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So, we rise from the rubble...
Friday, January 13, 2023
"Davos Men"
"Davos Men"
"Your moral betters prepare for their annual,
world improving confabulation."
By Bill Bonner and Joel Bowman
Paris, France - "Paris is gray. But not grim. People are out and about. Face masks have almost disappeared. But everybody grumbles…and in France, as in America, elite deciders are making everyday life harder. One thing: they’ve banned the use of outdoor heaters, which were ubiquitous in sidewalk cafes. You used to be able to sit outside near the gas heater and enjoy the street life. No more…
Meanwhile, we are working our way through a list of things that can go wrong. The World Economic Forum (WEF) calls it a “polycrisis.” We prefer the half-word “cluster” as it is more descriptive of the disaster to come. Inflation, for example. The WEF’s Global Risks survey signals higher living costs as one of its near-term flash points. And here’s the latest. CNBC reports: "Inflation just dropped to 6.5% - but the 'most important' factor in predicting if it will keep falling is up 0.4%"
In Thursday's CPI report, "services less rent of shelter" showed a 0.4% increase in December. …since wages are "the largest cost in delivering these services," [Powell] said, that might indicate out-of-control wage growth…
There is “sticky” inflation…and inflation of the Teflon variety. The non-sticky inflation includes things that go up and down readily – such as oil and commodities. The ‘sticky’ inflation comes from things such as wages and shelter, that don’t get marked-to-market on a daily basis.
Yesterday’s numbers tell us that the sticky part may become a tar baby – hard to get rid of. In the ‘services including rents’ category, for example, prices are up more than 7%. Much of that is wages. And nobody takes a wage cut to fight inflation.
“Davos Men”: WEF is a sinister organization. It believes the common man is a dope – which, of course, he is. But it also believes that it – or rather its adherents, the great and the good from all over the world – are geniuses, which they are not. They are human too…just better at school…or better at getting their names in the paper…or simply lucky enough to have no tender feelings nor nuanced thoughts that might keep them from making fools of themselves. With no real weight – neither inner dignity nor outward-facing principles – they rise to the top, like plastic bottles, floating in a fetid swamp.
The list of attendees has recently been released. It includes the usual public policy jackasses…as well as a large group of people in private industry who have become “Davos Men” and are ready to lead the rest of us to the promised land. The problem is that when you look more carefully at the land they are promising, it looks more and more like a prison. It is a prison constructed by true believers, who think they know what is best for us.
Which brings us to their polycrises…and to our cluster. Included among the coming tempests – at the top of both of our lists – is the deflation of asset prices and the potential for a worldwide, 1930s-style depression. But looking out further…over 10 years… their survey focuses on bigger threats. Its top five are all related to ‘climate change.’ They think human activity is ruining the planet.
On our list, by contrast, in number 4 position, is a very different crisis – a man-made catastrophe, a little like the disaster in China of the ‘Great Leap Forward,’ in which 50 million people died – caused by an almost religious faith in ‘green’ power.
This Tilted World: WEF could be right. Maybe the planet really is warming. And maybe it will pose problems. But there are a lot of unknowns. Is the planet heating up because of something we do? We don’t know for sure. Is a warmer earth a bad thing? Don’t know. Could we stop it? We don’t know that either. Would we be better off if we tried…how much would it cost? Again, question marks. Would it be worth it? Who knows?
The risk we see is not a climate disaster, but a much more likely public policy cluster. The odds are in our favor. We know of no major, ambitious and costly public policy that wasn’t a catastrophe – from the Crusades and the Inquisition to the trenches of WWI and the jungles of Vietnam…all were disasters.
Yes, there are plenty of squishy unknowns in our cluster too. But the ground is dry. Fossil fuels are 1) cheaper than green energy, 2) already in place and ready for duty, and 3) reliable; they do the job even when the sun doesn’t shine and the wind doesn’t blow.
Replacing fossil fuel with ‘green’ energy, even gradually, will almost certainly lower living standards. (Today’s standards of living depend on energy at today’s prices.) In our developed world, we sit on a fat cushion of wealth, made possible by economies using traditional energy. Would lower living standards be a bad thing? We don’t know. But what about those billions of people who sit on hard benches…for whom air conditioning and automatic transmissions are still a dream? They live on $5 a day…and barely stay alive.
We don’t know. But combined in a cluster of market correction, war, and other calamities, tilting the whole world towards an expensive and untested new energy system is risky. Some of the world’s 8 billion humans are bound to fall off."
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Joel’s Note: In a pop-up city, nestled in the lush countryside of one of the world’s richest countries, your enlightened (yet ever so humble) overlords will soon gather to discuss your future... your children’s future... and the future of the entire planet. Chances are, you’re not going to like what they have to say. But hear them out; it’s for their own good.
Spirited on luxury private jets angel wings, thousands of personkind’s finest moral exemplars will journey to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, next week to engage in an cloistered mass debate over how best to organize the miracle of life here on this precious blue orb. Where you can go, and when... How much you can spend, and on what… Which ideas are permitted and which constitute “misinformation.” What is is prohibited, and what is mandatory…
And because their own ideas are so very popular, the Davos Men will only need 5,000 members of the Swiss military to protect them from the plebeians outside the city gates. That’s in addition to the thousands of ordinary uniformed police officers that will be hitting the streets… and the fighter jets that will be patrolling the skies overhead. From the official SwissInfo.ch
Ten days before the 2023 edition, the military has begun work on security installations, the defence ministry said on Friday. Like every year, the military is supporting the civilian authorities in canton Graubünden in preparation for the major event. It notes that the Swiss parliament renewed approval for 5,000 members of the Swiss army to guarantee the security of some 3,000 WEF participants for the years 2022 to 2024. The high-level event attracts wealthy, high-profile business and political figures from around the world, along with academics and other leaders of society.
Safety protocols (for them… not you), include “permanent patrolling by armed fighter jets, ground-based air defense, additional radars, increased airspace surveillance and air police service around the clock.”
All completely carbon neutral, of course. And fear not, obedient prole, while you’re being scolded for driving the kids to school in your soccer van and told “no more gas stoves for you!” your elites will be traveling to the event in private jets which, as we all know, run on compost and solar power. Hermès speed!"
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Related:
"When We Have Time...."
