Remember that goofball, Robert Kiyosaki? He's the author of "Rich Dad, Poor Dad." He wrote that book, got famous, and then started giving seminars about eight or nine years ago. I think at one time Trump was even involved with him. Kiyosaki's promotion company is bankrupt now and he's being sued, but that's a whole other story.
I just saw that he's back and he's calling for a major crash, a crash he says he predicted in 2002. Should you be scared? No. It's a gift.
Kiyosaki is clueless. Here are some of his other predictions: He was telling people to buy silver and gold several years ago because there was going to be hyperinflation. He had the same, ridiculous reasoning as morons like Schiff and Jim Rogers and Glenn Beck. Idiots.
Now he's been screaming Japan debt crisis and China on the ropes with debt, blah, blah, blah. All the usual idiotic goofball stuff a la Kyle Bass and other idiots.
Here's what you do when you see a guy who is totally clueless yet goes around making embarrassingly wrong predictions: you fade him. Big time.
Fade Kiyosaki on this. You'll be doing a public service and it's free money.
You should see the videos of Trump with the "goofball" Kiyosaki. Trump does a splendid performance of an idiot. The stuff he says is, well, very strange! There's one called "Why We Want You to be Rich" which of course you know means give us your money so we can be rich, like the Trump University scam! The videos are utterly hilarious.
ReplyDeleteTrumped:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9xokE0fRok
These videos are hilarious John. Who cares, Trump is going to win in a landslide, and I like him better than Hillary. Trump is an awful choice but there are some good about him too. We are going to be able to have a discussion about gender pay gap in terms that are not defined by radical feminists, our leaders will be able to say that there is radical islamic terrorism and it really exists, it is not just racists or fascists that use this term. Everything is not social construct etc. Trump will stop this liberal/progressive tyranny where people are afraid of being labeled some -ism when they talk.
ReplyDeleteDonald Trump will win in a landslide, says Dilbert creator Scott Adams
Kiyosaki has persuaded millions of people around the world. He is very well known among the financially ignorant. I don't think he was born in America though to run for President.
Even in the UK here, Rich Dad, Poor leaflets would keep coming through the door, and there was adverts all the time in the newspapers. I used to hate it, another dodgy scheme telling people how can get rich without having to do anything, except risk a lot of money.
ReplyDeleteI'm working class so I don't have a lot of money, so I don't like to take risks with what I've got. When I retired all these pension companies starting contacting me about my pension, telling me I could earn much if I took my pension out of the company one I had and put it in theirs. It sounded good and the figures looked impressive but after a few days of looking at it I realised that it was all gross, they had never mentioned the tax, and what I would really would get.
I decided to stick with my pretty good company pension scheme. With that I knew what I was getting every week, and it was enough.
The doomsters on the Right are always predicting crashes. It's so dramatic, the end of world, money will be worthless, fill your cellar with silver and gold. Buy army survival books.
Along with all this clap trap there are all these whacky health cures, like a machine that can make a silver solution that is said to cure all illnesses (but it can turn your blue, forever!), and a load of expensive apparatus to remove fluoride from tap water. Throw in some stuff about how the government has captured a UFO, and how they have built concentration camps all over the country, and off you go into cloud cuckoo land.
Matt, thanks for that. Wolf Blitzer is a disgrace and that really made my day!
ReplyDeleteKristjan, unless something miraculous happens, I agree Trump's going to win the GOP nomination. I don't agree that he'll win the general election. I despise and fear Hillary. She'd be awful for America and the wider world, far worse than Obama and about as bad as Dubya. Given what the GOP has inflicted on itself (lunatic candidates for decades), Hillary is going to easily win the general election. My prediction is that Trump will win a few states. He'll go down as the Republican McGovern, and may end up shattering the GOP into pieces. Hillary sweeps the rest of the states, and the neoconservatives are given another lease of life. The world weeps.
Kristjan: "...our leaders will be able to say that there is radical islamic terrorism and it really exists, it is not just racists or fascists that use this term."
Everybody uses that term! Nobody disputes it exists. Everybody agrees it has to be destroyed, other than the Saudis and the neoconservatives who see the jihadis as highly useful allies as long as they attack the right targets. It's how it's done, and whether the responses are counterproductive or more nefarious like in Syria.
