HALF-FULL REPORT 09/16/22
Half Full or Half Empty?
Jack is leading the charge in central Asia this week.
Jack Wheeler Update: Earlier this month, Jack led a group of TTPers on an exploration of Ireland. Now for the rest of the month, he’s doing the same with TTPers exploring Central Asia. He tells me an extraordinary opportunity is now possible thanks to his Marine combat veteran son Brandon: a safe and illuminating exploration of Ukraine.
Brandon has been to Ukraine over a half dozen times in the last few months, inspired by the heroism of the Ukrainian people. Thus Jack is calling this experience The Inspiration of Ukraine – for eight days in early November to personally witness how Ukrainians are surviving and rebuilding their lives and the country as they win their war with Russia. And very safely, nowhere near any front lines. For details, contact him at [email protected] or [email protected].
This trip is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to understand the current situation in Ukraine and the incredible power that the media wields through narrative control. Without question, the ground truth and the media spin are very different. Your understanding of the world and the forces at work will change forever. I highly recommend joining Jack in Ukraine.
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Its Darkest Before the Dawn
TTPer Craig Jensen made an essential comment on last week’s HFR forum that has been on my mind. Craig’s insights are always brilliant and efficiently stated, as was his: “I read all the way to the end, but could not find the “half full” portion of this report. ???”
I subscribe to many journals and news sources worldwide and keep my notes in bound journals for writing the Friday TTP. So I returned to my references and three meaningful phone conversations and asked myself, “Are things trending so badly right now, or do I err?”
The global pattern appears to be an accelerating war on the concept of subsidiarity, which is central to the purpose and organization of federal republics. Subsidiarity means developing and applying problem solutions as near the problem as possible. Tocqueville wrote extensively on the concept in his magnificent book, Democracy in America.
Throughout the modern age’s history, the capitalists gave the most to charity, built institutions, educated the young, discovered the sciences, invented technologies, and fed the world. The socialists and communists did none of these, nor did the feudalists before. The philosophy of subsidiarity is at the root of success for the individual and society. Solve problems sooner and better, and one reaps the rewards.
However, the concept limits the big central government to perform only a few functions. At one time, these included issuing currency, but crypto currency now exists. The central government’s regulatory “wisdom” is displaced by private standards bodies. Smaller governments such as California lead the Federales enviro policy for better or worse.
Commercial and military contractors perform much of the current war efforts.
Federal education idiocracy drove 2 million students from the public schools this year alone.
The result is panic among the federalies and their muscle as they lose the control they once assumed to be theirs. They fear the republic, the concept of subsidiarity of power and authority to the lowest possible level. At the same time, NeoRoyalists such as Klaus Schwab and the WEF continue to attempt to resurrect feudalism by concentrating all property, physical, financial, and intellectual, into their domains. Instead of royal blood by birth, they substitute royal blood by genetic manipulation.
The discrepancy between raiding Barron Trump’s bedroom and protecting Hunter Biden demonstrates to the world that there is a two-tiered justice system and the highest levels of government manifestly disagree with the concept of liberty and justice for all.
So returning to Craig Jensen’s comment on the forum, our government is afraid and acting out of desperation. Government power brokers consider conservatives and the belief in their constitution’s separation and subsideration of power as the enemy. The power brokers view their job as preserving government power and personal authority at all costs.
On the other hand, despite the Covid lockdowns, the upcoming energy emergency lockdowns, the possibility of food confiscation, and the creation of a new woke-army of property confiscation agents on the IRS payroll, freedom is still winning.
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Another Universe Exists on Linux
Big Tech does the government’s bidding as a constitutional workaround. Mark Zuckerberg admitted that Facebook (Meta) scans their system to identify conservatives and limit their reach this week. The process is called shadow banning, where a post appears on the system but, in reality, is never available for viewing. You are wasting your time if you use Facebook and make rational, conservative, pro-constitutional law and order comments. Nobody can see them.
