Economy

Just The Worst…

by MyBaconPress

I have to start by saying my heart goes out to Southern California. We, here in Northern California, have been through what they’re going through, now, and I know, without question, there are no words. I remember the panic of people in the moment. It’s all just a confusion of “Where do we go?” and “What, now?” I remember the stories people told, after, of how they made it out. I remember the stories about the people who didn’t.

I remember the wreckage. I remember the smell of the burned buildings lingering in the air for a long time. I know how they’re going to react to even the faintest smell of wildfire smoke in the future. And I was one of the lucky ones. I didn’t lose anything. I STILL react. They will, too. The buildings can be, will be, rebuilt. The precious mementos are gone forever. But Nor-Cal DID come back and SoCal will, too.

Stay strong, SoCal…

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When a Special Counsel finishes their job, they’re supposed to issue a report explaining, in detail, why they did what they did. That is, why they prosecuted (or declined to) and the details behind those choices. Jack Smith has written his report and turned it over to Attorney General Merrick Garland. Apparently, it’s in TWO volumes. The first is about the election interference charges 34 negated by getting back to the White House. The second is about the Classified documents he stole, I suspect to give to Putin. The question now is, should AG Garland release the report for public consumption.

I haven’t seen it, of course, but MY guess (and yours, I’d bet) is that the report just says something to the effect of, “We were GOING to prosecute because we have evidence enough to fill three trucks, but then The Felon “won” the “election” and is expected to abuse his authority to protect himself so we had no choice but to stand down.”

Puppet-elect Thirty-Four Felonies doesn’t want people to know what’s in the report about him, presumably because it says, “Oh, yeah, he’s as guilty as can be and here’s the evidence!” So, he judge-shopped. It didn’t take long. He knows he has Aileen “Loose” Cannon in the bag and, oh, hey! Lookee, here. He took his case to his corrupt, loyalist judge and she put a temporary injunction on releasing the report. She protected him again – and just in time.

It will buy him time, which is the loophole he used to slither out from under the charges in the first place. Once again, with the help of a corrupt judiciary, he’ll get away with it. This is what the “law” is going to look like going forward in this once-great nation. Sometimes, I think this whole thing is going to get very ugly…

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I read an article in the ‘Motley Fool’ about Social Security. It pretended Social Security is low on funds because of an imbalance in the difference between paying in and taking out. It didn’t mention politicians “borrowing” from the fund for other purposes, then not paying the money back as promised. Nor did it mention the cap rich people enjoy that protects some of their income.

It pointed out that, in an effort to confront the shortfall, Congress started taxing SS benefits. Again, nobody ever mentions eliminating the cap rich people enjoy as a solution. (YOU pay in to Social Security on 100% of your earned income. Rich people pay a tiny fraction of that percentage from their income. It is generally understood that lifting that cap funds Social Security nicely.)

I noticed Congress started taxing SS in 1983. Guess who was President, which party, in 1983. Go on, guess. Did you guess Reagan and the Republicans? That’s the right answer. In fairness, the taxes were adjusted to get more in 1993. Clinton was President. I know, he ran as a Dem, but I’ve long held that Bill Clinton was one of the most effective Republican presidents in decades. He got away with it by hiding in plain sight, as a liberal. But he signed and supported NAFTA. He “reformed” welfare. He killed the free press. He increased taxation on Social Security. There’s more. He was a con, like it or not.

The point, here, is that Social Security can be fixed easily by simply removing the cap rich people pay from their checks. If they pay into SS on 100% of THEIR paychecks, like everyone else does, we don’t really have a problem. No, of course the politicians are just going to tell you there’s no more money and nothing can be done so you lose, but they’ll just be serving their rich paymasters…

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Musk bought Twitter claiming he wanted free speech, then turned it into an insulting conservative misinformation machine that regularly censors speech. Zuckerberg, apparently, likes what he sees in Musk’s example and has decided to follow suit and eliminate the guardrails on Facebook, as well. First he eliminated news feeds almost entirely, then, when they come back, he has opened the door to conservative misinformation to flow freely?

I don’t call for boycotts, per se, because they’re dumb and don’t work dependably. (Besides, who would listen to ME?) But we CAN avoid doing business with companies we don’t like or trust whenever it’s possible, if we choose. My advice? Pay attention to who still advertises on X and avoid them if you can. As Facebook declines, it would be a good idea to do the same with whoever keeps advertising there.

