Connect with us

International

Jim Quinn: It’s Not A Lie If You Believe It

Jim Quinn: It’s Not A Lie If You Believe It

Authored by Jim Quinn via The Burning Platform blog,

“The past was erased, the erasure was…

Published

on

Jim Quinn: It's Not A Lie If You Believe It

Authored by Jim Quinn via The Burning Platform blog,

“The past was erased, the erasure was forgotten, the lie became the truth.” – George Orwell, 1984

“Great is truth, but still greater, from a practical point of view, is silence about truth.” ― Aldous Huxley, Brave New World

I wish I could go through a day without having to reference Orwell and Huxley when observing how the ruling class is able to manipulate, subjugate, and propagandize the willfully ignorant masses through lies, deceptions, disinformation, and fear. But here we are, living through a dystopian nightmare blending the worst aspects of Orwell’s 1984 and Huxley’s Brave New World.

It’s as if O’Brien and Mustapha Mond are running the show, using behavioral conditioning, restricting freedom of speech, adhering to a strict caste system, surveilling everything we say or do, using our fears to control us, utilizing propaganda to produce false narratives, and ultimately threatening to stomp a boot on our faces forever if we do not obey and conform. Virtually everything we are told by politicians, government bureaucrats, military brass, “esteemed” journalists, medical “experts”, bankers, and corporate executives is lies. They do not believe their lies, but they know it benefits themselves financially to lie, and as long as they work together, they know the ignorant masses will believe them.

George tells Jerry “It’s not a lie if you believe it” as he is going to take a lie detector test. I wonder how Fauci, Biden, Hillary, Obama, Comey, Wray, Pelosi, and the slew of other Deep State coup conspirators would fare on a lie detector test about Russiagate, Covidgate, J6 Insurrectiongate, and Vaccinegate. Based on the titanic volume of lies they have spewed over the last several years, I’m sure the machine would overheat and explode if hooked up to any of this traitorous vile scum.

The humorous phrase uttered by George Costanza on a sitcom twenty-seven years ago captures a significant kernel of truth about the mindset of the vast majority of non-critical thinking drones roaming the aisles of Wal-Marts and waiting in the drive-thru at McDonalds across our dystopian states of America. The lies run so deep you need hip-boots to wade through them on a daily basis. The reason our leaders lie is because we let them lie. The majority prefer comforting lies to unpleasant truths, because accepting unpleasant truths would require them to act and they prefer being distracted by trivialities like sports, reality TV, social media likes and otherwise being addicted to their technological gadgets.

“The process of mass-media deception has to be conscious, or it would not be carried out with sufficient precision, but it also has to be unconscious, or it would bring with it a feeling of falsity and hence of guilt…. To tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing in them, to forget any fact that has become inconvenient, and then, when it becomes necessary again, to draw it back from oblivion for just so long as it is needed, to deny the existence of objective reality and all the while to take account of the reality which one denies all this is indispensably necessary.” – George Orwell

Orwell’s explanation of mass-media deception is a brilliant assessment of how the ruling class changes the narrative to suit their needs, and without blinking an eye are able to deny what they have said and done. Orwell saw this manipulation of the truth before TV, the internet, social media, or professionally created government propaganda existed. In his day only newspapers, radio, and speeches existed to push deception upon the public.

The proliferation of technologically enhanced mass-media deception has accomplished everything the ruling class/oligarchs/Big Brother surveillance state could hope for. Lies and deception are nothing more than a means to their ends of control, wealth, and power. Right and wrong; good and evil; justice and injustice; truth and falsity; humanity and inhumanity; are meaningless concepts to the corrupt, greedy, power hungry, immoral, deviant, evil overlords who wield their wealth to maintain and expand their control over the ignorant masses, unwilling and unable to resist because their indoctrination runs deep, and the unceasing propaganda keeps them confused and angry at phantom enemies.

The perfect example of Orwell’s mass media deception in practice has been this entire Covid hoax, which has been built on a foundation of lies from the very beginning. At the outset Fauci scoffed at the concept of masks providing any protection from a microscopic virus while being interviewed on 60 Minutes. He wasn’t lying. Numerous scientific studies documented by the CDC proved beyond a doubt, masks are absolutely useless in preventing the spread of viruses. But a few weeks later the covid controllers realized the usefulness of masks as the perfect fear inducing symbol of a fake pandemic and the first step in demanding compliance and obedience by the masses.

