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SLOW-MOTION NATIONALIZATION OF THE ECONOMY

Global liquidity is expanding. In the past three months, the global money supply has soared by $4.7 trillion.

This rapid increase started when the Federal Reserve panicked the first time and delayed the normalization of the balance sheet in June.

Since then, we have seen a chain of fresh stimulus policies implemented by developed economies, adding to the large fiscal packages already in place.

Multi-trillion-dollar investment packages like the EU Next Generation Fund now include massive deficit spending plans.

However, money velocity is not rising.

All these programs only lead to secular stagnation. Government projects and current expenditures are consuming money at an unprecedented rate.

Developed economies cannot live without new and larger spending plans. The result is more debt, weaker productivity growth, and declining real wages.

 

In a recent report, Bank of America showed that the rise of unproductive debt has created a significant problem for the United States economy.

For every dollar of new government debt, the gross domestic product impact has slumped to less than fifty cents. The United States is drowning in unproductive debt.

However, at least the United States has some productivity growth.

If we look at the euro area, the negative multiplier effect of new government debt is extremely evident.

Despite enormous stimulus plans and negative nominal rates, the euro area has been stagnating for years.

Many of you may believe that bad policies and careless government spending are to blame, but I think this is intentional.

It is a slow process of nationalizing the economy.

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HYPERSONIC WEAPONS REVISITED

Hypersonic technology is critically important, so it’s time to check in to see where we now stand. According to news reports, nothing much has changed.

Newsweek in March said, “China is winning the hypersonic weapons race and is moving full speed ahead with plans to expand the reach of these hard-to-target weapons.”

Jeffrey McCormick, senior analyst with the National Air and Space Intelligence Center, said in testimony to the House Armed Services Committee, “China’s missile programs are comparable to top-tier producers internationally, and China now has the world’s leading hypersonic arsenal.”

He added, “Russia currently has three deployed hypersonic weapon systems, including two that have been used in conflict against Ukraine.”

Furthermore, “China has an extensive and robust research-and-development infrastructure, including many wind tunnels, devoted to the development of hypersonic systems.”

What defenses do we have against such systems? The answer is essentially none.

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FLASHBACK FRIDAY: AMAZON INITIATION

amazon-initiationAugust, 2002. In the remotest Amazon jungle of Brazil, along a tributary of the Upper Xingu River, live the Xicrin-Kayapo people. They live traditionally as they have for centuries, isolated in their forests from the world. Here the young boys, painted and adorned, apprehensively await their initiation ceremonies into becoming young men. They are to be tested to show they have what it takes for the village to be proud of them.

In some of their eyes, there is confidence. In others less so. This is an ancient Rite of Passage, an enthralling experience to witness. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #229 photo ©Jack Wheeler)

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TIJI — CASTING OUT THE DEMONS

tiji-ceremonyOnce a year in the capital of the Tibetan Kingdom of Lo, the medieval walled city of Lo Manthang, the Lo-pa Tibetans hold a ceremony called Tiji (tee-gee), meaning casting out of demons.  It’s meant to prevent any demons or malicious spirits from destroying their barley and buckwheat harvests.

Tiji is colorfully spectacular and dramatic, but this is no tourist show – Tiji is a deeply serious religious ritual.  The Kingdom of Lo is in a very remote and roadless region of the Himalayas known as Mustang, lying north of the Himalayan giants of Annapurna and Dhaulagiri in Nepal on the border with Chinese-occupied Tibet.

We were privileged to witness it on a Himalaya Helicopter Expedition.  We hope to be so privileged again next year. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #238 photo ©Jack Wheeler)

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WHAT DO YOU SEE HERE?

boy-in-pyongyang-nature-park-streamA young boy playing among rocks on a stream, yes. But where? I took this photo in a nature park in Pyongyang, North Korea.

Gives you a different perspective, doesn’t it? This young North Korean boy, how so innocently playing amidst beautiful streams and waterfalls, has no future except to grow up to be a human robot in subjection to a tyranny. He has no idea of the fate in store for him. That’s why, for me, this is one of the saddest pictures I have even taken.

Perhaps he will escape from his political prison, but the odds are gravely against him. Life does have its somber moments. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #244 photo ©Jack Wheeler)

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THE AMAZIGH

amazighThey call themselves Amazigh – meaning “the unconquered” – who are the original people of Morocco having lived there for over 12,000 years. You’ve heard of them as Berbers, a name they find offensive. Another people you’ve heard of are the Lapps, the reindeer-herders of far northern Scandinavia, who call themselves Saami.

