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Bits and Pieces 

(Maybe) Good News About the American Economy 

More than 500,000 non-farm jobs were added to the American economy last month. More than twice the number predicted by most mainstream economists. And it came after the Federal Reserve raised its benchmark rate by 0.25%.

Not all of the economic indicators were positive, however. The added jobs in January were mostly in the hospitality and leisure sectors, while skyrocketing layoffs in the tech and media industries continued.

Click here for details.

“I Thought It Was Just a Petition!” 

Bernie Sanders and AOC, among others, want to make a college education free. And there are plenty of kindhearted Americans that agree with them. “Everyone deserves a college education,” they argue.

Ask them to sign a petition supporting that, and they are eager to step up and get on board. But if you ask them another question… see what happens here.

A Horrific Story 

Listen to this story and then claim that gender ideology is not a dangerous religion.

Click here.

And click here.

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Bits and Pieces 

A CEO’s Perspective 

Click here for an outlook on the US economy from Starwood Capital CEO Barry Sternlicht. Friend and colleague JS sent this in, saying, “Listen to this CEO as compared to what you hear from politicians.”

Canada’s Drug Experiment 

I generally think of Canada’s prime minister as a leftist lunatic. And Canada’s federal government as lunatic-led zombies. Justin Trudeau is a textbook example of that old saw “Under every leftist is a wannabe tyrant.”

British Columbia is doing something that, from a distance, sounds like more of the same. But, IMHO, it makes sense.

The province is conducting a three-year experiment in decriminalizing drugs. Not pot. (Cannabis is already legal there.) But harder drugs like cocaine and heroin. Drug trafficking will remain legal. But people caught with modest quantities (less than 2.5 grams) will not be arrested or even charged with a crime. Instead, they will be given information on risks and treatments. Read more here.

“Are We Dating the Same Guy?” 

Click here to read an interesting report from The Free Press about a membership website called “Are We Dating the Same Guy?” It’s for women that have concerns about men they have recently dated. The report contains some surprising facts. (Did you know that women comprise more than 70 percent of consumers of crime and murder stories?) But ultimately, it’s scary.

How to Stop Mass Shootings? 

I’m not sure if providing deadly weapons to teachers is the best way to stop mass school shootings. But if you watch this YouTube video, you may begin to think more broadly about the situation. Click here.

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Five Quick Bits From “YouTube Shorts”

Warren Buffett on Gold 

Years ago, when gold was trading in the $400s, I bought a fair amount. Enough to get my family through a complete economic collapse. I don’t regret that. But I can’t refute what Warren Buffett, arguably the best individual investor of all time, says about investing in it. Click here.

Warren Buffett on Cryptos 

This is not the final word. Warren Buffett is hardly an expert on cryptocurrencies. But in this video clip, he explains, very lucidly, the problem with Bitcoin (and similar cryptos) as investments. Click here.

Joe Rogan and Ben Shapiro on the Vaccine Mandates 

I thought this conversation between Ben Shapiro and Joe Rogan was interesting because it is about something more important than the usually discussed scientific and health management issues. Click here.

The “Trans-racialism” Argument 

Leaders of the Woke Revolution say that gender is not binary. It’s a spectrum. That’s nonsense, of course. Just as silly is the idea that race is binary. This man makes the point well. Click here.

Why Artificial Intelligence Should Not Be Humanized 

AI is taking over fast. It’s inevitable, and it will do a lot of good. But this piece of advice to not “put a face on it” makes a lot of sense. Click here.

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One Way to Thin Down an Overcrowded Population

Tokyo is crowded. Really, really crowded. But with a declining reproduction rate, that shouldn’t be a long-term problem. That’s how I see it. The Japanese government, though – which is comprised of dozens of economists and sociologists and so on who are way smarter than I am – sees things differently.

Their plan is to give one million yen ($7,500) per child to each family that moves out of greater Tokyo. The incentive – a dramatic rise from the previous relocation fee of 300,000 yen – will be introduced in April as part of an official push to breathe life into declining towns and villages. Click here for more on this.

 

Okay, Go Ahead and Have a Drink 

Dubai has a problem. As a purportedly orthodox Muslim country, it doesn’t approve of alcohol at all. But since it has become an international center for business, and even tourism to a lesser extent, it has succumbed to pressure to serve alcohol to its wealthy foreign clientele.

As long as I’ve been going to Dubai, I’ve never had trouble getting a tequila and soda. But that’s because I’ve always stayed at the fancy hotels that cater to Westerners. Yes, the booze is expensive. But everything a foreign visitor staying in a five-star hotel in Dubai wants is expensive. So, what’s the problem?

The problem is that the cost of alcohol has risen to the point where tourists are complaining. And so, the government has decided to scrap its 30% tax on alcohol sales – at least for the rest of 2023. Click here for CNBC’s report.

 

Magic Mushroom Are Now Legal in Oregon 
Good news for all you Boomer freaks out there. On Jan. 1, Oregon became the first state to allow the use of psilocybin “magic” mushrooms. Click here for details.

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The Harsh Truth About Going Vegan

I once read a great book on the vegan/paleo debate called

The Vegetarian Myth

. It was written by  Lierre Keith, a self-described radical feminist and former vegetarian.

The Vegetarian Myth

covers four aspects of the debate: health, economics, environmental effects, and ethics. In every area, she argues that a meat-based diet is better.

I won’t say hers is the final word on the subject, but it was enough to make me feel like I should continue to eat meat.

Click here for more on Lierre Keith.

