Operation Mockingbird

 After Trump kicked Zelensky out of the Oval Office last Friday (Feb 28), European leaders thought it would be cute to post the same message on X.  The message:

Your dignity honours the bravery of the Ukrainian people. Be strong, be brave, be fearless. You are never alone, dear President @ZelenskyyUa. We will continue working with you for a just and lasting peace.

This identical message was posted by the following:

President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen

President of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola

European Commissioner for Trade Valdis Dombrovskis 

European Parliament member Manfred Weber

European Council President António Costa

The messages were all sent within 15 minutes of each other.

Source: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/european-leaders-flamed-creepy-pro-zelenskyy-posts-read-exactly-same

My guess is that the same person manages all of their social media accounts and didn't think about how odd this would look.

Democratic Senators or Puppets

 Why would these Senators make videos with the same script word for word?  Are they just really lazy or are these deepfakes or are they being controlled?  It is bizarre no matter what the explanation is, and these "distinguished" Senators have diminished themselves.  Here is the script:

The video opened with a short clip of Trump vowing to lower the cost of living for Americans beginning on the first day of his presidency. "Shit that ain't true, That's what you just saw.  Since day one of Donald Trump's presidency, prices are up, not down. Inflation is getting worse, not better. The prices of groceries, gas, housing, eggs, they're all getting more expensive. Meanwhile, Donald Trump has done nothing to lower costs for you.  Instead, he's pardoned violent criminals who beat police officers on January 6," the videos continued, cutting from the senators to show a clip from the protest at the Capitol.  "He's letting Elon Musk take a chainsaw to vital government programs. And then, even worse, giving him access to Americans' most sensitive data — Social Security numbers, tax returns, health care bills. Trump and Musk are firing thousands of essential workers and freezing funding for vital programs.  Why are they doing this? Trump, Musk, DOGE [Department of Government Efficiency] are taking these vital services away from you for one reason only: so they can give tax breaks to their billionaires' club, they added. Billionaires win; families lose. And that is the truth.

And here are the puppets who are being told what to say:

Senators Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.)
Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.),
Cory Booker (D-N.J.),
Dick Durbin (Ill.),
Chris Coons (Del.),
Tammy Baldwin (Wis.),
Tammy Duckworth (Ill.),
Tim Kaine (Va.),
Chris Van Hollen (Md.),
Gary Peters (Mich.),
Mazie Hirono (Hawaii),
Peter Welch (Vt.),
Ben Ray Luján (N.M.),
Martin Heinrich (N.M.),
Jeff Merkley (Ore.),
Mark Kelly (Ariz.), 
Brian Schatz (Hawaii),
Andy Kim (N.J.),
Alex Padilla (Calif.),
Mark Warner (Va.),
Richard Blumenthal (Conn.),
Angela Alsobrooks (Md.),
Ed Markey (Mass.),
Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.),
and Sheldon Whitehouse (R.I.).

Source: https://www.theblaze.com/news/25-dem-senators-parrot-same-script-in-videos-slamming-trump-musk

https://x.com/InsiderWire/status/1896965208830308778

The Democrats want to shut down the government on March 15

Say Democrats vote against a clean spending bill in the House and allow a shutdown to occur: Musk might have dismissed tens of thousands of federal workers, but Uncle Sam still employs more than 2 million more who would be furloughed without pay.  Amid the finger-pointing, Republicans would call vote after vote to reopen government agencies — casting Democrats as the ones who are repeatedly choosing to keep agencies shut and employees home without paychecks. 

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/03/04/house-democrats-shutdown-doge-00205584

Trump, the evil genius, is playing 10-D chess.  The Democrats don't like spending cuts, so in protest they shut the whole thing down, showing how worthless most bureaucrats are.  They aren't going to win this, because they need the government open more than the Republicans do.  Its like a union going on strike - can they outlast management who now doesn't have to pay the wages of the strikers?    

And then Trump is intentionally causing a recession with cutting government spending and imposing tariffs.  This will force the Fed to cut rates, which is what Trump wants.  

How Janet Yellen intentionally set a $9 trillion trap for Scott Bessent

 There are $9.2 trillion of Treasury bills, notes, and bonds expiring that must be refinanced in 2025.  Until 2021, the long term interest rates were under 2%.  Yellen could have sold more bonds at the long end of the curve, but she choose to sell them short-term.  Now this must all be refinanced at 4.25% (or higher) interest.

