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Do you follow the science? Do you have an aversion to the scolds who routinely declare code reds for humanity? Perhaps you’re being driven to despair. But we at Ricochet hope to see you flourish, we want to see you b(j)orn again! Our guest this week is the absorbingly optimistic Bjørn Lomborg, exactly the man to set us straight on the U.N. climate report and the cataclysmic media circus that’s followed. The fellas also get into infrastructure – whatever that means – and the attendant endemic of thoughtless dishonesty. Also, Rob got a smidgeon of hope from some youngsters recently and Peter needs some recommendations for a good binge-worthy TV series: help him out in the comments!
Music from this week’s show: O-o-h Child by The Five Stairsteps
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By “you” I hope you mean Rob, because I agree with you.
I am not going to get into a big argument about this.
Anybody with a brain recognizes that consumption taxation is superior to income taxation. They start central planning with the tax code and then everything goes south after that. It’s as stupid as the Soviet GOSPLAN. No value added. Zero.
You can leave the environmental stuff out of it, fossil fuel is a good target for a consumption tax because it’s a finite resource. Obviously there are other finite resources, but there is nothing that an economy wants more because of the output it creates.
https://www.mcall.com/opinion/mc-xpm-2011-05-24-mc-barrel-oil-explainit-20110524-story.html
The ignorance and lack of sensitivity about this from the left is sickening.
Apologies. I misunderstood you. I thought I heard you making Rob’s argument: Namely, that Wokeness is a trendy ideology being cynically exploited by young careerists, rather than a rapidly metastasizing religion. (I have no doubt the former scenario happens, by the way — on occasion — just as I have no doubt the vast majority of Woke zealots are true believers. Which makes it that much scarier).
Again: Sorry for the mistake.
Two more
Ted Lasso
The Chosen
I don’t have a head for this stuff, but I have been hearing a lot of pretty good discussion that this vaccine is no better than what you would expect from giving everybody a therapeutic. If you did it with a therapeutic, everybody would end up with natural immunity which is proven superior for COVID-19.
It’s like there are three categories of vaccines. Childhood vaccines and the flu shot, which society seems pretty satisfied with. The COVID-19 shot is not in the category of efficacy of the other two.
If anybody wants to add or subtract to that, go ahead.
Rob is an Episcopalian. Why would he know about religious faith?
Good news, but why should we think that voting will fix it. They’ll not allow honest voting. The rest of the world has to fix it, but they also have to deal with China. Optimism is good and should be spread, but we have to have some radical thrust to get rid of these fools or our country, as we knew it, comes to an end..
The Other Place. (Only two seasons)
This guy is always good and original. It’s on all podcast platforms. No visuals.
Robert Malone, an inventor of the. mRNA technology used in Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, has a great interview on John Solomon’s Aug 9 podcast that says pretty much what you just said. Looks like you do have a head for this stuff.
I think Rob is right about boys being “less woke” than girls. At least I see this in discussions with students, though I don’t lead any of them to any ideology at all. (Since I don’t, they often have more open conversations.) I don’t know the reason for the sex connection, but his anecdote sounds spot on to me. I’m glad his goddaughter was done with masks, too, though mask mandates are quickly sweeping through schools again, including in red states. I totally just don’t get it. I would home school at this point whatever that did to my budget.
They are panicking about the efficacy and the public’s reaction. Statists suck.
The conclusion I reached over the whole “Infrastructure Bill” thing is either that 1) There are a group of GOP(e?) politicians that are NOT working for conservative/right/Am1st principles but are rather working for the uniparty/citadel and just passed this behemoth because… they really want to. They (in some way) benefit from this. OR 2) There is an unspoken back-room Senator gentlemen’s agreement that if they got together to pass THIS bill, then the upcoming budget reconciliation $5 trillion whatever bill will be scuttled and left in ruins (picture McCain’s “thumbs down” moment on the “Repeal of Obamacare” bill) by certain Dems.
I can only understand one or the other of these. The only other options are that the GOP is really dumb, and I just don’t believe that. If the reconciliation bill is routed, we might never know officially, but I guess that would be why. But if a budget reconciliation bill does pass – then what did they just do? It becomes option 1 again.
