"The Shocking Truth About Facemasks"

"The Shocking Truth About Facemasks"

by Brian Maher

"The coronavirus menaces yet. Maybe you believe a face shield is your sword, a colossal weapon against the microscopic barbarians at your gate.  Our agents inform us you can purchase a face shield for perhaps $10. But let us suppose you perch upon the upper rungs of America’s social ladder. Let us further suppose you wish to be seen upon this ladder, high aloft… all beneath looking up in heart-eating envy. Well then, we have the personal protection equipment for you…

The Price of Vanity: A Louis Vuitton face shield you can have for $961 - some $950 above standard. Is this viral barrier $950 superior to the plebian plastic that shields the lower 99%?

Our men have conducted a thorough scientific inquiry - in studies singly blind, doubly blind and triply blind. As a barrier, they conclude, Louis Vuitton’s face shield is the precise equal of the socially inferior issue. Yet the socially inferior issue does not bear the razzle-dazzle of Louis Vuitton. “We are all in this together,” we are told. Yet even together… apparently… some insist upon standing apart. Vanity, Louis Vuitton is thy name.

If You Must Settle: Perhaps a $961 plastic yet golden face cover is beyond your means. You nonetheless aspire to radiate a superior air to the lessers around you. May we then suggest a leather Louis Vuitton face mask?

The unwashed hordes may go about in their ten cent surgical masks. But you can advertise your aristocracy for a mere $50.

Gucci, meantime, will sell you similar “luxury masks.” You may have difficulty breathing while wearing one. You nonetheless wallow in luxury, in opulence. But are masks and shields - Louis Vuitton, Gucci, or Acme - effective barriers at all?

They are not, concludes physicist Denis Rancourt. This fellow is a learned master of “environmental nanoparticles.”

A Maginot Line: A facial covering is - he concludes - a Maginot Line of sorts. It is no more effective at keeping out viruses than France’s Maginot Line was at keeping out Germans. Both are easily outflanked.

As well erect a chain link fence to keep the flies out. Rancourt: "When I looked at all the randomized controlled trials with verified outcome, meaning you actually measure whether or not the person was infected … NONE of these well-designed studies … found there was a statistically significant advantage of wearing a mask versus not wearing a mask… What this means - and this is very important - is that if there was any significant advantage to wearing a mask to reduce this [infection] risk, then you would have detected that in at least one of these trials, [yet] there’s no sign of it."

That to me is a firm scientific conclusion: There is no evidence that masks are of any utility either preventing the aerosol particles from coming out or from going in. You’re not helping the people around you by wearing a mask, and you’re not helping yourself preventing the disease by wearing a mask.

This science is unambiguous in that such a positive effect cannot be detected. Wearing a mask or being in an environment where masks are being worn or not worn, there’s no difference in terms of your risk of being infected by the viral respiratory disease. There’s no reduction, period. There are no exceptions. All the studies that have been tabulated, looked at, published, I was not able to find any exceptions, if you constrain yourself to verified outcomes. Yet we are ordered to seal our facial orifices in public venues indoors and out. All - evidently - to very little effect.

Why, Dr. Rancourt, are masks such hopeless sieves?

Aerosol Particles: We’re talking about the small size fraction of aerosols, so typically smaller than 2 micrometers… When you get down to those sizes, gravitational outtake is very inefficient and they basically stay in suspension. And, as soon as you have currents or flow of air, [the particles] are carried… These aerosol particles that are the vector of transmission are completely suspended as part of the fluid air. They’re really part of the fluid air, so any air that gets through, [the viral particles are also] going to come through. That’s why masks don’t work… Those fine aerosol particles will follow the fluid air. In a surgical mask, there is no way you’re blocking the fluid air...

In other words, very little of the airflow is going to be through the actual mask. But masks block saliva. Saliva houses the virus. Is it then not sound to sport masks and don shields to keep saliva in? No, argues Dr. Rancourt. That is because the virus is transmitted in the fluid air of which he writes - not through saliva: The mask is only designed and intended to stop your spitballs from coming out and hitting someone. The large droplets drop to the floor immediately and are not breathed in. So, they’re not part of the transmission mechanism. You can do a scientific study that demonstrates that viruses survive a fairly long time on a surface.

That does not mean that transmission occurs through surfaces. It only means that a scientist was able to establish that a virus can survive a long time on a surface. It doesn’t tell you anything about the likely transmission mechanism of the disease. So, there are a lot of studies like this that are basically irrelevant in terms of transmission mechanism.

[Infectious respiratory diseases] are transmitted by these fine aerosol particles that are in suspension in the air. In a case like that, will a mask, will something that is preventing spitballs from coming out, protect you or protect others? And the answer is no, it makes no measurable difference."

Please, doctor, continue: "There are many studies that show how difficult it is to actually infect someone when you’re just trying to put something like a fluid or something you know is bearing the virus into their eye or into their nose. It’s hard to do this. That’s what the studies show. But if you take a fine aerosol and you breathe it in deeply, that’s where the infection starts. So, by breathing in aerosols laden with these viruses, you’re going to be infected. Try to do anything else, and it’s going to be difficult [to spread infection]."

In conclusion: "The most recent randomized controlled trial [published] this year basically concluded they could find no evidence that masks, hand-washing and distancing, in terms of reducing the risk of these types of diseases, were of any use. [They] didn’t help."