The same is valid with Microsoft and Apple services that scan your comments and examine the pictures on your phone in the case of Apple. Big Tech is working with big government to control what you think.
However, there has been a growing revolution against centralized technology and curated communication for twenty years. The revolutionary tools use Linux, the open-source computer operating system. Linux can function for the rest of your computer’s life without ever phoning home to report your location and data.
I wrote this HFR using Libre Office on the Linux distribution Open Suse. (Su Seh – it’s German). Suse is highly stable, has a modest footprint, and can do everything Windows 10 does. The software is free for personal use but not for commercial use and is the core operating system beneath Germany’s SAP software. SAP runs the accounting, compliance, and administration activities for the most significant corporations worldwide. Their mascot is a green chameleon.
The above is a parody and spoof done as part of a SUSE advertising campaign, It’s not quite Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, and the drummer looks healthier than the late Charlie Watts. Still, it makes the point that the younger generation, those in university today, are rejecting Big Tech. The change is massive and driven by skills the kids have picked up throughout their lives. Software such as Open SUSE allows entire worlds to exist that cannot be penetrated or manipulated by the government.
This link is where you get your copy Here. I use the Leap version and look forward to discussing software and freedom-enabling technologies on the forum. There is a revolution underway.
The result is the rebirth of federalism, local invention, and value creation beyond the reach of centralized authority. While the visible world is in crisis, an entire parallel society is emerging via technologies such as Linux. The parallel society is terrible news for tyrants everywhere.
Since the lockdowns, the surging deployment and acceptance of Linux platforms such as Open Suse among the general population means more and more propaganda leverage is required to influence a dwindling base of listeners.
Centralized narrative control is weakening. The government’s remaining tools are pretty much brute force and financial games. With rapidly accelerating inflation, look for brute force to increase.
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Never Let a Crisis Go to Waste
Biden is talking about a new government cryptocurrency to replace the dollar within a year.
He plans to follow the WEF recommendation to outlaw Bitcoin (fat chance) and replace physical currency with new crypto bucks. It becomes impossible to save cash or conduct any transaction without it first passing through government computers.
The concept allows the government to produce unlimited crypto credits while taxing with sufficient force to suck those crypto bucks right back to the treasury. Crypto bucks appear to be Biden’s legacy move, and he compares it to FDR’s ban on gold.
Some speculate that eliminating the dollar and transitioning the entire planet to crypto bucks will make banking redundant. Maybe.
It is hard to imagine such a change without the banks’ approval. After all, where will political donations be slushed without banks?
It is even harder to imagine the same government that could not roll out Obamacare abruptly changing the world’s financial basis without a catastrophe. We know SJWs always double down, and the highest government levels now imagine themselves as gods.
Food and energy shortages can make citizens hungry and cold, and accepting relief payments in the form of the new currency. The Federal Reserve believes too many people work off the books and hoard cash. They are the new enemies of the state.
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Energy Costs are Moving Through the System
Chevron warned Wall Street this week that natural gas prices would increase in the Northeast and New England by about 400%, and the average consumer will spend about 20% of income on energy by next year.
LNG tankers that typically offload in Boston are en route to Europe, leaving the North East without sufficient natural gas. A pipeline from Quebec through Maine provides some fuel but not nearly enough to meet demand.
New York blocked pipelines from the Pennsylvania gas fields while Cuomo was governor, setting the stage for an energy crisis.
In my business, I have been running full throttle converting gas-fired industrial plants to heavy oil in anticipation of gas shortages. Some clients, especially those that manufacture toilet tissue, paper towels, feminine hygiene products, packaged food, and specialty chemicals, will be forced to idle as they cannot fire fuel oil. We are heading back into supply chain failure.
New industrial orders are crashing this week, with much of the existing output dedicated to catching up from Covid.
When the orders are fulfilled, there will be a general production slowdown across North America. Perhaps it will align with the fuel shortages, but the fuel shortages and industrial slowdown will create a Jimmy Carter-like circle of malaise.