The ONE thing we can count on about a fascist nation is that money rules the day. Always. Most of the Small Folk KNOW they’re Small Folk and don’t think of themselves as able to have an impact. But we can. Collectively. By all means, flee X for Bluesky, but pay attention to who keeps advertising on X (and now Facebook) and direct your dollars accordingly. If nothing else, we can keep them from gaining some of the money they’ll eventually use against us…

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MAGA doesn’t seem to have noticed, yet, but The Felon is already setting the stage for the expected economic collapse that will accompany Trump policies. As we all know, they see Biden as old. VERY old. (He is, too. No argument, here.) They see him as senile. (I’m still sitting quietly.) They see him as incompetent. (He has actually done a very good job…)

They ALSO see him as a mastermind genius capable of some very detailed, intricate, and complex planning. It really depends on what they need at any given moment. According to The Felon, the senile, mastermind, incompetent, genius has set an “economic time-bomb” meant to blow up at a precise moment. Specifically, the moment the inauguration ends.

We all know how trump works. He’s been bitching about the horrid state of the economy for four years. The minute he’s inaugurated, he’s going to start claiming Biden’s successful economy for himself. It will go from “Horrid!” to “Hurray!” in moments. If he was smart (yes, I SHOULD stop there) he would simply not touch anything and let the economy hum.

But, he’s not smart – and he doesn’t plan to do that, leave well enough alone. According to him, he plans to reduce government revenues while instituting a shiny new program that STARTS with an $80 billion dollar stake. That’s going to do some damage. He knows it. But he doesn’t want to be seen as doing the damage he plans to do. He NEEDS that blame to fall elsewhere and, of course, he chose Biden. Curiously, the damage won’t happen until Trump takes office and starts doing his thing.

By definition, that is NOT a time-bomb. A time-bomb goes off at a specific time. If one sets a bomb to blow up at, say, 2 pm on December 31st, that bomb blows up on December 31st at 2 pm – because it’s on a timer. It’s a “timed-bomb,” see? A bomb that waits for a specific trigger, like, say, moronic policies triggering an economic meltdown? That’s not a time-bomb because nobody knows WHEN it blow – or even if it will.

It requires a specific act, like tax cuts for the rich, side-by-side with a shiny new, $80 billion dollar deportation program. BOOM! There’s a reason Mr. 34 Felonies suddenly hates the debt ceiling – and it isn’t that he plans to lower the debt. (I’ve noticed the price of eggs has gone UP since the “election,” not down, despite his promises…)

It’s a standard con trick. They ALWAYS blame their own economic wreckage on the previous Democratic administration, and they ALWAYS take credit for the economic successes actually achieved by the previous Democratic administration. Once, they even blamed and INCOMING Democratic administration for their own failures. Yeah, the party of personal responsibility…

It’s the Free Market, Stupid…

by MyBaconPress

Capitalist: 1) An investor of capital in business, especially one having a major financial interest in an important enterprise. 2) A person of great wealth. Then, thrown in to try to keep the rest of us on board, 3) A supporter of capitalism. (Uh-huh…)

It’s one of the greatest deceptions of all time. Capitalists have their victims (that’s you and me) declaring themselves capitalists and defending capitalism. And we do, too. If you ask anybody in America, odds are they’ll tell you they’re a capitalist and they believe in capitalism. You can see that one of the definitions is ‘A supporter of capitalism.’ That makes us feel like we’re ‘on the team,’ as it were – but we really, really are not.

Those first two definitions – rich people who have major financial interests in important enterprises – are FAR more accurate descriptions of capitalists, but do you know what THAT means? That means that, far and away, most Americans are NOT capitalists. (We’re the victims of capitalism.) We’re not rich and we don’t own enough to have “major financial interests in important enterprises.” We just get up and go to work, creating the wealth the capitalists keep – and then use against us…

Suddenly, I feel a need to make this point. There are NOT only two systems, Capitalism or Communism. I don’t support communism, either. It clearly doesn’t work – based on the idea that it has never worked anywhere in the world, any time in history. But this so-called ‘Free Market Capitalism’ ain’t working so hot, either, wouldn’t you say?

I support the middle road, once known as New Deal Capitalism. I call it ‘Social Capitalism.’ The rest of the world calls it ‘Democratic Socialism.’ That’s too bad, too. Americans have been fully conditioned, brainwashed really, to believe that the word socialism describes one thing and one thing only: communism, so the instant they hear that word, many Americans crap their panties and dive for the covers to hide their heads. But despite the stupid name, it’s really just managed capitalism, the kind that fights back against capitalistic abuse. It’s better for everyone – even rich people.

Right now, the poster child for the failure of ‘Free Market Capitalism’ is Luigi Mangione, the guy who gunned down the current poster child for capitalistic abuse, Brian Thompson. Mangione shot Thompson in the back, just gunned him down in the street. As of this writing, it appears Mangione shot Thompson as a symbol. That is, he had no personal beef with Thompson. Thompson became the poster child of capitalistic abuse because he was the CEO of the health insurance company that denied more claims than any other company.

