General Motors has already shown us its true colors – as if we couldn’t already see them. But now we get to see them, again.
Immediately following Elon Musk’s purchase of a controlling stake in the conversation-limiting, thought-stunting “platform” that is styled Twitter, GM pulled all of its advertising, which amounts to a lot of money. It released the usual mewly-mouthed statement that it is “engaging with Twitter to understand the direction of the platform under their new ownership.”
Italics added.
One of the indices of the Left’s takeover of corporate America being the use of such language. GM is “engaging” with Twitter – as if to imply some kind of mutually agreeable cooperative discussion, which this is obviously not. What it is an economic threat to stop advertising with Twitter – which it had been advertising with – if GM comes to the “understanding” that “the direction” of Twitter is in the direction of free speech. Probably in particular as regards the speech of the Orange Man, whom it appears likely will be allowed to speak (well, Tweet) again now that the speech suppressors that GM was happy to support financially have been walked out the door.
This bodes well.
Whether you like the Orange Man or don’t not being the point. The point is the possibility that Twitter may stop suppressing anyone’s speech. This of course is objectionable to the Left and so to General Motors.
Some will say that Twitter is a private company and as such can decide whose speech it allows to use its platform. Except, of course, it isn’t a private company. It is a corporation. And corporations are creations of the state, with state-granted special status, privileges and exemptions.
Many are state-subsidized, too. Like Tesla! (More on that follows.)
Even leaving aside those facts, it is situationally nonsensical to assert that the same “private” companies that serve as proxy enforcers of the state are “private” in any meaningful sense.
What the Left means is they are “private” . . . so long as they serve the interests of the Left. Once they don’t, the situation becomes different . . . to the Left. Just the same as “my body, my choice” – when it comes to destroying the life growing within that body – becomes different when it comes to asserting the right to not be coerced or actually forced to take drugs into one’s own body.
“Private” companies are not free to do business as they like and with whom they like, on the basis of free exchange and mutual agreement. They do as they are told – not by customers but by the state. Which amounts to . . . the Left.
And then these adjuncts of the state (and Left) tell you what you’re allowed to do – and not.
That is “private” like a drug that doesn’t prevent you from getting sick (or spreading it, once you get it) is a “vaccine.”
Back to Elon, who is also a corporation as well as – so he sometimes implies – a “libertarian.”
But his track record to date doesn’t track with that – as his corporation has used the state to interfere with the market by forcing onto the market his products while at the same time forcing his rivals (the other car companies) to finance their own competition. This was done under the aegis of something styled “carbon credits,” which meant other car companies that had to build a certain number of electric cars in order to meet state-ordered “zero emissions vehicle” mandates – in order to be allowed to sell any cars, at all – could pay Elon a sum of money considered equivalent to their having built the required number of EeeeeeVeeeees.
In other words, a shakedown. Extortion. All very legal.
None of it very “libertarian.”
Elon has also built his business by using the state to outlaw his competition while at the same time all-but-requiring “customers” buy what he has to sell. Whether you think EeeeeeeVeeeees are “the future” isn’t the point. The point is that EeeeeeeeVeeeees are the present – not because the market is clamoring for them – but because the government is mandating them while at the same time banning alternatives to them.
Also not particularly “libertarian.”
But the acquisition of control over who can – and cannot – Tweet (and Tweet about what) gives Elon a chance to show that he has some libertarian tendencies, at least.
The first indication of that will be if – as rumored – the Orange Man’s account is restored.
As for GM . . .
It may be the case that the world’s once-largest automaker – which is now a much smaller automaker – is irritated with Elon because of what Tesla has done to GM.
The latter is now, of course, fully on board the EeeeeeeVeeeee bandwagon – being CEO’d by a fully Woke woman – but the fact is that for years GM, just like the rest of the market-driven car business, was bled white to make Tesla’s cheeks red and rosy (and Elon’s pockets full).
It failed to object then. And now, perhaps, it is lashing out at the source of its agonies – especially now that he seems to be on the verge of letting people say things GM would rather not be said.
. . .
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It begins:
Elon Musk Does Not Support Free Speech: Twitter Suspends Politician Who Criticizes Police and Mass Illegal Migration:
https://rairfoundation.com/elon-musk-does-not-support-free-speech-twitter-suspends-politician-who-criticizes-police-and-mass-illegal-migration/
Ye Suspended From Twitter For Seven Days For Saying N-Word
https://summit.news/2022/11/05/exclusive-ye-suspended-from-twitter-for-seven-days-for-saying-n-word/
Eloon Commits To Combat “Hate” After ADL Threatens Dire Consequences For Replatforming Far Right:
https://www.informationliberation.com/?id=63439
The ADL is a terrorist organization.
The goyim needs to wise up.
