe in some way I don’t recognize, but I do give money on the street to people while I realize I am rich when my open eyes see what others in the world live with and live without. Such circumstances are coming home to us, in the USA due to some things that are not as complicated as some people claim. Things, events, are planned well ahead of their implementation to get us ready for mass death, is what I think.
Americans are a spoiled people of too many who never questioned how or why they got so spoiled, nor cared to know how their standard of living was achieved. It is going to fall down around them and they will not know how to survive, but perhaps they will learn even though learning is not their forte at this point in time. What is the normal American forte? Well, I live just 2 blocks away from a university and my takeaway is kids are walking blind on sidewalks they don't know how or what they were built on or the materials they came from.. I have more faith in the youth of Kentucky fighting for Thomas Massie than I do for the youth at this university whose BOD has a Zionist at its helm. Ivy league or not, the take over of education has delivered little truth in its teachings and a whole lot of hiding actual history so that our nation of people cannot act on what it does not know.
TRUTH will set us free but we are not taught it. We must be autodidactic and learn truth on our own. Subjective and Objective truth are labels. Truth can contain both. Dive deeper. Your soul, that connects with the "no see ums" of ocean and soil, will help you figure it out.
But, you know what else? And esp for the writer we are all or some are having a most glorious discussion about. Did the Puritans discover this beautiful continent; did they predate Columbus or Amerigo? How many of us have read Columbus' journals? We seem always wanting to wiggle our way out of seeing or admitting Truth. Want a better world, insist truth does its work in our pubic schools.
Religion is a groundwork for lots of conflicts. Jews like interests on loans, Islamics, not so much. Why did the Naga tribe want to kill the Puritans, while another tribe wanted to protect them? Did Puritans settle on a tribe’s land that was in dispute between two tribes? Land by the sea is hugely important to all people everywhere on subsistence living, which is why great cities congregated there, but in this new world, we are killing the “no see ums” that the indigenous believed in. Few know that microscoptic creatures in the ocean that one cannot see with the eye, are responsible for 70% of the world’s oxygen. Think about that as we continually destroy it.
But, you know what else; did the Puritans discover this beautiful continent; did they predate Columbus or Amerigo? How many of us have read Columbus' journals? We seem always wanting to wiggle our way out of seeing or admitting Truth. Want a better world, insist truth does its work in our pubic schools.
About 15 years ago or so, Dimitri Orlov said in a podcast, when asked what happened in Russia immediately after the collapse of the Soviet Union, his blunt response was "a lot of people got shot."
I heard that during the Great Recession, when I was still hanging out at the Doomstead Diner, and believed in fast collapse/apocalypse. Now, here in America, I expect a comparative high standard of living the rest of my natural life, though continually degrading overall. Catabolic collapse, as JMG says.
Back then though it never occured to me Dems would open the borders to anyone from kids to cartel. Or folks in the cities would allow the city to degrade to third world because "empathy". Or Repubs would pass a biden budget. Or so many boomers would sacrifice the future for their retirement. Or so much of the economy would be based on fraud....
Hmmm.
Great article. Congrats.
EXCELLENT article!!
"Puritans sailed to the New World to practice their religion and live as they saw fit."
Something missing here. Does "as they saw fit" include genocide, pox infested blankets? Were the Puritans free of the Old World assumption of racial supremacy, of "right", "might", and "money," an invented piece of shit, and power accumulation equalling god given rights to do "as they saw fit"? Europe and all of western nations were born of something that will destroy all life on the planet while they try to keep the power to do so. Only the truth will set us free. We need to be telling all of it, including how capitalism lives up to its name to capitalize on every living thing. Including an obvious human propensity to steal, take, by any means necessary, that which belongs to indigenous others by way of their long living traditions, culture, long before US and EU countries' refugees landed on the shores of an already, but not capitalized upon beautiful people with resources they didn't gather to make themselves rich or end those resources' ability to sustain them. Get it right. Puritans were North America's first refugees, but they brought some bad shit from their original countries with them, and survived only by the kindness of the indigenous. Others saw how vulnerable the indigenous were and how rich they were in resources, and then came others from EU without the claims of escape from religious persecution. If I am wrong in my comments here, I am open to factual history; much has been hidden from us or we would not be where our country is right now, with a president that knows nothing of the sword of Damocles or other things mention by XI in his meeting with said.
