marriage Archives - The Automatic Earth

Pray for President Trump.

Not sure what’s happening.

But whatever issue brought him back to Washington must be serious. pic.twitter.com/hffJroAfVN
— Mike Lee (@BasedMikeLee) May 22, 2026

President Trump FIRES UP the crowd at his New York rally, telling them they’re “going to see numbers like you’ve never seen” — as recession odds plummet to ALL-TIME lows.

The crowd loved every minute of it, especially when he TORCHED the Democrats as “bullsh*t artists” for… https://t.co/f1wgSgbTBU pic.twitter.com/Sn95DqXvML
— Overton (@overton_news) May 22, 2026

Elon Musk: "Trump is not evil, the real villains are the media and their game of lies." pic.twitter.com/bQCnCS9u3Q
— Joe Rogan Podcast News (@joeroganhq) May 22, 2026

https://twitter.com/GreereMedeea/status/2057934621619470795?s=20

Gone again by the afternoon, as seems usual? Got to say, it’s a whole lot of people this time.

• Trump Says ‘ Agreement Largely Negotiated’ Between US and Iran (Spencer)

President Donald Trump made the momentous announcement on his Truth Social account on Saturday afternoon at 4:30 p.m.:

[VIA TRUTH SOCIAL] – “I am in the Oval Office at the White House where we just had a very good call with President Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, of The United Arab Emirates, Emir Tamim bin Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani, and Minister Ali al-Thawadi, of Qatar, Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir Ahmed Shah, of Pakistan, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, of Türkiye, President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, of Egypt, King Abdullah II, of Jordan, and King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, of Bahrain, concerning the Islamic Republic of Iran, and all things related to a Memorandum of Understanding pertaining to PEACE. An Agreement has been largely negotiated, subject to finalization between the United States of America, the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the various other Countries, as listed. Separately, I had a call with Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu, of Israel, which, likewise, went very well. Final aspects and details of the Deal are currently being discussed, and will be announced shortly. In addition to many other elements of the Agreement, the Strait of Hormuz will be opened. Thank you for your attention to this matter!
~ President DONALD J. TRUMP
The long list of participants in the call adds a gravity to this announcement that previous ceasefires did not have. It is also noteworthy that the president says that he has been in touch with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but on a call separate from the one on which he spoke with the leaders of Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Turkey, and more. The hostility of the Muslim states toward Israel remains implacable, and is likely to cause future conflicts, but for now, the fighting will apparently stop.
It is likewise noteworthy that the agreement is between, as the president noted, the U.S. and “the Islamic Republic of Iran.” Iran’s Islamic regime is still in place, and this is not a cause for rejoicing for anyone who cares for the well-being of the long-suffering Iranian people. Leading the Islamic Republic, even after its top leaders have been killed, is a group of fanatical Shi’ite Muslim believers who will not set aside their core beliefs, and those core beliefs do not allow for the possibility of a permanent peace between a Muslim entity and a non-Muslim entity.
As long as the Islamic Republic remains in power in Iran, it will continue to fight against the two countries it regards as its foremost enemies, the United States of America and the State of Israel. The U.S. is the “Great Satan” because its promise of a just society resulting from a government that derives its just powers from the consent of the governed is in direct competition with the Islamic Revolution’s idea of a government that derives its powers from Allah alone and rules solely according to his law. The Ayatollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic, reiterated many times that the Islamic Revolution was not for Iran only, but that it was a foremost imperative of the Tehran regime to export that revolution’s core principles around the world. The U.S. has been and remains the chief obstacle to that goal.
And then there is the “Little Satan,” Israel, which the Islamic Republic hates with particular intensity, not because there is some territorial or economic dispute between the two countries, but because Israel is a Jewish state existing on land that was once under the rule of Islamic law. “Drive them out from where they drove you out,” says the Qur’an (2:191), and that is the foundation for the Islamic theological principle that any land that was once Islamic must always be Islamic, and that Muslims must wage war to recapture lost territory.
Thus, there is nothing more certain than that the Islamic Republic will fight on when it is able. Free people can only hope that the regime will collapse before then, or that it has been so extensively damaged that it will not be able to resume its jihad for years to come. In the meantime, the forces of the U.S. and its weary Israeli allies get a respite as much as the Islamic Republic gets a chance to regroup. That in itself is a small blessing.

“In this game, the most committed wins.”

• Finish the Job, Mr. President (A.j. Christopher)

If you’re a movie geek like me, you’ll remember the 1998 film The Siege, in which FBI agent Anthony Hubbard (Denzel Washington) and CIA agent Elise Kraft (Annette Benning) attempt to root out and stop an unknown number of Islamic terrorist sleeper cells from wreaking havoc across New York City.

Agent Kraft has worked underground in the Middle East and knows the mindset of Islamic terrorism, whereas Agent Hubbard is a by-the-book, stick-to-protocol guy who can’t wrap his head around the warped reasoning of his adversaries. He’s used to dealing with criminals who avoid prison and fear death. Agent Hubbard assures Agent Kraft that he’ll be able to stop the terrorists once the judge approves his request for a warrant. The terrorists have a warrant from Allah, counters Agent Kraft.
Agent Hubbard tries to convince her (or himself) that the FBI will ultimately prevail. They have the infrastructure, the funding, the surveillance, the manpower, the training, the weaponry, and the advantage of being the good guys on their side, and in the end they’ll win this game. In this game, the most committed wins, counters Agent Kraft. It was early April when the ceasefire with Iran began. And by “ceasefire,” I mean that Iran continues its open hostilities against the United States and its allies, albeit at a lower intensity. For over a month before that, the militaries of the United States and Israel decimated Iranian leadership, its navy, its air force, and its ballistic missile defenses.
During Operation Epic Fury, Iran managed to infuriate any wavering potential allies, such as Qatar, by lobbing missiles and drones with reckless abandon at almost all of its neighbors. Since the ceasefire began, China has openly abandoned Iran, and whatever assistance it receives from Russia will continue to serve as little more than a mere annoyance. We’ve successfully blockaded the Strait of Hormuz, and are starving the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) of its only lifeline, its oil.
President Donald Trump claims that he holds all the cards. So why won’t the ayatollahs and the IRGC thugs see reason? Can’t they accept that they’re beaten? Don’t they understand that, like Agent Hubbard in The Siege, that we have the infrastructure, the funding, the surveillance, the manpower, the training, the weaponry, and the advantage of being the good guys on our side? President Trump holds every card except one.
The Iranian government sounds no different today from how it sounded in the months before Operation Epic Fury. The Iranian government sounds no different today from how it sounded on October 7, 2023, or on Sept. 11, 2001, or after the Beirut bombings in 1983, or after they took Americans hostage in 1979. Because its whole reason for existence is to spark a global apocalyptic war which will usher in the Hidden Imam, under whose rule the entire world will fall under the chains of Islam. And people who fancy themselves the future personal bodyguards for Allah’s earthly slave master don’t lie awake at night worrying about international law or public opinion or starving civilians, or even whether they themselves live or die.
In this game, the most committed wins. For the record, I don’t think President Trump is going to let Iran weasel its way out of anything here. I think his instincts tell him that negotiating with Iran is an exercise in futility. And I think we’ll see a resumption of military action sometime sooner rather than later. But I also think he leans too much on his desire to make a deal, to the point where making the deal is done simply for the sake of making the deal.
Ironically, this is the same trap that one of his predecessors, Barack Obama, fell into. The Iranians very badly wanted to pursue nuclear weapons. Barack Obama very badly wanted a piece of paper saying they wouldn’t. The JCPOA gave both of them what they wanted. Why we implemented a ceasefire with Iran to begin with is beyond me. My pea brain can only produce two assumptions. Either we were running low on armaments, and needed this past month as a breather to restock and reload. Or we had pummeled them so badly that we assumed that, if we let up for a bit, they’d be crazy not to jump at the first deal with offered them.
Well, they didn’t jump at the first deal. They went right back to the “Death to America” schtick, with zero retreat whatsoever from their stated desire to acquire nuclear weapons. And it’s not because they’re crazy. It’s because they’re committed. In this game, the most committed wins. Earlier this month, President Trump ordered limited strikes against Iran after they targeted U.S. destroyers in the Strait of Hormuz. Trump referred to our retaliatory strikes as a “love tap.”
All due respect, Mr. President, but the IRGC doesn’t need a love tap. It needs to be vaporized. It needs to be pounded into dust. It needs to be buried, once and for all, under a pile of rubble so deep that the world will forget it ever existed. Islamic theocracy is a cancer, and no matter how strongly you irradiate cancer, it will continue to spread and to kill until it itself has been completely annihilated.
Mr. President, forget the Democrats and half the Republicans. Forget the midterms. Forget the two-faced cowards in Europe. Forget our squeamish Gulf allies. Forget the fifth column traitors we call the media, who, we already know, will frame every military victory as a setback. Forget Tucker and Candice and the antisemites. Forget the anti-American campus nepo-mobs. Finish the job, Mr. President. Cement your legacy. Protect the American people. Show that your passion for making America great again overpowers the IRGC’s genocidal bloodlust to turn the world into an Islamic prison camp with underage harems.
In this game, the most committed wins.

“.. the Iranian parliament is drafting legislation to offer a reward of €50 million for assassinating Donald Trump..”

• What Iran Says — or Threatens — as Trump Admin Seeks War’s End (Salgado)

As the American public waits for President Donald Trump to decide whether to attack the Iranian regime again or not, the Iranian regime has made its warlike intentions clear. Trump seemed to be more in favor of striking Iran again as of Saturday morning, since he had canceled all his weekend plans and posted a map showing an American flag over Iran with the comment, “United States of the Middle East?”