Trump's a volatile and caustic guy. That's the only really good thing that can come out of a Trump presidency (forget all this nonsense about trade surpluses and thus bringing back the middle class). He's a hyper-alpha male, prone to getting his way, not a man suitable for the kind of international diplomacy and politics the presidency requires. But then again, all great powers have their great leaders, start to rot from within and then end up with incompetent administrators at the helm. It's unlikely, but he may unload on the Saudis, who are the cause of all this jihadi terrorism and war, in such a way that it destabilises the relationship. Even Bernie, my preferred candidate, would't do that. But Bernie has as much chance of the presidency as Chuck Norris, whose time has yet to come. I predict President elect Chuck Norris in 2024.
All this stuff about "isms" is highly misleading. The only thing that matters are class, power, inequality and poverty. These issues are toxic and they won't be addresses. The only "isms" that will be discussed, as they have been for nearly forty years, are feminism and the nonexistent threats of cultural marxism and socialism.
nivekb: "When I retired..."
It looks like MMT has health benefits too, a veritable fountain of youth. Your youthful writing style conveyed a man in his thirties at best!
"Everybody uses that term! " The current president of the US will not use it... never has...
ReplyDelete" neoconservatives who see the jihadis as highly useful allies as long as they attack the right targets."
This is more conspiracy theory wrt "the neo-cons!" like "the neo-liberals!" etc... the REAL issue is current policy whereby we are using the military doctrines of Special Operations Forces over the doctrines of Conventional Forces...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_forces
Putin used more Conventional Forces and seems to have had more success in a shorter time than what we are/were accomplishing with Special Operations...
So its not a "neo-con conspiracy!" or "empire of chaos!" ... its exactly how the military doctrines we are implementing are SUPPOSED to operate...
Putin used more Conventional Forces and seems to have had more success in a shorter time than what we are/were accomplishing with Special Operations...
ReplyDeleteThe Russians on the ground in Syria were spetsnaz.
As the Russian drawdown from Syria continues, more information continues to emerge about the forces Moscow had committed to shoring up the Assad regime. One telling aspect is how involved Russia’s Spetsnaz special forces were in the deployment. They were involved in two of their three core missions — reconnaissance and special security missions — but not the third, direct combat operations. The implication is that from the outset of the deployment, Moscow planned to minimize its exposure in this messy and bloody war.
War On the Rocks
The Three Faces Of Russian Spetsnaz In Syria
Mark Galeotti, March 21, 2016
Most of the Russian involvement was air support. Russia lost one plane and one pilot to Turkey, and a couple of spetsnaz on the ground in Syria. One was a spotter who was discovered, and his last act was calling in an air strike on those that were surrounding him. He perished with them.
Newsflash, John.
ReplyDeleteI schooled you last week and you seemed to still be in denial. Islam isn't partially radical. It's 100% violently radical by any honest measure. Far worse than Judaism or Christianity. And I thought you were a good student:
http://www.jihadwatch.org/2016/03/trump-i-think-islam-hates-us
http://www.unz.com/imercer/wrong-donald-trump-islam-loves-us-to-bits/
Do you know, I don't believe, people have the same needs and wants all over the world. Most people are friendly and peaceful, just like me and you, hardly any want war. Do you know the Iranians are renowned for being the most friendly people in the world.
DeleteI will out put that video again where a motorcyclist traveled through Iran, and he had never met people more friendly.
There are some radicals for sure, stirred up by all the US wars in the Middle East. But some thousands of radicles doesn't represent the billions of other Arabs. Most of the radicles are mercenaries anyway, who scare the living daylights out of everyone.
Some say that have been deliberately radicalised to fight proxy wars for the the West. Iraq, Libya, destroyed, Assad's Syria next. It is believed that Saudi Arabia wants to put it's gas pipelines through Syria, to steal Russia' European markets.
Russia also has its gas pipelines to Europe running through the Ukraine. So that appears to be the reason why the US has kicked up a load of trouble there, to turn off the gas supply.
As usual, the ruling classes of the world are fighting over resources. It has nothing to do with good guys and bad guys.
