Running 'Cause I Can't Fly 2

Thursday, December 3, 2020

"The Economic Collapse Hits Home: Feeding America Says 1 Out Of 4 U.S. Children Could Suffer From Hunger By The End Of 2020"

"The Economic Collapse Hits Home: Feeding America Says 1 Out Of 4

U.S. Children Could Suffer From Hunger By The End Of 2020"

by Michael Snyder

"There are approximately 74 million children in the United States, and right now millions upon millions of them do not have enough to eat. The economic collapse that has started in 2020 has been brutal for most of the nation, but it has hit children particularly hard. If their parents lose their jobs, there is nothing that they can do except hope that government handouts and the kindness of others will be enough. Unfortunately, way too often they are not enough, and at this point Feeding America is projecting that one out of every four children in America could suffer from hunger by the end of this calendar year:

"By the end of this year, more than 50 million people could experience food insecurity, according to Feeding America, the country’s largest hunger-relief organization. That’s one in six Americans and one in four children - nearly a 50 percent increase from 2019. A Northwestern University study in June found that food needs had doubled nationally, and tripled for households with children. The pandemic has laid bare how many people are one paycheck or medical bill away from hunger."

Prior to the pandemic, more than 20 million children were at least getting free or reduced price lunches at school. When lockdowns force the closing of schools, that just makes the hunger crisis even worse: “There are 22 million children who even before this pandemic relied upon free and reduced lunch,” said Claire Babineaux-Fontenot, the CEO of Feeding America. “When you hear that schools are closed, not only does that mean that there are challenges for children with an education, but it also means lost meals.”

The good news is that the U.S. has a vast network of food banks all over the country, and they have been able to help more people than ever this year. According to Feeding America, their food banks have “seen a 60 percent increase in demand” compared to last year. But the bad news is that there simply is not going to be enough food if demand continues to soar in the months ahead. In Alabama, demand at one food pantry has risen 20 percent just since last month:

"In central Alabama, demand at the Grace Klein food pantry is up 20% since last month. “It could be the rumors of civil unrest or the rise in Covid cases driving demand, but people are living off this food,” said director Jenny Waltman. The pantry is currently serving about 12,000 people each week, compared with 2,500 a week before the pandemic. The 200 volunteers and staff are exhausted, said Waltman."

At one of Chicago’s most important food pantries, the amount of food given out is up 237 percent compared to last year, and the CEO of that facility says that the new lockdowns are causing demand to start to surge once again: "In Chicago, the Lakeview pantry has provided groceries for 237% more people so far this year compared to 2019, with demand “ramping up again” after leveling off slightly over the summer, according to CEO Kellie O’Connell. “The pandemic has brought to light how normal wasn’t working for so many people, especially black and brown communities.”

And in California, the head of the Tulare County food bank says that “a food cliff is looming” because demand is becoming so intense: "In rural California at least one food bank braced for a “food cliff” that could leave it unable to serve clients heading into the new year. “The food cliff is looming,” said Nicole Celaya, executive director of Tulare County FoodLink. “The food system hasn’t done a very good job of meeting the increased need. As COVID numbers continue to rise, it’s going to get worse.”

All over America people have been sleeping in their vehicles and waiting for hours just to get handouts from their local food banks. If economic conditions continue to get even worse, many food banks will soon not have any hope of meeting the crushing demand. Unfortunately, the truth is that economic conditions are getting worse with each passing day. This new wave of lockdowns is causing more businesses to fail and forcing more layoffs, and that is going to mean that a whole lot more people will soon fall into poverty.

I don’t know why the politicians would want to institute more lockdowns after the immense damage that the first wave of lockdowns created. Hundreds of thousands of businesses closed down for an extended period of time, and a significant percentage of them have never reopened: "Other data from the University of California Santa Cruz shows the number of closures could be even higher, with more than 316,000 businesses closed between February and September, which puts the number of daily closures at 1,500 a day."

Meanwhile, the New York Post recently reported that Harvard-run database TrackTheRecovery.org showed 27.8% of small businesses in New York haven’t reopened their doors since January. In New Jersey, 31.2% remain closed. The national average, according to the database, is 29.8%.

Instead of heading for some sort of a “recovery”, now we are heading into a “dark winter” in which countless more businesses will be shuttered. It is hard to imagine that the lines at the food banks could get even longer, but that appears to be exactly what we could be facing.

In fact, one recent survey found that over half of all U.S. households with children are “not very confident” that they will be able to buy the food that they need in the weeks ahead: "Looking ahead to the next four weeks, 56% of households with children nationwide are “not very confident” they will be able to afford needed food. Nine percent said they are “not at all confident.” In Pennsylvania, 52% of households are “not very confident”; in New Jersey, the number is 55%.

This is what an economic collapse looks like, and what we have experienced so far is just the beginning. We are entering a time when there is going to be such widespread economic despair, and we are all going to have to take care of one another if we hope to make it through this storm. Decades of incredibly foolish decisions are catching up with our nation, and most Americans are completely and utterly unprepared for the very painful times which have now commenced."

- https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/

"Do You Really Think the Empire Will Sacrifice the Dollar to Further Enrich Billionaires?"

"Do You Really Think the Empire Will Sacrifice

the Dollar to Further Enrich Billionaires?"

by Charles Hugh Smith

"Let's keep it simple: US dollar up, stocks down. US dollar down, stocks up. Stocks up, billionaires get richer. Since that spot of bother in March 2020 when the US dollar (USD) soared and stocks cratered, the USD has been in a free-fall, boosting the wealth of America's Robber Barons and various other skimmers, scammers and other undeserving scoundrels. Chief among the undeserving scoundrels feasting on the decline of the USD are global stock markets which have soared not because revenues and profits are soaring but because the USD has plummeted.