“How small a portion of our life it is that we really enjoy. In youth we are looking forward to things that are to come; in old age, we are looking backwards to things that are gone past; in manhood, although we appear indeed to be more occupied in things that are present, yet even that is too often absorbed in vague determinations to be vastly happy on some future day, when we have time.”
- Charles Caleb Colton, “Lacon”
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"The problem is, you think you have time."
- Buddha
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“There Is No Reality Anymore…”
by Thad Beversdorf
“I‘d love to change the world, but I don‘t know what to do,
so I’ll leave it up to you…”
“What a great lyric that is from the late 60′s, early 70′s English band “10 Years After.”* I believe this describes that uneasy feeling of discontent that sits deep in the stomach, beneath the day to day exteriors, of so many people today. The world is like a black hole in that it seems to be getting smaller and smaller as the years go by but also heavier and heavier with each passing day.
When I was a teenager and my friends and I were taking reality obscuring substances, one of my buddies (this means you Nichol) would stop us at certain points throughout the night for a reality check. This was just a few moments where we ‘d all gather our senses to make sure the world was still right and then we’d venture back into obscurity. I feel that reality is an old world term. There is no reality anymore. With advances in technology came unending possibilities of if you can dream it they can make it so. The ubiquitous flow of information ensures that the truth is always available but never known with certainty. It means there is no such thing as a reality check. It’s like that dream inside a dream inside a dream. Which reality is real anymore? How deep does the rabbit hole go?
We are raised with pretty standard ideals of what the world is meant to be but these ideals seem to take place only in the movies. It must be incredibly difficult for our young people to reconcile the two worlds, I know it is for me. That which they learn as a child and that which they find has replaced it as a young adult. Our leaders are despicable, arrogant and egotistical fools who pretend we elect them because we don’t see them for what they are. But we elect them because we feel we have no choice. We know what we want the world to be. We know what it should look and feel like. And we know it is not the world in which we live today. I know I’d love to change the world but I don’t know how and so I’ll leave it up to you. And so we continue to move forward down this path, each step uneasy as though something ungood is lurking just around the next corner.
We are able to put that feeling out of our minds for the most part but our subconscious is always aware that things are off. We have all kinds of self help books and new age theories that attempt to make sense of it all and explain why we just aren t happy the way we envision happy should be. Perhaps the only reality is the reality that the world isn’t what we had hoped it would be and we don’t know how to make that right. I’d love to say that if we just stand up and do the right thing, act from our hearts and have good intentions that it could change the world. But quite honestly there are ill-intentioned people that are constructing this new world in which we sub-exist.It is them and us, but they’d never say it that way. Certainly though their intention is not for us to co-exist along side them.
But so we carry on and we, move forward, to the best of our abilities. We accept the good with the bad and acknowledge that everything is a trade off. We believe that if we go to college we stand a better chance in life and so we borrow our first 10 years of post college wages to get an edge over the next guy who is doing the same. When we get out of school we know that it is time to buckle down and get serious. We put our lives on hold in order to focus on the future with the idea that one day we will be sitting on the porch with the person we love, the one we put on hold for all those years, and we will then enjoy our life’s work then.
But then we get further in debt because we need a sleeker car and we need a bigger house but it’s ok because we can just work a little more. And then the kids come and as far as we got to know them they are great, I think. But it’s ok because they just finished college and now they’ve moved back in as the job market is tough out there and so we’re paying off their student loans. Eventually they get away and begin their life’s journey and they take their debt with them. And then we realize, god I’m almost 60. But it feels great because that means soon I’ll be there on the porch getting to know the one I love again and life will be grand at that point.
But then we turn 65 and we realize all those policies that were implemented by all those well-intentioned decision makers have actually left us with very little. And we say it’s ok because we’d be bored anyway just sitting on the porch. And so we take a job waving at people in Walmart but feel like OMG how did I get here. But the shift ends and we go home anxious to spend time with the one we love because, although it’s a terrible thought, we are aware we’re both getting long in the tooth. And so we arrive home only to realize the one we love is now sick and that it’s too late for our days sitting on the porch getting to know each other again. We do everything we can but we cannot afford to help that person who stood quietly behind us all those years as healthcare costs are unrealistically out of touch with reality. And then it hits us that despite taking all the right steps to ensure we have a great life we failed to ever really be happy, to really love and to really accept love. And then it really hits us, this world provides but one shot.
Well, then that feeling of uneasy discontent that shadowed us when we were young is now an intense pain in our heart. And we look out at the world and we ask ourselves how could this have happened? I did everything they told me I was supposed to do, I did everything right! And it becomes clear that life was a chance to change the world, but we didn’t know what to do, and so we left it up to…”
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Greg Hunter, "Weekly News Wrap-Up 1/13/23"
Biden Doc Doo Doo, Ukraine Sucking, Fed Interest Increase
by Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com
"Vice President Joe Biden is now in doo doo after government documents have been discovered at one of his homes. They say the documents could be planted, stolen, a national security threat or just plain illegal for him to have. What will come of it? Is this going to be like the John Durham investigations with lots of fanfare and zero results? Is this a ploy to get Biden to step down? Who knows, but Biden is not going to prison for this.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy took time out of his busy war schedule to speak at the Golden Globes, which was a ratings disaster. Zelenskyy reassured the audience, “There will be no third world war.” Zelenskyy has been touting how well Ukraine is doing against Russia. In the propaganda world, Ukraine is doing great. In the real world, it is still sucking. Speaking of sucking, now military brass is starting to worry about sucking U.S. war stockpiles dry after sending more than $100 billion in military help to Ukraine. There is no end in sight to the war or the money funding it.
Everybody is expecting the Fed to stop fighting inflation and start cutting interest rates. The latest CPI data says that is not going to happen anytime soon. Inflation is still more than three times above the 2% target rate at 6.5%. Also, services inflation soars to its highest level in 40 years. Rent inflation is also headed straight up. Expect more Fed rate increases–not cuts." There is much more in the 48-minute newscast.
Join Greg Hunter on Rumble as he talks about these
stories and more in the Weekly News Wrap-Up for 1/13/23:
"This Affects All of Us"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, iAllegedly 1/13/23:
"This Affects All of Us"
"We got the inflation numbers, but they really aren’t as good as everybody’s talking about. We are seeing the fact that food prices have shot up and energy bills are out of control."
