The camera’s perspective those last few seconds is daunting:
Comments
Open thread 9/9/2024 — 20 Comments
Bill Jacobson of the Legal Insurrection Foundation has been “uninvited” from giving a scheduled lecture on campus antisemitism at a synagogue in the Tampa area:
Apparently one or more members of the congregation don’t like his politics. So they complained to the rabbi, who gave in.
We talk a lot on this forum about the American Jewish community. Here’s Jacobson’s take:
“I’ll survive, but I’m not sure about the long-term survival of the American Jewish community, which is facing unprecedented pressures on campuses and communities. The liberal American Jewish community is so broken, it can’t even unify over something like fighting campus antisemitism.”
One or more members that are high dollar donners, that is.
As for the young woman making the dive, just no way at all, I could not even make it half way up to the platform.
Shirehome: could be. The depressing thing is I think the rabbi would have caved even if money wasn’t at stake.
The dive: holy sh*t. Wonder what it feels like on the way down; no interest in finding out. Made me think of the jumping-off-the-cliff scene in “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid”.
• In June I commented on a report that Trump had talked about abolishing income taxes and replacing the primary government revenue source with tariffs (see link below). And I also commented: ” 3) Personally, I would like this country to create a Sovereign Wealth Fund.”
• Was pleased when Trump recently spoke about creating a Sovereign Wealth Fund. And was pleased when Burgum spoke this weekend about one of my favorite potential revenue streams for the fund (i.e., natural assets).
• Again, have never had any problem with Trump the executive expressing “whiteboard ideas” because I understand he is both challenging the Status Quo/ Conventional Wisdom, and stimulating the collective Thought Process – in order to address the Need. Also recognize that the Trump Doctrine is one of the most important doctrines in this nations’ history: Economic Security is National Security.
Shortly after the 2020 election, Neo posted a video of a Michigan poll observer at a hearing in which she reported the shenanigans that she observed on election night and how her attempts to notify staff of them were rebuffed. I recall Neo commenting on how angry this made her.
I got really angry on reading the post at the above link. It describes a Kafkaesque situation in Minnesota – about which nothing can apparently be done.
Trump will need a significant showing to exceed the margin of fraud.
If you want more tax dollars flowing into the pockets of the connected, a sovereign wealth fund is probably one of the quickest ways.
Imagine a sovereign wealth fund in the hands of President Harris. Imagine the kinds of “investments” she’d make. Remember when we used to complain about Solyndra? There’d be three kinds: fashionable blue sky projects that deliver nothing, poorly disguised payoffs to interest groups, and initiatives that increase government power. None of them would have much to do with generating wealth.
And of course any private company the government invested in would be doing the government’s bidding under threat of divestment. You think DEI is bad under corporate America now?
The global fertility crisis is already here
For the first time, humans aren’t producing enough babies to sustain the population
I remember the summer of 1969 at the High School pool, getting up the courage to jump from the high dive, feet first. Then finally climbing the ladder to the top diving platform, which was much higher than it looked from the ground, and realizing there was no turning back…
What that girl and all high divers do is truly amazing.
The deck of an aircraft carrier is 55 feet above the waterline. The Navy wanted Airedales to be able to jump safely into the water from that height. A training jump into the pool from 55 feet was the answer. Scary. No jump, no wings. Whatcha gonna do?
The first time is the worst. Then, like the diver, muscle memory kicks in and you have the confidence that it will be okay.
When I was young a stupid we would dive off some cliffs at a nearby state park. The ‘daredevil’ jump was about 30 feet, but no one ventured to do a swan dive, including me.
There was another outcropping about 20 feet high and I thought piece of cake, only I didn’t get my head tucked before hitting the water. Bam, whiplash. It took years to get my neck to stabilize in position and countless trips to the chiropractor. All the MD’s had was muscle relaxers.
My local pool’s high board was 10 feet as I remember it and no problem diving from it, though the springboard would tend to make you over-rotate.
