Welcome to the bull and bear show episode number 16. I'm here with Nash Cowboy and the market maverick. How you guys doing today? I'm doing fantastic. We've got a great show ahead. We're going to talk about a lot of trending topics. The first topic we want to talk about today is the housing market. So this says that the housing market in America is stuck. Americans cannot afford homes. Investors are not buying property and economists see little relief ahead. Nash Cowboy, you're in America. What do you think about this statement? Is this true? I think it's absolutely true. As a matter of fact, I was talking to my banker about a construction loan and they're not even giving construction loans now. Because it's just too much risk for them at this point. I don't see anybody buying houses right now and honestly, I think if you do buy a house right now, it's very foolish with the interest rates the way they are. Like I said before, if you bought a house right now and you were at 7% interest, which is actually a little lower than what the market is going right now. If you bought a house for $300,000, it's 7% interest. You're looking at $2,100 a month just in interest.  Absolutely foolish. I don't see it getting any better anytime soon. I think it's going to pop. Mark and Maverick, what do you think about this? Are houses unaffordable? What are people going to do if they can't buy homes? What do we do? What do we do is different than what should be done and what's going to happen. Right now they're saying, I'm in Canada. So in Canada, the Canadian home prices, they're saying are going to remain flat until the end of 2023. And you were telling me that they were going to hold the rates at 5%. Is that true or did I hear that wrong? That's true. The Bank of Canada has decided to hold rates at 5%. All right. So I'm reading here that yeah, 5%, Bank Canada holds 5% potential and historic heights Bloomberg says. And how long is that going to last really? Because in 08, I believe they said subprime mortgages would be held at 5% as well. We know what happened there. So I have little belief in the real estate system at the dollar. In fact, the dollar looks strong, but the political perspective for trade with Canada, not trading with China, aluminum and a bunch of other microchips and so much other stuff. And Ukraine's bread situation, not leaving bread. I mean, the housing market is one of the least of my worries right now. But I don't think it's going to hold at all. I think it's going to, they say they're going to bring down rates. I don't believe it because they printed, they said they printed 50 or 20 trillion. But if you go to Google and you type in current fiat money worldwide, you'll find 80 trillion. But in 2019, it said 23 trillion. So they printed over 50 trillion dollars. So how is it possible to lower those rates? Yeah, we can't. I mean, it is possible to lower the rates. They just got to do it. The problem is inflation is higher than what they want and they want to get inflation down to 2%. And the only tool they have lower inflation is the raise rates. The problem is higher the raise rates, the more people get into debt, the more people can't afford the mortgages, the more people can't afford food, they can't afford gas. The price of everything is rising to the point where people are becoming homeless. People can't afford to buy, they can't afford to rent. Everything is getting astronomical. Now I live in Vancouver where the housing prices, you won't believe this. The average house now in the greater Vancouver area is 2.4 million dollars. That's not just Vancouver. That's Vancouver and an hour around it's now 2.4 million dollars for a home. And if you want to live in West or North Vancouver, which is the most expensive place in Vancouver, the average home is now over 4 million dollars. That's not sustainable and it's not affordable. And that's why I believe we are on the verge of having a massive housing bubble. What's the average wage there? The average wage is probably like, I don't know, maybe, I think the average household income is about 80,000 dollars. 80 to 100,000 dollars is the average. So there's no way the average person could afford that? No, they can't. It's unaffordable. It's unsustainable. In fact, a lot of people like me are tired of it and are looking to sleep. Different cities, different countries, different markets are affordable because the housing in Canada, specifically in Vancouver and in Toronto, is no longer affordable. It's completely unaffordable and we are in what some are calling the biggest bubble in Canadian history for housing. We're on the verge of having this bubble burst and in a really historic and terrible way. And like, do you guys have any plans of how can they turn this around? Nash Cowboy, is there anything they can do to turn this around? Any ideas? I mean, I'm on the conspiracy side of that. I don't think they plan on turning it around. If they can delete the middle class, then there's only rich and poor and the rich will rule the poor. I think that's all their plan. They don't want us coming up in the world and being on their level. I actually read a story. I read something recently along that conspiracy and a lot of these conspiracies turned out to be true. So I'm just going to say that they actually, what were we just talking about? The housing bubble. So, oh my God, I was going to say something so interesting right now and I literally just like, you know when it just slips your mind? I literally can't. Let me ask you a question, Mark and Maverick. I'll come back. If you were the Prime Minister, what would you do to solve this housing crisis? Okay, that's what we were talking about. I was searching up something. I would throw Trudeau in jail. Hey, I'd be down with that. Because a lot of Canada unfortunately and the U.S. has been basing most of their policies based on what the World Economic Forum wants and not what their people want. Look at this. This is my next topic. An international strategist says Canada is sitting on the largest housing bubble of all time. Is he right? What do you think, Nash Cowboy? Are we in the biggest housing bubble of all time? Absolutely. I think we are too. And a balloon can only take in so much air before it pops. What goes up must come down. Period. So I think that bubble's about had it. Again, I think it'd be foolish to buy a house right now because like in 08, my friend bought a house and it was at its peak and then it popped. And now then her house was worth half of what it was. Now she's in the green, but I keep telling her to sell while it's hot and she ain't doing it. I agree. The housing bubble's fucked, man. So Mark and Maverick, are we in a housing bubble? Yes or no? We are. And I can prove that by saying the name of one person, Michael Burry. He just made a $1.6 billion on a NASDAQ and S&P crutch on the two major systems. So his net worth is $1.2 billion. How's he investing $1.6 billion? He took a loan. That's how sure he is. He took a loan and he's using the loan to pay the premiums on these put options. So if Michael Burry is doing that, I have absolutely no belief in what's to come next. I think it's going to be bigger than ever. I think it's going to be a collapse of a currency, not collapse. Let's just say I don't like that work. I like to say a devaluation of, let's say, 50% of these currencies, I think is a strong possibility to happen. And the housing bubble and the inflation and everything that's happening is just a precursor warning. And if Michael Burry sees it, and we're all in cryptos because we've lost fault in the fiat enough to put major money, major percentages of our physical money is in crypto because we lost hope and we like the fact that we own crypto and not just the dollar. So when that dollar takes it, I think things are going to get... What about this statement? The stock market drives US households to record wealth. I don't understand this statement, but this is a statement that's being talked about on Reuters. They're saying that US homeowners are having record wealth because of the stock market. Should that not be because of the housing market? I don't understand this statement. Are people in America rich because of the stock market right now, Nash Cowboy? I don't think so. If anything, there was more millionaires made during the last crypto bull market than any other time in history. But maybe they're correlating it because people sold houses at high records and then invested in the stock market at the same time. Maybe they're trying to flip that correlation the other way, but I don't believe the stock market made households new records. Maybe the other way around, but not in that way. What do you think, Mark and Maverick, about that statement? The market drives US households to record wealth. Right here, I'm looking at JPMorgan Chase. Excuse me, I pressed the wrong button here. Excuse me one second. JPMorgan Chase actually on their website, he talks about administrative retail bank data to explore the relationship between the US stock market and consumer behavior. They talk about household behavior leading to wealth in this JPMorganChase.com Institute Research Financial Market. So this has to be something to do with mass psychology and how people react. It's all on a graph and a chart somewhere. I mean, who put out the artifact too? Is it somebody trying to move people into the stock market to help recover it? Is it something like that? You talking about what the article is? It was written on Reuters. The article is on Reuters, so it just didn't make sense to me because I don't feel like the stock market is making people rich right now. If you take anything, it's real estate that's making people rich. People are rich because they have equity in their homes. Anyone that's a homeowner has become a millionaire essentially here in Vancouver, living in Toronto. Anyone that owns a home is now a millionaire. That is what's driving wealth. I don't believe it's the stock market. But if you're rich, you probably have access money, so you're probably buying stocks too. That's what I'm saying. It's probably the other way around. They're just trying to make it look like it's that way so that more people invest in the stock market. Interesting. Look at the information that this article has on JP Morgan Chase. It talks about the amount of men and women that are investing in the stock market. It's all on a graph. Sensitivity of credit card spending changes to the stock market returns. It's got a lot of information. Money monthly changes and transfer to investment accounts and stock market returns. So they've got all this information growth and transfer to investment accounts during COVID. And the information on that interest or sorry, the household, what you're talking about is related to this as well. The stock market and household financial behavior. Bank of Canada says interest rates. So this is my next topic. The Bank of Canada says that interest rates may not be high enough. So even though the rates are super high, everybody's struggling. People can't afford to buy homes. People can't afford to put gas in their car. People can't afford to buy food.  