Everything you wanted to know about castrating lambs, but were afraid to ask...

 

Here's a very entertaining TED talk from Mike Rowe, host of the "Dirty Jobs" TV series.  It's got some very funny moments, but also makes some important points.  It's worth 20 minutes of your time, I think.

Mike Rowe is one of the people in media I genuinely respect, because he puts his money where his mouth is - he never pontificates, he gets stuck in and does things.  His Foundation, with its emphasis on trade schools and blue-collar education, is a very important contributor to our economic future.  Full marks to him.

Peter

A World War I relic sees action again in Ukraine

 

I was amazed to learn that Maxim machine guns - a technology invented in the late 19th century, decades before World War I - are still in use by Ukrainian forces, and apparently giving a good account of themselves.  Task & Purpose reports:

Although the Maxim machine gun was originally created way back in the 1880s, today’s war in Ukraine has surfaced a sometimes bizarre mix of weapons and tactics. There are modern drones and troops just as likely to carry tablets as rifles. Mid-century Cold War tanks and armored personnel carriers are taking the field alongside modern rocket systems. Satellite imagery is helping troops endure old-school trench warfare. And Ukrainian fighters have been busting out machine guns that are more than 100 years old.

Take for instance this recent video of a fighter using an old Maxim, fitted with decidedly modern add-ons such as optics and a suppressor.

And if one Maxim isn’t enough, why not rig up four into one large anti-drone system? That’s what Ukrainian fighters recently did, creating a four-gun turret specifically meant to shoot down Russian drones.

There's more at the link.

The Maxim model in question is the PM M1910, adopted prior to World War I for the Imperial Russian armed forces, and continuing in production in the Soviet Union until after World War II.  It's chambered for the 7.62x54mmR cartridge, older than but approximately equivalent to the US .30-06 Springfield.

Many Maxim-type machine guns all over the world soldiered on after the World Wars.  South Africa rechambered many of its Vickers machine guns (based on the Maxim design, and originally chambered in .303 British) to fire the modern 7.62x51mm NATO round.  I ran into a couple of them in the operational areas of South West Africa (today Namibia) and Angola during the 1980's.  South Africa's modernized Vickers were finally retired in the early 1990's, after combat use as late as 1988.  Other nations used similar weapons well into the 1960's.

Maxim recalled:

In 1882 I was in Vienna, where I met an American whom I had known in the States. He said: 'Hang your chemistry and electricity! If you want to make a pile of money, invent something that will enable these Europeans to cut each others' throats with greater facility.'

More than a hundred and forty years later, Europeans are still using Maxim's machine gun to kill each other.  The weapon and its derivatives have probably slaughtered tens of millions by now.  That doesn't say much for humanity, does it?

Peter

Yes, it's a worry...

 

Yahoo News warns that the cost of care for the elderly is beyond many people's reach.

A wave of Americans has been reaching retirement age largely unprepared for the extraordinary costs of specialized care. These aging baby boomers - 73 million strong, the oldest of whom turn 77 this year - pose an unprecedented challenge to the U.S. economy, as individual families shoulder an increasingly ruinous financial burden with little help from stalemated policymakers in Washington.

The dilemma is particularly vexing for those in the economic middle. They can't afford the high costs of care on their own, yet their resources are too high for them to qualify for federal safety-net insurance. An estimated 18 million middle-income boomers will require care for moderate to severe needs but be unable to pay for it, according to an analysis of the gap by the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College.

"It's this really enormous financial bomb sitting out there that most people are just hoping won't hit them," said Marc A. Cohen, co-director of the LeadingAge LTSS Center at the University of Massachusetts at Boston. "There's an incredible amount of confusion and denial."

. . .

Polls show the vast majority of people would prefer aging in place, in their own home. But median costs for 40 hours a week of assistance from a care aide in the home, for things like bathing, dressing, eating and toileting, run over $56,000 a year. A shortage of home care aides, moreover, was exacerbated by the pandemic.

Nursing homes provide the most intensive care for the most dependent seniors and function like medical facilities, averaging $120,000 a year unless you qualify for Medicaid, the federal insurance program for the poor and elderly. Medicaid will kick in only once an elderly person's resources are drained away.

There's much more at the link, including several examples.

This is a very serious concern for many older Americans, including yours truly.  I'm not yet in need of such care, but I almost certainly will one day - and I have no way at all to pay for it.  The only option would be to sell almost everything my wife and I possess, including our home, and spend that on care, in the hope that we'd then qualify for Medicaid (assuming, of course, that Medicaid still exists by then, and the country hasn't gone bankrupt).  Needless to say, I don't plan on doing that . . . but the only alternative is to live at home and hope I can cope.

I think there's a place here for small communities of like-minded people to help each other.  We've already spoken about such "tribes" or "clans" in terms of mutual self-defense against urban crime and violence, or helping each other in difficult economic times.  Another reason for forming such groups is to have its members help each other with senior care, as far as possible.  I think there are good reasons to pursue such options, provided enough people living close together are willing to help.  Churches, the American Legion and other social groups might be an option to help organize them.

What do you think, readers?  For the older among us, how do you plan to deal with this issue when it arises?  Do you have a solution, or is it going to be a case of taking one day at a time and coping as best we can?  Let us know in Comments, so we can get a better idea of our overall preparedness for a need that's certain to confront us all, sooner or later.

It's strange to think that modern medicine, with all its blessings, has in fact largely caused this conundrum.  We're living so much longer than our forefathers, and our illnesses and infirmities are much more "treatable" than they were;  so there are more older people in need of such care.  If we died at the "regular" time, of natural causes that until recently were taken for granted at the end of life, the problem probably wouldn't exist.  It largely doesn't in the Third World, of course, because those natural causes still kill older people in the absence of advanced medical treatment.

