So, we rise from the rubble...
Friday, April 8, 2022
"So, You Take This Thing..."
"That life. This life. It looks as if you can have both. I mean, they're both right there, one on top of the other, and it looks as if they'll blend. But they never will. So, you take this thing. You take this thing you want, and you put it in a box and you close the lid. You can let your fingers trace the cracks, the places where the light gets in, the dark gets out, but the lid stays on. You don't look inside. You don't look at this thing you want so much, because you Can. Not. Have. It. So there's this box, you know, with the thing inside, and you could throw it away or shoot it into space; you could set it on fire and watch it burn to ashes, but really, none of that would make a difference, because you cannot destroy what you want. It only makes you want it more. So. You take this thing you want and you put it in a box and you close the lid. And you hold the box close to your heart, which is where it wants to go, and you pretend it doesn't kill you every time you feel yourself breathe."
- Megan Hart
Gerald Celente, Peter Schiff, "Economy Headed for Dramatic Collapse, Prepare Now"
Full screen recommended.
Gerald Celente, Peter Schiff:
"Economy Headed for Dramatic Collapse, Prepare Now"
"Peter Schiff, the chief economist at Euro Pacific Capital, told Gerald Celente in an interview published Thursday that Americans need to be prepared for a “dramatic collapse” of the economy. “Interest rates are going substantially higher from here. They’re still much too low,” he said. “We’re now kind of approaching three percent yields on U.S. treasuries, we’re not quite there yet.”
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."
Bill Bonner, "Reaping the Whirlwind"
"Reaping the Whirlwind"
by Bill Bonner
San Martin, Argentina - "Oh my…On Monday we reported that Joe Biden’s tax plan will give the US the highest tax rates in the Western world. And now comes Senator Bernie Sanders with a ‘one-up.’
On Friday, Sanders introduced the "Ending Corporate Greed Act," cosponsored by fellow progressive Senator Ed Markey, with New York Rep. Jamaal Bowman introducing the legislation in the House. Under Sanders' plan, companies that make over $500 million in annual revenue would be taxed 95% on their "windfall profits." That amount would be calculated based on their average profit level in the five years leading up to the pandemic. Deemed a "temporary emergency measure," the tax would only be in place from 2022 to 2024. In a release, Sanders said the levy would bring in $400 billion in just one year.
"We cannot allow big oil companies and other large, profitable corporations to continue to use the war in Ukraine, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the specter of inflation to make obscene profits by price gouging Americans at the gas pump, the grocery store, or any other sector of our economy," Sanders said in a release.
Robbing Peter to Bribe Paul: Sanders’ pencil pushers figure they can squeeze $66.1 billion from Berkshire Hathaway (a company that offers candy, insurance, coke… and other consumables), Amazon (a company that makes it easy to shop) is supposed to cough up $28.6 billion; JPMorganChase is targeted for $18.8 billion (JPMorgan is, of course, a bank; it does whatever banks do), and an additional $12.9 billion from Chevron (which provides fuel to thousands of drivers).
Let’s see… the money will go from people who provide valuable goods and services to…Raytheon and General Dynamics, who will give the nation yet more weapons! (Has any investment in weapons since 1945 actually paid off?)
Baltimore and other cities… which squander billions each year in corruption and incompetence… (the more they get… the more they waste) payoffs to lobbyists… student loans that don’t get paid back… sex change operations… and a list of grift and plunder that would take weeks to catalog.
There is no need to spend our time pointing out how absurd this is. But we will do it anyway… if only to reach for another point: the world doesn’t respond favorably to simpleminded control by jackasses. Instead, it is a weave of connections, often invisible and infinitely complex. Pull on one thread and the fabric wrinkles or tears.
But how would Sanders know? Life’s intricate textiles are not of interest to him. Instead, typical of his entire caste, he has been in politics since 1971 – almost his entire adult life. He has no idea how the real world works; he only knows the world of socialist politics. So, herewith a brief tutorial on ‘windfalls’: Profits – windfall or otherwise – are the reward for providing goods and services. The ‘windfall’ happens when those services are most appreciated. A guy who spends all year cutting firewood, for example, will reap a “windfall” when the weather turns especially cold. The proposal on the table is to take the money away from him… and give it to people who didn’t bother to cut a single log.
The Fabric of Civil Society: Down here in Argentina, farmers grit their way through years of crushing taxes, socialist rules and regulations, droughts, and heat waves – often going broke. And then, through no fault nor virtue of their own, the weather turns favorable… farm prices rise… and they are able to pay off their loans and stay in business.
This year, US dollar inflation, and sanctions against one of the world’s largest grain producers, sent farm prices soaring. Suddenly, the gauchos are in high clover, eager to make up for years of barely making ends meet. Should we take away their ‘windfall’ profits now?
Or how about people who manufacture portable, emergency generators? Their whole business strategy may be based on windfalls. Most of the time, few people want to make the investment in their generators. But come the big hurricane, and suddenly, customers can’t get enough of them.
And how about Warren Buffett’s insurance company? Is it a ‘windfall’ when the winds pick up and people see the need for hurricane insurance?
Or how about the pharmaceutical companies? They spend millions maintaining research labs – a cost, not a profit center. Then, without prior warning, a new virus appears. The white coats go to work manufacturing a drug to fight it. Bingo – windfall profits.
Of course, Sanders’ proposal will make sense to many people. They think America is plagued by a severe lack of legislation and regulation. Every ill… every problem… every sin and setback… can be solved by more laws! They believe that every louse that ever crawled into a human crotch can be hosed out – by Mitch O’Connell, Nancy Pelosi and the whole tribe of meddlers, do-gooders and deciders in the greater DC area.
Back in 2017, Forbes counted 88,899 federal rules and regulations added in the previous 20 years. The Sanders folks think we need more! They pull their strings… and the fabric of prosperity and civil society unravels."
"Crash Positions" (Excerpt)
"Crash Positions"
by Capitalist Eric
Excerpt: "Well, folks, we’re here.
