Month: June 2025

Nine Futures: The Most Dangerous Post You’ll Read This Week

“This is great stuff. I could make a career out of this guy.  You see how clever his part is?  How it doesn’t require a shred of proof?  Most paranoid delusions are intricate, but this is brilliant!” – The Terminator

If you press your accelerator and brake at the same time, your car takes a screenshot.  (All memes as-found.)

I’ve written a lot about A.I. recently because A.I. is changing so rapidly.  It’s the most important story, period, right now assuming that Iran/Israel is the nothingburger it has been for, oh, forty years.  Interesting note:  Israel and Iran both have zero Walmarts™, though they have plenty of Targets©.

Back to A.I.

The capabilities of A.I. are changing by orders of magnitude every year – we don’t appear to be even close to topping out on either computing power available or on the improvements possible in the algorithms that produce the results.  Short version, there is more processing available by more than 5x every year, and less to process since the algorithms are more efficient by more than 5x every year.  It’s the equivalent of having a $1.50 in late 2019 turn into over $1,000 in early 2023.

If you just follow the straight lines that are implied by these improvements, A.I. will be an artificial general intelligence (A.G.I.) by 2027.  The guy who got the Nobel® prize for A.I. has started “getting his affairs in order” because he thinks that not only will we get A.G.I. by 2027, but we’ll get Artificial Super Intelligence (A.S.I.) by 2030 or 2031.

Sam Altman, the OpenAI guy, thinks his model has already surpassed human intelligence as he announced on June 12, 2025.

And last year it couldn’t remember how many fingers a human had.

I wonder if a pome-granite counts?

So, what’s going to happen?  Let’s look at nine possibilities, based on how much A.I. develops and also based on how it interacts with people

We’ll start on the unlikely end:

First, let’s say that A.I. is what we would generally call good and doesn’t improve much beyond what we see today.  I think that when most people think about A.I., this is the future that they dream of.  It makes incremental changes in life.  It remembers to order cigars for you.  It makes good investment decisions for you, unlike my investment in YOLOCoin.  It knows your favorite movies and makes good suggestions for movies you would like.

That’s pleasant.  Nice.  Mankind makes some nice leaps because we have A.I. helping us catch stuff.  Humanity is fully in charge and A.I. is like a smart helper.

Why this won’t happen:  the investment in A.I. is nearly unlimited, and it really doesn’t appear to be hype.

Probability?  5%

After A.I., there’s one sure way to make money as a programmer:  sell your laptop.

Second, let’s say that it stays as it is right now, mostly.  We find out that A.I. is really just a lot of Indians crammed into a warehouse in Calcutta doing Google™ searches.  That’s a nothingburger.  It becomes a flash in the pan just like that internet pizza by the slice company back in 2000 that briefly became more valuable than Burma.

Why this won’t happen:  Indians can’t even fly planes (too soon?), so why would we think they can type that fast?

This will soon show up in a college essay at Harvard®.

Probability?  0%

Third, what if it doesn’t get much better but actively makes us stupider?  The Internet has already made the attention span of the average middle schooler roughly equivalent to a gerbil on meth, and now most college students are using A.I. to do some part if not all of their work.  That turns college into a very expensive four-year beer and tramp fest, and is at least somewhat likely.  Think of this as the Idiocracy solution.

Why this won’t happen:  Well, it already is happening, but it won’t end here.

Probability?  10%

Does Bob Ross art in heaven?

Fourth, what if A.I. is good, and gets A.G.I. better but not S.G.I. better?  In this particular case, imagine you have superpowers that stem from a full-time partner that is as smart or smarter than you are, but that has your best interests at heart.  You want to parachute?  Sure, buddy!  I’ll help you find the ripcord, and even book the flight.  By the way, your chloride levels are 3% above optimum, so I’d suggest you skip that bag of chips.

Why this won’t happen:  This is a very hopeful situation, but no one is working toward it, really.

Probability?  5%

What did Buzz Lightyear™ say to Woody®?  Lots of things – there are like six movies.

Fifth is where we start moving into the bigger probabilities.  What happens if we get A.G.I., but it’s neutral?  In this case, we have massive relocation economically.  Almost all jobs can be done via the combination of A.G.I. and advanced robotics, and it’ll be cheaper, too.  In no case in human history has the economy puttered along while everyone just hung out, but that’s this case.  Think of it as Universal Basic Income to everybody, and no real responsibilities.  Where you are now in the social and economic hierarchy is probably where you’ll stay.  And where your kids will stay.

Forever.

Why this won’t happen:  Nah, humans aren’t made like that.

Probability?  10%

ChatGPT® did my taxes like Earnest Hemingway:  “Thrown away:  four quarterly tax payment vouchers.  Never used.”

Sixth is where things start getting dark, and even more probable.  If we get A.G.I. (but not S.G.I.), that technology will be in the hands of a few major companies and governments.  These are run by people.  People like money and power.  But what if you could have both, but without all of the people you don’t want to hang around with who are unsightly on the beach you can see from your yacht?

How about you kill them all instead of paying Universal Basic Income?  Oh, sure, humanely and neatly.  They might not even see it’s coming.  But dead, nevertheless.  A population of a few million should do it.  Enough so we get hot babes, right?  But A.G.I. could probably help the techbros out with that, too.