Peter

Adventures with vacuum storage bags

 

I've begun the annual ritual of putting away winter blankets, coats, etc. until they're needed again.  This year I'm trying something new:  I'm using vacuum storage bags.  After doing some comparative research, I decided on this brand, since it was relatively economical in the 30-bag pack, and its customer reviews were reasonably good.

So far, the experiment is proving very successful.  I've packed throws, fleecy blankets, and several winter-weight coats, and all have shrunk dramatically, needing a lot less storage space than before.  I can only wonder why I never tried this in the past.

However, I couldn't help but notice customer reviews, for this product and for other similar ones, complaining that:

• Some bags (in some cases, up to half) didn't seal properly, rendering them useless.  Several reviewers complained that the plastic clip on the ziplock seam fell off and proved useless.
• Some bags were very hard to seal, with the ziplock seam hard to close and pulling open when a vacuum cleaner hose was applied;
• Some bags split when filled, proving very brittle instead of flexible.

I haven't found any of those problems, but I was forewarned by the reviews.  I therefore did some advance planning before using them, and took several precautions.

1. I made sure not to over-fill the bags.  Some people seem to ram clothes into them until they bulge, and then wonder why the seams split or the ziplock seal won't close.  If you don't overwork them, they seem to function just fine.
2. I folded the clothes and blankets neatly, and eased them into the bags carefully, rather than just stuffing them in any old how.  That put less stress on the opening and the seams.  (I also added a couple of large dessicant packets to each one, to absorb any moisture that might get in.  Tightly sealed clothes and moisture don't mix well - think fungus.)
3. I made sure to seal the opening very carefully, running my fingers up and down the double seals several times.  That made sure it was properly closed, so that when the vacuum was used, it could handle the pressure change.  Also, I found the plastic clip on the seam was never intended to be permanent - it was a slide-on aid to closing the bag rather than an integral part of the seal.  I discarded it and didn't bother to use it, and didn't miss it.
4. I didn't regard the bags as a clothing equivalent of a Food Saver bag, intended to have all the air drawn out and sealing-in a complete vacuum.  I don't think they're intended for that.  Instead, I took out only enough air to compress their contents to a reasonable extent.  I'm pretty sure that if I'd tried to flatten them completely, particularly on the well-filled bags, the ziplock seals and/or the seams might have given way.  Moderation in use is not necessarily a bad thing.

By following those steps, I haven't had any problems, and all the bags I've used so far have worked perfectly.  I can only presume that some of the reviewers who didn't like them, or complained about them, didn't use them properly.

I'm going to try a few of the smaller vacuum storage bags to compress a change of clothing in our emergency kits.  It should make them easier to store and transport.  (I'm also going to try Commander Zero's suggestion of using Food Saver vacuum bags to protect other important emergency items.  It might save a lot of trouble in case of urgent need.)

Just a few thoughts that I hope you may find helpful.

Peter

F.A.F.O. - plumbing edition

 

This incident happened a few weeks ago, and was well publicized at the time in the blogosphere:  but now the boss of the company concerned has given his thoughts on the subject.  I approve of his attitude.

We need more tolerant, understanding bosses like that . . .

Peter

Heh

 

From Titus Ministries on Gab.  Click the image for a larger view.

I'm sure readers can suggest other hymns appropriate to particular occupations.  Have at it in Comments!

Peter

It's astonishing how quickly you can be killed...

 

Click over to Bitter Centurion's place and watch the video he's posted there.  It shows an altercation between two idiots, one of whom has a knife.  At about the 33sec. mark, the armed man stabs the other in the neck, hitting the carotid artery.  Look at how little time it takes for the victim to collapse.  I doubt he made it - the blood loss, showing on the ground, is enough to deoxygenate his brain within a minute or so.

Lessons to be learned:

1. Danger can strike at any time, in any place, whether you're expecting it or not.
2. You're very vulnerable to a close-range hit, whether from a fist or a knife or some other weapon.  One good blow to a nerve center can knock you unconscious in a split-second.  One stab in the wrong place and you can bleed out in minutes.
3. Your only defense (apart from not being there!) is to be ready to defend yourself, and to go to intensified methods of defense (i.e. a gun) if a weapon (like a knife) is displayed;  and you have to be ready, willing and able to use your firearm to defend yourself if necessary.  It won't do you any good to wave it around like a magic talisman, expecting the bad guy to get scared and run away.  Often, he won't.

Food for thought, no?

Peter

More shenanigans and skullduggery in the metals market

 

Readers may remember the chaos unleashed in the world nickel market last year when the London Metals Exchange (LME) caved in to what was alleged by some to be "blackmail" by a Chinese tycoon, Xiang Guangda, and his company, Tsingshan Holding Group.

Xiang had built up his massive short position [in nickel] in late 2021 and early 2022 partly as a hedge, partly as a bet that a planned jump in Tsingshan’s production this year would drag down prices. But when Russia’s invasion of Ukraine jolted global markets, nickel started climbing — gradually at first, before rocketing 250% in an epic squeeze.

On the evening of March 8 [2022], senior bankers crowded into a room at Tsingshan’s headquarters demanding answers. Others dialed in for video calls from London or Singapore. Of those present, some didn’t leave until early the next morning.

The crowd that night was so large because Xiang’s position was spread across about 10 banks and brokers — he had been a good client for many of them, including JPMorgan, for years. But after nickel started spiking on March 7, Tsingshan struggled to meet its margin calls. Now he owed each of them hundreds of millions of dollars.