The Kobeissi Letter, which sometimes has the inside scoop and sometimes jumps the gun, claimed that the following deal was under consideration, extending the ceasefire by 60 days:
1. This would include a “gradual reopening” of the Strait of Hormuz
2. It would also include a commitment to discussing the “diluting or handing over” of Iran’s highly enrich uranium
3. The US would ease its blockade of the Strait of Hormuz and agree to sanctions relief
4. The US would also begin a phased unfreezing of Iran’s assets
Both sides are nearing a “memorandum of understanding” to extend a ceasefire. The problem is that the Iranian regime has broken the ceasefire we have currently many times, and we really shouldn’t give them any relief until and unless they give us more concessions. We are the winning side in this conflict, while they merely want us to give them a little bit of respite as they rally for another round. In fact, the Iranian parliament is drafting legislation to offer a reward of €50 million for assassinating Donald Trump. And an Iranian-tied terrorist is now in American custody after committing multiple terrorist attacks culminating in an attempt on Ivanka Trump.
On May 14, Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Committee Chairman Ebrahim Azizi declared, “We expect the government to pay a €50 million [roughly $58 million] reward to anyone who carried out this religious mission” of assassinating Trump. Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Committee member Abolfazl Zohrevand also declared his intention of orchestrating the assassination of Trump. The U.S. government has identified more than one Iranian assassination team in the U.S.
One problem that has always surfaced with Western nations that prefer not to be at war is that we have a tendency either to make deals that are compromising for us, or optimistically assume until it is too late to take the initiative that the other side must really want peace as well. This is an assumption born of cultural imperialism rather than reality. Adolf Hitler wanted war much, much more than Neville Chamberlain wanted peace. Yasser Arafat and his successor Mahmoud Abbas wanted/want their jihad to continue until Israel is wiped off the map, no matter how many American presidents pander to them. And the Islamic regime of Iran has made terrorist war its consuming focus for half a century. It is never going to stop attacking America and Israel, not as long as any members of that regime are in power.

“..approximately 30 shots..” That’s a lot.

Sundance posted the second video somewhere near the article. Not sure about that.

• More Shots Fired Near White House Perimeter (CTH)

The White House was placed into lockdown after a series of approximately 30 shots were heard being fired near the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. Journalists and media correspondents reported hearing a series of multiple shots fired and were then told to go into the Brady Room of the White House where they were protected while secret security evaluated the danger.

Secret Service agents were seen on the White House grounds with their weapons drawn responding to the alarm. As far as currently reported, around 6pm a single gunman approached the White House gate on West Side. The gunman brandished pistol and fired toward the White House at least six shots. Secret Service returned fire and the shooter was taken down. A bystander on street is also reported to have been hit. The gunman never got through the security perimeter.

“The New York Post obtained a photo of the gunman and said he believed he was Jesus Christ.“

• Gunman Killed At White House Had Previous Run-ins With Secret Service (JTN)

Dozens of gunshots were reportedly heard near the White House on Saturday night. The incident resulted in a lockdown. The U.S. Secret Service shot and killed the shooter after he approached a security checkpoint and started firing at officers.The U.S. Secret Service said the suspect “removed a weapon from his bag and began firing at posted officers.” A bystander was also shot. Their condition is unclear at this time. The gunman has been identified as Nasire Best, 21, of Maryland. Reports said he suffered from mental health issues and had previous encounters with the Secret Service.

The New York Post obtained a photo of the gunman and said he believed he was Jesus Christ. Earlier on Saturday, FBI Director Kash Patel had confirmed a gunman fired shots and said law enforcement was on the scene. The shots were reportedly fired at the corner of 17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest. Members of the press ran into the White House briefing room after hearing the shots.

Pepe is so focused on China that his prediction comes true of necessity: it’s all about China.

“The New Silk Roads/BRI and its derivations such as the Northern Sea Route/Arctic Silk Road remain alive and kicking..”

• The Russia-China Spaceship Rushes Towards Planet Multipolar (Pepe Escobar)

SHANGHAI – This is it.The Russia-China strategic partnership, the leaders in the process of Eurasia integration, the leaders of multipolar bodies BRICS and the SCO, have formally endorsed and boosted the drive towards multipolarity and a new system of international relations via a strategic joint declaration signed, sealed and delivered during President Putin’s visit to China this Wednesday.This is one for the History books – in several more ways than one. I was privileged to follow the proceedings in Beijing during the whole day at the Aurora College, a top Shanghai private school and university, among a fabulous congregation of teachers and students.

So we had plenty of time to discuss the implications of how the Top Two Eurasia powers – and global powers – are establishing the lineaments of a new geopolitical future for most of mankind. The exceptions will be exceptionalist recalcitrants and vassals addicted to commit serial political suicide. We all remember President Xi’s visit to Russia in 2023, when leaving the Kremlin, side by side with Putin, he voiced what he was already polishing for some time, in a very concise way: “Right now there are changes we have not seen in 100 years.” And then Xi and Putin agreed that now, “we are the ones driving these changes together”. The practical result is the sharply focused Beijing joint statement, penned by unmistakable “civilizations with ancient history.”
Let’s go through some of the highlights. The declaration minces no words and no concepts when it comes to offering a serious alternative to the current – dwindling – unilateral historic moment.
Polycentrism: “The attempts of a number of states to single-handedly manage global affairs, impose their interests on the entire world, and limit the sovereign development of other countries in the spirit of the colonial era have failed.” Russia-China will focus on establishing a “long-term state of polycentrism.”
The ”law of the jungle”: “Basic universally recognized norms of international law and international relations are regularly violated (…) there is a danger of fragmentation within the international community and a return to the ‘law of the jungle’.”
A new security architecture: “It is necessary to pay due attention to the rational concerns of all countries in the field of security, to focus on cooperation on security issues, to reject bloc confrontation and zero-sum game strategies, to oppose the expansion of military alliances, hybrid wars, and proxy wars, and to promote the creation of an updated, balanced, effective, and sustainable global and regional security architecture (…) It is unacceptable to force sovereign states to abandon their neutrality.”
This is exactly what Moscow proposed to Washington and NATO in December 2021: indivisibility of security. The non-response response precipitated the SMO in Ukraine two months later, as it became obvious to Moscow that NATO’s plan was a blitzkrieg in Donbass.
Hegemony: “Hegemony in the world is unacceptable and should be prohibited. No state or group of states should control international affairs, determine the fate of other countries, or monopolize opportunities for development.”
Global governance: that’s President Xi’s cherished concept, fully delienated in the SCO summit last year in Tianjin: “In global governance, which is an important tool for streamlining the system of international relations, it is necessary to adhere to the principles of sovereign equality, the rule of international law, multilateralism, human-centeredness, and results-oriented approach.”
The United Nations: it’s necessary to “strengthen the role of multilateralism as the primary tool for addressing the multifaceted and complex global challenges, and to prevent the weakening of the United Nations.” That should lead to “the reform of the United Nations”. Yet everyone knows that will definitely not happen under the current administration in the White House.
Point 4 of the declaration: global civilizational and value diversity. That may be the crux of the matter – inexorably burying any Exceptionalist pretensions: “The spiritual and moral system of any civilization cannot be considered exceptional or superior to others. All countries should advocate a view of civilizations based on equality, mutual exchange of experience, and dialogue, and should strengthen mutual respect, understanding, trust, and exchanges between different nationalities and civilizations, promote mutual understanding and friendship among the peoples of all countries, and protect the diversity of cultures and civilizations.”

“Moroccan security forces have stepped up their role as Europe’s de facto border enforcer ..”

• Morocco Launches Mass Deportations To Block Europe Migration Route (ZH)

Since April 14, Morocco has been conducting large-scale deportation operations targeting sub-Saharan Africans migrating to Europe, reportedly arresting over 100 per day, local sources told Middle East Eye. According to Moroccan human rights groups, around 800 people were detained during coordinated raids in the forests between Fnideq and Belyounech, in the northern tip of the North African state, where many were sheltering before attempting to reach Europe.

The operation is still ongoing, with authorities then moving their focus to operations in and around Tangier. Witnesses have described mass arrests, beatings, racist abuse and forced transfers toward the Algerian border.Sudanese and Chadian detainees were bused south and abandoned near border zones, while people from countries including Senegal, Mali, Mauritania, Burkina Faso and Guinea were deported on flights departing Casablanca. The crackdown comes as the European Union has intensified its cooperation with Morocco as part of its border externalization strategy, which is a key component of the bloc’s new Pact on Migration and Asylum set to take effect in June.
The EU increasingly outsources immigration enforcement to North African nations with poor human rights records, designating over €900 million within the bloc’s Global Europe development instrument to fund stricter migration control, border management and surveillance initiatives across the region. “The EU wants to restrict people’s mobility as far down the route as possible – what officials describe as stopping migration downstream,” Frey Lindsay, a journalist on Statewatch’s Outsourcing Borders project, which tracks how the EU outsources migration control, told Middle East Eye. “It’s about exerting border control without getting your hands dirty, basically.”
Raids and expulsions
Morocco is a key transit country for sub-Saharan Africans en route to Europe. They sail across the Strait of Gibraltar or climb the towering razor wire fence that separates Morocco from Ceuta and Melilla, Spanish enclaves within the kingdom. Over the years, Morocco has increased cooperation with Frontex, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, to prevent migrants from departing the North African coast. In 2025, Moroccan authorities thwarted 73,640 irregular migration attempts toward Europe, according to a report from the interior ministry, a slight decline from 2024 – attributed to alternative migration routes.
In recent weeks, Moroccan security forces have stepped up their role as Europe’s de facto border enforcer, carrying out regular raids on makeshift forest camps and key transit points used by people trying to reach Spain. Attacks on migrant camps have long been pervasive, but have escalated since April 14, with operations concentrated in the north of the country. People who are not deported are typically exiled to the south in an effort to disrupt migration routes.
“According to migrants we have been in contact with, they were subjected to various forms of humiliation, insults and mistreatment by authorities,” Chad Boukhari, a journalist and member of Border Resistance, a grassroots collective that supports migrants across the Mediterranean, told MEE. Some were abandoned near the Algerian border without food or water, where they were detained by Algerian forces. “The Algerian army allegedly tortured many of them. Some individuals also found the bodies of other migrants in the desert,” Boukhari added.

