Thursday, January 21, 2021

"Economic Market Snapshot AM 1/21/21"

"Economic Market Snapshot AM 1/21/21"
"Capitalism is the astounding belief that the most wickedest of men will
do the most wickedest of things for the greatest good of everyone."
- John Maynard Keynes
"Down the rabbit hole of psychopathic greed and insanity...
Only the consequences are real - to you!
Gregory Mannarino, AM 1/21/21:
"Total Economic Free-Fall"
"The more I see of the monied classes, 
the better I understand the guillotine."
- George Bernard Shaw
MarketWatch Market Summary, Live Updates

CNN Market Data:

CNN Fear And Greed Index:
A comprehensive, essential daily read.
Daily Updates, Jan 20th to 21st
Financial Stress Index
"The OFR Financial Stress Index (OFR FSI) is a daily market-based snapshot of stress in global financial markets. It is constructed from 33 financial market variables, such as yield spreads, valuation measures, and interest rates. The OFR FSI is positive when stress levels are above average, and negative when stress levels are below average. The OFR FSI incorporates five categories of indicators: credit, equity valuation, funding, safe assets and volatility. The FSI shows stress contributions by three regions: United States, other advanced economies, and emerging markets."
Daily Job Cuts

Commentary, highly recommended:
And now, the End Game...
Oh yeah...

"The Masks Are Coming Off"

"The Masks Are Coming Off"
by Rob Slane 

"I had intended to start the New Year with a heart-warming piece entitled, “2021: The Year of Censorship of Dissent”. It would have been a somewhat prophetical piece, shocking some readers with predictions of a coming crackdown on dissent, and causing others to hoot with laughter because they haven’t quite caught up with the times we are in. You know, the types who say things like “Oh perrrlease! Social Media companies are private companies and they have the right to decide who they allow on their platform” and “Stop making out it’s the gulag” etc.

Unfortunately, my plans were scuppered by the fact that media and social media companies - let’s call them Global Pravda - have come out of the blocks even earlier than even I anticipated, and have been censoring left right and centre. As a result, my intended “prophetical” utterance seems like yesterday’s news.

We’ve had the censoring of Talk Radio on YouTube. Although this was then restored after intervention at the highest level, I understand some of the wonderful conversations between Mike Graham and Peter Hitchens are still banned. YouTube have also banned videos from extremely qualified scientists around the world, including two lengthy interviews given in English by one of the most qualified microbiologists on planet earth, Professor Sucharit Bhakdi.

We’ve then seen the President of the United States being banned from Facebook, Instagram and more recently Twitter. I am no fan of Donald Trump, but it is clear that he had never used these platforms to “incite violence” – the excuse given for his ban –, and it is obvious that there was something else going on there. And we’ve also seen numerous conservatives and scientists who oppose or question the mass quarantining of healthy people literally losing hundreds of Twitter followers in the last few days. Their followers are simply being deleted by Jack’s Magical Dissent Removing Algorithm, which has been invoked with a vengeance.

Last year really was nuts. It was a year when the authorities managed to convince people that even though they have no symptoms of an illness and feel as right as rain, they need to go get tested for the illness they don’t have, using a test that is not fit-for-purpose, such that they come away telling others that they have the illness they don’t actually have. Imagine doing that before 2020:

“Doctor, doctor, I think I have flu.”
“Oh really, what symptoms have you got. A cough? Achiness?”
“Oh no, I feel perfectly well. No symptoms whatsoever.”
“Then what makes you think you’ve got the flu?”
“I just think I might have it. Can I have a test?”

I imagine you’d have been laughed out of the surgery. Yet not only is this what people have been doing for over 9 months, but we’ve been told that people who aren’t ill need to be placed in quarantine and cover their respiratory passages with a piece of cloth, lest they spread the illness they don’t have to others. It’s quite mad, but we can at least comfort ourselves that it will be a source of amusement for our descendants.

It makes me quite nostalgic for the past. Well, 2009 anyway. Back then, when certain folks were trying to ramp up the fear and hysteria over the H1N1 (Swine Flu) outbreak (one Neil Ferguson prophesying 65,000 deaths in Britain), and Mexico announced a shutdown of much of its society for a time, the then Director General of the World Health Organisation, Dr. Margaret Chan, appealed for calm: “In this regard, let me make a strong plea to countries to refrain from introducing measures that are economically and socially disruptive, yet have no scientific justification and bring no clear public health benefit. Rational responses are always best. They are all the more important at a time of economic downturn.”