Suddenly Fauci and his Big Pharma bought medical “expert” lackeys discarded the inconvenient facts that masks do not work, and piously preached that everyone must mask or mass death would occur. Any dissenting voice speaking the truth about masks was the enemy and needed to be silenced, scorned, ridiculed, and destroyed. The deception was aided and abetted by Twitter, Facebook, Google and the feckless MSM doing the bidding of the ruling elite, while being paid off by Big Pharma.

This was only the beginning of a worldwide conspiracy of lies. The videos from China of bodies in the streets were fake. Evidently to provoke fear among the global community. The purported origin of the virus being bats in a wet market in Wuhan was a lie concocted by Fauci, Daszik, and their Chinese co-conspirators to cover-up their illegal weaponization of viruses in the Wuhan Bio-weapon lab. This cover-up was maintained by the dying legacy media, Twitter, Facebook, and Google through the censorship and banning of anyone (ZeroHedge) who dared question the government approved narrative.

The demand for national lockdowns was built on the lies of Neil Ferguson, a 3rd rate academic, and his fear mongering Imperial College model of deaths if the world didn’t shut down. His ludicrous outcomes, based on false assumptions, were the basis for the disastrous decisions made by corrupt politicians across the world. The results in Sweden, which did not lockdown, have proven his model to be worthless, and responsible for the destruction of the lives of millions across the globe.

They lied about social distancing, based on a 3rd grade girl’s school paper. They used a PCR test improperly to falsely produce “positive” cases in order to terrify the masses into a mass formation psychosis. A case was not a sickness. They drastically overestimated the fatality rate and attributed the deaths of extremely old sick people to covid when they died from their existing malady. Only 6% of covid deaths can be attributed to strictly covid. The overall survival rate if you contracted covid is 99.7%, with anyone under 70 years old 99.9%. Virtually no one under 21 years old died from covid. It was less lethal than the annual flu to young people.

The overlords and their bevy of apparatchik whores in the government, media, and academia needed to ramp up the fear through rising cases, hospitalizations, and deaths in order to get rich off this plandemic, while planting the seeds of their Great Reset scheme to turn the world into a compliant surveillance state. The coup de grace of lies was to be the miraculous “Operation Warpspeed vaccine” which would rid the world of this perilous pestilence. Supposedly brilliant virologists developed amnesia over the concept of herd immunity, which has been known for centuries.

This War on Covid has gone as well as the War on Poverty and the War on Drugs, meaning it has been a complete and utter failure in defeating its supposed foe, but has been hugely successful in enriching politicians, corporations, and the multitude of toadies in the media, academia, and the bureaucracy who perpetuate the lies and disinformation they are paid handsomely to disgorge. The lies engulfing the supposed vaccine run deep and wide.

The entire vaccine scheme is built on an altar of lies, mistruths, misinformation, deception, and censorship. mRNA gene therapies have existed for decades and had consistently failed in application as every animal tested using these concoctions died. Pfizer faked their trial data, lied about adverse reactions, lied about long-term safety, lied about effects on pregnant women, and tried to keep these results hidden for seventy-five years. The tripe about these “vaccines” being safe effective has been and continues to be the Big Lie.

The emergency use authorization for these experimental jabs could only be given if there were no existing medications which were an effective treatment for the illness. There were dozens of scientific studies and world-renowned physicians acknowledging the effectiveness of both hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin in treating covid and alleviating its symptoms safely and effectively – and cheaply. That was the real problem. The hundreds of billions in profits to be made by Big Pharma, and then divvied up to politicians, legacy media companies, the FBI, and social media censorship arms of the ruling class, would be impossible if the truth about hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin was allowed to be acknowledged.

Therefore, Fauci and his sycophants claimed they were dangerous, horse de-wormer medicine, and ineffective. Twitter, Facebook, and Google censored and banned doctors who posted anything positive about either treatment. Meanwhile, Fauci sentenced tens of thousands to death by pushing Remdesivir, a treatment he financially benefitted from, and recommending ventilators for those with covid. Fauci sentenced tens of thousands to death by not allowing these treatments to be used. He deserves the same fate for his treacherous actions but is treated like a saint by the left-wing media and the Biden minions.