Comments here:
"Strange Prices At Big Lots! This Is Ridiculous! What's Next!?"
Full screen recommended.
Adventures With Danno, 1/13/23:
"Strange Prices At Big Lots! This Is Ridiculous! What's Next!?"
"In today's vlog we are at Big Lots, and are noticing some strange 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:
"Are You Ready? The Entire Central Bank Run Financial System Is Coming Apart By Design"
Gregory Mannarino, AM 1/13/23:
"Are You Ready? The Entire Central Bank Run
Financial System Is Coming Apart By Design"
Comments here:
Jim Kunstler, "Glug Glug, Gurgle Gurgle"
"Glug Glug, Gurgle Gurgle"
by Jim Kunstler
“When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.” - Edmund Burke
"You thought the Titanic sinking was an astounding spectacle? Looks like the ship of the Deep State got some holes ripped in its hull and may be fixing to go down sometime in 2023. The fun-and-games about voting for Speaker of the House are over. Time to get down to bidness and compel some folks to do some ‘splainin’ under oath. You don’t know for sure who will be chair exactly of which congressional committee, but there will be several of them running at the same time, looking to shake out some verifiable truth from the dumpster of misrule, sedition, and perfidy that America fell into the past decade. Here are a couple of my top outlines for inquiries.
Covid-19. Forget about Fauci for the moment. First, subpoena the various deputies working under him going back as far as the twentieth century and see what they know about the twisted path that gain-of-function research on corona viruses traveled from the DOD’s DARPA to the labs of Dr. Ralph Baric at the U of North Carolina, to labs in Canada, Ukraine, and finally to Wuhan Institute of Virology in China. Then put Dr. Fauci’s ass in the witness chair and wring out the ‘splainin.’ Ask about the patents on the various parts of C-19 and on the mRNA “vaccines” cooked up to fight it, and who got the royalties emanating off all of that. Ask him how he continued gain-of-function research post-2014 after the White House directed it to stop. Ask him to ‘splain’ his relations with one Peter Daszak of the EcoHealth Alliance.
Ask Deborah Birx to ‘splain’ exactly what was going on in that White House C-19 task force. Why did the public health officers demonize early treatments with known, safe, drugs and censor anyone who spoke out against their insane policies. What did the task force know about Pfizer and Moderna’s “vaccine” trials. Ask Rochelle Walensky how come she and the CDC kept pushing mRNA shots and boosters long after a broad array of injuries and deaths presented from their use. Put Bill Gates’s ass in the chair and have him ‘splain’ the labyrinth of funding mechanisms he set up to push “vaccines” all over the globe and how his tentacles happen to penetrate into the World Health Org (WHO). Ask him if he ever had conversations with the leadership of the WHO and the World Economic Forum (WEF) about population reduction and methods for achieving it.
Weaponization of Government. Time for FBI Director Christopher Wray to ‘splain’ how come he sat silently in possession of the Hunter Biden laptop — stuffed as it was with deal memoranda about payoffs from Ukraine and other foreign lands — through the first impeachment of Mr. Trump in late 2019 and early 2020, from the initial House hearings through the Senate trail… when said laptop was full of exculpatory evidence proving that Mr. Trump had a good reason to inquire about those matters in a phone call with V. Zelensky. Ask Mr. Wray what he knows about the roles of “whistleblower” (CIA agent) Eric Ciaramella and Intel Agency Inspector General Michael Atkinson and their relations with former House Intel Committee chair Adam Schiff. Ask Mr. Wray how many federal agents were involved in the January 6 riot at the Capitol building, both inside and outside. Ask him why one Ray Epps was never indicted for incitement captured on video. Ask him why the FBI never made a murder or manslaughter referral in the death of Ashli Babbitt. Don’t let him bullshit the committee about “ongoing investigations” blah blah. Ask Mr. Wray if he directly ordered his agents to monitor and censor social media companies, and, if not him, who did?
Summon the ghost of James Comey to ‘splain’ the finer points of RussiaGate: how he fell for Hillary Clinton’s Steele Dossier prank, how he used Columbia University law professor Daniel Richman to leak info about confidential meetings with Mr. Trump, whether he ordered Peter Strzok’s sandbagging operation on Gen. Mike Flynn. the FISA court shenanigans, the hiring of Crowdstrike instead of using FBI forensic experts to vet evidence, the run-up to “Crossfire Hurricane,” the roles of International men of mystery Stefan Halper and Josef Mifsud in the operations to incriminate Trump appointees, Nellie Ohr’s role as a DOJ-FBI go-between with the Fusion GPS company.
Let’s hear from former CIA director John Brennan about the “17 Intel Agencies” who swore Russia was behind 2016 election interference and then about the 50-odd distinguished intel officers and other high officials who swore that Hunter Biden’s laptop was a Russia put-on job. Ask former Attorney General Bill Barr to ‘splain’ if he was informed about the Hunter Biden laptop when the FBI got it in 2019. Bring back former AG Jeff Sessions to ‘splain’ how the Mueller Special Counsel’s office was stuffed with Democratic Party activist Lawfare cadres, and how he determined if Mr. Mueller was mentally up to the job. Bring in Mr. Mueller to ‘splain’ how he testified that in the two-year course of his inquiry he never heard of the company Fusion GPS.
Find a special booster chair for Merrick Garland to ‘splain’ how come so many January 6 suspects are being held indefinitely pre-trial in the DC lockup on rinky-dink charges under the harshest conditions (solitary confinement, denial of medical care) in defiance of due process of law, in particular the constitutional right to a speedy trial. Ask Mr. Garland why he’s devoting vast resources of the DOJ to pursue ever more January 6 protesters on rinky-dink charges. Ask him to ‘splain’ how it came to pass that he went after parents protesting at school boards about indecent sex ed for little children and racist anti-white indoctrination. Ask him about sending SWAT teams on predawn raids to the homes of investigation targets whose lawyers volunteered to deliver them to the FBI offices. Ask him why he appointed a RussiaGate-involved lawyer, one Robert K Hur, as Special Counsel in the “Joe Biden” classified document matter.
That’s just my short list of areas to begin excavations. The Biden Family influence-peddling operation would be a fertile ground for a dedicated inquiry of a special committee. So would the adventures of Democratic Party Lawfare election engineer Marc Elias, along with the election funding activities ($400-million) of Mark Zuckerberg’s Center for Technology and Civic Life in 2020. I’m sure readers can think of a thousand other matters worth airing in the public arena.
