75 basis points coming at ya

The Fed is expected to raise the benchmark funds rate by three quarters of a percent today. Goldman Sachs is now predicting consecutive 75 basis point rate hikes in June and July, followed by a 50 basis point move in September and 25 basis point moves in November and December, taking the fed funds rate to a range of 3.25%-3.5% by the end of the year.

Keep in mind that the rate has been, with the exception of FY2019, at an average of less than one percent since 2008. The Fed chairman has now said that he will have to purposely cause a recession in order to get inflation under control. Think about that for a minute, and what that means. The powers that be are going to purposely shut down the nation’s economy.

Meanwhile, gas prices near me are at $4.95 a gallon. If I drive 10 miles away, I can hit Sam’s club and get $4.53 a gallon, meaning that a single fill up of my pickup’s 40 gallon gas tank pays for nearly my entire annual membership fee.

Things are about to get a whole lot worse. We are so incredibly screwed.

I’ve Been Thinking

I asked a couple of days ago why they were making such a big deal about the police not doing their jobs. I was wondering what the end game was, and I think I have it. They are following the Alinsky “Rules for Radicals” and the CIA insurgency manual. If you are unfamiliar with them, I did a three part series on them back in 2020. You can find part one here, part two here, and part three is here.

When an attempted overthrow of a government is in the works, one of the things that needs to happen is a loss of trust in the government’s ability to run things and provide needed services to its citizens. They do this by using violence and mayhem to both make the citizens feel unsafe, and to sabotage infrastructure so that people are crying out for basic services.

Once the people don’t trust the government to do that job any more, they turn to the revolutionaries to do it for them, and the revolutionaries step in and “fix” the problem that they themselves created. I think we are seeing a variation of that. The left already hates the local and state police. Now all they have to do is get the right on board.

American Greatness thinks that this is exactly what is happening to the police, and I can’t say that I disagree with them. That is no way means that I am going to support cops who stand around and arrest parents while children are being murdered, but I see what is happening.

Educating a Leftie

A leftie made an appearance in the comments section here at Sector Ocho. He made some claims that I want to address. This post is an attempt to educate, not engage in personal attacks. Perhaps this poor, misguided leftist has good motives, but simply isn’t aware that he is mistaken. This will either set him straight, or prove that he is a partisan hack. Let’s give him the benefit of the doubt for now, and simply assume that his is uninformed, rather than being willfully deceptive. His claims will be in red. So here they are, along with my response:

Putin helped Trump defeat Clinton

As far as the “Russian collusion” hoax, that has already been proven to have been instigated by agents of the HRC campaign. Further, the FBI and the news media KNEW that it was a false claim, but chose to bury the story.

The Left screamed when Trump defeated Clinton… But other than lawsuits and impeachment hearings, not too much violence.

Unless you count the violence that occurred in Portland during Trump’s election campaign in 2016, where 113 people who would later become associated with Antifa were arrested for causing a violent riot there and in Sacramento.

Or the riots that occurred in New York, Seattle, DC, and Portland during Trump’s 2017 inauguration. In DC alone, over 200 people were arrested for taking part in the violence. According to CNN, “Bursts of chaos erupted on 12th and K streets as black-clad “antifascist” protesters smashed storefronts and bus stops, hammered out the windows of a limousine and eventually launched rocks at a phalanx of police lined up in an eastbound crosswalk.”

In February, leftist protesters started a violent clash while opposing Milo Yiannopoulos making an appearance at US Berkeley, doing more than $100,000 in damage. Two Young Republicans were severely beaten and had to be hospitalized. The attackers, who were not affiliated with the university, were taken into custody by UC Berkeley police.

Black-clad protesters wearing masks threw commercial-grade fireworks and rocks at police. Some even hurled Molotov cocktails that ignited fires. They also smashed windows of the student union center on the Berkeley campus where the Yiannopoulos event was to be held.

At least six people were injured. Some were attacked by the agitators – who are a part of an anarchist group known as the “Black Bloc” that has been causing problems in Oakland for years, said Dan Mogulof, UC Berkeley spokesman.

March saw more leftist initiated violence. Again in Berkeley, the Black Bloc again attacked people attending a Trump rally. A group of self described Antifascists were responsible.

It happened in April, again in Berkeley. Antifa again attacked Trump supporters.

