Saturday, December 5, 2020

"The Truth Virus: The Most Dangerous Virus in the World"

"The Truth Virus:
The Most Dangerous Virus in the World"
by Dog Poet

"I’ve got a virus. It doesn’t have a common name because it isn’t a common virus. It’s difficult to catch this virus because there are only so many ways for it to enter your system. You can catch it as a result of extreme trauma which results in all of your defenses being shut down. This includes all subconscious resistance and all systemic defenses. You can catch it as a result of long term abuse. This includes abuse visited upon you or abuse you visit on yourself. Often this abuse comes about because the virus is already looking for a foothold and it will attract one of these two kinds of abuse. You can catch it through diligent and repeated efforts to catch it, in an environment of quietude, created by a relentless persistence of the mind to cease from the production of thought. There are a few other ways.

Once you’ve got this virus there’s no cure for it. Every cell in your body is going to be replaced and the world will gradually - and sometimes not so gradually - take on the appearance of an insane asylum, while also becoming remarkably predictable. People think insanity is unpredictable but that’s just one of the illusions that are part of the ordinary mindset of the collectively insane.

People who have this virus can understand one another without having to say anything at all and if they should speak they are also understood by people who are vulnerable to this virus. This is one of the ways that the virus spreads. The impact of the virus speaking induces trauma that naturally moves toward the extreme. People who do not have the virus- and who are not susceptible to catching it- will not understand a single word being said. It will make them uncomfortable and sometimes it will make them angry but at no time will it be understood.

There’s a lot of news, noise and argument about Howdy Doody’s comprehensive health plan for the Teletubbies. Most people think that some permutation of universal health care is going to be a major step up for American society. They seem to think that having it is somehow going to lead to a more general state of well being among the population. There are several reasons why this isn’t going to make the slightest difference no matter what kind of a program finally gets decided on.

It doesn’t really matter whether you can see a doctor of your choice or not and have some amount of it paid for. It isn’t going to have any positive effect on your health. Health is the result of a few basic things and one of them is youth. The other things are diet and ones mental and emotional state. An awareness of ones relationship to all of these leads to making the right decisions about how one lives their life. A conscious awareness of diet has a profound effect on one’s well being. One’s mental and emotional states also play significant roles. One needs only to study how many stress-related diseases there are to understand this. If you factor bad diet into unbalanced mental and emotional states you’ve got a problem no doctor can deal with, especially if your medical system is of the allopathic variety.

The people who decide what doctors can and cannot do and what doctors can and cannot tell you are permanent bed-partners with various corporations for whom good health is a bad thing. These are the pharmaceutical concerns; the AMA, the hospital equipment industry and related suppliers of related products. These corporations have another relationship with the various food industries in the sense that they will not write or permit policy that impinges on major enterprises that bring you processed foods, fast foods, mystery meats, candy and soft drinks and whatever else hides under that umbrella. What this means is that, according to the capitalist mentality that rules this society, it is possible; it has to be possible and it damn well will be possible to eat anything you want, avoid exercise and generally break any and every rule of intelligent behavior and if there’s a problem they will either cut it out of you or suppress the symptoms until they have to cut it out of you.

Because the will of corporations is the rule of the land, there will be no change in the profit line for participating corporations. What will change will be the language that the non-change is presented in. To see into the black heart of the system in charge of American life you have only to look into the prison industry where 5% of the American public and 25% of the world’s prison population are incarcerated in American prisons. Why is this? It’s a business. Is it coincidence that America uses 60% of the world’s resources as well?

The unstated objective of American society is that a small percentage of its members shall possess the greatest amount of wealth at the expense of everyone else and will then be lauded for their efforts to assist the less fortunate where no such efforts exist. Such a system cannot survive and will not survive and is presently at the state where a number of shell games are being used to give the impression that the system is doing fine (nicely recovering from a bad scare) and going to get better as it approaches the lip of a high cliff. As things begin to fall from the cliff, you will see charts and graphs appear that indicate the true state and direction of the culture and economy but they will probably be holding these charts and graphs upside down.

I see these things and many other things because I have this virus. Others have this virus too and many more are on the verge of infection. The biggest concern of the TPTB is the proliferation of this virus. Their concern about all other viruses, which they manufactured to begin with, is just Slim Shady dining at the Red Herring Restaurant.

With this virus I can see that the appetites and desires being milked by corporations in order to promote and sell their products leads directly to aberrant behavior which leads to the prison industry for those who are not making the laws that route the unfortunate toward the prison or the grave with that long interlude of enslavement at the looping track of life where they chase the uncatchable dream rabbit that is already steaming in the pot of their betters.

With this virus I can look directly at the lies of politicians and religious leaders and hear the truth that spotlights the pies around the corner and their relationship to the pies in the sky which are moving on conveyor belts behind unbreakable Plexiglas. I can see that there are no pies because the pies are only video projections of pies bounced off of a series of mirrors. I can see the people who do no have the virus and I can see the world they are looking at and it turns out that this world is also just a projection bouncing off of mirrors and one of those mirrors is their minds. These projections then activate the furnace in the visceral brain which causes those without the virus to dance like millions of chickens on a hot griddle that somehow got the impression that they are auditioning for American Idol.

It is not possible to create a society, based on the principles that some of us have read and most of us have heard about, when corporations are the ruling authority of the land, because the intent of a corporation is diametrically opposed to the principles that some of us have read and most of us have heard about. You can’t make Beef Stroganoff out of pork rinds and Velveeta but you can convince people that that is what they are eating and that is the point.