There's more homelessness than ever before. People are living in their cars. People are living in tents. Bank of Canada has come out and say interest rates may not be high enough to slow down inflation. So what does that tell me? That tells me that rates are about to go higher. Now in saying that the Bank of Canada did decide to pause rates today. So what that tells me is there's more rate hikes coming. So Nash Cowboy, do you think that the United States is going to bring rates higher? Because it looks like the Bank of Canada is saying, even though they paused on rates this week, that rates most likely are going to have to go higher. Do you think that the rates go higher in the U.S.? I think they absolutely go higher. Like I said, they're trying to milk everything they can out of the middle and lower class that they can. They're trying to make the middle class the lower class. And it's all height scare tactics trying to divide us even more. I agree with you there. And Mark and Maverick, what do you think about this? Bank of Canada saying interest rates may have to go higher. I think this is a disgusting statement. I think that there's a lot of criminal activity happening at this point that I'm just tired of. What are we doing with this, Mark and Maverick? Like what's going to happen here? Like when does this stop? I'm looking at a financial system review from 2023. And they say that the stable, the financial system is stable and efficient in sustaining economic growth and raising the standards of living. This is in the Bank of Canada's.ca. And they believe, well, the thing is the Bank of Canada owns major CDOs in the housing market. They own all the homes. So when they raise those interest rates, they're profiting directly. It's not like there's a middleman. They're making all that money. And if they lower the rates, they'll make money too. So what they do is they just use the public as a scapegoat, let's say. Yeah. They use they use these articles to create fear intentions, but a large negative shock such as it's saying here a global recession with significant unemployment that further depresses housing market could increase loan defaults among households. It defaults on uninsured mortgages with negative equity were to occur on a large scale. They could result in sizable credit losses for Canadian lenders shutting down the bank. So if the war continues the way it is or gets worse. If the situation with Trump and Biden gets worse, because people are their attention is high in the United States, they're tied at 43% for the presidency. Trudeau, he's got 83% of Canadians that want him gone. There's no chance he's going to win. So I believe personally, on a note, from a personal opinion, I think there's going to be a possible another lockdown in order to calm the economy once again. I agree with that. We talked about that, Nash. Do you think there's going to be another lockdown? Absolutely. Matter of fact, I know a lot of nurses that their hospitals have already told them that, and this was a few weeks ago, they've already told them that there's another round of COVID coming to prepare for lockdowns. One of my good friends here in this town, he is the EMS, the coroner, he's everything, and they told him that they're going to start throwing in mandates again. How did they know that before it even happened? It's all part of the pandemic. Again, poverty brings power. Now, thankfully, there are some states here that have already passed bills that are rejecting any kind of mandates. Hopefully all of them will, but we'll see what happens there. This is the next statement here. The Bank of Canada holds rates steady, which I told you guys earlier, as the economy shifts into a weaker period. So if the economy is shifting into a weaker period, that must mean we're in a recession. Do you believe we are in a recession right now, Nash Cowboy? I think we've been in a recession for a long time. I have never in my life seen as many help-wanted signs ever. I mean, literally every business has help-wanted signs. There's plenty of work out there, but nobody is working. Everybody is drawing off the government, drawing welfare and getting their free ride, and nobody is contributing to it. We just keep printing money like it's toilet paper. There's no way we're not in a recession. As a matter of fact, when you compare the average household income and the Great Depression, and then you mark up to what that amount of money is worth now, we actually make less money than they did in the peak of the Great Depression on average. Mark and Maverick, are we in a recession? We can't hear you, bud. We can't hear you. There we go. I believe that we've been in a recession since the beginning of this virus situation. How are we not? The money has, I used to pay for cheese. I'm paying double. It's gone up 120% in price. Wow. Cheese alone. When I'm at the store, I look at the cheese and I start laughing. March 15, the Royal Bank of Canada said the thought leadership group predicted that the country was heading into a mild recession in mid-23. I think what their word of mild is actually a possible political scenario that could affect everyone. Who knows what it is, but personally, based on my research, we are in a recession and we're not coming out of it anytime soon. I believe it's going to get worse very soon, actually.  How can we shut down the world when the dollar takes a hit? The Saudi Arabia already left the US dollar. Yes. 40 countries with bricks now. 40 countries have already left the US dollar. Where does that lead to the dollar? Right. While this is happening, the US dollar is going up. How crazy is that? That actually happens before it crashes. Well, it's going up, so it's not showing any weakness despite the fact that 40 countries have left it. Also, you've got to realize that it's not illegal to lie. We know that for sure. In this world, we're being lied to more than we're ever being told the truth. Clearly. How often does anyone tell the truth anymore when it comes to politics? Alright, so let's just change gears for a second. So I want to talk about something different real quick. We're going to talk about the NFL season. So the NFL season is starting. They had the first game on Thursday. Detroit came out with a huge win over the Kansas City Chief Super Bowl champions. I'm a huge football fan. So as a guy that's concerned about all of these global problems, I'm concerned about the economy. I'm concerned about recession. I'm concerned about interest rates. I'm concerned about housing prices. I'm concerned about gas prices. I'm concerned about food prices. I'm concerned about everything crashing around me, but I'm going to be watching football tomorrow. So is the NFL season the perfect distraction? What do you think, Nash Cowboy? I've said this many times. I don't really watch football unless it's a big play. I do gamble on football, but it's small amounts. I've got a dollar bet out right now that'll pay like $300,000 if I win. And a dollar bet that'll pay $500,000. I've got a dollar bet that'll pay over a million. So I pay attention to who's winning just because I've placed these crazy bets. But I don't ever watch the games. Like, very, very, very rarely do I watch a game. If I do it just because I'm at somebody's house chilling and they're watching. So I don't think it's a distraction for people like me. However, it can be.  So it could be a great distraction for people like them. Market Maverick is the NFL season starting right in time at the same time as interest rates are up, recession happening. People can't afford housing anymore. Is this season of the NFL a perfect distraction for what's really going on in the world? You know, it's interesting you say the word distraction because the Coliseum was built in ancient Rome. Actually by the past, who built the Coliseum to distract the Romans. Keep them keep their attention directed away from the current financial system. It's not why the NFL is back, but I gotta I gotta say I'm a Raiders fan. I'm a lot of Falcons fan. And I love the Denver Broncos. What can I say? Also the Patriots. I there's a lot of teams I like. I'm not just a one team guy in the NFL. I'm not from the United States. So I can do that. You know what? I think I think honestly. I watch football a lot. I love watching the highlights. My favorite game ever that ever came out in the world history of games was NFL Blitz. Nintendo 64. You guys remember? Well, I'm a Dallas Cowboys fan. They're playing the Giants on a Sunday night. And I'm telling you, I will be watching sports all day tomorrow. I won't be looking at politics. I won't be looking at the stock market. I won't be looking at Bitcoin. I'll be watching football all day tomorrow. Honestly, I'm going to tell you straight up as a huge sports fan. It's a huge distraction. Tomorrow the Bengals. All I can say is if I'm hoping your Cowboys get spanked because there'll be one more win towards my 300,000. Oh, tomorrow the Falcons are playing. I don't want the Cowboys to lose, but I do hope you win your bet. Tomorrow Atlanta Falcons versus the Panthers. That's going to be a good one. There's going to be a lot of good games tomorrow. It's the first week of the season. So everybody has a chance this week. So it's going to be a lot of fun. Fall season starts. The first game of the season was a huge upset. Detroit beat the Kansas City Chiefs, the Super Bowl champions. Nobody really expected that. Not even me. So I just expect tomorrow is going to be a lot of fun. It's going to be huge distraction. And these distractions are needed when the world is in chaos. We've got a war in Ukraine, which no one really talks about anymore. Despite the fact that the United States and Canada have sent billions of dollars in relief. Nobody talks about it anymore. Right? How often do you guys hear about the war now? Rarely, right? It's not even on the news anymore. Nobody talks about it anymore. It pops up when it needs to. That's right. They pop it up when they need to, like when they want to have another distraction or they want to have something to focus on. Other than what is really the most important thing. And what's the most important thing for families? Feeding their kids, putting food on the table, paying the bills, being able to put gas in their car. But right now people can't do that. So what do they do? They turn to Sunday night football. Because it makes them feel good when their team wins. Even though they're not winning, if their team wins for that short period of time, they can forget about their problems. A great example is when Argentina won the World Cup. The country is in disarray. Their economy is collapsing. Their dollar is worthless. But when they won the World Cup, everybody was in bliss. Everybody celebrated. Everybody celebrated. And everybody united in the country was great. Because Messi won the World Cup and Argentina won the World Cup. That was a great distraction from the reality of the fact that that country has completely fallen apart financially. I have a theory that Messi went to America because nothing bad about Messi. I love the guy. He came out of nothing. He was poor and he had a disease where he didn't grow the same time frame as us. So he did deal with the law and then he became superstar. So he has a nice backstory. I respect that a lot. But he went to America because Ronaldo went to Saudi Arabia. So we wanted that deal. But then I realized they're both taking these moves. Ronaldo there and Messi in America because they're getting a little bit older. So you notice that they're actually having a little more fun as they're playing both of them.  