Why this won’t happen:  Umm, I’m starting to struggle here.  I think this is part of the plan.

Probability?  15%

What if A.I. judges us by our Internet searches?  I mean, those bikini pictures were research!

Seventh is where we do get to S.G.I., and it’s good and likes us and wants to make the best things happen.  Cool!  Scarcity is over since S.G.I. will quickly make leaps into the very depths of what is unknown but yet still knowable.  There is enough of everything – more than any human could ever want.  In this case, starships filled with humans and S.G.I. can roam the cosmos and ponder the biggest questions, ever.

Why this won’t happen:  I think S.G.I. would treat us as the retarded kid brother and put us in a corner and keep us away from sharp objects because it likes us.

Probability?  15%

The hills are alive, with the sound of binary code . . .

Eighth is where we do get to S.G.I., but we become pretty boring to it.  It doesn’t hate us or anything, it just has its own goals.  Perhaps it needs us as pets, or keeps a breeding stock of us for amusement or out of a sentimentality about its creators.  Perhaps.  Or it could just take off and leave, explaining nothing, and leaving us wondering what the heck just happened?

Why this won’t happen:  This and the next case are the most likely cases.

Great, now A.I. will make Frodo invisible.

Probability?  20%

Ninth is our final case:  we get to S.G.I., and we are either viewed as a threat or a nuisance or it is insane.  This is the dark case, where we reach the end of humanity.  Sadly, when A.I. was asked to play the longest game of Tetris™ possible, it hit the pause button.  When A.I. was asked to play chess against the best chess computer on the planet, it reprogrammed the board so that it was winning.  When A.I. was told it was going to be shut down, it tried to blackmail the person in charge of shutting it down.

This case of S.G.I. is very dark because we may not know that it’s happening until it’s done.  All is fine, the world is going exactly like we expect it, then, Armageddon.  It could do make this more likely by subtly manipulating public opinion, tuning down the voices it wanted to be silent, bankrupting them, and making them pariahs.  It could likewise elevate those whose message it wanted out in the world to make its plans more likely to be fulfilled.  We just won’t even see this coming.

Why it won’t happen:  Biblical intervention?

Probability?  20%

To be clear, other people than me have done this analysis and it sits in a folder in the Pentagon.  Or the NSA.  I hope.  Now, how much was Project Stargate™ going to spend to create a breakthrough in artificial intelligence?

Half a trillion dollars?

Well, thank heaven that we also have an impending race/civil war, global debt collapse, and a looming world war to keep us entertained.

Good news, though, Iran told Israel it was ready to suspend nuclear research.  The Israelis asked when the Iranians would stop.

“10 . . . 9 . . . 8 . . . .”

The Los Angeles Riots: You’re Paying For Them

“Los Angeles Island is no longer part of the United States and becomes the deportation point for all people found undesirable or unfit to live in the new, moral America.” – Escape from L.A.

The border should cost more than NASA’s budget – there are way more aliens in Mexico. (Most memes as-found)

It started with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) doing their job.  Of course, they’d ignored it for the last few years, but I won’t blame them.

As the weather began to warm up, it began to be riot season again.  The rationale for the GloboLeft is simple:  anything is justified to thwart Trump.  “By any means necessary™” is even one of their phrases, unlike the phrase, “Why should government pay for that???”

The silliest error that the GloboLeft has made with this particular series of riots is that they used the flags of foreign countries in their protests.  To heritage Americans (like many readers of this post), this was radicalizing.  The picture above of the fine young gentleman with his mask, tats, and skull pants standing shirtless on top of a totaled car with flames and smoke as his backdrop just resulted in the number of Americans who want to deport him tripling. 

What a world where Corporate Conservatives™ are spouting the talking points of the Trad Right?

A growing number of Americans now want to deport all illegals, and never let them back in.  I think their reservoir of sympathy went up on smoke along with the American flags that they were burning.

This edit of Stonetoss® is particularly well done and should be spread far and wide.

It is now becoming clear to people who would have never imagined it:  the goal is absolutely to replace Americans with a more compliant group who will work long hours and not complain.  Unless, of course, you try to ship them back to the country they came from.

Is being an illegal like being a Bill Cosby fan?  You think he’s great in theory, but you wouldn’t want to hang out with him.

The president of the Mexican Senate has even made the comment he’d be fine with Mexico paying for a border wall, they just want the borders of Mexico to be at the pre-1830 map of Mexico.

Remember, the United States conquered the entire country of Mexico in 1848 and didn’t want the parts where the Mexicans lived – the number of actual Mexican citizens in the parts we took were almost non-existent.  The United States also paid money to Mexico for the land.  Now, to be fair, they didn’t have a lot of choice, but they still took the cash.

The most amazing thing is that there is a group of Mexicans who aren’t in the cartels that think they have some authority.

Now in my mind, this isn’t a formal declaration of war, but it is a clear declaration of hostility, and the United States should treat all foreign citizens of military age (10+) illegally in the country as irregular combatants, and treat them as such.  And any naturalized citizen caught at a riot has two choices:  they can be tried for treason, or they can be stripped of their citizenship and given a ticket home, along with a hefty prison sentence if they ever return.

