Election Day

Today, November 5, 2024 is election day. This is the day that American citizens think that they vote for the President and Vice President. Legally speaking, that is not true. Today, the several state legislatures decide how to appoint Electors. Election day is actually 3 separate days: Once in November to appoint Electors, once in the middle December for the Electors to vote, and once in early January when the President of the Senate tallies the votes in front of Congress. A candidate needs 270/538 Electors to vote for them to be President or Vice President.

DEI: Divide Et Impera

DEI means divide et impera, which is Latin for divide and rule. Historically, the Romans would support the weaker side in a country, with whom they would rule over the rest. We should replace divide et impera with e pluribus unum, unless we want the West to be divided up amongst invaders.

Populares, Optimates, and Roman Concrete

“But we see that she herself once seemed to be the mistress of the world, such as Rome remained. Distressed in many ways by immense pains, the desolation of the citizens, the pressure of the beasts, the frequent collapses... Where is the Senate? Where are the people? All the pride of Secular dignities has been extinguished... For the Senate is wanting, the people have perished: yet in the few that are, the groans of pain are multiplied every day; Rome is already burning empty.” -Pope Gregory the Great, in a homily in 593 AD.

Price Controls: The Edict of Diocletian

Diocletian (born 245 AD) was the Roman Emperor from 284-305 AD. His rule is considered the end of the Crisis of the Third Century. He brought stability to the Roman Empire, notably by splitting the Empire into East and West administratively. However, not all of his reforms would prove long lasting. Just as Kamala Harris is promising price controls to keep inflating prices low, Diocletian promised the same thing with his Edict on Maximum Prices.

Radical Republicans

Trump was nearly assassinated on Saturday, July 13, 2024. This would have thrown the Republican Party into disarray, because the the president has become like a Roman Emperor, progressively replacing the political power of the Senate. For long term success, Republicans need to dominate Congress so that it doesn’t matter if a Democrat is president, because the House and Senate can over ride a presidential veto and impeach the president if they don’t like him. In fact, we have precedent for Congress dominating the president. Following the Civil War, Radical Republicans took over the federal government while a Democrat was president.

Updates: Jue 30, 2024

Julian Assange is free, Ukraine bombed Russian families vacationing on the beach using American weapons, Norinchukin Bank is selling US government bonds, and Bolivia had a failed coup de etat.

College Protests

To everyone making fun of the protestors, their unifying factor isn't Marxism, it is that they don't think we should be bombing women and children in Gaza. They'd go away if the unpopular war weren't being waged and they didn't have to pay taxes to Israel

Republic First Goes Bust

On Friday April 26, 2024 Republic First Bank went bust. It is based out of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The bank bailouts that started in March of last year and went into November appear to have awoken from hibernation. Is it a bear market for banks?

¥en Yang

As of yesterday, Wednesday, April 10, 2024, it now takes ¥153 to get $1. The Bank of Japan can strengthen the ¥en by selling US government bonds. They could then sell the dollars that they get from the bonds for ¥en on the open market for less than ¥153. It is a cheap trick, but it will yank around the Federal Reserve, who will need to be the lender of last resort to the US government if Japan and China are selling. That means more inflation for the USA, and a weakening US dollar. Talk about YinYang!

P Diddy Diddle

Who did P Diddy diddle? Who did Diddy do?

Perhaps the blackmail operation tied to Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell is falling apart.

Depressing News

As of February 15, 2024, Germany, Japan, and the United Kingdom were in a recession. Jamie Dimon is selling shares of JP Morgan and Berkshire Hathaway is holding cash. Druckenmiller is buying gold. The stock price of New York Community Bank fell 60% in the first week of February. They bailed out Signature Bank. With the Bank Term Fuding Program allegedly expiring in March, are we about to be in American recession?

Things Fall Apart II

Food is getting expensive in the European Union. Decades of printing money, raising taxes, and controlling the economy have made everything more expensive. The more money people spend on food, the less they can spend on consumption and investment. European farmers themselves are facing higher prices, and have spontaneously united across Europe to protest their impoverishment by the government. They have even potentially inspired more trucker protests in Canada. They’d be happening in China too, but they have less freedom. Revolutions find fertile ground in hungry bellies and empty pockets.

Jan 6 Entrapment

Steven D’Antuono was the head of the Detroit FBI’s field office in 2020 when the Michigan State Capital building was stormed by protestors and when the FBI foiled a plot to kidnap Michigan Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer. He was then transferred to head the Washington, D.C. FBI field office right before the Republican “insurrection” of January 6, 2021.

Bank Term Funding Program (BTFP)

The Bank Term Funding Program (BTFP) is the name for the money that the Federal Deposit and Insurance Company and the Federal Reserve loaned to banks going bankrupt, starting in March 12, 2023. A couple of more banks have been added since then, but the bulk of the money is due in March 2024. The banks don’t have the money, so they’ll have to sell what they own, US debt and mortgage backed securities. Also, the Reverse Repo market funding the federal government should be tapped out by March. With the biggest historic buyers of US debt, the Federal Reserve, Japan, and China, currently being the biggest sellers, who will buy the US debt that the banks and Treasury are selling? So, either we play another round of musical chairs, or the music stops; but, at some point, the music stops. Fun times ahead.

Cow Commodity Money

Historically, the most universally desired commodities became money, such as salt (salary), tobacco, alcohol, copper, silver, and gold. Another unusual example is the cow in ancient India and rural Mississippi during alcohol prohibition.

Spanish Bitcoin

The new president of Argentina, Javier Milei, wants to use the dollar ($) instead of the Argentine peso to escape Argentina’s high inflation. Both he and the president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, also want to use bitcoin with a ₿. However, it is physical bitcoin, the Spanish Dollar, that they should consider. El dólar argentífero es bitcoin fisico. The silver dollar is physical bitcoin.

Leveraging the Suez Canal and Bab al-Mandab Straight

Houthi rebels in Yemen have attacked shipping going through the Bab al-Mandab Strait between Arabia and Africa, connecting the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean. The Suez Canal then connects the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea, and the Israeli port city of Haifa. It is the most direct shipping route from Japan, China, and South Korea to Europe. Several shipping companies have rerouted their ships around Africa. This will increase the cost of trade between Europe and Asia and Israel and Asia. This could be used to divide the West, led by the Anglo-American Empire, from Israel and increase pressure on Israel to stop bombing Palestinians in Gaza.

Death of the Petro-Dollar II

Putin flew to Arabia and met with with delegations from the UAE and Saudi Arabia on Wednesday and the next day he flew back to Moscow to meet with delegations from Oman and Iran. All 5 nations are major energy producers. The petro-dollar is based on oil (energy) producing nations exclusively selling their oil for dollars. That appears to be ending.