(CBS NEWS Poll)
75% of Americans thought Trump's SOTU was good.
75% of Americans thought Trump's SOTU was unifying.
43% of Democrats thought Trump's SOTU speech was good.
91% of Americans favored what they heard on infrastructure.
81% of Americans thought the president was unifying the country.
75% of Americans favored what they heard on national security.
72% of Americans favored what they heard on immigration.
Abandon any dreams (or nightmares) of the people who brought you Russia-gate and Antifa taking over the known universe.
Ain't. Gonna. Happen.
They are, clearly, a minority of the country, by any measure.
And despite the Communist News Network's ceaseless coup-mongering drumbeat, when they actually listen to the guy, and hear it straight, and unfiltered, the overwhelming majority of Americans think the whackjobs in the #Resistance are a bunch of fucking lunatics.
This does not bode well for the
On top of that, today is supposed to be the release date for the FISA memo that will detail how out-of-control and partisan the FBI and intelligence apparatus became under HopeyDopey.
Cue tumbrels and angry, pitchfork-and-torch-toting mobs.
Bad news for the "burn it all down" right wing, this portends that a catastrophic and dystopian Walking Dead future isn't very likely any time soon.
Does that mean things will be wonderful forever? Hell no.
Should you still be ready for unfortunate local and regional disasters, let alone personal ones? Hell yes.
If you think being crippled in a car crash, or losing your job aren't a personal catastrophe equivalent to zombies wanting to eat your brains, you've never had to make a property tax payment in a body cast, or been eating canned stew and ketchup sandwiches from the 99 Cent Store because it's what you could afford.
But you've now got breathing room - for a time - to run up the score.
Both in a personal sense, by deepening your preps for bad times, and culturally, by pushing things in the culture to your way of thinking, as hard and as far as you can take them.
If you think you can't push back the tide, visit the Netherlands.
And the economy, bloated beyond rational expectations by eight years of printing unbacked fiat bux three shifts a day for eight years, is going to have a correction. Probably one that will make 1999 and 2008 look like Little League warm-up pitches by comparison.
So someday, maybe weeks or months, maybe years, but eventually, inevitably, things are going to go to crap, financially and economically.
Have options.
Protect what you've got by putting money into things that can't depreciate like stocks, bonds, and cash can. What that should be for you, you've got to figure out. Develop income streams that you control, and that adapt easier to a grey economy than a pay stub with direct deposit does.
The twin daggers of random Imawannajihadist activities, and whackjob rogue nation-states' shenanigans, coupled with the inevitable forces of nature, are always out in the water past the surf, just beyond where you can see them.
I've said before, every episode of Rescue 9-1-1 had a predictable mathematical formula:
Intractable Forces of Nature + Gross Human Stupidity = Pathos and Melodrama.
The only component you can control is the second half; take out Gross Human Stupidity, by not being That Guy, and you self-select yourself out of the impact crater of any disaster, about 99% of the time.
Do what you can. Opt out. Avoid crowds. Be somewhere else. Prepare for adversity. Test your preps.
And once you've done that, and checked it twice, go out and play. Live your life. Enjoy what you've got, and treat yourself once in awhile. It doesn't cost much if you're doing it right, because the best things in life aren't things.
And laugh at the @$$tards out at the fringes, either working for or hoping for the Zombpocalypse. Not to ridicule the ridiculous is to warp the language, and deny your soul one of the least expensive and most rewarding (in every sense) pleasures there is:
not being counted among the Stupid People.
Which is the entire reason for the existence of things like Dr. Laura and daytime talk shows.
Aesop,
ReplyDeleteThere are many awaiting impatiently for the "Zombie Apocalypse"...and some observers might feel that their impatience is foolish. Maybe it is. Maybe. But consider a diagnosis of Cancer, and the requirement of a dicey operation, with your survival in the balance. The date has been set, and you know you will either die on the table or face a protracted period of convalescence, very slow and painful recovery. Is it not human nature, as the date approaches, to just look forward to "getting it over with" to avoid the existential angst that the slow march to the knife provides?
I would suggest that those who embrace the unavoidable tumult the country faces, and find the specter "exciting" be less than honest with themselves...perhaps not students of history.
Yup, having a surprise heart valve transplant taught me that catastrophe does not have to mean the End of the World occurred. I was out of work for five weeks between surgery and going back. During those five week recuperation, I could not work. So no money coming in + hospital bills + doctor bills + monthly bills that DON'T stop = Damnation ! Took me about nine months to come up for a breath of air, I was underwater for quite a spell.
ReplyDeleteFeeling much better now, but for some time, it was downright depressing.
Good summary and GREAT advice. We DO have some breathing room, though none of us knows how deep and wide that room is it's important to use the time to best advantage - to include enjoying it.
ReplyDeleteWe dodged a fusillade in 16 - pay attention to 18 and support those WORTHY of support. The RINOs don't need your time or money; they have plenty of bucks from selling us out over the years.
I've got some requirements best met by staying with my current employer a while yet but as soon as they are on track then it will be different endeavors for a much better "boss".
BG
Agree emphatically! Trump wasn't my first pick - I was rooting for Walker, who never really got traction - but he's done a superb job. Our president has cut federal regulations, cut bloated bureaucracy, cut taxes, and I'm not tired of winning!
ReplyDeleteRemembering the end of the 70's and Carter's stagflation, when America was stomped on and it looked like bad times were settling in. Reagan changed that, got things running again. Obama got 8 years to hose the US versus Carter's 4, but in some ways Trump is outdoing Reagan. I'm hoping that we can avoid the bad times that stared us in the face as HRC approached her 'inevitable' coronation.
I think it is the hidden things in a man that really keeps it high and tight.
ReplyDeleteHonorable death, faithful wife, decent children.
Money don't hurt, but that can be a goal regardless.
The hard part of keeping our investments in tangibles is we usually have to buy retail and sell wholesale. It takes a long time to overcome that imbalance. Even land has a large chunk taken out when transferring ownership. Same with metals, art or other precious things.
ReplyDeleteCourse we can buy 2 years of food and throw away half of it after a year due to spoilage or out of date issues. Cheap insurance I guess.
Think Neal summed it up pretty well.
I like the way he talks. Slow, so the demoncraps can understand what he says.
ReplyDeleteloren,
ReplyDeleteneal did say it well.
You could just eat the food and replace it as you do, couldn't you?
I don't buy tangibles with an eye toward selling them. I accumulate them to be passed on to my "decent children" (thank you God!) and their "decent children". The rest is "pay as you go", preferably cash.
Boat Guy