One somewhat disconnected thought, a sort-of postscript: The World Economic Forum’s annual jamboree at Davos, Switzerland, opens this coming Monday. Der Schwabenklaus, Bill Gates, and an international cast of global Big Machers will be in one room for the opening plenary session all at the same time. Think about it. Just sayin’."
Musical Interlude: Bruce Springsteen, "My Home Town"
Bruce Springsteen, "My Home Town"
"Now Main St. white washed windows, in vacant stores,
Seems like there ain't nobody wants to come down here no more.
They're closing down the textile mill cross the railroad tracks,
Foreman says these jobs are goin' boys,
And they ain't comin' back, to your hometown..."
Thursday, January 12, 2023
"Economy Left For Dead AS FED Loses Control; Chickens Starve In California; Inflation Numbers Rigged"
Jeremiah Babe, 1/12/23:
"Economy Left For Dead AS FED Loses Control;
Chickens Starve In California; Inflation Numbers Rigged"
Comments here:
Gerald Celente, "The Deeper Biden Sinks The More He'll Ramp Up WW3"
Very strong language alert!
Gerald Celente, 1/12/23:
"The Deeper Biden Sinks The More He'll Ramp Up WW3"
Comments here:
"15 Interesting Facts Of The Screwed Up State Of The U.S. Economy"
Full screen recommended.
"15 Interesting Facts Of The Screwed
Up State Of The U.S. Economy"
by Epic Economist
"The current state of the U.S. economy doesn't look good at all. In fact, legendary investor Michael Novogratz is explicitly warning that “the economy is starting to fall apart”: “We are going into recession really fast, and you can see that in lots of ways,” he said. “Housing is starting to roll over. Inventories have exploded. There are layoffs in multiple industries, and the Fed will continue to hike interest rates until inflation rolls over.”
"Businesses are nervous, and sentiment is at risk of breaking -- even if nothing goes wrong," added Mark Zandi, the chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, "And plenty could go wrong. A severe downturn could materialize swiftly if businesses lose faith, and there is a good chance they will. The economy is throttling back. Way back," he alerts. Several indicators are pointing to more trouble ahead. What most people still don't realize is that we're facing the combined threat of a recession, tumbling stocks, crashing home prices, mass layoffs, and stubborn inflation all at once. And the end game is going to be catastrophic.
Even the four biggest American banks are now getting ready for shrinking profits, Reuters reported. “U.S. banking giants are forecast to report lower fourth-quarter profits this week as lenders stockpile rainy-day funds to prepare for an economic slowdown that is battering investment banking,” the outlet highlighted. JPMorgan, Bank of America, Citigroup, and Wells Fargo, along with Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, are the six largest lenders expected to amass a combined $5.7 billion in reserves to prepare for soured loans. That is more than double the $2.37 billion set aside a year earlier. "With most U.S. economists forecasting either a significant recession this year, banks will likely incorporate a more severe economic outlook," said Morgan Stanley analysts led by Betsy Graseck in a note. The six banks are also expected to report an average 17% drop in net profit in the fourth quarter from a year earlier, according to preliminary analysts' estimates from Refintiv. When even the largest banking institutions in the country are facing financial losses, then we know something really wrong is happening in our economy.
The crisis we're about to face will be like no other. Many experts believe that the recession that is staring us in the face will be even worse than what we went through more than a decade ago. "This one is going to be even bigger because the economy has a lot 'more debt now than it did in 2008," explains economist Peter Schiff. "And Americans are less able to pay it when interest rates rise because the balances are much greater. So, we’re in much worse shape as a result of all the bailouts and all the stimulus that papered over the last crisis. Now the one we’re dealing with is going to be much worse because we kicked the can down the road instead of solving the problem when we had a chance,” he stresses.
It is crystal clear now that the ripple effect of decades of reckless monetary decisions made by our leaders is now catching up with us, and the next chapters of this collapse will be even darker than the ones before. Our entire economy is crumbling down and we're all at risk of going down with it. In today's video, we compiled several stats that expose the dire state of the U.S. economy, as well as forecasts, projections, and warnings from some of the brightest minds in the economic and financial world."
"We Won’t Be Fooled Again – Inflation Is Most Definitely Not 'Under Control'”
"We Won’t Be Fooled Again –
Inflation Is Most Definitely Not 'Under Control'”
by Michael Snyder
"Inflation is going down! Let’s all celebrate! We all knew that when the Federal Reserve began aggressively hiking interest rates it would have an impact on inflation. Higher rates have caused a new housing crash, they have crushed the tech industry, and they have sparked the biggest wave of layoffs that we have seen since the Great Recession. We have entered a significant economic downturn, so it was inevitable that the annual rate of inflation would start to moderate. But as I will explain below, that doesn’t mean that inflation is now “under control”. The real rate of inflation is much higher than we are being told, and people all over the country are being absolutely crushed by the rising cost of living.
Let’s start with the good news first. According to the Labor Department, the annual rate of inflation is rising at the slowest pace since October 2021…"Consumer prices increased 6.5% from a year earlier, down from 7.1% in November and a 40-year high of 9.1% in June, according to the Labor Department’s consumer price index, a measurement of what people pay for goods and services, which labor released on Thursday. The rise last month marks the slowest annual gain since October 2021 and matches economists’ estimates."
Okay, but Fox Business has just reminded us that the annual rate of inflation “remains about three times higher than the pre-pandemic average”…"Still, inflation remains about three times higher than the pre-pandemic average, underscoring the persistent financial burden placed on millions of U.S. households by high prices."
So we are still definitely in a high inflation environment. But let’s dig deeper. Most Americans don’t realize that the way that the inflation rate is calculated has literally been changed more than two dozen times since 1980. And every time it has been changed, the goal has been to make inflation appear to be lower than it actually is.
If the rate of inflation was still calculated the way that it was back in 1980, the real rate of inflation would be close to 15 percent right now. That would be comparable to the peak inflation that we witnessed during the Jimmy Carter era. So don’t let anyone try to convince you that inflation is “low” or “under control” or anything like that.