Over the past decade I’ve written a few essays on the coming economic collapse of the USA. I noted in 2013 that the on-book national debt was an estimated $16 Trillion. The actual debt using Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), which includes all off-book obligations (promises of future payments such as Social Security, government retirement accounts, Medicare A & B, et.al.) was $238 Trillion. Today the on-book debt is $30.3 Trillion, not quite double what it was when I last wrote about this. We can reasonably assume the total debt according to GAAP is similarly doubled, all in at $450 Trillion.
The rest of the world loaned us such vast sums, merely because the dollar was the worlds’ reserve currency. And that worked, when the USA produced things of inherent value. Oil and gas, manufactured goods, electronics, software, infrastructure products, even textiles. These days we manufacture dollar bills (or digital currency), and shoot anyone who rejects them. But these strong-arm tactics have worked up until now because we basically slapped around weak countries to keep them in line. Anyone who attempted to “de-dollarize” has had economic sanctions put against them, or invaded, or “revolutions” fomented to facilitate the execution of such leaders who would dare to challenge the dollar hegemony. THIS is the real reason for US troops in Iraq, the desire to go to war with Iran, the NATO attacks of Libya, the attempts to start a war in Syria, the destabilization efforts in Turkey. In every single example listed, the leaders of those countries had announced their intentions to bypass the dollar. Even now, when Saudi Arabia announced they were negotiating with China to sell oil in Chinese Yuan, a missile was mysteriously launched from Yemen somewhere that wiped out a huge refinery in Saudi Arabia within a few days; quite the coincidence.
Speaking of Saudi Arabia, the country is now run by the Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, since the King is apparently an invalid. A source told me last year that Prince Salman had openly demanded of his generals, to buy Chinese or Russian military gear; he was told this wouldn’t be possible, due to losing support from the USA. I don’t understand the dynamics of the situation of the time, but the Afghanistan withdrawal debacle has demonstrated that the USA is a paper tiger, and undependable as an ally.
No surprise, considering our “woke” military generals, decrepit and fraudulently “elected leaders” like pedo-Joe and his sidekick “ho,” whose only apparent core skill is the ability to suck-start a J-58 jet engine. Oh, and don’t forget Nancy “box-wine” Pelosi and stolen-valor Senator “Dick” Blumenthal. Yeah, good luck in the next election. But I digress…
The point is, the Bretton-Woods-2 agreement was already on death’s door, and the intentional actions of the Deep State (who use Biden as a puppet) are destroying the credibility of the United States, have pulled the last vestiges of support for the dollar as the worlds’ reserve currency status by forcing Russia and China together… and now here we are."
Please view this complete article here:
Greg Hunter, "Weekly News Wrap-Up 4/8/22"
"Weekly News Wrap-Up 4/8/22"
By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com
"Most people do not realize this, but a massive change in money and finance is underway, and at this point, is unstoppable. Russia invaded Ukraine, and the outcome was sanctions that shut off Russia from doing business in dollars. The Obama/Biden Administration was out to kill Russia financially, and it appears they have killed the dollar instead. Russia is demanding rubles for its energy, and that means less dollars needed. Other countries are shedding the dollar to do business with Russia, namely China and India. Those dollars are going to come home, and when you have a lot of something flooding, in the price goes down. In this case, the buying power of the dollar is going to continue to go down. Letting some oil out of America’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve is a drop in the bucket, and it’s not going to reset gasoline or diesel fuel prices lower. Don’t expect anything to go back to the way or the price it was. Count on prices going higher, and I mean much higher.
The massive vote fraud story is not going away. It was simply too big and too many fraudulent ballots in too many states that happened on the night of November 3, 2020. The Democrats wanted this story to go away a year ago, but just the opposite is happening, even though FOX News and the rest of the corrupt media wants to ignore this massive constructional fraud against “We the People.” At CPAC, the battle cry was “move on.” Voter fraud should be President Trump’s top issue because it happened and is the reason why the country is in deep trouble with the Obama/Biden fraud Administration.
The massive inflation you are seeing everywhere is here to stay. Sanctions against Russia are here to stay. The Ukraine war is here to stay, and this inflation is not only here to stay, but will no doubt get worse, harming the poorest of the people in the world. Our leaders should be kicked out of office on both sides of the Atlantic because it is them who did this damage and NOT Russia, Russia, Russia."
Join Greg Hunter on Rumble as he talks about these stories and more in the Weekly News Wrap-Up for 4/8/22:
Gregory Mannarino, "Risk Is Rising; Food Prices Hit Record High And Wall Street Banks Warn On Commodity Surge"
Gregory Mannarino, AM 4/8/22:
"Risk Is Rising; Food Prices Hit Record High And
Wall Street Banks Warn On Commodity Surge"
"A Big Bank Is in Trouble - Toxic Mix of Economic Problems"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, iAllegedly 4/8/22:
"A Big Bank Is in Trouble - Toxic Mix of Economic Problems"
"People are borrowing more money than ever. Closed restaurants want free grant money using your tax dollars. This is a Toxic Mix of Bad Economic News."
Jim Kunstler, "Leviathan Floundering"
"Leviathan Floundering"
by Jim Kunstler
"Back in the quaint old days of the George “W” Bush admin, White House political advisor Karl Rove famously said, “We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality - judiciously, as you will - we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out.” He was actually bragging on it, a little bit, I think.
Didn’t that set the tone for the years that have followed? The part that even the perspicacious Mr. Rove missed, though, is that the viziers of empire are perhaps even more apt to create their own unreality, which explains a lot about these fretful present days of American collapse. Is there anything the government tells you now that is not some sort of fabrication? One thing for sure is that the elite colleges churn out thousands of certified bullshit artists every year - with no other skills - and many gravitate to the power centers national life, where they rise in the ranks spinning metaphysical simulacrums of their boss’s purviews - the Jen Psaki types, who ricochet between the DC political bunkers and boob tube news central. The less glib and physically unpresentable become mere “fact-checkers,” the network of casual liars who toil in the trenches of official unreality.