The biggest Orwellian mass-media deception of them all was what the “experts” unequivocally declared about their glorious vaccines. Just as every vaccine in history was supposed to keep you from contracting the illness you were vaccinated against, Fauci, Biden, Walensky, Gates, the Pfizer CEO, and a myriad of other paid “experts” told the global population they would not contract or spread covid once they were vaxxed. They are on video and in print declaring this to be true.

But when it was proven to be not true, they just denied they had ever said so. As long as the masses could be convinced the lie had become the truth, then the lie was the truth, according to the Party and its journalistic narrative guardians. Controlling the narrative through suppressing and censoring the truth is how they continue to maintain control. The release of the Twitter files by Musk confirms every “conspiracy theory” put into the public domain by the naysayers, critical thinkers, and a few honest journalists. They have lied about everything.

“And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed—if all records told the same tale—then the lie passed into history and became truth. ‘Who controls the past’ ran the Party slogan, ‘controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.” – Orwell

When confronted by the reality these experimental, toxic, gene altering, spike protein generating brews do not prevent anyone from contracting the virus, being hospitalized by the virus, or dying from the virus, the powers that be just changed the definition of a vaccine and attempted to alter the narrative and pretend they had never said what they said. How Orwellian of our Big Brother overlords. The past is alterable in a totalitarian regime.

“The past was alterable. The past never had been altered. Oceania was at war with Eastasia. Oceania had always been at war with Eastasia.” ― George Orwell, 1984

Even the current definition of vaccination is a lie. Not only does it not protect you from the virus, but the Antibody-Dependent Enhancement (ADE), warned about by highly regarded doctors like Robert Malone, Peter McCullough, and Pierre Kory over a year ago, is now happening to the vaxxed and boosted victims. Biden’s lie about this being a pandemic of the unvaccinated has transformed to the truth we are experiencing a pandemic of the vaccinated. The vaccinated are now 4x as likely to contract covid as an unvaxxed person who has recovered from covid. Natural immunity, which has protected humanity for centuries, is real and far superior to these Big Pharma jabs.

The cognitive dissonance of the vaxxed runs deep. They are too embarrassed and ashamed to admit they were duped and lied to. How many more young people need to “die suddenly” before they turn on Fauci, Biden, Big Pharma CEOs, media talking heads, politicians, and the sickcare industrial complex, and hold them accountable? Is the mass formation psychosis too ingrained in their psyche to ever revolt?

The lies about the covid vaccines being safe and effective, promulgated through a multi-billion-dollar advertising campaign running non-stop for the last two years, paying famous athletes, Hollywood stars, social media influencers, and unethical doctors, are proving to be the most diabolical and fatal falsehoods ever perpetrated on global humanity. The “effective” nonsense was put to bed last year when covid spread faster after more than half the country was berated and threatened into getting the jab, then a 2nd jab, then a 3rd jab, and then a booster, because the previous three failed.

And still half the country refuses to accept the truth because they don’t want to question the narrative or abandon their fellow vaccine cultists. The “safe” garbage narrative is collapsing on a daily basis as factual data about sudden deaths, real scientific studies proving the extreme dangers of these vaxxes, fertility data, excess mortality data, a constant stream of reports about young people contracting myocarditis, having heart attacks, and developing blood clots, has swamped Fauci and his ship of lying fools – with the ultimate result of breaking the mass formation psychosis of the masses.

Essentially, these vaccines are creating a slow-motion mass casualty event, and everyone involved in their premature use in human beings should stand trial for murder, but they won’t. That is because the totalitarian Deep State has grown too powerful, too arrogant, and too filled with contempt for those they rule over. They feel invincible, as they blatantly steal elections, keep peaceful protestors in dungeons, assassinate those who might implicate them in child trafficking conspiracies, use the mechanisms of the surveillance state to crush all opposition, and collude with mass media networks and the Silicon Valley mafia media to suppress the truth and censor those who dare question the Deep State sanctioned narrative. The Twitter files confirm the deceit and treason at the highest levels of government, media, and military. Hannah Arendt describes how totalitarian regimes depend on fabrications to maintain their power.

“Before mass leaders seize the power to fit reality to their lies, their propaganda is marked by its extreme contempt for facts as such, for in their opinion fact depends entirely on the power of man who can fabricate it.” ― Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism

At this point in history virtually everything uttered by the president, any politician, government bureaucrat, media personality, corporate executive, medical “expert”, and faux journalist is a fabrication, exaggeration, disinformation or outright lie. The list of lies is never ending, and has been going on since Adam and Eve, but the quantity and audaciousness of the lies in recent times has accelerated to a point where the totalitarians no longer fear revelations about their lies. They are comfortable knowing the masses will believe absurdities as long as they confirm their ideologies, biases, and beliefs.