First, wow! Second, people like… need to be challenged, productive as a rite of life. Third, life is not so short, and we are extraordinarily resilient.
Niketas, I think Trump wants to use the excess sale of oil from Alaska oil to pay down the debt. I can’t imagine any other use for it, until the debt was paid off.
But your point is well taken. The next administration could simply divert the profits to another use.
It’s my understanding that Russia is using its Sovereign Wealth Fund to pay for the SMO into Ukraine– at least in part. The Russia debt to GDP is about 15%, compared to ours at ??? 120%? Who knows. I’ve read Russia has enough reserves to fund the war for about two more years.
By the way Trump had set up to start using Alaska Reserve oil in his first term.
April 25, (2021) (Reuters) – The Biden administration on Monday overturned a controversial Trump-era policy that would have opened new swathes of Arctic Alaska to oil development.
The Bureau of Land Management, part of the Department of Interior, resurrected Obama-era management policies in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska, a 23-million-acre (9.3 million hectare) area on the western side of Alaska’s North Slope.
@Brian E:Niketas, I think Trump wants to use the excess sale of oil from Alaska oil to pay down the debt.
Gotta start somewhere, I guess… I suppose restraint in spending is just crazy talk…
I can’t imagine any other use for it, until the debt was paid off.
The Federal debt as of today is $35.3 trillion. I don’t think Alaska HAS that much oil… Oil is about $70 bbl right now, that would be about 500 billion bbl. (Sure wouldn’t stay at that price since that would be such a huge change in the market, world consumption is about 40 million bbl annually).The entire US GDP right now is about $28.7 trillion, for context; about 120% debt-to-GDP like you guessed.
Maybe the Alaska oil could cover some of the interest on the debt.
A sovereign wealth fund is appropriate for countries whose economies are distorted by natural resource bonanzas. The revenue from severance taxes or from state enterprises’ fuel and mineral sales goes into the fund and is invested in equities, bonds, and paper issued the world over. The interest and dividend income then supplements tax revenue. That doesn’t describe the United States. Fuel and mineral exports account for < 3% of gross domestic product and we've been a net borrower for four decades.
You want to reduce the significance of the debt, first stop borrowing. Reduce spending, raise taxes. Make it policy to balance the budget over the course of a business cycle so there is no upward trajectory in nominal debt. As nominal gross domestic product increases, the share of national income devoted to the servicing burden will decline (depending on what else is going on in credit markets). We can make some inroads by auctioning off federal assets like grazing land, but the benefits will be modest.
==
We don’t benefit from a program to ‘abolish the income tax’. We benefit from being as thorough as we can be in removing the sectoral preferences from all sorts of taxes and reducing the man-hours required to calculate tax liability.
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/25075145-republican-alumni-for-harris-statement
==
Another piece of evidence, in case you needed one, that the Republican Party ca. 2008 was infested with careerist trash. Roger Stone was once asked what his principles were. He said “I don’t work both sides of the street”. These people cannot even manage that level of principle.
I’m down with acrophobia — fear of heights. I often look away during movie scenes playing upon that.
During my time with Tony Robbins I had to step up to that fear. During his Life Mastery event you are strapped into a harness, you climb to a platform 40-50 feet off the ground, then you leap to catch a trapeze bar several feet away.
Even if you catch and hold the bar, which very few do, you still must let go and plunge until the harness catches you.
That’s for the regular participants.
I was later a Leadership participant, which meant I looked after regular Life Mastery participants. As part of my training, Tony had us flown up to an altitude of several thousand feet, then do a tandem parachute jump.
I’m not going to say it was exactly a cool experience, but I did it and I didn’t freak out.
Well, my father trained as a paratrooper during WW II. I always wanted to jump in his honor … once.
Scratched that off my bucket list.
J.J., could you elaborate on Airedales?
Navy pilots are referred to as Airedales. No idea why.
As for resources, I read that we(US) are supposed to have a very large amount of rare earths, but don’t mine because of environmental concerns. Maybe this should be revisited.
