Intro
This is another of the W.O.O.D. series of semi-regular Weekly Occasional Open Discussions. (i.e. if I forget and skip one, no big)
Immediate prior one here:
https://chiefio.wordpress.com/2023/12/22/w-o-o-d-22-december-2023-merry-christmas-empire-or-lies/
and remains open for threads running there (at least until the ‘several month’ auto-close of comments on stale threads). Note that the link was supposed to be “Empire OF lies”, but I fixed it in the heading. Leaving the link as-is since anyone using the link would have it broken if I ‘fixed’ it.
Canonical list of old ones here:
https://chiefio.wordpress.com/category/w-o-o-d/
“Me” News
Another Year Older
Well, it is a new year, we’re all a year older, and nothing much has changed in the world. There’s still a Jihad against Trump by the Loony Left. There’s still wars over Color Revolutions going on. There’s still Evil in the world messing things up. Oh Well.
Maybe I ought to lay in a few cases of Scotch just in case of emergencies and the collapse of civilization…
The Garden & Food Forest
Not a lot to add here. Last week I harvested 2 papaya and it looks like another one is ready now. All from one tree. I have 3 more in the ground planted a year later…
I’ve planted some Egyptian Walking Onions. We’ll see if they do well here or not. Red ones, just for fun. These make little onions about the size of a blueberry on the tops. Basically instead of seeds it makes a head of tiny bulbs. These eventually get heavy enough to bend the stalk over and get “planted” about 2 to 3 feet away. Thus it ‘walks’ across the garden year after year. A pain to peel, so I’ll need to find some other way to use them ;-) Just checked and they have pushed up some tiny sprouts! Looks like winter onions at least will work. There is a native wild onion or garlic, and I’m looking for some to plant, since we know it will grow as it does in the wild.
I also had planted the large seeds (similar in size to a blueberry too) of the Chinese Tea plants. They have come up nicely, in 2 pots. So now I need to figure out where to put my Tea Garden. Can’t survive the apocalypse without caffeine ;-) Plus: Think of the barter opportunities! So many caffeine addicts going through withdrawal ;-0 I planted something like 5 each of a small leaf and large leaf type, so I need to figure out where I want a Tea Hedge…
It has been in the high 50’s F lately, so a bit cold for some of the tropical plants. I have 1/2 dozen “tree cozies” / frost covers I can use on the little ones if it threatens to get colder.
Oh, and I harvested 2 big pumpkins. Don’t know what kind. Had bought one at the grocer for Halloween 1.5 years ago. Seeded it out later and tossed the seeds on a patch of weeds. It grew… About 9 to 10 inches in diameter, orange, has deep wedge like shaped “meat”. The vine spread out from one side of the house to the other (planted in the middle) so I’d guess about 50 feet maybe 65? Big… Since it grew, it goes into the Darwin’s Garden seed bank ;-)
My other attempts at squash have failed. Mildew, heat, dryness… Still learning on those summer squash types down here. Planning to find some Seminole Pumpkin seeds and try it, since it is known to grow wild here too.
The two “Flowering Kale” I planted are doing just great. These are both decorative (like kind of like a giant green rose ;-) and edible. So “winter kale” works. I have one each of white and pinkish surrounded with green. Next year will be a lot more, now that I know they work here.
Oh, and I’ve grown a couple of kinds of dry beans now. Pinto and Black. Looks like they do very well in winter here.
At this point, I’m quietly confident I can grow enough stuff to not starve, if it came to that. Not expecting things to collapse, but just want to know it is possible to grow enough food and I have enough local knowledge to do it.
In other news: Last night we did an “all you can eat fixed price” sushi dinner ;-) So “no worries” just yet ;-)
The World At Large
Still sucky.
Latest Dr. John Campbell video is an interview with an M.D. about Vit. D. Has some good info in it. In England (low UV levels) dark skinned folks have lower Vit. D levels than Whites. Looking at M.D. Covid Deaths, the White MDs who died were very old (80s-90s) while the BAME (?Black, African, Middle East?) ones died at 45-65 ish. Similarly, folks with low Vit-D had 1/2 go to ICU, those given a bolus of active form Vit-D had something like 1 in 50 go to ICU. It is IMPERATIVE to keep your Vit-D levels up.
Ukraine:
Russia is pushing forward on a broad part of “the front” in “active defense”.
The Ukrainian Army is in trouble. My best guess is that in the next week or so, Russia will start moving ever faster. They either wrap this up in the next couple of months, or go through another Mud Spring and another year. I’d not be surprised to see some of that 1/2 Million mobilized and standing around on the border doing a Run For Kiev.
I’ve seen a claim that Ukraine managed to get an anti-aircraft missile on target and took out the Russian equivalent of an AWACs (A-50) and a Command Aircraft (IL-22). One was destroyed, the other landed with damage and casualties. Russia has more of them, and some Russian sources are claiming it was a friendly fire accident. No way to tell, and unlikely to matter in any case.
Gaza:
Sort of slowing down. I’ve noticed a whole lot of what look like “Planned and Orchestrated Protests” by pro-Palestine forces. Seems to me like 99%+ of Americans do not care. Either because they have no clue it is going on, have no clue where Gaza is, or just don’t care anyway. Makes me highly suspicious that the “protests” are put up jobs.
Last time I’d said:
Simmering:
Taiwan, Venezuela, Red Sea.
I’d not be surprised to see us pumping up a Color Revolution in Venezuela and shelling the crap out of Yemen.
Well, we got the shelling of Yemen…
In Other World News
Ukraine, with tacit US Approval, murdered Gonzalo Lira Jr. What can I say? He was critical of the war and Mr. Z, so got tossed into a dungeon and tortured to death. Lets you know where US Citizen protection ranks with pResident Biden and the Dimocrats. Well, at least I know I’m not going to visit Ukraine until some years after Russia cleans it up, if ever… since I agreed with Gonzalo and have also criticized the Ukraine Money Laundry.
The EU & Biden are drooling over the potential theft of $300 Billion of Russian National Assets in western banks. I’m pretty sure everyone in position to tell them has told them that is a Very Bad Idea. Confiscation of Bank Assets is theft. Pure and simple. No matter how you try to dress it up in legal theories that are crap. Theft. When they do this, and I’m pretty sure they will as they have no moral compass, no self control, and an excess of greed: It will destroy the notion of The West as a safe haven for money.
That will then destroy the $US and the € Euro. Every person of every stripe everywhere else in the world will withdraw their money. All the oil rich nations. All the mineral nations. All the Mom & Pops in Latin American inflation nations. You name it. I’ll be moving mine out of $US too. (I’ve already bought a chunk of other currencies as a starter). NOBODY wants to do business with thieves and they certainly don’t trust them to hold their cash.
OTOH, it will be a great boost to the BRICS+ nations, their currencies, and their trade systems (as folks choose to not even have their money momentarily transit a Western Theft Bank…
Germany, not satisfied with the destruction of their manufacturing competitiveness, has decided to screw over their farmers too. There’s a huge farmer protest going on in Germany (and some other EU countries). This is the kind of thing that makes a fella think about growing a garden… The Stupid is so strong in their government that it is painful to see even from the outside. We already have most of the Ukrainian food production off line for next year, having the EU agriculture sector decide to “just have a fallow year” to “rebuild the soil” would leave a lot of folks hungry and angry at the government…
However: The EU Rulers (not ‘leaders’ and not ‘representatives’ as they are not elected and do not lead, but apply the “rule based order”…) want an EU Army and are pushing for it publicly. Gee, what could go wrong… I’m pretty sure that would drive a few countries out of the EU, and result in a giant permanent Russian Army on the nearest Russian Border.
Then there’s the Davos WEF World Evil Forum meeting going on now. Not much more to say about it. We’ll know more when they announce their newest plans to Take over The World and steal anything not nailed down (and a lot of what is).
A Positive Note?
This last weekend, we went to the NASA Space Center exhibits at Cape Canaveral. The Atlantis show / display is spectacular.
After that, we found the Valiant Air Command, Warbird Museum. An unexpected treasure. They preserve AND FLY vintage war planes. Including the only flying Twin Mustang.
https://www.valiantaircommand.com/
Well worth the visit. They have a flying C-47 that was in D-Day, and Operation Market Garden. So that one, or one just like it, pulled the Spousal Dad’s Glider in on D-Day, and he jumped from one in Operation Market Garden. Amazing to see it in real life and see how small they are compared to the modern jumbo jets; yet they went to war with it.
IF you are at all into airplanes and are near Cape Canaveral, go see it.
In Conclusion
Welcome to a new year. Hopefully we can fix some things that badly need fixing this year. Tossing out Color Revolution Appointed Biden and returning an honestly elected President would be a nice ending to the year.
Maybe it can start off with Russia wrapping up Ukraine and ending the suspense… and the money suckage…
Can’t think of a better ending that the one from last time, so here it is again:
And above all: Enjoy yourself in the process. Nothing upsets the Useful Idiots more than folks who are happy, enjoy a good joke & meme, and laugh at the stupidity of the Hard Left Lunacy.
We may live in an Empire Of lies (and liars); but we do not need to accept the lies, nor be quiet when we see one. Call a loon a loon, a liar a liar, and remember that it may be a rocky road, but The Truth Shall Set You Free.
WatchMaga
This will continue to be DIY for a while still.
https://rumble.com/user/WatchMaga
For more recent events, see:
Bongino Report:
Or Whatfinger:
https://generaldispatch.whatfinger.com/
I’ve also gotten addicted to the Top Ten Memes of the week from WatchMAGA here:
They have interesting “bite” to them, along with a tendency to highlight the news of the week in memes, so good as a social attitude pointer too. Plus they are “way fun” ;-)
Musings from the Chiefio 
Do you want to fly in an airplane where they prioritized DEI hiring over your safety? said Elon Musk on X last week.
I kind-of ignored that as click-bait, but then found this on the FAA’s own website.
Targeted disabilities are those disabilities that the Federal government, as a matter of policy, has identified for special emphasis in recruitment and hiring. They include hearing, vision, missing extremities, partial paralysis, complete paralysis, epilepsy, severe intellectual disability, psychiatric disability and dwarfism.
https://www.faa.gov/jobs/diversity_inclusion
What could possibility go wrong?
What is angering the farmers?
Higher fuel tax. The government announced it would raise the fuel tax on agricultural diesel. The problem, though, is that the fuel tax was initially imposed in order to pay for road maintenance and repair. The government now wants to end this “subsidy” Very much like Australia.
Vehicle registration tax. The government also wants to impose a vehicle registration tax on tractors and forestry vehicles. Up to now, these vehicles have been exempt, because again their use was mostly off road.
Expanded highway tolls: Truckers are protesting the government’s plan to impose a highway toll on all vehicles that are 3.5 tons or heavier
Inflation: Higher energy prices, in large part due to renewable energies, made it more difficult for farmers and truckers to earn a living.
New fertilizer regulation, which limits and restricts farmers in their use of fertilizers
260,000 farms are operating in Germany.
https://notrickszone.com/2024/01/09/why-german-farmers-are-protesting-they-refuse-to-be-the-governments-cash-cow/
@Graeme No.3:
Why I have been developing my own micro-farm tech for the last few years. Seeds vault (and selection) along with methods of minimal inputs (Darwin’s Seeds…) and moving to Just Enough dirt (1/3 acre though looking at a bit more dirt nearby and a lake… for fish protein).
It has become fairly clear that the W. EVIL F. folks want us dead. By medical mal-feasance, by food restriction, by food adulteration, by whatever means available…
So I’ve been “managing my affairs” such that their efforts will not reach me, or if they come close, can be mitigated enough to out-live them. (Sadly, some of my kids are not listening as closely as I’d like… but I’m working on them…)
So at this moment I’m modestly sure I can “survive” on what I have in hand and owned. It would be better if I had a working well OR the parts in hand to dig one, but I think that will be taken care of this year. It IS a bit of a race condition, but I think I have about 2 years to work out the rest of the details and get the Food Forest producing more and get the soil amendment program / garden dirt areas worked out. (Worst case, I go into this with what I have and other than the well, can make fertile garden areas out of what is already begun, though with a longer lag time…)
The Kids are welcome to head this way in any Aw Shit of enough scale; and can then work out how to intensify things…
THE good news is that it looks like the W. EVIL F. is Euro Centric, so screwing up the EU first and harder (and Canada…). The USA, IMHO, is a few years behind in The Agenda. (Maybe more if Trump gets a Round Two). Latin America and Africa a decade or so back… and I have a boat ;-) if it gets totally screwed.
Then there’s the huge benefit of the UK having escaped the grasp of the EU Nutters… Worst case, the UK remembers it lives from the sea… and that is a HUGE resource.
I’m pretty sure that the EU augers in first, the UK takes a while longer, and the USA is well after that… with Florida and Texas being way late even inside the USA. Then, my corner of Florida is at the tail end of anything that gets to Florida urban areas…
So, short of a Thermonuclear Exchange, I’m in pretty good condition. Though working on a better Bug Out Route in case of the Thermonuclear Exchange thing… and working on a “On The Boat To Where?” legal residency option… At present, that is to go to Puerto Rico or the US Virgin Islands (where we can stay forever if needed) or to Mexico (where we have, as US Citizens, 6 months visa free residence). But I’d like to have a “Residence Visa” somewhere further south IF we have the “Glow In The Dark” northern hemisphere… Like Brazil or Argentina… (WAY long by 4 knot sail boat, I know…) But as I said, my intent is “Castle Defense” here in Florida where it is the law and approved… and only bailing to Plan Y (yacht) in the case of Nuclear Northern Hemisphere “glow in the dark” issues…
OTT? Not at all. Contingency plans for ALL possibilities are a good thing to have. You HOPE to never use any of them. You HOPE that you just keep on living the good life. But: “Hope is not a strategy. -E.M.Smith”. So you have options in depth “For that day”… which you HOPE will never come.
Years ago, a friend made a Pumpkin pie from a fruit grown from seeds she harvested from her garden. The pie was so sharply spicy no one would eat it. After some searching, I found a site that said sometimes pumpkins will cross with nearby squash with the resulting seeds then producing pumpkins with odd tastes. This might be true.
I have grown lots of squash, but only once pumpkins. Did the whole bit of making pie. Found buying a can or just a pie at a grocery store much easier. Then, again, I would rather have a fruit (apple, peach, berry) pie.
“BAME (?Black, African, Middle East?)”
It looks like BAME was just the English way of saying not-white.
BAME is short for “black, Asian and minority ethnic” —
but those words may not mean the same to us.
‘Black’ doesn’t necessarily mean African. Sometimes it meant not-white.
‘Asian’ could include Middle East.
In Britain, the word “Asian” most frequently refers to people of Desi ancestry (Pakistanis, Indians, Bangladeshis) as well as Sri Lankans. This usage contrasts to that in the United States, where it is used primarily to refer to people of East and South-East Asian origin.
The only thing clear (as mud) is ‘white’.