Read: https://confoundedinterest.net/2025/03/02/yellens-folly-treasury-secretary-bessent-faces-refinancing-of-9-trillion-in-treasury-debt-in-2025-thanks-biden-pelosi-schumer/

Unleash the warrior within

 Read: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14452983/trump-fuels-rumors-white-house-takedown-zelensky-promoting-elaborate-theory.html

Amid speculation that President Trump and JD Vance planned an Oval Office ambush of Volodymyr Zelensky, Trump has now posted an analysis by a martial arts instructor who called it a 'setup.' Trump, who played a round of golf at his West Palm Beach course Sunday, posted a write-up by the head of an Arizona karate dojo who took on the idea that the angry White House meeting went off the rails by accident – instead calling it 'brilliant strategy.' The article acknowledged segments of public revulsion of what happened – but speculated that Trump and Vance maneuvered to outflank Zelensky during the televised smack-down, comparing the president to a 'master chess player.' 'So what you witnessed tonight was a setup. Trump and JD Vance knew that the only way to achieve peace was to strategically align, at least on the surface, with Russia. Why? Because Russia would never sign a peace treaty if Ukraine were admitted into NATO,' wrote Michael McCune in his posting on his Facebook group page.  The page links him with the dojo where he is an instructor, with the tag 'Karate-Do way of life' and the slogan 'unleash the warrior within.'  Trump snipped the text below the 'setup' line, instead including an image of the bottom of his post on his Truth Social site without the full link, identifying McCune only by his name without any other identifying information. However the full post is available online. 'Now, Zelenskyy will have no choice but to back down and accept Trump's terms. But here’s the genius part—Trump is actually protecting Ukraine without dragging the U.S. into war,' it said. The post says the rare earth minerals deal negotiated by both sides – which was completed but left unsigned after the blowup – 'ensures that Americans will be involved in Ukraine’s mining industry. This prevents Russia from launching an invasion, because attacking Ukraine would mean endangering American lives—something that would force the U.S. to respond.' 'Trump played both sides like a master chess player. In the end, Zelenskyy will have no choice but to concede, because without U.S. support, Ukraine cannot win a prolonged war against Russia. And once U.S. companies have mining operations in Ukraine, Putin will be unable to attack without triggering massive international consequences. 'Don’t underestimate Donald Trump. In this game of chess, he’s 10 moves ahead of everyone,' he concluded.

Comment:  Zelensky is an idiot.  All he can say is: "Putin bad, Ukraine is a victim, give me money in unlimited amounts, forever".  He needs to trust Trump, who actually has a plan that Zelensky can't understand.  

Transhumanism is Slavery

The dominant techno-optimist ideology of our time—a reckless fusion of Nietzschean will-to-power, accelerationist dogma, and neoliberal market absolutism—is not just misguided but fundamentally anti-human. It does not seek to serve humanity but to surpass it, viewing human beings as a temporary evolutionary step toward a post-biological order. Its adherents do not merely disrupt industries; they aim to rewrite human nature itself, treating moral limits as obsolete constraints and communities as relics to be dismantled. Beneath their utopian rhetoric lies a nihilistic project: the replacement of embodied souls with disembodied data, of sacred life with machine logic.

https://news.gab.com/2025/02/the-transhumanist-delusion/

Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future

 This looks like a very interesting book that I haven't read yet.  Available here: https://archive.org/details/ElonMuskTeslaSpaceX/mode/2up

A version of this, called "Elon Musk and the Quest for a Fantastic Future, Young Readers Edition" was produced in 2019 for a cost of $17,054, funded by USAID.  Ironically, this is the agency that Musk is trying to shut down.

Update:  This is Retrofuturism, with retro being 2019, which seems like ancient history now.

I mentioned this before somewhere but the total National Debt was only $23.2 trillion on 12/31/2019, whereas now it is $36.2 trillion.

The Egg Shortage Plandemic

 In 2020, eggs prices cost an average of $1.51 per dozen.  Today (Feb 24, 2025), it is virtually impossible to buy eggs because they are sold out, and when you can buy them, the cost is about $8 per dozen.  