They don't really have to try. They have some fun now. They get tired. And then as they do that I got to find some more new super stars. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I want to move to the next topic. So the next topic is that El Salvador has created a Bitcoin revolution where Bitcoin has now been considered legal tender in El Salvador for two years. And this week they announced Bitcoin education for everybody in El Salvador. Which means if you go to school in El Salvador the teacher has to know how to buy and sell Bitcoin and the teacher has to teach you how to buy and sell Bitcoin. My question to you guys is this is El Salvador ahead of the pack and is the rest of the world going to move in this direction where everyone in the world in the future will be learning how to buy and sell Bitcoin. Nash Cowboy, what do you think? I think it's needed. I hope it goes to that. I do think it's definitely needed. People aren't taught finance as in general in school anymore. So obviously crypto is the future. We're definitely moving into that world whether we like it or not. So I think that the schools everywhere should teach that so that you're not losing out like crazy. Like most people do in the beginning when they first start into crypto. So do you see a day where every single school teaches the students how to buy and sell Bitcoin? Do you think that happens in the future in America? What's that? Say that again? Do you think it's a day in America where you go to class you've got lots of kids your kids go to school and they come home and they say Dad, I learned about Bitcoin today. Do you think that day is coming soon? Um I don't think I don't I don't think that they're going to be on the conspiracy side of things. I think they want to hold us that we bring other countries down a knot so that they're a little bit of separation between the American poor a little more separation. But I think it will come in the future, yes. Mark and Maverick do you see a day where in Canada they teach the students how to buy and sell Bitcoin in class? I highly doubt it highly highly highly doubt it and the reason I say this is because I made a video myself I believe I'm looking at the article right now actually in 2021 about the IMF stating if you can if you believe you're going to make Bitcoin legal tender I would think twice but here I'm reading the IMF had hit out of hit out at El Salvador in late 2021 when the Central American country became the first to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender a move that's since being copied by Central African Republic they're also a member of the BRICS so that last time we went live about a month ago when I was on with you guys we talked about BRICS using Bitcoin is a big possibility I'm looking at the G20 plan or decisions to me in India including guarding against excessive capital flows adopting unambiguous tax rules and laws and Brazil just made Bitcoin 23% tax I believe it's just taxed Bitcoin 23% so the countries in the BRICS seem to be adopting Bitcoin however with my own research I believe the Royal Bank of Canada has partnered with Ripple TD's partnered with Ripple and ATB's partnered with Ripple I think they're going in the direction of a Central Bank digital currency issued by Ripple so it's possible that Bitcoin could be legal tender for third world countries who will be able to adopt waiting a few minutes for transaction see my thing is why would they teach Bitcoin in school when they don't even teach us about finance that's a very good in North America they don't teach finance in school they've never taught anyone about budgeting they've never taught anyone about banking they never teach you about education financial education why would they teach Bitcoin in 1904 the Rockefellers they bought the CBE and they took out financial literacy so they purposely don't want you to learn about money and Robert Kiyosaki says that that's where I got that information was they don't teach you about money why do we go to school to get a job why do we get a job to make money why don't we learn about money that's what I didn't ever understand is so I was always the black sheep and now the honest truth I honestly think that Bitcoin could be targeted by NATO if the BRICS continues to push forward in this adoption that's what worries me is if Bitcoin is anonymous and can be used by anyone but what if we've seen that Russian billionaire the fourth largest Russian billionaire in the world died in an airplane crash in Russia and he held 1000 bitcoins in his wallet so if the enemies of my enemies are holding Bitcoin bitcoins an enemy so Bitcoin becomes a target that's what worries me is the strong anonymity of Bitcoin puts it at a potential risk because of the political spectrum and what's happening unfortunately hey Blaze are you there yes I am hey welcome Blaze Blaze what do you think about this do you see a day that they will ever teach Bitcoin education in America in the school good question I definitely think they will really yeah that's good because digital currency is not I just don't know if it'll ever happen the SEC doesn't even want to approve it to do anything they just want to make it difficult for Bitcoin and Ripple and cryptocurrency so I just can't see how they would open up the doors to Bitcoin education I hope it happens I just doubt that we're going to see it because here in Canada they don't teach any financial education whatsoever so I just can't see why they would teach people about Bitcoin but I would love to see it I think 100% that will because simply because digital currency is the next you know it's going to be the thing you know hey man I hope you're right we're going to be teaching about the digital US dollar, the digital Canadian dollar and then you know other options like Bitcoin like they need to teach it because in El Salvador Blaze they're actually teaching kids in school now how to buy and sell Bitcoin I agree with it El Salvador the whole country has adopted Bitcoin education teachers are teaching children now how to sell buy and sell Bitcoin in every single school in El Salvador I don't think we need to I believe this is going to make El Salvador the richest country in the world in the future because with the price of Bitcoin potentially escalating to a million dollars in the future could you imagine everybody in El Salvador owns Bitcoin what that would do for the country oh my god it will literally turn us into one of the countries in the world you know what it would do it would turn the tide on the current plan that's in motion by NATO and the current elites it will attack their system they won't allow it they have jets bombs there's no way they're going to allow a country that they want it to only hold 500 billion because they don't want them too strong because the country next to them and it's all planned and set in motion and it's sufficient and it's working so based on what they want so I'm like if something let's say that country all of a sudden has a 10x in their capital now they're richer than Apple and they decide to say we're going to shut down all Apple products so they start you know going against the tide they'll have power power is not good for the banking system if those people are not following their standards so I really I doubt that anything will happen I don't think I'll get away with it the IMF doesn't want it you're there for a second your volume went down this leads me to my next question Bitcoin price prediction BTC eyes soaring 20% rally will the bull run continue these guys are predicting a 20% rally in Bitcoin Nach Cowboy do you see that happening anytime soon not until after September I'm still sticking with my guns on it I think I think it might be a fast pump but I don't think until after September we're going to see a a total monthly pot and then October maybe I think it'd be a big pump in October okay Blaise what do you think do you see a 20% rally in Bitcoin coming soon 20% that's it this is what they're saying coming soon so probably like October that's kind of what I'm predicting what I'm thinking maybe there's going to be a pump 20% pump which from these prices would take it back up over 30,000 I could see that happening I mean if we can get to November on it we're talking maybe 30-50% I think okay I think it's going to go higher than 20% if there's going to be a run bro it's going to be more than 20% Earl says that he believes that it'll be 20% at the end of October yeah that's what I'm thinking maybe 20% but I think shortly after that we can see a $40,000 Bitcoin yeah I mean hey like that would be fantastic I think we maybe see a $40,000 Bitcoin right before the Bitcoin having that's kind of what I'm thinking that we maybe we see a nice little move right before the Bitcoin having into early 2024 to $40,000 and then when the Bitcoin having happens we start seeing it really take off you know getting up to the 50,000, 60,000 then eventually in my opinion in 2025 we're going to see at least $100,000 Bitcoin that's what I'm expecting I mean I don't know what you guys think but that's kind of what I'm thinking I feel the same way I do I feel 100,000 Bitcoin coming now it's funny because one article says Bitcoin is going up 20% the next article says they feel like Bitcoin is going to drop so this article states here that deeply concerned the Fed issues a serious $120 billion crypto warning as the price of Bitcoin goes through the death cross looming for Bitcoin in Ethereum essentially saying Bitcoin's at a price point right now where if it drops below 25,000 we could see a serious drop in Bitcoin so my question to you guys is this do you think we're going to see Bitcoin drop severely below 25,000 anytime soon we'll start with you Nash I feel absolutely I think I'm thinking in the $22,000 range is where we're going to see a drop to 21 maybe I could see that what do you think Blaze you think we're going to see Bitcoin