More evidence of the political push for Global Climate DisruptionTM nonsense
Posted On: Friday - February 3rd 2017 12:24PM MST
In Topics: Global Climate Stupidity Globalists
Zerohedge featured this Martin Armstrong post: U.N. Official Admits Global Warming Agenda Is Really About Destroying Capitalism today.
PeakStupidity is running out of time right now, so no commentary of note right now, but previous posts about the Global Climate DisruptionTM issue can be viewed by topic key and these 5, in sequential order (1, 2, 3, 4, and 5) are about the political aspect of the GCD mess.
A shocking statement was made by a United Nations official Christiana Figueres at a news conference in Brussels.
Figueres admitted that the Global Warming conspiracy set by the U.N.’s Framework Convention on Climate Change, of which she is the executive secretary, has a goal not of environmental activists is not to save the world from ecological calamity, but to destroy capitalism. She said very casually:
“This is the first time in the history of mankind that we are setting ourselves the task of intentionally, within a defined period of time, to change the economic development model that has been reigning for at least 150 years, since the Industrial Revolution.”
She even restated that goal ensuring it was not a mistake:
“This is probably the most difficult task we have ever given ourselves, which is to intentionally transform the economic development model for the first time in human history.”
I was invited to a major political dinner in Washington with the former Chairman of Temple University since I advised the University with respect to its portfolio. We were seated at one of those round tables with ten people. Because we were invited from a university, they placed us with the heads of the various environmental groups. They assumed they were in friendly company and began speaking freely. Dick Fox, my friend, began to lead them on to get the truth behind their movement. Lo and behold, they too admitted it was not about the environment, but to reduce population growth. Dick then asked them, “Whose grandchild are we trying to prevent from being born? Yours or mine?
All of these movements seem to have a hidden agenda that the press helps to misrepresent all the time. One must wonder, at what point will the press realize they are destroying their own future?
I've got nothing to add, your honor.
Comments (2)
What is the motivation of the MSM?
Posted On: Thursday - February 2nd 2017 6:21PM MST
In Topics: Lefty MegaStupidity TV, aka Gov't Media Media Stupidity
In this great article in VDare by James Kirkpatrick a week ago titled Refugee Ranting Further Proof: MSM Is The “Opposition Party”, the following few paragraphs of Mr. Kirkpatrick bring up an interesting question.
Perhaps the one positive change which can be identified on network television: the rise of Tucker Carlson at Fox News. Not surprisingly, he is far outpacing the ratings of Trump foe Megyn Kelly’s former show. [Fox’s Tucker Carlson nearly doubling Kelly’s prime-time ratings, by Joe Concha, The Hill, January 24, 2017]
If corporate executives really were interested in money, one would think they would take a lesson.
But they are not. In fact, the emerging result of Trump’s victory: an increased MSM crackdown on nationalist and populist views.
The attempt to use “fake news” as an excuse to shut down alternative media outlets was only the beginning. Thus, since the election, reporters around the world have busied themselves trying to dox (= publish personal information) and get fired any figure right of the Huffington Post. For example, YouTube personality “Millennial Woes,” noted for his extremely soft-spoken, rational delivery, was attacked in the most outrageous terms by the Daily Record and forced to flee Scotland. [Archive.Is link, Vile YouTube racist flees to US and puts out the begging bowl after Record exposes him, January 11, 2017]
(Note, again, that this is only about 10% of the whole article - read the whole thing, as the Instapundit always says.)
What is the motivation of what Mr. Kirkpatrick calls, with that quaint "oughts" term, "MSM", now known as the "LP" (Lying Press) or "Government Media"? They are private enterprises, aren't they? That is a better question than one might think, hence, PeakStupidity's term "Government Media". If they were truly private enterprises, they would have to concentrate foremost on making profits. That explains CNN especially, but all of the TV networks' airing of "infotainment" all the time, as the stories drag on for weeks. I singled out CNN, as they started running all day long more than 2 decades back, so they needed these long-running sagas to keep the viewers watching, as if they were mini-series. In that case, one could say, they've got every right to put on anything but slander, and it's up to the viewer to turn the damn TV off. As any profitable business would, the LP should be expected, therefore, to try to hold on to the most viewers and readers, as this keeps the advertisers paying.
However, as things have gotten more polarized over also about 2 decades running, between the globalist/elites with their fringe-groups and useful idiots, and most of the rest of the normal Americans, the media has completely taken the side of the former "folks" (by "folks", we mean more like "evil beings"). Why? The latter group still is a majority by a decent margin. The '16 election was close, but I believe the regular Americans were still under-represented and the globalist/elites/LP/fringes/U-Idiots over-represented. The true numbers will show up only when things get really nasty. Anyway, why would they not only alienate a majority of would-be viewers and readers via neglect, but nowadays even via flat-out rage, hatred, and disdain?
Show me the profit in this behavior? PeakStupidity's working theory (not as yet modeled on our super-stupid computers by our geeks in Bombay) is that the LP is beyond caring about making profits via good ole tried-and-true bidness methods. They have 2 things going on which separates them from the old ways:
1) The reason we use the term Gov't Media lots is due to the current relationship between media and government - by far most importantly the US Feral Gov't. This government has gotten so huge that the LP can completely make enough of their news on this government alone to fill the 24 hours in a day. It is in the best interest of the LP that the US gov't stay huge and keep making laws and arbitrary regulations that have big effects on people's lives. Why? This is because a viewer or reader nowadays has a need to pay attention, because every day of the week could bring another change to his life or livelihood due to some gov't bullshit program or another.
