“Hidden Depression” in Amerizuela

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I’ve been up half the night (since 2AM) trying to figure out why the market is soaring to such crazy heights. 

I mean think about it:

  • The CV-19 rollout is not going as fast as expected.
  • There was a 123,000 job drop in the ADP report for Dec.
  • 77-thousand jobs cuts in December.
  • Sales are still rolling at Amazon, but in terms of Growth?
  • So WHAT the hell is going on?

Then I went looking…carefully noticing how the Federal Reserve has been “loading the dice” in order to continue the normalcy illusion.

In the Fed minutes (out during the protest Wednesday) the Fed balance sheet was up to $7.3-trillion.  In addition, what you find in the H.6 Money Stocks more recent update is?

Which really explains two amazing counter-intuitive headlines.  The D.C. protest on the one hand (which would cause any sane investor to short the hell out of Amerizuela.

Yet, at the same time, we have stock prices running up to astounding record-highs.  Not seen – as I noted in a special market note Wednesday afternoon – “Market Contango and Revolution Roll” –  since the 1929 blow-off top.

Yet, people are (demonstrated by the D.C. protests) inclined to stop putting up with it.

Nothing changes, though:  Biden was still confirmed as the next president.

OK – got it:  Trump hate has become an industry.  So the latest media monetization is whether he will be Article 25’ed out with 13-days on the clock.  Piece in the Chicago Trib lays out the mechanics of that process.

Of course some media pivoted – allowing their coverage of the protest to insert the race angle: “A mob of almost exclusively white Trump supporters… ”   We note this particular media capitalizes Black, in their stories, but not white when making a racial identification.  Correctness over equality?  See the first paragraph of “BLM Activists See A Big Double Standard In How Police Dealt With Trump Insurrectionists” for an example.

Which has us dropping our reportorial jaw:  Are people blinding law enforcement with lasers in Portland, or seizing a police station in the CHAZ (Seattle) not “insurrectionists?”  Burning down property of others in various uprisings in the upper Midwest?  These things blur with the 72nd birthday at hand next month…

As I said  Amerizuela is here…  Even the NY Times biz section notes today how Markets Rise Despite the Chaos in Washington.

Yes, Biden is president.  Notice how fast they counted and how slow they were on the $2-grand checks?  Whatever…can we move on?  The system is crooked.  Long live the system.

Taking It in Stride

Military (& cyber whiz) warhammer has some useful “chill perspectives;”

“Damned interesting situation in ‘the district’ Wednesday afternoon.  What exactly happened and why is a bit complicated and will take some time to sort out, but it was not at all unprecedented in the nation’s history.

“When British colonists were denied representation in Parliament, a full blown 7 year revolution ensued, resulting in these United States being birthed.  During Vietnam, organized masses routinely occupied Washington with much violence and chaos ensuing.  1968 was an especially messy year in D.C. after Rev. King was gunned down.  Protesters rioted during the ‘68 Democratic Convention in what became known as “the Battle of Michigan Avenue.”  For a full and lengthy litany of civil unrest episodes in America, see this Wikipedia entry.

While wrong in many ways, the storming of the Capitol yesterday is one of many episodes of citizen dissent, this one serving notice to the political elite that a sizable percentage of Americans are not at all pleased with how the Covid-marred election proceeded.  The legitimacy of an election’s outcome depends upon complete accountability and transparency.  Hell, even ‘third world’ nations require voters to dip their fingers in dye to prevent citizens from casting more ballots.  The 2020 election ended up being a massive ‘fuster cluck,’ an embarrassment in front of the entire world due to far too many loose ends with early and mail-in voting.  The results of the election may well be entirely legitimate, but clear proof and complete faith in the outcome are generally lacking.

These are dangerous times for the republic.  I hope and pray our political class ‘on both sides’ realizes the gravity of the current situation and works to rebuild citizen confidence in the system that elects them to office.  Nothing less will quench this nascent rebellion.   Dialog and eventual concessions are necessary from Democrats and Republicans to foment trust in the election process and in our representative political class.  What is not needed is vitriol and childish finger pointing.   Joe Biden will be sworn into office on January 20th.  Those not happy with that fact must work to insure that subsequent elections for all 50 states (51 if D.C. is added) meet or exceed modern era certification criteria.  Those who gloat and taunt over Biden’s victory are every bit as toxic as the most violent of the Capitol occupation forces.”

Question is what the state of the opposition party will be in 2024?  Third party time?

Been kicking around the “No Party” whose planks would include:

  • Jail time for lawmakers who don’t read every word of what they vote on.
  • Two terms in ANY single office.
  • Flat-rate income tax over [threshold argued] with no loopies for the richies.
  • Government officials get no special retirement.
  • All officials have wages docked for less than 40-work hours per week and 2,000 hours per year.
  • And Elected Offices are subject to no exemptions for insider trading, all family members must file reports, and….

Well, lots to add, but No Party – let’s get some shit done, for a change.

Income Disparity Matters

We are rabidly supportive of equality.  So instead of going into (yet-another) discussion of how hot-buttoning and monetizing of America’s emotions have been the Covid-driven growth industry of late, let’s remain focused on where the problem really lies:

America has Two Classes

Which distills down to Haves and Have-Nots.  (We’re all in the latter group…)

We know that Cash sloshing around is up, oh, 50% in the past year.  And M2 (cash, time deposits and what-not) are up (*rounding) 25%.

Legacy of Trump?

Here’s h0w Donald Trump’s 2020 legacy year turned out on an inflation-adjusted basis:

Notes:

  • The “Illusion” column is the simple, apparent (nominal) change.
  • M2 discount is 24.7% per the H.6 data.
  • M1 discount is 51.7% per H.6.
  • M3B reconstruct is an “eyeball” of the excellent work shared by John Williams of ShadowStats here.  Looked to me like we were around 23% in November and a bit north of 7% last year, so I used an annual increase of M3 (estimated) of 13% as I expect M3 will be around 20% for December.
  • Numbers are rounded to whole numbers.

Biggest investment winners of 2020 were Bitcoin followed by Silver.  Followed by gold, the S&P, and your home.   Cryptos are now a trillion dollar “industry” (if that’s what you call a bunch of “made-up, secret numbers…”).

We can anticipate some reduction of lifestyle based on decreased (after-adjustment) income.  But, balancing this off (in part) is the large reduction of commuting expenses.  Who needs a flashy ride when you can work naked at home?

Point is, things you own are likely to be key in 2021.  Kiplinger noted last month that Federal debt loads in 2021 were likely to be 104% of Gross Domestic Product.  That means if every single penny’s worth of work went to paying the debt service on the trillions owed, the hole America’s in would only get 4% deeper in 2021.

Speaking of Cars

I’m not kidding about the savings on commutes:  The auto sales out this week made it pretty clear car sales would hit the lowest point in a decade.  Although, in the Sun-Sentinel this morning, there’s the “happy-talk” about how maybe the vaccines getting “out there” will bring people back.

We wouldn’t bet on that for a simple reason:  If you’re a senior manager (up the hall in them mahogany foxholes) and you have managed to hold down cost-per-square-foot-per-employee this year – maybe even rolled it back a good bit, that’s money that matters on the bottom line.

Sure, there will still be “companies” and many will have staff – sure, sure.  But, the number of square feet required is changing as the “gig economy” and the “Covid-lockdowns” are mashing the new American telecommute into a homogenous labor pool.

One of the nice things about the change?  Personal appearance will matter less, provided you know how to “Give good Zoom.”

Retail victims keep mounting.  Latest is “Bed Bath & Beyond shares plummet as retailer’s earnings fall short; store closures, divestures weigh on sales.”  Sure, people are still bathing (at least we hope so, though yah can’t tell on Zoom, right?).  It’s just going out to shop is so passé.

Job Cuts Continue, However

Job Cuts just out from H.R. resource Challenger, Gray & Christmas:

Planned job cuts announced by U.S.-based companies jumped to 77,030 in December, up 18.9% from the 64,797 in November, according to a report released Thursday by global outplacement and business and executive coaching firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc.

December’s total is 134.5% higher than the 32,843 cuts announced in the final month of last year. In 2020, 2,304,755 job cuts were announced, 289% higher than the 592,556 cuts announced in 2019. It is the highest annual total on record, and 17.8% higher than the previous record high of 1,956,876 cuts recorded in 2001.

Third month in a row of rising cuts, isn’t it?

Meanwhile,  we’re digesting the latest “Glum and Glummer” for the news industry:  “US Newsrooms Lost a Record 16,160 Jobs in 2020, Study Finds…”  Maybe its because of news automation.  Besides, re-writing press releases is a few steps from rocketry, right?

Next come the weekly New Unemployment claims.  The headline writers use “seasonally adjusted” but we use the yellow highlighted actual.  (We have this thing about keeping it real):

See how the media quoting the seasonal number understates (real checks to be cut) by 135,000?  Repeat after me:  Seasonal adjustments is a label for statisticians lying.

Federal numbers tomorrow.

New International Trade #’s

Just out:

Which will impact even more on the accumulated federal debt…

Dow futures were still up 111 after the number.  They must not do drug testing Thursdays…

Thinking and Action Points

Popular Science has a good article on “How to convert text articles into audio (and why you might want to).”

Low Tech Magazine offers “How and why I stopped buying new laptops.”  Which struck a cord since I refurbed a $100 used (Vista) laptop last year and made it smoke:  Added a 500 GB SSD and Linux…and a new battery.  All-in?  About $160 for a very fast backup machine.  If you try this (so you have a Linux learning platform around) get something with 8 GB ram of you can.  Cheap!

Article on Phys.org has us wondering if those yellow driving and UV block glasses might be changing up:  “Orange is the new ‘block’: Structure reveals key features that help block excess light absorption during photosynthesis.”

Texas’ marijuana still seems like a longshot.  But, Texas medical marijuana operators ‘push but not shove’ to expand state’s limited MMJ program.  Boy, I do have back pain and gout…come on guv’nah!

Write when you get rich,

George@Ure.net

110 thoughts on ““Hidden Depression” in Amerizuela”

  1. George your right on the money…as usual. No soup lines, but in my county public schools have given out over 4 million meals since March in addition to the standard daily breakfasts and lunches. Every Tuesday and Thursdays after school the people line up for their box of food, and our food banks have given out 150% more food in the last nine months than they had given out in the prior calendar year. Paper it over indeed

    • ‘Way back when parents and family were, sometimes, invited in to have lunch with the kids at school – year before last – the last thing I wanted to do when I was there was EAT anything. The food in the elementary cafeteria is best described as “choke and puke” and even kids that bring lunches are heavily regulated in what they can bring. This is coming from a ’75 “gradjiate” of public schools who’s lunches were filling and produced catatonic snoring in all afternoon classes from yeasty rolls that were about half a day’s caloric intake by today’s standards – withOUT butter. I’d give anything for a bag full of the spice bars we had occasionally for dessert. I have yet to find any to date.

      This being said the cost of supporting the kids that don’t get breakfast in order to promote better grades has resulted in putting the cheapest thing on the kids’ plates in order to at least claim they’re feeding the kids well with our tax money. The inflation figures George publishes almost every day exposes this ruse, this “yet another lie” we’re forced to yield to and accept. We haven’t substituted filet mignon for ground critter, we’ve come to seriously suspect there ain’t no critter there on the plate any more.

      • “the last thing I wanted to do when I was there was EAT anything. The food in the elementary cafeteria is best described as “choke and puke”

        I can relate to that lol..they still have that around these parts.. after Obama thiugh kids were to fat. We now have healthier lunches..the one I went to had French fries hotdogs and milk.. 3 french friesone cold hot dog and a bun..
        https://images.app.goo.gl/nysdgdQZAyycWDz69

      • My father’s job took us to a very poor rural Southern school district when I was in elementary. The school cafeteria food was so bad that I would quite literally gag trying to choke it down. My siblings told the same story, and my Mother simply ignored all of our spoiled, ungrateful whining.
        Mom got called upon to do some substitute teaching for about a week in that rural district. She made lunches for myself, my siblings and herself when teaching, for the remainder of our stay there.
        Later, we moved to a school district in another state, with a crabby ex-boxer principal who wouldn’t tolerate mediocrity, I was speechless when I had a pork chop dropped on my lunch plate the first week. It’s all about who is watching the store.