Astoundingly, they are directly related, for both are descended from the same stock of Cro-Magnon Ice Age hunters in Western Europe that split in two 15,000 years ago – one moving thousands of miles far north, the other thousands of mile south crossing the Gibraltar Strait to North Africa. Geneticists know this because the Amazigh and Saami share the same mitochondrial DNA haplogroup U5b1b. (See Saami and Berbers – An Unexpected Mitochondrial DNA Link, American Journal of Human Genetics, March 2005.)

So when you visit Morocco and meet a gentleman like that pictured above amidst a display of spectacular Amazigh artwork, you’ll know what incredible history resides within him. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #242 photo ©Jack Wheeler)

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THE TOMB OF THE FRAGRANT CONCUBINE

tomb-of-the-fragrant-concubinePrincess Iparhan, granddaughter of the ruler of the Silk Road oasis of Kashgar, was so famous for her beauty and the intoxicating natural aroma of her body that the Manchu Emperor far to the east called for her. She was 22, the year was 1756. The Emperor became completely infatuated with her, making Iparhan his Imperial Noble Consort, loving her deeply until her death 33 years later in 1789.

In mourning, the Emperor kept his promise to her that her body would be returned to Kashgar and buried in the mausoleum of Apak Hoja, built in 1640 by her Apaki family. And there she rests today. Everyone in Kashgar and beyond, however, knows the mausoleum as The Tomb of the Fragrant Concubine.

It’s a wonderfully romantic legend, and even though there are several conflicting versions, let’s hope this one is true. Regardless, a visit to this peaceful shrine is certainly memorable. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #54 Photo ©Jack Wheeler)

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HALF-FULL REPORT 10/18/24

Trump killed it last night (10/17) at the Al Smith Memorial Dinner in Manhattan, the crowd loved it and Melania was radiant.

Kamala was the first presidential candidate no-show in 40 years.  MC Jim Gaffigan, who impersonates Tampon Tim Walz on Saturday Night Live, ridiculed her mercilessly, pointing out that 22% of Americans are Catholic.

So Trump continues to soar while Kamala is simply dissolving.  Let’s discuss.  Here we go – there’s lots more…

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COLUMBUS DAY IS A CELEBRATION OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION

“Landing of Columbus October 12 1492” Capitol Building Rotunda, Washington DC

This Monday’s Archive was originally published on October 12, 2006. Today, America faces an existential choice between Patriots who revere Columbus and Western Civilization and their moral opposites who despise both, a choice personified by Donald Trump and Kamala Harris in this short video:

 

You might, then, consider reading what follows below to your children or grandchildren so they may understand the difference in the choice between Columbus Day and “Indigenous Peoples Day” graphically made clear between the painting above and this:

unhappy-indigenous-people-day

TTP, October 12, 2006

October 12 is for celebrating the 525th anniversary of Columbus’ discovery of America, for on that day in 1492, the Great Admiral landed on Guanahani (now known as San Salvador or Watlings) island in the Bahamas.

We commemorate this as a true discovery in contrast to all the claims of Vikings, Chinese, Irish, and others who supposedly came earlier – for once and only after Columbus discovered America, it stayed discovered.

Unfortunately, Columbus Day is for most Americans just an excuse for a three-day weekend. What it should be is a commemoration and celebration of Western Civilization – which is why the Left hates Columbus and his holiday.

If it’s your misfortune to run into any of these folk bemoaning the nightmare and tragedy of our coming here, you might suggest to them that they abandon every vestige of the civilization they hate as so evil.

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SKYE’S LINKS 10/17/24

hamas_mastemnd[This is melliefluous standing in for Skye who is under the weather. Send him some love!]

A LOT has happened this week so Jack and I had to arm wrestle over the best stories, but he was a gentleman and just used his pinkie.

We’ll start with the Middle East where the Mastermind of the October 7th massacre finally got his just reward.

Meanwhile, medical Hamas sympathizers and the NYT (but I repeat myself) are trying to frame Israel as child-killers. They seem to be DEI hires, though, with a juvenile idea of “evidence.” The Times has doubled down, so this is a developing story.

