ZeroHedge on, “are you better off?”
The Biden White House has made it their top priority to present the US economy as a wellspring of jobs creation and recovery. Biden relies primarily on jobs data as proof that his economy is the “best economy ever” and has consistently tried to take credit for falling unemployment data and “12 million jobs created since he took office.” This claim of course ignores the 25 million+ jobs lost during the covid lockdowns, which Biden avidly supported even after it became clear that covid was a non-threat to the vast majority of the population.
In other words, Biden has been trying to take credit for the recovery of jobs he originally helped to destroy. Many Democrat-run states are still lagging and a return to financial stability has been difficult. Other concerns surround the manner in which labor data is being calculated. Only last year the Philly Fed had to revise and refute White House labor gains and cut over 1 million jobs from their stats in the process. That kind of discrepancy is not normal.
In the meantime, inflation numbers have dropped slightly while interest rates rise, yet prices of most goods remain high. Higher wages have not been able to catch up to far higher costs, and the stagflationary problem does not look like it will be going away anytime soon.
With the ongoing price crisis as a backdrop, stagnant growth in half the states in the country, the apparent end to covid stimulus, and rising credit costs, expectations of a recessionary crash are growing. The White House says everything is fine, but what do the American people say?
According to a new ABC/Washington Post poll, 41% of the American public say they are now in worse shape financially since Joe Biden took office. Only 16% of those polled said they were better off. This is a record number of people in dire straights according to the data, which has been collected for 37 years. Contrast this with the first two years of Donald Trump’s administration, when only 13% of people said they were worse off.
The last flintlock musket in French service. Even though it was replaced in the 1840s by a handful of models of smoothbore then rifled cap and ball muskets, the 1822s were converted to caplocks, rifled, shortened around 1860, and then finally converted to use a breechloading system between 1867-69, finally being pulled from service completely with the introduction of the Lebel in 1886. Of course, by then it had been surpassed by the Chassepot and then Gras rifles already, but rear-echelon units still used its last conversion as it was cheap and plentiful.
Bullet Points:
** Blankets – Do they defeat thermals?
Not really – Not if the searcher is using good equipment. The blanket shows up as an unnatural patch against the ground since the heat emitted is slightly different; at first, it shows up darker than the surrounding ground as it blocks heat from the ground as well as from you. The blanket will eventually heat up from your body and it’ll be a big, square, glowing beacon on the forest floor. Mammals generate a lot of heat.
** (Derivative) Wisdom from MikeW: “Beware the old man in a world where men die young”.
** A Good Article (h/t Claudio).
** Stringshot and LeeC dropped this one over the transom to me. What do you think?
I too avoided the SOTU address. I am wondering though why only 41% said they were worse off. Seems like it should be much higher.
Flintlocks. Look cool, I can’t get past the flinch when the powder in the pan goes off. Shoots my accuracy all to hell and I need all the help I can get. Do like percussion cap and musket cap guns though.
Interesting article about the Nordstream pipelines. Of course no idea if it is true or not but certainly makes as much sense as anything else. As an aside why is it that people can’t keep secrets anymore. I was no great repository of classified information but when I signed off as having read the applicable parts of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 I knew if I blabbed it would be a minimum of $20K fine (not so much anymore) AND 20 years at that great spa at Ft Leavenworth. Not that I was going to tell everybody I knew anyway but the prison term was not in doubt so I tended to err way over on the side of caution. If you belong to the right club you are just not held accountable anymore.
Yep, It’s a big club, but we ain’t in it!
Because most of the remaining 59% can’t afford internet bills…
Sy’s story conveniently leaves out the UK and Poland, makes the CIA and State look like tactical geniuses. Did you notice that not a single military officer thought it was a bad idea or even illegal without Congressional oversight? It makes a nice narrative though. I’m surprised he waited until after the SOTU to drop this one.
I don’t believe this story based on “anonymous” source, especially at this late date. More likely someones bright idea to claim a “victory” over Russia. My guess is plain human error despite what the Swedes might say. Why haven’t they released any sample they supposedly gathered to third parties for verification?
I agree. I’m also curious on just how much needs to be replaced to make it operational again.
I understand snow caves defeat thermal sensors!
From what I heard, what defeats thermal sensors is cooling the exhaust gasses, whether it be a vehicle or a person. Snow cave will still show thermal from the entrance, unless the caver works hard to mask the exhaust.
It’s why real secret bunkers have very long air exchange pipes.
It’s challenging to mask thermal in almost any ambient environment unless you build a very deep bunker and don’t intend to leave. Even then the building of said bunker takes place over the watchful eyes of satellites. The way things work today, the planet is blanketed and recorded so you can walk any spot on the planet backward in time if you need to. It might not rise to the interest of intense scrutiny when it’s being built but people with access can go back in time and the resolution to read the time on a wristwatch from orbit.