      • Ate with my granddaughter at her school, never again. Food sucked. In my day fresh school baked rolls, yum. Packaged cheap stuff heat and serve. I bet inmates eat better! Crap what am I saying we are the inmates.

      • “I was speechless when I had a pork chop dropped on my lunch plate the first week. It’s all about who is watching the store.”

        Amen N…. I remember when I was young and we had a little old lady and her husband peeling potatoes.. she had to keep an eye on him he had been gassed in ww1.. but the food she cooked was amazing all of it. My favorite she called chili I to this day remember it as hamburger and beans it was so thick and full of flavor…
        The meals at our local school was decent until they cut appropriations..cut staff and limited what they can buy and serve.

    • Based on performance scores Public schools appear to be better at feeding students’ bodies than their brains. For expended dollars, Charter schools
      produce better educated pupils.

      • all things being equal, right? but all things aren’t equal. public schools have to educate all comers, not everyone gets into a charter school. the student populations of public and charter schools are different.

  2. George

    “I refurbed a $100 used (Vista) laptop last year”

    What was the model year of that laptop and who was the vendor of the SSD?

    I have a 2003 Toshiba Tecra S1 I would like to keep running as it’s the driver for a very high quality scanner and printer that is not supported by newer computers.

    • The problem with running the old operating system (maybe win95?), is it is riddled with security vulnerabilities. I had this problem with some embroidery software for a Singer that only runs on win95. What I did is make a windows95 image running on Oracle VirtualBox on a modern host. I have moved and kept that image running on different hosts for at least 5 years. Start up the image when we want to do something unique with the software, and shut it off when complete. It sucks to have to disable perfectly good hardware because software gets out of date, but that is our civilization that throws away stuff because it is unsupportable.

      It will be difficult to buy new SSD drives for that machine and even if you could not sure drivers would work for them. Apparently that machine still has IDE connectors vs the semi modern SATA.

      https://www.techspot.com/community/topics/replacing-a-hard-disk-in-a-toshiba-tecra-s1.26010/

      • “The problem with running the old operating system (maybe win95?), is it is riddled with security vulnerabilities.”

        …Not that Win7/8/10 isn’t, but they’re hidden better.

        With that said, the kiddies abandon the writing of scripts and bots to infiltrate an OS, shortly after Microsoft ceases its support. If’fn you venture out on the dark side, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a troj or worm that’ll infiltrate XP and it’s damn’ near impossible to find one for 98 or 95. I noticed this when I was still building. Win98 viruses and attack software disappeared within weeks of its EOL. They still existed, but the AV proggies (which didn’t end support for months after 98SE’s EOL cycle) caught 100% and no new exploits surfaced. ‘Twas the same story for XP’s EOL. The kiddies use the current OS’ API and underlying libraries to write their junk. The one good thing about Microsoft coding is they make new calls incompatible with older versions of their libraries and sysprogs…

      • I also agree with Joe WRT VirtualBox. I was a sysbuilder through XPSP2 and may know stuff about Win3/95/98 that is intuitively obvious to me, but not commonly known by others.

        The Tecra S1 uses an Intel 82801DBM I/O Controller, which is EIDE (okay, the specs call it SATA but ATA, whether serial or parallel, is still IDE.)

        Under 32-bit DOS you are limited to 127Gb of hard drive size because that is all the space the OS can address. Under the SATA-5 spec you’re limited, I believe, to 200Gb but I can’t remember if that’s per physical or virtual drive.

        You CAN, actually, buy an EIDE/SATA solid state hard drive (yeah, I didn’t know they existed, either…), however the only one I found is 160Gb and $566 ( http://www.transource.com/store/product_detail.asp?part_num=10231368 ) and I don’t know if it’s 2.5″x9.5mm (your drive size) or a 3.5 incher for a desktop…

    • Joe’s assessment of your Toshiba is spot on and his suggestion using VirtualBox is a solid recommendation. -msft partner

      • Thanks to all for your information! I will take it under serious consideration as I hate to see my old machine finally die.

  3. Anxiety Mr G – Anxiety Disorder..

    -getting up in middle of Ure sleep cycle (regular like) is absolutely a symptom of AD.

    – coot has a terrible case of anxiety disorder, properly diagnosed by Physician (Pennsyltucky).

    Sativa in the prevening & a lil CBD -THC / 1to1 Tincture to smooth out the effects.

    Indica for the “Nip&Tuck” – no more nasty dreams/waking up feeling like I have been thru 3 rounds in boxing ring.

    Seems critical period of days we are in right now..

    – coot rolled 2 large positions in silver miners stock last year(3rd qtr.) into this month-Jan21 expiration (walkthetalk).
    They were out of the money Call Options, paying $ for the time Premium, and Rolling out of any further 2020 Tax liabilities.

    Solved the further tax liability problem – but now confronted with one position in-the-money! and one position out-of- the money by $8.00 (17%) with 7 days to expiration.
    The gamble is on Chaos – do I let it ride, eat the losses, or double down on my calculated risk, or sell against it (spread) ? thinking I will continue to nibble on averaging down my cost as I await further instability from the rollout of AmRev 2.0
    After all someones gonna profit from all this “Fuckery”.

    – it might as well be the goat hisself! How else am I gonna pay for ALL the cheap stock I’m gonna buy “when the blood is running down wall street” soonly?

    Got Silver / in Ure hands? if not – just like Bitcoin – U dont Own Squat.

    • When comes to physical – totally agree – if you don’t know where the shovel goes…..

      Got’cher btc ssd buried 3 feet under some iron scrap 4′ down?

    • I bought $1,000 worth of bitcoin using the Cash App when bitcoin was about $9,000 & it is worth $5,180 today. I can sell it & deposit the money in my Cash App Debit Card & buy lunch. Will the DOW or Bitcoin hit $100,000 first? A rising stock market & low interest rates pays the bills for our greedy polititions. There is still no other country everybody trusts to replace the dollar as the world’s reserve currency (but Bitcoin could). We are still in the drivers seat. Remember how Japan was going to own America in the 80’s & then the Japanese economy crashed & we got back all the real estate for pennies on the dollar.

  4. I just got fact checked when I tried to pass on actual news papers articles. Big Brother is working overtime. No sooner when I pressed post, “FACT CHECKED” appeared. They were real newspaper articles and the only word that was in them were “Antifa”. I would like to post your opening article today if I may.

