Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper, 4/18/23
"This Is My Most Important Video Ever.
No One Is Talking About This"
Comments here:
So, we rise from the rubble...
Wednesday, April 19, 2023
"Society Is Collapsing, What Happens When People Get Hungry? Collapse Of The American Empire"
Jeremiah Babe, 4/18/23
"Society Is Collapsing, What Happens When People Get Hungry?
Collapse Of The American Empire"
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Tuesday, April 18, 2023
"Best Buy Reports Large Scale Store Shutdowns As Businesses Brace For Retail Bankruptcies"
Full screen recommended.
"Best Buy Reports Large Scale Store Shutdowns
As Businesses Brace For Retail Bankruptcies"
by Epic Economist
"Retailers have been facing a series of challenges over the past few years. That’s why many of them are opting to close down stores and cut jobs in order to reduce costs and stay afloat in this tough environment. This year, you may have to say goodbye to your local Best Buy. The retail giant announced mass store closings starting this week. The decision will result in thousands of layoffs, and the same trend is being followed by other major companies that are now preparing for a flood of bankruptcies in 2023 - with many at risk of going out of business entirely.
This may be a sad week for loyal Best Buy customers. Earlier this month, the company announced that it will close 17 stores starting on April 17. The locations were identified "through a stringent lease review process," CEO Corie Barry said. But shoppers can expect many more closures in the coming months, Barry warned. The executive anticipates "continued volatility" in 2023 as the company gets ready for "another down year" for the consumer electronics industry as a whole.
At least 30 large format stores are also on the chopping block, Barry revealed that the company’s plans include reducing 7% of its store Count, which ultimately means that over 70 locations will be shuttered. The CEO said that Best Buy will also remodel many of its big boxes, dedicating less of those stores to sales floors and more to backroom space where it can fulfill pickup of digital orders.
Moreover, the company’s headcount declined by about 20% over the last three years. As of February, Best Buy had more than 90,000 employees. That’s a drop from the nearly 125,000 workers that it had in early 2020, according to company financial filings. In other words, 35,000 jobs have already been slashed and many more are about to occur as storefronts go dark.
Several businesses, including some of the biggest retailers in America, are doing whatever they can to cut costs and avoid bankruptcy. They are watching shoppers move away from discretionary merchandise and spend more on essentials and services as inflation rages on. Notably, last month, retail sales fell again, signaling more trouble for the sector. Specifically, retail sales dropped-1.2% month-on-month after declining at a similar rate in the previous month. The figure was worse than expected and confirms a deterioration in consumption in the first quarter of the year.
From department stores to direct-to-consumer brands, companies are cutting staff and shuttering stores in preparation for the perfect storm that is coming. Sadly, this means that millions of hard-working people are going to lose their jobs at a time the country is marching toward a recession. We will not only be impacted by all of these closings, but also by the economic and financial toll these store shutdowns will have on our workforce, our industry, and our nation.
The retail apocalypse is a much more complex issue than people think. Consumers are on the edge right now, while businesses and workers alike are getting closer and closer to a financial cliff that threatens to change America’s economic landscape for good. Retailers better prepare for the wave of bankruptcies that is emerging on the horizon -- because if they don’t, they may disappear before people even realize it."
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Musical Interlude: Loreena McKennitt, "Mummers Dance"; "Dante's Prayer"
Loreena McKennitt, "Mummers Dance"
○
Loreena McKennitt, "Dante's Prayer"
"A Look to the Heavens"
“In one of the brightest parts of Milky Way lies a nebula where some of the oddest things occur. NGC 3372, known as the Great Nebula in Carina, is home to massive stars and changing nebulas. The Keyhole Nebula (NGC 3324), the bright structure just above the image center, houses several of these massive stars and has itself changed its appearance.
The entire Carina Nebula spans over 300 light years and lies about 7,500 light-years away in the constellation of Carina. Eta Carinae, the most energetic star in the nebula, was one of the brightest stars in the sky in the 1830s, but then faded dramatically. Eta Carinae is the brightest star near the image center, just left of the Keyhole Nebula. While Eta Carinae itself maybe on the verge of a supernova explosion, X-ray images indicate that much of the Great Carina Nebula has been a veritable supernova factory.”
The Poet: Henry Austin Dobson, “The Paradox Of Time”
“Time passes in moments. Moments which, rushing past, define the path of a life, just as surely as they lead towards its end. How rarely do we stop to examine that path, to see the reasons why all things happen? To consider whether the path we take in life is our own making, or simply one into which we drift with eyes closed? But what if we could stop, pause to take stock of each precious moment before it passes? Might we then see the endless forks in the road that have shaped a life? And, seeing those choices, choose another path?”
- Gillian Anderson as Dana Scully, “The X-Files”
o
“The Paradox Of Time”
Time goes, you say? – ah no!
Ours is the eyes’ deceit
Of men whose flying feet
Lead through some landscape low;
We pass, and think we see
The earth’s fixed surface flee:-
Alas, Time stays, – we go!
Once in the days of old,
Your locks were curling gold,
And mine had shamed the crow.
Now, in the self-same stage,
We’ve reached the silver age;
Time goes, you say? – ah no!