Yet despite 2020 craziness, it doesn’t seem like it will hold a candle to 2021. If the first week or so is any barometer, it may be that 2020 was just the trailer or the warm-up act for the real thing. We’ve already seen the Chief Medical Adviser telling people who don’t have an illness to act as if they do have an illness. We’ve already seen the rollout of a vaccine, the study for which is not due to be completed until 27th January 2023. And we’ve already seen international organizations telling us that restrictions are likely to continue for the foreseeable future, Salvation by Vaccine notwithstanding – although those of us who have followed things carefully knew this anyway.

Yet the real story of 2021 - if anyone is allowed to tell it - is likely to be mass censorship. What we are already seeing is, ironically, an unmasking. If 2020 was the year in which people put their Masks on, 2021 is already shaping up to be the year when the Globalists and Global Pravda really take theirs off. They are really going for it, blatantly censoring dissent, brazenly de-platforming alternative views, and shamelessly using technology to ensure that reasoned, fact-based challenges to establishment narratives are silenced.

It is ugly, its sinister and its menacing. And unless you are someone who longs to live in a more totalitarian state, you need to get wise to it now, you need to pray against it now, and you need to fight against it now. The masks are coming off and freedom is being crushed. Choose which side you want to stand on.”

"Maybe..."

"Maybe this is kind of cliche, but animals, well, dogs, are what I do for a living. One reason I like spending time with them so much is they seem to think people are really good. They live with us, and obey our rules, most of which make no sense to them. And the main reason they do it is because they like us. When I watch them, sometimes I'm so blown away by how enthusiastic they are about everything we do that I have to go out and buy them something squeaky or chewy, just because I love proving to them that it's not a mistake to see the world as a great benevolent place. I hope one day to react to something with as much pure ecstasy as I see in Chuck's face every time I throw the ball. Sometimes he looks so happy, it reminds me of the way blind people smile way too big because they can't see themselves. And if none of this links to anything in you, well, I think you don't know who I am. "
- Merrill Markoe
Related:

Musical Interlude: The Rolling Stones, "Sympathy For The Devil"

The Rolling Stones, "Sympathy For The Devil"
Full screen highly recommended.

"Hell is empty and all the devils are here."
- William Shakespeare, "The Tempest"

Musical Interlude: Talking Heads, "Life During Wartime"

After all the endless bad news I couldn't resist... lol
Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa...
Talking Heads, "Life During Wartime"

Then there's the astounding live version:
Talking Heads, "Life During Wartime" LIVE Los Angeles '83
Full screen!

Wednesday, January 20, 2021

"The Deep State's Stealthy, Subversive, Silent Coup To Ensure Nothing Changes"

"The Deep State's Stealthy, Subversive, Silent Coup
 To Ensure Nothing Changes" (Excerpt)
by John Whitehead

“You have such a fervent, passionate, evangelical faith in this country…why in the name of God don’t you have any faith in the system of government you’re so hell-bent to protect? You want to defend the United States of America, then defend it with the tools it supplies you with - its Constitution. You ask for a mandate, General, from a ballot box. You don’t steal it after midnight, when the country has its back turned.”

"No doubt about it: the coup d’etat was successful."

"That January 6 attempt by so-called insurrectionists to overturn the election results was not the real coup, however. Those who answered President Trump’s call to march on the Capitol were merely the fall guys, manipulated into creating the perfect crisis for the Deep State - a.k.a. the Police State a.k.a. the Military Industrial Complex a.k.a. the Techno-Corporate State a.k.a. the Surveillance State - to swoop in and take control. It took no time at all for the switch to be thrown and the nation’s capital to be placed under a military lockdown, online speech forums restricted, and individuals with subversive or controversial viewpoints ferreted out, investigated, shamed and/or shunned.

This new order didn’t emerge into being this week, or this month, or even this year, however. Indeed, the real coup happened when our government “of the people, by the people, for the people” was overthrown by a profit-driven, militaristic, techno-corporate state that is in cahoots with a government “of the rich, by the elite, for the corporations.”

We’ve been mired in this swamp for decades now. Every successive president starting with Franklin D. Roosevelt has been bought lock, stock and barrel and made to dance to the Deep State’s tune. Enter Donald Trump, the candidate who swore to drain the swamp in Washington DC. Instead of putting an end to the corruption, however, Trump paved the way for lobbyists, corporations, the military industrial complex, and the Deep State to feast on the carcass of the dying American republic.

