The Biden Recession

Timothy Birdnow

The Great Biden Recession of 2022 is Already Here

To be clear, America is not yet in a recession. Still, it's undeniable that starting around June, the economy and financial markets smashed into a brick wall. Here are the troubling indicators, all pointing in the wrong direction:

The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta just estimated that second quarter economic growth through the middle of June is a big fat zero. This is on top of the 1.5% decline in the economy in the first quarter. This means for the first five and a half months of this year, our economy has shrunk in size relative to inflation. That result isn't technically a recession, but it's perilously close.

Second, the wealth losses in the greater financial market sell-off of 2022 have now exceeded $10 trillion since the start of the year. This has been one of the most significant and financially catastrophic vaporizations of wealth and savings in U.S. history. It is delusional that President Joe Biden says people have record savings. No, the reverse is true. Voters' 401(k) plans and other retirement savings have been shredded.

It is leading to what economists call a "reverse wealth effect." Just as people spend more when their bank accounts and stock portfolios are full of cash, they tend to become comatose when those gains turn almost overnight into losses. Adjusting for inflation, the stock market is down 15%-20% depending on the index examined. Tech stocks in the Nasdaq have been clobbered the most.

Third, consumer confidence and business confidence have each fallen fast. Only about 2 in 10 voters feel the economy is headed in the right direction. Moreover, the National Federation of Independent Business's index of small businesses found that confidence is now at its lowest level since the pandemic hit these shores and businesses were shut down.

Fourth and most damaging, consumer and producer prices have risen to their highest levels since the early 1980s. The consumer price index hit 8.6%, and the producer price index is above 10%. Price increases aren't "transitory" and haven't shown any signs of peaking.

Let's not forget that Washington's fiscal picture is a train wreck. In two and a half years, the debt has soared by another $5 trillion thanks to the blizzard spending to "fight" COVID-19 and then for multiple economic rescue plans. As the Fed raises interest rates, the carrying cost of the $23 trillion national debt gets progressively more expensive. We will be paying taxes for years to merely to pay the interest on our enormous debt.

All of the debt spending in Washington has unleashed the inflation dragon -- the cruelest tax of all on families and businesses.

Read it all; it's pretty damning.

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Everybody was Hockey Fighting...

Timothy Birdnow

The hockey game the other night was full of fights. The media hate that. Now why do you suppose?

Canada, one of the most polite and peaceable countries, is the epicenter of hockey and yet there is so much fighting in their national sport. Now why do you suppose that is? It acts as a safety valve, helping Canadians release their suppressed anger. People live vicariously through the sport and get out their frustrations by watching the hockey goons punch each-other out (and since they are on skates it's almost impossible to get seriously hurt).

If the media truly wants to discourage violence they have to offer an alternative. But that is not their goal at all. Rather, they want to pacify the average citizen but allow the predators to run  amoke to help drive societal change. Taking fighting out of sports goes a long way towards accomplishing that goal.

The fact is every civilization has used some sort of sports to help maintain a cohesive society. The Romans had the gladiator contests. The Greeks had a number of sports, some quite vicious.

Sports come from training for war, I might add. They were toned down and adapted for the civilians, who would never actually fight in a war.

So, what is the rising sport, the one the media likes? Soccer. It is international, multiracial, and there is no violence. Oh, and the referees control every aspect of it and can change the outcome of a game just by how they blow their whistles. It's the perfect model for what they want for humanity.

Americans used to disdain soccer as a foreign and effete exercise.

And while America was the home of both baseball and basketball, it was football that came to dominate (football became the top sport back in 1972, beating out baseball, which had been dominant since 1948. Now soccer is almost as popular as football.

That shows the changes to America's psychology. We used to loathe soccer as a foreign thing. Now we embrace it. Baseball became full of foreigners, I might add, and it has become sunk in endless new rules which have made the sport wimpy. You can't block the plate anymore, or slide cleat first into a baseman.

Hockey has largely been immune, although they certainly have become much stricter with the fighting and the other rough stuff. But it will never be America's sport; it belongs to Canada, and Russia.

Eventually we'll be watching badmitton.

Sports have been a political tool for a long, long time. It was integrated well before society at large, for instance. It has pushed women into sports they would never have thought of (like women's boxing). It is a part of the Progressive program.