Election news ranges from serious to unbelievable to farce. Rasmussen finally asks the pertinent question. Harris offers a mind-boggling bribe to black men if they will just vote for her [insert desperation emoji here]. And the Fox Interview with Harris will probably leave you without words for a bit. Don’t worry, you don’t have to listen to all of it, but you can if you have a few too many brain cells knocking around in your head and you want to rid yourself of them.

Trump and Vance have excelled in many ways this week and we’ll look at a couple of those, and then we have a lighthearted (but real) caution concerning AI image manipulation, then take a few moments to shake our heads at Newsom (Newscum as Trump calls him) because…they’re back.

The best part is at the end:  Trump trolls Kamala fabulously. If you’re having a bad day – go look at it first, laughter is the best medicine.

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THE SCENT OF A HARRIS PANIC IN THE AIR

The 2024 race is still close.

But then so was the 1980 Carter-Reagan race at this same juncture.

Indeed, incumbent president Carter was then comfortably up in the last two October Gallup polls—before utterly and suddenly evaporating on Election Day.

 

But in the last seven days, there seems a sense of panic in the Harris campaign.

How do we know that?

Why are Democratic pundits—from Axelrod to Carville—blasting the Harris campaign and otherwise warning of bad things to come?

Why are some of the once Democrat sure-thing senate races—e.g., in Ohio, Wisconsin, and even Michigan—tightening up?

Pundit poll-watchers are suggesting that Trump is close, even, or slightly ahead in the swing-state polls, suggesting that he is nearing a margin that could cancel out anticipated “ballot irregularities.”

The expected October Harris-Biden surprises—the opportune Fed interest rate cut, the transparently desperate Jack Smith beefed-up re-indictment, the current new Hollywood Trump-hit movie, the desperate Zelensky fly-in to Pennsylvania, the election-cycle customary Bob Woodward unsourced gossip book—seemed so far to have had no effect.

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UNCOVERING THE COVERAGE

hear-something_cricketsI first heard it, very faintly, in 2017.

At the time, President Donald Trump was accused of spying for Russia. If true, this would have been the biggest act of treason in American history, bigger than Aldrich Ames, bigger than the Rosenbergs, bigger than Benedict Arnold.

The New York Times and Washington Post published long articles that detailed Trump’s treachery, for which they shared a Pulitzer Prize.

Adam Schiff, head of the intelligence committee, stood up night after night on cable news, claiming he had secret “bombshell” information proving that Trump was a traitor.

The charges were investigated and ultimately dismissed.

nopenothing_cricketsTrump was not a Russian agent. He was not working for Putin.

The greatest security threat in the history of the country was -- a hoax.

And then I heard it:  nothing.

Very few outlets reported that Trump was innocent, that the attempt to rout him from office had failed.

Schiff disappeared from view.

There were no corrections, no apologies, no firings.

The Times and the Post did not return their Pulitzer Prizes.

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KAMALA HARRIS, PLAGIARIST

not-plagiarism_biden-to-kamala“Kamala Harris plagiarized at least a dozen sections of her criminal-justice book, Smart on Crime, according to a new investigation,” reports Christopher Rufo. “

The current vice president even lifted material from Wikipedia.” You might say she was “unburdened by what has been” written by other people. Rufo, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, has exposed plagiarists before — most famously former Harvard University President Claudine Gay last year.

There’s little reason to doubt his reporting on Harris, especially given “the receipts,” as he calls the proof in his X thread. He further lays out the case in a Substack column [Samples shown in full article.]

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IN DEFENSE OF NATION-STATES

Nationalism has become the great bugaboo of global talking heads today. It is discussed in the marbled halls of Western capitals as a scourge that must be eliminated just as swiftly as its equally detested cousin, populism.

Policies that are popular with the people and nation-states that reflect the self-determination of the people cannot be permitted!

Who says? Some very important people who belong to august bodies such as the European Commission, the United Nations, the Bank for International Settlements, the World Economic Forum, and the World Health Organization.

 

International groups with lofty reputations have no time to trifle with the beliefs and needs of discrete peoples. The globalists are here to save democracy by ridiculing and rejecting whatever the people might want!

Today’s “elites” have global domination on their minds. The concerns of individual nation-states are too petty for those who covet the whole planet.

We used to have a pretty good word to describe an arrangement in which many separate countries are forced to bend the knee and pay tribute to a superior power: empire.

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