drop underneath 25 and drop down to 22 some people say it might go under 20 again you think that's going to happen Blaze what do you think I'm not in this day and age no I don't think it's going to go below 22 I don't think it's probably even going to hit 22 I think that Bitcoin every time they drop a couple K people are buying bro they're buying it right back up I agree there's nobody wants to let it drop that 25 K that's yacht sale for everybody oh thank you you know so there's so many billionaires out there that are keeping this token going you know and I'm sorry billionaires Earl's in the chat and Earl believes that we're going to see a $35,000 Bitcoin by the end of the year and a $43,000 Bitcoin right before having and he believes that 25 K will be the low price 35% by November hey I hope you're right Earl I don't want to see it go below 25,000 that's what I'm saying the same thing as Earl by November yep alright let's go on to this next topic we're running through and we've only got a little bit of time left so my next topic is this inflation explained why prices keep going up and who's to blame Nash Cowboy who do we blame for the fact that inflation keeps going up and prices keep going up what health is this who do we blame now I think it all starts with the American government just printing billions and billions of dollars and giving it away and putting us farther into debt and they say that they have nothing to do with inflation but I totally disagree and then everything follows into suit with that along with the pandemic all that stuff I think it's all tied in together so if I were to point the blame somewhere starting with the elites but the puppets after that the democrat party okay thank you very good answer Blaze what do you think who's to blame for this crazy inflation and rising rates of everything going up the one and only culprit the Fed blame the Fed blame the Fed well listen the Fed and Nash talked about this the Fed printed crazy amounts of money and gave people money knowing that that would destroy the economy but they did it anyways now the only way that they can fix what they created by printing all this extra money is by raising rates and squeezing the same people that they gave money to stupid terrible idea the problem is they donate billions of dollars and to other countries right now that we can't do that for of course we don't even have billions of dollars for ourselves but yet we seem to always find money for Ukraine Canada and the United States always finds money for Ukraine but yet we got no more money for our own citizens we're taxing our citizens while we spend billions of dollars to the Ukraine doesn't make any sense to me they give it they donate money that we don't even have printed yet and take it back from us I mean of course inflation is kind of skyrocket okay guys my last topic before we say goodbye we're running out of time the SEC counters ripple in effort to appeal groundbreaking XRP ruling I'm starting to get sick of the SEC I'm tired of their nonsense what do you guys think about this the SEC loses a case against ripple and then they appeal why can't they just take the loss what do you think this is Nash like when are they just gonna take the loss man they're just trying to gain more power over the whole crypto economy XRP obviously being their top priority because because it's worse than their ass so I don't think they'll ever take the loss they're gonna keep trying to force different regulations upon all of it so they're either gonna lose or they're gonna keep trying to win all for power everything good first bad it all comes down to power power and control in every circumstance every avenue of life it all comes down to who wants the power who wants the control well said blaze what do you think why is the SEC constantly fighting everyone and losing and then when they lose they appeal they can't take a loss they always appeal what is this all about bro it's simply crazy I hate the SEC SEC if you're watching I hate you right it's one thing they want to put a monkey wrench into the engine I'm telling you dude they are going nowhere with these lawsuits okay 100% so if they just backed off like little pansies right it looked like they were just front okay so the reason why they're appealing is to show that they truly believe that this needs to be done and also to let everybody know they're not going to back off and they're just going to keep on putting needles in our balloons so if I was everybody watching and everybody in this concern about the SEC every time I hear about them I just think it's like you know like a fictional character book or something it just doesn't make sense to me I don't believe in them and I don't think they're ever going to do anything I don't think they're going to get anywhere no I agree with you I mean they lost before they're going to lose again money what's changed nothing's changed so I think the SEC is just spinning their wheels trying to create drama trying to create a distraction and that's what we're living we're living in a world where we're getting squeezed by governments and they distract us with sports you know they distract us with news they distract us with devastation they distract us with natural disasters it's like that's all you're right Rich that's all it is one more distraction for the big election coming up yep and keep our minds off of inflation and blame it all on crypto and you know you got to point a finger at somebody so that's obviously the weakest chain right now you know it's crypto currency alright guys I just want to thank you Earl for being in the chat Earl says the SEC is the rich man's tax system from government I agree with you SEC just give it up man everyone's tired of hearing you guys everyone's tired of hearing you guys complain and cry about crypto just let it go I want to thank you guys for joining us today Nash Cowboy Blaze, King Earl in the chat Mark and Maverick I don't know what happened to you but you're here thank you for joining us too we got guests from all over North America hey guys for those of you guys that are watching I must remind you there's always a bull market and bear market somewhere and we're going to be here every week to talk about it thank you for watching you're not winning you're probably not watching we bring you the winners, CO interviews breaking news, trending topics engaging shows with great guests and we bring it to you first thank you for joining us today gentlemen and we'll see you guys next week thank you everybody thank you guys for watching and enjoy the football tomorrow let's go cowboys just one more day for distractions guys


Actually I've been wanting to drive since I was about six years old. The first time I crawled into a truck it was a 1975 Cabover Pete and my mother was the truck driver that boosted me up into it and I was sitting in the sleeper berth and sleeping back or sitting back in the bunk and I was like oh I'm becoming a truck driver my mother became a truck driver in the 70s in the mid 70s and and that at that time women women weren't and then of course I married a truck driver both my parents are truck drivers both my grandparents on either side or truck her heard his dad and her dad they teamed a lot so we already had an idea of where we were gonna go one of the reasons why she waited so long yes to become a truck driver because my grandmother when she was just gone all the time and my mom was a babysitter's most time and she didn't want to do that to us we already had an idea we had a bedrock foundation of you know this is what the industry is about I decided not to become a truck driver until my daughters were older I joined the traveling carnival that my older two worked for and I worked because I wanted to make sure I could handle the lifestyle because I had been that homebody I'd been at home for ten years doing the same job day and day I hated my job so got my CDL joined with she's been driving five years I've been driving four and a half that happy year makes a world of difference in case if you were wondering because in the competition of life I win I just it was so I was burning out so hard and mom she was like well I'm gonna get my CDL license she's like we could team together and we could both make more money and I was like well so I thought about I was like you go first so they support it my girl supported me while I went to school and then when I got out of school I was helping support them more driving with my daughter having her come into the truck with me after being solo there for a little bit for myself it we were co-workers at certain points of the day and we were mother-daughter interactions so we we knew how to separate that so we'd allow ourselves to be mad but we never stayed mad inside the truck it got bad enough we'd take it outside of the truck if we needed a super break like like come on we're just burning out on that give us a day our dispatcher would always do that they'd be like okay 34 hour reset for which was actually one of the best things about night is the fact that they were the only company that said that if she wanted more home time than I wanted she was allowed her home time and I could solo the truck out so I got keeping contact with why I love this industry and she got to be at home with her daughter I have a dog he is a husky he's a Siberian and Malamute mix and I got him from the pound about a year and a half ago having him on the truck with me even though it's a smaller space he gets more interaction and more exercise than he would if I lived in a city and worked a nine to five and lived in an apartment so being a trainer sitting in that seat you know after I know that my trainees good with the driving and handling and stuff like that on the long stretches I'll break out my sewing I do I have a project that I've been working on for a couple of years it's a quilt for my oldest granddaughter I also do operation caps there's a lot of women out there who there's a waiting list there's so many women who want to get into it and see if they can do it but we lack trainers because too many don't want to share their truck so women drivers in general then like six percent the less people there are to train and help these women figure out if they want to be a truck driver the less drivers we're gonna have so I mean I just so much for me already why not


