Cover: Inspired by LSP and his cat wrangling.
Today is a federal holiday in the USA. Banks are closed. How are you celebrating? That’s your question of the day.
Asset Rankings
Bitcoin was supposed to be “digital gold.” But in the latest global asset ranking compiled by YCC Capital, gold is still the undisputed king at $31.34 trillion, while Bitcoin has fallen to about $1.29 trillion, ranking only 14th and dropping out of the global top 10. Gold is now roughly 24x larger than Bitcoin.
Even more revealing: among the world’s top 15 assets, not a single one is Chinese. Gold, U.S. tech giants, Saudi oil, Taiwanese semiconductors, Korean electronics, and now SpaceX all make the list. China does not. That is the real global balance sheet: capital still trusts hard assets, U.S. innovation, energy, and high-end chips far more than Chinese equities. Smart. Bitcoin may be a call option on a new monetary system. But gold is still money itself, and China’s absence from the top 15 says just as much as Bitcoin’s fall.
The Russian Air Force
Since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Russians may have already lost more than 70% of their operational Tu-22M3 long-range bombers, so how many might be left now that another one has crashed in the Irkutsk region? They’re not building new aircraft. I expect that they stockpiled spare parts. The more succinct question is whether they’re obsolete and, if so, why keep flying them? The Russians upgraded 30 Tu-22 to Tu-22M3M (modern avionics), and of those, about 10 have crashed or been destroyed by Ukraine since the upgrade.
Then and Now
Ten years ago, Elon Musk and Jack Ma both looked like avatars of the future. Musk was building electric cars, rockets, satellites, and AI. Jack Ma was building Alibaba, the crown jewel of China’s internet economy. Fast forward a decade: Musk is worth $1.1 trillion. Jack Ma was forced into silence, Ant Group’s IPO was crushed, Alibaba lost its aura (its stock has plunged by more than 60% since 2020), and China’s tech sector went from world-beating to politically domesticated. One entrepreneur was allowed to compound. The other was reminded who really owns the scoreboard.
This is not just a story about two billionaires. It is a story about two systems. One system lets madmen build rockets to Mars. The other cuts down its most successful entrepreneur for flying too close to the sun. That is why Musk became the world’s first trillionaire. And Jack Ma became a warning label.
Bullet Points:
** Left, BRM (aka Thunda) and MRSBRM are depicted in their younger years, ruling over the Congo. Everybody credits Tarzan with the work, but as you can clearly see, the credit belongs to Thunda down Unda. This is one of the rare instances where MRSBRM is not pictured flying an airplane, but she can’t be logging hours continually.
** White identifies Puff Daddy.
** AI takes you to Deadwood in 1877. How realistic is it, and how far are we from Westworld?
** Psych-out.
** Yes, the USA has an obsession with ice (we also like ICE, but that’s different). As I pointed out to Jules, the only way to drink tea was to have it suspended in a massive glass mug of ice, pre-sweetened with two lemons squeezed into it. We also expect free refills. There is also an obsession with air conditioning in the USA. Guilty as charged. When it’s hot, and we go inside, we expect to be met with a blast of arctic air. Many Americans like to sleep under winter quilts in the middle of summer, which means the air must be frosty. We also like showers – two a day feels right. Does that make us water hogs as well? Okay, if it does, so what?
** I hadn’t heard about zombie storm troopers before that are somehow resurrected by witches. (YouTube) Maybe it’s just that I don’t get out much anymore?
** Germany is reasserting itself on the world stage. Will they bring back a Kaiser to rule them? In a fit of alternative history, a content creator produced a video (along with a theme song) for the Fourth Reich. It makes you want to goose step and light the flame of a new, united Europe under benevolent German rule. There aren’t any Muslims pictured in this YouTube video, no Turkish flags flying over Berlin the way they do today (outnumbering German flags). Somebody’s wet dream? I’m afraid so, but the music is stirring. Der Adler erhebt sich erneut! If Germany wants to survive, German women need to decide to stay home from work, have babies, and build the backbone. As with the UK, the most popular baby name in Germany today is Mohammed.
** The content creator, FRM, above, has other entries into alternative history – set to music. If you have time on your hands, follow the link. AI’s gift.
3,000 Poles vs 80,000 Ottomans
1532 The Prelude.
Capturing the city of Vienna had long been a strategic aspiration of the Ottoman Empire due to the city’s control of the Danube and overland trade routes to Germany and the Eastern Mediterranean. During the years preceding the siege, the Ottoman Empire, under the auspices of the Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa Pasha, undertook extensive logistical preparations, including the repair and establishment of roads and bridges leading into the Holy Roman Empire and its logistical centers, as well as the forwarding of ammunition, cannon, and other resources from all over the Empire to these centers and into the Balkans. The Siege of Szigetvár in 1566 blocked Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent’s advance towards Vienna and halted the Ottoman advance that year. Vienna was not threatened again until 1683. In 1679, plague had been raging in Vienna.
