The Emperor's New Clothes

A Modern Day Application of the Folk Tale.

Feb 15, 2024

- ideas clothed and unclothed, the two biggest cons today, the unholy tenacity of the ‘elites’, the nuclear fusion pipe dream, the folly of Battery Electric Vehicles, the absurdity of mental gender gymnastics, and biblical authority for just two genders - male and female

Two statements from Hitler’s henchman Joseph Goebbels:

“A lie told once remains a lie but a lie told a thousand times becomes the truth”

“If you repeat a lie often enough, people will believe it, and you will even come to believe it yourself.”

I’ve been hearing the expression “the emperor has no clothes” quite a bit lately.

I decided to refresh my memory of the original folk tale written by Hans Christian Anderson in 1837.

Here’s a link to an English translation of “The Emperor’s New Clothes”

The beginning point is a king or emperor who was so vain he spent all his time concentrating on his wardrobe. He was a real clothes horse.

“Many years ago, there was an Emperor, who was so excessively fond of new clothes, that he spent all his money in dress. He did not trouble himself in the least about his soldiers; nor did he care to go either to the theatre or the chase, except for the opportunities then afforded him for displaying his new clothes. He had a different suit for each hour of the day;…”

The root problem was pride. He was the top of the elite members of society. He had power and prestige and all that goes with it, like money and all the trappings of the rich. All of his officials and advisors had power and perks that come with high position also, and they didn’t want to lose their position by ever disagreeing with the emperor.

Human nature hasn’t progressed. The same problems exist today in the higher echelons of society – those we call the “elites”. They’re proud of their high status and of their positions of power and the riches and status that go with it. Naturally, they don’t want to lose any of that power. So their main occupation is doing whatever it takes to hold onto it, or better yet, increase it.

The next part of the folk story is the entrance of a couple of con artists.

“One day, two rogues, calling themselves weavers, made their appearance. They gave out that they knew how to weave stuffs of the most beautiful colors and elaborate patterns, the clothes manufactured from which should have the wonderful property of remaining invisible to everyone who was unfit for the office he held, or who was extraordinarily simple in character.”

We have plenty of con artists today, too. They want to get their share of that treasury money, by hook or by crook.

The two biggest cons today are first, that global warming of over 1.5C is an existential threat, and second, that global warming is caused by CO2 emissions which are caused by human activity.

All of the insane policies, wasted money, and misdirected capital related to the global warming narrative are based on those two big scams. The con artists that propagate such nonsense then turn the narrative into projects that supposedly will ‘save the planet’ by stopping CO2 emissions which in turn will stop the hysterically feared global warming. These projects, of course, will be unprofitable, so they will need massive support from the public treasury.

Back to our story. Naturally, the emperor wanted a suit tailor-made for himself. He allocated plenty of money from the treasury for the project.

“These must, indeed, be splendid clothes!” thought the Emperor. “Had I such a suit, I might at once find out what men in my realms are unfit for their office, and also be able to distinguish the wise from the foolish! This stuff must be woven for me immediately.” And he caused large sums of money to be given to both the weavers in order that they might begin their work directly. So the two pretended weavers set up two looms, and affected to work very busily, though in reality they did nothing at all. They asked for the most delicate silk and the purest gold thread; put both into their own knapsacks; and then continued their pretended work at the empty looms until late at night.”

The fact is that the projects to save the planet, like “free” wind and solar, and the electrification of everything are not only unprofitable, but increasingly becoming more so because of the inflation of construction and electricity costs, which are themselves a result of all the government spending for those same projects, thus requiring more and more government (ie, taxpayer) money to keep them afloat. It’s a self-feeding vortex spiralling down, down, down. It’s not sustainable. Something’s gotta give.

As I was writing about the emperor’s lack of clothes, this came up on Live Science

“A nuclear reactor in the U.K. has just broken a new fusion record.

In a news conference today (Feb. 8), representatives from the Joint European Torus (JET) facility declared that the reactor's final tests yielded 69.26 megajoules of heat from just 0.21 milligrams of fuel — the equivalent of burning 4.4 pounds (2 kilograms) of coal. This is more total energy — though not more net positive energy (emphasis mine)— than any other fusion reaction has produced thus far.”

The key to the lack of clothes in that report is the fact that as usual with the nuclear fusion pipe dream, there was no net energy produced. In other words, it takes more energy input than anything you get out of it. Meanwhile, the scientists whose careers depend on continuing down this road are doubling down:

“JET's legacy will live on in the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), a massive tokamak (doughnut-shaped reactor) in southern France scheduled to start up in 2025. The $22 billion dollar project will use a very similar fusion strategy, but at a much larger scale.”

Amazingly, another article from Live Science, written in 2022, admits that nuclear fusion is “light years away from being useful”. !! I agree.

on with the tale - no one wants to admit they’re ‘unfit for office’ - does this ring a bell today?

The next part of our folk tale story involves the extreme reluctance of anyone to admit that they might not be “fit for office”. When the emperor couldn’t see anything being woven on the loom, there was no way he was going to admit it.

“How is this?” said the Emperor to himself. “I can see nothing! This is indeed a terrible affair! Am I a simpleton, or am I unfit to be an Emperor? That would be the worst thing that could happen—Oh! the cloth is charming,” said he, aloud. “It has my complete approbation.”

None of his entourage, the elites, the ones close to the center of power in the empire, wanted to lose their privileged positions, so they all went along with the scam, whether they believed it or not. Neither truth nor common sense was what they valued. Nor did they have any concern for the way the people’s tax money was being spent or wasted – as long as they could somehow selfishly stay in power.