There’s a debate that has been going around since Cain brained Abel and that debate centers on whether it is better to have this virus or some form of all the other viruses. The awareness that comes with having this virus can lead to the rack, the auto da fe and other less pleasant locations. Having the other viruses can lead to being a hamster or some part of a compost pile and a fire burns there as well. They can lead to being cannon fodder and the merciless hands of those who practice a form of medicine that has little to do with the stated intentions of the art. The hands of these practitioners are often more dangerous than the problem that brought you there.

Most people spend more than ninety percent of everything they have saved in their lives in the last year of their life on an industry whose purpose is exactly for that reason.

This virus of mine - and perhaps you have it too - is not an easy burden to bear. You can never pull the covers over your head again. You know there’s no monster in the closet but you also know where the real monsters dwell. You are doomed to an unending quarantine even as you move among your fellows. One thing you do acquire as a result of this virus is compassion and, as Lao Tzu said long ago, “Compassion is a weapon from the sky against being dead.” Realization may not be all the things we imagine it to be, but it is preferable to the restless sleep of nightmares wielded by the whip hand of psychopaths."

“Lessons From the Inbox on Divisiveness and Unity”

“Lessons From the Inbox on Divisiveness and Unity”
by Rich Manieri

“I collect my hate mail. Not because it makes me angry or because I want to obsess over it. It's just so interesting and I want to understand it. I receive a lot of emails in response to columns and most are generally positive. But the negative ones are really negative. This fascinates me.

For example, in a recent piece on how the media will miss President Trump when he's gone, and vice versa, a reader unleashed a stream of conscious under the subject "Absurd!" He went on to call me "demented" and then took a shot at Kentucky, where I currently live. Mind you, he sent this email to me on Thanksgiving. The funny thing is the piece wasn't really partisan in any way and I still can't figure out how it could enrage someone to the point where he would still be thinking about it a week after it was published.

There's a lot of anger out there, folks, though that's not exactly breaking news. Here's another. "Your column, 'Lessons learned from the 2020 election,' validates the axiom 'to assume makes an ass of you and me.'" That was it, the entire email. I'm not sure how the axiom applies in this case but these things don't have to make sense.

I sometimes read my hate mail to my students who find it entertaining and often sit, slack-jawed and incredulous that people can be so mean. In response to a column about California Gov. Gavin's Newsom's draconian rules for holiday celebrations, a reader responded with a question. "What overdramatic nonsense did I just read?" It got worse. She called me "dim" and "childish." She ended with "keep your uninformed views in your own disastrous state." Again, a swipe at Kentucky? I never realized there was so much latent Kentucky hate among the populace.

Prior to the election, several readers responded with dire prophecies. Interestingly, predictions of the "end times" came from both sides of the political aisle. My favorite was from a man who began his email with, "I've got news for you pal... ." The poor guy was so worked up he wrote some 500 words on the pending disintegration of our economic and political systems.

I respond to every email I receive, even the mean ones. It seems to me that those of us who do this kind of writing have a responsibility to at least attempt to understand why someone who disagrees with me believes what he believes. This is not always easy, of course, especially when the one who disagrees begins his email, "Dear boil on journalism's rear... " That's me, if you didn't put it together.

The reader was responding to a column about the conduct of reporters and the president at White House press briefings. I was critical of both but the reader didn't see it that way. We had a back-and-forth during which he seemed to gradually soften. Then, after about the sixth email exchange, he wrote, "Thank you for your conversation. I wish more people would talk or argue viewpoints... " It struck me that maybe the man just wanted someone to listen to him, about anything. We never came to an agreement on the issue at hand but, by the end of the conversation, that didn't seem to matter.

Not all of these exchanges have happy endings. One concluded with a simple suggestion: "Shut up!" Not necessarily bad advice.

In the New Testament, James writes, "Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry... " James 1:19. I'm challenged by this because, apart from my dependence on the grace of God, I can't do it. I'd much rather do exactly the opposite ,' react, quickly and angrily, and get my adversary in checkmate. Twitter and other social media outlets understand this better than anyone. They've turned this basic, human inclination into a multi-billion dollar phenomenon.

I don't claim any unique insight into the human condition but I have realized that if we are willing to listen and keep our mouths shut for a while, we'll take a significant step toward understanding one another. That doesn't mean everyone is going to like us. But as I tell my students, if everyone likes us, we're probably doing something wrong."

"How It Really Is"


"Covid Is Revealing the Cancerous Underbelly of U.S. Healthcare"

"Covid Is Revealing the Cancerous Underbelly of U.S. Healthcare"
by Charles Hugh Smith

"I've long been making the distinction between healthcare and sickcare: healthcare is the service provided by frontline operational caregivers (doctors, nurses, aides, technicians, etc.) and sickcare is the financialized system of Big Hospital Corporations, Big Insurers, Big Pharma, etc. and their lobbyists that keep the federal money spigots wide open.

This financialized sickcare system is being consumed by the cancer of greedy profiteering pursued by self-serving insiders. The delivery of healthcare is secondary to maximizing revenues and profits by any means available. To believe such a corrupt system is sustainable is magical thinking at its most destructive.

Covid-19 is revealing this cancerous underbelly. Knowledge of the inner workings of corporate administration is not evenly distributed, so every participants' experience of the systemic dysfunction will vary. Here is one MD's observations of the system's priorities. Others may have different views but the maxim follow the money is clearly the correct place to start any inquiry of how America's financialized sickcare functions in the real world:

"From what I'm hearing from the front line, a not insignificant number of admissions are of folks who would not have been admitted in March when there was fear of both the unknown and systemic failure and, not coincidently, when COVID diagnoses didn't pay as much.