But no matter, BAME is on the do not use list anyway.
https://equalities.blog.gov.uk/2022/04/07/why-we-no-longer-use-the-term-bame-in-government/
Take Othello for example, a black character, except that he was Moorish. As found in Morocco. Definitely not black to my eyes.
“Davos WEF World Evil Forum”
from this link: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2024/01/14/wef-predicts-that-war-will-no-longer-be-a-threat/
We get this diagram of “you will have nothing and be happy”
Note that Climate Change will still be a problem, they say, but all other current problems are going away! They say.
Question……
Does the immunity given to mRNA jab manufacturers apply to all their mRNA products?
I am seeing a whole lot of commercials for a variety pack of jabs in the last 3 months..
@YMMV:
Thanks for the BAME explainer. Yeah, it acted as “Not White” in the video…
Per “disinformation & misinformation” being risks: Yeah… “propaganda” and “being wrong” (to translate them to real words…) will be big issues. But I note they did not list “WEF themselves” as major risks to the world; when they are one of the biggest. And it is their errors and propaganda that are the big risks.
Just the notion that “weather” is a bigger risk than anything else, like, oh, Thermonuclear War… shows the error of their “misinformation”…. or more likely their propaganda (“disinformation”).
@Ossqss:
It is my understanding that it does not. BUT: They will claim that the use in the “pandemic” demonstrates that the technology is safe. i.e. One Lie To Rule Them All. Since the Jab was used “successfully” without any prosecutions it is now proven “safe and effective” so it can’t be that and so they can’t be liable…
@John Hultquist:
There are, IIRC, 6 different species of “squash and pumpkins”. Things can all cross inside each of those 6. Something like 3 of them are not very common, and 2 of them account for a lot (perhaps most) of what you are likely to run into in the garden. So, yes, LOTS of squashes and pumpkins can cross and make odd mules.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_gourds_and_squashes
lists 5 of them, but I think there is another found only in the wild in some small patch per a memory from a few decades ago when I went down that rabbit hole…
Of those, Pepo is one of the biggest tribes. I have a “backyard mule” made via a cross of Pattypan with Zucchini that was more “oblate spheroid” but tasted nice. It also includes some of the common pumpkins along with Acorn squash, Spaghetti squash and a lot more (hit the link for details…).
Maxima and Moschata are the other two you are likely to find in the garden. Butternut squash is the most likely Moschata that most folks will know. Seminole Pumpkin is also in that tribe. Oddly, the “store pumpkin” I planted out looks a lot like the Seminole pumpkin in this link (but not at all like most others I’ve seen that are smoother shelled) https://gardeningsolutions.ifas.ufl.edu/plants/edibles/vegetables/seminole-pumpkin.html
so perhaps the reason this one grew was due to it being a Seminol…
Then the Maxima tribe includes some of the blue squashes, along with the Red Kuri, Kabocha, and Hubbard that folks might know.
You can grow squashes / pumpkins from the different tribes at the same time without fear of them crossing, but grow two from inside the same species and you will likely get some mules (or if you grow one and your neighbor grows another one…)
The large variation in Seminole pumpkin shapes is thought to be (possibly) due to crossing out with Butternut types.
I had a very easy time growing Pepo squashes in California, but have failed miserably with them here in Florida. So I’m moving on to the Seminole, Butternut and related (and whatever that was from the local store a Thanksgiving or two ago…) and I’ll likely also try the Cushaw squash (that failed miserably in California due to it being too cool…) as it likes the heat. A bit unusual as it is in a different and unusual species:
I note that it is what used to be known as “C. Mixta” and that is the name I’m more used to. Another “victim” of the inability of people to “leave it alone” and stop changing the “scientific names”…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cucurbita_argyrosperma
I have some seeds for it in my seed vault freezer somewhere ;-) Being from Southern Mexico it ought to be happy here in Florida.
Anyway… more than most folks will ever want to know about Squash & Pumpkins…
So I’m hoping to get one of {Seminole, Cushaw, The Thing From The Store ;-), and maybe a Blue Banana} to grow here. Pepo types seem to get mold and sulk too much, but I’ll keep trying some of them. Then the Red Kuri and the Kabocha are known to like heat, so I’ll try them too; but don’t know how they are likely to do.
Once I have some that like it hot, I’ll likely be growing 2 or 3 different species at the same time so that they do not cross and become mules.
I’m also thinking that I’ll try the Pepo types in fall-to-winter and winter-to-spring and see how they do.
The problem, here, is that summer is “way hot and humid” so they tend to leaf mold and dehydration; yet in winter it can freeze, so they freeze kill. I think that leaves the two “shoulder seasons” as possibles. My “Eight Ball” and “Rond du Nice” have about 60 days to maturity, so can likely be done in those two seasons when it isn’t too hot, nor too cold, nor too humid… So I may yet be able to grow a Pepo but keeping a tighter calendar.
Maybe not quite OTT on squash yet… from that Cushaw link, it may explain why I remember 6 and they (now) only list 5:
So more screwing around with species and names… At one time my High School Bio Teacher was promoting the great value of “Scientific Names” as they didn’t vary from place to place and were more “reliable” than “common names”. Well that’s now out the window… The Great Species Name Screwage that came about from “cladistics” has made “scientific names” more variable than common names for the things I grow.
ALL the grasses, ALL the beans, ALL the cruciferous vegetables and a whole lot more (now, it seems, to include some of the squashes…) have been changed. But hey, a bunch of folks got to publish crap…
Queenland Blue (C. maxima) are widely grown in Australia. Quite OK in warm humid weather (as in Qld) but also other States in warmer weather. Fruit noted for long keeping time. If you want one I would send some seeds.
The flowering kale will take shockingly low temps — even in the teens. Single digits, tho, usually fry it.
Not only private jet parking space –
“Dark Davos: Escort Services “Completely Booked” As WEF Begins”
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/dark-davos-escort-services-completely-booked-wef-begins
Firstly, A happy New Year to everyone from England.
I was interested to see the photo of the colourful Kale. I first saw these around 1989 planted in their hundreds inside the Winter Gardens in Washington DC. Every year since we have tried to buy a couple in November and they are still looking good today. The snails seem to have hibernated.
On a more serious note I would be interested to have opinions on this article
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/batten-down-the-hatches-a-financial-hurricane-is-on-the-way/
As far as I can see the author makes no claim to be a financial expert, but I have heard several respected commentators air similar thoughts over the last couple of years. The comments are also worth reading. The article is on a right wing UK website but that still puts it a lot more centrist than many on your own Right wings.
I think when Biden scuttled from Afghanistan he gave out a defeatist message to the Wests detractors especially Russia, China, Iran and North Korea and of course the Wests own leftists and over liberals..
The end result is the likely demise of the Dollar as a reserve currency and a petro currency.
We have talked about the US debt here before. I would liken it to Robert Maxwell’s media Empire. He “fell” off his boat in 1991 when it was revealed he had many hundreds of millions of dollars of debt and had been stealing from the company pension fund.
I realised uncomfortably that I was in fact wealthier than so called billionaire Maxwell as my assets exceeded my modest debts. I feel that way about America at present. If the debts were called in for whatever reason the US would find that many of its citizens were impoverished and they had been living far above their earnings, through accumulating debt. The fall out would hit the rest of the world, especially the West. Biden seems a spendthrift of the first order as his hard core socialism will result in huge bills to be paid, not the least over renewables.
Is the US to big too fail or is it the old maxim “The bigger they are the harder they fall?”
@Graeme No.3:
Thanks for the pointer, and the offer. I did a quick search and I can get the seeds via mail from providers inside the USA (so no customs issues) for about $3 (so likely about the same as postage from you to me ;-) The site also has some other interesting squashes, so I’m likely to buy a “spread” of several types ;-)
https://www.superseeds.com/products/queensland-blue-squash-105-days
There’s also folks who offer it via Seed Savers Exchange (which I’ve used before)
The Maxima group seems to have a lot of blue types and they look to be tolerant of both hot and cold. So time for me to get out of my Pepo Bubble ;-)
I’d had a preference for several of the Pepo types and they just loved it in moderate low humidity California, so were trivial to grow there. Here not so much… but maybe in an indoor hydroponic system “someday”. (I really liked the 8 Ball since they made a “just right for 2 people” squash that would be productive in a modest sized pot making more than we could eat. So one pot about 2 foot diameter and all the squash you could eat… I’ll try them again in the shoulder seasons.)
One of THE big differences here is that the “swings” of sunshine, heat, dryness, humidity are greater; so I actually need to start using a Planting Calendar. Plus I learned that I still must water during the summer. We may get 5 inches of rain in a month, but it can arrive all on one day and the other 30 are dead dry.
@Beng135:
I’m also going to trial Russian Kale. It is known for growing under snow ;-) So I’m figuring on “various kales” as winter greens. Just need to work out the months…
@Another Ian:
Of course the “escorts” are fully booked. They are their to F.. everyone they can, so…
@ClimateReason:
I’ll put together my thoughts on that and post them shortly… It’s a bit complicated (and I’ll need to read the article first).
The most volatile weather here is seen in winter. It made it to 61 F yesterday before the front came through. Dropped into the 40s before the rain started. That changed over to freezing rain/sleet/snow flurries. It is not expected to get above 30 F today and the over night lows may end up being in the single digits, particularly out here where I am. I’m out away from built up areas. A few small farms/ranches out here. A bit warmer tomorrow they say then a bit more rain then back into the subfreezing state. Spring, please hurry up, I need some global warming. ;p (Mind you we may get the “January thaw” a bit later than usual, so may still see upper 70s to 80 before the month ends.)
@ClimateReason:
I’ve read the article. Pretty much right on the facts; speculation about the outcomes a bit too “certain” given all the unknowables (such as who wins the US “selection” in November).
Bear in mind that I’m a “Hard Core Radical Extremest Centrist” ;-) so interpret accordingly. ( I’m a JFK Democrat, A Reagan Republican, and a Trump Centrist Independent – and they are all the same economic positions… JFK cut taxes to stimulate the economy and get off of the wrong side of the Laffer Curve … and it worked.)
All of this is just My Opinion:
What the USA will do to “service” the debt (in all its connotations) is inflate it away. That is what they have done since going off the Gold Standard, and that is what they will continue to do. Debt as a % of GDP is now about what it was at the end of W.W.II so it isn’t (yet) lethal. But it is getting there AND we are not going to be the golden manufacturing economy of post W.W.II “going forward”.
Note that they are already doing this, and “crowing” over the fact that inflation is almost down to 2% and ignoring that actual prices are now about 30% to 50% (and in some cases double) what they were when Biden took over and ran wild.
Big Question without answer: Will that “crash” the US Economy? It might, or it might not, depending on what a LOT of hyper rich folks (including countries) do with their money and investments. My guess is “no”, but it will be a spiral of decay over a few years (that we are already in – see San Franciso, Portland, New York City, etc.).
Big Question without answer: Will that, then, put the UK into depression as it has in the past?? My guess is “no”, but only if the UK turns outward to the Rest Of World and away from EU / USA. Brexit gave that opportunity, now it is time to execute on it. Trade with BRICS+. Trade with ROW. Back out of EU entanglements. Re-engage with The Commonwealth (Australian & New Zealand lamb, wine, etc.). At present, the USA is not a major income source for UK exports. Nor is the USA a major player in UK manufacturing, shipping, mining, etc. Biggest risk is to UK Financials IFF they are over invested in US Bonds and debts. It will be tough, but doable, to reengage with the ROW.
The EU? IMHO it is auguring in. The € Euro is backed by nothing tangible. THE major economic engine that kept it working, Germany, is holed below the waterline and sinking. Companies are leaving Germany at great speed, and they are the important basic ones. Metals need ENERGY to be mined, transported, refined, fabricated, etc. The major metals companies can not make money without Russian Gas and Russian Minerals. Without the metals, you can’t make the cars that bring in the Foreign Exchange money. So the Car Makers will move manufacturing to where the energy is cheap and metals / plastics are plentiful. Look at VW in China, for example. Or Mercedes in the USA (though that may fail IF the USA continues on the EV Rant… so depends on Biden & The Dims vs Trump & MAGA)
Once Germany can no longer fund the EU, it starts to crumble (already in progress). Nations like Italy, Greece, Spain tended to give deference to the EU due to all that loverly German Subsidy money. What will they do when that turns into a TAX on them instead? I suspect “leave the €Euro and go back to their own Fiat Money”. Then there’s the demographic damage done to the EU. The GEBs notion is “divide them against each other and destroy nationality”. I suspect the reality will become a new collapse of social order and potentially, longer term, internal wars. See the history of Greece tossing out Muslims after 400 years of occupation. Spain ditto.
Russia is busy building a protective WALL against Europe and their “social disease”. Russia sees itself as the surviving Byzantine Empire of culture. The true 3rd Empire surviving the collapse of the Byzantines (thus the “Russian Orthodox Church” due to Greece being under Muslim rule for 400 years). Stopping that disease from infecting the Ethnic Russian areas of Ukraine was an existential need. Putin tried to do it via a simple intimidation SMO and Treaties to ensure Ukraine neutrality and Ethnic Russian Rights. But Boris & The GEBs would have none of it. So now it is “diplomacy by other means” until Ukraine is secured as NEUTRAL. Where will that stop? Unknown. It depends entirely on The Western GEBs stubbornness in resisting reality. Give to Russia that which is full of Russians, or be destroyed. (A failing EU along with a Crazy Canada and a USA in sharp decline and unable to manufacture – or think straight – will not be able to defeat Russia. A unified country with intact manufacturing, thriving energy sector, culturally strong, and with China available as needed for goods…)
THE Biggest thing out of last year was NOT the NATO Proxy War On Ukraine. It was the expansion of BRICS+. Notice who went in. Egypt – largest population of Arabs in the worlld. Saudi Arabia & UAE – largest petro$Dollar nations in the world. The Arab world and the Oil Producers have seen the writing on the wall and left The West. Oil is now trading in sound local currencies, and in practice that means Yuan, Rubles, and other currencies of interest with sound footing. China is dumping US Debt. Saudi & UAE are at a minimum not taking on more and letting the short term bonds NOT “roll over” but “run off”. So not only have we lost a major source of “loans” to the USA, but we will see a lot more “redemptions” instead of roll overs to new debt. At the same time, watch as they move their “cash deposits” to banks outside the EU & USA. Where? TBD. Probably a mix of Swiss Banks (dependent on their staying honest), Russian Banks, Chinese Banks, and “misc others” – say Cayman or Bahamas…)
Note that Brazil, also a major oil producer, is already inside BRICS+ and that Japan has a spectacularly aging population who put a LOT of money into US Treasuries when young and working, and are now cashing those out to fund their retirement. That’s about $1 Trillion right there, coming home to roost.
So as I asked before: “Who will lend us $3 Trillion a quarter?” (One $Trillion / month)… and answer came there none – still. It must come from The Central Bank just loading up their balance sheet with Treasuries. Effectively “printing money” in keeping with “Modern Monetary Theory” (that is a broken belief system, not real economics). So inflation will continue until it is bad enough, or happens long enough, to stifle the Real Economy. i.e. a significant recession / depression.
