What Matt Wants, Matt Gaetz?!?

Oh, great, a tawdry sex scandal. What happened to Make Scandals Great Again?

Investigators believe Joel Greenberg, the former tax collector in Seminole County, Fla., who was indicted last year on a federal sex trafficking charge and other crimes, initially met the women through websites that connect people who go on dates in exchange for gifts, fine dining, travel and allowances, according to three people with knowledge of the encounters. Mr. Greenberg introduced the women to Mr. Gaetz, who also had sex with them, the people said.

...

Mr. Gaetz denied ever paying a woman for sex.

Some of the possible charges seem like a stretch:

It is not illegal to provide adults with free hotel stays, meals and other gifts, but if prosecutors think they can prove that the payments to the women were for sex, they could accuse Mr. Gaetz of trafficking the women under “force, fraud or coercion.” For example, prosecutors have filed trafficking charges against people suspected of providing drugs in exchange for sex because feeding another person’s drug habit could be seen as a form of coercion.

So offering gifts is fine but offering cash is coercive? OK, go with that.

The joker in the deck is this:

The Justice Department inquiry is also examining whether Mr. Gaetz had sex with a 17-year-old girl and whether she received anything of material value, according to four people familiar with the investigation. The sex trafficking count against Mr. Greenberg involved the same girl, according to two people briefed on the investigation.

She's a minor, so Gaetz needs the Epstein Exception here.

I wonder what a Florida jury would make of all this. I have a suspicion that a decent portion of the Florida service economy relies on an equilibrium between fiscally appealing men and physically appealing women. Maybe I'm thinking of Vegas.

Comments

[Pinandpuller]

Well, Israel’s founding stock was Russian Jews, mr narciso. Are you seriously floating more “Russian Interference” lol?

[Narciso]

Thwy were not anymore inmune than the french sapphire the cambridge spies or otto joh.

[Narciso]

But of course

https://mobile.twitter.com/TomCottonAR/status/1378073551123718149

[Jim Eagle]

MM,
l
Disagree. Sure they do give a hoot.

This, to them, is another way to undermine the I'm way of life. They are into MLB, NBA, and Pro sports alll the way. Think about it. What do Americans cherish on their relaxing days when nothing politics can interfere. They are masters of distractoin.

[Pinandpuller]

I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if 75 million voters suddenly started believing in “Russian Interference” again.

[Narciso]

Nothing of the kind, we know whos getting the stroganoff delivery

[Pinandpuller]

There’s something you don’t read every day:

“Most are surprised to learn that the person who was most instrumental in establishing and training the notorious Mossad was none other than Reinhard Gehlen, former head of Hitler’s Nazi Intelligence for the Eastern Front.”—Edward Hendrie

[Narciso]

Thats not quite right, they did hire otto akorzeny the real life david bautissta to penwtrate the germam missile ring in egypt

[MissMarple2]

Jim Eagle,

I agree with your interpretation. I guess I didn't make myself clear.

[Narciso]

Penetratw the german spy ring.

[henry]

Hmmm. Was the Archegos think a CCP strike on western banking?

The biggest useable weapon the U.S. has is monetary policy. If you want to blow up China’s rising economy right now you have to allow the dollar to rise, liquidity to drop and induce panic all throughout emerging and frontier markets many of whom are now allies of Russia and China, think Turkey for example.

If you were China how would you defend against that? By creating asymmetric time bombs that blow back on western capital markets the second the dollar begins to drain overseas liquidity.

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/archegos-bikini-atolls-how-many-more-tactical-financial-nuclear-bombs-exist

And the Xiden policy is MMT and moar fiscal idiocy that makes China et al stronger.

[1/2aboy&1/2aman]

From Miss M’s earlier post -
“Well, here's another strange story:

The Associated Press
@AP
·
1h
Mummies on the move:”

And I thought this story would include the phrases:
“Speaker of the House, Pelosi along with Senators Schumer, Durbin, Feinstein, Leahy, Collins and Murkowski walked arm-in-arm to the spot of this week’s white supremacy inspired tragedy. They chanted in unison, Rebuild this wall in the spirit of equality and unity.”