The masses do not mind being lied to because they are entranced by narratives created to keep them under control and focused on whichever enemy they are propagandized to hate, whether it be Trump, lockdown and mask dissenters, anti-vaxxers, phantom white supremacists, J6 “insurrectionists”, the Russians, or “election deniers”. Provenly bold faced liars like Biden and Fauci are admired and celebrated for their dedication to the narrative, despite its falseness. It happened in Nazi Germany, Stalinist Soviet Union, Mao’s Communist China, and today as we plunge towards a new world order totalitarianism of unknown outcomes and atrocities.

“Mass propaganda discovered that its audience was ready at all times to believe the worst, no matter how absurd, and did not particularly object to being deceived because it held every statement to be a lie anyhow. The totalitarian mass leaders based their propaganda on the correct psychological assumption that, under such conditions, one could make people believe the most fantastic statements one day, and trust that if the next day they were given irrefutable proof of their falsehood, they would take refuge in cynicism; instead of deserting the leaders who had lied to them, they would protest that they had known all along that the statement was a lie and would admire the leaders for their superior tactical cleverness.” ― Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism

I think a list of big lies is sufficient to prove we are ruled by totalitarian ideologues who don’t care their lies are destroying our country, culture, and societal norms. During my lifetime: they lied about JFK’s assassination; they lied about the Gulf of Tonkin to get us into the Vietnam War; they lied about 9/11; they lied about WMD in Iraq; they lied about the 2008 financial collapse; they lied about the 2014 CIA coup in the Ukraine creating the havoc we have today; they lied about global warming and had to switch to climate change when the original lie was revealed; they lied about Russiagate and their coup against Trump, they lied about the “peaceful” BLM protests; they lied about the cause of George Floyd’s death (fentanyl overdose); they lie about child trafficking and grooming; they lie about butchering children in the name of gender identity; they lied about Hunter Biden’s computer and the Biden family crime syndicate; they lied about rigging the 2020 election; they lied about Epstein’s “suicide”; they lied about the FBI and Pelosi staging the January 6 “insurrection”; they lied about colluding with Twitter, Facebook, and Google to influence elections and create a fake pandemic; they are lying about our border being safe and secure; they are lying that Biden isn’t a dementia ridden puppet controlled by Obama, Soros, and Gates; they are lying that Sam Bankman-Fried and his FTX money laundering operation wasn’t an arm of the Democrat party, using ill-gotten funds and funneling it to Democrat candidates; and they are lying about their intentions to destroy our society through suicidal economic, social, and legal policies in order to usher in a totalitarian Great Reset New World Order run by wealthy elites and their detestable acolytes. Our dystopian nightmare is on-par with Orwell’s.

“The atom bombs are piling up in the factories, the police are prowling through the cities, the lies are streaming from the loudspeakers, but the earth is still going round the sun.” – George Orwell

Totalitarian regimes have tremendous success using fake data and fake charts to give the appearance of truth to a populace too willfully ignorant to investigate whether the data and charts are a truthful and accurate reflection of reality. It is so much easier to believe supposed experts than it is to think critically and question the narrative, especially when they are telling you what you want to hear. Even though the average person knows their financial situation has steadily deteriorated over the last two decades, along with the financial situation of the country, they still believe the fake data vomited on a daily basis by the government and Wall Street banking cabal.

They are lying about the inflation rate being 7%. It is more than double the government reported figure, based upon the calculation from 1980 when Volker needed to raise the Fed Funds Rate to 18%.

They are lying about the 3.7% unemployment rate. The total working age population is 265 million, up from 212 million in 2000. There are 158 million employed today, versus 137 million in 2000. The unemployment rate in 2000 of 4% is virtually the same as the rate reported today. How could that be if the working age population went up by 53 million, but employment only went up by 21 million? Quite a conundrum. It’s easy if you lie. According to the government 100 million working age Americans choose not to work, therefore they aren’t unemployed. That number was 70 million in 2000. Fully 40% of our working age citizens are not working today, but the government tells you our unemployment rate is 3.7%. This might be the biggest lie ever told.

