Brooklyn, New York, USA. Thanks for stopping by!
So, we rise from the rubble...
Friday, October 28, 2022
“True Story Streets of Philadelphia, 10/28/22"
Full screen recommended.
“True Story Streets of Philadelphia, 10/28/22"
"Violent crime and drug abuse in Philadelphia as a whole is a major problem. The city’s violent crime rate is higher than the national average and other similarly sized metropolitan areas. Also alarming is Philadelphia’s drug overdose rate. The number of drug overdose deaths in the city increased by 50% from 2013 to 2015, with more than twice as many deaths from drug overdoses as deaths from homicides in 2015. A big part of Philadelphia’s problems stem from the crime rate and drug abuse in Kensington.
Because of the high number of drugs in Kensington, the neighborhood has a drug crime rate of 3.57, the third-highest rate by neighborhood in Philadelphia. Like a lot of the country, a big part of this issue is a result of the opioid epidemic. Opioid abuse has skyrocketed over the last two decades in the United States and Philadelphia is no exception. Along with having a high rate of drug overdose deaths, 80% percent of Philadelphia’s overdose deaths involved opioids and Kensington is a big contributor to this number. This Philly neighborhood is purportedly the largest open-air narcotics market for heroin on the East Coast with many neighboring residents flocking to the area for heroin and other opioids. With such a high number of drugs in Kensington, many state and local officials have zoned in on this area to try and tackle Philadelphia’s problem."
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"The 3200 block of Shelbourne St in Kensington is CRAZY. Dealers/lookouts on both ends of the block. You can hear the lookout shout to announce our presence."
"Halloween and Scary Movies"
"Halloween and Scary Movies"
by John Wilder
"Happy Halloween. The origins of Halloween are older and murkier than what can be teased out of history. Is it a Christian holiday tossed over the top of an old pagan one? Is it a purely Christian holiday? Is it a floor wax? Is it a dessert topping? Why not all of the above?
Regardless, Halloween happens at my favorite time of the year. One of the things that we lose in the frenetic pace of modern society is a loss of connection to the cycles of life. There are long cycles: Infancy, Childhood, Adolescence, Adulthood, and Maturity. Technology certainly has changed those cycles – children play on tablets seeing things they ought not, and Madonna© pretends she’s sixteen rather than sixteen minutes short of eighty.
The shorter cycles are changed, as well. A typical day had time when we were fully engaged at work, and time when we weren’t. Now? Technology has made it so we’re partially engaged at work, and partially engaged with family. At least we don’t have to be engaged with Madonna.
But the year, that’s something that technology can only partially mess with. We can be warm in winter, and cool in summer, but unless we stay inside all year sealed in Tupperware™ (like Madonna) we are exposed to the changing lights and temperatures of the season.
That is good. We are humans. Or at least I assume we’re all humans, since we all enjoy ingesting nutrients and drinking fluids that hydrate us while listening to sounds of non-random frequencies arranged in a mathematical progression juxtaposed with potentially emotionally triggering lyrics about mildly iconoclastic behavior. Correct?
But all of that aside, I love that we’re still connected to the world via the changing of the seasons. I’m not particularly a fan of summer. But I love the other nine months. And October is the sign that another damn summer is gone. And Halloween is when the weather turns, and in October there is one particular day when I can know that every day for the next five months will be colder than that day. And I love that.
October is also the month when the harvest is done. The time has come when the cycle is done. Planting in spring, growing in summer, harvesting in fall. Winter then comes, and the season has a pause. This is the time humans need for reflection, for learning, for being together, for planning. In short, none of the things that Madonna™ does.
For this cycle, at least, technology hasn’t stopped us entirely from getting to our roots. Autumn is when the die is cast: we have either done what we need to do to make it through the winter, or we haven’t. I think that’s why horror movies are part of the season – harvest reminds us that we’re mortal, and for this part of the year we also, historically, had time to reflect on life and death and the cycle.
So, thinking about death is natural – it is certainly part of the cycle. And that’s my guess as to why horror movies seem to fit so well with Halloween. And I like horror movies.
Many countries do horror movies really, really badly.
The Germans, for instance, make horror movies that are these weird psychological horror movies that probably only make sense if you wear rubber suits to go to the bank.
The Italian horror movies are nearly incomprehensible as German horror films, but the people in the movies look absolutely fantastic and change sides halfway through the movie.
English horror movies are generally as scary as the discussion of tax rates in the House of Commons. I guess that might be scary if you make enough money.
The three or four horror movies I’ve seen from Spain look like shoddy copies of Italian horror movies, but starring some American star like John Saxon. Why John Saxon? Why not – he can fight green goo as well as anyone else.