Just what recognition will slain Capital Police Officer, Billy Evans receive?

[Melinda]

I believe it to be more an “own goal” by the Golden Cojones Hubris & Investment Banking Groups at 7 separate TBTFs.

Recall that DbK’s Investment Bankers just removed themselves from CEO oversight just last week, by pressuring the Board.

That move alone tells me there’s a lot more where that (Archegos) came from.

[Melinda]

Oh, it’s Luongo. Never mind, I wrote far too much to respond to his Gold! diatribes.

[henry]

Melinda, yeah. Gold bug fever is funny. I just liked another anti China / US TBTFs are morons conspiracy. Goes well with Spotted Cow.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

Probably a simplistic question Mel, but whatever functions derivatives serve, do they outweigh the volatility, opacity and plain old fraud they seem to enable and encourage?
Most, especially the more esoteric ones seem designed mainly as clever ways to bilk others. I'm thinking specifically of something like the vehicles by which Archegos built its highly leveraged portfolio but was able t avoid a great deal of disclosure about not only what kind of pyramid it was building but that it even was a pyramid at all. And these were the cream of the crop of the smarty pants banks, who always seem to be the biggest suckers for these kind of schemes.

[Narciso]

Im reminded of shadow recruit when brannagh oligarch haz acquired large blanks of bank shares,

[CCGirl]

Dave and Davod, re lobster compost last night, it’s a great product made by a company called Coast of Maine. Not smelly, and great for gardens. About $11/ per 1 cubic foot bag.

I’m perusing my town newspaper and I see this headline, “Detecting COVID Particles in Thin Air.” Against my better judgement I read the article.

A fire dept in another town used this device:

“The AeroselSense was kept in a high-traffic hallway...throughout the day it would collect particles from the air and store them in cartridge.”

These cartridges were mailed out every five days to a lab. “In December, one of the cartridges had a positive test result for the virus. ...upon receiving that result, all employees who had been in the building during that time period were tested for the virus, showing that one employee was in fact infected and had been near the machine without wearing a mask.”

Huh?

Anyway this chief of a fire dept now thinks this is conclusive proof that this toaster oven sized machine should be used by all sorts of businesses and town depts. Huh?

It retails for approx $5000. I’ll be sure to put one in the store ASAP. What a great machine! Someone at some point walked past the machine in the last five days who was positive for the virus. Let me go through the contact tracing list. 🙄

[Davod]

Moses is on the TV runs from 7pm to 1144 pm. A great movie.

[Davod]

My nephew Tom having what looks like an Australian breakfast in Perth. Check out his website if you like hip hop (I think that's what it is).

https://dj-silence.bandcamp.com/album/beat-tape-01

[Narciso]

And then there is exodus with bruce wayne as moses, on the spanish cable channel

[CCGirl]

Off to play a game for a bit. Back later.

[Davod]

Why was Israel's founding stock Russian?

[Narciso]

Askhenazi came from eastern europe, sephardim come from north africa.

[Davod]

RE voting laws. Does anyone know where I can get a table comparing the voting laws in each state?

[lurkersusie]

Yes, we were warned!

We Were Warned: Freedom to Chains - Paul Harvey - Short Film (2017) [HD] - YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SAjwF3F-4k

[Melinda]

Ig-

Superior Salesmen selling Superior Sales Pitches to Superiors who Sell Superiorly Side Action that doesn’t trigger Regulatory Reporting, because they believe all the ass kissing in “Peer Reviews” at year end bonus review time, because they’re smart enough, Strong enough, and good looking enough to believe that it’ll really work this time around.

Derivatives, and I believe a single share of corporate stock is technically a derivative, are a market efficient way of dispersing risk, when done transparently. When not, it’s almost always a private side bet between friends.

[Jane]

Cool Davod. I love Perth!

[Melinda]

Oh, and Archegos didn’t design those swaps, they bought them when offered, because fees.

[Melinda]

Davod-

I believe Golda Meir was from Milwaukee originally.

