Mar 10 2020

Pondering the Pundits

Pondering the Pundits” is an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from around the news media and the internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.

Thanks to ek hornbeck, click on the link and you can access all the past “Pondering the Pundits”.

Follow us on Twitter @StarsHollowGzt

Paul Krugman: Trump Can’t Handle the Truth

And neither can the rest of America’s right.  

 Let’s take a trip down memory lane.

The 2008 financial crisis was brought on by the collapse of an immense housing bubble. But many on the right denied that there was anything amiss. Larry Kudlow, now Trump’s chief economist, ridiculed “bubbleheads” who suggested that housing prices were out of line.

And I can tell you from personal experience that when I began writing about the housing bubble I was relentlessly accused of playing politics: “You only say there’s a bubble because you hate President Bush.”

When the economy began to slide, mainstream Republicans remained deeply in denial. Phil Gramm, John McCain’s senior economic adviser during the 2008 presidential campaign, declared that America was only suffering a “mental recession” and had become a “nation of whiners.”

Even the failure of Lehman Brothers, which sent the economy into a full meltdown, initially didn’t put a dent in conservative denial. Kudlow hailed the failure as good news, because it signaled an end to bailouts, and predicted housing and financial recovery in “months, not years.”

Wait, there’s more. After the economic crisis helped Barack Obama win the 2008 election, right-wing pundits declared that it was all a left-wing conspiracy. Karl Rove and Bill O’Reilly accused the news media of hyping bad news to enable Obama’s socialist agenda, while Rush Limbaugh asserted that Senator Chuck Schumer personally caused the crisis (don’t ask).

The point is that Trump’s luridly delusional response to the coronavirus and his conspiracy theorizing about Democrats and the news media aren’t really that different from the way the right dealt with the financial crisis a dozen years ago. True, last time the crazy talk wasn’t coming directly from the president of the United States. But that’s not the important distinction between then and now.

No, what’s different now is that denial and the resulting delay are likely to have deadly consequences. [..]

In 2020 we’re relearning the lessons of 2008 — namely, that America’s right-wingers can’t handle the truth.

Jennifer Senior: President Trump Is Unfit for This Crisis. Period.

His narcissism is a grave danger to our health.

The coronavirus is no longer just a slow-moving public health crisis that may soon turn into a rapid-moving one. It’s a crisis of transparency. It’s a crisis of government legitimacy. So it is in this spirit that we all have to say: enough.

Whose side is the Trump administration on? Based on every public appearance we’ve seen so far — whether it’s from a cabinet member or the director of the Centers for Disease Control or the president himself — the answer is clear: not the public’s. President Trump, hellbent on re-election, is focused on massaging numbers and silencing bearers of bad news. That’s what autocrats do. And it’s endangering lives. [..]

Because we’re testing only the sickest of the sick, the American fatality rate from the coronavirus is roughly 4 percent. It’s a frightening and highly deceptive number, even higher than China’s. (Most experts predict it’s likely to wind up at 0.5 percent, which is five times more deadly than the typical flu, and it could be as high as 1 percent.) But Trump has made the dangerous calculation that he’d prefer to keep the number of cases low than convey the full magnitude of contagion.

Eugene Robinson: While the world deals with the coronavirus, Trump glorifies himself on Twitter

A dangerous pathogen is spreading across the globe. Financial markets are having a nervous breakdown. Oil prices have collapsed. Americans are hoarding hand sanitizer and surgical masks. Air travel is down. Conferences are being canceled. Merely shaking a stranger’s hand suddenly seems like a risk.

And the president of the United States, in response, is spending hours a day glorifying himself on Twitter.

On Sunday, he retweeted a meme first posted by Dan Scavino, the White House director of social media, that showed a photoshopped Trump playing the violin, with the legend: “My next piece is called . . . nothing can stop what’s coming.” The words echoed a catchphrase associated with the looney-tunes QAnon conspiracy theory, not exactly a phenomenon to encourage at a moment when clear thinking and accurate information are vitally important. The image could not help but evoke the legend of the emperor Nero fiddling while Rome burned.

Trump’s solipsistic response to the coronavirus crisis offers overwhelming proof, if any more were needed, that it was a catastrophic mistake to give an egomaniacal reality-television star such power and responsibility. We are all paying the price.

