it's not nice to fool....
May. 9th, 2018 07:05 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
drhoovesQuick note - my Derby selection, Enticed finished 14th, though my second and third choices ran 1-2. D'oh!
On Friday, the markets rebounded sharply upwards, with the S&P up over 40 points from the open to close at 2663, and adding slightly to those gains in the last couple of trading sessions. This, in spite of a jobs report that showed continued erosion in quality positions for the middle class, reports of the decline of retail, and Argentina raising their interest rates to 40%, double the rate of early 2018, as the peso continues to fall. Now Argentina may not have enough Mojo to shake the world's market, but for those who believe the unsustainable debt issuance eventually ends in fiat collapse, the Boys from South of Brazil may very well be the canary in the coal mine. Or not. The IMF has been tapped for short-term relief. We continue to see the level of cognitive dissonance very high, in a era of when business as usual, however fake we make it, trumps dealing rationally with the economic realities of contraction, finite resources, overshoot and the end of cheap energy. Humans, in the majority, appear to “do what we've been doing” until it can no longer be done. The courage and foresight to address some of the obvious problems coming down the pike is not going to come from politicians, banksters, the elite, or the common on-the-street head-in-the-sane person - it's going to come, if at all, from the grass roots of enlightened thinkers who see through the BS.
I'm not holding my breath.
In New York City, the Met Gala, which appears to be some sort of celebrity back-slapping excuse to dress up fest, has caused some religious and some sensible folks to question the theme - Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination. Hiding behind the fundraising task for the Metropolitian Museum of Art, the celebrities that appeared with sequins, crosses, gold, lace, and multiple pope hats rubbed some of us the wrong way. If asking What Would Jesus Do (after tossing his cookies), one thing I'm pretty sure is that he wouldn't stamp the event with his approval. I would love to hear Sarah Jessica Parker try to explain her view on Christ's birth being portrayed on her hat. Huh? Just another example of why the rich ain't like you and me, and why we shouldn't cry about it.
Meanwhile, an earthquake in LA, the volcanic eruption and evacuations and poor air quality in Hawaii, and the coldest April in 20 years in the U.S. are a reminder of who's really in charge - and it's not us, as self-centered as humans tend to think. It's that grand old gal, who back in the 1970s didn't like being fooled with margarine that tasted like butter. Yeah, Mama Nature. We haven't learned our lesson, and continue to ravage resources, pollute the environment, and take for granted the planet, the only one that we know of that actually supports our lifeform, will continue to be habitable in the future. Really now, would it be such a surprise if Terra decided to spin out of orbit, spiral into the Sun, and start from scratch? We'd deserve it, but probably aren't that lucky.
A recent commercial for Domino's pizza strikes me as odd. Now, I'm not a big fan of their product, as the quality of their current fare (cheap garbage) is nothing close to what it was like when I was in college in the early 1980s (average but convenient). A sign of decline, as the quality of many products or the amount in their standard package has been reduced over time by corporations for cost savings. But now some bright ad agency came up with the idea of “guaranteeing” the takeout pizza should it fall victim some accident on the way home. We see actors stumble, slip and the pie takes a nose dive. Really? Just bring the remains back to the parlor, and they'll fire up a replacement. Who pays for this? Ummm, that would the other customers who are up to the challenge of actually transporting a boxed pizza from shop to a location where it's consumed. Something that causes a mishap, as I ponder this, rarely happens in real life. At least to me. So now why on earth, or any other planet for that matter, would I want to patronize a company that believes I'm a klutz and need “insurance” for my takeaway food? What?!? Guess they are trying to drive sales down, since I'll be avoiding Dominos (even more) in the future.
On Friday, the markets rebounded sharply upwards, with the S&P up over 40 points from the open to close at 2663, and adding slightly to those gains in the last couple of trading sessions. This, in spite of a jobs report that showed continued erosion in quality positions for the middle class, reports of the decline of retail, and Argentina raising their interest rates to 40%, double the rate of early 2018, as the peso continues to fall. Now Argentina may not have enough Mojo to shake the world's market, but for those who believe the unsustainable debt issuance eventually ends in fiat collapse, the Boys from South of Brazil may very well be the canary in the coal mine. Or not. The IMF has been tapped for short-term relief. We continue to see the level of cognitive dissonance very high, in a era of when business as usual, however fake we make it, trumps dealing rationally with the economic realities of contraction, finite resources, overshoot and the end of cheap energy. Humans, in the majority, appear to “do what we've been doing” until it can no longer be done. The courage and foresight to address some of the obvious problems coming down the pike is not going to come from politicians, banksters, the elite, or the common on-the-street head-in-the-sane person - it's going to come, if at all, from the grass roots of enlightened thinkers who see through the BS.
I'm not holding my breath.
In New York City, the Met Gala, which appears to be some sort of celebrity back-slapping excuse to dress up fest, has caused some religious and some sensible folks to question the theme - Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination. Hiding behind the fundraising task for the Metropolitian Museum of Art, the celebrities that appeared with sequins, crosses, gold, lace, and multiple pope hats rubbed some of us the wrong way. If asking What Would Jesus Do (after tossing his cookies), one thing I'm pretty sure is that he wouldn't stamp the event with his approval. I would love to hear Sarah Jessica Parker try to explain her view on Christ's birth being portrayed on her hat. Huh? Just another example of why the rich ain't like you and me, and why we shouldn't cry about it.
Meanwhile, an earthquake in LA, the volcanic eruption and evacuations and poor air quality in Hawaii, and the coldest April in 20 years in the U.S. are a reminder of who's really in charge - and it's not us, as self-centered as humans tend to think. It's that grand old gal, who back in the 1970s didn't like being fooled with margarine that tasted like butter. Yeah, Mama Nature. We haven't learned our lesson, and continue to ravage resources, pollute the environment, and take for granted the planet, the only one that we know of that actually supports our lifeform, will continue to be habitable in the future. Really now, would it be such a surprise if Terra decided to spin out of orbit, spiral into the Sun, and start from scratch? We'd deserve it, but probably aren't that lucky.
A recent commercial for Domino's pizza strikes me as odd. Now, I'm not a big fan of their product, as the quality of their current fare (cheap garbage) is nothing close to what it was like when I was in college in the early 1980s (average but convenient). A sign of decline, as the quality of many products or the amount in their standard package has been reduced over time by corporations for cost savings. But now some bright ad agency came up with the idea of “guaranteeing” the takeout pizza should it fall victim some accident on the way home. We see actors stumble, slip and the pie takes a nose dive. Really? Just bring the remains back to the parlor, and they'll fire up a replacement. Who pays for this? Ummm, that would the other customers who are up to the challenge of actually transporting a boxed pizza from shop to a location where it's consumed. Something that causes a mishap, as I ponder this, rarely happens in real life. At least to me. So now why on earth, or any other planet for that matter, would I want to patronize a company that believes I'm a klutz and need “insurance” for my takeaway food? What?!? Guess they are trying to drive sales down, since I'll be avoiding Dominos (even more) in the future.
