Today’s PodNews

Thought I’d start out there and work my way toward today’s blog, the subject of which is “how about your own podcast?”

How to do a podcast is an open question, just as podcastingness is itself an article of some doubt and discrimination. In short, nobody really knows what it is, but lots of things are called “podcasts”, if that helps any.

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Song: Everybody’s Worried These Days

[verse 1]
Prices rising, paychecks thin,
Nobody knows when the pain’ll begin.
Jobs on the edge, markets dive,
Tryin’ to stay human, just tryin’ to survive.

[chorus]
Everybody’s worried ‘bout something these days,
The world’s got the shakes and the sky’s gone gray.
We’re holdin’ on tight to a frayin’ thread,
Whispers of the future in the back of our head…

[verse 2]
Protests blazing, streets on fire,
Truth gets sold to the highest buyer.
Rights rolled back with a judge’s pen,
We march, we shout — it begins again.

[chorus]

[verse 3]
Storms roll in, the ocean climbs,
We heard the warnings a thousand times.
Droughts and floods in a single breath,
The earth keeps singing a song of death.

[chorus]

[verse 4]
AI dreams and silicon minds,
Replacing hearts with coded lines.
Jobs go ghost in a single click,
Tech got fast, and we got sick.

[bridge]
But deep inside, a spark remains,
A silent song in the human brain.
We still remember how to sing,
How to rise, how to build, how to bring…

[final chorus]
Everybody’s feelin’ the weight these days,
But the heart still beats in a thousand ways.
We’re holdin’ on tight to a sacred thread,
Whispers of becoming in the road ahead…

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Bob Bachtold made the suggestion that I render the “symptoms” song as a country song, and he was right on the money! Here it is in country style — pedal steel, dobro, fiddle and harmonica:

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Here’s something that I composed with pure sound, simple hopefully soundlike lyrics, and a total reliance on the beat and rhythm to carry us through.

So here is Boomshaka 1:

And here is Boomshaka 2:

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And hookabrookah 1:

And of course, hookabrookah 2:

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Then there’s shakaaah 1:

And, as you’d expect, shakaaah 2:

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Two more — Peena Ponga 1:

and Peena Ponga 2:

These could all work as meditations and as movements basics.

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The Day the Treasury Bounced (FX Version)

I woke up this morning (morning…)
Checked the mail (checked the mail…)
No check, no cash, just silence (just silence…)
Treasury bounced, end of the trail (boom…)

They said sorry, baby (sorry…)
We’re just a little behind (behind…)
Full faith and credit (credit…)
Left us all blind (blind…)

(boom boom… boom boom…)
Dollar fell down (fell down…)
Suited ghosts fled town (ghosts fled town…)
Rent man knocking (knocking knocking)
But the bank don’t care (don’t care…)

No loans, no love (no love…)
No IMF hug (no hug…)
Just headlines screaming
Default default! (echo: fault… fault…)

Boom boom, bread’s five grand (five grand)
Gas pump crying, “Ain’t got no plan”
Mortgages climb like a rocket to Mars
While the billionaires float in luxury cars (zoom zoom…)

Used to sell bonds (sell bonds)
Now we sell time (time…)
They auctioned off noon
And repossessed rhyme (rhyme…)

(whispers:)
They taxed the wind…
They rented the sky…
They leased the moon…
And charged us to cry…

Now the lights dim low (dim low…)
And the cops walk home (walk home…)
No fuel for fire (no fire)
No signal on the phone (no phone…)

Kids in the field (in the field…)
School on the grass (on the grass…)
Learning arithmetic
With no one to pass (pass…)

Wall Street’s weeping (weeping…)
Goldman’s gone gray (gray…)
They can’t buy trust
With 10 trillion to pay (to pay…)

Boom boom (BOOM BOOM)
Shake that bowl
Peena ponga pooga pie (pooga pie…)
Sing that soul
Bring your voice
Bring your bones
Bring your hope
And build your home

(shhhh…)
(boom…)
(whispered:)
The day… the day…
The Treasury bounced…

Sovereign Default:

⚠️ What Is It Exactly?

A sovereign default happens when a government:

Misses a scheduled payment on its debt (like Treasury bonds or loans).
Tries to renegotiate payment terms (a “haircut” or delay).
Flat-out refuses to pay — Donald has a reputation of never paying his contractors and workers, and he often ends up in court trying to beat one rap or another.

It’s basically a government bankruptcy, except no one’s going to repo the Capitol dome — they just stop paying or stall payment to foreign and domestic lenders.

💥 How Would It Affect Us?

Here’s how the ripples hit everyday folks:

🏦 1. Interest Rates Spike

Investors panic. They start demanding much higher interest rates for any new loans to that country (if they bother at all). That means:

Mortgages, credit cards, car loans? All go up.
Business loans? Scarcer and more expensive.
The dollar? Might take a hit if trust evaporates.

🧓 2. Social Security and Medicare May Stall

If the U.S. defaults (or even flirts too hard with it), the Treasury may delay payments — including Social Security checks, veterans’ benefits, and Medicare reimbursements. I believe that this is the actual plan — it’s an indirect way of getting at those things.

📉 3. Stock Market Crash

Global investors see U.S. debt as “safe as houses.” A default would shake faith in the whole system. Stocks dive. Retirement accounts (401(k)s, pensions) could take a hit. The rich will, as always, get even richer in a down or wildly fluctuating stock market, but the bond market is different — it’s the measure of money.

🍞 4. Food and Energy Prices Could Rise

A falling dollar can make imports more expensive — and we import a lot. This means:

Gas and oil will surely spike.
Food and medicine prices will definitely jump.
Inflation goes up, even if the economy is slowing — a nasty mix.

💼 5. Unemployment Could Rise

A shaken economy often means:

Job losses, especially in finance, construction, manufacturing.
Cutbacks in services at the local level (schools, fire departments, etc.).
Delays in federal contracts and grants.

🤔 Could It Actually Happen in the U.S.?

Technically yes — if Congress refuses to raise the debt ceiling or fund the government, the Treasury might run out of cash. We’ve come close a few times (remember 2011 and 2023?) and the consequences were ugly even without an actual default.