A fairly cynical take on things but, as I see it, not often wrong. Watching this trial of trump and his trumpery fills me with such contempt and loathing that even "hope" itself seems pointless.
I spend 2-3 hours almost every day reading various economic stuff and I agree with you 100%. We don't have a democracy, as you say, nor capitalism. We have 150-200 families that run all the major corporations. Oh, and that 34.5 trillion in debt will be inflated away over the next 15-20 years reducing the dollar by 60-70%. Inflate or die baby.
I’m right there with you when it comes to studying economics on the daily. For instance, when I heard Biden’s new tax “plan” stating that it will raise some 5 trillion from the rich over the next 10 years, I thought, you freaking dummy, in ten years the interest alone accrued on our debt will be over 30 trillion! plus, the wealthy will skirt you’re proposed capital gains taxes as well, like they always do, for it will simply be us small time investors that get screwed, as we don’t generally have enough assets to depreciate. Our entire economic system is one giant shell game at this point, and the rest of the world has more than caught on. We are in for some financially frightening times unless something seriously drastic changes, which likely won’t happen, as both candidates don’t have what we need, as Biden wants to spend like a raving lunatic, Trump, too, along with lowering the interest rate, which both will cause assets and inflation to skyrocket even further, the economy to stagnate, and the likes of a Great Depression on steroids to hit! We are truly f’d!
absolutely agree. Powell and the Fed are completely in the pocket of the oligarchs. He is no Paul Volker and since Greenspan all they have done is keep interest rate low and dump money into the system which has given us this inflation. I think they will keep the inflation rolling along, which is the only way they will deal with that soon to be 35 trillion is debt. And we, the average American, will suffer because we don't have the kind of assets, just income. "We are truly f'ed!"
I'm afraid you are correct about inflation, as it doesn't seem likely considering the structure of everything that inflation will be quelled. And I totally agree about the Fed, as their entire purpose is to keep inflation high so as to benefit the asset class, and further, to monetize our debt, which is always the first stumble in any Nation's fall. I always like to argue that the Nation was lost during the first decade or so of its founding 1787-89, when the Purse was seeded to Congress, and when Hamilton was able to monetize the Nation's debt, and to King George of all people! as that was the true beginning of our demise into asset class division, and the Fed/FDR/Nixon simply accelerated it.
100%. We stumbled along okay until we got off the gold standard, as you say, the FDR/Nixon acceleration. We are a late stage empire that can no longer afford to dabble in other people's wars, nor pay our debts nor stop our political class from spending at will. That is a trajectory this will end like the goddamn Weimar inflation but probably a longer, slower economic death.
I remember reading about a magic and consistent household debt percentage that causes people to revolt. It basically means people can't feed themselves, then thing get really ugly really quickly.
It does I think or we wouldn’t have had a degenerate in office for four years. Cynical possibly given how obvious the power structure is embedded in our country. But reality.
Oh, I'm not saying that we don't have the power to actually vote people into office, I'm not quite that cynical, yet. What I'm saying is that once they're voted in they in large part do not do what the people want (e.g., Israel, the Ukraine, the border, the economy, etc.,) but primarily do what the lobbyist-donor-MIC class demands of them. We The People are only the afterthought, if that, and when we are pandered to it only comes around during the election cycle. And if I were to go further, I would argue that we are the degenerates, as we are the ones who vote these degenerates into office, as that old saying is so true, "that the people get the government that they deserve," if not demand.
I recently watched a PBS episode regarding England's Henry 8th's break from the Catholic Church up through the end of Cromwell's tenure and the back and forth of those times.
Over the Long Haul
Sometimes it seems so futile
Sometimes it seems unfair
Sometimes a hard won victory
Later vanishes in the air
Sometimes that slender of hope
Is just too small to see
Sometimes our trials and troubles
Seem greater than you and me.
Chorus
It will take many strong arms to move those mountains
It will take faith to lift us when we fall
It will take all the love our hearts can pull together
To sustain us over the long haul.
Sometimes we start backsliding
Sometimes we lose our way
Sometimes we lack the fortitude
To plant our flag and stay
But we can recall our courage
And define our destiny
Our faith can raise a fortress
Greater than you and me.
Chorus
We have to stand together
Or we'll surely fall apart
It's said the strongest muscle
Is the one we call the heart
We cannot call on progress
To bring equality
But the dream that calls us onward
Is greater than you and me.
Chorus
It will take many strong arms to move those mountains
It will take faith to lift us when we fall
It will take all the love our hearts can pull together
I have always hated tomorrow, as I have a sick obsession with thinking about it being one day closer to death. I once had a jar with roughly 20,000 beans where I would take out a bean each day. I'm thinking of getting another jar of beans, but now I'll only be able to put some 11,000 or so. Hence, fuck tomorrow! as my bar, and the world's, is fine just where it is.
Cheryl is right. Don’t watch. It will only sicken your heart.
This poem breaks my heart. The sadness. Pure sadness.
So vote and encourage others to - at least those who haven’t totally abrogated their responsibility to leave a better world.
I’ve hoped in harder moments and I’m not sorry for a minute of it.
We’ll get through this. Wes, I promise.
I'm gonna "vote early and often", as my father in law used to say.
He wasn’t the only one 😊
Voting doesn't do a damn thing in an oligarchic duopoly, I would've thought this blatantly obvious by now. But to each their own.