I don't know who remembers the old movie Rollerball, (the original, not the '90's remake, which was horrible). The story was the world was run by corporations and Rollerball was a hyper-violent game designed to keep people in line. As Mr. Bartholemew, a company executive, stated "the purpose of Rollerball is to teach the futility of individual action."

The big star in the game - a guy named Jonathan E. - was being forced out of the game because he became too dominant. He refused to resign; he held a grudge because a corporate executive took his wife away. In the end they decided to forego murdering him because it would be too obvious tot he public, and tried sending him back his wife. He told her to go to hell and went forward with the championship game, which now had no substitution, no penalties, and no time limit. It was to the death.

In the end he was the last man alive and stuffed the ball in the goal.

I think in many ways this is an accurate picture of what the Left has in store for us, although they seem to be moving away from the violence and rather trying to numb us. But it is an attempt to use sports to change our character.

So smile the next time you see a hockey fight; it means that at least some people are resisting the pacification of our society.

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Is God Necessary to Liberty?

Timothy Birdnow

In a discussion about the importance of God to concepts of liberty (see the post below) an atheist argues the God is not necessary.

John Levalley says:

A proposition that belief in God is necessary for liberty to exist should also address the various transgressions against liberty in the name of God. I think that probably under deeper and broader examination it will not be an acknowledgement

Tim replies:

John, you are making a fundamental error in logic in your argument it seems to me. You are trying to equate the behavior of individuals or even some organizations with a fundamental flaw in philosophical reasoning.

The fact is human beings are all fallible and as such subject to mistaken ideas or hypocrisies. There is no dispute about that. Christians call it Original Sin; the tendency to do the wrong thing. Yes, there have been religious people who have done bad things, and there have been good atheists. BUT the Christian or Jew who does the wrong thing is violating the tenants of their own faith. They are turning their backs on what they believe.

Slavery was a case in point. Many avowed Christians supported it. But who ended it? Wilberforce was a devout Christian. So too were those who fought slavery in the U.S., and that because of the necessity of accepting the dignity of human life in all it's forms. That idea would never have occurred to a culture based on atheism. There are no moral absolutes to the atheist, and as a result they can justify means to accomplish what they themselves choose as ends.

One need but look at the Communist world, which was and is officially atheist. People are mere material things and are to be utilized as the ruling class sees fit. It's the matter of being hypocritical to your own standard or having no standard at all. The hypocrite is constrained by his own official stance.

I would also add that much of the accusations made against the religious folk (mainly in Christendom) are dishonest. The Crusades? The Turks started them by murdering over 1200 pilgrims going to Jerusalem. And this was on top of centuries of aggression against Christian nations. And while there were some atrocities by the soldiers (who were not actually sent by the Church, nor under any oath of obedience to the Church but rather to their own often ambitious feudal lord) The same held true of their enemies. It was a time of great cruelty in war. At least the Christians were violating their own beliefs. The transgressions were exactly that. The Muslims were FOLLOWING theirs. Medieval Scholar Thomas Madden explains the Crusades here. https://www.catholicity.com/commentary/madden/03463.html

He also explains that the Inquisition was not what modern scholars make it out to be; often it was an attempt to rein in lynch mobs or overzealous civil authorities who were leading the charge against former Jews or Muslims in Spain. In point of fact the Inquisition did not have law enforcement authority; theirs was only spiritual. BUT they could imprison someone while heading up an investigation, which was often employed as a way of allowing things to cool off. See Madden again. http://www.churchinhistory.org/pages/spanishinquisition/truth-spanish-inquisition.htm

What else have we? The trial of Galileo? Did you know Galileo was entirely free to teach Copernicanism, provided he said it was a theory and not settled science? He refused to do that. He also horribly insulted his king and employer, Pope Urban, calling him "simplicio" in his dialogue. Urban had been a good friend of Galileo. In those days you just didn't insult your king, nor your boss. In the end Galileo was convicted and sentenced to a very light house arrest. It was quite gentle by the standards of the time.

But all three of these cases have been twisted by the modernists to make them appear worse than they are. This was done to paint Christianity in a bad light. I am NOT saying there weren't bad things in all of these. I am saying that, given the times, they were not so terrible as we have been led to believe. If Galileo had done what he did in the Caliphate his head would have rolled on the desert sands.