Joe Biden will be no different: his job is to keep the Deep State in power. Step away from the cult of personality politics and you’ll find that beneath the power suits, they’re all alike. Follow the money. It always points the way. As Bertram Gross noted in 'Friendly Fascism: The New Face of Power in America; “evil now wears a friendlier face than ever before in American history.”
Please view this complete article here:

"Doug Casey on the (Domestic) War on Terror 2.0"

"Doug Casey on the (Domestic) War on Terror 2.0"
by International Man

"International Man: "Recently, Big Tech companies like Twitter, Facebook, and many others de-platformed the sitting president of the US. Apple and Google also removed the conservative social media app Parler - an alternative to Twitter - from their app stores. Amazon removed Parler from its web hosting services. Are we seeing the beginning of widespread censorship in the country? What comes next?

Doug Casey: A friend of mine sent me a quote from Ayn Rand the other day. Rand was without doubt one of the greatest intellectuals of the 20th century. In fact, people’s reaction to her and her ideas acts as a litmus test for how they feel about almost everything in life. Rand said, "Once a country accepts censorship of the press and of speech, then nothing can be won without violence. Therefore, so long as you have free speech, protect it. This is the life and death issue in this country: do not give up the freedom of the press, of newspapers, books, magazines, television, radios, movies, and every other form of presenting ideas. So long as that's free, a peaceful intellectual turn is possible." She’s 100% correct.

Media platforms and Big Tech are overreaching at this point. By doing so, they’ve brought the whole situation to a head. It’s going to go one way or another and probably wind up with violence, especially as the economy falls apart, and inflation gets out of control. Or we will have catastrophic deflation. Or both.

It could evolve into a situation similar to that of Germany in the early 1920s when right-wing and left-wing groups were fighting in the streets. As I’ve been saying for several years, a police state is a near certainty, and some form of civil war is a real possibility. The best solution is secession, a peaceful breakup. But that seems impossible for any number of reasons.

International Man: You once said, "In the US, politics has become a contest of who gets to impose their will on the rest of the country." The Democrats now have control of the presidency, the House, and the Senate. What do you think will happen now that the Dems have unchecked power?

Doug Casey: Every country across space and time has the same assortment of people, by character anyway. We have the same kind of people in the US as did the French in 1789 or the Russians in 1917. Our own versions of Robespierre, Napoleon, Lenin, and Trotsky are coming out of the woodwork, and they can see that this is the moment to act. They’re much more interested in power than anything else.

Our own versions of those types are coming to the fore. The average American is confused and rolling over - he doesn’t have any philosophy or ideology to counter them. So, we could have a variation of what happened in France or Russia. That possibility is abetted by communication platforms like Facebook, Amazon, Google, and others. They’re extremely important because the average person spends many hours a day, sometimes all day, on his electronic device.

These people control all medias of communication. It’s Mussolini’s dream given reality on a grand scale. He described fascism as a system wherein the corporations and the State act in concert. Corporations create wealth (which the State is incapable of), and the State controls the power. It’s a natural thing that money and power would work together—they can reinforce each other. That’s what we’re getting here in the US, now more than ever. It’s just going to crush all the little people.

International Man: After the September 11th attacks, politicians initiated the Forever War on Terror. The government gave us the TSA, the Patriot Act, and all kinds of permanent restrictions, surveillance, and curtailments of civil liberties. Now, we’re hearing loud calls about creating a War on Terror 2.0, this time focused on so-called domestic terrorists, referring to Trump supporters and others. The mainstream media is already heavily promoting the "domestic terrorism" narrative. What are your thoughts on this?

Doug Casey: It amazed me how after the 9/11 disaster, they were able to come out with the 600-page Patriot Act in a couple of weeks. How is that possible? The Patriot Act is as thick as a telephone book. How could it be composed within days and then approved within hours? Of course, none of the Congress critters read it. That’s proof of how utterly corrupt and irresponsible they are.

This event on January 6th could be equivalent to the Reichstag fire in 1933, which Hitler used as an excuse to pass lots of emergency laws and effectively take control of the reins of the state. These people make no bones about it, saying things like, "Never let a good crisis go to waste." From their point of view, this crisis isn’t just good; it’s fantastic.

I’m sure that as the new Congress goes into session, they’ll pass a draconian domestic terrorism law. It will suppress the "deplorables" and other opposition, who will no longer be able to communicate or organize effectively. If they gather in large enough groups, these laws will quash them as a public danger, as insurrectionists. That, combined with the lockdowns from the Covid hysteria and the oncoming economic collapse, means we’ve entered a new stage of American history.
Boston police after Boston Marathon bombing on April 15, 2013
These are cops?! The same thing all over the country...

