No more Mister Nice Guy…
Bullet Points:
** Iranian Domestic Censorship: Iran is likely trying to prevent popular discontent by restricting Iranian media reporting about potential snapback sanctions. The Iranian Culture and Islamic Guidance Ministry reportedly issued a confidential directive to Iranian media outlets to limit their coverage of the E3’s activation of the snapback mechanism.
** DEA special agents teamed up with police in Stafford, Texas, to raid a suspected illegal marijuana warehouse last week. During the raid, agents arrested 18 illegal aliens who were working illegally in the warehouse.
** Hezbollah’s Anti-Disarmament Campaign: Hezbollah is continuing to discuss a variety of tactics to delay and ultimately reverse the Lebanese government’s plan to disarm Hezbollah. Many of Hezbollah’s proposed tactics appear to be highly attuned to Lebanese officials’ concerns about possible future internal conflict in Lebanon and the Lebanese Armed Forces’ (LAF) capability to disarm Hezbollah.
** At first, I thought it was that little thug, Rocketman Kim. Kim Jong Un reportedly traveled to China with his own toilet to protect his DNA, ensuring that anything related to his health remains secret, as it significantly impacts the North Korean regime.
** CBS News has completed its investigation into CBS News, so CBS News can now report that CBS News did nothing wrong, per CBS News. That’s a relief!!
** How do you feel about Chinese Cowgirl hats?
Bigfoot
He was six-foot-two, 240 pounds of raw frontier muscle, and his nickname “Bigfoot” came from both his size and a mistaken belief that giant tracks in the wilderness belonged to him. Born in Virginia in 1817, William A. A. “Bigfoot” Wallace came to Texas driven by grief and vengeance—his relatives slaughtered in the Goliad Massacre. He vowed to “take pay out of the Mexicans,” and he did just that, fighting in battles like Salado Creek and the Hondo River. Captured in the ill-fated Mier Expedition, he survived the infamous Black Bean Incident and the long misery of Perote Prison, carving his legend in blood, hunger, and iron will.
When freedom came, Wallace did not slow. He rode with John Coffee Hays’s Rangers, hunting bandits and Comanche raiders, later commanding his own company with unyielding grit. He drove mail coaches across the deadly San Antonio–El Paso trail, fighting off ambushes, and once, after losing his mules, walked the punishing miles to El Paso on foot—arriving half-dead and devouring twenty-seven eggs in a single sitting before rising to fight again. Wallace was more than a fighter; he was a survivor whose tales—half truth, half thunder—echoed louder than gunfire across the frontier.
By the time he died in 1899, Wallace was both man and myth. His remains were moved to the Texas State Cemetery, and the town of Bigfoot, Texas, carried his name into history. Museums, books, and stories keep him alive, but none capture the sheer grit of the man who fought, starved, marched, and laughed his way into legend. Bigfoot Wallace was more than a Ranger—he was Texas itself: outsized, scarred, and unforgettable.
EdB is Selling his Boat
We’ve all seen a few missteps on the water, and now, it is on the auction block. Runs good, barely used. Needs a little paint. Don’t lowball him; he knows what he has. Who wants to bid first on the Minnow? If EdB can’t sell it, I’m confident that WSF can.
Interest Rates
Let’s talk The Fed, Rates, and why inflation was so low from 2008-2020. President Trump has recently argued that the Federal Reserve should cut its policy rate to 1%, claiming that the good credit of the United States justifies such a low cost of borrowing. This reflects a real estate developer’s mindset, where lenders judge a borrower’s creditworthiness and set rates accordingly. But sovereign debt is not priced like a mortgage.
Treasury yields are determined in global markets by millions of investors weighing inflation, growth, fiscal deficits, and demand for safe assets.
At present, the 10-year Treasury yield is more than 300 basis points above the President’s preferred 1% policy rate, a gap that reflects fundamentals rather than any misjudgment of America’s credit quality. Pushing the policy rate so far below market benchmarks would not just be unusual; it would require the Fed to flood the financial system with reserves.
