I have to admit I am amazed at the cunning and persistence of the Trump administration in their drive to squelch voting in this year's general election. They had a three-pronged strategy--through the courts, through Congress, and through an executive order--and it was the SCOTUS move that finally landed the fatal blow to fair elections. It's like a professional burglary--first they disarm the alarm system, then they can proceed at their leisure.
The news about the grey whales just wipes me out. Climate change is an existential threat to all life and we humans seem stuck in quicksand. It’s bad enough when we can’t seem to stop the corruption and destruction of human society but we are watching the Earth, the home of all life as we know it crumble. It just breaks me.
There is a simple explanation why Mom and Pop brick and mortar stores have disappeared, why the only way to buy anything is from a big box store, and now they are disappearing. The answer is tha piece of plastic called a credit card,it is also responsible for inflation.
When I left Panama in 1975, the economy was stable, little to no inflation, if you wanted or needed something you shopped a the local market, or neighborhood store.
Then Citicorp hit Panama with a massive, get a credit card campaign, and in short order, prices started to rise, because credit is money. The function of money is to enable you to buy things, and that is what credit does.
With a credit card one does not need a check book. or to carry cash and thus be subject to mugging.
One simply swipes, and if one doesn’t have the price for products, swipe the card.
Credit cards charge he vendor 3 – 8% on each purchase. Mom and Pop’s can’t afford to pay that amount and sill make a profit, but Big Box stores can, and they fold that fee into their price, which Mom and Pop’s can’t
Do you use a credit card. How about internet purchases, which incidentally cut into big box sales, and Walmart is getting into that game.
The demise of Mom and Pop’s, just like global climate change, is in reality our fault, we the consumer, in fact it is we the consumer, and our insatiable appetite that is responsible for inflation and global climate change.
Until the box is opened, we will not know. That is an apt description of so much concerning TRump's regime. He has proven that failure IS an option when it comes to war AND decorating.
The 21st Century Road to Housing Act became law despite the President. His version of a protest is not signing a popular law? What an idiot! Still, it's nice to know his name is not on it.
This week was something, friends. Donold called Zelensky "Putin", he spoke of the "Islamic Republic of Japan", and thought Kelly Loeffler was Nicki Minaj. Can't wait to see what he does next. See you in the streets.
.Corporate, establishment Democrats and their arrogant, entrenched (and overpaid) consultants would rather torpedo the DSA than aggressively campaign on most of what you’ve highlighted here, and corporate media is no help. Graham Platner isn’t the problem, he’s a useful diversion for the aforementioned.
Why, after reading Thom's list of mostly bad news, did I react as if it were good news? A quick answer is that, relatively speaking, this news was just bad, not really-bad - like I am used to. Also, the housing bill betrayed that Trump is aware his power is fading fastly - and he TACO'd. A veto would have poured gasoline all over his already raging fire of serial failures as POTUS (and the cost of gasoline is skyrocketing again too).
If I were a big bad wolf, I would reassure Goldilocks with "All the better to eat his power, my dear."
If these ICE goons had shot their intended victim instead of the “wrong man”, would the headline have changed to “ICE shoots the right man in Houston”? Just asking.
Yet, Trump has the audacity to accuse progressive Dems of “communism”? Seriously. Perhaps he should look up the definitions of communism, socialism, fascism and the four types of capitalism. Is someone doesn’t know the differences between the types of governments, they should be able to serve in one, much less lead one. BTW, we tried trickle down economics in the 1920s under Harding and Hoover, aka Laissez-Faire: Deregulation, tax cuts, tariffs. The results: immense wealth (gilded age) at the top, poverty and the Great Recession. Also, corruption in government. Sound familiar? “Less government in business, more business in government.” Warren Harding 1920 campaign slogan. Déjà vu.
Billionaire’s own a lot of real estate in this country. They’re the very one’s who have been scooping up everything into their portfolio’s, and now, no one’s buying their investments except other billionaires trying to make more bucks for their self-made murky future. The only thing that’s making money is interest on on middle-class credit card debt. Is this so-called bipartisan support just another tactic of throwing their front-man under the bus and a desperate attempt to appear reasonable in the face of everything to the contrary?
Billionaire’s and now trillionaire, see the country’s anger at their excesses, and the problems these excesses are causing with exposure and publicity which may just end up hurting them in the fall out—as with the Epstein “problem”. The war in Iran is escalating again which is both of the administration’s (theirs and ours) desperate attempt to show hawkishness and strength as a distraction in the face of the people rising up and taking back that which is theirs. A last ditch effort at the shell game…just look over here and not too closely at what I’m screwing up.