Once, when my voice was strong,
I filled the woods with song
To praise your ‘rose’ and ‘snow’;
My bird, that sang, is dead;
Where are your roses fled?
Alas, Time stays, – we go!
See, in what traversed ways,
What backward Fate delays
The hopes we used to know;
Where are our old desires?-
Ah, where those vanished fires?
Time goes, you say? – ah no!
How far, how far, O Sweet,
The past behind our feet
Lies in the even-glow!
Now, on the forward way,
Let us fold hands, and pray;
Alas, Time stays, – we go!”
- Henry Austin Dobson
o
Full screen recommended.
Hans Zimmer, "Time"
Free Download: "The Essential Rumi"
"All day I think about it, then at night I say it. Where did I come from, and what am I supposed to be doing? I have no idea. My soul is from elsewhere, I'm sure of that, and I intend to end up there. Who looks out with my eyes? What is the soul? I cannot stop asking. If I could taste one sip of an answer, I could break out of this prison for drunks. I didn't come here of my own accord, and I can't leave that way. Whoever brought me here, will have to take me home."
- Rumi, "The Tavern," Ch. 1:, p. 2, from "The Essential Rumi"
Freely download "The Essential Rumi" here:
"I Keep Saying That..."
"Angel: Well, I guess I kinda worked it out. If there's no great glorious end to all this, if nothing we do matters... then all that matters is what we do. 'Cause that's all there is. What we do. Now. Today. I fought for so long, for redemption, for a reward, and finally just to beat the other guy, but I never got it.
Kate Lockley: And now you do?
Angel: Not all of it. All I wanna do is help. I wanna help, because I don't think people should suffer as they do. Because, if there's no bigger meaning, then the smallest act of kindness is the greatest thing in the world.
Kate Lockley: Yikes. It sounds like you've had an epiphany.
Angel: I keep saying that, but nobody's listening."
"Don't Cry for Central Banksters"
Argentine pesos depicting Eva “Evita” Peron.
"Don't Cry for Central Banksters"
How to destroy a thriving economy...
lessons from Argentina to America.
by Bill Bonner and Joel Bowman
Dublin, Ireland - "Hola! Bienvenidos a Argentina! What did we learn from two months in a country with 100% inflation? “The most surprising thing,” says a friend, “is that it doesn’t seem to matter. The restaurants are full. People are spending money. Life goes on.” Our cab driver voiced much the same sentiment. “Yeah…it’s a crazy country. But we have good meat. Good vegetables. Pretty women. And Messi." [Argentina’s world champion soccer player.] “Yeah…” he went on, after a moment of reflection… “it’s nice here…but only if you have dollars.”
Gresham’s Law in Action: We confirm that a person with dollars can live well on the pampas. Our last night in Buenos Aires, for example, we went to the very popular restaurant, Fervor, in Recoleta. The place was packed with foreigners and locals. No wonder; the meat was among the best we ever had. And with a good bottle of wine from Mendoza, the meal…the service…the ambiance – all were near perfect.
A popular restaurant in a capital city is bound to be expensive. Compared to our dining in Salta, it was expensive. But at $30 a person, compared to prices in New York or London, it was an incredible bargain. And that is true of many things – not tractor parts! – in most of the country. Almost everything is cheap…in dollars exchanged at the black-market rate.
Great for foreigners. But this is just an example of a broader, more universal truth: the particulars matter. You may say that “all cats are the same.” But life for a scrawny alley cat in West Baltimore is very different from life for a pampered pet of the bourgeoisie in Harbor East. So too, even in a country with 100% inflation, some people live well. Many young people, for example, get paid in dollars…or bitcoin. Older people may rent out apartments, or be able to raise prices in their businesses to keep up with inflation.
Almost everyone spends pesos and keeps dollars. The upper classes have investments in the US and Europe. The lower classes buy bricks and mortar…adding spare rooms and garages, confident that no matter what happens to the peso, the concrete will still be there. Credit is almost impossible to get, so buildings go up a brick at a time, as owners spend their extra pesos. At today’s inflation rate, bricks double in price every year.
But what about the US? And here is where looking back at Argentina may help us look ahead at America. What we see is that when countries work themselves into an inflationary jam, inflation begins to look like the least of their problems.
Panem et Circenses: For all the blah, blah on the subject, there are still only two possibilities. Either individuals decide for themselves what they want…and get it by ‘voting’ for it with their own money. Or someone else decides. The ‘someone else’ is always the big-mouth busybody who pretends to be selflessly acting on behalf of some greater good…some common good – equality, saving the planet, the Triumph of the Proletariat….Deutschland Uber Alles…or whatever.
In Argentina, in 1919, Roque Saenz Pena, then president of Argentina, thought he had taken a giant step forward for mankind when he backed universal suffrage for all men. Not only did he allow them to vote, his Saenz Pena law made voting mandatory. Then, a few years later, women too, were brought into the scheme.
Opponents argued then that the masses lacked the education or the sophistication to vote intelligently. They were right. But the poor knew what they wanted. And, in 1946, for the first time in Argentine history, a candidate was able to win the Casa Rosada (equivalent to the White House) by promising to give them more of it.