“Democrats are laying the groundwork to pack the court the next time they hold power, and they need a narrative to justify it. Every impeachment article, every ethics accusation, every outraged floor speech is a brick in that foundation.”

• What the Democrats’ Push to Impeach Chief Justice Roberts Is About (Margolis)

Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) filed an impeachment resolution Thursday against Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts. I guess we should just add it to the pile of impeachment resolutions Democrats have filed against President Donald Trump and members of his administration, right?

Cohen has represented Tennessee’s 9th Congressional District for years, but he’s retiring after Tennessee Republicans redrew his seat following a late-April Supreme Court ruling declaring racial gerrymandering unconstitutional. Rather than accept the outcome, Cohen decided to go out with a fire-sale grievance tour, targeting the most consequential figure in American law. In announcing the resolution, Cohen said, “I have come to the unfortunate conclusion that while John Roberts remains Chief Justice, correcting this misconduct and ensuring the Justices and the Court itself comply with their legal obligations will be impossible.” The problem is that his resolution is absurd.
Take Article I, which accuses Roberts of allowing the court to become “a political instrument” through its handling of election and redistricting cases. This is rich coming from a party that spent decades running to the courts to block policies it couldn’t kill through legislation, and to impose policies it couldn’t pass through Congress. It’s funny how when the courts were a rubber stamp for the left, they were oracles of justice. Now that they’re not, they’re corrupt.
Article II claims Roberts “entrenched minority rule” through decisions that have enabled partisan gerrymandering. Cute story. Remind me again which party aggressively gerrymandered blue states for decades? Oh right.
Article III blames Roberts for campaign finance rulings that allegedly “empowered the rich.” For starters, that isn’t even a constitutional argument, but if you can find me the part of the Constitution that says that “the rich” have fewer rights than “the poor,” we can talk.
Article IV targets Trump v. United States and the issue of presidential immunity. Cohen apparently forgot that presidents of both parties have long asserted immunity protections for official actions; Democrats were just the first party to weaponize justice against a former president.
Of course, my favorite is Article VI, which alleges that Roberts failed to recuse himself from cases involving law firms connected to his wife. Democrats have never raised similar concerns about Justice Elena Kagan, who declined to recuse herself from Obamacare cases, despite previously arguing for the law’s constitutionality as Obama’s solicitor general. George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley has noted that the majority of Supreme Court decisions are unanimous or near-unanimous (often, Biden’s DEI pick is a lone dissenter), which runs counter to the narrative that the court is a 6-3 ideological machine grinding out partisan rulings on command.
Strangely, the inconvenient facts never make it into the Democrats’ talking points. Here’s the thing: This impeachment resolution has zero chance of passing. So why bother? Because this was never about impeachment or removing Roberts. Democrats are laying the groundwork to pack the court the next time they hold power, and they need a narrative to justify it. Every impeachment article, every ethics accusation, every outraged floor speech is a brick in that foundation. Trust me, I used to be an architect. The left is merely trying to delegitimize the court so that, when the moment comes, the public is already primed to accept packing the court.

Read and weep.

• The Democrat POTUS Possibles for ’28 (Florack)

Think about it. When did the Democrats last field anything resembling a quality presidential candidate, even from the rather myopic view of a Liberal Democrat voter? Let’s look at the history of the thing. (By the way, the barf bags are in the storage on the seat back in front of you.) Hillary Clinton? A genuinely terrible candidate — and that’s before you factor in the steamer trunk of baggage she dragged behind her everywhere she went. Just horrible. By the way, I have no plans whatever to kill myself, in case the subject should come up.

Joe Biden? His campaign strategy consisted of hiding in a basement and hoping America was desperate enough to bite on the pablum he offered up. And yes, they were. He won — though we’re learning more every day about just how dishonestly that win was assembled. Then he got into office, and exactly as I and most others predicted, he delivered an unmitigated disaster that answered every question anyone had left about him and the people hanging onto his coattails. (Autopen, anyone? I mean, who was actually making executive decisions? We still have no real answer for that, and it doesn’t seem likely the Democrats will ever want to find out.)
Kamala Harris? Her own party wanted nothing to do with her. In her entire lifetime, she’s never won a primary vote. By the way, that seems the likely reason why the Democrats didn’t subject her to a primary vote in ’24, but bypassed their own voters to install her, like someone replacing a dead headlight with another dead headlight. She tops the polls, now, sure — but two points there:
1: These are the same pollsters who called her a shoo-in in 2024.You might recall how that worked out, though I’ve begun to wonder if SHE does.
2: That she tops the polls now only suggests how weak the remainder of the field is.
Harris’ entire rationale for running now is staying visible enough to shake down speaking-fee money from people who inexplicably still believe she matters in the slightest. Even she knows she’s got no chance.mThen there’s Gavin Newsom — a man who locked himself out of serious contention using nothing but his own mouth and his ability to slam leftist policy through a one-party legislature. He’s the kind of politician who endangers anyone standing between him and a microphone. But California — that magnificent catastrophe he built — will crush any national ambitions flat. Voters will look at what he did to that state and treat his presidential run like a restraining order.
There’s the towering political vision of Mark Kelly. A man who has masterfully built his entire brand around disliking one specific person. Sure, that razor-sharp platform of “Orange Man Bad” will absolutely carry him through a primary, a general election, and straight into the history books. Who needs ideas when you have feelings?mAlexandria Ocasio-Cortez has graciously stepped into a role that blonde jokes previously held. But really, who needs punch lines when the subject writes them herself? We’ll just leave it at that, shall we? No further elaboration required.
And Pete Buttigieg — ah yes, the man who turned disappearing into an art form. A truly stunning record of achievement: successfully located an exit door at the exact moment his job required him to show up. The fine people of East Palestine, Ohio — Democrats included, bless their hearts — must be simply overwhelmed with gratitude for his dedicated service. Surely they’re already printing the Buttigieg 2028 yard signs as we speak. He’ll get their votes any day now.
JB Pritzker? Why would anyone vote for him? Particularly Democrats. Oh sure. Absolutely inspired choice. Because nothing screams “man of the people” like a billionaire aristocrat. And Illinois as a model for the nation? Please, sign the rest of America up immediately for that glorious experiment in governance. (Chicago! Just… Chicago.) A party that treats “millionaire” like a slur suddenly rallying behind one? Oh, that’ll be a completely seamless pivot, no cognitive dissonance whatsoever.
Josh Shapiro? Brilliant. A party that has spent the better part of a decade cozying up to some rather… let’s say colorful ideological company on the Jewish question, suddenly deciding a Jewish candidate is its standard-bearer? Totally coherent. Makes complete and perfect sense. Nothing to untangle there at all. And the thing is, not a one of them cracks 10% in the polls, currently.
There’s this, too; Has anyone seen any efforts on the part of the Democrats to get their primary act together? After Hillary’s manipulation of that process, there was a fair amount of noise from some quarters that the DNC had to make the Democrat party’s primary system actually democratic. A great concept, but if there’s ever been any action at all toward that goal in all the time since then, I’ve not heard of it. If I haven’t, then it’s a pretty good bet most Democrat voters haven’t, either.
The lack of effort to learn from the mistakes of 2024, given what they’ve showed us with that joke of an election autopsy report, shows us clearly that the Democrats aren’t rebuilding. Add it all up, and they’re just reshuffling the same losing hand and waiting for someone to sell to the Democrat voters that it looks different and better this time.

‘I pray to God that by the end of this, that you think of me as a friend, because if anything ever happened to me, I want you’ — Hunter Biden to Candace Owens

• Candace Owens Interviews Hunter Biden (Tim O’Brien)

Another item that Owens clearly wanted to feature prominently for this interview is what looks like a golden Catholic reliquary vessel, but I’m only going by the visual, and cannot assume she has an actual relic of a saint in that vessel. That’s what reliquary vessels are for – to house relics from Catholic saints. Needless to say, these aren’t typical adornments for a Catholic home. They most often can be found in actual churches or faith-based institutions.