The fact is the admonitions of Jesus tempered the Christians at all times. The late Roman Empire was brutal and barbaric indeed until civilized by Christianity. And so were the many barbarian tribes who invaded.

There was a Medieval prayer asking God to "protect us from the Northman" meaning the Vikings. Today Sweden, Norway, and Denmark are the very apex of civilized behavior. THAT was the triumph of their Christianization.

And yes the Ten Commandments were quite innovative in their day. There was the blood feud, which meant if someone killed your brother or father or whatnot you could wipe out his whole family. "Thou Shalt Not Kill" ended the concept of the blood feud. Why else do you think it was there?

Ditto adultery. The Israelites had settled in a land where Baal was worshiped (or were about to resettle there) and it was no big deal jumping some temple prostitute. The Commandment against Adultery (and the one against coveting neighbors wives) was innovative for the times. It meant a wife was more than just property; she had rights. And you had responsibilities to her that transcended your personal desires.

I agree; goodness and liberty go hand-in-hand (as the Founding Fathers made clear).

I would also agree there are atheists who want to be good, but how do they determine what is good or evil? It becomes just a social convention, and that then becomes a matter of who controls the convention. The Overton Window means changing the norms, and that is done by control of government, media, and education (which is what we see the Left doing today). In a nation of cannibals cannibalism is just fine. But is it moral? No, because there is Natural Law which says it is not. But the collective will is that it's o.k. That is the inevitable end of an atheistic culture (or a simple pagan nature worshiping culture as well).

Without admitting there is a law built into the fabric of the Universe we cannot have any real standard of behavior or thinking. The human heart is treacherous and it will find a way to fit our desires into our malleable concepts of right and wrong if we let it happen. If religious people can't control that then how can someone without the absolutes control it? They can't.



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Rising Atmospheric Helium

Richard Cronin

Just like the meager uptick in CO2, a meager uptick in Helium 4 has been observed. Both of these observations have nothing to do with human activity.

"Deep-Earth reactor: Nuclear fission, helium, and the geomagnetic field”
D. F. Hollenbach and J. M. Herndon
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences U S A. 25-Sept-2001

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC58687/#!po=82.6733

"Tritium, 3H, is a major ternary fission product that beta decays with a 12.32-year half-life to form 3He.”

"3He. ….. has a high neutron-absorption cross-section and, if formed within the neutron flux field of the reactor zone, will readily absorb a neutron, transforming to 4He.”

Therefore, an uptick in performance of the GeoReactor and a higher neutron flux will produce a greater amount of 4He. The increase in atmospheric 4He, like the meager increase in CO2, has nothing to do with human activity.

From EOS, principle publication of the American Geophysical Union:

"Fossil Fuels Drive Increase in Atmosphere Helium” (specifically 4He)
Benjamin Birner & Jennifer Schmidt
9-June-2022

https://eos.org/articles/fossil-fuels-drive-increase-in-atmospheric-helium?utm_source=EosBuzz&mkt_tok=OTg3LUlHVC01NzIAAAGFEBgA3EY_6zxQGdCW_ilUJIP_3VYrjO7nVH7a05IGnESOZA3U5WmyCrbgCXhwxDzEvrdB9HRSVVrrnldMOJ8WMRkJqev3u19VIvLEPic

"After decades of uncertainty, scientists have finally shown that fossil fuel extraction has flooded the atmosphere with 4He.” Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.

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Maelstrom

Maelstrom

by Timothy Birdnow

So the news gives you blues
well here are the clues
don't get so confused
because the donkeys might lose

Monkey Pox and Scotus Dox and Biden in his box
The Russian fox will take some knocks
while we all lose our vox

The Democrats quiver
and cry us a river
Joe Biden eats ice cream and shivers

As our money shrank
and our wealth down the tank
while the Hunter laughs as he strolls to the bank

We go broke buying fuel
while the doddering fool
talks of pinwheels to children in school

And the corporate joke
is to join all the woke
while the average joe keeps getting broke

And we get some bad deals
with our soldiers in heels
empty shelves mean we're missing our meals
As they ramp up the steals and try to conceal
and insist we all kneel while the Kamel points her heels
we all know how it feels

Tires of guff? Time to get tough. It's past time we say enough is enough.

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Why the Drudgery of the Jan. 6 Hearings?

Selwyn Duke

Tim adds:

I think you are right. Certainly the tepid viewership for the hearings suggests so.