The government has reported positive real GDP growth for most of the past two decades, with short-term dips in 2008/2009 and due to covid in 2020. Those figures are lies. Using a truthful inflation figure shows GDP has barely stayed flat for the last 20 years. The great American economy hasn’t grown in 20 years. We are a dying lying empire of debt. Our national debt grew from $5.7 trillion in 2000 to $31.5 trillion today. The debt to GDP ratio has gone from 55% in 2000 to 122% today. Throughout history, when this ratio exceeds 90%, economic disaster follows.

The biggest lie has been perpetrated by the Wall Street controlled Federal Reserve, whose mandates are a stable currency and low unemployment. With a straight face these jokers declare they have succeeded, while the USD has lost 97% of its purchasing power since the deceitful inception of the Federal Reserve in 1913, and the real unemployment rate is north of 20%. Losing the last 3% of purchasing power guarantees to be the most painful.

After documenting the outrageous multitude of lies being told by those controlling the levers of society, I’m torn regarding whether I trust enough people can be awakened from their self-induced stupor of belief in authority to mount a counter-offensive of truth. I guess I wouldn’t be writing articles about these subjects unless I thought there was a kernel of hope I could plant with my reasoning. But I find myself drawn more towards the conclusion reached by Alexandre Koyré over fifty years ago about mobs and the ease with which totalitarian authority figures can manipulate them:

“The mob believes everything it is told, provided only that it be repeated over and over. Provided too that its passions, hatreds, fears are catered to. Nor need one try to stay within the limits of plausibility: on the contrary, the grosser, the bigger, the cruder the lie, the more readily is it believed and followed. Nor is there any need to avoid contradictions: the mob never notices; needless to pretend to correlate what is said to some with what is said to others: each person or group believes only what he is told, not what anyone else is told; needless to strive for coherence: the mob has no memory; needless to pretend to any truth: the mob is radically incapable of perceiving it: the mob can never comprehend that its own interests are what is at stake.” ― Alexandre Koyré, Réflexions sur le mensonge

When the mob has been essentially hypnotized by totalitarian authority figures, unbound from the law through illegally invoking “emergency” powers to ensure the safety of the masses, it takes massive bloodshed and enormous upheaval before the mob will come to their senses and realize their dreadful misplacement of trust in tyrants. Personally, I hope I am wrong about what lies ahead, but I don’t see a pathway towards a peaceful, reasoned resolution of what plagues our country and the world.

Fools, knaves, and low IQ ideologues control the narrative, the political power, the media messaging, the banks, and the minds of the mob. We can attempt to distance ourselves from the onslaught, but there really is no way to escape the impact of a Fourth Turning, whether it be global conflict, civil chaos, financial Armageddon, or the wrath of the mob for being right about the vaccines, politicians, or the financial markets. I am not surprised or upset about the lies told to me by those running the show. Neitzsche and Carlin, two brilliant thinkers, pretty much sum up my feelings.

“I’m not upset that you lied to me, I’m upset that from now on I can’t believe you.” ― Friedrich Nietzsche

“My first rule:  I don’t believe anything the government tells me.  Nothing.  Zero.” – George Carlin

Very few people who need to awaken from their propaganda induced stupor of believing absurdities will read this article. Those who are already awake and can see what is happening clearly have few or no options to impact the course we are traveling. Too few see the iceberg dead ahead as the U.S. Titanic accelerates towards its rendezvous with destiny. We can shout and wave our hands, but there is nothing we can do to alter the course of an empire run by idiot ideologues, hellbent on the destruction of our ship of state. As Bradbury presciently noted in his masterpiece of societal self-immolation, I can’t make people listen to a message they don’t want to hear.

“But you can’t make people listen. They have to come round in their own time, wondering what happened and why the world blew up around them. It can’t last.” ― Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451

At this point I’m torn between the darkness of Orwell’s vision and the stoic attitude put forth by Tolkien. We are living in a time of universal deceit and telling the truth feels like a revolutionary act when the mob is under the spell of mass formation psychosis. It is an interesting dichotomy that this article will only be read by a small audience of people who already agree with most of my arguments. If it ever reached a wider audience, I would be attacked by the mob, censored, threatened, and doxed in an attempt to destroy my life. So be it.

I will do what I can do with my limited resources, protect my loved ones, strengthen relationships with like-minded hobbits, disconnect from this warped and deviant society as much as possible, distance myself from the government, prepare for an uncertain future, and try my best to navigate the perils ahead. We only have a limited time on this earth to make a difference. We each must decide what we do with the time given us. God help us.