Nobody seems to care. I see memes out there of Luigi superimposed by Photoshop into various work environments with comments about how he was there on Dec 4, on-site all day and right next to other workers. Never out of their sight, even for a moment. Why, the memes insist, Luigi couldn’t have done it. Alibi established. Obviously, it isn’t. It turns out, the police have a few photos of their own – and theirs aren’t Photoshopped.

Truthfully, when the shooting occurred, my first thought was “Someone who got denied.” I wasn’t alone. I felt badly that I didn’t feel worse about the shooting. I felt guilty that I was kind of happy to see a little guy get even for a change. As it happens, I’m not alone in THAT, either. I expected the party to end a few days later, as people got past their bubbling anger and re-connected with their humanity. So far, that hasn’t happened. Instead, there’s a “Free Luigi” movement starting.

Do you know who IS showing signs of concern, though? Corporate media. The media owned and operated by the capitalists. The message coming from both sides of the dial is the same – it’s poor form to shoot capitalists. Don’t do it. That’s not working, either. I suspect we’ve all noticed that NONE of them are promising to change their ways. They just don’t want people shooting them for the abuses. But people are really angry and most of us seem quite happy that a rich guy got his, for a change. And that’s the key.

Thompson’s program of denial likely killed thousands. THAT was just “good business.” HE was getting bonuses for increasing the bottom line so nicely. Families were planning funerals that didn’t have to happen. We ALL know this. We ALL know we COULD have decent health care in this country. But the capitalists don’t WANT us to have decent health care. They can’t profit if they can’t insert themselves into the process and all they care about is profit.

So, after forty years of living the ‘Free Market Capitalism’ life, one guy has reached the point of shooting someone and the rest of us are cheering the act. There’s even a new movement out there called ‘Board rooms, not classrooms.’ It takes the position that, if you’re going to be a random shooter that goes out and kills someone for fame – at least kill someone whose death benefits society. Don’t kill six-year olds. Don’t shoot up classrooms. Kill CEO’s. Shoot up board rooms. Go out a hero, like Luigi. (I’m only describing, and not endorsing, the movement, here.)

I think Luigi was trying to start something and I think he has. Somehow, this single act of defiance has loosed a torrent of anger at the way our economy works (or doesn’t, in so many cases). I suspect Luigi wanted other people to start shooting right away. That part didn’t happen but the anger is now at the top, not being hidden anymore, perhaps bubbling over. In fact, it’s being celebrated. There WILL BE other shooters.

And now, just to put the icing on the cake, we’re getting the richest political Cabinet in history. We’re already hearing messages from billionaires like, “You Poors are going to have to suffer,” and comments about how Joe Six-pack has it way too easy. Trump has admitted, now, that he isn’t going to bring the price of groceries down and he can’t guarantee his tariffs won’t raise prices. “Yeah, I lied. Whaddaya gonna do about it?” Hey, ask Luigi.

Consider this: So-called “Free Market Capitalism” has created a world in which people cheer when a capitalist is gunned down in the street – and all the while, there have been entities in place pushing back against the abuses of the Free Market. Now, the One Percent (and Putin) have managed to install the richest group of people in history, none of whom have even the slightest idea of what life is like for a working person. Corruption has mostly eliminated the restraints the held them back in the past – even the recent past.

Now? The brakes are off. The capitalists – the true capitalists, not the “supporters of capitalism” – are about to have their way with the economy without restraint. Do you think that’s going to be better or worse for the Small Folk? If we’re already at, “Yes, kill them!” and the capitalists are about to turn the screws even harder – and I guarantee they are – I expect blood.

To be clear, I don’t WANT blood. I wish every self-absorbed, self-serving, self-described “important” blowhard would get visits from three ghosts and see the error of their ways. But John Kennedy’s words are about to explode in front of us. The capitalists are making violent revolution inevitable…

Tales That Don’t Track…

by MyBaconPress

Is it true conservatives are ALREADY embracing the Biden economy as Trump’s own? The economic “glory days” they remember from Trump’s first term were the months at the beginning where America was still enjoying the benefits of Obama’s economy. The more Trump messed with it, the worse it got. No, MAGA won’t confess that. It’s just true. THEN, they just ignore the part where it crashed and burned because of his terrible handling of the pandemic. But that part is true, too.

So when Trump started running on how bad the economy is today, I thought enough people would know the difference to understand he was lying. They didn’t. It turns out, young people are still turning toward Trump and even though Trump hasn’t taken the oath of office he’ll ignore, I hear he’s already taking credit for the health of the economy, these days.