It’s all pretty hard on the common folk’s brains, and eventually on their souls, as they sink into this mire of purpose-spun cognitive dissonance. Why, for instance, is the head of the CDC, one Rochelle Walensky, still telling the public to vaxx-up and boost when the number of really grave adverse events associated with said vaxxes is so out-of-this-world, compared with previous vaxxes, that liability lawyers from sea to shining sea could be magnificently employed piercing Big Pharma’s EUA shield with fraud charges until the next ice age?
The VAERS program is front-and-center in Ms. Walensky’s CDC purview. Does she not cop a glance at it now and again? It will be fascinating to hear her testify in the Nuremburg-style proceedings that ought to come for America’s public health officialdom. Are they running scared at CDC, FDA, and Dr. Fauci’s NIAID? The waiting must be the hardest part. So much is ominously unknown. But despite official suppression and obfuscation of patient outcome data from the compromised medical establishment, all-causes death numbers are wafting out of the life insurance industry like the Furies from the cosmic darkness.
Is it true, as is hotly rumored now, that the mRNA shots lead uniformly to autoimmune deficiency syndrome? Ditto the alarming rise in cancer cases among the vaxxed… ditto heart damage, organ damage, grievous neurological damage? We’ll know a lot more about this in May and June, and it’s hard to imagine what the collective emotional reaction will be if all that turns out to be true. Never in history will so many face the prospect of an untimely death, and at the hands of such banal bureaucratic villainy. Will they just compliantly check out of this world, the same way they lined up for their vaxxes and boosters, or finally rage against that machine?
The latest venture in unreality these days spills out of Russia’s operation in Ukraine. The mind-f**kery over it sure seems advantageously amplified here as a cover for the tragic developments in the Covid-19 vaxx melodrama and other domestic torments. All the evidence suggests that our country’s leadership wanted this war to happen in the worst way. We set up the provocations in Donbas and let’er rip. Now we posture on the sidelines, crying crocodile tears, pretending to help while sabotaging peace talks.
What’s followed in our attempts to punish The Evil Putin (the source of all our problems) is the most feckless fiasco of unanticipated consequences since Kaiser Wilhelm gave the go-ahead to Austria to punish Serbia over the murder of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914. Voila: a World War. Only in this case it’s looking more like a suicidal economic war by Western Civ on itself.
How are those sanctions working out? No fuel for German industry… no fertilizer for Iowa farmers… no nickel and other metals to make machine parts for Europe and America…. And suddenly, having kicked Russia out of the international trade payment clearing system (SWIFT), we’ve provoked them to resort to backing the ruble with gold, meaning that our broke-down Bretton Woods fiat money system becomes the new “barbarous relic” of global finance, leaving the West to pound sand down a rat hole, while the other two-thirds of the world do actual business for commodities that modern life can’t do without.
The result of all that? America and its partners in Western Civ resign from modern life and go medieval. Everything about America is looking more and more medieval - our rough living conditions, our lawlessness, our violent entertainments, our Hobbesian racketeering, our occult sexual preoccupations, our depraved elites, our quack science. Our center has not been holding for so long that hardly anyone even remembers where the center used to be. And now the bottom is falling out.
Hence, that pitiful scene in the White House this week with “Joe Biden” wandering aimlessly through a crowd focused on the charismatic Barack Obama - apparently tired of working-from-home. Even the luminous Dr. Jill has abandoned this hollow figurehead on Democracy’s flagship. You have to wonder if Mr. Putin saw the video, and if even he had to cringe at the sad spectacle of his antagonist’s ruin."
"Government’s Greatest Con Job"
"Government’s Greatest Con Job"
by Brian Maher
Editor’s note: On certain days we feel compelled to remind you, our reader, of a colossal swindle the United States government has perpetrated upon you. Today is one such day. Here is the evolution of the swindle.
"United States dollar: “A cotton-linen bill or clad copper coin, and monetary unit of the United States, equal to 100 cents.” Thus the dictionary defines the dollar. Yet questions present themselves at once. If one dollar equals 100 cents… what then is a cent? The answer is one-hundredth of one dollar. And what again is one dollar? 100 cents. And so you have an infinite chasing of the tail - one dollar is 100 times one cent. One cent is one-hundredth of one dollar.
Yet it is clarity we seek. We must therefore turn to the Coinage Act of 1792: "The money of account of the United States shall be expressed in dollars or units … of the value [mass or weight] of a Spanish milled dollar as the same is now current, and to contain three hundred and seventy-one grains and four sixteenth parts of a grain of pure … silver."
That is, the dollar was defined by weight - some 371 grains of pure silver. The Gold Standard Act of 1900 likewise defined the dollar by weight. Here is the central lesson: Defined in silver or defined in gold… the dollar was nonetheless defined by weight. Today the dollar is defined by a philosophical fallacy, an infinite regression. That is, in cents - themselves defined by dollars.
In today’s reckoning, we track the evolution of a mighty swindle… We begin with this $10 banknote, dated 1928:
The 1928 $10 note bears this inscription: “Redeemable in gold on demand at the United States Treasury, or in gold or lawful money at any Federal Reserve Bank.” In those antique days, a fellow could lumber into a bank. He could hand the clerk a slip of paper, a slip of paper illustrated above. He could then demand the denominated amount in gold coin… payable on the nail.
The system imposed a reasonable discipline upon banks. Federal Reserve banks were required to keep a 35% reserve of “gold or lawful money” on hand - lest they make a liar of the United States Treasury secretary - in this case, the Hon. Andrew William Mellon. In effect, the private citizen locked the banking system behind golden bars.
Now jump ahead a bit. One Great Depression, one New Deal and one world war later… we come now to a $10 banknote, dated 1950:
In appearance, it is nearly a perfect twin to the 1928 model - with one infinitely telling exception. Can you sniff it out? Recall, the 1928 note claims it is: “Redeemable in gold on demand at the United States Treasury, or in gold or lawful money at any Federal Reserve Bank.”
