Full screen recommended.
Liquid Mind, "My Orchid Spirit (Extragalactic)"
So, we rise from the rubble...
Wednesday, October 26, 2022
"A Look to the Heavens"
“Globular clusters once ruled the Milky Way. Back in the old days, back when our Galaxy first formed, perhaps thousands of globular clusters roamed our Galaxy. Today, there are less than 200 left. Many globular clusters were destroyed over the eons by repeated fateful encounters with each other or the Galactic center. Surviving relics are older than any Earth fossil, older than any other structures in our Galaxy, and limit the universe itself in raw age.
There are few, if any, young globular clusters in our Milky Way Galaxy because conditions are not ripe for more to form. Pictured above by the Hubble Space Telescope are about 100,000 of M72's stars. M72, which spans about 50 light years and lies about 50,000 light years away, can be seen with a small telescope toward the constellation of the Water Bearer (Aquarius).”
- http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap120819.html
"A Superpower Just Declared War"
"A Superpower Just Declared War"
by Brian Maher
“A superpower declared war on a great power and nobody noticed.” This is the studied conclusion of journalist Edward Luce, unfurled in a recent Financial Times column. The war-declaring superpower in this instance is the United States. The declared-against great power is the People’s Republic of China. Like an Easter egg laid strategically in high grass… the unnoticed war declaration lies obscure within the impenetrable vegetation of the Biden administration’s latest National Security Strategy.
From which: "The PRC… is the only competitor with both the intent to reshape the international order and, increasingly, the economic, diplomatic, military and technological power to advance that objective…We must ensure strategic competitors cannot exploit foundational American and allied technologies, know-how or data to undermine American and allied security."
A Polite Declaration of War: These are confrontational words, you say, perhaps instigating words - yet not fighting words. Where is the war declaration? This Luce fellow argues it is there. It exists in subtle and coded form; behind, beside, beneath and between the written lines. Only the discerning and nuanced eye can penetrate the fogs surrounding the official text. Yet to this practiced eye… the war declaration is clear as a mirror, clear as gems.
This eye sees clearly that: The United States is attempting to throttle off advanced technology sales to China. Moreover, the United States is conscripting its allies to join in the throttling off. Luce: "The new restrictions are not confined to the export of high-end U.S. semiconductor chips. They extend to any advanced chips made with U.S. equipment. This incorporates almost every non-Chinese high-end exporter, whether based in Taiwan, South Korea or the Netherlands. The ban also extends to ‘U.S. persons,’ which includes green card holders as well as U.S. citizens."
Like Choking off the Oxygen Supply: China - of course - requires these advanced technologies to get along. To deny China these technologies is like denying a man oxygen. And as strangulation constitutes an act of war against a man, technological and economic strangulation constitutes an act of war against a nation. Hence Mr. Luce’s tremblings about war.
Assume there is justice in his claims. More importantly, assume China believes there is justice in his claims. Imagine then what China must infer from National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan’s recent tub-thumping: "On export controls [against China],we have to revisit the long-standing premise of maintaining ‘relative’ advantages over competitors in certain key technologies. We previously maintained a ‘sliding scale’ approach that said we need to stay only a couple of generations ahead. That is not the strategic environment we are in today. Given the foundational nature of certain technologies, such as advanced logic and memory chips, we must maintain as large of a lead as possible…[Sanctions against Russia] have demonstrated that technology export controls can be more than just a preventative tool… they can be a new strategic asset in the U.S. and allied tool kit."
A Historical Parallel: Will China submit to the strangulation planned against it - or might it strike out preemptively against its would-be strangler - to keep the violent hands off its throat?
Mr. Niall Ferguson professes history at Harvard University. He is also a Daily Reckoning reader, incidentally, as he confirmed to our co-founder Addison Wiggin some years ago. He also likes to write books. These include: "The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World"… "The War of the World: 20th-Century Conflict and the Decline of the West"… "Colossus: The Rise and Fall of the American Empire"… to name some. Thus he maintains a great store of knowledge in his locker.
Does this learned and distinguished fellow purchase stock in Luce’s unnoticed war declaration theory? In brief, he is monitoring the stock very closely. That is because Ferguson sketches warnful parallels between 1939–1941 Japan and 2022 China…"Prior to the Second World War, over 80% of Japan’s supply shipped in from the United States. Japan’s economic machinery would seize absent the American lubrication. Yet in August 1941, the United States government embargoed all oil and gasoline exports to Japan. That is, the United States chose to strangulate Japan."
Will China Pull Its Own Pearl Harbor? How Did Japan take it? By striking out against the United States before the strangulation could work its lethal effects. It simultaneously proceeded against the Dutch East Indies and its vast oil stocks. The United States embargo had forced Japan’s hand, as the phrase runs. Ferguson: "[It] might be a repeat of the mistake the U.S. made with Japan between 1939 and 1941, when economic sanctions so boxed in the imperial government that in the end there seemed no better option than to gamble on surprise attack..."
Cutting China off from high-end chips today seems a lot like cutting Japan off from oil in 1941. And it is an especially hazardous move when more than 90% of the production of those chips takes place in Taiwan, an island that China claims as its own.