There is nothing new over the second impeachment information (and Trump was acquitted in that trial).

I think this is mainly intended to get donations up for '22, and to try to frighten the more knock-kneed Republicans into moving away from anything to do with Trump or Trumpism.

Also, it is intended to distract the public from the multiple disasters caused by the Biden junta. AND it will be justification for imposing restrictions on free speech so as to suppress political dissent. That last is the real key, I believe. They can't just put the machinery into place without first having a show trial and thus having a foundation for their circumvention of the First Amendment.

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Texas Justice

Timothy Birdnow

Texas law used to permit a man shooting his wife and her lover if he caught them in the act. I imagine that has been changed, but are our modern sensibilities really serving us as a society? Seems there are a lot more rapists and abusers around now that the law protects them.

This courtesy of Murray Stewart:

This is Texas Justice

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Liberty and Faith

This from Michael Smith:

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The Next War -- that we're not hearing about

Dana Mathewson

It is very likely the case that the next major war has started. No—I don’t mean the Russia-Ukraine War, which could yet spread to the rest of Europe if we’re unlucky. I mean the Israel-Iran War.

It has been said that Israel and Iran have been at open war for some time now. (Actually, Iran and the U.S. have likewise been at war since 1979, though don’t tell John Kerry.) As is well known, Israel has carried out audacious raids on Iran over the last few years. It has assassinated key figures in Iran’s nuclear weapons program in the streets of Tehran, successfully extracted an intelligence cache on the nuclear program, and in recent months assassinated senior Iranian military figures beyond the nuclear arms circle. For their part, we know Iran is supplying Hezbollah in Lebanon, Syria, and elsewhere with enormous amounts of munitions to use against Israel.

There’s a telling detail in the report we linked to in our "Picks” section today about the latest drone attack on an Iranian missile site: "According to a report by Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Qabas, the alleged attack overnight Friday was carried out by drones that took off from an area a mere 6.2 miles from the targeted base.” If this report is true, it means the Israelis (or someone) have been able once again to penetrate deep inside Iranian territory, or it means U.S. and other nations are perhaps backing an insurgency inside Iran. I rate this latter possibility extremely unlikely. In either case, any effective actions inside Iranian territory can only be happening with the blessing, and likely active cooperation and support, of the Saudis.

The low-intensity Israel-Iran War may be about to break wide open. Which makes me wonder about President Biden’s upcoming Middle East trip.

The main reason for Biden’s forthcoming trip to Saudi Arabia, we are told, is to suck up to the Saudis to pump more oil to relieve pump prices here in the U.S. This is simply not credible if you think about for a while. The Saudis conduct their oil policy strictly in accord with their own self-interest. Even if they think it is in their own self-interest to pump more oil now (or not—the Saudis are savvy on oil price theory), they don’t need a presidential visit to reach that decision. In fact the opposite may be the case—they may prefer, given Biden’s moral preening about the the awfulness of the Saudis on human rights (quite correct) that they’d rather not be seen knuckling under to public pressure from our doddering president. Most likely they’d prefer Trump or another Republican back in the White House, so why help this fool? If the Saudis were amenable to an American plea to reduce oil prices by increasing output, they’d prefer a quiet message about this—as Reagan did in the 1980s with very quiet missions from key confidantes—rather than a high profile visit from a clown president like Biden.

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Apologies for Light Blogging

Timothy Birdnow

The next two days are going to be quite busy. Blogging will be hit-or-miss.

Thanks.

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My Father

Timothy Birdnow

Happy fathers day to all my friends!

There are few things more important than fathers.

My first memory was of my dad. The oldest thing I can remember was being in my cradle and my dad giving me a choice of which pacifier I wanted. I remember his smiling face and pleasure and my happiness when I got the one I pointed at. I don't remember it well; it is a vague, vague thing. But it was dad and no one else who looms large over my first memories.

And it was dad who I knew protected me when I was a boy.

I suffered with the unfortunate misnamed Night Terrors when I was little. Horrible! For those who do not know Night Terrors are not bad dreams (they are far worse) but rather are visions that afflict you just as you are dozing off. Visions of horrible things. I used to get them fairly regularly and feared going to bed. On a number of occasions dad showed up when I was screaming, and put my fears to rest.

One time I jumped out of bed, broke the window in the french doors of my bedroom, and jumped on him, pummeling the poor man, who held me tightly until I fully awoke.

Dad was the guy I could always count on when I was in some sort of trouble. If my car broke down or I had some other trouble I always knew he was on his way.

He put food on my plate, a roof over my head, clothes on my back, an education (a very good one), and never a complaint from him. He worked every weekend moonlighting as a security guard to see to it we had enough. We never did without.

He taught me so many things. He taught me to drive, to shave, how to play sports. My love of the country comes from our trips to his grandmothers out in the sticks. I loved those visits more than I can say. While he wasn't a fisherman or hunter, he liked to go out into the woods sometimes.

He was rarely angry with me or my brothers, and while there was sometimes threats of "wait until your father gets home" he rarely punished with any heat. He did spank us on occasion, but it was a pure ritual, not designed to hurt but to make us realize the consequences of our actions.

I owe him for that; he never caused us to lose heart, even while making sure we understood right and wrong. So many people hate their fathers because they were too strict, or have no respect for them because they were too lenient.

Dad was so important to my moral and spiritual development. He was a non-practicing Methodist but he converted to Catholicism. I suspect it was to provide us with a good example. My mother was devout and it helped; he wanted to please her. But I suspect it was as much about us kids as anything. As a Methodist he never attended church; he never missed as a Catholic.

And now he's getting up there in years and I am beginning to repay him for all the things he did so cheerfully for me.I am so very grateful to have had him as my father. I hope he lives a lot longer. I will surely miss him when he's gone.

A Godly father is a true blessing, and his role is so very important to a child.

That's why this one parent family business is so heartbreaking; children grow up without fathers because we not live in a society that is matriarchal in nature and does not value fathers. The feminists have everyone believing men are superfluous, mere sperm donors. But it is not true. I would be just half a man had I not had my dad to teach me. So many things about relating to others (particularly to women) came from him.

I love you pop!  Thank you for everything! I am who I am in no small part because of you!

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Red Hot Economy?

Timothy Birdnow

I caught the beginning of Fox News Sunday. Bah!  That dimwitted host talked about the "red hot economy" while teasing her segment with a Biden Secretary of Silly Walks or whatever he was.

"Red hot economy"?

This is purest Keynsianism; the high inflation must be caused, the Keynsians say, by high demand for consumer goods. They believe the economy is driven entirely by demand. This is spectacularly wrong.

Inflation is driven by the money supply. That's why it's  called inflation int he first place; the money supply inflates. More money without an increase in productivity and the price of goods and services go up. Inflation is not rising prices but rising currency.

The Federal Reserve has massively expanded the nation's money supply in the last two years. They have increased the supply by trillions of dollars.

This article states:

And in fact the Federal Reserve has increased the M2 supply by 33%  between January of 2020  and May of 2021 alone. 

This kind of increase has happened every few months since.

In fact, as of February of this year the M2 supply was up over $21.6 TRILLION ! That is a sea of bad paper.
Every new dollar waters down the old. It's a way of stealing wealth.

Government loves this; it allows them to spend money that they do not have without obviously raising taxes. They can pay with pretend money.

Now the Fed wants to rein in the money, and that means "qualitative tightening" or destroying money as it is paid back. This sounds reasonable and it would be if done slowly and deliberately during a good economic period, but we have none of that.

The Federal Reserve did this very thing in 1929, and it precipitated the Stock Market Crash that led to the Great Depression. for a decade they had expanded the money supply then pulled out the rug from under the economy. See here, and here. Milton Freeman proved inarguably that it was a case of bad monetary policy that triggered the Depression in his book A Monetary History of the United States.

You cannot increase the money supply by one third and not expect high inflation.

I would like to know how staggering inflation is a sign of an "overheated economy"?

What is happening in the economy? Investments have been struggling, for instance; the stock market isn't making a whole lot of money. How is that overheating?

As of May consumer spending had FALLEN when adjusted for inflation - by 0.4%. This in the post-lockdown period, I might add. Now that consumers are free to move about spending should be up. See also this.

Used car sales are down. But that's o.k. because new car sales are down too; nobody can afford them, or the gas to drive them.

U.S. manufacturing was unexpectedly weak in May.

Sales of new homes has been steadily declining.

And according to Trading Economics:


But not to worry! Sales of existing homes fell by even more.

