Well, well, well....

 Hillary Clinton gets a slap on the wrist.

Let's Go Brandon missteps abound

 The catch phrase for this administration is "walk that back". Dinesh D'Souza opines:

Sunday verse

 

Patreon banning conservatives

 Patreon bans people whom they hate under the guise of removing "hate speech".  I've never heard of Sydney Watson before, but now I'm a fan.  Thanks Patreon.

Canada's media is protecting Trudeau

 And who knew there were European politicians who were on the right side of history?

Trudeau is much like Let's Go Brandon, except he is unequivocally the worst Prime Minister in Canadian history.  In fact, he's so bad, he's overshadowed his father's leftist failures.

Trudeau gets lambasted in Europe

 And deservedly so:

Wait, what now?

 I don't think this is about $72 million, it's probably about 2024.

Not another New World Order

You can put away your tinfoil hats. Maybe there is a secret society bent on a new world order.  Maybe the World Economic Forum does have it's designs set on world domination by the elite few.  But let me tell you why you don't need to panic.  This is not a signal. This guy has no clue what he's talking about.  He didn't just accidentally let the cat out of the bag, he's just trying to use words and phrases he remembers hearing somewhere...

The stagflation you don't want is upon us.

I've been telling my friends stagflation - a recession along with high inflation - is coming. It's getting closer.  In fact the high inflation is already here. Now the slowing job market is coming too. Watch for it. Stagflation is a situation that isn't supposed to exist. High inflation and high unemployment are supposed to be mutually exclusive. But it happened once under president Jimmy Carter, now under Let's Go Brandon, it's happening again.

Elon Musk - more oil in America

I've always maintained that alternative energy sources are not necessarily a bad idea,  BUT we are nowhere near the point in history where fossil fuels can disappear. We are likely still decades away from that point.  You know who agrees with me to some degree?  Electric vehicle Tesla founder Elon Musk.

It goes beyond the Russia Ukraine war situation. Forget the war, should America be buying oil from Venezuela or Saudia Arabia when it has its own abundant supply?

Sunday verse

 

Russell Brand defends himself

Russell Brand, having talked to the likes of Jordan Peterson and Joe Rogan has awakened (not become 'woke') in the sense of being Red-pilled.  Because of that, he's under attack from the mainstream media (aka the woke leftists).  Here he spends some time defending himself.

This is important because it's working the way conservatives want, not the way the leftists, mainstream media, elites and woke want.  I watch a fair number of reaction videos for entertainment and I find the trend there interestingly similar. A lot of younger people, and a lot of African American people have gone from reacting to music, to movies (to avoid copyright strikes) to now reacting to the likes of Ben Shapiro and Jordan Peterson.  And they are awakening to reality.  They are inadvertently red-pilling themselves. It's a similar trajectory to Russell Brand's journey/awakening.

It's funny how truth eventually works it's way out of the fog of lies.

A little bit of good news

 Some Ukrainian success to brighten your day:

Bill Whittle on Putin, Russia and Ukraine

Bill Whittle explains Putin, Russia and the situation in Ukraine and perfectly sums up exactly what I was thinking about the situation.  Let's hope he's exactly right.

Sign of the times: Trevor Noah rips Let's Go Brandon

 Tim Pool discusses:

How To Argue With Someone Who Won’t Listen

This needs to be understood, and followed:

Mitt Romney moves left of Tulsi Gabbard

I apologize for ever supporting this guy.  I did so out of obligation, because I thought Obama was far worse.  Apparently not, too many of those in Washington D.C. are exactly the same, regardless of political party.  I'm not saying get rid of them all, there are quite a few good politicians who want to do the right thing.  Tulsi Gabbard, is one such example.  Although she's a Democrat, at least she wants to do the right thing. If the election was between her and Romney, I'd take her over a dozen Mitt Romneys any day.

This doesn't mean I've moved left and would start supporting Democrats, it's merely a realization of two things: (1) not all Republicans deserve our support, so we should work hard to ensure our nominees are solid for ANY political position.  And (2) some Democrats are reasonable and intelligent and want the best for the country despite being Democrats.  They sadly, are a small minority in that cabal.

Maybe we could trade Romney for Gabbard?

Canadian Freedom Convoy: GoFundMe's shocking admission

 They did it on their own.

Sunday verse addendum

 Some meditative Gregorian Chants to supplement today's Sunday verse.

Sunday verse

 

Friday Musical Interlude - Coconut

I haven't posted a Friday Musical Interlude video in a couple of years. But I think this song perfectly represents the world we are currently living in.  I've probably shared this one before but it's just too good as a representation of Let's Go Brandon world - Harry Nilsson, Coconut:

Central Bank Digital Currency: same as dollars, but way worse

I believe I shared a video a while back about this.  If not there's a good one out there somewhere. Let's Go Brandon's recent discussion on crypto currency is really about trying to replace it with government versions of digital currency.  This is already underway.  It's not about getting into the 21st century, it's about undercutting and disabling a new alternative like Bitcoin.  The government-backed digital currencies are not about to start developing, they are already in development.  They are a new method of control.

It's also really nothing more than replacing dollar bills with digital dollars, where the central government can continue to "print" more on demand.

U.S. inflation keeps going

Look, this isn't specifically a U.S. problem but in the developed world inflation is especially a U.S. problem.  For February it rose again to 7.9%. The Fed has printed a larger amount of money (quantitative easing) than any other developed nation, and that's pretty much also true on a percentage basis as well as dollar amount.  I'm not denying that supply chain issues hurt, and that oil prices due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine will also hurt, but they are much smaller factors than the money supply.  Higher inflation, and supply shortages are unavoidable, even with the looming end of mandates.  I'm not alone in my thinking on this;

U.S. inflation may approach 10% this year, according to DoubleLine Capital’s Jeffrey Gundlach, a historic level that he said underscores the need for the Federal Reserve to aggressively tighten monetary policy even amid fresh uncertainty caused by Russia’s war in Ukraine.

“Their job is to fight inflation,” the billionaire money manager said of the Fed during a web presentation Tuesday. “They’ve done a terrible job of it so far.”

Gundlach, 62, said he expects the central bank to raise interest rates by a quarter of a point at its March meeting, and sees the consumer price index rising to at least 9% before reaching a peak. Inflation may end the year as high as 7.5%, Gundlach said, with surging prices leading to “demand destruction” as food and energy soak up more of household budgets.

The economic outlook is “substantially worse” now than it was in September, he added. Gundlach reiterated his long-term bearish position on the U.S. dollar and cited an “insanely high” budget deficit, while recommending investors sell U.S. equities and buy emerging-market stocks.

 

Faith in the U.S. dollar vs. cryptocurrency

Let's Go Brandon has acknowledged the existence of cryptocurrency.  This has caused a surge in cryptocurrencies.  It doesn't mean the outcome will be friendly to the crypto world, but it does show that crypto has become a stronger footing.  Given all the money printing over the past few years, there's a growing lack of faith in the U.S. dollars. There's a growing concern about stagflation.

What I think this means is a place for parking assets in the face of a looming stock market correction, bear market or crash.  I don't think it's been initiated by Let's Go Brandon, but by interests outside of government, looking for that sort of safe haven possibility in order to not be limited to gold.  Just my two cents. 

Is Ray Dalio right about the changing world order?

If you don't know who he is, Ray Dalio is a billionaire investor and hedge fund manager.  In 2005, his hedge fund became the largest in the world.  He's argued for a tweaking of capitalism since, even though  it's the best system out there, it's not working for most Americans; if unchecked, it can have a tendency to  increase the Wealth Gap.  But where he really has some interesting points to make is about the changing world order.

I've always argued that all things are cyclical; seasons, economic cycles, and empires, among other things.  Ray Dalio makes the same argument here, about the changing world order, using 500 years of data to support his macroscopic thesis.  He looks at the rise of China and decline of America from that perspective.  Thankfully, he like me, believes that the current trend is not an indelible, unchangeable inevitability. 

This reinforces the brilliance of the founding fathers in America.  They foresaw the need to protect Americans from their own government.  Even though the protections they provided have been chipped away and steadily eroded over time, the initial principles were brilliant. They clearly should have been steadfastly maintained rather manipulated over time to suit expedience or the ambitions of individuals or groups.

But the founding fathers focused on governance.  They did not do as much good for economics.  This is where an economic Renaissance, not in GDP but in economic Enlightenment needs to happen, and urgently, before there is no longer any chance for it.  It does not portend a move away from capitalism but a reinvigoration of the greatest economic system devised so far in history.  It requires more thought, and a way to ensure more economic opportunity for all rather than a growing concentration of wealth in the hands of a few; for in that lie the seeds of self-destruction.

Truth hurts

Project Veritas exposes New York Times' over-reaction to the supposed January 6th cataclysm. The truth hurts because for the left, everything hurts, everything is bad.

Conservatives, time to copy California

It's worthwhile to wonder when conservative leaning states will catch on to the California model and start imposing their own dictates upon corporations the way California does.  I get it, as conservatives we want to be business-friendly.  More government mandates and requirements are not good for businesses and that's not good for the free market or for consumers.  Hear me out on this though.

California is notorious for imposing it's own requirements on industry after industry. As an example, CAFE standards require certain levels of fuel efficiency in automobiles.  So in order to sell in California, auto manufacturers must meet those standards.  And since they have to achieve a certain fuel efficiency for California, they might as well do the same for all the other states rather than have a separate production run for one state, even if it is the most populous in the nation.  So as California goes, so goes the nation in many regards.

Now what if a state like Texas or Florida, mandates that a company like Twitter cannot ban, shadow ban, suspend or otherwise compromise targeted users for having opinions that its oversight board deems not liberal enough?  What if they required a level of transparency that would expose how their systems work with regard to free speech? Would Twitter stop allowing users in those states to be users of its platform?  Would it create special algorithms to manage the rules for those states?  Maybe, if they are truly agenda driven.  But maybe not.  Maybe they would change their rules for all states.  Or maybe they would fight it in court.  But if they become resistant to the legislated changes, or tried to isolate it to a specific state, then perhaps Tennessee can come up with an entirely different way they would have to comply.  Followed by Ohio.  You get the idea; legislate the industry into the ground.

It's not ideal because it goes against our principles.  But this is a culture war and we have to start getting our hands dirty instead of playing by Marquess of Queensbury rules while the left plays by Mob (as in mafia) rules.

Sunday verse

 

Why Russia is going to lose

Johnny Harris is a smart guy and his investigative/journalistic skills are outstanding.  Here's his take on why Russia will lose in the Putin-led Ukraine invasion.  I've come to many of the same conclusions myself, and I'm mostly inclined to agree with his assessment.

Let's Go Brandon hasn't learned from history

History provides a guide in how to deal with Putin's imperialism, but Let's Go Brandon doesn't know history. I'm not a fan of the Bush family, but when Iraq invaded Kuwait, George Bush (41) got a sizable international coalition together and used a coordinated invasion to crush Iraq. Europe responded, Middle Eastern nations responded and other countries did as well.  Now that we have Let's Go Brandon in charge, we've gone back to the Obama years of leading from behind.  We have a lack of coordinated effort, and we have sanctions that, despite all the claims of "harshest possible", are at best mildly annoying  to Russia while they invade Ukraine.  They may matter to some degree in the long run, but Ukraine doesn't have a long run at this point.  What's needed, if it's to be an economic battle only, is a complete financial freeze on Russia.

That means full removal from the SWIFT systems (along with anyone else who provides support for Russia, like China or Belarus), complete sanctions, impounding of foreign assets as well as other efforts such as a concentrated cyber warfare effort, war crime charges, as well as massive arming of the Ukrainians and a declaration of a No Fly Zone over the Ukrainian territory.

While people fret about Putin's threats of a nuclear war or further invasions, it's not real.  His approach is a combination of Soviet era propaganda and Hitleresque go as far as you can while the West hasn't got it's act together.  A lot of people aren't old enough to recollect the cold war, let alone WWII.  We had to live with a nuclear threat every day during the cold war, but it never happened.  Mutually assured destruction prevented it.

What needs to happen is exactly what I said above - a massive coalition with agreed upon steps, taken with the highest degree of urgency.

Fake news exposes itself in the same article

 Tim Pool caught this hilarious example of fact checkers debunking their own debunking:

Why is this still happening?

 Somebody has a vendetta against Tim Pool.  Or maybe Lauren Southern?

State of the Union: cowardice

For all the posturing and preening of the Let's Go Brandon administration, they have betrayed America's fundamental mission statement of liberty and justice for all by failing to support Ukraine. They don't have to send troops to help.  They could supply arms to those who wish to fight for their country.  They could do far more from a sanction and cyber warfare perspective.  They could create a no fly zone that would prevent Russia from using air superiority in the conflict.  I realize any of those, particularly the latter, presents a slippery slope.

But right now America is on a slippery slope to irrelevance in dealing with expansionist dictators and human rights abusers.  Platitudes will not save you Brandon.  Cowardice is unbecoming.