2) At this late stage of the US Gov't Beast, the LP has good reason to believe that they will all be bailed out by the remaining US
Well, in answer to writer James Kirkpatrick's question, this is our theory, and we're stickin' to it.
(Part 6, the real meat of the Global Financial Stupidity Primer, may not come out until the weekend. Our biggest PS apologies.)
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Primer on the state of Global Financial Stupidity (Part 5)
Posted On: Thursday - February 2nd 2017 8:39AM MST
In Topics: Global Financial Stupidity
It's been over a week since any writing here about the financial crash coming, the basic info about which has been written in 4 posts ( previous one - Part 4 - here ) under the Topic Key Global Financial Stupidity.
To continue now, from here, first I want to try to explain why there REALLY is a problem; it's not just the same old talk you've heard since the Reagan administration. Also, for this purpose, and as briefly mentioned in the first of these posts, we have just focused on US Feral Gov't debt and nothing else so far. We will remedy that in Part 6.
Anyone who has kept up with US gov't news, political debates, etc. for a long length of time may be very jaded and/or just plain bored with the talk about "national debt", "crisis coming", "crisis narrowly averted", etc. Sure, the numbers have been big for a long time, and nothing bad has happened - who cares if the money never gets paid back, whatever. This is understandable, as one may figure this is just as much a "boy who cried wolf" scenario as the Global Climate DisruptionTM scam, which, indeed, IS. Listen, though, a national debt of hundreds of billions of dollars up through the 1970's, then less than 2 1/2 trillion though the 1980's is not in the same order of magnitude as the 20 trillion dollars
now. Look at the graph - please ignore the commentary in blue - not from PeakStupidity, but could be discussed later.
Yes, there's been inflation (a lot more than the US Gov't wants to admit), but not an order of magnitude since the late 1980's, possibly actual values of 150 - 300 % price increases (1.5X to 3X) on goods and services, and varying widely. That's not an order of magnitude, which means 10X. The following graph shows this debt as a ratio to the nations GDP, formerly GNP, which not just divides out the inflation, but factors for a bigger economy, etc.
Right now, the problem is that the debt is not only large, but the 1st derivative, or slope, is pretty high - there are large increases each year. (Just for the record, it doesn't look like an increasing 1st derivative, meaning it can't be exponential - we kinda wish non-math people would quit using this word exponential wrongly - just quit it!) Anyway, the increase each year is the amount of spending minus the gov't theft of money from American taxpayers. The increase - called the "yearly deficit" also equals the yearly additional borrowing, which may really be in the form of creation of money by the Federal Reserve in collusion with the US Treasury Dept. This creation of money puts additional debt onto the books - no you taxpayers never see this money, unless you've got your money in US Treasuries, like a damn fool.
Let's go back to the $200,000 number, the apportionment of this debt per taxpaying household from the first of this series again. We just figured, even on a 20 year payment plan, that would satisfy bondholders if really complied with; that's 10 Grand a year of extra taxation - not possible! What if we could just stem the flow of the red ink, i.e. just stop the shortfall - make the deficit zero, to give people confidence that that 20 Trillion bucks could then eventually be eaten away by slow steady inflation that erodes the hell out of any responsible people's savings. The yearly deficits are running around a trillion dollars so the math comes down to that same $10,000/year figure - so again - not possible!.
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Last dig at Øb☭ma - to a great tune by Paul Simon
Posted On: Tuesday - January 31st 2017 6:56PM MST
In Topics: Music Humor AntiChrist
The thing is, the lyrics below were written by proto-PeakStupidity back in the spring of '11, and should have been put up long ago. (Note the reference to The Donald, regarding the birther controversy.) The lyrics, now that I look at them again, could really apply to the present day, as we hope to see this guy go "...don't know where he's goin', take your own time, cause we all don't care..."
Well the Mama Øb☭ma rolled outta bed,
and she ran to the police station.
When the birthers found out, they began to shout,
and they started the investigation.
It's against the law,
it was against the law,
Article II, sect. 1, paragraph faw,
it is against the law.
The voters look down and spit on the ground
every time my name gets mentioned.
The Donald said "oh, if I get that boy,
I'm gonna stick him in the house of detention."
Well, I'm on my way,
don't know where I'm goin'
I'm on my way,
on the taxpayers' dime,
but I don't know where.
Goodbye middle class,
here's a case of Corona.
See you, me, and Julio down
by the schoolyard.
In a couple of days Soros'll take me away,
but the press makes the story reek.
And when the radical preacher
come to get me released,
we was all talkin' totally Newspeak.
And I'm on my way
I don't know where I'm goin'
I'm on my way.
I'm bustin' a rhyme,
cause I got nappy hair.
Goodbye to Rosie,
and the show Oklahoma,
see you, me, and Coolio
down at the schoolyard.
I was really running out of ideas by the last coupla' verses - can you tell?
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Drudge - displaying the stupidity via headlines & more on Schumer
Posted On: Tuesday - January 31st 2017 9:34AM MST
In Topics: Commies Immigration Stupidity Pundits Globalists
As mentioned here Matt Drudge has his technique of juxtaposing his headline links to show the hypocrisy/stupidity of the world.
Example:
The point of the automation-related headline/link is to make the reader see a point - why do we want massive immigration, again?
Firstly, boycotting Starbucks is a no-brainer at this point, but, as explained herein boycotting can be very difficult when you don't buy any of the crap to begin with.