Thus the good Dr. Rancourt blasts the bedrock upon which public policy rests. Yet the hocus-pocus of mask-wearing is mighty in the land. And the masked are horrified into white hot rages should you appear among them unmasked.

Can we guarantee Rancourt’s claims? We cannot. We are not a scientist. Yet we have seen similar evidence elsewhere. More importantly, they confirm our biases. They slant the way we lean… And a fellow leans this way or that way in life, forever foraging for facts that fit his precious theories, forever picking cherries.

We are by nature skeptical of official policies - they are generally anchored in error, bankrupt. These findings affirm our deep-dyed skepticism. They soothe us. They massage our scalp… and caress our gills.

Consolation: Must we endure the futility of slipping on personal protection equipment before entering stores? Alas, we must. Yet we are consoled by this capital fact: It affords us the chance to display our plumage, to strut, to showboat our popinjay superiority, to be a big deal in this world. And it only costs $961, payable to Louis Vuitton - a bargain at thrice the price."

- dailyreckoning.com

"Joe Biden And Kamala Harris Both Refer To 'Harris Administration' During Public Speeches"

"Joe Biden And Kamala Harris Both Refer To

 'Harris Administration' During Public Speeches"

"As Joe Biden struggles to campaign through a clear cognitive decline, eyebrows were raised this week after both he and running mate Kamala Harris referred to a 'Harris administration' while giving speeches. Kamala Harris lets the truth slip: "a Harris Administration together with Joe Biden." Biden says “Harris-Biden administration.” Wow.

Is there something they'd like to share with the class? If only they would take questions during appearances! Then again, his teleprompter may not contain an answer to that question. Joe Biden campaign manager Jen O'Malley Dillon refuses to deny that Biden uses a teleprompter in interviews

Biden without a teleprompter (?):

- https://www.zerohedge.com/
◆

Gregory Mannarino, "Tomorrow Is FED. Day! Important Updates"

Gregory Mannarino, 

"Tomorrow Is FED. Day! Important Updates"

-  https://traderschoice.net/

Musical Interlude: Michele McLaughlin, "Out of the Darkness"

Michele McLaughlin, "Out of the Darkness"

The Daily "Near You?"

Lexington, Virginia, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"Fear..."

“The Hound In The Kennel”

“The Hound In The Kennel”

by John James

“In my experience most of us take whatever frightens us or makes us uncomfortable and push it out of sight. This puts it into the unconscious. It does not disappear, but just lies in waiting like a faithful hound until let out. Meanwhile the conscious part can go on living as if nothing had happened. But as Carl Jung pointed out so perspicaciously, the hound keeps howling from the depth and thereby influences all that we do. So we can’t go on as before. We may try to carry on as always, but in truth everything we do is influenced by the unseen and suppressed feelings from the hound in the kennel. There being no escape, we act out this unconscious material, but pretend we are still being normal.

It is an essential aspect of growing up that we suppress who we really are in order to be accepted and loved by mum and dad. This means we actually push our real needs away in order to cope with their demands. It is as if we have sacrificed our original selves to get their love, and it leaves a trail of sorrow.

We call it Existential Grief because it’s about our very existence. It is about us being ’socialized’ by the family and school so that we forget who we truly are. This leaves an enormous grief that is too difficult to confront, and we hide it in the kennel of the unconscious, leaving the howls from the kennel to undermine our self-confidence.

In our society we use material goods and social roles to cover up the black hole of grief. By surrounding ourselves with pretty and expensive things we tell everyone else that we are really OK. This is, so I learn from my clients, the major cause of going shopping, going on buying sprees and being consumers. We have come to believe that bright new things will fill the empty spaces inside. This seems to be why we cannot really confront the devil of global warming that is being fed by every dollar we spend. For our own safety as a species we should all be consuming less and sharing more and striving to make life simple, whereas we are literally hell-bent on getting the most while we still can.

The hound sitting in the kennel of our emptiness makes it too hard for us to look at the truth and change our ways. We cannot alter the terminal path we are on, because to do so would expose our deepest fears that underneath all the tinsel and stuff we really are not worth much at all. Not even the protection we should be giving to our beautiful children is enough to move us to confront this terrifying personal fear.

A four-year analysis of the world’s ecosystems sponsored by the Worldwatch Institute found that over-consumption has pushed 15 out of 24 ecosystems essential to human life “beyond their sustainable limits”. Our insatiable desire for more is moving the planet toward a state of collapse that may be “abrupt and potentially irreversible”. Since we all know that, can we not go beyond the fear to follow David Attenborough, who said in an interview, “How could I look my grandchildren in the eye and say I knew and did nothing?”

- https://beforeitsnews.com/
○
“It’s 3:23 A.M.
And I’m awake because my great great grandchildren won’t let me sleep.
They ask me in dreams,
‘What did you do while the planet was plundered?
What did you do when the earth was unraveling?
Surely you did something when the seasons started flailing?
As the mammals, reptiles and birds were all dying?
Did you fill the streets with protest?
When democracy was stolen, what did you do once you knew?
Surely, you did something…’”

- Drew Dellinger

"Heaven And Hell..."

“Many people don’t fear a hell after this life and that’s because hell is on this earth, in this life. In this life there are many forms of hell that people walk through, sometimes for a day, sometimes for years, sometimes it doesn’t end. The kind of hell that doesn’t burn your skin; but burns your soul. The kind of hell that people can’t see; but the flames lap at your spirit. Heaven is a place on earth, too! It’s where you feel freedom, where you’re not afraid. No more chains. And you hear your soul laughing.”