Today, the admission criteria for COVID is so much more flexible than for standard diagnoses like CHF, and pays so much better than other diagnoses that our 'healthcare' system is rapidly becoming a 'COVID care' system. The surge in hospitalizations and subsequent COVID-identified deaths may be driven, in part, to health systems adapting to new COVID revenue streams.

This would seemingly be good news, after all if it's the hospital administrator's desire to fill empty beds that's driving admissions rather than infection rates, then systemic failure can be averted through moderating those admission rates based on system capacity. If your hospital fills up, just start sending the marginal cases home - inpatient/outpatient; the outcome for the patient will be pretty much the same and you've made as much money as your capacity will allow.

Unfortunately, our healthcare 'system' doesn't work like that. Health systems are in the business of generating revenue, not value. Recent COVID-related demand destruction has crushed that revenue so they're hungry for more.

Those in health-system operations and those in leadership live in two different worlds. Leadership will push COVID admissions far beyond any operational limits in their quest for short term performance. One cannot overstate their mendacity and drive for lucre.

Hospitals are becoming 'COVID factories' with all other admissions (which pay far less) relegated to second tier status. Health systems are evolving into an 'all COVID, all the time' format with the emphasis on testing and (soon) vaccination, at the expense of all else. Not a few systems of my acquaintance are laying off outpatient medical staff because their supporting personnel have quit and are not replaced - those resources are being re-directed to COVID testing and in preparation for mass vaccination.

For the health system in the business of generating revenue, it's an excellent tactic. They save themselves significant overhead by not paying the clinicians and they make up the revenue through high-margin COVID services and government bailout payments. For patients who actually need healthcare, though, this tactic is deadly.

The perversion is end-stage, the health systems pretend to deliver healthcare and the government pays them to continue the pretense. There is no long term thinking here, no empathy for the workforce, no thought to the mission beyond window-dressing - just a relentless, risk-adverse financialization machine. Think of COVID as a new widget for which the customer will pay 2.5 times the going price with no quality control, but only for a limited amount of time. Add in talentless, rent-seeking leadership and all becomes clear.

Of course the real risk is that maxed out hospitals could find themselves in a situation where admissions suddenly become driven by demand rather than the business model, with a true non-linear path to failure laying beyond.

The longer daily national hospital occupancy stays above the approximate pre-COVID capacity of 100k, the more likely you'll see systemic breakdowns - local at first, then regional. You won't see it in the press, the healthcare cartels have a pretty good lock on the local media. Once news starts getting censored on social media, though, then you know it's happening. Hold me to that, And call me out in three months if I'm not right."

If you still believe that America's sickcare is "the finest in the world" and is endlessly sustainable, please study these three charts and extend the trendlines." (Click images for larger size.)
                                         - https://www.oftwominds.com/

Friday, December 4, 2020

"China On The Brink Of A Major Food Shortage! Prepare For Worldwide Starvation"

"China On The Brink Of A Major Food Shortage!
 Prepare For Worldwide Starvation"
by Epic Economist

"A massive food crisis seems to be looming over China. The country has faced multiple challenges in 2020. Floods, plagues, and the trade dispute with the U.S. all contributed to seriously affect the production and distribution of food. Although the Chinese government has made everything to keep this situation under the wraps, many indicators point out that shortages have been happening in a wide range of food products and the nation has been relying on imports to meet the demand. Food prices have been soaring like never before, and experts have been warning for a hunger emergency at the same proportions as the 1959 Great Chinese Famine. In this video, we disclose how several supply disruptions have left China struggling to ensure food for its citizens. 

China's list of problems keeps growing. It started with the burst of what turned out to be a global health crisis, which caused record-high unemployment rates, an economic meltdown, led millions to poverty, and sparked a global backlash. Now, the Chinese government has been secretly dealing with a food emergency in an attempt to avoid the public's commotion. Despite Chinese premier Xi Jinping's constant denials that the country could be facing hardships on its food supply chains, experts have been claiming on local reports that China was indeed in the middle of a food crisis. 

According to some of these reports, there are many reasons behind this situation. The Chinese premier even launched a public campaign aiming to reduce food wastage. Oftentimes the measures adopted by government officials to make sure the population continues to follow the rules are considered invasive and aggressive. Throughout the year, the Chinese media have been dismissing any discussions about a potential food shortage, but the relation with economic partners and the expansion of imports have been showing otherwise. For instance, a recent article has exposed that as China edges towards a food crisis, it looks at India to feed its citizens. 

China is importing rice from India shows that the country is in desperate need of rice. It has contracted Indian traders for the import of 100,000 tonnes of broken rice for $300 per tonne. On top of that, local news announced in September that prices of corn were soaring as the country was headed towards a substantial shortage of corn in the upcoming 2020/2021 season. 

One of the main drivers to the spike in corn prices was also the occurrence of the African Swine fever outbreak that infected and decimated 40% of the total Chinese pigs’ population, consequently decreasing the supply but increasing the prices on pork. According to China’s National Bureau of Statistics, pork prices went up 52.6% in August compared to the same time last year, while corn prices, which is the main porcine fodder, climbed 20% compared to 2019. The United States Department of Agriculture divulged that China imported 195,000 more tonnes of American corn than the year before.

Furthermore, the country has suffered from severe floodings and droughts this year, which declined the agricultural productivity of the country and resulted in a considerable increase in food prices. Overall, food prices have increased by 11.2% compared to last year's statistics. The price level of vegetables climbed 6.4% in one month, while egg prices surged by 11.3% within the same timeframe. Evidently, pork prices grew the most, by 52.6% compared to 2019.

Lockdowns also worsened China's food difficulties. Workers had problems getting to work, which caused a shortage of physical labor that affected production levels. While some crops were not picked, others were not even planted. That's why the overall supply of agricultural goods inevitably decreased. 

