Author: John Wilder

Guest Post by John Wilder

“You heard Marcellus threw Tony Rocky Horror out a four story window for giving me a foot massage? And you believe that?” – Pulp Fiction

Ahh, Chuck Norris, with his hair feathered like the wings of a majestic eagle . . .

We have a built-in bias that there is a way that the world should be, rather than spending effort on understanding how the world it, and adjusting accordingly.

When something “big” happens, the default human condition is to assume that things will eventually go back to the way that they were before the event.  This is normal.  I recall reading in Taleb’s The Black Swan about how his relatives in Beirut kept expecting Lebanon to go back to the way it was before war broke out in the 1970s.  It hasn’t.

Continue reading “Bikini Economics And The Red Queen”

Guest Post By John Wilder

“Well, I don’t care if he’s a Liberal or an ax murderer, I want you two boys to stay clear of him, understood? – Eerie, Indiana

I hear that Greta loves this blog – she knows most of my jokes are recycled.

“The surest way to work up a crusade in favor of some good cause is to promise people they will have a chance of maltreating someone.  To be able to destroy with good conscience, to be able to behave badly and call your bad behavior ‘righteous indignation’ – this is the height of psychological luxury, the most delicious of moral treats.” – Aldous Huxley

Regardless of whether or not you like Huxley, he certainly hit the mark with this comment.  This has certainly been the case with the reaction of the “vaxxed” crowd to those that have chosen to avoid having themselves subjected to more-or-less experimental-level mRNA manipulation.  I hear the lead scientist was Gene Hackman.

If you’re a coward, the FDA has just approved a new drug.  Ask your doctor if Growacet® is right for you.

Continue reading “Why Leftists Hate You”

Guest Post from John Wilder

“Under control? It doesn’t look like it’s under control.” – Chernobyl

Personalities?  Looks like this guy has about 20.  Sadly, all of them smell like him.

When I’m on the treadmill, I find that reading a book helps to move things along and make the time go faster, even though I’m stuck in the same place.  I’m currently reading a very long, and (so far) very entertaining book, and one of the passages caught my eye:

“. . . They had to keep working smoothly, and the same way.  Everything interlocked.  If one unit messed – [my edit, JW] up, then every other unit would suffer.  That couldn’t be allowed.  Which was a paradox, because you couldn’t keep the jackboot stamping down forever.  However benign a dictatorship, some generation down the line will rebel. So somebody, centuries ago, had worked out how to keep the lid screwed down tight.  An old enough idea, never quite managed in practice.  Until now.  A government department that quietly and secretly takes control of society’s lowest strata.  Criminals and radical insurgents actually working for the people whose existence they threaten.”

– Peter F. Hamilton, The Naked God

Continue reading “The Mechanics Of Control”

Guest Post by John  Wilder at Wilder, Wealthy and Wise.

“This is a consent form to stick a wire into your brain. It’s important for hospitals to get these signed for procedures that are completely unnecessary.” – House, M.D.

Anyone else see a pattern here?

The Mrs. and I were both leaders (once upon a time) in that Paramilitary Organization, Boy Scouts of America®.  We were leaders before the lifting on gay membership was removed.

Continue reading “Manufacturing Consent: Say No”

Guest Post from John Wilder at Wilder, Wealthy, and Wise

“The money in your account. It didn’t do too well, it’s gone.” – South Park

You can always tell if a coin is fresh:  it smells like the mint.

As I’ve mentioned before, Pa Wilder was a banker.  There are certain advantages to being a banker, and back in the late 1970s, he took advantage of one of them.  It’s nice that being a banker has some advantages, because so many of them are loaners.

What Pa did was go through the change that came into the bank drawers.  Pa would then take a quarter and replace it with another quarter.  Okay, that just makes him sound crazy.  Isn’t one 25₵ piece just like another?

Well, no, not in the 1970s.

Continue reading “Gresham’s Law, Bad Money, And Trillion Dollar Coins”

Guest post by John Wilder from Wilder, Wealthy, and Wise.

“The Babylon Project was our last, best hope for peace.  It failed.  But in the year of the Shadow War, it became something greater: our last, best hope for victory.  The year is 2260. The place: Babylon 5.” – Babylon 5

Midnight?

7. Common violence. Organized violence is occurring monthly.
8. Opposing sides develop governing/war structures. Just in case.
9. Common violence that is generally deemed by governmental authorities as justified based on ideology.
10. Open War.

I’ve bolded both 9. and 10.  That’s the lead story (below).

As close as we are to the precipice of war, be careful.  Things could change at any minute.  Avoid crowds.  Get out of cities.  Now.  A year too soon is better than one day too late.