    • I would rather you emailed it to 100 friends. I don’t need to provide free content for solicat(ists). Who monetized all the dumb people in the world *(who don’t see how their gems of wisdom make Bark Muckerberg richer).
      People who – having not paid for writers – turn around and censor the president with a different agenda than theirs. (thanks for asking and understanding.)

  6. Warhammer’s “chill perspectives” are well stated.

    Long before the election, I warned my Trump hating friends that far more dangerous than another 4 years of Trump would be a huge part of the electorate feeling ripped off in a fraudulent vote counting process (80% of Republicans by some counts). Trump may go but the deep resentment and loss of faith in the system will stay.

    I agree that we have to tamp down the inflammatory rhetoric from both sides or the flames of violence will continue to be stoked. Cancelling Trump’s twitter account or removing Trump from office with 13 days to go will not solve this problem.

    Warhammer’s last paragraph should be read over and over again by both sides. These are dangerous times for the Republic and the world.

    • if trump wins it’s a legitimate election. if trump loses it illegitimate. sorry that’s not logic or reality. trump lost because he’s a malevolent monster.

      his favorability polls have been under water since 2016, one of the most disfavored presidents ever. trump lost the popular vote to hillary, a horrible candidate. the polls all had trump losing. historians rate trump near the bottom of the list. why is it so hard to believe that trump was rejected?

      • OG, who said the election was illegitimate? Biden won, but “faith” in the integrity and accuracy of the election is wavering for many citizens, just as the voting public’s faith wavered over hanging chads in Florida back in 2000. Dubya came out the victor, but that election’s outcome also seemed a bit slimy to many, although no one stormed the Capitol back then. We can send vehicles to Mars but we can’t design and implement fail safe voting procedures across all 50 states? Something smells dreadfully wrong to me.

      • Trump is a outsider threatening to dump over the big boys apple cart, left or right the political establishment had it in for him since day one. We are just the ants doing our jobs. The whole system is corrupt, just for monetary gain. Way more to life than that.

      • Why so hard ? Because we KNOW we have not had a Vote – a Say in anything in American Policy/Procedure/Politics since the COUP of 63′

        It was alwayz going to be Military – Welcome ye lying scum to World Rev 1.0
        Ever hear of Leanardo? its a Satellite..
        BOOM!

        https://youtu.be/S5IN-NPfA5E

      • Why so eager to show such ignorance AND bias, I might add. Wow, to think that you didn’t watch one contested state’s hearings. Come on, just admit it, you and [gaslight redact] are friends [redact]. Haven’t researched who owns the voting machines? Didn’t listen to forensic scientists who testified? Sometimes, it is shameful to see someone type such ignorance passing it off as facts.

    • Pence, McConnell and many others support the Biden win. It’s sad, Warhammer, that you and many others are stuck in regional tribalism:
      https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/05/politics/mike-pence-donald-trump-congress-election/index.html

      Disbelievers and believers in Biden’s win are separated by age, race, rural/urban ‘tribalism’
      https://news.northeastern.edu/2020/12/11/who-won-the-2020-presidential-election-joe-biden-or-donald-trump-depends-whom-you-ask/

      Facts are now ‘weapons’ (for the Trump supporters) supporterhttps://www.cjonline.com/story/opinion/columns/2020/10/29/tom-magstadt-trump-tribalism-and-truth/114535234/

      • Again, you are reading with your biased heart and not an open mind. While I cited the nation’s long history of violent protest, I did not condone the Capitol takeover, stating it was “wrong in many ways,” and I clearly stated Biden won and we as a nation must move on. The election process leaves much to be desired for the most technological and free nation in the world. Both sides need to sit down and address the key issues thru a bipartisan lense or the nation is headed into even deeper kimchi.

      • I feel like I’m living in Yugoslavia around 1989, don’t like what the probabilities are for this country in the next few years. I agree with warhammer, the issues regarding election confidence have to be resolved because a well armed portion of the population feeling disenfranchised often resort to very kinetic means, in which everyone loses. The winner will be who has lost the least.

        James Johnson, ex-nuke

  7. A thought or two on yesterdays events in DC “There is no bad that some good does not comes out of it” I hope and pray that our so called law makers got the the living crap scared out them and realize that the American people are mad as hell and that they were sent to DC to do the American Peoples business not theirs. The Tree of Liberty from time to time needs to be refreshed with the blood of Patriots and Tyrants!

    • Phew Jeff.. I was stunned by what happened in DC but not surprised.
      I still think there was a darker deeper group involved to stir the pot..
      Rioting and causing violent uprisings is never a solution..all that does is create havoc and get people scared and hurt..
      They should Go out and ….VOTE…. why keep voting in the same people they disapprove of…
      Write a letter.. fifty thousand letters to every member of congress once a day until they act on it..I don’t care who’s giving them what..that would get action faster than anything.. they would want that gone resolved. If you have a fleet of mail trucks per congressman arriving daily…it would be just as big a news story and no one is hurt. And create jobs..

  8. I have a long to-do list today but I think I’ll start off by vacuuming out the dust bunnies from under the bed.

  9. “Sales are still rolling at Amazon, but in terms of Growth?”

    I am not sure about there.. but here … most of the people that are being cautious are shopping amazon.. and I of course got amazon prime so that I could get free shipping.. the free shipping portion of the prime account pays for itself many times over..making it a justifyable expense.. not to mention I can get commodities on amazon prime that I cannot get at the local merchants because the supply lines are all broken..

    • That’s why it is so difficult for me to understand that complainers don’t seem to grasp that the world as is reflect our individual choices. ;-)

      People sometimes need to be reminded: Consider the consequences of your action vs. convenience.

  10. Yesterday was the big revolution. Looks like police and military didn’t side with Trump.

    Most folks are back to waiting for the $600.00 check.

    The folks who cited Qanon as “real” permanently discredited themselves. Those folks “fell for anything” and should be kept at a distance, unless you’re the programmer. ;)

  12. “So the latest media monetization is whether he will be Article 25’ed out with 13-days on the clock. Piece in the Chicago Trib lays out the mechanics of that process.”

    OMG… that would be such a slap at him to.. I am gussing he would take it as…. congress saying……

    YOU’RE FIRED…

    https://youtu.be/Z2u8OVK4qD4

    My curiosity.. is will these same people be going to him for the huge contributions and selling out to the lobbyists he hires in the future LOL LOL LOL…
    before he was elected almost all of them was getting money from him LOL LOL in one form or another..

