The Observations Podcast

In this episode, we take a look at some interesting international stories from the past week. Then we start an initial inquiry—which we'll have to take up again later—about the results of financializing the world economy.

We start with an update on the YouTube situation, where one of our podcasts has been permanently banned. We then discuss Jared Bernstein, the man who is Biden's Chief Economic Advisor, besides having no formal education in, or apparently knowledge of, economics. His response to a Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) question was…interesting. MMT is the luminiferous aether of the 21st century. Politico--surprisingly--reports that the usual suspects are the funding force behind the current wave of pro-Palestine protests on campuses. The Biden administration's new Title IX rules are going to be held up in federal courts for years. Finally, Kristi Noem, in day 8 of the puppycide saga, has now suggested the Joe Biden should've shot his German Shepherd, Commander. She's pretty much destroyed any political future she might have been hoping for.

In this episode, we discuss the latest activities in the legal cases against Donald Trump. We also discuss the upcoming election, and the Biden administration's general ineptitude, especially in regard to the Israel/Gaza conflict.

We received a Community Guidelines warning, and had a video removed from YouTube. The offending passage was Dale reading verbatim from a Federal Court opinion in a podcast released nine months ago. YouTube's moderation process, like their DMCA process, is unacceptably faulty. We also discuss how a Trump/Biden contest seems like a failure of our political system. Finally, Kristi Noem thought it would be a good idea to demonstrate how good she is at making tough decisions by telling us about the time she shot a puppy. And a goat, for good measure.

This week we start with several seemingly unrelated news items. But they all share a common thread: A childlike conception of the world that can only be found in societies descending into decadence. But decadent societies not only build nothing, they preserve nothing that was already built. The end result of decadence is always disaster for a society that engages in it.

It's a bit of a short podcast this week, taken up mainly by a discussion of a complex economic question. Since the 1970s, workers' wages have largely stagnated. Wages stopped increasing with productivity. Wages have declined as a share of GDP. Meanwhile, wages for the very top income earners, "the 1%", have sharply increased. Either we've gone back to 19th-century unregulated capitalism...or the government is somehow involved. Also, Arizona Democrats are being forced to learn how laws work.

After a 2-week hiatus, we're back! We start with immigration, and the legal troubles of one of the least sympathetic 'migrant activists' ever. The Democratic Party of Ohio may have screwed up royally. The collapse of the 99c Store chain raises some troubling economic and cultural issues. And finally, the last hour covers Ukraine, and Anthony Blinken's statement that Ukraine would become a member of NATO. Why? Also, why does NATO still exist? And, to a larger issue: Russia is already a defeated power undergoing demographic collapse. Why are we trying to win harder?

In this episode, we recreate how institutional propaganda was manufactured, in real time, over the last 24 hours. In a speech given last night (16 Mar 24), Donald Trump promised a tariff on Chinese cars made in Mexico for export to the US, if he's elected. If not, he predicted that these cars would cause a bloodbath for the US auto industry. His comments were perverted by the media and the Biden campaign into a statement that not electing him would result in a bloodbath in America, as if Trump was promising some sort of coup. It's more glaring evidence that our sense-making institutions are not only fundamentally broken, but actively dishonest.

This week, we spend the first half of the podcast talking about the legal issues currently before the Supreme Court. We then move to discussions about Gaza, the budget, voting rights, and the Alabama Supreme Court decision that may sharply limit the availability of IVF treatment in that state.

This week, we discuss How the Trump civil fraud verdict is affecting potential real estate investment in New York. We then move to Trump's 60% win in the South Carolina primary, and what a Trump/Biden presidential campaign might look like. Then, we cover a large observational study of COVID vaccine side effects that was released this week, which seems to have unveiled new safety signals. SCOTUS is set to hear a case on social media regulation, challenging new laws passed in Texas and Florida. Finally, we discuss the possibility that America is entering another era of Isolationism, and what that might mean.

In our post-Superbowl return, we start with Tucker Carlson's interview of Vladimir Putin. We then address the strange coupling of US border security with approving more military support for Ukraine. Joe Biden apparently did inappropriately take classified documents home with him, going all the way back to his Senate days, but no one's going to do anything about that. Donald Trump, meanwhile, took a beating in a NY state court. We then muse about a possible security threat to the US that was hinted about this week. Finally, we note that all these stories are part of a series of converging threads of disaster, as things seem to be ever more quickly spinning out of control.

Today, we begin with Joe Biden, and the amusing consequences of wearing a hard hat backwards during a photo op. We then move to the immigration battle between the Federal government as Texas. Finally, we move to the release of recordings from a secret Zoom conference between government employees, NGOs, and activists to use their positions in the government to interfere in the 2020 election. All of these stories demonstrate the institutional failures that are leading us towards disaster. And, yes, Dale DID keep saying it was the 29th.