Because of the way fractional-reserve banking works, cutting to 1% would amount to asking the central bank to “print” vast amounts of money, with unpredictable effects on capital flows, the currency, and inflation expectations. And while people wouldn’t necessarily object to a modest cut in September, no one should assume such a move is risk-free, let alone cutting to 1%.
With CPI inflation still closer to 3% than the Fed’s 2% target, policy easing carries real dangers if it ignites inflationary expectations before price stability is firmly reestablished. It is also worth remembering that the Fed erred egregiously in the other direction only a few years ago, keeping the funds rate pinned too low for too long and maintaining QE long after the emergency had passed. That posture effectively underwrote the irresponsible spending surge of the Biden administration, fueling the inflationary wave that still leaves residual pressure today.
A federal funds rate of 4.25% feels “high” only because the decade after 2008 conditioned Americans to near-zero interest rates. In reality, history shows that 4.25% is ordinary: the federal funds rate averaged nearly 10% in the 1980s, 5–6% in the 1990s, and stood at 5.25% just before the financial crisis.
The better question is not whether the nominal rate looks high, but how it compares with the neutral rate of interest, or r-star—the level consistent with full employment and stable prices. R-star collapsed from around 2% before 2008 to roughly 0.5% afterward. That meant a 2.25% real policy rate, modest by past standards, was highly restrictive in the 2010s. The failure of ultra-low rates to produce inflation in that decade reflected the deep scars left by the Great Financial Crisis.
Households raised savings from around 3% of income to 7% as they cut debt, leaving consumer credit demand far below pre-crisis levels. Banks were slow to expand lending, and many families did not want new debt. Meanwhile, the labor market carried extraordinary slack. Unemployment peaked at 10%, long-term unemployment surged, and labor force participation fell to its lowest level in four decades. This shadow slack weighed heavily on wages and kept demand subdued.
The Federal Reserve responded with unconventional policies, expanding its balance sheet from under $1 trillion to $4.5 trillion through quantitative easing. Yet these trillions largely stayed bottled up in the banking system as excess reserves. Interest on reserves and more burdensome post-crisis regulations made holding liquidity more attractive than lending it out.
At the same time, the velocity of money, the rate at which money changed hands, collapsed by roughly 25%, effectively canceling the inflationary potential of QE. Other forces reinforced the disinflationary climate.
Fiscal policy, after an initial burst of stimulus, turned toward austerity, with shrinking deficits pulling demand out of the economy. Globalization kept consumer goods cheap, while the U.S. shale revolution doubled oil output and capped energy prices. Demographic trends amplified the effect: baby boomers entered peak earning and saving years, adding to a global savings glut that pressed down on inflation across advanced economies.
Even as the Fed created liquidity, inflation expectations remained firmly anchored around 2%. Businesses and workers acted accordingly, holding back price and wage increases. With the real economy unable to absorb the monetary stimulus, the liquidity instead fueled financial markets. Stocks gained more than 250% over the decade, and housing prices rose nearly 50%, while consumer inflation averaged just 1.8%.
The story of 2009–2020 is not one of failed economic theory but of context. Monetary policy appeared aggressive, yet deleveraging households, slack labor markets, fiscal restraint, global supply shocks in reverse, and an aging population blunted it. Inflation remained low because the economic environment made it so. When these conditions flipped in the 2020s, when fiscal policy became expansive, supply chains broke down, and demographics shifted, the same tools that failed to spark inflation suddenly amplified it.
The lesson is clear: the impact of interest rates and money creation is always state-dependent, shaped as much by the structure of the economy as by the stance of policy itself.
Jules gets a Cat…
Of course.
Identify the Aircraft
1
Identify the Armor
2
3
Hint: Photo taken at Versuchsfahrgestell BN 10 (H), Peenemünde.
Identify the Ship
4
Yes, there’s a hint.