The main reason why the rate of inflation moderated somewhat during the month of December is because energy prices have been falling…"Americans saw some real reprieve last month in the form of lower energy costs, which fell 6.1% in December. Gas prices dropped 12.5% over the month, the biggest contributor to the overall headline decline in inflation in December."
That is great news, but it is already being projected that gas prices will rise significantly later this year. And once war in the Middle East erupts, gas prices will go to heights that most people never even dreamed was possible.
Meanwhile, services inflation has just spiked to a level that we haven’t seen in decades. The cost of living has become extremely oppressive, and the American people are becoming increasingly frustrated by this. Sadly, the truth is that over the past few years the cost of living has been rising faster than our paychecks have, and so U.S. families have steadily been getting poorer…"The average American family has lost the equivalent of more than a month’s salary in annual income since President Biden took office as high inflation and rising interest rates eat away at their finances, according to research by the Heritage Foundation.
Experts at the conservative think tank analyzed consumer prices and interest rates and found in their latest report released Thursday that the average American household has lost the equivalent of $7,400 in annual income since Biden’s inauguration Jan. 20, 2021. The income loss represents an increase of $200 from September, when the think tank’s research found a $7,200 decline in annual income for the average American household dating back to the start of Biden’s term."
Prior to the pandemic, we were in a low inflation and low interest rate environment. Now that the Federal Reserve has dramatically hiked interest rates, we now find ourselves in a high inflation and high interest rate environment. And higher interest rates are also hammering our standard of living…
"While their elected representatives in D.C. struggle to pay the nation’s bills, Americans are facing a similar challenge as their household budgets are stretched thin due to inflation and higher borrowing costs. Those financial challenges led more than one-third of households to rely on credit cards or loans to buy necessities in December. Average credit card interest rates reached a new record high of 19.14% APR compared to a Bankrate.com database.
“Americans are increasingly relying on credit cards to make it from paycheck to paycheck, resulting in higher levels of indebtedness. Rising credit card balances in an era of rising interest rates is a path to insolvency,” Antoni told FOX Business. “The average interest rate on credit cards is now around 20 percent while half of Americans cannot pay off their credit cards each month, and balances are growing at a 16 percent annual rate.”
We are getting hit from both ends. We have to pay more to buy the things that we need, and we have to pay higher interest rates when we borrow money to pay for those things. The Federal Reserve has lost control, and we are careening toward the sort of historic economic crisis that I have been warning about for years.
But those that are under the spell of the corporate media will continue to assume that everything is fine and that our leaders have a plan to get us out of this mess. I truly wish that was true. Unfortunately, the short-term economic outlook is extremely dismal, and prominent voices all over Wall Street are warning that 2023 will be a really rough year."
"A Look to the Heavens"
"Who knows what evil lurks in the eyes of galaxies? The Hubble knows -- or in the case of spiral galaxy M64 - is helping to find out. Messier 64, also known as the Evil Eye or Sleeping Beauty Galaxy, may seem to have evil in its eye because all of its stars rotate in the same direction as the interstellar gas in the galaxy's central region, but in the opposite direction in the outer regions. Captured here in great detail by the Earth-orbiting Hubble Space Telescope, enormous dust clouds obscure the near-side of M64's central region, which are laced with the telltale reddish glow of hydrogen associated with star formation.
M64 lies about 17 million light years away, meaning that the light we see from it today left when the last common ancestor between humans and chimpanzees roamed the Earth. The dusty eye and bizarre rotation are likely the result of a billion-year-old merger of two different galaxies."
"A Realistic Attitude..."
"It was the essence of life to disbelieve in death for one's self, to act as if life would continue forever. And life had to act also as if little issues were big ones. To take a realistic attitude toward life and death meant that one lapsed into unreality. Into insanity. It was ironic that the only way to keep one's sanity was to ignore that one was in an insane world or to act as if the world were sane."
- Philip José Farmer
Chet Raymo, “Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright…”
“Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright…”
by Chet Raymo
“Divinity is not playful. The universe was not made in jest but in solemn incomprehensible earnest. By a power that is unfathomably secret, and holy, and fleet.” You may recall these words from Annie Dillard’s “Pilgrim at Tinker Creek.” There is nothing intrinsically cheerful about the world, she says. To live is to die; it’s all part of the bargain. Stars destroy themselves to make the atoms of our bodies. Every creature lives to eat and be eaten. And into this incomprehensible, unfathomable, apparently stochastic melee stumbles… You and I. With qualities that we have - so far - seen nowhere else. Hope. Humor. A sense of justice. A sense of beauty. Gratitude. But also: Anger. Hurt. Despair. Strangers in a strange land.
Galaxies by the billions turn like St. Catherine Wheels, throwing off sparks of exploding stars. Atoms eddy and flow, blowing hot and cold, groping and promiscuous. A wind of neutrinos gusts through our bodies, Energy billows and swells. A myriad of microorganisms nibble at our flesh.
We have a sense that something purposeful is going on, something that involves us. Something secret, holy and fleet. But we haven’t a clue what it is. We make up stories. Stories in which we are the point of it all. We tell the stories over and over. To our children. To ourselves. And the stories fill up the space of our ignorance. Until they don’t. And then the great yawning spaces open again. And time clangs down on our heads like a pummeling rain, like the collapsing ceiling of the sky. Dazed, stunned, we stagger like giddy topers towards our own swift dissolution. Inexplicably praising. Admiring. Wondering. Giving thanks.”
◆
“The Tyger”
“Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare sieze the fire?
And what shoulder, and what art.
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? and what dread feet?
What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?
When the stars threw down their spears,
And watered heaven with their tears,
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?
Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?”
- William Blake
"Maya Angelou's Life Advice"
Full screen recommended.
"Maya Angelou's Life Advice"
"Maya Angelou born Marguerite Annie Johnson April 4, 1928 – May 28, 2014) was an American poet, memoirist, and civil rights activist. She published seven autobiographies, three books of essays, several books of poetry, and is credited with a list of plays, movies, and television shows spanning over 50 years. She received dozens of awards and more than 50 honorary degrees. Angelou is best known for her series of seven autobiographies, which focus on her childhood and early adult experiences. The first, "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" (1969), tells of her life up to the age of 17 and brought her international recognition and acclaim."
"The Worst Part..."