The Federal Reserve is widely worshiped as the Ultimate Power in the Universe, a kind of financial Death Star. The Fed has seen fit to crush the USD to further boost the wealth of billionaires and save global stock markets from their well-deserved ruin. Saving the world, ho-hum, just another day for the god-like Fed.

But something doesn't quite add up here, for as the all-powerful Fed devalues the US dollar, it destroys the exorbitant privilege of America's reserve currency. What's the exorbitant privilege? Simply this: the owner of a reserve currency can create "money" (USD) out of thin air and trade it for autos, oil, semiconductors - real-world goods that were not created out of thin air. Rather, all these real-world goods required tremendous investment and significant costs to be produced and transported.

The exorbitant privilege is something for nothing - a remarkably good deal. And yet the universal expectation is the Fed is going to throw that privilege in the dumpster by pushing the USD into the ground, first by devaluing it relative other currencies and then by letting hyper-inflation destroy what's left of its purchasing power.

It is not an exaggeration to say that the ability to create "money" out of thin air and trade it for real-world goods is the foundation of America's global power, what I call the Imperial Project. The same can be said for the other reserve currencies, the euro and the yen. (Since China's currency is pegged to the US dollar, it is not a true reserve currency; it is only a derivative of the USD.)

So let me get this straight: the Fed is consciously choosing to undermine and then lay waste to the foundation of American power - just to boost Robber Barons and zombie global stock markets? I don't think so. That the Fed would pursue a suicidal destruction of the purchasing power of the dollar just to boost stock markets and billionaires - that beggars belief.

The Fed is not the Empire, it is the handmaiden of the Empire. The Fed's dual mandate - for PR purposes, stable employment and prices - is actually balancing the conflicting demands of a global and domestic currency - Triffin's Paradox writ large.

The inherent problem with a reserve currency is that it must meet global economic needs and domestic needs, and these are intrinsically in conflict. America's billionaires and pension funds want the US stock market to loft higher on the back of a declining USD, but that diminishes the global purchasing power of the USD -a trend heading for economic ruin.

The Fed has had numerous reasons to weaken the dollar since March: a desperate need to "save" global stock markets from well-deserved collapse, and an equally desperate need to keep the dollar weak so global debtors with loans denominated in dollars can manage to service their trillions in USD-denominated debts. But drawing a line extending this short-term necessity all the way to hyper-inflationary oblivion is a grave misreading of the Empire's need for the exorbitant privilege of a strong dollar.

The Fed is about done with its "rescue" of billionaires and global markets and debtors. Against virtually all expectations of seers, pundits, gurus, etc. the USD is about to start serving the Empire in its foundational role. As for stock markets - the devil take the hindmost."

- https://www.oftwominds.com/

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Main Street Gets Sold Out"

Musical Interlude: Grateful Dead, "A Touch Of Gray"

Grateful Dead, "A Touch Of Gray"

"We will get by,

We will survive..."

"How It Really Is"

Little did we know how good we really had it, and took for granted...

Gregory Mannarino, AM 12/3/20: "The US Dollar Is CRATERING, Economy In FREEFALL"

Gregory Mannarino, AM 12/3/20:

"The US Dollar Is CRATERING, Economy In FREEFALL"

- https://traderschoice.net/

"Covid-19 Pandemic Updates 12/3/20"

Covid-19 Pandemic Updates 12/3/20"

DEC 3, 2020 3:38 PM: "Newsom Places California Under 3-Week Stay At Home Order, CDC Chief Says COVID Worst Health Crisis In A Century: Live Updates"

DEC 3, 2020 7:16 AM: "US Suffers Record Daily COVID Cases As Hospitalizations Pass 100K; Global Death Toll Tops 1.5MM: Live Updates"

DEC 3, 2020 6:18 AM: "LA Imposes Toughest Lockdown Yet To Avoid "Devastating Tipping Point" As COVID Hospitalizations Soar"

○

Dec. 3, 2020 8:19 AM ET:

Coronavirus Map: Tracking the Global Outbreak

The coronavirus pandemic has sickened more than 64,689,500

people, according to official counts, including 13,999,385 Americans.

At least 1,496,200 have died.

Dec. 3, 2020 8:19 AM ET:

Coronavirus in the U.S.: Latest Map and Case Count

- www.nytimes.com

"How to Handle the Beast"

"How to Handle the Beast"

by David Cain

"The Beast showed up around Christmas last year, and stayed till April. During those months it was difficult to get anything done, or believe getting things done was a thing I could still do. You might know the Beast too. It has many forms. The Doom-Anxiety Beast. The Regret Beast. The Despair Beast. The Shame Beast. Psychologists have names for some of them.

Whatever the form, the Beast has certain characteristics. It saps your sense of agency and forward motion. It robs you of what might feel like your birthright: the basic ability to function to society’s standards. You lose the sense that you can steer the boat. The Beast may stay away for weeks or months or years. Then one Thursday afternoon, when one too many things goes wrong, it darkens your doorway again and you know that life might be different for a while.

If you don’t know what I’m talking about, that’s a good thing. Many of you do though. For what it’s worth, I’ll share what I’ve learned about tangling with the Beast.

As you already know, the Beast especially likes to visit during the holidays, or sometimes just after. It takes advantage of stress, isolation, and any sense of non-belonging you already feel. It wants to reduce you to a robotic pattern of habits and appetites. However, it can never quite steal that last bit of agency from you. There is always enough wriggle-space beneath it to do small, defiant things. This bit of space is what we will use to handle the Beast.

