DT
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Excerpts from ZeroHedge, Sept 3, 2025
"Is The Fed Setting Up Trump To Be The Scapegoat?"
It should be obvious the answer is "Yes".
Not that I'm pessimistic or anything.
When the SHTF ... coming soon to wherever you be ... it will be unlike anything we've ever seen.
The US won't escape this time - the US will be the target.
There will be no proper prepping, there will be no planned "safe place"; when it comes - signs seem to indicate soon - there will be only luck, fate, the grace of God.
God may have mercy on our souls but there are no promises for our corporeal selves.
My suggestion? Live life as if it's normal. Don't worry, don't "prep" beyond normality, just enjoy what you have and where you are.
And when the time comes (which no man knows of) ... ?
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Examining the US price Index from the year 1800 to 1913 reveals a period of continuously falling prices. The price index was down by more than 40% by 1913, as compared to the starting year 1800. By some estimates, this fall in prices was even higher as the product basket was continuously becoming better and not even strictly comparable. Most major innovations we can think of – telephones, automobiles, airplanes, computers, mass production, modern medicine, military hardware, etc – happened during this period. The transition of the US from an erstwhile colony of the British Empire to the dominant superpower also occurred in this period. If falling prices had caused the Great Depression of 1929 to 1946, as is popularly believed, or as the Phillips curve implies, the entire 19th century (1801-1900) should have been an extended depression. Instead, what we actually witnessed was a boom of unparalleled proportions in modern history, except for what has happened in China starting in 1990 to date.
The mainstream media narrative even today is that Trump wants to lower interest rates to achieve even higher growth rates, from already what is the “best performing economy ever”. On the other hand, Powell intends to hold the rates steady to protect the purchasing power of the US Dollar. The economic truth is that both narratives are flawed.
Even a 0% rate today cannot prevent a bust of the financial systems that is floating on a sea of asset bubbles – an AI bubble that dwarfs the NASDAQ 2000 bubble; a housing bubble that is far bigger than the 2008 housing bubble; and a US bond bubble that is bigger than these two bubbles combined. The bust at this point is inevitable and imminent – the timeframes would be a few months and not a few years.
The current rate of 4.25% to 4.5% is way too low to contain price inflation meaningfully. The National debt is increasing at an even higher pace than before, and monetary inflation is a natural outcome, indicating that the rates are very accommodative.
For more than 50 months in a row, the core inflation rate – the Fed’s preferred measure – has been above the target 2%. The June 2025 number was 2.82% and under normal conditions, the US Fed would have aggressively hiked the rates. The only reason why they do not do so is “Fiscal Dominance”.
In effect [what] they are doing is the equivalent of putting the National Debt on an Adjustable Rate Mortgage System (ARMS)
Trump is unwittingly setting himself up to be the fall guy for what has essentially been the blunders of the US Federal Reserve.
It would be uncharacteristic of the Fed not to utilize the opportunity and pass the buck, as it has almost always done.
What about the supposed critical issue of the Fed’s Independence?
Truth to be told, the independence of the Free World’s monetary system was eliminated in 1913 with the formation of the Federal Reserve.
The Independence of the Fed was effectively abolished in 1971 when Nixon closed the Gold Window.
Sigh ...
Continue reading →Topkapi Palace
This photo is of some of the detail along the interior friezes.
From 1460 to 1856, Topkapi Palace was the main residence of the Ottoman sultans and primary administrative center of the empire. This was also the location of the (in)famous harem.
Originally named the "Imperial New Palace" (Saray-i Cedid-i Amire or سرای جديد عامره in Ottoman Turkish), the name was changed to Topkapi in the mid-1700s.
The palace overlooks the Golden Horn where the Bosphorus Strait enters the Marmara Sea; the Golden Horn being the location where the Moslem Turks finally captured the Byzantine capital of Constantinople.
The palace was transformed into a museum by the new Turkish Republic after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in the early 1920s. The palace is now a primary tourist destination and is heavily guarded by Turkish troops.
It is crowded and since it contains artifacts of Mohammed - as Constantinople was the seat of the Islamic Caliphate until 1924, one needs to deal with the not-pleasant looks of the faithful when passing by the exhibits.
There will be more images coming of the western Turkey as the muse strikes.