With all evidence on the table, there's no wonder why experts have been questioning the Chinese premier's statements that no shortages are happening. According to Associate Professor of the National Defense University, Shen Ming Shih, the figures released by China officials aren't likely to be true, while also pointing out that when the country experienced natural disasters that culminated in a hunger crisis in what is known as the 1959 Great Chinese Famine, Chinese officials released similar orders to prevent people from wasting food, which might be an indicator that a hunger crisis is indeed on the horizon.

Earlier this year, the UN predicted that the world would face a food crisis so acute that the last time it was witnessed at the same level was at least 50 years ago. Now it appears to have arrived, and China seems to be in the middle of such a crisis and might be buying all the grains available on the global markets to ensure the survival of its citizens."

“Borrowers Can’t Pay Debts; Economic Reality Will Be Vicious; US Jobs Smashed; Student Loan Bubble”

Jeremiah Babe,
“Borrowers Can’t Pay Debts; Economic Reality Will Be Vicious; 
US Jobs Smashed; Student Loan Bubble”

Musical Interlude: Mason Williams, "Classical Gas"

Mason Williams, "Classical Gas"

"A Look to the Heavens"

“To some, the outline of the open cluster of stars M6 resembles a butterfly. M6, also known as NGC 6405, spans about 20 light-years and lies about 2,000 light years distant. M6 can best be seen in a dark sky with binoculars towards the constellation of Scorpius, coving about as much of the sky as the full moon. 

Like other open clusters, M6 is composed predominantly of young blue stars, although the brightest star is nearly orange. M6 is estimated to be about 100 million years old. Determining the distance to clusters like M6 helps astronomers calibrate the distance scale of the universe.”

"So..."

“So, how do you beat the odds when it’s one against a billion? You’re just outnumbered. You stand strong, keep pushing yourself against all rational limits, and never give up. But the truth of the matter is, despite how hard you try and fight to stay in control, when it’s all said and done, sometimes you’re just outnumbered.”
- “Meredith”, “Gray’s Anatomy”
“In the movie “The Lion in Winter”, when the sons, in the dungeon, think they hear Henry coming down the stairs to kill them:

Richard: ”He’s here! He’ll get no satisfaction out of us! Don’t let him see you beg! Take it like a man!”
Geoffrey: “You fool! As if the way one falls down matters!”
Richard: ”Well, when the fall is all that’s left, it matters a great deal.”

"Market Fantasy Updates 12/4/20"

"Market Fantasy Updates 12/4/20"
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
Gregory Mannarino, PM 12/4/20:
"Economy Cratering; A Trifecta Of New Record Highs For Stocks"
Updated live.
Daily Update (Dec. 4th to Dec. 10th)
Insanity... 
And now... The End Game...

Covid-19 Pandemic Updates 12/4/20"

Covid-19 Pandemic Updates 12/4/20"
Dec. 4, 2020 2:11 PM ET: 
The coronavirus pandemic has sickened more than 65,638,100 
people, according to official counts, including 14,331,210 Americans.
At least 1,513,000 have died.

The Daily "Near You?"

Black Hawk, South Dakota, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"Does Anyone Know..."

"All sins, of course, deserve to be treated with mercy: we all do what we can, and life is too hard and too cruel for us to condemn anyone for failing in this area. Does anyone know what he himself would do if faced with the worst and how much truth could he bear under such circumstances?" 
- Andre Comte-Sponville

"In Loving Memory of FREEDOM 1945 to 2019 - Rest in Peace..."

"In Loving Memory of FREEDOM 1945 to 2019 - Rest in Peace..."
by Clive Maund

This article is not a normal “run of the mill” article. It is a one-off and is big, because it covers a lot of ground as the subject is huge. So you may prefer to read it when you have time on your hands or read it in chunks. To break up the text I have included some of the ZeroHedge feedback I received from the earlier "Welcome To The Global Gulag" that was posted on that site back in August. I have also included some of this feedback because it is interesting and at times provides valuable insights from others. Note that clicking on the individual feedback items will popup a larger more legible version in a window.

We will henceforth refer to those in control as the New World Order, or NWO for short, because that is what they intend to bring about, via what they imperiously label “The Great Reset” which is a euphemism for a brutal and ruthless global totalitarian society. Watch this short video "The Great Reset" which sums up the essence of it in a few minutes.

The period from 1945 to 2019 was for many a “Golden Age” – a period of relative peace, prosperity, stability and freedom. This has now ended as the most dangerous and destructive timeline in the history of the World has begun, initiated by malevolent and extremely ruthless plutonian forces characterized by a remorseless complete lack of empathy that are intent on creating a global totalitarian regime. If this timeline is not derailed soon – and there is little sign that it will be – the result will be death, destruction and enslavement on a biblical scale for the majority of humanity and we are already seeing this starting. Examples of other such inflection points in history that lead to catastrophe are the shooting of Archduke Ferdinand in Sarajevo that triggered the onset of the 1st World War and the declaration of war on Germany by Britain in 1939, using the excuse that it had a pact with Poland, but what we are seeing now is an order of magnitude higher and truly global in nature so that nowhere on Earth will escape the dragnet. This time round the trigger is the timed release of a relatively harmless virus that has been heavily hyped by the media non-stop to make the public think it is akin to the Black Death.