Parting Shot
For the historical record, I have no problem with the Democrats continually injecting themselves with Pfizer juice. It will thin their numbers. It’s much the same when they declare that they are unwilling to reproduce. I nod my head yes, in complete agreement.
The problem arises when they impose their life decisions on others.
End
Identify the Aircraft:
1. Antonov An-22 Cock
Identify the Armor:
2. 7TP light tank
3. Feuerleitpanzer Sd.Kfz.251 V-2 launch control vehicle
Identify the Armor:
4. PT-170 (Elco 70 footer)
Well done!
I quite like the Chinese cowgirl hat. I’m fascinated by their precision and neatness. I want to go in and scurry them all up into a ball of chaos.; I fear that would tip them over the edge and I’d probably get shot. I notice they had no BootJuJu though – rookie fail.
Anyway. I got bored with wolves – very pedestrian. Big cats create much more room for manoeuvre on village streets. Getting served at the pub is faster, and people are far more pleasant. A nation of kitty lovers – who knew?
The lack of BootJuJu on the part of the Chinese reflects a distinct lack of understanding of how things work. They’re trying to copy cowgirls without the essential ingredient.
It’s funny that they give cheerleaders rifles in Norkland…
seems like more of a Texas thing.
– Kle.
I keep thinking precision like that is a function of AI.
They look like they’re LARPing Australia with that hat, not USAian Cowgirls.
I thought the same thing… Sure as hell are NOT the Kilgore Rangerettes!
“… agents arrested 18 illegal aliens who were working illegally in the ILLEGAL warehouse.”
Fixed it. Altho, iff’n this was in Colorado the last ‘illegal’ would be eliminated and the other ‘illegal(s)’ would be couched as ‘undocumented helpers’…PLUS…Statehouse Dems would be out in force blocking access to the “distribution facility/grow farm”, screaming at ICE agents, then whining why they got arrested, like 3-year olds in adult bodies.
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Interest Rates- okay, fine…but is it just me or are others out there also getting tired of hearing about things we have no control, like interest rates, whether domestic or global…or… inflation rates (either rate of rise or actual), the cost of a barrel of oil, the constitutionality of something, whether PDJT is able to protect America, the Tranny mentally ill who need help not coddling and drugs, Dems screaming at good people as if they’re the Devil himself, etc?
Pick anything in the news…all the same stuff, one crisis after another designed to keep us Peon’s busy with worry. Sure, some are, but all the time?
Yesterday morning…getting new pre-Winter tires and alignment on MrsPaulM’s funvee…would take a bit so we walked over to the Starbucks…yeah…because there wasn’t another coffee shop around. Actually felt like Fall, crisp and a little overcast…got us each (could lose my man card here) a Pumpkin Spice Latte in an actual Seattle style mondo cup. Sat and talked. No looneys came in, atmosphere was decent, coffee cake was warmed and really good. It was nice. The little things, none of which have to do with anything the media is spouting off about. (as I spout off)
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Clot Shot Parting Shot- Still hearing government PSA’s about how I can get my (not a) booster FREE at the pharmacy…and that I should get mine…while Dems are screaming at RFKjr that people can’t get jabbed at all now since he reclassified the untested (except on people) ineffective on Corona concoction designed to cull the masses. If the Left wants to self-eradicate themselves from the planet, I call that a win-win.
Ps. That was after only one cup of coffee…maybe that Starbucks PSL was estrogen infused.
If the clot shot were an effective vaccine, why would you need a booster several times/year? We don’t need that for the flu. Yeah, sometimes they get it wrong and the annual flu shot doesn’t work well, but most of the time it works. The only thing I know of that needs a booster frequently is a tetanus booster, but I don’t know why. It’s a bacteria and not a virus so maybe its complexity helps it evade the vaccines.
If they were charging you to inject you with sterile water, calling it a vax or a booster, it wouldn’t be as disturbing as shooting you with something that could be life-threatening or debilitating.
I got my TDAP shot a few weeks ago (12 years since the last one), and I had a strong reaction to it 48 hours later.
