kralcttam ☕️

Waiting patiently for our dumb future. Economics, chess, sarcasm. GenX, so oh well, whatever, never mind. Atlanta metro, north Georgia, USA.  Carl Sagan was right.   Header image of hand with book from Lemuria Books, Jackson, MS https://www.lemuriabooks.com/

blog: https://www.mattclark.org
location: Atlanta metro, Georgia, USA

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kralcttam_at_mastodon.social@momostr.pink

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Last Notes

2026-04-23 17:53:40 UTC

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Amazing that we had the 2015 Iran Nuclear Deal signed before this clown got in office.

2026-04-23 17:40:32 UTC

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Right, and people with knowledge of Iran said "that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard" but were ignored, and now it's day 55 with the SoH closed, and Europe is out of jet fuel.
https://www.hormuztracker.com/

2026-04-23 17:37:03 UTC

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I think he was drunk on his success in Venezuela.

2026-03-19 20:27:47 UTC

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Next we’ll start building the Shahad drones in the U.S. and shipping them to Iran. We bring back manufacturing AND we get forever war, win-win.

2026-03-06 14:38:52 UTC

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brutal

2026-03-02 23:56:39 UTC

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Amazing that this is like page 12 news.

2026-02-22 12:38:00 UTC

#SilentSunday
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/116/114/306/695/218/354/original/2611e7c05b055387.jpg

2026-02-16 19:51:56 UTC

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Oh but it’s so on-brand for the current Republican administration. Force the part of DHS that people actually depend on to work without pay, while fully funding the parts that violate the constitution and our laws.

2026-02-12 17:48:55 UTC

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Completely dismantling CBP / ICE is the moderate position. Fire the agents and the leadership, investigate their crimes and start over.

2026-01-29 15:28:41 UTC

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Yeah it’s like in the video where Trumpy flew a plane spewing 💩 everywhere. Well now he changed the plane!

2026-01-16 20:01:31 UTC

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He also switches his phone from his right hand to his left so he can get his gun out as he's approaching the vehicle. Now why would he do that?

2026-01-14 00:08:52 UTC

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It goes without saying that this is against one of the tenets of the Republican party, namely free market capitalism:
"Republicans support free market capitalism and believe that the private sector is the engine of economic growth. They generally oppose government intervention in the economy."

2026-01-12 12:14:33 UTC

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So you know, minor setback to the coming oil boom, nothing major I’m sure.

2026-01-12 12:12:27 UTC

@npub17xf…dzht
U.S. embassy just reiterated its warning on Venezuela- Do Not Travel.
“Venezuela has the highest Travel Advisory level – Level 4: Do Not Travel – due to severe risks to Americans, including wrongful detention, torture in detention, terrorism, kidnapping, arbitrary enforcement of local laws, crime, civil unrest, and poor health infrastructure.”
https://ve.usembassy.gov/security-alert-venezuela-january-10-2026-do-not-travel-to-venezuela-depart-immediately/

2026-01-10 02:55:07 UTC

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Here's the quote:
'No one wants to go in there when a random f***ing tweet can change the entire foreign policy of the country,' one energy investor told the Financial Times.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15447321/oil-giants-fret-trump-tweet-upend-venezuela-investment.html

2026-01-10 02:47:36 UTC

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Yeah at some point these are real companies with real money, and real accountants, saying "Oh hell no."

2026-01-10 02:46:19 UTC

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I also read some oil exec saying "We can't invest when some deranged tweet will change U.S. policy immediately."

2026-01-10 02:37:22 UTC

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LOL. Venezuelan oil costs more than the current market price to extract.

2026-01-08 19:32:00 UTC

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Please let this finally be the awful thing that wakes people up.

2026-01-07 18:51:58 UTC

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Ok, sure, theft is always profitable.

2026-01-07 18:37:27 UTC

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Break even price for oil:
Exxon average : $30
Canada : $55
Venezuela : $80
Current price of oil : $60
Why would anyone want to invest in Venezuelan oil?