conditions for consumer equilibrium. If we assume there is no budget constraint, then consumer will consume goods and services up to the quantities where marginal utility is 0. In fact, if there is no budget constraint to maximize satisfaction, consumer will use up to that quantity of the commodity where marginal utility of that commodity becomes 0. But in real life, a consumer always faces a constraint. Under given constraint, a consumer has to maximize his satisfaction. A consumer has to maximize his satisfaction keeping in mind the constraint that he is facing. To explain consumer equilibrium, we are taking apples on horizontal axis and oranges on vertical axis. In this diagram, solid blue color line, downward sloping blue color line is the budget constraint of the consumer. It indicates different combinations of apples and oranges that a consumer can afford by using his limited income. All combination of apples and oranges that lie below this blue color line are attainable combination. And all those combinations that lie above this blue color downward sloping line is unattainable under his budget constraint. As objective of the consumer is to maximize his satisfaction, under given income constraint, consumer is not in opposition to achieve a level of satisfaction that we are denoting here by using IC theory indifference curve. And similarly, there are certain combination on indifference curve IC1 that are attainable under given budget constraint but those combinations are not maximizing satisfaction of the consumer. A consumer can maximize his satisfaction under given budget constraint if it chooses a combination that lie on IC2 indifference curve. In IC2 indifference curve, he will choose that combination of commodities where slope of indifference curve and slope of budget line becomes equal. So, by choosing a combination where slope of indifference curve and slope of budget line are equal, consumer can maximize his satisfaction. Also, combination that lie on IC1, there are certain points where IC1 intersects the budget line but those combination are not indicating indicating the maximum level of satisfaction against given budget constraint. A rational consumer whenever make whenever say he is in equilibrium, he is in fact maximizing his satisfaction under given budget constraint. Mathematically, the condition of consumer equilibrium can be defined as it indicates slope of budget line is equal to slope of indifference curve. As both slope of indifference curve and slope of budget line are negative, so we are cancel out negative side from both sides of the equation. So, the first part in this equation is represents negative of the slope of the budget line. If we multiply a negative number with negative of the slope of the budget line, it will become positive number. Similarly, if we multiply a negative with negative of the slope of the indifference curve, we will get some positive number that we are noting here in the form of marginal utility of apples over marginal utility of oranges. So, to maximize satisfaction, a consumer has to equate, has to use that combination of commodities where slope of indifference curve and slope of budget line are equal. And if we make, if we rearrange this particular equation, we obtain an expression where marginal utility of oranges over price of oranges is equal to marginal utility of apples over price of apples. In this expression, when we divide marginal utility of oranges with price of oranges, it in fact reports marginal utility that a consumer is getting from each again from oranges against each rupee that he spend on oranges. Similarly, marginal utility of apples, when we divided with price of apples, it reports marginal utility drive from apples by spending by each rupee. A rational consumer can maximize his satisfaction by equating per rupee marginal utility on two commodities. If a consumer is getting satisfaction by using n commodities, then in that case, he will make expenditure in such a way where marginal utility per rupee against each commodity will be equal. For example, if someone is spending on meat, he is getting marginal utility from meat against each rupee spent on meat, then that marginal utility should be equal to marginal utility per rupee that he is getting from some other commodity. So, from this discussion, hopefully the things are clear about equilibrium of the consumer. When we say consumer is in equilibrium, it indicates consumer is maximizing his satisfaction under given budget constraint. And a consumer is maximizing his satisfaction against budget constraint if slope of the indifference curve is equal to by choosing a combination where slope of indifference curve is equal to slope of budget line. Thank you very much.


Welcome folks, this is Tom O'Brien of TFNN. We're here five days a week. We go seven hours a day. We go 24 hours a day on the internet at TFNN.com. Always remember folks, whatever you think about, you bring about whatever you focus on, grow so everyone's having a great day, safe day. It's making a great week folks. Love coming out of you makes you happy. The whole world can love you but that is not the love that'll make you happy. What will make you happy is to share all the love you have inside of you. That is the love. That'll make the difference. Knock it off eyes. Let's take a look at it out here. We have the Dow industry is up 47, Nasdaq down 17, S&P is off one and a half. Gold contract down $20.80 trading at 2005 an ounce. We have silver down 11 cents, 24 dollars, 98 cents an ounce. Late sweet crude off 95 cents. 79 dollars, 76 cents a barrel. Notes and bonds. A 10-year note. Down nine ticks trading 115, 16, a 30-year of 18 at 132.17 and King dollar. King dollar up 481.6 trading at 102, 573. Euros at 108, ends at 133 and the British pound is at 123 to one US dollar. iPhone number's<PHONE_NUMBER>. Give us a call folks. I know what's going on in your world and the world of the S&Ps. Let's take a look at them. What do you have? Well, bottom line folks, last Thursday you got the rejection of lower price. You had light of volume. That's saying that this market wants higher price. And we'll see how this reacts coming up to this swing. And so we have out here. You know, on Friday, on last Thursday rather, you went, you get down to a price point of that 405. You were coming into volume of $112 million. You did 63. Today you're doing the same thing. You know, you get an inside day today but you're doing the same thing. You get down to 405.97. You know, you're not holding, yeah, you're holding that level. If you look at the spy, you know, the spy can pull back a bit but I'm talking about a few points. Let me give it down eight points or something. Once we got that pop a little bit earlier in the day, right here, this pop right here, I mean, that's me 4122. So yeah, well, 4122 can pull back too. You know, right there's the number. But that's not going to change the complex of going higher. All that's going to do is that, yeah, coming into the clothes, they take some bread, that's it. And the X100, same type of set up inside the end of the X. We take a look at the end of the X, what we have at the end of the X out here. And you know, bank earnings start Friday so that's maybe you're just waiting for that. But bottom line inside the Qs, what we had, the Qs were coming into 75 million shares. We did 46 and rejected 312. And we have an inside day in the Qs, so that doesn't mean much, but that's also telling me that the Qs get interesting because the Qs, I mean, I think it's 334, the number we're looking at. Yes, 334. I mean, that's the number it's going after. So I suspect it's going to hit it too because we have here on the other side when we came off the highs at 334, that's the highest volume bar on the way down folks, okay? 334.15 is the low of that bar. And you know, when you have counter-trend bounces, bottom line, you know, they like to go to it. So we'll see how that shakes out. We go to the gold contract, gold contract's turning into a complex ABC structure up. And what complex means folks is this, is it means that you took out the B point, you took it out with volume, which gives you a price projection. Price projection is 2154. Now you back down under the B. Now as long as you back down under the B with light volume, it's no big deal. And that's what we're doing. You're backing down under the B. So the B point is 2031. Well, we're at 2005, but you're backing down. When we took out that B point, the bottom line, we took that B point out with 233,000. We're only backing down with 129. We go to the doll, we take a look at the doll. Next I wanna go to the notes and bonds because the note and bond market's gonna move this market again. And what's happening with the note and bond market, it looks to me like we're setting up a very large ABC structure on the way up. We'll see how large it is. But even if we just come back down to the last swing area, which is under 10 is about 114.07, or the one below that at 113. Either one of those still sets up a very large ABC structure in the way up. And both of those are approximately, well, ones that just over a 0.382 of the as a 5.0, you're backing down with tremendously lighter volume. You're talking about volume-wise here on the 10. Yeah, it's a joke actually. You're backing down with 704,000 contracts going into 1.5 million. And then if we get over into the end the, I mean to the dollar, this is the wild card out here. To the dollar, you know, bottom line couldn't make it to 106 or 107 last time. And all of that 106 or 107 is, is a 0.382 of the leg down. And bottom line, it gave it up at the 103.5. Now it saved itself right where the strength was. The strength in the dollar came off the lows at that 101.546. We made it to 101.415 and rejected lower price. So we'll see once again, you know, if in fact we can see that dollar go up to that 106 or 107. But my take is that we're gonna do it. We take a look at some why, because the bottom line is that it's a great trading market. And when a great trading market, you're gonna be bouncing back and forth very quickly inside of the indices, inside of the bond market, inside of the currency market. So we take a look at some of the higher volume equities here.  The strength versus the weakness inside the Dow. Point wise here, you get Caterpillar putting that 39 positive points, Home Depot 19, American Fresh 12, taken away from it, Apple only 20, give me a break. Microsoft 17, you got Amgen 15. That's not a lot of selling, man. That's the bottom line, folks. And when you look at the headlines on it, it was pretty wild. And yes, there's no doubt, Apple makes all their money with the iPhones, but they sell a lot of my guitar's computers too. And 40% cut in any type of business you're in is pretty intense, man. There's no doubt about that. Dow, Dow industrials right now, let's just see how this is set up. Actually, I want to, IWM, let's go look at that IWM for a second. IWM, we take a look at the IWM. Okay, so, yeah, that one was higher priced too. I mean, it broke the lower consolidation, but once it got back in the other side of it, which is 170, it's saying, hey, let's not have to build cars, but that looks to me like, these highest swing points, and the IWM, I don't think the highest swing points there. It'll commit to some flak, but the indices that highest swing point is there. Stay right there, folks, and we'll be coming right back with our mammoths, the Steve Rose.