And click here to watch some guy – I don’t know who – ranting on about why vegans kill way more animals than do meat eaters. He’s a hunter. I doubt that he’s a radical feminist, but I do get the feeling that he read Keith’s book. In any case, I’m not recommending this video to persuade you of his argument. I just thought the presentation was funny.

 

Bad Advice from America’s Royal Class 

One of the most irksome bits of advice, stated repeatedly by successful athletes and entertainers, is to “follow your dream.”

This is dumb. So dumb, I won’t insult your intelligence by explaining why. I will leave it to Charles Barkley, here. 

 

How Many Friends Do You Really Need?

I was talking to a friend about friendship. He was wondering if I felt I had too many. He felt he had too few. 2My opinion is that the “right” number is “more.”

But is there a right number? Check out this article from The New York Times and let me know what you think. 

 

Was Caroline Ellison Nuts?
Caroline Ellison, the “casual” girlfriend of Samuel Bankman-Fried, is analyzed by Dr. Todd Grande in this video. I subscribe to Grande’s website out of some inexplicable and indefensible fascination with his soporific speaking style. Watch this only after taking amphetamines.

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Will Jordan Peterson Lose His License for Wrong-Thinking?

Jordan Peterson, Canada’s best known public intellectual, is being required to submit to “re-education” therapy. The reason? Complaints about incendiary comments he’s been making on social media about, among other things, transgender and overweight people.

His controversial viewpoints have made him famous. And rich. And a bestselling author. But recently, some of his colleagues initiated a new attack against him. According to a report in the Jan. 6 issue of The Free Press, the Ontario College of Psychologists told Peterson: “The comments at issue appear to undermine the public trust in the profession as a whole, and raise questions about your ability to carry out your responsibilities as a psychologist.” And they informed him that if he doesn’t submit to therapy, and publicly announce that he has been a bad thinker, they may revoke his license to practice.

You can read more about this here.

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A More Threatening Threat

Early in December, hoodlums shot down power lines in two major power stations in Moore County, NC. The result: 45,000 homes were without power for close to a week. Schools were shut down. Many businesses were closed. Traffic lights were down. Emergency shelters were opened.

The governor declared a State of Emergency, and the Dept. of Homeland Security issued a bulletin stating that “the United States remains in a heightened threat environment” and warning that “lone offenders and small groups” may commit acts of violence on various targets, including critical infrastructure.

Given what I’ve been reading lately about the fragility of the US power grid, it seemed right to me that Homeland Security should be looking at the possibility that this sort of thing could happen. It’s good to know that at least one government agency is focused on this sort of threat, rather than the FBI and DOJ’s campaign against “domestic terrorism” coming from parents that don’t want critical race theory and gender studies being taught to their school children.

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How Far Did He Go?

The Sam Bankman-Fried story keeps getting bigger. On Tuesday, I made the point that the mainstream media has been either sympathetic to or suspiciously quiet about this multibillion-dollar scammer. He was arrested on the eve of having to testify before Congress. (That, itself, is very interesting.) But since he was arrested and charged with fraud, his strategy of promoting himself as a good kid with good intentions that made a few “dumb” mistakes – that’s not going to fly. And so, more incriminating stories are being reported on almost daily.

The most recent: SBF secretly funded crypto news site The Block and its CEO’s Bahamas apartment.

Read about it here.

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A Conversation with Bill Bonner and Porter Stansberry 

If you are in the mood to learn something about the state of the economy and why I believe a major recession is inevitable, listen to this conversation between two of my better-educated friends and colleagues here.

How Secure Is Your Meta Account? 

Meta reportedly fired or disciplined more than two dozen workers who took over some user accounts. In some cases, for bribes. Read the details here.

Bipartisan Agreement on TikTok: What’s Going On? 

In 2020, Donald Trump signed an executive order banning TikTok, a video-sharing medium owned by a Chinese conglomerate. The federal courts halted the order, and Joe Biden revoked it after taking office.

But over the next two years, Democrat sentiment on the issue changed. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer discussed TikTok’s links to China at a press conference in 2020. “I have urged that TikTok be closed down in America,” he said. Senator Mark Warner (D-Va.) took it even further. “I think Donald Trump was right,” he recently admitted on Fox News.

This makes me very uncomfortable. Does anyone reading this understand what’s going on?

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Lots Happening at Amazon… 

* The week before last, Amazon set a mind-boggling record. It became the first public company ever to lose $1 trillion in valuation, dropping from almost $1.9 in July 2021 to $879 billion. (It’s back up to about a trillion.) Click here.

* Rumor has it that CEO Andy Jassy plans to lay off 10,000 as early as this week. Click here. Perhaps to soften the bad news, Jeff Bezos announced plans to give away most of his $129 billion fortune. Click here.

* Amazon started its two-day delivery program about 17 years ago. But by the end of 2022, the milestone could drop to 30 minutes, as its 80-pound, 50 mph MK27-2 drone starts making deliveries of up to 12 kilometers roundtrip in California and Texas. Click here.

And at Twitter… 

Elon Musk is a big believer is putting in long hours in the office. Last week, he announced that most Twitter employees have to return to the office or find other work.

Next, he told them to be prepared to work “maniacally” for up 80 hours a week if needed.

To show them he could walk his talk, he said he was going to be sleeping at Twitter headquarters till the business is turned around.

And in an effort to cut costs, he suspended the company’s policy of giving employees a free lunch, a benefit he said was costing $13 million a year.

On the plus side, he told employees that even though he was taking the company private, they could still own stock in it.

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