Japanese horror films started as clumsy metaphors for being bombed with nuclear weapons, but then morphed into clumsy metaphors for being overworked by evil corporations after being bombed by nuclear weapons.
Nope, for me? It’s American horror films. I think we do this particularly well. My favorites are (in no particular order):
The Thing.
Alien.
In the Mouth of Madness.
Reanimator.
From Beyond.
Salem’s Lot.
Scanners.
Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark (1973 only).
Event Horizon.
Night of the Living Dead.
Ravenous.
The Exorcist.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
Phantasm.
Prince of Darkness.
I didn’t rank this list on purpose. If you’ve seen some of these, you’ll know right from the start if this matches up with what you like. But I’ll add this part, too. A horror movie doesn’t have emotional impact in a vacuum. "Night of the Living Dead?" To me, it was scary only because I saw it when I was five. Watching it now, it might be one of the tamest movies on the list, so, your mileage may vary.
With minor exceptions on the list, most of those have a fairly intense paranormal component. I think that’s scarier than just people, otherwise numerous other classic movies like "Silence of the Lambs" would have been on the list. Sadly, their newest movie on the list was done before the year 2000. Have there been scary movies made since then?
Yeah. And I’ve seen bushel baskets of them. They’re just not nearly as good as what came before. Except for that one horror star. She’s scary. Oh, wait. That’s Madonna."
Jim Kunstler, "An Election, If You Can Hold It"
"An Election, If You Can Hold It"
by Jim Kunstler
"The death of the faithless state is as natural and lovely as a
melting snowflake…All the broken things will start to be fixed.
And all the crazy things will go away, immediately."
- Curtis Yarvin
"Can our country begin to get its head screwed back on with the midterm election? The cynicism ‘out there’ is monumental. Even if the perfidious Party of Chaos gets thrashed unto near death at the polls, awful pitfalls and frightful quandaries await whatever regime coalesces into a legislative majority of the center and right.
And there remains in place the ghastly figure of “Joe Biden,” the waxwork “president” fronting the coterie of Jacobin crazies still aiming to drag Western Civ into the dumpster of history. One thing a congressional committee might probe posthaste: who exactly has been running the executive branch for two years? My guess would be Barack Obama by way of Susan Rice, Director of the Domestic Policy Council (office in the White House) whose activities are never, ever discussed in the news media. In fact, her mere presence is unacknowledged. I doubt that one-in-a-thousand people in Times Square could tell you who she is and what she does. How many times a day is Ms. Rice on-the-horn with the Gentleman of Kalorama? Are there logs of her calls? Does she use an endless supply of cheap untraceable burner phones? Or does she limo across town regularly to get orders in person?
Is there some penalty for running a shadow government, perhaps something in the sedition or treason folders of federal law? The degree of malign policy coordination throughout Western Civ also suggests that outside actors exert some heavy influence on our affairs. Is Mr. Obama running “Joe Biden” according to a WEF playbook, as appears to be the case with WEFfer implants Justin Trudeau of Canada and Jacinda Ardern of New Zealand? It would help explain how so many measures and actions outside our national interest have played out lately - the Gestapo-ization of the FBI, the overt censorship, the wide-open border, draining the strategic petroleum reserve, the drag queen shindigs, the foolish effort to “weaken” Russia in Ukraine, the climate change hysteria, the fiscal idiocy, and everything about-and-around Covid-19.
Of course, the rule-of-law has become a pitifully squishy thing in our time. Nobody is accountable for anything these days. The federal agencies can act however they like in the way of persecuting their political opponents, or inflicting immense harm on the public - like the CDC, FDA, and other public health agencies insanely pushing deadly mRNA vaccines on the public, despite massive evidence that the shots have killed and disabled hundreds of thousands. It’s likely that we will see aggressive hearings into all sorts or government misconduct come January, and it is important to determine who did what to drive America so badly off the rails, but that won’t mitigate the pitfalls and quandaries ahead.
There is a re-set underway for sure with every teeter of industrial civilization, but it doesn’t have to resolve on the side of high-tech tyranny and super-centralized global governance by elitist maniacs. In fact, it can’t. The bottlenecks of resources - energy, commodities, metals, all material things - plus the growing scarcity of real capital (as in representations of genuine wealth), guarantee that nothing organized at the gigantic scale will be able to continue - certainly not any global political administration. The WEF is a fantasy factory; all it can really produce is chaos and misery.
