Winter Rules, A Novel by Bob Schaefer

My good friend, Bob Schaefer, just sent me his novel and asked me to review it. Bottom line? I told him to change the cover.

WINTER RULES is not an insipid sports story. It is a story about a United States ravaged by monetary inflation, poverty, crime, corruption and starry-eyed politicians who preach wealth equity and social justice -- a United States ruled by self-righteous academics and tyrannical bureaucrats. Harry Sedlacek is one of these government bureaucrats who just happens to love golf.

When Harry is fired for running his federal agency the same way he plays golf (bending the rules), he learns what life is like on the outside of government looking in. He begins to wonder who are the real bad guys in this world. Desperate fathers who defy the law by bartering on the black market to feed their families? Or the "patriotic" agents of the IRS who ruthlessly pursue and prosecute these barterers? Who are the real good guys? The selfless bureaucrats who scheme to make a central bank digital currency the law of the land, thinking it will solve all of the country’s economic ills? Or selfish black-market operators who believe in a radical new philosophy which is spreading across the world like wildfire -- the philosophy that love is barter and, when it is not, love is war?

Harry Sedlacek may no longer be a bureaucrat, but neither is he a philosopher or an economist. He is just a free-thinking, ordinary American who must reason out answers to these questions to the best of his ability because his life and the life of the woman he loves depend on it.

WINTER RULES is a novel for our time. Finally, someone other than Ayn Rand created a novel with philosophical meat on its bones. To be honest, I couldn’t put my friend’s book down. 

But seriously, Bob, change the cover!

WINTER RULES, A Novel is available now on Amazon at the link below:

Amazon.com: Winter Rules: A Novel: 9798218502638: Schaefer, Bob: Books

Readers who wish to message Bob Schaefer should fill out the contact form on the Home page of this blog and I'll forward the message to Bob. 

Where Is Trump Taking Us?

I've come around to the belief that Trump doesn't give a crap about a lot of things on the level of principle. That includes the rule of law and economics. I believe he has a goal in mind and his means of achieving that goal is making winning "deals." He will use civic law and economics when they suit his purposes, not because he believes in them. The only thing he really understands is leverage, arm-twisting and the art of bluff and bluster which he will use whenever and however he needs to, damn the consequences, as long as he wins. And winning to him means achieving his goal. The difficult part is sifting through the bluff and bluster and figuring out what his actual, real goal is. At this point, it's anybody's guess.

Trump Tariffs: Nationalistic Nirvana or Economic Armageddon?

Grab some popcorn. 

Nobody knows how this Trump tariff play will shake out on the ground in the real world. Anyone who says he knows is fooling himself. 

Economically, tariffs run against my grain. They are interventionist, plain and simple. They represent pure governmental coercion of the marketplace. They interfere with the division of labor and, as such, make production less efficient and products more expensive by restricting supply. They create uncertainty and cronyism in the marketplace.

But Trump isn't swinging his tariff cudgel as an economic tool. The Trump tariffs are first and foremost a political weapon. Tariffs enhance the power of those imposing them. Tariffs benefit some and oppress others. Those who benefit become economic parasites and sycophants of the state. Those oppressed become enemies of the state. Trade wars have kindled more real wars than virtually any other political machination. The American Civil War was engendered by the trade war between the North and the South.

The Trump tariffs are a political weapon wielded by a man who thinks he knows the outcome of his actions and thinks he can control that outcome. I'm not sure he's even in control of his own political party.

There are too many wild cards in the mix for making accurate predictions about the effect of these tariffs on the world political situation or even on the world economy.

The Democrats are not going to sit on their hands. Look what happened just a couple days ago in Wisconsin. Trump endorsed a flawed candidate for the Supreme Court and Elon Musk doubled down by coming to the state openly buying votes for that candidate. I can't think of a better way to enrage the average Wisconsinite and motivate your average TDS-infected Democrat. Trump played right into the Dem's hand. The Dems poured millions into the state under the radar. The voter backlash created a liberal majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court and will probably result in a two-seat swing in the US House of Representatives. There goes the Republican majority. Can you say Trump impeachment II?

The Dem political reaction to Trump's tariffs is yet to come but we can safely assume the Dems will play the resulting supply and demand chaos for everything it's worth.

Then, there is the federal judiciary. It could be argued that Trump's tariff order will cause short-term economic chaos that will soon resolve itself. However, how long will it take before a federal judge decides Trump's tariffs are unconstitutional and issues a restraining order stopping them? Will Trump's tariffs motivate American manufacturers to build and expand in the face of this coming legal circus, not to mention the coming Dem majority in the House?

Instead of more government meddling by imposing tariffs, Trump could have focused on making US producers stronger by eliminating stupid and misguided workplace and environmental restrictions and regulations on US industry, eliminating crony subsidies, significantly reducing federal spending and tackling the Medicare and Medicaid fiascos.

Of course, those efforts would have been resisted by the federal judiciary and the Democrat socialist machine as well. So who knows?

We'll see.

Like I said, grab some popcorn.

The Buck Stops at the Desk of President Anonymous

The Ticker Guy comments on a truly terrifying story published by The New York Times.

Apparently, US military interventionism in Ukraine in 2024 almost resulted in catastrophe. From the referenced New York Times story:

The unthinkable had become real. The United States was now woven into the killing of Russian soldiers on sovereign Russian soil.

So, according to the NY Times, we were brought to the brink of World War III in 2024.

But do we know by whom?

We know Putin was the President of Russia. We know Zelensky was the President of Ukraine. But who was calling the shots in The White House?

We all know it wasn't Biden. He was a barely functioning, babbling fool at the time who couldn't be trusted to sign his name without the help of an autopen.

So, who?