- C. JoyBell C.

○

John Milton, 

"Paradise Lost: Book 1" (1674 version)

"Millions Will Be Left Behind in the New Economy"

"Millions Will Be Left Behind in the New Economy"

By Bill Bonner

SAN MARTIN, ARGENTINA – “It feels like the world has changed so much. Just in the last six months. We’ll get home; but it won’t feel like home anymore.” Thus spake the distaff half of the household, looking ahead to November. We’ve been holed up here in the Calchaquí Valley in Argentina for the last six months. We’re now hoping to get home to Baltimore for Thanksgiving.

“I wonder what it’s going to be like. We’ve been away from civilization for so long, we’ll probably feel out-of-joint… or out of time. People will all be wearing face masks. Do they still shake hands? Do they still kiss each other on the cheek? And the election will be just over. It could be a madhouse… Or a whole new world.”

Illusion of Progress: Here at the Diary, we do not believe in “progress.” We don’t like gadgets or time wasters. We have no use for most new apps or electronic entertainment. It’s a nuisance when our computer automatically updates. Most of the electronic gear now built into autos and houses is a waste of time and money.

We look back half a century at all the “progress” that has happened. Are we better off? Are we happier? Are we better people? Is what we see more fetching? Is what we eat tastier? Is what we hear and read wiser… or more truthful? No, Dear Reader, the challenges are the same today as they were half a century ago – to separate truth from lies… beauty from ugliness… and Heaven from Hell.

Profound Change: But while “progress” is mostly an illusion, we don’t deny that things change. Underway, since at least the beginning of the 21st century, is a profound change. The U.S. economy – grown rich and powerful on fossil fuels, the internal combustion engine, and the principles of free trade, free enterprise, and free movement – is metamorphosing into something new… perhaps beautiful, perhaps hideous.

The political change is well documented. Republicans – traditionally the party of small government and balanced budgets – have become the party of Trump. Mr. Trump is opposed to free trade. Nor does he have any apparent interest in balanced budgets or any worries about debt. And he is prepared to manage the U.S. economy with varying degrees of central planning and price controls, as he feels the situation calls for.

Still, many readers – perhaps correctly – believe that the alternative would be worse. Deprived of the hypocrisy of the Republicans, we would be at the mercy of the Democrats, who have never pretended any love for balanced budgets, sound money, small government, or free enterprise. As to which would be the better captain for this Titanic, we have no opinion. Both parties are trying to prove that the other is incompetent, devilish, and imbecilic. As near as we can see, they are both right.

Sinking Ship: Whichever evil – lesser or greater – ends up in the captain’s seat, it is very likely that the great Industrial Age ship, which has been leaking badly for the last 20 years, will go down. Today, we look at what goes down with it.

Jobs, for one thing. Millions of them are being left behind… like the rusting hulk of a Japanese aircraft carrier on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. The economy had been slowing down for half a century… staggering under the weight of debt, false signals from the Federal Reserve, financialization, and regulations. The 4% average annual growth of the 1960s fell to under 2% in the Trump years. The old economy of producing and selling things had already been hobbled and distorted. So most of the new jobs created in the 21st century were in the low-wage service sector.

K-Shaped Recovery: Then, with the coming of the COVID Lockdowns, the slowdown turned into almost a complete stop. And the jobs most affected were those in the service sector. Readers hoping for a V-shaped recovery, with a quick return to “normal,” are already searching the alphabet for alternatives. “K” is probably the best bet, with some doing better than ever, but the rest on a downward track. Which direction you go depends mostly on which economy you are in – the new one… or the one being left behind.

In the locked-down economy, some people kept working (including your editor) in the usual way. We work on the internet. We can work from anywhere we can get an internet connection – even from a remote ranch, with a satellite dish to capture a faint internet signal.

For “knowledge workers” – no matter how ignorant – the COVID lockdown posed little trouble. Lawyers, architects, accountants, analysts, bureaucrats, clerks, marketers, designers – millions of office rats were able to simply move their offices to their nests. There, with no need to commute, no gasoline to buy… no donuts and coffee to pick up on the way to work, and no lunches out… they found themselves better off. Savings rates tripled. Meanwhile, those whose work involved no internet terminal suddenly found themselves cut off from their work. And much of that work will never return.

No Way Back: Viruses will always be with us. And so will those people who use the threat of illness as a reason to control and manipulate others. Terrorists never presented much real risk to Americans. Yet, 19 years after 9/11, TSA agents still feel up old ladies and girl scouts in U.S. airports. You can’t be too safe!

Now, restaurants take diners’ temperatures before allowing them in to eat. Schools insist that students stay six feet apart – or face expulsion. Face masks are required… churches are closed… It’s not the same world. The water is already under the bridge; there’s no way to get it back.

Between the fear of getting sick (stoked by the media and the feds) and the unappealing public “health” measures to prevent it, people change their plans and their attitudes. They may even become conspicuous savers – flaunting their old cars and worn out sweaters as status symbols. Already, fewer want to take cruises… or dine out… or go to the theater.

Or go to Europe for a summer vacation. Hotel occupancy rates in Paris are down 86% from last year. They are expected to come back – but probably never to where they once were. So, what about the hotel workers? The restaurant owners? The taxi drivers? The shopkeepers?