This relates to the previous post about Senator Schumer's hissy fit (the left wing and globalists have been getting their way for so long, that they can't handle any disruption off the path to globalism.) Here is part of what Schumer said from the Washington Examiner:
"Tears are running down the cheeks of the Statue of Liberty tonight as a grand tradition of America, welcoming immigrants, that has existed since America was founded, has been stomped upon," Schumer said in a statement.
"Taking in immigrants and refugees is not only humanitarian but has also boosted our economy and created jobs decade after decade," he said. "This is one of the most backward and nasty executive orders that the president has issued."
A) The Statue of Liberty was a gift from France on the 100th anniversary of the founding of the country and it stood for freedom - not a damn thing to do with immigration. The immigration tie-in to this statue is just due to some plaque by a hack poet Emma Lazarus that is bolted or welded on to Miss Liberty somewhere at the bottom.
B) How has taking in more people created jobs? Who's taking the jobs - the new people? How deluded is this Schumer?
C) You want to see some nasty executive orders? Look back 11 days,
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I feel tears welling up from down deep inside, like my heart's sprung a big break ...
Posted On: Tuesday - January 31st 2017 8:42AM MST
In Topics: Commies Genderbenders Immigration Stupidity Lefty MegaStupidity Music The Dead Globalists
Stop whining, Senator, or we'll give you something to cry about!
Apparently, trying to control your country's borders, and AT LEAST, AT A MINIMUM, FOR NOW!, keeping people that want to kill you out, is very "mean-spirited". Chuck Schumer stands with some kids in the photo-op, that you figure are probably not bad kids - it's hard to fault the little ones for anything. Schumer doesn't want to listen or understand anyone that tells him that who knows what the teenagers will be like once they grow up with parents (and all the people in their surroundings) that never really like the Western ways, and may even have a real grudge, seeing as we may have bombed the crap out of some family member's wedding back in "the old country".
This lady's video will show you a little about the culture of these people, if they live as they do in "the old country" - which they do nowadays, as there is no assimilation (assimilation is mean-spirited or something.)
You wonder if the
How about you and your neo-con butt-buddies, like Miss Gramnesty of SC, and the senile old Juan McCain, stop starting wars and bombing the hell out of people all over the Middle East, so there won't be as many refugees? Is this the type of logical thinking ahead that only men can do - the type that don't cry on TV during press conferences?
What we at PeakStupidity think is that, based on his feelings and moods and his emotional state, this slobbering fool is not a man at all but a woman. We figure Schumer* changed to a woman a while back, but has just not finished the paperwork.
* Look for an Execrable Charlene Schumer on the Senate floor in the near future.
As to the post title, it's from The Race is On, written by Don Rollings, sung by George Jones back in 1964, and, as usual, done best by a truly All-American band, The Dead, in the early 1980's on their Dead Reckoning acoustic album:
Great singing by Bobby, pretty good lead by Jerry, considering it's acoustic, nice piano by Brent Mydland and these great country lyrics with the racetrack metaphor(?).
First verse:
I feel tears wellin' up
from down and deep inside
Like my heart's sprung a big break,
and a stab of loneliness sharp and painful
that I may never shake.
Now, you might say that I was takin' it hard
since you wrote me off with a call,
but don't you wager that I'll hide the sorrow
When I may break right down and bawl
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Bono, you'd be serving up
Posted On: Monday - January 30th 2017 7:04PM MST
In Topics: Lefty MegaStupidity Music
The subject of artists and celebrities popping their mouths off and getting into politics was brought up just for a minute in this music post a few days back. To add a bit more on the subject we introduce exhibit A, one "Bono" of the band U2, from county somethin-or-other, Ireland.
This guy has been hassling the hell out of all of Western society for well nigh 20 years and counting, telling us we need to do more of this, stop doing that, shell out more of our hard-earned cash for this, and listen to him more. What is it about these people that think being famous and rich makes them smarter and more knowledgeable than anyone else? There's no doubt that this guy has a great voice for rock music. I would put U2 in a list of the top 100 rock bands of all time, but listen, Bono, if that's your real name, you'd still be serving
So, as the fans probably yell at the shows, Hey Bono, shut up and sing!
Found the live, longer version of "Bad" - this one rocks and should be turned up until the stuff on the mantle starts vibrating and falling to the floor. Then, back it off a notch.
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Drudge headlines - looks like interesting times are upon us
Posted On: Monday - January 30th 2017 6:26PM MST
In Topics: Immigration Stupidity Pundits
As we wrote about in this old post, perusing the DrudgeReport headlines can make one think the world will be ending fairly soon.
Above are some of today's headlines regarding the Trump border control orders of a coupla' days back, and one could be excused readily for believing we are in the end times, but it's just the "interesting times" that have been mentioned a lot lately inside some of my Chinese fortune cookies (most likely). (I'm getting a lot of the same lotto numbers too, so I think the Happy/Fortune Co. Inc Q/A department is on vacation on
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Sally Yates - ya fiyad!
Posted On: Monday - January 30th 2017 6:14PM MST
In Topics: Trump
The acting Acting US Attorney, Sally Yales does not want to follow the bosses instructions, per zerohedge: Mutiny? Acting Attorney General Orders Justice Department Not To Defend Trump Executive Order.