Juan Peron had a smile like an ad for toothpaste. And he could do math. He quickly realized there were more poor voters than rich voters. And their votes were relatively cheap. The formula was such a hit, it ruled Argentina for the next 7 decades as the country slid downhill, from the 7th richest nation on earth…to number 86!
What happened was no mystery…and no surprise. When you give away free stuff, you have to pay for it somehow. Peron taxed the rich. He taxed the middle classes. He taxed the productive parts of the economy and gave the goodies to the unproductive part. Output went down. But the demand for free stuff did not slack off. And soon, the tax base depleted, the politicians turned to borrowing. Tax, spend, borrow, default, print. The country has defaulted nine times. By 2001, Argentina defaulted on the biggest pile of debt ever – $100 billion.
When the loans gave out, the gauchos turned to the time-honored scams of desperadoes everywhere: war and inflation. The first distracts the public; the second rips them off. In 1976, the generals staged a military coup and took power from Peron’s second wife, Isabelita. In 1982, they attacked the Falklands/Malvinas islands. By 1989, inflation was running hot – at 1,000%.
Then, Carlos Menem restarted the cycle. The peso was pegged to the dollar, one to one. That emboldened borrowers to borrow and lenders to lend. Pretty soon, they had borrowed too much…and the one-to-one peso/dollar peg blew up. Then, prices rose again.
When we first came to the pampas, the exchange rate was one-to-one and Menem was in the Casa Rosada. Then, a couple of years later, in the early 2000s, the rate had gone to 3 to one. Skip ahead to this year – and we were getting almost 400 pesos per dollar.
Loco Locals: Why don’t the Argentines put a stop to the spend-borrow-default-inflate cycle? Because once you get into it, the only way to stop it is financially painful – with recession/depression/bankruptcies/unemployment etc. But the real reason it goes on is because it becomes almost impossible, politically, to stop it. First, the masses want free stuff. Later, they depend on the free stuff. That’s why the US – where ‘transfer payments’ have gone up 290 times since 1954 – will find it almost impossible to stop the cycle too.
But the most charming (and loco) thing about Argentine finance is the way people are willing to let bygones be bygones. Yes, Argentina is a serial defaulter. But that didn’t stop the country, in 2017, from selling more than $2 billion worth of 100-year bonds. If history is any guide, investors will get wiped out…not once, but several times, as the government will default five times before they mature.
So, what do we take from this experience…Argentina’s history…and our own history with it over the last 25 years? An inflation-and-default prone financial system is not the end of the world. But it requires a different attitude…less trust and more caution. The money rots faster than a ripe banana. Everyone struggles to get rid of it. People feel they have been ripped off – as they have – and then they don’t feel so bad about ripping other people off.
A taxi driver may inflate his prices. A restaurant may give you the wrong change. A business may bill you incorrectly. And everyone will cheat on his taxes. Almost every major deal includes some ‘black’ money as well as some ‘white’ money. And then there’s the ‘blue’ money….the dollars you get from exchanging money at the free market rate; you don’t want to have too many of them, lest you have to explain where you got them.
Every transaction requires quick calculations…and flexible book-keeping. Every relationship demands trust…and verification. And every experience comes with a certain amount of ambiguity…a moral and financial fluidity. It’s like having a picnic on the side of an active volcano; you need to relax in order to enjoy it…but be ready to run."
o
Joel’s Note: Bill may have only been gone a week or so… but already the exchange figures he was experiencing while in town are long out of date. Shortly after last week’s inflation print hit the presses on Friday, showing prices rising at a blistering 104.3% rate annually, the highest level since 1991, the “dólar blue” was off to the races.
A euphemism for the “black market,” the “dólar blue” rate represents what people actually pay on the street… as opposed to the “official” rate, which nobody bothers with. The blue rate shot through the 400:1 mark late Friday… then opened Monday at 408:1. This morning we saw it quoted at 412:1. Long lines snake out of the illegal exchanges and around the block, as workers… shop owners… even policemen, line up to offload their fast-depreciating fiat. And daily does the price of escaping peso inflation extend beyond the reach of the long-suffering Argentine people…
Some porteños have even taken to calling it the dolor blue (“dolor” being the Spanish word for “pain.”) Predictably, folks convert their fast evaporating pesos as quickly as they can, into bricks, gold, foreign currency, crypto… anything they can get their hands on. And here we see Gresham’s Law – simply stated as “bad money drives out good” – in action. Bad/unreliable pesos push good money onto the sidelines, into foreign accounts and under the mattress.
Of course, the Argentine government is doing all it can to make a bad situation worse, such is its wont. Elections later this year, in October, will determine whether voters are desperate enough to “throw the bums out.”
Meanwhile, up in American del Norte, the feds are likewise running low on dollars… even those they print themselves! BPR’s macro analyst, Dan Denning, forwarded this chart along this morning…
Click image for larger size.
As you can see, at only $109 billion, the Treasury’s coffers are looking rather slim. It’s almost as if long-abused dollars are falling out of favor in international trade…Janet Yellen herself admitted as much on Sunday, when she told CNN…“There is a risk when we use financial sanctions that are linked to the role of the dollar that over time it could undermine the hegemony of the dollar.”