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On the Covid discussion: No one will say that there is no way to stop the virus because, 1) Modern day pols cannot say anything they do is wrong, 2) It would be an admission that the last Administration really didn’t botch anything – we were all going to get it, 3) and I cannot stress how important this one is, b/c it is the ONLY reason this administration is in power right now, is that Covid will be used to turn over/modify/eliminate voter integrity laws in time to flood the zone with outside money (like last time), mail-in ballot (last time), ballot harvesting (ibid), and litany of other skeezy maneuvers that were able to win them this election.
They know that the parties bases are shifting, demographics is not turning out to be destiny, the Dem party is about to shift hard left and the country is not. They are likely to lose big next year and lose the WH after that – possibly for a number of elections – Covid is the ONLY WAY they can keep Orange Man Bad and Cheat – I mean, “fortify” the election.
Word
We’ve known since Reagan for sure, and likely for long before that, that you can’t trust the Dims to keep an agreement if they get what they wanted/needed, first.
It’s too late to control spending with political will. They are going to force up GDP + inflation in any ratio, it doesn’t matter, so they can deflate the debt and meet every obligation while they re-distribute because they’ve screwed up the economy so much.
The Fed is combined with the treasury just like a banana republic and the ruling class is going to do it this way because the alternative is unthinkable.
I will move Scott & Bailey up on my list per your recommendation. Thanks.
Exactly why the stock market is still up, as well as real estate; all those trillions need to go somewhere. Without this continual spending, the economy goes…
But once they’ve “bought” everything, where does the money go then?
People have no idea. They have to force a wage-price spiral and then re-distribute some of it. I just heard some really compelling stuff from a guy that works at the Bridgewater hedge fund.
The Fed just keeps buying bonds or whatever it takes until inflation gets out of control. That is the only thing that is going to stop them because that’s when interest rates will break the government. That’s why I say they think about the combination of GDP + inflation.
Last I heard, bond rates only need to go up a pretty small amount, before the entire federal budget ends up paying interest on the debt. Seems like that could happen by the end of this year, even. Unless you mean the Fed will just sell the bonds to itself, or something. But that doesn’t seem sustainable for very long either.
Less than six months ago I heard that two percentage points increase on the five year treasury breaks the whole West. In the meantime nobody is supposed to get any real return on short term money and savings accounts. This is no way to run a civilization.
The treasury issues the bonds and then the Fed or the private sector buys them. I think the Fed already owns 50% of all of the issuance of all time. Global central banks are net sellers right now.
Then there is a bunch of complicated crap about reverse repos and banks and so forth. Supposedly it’s just an Enron situation to fund the government and get around capital requirements at banks.
@peterrobinson – I highly recommend Burn Notice. A nice blend of comedy, action, and intelligent plots. If you want get a feeling for spy tradecraft, this is a good show. It’s also one of the best blends of episodic and binge content out there. For almost every episode, the A plot is about helping some client, and wrapped up in the show. The B plot connects with a season-long plot thread, so it is definitely bingeable.
Nuclear power is probably the safest and cleanest form of power generation alongside hydroelectric. They are also much less sensitive to price fluctuations.
Gas turbines are clean and generally efficient, but they are very price dependent, and they have pretty severe nitrogen oxide emissions like most high-temperature, high efficiency combustion engines.
Personally, I think we should use green activists as disposable labor.
Or since they’re already Green, only one word needs to be added: Soylent.
If only. We are talking about an entire generation of Americans — both girls and boys (sorry Lois; sorry Rob) — that is not flat-out rejecting such Woke ideas as “America is a systemically racist country” and “Racism informs all walks of life and institutions” and “Colorblindness is no longer something we should strive for. Even though our parents and grandparents believed that it was — that was back in the ‘70s, ‘80’s, and ‘90s — and now we know better! We’re so much more enlightened now.”
New Tricks: After she shoots a dog during a drug raid (shooting a drug dealer would have been OK) a tough Scotland yard inspector is sent to Siberia; that is, a Cold Case unit staffed entirely by eccentric retired cops. This lasted 12 seasons.
The Inspector Lynley Mysteries: The aristocratic Lynley is paired with a defiantly lower class policewoman, because higher-ups hope she will punch him in the nose so they can finally fire her.