[jimmyk]

Askhenazi came from eastern europe, sephardim come from north africa.

And hundreds of thousands came from Arab countries: Yemen, Iraq, Syria. They're also called Sephardic, though I don't know if there's any connection to Spain. Overall in the early years it was about 50-50 Ashkenaz-Sephard.

[MissMarple2]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6rgAQI7ALs

Above is a link to the mummy parade in Cairo. It even has guys driving chariots like Yul Brynner in Exodus.

[MissMarple2]

Melinda,

You are correct about Golda Meir.

[Narciso]

Joel edgerton is just a terrible ramses.

[MissMarple2]

Narciso,

No one can beat Yul Brynner in that role.

[CCGirl]

This year I just can’t watch all of the Easter movies. Other years we would watch so many, plus the great series about Jesus by O’Reilly and that newer one by that couple. Oh, you know the name!

I believe, but maybe I am too busy these days to watch much tv. Hubs watches, and I blog while he peruses whatever.

Well, now he has one of them on. Mark Burnett’s he being one of the couple.

[MissMarple2]

CCGirl,

Is your husband watching "Risen?"

If so, what channels are carrying it?

[rse]

I saw yul brynner in the king and I in the west end in 1980.

It was so cool to see him in person doing a role that I had watched in the movie many times.

[GUS]

The UW-MILWAUKEE LIBRARY is the GOLDA MEIR LIBRARY.
My wife worked next door to it or 11 years.

[MissMarple2]

rse,

That is really cool!

[MissMarple2]

Weirdness on Twitter. I hope these would exist so that they can all leave and let us alone!

conspiracybot
@conspiracyb0t

· 2h
There are supposedly various "stargates" in the middle east that the elite are interested in. It's said this is why U.S. military personnel went immediately into the museum in Baghdad before securing any other part of the city.

[CCGirl]

Miss M. History Channel, “The Bible.” It’s probably something you can watch online.

[Narciso]

It was on csony which is dubbed in spanish

[CCGirl]

Rse, I remember watching Yule Brenner in The King and I. My mother thought I would like the movie. I was young and thought he was quite impressive! 😉

[clarice]

https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/jordan/jordan-s-former-crown-prince-reportedly-arrested-on-suspicion-of-plotting-coup-1.9678978

[Narciso]

Even as the villain he had panache with edgerton they slap on the silliest ears amd shave his eye browns

[CCGirl]

Best I check out. Happy Easter all!

[Narciso]

This is not the first time theyve has a falling up.

[clarice]

My grandparents remembered Golda. My maternal grandfather used to watch her debating in a public park. My maternal grandmother gave her packages to take to relatives in what was then called Palestine.

[Narciso]

No good deed

Nearly six years later, on 28 November 2004, King Abdullah removed Hamzah as crown prince.[5] In a letter from Abdullah to Hamzah, read on Jordanian state television, he said, "Your holding this symbolic position has restrained your freedom and hindered our entrusting you with certain responsibilities that you are fully qualified to undertake."[5]

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

Hard to top Zeffirelli's Jesus if Nazareth.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

Or of.

[Narciso]

Apparently they took out the prologue to the ten commamdments that denies state worship as a choice

[Narciso]

That was quite a cast.

[GUS]

When the subject of GOLDA MEIR, came up, I thought of you Clarice.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

--Derivatives, and I believe a single share of corporate stock is technically a derivative, are a market efficient way of dispersing risk, when done transparently. --

I agree to a point but how do $60 trillion in CDSs for instance, even if transparent, lead to dispersed risk when the chit hits the fan?

That's like fire, earthquake, flood, storm and accident insurance for houses when every couple of decades 80% of the houses in the US are destroyed at once by all those means, or every fifteen years everybody in the country totals their cars at the same time. How could any other insurance industry even exist in the form CDSs or CDOs take? Of course if house and auto insurers knew the Feds would bail them out it those events did take place they'd be writing policies left and right anyway come hell or high water.

Seems to me MBSs and CDOs and CDSs, especially in an era in which the Fed seems to consider its primary mandate to inflate as many asset bubbles as possible, are a way to systemically concentrate risk, even if it seems to disperse it for individual traders.