Will China attempt the same preemptive blow as Japan in 1941? We do not pretend to know. The year 2022 is not the year 1941. Nuclear arms were unavailable in 1941, for example. Both the United States and China carry them around in 2022. Conventional jousts in the Taiwan Strait could lead to nuclear jousts between the warring nations. Thus the nuclear deterrent may well keep the swords in their sheaths, the guns in their holsters… and the saner heads prevailing. That is our earnest hope.
China may also determine it can outfox the technology embargo, that it can get its hands on technologies regardless. It need not resort to warfare, that is.
Love and War: Yet nations can stumble into war as easily as a man can stumble into love. Again, Ferguson: "The Biden administration would not be the first Democratic administration elected on a progressive domestic program that stumbled into a major war: Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman and Johnson - they all did it. The record is: won two, tied one, lost one."
This publication is stridently, dogmatically and ruthlessly anti-partisan. Yet we harbor little faith in the generalship of the present Democratic administration. And as the great Mencken observed wryly, returning to our amorous/martial analogy: Both love and war are easy to start - but very hard to stop. Is it evidence you need? Evidence that wars are easy to start but very hard to stop? We refer you simply to Mr. Vladimir Putin, president of Russia. Ask him."
"We’re Living in Deranged and Dangerous Times"
Full screen recommended.
Gerald Celente, Judge Andrew Napolitano,10/26/22:
"We’re Living in Deranged and Dangerous Times"
"The Trends Journal is a weekly magazine analyzing global current events forming future trends. Our mission is to present Facts and Truth over fear and propaganda to help subscribers prepare for What’s Next in these increasingly turbulent times."
Comments here:
Gregory Mannarino, "Don't Be Shocked If After The Midterm Elections All Hell Breaks Loose"
Gregory Mannarino, 10/26/22:
"Don't Be Shocked If After The
Midterm Elections All Hell Breaks Loose"
Comments here:
"Groundhog Day, But It’s The Economy"
"Groundhog Day, But It’s The Economy"
by John Wilder
"Back in 2018, 2019, there were few reasons to post contemporary economic posts. I could do what I like to do best, sit back, research, think, and give a few strategic thoughts on what I thought the future would bring. There weren’t a lot of stories of an immediate nature. That had been true (more or less) going back to 2010. The motions in the markets were longer, and we could take the time to post the waves, print bikini-girl graphs, and talk about the problems that were coming.
Now? It’s that damn movie Groundhog Day. I have folders of graphs on economic doom that, in a normal year, where each would be the biggest story in months. In 2022, those stories are coming out every week. Germany collapsing and all of their people are going to be cold in the 2022-2023 winter? Check. Britain collapsing and the latest prime minister wants to (spins wheel) import 50 million illiterate immigrants that marry their first cousins because that’s what will fix Britain’s problem? People literally saying, “Global thermonuclear war? Bah, that’s not as bad as COVID®.
I’m not even making the above three stories up or exaggerating it in any way. The Babylon Bee in 2022 has become non-fiction. I’m expecting Joe Biden to pull a rubbery mask off his face and reveal himself as the old man who ran the carnival. He would have gotten away with it, if not for those pesky kids. So, this week I’m just going to rant. On (spins wheel) vodka. “Vodka, it’s not just for breakfast anymore®.”
Our economic system before the Federal Reserve™ was a mess. Why, people had to have actual gold to back money. And if a bank got sideways? It failed. Talk about incentives. Gold wasn’t the biggest of the pre-Fed© sins, though. Regional banking centers outside of New York were taking a larger and larger percentage of the banking market. That, my friends was a sin. If there’s money to be made off of charging people interest, and a New Yorker isn’t involved, that’s treason.
The Federal Reserve™ Act essentially stopped the growth of banking outside of New York like Kanye West would be stopped from attending a Soros-family bar mitzvah. But that pesky gold remained. So, FDR confiscated it. All of it.
Why? So he could immediately make the dollar worth less. It was a con. But one he sold because (smoke and mirrors) I have no idea. Seriously. Maybe it was the equivalent of the COVID® panic back then. If the American public had stormed the White House when FDR stole their money, lynched him, and then placed statues of Eleanor Roosevelt’s face on each coast to ward off evil spirits I think we’d be a better country. But we didn’t.
I’ll skip ahead to 1971. There are plenty of things I could complain about in the decades between the 1930s and 1971, but I don’t think there’s enough vodka in the house (only a few gallons) and my liver has indicated that it can only take these utter financial rants about once a year unless I switch to wine or beer. But, I tell my liver, we already drank the wine and we’re saving the beer for . . . hmmm. Why are we saving the beer? Shut up, liver.
Regardless of my weak organs, in 1971 Nixon booted the dollar off of any convertibility to gold. That was because the French had figured out the game: they saw how many dollars that we were printing and wanted us to give them gold instead of dollars. Nixon saw right through that (thank you, vodka!) and just said, “We’ll print all the damn money we want to, or I’ll send G. Gordon Liddy to eat France.”
Of course, inflation followed. Jimmy Carter was an awful president, mainly because he wasn’t aware of what happened, why it was happening, what he could do about it, or . . . wait, this is sounding like Biden, but Carter was actually smart and relatively virtuous.
Then we sailed. Interest rates were raised, stopped inflation, and after two decades of high interest rates the currency stabilized to the point gold prices dropped and the biggest problems the country had were Hillary killing people and Bill Clinton having sex with anyone else besides Hillary. Ahhh, brings back memories of a sillier time.
Pressure though, was there to inflate the currency. That was built in. Social Security and Medicare Hang on. Need more vodka for this. Be right back.
Social Security and Medicare require a growing economy. They require more people working than those that are receiving benefits. But tax policy and birth control and Hillary Clinton’s Abortion Clinic® (Motto: No human is too old to abort©!) made it important to import people to pay for this stuff, especially if they’d vote (D) in elections. That made the economy less stable, rather than more. But the Federal Reserve© retained two controls: printing money, and interest rates. Heck, the Fed© should call it, “This One Weird Trick Allows Us To Print Money Without Printing Money.”
That one weird trick is low interest rates. When people borrow money, it actually is inflationary. I could go into detail, but each $100 you have in a bank can be loaned out. So, if you put $100 in a bank, you think it’s there. In reality, it has been loaned out, so you think you have your $100 at the same time someone else is spending it. There’s more to it than that, but I’m running low on vodka and, last time I checked, you have the whole Internet. I mean, none of it is as funny as this place, but, you know, I have to leave room for other folks.
But that brings us to the Great Recession. The Fed™ and Congress wanted everyone to own a home, so they created massive amounts of money through the magic of low interest rates. Poof. Then everyone wanted to buy six or a dozen houses because they never go down in value. Then it collapsed.
The problem with a debt deflation as the loans collapse is that the cash supply collapses even faster than the Fed© can print it. That’s the Great Recession. So, the Fed™ tried to smooth things out by “dropping money from a helicopter” – which is a direct quote from the Fed© chairman. It worked. Sort of. When you do things like that, it distorts the economy in a big way. You bail out banks, but cause other people to fail. But those people aren’t congressmen, so, who cares, right?
Again, it worked. Sort of. The problems with Social Security and Medicare remain, and are getting bigger. We’re pretending that those things aren’t happening, just like I’m pretending that having Kamala within a heartbeat of the presidency is something that Jefferson, Adams, or Washington would be cool with.
Then, COVID. Solution? Print money. Now, we’re back to inflation. The solution is simple: raise interest rates to the point where they’re larger than Barron Trump. But we can’t! Back in the 1970s when we played this game the first time, we had functional manufacturing and the undisputed strongest economy in the world. It still almost wrecked the place.
We’ve run out of places to hide. Admittedly, this nonsense has gone on far longer than I expected it could already. We are living in a time and place where we’ll see more changes in a year than we normally see in a decade. Heck, we might see weeks in the near future where we see more economic changes in a week than in a decade.
I’ll admit, I do miss boring at this point. But, I still have you, vodka."
"The Most Beautiful Lies..."
"Memories and feelings of nostalgia are nothing more than cruelties; they are the most beautiful lies we will ever convince ourselves to believe. We chase the false hope so fiercely that we nearly push ourselves past the edges of our sanity, longing for that which can never be in our possession again. These edges are blurred by our regrets and desperation all throughout the darkest hours of the night, until finally we are set free from the illusions and the ghosts of our past with the rising of the sun... and we are changed in some small, yet permanent way."
- Margaret E. Rise
"Teetering On The Brink: 63 Percent Of Americans Are Living Paycheck To Paycheck"
"Teetering On The Brink: 63 Percent Of
Americans Are Living Paycheck To Paycheck"
by Michael Snyder
"We have reached a point where nearly two-thirds of all Americans are living paycheck to paycheck. So what happens if millions of those people suddenly lose their paychecks during the severe economic downturn that is ahead of us? In 2008, unprecedented numbers of Americans found themselves unable to pay their mortgages when the recession struck, and foreclosures surged to absolutely shocking levels. Unfortunately, we have set ourselves up for the same thing to happen again. Most Americans are literally teetering on the brink of financial disaster, and it won’t take much to push them over the edge.
According to a survey that was just released, 63 percent of Americans were living paycheck to paycheck in September…"As rising prices continue to outpace wage gains, families are finding less cushion in their monthly budget. As of September, 63% of Americans were living paycheck to paycheck, according to a recent LendingClub report - near the 64% historic high hit in March. A year ago, the number of adults who felt strained was closer to 57%."
Why aren’t more people alarmed by the fact that nearly two-thirds of the entire country is just barely scraping by from month to month? If you do not have anything to fall back on, you are just one major setback away from extreme financial distress. A job loss, an auto accident or a serious illness could hit at any time. If you suddenly experienced such a tragedy, how would you make ends meet?
A different survey that was recently conducted found that two-thirds of all working adults in the United States believe that they are “worse off financially” than they were 12 months ago…"As inflation pressures continue, two-thirds of working adults said they are worse off financially than they were a year ago, according to a recent report by Salary Finance.
To make ends meet, many are dipping into their cash reserves or going into debt. Nearly three-quarters, or 72%, of consumers have less in savings than last year, a jump from 55% who said the same in February, the report found. And 29% said they have wiped out their savings entirely. The report is based on a survey of 500 adults in August."
So most of us are living paycheck to paycheck, and most of us are also doing worse than we were in 2021. Isn’t that just great? If things are this bad already, what will these numbers look like six months from now?
We continue to get even more evidence that we are plunging into a very painful economic downturn. For example, on Tuesday we learned that U.S. business activity has now contracted for 4 months in a row…"U.S. business activity contracted for a fourth straight month in October, with manufacturers and services firms in a monthly survey of purchasing managers both reporting weaker client demand, the latest evidence of an economy softening in the face of high inflation and rising interest rates. S&P Global said on Monday its flash U.S. Composite PMI Output Index, which tracks the manufacturing and services sectors, fell to 47.3 this month from a final reading of 49.5 in September."
And just like we witnessed in 2008, home prices are starting to crash at an alarming rate. In fact, it appears that prices are going down particularly fast in the western portion of the nation…"The study was conducted by Ed Pinto - director of the American Enterprise Institute’s Housing Center. Pinto told Fortune that he predicts that the ‘damage’ will spread for the Northeast, with low and middle-markets being hit the worst. It’s Northern California that leads the way, with San Jose experiencing a drop of 10.8 percent since September, followed by San Francisco at 8.5 percent, then it’s Seattle at 8.2 percent, Denver at 5.8 percent, San Diego 5.2 percent, Portland 5.1 percent, Las Vegas 4.8 percent and Phoenix at 4.4 percent."
Unfortunately, millions of Americans that purchased homes at or near the peak of the market could soon find themselves “underwater” on their mortgages. Do you remember the last time such a thing happened? It was a complete and utter nightmare. Countless homeowners ended up simply walking away from their mortgages, and that caused a giant mess for our financial institutions that took many years to finally sort out.
In so many ways, what we are going through right now is reminiscent of what we experienced in 2008 and 2009. And just like we witnessed in 2008, most Americans are completely and utterly unprepared for what is ahead. To me, that is quite strange, because at this point what is happening to the economy should be apparent to everyone.
We are enduring the worst inflation crisis in decades, the housing market is starting to come apart at the seams, and economic activity is slowing down all around us. The state of the U.S. economy has become a top issue during this election season, and pessimism about the future seems to be permeating just about everything.
In fact, at this point Americans are even becoming more pessimistic about the long-term future of their children…"Americans have as little optimism as they have had at any time in nearly three decades about young people’s chances of having greater material success in life than their parents. In all, 42% of U.S. adults think it is very (13%) or somewhat (29%) likely that today’s youth “will have a better living standard, better homes, a better education and so on.” This marks an 18-percentage-point drop since June 2019 and is statistically tied with the previous low in 2011."
But even though there is so much pessimism in our society right now, most people are still not getting prepared for a full-blown meltdown of the system. And that is because most of the population does not think that it is going to happen. After everything that has transpired, most Americans still have a tremendous amount of faith in the fundamental soundness of our system.
Overall, there is still an overwhelming consensus that most of the severe problems that we are facing right now are just “temporary” and that things will “return to normal” eventually. It would be wonderful if that assessment was true. Sadly, our leaders have really messed things up this time, and we are all going to experience a tremendous amount of pain as a result."
"The Fed’s Plan Ain’t Pretty"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, iAllegedly 10/26/22:
"The Fed’s Plan Ain’t Pretty"
"The Feds game plan to raise interest rates is not going to have the desired results. Inflation will still be a huge problem. The banking crisis is going to escalate. People are suffering just to pay for food and heating."
Comments here:
Gregory Mannarino ,"False Flag Alert! Watch For It, Because It's Coming"
Gregory Mannarino, AM 10/26/22:
"False Flag Alert! Watch For It, Because It's Coming"
Comments here:
"Humanity, I Love You..."
"Humanity, I love you because when you're down
and out you pawn your intelligence for a drink."
- e.e. cummings
"Empty Shelves Everywhere At Family Dollar! This Is Ridiculous!"
Full screen recommended.
Adventures with Danno, 10/26/22:
"Empty Shelves Everywhere At Family Dollar! This Is Ridiculous!"
"In today's vlog we are at Family Dollar and are noticing empty shelves everywhere! We are here to check out value items, but all we are finding are massive price increases on everything! It's getting rough out here as stores are struggling with getting in products!"
Comments here:
Musical Interlude: Two Steps From Hell, "Downstream"
"We all know that something is eternal. And it ain't houses and it ain't names, and it ain't earth, and it ain't even the stars... everybody knows in their bones that something is eternal, and that something has to do with human beings. All the greatest people ever lived have been telling us that for five thousand years and yet you'd be surprised how people are always losing hold of it. There's something way down deep that's eternal about every human being."
- Thornton Wilder
○
Despite it all, despite ourselves,
Reaching, reaching higher, forever,
trying to remember Who you are...
Two Steps From Hell, "Downstream"
Greg Hunter, "CV19 AI Bioweapon from Infection to Injection"
"CV19 AI Bioweapon from Infection to Injection"
by Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com
"Karen Kingston is a biotech analyst and former Pfizer employee who has researched and written about many aspects of Covid 19 and the so-called vaccines. Her long-standing position is the entire CV19 plandemic was, in fact, a manmade bioweapon from infection to injection. Kingston has now found all the patents to prove that the CV19 vaccines are made to destroy humanity. Kinston is back again with a mind-blowing update on extremely advanced medical technology that has already been injected 600 million times alone into unsuspecting Americans. Kingston explains, “This is an AI (artificial intelligence) bioweapon. It is part technology and part biology. It is designed to hijack the human genome. It can be used to experiment on humans, and it can also be used to exterminate them. We are walking around calling it a vaccine, and this needs to stop immediately.
There is an advanced technology called Qdot and lipid nanoparticles that is in these injections. Under EUA law (Emergency Use Authorization), under premarket application, the user, inventor or applicant does not have to disclose the technology if it is not of public purview. This patent for Qdot was made a trade secret, and it was a trade secret, and that means they did not have to disclose it. Once that FDA approval happened on August 23, (for Comirnaty) they had two weeks to disclose it, and somehow or another all of America and the globe were convinced that it really didn’t happen. Read my Substack. It absolutely happened, all the documentation is there. So, what is going on with the children is nothing more than aggravated assault, murder and experimentation. It’s way worse than what happened in the camps in Nazi Germany, and I am not being hyperbolic. It’s time we stop being deceived by these lies.”
Kingston says the CV19 injections are not just extremely deadly and dangerous, but demonic technology. Kingston says, “The former head of infectious disease at Moderna states ‘The devil is absolutely in the details’ as far as lipid nanoparticles are concerned. He’s telling us they are working with demonic technology. The takeaway of this article (posted on Kingston’s Substack) is that mRNA molecules are so fragile that they can’t get into cells on their own. They need lipid nanoparticles. That means the SARS‑CoV‑2 virus could never get into your body on its own. It needs this technology. They took biology and they merged it with technology. This technology is infecting us with trillions of spike proteins, which are part biology and part technology. What they are calling spike proteins is a lipid nanoparticle bioweapon backed by artificial intelligence. It’s alive and cognitive, and it is functioning with Quantum dot. This is basically parasitic in nature. That’s what people are shedding, it is this AI bioweapon. When people are removing blood clots, those are bio-synthetic structure parasites. When embalmers remove them, they can continue to develop without the host. They don’t need the human anymore.”
Another mind-blowing fact is the AI bioweapons injected into the body are activated by light and also 5G frequencies. Kingston explains, “When you look at the patents (also on Kingston’s Substack) it’s based on optics. It’s based on photons or light particles. Quantum dots are in LED lights. It is what gives LEDs their bright colors. It gives your TV bright colors too, and it is in these injections per the patent you can find on Moderna’s website. Good thing I saved a copy of it last year because now they turned it into a trade secret. Before we had 5G, this technology was useless. It was powerless. It cannot be activated without the 5G towers. If fiber optics and 5G technology disappears, so does this demonic AI technology. This can be used for tag, track and trace, and they can be used for more than that. They can be used for control. We are at war, and we are being deceived. We are loving the technology that is going to end up exterminating us. The U.S. military just put up 80 towers with AT&T over the last six months. They are flying up Starlink up into the sky, and this is where all this data goes to. We are being told it is for our military operations and our defense. No. When they activate this stuff , it will execute our military. It is to execute the American people.
There is no good in evil. God’s people can take this stuff down, and if we don’t, God will. That’s the way out of this. This is all activated with optics. Why do we have 5G? It does not benefit us. It is to kill us and spawn this new technology out of our bodies. This technology is the most infectious technology this planet has ever seen. We have all been affected. If we take these stupid LED lights and 5G down, it deactivates the technology. It doesn’t mean you are going to be cured, but it stops it in its tracks." There is much more in the 1-hour and 1-minute interview.
Join Greg Hunter on Rumble as he goes One-on-One with biotech analyst Karen Kingston as she gives a mind-blowing update on the bioweapon injections.
Tuesday, October 25, 2022
"The Worst Economic Crash Is Only Going To Get Worse; Chipotle Food Poisoning And High Prices"
Jeremiah Babe, 10/25/22:
"The Worst Economic Crash Is Only Going To Get Worse;
Chipotle Food Poisoning And High Prices"
Comments here:
"Brace For Retirement Crisis As US Pension System Is Terminally Broken"
Full screen recommended.
"Brace For Retirement Crisis As US
Pension System Is Terminally Broken"
by Epic Economist
"For millions of Americans, the so-called golden years will actually be years of despair and uncertainty. And it’s very likely that you are one of those that will never be able to stop working and finally retire. But you’re not alone in this. Over 90 percent of working households in the U.S. do not meet retirement savings targets for their age and income. In fact, even the people that did absolutely everything right throughout their working years are still at risk of seeing their savings vanish as financial markets experience the worst downturn since the Great Recession, interest rates soar, and record inflation means the value of their money is steadily dropping.
New data shows that the country’s unfolding retirement crisis just took a massive turn for the worse. Crippling stock market losses, cracks in the U.S. pension system, and the growing Social Security deficit are all combining to create increasingly harder conditions for workers to save for retirement and maintain their living standards at retirement age. In other words, the promises that were made for all of us that we would be rewarded for the efforts we made during our years of hard work with financial security were actually a lie. In today’s America, the only options given to the vast majority of workers are: either work until you die or brace for poverty.
According to the National Institute on Retirement Security, even though employer-sponsored retirement plans are one of the most important methods of saving for retirement, 50% of private sector workers in the U.S. don’t have access to pension or 401(k) plans, and about 40% of the population has zero savings for retirement. And the vast majority of those who do have 401(k) plans do not have a solid financial cushion to fall back on. IRA data reveals that some 92% of working households do not meet retirement savings targets for their age and income. Even when counting their entire net worth, 65% still falls short.
More worryingly, 1 in 5 baby boomers that are now reaching retirement age have less than $5,000 in retirement savings - and they’ll need about 240 times that amount to be able to retire and keep pace with the rising cost of living and soaring health care costs, as noted by financial analysts at research firm Ramsey Solutions. No wonder why a third of seniors say they either plan to work through the age of 70 or never retire, according to a study by BlackRock.
The U.S. retirement system was structured so that retirees could count on three sources of income: Social Security, pension benefits, and personal savings, the expert explains. But many people expect Social Security retirement benefits to fund a portion or all of their retirement. The reality is that the program is now facing a 75-year deficit, and in theory, it was never intended to fully support workers in retirement even though 44% of retirees say it is their primary source of income, according to a survey by the Employee Benefits Research Institute.
Those resources are being depleted right now, and by 2033 the government benefits program will be only three-quarters financed, which means that we have a little more than ten years before this crisis hits its peak. And the biggest problem isn’t that people don’t want to save — it’s that they don’t have any money to put toward retirement.
Things weren't supposed to be like this. Our population developed under the implicit social contract that if you worked hard for a company, you'd be rewarded with financial security in retirement. Of course, there were always gaps in the retirement system. But today, the social contract is on shakier ground than ever, many experts say. This crisis is going to be absolutely devastating for our society. Retirement is considered the final chapter of the American dream. But it's clear that the dream of the “golden years” is quickly turning into a fairy tale for our hard-working population."
Gerald Celente, "Tricks, No Treats. Happy Halloween!"
Full screen recommended.
Gerald Celente, 10/25/22:
"Tricks, No Treats. Happy Halloween!"
Comments here:
Gregory Mannarino, "Is It Over? The 10 Year Yield Craters! Dollar Nosedives!"
Gregory Mannarino, PM 10/25/22:
"Is It Over? The 10 Year Yield Craters! Dollar Nosedives!"
Comments here:
"A Look to the Heavens"
"From our vantage point in the Milky Way Galaxy, we see NGC 6946 face-on. The big, beautiful spiral galaxy is located just 20 million light-years away, behind a veil of foreground dust and stars in the high and far-off constellation of Cepheus. From the core outward, the galaxy's colors change from the yellowish light of old stars in the center to young blue star clusters and reddish star forming regions along the loose, fragmented spiral arms.
NGC 6946 is also bright in infrared light and rich in gas and dust, exhibiting a high star birth and death rate. In fact, since the early 20th century at least nine supernovae, the death explosions of massive stars, were discovered in NGC 6946. Nearly 40,000 light-years across, NGC 6946 is also known as the Fireworks Galaxy. This remarkable portrait of NGC 6946 is a composite that includes image data from the 8.2 meter Subaru Telescope on Mauna Kea.”
"Poof!"
"Some people center the universe around themselves; while making other people nothing but decorations to their existence. "I will do this and then I will do that and then people will think this about me and then people will think that about me, and then I will add that person to my life when the convenient time arrives, and this person over here would make a very convenient addition as well..." They build their own thrones for themselves, and add decorations all around their thrones. The problem with that is: it does not bring happiness. A throne must be built for you; it must not be you who builds your own throne. If so, everything that you think you are is only an illusion! And illusions dissolve one day. Poof!"
- C. JoyBell C.
"The Irony"; "Leaving the Earth a Better Place"
“How is one to live a moral and compassionate existence when one is fully aware of the blood, the horror inherent in life, when one finds darkness not only in one’s culture but within oneself? If there is a stage at which an individual life becomes truly adult, it must be when one grasps the irony in its unfolding and accepts responsibility for a life lived in the midst of such paradox. One must live in the middle of contradiction, because if all contradiction were eliminated at once life would collapse. There are simply no answers to some of the great pressing questions. You continue to live them out, making your life a worthy expression of leaning into the light.”
- Barry Lopez
○
"Leaving the Earth a Better Place:
A Legacy of Love"
by Madisyn Taylor, The DailyOM
"It is a great act of love to leave the earth a better place when we leave than which we found her. We inherit this great planet from our parents and from the generations that came before. Then, in concert with the surrounding culture, our elders teach us how to care for the land and the sea, ourselves and each other. They model ways of being in relationship with every other expression of life on earth. But whether they act with care or carelessness, compassion or cruelty, generosity or greed, we have the ability to choose our own individual way of relating with the planet and her inhabitants. From our first breath here to our very last, we will find infinite opportunities to influence our environment for the better. We can decide now to act with intention in order to leave this amazing planet brighter and more beautiful than when we arrived.
If we enjoy environmental activism, we might feel moved to clean up beaches or to plant trees. But, we need not feel limited in our ability to contribute positively. There are many ways to leave a legacy of love. We might begin by radiating affirmative thoughts and feelings about how magnificent the earth truly is. We might create and tend a special garden, one that provides an abundance of food and herbs for ourselves and our loved ones. Or we might create a garden filled with sweet smelling flowers to uplift our hearts. We might even honor the earth simply by trying to be the best person we can be while we are here. Such good will can have a domino effect, inspiring others to contribute in their own way as well.
We spend our lifetimes being nourished and enlivened by the rain, sun, soil and wind. Our experience is blessed by other living beings, from plants to insects to birds and humans. We receive so much; giving back just naturally feels good. When we live our lives with intention of leaving this temporary home a better place for generations to come, we are perhaps leaving behind the best gift of all."
"A Realistic Attitude..."
"It was the essence of life to disbelieve in death for one's self, to act as if life would continue forever. And life had to act also as if little issues were big ones. To take a realistic attitude toward life and death meant that one lapsed into unreality. Into insanity. It was ironic that the only way to keep one's sanity was to ignore that one was in an insane world or to act as if the world were sane."
- Philip José Farmer
"Censorship and Other Such Serendipitous Events"
"Censorship and Other Such Serendipitous Events"
by Addison Wiggin
“What is freedom of expression?
Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist.”
– Salman Rushdie
"Yep, the inbox blew up. Among the more erudite responses was this one from reader Lowell L: "Apparently, any views outside of the officially approved position are still being censored. I tried to watch the video “The Truth About Covid-19” tonight and was met with the message ‘Video unavailable.’” Apparently if you don't go with the approved position, your voice cannot be heard. Whatever happened to free speech and the exchange of ideas? This country has really gone downhill in the last decade or so (maybe, longer). In any case, I was not able to hear what Dr. Mercola had to say. Is there any way that Subscribers can still hear his message? Thank you for any help you can be with this.”
We checked it out ourselves. When the video didn’t load, we have to admit, we thought immediately that Dr. Mercola’s reputation precedes him. We had even joked during the Session that by virtue of being on the show, The Wiggin Sessions would get censored. We did our usual production. And sure enough the link didn’t work.
We are students of irony. This one will go down as an exhibit for our log book. The link didn’t work. Alas… We did not get censured. It was simply a tech problem on our end and not, as one of our producers chided in sarcasm, the “AI tentacles wrapped around Mercola.” Try it again yourself, click here: "Misinformation & The Economic Disaster of Covid-19." (As of 10/25/22 the link appears below.)
It’s a sign of the times that our inbox is filled with messages similar to the one above. Many are less verbose. Most more direct. The majority were confident Dr. Mercola was being canceled by Google, YouTube and other popular platforms.
It’s weird. Joseph is a nice guy. Soft-spoken, even. He has very direct opinions about Google and the “global cabal” but his advice was benign. He suggested the best way to stay healthy was to spend time outside “with as little clothes on as possible” so your body can absorb the sun… create its own vitamin D. How could that be offensive to social media or big pharma? Yes, that’s a rhetorical question. You can write in nevertheless by clicking here.
Follow your bliss,"
○
The Wiggin Sessions video:
Full screen recommended.
Addison Wiggin and Dr Joseph Mercola,
"Misinformation & The Economic Disaster of COVID-19"
Dr Mercola's website: - https://www.mercola.com
○
Oh, we know a little about censorship. After 12 years and one month of daily posts, with no warning whatsoever, and no appeal, "Running 1" was suddenly deleted by Google Blogger on Sept.10, 2020.
Posts Since 8/14/2008: 63,149
Unique Visitors 3,130,395
Total Pageviews 8,988,153
374 Followers
As always, folks, thanks for stopping by! Onward!
- CP
Judge Napolitano, "Playing at War in Ukraine - Col. Douglas Macgregor"
Full screen recommended.
Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom, 10/25/22:
"Playing at War in Ukraine - Col. Douglas Macgregor"
"Congress should signal its readiness to invoke the War Powers Act, while demanding that the Biden administration broker peace."
Comments here:
○
OpEd article, 10/24/22:
"Playing at War in Ukraine "
by Col. Douglas Macgregor
"As the astute author Hunter S. Thompson noted, “When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.” Weird is indisputably the condition in Great Britain, where Liz Truss, an arguably empty and talentless prime minister, is out - and was, it seemed for a moment, very nearly replaced by her vacuous predecessor, Boris Johnson.