International Man: If the government launches a War on Terror 2.0 - as it seems it will - where does it ultimately go? It’s doubtful Trump supporters will be the only ones targeted. Recall the conviction of Bernard Von NotHaus in 2011, who the government accused of committing "a unique form of domestic terrorism" for circulating warehouse receipts for gold and silver. Given all that we’ve talked about today, what can the average person do to protect themselves?

Doug Casey: In researching my next novel, which will be called "Terrorist," I discovered that there are over a hundred separate definitions of terrorism used by various government agencies - and I’m sure that there are going to be more. They’re going to broaden the definition of terrorism. Nobody thinks terrorism is a good thing - although it’s actually just a tactic, like artillery barrages or frontal assaults. But if you can convince somebody that the enemy is a terrorist, it’s really all over for them.

We’re in a situation pretty much like Martin Niemöller described in Germany of the 1940s. He famously said, "First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out because I was not a communist. Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak out for me."
It’s an accurate statement, except it seems to imply the National Socialist Workers Party - the so-called Nazis - weren’t socialists. That said, the smartest thing to do, if you’re identifiable as somebody in the enemy camp, is to make yourself scarce. In "Gone With The Wind" when the War Between the States started, Rhett Butler could see that it was going to turn into a disaster. So rather than stick around and be washed away by the tidal wave that he saw coming, he spent most of the war in England as a blockade runner.

That’s the situation that we’re moving into today. It’s going to be hot and heavy if you’re not part of the ruling class in the US. This has happened in so many countries in the world’s history, not just France, Russia, and Germany. It happened in China in 1947 and Vietnam in 1975. For reasons I’ve detailed elsewhere, now it’s the US’ turn on the dance card.

Among other many things, a huge number of Americans are graduates of higher education indoctrination camps. They really want to see radical changes in the US, and they’re going to try to make it happen."
Related:

MUST Watch! “You Are On Your Own; Economy In Shambles; Dollar Crisis Imminent; Great Reset; Stagflation”

Jeremiah Babe,
“You Are On Your Own; Economy In Shambles; 
Dollar Crisis Imminent; Great Reset; Stagflation”

Musical Interlude: Liquid Mind, "My Orchid Spirit (Extragalactic)"

Liquid Mind, "My Orchid Spirit (Extragalactic)"
Full screen recommended.

"A Look to the Heavens"

"Interstellar dust clouds and glowing nebulae abound in the fertile constellation of Orion. One of the brightest, M78, is centered in this colorful, wide field view, covering an area north of Orion's belt. At a distance of about 1,500 light-years, the bluish reflection nebula is around 5 light-years across. Its tint is due to dust preferentially reflecting the blue light of hot, young stars. 
Reflection nebula NGC 2071 is just to the left of M78. Flecks of emission from Herbig-Haro objects, energetic jets from stars in the process of formation, stand out against the dark dust lanes. The exposure also brings out the region's fainter, pervasive reddish glow of atomic hydrogen gas."

Paulo Coelho, "The Water Pitcher"

"The Water Pitcher"
by Paulo Coelho

"A legend tells of a man who used to carry water every day to his village, using two large pitchers tied on either end of a piece of wood, which he placed across his shoulders. One of the pitchers was older than the other and was full of small cracks; every time the man came back along the path to his house, half of the water was lost. For two years, the man made the same journey. The younger pitcher was always very proud of the way it did its work and was sure that it was up to the task for which it had been created, while the other pitcher was mortally ashamed that it could carry out only half its task, even though it knew that the cracks were the result of long years of work.

So ashamed was the old pitcher that, one day, while the man was preparing to fill it up with water from the well, it decided to speak to him. "I wish to apologize because, due to my age, you only manage to take home half the water you fill me with, and thus quench only half the thirst awaiting you in your house."

The man smiled and said: "When we go back, be sure to take a careful look at the path." The pitcher did as the man asked and noticed many flowers and plants growing along one side of the path. "Do you see how much more beautiful nature is on your side of the road?" the man remarked. "I knew you had cracks, but I decided to take advantage of them. I sowed vegetables and flowers there, and you always watered them. I've picked dozens of roses to decorate my house, and my children have had lettuce, cabbage and onions to eat. If you were not the way you are, I could never have done this. We all, at some point, grow old and acquire other qualities, and these can always be turned to good advantage."

