Open Thread - 5 APR 23 {-}


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Debt is one person's liability, but another person's asset.
Paul Krugman
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"Those have a short Lent, who owe money to be paid at Easter."
- Benjamin Franklin
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Welcome. Today is 'go for broke day' celebrated only in the US of A.
Think we passed that threshold many moons ago. What debt?

Also today in 1792 The Coinage Act is passed establishing the United States Mint
and authorizing the $10 Eagle, $5 half-Eagle & 2.50 quarter-Eagle gold coins &
silver dollar, ½ dollar, quarter, dime & half-dime

1863 Bread revolt in Richmond, Virginia

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To preserve our independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt.
We must make our election between economy and liberty, or profusion and servitude.
- Thomas Jefferson

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nikichi-2-960x1185.jpeg
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Credits ~

wooden sculpture by Nikichi

He fuses human and animal characteristics to explore what he describes as “the story of human sociality and life by overlapping the wildness and instinctiveness of animals,” populating a harmonious, mythical world.

https://www.instagram.com/nikichi0922/

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Would be indebted for your participation in this open thread.
Deposit below the fold, all currencies welcome. Wink

harmony.jpeg
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QMS's picture

Why has debt become such a heavy yoke? Tax cuts.

Tax Cuts Are Primarily Responsible for the Increasing Debt Ratio

Without the Bush and Trump tax cuts, debt as a percentage of the economy would be declining permanently.

https://www.americanprogress.org/article/tax-cuts-are-primarily-responsi...

Short term gain for the wealthy, long term burden for the economy. This was planned.
And now the banks are "suffering" a capital destruction cycle. Therefore tightening credit.
The hedge funders and vulture capitalists are getting crushed. We the people just have
to suffer consequence. De-dollarization? What independent foreign entity would want
to ride an unsustainable currency to its demise?

Perhaps debt is something households use to maintain budgets, but reckless spending
will lead to either default or bankruptcy. Consumer spending and endless wars -
the hallmark of the American nightmare.

Jeezo peezo.

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question everything

Lookout's picture

Our debt laden economy is yet another sign of a failing empire.

When Rome fell, they still had plenty of silver in their mines, but had no forests left with which to smelt it. We also have squandered our resources and wealth.

With the OPEC oil cuts look for more economic disaster in the states.

Hope all is well and everyone has a great day. Thanks for the OT!

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7 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

cops and stupid mental health professionals.
I assisted a woman in getting her husband committed to a psychiatric clinic. He mused aloud very imaginative ways to kill her. He was taken in by cops, released from the clinic in 2 hours, then taken home by the cops.
Sigh...
Hey, QMS, you owe me 2 cents plus interest!

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

QMS's picture

@on the cusp

but we can work out an installment plan
without compounded interest Wink

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question everything

@QMS paid in full within 48 months, no penalty for early final payment.
That's the best I can do.
Now, I must figure out a way to get in to and out of the courthouse for future divorce hearings without getting shot by the nutty soon-to-be ex-husband.
If it ain't one thing, it's another.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

Granma's picture

Happened in multiple southern cities during the Civil War. Women and men broke into shops because they were hungry. From that information, I assume they stole food.

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QMS's picture

@Granma

I was wondering about that. Figures it was during a time of war.

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question everything

ggersh's picture

have given us in spades. I don't see anything that's not
true in his comment.

https://www.reddit.com/r/WayOfTheBern/comments/12cgnvd/thoughts_about_th...

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I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish

"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

usefewersyllables's picture

@ggersh

Well, it won't be long until he slips on a banana peel while cleaning his handgun in the shower and ends up perforated, will it? It seems that the people whose feathers he probably just ruffled aren't particularly impressed by, or respectful of, the name Kennedy...

Note for the humor-impaired: This Is Snark. I wish I didn't have to add this disclaimer, but I don't want to suddenly slip on any unforeseen banana peels either.

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Twice bitten, permanently shy.

ggersh's picture

@usefewersyllables banana peel problem.

He is contemplating running for President. One would
think he knows what might happen should he do that and
be successful.

Has a fascist country ever been taken down by elections?

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5 users have voted.

I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish

"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

TheOtherMaven's picture

@ggersh

an "embezzlement" scandal or some kind of scandal involving misuse of campaign funds. They have learned that character assassination can be more effective than the wet-work kind. (They have already tried claiming that he's a "lunatic fringe antivax conspiracy theorist kook", but that's beginning to wear off.)

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There is no justice. There can be no peace.

QMS's picture

@ggersh

He is unafraid to tell it like it is.
Thanks for sharing this!

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question everything

prosecutable.
It is safer to be a shoplifter in California than it is to be snarky.
That is NOT snark!

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

snoopydawg's picture

.
I agree with him that we have the power to get the PTB’S attention.

STRIKE!

