Weekend Miscellany - 8/25/2023
I’ve not thought about the lagging government response to the Hawaii wildfires, but - why didn’t the military choppers deploy with seawater brigades of dumps, before it got too bad? Was it simply Leftist disdain for the capabilities of “those people”? Was it ignorance of their role in disaster relief? That second explanation is likely to me.
It’s clear that the tragedy was a direct result of Leftist nonsense - utility management shucking needed maintenance in support of “Green” objectives, water worship more important than living people, and the hiring of the politically correct and Leftist-aligned incompetent, rather than the dreaded “White men”, who didn’t buy into the holistic Green crap.
Well, Biden flew in for a drive-by sympathy call, long after the event. He didn’t come off well; some said that he dozed off during the events. It didn’t look like boredom to me. The brief nod said, I’m tired after a long trip across time zones. Perfectly understandable, given his age and general physical condition.
Joe moves like an 80 year old man in poor condition - slow, flat-footed walk most of the time. Hesitant movements - the kind you make when you’re both not sure where you’re headed, and when you don’t want to trip on uneven ground.
He talks like an old man at an event that keeps him from his afternoon nap - rambling, trying to be gracious and funny, but perceived as tedious, boring, and with cliched, dated humor. He loses his train of thought - quite often, in fact. When he does, he reverts to former patterns - old speech phrases, lengthy, often-told stories of his youth, and, when realizing that he is not being received warmly, anger and vicious attacks.
If it was just his family and neighbors around, his failings could be excused. They could plan his interactions around meds, need for restorative sleep, and limit them to daytime (the nights are particularly bad for many with dementia - they tend to wander, rage, and become hostile towards the caretakers that they think keep them from a full life).
What can I say about “Rich Men North of Richmond” that hasn’t already been said? Here’s the definitive explanation to the Entitled Elite, on why the song has been so popular.
Hint: it has NOTHING to do with racism or other -isms. It just speaks to the average people in a way that hasn’t happened in a long time.
“Circling Back” to the Hawaii fire, the official death toll seems to be VERY much under the actual count. Various reasons for that have been put forth, including the possibility that some of the deceased were illegal immigrants or involved in crime.
I think the likelier reason is that officials - both those in Maui and in Washington - don’t want to admit just how badly they screwed up. Over 1000 people are still missing - some of them children. That admission would NOT play well on the news (even a complacent and adoring news).
You think the border invasion has been bad, so far?
You ain’t seen nothing yet. South America is poised to Release the Kraken. The ONLY hope I see for shutting this down is to make the relief agencies and NGOs that are facilitating - nay, ENCOURAGING - this flood of people, financially responsible for the cost of integrating them into our country.
I’ve known immigrants my entire life. Cleveland, and its surrounding suburbs, was flooded with refugees after WWII. In my school, every class had probably 25-30% of their students either immigrants, or first-generation offspring of immigrants.
I’m not anti-immigration. I’m anti people PROFITING off that immigration - the employers paying them ‘under the table’, the NGOs getting money from the government, the ‘activists’ that use those people as political fodder for their ambitions, and the people that use the clout given by inflating their state representation in Congress to enact unpalatable political change on the actual American public.
Remember the Spiderman motto:
Let’s put the responsibility for financially supporting the “New Americans” on the people who benefit - employers, state governments, political parties, NGOs, and the like.
BRICKS!
NO, not THOSE Bricks!
A little history.
The United States, in 1944, became the world’s official reserve currency. That designation occured because of the collapse of many of the world’s economies. The USA was one of the few leading manufacturers that was intact. And, thanks to the full employment of the war years, the nation was flush with excess cash.
That made the USA one of the few countries that had both sufficient capital AND a stable, non-corrupt government.
Today’s world is not the same. MOST countries are more stable, have industrial capability, and, by now, sufficient experience negotiating with other countries to manage trade, to make them competitive.
The nations comprising BRIC are gambling that they will be able to force the USA to capitulate to their terms.
Lotsa luck with that, kids.
Most of the BRIC countries are heavily in debt - oh, they cook the books so they LOOK like they are powerhouses. But, make no mistake about it, they’re effectively bankrupt. They just need a good push to collapse.
So, any currency that is based on their collective economies is a shaky one. No doubt, they will organize to effect strategies to weaken, if not topple, the dollar.
I don’t believe that it will work. We aren’t the USA at the beginning of The Depression. While having our investments and savings hammered would be painful, we are a long way from collapse. The ones that would suffer most - the retirees/near-retirees, the wealthy, and the institutional organizations - also have the most clout in Washington. So, I would expect some measure of legislation and/or regulation would be enacted to keep the wolf from the door.
Now, would the average person hurt?
Yeah. A lot.
But, one of the things I learned about economics was a practical lesson.
I was living in SC when the banking collapse happened - in 2008. One almost immediate result of the closing of many banks was the disappearance of new construction. Suddenly, the loans were not available. Current financing was yanked (not illegally - most construction firms are on shaky cash-flow terms in normal times).
And, most of the illegal immigrants - many working in construction - went home. Permanently. Along with the other immigrants working in industries benefiting from their presence.
Gone.
In a flash.
I know this, as I was working in a Charlotte school. And, when they left, suddenly my class sizes dropped like a boulder. I saw the handwriting on the wall, and found another district for the next year.
Some businesses went under - mostly those that benefited from the under-the-table workers. Others hired AMERICANS, and, for them, life was better.
The illegal immigrants that have flooded in over the last decade aren’t going to hang around if the economy tumbles to a lower level. They’re going to cut and run, along with many of the criminals that preyed upon them.
Bet on it.
These aren’t Oliver Anthony’s men of the Appalachians, sticking around the land they love. The temps have no roots in our country.
They were akin to traveling salesmen - here today, gone when the atmosphere gets a little chill. For serious frosts, they will FLY out of here, hastily packed luggage in hand.