Kahlil Gibran, “A Poet’s Voice XV, Part Four”"

“A Poet’s Voice XV, Part Four"
by Kahlil Gibran

“You are my brother, but why are you quarreling with me? Why do you invade my country and try to subjugate me for the sake of pleasing those who are seeking glory and authority? Why do you leave your wife and children and follow Death to the distant land for the sake of those who buy glory with your blood, and high honor with your mother’s tears?

Is it an honor for a man to kill his brother man? If you deem it an honor, let it be an act of worship, and erect a temple to Cain who slew his brother Abel. Is self-preservation the first law of Nature? Why, then, does Greed urge you to self-sacrifice in order only to achieve his aim in hurting your brothers? Beware, my brother, of the leader who says, “Love of existence obliges us to deprive the people of their rights!” I say unto you but this: protecting others’ rights is the noblest and most beautiful human act; if my existence requires that I kill others, then death is more honorable to me, and if I cannot find someone to kill me for the protection of my honor, I will not hesitate to take my life by my own hands for the sake of Eternity before Eternity comes.

Selfishness, my brother, is the cause of blind superiority, and superiority creates clanship, and clanship creates authority which leads to discord and subjugation.

The soul believes in the power of knowledge and justice over dark ignorance; it denies the authority that supplies the swords to defend and strengthen ignorance and oppression – that authority which destroyed Babylon and shook the foundation of Jerusalem and left Rome in ruins. It is that which made people call criminals great mean; made writers respect their names; made historians relate the stories of their inhumanity in manner of praise. The only authority I obey is the knowledge of guarding and acquiescing in the Natural Law of Justice.

What justice does authority display when it kills the killer? When it imprisons the robber? When it descends on a neighborhood country and slays its people? What does justice think of the authority under which a killer punishes the one who kills, and a thief sentences the one who steals?

You are my brother, and I love you; and Love is justice with its full intensity and dignity. If justice did not support my love for you, regardless of your tribe and community, I would be a deceiver concealing the ugliness of selfishness behind the outer garment of pure love.”

"Three Things..."

“To me, there are three things we all should do every day. We should do this every day of our lives. Number one is laugh. You should laugh every day. Number two is think. You should spend some time in thought. And number three is, you should have your emotions moved to tears, could be happiness or joy. But think about it. If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that’s a full day. That’s a heck of a day. You do that seven days a week, you’re going to have something special. I just got one last thing... I urge all of you, all of you, to enjoy your life, the precious moments you have.”
- Jim Valvano

Free Download: Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, “The Little Prince”

by Kirstie Pursey

“‘The Little Prince’, by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, is a children’s story with some very profound meanings and some quotes that will really make you think. I have to admit that I never read the ‘Little Prince’ as a child. I think I wouldn’t have known what to make of it if I did. Even reading it as an adult I didn’t know what to make of it!

However, it is clear that “The Little Prince” touches on some very deep themes about the nature of life, love, friendship and more. The following Little Prince quotes show just how many philosophical themes are discussed in this small, but profound work.

The story tells of a pilot who crashes into the Sahara desert. He is attempting to fix his damaged plane when a little boy appears as if from nowhere and demands that he draws him a sheep. Thus begins a strange, enigmatic friendship that is both heartwarming and heartbreaking. The Little Prince, it turns out, comes from a small asteroid where he is the only living being apart from a rather demanding rose bush. The Little Prince decides to leave his home and visit other planets to find knowledge. The story tells of these encounters with rulers of strange worlds and de Saint-Exupéry has opportunities to demonstrate some philosophical themes that will make readers think.

On earth, as well as meeting the pilot, The Little price meets a Fox and Snake. The fox helps him to truly understand the rose and the snake offers him a way to return to his home planet. But his return journey comes at a high price. The book’s bittersweet ending is both thought-provoking and emotional. I would definitely recommend that you read “The Little Prince” if you haven’t already.