Hello, everyone, and welcome. This is Melissa Armo, the stock squashcom here reviewing HRB. Really nice gap today. Unfortunately, missed the exit, so let's just go over this here. I mean, this did fall, and it was at least an R, but I thought it had more in it. So let's take a look at it. Stock open, rallied, okay. This was the call, and again, fell, dropped, broke, broke the low. Got a nice move, was red, so around a 50 cent stop, 50 cent move, and went. Some people got out. In fact, quite a lot of people in the room did get out. It just, it just, I just thought it would go to 23, that's all, but it did not. And waited, waited, waited, waited, waited, waited, waited, waited, waited, and this went back down. This was up. This was up for a while. And looked great, and looked great, and looked fabulous, and looked great, and everything was fine, and looked great, and then all of a sudden it was starting to not look great, which was when? Right around lunch. Right around lunch, it started to not look good around 12 o'clock, it's popped in here, rallying up through and got stopped. So this is one of these ones here where I miss the exit. You know, you got to remember the certain times of the year. This was an earnings gap, but it is not an earnings season, and that's something that I've got to remind myself tomorrow morning because I really had a great call on this today. A lot of people made money on this, sure, and a lot of people got out. It was not along. I'll tell you that right now. And I wouldn't be surprised if this broke tomorrow. I wouldn't be surprised if this open-neutral gap down and broke or even open up and broke. I mean, this is lower. Unfortunately today, it had so much selling into the gap, and then it had that selling into the open and didn't get out. So something to remind everybody, it's not the busy season, it does not start till July. So when you're up one hour or more, which this was, you've got to watch it to back up, and if it backs up at all, take it. Just note to self and tip to everybody out there. So we'll see what we get tomorrow. Good luck. E-mail me at melissathestockswish.com if you have any questions.


Welcome to George H. Smith's Excursions into Libertarian Thought, a production of Libertarianism.org and the Cato Institute, narrated by James Foster. Negative and positive liberty, some historical reflections. In Leviathan 1651, Thomas Hobbes set the stage for a good deal of later thinking about the nature of freedom. Freedom according to Hobbes signifies the absence of opposition or external impediments to motion. Such freedom applies not only to rational agents but also to irrational and inanimate creatures. We may say, for example, that water is not free to flow beyond the vessel that contains it. For whatsoever is so tied or environed as it cannot move within a certain space, which space is determined by the opposition of some external body, we say it hath not liberty to go further. And so of all living creatures, whilst they are imprisoned or restrained with walls or chains and of the water whilst it is kept in by banks or vessels that otherwise would spread itself into a larger space, we use to say that they are not at liberty to move in such a manner as without those external impediments they would. Hobbes clearly distinguished freedom from power. When the impediments to motion are external, then an entity is said to lack freedom. But when the impediments to motion are internal, an entity is said to lack power. The fact that a stone cannot move of its own accord does not mean that it lacks the freedom to move, rather it lacks the power or ability to move. Likewise, if a sick man is confined to a bed and unable to move about, he lacks not the freedom to walk, since no external impediments prevent him from walking, but the power to walk. Hobbes' distinction between freedom, the absence of external impediments, and power, the internal ability to do something, is frequently cited as an early formulation of negative freedom. Moreover, since classical liberals typically defended negative freedom, Hobbes is sometimes cited as an early proponent of that tradition. This perspective, though fairly common, is misleading. The political absolutism of Hobbes was anathema to classical liberals, and most liberals, especially those in the Lockean tradition, did not look favorably upon his conception of negative freedom. The notion of positive freedom, which identifies freedom with the power to do something, was a relative latecomer in political theory. It did not become a live issue until the 19th century, when it was mainly defended by philosophers who had been influenced by Hegel. We should therefore avoid reading too much into Hobbes' distinction between freedom and power. Earlier philosophers who defended, say, freedom of conscience did not need Hobbes to tell them that freedom of religion means the ability to practice one's religion without external compulsion or constraint by other people. Or did early critics of slavery need to await the writing of Leviathan to learn that a free man, in contrast to a slave, is a person who is not under the coercive jurisdiction and control of another person. On the contrary, freedom, in the negative sense, that is, freedom viewed as the absence of coercion, is as old as political philosophy itself. It is true that Hobbes cast his definition of freedom in negative terms, as did John Locke and other individualists, but this was only a superficial similarity. Hobbes' definition of freedom differs fundamentally from Locke's, but this difference has been obscured by the conventional distinction between negative and positive freedom. There is another distinction that is far more significant in this context, namely, freedom conceived as a mechanistic concept that refers to a physical relationship between things, and freedom conceived as a social concept that refers to an interpersonal relationship between human beings. Hobbes employed the mechanistic concept defining freedom as the absence of physical impediments, whereas Locke employed the social concept defining freedom as the absence of coercion in human affairs. According to Hobbes, as we have seen, when we are restrained from achieving our goals by internal impediments, such as by the inability to do something, then we are said to lack power. When those impediments are external, then we lack freedom to exercise our powers. The nature of such external impediments is irrelevant. Freedom does not necessarily refer to a social relationship between rational agents. If I desire to travel from here to there, my freedom to act can be impeded as much by a high wall or by an impassable river as it can by another person. Any external obstacle that prevents me from exercising my power, that keeps me from getting what I want and would otherwise be able to obtain, diminishes my liberty. For Hobbes, therefore, freedom consists of unimpeded power. In a social context, a free man is he that in those things which by his strength and wit he is able to do, is not hindered to do what he has a will to do. The notion of freedom was scarcely original with Hobbes. Some years earlier, for example, Sir Robert Filmer, Locke's chief target in two treatises of government, had defended the view that true liberty is for every man to do what he lists or to live as he pleases and not to be tied to any laws. This conception of freedom was a favorite among Filmer, Hobbes, and other absolutists because it served to rebut the argument of individualists that the purpose of a just legal system should be to enhance and preserve freedom. This was errant nonsense, according to the absolutists, because all laws of whatever type necessarily restrict freedom. A man has no more freedom to do what he pleases in a supposedly free society than he does under despotism. No one, for instance, would argue that the people should be free to rape, pillage, and murder, so even free societies enact laws that restrict those and other freedoms. Only under complete anarchy, a society with no laws whatsoever, would we find complete freedom, as Filmer put it, but such liberty is not to be found in any common wheel for there are more laws in popular estates than anywhere else and so consequently less liberty, and government, many say, was invented to take away liberty and not to give it to every man. Such liberty cannot be. If it should, there would be no government at all. If Filmer and Hobbes were correct, if the primary purpose of government is to restrain and limit freedom, then the complaints made by individualists against absolute monarchy made little sense. True absolute monarchies and absolute governments generally restrict freedom, but so do all forms of government, even those supposedly based on the consent of the governed. Complete freedom can exist only in the anarchistic state of nature, a society with no laws whatsoever, and this liberty is diminished each time a government passes or enforces a law. The monarch rejected this conception of freedom. In a direct reply to Filmer, he wrote, Freedom is not, as we are told, a liberty for every man to do what he lists, for who could be free when every other man's humor might domineer over him, but a liberty to dispose and order as he lists his persons, actions, possessions, and his whole property. In a state of perfect freedom, people can dispose of their possessions and persons as they think fit within the bounds of the law of nature, without asking leave or depending upon the will of any other man. Thus for Locke, freedom means the ability to use and dispose of that which is properly one's own, without the coercive interference of other people, including government. In this rights-based notion of freedom, I am free to the extent that I can exercise jurisdiction over my own property in the broad sense, one's body, labor, external goods, etc., according to my own will, without being subjected to coercion by others. The meaning of coercion is a tricky topic in its own right, one that I shall consider in a future essay. Some modern philosophers such as G. A. Cohen in Self-Ownership Freedom and Equality, Cambridge, 1995, have jumped all over this rights-based conception of freedom and, in the process, have resurrected the old Filmerian argument that even a libertarian society would not permit unrestricted freedom insofar as it prohibited the freedom to murder, rob, rape, and commit other rights-violating actions. Some of these critics of libertarianism remain blissfully unaware of how old this argument is and how classical liberals attempted to deal with it. Locke's conception of social freedom, which was essentially an effort to forge a standard of equal liberty, was accepted by the vast majority of subsequent liberal and quasi-libertarian philosophers. A notable exception was Jeremy Bentham, who expressly resurrected the Filmerian and Hobbesian conception of freedom and concluded that all laws necessarily restrict freedom. This is why Bentham argued that the primary purpose of law is to bring about security, not freedom. Although modern historians stress the need to understand the historical and ideological context of earlier philosophers, they sometimes fail to grant this courtesy to John Locke and other classical liberals who defended a rights-based conception of freedom. It is not as if Locke and other liberals arbitrarily introduced the value-laden notion of rights into discussions of freedom in order to arrive at a predetermined destination that suited their political beliefs. The notion of rights was an integral part of political philosophy long before liberal individualists came along. For centuries, political philosophers had defended the right of political sovereignty, that is, the right of rulers to compel obedience to their decrees. What liberal individualists did, beginning primarily in the 17th century, was to challenge the notion of state sovereignty with the notion of self-sovereignty. Why do we have an obligation to obey political rulers and the laws they enact? It is virtually impossible to understand the liberal conception of rights-based freedom without considering this broader problem, which I shall discuss in my next essay. Thank you for listening to Excursions. To learn more about libertarian philosophy and history, visit www.libertarianism.org.