  13. How long can the Red Chinese money prop up this market?They’re the only ones who benefitted from yesterday’s Kent State re-enactment.

  14. I have to take issue with Warhammer falling into the trap that there was any type of election fraud. Republican Secretary of states, Governors in Arizona, Georgia, Nevada etc are literally putting their lives at stake and are out there pleading to the American People that there was zero election fraud. They are getting death threats…Yet they stand by their integrity and the integrity of the election. Dead people voting?…they found 1 instance. People voting under the age of 18? They found 1 instance. The list goes on. The Election board of the United States and each individual state have repeated with confidence that this was the safest and most secure election in the history of the United States. Instead of being praised for that, Trump fires a few people and the rest get death threats.

    And why? Because you have a scared, cowardly, narcissistic boob at the top that only cares about himself and would rather incite a riot that ended up costing us 4 lives and a world of hurt on the global scale. And you wonder why there is talk of the 25th amendment? Shame on all of you that support Trump. Shame, shame shame. You all did this. You invited the first breach of our capital since 1814…And was from a foreign power…This was from stupid, idiotic cult followers.

    • Shame shame shame on the other party for not listening to the Will of the People.
      Basics: Real Borders, Real Money, Real Values. Real balanced books… Gender count similar to what’s found in Nature. *(what is done with one’s gender is open).

      See, my point Mark is both sides are tone-deaf. My son asked me t’other day “Dad, don’t they get what happens when the Silent Majority gets pissed?”

      And if you don’t believe both sides sent out ballots and encouraged bad voting…well, that’s a kind of denial too.

      As luck would have it, got some shares in the Bay Bridge coming up as an IPO next week…

      • the will of the people is that biden won. the will of the people last time was that hillary won. the last republican president (non office holder) to win the popular vote was reagan.

        republicans would be better off spending their time to develop a platform that appeals to more voters so they can win elections the old fashioned way….by getting more votes.

      • George, you are an enigma. One of these days you will will wake up and realize you have been living a lie.

    • I don’t disagree with or doubt your “boob” accusation, Mark. But honestly, every U.S. election since Andrew Jackson has been wrought with fraud. I grew up next to a ward chairman in Pennsylvania who would pay buddies of mine who were rich enough to own cars to drive a carload of folks from polling station to polling station on election day. Gee, I maybe those passengers were just providing moral support?

      “The political and commercial morals of the United States are not merely food for laughter, they are an entire banquet.” ~ Mark Twain

    • Some say they are aggressive. I believe the Trumpists are simply bullies getting their game on. We’re probably going through a modern Cro Magnon vs Neanderthal moment…

  16. “I hope and pray our political class ‘on both sides’ realizes the gravity of the current situation and works to rebuild citizen confidence in the system that elects them to office. Nothing less will quench this nascent rebellion. ”

    Unfortunately I am afraid WH.. that the system is so bought and owned and broken that I doubt any of them would know how. Or be willing to devote that kind of energy to try to fix the situation… the whole thing has been escalating towards this time for decades, eroding a little bit at a time…. the chess pieces are all in place and they are facing a multi faceted national erosion that cold encompass the whole world from every direction you can possibly think of and as of yet.. they still are going SNAFU….The stock market.. that is a false positive an illusion to give those that aren’t really paying attention because of what ever reason the sense that it is ok…. those that aren’t paying attention will see.. hey its good.. Just like a car that wasn’t even a year old that the daughter bought.. the salesman sold it as a company car that was off of lease.. only to discover that once you looked beneath the hood of that car you could see the damage that was there.. right now the salesmen are selling us the country showing us how great everything is going.. the moment one of our manufacturing countries questions our situation or some ding dong decides to cause a situation with them.. they own us.. and six mil a year as a connection point and a retainer well just what did that buy is my question….
    https://youtu.be/PJy8vTu66tE

  17. One more thing…I posted something similar on another site and on person admitted that they don’t get the full news on Fox, QAnon and Parlor…those unpatriotic and treasonous media options spew the wacky conspiracies but no mention that each and every election official both Republican and Democrat have said repeatedly on the real national news that this was the most secure election in history…period. This is their business model. Take advantage of brainless idiots…like the ones that stormed the capital yesterday…in which all looked like losers…and feed them crazy, unfettered conspiracies and get those endorphins, dopamine, testosterone etc. into hyper gear. It’s a science intended for the mentally vulnerable and less educated to control thoughts and lead by the fear that triggers these chemicals in our bodies.

    • Now you’ve fallen into it, Mark: DimThink.

      Where (and I may have missed the memo) did the Free Press not include the word Free?

      You’re welcome to personally believe that media you disagree with are unpatriotic and such, but pleeze! Having a different opinion is neither treasonous or dangerous. It’s where best of class ideas spring from.

      • It is absolutely unpatriotic if it is nothing but a pack of lies and creates insurrection. Come on George. Did you forget to take take your Huperzine A and Lions Mane today? Totally unlike you to go off the rails like that.

        This video is exactly what happens when QAnon and OAN spew lies. It creates these monsters. This video below is full of some of the dumbest creatures on earth. I would be doing a disservice to call them humans. Just sickening! On a side note, 5 of the poorest states in the country are red states. That means poorly educated obviously. Idiots!

        ‘What are we supposed to do?’: Rioter speaks to CNN reporter https://www.cnn.com/videos/business/2021/01/07/capitol-riot-inside-look-reeve-pkg-lead-vpx.cnn

      • Dim think George? It’s called science. I used to be those mind controlling ad and media types Listen to Lex Friedman and his guests every once in a while. You may learn a thing or two.

      • So true, George. No discussion nothing gained. I thrive on hearing other view points. It expands the mind tremendously.

    • Mark you herald insualting at me because I posted a statement biden made you need to look it up he sad ( we put together the most extensive voter fraud organization ever) look it up you will see a video of your king saying it. Which leave only two ways to look at it either he is telling the truth in which case in belongs in prison are he is senile and should never be president. And has for me never makeing anything out of myself I am retire with a public school pension ss and rent out farm ground bought and paid for.