It is one of the most beautiful and profound children’s books there are. If you have older children, then you might like to read it with them as it can be a little overwhelming for them to read alone. In the meantime, here are some of the best and most thought-provoking Little Prince quotes:

• “It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”
• “A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within him the image of a cathedral.”
• “All grown-ups were once children… but only a few of them remember it.”
• “Well, I must endure the presence of a few caterpillars if I wish to become acquainted with the butterflies.”
• “Grown-ups never understand anything by themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them.”
• “The most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or touched, they are felt with the heart.”
• “It is much more difficult to judge oneself than to judge others. If you succeed in judging yourself rightly, then you are indeed a man of true wisdom.”
• “It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important.”
• “I am who I am and I have the need to be.”
• “No one is ever satisfied where he is.”
• “One day, I watched the sun setting forty-four times… You know…when one is so terribly sad, one loves sunsets.”
• “People where you live, the little prince said, grow five thousand roses in one garden… Yet they don’t find what they’re looking for… And yet what they’re looking for could be found in a single rose.”
• “But the conceited man did not hear him. Conceited people never hear anything but praise.”
• “What matters most are the simple pleasures so abundant that we can all enjoy them…Happiness doesn’t lie in the objects we gather around us. To find it, all we need to do is open our eyes.”
• “Where are the people?” resumed the little prince at last. “It’s a little lonely in the desert…” “It is lonely when you’re among people, too,” said the snake.”
• “What makes the desert beautiful,’ said the little prince, ‘is that somewhere it hides a well…”
• “For me, you are only a little boy just like a hundred thousand other little boys. And I have no need of you. And you have no need of me, either. For you, I’m only a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes. But if you tame me, we’ll need each other. You’ll be the only boy in the world for me and I’ll be the only fox in the world for you.”
• “To forget a friend is sad. Not everyone has had a friend.”
• “Only the children know what they are looking for.”
• “Sometimes, there is no harm in putting off a piece of work until another day.”
• “I should have judged her according to her actions, not her words.”
• “Nevertheless he is the only one of them all who does not seem to me ridiculous. Perhaps that is because he is thinking of something else besides himself.”
• “The one thing I love in life is to sleep.”
• “The machine does not isolate man from the great problems of nature but plunges him more deeply into them.”
• “And when your sorrow is comforted (time soothes all sorrows) you will be content that you have known me.”

“Closing thoughts: I hope you have enjoyed these ‘Little Prince’ quotes. Admittedly, they are sometimes difficult to fathom at first. However, like many things in life, the more you think about them, the more they begin to make sense. This is not an easy book to read and the bittersweet ending may leave you feeling a little heartbroken. However, the book offers so many insights into the human condition that it is well worth the time spent thinking about the philosophical ideas contained between the covers.”
Freely download “The Little Prince”, by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, here:

The Daily "Near You?"

Grand Prairie, Texas, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"Monkey Business"

"Monkey Business"
By Bill Bonner

WEST RIVER, MARYLAND – "Today, the new president takes over. You’d think he would find it an easy job. He only has two major responsibilities to remember:

Protect citizens’ freedom.
Protect their wealth.

Everything else is detail… distraction… and (usually) delusion.

Blame Game: But the distractions are many… and the delusions are more common than houseflies. There’s still no wall keeping Mexicans out. But at least there’s a wall – chain link and razor wire – protecting the insiders in Washington from the outsiders in the rest of the country.

Some of our dear readers blame the Republicans for America’s sad state. Others blame the Democrats. But here at the Diary, we blame them both… and no one at all. Birds gotta fly. Fish gotta swim. And a degenerate empire has to find its way down from the peak, one stumble at a time. Each president has to take the fall assigned to him.Bush with his War on Terror. Obama with his Wall Street bailout. Trump with his spending increases, tax cuts, trade wars, COVID-19 checks, and other abominations.

Who’s to blame? Is the wolf to blame for eating sheep? Does he even know he’s a carnivore?And now, et tu, Biden? The new president is just a human. He is probably unaware that he’s supposed to destroy the empire. He just does what comes naturally. He listens to those around him – the other members of the Deep State elite. And they all agree. They have a list of priorities. Protecting citizens and their property is not even on it.

Falsified Economy: Their first priority is to keep the fake economy going. Stansberry Research’s Morning Market commentary reports: "Treasury Secretary nominee Janet Yellen warned lawmakers any delays or insufficient support in implementing Biden’s stimulus plans could lead to lasting economic damage."

A healthy economy hardly needs regular inputs of fake money. But we will cue you in… the U.S. economy is an imposter. Interest rates are fraudulent. Prices are phony. Output is depressed and perverted. Tesla is not really worth $800 billion. Wall Street honchos don’t really earn their executive millions. The federal government can’t really afford to send $2,000 checks to people who don’t deserve the money. The whole system is contrived… jacked up… and falsified. It is now like a married man with a second family… hidden away on the side. He’s gotta stick to his lies. And Yellen et al. have got to stick with their fake money.

