Quote from: Surly1 on Jul 14, 2024, 02:10 PMI remember back in the day when you said one of the best preps could be a storage locker full of pint bottles of liquor, specifically for barter. That idea has aged like fine wine.

A factoid you may be aware of but if not will appreciate.

The reason for Prohibition wasn't due to the sweet Christian Temperance ladies.  Dirt farmers couldn't make any money off the grain they grew in the midwest because the railroads took all the profit in shipping costs.  The volume was too large for them to bring it to market using wagons.  By distilling it into liquor themselves they could bring the liquor into town in wagons and undersell the big distillers.  Thus came the "Revenooers" and taxation on liquor and expensive licenses to distill alcohol.  This kept farmers perpetually poor without a cash crop.

Just recently the SCOTUS struck down the law against home distilling, so you can now legally start your own moonshine operation as a prep. 

RE

Quote from: RE on Jul 14, 2024, 04:46 PMA factoid you may be aware of but if not will appreciate.

The reason for Prohibition wasn't due to the sweet Christian Temperance ladies.  Dirt farmers couldn't make any money off the grain they grew in the midwest because the railroads took all the profit in shipping costs.  The volume was too large for them to bring it to market using wagons.  By distilling it into liquor themselves they could bring the liquor into town in wagons and undersell the big distillers.  Thus came the "Revenooers" and taxation on liquor and expensive licenses to distill alcohol.  This kept farmers perpetually poor without a cash crop.

I was not aware of this as a factor for prohibition, but I recently learned something related, which I also did not know. Even though I grew up in Western Pennsylvania, the origins of the so-called "whiskey rebellion" were sort of glossed over and elided. A friend who lives in SW PA explained to me that the economic model you described is exactly the reason for the whiskey rebellion, which caused George Washington to call out troops to quell it. Washington called up the state militias from Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and New Jersey, which ultimately amounted to close to 13,000 troops, to put down the rebellion. The farmers couldn't make any money under the laws as written, and sure as hell didn't want to pay the tax. Interestingly, the tax was repealed11 years later. It proved impossible to collect.

Quote from: Surly1 on Jul 14, 2024, 05:15 PMInterestingly, the tax was repealed11 years later. It proved impossible to collect.

What was impossible to do in the 18th century with GW was possible with the creation of the Internal Revenue Service in the 19th, which had its beginning just prior to the War of Northern Aggression in 1862.  The Federal Goobermint simply did not have a big enough bureaucracy in the era of Washington to do enforcement.   Said office was necessary to raise the money to fund the Union Army of the Industrialists of the north.  This enabled them to get backing from the European bankers and give the "Greenback" value.  You will recall the 2nd Bank of the US had been "killed" by Jackson prior to the Civil War and there waas no central bank again until Da Fed in 1913.  The power of taxation gave the northern banksters credit with the Rothschilds.  This of course is why the southerners hated the "Revenooers", who were agents of the northern banks.

The Civil War was the victory of the banks and the rich over the poor, not the victory of freedom over slavery.  We all became slaves at its conclusion.

RE

On the one side we have Elon Musk impregnating as many A-list supermodel vaginas stoked with fertility drugs as he can and the white supremacists worried brown people will outbreed white people, and on the other we've got the tree huggers who wanna make the world safe for Sequoias by sterilizing everybody.

Think how great it would be!  Nobody would have any problems anymore.  The earth would be a paradise without the Homo Sap infestation.  A perfectly level distribution of wealth.  A global economy with NO MONEY!  No more Evil. 

Sigh.  Can't we find a happy medium here?  500M people peacefully building windmills and growing food forests and permaculture gardens and all sharing the same bathrooms?  Calmly discussing Religion & the Existence of God over Margueritas and smoked salmon & caviar hors d'ouvres without the IEDs Uzis and RPGs?  A Dome Home & Bicycle for everyone without the McMansions and Private Jets?  Peace on Earth, Goodwill toward men?  Remember Rodney King!



https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/i-wish-you-were-never-born-anti-natalism-doc-1235212398/

I wish you were never born

RE

Strange things can happen.  The Doomstead has live info!

Now please apologize for the Russell Bentley faux-pas.  Russell was a friend of the Diner.

I remember the story of Speedy Gonzalo being murdered a while back.  We discussed it.

RE

Lots of talk about Trump being besties with Putin. 

I take Mary Trump's advice to heart.  If Trump accidentally does something you approve of, do not give him credit.  Whatever your reasons are, they are not his.

The American public is naive and ignorant concerning what is happening in Ukraine.  It pisses me off that I never hear any opinions about Ukraine from any American that express any regard at all for the people who actually live there.  Ninety nine out of 100 Americans could not tell you where the Donetsk People's Republic is on a map, and I would put ten bucks on that.  If anyone wants to get a microphone and go to a shopping mall to find out I will bet.  And I am not a gambling kind of guy.  For this I'll make an exception.

It is morally reprehensible to have an opinion about any war unless you know what the fuck is actually going on where it is.  Generally Americans know nothing about Ukraine.  But knee-jerk-opinions about Ukraine are more common than blossoms on a spring cherry tree.  But when people are dying, ignorance is not neutral.  When people are dying, ignorance kills.

And I consider Chris's position a bit soft.  He is afraid to piss off people too much about this IMHO.

Quote from: K-Dog on Mar 12, 2025, 12:42 PMAnd I consider Chris's position a bit soft.  He is afraid to piss off people too much about this IMHO.

Well his name is Hedges... He also left out the Crimean War of the mid 19th Century, another Brit and french invasion of Rus, when mentioning ww1, ww2 and Napoleon. 

I wonder what % of the aforementioned opinions are really clueless when saying they support the people of Ukraine, not knowing thats like saying you supported the People of America in 1863. In any case I think they will be spared the reality check of how hopeless the 'ukranian' position is now.

The vietnam defeat was always explained as not being allowed to win, when in reality the US went to hitherto unseen extremes in carpet bombing the north and denuding foliage across a country.  This time in Ukraine it will be explained in the media as Ukraine (only a condom/ proxy for the NATO penis) not being allowed to win again, when the reality of how badly theyre steadily being defeated at this stage is not reported.

Another thing that got no mention in the MSM or by politicians is BRICS. Trump does mention it casually and is concerned by the threat it poses to the USD and US empire he's trying to consolidate. I think in order to get a negotiated settlement that doesn't involve Russia entering Kiev, he will be secretly trying to negotiate offering lifting of sanctions with continued use of SWIFT and U$D, among other things. Odessa will likely be the major sticking point behind closed doors, if not publicly.

EU and UK have plans led ironically led by Germany, France and UK who have all invaded Russia before, not the other way around, to build up their own military to fight Rus. That will just be a boondoggle for US arms dealers, while putting further downward pressure on euro standard of living. Europe has no affordable energy to build any weaponry at necessary wartime production rate or enough  men willing to go and die. Standing with Ukraine doesn't extend to that. I doubt many of the immigrants are interested either, so it would require a draft. Not even a sketchy plan or timeline ever gets outlined along with talk by eg von der leyen announcing 800 billion euro spending to defeat Russia, just vague platitudes and promises to do something or other in future. one thing for sure is with all that money they could just buy the resources at friendly trade partner prices from Russia

Goldern Oxern

QuoteWell his name is Hedges...

I appreciate the humor.  Not sure he would, but it is funny. 


And,

I notice a lot of bullshit videos claiming Ukraine is 'owning' Russia.  The dial has been turned up.