“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo. “So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” ― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

“The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater.” ― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

*  *  *
It is Jim's sincere desire to provide readers of his site with the best unbiased information available, and a forum where it can be discussed openly, as our Founders intended. But it is not easy nor inexpensive to do so, especially when those who wish to prevent us from making the truth known, attack us without mercy on all fronts on a daily basis. Please consider contributing an amount commensurate to the value that you receive from this site and community, or even by becoming a sustaining supporter through periodic contributions.

To donate via Stripe, click here.

Tyler Durden Fri, 12/30/2022 - 16:25

Read More

Continue Reading

Government

‘Kevin Caved’: McCarthy Savaged Over Debt Ceiling Deal

‘Kevin Caved’: McCarthy Savaged Over Debt Ceiling Deal

Update (1345ET): The hits just keep coming for Speaker Kevin McCarthy, as angry Republicans…

Published

on

'Kevin Caved': McCarthy Savaged Over Debt Ceiling Deal

Update (1345ET): The hits just keep coming for Speaker Kevin McCarthy, as angry Republicans have been outright rejecting the debt ceiling deal which raises it by roughly $4 trillion for two years, doesn't provide sticking points sought by the GOP.

In short, Kevin caved according to his detractors.

Some Democrats aren't exactly pleased either.

"None of the things in the bill are Democratic priorities," Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT) told Fox News Sunday. "That's not a surprise, given that we're now in the minority. But the obvious point here, and the speaker didn't say this, the reason it may have some traction with some Democrats is that it's a very small bill."

*  *  *

After President Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) struck a Saturday night deal to raise the debt ceiling, several Republicans outright rejected it before it could even be codified into a bill.

Here's what's in it;

  • The deal raises the debt ceiling by roughly $4 trillion for two years, and is consistent with the structure of budget deals struck in 2015, 2018 and 2019 which simultaneously raised the debt limit.
  • According to a GOP one-pager on the deal, it includes a rollback of non-defense discretionary spending to FY2022 levels, while capping topline federal spending to 1% annual growth for six years.
  • After 2025 there are no budget caps, only "non-enforceable appropriations targets."
  • Defense spending would be in-line with what Biden requested in his 2024 budget proposal - roughly $900 billion.
  • The deal fully funds medical care for veterans, including the Toxic Exposure Fund through the bipartisan PACT Act.
  • The agreement increases the age for which food stamp recipients must seek work to be eligible, from 49 to 54, but also includes reforms to expand who is eligible.
  • Claws back "tens of billions" in unspent COVID-19 funds
  • Cuts IRS funding 'without nixing the full $80 billion' approved last year. According to the GOP, the deal will "nix the total FY23 staffing funding request for new IRS agents."
  • The deal includes energy permitting reform demanded by Republicans and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV)
  • No new taxes, according to McCarthy.

Here's McCarthy acting like it's not DOA:

Yet, Republicans who demanded deep cuts aren't having it.

"A $4 trillion debt ceiling increase?" tweeted Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-GA). "With virtually none of the key fiscally responsible policies passed in the Limit, Save, Grow Act kept intact?"

"Hard pass. Hold the line."

"Hold the line... No swamp deals," tweeted Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX)

"A $4 TRILLION debt ceiling increase?! That's what the Speaker's negotiators are going to bring back to us?" tweeted Rep. Dan Bishop (R-NC). "Moving the issue of unsustainable debt beyond the presidential election, even though 60% of Americans are with the GOP on it?"

Rep. Keith Self tweeted a letter from 34 fellow House GOP members who are committing to "#HoldTheLine for America" against the deal.

"Nothing like partying like it’s 1996. Good grief," tweeted Russ Vought, President of the Center for Renewing America and former Trump OMB director.

In short:

Tyler Durden Sun, 05/28/2023 - 11:30

Read More

Continue Reading

Government

“Hard Pass”: Here’s What’s In The Debt Ceiling Deal Republicans Are About To Nuke

"Hard Pass": Here’s What’s In The Debt Ceiling Deal Republicans Are About To Nuke

After President Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA)…

Published

on

"Hard Pass": Here's What's In The Debt Ceiling Deal Republicans Are About To Nuke

After President Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) struck a Saturday night deal to raise the debt ceiling, several Republicans outright rejected it before it could even be codified into a bill.