It’s funny how the Left uses the tactic of “projection.” Brandon’s latest tantrum is a good example, wherein he described his opponents as “dark forces.” After reading that link, it occurred to me that there are some really dark forces at play with this whole Twitter drama.
Elon Musk Trolls AOC After Democratic Rep’s Twitter Temper Tantrum
leftist/communist heads are exploding….they lost their propaganda tool… twitter….they can’t function without it…… how can they spread their lies, bs, disinformation, misinformation, religious cult, satanist inversion crap now??
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/elon-musk-trolls-aoc-after-she-melts-down-over-twitter-business-model-changes
White House Deletes Absurd Tweet After CNN, Twitter Slap With Fact Checks
Musk’s twitter fact checks whitehouse….lol
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/thats-quite-spin-white-house-fact-checked-cnn-and-twitter-after-absurd-social-security
you can fact check brandon and all leftists on twitter now…….cool
twitter is way better already…
you can fact check every single leftist on twitter now, a new feature added now, the tables are turned, you are empowered, you can be the fact checker now….very cool….go on there and troll the bastards 24/7……they just invented a new sport…..
Musk Calls ‘Lords & Peasants’ Blue Check System ‘Bullshit’ – Will Charge $8 Per Month
Musk said “Twitter’s current lords & peasants system for who has or doesn’t have a blue checkmark is bullshit.”
“Power to the people! Blue for $8/month,” he added.
He then tweeted that prices ‘by country’ would be proportionate to purchasing power, and added that subscribers will receive ‘priority in replies, mentions & search,” and the “ability to post long video & audio” as well as “Half as many ads.”
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/musk-neuters-twitter-ministry-truth-ahead-midterms
What a bunch of Satanic freaks these people are:
https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1587373988904329217
I can’t believe people still think Musk is on the side of good.
Responding to Hillary Clinton’s rants about Trumpist violence, Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and new owner of Twitter, posted a tweet (since removed) suggesting that the truth is not on the Democrats’ side and linked the article from the Santa Monica Observer.
The Awful Truth : Paul Pelosi Was Drunk Again, And In a Dispute With a Male Prostitute Early Friday Morning”, Stan Greene, Santa Monica Observer, October 29, 2022.
According to the Santa Monica Observer [1], citing in particular a police testimony, Paul Pelosi, who is notoriously gay, had picked up a partner in a San Francisco bar and brought him home after dismissing his bodyguards. The person is a nudist activist, who has called out the government’s lies about the 9/11 attacks. In a drunken state, Paul Pelosi grabbed a hammer and threatened his partner, who most probably wrenched it away and hit him.
https://www.voltairenet.org/article218349.html
The nudist activist, Male Prostitute is a rabid leftist/communist with BLM signs and gay pride flags at his house….of course the media said he was conservative….lol
Could it be that GM, being a rival of Tesla, doesn’t want to give money to a rival against whom they compete? After all, Elon owns Tesla too (i.e. in addition to Twitter); last time I checked, GM and Tesla are competitors. Could it be simply a case that GM doesn’t want to help a rival of theirs? Not only that, unlike GM, Tesla has been turning out interesting products; their EVs are far superior to anything GM has for sale or on the drawing board…
Seriously, Mark that makes too much sense. Do you have any good conspiracy theories to roll out in lieu of logic? 😉
Hi Mark,
I disagree that Teslas are “superior.” Much as I loathe what GM has become, GM vehicles are usually well-put-together, have tight/consistent panel gap, etc. Teslas are notorious for erratic/shoddy construction.
their EVs are far superior…..hahaha
Tesla gets 20 mpg, has bad quality control, has no brakes, has a self driving system that drives into trees and walls, costs far too much, looks ugly, weighs far too much, almost 5000 lb., catches fire, is expensive to repair, repairs take weeks or months, eats tires like crazy, expensive to insure, lasts 100,000 miles then is scrapped because the $22,000 battery is dead and it has no residual value, is dead, boring and lifeless to drive, has zero lateral acceleration (cornering ability), pollutes more then an ice vehicle, has 1/3 the lifespan of an ice car = very expensive, takes hours to recharge,
Mary Barra takes it in the ass, you can look it up.
Musk To Charge Twitter Blue Checks $20 Per Month; Will Give 90 Day Grace Period: Report
Musk has wasted no time making changes at Twitter despite being “Chief Twit” for less than a week –
firing ex-CEO Parag Agrawal and other top execs……….. (including wrongthink czar Vijaya Gadde) – ……..this witch banned everybody, mostly conservatives…..Vijaya Gadde, a leftist communist…..the top legal and policy executive, (or censorship czar)…..she is bipoc, she banned mostly whites so she is racist….NOTE: banned Trump….
who may not receive their golden parachutes (more on that later). Musk also had engineers change Twitter’s homepage for logged-out users.