Assume your full height: Physically, I mean. The Beast can’t stop you from standing up straight, but it sure doesn’t want you to. It wants you to lower your head and drop your shoulders forward, especially in public – otherwise you might start to consider the possibility that you are in some way worthy, or even formidable. Upright posture doesn’t just symbolize resilience in the face of suffering, it creates the resilience. Be your full height. Return to it again and again.

Remember that the Beast is survivable: The Beast’s presence feels like you’ve been evicted from normal life, at least for now. Nothing is stable, and you can’t do what you need to do. It feels like you can’t possibly live at all until the Beast is gone.

Human history proves this is false. While the Beast can’t be ignored or destroyed, it can be lived with, and it has been. Human beings have cohabited with Beasts forever, often for years at a time. Life still happens during those years. Choices are still made, and good things are still accomplished.

What I’m trying to say is that taking action and finding meaning are possible even while the Beast is present. The conditions are different, but you still have agency. Life is still happening, and it still counts.

Discover the power of small acts of defiance: Whenever you feel the Beast sapping your will, do something – anything – that will improve your situation in even the smallest way. Straighten a crooked picture. Put all your stray pencils into a cup. The point isn’t so much to get things done, it’s to exercise the small bit agency you do have. One little act of defiance proves to both you and the Beast that it cannot clamp down on you completely. The earlier you do this in a day, the greater the effect.

Anything you do get done can weaken the Beast in a different way. By changing the state of things around you, you may be removing one of the Beast’s handholds, such as the laundry on your floor or the call you are not returning.

Lift things and clean: Physical exertion and cleaning up are the closest thing I’ve found to kryptonite for the Beast. A little of either can change a day’s trajectory, and remove more handholds.

Do a daily movement routine, even if it’s really easy. Even if it’s the equivalent of three pushups. Each one weakens the Beast, because it is an act against gravity. You are exercising your agency indirect opposition to the Beast’s inertia.

Get the house to a tidyish state if you can - a single room if you can’t - and keep it that way the best you’re able. Clutter is madness congealed.

Talk to people who know the Beast: Nothing has been as helpful for me as getting to know other people who know the Beast and are willing talk about it. There is tremendous relief to be found just describing your experience to someone:

“Mental pain is less dramatic than physical pain, but it is more common and also more hard to bear. The frequent attempt to conceal mental pain increases the burden: it is easier to say “My tooth is aching” than to say “My heart is broken.”

- C.S. Lewis

The goal of talking is not to problem-solve, but to break the illusion that something has gone uniquely wrong for you.

Our species knows the Beast well, but we don’t talk about it much. I suppose that’s because it’s hard to win at the rat race and other public-facing status games when you admit you are suffering. But suffering less is more important."

- https://www.raptitude.com/

"Tequila Bar In England Registers To Become A Church So It Can Re-Open"

"Tequila Bar In England Registers To

Become A Church So It Can Re-Open"

by Tyler Durden

"It was just a couple days ago we wrote about one Staten Island bar finding a "creative" solution to the government shutdown by declaring itself an autonomous zone. Now, another bar in England is following suit with another "creative" solution: registering itself as a church. 400 Rabbits Tequila and Mezcal Cocktail Bar in Nottingham, England has rebranded itself as "The Church Of the Four Hundred Rabbits" and has officially filed a formal application for the bar to be used as a place of worship, according to the NY Post.

The owner, James Aspell, now needs people to sign up as his congregation in order for the application to go through.

Aspell wrote on Twitter: “With places of worship allowed to open in all tiers we thought f–k it let’s start a religion! Can’t be that hard can it! Congregation daily till late.” He said that despite the cynical tone of what he's doing, his business is truly struggling and that the hypocrisy of shutting down small businesses is disproportionately hurting bars. “This time of year it’s usually all guns blazing but instead I’m sat at home putting my Christmas decorations up,” he said.

Future customers - err - congregation members seem to love the idea. “The only reason I’d take up a religion. I’m in,” one wrote on Facebook. “The only religion I would get on board with,” another said. Of course, to truly curb all this nonsense, governments could just allow small businesses to open up with precautions. But given government's expertise in misuse of time, money and resources, we're sure that won't happen. "

- https://www.zerohedge.com/

Wednesday, December 2, 2020

“Homes Become ATMS; Banks Steal From You; Massive Job Cuts; Americans Addicted to Debt”

Jeremiah Babe,

“Homes Become ATMS; Banks Steal From You;

Massive Job Cuts; Americans Addicted to Debt”

"Panic Buying Sweeps Across America As Fears Of Food Shortage Continues To Rise"

"Panic Buying Sweeps Across America As

Fears Of Food Shortage Continues To Rise"

by Epic Economist

"The stockpiling tendency is intensifying as more than 40 states recorded a substantial spike in confirmed viral cases last week, lockdowns are looming, and a tough winter approaches. Store shelves in several states have been affected, and it appears that a "March 2.0" has just begun. A recent study has shown that over 80 million U.S. citizens already started to panic buy paper and cleaning products, as well as canned goods, and breakfast food.

Fearing a supply chain break flashback, people have been rushing into the grocery shops to avoid suffering from shortages during the holiday season. Giant food retailers that have previously affirmed to have prepared in advance for another wave of panicked consumer activity, now say that demand has been so high their chains are inevitably stressed. In this video, we report the effects of the stockpiling trend that has been clearing shelves all across the country and turning everyday essentials into cherishable commodities.

All over the nation, people have been filling grocery carts to the brim in another round of panic buying boosted by the consequences of the latest surge in confirmed viral cases that led states to order the partial or total freeze of their economic activities. "Defensive purchasing" as some may define, is wiping everything out from the stores. Toilet paper, disinfectant, and groceries are flying off the shelves everywhere.