The coronavirus or Covid-19 plot is the biggest hoax in the history of the world, and this scam is only given plausibility in the minds of the unthinking public at large by deception on a monumental scale. The two main supporting pillars of this deception are mass testing of the populace to generate fraudulent data on the number of cases which are then used to justify draconian restrictions imposed on the public and the collusion of the mainstream media who are complicit in presenting the fraudulent testing results as genuine and then relentlessly hype the threat out of all proportion to reality." - Excerpt
Please view this complete, most highly recommended article here:

"How It Really Is"

 

Must Watch! Gregory Mannarino, "THE MELTDOWN: Economic Collapse Worsening. Stock Market Poised For New Records"

Gregory Mannarino, AM 12/4/20:
"THE MELTDOWN: Economic Collapse Worsening. 
Stock Market Poised For New Records"

Thursday, December 3, 2020

Greg Hunter, "Weekly News Wrap-Up 12/4/20"

"Weekly News Wrap-Up 12/4/20"
by Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com 

"After many hours of election fraud hearings in Pennsylvania, Arizona, Michigan and, most recently, Georgia and Nevada, a picture of well organized election and voter fraud has emerged. The election steal was organized crime that would make mobster John Gotti blush. The 2020 Election is a treasonous RICO election and voter fraud case pure and simple. There are hundreds of sworn affidavits from people who witnessed all sorts of fraud in multiple states. Election laws passed by state legislatures were thrown out the window, and the cheating and law breaking this election was off the charts. Now, a video has emerged in the Fulton County, Georgia, vote counting center that catches suitcases of ballots being pulled out from under a big table (put there hours earlier by Democrats) after GOP election watchers were ordered from the counting room. Trump was up by 110,000 votes at that time, but after the secret vote dump, he lost Georgia by 12,670 votes. If this is not election fraud caught on camera, I don’t know what is.

Also this week, President Trump gave a 45 minute speech on all the election fraud and said the U.S. “voting system was under siege.” You would not know this because the mainstream media (MSM) would not cover it. Trump affirmed that every legal ballot is counted and that no illegal ballot should be counted. Still, states have rushed to certify the election in the battleground states, which is, in effect, certifying massive voter fraud. The disgraced MSM is using up the last bit of credibility it has by ignoring the well documented massive fraud. When Team Trump turns this fraud fest around and acknowledges him as the rightful winner on election night, the fireworks will be going off.

The U.S. dollar has been quietly taking a beating on the world stage since Election Day. Everybody knows Trump won, but big tech, big media and the Democrats are acting more like a third world nation. So, the world is selling the dollar, the world’s reserve currency. Do you know what happens to the currencies of third world nations? They collapse in buying power, and the U.S. dollar is off by more than 4% since Biden has falsely been declared the winner of the 2020 Election. Bo Polny predicted the dollar start a down trend in his October 2nd interview and it clearly did."

Join Greg Hunter of USAWatchdog.com as he talks 
about these stories and more in the Weekly News Wrap-Up.

“Debt About To Go Nuclear; Stock Valuations On Crack; Airlines Bleeding Cash; No Stimulus Checks?”

Jeremiah Babe,
“Debt About To Go Nuclear; Stock Valuations On Crack; 
Airlines Bleeding Cash; No Stimulus Checks?”

"The Economic Collapse Hits Home: 1 Out Of 4 US Children Could Suffer From Hunger By The End Of 2020"

"The Economic Collapse Hits Home: 1 Out Of 4 US 
Children Could Suffer From Hunger By The End Of 2020"
by Epic Economist

"The 2020 economic collapse has certainly smashed millions of hopes and dreams, but for children, it has removed prospects for a healthy growth and a flourishing childhood, considering that one out of four American children has been suffering from acute hunger throughout this year. The U.S. has nearly 75 million children, and approximately 18 million of them are now in food-insecure households. As a consequence of the current economic recession, their parents have lost their jobs, therefore, the ability to provide for their kids most basic needs. 

Many of these households are also on the brink of eviction, and as federal programs expire and food banks get increasingly overwhelmed the situation of these families is about to get much more aggravating. It's lamentable to see our great nation go down this troubled path - one that could potentially compromise the future of our next generation. In this video, we expose this incredibly concerning issue that authorities haven't been taking seriously and the mainstream media doesn't seem to be properly addressing. 

Ever since the health crisis struck in America and triggered the most damaging economic downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s, a large chunk of our population suddenly lost their main source of income. The majority of these people have never needed external assistance to find ways of ensuring their survival, but now they are counting on government handouts, food distribution events, and the kindness of others to provide a plate of food for their kids. Unfortunately, oftentimes outside help is not enough. According to Feeding America, by December, over 50 million people could be experiencing food insecurity. The organization has warned that one in six Americans and one in four children could go hungry - a 50 percent increase from 2019.

Overall, this massive spike in food insecurity is a clear result of the record unemployment and underemployment rates. An alarming 5.6 million households have struggled to put enough food on the table in the last week of November, which means, several families didn't have what to eat during Thanksgiving. 

Although the U.S. has a vast network of food banks across its territory, the demand has been so high that there simply is not going to be enough food if it continues to soar in the months ahead. According to Feeding America, food banks have consistently seen a 60 percent increase in demand compared to this time last year.

Now, as several states started to impose new lockdowns to control the rampant spread of the virus and record-high hospitalization rates, such unprecedented demand for food aid will persist as we advance towards the end of the year. In Texas, the North Texas Food Bank told that before the collapse happened, their aim was to distribute 92 million meals by 2025. But by early June, they had largely surpassed that target. 

In Cleveland, where 5,000 families showed up for the pre-Thanksgiving drive-in distribution. About 54% of the food distributed was directed to children and seniors. Some states such as New Mexico and California are on the verge of a famine calamity. According to Sonya Warwick of Albuquerque's Road Runner Food Bank, one in three children are experiencing hunger this year, while in rural California, the executive director of Tulare County FoodLink Nicole Celaya disclosed that "the food cliff is looming. The food system hasn't done a very good job of meeting the increased need. As viral case numbers continue to rise, it's going to get worse."