    • The crisis actors have left the capital building. Trump has conceded. The election is over. Can you now post something other than anti-Trump rants? Those rants are so, well, 2020. Don’t you have some kind of Urban Survival material to share with us? I mean, a rant every now and then is understandable, but 24/7/365.25? Maybe you can do a post on treading sea water for survival as a follow-up to some of Stu’s new material. Stu doesn’t like Trump, but he has moved on:

      https://theageofdesolation.com/nostradamus/2021/01/04/the-navys-new-flux-capacitor/

      Maybe you and Elon can jointly develop a Tesla commuter saucer? Joe would probably give you a grant. Now that would be a real Urban Survival DIY project.

      • No no brother – he did not ever say CONCEDE .
        In fact if looked at closely you can see the green hue around edges of video, not actually in rose garden.
        You can see newly greened (lighter shade) of new growth on bushes in background of video – new growth in January? green screen..

        “rumored” POTUS is in Abeline, TX “exfiled” via nightstalker right after rally address.

        – nuke sniffer helo is all over area – minimum 3 refueling tankers in air over west Texas last night – specifically for refueling fighters – why would fighters be in the air over west Texas – trainers dont have airborne refueling capabilities??

  18. I forgot to mention what was flitting through my brain as I was reading today’s installment and that is Money Velocity which is still sitting on the bottom of the chart but rising ever so slightly. Jim Rickards gave an interview on Greg Hunter’s site a day or two ago and one of the points he was making was that we won’t see runaway inflation, especially in the PM markets, until the psychology behind increased MV really gets going regardless of the increases in “M-whatever”. In the case of the PM markets this will mean overcoming the futures manipulation but that’s been demonstrated to be easily done this past year. The wall of worry, while lurking in the background like a red-eyed monster, is not here just yet and will probably be started as an extra-national monetary event before it filters down to our level. As long as people are either paying down debt or just putting money into savings accounts the Fed isn’t going to see the inflation targets they seek even with $2,000 subsidy checks flowing to the public. Because of this non-participation of the public the Fed may ramp up its roll-out of its Fedcoin, digital wallets and UBI depending on their perception of the urgency of the situation.

    It’s always interesting to watch the various commodities change places below the charts over at https://finviz.com/futures.ashx. Each listing is clickable. Lumber has moved way down the list to the contraction side and the overall appearance at the moment of the bar charts is that contraction is the current status of the moment. All this may change by tomorrow, of course.

  19. I asked a friend in India today, “are the numbers of new cases really dropping”. This is what he told me:

    Everything other than office life, is back to normal. Movies, shopping, etc.
    Hardly anyone wears a mask.
    Social distancing is not a thing.

    People are not waiting for a vaccine. If they get sick, they take local medicines and get better in a week or two. If they have a serious problem, they go to the hospital. Only the hospital visits are counting as new cases. So the new cases count is low.

    America is lost, by my count. We are herded into fear channels, with no possible recovery unless the lords of news stop the fear pr0n. How can you explain the difference between USA (masks, distancing, naturally less dense populations), and China/India (return to normal in full swing). The math just doesn’t work.

    The scene from The Jerk comes to mind: When the crazy guy is shooting at Navin, hitting oil cans and pop cans. He sees the guy, and comes to the conclusion “HE HATES THESE CANS!!”

    America has seen the data and concluded “COVID HATES THESE PEOPLE!”

    PS: Don’t forget Antifa locked police into a precinct building and set fire to it. Add that to the list: blinding lasers, explosive full size fireworks, bricks, bottles, piss, and everything else they threw at cops/feds.

    That stuff was considered to be valid protest activity. And yet this morning both of my employers are staffing counseling for people in Portland scared of what’s going on in DC!

  20. Two terms for political office is too much. One six year term per office. So the career politician is not begging for re-election campaign.

    The ultimate to get rid of career politicians. You only get to run for one political 6 year term. Then you can not run for any other political office. Pick your spot.

    • See how easy it could be? But “once in the money” why would THEY change? People should demand.

    • Yes, yes, a thousand times yes. And as George recommends, two terms max for members of the house and senate.

    • Won’t work; for most, politics is a career path and they try to climb the ladder from alderman to representative to senator to secretary to president… If we took that away, we would never find qualified presidents. I agree that nobody should serve in the same position for more than two consecutive terms.

  21. I bought a refurbished Dell laptop a few years ago for $200.. Just replaced the battery for $28 from Amazon. Runs like new.

  22. “Legal” and “moral” are sometimes two different things.
    It’s good when they coincide — which is most of the time.

    Let me be absolutely clear: I do not support or even excuse the violence yesterday. STOP. No qualifiers. Why they got out of control, or even WHO specifically got out of control matters not. Bad Thing.

    (I think they would have done better to form a column, five-abreast, and march while hollering in a giant circle AROUND the Capital building. It would have high visual impact, and make the point. As it devolved into a riot, they became the same as the statue-destroyers of the summer. It’s moral AND legal AND fully Constitutional to “seek redress of grievances;” but destruction and vandalism is none of the three.)

    Having said that:

    1) Taking the example of the stereotypical Boston Tea Party as a convenient example, what they did was illegal — destroying the King’s tea — but it answered a higher moral imperative.

    2) “America” was born of violence. The American Revolution was illegal if you were King George, but it was a moral act for the revolutionaries. Good thing for them that they eventually won — or they would have hung.

    3) I don’t know how history will view yesterday. My guess is it will be understood as a violent reaction to Not Being Heard over many YEARS and not just over a stolen election. I do not think it will be forgiven — long term.

    4) The rioters — that’s what they became — have done severe damage to the movement they claim to populate. They have destroyed their own credibility and respectability.

    Damn Shame…

    • “The rioters — that’s what they became — have done severe damage to the movement they claim to populate. They have destroyed their own credibility and respectability.”

      What makes you think the folks who started the bum-rush (or whatever it was) were from a faction which claims membership in the movement to which the mainstream attributed them?

      “silvermitt” posted this in the comments of yesterday’s column:

      “At least two suspected pipe bombs have been rendered safe by law enforcement — one at a building that houses Republican National Committee offices and one in the US Capitol complex, a federal law enforcement official tells CNN”

      Can you think of any patriot or conservative, from anywhere in the U.S., who would plant pipe bombs at the RNC or the Capitol?