When state governors threatened to enforce strict measures to control the virus, people started stockpiling a wide range of products. However, what was a threat before, now became a reality. As more than 40 states registered daily increases in viral cases this month, several governors acted to restrict social gatherings and non-essential business activity, and while the orders were being put into effect, many reports about panic buying started to pop on the news.

A Seattle worker disclosed to The Daily Beast that "people are stockpiling now not just because they're afraid of being stuck at home, but because they've seen everyone else buying it up and are afraid they won't be able to get any when they need it later”. He's right. That's how any behavior drove by fear works. While some impulsively react to the threat of harder days, the panic spreads to the observant others. Alarmed and frightened, they shortly start to react in order to protect themselves as well. And this damaging loop will likely to continue to extend, as case rates keep increasing and restrictions are being confirmed pretty much everywhere.

Despite the efforts made by authorities and supply chain representatives to highlight that this second run is likely to be less severe because stores are more prepared, shoppers only believe in what they can see. Even though their attitude may cause the disruption they're fearing, consumers another imminent wave of shortages could come regardless of their increasingly defensive tendencies.

When Walmart, the world’s biggest retailer started to report shortages in high-demand items, such as cleaning supplies, breakfast foods – and the most important commodity in any bathroom: toilet paper, warning signs were triggered amongst frightened customers.

Target also communicated it would enforce purchase limits if consumers resume hoarding behavior. According to Anna Nagurney, shortages are a possibility if the sanitary outbreak “adversely affect the labor supply chain. Plus, winter weather can bring additional supply chain disruptions in terms of transportation,” she added.

All in all, panic purchases are understandable considering consumers remember the frustrations of going from store to store in the early months of the health crisis, looking for essentials that suddenly become scarce. "And that pattern will only intensify as the number of virus cases increase and the holidays approach," Nagurney said.

A LendingTree survey has found that 86.7 million U.S. consumers have already begun stockpiling supplies for a potential winter wave of viral cases, with an additional 35% that affirmed to have plans to stockpile but haven't done so yet.

In contrast, the effects of those massive purchases are seen not only on store shelves but on consumers' wallets - 27% of them have been accumulating credit card debt related to these purchasings, and most of them have been laid off or furloughed to the economic recession. Moreover, a recent analysis described how hoarding behavior might result in food waste.

Concerned about the dark winter ahead consumers might be unconsciously setting the stage for much more economic deterioration, as they spend more and increase their debt, rush into the unnecessary purchase of several products, which consequently creates a shortage, lead prices to skyrocket, while perpetuating a disruptive cycle of panic-driven purchases that don’t hurt anyone but themselves."

- https://www.epiceconomist.com

"The Stasi Comes to America"

"The Stasi Comes to America"

by Brian Maher

"IS the tattle-tale the new American patriot? This Thanksgiving weekend, we hosted family members. One afternoon - having explored fully our own hamlet -a spirit of wanderlust seized them. Washington, D.C., some 25 miles distant, was the destination selected. We stepped into our waders, plugged our nostrils... and trekked into the foul, treacherous swamp.

Our travels concluded in upscale Georgetown and the splendid settings of its eponymous university… where we lolled among the “dreaming spires” of academia. Being Thanksgiving weekend, the snoozing campus was nearly as vacant as a congressman’s cranium… or a Joe Biden campaign rally.

All was silence. All was peace. We never passed within 100 feet of strangers. All, incidentally, wore surgical masks upon their faces. Your lawless editor did not. He had flouted the orders posted at the entranceway to cover his face. That is because the odds of catching or spreading the virus outdoors, in a thinly populated open space... likely approach zero. Do we speculate? No.

No Outdoor Transmission: Only one study... of over 7,000 studies... identified one solitary case of outdoor transmission. That study concluded: "There were virtually no cases that we could identify that took place in sort of everyday life outdoors."

Another group of German, British and American scientists arrived at this conclusion: "While it is not impossible, there is no evidence that COVID-19 has been transmitted when people walk past each other outdoors." Again, we did not pass within 100 feet of a stranger… much less walk past one.

But to proceed… After a long and healthy roam we had the exit in mind. We lit out in that direction, pausing to read a plaque nailed to a wall. That was when a sudden blast directly astern of us shattered the silence, the peaceful silence: “Sir, you are required to wear a mask at all times on this campus!”

If Only Looks Could Kill: We wheeled around... There stood a woman - masked, flummoxed, incensed - eyes blazing with the heat of a hundred suns, a thousand suns. We would be six feet under sod if eyes could murder. Hers had homicide in them. A moment or two of silence passed. Then, having stood up to evil, she resumed course and heading, building to flank speed.

Some 50-75 feet beyond our pathogenic influence, the schoolmarm glanced rearward. Did we heed orders? We had not. Of course… she risked greater odds of infection by stopping to accost the barbarian within the gates, the barefaced devil besieging Georgetown University. She might have simply passed on by.

We eventually executed a casual exit... and proceeded to menace the neighborhood beyond... maskless, reckless, Jack the Ripper running at large. (We cannot confirm it - but we believe we subsequently spotted her rolling around in her auto, alone, the mask still shielding her face. Against what we cannot say. But again, we cannot confirm the sighting). We were half-surprised the scold didn’t yell for the police. These days a fellow cannot be certain…

The Stasi Comes To America: Jim Rickards warns that the Stasi has descended upon American shores. The Stasi was former East Germany’s dreaded internal security force. These goons were constantly on the hunt for renegades. That is, dissidents who dared question Communist authority… who would not march in step. These dissidents were watched, bugged, trailed, harangued, questioned, drugged, slugged, clubbed and jugged.

The Stasi also relied upon snitches, snoops and tattle-tales - rats - to finger suspects. Jim: "The Stasi was notorious for running a ubiquitous surveillance network in which neighbor spied upon neighbor and co-workers spied on each other. There were rewards for reporting dissidents to the police and severe punishments for those who did not toe the party line."

If you do not believe it can happen in these United States, Jim says have another guess. Look to the Great Northwest: "If this kind of activity seems long ago and far away, think again. The policies of the Stasi are now being used in the United States. The State of Oregon is now under an extreme form of lockdown order imposed by Governor Kate Brown…

When some citizens refused to go along with her senseless plans, she said neighbors should spy on neighbors and call the police if they observe any behavior that does not conform to her orders. Apart from being bad public health policy, her orders are probably unconstitutional. Fortunately, many local sheriffs are refusing to enforce her orders and many citizens are ignoring them also. East Germans could not ignore the Stasi without grave consequences. Governor Kate Brown and her neo-Stasi approach are easier to ignore - so far."

“So far”... Will there come a time when the neo-Stasi approach is far more difficult to ignore? We must be alert to the possibility. But does the greater terror spring from our own fellow citizens?

“Delusional Psychosis”: Dr. Mark McDonald practices psychiatry within the state of California. From whom: "We don’t need a police force. We don’t need a secret Stasi to go after the neighbor that isn’t wearing his mask on a park bench. We have families who are willing to do that. We have office workers who will come by and mace you if you are not wearing a mask, and no one will come to your rescue. In fact, they’ll probably applaud it."

A “delusional psychosis” he labels it, grounded in a quaking fear that has: "Grown and become so entrenched that it has reached a state of what I would call delusional psychosis. A delusion is a fixed false belief that is contrary to reality."

Reality, Dr. McDonald? Less than one percent of the population accounts for over 90 percent of all the deaths, “which occur in people” over age 70, mostly over age 80, with at least two and a half to three comorbidities, according to the CDC. Other than that group of people, we really are not at risk of hospitalization or death in any meaningful way from this virus…

Yet Dr. McDonald’s greatest concern is that the hysteria is: "Going beyond fear, going beyond the crazy itself, to what I would call group control... What appears to me is a country which is using its own citizens as a de facto police force, very similar to communist China, that has a social point system in place where neighbor informs on neighbor, family informs on family."

A Citizen Stasi: America’s framers wrote in the First Amendment to wall off speech from government invasion. Yet today, “Big Tech” is the censor that polices speech. Facebook or Twitter cannot clap you into prison or stretch you out upon the rack. (Blogger can and will delete your blog. - CP) Yet they can tape your electronic mouth if they dislike your speech. Free speech under the First Amendment, yes. But free speech?

Similarly, do we need a Stasi if our own fellow citizens will knock us over the head for failing to wear a mask outdoors? Meantime, our neighbors can eye us through peepholes as diligently as any undercover agent. We have located an excellent candidate for this Stasi militia of citizens. You can find her prowling the grounds of Georgetown University...

Unmasked and Unrepentant,"

- dailyreckoning.com

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Gregory Mannarino, "Get Ready! The FED Us About To Open The Flood Gates"

Gregory Mannarino, PM 12/2/20:

"Get Ready! The FED Us About To Open The Flood Gates"

- https://traderschoice.net/

Musical Interlude: Deuter, "Sound of Invisible Waters"

Deuter, "Sound of Invisible Waters"

"A Look to the Heavens"

"Large galaxies and faint nebulae highlight this deep image of the M81 Group of galaxies. First and foremost in the wide-angle 12-hour exposure is the grand design spiral galaxy M81, the largest galaxy visible in the image. M81 is gravitationally interacting with M82 just below it, a big galaxy with an unusual halo of filamentary red-glowing gas.

Around the image many other galaxies from the M81 Group of galaxies can be seen. Together with other galaxy congregates including our Local Group of galaxies and the Virgo Cluster of galaxies, the M81 Group is part of the expansive Virgo Supercluster of Galaxies. This whole galaxy menagerie is seen through the faint glow of an Integrated Flux Nebula, a little studied complex of diffuse gas and dust clouds in our Milky Way Galaxy."

- http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap080512.html

"Humanity Today..."

"Humanity today is like a waking dreamer, caught between the fantasies of sleep and the chaos of the real world. The mind seeks but cannot find the precise place and hour. We have created a Star Wars civilization, with Stone Age emotions, medieval institutions, and godlike technology. We thrash about. We are terribly confused by the mere fact of our existence, and a danger to ourselves and to the rest of life."

- Edward O. Wilson

Chet Raymo, "Away Above The Chimney Pots "

"Away Above The Chimney Pots"

by Chet Raymo

"So Oz finally became home; the imagined world became the actual world, as it does for us all, because the truth is that once we have left our childhood places and started out to make up our lives, armed only with what we have and are, we understand that the real secret of the ruby slippers is not that "there's no place like home", but rather that there is no longer any such place as home: except, of course, for the home we make, or the homes that are made for us, in Oz: which is anywhere, and everywhere, except the place from which we began.

In the last paragraph of his delightful meditation on the film "The Wizard of Oz", Salman Rushdie, himself an immigrant to another land, takes gentle issue with the concluding cliche: "There's no place like home." If the net result of Dorothy's technicolor adventure is to end up where she began, in gray old Kansas, then what was the point? asks Rushdie.

Poor Dorothy, waking up in bed with Auntie Em and the others clustered around her, born again, so to speak, into the same old life. "It wasn't a dream, it was a place," she cries, piteously. "A real, truly live place! Doesn't anyone believe me?" She must begin her rebellion all over again.

Visitors here will have observed that I have reached a stage in life where I am prone to look back on the journey, reflect somewhat nostalgically upon the place I came from, and try to ascertain where it is I have ended up. It is clear that the destination was in part determined by where I began, as is true, I suppose, for all of us. We are armed, after all, only with "what we have and who we are." But it is clear too that having experienced the technicolor universe of the galaxies and the DNA, there is no going back to the dusty, gray dogmas of my youth.

The Emerald City may indeed be over the rainbow, but it is still in the here and now. The Wizard's powers may not be supernatural, but his translucently turreted city sure beats Kansas. Science was my Yellow Brick Road. I'm still a "Kansas" boy, so to speak, but with no desire to be born again. For better or worse, home is here, now, in a universe of a grandeur of which I had no idea at the beginning, at a place along a Yellow Brick Road that reaches tantalizingly into the future, with no foreseeable terminus in an ultimate Oz."

- http://blog.sciencemusings.com/

The Poet: James Baldwin, "Amen"

"Amen"

"No, I don't feel death coming.

I feel death going:

having thrown up his hands,

for the moment.

I feel like I know him

better than I did.

Those arms held me,

for a while,

and, when we meet again,

there will be that secret knowledge

between us."

- James Baldwin

The Daily "Near You?

Collinsville, Texas, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"The Ironic, The Tragic Thing..."

“One can fight evil but against stupidity one is helpless… I have accepted the fact, hard as it may be, that human beings are inclined to behave in ways that would make animals blush. The ironic, the tragic thing is that we often behave in ignoble fashion from what we consider the highest motives. The animal makes no excuse for killing his prey; the human animal, on the other hand, can invoke God’s blessing when massacring his fellow men. He forgets that God is not on his side but at his side.”

“There is no salvation in becoming adapted to a world which is crazy.”

- Henry Miller

"Doug Casey on America's Ideological Divide and What Comes Next"

"Doug Casey on America's Ideological Divide and What Comes Next"

by Internationalman.com

"International Man: Throughout his presidential campaign, Joe Biden said that this would be a "dark winter" in the US. What would a Biden/Harris administration do next?

Doug Casey: When Joe Biden was in his basement, he must’ve watched Game of Thrones again and again. Biden thinks he’s John Snow saying, "Winter is coming." He’s right about that. But he’s no John Snow.

The government can definitely make it into a dark winter, indeed, so it’s interesting that he said that. The government can create huge economic destruction just by continuing their foolish lockdowns. But, as they say, "we can do more!" Biden wants more regulations. He wants more money printing. He’s said that he wants much higher taxes.

We can expect the economy to get a lot worse. Joe’s prediction about a dark winter is absolutely right from an economic point of view. And, even more important, from a personal freedom point of view. We’re going to have a lot more State control and less personal freedom. The COVID hysteria is a godsend for them.

What will Biden do if and when he’s sworn in? In addition to the things I just mentioned, he’ll try to clamp down on gun ownership. That, however, would likely be the red line. It could really set things off. Especially since something like 75% of Republicans, and even 25% of Democrats, think the election was rigged. It would serve to delegitimize the whole political process.

What will happen if he tries to confiscate people’s guns? Will members of the police and military actually do as they’re told? Most of them will, for lots of reasons, but mainly because they’re paid to do what they’re told, whether they agree with it or not. The chain of command still exists. And no cop wants to lose his job in today’s economic environment.

What will the gun owners do? Will they resist violently? Some will. And then what happens? Gun confiscation could be the spark that lights the flame in this country. That’s especially the case if they make Beto O’Rourke the gun czar.

International Man: Ideologically, the US is split. Half of Americans believe exactly what the politicians, media, and the "experts" tell them. On the other hand, there is a growing number of Americans that are skeptical and distrustful of the mainstream COVID narrative and the restrictions. How do you see this playing out in the months ahead?

Doug Casey: The temperature is rising in the pressure cooker. I’ve said before; it makes no sense at all to have two or more groups with radically different views of ethics - what’s right and wrong, and what should or shouldn’t be done - in the same political entity. One group or another is going to get control of the central government and will use it to make the other group as mad as hell. This is why countries split up.

Ideally, the US will split up peacefully the way Czechoslovakia did into two countries, or Yugoslavia into six countries, or the Soviet Union into 15 countries. But the last time we had a serious secession movement in the US was from 1861 to 1865. It didn’t end well.

Click image for larger size.

"The 11 Nations Of The United States"

Let me repeat what I said since March about COVID. This virus is no more serious than the bird flu, swine flu, Asian flu, or the Hong Kong flu. It’s not even remotely as serious as the Spanish flu. It basically only affects people over 70 or those who have a major illness. And even then, the survival rate is very high. The average age of death from COVID is 78. Contracting it is no more than a trivial inconvenience for younger people. It’s perhaps the greatest mass hysteria in world history. There’s much more to say about this hysteria, and it all reflects badly on the authorities and the media. As well as the average American for acting like a sheep. The situation is accentuated by the fact that we have entered the Greater Depression. When the economic times get really tough, people feel they have little to lose, and, as Gerald Celente says, they "lose it."

A big near-term problem is that the forbearance of payment of rent and mortgage payments is slated to end about Jan 1. There will be a lot of people - about 12 million renters and four million homeowners - who aren't going to be able to make those payments. In addition to the fact that a lot of landlords and lenders are already under pressure because of the forbearance.