You could always try living in a beaver dam 🙂
Heh, heh. He said ‘beaver,’ heh, heh, heh…
If I wanted to hear a senile old man spout nonsense, I’d go to the special needs ward of a retirement home.
That’s exactly where the nation is today.
x2
Yep.
I didn’t watch the SOTU this year, could not deal with the stupidity and bullscattery.
Doesn’t amaze me that the Dems, the Media and all the other ‘elites’ are whinging about some Republicans’ actions during the SOTU, and are complaining about the lack of deportment and decorum.
Obviously they seem to have forgotten SanFranNan’s actions at Trump’s last SOTU, or all the other times the Left-Wing Jackholes acted like, well, Left-Wing Jackholes.
It’s always ‘Right-wing Republican Thugs never show proper decorum’ and never ‘Left-Wing Jackholes and POSessess are always acting like jerks and jackholes and never show proper decorum.’
So, no, didn’t watch. Didn’t want to lose more braincells. Bad enough that your (LL, our host) little square thingy window on the right lower of my screen pops up the ugly haggish visages of Barry, Hillary and Nancy all too often.
A little British Commons uproar is a good thing, bald-faced lying should not be tolerated, so let the whiners whine about how their feelings got hurt. Who cares. We need more of THIS:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iYOf7lC5-k
A woman (for those of us who know what that is) who open carries and owns a small cafe’ lambastes this Roth weasel (aka limp d**k). That’s the ONLY Colorado Rep worth her salt…and they tried to take her out.
Not enough trust fund snots in the 3rd District to pull it off but they tried their best. Maybe depleted some pockets?
They are gearing up for the next election, believing anyone ‘not them’ is to be destroyed. They only need to look into the mirror. Ranch gals don’t give up easily.
Outside of the resort areas, the locals loath trust fund snots. When Polis first ran for Governor his campaign stop in Craig gathered an audience of 12.
…because the Dem’s are shuttering their main employer, the coal-fired generation plant that employs 600. He told them to [in effect] “learn to code.”
“Beware the old man in a world where men die young”.
What bothers me most is that this old man might have been the world’s biggest coward with an excellent hiding place; taking that into account, I don’t know I’d ever be comfortable in his presence unless I could keep an eye on him at all times.
re SOTU:
the man embarrasses me so every single day that the less I see of him the better I sleep at night.
I know: it’s terrible thing to say about the installed POTUS.
Reference your comment. When I made the comment, in an e-mail to Larry, it was in a completely different context to yours. The context of the e-mail and my comment was related to longevity in violent worlds. It had nothing to do with Brandon. Nor did it have anything to do with cowardice.
The worlds I was referring to, those inhabited, although not exclusively, by the military, law enforcement, and those who follow far murkier paths, find most people departing in their late forties, or possibly their early fifties. Occasionally though, you find some who continue long past those ages. In most instances, though not all, they are just as physically fit as their younger colleagues. The difference with these men is that they have the experience and knowledge, most often hard earned. Basically, they have seen it all and done it all. It is these men, who have walked the worlds where there are high rates of attrition, and who have survived, to whom I was referring. It is these old men, in worlds where men often die young, and whom are messed with at ones peril, of whom one should beware.
I apologize if you’ve taken offense; I picked up on it and decided to look at it from an entirely different angle, and yes, I understand and agree with your context/premise.
Having lost a good number of friends in SEA during the ’60s, I find I am currently living amongst a number of “old men” who’ve never heard a shot fired in anger, but who’re currently deciding the fate of more young men: politicians and those who vote them into office.
When we finally/hopefully review our “everybody has a RIGHT to vote, even non-citizens” laws, I sincerely hope that one of the requirements will be a DD-214.
Boron. No offence taken. Sorry if my response came across that way as it wasn’t meant to. I could probably have worded my response better.
One version of that BEWARE comment I saw went something like this: “Beware the old man in a profession where men die young”. Seems to remove the cowardice possibility that boron mentions.
I guess I might have a watched a SOTU in the 1980s ?
Political speeches are a waste of time, especially the long-prepared ones. If I’m going to listen to someone lie to me, obvious, boring lies are low on my list.
-Kle.
Consumer credit card debt just topped one trillion dollars, one in three Americans are living paycheck to paycheck with less than $1000 in the bank, bank loan defaults for cars, houses and big ticket items are exploding again (2008 ring a bell?) Meanwhile, the puppet in chief says, “Come on, man! No joke. No malarkey here. All is well.” A hard rain is going to fall and it looks like Biden blew up the Russian pipeline. Wars have been launched over lesser transgressions. The wolves are smiling.