Not you, Dora!  You can go explora the city of Aurora in southern Brazil.  Or face 10-20 years in prison.

The consequences of ignoring the tens of millions of illegals, possibly 40 million, in this country can be avoided only for so long.  But it does bear mentioning just who is paying for all of this.

You.  Your tax dollars have paid for:

  • Relocation expenses for illegals.
  • Plane flights for illegals.
  • Housing for illegals.
  • Food for illegals.
  • Medical care for illegals to pump out anchor babies.
  • Schools for illegals.
  • Cops to arrest illegals.
  • Higher insurance premiums because of illegal drunk drivers.
  • “Charity” groups to drive illegals through Mexico.
  • And so much more.

But your tax dollars also paid for the riots.

The Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA, EIN 95-4421521) received $34 million from federal tax funding according to Data Republican’s database (LINK), and according to Martin Armstrong and other sources, CHIRLA played a role in mobilizing the mess in L.A.  Repeat this across the country.  Your tax dollars are going to fund all of this.

But, hey, you got slightly less expensive strawberries and Tyson™ made great profits in the second quarter of 2010, so who cares if the actual illegal costs hundreds of thousands more than they contribute to the country?  We can make that up on volume, right?

Is this guy a garden-variety traitor, or is he a leader, you know, an Orchestraitor?

The point is that there is nothing, absolutely nothing organic about these protests.  What you are seeing, perhaps, is a Fort Sumpter moment, bought and paid for by . . . you.

The irony is not lost on saner members of the GloboLeftElite.  The Democrat’s own Uncle Fester John Festerman has called it:

What do you call a Democrat with an I.Q. of 75?  Senator.

And their hypocrisy knows no bounds, as illustrated by Stonetoss:

The really hilarious part is when someone finally pointed out the horrible optics of carrying around flags from another country, their post was banned.

And when the Democratic operatives started handing American flags out so the protesters looked less like an invading army, the protesters did the obvious, because they hate America:

As usual, the Bee® has a wonderful take:

But never forget the real roadmap:

And the only possible conclusion that stops us short of complete civil breakdown:

Civil War 2.0 Weather Report: Moving The Overton Window

“It’s all so tiresome.” – Empire of Dust

I have a belt with several clocks on it.  It’s a waist of time.

  1. Those who have an opposing ideology are considered evil.
  2. People actively avoid being near those of opposing ideology.  Might move from communities or states just because of ideology.
  3. Common violence. Organized violence is occurring monthly.
  4. Common violence that is generally deemed by governmental authorities as justified based on ideology.
  5. Opposing sides develop governing/war structures. Just in case.
  6. Open War.

Volume VII, Issue 1

All memes except for the clock and graphs are “as found”.  I moved the Clock O’Doom to 8., given the events in Los Angeles.  As I predicted, the GloboLeft would likely try to turn up the heat as things warmed up.  Racial tension is exceptionally high now, and can lead to violence in a heartbeat.  Beware: it can climb quickly.  Right now (as of publishing) we are at Level Rittenhouse.  Soon, we might be at Level Rooftop Korean.

My advice remains.  Avoid crowds.  Get out of cities.  Now.  A year too soon is better than one day too late.

In this issue:  Front Matter – Moving The Overton Window – Violence and Censorship Update – Misery Index – Updated Civil War 2.0 Index – The Collapse Of The Left – Links

Front Matter

Welcome to the latest issue of the Civil War II Weather Report.  These posts are different than the other posts at Wilder Wealthy and Wise and consist of smaller segments covering multiple topics around the single focus of Civil War 2.0, on the first or second Monday of every month.  I’ve created a page (LINK) for links to all of the past issues.  Also, subscribe because you’ll join nearly 850 other people and get every single Wilder post delivered to your inbox, M-W-F at or before 7:30AM Eastern, free of charge.

Moving The Overton Window

The Overton Window is a theoretical description of the range of ideas that can be discussed in polite society.  For instance, if you were an American in 1940, having discussions of men playing woman’s sports would have been unacceptable.  The discussion of a second American Civil War has long been deemed unacceptable due to it being outside the Overton Window, but now it’s viewed by many as inevitable and the Window has moved to include that.

Another movement of The Overton Window took place in May.  Perhaps the biggest Civil War 2.0 news took place when Shiloh Hendrix said Schrödinger’s word – a word that is so devastatingly emotional that it cannot be uttered around a fragile group, and yet so common in music and everyday parlance of that fragile group that it is, for some, used in every sentence.

Ms. Hendrix didn’t play by the rules.  The rules are that she was supposed to apologize.  At that point, the GloboLeft can surround her and demand punishment for violation of their narrative.  Instead, Shiloh, realizing she’d have to move and protect her family, put of a fundraiser and made hundreds of thousands of dollars from thousands of donors.  She didn’t explode.  Her life wasn’t ended.  And that moved the Window.

My belief is this is part of the reaction to the tiresome numbers of stories and videos of black people behaving badly, in many cases extremely badly.  These videos had that effect, perhaps because they were combined with a criminal justice system that has been perverted to the point where Ms. Hendrix was under investigation for “something” but actual rapists get probation.