I think I'm gonna need some chocolate for today's video. Today we are enjoying some extra strong dark chocolate from a company whose label is too wrinkled for me to read. Chocolove.com. Hello there, my beautiful, lovely, delightful, talented internet friends. Welcome back to my channel. Thank you so much for joining me here today. I hope you'll excuse my voice. I have been sick, I am feeling better, but I still sound a little bit like a frog. I really wasn't sure if this was a video that I needed slash wanted to make. It felt not important enough to make a whole video about, but as I thought about it a little bit more, I realized this is a part of my journey that I would like to share in hopes that other people can relate or in hopes that it gets a positive message out there. So with that cryptic intro, let's dive in. As we do, if you wouldn't mind hitting the like button or subscribing to this channel, if you would like to see more of my face in your feed, that would be fantastic. It helps support my channel and I really appreciate it. If you followed me for a little while, you may be familiar with a few videos that I did about coming off of a variety of medications. Back in January of 2020, before the world was on fire, I started to think about the medications I was taking every day. Every morning I took about six pills. Every evening I took about four. And most of those I had been on for years, some of them close to a decade. I had stayed on the medication because doctors prescribed it because it was helping things or I thought it was helping things. And I realized I hadn't questioned that in a really long time. I hadn't questioned what I was putting in my body and why and if I still needed it. This was never about like being against drugs or wanting to be off of things for the sake of being off of things. It really was me kind of just wanting to go on a journey and be like, what do I still actually need? Can I sleep and not have horrible nightmares if I'm not on this medication for PTSD? Can I wake up without a ton of pain without that muscle relaxer? What about anxiety and depression and the physical pain that I have? I was on just a cocktail of different medications.  I feel like for most people that's like a 30 second conversation. Sometimes I take ibuprofen and here's what I have for heartburn. It was always this like five minute conversation going through the different medications and the dosages. And it was, I still on this from last time and had that changed. And it was, oh, it just took forever, right? It was this massive list. And I started experimenting under doctor supervision, very important point. Seeing what I could come off of. I started with some of like the easier ones. The ones I knew weren't gonna have any withdrawal effects at a minimum, just to see if I still needed them. And I was okay. The two that I was really scared of coming off of was opioids. I had been on opioids for pain management since I was 20 years old. I'm 29 now, so just about a decade for chronic pain. And I'd kind of assumed that I'd be on these medications forever. But I thought, you know what? Why don't I give it a shot? Trying to come off of them. And I was able to come off of them. And that is one of the biggest wins in 2020 for me because I don't depend on this somewhat dangerous medication to make it through every day. Now for years, I did. And I very legitimately did need that. And there was nothing wrong with that. It's just that my body has shifted and changed. I found different methods of coping with pain that have been effective. And I was able to come off of them. The second, and the one that I was really scared to not take anymore was an antidepressant. I had been on that one since I was 22, I think. And I remember what life was like before I went on that. And that was something that terrified me and something I didn't wanna go back to. I didn't wanna have to put anybody around me through. I didn't wanna have to put myself through. But I did want to know if my body and brain still needed this chemical to exist. And so my doctor and I made a plan to kind of taper off of it and just see what happened, right? So that's what I did. And I was able to get off of it. And I made videos about this whole process about when I started something, finally getting off of it, yay, all that stuff. And the last video I made in this sort of series was coming off a antidepressant and actually being off of it. Wow, it felt amazing not to have to depend on any medication every day. I still have medications on hand if something gets really bad or if I need this or if I need that. But none of it I have to take daily. I don't have to stay on any of it. There are some days where I don't take a single bit of any kind of medication and that blows my mind. I can't tell you how weird that is compared to a year ago. So I came off my antidepressant and I was, all right, I was good for a short time. And then I started sort of falling into this weird, new, improved, leveled up, if you will, form a depression when I hadn't fully experienced before. I had all the normal symptoms, you know, not much will to live, completely exhausted, tired, can't focus, can't do anything. Everything is just so dark, so dark. But my brain decided to introduce a new flavor of depression. Speaking of flavors, dark chocolate is the best chocolate. Instead of simply feeling all of those things, there became this intellectual component of me questioning the actual point of existence from a very existential place. I've struggled with faith, I've struggled with life and all different sorts of things for a while now, but I always had something to fall back on. And what was added to the cake batter of my mind was this existential crisis.  And it wasn't just a feeling, it was like actual thoughts and what is the point of life? And this is all meaningless and not just a feeling, but also here's why it's meaningless. I can give you evidence for it. I still have trouble actually putting into words what I was feeling, but it was very different for me and very scary because it moved beyond just passing thoughts and heavy feelings and moved into very serious, deep thought along with that. And Brian, my husband, mentioned that he was a little bit concerned about me as this continued on and I started going back to my therapist who I wasn't able to see for a number of months, but eventually after a good number of weeks, I decided to go back on that medication and I'm back on it now and I am doing better. Whether or not those things are connected, I can't tell you, but I can tell you that I feel a lot better than I did a few weeks ago. So the actual reason that I wanted to make this video because I don't think videos updating people about what chemicals are in your body are necessarily that fascinating. The reason that I wanted to make this is because I know from comment sections and conversations and direct messages that a lot of my lovely audience, you there, are also on different forms of medication, be it for depression or anxiety or pain or any number of physical or mental issues. And for me personally, I've always felt a lot of stigma around taking medication. I've always felt like growing up, though my parents did not tell me this, I just sort of picked up the feeling from the religion that I was a part of and society that medications are bad. They're a sign of weakness. You shouldn't be on medications. In my personal experience, if you believed in God and had faith enough, you wouldn't hurt anymore. That was one that took a long time to work out of, but there definitely is a stigma against medications in our society and I don't think that there should be. And it took me a long time to find my way out of the shame that I felt for having very legitimately needing to take these. And as I was making all these videos about coming off this medication and off that medication, I was worried that it would in some way contribute to the idea that being off medications is better than being on medications, that it's some kind of moral anything, which it's not. I tried to make it really clear in the video that like, this is just for my health because that's what medications are for. So let's see what happens. And I noticed for myself, when I went back on this anti-depressant, I did feel some of that shame popping back up. I felt like, oh, you can't do it on your own, can you? Like you should be able to just muscle through and figure it out and sure, maybe I could. But also depression is a pretty serious and life-threatening thing and it's not something to play around with. And when you find tools that are helpful to you and those tools vary for everybody who experiences this because everyone experiences it differently, it's a great thing to utilize those tools. The bubbles of shame and guilt that started piling up in me about going back on this medication didn't last that long. I was able to work myself out of that mindset. But I wanted to make this video to show you and also tell you that drugs, that medications from medical professionals that are prescribed appropriately can be really great tools. There's absolutely nothing wrong with taking a medication that's prescribed to you. There's also nothing wrong with deciding responsibly to come off of that medication that you have been taking. Now I am a little bit bummed that there is something I have to take every day for a variety of reasons. Going to the pharmacy, traveling, worrying about coming off of it if it was ever, you know, out of stock or discontinued, I don't know, I have weird fears like that about medications. So going back on it does come with some like, ah, bummer. I almost got there.  