Higgenbotham's Dark Age Hovel

[Higgenbotham]

https://charleshughsmith.substack.com/p ... otted-away

That's an incredible concentration of the gains in two overlapping cohorts: the top 10% of households and those 55 and older.

This article is 2 years old but it tells the current story. I live about 20 miles from here. Many retired people here in Texas came from out of state. When these out of staters die, their kids have to get rid of their stuff in a hurry.

I plan to be attending a lot of estate sales in the coming years. They may not be dead yet, but it won't be long.

FOX 13 Tampa Bay

Baby boomers flock to fastest-growing city known as the ‘cruise ship on land’
By Taylor Penley
FOX News
Published July 10, 2024 2:07 PM EDT

Georgetown, Texas, is the place to be, at least if you're of a certain age. Thanks to a surge in baby boomers moving into the city just 40 miles north of Austin, it's the fastest-growing city in America.

A new Wall Street Journal report stated that boomers are driving the local population boom as they move into an age-restricted community association known as Sun City Texas, mostly reserved for buyers 55 and older.

That wave of newcomers to the community dubbed by Georgetown Mayor Josh Schroeder as the "cruise ship on land," the report says, is also driving an economic boom.

The town has been the top city for population growth for three straight years, according to Census Bureau data of cities with populations over 50,000, the WSJ reported. It grew 11% last year, 14% in 2022, and 11% in 2021.

BABY BOOMERS ARE BECOMING WEALTHIER, WHILE YOUNGER GENERATIONS LAG BEHIND, FED REPORT FINDS

"It’s like they’re at college except they don’t have to go to class and they have $3 million in the bank," Schroeder told the outlet.

Baby boomers are generally considered the wealthiest generation in the U.S. today, with Federal Reserve data from Q3 2023 indicating those over 55 own 72% of wealth in America, with those over 70 holding 30% of all wealth.

That money, combined with the lack of need to care for younger children and more time to do fun or leisurely post-retirement activities, signals a better opportunity to stimulate the local economy.

That's where Sun City comes in. According to the WSJ report, seniors have the opportunity to party, complete with a Mardi Gras parade and a ball, compelling 70-year-old Sun City resident Suzanne Herndon to comment on the fun by saying, "We're not dead yet."

"Sun City residents have turned out to be the best economic stimulus Georgetown could ask for. The city’s operating budget is flush. Its rainy day fund is brimming. Stores, restaurants, hospitals and health clinics add hundreds of jobs every year," it states in part, adding that Sun City residents make up approximately 17,000 of the city's 96,000 residents.

Most of the residents are unburdened by student loans and have paid off their houses.

While seniors are more likely to harbor wealth, younger generations are lagging behind, with the Fed data from Q3 2023 showing 25% of American households aged 40 to 54 own just 20% of the nation's wealth, while those under 40 have under 7%.

"Baby boomers are generally considered the wealthiest generation in the U.S. today, with Federal Reserve data from Q3 2023 indicating those over 55 own 72% of wealth in America, with those over 70 holding 30% of all wealth."

So, according to this, that means those between age 55 and 70 own 42% of the wealth. Seems high, but there were a lot of people born in that era.

[aedens]

Centralized institutions funded research for execution of soft kill targets.
They know and already knew nothing will be done. The locusts of .gov are
just pathocracy justified in elimination of loose ends. Propaganda works.

On another simple fact just another example of values top down.
As told simply and often they do not even pretend. Just another defenseless soft kill box.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/ ... eared-shit

Women are packing up and leaving the Spanish enclave. Local residents describe a city abandoned by its own government...

[Higgenbotham]

What percent of public school children in the US get free lunch?

AI Overview

About 69% of U.S. public school students (33.9 million children) were eligible for free or reduced-price meals through individual eligibility or community-wide provisions. Furthermore, the USDA Economic Research Service reports that roughly 72.4% of all individual school lunches served through the National School Lunch Program are provided free or at a reduced price.

Program Details

Free Meal Threshold: Households at or below 130% of the federal poverty line qualify for free meals.
Reduced-Price Threshold: Households between 130% and 185% of the poverty line qualify for reduced-price meals.