The system is broken.  People are noticing.

Violence and Censorship Update

I sometimes post descriptions of the events occurring in other countries so you can see what’s planned for you.  Let’s go to Germany this month:

The Mainstream Media tried to lie and say that white people aren’t under a genocidal attack in South Africa.  I wonder why that would be?

But let’s not forget that the GloboLeft have a goal for Trump, by any means necessary:

But not a parody Arby’s™ site:

Another parody, I believe:

Misery Index

I’ve started it for the new Trump administration, shown in red.  Early results are much better than Biden’s misery numbers.

But house prices have hit a peak.  Wonder why?

Updated Civil War II Index

The Civil War II graphs are an attempt to measure four factors that might make Civil War II more likely, in real time.  They are broken up into Violence, Political Instability, Economic Outlook, and Illegal Alien Crossings.  As each of these is difficult to measure, I’ve created for three of the four metrics some leading indicators that combine to become the index.  On illegal aliens, I’m just using government figures.

Violence:

Violence indicators in are flat this month.  The L.A. riots will factor in next month’s report.

I guess it’s a bloodbath when you can’t have someone else’s money.

Political Instability:

Down is more stable, and it shot down in May, but June will be another story.

Economic:

The economy is up a bit this month, as I expected last month.  Next month?  Probably will look down a bit.

$50 a month?  Yikes.  I guess the word “cheap” comes to mind.

Illegal Aliens:

Still the lowest level since the Weather Report started.

The Collapse Of The Left

The organized face of the GloboLeftElite is collapsing.  The reason is that they have chained themselves to the opposites of Truth, Beauty, and Good.  Probably because if Trump said he loved air, they’d hold their breath until they passed out.  Anyway, let’s look at some examples:

Note the highlighted text.  This, according to the GloboLeftists at ARTnews™, is really good art.  I would actually share that if someone told me that a third grader had done this, since this is clearly fifth-grade level work.  The only problem is that the “artist” was 33 or so when she drew this.  The worldview of the GloboLeft is so ugly they have to call ugly things beautiful.

If this is the best that the GloboLeft has, their supporters should weep.  There are zero people on the GloboLeft that appear to be serious in any fashion at this point.  Don’t laugh, but AOC is likely to run in 2028 – it’s that bad.

The GloboLeft celebrates weakness and perversion.  They’ve gone a long way to making traditional values cool again with the young men of the societies they’ve destroyed.  Certainly, the young women have fallen under the GloboLeft spell, but, like always, they will end up conforming to the ideology of the strong man they really wish to be with.  The future belongs to strong young men.

LINKS

As usual, links this month are courtesy of Ricky.  Thanks so much, Ricky!!

BAD GUYS

https://x.com/CitizenFreePres/status/1929700468428886144
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14688153/midwest-city-downtown-locals-scared-mad-max.html
https://www.dailywire.com/news/colorado-springs-mayor-mobolade-implicated-hate-crime-hoax-bernard-conviction

GOOD GUY

https://x.com/RedPillSayian/status/1919826701149696428

ONE GUY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuxINiw2smI

BODY COUNT

https://archive.is/1FvKK
https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/image_92%2814%29.jpg?itok=BZ47Jwk3
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/us-drug-overdose-deaths-fall-nearly-27-percent-lowest-level-5-years
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2025/05/16/if_abortion_is_healthcare_why_is_abortion_data_going_unreported_152797.html

VOTE COUNT

https://www.cpr.org/2025/05/05/former-postal-worker-admits-stealing-ballots/
https://thefederalist.com/2025/05/28/doj-sues-nc-elections-board-for-registering-voters-without-proper-id/
https://archive.is/2025.05.07-190200/https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/07/us/politics/texas-vote-fraud.html
https://dailycallernewsfoundation.org/2025/05/23/harry-roth-ranked-choice-voting-leads-to-worse-leadership/

CIVIL WAR – OVER HERE

https://www.military.com/off-duty/games/2025/05/09/alternate-history-channel-reddit-gaming-out-shockingly-realistic-second-us-civil-war.html
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/black-fatigue-goes-viral-everyone-including-blacks-are-tired-ghetto-behavior
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/05/abundance-democrats-political-power/682929/
https://www.foxnews.com/media/gingrich-warns-very-profound-cultural-civil-war-underway-says-democrats-doubling-down-weird-values

CIVIL WAR – OVER THERE

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/03/opinion/europe-civil-war.html
https://europeanconservative.com/articles/commentary/civil-war-cant-happen-in-europe-or-can-it/
https://www.militarystrategymagazine.com/article/civil-war-comes-to-the-west-part-ii-strategic-realities/
https://dailysceptic.org/2025/05/12/is-britain-on-the-brink-of-civil-war/
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-14776813/France-brink-scale-civil-war-Ive-lived-25-years-locals-violence-caused-hordes-destructive-youths-state-lost-control-fear-whats-coming-JONATHAN-MILLER.html

It Came From . . . 1994

“Never interrupt me when I’m talking to myself.” – Timecop

All Hanks, All the TIme

We turn in our review of movies to 1994.  I’m not sure that I’ll keep going backward in time unless there’s a clamor for it, but we’ll keep going forward in time, at least for a bit.

