Yesterday was a monster.
Monday has been good - finally getting another job. Washing dishes, but I need the income.
Yes, the bank account was under $3.00. No nicotine, that I knocked off on Monday night while trying to get the one legal project to bed. There were still problems with that on Tuesday, but I got notice this morning that was filed. I got compliments on my work,
I could not stay awake. Up at 5 am, down at 8 and up at noon, and pretty much the same for the afternoon. I went down at 8 pm and up at 10, did an email, and then back to bed until 4:20 am.
There is more than money for which I need a job: I need to get out of here.
This morning I checked my bank balance and went down to McClure's for supplies. Very quiet out there this morning - more birds chirping than cars driving, no raccoons, no cottontails. I might as well as have been a ghost town, except for the cashier at McClure's.
When I got back, I noticed the room had to be a good 10 degrees warmer than the outdoors. I turned on the air conditioner. See? I need to get out in fresh air.
Turned down for another job. Oh, well.
Thank you for applying for the Sales Associate position at Wild Side Smoke Shop.
We carefully reviewed your skills and qualifications and have decided to move forward with another candidate for the position.
We appreciate the time you invested to apply for this position at Wild Side Smoke Shop, and we encourage you to pursue future openings.
Best wishes for a successful job search. Thank you, again, for your interest in our company.
They did not call back on Friday; neither did Chipotle. I assume when they tell me they will call, they have no intention of doing so.
First thing read this morning: Inter-Orthodox Relations in the Symbolic Field of Ukrainian Society. I keep being surprised how little this gets noticed in American media.
And for all that I wonder about my ability to put one foot in front of the other, the country is caught up in a Republican-scripted melodrama: The unique absurdity of the U.S.’s looming debt default. What gripes me is this: the Republicans want to cut spending already made without presenting a budget for future spending; Congress is to prepare budges but seems incapable of doing its job; and that failure is what we should be complaining about. No, we get posturing for the TV and raising money instead of work.
GOP Alarms About Government Spending Don't Include Huge Military Budgets
I had a bit of a surprise visiting my cousin on Sunday. My sister thinks we are less safe than we were under Trump. My cousin thought the Chinese were out-spending us on military spenidng. I sent them both the following:
Another thing that surprised me was my cousin not knowing that crude oil trades in U.S. dollars. I meant to check on that, lacked the energy yesterday, and only now did I find Why Oil Is Only Traded in US$—Understanding Petrodollars:
The term "petrodollar" was first coined in the 1970s when President Richard Nixon shocked the world by unilaterally breaking the Bretton Woods system—a monetary management system that was established to manage foreign currency exchange rates.
Prior to this event, the US dollar was pegged to gold, meaning that it could be exchanged for gold at a fixed rate.
President Nixon rendered the system obsolete, de-pegging the dollar from gold, and making all crude oil trades denominated in USD.
As a result, some oil-exporting countries, like Saudi Arabia, were racking up large surpluses of US dollars. To prevent these countries from cashing in their dollars for gold and destabilizing the US economy, President Nixon agreed to peg the dollar to oil instead of gold. This meant that other countries had to buy dollars to purchase oil, effectively creating a currency that was pegged to a widely-used commodity.
The likelihood of another currency replacing the USD remains low, as the United States still holds its stance as the world's biggest economic powerhouse.
Is Saudi Arabia dropping the petrodollar? raises a question that is important for the United States,
The petrodollar is not being replaced, but it is certainly being challenged in 2023. After 40 years of a comfortable monopoly, the US is being challenged by China.
In 2023, there have been a few changes that suggest the petrodollar might not be as solid as once thought, and that the US might need to affirm its strength. Most notably, on March 29, Saudi Arabia announced that they have agreed to become a “dialogue partner” with the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, the world’s largest regional political and defence organisation in terms of geographic scope and population.
Furthermore, in January at the World Economic Forum in Davos, the Finance Minister of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed Al-Jadaan told reporters that with Saudi Arabi “there are no issues discussing how we settle our trade arrangements, whether it’s in the US dollar, the euro or the Saudi riyal.”
Considering the historical bond that the US and Saudi Arabia have had, these claims might seem small on the surface, but speak of a huge shift that could happen in future. Saudi Arabia is not dropping the petrodollar yet, but their activity suggests they might be considering other options. Saudi Arabia might be the keystone in the petrodollar too, and if for example, they begin to trade oil in yuan, this may cause a domino effect, and the other members of OPEC might follow suit.
We default on our debt, I suspect the world will start doubting the petrodollar. Stop using the petrodollar will only help China's rise, which will be at our expense. So much for the Republicans standing for a stronger America. Do the MAGA Republicans have the slightest idea of what makes us great is more than white face in power? Do we understand what is actually America's power?
I have a busy day - the sheriff, counselor, need to get new pants for work, groceries, maybe a meal that is not microwaved. - that starts with catching the 7:45 bus downtown.
I leave you with a review, something to think about the Midwest, In Search of the Late-Capitalist Heartland: On Danny Caine’s “Flavortown”:
Although Flavortown was birthed from the post-ironic internet age, it shares an ontological lineage with Dave Etter’s widely-acclaimed collection, Alliance, Illinois. Whereas Etter unpacked the 1970s heartland—its crumbling railroads and dying history—through the monologues of a fictitious rural community, Flavortown responds to the postmodern Midwest, homogenized by a cultural landscape of highways and chain restaurants. Like Caine’s other works, (Continental Breakfast, Picture Window, How to Resist Amazon and Why, etc.) Flavortown is heavily embedded in both his childhood home of Cleveland, Ohio, and in his present life in Lawrence, Kansas. As such, Flavortown locates the breadbasket of America not in the shantytown, but in the sprawling metropolis. At the center is an aberration of the boundaries between the local and the global, and a hunger-inducing, near-proximity to regional identity, presence, and authenticity.
The poems do hit home, not sure what that means for us.
Have a good morning.
sch
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