Doing some more reading about the troubles in Iran, I can see it is not all Westerners agitating this time. Iran is experiencing hyperinflation and many of the middle class are getting wiped out by it. There is widespread discontent with the regime. Of course, the Westerners operating within Iran are taking advantage of it to try and push regime change, as thay has been a goal for a long time (since the 1990s PNAC "hot pursuit" doctrine was formulated at least). I still don't think a Western puppet government is the most likely outcome of this situation.

AHH ! They have finally fixed the bug in Nostter that made the feed inoperative. Now I can browse Nostr in my desktop again.

There was a lot of paranoia from the 2010s to early 2020s about central banks outright taking over states. But another possibility is that as a state of emergency or age of decline unfolds, the finance class is increasingly targeted by the state. I don't think Trump's action will succeed this time, but the precedent has been set and I do expect states to get more aggressive with central banking as time goes on. To use another Roman parallel, remember that financiers (the class of equites) got murdered and looted on a wide scale in the late Republican era whenever there was a period of crisis.

Justice Department Subpoenas the Fed, Threatens Powell with Criminal Indictment. Powell Comes out Swinging. Stock Futures Tank | Wolf Street

What seems to have happened in the past decade & accelerating since the 2020s is that, as the neoliberalism consensus collapses, the former veneer of democracy, free speech and the rule of law has been completely abrogated. In its place, we have entered an openly imperial era in which the previous verities mean little, even if they are still used for rhetorical purposes. Recent actions in Venezuela, or the rolling unrest in US cities and response to it are examples of the new reality. The picture is complicated by the fact that, as late as probably the 2000s, there was basically a consensus among the elites that kept things stable. But more and more, the system has fallen into factions which disagree about the course of action. These factions existed before but the tension was less. Now, it has reached the point where the stability of the state is threatened. For example, factions disagreed whether we should focus on foreign or domestic policy, whether we should have mass immigration or a more restricted system, and so on. During the heyday of neoliberalism, the "open society" advocates mostly won out. That is less common now. But now, it reaches the point where political factions try to achieve the most extreme outcomes in the shortest amount of time, knowing the limitations of term of office, which still exists as an artifact of the democratic-republican age. Which, I must stress, is an *anomaly* of Western history, the largest part of which was aristocratic, monarchical, or some combination thereof. Given current trends it is probably leading to the dictator for life model as has already been adopted in Russia or China. Until that time, we can expect escalating chaos. None of this is exactly new - the late Roman republic would have found such a situation very recognizable. We are not Romans but humans are broadly the same across ages and there are "rhymes" as they say.

Pay particularly close attention to what he says about corporate profits, public debt and the massive government deficits. This bubble *requires* expanding deficits ad infinitum. Which of course *ensures* both high inflation & the continued decline of the USD as a reserve currency (mostly to the benefit of our nominal allies).

Hussman Funds

How the Bubble Manipulates Time - Hussman Funds

The defining feature of every bubble is the same: a growing inconsistency between the long-term returns that investors expect in their heads - base...

Update: Nostter dot app is borked on the browser so I will only be on Amethyst for a while until I have time to figure out what's going on (not now since I am about to travel). Sadly Amethyst does not always show everything, while Nostter's timeline is flawless but the devs may have broken it recently. It never authenticates the npub and just keeps spinning. So if I miss an update or notification that's why!

Honda is the car specially made for people who don't know how to drive. No lie: worst drivers on the road - invariably Hondas.

Inflation here is eroding the world reserve status of the USD as predicted, and you can see from the charts that this happened before. But spoiler alert, all the currencies that central banks diversified into are those of nominal allies except China which is #7 on the list. I expect the slow decline to continue because the current US regime has no interest in fixing the inflation problem. Right now they are pretending it doesn't exist.

Status of the US Dollar as Global Reserve Currency: USD Share Drops to Lowest since 1994 | Wolf Street

Fair warning: possibly as soon as next year, or in the next few years, there will be another pandemic psyop. I want to remind readers that the covid psyop had news premonition for several years before it happened as well (roughly 2015-2018). Don't be taken by surprise, start planning now.

‘It’s completely out of control’: Scientists warn bird flu could spark a human pandemic in 2026 | BBC Science Focus Magazine

Bird flu has been rampaging through wildlife and farm animals worldwide. Will it make the long-feared jump to humans?

Lol this was good. I believe this guy got locked up for contempt of court in Texas recently after having a prolonged legal battle with one of Elon's goons.

Couldn't bother to watch Trump's address but a friend of mine did and it was full of BS as you would expect. But the most notable thing was he was obviously angry the whole time. His agenda is failing and he is sore about it. Being a whore for a certain bandit kingdom in the Near East while pissing on his domestic constituency hasn't been popular. The GOP is looking at serious losses next year. They were really stupid to gaslight the public about inflation and do nothing on their campaign agenda. At the rate this is going Trump is going to be looking at impeachment and possibly prison once again after he's out of office. I have no sympathy.