Left Behind: But that is just the beginning. The new economy will soon have no need for long-distance truck drivers. The trucks – perhaps electric – will still be on the road. But the truck drivers will be easily replaced by electronics. And what about store clerks (who might be “vectors” for spreading disease)?

Millions of people are being left behind. What will they do? Live on welfare, like the people of West Baltimore or West Philadelphia? And what will happen to the economy itself? This new normal could cut GDP growth down to zero… and leave it there. Then what? We don’t know… But there will be other things left behind, too. Tune in tomorrow…"

- www.rogueeconomics.com

"How It Really Is"

"America 1950 vs. America 2020"

"America 1950 vs. America 2020"

by Michael Snyder

"If you could go back to 1950, would you do it? There would be no Internet, no cellphones and you would only be able to watch television in black and white. But even though they lacked many of our modern conveniences, people genuinely seemed to be much happier back then. Families actually ate dinner together, neighbors knew and cared about one another, and being an “American” truly meant something. Today, we like to think that we are so much more “advanced” than they were back then, but the truth is that our society is in the process of falling apart all around us. Could it be possible that we could learn some important lessons by looking back at how Americans lived 70 years ago?

Of course there has never been any era in our history when everything has been perfect. But without a doubt, things are vastly different today than they were back in 1950…

In 1950, Texaco Star Theatre, The Lone Ranger and Hopalong Cassidy were some of the most popular shows that Americans watched on television.

In 2020, a Netflix film entitled “Cuties” is so trashy and so disgusting that four states have sent a letter to Netflix asking for it to be removed because it is “fodder for those with criminal imaginations, serving to normalize the view that children are sexual beings.”

In 1950, television networks would not even show husbands and wives in bed together.

In 2020, “adult websites” get more traffic than Netflix, Amazon and Twitter combined.

In 1950, people would greet one another as they walked down the street.

In 2020, Americans are too enamored with their cellphones to be bothered with actual human contact.

In 1950, gum chewing and talking in class were some of the major disciplinary problems in our schools.

In 2020, kids are literally gunning down police officers in the streets.

In 1950, people would make an effort to dress up and look nice when they would go out in public.

In 2020, most of the population has become utter slobs and “People of Walmart” has become one of our most popular memes.

In 1950, the typical woman got married for the first time at age 20 and the typical man got married for the first time at age 22.

In 2020, the typical woman gets married for the first time at age 27 and the typical man gets married for the first time at age 29.

In 1950, a lot of people would leave their homes and their vehicles unlocked because crime rates were so low.

In 2020, many that live in urban areas are deathly afraid of all the civil unrest that has erupted, and gun sales have soared to all-time record highs.

In 1950, Americans actually attempted to parent their children.

In 2020, we pump our kids full of mind-altering drugs and we let our televisions and our video games raise our children.

In 1950, Baltimore was one of the most beautiful and most prosperous cities on the entire planet.

In 2020, Baltimore regularly makes headlines because of all the murders that are constantly occurring.  Of course the exact same thing could be said about many of our other major cities.

In 1950, 78 percent of all households in America contained a married couple.

In 2020, that figure has fallen below 50 percent.

In 1950, about 5 percent of all babies in the United States were born to unmarried parents.

In 2020, about 40 percent of all babies in the United States will be born to unmarried parents.

In 1950, new churches were regularly being opened all over the United States.

In 2020, it is being projected that 1 out of every 5 churches in the U.S. “could be forced to shut their doors in the next 18 months”, and the mayor of Lubbock, Texas just said that opening a new Planned Parenthood clinic is like starting a church.

In 1950, we actually had high standards for our elected officials, and people actually did research on the candidates before they cast their votes.

In 2020, more than 4,000 people in one county in New Hampshire voted for a “transsexual Satanic anarchist” in the Republican primary, and she is now the Republican nominee for sheriff in Cheshire County.

In 1950, children would go outside and play when they got home from school.

In 2020, our parks and our playgrounds are virtually empty and we have the highest childhood obesity rate in the industrialized world.

In 1950, front porches were community gathering areas, and people would regularly have their neighbors over for dinner.

In 2020, many of us don’t know our neighbors at all, and the average American watches more than five hours of television a day.

In 1950, Americans used words such as “knucklehead”, “moxie” and “jalopy”.

In 2020, new terms such as “nomophobia”, “peoplekind” and “social distancing” have been introduced into the English language.

In 1950, the very first credit card was issued in the United States.

In 2020, Americans owe more than 930 billion dollars on their credit cards.

In 1950, one income could support an entire middle class household.

In 2020, tens of millions of Americans have lost their jobs and filed for unemployment, and more than half of all households in some of our largest cities are currently facing “serious financial problems”.

In 1950, the American people believed that the free market should govern the economy.

In 2020, most Americans seem to believe that the government in Washington and the Federal Reserve must endlessly “manage” the economy.

In 1950, “socialists” and “communists” were considered to be our greatest national enemies.

In 2020, most of our politicians in Washington have eagerly embraced socialist and communist policy goals.

In 1950, the U.S. Constitution was deeply loved and highly revered.

In 2020, anyone that actually admits to being a “constitutionalist” is considered to be a potential domestic terrorist.

In 1950, the United States loaned more money to the rest of the world than anybody else.

In 2020, the United States owes more money to the rest of the world than anybody else.

In 1950, the total U.S. national debt reached the 257 billion dollar mark for the first time in our history.