A May Day rally in Portland, Oregon, descended into chaos when the “anti-fascists” showed up, attacking police officers and setting fires. The same day, police in Olympia, Wash., say they were confronted with a “mob” of masked and violent protesters who threw rocks and used slingshots to target officers.

In June of 2017, there was James Hodgkinson, who engaged police in a ten minute gun battle when he tried to gun down the Republican Congressional baseball team while they were practicing for the annual charity baseball game.

The deadly attack at the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville happened in August. The man who carried out the attack was sent to prison for life plus 419 years. Antifa again responded by attacking attendees at another Trump rally.

The Right screamed when Biden defeated Trump.

That has been blogged about in numerous places. I will let the post of Larry Correia speak volumes.

And their response was to ‘take a peaceful tour of the Capitol’, right?

No less peaceful than the “peaceful protests” of the summer of 2020.

Most (not all) of the violence has been performed by your side.

I think that the selected violence from 2017 that I have illustrated in this post shows that you are mistaken. In addition, don’t forget the 400 or so armed leftists that occupied a city block in Portland, using force and refusing to obey court order to vacate a house when the tenants refused to leave the property.

There is also CHAZ (CHOP), AFAC, and numerous other armed groups that have openly declared war on the right.

If the Left begins the next ‘Civil War’, as you call it, I would dare say it was instigated by the Right.

I would argue that the Civil War has already begun, and it was started by violent acts perpetrated by those on the left. It could be argued that the first shots in the second American Civil War have been fired, but that will be a question better left for the historians in some future decade.

It’s just that the right hasn’t gotten sufficiently pissed off to fight back yet. Remember that the right owns 400 million or so firearms, along with several billion rounds of ammunition. We go out on the weekends and shoot at stuff because we think it is fun to see how accurate we can be, how far away we can still punch holes in things. There are those on the right who can hit man sized targets at over a mile. I don’t consider myself to be an exceptionally good shot, and I can reliably hit man sized targets at several hundred yards. We just aren’t pissed off enough yet.

Collapsing

California average gas prices just broke $6 a gallon. The national average is currently 25% less than that at $4.59 a gallon, but many experts are calling for gas prices to reach $6 a gallon within the next 60 days. So they are calling for a 25% increase in 2 months, meaning that fuel prices are now doubling every 8 months. Since everything you buy has to be transported from one place to the other, this will continue to contribute to inflation.

In fact, gas stations in Washington state are already preparing for $10 a gallon gasoline prices. We are on the cusp of seeing hyperinflation and a collapse of the US economy.

Housing Bubble?

The Federal Reserve is watching housing prices increase and is claiming that there is a risk of a 2009-esque housing bubble. I am not so sure.

The prices of homes were skyrocketing in 2008. Everyone was in a panic to buy a house, flip it, and get rich. This isn’t that. I think that, unlike 2008, prices of everything are rising, and that is because the value of the US dollar is falling. That is, the US government has printed its way into this mess.

We are not on the verge of a housing bubble popping. We are on the verge of a collapse of the US dollar. In 2008, your home lost half of its value. In 2022, you are at risk of having your bank accounts lose half of their value.

So Who Is It Going To Be?

The Democrats have obviously abandoned the Biden regime.

So who is going to replace him? I don’t think it will be Harris, Pelosi, or Constitutionally, it COULD be Obama, but I don’t really see that either. Have we finally reached the point where Americans will support the strongman who promises to fix everything and will hand him supreme but “temporary” power in order to do it? Who will it be?

Interesting Position

The sudden interest in the ineptitude of the current resident of the Whitehouse by the US press seems to indicate that they are ready to discard him. American thinker has an interesting take on Obama trying to make a comeback.

My initial thought on Obama getting a third term was “the 22nd Amendment says that a person can’t be President more than twice.” Except that, as the article points out, that isn’t what it says.

Twenty-Second Amendment

Twenty-Second Amendment Annotated

Section 1

No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once. But this Article shall not apply to any person holding the office of President when this Article was proposed by the Congress, and shall not prevent any person who may be holding the office of President, or acting as President, during the term within which this Article becomes operative from holding the office of President or acting as President during the remainder of such term.

22nd Amendment, emphasis added

If Obama is appointed to be the VP to replace Kamala, then Biden is also removed from office, Obama could serve out the remainder of the current term.

How would they remove Harris? What if she were assassinated by a Trump supporting, AR wielding bitter clinger?