And while advertisers have been threatening to bail on Twitter left and right over Musk’s commitment to free speech, it would be interesting to know just how many people are willing to pay $240 per year into the company’s ‘blue check’ program.
Fleecing $20/month from libtards whose lives depend on spewing their “bluechecked” opinions….What a hoot.
supposedly there are 400 million users, probably more like 350 million bot accounts……so lets say 50 million users…..out of 50 million say there are 15 million blue check mark accounts…… so that would be 15 million times $20.00……. so $300,000,000 a month or $3,600,000,000 a year
https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/musk-charge-twitter-blue-checks-20-month-will-give-90-days-grace-period-report
I can’t believe anyone would pay to use these platforms, except perhaps govco trolls.
It would be hilarious if Musk actually monetizes the blue check virtue signaling. Great way to flush out or milk for $ bots and agents.
Musk Neuters Twitter ‘Ministry Of Truth’ Ahead Of Midterms
better already…. cutting the number of employees who can access censorship tools from hundreds to around 15 people last week
They also won’t be able to banish highly credentialed doctors and researchers posting divergent Covid-19 narratives.
He has started. Both Hilary Clinton and Joe Biden have had “misinformation” panels placed under two of their tweets to correct their lies.
Does everyone know that the woke libtards at Twatter had a special “portal” for Federal Gov people…. leftist/communists…. to log in and flag posts they didnt like or went against their narrative/agenda so that they be censored, suspended or banned/cancelled?
Yeah, bypassing 1st amendment protections that limits the GOVERMENT from restricting free speech under the excuse of “Community Guidelines”
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/musk-neuters-twitter-ministry-truth-ahead-midterms
Well, here’s some data:
https://asiatimes.com/2022/10/will-us-target-chinas-auto-chip-supply-next/
>Electronics including chips now account for 55% of a new car’s total cost on average, compared with 25% a decade ago
>every new automobile requires more than 1,000 chips on average.
> China had surpassed Germany to become the world’s second-largest auto exporter after Japan. It said China exported 2.11 million vehicles while Germany shipped 1.91 million units in the first three quarters of this year.
Toyota has pushed back against fully electric cars for years, as it believes car shoppers don’t really want them.
The globalist/communists are going to ban all ice cars, worldwide, replacing them with EV’s
This is a big problem because some 1 billion people simply don’t have reliable access to electricity. This is a racist policy because it is not inclusive.
Who benefits the most from the EV vehicle conversion and the ESG program? china does.
japan does very well selling ice cars, china doesn’t, but is ahead in EV’s and EV components and batteries, so it wants to push EV’s, ban ice cars.
75% of Lithium batteries made in China come from Uyghur Muslim concentration camps. Slave labor for Green Energy….Uyghur slaves are also producing solar panels……………..
500 tonnes of Earth are needed to be unearthed and mined for every tonne of Lithium. more destruction of the Earth for EV fallacy
That’s a lot of work for those 6 year old cobalt hand miners in Congo . mining lithium is racist so EV’s are racist….so EV pushers are racist…..
Who knew the greenies would be the biggest promoters of strip mining in the world
japanese are the ultimate car freaks, (they just bought Caterham), don’t want to lose their ice cars to the chinese backed EV junk, collector car people may have to move to japan…lol
Around the world the fake CO2, global warming bs narrative is being used to push EV’s, china spreads this bs narrative……china has a lot of influence in your government
Anybody pushing EV’s, solar panels or wind turbines and the ESG is a paid ccp shill.
Every EV is a chinese EV, 80% of all the key parts and the battery come from china, same as solar panels or wind turbines …low quality, they all catch fire.
All the most important components in the new EV’s are all made in china.
80% of the lithium fire bomb batteries in EV’s are made in china.
These lithium fire bomb batteries are very dangerous, these EV’s shouldn’t be allowed on the road…lol….but …..china has a lot of influence in your government so they are given a pass.
Then you are dependent on china for replacement parts, etc., in effect they take over the whole vehicle supply chain. Vehicle production then centralized in China.
the chinese are taking over the electric car market, they are starting to export their EV’s worldwide.
the chinese make most of the chips, maybe the shortage was to help their EV launch….lots of their cars coming here soon
china…..it is where most rare earths are processed; and most of the mineral supply-chains for electric vehicles lead there, with existing supply sewn up.
With more EV’s the grid has to be upgraded, most of the equipment for expanding the grid is made in china.
The largest beneficiaries are the Chinese manufacturers of electric transformers, cables, generators, etc. since almost none of that stuff is made anywhere else anymore.
If there is a war and china detonates a neutron bomb that takes out the grid, they get to supply all the replacement equipment, another win for them.
