Category Archives: Business

When They Say the US Government Has Never Defaulted They’re Lying, by Michael Maharrey

Posted on February 14, 2023 | Leave a comment

And don’t rule out default in the future. From Michael Maharrey at schiffgold.com:

The fake debt ceiling fight is on and the Biden administration has ratcheted up the scare tactics. One of its strategies is to make you think the world will collapse if the US defaults on its debt obligations. After all, the US always pays its bills on time — so we’re told.

A default would certainly be problematic. But despite what you’re being told, it’s not unprecedented. The US government has defaulted before.

I call this a fake debt ceiling fight because we all know how it will end. Congress will raise the debt ceiling. It may or may not come with some modest spending cuts. But we all know that any cuts will be superficial. Actual spending will keep going up. It always does.

But right now, we have to endure the dog and pony show as Republicans and Democrats haggle.

Republicans say they want spending cuts. (One has to wonder where this urgency was when the GOP controlled both houses of Congress and the White House, but that’s a discussion for another time.) Democrats say they won’t negotiate.

And here we are.

To fortify their position, the administration tells us that raising the debt ceiling is a matter of economic life and death. As I mentioned, the mantra is the US always pays its bills on time. As Mises Institute senior editor Ryan McMaken pointed out, as part of the strategy, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is parroting the oft-repeated claim that the US has never defaulted.

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War of the Worlds, by James Howard Kunstler

Posted on February 13, 2023 | Leave a comment

Let’s hope Kunstler is right that some measure of accountability and justice is coming for those who perpetrated the last three years. From Kunstler at kunstler.com:

     Didn’t you get the feeling this weekend that we’re living in HG Wells’ classic tale of the earth invaded by sinister alien spacecrafts? Our government is playing the story like a bassoon concerto. “American officials do not know what the objects were, much less their purpose or who sent them,” The New York Times reported, poaching a line from every horror movie of the 1950s. When do the giant ants show up on Fremont Street in Las Vegas?

     Looks like they’ll keep up the suspense as long as possible, too. Oh, we can’t retrieve that thing up in Alaska due to white-out weather conditions… Oh, that other thing — the eight-sided silver tic-tac — it fell into Lake Huron, glug glug… and that first one, the big balloon payload, lies deep in Davy Jones’ Locker now. You’ll have to stand by, folks….

     Let’s face it, all the other mindfucks set in motion by the folks-in-charge are not just losing their mojo — they’re generating a lot of nasty blow-back in the way of widespread distrust of authority and institutional collapse. Even Woked-up Democrat voters begin to suspect that the vaxxes they greeted like a holy deliverance might not be so good for you after all. I’m waiting for Rob Reiner’s head to explode when he starts to notice how many young SAG-AFTRA members are waking up dead in West Hollywood.

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Posted in Business, Collapse, Crime, Debt, Economy, Foreign Policy, Geopolitics, Government, Military, Morality, Politics, Propaganda, War

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Disney Officially Loses Control Of Reedy Creek Development In Landslide Florida Senate Vote, by Tyler Durden

Posted on February 13, 2023 | 1 comment

Disney’s foray into politics in support of leftist, woke causes turnout out disastrously. From Tyler Durden at zerohedge.com:

Last year Disney waged political war with the state of Florida and Governor Ron DeSantis and has suffered an overwhelming defeat.  The company has officially lost control of their Reedy Creek Development – First devised as an unprecedented agreement with Disney to allow it to act unilaterally in business development within the 25,000 acre park with limited government oversight.  The decision to dissolve Reedy Creek’s original management was finalized after a landslide senate vote this week to appoint a new governing board.

Disney has stated that it does not plan to fight the state ruling in court, probably because they know it is a losing battle. The new entity, dubbed the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District, will be operated by a five-member board appointed by DeSantis and confirmed by the state Senate.  The move effectively gives DeSantis power over operations including collecting taxes.

Disney World is set to rely even more on its theme park revenues as its movies and streaming service continue to flounder.