And something like that Archegos vehicle seems like a perfect example of too smart by half banks almost getting or actually getting caught in their own cleverness. Hwang or whatever his name is was apparently playing these masters of the universe off against each other without their even knowing it. And they did it knowing he had been caught up in considerable securities shenanigans not too long ago.

[GUS]

What does the FEDERAL GOVT do well.

Nothing.

But they do have PREGNANCY FLIGHT SUITS.

[Stephanie Nene Not Your Normal Granma]

Michael Smith
·
OK, this one is long – but it contains two long quotes from Thomas Paine that needed to be reproduced in full. Take a breath, get a cup of coffee and read it all because it is important - certainly not due to my thoughts, rather due to what Paine wrote.

I had a weird, lucid dream last night. I do not remember all of it other than one segment where I met a slimy character named Warren. The next scene I remember was passing a parking lot in a car only to see a woman pointing a revolver at Warren as she said "John 3:3" before she shot him - six times.

Where that came from, I have NO idea but something happened this morning that made it even weirder. As I pulled out my Bible from the bookshelf, another book fell out and opened up. I ignored the fallen book for a moment and thumbed to John, Chapter 3, Verse 3:
"Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born [a]again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

Pondering that for a minute, I picked up the other book - it was my copy of a collection of writings of Thomas Paine and was open to a page of "Common Sense". On that page, the first thing I read was this quote:
“…our calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer…”
What follows is the result of my mind trying to synthesize those two bits of inspiration and realization.

Looking back over history, I think there are basically two types of societies – there are those where life is relatively good for a few and not so good for most (i.e., monarchies and dictatorships) and those where life is relatively good for most but not so good for a few (democracies and constitutional and representative republics). Regardless of ideological perspectives or political gamesmanship, this seems to be the rule, and for thousands of years the quest has been to find some point on the continuum between these two, some equilibrium point, where a peaceful and civil society can exist.

So, man created government as a mechanism to find that equilibrium point and then preserve it.

America began as the latter, a constitutional and representative republic with, as Lincoln famously stated, “a government of the people, by the people and for the people”, one designed to do the most good for the most people by keeping the power in the hands of the individual and only ceding power to an extremely limited collective that has power over an absolute minimum of collectively agreed upon roles and responsibilities. In America’s case, to do five things: “…establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity”

I cannot quite put my finger on it, and maybe it is that humans tend to be herd animals that crave social interaction, but the human tendency any time it is aggregated into a larger collection almost always tends toward the centralization of power, and the centralization of power ALWAYS, and I mean ALWAYS, trends toward the latter societal model where a few have it really good (and that good is protected by government), and most, not so much.

Communist government (and the socioeconomic systems that evolve in response) are designed that way – to vest the power in a few - but if you honestly look at representative republics, they trend toward that model over time as well – especially if the members of those republics become apathetic enough to allow “scope creep” (when the demands of a design or project begin to increase way beyond the initial definition, sometimes to the point the finished product bears little resemblance to the initial vision).

While being at different points on the line of force and coercion, they are similar in realization. Unlike a hereditary monarchy, these two are not exclusively based on royal DNA – the right of a single king or queen to rule by birth, but they do thrive on a form of ideological heredity, a right to rule based on influence and status within the systems of governance. In such perversions, people are ruled not by kings and queens, rather they are ruled by a partisan mini government in Congress and the heads of various committees, federal agencies and departments.

If you consider the number of powerful people in Washington (or even your state) who have virtually lived lifelong sinecures in Congress or the bureaucracy, other than their position on the continuum, there is not much functional difference between Capitol Hill in D.C. and the Duma in Moscow.

The governmental bureaucracy thrives longevity as an avenue for advancement and they view loyalty and chronology of service over performance. The political parties revere the Illuminati and elitists, giving us candidates that are “establishment approved”. Such a “monarchical” perspective leads to governmental interference and manipulation of society to achieve outcomes the ruling class deems appropriate and necessary – while being neither appropriate nor necessary.