Oh, and about that ROW: Russian & China are very busy talking up the BRICS+ to the ROW small countries of Africa, Asia, South America. You know, all those places that were pissed on by the European Colonizers and USA Imperialists for 100+ years… Guess how that’s going to work out. They are clamoring to join BRICS+ and the only limit is how fast BRICS+ can evolve the needed governance structures and trade mechanisms to bring them in in an orderly fashion. That, BTW, is IMO the only reason The West won’t just suddenly collapse in 2025 or 2026. Enough of the world is going to be stuck En Queue to get into BRICS+ so as to slow down the collapse of The West by remaining engaged with it.
We ARE NOW in a Multipolar world. The Unipolar world is dead. We will be dividing the world up into parallel and disjoint segments, and the exit of the non-BRICS+ ROW from our Pole to the BRICS+ Pole will take time and slow our descent.
What to do about it?
I’m going for the “diversification of assets” approach and the “zero debt” safety net.
Home: Owned clear. Able to grow “enough food” from the dirt I have if necessary. (Subject to a bit more learning about particulars and a year or so more growth on the Food Forest I planted last year). I intend to have about 1/3 of net worth in real estate owned clear. Maybe going to get another 1/6 as leveraged with a loan IF a recession crashes prices.
Cars: Owned clear. And a couple of them can run on home made bio-diesel if needed. Plus, if one or two “just dies”, the rest will carry me to my non-driving years. No EV needed. No new car will be bought. No debt.
Credit Cards: My last one was at least a decade ago, maybe two. I do have debit cards, so tied to a bank that way, but only a few $Thousand at any one time at risk.
Household Goods: Own everything I need (and then some…). Including canning supplies for preserving food grown here, and a food dryer, and a vacuum sealer… And stoves that run on “whatever” fuel for running the canner. Would be “nice to have” a 250 Gallon Propane Tank, but maybe next year. That would give me about a year of usable fuel for household needs (sans AC / Heater). Will be carrying an inventory of about 1 year of “stored foods” (presently at about 6 months of “cheap stuff” but looking to improve the quality going forward – less beans & rice, more canned fish and canned ravioli ;-) and also looking to have a similar inventory of typical consumables like soaps, medicines, paper goods (though a bit bulky for more than 3 months worth), clothes, etc. etc.
So, basically, my “Social Security Pension” just piles up and is used for insurance, internet, food, utilities, travel, fun, car repairs as needed, and any home improvement I want. IF it becomes “inflated to worthless” I can just do without buying those things for a few years. Frankly, I try to keep everything up to snuff and cars full of fuel so I can “coast” a year or two at any time if needed. Enough to get through a bad recession (but not yet ready for a decade long depression). IFF things go “way sideways” paying insurance will be gone as an expense… and that’s running about 1/3 of it.
Unmet Risks:
I have too much money in Financial Institutions and Financial Instruments. I need to move more of that to other things. Like what?
Well, IF as I expect, there will be a Recession followed by high inflation: It would be ideal to buy up some Real Estate Assets during the recession. IF bought with a loan, then that loan could inflate away as well (see the USA in the ’70s to ’80s when that was a golden strategy. I “stretched” to buy a home for $135,000 on a loan. Just sold it a while ago for over $1,000,000. Would not mind doing that again ;-) But notice that you will pay a “carry cost” of both the loan interest rate AND the “tax, insurance, maintenance” burden of about 2% / year. Governments will also be looking to Raise The Taxes as inflation advances, so local understanding is necessary. So I’m looking at buying more dirt, maybe.
I’m going onto the $Thousand a Month plan at the local coin dealer. Selected Gold, Silver, and Collectible Coins. Nothing Over The Top (OTT), just enough to be able to conduct some barter commerce for a few months if needed and have some interesting things to give the kids should they need it. Only buying actual monetary coins (not plain gold bullion) as they are ‘lawful money’ (somewhere…).
Gold, Silver and in fact all metals, have volatile prices. They can be a good “store of value”, but do not grow in real value terms, while having a LOT of price variation. I had about 10 ounces of gold a few decades back, and it was very welcome when I had to sell it during an economic downturn when hiring independent consultants was dodgy. Some was about $400 / oz. Some were $900 / oz. Gold can range from $400 (when central banks are selling) to $4000 (when central banks and everyone else are buying) and all points in between. I sold mine at about what I bought it for in prior times. But do realize the volatility risk. I presently have parked some of my money in Gold & Silver ETFs. That has institutional risk along with all the other risks, but it was a quick way to get some of the house sale cash protected from inflation (until I can put it somewhere else…) I expect to have about 10% of assets in precious metals at the end.
I do not have an independent water supply. I need to stock the needed materials to “dig a well” (about 20 to 30 feet of sand, I think. Max of 50 ft. given where the lake is) In an emergency I can “drive to the lake” and bring back 50 gallons at a time… but longer term that’s not viable.
I do not have a way to power the AC / Heater longer than a long weekend. Don’t know exactly how to get past that. I DO have a “roll around” AC that can keep one room cool for about a week with present fuel storage / generator. Likely will be getting a 250 or so gallon propane tank to extend that. Maybe.
So that’s what I’m doing.
I’m expecting a strong recession, followed by a big inflation cycle, and then stabilizing in about 2026 to 2027. Or maybe later if it is a depression / hyperinflation under Biden & The Dims. Maybe we can dodge it if Trump & MAGA clean up the District Of Criminals…
What I’m not doing is expecting The West to continue economic dominance of the world, or have stable and trustworthy currencies, banks, and institutions.
What I’d like to do is have a way to put some of my money into banks in the ROW or even Russian currency to protect it from the Western Foley, the W. Evil F. and the keptocrats running the EU & D.C.(riminals). So “working on that” over the next year or two (proportional to the motivation level delivered by their Bad Decisions and Evil Actions…)
I might also look into getting a “second citizenship” as an escape clause if things get bad enough. I can get one in the UK, or in Ireland (EU) via Mum & Spouse, but I’m not sure that’s an improvement ;-)
Then there are Pension Visas for various Latin American countries that are reasonable (provided Social Security keeps paying me ;-) So, for example, I could see getting a Pension Visa to Belize and buying a small vacation house there, put maybe 25% of assets into a bank there. Then I have a “bug out spot” to a house and some money that’s “one long boat ride” or one fast airplane away… But that’s all in the fantasy stage at present. For now, I’m just busy getting the Castle Defense built. We’ll see if health and ambition hold out long enough to do any more than that.
Hopefully that answers your question.
FWIW nice little video, kinda long but worth it.
One who thinks the same way
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/batten-down-the-hatches-a-financial-hurricane-is-on-the-way/
And O/T Queensland has humid weather in summer but Qld. Blue is a survivor.
One wonders how many of these will be traded in soon.
https://www.foxbusiness.com/technology/chicago-area-tesla-charging-stations-lined-with-dead-cars-in-freezing-cold-a-bunch-of-dead-robots-out-here
Informative – this W. O. O. D. – – – Thanks!
From central Washington State –
Tonight (aka Wednesday a.m.), will be the first in a week that the temp doesn’t go below Zero F. or -18°C.
This change is a result of a wind shift from Arctic Canada to the great Pacific Ocean. This is bringing H2O to the western mountains and snow measured in feet. Interesting times.
Here, EVs are as rare as … your favorite analogy.
I may have a post about Holly Tea in suspense.
Judicial Watch: Former NIH Director Francis Collins Emails Reveal British Physicians and Scientists Group Recommended Ivermectin for Preventions and Treatment of COVID-19
https://www.judicialwatch.org/ivermectin-for-treatment-of-covid/
You can roast holly leaves to make a good tea. Tastes just like Liptons ;)
“German Farm Protests Continue – New Shift to Add Blockades of Warehouse and Distribution Centers
January 16, 2024 | Sundance | 75 Comments”
“The German farmer protests are strategic. The reality that food doesn’t originate in a grocery store is an odd concept for many who do not pay attention. The latest strategic move by the farmers aims to highlight the issue.”
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2024/01/16/german-farm-protests-continue-new-shift-to-add-blockades-of-warehouse-and-distribution-centers/
Re “Frozen Russian assets”
Discussed here starting about 50 minutes in
“Rus Advances Alarm Stoltenberg, No Proof A-50 Loss; G7/Ukr Scheme Rus Frozen Assets; Iran Strikes”
https://rumble.com/v47duqc-rus-advances-alarm-stoltenberg-no-proof-a-50-loss-g7ukr-scheme-rus-frozen-a.html
About twenty minutes after drinking it, an almost euphoric caffeine effect began.
Important Note: Eric Toensmeier has some good advice in his book Perennial Vegetables about trying new foods: “Some caution is in order when trying new food for the first time. You can never be entirely certain how your body is going to react. … You can never know if you are going to be allergic to a new food. Even such ordinary foods such as corn, soybeans, and peanuts can cause serious allergies in some people. When trying a new food plant it is prudent to proceed slowly, particularly if you are prone to food allergies.”
Preparing the leaves of Yaupon Holly make a good lite tea. I would compare it to green tea or Yerba Mate.
My preparation is quite simple:
1. Pick some new leaves and stems.
2. Lightly toast in the oven at 300F until the leaves begin to brown.
3. Take 1 tablespoon of leaves and stems and add to 2 cups boiling water.
4. Steep for 3 minutes and enjoy.
https://www.walterreeves.com/landscaping/yaupon-holly-make-tea-from-leaves/
FWIW
“There it is – EU President Says Number One Challenge for Global Control Systems in Next Two Years is to Control Information and Speech
January 16, 2024 | Sundance | 2 Comments”
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2024/01/16/there-it-is-eu-president-says-number-one-challenge-for-global-control-systems-in-next-two-years-is-to-control-information-and-speech/
FWIW
“Col. Doug Macgregor: Will the West Blunder its Way into WWIII with Russia?”
And
And working hard at it?
“New War Drums Chill Europe with Renewed “Putin Invasion” Fears”
https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/new-war-drums-chill-europe-with-renewed
@josh re the cuts of beef – For years, grocery stores had their own butchers. Then wages for butchers went way up, so they pulled back the butcher’s job to cheaper (dis)assembly lines and vacuum packing in a central location. Then the packages are shipped to the grocery stores.
I have seen in a couple of chain grocery stores a large wall chart similar to the one at the beginning of that video that showed where the different cuts of meat came from. I can’t recall seeing one of those charts since they got rid of all the on-site butchers.
Another thing to note about the on-site butchers in the grocery stores is the quality of meats depended on the head butcher. You could have two or three grocery stores from the same chain in your city, and one would have great cuts of meat and the others not so good to awful.
I had a chain grocery I shopped because they had the best meats I have ever had with the exception of some one-off, owner-operated meat markets that managed to survive the rise of chain grocery stores. There are still some of those here and there and they are worth finding.
I was young and we were in our first house in a not-so-great neighborhood. I know that I don’t know what I don’t know so I made acquaintances with the head butcher at that store. If I asked for a certain cut of meat, I’d get him to show me how to pick it out and explain why it would be the best cut in the bin. And he explained why he had his cutters cut and trim a certain way so that pretty much every cut in his cases were excellent. He taught me a lot before we moved away. Best meats ever because that head butcher was a “cut above”.
BTW, when we bought a move up home, I’d still go back to the old neighborhood to pick up meats for the grill or roasts and say hello to that butcher. My last visit, I found he had retired, and the meats were not so good anymore. That was my last visit there.
@Jim2:
Nothing stuck in moderation or other queues. I think patience was needed ;-)
BTW, I decided to go with Chinese Tea Plants instead of Yaupon Holly mostly based on familiarity issues. I’ve had “Camellia Bushes” for most of my life. I’ve even made some tea from the leaves (and it wasn’t that bad…). Chinese Tea is a Camellia, but one selected for flavor, effect, and cultivation (quantity); and smaller nondescript flowers. Yet it grows rather like all the other camellias I have known. So basically I already know the plant and how to grow it.
Yaupon Holly I know not much about (or even how to properly pronounce it…) and that includes where to get one. Or however many it takes… I might well get one “someday” but it is low on my list of Must Haves. I also have no idea if it has the same health benefits of regular Green Tea…
So I’m going to give the Real Tea a shot first. I like tea, and grew up with a lot of it. I also worked with a Hong Kong Chinese guy for several years and he introduced me to some of the better teas of the world… Some are very much worth paying up to get. I’m looking forward to learning the art of making my own “special teas” ;-) and I’d love to get something close to the better ones, but without the very high prices charged for some of them in San Francisco Chinatown Tea Shops… but man they had some good tea…
@H.R.:
We had a butcher shop 2 doors down from our Restaurant when I was growing up. They did the cutting of our “2 steers a year” into the freezer. Dad grew the steers and then the butcher would dispatch them (using Dad’s 1 ton truck with cattle rack / hoist) and “cut and wrap” the meat. We traded him a bunch of the parts for what Dad wanted all prepared. (So hide – that someone tanned, head – so tongue, brains, etc. that some locals really liked, some of the innards, skirt steak I think, maybe some kidneys, bones and some of the muscle cuts went to the butcher. We had a lot of steaks, roasts, hamburger. T-Bone, Rib, and Dad’s favorite Porterhouse. Some I didn’t recognize (chuck maybe?).
Nothing like having custom beef from day one to freezer ;-) Never have found anything close since.
FWIW, about 30 miles from here, I was driving down a back road and saw a small farm with a sign out by the road saying he was a Custom Butcher and how to place orders… At some point I’m going back to have a visit ;-)
Per the “cuts” signs: I’ve seen them a lot growing up. Farm country folks want to know that stuff. I think I could do an OK job of turning a cow into parts based on what I remember. There’s some butchers on EwTube that show how to process a critter too (what membranes to remove, what ligaments to wheedle out, etc.) for folks who want to get it just right. Watching them move is like seeing ballet with knives… Bearded Butchers? Yup. Noticed this is the same as above, so here’s their map of a deer:
FWIW, I’ve found some Real Butchers still around at some of the smaller “ethnic” markets. There was a Mexican Market I liked in Silicon Valley. Saw a store here that looked promising (even had “butcher” on their painted signage) but it was package meat inside… At Asian Markets I’ve been able to get things like kidneys that have entirely evaporated from chain superstores… I grew up with it being a regular thing to have kidney, heart, liver, etc. on the plate. Now I grieve that it all goes to pet food…
Still trying to find a GOOD Mexican and a GOOD Asian market in Tampa to Hains City area. Did find a good Indian Market on Hwy 50 on the far side of Orlando (complete wiith lamb and goat in the case!) but it is a long way to go for meat. Crossing Orlando is a 1/4 day process…
Many thanks for your very detailed response. The West has got itself into a real mess the last 20 plus years, not helped by our own woke citizens seemingly intent on destroying it from within .
I remember many years ago you wrote an excellent article on the Financial collapse in Rome. (can you find it-I searched in my files but failed to locate it.)
