The antiques and fine art of earth

 Hi All, 

In 1962, humanity fought its last great world war in which millions died. In such a war people forgot that not only life and potential life was lost, but also a lot of history: the books, manuscripts, artwork and other such spectacles that one might find in a library or museum.  

Or so people thought: In fact both NATO , Warsaw Pact and neutral  countries hid 99% of their national treasures , via launching them into space. The first evidence of this was in 2015, when a treasure trove of a thousand artefacts from the Hermitage Museum had been found in an old Soviet Rocket in the orbit of Uranus. Then came the legal case : who owned those priceless pieces of Earth history? The answer was in  a High Court case called State of Orthodox Russia Vs Only Interested in  making a  quick Buck  : whoever discovered them, rather than the initial state which put them into orbit in the first place. The rationale being that the States obviously didn't care about owning it, if they were prepared to risk them being obliterated in space. 

The result of this case was that treasure hunters, if they discovered such artwork etc, were allowed to auction it off for a profit which inevitably went to private wealthy individuals . In response, in 2026, the Earth Parliament passed the bipartisan  Farage- Bariner  'Antique, Artwork and Earth Heritage Salvation  restoration it's not for the rich' Act over Presidential veto, which stipulated than any further discoveries where to be sold at public auction within the Earth Sphere of influence , but mandated the newly created post of National Heritage Secretary to purchase such artwork et al, that was to be deemed 'important cultural artistic and antique heritage' at a price of 3 times the final bid and that the Earth Central Bank would provide an 'unlimited credit line' for such purchases. 

Of course what was definable  as national heritage was somewhat subjective : does Tracey Emin's  'my bed'  of 1998- launched into a 'time capsule' in 1999 and eventually discovered around Worf 359 in 2030-  bought by the NH Secretary at the time for £23 billion, under pressure from the Feminist bloc of Parliament, stand up equally as a piece of Earth heritage  as Sandro Botteicelli's 'Birth of Venus'- which the same Secretary allowed - because it was seen as 'sexist porn' by the same Feminist lobby - it to be sold to the Martian Museum for £400 billion ?

The Indulgers and the Divine Bank of Merit

 Hi All, 

The Financial Services Industry likes to have its hands in the most lucrative of honey pots- Endowments (universities, religious organisations, charities), Sovereign Wealth Funds (national or state mega funds, often obtained via natural resources), Pension Funds (be it government or corporate) , High Net Worthers (The middle rich) and finally Family Offices (the wealth of the extreme rich).  They were always on the look out for the next honey pot and in the religion of The Indulgers and their  Divine Bank of Merit, they'd found it. 

The Bank of Merit is the Galaxy's largest organised religion, cutting across thousands of species and cultures. Like most religions it has holy books, teachings and religious - quasi historical figures and interestingly a pantheistic set of gods and other divine to mythical creatures. It is their teaching on the after life that greatly interests Earth's financial services.  In essence the Bank of Merit is the heavenly savings account of all the good things- merit- that people do in life. When people die, so this religion teaches, you are first judged for your various sins and punished accordingly, but as with the secular world, some sins carry the equivalent of the death penalty of your soul . After this phase of punishment,  you are 'spiritually washed' for heaven and then enter the afterlife : it is your individual merits- what good you've done , how devout you've been and  the confessions you've made-  that have been credited to you at the Bank of Merit which determine how long this will take and your exact material status in heaven, believer or not. 

 Not to worry, for the representatives of the god's of the universe, The Indulgers of Merit, decreed that the divine had given to them permission to set up the Treasury of Merit, which has an unlimited credit facility from the Bank of Merit (which can in theory print as many merits as it wants and transmits these to the Treasury via the ability of the Indulgers authority to 'bind and loosen' Merits in the temporal world) and if you deposited cash or other goods to the Treasury, you'd be credited with Merits. 

This system has evolved over the past 3,300 years to the point that the Merits have become an tradeable  asset and forms an important Liquidity pool, given the religion's reach across the universe.  Some nations use these Merits as currency reserves or Merchants for trading collateral & others as part of a FOREX punt.  The Treasury of Merit still gives you Merits if you deposit cash or goods to them, in human terms they cost £100 each,  but these are often then sold on into what's called the secondary market - i.e. Stock Exchanges, where they are traded like any other asset and depending on demand can trade at a discount (i.e. under £100) or at a premium (i.e. over £100) . 