In “Common Sense”, Thomas Paine detailed of the evils of a hereditary monarchy and they are eerily like the modern incarnation of that form, our modern bureaucracy combined with the Illuminati and elitists who presume to be our American royalty. Paine wrote:
“MANKIND being originally equals in the order of creation, the equality could only be destroyed by some subsequent circumstance: the distinctions of rich and poor may in a great measure be accounted for, and that without having recourse to the harsh ill-sounding names of oppression and avarice. Oppression is often the CONSEQUENCE, but seldom or never the MEANS of riches; and tho’ avarice will preserve a man from being necessitously poor, it generally makes him too timorous to be wealthy.

But there is another and great distinction for which no truly natural or religious reason can be assigned, and that is the distinction of men into KINGS and SUBJECTS. Male and female are the distinctions of nature, good and bad the distinctions of Heaven; but how a race of men came into the world so exalted above the rest, and distinguished like some new species, is worth inquiring into, and whether they are the means of happiness or of misery to mankind.”

Paine captures the eventual outcome of having such a government of lords and kings and what that means in relation to the freedom of the greater society:
“SOME writers have so confounded society with government, as to leave little or no distinction between them; whereas they are not only different, but have different origins. 𝐒𝐨𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐭𝐲 𝐢𝐬 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐲 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐬, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐠𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐛𝐲 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐰𝐢𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐝𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬; 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐞𝐫 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐏𝐎𝐒𝐈𝐓𝐈𝐕𝐄𝐋𝐘 𝐛𝐲 𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐚𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬, 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐍𝐄𝐆𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐕𝐄𝐋𝐘 𝐛𝐲 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐯𝐢𝐜𝐞𝐬. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐬 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐞, 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐚 𝐩𝐚𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐧, 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐚 𝐩𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐫.

𝐒𝐨𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐭𝐲 𝐢𝐧 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐚 𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐆𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭, 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐢𝐧 𝐢𝐭𝐬 𝐛𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐞, 𝐢𝐬 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐚 𝐧𝐞𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐚𝐫𝐲 𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐥; in its worst state an intolerable one: for when we suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries BY A GOVERNMENT, which we might expect in a country WITHOUT GOVERNMENT, our calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer. Government, like dress, is the badge of lost innocence; the palaces of kings are built upon the ruins of the bowers of paradise. For were the impulses of conscience clear, uniform and irresistibly obeyed, man would need no other lawgiver; but that not being the case, he finds it necessary to surrender up a part of his property to furnish means for the protection of the rest; and this he is induced to do by the same prudence which in every other case advises him, out of two evils to choose the least. Wherefore, security being the true design and end of government, it unanswerably follows that whatever form thereof appears most likely to ensure it to us, with the least expense and greatest benefit, is preferable to all others.”

Focusing on the highlighted text above, I cannot but conclude that we have all the tools to avoid calamity, if we only choose to re-discover and use them. In a sense, we must be born again.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

Has this been linked? Pretty awful story of an Oakland family and one of Greenwald himself.
The Enduring Terror of Violent Crime Victimhood
A family in Oakland just suffered a horrific crime in their home -- one similar to but far worse than one I had recently -- and deserves much help in recovering.

[Narciso]

Wow oaklamd is a den of scum and villainyn major breed hasnt made anything better

[jimmyk]

I saw that Greenwald piece earlier this evening. I don't think it mentions whether the Oakland perps were caught. I'd wager that they have criminal records a mile long and probably previous jail time. I'm sure it would help that family emotionally if they were caught.

Interesting from the comments that Greenwald obviously has a strong right-wing following: Much discussion about importance of the 2nd Amendment, among other things.

[jimmyk]

"Male and female are the distinctions of nature"

Thomas Paine was obviously not as enlightened in biology as today's woke college students, and any statues of him must be torn down immediately.

[Pinandpuller]

24 Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.
25 Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.
26 And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.
27 And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

Daniel 9:24-27

[GUS]

Yeah the OAKLAND perps were MAGA TRUMP WHITE SUPREMACISTS.

It would be funny if it wasn't so fucking serious.