Although consequences will likely be pushed forward by another round of money from the Fed.

International Man: Is it possible that in an attempt to regulate and restrict the movement and lives of the population that the "masters of the universe" will overplay their hand?

Doug Casey: It’s very possible. They’re playing with a lit stick of dynamite. But when the "cadres" get control of the government, they’re extremely hard to dislodge. They’ll have not only the government’s moral force but its physical force - the army, the police, and the judicial system.

Remember, the Bolsheviks were a tiny number of people, but once they captured the apparatus of the Russian State in 1917, it was all over. If the Marxist factions of the Democrat Party take over, they’ll prove very hard to evict from power. Here’s the question: is the average American who dislikes the collectivist Democrat Party willing to go into the streets the way BLM and Antifa did, and get violent?

I don't know. This is a witch's brew. It's much more serious than the average person thinks or even wants to think. The possibility isn’t mentioned in the media. I really don't see any way out of this, however. Serious violence is likely.

If there's going to be a confrontation, however, it's better that one occurs sooner rather than later from the point of view of the cultural conservatives. The longer it’s put off, the more people indoctrinated with every college and high school graduating class in what the Biden-Harris team are promoting.

And every year that goes by, there are more people recruited to work for the government who align against pro-freedom forces. Inevitably, the pot's going to boil over. It’s better to get it over with sooner rather than later. The only thing that can defuse the situation is a major war, probably with China, but that would be an even greater disaster."

- internationalman.com

"That's All We've Ever Had..."

- George Carlin

"Status Quo Ante"

"Status Quo Ante"

By Bill Bonner

“I f**king hate that guy.”

– Neera Tanden, nominee for the role of director of the Office of

Management and Budget in the Biden administration

WEST RIVER, MARYLAND – "When the reality TV star moved into the White House, we opined that the common narrative was phony. Mr. Trump pretended to represent “conservatives” against the “liberals.” But there was never anything conservative about The Donald. He spent the next four years proving it.

No Help to Give: Now, we have an equal and opposite scam. The Democrats no longer represent the working classes… the poor… the downtrodden… or the “victims” – women, minorities, cripples, half-wits, and so forth. Both political parties are controlled by two wings of the same group. They represent neither conservatives nor liberals. Instead, they represent themselves – a corrupt and degenerate American elite.

For proof… today, as promised, we take a look at the Biden team. Here’s MarketWatch: “Help is on the way,” says Biden as he introduces Yellen and more economic team members President-elect Joe Biden called times “tough” for millions of Americans as he introduced his economic team on Tuesday, but said its members would get to work to “create a recovery for all.”

We don’t have to remind our dear, long-suffering, readers that the feds have no help to give. Every penny they spend must come from the American people themselves. And since they know they will lose power if they raise taxes, all they can do is print more fake money – the very thing that is already destroying the real economy. So any “recovery” that happens will come in spite of the Biden team, not because of it.

Divisive Appointments: But real help is not on offer anyway. What is coming is another giant fraud… led by a team of hacks, has-beens, incompetents, know-nothings, and grifters.

Take Janet Yellen, for example. She is an academic economist with no apparent knowledge of how real economies or markets actually work. Here’s what Reuters reported on June 27, 2017: "U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said on Tuesday that she does not believe that there will be another financial crisis for at least as long as she lives, thanks largely to reforms of the banking system since the 2007-09 crash."

Ms. Yellen completely misunderstood the mortgage finance crisis. She believed it had nothing to do with the Federal Reserve’s fake money and fake interest rates. And she thought future crises could be avoided by changing bank regulations. Obviously, she has no idea what she is doing. But since she showed herself willing to go along with the elite’s flimflam… and finance it with printing-press money… she will have no trouble being approved by the Senate.

Assisting her (if approved) will be Neera Tanden at the Office of Management and Budget. Scheerpost’s Glenn Greenwald comments: "The announcement that Joe Biden intends to nominate Neera Tanden as his Director of the Office of Management and Budget – a critical position overseeing U.S. economic and regulatory policy – triggered a wide range of mockery, indignation and disgust from both the left and the right. That should not be surprising: though a thoroughly mediocre and ordinary D.C. swamp creature from the perspective of both ideology and competence, Tanden’s uniquely unhinged, venomous, corrupt and pathologically dishonest conduct as a Clinton Family and DNC apparatchik and President of the corporatist-and-despot-funded Center for American Progress (CAP) has earned her a list of enemies far longer and more impressive than her accomplishments."

But why appoint such a divisive person?

Diversity, Not Competence: Mr. Biden has pledged that his inner circle will be more “diverse.” “It will look,” he says, “like America itself.” There will be plenty of women, he assures us… and “people of color,” too. Ms. Tanden is a “two-fer”… Her parents are immigrants from India. She is also, by many accounts, not a very nice person. Perhaps that, too, should count as “diversity?” A diverse group inevitably includes a jerk or two. Ms. Tanden knows nothing about economics. That puts her squarely in the mainstream.

Besides, ignorance is a job requirement in a corrupt and hell-bent empire. Anyone with any real brains might try to turn the bus around… or, at least, slow it down.

Cecilia Rouse, Biden’s choice to head the Council of Economic Advisers, is another two-fer. Like Ms. Yellen, she is an academic economist well versed in school politics. And there’s Adewale “Wally” Adeyemo, who will join Ms. Yellen as deputy Treasury Secretary. He intends to remake the economy so that it gives “people a shot when they need it most.” He said that was a “lesson I learned from my parents.”

What the heck that means, in terms of economic policy, we have no idea. Like Tanden, Adeyemo is a lawyer, as innocent about free market economics as a tree toad about the Theory of Evolution.

