The Real Question

Those who pay attention likely noticed that Batshit J. Moron and his henchmen are pushing a faux Christianity down our collective throats. MMM!!! Tastes so good!!!

Today's news brings yet another example.

In the first place, of course, is the Christ was the junior partner in the trio. Hardly a King. Moreover: since God is said to be omnipotent, how is it that only one (or may be a couple) religion to Them "knows" about all the folderol that the Judeo-Christian tradtion imbibes??? Why would They permit 10,000 religions to persist, with different, even antithetical, belief systems? Why appoint only the Judeo-Christians to the ultimate throne?? Seems kind of fascist; the Christ Is King bunch don't want the Jews, of course. The whole Rapture thingee is all about getting all the Jews in one place to blow them up, and the Christians go to Heaven. Not very Godly. Ya think?

God, of course, didn't do it. Humans did. Each clan made the God, or Gods, that served the purpose.

By my estimate 99.44% of the worst wars in all of human history (at least since we've been literate and have had something like countries, anyway), have been driven by religious zealots. Can we have a Crusade? How about one with kids. Batshit J. Moron (and Bibi) have taken us into one today. And he's not very Godly, to say the least.

Truth be told, and I'm going to, humans since ancient times, especially far enough back when one clan knew nothing about the other clans on the other side of the planet (Hell's bells, even a few hundred miles away) invented a religion which suited each and every tribe; in isolation. Hell's bells, they didn't even know Mother Earth was a planet!! In other words, the truth is humans, of every distinct type, invented their God(s) in their image. Not the other way round. The Trio is not different from the pantheons of Greece and Rome. The Judeo-Christian God served the purpose of the Powers That Be at the time of Her invention by The Powers That Be. Happens like that every time and every place throughout history.

Pandora

If anyone thinks that this report is telling the truth, I'll sell you a bridge. Damn Gummints will never, ever leverage the power of Mythos (nor any other weapons grade software), for the Good of The People. They will use it to subjugate the people, just as they always have with any such weapon or law.

Among U.S. rivals, the response has been more muted. Despite Anthropic's recent clash with the Trump administration, Mr. Amodei has made clear that A.I. should be used to defend the United States and other democracies and defeat autocratic adversaries.

If you believe that Hate filled, Petty, Paranoid, Demented, Dictator Don will NOT use such a weapon against his "enemies", which amount to anyone not MAGAnaut, your an idiot.

What might we expect? For one thing, and likely the first: all code going forward will be closed, and likely by law. We know that the 'data centers' have hoovered up most everything on the innterTubes, which includes open source code.

Smile, your on Candid Computer!! We are watching you.

Le Grande Conspiracy

The NSA has been mentioned a few times in the course of these missives, esp. since the 2016 stolen election. Here's a missive. Now, NSA has reared its head again. But not quite in the way I'd like.

Now, we have the Grand Conspiracy to endure. The fact remains: NSA hoovers up every signal on the planet 24/7, and has the receipts on The Trump/Putin Affair. We need another Snowden.

Can you say Putin, Jr.?

Thought For The Day - 12 April 2026

The sub-headline reads "All six board members that oversee the national historic landmark were terminated, part of the administration's efforts to reshape the federal bureaucracy."

Which, of course, is not quite accurate. Bone Spur Samurai^© is wielding Jacksonian dictatorial authority over [quasi]-independent organizations, which don't have Civil Service protections. The purpose, of course, is return the United States of Alabama to the thrilling days of yesteryear, when the whole Damn Gummint was run on the spoils system. Garfield paid with his life, and Congress finally figured out that a developed country can't be run that way. And, I shan't attempt to find a link, one of the MAGA affiliates recently opined that the Founding Fathers had no intent to create a Full Democracy. For those who think that, there remain (notably in New England where I reside) towns that are governed by a town meeting; everybody shows up and votes. If you don't show and don't vote, you can't bitch.

And, surprise surprise, Orban admits defeat. I expected a Putinesque landslide. We'll see if he really leaves. And leaves well enough alone. A true dictator sure wouldn't.

Data or Events?

When I started grad school, the econ profession was in a bit of turmoil. Samuelson and Solow and the gaggle of 'quants' were everywhere. And the event and history brigade was very much in retreat. As any grad student in any field in any school at any time, each will be caught in the internecine battle between the two (sometimes more) cabals fighting for control of the department. And grad students, being essential to profs need to not actually teach, are coveted. I was caught between the history cabal and the quant. I left with a Masters as soons as practicable.

While I've spent my life in the data vicinity, simple observation makes it clear that seeing how the world will be tomorrow is 99.44% determined by events from today and some bit of time before. And, no real surprise, it helps to study the results from similar, or even identical, events from the past. History rhymes. Some times even repeats.

People in power make the decisions based on what events and decisions benefit them. High speed trading and macroeconomic models never understand events. And, even without grifters putting a foot on the scales, macro data is nearly always tender samples, and thus fuzzy. Pick any sector, and watch the market for those companies. What really moves the market cap is news, good and bad. Makes insider trading so alluring.

Which brings us to a new report from an economic historian. Fact is, I didn't think there were any left. He, of course, is at Harvard.

The report presents the results of events on the world economy around WWI. It ain't pretty. He draws inference to Batshit J. Moron's Iran war. While acknowledging the difference in scale, he offers up evidence of events which parallel WWI. WWI because it was the seed of global interdependence that we live in now.

The lessons from history are sobering: In an interdependent global economy, the shock of the outbreak of war can produce long-term instabilities overnight, many of which become apparent only over time.

Well, boy howdy, as Dr. McElhone used to say. May be our Dear Leader and his band of dick suckers don't know much.

Now, there are fertilizer shortages at the beginning of the spring planting season for foods including rice, which means that we may eventually see reduced crop yields and higher prices. As the experience of the Covid pandemic made clear, supply chain disruptions like these can produce inflationary surges with long tails, which, before they abate, can have damaging secondary effects, from higher mortgage rates to fiscal crises to political unrest.

The title on the innterTubes version of his report

I Studied the Economic Fallout From World War I. This Could Be Worse Than We Expect.

Have a nice day.

Thought For The Day - 7 April 2026

11:00 AM eastern

And, I guess, some of you thought I was exaggerating. Well... no.
"A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again."

Will the supine GOP grow some balls and a spine and 25^th this lunatic before he and Bibi destroy the world? Not a peep from them as I type.

Thought For The Day - 6 April 2026

Well... I guess it comes down to this:

1 - Batshit J. Moron remains the TACO man
or 
2 - Batshit J. Moron gives the Rapture cult and Bibi what they want -
    blow up the world

Consider how the world will be if Batshit J. Moron does bomb Iran back to the stone ages. He will have pulled off what Goldfinger couldn't - destroy a considerable amount of the world's petro reserves. But, as previously demonstrated, crude is not really fungible just because each type requires a refinery constructed for that feedstock. The United States of Alabame can't use Irani oil. Oh... and that means invading and killing about 90 million Iranis. Won't that be fun? Pete would love that.

The cocksucking GOP really needs to accept that their Dear Leader really is a lunatic and needs be 25^th'd out of the way. JD might not be so crazy. One hopes.