Why is this? Because the US Department of Agriculture has ordered the killing of hundreds of millions of chickens because they may be infected with bird flu (H5N1).  The only problem is that the bird flu is a massive fraud that exceeds even COVID-19.  The PCR test is fake and there is no bird flu.  The CDC and USDA are run by psychopaths.

Read this: https://sashalatypova.substack.com/p/avian-flu-virus-h5n1-no-proof-for

Also: https://sashalatypova.substack.com/p/faking-fakery-the-prequel-how-theranos

Wait! What am I talking about? PCR is not a diagnostic. Except, the CDC goons are currently slaughtering and mRNA-poisoning all 300M+ healthy chickens in the US based on the fake PCR tests of “H5N1 virus”… but nevermind! Reasonable, thoughtful, health freedom-minded scientists do not claim it’s a diagnostic. They talk about “facts and fears of avian flu”, “leaky vaccines”, etc. omitting the only true fact - H5N1 or avian flu is a fake. 

A Debt Spiral and US Financial Collapse in the 2030s

 Read:  https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2025/02/a-debt-spiral-and-us-financial-collapse-in-the-2030s.html

The U.S. national debt is currently $37 trillion, and it’s growing at a rate of $1 trillion every 100 days. This translates to an annual increase of approximately $3.65 trillion (since there are about 365 days in a year, and $1 trillion every 100 days equals 3.65 increments per year). If this pace continues unchecked, the debt could reach insane levels:

In 5 years [2030]: $37 trillion + (5 × $3.65 trillion) = $55.25 trillion
In 10 years [2035]: $37 trillion + (10 × $3.65 trillion) = $73.5 trillion
In 20 years [2045]: $37 trillion + (20 × $3.65 trillion) = $110 trillion

Conclusion: High Risk by the mid-2030s and pretty certain doom by 2045

USSR-style Collapse: Not imminent, but a debt crisis could emerge in 10–20 years (2034–2044) if the debt grows unchecked at $1 trillion every 100 days, reaching $73.5–$110 trillion. A sudden collapse is less likely than a prolonged struggle.

Hyperinflation and Interest Rate/Inflation Spiral: Could begin within 10 years (by 2034) if debt servicing costs spiral and confidence in the dollar weakens, with hyperinflation possible soon after.

Loss of Reserve Currency Status: A gradual shift to Bitcoin, the Euro, or the Yuan might occur over 20–30 years (2044–2054), though a faster transition by 2030 is possible if a crisis accelerates.

Comment:  The author seems to think that the increase in debt is linear, whereas actually it will be like compounding interest.  I am forecasting a $110 trillion debt to the public level (which is less than the total national debt) in 2045 as well.

Could we just adjust to the higher debt level in 2045, which is about 3 times the current level?  After all, what was it 20 years ago in 2005?  About $8 trillion.  So it has increased more than 4.5 times since then.

Mystery Man

 

Who is this?

I am really curious as to who this man is.  He is to the left of Pete Hegseth in Brussels, and is probably an American.  I haven't tried too hard to identify him but here is the first guess according to Yandex Images.

Arturs Karins (Krišjānis Kariņš), former Prime Minister of Latvia.

But I don't think that is him.  Why would the former Prime Minister of Latvia be walking next to Pete Hegseth?  Any other guesses?

I guess I should say, wrong answers only.

 ===================================

Guess #2 also according to Yandex:

Nikolai Denkov, former Prime Minister of Bulgaria.  I also don't think it is him as they look nothing alike except for the glasses.

Guess #3 according to Google Image search:

Woody Johnson, former US Ambassador to the UK.  It's definitely not him.  

Guess #4

It's definitely not Mark Rutte, Secretary General of NATO

Guess #5

Not Mark Esper, former US Secretary of Defense.

Guess #6

Not Bruno Le Maire of France.

Guess #7

Not Andrzej Duda, President of Poland. 

Guess #8

Could it be Jens Stoltenberg of Norway, former Secretary General of NATO?  Maybe, but probably not.

Guess #9

Dietmar Bartsch, German politician?  No

Guess #10, from Google image search

David F Helvey, former Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs.  Maybe, but probably not.  Upon looking again, I think this is the guy.

Another picture of David Helvey from here.  His title is now Deputy Defense Advisor in the US Mission to NATO.