2026-01-05 13:54:35 UTC

My niece comes to the U.S. most years from Europe to visit her grandfather.
This year she was stopped at the airport, taken into an interrogation room, accused of being a prostitute, had her phone taken and scanned, and released.
You know, in case you were wondering why tourism to the U.S. is down.

2025-12-03 01:16:31 UTC

Evergreen post
https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2011/09/04/opinion/04reich-graphic.html

2025-11-14 16:46:35 UTC

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My kid said this last night, watching a Michael Jackson live performance of “Smooth Criminal.” “That’s AI-“ meaning it’s fake, there’s a trick, it’s special effects.

2025-10-31 20:02:51 UTC

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Trumpists asking chatGPT "How do we explicitly deny food to 42 million Americans but blame the opposition party?"

2025-10-24 18:59:22 UTC

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Trickle-up poverty. Next week when Amazon reports earnings we'll see how high into the middle class consumer base it's gotten.

2025-10-24 18:44:45 UTC

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Krugman mentions it-
"After all the America First rhetoric, all the insistence that spending must be slashed, suddenly we’re sending lots of money to a foreign nation in which we have no real interest except for the fact that its president is a MAGA favorite. I don’t know how many voters are aware that these moves are in large part an attempt to bail out Bessent’s hedge-fund buddies, but I think the sense of something wrong and corrupt is leaking through."
https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/argentina-and-rural-americas-awakening

2025-10-24 18:28:42 UTC

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Cool, I typed quickly but I meant to say that this makes your point EVEN MORE, WTF is going on?

2025-10-24 18:25:45 UTC

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WIC + SNAP is more than 48 million people. More than one in ten people in the U.S.
https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/us-states-warn-food-aid-benefits-will-halt-if-federal-shutdown-drags-2025-10-23/

2025-09-20 11:49:02 UTC

Price of coffee is up 20% in a year but people still have their “Trump low prices, Kamala high prices” signs up. Clap louder, Tinkerbell is dead.

2025-09-18 12:49:15 UTC

I saved $40/month with this one easy trick
#kimmel
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/115/225/376/385/476/430/original/e60650c4b216f36b.png

2025-09-05 17:45:35 UTC

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This seems like something that in a different time would have just been handled by asking the companies for paperwork. But now we want to have a raid and zip-tie people.

2025-09-05 17:22:31 UTC

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I'm sure Kemp is pissed.

2025-09-05 17:17:30 UTC

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Kemp wanted Georgia to be the EV capital of the nation, and was super-stoked when Hyundai / LG started building that plant.
Now the fascists are arresting the Hyundai / LG employees. 🤦‍♂️

2025-09-05 17:12:43 UTC

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How it started : https://gov.georgia.gov/press-releases/2023-08-31/gov-kemp-hyundai-motor-group-and-lg-energy-solution-invest-additional-2b
How it's going : https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/hundreds-south-korean-nationals-detained-largest-single-site-immigrati-rcna229312

2025-08-28 19:35:16 UTC

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Yeah I'm talking with right-wing neighbors, saying "Quit listening to billionaire media- there are CDC employees IN OUR NEIGHBORHOOD" just go talk to them.

2025-08-28 19:30:05 UTC

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Oh I'm not sure. I'm here to dunk on Captain HeroinRoadkillBrainworm who has destroyed the CDC and is ruining my Atlanta friends' careers/lives.

2025-08-28 19:25:00 UTC

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Wow! What do you think the chances are that he will find what he was already looking for? 🤔

2025-08-19 21:32:11 UTC

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The Mafiagarchy.

2025-08-06 19:18:28 UTC

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August 7, no? Tomorrow :
https://www.project44.com/tariff-tracker/

2025-08-05 12:32:14 UTC

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Right, and then to roll one over, they offer one service, to mail you a check! Who wants to have a $200,000 check in the mail?

