Occupation of Independence

In the real world, how many people believe that the real inflation rate in the USA is the official 6--8%?  These numbers come from the fox that is in charge of the hen house.  Government salaries, social security payments, and income tax brackets are tied to the official inflation rate.  And of course the government wants to  pay back its 31 trillion dollars of debt with devalued dollars.  Therefore the government has good solid reasons for lying about the real inflation rate. I think most people will agree with the first paragraph, and in fact, consider it too obvious to belabor.  What isn't so obvious is why the government doesn't lie even more?  What's to stop them?  In a sense, this is cheerful news: your government could be totally corrupt and get away with it, but apparently, it is content to be only half-corrupt. Consider how easy it is to lie more completely.  It has become time-honored and respectable for the Federal Reserve to consider an inflation rate that omit

  One of the problems with the internet is that when you shoot your mouth off, there is a permanent record of it.  I am always praising cold and wet climates.  Well, be careful what you wish for! I didn't even want to leave my van and run a few steps into stores, today, in town.  The cold rain felt harsh -- I didn't even think that was possible! Later in the day the sun came out, and my solar panels fully charged the batteries.  We went for a cheerful walk.  Surely this reaction has happened before, but I can't really remember it.  Eating a little crow is good for the soul.

From time to time I see an impressive example of how lively an old idea can become when you stumble onto some unplanned experience.    I was bicycling a mile from where I was camped.  It was dead calm.  The air was still somewhat cool, but the sun was impressively warm.  In fact you could say it was the first day of summer, as horrifying as that thought might be.  Anybody who was out and about must have felt like they were drowning in sunlight.  That was when I passed a camper whose generator could be heard for the last half mile.  It was so large that a noticeable stink laid across my road. As you know, I tend to be sympathetic to newbie campers who are holding back on going solar.  After all, they have been hit by a chain reaction of unplanned expenses after buying their rigs.  Also, they are still deciding on what their camping style is going to be, so they don't want to spent a lot on solar equipment and then not use it. But the camper in question did not appear to be hurting f

 Why would somebody without a military background want to play armchair general?  Maybe because they have no military background! Foolish though it be, here it goes: how should the Russians finish off Ukraine?  Everybody expects them to feint at Kiev by coming south from Belarus.  Then they expect the main Russian offensive to be in the south and east, say, on the Zaporozhe front or upriver, nearer the Donbass proper. For that reason I think they should make Kiev the main target.  If they can threaten to topple the regime, Ukraine will have to pull its troops back from the south and eastern front.  Ukraine will not want to blow up the bridges across the Dnieper until it has pulled its troops back towards Kiev.  Perhaps the Russians can get control of those bridges during this transition. But can Russia decapitate or topple the Kiev regime without massive civilian casualties in Kiev, which is a huge city of a few million people? You will tell me that my suggestion is totally amateurish