What about all the vaccines and drugs the government has been pushing, all the ingredients for all vaccines and drugs come from china, they benefited the most from the bat germ bs narrative. japan quit, just walked away from that narrative too….
https://carnewschina.com/2022/04/18/chinese-electric-vehicles-are-on-fire/?fbclid=IwAR3B66QpVwTNXfJEYyuBajbdYOkFwSbQz9s5kFJleVy9Cpc5un__hAyRs0I“
Eric – None of it very “libertarian.” (Elon)
Is it “libertarian” to use government schools, roads, pay
income tax, property tax, license fees, Social Security,
Medicare? Is Elon any less libertarian than others, or
just using the system given him?
The root of the problem isn’t Elon.
Hi liberty
I take your points – as regards some of the above (i.e., roads) but there is a difference between using what you’re forced to pay for and using the state to force others to pay you.
Twitter and Facebook really shouldn’t exist. Their primary purpose is to let the ISPs off the hook for DMCA violations. Blogging software and hosting like WordPress.com is much better than Facebook, and because WP is set up for RSS out of the box, a reader can be easily set up for “infinite scroll” of all your followers, just like FB.
As for Twitter, there’s Mastodon, a fork of GNU Social. The interesting thing about Mastodon is the “federation” of servers, when different servers agree to exchange messages from each client base. There’s also the option of federating with all servers, the global feed. The global feed is full of what you would expect: bots, child pr0n and really sick stuff. But no one has to use the global feed, they can whitelist and blacklist as they wish.
Both of these solutions make for a pleasant experience. But it also means there’s some more set up required by the end users than just creating an account and accepting “friend” requests. And of course there’s no central controller who can be blamed for DMCA violations. But instead of being confronted with junk ads that have no relevelence, or playing whack-a-mole with ad blockers, you just get to interact with whom you want. Yes, you’re in a bubble, but it’s a clean bubble floating in the sewer. And all that mainstream echo chamber stuff is still there, just a click away.
from another poster
Twitter and Facebook created portals with the DHS, where the government could immediately notify Twitter and Facebook to “moderate content”, which really means censor/silence.
The only reason these companies were allowed to inhibit free speech was because they were allegedly private companies, not government entities.
Which means our government was just using private enterprise as a proxy to circumvent the Constitution to suppress free speech online and coverup their crimes.
The only reason there is hostility between GM and E-loon is because they are both rent-seeking mercenaries competing for the same position on the tax-funded teat. E-loon will prove to be not much more of a free-speech advocate than the former boss (Meet the new boss…same as the old boss…)- same BS with some slightly different nuances.
Anyone still waiting for this guy to fly his electric semi to Mars? LOL- He’s a bigger bullshit artist than Trump. (Wonder if he’ll reinstate Trump’s Twitter account? -I don’t think any plat form could handle the amount of BS that having two such ‘artists’ would create!).
Tesla can advertise for free on Twitter now that Elon owns both.
Gets a twofer.
As long as there is electricity, should work out all right. Twitter and Tesla need both.
He could have bought Hooters, an real honest to God business, has to be fun to be there. Of course, Hooters dot com is a pretty cool website.
GM has a market cap of 55 billion, Ford has a market cap of 53 billion, Tesla’s market cap is 699 billion. Elon can buy Ford and General Motors both. Elon basically gets them for free, if he would buy.
GM would get free advertising on Twitter along with Ford.
Elon might as well buy Engulf and Devour, Incorporated.
What did someone say about GM about 15 years ago; that GM was a health and welfare benefit distribution firm that built cars on the side.
Besides not being able to make competent functioning radiators for trucks, just another reason to avoid GM products as they go completely woke…and broke.
that is why I buy older Porsche’s…..higher quality, best engineering, probably some resale value
David Icke decided to test the new twitter:
https://davidicke.com/2022/10/31/cult-owned-mossad-owned-adl-melts-down-over-twitter-free-speech-would-lead-to-dire-consequences/
“The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) issued a warning against the reinstatements of former President Donald Trump, Infowars founder Alex Jones, and former White House strategist Steve Bannon back onto Twitter, claiming it will “lead to dire consequences.””
Uh huh, who put the ADL in charge of our free speech. The ADL has assumed it is the decider if a president can speak.
from another poster
Twitter and Facebook created portals with the DHS, where the government could immediately notify Twitter and Facebook to “moderate content”, which really means censor/silence.
The only reason these companies were allowed to inhibit free speech was because they were allegedly private companies, not government entities.
Which means our government was just using private enterprise as a proxy to circumvent the Constitution to suppress free speech online and coverup their crimes.
Let’s look at the creation of the ADL which was formed to protest the lynching of a prominent jew serial rapist murderer. Leo Frank raped and murdered 13-year-old Mary Phagan when she came to his office to pick up her pay.