Here's what's in it;

  • The deal raises the debt ceiling by roughly $4 trillion for two years, and is consistent with the structure of budget deals struck in 2015, 2018 and 2019 which simultaneously raised the debt limit.
  • According to a GOP one-pager on the deal, it includes a rollback of non-defense discretionary spending to FY2022 levels, while capping topline federal spending to 1% annual growth for six years.
  • After 2025 there are no budget caps, only "non-enforceable appropriations targets."
  • Defense spending would be in-line with what Biden requested in his 2024 budget proposal - roughly $900 billion.
  • The deal fully funds medical care for veterans, including the Toxic Exposure Fund through the bipartisan PACT Act.
  • The agreement increases the age for which food stamp recipients must seek work to be eligible, from 49 to 54, but also includes reforms to expand who is eligible.
  • Claws back "tens of billions" in unspent COVID-19 funds
  • Cuts IRS funding 'without nixing the full $80 billion' approved last year. According to the GOP, the deal will "nix the total FY23 staffing funding request for new IRS agents."
  • The deal includes energy permitting reform demanded by Republicans and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV)
  • No new taxes, according to McCarthy.

Here's McCarthy acting like it's not DOA:

Yet, Republicans who demanded deep cuts aren't having it.

"A $4 trillion debt ceiling increase?" tweeted Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-GA). "With virtually none of the key fiscally responsible policies passed in the Limit, Save, Grow Act kept intact?"

"Hard pass. Hold the line."

"Hold the line... No swamp deals," tweeted Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX)

"A $4 TRILLION debt ceiling increase?! That's what the Speaker's negotiators are going to bring back to us?" tweeted Rep. Dan Bishop (R-NC). "Moving the issue of unsustainable debt beyond the presidential election, even though 60% of Americans are with the GOP on it?"

Rep. Keith Self tweeted a letter from 34 fellow House GOP members who are committing to "#HoldTheLine for America" against the deal.

"Nothing like partying like it’s 1996. Good grief," tweeted Russ Vought, President of the Center for Renewing America and former Trump OMB director.

In short:

Tyler Durden Sun, 05/28/2023 - 11:30

Read More

Continue Reading

Spread & Containment

In This “Age of Funemployment,” Is a Recession Possible?

For weekend reading, Gary Alexander, senior writer at Navellier & Associates, offers the following commentary: Come mothers and fathers throughout…

Published

on

For weekend reading, Gary Alexander, senior writer at Navellier & Associates, offers the following commentary:

Come mothers and fathers throughout the land

And don’t criticize what you can’t understand

Your sons and your daughters are beyond your command

Your old road is rapidly aging… For the times they are a-changing

– Bob Dylan, 1963

Bob Dylan turned 82 this week, and I guess he’s a little old fashioned now, too, since he recorded an album of Sinatra standards in 2015 (“Shadows in the Night”) and a Christmas carols album in 2009.

The times are changing in the employment market, too. Work has almost become a four-letter word…

Suzy Welch, 62, a Baby Boomer professor of management practice at NYU’s Stern School of Business and co-author with her late husband Jack of several best-selling business books, wrote a fascinating Op-Ed column in The Wall Street Journal last week (“For Gen Z, Unemployment Can Be a Blast, May 18, 2023).

She introduced her latest batch of “bright and shiny young MBA students” who spoke of their lazy, hazy plans after graduation: “I’ll work when I work. Until then, I’ll just do some funemployment.”

Ms. Welch said she “literally screamed in class” the first time she heard that word, shouting, “What, what, what? Are you literally saying ‘funemployment’ – like unemployment can be fun?”  The class then “burst into laughter.”

Yes, of course that’s what they meant, but they were trying to keep that word secret from the older generation of up-tight Baby Boom professors, since those draft-dodging, dope-smoking hippies of the Vietnam era had now become like their parents – and their students didn’t trust anyone over 30!

For those young ones who still want to work, the older employers must also watch their step, since the old hierarchical order at work is mostly dead, if not buried. In his new book, “Generation Why” (released this month), Dr. Karl Moore of Montreal’s McGill University speaks of the new workplace rules, which sound like no rules – a dangerous minefield for managers. In his introduction, Moore makes three points.

