This evening, we returned from a week at a trade show helping a company launch a new product, so we’ve been out of the loop on Trumpenings and world events. More on this side of things next week.
In business news, the show was a huge success. It has been over a decade since I’ve seen this much optimism and enthusiasm at a trade show. Although it was our first time at this particular trade show, veteran exhibitors said it was the most successful they have seen. Public attendees had a spring in their step and their eyes would light up at many booths. Exhibitors told us that this perception is a significant tick upwards from past years. All booths were sold out, and there was record public attendance. Many exhibitors were excited to talk not only about their current offerings, but also about new projects that have only recently been green-lit.
Private conversations with many exhibitors, and a few attendees, revealed a common theme of all of us having dodged a Hillary-shaped bullet. There was also a common understanding that the reprieve is most likely temporary. Despite this single caveat, the entire experience was very encouraging overall and entirely consistent with what we’ve been reporting here from our other conversations over the past few weeks.
Leave a Reply
4 Comments on "Trump Week In Review, 17 Mar 2017"
Happy Nobama Day , every day’s a holiday now.
[…] Thursday before the trade show, I reported that our homeschooled daughter passed the Chemistry CLEP, good for up to 8 hours of […]
[…] the trade show last week, no outside food or beverages were allowed. Instead, vendors inside were giving food and […]
Dear Tom
I just enjoyed reading and would like to share with you, and your readers a relevant article (picked up by zerohedge.com) titled “The Useful and the Useless” by Robert Gore. It eloquently and succinctly summarizes current events that relate to one of your core messages:
https://straightlinelogic.com/2017/03/23/the-useful-and-the-useless-by-robert-gore/
Herewith the first three paragraphs:
“You’re standing on the prow of an ocean liner cutting through the icy waters of the North Atlantic. A huge iceberg looms dead ahead. You’ve seen it for some time, but now it’s too close, and the liner too big and fast, to avoid the collision. You quietly make your way to the lifeboats, knowing they’re the only chance for saving yourself and your loved ones. Below decks, an orchestra plays a waltz and oblivious revelers dance.
Most people don’t foresee the world’s inevitable collision with the iceberg of unsustainable fantasy. When it happens, they’ll respond predictably, with panic and cowardice. Those who’ve seen it coming and moved to the lifeboats will experience their own roiling emotions, attenuated by recognition of the logic behind the disaster. While the forewarned have dreaded impact, many will also welcome it, in the way one welcomes an unpleasant medical procedure: let’s get it over with. The motive is not malice, but conviction born of experience that actions have consequences and there’s no escaping them. After seemingly inexplicable and interminable delay, consequences shall arrive, amplified by the tawdry stratagems that promoted delay.
It will come as a surprise to many, but governments cannot suspend reality. Their arsenal, when things break down, comes down to their arsenal: the capacity to coerce. Violence or its threat enables governments to exact compliance. Proponents of government power invariably see themselves exercising it. Once the ship hits the iceberg, it will be obvious that governments’ guns are not wands, freeing citizens from the necessity of producing as much or more than they consume. They cannot compel innovators to innovate or producers to produce. While coercive power comes from one end of a gun, none of the powers that produce progress (and the gun) magically materialize at the other end.”
Read the rest of the article at the link above.
Tom, this excellent article immediately reminded me of your prescient book “Starving the Monkeys” (that I read in 2010 shortly after publication and immediately gifted to all my nearest family members). I too think it could in a way be considered the 21st Century version of “Atlas Shrugged” (written in 1957) by Ayn Rand who stated, “We can ignore reality, but we cannot ignore the consequences of ignoring reality.”
So having shared parts of and a link to an interesting, relevant article that you or your readers may enjoy, I would like to thank you again, Tom, for your book and this blog and all that you’re doing to help guide those of us who choose to accept reality to fight back smarter. With the defeat of Hillary Clinton in the previous election without any doubt, we dodged many bullets and had hope for a better future, yet current events indicate that very large battle lines are being drawn (in the political, social and military sense not just in these united States of America but also in Europe, the Middle-East, the South China Sea and the rest of the world).
Thus I implore fellow readers to not fall into a false sense of complacency and to continue to share knowledge and to spread the word regarding liberty, the impending fate of monkeys, how it’s going to affect our lives and what we can do about it. By using our minds to innovate and to be productive, it is indeed possible for those that cherish life and liberty not just to survive but to thrive and to prosper. By careful planning and by taking timely action to prepare we can mitigate many of the horrible consequences of central banking, a fiat currency, debt, welfare, and war that have been imposed on the world by the malicious State and monkeys that choose to remain willfully ignorant.
Speaking of the (soon to be starving) monkeys… Especially the ones that are irrationally screaming things that sound to me like “intolerance will not be tolerated!” 😉 and those that deny reality by emotionally shouting “not my president” (LOL) etc. including monkeys on the other side of the political spectrum that falsely believe that under The Donald this doomed “Deep State” ship will somehow change course…
If you consider the current and coming battles as well as the opposing sides it is evident that there are simply too many monkeys and sadly too few liberty-minded producers and innovators (people that are capable of critical, logical, independent thinking). A quote (often misattributed to Stalin) comes to mind that says “Quantity has a quality all its own.”
So as peace-loving, liberty-minded people, if (according to Sun Tzu) “the supreme art of war is to subdue an enemy without fighting” then it remains in our best interest to unceasingly continue to change hearts and minds by informing and educating others. Especially regarding the differences between Rights and Privileges
(see http://www.constitutionpreservation.org/sites/default/files/files-misc/chapter_two.pdf ), the origins and importance of private property ownership and the Non-Aggression Principle (see for instance http://www.jonathangullible.com/philosophy-of-liberty).
“The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out for himself, without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane and intolerable, and so, if he is romantic, he tries to change it. And even if he is not romantic personally he is very apt to spread discontent among those who are.” – H.L. Mencken.
However, the doomed to failure ship called “Government” and “The State” has sailed, it’s intolerable existence is unfortunate reality (see https://mises.org/library/anatomy-state), and its inevitable demise is definitely not going to be pleasant or pretty for anyone on this planet. It’s way too late even to hope to reach a critical mass through education that’ll allow things to end with a whimper instead of a bang.
Considering that three of the “Four boxes of liberty” (soap, ballot, jury, and ammo) have been ineffective in restoring liberty (especially the private property rights of producers and innovators), things show all signs of not working out well (i.e. peacefully). Considering current events here in “America” I’m afraid we’re fast approaching the end of “that awkward stage” that Claire Wolfe once referred to.
For those with a modicum of common sense, it is only prudent to be well prepared for a worst-case scenario of total economic and (violent) societal collapse. Soon.
When exactly? (some reading this may wonder, hoping for a specific answer). Honestly, no-one knows since there are too many variables and factors, yet economic collapse is certain. Political collapse of the current world order is certain as well since the united States of America is without any doubt, not just a Police State but an Empire and at least one thing that all empires have in common is that they eventually collapse (with an average lifespan of only 215 years)
(See: https://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2011/10/28/how-long-will-america-last/CDVPtlTaX89RTsrtavVyYO/story.html then do the math.)
So before I go off on more tangents, I’ll conclude with the closing paragraph of Robert Gore’s excellent article that offers some hope along with a warning:
“The useless depend on the useful, who of course don’t need them at all. The useful will eventually triumph, if the species survives (not a sure thing). Tragically, the butcher’s bill is likely to be exorbitant.”
Best Wishes to All,
Quaesiveris
(A fellow “professional irritant” 😉 )