There’s much more to the story…
Although Leo Frank had a top-notch legal team, his guilt was not only obvious but a jury of his peers found him guilty. He tried to blame it on a black man (which should have been easy in that day and age) but was unsuccessful in pinning his crimes on the black man.
Jewish money was pouring in to various politicians coffers in order to “spring” Frank.
A (bought and paid for) pardon was in the works.
When the townspeople found out about the “fix”, they took matters into their own hands. The rest is history.
To this day, the ADL insists that Frank was “wrongly convicted” in an attempt to “rehabilitate” him.
Keep in mind that it is a major faux pas for a jew to be tried and convicted in a gentile court. THAT is the major complaint that jews have held on to, to this day.
If Frank had been tried in a jewish court, Mary Phagan would have been convicted, not Frank.
This is why the ADL was created…
I don’t intend to head to Twitter, where it will be slightly more in favor of reasonable free speech instead of being a cultural marxist echo chamber.
I don’t like Elon. I don’t like GM at all, especially since they’ve put all of their chips in on the eeeeeeeveeeeeeeeee bet. I don’t even give them bonus points for building that monstrous crate motor they just unveiled.
BMW like Toyota is another holdout, won’t say when/if they will kill off ice cars…
BMW and Toyota co operated on the Supra
Eeeeeelon outlines the relentless logic of EeeVee earthrape:
One month after [Swiss commodities giant] Glencore chief executive Gary Nagle toured Tesla’s factory in Fremont, Musk tweeted in April that Tesla may get into the lithium mining and refining business directly.
“Price of lithium has gone to insane levels,” the billionaire tweeted. “There is no shortage of the element itself, as lithium is almost everywhere on Earth, but pace of extraction/refinement is slow.”
Tesla already secured a cobalt offtake agreement with Glencore that provides the car company with thousands of tons of cobalt per year for factories in Shanghai and Berlin.
In a recent earnings call, Tesla executives were asked about vertically integrating into mining. Here’s what Musk replied:
“We’ll do whatever we have to. Without limiting factors, we’ll do. We do not personally constrain ourselves. We don’t particularly integrate just for the hell of particularly integrating.”
“Like if there was a great supplier who’s better than us or we think actively is very good, or even where the economics of comparative advantage suggests that we should use that supplier, even if we could beat them, but we could use our resources to do something else that will be more productive, then we would in source in that case. But if we have to go mine, we will mine.” — ZeroHedge, Oct 31, 2022
Mine, baby, mine. As in possessive pronoun, not verb.
I would say that if Elon looks down the road, GM is not working on a viable business model, and won’t be around that long anyway. Get woke go broke is not just an anti-woke mantra.
Sicilian,
“The primary mind control device of the 50’s & 60’s was TV currently it is so-chul media.”
The former I quit about 15 years ago. The latter I never started. Largely due to my increase in awareness that caused me to quit the former.
No doubt, Elon will not give us a wide open public square of free speech. He’s very adept at seeing which side of his bread is buttered, and by whom.
Whoops! Did it again. Posted in the wrong place.
This is a very interesting angle, Eric: “It may be the case that the world’s once-largest automaker – which is now a much smaller automaker – is irritated with Elon because of what Tesla has done to GM.”
Perhaps this is just payback.
Mister,
I don’t think so. I think its just a squabble among children.
GM and the like may leave Twitter, but so what. Whether one likes Twitter or not it is an established platform. Musk did not go in and buy a brand a new company who is just learning to walk. Where will GM now advertise? Meta, who is losing users by the day? Ooh, will they be moving over to Truth Social or Rumble?
We won’t know until next week, but the polls are not looking favorable for the Dems. When even Patty Murray (D-WA) is in danger of losing her seat maybe the sane have had enough. I can only hope that enough new blood (people with no political experience) are able to turn over seats held by career politicians to ruin any pending legislation. The best government are those that achieve nothing.
In all honesty, I hope Elon sticks to his word and free speech (from all sides) is allowed on Twitter. If the woke do not wish to participate then it has nothing to do with “democracy” but stifling one’s voice and competition. The nation is better off without them.
Patty Murray. The (Great-Grand) Mother in Tennis Shoes. Didn’t she pledge not to serve this long?
SW WA rid itself of RINO Jaime Herrera-Beutler, who voted for Impeachment after Jan. 6 thinking she had a safe seat out of sympathy for her child’s health conditions.
The problem is that the miracle baby, who was born without kidneys and survived, eventually received a transplant and now is in elementary school doing normal kid things.
Hi Roscoe,
I would love to see every career politician (doesn’t matter if they have a D, R, or I next to their name) lose their seat and this country’s Congressional leadership start anew. It would years (if not a decade) for the lobbyists to rebuild their influence and it may give the rest of us a much-needed break in them destroying our lives and pocketbooks.
