How on earth does someone become a “pet marijuana tycoon”?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5344427/Black-Dahlia-mansion-sold-5m.html
DON’T click that link by the way. Very gruesome shots of the murdered girl as you scroll down.
Can we draw any conclusions about where we are in the fall of the empire from the fact that a guy who sells marijuana infused supplements for DOGS can buy a $5M home?
RBT thought the most likely scenario was a long slow decline, and I’ve gotta say, it certainly feels like we’ve already stepped onto the ski slope. I think we have a lot more ‘peak decadence’, ‘peak perversity’, and ‘peak violence’ still to come.
We’ve already got bread and circuses. We’ve already got half the country on some form of dole. We’ve already got barbarians inside the gates. We’ve already got waning influence over our far flung possessions and juniors. What else is left in the checklist?
nick
Related but just speculation-
Might want to have some extra cash around the house for the next little while. Bad week in the markets. Anything can happen over the weekend…. and some of the headlines suggest that there are lots of people losing faith in the ponzi.
(and if not this one, eventually it will happen like 2008 all over again.)
n
Stock market has always recovered from down slopes. A correction of about 10% is long overdue. Dropping the price makes stocks more attractive and more easily purchased thus helping the market with gains. Stocks go up and down. Staying for the long term is the recommended option from all financial advisors with any intelligence.
I once was heavily invested in the markets. Lost almost $250K in 2008. But have since recovered the losses and then some. Over the years I have scaled back and have moved money into conservative funds, some fixed funds (paying 3% a year), and bonds. I have moved to a very conservative portfolio. Large dips and gains affect my portfolio but not as much as would have in the past.
Found this after I posted this am,
https://borepatch.blogspot.com/2018/02/a-recommended-podcast-on-fall-of-rome.html
“The takeaway is that the collapse was not sudden. It happens over a century, trade becomes more difficult as new borders form, the roads and bridges go unpatrolled and unmaintained, and the marginal cost of doing business makes the trade unprofitable.”
n
Nick: Loss of rule of law and enforcement seem like the best warning flag for the fall.
On that scale, Detroit, Chicago, Baltimore are far over the edge.
WRT the stock market, they always say “you can’t time the market” and “stay in long term” but the actual research shows that almost all the historical gains happened in very short periods, and if you were not invested in the right things at the right times, you don’t get those gains. And if you don’t “time the market” and sell after the rise, you don’t actually GET any gains.
If your “end game” for your investment in the market comes during a down time, you’re F’d no matter how long term your outlook or how long you’ve been in.
Some of the richest men in the world “time the market” and get out. See Warren Buffett, see Sam Zell.
The behaviour of the stock market is no longer driven by ‘fundamentals’. In other words, you can’t research a company and make decisions based on market share, cost ratios, eps, ebita, or any other real world factor. Stock prices are completely uncoupled from performance since the tech boom. They are driven by algo trading based on tweets, headline scanning, financial shennanigans, financial “engineering”, rumor, regulatory factors, and personality.
That said, if you like the casino, play. If you think you worked too hard for your money to lose it in a speculative game, there are other ways to use your money to help secure your future.
n
(not intended to be investment advice)
“Loss of rule of law and enforcement”
I’d agree and add personality cults, repeated ‘manias’, and increase in ‘extremes’.
n
I think we’re on a decline, but things are declining slower than they would have if Sanders or Clinton were President.
Fluoroantimonic Acid.
http://up-ship.com/blog/?p=36751#disqus_thread
I wish RBT was around to talk about this. Probably not suited for the kit…
Or as a facial cleanser…
n
“things are declining slower”
we are very close to the situation, and it’s hard to have any perspective, but it seems likely to be true.
On the other hand, the drums of war continue to beat, there is upheaval and change everywhere you look. BIG changes are coming. Tipping point, inflection point, whatever, it def has the feel of it…
n
added- lots of things feel like they’re about to go exponential
“What else is left in the checklist?”
Oh, I left out ‘debase the currency’.
n
We need a big war with the NORKS. That’ll solve everything. 🙂
@Nick,
If you were a dog in the home of a stoner, wouldn’t you want to be stoned too?
How could we have a ‘big’ war with the NORKs? they’re tiny, and broke. The war would have big consequences, and we’d be rebuilding the infrastructure they don’t have anyway…
n
@Nick: I can’t tell if you’re being sarcastic or not, because you’re right. Simply the cost of the weapons would penalize the US more. Outside of the capital and the ruling class, there’s not a lot in NK to damage. And who, exactly, would miss the ruling class? The majority of the population, which is to say: the starving peasants would be better off under almost any other situation.