I also think the people who really pull the strings see that the administration is on his way down and possibly them with it. Trump has served his purpose as both a distraction from the real power behind the curtain and by his successful assignment to disassemble the laws that protect the public but block their dirty deeds of gobbling up our money and future. They are now allowing him to be more and more obviously the villain and people to see his ineptitude but it doesn’t seem to make a great deal of difference, to their horror—Frankenstein’s monster.
And, what he hasn’t completely shielded them from is being named and noticed. He’s done what they need him to do and now it’s time for a new puppet who knows how to follow direction who can now appear “reasonable” as rescuer from the evil villain, and who doesn’t take one step forward for them and 2 back.
Trump’s successfully allowed them to get their protection for the next few years and every last cent they can out of their oil and coal investments with his crazy antics. Big investment has been quietly dumping and pumping in the market for a good while now are now ready to put their visible strength and power into building and gobbling up the new ones for control—always control over the power. And, now, he just refuses to get off the stage—plain boring, and AI’s future needs shoring up.
Asked Thom a question about a return to a gold standard today on his monthly Q&A and he responded by saying the issue is dead and that there will never be a return to the 1971 standard, mostly because the US doesn't have the reserves necessary to do the job which is probably true since the unaudited amount of gold in the country's reserves is probably not there.
But the broader question is whether the countries of the world will go back on a gold standard is at question here. It is a fact that China has 50 to 70K tonnes of gold and has sequestered large amounts of silver as well and currently is building out international trading hubs in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Saudi Arabia that will tie trade to a gold backed yuan. This will eventually take down the dollar's reserve currency status in international trade.
So in the end, Thom, whether the US wants to go back on a gold standard is irrelevant. The US, like all other fiat currency holding nations, it will be forced kicking and screaming back to a gold standard whether they want to or not. That is if the the US wants to participate in global trade. Eventually it will happen.
Can “The People” sue to reinstate the Election Commission?
I have to admit I am amazed at the cunning and persistence of the Trump administration in their drive to squelch voting in this year's general election. They had a three-pronged strategy--through the courts, through Congress, and through an executive order--and it was the SCOTUS move that finally landed the fatal blow to fair elections. It's like a professional burglary--first they disarm the alarm system, then they can proceed at their leisure.
The news about the grey whales just wipes me out. Climate change is an existential threat to all life and we humans seem stuck in quicksand. It’s bad enough when we can’t seem to stop the corruption and destruction of human society but we are watching the Earth, the home of all life as we know it crumble. It just breaks me.
There is a simple explanation why Mom and Pop brick and mortar stores have disappeared, why the only way to buy anything is from a big box store, and now they are disappearing. The answer is tha piece of plastic called a credit card,it is also responsible for inflation.
When I left Panama in 1975, the economy was stable, little to no inflation, if you wanted or needed something you shopped a the local market, or neighborhood store.
Then Citicorp hit Panama with a massive, get a credit card campaign, and in short order, prices started to rise, because credit is money. The function of money is to enable you to buy things, and that is what credit does.
With a credit card one does not need a check book. or to carry cash and thus be subject to mugging.
One simply swipes, and if one doesn’t have the price for products, swipe the card.
Credit cards charge he vendor 3 – 8% on each purchase. Mom and Pop’s can’t afford to pay that amount and sill make a profit, but Big Box stores can, and they fold that fee into their price, which Mom and Pop’s can’t
Do you use a credit card. How about internet purchases, which incidentally cut into big box sales, and Walmart is getting into that game.
The demise of Mom and Pop’s, just like global climate change, is in reality our fault, we the consumer, in fact it is we the consumer, and our insatiable appetite that is responsible for inflation and global climate change.
I’v seen the enemy and it is us: Pogo
Mitch McConnell=Schrodinger's Cat
Until the box is opened, we will not know. That is an apt description of so much concerning TRump's regime. He has proven that failure IS an option when it comes to war AND decorating.
The 21st Century Road to Housing Act became law despite the President. His version of a protest is not signing a popular law? What an idiot! Still, it's nice to know his name is not on it.
This week was something, friends. Donold called Zelensky "Putin", he spoke of the "Islamic Republic of Japan", and thought Kelly Loeffler was Nicki Minaj. Can't wait to see what he does next. See you in the streets.
