The one thing that has become clear from the reaction to the terrorist attacks on Israel: many people have self identified as antisemites and supporters of terrorists. This clarity should stay at the forefront even when this crisis is over. Let’s defund them all, universities, NPR, all of it. There is no way our tax dollars should go to organizations that have proven to be evil. While I support their right to say what they want, it does not mean I have to listen to it or pay for it. If they cannot make enough money to continue without tax dollars, well too damn bad.
Politics
Hamas’ Terroristic Attack on Israel: This is what Political Correctness Gets You
There is a passage from the Talmud that says if you are kind to the evil, eventually, you will have to be evil to the kind. Over the last 75 years or so, the country has been slowing losing its moral grounding in the name of tolerance, being non-judgmental, open-minded, etc. The fact that we cannot all agree to condemn the indiscriminate killing of over 1,000 people by the Hamas terrorists shows just how dull our sense of morality has become.
For years, Hamas and other terrorist organizations have done horrible things to the people of the world including “citizens” of their own region. However, if you were to condemn the actions of these groups you would be called racists and a host of other names, ostracized from society, de-platformed and more. Instead of a civil society
Back to the Talmudic passage referenced above, over the last couple of decades we have responded to terrorist attacks with a “kill them with kindness” philosophy trying to change the savages and make them civilized. People are not allowed to disagree with this philosophy and/or call out the groups responsible for the attacks without facing a backlash ginned up by the media and the fascists of the Democrat party. One thing you can be assured of is our having been kind to the savages perpetrating evil around the world means that many innocent children, women and men will be killed as a result of savages, i.e. which is unkind to the kind.
The Coming Collapse?
As readers of this blog probably know, I am a firm believer that the global financial system should have collapsed in 2007-9 cycle. The collapse was staved off by the central banks around the world. Egon Von Greyerz has a post at Zero Hedge outlining his similar thoughts.
As outlined in the post,
the West led by a bankrupt USA will try all tricks in the books. That will include CBDCs (Central Bank Digital Currencies), much higher taxes especially for the wealthy, bank bail-ins (forcing depositors to buy 10-30 year government bonds), martial law and many more measures to restrict people’s everyday lives.
What is the end game if the currency collapses as has been the case for all paper currencies throughout history? Your survival may depend on having physical assets and/or ownership of commodities allowing you to trade with others. Trying to time your exit from these inflated values may not be worth the potential wealth destruction that occurs when the collapse happens.
When will the collapse happen? No one knows and perhaps it gets pushed out beyond your expected lifetime. However, don’t allow yourself to believe that the end will happen suddenly due to the exponential compounding of the debt. A great analogy is in the post talking about a football stadium filling with water starting with one drop:
Imagine a football stadium which is filled with water. Every minute one drop is added. The number of drops doubles every minute. Thus it goes from 1 to 2, 4, 8 16 etc. So how long would it take to fill the entire stadium? One day, one month or a year? No it would be a lot quicker and only take 50 minutes! That in itself is hard to understand but even more interestingly, how full is the stadium after 45 minutes? Most people would guess 75-90%. Totally wrong. After 45 minutes the stadium is only 7% full! In the final 5 minutes the stadium goes from 7% full to 100% full.
I agree with Mr. von Greyerz’s view: once you organize your financial affairs, you “must think about the people that need our help in whatever form. Then, enjoy life with family, friends as well as nature, books, music etc which are all free pleasures.”
Federal Student Loan Program Keeps Profs Employed
We’re coming to the end game from an economics perspective on college campuses. The universities are seeing declining enrollment, especially among men. The number of worthless degrees have multiplied as have the number of formerly disadvantaged students graduating with those degrees.
As more and more people find out how worthless their degrees are, a realization will hit these former students: I wasted my time and squandered my future away all to help a communist support him or herself.
The last 20 years of the student loan program have done nothing but grow the communist/authoritarian hold on education, especially in the social “sciences”. These programs have done nothing more than raise a victim filled culture that can’t take care of itself nor service the debt the student incurred to obtain the education.
One day, the country will realize that communists destroy everything they touch. They don’t care about you only about their power over you.
Did the U.S. Supreme Court put an end to the rule of law?
When the plain meaning of words no longer holds true, can you really have a rule of law?