I actually imagine that one of South Korea’s nightmares is re-uniting the Korean peninsula. Imagine the investment it would take – and the time, we’re talking generations – to bring the North Korean population into the modern world.
So: is Trump gonna release this mysterious memo, or is he sitting on it, hoping it’s going to hatch?
I was serious. No way to have a ‘big’ war with a little place like that. We could pound every significant location with our aging ordinance into dust, and then have an economic boom in the military industrial complex as we replaced it.
Granted that the repercussions WOULD be big.
I’d prefer not to spend a dollar on NORK one way or the other, and I don’t want to lose one US serviceman’s life as a ‘tripwire’ to bring us into a family feud. Let South Korea have THEIR economy crippled by reunification. Bringing E. Germany back into the fold cost the German taxpayers their children’s future.
If I was playing the long game, I’d be looking to slow the KOR economic machine. I’d be pushing for reconciliation and reunification. Get them focused inward for a decade. BYE BYE LG….. Hyundai…. Samsung… etc
n
Hey I drive a KIA and like it. Still have 6+ year on the warranty.
We need a big war with the NORKS. That’ll solve everything.
Actually, we are overdue for a USA versus the World war. That should go swimmingly.
A past tense account of the World against the USA war is recorded in David Gerrold’s awesome Chtorr series.
https://www.amazon.com/Matter-Men-Against-Chtorr-Book/dp/0671464949/
I actually imagine that one of South Korea’s nightmares is re-uniting the Korean peninsula. Imagine the investment it would take – and the time, we’re talking generations – to bring the North Korean population into the modern world.
It would be no worse than Germany’s reunification with East Germany in the 1990s. And Germany got the bonus of a bunch of commie politicians such as Angela Merkel.
I’d prefer not to spend a dollar on NORK one way or the other, and I don’t want to lose one US serviceman’s life as a ‘tripwire’ to bring us into a family feud.
Putin has been making several threats about the Norks over the last year or so. The Norks did something to really piss him off. He moved troops and missiles to the Russia – Nork border a year ago and has yet to remove them.
I wish that I had bought more Big River stock. It is up 50% since I bought 20 shares last year.
https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/AMZN?p=AMZN
I can’t take the WWW any more. Seriously! It’s like the bloody early 90s all over again, with blinking bits of this and that and pop-ups and god-know-what else; and I have a great HOSTS file, Ghostery and uBlock installed.
On top of that, YouTubes have gotten so boringly long-winded I practically gave up looking up Fluoroantimonic Acid. You DO NOT need to spend more than minute demonstrating its effect…. Some people just love to hear themselves talk. (I guess that means me, too, doesn’t it? 😉 )
Then there’s Amazon… Don’t even get me started. I was looking up a knife today and every time I clicked on a link I’d get a promo for Amazon Prime, of which I’m already a member. Duh! On top of the, they screwed the Prime video page a few days ago, so now it opens the player — well, maybe if you hit the green button about ten times, and then the damn movie plays for three seconds until you reload the page. This is AFTER you either try to skip through their promotion, or back out and try again.
Anyone else starting to feel the same way?
Anyone else starting to feel the same way?
Nope, I am solidly addicted to the internet. WWW and usenet both. I took Monday and Tuesday off and spent most of the time watching tv and surfing. I had promised the wife that I would fix the master closet and did not get that done so I got a mark.
Of course, the closet fix is more involved than I thought. I found out that I have to remove the 20 ft of 1″x4″ and pull the construction staples out. I thought that I could just screw the 1″x4″ back to studs without having to remove the construction staples.
EDIT: Who in the world uses construction staples to attach a wood pivot point to the wall studs with sheetrock between them ? At most, 1/4 inch of the construction staple was in the studs.
We’ve already got half the country on some form of dole.
I don’t count Social Security and Medicare as the dole. But the food stamps, AFDC, Section 8 housing, etc, etc, etc have got to go.
A federal balanced budget amendment will fix the problem. Too bad that we will have to have a civil war or a revolution in order to get one.
Just wait until the next President. She will be Uncle Santa Claus to everyone.
@Ray
Hardwareguys2.com got too little traffic, too much spam and wasn’t worth the bother. And RBT didn’t link to it properly, so the switchover confused all but the most die-hard fans.
I still have a backup of the ancient Ikonboard data, if you want it, but didn’t want to port it out to WordPress at the time. It’s probably easier now. The guy in India may have the final one, if you want it. I offered to give it away well in advance, but only one guy took me half seriously, and I didn’t think he was all that competent.