.Corporate, establishment Democrats and their arrogant, entrenched (and overpaid) consultants would rather torpedo the DSA than aggressively campaign on most of what you’ve highlighted here, and corporate media is no help. Graham Platner isn’t the problem, he’s a useful diversion for the aforementioned.
Why, after reading Thom's list of mostly bad news, did I react as if it were good news? A quick answer is that, relatively speaking, this news was just bad, not really-bad - like I am used to. Also, the housing bill betrayed that Trump is aware his power is fading fastly - and he TACO'd. A veto would have poured gasoline all over his already raging fire of serial failures as POTUS (and the cost of gasoline is skyrocketing again too).
If I were a big bad wolf, I would reassure Goldilocks with "All the better to eat his power, my dear."
“ICE shoots the wrong man in Houston”.
If these ICE goons had shot their intended victim instead of the “wrong man”, would the headline have changed to “ICE shoots the right man in Houston”? Just asking.
Yet, Trump has the audacity to accuse progressive Dems of “communism”? Seriously. Perhaps he should look up the definitions of communism, socialism, fascism and the four types of capitalism. Is someone doesn’t know the differences between the types of governments, they should be able to serve in one, much less lead one. BTW, we tried trickle down economics in the 1920s under Harding and Hoover, aka Laissez-Faire: Deregulation, tax cuts, tariffs. The results: immense wealth (gilded age) at the top, poverty and the Great Recession. Also, corruption in government. Sound familiar? “Less government in business, more business in government.” Warren Harding 1920 campaign slogan. Déjà vu.
Billionaire’s own a lot of real estate in this country. They’re the very one’s who have been scooping up everything into their portfolio’s, and now, no one’s buying their investments except other billionaires trying to make more bucks for their self-made murky future. The only thing that’s making money is interest on on middle-class credit card debt. Is this so-called bipartisan support just another tactic of throwing their front-man under the bus and a desperate attempt to appear reasonable in the face of everything to the contrary?
Billionaire’s and now trillionaire, see the country’s anger at their excesses, and the problems these excesses are causing with exposure and publicity which may just end up hurting them in the fall out—as with the Epstein “problem”. The war in Iran is escalating again which is both of the administration’s (theirs and ours) desperate attempt to show hawkishness and strength as a distraction in the face of the people rising up and taking back that which is theirs. A last ditch effort at the shell game…just look over here and not too closely at what I’m screwing up.
I also think the people who really pull the strings see that the administration is on his way down and possibly them with it. Trump has served his purpose as both a distraction from the real power behind the curtain and by his successful assignment to disassemble the laws that protect the public but block their dirty deeds of gobbling up our money and future. They are now allowing him to be more and more obviously the villain and people to see his ineptitude but it doesn’t seem to make a great deal of difference, to their horror—Frankenstein’s monster.
And, what he hasn’t completely shielded them from is being named and noticed. He’s done what they need him to do and now it’s time for a new puppet who knows how to follow direction who can now appear “reasonable” as rescuer from the evil villain, and who doesn’t take one step forward for them and 2 back.
Trump’s successfully allowed them to get their protection for the next few years and every last cent they can out of their oil and coal investments with his crazy antics. Big investment has been quietly dumping and pumping in the market for a good while now are now ready to put their visible strength and power into building and gobbling up the new ones for control—always control over the power. And, now, he just refuses to get off the stage—plain boring, and AI’s future needs shoring up.
Troubling, Interesting Times Thom. Here We Are.
Asked Thom a question about a return to a gold standard today on his monthly Q&A and he responded by saying the issue is dead and that there will never be a return to the 1971 standard, mostly because the US doesn't have the reserves necessary to do the job which is probably true since the unaudited amount of gold in the country's reserves is probably not there.
But the broader question is whether the countries of the world will go back on a gold standard is at question here. It is a fact that China has 50 to 70K tonnes of gold and has sequestered large amounts of silver as well and currently is building out international trading hubs in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Saudi Arabia that will tie trade to a gold backed yuan. This will eventually take down the dollar's reserve currency status in international trade.
So in the end, Thom, whether the US wants to go back on a gold standard is irrelevant. The US, like all other fiat currency holding nations, it will be forced kicking and screaming back to a gold standard whether they want to or not. That is if the the US wants to participate in global trade. Eventually it will happen.