Occupation of Independence

 What a place southeastern Arizona is!  Your life really improves when you escape the desert of southwestern Arizona and head east.  You appreciate planet Earth more, because you left it for a few months.

The internet world does everything possible to get your credit card number and then rope you into some monthly subscription.  I ran into that problem yesterday.  I wanted to stop my subscription at a Kindle-competitor for one new audiobook per month.  It was difficult to cancel.  My reaction was panic and anger. Fortunately it all worked out.  The customer does not lose access to their library of previously bought audiobooks just because they have cancelled their subscription.   But this is something that must be investigated fully before ever signing up with a new subscription service. What a perverse model the subscription model is, to the customer!  I have had problems with anti-virus software making you pay more if you check the box to block automatic renewal.  The "box" is usually hidden so that you won't find it.   Likewise, I have had problems with Patreon trying the same trick on me.  So I cancelled my support for the writer or vlogger in question. Be clear, I am

Can you believe all the fuss made over the Federal Reserve's quarter point increase in the interest rate?  Would competitive canoeists quibble over whether they were paddling at a rate of 4.7 or 5.0 mph, when the current they are paddling against was -- what? -- 10 or 15 mph? I guess it is proof of how large and important the bond market is, since the value of existing bonds is affected by these tiny increases in the nominal interest rate. The Federal Reserve is so gutless.  I won't believe interest rates are too high until you stop seeing young men driving expensive pickup trucks, and until the side-by-side motorsports industry collapses.  Wouldn't it be wonderful to see interest rates squash the RV industry? Inflation today, inflation tomorrow...inflation forever.  Bill Bonner is right: America is becoming Argentina.

I had to push the pause button on a You Tube channel this morning, despite liking the content.   I just couldn't stand the style.   It was supposed to be a roundtable conversation between three people.  But one guy got control over the microphone and just wouldn't shut up.  Why did the moderator not shut him down?   Time after time, on You Tube, you see people who need to hire a communications coach. It doesn't end with podium-hogs. There are too many people speaking heavily accented English.  It requires too much effort and concentration on my part to listen to them.  If I wanted to put out that much work, I would read something, rather than watch a video. You Tubers need to ask themselves whether they are even using the right medium.  Or if they have chosen video as their medium, how they should adjust their style to fit the medium. Another thing that will cause me to turn the video off is people who speak written-English instead of speaking spoken-English.  Lawyers an