The LME had eventually intervened to halt trading a couple of hours after nickel hit $100,000. It also canceled billions of dollars of transactions, bringing the price back to $48,078, where it closed the previous day, in what amounted to a lifeline for Xiang and Tsingshan.

To reopen the market, the LME proposed a solution: Xiang should strike a deal with holders of long positions to close out his trade. But a price of around $50,000 would be more than twice the level at which he had entered his short position, and would mean accepting billions of dollars in losses.

Xiang, who is in his early 60s, stood firm. From a start making frames for car doors and windows in Wenzhou, eastern China, he’d built Tsingshan into the world’s largest nickel and stainless steel producer, with an empire stretching from mines in remote Indonesian islands to steel mills on China’s east coast. Along the way, he’d acquired a reputation for visionary thinking and a taste for betting big.

He had caught the attention of the LME before, when in 2019 Tsingshan was on the other side of a short squeeze, withdrawing large amounts of nickel inventories from exchange warehouses and causing prices to jump. 

This time, his aggressive approach to trading was having much wider ripple effects. 

The spike in prices and the trading freeze caused havoc for companies that use nickel, like stainless steel mills and makers of batteries for electric vehicles. Some simply stopped taking new orders. On the LME, dealers were left frantically trying to recoup missed margin calls from clients who couldn’t pay, and at least one had to seek financial support from its parent company.

Yet with unprecedented chaos rippling through the industry, Xiang — still facing his bankers in the early hours of March 9 — had a key advantage. They were more terrified than he was.

If he refused to pay, they would have to chase him in courts in Indonesia and China. What’s more, he had executed his nickel trade through a variety of corporate entities – such as the Hong Kong branch of battery unit Ruipu Energy Co. – and it wasn’t clear the banks would even have the right to seize Tsingshan’s most valuable assets.

The bankers understood that if things went wrong, their careers would be over, one person who was in the room remembered.

JPMorgan, which had the biggest exposure, took the lead. The group included some international players like Standard Chartered Bank Plc and BNP Paribas SA, but many were Chinese and Singaporean banks that had little experience handling a situation like this. 

Xiang told the assembled bankers he had no intention of closing the position anywhere near $50,000. A few hours later he was delivering the same message to Matthew Chamberlain, chief executive of the LME. Tsingshan was a strong company, he said, and it had the support of the Chinese government. There would be no backing down.

. . .

It wasn’t much of a choice. On March 14, a week after the chaos that engulfed the nickel market, Tsingshan announced a deal with its banks under which they agreed not to pursue the company for the billions it owed for a period of time. In exchange, Xiang agreed a series of price levels at which he would reduce his nickel position once prices dropped below about $30,000.

When the market reopened two days later, prices moved lower, easing the strain on Xiang and the banks. A brief dip below $30,000 allowed Tsingshan to cover about 20% of its short position. 

The pressure on the LME was only intensifying, however. The exchange’s regulators launched reviews of its governance and oversight. The Dallas Federal Reserve and International Monetary Fund joined in a chorus of public criticism, and many hedge funds were still furious at the LME’s decision to cancel trades.

“The moment we realized what was really happening, we felt we could no longer entrust the LME with our clients’ money,” said Transtrend, a $6.7 billion Dutch algorithmic fund.

There's more at the link.

One might point out that Tsingshan's situation last year is proof of the old adage:  "If you owe the bank a thousand dollars, you have a problem.  If you owe the bank a million dollars, the bank has a problem."  Tsingshan owed so many banks so many billions of dollars that it could not be pressured too strongly without those banks losing everything they'd advanced - so the company, and its founder, got away with their gamble.  On the other hand, the LME's actions in not only halting trading, but actually canceling already-executed trades (which worked solely in Tsingshan's favor, and massively to the disadvantage of those who'd made the trades) has resulted in lawsuits against the exchange totalling over half a billion dollars.  They're still wending their way through the courts.

To add to the LME's woes, it now emerges that "nickel" recently deposited in one of its warehouses, and registered as such for trade on the exchange, was nothing of the sort.

The London Metal Exchange has found bags full of stones at one of its warehouses instead of the nickel they were supposed to contain in the latest drama to hit the scandal-stricken metals market.

The exchange said in a notice to the market on Friday that it had “received information that a number of physical nickel shipments, out of one specific facility of an LME-licensed warehouse operator, have been subject to such irregularities”. The supposed nickel consignments were actually filled with stone, said a person familiar with the matter.

The LME added that the irregularities in the bagged nickel were “evident, from among other things, by the weight of the bags” and it “reminds licensed warehouse operators of the strict requirement to weigh all metal before it is placed” into the exchange’s approved warehouses.

The discovery comes just weeks after Trafigura, one of the world’s largest metals traders, unearthed a $577mn nickel fraud that has rocked the commodities industry.

The supposed nickel was stored in Rotterdam at a warehouse operated by Access World, which had been owned by Trafigura’s commodity trading rival Glencore until January, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Glencore declined to comment. Access World did not respond to a request for comment.

The acceptance of the fake consignment into the LME’s system is a further blow to the 146-year-old exchange’s reputation after last year’s controversial decision to cancel nickel trades following a historic surge in prices, a move which has attracted regulatory probes and lawsuits from investors.

Following the discovery, the LME asked the warehouse operator to conduct an inspection, which found nine cases of missing nickel, amounting to 54 tonnes of material worth $1.3mn. The LME has ordered all of its licensed warehouse operators to repeat inspections on nickel in storage to check for irregularities.

Again, more at the link.