In totally unrelated news, the Standard Chartered Renminbi Globalization Index, which measures international renminbi usage in global trade, rose 26.6% last year as BRICS nations sought alternative settlement mechanisms beyond the US-imposed ruble sanctions. When the Argentines begin trading pesos for rubles and renminbi, instead of dollars and euros, we’ll know the jig is up…"
"3 Shocking Truths Most People Don't Know About Money in Bank Accounts"
"3 Shocking Truths Most People Don't
Know About Money in Bank Accounts"
by Nick Giambruno
"Henry Ford astutely observed that a revolution would occur overnight if people truly understood the banking and monetary system. That’s because modern banking is an elaborate illusion that deceives people into a false sense of security… until it’s too late.
Large banks can fail in hours, and life savings can evaporate overnight. The US banking system is especially vulnerable, as recent events have shown. Why do so many people put their confidence and life savings into an unstable system? I would say it’s because they do not understand three fundamental truths about modern banking.
#1. The money isn't yours.
#2. The money isn't actually there.
#3. The money isn't really money.
Truth #1: The Money Isn’t Yours: Many people are surprised to learn that they don't truly own the money in their bank account. Once you deposit money at the bank, it’s no longer your personal property. Instead, it belongs to the bank, and they can do whatever they want with it. What you own with a bank deposit is a promise from the bank to repay you - an IOU.
Depositing money is like making an unsecured loan to the bank, with practically no interest to compensate you for taking such a risk. It's a terrific deal for the bank and a terrible deal for you. That’s why a bank deposit is very different from cash in hand. Yet the vast majority of people wrongly conflate the two. Further, the bank can freeze "your" money by pushing a button for whatever reason they find convenient.
Perhaps you bought something the bank didn't like or made a politically incorrect statement on social media. Then, don't be surprised to see your account frozen or worse. For example, PayPal recently floated the idea of charging people $2,500 for promoting so-called "misinformation." Expect much more of this stuff in the future from banks and financial institutions. If your money can be easily frozen or seized, it was never really yours.
Truth #2: The Money Isn’t Actually There: The money you think is in the bank isn't actually there. Banks don't have physical cash reserved for you in their vault, nor do they have enough digital funds to cover all depositors. During the Covid hysteria, the US government removed bank reserve requirements, meaning banks don't need to hold any funds for withdrawals.
So, where does all that money go? Unbeknownst to most depositors, banks can use "your" money to recklessly gamble on the latest investment fad. Banks are using "your" money to make bets and take risks that could render them insolvent and unable to redeem deposits. If only a tiny fraction of depositors demanded their money back, most banks would be in big trouble because the money isn’t there.
This slimy practice is known as fractional reserve banking - and it’s totally legal. However, that doesn’t change the fraudulent nature of the activity. Imagine any other industry using a fractional reserve system. For example, a fractional reserve car dealership or jewelry store where the car salesman and jewelry store owner could create 10x more claims for cars and pieces of jewelry than what actually exists in their inventories. They would be selling claims for goods that don't exist. It would be clear such a practice would be fraudulent.
Modern banking resembles a Ponzi Scheme, as it relies on the false belief that people's money is readily available when, in fact, it isn't.
Truth #3: The Money Isn’t Really Money: Although people use currency every day, few consider what it actually is or what makes for a good money. Asking people, "What is money?" is like asking a fish, "What is water?" The fish probably doesn’t even notice the water unless it becomes polluted or something is wrong.
Money is a good, just like any other in an economy. And it isn’t a complex notion to grasp. It doesn’t require you to understand convoluted math formulas and complicated theories - as the gatekeepers in academia, media, and government mislead many folks into believing.
Understanding money is intuitive and straightforward. Money is simply something useful for storing and exchanging value. That’s it. People have used stones, glass beads, salt, cattle, seashells, gold, silver, and other commodities as money at different times. Think of money as a claim on human time. It’s like stored life or energy.
Unfortunately, today most of humanity thoughtlessly accepts whatever worthless digital and paper scrips their governments give them as money. However, money does not need to come from the government. That’s a total misnomer that the average person has been hoodwinked into believing. It would be similar to transporting yourself back in time and asking the average person in the Soviet Union, "Where do shoes come from?" They would say, "Well, the government makes the shoes. Where else could they come from? Who else could make the shoes?"
It's the same mentality regarding money today - except it's much more widespread with much bigger implications. Government currencies are terrible money because they are easy to produce with a potentially unlimited supply. The free market wouldn't choose government confetti as money without laws forcing their use.
Here’s another way to think of it. Imagine if Tony Soprano forced his neighborhood to use pieces of paper with his signature as money and threatened violence against anyone who disobeyed. That’s what governments are doing with their currencies.
Here’s the bottom line. Hardness is the most important characteristic of a good money. Hardness does not mean something that is necessarily tangible or physically hard, like metal. Instead, it means "hard to produce." By contrast, "easy money" is easy to produce. The best way to think of hardness is "resistance to debasement," which helps make it a good store of value - an essential function of money.
Would you want to put your savings into something somebody else can create without effort or cost? Of course, you wouldn’t. It would be like storing your life savings in Chuck E. Cheese arcade tokens, airline frequent flyer miles, or pieces of paper with Tony Soprano's signature. Unfortunately, putting your savings into government currencies isn't that much different. What is desirable in a good money is something that someone else cannot make easily.