But here reads the 1950 version: “This note is legal tender for all debts, public and private, and is redeemable in lawful money at the United States Treasury, or at any Federal Reserve Bank.” The fine print disguises a vast mischief: Gold redemption was stricken from the record. The bankers had broken free from their golden prison. No longer could a private citizen bring them to honest account.
But what about “lawful money”? What is it? In 1947, a certain gentleman - A.F. Davis by name - dispatched the following note to the United States Treasury, accompanied by a $10 note: "I am sending you herewith via registered mail one $10 Federal Reserve note. On this note is inscribed the following: “This note is legal tender for all debts, public and private, and is redeemable in lawful money at the United States Treasury, or at any Federal Reserve bank. In accordance with this statement, will you send me $10.00 in lawful money?"
The acting treasurer, M.E. Slindee, responded after this fashion:
"Dear Mr. Davis,
Receipt is acknowledged of your letter of Dec. 9 with enclosure of one ten-dollar ($10.) Federal Reserve note. In compliance with your request, two five-dollar United States notes are transmitted herewith."
That is, Mr. Davis received by mail two $5 bills - two $5 bills bearing the identical pledge to redeem in lawful money. But this Davis fellow would not be so easily shooed off. He returned one of these $5 bills, once again demanding lawful money in exchange. Finally, Mr. Slindee threw up the sponge:
"Dear Mr. Davis:
You are advised that the term “lawful money” has not been defined in federal legislation. It first came to use prior to 1933 when some United States currency was not legal tender but could be held by national banking associations as lawful money reserves.
Since the act of May 12, 1933, as amended by the Joint Resolution of June 5, 1933, makes all coins and currency of the United States legal tender and the Joint Resolution of Aug. 27, 1935, provides for the exchange of United States coin or currency for other types of such coin or currency, the term “lawful money” no longer has such special significance.
The $5 United States note received with your letter of Dec. 23 is returned herewith."
In 1963, all promises to redeem notes in lawful money were stricken from United States currency. Here, in graphic detail, is the devolution of American money:
Below, Jeffrey Tucker shows you how the United States government is perpetuating the swindle. He claims it is a “story of corruption and decay.” Read on."
○
"The Great Coin Shortage"
by Jeffrey Tucker
"You have surely seen the signs. They are all over the country. “Please use exact change. We have a coin shortage. Thank you.” Somehow it just seems inevitable. Coin shortages have long afflicted economies in crisis or otherwise experiencing the throws of some government screw up.
In the 18th century, this was a common problem in Britain. Coins were the only money around. The Crown minted only large denominations suitable for lords and merchants. But the workers needed to be paid too! What happened? Private enterprise got involved. As George Selgin has thoroughly documented, button factories got to work to retool their manufacturing to make private money in a variety of forms, if only to serve the cause of local enterprise. And it worked. The results were beautiful and effective. Eventually, of course, government cracked down and re-nationalized coinage again. Nothing new under the sun!
What’s with our own coin shortage? What if anything can be done?
Reason One: The Lockdowns. The Fed explains this well actually: "There is currently an adequate overall amount of coins in the economy. But business and bank closures associated with the COVID-19 pandemic significantly disrupted normal circulation patterns for U.S. coins. This slowed pace of circulation reduced available inventories in some areas of the country during 2020.
The Federal Reserve continues to work with the U.S. Mint and others in the industry to keep coins circulating. As a first step, a temporary cap was imposed in June 2020 on the orders depository institutions place for coins with the Federal Reserve to ensure that the supply was fairly distributed. Because coin circulation patterns have not fully returned to pre-pandemic levels, caps were reinstated in May 2021…. Since mid-June of 2020, the U.S. Mint has been operating at full production capacity. In 2020, the Mint produced 14.8 billion coins, a 24 percent increase from the 11.9 billion coins produced in 2019."
Now, this is true but typical of a government press statement. It wildly understates the issue. For many months huge swaths of economic activity came to a grinding halt! Also absurdly, people came to believe (thanks to the goofy CDC) that coins had Covid on them and so people did not want to use them or take them. True story. That began the habit of inadvertent coin collecting.
Reason Two: Hoarding: Once people came to believe their coins had Covid and they weren’t allowed to go anywhere anyway, the long habit of tossing coins into a can grew and became universal. The stores that were open dispensed coins but then coins did not circulate. They ended up in people’s drawers, never to be touched again.
There is another factor here too. We’ve seen many ways in which the collapse in the velocity of money has affected the demand for cash. It affected the demand for coinage too. In a scary crisis like the one that began two years ago, people start doing strange things, some rational and some completely irrational. The irrational in this case was stocking up on coinage for fear of the future. Spending in general crashed especially for those people who don’t have bank accounts and credit cards (22% of the public). There is some strange psychological benefit that derives from looking at a big jar full of coins in the midst of high uncertainty.
Reason Three: Demonetization: In the sequence of events, this low circulation of coins was compounded by rising inflation. Coins are often regarded as little more than an annoyance. People throw pennies in the trash, and nickels are barely noticed. Only quarters get much attention and that’s mostly for laundry machines and car washes.
It’s such a sign of our times. We used to have “Dime Stores” and say “penny for your thoughts.” But in the age of inflation, coins are very nearly demonetized. The wild inflation of the last 12 months, growing by the day, has accelerated this trend.
Reason Four: Money Shortage: It’s truly one of the strangest features of inflationary times is that there is a tendency toward a money shortage. It was certainly true in Weimar Germany. No matter how much money the government prints, people still complain that there is not enough to pay people and give change. We are nowhere near that point yet and may never be. But the coin shortage today is a symptom of this larger problem.
Today, industries that serve retail customers are begging the Treasury to circulate more coins. The banks are doing the same. But right now, they are operating at full capacity. So there’s no chance of that. Regardless, this is hardly a crisis of epic proportions but it is a telling sign of our times. It reveals the discoordination, the confusion, the imbalances, and the losses of our times. Every bit of it traces to government malfunction and terrible policy decisions.