The OODA Loop

 This is Sun Tzu The Art of War type stuff.  OODA means Observe, Orient, Decide, Act.  It means that you interrupt your enemies decision-making process, watch how they react, and then do something else that interrupts their decision making, and it throws them off balance.  It puts you in charge.

"If you could implement the OODA-loop faster than your enemy, then you were “inside” his decision-making cycle.  And they would die.  The key aspect of the OODA-loop is the “loop” — this wasn’t a one-time exercise, but a series of connected actions, each feeding off the other. You took an action and then observed the enemy’s reaction. You orient on the reaction, and decide which option is best before acting. The enemy now reacts. And the cycle repeats. Until the enemy dies. The goal is not to let up once engaged, to keep the enemy reacting to your actions until you have them where you want them."

Read:   https://consortiumnews.com/2025/02/17/scott-ritter-trumps-munich-strategy/

This is the game Trump is playing with the European Union.

Biden and his predecessors delivered a stinking fiscal and monetary mess to Trump

 Read: https://rogerboyd.substack.com/p/trumps-fiscal-hole-an-emperor-in

The US combination of high government debt to GDP (and very high overall public and private debt to GDP), a high government deficit even with a growing economy, and a 4% of GDP current account deficit places it in the worst position relative to other Western nations; only excepting a Japan that went into full on debt monetization many years ago.  Rating agencies estimate a 7.5% of GDP US deficit in both 2025 and 2026, given Trump’s stated plan to renew his expiring tax cuts and provide more for the rich oligarchs, and the small majority that the Republicans have in the Congress. Hence the emergence of DOGE under Elon Musk tasked with rapidly reducing expenditures.

Note: The 7.5% of GDP deficit prediction caught my attention.  I just got through predicting the 2025 deficit as $2.1 trillion, which is 6.9% of GDP.  A 7.5% of GDP deficit in 2025 would be $2.3 trillion, which is another $200 billion.

Projected Debt reaches limit in 2042

 

Here is my chart of projected deficits, interest and debt.  This builds on my previous forecast of Projected Government Spending (ex Interest) through 2040.  My calculation of interest is simple and probably wrong.  It is just 4% of the Debt to the Public at the end of the previous fiscal year.  So this indicates a breaking point in 2042.  Compare this to my previous forecast that indicated a breaking point in 2059.  And the one before that which saw a breaking point in 2039.

The main difference between this and the CBO forecast is that I project much higher interest costs.  I think that they are vastly underestimating interest expenses.  It makes sense to me to base interest on the amount of debt, instead of GDP.  

So what do I think will happen in 2042, give or take a few years?  Most likely inflation will rise above 10% or even go into hyperinflation, making our financial system unrecognizable.

What about DOGE cutting spending?  I don't think it will make much of a difference, the swamp is too deep and can't be drained.  Maybe they could cut spending by $100 billion per year, but it won't make a very big difference.

Magical Money Tree - the next generation

 

Source: https://www.mmted.org/smithfamily/

Hey kids, here is some more propaganda, err "education" for you.  Learn how old people are greedy and stupid and that you know the "truth" which is that the government can solve all the economic problems with the Magical Money Tree and there is no need to raise taxes or cut spending or lay off people.

Projected Government Spending (ex Interest) through 2040

 This is my chart of Projected Government Spending through 2040.  I am just taking the GDP I developed in a prior step and then using the same percentages that CBO does.  I see a couple of weird dips, like in 2029, spending is supposed to drop from 20.3% of GDP to 19.9% of GDP - why is that?  Also, it drops from 20.7% in 2033 to 20.3% in 2034 to 20.0% in 2035.  If anything, I would expect it to increase because that is around the time that the Social Security trust fund will run out.

 

Note that this does not include interest on the national debt, and so this does not show the total projected deficits.  In 2024, the actual spending, excluding interest, was $5.802 trillion, and interest was $950 billion, for total spending of $6.752 trillion. 

Another thing, I don't know why the CBO projects these to the nearest billion, to make them seem more precise than they are.

Projected Tax Revenue through 2040

 This is the second step in my financial projections which is the calculation of revenue.  I am using 17% of GDP as an average.  (Note that in 2024 the revenue was 16.7% of GDP).  