Max Boot: The right-wing media’s contempt for truth has never been more dangerous

President Trump has been widely and correctly excoriated for the way he is dealing with the novel coronavirus. By minimizing the danger, he heightens it. Even on Monday, Trump was comparing covid-19 to the ordinary flu, even though its mortality rate appears to be many times higher and its economic effect infinitely greater. New York magazine’s Jonathan Chait is right that Trump is acting like “the mayor in Jaws, blithely ignoring reports of a gigantic shark because he didn’t want to hurt the tourism season.”

But Trump could not spread disinformation all by himself. A herd of right-wing pseudo-journalists has jumped the shark along with him. They are promulgating narratives so at odds with reality that they are likely to get people killed.

Think I’m exaggerating? I only wish I were. All you have to do is go to the Media Matters for America homepage to see how the right-wing media continue to infect their followers with misinformation.

Mar 10 2020

2020 Presidential Primaries: 6 More States – 352 Delegates

There are six states holding primaries today that will bestow another 352 delegates to the only three candidates left in the race: former Vice President Joe Biden; Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT); and Representative Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI). Currently. Mr. Biden leads in the count with 664 delegates to Mr. Sanders’ 573 and Ms. Gabbard’s 2.

Mr. Biden has been endorsed by former candidates Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), former NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) and, just yesterday Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ). Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) has so far decided to not endorse anyone, as yet. The complete list of his endorsements can be seen here

After Sen. Warren withdrawal from the campaign, the Working Family Party has thrown its support to Mr. Sanders. Academy Award winning documentary maker Michael Moore and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D_NY) are his most ardent and visible support. The full lists of his endorsers can be seen here

The main focus has been of the Michigan primary where Mr. Sanders beat fellow candidate former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton by only 1.5% of the vote. To catch up to Mr. Biden he’s going to need a much larger margin plus win in several other states. Right now the Detroit Free Press gives Mr. Biden a 24 point lead.

If Biden’s 51%-27% lead in the poll, done by EPIC-MRA for the Free Press and its media partners, holds, it would guarantee him a signature victory in Michigan — a battleground state that helped President Donald Trump win the White House four years ago. It could also starve Sanders’ formerly front-running campaign of delegates needed for the nomination and call into question how long his effort can remain viable.

The Washington primary may be another obstacle for Mr. Sanders where he won over Mrs. Clinton, 73% – 27%. It was a caucus in 2016 but Washington has since become a primary state which may narrow his margin. In Missouri, Mr. Sanders will need strong support from white voters to make up for an expected loss of black votes. Idaho, too, has switched to a primary system from a caucus this year where Mr. Sanders won 78% 0f the vote. He could still win Idaho but not as well as he did in 2016 and there are only 20 delegates in play.

North Dakota has also changed its method of choosing a candidate:

A firehouse caucus is a party-run primary so named because it is held in a public place such as a firehouse. The process is new this year for North Dakota Democrats, who have relied on a more traditional caucus where votes were collected by precinct captains and hand counted. This year, the caucuses will be held at 14 locations, where qualified voters may cast a ballot and leave instead of hanging around for multiple rounds of voting, said Alex Rohr, a party spokesman. [..]

Hotels, community centers, union halls and a casino have been booked as caucus locations — but no firehouses.

Democratic voting locations open at 11 a.m. and close at 7 p.m. Central time. Participants are not required to vote at a caucus location of their home district. Someone who lives in Bismarck, for example, may vote at a caucus in Minot, and vice versa.

Also new this year for Democrats is mail-in voting. Voters may request a ballot from the party, fill it out and mail it back. Ballots postmarked by March 5 will be counted.

This will be an uphill battle for Mr. Sanders to at least close the delegate gap.

There is one Republican caucus being held in Hawaii.

Here is the list of states holding primaries and caucuses today:

  • North Dakota Democratic caucuses – 14 delegates. Caucus doors open at 11 AM CT and close at 7 PM CT.
  • Idaho primaries – 20 delegates. Polls close at 10 PM MT.
  • Michigan primaries – 125 delegates. Polls close at 8 PM ET.
  • Mississippi primaries – 36 delegates. Polls close at 8 PM ET.
  • Missouri primaries – 68 delegates. Polls close at 8 PM ET.
  • Washington primaries – 89 delegates. Polls close at 11 PM ET.

The Democrats abroad primary ends today, although we don’t expect counts to be reported for a couple of day. 21 delegates will be awarded.

The 11th Democratic debate is on March 15 in Phoenix, Arizona, hosted by CNN and Univision. before the next round of primaries in Arizona, Florida, Illinois and Ohio, on March 17.