Many national governments may not survive the great discontinuities ahead. Everything we do has to get finer, smaller in scale, and more local. Many, maybe most, of our high-tech systems will be crippled by energy shortages and supply line breakdowns. The business models for everything - from the oil industry to commercial aviation to running mega-cities - no longer pencils out, And as economist Herb Stein observed years ago: things that can’t go on, stop.
Every attempt to maintain the status quo of our withering globalist arrangements will be an act of futility, including the wars that our elites seem to be yearning for. If we squander our remaining resources on kinetic conflict, that will only drag out the journey to new arrangements, destroy more lives, and break more things that still have value.
In theory, a new Congress could get rid of both “Joe Biden” and Kamala Harris via established procedure (impeachment) and install the next Speaker of the House as president - but it would require the most extreme degree of bipartisan cooperation imaginable to get convictions in the Senate.
Perhaps “JB” and the Veep could both be induced to resign. It’s certain that the Biden Family’s crimes of global bribery will be laid out in every sordid detail which, on top of his obvious incompetence, would ensure “JB’s” removal. Ms. Harris can answer for the border crisis. She was so lax and mindless in office that she didn’t even bother passing the buck on the responsibility she’d accepted for managing the border. She never even went down there to look around.
If the election actually happens - the cynical doubt it - it’ll be gratifying for sure to see a loathsome cast of characters swept away in the chem-trail of history. But the winners will have to get the country’s head screwed back on to face the tremendous task of making new arrangements for the continuation of daily life under harsh and alarming conditions. Or else the election may be the last thing we do as the country that we were."
Musical Interlude: Procol Harum, "A Salty Dog"
Procol Harum, "A Salty Dog"
After all the bad news below, a much needed interlude...
Hey, I like it! lol
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"Ulysses"
"There lies the port; the vessel puffs her sail:
There gloom the dark, broad seas. My mariners,
Souls that have toil'd, and wrought, and thought with me -
That ever with a frolic welcome took
The thunder and the sunshine, and opposed
Free hearts, free foreheads - you and I are old;
Old age hath yet his honor and his toil;
Death closes all: but something ere the end,
Some work of noble note, may yet be done,
Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods.
The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks:
The long day wanes: the slow moon climbs: the deep
Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends,
'Tis not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down:
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.
Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield."
- Alfred, Lord Tennyson
"Entering the Worst Economic Time Ever"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, iAllegedly 10/28/22:
"Entering the Worst Economic Time Ever"
"So many companies are losing money. We are seeing a global crash right before our eyes. Used car prices are finally crashing and demand is falling."
Comments here:
"Strange Prices at Sam's Club: Stock Up Now! What's Coming?"
Full screen recommended.
Adventures with Danno, 10/28/22:
"Strange Prices at Sam's Club: Stock Up Now! What's Coming?"
"In today's vlog we are at Sam's Club, and are noticing massive price increases! We are here to check out skyrocketing prices, and a lot of empty shelves! It's getting rough out here as stores seem to be struggling with getting products!"
Comments here:
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"What's coming?"
Included on the list is Sam's Club...Enjoy it while you can.
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Related:
Full screen recommended.
"Why Meat Prices Are About to Soar"
"Economic Market Snapshot 10/28/22"
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Down the rabbit hole of psychopathic greed and insanity...
Only the consequences are real - to you!
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"Economic Market Snapshot 10/28/22"
Market Data Center, Live Updates:
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Your guide:
Gregory Mannarino, AM 10/28/22:
"Blackrock Warns: Expect Markets
To Fall After Midterms"
Comments here:
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Latest Market Analysis, Updated 10/28/22
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A comprehensive, essential daily read.
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Financial Stress Index
"The OFR Financial Stress Index (OFR FSI) is a daily market-based snapshot of stress in global financial markets. It is constructed from 33 financial market variables, such as yield spreads, valuation measures, and interest rates. The OFR FSI is positive when stress levels are above average, and negative when stress levels are below average. The OFR FSI incorporates five categories of indicators: credit, equity valuation, funding, safe assets and volatility. The FSI shows stress contributions by three regions: United States, other advanced economies, and emerging markets."
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Job cuts and much more.
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Commentary, highly recommended:
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"The more I see of the monied classes,
the better I understand the guillotine."
- George Bernard Shaw
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Oh yeah... beyond words. Any I know anyway...
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And now... The End Game...
Greg Hunter, "Weekly News Wrap-Up, 10/28/22"
"Weekly News Wrap-Up, 10/28/22"
by Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com
"The Pentagon is now moving to use nuclear weapons even if the other side does not have them or does not use them. No peace talks are being scheduled by either side in the Ukraine war. Both Russia and the USA are holding nuclear armed missile exercises simultaneously. This is the sort of thing that happened at the height of the cold war. There is no end in sight to the tensions, and the US military testing new hypersonic weapons this week is not going to help lower them.