And so they can’t call in their goon squads to brutally break up any strike people should just stay home and away from going out on the streets holding signs. When has that worked in the last few decades? He talks about how the PTB have violently attacked people out on the streets so take their power away from them. There are people who can afford to stay home because as we know there are too many people who can’t afford to miss one day of work. They are already suffering the most.

Anywho read his essay. The accompanying graphic sure sums up what we are up against.

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The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt

@snoopydawg about a trip I took to Mexico. A young guide told we tourists about the rise of AMLO being set by strikes.
Essentially, people sat in the streets, locked arms, refused to work, refused to shop and consume, and to pay taxes. En masse.
It went off the rails here because people thought it was about avoiding federal taxes, which is a crime in the US
It was about sales taxes and local taxes. No purchase, no sales taxes, no local taxes. They fed each other, they took care of each other, they replaced the capitalist regime and replaced it with AMLO, by just staying home.
It, by DAMN, worked.
It can work here, or anywhere. It is legal. It is safe.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

snoopydawg's picture

Dark reading, but a lot of what’s mentioned here has already been put in place.

"Everything is in place and nobody can stop us now." In 1969, ex-Planned Parenthood Medical Director Richard Day Prophesied How the Depopulation Global Agenda Would Unfold

The following is an extended audiotaped account recollecting a 1969 talk given by an ex-Planned Parenthood Medical Director, Richard Day.

Day was preparing his audience of physicians for what was to come.

He asked them not to take notes or record his session.

The parts on medicine and health care really REALLY resonate.

A big item .. was elaborated at some length was the cost of medical care would be made burdensomely high. Medical care would be connected very closely with one's work but also would be made very, very high in cost so that it would simply be unavailable to people beyond a certain time.

"Congress is not going to go along with national health insurance. That (in 1969)," he said, "is now, abundantly evident. But it's not necessary. We have other ways to control health care."

The solo practitioner would become a thing of the past. A few die-hards might try to hold out, but most doctors would be employed by an institution of one kind or another. Group practice would be encouraged, corporations would be encouraged, and then once the corporate image of medical care .. as this gradually became more and more acceptable, doctors would more and more become employees rather than independent contractors. And along with that, of course, unstated but necessary, is the employee serves his employer, not his patient.

Starting in the late 80's we started seeing medical insurance change and first with HMOs and then finally Obamacare that instead of reining in costs saw them explode along with increasing high premiums and deductibles and then junk insurance with low premiums, but enormous deductibles that people can’t afford to meet so they just pay for it in case of an accident or catastrophic illness.

This talk might not have been given, but where we are today compared to when I first started working it sure looks like this dream has come true. Tying insurance to one’s job made people stuck with crappy jobs…well until Obama passed Romney care!

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The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt

@snoopydawg the history professors, when touching upon economic and social history of the US, openly taught, from their lecterns, that a cancer cure existed, but the patents were bought, hidden forever.
They never said the patents were held by Rockefeller. That is new to me.
While we are at it, they also taught that a permanent tire had been invented, and that a major tire manufacturer bought the patent and suppressed it. Same thing for an car engine, possibly invented in India, I can't remember exactly what country, but a US oil company quickly bought and suppressed the patent for an engine that powered cars with water.
My education in those years gives some credence to Dr. Day's speech to his colleagues. Planned Parenthood was at or near every college campus. Gays coming out was a big deal in those years, as well.
I think this event happened, and the drs.' memory of what Dr. Day said does comport with what I was taught.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

QMS's picture

@on the cusp

about energy sources invented and subsumed by the profiteers.
Replacement psychology is driven into the minds of consumers
to such an extent the crapification of manufactured items is now
accepted as gospel. We were taught about planned obsolescence
in the early 70's. I still have tools and appliances made in the 60's
that were made to last and repairable. If only politicians had a shorter
shelf life, we could maybe survive. Corporations too. Throw them away.

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question everything

@QMS info from profs was taken seriously, not as woo woo! ct!
Climate change was at the pollution of air and water stage, not publicly taught as changing climate. I guarantee you the majority of Americans cannot distinguish weather from climate. After all, snow in February in east Texas, proves climate change is bull shit.
Btw, it is storming out tonight. Better take my lap top inside. Gotta watch some Gunsmoke episodes with dinner anyway.
And buying junk to use, toss, replace was built in to the system to keep us in perpetual poverty.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

snoopydawg's picture

@on the cusp

Just recently that there is a way to make engines run on water. And don’t forget the big crime of the oil companies killing the train system. People used to take the train everywhere over 100 years ago but now you have to have a death wish to get on one today with the state of the rails. Or if you fly just hope that the pilot is healthy.

What our government has allowed to be done to us should be considered treason or something like that. Instead of having an easier life with all the new technology more people have to work harder than ever just to make ends meet. I feel a rant coming on so I’ll stop here.

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The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt