Picto Diary - 27 to 31 December 2023 - Happy New Year

Above: Gerry and Mary Hailey family. Sarasota, FL. Christmas 2023.

The "other grandparents'" family.

Above: 'Cake 'n Drums. Circa 16 December 2023.

Park City High School Varsity Jazz Band performance at a Park City Rotary Club meeting.

Above: Deer Valley, UT. 27 December 2023.

09 07 68

Back in the groove of skiing. Holiday week crowds. Did seven runs and got outta there. Lifts open at 8:00 AM holiday week.

Above: Deer Valley, UT. 28 December 2023.

10 11 79

Piles of manmade snow on Little Kate ready for grading. Eleven runs with 8:00 AM start. Coffee break at Steins at 9:15 AM then two more runs to leave at 10:30 AM as vacation hoards clog up mountain. Good move by DV to accommodate regulars with early opening during holiday week.

Above: Deer Valley, UT. 30 December 2023.
11 10 81.
Joined with 'Cake for ten runs of early AM skiing before the hoards arrived. Break at Steins.

Above: Henry Hancock. May 31, 1983, to November 03, 2023. My first knowledge of Henry's passing was today, 30 December 2023 via Daggett.

Obituary: Henry Hancock | ParkRecord.com

Great contributor to LSDM speaker line up including Yale classicist Donald Kagan and British industrialist, Sir. Andrew Cook. Henry did analytical work as an independent consultant for some of the nation's top financial institutions and family organizations. He was magna cum laude at Yale. I met him, by chance, at Adolph's bar, in Park City, circa 2016. He's one of the few people I have ever met who was familiar with the Meistersinger watch brand. As we had dinner at Adolph's bar together, he pointed out and identified the Meistersinger watch I was wearing. Timing of this entry is six weeks after his passing. Cause of death unknown. RIP. A singular man. I was fortunate to have known him.

Above: Deer Valley, UT. Mountaineer Lift. 31 December 2023.
12 12 93.

Bishop with Stihl and Paul, head of Deer Valley Lift Operations.
I mentioned to Paul my riding a Doppelmayr gondola in Malaysia a week ago. Paul said Doppelmayr is going gangbusters with backed up lift/gondola orders from all over the world.

Above: New Years Eve, Iron Canyon, Park City, UT. 31 December 2023.

Fun with friends and family. Lazy cameraman, since there were another seven attendees beyond what is captured in this image. This image is taken around 10:00 PM. Unbelievably, six of us stayed up until the midnight hour, something I haven't done for some years. A group with an international tinge... Norwegians, Filipinos, Brits, and Swiss. Fabulous New Years Eve dinner at home was orchestrated by Alison, Luke and Rory, visiting from the UK.

Earlier. 6:30 PM. Phone call from Drums to Mwah (sic)

Drums: Grandpa, what time does New Years Eve dinner start?

Grandpa: I don't know. Call Granny.

Drums: Look, Grandpa. I really need to know specifics. I have a lot of moving parts in my life.

Year-end, 2023, SDT note.

While TIMDT and Mwah (sic) have much to be grateful for, I am not optimistic that future generations of Americans are on a track to enjoy economic prosperity and self-actualization similar to what our, and previous American generations, have enjoyed.

Central to America's decline is a frog-in-the-pot erosion of individual liberty, US government financial overextension, and stealth growth of an obtrusive and controlling big government. America's aches and pains stress first and hardest America's lower and middle classes. No civilization has thrived in the absence of a robust middle class. Here are some reasons for my pessimism:

National government debt is $34 trillion. US debt to GDP is 123% as of September 2023. US debt to GDP at the end of WWII in 1945 was 113%. Because of this debt burden, higher taxes, slower GDP growth and stagnating middle class incomes will result in declining standard of living and reduced opportunity for our descendants.

The Fed's balance sheet has grown from $1 trillion in 2008 to $8 trillion in 2023. Fed money printing has propped up asset values, benefitting the holders of assets, including stocks. But wage earners are losing ground. In 1981 average annual growth in real (adjusted for inflation) wages was 15%. Today it is 1%. There is a growing gap between the haves (asset holders) and the have nots (wage earners). Prospects for middle class prosperity look grim in the context of current Fed policies which favor the privileged.

America has given up on border control. Since President Biden took office, there have been 7.5 million encounters (6.2 million encounters at the southern border,) in addition to 1.7 million known gotaways. The record level illegal migrants will ensure downward pressure on middle class wages and increased taxes on the middle class to raise money for outsized costs of unprecedented migrant assimilation.

America is no longer feared. Bad actors, Russia, Houthis, Hamas, Iran, China, etc. have capitalized on US weakness by unleashing chaos around the world. There is a growing probability that US youth will soon be called on to go to war as a consequence of US squandering its deterrence capability.

US education is broken. Highschool math and reading scores have each noted a 20% decline over the last two decades. Progressive social engineering has supplanted prioritization of the three "r's. Elite US universities have substituted diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) for merit as the principal criterion for college admissions elite US universities. Reduced expectations for student performance will inevitably result in less skilled college graduates. It is difficult to see a bright future for our descendants as US higher education-facilitated mediocrity seeps into American life.

US demographic trends guarantee a shrinking US population (unadjusted for immigration). The U.S population grew at a slower rate in 2021 than in any other year since the founding of the nation. Americans are not marrying or forming households at rates that coincided with the country's economic progress in past years. US birthrates are currently 1.6 per fertile female with 2.01 births per fertile female being population replacement rates. Unless indigenous population decline is offset by increased skilled and aspirational immigrants, the US is headed towards inexorable economic decline as fewer skilled workers will be available to support the entitlement requirements of a growing number of boomer retirees, and soon, millennial retirees.

America is losing its democracy. An elitist government, distant from the concerns of the voters, teams with social media giants to censor speech not deemed consistent with government sanctioned narratives. 2nd Amendment rights are being challenged. Government steps to move towards social credit systems and digital currency will, if actualized, result in "big brother" watchfulness and control over American "subjects." During Covid, vaccine mandates, school closures, lockdowns, all likely unconstitutional actions, were forced on the American people with credible dissenters marginalized and censored. Democrat leadership, holding executive power in Washington, has weaponized federal law enforcement to unlawfully take aim against its political enemies.

Decline of traditional religion. In 2007, 16% of Americans identified has having no religious affiliation. In 2023, the religion unaffiliated number is 27%. People without a religion need to believe in something, and the gap is being filled by a "new religion," government backed principles of social justice, intersectionality, diversity equity and inclusion (DEI) dogma, non-binary pseudo-science, and child sexualization. This "new religion" militates against the principle of the traditional family being the bedrock of civilization. The ultimate result of government nudged adherence to the "new religion." is less individual freedom and more central government dependency (read declining standard of living) as traditional family life disintegrates.

Republican Party presidential candidates Donald Trump, Vivek Ramaswamy, and Ron DeSantis are politicians that understand the forces taking America down, and articulate, each, credibly, in his own way, what needs to be done to stem the decline. I believe each has the leadership qualities and experiences to confront the problems (above) leading to America's collapse. If one of them gets the chance to serve as president, progressive momentum and the general indifference of the American people to the forces that are leading them, frog in the pot style into penury and serfdom, will make their job a difficult one.

I hope I am wrong. In any case, one has to admit.... it was good living at the apex! Timing is everything! Happy New Year.

SDT