Conclusion: The banking system is a fragile illusion that could collapse suddenly, potentially wiping out the savings of millions who misplace their confidence in it.That confidence is dependent on people not understanding three simple truths about the banking system:
#1. The money isn't yours.
#2. The money isn't actually there.
#3. The money isn't really money."
Gerald Celente, "War With China, Who Will Win?"
VERY strong language alert!
Gerald Celente, 4/18/23
"War With China, Who Will Win?"
"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."
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Gerald's in fine form, lol
"The Ironic, The Tragic Thing..."
“One can fight evil but against stupidity one is helpless… I have accepted the fact, hard as it may be, that human beings are inclined to behave in ways that would make animals blush. The ironic, the tragic thing is that we often behave in ignoble fashion from what we consider the highest motives. The animal makes no excuse for killing his prey; the human animal, on the other hand, can invoke God’s blessing when massacring his fellow men. He forgets that God is not on his side but at his side.”
“There is no salvation in becoming adapted to a world which is crazy.”
- Henry Miller
"If People Are This Eager To Riot And Loot Now, What Will America Look Like Once Economic Conditions Get Extremely Bad?"
Full screen recommended.
"If People Are This Eager To Riot And Loot Now, What Will
America Look Like Once Economic Conditions Get Extremely Bad?"
by Michael Snyder
"This isn’t what a civilized society is supposed to look like. We aren’t supposed to have vast mobs of very angry young people rioting, looting and generally going nuts all over the country. But this is what our nation has become. Our major cities have become cesspools of lawlessness where violence can literally erupt at any moment. But if Americans are this eager to riot and loot now, what is going to happen once we are in the midst of a severe economic recession? Needless to say, harsh economic times are certainly not going to improve the mood in this country.
It appears that Monday night is Kansas City’s turn to experience civil unrest. According to Time Magazine, protests “have erupted” even before the sun has gone down…"Protests have erupted in Kansas City, Mo., after a Black teenager was shot in the head and arm by a white homeowner late last week after accidentally ringing the wrong doorbell. Ralph Yarl, 16, has been hospitalized with life-threatening injuries. He was shot after he went to collect his two younger brothers on Thursday after 10 p.m., according to police. Police said Yarl mistook the address 115th Terrace for 115th Street, where he was shot."
Any time a young person dies a tragic death like this, we should all mourn. Unfortunately, for a lot of people any sort of an incident like this is used as an excuse to riot, loot and burn things down.
And sometimes the criminals don’t need any sort of an excuse at all. Less than 24 hours ago, hundreds of looters completely gutted a gas station in Compton…"Sheriff’s deputies in Compton are returning to their patrol duties Monday following a chaotic weekend that involved a series of street takeovers and a mob of looters that left a trail of destruction at local stores.
Video, above, captured a wild scene at an Arco gas station near Alondra Boulevard and Central Avenue early Sunday morning where a large group was caught on video bum-rushing an Arco gas station and stealing thousands of dollars’ worth of merchandise, all while the clerk on duty hid inside. The video shows one man breaking the glass door while dozens of looters crowd behind him. Moments later, the group was seen grabbing everything from drinks, snacks, alcohol and even condoms."
Go back and read that first sentence again. The mainstream media is actually admitting that criminals are taking over entire streets in Los Angeles right now. And the police are admitting that they couldn’t do anything about the looting because they were so greatly outnumbered. Watching hundreds of young men work together to loot a gas station should send a chill down all of our spines. In this case, there was absolutely no political motivation for the attack. These young men just saw an opportunity to steal, and they gleefully took advantage of it…
The day before that, there was a massive riot in downtown Chicago that made headlines all over the nation, and a “huge brawl” erupted at a Chicago White Sox game…"A huge brawl broke out at Saturday’s Chicago White Sox game for over two minutes with several spectators involved. Fists were flying all over the place before a woman was dragged from behind over a row of seats on the first-base side. One lone security guard attempted to make peace, while another pair of women were throwing haymakers at one another."
If we are seeing this much chaos while economic conditions are still at least somewhat relatively stable, what will things be like once millions of Americans become truly desperate? Earlier today, I was quite alarmed to read former Home Depot CEO Bob Nardelli’s assessment of the economy…"Former Home Depot CEO Bob Nardelli issued a grim warning over the U.S.’s “very complex” economy, cautioning consumers that middle market companies are under “tremendous pressure.”
“I think we’re going to see a lot of bankruptcies. Like Bed, Bath and Beyond. We got Walmart not only laying people off, but closing stores. We got Accenture laying people off. We got Amazon closing distribution centers. So I think there’s a tremendous-mixed message,” Nardelli said during an appearance on “Cavuto: Coast to Coast.” The former CEO continued, saying that the “complexity” of the U.S. economy is “different than anything I have seen in my 52 years.”
Sadly, he is quite right. So many companies are going to go out of business in the months ahead. In fact, we just learned that David’s Bridal has just filed for bankruptcy…"David’s Bridal filed for bankruptcy protection days after the company announced it would lay off more than 9,200 employees across the nation. The wedding retailer said in a press release Monday that its stores would remain open and fulfill orders without delay as the company looks to sell all or some of its assets. Its online platforms will also remain available to help with customers’ wedding planning needs."