So to the Financial Services Industry of Earth, this was another lucrative, liquid and broad market in which to profit in so many ways . Firstly the religious institution itself, which if it were a company would be wealthiest in the universe - the  enormous fees from being their interstellar Accountant, Lawyer,  Deposit Banker, Insurance Underwriter, Insurance Broker, Investment Banker, Pension Fund Manager, Asset Manager, Consultancy Manager, Media and Marketing etc , etc!  Then there's there devout themselves  who could be sold Insurance, Investment Funds and even loans to increase their 'Merit Leverage' . Then there's the non-devout, who use these Merits in FOREX, Trade and speculation, which is red meat to a hedge fund or investment banker.  To The Indulgers, they saw Earth's Sphere of influence as a lucrative market in which to save souls and even more importantly the fact Earth controlled the pathway to 2 other galaxies, full of  even more trillions that could be converted. So in mutual deal, both sides agreed that the Indulgers would be free to go about their business and even Evangelise and in return the Indulgers agreed to 'open up' to Earth's financial services industry. 

We're not structurally racist after all

 Hi All, 

After the BLM riots and knocking down of 'racist' statutes last year, which were provoked by the death of an American thousands of miles away and in which the police did bugger all (unlike every other single protest of the last year, strange that the police were willing to haul white middle class women  for just standing in a public space and away in hand cuffs three weeks ago, but not black people actually causing criminal damage  last year ), the government set up a commission to investigate. 

The commission basically says were are not a structurally or institutionally racist country. Cue a blacklash from the left be it on Twitter, media or the Guardian, as they only want to talk of oppression and- this is where I broke with the left about 12 years ago when I was at university - they pathologically need  to put this country down as a shithole, be it by her history or current place in the world or social structure and race relations. I would never suggest that British history is without blemish, but the desire to see even positive things in a negative way. You can't say Churchill was a British hero anymore because someone somewhere has decreed him a 'racist' and also responsible for 'genocide'  and equally get offended when you point out the reality of what the Nazis did to us Jews,  would have done to BAME people had they controlled what was the then British Empire. But no, mention that word and it gets even worse- not that anyone would dare as you'd probably be called a racist and either loose your job or get the police onto you (which is funny when you've had 3 burglaries in the past 3 weeks on the street and its as if the police act as if it is on mars). 

 I agree with the report that we are indeed have a model race relations in this country and we are not some racist and or shithole place. If it were , then people would be leaving here en mass, the left suggested this would happen over Brexit and we've neither seen Europeans go back nor thousands flock to the continent. The City is still Europe's financial capital and life goes on. 

In fact to live in Britain in 2021 is probably one of the best times to live, for most people. We don't have children up mines or as  chimney sweeps, we've got schools and university access for all, there's a minimum wage, there's a free at point heath care system. The life expectancy of people is going up and up. All the while the left like to see us as living in some racist or hell hole  jungle , with a history akin to the Nazis. Yet people still come to this island and will take great lengths to do so, such as trying to cross the channel in dinghies. France is across the channel, another rich first world country. So the would be asylum seekers could and should stay there, but they choose, really want to go and come to the UK . They clearly don't get the message of the left, that we are such a terrible place, that they shouldn't even bother trying to get here in the first place.  They don't because they know what the left refuses to acknowledge  :  we're a nice place to live and pretty decent people. There are racists, but that doesn't make a nation one. People do worry about culture, religion and their control over what they see as their country. And it doesn't mean that you have to accept the left wing idea of open borders for any one and everyone to come and live here as they wish and use the health services. That doesn't make you a racist. 

The Anniversary of the Minotaur and Passover wars

 Hi All,

It was 38 years ago today, that the Earth finally declared victory against their foe the Minotaurs : a war which lasted 4 years and saw the freeing of trillions of human slaves, who were the descendants of three colonisation ships which had disappeared during the 1990s and which the less technologically advanced Minotaurs had enslaved. Exo-Wombs and time dilation accounted for the huge increase in population. 

The start of the war occurred when the Minotaurs started a pre-emptive strike against the 5th Fleet based at the Mau system, a shock which was akin to when Pearl Harbor was attacked in 1941,  although revisionist  historians note that President Garibaldi mired in (baseless) scandal accusations had the week before called for action against the Minotaur. Such politics was quickly forgotten as Earth's defence forces liberated world after world, revealing the depravity, torture and experimentation as well as the bitterness of slavery itself , it quickly took on the scope -as far as the citizens of Earth were concerned - of a 'moral' or 'just' war. 

The war was started by a right wing President-Antonio Luigi  Garibaldi- and for most of it was bitterly opposed by most of the hard left, although its moderate and central wing flocked to support this national war and emergency  . The majority of the population - over 90%- supported the war and every year since it has ended there's been a public holiday in remembrance and celebration, which in true human fashion combined solemnity, with food and alcohol. 