The transformation happened over many years. Hardly noticed… rarely understood, it nevertheless turned the U.S. economy into something ghastly… grotesque and unnatural. Over the centuries, mankind learned that central planning, paper money, and prices set by bureaucrats always end in disaster.

But somehow, America’s economic elite forgot. It was as if they had forgotten how to walk upright without dragging their knuckles on the ground and grunting. And now, the simians are in control. Like those in the zoo, they swing from the bars and occasionally throw sh*t at the public.

Obvious Loss: But let’s look a little more closely at the fake economy… and where it is headed. We have seen how the fake dollar system, set up from 1968 to 1971, when the U.S. dollar was unpegged from gold, caused a pandemic of amnesia. People forgot how fake money worked. But the counterfeit money helped the elite shift the nation’s wealth from the 90% of the population on Main Street to the 10% on Wall Street. And the little guys had no idea what was going on. They thought the rich people were just lucky… or that their wealth would “trickle down” to everybody else.

Every president since Richard Nixon aided and abetted this bamboozle. Most people lost wealth. The loss in relative wealth is obvious: the Federal Reserve gives money to the rich, not to the middle classes. Less obvious is the loss of wealth in the whole fake economy.

Growing Output: When you can “print” money and manipulate interest rates… you foul the whole shebang. Savers don’t save. Businesses don’t invest in new factories and better-skilled labor. Investors turn to speculation. The whole economy becomes “financialized,” driven into a frenzy of “get it while you can,” rather than real wealth production.

These things drive down real output – the supply of goods and services that constitute real wealth. While GDP growth – the growth in the value of all the goods made and services provided – clocked in at 4-5% before the fake money did its damage… now, growth rates are barely half that. And if consumer price inflation were measured in the same way it was back in the good old days (prior to the 1990s revisions), today’s real rate of wealth increase (as measured by GDP) would be close to zero.

Then, the authorities claimed that more printing-press (i.e. fake) money would “stimulate” the economy to boost GDP growth. And by the 21st century, the presses were running hot. By the end of 2020, the Fed had added nearly $7 trillion in new money to the system – multiplying its balance sheet 10 times.

No Growth: Alas, real output did not increase. Instead, all of this “stimmy” spending (the War on Terror… Wall Street bailouts… Obamacare… Quantitative Easing… COVID-19 relief… the Paycheck Protection Program… Supplemental unemployment…) had the effect of making Americans poorer.

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said that if previous growth rates had been maintained, U.S. GDP would have increased by $20 trillion in the last decade, not just $10 trillion. If his estimate is right, American families each lost an average of about $100,000 in the last 10 years alone.

Our presidents – Bush, Obama, and Trump – all failed to stop the loss. All of them failed to do the job they were elected to do.

Bad Start: But what about the other major responsibility of the president of the United States? What about making sure Americans can go about their business without anyone bothering them? In this regard, too, the 21st century got off to a bad start… with George W. Bush’s “Patriot Act.” We’ll look at what this might mean tomorrow…"
Related:

“How Are Things Going, Joe?”

“You go up to a man, and you say, “How are things going, Joe?” and he says, “Oh fine, fine... couldn’t be better.” And you look into his eyes, and you see things really couldn’t be much worse. When you get right down to it, everybody’s having a perfectly lousy time of it, and I mean everybody. And the hell of it is, nothing seems to help much.”
- Kurt Vonnegut

"People are sad. People are broke. People are worried about money, people are worried that they're not enough and not amounting to anything and they don't feel good about themselves. People have rough times, and everybody's pretending it's not true, and we need to break that veneer."
- Eve Ensler

"Would You Choose Communism or Fascism?"

"Would You Choose Communism or Fascism?"
By Joe Jarvis

"In 1936, a young German journalist named Konrad Heidan wrote a book called, "Hitler: A Biography." In it, he described the street fighting between the communists and Nazis which characterized much of early 1930s Germany. But one interesting thing he mentioned about the paramilitary Nazi S.A. known as the Brownshirts or Stormtroopers, was that: “There were large numbers of Communists and Social Democrats among them; many of the storm troopers were called ‘beefsteaks - brown [outside] and red within. Jest were retailed such as the following: one S.A. man says to another: ‘In our storm troop there are three Nazis, but we shall soon have spewed them out.”

Some historians surmise that a lot of these young men just liked to fight - they didn’t really care much who they were fighting, or for what cause. They were angry at the establishment and for good reason. Germany was left in horrible shape by WWI and the disastrous monetary policies of the Weimar Republic. The people who felt left behind were going to express their rage in any way they could.