To start with, the single documented incident of smallpox blankets happened 150 years after the Puritans settled New England, and was perpetrated by a British military officer. Puritans had nothing to do with that.
The Puritans also dealt with Native Americans as sovereign nations, which is how they viewed themselves. The Wampanoag offered the land on which the Plymouth colony was built, with the understanding that the Puritans would provide military support against the Narragansetts, who were attempting to conquer Wampanoag territory. It wasn’t kindness, but hard-nosed politics. Some in the tribe argued for murdering the Pilgrims and taking their guns and livestock, but the peace party won the political debate and the resulting alliance lasted 50 years.
Did the Puritans discover this beautiful continent; did they predate Columbus or Amerigo? How many of us have read Columbus' journals? We seem always wanting to wiggle our way out of seeing or admitting Truth. Want a better world, insist truth does its work in our pubic schools. The goddamn facists know that one well which is why we don’t have historical truth in all its facets like a diamond, a blood diamond we desperately need in our public schools so to become a more perfect union with some damn well deserved changes for many folks, esp of color. Some say, “you got no color, you got no soul.” Looking to be too damn true.
Lovely, more history than I learned in American schools. Where do you find such history? Why is it not taught in our schools? Where do we go for a deep dive?
I appreciate your reply Kagan. I would appreciate your view on how the caucs became so predatory on other nations and why and thru what means. Hell yeah, it’s all complicated, but sometimes we just have to admit human beings, esp leaders, can be fucking assholes to each other. It’s part of our nature we don’t like to admit. Give us power and we will use it sort of thing over everyone not doing what we want them to do. We haven’t evolved much at all.
The Twa (formerly called Pygmies, though this is now seen as a slur), the San Bushmen, and many other different indigenous ethnic groups lived throughout Africa; the Bantu were confined to an area around modern-day Cameroon and Nigeria. Sometime around 400BC the Bantu discovered how to work iron. Over the next 2,000+ years we saw a "Great Bantu Migration" as the Bantu, armed with iron, proceeded to conquer most of Sub-Saharan Africa. The Bushmen, Twa, and other groups were largely wiped out or forced onto marginal land to eke out a living.
The Ainu are an indigenous people living in northern Japan and southeastern Russia. They got nearly eradicated by the expansion of the Nippon Japanese. And the Negritos -- short-statured, dark-skinned people who were part of the earliest great migrations out of Africa -- have largely been eradicated in India and the Philippines where they resided for millennia. In neither case were they eradicated by Caucasians.
Europe happens to have had a very successful technologically-fueled migration, with predictable consequences for the people who were on its receiving end. The idea that they are some special kind of evil is wrong; they are simply human and doing what humans do when they find new land occupied by a people with lesser technology. It's ugly, but it's part of being human. Trying to reduce it to one particular ethnicity only ensures you'll miss what is happening.
"Putin has shown a remarkably practical streak. He has kept Russia together and remains popular because, in the eyes of many Russians, he brought continuity and order."
The final chapter has not been written.
the final chapter is near. he has to conclude the ukr war, meaning finally put a better
effort in to gain what he wants. i think he wants recognition and a top level treaty with usa.
he woulf get lies, deceits like every other country. he does not believe it now.
if ukr would be ended he could try diplomacy with the eu, telling them to forget
their idiotic belligerence, otherwise he would have to show his oreshniks at work.
then he has to deal with usa , who pressures him on the oceans and with sanctions.
also there is said to be internal pressure against his hesitation in ukr.
my 5 cents
Perhaps those with a longer history of their country, who they are, their tribulations and avenues to NOW are much more important than a Jamestown only 419 years old or a declaration of independence only 250 years old. What happened in between? And what do we know of the Persians only 6000 to 2000 thousand years old. I say that because it is always differing how old Iran's Persia is, depending on who is speaking.
but the religious settlers layed the ground works for slaughter of buffalos and indians.
protestant workethic i suppose.