[Melinda]

CDSs are NOT transparent. They are private, binary insurance policies between two parties. Only as good as the full faith and credit of the two involved, no regulations cover them. They’re private insurance policies for when entire swathes of a mortgage paying class stops payment. A rare event under normal circumstances. It goes boom/bust cycle when the fraud end of it goes unprosecuted, like this last time through the wringer. Because rates were held so low, for so long due to both the Fed and the Great Compression Trade (yields go lower when pensions and the like have to buy double the number of bonds so as to maintain cash flow for future payouts), the Fed’s transmission system, the then 23 Primary Dealers, would steer any and all QE into the friends and family column (HF, Quants, and Family Offices as we now have learned), for higher fees and a nice leash if Uncle Sam’s inspectors came along. Everyone on the Street gets paid, but at everyone else’s expense. Creating CDOs and CLOs are just the next level of selling credit payment streams to insurers and pensions whom crave yield. When the bankers started to pack all of the above with fraudulent payment streams by layering in paid for ratings on crap paper to hide the risk. “Pay me!” becomes less of a demand to the bankers than the sole focus of life. Damn the consequences. And management signs off on all of it, despite all the obvious shortcomings, because of the same “Pay me!” mentality.

If they think Archegos warrants another Street bailout, I think they have a very, very big surprise coming....

[GUS]

Mel my friend. How are you? Healing???
As to your expertise, IT'S ALL OFF THE RAILS.
Trying to understand this completely destructive spending policy/policies, creates. All bets are off.
We've never seen this in history. ANYWHERE.
When the shit hits the fan, it will be EPIC.

On a lighter note, we need to get the band back together for a lunch. Or a dinner. I could certainly host the 4 horses asses of the apocalypse at my palatial GUS ESTATE. And I'd love to. Henry, John, you and I. Wives would be welcome. OR NOT.

[cathyf]

Maybe a repost, but WHO now says the COVID PCR test with any amplification cycle count above 35 is entirely invalid. Most (all?) COVID PCR tests have been done at 40 cycles.

Ok, they are not "invalid". In some circumstances, the people tested are really infected with covid, and the tests would have been positive at a lot fewer cycles. Other cases there is human error and they come up with a 40-cycle negative test even though the person is infected.

Covid is not all that easily transmitted (unlike, say, measles.) Most people who are infected and sick know who they caught it from -- other sick people in their household, for example.

The totals for "cases" and deaths are bogus, but it is certainly true that this is a virus, it does make people sick, and it's pretty highly transmittable.

[GUS]

Cathy, I think it was A-BOB, who said "IT'S ALL BULLSHIT".
Cathy, there are no legit answers to your questions.
I heard a report on the second 18 OR younger COVID death here in Wisconsin. The person had leukemia.
Covid was not the cause of death. Leukemia was.
IT'S ALL BULLSHIT. We have crossed the RUBICON, and a critical mass of DUMB FUCK AMERICANS, and COMMIES, have bought this shit.

THE FULL COMMIE is moving fast. DO NOT TRUST ANYTHING YOU HEAR from the GOVERNMENT or the MEDIA.
If the gubmint or MEDIA, told me that WATER is WET. They would be lying for a reason.

[GUS]

Cathy, you are arguing with FULL COMMIES, who want to distract you. There is nothing true about what the MEDIA or the CDC Bureaucratic whores tell you.
Watch and follow the money and biases.

[jim nj]

Almost every financial derivative, like its name implies, derives from a legitimate perceived need to hedge risk.

You own something and are worried that something will happen to it, not enough worry to sell it now, but enough to spend a small sum for some kind of risk insurance on unseen future negative events that you think could possibly happen.

Or you regularly need to buy something and you worry that the price might move against you before you have to buy it. You can buy it now at a decent price, but then you will have to store it and insure it before you really need it. So you weigh that additional cost against what someone will charge you to insure that risk.

In either case a speculator is taking the other side of the trade thinking that your assessment of the risk is wrong and that they will get to pocket the premium. They perceive that the risk is smaller than you do.

Invariably one side is wrong. A risk was there, or it wasn't.