The entertainment behemoth engaged in a fight with the Florida citizenry and DeSantis in early 2022 over Bill HB 1557 (The Parental Rights In Education Bill) which was signed into law last March.  The law prevents Florida public schools from targeting young children and teaching gender identity ideology or sexualized propaganda; it also requires that teachers inform parents of their lesson plans and subject matter for Grades K-3.

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U.S. Government Sold Your Right to Jury Trial — to Insulate Big Pharma From Liability, by William Spruance

Posted on February 12, 2023 | 1 comment

The government pays big pharma for their products and shields them from liability when those products harm people. It’s the perfect business model for executives and shareholders without a shred of conscience. From William Spruance at childrenshealthdefense.org:

The federal government sold the Seventh Amendment, designed to protect your right to a jury trial, to the largest lobbying force in the country: Big Pharma.

On Feb. 24, 1985, The New York Times published “Glory Days End for Pharmaceuticals.” The article cited growing competition and legal liabilities as signs that “the big drug companies have suddenly found themselves mired in the same sort of troubles that have plagued less-glamorous industries for years.”

“Inevitably some [companies] will face staggering liabilities and lengthy court cases on approved drugs that later turn into flops,” journalist Winston Williams wrote.

Of course, the glory days did not end for Big Pharma.

From 2000 to 2018, 35 pharmaceutical companies reported cumulative revenue of $11.5 trillion. A study found that this was “significantly greater than other larger, public companies in the same time frame.”

Pfizer’s annual revenue jumped from $3.8 billion in 1984 to a record $100 billion in 2022. The company’s COVID-19 products, including its vaccine and Paxlovid accounted for $57 billion of that income.

The U.S. Government provided a steady stream of taxpayer dollars for Big Pharma’s revenue and shielded the benefiting companies from the cost of litigation.

Federal purchases of Pfizer and Moderna’s mRNA COVID-19 vaccines have totaled more than $25 billion. The government paid Moderna $2.5 billion of taxpayer funds to develop the vaccine, and President Biden called on local leaders to use public money to bribe citizens to get the shots.

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Who Benefited From This Chaos? By Jeffrey Tucker

Posted on February 12, 2023 | Leave a comment

Power and money flowed to a select group during the Covid travesty. From Jeffrey Tucker at The Epoch Times via zerohedge.com:

Two years ago on this day, I posted a piece that was very hard to write. It concerned precisely who was benefiting from the lockdowns, masking, and all that was associated with it, including school and business closures and travel restrictions.

As much as we would all prefer for everyone to be concerned about big issues like public health and human rights, it’s sadly the case that industrial interests (and even ruling-class evildoers) sometimes prevail over both.

Obviously, most people all over the world have lost so much over three years, not only health and income but also hope. It’s tragic. Meanwhile, many others seem to have made out like bandits during the biggest transfer of wealth in the shortest time in the history of humanity.

(null xtract/Pexels)

Many groups and sectors had a kind of hankering for a pandemic. They turned a widespread and mostly manageable pathogen—doctor/patient relationships and reasonable cautions on the part of the vulnerable—and converted it into the basis for a global panic of compulsion and coercion that overthrew centuries of progress in law and liberty.

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FBI Collusion With Twitter ‘Shocking,’ Witnesses Tell Panel at ‘Weaponization’ Hearing, by Michael Nevradakis, Ph.D.

Posted on February 11, 2023 | 2 comments

There is no place for a government agency to be telling a private entity what it can and cannot publish in a country that has a functioning First Amendment. From Michael Nevradakis, Ph.D., at childrenshealthdefense.org:

The U.S. House Judiciary Committee’s Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government on Thursday heard testimony from Congress members and ex-FBI agents who criticized government agencies for colluding with media and Big Tech to censor Americans.

The U.S. House Judiciary Committee’s Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government on Thursday heard testimony from eight witnesses, including Congress members and former FBI agents, during what NPR described as “the Republican majority’s push to ramp up scrutiny of the Biden administration.”

Established last month, the subcommittee — which has subpoena power — is formally tasked with examining how the executive branch investigates and collects information about U.S. citizens, including as part of “ongoing criminal investigations.”