2025-08-05 10:41:39 UTC

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Well primarily healthcare. I talk to friends who are rich in New York to find out what treatments their kids are getting, then I go and try to get them here in Georgia. No doctor ever recommends a thing, they act like a fish salesman.
Retirement accounts, same thing. I’m on my seventh job. I have four different 401K accounts to manage.
College? University? Saving for kids?
Patchwork system. No guidance. Decision fatigue.

2025-08-05 10:25:48 UTC

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It really is. And it’s everything.

2025-08-05 10:07:14 UTC

Norway responds to U.S. tariffs.
Shockingly, Americans will be paying more for Norwegian salmon and products.
“It will be first and foremost American customers who will see price increases”
Or they will just find other customers.
“We won’t concentrate on the US as much, since our products would need to become more expensive.”
https://www.newsinenglish.no/2025/08/01/new-us-tariff-likely-to-boost-prices/

2025-08-05 09:27:08 UTC

So the U.S. economy is teetering on recession and we’re going to have tourists post bail to come here?

2025-08-02 20:23:46 UTC

Very annoying that our patchwork system leads to "You do you" healthcare. Doctors don't recommend prevention, as there's no standard of care. They don't know what my insurance will cover, they don't want to get into vaccine fights, etc.
Do you want your kids to have their teeth sealed, or just get cavities? Do you want to treat their myopia, or just let it rip? Do you want the HPV vaccine or warts and cancer? All on me to figure out, zero advice. So exhausting.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/960/987/451/529/152/original/d6816b94722d90ad.jpg

2025-08-01 20:07:35 UTC

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Right, the Yale budget lab had us at an effective tariff rate of 17.3% overall in mid July, now likely going up.
RE: self-defeating : Yes, in the latest round of tariffs Ford stock went down and Toyota stock went up, as Ford will pay more than the Japanese rate of 15% due to steel and aluminum tariffs.
So we're shooting ourselves in the foot because blood is pretty.
I wish the media would cover this as "HUGE TAX HIKE ON AMERICANS" instead of as a trade war.

2025-08-01 19:50:01 UTC

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And with Trump's thumb on the Fed, the Fed will cut rates regardless of inflation, giving us more inflation.

2025-08-01 19:32:02 UTC

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Honestly I can't believe "Sell America" isn't more of a thing. I mean the dollar is already down 10% vs. the Euro but there's a long way to fall.
We're basically guaranteed inflation once Powell steps down and Trump takes his Sharpie to the Fed rate, too.
Buy Euros?

2025-08-01 19:24:29 UTC

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Buy stock in Sharpie's because they're gonna need a lot of them.

2025-08-01 19:18:51 UTC

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Wow. Paul Krugman predicted this on his blog, that Trump would attack the data as the data showed a story that he didn't like.

2025-08-01 19:08:05 UTC

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There's also this story : Basically they DOGE'd the department responsible for collecting inflation data, making that less accurate, too.
"When the government can’t collect data on prices, it has to fill in the gaps with a statistical technique called “imputation.” The more data that must be imputed, the less reliable the overall numbers become."
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/30/business/bls-data-collection-cuts-cpi.html

2025-08-01 19:05:45 UTC

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Wow! As corporate leaders have been blaming uncertainty as much as the policies... uh... making the data less trustworthy won't help.

2025-07-25 13:18:57 UTC

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The Fed is tasked with keeping inflation low, and employment high. It has one lever, the prime rate. So it can respond to one problem or the other but not both.
high inflation -> raise the rate
unemployment -> lower the rate
both of these -> 🤷‍♀️

2025-07-24 21:58:39 UTC

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Assuming Powell serves out his term isn't it guaranteed that next May Trump will put in someone he can manipulate?
So then we will get rate cuts despite inflation, leading to ... more inflation.
So the disaster is coming.

2025-06-16 14:13:21 UTC

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Of course we had a nuclear deal with Iran when Trump took office in 2016. He tore it up, and here we are.

2025-06-15 14:46:54 UTC

#SilentSunday
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/687/919/058/640/397/original/0a3a358f93e5321c.png

2025-06-06 22:13:27 UTC

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Hah! As the numbers get worse they will just fudge the numbers! Brilliant!