Listen, I'm the first to respect someone who will not follow orders per unconstitutionality or stupidity or what-have-you. In the article, though, this lady's rationale, in her words seemed like a bunch of BS, especially the 2nd paragraph here, which just says she doesn't want to enforce these orders, that's all:
My role is different from that of the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC), which, through administrations of both parties, has reviewed Executive Orders for form and legality before they are issued. OLC's review is limited to the narrow question of whether, in OLC's view, a proposed Executive Order is lawful on its face and properly drafted. Its review does not take account of statements made by an administration or it surrogates close in time to the issuance of an Executive Order that may bear on the order's purpose. And importantly, it does not address whether any policy choice embodied in an Executive Order is wise or just.
Similarly, in litigation, DOJ Civil Division lawyers are charged with advancing reasonable legal arguments that can be made supporting an Executive Order. But my role as leader of this institution is different and broader. My responsibility is to ensure that the position of the Department of Justice is not only legally defensible, but is informed by our best view of what the law is after consideration of all the facts. In addition, I am responsible for ensuring that the positions we take in court remain consistent with this institution's solemn obligation to always seek justice and stand for what is right. At present, I am not convinced that the defense of the Executive Order is consistent with these responsibilities nor am I convinced that the Executive Order is lawful.
Regarding Mr. Trump's old TV show, this is the only thing I can remember from watching some ad for it long ago on the TV:
Miss Yates - YA FIYAD!
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Illegal Aliens' effect on Election '16
Posted On: Monday - January 30th 2017 9:12AM MST
In Topics: Elections '16 - '24 Immigration Stupidity California
Yeah, old news, but it relates to the previous post regarding the talk about fraudulent voting, which is still going on (the voting and the talking).
Another commenter at Amren, who's name and comment I cannot find anymore, brought up a good point, which I had neither thought of nor read elsewhere. The 800,000 illegal alien voters number that has been bandied about is one thing, but there is another factor, especially important regarding California. The state of California for which 55 electoral votes are counted, is a major factor in every national election. Of course, it's a lost cause for everyone but the left-wing at this point, but that's 55 votes of lost cause, out of 538, just over 10%.
What the commenter brought up was the point that the numbers of these electoral votes per state (and also, we all know, the number of congressmen apportioned to the state) are determined from US Census numbers for an every 10-year count. You'd figure that, but his question was how many illegal aliens were counted in the census, and how would that have changed the apportionment of electoral votes? It's a very good question.
The first reply from some defenders of the illegal invaders to that question would be that, "... no, of course, these people are living in the shadows ... they won't talk to anyone...", etc. Bull! When you see protests in the street with people who explain on the damn bullhorn how they are illegal aliens and want this and want that, you can see they are not living in any shadows. I would think you may get a pretty large count in a state like California. In fact, a guy like me would have less to say (story for another post) to the census guy than an illegal. Keep in mind that for a heavily left-wing state like CA any state people, and most of the Fed people, involved with the census would be all for pumping up the numbers. They'd want to pump up the numbers for 2 reasons: A) to get the illegals, who vote heavily democrat to become part of the political process, and more importantly B) to get the total count up raise the electoral vote number for CA.
Let's be realistic about the numbers also - this 11 million number is total bull, as that number of illegal aliens was claimed back at the turn of the century, and it was rectal extraction-based, just as my 30 million right now is. I could see there being 5 million illegals just in California, and yes, I have spent time there.
Anyway, it's a great point that the commenter on Ameren brought up, and I wish I could claim credit for independent thoughts on this, but I can't. The effect on illegal invaders being in our country and voting is one thing, but the change in apportionment in votes to the states (about the only power they have left) could have been even more important. Imagine CA had only 40 votes - just that would have made a big difference in Election '16
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Is Trump a mastermind against the LP
Posted On: Monday - January 30th 2017 7:51AM MST
In Topics: Trump Media Stupidity
("LP" is "Lyin' Press")
A commenter on this article on Amren.com, titled "Trump Argument Bolstered: Clinton Could Have Received 800,000 Votes From Non-citizens, Study Finds.", brings up an interesting question.
Is Trump, along with his adviser types, smarter than we think in dealing with his domestic enemies, the most powerful being the LP? PeakStupidity has mentioned that we don't think Trump is the most aware guy we could have, say compared to Ron Paul, of the root of the problems we have in this country. He is not as smart and truly educated in this realm like a Ron Paul or Pat Buchanan, etc. However, in a way one might call "shrewd", Trump and his people may be operating on a level above our heads. It takes people who understand the type of evil, moronic, immoral people that your enemies consist of to stay ahead of their lies and foil them in their efforts.
Here's what a guy named Question Diversity had to say:
Question Diversity • 3 days ago(Boldness by PeakStupidity)
Honestly, I don't think Trump talking about voter fraud really has anything to do with proving that there were more fraudulent votes cast than the (legally irrelevant) national popular vote margin against him.
You have to remember that Trump is a high stakes poker player, figuratively speaking.
Trump knows that all this prattlebatt about the (legally irrelevant) national popular vote and that he did not win it is just a psychological attempt to delegitimize his governing authority. Therefore, he's seeing that attempt and raising them an attempt to delegitimize the delegitimization effort.
The more he talks about having Jeff Sessions bring the hammer down, the more this will force Soros to tell his rent-a-mobs to shut up about the popular vote. Because what Trump's enemies don't want is any investigation over any voter fraud, because any voter fraud in any Federal elections means Federal prison time, and the fraudsters really don't want to go to Federal prison. They do want to preserve their voter fraud machine.