There are many reasons a person would have something like this in their home and for public display. One is they are seriously devout Catholics, and whoever would have such items on display would expect you to stop here. But other reasons could be that the individual is a non-religious collector, or an obsessive-compulsive where nothing is ever enough; or the person could be what is known as a “magpie,” which is someone who collects shiny or impressive items and is known as overly talkative or gossipy.
Owens is a newly christened Catholic, having been baptized in 2024, and so I’ll just leave all of that here. Against this backdrop, literally, Owens interviewed one of the most disgraced members of the Biden White House, namely Hunter Biden, the president’s son and intermediary for so much of what Joe Biden did in his personal life before and during his tenure as president. Stating the obvious, if Owens were a conservative, Biden would never have agreed to allow her to interview him. So why did he do it? We can assume that each had their own reasons, which may include the fact that they both dislike the same people, they know an interview like this will give them more clout, it keeps them in the public conversation, or all of the above.
I’ve long believed that Owens has never taken the time to study up on conservatism and has no ideology that can’t be changed on a dime to suit her insatiable desire for attention. Hunter Biden seems to be equally shallow, having no principles that can’t be compromised if the promise from the other end of a given transaction is a pile of cash or a hit of cocaine. And so, these two users decided to use each other by using microphones, a camera, and Owens’ loyal audience. The leftists who saw the interview were relieved that for starters, Owens made it clear she wouldn’t cast any shade on Joe Biden.

Candace Owens started the Hunter Biden interview off beautifully.

“I will say to the audience right now. I have already made the pledge right when I got on the phone with you— that obviously I’m not going to make you say anything about your father, because that would just be… pic.twitter.com/2dTQnE92MJ
— Kay Su (@KaySu00) May 21, 2026

The first hour of their nearly two-hour interview centered mostly on Biden’s drug use. This gave Owens an opportunity to show her empathetic side, something she has yet to show towards Charlie Kirk’s widow Erika Kirk. During this hour, Owens gave Biden the opportunity to set the record straight on that bag of cocaine that was found in the White House situation room. You’ll be relieved to hear that Hunter said it was not his, and Owens appeared to take his word for it.
“Was it (the cocaine) yours?,” Owens said. “No,” Biden said, adding that if it were his, he never would have “forgotten it in a cubby to go into the Situation Room.” In a nod to those Catholic decorations in Owens’ studio, Biden made sure to talk about how hard his life is and was, and that his Catholic faith has sustained him. He did not talk about whether that faith made him a better father to the illegitimate child he had with a stripper, whom he had abandoned until he and the Biden family were shamed into publicly acknowledging the child.
All of that was just a setup to what both seemed to really want to talk about, which is President Donald Trump and the Joos. Biden described Israel’s response to the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks and murders of innocent Israelis as “wholesale murder of a population in Gaza.” Owens brought up what she described as Trump’s family making money off of his presidency. Yes, she really did that while talking to Hunter “Barisma” Biden. And she did it with a straight face. Using Hunter Biden as a sounding board, she actually tried to make a case that it’s the Trump family that’s corrupt — all with no sense of irony that she was sitting across from the Biden family’s consigliere.
Using that as a jumping-off point, Biden gave his approval of Owens’ backbone “for asking questions” about the public execution of her supposed friend Charlie Kirk. Owens is now notoriously best known for demonizing Kirk’s family, his team, and anyone who might come to their defense against Owens’ own conspiracy theories, mostly centered on Israel. Never mind that the alleged assassin has already confessed to the crime, and is awaiting trial.
In a moment of magnanimity, Owens actually apologized to Biden for things she had said about him over the years. She told him that she felt “terrible” when she commented on his self-imposed scandal surrounding the “Hunter Biden Laptop” controversy. On that topic, Biden is now blaming Israel for the scandal. He told Owens that two Israeli-Americans, Alexander Smirnov and Gal Luft, were at the center of the situation, which itself is centered on tons of indefensible content that Biden has never denied being from him.

Hunter Biden claims his laptop story was "all a hoax" with no criminal activity.

Candace Owens as the terrible "journalist" she is gives zero push back pivots to Trump.

Laptop showed, emails, text messages with foreign governments, meetings with officials with 10% for Joe… pic.twitter.com/bHd9deff18
— J (@JayTC53) May 21, 2026

Still, Owens is sorry she talked badly about Biden and said so, “Genuinely, I am so sorry.” She may want to redirect that apology to Erika Kirk, but I digress. I guess in order to get an apology from Owens, you need to just despise the same people she does. Then the two chatted about how the narrative, as Biden’s own allies concocted at the time, falsely alleged that the scandal was a “Russian disinformation” op.
It’s getting hard to keep track. Who was behind the Hunter Biden laptop? The Russians? Israel? Or, could Hunter himself have had something to do with it? Biden did tell Owens that was him smoking crack in a motel room with hookers, but because that was him as a drug addict, it was not really him. He even had the nerve to say, “That was addiction. That wasn’t corruption.” Well, that makes it all better, doesn’t it?

“It’s not Mexico that needs a trade deal with Europe, it’s the opposite. “

• Mexico Signs Trade Deal with European Union (CTH)

It’s not Mexico that needs a trade deal with Europe, it’s the opposite. For almost two decades Europe has been investing heavily inside Mexico, particularly noted in the auto industry, as they positioned themselves to take advantage of NAFTA and later the USMCA as an entry to the U.S. market. European auto companies spent billions on assembly plants in Mexico, where they could ship EU manufactured component goods to be assembled into NAFTA/USMCA compliant vehicles. As President Trump and USTR Greer begin focusing on eliminating the USMCA trade agreement in favor of two bilateral deals (U.S-Canada and U.S-Mexico), Europe now needs to protect prior investment. The prior Mexico-EU trade agreement has existed since 2000 (NAFTA timeframe). In 2025 they agreed to a revised Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and finalized the terms and conditions yesterday.

MEXICO CITY, May 22 (Reuters) – Mexico and the European Union signed a long-stalled free trade agreement on Friday as they seek to decrease dependence on the U.S. and partially insulate themselves from U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs. The accord, which they reached broad agreement on in 2025 but have delayed signing, expands a Mexico-EU trade accord from 2000, which covered only industrial goods. The new pact adds services, government procurement, digital trade, investment and farm produce. Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa are to sign the deal in Mexico City in their first summit in over a decade.
“This agreement is a true geopolitical statement,” Costa said on Friday, shortly after signing the agreement. “With the modernized global agreement, we are better prepared to face the challenges of our time.” […] Mexico’s economy ministry estimates the new agreement could increase Mexican exports to the EU from around $24 billion a year to $36 billion by 2030. The EU exports around $65 billion in goods annually to Mexico. Trade between Mexico and the EU has increased 75% in a decade, dominated by transport equipment, machinery, chemicals, fuels and mining products.
The new deal provides duty-free access for almost all goods including farm products such as Mexican chicken and asparagus and European milk powder, cheese and pork, albeit with some quotas. (read more) I love how Reuters uses the term “transportation equipment” to cloud the actual content, EU vehicle components for auto assembly. Sometimes you just have to snicker at the silliness of it all. In essence, in order for the EU to retain their investment status, they are telling Mexico they will import more chickens, pork, dairy and row crops. All of it subject to “quotas” established as an outcome of analysis about what bureaucrats in Brussels will tell EU farmers they have to accept.
A conversation akin to, ‘we’re going to buy more vegetables in order to keep our auto manufacturing systems in place.’ However, once those EU vehicles like BMW are assembled in Mexico, then what? It’s not like Mexican workers are going to be running to the showrooms to purchase exotic cars. All of these maneuvers are designed around one central strategic intent, keep the auto assembly close to the USA market and then pay Mexican officials through roots and vegetables to negotiate the best bilateral trade agreement with the United States that keeps European investment alive. Europe needs Mexico to think about -and represent- their interests when Mexico is negotiating a bilateral with Trump.

How to kill a highly successful franchise or entire field: go woke. You would think they figured that out by now.

• Disney’s Marvel Comics Faces Mass Layoffs And New Woke Leadership (ZH)

The saga of woke comics is the saga of woke America. Much like video games, comics and superhero movies were ignored by conservative movements as “meaningless kids stuff” until recently, which is part of the reason why those industries were so easily invaded by leftists and used to indoctrinate millions of children and teens a decade ago. Culture is more important than politics. This is obvious. It’s a fact that leftists have understood for generations and one that conservatives have foolishly dismissed. Only in the past few years has there been a shift; at least, the progressive rampage through America’s various media institutions has been stalled and slightly reversed.

But, the most captured platforms are not going to change anytime soon, even in the face of financial decline and mass layoffs. Disney and Marvel have recently announced a shake-up of the comics division, with over a thousand layoffs this year (after moderate layoffs over the past few years), and new executive leadership. Far-left DEI advocate Dan Buckley is on the way out. This change is being presented as a retirement, though some skeptics argue he is being forced out as part of the company’s restructuring.
Buckley replacement is not much better, however. TV Chief Brad Winderbaum is taking over as Marvel President and his track record on Marvel TV series includes some of the biggest woke failures in streaming history – Ms. Marvel (Muslim Pakistani representation), She-Hulk: Attorney at Law (feminist/meta take, which he defends as a strong performer despite critical failure), Ironheart (feminism and BLM propaganda), Echo, Agatha All Along, Wonder Man (prominent LGBT elements). In other words, superhero fans hoping that the company changes will result in a renewed respect for the source materials are probably going to be disappointed. Marvel’s direction is unlikely to improve.
Marvel Comics, a subsidiary of Disney, has been at the forefront of far-left propaganda in content for many years, and their woke concepts are usually ported directly into Disney’s movies and streaming series. Everything from gay and trans X-Men to black Spider-Man, to female gender swaps of popular male characters have become the norm. And, books sales have flatlined in response. Marvel’s market share has plunged from highs of 40%-45% to around 29% today. Direct market US comics make up around 15% of total sales in the medium, while Japanese Manga dominates with 50% of the market. US comics continue to lose ground exactly because no one likes woke superheros.
Only ten years ago the business of superheroes was big. Theater goers could not get enough of the comic book genre. Comic studios from industry titans to indies were scrambling to turn every property they had into a movie deal. Nerd culture went fully mainstream and every kid and suburban wine-mom was geeking out in a way that used to get people beat up in middle school.