This staggering level of hunger is something only seen before during the Great Depression. Still, almost a century later, the cracks are large enough for tens of millions of Americans to slip and fall right into poverty. As pantries are running low, and another stimulus package is out of sight, many food banks don't know how they will continue to feed Americans. 

Unfortunately, as the economic conditions are worsening with each passing day, this new wave of lockdowns will depress even more businesses and spark another round of layoffs, which will critically inflame poverty rates pretty soon. As Michael Snyder observed in his latest article, "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". This is what an economic collapse looks like, and what we have experienced so far is just a taste."

Gregory Mannarino, "Markets: The Freak Show is Just Beginning. Plus Important Updates"

Gregory Mannarino, PM 12/3/20:
"Markets: The Freak Show is Just Beginning.
 Plus Important Updates"

Musical Interlude: Simon & Garfunkel, “The Boxer”

Simon & Garfunkel, “The Boxer”

"A Look to the Heavens"

“A now famous picture from the Hubble Space Telescope featured Pillars of Creation, star forming columns of cold gas and dust light-years long inside M16, the Eagle Nebula. This false-color composite image views the nearby stellar nursery using data from the Herschel Space Observatory's panoramic exploration of interstellar clouds along the plane of our Milky Way galaxy. Herschel's far infrared detectors record the emission from the region's cold dust directly.
The famous pillars are included near the center of the scene. While the central group of hot young stars is not apparent at these infrared wavelengths, the stars' radiation and winds carve the shapes within the interstellar clouds. Scattered white spots are denser knots of gas and dust, clumps of material collapsing to form new stars. The Eagle Nebula is some 6,500 light-years distant, an easy target for binoculars or small telescopes in a nebula rich part of the sky toward the split constellation Serpens Cauda (the tail of the snake).”

“Choose Your Words: Failure”

“Choose Your Words: Failure”
by Madisyn Taylor, The DailyOM

“When the word failure comes up, it’s a call for us to apply a more enlightened consciousness to the matter at hand. The word failure puts forward a very simplistic way of thinking that allows for only two possibilities: failure or success. Few things in the universe are black and white, yet much of our language reads as if they are. The word failure signifies a paradigm in which all subtlety is lost. When we regard something we have done, or ourselves, as a failure, we lose our ability to see the truth, which is no doubt considerably more complex. In addition, we hurt ourselves. All you have to do is speak or read the word failure and see how it makes you feel.

At some point, the word may not have been so loaded with the weight of negativity, and it simply referred to something that did not go according to plan. Unfortunately, in our culture it is often used very negatively, such as when a person is labeled a failure, even though it is impossible for something as vast and subtle as a human being to be reduced in such a way. It also acts as a deterrent, scaring us from taking risks for fear of failure. It has somehow come to represent the worst possible outcome. Failure is a word so burdened with fearful and unconscious energy that we can all benefit from consciously examining our use of it, because the language we use influences the way we think and feel.

Next time you feel like a failure or fear failure, know that you are under the influence of an outmoded way of perceiving the world. When the word failure comes up, it’s a call for us to apply a more enlightened consciousness to the matter at hand. When you are consciously aware of the word and its baggage you will not fall victim to its darkness. In your own use of language, you may choose to stop using the word failure altogether. This might encourage you to articulate more clearly the truth of the situation, opening your mind to subtleties and possibilities the word failure would never have allowed.”

"The Grand Inevitability of Unavoidable Endings"

"The Grand Inevitability of Unavoidable Endings"
by Doug “Uncola” Lynn

"It is true people are known by their actions. We are what we do. Or, more specifically, we are what we do and not what we say we’ll do. Actions speak louder than words. It means if the swamp were to be truly drained, there would have been a steady progression of media revelations indicating genuine results during the Trump administration. Therefore, to quantify any progress of swamp draining, I collated headlines in a series of articles posted in the spring and summer of 2018. The objective at that time was to identify actual trends prior to the midterm elections based upon reported news, instead of political spin, empty promises, smoke and mirrors.

The final compilation of the series of articles was posted on September 1, 2018 and was entitled “Destination in Sight”. It summarized specific trends in accordance with previous monthly postings and there were two prominent progressions identified: 

1.) The advancement of Socialism and
2.) The technological ascendency of Orwell’s Big Brother.

Accordingly, over the past few years, we have witnessed corrupt manifestations of sheer political power, seemingly, crashing in waves – each one higher than the last as measured by historical consequence: Russiagate, the Mueller investigation, impeachment, Covid, and, now, a stolen election paired to a propagandic media narrative which has warped reality for millions of Americans.

At this point, it no longer matters whether President Trump is a real swamp fighter, a naïve dupe, or a symbol of (misplaced?) hope to his supporters. In truth, the tsunamis of trends were formed decades ago in America and have since grown larger than any campaign platform or presidential administration.

In an article from March of 2018 entitled “Destiny Looms: Choose Your Way or it Drags You”, three responses to the New World Order were explored which could be summarized as follows:

1.) Fight the empire.
2.) Sell out.
3.) Or choose one’s battles carefully and deliberately.

At the end of that piece, these words were posted: In any scenario, the civil divorce will be ugly and America’s children will suffer.

Looking back, could there have been any other outcome? Given human nature, perhaps it was always inevitable. Maybe it’s just time. Even if one wanted to fight, how can they know they’re not fighting against destiny or something bigger; battling against that which was unavoidable anyway? What if America’s seemingly psychotic breakdown is more spiritual in nature? Because, right now, it does seem as if the Perception Puppets are dreaming a new reality; like an incantation.