Corruption and Decay: It is also symbolic of something else. The destruction and near-demonetization of coinage is a story of corruption and decay. You can see it in the course of the 20th century, during which time coins went from having intrinsic value to the point where they are made of the cheapest-possible metal. A dealer I know called them “baloney sandwich coins” but that was before the price of baloney also soared up so high. Now such a thing would be far more valuable than present-day coins.
The nickel today is made only of 25% nickel, and the rest is copper. Now have a look at the price of nickel, which is actually massively important in producing the batteries for the electric vehicles that government says is our future. There is just no escaping economics and the laws that govern it! Government officials can preen and pronounce but the laws of supply and demand ignore every press release.
It costs the US Treasury fully 8.5 cents to make 5 cents today! Maybe you know the feeling based on the value of your salary last year compared with this. It’s likely that the composition of the coin will change. To what? Find anything not soaring in price and there’s your candidate. So we can see here that there might be a point to saving your nickels after all.
Final note: did you see that the city of Los Angeles has fined a grocery store $160K for selling eggs in 2020 at “illegal prices”? The anti-gouging law requires that stores cannot raise prices above 10% unless justified by costs or production. So the authorities snagged some small store and have now rendered a judgment."
"Feels like Soviet times."
"Empty Shelves Everywhere, And Massive Price Increases! - What's Next? - What's Coming?"
Full screen recommended.
Adventures with Danno, 4/8/22:
"Empty Shelves Everywhere, And Massive Price Increases!
What's Next? - What's Coming?"
“In today's vlog we are noticing massive price increases! We are here to explain skyrocketing prices, and a lot of empty shelves! It's getting rough out here as stores seem to be struggling with getting products!”
Thursday, April 7, 2022
"20 Facts About The Emerging Global Food Shortage That Should Chill You To The Core"
Full screen recommended.
"20 Facts About The Emerging Global Food
Shortage That Should Chill You To The Core"
by Epic Economist
"A global food shortage of catastrophic proportions has already begun, and things are only going to get worse from this point on. The information we’re about to expose might be hard to digest, but we would like to encourage you to share this message with everyone you care for so that people can prepare for what is coming. Everybody deserves to know what is truly going on, and they deserve an opportunity to get ready before this crisis gets out of control. The pace at which things are changing all over the world right now is extremely alarming, but somehow many people still believe life will just continue to carry on as it normally does. Sadly, the truth is that a very real planetary emergency is unfolding right before our eyes, and we must act before it’s too late. The President of the United States has openly admitted that extensive food shortages are “going to be real”, and his officials are concerned about the prospect of a hunger crisis. On the same note, the CEO of BlackRock alerted that this generation is about to experience hardships to get food supplies that they’ve never faced in their lives.
On top of that, one Oklahoma farmer has alerted that Americans are about to be shocked by soaring grocery prices. All of his farmer operations are costing a lot more, and that will have a direct impact on consumers. “We’re getting hit on every front on every expense possible, from fertilizer to fuel to labor insurance to our packing supplies, and everything in between. We operate a small farm in Oklahoma, and one hundred percent of our sales are farm-to-home delivery. We drive all across the state, and the fuel costs are really painful for us. I would say our increases are roughly 25 to 30 percent, and I think that that will soon be reflected at the grocery stores,” Farmer Ben Riensche recently said in an interview. “If you’re upset that gas is up a dollar or two a gallon, wait until your grocery bill is up $1,000.00 a month, and it might not just manifest itself in terms of price. It could be quantity as well. Empty Shelf syndrome may be starting,” Riensche highlighted.
Over the past few years, numerous experts and economists came forward to warn that this was going to happen if precautions weren’t taken. Our leaders largely ignored those forecasts, and now this is where we are. Conditions are accelerating much faster than we can keep track. That’s why it is so important to share this message with as many people as possible because this crisis is going to affect everyone. We’re going to witness the worst food shortages in our lifetime, and we must act now given that things are getting worse with each passing day. An absolutely horrifying global food crisis is already upon us, and hundreds of millions of people are going to suffer as a result, so make sure you are not one of them. Stockpile food while you still can because supplies will start flying off the shelves at record speed in the coming weeks and months. In this video, we compiled facts that reveal the humongous proportion of the global food crisis."
"Housing Market Will Blow Up Again; Mortgage Apps Collapse; Rates Rise; Credit Card Debt Explodes"
Jeremiah Babe, PM 4/7/22:
"Housing Market Will Blow Up Again; Mortgage Apps Collapse;
Rates Rise; Credit Card Debt Explodes"
"A Look to the Heavens"
“This rock structure is not only surreal - it's real. The reason it's not more famous is that it is, perhaps, smaller than one might guess: the capstone rock overhangs only a few meters. Even so, the King of Wings outcrop, located in New Mexico, USA, is a fascinating example of an unusual type of rock structure called a hoodoo. Hoodoos may form when a layer of hard rock overlays a layer of eroding softer rock.
Figuring out the details of incorporating this hoodoo into a night-sky photoshoot took over a year. Besides waiting for a suitably picturesque night behind a sky with few clouds, the foreground had to be artificially lit just right relative to the natural glow of the background. After much planning and waiting, the final shot, featured here, was taken in May 2016. Mimicking the horizontal bar, the background sky features the band of our Milky Way Galaxy stretching overhead.”
"Human Progress..."
"It is common to assume that human progress affects everyone - that even the dullest man, in these bright days, knows more than any man of, say, the Eighteenth Century, and is far more civilized. This assumption is quite erroneous. The great masses of men, even in this inspired republic, are precisely where the mob was at the dawn of history. They are ignorant, they are dishonest, they are cowardly, they are ignoble. They know little if anything that is worth knowing, and there is not the slightest sign of a natural desire among them to increase their knowledge."
- H. L. Mencken
Gerald Celente, “Trends In The News”
Strong language alert!
Full screen recommended.
Strong language alert!
Gerald Celente, 4/7/22: “Trends In The News”
“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.”
LOL, Gerald's on a roll today...