Apologies for the audio issue for the first few minutes. We start by discussing Ron DeSantis' withdrawal from the presidential race earlier today. The die is now cast. Barring illness or death of one or the other elderly gentleman, the 2024 race will, once again, be a Trump-Biden contest. Meanwhile, Atlanta prosecutor Fani Willis is facing allegations of impropriety in her prosecution of Donald Trump. Finally, we discuss an analysis that indicates North Korea may be preparing for another invasion of South Korea. We have to ask, is this something they're doing on their own, or could any such invasion be a diversionary action to set up a Chinese invasion of Taiwan, to force "reunification" on both Korea and China?

It's the day before the Iowa Caucus, and we look ahead at what it means. Are the polls correct, with Donald Trump Having a lock on victory? Or is something else going on? What does it mean for the nomination race? Democrats are already prepping the electoral battlefield, declaring Donald Trump to be an impending dictator. Maybe Trump will win, maybe he won't. But it's a mistake to to think that MAGA will fade away, no matter what happens.

Our holiday hiatus is over, so we're back to talk about Trump's "removal" from the Primary ballot in CO and ME. We also discuss Claudine Gay's resitgnation from the presidency of Harvard.

After we discuss the cultural implications of a senate staffer recording themselves having sex with another man in a US Senate hearing room, we turn to legal matters. Rudy Giuliani lost a $148.1 million jury verdict in the defamation case bought by two Georgia election workers. Meanwhile, Sidney Powell pled guilty to six misdemeanor counts, and Keneth Cheseboro pled guilty to 1 felony count, in their Georgia election interference cases. The Supreme Court took up a case questioning the validity of charging January 6 protestors with the "obstructing an official proceeding" statute, which could overturn many J6 convistions, as well as drop charges from Donald Trump's upcoming trial. Finally, we look at the latest Harvard/Harris poll.

Interest payments on the National Debt have ballooned to $900 billion per year. For the first time in two decades, debt service now costs more than the entire military budget of the United States. This is not a sign of good economic times ahead. In other news, Hunter Biden's sweetheart deal from Federal prosecutors is dead as fried chicken, with a new series of indictments filed, though he is still getting a bit of a break. Other topics: UPenn's president resigned, Trump won't testify in NY, Ukraine funding got halted in Congress, and Blackrock's Larry Fink doesn't want to talk about ESG anymore.

It was a bit of a rough start, since Dale forgot to hit the Go Live button, but we first get into how House Democrats are abandoning "Bidenomics" as a 2024 Election slogan. We move from there into the many other failures of the Biden Administration. Whatever the policy area may be: Defense, Energy, Immigration...you name it, Joe Biden has the worst possible policy for it.

Libertarian anarcho-capitalist Javier Milei has won the presidential election in Argentina. Putting aside the irony of an anarcho-capitalist running the government, his victory makes us wonder if he can actually implement actual change to Argentina's political culture, which has largely been a long-running love affair with fascist corporatism. That, in turn, makes us wonder whether any electoral change in this country could turn around our political culture's decline into authoritarianism.

The American body politic, and indeed, that of the entire West, has been infested with Progressives. They control every major cultural institution. At this point, it doesn't matter whether the capture was the result of an intentional "Long March Through the Institutions", or happened organically. The only thing that matters is finding a way to defeat the Progressive ideologues who want to weaponize our principles of individual liberty against us.

This week we discuss the myriad ways in which the Federal government refuses to enact policies that help the American people. There is almost no policy implemented by the Federal government, from the budget, to immigration, to law enforcement, in which the interests of the American people are represented.

Hundreds of Israelis are dead and thousands wounded after a massive terrorist attack by Hamas from the Gaza Strip. Israel has moved to a war footing, and an assault against the Gaza Strip by the IDF is expected. The world seems like a powder keg, and we wonder where this might lead.

We start by discussing the disastrous state of the presidential race for 2024...which leads us to a more general question. And it's one that's super important: If our political class was intentionally destroying the country's society and economy...what would they be doing differently?

The Canadian Parliament celebrated a speech from Volodomyr Zelenskiyy by inviting--and giving a standing ovation to--a 98 year-old "Ukrainian Freedom Fighter". Turns out that he fought for Ukrainian freedom as a soldier in the the Nazi 14th Waffen-SS Division. Attorney Lin Wood has decided to turn state's evidence in Trump's criminal trial in Georgia, though what he can say that everyone doesn't already know is unclear. Finally, Real Clear Politics produced a poll on free speech that indicates one-third of Americans seem perfectly happy to let the government censor disfavored speech.