That's a real black eye for the exchange.  If someone hadn't noticed the discrepancy, LME would have authorized trades for that "metal", and only after delivery would the truth have emerged.  One now has to ask how many more such cases are in LME's warehouses that have not been detected.  I'm sure all sorts of investigations and cross-checks are now under way.

We've just seen how troubles at one or two US banks can suddenly erupt into something threatening the entire financial sector worldwide and forcing an international response.  Are we about to see fraudulent and/or criminal activities in the metals market suddenly spread as well?  If one warehouse, in one country, at one exchange (albeit the largest), has detected this problem, how many other warehouses of how many other metals exchanges around the world have yet to conduct stringent checks on what their clients claim is in their deposits?  What if several, or many, of those deposits are not what they're said to be?  What will that do to the metals markets overall?  What if these incidents extend beyond the nickel market to other metals as well?

Many questions, few answers - and a lot of money at stake, enough to destroy companies and potentially even shatter the economies of smaller mining nations.

Peter

Memes that made me laugh 151

 

Gathered from around the Internet over the past week.  Click any image for a larger view.

Sunday morning music

 

How about something a little (?!) different today?

Few people these days have heard of Paweł Zadrożniak.  However, those of us who were active in the pre-smartphone days are familiar with his work, creating techno-music out of early computer hardware such as floppy disk drives (remember them?) and flatbed scanners.  He called his creation the "Floppotron".

He started out simply, as illustrated by this rendition of the "Imperial March" from the second Star Wars movie, "The Empire Strikes Back", composed by John Williams.  His instruments were two floppy disk drives and a controller board.

It didn't take him long to graduate to a full "orchestra".  Here's his "Floppotron 3.0" playing the "Entry of the Gladiators", a march by Julius Fucík.

And here's "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" by Eurythmics.

You'll find more of Paweł Zadrożniak's music (?) at his YouTube channel.

Peter

Saturday Snippet: Not your average diner

 

Many long-term readers will know of Kelly Grayson, a.k.a. Ambulance Driver, a long-term friend of mine from Louisiana.  He published a collection of vignettes from his emergency medical services some years ago, titled "En Route: A Paramedic's Stories of Life, Death and Everything In Between", and contributed to two EMS anthologies.  He's also been a prolific blogger, mostly about professional subjects, but also displaying his wicked sense of humor over many years.  His characterization of "Sumdood" ("No, awficer, I dindu nothin'!  Them drugs in these trousers I'm wearin'?  They ain't my trousers!  They belong to sum other dood!") has become legendary.

Recently, Kelly has turned his hand to fiction.  Late last year he published a novel titled "Kindred (The Sumdood Chronicles, Book 1)", and has contributed to several short story anthologies.  Last week he published a stand-alone short story, "Scattered, Smothered and Spellbound: The Battle of Waffle Haus 814".

It's a hoot!  He manages to bring in most of Larry Correia's fan club, complete with their manatee mascot and war cry of "HOOOOONNNN!", plus many of us in the North Texas Troublemakers.  Kelly has a truly wicked sense of humor when it comes to debunking sacred cows and debagging those over-full of themselves.

Here's the opening of his new short story.  It's only 99c as an introductory offer at Amazon, to go up slightly next week, so this is a good time to grab a copy.

They blew in like a storm cloud around 7:15, probably pre-gaming for the party they were headed to, singing Wet Ass Pussy at the top of their lungs. There were four of them, loud, proud and ghetto fabulous, fresh from having their huhr and nails did.

The ringleader nearly knocked a wormy little guy wearing a Hawaiian shirt festooned with smiling manatees off his stool at the counter, tossed out a challenging “Sup, Grandpa?” at him, bulled her way to the jukebox and loudly pronounced every song on the playlist as “fo’ s***.” She fed it quarters, and presently Tevin Campbell’s Can We Talk began to ooze from the speakers.

I didn’t mind so much, Tevin being a local boy and all. What the hell, at least it wasn’t Tennessee Whiskey or Hotel California. Work at a Waffle Haus long enough, you’ll eventually fantasize about strangling the remaining Eagles with Chris Stapleton’s beard. I’m pretty sure Glenn Frey didn’t die from pneumonia; it was the prospect of singing Hotel California again.

Anyway, the Four Horsewomen of Cellulite squeezed uncomfortably into Booth #4, metric tons of ass threatening the structural integrity of Formica and fabric alike.

There really oughta be a law about yoga pants. If your camel toe can be more accurately described as walrus jowls, it should be illegal to wear anything but a muumuu. When you get up from a chair and that cute little dimple on your knee turns out to be your bellybutton, no tight britches for you, FUPA Troopah.

The ringleader snapped her fingers imperiously at me and shouted out their orders: four sausage, egg and cheese hashbrown bowls, smothered in grits, redeye gravy and chili. They needn’t have bothered; I knew their orders by heart. I raised my spatula over my head in acknowledgement and turned my attention back to the grill while the new girl shouted for my attention.

“Hey Al,” she whined plaintively. “Ain’t you listenin’? I got four more orders!”

“In point of fact, I am not listening,” I explain patiently to the new girl, Kaci, for the third time that shift. “Everybody shouts in this place. If you would like to be heard, step on your mark.” I pointed to the white square tile on the floor a couple of feet behind her.

Blushing, she stepped back onto the mark and took a deep breath. I raised one eyebrow expectantly.

“I need…” she paused, obviously composing the order in her head, “… a chocolate chip waffle plate all the way, one classic with grits side, pull two bacon, one hash brown scattered, smothered, covered, chunked and topped country, one quarter deluxe, and drop two hash browns to go with it.” She finished in a rush and smiled at me proudly.