Another one of my articles considered the phrase “It is what it is” as representing either resignation or acceptance in the face of circumstances beyond one’s control; with acceptance defined NOT as surrender, per se, but, instead, as honest realism. And, at the end of that piece, these words were posted:

"Whether Trump wins another term or a convenient stock market crash installs a socialist president and secures a blue wave in 2020, the current administration will have served the bleeding of the nation’s brake lines before the Big Stop. And, undoubtedly, this blogger and those reading these words have defiantly distinct digital footprints. So when the final votes are counted on the inevitable day, the new sheriffs will be in town. They’re coming for us all and all we thought we ever had."

Like a flower, a nation was planted onto the fertile ground. It grew and blossomed under the midday sun but now wilts and dies. The seasons come and go. The sun rises and sets. We are born, we flourish and fade. Everything turns.

The truth is, no matter who is president, vaccinations will be, at the very least, strongly encouraged by means of economic pressure; and, at most, submission to medical tyranny will be mandated in order to travel, work, shop, buy, or sell.

In his four-act drama “Man and Superman”, the Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw penned the following quote: "The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.

And has that not been the Story of Man since the first campfire? But what kind of progress? Isn’t that a most important consideration?

In the 1974 film “The Godfather Part II”, a conversation occurred between the mafia boss, Michael Corleone, and the Jewish gangster, Hyman Roth, amidst the backdrop of the Communist revolution in Cuba:

(Michael Corleone): I saw a strange thing today. A rebel was being arrested by the military police. And rather than be taken alive he exploded a grenade he had hidden in his jacket. He killed himself and took a captain of the command with him. Now, soldiers are paid to fight; the rebels aren’t.
(Hyman Roth): What does that tell you?
(Michael Corleone): They could win.

That exchange adequately summarizes why fanatical revolutionaries have overturned societies throughout history: because they are true believers and fully committed to victory.

William Butler Yeats in his poem “The Second Coming”, wrote:

"The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity."

And so many other times throughout history has the road to hell been paved by utopian dreams as honest men with common sense succumbed to silent normalcy-bias while being restrained with unjust rules applied specifically on them.

The Covid pandemic was unleashed by psychopaths who now demand the plebeians to submit for reasons of safety. The irony is ridiculous. And, now, an American presidential election is in the process of being illegally stolen by the same psychopaths who will soon issue despotic edicts on a citizenry expected to acquiesce and obey.

This is tyranny.

There is a reason why America floundered as the neo-Bolshevists rose. It was because half the country tried to play by the rules in order to save the country while the other half had long-desired the nation to dissolve so a One World Order could coagulate as a phoenix rising from the ashes.

It’s like that old story where two women were fighting over a baby and the judge told them to cut it in two so each woman could keep half. The evil woman was fine with that proposition because she would rather the child die than lose custody to the other woman. But when the good woman chose to rescind her claim so the baby could live, the judge knew then who was the real mother.

America was the baby, Dear Reader, but now the republic is dead; torn in half by bad actors. The result will be a war with many fronts turning neighbor against neighbor, friend into foe, and as families are irredeemably divided. The line has been crossed so there’s no going back. And, sadly, the momentum is on the wrong side. For those who understand that battles cannot be won simply by playing defense, a question remains: What can be won?

The nation was lulled to sleep through prosperity; and those waking up now will soon realize it is far too late to save the republic. The people have perished by the wrong vision as faux-conservative leaders have surrendered to the enemies gathered at the gate.

All politics are, indeed, truly local – now more than ever. And much can still be done as the sun sets. For some, relocating to a red state may be a priority. For others, it may be to seek out like-minded dissidents in their area. And, still, for others, it may be to close the circle on their preps including acquisitions of food as well as supplies for energy/power, first-aid, and defense.

Entire red regions, and counties possessing constitutionally-committed law enforcement agents, could, potentially, be fortified in a balkanized America, and primarily through the coordination and cooperation of existing civil administrations. But the heads of select institutions and agencies will need to work together quickly and decisively for any micro-constitutional republics to achieve self-sufficiency before Mordor swallows all.

The answers are not in the problem. The answers are in the answer. It means compromise is a strategy for failure. Now is the time to rise; to shine like stars at midnight."

The Universe

“There are no accidents. If it's appeared on your life radar, this is why: to teach you that dreams come true; to reveal that you have the power to fix what's broken and heal what hurts; to catapult you beyond seeing with just your physical senses; and to lift the veils that have kept you from seeing that you're already the person you dreamed you'd become. There are no accidents. And believe me, that was one heck of a dream.”

“Tallyho,”
The Universe

“Thoughts become things... choose the good ones!”

"The First Shall Be Last"

"The First Shall Be Last"
by Bill Bonner

WEST RIVER, MARYLAND – "The new Biden bunch will be full of meaningless “firsts.” Kamala Harris will be the first female vice president. She will also be the first “Woman of Color” in that post. And the first person of South Asian descent. Janet Yellen will be the first woman to head the Treasury Department. Another first will likely be a woman as Secretary of Defense.

Since the origin of the species, men have done almost all the fighting. They might be better at it; they are bigger, stronger, faster… And those who were bad at fighting may have been killed, or perhaps denied the right to mate. In some primitive societies, a man had to prove himself in combat before he was allowed to take a wife. So it almost seems natural to have a man at the head of a group of fighters.

