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Very interesting collection of graphs. One recurring thought jumped out at me right away. "Productivity" is a misleading economic indicator. I've always thought of it as "fewer people working harder". I don't see it as a great thing, overall. It can look great when overall employment is in the toilet and those working are working like scared bunnies trying to stay ahead of the wolf. Not healthy. Not how I want to live...Because I've seen too much of it in my generation.

Well written. I remember the one time I was at a DUI checkpoint. Didn't feel natural for me. The cop stood there holding and staring at my license for a good couple minutes, saying nothing. I just stared at him - zero emotion - until he handed it back and let me go.

Lately, I've been seeing a few videos of people rolling their window down just enough to pass the license - then saying, "I don't answer questions" to every question...and they let them go. My problem is that I think it's all bullshit and I'm at risk of saying so. Then, I know the Gestapo will get all wound up with the alpha dog act. I respect authority to a point...but respect is earned.

Haha...yep.

Me dino never cared for menthol. I'd smoke one if I had to bum one (for the nicotine fix) but I never liked it as much.

I was a Kool guy

Whoa, that reminds me! Of me! And coin operated cigarette machines! Now it all comes back to me.
There were times when little Dino would pedal his little bicycle over to a gas station's cigarette machine, make sure no one looked my way, dropped in the correct coins, pulled the lever and~~hey, remember all the cigarette jingles advertised on TV like "Winston Takes Good Like A Cigarette Should." Those were the very first smokes I tried for some peculiar reason,.

I started smokin cigars in college after the service. Before that it was cigarettes, thanks to my older sister when I was 10.

How come both of you smoked cigars? Y'all part Irish like me? I started out with cigarettes but during my last years of poisoning myself I was smoking Swisher Sweets.
After I quit for good, I had to throw everything hanging in the closet into the washing machine to get all the lingering tobacco stink out.

Happy birthday tomorrow. I'll be 79 March 17 and the bandage nurse who came today said I look younger than that. But then so does everybody.
I'm a quarter Irish but on my Saint Patrick's Day birthday I become 100%. How? Leprechauns, I guess.

I must have quit a 1000 times, it was easy but never made it past a week or so, the last time, I prayed for a little help/distraction/ or anything to keep me from picking up another Hava tampa jewel. ( I liked the wooden tips). Evidentially, I got the help I asked for and never went back although I think about it often. I just think about how hard it was and don't want to ruin that victory.

I can still taste and smell it right now . . .

Awe, man!, I used the wrong one, I accidentally scrapped the complete one. I screen print on the fly as I view/read.
Like Gilda used to say: "It's Always Somethin".

China waiting for the next Democrat (commie) regime that they have some control over does make sense. Why poke the eagle with Trump at the helm when you can wait to slap it around when your operatives/sympathizers are in the WH? Could fall either way at this point. The mid terms and 2028 will write the next chapter in this saga.

It was a bit different for me. I was always active and when I was 61 (birthday on March 3rd) I was still rollerblading in the mornings. I was visiting family in Florida and on March 4th, 2013 I went out in the morning and got really really short of breath and figured it had to be those damn cigars (sweet aromatic Backwoods Smokes), which I really really loved, but when I got back to the house I threw them all out and never went back. My loving wife, who never smoked (God bless her), says I was a real a--hole for about two weeks before I could hold a decent conversation. Like you, dino, I love tobacco but I know if I have one I'll start buying them again, so I must abstain. Bless you my friend and condolences on your loss.

Russia could replace the crazy EU as an ally to the US.
Their needs and assets are a good complement to the US in terms of trade,
and their people could be a more logical match in terms of basic sane beliefs as well.
The EU has sacrificed Europe to Islam.
Perhaps US immigration should shut down immigration from Africa and Latin
America in favor of productive native Europeans fleeing from the EU's tyranny.
Here's another article on the China strategy and Iran as a part of it, and
it looks at it as thwarting Russia as well..
https://korybko.substack.com/p/the-us...

Taiwan is the only place (afaik) that China has claimed prior
ownership of and might rationalize politically.
China is a long game player so it could be 20 years before a move
unless they are truly backed into a corner economically.
The smart move is to move incrementally, long game vs long game,
but regime change in the US every 4-years makes that very difficult.

Focus on trivia obscures the big picture and leads to failure of strategy.
The real question is not comparison with the 1930s but halting a two front attack on the US. This threat is near term.

As writer Zineb Riboua explains, China is building a secure energy supply chain with Iran. With the new weapons systems that China is supplying to Iran, Iran becomes formidable, the combination cannot be fought by the US alone. The supposed allies of Europe etc are sinking into a morass. Trump sees that now is the time to act.

This is a good analysis, have not come across this writer before.
FFA- thanks for the intro.

From the same author, see
https://www.zinebriboua.com/p/japan-i...
It looks like Japan, with the new leadership, could be a sound ally,
Europe has gone into a fantasy of their 19th century wars with Russia.
China is now indispensable for Russia, not just the war machine but the entire economy - thanks to Victoria Nuland, Obama and Biden. There was a chance of Russia becoming a complement to the West, if not an actual friend - well that is a thought stream I propose.

Yeah, me too! It took a Chantix prescription to get me off my nicotine addiction during 2012.
I know if smoke so much as a celebratory cigar I'll be hooked again.
A lifetime of smoking buried my ex just last year and she's 10 years younger than me.

Newsom scored 960 on the SAT?
I scored 300 points higher than that.
Down here in depressed, rural, redneck South Carolina, I think about half of my senior class scored higher than that.
With grades like that, I'm surprised Newsom didn't go into janitoreering.

Cute, but you may have her confused with Michael Obama.

Ha, nicely played, gafisher! LOL

If that piece of history is stacking up for a repeat I wonder what China's Pearl Harbor equivalent would be. I don't see Trump going before con-gress with a "Day of infamy" speech on behalf of Taiwan, as much as he'd like to. Hmmm, maybe if China takes out a US carrier group in the opening volley...

Me too~~but me dino declares that Benghazi Killary will make a mess if she does not hike up the front of her skirt.
Nevertheless! If that cacking crone actually gave birth to what's-her-name her daughter, me dino daresayeths her body be lined up so excrement will be splashing between her big toes.
I'm sure that should be okay with her. She's a bigger mess than that bit of splish splatter could possibly be.

Tariffic!

That noose has not been spaced sideways to mercifully provide a quick snapping of the neck either.
New Yorkers (at least the smarter ones) are going to contemplate the error of their ways as a smiling Mamcommie goes medieval slowly tightening his tyrannical noose.

This and Venezuela reminds me of the way FDR curtailed Japan's access to
hydrocarbon fuels that led to Japan's attack on Pearl on Dec 7, 1941.