Remember the Jill Stein (remember her?) led Michigan recount? Notice how quickly that got shut down when hanky panky out of Detroit threatened to bubble up to the surface? See what I mean?
We're living in the middle of a poker table.
This commenter brings up a level of thinking that we at PeakStupidity have not reached, if it's right, and he is just speculating. Yeah, this type of thinking doesn't usually come from straight-arrow honest men, but it is what we need against all the people arrayed for the status quo and against Mr. Trump. It makes sense that Trump is a mastermind like this based on all his experience in doing high-dollar business in New York City.
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Please like this post, Mark Zuckerberg as I need more facebook friends ....
Posted On: Saturday - January 28th 2017 7:50PM MST
In Topics: Commies Immigration Stupidity California Trump Artificial Stupidity
.... like I need another hole in the head. (Yes, we all have a few - some more than others - holes in the head, I mean, not Facebook friends.)
Per VDare again, in an article titled Obstructing Justice, Destroying Records–Time To Move Against The “Sanctuary State” Of California, they get to some of the real reasons that the elite of California are freaking out. They need the cheap labor in the software tech. industry via the H1-B Visa-fraud program.
It is now clear why Chuck Schumer is holding up the confirmation of Jeff Sessions . Schumer is terrified that the Department of Justice will become the hammer that takes down the powerhouse that lies behind the Democrat Party, the money and votes in California.
Mark Zuckerberg recently attacked President Donald John Trump in a speech about Facebook’s corporate future. The threat there being the cheap labor that will soon be going away. Zuckerberg’s billions will have to soon go to paying American computer programmers a higher wage.
[Non-VDare part] Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Friday blasted President Donald Trump’s executive orders relating to immigration. “Like many of you, I’m concerned about the impact of the recent executive orders signed by President Trump,” Zuckerberg wrote on Facebook. “We need to keep this country safe, but we should do that by focusing on people who actually pose a threat.”
[Mark Zuckerberg Blasts Trump’s Executive Orders, The Daily Beast, January 27, 2017]
[End of Non-VDare part]
The real fear is that there is a draft executive order in the works that will greatly restrict illegal use of expired F-1 Student Visa holders and fraudulently obtained H-1B work visa holders by Facebook and other tech companies.
Two things to say here:
1) With all this trouble from California all of the state's rights issues can be debated again, and this could be a good thing - the CA elites only care about state's rights on the issues here (control of the nation's borders have NEVER, EVER been seen as a state's right, of course), but they are going to open up a can of worms. It'd be great to be a conservative state governor right now, and there are a lot of them.
2) Regarding the IT field, before this H1B Visa thing became their way out, American software companies had to pay fairly good wages, and I personally knew many young men without college degrees (just overall smart guys) that had it very good in this field. One could raise a family decently, not the family of dot-Indians living as indentured servants, as it goes now.
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FULL DISCLOSURE: PeakStupidity is not on Facebook, we do not "like" anybody on Facebook, we don't like Facebook itself, we do not "follow" or "stalk" anyone on Facebook, and we actively "dislike" the founder of Facebook, so all you "Facebook Friends" can click the "kiss my ass" link at the bottom to "defriend" the living shit out of PeakStupidity for all we care. [Sorry, for the language - we do have lawyers on retainer who write these disclosures but a lot of them are ex-cons and don't clean up real good.]
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A top member of the PeakStupidity law-team captured on video:
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Is NATO Obsolete?
Posted On: Saturday - January 28th 2017 7:36PM MST
In Topics: Trump Pundits Liberty/Libertarianism
Short answer: YES
Long answer: YEPPERS
I don't always agree with John Derbyshire, a long-term pundit, mathematician, and good writer, except when he's writing about immigration (when I always do). This is an excerpt from the transcript of a week-old podcast of his "Radio Derb", broadcast via VDare.com.
It seems much easier to read than listen to podcasts and the like, as, believe it or not, it's 2-4 times faster, and just more fun, for me at least. This has nothing to do with Derbyshire's voice - now if the Hildabeast had ever done a podcast that reached my ears, I wouldn't quite be myself - forever!
Here:
07 — Yes, NATO is obsolete. Last Sunday, in a joint interview with one British and one German newspaper, Donald Trump declared that NATO is obsolete.
What are we going to do with this guy? He keeps saying things that are perfectly obvious, but that respectable people just don’t say. I can totally relate to that.
Of course NATO is obsolete. It became obsolete the day after the Warsaw Pact disbanded. That would have been February 26th 1991 — 26 years ago next month. The main function of NATO since then has been to annoy the hell out of Russia, and make normal relations with that country impossible.
Hear, hear! [Break in Derbyshire quote]
Proponents of NATO argue that the U.S. military has, since WW2, been instrumental in maintaining a stable world order through alliances like NATO, and that to dissolve any of those alliances would be a step towards disorder.
I’d reply that the stability supplied by U.S. forces worldwide is not worth the antagonism it generates in other big powers, notably Russia and China; and that the best hope for stability in these next few decades is a balance of power, where each nation is assumed entitled to precedence — not wanton aggression, but precedence — in its sphere of interest.
All the big powers have pressing economic worries about automation and public entitlements in ageing, declining populations. Nobody’s looking for lebensraum; nobody’s plotting world conquest. Nobody’s got the manpower.
The greatest threat to international stability is the mass movements of peoples from failed states in Africa and the Middle East into the civilized zone. To that, NATO is irrelevant. What is the point of stationing our armies along Europe’s borders with Russia, if the nations behind them allow themselves to fill up with unassimilable Muslims and Africans?
