Saturday, December 8, 2018

Perhaps this is an explanation for wall street selloff

An unwinding of QE.

It seems like a possible explanation, but yours truly still does not get it.  Interest rates should be going up, but instead, seem to be going down on the "long" end.

Anyway, it may explain.  It should be noted that there is no claim in the article for the wall street selloff as a reaction to QE unwinding.


What's the scoop in France?


It's a revolt against globalism, the author of the video says.  The French seem to be able to organize.  France has been the subject of derision before in these parts. Where was all this type of organization before the recent election in this country--- the USA?  The establishment continues to thumb their noses at the people.  The next thing you know they will be saying something like "let them eat cake".

Oh wait, I forgot.   We are supposed to be having a civil war.  My bad.  /sarc




Friday, December 7, 2018

What to write about today?

Update:

12.7.18:


Well, looky here!  Somebody put their feet on a table in class, the teacher said put your feet down, and they fired her for it.

Maybe if she had a way of dealing with this character the way they did here.  Or maybe the crooks are really running the casino.  Makes you think, doesn't it? 

11.8.18:

As I scan the news, I note that many out there haven't given up on the campaign.  Yes, the campaign is over, but for these folks... Never.

Yep, and 2016 isn't over either.  We have to have that election re-litigated forever and ever until we get the right result, I suppose.

Then the guy I was writing about yesterday got his White House pass revoked.  Fine with me.  While they are at it, they may consider taking out a few more of them. You might even consider doing what was in the movie Casino, in which an offender was sent out head first.



One thought about that, while I am here...  These guys are really weenies.  Acosta that is. Not only him, but his supporters.  You know that they are weenies because they wouldn't go after Obama.  Obama abused the press.  Trump just talks tough back at them, but he doesn't really punish them.  Obama did punish them.  But they never went after Obama.  Why?  Too chicken.

So this is just posturing to show how tough and courageous they are for going after Trump.  But they really aren't tough.  If they were really tough, they would go after anybody, including Obama.  But they'll never do that.  Therefore, the posturing means nothing.

What should the GOP do about its "cucks"?  Take a hard line with them.  This gives the best results.  Instead, Trump went easy on them, and tried to get their cooperation.  So now, they probably sat out this election, and they believe that they have license to give him a hard time.  Screw them.  I'd go out of the way just to tick them off and dare them to join the Dems.  The Dems don't want them either.  After all, if the Dems really wanted another pinko, they have got plenty of real ones already.

But I would be electioneering again.  Time for that to stop.  But these people won't leave it alone.

What do you do?  Pretend it isn't there?  Ignore it?  Or go after them full throttle?  If Trump had went after them full throttle, he might have survived and cleaned up this crap that he as to deal with today.

Or they would have taken him out.  One way or another they will try to take him out or nullify him.  If he is going to be a real president, he is going to have to deal with them.  Avoiding the issue, or trying to be nice to them isn't going to do it.


Direction of USA is still going down

Despite of all the good work that Trump has been doing, he is not reversing the main trend. "Making America Great Again" may be too big of a challenge for him.

It seems all rather perverse, to have a majority of the country thinking that decline is better than greatness.  The perversity is real, however.  Nothing is done properly anymore.  Take the Mueller investigation.  If the law were truly followed, the matter would not have gotten any further than an IG report.  The IG report itself would have wrapped up pretty fast.  There was no crime.  If there was no crime, there should be no prosecutor---- period.  That fact that there was one, and a push to keep him on no matter what, is the kind of perversity that is prime evidence of the decline.

Of the things that are still working well, you can be assured that it won't last.  All of it is under unceasing attack from the same forces that are attacking Trump.  For example, the STEM ( Science, Technology, and Mathematics) sector is doing relatively well.  But the SJW crowd is making diversity more important that qualifications for the work.  It is becoming increasingly more important what a person's skin color or gender is, as opposed to their ability to do the work.  Of course, to point this out is "bigoted" in some way, shape, or form.

Our adversaries aren't so wrapped up in so-called social justice.  They will surpass us, while we argue over these irrelevant issues.

AGW is a big test.  The fact that it continues is a bad sign.  AGW is not a science,  It anti-science.  Science encourages dissent, as dissent is what make science go forward.  AGW theorists suppress dissent.  Therefore, they are not interested in the science, but to the contrary.  If they are successful, first rate STEM work will be a thing of the past.  It is the last leg that is holding the country up.