When pretending to show off the imaginary woven cloth, the con artists must have been having trouble keeping a straight face.

“The whole suit is as light as a cobweb; one might fancy one has nothing at all on, when dressed in it; that, however, is the great virtue of this delicate cloth.”

“one might fancy one has nothing at all on” should have been a giant red flag… it reminds me of the ridiculous news item I saw this week saying that January ’24 was the “warmest on record globally”. It’s summer in the southern hemisphere, and it was hot there. Averaging the temps from both hemispheres came out hotter than previous records, although it obviously depends on where you place the thermometers. But just as anyone with eyes could see the “invisible, light” fabric was invisible and light because there was no ‘there’ there, I’m unimpressed with reports of how hot it is when I just survived the coldest winter storm we’ve seen in 40 years in January in Oregon. We were out of power for 4 days, couldn’t get out of our 600’ driveway for 3 days, and out of water for 6 days, because it took me a couple of days to repair frozen pipes from the well. We had this house built 24 years ago and the pipes never froze before.

Then today I saw this: “New York City saw 3.2 inches of snow Tuesday - deploying snow plows for the first time in two years in a city that saw just 2.3 inches total last winter.”

the big parade that backfired

The emperor wanted to tout his new suit of clothes publicly, so he had a big parade. All the people fell over themselves admiring his new suit, because no one wanted to admit they were simple, or unfit, or that they had been bamboozled.

“But the Emperor has nothing at all on!” said a little child.

“Listen to the voice of innocence!” exclaimed his father; and what the child had said was whispered from one to another.

“But he has nothing at all on!” at last cried out all the people. The Emperor was vexed, for he knew that the people were right; but he thought the procession must go on now! And the lords of the bedchamber took greater pains than ever, to appear holding up a train, (of his garment) although, in reality, there was no train to hold.”

This is where we’re at with global warming, CO2 emissions, and the resultant push for wind and solar and EVs. The foundational theory, that global warming is going to destroy earth, has no clothes! Once the people wake up to that fact, the superstructure that’s built upon it will come tumbling down. In, fact, it’s already started. People are starting to wake up. Additional construction of renewable energy ‘farms’ is being resisted. Sales of EVs have peaked. And the need for fossil fuels is increasing.

for Clint Eastwood fans - my daughter sent me this electrifying ad for a T-shirt -

SCIENCE and TECHNOLOGY

Portland Oregon’s folly

Whenever I’ve had to drive into Portland lately, I’ve kept my eyes open looking for these battery electric vehicles (BEVs). So far, I haven’t actually seen any on the road; only diesels. Possibly that’s because diesels work and BEVs don’t - they’re either in the garage for repair or safety reasons (like overheating batteries that could explode) or their batteries run down too soon because of extreme weather and trying to run the electric motor and provide heat for the passengers and go up hills with a passenger load all at the same time. The hype for all-electric buses is devoid of clothes.

The hubris of the elites in power is becoming more and more apparent. Their audacity in telling us how we can and how we cannot heat our homes and what kind of cars we can and cannot drive is creating a powerful backlash.

the ultimate absurdity - gender gymnastics

Finally, the mental gymnastics necessary to obliterate any remaining semblance of common sense has taken hold of the populace. The obvious physical symbol of maleness any boy or man can see by looking a little below his own navel is being denied by lying eyes. “I’m a girl!” says the biological male who has lost his mind. “I’m a boy!” says the girl. No, wait - that’s not insane enough - “I’m somewhere in between, on a sliding scale!” says the most insane of all.

Christopher Rufo describes “The Business of Transgenderism” as “The transgender movement is pressing its agenda everywhere. Most publicly, activist teachers are using classrooms to propagandize on its behalf and activist health professionals are promoting the mutilation of children under the euphemistic banner of “gender-affirming care.”

No wonder home schooling is on the increase. What better way to end the description of this insane mass denial of what we all used to learn before kindergarden than by saying “The Emperor has no clothes!”

FINANCE and INVESTING

Make sure you invest in companies and projects that have real clothes. Do your ‘due diligence’.

Disney might be a good stock to sell short

So far, Disney has lost $11 Billion on their streaming business, according to this analysis from Krononaut - a 14 minute video presentation detailing all the ways Disney is losing money and losing customers. My biggest beef with Disney is the way they’ve gone woke and have been pushing gender transitions. They used to be a family business, but no more. Walt would turn over in his grave if he could see what Disney has become.

Note: selling short is risky. Be careful to keep your position size small enough so that if you’re wrong it won’t kill you. Also you can mitigate potential losses by using stop loss orders.

bitcoin on the rise

Bitcoin hit $51,700 as I write this. It has been going up since the applications for ETFs in BTC were approved, plus this is a year when the mining fees will be halved, plus there is a concern that the US gov. might get around to taking the dollar completely digital with CBDCs this year.

Ford still doesn’t get it

Ford CEO Jim Farley says they expect to lose $5.5 Billion on EVs in 2024, after losing $4.7 Billion in 2023. (Fortunately, they make enough profit on their gas engine pickups to stay in the black overall.) But they’re not going to give up on EVs. Their plan is to make smaller, cheaper EV cars, believing people will buy them if the price is low enough. Personally, I have my doubts. For one thing, if a smaller, cheaper EV was what would make a difference in demand for a battery based vehicle, we already have an example of a failure in that space. Arcimoto makes a cute little 3-wheeler car (ticker FUV) in the $20-25,000 price range. It was $593 per share 3 years ago. Today it’s about $0.58. Some people lost a lot of money…

The Emperor's New Clothes

A Modern Day Application of the Folk Tale.

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