"The Ruble and The Realpolitik"
"The Ruble and The Realpolitik"
by Addison Wiggin
“It's all very well for us to sit here in the west with our high incomes and cushy lives, and say it's immoral to violate the sovereignty of another state. But if the effect of that is to bring people in that country economic and political freedom, to raise their standard of living, to increase their life expectancy, then don't rule it out.”
- Niall Ferguson
"Let’s see, where were we? Of course, Yesterday, we established that the Fed is handcuffed. If they even “normalize” interest rates to 3% they could “nuke the economy.” “I cannot help but notice,” reader John L. from Australia writes in response, “the sanctions against Russia and their response of raising interest rates to 20% can only set the Russians up for a much better long term future than the West with their refusal to set a real money interest rate.”
The Central Bank of Russia did, in fact, raise its benchmark rate to 20% – the highest in almost twenty years – up from 9.5% on Monday. They are trying to accomplish the first goal of a central: defend the nation’s currency.
Until the invasion, Russian banks and economy were fully integrated into the Western system. Amid a storm of moral opprobrium and a host of international sanctions, the Russian ruble dropped to its lowest point since the financial crisis they endured in 1998. “The ruble has been reduced to ‘rubble’,” Joe Biden lauded.
Not so fast, in response the Russians said “okay, if you want our natural gas, Europe, you’re going to have to pay us in rubles.” Before you buy gas in rubles, you have to exchange your euros for them. That and the rate increase have boosted the ruble back to pre-invasion levels.
“What’s become clear is that despite an incredibly wide-ranging package of sanctions on the Russian government and its oligarchs, and an exodus of foreign businesses,” Bloomberg reports, “the actions are largely toothless if foreigners keep guzzling Russian oil and natural gas -- supporting the ruble by stocking Putin’s coffers.” Germany for example sends €2.6 billion a month to Russia for oil and gas imports. Much of those energy supplies still flow through the Ukraine. Many of the Ukrainian oligarchs still have a vested interest in letting the supplies flow.
Will the ruble rebound set Russia up for success in the “long-term,” as our Australian correspondent asks. To quote our buddy, Sean Ring, from the Rude Awakening, “that remains to be seen.” New Western Sanctions have been announced. But it’s too early to tell if Russian and Chinese efforts to bifurcate the global economy will be successful.
If all you do is gobble up the Western narrative, the Russians are isolated from the global economy and will eventually have to bend to the will of the Western mob. Of course, nothing’s that simple. What is it the mainstream press doesn’t want you to know?
That’s a provocative question; one we posed to our latest Wiggin Sessions guest: “America, the unchallenged global superpower itself, has taken the last 30 years, since the USSR dissolved, to extend its political and military empire to the four corners of the earth.” There's more from Scott Horton, here:
Scott Horton is the editorial director of Anti-war.com and founder of the Libertarian Institute. In our session Scott riffs through 30 years of foreign policy mistakes that the U.S. and much of the West has conveniently forgotten. How is it the mob has adapted such a high moral stance? What is it that Americans are missing? You may wonder the same after you take a listen by clicking on the image above. If your druthers are to read, you’ll find a link to the transcript there, too"
"Follow your bliss..."
Gregory Mannarino, "Pentagon Says: 'War Could Last For Years.' FED: 'No Recession Coming.' Consumer Debt Skyrockets"
Gregory Mannarino, PM 4/7/22:
"Pentagon Says: 'War Could Last For Years.'
FED: 'No Recession Coming.' Consumer Debt Skyrockets"
"Isochronic Tones: Cognition Enhancer For Clearer and Faster Thinking"
"Isochronic Tones:
Cognition Enhancer For Clearer and Faster Thinking"
by Jason Lewis
“Headphones Required – Note: As this session stimulates each ear with different frequencies, you will need to use headphones to experience the full effect. Alternative background sounds available on Mp3 here: Orchestral, Hybrid, World Music, Rain, Brown Noise.
What does this track do? This session stimulates Beta, SMR and Alpha, alternating in 2 minute increments to help keep the user relaxed and engaged. Note: SMR (sensorimotor rhythm) relates to the frequency range between 12 – 15Hz. It’s associated with sensory processing and motor control. Stimulating this can result in relaxed focus and improved attention. This session is meant to speed up the brain while keeping the left hemisphere dominant (good for attention, concentration and reducing emotional response and hyperactivity). ADD and similar disorders are often characterized by “slow-wave” EEG patterns, particularly in the left frontal region. As such, this session stimulates the left brain hemisphere with Beta frequencies and the right with SMR.
Can it be used to help with studying and if so, when should you listen to it? Yes, it can be helpful to use while studying, and if you read through the many comments about this track, you’ll see that many people have successfully used it for studying. You can either listen to it while you are studying, to get your brain into a good mental state when you need it. Or if you are someone that gets a bit distracted by music while studying, listen to it just before you begin.
How Loud Should The Volume Be? There is varying advice and opinions on the impact of volume with brainwave entrainment, with some saying the louder it is the more impact it has. From my own experience, my advice is to play it at a volume level you feel comfortable with. The main thing to consider is that it should be loud enough to hear the repetitive isochronic tones, so you don’t want it so quiet you can hardly hear them. But you also don’t want it so loud that its uncomfortable for you. Somewhere in the middle is my recommendation.
Use this session in the morning or afternoon, to train your brain for better cognition, such as clearer and faster thinking. 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, like studying.
How long should you listen for to get a good effect? It takes around 6 minutes for your brainwaves to fall in step with the tones and become entrained. It then takes time to be guided along the frequency range used in the track. Listening to about half way through is the minimum in my opinion, but 30 minutes is the optimum and preferred length to listen for.
IMPORTANT RECOMMENDATIONS:
• Drink some water – Make sure you are well hydrated before listening to brainwave entrainment.
WHY? Your brain is made up of around 75% water, so it needs plenty of water to function well. When you stimulate your brain in this way, you’re increasing electrical activity and blood flow in the brain and giving your brain a good workout, so it can be a good idea to drink before listening, so that your brain can fire on all cylinders.