Trump is just a pin prick in this huge balloon--- of the phony baloney existential claptrap of the left.  Yet, they act as if he is far more significant than he really is.  If he was really determined, he wouldn't be putting up with 1 percent of the nonsense that he is putting up with now.  Trump is just like those who preceded him-- a mere speed bump on the way down.  There is no change in the direction, it is still going downhill, but not quite as fast as before.

Once Trump is out of the way, things will begin to accelerate on the downward path.  Obviously, I am not convinced that there will be a happy ending to this.


Thursday, December 6, 2018

Last Refuge:Occam's Razor: Michael Flynn

That there is a game here, there can be no doubt.  How many times have I read it stated as a question as to Mueller's "end-game"?

It may not be possible to end all games, but it may be possible to step back from them, and try to detach one's ego from them.

One's ego gets attached when it goes tribal.  You probably have heard that term bandied about.  How our politics have gone tribal.  It's "my" tribe versus "their" tribe.

If one can detach from the tribe for the moment, and ask what is the truth behind what is going on here?  That may be hard to do.

The article is a part of a long running series of articles about the "soft-coup" against Trump.

Does anyone doubt that there is an effort to remove Trump from office?  Why?  Was there ever any real "collusion" with Russia, or is the accusation a part of the dishonesty of this game?  What do the participants seek?

Update:

Mueller has asked for a postponement of Flynn's sentencing for quite some time.  Now that the election is over, maybe he got what he wanted!  That is, the control of the House going to the Democrats.  This means that the soft-coup can be covered up.




Mind strike

No doubt that you have heard of a labor strike before.  This concept is a lot like the strike that was written about in Atlas Shrugged.

The thing that is happening these days seems to be that the commentariat likes to push a person's emotional buttons.  So, to combat this, I propose to not participate. I am on strike. I refuse to play along with the games and circuses that are constantly pushed before us all.

It is very seductive, these games.  Therefore, it won't be easy to refuse to partake in the fun and games.

Many years ago, I read this book about games.  It seems that people play these games with each other.  The common thing about games is their dishonesty.

If we could just get some honesty back into our discussions, it may be helpful in solving our problems.  It just doesn't seem to help to get into these games.  The games just makes things worse.

It's probably a lost cause, but what the heck.  There's nothing to lose.  If everybody keeps playing these games, we all lose anyway.


Tuesday, December 4, 2018

Don Surber: Bungling Bob Mueller exonerates Trump

Don Surber: Mueller inadvertently exonerates Trump: I laughed when Bungling Bob Mueller got his key witness against Donald John Trump to cop a plea for lying. How does that work in a courtroom... 

comment:

The globalists may do themselves a favor, and get rid of this clown.



It's the yield curve, ya'll

Updated:
12.4.18:

Just saw headline about the yield curve inversion that happened yesterday.  In my opinion, this is not significant...yet.

If the yield curve inverts all along the yield curve--- which means the 1 month rate is higher than the 30 year bond rate, then you have a real yield curve inversion that means something.

What we have here is a beginning, not the end point.  If the rate hikes don't stop, there could be a problem.


11.29.19:

1:00 pm:

Here's more evidence of Fed mismanagement, in my opinion.  The Fed drops interest rates sharply in reaction to credit freeze ( summer 2007 ), but reverses course, and tightens again.  However, they are in loosening mode thereafter.  The Fed is signaling that something is wrong, but doesn't act aggressively enough to forestall the total breakdown that occurs in 2008.  ( Just in time for the election )



8:00 am:

Seems like a "buzz" has been generated with this talk about the Fed and Trump.  Can Trump do anything to the Fed in order to make it do what he wants?

The Fed is supposed to be neutral and independent.  However, given everything else that has been happening, I wouldn't be surprised if there is some sort of monkey wrenching going on.  That is to say, it could be sabotage. Therefore, if the government gives that much power to an independent entity, it could be a mistake.  Don't know if that is the case here, but I would like to see at least some political accountability just in case the Fed gets out of control.

If rates go up too much, it becomes a drag on the economy, and that could mean recession.   Therefore, Trump is doing all he can to try to prevent the Fed from getting too hawkish on inflation, and by doing so, start another recession.  A recession during the Trump administration is exactly what he doesn't need.

Unless there are clear signs of accelerating inflation, raising interest rates much further is not justified.

What I tried to do with this post is to show how much power the Fed has over the economy.  Fed policy mistakes can spill over into the political process.  There is some suspicion by yours truly that this did indeed happen during the last recession.  Obama could have gotten into power partly by the belief that Bush mishandled the economy.


11.28.19:

Obama is out there taking credit for the oil boom.  Actually, this credit may belong more to "Dubya", but I may need to research that.  Obama and the lefties have been trying to strangle the fossil fuel industry since he came into office.