The Witter sphere, a galactic micro blogging site and a bastion of whoever shouts the loudest, such as left- liberalism, especially of the student variety,  wasn't happy  at the anniversary celebrations :

 how dare anyone celebrate a galactic war, started by the 'fascist right', even if it were for the noble cause of anti slavery - which it actually wasn't - it was just a war to defend Earth's imperialist agenda, against helpless native aliens 

 all these war criminals had actually done  was to free these human slaves, only to shackle them to the yoke of capitalism. 

This racist  event must be cancelled. 

President Antonio Luigi  Garibaldi : a xenophobic  war criminal 

current President (then Major General) F'szoorg, along with, the senior Parliamentarians who lead their respective parties in each chamber should be tried by the interstellar community as war mongers.

Why did ( Marine Captain)  Emma Dumas (  Current Senate Leader of the left) save  the bigoted phobe  (Marine Major) Mark Shalhoub (Current Speaker of the House) in battle? 

What? Gerhard Mohammed  (Current House Leader of the Left) and Sir Gordon Godfrey ( now Senate Majority Leader) served and flew together on the Carrier Michel Bariner ? 

Why do the establishment left support this anniversary, it's just war monger imperialism 

What time is the demo? 

Are we bringing our own vegan food?

Mother Earth should be 'liberated' from the evil deeds inflicted on her by wicked humans: Gia needs us"

It is true that these far  left  types did have a hard time understanding this part of history, which in their view portrayed slavery as a sole product of the Anglo-Saxon Male Imperialist Capitalist  Patriarchy, undertaken by them to enslave women and people of colour,  gays, lesbians, trans people and anyone else the left could announce as an oppressed minority group,  whether in chains or by capitalism. The war of the Passover as it became known (as strangely enough the war began and ended just before the Passover festival) defied this logic, as you had an Italian male President  leading a war to liberate male and female humans, who were of all human races, enslaved because they were human, not because of their skin tone. 

Even more annoying to the left was that these now ex-slaves and citizens made a success of themselves on the newfound colony worlds.  Slaves in the view of the  left, were supposed to be ragged, poor and illiterate, needing democratic socialism as the knight in shining armour to save them from this oppression. It was true, these ex-slaves were poor and illiterate, in fact none of them had first or family names, just numbers as names,  but all were determined to make the most of their newfound freedom and embraced with relish 'the Earther dream' of self improvement from one's current status,  of being reasonably well off, which was achievable by merit, by hard work and determination, regardless of one's birth status and a desire that one's children would accomplish for themselves even more, fully embracing and believing in the 'Earther Dream' with gusto, they , after all, had nothing to loose and everything to gain. And made it so and helped to start an economic boom which later historians would call the 'gay '90s' (2090-2099). 'the gilded age' (2100-2119) and the 'roaring twenties' (2120-present). 

New bar tariffs

 Dudes,

New pub  initiative post lockdown:

Shabbat Shalom and Happy Passover !!

 Hi All,

It's Shabbat tonight and over the weekend we are celebrating Passover!

Hope everyone has a good one and see you later on the other side. 

Open thread. 

The googolpexianaires

 Hi All, 

The Gilded Age of Earth  was in full swing ,30 years of relative peace and posterity which  began in "the gay nineties" and was continuing into the mid "roaring" twenties. 2124, 4 years after President F'szoorg won his second term of office and achieved what no other President had done, which was to admit more members into the United Union of Earther States than any other Presidents : in part because Parliament who actually did the deciding on these matters was continually divided by fears that one party or the other would benefit from this or that state joining. When States did join, it was often at the expense of a big political compromise, such as massive tax cuts or spending programmes. In any event , 140,000 systems owned by private enterprise, religions and wealthy individuals  as well as Federal planets, were reformed as 4,778 States , which when combined with those already in the Union gave a total  5,065 States and according to the census (there hadn't been one since 2099) a polity of 120 trillion people. 

This fuelled internal and interstellar  trade, helped along by infrastructure spending and the fact that the Federal Government under the "equal footing clause" of the Constitution had to take on the public debt of these new states, from the state to the City and Municipal level.  The debts were particularly high for those places that had been founded by private enterprise: buying and in most cases having to terraform a planet is extremely costly, let alone running one. The Treasury was rightly concerned about taking on too much debt, but David Elharar, the Galaxies joint richest man, found a loophole. 