Malmo,
ReplyDeleteFirst of all I'm not in denial. I've read far too many books by experts on the Arab and Muslim world and more recently jihadi terrorism. I read the experts, not the Rothbards and the Mankiws. I have a good understanding of the problem. Austrians "school" MMTers every day of the week. And creationists "school" evolutionists every day of the week. It doesn't mean anything. As I said, any impartial observer on that last thread you alluded to could not possibly have agreed with your analysis. It doesn't stand up to the historical record or current history.
I have never denied there aren't radical maniacs who want to kill us! Newsflash deja vu yet again, I want to kill them. Actually, "want" is the wrong term: I need to kill them, all of them, a Carthaginian solution is what's needed. It wasn't that long ago that people said that all Germans and all Japanese were inherently warlike and violent. And no one in history has ever done anything as inhuman as the Germans. Are the Germans of today hellbent on world domination? No, the causes of Nazism have effectively been caged. The causes of jihadism must be caged. The experts put that down to a lack of central government, war and unrepresentative civil government.
Our difference in opinion is that Jihadwatch and the like are not good sources for understanding what we face. They are the equivalents of the Mises Institute. There are good scholars like Robert Pape, Scott Atran, Andrew Bacevich, etc. There are good journalists on the ground like Patrick Cockburn, who are explaining day to day what is happening. You may not like the analogy, but people like Pape and Atran are the MMT equivalents when it comes to understanding jihadis and their terrorism. Everybody else is selling gold standard descriptions and money multiplier nonsense about terrorism. Take someone like Michael Scheuer. He's spent a good deal of his life as a leading intelligence agent tracking down jihadis. He's not some leftwing pacifist. He's a conservative Republican. His analysis is the same as mine. I read Michael Scheuer, former Chief of the CIA's Bin Laden Issue Station. You read cranks on the crackpot Robert Spencer's "Jihad Watch".
"It's 100% violently radical by any honest measure."
Presumably, then, you wouldn't be treated by a Muslim doctor, get into a taxi driven by a Muslim, have a Muslim babysitter, have your hair cut by a Muslim barber, eat at a restaurant that employs Muslims? In your words, they are all adherents of a "100% violently radical" cult "by honest measure" and given the chance would kill you and your family. Many of us meet Muslims in everyday life. Do we honestly believe that they all want to commit genocide on a worldwide scale? Out of the 1.5 billion or so Muslims only about twenty thousand (the range is between ten thousand and twenty thousand) or so are indeed vicious genocidal killers and barbarians, and would never have had that opportunity were it not for the chaos in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and elsewhere. That's it. Once the political problems are dealt with, the jihadi problem disappears. I don't say this because it's comforting but because it's true. For example, predominantly Muslim Syria never attacked or threatened anybody until it broke down and part of its territory was taken oven by jihadis.
Matt, regarding "conspiracy theory", have you ever looked at the burgeoning literature of Washington's collusion with radical Islam? For example, did the US not organise, via Saudi Arabia and Pakistan's military and intelligence agencies, a huge international jihadi army to fight the Soviet Union in Afghanistan, or is this a "conspiracy theory"?
ReplyDeleteAll this stuff about "special forces" isn't relevant to the evidence, as leaked by the Defence Intelligence Agency, of an organised Western, Saudi and Turkish decision to help create a jihadi state within Syria. That's the issue. We would never have heard of ISIS had it not been for this decision.
Clash of Civilizations
ReplyDeleteI have been saying for some time that I think a major dynamic in the 21st century will be integration of cultural and civilizational diversity ("tribalism") on the basis of the unifying force of globalization, which is driven by economic forces, the proliferation of technology and technological innovation in particular. There are conflicts going on globally involving these forces, some in addition to the confrontation of Islam with the liberal (godless) West. These conflicts are not only "civilizational" but also "religious" in a cultural and institutional sense.
Islam is at the center of it for the reason that there are lot of Muslims around the world. So the conflicts are liberal v. Muslim, Christian v. Muslim, Chinese communist v. Muslim, Buddhist v. Muslim, and Hindu v. Muslim. There is also a conflict in Islam between Wahhabi-Salafis and other Sunnis, and Sunni v. Shia Islam. But there are also other conflicts, too. Hindu v. Christian in India, for example.