As economic conditions deteriorate, Americans are going to increasingly turn to debt as a short-term solution, and this will particularly be true for financially-distressed young people that don’t have a lot of resources…"Many young adults overwhelmed by financial stress cope by ignoring the problem. Some tune out bank and credit-card balances, lose track of their spending and rack up debt. Average credit-card debt rose 29% to $5,800 in March from a year earlier for millennials and increased 40% to $2,800 for Gen Z, Credit Karma said. Younger people were also more likely to have paid late fees or taken advances from their credit cards, a survey from NerdWallet found."
Unfortunately, U.S. banks are starting to get really tight with their money, and so that means that credit lines will be reduced and fewer credit cards will be issued. A lot of people will soon find that they are maxed out and are unable to get more credit. And all of this comes at a time when the U.S. money supply is steadily shrinking…
"The U.S. money supply contracted for the third consecutive month, and is declining at the fastest pace since the Great Depression, new Federal Reserve data show. In February, the M2 money supply – a benchmark for how much cash, bills, bank deposits, coins, and money market funds are circulating throughout the national economy – tumbled 2.24 percent from the same time a year ago, down from negative 1.7 percent in January. This represented the third straight month of a contracting money supply."
There is so much economic pain on the horizon. And the American people are certainly not mentally or emotionally equipped to deal with hard times. So we better hope that our leaders can find a way to artificially prop up the economy, because if they are unable to do so there will be much more rioting, looting and chaos ahead."
"Reflect On What Happens..."
“Reflect on what happens when a terrible winter blizzard strikes. You hear the weather warning but probably fail to act on it. The sky darkens. Then the storm hits with full fury, and the air is a howling whiteness. One by one, your links to the machine age breakdown. Electricity flickers out, cutting off the TV. Batteries fade, cutting off the radio. Phones go dead. Roads become impassible, and cars get stuck. Food supplies dwindle. Day to day vestiges of modern civilization – bank machines, mutual funds, mass retailers, computers, satellites, airplanes, governments – all recede into irrelevance. Picture yourself and your loved ones in the midst of a howling blizzard that lasts several years. Think about what you would need, who could help you, and why your fate might matter to anybody other than yourself. That is how to plan for a secular winter. Don’t think you can escape the Fourth Turning. History warns that a Crisis will reshape the basic social and economic environment that you now take for granted.”
– Strauss and Howe, “The Fourth Turning”
"Strange Prices At Meijer! This Is Crazy! What's Coming?"
Full screen recommended.
Adventures With Danno, 4/18/23
"Strange Prices At Meijer!
This Is Crazy! What's Coming?"
"In today's vlog we are at Meijer, and noticing some strange prices on groceries! We encourage everyone to stock up on some of these deals, as prices keep rising all over the country. Let's take advantage of some of these deals while we can before they go up again."
Comments here:
"The Party Is Almost Over"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly 4/18/23
"The Party Is Almost Over"
"Let’s face it, the banks have got to come up with a way to help people make money with their savings. These banks are having serious financial problems and we’re just about to have this exposed."
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"The Wall Was Too High, As You Can See" (Excerpt)
"The Wall Was Too High, As You Can See" *
By Jim Quinn
“The surest way to work up a crusade in favor of some good cause is to promise people they will have a chance of maltreating someone. To be able to destroy with good conscience, to be able to behave badly and call your bad behavior ‘righteous indignation’ - this is the height of psychological luxury, the most delicious of moral treats.” - Aldous Huxley, "Crome Yellow"
Excerpt: "As I have witnessed and lived through the last three dystopian years of mass hysteria, mass delusion, and mass mental illness, I find myself drawn to the same thinkers, social commentators, and musical artists over and over. The wisdom, wit, and clarity of Aldous Huxley, George Orwell, and Roger Waters in describing a world gone mad makes me feel less alone in my observations about humanity, politicians, governments, bankers, billionaire funded NGOs, war mongering psychopaths, and entities intent on shredding the social fabric of this country and the world.
Their writings and lyrics perfectly capture the insanity, glorification of abnormality, psychological manipulation and torture of the masses, man’s inhumanity to man, and how powerful wealthy psychopaths use their wealth and power to control governments, the media, academia, corporations, the military, scientists, doctors, and religious institutions. The dystopian visions in Huxley and Orwell’s novels, and Waters’ lyrics have been far exceeded by the reality of what has transpired and continues to take place every day.
Huxley’s quote about mental illness and our profoundly abnormal society has always struck a chord with me and helped me realize, as an outcast who doesn’t believe what is spoon fed to us by the mass media propaganda outlets on behalf of their wealthy benefactors, I’m not the abnormal one. My refusal to adapt or adjust to a deviant society inhabited and controlled by the mental ill, while worshipping at the altar of abnormalcy, is a sign of my sanity in a sea of absurdity. I have to admit it is lonely always being on the opposite side of the approved narrative, believed by the masses. It would be so much easier to just go along with the crowd, but it is not how I’m wired. I question everything.