Regardless, you can bet that consumer goods will reflect the energy price increases and production curtailments this winter. With the lights going out across Europe, consumers must hope that Brazil, India, Indonesia, and China can pick up the slack from curtailed capacity in North America and Europe.
Energy companies such as Chevron and Exxon Mobil report tight liquidity. They are not in a position to extend credit to energy consumers and are negotiating pre-payment contracts for natural gas.
FedEx is warning that their orders indicate that we are already in a recession, and the expected dramatic increase in jet fuel prices will be highly disruptive. Short-haul railroads, the services that move rail cars the final mile from rail yards to factories, cannot afford operations and have stopped moving freight to and from industrial plants in the North East. Well-heeled Chinese companies are offering to purchase the lines and resume operations at a temporary loss.
Buckle up. It’s going to be a hard winter.
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Some are Doing Well
While consumer products, transportation, and heavy industries foresee big problems, the global defense industry is doing well. Very well.
The United States is tripling artillery shell production after shipping 1,000,000 rounds of 150mm to Ukraine. The Turkish company, Baykar appears to be expanding its production facility area by 500%. Baykar makes drones and sells them to all takers.
The Baykar, Bayraktar TB2 drone is a medium altitude, a long-range platform designed as a combat aircraft. It was used with great success by Azerbaijan against Armenia in 2020, Syria against the Kurds, and Ukraine against Russia.
Drone warfare is still relatively new and is a game changer. Azerbaijan cleaned Armenia’s clock using only twelve drones to destroy half of their tanks. Of the 146 tanks destroyed, half were from direct drone strikes and the other half from artillery targeted by sensors on the drones.
Baykar might be building enough drones so Ukraine can use them in swarms. We are no longer in the 20th Century, and it is an error to discount the effectiveness of 21st Century weapons against mid-20th Century Russian armor.
It’s now all about the sensors and the technologies used to position them.
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That My Pillow Guy
The FBI seized Mike Lindell’s cell phone this week without a warrant. It is unclear whether the seizure was intended to discover Lindell’s associate’s names or whether it was a harassment move before the midterm election. Lindell, known as the My Pillow Guy, has financially underwritten much of the investigation into the 2020 election fraud and legislation meant to improve election security and transparency.
The government is becoming more aggressive. Were the seizure and harassment activities ordered by Biden or Wray? Why don’t we remove the cherry trees in Washington and plant banana trees? It isn’t very comfortable for the Biden Administration to be a Banana Republic without real bananas.
Maybe it was an attempt to provoke outrage? The commies got a lot of mileage from the January 6 protest. Their tactic remains the same: create an offense, organize outrage among unsuspecting conservatives, set a made-for-TV trap, and round up Biden’s political opposition.
Yup, the only things missing are the actual banana trees and Mike Pence.
After all, Mike Pence is the only Trump insider that has not been harassed or arrested by the FBI.
I wonder why?
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So is the Glass Half Full or Empty?
Back to Craig Jensen’s intriguing comment on the forum…
Biden is going to extremes to hold onto power. The communists running the Department of Justice are facilitating Biden’s epic abuse of power and the executive branch mismanagement.
Biden can’t go on forever. The economy is crashing; food supplies are tightening; energy supplies are a mess; inflation is roaring; Goldman Sachs is losing money, and crime is exploding.
But at the same time, young people, the third generation since the invention of the personal computer, are abandoning centrally controlled technology and creating a parallel society. A critical mass of suburbanites now understands the depravity of the public schools. People still remember peace and prosperity under Trump.
Corruption is exposed daily. Either America goes full woke, or we will have a great revival. The woke option is out of gas; that leaves the Great American resurgence. The Revival.
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Microaggressions
Let’s close this with our friends over at the Babylon Bee. It seems that this happy couple was able to rent the last available U-Haul truck out of Los Angeles.
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Mike Ryan is a chemical engineering consultant to the mineral, iron and steel, chemical, and fiber industries.