The Battle of Vienna took place at Kahlenberg Mountain near Vienna on 12 September 1683 after the city had been besieged by the Ottoman Empire for two months. The battle was fought by the Holy Roman Empire, led by the Habsburg monarchy, and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, both under the command of Polish King John III Sobieski, against the Ottomans and their vassal and tributary states.
The battle was won by the combined forces of the Holy Roman Empire and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, marking the beginning of their military cooperation against the Ottomans. Sometimes you can’t go it alone. The struggle has been going on for a long time.
Meme of the Day
Mad Magazine asks, “Would liberals be happier in prison?”
Identify the Aircraft
1
2
3
118 built
Parting Shot
CNN is the most trusted source of liberal news.
You roll with that one (wink)
End
Identify the Aircraft
1 – Tupolev Tu-22M3
2 – Northrop XFT-1
3 – Consolidated B-32 Dominator
Very good!
Identify the Aircraft:
1. Tupolev Tu-22M “Backfire”
2. Northrop XFT-1
3. Consolidated B-32 Dominator
Nailed them
B-32. While present in the Pacific War in small numbers, I read somewhere one flew that last war flight over Japan.
https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/b-32-dominator
Good find. I read that piece while deciding which aircraft to include in the ID challenge. It was caught between the B-29 at the end of one war and the B-36 at the beginning of the Cold War.
Happy Juneteenth! Juneteenth is a day that has been celebrated in Texas since 19 June 1865 when news of the Emancipation Proclamation (signed by Lincoln in 1863) finally reached Galveston, Texas.. The celebration of Juneteenth continued to be ignored by the rest of the nation until recently, when it was hijacked by every other state in the Union.
When I lived in Texas during the late 60s and again in the late 70s, Juneteenth wasn’t celebrated or even showing up on the news. Maybe in Galveston but not in Texarkana, San Antonio or anywhere in West Texas.
No decendant of slaves has ever thanked me…or offered me reparations for the sacrifices my ancestors made to free them. I’m just stating facts for the historical record.
I wish all of you a happy “day the democrat slaves in Texas found out the Republicans had freed them” day
I don’t see much gratitude, Som ol leo.
Thanks for the MAD flashback. Loved it growing up into early adulthood!
I’ll celebrate N day by eating a Friday pizza. No chain crap.
Pizza? Not hog jowls or fried chicken? That’s very Italian of you.
Every Friday in school was pizza day, always brought a couple of quarters to buy lunch…and a nickel for a chocolate milk.
Cat Herding huh…this then: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgH4h4KMoGk
***
Psych Out: What our government has been doing to WTP for decades, and quite well I might add…except there is no bet, or, heck, even a heads up, because we lose every time and The Ones In Armani get to drink champagne on our nickel while we get tea with no ice or sweetener, like the Brits.
***
Parting Shot: And with the ‘Gate To The Morlocks Lair’ Library Opening, with every Lefty they could invite, those two came out swinging (ahem…so to speak) in a desperate attempt to speed past and spackle-over yet another truth bomb…which was hilarious. One thing for sure, the Left/Dems have zero sense of humor…maybe because when stuff like this is said to their faces…it’s true.
***
Prison Nirvana : How come the COEXIST crowd aren’t lining up for ‘Utopia with free and equal everything’?
That’s not quite how it works, PaulM. Free and equal means that they treat you like a slave. Animal Farm: “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”
God created man equal.
Libs try to make them equal.
Or – God made men, and Samuel Colt made them equal…a matter of perspective.
I see, my bad for thinking equal – by us Normie’s definition – meant ‘by the same metric/standard’. Despite us white boys not realizing payback reparations for actually freeing the slaves (per noted comments above), which should be done posthaste because it was kind of a big deal here in America’s wayback from whence some of us came, so theretofore then, the Left actually prefers slavery of certain groups they have come to hate for no good rational reasoning while decrying slavery in the past of only blacks (not the other races involved), and now, by their demented tortured logic twisted mentality We (us) need to pay for some historical past thing none of us had anything to do with other than to go to war with their historical side of the aisle to stop it.
Got it…I now consider myself duly informed.
Thunda??? Well, if you insist . . . although I think you left out a few muscles on my manly torso in that rendition. As for MRSBRM, she wouldn’t be looking aghast at a claw-fingered assailant: she’d have Mozambiqued him by now, and be turning to administer a ballistic enema or two to the idiots trying to move in on me. I didn’t marry her for her meek and mild “tradwife” traits – thank Heavens!
.
Of course, neither of us is still in the Congo. Some places are meant to be left as far behind as possible! LSP generously donated enough wild Texas territory for us to fit in here just fine.
Sorry for missing some of the 6-pack. I’ll try to do better next time.
Most of us are 1-Packs now…but life is too short to not eat dessert first, so worth every lost ‘pack’ over the years.
Bravo zulu! Or, in Peter’s British colonial understatement, you did just fine. Startled the cat when I burst out laughing, but that’s probably a bonus.
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I celebrated Juneteenth by doing my squats and overhead press, same as every Friday morning, then errands, followed by running into work to handle some paperwork that is no respecter of federal holidays. I don’t respect them either: too many years of working in 24/7 365-day operations. Next up: repotting a fern. My husband hates the extra foliage, but it’s a catchment underneath the barn swallow nest, home base for the bug-eating porch lizards, and concealment (not cover) for delivery packages from the street. Also, makes our Maltese-born, African-raised friend feel right at home when he comes over and visits.