These are sociological and political phenomena as well as economic. They are "conservative" in that those involved seek to conserve the past. Even so-called liberals seek to conserve the perceived gains of the Enlightnment against the encroachments of tradition.
Conflict underlies the historical dialectic and this period is no different in that respect.
So along with the "centrifugal force of tribalism" that preserves diversity, there is also the "centripetal force that cultures unity." This allows for unity in diversity.
Matt,
ReplyDeleteDubya almost never used the term either and went on about how Islam peaceful is. I suspect if he said it, it was by mistake, given that he had ample opportunities to use it post-9/11 and went out of is way not to use it. No doubt he had been briefed that it's not wise to use the term. The Saudis may have gotten the wrong impression, and started looking elsewhere for protection. The Chinese have tried muscling in on this geopolitical protection racket, but the Saudis rebuffed them. They get a much better deal from the US. Dubya's preferred nomenclature was "radical networks", "radical beliefs" or something similar. Everybody else uses the term "radical Islam". So there we have it, in the past fifteen years only two people haven't used it - Presidents of the United States, and then only for expedient geopolitical interests. Generally the Oval Office is reserved for serious administrators of the most powerful country in history. The US has what are euphemistically called "interests" around the world. Keeping it that way is part of the job description. Alienating one of your most important allies, the radical Islamist Criminal Kingdom of Saudi Arabia isn't in that job description.
It's the same old story. A Republican gets a pass when a Democrat won't, and vice versa. The same policies by two different parties results in hysterical denunciations from the other side. The admittedly awful ObamaCare, very similar to RomneyCare, is denounced by the right. RomneyCare gets a pass by the right. Trump's national health care paid by the GOVERNMENT is passed over by the right. Dubya is denounced for drone strikes by liberals. Obama's far worse drone strikes are ignored by liberals. Dubya is denounced for the war in Iraq by liberals. Obama's disaster in Libya is ignored by liberals. There is no consistency.
Kristjan, apologies. I see what you mean. What you say captures some truth but not the whole truth. As I've said many times, it's all an attempt to distract people from the real issues of class and power.
ReplyDeleteThese "isms" that so many people buy into aren't a solution to the most pressing problems. Issues surrounding ethnic minorities, gay rights, women's rights (which means the majority of the population) aren't irrelevant. Just like the environment. I support all these campaigns. But environmentalism isn't enough. Even the big hedge fund guys are all environmentalists and supporters of gay rights. What matters is workers rights, a class issue, and that isn't being addressed in a serious way.
"These "isms" that so many people buy into aren't a solution to the most pressing problems. Issues surrounding ethnic minorities, gay rights, women's rights (which means the majority of the population) aren't irrelevant. Just like the environment. I support all these campaigns. But environmentalism isn't enough. Even the big hedge fund guys are all environmentalists and supporters of gay rights. What matters is workers rights, a class issue, and that isn't being addressed in a serious way."
ReplyDeleteYes I agree, It is not addressed of course. But the workers are not really heard at all. We have people like Tsipras and Varoufakis fighting for the working class, yet they don't know anything about the working class and the problems working class faces, they are not working class themselves, they only read books about the working class. That's why they sell out the working class when it comes to priorities. Everything else is more important. Same thing with Hillary, she doesn't hate the working class. This is the thing about left, the working class doesn't give a shit about the muslims, gays etc. They don't hate them, they have other issues. The leftist professors in universities make it a priority and push the identity politics. Trump is a fresh breeze for the working class.
nivekvb: "Do you know the Iranians are renowned for being the most friendly people in the world."
ReplyDeleteA friend that I was travelling with went to Iran, while I to my eternal regret stayed longer in Egypt, thinking that I'd make it to Iran in due course. I never did. What an awful decision, although you can never see enough of Egypt. Anyway, he says the same as you and more. Not only is is it the friendliest place he's ever been to, he says it's the best place he's ever been to! He tells everybody to go there on holiday.