Mar 10 2020

The Breakfast Club (Let It Go)

Welcome to The Breakfast Club! We’re a disorganized group of rebel lefties who hang out and chat if and when we’re not too hungover we’ve been bailed out we’re not too exhausted from last night’s (CENSORED) the caffeine kicks in. Join us every weekday morning at 9am (ET) and weekend morning at 10:00am (ET) (or whenever we get around to it) to talk about current news and our boring lives and to make fun of LaEscapee! If we are ever running late, it’s PhilJD’s fault.

This Day in History

Bomb attack on Madrid’s commuter trains; Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic found dead; Mikhail Gorbachev becomes leader of Soviet Union; General Douglas MacArthur leaves Philippines in WWII.

Breakfast Tunes

Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac

They say women talk too much. If you have worked in Congress you know that the filibuster was invented by men.

Clare Boothe Luce

Continue reading

Mar 09 2020

Zombie Brains

Look, I’m a big fan of the Baseball Bat with or without Barbed Wire Decorations. The action is natural and smooth and you only need 40 foot pounds to satisfactorily dispatch a normal human (supernatural undead creatures requiring a bit more attention and effort) but there is the brain splatter problem I’m told you can avoid with low velocity high caliber ammo.

I’m not sure what the problem is with Louie Gohmert but I’m proud, proud I tell you, he’s representin’ the First District of Texas consisting largely of three small East Texas metropolitan areas— Lufkin-Nacogdoches, Longview-Marshall, and Tyler.

But apparently he done Zombified hissef’ and there’s no self respecting Concealed Carry Assault Rifle Totin’ Texan who can let him drag kids… Kids! … around the Capitol gettin’ them all Zombified with ideas like Democracy and Rights and such.

Republican refusing to self-quarantine spotting giving tour of the U.S. Capitol to Texas tourists
By Bob Brigham, Raw Story
March 9, 2020

Multiple Republicans are self-quarantining after potential exposure to COVID-19 coronavirus at the Conservative Political Action Convention (CPAC).

New White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) and Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) have all started 14-day self-quarantines, as Trumpdemic trended on Twitter.

But Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) has refused to self-quarantine, despite being notified of potential exposure.

On Monday evening, Gohmert was spotting giving tours of the U.S. Capitol.

I’m afraid it’s a sign of the time I have to explain Zombies don’t exist and I don’t advocate violence or even prepping. I used to joke Reagan couldn’t tell the difference between a script and the news. It’s not a joke anymore.

But I am laughing. What else are you going to do?

Mar 09 2020

Pondering the Pundits

Pondering the Pundits” is an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from around the news media and the internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.

Thanks to ek hornbeck, click on the link and you can access all the past “Pondering the Pundits”.

Follow us on Twitter @StarsHollowGzt

Charles M. Blow: You Can’t Gaslight a Virus

President Trump’s usual political tricks won’t work now.

In the Donald Trump era, Democrats and Republicans generally live with two completely different concepts of reality. Their views of Trump, his competence and character, could hardly be more different. [..]

But, there were a couple of areas of general agreement among Democrats and Republicans, one of which was that overwhelming majorities of both groups viewed Trump as self-centered.

That self-centered sensibility has been on full display since the outbreak of the coronavirus.

Trump sees this budding pandemic through the lens of how it will affect him and his re-election prospects. The fact that the people infected and those fearful of becoming so are real people who desperately need the steady hand of a steady leader is lost on him.

Instead of being the president that the country needs in a time of crisis, he has chosen to employ his worn political strategy: lying. Rather than addressing the issue straightforwardly, he has told lie after lie, and in some cases contradicted the scientists trying to manage this issue.

Jill Filipovic: Watching ‘Hillary’ in the Wake of Elizabeth Warren’s Exit

A new documentary about Hillary Clinton conjures up déjà vu.

At the very end of “Hillary,” an intimate and revealing four-part Hulu documentary series that tracks Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, Mandy Grunwald, the campaign’s communications adviser, sums up Mrs. Clinton’s career: “As long as she has been in public life there have been these ups and downs. ‘Be our champion, go away.’ ‘Be our path-breaker, go away.’”