The CBO in their models assumes that revenue as a percent of GDP will rise almost every year, from 17.1% of GDP in 2025 to 18.6% in 2040 all the way to 19.3% in 2055 if you look at their latest Long-Term Budget Projection.  They don't explain why revenue as a percent of GDP will rise every year.  I think it is wishful thinking on their part. (See my commentary on the Closure Rule).  The 2026 increase could be explained because the Trump tax cuts of 2017 were supposed to end at the end of 2025, but that still doesn't explain why revenue as a percent of GDP will keep rising.  And I think it is likely that the tax cuts will be extended. 

So here is my forecast of tax revenues, with the CBO numbers as a comparison.  I am actually pretty close to their numbers, but slightly less.

  

Gold Rush

 

Source: https://goldprice.org/

The price of gold jumped $68 today, and at this rate it will exceed $3000 per ounce within a few days.  It was as low as $1820/ounce on on 10/5/23 and since then the price has soared and it doesn't appear to be stopping.

See also: https://aftermath2022.blogspot.com/2024/04/gold-is-going-up-at-rate-of-25-per-month.html  At that time in April 2024, the price of gold was $2296 and I commented that it was increasing at the rate of 2.5% per month and 30% annually.  Actually it has increased 41.75% over the last year.

Also watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdpf34TyVI0  A "Gold Run" May Have Begun at the Bank of England.  Everyone who has gold at the Bank of England is trying to get their gold out and gold that is located there is selling at a discount.  This is because people believe that the BOE doesn't actually have their gold because they lent it out.

See also: Bank of England suffers exodus of gold bullion .  Thousands of gold bars have been withdrawn from the Bank of England’s vaults since the end of last year amid fears around the impact of Donald Trump’s trade war. Threadneedle Street said roughly 8,000 bars had been moved out of its vaults in the past couple of months, representing around 2pc of the total stock. Sir Dave Ramsden, a deputy governor of the Bank, said it had been inundated with requests after gold prices on the futures market in New York surged above the London cash price. The wait to withdraw bullion stored in the Bank’s vaults has risen from a few days to several weeks as traders rush to take advantage of differences in price.

Projected GDP through 2040

 I feel like making another financial projection of the deficit and the place to start is the GDP forecast.  My previous forecast assumed an average nominal GDP growth rate of 5.5%.  I think this is too high, and for here I am using a 4.2% average nominal GDP growth.  This comes from the Social Security projected growth rate using intermediate assumptions. The Social Security projections actually go out through 2100, but for this I will only go through 2040.  The 4.2% projections are actually higher than the ones CBO uses in their January 2025 report, which are about 3.8%.  The CBO projections never get adjusted to actual GDP so I think I have a better starting point.  Also, note that I start with the BEA number for 3rd quarter 2024, which is $29.35 trillion (which I round to $29.4T). 

So here are the numbers, rounded to the nearest 100 billion, using a simplified format so it can be embedded.  These are the fiscal year projections (as of September 30) of each year.

GDP Projected

Forecast 4.20%

-------    ----------

2024 29,400

2025 30,600

2026 31,900

2027 33,200

2028 34,600

2029 36,100

2030 37,600

2031 39,200

2032 40,800

2033 42,500

2034 44,300

2035 46,200

2036 48,100

2037 50,100

2038 52,200

2039 54,400

2040 56,700

The engineered housing crash and planned takeover of housing by hedge funds

 

Watch the video, it is very interesting.  This is going on right now in real time.  Housing prices are way too high and need to come down about 25%, foreclosures are skyrocketing, and hedge funds are poised to buy up houses at huge discounts.

Update:  Blogger won't show the correct video, but here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/embed/4hejP3CV6wQ

The woman who can't be fired

Ellen Weintraub, Commissioner-for-Life of the Federal Electoral Commission

Ellen Weintraub was appointed as commissioner of the Federal Election Commission in 2002 by President George W Bush.  She received a salary of $158,500 in 2023 (according to this source).  

According to her, she was appointed for life and can't be fired except under certain circumstances.  However, Trump fired her anyway by turning off her email, taking her computer and disabling her pass that allows her to go in the building. According to her, she can be fired only by a President replacing her when her term has expired.  However, her term expired in 2007 and she has apparently never been re-appointed.  Apparently, she thinks the only way to fire her would be to explicitly appoint her for another term, and then when what term ends, she could be fired.

This should be interesting to watch.