Guest Contributor – TomD – 15DEC2023 – Hyperinflation Follies

photog Current Events, Guest Contributors, TomD , ,

Tom | Flickr

TomD

Not just Weimar Republic though they are the most famous if not the most egregious example.

100 trillion zimbabwe front.jpg
100 trillion zimbabwe front.jpg

Zimbabwe for example. Attached is a photo of the $100 trillion dollar Zimbabwean bill with the dubious distinction of being the largest denomination bill in human history.

I bought a number of these bills for about dollar and some each in around 2009. I gave them away as gag gifts. Amazingly, a couple of years ago I happened to find that the $100 trillion dollar notes had become rare and expensive. I checked a couple of minutes ago and found them selling in the $100 to $500 dollar (US) range with some higher. I gave about 30 of these things away. The joke is on me.

Adding to the irony, if I sold the notes on the market now, the US Gov would take 25% of my profit away in the form of capital gains tax on collectables. I’m getting a headache trying to think of all the ironies wrapped up in that.

Some outfit in Germany (no irony there) printed these notes for the Zimbabwean government, so they are of substantial quality.

Guest Contributor – War Pig – 15DEC2023 – Who in 2024

photog Current Events, Guest Contributors, War Pig , ,

war pig

Not so sure about voter hate not being a factor. I believe the 2016 election was not as much about love for Trump as it was about a majority of Americans despising Hillary.

Today’s Democrats are trying their best to whip up a seething hatred of Trump and among their core it works. Most liberals would give their firstborn to keep Trump out of office. But then, they have no problem with murdering their babies, anyhow.

The left is using the weaponized bureaucracy to try to get anything they can to keep him off the ballot. It might just work. If they keep Trump off by legal fiat and leave the Biden crime syndicate, I’ll lose all faith in the government and legal system.

The trick may not be to replace Biden at the convention, but to have him resign after the election, which they steal, with another. Harris would be a joke, even to the left who would love to have a malleable Black woman as President. Hillary might be able to blackmail them into appointing her as VP at the convention. Gavin is a strong contender as VP then have him step in when Biden is ushered out due to “health issues”. They would love to have Biden die in office to get sympathy votes, but he may not oblige.

Look for Joe to have health issues. I doubt he would actually resign. The left created a Frankenstein’s Monster with him. Once they get him in hospital for something serious the process of removing him from office will begin. While Hillary would be okay with an assassination and the left will murder people with impunity in prison, I doubt the left will assassinate a US president. Even Trump. If they manage to get Trump in prison, all bets are off. The left uses bananana Republic rules in prison. “Make him disappear”.

 

 

 

 

Grasping at Straws

photog Current Events , ,

At this time of the rolling year, it is more than usually desirable that we should make some slight provision for finding some positive straws to grasp at in order to stave off despair.  And probably the likeliest item is just how awful the polls are for Biden.  Outside of defense corporation C-suites you’d be hard pressed to find an encouraging word.  He has mucked up almost everything he has touched.  The man is as popular as smallpox.  I guess that’s a negative positive straw.

I asked a couple of friends who would be on the November ballot and one said that Biden would be pulled right before the convention and replaced with Gavin Newsom.  And the other told me that Donald Trump would be kept off the ballot by judges.  And this fellow seemed relieved because he assumed that another Republican would easily beat Biden.  I told him I disagreed.  I said I thought that if Trump is forced off the ballot a large enough part of the Republican voters would stay home on election day to give Biden the win.  I think this was a new thought for him.  I’m not sure I convinced him but I think I gave him something to consider.

So many people are angry and confused by the endless failures that have become the hallmark of our government.  And almost as bad is the absurd lies that emerge to paint an unrecognizable version of reality.

Such as:

“We are living through the strongest economy in history.  Wealth and prosperity abound.  Life here is full of choices and freedom that provide everyone with fulfillment and joy.  Big Brother loves you.  Joe Biden is vigorous and smart.  Ukraine is winning the war.  We’ve always been at war with East Asia.”