Those are the questions I am asking myself after one of the Supreme Court’s rulings last week. In the much ballyhooed voting rights case of Moore v. Harper, the majority of the justices decided that the state legislatures did not have absolute power to determine the rules on how federal elections are conducted in the states. Instead, the Court provided the judicial branch of the state veto power over the legislature thereby overruling the the plain meaning of the words of the Constitution. Instead, the Court decided what the words meant thereby amending the Constitution with their opinion.
Don’t believe me? Well, you shouldn’t and always bring the receipts so you can decide for yourself.
Here are the words from Article 1, Section 4 of the U.S. Constitution on the matter with respect to the election of members of congress:
The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Places of choosing Senators.
The Congress shall assemble at least once in every Year, and such Meeting shall be on the first Monday in December, unless they shall by Law appoint a different Day.
As you can plainly see, the supreme law of our land, the U.S. Constitution, does not mention a state’s executive nor judicial branch when referencing elections. It plainly says ”by the Legislature thereof”.
Need more? Well, ok what about the election of the president? In a post at Zero Hedge, Mark Miele provides:
And as for presidential elections, the matter is even more cut and dried. Article 2, Section 1, declares, “Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress.”
Again, you can plainly see that there is no mention of the executive or judicial branches in these quotes directly from the text of the U.S. Constitution.
This was judicial activism in its purest sense and needs to be called out and stopped. How can this be stopped? Given we no longer are guided by moral men and women in the courts, executive or legislatives branches of our government, Mark Levin’s Liberty Amendments outlines what might be the only peaceful way to reign in the courts as well as the administrative agencies and put the power back into the people’s hands.
At the end of the day, if a law’s words do not mean what they say, and only a group of unelected judges determine how the law should be written, we no longer have rule of law and are much like Iran where their judges determine what the law is.
VDH: What the Fourth of July was no
Once again, Victor Davis Hanson provides a concise statement on what the Declaration of Independence meant when published on July 4, 1776. Read the whole thing over at American Greatness.
America’s Left is Today’s Third Reich
We were on a family vacation in Israel recently, and as many do, we toured Yad Vashem (the Holocaust museum). As we toured the museum, the tour guide described the tactics and processes used by Hitler and his thugs in turning the people of Germany against the Jewish population. At the end of the tour, my wife and I agreed that what the guide described is what is currently being done to conservatives, Christians and any one else who does not tote the line of the left. Seeking to destroy individuals simply because they do not agree with you is the left’s game. They try and convince their followers that the reason they are so miserable is due to conservatives. Personal responsibility – out the window. Every grievance their constituents have is due to conservatives. That’s their message, and given they control the educational system in the U.S., they are able to indoctrinate children in this philosophy at an early age before their reasoning skills are developed. This ensures the minds of the children are warped, and the left’s doctrine become part of the child’s core beliefs. Once established, these core beliefs are difficult to change and set the country down a similar path to Germany in the 1930s and 1940s.
Dedollarization: The New Black Swan?
Dedollarization, i.e. the U.S. dollar’s fall from the reserve currency around the globe, is a phenomena often discussed by economists but is not well understood.
Background
The U.S. dollar has been the dominant global reserve currency for decades, enabling the United States to enjoy many economic benefits and privileges, such as lower borrowing costs, easier access to foreign goods and services, and greater influence over international trade and finance. However, in recent years, the trend of dedollarization has been gaining momentum, as more countries and entities seek to diversify their currency holdings, reduce their exposure to U.S. sanctions and political risks, and assert their own financial sovereignty. This blog post aims to explore what dedollarization means, why it matters, and how it could affect the U.S. economy.
What is Dedollarization?
Dedollarization refers to the process of reducing or eliminating the use of the U.S. dollar as a means of payment, store of value, or unit of account in international transactions. This can take various forms, such as switching to other currencies, such as the euro, yen, yuan, or digital assets; creating new regional or global currencies, such as the euro or the SDR (Special Drawing Rights) of the IMF; bartering goods or services directly without using any currency; or adopting alternative payment systems, such as blockchain-based platforms or SWIFT alternatives.
Why Does Dedollarization Matter?
Dedollarization matters for several reasons, both for the countries that initiate it and for the global economy as a whole. For the countries that seek to dedollarize, the benefits can include reduced dependence on the U.S. financial system, enhanced economic autonomy and resilience, improved access to non-U.S. markets and investments, and reduced exposure to U.S. sanctions or other forms of financial pressure. For example, Russia has been actively dedollarizing its economy since 2014, following the imposition of Western sanctions over the annexation of Crimea, by increasing its use of domestic currency, barter deals, and non-dollar trade with China and other partners.