I spend 2-3 hours almost every day reading various economic stuff and I agree with you 100%. We don't have a democracy, as you say, nor capitalism. We have 150-200 families that run all the major corporations. Oh, and that 34.5 trillion in debt will be inflated away over the next 15-20 years reducing the dollar by 60-70%. Inflate or die baby.
I’m right there with you when it comes to studying economics on the daily. For instance, when I heard Biden’s new tax “plan” stating that it will raise some 5 trillion from the rich over the next 10 years, I thought, you freaking dummy, in ten years the interest alone accrued on our debt will be over 30 trillion! plus, the wealthy will skirt you’re proposed capital gains taxes as well, like they always do, for it will simply be us small time investors that get screwed, as we don’t generally have enough assets to depreciate. Our entire economic system is one giant shell game at this point, and the rest of the world has more than caught on. We are in for some financially frightening times unless something seriously drastic changes, which likely won’t happen, as both candidates don’t have what we need, as Biden wants to spend like a raving lunatic, Trump, too, along with lowering the interest rate, which both will cause assets and inflation to skyrocket even further, the economy to stagnate, and the likes of a Great Depression on steroids to hit! We are truly f’d!
absolutely agree. Powell and the Fed are completely in the pocket of the oligarchs. He is no Paul Volker and since Greenspan all they have done is keep interest rate low and dump money into the system which has given us this inflation. I think they will keep the inflation rolling along, which is the only way they will deal with that soon to be 35 trillion is debt. And we, the average American, will suffer because we don't have the kind of assets, just income. "We are truly f'ed!"
I'm afraid you are correct about inflation, as it doesn't seem likely considering the structure of everything that inflation will be quelled. And I totally agree about the Fed, as their entire purpose is to keep inflation high so as to benefit the asset class, and further, to monetize our debt, which is always the first stumble in any Nation's fall. I always like to argue that the Nation was lost during the first decade or so of its founding 1787-89, when the Purse was seeded to Congress, and when Hamilton was able to monetize the Nation's debt, and to King George of all people! as that was the true beginning of our demise into asset class division, and the Fed/FDR/Nixon simply accelerated it.
100%. We stumbled along okay until we got off the gold standard, as you say, the FDR/Nixon acceleration. We are a late stage empire that can no longer afford to dabble in other people's wars, nor pay our debts nor stop our political class from spending at will. That is a trajectory this will end like the goddamn Weimar inflation but probably a longer, slower economic death.
I remember reading about a magic and consistent household debt percentage that causes people to revolt. It basically means people can't feed themselves, then thing get really ugly really quickly.
It does I think or we wouldn’t have had a degenerate in office for four years. Cynical possibly given how obvious the power structure is embedded in our country. But reality.
Oh, I'm not saying that we don't have the power to actually vote people into office, I'm not quite that cynical, yet. What I'm saying is that once they're voted in they in large part do not do what the people want (e.g., Israel, the Ukraine, the border, the economy, etc.,) but primarily do what the lobbyist-donor-MIC class demands of them. We The People are only the afterthought, if that, and when we are pandered to it only comes around during the election cycle. And if I were to go further, I would argue that we are the degenerates, as we are the ones who vote these degenerates into office, as that old saying is so true, "that the people get the government that they deserve," if not demand.
Don’t watch. Vote. Get others to do the same. That is what we can do.
Yes, yes, yes.
I love this:
“Nostalgia starts percolating
with this morning’s coffee.”
I have always wondered how fast nostalgia kicks in and I think it's pretty quickly.
I recently watched a PBS episode regarding England's Henry 8th's break from the Catholic Church up through the end of Cromwell's tenure and the back and forth of those times.
Over the Long Haul
Sometimes it seems so futile
Sometimes it seems unfair
Sometimes a hard won victory
Later vanishes in the air
Sometimes that slender of hope
Is just too small to see
Sometimes our trials and troubles
Seem greater than you and me.
Chorus
It will take many strong arms to move those mountains
It will take faith to lift us when we fall
It will take all the love our hearts can pull together
To sustain us over the long haul.
Sometimes we start backsliding
Sometimes we lose our way
Sometimes we lack the fortitude
To plant our flag and stay
But we can recall our courage
And define our destiny
Our faith can raise a fortress
Greater than you and me.
Chorus
We have to stand together
Or we'll surely fall apart
It's said the strongest muscle
Is the one we call the heart
We cannot call on progress
To bring equality
But the dream that calls us onward
Is greater than you and me.
Chorus
It will take many strong arms to move those mountains
It will take faith to lift us when we fall
It will take all the love our hearts can pull together
To sustain us over the long haul.
https://youtu.be/Dbpvla5hG-8?si=JxpOAxU0vV2GOV4I
Nice. Is that your song?
Yes. I have 6 CDs of original material on YouTube, many of which I post on Substack.
Thanks for your comment Weston.
Be well.
I have always hated tomorrow, as I have a sick obsession with thinking about it being one day closer to death. I once had a jar with roughly 20,000 beans where I would take out a bean each day. I'm thinking of getting another jar of beans, but now I'll only be able to put some 11,000 or so. Hence, fuck tomorrow! as my bar, and the world's, is fine just where it is.
Unless it’s a Heath Bar, 7,500 of them in a very big jar
Wow!
.,, the 'line' does keeps moving...
Yes, it does. It can be very discouraging. thanks Lori.