In this issue:  Front Matter – Making The Call? – Violence And Censorship Update –– Updated Civil War 2.0 Index – Calling It Quits – Links

Continue reading “Civil War 2.0 Weather Report: Making The Call?”

Guest post from John Wilder at Wilder, Wealthy, Wise

“Maybe I’ll see if the reindeers like meat this year” – Aqua Teen Hunger Force

A herd of cows, a flock of sheep, a treason of Democrats.

I’ve been writing a lot about efficiency recently, and this is probably my last discussion about it for a while.  The reason I’ve been focusing on it is because it explains much of what is falling apart in the world in 2021:  the efficiency that made the world economic machine run is sputtering and it appears that our economy, as well as our culture, are headed for a cold, dark winter.  Thankfully that’s okay for the koala bears – they can still eat apocalyptus.

If I am right, the economic winter will do nothing get colder in the coming months, perhaps catastrophically.  Let me (again!) point out some of the consequences of efficiency.  I’ll pick something that used to be relatively inefficient:  a farm.

Continue reading “Efficiency, Collapse, And Elisabeth Shue In A Bathing Suit”

Guest Post from John Wilder at WilderWealthyWise.

“What do you know about gold, Moneypenny?” – Goldfinger

One of the few things that Pa Wilder left me in his will was his bed. I guess you could call it an heir mattress.

On April 5, 1933, Franklin Roosevelt signed an executive order that made the owning of more than trivial amounts of gold by individuals illegal. Owning gold wouldn’t be legal again until Gerald Ford signed a bill into law that reversed that abomination of a policy.

That law went into effect on December 31, 1974, and people could once again buy gold.

Continue reading “Bikini Economics And The Money Supply”

“The stars are veiled. Something stirs in the East. A sleepless malice. The eye of the enemy is moving. He is here.” – Lord of the Rings:  The Return of the King

I love really large clocks.  Big time.

7. Common violence. Organized violence is occurring monthly.
8. Opposing sides develop governing/war structures. Just in case.
9. Common violence that is generally deemed by governmental authorities as justified based on ideology.
10. Open War.

Violence and open crime are still being encouraged by the Left.  In Chicago, the murder rate looks like a tote-board for a telethon.  “Only three more hours for killing, folks, let’s get those numbers up!”

I’m holding August at 9 out of 10, but it’s getting closer.  That’s still two minutes to midnight, but there is absolutely no movement away from the precipice – we keep edging toward the abyss.

Continue reading “Civil War 2.0 Weather Report: It’s A Long Way To The Bottom”

Guest post from John Wilder at Wilder, Wealthy, and Wise

“Here’s to failure!” – The Producers

Well, I guess that solves that problem.

The collapse of Afghanistan’s armed forces was total and complete.  Taliban soldiers entered city after city with little to no resistance.  As I write this, a tragic failure is unfolding in Kabul:  the last McDonalds® grill in Afghanistan is now shut down.

Beware the special sauce.

Continue reading “McDonalds And The Fall of Kabul”

From John Wilder at wilderwealthywise.com

“Santa Maria! Captain, you cannot punish the crew like this. They will mutiny!” – Sealab 2021

The big problem with the French Revolution is that lots of folks lost their heads.

One winter, while hunting elk up on Wilder Mountain, we had, well, an issue.  We were about fifteen or twenty miles in from the nearest pavement, and headed home.

It was overcast.  It was lazily spitting snow, with a breeze that was slowly picking up.  Looking to the west, where there should be a resplendent sunset, the sky was dark, heavy, and pendulous with brooding storm clouds that blotted out even a hint of the winter Sun.

That was when the problem hit.  Pa Wilder, while driving over a “road” that was little more than a common path cut by four-wheel-drive vehicles over the course of decades of hunting and firewood gathering, drove over a small branch that had fallen in the road.  Not a problem, right?

Continue reading “Remember: Your Mission Is Not Over”

Guest Post from John Wilder (Wilder, Wealthy, Wise)

“I don’t want to be in a battle. But waiting on the edge of one I can’t escape is even worse.” – Return of the King

The past, present, and future walked into a bar.  It was tense.

7. Common violence. Organized violence is occurring monthly.
8. Opposing sides develop governing/war structures. Just in case.
9. Common violence that is generally deemed by governmental authorities as justified based on ideology.
10. Open War.

Violence and open crime is now endemic in most major cities, so much so that people now just tend to ignore it, and police are incentivized to ignore it and focus on policing people who fail to come to a complete stop.    Again, none of the violence that I could see originated from the Right in July.  None.

Continue reading “Civil War 2.0: Living On The Edge”