When the seat of German government, the Reichstag Building, was set aflame in 1933, the Nazis accused communist agitators of setting the fire. In reality, it’s likely that the Nazis burned the Reichstag themselves, and scapegoated the Communists to justify a brutal crackdown.

Before I go further, let me just say that the United States in 2021 is not the same as Germany in 1933. And even if the US was on a similar trajectory, we haven’t even seen the Weimar inflation yet, which would put us sometime around 1921. Prior to World War I, one US dollar was worth 4.2 German marks. But the Germans owed massive debts to pay back the other nations for the war. With no way to come up with the money, they simply printed more and more marks. By 1923, a single US dollar was worth 4.2 TRILLION marks.

Did you get your stimulus check yet? But that is also what is so concerning. All this unrest, and we haven’t even witnessed widespread economic devastation yet. It seems like only the beginning. People are angry. People have good reason to be angry, whether it is over unjust police killings, or a completely corrupt political process. People feel no agency or control over their own situation, or their government. And people want to take that control back.

But in Germany, if power hadn’t gone to the Nazis, it would have gone to the communists, funded by Soviet Russia which had a much higher death count than Nazi Germany. There comes a point where there is no political solution, no good party to throw your support behind, no collective action that can right the ship.

Take the absurd trillion dollar COVID “relief” bill that Congress passed before the holidays that handed out billions of dollars to foreign governments like Sudan, Vietnam, $33 million to Venezuela for “democracy programs,” $10 million to Pakistan for gender studies…

I was shocked to actually agree with AOC -  Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - when she said, “This isn’t governance, this is hostage taking.” Well guess what, she voted for the bill anyway. The president also heavily criticized the bill… and then signed it into law. Call me crazy, but I thought politicians debasing the currency to hand out billions of dollars to foreign governments was a bigger assault on our country than a bunch of idiots rioting. If politicians aren’t afraid of being torn apart by an angry mob, is this even America?

And by the way, I also enjoyed watching the police precinct in Minneapolis burn this summer.  AOC, the queen Bolshevik herself, said around that time that protests are supposed to make people uncomfortable.

Well as Congress cowered in fear from the people, that was a nice change from the people having to fear their government. Too bad they could face 10 years in prison under a national monuments protection executive order that Trump signed when protesters against police brutality were tearing down statues this past summer.

No meaningful change is coming to Washington, even if we could hold a free and fair election. Antifa and right-wingers will keep battling in the streets, likely only intensifying. We’ll see more Occupy Seattle CHAZ takeovers, police stations like the precinct in Minneapolis set on fire, and more violent protests surrounding government buildings.

Really ask yourself, and be realistic: what would it take for everything to settle down and go back to normal? Flipping the page on the calendar to reveal a new digit at the end of the year, shockingly, didn’t do the trick. This does not end well.

Keep in mind that the party of the woke-mobsters just took control of Congress and the Whitehouse. Higher taxes, more draconian COVID response, and more regulation is a given. But they could also wield enormous power to punish their political enemies. As much as I enjoy watching politicians cower in fear of the voters, whatever truly happened at the storming of the Capitol, it will be used as an excuse for increased government surveillance, new policing powers, more weapons regulations, controls on free speech, and who knows whatever else the Bolsheviks think up.

I never want to be alarmist, but if this isn’t a neon sign flashing that it is time to take action, I don’t know what is. And I don’t mean vote harder, or join the protests. Because clearly, this is not going away."

Gerald Celente, "Trends Journal: Big Tech In Control, No Free Speech"

Gerald Celente, 1/18/21:
"Trends Journal: Big Tech In Control, No Free Speech"
"The Trends Journal is a weekly magazine analyzing global current events forming future trends. Our mission is to present Facts and Truth over hype and propaganda to help subscribers prepare for What’s Next in the increasingly turbulent times ahead."
As only Gerald can... lol

"Covid-19 Pandemic Updates 1/20/21"

"Covid-19 Pandemic Updates 1/20/21"
 Jan. 20, 2021 7:56 AM ET: 
The coronavirus pandemic has sickened more than 96,271,700 
people, according to official counts, including 24,311,264 Americans.
Globally at least 2,058,700 have died.

"The COVID Tracking Project"
Every day, our volunteers compile the latest numbers on tests, cases, 
hospitalizations, and patient outcomes from every US state and territory.
https://covidtracking.com/