Michael M. Pompian, CFA, CFP, CAIA’s Post

For the past few months I’ve been writing about the Great Ravine that lies before us. The Great Ravine is the end of an age. It is the end of the cheap money and cheap labor of easy globalization. It is the end of the unipolar moment of American dominance and its wars of choice and drone. It is the end of trust in our most crucial institutions – all of them! – charged with the core social functions of public health, public education, public finance and public safety. The Great Ravine is the return of our worst impulses. It is the return of man-abetted if not man-made pestilence, famine and drought. It is the return of inflation. It is the return of Total War. It is the return of the Strong Man. It is the return of the mob. What we all felt last Thursday night – the sadness, the shock, the disbelieving that this was actually happening, the familiarity of a private tragedy being played out in public on the greatest of stages, the wave of new common knowledge emanating like an earthquake from that studio in Atlanta – this is what the descent into the Great Ravine feels like. We will feel this many more times in the very near future. The only way out is through, and the only way through is together. Not from above through a political party, but from below through a community. Find your Pack.

This is a valuable and important analysis of the planned madness of socialists.

Do politics and sport mix? Data from AMSR - The Archive of Market and Social Research covering the recent history of the Olympics demonstrates how the two often interact: https://lnkd.in/dgUD3uUT #mrx

A Labour government or a Liebour government? I heard someone say that on the train to Liverpool this week. The idea of a £22 billion black hole has always fascinated me from the moment it was mentioned. It was one of the topics I discussed with the Shadow Secretary of State for Business and Trade at a YBC round table discussion at Portcullis House last month, and I was surprised to learn in that meeting that it’s actually a myth and doesn’t exist. The discrepancy between media narratives and actual data, like the OBR’s findings, reflects how easily misinformation can spread. I have no political views, and I hope Labour does well. But how can anyone expect to trust what is being said when we have stuff like this? If a statutory body such as the Office for Budget Responsibility doesn’t support the government’s claims - how can they be trusted? It’s interesting how narratives and ideas socialised by the media become embedded in societal consciousness. I’ve always believed that cultural attitudes and society are cleverly engineered. People think they have free will and free thought, but how can it be free if it is bought, controlled, or influenced? A person under the influence of drugs or alcohol is regarded as ‘under the influence’ in respect to their thoughts, feelings, and actions. How is this principally different? I often wonder how many of us actually think for ourselves… If this example of programming by the government and media doesn’t demonstrate social engineering at its finest, I don’t know what does. In a landscape where trust is crucial, such dynamics severely impact political discourse and public engagement. To me it raises important questions about accountability, particularly the role of the media, and how political claims that hold weight are verified and supported. Consider if this was a different statement about a person or a group of people in society, and it wasn’t based on factual evidence? That would be quite concerning, especially given that people’s views and behaviour would be influenced by that statement and it’s source… https://lnkd.in/g-CFyaYG

The Flashing Red Lights for Europe: Suppression is never the answer nor is turning a blind eye. I won't pretend to know the answer myself or understand the evolution of this trend in this-day-and-age. What I suspect however is that this trend is more about promoting/subscribing to a distorted reading of history coupled with racist biases possibly due to decades of institutional failures in protecting national history coupled with failures to confront disinformation at every level. Heck forget about history, we've got people including high ranking leaders distorting the present with all audio/visual and reporting tools at our disposal today; but then again let's not get sidetracked. Anyway, untangling the mess now is necessary but at the same time requires political wisdom/tact by leaders who understand the complexity involved yet have the confidence/temperament to navigate through these issues with minimal disruption to national unity; after all they need to deal with the roots not the branches. We also need to have unions that make sense not superficial ones otherwise we'll have a single point of failure of our base value system; kinda of how it is right now. Have I succeeded in getting you excited/optimistic? OK, may be we should visit a nearby pub instead. Just a thought. #extremepolitics #fascism

Here is a genuine question, I read this on Facebook and the question is, is the offensive to anyone and should it be when 98% of British meat eaters love Bacon, even vegetarians have their own product that resembles and taste like bacon. We British Anglo-Saxons and the several million Refugees and genuine migrants have integrated into GB during the past 100 years, with a massive increase under both LABOUR and CONSERVATIVE'S which must end or else we will lose our national identity, vote Reform, vote a competent future Prime Minister that will change politics and settle the Sovereignty Act, once and for all, ensuring that foreign nationals whose cultual and religious identity are not in common who that of our own cannot run for election of any future political party that follows any religious doctrines! This is 2024, and the vast majority believe in the Science by Evolution! Why are we standing for this Genocide of all Caucasian Christian nations, based on statistical information we will become extinct. https://lnkd.in/e2fdb9Ra

Point out what you see and find! This NYT heading and article is like a seek-and-find for embedded racial power.

"Haha Napoleon was short" is one of the most famous examples of British propaganda - but was it really the case? This, and other important questions about male height across the centuries, can be addressed with this new handy dataset. Link in comment.

Commentary

Brainstorming 🧠 How Best Fight Fascism? * ""How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them" is a 2018 nonfiction book by Jason Stanley, the Jacob Urowsky Professor of Philosophy at Yale University. Stanley, whose parents were refugees of Nazi Germany, describes strategies employed by fascist regimes, which includes normalizing the "intolerable". Features of this are already evident, according to Stanley, in the politics of the United States, the Philippines, Brazil, Russia, and Hungary. The book was reissued in 2020 with a new preface in which Stanley describes how global events have substantiated his concern that fascist rhetoric is showing up in politics and policies around the world." * Toss Out X In Full, Period * Support Independent Journalism * Stand Up When See Injustice * Consider New Ways of Being More Effective * Strengthen Communication Methods * Value Love, Education, Peace * Act Against Hate, Misinformation, War * Collaborate Against Climate Catastrophe * Continue Brainstorming PDF: https://lnkd.in/e2Bhqg3b Wikipedia: https://lnkd.in/e9QQvsKJ