There are three basic changes from our (Boomer) management era:

(1) Transparency over secrecy: Young workers can discover all your faults, errors, and past mistakes by surfing the Internet, so transparency is king;

(2) Credentials no longer matter as much; an MBA is the old BA, but experience trumps degrees, so all that massive college debt may be wasted; and

(3) Introverts and quieter thinkers can now lead, not just those bombastic extroverts. By Moore’s measures, 30% to 35% of C-suite leaders are now introverts. *

*To clarify terms, “C-suite” refers to anyone with “Chief” in the title, like Chief Executive Officer, Chief Operating/Chief Financial, or Chief Managing Officer. Also, here are the generally accepted birth cohorts:

birth cohorts

Moore has a CEO Insights course at McGill for MBAs. He also takes 30 students each year to some of the fastest growing global economies to see how they do it. He calls it the “Hot Cities of the World Tour.”

They just returned from Ghana and Ivory Coast this March. In these 12-day tours, he also has a chance to dine and talk with these 30 students (Millennials and now Gen Z kids) to probe their views.

As cohorts in two colleges in Southern California in the 1970s, Moore and I emailed over this, and he told me these tours are promoted as “Taking the Future to the Future,” meaning future business leaders go to where the world is growing fastest. Some of his previous trips were to Israel, the UAE, India, and South Africa.

In his study of young workers for this book, Moore conducted over 800 interviews with under-35 workers (and shirkers) in Canada, the U.S., Japan, and all over Europe, as well as over 750 C-suite executives. Previous to his academic career, Moore also spent 11 years working in high tech firms, so he has the advantage of being a capitalist believer and doer, not just a business critic, as is so common in academia.

In the U.S., Moore writes, over one third of workers are Millennials (age 27-42), recently surpassing Gen X as the largest component of our workforce. Globally, there are 1.8 billion Millennials, about a quarter of the world, and 86% of Millennials come from developing economies, which may determine who rules the Century. Put bluntly, will the hardest workers of the world surpass our new funemployment cohort?

How Can We Have A Recession With So Many Job Openings?

A classic warning sign of a recession ahead is an inverted yield curve, which we have endured for nearly a year now without a recession. The yield curve inverted before the last four real recessions, in 1982, 1990, 2000, and 2008.

Even with the artificial 2020 recession, caused by a forced COVID-19 lockdown, the yield curve was neutral before that recession. Today, we have the most inverted yield curve since the double-dip recessions of 1979-82, yet we still stubbornly grow our GDP each quarter since mid-2022.

inverted yield curve

It’s hard (some say impossible) to have a recession with the unemployment rate at a record low, jobs continuing to expand at a solid pace, nearly 10 million jobs going begging and wages usually outpacing prices, resulting in real wage gains. Everywhere you look, you’re likely to see “HELP NEEDED” signs.

Jobs are opening even faster: The percentage of all U.S. business owners reporting job openings that they cannot fill rose by 2 points to 45% in April — maybe because “funemployment” is still widely preferable?

The labor force participation rate remained at 62.6% in April, below the pre-pandemic reading of 63.3% in February 2020, but that rate itself was historically low. It was over 64% from 1984 to 2012, peaking in 2001, when I argue (in recent columns) that we moved from a Growth economy to a Debt economy.

labor force participation rate

Funemployment Comes Home to Roost

To close on a personal note, I’ve worked every month since April 1962, age 16, first on a paper route by car, then as a night janitor to work my way through college. I commuted to work at a desk job for nearly 40 years before moving to my late parents’ home in the San Juan Islands of Washington State to work online as an editor. I tried to match the work ethic of my parents, who worked in the Great Depression.

This week marks the date when two of our five grown grandchildren arrive to live with us for the next few months, and maybe longer, as part of their funemployment option. It’s a grandparents’ dream come true, having these wonderful young ones around us – and a great help in our old age, a win-win situation.

One says, “I don’t want to sit in an office from 9 to 5 each day.” I responded, “Neither did I, nor probably 90% of those who did it, but we felt we had to.” These kids already have online and “gig” jobs, not office jobs.

I know I’m old-fashioned about work, but (with Karl Moore) I’m learning from the youth, and I know that both of these two fine youngsters will find fulfilling jobs and careers after living with us, with the caveat that retail jobs, construction, and even janitor work aren’t careers, but training ground for showing up on time, respecting rules, learning manners, and serving customer needs. They’ll find their best work.

It’s a brave new world for old fogies. But it’s comforting to know these kids will soon be old fogies, too.

Read More

Continue Reading

Trending