• It is not recommended to listen to this while driving or operating machinery.
WHY? Brainwave entrainment involves a process of stimulating your brainwaves and changing your mental state. While this is safe to do and use in normal situations, it can sometimes zone you out during the track, as you focus in on the sound of the tones. This could result in you being distracted temporarily, which is not a good thing while you’re driving or operating machinery. Some people also experience tingling and other sensations from the stimulation. While that might feel quite nice sitting in a comfortable chair at home, it could cause you to be distracted while driving and result in an accident.
• It is not recommended to listen to this while under the influence of drugs or alcohol, or any mind altering substance.
WHY? When your brain is under the influence of drugs or alcohol it’s not operating to it’s full capacity, and you react differently to stimulation and situations, compared to when you are sober. So as a precaution and because I don’t know how you will react in that situation, I recommend you do not use it in that situation.
• Who should NOT listen to this audio? Those who should not listen to this video/audio include: Those who are prone to or have had seizures, epilepsy, pregnant or wear a pacemaker should NOT listen to this video/audio.
WHY? There is insufficient research data in this area, so as a precaution, if you are among the categories listed above, I would recommend you consult a doctor or medical professional before listening to this video/audio.”
The Poet: Linda Pastan, “What We Want”
“What We Want”
“What we want
is never simple.
We move among the things
we thought we wanted:
a face, a room, an open book
and these things bear our names-
now they want us.
But what we want appears
in dreams, wearing disguises.
We fall past,
holding out our arms
and in the morning
our arms ache.
We don’t remember the dream,
but the dream remembers us.
It is there all day
as an animal is there
under the table,
as the stars are there
even in full sun.”
- Linda Pastan
"And The Hell Of It Is..."
“You go up to a man, and you say, “How are things going, Joe?” and he says, “Oh fine, fine... couldn’t be better.” And you look into his eyes, and you see things really couldn’t be much worse. When you get right down to it, everybody’s having a perfectly lousy time of it, and I mean everybody. And the hell of it is, nothing seems to help much.”
- Kurt Vonnegut
"People are sad. People are broke. People are worried about money, people are worried that they're not enough and not amounting to anything and they don't feel good about themselves. People have rough times, and everybody's pretending it's not true, and we need to break that veneer."
- Eve Ensler
"All I Wanna Do..."
"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."
"Angel", 2001
"Mourning The Loss Of A Loved One Is Not A Disease"
"Mourning The Loss Of A Loved One Is Not A Disease"
by Dick Polman
"My wife of 45 years died six months ago this week. I have been processing her loss ever since. But the American Psychiatric Association now says that I have only six more months to heal myself, and that if I blow the deadline, I should be clinically defined as mentally diseased.
It’s not in my nature to use this column for personal business. But the APA’s decision to add “prolonged grief” (defined as one year or more) to its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders strikes me as a ludicrous attempt to reboot natural bereavement as a disease. And once you’re diagnosed with this newly created disorder, I bet there will be meds to make it all better.
I can’t speak for other grieving souls, and, granted, I’m still a newbie. But I’ll hazard a guess that most people in similar straits fail to reorient their emotional framework within one year’s time. Heck, some people conclude their time on earth without ever finding a modicum of peace. We, the walking wounded, are grappling with life’s worst disorders, navigating at our disparate speeds. That doesn’t mean we’re “sick.”
Six months after my own heart was gutted, I seem to be an everyday functioning person. But there’s no way that I can clear the APA’s one-year hurdle. When Oct. 3, 2022 comes and goes, I’m quite sure I will meet the association’s new definition of diseased. I’ll still feel pained when I hear a song that my wife and I loved. I’ll still feel pained when I try to watch new seasons of a show that she never got to finish. I’ll still sit with a book and zone out about some shared moment 30 years past. I’ll still keep the “peasant dress” that she wore on our first New Year’s Eve. I’ll still hear echoes of her doctors talking in code (“it’s a tricky case” and “it’s a complicated case,” which meant she was doomed). At odd moments I’ll still hear her voice (“Oh, Rick?”) summoning me to her sickbed. At odd moments I’ll still feel lost in time and space. But I won’t see any of that as illness.
I’m sure there are extreme cases of grief that do require medical treatment, but, as NYU psychiatry professor Benjamin Sadock points out, “In rare instances, prolonged grief progresses to depression, a well-recognized disorder that encompasses all of the symptoms of the ‘new’ diagnosis of prolonged grief, a disorder that is unnecessary, unwarranted, and one that may stigmatize those so diagnosed.”
Devyn Greenberg, a grad student who lost her dad to COVID writes: “It’s not just personal indignation that stirs me about the (APA’s) decision. I worry for others who have loved and lost – at some point, all of us. I worry that this framing will render us even lonelier in our pain, even more convinced that our nonlinear, unpredictable paths through loss are ‘wrong’…Many of the symptoms the psychiatric association uses to define ‘prolonged grief’ are shockingly common. ‘Intense emotional pain (e.g., anger, bitterness, sorrow)’? Let’s call that a Tuesday. ‘Identity disruption’? When you’ve walked through a portal through which you cannot return, of course your sense of self changes dramatically.”
And Martha Weinman Lear, who authored a book about loss, writes that the beneficiaries of the APA’s new diagnosis will be “pill makers.” She says: “What strikes me as abnormal is not grief beyond the APA’s one-year prescription, but the degree of chutzpah required, professional training notwithstanding, to presume to set timelines for the normal grief of others, which in fact is as various as the grievers themselves.”
The APA’s one-year deadline smacks of classic American impatience: “Get over it” and “Move on with your life.” Like the cowboy in Lonesome Dove who said, “Best thing to do with death is to ride off from it.” Um, it’s not that simple. At my six-month mark, I do feel myself “getting over it” – the worst of it anyway, but with many caveats. I do feel myself “moving on” – as best I can, but with many caveats: Is it possible to feel happy again? Is it wrong?