“Atta girl,” I winked. “Comin’ right up.”

“Hey Mel!” the ringleader over at Booth 4 shouted indignantly behind me. “Aintchu gonna take our order?”

I gritted my teeth. My name isn’t Mel, and this isn’t some diner from a 1980’s CBS sitcom. I turned to her, smiled tightly and answered, “Already got you and your friends, Miss. I’ve got ten orders ahead of you, but if you’ll have a seat, I’ll have it out to you shortly.”

“Ain’t nobody brought us no coffee, neither!” she sneered. “I takes mine black, with extra grounds and cigarette ash.”

I turned away from her and murmured softly to the new girl, “Kaci, bring four black coffees over to #4, please. Do it now.”

Behind me I heard a clatter as the ringleader screeched indignantly, “Don’t you be ignorin’ me, muh****a! My money spends in here just like everybody else’s!”

I turned around wearily to see that she had climbed atop the counter and had a napkin dispenser and a syrup pitcher in her hands. She turned her back to me and addressed the diner in general, “Errybody see how dis muh****a talk to me? We payin’ customers an’ he just ignore us!” The word “JUICY” was spelled out in capital letters in rhinestones across her ass. At least, I think that’s what it said. You can only stretch Spandex so far before it f***s up the kerning.

The rest of the patrons studiously ignored her while her friends egged her on, and she turned back to me, mayhem dancing in her eyes. I raised my spatula and pointed it. “Put those down and get off my counter,” I ordered.

“Whatchu gonna do, skinny boy?” she sneered contemptuously and cocked her arm to throw the syrup pitcher. I sent a pulse of force down the spatula as she shifted her weight onto her back foot, and the invisible wave of energy took her feet out from under her. She hit the counter face-first, then rolled off backwards and hit the floor with a startled whuff of exhaled breath. Her companions had started to get out of their seats as I stalked around to their side of the counter, so I flicked a negligent hand at them, muttered “Immobilis,” accompanied by a minor act of will, and they froze in place, eyes wide in shock.

The ringleader lay on her back in a puddle of spilled coffee and syrup, her wig askew and a stunned expression on her face. One false eyelash had come unglued, and it flapped like a bat’s wing as she rapidly blinked her eyes. Her mouth worked soundlessly and I felt a flash of sympathy for her. It sucks to have the wind knocked out of you; surrounded by an atmosphere of 21% oxygen, and helpless to suck in even a molecule of it.

I leaned forward, put the tip of my spatula on her chest right between her boobs, and sent a wave of force down it, pinning her to the floor. Her face twisted in fear and pain. “You must really watch your footing, Miss,” I said gently. “We generally don’t let our customers stand on the furniture, because that’s how accidents happen. You could get hurt… really hurt.” I smiled courteously and directed more force down my spatula.

Translation: “**** around and find out.”

I released the Orc huntress and her friends and asked pointedly, “You ladies don’t wanna miss your party, do you?”

She slowly got to her feet and she and her friends edged toward the door, giving me a wide berth as they left. Once they hit the parking lot, their bravado returned and they cursed me in black Uruk all the way to their car, a lowered 1988 Cutlass Supreme with spinner rims and blackout tint on all the windows.

The diner erupted in applause, and the skinny guy in the Hawaiian shirt clapped me on the back. “Nice job, Sheriff!” he cheered.

Yeah, Sheriff. My name is Aloysius Q. Fortenberry, and I’m a Waffle Haus Sheriff.

Actually I’m a Sorcerer, and my official job title is Senior Operative of WHISSC, the Waffle Haus Internal Supernatural Security Corps. I serve as a roving troubleshooter tasked with keeping the peace among the supernatural community in Waffle Hauss across the country.

WHISSC deploys 3,000 undercover troubleshooters among our 2100 locations, give or take. It’s a high turnover occupation, but that just means ample opportunity for advancement. Face it, in the real world there aren’t many jobs for Wizards, Rangers, Druids, Fighters, Sirens, Bards and Monks out there. We take what work we can find, and being a WHISSC operative is a pretty sweet gig. WHISSC allows us to put our gifts to good use, and we eat free and get all the coffee we can drink. Free dental and a nice 401k, too.

You'll never eat at a Waffle Haus again without thinking of that, will you?  Kelly promises more stories to come, hopefully on a monthly basis, to be compiled into an anthology in due course.  I'll be in line to read them.

Peter

Wise advice from General George S. Patton

 

Courtesy of a post and link on MeWe, I found these gems.  Click the image for a larger view.

Good advice under many circumstances.  I'm not sure about all circumstances, though . . . as a military man, General Patton would have been familiar with Helmuth von Moltke the Elder's famous dictum:  "No plan survives first contact with the enemy".  Sometimes that may apply to wise sayings, too!

Peter

Is the current banking crisis the tip of the iceberg?

 

Charles Hugh Smith suggests that it is, because the underlying economic assumptions behind the banks' problems have not been resolved.  Emphasis (bold/italic print) in original.

Without much in the way of recognition or inquiry, we've allowed finance to become the foundation of the entire economy. The entire economy will now grind to a halt without trillions of dollars of credit sluicing through every rivulet, stream and river of commerce. From overnight lending facilities to 30-year mortgages, debt/credit is the lubricant of the economy.

What's been forgotten is the economy that once relied not just on credit but on savings and cash. In the pre-financialization economy, capital and credit were scarce; capital commanded a premium, and lending / credit sluiced through very narrow channels: conservatively underwritten conventional 30-year mortgages, debit cards such as American Express that had to be paid in full every month (and such cards were hard to get, by the way), and conservatively underwritten loans to enterprises.