And the commercial market, after rising once the pandemic restrictions were removed, is back in decline. In fact, the Green Street Price Index showed a decline of 1%since the start of the year, in a "red hot economy".

How does any of this translate to a "red hot economy"? If it gets any hotter it will freeze up completely.

The only thing anyone can point to is the employment numbers. But does that surprise anyone? With the economy reopening  and peopole going back to their jobs the unemployment numbers will by necessity drop.

But it does not mean we have actually added new jobs, just restored jobs that used to be there.

In other words it's a mirage.

The unemployment also suggests something more sinister; many people did not return to their jobs after the pandemic ended and are living on government assistance or on their savings. Those chickens will come home to roost.

Oh, and unemployment rates rose to a rate not seen in a year, according to Bloomberg News.  It had already risen by 5.5% in March, according to Investapedia.

So it is appearing that the "red hot" unemployment is not even a real thing.

No, there are signs of serious illness with this economy. Inflation is but one problem; the type of inflation is another. Energy is sky high right now thanks to the Biden Administration's environmentalist policies and adherence to the Paris Accord and his bumbling of the world energy market. That affects EVERYTHING, because everything moves by some conveyance. Electricity is going through the roof too. There is talk of both gas rationing and blackoouts this summer, and we are out of fertilizer for our farms because of the insistence on limiting fuel - particularly diesel - and the feckless response to Russia in Ukraine which has done nothing but dry up Russian diesel (needed to make urea, a critical component in fertilizer.)

And now, with the Fed spiking interest rates and promising more of the same and at the same time contracting the money supply, we are in peril of total economic disaster.

Look, we NEED to tighten the money supply, but the economy is wobbling like a drunken fool right now and this is no time for it. But the Keynsian dimbulbs there think this is the way to go to stabilize things. It's not.

We are going to want to maintain the money supply and deal with the  inflation (which will stop if we just stop spending huge amounts and printing money to cover it.) It will plateau. What the Fed is doing is ushering in Deflation, which can be horribly destructive; it freezes up credity, for example, because nobody wants to lend money out that will be worth less when they are paid back. Freeze up credit and the economy grinds to a halt.

Or we can have stagflation - something the Keynsians said was impossible until Jimmy Carter made it so.

Stagflation occurs when the Fed prints money to avoid deflation and at the same time heavy regulatioins lead people away from investments and towards wealth protection.  The wage and price controls of the '70's led directly to stagflation as the Fed kept printing money to stimulate an economy that couldn't be stimulated by more dollars. It was overregulated and people were sheltering money overseas or burying it in the back yard. Keynsians believed it was impossible, since they believe the economy is driven by consumption and that investment has nothing to do with it. Mo money mo spending! Carter proved that the investors are a critical component of the economic health of a country. Ronald Reagan's whole economic policy was "supply side" meaning he looked to the manufacturers and investors to ramp up the economy. Mocked by George H.W. Bush and others as "voodoo economics" supply side worked spectacularly and has worked every time it has been tried.

But it is not popular with the ruling class because there are no strings attached as in other economic theories, particularly Keynsianism, which says the way to jumpstart the economy is to "prime the pump" by government spending - a true politicians dream.

Supply siders say cut taxes, cut regulations, and encourage investors. Sound monetary policy is critical to all this too; money has to have real value or investors go to things that wont depreciate.

I would add the Housing Bubble which burst in 2008 was an attempt by investors to put their money into something real, substantial. The tech bubble scared them (people were investing in all sorts of internet stupidity that had no real value). BUT the government used Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as their private piggy banks, and they imposed draconian regulations regarding things like redlining, and they pushed for "affordable housing". Banks couldn't say no to most borrowers, no matter how credit-unworthy. They wound up finding a solution; bundling bad loans with good as part of an package deal. It was a game of Old Maid; someone was going to get stuck with the bad debt eventually. This created the "subprime market". But it was a game of Old Maid, and by 2008 the market was horribly overspeculated, with janitors and fruit pickers buying property to flip or for investment. They had no business getting loans, but the government was pushing, pushing, pushing! Eventually we saw such venerable old institutions as Bear Stearns go belly up and the bailouts bailed in a peculiar way; they bailed out some companies but let others collapse. In fact, sometimes they stopped buyouts which would have saved a company.

They let Countrywide collapse, for instance. And J.P. Morgan bought out Bear Stearns for bargain basement rates.