Mrs. Clinton may be the woman at whom Americans have most regularly hurled these whiplash-inducing demands, but she is far from the only one who was told she had to mold herself into what the public (or a boss, or a partner, or a parent) said they wanted, only to wind up rejected and scorned for her efforts. In the wake of Senator Elizabeth Warren’s exit from the presidential race — the last of several smart, qualified Democratic women with any reasonable chance of clinching the 2020 nomination — “Hillary” feels both raw and resonant. It’s an unusually authentic portrayal of someone so often accused of being inauthentic.

And yet before she even says it onscreen, the tenor of Ms. Grunwald’s comment reverberates through the series, indicting all of us and suggesting we may have learned all the wrong lessons from 2016.

Tom Steyer: What I Learned While Running for President

The establishment has failed many hard-working people. If we don’t call it out, nothing will change.

I love meeting Americans. Before I ran for president, I had the opportunity to meet people across the country while fighting climate change, registering young people and working to impeach President Donald Trump. I loved hearing their stories and learning about their lives. Some — a lot — of their stories were harrowing. Many felt disconnected and left behind by the political establishment and elites in New York and Washington.

Most people I met felt that the government was broken and that their vote didn’t count because of a corporate stranglehold on our democracy. I learned something from every encounter and I valued every interaction. [..]

Meeting Americans has reinforced my sense of deep governmental failure. Whether it’s the warp-speed gentrification of Charleston, the homeless problem in Los Angeles or water pollution in Denmark, S.C., Americans deserve so much better from their government. We can afford it. We know better. And it’s the right thing to do.

And people ache for a democracy they can believe in. During my campaign, I tried to call out the intertwined elites in the media, the Beltway and corporate America, all of whom are thriving at the expense of the American people. They don’t want to change a single thing. Corporate America has truly bought our democracy, and people across this country are suffering every day because of it.

Let me be clear: I understand that I have benefited from being part of this world. But this campaign has reinforced my passion for spending all my time and money to change the political neglect that has brought this nation to a very low place.

Max Boot: Trump can’t handle a crisis he didn’t create 

Until now, pretty much every crisis that President Trump has confronted has been one that he himself created.

The “caravans” of Central American refugees — the subject of hysteria before the 2018 midterm elections — were a threat only in Trump’s own mind. The North American Free Trade Agreement wasn’t “the worst trade deal ever made” and didn’t need to be renegotiated. Iran wasn’t violating the nuclear accord and the United States didn’t need to pull out of the deal. North Korea’s nuclear program is a threat, but Pyongyang wasn’t about to start a war with the United States. The trade deficit with China wasn’t a problem according to most economists, and China’s abusive trade practices did next to nothing to hurt the U.S. economy.  [..]

The one exception — the one crisis largely out of Trump’s control — was Hurricane Maria, which ravaged Puerto Rico in September 2017. The administration’s response was horribly botched. Aid was delayed and power was out for months, causing some 3,000 deaths. Trump’s response was to deny the deaths, attack the mayor of San Juan, accuse Puerto Ricans of being lazy and toss paper towels at hurricane survivors as if they were seals getting fish from a trainer. It was pathetic and shameful but did not cost Trump politically because Puerto Rico is far from the mainland.

The novel coronavirus is the first major crisis that Trump confronts that he did not create and whose impact he cannot escape with his usual bluster and bravado. Which is not to say he’s not trying. His performance at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta on Friday was vintage Trump — which is to say that it was incoherent, delusional and frightening.

Guy T. Saperstein:  If Jeff Bezos really wants to fight the climate crisis, he should just pay his taxes

Wildfires are ravaging California and Australia – and local fire departments are alarmingly underfunded and underprepared

n the wake of the devastating Australian bushfires, Jeff Bezos announced last month that he will donate $10bn to fight the climate crisis. As a resident of California and the former president of the Sierra Club Foundation, I welcome any contribution toward the struggle against our changing climate. That said, my home state, like all communities with Amazon facilities, would be far better off if Bezos simply paid his taxes.

If Amazon’s properties in California were taxed at their current value, the added tax could help bolster our underfunded firefighters and fix our crumbling fire access roads. Contributing vast sums to the global effort is wonderful, but climate change is a local issue too. Our communities need to be well-funded if we’re going to face this threat head-on.

Mar 09 2020

Let’s Talk About Kids

I find that if you marinate them in Mother’s Milk for at least 24 hours some of the gaminess is reduced.

What? Sure you have to toss it out or feed it to your hogs.