They’re all such obvious lies that it seems reasonable that most of the country will see through them and punish the ones responsible for the lies and for the underlying problems.  So, I grasp at the straw that Biden is so hated that he will be voted out in November.  But it’s just a wish.  It’s just a hope.  It’s not the solution to an equation.

But isn’t life mostly a grasping at straws?  We spend our time stumbling around in the dark trying to outguess the stock market or the labor market.  We place our bets on a career or an investment strategy or a politician.  Sometimes we win.  If we win enough times, we begin to think winning is the norm.  That was what it was like in the eighties and nineties in America.  It felt like winning was how the world worked.  But then came the turn of the millennium and things changed.

The people in charge had plans of their own for us and it didn’t involve winning.  More like skinning.  We were way too happy and prosperous.  It was time to let the rest of the world win.  And ever since it’s been losing.  Losing prosperity, freedoms and self-respect.

Well, now we’re grasping at straws trying to find a way back to what we had.  So far it hasn’t worked.  Maybe the only thing that’s improved is we know where not to look.  It feels futile but we have no choice.  The new reality is intolerable and the memory of what we had before is still there.  So, we go on.

U. of Penn. Donors Attempt Reform of Ivy League School

photog Current Events ,

Heather Mac Donald at the City Journal documents a revolt that seems to be going on behind the scenes at at least a couple of the Ivy League schools that have been in the headlines of late.

Apparently the donors have been chafing for some time at the direction the university has taken.

“University of Pennsylvania president Liz Magill would not have been forced to resign last weekend had Penn’s donors and alumni not been organizing against her for two months.

…

The Penn rebels have now upped the ante. They have drafted a new constitution for the school that makes merit the sole criterion for student admissions and faculty hiring. The new charter requires the university to embrace institutional neutrality with regard to politics and faculty research. The rebels want candidates for Penn’s presidency to embrace the new charter as a precondition for employment.”

Could such a thing happen?  Would the federal government allow it?  I’m sure everyone reading this would be highly skeptical of such an outcome.  If nothing else it would require the un-employing of hundreds of DEI commissars that fill the corridors of the ivy-covered halls of Penn and Harvard.

And what of the grievance study departments?  How could such organizations fit into a merit based regime.  Other than employment for the “professors” what merit exists in what they do?  No meaningful purpose is served by what they do.  In fact, everyone is harmed by it; society, the students and the parents who have to pay for it.  Could this be the beginning of a revolt against the degradation of academia?  Hard to believe.

But when the ox being gored is that of the rich and powerful, things can happen.  Well, isn’t that how most revolutions occur?  Antisemitism has collided with progressive privilege and this has awakened the donors to the monster they themselves have fostered.

We’ll have to see.  After all you can’t turn a ship on a dime.  And the academic world has been corrupted for not decades but generations.  The only thing that favors reform is the sheer crushing weight of the bloated bureaucracies that have been created in these woke places.  America can no longer pay for the cost of the parasites sucking at the lifeblood of these dying schools.  Especially since they’ve almost stopped teaching anything meaningful.

Will the reforms at Penn happen?  Stay tuned and I’ll comment as information becomes available.

Update:

I just read the ZMan’s post for today.  He addresses this incident and he says that nothing will come of it.  Well, we’ll have to see.  Maybe a Festivus miracle is in the offing.

Maxed Out

photog Current Events ,

When I think about all the absurdities of the present political situation, I think the most striking is the degree to which the Left blames Donald Trump with all the crimes and intentions that they themselves are already guilty of.  They say he will be a dictator, lawlessly striking out against innocent people.  And simultaneously they have imprisoned old women and harmless men for protesting on January 6th.  They claim insurrection against these people who wandered around the Capitol building without weapons.  And yet they incited and abetted the George Floyd riots that destroyed thousands of businesses and even killed a number of people.