"Our world is not safe. It is a toxic swamp populated by predators and parasites. The odds are stacked against us from the moment of conception. We survive only because we fight the elements, hunger, disease, each other. And, although civilization promises us safe harbor, that promise is a fairy tale. Only the storm is real. It comes for each of us. And we cannot win. We can only choose how we will suffer our defeat. We can meekly take our beatings, and die like lemmings, finding solace in the belief that we shall one day inherit the earth. Or, we can plunge into the chaos with eyes wide open, taking comfort instead from the bruises, scars, and broken bones which prove that we fought to live and die as gods. "
- J.K. Franko, "Life for Life"
○
"The worst part is wondering how you'll find the strength tomorrow to go on doing what you did today and have been doing for much too long, where you'll find the strength for all that stupid running around, those projects that come to nothing, those attempts to escape from crushing necessity, which always founder and serve only to convince you one more time that destiny is implacable, that every night will find you down and out, crushed by the dread of more and more sordid and insecure tomorrows. And maybe it's treacherous old age coming on, threatening the worst. Not much music left inside us for life to dance to. Our youth has gone to the ends of the earth to die in the silence of the truth. And where, I ask you, can a man escape to, when he hasn't enough madness left inside him? The truth is an endless death agony. The truth is death. You have to choose: death or lies. I've never been able to kill myself. "
- Louis-Ferdinand Celineo
"You’re Not Ready For This"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, iAllegedly 1/12/23:
"You’re Not Ready For This"
Comments here:
"Bonhoeffer on Stupidity"
"Bonhoeffer on Stupidity"
by Averett Jones
"Taken from a circular letter, addressing many topics, written to three friends and co-workers in the conspiracy against Hitler, on the tenth anniversary of Hitler’s accession to the chancellorship of Germany…
‘Stupidity is a more dangerous enemy of the good than malice. One may protest against evil; it can be exposed and, if need be, prevented by use of force. Evil always carries within itself the germ of its own subversion in that it leaves behind in human beings at least a sense of unease. Against stupidity we are defenseless. Neither protests nor the use of force accomplish anything here; reasons fall on deaf ears; facts that contradict one’s prejudgment simply need not be believed - in such moments the stupid person even becomes critical – and when facts are irrefutable they are just pushed aside as inconsequential, as incidental. In all this the stupid person, in contrast to the malicious one, is utterly self-satisfied and, being easily irritated, becomes dangerous by going on the attack. For that reason, greater caution is called for than with a malicious one. Never again will we try to persuade the stupid person with reasons, for it is senseless and dangerous.
If we want to know how to get the better of stupidity, we must seek to understand its nature. This much is certain, that it is in essence not an intellectual defect but a human one. There are human beings who are of remarkably agile intellect yet stupid, and others who are intellectually quite dull yet anything but stupid. We discover this to our surprise in particular situations. The impression one gains is not so much that stupidity is a congenital defect, but that, under certain circumstances, people are made stupid or that they allow this to happen to them. We note further that people who have isolated themselves from others or who live in solitude manifest this defect less frequently than individuals or groups of people inclined or condemned to sociability. And so it would seem that stupidity is perhaps less a psychological than a sociological problem. It is a particular form of the impact of historical circumstances on human beings, a psychological concomitant of certain external conditions.
Upon closer observation, it becomes apparent that every strong upsurge of power in the public sphere, be it of a political or of a religious nature, infects a large part of humankind with stupidity. It would even seem that this is virtually a sociological-psychological law. The power of the one needs the stupidity of the other. The process at work here is not that particular human capacities, for instance, the intellect, suddenly atrophy or fail. Instead, it seems that under the overwhelming impact of rising power, humans are deprived of their inner independence, and, more or less consciously, give up establishing an autonomous position toward the emerging circumstances. The fact that the stupid person is often stubborn must not blind us to the fact that he is not independent. In conversation with him, one virtually feels that one is dealing not at all with a person, but with slogans, catchwords and the like that have taken possession of him. He is under a spell, blinded, misused, and abused in his very being. Having thus become a mindless tool, the stupid person will also be capable of any evil and at the same time incapable of seeing that it is evil. This is where the danger of diabolical misuse lurks, for it is this that can once and for all destroy human beings.
Yet at this very point it becomes quite clear that only an act of liberation, not instruction, can overcome stupidity. Here we must come to terms with the fact that in most cases a genuine internal liberation becomes possible only when external liberation has preceded it. Until then we must abandon all attempts to convince the stupid person. This state of affairs explains why in such circumstances our attempts to know what ‘the people’ really think are in vain and why, under these circumstances, this question is so irrelevant for the person who is thinking and acting responsibly. The word of the Bible that the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom declares that the internal liberation of human beings to live the responsible life before God is the only genuine way to overcome stupidity.
But these thoughts about stupidity also offer consolation in that they utterly forbid us to consider the majority of people to be stupid in every circumstance. It really will depend on whether those in power expect more from people’s stupidity than from their inner independence and wisdom."
-Dietrich Bonhoeffer, from "After Ten Years" in Letters and Papers from Prison (Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works/English, vol. 8 ) Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2010.
"(Not) Shocker! Inflation Continues To Rise, Food Prices Skyrocketing! Real Wages Crater!"
Gregory Mannarino, 1/12/23:
"(Not) Shocker! Inflation Continues To Rise,
Food Prices Skyrocketing! Real Wages Crater!"
Comments here:
"Massive Price Increases At Kroger! This Is Crazy! What's Coming!?"
Full screen recommended.
Adventures With Danno, 1/12/23:
"Massive Price Increases At Kroger!
This Is Crazy! What's Coming!?"
"In today's vlog we are at Kroger, and are noticing massive price increases on groceries! We are here to check out skyrocketing prices, and the empty shelves situation! It's getting rough out here as stores seem to be struggling with getting products!"
Comments here:
If they do this over a TV, what happens when there's no food?