These are people looking at the same information and coming to different conclusions. Sometimes unexpected events occur that change the equation.

Maybe, if you were really paying attention, they weren't that unexpected.

All of this is a legitimate crap-shoot.

The problems arise when you get speculators betting against other speculators. These people are useful as they add liquidity to the markets which makes it easier to trade, but they aren't hedging a risk, they're just betting.

If they are disciplined they mostly lose a little money. If a catastrophic event happens they make huge profits. Tornadoes wipe out a large swath of wheat or corn fields, temperatures unexpectedly plunge in Florida and impact the orange groves, that kind of thing - and the profits are huge.

[GUS]

E.G. CathyF. what is the SCIENCE vis a vis, you being FORCED to wear one??? A week ago tonight, My wife and I, went to her COLLEGE ROOM-MATE and HER HUSBAND, who is a lifelong friend of mine. Anywho, it was SHEILA'S b-day. Karen and I introduced them years ago, they are family. A dude at this 4 couple get together, made a comment about how, IT DOESN'T BOTHER HIM to WEAR A MASK.
I am not shy. I asked him immediately..WHY AREN'T YOU WEARING ONE NOW??? Then, I asked, WERE YOU WEARING A MASK, before our LIBTARD COMMIE GOVERNOR forced you to???
Then I shut up. I had ridiculed this PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL TEACHER into submission.
HERE'S THE GIG. If you deal with, hang out with, or even RESPECT the BOUGHT AND PAID FOR THOUGHTS, of ANY, ANY, ANY, public taxpayer sponsored GUBMINT employee, who gets paid on Holidays, that you don't, and has ridiculous nonsensical self serving non-values. You are nuts.

[jim nj]

And then the financial experts use those same principles to create even more esoteric derivatives. Sometimes the risks can be measured similarly, but you need even smarter people to understand them. The market for trading the risk is smaller and fewer people understand it properly.

These derivative are created by PhD quants, sold by MBA grads to BA grads with graphics created by MFA grads.

Everybody involved in this process is highly credentialed and yet none of them really understand all of the ramifications.

And your annual bonus depends on how much of this stuff you can sell. Ditto for your competitors.

God forbid you should all be selling the same strategy to the same customer and assuring them that nothing can go wrong.

[GUS]

Jim nj. Don't worry, BIDEN and K-TOE, and the SLEAZY SMARMY MILLENIALS, that are running the show, for the LARGE DONORS, are fucking things up so badly, that the DEPRESSION of 1930 on, are going to seam like a, walk in the park. Even if there is a BLAST BACK, by the RIGHT, we are in a SEVERE WORLD OF HURT. This nonsense CANNOT EXIST.

[jim nj]

Archegos.

I think I mentioned this story before. My father was a personal loan officer at Citibank. He was second in command of the department when they created dial-a-loan. A revolution in bank loans at the time.

Anyway, he brought home loan paperwork and while he was having dinner I went through it and created three piles. No. Yes. I don't know.

I was, I dunno, 10-13, at the time and it was an iterative process. I enjoyed it. I thought it was fun. And with feedback I got better at it. He'd correct me when I was wrong.

I particularly remember one loan applicant. Spanish surname. At the time when judging a loan request you would pull credit reports on the name, address and SSN.

The man had a number of personal loans out. The addresses all matched. The SSNs all matched. Oddly he had one of those y Spanish names. Like Diez y Seis.

He had obtained loans using every variation of swapping his surnames you could think of.

He had 5-6 $1,000 personal loans outstanding from different banks that were all current.

This is the 60's so $1,000 loans wete still significant, not like credit cards today, but I put it in the yes pile.

So using the iterative process my father told me why my yes was his no. The surname swap was a red flag. The loans that were all current was a red flag.

Huh? Why?

Look at the sequence of the loans. OK. He took out a loan. See here, he took out another one shortly after when he couldn't pay the first. Then a third loan to pay the first two. Then a fourth loan to pay the first three. Rinse and repeat.

So my father says to me, "I'm not going to give him my money to pay the other bank's loans off."