I am currently reading a good Book on the peak years of the Romans which lasted 150 years after the civil war of AD69 and the disastrous collapse of Govt, when there were no less than 4 emperors in that one year.
So if the Roman Empire can recover and in all its various forms last another 1300 years then evolve into the Renaissance, there is hope for the West.
However, what spurred the renewal of Rome were strong and single minded Emperors who wanted to look after the best interests of their own subjects.
We seem to worry about everyone else except ourselves and strong leaders are very short on the ground throughout the Western World.
As regards your preparations, you comment on Air conditioning. We have 1700 hours of sun per year here in Devon-around the sunniest in the country. Solar farms foolishly proliferate that feed into the grid. They do have their purposes though, on off grid houses. In your sunnier climate would not Garden based solar panels linked to a good battery-perhaps on an ageing Electric vehicle- suit your purposes?
An upset at Davos
“Many a thing said in jest!!!!! LANGUAGE WARNING.”
https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2024/01/many-a-thing-said-in-jest-language-warning.html#comments
“For those who dont have Twitter /X access-its here and one can read the replies
https://nitter.net/damonimani/status/1747388354587463766 ”
Rumble link from comments
“Charlotte said…
On Rumble too
https://rumble.com/v47f50r-new-wef-participant-crashes-2024-davos-meeting.html
I hope this goes viral!!!”
Everything you want to know, or not, about Yaupon Holly plant. It’s native to Florida.
Click to access fs_ilvo.pdf
jim
Here in the UK ironically the only Yaupon I could find is this, which is ironically named after Houston
https://www.calloways.com/pride-of-houston-yaupon-holly/
The Latin species name is ominously called Vomitaria. Are you sure its ok to drink the leaf infusion?
@hr & em, per hometown grocers and butchers….
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bashas%27
i have a bashas and a foodcity near me, one is 20 min west and the other is 30 min east. the bashas has a butcher in the meat dept. head butchers name is paul, theres a jacob and a sean and i don’t know all 13 of the guys in there, but they know me as the tallow/fat/soap guy. i can usually get at least a 50lb box of fat per day, for ’bout ten bucks. just bought 20lb of ground sirloin 2.99/lb they always have “Flintstones” ribs (beef ribs)… having a butcher that still cuts meat is great…..
plus we got half a grassfed steer in the chest freezer, my brothers friend jed grass finishes several per year, and the mobile butcher comes to his place and dispatches, gut and skins, then hangs the sides back at his shop for10 or so days then cuts and wraps in butcher paper
oops, forgot to rave about the thick cut bacon (it comes in 40lb boxes)
@climatereason. The berries are to be avoided. But I have ordered the tea from Amazon. It is good and didn’t make me feel sick, nauseous, or bad in any way.
(US Amazon. Don’t know about UK)
LINK: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08H96HGZX
Same for our local hollies. The berries are bad news. The leaves aren’t, just avoid the spines :).
One must be careful of other holly species. They might not all be safely ingested. Also, from what I’ve read, Yaupon Holly (if I read correctly) is the only native plant that contains caffeine.
“A Nikki Haley presidency is a lot like a war with Iran. It’s a terrible idea.”
@ClimateReason:
Would that be this one?
Link: https://chiefio.wordpress.com/2009/07/04/business-panic-of-33ad-things-never-change/
That’s the one! Thanks. I see it was a very scary 15 years ago.
Per Solar AC:
I need about 30 A at 240 V IIRC to run my house AC. Call it 7.2 kW. That’s LOT of solar panels. You get about 1 kW / m^2 of mid day sun, so about 1 m x 8 m, but then re-rate for efficiency (about 10% in real world terms) and you get 10 x 8 m (or about 33 x 28 feet – but with losses and time of day issues, make that about 40 x 40 feet).
Now in Florida, it can be hot at night, too. So double that for the part of the day that is not between 10 AM and 6 PM. We’re up to 80 feet x 40 feet.
Next comes “the issues”:
My back yard is covered by 2 large oak trees except for around the edges where I’m converting it to food supply prepper garden. My front yard is the leach field for the septic system, so not a good idea to put weight on it, nor poke poles into it. The Roof only has sun exposure for 1/2 the day (those oak trees again…) and I’d not want to put a large sail area set of panels bolted to it anyway due to those pesky Cat 3 Winds possible in hurricane season.
So that’s not going to work.
BUT, I could likely cobble together something smaller. Maybe about 1 kW worth. That would be about 4 x 4 m or 12 x 12 feet give or take and depending on specifics. That would let me run the roll about AC for one room for about 8 hours a day. Enough for the worst of it and any season but summer ;-) I’ve thought about it, and might yet do it. It can even be made ‘portable’ so I could set it up when needed and pack it into the garage when the wind’s a blowing.
I’ve also considered putting Solar Shingles on the roof whenever it next needs replacing. But since it has about 15 to 20 years of life left in it, that’s likely going to be the next owner’s problem ;-) That would give enough for at least one, and likely 2 roll around ACs plus some ancillary electric devices.
Next is the “cost vs probability” issue:
That much solar has a large cost associated. The current probability of a complete social collapse such that there is NO electric grid AND me sitting around the house with lights and AC and nobody knocking on the door with guns & hungry kids: is near zero…
So there comes a point where “prepping for The Thing” just isn’t really worth it ATM.
So my present “strategy” is that if things are That Bad, it is easier to sweat and look miserable while asking the guy with “guns & hungry kids” if he knows where I can find water… and watch him “move along”…
It never really gets so hot here that life is threatened. I grew up where it was “110 F in the shade and there ain’t no shade” so can take heat well. (Spouse less so… but if it gets bad, she can sit in one of the cars, at idle, with the AC running during the peak of the day).
Maybe in the next few years some startling breakthrough in solar efficiency & cost will change that, and then I’d buy it; but for now it is just going to be “In an EOTWAWKI event, I’m going to be hot and sweaty in summer”. Oh, and remember that “”Summer” is also when hurricanes and tropical storms are most common and many days of overcast are possible, also dampening (pun?) enthusiasm for solar AC.
I’m also expecting that in 99%+ of all likely kinds of economic collapse events, the Power & Light companies will be prioritized and keep on running. The alternative would be a complete regional riot of biblical proportions… Modern people can’t go a week+ without electricity; then they start doing crazy stuff.
Besides, lawn chairs and enough refrigeration to make Ice Tea is a lot cheaper and easier to get. I’m in the market for an affordable RV that facilitates the same ;-) (10 kW on board Diesel generator and 50 to 100 gallon tank ;-)
Yeah, when I realize how long ago I started this blog as a “technical footnotes to climate data / calculations” is does surprise me… Now transitioned more to “my notebook on anything interesting”… and hangout place for interesting folks.
The RV sounds a god idea. All the facilities of a house but only 10% of the area, making it easier to heat or cool. If there’s a Hurricane you can use it to get away.
George Bernard Shaw had a writing shed mounted on castors so it could always face the sun
https://www.idler.co.uk/article/inside-bernard-shaws-writing-shed/
For solar panels to get beyond their 10% efficiency they need to track the sun during the day and the seasons.
I have got a Jackery solar generator (battery 1KW) together with 2 sets of solar folding panels. Many people use these to augment their RV’s or boats over here. I use it for emergencies and to carry out experiments.
I can get up to 80% efficiency during the peak of a sunny June day if I point the panels directly at the sun. A cloud makes the output plummet to around 40%, as does being at slightly the wrong altitude. Outside of peak summer months you can forget it.
So we need a Shaw solar tracker! Which still doesn’t get round the distressing tendency of solar panels to refuse to supply power when the sun goes down and night descends, which is where sodium ion batteries might start to come in useful, if you have the space for what will likely be a bulky technology.
Tom Woods writes:
“The World Economic Forum is currently holding its annual meeting in Davos. Argentine president Javier Milei was invited to speak, and did he ever rise to the occasion. Milei delivered his remarks in Spanish, so an interpreter did simultaneous translation. That means the text I’m quoting from is choppy and imperfect, but it’s good enough to give you an idea of what was said. I can share only excerpts, in order to keep this issue at a manageable length, but these excerpts will certainly give you a sense of the speech:”
Javier Milei:
“Good afternoon. Thank you very much. Today I’m here to tell you that the Western world is in danger. And it is endangered because those who are supposed to defend the values of the West are co-opted by a vision of the world that inexorably leads to socialism and thereby to poverty.
Unfortunately, in recent decades, motivated by some well-meaning individuals willing to help others and others motivated by the wish to belong to a privileged caste, the main leaders of the Western world have abandoned the model of freedom for different versions of what we call collectivism. We’re here to tell you that collectivist experiments are never the solution to the problems that afflict the citizens of the world. Rather, they are the root cause….
Given the dismal failure of collectivist models and the undeniable advances in the free world, socialists were forced to change their agenda. They left behind the class struggle based on the economic system, and replaced this with other supposed social conflicts, which are just as harmful to life as a community and to economic growth.
The first of these new battles was the ridiculous and unnatural fight between man and woman…. All that this radical feminism agenda has led to is greater state intervention to hinder the economic process, giving jobs to bureaucrats who have not contributed anything to society. Examples: ministries of women or international organizations devoted to promoting this agenda.
Another conflict introduced by socialists is that of humans against nature, claiming that we human beings damage the planet, which should be protected at all costs, going as far as advocating for population control mechanisms or the bloody abortion agenda.
Unfortunately, these harmful ideas have taken a strong hold in our society. Neo-Marxists have managed to co-opt the common sense of the Western world, and this they have achieved by appropriating the media, culture, universities….
The case of Argentina is an empirical demonstration that no matter how rich you may be or how much you may have in terms of natural resources, or how skilled your population may be or educated, or how many bars of gold you may have in the central bank, if measures are adopted that hinder the free functioning of markets, free competition, free price systems, if you hinder trade, if you attack private property, the only possible fate is poverty….
Today, states don’t need to directly control the means of production to control every aspect of the lives of individuals, with tools such printing money, debt, subsidies, controlling the interest rate, price controls, and regulations to correct so-called market failures. They can control the lives and fates of millions of individuals….
A good deal of the generally accepted political [positions] in most Western countries are collectivist variants, whether they proclaim to be openly communists, fascists, Nazis, socialists, social Democrats, National Socialists, Democrat Christians, or Christian Democrats.
They are neo-Keynesians, progressive, populist, nationalist or globalists at bottom. There are no major differences. They all say that the state should steer all aspects of the lives of individuals. They all defend a model contrary to the one that led humanity to the most spectacular progress in its history.
We have come here today to invite the rest of the countries in the Western world to get back on the path of prosperity, economic freedom, limited government…and unlimited respect for private property….
The impoverishment produced by collectivism is no fantasy, nor is it an inescapable fate. But it’s a reality that we Argentines know very well. We have lived through this. We have been through this because, as I said earlier, ever since we decided to abandon the model of freedom that had made us rich, we have been caught up in a downward spiral, as part of which we are poorer and poorer day by day….
In concluding, I would like to leave a message for all businesspeople here and for those who are not here in person but are following from around the world. Do not be intimidated, either by the political caste or by parasites who live off the state. Do not surrender to a political class that only wants to stay in power and retain its privileges.
You are social benefactors. You are heroes. You’re the creators of the most extraordinary period of prosperity we’ve ever seen. Let no one tell you that your ambition is immoral. If you make money, it’s because you offer a better product at a better price, thereby contributing to general well-being.
Do not surrender to the advance of the state. The state is not the solution. The state is the problem itself. You are the true protagonists of this story and rest assured that as from today, Argentina is your staunch, unconditional ally.”
Between the F-you Klaus rant, and the Milei scolding, I think the World Evil Forum folks are getting quite the earful… One can only hope it sinks in to a few of them that they are now rejected by a large (and growing) swath of the world population. IF they are clueful they will exit the W.Evil F. rapidly so that they can try to wash off their accumulated taint. Those not so clueful who stay too long at the party may find themselves facing some variation of The French Haircut in a few years… As the EU suffers collapse and increasing poverty and turmoil, it may well turn to “revolutions” and those can end badly for the prior “elite” that caused the problems.
Argentina is looking better every day ;-)
TTN
A link
““Long Live Freedom” — Argentinian President Javier Milei Trashes Socialism and Calls Out Elites at WEF (VIDEO)”
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/01/long-live-freedom-argentinian-president-javier-milei-trashes/
Link to speech
WWII spy tech:
http://www.skywaves.ar88.net/SPY/spy.htm
Having just posted an article about the Milei speech, I come here and find that Another Ian has found another link to it and posted that…
I guess I need to be faster ;-)
My comments on it are in the article posted.
E.M.
Consider it as reinforcement
FWIW
Sweden scraps Agenda 2030 goals
“https://twitter.com/PeterSweden7/status/1747736888943727010
Iran attacks Pakistan that counter attacks Iran? WT?
OK, near as I can tell, “somehow” Iran thinks Pakistan is on the American / Israeli side? So bombed them… and now Pakistan is saying it is sending missiles to take out “terrorist bases” on the Iranian border? Also it looks like Iran has sent some missiles into Iraq, because… donno….
If anyone can bring some kind of coherent explanation of this, please do.
Yeah, the Houthi started the expansion of the Israel vs Gaza war via attacking the shipping in the Red Sea. (BTW, calling it “genocide” is just stupid. Genocide is the attempt to eradicate the whole genetic {thus ‘geno’} group. Since Palastinians are Arabs and Arabs extend from North Africa to Arabia, there is no risk of a genocide of the Arab Gene Pool. At most it would be an extirpation in Gaza. Still bad, but folks really ought to use the right words, and “genocide” it isn’t.)
Then the USA + Hangers On (UK, that’s you and a few others) sent war ships over to “protect” shipping (via bombing more people). And failed, with 2 US ships now hit.
Then … Iran starts bombing people and Pakistan starts shooting back?
I’m sorry, but I’m just not finding the dots to follow from “USA bombs Yemen” to “Pakistan bombs Iran”…
I get it that this is turning into a Major Regional War. What I don’t get is who is on what side(s) and why it is an Iran / Pakistan issue…
One hopes it settles down soonish. But I get the feeling that somebody is in there stirring it up. Either to make trouble for the USA when we are already stretched way too thin and low on supplies of artillery ammo; or to make trouble for Russia via stirring things up south of them. (IIRC, there was some bombing of the Syrian Oil that “we kept”… so maybe there’s a Syria angle too and the Russian support for them).
At least (for now?) Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States, along with Jordan and Egypt, are keeping their heads cool. Though one news report I heard mentioned some gunfire along the Israel / Egypt border, and blocking Red Sea traffic deprives Egypt of a lot of money for Suez Canal fees (not to mention shipments to Egypt of food…)
So IF the Red Sea closure continues and the various “who shelling whom” keeps up, this has the potential to go open loop damaging.
FWIW, I’m booked from Sunday through next Wednesday with some “work for a friend”, so don’t have time to sort this out (what with packing to fly 3000 miles to help involved too…). So hopefully someone else here has clue about this and can sort it; ’cause I can’t ATM.