What is 130% of the federal poverty line for a family of 4?

AI Overview

For 2026 in the 48 contiguous states and Washington, D.C., 130% of the federal poverty guideline for a family of 4 is $42,900 per year, which equals $3,575 per month.

Common Uses for 130% FPL

SNAP Eligibility: The gross income limit for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP / food stamps) is typically set at 130% of the federal poverty level for most households.

What's of interest in dark age theory is how pervasive these programs are and the fact that the programs will probably get cut off around the time the US goes bankrupt. The Federal debt is passing $40 trillion and even The Washington Post has been squawking about the Federal debt level recently.

Another point is that a lot of these kids get free breakfast too, though I don't know how many. I do know of one family that has to get the kid on the bus at 6:47 for free breakfast at 7:00 followed by a 7:20 start time for school. I think for a lot of families, even a majority, the free breakfast and lunch is about all the kid is going to eat for the day, especially once the monthly allotment of food stamps runs out.

[aedens]

What these Washington swamp imbeciles will refuse to admit is they are and already have been.
We went past the Sword of Damocles pissing and moaning as these double fisted thieves loot the Treasury in plain site
like the debt is wealth imbeciles worshipped. They already knew the numbers on the transfer costs and the only plan
was and is to red line. Try to explain MMT to sane adults as inputs cost bury them.
The only fact of matter is how fast you can change channel from these bish imbeciles.
We got to point both sides are a disease since eco leads these thieving open border pols half wits into mid terms.
One thing for sure Arafat knew weak and stupid was the only resistance fact going forward.
The IRGC Contractors made these Geniuses Laundering Centers Bank until we bitch slapped with Taproot.
At least the SEC had enough balls to allow the Fork to do the right thing. Yes we fathom its a two sided coin
and it sure as Hell was not for the common good as we are now is it. We will keep an eye on Coinbase and its
order flow massacres purported to be "isolated" as a new Cartelization effort explained back in 1974.
We will stick with no clue and it was that way when we found it for now.

[Higgenbotham]

"They already knew the numbers on the transfer costs."

Paul O'Neill was sacked by Bush circa 2002 because he told the truth while Dick "The Smartest Person in the Room" Cheney said, "The debt doesn't matter."

The history on this has already been rewritten. What got Bush's ire is when O'Neill did an actual accounting of how many trillions in entitlements were forthcoming and then talked about it, catching the attention of the press.

This article tells approximately what happened. In 2002, $20 trillion seemed rather far-fetched. The establishment politicians downplayed it and painted O'Neill as a lunatic chicken little.

Promised Benefits in U.S. Are $20 Trillion in the Hole
By David Wessel
Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal

Nov. 21, 2002

A top U.S. Treasury official last week likened the U.S. government to a profligate insurance company that can't afford to make good on promises it has made. The cost of benefits the government vows to pay in the future exceeds projected tax revenues by roughly $20 trillion, he said. And that's no typo.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB103783566133388228

Jan. 9, 2004

O’Neill gained a reputation during his two years in the Cabinet for frequently making incendiary comments that shook up financial markets and antagonized Wall Street. O’Neill said he was just trying to discuss complicated public policy issues in greater depth than the television sound bites so often used by the typical Washington politicians.

O’Neill was fired in December 2002 when Bush shook up his economic team in search of better salesmen for a new round of tax cuts the president hoped would stimulate a sluggish economy.

O’Neill had publicly questioned the need for another round of tax cuts in light of the growing budget deficits. He was replaced by John Snow, former head of CSX Corp., who became a staunch advocate for new tax cuts, which Bush signed into law in May.

https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna3920145

What Dick Cheney Really Thinks About Deficits
Now he tells us.

By Conor Clarke
May 28, 2009

It's good of Dick Cheney to tell the world (via Larry Kudlow) what he really thinks about deficits:

Well, I think the budgets he (Obama) submitted are way out of whack. I think what it does not only to the short-term deficit but long-term debt situation is very objectionable. [...] We're at a point now where to look at the levels of spending that are being contemplated, six hundred and some billion dollars, for example, in unfunded planning with respect to their medical reforms, somebody's got to pay for that in some fashion.