What a concept. It was HIS money, not the bank's.

He could have made the loan and waited for the guy to get another loan to pay off his, but it was HIS money.

It was, perhaps, a different time, but when you don't think of it as YOUR money, and your bonus depends on that deal, yeah, do the deal.

Ergo, Archegos.

[jim nj]

cathyf, and others, including me, have been all over this from the beginning.

The US has had more purported "cases" and "deaths" per capita than any other nation because of the high cycle rate of the PCR tests done here and the liberal definition of death "from" Covid rather than "of" Covid.

[jim nj]

My latest hope is that "woke" organizations require a COVID passport to attend their events.

And then wonder why attendance doesn't rebound.

[jim nj]

nytol

[jim nj]

oops, I frogot this:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-amazon-com-workers-pocan-idUSKBN2BQ0DC

Amazon acknowledges issue of drivers urinating in bottles in apology to Rep. Pocan

[GUS]

NEVER APOLOGIZE TO MARK POCAN.
He hates you. Us.
He is a HOMOSEXUAL CLOWN.

[Jane]

Happy Easter.

Listening to the Pope speak ( for the first time). Pretty uninspiring and depressing speech. Is it just me?

[Tom Bowler]

Happy Easter JOMers! Great Pieces, Clarice!

[Bela1]

Happy Easter!

[Jim Eagle]

Zalig Pasan!

Happy Easter!

He is risen!

[clarice]

Happy Easter.
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2021/04/whats_more_american_than_coke_and_baseball.html

[sbwaters]

Clarice, you are an important writer. Thank you!

[rse]

clarice--

Your piece reminded me of the same delta ceo requiring essentially all employees to wear BLM pins in support last summer (and perhaps now for all I know). No dispensation for being aware of the real plans and explicit Marxist agenda of the actual entity employees were to support.

[sbwaters]

Virtue-signalling CEOs don’t need the re-education classes they require for their minions. They need education.

[Jane]

Great Job Clarice! (as always).

Time to rise up against what is going on. We need a plan!

[sbwaters]

Jane, not so much a plan as laughter.

I just tweeted:
Laughing at politics is an important American traditions. #Leftist #postmodern politics undermines rational argument so laugh at its inconsistencies. No wonder they want to suppress it.—Humorist P.J. O'Rourke asks courts to protect sarcastic tweets. Link

[Davod]

Why is the Socialist Pope speaking at Easter?

[Davod]

Clarice.

"Today both remind me of Benito Mussolini’s corporatist – aka, fascist -- game of merging of state and corporate power."

Exactly.

[Jim Eagle]

You mean Coca Cola, the company that produces that bottle of diabetic sugar water and poisons are kids for a lifetime. That Coca Cola?

[Davod]

I prefer the Coke from Mexico.

[MissMarple2]

Good morning and Happy Easter!

[Marlene]

Happy Easter!
There is an impending uncontrolled release of wastewater at a phosphorus plant in Manatee County, FL. Apparently this Piney Point facility has been an issue for years, but the finger pointing has already started. Officials have ordered evacuations of the area. DeSantis will have a press conference at 11.

[Jane]

SBW,

Do you think laughter is enough? If so, I’m all in.

Davod,

I’m not a Pope follower but that (that he’s a socialist) explains a lot. Has he done a lot of harm to the Catholic faith?

[MissMarple2]

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2021/04/04/watch-gestapo-not-welcome-here-canadian-police-thrown-out-easter-service-polish-pastor/

[MissMarple2]

Jane,

Short answer, yes. I am not going to go into his manifold faults on Easter, but I do wonder what happened to Pope Benedict, who resigned and then seems to have disappeared.

[Jim Eagle]

Jane,

My wife and I were devout Catholics who haven't been to mass for the last 3 years. Beside, Pope Che, our bishop sold Frederick's school (Mercy, in Riverhead) and his diocesan HQ building just to pay up all the pederast and pedophile claims.

Until this year Frederick attended Catholic schools how whole life. Not now. For us the Church has left us no us leaving the church.

[Jim Eagle]

...how s/b his....