In 2020, we added 864 billion dollars to the national debt in the month of June alone.  In other words, we added over three times more to the national debt in that one month than the total amount of debt that had been accumulated from the founding of our nation all the way to 1950.

In 1950, most Americans were generally happy with their lives.

In 2020, the suicide rate is at an all-time record high, and it has been rising every single year since 2007."

- http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/

"Market Fantasy Updates 9/15/20"

"Market Fantasy Updates 9/15/20"
Down the rabbit hole of psychopathic greed and insanity...
Only the consequences are real - to you!

○

"The more I see of the monied classes, 

the better I understand the guillotine."

- George Bernard Shaw

○

Updated live.

- https://www.marketwatch.com/tools/marketsummary

○

- https://www.zerohedge.com/

○

- https://wallstreetonparade.com/

○

Daily Update (September 14th to 15th)

- http://www.shadowstats.com/
○

Gregory Mannarino, 

AM 9/15/20 "Markets: US-Iran Threat Boosts Crude.
 Stocks Set For Higher Open"

- https://traderschoice.net/

"Covid-19 Pandemic Updates 915/20"

 

SEP 15, 2020

By David Leonhardt

SEP 15, 2020 12:49 AM ET:

 Coronavirus Map: Tracking the Global Outbreak 
The coronavirus pandemic has sickened more than 29,265,800 
people, according to official counts, including 6,574,889 Americans.

      SEP 15, 2020 12:49 AM ET: 
Coronavirus in the U.S.: Latest Map and Case Count

◆

- https://www.zerohedge.com/

SEP 15, 2020 6:49 AM: "China Seals Off Border City Of 200,000 After 2 "Illegal Immigrants" From Myanmar Test Positive: Live Updates"

◆

Updated 9/15/20, 2:22AM ET

Click image for larger size.

- https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html

"Convergence of Quandaries"

"Convergence of Quandaries"

by Jim Kunstler

"And so, America has a new manufactured crisis, ElectionGate, as if all the other troubles piling up like tropical depressions marching across the September seas were not enough. Let me remind you what else is going on. The Wuhan pandemic is still on the scene, the economy is collapsing, a domestic race-war is escalating, the whole west coast is burning, and US oil production is crashing. Oh… and slow-moving tropical storm Sally is forecast to come ashore as a hurricane on the Gulf Coast today, dumping up to two feet of rain.

America needs a constitutional crisis like a hole in the head, and that’s exactly what’s being engineered for the holiday season by the clever folks in the Democratic Party’s Lawfare auxiliary. Here’s how it works: the complicit newspapers and cable news channels publish polls showing Joe Biden leading in several swing states, even if it’s not true. Facebook and Twitter amplify expectations of a Biden victory. This sets the stage for a furor when it turns out that he loses on election night. On cue, Antifa and BLM commence to riot all around the country. Meanwhile, a mighty harvest of mail-in votes pours into election districts utterly unequipped to validate them.

Lawfare cadres agitate in the contested states’ legislatures to send rogue elector slates to the electoral college. The dispute ends up in congress, which awaits a seating of newly-elected representatives on January 4, hopefully for Lawfare, mostly Democrats. Whoops…!  Turns out the Dems lost their majority there too. Fighting in the streets ramps up and overwhelms hamstrung police forces in Democratic-run cities. January 20 - Inauguration Day - rolls around and the Dems ask the military to drag Trump out of the White House “with great dispatch!” as Mr. Biden himself put it so nicely back in the summer. The US military breaks into two factions. Voilà: Civil War Two.

You didn’t read that here first, of course. It’s been all over the web for weeks, since the Democratic Party-sponsored Transition Integrity Project (cough cough) ran their summer “war game,” intending to demonstrate that any Trump election victory would be evidence of treason and require correction by any means necessary, including sedition, which they’d already tried a few times in an organized way since 2016 (and botched). The Democrats are crazy enough now to want this. They have driven themselves crazy for years with the death-wish of eradicating western civ (and themselves with it). There are many exegeses of this phenomenon, mostly derived from Marxist theories of revolution, but my own explanation departs from that.

The orgy of political hysteria, insane thinking, and violence is a psychotic reaction to the collapsing techno-industrial economy - a feature of it, actually. When all familiar social and economic arrangements are threatened, people go nuts. Interestingly, the craziness actually started in the colleges and universities where ideas (the products of thinking) are supposed to be the stock-in-trade. The more pressing the practical matters of daily life became, the less intellectuals wanted to face them. So, they desperately generated a force-field of crazy counter-ideas to repel the threat, a curriculum of wishful thinking, childish utopian nostrums, and exercises in boundary-smashing. As all this moved out of the campuses (the graduation function), it infected every other corner of American endeavor, institutions, business, news media, sports, Hollywood, etc. The country is now out of its mind… echoes of France, 1793… a rhyme, not a reprise.

The US economy began a slow and insidious collapse because its petroleum energy base became unaffordable. The reality of that was obscured by paradoxical appearances: the shale oil miracle goosed up US oil production from under five million barrels-a-day in 2007 to thirteen million barrels-a-day in 2019. Pretty awesome. Seemed like we were awash in oil. The problem was the companies producing shale oil couldn’t make money at it, and the loans that went into staging the shale oil “miracle” went bad… and then the companies couldn’t get new loans… and went bankrupt. So, the crash of US oil production is a self-reinforcing feedback loop that is sure to continue and will make things worse. Now, less than a year after reaching that majestic 13 million barrels-a-day, production has fallen to around 10 million a day - quite an impressive drop. Further obscuring the actual dynamic in play, gasoline prices at the pump are quite low - under $2.50-a-gallon where I live, compared with $4-plus a couple of years ago - and most citizens consider the price of gasoline their sole index of how things are going in the oil industry.