Mar 09 2020

Robin of Locksley

Frankly the versions of his origin that hew more closely to a plebeian birth among dispossessed Saxons in a nowhere village close by a poacher’s paradise ring more authentically with the times than later assertions of nobility, but the core story goes that Robin, already an experienced Archer and Swordsman on both Foot and Horse, as well as a Mercenary because that’s your job, like being a Linebacker, journeyed to Jerusalem where he fought heroically alongside Tom Brady, stealing signs and plays and filling Footballs with Helium until he was captured by overwhelming force or something ego massaging like that.

Anyway because he was basically nobody he wasn’t expensive to ransom (more charitably, escaped) and made his way back to an England groaning under the Tyrant Yoke of King John, so evil his moniker has never been used by the Monarchy again even though I could name you several more deserving of the title “Genocidal Maniac” than he including 17 or 20 Edwards.

Objectively he did a good job for the House of Plantagenet. Took over the minutia of day to day when his “Heroic” and Bone Stupid Brother Richard went off vacationing with bloodshed. Might have paid more attention to his Norman possessions but he was busy scraping up money for Bail.

For his Brother.

I don’t think he noticed Robin Hood’s Rebellion and I don’t think the Sheriff did either, but don’t get the impression I wish to discourage you.

Unless you like the way things are it’s the only thing that ever works.

Mar 09 2020

Things you need to know about Vikings.

We’re not all assholes. I mean I am but I attribute it more to my Anglo/Scots-German heritage than my fierce Viking ancestors who mostly made butter and cheese.

Not that them ain’t fightin’ words, ask any Texan

I love the UK and would like to stay (please). But you need a few lessons on being Danish
by Sofie Hagen, The Guardian
Sat 7 Mar 2020

I’m from Denmark, but have lived in the UK for almost eight years. I’d love to stay. Fingers crossed. I call both countries home, but still find myself caught between the two because while there are Briticisms I have embraced, there are other things I can’t. For as long as there is an ocean between us, or two hours on a low-budget aeroplane, there will always be some fundamental differences between our two kingdoms. Here are my five biggest.

You don’t get to the point

The Danes are direct. If you want to send a professional email to someone, asking for some files, regardless of how little you know them, your email will read: “Hey, send the files.” That’s it. It took me a while to learn the British way of making every request sound as if you are asking a person for their first-born’s hand in marriage. “Dearest Cliff, I hope you are well. I do apologise for getting in touch on this godless Tuesday, but I hope you might consider even the slightest possibility of perhaps finding the time…” And so on. My emails now take 20 times longer to write. Often, I forget the pleasantries and simply send a Danish-style four-word message. Then I am filled with British shame. For this reason, I have considered adding an email signature that reads: “I’m not rude, I’m Danish.”

You are filthy as hell, but only secretly

Put on any Danish film and you will see genitals. I am not talking about porn (which Denmark was the first country in the world to legalise, in 1967). I’m talking regular prime-time television and mainstream movies. In the opening scene of Nattevagten, a 1994 thriller, we see Nikolaj Coster-Waldau’s flaccid penis swinging back and forth as he gets out of bed. In the incredibly funny sitcom Ditte & Louise (2015-2016), a scene where Ditte is having wild sex up against a desk cuts with another in which Louise is masturbating furiously while drinking wine. Again, prime time. School sex education was fairly straightforward. Then again, everything in Danish schools seems more straightforward. We have mostly mixed-sex schools; we do not wear uniforms; and we call our teachers by their first names. Being taught about penises by our teacher, Tina, was great. I imagine being taught about penises by Miss Hansen when you are a creepy suit-wearing child is a lot scarier.

I worked in a sex shop in Denmark when I was 16, which sold porn. It was my job to pack the parcels and send them out. I can reveal that the most hardcore porn was ordered by people in the UK. You’re all filthy as hell, so start standing by it, OK?

You do not need a hygge blanket

While I’m here, I’d like to blow the whistle on hygge. You must have heard the word a million times, because I’ve seen it a million times in bookshops all over the UK: How To Hygge The Danish Way, Have A Hygge, and other horrible misuses of my language. Hygge is a common word in Denmark. Instead of “Take care!” we might say “Hygge!” Instead of “This is nice!”, we might say “This is hyggeligt”. Instead of “Ah, OK” we might say “Hyggeligt.” It covers almost anything, and means cosy or chill. It’s not a Danish activity.

