On The Right Side Of Things

Today's Belle

Low GDP Growth, plus High Unemployment, plus Rising Prices is the formula for Stagflation.

Targets:

• GDP Growth    2%
• Unemployment  4%
• Inflation     2% 

Currently:

• GDP Growth    0.7%
• Unemployment  4.4% 
• Inflation     2.5%

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development projects inflation to hit 4.2% for the year.

Consumer Confidence is dropping.

Consumer Expectation is dropping.

Not So Easy Pickin's

The Smilodon was the top shelf, A-number-one, apex predator of its time.  Stop a minute, and wonder why so many of them died in the La Brea Tar Pits.

Sunday At The Movies

For 70 years, we've been warned about broadcast being media be turned against us.

Maybe this is a good time for a little refresher.

• The Idiot Box
• The Boob Tube
• The Brain Laundry
• The Goggle Box
• A Vast Cultural Wasteland

Goodnight And Good Luck:

A Declaration

What I say may be heretical

and irresponsible,

but I accept full responsibility

for having said it.

No Kings

The Indivisible website is reporting "over 8 million people at 3,300 locations".

It was a pretty good day. I drove thru a few in my area, and they all looked pretty good, with lots of hopeful, mostly happy, and determined people.

This Fucked Up Timeline

Life in 2026. 👇 pic.twitter.com/DAsd0QLmb4

— Joe G (@EastEndJoe) March 29, 2026

Erika Explains

Alexithymia is a subclinical personality trait characterized by difficulty identifying, describing, and processing emotions, often described as "emotional blindness".

Polling

I've contended for a pretty long time that "there's something wrong with the polling".

And I think polling has become less and less reliable over the years I've spent bitchin' about it.

And that makes some sense in the context of my nagging belief that we're heading into a corporate style plutocracy, so why would rich and powerful people not try to skew opinion by fucking with the polling? But that's an unhinged rant for another time.

An opinion poll is a snapshot of a moment in time. But it's a lagging indicator, which makes it a snapshot of a circumstance that's probably already changed. In a media environment that's been engineered to move quickly and break things, that moment is old news before the polling even starts.

1. Somebody says or does something
2. A pollster is put to work
3. The questions are formulated
4. The calls are made
5. Data is compiled and processed and analyzed
6. Media reports it out

All of that takes a fair amount of time - at least several days, if not weeks - and by the time it gets out to the general public, we're being apprised of information that could be a month or more out-of-date.

From the time Trump says or does something stupid, to the time we get word on how that plays with regular Americans, Trump will have said or done another hundred stupid things.

Flood The Zone works, and we're seeing it every day.

On 3 Porcupines

• The invader has to overwhelm and dominate. The defender need only survive.
• The invader loses by not winning completely. The defender wins by not losing.

Asymmetric warfare (or asymmetric engagement) is a type of war between belligerents whose relative military power, strategy or tactics differ significantly. This type of warfare often involves insurgents, terrorist groups, or resistance militias operating within territory mostly controlled by the superior force.