I have been telling you that Biden’s real poll numbers are so low (9%-12%) that the Democrats will have to cheat like never before. The Dems are so far behind that the cheating is becoming extremely obvious. Because of the reporting on alt media and films like “2,000 Mules,” people are on to the ways the election fraud and voter fraud is pulled off. The Democrat party is turning on itself because the policies are not popular even with the staunchest blue voter. The Democrats (and RINO Republicans) are funding the Ukraine war with billions of dollars in funding and massive amounts of military weapons. Many Dems are upset with the leadership supporting the Nazis in Ukraine. Dem voters are waking up to the fact that the new Democrat party is the party of war and maybe nuclear war. It is a huge pinnacle wedge issue in the Democrat party, especially in places like New York City, which is #1 on the nuclear exchange hit list. This is bad news for AOC in November.
The government said the U.S. economy grew at 2.6% in the third quarter, but economist John Williams, founder of Shadowstats.com, says this is nothing more that pre-election hogwash. Williams says the real number is .5% growth, and the government is counting things like the $700 billion Inflation Reduction Act as GDP. It’s bad everywhere, especially in Europe where the gas has been turned off and banks are quietly suffering from bank-runs from depositors. The stock market may be up, but the real economy is getting worse, not better. That’s why a new report shows 63% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck."
Join Greg Hunter on Rumble as he talks about these stories and more in the Weekly News Wrap-Up for 10/28/22.: - https://rumble.com/
Thursday, October 27, 2022
Must View! "The US Is About To Run Out Of Diesel Fuel In 25 Days"
Full screen recommended.
Tucker Carlson, 10/27/22:
"The US Is About To Run Out Of Diesel Fuel In 25 Days"
Comments here:
25 days, and then it all, everything, grinds to a halt.
What then?
"I See A Lot More Trouble Coming; Make Sacrifices Today To Survive Tomorrow"
Full screen recommended.
Jeremiah Babe, 10/27/22:
"I See A Lot More Trouble Coming;
Make Sacrifices Today To Survive Tomorrow"
Comments here:
Canadian Prepper, "Breaking: US Dept of Defense Issues Major Nuclear Warning (No One Cares!)"
Canadian Prepper, 10/27/22:
"Breaking: US Dept of Defense Issues Major
Nuclear Warning (No One Cares!)"
Comments here:
"A Look to the Heavens"
"In silhouette against a crowded star field along the tail of the arachnalogical constellation Scorpius, this dusty cosmic cloud evokes for some the image of an ominous dark tower.
In fact, clumps of dust and molecular gas collapsing to form stars may well lurk within the dark nebula, a structure that spans almost 40 light-years across this gorgeous telescopic portrait. Known as a cometary globule, the swept-back cloud, is shaped by intense ultraviolet radiation from the OB association of very hot stars in NGC 6231, off the upper edge of the scene. That energetic ultraviolet light also powers the globule's bordering reddish glow of hydrogen gas. Hot stars embedded in the dust can be seen as bluish reflection nebulae. This dark tower, NGC 6231, and associated nebulae are about 5,000 light-years away."
Chet Raymo, “Cosmic View”
“Cosmic View”
by Chet Raymo
“When writing about Philip and Phylis Morrison’s “Powers of Ten” the other day I found I had made the following notation in the flyleaf, perhaps a dozen or more years ago:
Britannica
32 volumes
1000 pages per vol
1200 words per page
5 letters/wd
= 200 million letters. So, 200 million letters in the 32 volume set of the Encyclopedia Britannica. Why was I making that estimate? I can think of several possibilities. Perhaps…
1. I was making a comparison with the number of nucleotide pairs in the human DNA; that is, the number of steps- ATTGCCCTAA, etc.- on the double-helix. If the information on the human genome- an arm’s length of DNA in every human cell- were written out in ordinary type, it would fill 15 sets of the Encyclopedia Britannica. Nearly 500 thick volumes of information labeled YOU. Think of that for a moment. Fifteen 32-volume sets of the Encyclopedia Britannica in every invisibly-small cell of your body. And every time a cell reproduces, all of that information has to be transcribed correctly. Did I say the other day that it took a semester to stretch the imagination to grasp the universe of the galaxies? It could take another semester to stretch the imagination to grasp the scale of the molecular machinery that makes our bodies work.