You guys hygge all the time. You go to the pub, you watch TV, you drink tea to an almost psychopathic degree. The difference is, in Denmark there aren’t £35 books on how to hygge. You cannot (and need not) buy a £50 hygge-blanket. We don’t have hygge-candles because hygge doesn’t have a smell. If Danes are more relaxed than Brits, it’s to do with our excellent infrastructure, our social security safety net, the fact that we are paid a salary to attend university and have 52 weeks of parental leave – all because we happily pay about 50% in taxes. Socialism is the real hygge. You heard it here first.

You do Christmas once a week

I miss Danish food on a daily basis. But I have discovered the British Sunday roast. In Denmark, we eat Christmas food once a year, but you people have cleverly decided to do it once a week. And don’t think I don’t know about those special high-end restaurants next to the motorway that do a roast buffet every single day. Yes, I’ve eaten three in one week. No, I am not ashamed – I am British now.

Our queen is better than your queen

I’ve bingewatched The Crown, and I like your queen. She seems nice. She does that cool thing where she wears a provocative brooch if she wants to send a hidden signal. But have you met the Danish queen? Margrethe II of Denmark, 79, is regularly seen chain-smoking and shoving food into her mouth in public. Every New Year’s Eve, she addresses the nation on live TV. Last year, she had a cold and we got to see the queen take a crumpled tissue from her drawer and blow her nose. Did I mention that our queen is also an artist? Her illustrations, sent to JRR Tolkien under a pseudonym in the 1970s, were used in Danish and English editions of The Lord of the Rings. When she was young, she went to the US and met Elvis, Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin. Afterwards the press asked her what she thought and she said, ‘Not impressed.’ She works part-time as a costume designer for the Danish Royal Ballet. What did your queen do? C’mon. Step it up.

One last thing, before my settled status is forcibly taken from me for blowing the whistle on hygge: you can’t pronounce it, no matter how hard you try. You can’t pronounce my name, either. I’m talking specifically to the British man who corrected my pronunciation of it. Don’t do that. Also, I love living here. Please let me stay.

Mar 09 2020

The Breakfast Club (Roller Coaster)

Welcome to The Breakfast Club! We’re a disorganized group of rebel lefties who hang out and chat if and when we’re not too hungover we’ve been bailed out we’re not too exhausted from last night’s (CENSORED) the caffeine kicks in. Join us every weekday morning at 9am (ET) and weekend morning at 10:00am (ET) (or whenever we get around to it) to talk about current news and our boring lives and to make fun of LaEscapee! If we are ever running late, it’s PhilJD’s fault.

This Day in History

urnalist Edward R. Murrow takes on Senator Joe McCarthy’s anti communist campaign; Commedian George Burns dies in 1996.

Breakfast Tunes

Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac

No one can terrorize a whole nation, unless we are all his accomplices.

Edward R. Murrow

Continue reading

Mar 09 2020

John of Patmos

Like most Classical authors we know little of him and suspect what we do, yet he is wildly popular among certain people who claim to be “Christians” and the creator (if it is a singular creation and not mere zeitgeist) of an enduring meme of Pestilence, War, Famine, and Death all of which we have in abundance.

Now you may correctly surmise that I’m not advocating mass penitence and mortification (which is distinctly counter-indicated if you believe in the “Germ Theory of Disease” at all) but there’s no denying things are in a bad state and getting more so by the minute which puts a damper on my mood and my cheerful and uplifting communications.

The 2 things you need to know right away is that there is no sign of intelligent life in the Government which really doesn’t care if you live or die (as long as you do it quickly and save money) but which cares a good deal about the perception the Economy is humming along based on Market Indexes that don’t actually measure it.

All of which are set to tank by as much as 6 – 10%.

In a single day.

Glad my money is in Banana Futures which look better by the minute as oncoming scarcity (driven by GMO Monocropping and Global Warming) drives up the price. Oil on the other hand just had it’s production quotas collapse and in the face of decreased demand (you know, that Coronavirus thing) is going to dump from Texas Intermediate at $32 (look for that valuation today) to mid $20s if it can hold it.

Great if you want a driving vacation (headed to P.E.I. this year for the Mussels) not so good if you’ve got Billions on the line for expanding expensive Fracking you don’t need and can’t sell except at a loss.

I mean forget about Tar Sands. Better way to lose money than a Presidential Campaign.

So it’s all good and the history trends to truth and justice because they don’t change, you just have to wait long enough. I try to have a positive view and I’m in it for the long term.

It will take me until at least November to claim my free housing, don’t want to end up in Medicine Hat.

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