Ah, Alex Christaforou clarifies Pakistan / Iran:
https://rumble.com/v47sfq9-iran-v-pakistan.-elensky-china-premier-is-not-my-equal.-macron-russia-must-.html
Each is bombing the Baluchistan Separatists in the other’s country. So really what is going on here is that they are BOTH bombing Baluchistan Separatists, but under the cover of bombing “terrorists” in a foreign land. Not “oppressing their minority citizens”. Nice move you two! Way to play the PC Signalling Game! ;snark;
Things you have got to love: On The Duran, the two Alexs are having a podcast with Garland Nixon. Discussing the plot by The West to steal the $300 Billion of “frozen” Russian Assets: Alexander Mercouris points out it is illegal by all sorts of paths. Garland Nixon replies that “It is something far worse than illegal: It is stupid.”
Gotta Love a pure tidy naked truth!
Just begging the question of “How can our rulers be so stupid?” ;-)
And then
FWIW
https://joannenova.com.au/2024/01/friday-40/#comment-2727732
I think I just watched a Live Stream of the SLIM (Smart Lander for Investigating Moon) landing on the moon! Just clicking around on the ROKU, saw the live stream and joined it.
unfortunately, ,some number of things on EwTube say “live” but mean “recorded live”, however this one had todays date in the corner, so I think it is in fact live.
Looks to me like we have another country “on the moon”!
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/01/19/japan-slim-lunar-lander-touches-down-on-moon.html
Keep an eye out this weekend for the updated NWS Miami – Falling Iguana forecast.
@Ossqss:
Isn’t that Falling Iguana forcast from 2020?
I put the up the current link to their twitter page and WordPress did the rest, not me.
They have not published the Iguana forecast yet, but I believe it has happened 3 years in a row, so hence my note to keep an eye on their page for it to happen, possibly this weekend.
On things edible –
Which Mediterranean diet?
“THE MEDITERRANEAN DIET: A WESTERN CONSTRUCT”
https://lilynicholsrdn.com/mediterranean-diet/
5th May 2023
Instapundit
“THE AMAZON ISN’T SOME SPECIAL GREEN GARDEN OF GAIA. IT’S A POST-COLLAPSE FOREST THAT GREW OVER FORMERLY SETTLED LAND. Cluster of Ancient Lost Cities in The Amazon Is The Largest Ever Found. “This amazing discovery, the oldest and largest of its kind in the region, includes a vast system of farmland and roads, revealing that Ecuador’s Upano Valley was densely populated from about 500 BCE to between 300 and 600 CE. . . . Evidence of a vast, pre-Hispanic human influence in the Amazon continues to grow, with the current coverage of LIDAR data suggesting more than 90 percent of the human history in the Amazon is yet to be uncovered. . . . The organization of the cities reveals the sophistication and engineering capabilities of these ancient cultures, according to the researchers, who concluded that the ‘garden urbanism’ of the Upano Valley provides further proof that Amazonia is not the pristine forest once depicted.”
Links to
“Cluster of Ancient Lost Cities in The Amazon Is The Largest Ever Found”
https://www.sciencealert.com/cluster-of-ancient-lost-cities-in-the-amazon-is-the-largest-ever-found
Another one of those “pristine as a recycled virginity” forests that we’ve been fed?
@ another ian
part of the hippy/treehugger/liberal narrative that white males are evil….
something pointed out on a permaculture blog years ago is that misguided/well meaning enviromentalists are “restoring to an ideal”
untouched forest are an ideal, there is growing evidence that indigenous peoples managed the crap out of the environment.
another misguided thing is the push to remove all dams and have rushing mountain streams unimpeded. fact of the matter is that there used to be millions of beaver and beaver dams, most likely these rushing mountain streams were in fact a chain of placid beaver ponds; that held water on the land year round, reduced flooding and eventually silted up changing the course of the stream and leaving behind a grassy meadow….
This would trigger much of any social media venue, mostly because it makes sense.
https://www.theblaze.com/columns/opinion/civil-rights-laws-killed-the-constitution
Gravy with Marmite. It’s tasty. Might even could double the Marmite.
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp bacon fat
4 tbsp flour
2 cup bullion
1 tsp Marmite
pepper to taste
Salt if needed
Dissovle Marmite in bullion. Heat if necessary.
Lightly brown flour in fats.
Add bullion a little at a time, whisking each time until smooth.
Pepper to taste.
Add salt only after tasting.
FWIW
“WEF woes explainer”
One of a couple of items in this Covid and Coffee
https://open.substack.com/pub/coffeeandcovid/p/sinking-ships-saturday-january-20
That gravy sounds good, jim2. Thanks!
@jim2, @H.R.
It works well for things like that (as does Vegemite)
Reiterating – if you are starting out with either use less until you know you’d like more
Things on the horizon –
“First Drive: Toyota’s $10,000 Pickup Truck Is Perfect. So, Why Are We Sad?”
https://www.motortrend.com/reviews/2025-toyota-imv-0-pickup-truck-first-drive-review-japan-mobility-show/
“How a 27-year-old busted the myth of Bitcoin’s anonymity
Once, drug dealers and money launderers saw cryptocurrency as perfectly untraceable.”
“That 180-degree flip in the world’s understanding of cryptocurrency’s privacy properties, and the epic game of cat-and-mouse that followed, is the larger saga that unfolds in the book Tracers in the Dark: The Global Hunt for the Crime Lords of Cryptocurrency, out this week in paperback.”
More at
https://arstechnica.com/features/2024/01/how-a-27-year-old-busted-the-myth-of-bitcoins-anonymity/
FWIW
“The Electric-Vehicle Cheating Scandal
A government rule makes them look nearly seven times as efficient as they are.”
https://archive.is/WnsxW#selection-4307.0-4311.78
There is an error in their article.
In one paragraph they say the 2 liter 139 HP engine will be the gasoline one, while the diesel will be the 2.4 liter 150 HP one.
Then at the bottom where they provide specs in a chart, they say the opposite
that the 2 liter 139 HP is a diesel engine…
The potential for an armed civil war in the US seems to increase day by day. History has shown that one of the few non-violent alternatives to recurring war is a working electoral process where the bulk of voters get to resolve issues at the ballot box. Any objective view sees that the 2020 and 2022 elections were rigged. Most people still seem to think the rigging was done through false ballots. Even decades after computer experts and security experts have shown that electronic “black box” voting is inherently open to fraud, few people realize the risk. Of course anyone reading here at Chiefio’s (sounds like a breakfast cereal!) knows the risk. Here is a demonstrative article about it for disbelieving friends:
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/01/gig-is-up-exclusive-local-reporter-describes-election
I don t have a link but I clearly remember – because back then I was still watching the news hour on PBS – they had a report ,done a few weeks before the 2020 election, in which they were showing us how voting machines could easily be rigged, and many of the people interviewed in that report were liberals and they were very worried about those machines that made cheating so easy to do.
Then Biden ” won” and all those people and all those journalists – lying trough their teeth – were now saying, cheating was impossible, that the system was 100% safe.
Even CNN had a report like that done months before the election.
As long as they were worried Trump would win, they were honest about how easy it is to commit voting fraud.
Now I wish that I had bookmarked a report where a Domin((n machine was cracked in the courthouse and shown how it could be manipulated, before a judge. I am not sure a jury was present.
Maybe it is this here ?
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/01/breaking-professor-election-expert-j-halderman-hacks-dominion/
@EM
So IF the Red Sea closure continues
Not completely closed, just disrupted by current events. Our knowledge is skewed by the MSM reporting on “our” ships as the ones affected, and ignoring all the others continuing with business as normal.
As for the “why and how”, there are many ways to use AIS to look at ship routing (ships serving Israeli ports such as Ashdod, Haifa and Eilat), and then find the beneficial ownership and management.
e.g.
https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/centerx:40.1/centery:25.8/zoom:6
Judging by results and behaviour, the Houthis are clearly able to do that, with very little effort for maximum benefit to them in terms of targeting.
Note also the MSM obfuscation on why the Houthis are doing this now, their history, and why they are targetting “our” ships. MSM reporting and pictures portrays the Houthis as a sandal-wearing ragtag army with hand-me-down weapons. Not so much mentioned is they have years of practice fighting Saudi Arabia (who is equipped by the US and UK) are well-practiced in the tactics, and very well equipped.
Does that sound familiar? It should. MSM and “leaders”, all cheering on the bombing on some dumb assumption we’d bomb a few sandal wearing primitives and they’d just start behaving – who ever mentions that’s how we got started in Afghanistan (and elsewhere).
See this in-depth analysis from the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) – normally pro-NATO:
https://www.iiss.org/online-analysis/military-balance/2024/01/houthi-anti-ship-missile-systems-getting-better-all-the-time/
The US and UK has started yet another whack-a-mole action with a limited supply chain that cannot be sustained.
Meanwhile, another Royal Navy captain has just had a career-limiting event. We can’t even park our boats now with crashing them.
@Keith Macdonald: The ship collision video is almost like watching a train wreck — but with even less justification than a train wreck. Calm water, clear visibility, a BIG ship already at the dock, and the Royal Navy ship moving way too fast for docking. Simply no excuse, none. “Career limiting”? It should be. Will be interesting to see if the details ever come out. I am betting no.
As for the election rigging, that simply CANNOT be solved without going to a TRANSPARENT system, one that can be reliably verified at ever step. I recently had a long conversation with the highest ranking elected representative in my county trying to explain the issue. Like most non-techy people he was convinced that computerized systems were reliable. I used an analogy with him: “Let’s assume that they are in fact accurate. There still needs to be transparency.” I pretended to flip a coin, catch and cover it, and ask “heads or tails?” and then tell him yes or no — but did it in a way that (were the coin real) would never allow HIM to verify what I was telling him. “So… Is that a fair coinflip or not?” That actually seemed to get his attention.
Of course we here all know that the systems are demonstrably NOT accurate and are open to digital manipulation of totals. For most people, they will never look into the facts deep enough to understand that. To them, claims of digital intervention will just be a case of “he said, she said”. Don’t argue about accuracy (especially with an elected official who will AUTOMATICALLY think you are accusing HIM of cheating!) Argue instead for transparency, for verifiability, and for paper ballots filled by hand.
One other argument you will hear from officials is “it would be too complicated to change, and besides, we will have MORE errors from hand counting!” I asked the Judge “when did this county get the computerized voting machines?” “About 2010” he says. “So this county managed to count votes by hand for 100 years but now no one knows how they did it?”
One other interesting (to me) detail. This county is relatively poor, and when the state started to push all counties to buy the new computerized systems, local officials refused to spend the money. Eventually there were only a few counties left without the new systems. Result? The state said they would just give us the equipment for free, “to standardize the process for everyone.” I guess someone really wanted us to be computerized!
And another “WTF” at Davos
FWIW
“WSJ Editor-in-Chief Admits To Davos Elites ‘We No Longer Own The News’ ”
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/wsj-editor-chief-admits-davos-elites-we-no-longer-own-news
FWIW
“Examples America Is Going Down and Russia Is Going Up”
“Most Westerners imagine Russian President Vladimir Putin sitting in his office in the Kremlin, wringing his hands and gritting his teeth, pondering Russia’s imminent conquest of all of Europe. At least, this is the narrative spun by the liberal elite. Reality, as is so often the case, is divergently opposed to the Washington public relations campaign. Let’s briefly look at what the living legend Putin is up to. I am sure many will be surprised.”
More at
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2024-01-21/examples-america-going-down-and-russia-going
FWIW – the Steyn vs Mann Trial is underway
“Man Bites Mann”
https://www.smalldeadanimals.com/2024/01/21/138710/#comments
A grand collection of “Sayings by Steyn” in comments
Mann lost one the cases a few years ago, cannot remember in which Canadian province, but because he refused to provide his data and his method with which he got his hockey stick graph that convinced the world the planet had a deadly fever, the judge gave the victory to whom ever was suing Mann in that province.
Mann lost that case but you d never know it, even if you read every news paper in North America, as 99.9% of them never mentioned it.
Mann is obviously a fraud, why else is he hiding how he got that hockey stick graph ?
IIRC – That was Tim Ball.
In that “no mention” – Seems that Mann hasn’t paid up as yet either
FWIW
“Up From The Memory Hole”
“KONSTANTIN KISIN- The Truth About Vladimir Lenin a Century After His Death
Vladimir Lenin massacred more than 1 million people for political or religious reasons, murdered up to 700,000 in the genocide of the Cossacks, more than 15,000 peasants in the Tambov rebellion, over 3,000 sailors and civilians in the Kronstadt rebellion, thousands of workers who dared to strike or could not work, almost 2 million who died in the Gulag concentration camps and upwards of 8 million from famine and disease.”
https://www.smalldeadanimals.com/2024/01/21/up-from-the-memory-hole-15/
Paywalled
“Russia Suspends LNG Exports At Huge Baltic Sea Terminal After Ukraine Drone Attack”
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/russia-suspends-lng-exports-huge-baltic-sea-terminal-after-ukraine-drone-attack
E.M.
Might be of interest
“These Are The 25 Best Countries For Retirement”
https://www.zerohedge.com/personal-finance/these-are-25-best-countries-retirement
@Canadian Friend,
Yes, that’s it; though I saw it via a post that linked to the report and did extra commentary on it.
I must be very bad at using the ChatGPT picture creation function. I tried one a few weeks ago with poor outcome so thought I would try again. I asked for “a picture done in classic oil paint style, similar to paintings of Lucifer being cast down into Hell, except instead of Lucifer, the figure is a panda.” (My joke being that he was cast into panda-monium, the realm of “all demons”.) Chat said it could not do it. I simplified the request to “a picture of a panda being cast into hell.” I got three versions, none of them with a hellish background, and one of them with a panda with four feet (normal) but with his torso stretching out behind him forming a fifth foot. I requested, “make the backgrounds more hellish”. The result, three completely new pictures, one of them a nude female demon, the other two simply being very ugly middle aged women.
I am not impressed. It seems to simply get pictures vaguely associated with the request and stitches bits and pieces together.
Whoa! Simple solar distiller for fresh water, uses a bit of higher tech but still cheap parts. Researchers say “half a square meter can produce 4 to 6 liters per hour” of fresh water, cheaper than most tap water.
link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNdzG0lK4lw
Why didn’t I think of that???
Advocates are most alarmed by one aspect of the “Safer Kentucky Act” in particular: an anti-homeless provision that would authorize violence by property owners on people camping on their property. The bill says the use of force is “justifiable” if a defendant believes that criminal trespass, robbery or “unlawful camping” is occurring on their property.
In addition, it says that “deadly physical force” is justifiable if a defendant believes that someone is trying to “dispossess” them of their property or is attempting a robbery or committing arson, language that could also have ramifications for tenants overstaying their lease.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/jg54mg/republicans-push-to-legalize-property-owners-killing-homeless-people-in-kentucky
FWIW
“The illegal alien migration corridor exposed”
https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2024/01/the-illegal-alien-migration-corridor.html
“This is a lot better than nothing” !
Please don’t be rude when you leave.