The Covid-19 pandemic has aggravated and accelerated the damage from that by shutting down much of small business across America since March. The businesses and people who owned them have suffered terribly. That and the public lockdowns have greatly depressed the demand for oil products, driving the price-per-barrel down and reducing the cash flow of the oil companies. That also aggravated worsening relations with our principal trading partner, China, the net effect of which threatens the supply chain for all sorts of critical parts and products needed to keep our complex systems running.

Whether Mr. Trump or anybody can respond intelligently to this long emergency is a matter of considerable moment. As far as election politics are concerned, Mr. Trump is only marginally better positioned because he is not in favor of destroying the existing institutions of the republic as his opponents are. There’s less reason to believe he’s capable of coping with the nuts-and-bolts of the economic collapse that awaits after the election dramaturgy plays out. For Mr. Trump, much depends on the illusory performance of the implausible financial markets. This is the season for market crashes, as it is the season for Atlantic cyclones, and those markets have been acting as toppy as a moon-shot lately.

Meanwhile, the BLM mayhem continues overnight, this time in stodgy little old Lancaster, PA, where a knife-wielding Hispanic man was shot by the cops. Crazy how unjustified that seems. The incident and the reaction to it (riot… fires) followed the assassination attempt of two LA County sheriff’s deputies in their car Saturday night by what appears to have been a black child or a dwarf. Afterward, BLM “protesters” showed up at the hospital where the deputies were undergoing surgery, shouting “I hope they die.” I can’t wait to hear Rachel Maddow and Lawrence O’Donnell try to explain that to their faithful fans on MSNBC."

- https://kunstler.com/

Must Watch! "Millions Will Be Homeless; Debt Slaves; California Depression; Prepare for Economic Tsunami"

Jeremiah Babe,

"Millions Will Be Homeless; Debt Slaves; 

California Depression; Prepare for Economic Tsunami"

"Massive Lines Form Outside Virginia Food Bank As Demand Hits One Million Meals Per Month"

"Massive Lines Form Outside Virginia Food Bank 

As Demand Hits One Million Meals Per Month"

by Tyler Durden

"The economic recovery has stalled, and in some cases, reversed. The $600 unemployment benefits that Americans received following the virus pandemic that crashed the economy in March-April expired on July 31, which means a fiscal cliff has been underway for 44 days (as of Sept. 14).

Millions of people are still out of work, their emergency savings wiped out, and insurmountable debts are increasing. As former Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen warned in August, Congress' inability to pass another round of stimulus checks could weigh on the economic recovery. 

Readers may recall about a quarter of all personal income is derived from the government - so when a lapse in stimulus checks extends for well over one month - that could lead to new consumer stress. 

In Richmond, Virginia, about 125 miles south of Washington, D.C., a food bank has been shelling out more than one million meals per month as the metro area battles deep economic scarring sustained by the virus-induced recession.   Kim Hill, the Chesterfield Food Bank CEO, told ABC 8News, "a lot of Chesterfield residents are showing up to get food would be an understatement — they've been averaging over a million meals a month." 

"You roll down that window, and you see the tears in that person's eyes who never thought they would need the help of a food bank," Hill said. "It breaks your heart." She said the volume of people her food bank is feeding is more than triple the levels versus last year. With increased demand, Hill said more volunteers are needed to handle the greater volumes.  "The life at the food bank here, we think it has changed forever," Hill said. "Hunger should not exist in our country. We are one of the richest countries in the world, we need to be able to take care of our own people." 

She said the "Spanish-speaking population accounts for nearly half of all donations from their distribution sites." We recently noted low-income households had experienced the most financial hardships, which makes sense when Hill said many of the food donations are distributed to the "Spanish-speaking population." 

For some context here, food banks are slated to become the norm for the working poor. The pandemic has exposed the government's intent to bail out corporate America while providing very little assistance to everyone else. Whatever the assistance the government did provide was a taste of socialism for many. Wealth inequality has been supercharged in 2020, food banks will continue to see elevated demand as the recovery could take a couple of years to return to 2019 activity levels."

- https://www.zerohedge.com/

○

View in full screen mode.

My God... looking at it all, at us, how can you not just cry?

Musical Interlude: Simon & Garfunkel, "America"

Simon & Garfunkel, "America"

Full screen mode recommended.

"A Look to the Heavens"

"What's happening to this spiral galaxy? Just a few hundred million years ago, NGC 2936, the upper of the two large galaxies shown, was likely a normal spiral galaxy -- spinning, creating stars -- and minding its own business. But then it got too close to the massive elliptical galaxy NGC 2937 below and took a dive. Dubbed the Porpoise Galaxy for its iconic shape, NGC 2936 is not only being deflected but also being distorted by the close gravitational interaction.

Click image for larger size.

A burst of young blue stars forms the nose of the porpoise toward the right of the upper galaxy, while the center of the spiral appears as an eye. Alternatively, the galaxy pair, together known as Arp 142, look to some like a penguin protecting an egg. Either way, intricate dark dust lanes and bright blue star streams trail the troubled galaxy to the lower right. The featured re-processed image showing Arp 142 in unprecedented detail was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope last year. Arp 142 lies about 300 million light years away toward the constellation, coincidently, of the Water Snake (Hydra). In a billion years or so the two galaxies will likely merge into one larger galaxy."

