Weekly Webinar #55: The State of The Union

debt & interest: the USG's debt is why the Fed has to keep the discount rate artificially low, whether the "economy" is "good" or bad. And this leads to asset bubbles. But if they let interest rates move to a natural level, or, heck, just let them move in the still-artificial-but-less-so way they did in the '80s and early '90s, the USG's debt would become unserviceable and "bond vigilantes" would be able to re-emerge. They don't want "bond vigilantes" again (Carville's statement about wanting to come back as the bond market implied the end of anything remotely resembling a real interest rate or real bond market. They tamed it by making it all into a plastic banana market).

Porphy's Attorney

Call it the M-m-m-a-a-a-x-x He-e-e-ad-ro-o-o-m-m theory.

Porphy's Attorney

Regardless of the current occupant, in the future all elected officials will be replaced by CGI muppets. I percieved this in the wake of Ted Kennedy's death when people kept blabbering about "The Kennedy Seat" and who was or was not worthy of filling it. It would be much simpler if the permanent staff just had a CGI muppet. That staff could then be self-perpetuating since it would hire on people to fill any vacancies in the staff, getting like-minded people, and the muppet would be reliable (it would only have scandals if and when programmed to have them, unlike actually getting drunk and drowning some coed in a river). Since re-election rates for congresscriter incumbents are in the high 90s, then stability will be guaranteed and the permanent government (which, as fall 2020 shows, is sick and tired of holding actual competitive elections anyhow) would have their sinecures guaranteed.

Porphy's Attorney

Regardless of the current occupant, in the future all elected officials will be replaced by CGI muppets. I percieved this in the wake of Ted Kennedy's death when people kept blabbering about "The Kennedy Seat" and who was or was not worthy of filling it. It would be much simpler if the permanent staff just had a CGI muppet. That staff could then be self-perpetuating since it would hire on people to fill any vacancies in the staff, getting like-minded people, and the muppet would be reliable (it would only have scandals if and when programmed to have them, unlike actually getting drunk and drowning some coed in a river). Since re-election rates for congresscriter incumbents are in the high 90s, then stability will be guaranteed and the permanent government (which, as fall 2020 shows, is sick and tired of holding actual competitive elections anyhow) would have their sinecures guaranteed.

Porphy's Attorney

That was amazing

Aleksa brate, zajebaces se! Maybe a mountain house with a flock sheep in case of total global collapse. :) :)

The best example of national unity is chile 33 miners story. That was awesome.

Hello everyone. I'm new here. Is there any way to speed up playback to 2x-3x like on YouTube or podcasts? Got a lot of catching up to do and prefer not to sit through it at a snail's pace. Thanks!!

Excellent webinar. Wish I could catch the livestreams. Any thoughts as to how this all spills over into Canada and Mexico? Canada, as you are probably aware, is headed further and further left. Incompetent boobs are in charge (Justin Trudeau) in Canada.

top quality info right thurrr

There is a ridiculous amount of info and insight in this episode. Im going to visit this again. Top stuff dude. My brain feels alive

Thanks!

Well, let's hope that the situation does not deteriorate to the point where one of us is proven right.

Wow the analogy of how we are becoming more of a modern day Feudal society and that these elitist oligarchs are enacting themselves as 21st century feudal lords was fantastic. Wow you just opened my perspective to a whole other degree

One of your more enjoyable webinars coach! Very insightful.

i'm currently 54 minute into the webinar and I got to say coach you've really connected all the dots. I've learned more from 54 minutes of you talking than I did in my government and history classes in college. Amazing webinar!

Coach, I disagree with your assessment of what started the 2014 revolution in Ukraine. If you recall, the protests began as a result of then president Viktor Yanukovich’s refusal to sign the association with EU, which is what he campaigned on before becoming president. It is likely that he decided to walk away from that at Russia’s direction, because he opted for signing a trade agreement with Russia instead, which would have been disastrous for Ukrainian economy. This sparked peaceful protests, which were brutally put down in short order (again very likely at Russia’s direction), which then erupted into full blown street battles and everything else that followed. The US could not have provoked that chain of events because it was Yanukovich’s decision to refuse to sign the EU trade agreement, and then to violently put down protests. Yanukovich being a puppet of Russia, took his ques from Russia, not from the US. I say he was a Russian puppet because that’s where he ended up fleeing along with his entire cabinet and there is very serious evidence suggesting that he was bribed by Russia in billions of dollars. I do however agree that the current president Zelenskiy is a clown and is weakening Ukraine considerably. As far as the Russian invasion of Ukraine is concerned, the Russian military is very much involved. All of the logistics, military high command, strategies, and tactics are conducted by the Russians. All of the special operations are conducted by the Russian Spetsnaz using Russian made weapons, some of which are only made in Russia and were never exported by Russia. The local eastern Ukrainian “separatists” are just filler and cannon fodder. They don’t have the military background or training to independently conduct strategic or even tactical operations. There have been dozens of active duty military personnel captured in Ukraine with Russian made weapons. Of course, Russia denied this and claims that these soldiers were in Ukraine on vacation, which is pure nonsense. The issue here is that Russia does not want additional sanctions, SWIFT cutoff, or oil/gas embargoes so they need to keep their presence in the mainland Ukraine unofficial. Lastly, regarding Russian military capability. It is much lower than you think. Russia is a not a world power, it is a regional power, so taking on the US is out of the question. If we’re putting nuclear weapons aside, the US would steamroll Russia in conventual warfare. Russia has built up a façade of their military being fully modernized, but by and large it is still very outdated compared to the west. On the Ukrainian front, if you recall back to 2014, the Russians spoke a lot about “Novorossiya” which was a propagandist soundbite to get the pro-Russian people in Ukraine riled up and pave the way for the Russian separatist takeover of Ukraine all the way up to and including Odessa. This did not happen. Why? Because the pro-Russian forces (again armed and directed by the Russians and with the Spetsnaz conducting all high-profile operations) encountered very heavy resistance from the Ukrainian army which at the time of 2014-2016 was still very weak (but since then improved considerably under Poroshenko). Yet it was able to inflict significant amount casualties onto the pro-Russian forces for Putin to abandon the idea of Novorossiya entirely and instead opt out for a smoldering military conflict to prevent Ukraine from joining NATO. Remember, it took pro-Russian forces 242 days just to take the Donetsk airport, which is longer than the battle of Stalingrad! There was a report by a military strategist firm, I believe it was Stratfor, but don’t quote me on this, which basically said that it would require the entire Russian military to be employed in order to actually capture Ukraine, which is not realistic. (P.S: I am a Russian speaking Ukrainian)