2025-05-18 23:51:07 UTC

#SilentSunday
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/531/515/886/450/374/original/8987b24e313d791b.png

2025-04-26 03:15:38 UTC

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So there it is. The administration has deported a U.S. citizen.

2025-03-30 03:55:11 UTC

#SilentSunday
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/249/358/774/131/506/original/bf47a26c9d6c344a.png

2025-03-18 19:42:59 UTC

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Tesla has a P/E of 110 ... Toyota has a P/E of 7 ... Nvidia has a P/E of 40. Fundamentals? It's up there with GameStop (P/E of 130).

2025-03-14 21:30:41 UTC

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Did you read Schumer's own opinion?
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/13/opinion/trump-musk-shutdown-senate.html?unlocked_article_code=1.304.USVO.Pc-KX4539gXs&smid=url-share

2025-03-14 21:25:15 UTC

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Hashtag unpopular opinion.

2025-03-06 20:55:32 UTC

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A lot of the people at the CDC can easily go get jobs in private healthcare and make more money. So a lot of the top performers will probably do just that.
We saw this in 2016-2020, so the CDC was already in bad shape (due to Trump1 and Steve Bannon's war on the federal goverment) when the pandemic hit.

2025-02-21 00:54:10 UTC

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Seems pretty good shooting.

2025-02-20 16:58:51 UTC

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https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/20/us/chris-kluwe-protest-arrested.html?unlocked_article_code=1.yU4.TdEL.I0HlOe3oUIXH&smid=url-share

2025-02-05 18:49:57 UTC

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If he’s such a master negotiator how come he didn’t negotiate what he wanted four years ago, you know, when he renegotiated NAFTA?

2025-02-05 15:37:30 UTC

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Get well soon! Paxlovid?

2025-01-21 14:36:10 UTC

We could have had it all.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/866/842/566/582/899/original/3008e988f110325d.png

2025-01-21 14:34:57 UTC

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We could have had an inauguration free from Nazis, where again the talk was of Bernie Sanders' mittens.

2024-12-31 17:01:04 UTC

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Yeah- I’m teaching him to just use Wikipedia.

2024-12-31 16:04:01 UTC

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My ten year old son says he can’t trust Google results anymore. He says it just returns “a bunch of made up stuff.”

2024-12-29 17:53:07 UTC

#SilentSunday
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/737/383/643/190/818/original/85458ce20e8d5da0.png

2024-12-20 21:05:54 UTC

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Congress probably gets paid during a shutdown.

2024-12-20 21:03:33 UTC

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Billionaires won't be hurt by a government shutdown.

2024-11-22 14:29:38 UTC

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GenX / Millennials idea of "financially successful" is close to the top 10% of earners. GenZ's idea is in between top 5% and top 1%.
Top 10% of Earners $167,639
Top 5% of Earners $335,891
Top 1% of Earners $819,324
https://www.investopedia.com/personal-finance/how-much-income-puts-you-top-1-5-10/

2024-10-24 14:59:40 UTC

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I'm trying to imagine this in a job interview :
Interviewer : "So your record shows here a conviction for uh... sexual assault."
Candidate : "No, not a conviction you see it was just civil liability for sexual assault."

2024-10-16 17:13:14 UTC

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I am amazed that people don’t understand that a tariff is just a sales tax and will raise the price of anything we buy.
I’m also amazed we’ve gone so far talking about tariffs without someone posting the classic scene of Hawley-Smoot tariffs, anyone? Anyone?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uhiCFdWeQfA

2024-09-10 14:44:42 UTC

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I like to send people to the git man pages as a joke, then when they return say “just kidding, just google exactly what you are trying to do on stackoverflow.com.”

2024-08-21 13:22:15 UTC

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“Trump's entire appeal to his base was that he knows how to "trigger the liberals." But if the liberals aren't triggered anymore, what good is he to them?” - a great question.

2024-08-11 22:48:25 UTC

#SilentSunday
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/945/821/517/432/481/original/7105d97e230b5556.png