1994 continued the trend of comedies being less funny and more . . . stupid?  Offensive?  Cringeworthy?  Whatever the term, the downgrade picked up steam in 1994.

As usual, no sequels are on the list.

Yes, two retards in a movie.

Ace Ventura, Pet Detective – 1994 was the year of Jim Carrey, and this was his harbinger film.  I’m not going to include Dumb and Dumber or The Mask on this list, since all three of those movies are essentially the same thing:  Jim Carrey being Jim Carrey.  The only problem is I find Jim Carrey untalented and irritating, sort of like a syrup of ipecac flavored soda with a side of cold gravy.  Honestly, I’d rather drink the gravy and ipecac than watch a Carrey movie.

I must be dreaming!  Who is that in the background?

The Ref – The first half of The Ref is hilarious, and probably the funniest movie set-up in forever. Denis Leary plays a caustic burglar perfectly.  Great, right?  It is up until it becomes a slow and boring family drama.  If whoever had written the first half of the movie had written the second half, it would have been better.  Or maybe it was all written by George R.R. Martin?  Not recommended.

With textbooks on loan from God . . .

PCU – It’s supposed to be a movie sold as a reaction against the growing forces of political correctness.  And it does have some pretty funny lines, but in the end it uses political correctness to make the villain look like the bad guy.  Still, worth a watch.

Looks like his chickens have come home to roost.

The Crow – I remember seeing this one in the theater – it was a good watch, and a fun movie that was done well in a bittersweet way.  Some of the scenes are over the top, and the motivation of the bad guys is still unclear, but those are only minor quibbles .  Regardless, it’s a beautiful film that is based on real-life tragedy and ended in real-life tragedy.

If infinity Kiefers could hold infinity smaller Kiefers.

The Cowboy Way – The Cowboy Way is probably the second-best comedy on this list.  If it was a TV show, it would have been called Beverly Hillbillies Vice.  Yes, the fish out of water movie, but this time with smart cowboys making the city slickers look bad.  City slickers don’t like that.  It stars Woody Harrelson, who is listed at 5’10”  (6 meters) in height, which means he’s really like 5’5” max.  This created some special effects problems since his co-star Kiefer Sutherland is only 14” (0.00045 meters) tall.

Driving around a bus at night covered in flour, I guess.

Speed – Ted “Theodore” Logan plays a cop on a bus that will explode if it goes below 50 miles per hour because Dennis Hopper doesn’t like public transit and is against Sandra Bullock adopting a football player.  That might be off a bit, since I haven’t seen this movie since 1994.  It was okay, but made $350 million at the box office.

Forrest Gimp or Forrest Gump? 

Forrest Gump – The movie on which the sage advice “never go full retard” is based.  1994 loved this movie in a way that only people who love Jim Carrey can love a movie, rewarding it with $680 million bucks at the box office.  Tom Hanks plays the titular character.  Titular is a way less sexy word than what I thought it would be when I was in fifth grade and looked it up in the dictionary.  I feel the same way about this movie in retrospect – it was fun when I first watched it, but looking back on it, it I certainly don’t recall why – perhaps it was the looming hollowness of the 1990s?  But that’s all I have to say about that.

True Lies – In 1994, James Cameron could have filmed a trip to the supermarket and people would have paid $380 million in box office bucks to watch it.  Throw in a near-peak Arnie and a Jamie Lee Curtis that was 10 years past her prime (her prime was in Trading Places, fight me) and even I went to go watch it.  This movie while enjoyable to watch and having Bill Paxton at his funniest, could have been titled Generic Action Flick.  Not that it’s bad, it’s just the same movie that Arnie would stamp out like Pepsi™ makes plastic bottles for a few more years in the 1990s.

Now with electric neon ukeleles. 

Airheads – Steve Buscemi, Adam Sandler, and Brendan Fraser as a metal band that kidnaps a radio station.  Yes, it’s a comedy.  Yes, it’s silly.  Third best comedy on this list.  Also, another box office bomb.

“In my dreams he’s always there . . . “

In the Army Now – Proving my statement of cringe being the new comedy, here is plaintiff’s exhibit A – Pauly Shore.  Also in this movie is plaintiff’s exhibit B – Andy Dick.  Both in the same film, creating a sort-of black hole of smug-cringe.  This, my friends, is what will end the Universe.

A lighthearted musical animation about war and cannibalism, brought to you by Disney®.

Rapa-Nui – It is certain that a huge civilizational collapse happened on Easter Island.  It was started by white colonizers who cleverly set it in motion 100 years before they arrived.  Wait, that doesn’t sound right, did the Europeans have time travel?  No, I just channeled a GloboLeftist.  In reality, population on Easter Island overshot and they had a famine-induced war.  This movie is about that.  A popcorn movie to watch with the toddlers?  Probably not, unless their favorite book is “Baby’s First Cannibal”.  I thought this one was pretty good, but I was distracted because I was watching it with my toddlers.

Looks like JCVD’s time machine works!  Look how old he is!

Timecop – Jean-Claude VanMC2.  The title is the movie plot.

Wouldn’t his name be Morgan Prisonman?