Karl Denninger warns us in the comment section of his article that leadership is critical should a nuclear war begin:

We could stay out of it if somebody else starts it and we have the advantage of oceans on both sides. The problem is the hard part is recognizing that your ego has to be put away when that kind of **** begins. If you get sucked into it, you're ****ed.

So, if a nuclear World War III had erupted in 2024, whose "ego" in The White House would have had "to be put away?" Exactly who in the White House would have been acting in the President's crucial, leadership position to keep us from getting "sucked into it."

If there was ever a reason to investigate and prosecute those in The White House who propped up Biden and commandeered the power of his Presidency, this is it.

"What difference, at this point, does it make?"- Lifelong Bureaucrat and Shrieking Karen, Hillary Clinton

Karl Denninger at the Market Ticker discusses Signal-gate, the latest leftist Karen-moment designed to scare stupid citizens into believing that amateurish Trump cretins are spoiling their finely tuned federal expertocracy. As usual, Karl sees through the crap and suggests a way to put Humpty Dumpty back together again:

This incident, beyond the actual person who added (or changed) the recipient so that reporter was in the list, is directly chargeable against CISA and their recommendation.  Since it is their job to put forward such standards for the government this is a fatal failure and every individual involved in that process, no matter how small their involvement, must be both publicly identified and expelled.  As there was apparently no classified data breached as a result of this, criminal sanction is not appropriate -- but permanent severance from any government employment now and in the future, along with summary and permanent revocation of any clearance held by said persons is not just advisable -- it is mandatory.

Security is a process, not a product.

What's wrong here is the assumption that you can make things work in Washington DC by tightening up the rules and getting rid of a few rotten apples. The truth is the entire orchard is rotten. There is no way to make things work in the Washington bureaucracy. The only sane policy is to destroy it from top to bottom.

That includes CISA, a $3-billion per year bureaucracy that employs over 4,000 bureaucrats, probably 90% of them leftist Democrats. Garbage in. Is it any wonder a few Trump bureaucrats got screwed by the CISA garbage out?

Now consider that the federal government is a $6-trillion leviathan with 450,000 leftist bureaucrats ensconced in the Washington DC landfill. What are the odds Trump or Musk or any sane conservative can make that trash work for us?

Zero.

The federal bureaucracy is not our friend. It will never be our friend. It CANNOT be our friend. Garbage is garbage.

Elon Musk is on the right track, although he must come to the understanding that the workings of the federal leviathan are not IMPAIRED by waste and fraud. The federal leviathan IS waste and fraud. Musk's mission should be to eliminate federal spending and terminate federal employees, wherever he finds them. CISA should be his next stop.

UNSTOPPABLE Financial Crisis - Great Depression 2.0 Coming with Peter Sc...

ECONOMIC DOOMSDAY IS AROUND THE CORNER!

 

According to the Associated Press:

The House passed legislation Tuesday to avert a partial government shutdown and fund federal agencies through September, providing critical momentum as the measure now moves to the Senate, where bipartisan support will be needed to get it over the finish line.

Folks, our representatives in Washington DC are not playing a political parlor game or engaging in a cute, partisan competition. If passed by the Senate, this measure would continue current levels of federal spending through September, 2025!

What does this mean, and why is it so important? It means out-of-control federal deficit spending will continue at unprecedented levels for another six months. It means the federal government will continue to spend at record levels while only off-setting a fraction of this spending with revenue.

Why is this so important to you and me? If nothing is done to stop this looming disaster, caused primarily by monopolistic medical costs, we will all experience dire, life-threatening consequences. 

Karl Denninger, a respected and experienced economic forecaster, has just published an article which gets into the specifics of the BIG TROUBLE heading our way. It ain’t pretty. I would encourage you to read Karl’s entire article.

Karl writes:

It is not possible to stop this in-process trainwreck now without serious disruption to our economy…. $296 billion in all revenues and $603 billion spent last month…. If we do not stop it now the consequences literally grow by the day and risk fiscal and possibly even civil collapse… …this foolery must be stopped with finality so that NEVER AGAIN can a federal department [Health and Human Services] find itself collecting only sixteen percent of its spend in taxes and being a full THIRD of every dollar the government spends; there is no way we will get through the next couple of years without this blowing up the economy.

Karl adds that if the President and Congress continue to kick the Health and Human Services deficit-spending can down the road and do nothing now “all assets will collapse in price, [interest] rates will soar irrespective of The Fed cutting off consumer and corporate borrowing and unemployment will shoot to the moon concurrent with real shortages and perhaps worse.”

Karl argues that the American healthcare system, as it currently stands, is essentially a monopoly which must be busted up now in order to prevent total, economic ruin. Karl explains in detail how this must be done. In essence, Karl is saying we must do what it takes now to stop monopolistic costs and out-of-control spending, endure the inevitable, economic depression as the system clears, or suffer total economic collapse and destruction a few months down the road.

Everything I know about economics supports Karl's opinion. I completely agree with him.

Look, we are all reasonable adults. Most of us understand that something is gravely wrong with our current economic situation. We know instinctively that we are being fleeced by grifting, powerful elites in Washington DC. We can feel ourselves being slowly suffocated by the multi-$-Trillion runaway, federal government leviathan. 

Some of us will regard Karl's article as a call to action. We will send Karl’s article to our representatives in Washington and demand immediate action. 

Some of us will sit on our hands. We will laugh off Karl’s article as Chicken-Little doomsaying or fear mongering or cheap political partisanship. 

Some of us will tighten our belts and prepare for the runaway train that is coming down the tracks straight at us from the east.

Whatever some of us may do or may not do, there is one thing we all cannot do. When that runaway train smashes into us -- destroying our savings and wrecking our very way of life -- we cannot say we weren’t warned!