I found this graphic via WRSA.

It really is worth the time to follow the link and absorb the meaning.

Seriously.

I mean, Holy Shit on a cracker. Put the way it is, I found it astonishing…I mean, really, I thought I had a handle on the magnitude and all that. I am an engineer by training, and I never work with anything even close to 1…Scientific notation is the only way I can handle most figures in the engineering that I used to do.  But I never looked at things like this. Bet you didn’t either.

But seriously.

Go, look, realize. Freak….. Take a deep breath.

Then share with others. Realize the depths of the damage they are doing to the country and your savings.

At the rate of things, I think you might really want to  mortgage your house for 30 more years, and invest in gold…. You’ll pay back expensive dollars borrowed today with essentially worthless dollars later…at a very low interest rate.

After looking at the graphic, you might understand why savings accounts and retirement savings are a losing proposition…

Enrico Fermi built the first “Nuclear Pile“… called a “pile” because bricks of graphite were literally piled up one on another with nuggets of uranium inserted into some of them until they began to react spontaneously. (yeah, for those who like to pick nits, I have left a LOT of details out….so sue me. 

Literally the first man made nuclear reactor. The first controlled nuclear fission reaction. His research led to much mathematics which led to even more research which led to what became the Manhattan Project.

Was he the father of the atomic bomb? Sorta. But the atomic bomb had MANY parents. But his research was groundbreaking.

Reading about this is interesting.  I suggest you start with “The making of the Atomic Bomb” by Richard Rhodes. The chapter about Fermi and his “pile” is interesting.

Surprisingly, self sustaining reactors actually happen in nature. But no one knew what to look for until Fermi and his team (and others) made the first one happen.

Onto that VERY SLIPPERY SLOPE..

Good idea, Rep. Johnson (d). No doubt that will work out well, in the end.

Wasn’t this the guy who worried that the Island of Guam might tip over?

Yeah, it was him: (about 1:25 )

Whoops! FiveTens beat me to it, and has better commentary)

Yep, they said it.

Fire them. All of them. Every last manager of the TSA. Then reduce it to what it should be, security screeners at airports (if that). Nothing else.

And anyone else who fails to show up for a congressional hearing gets jail time. Were it you or me, we’d be in the clink. So why not John Pistole?

If any of our congressional leaders had balls, we wouldn’t be in the mess we are in. But here would be a good start.

And if not under congressional oversight, then who, exactly is responsible for their behavior?

I didn’t win.

I guess I gotta get my ass to work today then.

Did ya buy a ticket to the Powerball drawing? You still have time. The drawing is Wednesday night.

Spend a few bucks.

Take a chance. A one in 174 million chance… But hey, sometimes ya gotta say “WTF?”.

Half a BILLION dollars is potentially what you can win.

Enough to buy a lot of neat firearms, throw a party or two, and go live on an island with lots of scantily clad women (or, if that is your choice, men)..(or whatever). 

And the rest you can spend foolishly if you wish….

I mean, this is dream money. True “Fuck You” money.  You could do a lot of good with winnings like that, even after taxes.

Of course, if you read this, and  decide to buy a ticket and somehow win, then I fully expect a bit to be tossed my way….

So go! Spend a few bucks. Dream.

Things like this happen here?

Holders of debt who refuse to be denied repayment demand their money in court? No matter if the country wants to pay or not? Argentina tried to forestall this by giving new debt instruments to replace the old ones. Not everyone chose this path.

Some holders of the original bonds want their money….Now.

I give it less than 20 years before this begins to happen with the debt of the US government.

Then what? We could, maybe, sell California. but would we get a decent price for it? )Being as how that state is already owned by their own bondholders……who will, someday, expect to be repaid.

Control of the internet, that is.

It’ll be good for us, ya know.

Take an essentially unfettered system and give it to a bunch  of authoritarian folks who want control of the last free means of communication in the world? Who envies the productivity and freedom of the country which invented (and controls) it? A system that frightens them because they have no control over a means of disseminating information at (essentially) the speed of light?

Yeah, that is a good idea.

It’ll work out well in the end, I am sure….

Just like that.

“Boil the frog slowly” and all that…..

Incrementalism.

It has worked so far.

Why not in the future?

“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance”. And we are getting lazy. We are conceding the ground without a fight, daily. We will lose only because we choose not to fight.

H/t Feral Irishman