- https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200510.html

The Poet: Dylan Thomas, “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night”

“Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night”

“Do not go gentle into that good night,

Old age should burn and rave at close of day;

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,

Because their words had forked no lightning they

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright

Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,

And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight

Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,

Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray.

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”

- Dylan Thomas

"We Are A People..."

“In this world we make good as evil and evil as good. We are a people in danger of succumbing to our excesses. When you try to live in holiness, when you try to stop sinning, you become braver. You become more courageous, you become a man of your word, a true knight. You become a man of a conviction that you are not willing to sell out. Set yourself apart from this corrupt generation. Freedom exists not to do what you like, but to do what you ought.”

- Jim Caviezel

"Millennials Are Coming For Boomers Money: Banks See Generational Conflict Breaking Out This Decade"

"Millennials Are Coming For Boomers Money:

 Banks See Generational Conflict Breaking Out This Decade"

by Epic Economist

"In a world of growing inequalities, the intergenerational gap is likely to trigger the reconstruction of the social-economic and political structures, reshaping the future and founding a whole new era. This is what Deutsche Bank's Jim Ried defended on his latest study "Age of Disorder". The piece caused shocked gasps across the financial world, revealing Millenials' and Gen Z's discontentment with the current configuration of the world economy endorsed by the Boomers, and highlighting their willingness to engage in a stronger political presence with the aim of minimizing wealth disparities, allowing them to turn the page and build a new age, "one that will be characterized initially by disorder," according to Ried. So in today's video, we will be taking a closer look at his observations to grasp what is coming in the next chapters of the collapse of society as we know.

As a banker, Ried focused on the market aspects that such extensive socio-economic and political implications will have at the coming "new age", more specifically on how current record-high global valuations are threatened, outlining eight major global themes that will boost the transition to this new phase, such as the deterioration of US-China relations, the explosion of global debt levels, to the imminent runaway inflation, the worsening of wealth and income inequality, and, of course, the looming generational conflict between Millennials and Gen-Zers, and Boomers.

In his study, the author identifies five different economic cycles over the last 160 years: from 1860 to 1914 - the first era of globalization; 1914 to 1945 - the Great Wars and the Depression; 1945 to 1971 - Bretton Woods and the return to a gold-based monetary system; 1971 to 1980 - the start of fiat money and the high-inflation era of the 1970s; 1980 to 2020 - the second era of globalization; and from 2020 on - The Age of Disorder, which will be the moment we, as a society, will face a sharp shift in the global financial world and social organization. The expert asserts that economic cycles come and go, "but sitting above them are the wider structural super-cycles that shape everything from economies to asset prices, politics, and our general way of life."

In that sense, when considering that inequality is a multifaceted area, one of the sub-areas that could emerge out of it, causing a critical disorder in the system is the intergenerational divide that has been expanding recently, which is likely to develop and receive even more attention in the immediate future. At the moment, the generational divergencies are at extreme levels, because the study points that, over the last decade, those who’ve graduated into the labor market have already experienced two massive shocks: the Global Financial Crisis and, currently, the global virus outbreak, both of which are considered to be the two worst economic collapse since the 1930s Great Depression. Meaning that young people have been left behind economically compared to the past generation, on issues that come from homeownership to student debt levels. 

For now, what we know is that the prospects to the 2020 decade indicate that Gen Zers and Millennials are going to gradually take the electoral base from the hands of the older generation. An electoral victory in favor of the Millenials could mean all-round redistributive policies, starting with the feared redistribution of wealth of the rich amongst the less favored classes, higher corporate and property taxes, more preference to commodities rather than stocks, and more tolerance of inflation "insofar as it will erode the debt burden it is inheriting and put the pain on bondholders, which tend to have a bias towards the pensioner generation," according to Ried.

In this direction, with increasingly high disparities and a world scenery in crisis, while an economic collapse is still unfolding, the younger generations are likely to keep fueling this force of reaction to the oppressive policies that have been enacted over the course of the past decades. As they are elected into positions of power, they will disrupt society as we know it, rebuilding it and shifting the world's attention to topics that were once left aside, such as the consumption model and the level of carbon emissions. The more our leaders suppress the necessities of this group, the larger the reacting force becomes. The Age of Disorder is on the horizon and will transform reality in unprecedented ways. With all that said, don't expect this transition to happen smoothly. Much more turbulence will come with it. Are you ready? Please feel free to share your thoughts on the comment section down below and don't forget to hit the like and subscribe button if you haven't already."

- https://www.epiceconomist.com

Gregory Mannarino, PM 9/14/20:"FED: We Have 'Unlimited Capital' To Lend"

Gregory Mannarino,

PM 9/14/20:"FED: We Have 'Unlimited Capital' To Lend"

- https://traderschoice.net/

"Unlimited Capital" - Trillions! - For Wall St and the 1%,

But not for YOU, Good Citizen...and here's why:

Very Strong Language Alert!

"It's a Big Club, and you ain't in it. 

You and I are not in the Big Club."

The Daily "Near You?"

Napier, Hawke's Bay, New Zealand. Thanks for stopping by!