Or maybe…
2. I was trying to give an insight into the complexity of the human brain. There are something like 100 billion nerve cells in the brain. That’s equivalent to the number of letters in 500 sets of the Britannica! Each many-fingered neuron connects to hundreds of other neurons, and each synaptic connection might be in one of many levels of excitation. I’ll let you calculate the number of potential states of the human brain. We’ve left behind the realm of Britannica. Even talking of libraries would be insufficient. I was marveling here recently about the amount of digital memory Google must command to store all of those 360-degree Street View images from all over the planet, all of it instantly retrievable by anyone with access to a computer and the internet. I imagined banks and banks of electronics in some cavernous building in California. Big deal! I’m sitting here right now in the college Commons and I can bring to mind street views of every place I’ve lived since I was three or four years old.
By the way…
3. The number of letters in 500 sets of the Britannica is about the number of stars in the Milky Way Galaxy.
And…”
"Too Often..."
"The majority of us lead quiet, unheralded lives as we pass through this world. There will most likely be no ticker-tape parades for us, no monuments created in our honor. But that does not lessen our possible impact, for there are scores of people waiting for someone just like us to come along; people who will appreciate our compassion, our unique talents. Someone who will live a happier life merely because we took the time to share what we had to give. Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have a potential to turn a life around. It’s overwhelming to consider the continuous opportunities there are to make our love felt."
- Leo Buscaglia
"Americans Will Freak Out When Food Prices Soar 65% From Current Levels"
Full screen recommended.
"Americans Will Freak Out When Food Prices
Soar 65% From Current Levels"
by Epic Economist
"It seems like the bad news won’t stop coming. At this point, every routine trip to the grocery store has become a cause of distress. Already, Americans have seen food prices going up for 20 consecutive months, but the nightmare isn’t over. Morgan Stanley Research shows that the price of some food staples is set to shoot up by 65% from current levels as an increasing number of companies continue to announce price hikes, and new disruptions on the supply chain threaten the food and energy security of our entire country.
A new forecast from Bloomberg says it is 100% likely that the recession will continue into next year, which means that conditions for about 3 in 4 American households are still going to get worse than they are right now. Honestly, that’s hard to conceive, especially considering that about a quarter of households in the U.S. have eaten significantly less in September compared to the month before, according to a new survey released by Morning Consult. That’s almost a 10% increase from August, which really exposes how rapidly the pain is spreading across our nation.
43% of consumers are having to dial back on purchases of meat, opt for generic brands and search for discounts to be able to make ends meet. Morning Consult’s researchers noted that current shopping trends marked a “stark contrast” compared to last year when many Americans were panic buying and hoarding food items. Now, they can’t afford to do that anymore. “Consumers are purchasing only the necessities and waiting for sales or their next paycheck to be able to purchase non-essential items,” the researchers added.
Morgan Stanley Research says that there’s little relief in sight on grocery store bills. Executives at large, food manufacturers and analysts expect food inflation to accelerate this winter and into 2023. Food staples, such as vegetable oils and wheat and grain based products are expected to rise by almost two-thirds, or around 65% from current levels, as we head towards the end of the year, they noted. The price of items like pasta and bread are expected to rise by 60% and 40%, respectively. The worst wheat harvest in nearly 50 years and the Ukraine crisis are major contributors to the coming increases.
And if you’re shopping for Thanksgiving, good luck because turkey prices are going through the roof. A few weeks ago, the American Farm Bureau Federation announced that "families can expect to pay record high prices at the grocery store for turkey”. But it’s safe to say, nobody could imagine that the retail price for fresh boneless, skinless turkey breast would actually skyrocket by 112% over the last 12 months.
Adding assault to injury, the devastating global energy crisis that has erupted is likely to intensify as new supply chain disruptions interrupt the flow of energy supplies in our country. Bloomberg reports that new transport woes — both for river and rail — are threatening the nation’s food and energy security. Needless to say, it’s never a good time to have a transportation crisis, and now is especially bad timing for new supply chain problems to emerge.
People are going to be forced to choose between eating and staying warm this winter. There’s a lot of uncertainty and factors in play that could still aggravate this situation. So we truly hope you guys got prepared ahead of time because the next couple of months are going to be exceedingly challenging for millions upon millions of people."
Gerald Celente, "Trends In The News"
Full screen recommended.
Strong language alert!
Gerald Celente, 10/27/22:
"Trends In The News"
“The Wars Are Ungodly, Which Side Are You On, Life Or Death?”
"The Trends Journal is a weekly magazine analyzing global current events forming future trends. Our mission is to present Facts and Truth over fear and propaganda to help subscribers prepare for What’s Next in these increasingly turbulent times."Comments here:
"The Recession’s Over - Or Is It?"