For the global economy, dedollarization can pose some challenges and opportunities, depending on the pace, scope, and coordination of the shift. On the one hand, dedollarization can increase the volatility, uncertainty, and fragmentation of the international financial system, as different currencies and payment systems may not be fully interchangeable, may not have the same liquidity and stability as the dollar, and may face geopolitical or regulatory obstacles. On the other hand, dedollarization can also promote more diversified, inclusive, and multipolar monetary and financial arrangements, which may reduce the systemic risks and imbalances that arise from the dominance of a single currency.
How Could Dedollarization Affect the U.S. Economy?
Dedollarization could affect the U.S. economy in various ways, depending on the extent and speed of the trend, and the responses of U.S. policymakers and markets. Here are some possible scenarios and impacts:
- Reduced demand for U.S. dollar assets: If more countries and investors shift away from holding U.S. dollars, U.S. Treasury bonds, and other U.S. assets, the demand for those assets could decline, leading to higher borrowing costs, lower asset prices, and weaker fiscal and monetary positions for the U.S. government and the private sector. This could also erode the status of the U.S. dollar as the world’s reserve currency, which could make it more expensive and harder for the U.S. to finance its deficits and maintain its global influence.
- Increased inflationary pressures: If the U.S. dollar depreciates relative to other currencies or assets, the imports of goods and services could become more expensive, leading to higher inflation and reduced purchasing power for U.S. consumers and businesses. This could also put upward pressure on U.S. interest rates and reduce the attractiveness
Few are talking about it, but it is happening much quicker than people thought. Is dedollarization the next Black Swan that impacts the U.S. economy?
Waiting on the world to change
I was listening to XM yesterday, and John Mayer’s song ”Waiting on the World to Change” came on. I’ve heard the song many times, I but never really listened to the words. For some reason, I did today and found a line that puts today’s woke/misinformation world into perspective.
Whether it is COVID, J6, ESG, DE&I or the disinformation crowd, a line in the song nails it and really tells you why free speech is needed.
And when you trust your television what you get is what you got cause when they own the information oh they can bend it all they want
Isn’t that exactly what the Twitter files has shown? How about Tucker Carlson’s release of J6 videos? COVID 19? How about the entire Trump/Russia hoax?
We are failing as a country and it is the government/media symbiote that is the reason. Time to kill all of the alphabet agencies and start fresh.
The Biden Foreign Agent Scandal
All week on his radio show, Dan Bongino has been putting together the pieces and assembling them in a fashion that makes everything clear: Joe Biden is a forein agent. In his book Follow the Money Bongino has a chapter titled “Ensane in Ukraine” wherein he puts together the facts detailing how much money was being made by many in the establishment due to the corruption in Ukraine. Joe Biden was the point person on Ukraine for the Obama administration, and how he wanted to get in on the action. Biden’s son Hunter was given consulting/board roles from an energy company in Ukraine providing what was essentially a now-show job. Hunter got paid and would “pay” Joe completing the money trail ($50,000 for rent). Joe would lobby Obama and others for money and arms to be sent to Ukraine making Joe a foreign agent. We know this is how it work due to Hunter’s ex-partner, Tony Bobulinski, has said that “10% was for the big guy” who he said was Joe. Further, in the last days of the Obama administration, Biden went to Ukraine. Why? Because he needed to tie everything down to ensure the money continue unabated.
Didn’t we see the same thing beginning to take shape in China?
Now, we find that Biden had classified documents from when he was a senator as well as vice-president which is a violation of law. Unlike a former president, the vice president is not allowed to have those documents. The presidents determine what is classified or not, so them possessing documents post-term is not unusual. As a matter of fact, it is very usual for the Federal Archived and the former presidents to have disagreements over such documents.
Were the classified documents at the Penn Center (who received multi-millions in contributions from the Chinese Communist Party) about China allowing the Chinese (and others paying into the scheme) to see them?
Were the documents found at his homes related to Ukraine hiding his activities there?
Conclusion, our federal government is nothing but a scam filled with those on the take being protected by the deep state. This allows the money to keep rolling to them all while our liberty and freedoms are being eviscerated by them.
It is about time to rid ourselves of them all.