Leave a Reply
HTML tags allowed in your
comment: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>
Bill Jacobson of the Legal Insurrection Foundation has been “uninvited” from giving a scheduled lecture on campus antisemitism at a synagogue in the Tampa area:
https://legalinsurrection.com/2024/09/uninvited/
Apparently one or more members of the congregation don’t like his politics. So they complained to the rabbi, who gave in.
We talk a lot on this forum about the American Jewish community. Here’s Jacobson’s take:
“I’ll survive, but I’m not sure about the long-term survival of the American Jewish community, which is facing unprecedented pressures on campuses and communities. The liberal American Jewish community is so broken, it can’t even unify over something like fighting campus antisemitism.”
One or more members that are high dollar donners, that is.
As for the young woman making the dive, just no way at all, I could not even make it half way up to the platform.
Shirehome: could be. The depressing thing is I think the rabbi would have caved even if money wasn’t at stake.
The dive: holy sh*t. Wonder what it feels like on the way down; no interest in finding out. Made me think of the jumping-off-the-cliff scene in “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid”.
• In June I commented on a report that Trump had talked about abolishing income taxes and replacing the primary government revenue source with tariffs (see link below). And I also commented: ” 3) Personally, I would like this country to create a Sovereign Wealth Fund.”
https://www.thenewneo.com/2024/06/14/open-thread-6-14-24/#comments
• Was pleased when Trump recently spoke about creating a Sovereign Wealth Fund. And was pleased when Burgum spoke this weekend about one of my favorite potential revenue streams for the fund (i.e., natural assets).
https://x.com/i/status/1832782962695209086
• Again, have never had any problem with Trump the executive expressing “whiteboard ideas” because I understand he is both challenging the Status Quo/ Conventional Wisdom, and stimulating the collective Thought Process – in order to address the Need. Also recognize that the Trump Doctrine is one of the most important doctrines in this nations’ history: Economic Security is National Security.
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2024/09/voter-fraud-what-voter-fraud.php
Shortly after the 2020 election, Neo posted a video of a Michigan poll observer at a hearing in which she reported the shenanigans that she observed on election night and how her attempts to notify staff of them were rebuffed. I recall Neo commenting on how angry this made her.
I got really angry on reading the post at the above link. It describes a Kafkaesque situation in Minnesota – about which nothing can apparently be done.
Oh, here’s another one, also via powerline:
https://jewishworldreview.com/0924/murdock090924.php
Trump will need a significant showing to exceed the margin of fraud.
If you want more tax dollars flowing into the pockets of the connected, a sovereign wealth fund is probably one of the quickest ways.
Imagine a sovereign wealth fund in the hands of President Harris. Imagine the kinds of “investments” she’d make. Remember when we used to complain about Solyndra? There’d be three kinds: fashionable blue sky projects that deliver nothing, poorly disguised payoffs to interest groups, and initiatives that increase government power. None of them would have much to do with generating wealth.
And of course any private company the government invested in would be doing the government’s bidding under threat of divestment. You think DEI is bad under corporate America now?
The global fertility crisis is already here
For the first time, humans aren’t producing enough babies to sustain the population
https://thespectator.com/topic/global-fertility-crisis-already-here/
I remember the summer of 1969 at the High School pool, getting up the courage to jump from the high dive, feet first. Then finally climbing the ladder to the top diving platform, which was much higher than it looked from the ground, and realizing there was no turning back…
What that girl and all high divers do is truly amazing.
The deck of an aircraft carrier is 55 feet above the waterline. The Navy wanted Airedales to be able to jump safely into the water from that height. A training jump into the pool from 55 feet was the answer. Scary. No jump, no wings. Whatcha gonna do?
The first time is the worst. Then, like the diver, muscle memory kicks in and you have the confidence that it will be okay.
When I was young a stupid we would dive off some cliffs at a nearby state park. The ‘daredevil’ jump was about 30 feet, but no one ventured to do a swan dive, including me.