In an editorial fit for The Onion or the Babylon Bee, Los Angeles Times’ letters editor Paul Thornton wrote a column this week entitled “If you want to leave, fine. But don’t insult California on the way out.”
The column acknowledges an exodus from the state, but sees the problem as former Californians sharing their experiences about what drove them from the Golden State. It is like Captain William Bligh asking the mutinous crew of the Bounty for a reference as they head for the lifeboats.
Thornton wrote that “more than 800,000 Californians moved away in 2022, and many thousands more left last year. Often, the departees, cash in hand from the sale of their $1-million bungalows, feel the need to express disdain for their home state, and even some anger too.” He then begs them to keep mum about their reasons for leaving the state, which commonly range from rising crime to high taxes to runaway spending.
More:
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/la-times-editor-urges-departees-not-criticize-california-their-way-out
Check the last item!
” In today’s bottom story: now they’ve done it. Now they’ve gone too far. The dummies at the World Economic Forum last week argued that coffee is making too much carbon dioxide and destroying the climate:”
https://open.substack.com/pub/coffeeandcovid/p/migratory-tuesday-january-23-2024?r=1vxw0k&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
They ( the priests and the disciples of the global warming cult ) say we should drive our cars less, heat our homes less, drink less coffee and reduce our use of almost everything because we must reduce the co2 we emit to in turn save the planet.
but those same people tell us we must – we absolutely MUST! – welcome many millions of migrants or in fact many tens of millions of migrants, who will drive cars, heat their homes, drink coffee and increase how much co2 we emit.
it is like trying to fill a bucket that has holes at the bottom; the people telling us to add more water are telling us to drill more holes at the bottom…it makes no sense at all.
Unless migrants are special beings that do not emit co2 when they drive a car, heat a house or drink coffee, this is insanity, this is pure insanity.
FWIW
“COVID Didn’t Suddenly Become ‘Deadly’ In April 2020”
“The spike in all-cause deaths that began after the lockdowns has to be explained by dozens of reasons instead of this virus. It was the response to the virus, not the virus, that better explains most of these purported “Covid deaths.”
These reasons would/might include ventilators, remdesivir, not giving pneumonia patients antibiotics, dehydration, over prescription of powerful sedatives, isolation, panic, depression, etc.
If we’re counting all excess deaths, the mRNA “vaccines” probably caused millions of deaths. Spikes in suicides, homicides, domestic assaults, drug overdoses, accidents, and deaths from delayed diagnoses from treatable diseases are other causes that no doubt explain the massive surge in extra deaths in the last three years.
Basically, if my hypothesis is correct that the Covid mortality rate should have remained constant, this would mean that, even today, millions of deaths attributed to Covid probably aren’t occurring from Covid or Covid alone.
Even I admit this would constitute a scandal almost too mind-boggling to consider…
…but I’m considering it because that’s what my “early spread” hypothesis strongly suggests.
If this virus wasn’t deadly in December 2019 or January 2020, it shouldn’t have suddenly become “deadly” a year later…nor today.”
https://www.zerohedge.com/covid-19/covid-didnt-suddenly-become-deadly-april-2020
Cray vs IPhone
https://instapundit.com/628303/#disqus_thread
FWIW – more covid
“The COVID-19 scam is now plain to see – but the authorities worldwide continue to exploit it”
https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2024/01/the-covid-19-scam-is-now-plain-to-see.html
It is like Captain William Bligh asking the mutinous crew of the Bounty for a reference as they head for the lifeboats.
It is, but when the crew of the Bounty mutinied, it was Bligh who was put in the “lifeboat”. That approach would be much better for California, if only.
https://britishheritage.com/history/mutiny-bounty-william-bligh
Or…
We could just call them refugees.
Epoch Times headline:
“US-China Researchers Proposed Engineering SARS-CoV-2-Like Viruses Before the COVID Pandemic”
and the sub:
“By the time the research grant proposal was submitted to DARPA, an American scientist had already created ‘SARS-like chimera’ viruses.”
shared link:
https://www.theepochtimes.com/health/us-china-researchers-proposed-engineering-sars-cov-2-like-viruses-before-the-covid-pandemic-5569437?utm_source=ref_share&utm_campaign=copy
(Epoch Times is a Chinese based anti-CCP news source)
selected quotes:
On Thursday, the U.S. Right to Know, a nonprofit public health research group, published documents related to a U.S.-China research grant proposal called DEFUSE. Under the research program, “American scientists planned to work with the Wuhan Institute of Virology to engineer novel coronaviruses with the features of SARS-CoV-2 the year before the virus emerged from that city,” the nonprofit said in a Jan. 18 post.
“The genome of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, matches the viruses described in the research proposal.” For instance, the COVID-19 virus has a furin cleavage site positioned in its spike protein at the S1/S2 junction.
U.S. Right to Know points out that scientists in the DEFUSE proposal had also proposed to insert furin cleavage sites at the S1/S2 junction of the coronaviruses’ spike protein, “precisely where the furin cleavage site in SARS-CoV-2 is found.”
The ACE2 receptor is present in several cell types and tissues in the human body and acts as a cellular doorway for the COVID-19 virus to infect people. “The documents confirm the scientists working with the Wuhan lab sought to select for receptor binding domains that bind well to human ACE2 in their research,” the nonprofit stated.
The DEFUSE grant proposal was led by Peter Daszak, the President of the New York-based nonprofit EcoHealth Alliance, and was submitted to the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which ended up rejecting the project.
“This American virologist, University of North Carolina Prof. Ralph Baric, was set to engineer twenty or more ‘chimeric’ SARS-related viral spike proteins per year of the proposal and two to five full-length engineered SARS-related viruses.”
FWIW
“Trump’s advisers vow to decimate climate policy and go all-out on fossil fuels”
https://joannenova.com.au/2024/01/trumps-advisers-vow-to-decimate-climate-policy-and-go-all-out-on-fossil-fuels/
Developments
“”Rambling, Shambling Disaster Waiting To Happen” – Boeing, Not Spirit, Mis-Installed Door Plug That Blew Out; Insider Whistleblower Says”
“The insider said company records show four bolts that prevent the door plug from sliding up off the door frame stop pads that take the pressurization loads in flight, “were not installed when Boeing delivered the airplane.” the whistleblower stated.
“Our own records reflect this.” ”
https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/alaska-airlines-found-loose-bolts-many-boeing-737-max-9s-and-757-just-lost-wheel
Gov. Abbot issued a statement today.
James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and the other visionaries who wrote the U.S. Constitution foresaw that
States should not be left to the mercy of a lawless president who does nothing to stop external threats like
cartels smuggling millions of illegal immigrants across the border. That is why the Framers included both
Article IV, § 4, which promises that the federal government “shall protect each [State] against invasion,” and
Article I, § 10, Clause 3, which acknowledges “the States’ sovereign interest in protecting their borders.”
Arizona v. United States, 567 U.S. 387, 419 (2012) (Scalia, J., dissenting).
The failure of the Biden Administration to fulfill the duties imposed by Article IV, § 4 has triggered Article I,
§ 10, Clause 3, which reserves to this State the right of self-defense. For these reasons, I have already
declared an invasion under Article I, § 10, Clause 3 to invoke Texas’s constitutional authority to defend and
protect itself. That authority is the supreme law of the land and supersedes any federal statutes to the
contrary. The Texas National Guard, the Texas Department of Public Safety, and other Texas personnel are
acting on that authority, as well as state law, to secure the Texas border.
Click to access Border_Statement_1.24.2024.pdf
One way of viewing it –
“Nikki Haley Celebrates Getting More Votes In GOP Primary Than Any Other Democrat In History”
https://babylonbee.com/news/nikki-haley-celebrates-getting-more-votes-in-gop-primary-than-any-other-democrat-in-history
Just an FYI:
I’m now back from my 6,000 or so miles of flying and computer work. After a day or so of catching my breath, and catching up, things ought to get back closer to normal ;-)
@Another Ian:
I think you will find that “25 best for retirement” list to be based on;
1) Already a citizen of said country.
2) Already vested in their retirement scheme.
3) Already in, or at least eligible for their Socialize Medical scheme.
In other words, as an already retired outsider attempting to get “in” and “use” their systems, one is likely to be seen as a freeloading leach and rejected…
That is vastly different from “retirement visas” to various countries where you can “get in” just by showing self sufficiency in income, and where paid medical care is very cheap. (Think of it as long term Medical Tourism ;-)
Just sayin’… it isn’t as simple as a list of good places for their citizens in retirement…
@TTN:
Or perhaps the A.I. is bound to NOT produce images with “Negative waves, Moriarty”, in them?
Oh, and that solar still improvement has real potential. At some point I’m going to try something like that in the back yard. While our boat has a “water maker” on it, one of the major Boat Prep things is a way to get fresh water in that unlikely case where you are “engine out” and no wind (or sails) and are adrift at sea for an unknown length of time (up to months… many months…). So a compact “kit” is valuable.
@Ossqss:
Sad to say, but I think the reason we are starting to get a few dribbles on the damages done by The Jab, comes down to the “Sports Star A Month” dropping dead of heart failure on the field…
It just can not be hidden.
@Keith:
That’s cute… I love California. I spent 70 years living there, and watching the Democrats ruining it. I’d still be there but for the Dims and Gov. Nuisance slowly turning it into a hell hole (culturally, financially, etc. but not in terms of natural beauty).
Essentially THE root cause of my leaving was The (Democrat dominated) Government and the policies they pushed. 11% or so State Income Tax and similar Sales Tax, so once you earn some money, pay tax, and then spend it, you are out 22% to the State (and that ignores the Fed and Social Security 6.6%? take). In total, about 1/2 of your income will go to combined taxes. That $100,000 / year job is really a $50,000 / year to you. THEN you get to pay exorbitant costs for everything…
I was just back there this last week. Gas here? $2.85/gal regular when I left. There? Over $4 everywhere and some places over $5. Electricity here? About 11 ¢/kW-hr. There when I left? About 39 ¢/kW-hr and rising fast. Some places (Central Valley during summer peak) can be about $1 kW-hr with time of day pricing on a hot August mid-day. There’s more, but don’t want to upset the L.A. Times… /snark;
Also note it is a one-way exit. My old home property taxes were about $2500 / year since I’d owned it for something like 40 years under “Prop 13” limitations on rate of increase. Now? About $14,000 / year were I to move back and buy similar again.
Why on earth would anyone voluntarily sign up for that burden? For a 60 year old, about 1000 sq. ft. shoe box, on a minimal lot (about 10 / acre).
@Another Ian:
IF the World Evil Forum goes after coffee AND succeeds, I predict a revolution and “French Haircut” (or “English Pole BBQ”) to rapidly follow… Nothing gets folks crankier faster than waking up to NO Coffee!!! ;-)
@Jim2:
Gov. Abbot & DeSantis… something of a Dream Team ;-)
I guess the Sleep Joe Biden Regime is about to learn why “You don’t mess with Texas!”…
Disclosure: I am an Honorary Texan via marriage into a Texas family. I’ve really enjoyed the family meet & greets in Texas…
@Canadian Friend:
It makes perfect sense. All you need to do is realize that it isn’t about The Planet at all and it isn’t about CO2 at all. Once you realize that the basic purpose is really to eliminate the Middle Class and turn the world into a Fiefdom with one Upper Class Rich Dominating, and everyone else moved into a Peasant Class “you will own nothing”… it make perfect sense. Move the global poor into the thriving West, destroy incomes for the Middle Class, and tax them into poverty. Easy peasy.
Then the GEB “Elite” can mandate anything they want to control the poor and hungry (and increasingly medically damaged and dependent) Peasant Class…
@another ian, it’s been said that because of DEI, planes will begin falling out of the sky. It’s already started…..
@EM – to control the poor
On how government is manouvering for more control over people’s lives.
Not everything is bad, but everything is dangerous..
It is not that we are ruled by conniving sociopaths or closet authoritarians (for the most part; there was Matt Hancock). Rather, our problem is that those who purport to govern us are imbued with a particular kind of mindset, which functions discursively to construct the population as weak, corrupt and vulnerable, and government as necessary and benevolent. …
I have elsewhere described this as the mentality of Machiavelli’s prince or Xenophon’s tyrant, but it is of course really an ineluctable element in the psychological makeup of anybody who climbs the greasy pole to a position of power and influence in a modern society. To govern in modernity, one must convince oneself, and the people who one rules, that one’s government is good and necessary. And the best way to do that is to think of the people, and describe them, as fundamentally incapable of governing themselves, and therefore requiring of a class of ‘princes’ to do it on their behalf. In the end, is the sociology of modern politics anything more complicated than this?
https://newsfromuncibal.substack.com/p/not-everything-is-bad-but-everything
All your money will belong to us.
A couple of gems via Jessica Rose
Reverse engineering the origins of SARS-CoV-2
Dr Ralph Baric of the University of North Carolina patented the SARS-CoV-2 genome in 2018
https://jimhaslam.substack.com/p/sars2-was-patented-by-ralph-baric
COVID-19 mRNA Vaccines: Lessons Learned from the Registrational Trials and Global Vaccination Campaign
https://jessicar.substack.com/p/covid-19-mrna-vaccines-lessons-learned
RE Covid… Here’s a guy reading a hypothetical scenario put out by the Rockefeller foundation…recorded in 2014. See whether it looks familiar.
https://www.bitchute.com/video/bggV46dUBQWX/
@EM: “one of the major Boat Prep things is a way to get fresh water”
I read something decades ago claiming that the Phoenicians used to use special clay pots to get fresh water at sea. The empty pot was plugged tight, and then lowered down hundreds of feet by use of a net with some ballast stones in it. The pot was made of some form of clay with (speculation!) a large amount of zeolites in it. The high water pressure forced the water through the slightly porous clay, filtering out the salt in the process. Haul the net to the surface and you have a pot containing fresh water.
Why not upgrade that process? many boats carry reverse osmosis fresh water makers these days. Nice to have, but needs power to pressurize the water through the semipermeable membrane. Could you use a perforated metal cylinder wrapped with a semipermeable membrane? Yes, you have to lower and haul, but might be a nice emergency backup. For seawater, standard pressure range for commercial desalinators is from 800 to 1,180 psi. Such high pressure may not be practical (that would be about a 2000 feet deep!) but lower pressure should work, even if slower. Lower your non-electric, no moving parts, cylinder down to 500 or 600 feet, haul it up after some hours and get fresh water. Might work.
For your “horror of the day”
“Eat your vaccines like a good little boy…”
“Merck outlines a process by which technicians identify “the virus” that could threaten pigs on a farm, then remove genes from that virus, and finally insert a particular “gene of interest” into a customized vaccine.
An RNA vaccine, which deploys nanoparticles.”
More at
https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2024/01/eat-your-vaccines-like-good-little-boy.html
Canada
“Tucker Carlson’s Liberation Sermon”
https://www.smalldeadanimals.com/2024/01/25/tucker-carlsons-liberation-sermon/#comments
@TTN:
What an interesting idea!
BTW, while industrial scale desalination at optimal flow rates can run a pressures requiring 2000 ft+ deep ( 133 bar, or 2000 psi), for low flow rates you just need to exceed the osmotic pressure. That doesn’t take so much:
https://www.best-osmosis-systems.com/how-much-pressure-does-reverse-osmosis-require/
Now consider that the “dipper RO bucket” will have NO increase in concentration of the salt around it (as that is the entire ocean…) the increase needed due to increasing salt concentration is zero.
So take 100 psi as an upper bound minimum and 50 psi as a lower bound minimum:
One Atm / bar is about 33 feet of water. 50 psi is about 3 bar (3.401) so 100 psi is about 6 bar (6.802). x 33 feet = 99 feet (112.233 feet) minimum up to about double that, or 200 feet (225 feet) deep. Well inside normal diving ranges and common depths even just a little ways off shore.
One might need to wait an hour or two, instead of just minutes, but the “napkin calculations” say it will work…
I’d buy one that would make a quart of water in a day…
A catchy little ditty about things in Oz
“Don’t bite the hand that feeds you. 3 mins”
Numbers to chew on-
“The GDP Number Was Great… There Is Just One Huge Problem”
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/gdp-number-was-great-there-just-one-huge-problem
FWIW
“Visualizing All The Nuclear Waste In The World”
https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/Visualizing-All-the-Nuclear-Wast.jpg?itok=RXFWra24
https://www.zerohedge.com/energy/visualizing-all-nuclear-waste-world
It figures that “government spending” does a bit of a “pull forward”, so yes; the numbers are suspect and may (will heh) be revised downward later. Just like the “job creation” numbers have been.
A Texas border fence solution
https://www.snipershide.com/shooting/attachments/img_5571-jpeg.8332403/
Some GPS practice for Australia Day – and some big business woke
https://joannenova.com.au/2024/01/long-live-australia-day/
I saw this Tweet over at Lew Rockwell:
I just got back from Ukraine, where I was visiting some friends.
Everything we have heard about what’s happening in Ukraine is a lie.
The reality is darker, bleaker, and unequivocally hopeless. There is no such thing as Ukraine “winning” this war.
– By their estimates, they have lost over one million of their sons, fathers and husbands; an entire generation is gone.
– Even in the Southwest, where the anti-Russian sentiment is long-standing, citizens are reluctant or straight-up scared to publicly criticize Zelensky; they will go to jail.
– In every village and town, the streets, shops, and restaurants are mostly absent of men.
– The few men who remain are terrified of leaving their homes for fear of being kidnapped into conscription. Some have resorted to begging friends to break their legs to avoid service.
– Army search parties take place early in the morning, when men leave their homes to go to work. They ambush and kidnap them off the streets and within 3-4 hours they get listed in the army and taken away straight to the front lines with minimal or no training at all; it is “a death sentence.”
– It’s getting worse every day. Where I was staying, a dentist had just been taken by security forces on his way to work, leaving behind two small children. Every day, 3-5 dead bodies keep arriving from the front lines.
– Mothers and wives fight tooth and nail with the armed forces, beg and plead not to have their men taken away. They try bribing, which sometimes works, but most of the time they are met with physical violence and death threats.
– The territory celebrated as having been “won back” from Russia has been reduced to rubble and is uninhabitable. Regardless, there is no one left to live there and displaced families will likely never return.
– They see the way the war has been reported, at home and abroad. It’s a “joke” and “propaganda.” They say: “Look around: is this winning?”.
– Worse, some have been hoaxed into believing that once Ukrainians forces are exhausted, American soldiers will come in to replace them and “win the war”.
There is no ambiguity in these people. The war was for nothing – a travesty. The outcome always was, and is, clear. The people are hopeless, utterly destroyed, and living in an unending nightmare.
They are pleading for an end, any end – most likely the same “peace” that could have been achieved two years ago. In their minds, they have already lost, for their sons, fathers and husbands are gone, and their country has been destroyed. There is no “victory” that can change that.
Make no mistake, they are angry with Putin. But they are also angry with Zelensky and the West. They have lost everything, worst of all, hope and faith, and cannot comprehend why Zelenky wishes to continue the current trajectory, the one of human devastation.
I didn’t witness the war; but what I saw was absolutely heart-breaking.
Shame on the people, regardless of their intentions, who have supported this war. And shame on the media for continuing to lie about it.
@another ian: One of the greatest fallacies of Keynesian economics is that it treats large classes of disparate items as aggregates. Our GDP includes many different industries as if they were of equal value — but they are not. A billion dollars worth of financial paper shuffling is NOT the same as a billion dollars worth of wheat grown. About ten years ago I saw an estimate given by some Chinese researchers that perhaps as much as a THIRD of reported US GNP was the result of financial transactions which produced essentially zero tangible wealth. All it did was soak up fiat money creation while making a politically and financially well connected subclass wealthier and wealthier. How much of today’s GNP is composed of financial transactions which produce nothing of intrinsic value? Who knows?
I would add that Marxism is guilty of something similar with its “labor based” system of value assignment. It assumes that one hour of ditch digging is as valuable as one hour of heart surgery. Disparate items are aggregated as if they were the same even though they are demonstrably NOT.
@TTN:
I do not disagree with your observations. I just would not call them “Keynesian”.
i’d call it more of “Western Mixed Economy Theory” with a dose of “modern economic theory” snuck in under the cover….
So I’m taking your use of “Keynesian” to mean, roughly, “what the west does today”.
Keynesian theories as he stated them are almost unknown today. A lot of garbage that he did NOT say is now being called “Keynesian” but isn’t.
One example: Yes, Keynes said a government could use deficit spending to overcome or bridge a recession. BUT he ALSO said ~” You can only do that for 2 or at most 3 years AND THEN you must run a budget surplus to repay the debt. Otherwise you will end up with inflation and damage the currency.”
Doesn’t sound much like what The Leftists claim is Keynesian; now does it?
Essentially TPTB have corrupted what Keynes said and corrupted the meaning of “Keynesian Economics”.
FWIW
“Are Biden Boosters Manipulating The ‘PredictIt’ Market For The Election?”
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/are-biden-boosters-manipulating-predictit-market-election
IIRC the first to realise that they had been shafted in 2020 were the Las Vegas bookies – who, it was mentioned, have long memories
FWIW
“The Left-Wing Media Collapse Continues”
https://hotair.com/headlines/2024/01/26/the-left-wing-media-collapse-continues-n607762
Leads to
https://www.breitbart.com/the-media/2024/01/26/nolte-left-wing-media-collapse-marches-on-vice-buzzfeed-sell-off-parts/
And helping
“‘I Dare You To Put It On TV’: Crowd Erupts As Tucker Challenges Liberal Corporate Outlet To Interview Him”
https://dailycaller.com/2024/01/25/tucker-carlson-canada-event-cbc/
@another ian: Per Media going out of biz:
Google has had a few earnings reports in a row where YouTube has had “advertising money misses”. Gee, censor 1/2 your creators and “demonetize” them, change your “algorithm” to abuse your customers and only present to them restricted pablum with a left wing spin… and then your views drop and your advertising revenue falls off? Who knew…
One example: I used to watch The Duran and the two Alex’es on EwTube. That’s typically about 2 hours total per day. They have ads. Now I watch them on Rumble without ads ;-) That’s a revenue hit, for sure. Similarly a few others that are on both platforms..
Maybe CDC has gone “a vaccine definition too far”?
From today’s “Covid and Coffee Newsletter
“Paraphrasing, Jeanette based her treatments on peer-reviewed science, and feels that, under the CDC’s newly-expanded definition of a “vaccine,” her scientifically-recognized naturopathic “inoculations” should have counted.
Decide for yourself. Here’s the CDC’s current definition of a “vaccine:”
VACCINE: A preparation that is used to stimulate the body’s immune response against diseases. Vaccines are usually administered through needle injections, but some can be administered by mouth or sprayed into the nose.
That’s pretty broad. I assume New York’s statutes are more specific than the CDC, but who knows? Maybe a New York lawyer should take a look at this. If there’s any wiggle room, they might file a declaratory action seeking a court to say whether parents can satisfy state vaccine mandates by giving their kids anything that satisfies the CDC’s definition of a vaccine, such as any “preparation” that “stimulates the body’s immune response.” Like maybe … vitamins?”
https://open.substack.com/pub/coffeeandcovid/p/romance-on-the-high-seas-saturday?r=1vxw0k&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
More holes than your kitchen colander!
“Part 3: Full Scope of Dominion ICX Hack in Federal Court is FAR Worse than Just the BIC Pen Hack”
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/01/part-3-full-scope-dominion-icx-hack-federal/
Links to Parts 1 and 2
FWIW
“Consumer Reports Absolutely Shreds New Chevy Blazer EV In Negative Review”
https://www.torquenews.com/1083/consumer-reports-absolutely-shreds-new-chevy-blazer-ev-review
And
“Opinion: Evidence EVs are a fading fad is ‘rolling in fast’ as Tesla, GM and Ford slash prices”
“In the early 1990s, every self-respecting American yuppie and retired suburban couple bought an electric bread maker, with sales hitting 4 million units. But the fad soon faded as these amateur bakers discovered that stuffing a precise quantity and ratio of flour, eggs, butter, yeast and salt into a metal box takes time and costs much more than strolling to the corner bakery.
Are plug-in electric vehicles the bread makers of our day?”
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/tesla-gm-and-ford-price-cuts-suggest-that-electric-cars-may-be-at-a-dead-end-1091aa16
FWIW
“Saturday Snippet: Order, counter-order, disorder”
https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2024/01/saturday-snippet-order-counter-order.html
“There’s more at the link.
The really frightening thing to me is the interrelatedness of crises. What if the constitutional crisis between Texas and Washington D.C. precipitates an economic crisis? The Biden administration seems hell-bent on causing one, with its refusal to sanction new natural gas facilities in Texas due to the latter’s recalcitrance on illegal aliens. Texas has many ways in which it can retaliate, being the USA’s primary energy producer and distributor. It can cause grievous harm to the economies of many states, and to that of the nation as a whole, if it wants to. Could a political dispute cause an economic meltdown? You bet your boots it could!
FWIW – Hayek and Keynes
https://newcatallaxy.blog/2024/01/27/misery-ahead/
“A Detective Story: What Happens When Dad Notices Something in a Kid’s Bedroom”
https://hotair.com/headlines/2024/01/27/a-detective-story-what-happens-when-dad-notices-something-in-a-kids-bedroom-n607843
The quasi-moons story
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1750952860131729544.html
Hey, another ian. That Zoozye find was really neat. Great find.
@EM: As for Keynesianism, yes, you are very correct that Keynes never promoted “deficits forever!”
As for aggregating very different practices into one great GNP figure, I do still think that is not reasonable if one really seeks to determine the economic strength of a nation. A national economy that has a trillion dollars of drug use and gambling, is not as sound or impressive as an otherwise equivalent economy with a trillion dollars of agricultural output instead of drugs and gambling. A particular example would the extreme amounts spent in the US on health care, when other countries get similar results for much less cost. In fact, even though the US is by far the highest spender on health care, we see our average life span dropping. And yet that very high dollar costs show up in our GNP as if they were a sign of productivity.
@another ian re the “Saturday Snippet: Order, counter-order, disorder” post you dropped.
I ran across the topic at Small Dead Animals and in comments, I posited that perhaps natural gas lines to Washington DC might start running dry.
I looked up a map of gas pipelines in the US (posted the link to the map there but didn’t save it) and there are not many pipelines on the Eastern Seaboard which includes the District of Criminals.
Gut off gas to DC and I bet that pi$$ing contest would end in a hurry.
Except… why should Texas and Louisiana be in any hurry to end a slowdown or shutdown of natural gas to DC? Don’t let up until the Brandon administration (FJB, Lets Go Brandon) actually secures the Southern border.
I mentioned beaver here, and lo and behold look what the algorithm recommended…
@TTN:
There are some aggregations that are valid, like the basic formula of an economy that sets aggregate spending equal to money supply x velocity of money (really sort of a tautology); but yes, the difference between productive spending and aggregate spending is one of the “most wrong”, since it means you could have a full employment society by just paying 1/2 the people to dig holes and the other half to fill them up again (with the “disable” paid to “supervise” by watching them on TV…) with clearly zero productivity. (In reality, negative productivity as you are wearing out shovels and clothes..)
That, BTW, was pointed out in my Econ classes when discussing the problems with various measurements of economic productivity… so a “known issue” (that hasn’t ever been fixed…)
My statement was limited to only the present corruption of “Keynesian” economics (both in practice and in speech) by the “Modern Monetary Theory” type folks who want to spend forever… It has become common practice today (and for about 50 years that I know of…) to report Keynes saying “Government deficit spending can end recessions” and leave out all the qualifiers he put on that statement. So I feel compelled to point that out any time any one attributes what is done today to Keynes or what he said.
It has become so pervasive that, unless you go dig up his actual statements yourself, the only thing you will ever hear is the cribbed version of “Unlimited Deficit spending = good” used by pretty much all the political class and media. Which is why I feel compelled to “‘put it out there” when I see “Keynes” mentioned (at all, by anyone, anywhere ;-)
FWIW, “The West” is presently reaping the “rewards” of that “aggregate spending = aggregate benefit” confusion via the surprise that the NATO Military is crap compared to the Russian military. Most of the Chattering Class looked at US $pending vs Russian and thought we “have the biggest military in the world”, when in reality we just have the most expensive and least efficient… and Russia has a very large, very efficient and very inexpensive Military Industrial Complex.
So yeah, your point is not only valid, but of critical importance to proper decision making AND often ignored leading to great surprise among TPTB…
apparently since i read “restoring to an ideal” on some permaculture blog back in 09
it has caught on… heres another
@H.R. & Another Ian:
Per Gas:
D.C(riminals) is never going to notice a cut off of gas from Texas. Why? Because they are able to produce unlimited quantities of “hot gas” every day. In congress, pressers, TV interviews, etc. etc. ;-)
FWIW, the “Colonial pipeline” is the main line of supply for gasoline, Diesel, jet fuel etc. up the Eastern Seaboard. Notice that LAST on the line is D.C.
so it ought not to be too hard to just have it “run out” just short of D.C. Full deliveries to everyone else, but, hey, not enough to reach the end of the line…
This would result in the ability to fly IN to D.C., but then not be able to fuel up again to leave, nor gas up cars to leave.. (Of course, enterprising airlines would run shuttles IN with double the fuel load and haul the lobbyists and politicians out to a feeder airport outside D.C., but the inconvenience would be noticed… especially the lack of limos )
Every so often the Colonial Pipeline has an issue for a few days, and the East Coast panics ;-)
Boeing’s nosedive: How greed ruined a great American company
What was once essentially a collective of engineers known for innovation and craftsmanship now operates in the interests of Wall Street
https://www.rt.com/business/591332-boeing-wall-street-profit/
selected quotes:
Great companies invariably embody some intangible quality of the nations that spawned and nurtured them. Boeing came to represent in distilled and mythologized form something that Americans had come to see as forming an essential part of their national identity: unpretentious and focused on the task at hand. But if Boeing was the quintessential American company on the way up, it came to embody many of the country’s ills on the way down. Few companies have traced an arc of ascendancy and decline that so closely mirrors the nation’s own trajectory.