This is Ron Paul level stuff here. Yet somehow many of the good conservatives pundits/bloggers out there just detest the libertarians. I believe each of these groups of principled people could learn something from each other.
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Inflation and Interest
Posted On: Saturday - January 28th 2017 6:39PM MST
In Topics: Music Global Financial Stupidity Economics Southern rock Inflation
This is an interlude within the series of posts entitled "Primer on the state of Global Financial Stupidity (Part __)". In order to properly understand the next in this series of posts about the just-started, on-going financial calamity, the reader must have an understanding of inflation and interest rates and the relation between them.
Just the title of this post is enough to put most readers to sleep, we figure, but this has got to be done - we're slipping it in on a Saturday afternoon when we figure most readers don't have us tuned in (wait, whaaat ?? - Editor). We could always bring Ben Stein back on to liven things up, I guess.
This writer was around and somewhat aware of things already during the high-inflation phase of the 2nd half of the 1970's. My belief at the time was that this inflation was due to some kind of vicious cycle, wherein employees were demanding higher wages to help them keep up with the big increases in prices of food, cars, etc., and that these prices had to be raised in order to pay the employees the new salaries, and round and round. All that had to be done, I figured, was just one party had to give in for a while, and things would become stable. The sorry thing is, is that this is what the newspapers were saying too - hey, I was just a kid and nobody was paying me the big bucks and putting my name in print for these ideas.
The real reasons for the price increases have to do with the increase in the supply of money. The shenanigans of the Federal Reserve bank, the closing of the gold window under Nixon (one could no longer redeem Federal Reserve Notes - read the fine print on your
Let's go back to the late 1970's again. As price inflation was in the lower and even middle teen annual percentage rates, interest rates (mostly mortgages, as credit cards, student loans and even car loans were of a much lower percentage of consumer debt in those days - a good thing) were in the same range. One would think, at first thought, that these should be somehow equal - NOT TRUE. The idea of one party collecting interest for giving another party the use of money for a period of time is based on a natural factor, usually called the "time value of money". The party borrowing could use this money as capital to enable earlier and higher profits than if the money could only be spent as earned by this borrowing party. This is probably all obvious to our erudite readers, but please pick your heads up off the desk anyway. Interest rates should therefore be HIGHER than the inflation rate by whatever the time value of money is. (There's another factor in any debt that has a risk of default to it - the lender should get some extra just to cover the small possibility of the borrower reneging.)
Now, let's ACTUALLY go back to the 1970's again, as I didn't in the last paragraph - even though the presidency of Ronald Reagan reaped the benefits of a large drop of the inflation rate by the earlier 1980's, people arguably* credit that to Mr. Paul Volcker of the Fed. Reserve, who President Jimmy Carter appointed near the end of his term. He got the Federal Reserve banking system to force the interest rates up to very high levels. Note the blue curve of the graph peaking at 15% around 1980 (yes, I also wish an engineer had made the graph). This shows 10-year treasury bonds as an example, but house mortgage could be at 18% in those years. Right now, people are perturbed about getting up toward 4%! The reason the inflation decreased drastically is due to the effect of the rates on economic decisions by businesses, but the FED should not have been involved in the first place.
It so happens that this graph ends at about 2009. There is a lot to write about regarding just about that time, as the FED forced rates very low and has kept them artificially down ever since. This is more of their big interference in the market and it hurts responsible people. More about that later, but it leads to the conclusion of this post.
In a free market of money - meaning no Federal Reserve deciding on interest rates and creating money out of no labor at all - we could say two important things:
1) About interest rates - the time value of money, as measured by people and (mostly) business that borrow or lend, based on their experiences and with their livelihoods dependent on it, will be at the "correct" level, not some arbitrary one set by a Bank (one that keeps people under the impression it's part of the US Gov't - it's NOT). What's correct? What's the correct price of a 2010 Toyota Rav-IV with 125,000 miles and certain specified options, cracked dash, new tires/alignment and a roof rack? Whatever the guy ends up paying the other guy, that's the correct price for both of them. What's the correct price of a
2) About inflation - there is absolutely no reason there should be some steady inflation of prices at even 1% each year, as the Federal Reserve banksters and gov't officials would have us believe. Back a century ago, before the Federal Reserve, it was indeed the case that over the long-term, say, a life-time, there was no steady inflation that would eat away a savings down to 5% of what one started with (keep compounding in mind!).
This stuff is not something most people think about, and this writer would also have had a hard time with it even 10 years back. That's a real shame, as it is also stuff that explains how governments of all sorts have (mostly unintentionally) screwed over their citizens or subjects out of their labor throughout history. Nowadays, it seems to be part of their basic operation to encourage irresponsibility and punish responsibility, raising the stupidity level SKY HIGH:
This is some really obscure stuff above, from an almost-forgotten great Southern Rock band, the Atlanta Rhythm Section - more on them later from this great live album that you can't find.
*Because, arguably, plenty of people will argue about damn near anything!
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99 % of good rock and pop was created in the English-speaking world...
Posted On: Friday - January 27th 2017 7:42PM MST
In Topics: Music
... and, I'm 99% sure of that. Really, it's kind of uncanny, though. You may say that Americans did not get to hear all the "good stuff" from around the world back in the days when our music (and the British) was the good stuff, but I don't believe that. Way back in this post my theory that good lyrics don't mean a lot vs. a good tune in a song was expounded. So, were a great tune (and "sound") made anywhere around the world in another language, even back in the 70's we could have heard it, and we'd have liked it.