"Let’s Talk About The Catastrophic Rise Of Egg Prices…"
"Let’s Talk About The Catastrophic Rise Of Egg Prices…"
By Michael Snyder
"Do you remember when you could buy a dozen eggs for 99 cents? It seems like it was only yesterday, but unfortunately those days are now gone for good. Thanks to a variety of factors, egg prices have risen to levels that we have never seen before, and in some areas of the country significant shortages are being reported. In fact, things are so bad that Whole Foods is apparently “now limiting egg carton purchases to two per person”. This is extremely alarming, because millions of U.S. households have traditionally relied on eggs as a cheap source of protein. Unfortunately, it appears that eggs will not be “cheap” for the foreseeable future. According to an article that originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times, the average price of a dozen eggs in California actually reached $7.37 this week…
Egg cases were bare across Los Angeles County this week, from Trader Joe’s in Long Beach to Amazon Fresh in Inglewood, Target in MidCity to Ralphs in Glendale. Those such as Hodges who found cartons were shocked by the sudden spike in price. “I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Anna Sanchez, 32, who scoured the half-empty shelves at a Smart & Final in University Park looking for a dozen eggs for less than $10. “The cheaper ones just aren’t there.”
The average retail price for a dozen large eggs jumped to $7.37 in California this week, up from $4.83 at the beginning of December and just $2.35 at this time last year, data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture show. Can you imagine paying 7 dollars for a carton of eggs? I certainly cannot.
Thankfully, prices are not quite as high elsewhere in the nation. One of the reasons why egg prices in California are so absurd is because of a new law that went into effect last January…"Since the law went into effect last January, all eggs sold in California have to be produced in cage-free settings. But cage-free production takes much more space than conventional egg production, and California producers aren’t able to keep up with demand. “They’re selling everything they can possibly grow,” Mattos said."
Of course egg prices have also been skyrocketing in states that do not have such laws. All over the nation, people are now paying 4 or 5 dollars for a dozen eggs, and many believe that our ongoing bird flu pandemic is the primary factor that is causing prices to go completely nuts…"But egg prices are up significantly more than other foods - even more than chicken or turkey - because egg farmers were hit harder by the bird flu. More than 43 million of the 58 million birds slaughtered over the past year to control the virus have been egg-laying chickens, including some farms with more than a million birds apiece in major egg-producing states like Iowa."
More than 50 million chickens and turkeys have also been wiped out in Europe. So when you combine the two totals, so far well over 100 million chickens and turkeys have been killed in just the United States and Europe. And there is no end to the bird flu pandemic in sight. This is a major crisis, but up to this point the mainstream media has not been focusing on it very much.
On top of everything else, egg farmers have had to deal with rapidly rising costs in recent months. In fact, there are some in the industry that insist that the huge cost increases that egg farmers have been hit with over the past year are even a bigger factor than the bird flu…"But the president and CEO of the American Egg Board trade group, Emily Metz, said she believes all the cost increases farmers have faced in the past year were a bigger factor in the price increases than bird flu. “When you’re looking at fuel costs go up, and you’re looking at feed costs go up as much as 60%, labor costs, packaging costs - all of that … those are much much bigger factors than bird flu for sure,” Metz said."
Many anticipate that these costs will only go higher in 2023. And that will mean even higher prices for the rest of us. I really feel badly for small bakeries. They use lots and lots of eggs, and if egg prices continue to go up many small bakeries could soon be forced to close… “Small businesses especially, you live and die by what your food costs are,” said Tracy Ann Devore, owner of KnowRealityPie in Eagle Rock, who recently let go a dishwasher to stem rising costs. “If this keeps up for another three to six months, it could be a tipping point for some bakeries to close.”
For Devore and many others, the new egg crisis, combined with uncertainty about when it could ebb, has been more unsettling than the gradual price creep of dairy products, flour and produce. “At some point, you can’t raise the price anymore,” Devore said. “There’s been points where I’ve cried recently, because I thought, ‘How are we going to keep going with this?’”
Our food industry was stable for so many years, but now we are witnessing a dramatic shift. Costs are going through the roof, and supply problems just keep popping up. Just like we have witnessed at other times, empty shelves are starting to be reported at certain supermarkets around the nation…"Social media is brimming with reports of missing food items at Kroger supermarket locations across the country. A repeat of early 2020 when toilet paper and other essentials ran bare, the start of 2023 is seeing “a lot of empty shelves” at Kroger, according to numerous reports, some containing video evidence of lingering supply chain problems."
We are getting dangerously close to the days that I have been warning about. As we are hit by one crisis after another throughout 2023, I expect our supply chain problems to continue to intensify. So I would encourage you to stock up while you still can. Yes, prices may seem ridiculously high now, but the truth is that they aren’t going to be getting any lower than they are at this moment."
o
Related:
"The Joke..."
"The joke was thinking you were ever really in charge of your life. You pressed your oar down into the water to direct the canoe, but it was the current that shot you through the rapids. You just hung on and hoped not to hit a rock or a whirlpool."
- Scott Turow
"Death of an Empire"
"Death of an Empire"
Eisenhower's warning and America's great insecurity complex.
by Bill Bonner and Joel Bowman
Normandy, France - "Fish gotta swim. Birds gotta fly. And late, degenerate empires gotta get out of the way. Here at Bonner Private Research, we focus on money. And we see that the Primary Trend seems to have reversed. What was up is now down. Left is right. The Fed was playing fast and loose for the last 3 decades; now it is sitting up straight and tightening its tie. And those who made money in lighter-than-air ‘securities’ in the 2009-2020 boom are now losing money as they come down with a thud.
The latest headline from Bloomberg: "Super-Prime Real Estate in New York and Florida Has Hit a Wall." But this market correction is only one of a catastrophic ‘cluster’ of trends that we looked at yesterday:
● The continued exploitation of the middle class by the elite, which is why the correction will not be allowed to complete its work.
● The decline of the American Empire, beginning about 1999 and continuing.
● Abandoning the ideas that made the US so successful. Free trade, free enterprise, free speech, equal protection under the law –who believes in these principles anymore? Not the deciders.
● A fanatical, unquestioning fear of global warming and a belief that the earth’s climate can be and must be controlled.
●The unchallenged political power of what Eisenhower called the ‘military, industrial complex.’
Let’s start from the bottom and work our way up.
Insecurity Complex: The military is supposed to provide security, so that ordinary people can go about their lives without worrying about a foreign invasion. Subordinate to civilian control, in the US, the gold-braided general is supposed to be kept like a guard dog – on a leash, held firmly by people in civies.