For many decades, Boeing was a decidedly unpretentious, engineer-driven company with a culture emphasizing both dazzling innovation and the sober virtue of impeccable craftsmanship. It was a place where the top managers held patents and could talk shop with the floor workers.
Great companies invariably embody some intangible quality of the nations that spawned and nurtured them. Boeing came to represent in distilled and mythologized form something that Americans had come to see as forming an essential part of their national identity: unpretentious and focused on the task at hand. But if Boeing was the quintessential American company on the way up, it came to embody many of the country’s ills on the way down. Few companies have traced an arc of ascendancy and decline that so closely mirrors the nation’s own trajectory.
In an interview with the Chicago Tribune in 2004, he [Stonecipher] said: “When people say I changed the culture of Boeing, that was the intent, so that it’s run like a business rather than a great engineering firm.”
For what he thinks “like a business” means, details are in the article.
I am no fan of rap — but for these two videos I make an exception. Note that in the first video, Keynes blames “sticky wages”.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0nERTFo-Sk
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTQnarzmTOc
I wish I could find a video I saw about 15 years ago, back when YouTube was young and fresh. It was an interview (maybe 1975?) of FA Hayek. He and Keynes, in spite of their differences were friends. During the interview Hayek discussed what Lord Keynes had told him about the motivation for developing his theory. Paraphrased and condensed, (assuming my memory is right) Lord Keynes said: “England had retreated from the gold standard during WWI so that they could create more money to pay for the war. This of course created price inflation. Combined with a concurrent labor shortage (too many men off fighting) the wage scale went sky high. But wages are sticky. Workers especially resist wage drops. So, after the War, the Upper Class faced a very difficult problem; how to lower wages so that the rich and powerful could return to a traditional profit margin? The solution? If you can’t lower wages, then create enough money to inflate prices until you have the workers back at traditional incomes compared to prices. Wages are sticky going up as well as down, so what was needed was a theory which justified deficit spending as a social good which would benefit the workers. We create money by borrowing it into existence, push prices higher while wages stagnate, and convince the workers that it is all done for their own benefit. Result? Manufacturers get lower relative wages and are happy. Banks get more interest payments and are happy. Politicians get more power and are happy. And the workers think they are getting free governmental largesse.”
More on GDP
“The Great Growth Hoax”
“To put a fine point on it: “Essentially, [GDP is measuring] the pace at which we’re going Soviet, replacing private wealth with government waste.” In his interpretation of the data, we are destroying wealth at the fastest rate since 2008.”
More at
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/great-growth-hoax
FWIW
Plus one for Tesla!
More covid scene –
“The CDC Covered Up The Vaccine’s Risks”
https://www.zerohedge.com/covid-19/cdc-covered-vaccines-risks
And
“Flawed studies desperately trying to prop up the official covid narrative”
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/flawed-studies-desperately-attempting-to-prop-up-the-official-covid-narrative-are-getting-worse/
Links to
Instapundit comment –
“FLAWED STUDIES ARE THE ONLY KIND ABLE TO SUPPORT THAT NARRATIVE … Flawed studies desperately trying to prop up the official covid narrative.”
@YMMV:
The “‘issue” with that +1 for Tesla is that it doesn’t show the result of water intrusion into the battery. That can cause corrosion and a dead battery pack (or worse…) but it mostly shows up some weeks to months later (though some can be in days). Especially if the water is brackish or salty (so, say rain washes some road salt into the puddle…)
https://www.notebookcheck.net/Water-damaged-EV-batteries-turn-Tesla-Model-X-and-other-electric-cars-in-Florida-into-fire-hazards.660368.0.html
So with hurricane driven salt water the corrosion showed up in “days and even weeks”, so how long for non-salty water to have the corrosion show up, eh? Weeks to months? Maybe next year?
If deep salt water make my car a flaming bomb risk I’m not interested in finding out how long fresh water takes to reach the same end point…
Tesla probably warns owners against doing that. If would be interesting to see that warning. However, Tesla probably also has some good American engineers who could fix that problem. I wonder if they have been working on it?
I don’t know which model Tesla that was, or how old it was, or what might happen to it later. I wouldn’t recommend it. But it does look like fun.
FWIW
“Ammo warning – updated”
https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2024/01/ammo-warning-updated.html
was gonna say not related but then again maybe it is
” … Biden’s Justice Department on Monday served the House Sergeant at Arms a grand jury subpoena for documents.
“House of Representatives Sergeant at Arms William McFarland announced his office was served a grand jury subpoena by the Justice Department, sparking a wave of theories on social media Monday afternoon,” Newsweek reported.
“McFarland formally notified House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, of a subpoena on Monday,” according to Newsweek.
It is unclear what the subpoenaed documents are related to or what the grand jury is investigating. …”
What sinister thing are democrats doing this time ?
they are a hair trigger from civil war against Texas and now this?
I am not American, but it looks to me Democrats want a civil war just like they wanted Jan6 to turn into what they wrongly call an insurrection.
Inciting unruly behavior on Jan6 gave them an excuse to throw in prison almost a 1000 conservatives, and an excuse to destroy financially people in the Trump team and persecute Trump with 91 bogus charges… … Now imagine how many they d throw in prison if there is a civil war!
A civil war would allow Democrats to impose martial law, cancel the 2024 election, suspend habeas corpus, arrest and throw in prison – without trial – anyone at any time for any reason
A comment like this one would be enough for a knock at my door and me taken away in handcuffs, and be thrown in prison for 6 months…it is done everyday in places like North Korea, or China…Democrats have been wanting this type of total power forever.
anyway here is the link to this new strange and very sinister development,
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/01/developing-biden-doj-serves-house-sergeant-arms-grand/
I am expecting any day now to see an ad for a used EV:
Hardly used EV, all the bells and whistles! Low mileage! Only $5,000!*
(* Batteries not included)
E.M.
FWIW – Your site is popular!
Brave lists “27 trackers, ads and more blocked”.
Courier Mail (local Murdoch) 35, Gateway Pundit 13, Jo Nova 6
Pingback: W.O.O.D. – 29 January 2024 – Forever Wars Grow, Texas & SCOTUS Put Biden In A Bind | Musings from the Chiefio
@another ian:
A lot of ads, trackers and such have to do with the individual and their browsing history. This site ought to have no more than any other wordpress site (since it is a generic small free type site with no advertising by me – just what wordpress stuffs in all the “free” sites).
More on Teslas and “high water”; How high is high?
https://carbuzz.com/news/heres-why-you-shouldnt-drive-teslas-through-high-water
So basically, if the water is higher than the bottom edge of the door, you likely have a $20,000 or so repair bill in your not too distant future. Or a fire.
There’s more in the article.
Basically, park in a puddle, buy a new car. Drive through deep water, buy a new battery. Get too much salt water depth, like up to the door frame, watch out for Flaming Batteries Batman….
So a note to all Tesla owners: Park on High Ground. Don’t make splashes or waves.
I think I’ll keep my 4×4 FORD Expedition with the really big tires, especially here in Hurricane Country. Nice big gas V8, well above any likely puddlle or even small creeks I’m likely to find. Good on the beach too.
FWIW – more “Faith in flying”
“Another Story on the Hiring Scandal at the FAA”
https://hotair.com/john-s-2/2024/01/29/auto-draft-224-n608349
I may ruffle some feathers, but I’ll say this anyway
Every time I read a story like that ( The FAA scandal ) where the white males who are ( or were) in charge, caved in and hired under qualified people just so there would be diversity ( lgbtqs, colored, females ) instead of hiring people based on how qualified they are.
I think the same thing ; the day white males gave women their women’s lib and opened the doors to non-whites, white males pretty much became the equivalent of a dog with no balls and no teeth.
Everyone is bullying and kicking around the white male, the white males does not fight back, instead everytime the bullies hit him he apologizes to the bully and asks what more could he do to please the bully.
What a sad pathetic spectacle to see emasculated men behave like they are everyone’s bitch.
They d rather let airplane crash than risk being accused of racism, sexism or lgbtqphobia.
no teeth, no balls, totally emasculated white men letting their civilization sink like a ship just to please a bunch of dysfunctional babies who are stomping their feet until we let them steer the ship into an iceberg.
FWIW
FWIW
“INSANE: The US Relies on China and Russia for Its Ammunition Supply”
https://redstate.com/streiff/2024/01/28/insane-the-us-relies-on-china-and-russia-for-its-ammunition-supply-n2169324
A few things about the FAA hiring scandal
— I saw that story a few weeks or months ago, I cannot remember if it was at Gateway Pundit or Independent Sentinel, or maybe at some other of the sites I occasionally visit such as American Thinker, V-dare, Front Page Mag, etc etc
, but I know I read about it way before that tracingwoodgrains person supposedly exposed the scandal. She-He was weeks or months late to the party, and what she-he found is pretty much the same as what was in the article I read. She-He does not deserve credit for it.
— Her-His intense contempt for anything right wing ( we have short attention span, our news is trash, she-he is better than us etc etc ) , when they covered the story way before she-he did is ridiculous, childish, and plain stupid. She-He suffers from grandiosity or whatever it is called in English ( my first language is French) …. … The story got nowhere NOT because right wingers are bad at covering news, but because -A- Right wing news are not main stream, !! At airports or at the Dentist, their tv is not on Newsmax of Foxnews it is on CNN or MSNBC!!! – B – It is a topic that is taboo in this woke leftist crazy world, stories about bad non-whites, bad-lgbtqs or bad females quickly die because everyone is afraid of being accused of racism, sexism, lgbtqphobia.
PS: I read 10 to 18 hours a day, I get very little sleep and depending on how sick I feel; the more sick, the more I read… and the less sick the more I do actual stuff, like replacing the kitchen faucet or shoveling snow ,
I read dozens of articles per day and I read many hundreds of comments. It is hard for me to remember where I read something. But I know I read that FAA thing, including the cheating part, maybe I could find that FAA article.
Tracingwoodgrains does not deserve credit for something that was published many weeks ago by someone else and as far as I can see she-he is not providing new information either.
@Canadian Friend:
Was reported at least as long ago as August 2023, so at least 5 months ago:
https://www.dailysignal.com/2023/08/16/faa-should-rely-on-ability-not-race-in-hiring-air-traffic-controllers/
I knew I was not crazy !
but that is not where I had read it…it might have been at Taki Magazine, Zerohegde or V dare or at another blog from one of their writers such as Steve Sailor, and they had also mentioned the cheating, the part where answers were given to candidates.
that tracingwood person is not who broke the story nor adding new information, at least not so far.
I don t understand why suddenly tracingwoodgrain is getting credit for something that is several months old…
maybe there is somehting I am not aware of, and if I am missing something please anyone inform me, and I will admit I was wrong,
but it looks to me like tracingwood bragging about he or she is a fantastic investigative journalist is ridiculous…
especially since he or she added that conservatives are incapable of doing news well when they beat him or her by over 5 months
beating a dead horse here but if tracingwood is the one who broke the story, why did they only begin posting about it 2 days ago ?
More “FWIW – more “Faith in flying”
Because extras overnight –
“These Airlines Have Diversity ‘Representation’ Goals. Here’s Why They Might Be Illegal
https://dailycaller.com/2024/01/22/airlines-diversity-goals-illegal-american-airlines-southwest-airlies-united-airlines-boeing/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
And
“American Airlines’ hard landing on Maui sends 6 to hospital”
https://www.hawaiipublicradio.org/local-news/2024-01-29/american-airlines-hard-landing-on-maui-sends-6-to-hospital
Which gets a mention here too
https://open.substack.com/pub/coffeeandcovid/p/mix-ups-tuesday-january-30-2024-c?r=1vxw0k&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
“
Sorry if I already mentioned this,
About 2 weeks ago a B-1 Bomber crashed on landing, no one died.
it was during a training flight.
No one is telling who the pilot was ( or were, I don t know if that airplane has two )
so we dont know if it was a diversity hire
but…
training means new personnel… …which means very likely not a white male… …because those are sent to the back of the line now ( and the back of the bus )
We may never know but I would bet money if one day they reveal who crashed that 325 Million dollars airplane, it will turn to be either a LGBTQ, a non-white or a female hired for being diverse and not for their abilities and skills.
Diversity is our greatest strength?
Diversity is your greatest strength if your goal is destroying Western Civilization or at minimum destroying its economy, its military and so on and so forth.
“Diversity is our greatest strength?”
… is a slogan without any backing. However, the words diversity and divide might be related. “Divide and Conquer”, that was the original slogan, still in effect.
Force diversity, get division, produce conflict.
Unity is our greatest strength … was our greatest strength.
Each to their own best strength.
THE best MD’s I’ve ever had were both women. THE worst prostate exam was a ham-handed man squashing things and I could not pee right for a week. The lady MD doing a prostate exam? No problems at all.
OTOH, IF I’m ever passed out in a burning house, at a bit over 100 kg, I’d like the 150 kg Linebacker Guy to carry me out please…
And while the Lady Brown Belt with her incredible speed and precision could point on me any time she wanted, my Police Sgt. Black Belt instructor is the guy I’d want with me in a dark ally. Strength, power, skill… and he used it in real life on the streets…
I’m for everyone having their best shot at being the best human they can be, but don’t do it at the expense of stealing someone else’s dream via a “rule”…
I can relate to that, EMS. My male physician seemed to be going for my tonsils. The lady so gentle, I barely felt it.
“Diversity is our greatest strength?”
She says it well, and it also applies to the US and other countries.
Is a country just a piece of land (with some borders?) or is it a set of shared values?
Globalists would say “neither”!
https://www.skynews.com.au/opinion/sharri-markson/social-cohesion-has-fractured-quite-dramatically-under-anthony-albanese/video/43f54bd44724a544bc39cca52dd5d4bc
Why was that Tesla able to drive through water puddles that other cars could not?
Some ICE vehicles that do off-road can be equipped with snorkels. But that water was not deep enough to require that. So it was not that EVs do not require air intake. Some other explanation is needed.
Obviously, the braveness/stupidity of the driver. What else?
Maybe because EV vehicles are heavier so they don’t float and lose traction?
https://www.foxbusiness.com/technology/us-guardrail-system-cant-handle-heavy-evs-preliminary-test-crashes-indicate
The concern over the EV’s weight even extends beyond vehicle-to-vehicle crashes and compatibility with guardrails. The extra weight will affect everything from faster wear on residential streets and driveways to vehicle tires and infrastructure like parking garages.
“A lot of these parking structures were built to hold vehicles that weighed 2,000 to 4,000 pounds — not 10,000 pounds,” Michael Brooks, executive director of the nonprofit Center for Auto Safety, told The Associated Press.
Pingback: WEF say World’s greatest threat is “Misinformation” — (The biggest threat to experts and billionaires is free speech) - The Aussie Wire