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I’ve never had a reaction to TDAP before, so I’ll ask my Doctor about it. Considering all the old, rusty, dirty things I constantly handle and get cut on (old age skin sux), I figured I should get a booster.
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Only other shot I had a massive reaction to was the second shingles shot I got. YOWZIR…..that one hurt for about a week.
That’s because it’s TDAP not just Tetanus. Everyone I know whi has gotten this shot has had a reaction, including a sore arm for months.
They changed all the formulations of all the old vaccines, which is why TDAP and MMR hurt much more than they used to.
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Wondering exactly how they changed, other than to cheapen the living dickens out of them, has me understanding why modern people are going completely vaccine-free.
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After all, it’s what I and my wife have done since the vaccine mandates during the Covidiocracy.
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And America’s Governor, DeSantis, is trying to take Florida off the bazillion vaccine train.
Incidentally (as I delay heading out to take a tree down and put up some firewood)…your title, “Reformed Nice Guy”, sparked a conversation reminder from a year ago; his admonition was to “quit being the Nice Guy…and to be The Good Man”. He offered that “one type uses appeasement and self-sacrifice all the time while the other uses wisdom, and it’s okay to say ‘No’ without guilt.” He then added, “…even Jesus said “No” and went away to decompress and recharge his physical and spiritual batteries…without guilt or sin, despite his short time in His critical ministry.”
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Thanks for the reminder LL, as, even at this more seasoned point in life – altho we never stop learning – I have endeavored to be ‘The Good Man’…without a scintilla of guilt when declining someones request of my time. (Ps. Dad was a “Good Man”, learned behavior, as he said. Some didn’t like his directness, but it served him well. He’s still teaching, even after 32 years on the other side of the veil.)
I finally read this with clarity today. I like the contrast between nice guy and good man. Thank you.
Those Chinese cowgirls looked hungry to me. Maybe someone could ship them some brisket and chili.
*
As to Jules and her new cat, she actually needs a second one as cats get bored if there is only one. The other issue is they eat a lot of bacon and steak and tend to grab your entire dinner off the table. Two wolves are difficult enough in the kitchen, now add in two cats.
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Was the zigzag ship camo paint actually effective? I’ve seen numerous pictures but not much discussion on how they looked in a sub’s periscope or visual gun targeting. Obviously with radar gun targeting it didn’t matter but a lot of effort went into this sort of ship painting.
I think that it might have made targeting more difficult but these were more one-off experiments and the rest of the PT Boats were painted battleship gray.
AKA “Splinter Camouflage”….
** CBS News
Hamas Lite?
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EdB is Selling his Boat
Nothing a good detail won’t fix. Front line ready. “Folks, I’m obliged to disclose this boat was repossessed. The lender wants cashed out giving the buyer a chance to acquire this masterpiece for below market value. Shall we write it up?”
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Interest Rates
Isn’t a lot of debt on the books will soon need to be refinanced? A lower interest rate could save trillions.
🤣
That’ll buff out.
Would you like to add the Scotch-Guard and Ceramic Paint Protection while you’re here?
“You want the Tru-Coat.”
Wallace was and is a hero.
Imagine your vote being disenfranchised by a dog….
https://legalinsurrection.com/2025/09/prosecutors-california-woman-registered-dog-to-vote-cast-ballots-twice/
The Fed is purposefully attacking Trump’s attempts at righting the nation.
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Trump’s resistance may actually result in a breaking of the Fed’s illegal power over the USA. At least I hope it does.
I dont think that it can all happen in four years. It depends on who the next president is and whether they can continue the legacy for 8 years.
Pumpkin spice – can we get that centrifuge that separates out seasonings?
I don’t want stable prices, I want prices to drop exponentially for fifty years with innovation like computer price/performance did. Are you claiming the USA would be better off if the compute power of a digital watch still cost as much as a house?
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chapwoodindex.com measures consumer price inflation, and they don’t leave out heating and gasoline. The number they measure is not 3%, look up your city.