Morning, RG!
For people on our side – all non-Leftists – I think the imperative, after this election, is to be completely intolerant of inaction. Of talk rather than action. I don’t want to hear about “hearings.” I want indictments and prosecutions. I want a more than just a commitment to protecting our rights; I want them articulated and defended resolutely and without exceptions.
If the Republicans who take the places of Leftists (of both parties) do not do this, then they have got to go. No more tolerating the intolerable. No more playing nice with the enemy.
Hi Eric,
Unfortunately, it will be hearing after hearing and an additional waste of taxpayer dollars. That is all either side knows how to do. They aren’t going to prosecute their own. I say “clean house” every single one of them need to go (even those that I think are semi reasonable). Politics should never be a career choice. If they can’t accomplish their goals and objectives (that they state they are running on) within a term or two they have no business being, there. That is the one thing I like about my Congressional district in Virginia. We have no problem voting their ass out. We don’t care if they were the House Majority Leader or not. 🙂
The Republicans will take the house and (maybe) the Senate. All it does is make Biden a lame duck for the next two years. They are insinuating it is going to be a slaughter fest, but voters usually trend toward “not my guy” and reinstate the same morons each election so I have no grand hopes of any type of change taking place.
Hi RG
Agree 100% get rid of every last politician everywhere, replace every single one, once a patasite gets dug in it is very hard to root out, give them short terms, four years, (first year is a trial period they have to pass or they get fired ), then kick them out….also, most importantly, get rid of all defined benefit pensions for all government workers, that is the big one.
Before you vote for anyone, ask them how they will fix this issue….
it was reported years ago that general revenues were being used to help pay government pensions (municipal,provincial etc…)………Politicians give/promise government workers’ (and themselves), huge, gold plated, defined benefit, pensions, (this insures loyalty to their mandate/narrative), they are unfunded, …so money goes to their pensions and bike lanes, no money to fix the roads or housing for the homeless…nice people….lol
(this insures loyalty to their mandate/narrative), this is why it is hard to make changes, it is hard to get rid of a politician that has power with a central bank that can print money.
government pension plans get the first lien on any tax revenues. Pensions get paid 100% before a single dollar goes to schools, police or any other gov service.
this sounds like the old soviet system…..
there is two classes of citizens, the non government retired people that receive very small, government pension, which barely covers rent and retired government workers who get $60,000 to $400,000 per year or more with their definded benefit pension.
In Norway when you turn 60 everyone gets $60,000 U.S. pension
How Public Pensions Turn Cities Into Unlivable Hellholes
public pension funds are grossly underfunded. Consequently, more and more pension funds are borrowing money to play the markets. The goal is to boost returns to cover their massive funding gaps.
With the markets crashing now, Sept. 2022, this is a huge problem, that is getting way worse now, no politician will talk about, or has an answer for it.
pension funds can attempt to fill their funding gaps by requesting increases in yearly contributions from governments and workers. But the public-employee unions go full ape when such measures are proposed. So the remaining option is to take on greater risk. What could go wrong?
According to a Municipal Market Analytics analysis of Bloomberg data, more than 100 city, county, state, and other governments borrowed for their pension funds last year. This is twice the highest number that did so in any prior year.
Standing behind these pension funds are state (provincial, federal) and local taxpayers – that’s you, acting as the ATM. Moreover, when the investment returns of public pension funds fall short, governments are primarily responsible for filling the void. This means cutting other spending and services or increasing taxes.
Covering pension fund obligations is a massive drag on state (provincial) and local government finances. The fact is, there’s a legion of public workers out there who’ve been promised a retirement that’s no longer affordable.
These grand promises must be broken.
You can witness the effects when traversing through just about every city in America that has been in existence for more than 60 years. By repeatedly reallocating spending from much needed services, the present and future conditions of cities and municipalities are being transformed to unlivable hellholes.
Your neighbor, who retired from the city over 25 years ago, may frequently lament the shoddy conditions of the streets and sidewalks. He may bemoan the lack of resources to address burgeoning homeless encampments and the mobs of mentally ill zombies flailing about on the tired asphalt. All the taxes went to pay his pension…lol..
An audit showing where all the taxpayer’s money went would be nice….lol
in 1998 they knew the math didn’t work to fund pension plans, wouldn’t be able to pay the pensions.
https://economicprism.com/how-public-pensions-turn-cities-into-unlivable-hellholes/
pension funds, already unfunded, are now gambling with derivatives…lol…sold by blackrock….taxpayers are on the hook…..
The world derivatives market is $1,000 trillion, the world GDP is $87 trillion, could a blowup in the derivatives market take out the financial system?
Pension funds ready to implode, they are unfunded.