Which is a perfectly fine sentiment. But it's really just fish in a barrel to point out that this is the exact opposite of what Cheney was saying in 2002 (with similarities right down to the budget figure):

Shortly before he was fired, [Treasury Secretary Paul O'neill] confronted Cheney about the Administration's latest proposal to cut taxes by another six hundred and seventy-four billion dollars over ten years, pointing out that the country was "moving toward a fiscal crisis." The Vice-President stopped him. "Reagan proved deficits don't matter," he said. "We won the midterms. This is our due."

That's from John Cassidy's retelling of the famous scene from Ron Suskind's The Price of Loyalty.

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/ar ... its/18426/

[Higgenbotham]

Dick Cheney Reveals His Reason for Endorsing Kamala Harris Over Donald Trump
Published: Sep 7, 2024

Former Vice President and influential Republican Dick Cheney released a statement announcing his endorsement of Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris for President. Speaking out against the Republican nominee, former President Donald Trump, Cheney said that he can “never be trusted with power again.”

“In our nation’s 248 year history, there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump,” Cheney, 83, said in the statement shared on Sept. 6. “He tried to steal the last election using lies and violence to keep himself in power after the voters had rejected him,” he continued, referencing the events of Jan. 6, 2021.

Cheney, who served as Vice President under President George W. Bush between 2001 and 2009 went on to say that American citizens have a “duty” to prioritize the nation over partisan politics.

Trump reacted to Cheney’s statement via a post shared on his own social media platform, Truth Social. He called the former Vice President an “irrelevant RINO”— which stands for Republican in Name Only and is a term used by some to describe Republicans who are viewed as being disloyal to the party.

“He’s the King of Endless, Nonsensical Wars, wasting Lives and Trillions of Dollars, just like Comrade Kamala Harris. I am the Peace President, and only I will stop World War III!,” Trump wrote on Sept. 6.

https://time.com/7018941/dick-cheney-re ... ald-trump/

You can see what a total joke Dick Cheney was, a total joke except for the fact that he helped architect the destruction of America long before Trump ever entered politics, which set the stage for Trump based politics. Trump's characterization of Cheney is 100% correct.

[Higgenbotham]

George W. Bush, then a candidate with limited Washington experience, asked Cheney to lead his vice-presidential search. At the end of the process, Cheney selected himself. He gave the campaign the illusion of adult supervision. When Bush won the disputed election, the quiet man from Wyoming was suddenly at the center of the world.

His office, tucked into a corner of the West Wing, became a command post. He filled it with loyalists — lawyers, policy hawks, intelligence veterans — and set about reshaping the executive branch. To most Americans, the new vice president seemed invisible. To those inside government, he was everywhere.

Then came September 11, 2001.

That morning, after two planes struck the World Trade Center, Secret Service agents burst into Cheney’s office and whisked him underground to the Presidential Emergency Operations Center. There, in the dim light of screens and static, he assumed command. Bush was in Florida, then on Air Force One. Cheney, with Defense Secretary Rumsfeld on the line, made rapid decisions. They quickly ground civilian flights and alerted NATO.

The vice president, not the president, directed the response from Washington. Those hours cemented his role. America was at war, and Cheney believed he knew how to wage it.

In the months that followed, he pushed through a radical expansion of presidential power. Warrantless surveillance. Indefinite detention. “Enhanced interrogation” of terror suspects — a euphemism for torture. He called it defending freedom; critics called it shredding the Constitution.

Inside the administration, Cheney’s influence was unmatched. He sidelined moderates and built the case for invading Iraq. He claimed Saddam Hussein had links to al-Qaeda and possessed weapons of mass destruction. “We will be greeted as liberators,” he told Americans in 2003.

They were not.

The war began with “shock and awe”. That was Cheney’s theatrical style. Baghdad fell in weeks. But the aftermath was chaos. No weapons of mass destruction were found. Insurgents rose from the ruins. American soldiers died by the thousands.

At home, criticism mounted. Still, Cheney refused to bend. “If we had to do it over again,” he said in 2009, “we’d do it the same way.”