Bottom line: I like the Bob Dylan line, “he not busy being born is busy dying.” What you do is, you learn to live with the emotional pain. Then you cushion it with all the joy you can muster for the good things in your life – be they family, friends (old and new), work, travel, biking, hiking, whatever – because you realize that gratitude can be a powerful palliative. You accept melancholia and whenever possible you lighten it with mirth. You honor your loss and accept the fact that your old life, and all the ways your loved one enhanced it, is irrevocably over – and that it’s now incumbent to craft a new one.
Sorry, headshrinkers. I won’t need meds for that."
"The Global Fertilizer Shortage Means That Far Less Food Will Be Grown All Over The Planet In 2022"
"The Global Fertilizer Shortage Means That Far Less
Food Will Be Grown All Over The Planet In 2022"
by Michael Snyder
"I never imagined that I would be writing so much about fertilizer in 2022. When I was growing up, there were only two things that I knew about fertilizer. I knew that it helped stuff grow and I knew that it smelled bad. But these days, experts are telling us that a global shortage of fertilizer could result in horrifying famines all over the world. Right now, to a very large degree we are still eating food that was produced in 2021. But by the end of the year, to a very large degree we will be eating food that was produced in 2022. Unfortunately for all of us, it appears that a lack of fertilizer will mean that far less food is grown in 2022 than originally anticipated.
Thanks to an unprecedented explosion in energy prices, we were already facing a fertilizer crisis even before the war in Ukraine, but now that war has definitely taken things to the next level. Under normal conditions, a great deal of the world’s fertilizer comes from either Russia, Belarus or Ukraine… "A fertilizer shortage has added to growing concerns about the Ukraine war’s impact on the price and scarcity of certain basic foods.
Combined, Russia and Belarus had provided about 40% of the world’s exports of potash, according to Morgan Stanley. Russia’s exports were hit by sanctions. Further, in February, a major Belarus producer declared force majeure - a statement that it wouldn’t be able to uphold its contracts due to forces beyond its control. Russia also exported 11% of the world’s urea, and 48% of the ammonium nitrate. Russia and Ukraine together export 28% of fertilizers made from nitrogen and phosphorous, as well as potassium, according to Morgan Stanley."
Global hunger rose significantly in both 2020 and 2021, but what we are going to be dealing with in the months ahead is going to be completely unlike anything that we have dealt with in the past. In fact, one commodity expert that was interviewed by CNBC is extremely pessimistic about what is ahead… “All of this is a double whammy, if not a triple whammy,” said Bart Melek, global head of commodity strategy at TD Securities. “We have geopolitical risk, higher input costs and basically shortages.”
We have never seen anything like this before. Since the beginning of 2021, some fertilizer prices have “more than doubled”, and some fertilizer prices have more than tripled…"Some fertilizers have more than doubled in price. For instance, Melek said potash traded in Vancouver was priced at about $210 per metric tons at the beginning of 2021, and it’s now valued at $565. He added that urea for delivery to the Middle East was trading at $268 per metric ton on the Chicago Board of Trade in early 2021 and was valued at $887.50 on Tuesday."
And in some parts of the globe it is even worse. In Peru, fertilizer prices have experienced an “almost fourfold” increase…"The global fertilizer squeeze exacerbated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is imperiling rice production in Peru, where the seed is a staple for tens of millions of people. Prices of the crop nutrient urea have surged almost fourfold amid supply scarcities, adding to cost inflation for growers, according to the Peruvian Association of Rice Producers." That same article goes on to explain that many farmers in Peru won’t be able to afford to plant crops at all this year.
If that sounds familiar, that is because this is something that I have been warning about for months. In particular, here in the United States it simply is not going to be profitable for many farmers to grow corn this year, because corn needs a high amount of fertilizer.
All over the world, far less fertilizer will be used in 2022, and that means that far less food will be grown. There will be famines, and one expert is even warning that food scarcity will “touch people in the lower income distribution in North America”…“We’re talking about an erosion of food security on a scale we have not seen for a long time, and I think it will touch people in the lower income distribution in North America,” he added.
But as long as you have a decent income, you will still be able to go to the store and buy food in the months ahead. It just might cost you a lot more. During a recent interview with Tucker Carlson, farmer Ben Riensche warned that Americans could soon be paying a thousand dollars more a month for their groceries…“Soaring fertilizer prices are likely to bring spiked food prices. If you’re upset that gas is up a dollar or two a gallon, wait until your grocery bill is up $1,000.00 a month, and it might not just manifest itself in terms of price. It could be quantity as well. Empty Shelf syndrome may be starting.”
Can you afford to pay $1,000 more for groceries every month? If not, you better stock up now while prices are still relatively reasonable. Of course there are certain things that you will not be able to stock up on because they simply aren’t there.
Shortages are intensifying all over the country, and in particular we have seen an alarming shortage of pasta begin to happen in certain stores. The following comes from an article that was just posted on All News Pipeline…"'First, it was Eggs and now it’s also Pasta.' The eggs have been missing for well over a week now and yesterday morning I was surprised to see the pasta was also mostly bare. Also, some of the shelves have the old COVID trick of pushing everything together and up to the front of the shelf!"
This is Sioux Fall SD! No eggs for over a week! Very little pasta left! Of course the shortage of eggs is related to the shortage of pasta, because eggs are used in making pasta.
I have been trying to explain to my readers that this new bird flu pandemic is going to be a really, really big deal. As I mentioned yesterday, 28 million chickens and turkeys are already dead in less than two months, and things are already so bad that pasta is starting to disappear from our store shelves. If things are this crazy already, what will conditions be like six months from now?
You might want to think about that. I have been trying to sound the alarm about a coming global famine for years, and now it is here. Global food riots have already started, but what we have seen so far is just the tip of the iceberg. Like I said at the top of this article, for now we are still eating food that was produced last year to a large degree. Just wait until we get to the end of this year and beyond. It won’t be pretty.
Unprecedented times call for unprecedented measures, and I hope that this article will give you a sense of urgency to take action. Unfortunately, most people still assume that everything will turn out just fine somehow, and so they won’t do anything to get prepared until it is far too late."
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