It's Happening.

[SuburbanFarmer]

Oh I get it. It’s late.

[Smitty-48]

See, the whole Vietnam War, in terms of escalating from the adviser phase to the total disaster phase of over 500,000 troops deployed and over 58,000 killed, it all starts at the Ia Drang, the Ia Drang Valley, is the first major American engagement in Vietnam.

Now Johnson and the Pentagon, they knew the war was unwinnable already at this point, the Johnson tapes, the classified Pentagon reports, they all say that America doesn't stand a chance in Vietnam and it's going to be a quagmire which ends in disaster, but they want to go anyways, and so they need to sell it to the American public.

Ia Drang, was like a showcase, the Air Cav was going to go out there and kick some ass, and that was going to be proof to a very skeptical at the time American public, to assert to them; "we're gonna win", and that is how it was played, and it worked, the American public bought it, hook line and sinker, in 1965.

But see, the little hiccup in the plan, was that the day after the showcase battle, there was another battle, it took the NVA exactly 24 hours to figure out how to "hug the belt' to beat the Americans, and that's what they did, and it was a catastrophe for the 2nd Battalion, which was a disaster for Johnson and the Pentagon, they couldn't sell an American battalion being decimated as "were going to win", so what they did, was simply decline to tell the American public what had happened, and in fact continued to deny it for another 30 years.

Ia Drang was a showcase for the American government, which was used to sell escalation to the American public, but the true story was, the NVA figured the Americans out real quick, and then put a devastating hit down on them, which, is how the rest of the war turned out, to the tune of another 56,824 killed, but also, total loss of trust in the American government.

If you grasp how much Americans trusted the government in 1965, then you know how it was the lie of Vietnam, which broke that trust once and for all time and to this day in fact, and that big lie, all started with the little lie, about LZ Albany.

Vietnam is the schism which broke America, it all starts with Vietnam, it's all about Vietnam, and when Americans now have a nostalgia for the "good ol' days", what they're really feeling, whether they think about it or not, is; before Vietnam.

The Vietnam War, for all intents and purposes American, is the Ia Drang Valley and beyond, LZ Albany, that's where the catastrophe was born, to wit, the breach of trust, and subsequent Vietnam schism which broke America, all starts in the shadow of the Chu Pong Massif, 17 November 1965, 1315hrs local time.

Everything before 17 November 1965, that's the good ol' days, everything after 17 November 1965, that's the dumpster fire.

You tell me something which is broke in America today, I'll trace it right back to the Ia Drang Valley for yea.

[Smitty-48]

The last time I can recall a great power in the industrial era facing hyper inflation and economic collapse, it definitely didn't end with anything good.

I guess you can't recall the hyperinflation and economic collapse in the Soviet Union in 1991-92 which brought the Communists down in Moscow, can't say I miss them, but then again, you probably don't recall the Cold War neither.

Ha ha ha snap. Good one, that's what I get for going Godwin.

I lied anyways; I do miss them, the Cold War was the force that gave us meaning.

Should have just pulled back from South Vietnam to Thailand, and then everything would have been hunky dory in the Cold War.

You know what the tragedy is? That was actually a plan that the Johnson Administration was considering in the wake of Diem and the chaos which followed in Saigon, Johnson said "maybe we should just fall back to Thailand and hold the line against the Communists there?" but then his advisers talked him out of it.

[Hastur]

I'm afraid the US is turning into a Latin American country in more ways than one. You already have rampant government corruption and an extremely wealthy upper class of European descent. The wealth gap is still growing.

The intellectual class and popular entertainers are turning towards socialism as the answer to all questions.

News media is more or less non functional.

Drug cartels are creeping in.

The only thing stopping you from spinning out of control is the working class's lingering hope for the American Dream and the fact that they aren't as poor as in South America - yet. If they get there and start forming communist guerrilla groups it's game over. That won't happen of course. They will never go there.

Unless you import a new working class with other cultural roots of course.

[Ex-California]

I'm afraid the US is turning into a Latin American country in more ways than one. You already have rampant government corruption and an extremely wealthy upper class of European descent. The wealth gap is still growing.

The intellectual class and popular entertainers are turning towards socialism as the answer to all questions.

News media is more or less non functional.

Drug cartels are creeping in.

The only thing stopping you from spinning out of control is the working class's lingering hope for the American Dream and the fact that they aren't as poor as in South America - yet. If they get there and start forming communist guerrilla groups it's game over. That won't happen of course. They will never go there.

Unless you import a new working class with other cultural roots of course.

If the globalists have their way the ensuing race to the bottom will make the working class just as poor as South America. Detroit and other dying Rust Belt cities are already favela-like

[apeman]

We are not close to collapse, financial system is not collapsing anytime soon. We are on the long-term path to collapse, but it could very well be 50-100 years. Soviet potemkin village was propped up for many many decades, ours is much stronger.

No hyper-inflation/collapse so long as oil is sold in dollars (this is under threat, but we won't allow it to change in any drastic way)

No hyperinflation/collapse so long as our military is dominant and functional

2008/TARP at first made me extremely scared that the system would collapse again soon, now I realize that the correct message is that, next time we need to fudge our way out of "crisis", we are on it == now the overtone window includes QE 4 ever, negative interest rates, helicopter money, etc.

No hyperinflation/collapse until bread and circus stops, and its not close to stopping. Brave new world.

BUT

We have sown the unmistakable seeds of our own destruction in the long term. Keynes himself understood there is no way out ("In the long run we are all dead”)

[SuburbanFarmer]

So, despite the Fed announcing that it starts selling the bonds next month, and raising rates in December, you believe that they’re going to reverse course and buy them again?

[apeman]

Ultimately yes.

You think we are done with QE?

[apeman]

So, despite the Fed announcing that it starts selling the bonds next month, and raising rates in December, you believe that they’re going to reverse course and buy them again?

TLT is up .50% today, closed positive yesterday.

What does that tell you, in non-snarky terms?

[SuburbanFarmer]

So, despite the Fed announcing that it starts selling the bonds next month, and raising rates in December, you believe that they’re going to reverse course and buy them again?

TLT is up .50% today, closed positive yesterday.

What does that tell you, in non-snarky terms?

It tells me that either:

A) The market thinks this is some kind of bluff, and doesn't believe that they're going to sell $20 B/month, starting in 2 weeks, up to $200B/month, eventually, dumping a total of $14 T into the economy AND that they won't really raise rates in December, despite saying that they will,

or

B) The big boys have already priced it in, and are just waiting for the roof to collapse on the plebs and HFTs.