05/17/26
Religion is a groundwork for lots of conflicts. Jews like interests on loans, Islamics, not so much. Why did the Narragansetts tribe want to kill the Puritans, while another tribe wanted to protect them? Did Puritans settle on a tribe’s land that was in dispute between two tribes?
Land by the sea is hugely important to all people everywhere on subsistence living, which is why great cities congregated there, but in THIS new world, we are killing the “no see ums” that the indigenous believed in. Few know that microscopic creatures in the ocean, that one cannot see with the eye, are responsible for 70% of the world’s oxygen. Think about that as we continually destroy it. I want to support but I am out of boxed in thinking, and having enough money evades me on a sort of rebel level. I still garden at over 70 yrs because I know the importance of not allowing a huge system who gives fuck about you to control where your food comes from. All I have to do to know I'm right is look around at other people of my own age. It's sad and it
05/17/26: (con't) is maddening as well. It does not have to be this damned way. I am not one who capitalizes on anyone or thing, well maybe in some way I don’t recognize, but I do give money on the street to people while I realize I am rich when my open eyes see what others in the world live with and live without. Such circumstances are coming home to us, in the USA due to some things that are not as complicated as some people claim. Things, events, are planned well ahead of their implementation to get us ready for mass death, is what I think.
Americans are a spoiled people of too many who never questioned how or why they got so spoiled, nor cared to know how their standard of living was achieved. It is going to fall down around them and they will not know how to survive, but perhaps they will learn even though learning is not their forte at this point in time. What is the normal American forte? Well, I live just 2 blocks away from a university and my takeaway is kids are walking blind on sidewalks they don't know how or what they were built on or the materials they came from.. I have more faith in the youth of Kentucky fighting for Thomas Massie than I do for the youth at this university whose BOD has a Zionist at its helm. Ivy league or not, the take over of education has delivered little truth in its teachings and a whole lot of hiding actual history so that our nation of people cannot act on what it does not know.
TRUTH will set us free but we are not taught it. We must be autodidactic and learn truth on our own. Subjective and Objective truth are labels. Truth can contain both. Dive deeper. Your soul, that connects with the "no see ums" of ocean and soil, will help you figure it out.
But, you know what else? And esp for the writer we are all or some are having a most glorious discussion about. Did the Puritans discover this beautiful continent; did they predate Columbus or Amerigo? How many of us have read Columbus' journals? We seem always wanting to wiggle our way out of seeing or admitting Truth. Want a better world, insist truth does its work in our pubic schools.
Religion is a groundwork for lots of conflicts. Jews like interests on loans, Islamics, not so much. Why did the Naga tribe want to kill the Puritans, while another tribe wanted to protect them? Did Puritans settle on a tribe’s land that was in dispute between two tribes? Land by the sea is hugely important to all people everywhere on subsistence living, which is why great cities congregated there, but in this new world, we are killing the “no see ums” that the indigenous believed in. Few know that microscoptic creatures in the ocean that one cannot see with the eye, are responsible for 70% of the world’s oxygen. Think about that as we continually destroy it.
But, you know what else; did the Puritans discover this beautiful continent; did they predate Columbus or Amerigo? How many of us have read Columbus' journals? We seem always wanting to wiggle our way out of seeing or admitting Truth. Want a better world, insist truth does its work in our pubic schools.
This ongoing discussion goes beyond the scope of the original essay. Going forward, please confine your comments to the topic at hand. Thanks.