Fewer kids and marriages is all men’s fault?

• No Wonder Men Are Opting Out (Bettina Arndt)

A Merlin Strategy poll of young Britons aged 18 to 30 found three times more young women than young men held a negative view of the opposite sex. Only about 50% of women had a positive view of men compared to 72% of men feeling positive about women. For women under 25, it was even starker: only around one-third (35%) reported a positive view of men. This applies particularly to professional and managerial young women of whom just 36% hold a positive view of men, compared with 61% of working-class women.

The contempt for men is hardly surprising – that’s what they have been taught. Mary Harrington, a British journalist and cultural critic who writes on Substack, frequently criticises what she calls the “femosphere” — the online feminist spaces where women bond through shared grievances about men. “The online feminist scene often feels like one long group therapy session for women to compare notes on how awful men are,” she writes, suggesting this makes men the universal scapegoat, where ordinary male behaviour is routinely framed as toxic or oppressive, while women’s collective resentment is rewarded and amplified. “Casual, low-level male-bashing has become the background hum of progressive online culture.”
Not only does this toxic climate encourage women to be wary of men, but growing up in a hate-fuelled online sewer takes a toll on their mental health. Psychologist Jonathan Haidt has long been warning that the toxic world of social media would lead to a rise in mental health problems, particularly in girls and young women. “Since the early 2010s, young people across the developed world are becoming more anxious, depressed and lonely. The increases were even greater in young women,” he said.
Recent large-scale surveys (Ipsos 202-–2026 across 31 countries, Gallup 2025) are showing Gen Z women currently report the highest recorded levels of anxiety, persistent sadness, hopelessness and depression of any female generation at the same age. Not much fun for their partners. Last year Psychology Today had a stark warning for men about these women as marriage prospects.The saying ‘happy wife, happy life’ may have some validity, but the lesser-known saying ‘anxious wife, miserable life’ has research-approved validation. … The more neurotic the spouse is, the less happy the relationship — but women’s neuroticism seems to carry more weight in the overall marital happiness equation.
Then there’s the intriguing issue of married women turning off the tap, leaving sex-starved husbands as the norm. For as long as anyone can remember, men were shamed into showing up economically. Society has absolutely nothing to say to women who stop showing up sexually. One obligation was enforced by church, law and community for centuries. The other is now abrogated on the grounds of bodily autonomy.mSo here we have the portrait of the modern woman as marriage prospect: miserable, anxious, politically radicalised, contemptuous of men, often sexually rejecting and trained to see menace in ordinary male behaviour. And yet the puzzled chorus from commentators, economists and policymakers continues: why won’t men commit? Why won’t they work?
The approved explanations are dutifully trotted out. The economic story: men have been displaced by automation and globalisation. The health story: opioids, disability, mental illness. The educational story: men are falling behind women in universities and therefore in the job market. The cultural story, favoured by progressive commentators: toxic masculinity is preventing men from adapting to a modern service economy. All of these contain a grain of truth. But they do not account for what is really going on. The obvious explanation — the one staring out of every data table — is intentionally ignored.
Marriage was the primary incentive for sustained male economic effort. It has always been — Ehrenreich knew it in 1983, and the economists have now confirmed it. There’s an economic research paper, ‘The Declining Labour Market Prospects of Less-Educated Men, which establishes that the prospect of forming and providing for a family constitutes a critical male labour supply incentive, and that the decline of stable marriage directly removes it. Researchers at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas calculated that declining marriage rates are responsible for roughly half the drop in the hours men work.Remove the marriage and you remove the responsibility. The data have been telling us this for decades.

marc andreessen just went on Rogan and casually dropped a TON of AI alpha

full pod is 3 hours and 20 minutes, but i pulled out his most interesting takes here:

1. AGI is here. he thinks the line was crossed about 3 months ago with the new GPT-5.5, claude 4.6, gemini 3, and grok… pic.twitter.com/IrBAUmxDcA
— Ole Lehmann (@itsolelehmann) May 22, 2026

https://twitter.com/MarioNawfal/status/2057782776192245840?s=20

My statin thread reached over 460,000 people. Thousands of you asked the same question.

"If cholesterol does not cause heart disease, then what does?"

The answer has been published for years. In the largest risk factor study ever conducted. 27,939 women. 21 years. Published in… pic.twitter.com/KbKId3yLVS
— Mark Kaplan (@markkaplan20) May 23, 2026

Aaron Russo was killed just days after doing this interview in 2007. How did Aaron Russo know all of this information in 2007 ? Because one of the Rockefellers told him. pic.twitter.com/0pipWiSppD
— Andrew Bridgen (@ABridgen) May 22, 2026

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Debt Rattle June 1 2021

Jun 012021

June 1, 2021 Posted by Raúl Ilargi Meijer at 8:47 am Finance Tagged with: angst, cashless, digital wallet, marriage, mRNA, origin, Peru, quarantine, spying, SWIFT 30 Responses »

Pablo Picasso La lecture 1932

• 3 Leaks that Sink the Covid Narrative (OffG)

• Thanks For The Labels (Denninger)

• After COVID-19 Successes, Push For mRNA Vaccines For Other Diseases (Nature)

• Former National Security Advisor: ‘I Think We Can’ Find Covid-19 Origin (Hill)

• Peru Surges To Highest Covid Death Toll Per Capita (Axios)

• EU Plans To Lift Covid Quarantine Rules For Vaccinated From 1 July (G.)

• The Three Rivers of Angst (Kunstler)

• US Caught Spying On EU ‘Allies’ Again…What Is Europe Going To Do About It? (RT)

• Russia May Be Cut Off From SWIFT Banking Payment System (RT)

• EU Set To Unveil Plans For Bloc-Wide Digital Wallet (R.)

• Just 7% of UK Shop Payments Predicted To Be In Cash By 2024 (G.)

German department of the interior report: “The danger is obviously no greater than that of many other viruses.”

• 3 Leaks that Sink the Covid Narrative (OffG)

The science of the coronavirus is not disputed. It is well documented and openly admitted: Most people won’t get the virus. Most of the people who get it won’t display symptoms. Most of the people who display symptoms will only be mildly sick. Most of the people with severe symptoms will never be critically ill. And most of the people who get critically ill will survive. This is borne out by the numerous serological studies which show, again and again, that the infection fatality ratio is on par with flu. There is no science – and increasingly little rational discussion – to justify the lockdown measures and overall sense of global panic. Nevertheless, it’s always good to get official acknowledgement of the truth, even if it has to be leaked. Here are three leaks showing that those in power know that the coronavirus poses no threat, and in no way justifies the lockdown that is going to destroy the livelihoods of so many.

1. “IT’S ALL BULLSHIT!” On May 26th Dr Alexander Myasnikov, Russia’s head of coronavirus information, gave an interview to former-Presidential candidate Ksenia Sobchak in which he apparently let slip his true feelings. Believing the interview over, and the camera turned off, Myasnikov said: “It’s all bullshit […] It’s all exaggerated. It’s an acute respiratory disease with minimal mortality […] Why has the whole world been destroyed? That I don’t know,”

2. “COVID-19 CANNOT BE DESCRIBED AS A GENERALLY DANGEROUS DISEASE” According to an e-mail leaked to Danish newspaper Politiken, the Danish Health Authority disagree with their government’s approach to the coronavirus. They cover it in two articles. There’s a lot of interesting information there, not least of which is the clear implication that politicians appear to be pressing the scientific advisors to overstate the danger (they did the same thing in the UK), along with the decision of some civil servants to withhold data from the public until after the lockdown had been extended. But by far the most important quote is from a March 15th e-mail: The Danish Health Authority continues to consider that covid-19 cannot be described as a generally dangerous disease, as it does not have either a usually serious course or a high mortality rate,” On March 12th the Danish parliament passed an emergency law which – among many other things – decreased the power of the Danish Health Authority, demoting it from a “regulatory authority” to just an “advisory” one.

3. “A GLOBAL FALSE ALARM” Earlier this month, on May 9th, a report was leaked to the German alternate media magazine Tichys Einblick titled “Analysis of the Crisis Management”. The report was commissioned by the German department of the interior, but then its findings were ignored, prompting one of the authors to release it through non-official channels. The fall out of that, including attacks on the authors and minimising of the report’s findings, is all very fascinating and we highly recommend this detailed report on Strategic Culture. We’re going to focus on just the reports conclusions, including [our emphasis]:

The dangerousness of Covid-19 was overestimated: probably at no point did the danger posed by the new virus go beyond the normal level. The danger is obviously no greater than that of many other viruses. There is no evidence that this was more than a false alarm. During the Corona crisis the State has proved itself as one of the biggest producers of Fake News. After being attacked in the press, and suspended from his job, the leaker and other authors of the report released a joint statement, calling on the government to respond to their findings.

“Took the stab? You’re off the marriage-potential list permanently. Why? Potential life-long medical complications, that’s why.”