Continue reading →Tunesday – Mazzy Star “Mary Of Silence”
A sample of some obscure – and some maybe not obscure – tunes from my strange and off-the-wall collection.
Today’s selection: Mazzy Star "Mary Of Silence" 1993
Mazzy Star formed in 1988 out of Santa Monica, CA. Their most famous song was "Fade Into You" of 1993 but as I like to post obscure items, I've selected "Mary Of Silence" from the same album.
I like the composition; I find it reminiscent of The Stooges' 1969 composition, "We Will Fall".
I kind of implied ahead of time I have an off-the-wall taste in music.
Continue reading →Flying-By Time
Mrs DT and I have been watching old 1950s B&W TV westerns lately; she likes them, I recall watching them as a yung'un. (Mrs DT is foreign born and did not have the pleasure - or age for that matter - to have watched the original releases).
It comes to me that I'm near-on as far distant in time from originally watching those oat-burners as they were from the times they depicted.
Continue reading →Not A Hilton …
When I lived near the US50/I-70 corridor (anywhere from San Jose to Denver) and had to travel to East US when not in a rush, I'd try to avoid the interstates where feasible which usually meant taking US34 across Nebraska or US36 across Kansas.
About 50 miles east of the Colorado line in Atwood Kansas is this funky little motel. I've not been by in a number of years - US36 is far off my path now I live in Idaho - but it was a pleasant and inexpensive place to stay during those times I was caught in a Kansas snowstorm.
Here I Go Again – A Link To An Outside Article
Much as I dislike providing live links in posts, I think this article should be spread far and wide.
QTR’s Fringe Finance: "Every Industry Is An Airport Lounge Now"
Continue reading →Sometimes – Out In The Sage …
Pile of rocks under an old sagebrush. Wooden cross with no markings visible. Faded white paint likely not as old as the grave.
Some sage can live as long as 70-100 years. This one's not young but not dying either.
I've been known to just wander off through the brush - no paths, no hint of a trail. Tracks of jackrabbits, coyotes, fox perhaps - other small creatures ... but no obvious evidence of man. Even so, "objects" can be found - rarely, often only shards of now-purple glass (which is due to manganese in the glass and usually dates from the 1880s to pre-WWI), maybe pieces of ceramic plate, a few nails ... and even more rarely, a grave marked only by a rectangular pile of sun-aged rocks. Even more rarely, a grave with a marker.
I forget where I found this grave. There were no markings but the cross was relatively new as indicated by paint remnants and minimal weathering of the wood.
Someone knew ...
But I didn't.
So I took the photo and travelled on.
Continue reading →Voyager Probe
I saw this meme and figured I'd comment.
Not quite but not far off. A little bit less memory and an earlier version of FORTRAN (Formula Translation System). The probe is still active.
The probe was launched in 1977 with preliminary development starting in the 60s. FORTRAN77 hadn't yet been developed; if FORTRAN, probably a version of FORTRAN IV. The 6 computer system - built of essentially Texas Instrument's 7400 series TTL CMOS (more likely the 5400 series) - has a total of 32k memory made of what could be considered specialized layered PCB traces. And yes, it did have an 8-trak tape recorder - though not of the type found in cars of the late 60s/early 70s.
Of the 6 custom computers, 2 18-bit word units were dedicated to the command system (each 4096 words), 2 16-bit 8198 word units were for the flight data, 2 18-bit 4096 each units were for attitude control. The command system has been operating continuously since 1977 - the control electronics did not include a microprocessor (my hoopty-doo up-to-date computer system has to be re-booted every so often, usually at inconvenient times). Power is provided by what is essentially a nuclear reactor.
Both Voyager probes are still fully active although the isotopes providing power are expected to decay beyond usefulness in 2036. Having been designed before computers changed from being assistance tools to controlling elements, and when design engineering depended more on empirical data rather than models, it is no wonder these over-achieving probes are still active.
FORTRAN was the first compiled computer language being developed in 1956. It is still among the top 10 computer languages in use today.
Continue reading →Thelma & Louise
Thelma and Louise went off the cliff at this location (middle-distant edge) but was filmed from the other direction (and probably from a helicopter). Although this is the Colorado River, it is not in Grand Canyon as the movie implies but located outside Moab, Utah along Potash Road.
In 2016, the Library of Congress selected the film for preservation in the National Film Registry, finding it "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
Continue reading →