Now, after the Canadian artists, we've featured one particular Englishman and his combo Wings (too bad we can't recall if this guy had done anything of note before that group ;-} There are hundreds more and thousands of great songs to go though, from the UK, and then more from Australia, and America. Why is it that almost all of the good stuff was created in the English-speaking world - serious question?
OK, you say, what about the band "Golden Earring"? They were Dutch, I believe, but yeah, OK they had one hit per decade for a streak of 2 decades (Radar Love in the 70's and Bullet Hits the Bone in the 80's). Whoopdi-freakin-do!
True, this 99 (or should we say nein und nein-zig) percent number was obtained partially via rectal extraction, but additionally via subliminal thoughts of this one German hit by a girl name Nena. It's really not a great melody, now that I hear it for the first time in decades, but, hey, she had a good eighties hairstyle, and got on MTV before it started to suck.
Ninety-nine red balloons, but actual translation is just "Ninety-nine Balloons", as the "luft" just means "flying", not red.
NOTE: This song was heard/seen in America with English lyrics FIRST. Then, as a novelty, the German-lyric version came out and was more successful - yeah, the lyrics don't matter.
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The lyin press
Posted On: Friday - January 27th 2017 6:34PM MST
In Topics: Immigration Stupidity Media Stupidity
Our President is pretty good at keeping a "meme", you might call it, going. It's pretty tough, as he is one man and the lying press is legion. That phrase, "the lying press" seems to be catching on. I remember the "crooked Hillary" phrase he used for a time.
It would have been great, huh, if he would have just made a contraction out of it, say "Crillery" - sounds like something to do with "krill" that whales eat, but "CRILLARY" is just short for "CRooked hILLARY". The celebrities have been doing this sort of thing for 5-8 years running now, what with Jennifer Lopez being "JLo" and Laura Kardashian being "LarDash", you know, that kinda thing.
Where were we? Ahh, the lying sack-o-shit press, right. This VDare article by Brenda Walker quotes San Francisco ABC channel 7, and they start the lying in paragraph 1:
SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Wednesday seeking to end sanctuary cities, that, in his words, “harbor illegal immigrants.”
It's not a lie of commission, where they just state something that is flat-out wrong (happens a lot), and it's not a lie of omission, where they leave out important stuff that would have changed the whole story (happens a lot). What would one call this one? These guys want the reader to associate a wrong meaning with a phrase, right off the bat, to muddle the reader's thinking.
Think about it "... sanctuary cities, that in his words, 'harbor illegal immigrants'". WTF does the "in his words" mean here? That'd be like my calculus teacher saying: "Newton performed an integration on this function, that, in his words, used differential elements to obtain the area under the curve". It's the definition, just like "a place where they are harboring illegal aliens" is the definition of "sanctuary city".
This could be fun. Future headlines to look for from the lying press:
North Korean strongman Mr Kim Ill Kimson threatened today to blow the livin crap outta Washington, FS with a thermonuclear weapon that would, in his words "use a nuclear fission reaction to compress and initiate a secondary nuclear fusion reaction of a hydrogen isotope".
A Boeing Company's commercial aircraft division spokesman announced that the new 797 will undergo it's first test flight tomorrow that would, in his words, "use Bernoulli's principle to create a low pressure region on the top of it's wings to cause lift and cause the long-delayed airplane to leave the surly bonds of earth and, like, fly."
JLo tweeted this morning that she didn't like rap music that in her words "doesn't have any melody and is just a bunch of yelling thugs".
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Another great song by Wings
Posted On: Thursday - January 26th 2017 7:33PM MST
In Topics: Music
That was the band this guy McCartney was in way, way back, after he just left Liverpool, or something ...
This live version is pretty good, but Paul doesn't use the phase shifter for his voice (at least much) as he does in the studio track, which was originally just a single and not on an album - it later was on Wings Greatest Hits.
Posting may have to be light (for rest of the week), but the Financial Stupidity stuff will continue ...
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Alex Jones in the press gallery?
Posted On: Thursday - January 26th 2017 9:06AM MST
In Topics: Trump Pundits Media Stupidity
This Zerohedge article, Alex Jones' InfoWars Offered White House Credentials refers to an Alex Jones video in which Mr. Jones states:
Here’s the deal, I know I get White House credentials, we’ve already been offered them, we’re going to get them, but I’ve just got to spend the money to send somebody there. I want to make sure it’s even worth it. I don’t want to just sit there up there like ‘m in the media, look our people are there.’ People don’t understand this paradigm, we’re devolving in a good way, power from the federal government back to the people, back from the centralized MSM to the people, just like Trump said in his speech.
Alex Jones has operated the Infowars and PrisonPlanet websites for a long time. He is a conspiracy theorist about some conspiracies that are real and some that are just theories. He is also a constitutionalist patriot, so PeakStupidity is thrilled with this news.