Not to mention that Obama tries to take credit for the boom of the last two years.  With that thought in mind, I write once again that the Fed has far more influence over the macro economy than Presidents do.  But Presidents can muck things up, too.

Just look at the yield curve over the Obama years.  It was flatter than a pancake the whole time.  Only now does it begin to normalize.

But there is a danger.  If you look all the way back to 2008, the yield curve was still partially inverted.  This was after the recession was well under way.  There is almost no excuse for that condition being in effect.  The Fed could have done something about that, and should have done something about that.  At this point, in early 2008, the credit freeze had already taken place, and that was the beginning of the recession.  Rates were already coming down.

If you recall, 2009 was when Obama took office.  At the time, everybody was blaming "Dubya" for the economic pain.  If he was to blame, it was because he didn't do more to "jawbone" the Fed into reducing rates much faster.  Bush was a gentleman, alright.  Too much of one.

Note how the 6 month rate is higher than the 5 year rate.  The yield curve is partially inverted.   When short term rates are higher than long term rates, monetary policy is tight.  Why should monetary policy be tight during a deflationary threat?


Trump gets criticized for not being a gentleman, but what good does it do to be a gentleman when the opposition will kick your teeth in?  Bush was a gentleman, but his approval numbers went into the tank because he got all the blame for the poor economy.

Bush was too nice.  Trump gets it.  Nobody in the Establishment wing of the party seems to get it.


Governator wants "Time Masheen"

What a disappointment he is.  If he was on the level with all his rhetoric when he became governor, "Collyfornia" might have turned around. 

You've got to be pretty dumb to fall for the AGW hoax. 

In order to examine what he is talking about, the only alternative to fossil fuels is nuclear.  So, if he just said that much, he might be talking sensibly.  But he wants to "terminate" fossil fuels.  Well, if he did that, he would also "terminate" a lot of human life--- for energy sustains life.  In addition, he would also "terminate" a lot of trees.  Because trees were used for energy before fossil fuels came along.

What a fool.  He is an embarrassment.

The "Time Masheen" reference is to the movie Idiocracy.  He is making about as much sense as those mentally challenged people in that movie.  It is like pouring Gatorade on crops, and wondering why the crops fail.



Monday, December 3, 2018

Biggest fake of the fakes: AGW

Whatever this president does, he should never, ever, sign a bill that increases taxes to "fight climate change".  It is phony as hell.

Any Republican that joins the Dems on this should be run out of the party.




Washington Times: "Deep fakes" are threat to democracy

Don't fake me out, doggone it.

How do we know when the fake is a fake, and a non-fake is a non-fake?

It's enough to give you a headache.

Here's a thought:  politics doesn't solve problems.  It is in the interest of politicians to create problems rather than solving them.  We are getting too wrapped up in the politics.  The politics will take you nowhere.


Sunday, December 2, 2018

Beginning to suspect something

Updated,
12.2.18:

Recently, Limbaugh was touting increased life expectancy as a reason for people to be confident.  But that number has been going down lately.

Young men using drugs and suicides were among the reasons given.

But I have been saying for a long time here that this country reached a peak in the late sixties, and it hasn't been improved upon yet.  That was GDP in terms of gold per person.

Even if you dispute the significance of GDP in terms of gold per person, you cannot dispute a falling life expectancy.

Computers may still be getting better, but even that seems to have slowed down.

12.1.18:

One of my riders said that the water in Lake Mead is "nasty".  Why would that water be bad?  She then said something I remember hearing about before--- the possibility of dead bodies being in the water.

So, I begin to suspect that this may be happening in many places in this country.  After all, if you want to dispose of a dead body, where could you take it where it couldn't be found?

There was a story I heard about a dead body found in a barrel in one of the lakes around here.  So, it isn't just in the Vegas area, ya know?

Since the recent flood here, the water seems darker.  One can attribute that to the sand and silt that may be mixed in, but this has been awhile now.  It should be clearing out.  I asked my rider if the water out there near Vegas is blue or not, and the answer wasn't in the affirmative.

I begin to suspect that water sources may be polluted by who knows what.  This also leads me to believe that our culture and country may be in a lot worse shape than I thought.  That would be saying something.

If this was accepted and acted upon in an expeditious way, it would be encouraging.  But there seems to be "resistance" to fixing what ails our country and our culture.

Did you ever notice how many people are turning to drugs?  Marijuana is legal, and so will be a lot of other drugs if this continues.  Something is systemically wrong.