Politicians give/promise government workers’ (and themselves), huge, gold plated, defined benefit, pensions, (this insures loyalty to their mandate/narrative), they are unfunded, money from general revenue (taxes) is being used to prop them up, yes, your tax dollars…the taxpayer finances this….lol
government pension plans who get the first lien on any tax revenues. Pensions get paid 100% before a single dollar goes to schools, police or any other gov service.
on top of that they are using very highly dangerous derivatives, LDI, to manage risk, when this pension mess implodes it could take down the whole financial system.
What is often getting overlooked in the UK pension meltdown is the use by the pension funds of a niche highly dangerous derivative product “liability-driven investing” (LDI). Most pension funds use LDI.
BlackRock, which sits between the pension schemes and banks on derivatives trades designed to hedge against adverse movement in interest rates and inflation, told its clients that it would no longer demand additional collateral but would instead liquidate holdings to meet margin calls that were soaring due to the extreme volatility in UK asset prices.
Yes, highly dangerous derivatives are still the same weapons of mass financial destruction in 2022 as they were in 2007 and 2008.
The US derivative market amounts to about $200 Trillion notional value, which means that as Powell raises interest rates, margin calls and refinancing costs rise accordingly, forcing either defaults or liquidations–precipitating the liquidity crisis the BoE is hoping to prevent with their buying of 30-year gilts.
Forced by Blackrock….The Breaking Begins: BoE Intervention Halts The Rise In Yields At The Expense Of Everything Else
just as JPMorgan did in 2019 with The Fed and ‘Not QE’ to bailout the repo market, BlackRock exercised its ‘TBTF Put’ and forced The Bank of England’s hand to re-liquify the long-end of the gilts market.
Lord Acton — ‘The issue which has swept down the centuries and which will have to be fought sooner or later is the people versus the banks.’
Banker quote……..“At some point this morning I was worried this was the beginning of the end,” said a senior London-based banker, adding that at one point on Wednesday morning there were no buyers of long-dated UK gilts. “It was not quite a Lehman moment. But it got close.”
Soon the reasons for the intervention became clear: Rising yields were driving Britain’s pension funds and housing markets into a collective meltdown,
ATTENTION: highlighting pension fund exposure to that old nemesis of market stability, derivatives.
The problem centred on the use of niche financial products offered by investment banks to pension funds that are trying to manage or hedge their risks. Those products – known as liability-driven investing, or LDIs….. derivatives……help offset liabilities and risks on pension funds’ books.
However, as asset prices slumped over the week – including UK government bonds, or gilts – those banks required more collateral to offset the pension funds’ liabilities, forcing the funds to dump assets and raise cash at short notice.
Rising yields on gilts (yields move inversely to price, and a rising yield means a falling price) were triggering margin calls among UK pension funds, a scenario eerily reminiscent of 2007/2008 just before the Lehman Brothers collapse.
Relative to the size of global markets, the BoE intervention was short and small. Yet its catalysts within UK markets are of a kind to raise the question whether we are witnessing the beginning of the next Great Financial Crisis.
https://newsletter.allfactsmatter.us/p/the-breaking-begins-boe-intervention
Eric –
You nailed it. We have to be on their ass every waking day. There’s no use right now, but if the Repukes take over the House and Senate, we have to have a plan. It’s up to us. There’s no Newt Gingrich to outline it for us.
I plan on it. And yes, It’s time to kick their ass.
I’ve voted to protect the Incumbent Congresscritter the last two cycles, most notably from this hot mess four years ago:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zi6v4CYNSIQ
That schtick almost worked. Vets will vote against their own self interest if a little sex appeal and prior military service are involved. The Incumbent is a huge VA supporter.
And a little Scorsese ripoff action doesn’t hurt.
RG,
“The best government are those that achieve nothing.”
In past years, when Congress became “gridlocked”, the media went into panic mode. And then the quotes from politicians, “we must get back to doing the people’s business”. I always cheered for gridlock. In fact, in 1972 the very first time I voted, I voted for Gus Hall, the Communist party candidate for POTUS. Because it appeared to me that with a Communist POTUS little of “the people’s business”, which is none of the government’s business, would get done in Washington DC. Of course I was young (18) and stupid thinking my vote would matter, but it did let me express my notions, if only to myself.
‘I always cheered for gridlock.’ — John Kable
You are on sound theoretical ground, John. Research shows that inflation is lower under gridlocked government, since grandiose new programs get blocked.
Whereas inflation is worse when one party controls the presidency and Clowngress. The past two years serve an archetypical example, with delusional pyramid-construction initiatives such as the (I’m not making this up) Inflation Reduction Act.
Ah ha ha ha … evil clowns! They mock us with counterfactual bafflegab, even as they heat up red-hot pokers in the kiln to jam up our rectums.