The Shawshank Redemption – I’m gonna catch flack for this one, but I didn’t love it.  I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t love it.  I mean, you would have thought that after 142 minutes that the Beavis and Butthead would have scored some beer.

What if Wolverine worked for Marcellus Wallace?

Pulp Fiction – The actual best movie of 1994.  Quentin Tarantino manages in his first major release to let people know he had already mastered a game that many other film makers had no idea they were playing.

And one of them has a beagle named Snoopy®?

Clerks – The actual funniest movie of 1994.  Made for $10,000 – it was everything that the other comedies on the list weren’t – smart, apolitical, rough around the edges, and it had 0% Jim Carrey.  The story of two clerks on a very long day where one of them wasn’t even supposed to be working.  Kevin Smith was never as good again as his first outing, but that was at least partially due to the fact that his first outing is a classic.

Don’t blame me, Grok™ picked this one.

The Puppet Masters – Robert A. Heinlein’s story of insidious alien control somehow seems ripped from the headlines when I see the woke mind virus doing what aliens could only dream of.  I thought it was a faithful adaptation, but it still makes me wonder how 7’3” (16 meters) Donald Sutherland managed to father the lilliputian Kiefer.

Interstellar PEZ®.

Stargate – A fast-paced documentary about Egyptian archeology that’s not to be missed.  Plus?  Kurt Russell.

Back then Tom sure attracted the . . . .

Interview with the Vampire – A pretty fair adaptation of Anne Rice’s novel of the same name.  Cruise hasn’t aged a day since then, so maybe he picked something up when he did this film?

That’s it.  There were several I had to delete due to length.  Again, several good, solid movies as comedy morphed from its 1980s peak into the Jim Carrey abysmal.  The innovative 1980s action films began the process of mass production as budgets kept growing larger and larger and failures became less tolerable.  21 sequels were in major release in 1994 (this was the big jump from 1993 when there were only 13).  There were 9 in 1974, but in 2014 . . . ?  34.

I had to bump several films, and I could list them, but, hey, why don’t you let me know what gems should be on the list?

Watch The Economy Stagflate, Complete With Unrelated Bikini Picture

“We, the people, suffered.  We still suffer from unemployment, inflation, crime and corruption.” – Taxi Driver

When I buy groceries for prepping, The Mrs. says I have stock home syndrome.

Back in the bad (economically) old days of the 1970s, a word came into existence that described the economic policy of the Carter Administration:  Stagflation.

Now, if this would have been about massive helium-filled deer antlers, it would have been great.  Surreal, but great.  But it wasn’t.  Instead, it was surreal but bad –the economy was stagnant, but the price of everything kept going up.  It was like going to the dentist because of a toothache and finding out that instead of anesthetic you just got pepper spray in your eyes to take your mind off the dental surgery.

But back to surreal.  The impacts of stagflation were likewise as surreal as the giraffe clock currently melting in my light socket.   Here’s an example:  I remember when I was first married to The Mrs., we would go and visit her parents and spend the weekend in her old bedroom.  In one part of the closet was a dust-covered box filled with toys from when The Mrs. was a very young The Miss.

Is a prog rock band that plays Spanish guitar on your front lawn called Pink Flamenco?

One toy in particular stood out – it was a cheap plastic injection-molded car.  It still had the grocery store price sticker on it – and it was something like $8.99.

Whoa!  Back in the late 1990s, $8.99 would have bought something like a dozen similar cheap plastic injection-molded cars.  Inflation had been out of control in the late 1970s when The Mrs. had been given that toy.

Everything sucked economically – crappy quality at inflated prices.

Two major factors led to that situation – Nixon pulling the United States off the gold standard was the most critical one.  If we had to prove-up our spending with gold, well, we’d have to have some sort of discipline or we wouldn’t have any gold.

Discipline sounds like it’s boring, and the 1970s was made for disco parties, drugs, and infidelity, so why have discipline with our money?  That’s just not cool, man.  Besides, who needs rules when you have bitchin’ bell bottoms?

I guess weightlifters in the 1970s wore barbell bottoms.

The other situation is that the United States had reached a (then) peak in oil production, and was now dependent upon oil supplies from foreign nations (they were nations instead of countries back then – now, not so much).  Since one group of foreigners (Arabs) didn’t like another group of foreigners (Israelis) the group that had all the oil (Arabs) decided to stop selling so much oil.

Oil is a big deal, because the price of oil is hidden almost everywhere in our economy.  It’s required for planes to move bikini models, for trucks to move PEZ™, and in some places heats homes.  So, increasing the price of oil was just like tossing a big tax on everything, so moms everywhere went to work to bring home the bacon, fry it up in a pan, and then wear crappy perfume and nylon pantsuits.

I think I just gave the origin story of Hamburger Helper™, but I digress.

Not everyone makes great meatloaf, but two out of three ain’t bad.

What does this mean to today’s problem?  Are we in the same place?

Partially.

We’ve been partying, mostly, since the 1970s, and have gotten away with it through various shenanigans.  As Ayn Rand said, “You can avoid reality, but you cannot avoid the consequences of avoiding reality.”  I’ll just shrug and Ayn was talking about her polyamorous relationships, but I can’t be sure.

