The Observations Podcast Observations Podcast

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.

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.