"The Recession’s Over - Or Is It?"
by Brian Maher
"We learn today that the gross domestic product increased 2.6% in the year’s third quarter. Reports CNBC: "The U.S. economy posted its first period of positive growth for 2022 in the third quarter, at least temporarily easing recession fears, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reported Thursday. GDP, a sum of all the goods and services produced from July through September, increased at a 2.6% annualized pace for the period, according to the advance estimate. That was above the Dow Jones forecast for 2.3%."
Thus there is greater joy in heaven today…The United States economy is up from recession - in reminder, the year’s first two quarters yielded negative growth. Two consecutive quarters of negative growth meet the broadly accepted definition of recession. Yet today’s report fails to sway us. We do not believe it represents an authentic bounce.
Not So Fast: We concede, nature has riveted into us a reflexive distrust of positive news, a very deep cynicism. In an honest moment, we would likely admit that this distrust verges upon the irrational. If we witnessed the Lord Our Savior walking on water? We would condemn instantly and reflexively His inability to swim. We nonetheless remain skeptical of today’s economic news. We remind you that numbers can conceal more than they reveal. They often spin wondrous tales and tell fantastic lies.
Like a Hollywood movie set… a false set of teeth… or a toupee… the numbers are not as they appear. Let us then seize the numbers by the scruff… and haul them in for interrogation.
Does Government Spending Really Boost GDP? According to the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis - whose very data-manglers crafted the report - government spending gave third-quarter GDP a good goosing: The increase in real GDP reflected increases in exports, consumer spending, nonresidential fixed investment, federal government spending and state and local government spending… The increase in federal government spending was led by defense spending. The increase in state and local government spending primarily reflected an increase in compensation of state and local government employees.
In all, third-quarter government spending expanded at a 2.4% annual rate. The report notes that defense spending contributed substantially to third-quarter GDP. We have not seen the data. Yet we hazard a handsome portion of this spending was consecrated to re-coffering the depleted war stocks dispatched to Ukraine. Our spies inform us that ammunition is running low. The defense contractors may be lolling in clover as they begin to make good the shortages. Yet what about the poor beset taxpayer who is handed the bill? Is this a genuine contribution to the gross domestic product of the United States?
A Transfer of Money, Not a GDP Increase: We remind you that government commands no resources of its own. It cannot ladle out one dime for “defense” - Ukraine’s or America’s - without first tapping the taxpayer on the shoulder. What would this taxpayer have done with his money had not the tax man plucked it from his pocket… and emptied it into Lockheed Martin’s pocket?
He may have spent it. He may have saved it. He may have invested it. Each option constitutes an authentic contribution to the gross domestic product in one way or other. Yet the taxpayer’s money was transferred to Lockheed Martin and the others. Is a transfer an addition? A pickpocket might as well claim his craftwork represents an addition to the gross domestic product.
Yet where is the addition? The purloined dollar the pickpocket spends is the very dollar his victim would have spent - only on different goods or services. The ledgers are even. This involuntary transfer is nonetheless credited heavily for the third-quarter’s positive GDP.
Is Bloodsucking an Economic Boon? Meantime, today’s report informs us, again, that: "The increase in state and local government spending primarily reflected an increase in compensation of state and local government employees." Once again we ask: Is this an authentic economic boost - or merely a transfer from one pocket to another?
It merely constitutes another transfer. And in this instance especially, a transfer from productive hands to nonproductive hands. For the government employee lives off the fat of the land. He takes his living at the taxpayer’s very expense. What does the taxpayer receive for his sacrifices? Very little. And by “very little,” we extend an uncharacteristic degree of generosity.
In nearly every instance - we will grant certain exceptions - the government employee represents a subtraction from the gross domestic product, not an addition. See for example the clerk with the Department of Motor Vehicles. See for example the busybody with the planning and zoning board. See for example the director of the Taxi and Limousine Commission …See for example the assistant school principal and the deputy assistant to the assistant to the assistant to the director of the Office of Administrative Affairs. Only very strict time constraints prohibit us from expanding the list.
Again, we permit a limited number of exceptions. Yet the government employee’s overall economic impact runs negative. But in the official telling he pinches the taxpayer for a raise and the pinching represents an addition to the gross domestic product.
Get Sick, Increase GDP: Today’s report continues. Likewise giving GDP a push is an increase in health care spending: "Within consumer spending, an increase in services (led by health care and "other" services)."
You are down with a horrendous toothache. You must take the day off from productive employment to visit the dentist. He yanks a tooth…. Or you must have your appendix plucked and you are confined for days to a sick bed. Or you break your leg and are down for weeks.