Funny story for you. Have a stye developing under my eye, so I emailed the ophthalmologist in India asking which antibiotic I should take in order to abort it. She said Amoxicillin was fine, and that’s what I had handy. So far so good. The medical term for a stye is called a hordeolum, but I didn’t have the heart to inflict upon her that old saying, “You can lead a hordeolum to water…”
@jim
Spend most of my day on the webs. Some of it is working on web sites, custom web programming, and others just wandering around various places.
I use FireFox in it’s latest incantation, with UBlock as the ad blocker. No special config files. I spend some time in FB, but use the FB-Purity add-in (www.fbpurity.com) to make the feeds work how I want it to.
Look occasionally at http://www.marinetraffic.com to identify the ships that pass by my viewport here looking out at the Admiralty Inlet of Puget Sound. Today’s viewing included a Navy submarine escorted by two tenders and several CG boats on it’s way to the Kitsap Navy base. That’s always fun to see.
@Rick
You’ve mentioned that site before, but from where I now sit on Queen Anne I don’t have a good view. Used to have an apt with a great view though, and boy, you could sure gauge how the economy was doing by the number of container ships coming into Elliot Bay heading for the docks.
I’ve just been putzing around on the web today, something I don’t do too much anymore, hence my frustration.
Got notice of an old forum I used to hang out on. They’ve changed their interface and it looks great, so for those interested:
https://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/community/
interface by
https://xenforo.com/
I don’t have a thing for FLASHLIGHTS or RATS, but kind of like knives. Took one in to get sharpened yesterday (Seattle Cutlery, Andrew) and had a question for the guy who’s been doing my knives for ages. Nice old thing, carbon steel, of course. Unmarked, but this time I took it in in the original box. He liked it so much he took some pics so they might carry it. So I got to looking up the manufacturer and discovered an old pocket knife I got at a thrift store ages ago is going for — wait for it — upwards of close to $800 on eBay. LOL, and I just call it my mango knife because it’s great at cutting them open. I don’t think I’ll sell it — just fun to think of it as a little treasure.
Today’s viewing included a Navy submarine escorted by two tenders and several CG boats on it’s way to the Kitsap Navy base. That’s always fun to see.
Any Chinese or Russian neighbors? 🙂
All kidding aside, we had lots of Mainland Chinese bugout pads around us in the Fishers Landing section of Vancouver, WA. Grandparents, Mom and kids stayed in the US while Dad flew back and forth to China out of PDX, 15 minutes away even during rush hour.
We probably had a few agents around too, just to mointor the expats.
Occasionally I get a web page that doesn’t display or work right in FF and I have to try opening it in IE… sweet mother of hod. It’s bad enough with the pop overs, greyed out main page, and begging that the sites do with FF and adblocker. In IE without any protection it’s like a geocities page. Freakin’ blink tag and ega colors with pop ups, slide ins, crap floating here and there, auto starting video, like freakin Times Square.
Go to photobucket without any protection and see how bad it can be….
Want me to take a survey? NO. Want me to turn off my adblocker (I see you are using…) NO, NO, HELL NO. Bye! Want me to sign up for your spammy newsletter, NO. Want PopSugar to spam me, NO! Want to “notify me” NO NO NO NONONONONONONONOONo. Want me to pay? NO, NO, NO — google text and backdoor it if I really want to see the article.
Push your customers away and you’ll get the reward of no customers.
nick
@jim
I do see a lot of container ships (and other types) going back and forth from China and other ‘far east’ area. The thing about the http://www.MarineTraffic.com site is that you can click on a ship icon and see their source and destination.
Some of those container ships are very big. Enjoyable to watch them for the minute it takes them to transit my field of view.
Plus the occasional eagle and hawk viewed. And the two hummingbirds that fight over the feeder.
@Rick
One certainly gets spoiled seeing bald eagles all the time. I live just up from the grain silos, so the eagles hang out there to catch the RATS. Maybe we should send some to Nick? Fun watching the crows pester the eagles, too.
Speaking of spoiled, I think I’ve mentioned I knew I’d been in India for too long when I got impatient waiting for an elephant to get off the road so we could pass it. Outta the way, you damned beast!
@Ray, better watch out with the cell phones!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5346345/Florida-substitute-teacher-64-slammed-student.html
“A 64-year-old Florida substitute teacher was slammed to the ground by a student when he confiscated the teen’s phone.