But over time, the ‘military, industrial, surveillance, think tank complex’ has become just what Dwight Eisenhower warned that it would become – unstoppable…unanswerable…and unpalatable. This year’s appropriations bring US military spending to more than is spent by China, the UK, Russia, India, France, Germany, Saudi Arabia, France, and South Korea – combined. With the money, the armed wing of the Deep State, the richest single enterprise in the world, has bought control of the press, the universities, the administration, and Congress itself. It pays an army of lobbyists and a phalanx of scholars to explain and persuade…to twist arms and bend public opinion – always in favor of more and more military spending.
The war industry keeps the public’s attention fixed on one conflict after another. Vietnam, Nicaragua, Kuwait, Bosnia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria…and now the Ukraine…to be followed by a showdown with China. But what was the point of any of these wars?
US Offense Industry: Communism failed because a centrally-controlled economy is inherently weak; in Vietnam, the Pentagon got 58,000 American soldiers killed for nothing. In Nicaragua, Danny Ortega, one of the original Sandinistas, still rules. In Iraq, there are more terrorists than ever before, now that there is no Saddam Hussein to keep them in check. In Afghanistan, the Taliban – a designated ‘terrorist’ group – runs the country. And is Russia really a threat to Europe? Will she invade Germany? France? Do you watch the news? Putin has his hands full just getting control of a Russian-speaking area on his southeastern flank, where the local people actually begged him to come in.
The US ‘defense’ industry has long since given up any pretense to be defending the US. Since the Second World War, all of its undertakings have been ‘wars of choice’…offensive operations in which it meddled in the affairs of sovereign foreign nations. And yes, language evolves along with the purpose to which it is put. The new chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Republican Mike Rogers, no longer speaks of proud citizen soldiers defending the Republic. Now they are more accurately “warfighters” who can “deter and, if necessary defeat, any adversary anywhere in the world.”
Why taxpayers would want to support ‘warfighters’ has never been explained. And who do they fight? Do we have adversaries in Ouagadougou? How about in Mogadishu or Reykjavik? Only if we want to have them. And the only plausible reason for wanting to have them is to justify shifting wealth from the public to the war industry.
In practice, the grift has been easy. Put some money on the table – a campaign contribution, support to a favorite think tank, a contract, a sinecure – and deciders are easily convinced. As for the public, it needs no convincing; it hardly has time to think through the particulars. Instead, as soon as the game begins, it puts on the home-team jersey.
Long Range Imbeciles: It’s the theory that poses a problem – at least to those few who bother to think about it. America is, after all, protected by two vast oceans. It is almost impossible for an adversary to get anywhere close to Long Beach, CA or Ocean City, MD. And even the fastest long-range missiles take time to reach their destinations, during which they are vulnerable to ‘interdiction.’ In the context of an $860 billion budget, defensive missiles cost a pittance.
It’s the short-range missiles that pose a more immediate threat. That’s why President Kennedy insisted that the Soviets remove their missiles from Cuba. And that is why Mr. Putin is so keen to keep NATO away from the Donbass. Alas, in disregarding the Kremlin’s desire for the same security that it finds indispensable for itself, the US commits an error typical of late stage empires…a failure of reciprocity. It has gotten too big for its britches.
But there are limits to everything. Great armies rise. And then – under the weight of their own booty, bureaucracy and brass – they fall. Already, the Pentagon’s target-rich environment is in the US House of Representatives, not in enemy territory. In the nation’s capitol, it can toss a grenade at random and take out nothing but its own supporters. Real enemies might not be so easy.
Meanwhile, the more time and stuff the ‘military, industrial complex’ squanders, the less is left over to fuel economic growth. Productivity is falling in the US at the fastest rate in four decades. Growth rates have fallen since the 1950s, and now are nearly negative. Savings are the precious “secret sauce” of a real economy. But the savings rate is at a 17-year low. And instead of using money carefully and wisely, billions of dollars go to the shysters of Kiev, in the Ukraine, as well as those in McLean, in the Virginia.
Fearing the death of its empire, America commits suicide. "
Joel’s Note: "When this year’s spending bill was flown to President Biden – who was vacationing in St. Croix in the US Virgin Islands at the time – the man with the magic pen tweeted: “It’ll invest in medical research, safety, veteran health care, disaster recovery, (Violence Against Women Act) funding – and gets crucial assistance to Ukraine.” The signing represented a “year of historic progress,” the president crowed, adding that he was “Looking forward to more in 2023.” (Whether more spending or more Virgin Islands vacations was not stipulated.)
Jam-packed with goodies, the 4,000+ page bill – almost certainly unread by a single member of the human species – promised all kinds of fuzzy, feel-good giveaways, like childcare development programs and housing assistance for low income families. No doubt there’s a few pennies in there for the study of mythological insects and scholarships for one-legged trans soccer players, too. Something for everythey.
In fact, there’s so much conspicuous non-violence in the bill’s non-defense spending, one might be tempted to forget about the larger, decidedly meatier slice of the pie… that is, the part that’s full of B-2 stealth bombers, Predator drones, Hellfire missiles, nuclear submarines and 11 aircraft carriers, boasting around 80 fighter jets each, the combined deck space of which is more than twice that of the rest of the world’s carriers… combined. Then there’s the 1.4 million active military personnel, with their fidgety fingers on the trigger, who keep the whole operation running...
All in, so-called “defense” spending now eats up a much larger portion of the federal government’s spending than does non-defense spending… by almost $100 billion. That’s more than the total spent on social service programs (the entire Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid programs, combined), plus transportation, education, housing, urban development… all the things that government officials like to tout when they’re selling their massive spending bills to ordinary working citizens, whose generous hearts are reliably won over by such well-meaning, community sounding allocations.
At $858 billion for fiscal year 2023, not only is America’s defense spending larger than those of the aforementioned nations in Bill’s column, combined, it’s also roughly equal to the entire GDP of Saudi Arabia, the world’s second largest oil producer (11 MMB/D).
Were that money deployed at home, $858 billion would be enough to hire 11 million full-time registered nurses… or 15.6 million kindergarten teachers… or 17.1 million firefighters...It’s enough to fund 28.6 million in-state physics degrees… or to fully graduate 4.2 million engineers from MIT… or to hire every single Diversity, Equity and Inclusion consultant in the entire country… and pay them double time to never come to work again.
Alternatively, the US could pay a fortune to shoot itself in the foot, the ultimate price for ignoring Eisenhower's dire warning. Bang, bang."
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