I never believe anything spewing out of a politician’s mouth. I believe all governments are evil and controlled by a wealthy powerful elite, who hide behind the mask of the Deep State to manipulate society to benefit themselves and their feckless cronies. I have this rare ability to think critically, rather than believe what I’m told by “experts”, think tanks, media talking heads, and “scientific studies” produced by easily bribed hack “experts”. I channel my inner George Carlin regarding everything I am told by the government or the propaganda media outlets."
Full, most highly recommended article is here:
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Full screen recommended.
* Pink Floyd, " Hey You", "The Wall"
"Trading With The Enemy"
"Trading With The Enemy"
by Seymour Hersh
"The Ukraine government, headed by Volodymyr Zelensky, has been using American taxpayers’ funds to pay dearly for the vitally needed diesel fuel that is keeping the Ukrainian army on the move in its war with Russia. It is unknown how much the Zelensky government is paying per gallon for the fuel, but the Pentagon was paying as much as $400 per gallon to transport gasoline from a port in Pakistan, via truck or parachute, into Afghanistan during the decades-long American war there.
What also is unknown is that Zelensky has been buying the fuel from Russia, the country with which it, and Washington, are at war, and the Ukrainian president and many in his entourage have been skimming untold millions from the American dollars earmarked for diesel fuel payments. One estimate by analysts from the Central Intelligence Agency put the embezzled funds at $400 million last year, at least; another expert compared the level of corruption in Kiev as approaching that of the Afghan war, “although there will be no professional audit reports emerging from the Ukraine.”
“Zelensky’s been buying discount diesel from the Russians,” one knowledgeable American intelligence official told me. “And who’s paying for the gas and oil? We are. Putin and his oligarchs are making millions” on it.
Many government ministries in Kiev have been literally “competing,” I was told, to set up front companies for export contracts for weapons and ammunition with private arms dealers around the world, all of which provide kickbacks. Many of those companies are in Poland and Czechia, but others are thought to exist in the Persian Gulf and Israel. “I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that there are others in places like the Cayman Islands and Panama, and there are lots of Americans involved,” an American expert on international trade told me.
The issue of corruption was directly raised with Zelensky in a meeting last January in Kiev with CIA Director William Burns. His message to the Ukrainian president, I was told by an intelligence official with direct knowledge of the meeting, was out of a 1950s mob movie. The senior generals and government officials in Kiev were angry at what they saw as Zelensky’s greed, so Burns told the Ukrainian president, because “he was taking a larger share of the skim money than was going to the generals.”
Burns also presented Zelensky with a list of thirty-five generals and senior officials whose corruption was known to the CIA and others in the American government. Zelensky responded to the American pressure ten days later by publicly dismissing ten of the most ostentatious officials on the list and doing little else. “The ten he got rid of were brazenly bragging about the money they had - driving around Kiev in their new Mercedes,” the intelligence official told me."
Monday, April 17, 2023
Musical Interlude: Matt Simons, "After The Landslide"
Full screen recommended.
Matt Simons, "After The Landslide"
"Bank Of America And Business CEOs Are All Warning That Hard Times Are Coming This Year"
Full screen recommended.
"Bank Of America And Business CEOs Are All
Warning That Hard Times Are Coming This Year"
by Epic Economist
"Some 70% of Americans admit to being stressed about their personal finances these days and a majority - 52% - of U.S. adults said their financial stress has increased since before the Covid-19 pandemic began in March 2020, according to a new CNBC Your Money Financial Confidence Survey conducted in partnership with Momentive. Unfortunately, the truth is that the financial stress is just beginning for many families, because a significant economic downturn is on the way.
At this point what is approaching is so obvious that the Federal Reserve is even publicly admitting that a recession will start “later this year.” I honestly cannot remember the last time that the Federal Reserve actually predicted that a recession would be coming. Normally, the Fed is wildly optimistic with their projections because they want us to have faith that their policies are working. But now even they have thrown in the towel.
Bank of America is also sounding the alarm. Analysts at the bank recently shared 12 charts “that show that the economy is about to enter a full-blown recession”, and I was particularly interested in what they had to say about tightening credit conditions.
If you still believe that our leaders will magically find some way out of this economic mess, you are definitely in the minority at this point. According to a survey that KPMG conducted not too long ago, 91 percent of corporate CEOs in the U.S. “are convinced we are heading toward a recession in the next 12 months”.
The “retail apocalypse” that we went through a few years ago will be nothing compared to what we will soon experience. According to analysts at UBS, we could eventually see more than 50,000 retail stores in this country permanently close their doors.
The recession of 2023 won’t just be the end of a typical business cycle. The truth is that what we are witnessing is the culmination of many long-term economic trends that I have been watching for a long time. Our leaders have been making disastrous decisions for decades, and now we are going to reap what they have sown."
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"We're so freakin' doomed!"
- The Mogambo Guru
And he was so right...
"Peak Focus for Complex Tasks With Beta Isochronic Tones"
Full screen recommended.
"Peak Focus for Complex Tasks
With Beta Isochronic Tones"
by Jason Lewis - Mind Amend
"This is a high-intensity audio brainwave entrainment session, using isochronic tones. Listen to this when you need a strong burst of intense focus to concentrate and study things like advanced mathematics, scientific formulas, financial analysis or any other complex mental activity. Listen to this track with your eyes open while doing the task/activity you want to focus on. Use this session in the morning, afternoon or early evening, to train your brain for better cognition, focus and thought processing. You can either sit somewhere quiet and comfortable with your eyes closed and give your brain a nice workout, or you can also listen to this while doing an activity that requires a boost in concentration.