Diversity – not competence – is the name of the game now.

Foolish Goal: But wait… Is this really diverse? Not a chance. Nearly half the voters pulled the lever for Donald Trump, but there will be no red hats in the group. A third of the population is obese. But there will be no really fat people in the Biden team. According to a poll conducted this summer, 56% of Americans believe the country is “racist.” Who represents the racists in the Biden bunch? Half the American population has an IQ below 100. While there will be plenty of dumbbells in the executive line-up… few will have IQs below the 100 mark.

“Diversity” is a foolish goal. Would Japanese restaurants serve better sushi if they had more Italian chefs? Would the Supreme Court function better with more retarded, dyslexic, psychopathic, and insane members? Why should we care if the pastry chef is a man or a woman? It’s the croissants we care about. Would we really want a “diversity” dentist to drill our teeth? Do we want blind bus drivers… illiterate editors… or midget basketball players – just for diversity’s sake?

A Cabal of Insiders: But “diversity” is just part of the scam. That is, by choosing women and “people of color,” Joe Biden is able to pretend that he represents the “victim” classes… without actually giving a damn about them. The “of color” tag is especially helpful in this regard. It allows people who have spent their whole lives on the fast track – best schools, best jobs, best parties – to pass as underdogs! Tanden and Adeyemo, for example, both went to Yale Law School.

The whole thing is a fraud. Mr. Biden’s hand-picked henchmen are all cut from the same crooked lumber – the smart, slim, rich, conniving Deep State elite. They all think the same thing. They will all want the same things, too – power and money.

Let’s look again at Ms. Tanden. Here’s TIME: "The embodiment of a Washington insider and personification of its nerdocracy […] A player in Democratic politics for decades – she started out by volunteering for Mike Dukakis’ 1988 presidential bid – Tanden’s Rolodex rivals almost everyone else’s. Her steel-trap brain seldom forgets a footnote or a slight. When her critics have dismissed the 50-year-old insider as a lightweight, they have been proven wrong in short order."

Right at Home: In years past, a new president brought a new team. With Reagan, for example, came his trusted Californians. Carter brought in new blood from the South. Even Donald Trump brought Scaramucci, Giuliani, and other reprobates from New York. But Mr. Biden’s team will need no U-Hauls. They’re already at home in Bethesda or McLean. And they’ve lived in The Swamp so long, they’ve developed webbed feet.

Today, we looked at Biden’s economic team. Tomorrow, we’ll look at his foreign policy team. Stay tuned…"

- www.rogueeconomics.com

Musical Interlude: Two Steps From Hell, "Evergreen"

Two Steps From Hell, "Evergreen"

"How It REALLY Is"

This is no joke...

"Covid-19 Pandemic Update 12/2/20"

DEC 2, 2020 10:30 AM: "WHO Again Revises Mask Guidelines; Poland 14th Country To Top 1 Million Confirmed COVID Cases: Live Updates"

○

"COVID-19 Lockdowns: Liberty and Science" (Excerpt)

by ammo.com

"The Chinese Coronavirus (COVID-19) hit American shores - officially, anyway, there is significant evidence that it arrived earlier - in late January 2020. The American public was then told that a two-week shutdown of the economy would “flatten the curve,” relieving the pressure on hospital intensive care units and saving lives in the long run.

The average American, including conservatives, being people of good faith, complied, thinking that this was a common-sense measure that would save lives in the wake of a new and mysterious pandemic. But two things quickly happened: First, the goalposts moved. No longer was it enough to “flatten the curve.” Now we were to be locked down until there was a cure. No longer was it enough to “flatten the curve.” Now we were to be locked down until there was a cure.

Even the cure was not enough for some figures like the lionized-by-liberals Dr. Anthony Fauci - we would continue to be locked down even after a vaccine had been rammed through the approvals process with limited testing. When would we be allowed out by our masters? No one could answer this.

Second, there was an intensification of the authoritarian measures. Some states, aided by Big Tech, introduced “contact tracing” where people had to sign in with extensive personal information if they wanted to, for example, eat out at a restaurant. This was so that, in the event of infection with COVID-19, the state health department would be able to track and trace everyone you had contact with.

We should add that a third thing didn’t so much “happen” but was discovered: As it turns out unless you are old (over the age of 65), morbidly obese or suffer from a complicating disorder (such as diabetes or asthma), COVID-19 was little more than a bad cold or the flu.

What’s more, there was a financial incentive from the government to mark deaths as COVID-19 deaths when they were not. George Floyd, the man who died while being arrested by the Minneapolis Police Department, sparking riots over the summer of 2020, is officially a COVID-19 death because he died with COVID-19, despite not dying of COVID-19.

By the fall of 2020, the facts became clear: While COVID-19 was dangerous for select populations, it had an extremely low death rate among the young and healthy. The generous or naive might say that the COVID-19 health measures are misguided attempts to protect the population. A more hard-nosed or cynical person likely thinks that these measures are a deliberate attempt to enact totalitarian measures leveraging public panic.

This, of course, would not be the first time the government and its toadies took advantage of such a panic, with the 9/11 attacks presenting a recent example of such. We believe that COVID-19 measures are little more than a cynical power grab. We also believe that they have no basis in “the science” often breathlessly invoked by the toadies of this power grab."

In this article, we will make a compelling case that there is nothing scientific about this attack on the individual civil liberties of Americans. As Canadian Dr. Roger Hodkinson, a top pathologist, virologist, and CEO of a biotech company manufacturing COVID tests said, “this (COVID-19) is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on an unsuspecting public.”

Please view this complete and critically important article here:

- https://www.zerohedge.com/news/