. . .

What we take for granted--auto loans and credit card limits equal to or higher than an annual wage--would have been viewed as incomprehensibly imprudent and fantastical. Loans for vehicles were available, but only to the credit-worthy and if the buyer put down 50% in cash.

. . .

The astounding expansion of credit and financialized skims and scams are now the lifeblood of the economy, and any pause in their endless expansion triggers shivers of terror. Good golly, what kind of horrors would we suffer if J. Citizen can't buy a $50,000 car or truck with $1,000 down? How could we survive without 3% down payment mortgages? What doom would await us if corporations were no longer able to raise billions of dollars in the credit markets and use that money to buy back their own shares?

Rather than be viewed correctly as a necessary evil that must be strictly constrained lest it eat the heart of the real economy, debt/credit is now seen as our most precious bodily fluid, without which we perish. In this peculiar psychosis of hyper-financialization, the reality that ultra-loose credit and capital that carries no premium inevitably jacks up prices and costs to the moon, fatally distorting the real economy, is not even visible.

What is visible is the "necessity" of putting a lavishly over-priced Disney World vacation on a credit card and the "necessity" of a $60,000 new pickup truck. Or what the heck, a new $110,000 Wagoneer. We all deserve everything credit enables, from buying meme stocks on margin to designer jeans.

. . .

This profligacy and dependence on ever-expanding credit just to sustain "normal life" is scale-invariant, meaning every city, county, state and federal agency also needs ever-expanding credit just to stave off collapse, and every zombie company / entity also needs ever-expanding credit just to avoid the slippery slope to bankruptcy and liquidation.

There's more at the link.

Capitalist Eric considers where those underlying realities may take banks, and the rest of us.  His is a very pessimistic position, possibly (I hope probably) too much so.  Nevertheless, it's a grim portrayal of the worst possible outcome that may confront us.  As such, it's worth taking into account what he predicts.

Events are moving so rapidly, now, with the failure of three banks in the past week, and the desperation moves by the Federal Reserve to keep the house of cards from collapsing, are now obvious. Cracks have been seen in the dam for quite a while; now the spider-webbing is accelerating, water is starting to escape.

. . .

I don’t believe it will be a slow grind, happening over years…  but over a period of weeks to a few months, before the crash-and-burn is over, and we’re left fighting to survive.   While the conditions and overall events will be largely the same as what has happened throughout history with all fiat currencies, the speed at which things are occurring are much faster; another byproduct of technology, information-sharing and alternatives to government-controlled MSM.

Understand, though, the Federal Reserve probably won’t be direct trigger of the economic collapse.  They have established the conditions, so that it will happen, and cannot be avoided.  Michael Yon made a great point, using forests as an example: if you want a forest fire, you just let undergrowth be uncleared, fail to manage it, and then have a nice hot summer, and the conditions become such that a forest fire WILL start, whether due to careless campers lighting a campfire or a lightening strike from a summer storm.  Once the conditions are set, it WILL happen, regardless of what the actual spark is.

I summarized in “Crash Positions,” the results I expect to see as the financial collapse gets into high gear. Instead of me rehashing it, I would ask that you please read it in its entirety.

The conditions are ripe for dollar collapse, due to a loss of confidence in the USA ... One economist I was watching stated the dollar will be done when people no longer have faith in it.  They may come as a results of bank-runs and financial collapse, it may come via war, as China and Russia go kinetic against the USA and all the other countries stuck in the Western financial Ponzi scheme, or it may be something which we haven’t even considered.

The full impacts of this economic collapse will be brutal, especially so on the Western countries who’ve lived under the thrall of the fiat-banking systems for the past 200 years.

Again, more at the link.

As I said earlier, Capitalist Eric's predictions are a worst-case scenario.  However, the underlying reality behind our present situation, as portrayed by Charles Hugh Smith above, remains accurate.  It may not end as badly as Capitalist Eric foresees, but it will end badly.  I don't see how it can do otherwise.  There are too many bad apples in the barrel, and they're contaminating the fewer and fewer good apples that remain.  

Oh - and in case you think that both Charles Hugh Smith and Capitalist Eric are doom-and-gloom-mongering, exaggerating the risk and amplifying the worst-case scenario, here's what Moody's had to say earlier this week.

In a harsh blow to an already-reeling sector, Moody’s Investors Service cut its view on the entire banking system to negative from stable.

The firm, part of the big three rating services, said Monday it was making the move in light of key bank failures that prompted regulators to step in Sunday with a dramatic rescue plan for depositors and other institutions impacted by the crisis.

“We have changed to negative from stable our outlook on the US banking system to reflect the rapid deterioration in the operating environment following deposit runs at Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), Silvergate Bank, and Signature Bank (SNY) and the failures of SVB and SNY,” Moody’s said in a report.

More at the link.

Please note Moody's emphasis on "the rapid deterioration in the [banking] operating environment".  Read it in the light of Capitalist Eric's perspective that "I don’t believe it will be a slow grind, happening over years…  but over a period of weeks to a few months".  I think things will move more quickly in the near future.  I'll be (pleasantly) surprised if they don't.

Also, please note that Moody's reclassification applies to the entire US banking sector.  I don't think one of the top ratings services in the world can be accused of fear-mongering or exaggeration when it comes to assessing current risks.  That's the business they're in, and they wouldn't be in that business if they consistently made the wrong calls.