• Thanks For The Labels (Denninger)

One of the latest bits of insanity: Dating apps are allegedly asking if you’ve taken the Covid stab and displaying a “badge” if you have. I haven’t verified this personally since I have no use for such things, but it’s allegedly either there or being rolled out. To which, if I was single and younger, especially of potential child-siring age, I’d say “thanks for the warning.” Indeed, the malicious (or shall we say, “predatory”) men out there just got fair warning of who is a **** ’em and leave “fun” date. Took the stab? You’re off the marriage-potential list permanently. Why? Potential life-long medical complications, that’s why. Do I want to marry someone who may have given themselves an auto-immune disease three or five years down the road? Oh Hell No. But if she’s cute, well, the bed awaits — for now.

When Lupus or similar “screw you” lifetime medical issues make their appearance she can enjoy the company of her cats — that wasn’t a random chance thing we all are forced to face as adults and is always part of the deal it was self-inflicted stupidity and her other half didn’t get a vote. Never mind the rather clear problem that is presented to anyone (of either sex) contemplating a permanent relationship with someone who is willing to stab themselves with an experimental drug. There’s a legitimate reason to do it, by the way: You already know you’re at very high risk of a respiratory virus killing you, so despite the unknowns the math pencils out. Ok, thanks for the warning again; you aren’t in good health and don’t expect to remain that way. Is that person marriage and child-raising material? Naw, but a **** is all good.

Then there’s those who can be bribed cheap — you know, with a donut, or a lottery ticket? That’s great marriage material too, right? I mean, let’s face facts: A healthy 20-something person has a statistical zero risk of being killed by Covid and half of them probably already had it and may not even know so they didn’t take the shot to protect their own health after careful deliberation and an antibody test first, right? How does this relate to long-term relationships? Simple: There’s always some ******* who is richer, no matter how much you have and she just branded herself as willing to sell her future cheap. VERY cheap. Thanks for the warning; it’s a hell of a lot better for a guy to conclusively find this out before he needs a divorce lawyer! Make sure the rubbers stay in your wallet so she can’t “pin” them before use and for the love of God flush the damn thing after you’re done so she can’t fish it out of the trash can!

It’s even worse from the male future family evaluation side. Some guys do want families. Was there permanent damage done to that capability in terms of bearing kids? We know that those nice mRNA shots show up in the ovaries. Oh, chick-a-dee didn’t know that before rolling up her sleeve? Well, that’s what haste gets you — not bothering to wait for the science to figure it out. I have no idea and neither does she if that’s a problem but she took the stab voluntarily. So about that willingness to have said family and put your relationship in front of preening around virtue-signaling on Instabitch and Facesucker, eh? Maybe that will all work out ok, but it seems to me that by the time we will know with reasonable certainty the window will be closed on the baby factory as only high-risk (for both woman and child) and maybe even IVF, if any, pregnancies will be possible. Again: No thanks; I’ll take the woman who didn’t deliberately risk permanent compromise of her reproductive capacity so she could get into Lollapalooza.

21st century Frankenstein?

• After COVID-19 Successes, Push For mRNA Vaccines For Other Diseases (Nature)

When the broad range of vaccines against COVID-19 were being tested in clinical trials, only a few experts expected the unproven technology of mRNA to be the star. Within 10 months, mRNA vaccines were both the first to be approved and the most effective. Although these are the first mRNA vaccines to be approved, the story of mRNA vaccines starts more than 30 years ago, with many bumps in the road along the way. In 1990, the late physician-scientist Jon Wolff and his University of Wisconsin colleagues injected mRNA into mice, which caused cells in the mice to produce the encoded proteins. In many ways, that work served as the first step toward making a vaccine from mRNA, but there was a long way to go—and there still is, for many applications.

Traditional vaccines use a weak or inactive form of a microorganism to turn the immune system against the disease. After a person is given injection of an mRNA vaccine, their cells make part or all of a protein that causes an immune response, including the production of antibodies. Although the most widely known examples are the mRNA-based vaccines from BioNTech–Pfizer and Moderna directed against the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus that causes COVID-19, that is just one small part of this field—and those vaccines were not the first efforts that used mRNA. Despite the many benefits of using this molecule as the basis of a vaccine, it comes with fundamental challenges: it is not very stable inside cells, and mRNA is not efficiently translated into proteins when used as a gene-delivery tool. Today, mRNA can be engineered to battle many diseases, but it will not work with all of them.

German biotechnology company BioNTech’s chief medical officer Özlem Türeci—physician, immunologist and entrepreneur—says that “mRNA has a couple of interesting features that make it attractive for vaccines.” Adaptability serves as this molecule’s key feature in this application and beyond. mRNA can be engineered not only to make antigens for vaccines but also to encode antibodies, cytokines and other proteins related to the immune system. “The versatility of mRNA creates a huge design space,” she explains. The scientists at BioNTech spent years researching and developing techniques to get full command over mRNA, including optimizing its non-coding parts, designing specific sequences, developing manufacturing processes and more.

Türeci describes the results of those efforts by saying, “We have a diversified toolbox and by mixing and matching the modules in this toolbox, we can design mRNA with the features that we need for a particular purpose.” She adds that “it is a bit like writing code—by mastering a programming language [that] is rich in terms, one can give any instruction one wants.” With the BioNTech toolbox, the scientists can control how much protein is produced and for how long, the route of administration of the mRNA, which cells express the protein and if the mRNA creates a precise activation or suppression of the immune system.

Does Biden really want to find out?

• Former National Security Advisor: ‘I Think We Can’ Find Covid-19 Origin (Hill)

Former Deputy National Security Advisor Matthew Pottinger said that he believes it is possible to ascertain the origins of COVID-19 during a discussion of the Wuhan lab origin theory on Sunday. “I think there’s a lot that can be learned in 90 days,” Pottinger told “Meet the Press” host Chuck Todd on NBC, referring to President Biden’s recent call for a 90-day report on the origins of COVID-19 from the U.S. intelligence community. “It’s conceivable that we’ll have an answer and even if we come up short with a definitive answer, what we’re gonna have is a foundation for additional revelations to come out from scientists around the world who are now going to be emboldened because they know that this is a priority of the United States,” Pottinger added.

Todd asked Pottinger if he believed a “definitive answer” about the origins of COVID-19 could be found even if the Chinese government is uncooperative. “I think we can. It might take more than 90 days, but look, … China has incredible and ethical scientists, many of whom in the early stages of the pandemic came out to say that they suspected that this was a lab leak,” Pottinger said. “So those people have been systematically silenced by their government,” he added, saying a U.S.-led global effort to find the origins of COVID-19 may embolden these scientists to come forward.

With or from Covid?

• Peru Surges To Highest Covid Death Toll Per Capita (Axios)

Peru officials revised the country’s COVID-19 death toll Monday from 69,342 to 180,764 after a review. The almost tripling of the number listed Sunday means the country has the worst pandemic death rate per capita, according to Johns Hopkins University data. Per Johns Hopkins, Hungary previously had the highest coronavirus death toll per capita —about 300 per 100,000 people. With its revised toll, Peru stands at over 500 COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 people. Officials said that the undercounting was partially down to “a lack of testing that made it difficult to confirm whether a person had died due to the virus or some other cause,” Reuters reports. Experts had long raised concerns that the official death toll had been undercounted, as hospitals packed out with coronavirus patients and oxygen ran short, the news agency notes.

It will get dangerous once they claim enough people have bee jabbed. We’re not there yet.

• EU Plans To Lift Covid Quarantine Rules For Vaccinated From 1 July (G.)

The starting pistol has been fired on a “relaxing” summer holiday season for people living in the EU from 1 July, as Brussels proposed lifting all quarantine obligations on those who are fully vaccinated against Covid-19. From Tuesday, a system will be ready to allow member states to issue a digital Covid passport to citizens proving their status and freeing them up to travel. With infection rates on a downward trajectory across the bloc, a deadline has been set for 1 July for all 27 EU countries to accept the documentation as sufficient proof of vaccination for restrictions to be lifted. A negative test or proof of having recovered from infection will confer the same rights on the holder of a certificate.

The European Commission has proposed a standard validity period for tests: 72 hours before travel for PCR tests and 48 hours for rapid antigen tests. The children of those who are fully vaccinated will also be exempt from quarantine under the proposal and as a minimum no one under six years of age will need to take a test. Many countries are likely to set a higher age threshold for the testing of minors. The intention is that fully vaccinated UK travellers will benefit from the Covid passport system but, in light of the emerging variant first identified in India, EU governments may still impose restrictions on people arriving from the UK including testing and quarantine obligations.

From Monday, entry to France has been limited to EU nationals, French residents, and those travelling for essential purposes. People arriving from the UK must have tested negative and quarantine for seven days. While a sudden deterioration in the Covid infection rates in the EU could lead to the use of an “emergency brake” on the lifting of restrictions within the bloc, the intention is to reintroduce free movement as the summer tourism season begins.

“..the whole sorry episode looks like an act-of-war but carried out with America’s foolish willing collaboration..”

• The Three Rivers of Angst (Kunstler)

Three rivers of angst flow out of Memorial Day 2021, and it is possible to imagine how they will meet later this year and join in a mighty flood of woe over the country. The first is the toxic stream of Wokery saturating just about every institution in the USA from the armed services, to the DOJ, to education both public and private, to organized sports, to the corporate C suites and, of course, to the transmission of current events in news and social media. Despite the torrents of mendacious narratives and fogs of gaslight deployed in this campaign, a substantial chunk of the public resists suffocation and has finally begun to fight back, especially at the grass roots local level against the dogma-driven school boards out to cancel Western Civ.