I also had a real conversation in my head about not trying a tool that I knew could benefit me when I was in a very bad place because I said I wasn't on it anymore because I had like made this statement in my life that I was off of everything and isn't that cool and yay, like I didn't want to break that record. I don't know, I had said it and so I didn't want it to not be true and I'm really glad that I didn't let that stop me from taking it because like I said, I'm in a much better place now than I was then. The long and short of this video is if you need medication, it's not a failing. It's not a moral failing. It's not an emotional failing. It's not a physical failing. It's just something that you need. It's a tool, right? If the stigma of medication is something that's keeping you from trying it when you or your doctor think it could be a really good option for you, I would encourage you to really take a look at that stigma and see if you can break it down because at the end of the day, as I've said a number of times in this video, medication is a tool and a depressants are a tool much like meditation or long walks outside or exercise or journaling or art or anything is. It's something to be used when appropriate if it works for someone and it turns out it does work for me. I would like to try and maybe another year or two coming off of this, I don't know, in a perfect world. I would like to not have to take medications, but I'm doing what I need to right now for my mental health and for my physical health and I think that that's a good thing. Please don't let the fear of that stigma stop you from perhaps finding a tool that could really benefit you. My hair looks really tired. I am tired. So maybe my hair is just a physical manifestation of what I'm feeling inside. Thank you for listening to this, guys. I still question if this warrants a whole video made about it, but I did want to update you because I took you on the first half of the journey. It seems kind of silly to not take you on the rest of it, right? Do you feel like there is a stigma against medications in our society? I felt that for a long time, but I've never known if it was just because of like the culture that I was raised in, which was heavily influenced by certain parts of Christianity that at that time did not look kindly on medicine or if it's a societal or worldwide thing. I would love to hear your input on this, what your experience with this has been, and yeah, I really appreciate you listening. To my patrons who support these videos and make these videos possible, thank you so much. So much for your continued financial support. It really means the world to me. And just the reason that I'm able to do these, thank you. If you're interested in Patreon or what that is, I'll put a link up on screen. It's basically a way you can financially support creators that you care about or want to support. And in return, get a community and some cool perks. So check it out if you feel like it. And to you, watching this video. Thank you so much for spending a few minutes out of your day here with me today. My voice is officially giving out. So I guess it's good that it's the end of the video, but you could be anywhere in the world doing anything and you chose to spend a few minutes with me. And I really appreciate that. I love you guys, I'm thinking about you and I will see you in the next video. I'm very sad that all my dark chocolate is gone. I didn't eat all of this today, just so we're very clear. I keep my dark chocolate in the freezer, so I have like a frozen piece or two at the time. And it's really nice. If you've never put your chocolate in the freezer, I would recommend it. I just realized that I have chocolate on my hands and I've like touched my face and clothes. Wonder how many chocolate stains I have on me that I'm currently unaware of. And like I said, dark chocolate is the best chocolate. All right, I'm gonna go now. I love you guys, bye. Have her from the sky.


Hey guys, Jeremy here talking about something a little different. After I did the video talking about the Curellian frequency, which is on Netflix, which if you guys haven't seen it yet, definitely watch it. It made me think about other motion comics that I've watched over the years. And one that's probably one of the best ones I've ever seen was the Dead Space prequel comic. It was written by Anthony Johnson and the art was done by Ben Templesmith. Now, if any of you know who that is, he's the one who's been doing art for Steve Niles 30 Days of Night comics for the longest time. I don't know if either of them are associated with the comics now because I didn't even know that they started doing kind of like a re-do or a second season almost of it all. But the thing I do know though is that Ben Templesmith's art is very horrifying. It's kind of stuff that's made out of nightmares. Some people could kind of say it's a little bit sloppy and certainly some of his caricatures are kind of terribly done sometimes. But I always feel that it kind of blends itself into the horror nightmare, the distortion of it all. It really feels like it's stuff that's taken out of your lucid dreams. You're kind of fuzzy, hazy, but very intimidating nightmares. It is definitely brought into this product, this Dead Space prequel motion comic. They released these just before the release of the game. And admittedly, I was already pretty hyped about Dead Space. Dead Space is in fact actually one of my favorite game series that I've ever played. I have several shirts. I've bought in the books. I've bought in the comic books. I've bought in different posters. Some of you may recognize this poster. It's actually something I've had on my gaming wall for quite some time. This is a Dead Space 2 promotional poster. This was at the Dead Space 2 booth at the 2009 Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle. There is a signature on here. I believe that this is one of the really important artistic guys. I think it was the lead artist. I don't know. I just know that it was really cool to get something like this. Also, there's the shirt. Now, this shirt is pretty cool. I'm going to see if I can try and make you guys see what's so cool about it. I don't know if the camera is going to pick it up, but you'll see what I mean. Now you can kind of see it, but the shirt is lighting. It's showing the Rorschach. Admittedly, it's a 10-year-old shirt. But if you were in person, you would see what I'm talking about. So at least to say, yeah, I was a pretty big fan of Dead Space. A very big fan. It's the only other game series besides Mass Effect that I have bought this much merch for. So at least to say, the comic is a very, very good prequel. It's a very good buildup in terms of displaying the tension. The horror, kind of the lore of what these characters were going through and what you as Isaac Clarke would go through. There was a prequel movie that was made by EA and these animators was called Downfall, if I'm correct. Technically, they both say the same story, but I feel that the comic actually does a lot better of a job at it. Sure, the animated movie is really violent and it really kind of goes for that horror sort of element. But some of the writing is horrible. Some of the characters are really horrible. Just some of the entire execution of that whole thing is just horrible. Whereas the comic focuses entirely on what happens on the rock on the planet before and after they do the planet crack. And then just how the infection kind of spreads and just kind of really builds into the whole marker unitology sort of dynamic of the Dead Space series. Whether the whole idea of a necromorph is ever really made sense in its entirety is kind of weird because they say that it animates dead flesh and certain creatures seem to come back from the dead animated. But others needed to have that weird thingy come up and like reanimate them. So I don't know if the lore has never really made sense, but I've always really enjoyed the games, even the third one. And the fact that they never got to finish the series, they never really got to finish the story and what happened in Visceral Games Studios in general is pretty horrible. I definitely would say that the Dead Space as a whole is always going to last. If you guys have never watched this motion comic, highly suggest it. You can find a bunch of versions on it on YouTube. I'll put a link for the one that I watch in the description below. It's a fantastically well-made animated comic. It's a great way of building up for your tension into the Dead Space series and it almost makes me want to replay through the series again right now. Got it.  Two hours you said? It sounds such a bad idea to me. The acting's really well done. The sound design, wow, kind of minimalistic is pretty decent because I imagine this was made with a very, very small amount of money. They probably put way more money into that really silly downfall movie, but I would definitely suggest it. Highly recommend it. It's going to give you a good scare and it's short and it's well made. I'm not going to give it a rating again because you can't really rate this, but I would just say go and watch it. If you haven't seen it in a while, if you were Dead Space Man, you really should watch it. If you are not a Dead Space Man, but you always kind of wondered what it would be like, what the story was like, definitely watch this. You'll enjoy it. Anyways, that's all from me. Hope you enjoyed this video. Let's see you guys next time. Thanks for watching the video. My name is Knitz and you might remember me from the animated cult classic TV show, Undergrads. It's been a while, but I'm happy to say the click is finally getting back together in an all new movie, thanks to a successful Kickstarter campaign. But we are still asking for your support. To see any and all updates about the upcoming Undergrads movie, be sure to check out and like the Bring Back Undergrads Facebook page. And with any luck, we'll see you guys soon.