The loophole ? Of the 4,778 territories, his business owned 1,249 and he personally owned 1 system, as did his business partner Jacob Horowitz. All of 1,251 territories had their own currencies and  subsequently also had their own central bank. The plan was that Elharar would be licensed in all  of theses territories to mint coins to the value of the total debts that the Federal government was going to pay off, plus any interest. For services rendered Elharar also obtained authority to mint  themselves a little bit extra coinage, as a "fee". 

These sextillion- in face value -silver   Francs, Marks and Dollar coins would be deposited into a safe at each bank, labelled as a "gift" for the Federal Treasury. Upon becoming a state, The Bank of Earth, the Federal Central Bank, would take over these regional Central Banks and credit amount of  the face value of the coins into the account that the Federal  Treasury had with them, at the agreed exchange rate that would be written into the charter making the state into a territory. In so doing the Treasury would suddenly find itself with the necessary funds with which to pay back the debts of these colonies. 

The risk of inflation, which such in effect money printing would usually produce,  Elharar advised the Federal Treasury, was minimal because of the flourishing Interstellar Trade across three galaxies facilitated a massive Forex (foreign exchange) market in which demand for Pounds was high, in part because of a positive balance of payments, but also to pay for the necessary shipping, insurance and toll fees to access the only two known wormholes, which because Elharar owned, had to be paid in Pounds.

In any event the plan went ahead and thanks to that little 'fee' , David Elharar (and his long time business partner) became googolpexianaires (that is ten to the power of a googolplex, or in other words a number which even mega computers struggle with, as near an infinite as a human mind can get in terms of numbers).  This should have made them both happy, but not when they appeared in front of a Parliamentary Committee to be questioned in a way that tried to  embarrass and humiliate:  by all of the left on the committee, but also several of the populist right. It was good theatre and they gave as good as they got- I suppose being twenty years shy of 200 does that- and strangely the public gave them a plus 60% approval rating, which increased the poorer the demographic and they did especially well among women between 36 and 50, which maybe explains why David has so many wives . What was embarrassing was when those same Parliamentarians and Senators came looking with their begging bowl for campaign funds. They were politely told to bugger off. 

Shabbat Shalom!

 Hi All, 

Open thread as usual. 

The Jovians

 Hi All,

The Jovians are for all intents and purposes human, but ever since 1999, they and their Earth brothers are forever split on their attitude toward the crystal and genetic engineering. Whereas Earthers have chips inserted into their brains to allow for solar internet access and the ability to process massive amounts of data, the Jovians used Jupiter crystals. Found in the mid region of gas giants these crystals are natural data storage devices, but with a side effect of giving the user telepathic and mild telekinesis abilities. When the leader of the Jovians died, he reappeared revealing that he had a cloned body of himself and had inserted the crystal into the brain of this clone, thus allowing him to live on after death, revealing that during death he had a divine revelation and a new society to be created, which apparently the people of Jupiter confirmed by their telepathic link.  

The rest is history, the Jovians and quickly joined together in creating this new society and free from the 'shackles' of Earth's ethics committees began intensive genetic upgrades, but also into foetus's. Back on Earth, this enraged the religious who claimed that all of this stopped the divine judgment and God's role in the resurrection of the dead or that it interfered with reincarnation and Kama. The world's atheist leaders also dismissed this as 'another cult' and took the view that all you'd be speaking to was the equivalent of a tape being repeated rather than an actual human being. More universal  objections were questions around the clone's status as a human being and what had happened to that clone's personality and secondly the slippery slope argument around genetic engineering. 

There was one catch for Jovians is that the crystal can only be used 12 times, it isn't understood why. The temporary solution was to build a complex AI computer, made up of the largest of this crystals to download the personality once the crystal had lost its ability, a cyberspace heaven. The long term solution was eventually discovered: there are coloured Ruby (found in hot Jupiter gas giants ) , Emerald (Uranus)  and Sapphire (Neptune)  crystals. Each of these can extend usage considerably with Sapphire crystals being the best: alas these crystals are extremely rare and there is a waiting list on the JHS (Jovian Health Service), even though half of these crystals are imported. The cost price per ounce is well over £1 trillion.

While Earth and Jupiter still trade (Jupiter controls the He3 trade, fuel for starships)  there is little love left between them. While Jovians themselves are a generally peaceful people, they do have their 'black sheep' , their understated euphemism for the tiny fraction of the population that rejects their society, which mostly leads them into super villain or criminal mastermind territory. 