Just wait until they take over the banks, cash should be king but they won’t allow that either.
Nord Stream: some quotes in lieu of commentary.
“I’m shocked! Shocked to find that gambling is going on in here.”
Captain L. Renault
“The leading Bolsheviks who took over Russia were not Russians. They hated Russians. They hated Christians. Driven by ethnic hatred they tortured and slaughtered millions of Russians without a shred of human remorse. The October Revolution was not what you call in America the ‘Russian Revolution.’ It was an invasion and conquest over the Russian people.”
A. Solzhenitsyn
[I put this here not because I think Russia is still run by Bolsheviks. It’s not, duh. But maybe the same sorts of people have their mitts on the reins of US foreign policy.]
“You hold out your hand to me, and I perceive only a finger of the claw of Mordor. Cruel and cold! Even if your war on me was just–as it was not, for were you ten times as wise you would have no right to rule me and mine for your own profit as you desired.”
Théoden of Rohan (to Saruman, a foreigner of cunning subtlety who initially appeared to be a wise ally and was thus given a trusted position of great power which he of course betrayed; but Tolkien despised allegory so no one should be making comparisons to the contemporary US, or Russia, or the Ukraine)
“If someone is horrible to you for no reason, you probably just met an asshole. But if everyone is horrible to you for no reason, maybe you’re the asshole.”
American Folk Wisdom
i watched a few minutes, just long enough to see they had ol joe drugged to the gills. he was slurring words, running his sentences together non-stop, had red squinty eyes, became combative when heckled. reminds me of folks speedballing coke and herion. or overdose of adderall. either way i couldn’t stand to watch him lie like that. sara said the forbidden out loud, he is unfit for office. lady’s got guts. …..blankets can defeat thermal if the operator doesn’t have time to hover over the area, like when they are searching frantically for a perp? or from fast movers? or poorly trained operators? its worth a shot, but mainly for a static position where it can be erected with proper air spacing.
It’s amazing that old Pedo Joe’s heart holds out with all of the dope that they feed him.
Thermals…a massive pile of leaves or crawl inside a dead animal, first one is reasonable, the latter, not so much.
SOTU- Heard bits yesterday, infuriating so took it as the lying sack of ‘you-know-what’ it was…you can dress up a turd anyway you want but it’s still a turd. When PDJT said “America will NEVER be a Socialist country!” that was their cue to destroy him, yet these same evil cretins will lower the bar so far for this clown they “call it good”. Mr. Plagiarizer is a wholly owned subsidiary of China, who owns much of the rare earth materials required for [useless] EV batteries, so he destroys our O&G industry while demanding we all drive EV’s. There is no perpetual motion machine, but he says there is…saying – in his Chinesium Special Sauce slurred fashion:
“We’regoingtobuild500thousandEVchargingstationsacrossAmerika!”…to cheers.
Nordstream…We all knew it was Biden’s Handlers…an act of war if you ask me (not that anyone is.) Have to listen between the lines, the Dem’s tell you what’s next on their list to wreck the place.
I’m “an older man”, and have gotten to the point many times of ignoring these clowns as long as don’t they don’t invade my life (then all bets are off). Placed an online order for an outdoor blind, checkout indicated some $0.27 charge for…get this…”Colorado Retail Delivery Fee” (‘fee’, that’s rich). Any package delivered by motor vehicle in Colorado gets charged this “fee”. Nothing but a stealth CO2 Tax…a huge amount over zillions of packages, especially considering for 3 years they destroyed local small businesses forcing people to buy online yet now charge them for delivery over and above high fuel taxes. Theft. A/h’s. Sent an email to my Sen. & Rep. Taking bets on whether I get a response.
Thanks for the post today.
Nord Stream:
Why does it have to be a Nation State that destroyed the pipelines? There are several individuals with more money than most militaries that would see this as an opportunity to increase their position on the world stage. Take a couple of offshore oil divers, add a construction demolition expert, put them on a yacht that matches the hundreds of others in that area. As an added benefit the investigation would be focused somewhere else.
I sometimes joke when I go to Hell Satan will make me work in an outbound call center and live in Wamsetter, WY. More likely I will spend eternity listening to Xiben drone on and on with Taylor Swift songs playing in the background.
Ample motivation for clean living
Yes, motivation to repent.
Won’t be Bill, WY…they have an ice cream shop.
I have been to Wamsutter, and it is indeed just as charming as WSF alludes.
We’re screwed, just like those who by those ‘invisibility’ blankets…
The people monitoring the equipment are the weak spot. Unless they are in Cheyenne Mountain or equivalent, they are vulnerable. How about the antennas needed to receive the signals?