The tooth-yanker, the appendix-plucker and the break-setter are better off — and may the Lord bless them for their inestimable service to the human race. Yet should we consider your agonies and their necessary alleviation an economic blessing and a gain to GDP? The classical economist Frederic Bastiat and his broken windows spring immediately to mind.
The Broken Windows Fallacy: A hooligan heaves rocks through a shopkeeper’s window. This shopkeeper must contract the glazer’s services to replace the window. The transaction represents an economic benefit, argues the superficial-seeing. Look at the new money our fortunate glazer has to spend on the cobbler, the baker, the butcher. Yet they neglect to consider the money the original shopkeeper cannot spend on the cobbler, the baker and the butcher. He has spent it on the glazer - and merely to rise up to even. He has gained not a thing. Again, where is the economic gain?
Lies, damn lies and statistics. We have but one request: that government confines itself to lies and damned lies. It is the statistics we cannot take…"
"The Sometimes Hidden Beauty of ‘This Too Shall Pass’"
"The Sometimes Hidden Beauty of ‘This Too Shall Pass'"
By Richard Haddad
"It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent a sentence to be ever on view and which would be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him the words, 'And this, too, shall pass away.'"
"“This too shall pass.” This proverb has no doubt been repeated millions of times in many different languages since the COVID-19 pandemic started. The sentiment may be difficult to accept amidst so many hardships from lost jobs, lost businesses and lost lives.
This adage grew from the roots of a Persian fable and became known in the Western world primarily through a 19th-century retelling by the English poet Edward FitzGerald, who crafted the fable “Solomon’s Seal” in 1852 illustrating how the adage had the power to make a sad man happy but, conversely, a happy man sad. The fable was reportedly also employed in a speech by Abraham Lincoln before he became the sixteenth President of the United States.
But the version I want to share today that I think is most beautiful and powerful was written in 1867 by American newspaper editor and abolitionist Theodore Tilton. He reworked the fable into a poem called “The King’s Ring.” Here again, the retooled adage wields a double-edged sword. It can help us endure the passage of difficult times, or keep our perspective and humility during good times. Here is the Tilton poem:
"The King’s Ring"
"Once in Persia reigned a King,
Who upon his signet-ring
Graved a maxim true and wise,
Which, if held before his eyes,
Gave him counsel, at a glance,
Fit for every change or chance;
Solemn words, and these are they:
“Even this shall pass away.”
Trains of camels through the sand
Brought him gems from Samarcand;
Fleets of galleys through the seas
Brought him pearls to rival these.
But he counted little gain
Treasures of the mine or main.
“What is wealth?” the King would say;
“Even this shall pass away.”
In the revels of his court,
At the zenith of the sport,
When the palms of all his guests
Burned with clapping at his jests,
He, amid his figs and wine,
Cried, “O loving friends of mine!
Pleasures come, but do not stay:
Even this shall pass away.”
Lady fairest ever seen
Was the bride he crowned the queen.
Pillowed on his marriage-bed,
Whispering to his soul, he said,
“Though no bridegroom never pressed
Dearer bosom to his breast,
Mortal flesh must come to clay:
Even this shall pass away.”
Fighting on a furious field,
Once a javelin pierced his shield.
Soldiers with a loud lament
Bore him bleeding to his tent.
Groaning from his tortured side,
“Pain is hard to bear,” he cried,
“But with patience day by day,
Even this shall pass away.”
Towering in the public square
Twenty cubits in the air,
Rose his statue carved in stone.
Then the King, disguised, unknown,
Gazing at his sculptured name,
Asked himself, “And what is fame?
Fame is but a slow decay:
Even this shall pass away.”
Struck with palsy, sere and old,
Waiting at the Gates of Gold,
Spake he with his dying breath,
“Life is done, but what is Death?”
Then, in answer to the King,
Fell a sunbeam on his ring,
Showing by a heavenly ray -
“Even this shall pass away.”
I believe enduring well is an essential part of the test we must pass while on this Earth together. I am still taking this test. We all are. I also believe we must have a certain amount of faith and hope as we do all in our power to make things right in this world while also accepting that we don’t have the power to control all outcomes. I’ve been learning these truths and striving to apply them more in my own life. In the past I have sometimes hearkened to gloomy voices in the world. Many a time I entertained unnecessary doubt and worry. But I am learning that worry works against faith and hope. My mother once shared this other saying with me that I have tried to apply in my older years - “Worry is interest paid on money never borrowed.”
"May we all strive to endure, live and love well, for this too shall pass."