"Trapping Wild Pigs"

"Trapping Wild Pigs"

by Jeff Thomas

"Most of us would like to assume that we’re smarter than pigs, but are we? Let’s have a look. Pigs are pretty intelligent mammals, and forest-dwelling wild pigs are known to be especially wily. However, there’s a traditional method for trapping them.

First, find a small clearing in the forest and put some corn on the ground. After you leave, the pigs will find it. They’ll also return the next day to see if there’s more. Replace the corn every day. Once they’ve become dependent on the free food, erect a section of fence down one side of the clearing. When they get used to the fence, they’ll begin to eat the corn again. Then you erect another side of the fence. Continue until you have all four sides of the fence up, with a gate in the final side. Then, when the pigs enter the pen to feed, you close the gate. At first, the pigs will run around, trying to escape. But if you toss in more corn, they’ll eventually calm down and go back to eating.

You can then smile at the herd of pigs you’ve caught and say to yourself that this is why humans are smarter than pigs. But unfortunately, that’s not always so. In fact, the description above is the essence of trapping humans into collectivism.

Collectivism begins when a government starts offering free stuff to the population. At first, it’s something simple like free education or food stamps for the poor. But soon, political leaders talk increasingly of "entitlements" – a wonderful concept that by its very name suggests that this is something that’s owed to you, and if other politicians don’t support the idea, then they’re denying you your rights.

Once the idea of free stuff has become the norm and, more importantly, when the populace has come to depend upon it as a significant part of their "diet," more free stuff is offered. It matters little whether the new entitlements are welfare, healthcare, free college, or a guaranteed basic wage. What’s important is that the herd come to rely on the entitlements. Then, it’s time to erect the fence.

Naturally, in order to expand the volume of free stuff, greater taxation will be required. And of course, some rights will have to be sacrificed. And just like the pigs, all that’s really necessary to get humans to comply is to make the increase in fencing gradual. People focus more on the corn than the fence. Once they’re substantially dependent, it’s time to shut the gate.

What this looks like in collectivism is that new restrictions come into play that restrict freedoms. You may be told that you cannot expatriate without paying a large penalty. You may be told that your bank deposit may be confiscated in an emergency situation. You may even be told that the government has the right to deny you the freedom to congregate, or even to go to work, for whatever trumped-up reason.

And of course, that’s the point at which the pigs run around, hoping to escape the new restrictions. But more entitlements are offered, and in the end, the entitlements are accepted as being more valuable than the freedom of self-determination.

Even at this point, most people will remain compliant. But there’s a final stage: The corn ration is "temporarily" cut due to fiscal problems. Then it’s cut again… and again. The freedoms are gone for good and the entitlements are then slowly removed. This is how it’s possible to begin with a very prosperous country, such as Argentina, Venezuela or the US, and convert it into an impoverished collectivist state. It’s a gradual process and the pattern plays out the same way time and again. It succeeds because human nature remains the same. Collectivism eventually degrades into uniform poverty for 95% of the population, with a small elite who live like kings.

After World War II, the Western world was flying high. There was tremendous prosperity and opportunity for everyone. The system was not totally free market, but enough so that anyone who wished to work hard and take responsibility for himself had the opportunity to prosper. But very early – in the 1960s – The Great Society became the byword for government-provided largesse for all those who were in need – free stuff for those who were disadvantaged in one way or another.

Most Americans, who were then flush with prosperity, were only too happy to share with those who were less fortunate. Unfortunately, they got suckered into the idea that, rather than give voluntarily on an individual basis, they’d entrust their government to become the distributor of largesse, and to pay for it through taxation. Big mistake.

From that point on, all that was necessary was to keep redefining who was disadvantaged and to then provide more free stuff. Few people were aware that the first sections of fence were being erected. But today, it may be easier to understand that the fence has been completed and the gate is closing. It may still be possible to make a hasty exit, but we shall find very few people dashing for the gate. After all, to expatriate to another country would mean leaving all that free stuff – all that security.

At this point, the idea of foraging in the forest looks doubtful. Those who have forgotten how to rely on themselves will understandably fear making an exit. They’ll not only have to change their dependency habits; they’ll have to think for themselves in future.

But make no mistake about it – what we’re witnessing today in what was formerly the Free World is a transition into collectivism. It will be a combination of corporatism and socialism, with the remnants of capitalism. The overall will be collectivism.

The gate is closing, and as stated above, some members of the herd will cause a fuss as they watch the gate closing. There will be some confusion and civil unrest, but in the end, the great majority will settle down once again to their corn. Only a few will have both the insight and temerity necessary to make a dash for the gate as it’s now closing.

This was true in Argentina when the government was still generous with the largesse, and it was true in Venezuela when the entitlements were at their peak. It is now true of the US as the final transition into collectivism begins.

Rather than make the dash for the gate, the great majority will instead look down at their feed and say, "This is still the best country in the world," and continue eating the corn. Disturbing economic, political, and social trends are already in motion and now accelerating at breathtaking speed. The risks that lie ahead are too big and dangerous to ignore."

- internationalman.com
○

The Beatles, "Piggies"

"The Most Costly Of All Follies..."

“The most costly of all follies is to believe passionately in the palpably not true. It is the chief occupation of mankind. The truth, indeed, is something that mankind, for some mysterious reason, instinctively dislikes. Every man who tries to tell it is unpopular, and even when, by the sheer strength of his case, he prevails, he is put down as a scoundrel.”

- H.L. Mencken