For him, the logic was simple. Weakness invited attack. Doubt was dangerous. History, he believed, favored the decisive.

But history had its own judgment. By the time Bush left office, Cheney’s approval ratings had collapsed. The world saw Iraq as a catastrophe. The vice president who once seemed to run Washington now looked like a relic of another age. He was haunted by the war he insisted was right.

For all his public ruthlessness, Cheney’s private life was surprisingly ordinary. He married Lynne in 1964 and stayed married for more than sixty years. They raised two daughters, Liz and Mary. When Mary came out as gay, Cheney, who had been vehemently opposed to homosexuality, broke ranks with his party to support same-sex marriage. “Freedom means freedom for everybody,” he said in 2000, a rare glimpse of the man beneath the armor.

His health remained precarious. By 2010, he had survived five heart attacks. In 2012, he received a transplant that extended his life by more than a decade. His doctor described him as “an incredibly compliant patient”, an odd phrase for a man famous for never backing down.

When Donald Trump rose to power, Cheney watched with dismay. The Republican Party he had helped build was changing. His daughter Liz, elected to his old House seat, became one of Trump’s fiercest critics. Cheney stood with her. “There has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump,” he declared in 2024, announcing he would vote for Kamala Harris instead.

It was a final, unexpected act of defiance. The man who once engineered secret wars now defended democracy against his own party. To some, it was redemption. To others, hypocrisy. But it showed that even in his last years, Cheney’s faith in institutions, however warped his methods, had not entirely died.

Historians will argue about Dick Cheney for generations. Was he the necessary hard man in a dangerous world, or the bureaucratic warrior who mistook fear for strategy? The Iraq War cost more than 4,400 American lives and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi ones. It destabilized a region and set in motion crises that still shape the Middle East.

Yet Cheney never apologized. “I did what I thought needed to be done,” he once said. “History will decide.”

He liked the Darth Vader comparisons, even played the villain’s theme when he walked on stage at speeches. It was a joke that wasn’t quite a joke. He understood the appeal of power cloaked in mystery.

When he died, America was still fighting some of the wars he started. His policies on surveillance and detention had been softened but never fully reversed. His shadow lingered in the machinery of government, in the surveillance agencies and the legal memos that defined an era of permanent emergency.

In the end, Dick Cheney lived as he governed: without apology. He once said he preferred to work from the shadows, because that was where real power lived.

Now the shadows have claimed him back. But his America — the one Diveroli toasted in War Dogs, built on contracts and secrecy, and which Donald Trump now threatens on Nigeria and Radical Islamists inside it — still exists, humming quietly beneath the surface, efficient and unseen.

https://www.facebook.com/tosinjadeoti/p ... 624561783/

[Higgenbotham]

This probably deserves a separate post.

On a personal level, Cheney was not always a bull-by-the-horns guy. After Cheney graduated from high school, Tom Stroock, a local oilman who was impressed by the young man, arranged his entrance and full scholarship to Yale. After four semesters, Cheney’s grades were so bad, the university asked him to leave. David Nicholas, who has known Cheney since junior high school and who went to Harvard, thinks part of the problem was that the Casper schools had not prepared the boys for Ivy League academics. “We were competing with kids who went to Andover and Exeter, and they knew what it was all about,” Nicholas observes. What’s more, say those who knew Cheney then, he spent more time “in the bend-your-elbow club,” as a former Yalie puts it, than in the library. Cheney hung out with his cohort on the freshman football team, stayed up late playing cards and drinking beer. “Dick wasn’t big on studying,” remembers Jacob Plotkin, one of his roommates.

Cheney got a union job laying power lines in the blue-collar town of Rock Springs, Wyo. He stayed in constant touch with Lynne, who was in college in Colorado; he had had to endure teasing from Plotkin for writing her almost daily from Yale. On occasion, he drank too much — a practice that led to two DUI arrests within a year. Cheney told Nicholas years later that the arrests motivated him to get his career on track. In addition, Lynne, according to Stroock, “was firm that she did not want to spend the rest of her life married to a lineman.”

https://time.com/archive/6667962/7-clue ... ck-cheney/