Expect this to ramp up as the spring semester closes out and the schools must set the terms for resuming classes in the fall. The kids themselves are bucking the mask mandates while the parents tangle with the more vexing problems of Woke racist curricula and insane sexual propaganda. It’s going to get ugly. Another stream of angst is the River of Covid-19. The tide has just turned on the question of where it came from, namely, the Wuhan Lab, but it’s hard to game-out both what we might do about that concerning the CCP’s role in it – plus, the roles of Dr. Fauci and our own National Institutes of Health – and whether the depraved administration of China Joe Biden can even acknowledge the facts. That is to say: the whole sorry episode looks like an act-of-war but carried out with America’s foolish willing collaboration.

But then a whole raft of really deadly additional questions overrides even the quandary of who’s responsible, and I refer to the future course of the disease itself, whether another wave comes back, what new variants might emerge, and the extremely spooky issue of what the long-term effects of the experimental vaccines might be. Since the news media is so untrustworthy, and these are such troubling threats, it will be very hard to locate the truth about the medical concerns.

They’ll throw some big words at it, that’s it.

• US Caught Spying On EU ‘Allies’ Again…What Is Europe Going To Do About It? (RT)

The espionage dynamic ultimately ties into the same mindset: The United States sees the European Union more as an economic competitor than as a friend and does not in any respect want it to get ahead of them or gain “advantage” in any specific area. The F-16 story above reveals how US intelligence in fact serves the interests of the military industrial complex, seeking out the secrets of Europe’s own defence industry and ensuring America always has the competitive edge, even to the point of making national intelligence agencies betray their own countries. As Edward Snowden stated in an interview in 2014, the US engages in constant industrial espionage against big German companies such as Siemens, stating: “If there’s information at Siemens that’s beneficial to US national interests – even if it doesn’t have anything to do with national security – then they’ll take that information nevertheless.”

In line with this, Angela Merkel, as a very Eurocentric leader who has a maverick approach to foreign policy and Germany’s place in the world, is unsurprisingly a frequent target of American intelligence activities. Washington is constantly wondering what she is thinking, intending and doing, not least regarding China and Russia where they do not see eye to eye. She is perhaps a “frenemy” to the US, a de facto ally and enemy simultaneously. But this all boils down to the big question as stated above, what is Europe going to do about it? Or can they do anything about it? The EU’s response to such unending controversies seems to be to make a small protest in the heat of the moment, but otherwise forget it and do nothing, passively tolerating American infiltration designed to undermine European interests and competitiveness across the board.

If Europe is serious about upholding its own “strategic clout” it has to be prepared to take bigger risks and stop being pressed into line under the obligation of “transatlaticism” and get tougher on the “American problem.” The bloc should take a leaf out of its rhetoric toward China and demand “reciprocity” in its relations with the United States, that it ceases espionage against them, seeks to curtail excessive “American influence” operations undermining their foreign policy and strategic independence and that it treats the continent as an equal and fair partner. Surely one would think ‘enough is enough’ but of course there is little reason to think anything will change. In a world where US surveillance is intrusive and rampant, America still surprisingly gets away with accusing everyone else of “spying.”

By now, Russia is well prepared.

• Russia May Be Cut Off From SWIFT Banking Payment System (RT)

Russian banks may be blocked from using SWIFT, a payment system that enables reliable and secure financial transactions, as part of restrictions against Moscow, in what one official has called a potential “spiral of sanctions.” “It’s no secret that there are threats, primarily from the United States, to disconnect Russia from the SWIFT system,” said Dmitry Birichevsky, director of the Economic Cooperation Department of the Russian Foreign Ministry. Speaking on RIA Novosti on Monday, the diplomat noted that Russia has concerns that SWIFT could get caught up in a “spiral of sanctions,” led by Washington. However, the senior official doesn’t think America will act on this threat any time soon.

“I’m actually confident that we won’t be disconnected from SWIFT anytime soon, and maybe never,” he said, noting that Russia would be able to come to payment agreements with their trading partners anyway. “Since 2014, Russia has been working on its own payment system. This system already exists,” he explained. “We all use the MIR card. It is also accepted in a number of neighboring countries and in Turkey. Negotiations are also underway with other partners.” Last month, politicians from the European Parliament voted in favor of a resolution to condemn what they called Russia’s “military posturing close to the country’s border with Ukraine.” The MEPs agreed that, “should military build-up lead to an invasion,” Moscow should be excluded from SWIFT, along with other economic measures.

Proposals to cut Moscow off from the world’s leading international payment system are not new. After seven years of threats, Russia is now in a position where losing access to SWIFT would no longer be a disastrous blow. The country has created its own alternative, called SPFS, which works domestically, and Moscow is looking to expand the system internationally.

Scary.

• EU Set To Unveil Plans For Bloc-Wide Digital Wallet (R.)

The European Union (EU) is set to unveil plans for a bloc-wide digital wallet on Wednesday, following requests from member states to find a safe way for citizens to access public and private services online, the Financial Times reported. The app will allow citizens across the EU to securely access a range of private and public services with a single online ID, according to the FT report on Tuesday. The digital wallet will securely store payment details and passwords and allow citizens from all 27 countries to log onto local government websites or pay utility bills using a single recognized identity, the newspaper said, citing people with direct knowledge of the plans.

The EU-wide app can be accessed via fingerprint or retina scanning among other methods, and will also serve as a vault where users can store official documents like the driver’s licence, the newspaper reported. EU officials will enforce a structural separation to prevent companies that access user data from using the wallet for any other commercial activity such as marketing new products. Brussels is engaged in talks with member states to provide guidelines on technical standards for rollout of the digital wallet, which is expected to be fully operational in about a year, according to the newspaper.

Cash is freedom.

• Just 7% of UK Shop Payments Predicted To Be In Cash By 2024 (G.)

Just 7% of in-store purchases in the UK could be made in cash by 2024, a report has forecast, after the coronavirus pandemic fuelled the switch to cards and mobile payments. While cash accounted for 27% of in-store transactions in 2019, the latest global payments report from processing company Worldpay found that had fallen to 13% last year. The report predicts usage will continue to drop over the next three years. International figures showed that in several other countries, including Sweden, Canada and Australia, already less than one in 10 shop payments are made in cash. It predicted Sweden would be “almost cashless” by 2024, with 0.4% of transactions paid for with money, down from 15.2% in 2019 and 8.8% last year.

Consumers and businesses were already moving away from cash payments before the pandemic hit, but early concerns that Covid-19 could spread via surfaces led some companies to switch to contactless methods. The increase in the contactless limit on cards, and mobile payment services with no cap on spending have accelerated the switch away from cash. Worldpay said that by 2024 it expected mobile to make up a third of payments. Pete Wickes of Worldpay said: “This research shows the speed and scale of the transformation in consumer behaviour in just 12 months. “The decline in the use of cash in the UK has accelerated, and while this opens up new opportunities for businesses to optimise and drive efficiencies, we need to be mindful that important parts of the economy continue to rely on cash, such as charity donations and restaurant tip jars, while there are many in society who remain underbanked.”

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Jackson Hole and the Appalachians

Aug 272017

August 27, 2017 Posted by Raúl Ilargi Meijer at 12:27 pm Finance Tagged with: bailout, Carney, crisis, Draghi, Fed, globalization, marriage, model, QE, Yellen 9 Responses »

Henri Cartier-Bresson Trafalgar Square on the Day of the Coronation of George VI 1937

The Jackson Hole gathering of central bankers and other economics big shots is on again. They all still like themselves very much. Apart from a pesky inflation problem that none of them can get a grip on, they publicly maintain that they’re doing great, and they’re saving the planet (doing God’s work is already taken).

But the inflation problem lies in the fact that they don’t know what inflation is, and they’re just as knowledgeable when it comes to all other issues. They get sent tons of numbers and stats, and then compare these to their economic models. They don’t understand economics, and they’re not interested in trying to understand it. All they want is for the numbers to fit the models, and if they don’t, get different numbers.

Meanwhile they continue to make the most outrageous claims. Bank of England Governor Mark Carney said in early July that “We have fixed the issues that caused the last crisis.” What do you say to that? Do you take him on a tour of Britain? Or do you just let him rot?

Fed head Janet Yellen a few days earlier had proclaimed that “[US] Banks are ‘very much stronger’, and another financial crisis is not likely ‘in our lifetime’. “ While we wish her a long and healthy life for many years to come, we must realize that we have to pick one: it has to be either a long life, or no crisis in her lifetime.

Just a few days ago, ECB President Mario Draghi somehow managed to squeeze through his windpipe that “QE has made economies more resilient”. Even though everybody -well, everybody who’s not in Jackson Hole- knows that QE has blown huge bubbles in lots of asset classes and caused severe damage to savings and pensions, problems that will reverberate through economies for a long time and rip entire societies apart.

But they really seem to believe what they say, all of them. Which is perhaps the biggest problem of all. That is, either they know better and lie straight-faced or they are blind to what they’re doing. Which might be caused by the fact that they are completely blind to what goes on in their countries and societies, and focus exclusively on banking systems. But that’s not where financial crises reside, or at least not only there.

How do we know? Easy. Try this on for size.

78% of Americans Live Paycheck To Paycheck

No matter how much you earn, getting by is still a struggle for most people these days. 78% of full-time workers said they live paycheck to paycheck, up from 75% last year, according to a recent report from CareerBuilder. Overall, 71% of all U.S. workers said they’re now in debt, up from 68% a year ago, CareerBuilder said. While 46% said their debt is manageable, 56% said they were in over their heads. About 56% also save $100 or less each month, according to CareerBuilder.