      This is why I’m in “news blackout mode.”

      It takes very little to stimulate a mob into rioting. Soros’ minions got thousands to riot in dozens of cities, with very little effort. Dedicated followers are both…

      • You’re right, but Faulkner calls WOPR “Joshua” in the movie. Its been a while since I’ve seen it. Very cool that you know the techies from that, not at all surprised. ; )

    • What were they playing for actually? It has been proven time and time again that the election was not in any way rigged. Watch the video above that I just posted. They have no idea what they were rioting for. The Trump appointed Supreme Court unanimously said the election fraud was a nothing burger…60 other judges and courts said the same thing. How many experts far smarter than you goons need to say there is nothing to see here before you believe them?

      Those knuckle draggers at the Capital yesterday were playing to placate a psychopath Cult figure in Trump. That’s it! They all should be jailed. All of them!

  24. Black and white. Yin and yang. Narrative shift, now being an upper middle class white anglo concervative, labled as racist radical. Just being being oneself. Whats next? Home owners association labled as “Terrorist Cells” or “Anti government establishments”.. tips hat to WH. To build a wall or not to build a wall.. in california they have gated communities whereever you go. So mote it be.

    Door #1.
    That calderon is hot as F to produce the golden ingots of men and women who would not normally rise to power to be thrust upon the world stage like MLK, Ghandi and maybe even a new Jesus.

    Door #2.
    Or it will it be Nathan Holn, the former copy repair man from Kinko’s who became the Leader of the Army of 8’s to be taken down by the Postman?

    Door #3, where…
    Auntie Entity screams from Thunderdome, “Bust a deal, spin the wheel.” As Max continues to search for Gasoline in the WaisteLand.
    Speaking of waist, need to get by phat ass to the gym.

    Monte, I’m going to pick door #4.
    Prosperity and Abundance I am…. I am good fortune. “How do you know this is good fortune?” Says the Wise old Zen Farmer? Because Wise old Farmer dude, I never heard a multimillionaire ever say, it’s better to be poor. And I saw the Mongols the other day.. I know a few 1%ers. Of various tribes such as the Angels and the Jokers. The old wise zen farmer says, indeed this is good fortune. Grind slowly. And I say, is there any other way? Can’t get to time and a half, double time and Tripple time, if your working ureself out a job by making haste.

    Off the to grab the first 9 gears. The hit the High range and drop the hammer.

    Stay tuned Horton, for more riviting life in whoville

    Cue: ~ Dirty Deeds done dirt Cheep ~
    AC/DC

    Clique 3:16

  25. P.s.s. I heard alot of poor people say money ain’t everything. But I never heard the wealthy say that. The poor people are far more generous when it comes to sharing resources and money and being generally helpful. The rich and wealthy are kinda tight wads. There are a few exceptions. Everyone has a little bad in them and a little good. Even the worse have a little good in them and even the best have a little bad in them. When I did survey of all the classes of social and economic status on the west coast the last year. The one thing the all in common was this: “They are all enamored with their own lives. Love what they think and love those who love them.” One thing I noticed that was the same between those that are on the streets and the Uber rich and wealthy that supprized me most. From the Hookers walking “the Blade” to the Orange County House wives walking on Rodeo Drive, every single person only does for another if they get something out of it in return.

    There is very little genuine and authentic giving because it is good to just do so without expectations of return payment or even recognition. Almost Nill random acts of kindness anymore. That made me sad. Then I remembered,

    The world is a pleasure seeking device no doubt about that. And I am differnt and so is George, because he helped me and didn’t ask for shit in return. Just that I be a better me. And people Like Oscar who didn’t even send me a note. And the Shaman Sky Bear who just opened his tent and said, everything I own is available for you of you need it or want it. Never complained when someone jacked his Fuel our of his truck he just smiled and said, Go where ever the Great Spirit takes you my friend, I’m glad I could help. Then asked me for a ride to go get fuel from the gas station after he found his had can. Never said another word about it. These are the people winning at life and they restored my faith in humanity. Truly remarkable experiance 2020 has been

    And my sweet honey girl who pushes me to keep on keeping on past my limitations that I don’t think I have.

  26. Hawaii has medical marijuana now. A friend witnessed an attempted murder on his front lawn… one kid set another on fire. As the police were interviewing him as a witness on his front lawn, he was obviously shaken and asked the officer if he minded if he lit up a joint to calm his nerves. “I’ve got a medical certificate in the house if you want to see it” he told the cop. Medical users are prohibited from smoking in public, but he was within his rights on his own home property.
    The policeman just laughed and said “go ahead… we don’t bother to enforce it here anymore.”

    I could get a medical certificate, but I just don’t want that on my medical records, either, which could be available to the Feds, who still consider it illegal.

    • Give it a couple of months One way for the junta to endear is to allow drugs.

      (Of course that means opening borders, but such are the knock-ons of deals with the devils…)

      • “junta”? Biden earned 7,000,000 more votes. Words matter. “Junta” isn’t appropriate.

      • “Biden earned 7,000,000 more votes.”
        ROFLMAO!! “EARNED” HAHAHAHAHAHA
        Yep, ‘words matter’.
        Biden: “We’ve put together the greatest voter fraud organization ever”
        Words matter….. yeah, right!

      • Wow! Hell of a comment! The democratic crime syndicate or the Republican crime syndicate and the Fed money laundering scheme. Brilliant mindset!

        Careful tho, jurry is still out on wether concrete shoes are actually the cure for gout. 100% no complaints doesn’t always mean it’s effective. Lol

      • Perhaps, because he turned “TRAITOR” by abandoning his crew and missed his second chance to enter into the history books as a winner — instead of a major disappointment.
        JMHO, of course!!!

  28. “RCA” (not the original company) makes a tablet with snap on/snap off keyboard and up to 64 GB SD card capacity, for under $100. I last bought one for my daughter who was borrowing (and stepped on) mine (but it still works, just a cracked screen!). It comes in Win 10 and Android flavors. The Android version I bought for my girl was only about $60 used on eBay.

  29. m1, m2, m3 blah, blah, blah. someone would be a fool to bet against the market with Biden(MBNA) coming into office. there’s going to be lots of money to be made over the next four years.

    • Oh, yeah – especially when he shuts the whole country down for 100 days. Auctioneers are going to make a killing if they can find anyone to bid on the detritus of the economy.