Donald Trump does not have the knowledge and understanding of what's wrong with this country to the extent of a Ron Paul, yet in dealing with the problems he does understand, he is a master. If this is true he is following through with his ideas written about here a week back or so. Before I had read this zerohedge article, I had thought that Drudge should have a seat in the press room also. These white house guys are even ahead on this:
He [Sean Spicer, press secretary] contined:
“[Trump]) keeps saying CNN is fake, and I'm not going to any of your fake news. What’s CNN doing in the front row, when [White House press secretary Sean] Spicer keeps going to them? And then the reporter yesterday goes, “Oh, maybe Trump wasn’t even elected. That’s why you say there’s fraud.” So they’re like little kids up there. These aren’t real journalists. Meanwhile, it’s just crazy, you should see Breitbart and Drudge, and also just reporters that are known to tell the truth from mainstream, whatever, promoted and put up at the front of those briefings, to bring up real questions, not just a battle where they’re just attacking with fricking lies"
Excellent! Although PeakStupidity is not always enamored (gotta like that word) with Matt Drudge - see "Matt Drudge - what we at Peakstupidity think of Drudgereport" - he is definitely on our side. As almost all readers would already know, he puts up just headlines. His way of putting like ones together, and using them to display hypocrisy is his forte. This is from today (this one is not about the hypocrisy, just showing that Mr. Drudge is on our side):
Imagine Matt Drudge, Alex Jones, maybe Glenn Reynolds, Peter Brimelow, Jared Taylor, etc. able to put their questions out there - it's not so much that Trump is not hip, but this way the entire country would have access to the questions and answers. This is what people who speak corporatese call a "sea change". I would agree with them, after I told them to cut out the stupid way of talking.
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Wings - Helen Wheels
Posted On: Wednesday - January 25th 2017 7:30PM MST
In Topics: Music
Some of these artists really burn me up with their silly political statements, but Paul, hanging out with the Hildabeast?? I can't even ... like... OK, I'm not even gonna recommend to anyone your music before Wings. If they ask me about you, I'll tell them that you started out with Linda and Denny Lane. "Who are these Beatles of which you speak? John, Paul, George, and Ringo? - no, not musicians - you're probably thinking of some of the Popes during the Middle Ages", yeah, that's the ticket.
You can forgive the guy only after hearing this one, and another song I'll put up tomorrow:
Again, the tune makes the song, not the lyrics, but I do like them:
Said farewell to my last hotel
It never was much a kind of abode
Glasgow town never brought me down
When I was heading out on the road
Carlisle city never looked so pretty
And the Kendal freeway's fast
Slow down driver want to stay alive
I want to make this journey last
Helen, hell on wheels
Ain't nobody else gonna know the way she feels
Helen, hell on wheels
And they never gonna take her away
M six south down to Liverpool
where they play the west coast sound.
Sailor Sam he came from Birmingham
but he never will be found.
Doing fine when a London sign
greets me like a long lost friend.
Mister Motor won't you check he.r out
she's got to take me back again
Helen, hell on wheels,
ain't nobody else gonna know the way she feels.
Helen, hell on wheels,
and they never gonna take her away.
Got no time for a rum and lime
I want to get my right foot down.
Shake some dust off of this old bus
I gotta get her out of town.
Spent the day up on the motorway
where the carburetors blast.
Slow down driver want to stay alive
I want to make this journey last.
Helen, hell on wheels,
ain't nobody else gonna know the way she feels.
Helen, hell on wheels,
and they never gonna take her away
Say bye bye!
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Primer on the state of Global Financial Stupidity (Part 4)
Posted On: Wednesday - January 25th 2017 6:58PM MST
In Topics: Global Financial Stupidity
(Continued from here.)
We left off writing that major financial pain will come to many if the US Gov't debt were defaulted on. At this point, we can give you some good news and some bad news. What'll it be first, readers? OK, the good news first. The good news is that there is another way for governments with control of the money supply to get rid of debt besides via defaulting! Yippee! It's called inflation, (the real definition of which is "an increase (inflation) of the supply of money".) and governments have been doing it for millenia. It's tried and true, and our own Feral Gov't is pretty good at it too, as the Federal Reserve Bank was created specifically to accomplish this task. Hey, high-5's all around!
What ya' do, see, is print paper (back in the day, at least), or create digits in the computers of the big banks, that represent money, so there is more money in the country. That way, if you owe 20 trillion dollars, you could just create 1 trillion bucks a year for a 20-year period that can be used to pay back people that are cashing in the IOU's, i.e. Treasury Bonds. Nice goin', America! We've been doin' this inflation thing for 100 years, exceptionally well. Right-on! U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!
Wait, wait a sec., not so fast, people. I haven't written about the bad news yet. The bad news is that inflation sucks just as bad as a monetary default on debt. It just sucks much more slowly (if that's your thing - not that there's anything wrong with that, no not at all!). This makes saving money a losing proposition, so wisdom and responsibility are punished and Stupidity and irresponsibility are rewarded. This Monetary Stupidity, as it is known by us economists in our prestigious academic positions in our
Money itself obeys the same law of supply and demand as any good or service. Therefore, an increase in the amount of money means that the same face value is less desirable than it was before the increase in the money supply. Supply of it has gone up, so for the same demand, the "price of that money" will go down. That can be measured against various goods and services, and the converse of that is that prices are seen to rise in that monetary unit (the dollar in our case). We are so used to a steady inflation level of a few percent, and periods of much higher, that we are under the mistaken assumption that this is just a natural thing. INFLATION IS EMPHATICALLY NOT A NATURAL THING, WERE THE MONEY SUPPLY NOT SCREWED WITH! The reason we make this assumption is that the Federal Reserve Bank was created 104 years back, so nobody alive has got a memory that includes some years before that. Plenty of info. on the web can teach one that inflation was not a normal thing in the 19th century in this country, as we had solid money back then.
Having just hinted here about the bad effects of inflation, we will post much more about this in the future. The next installment will get into other debt and financial stupidity, not just that of our Feral US Government.
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