Haven’t seen anything as ironic in a long time as having a company called CareerBuilder report on this. But more importantly, when almost 4 out of 5 people live paycheck to paycheck, that is a financial crisis right there. Just perhaps not according to the models popular in Jackson Hole. What do they know about that kind of life, anyway? So why would they care to model it?

Yellen’s Fed proudly report almost full employment -even if they felt forced to abandon their own models of it. But what does full employment constitute, what does it mean, when all those jobs don’t allow for people to live without fear of the next repair bill, the next hospital visit, their children’s education?

What does it mean when banks are profitable again and pay out huge bonuses while at the same time millions work two jobs and still can’t make ends meet? How is that not a -financial- crisis? In the economists’ models, all those jobs must lead to scarcity in the labor market, and thus rising wages. And then inflation, by which they mean rising prices. But the models fail, time and time again.

Moreover, talking about inflation without consumer spending, i.e. velocity of money, is empty rhetoric. 78% of Americans will not be able to raise their spending levels, they’re already maxed out at the end of each week, and 71% have debts on top of that. So where will the inflation, rising wages, etc., come from? When nobody has money to spend? Nobody can put that Humpty Dumpty together again.

An actual -as opposed to theoretical- recovery of wages and inflation will certainly not come from QE for banks, that much should be clear after a decade. And that is exactly where the problem is. That is why so many people work such shitty jobs. The banks may be more resilient (and that comes with a big question mark), but it has come at the cost of the economies. And no, banks are not the same as economies. Moreover, ‘saving’ the banks through asset purchases and ultra low rates has made ‘real economies’ much more prone to the next downturn.

The asset purchases serve to keep zombie firms -including banks- alive, which will come back to haunt economies -and central banks- when things start falling. The ultra low rates have driven individuals and institutions into ‘investments’ for which there has been no price discovery for a decade or more. Homes, stocks, you name it. Everyone and their pet hamster overborrowed and overpaid thanks to Bernanke, Yellen and Draghi, and their ‘policies’.

QE for banks didn’t just not work as advertized, it has dug a mile deep hole in real economies. No economy can properly function unless most people can afford to spend money. It’s lifeblood. QE for banks is not, if anything it’s the opposite.

Another -joined at the hip- example of what’s really happening in -and to- America, long term and deep down, and which will not be a discussion topic in Jackson Hole, is the following from the Atlantic on marriage in America. And I can hear the disagreements coming already, but bear with me.

Both the above 78% paycheck to paycheck number and the Atlantic piece on marriage make me think back of Joe Bageant. Because that is the world he came from and returned to, and described in Deer Hunting with Jesus: Dispatches from America’s Class War. The Appalachians. I don’t believe for a moment that Joe, if he were still with us, would have been one bit surprised about Trump. And reading this stuff, neither should you.

This is not something that is new, or that can be easily turned around anymore. This is the proverbial oceanliner which requires a huge distance to change course. Victor Tan Chen’s piece is a worthwhile read; here are a few bits:

America, Home of the Transactional Marriage

Over the last several decades, the proportion of Americans who get married has greatly diminished—a development known as well to those who lament marriage’s decline as those who take issue with it as an institution. But a development that’s much newer is that the demographic now leading the shift away from tradition is Americans without college degrees—who just a few decades ago were much more likely to be married by the age of 30 than college graduates were.

Today, though, just over half of women in their early 40s with a high-school degree or less education are married, compared to three-quarters of women with a bachelor’s degree; in the 1970s, there was barely a difference. [..] Fewer than one in 10 mothers with a bachelor’s degree are unmarried at the time of their child’s birth, compared to six out of 10 mothers with a high-school degree.

The share of such births has risen dramatically in recent decades among less educated mothers, even as it has barely budged for those who finished college. (There are noticeable differences between races, but among those with less education, out-of-wedlock births have become much more common among white and nonwhite people alike.)

And then you make education so expensive it’s out of reach for a growing number of people… Insult and injury.

Plummeting rates of marriage and rising rates of out-of-wedlock births among the less educated have been linked to growing levels of income inequality. [..] Why are those with less education—the working class—entering into, and staying in, traditional family arrangements in smaller and smaller numbers? Some tend to stress that the cultural values of the less educated have changed, and there is some truth to that.

But what’s at the core of those changes is a larger shift: The disappearance of good jobs for people with less education has made it harder for them to start, and sustain, relationships. What’s more, the U.S.’s relatively meager safety net makes the cost of being unemployed even steeper than it is in other industrialized countries—which prompts many Americans to view the decision to stay married with a jobless partner in more transactional, economic terms.

And this isn’t only because of the financial ramifications of losing a job, but, in a country that puts such a premium on individual achievement, the emotional and psychological consequences as well. Even when it comes to private matters of love and lifestyle, the broader social structure—the state of the economy, the availability of good jobs, and so on—matters a great deal.

This is the erosion of social cohesion. And there is nothing there to fill that void.

Earlier this year, the economists David Autor, David Dorn, and Gordon Hanson analyzed labor markets during the 1990s and 2000s—a period when America’s manufacturing sector was losing jobs, as companies steadily moved production overseas or automated it with computers and robots. Because the manufacturing sector has historically paid high wages to people with little education, the disappearance of these sorts of jobs has been devastating to working-class families, especially the men among them, who still outnumber women on assembly lines.

Autor, Dorn, and Hanson found that in places where the number of factory jobs shrank, women were less likely to get married. They also tended to have fewer children, though the share of children born to unmarried parents, and living in poverty, grew. What was producing these trends, the researchers argue, was the rising number of men who could no longer provide in the ways they once did, making them less attractive as partners.

The perks of globalization. Opioids, anyone?

[..] In doing research for a book about workers’ experiences of being unemployed for long periods, I saw how people who once had good jobs became, over time, “unmarriageable.” I talked to many people without jobs, men in particular, who said that dating, much less marrying or moving in with someone, was no longer a viable option: Who would take a chance on them if they couldn’t provide anything?

It’s not only Joe Bageant. These are also the people Bruce Springsteen talked about when he was still the Boss.

[..] The theory that a lack of job opportunities makes marriageable men harder to find was first posed by the sociologist William Julius Wilson in regard to a specific population: poor, city-dwelling African Americans. [..] In later decades of the last century, rates of crime, joblessness, poverty, and single parenthood soared in cities across the country.

[..] In a 1987 book, Wilson put forward a compelling alternative explanation: Low-income black men were not marrying because they could no longer find good jobs. Manufacturers had fled cities, taking with them the jobs that workers with less in the way of education—disproportionately, in this case, African Americans—had relied on to support their families. The result was predictable. When work disappeared, people coped as best they could, but many families and communities frayed.

By now it’s all Springsteen, Darkness on the Edge of Town. That album is some 40 years old. That’s -at least- how long this has been going on. And why it’ll be so hard to correct.

Decades later, the same storyline is playing out across the country, in both white and nonwhite communities, the research of Autor, Dorn, and Hanson (as well as others) suggests. The factory jobs that retreated from American cities, moving to suburbs and then the even lower-cost South, have now left the country altogether or been automated away.

[..] “The kinds of jobs a man could hold for a career have diminished,” the sociologists wrote, “and more of the remaining jobs have a temporary ‘stopgap’ character—casual, short-term, and not part of a career strategy.” The result: As many men’s jobs have disappeared or worsened in quality, women see those men as a riskier investment.

This next bit is painful: life ain’t gonna get any better, so we might as well have kids.

At the same time, they are not necessarily postponing when they have kids. As the sociologists Kathryn Edin and Maria Kefalas have found in interviews with low-income mothers, many see having children as an essential part of life, and one that they aren’t willing to put off until they’re older, when the probability of complications in pregnancy can increase.

For mothers-to-be from more financially stable backgrounds, the calculation is different: They often wait longer to have children, since their career prospects and earnings are likely to improve during the period when they might otherwise have been raising a child. For less-educated women, such an improvement is much rarer.

Tan Chen follows up with a comparison of European and American safety nets, and suggests that “It’s not a matter of destiny, but policy”, but I don’t find that too relevant to why I found his piece so touching.

It describes a dying society. America is slowly dying, and not all that slowly for that matter. The Fed is comfortably holed up in Jackson Hole after having handed out trillions to bankers and lured millions of Americans into buying -or increasingly renting- properties that have become grossly overpriced due to its ZIRP policies, and congratulating itself on achieving “full employment”.

Why that ever became part of its mandate, g-d knows. I know, ML King et al. But. Thing is, when full employment means 78% of people have such a hard time making ends meet that they can’t afford to keep each other in a job by spending their money in stores etc., you’re effectively looking at a dying economy. Maybe we should not call it ‘full’, but ’empty employment’ instead.

Yeah, I know, trickle down. But instead of wealth miraculously trickling down, it’s debt that miraculously trickles up. How many Americans have mortgages or rents to pay every month that gobble up 40-50% or more from their incomes? That’d be a useful stat. Model that, Janet!

The article on marriage makes clear that by now this is no longer about money. The 40+ year crisis has ‘transcended’ all that. If and when money becomes too scarce, it starts to erode quality of life, first in individuals and then also in societies. It erodes the fabric of society. And you don’t simply replace that once it’s gone, not even if there were a real economic recovery.

But there will be no such recovery. As bad as things are for Americans today, they will get a whole lot worse. That is an inevitable consequence of the market distortion that QE has wrought: a gigantic financial crisis is coming. And the crowd gathered at Jackson Hole will be calling the shots once more, and bail out banks, not people. What’s that definition of insanity again?