The result was the Great Recession which gave us Barack Hussein Obama, "Government motors", and a host of other catastrophic events.

One wonders if the current economic policy of the Fed and the Biden Junta are not aimed at another such "Great Recession".

At any rate, our "red hot economy" is anything but and we are in great peril right now.

How a host on Fox can be such a dullard as to not understand that is beyond me!

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The Hair Whisperer

Timothy Birdnow

Tucker Carlson tears into Joe Biden, whose own daughter makes some disturbing accusations against "hairsniffer Joe".

Biden Diary Update; Tucker Carlson's Epic Takedown of President Joe Biden "Resign!"

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NASCAR's Nadir

This from Gaetano Catelli:

NASCAR: Another Theater in Globalism's War on Working Class Americans.

The Decline and Fall of NASCAR

Tim adds:

AND NASCAR has started adopting this "woke" nonsense and promoting "social justice" issues. They are pissing off their fans with it. This at a time when they are being squeezed from economic pressures outside of their control. I don't know how these Progs get in positions of authority in every organization but they do. (Look at the Boy Scouts for another example). NASCAR has sliced it's own jugular.

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 11:38 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Subsidizing Cancelling the Second Amendment

Steven Chase

Just be advised the so-called 'Red Flag' law considered now in congress SENDS FEDERAL MONEY to States for denying gun permits. Proportionately .
In other words, Fla has used our Red Flag law 8,000 times. If they denied 16,000 applicants, the Feds give them twice as much.

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 11:30 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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The "Great Switch" is a Lie

Timothy Birdnow

On Facebook a guy named Jeff Robinette repeats the tired, exploded claim of "the Great Switch" where the racist Democrats supposedly became Republicans.

Jeff says:

So you do realize the two platforms changed during the 60s. It’s about platform and not the name of the party. If you don’t know what I mean, Google it.

End.

He's going to take quite a spanking in this thread.

Al Moscowitz Responds:

Oh believe me, I know EXACTLY what you mean...

Can you imagine a democrat today making Kennedy's inaugural speech.

"Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country..."

The other democrats would stone him/her/it to death.

But... if you somehow mean that the Republicans today are like the democrats of old (as when the democrats supported continuing slavery, founded the KKK, etc.), then I couldn't disagree with you more. And I'm sure you are not suggesting that democrats are no longer racist... Joe Biden is the most racist politician in the history of politics. And remember, under my mantra, "Direction" is not important when calling out racism.

Although there are many, many RINOs these days who profess to be Republicans but support the democrat mainline instead, the fundamentals of the Republican party remain consistent - especially when it comes to supporting the constitution, championing self-sufficiency and freedom, etc. The problem is that it's hard to find a true republican these days... Ron DeSantis is a good example of a solid, conservative republican. Mitt Romney is a perfect example of an immoral, spineless traitor to his party.

more...

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 10:34 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Happy Junteenth!

Al Moscowitz

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 10:13 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Ecological Devastation at the Birdnow Residence

Timothy Birdnow

The mouse situation here at Casa Birdnow has been pretty much under control, but I get some occasional young mouse run amok in here.

A couple of days ago a young'un decided to colonize our piano. Mice have done that before, and in fact have largely destroyed the beautiful instrument, urinating all over the keys as well as dropping their little pellets, and they have chewed through a couple of the piano strings. It's heartbreaking; my wife's mother gave her the piano and she used to play it until she became sick. Now it has mice living in the underside where we can't get at them.

The piano is in an entry foyer to our home,  which is attached at a perpendicular to our living room/dining room. Since my wife's illness I have settled in the living room permanently, sleeping in a lazyboy chair (it's actually better for my back). So any first floor mouse activity is monitored closely by me.

I had prettty much done the mice in there. The room looks like a war zone, with mousetraps instead of land mines, nigh unto everywhere. I REALLY didn't want the little love children in that piano!  And for a long time nobody tried it.

But recently a marauding mouse decided it was too good a spot to pass up, and she (I assume it was a nesting mother) squatted on my musical property, running amok at night and annoying me to no end.

Last night I was awakened several times from clicking mousy toenails on the hardwood floor, or scratching sounds from asundry places (the dining room table, the couch). I vowed "I'll get you my pretty, and your mousy chums too!" but the little pest didn't seem very concerned.