    • The markets have already been on the Biden hockey stick fir several weeks now and I have benefited tremendously! The next four…make that 8 years are going to be fun!

  30. The “Pence pardons Trump” is making a comeback.

    Bounce back a month to 12/9:

    NY AG predicts President Trump will step down so VP Pence can pardon him
    New York Attorney General Letitia James is predicting President Donald Trump will step down from office so Vice President Mike Pence can pardon him.

    “He can preemptively pardon individuals, and the vast majority of legal scholars have indicated that he cannot pardon himself,” James said on ABC’s “The View” Tuesday. “What he could do is step down and allow the vice president — Vice President Pence — to pardon him.”

    “I suspect at some point in time he will step down and allow the vice president to pardon him.”

    https://www.syracuse.com/us-news/2020/12/ny-ag-predicts-president-trump-will-step-down-so-vp-pence-can-pardon-him.html

    • Pardon him for just what, exactly? The FBI, CIA, and Mueller threw everything they had at him and came up empty. So just WTF are we referencing when mentioning a “pardon”?
      He should get a reward for being the “hardest working man in politics”. Sorta like James Brown’s “hardest working man in show biz”.

    • Why does Trump feel the need to be pardoned? That reeks of a guilty person to me. Of course..the vultures in his administration are coming out of the closet to talk now. Gen. Kelly just trashed him today, Yesterday, Lyndsey Graham, Mitch McConnell, Ben Sass, and dozens of other Republicans said they too are tired of sucking up to the Idiot in Chief. Now that he is powerless, the TRUTH… I HAVE KNOWN ALL ALONG, BUT YOU SHEEPLES WERE TOO STUPID TO LISTEN, will come out. This I already know through my New York friends…Trump WILL be labeled as the worst a president in the history of this country.

      • “Why does Trump feel the need to be pardone”

        I think its mostly a safety precaution because the demoralcraps have been spending billions the past three plus years, trying to make up something horrible enough to impeach him or force him out of office.. they actually started before he took the oath of office.
        Who knows what they will do.

  31. Wow, having different ideas on how to make America a better place and arguing about those is great and fine by me. Having a complete monster as president these past 4 years who lies, cheats, steals, and brainwashes the Gullibles is not fine by me. And, he and his zombie followers are clearly traitors and seditionists. I hope those who breached the capitol yesterday by force end up receiving the 10 years in prison that Trump recently signed into law for anyone who vandalizes government monuments. That would be truly poetic justice.
    Further, I’ve laughed for years at Fox news’ misuse of the word “freedom”. And of course, the monster’s phrase of “Make America Great…”…what a joke. Does anyone who worships Trump understand the true meaning of “freedom” and “great” ? I think not…
    So sad to see the fall of this country under this incompetent and dangerous hot air balloon.

    • Oh Martin! I am at a loss for words, so I’ll borrow from British writer Evelyn Beatrice Hall to accurately summarize how I feel about your post: “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”

  32. Trump finally got his fence! The capitol police erected it around the Capitol. Funny how the Dems didn’t protest THAT fence.

  34. Biden: “We’ve put together the greatest voter fraud organization ever”

    So, Hank in Hawaii, you have evidence of this massive Biden fraud that Trump’s team itself couldn’t/can’t produce? That the republicans in Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Arizona couldn’t provide? That Bill Barr couldn’t produce? That the Trump Supreme court ignored?
    Oh, good! Please do share…I am waiting with bated breath!! It’s amazing how you have gathered so much rock-solid info while being in Hawaii no less!
    ROFLMAO

  35. One day, Godzilla came out of the ocean and decided to take a nap on the local Japanese beach. People were alarmed but not scared as the gigantic beast was benign. It’s just a kaiju. When Godzilla woke up, he was hungry so he proceeded to rampage through the local city destroying everything under his huge feet. People ran here and there fearing for the lives wondering if it was possible to stop the horrendous monster. After Godzilla ate up all of the lawyers and politicians, he felt good and quietly slid back into the waters from where he came. Nobody remembers the quiet kaiju on the beach. They will always remember the monstrous destroyer who wrecked their city.

    The moral of the story? Erect tall barriers around the island to keep the kaiju away.

  38. Yes, the Oligarchs have won again. Such are the ways of Republic? Your Marc Antony and Cleopatra will bid adieu and set sail shortly for their Alexandria. Plebeians lost for words still play Scrabble in Dogpatch for dwindling bitcoin. Surely they must believe that The Party will be serving icing on the cake. It’s been a slice. And now, grab a chair as the music stops, for…

    All, Hail Augustus!

  39. Kinda curious how long before Biden is slid out the door. He and his Son both have foreign arrest Warrants waiting for them,

  40. Here are several videos that offer great clarity as to what went on and what IS going on –

    Dan Crenshaw says it as only he can:
    Dan Crenshaw: The American people were lied to
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUP30p_mUV8

    Az. State Senator Farnsworth
    Maricopa County Board of Supervisors is fighting the State legislature, refusing to audit the voting machines and ballots.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqbomJ4_mqQ

    America Stands: D.C. Update & Krisanne Hall (Constitutional Expert)
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6it6viaA28

  42. Thank you, Warhammer. Yes, the same sentiment back to you. This quote (often wrongly attributed to Voltaire), is one I have referred to many times myself over the years; particularly the past 4. And while, I will defend the right to “free speech”; there is, as you well know, a fine line between free speech and speech that is expressly meant harm/ injure. And “freedom” doesn’t mean you get to do whatever you want just because you don’t like something. To the goon who says, “What are we supposed to do” (meaning the only option is violence); the sane answer is “Put up a better candidate next time and get that person elected”. A better candidate would have easily beaten Biden in this election. No fraud conspiracies needed….

  43. This place is great. Almost as diverse as Sailing Anarchy’s Political Anarchy threads.

    Meets my requirement for outside the mainstream news.

    Mr Ure keep up the good work and hope your boss (Zeus) is aging well. You must spend hours approving these comments. When you really have no need for them. Do you use these comments to get a better take on your readers, and if so have you altered your writing to accommodate any target niche?

    • No, I do it because I am honored to have my readers contribute ideas and content- and better here to richy richy FB ownership – who have made a mockery of discourse through censorship and economic exploitations of readers…

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