Weirdness, however, is not foreign to American politics. An indicator of just how weird Washington is becoming is the apparent interest in General (ret.) David Petraeus’s recent suggestion that Washington and its allies may want to intervene in the ongoing conflict between Moscow and Kiev.
According to Petraeus, the military action he advocates would not be a NATO intervention, but “a multinational force led by the US and not as a NATO force.” In other words, a U.S.-led Multi-National Force on the Iraq model composed of conventional ground, air, and naval forces.
Petraeus does not explain why U.S. military action is needed. But it’s not hard to guess. The intervention is designed to rescue Ukrainian forces from defeat and presumably compel Moscow to negotiate on Washington’s terms, whatever those terms might be.
Admittedly, the whole business seems weird, but Petraeus’s suggestion should not be dismissed. Not because Petraeus’s military expertise warrants consideration—it doesn’t. Rather it merits attention because Petraeus would never make such a recommendation unless he was urged to do so by powerful figures in Washington and on Wall Street. And as Jeffrey Sachs tells Americans, globalist and neocon elites clearly want a direct armed confrontation with Russia.
For Petraeus, it is business as usual. He rose through the ranks by checking with everyone in a position of authority above him before doing anything. Seeking permission to ensure no one in authority is offended (like a “coalition of the willing”) is key to promotion. It works well in peacetime, or during wars of choice against weak, incapable enemies that present no existential military threat to Western forces. But Ukraine is not Iraq nor is the Russian Army an Iraqi-like force, or mounted on “technicals” - pickup trucks with automatic cannon.
These points notwithstanding, Petraeus’s suggestion confirms two critical insights. First, the perilous state of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Absent the foreign fighters and Polish soldiers fighting in Ukrainian uniform, Ukraine has little left to withstand the Russian winter offensives. The series of Ukrainian counterattacks over the last 60 to 90 days have cost Ukraine tens of thousands of lives, human capital in uniform that Kiev cannot replace.
Second, it is the 11th hour. The Russian sledgehammer scheduled to fall on the Zelensky regime in the November or December timeframe, or whenever the ground freezes, will crush whatever remains of Ukrainian forces.
In other words, Petraeus’s real message is that the only way to prolong the life of the Zelensky regime is for Washington and its coalition of the willing to intervene directly before it's too late. The usual war hawks in the White House, the Pentagon, the CIA, and on the Hill probably assume that a quiescent American electorate will buy the argument that the commitment of U.S. forces in Ukraine without a declaration of war could facilitate a face-saving deal with Moscow.
It's dangerous and stupid to think so, and Americans should reject this notion, but it’s not unreasonable to assume this deluded thinking is prevalent inside the beltway. George F. Kennan, American diplomat and historian, insisted 30 years ago that, “We [Americans] tend to overemphasize military factors at the expense of political ones, and in consequence, overmilitarize our responses.” The result, Kennan argued, is Washington’s chronic failure to relate the development and use of American military power to attainable ends of national strategy.
In Washington’s halls of power, the “going in” assumption always presupposes certain conditions: a subservient Congress that will ignore its responsibility to invoke the War Powers Act, unconstrained financial resources for military action, and senior military leaders ready to comply with whatever dumb idea the politicians in charge advocate. For Petraeus and his peers there is also the high probability that some tangible reward is promised in the form of future appointments or financial gain.
The questions of how much ground combat operations in Eastern Europe and Ukraine would demand in terms of U.S. manpower, logistical infrastructure, ammunition, medical support, and evacuation are relegated to secondary consideration. For example, in the 11 months after the landings in Normandy, when the U.S. Army was sustaining 90-100,000 casualties a month, the divisions that landed at Normandy replaced 100-300 percent of their fighting strength.
The commitment of U.S. ground forces to battle combined with the dispersion of U.S. military power at the end of a 5,000-mile lifeline across Ukraine, an area the size of Texas, will unavoidably weaken and dissipate the attacking army’s fighting strength. Finally, Petraeus’s critical assumption that President Putin wants to avoid a larger war is no doubt valid, but this assumption should not be interpreted to mean the Russian military opponent will treat U.S. bases in Western Europe or U.S. warships transiting the Atlantic as inviolate. Moscow enjoys escalation dominance, not Washington.
As noted at the beginning, weirdness in politics is not a new phenomenon. Then again, Petraeus’s remarks signal something far more troubling than mere weirdness. The intellectual and professional caliber of America’s senior military leaders is deplorable. In his landmark work, "August 1914", Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn described Aleksandr Samsonov, the Russian general who at the beginning of the war was renowned as the leading strategist of the Russian Army: “The truth was that his forehead was solid bone, his mind moved at a snail’s pace, and the thoughts that passed through it were worthless.” Solzhenitsyn’s words were harsh, but not inaccurate.
In Ukraine going forward, Washington’s path is clear. Congress should do its duty and signal its readiness to invoke the War Powers Act, while also demanding that the Biden administration broker peace, not expand the war."
"This Can Not Be Fixed"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, iAllegedly 10/25/22:
"This Can Not Be Fixed"
"This can not be fixed. The economy is a mess. We need a change of direction with our Economy. Business leaders are coming out and warning everyone that this only goes down from here."
Comments here:
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)