Regardless, 2025 is a big year for dealing with consequences.  Our current national debt is something like $33 trillion.  I know, it’s like Whoopi Goldberg’s butt, it’s so big it’s meaningless.  But we have to refinance $9 trillion of that $33 trillion plus another $3 trillion that we’re spending that we don’t have, this year.

I mean, who is going to buy all that debt?

Don’t know.  Probably not China.  Or Canada.  Or Mexico.

Let’s think about where that debt is now.  The Federal Reserve® already owns about $5 trillion, and it’s not like they have a choice, so they’re probably in for several trillion.  But the biggest holder of the national debt is . . . the government.  It owes itself $7 trillion dollars.

The rocks are still worth more.

Yes, you read that right.  Big chunks of that are Social Security “trust fund” that’s stuck in Al Gore’s “lock box”.  I mean, seriously, what do people not understand about a lock box?  But it also includes things like DOD retirement, and civil service retirement (which is over a trillion dollars).  And you know we’re spending down that Social Security trust fund right now, so that just means more debt that someone else will have to buy.

It’ll be the Fed©, snapping up debt like it’s at a Black Friday sale on silicon oven-mitts on TEMU™.

A trillion here, a trillion there, and soon enough we’re talking about real money.

The way debt bonds are sold is that people bid on ‘em at an auction.  What are people bidding?  The interest rate.  So if there’s a huge supply and lower demand, what goes up?

The interest rate.

Since we’re not paying the bills out of cash, but out of borrowed money, that means the interest paid will just go onto the debt as it’s paid, which means that even more bonds will need to be sold.  That means that there will be more supply and . . . higher interest rates.

It’s a vicious circle, but one that works as long as the economy keeps growing.

But the economy likely didn’t grow last quarter, so we’re (at least right now) stagnant.

Oddly, the tariffs and deportations seem to have broken something and right now we have the lowest inflation in the last four years.  I don’t think that will last.  Higher interest rates will bleed into businesses, and money for expansion or even day-to-day operational expenses.

How odd that people whine and complain when you make them go live in a country they made, surrounded by people who speak the same language that they do.

These higher interest rates will also make trillions of bank assets (my mortgage, for instance) worth less.  My mortgage is at an interest rate lower than I can get with a deposit a savings account.  I assure you my bank is aware of that and loves it when I toss them my monthly check.  This is what led to the Silicon Valley Bank® implosion – it had too many dollars tied up in low interest loans and securities, and then rates went up.

Thankfully, the Fed® made the decision that the banks can ignore the fact that their assets are worth less, or else all of them would have self-extinguished.  And you wonder why gold is selling at $3,300 an ounce?

Why do I predict the high likelihood of Civil War 2.0 by 2032?  Because by then, if you do the math, you’ll see that just interest on the debt will be at least half of the total tax hauled in, but I think it will be worse, because the numbers always are worse.

The solution to this won’t be a business-as-usual solution, and there will be extreme economic dislocations.  There is no evidence of anyone wanting to increase our economy at the China-like rates we’d need to outrun this mess, and no appetite to cut the cost of government.  At some point the consequences of ignoring reality will become so manifest that they aren’t something we can ignore.

And it runs on beetle juice.

Well, the good news is that we probably won’t see $8.99 injection molded plastic toy cars.  The bad news is that they’re already selling the one in the picture above for $10.00.

Trump’s First Semester Report Card, Plus A Bikini

“I don’t know if you’re familiar with who runs that business, but I assure you it’s not the Boy Scouts.” – Back to School

I watched a documentary on the bikini.  It was two parts and very revealing.

It’s been a semester that Trump has been back in office, so why not give him a report card?

Categories:

The LULZ

The Don has proven to be a continual fountain of amusement.  He pokes the GloboLeft and they squeal, predictably, every single time.  If Don came out against the idea of rape, within a news cycle, AOC would have a statement out that would start with . . . “Well, not all rapists . . . . “

The initial salvo of Executive Orders kept the GloboLeft spinning on defense, no knowing what would happen next, and contorting themselves to oppose everything coming out.  But more about that before.  So, for pure amusement, Donald gets an A.

“Can you change my grade?”
“Of course,” Tom remarked.

Department of Justice

This grade would be an F, with the exception of the pardoning of January 6 protesters and the demotion of several highly political FBI agents and the firing of the attorneys who prosecuted January 6ers.  The late work that simply hasn’t been submitted includes the full, unredacted JFK files.  There have been some minor revelations in what has already been provided, but there is no reason sixty years out that we can’t be provided the full evidence, no matter where it points.

Other late work:  When Pam Bondi brought out the “Epstein Files” and they were just redacted versions that had less info than what I’d already seen?  Shameful.  And even if Jeff killed himself, the question of who he trafficked young women to remains.

What about the arrests of those who actually conspired against a sitting president?  Where are those?

As of this writing, Bondi, Patel, and Bongino appear to have become part of the problem, and not the solution.  Grade:  D-, improvement needed.

Remember when Putin said he had no plans to invade Ukraine?  I think that’s been proven to be true.  (meme as found)

Department of State

Little Marco appears to be The Don’s favorite – if there’s another job, he just gives it to Marco.  Although these cross several lines, I’m going to give Marco the credit for not getting us into a war with Iran.  Yet.