In a video released today, the unidentified educator and the teen are wrapped up in a scuffle over the phone.
As students move out of the way of the chaos, the two bulldoze through desk as they make their way to another part of the classroom.”
I believe I have quite enough rats at the moment, thanks!
n
You never know what you’ll find at the Goodwill.
Today I found this:
https://www.lapolicegear.com/jumbo-bailout-bag.html
Brand new, 10$. I would have chosen tan or black, but I can live with green for 1/3 of retail.
And on the rat front, I built and placed a bucket trap in the attic. Like this one, only I just used one can.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gve7VbsbgFU
I expect to get some tonight.
n
@Nick
We mean to send you bald eagles, not RATS!
Speaking of Goodwill, long time back I picked this up for about $10, only in better condition. Looked it up today ’cause the guy at the knife sharpening place liked it.
http://tinyurl.com/y7kfpsyn
Been carrying it around for ages. I wonder if I should sell it, or just keep it in my knapsack for mangoes? That’s about all I ever use it for.
Wow, nice! It’s nice to have nice things and use and enjoy them.
All my measuring tools are Starrett and Brown and Sharpe. They are “lifetime” tools. I bought them all cheap at swapmeets so I don’t worry about using them.
NICE to have nice things.
n
What I’d give for a Starrett micrometer… Gee, they made some nice stuff, didn’t they?
The slide rule I sent Slim was a freebie from International Rectifier. I figured he probably worked for them at one point (ducking and running)…
Speaking of which, I guy I know was a projectionist at a Drive-In theater. They had a couple huge (like 2′ square) mercury pool rectifiers for the lamps. I’ve always wondered what happened to them, or all that dangerous mercury I used to play with as a kid.
@jim~
I’ve been contemplating starting hardwareguys3 just to see if anyone showed up, but between work and the club I run the forum for, I stay busy. We use phpBB and don’t have a lot of problems with spam. The captcha seems reasonably effective and new users are moderated for the first few posts. So far no spammers have been patient enough to make it out of moderation.
@Mark
They won’t. Another one of my favorites just shut down too, and yet another is on its last legs. It’s all about “Twittering” now, whatever the h3ll that is. A friend of mine calls me GOM, for grumpy old man, so get off my lawn!
Nick, I checked out eBay for that Starrett micrometer. I meant caliper. Too rich for my blood. I like those old dial types, even if 50 years old. They’re pretty and work just fine.
Twittering…hmmm… I tried Gab for a while, but I apparently fail to understand the interface. It seems impossible to follow any sort of conversation. However I go into it, it’s just a bunch of random comments. It’s like walking into a busy bar and hearing individual sentences from 20 different conversations.
The result is that each person is striving to be heard over the clamor. How outrageous can they be? Can they find an attention-grabbing pic? Their voice is important, no one else’s.
I genuinely don’t see the point.
RE: Twitter – I see it as a place to just shout things out (in general). If you follow just a handful of interesting people, you can burn some time reading interesting things. Right now I’m following WAY too many people. Too much shouting. I don’t really participate in the shouting as it’s just not me.
For my purposes, I extract the stuff I want and publish it where I want. It’s a good way to make announcements that I want anyone to be able to see. For instance, see:
http://erierunners.club/
I use an aggregator to post information to multiple accounts. Facebook followers of the club account get to see the posts on FB, twitter followers MIGHT see it in their timeline, and all visitors to the website can see all the Tweets. That’s the only thing that really gives Twitter value to me.
Correction – facebook followers of my timing company get to see my posts on FB. I don’t post to the club’s FB page. Early on I made a mistake and they got made. Better this way. It’s somebody else’s headache.
Your wife’s really glad you’re taking care of the rats, eh?
“The slide rule I sent Slim was a freebie from International Rectifier. I figured he probably worked for them at one point (ducking and running)…”
Along with the first paperback novel that I will read since years ago (starting today as I just finished a ebook yesterday).
@steveF, only thing I ‘m getting from the wife because of the rats is the stink eye! And a fine glower. And the occasional mutter.
n
It would be no worse than Germany’s reunification with East Germany in the 1990s.
According to the guys at Strategy Page, it will be much worse. The South Koreans have been putting away money for funding it, but it will take 15 years more to get it fully funded. They sent teams to monitor the German reunification. Estimates are that it will reduce the standard of living in South Korea by 10% for many years.
The big differences with Germany: East Germany had a reasonably well educated workforce, roads, factories in reasonable repair (if outdated), and functioning agriculture. North Korea has none of that.