New Era: But this is a new era. If you’ve been following our Diary for very long, you know that nature has her cycles… her patterns… her birth announcements and obituaries. Great empires come and go, just like the rest of us. The newspapers report these comings and goings as the work of men. But men cannot defy nature… or the gods. And it appears to us that at the end of the 20th century, the gods decided to take the U.S. empire down a peg. Bush, Obama, Trump – all have played their parts, each with his cockamamie projects and foolish ideas. Biden must continue the work. How better than to appoint the last people as the firsts?

Limiting Diversity: Janet Yellen is one of the last people we’d have in charge of our money. So has Biden selected one of the last people who should be in charge of the armed forces. Today, there is no reason to think that a woman can’t do the top Pentagon job just as well as – or better than – a man. After all, it mostly consists of bullying small countries and lobbying for more money for the arms suppliers of Northern Virginia. God forbid that any real “defense” comes into play. If it does, America – with its gold-plated, lard-butt military – will probably be in big trouble.

Besides, diversity is the most important thing now, not national defense. And diversity seems to be becoming more popular everywhere. Like “stimulus” and fake money, diversity is another delusional desideratum for the 21st century.

Here’s CEO News: "The growing drumbeat on ESG [Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance] in corporate America sounded louder than ever Tuesday, as Nasdaq CEO Adena Friedman announced a new effort to require the boards of all Nasdaq-listed companies to have at least one female director and one director who is an underrepresented minority or LGBTQ – or explain publicly why they have not."

But the call for “diversity” is not aimed at increasing variety, but limiting it… to a few “acceptable” categories. No, “diversity” is not really about diversity… It’s about sameness – having the same opinions… the same ideas… and the same people, worshipping the same ersatz gods. You put them on your corporate board – or in your cabinet – not to promote a variety of points of view, but to limit them to a few, faddish ones.

Same, Same, But Different: Speaking of underrepresented minorities… how many polygamists are there in the nation? For obvious reasons, it’s hard to say for sure… But you will score no “diversity” points by putting a man with six wives on your board. And what could be rarer than a man who had murdered every one of them? Though “off the charts” on diversity, no one would want him on their board of directors… or in the presidential cabinet.

But at the Defense Department, how about a woman with the blood of thousands of men on her hands? Biden might have chosen Hillary Clinton for the job. But in Michèle Flournoy, he gets his Deep State martinet… his warmonger… without the political baggage. Is this a breath of fresh air? A new direction? Shall we say goodbye to the Bush/Obama/Trump forever wars? Will the gods be thwarted?

Oh, Dear Reader, don’t be so naïve. You know as well as we do that Joe Biden is not going to shake things up. He won’t even stand up to the teachers’ unions, let alone the armed wing of the Deep State. He’s been one of its major supporters for the last four decades. And both Flournoy and his choice for Secretary of State, Tony Blinken, are democratic hacks… Swamp critters, who swim back and forth between the government and the arms industry. When their party is in power, they promote war. When it is out of power, they advise defense suppliers on how to cash in.

This from The Grayzone: "Since the 1990s, Flournoy and Blinken have steadily risen through the ranks of the military-industrial complex, shuffling back and forth between the Pentagon and hawkish think-tanks funded by the U.S. government, weapons companies, and oil giants. Under Bill Clinton, Flournoy was the principal author of the 1996 Quadrennial Defense Review, the document that outlined the U.S. military’s doctrine of permanent war – what it called “full spectrum dominance.” Flournoy called for “unilateral use of military power” to ensure “uninhibited access to key markets, energy supplies, and strategic resources.”

As Bush administration officials lied to the world about Saddam Hussein’s supposed WMD’s, Flournoy remarked that “In some cases, preemptive strikes against an adversary’s [weapons of mass destruction] capabilities may be the best or only option we have to avert a catastrophic attack against the United States.”

Was Iraq about to launch a “catastrophic attack” against the U.S.? Of course not. Instead, the U.S. launched a catastrophic attack against Iraq! The Grayzone continues: "As Iraq was plunged into chaos and bloodshed, Flournoy was among the authors of a paper titled “Progressive Internationalism” that called for a “smarter and better” style of permanent war. The paper chastised the anti-war left and stated that “Democrats will maintain the world’s most capable and technologically advanced military, and we will not flinch from using it to defend our interests anywhere in the world.”

Full Spectrum Dominance: What do you do if you want to keep America on track towards its own destruction? You just need to make sure the trillion-dollar forever wars continue… along with the money-printing to support them. Biden has both of those imperatives covered. With Janet Yellen as Treasury secretary, he is assured that the fake cash will continue to come hot off the presses. And with Michèle Flournoy as secretary of defense and Tony Blinken as secretary of state, he’s found his “full spectrum dominance” jackasses. Now, he can be sure that the country will continue its costly, clumsy misadventures overseas.

The gods smile."

The Daily "Near You?"

 
Bayonne, New Jersey, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"There Was A Tale He Had Read Once..."

“There was a tale he had read once, long ago, as a small boy: the story of a traveler who had slipped down a cliff, with man-eating tigers above him and a lethal fall below him, who managed to stop his fall halfway down the side of the cliff, holding on for dear life. There was a clump of strawberries beside him, and certain death above him and below. What should he do? went the question. And the reply was, Eat the strawberries. The story had never made sense to him as a boy. It did now.”
- Neil Gaiman

"A Deep Attentiveness..."

“When the pain of leaving behind what we know outweighs the pain of embracing it, or when the power we face is overwhelming and neither flight nor fight will save us, there may be salvation in sitting still. And if salvation is impossible, then at least before perishing we may gain a clearer vision of where we are. By sitting still I do not mean the paralysis of dread, like that of a rabbit frozen beneath the dive of a hawk. I mean something like reverence, a respectful waiting, a deep attentiveness to forces much greater than our own.”
- Scott Russell Sanders