There’s a certain element that explains some of the young people’s support: dishonest media. For the last 40+ years, conservatives have been lying to people about what works and what doesn’t and why this and how come not that. Those of us who have completed a higher number of trips around the sun still remember Better America. No, it wasn’t perfect but it was FAR better than this bizarro crap.

So when I hear some talking head pretend there’s such a thing as “Supply Side Economics,” I just shake my head in disgust that people might do that to others. But young people? All they’ve ever heard is that supply side economics IS a thing. That same media works tirelessly to keep them from realizing the longer this supply side crap is in play, the harder their own life has become. There’s a direct relationship. But you have to understand the details to see the connection, and too many people are bored by the details.

I’ve never ONCE argued that the United States was in perfect, or even excellent shape. We’ve had problems since the start. (Largely because of small-minded people.) But we were addressing them, one by one. Maybe we would have made it, given enough time. I thought we were on a good track until Reagan.

But over the course of those 40+ years, young people have never heard correct information about how economies work and instead, have been treated to misinformation and disinformation of the far right. Now, we see the young people out there, supporting the destruction of the nation because they think it’s necessary. But it’s not their fault. They know not what they do…

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The right has been wrong, of course, on the economy. It’s in FAR better shape than they were willing to admit before the “election.” Yes, prices DID go up at an infuriating rate. But people who know understand; that wasn’t “inflation.” It was “greedflation.” Companies were raising prices because they could, and blaming inflation for doing it. But there hasn’t been any systemic inflation in quite some time. It’s all just greed.

Now Trump has offered them a new excuse to start raising prices again: his tariffs. He’s promising some BIG numbers – as high as 20% on things from most foreign countries. He’s threatening even HIGHER tariffs for stuff coming from China. ALL of this will raise prices and make it harder to make ends meet, not easier. AutoZone, Columbia Sportswear, and Stanley Black and Decker have all made clear that if the tariffs go into effect, their prices go up. It will be that way for most imports, which is most products in America, these days.

The excuse will be that the corporate costs went up due to the tariffs so they HAD to pass those costs along. But I’d bet a dollar the prices will go up FAR more than the tariffs will drive because corporate America will have a new excuse to gouge. And gouge they will…

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So, Musk and Neil DeGrasse-Tyson are in a bit of a dispute. Musk thinks he’s going to send humans to Mars. DeGrasse-Tyson thinks he’s not. DeGrasse-Tyson is speaking the truth. His observations are NOT political – they’re economic. Sooner or later, someone is going to have to pay for a project that takes humans to Mars. To do that just for the sake of doing it? When the hell have investors done that? If they don’t expect a financial return for their investment, they don’t invest. It’s pretty simple, really.

Musk says he knows it’s a bad investment so he’s not looking for investors. He’ll just cover the trip, himself. But you’ve STILL got to get people to buy in to the idea enough to actually go, knowing he doesn’t even plan to bring them home. You go. You shout “We MADE it!” You die. There’s probably no optics problem, there. There’s another, more important point, though.

The idea to go to Mars is at least partially driven by the damage we’re doing to Earth. Elon thinks he can just go to Mars and terraform that planet to better match THIS planet. Quick question; why not just fix THIS planet and skip all that other trouble? I mean, if he’s ready to turn Mars into Earth, couldn’t he turn Earth into Earth?

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Every time the gun argument heats up, sooner or later someone insists that guns don’t fire themselves. It can’t happen, we’re told. Apparently, it can. A man insists he had his Sig Sauer P320 holstered as he was coming down the stairs in his house when the gun just…fired. The gun shot the guy in the leg – all by itself. More than 100 other people have come forward to say the same thing; the gun goes off by itself.

Thoughts and prayers, right? Well, no. Not in this case. The guy has been awarded $11 million dollars. (Sig Sauer says they’ll appeal, of course.) His attorney said, and you can’t make this up, “This gun is a danger to gun owners and anyone within the vicinity of this gun.” Apparently, the guy should have bought one of those safe guns that represent no threat to anyone anywhere…

While I’m on the topic of guns? I have a personal theory. Dictators are, generally speaking, not too comfortable with an armed populace. There have already been a couple of less-than-credible-but-still-reported attempts to shoot our incoming dictator. How long do you suppose it’s going to be before a tiny little light goes on in his tiny little brain and he decides it’s too dangerous to him for the masses to have guns? I suspect that conservative sweetheart Donald J. Trump will, sooner or later, be the one who actually comes to “take people’s guns.”

At this point? It’s just a hunch…