You might also ask yourself why most of the mainstream media aren't putting two and two together and getting four as the answer (at least in their public comments).  Anyone with common sense can read the reports I've cited above (and others), put them together, and come up with the same picture I'm seeing (as Moody's clearly did).  That applies particularly to financial analysts and journalists.  If they're not seeing it, or refusing to talk about what they're seeing . . . I suspect ulterior motives.

Peter

Looks like Barney Frank was right - cryptocurrencies may be threatened

 

A couple of days ago I reported a comment by Barney Frank on the government takeover of Signature Bank in New York.  He said:

A regulatory takeover of a New York-based bank was intended to send a message to U.S. banks to stay away from the cryptocurrency business, a former member of Congress who was on the bank’s board says.

Former U.S. Rep. Barney Frank said Monday that he believes the state officials behind the action were trying to make an example of Signature Bank in takeover that he said was the wrong move. Despite a wave of withdrawals, the bank's situation was under control before regulators swooped in, he said.

“This was just a way to tell people, ‘We don’t want you dealing with crypto,’” Frank said in an interview.

There's more at the link.

Some hurried to deny that any such "message" was involved - but events since then tend to confirm what Mr. Frank said.

Regulators at the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corp (FDIC) have asked banks interested in acquiring failed lenders Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank to submit bids by March 17 ... any buyer of Signature must agree to give up all the crypto business at the bank. But an FDIC spokesperson told Reuters after publication that the agency would not require divestment of crypto activities as part of any sale, and pointed to prior comments from FDIC Chairman Martin Gruenberg that the agency is not looking to prohibit any particular activity by banks.

Again, more at the link.

Why would the FDIC impose such a requirement?  On what legal authority?  As far as I know, "crypto business" is not illegal, and has never been banned or restricted as such.  This smacks to me of yet another bureaucratic power grab by the establishment.

I've never trusted cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and its myriad imitators.  They had nothing backing them to begin with, and have no security now.  Nevertheless, a fundamental, underlying principle of US law and jurisprudence is that if something is not forbidden, it's permitted.  In totalitarian states, it's the other way around:  unless something is specifically permitted, it's forbidden.  For the FDIC to take this stance appears to be a totalitarian approach.  "We decree that this is bad;  therefore, shun it - or else!"  There is no law requiring that;  only bureaucratic edict.

This also reminds me of the US government's seizure of private gold reserves in 1933.  That was accomplished under a World War I statute that had never been intended for such a purpose, but had never been repealed either.  It was amended, then used as an excuse and a legal "lever" to accomplish President Roosevelt's objectives via executive order rather than new legislation.  Is the Biden administration planning to, or considering, using such precedents to restrict or forbid trading in cryptocurrencies?  In the light of the FDIC's insistence, one wonders . . .

In the light of current developments, I submit that anyone with cryptocurrency holdings should very carefully consider their position, and act with caution and prudence.

Peter

New career?

 

From Stephan Pastis:

Click the image to be taken to a larger view at the "Pearls Before Swine" Web page.

Perhaps I need to reconsider writing as my calling, and broaden my horizons . . .

Peter

"The Southern Border Is a Hybrid War Zone"

 

That's the claim of Austin Bay at Strategy Page.

The March 12 Incident On The Paso Del Norte Bridge confirms the U.S.-Mexico border is once again a war zone.

The March 12 Incident is an outrage that demonstrates the U.S. is currently under continuous hybrid war assault.

The hybrid war's current weapons: deadly drugs (fentanyl), human trafficking (to include child sex and work slavery), migrants sapping social welfare dollars budgeted for deprived American citizens and noncitizens voting illegally.

Illegal votes equal hijacked U.S. elections.

Don't exclude these horrors: enemies evading border controls to spread infectious diseases and terrorists masked as illegal aliens who use porous and undefended borders to enter the U.S. and embed as "sleeper agents" for future enemy action.

Video cameras on the Mexican side captured the human wave assault's initial surge. A swarming thousand -- overwhelmingly male -- funnels into the bridge and below a sign reading "Feliz Viaje" (bon voyage) attempt to physically overrun security personnel and break into the U.S.

The personnel to mob would crush and stomp: Border Patrol agents, local and state police -- blue-collar American citizens with badges suddenly outnumbered 10 to one and defending the U.S. from invasion.

. . .

Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, told Fox News Digital that Mexican drug cartel propaganda spurred the attack. He said the crowd had heard March 12 was the "Day of the Migrants." They would be "allowed in the United States via the port of entry." The mob "essentially overran the port, at least on the Mexican side," Gonzales said; "...disinformation just gets spun and it becomes a dangerous situation for everybody."

. . .

Various media reports claim Mexican drug cartels perpetrated the Day of the Migrants lie. The bridge assault would distract American security so cartel operatives could smuggle drugs and people in undefended border sectors.

Here's a hint as to the big enemy: An unarmed thousand-man rush invasion is somewhat comparable to China's sea militia schtick -- poor, unarmed fishermen claiming fishing rights in Filipino waters. Unarmed men provide plausible deniability and a feel-sorry story bribed media propagandists will tout as evidence of capitalist callousness or "racistracistracist."

There's more at the link.

As long as we allow effectively unrestricted illegal alien migration across our borders, we do not have any security in our own country.  Criminals, drug smugglers, potential enemy or terrorist agents and combatants . . . they can all just walk in, laughing contemptuously at our at best nominal efforts to contain them.

We have tens of billions of dollars to spend on Ukraine - a country that has no compelling strategic interest for the USA - but we won't spend a paltry few billion on securing our borders.

We're sowing the wind with our neglect of border security.  We're already reaping the whirlwind with the impact of the fentanyl crisis - and that's just the beginning.  The worst is yet to come, and we're letting that worst in day by day.