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) chairs the committee. He also chairs the House Judiciary Committee.

According to The Hill, Republicans formed the subcommittee “as a way to counter alleged abuse of a government they say is abusing its power to target conservatives,” while “Democrats see the committee as the weapon itself, a vehicle for the GOP to forward conspiracy theories that will mobilize the Republican base ahead of 2024.”

Two panels of witnesses testified Thursday. The first featured a slate of current and former lawmakers, including Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) and former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard.

The second panel included two former FBI agents, Thomas Baker and Nicole Parker, Jonathan Turley, J.D., a professor at the George Washington University Law Center and Elliott Williams, principal of The Raben Group, a prominent lobbying firm.

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Posted in Business, Civil Liberties, Government, Politics, Tyranny

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For Whom the Lithium Tolls, by Eric Peters

Posted on February 11, 2023 | Leave a comment

As EV’s market share increases, so too will their freakish fires. From Eric Peters at ericpetersautos.com:

Much of what ails us has been abstract for a long time. A new law is passed that we don’t like but the effects are .  .  . abstract and so easier to ignore. This is changing – has changed. We increasingly feel the effect of what’s being to us, even if it hasn’t actually directly affected us, yet.

But the closer it gets, the more we feel it coming for us.

Many of us, for instance, know someone who has been “adversely affected” by the drugs lately forced upon them. And yes, it is force when one is under duress. People were told they’d lose their jobs – which for many meant they stood to lose almost everything – if they refused to take the drugs. They were not “free to choose,” as some moral imbeciles have suggested.

I now know of someone who has been “adversely affected” by lithium-ion batteries, the power storage devices forced on all of us, including those of us who do not want and do not own an EV. And yes, all of us. Because all of us are paying for it in one way or another. Whether via fewer alternatives to EVs being available or via higher electricity costs as well as a number of other ways.

Such as the new risk of being burned to death in your sleep by a lithium-ion battery that spontaneously combusted while you were asleep.

This happened to a guy I know from my old neighborhood earlier this week. A friend – from the same neighborhood – called to let me know his house, which was very close to my old house, caught fire after a lithium-ion battery started a fire. The house was destroyed and the guy who was asleep inside never woke up. Rescued by paramedics, he died yesterday of burns and smoke inhalation.

This sort of thing is going to become more common as electric vehicles with fire-prone lithium-ion battery packs become more common. Some will say the risk is “slight.” I refer them to the fact that – already – more EVs have caught fire than Ford Pintos, of which millions were produced. Proportionately far fewer Pintos ever caught fire than EVs so far – yet Pintos were recalled.

And Pintos were not fundamentally defective.

They had a design defect.

The difference is really important – if you would rather not go up in smoke.

Early Pintos might catch fire if rear-ended because the impact could shear off the fuel filler neck (attached to the tank) and that might result in a fire, if there was a spark to ignite the gasoline – which generally won’t burn in the absence of one.

Note all the italics.

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Without Subsidies, How Many People Will Buy An EV? By Mike Shedlock

Posted on February 11, 2023 | Leave a comment

If you’re trying to get a new technology off the ground, it’s generally not a good sign that people have to be subsidized to use it. From Mike Shedlock at mishtalk.com:

Sales in Germany plunge after subsidies were reduced.

EVs free how far distance

Think Twice About Electric Vehicles

The Wall Street Journal reports Germans Think Twice About Electric Vehicles

Sales of fully electric vehicles (EVs) fell 13.2% in January compared to January 2022, Germany’s Motor Transport Authority reports. Sales of hybrids declined 6.2%. This compares to an increase of 3.5% in the number of new gasoline-powered cars sold, and a modest decline of 1.2% for diesel.

The main explanation is the end of Berlin’s subsidies for EVs and hybrids at the new year. Until December the subsidy had offered up to €9,000 split between consumer and producer for EVs with a net list price below €40,000. Hybrids in that price range received €6,750. Berlin has ditched the subsidy for hybrids entirely, and cut the payout to €4,500 for EVs below €40,000.