There was another outcropping about 20 feet high and I thought piece of cake, only I didn’t get my head tucked before hitting the water. Bam, whiplash. It took years to get my neck to stabilize in position and countless trips to the chiropractor. All the MD’s had was muscle relaxers.
My local pool’s high board was 10 feet as I remember it and no problem diving from it, though the springboard would tend to make you over-rotate.
First, wow! Second, people like… need to be challenged, productive as a rite of life. Third, life is not so short, and we are extraordinarily resilient.
Niketas, I think Trump wants to use the excess sale of oil from Alaska oil to pay down the debt. I can’t imagine any other use for it, until the debt was paid off.
But your point is well taken. The next administration could simply divert the profits to another use.
It’s my understanding that Russia is using its Sovereign Wealth Fund to pay for the SMO into Ukraine– at least in part. The Russia debt to GDP is about 15%, compared to ours at ??? 120%? Who knows. I’ve read Russia has enough reserves to fund the war for about two more years.
By the way Trump had set up to start using Alaska Reserve oil in his first term.
@Brian E:Niketas, I think Trump wants to use the excess sale of oil from Alaska oil to pay down the debt.
Gotta start somewhere, I guess… I suppose restraint in spending is just crazy talk…
I can’t imagine any other use for it, until the debt was paid off.
The Federal debt as of today is $35.3 trillion. I don’t think Alaska HAS that much oil… Oil is about $70 bbl right now, that would be about 500 billion bbl. (Sure wouldn’t stay at that price since that would be such a huge change in the market, world consumption is about 40 million bbl annually).The entire US GDP right now is about $28.7 trillion, for context; about 120% debt-to-GDP like you guessed.
Maybe the Alaska oil could cover some of the interest on the debt.
A sovereign wealth fund is appropriate for countries whose economies are distorted by natural resource bonanzas. The revenue from severance taxes or from state enterprises’ fuel and mineral sales goes into the fund and is invested in equities, bonds, and paper issued the world over. The interest and dividend income then supplements tax revenue. That doesn’t describe the United States. Fuel and mineral exports account for < 3% of gross domestic product and we've been a net borrower for four decades.
You want to reduce the significance of the debt, first stop borrowing. Reduce spending, raise taxes. Make it policy to balance the budget over the course of a business cycle so there is no upward trajectory in nominal debt. As nominal gross domestic product increases, the share of national income devoted to the servicing burden will decline (depending on what else is going on in credit markets). We can make some inroads by auctioning off federal assets like grazing land, but the benefits will be modest.
==
We don’t benefit from a program to ‘abolish the income tax’. We benefit from being as thorough as we can be in removing the sectoral preferences from all sorts of taxes and reducing the man-hours required to calculate tax liability.
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/25075145-republican-alumni-for-harris-statement
==
Another piece of evidence, in case you needed one, that the Republican Party ca. 2008 was infested with careerist trash. Roger Stone was once asked what his principles were. He said “I don’t work both sides of the street”. These people cannot even manage that level of principle.
I’m down with acrophobia — fear of heights. I often look away during movie scenes playing upon that.
During my time with Tony Robbins I had to step up to that fear. During his Life Mastery event you are strapped into a harness, you climb to a platform 40-50 feet off the ground, then you leap to catch a trapeze bar several feet away.
Even if you catch and hold the bar, which very few do, you still must let go and plunge until the harness catches you.
That’s for the regular participants.
I was later a Leadership participant, which meant I looked after regular Life Mastery participants. As part of my training, Tony had us flown up to an altitude of several thousand feet, then do a tandem parachute jump.
I’m not going to say it was exactly a cool experience, but I did it and I didn’t freak out.
Well, my father trained as a paratrooper during WW II. I always wanted to jump in his honor … once.
Scratched that off my bucket list.
J.J., could you elaborate on Airedales?
Navy pilots are referred to as Airedales. No idea why.
As for resources, I read that we(US) are supposed to have a very large amount of rare earths, but don’t mine because of environmental concerns. Maybe this should be revisited.