The games of the super rich

 Hi All, 

The early years of the 2120s, the roaring 20s where full employment, home ownership and general living standards went stratospheric for the 95% as well as the 5%. One of the few times in history that the ultra rich would unashamedly splash their cash and be in a race to showcase this wealth with every more extravagant displays of wealth, without having guilt mongers attack them at every stage or face populist outrage for doing so (except the far left, but that's them all the time -jealous and continually devising ways to make everyone as poor as possible so they can achieve their equality for all paradise). 

If the 'little people' were getting a money shower from the trickle down theory, the super rich were getting a Niagara Falls worth of it: from' Portal Mansions' to Star Yachts, to owning popular  sports clubs, Aerospace Bentleys, fine and modern art and eating black Rhino steaks, to life longevity,  whatever they desired money bought them.

It was in terms of sport that the super rich enjoyed showing off their money, for example: 

Portal  One : Akin to F1, except this race takes place on land, air and space, across planets and sometimes various solar systems. There are multiple Grand Prix throughout the year, the most famous one being the Grand Prix of Mercury, where the race starts, covers the entire solar system, through to the 3 stars of Alpha Centuari and finishing on the ocean planet Mu, some 708 light years away. 

Zero gravity bowls : Bowling , but in zero gravity. 

Anklo Croquet :  Croquet played on the back of an Ankylosaurus, with the 'ball' being a dense ball of liquid mantellic hydrogen and the stick being the Ankylosaurus tail .

T- Rex Polo : Polo, but instead of horses substitute a T-Rex and much larger sticks and balls. 

Water Jousting : Similar to medieval jousting, except  using 'laser lances' , it is under water and rather than a horse, you must have a choice of a  plesiosaurus or great white shark. If you are hyper rich and can afford it you can have a mosasaurus or a megalodon .

Land Jousting : Similar to medieval jousting, except using 'laser lances'  and  you have a choice of mount, being T-Rex or Triceratops. If you are  super super rich you can find all sorts of different combinations , e.g. Saber Toothed Tiger vs modern Tiger , or Woolly Mammoth vs African Elephant . 

The E-me chip and banking

Hi All, 

Banking and Finance was somewhat different in the 22nd century. Thanks to the e-me chip, a chip inserted into the brain, it is the equivalent of having all of your aps, mobile phone and social media rolled into one. This includes having your own e-vault, wherein your salary is paid directly to you, thus bypassing banks, but like a mobile phone network you have to pay fees dependent on how much data you are using. 

Banks do still exist, but they are in competition with a multitude of finance and credit companies who reply not on depositors but on the multitude of investment and 'go fund moi' funds. The banks no longer offer current or checking accounts, but focus on 'savings and loans', unless you are a very wealthy individual and can afford to open an account with a private bank.  The Merchant and Investment Banks are still around, but they were always different to  the banks the general public used in the 20th and early 21st century. There are also the mega composite banks, who have a finger in every pie. 

To support the mortgage market there is the Federal Property Investment and Development of Real Estate Assets Company, called in shorthand The Derech (Hebrew for 'path') who sell bonds to investors and use this cash to buy up Mortgages from the market, which enhances liquidity and also transfers credit risk. Whilst Derech was a Quango, it is now a privately listed company, although many alien investors perceive it to be guaranteed by the Earth Fed government , in the same way they believe the Church of England's Investment Company, the Church Commissioners, are fully back-stopped by the British government.

All of this is regulated by multiple different agencies, but not by The Bank of Earth, the Central Bank of the Federation, whose main job is to act as a banker to the government and as a secondary, a banker to the banks, who whether they are the the Kingsman Reef Building Society or the colossal Mega Bank JP House & Co have accounts at the Bank of Earth. It is mandated to have responsibility for overall 'financial stability', 'full employment' and 'low inflation' and unlike other central banks is able to lend directly to the government (not as unusual as one might think: the 'role model' Bank of England was founded to finance England's wars against France and later on  France's Banque De France was created by Napoleon for money against England).  The Bank  is not allowed, however, to undertake bailouts. It is a lender of last resort, but it is only permitted to prop up a bank in this way if it is deemed to be solvent and has enough good assets to lend against. More often than not, banks are taken over by the Federal Insurance Quango,  then sold off or put into administration , with depositors getting a maximum of £25 million back. 

The Bank is overseen by a Chairman (usually a 'grandee ' or 'elder statesman'  from the ruling party) , but is run by the Supreme Governor and his Officers, with the board of directors called 'Regents'.  The Officers of the Bank tend to be permanent non political appointments, whereas the Supreme Governor has a 7 year term. When there is a vacancy, depending who is in government, the left prefer academics and economists, whereas the right prefers an actual banker or businessman.