Kristjan,
ReplyDeleteWhen alien archaeologists thousands of years from now find our planet and unearth our civilization, they'll conclude that identity politics killed off the talking apes, the sentient meatheads. There's only one word for this shambles - bugger! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1iC7SzZ4N8
Lets send Matt to Iran for a vacation. What could go wrong?
ReplyDeleteJohn, I was talking about Trump support. It is not only economics. People are not rational when it comes to politics or anything
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteMike Cernovich and Dave Rubin: Donald Trump and the War on Free Speech
https://youtu.be/K03gRy6qjKY?t=2728
Bob, good idea! Matt would at first have some sort of internal struggle but then find that he loves the place and come back with an overwhelming liking of tea.
ReplyDeleteKristjan, I totally understand why people support Trump. I know he's not the solution to their problems. The American public are so pissed off. They've really had enough, and end up looking in all the wrong places: Obama is one of the best examples of a deluded populace putting their faith in a politician. The politicians have sold out the people to big money. Whether the people understand what's really happening is irrelevant. They don't need MMT arguments to know they're hurting, and worse still they're angry. Their anger finds its way into Trump. Bernie's got a better appreciation of America's problems, but he's nowhere near as popular as Trump. Bernie's got some intellectual policy solutions, but he's not going to do anything, not least because he's not going to be POTUS. Trumps's got emotional answers, and that's enough when people are angry. The Tea Party crowd have no real solutions either. Their anger and hurt is understandable, but it's also dangerous. I doubt Trumps's nationalist and nativist emoting will see him ride a wave into the Oval Office.
Looks like Hillary will be moving in to the White House, unless there is more to these emails and who knows what else is out there. There must be a lot of dirt on Hillary the GOP is keeping back. If they use it in the election, it may backfire. She's truly scary, a modern day incarnation of Queen Mary I of England and Queen Isabella I of Castille. I have a sneaking suspicion Queen Cersei in Game of Thrones is based on Hillary Clinton.
I think no emails are needed, once Hillary says that Trump is a sexist, Trump will come out with evidence that Hillary threatened those women Bill was harassing. She did it herself and through her private detectives. So Trump will make a case that she is the enemy of women, and that she was the enabler in those sex crimes. This is going to be enertainment and Trump is a very good entertainer.
ReplyDeleteWe have no idea what kind of policy will Trump run but he is the one going to White House.
We have no idea what kind of policy will Trump run.
ReplyDeleteSome see that as a problem.
An Open Letter to Trump Voters from His Top Strategist-Turned-Defector
Well Tom, I see it as a problem too. :) I am from Estonia where people have phobias about Russia. Trump talking about not doing so much for NATO, America first.
ReplyDeleteKristjan: "So Trump will make a case that she is the enemy of women, and that she was the enabler in those sex crimes."
ReplyDeleteThat could work. Hillary is the enemy of women. She covered up numerous assaults and rapes. That psychotic behaviour. Michael Isikoff's book "Uncovering Clinton" comes straight out and says Bubba was/is extremely violent toward women (apparently he had/had a thing for biting women) and was/is a serial rapist. Yet Bill Clinton didn't sue! Maybe because the publisher was Random House, one of the world's biggest publishing houses and with more than enough money to deal with Clinton. The amazing thing is that Random House did publish these allegations!
I am not that familiar wuth the cases other than Monica.
ReplyDeleteLEARN HOW TRUMP WILL DESTROY HILLARY CLINTON FROM TRUMP INSIDER ROGER STONE
https://youtu.be/EMLrUeYsHrI
Roger Stone: Trying to stop Trump is like stepping in front of a freight train
https://youtu.be/W1nzNzC1kJA
Roger Stone makes some good points but a lot of really absurd ones. Absurdity doesn't stop you making it in the media. He is, however, in the unenviable position of carving out a career as a serious commentator and political consultant while claiming, and indeed writing a whole book, on LBJ murdering JFK. Anybody who says stuff like this is a crackpot. So whatever he says about the Clintons will be written off as the ravings of a nut, which is what he is. His book on the Clintons looks like a copy and paste job of Isikoff's book, which was the first to make these claims. Isikoff is a serious journalist. Stone is a nut.
ReplyDelete