Peter

A very happy Ides of March to my wife

 

Thirteen years ago today, Miss D. and I were married.  They've been good years, and we've grown together into a strongly mutually supportive couple in almost everything we do.

That was a good Ides of March, and it's gotten better every year since then - particularly with no knives in backs, Caesar-style!  Thanks, darling!  Love you!

Peter

A central government power grab over our money?

 

I urge you to take four and a half minutes to watch this clip of Tucker Carlson interviewing South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem.  She's just vetoed a bill that would have redefined "currency" to exclude Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, leaving a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) as the only legitimate digital currency available (if - or, more likely, when - it's released).  This poses a real threat to our control over our own money and what we're allowed to do with it.

Sundance points out that similar legislation has been introduced in more than 20 states.  He adds:

Additionally, with the timing of this national revision taking place very quietly; and with the failure of SVB and Signature Bank following a few weeks later; and with specific impacts to the cyptocurrency market; one is left wondering if the current bank “failure” and Biden team intervention was not an intentional crisis with a motive to push government controlled central bank digital currencies into the mainstream.

In essence, was the SVB banking collapse, a designed crisis?  And as a result, was the federal government response predetermined and just waiting to be triggered?

There's more at the link.

Sundance's perspective is enhanced by a statement from former Congressman Barney Frank.

A regulatory takeover of a New York-based bank was intended to send a message to U.S. banks to stay away from the cryptocurrency business, a former member of Congress who was on the bank’s board says.

Former U.S. Rep. Barney Frank said Monday that he believes the state officials behind the action were trying to make an example of Signature Bank in takeover that he said was the wrong move. Despite a wave of withdrawals, the bank's situation was under control before regulators swooped in, he said.

“This was just a way to tell people, ‘We don’t want you dealing with crypto,’” Frank said in an interview.

Again, more at the link.

Putting it all together, one is left with a very uncomfortable feeling.  I think the shady "gray eminences" behind the US government are at it again.  Will enough State governors and legislators have the same willingness to stand up for their citizens' rights as Governor Noem of South Dakota?  One hopes so.

Peter

Political correctness, crime and the rule of law

 

The catastrophic consequences of "woke" reasoning are making themselves felt in New York City policing - and elsewhere.

Last month, at the City University of New York, I lectured about how evolutions in data-led policing strategies helped New York City reduce annual murder numbers from 2,245 in 1990 to just 292 in 2017 — and from 93 annual fatal police shootings in 1971 to just six a half-century later. 

At the same time, city jail and New York State prison populations have also seen their numbers more than halved.

My presentation was layered with both data and descriptions of the tensions inherent in researching neighborhood crime dynamics. 

Following my talk, I invited students to discuss these notable statistical shifts.

What I heard from those bold enough to actually speak floored me: They told me it was racist to use data to discuss policing.

All the more so, because I’m a white woman.

I shouldn’t have been surprised.

From outraged Gen-Zers to hardened politicians, deploying data — rather than relying on one’s own “lived experiences” — is now verboten when engaging with “triggering” topics such as race or human behavior.

. . .

In one [feedback] session, I observed a 20-something advocate instruct NYPD First Deputy Commissioner Benjamin Tucker that “young people” should lead policy, while an anthropology professor suggested anthropology was key to reimagining law enforcement.

Bafflingly, such proposals were treated as expert analysis. 

This feelings-first/facts-second mentality ... has ... helped bolster weak criminal justice policies, one-dimensional media reporting and a generation of youth incapable of interpreting reality through rigorous examination.

It also represents an alarming reversal to the city’s decades-long approach to criminal-justice policy.

. . .

Data is ... becoming more difficult to come by following a suppression in record-keeping as a result of the 2017 Raise the Age legislation.

The law obscures case outcomes for approximately 83% of felonies and 75% of violent crimes committed by 16 and 17-year-olds.

This makes it virtually impossible not only for crime victims and prosecutors to know case outcomes, but for policy analysts to use hard evidence to measure the legislation’s impact.

This erosion of deep insight by relinquishing the demand for detailed data has also crossed over into how criminal justice-policy is reported.

. . .

So collectively uncomfortable have we become demanding real investigation that policymakers can safely claim just about anything.

Since New York state bail reform, the reoffending rate has only been 1% or 2%, say our Senate majority leader and city comptroller.

But how are they basing this measurement? On the small population of persistent reoffenders whom the legislation impacted? No.

Are they counting each incident if an individual reoffends multiple times? No. 

Instead, they are counting whether or not a person reoffends — as opposed to the number of times he reoffends in total.

There's more at the link.

I've said often in these pages that one can't trust "official" crime figures in many cities, because the administration(s) have ordered that certain crimes should be recorded differently (or not at all).  That may improve the image of their town, but it does nothing to help police analyze the reality of local crime and implement policies to combat it.

For example:  the linked article states baldly that "327 shoplifting recidivists [are] responsible for 30% of the city’s retail theft".  That's mind-boggling . . . but in the absence of strict data gathering and reporting, that fact won't reach legislators or police administrators, and won't help them design and implement policies to deal with so great a threat to public order.  Political correctness and "woke" policies have deprived them of access to the truth - and the law makes it impossible to present that truth in statistically verifiable fashion.

This is madness . . . but it's widespread in "woke" cities.  Yet another reason to get the hell out of such places, and move to saner, more reality-based surroundings.

Peter

Yes, it is...

 

Found on Gab (click the image for a larger view):

Yes, it is obvious.  Whenever I hear an apologist for "trans" young people, I throw this fact at them, and listen to them splutter - because there's no answer to that truth that does not condemn them.

Peter