Are you a trillionaire yet? [image courtesy of WilliamBanzai7]
https://ibb.co/4mrsHzB
I can hardly wait to see der neue Rententhaler.
To be constructed of metallized polymer, no doubt. 🙂
Hey RG,
Off topic, but I was just curious how reporting on cryptocurrency actually is done, not that I think it’s any of the IRS’s damn business. Want they to know with whom every transaction occurred, and perhaps what that transaction was? Or is it enough to give a total?
It’s all getting incredibly personal these days, making me long for the days of sending money orders…
Hi BaDnOn,
The way I handle it with my clients is not to name the institution that it is being bought through, but just the cryptocurrency being sold, but you don’t even have to do that. It should be reported on Schedule D. Because there is no 1099-B reporting the sale to the IRS, Form 8949 will be needed, which usually is a bit more detailed.
I usually just total similar cryptos.
Example,
.235 ETH -1/1/22 (purchased) -12/31/22 (if misc. dates sold) Total price sold Total price paid Gain/loss difference
Note the IRS will allow you to use various dates rather than having to type in each individual transaction made, but some states (NJ is one that I can think of) will not allow various dates to be used.
When I say various dates, I mean someone sold .679 BTC throughout the year that totals 62 transactions made if I was to separate each transaction. I total the total amount of BTC (Bitcoin) sold and I use -1/1/22 (as purchase date) and -12/31/21 (as sold date) if assets are held in under one year although the purchase dates may be 11/29/21, 1/3/22, 2/6/22, etc. and the sale dates 1/7/22, 3/21/22, 10/25/22, etc.
The only thing the IRS really cares about is the distinguishing of gains (or losses) from short term vs long term, because they are taxed at different rates. I (or the taxpayer) have a more detailed spreadsheet on hand in case of an audit, but I see no reason to provide all of this to the IRS.
Thanks Raider! That was very informative, actually. I’d really like to use crypto as it was intended, but have refrained doing TOO much of that due to these uncertainties. The point is to circumvent “traditional” avenues and retain some amount of anonymity, but if the tax vampires are going to scrutinize things too heavily, there’s not much point in assuming the risk.
‘It may be the case that the world’s once-largest automaker is lashing out at Elon because of what Tesla has done to GM.’ — eric
“What have they done to GM?” cries ‘president’ Joe Corvette Mountain Dew Bidenville, in a rare moment of lucidity. What, indeed?
Yahoo Finance recounts the dismal story. GM’s revenue in the trailing twelve months (TTM) was $147 billion … exactly the same as the year ending 12/31/2018, thanks to an intervening dip. In Cockney English, that’s what you call ‘zero groaf.’
Tesla, by contrast, racked up $75 billion of TTM revenues … compared to but $21 billion in the year ending 12/31/2018. That’s an annualized groaf rate of nigh on 40 percent … which Wall Street just luvvvvvvvs, making young Elon the world’s richest lifeform.
Indeed, at its current groaf rate (a bold assumption, to be sure) Tesla would blow past GM in a mere three years. Or — equally plausible — if the eclownomy smacks the wall, Big Gov subsidies could keep Tesla treading water, while GM circles the drain to a second (and hopefully final) bankruptcy filing.
Never underestimate the coruscating envy of the CEO of a senescent enterprise for a young, brash, snarky upstart whose ownership of a huge wodge of shares in his high-groaf venture made him rich enough to just buy GM (if he hadn’t blown his wad on Twatter) and turf out EeeVee Mary to peddle her shriveled ass on Woodward Road, f*cked by the fickle finger of fate.
Twitter may very well go from psychotic leftist cesspool echo chamber, to slightly crazy lukewarm centrist who sometimes says and does things I agree with platform.
I have no belief it will be turned on its head to be some free speech for all platform, nor should it be.all platforms even my favorite ones have limits.
It will be interesting to see what that South African weirdo does with it though.
I suspect a slightly less stringent level of gatekeepers to keep people on the free-range information plantation. The primary mind control device of the 50’s & 60’s was TV currently it is so-chul media. There will be no wild west internet land on Twitter.
Sicilian,
“The primary mind control device of the 50’s & 60’s was TV currently it is so-chul media.”
The former I quit about 15 years ago. The latter I never started. Largely due to my increase in awareness that caused me to quit the former.
No doubt, Elon will not give us a wide open public square of free speech. He’s very adept at seeing which side of his bread is buttered, and by whom.
White House Deletes Absurd Tweet After CNN, Twitter Slap With Fact Checks
Musk’s twitter fact checks whitehouse….lol
you can fact check every single leftist on twitter now, a new feature added now, the tables are turned, you are empowered, you can be the fact checker now….very cool….go on there and troll the bastards 24/7……they just invented a new sport…..
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/thats-quite-spin-white-house-fact-checked-cnn-and-twitter-after-absurd-social-security