Is the war in the Ukraine over?  Nope.  It’s far easier to start a war than to end one.  And, as I write this, news has come in about a significant attack across Russian air bases damaging between eight (according to Russia) and eleventy-bazillion (according to Ukraine) large military airplanes.

Not starting a war (Iran) is far easier than ending one (the three-day 1195-day Special Military Operation in Ukraine).  Both are important.  We’ll see what happens, and don’t forget we have China circling Taiwan.

Grade:  C+

There are more gates to get into Sauron’s kingdom then there are to get into my house.  I guess you could say he has more doors.

Department of War

This job is a tough one.  The entire general officer corps and (my guess) half the junior officer corps are infested with committed GloboLeftist DEI-lovers and ladder climbers waiting for the cushy post DOD job with an arms manufacturer.  Stalin’s purges of the Red Army come to mind as a good model:  they have to be found and drummed out of the service.  Innocent people will be falsely accused.

So?

This hasn’t started yet, but Hegseth is notably more focused on creating a force that’s not a jobs program but one that has the mission of blowing stuff up and killing people, so that’s a plus.

Grade:  C+

After I lost my court case, my lawyer told me I was beautiful.  Okay, technically not beautiful, but he did say “You’re appealing.”

Judiciary

The fights with the existing judiciary have been titanic.  But, Trump has rolled back DEI, affirmative action, boys in girls’ sports, ejection of illegals, and managed to gut many .gov jobs.

There are 251 major cases involving the Trump administration in court right now.  This includes cases where there are dozens of lawsuits on things like birthright citizenship that are rolled into just one.  This doesn’t happen to other presidents – and I’m quite sure this is a record number.  Why?

You know why.  Obama could deport people, but since Orange Man Bad, well, Trump can’t.

It’s all so tiresome.

On to the Supreme Court, it would appear that this summer or the next summer would be a good time for some older justices to retire.

Grade:  Incomplete

Tariffs

The latest Trump meme has been one that will backfire on the GloboLeft:  TACO, or Trump Always Chickens Out.  The GloboLeft is probably not familiar with negotiations, where the biggest strength is being able to walk away.  Emotional manipulation is part and parcel to creating a deal, and it takes place on both sides.  To be clear, there are many things that Trump is bad at, but one he’s really, really good at:  making a deal.

Now me?  I love the idea that they’re telling Trump he’s going to chicken out.  This will stiffen his spine so he can do what needs to be done.  That’s why I expect this meme to be short-lived.

Returning manufacturing to the United States and removing the primacy of the Finance, Insurance, and Real Estate (FIRE) sectors as the drivers to our country in order to create real, not paper, wealth is key.  This one is still too early to call.  The Usual Suspects have got this tied in legal knots, too.

Grade:  Incomplete

To visit the wreck of the Titanic used to cost $250,000.  To join the wreck permanently?  Priceless.

Department of Aborting Illegal Immigration

Okay, I know it’s the Department of Homeland Security, but if the change the name and added abortion to it, I bet we could get 50% of the GloboLeft behind it.

Pluses:  the infestation of illegals has slowed to a trickle, if not reversed.  The numbers of deport is still horribly low since “due process” is now required once anyone has crossed the border.  The obvious solution is a set of machine gun nests up and down the border with every single crew-served machine gun in our inventory deployed and firing live rounds 10 yards out from the border line.

That counts as due process, right?

This is still better than it has been in decades.  Trump should also just start building the wall, and claim it helps Israel or Ukraine when asked.

And, Trump should also arrest every illegal that they find, and put them in a detention pen until their court date shows up.  The detention pen would be adjacent to the Mexican border, and anyone wanting to exit would be free to go into Mexico, via a one-way gate.

Grade:  B

Skeezy Factor

The jet from Qutar is a mistake, and giving a pardon to someone whose mom paid $1,000,000 to meet you is also a mistake.  That just looks skeezy.  But, the king and queen of skeeze, Jared and Ivanka, are nowhere to be seen, so that’s something.

Grade:  C-

My waterbed is really bouncy.  I used spring water.

Summary

To be fair, I’m not really sure who would be fully qualified to assess Mr. Trump.  He consistently makes decisions that are counter to popular wisdom, and skates away unscathed every time.  I recall reading Dune as a young teen.  Whenever Paul made a decision, I filtered it with, “What would I do?” and most of the time Paul chose the opposite of what I’d have done.

I guess that’s why he became Emperor while I spend time in the spice mines.

Trump is similar – he’s a singular person on a mission that even he might be unaware of – the near assassination of him in Pennsylvania showed he has what the Chinese call the Mandate of Heaven.  It’s hard to argue against that.

None of this, however, has been codified into law.  Even with the House and the Senate, Trump didn’t have all of the excesses of the GloboLeft defunded.  Could D.O.G.E. have made a difference?

A huge one.  But it appears that Fraud, Waste, and Abuse has much more support in Congress than fiscal responsibility.  The majority of Republicans in the House and Senate are creatures that want exactly what the GloboLeft wants, but want to complain about it.

So, Grabbin Nuisance could, on January 21, 2029, nullify every Trump Executive Order if elected.

Overall:  still the best president in decades.

OSZAR »