"Everything We Assume Is Permanent Is Actually Fragile"
"Everything We Assume Is Permanent Is Actually Fragile"
by Charles Hugh Smith
"The great irony of the past 75 years of expanding consumption is the belief that all these decades of success prove the system is rock-solid and future success is thus guaranteed. The irony lies in the systemic fragility that's built into the large-scale industrial production that generates endless surpluses of energy, food, fresh water, etc. and the global financial system that delivers endless surpluses of capital and credit to be distributed by public authorities and private owners of capital.
The key driver of increasing efficiencies has been scaling up production by concentrating ownership and capacity into a few quasi-monopolies/cartels. In industry after industry, where there were once dozens of companies, there are now only a handful of behemoths with outsized market and political power which they wield to retain their dominance.
For example, where there were dozens of large regional banks in the U.S. not that long ago, relentless consolidation has led to a handful of supergiant too big to fail banks which can take extraordinary risks (and undertake criminal skims) knowing that the federal government will always bail them out and leave the banks' corporate criminals untouched.
Two of these too big to fail banks recently paid fines in the billions of dollars, yet no one went to prison or even faced criminal charges. This highlights the systemic problem with concentrating capital and power in the hands of the few: too big to fail means corporate wrongdoers have a permanent get out of jail free card while the small-fry white-collar criminal will get a fiver (five-year prison sentence) for skimming a tiny fraction of the billions routinely pillaged by the too big to fail banks.
The net result is a two-tier judicial/law enforcement system: the too big to fail "essential" companies get a free hand and the citizenry get whatever "justice" they can afford, i.e. very little.
This concentration of wealth and power in the hands of a few corporations is of course state-cartel socialism in which the public good has become subservient to the profits of corporate owners and insiders, and the skims paid to the state's insiders. The state enables and enforces this concentration of private wealth and power in a number of ways: regulatory capture, the polite bribery of lobbying, the revolving door between government and private industry, and so on.
The public good would best be served by competition and transparent markets and regulations, but these are precisely what's been eliminated by relentless consolidation and the paring down of the economic ecosystem to a handful of too big to fail nodes which work tirelessly to eliminate competition, transparency and meaningful public oversight.
This ruthless pursuit of efficiencies and profits has stripped the economy of redundancies and buffers. Production supply chains have been engineered to function in a narrow envelope of quality, quantity and time. Any disruption quickly leads to shortages, something that became visible when meatpacking plants were closed in the pandemic.
Supply chains are long and fragile, but this fragility is not visible as long as everything stays within the narrow envelope that's been optimized. Once the envelope is broken, the supply chain breaks down. Since redundancies and buffers have been stripped away, there are no alternatives available. Shortages mount and the entire system starts breaking down.
Quality has been stripped out as well. When markets become captive to cartels and monopolies, customers have to take what's available: if it's poor quality goods and services, tough luck, pal, there are no alternatives. There are only one or two service providers, healthcare insurers, etc., and they all provide the same minimal level of quality and service.
The moral rot in our social, political and economic orders is another source of hidden fragility. I'm constantly told by readers that corruption has been around forever, so therefore nothing has changed, but these readers are indulging in magical nostalgia: things have changed profoundly, and for the worse, as the moral rot has seeped into every nook and cranny of American life, from the top down.
There is no "public good," there is only a rapacious, obsessive self-interest that claims the mantle of "public good" as a key mechanism of the con.
As I discussed in "Everything is Staged", everyone and everything in America is now nothing more than a means to a self-interested end, and so the the entirety of American life is nothing but 100% marketing of various cons designed to enrich the few at the expense of the many. That America was a better place without endless marketing of Big Pharma meds and "vaccines", and colleges hyping their insanely costly "product" (a worthless diploma) has been largely forgotten by those indulging in magical nostalgia.
What few seem to realize is all the supposedly rock-solid permanent foundations of life are nothing more than fragile social constructs based on trust and legitimacy. Once trust and legitimacy have been lost, these constructs melt into the sands of time.
A great many things we take for granted are fragile constructs that could unravel with surprising speed: law enforcement, the courts, elections, the value of our currency -- these are all social constructs. Once legitimacy is lost, people abandon these constructs and they melt away.
It's clear to anyone who isn't indulging in magical nostalgia that trust in institutions is in a steep decline as the legitimacy of these institutions, public and private, have been eroded by incompetence, corruption, dysfunction and the rapacious self-interest of insiders.
What we've gotten very good at is masking the rot and fragility. Masking the rot and fragility is not the same thing as strength or permanence. The nation is about to discover the difference in the years ahead."
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