This year will thus be a market test for electric vehicle demand in the Vatican of climate-change belief. Politicians in the West have used subsidies and mandates to drive EV sales, no matter that they aren’t as green as their advertising. The cars are only as carbon-friendly to operate as the power grids they refuel from, and Berlin’s refusal to embrace nuclear power means Germany is burning more coal to cover for the end of natural-gas imports from Russia. Then there’s the environmental cost of mining for all that cobalt, copper and lithium for EVs and their batteries.

If consumers want to buy EVs, go for it. But what does it say about their appeal if people need subsidies to buy them?

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Righteous Tyrants, by Julie Kelly

Posted on February 11, 2023 | Leave a comment

Tyrants gotta tyrannize, but today’s version are bland mediocrities compared to those who tyrannized in the past. From Julie Kelly at amgreatness.com:

No, they’re not cutting off food supplies or building labor camps but these modern-day tyrants seek the same ends: crush the opposition and control the masses.

They sure don’t make tyrants like they used to.

Tyrants once rose to power the old-fashioned way: defeating the opposition on the battlefield or at the faux ballot box. Despite their atrocities, these despots at least had some swagger—perhaps a way with the ladies, a good sense of humor, strong persuasive abilities, commanding verbal skills, pride in their appearance.

Not so with modern-day martinets. Our 21st-century tyrants possess nothing more than useless degrees from woke institutions and deep contempt for at least half the country, likely born out of a lifetime of social isolation. History, after all, shows that outcasts often seek revenge against their childhood tormentors later in life.

Such appears to be the case with the former Twitter executives who testified before the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday. Unimpressive by every measure—looks, personality, intellect, persuasiveness, grasp of the facts—the Twitter Four should serve as a reminder of what the defenders of freedom are up against. Thankfully, our enemies, while powerful for now, have the mental, physical, and emotional appeal of overcooked spaghetti.

Alex Wong/Getty Images

James Baker, Vijaya Gadde, Yoel Roth, and Anika Collier Navaroli took the quasi-stand this week at a House Oversight Committee hearing to explain their roles in colluding with the government to suppress free speech during an election year, particularly related to the New York Post’s coverage of the Hunter Biden laptop story in October 2020. Baker, the former general counsel for the FBI when the bureau used fabricated political opposition research to defraud a secret federal court and obtain a warrant to spy on Donald Trump, was fired by Elon Musk as Twitter’s general counsel after it was discovered Baker was vetting company files made available to independent journalists.

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Inverted Victimhood, by Eric Peters

Posted on February 10, 2023 | Leave a comment

Just make sure you comply, regardless of whether or not it makes any sense. The government is entitled to our obeisance, simply because it is the government. From Eric Peters at ericpetersautos.com:

Bad enough that people are told they “owe” money to people they never met, with whom they never contracted for services they neither use nor want – i.e., having to pay what the “government” and those who do not understand what it is – or don’t want to face up to what it does – calls “taxes.”

Worse, arguably, is people who’ve not been harmed receiving money – via the “government” –  extracted from the hides of those whom the “government” claims have done them wrong.

Mercedes-Benz being the latest inverted victim of this dirty business.

The German automaker stands convicted of passing government “emissions” testing.

Its Bluetec diesel engines – like VW’s TDI diesels – were “clean” enough to be “certified” for sale in the U.S. and Europe.

All of the foregoing words in air-fingers quotation marks to indicate the disingenuous way these terms are always used by the government and its lampreys, including those in the “media.”

“Clean” means compliant. It does not mean that a not-“clean” engine is dirty; i.e., that it generates extravagant or even significant pollution. The difference between a “clean” and a not-compliant engine can be (and is) defined by fractions of prior fraction, according to “Tiers” and “Bins,” which are the government regulatory apparat’s obscure and largely meaningless – in terms of anything meaningful as regards pollution – hopscotch categories defining compliance.

“Certified” means the government approves. Which means the government allows. That which is “certified” may be manufactured and sold; that which is not “certified” is illegal to manufacture and offer for sale. “Certified” means nothing insofar as fitness for use, though the government would like it very much if people believed it does. Many, unfortunately, do.

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