Headphones are NOT REQUIRED for this video. Although headphones are not required you may find they produce a more intense effect, because they help to block out distracting external sounds.
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"Isochronic tones are a fast and effective audio-based way to stimulate your brain. Among many of the benefits, they can help improve focus, relaxation, energy levels, sleep and more, without taking drugs or needing any special equipment. What isochronic tones essentially do is guide your dominant brainwave activity to a different frequency while you are listening to them, allowing you to influence and change your mental state and how you feel."
I strongly suggest you read Comments here:
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"Isochronic Tones –
How They Work, the Benefits and the Research"
This is a brainwave entrainment audio session using isochronic tones combined with music. The isochronic tones are the repetitive beats you can hear on top of the music throughout the track. If you are new to this type of audio brainwave entrainment, find out how isochronic tones work and how they compare to binaural beats here:
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Listen folks, we're out of time! Whether you want to know it or not we're literally in the fight of our lives, for our lives, right now, and it's going to get much, much worse. Some of you reading this will not survive, and I may not either, so I'll take any edge I can get, and you should too... This works for me. Prepare yourself, brace for impact...
- CP
Musical Interlude: Peder B. Helland, "Beautiful Relaxing Music for Stress Relief"
Full screen recommended.
Soothing Relaxation,
"Beautiful Relaxing Music for Stress Relief"
"Beautiful relaxing music for stress relief, composed by Peder B. Helland. This instrumental music ("The Hidden Valley") works well as sleep music, ambient study music, meditation music or relaxation music."
Magnificent...
"A Look to the Heavens"
"A gorgeous spiral galaxy, M104 is famous for its nearly edge-on profile featuring a broad ring of obscuring dust lanes. Seen in silhouette against an extensive central bulge of stars, the swath of cosmic dust lends a broad brimmed hat-like appearance to the galaxy suggesting a more popular moniker, the Sombrero Galaxy. This sharp optical view of the well-known galaxy made from ground-based image data was processed to preserve details often lost in overwhelming glare of M104's bright central bulge.
Also known as NGC 4594, the Sombrero galaxy can be seen across the spectrum, and is host to a central supermassive black hole. About 50,000 light-years across and 28 million light-years away, M104 is one of the largest galaxies at the southern edge of the Virgo Galaxy Cluster. Still the colorful spiky foreground stars in this field of view lie well within our own Milky Way galaxy. "
"Just Remember..."
“I know the world seems terrifying right now and the future seems bleak. Just remember human beings have always managed to find the greatest strength within themselves during the darkest hours. When faced with the worst horrors the world has to offer, a person either cracks and succumbs to ugliness, or they salvage the inner core of who they are and fight to right wrongs. Never let hatred, fear, and ignorance get the best of you. Keep bettering yourself so you can make the world around you better, for nothing can improve without the brightest, bravest, kindest, and most imaginative individuals rising above the chaos.”
- Cat Winters
"What Might Have Been..."
“Space I can recover. Time, never.”
- Napoleon Bonaparte
“Lands can be reconquered, indeed in the course of a battle, a hill or a certain plain might trade hands several times. But missed opportunities? These can never be regained. Moments in time, in culture? They can never be re-made. One can never go back in time to prepare for what they should have prepared for, no one can ever get back critical seconds that were wasted out of fear or ego. Napoleon was brilliant at trading space for time: Sure, you can make these moves, provided you are giving me the time I need to drill my troops, or move them to where I want them to be. Yet in life, most of us are terrible at this. We trade an hour of our life here or afternoon there like it can be bought back with the few dollars we were paid for it. And it is only much, much later, as they are on their deathbeds or when they are looking back on what might have been, that many people realize the awful truth of this quote. Don’t do that. Embrace it now.”
- Ryan Holiday
Redacted, "So THIS Is Why They're So Scared Of The Ukraine Document Leaks"
Full screen recommended.
Redacted, 4/17/23
"So THIS Is Why They're So Scared
Of The Ukraine Document Leaks"
"It is a shoot-the-messenger situation due to leaked documents that show officials in the U.S. telling big fat lies about the conflict in Ukraine and downplaying the U.S. role. For instance, the documents show that "American-made smart bombs are falling victim to Russian electronic jamming in Ukraine, causing them to miss their targets," according to Politico. A Defense Department official has confirmed this. You'd think that Russia would be happy about this validating leak but Russian expert Gilbert Doctorow reports that they are not. "It strengthens the argument on their side by those who say that insanity rules in the USA, that you have to be prepared for every eventuality in escalation of the war."
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The Poet: Mary Oliver, "There Is Time Left"
"There Is Time Left"
"Well, there is time left
fields everywhere invite you into them.
And who will care, who will chide you if you wander away
from wherever you are, to look for your soul?
Quickly, then, get up, put on your coat, leave your desk!
To put ones foot into the door of the grass, which is
the mystery, which is death as well as life,
and not be afraid!
To set ones foot in the door of death,
and be overcome with amazement! "
~ Mary Oliver
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