They say that Trump will destroy democracy but they allowed election laws to be trampled on during the COVID panic they manufactured.  They say he will start World War III and yet during his presidency there were no wars.  But under the neo-cons we’re currently playing brinksmanship with both the Russians and the Chinese while simultaneously enraging both the Israelis and the Arabs by vacillating over the Gaza War.

I ask myself what is it that offends me the most?  Is it the hypocrisy or the fact that the American people don’t rise up and tar and feather these people for their mendacity.  Am I angrier with the American people than I am with the Left’s leadership?  So, it comes back to the Evil and the Stupid.  And since I’ve been a charter member of the Stupid, I guess I’m mad at myself.  I’m mad because we’ve always allowed ourselves to be shamed over supposed pieties.  We don’t want to seem selfish.  But we should.

So maybe the correct way to think about any political situation is by ignoring questions of morality and weighing its results according to how they affect me directly.  And that’s how we should talk about them too.  If Joe Biden tells me he wants to give Ukraine another hundred billion dollars, I should ask him what I get out of it.  And if he tells me, it will mean another victory for democracy, I’ll ask him who’s going to pay for the two hundred billion we spent on it and who is going to pay the interest on it too?  And if he doesn’t have an answer that means I’m paying for it and my answer, is I don’t want to give them anything.  And I don’t want to pay for any windmills or solar panels or upgrades to the grid to power electric cars for the same reason.  I don’t want to pay for them because they’re stupid and all the money they take from me to pay for these things is basically flushed down the drain (and simultaneously stolen by Obama cronies).

The same thing can be said about illegal aliens and legalized drugs and homeless encampments and defunding the police.  All of these things are harmful policies that cost me untold billions of dollars and make my life worse.  So, no matter how much they tell me these are the “moral and the smart” things to do, I weigh the cost and find them wanting.  So, it’s nothing personal.  I’m just applying the rules of identity politics and identifying as one of the people who get hurt by all of these policies.  My lived experience tells me that I will be the disadvantaged by all of these actions.  So why would I ever want to go against my own interests?

Now they’ll say all kinds of things about diversity, equity and inclusion.  And I’ll say fine, let the people who think these things are just and fair pay for them personally.  Let Barack Obama take in all the migrants from Haiti, Somalia and Guatemala that he cares to and let him cloth, feed, house, educate and employ all of them.  And let all of the other members of the Left who wants these policies pick up the tab.  But since they won’t, my answer is no.  And if all the Republican politicians were as forthright as this, it would cut through all the nonsense and eliminate the hypocrisy.

Why do we have to pretend we care about pieties that we don’t really believe in?  Why do I have to care if there are more boys in STEM fields than girls?  And why do I have to pay for forcing more girls in than currently want to be?  Because rigging employment fields costs me money too.  Quota hires like women in STEM cause all kinds of damage and inefficiency.  And that goes for quota hires of all sorts.  Affirmative action is one of the worst policies for efficiency and we all pay the cost.  If a company wants to hire more women engineers, let them.  But don’t force everyone else to have to employ them too.

So, I’ll say to Joe Biden or Nancy Pelosi or Barack Obama, “It’s nothing personal but I don’t want to pay for your problems.  Why don’t you find all your friends who believe what you do and pass the hat around.  Just don’t charge it on the government credit card.  It’s maxed out.”

14DEC2023 – Quote of the Day

photog Quote of the Day ,

Too many French scholars were the principal authors of the Revolution, too many approved and gave their support so long as the Revolution, like Tarquinius’ sceptre, struck down only the tallest heads. Like so many others, they said, It is impossible to make a great revolution without incurring misfortunes. But when a philosopher justifies evil by the end in view, when he says in his heart, Let there be a hundred thousand murders, provided we are free, and Providence replies, I accept your offer, but you must be included in the number, where is the injustice?

Joseph de Maistre