The French guy’s take on air conditioning works for me. It’s not the only great thing about America but we couldn’t have a technologically advanced civilization here without it. We routinely get chastised by the European greenies for running air conditioners but they’re in a different world. The latitude here where I live is the same as the southernmost end of the Sinai Peninsula and I’m not even in South Florida. The southernmost parts of Europe are a thousand miles north us.
I will turn the A/C down (yes I have it at the White Mine Hovel even though I live at 7,500 feet elevation in the pines – because I can) in honor of the day or of EuroSoccer or whatever. I will also draw a glass of untreated water/rock juice from my well and will dump a large measure of ice from my ELECTRIC ice maker into the nearly frozen water as my heritage demands. Take THAT Europe.
‘No ice’ is a travesty…there are few cheap luxuries in life (eg. 2-ply Charmin) to intentionally not have them. Installed a mini-split in the cabin…yup, when it’s 85 out it’s 70 inside…the way it should be. I’m all into simple comforts in my later years, ice in my beverage is not one I am willing to give up easily, nor is decent climate control inside the mini-hovel…evening comes and we open a few windows, I’m actually saving the planet by not needing the aircon, making me a true environmentalist.
Have you seen the meme “Which holiday is more real: kwanzaa, juneteenth, or Toyotathon?” We celebrated by buying a new RAV hybrid. Quiet, 40mpg, and FAST!
(Spouse peeled the tires pulling out of the lot on test drive. She loves it; we bought it.)
The Toyotathon always seems to be more valid to me. Next year, my Toyota FJ will become an Arizona Historic Vehicle (Copper license plate with red lettering – very fetching).
Toyotathon, and Shark week, obviously.
Shark Week is the very marrow of American culture.
Dayum Larry that first cover ,,dats da wominz we be lookin fo.
MRSBRM is taken. Don’t look at me; talk to BRM.
Tomorrow We have Jules pictured. These decisions are made by the VM editorial staff. Don’t blame me. (don’t shoot me, I’m onlly the piano player in the cat house)
I’ll finish the comment on being a piano player in the cat house…..”Please, don’t tell my folks I work in the oil patch, tell ’em I’m a piano player in a cat house”
Exactly!!
A/C. Thank you Willis Carrier. From Wiki–
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“In Buffalo, New York, on July 17, 1902, in response to an air quality problem experienced at the Sackett-Wilhelms Lithographing & Publishing Company of Brooklyn, New York,[6] Willis Carrier submitted drawings for what became recognized as the world’s first modern air conditioning system. It was so humid in summer that the paper grew and shrank, which resulted in poor quality images, because the color printing process involved running the same piece of paper up to four times, each with a different color ink”.
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Guilty here as well. With age, I find that I no longer tolerate heat + humidity well. Saps my energy and feels like I’m breathing through a wet wash cloth. We went through some “adventures” with our A/C system, fortunately under warranty. On the plus side, we finally found an outfit that truly knows what they are doing and set it up correctly. Compressor comes on first to get the coils cool, then blower comes on at low speed. This means it runs for a longer period, allowing enough time to circulate the whole house and dry the air, which is the key. We are quite comfortable with the thermostat set at 79.
79 – the butter melts if it’s left out at 79. I’d think a conservative 70 is about the upper limit.
My wife enticed me to work at the plastic bottle plant she was HR for.
“They appreciated their employees so much that they air conditioned the production room for them.”
It turned out that a production room’s humidity contributed to condensation on the chilled bottle molds, leading to surface imperfections.
SpaceX is not on the asset rankings. I read thatSpace X had overtaken Amazon.
The chart was made when it was privately held. Now that it went IPO, I believe you’re right.
Larry, you should join me on my show tomorrow.
It’s advertised on tomorrow’s blog. I hope I’m welcome and that it’s not false advertising.
B-32. For some reason, reminds me of this one-off with an interesting history–
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_XB-15
👍
Mar-a-Lago was created by the woman who brought refrigerated food coolers to restaurants and grocery stores, Marjorie Post, the owner of General Foods Corporation. For much of Post’s life, she was known as the wealthiest woman in the United States.
Genius before her time, like Musk, only with a lot less technology at her disposal, so maybe even more impressive.
The ‘elephant walk’ in pic 1 is obviously ‘before’ the current war… :-)
There are days I’m irritable enough to just call the Backfire by its “real” designation Tu-26, not the Tu-22M3 thought up by Tupolev to help disguise that it was practically a totally new bomber project, far more than just an “improved” Tu-22 Blinder. Not that that game hasn’t been played here, too: F/A-18A-C and the F/A-18E-G is a recent example.
That’s sort of how it works – aircraft evolution. The Russians (practical engineers) are up against very big developmental problems that have nothing to do with engineering and they have innovated in interesting directions. The US has different and not so different developmental hurdles and in many ways, the Skunkworks was developed to break down those engineering walls.