Monday, August 05, 2024

Peter Thiel and the American Apocalypse

Between the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, Joe Biden's withdrawal from the race, and the rapid coalescence around Kamala Harris as the presumptive Democratic nominee, everyone's rushing to update their political calculus. But there's one recurring thread that haunts us that people aren't yet talking about: the debt ceiling, which must be addressed once again by January 2nd, 2025.

Posted by Gal_Tuesday at 10:30 PM | 11 COMMENTS | permalink

Comments

FTA:

As I've reported in The Washington Spectator previously, any default on US debt would be unprecedented, sparking a global catastrophe with unpredictable outcomes. How soon we forget " in 2021 Moody's estimated that default could mean the loss of at least 6 million jobs and the destruction of $15 trillion in wealth. (The COVID bailout packages amounted to about $4 trillion, by comparison.)

We got lucky in 2021, when Congress passed a $2.5 trillion increase right before the Christmas break. That kicked the can down the road to January 19, 2023, when we hit the limit once again. Janet Yellen enacted "extraordinary measures" to stretch available cash until June 5; House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and President Biden struck a deal which was passed just days before default, or "X-Date."

That deal (which really only registered with political and finance nerds) bought us until January 2025. If sane people are elected to Congress and the Presidency, that shouldn't be a problem: just sort out some kind of deal, pass it, and live to fight another day. But these are not sane times. It's wise to plan for the worst, which unfortunately is quite a plausible eventuality.


#1 | Posted by Gal_Tuesday at 2024-08-04 07:49 PM

"J. D. Vance's selection as Trump's running mate suggests that Vance's benefactor, Peter Thiel, is running the show, reprising an aborted effort to run the show from 2016.

He seems to have learned from his mistakes.

Thiel's main hook into the first Trump administration was Steve Bannon, and their efforts were largely stymied by Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner and other advisors; Bannon was ultimately forced out and left the administration after the deadly white supremacist "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville in August 2017.

In The Contrarian, a 2021 biography of Thiel, author Max Chafkin describes Vance as an "extension" of Thiel, who was a primary funder of Vance's victorious 2022 race for Senate in Ohio.

If Trump wins, Vance will be a heartbeat away from the presidency " and that should give everyone palpitations of their own.

The biggest concern, however, is that Thiel is coordinating with his old "PayPal Mafia" colleagues including David Sacks, Elon Musk, and Joe Lonsdale.

While Thiel runs Vance, Sacks is bundling contributions and running his own propaganda effort in support of the Republican campaign.

Musk and Lonsdale have recently teamed up to create a "Super PAC" in support of the Trump/Vance ticket, which has been buffeted almost daily by revelations of Vance's earlier denunciations of Trump, and his own bizarre views of women and human sexuality."

#2 | Posted by Corky at 2024-08-04 07:53 PM

South Africans Elon Musk and Peter Thiel want to bring apartheid to America.

And why shouldn't they? We're halfway there already with redlining, glass ceilings, brutal policing, low wages, sweatshops, discriminatory housing practices, and dangerous slaughterhouses or Trump golf resorts exploiting poor illegal immigrants. Read what the PayPal supremo said about apartheid in the link at bottom.

We are their food.

Source:

www.news24.com

#3 | Posted by C0RI0LANUS at 2024-08-04 08:14 PM

and then what happens after those guys do all their nasty? I loves me some ghost stories... psychic premonitions... apocalyptic fantasies...a good time for the whole dang family awaits... we'll never get out alive... help help help

#4 | Posted by RightisTrite at 2024-08-05 10:39 PM

Thiel, Musk and Mellon are 3 last names of Trump ticket mega, mega-donors. There are others, too. It's clear what Trump gets out of bathing in hundreds of millions of dollars from billionaire donors, but what are the billionaires aiming to get? Not a more charitable and equitable world, for sure. Clearly, these Trump-team billionaires want to be oligarch partners to an American reich under a generous patron whom they sponsor. And the joke on Tchump is that what the billionaires make of him, they can take away.

#5 | Posted by Augustine at 2024-08-06 01:58 AM

All these smart guys who call themselves Bitcoin 'evangelists' think that the US should get rid of Treasury securities and fund everything in Bitcoin. Well, Bitcoin and its crypto analogues are so much more volatile that market movements will kill retirees left, right and center. An example: yesterday, August 5, the price of bitcoin fell more than 20% from the previous day's high. Imagine is that happened to the 10-yr US Treasury--the yield would go up by about 285bp, and of course, the price would fall from about 100 cents on the dollar to about 80. Hijinks would ensue.

Crypto currencies are vehicles for criminal activity and naked speculation only. Anyone who touts crypto as 'an investment' should be slapped hard, twice...

#6 | Posted by catdog at 2024-08-06 09:37 AM

Man (after reading above posts), 'you know you have to be REEEEEEEEALLY bigoted,
to want to take the bigotry in the nation you grew up in, and export it to the new
nation you call home.

So tell me again how it's not 'All about them' one more time.

The amount of Hubris, and self-absorption in this, is breathtaking...

#7 | Posted by earthmuse at 2024-08-07 06:31 AM

I mean I don't think I'm out of line to say,
these people 'truly are the new Nazi's'.
They want to tear down America from within.

#8 | Posted by earthmuse at 2024-08-07 06:33 AM

Jesus, I had to stop half-way through to put my tinfoil hat on. Anyone who uses any of this garbage to form your opinions needs to do everything they can to not vote. Considering this same article can be written about some of the rich people controlling the Dem party just with different names, not seeing this as a systemic issue and thinking it's a partisan issue means you are wholly incapable of making good decisions when voting.

#9 | Posted by humtake at 2024-08-07 11:56 AM

"If Trump wins, Vance will be a heartbeat away from the presidency " and that should give everyone palpitations of their own."

Once again, like every single election cycle, people say the same thing over and over. If Vance gives you palpitations but Harris doesn't, you have major issues.

#10 | Posted by humtake at 2024-08-07 11:57 AM

Or, or, or...you're just a racist Hummer...

#11 | Posted by earthmuse at 2024-08-07 01:25 PM

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