Well, she got concerned, and I made good on my threat. This morning I found her caught on one of my glue traps.

I felt sorry for her, despite the fact she was driving me crazy. She apparently had been stuck for a while, and the fight was gone out of her. I wasn't sure she was still alive, but when I picked up the trap (using an old broom handle; I got scratched by one of those beasts before) she let out a forlorne squeek of despair. It made me sad; the mouse was just trying to live her life (and probably make ready for a litter) and she had probablly grown up in this house - it was her world. As far as she was concerned I was a terrible monster, like the giant in Jack and the Beanstalk. She had gotten cocky and it cost her her little rodent life.

I felt bad as I dispatched her with the fireplace shovel. Once stuck on the traps you cannot get a mouse (or anything else) off, so she was dead as soon as she stepped on it. I feel bad about killing so many of God's creatures; they have a right to live too. BUT they do not have a right to live in MY house, eating MY food, tearing up MY furniture, and pooping all over MY stuff.  If there was a way of reasoning with them I would do it. I'd let them stay in the basement on cold or hot days, and maybe even feed them (as people do birds) but they breed so dern fast and they take over everything. Shoot, they even scratch open bags of poison if you let them. I have to put the bags in a place where they cannot go. It's crazy, but they get hungry and they take whatever they please. Basically they are thieves and marauders.

So I don't mind killing them, but it does bother me sometimes. I felt great pity for this mouse who made the mistake of walking on a glue trap. She was going to die and she knew it.

I am not sure if she was the only one annoying me though. They tend to move in waves. I think they are rather better organized than we know, coming in groups where they can offer mutual support. The quiet I'm observing now may be just a tactical retreat by a group of them.

The more I learn about the little devils the more fascinating they become. I really can see the similarities between mice and Men. They clearly have a social structure, communicate (they learn very quicklly where traps are located and you have to move them constantly), and never send their best people into combat (they tend to stay behind to guard the nests.) They have a fascinating psychology, even though I still hate them with a passion.

I think I've got all the access points blocked now. I hope so. If they can get out they can get IN as well.

Actually, it's felt like the plagues of Egypt around here recently. Somehow some flies got in and are buzzing all over the place. I've tried to flying insect spray and some fly bait and the activity has reduced but I still here the occasional buzz of the filthy insects. I've also developed a waterbug problem, and my glue traps for the mice have caught more waterbugs than mice (it smells sweet to them, I gather). I could get some frogs to deal with the flies and maybe the waterbugs as well but then we would probably have a plague of frogs as in Egypt! If our water turns to blood I'm outta here!

I've been spraying ant and roach spray along all the baseboards. That seems to have helped with the waterbugs, but I don't know for sure.

I think these plagues are interconnected. Mice leave fecal matter and even their dead and the waterbugs and flies feast on that. (The mice do too in winter when food is scarce; they eat their own wastes and their dead). So these plagues are ecological, a result of an unique ecology in our house. With mice in the walls it's unavoidable we will have things that live off them. And the flies may not go into the walls but the mice leave droppings all over the house (I've been forever cleaning up after the unsanitary and rude  house guests) and no doubt the flies can feed off that. It's especially true in the basement, where I don't go regularly.

Our house is worse than the Ozark Hilton in terms of infestations. But that is no surprise; there I am not the apex predator, and the apex predators do their job and maintain a proper ecological balance. But here? Everything starts with us; we have to kill them or they will flourish.

I'd love to bring in a ratsnake or two. Or some other rodent hating critter. Cats would be fine, but they will go mad from the sound of mouse squeeling (something we can't hear.) When we had cats we never had a problem like this. Maybe I'll buy a falcon or two...

At any rate, I eliminated one source of annoyance and possible breeding. How many are left? Not sure. It seems unlikely I will ever get them all.

I sure do hate those things!

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 09:15 AM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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SNAFU

Timothy Birdnow

Situation Normal All F'd Up!

Jeff Stein
@JStein_WaPo

White House officials exploring sending Americans rebates cards to offset gas costs ran into another problem — the chips shortage, which meant US couldn’t physically produce enough cards to make the plan work even if lawmakers tried to do it, per sources

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 11:23 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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You Just Can't Get Rid of Them

From across the pond Phil Taylor explains the difficulties of deporting illegal aliens from Britain:

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 11:13 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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